Essential Apple Podcast 187: Lights, camera, action!

Simon, Jim and Nick get together once again to talk about the week in Apple and tech, including public betas, Slack v Microsoft, Nick’s PTZ camera, the new PlexTV (which we were a bit dismissive of but actually may be worth a look – just don’t expect a new Netflix!), and more.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

Glenn Fleishman’s Working From Home book is completely FREE and can be downloaded here and now he has also released Take Control of Zoom and Take Control of Slack too.
Steve at Geeks Corner has restarted his podcast which is a 5-15 min show of his thoughts on tech. Also keep an eye on his site or follow him on Twitter @GeekCorner_uk to watch for regular giveaways.

Why not come and join the Slack community? You can now just click on this Slackroom Link to sign up and join in the chatter!

Slacker @MacJim has a family friendly Flickr group for listeners to share photos because the Darkroom channel in the Slack has become so popular – if you’re interested head over to to the Essential Apple Flickr and request an invitation.

Recorded 23rd July 2020

Listen to the show:

This and other episodes are available at:

On this week’s show:

NICK RILEY

@spligosh on Twitter very occasionally.
Sometimes appears on Bart Busschots’ Let’s Talk Apple
Sutton Park Circuit church worship on YouTube

JAMES ORMISTON

In charge of the Essential Apple Flickr
Also on Flickr as thesrpspaintshop
Has videos on Vimeo

APPLE

Apple’s 2030 carbon-neutral pledge covers itself and suppliers – BBC
Apple releases iOS 13.6, iPadOS 13.6, tvOS 13.5, watchOS 6.2.9 – Apple World Today
- Apple Releases iOS 13.6 with Expanded Local News Coverage – Mac Stories
  - Sigh. A few cities in the US. Nothing at all for most of the world still.
Public Betas – seems there is not yet a public beta of Big Sur or the Watch OS… Developer beta 3 of iOS 14 and macOS 11 released though – Apple Insider and beta.apple.com
The Mac is moving to Apple Silicon — not ARM – iMore
Apple held early conversations about buying Arm, but ultimately declined – Cult of Mac
Apple has fixed the USB 2.0 connection bug in Catalina, but not in Big Sur yet – Apple Insider

TECHNOLOGY

Slack Accuses Microsoft of Illegally Crushing Competition – New York Times
BT and TalkTalk internet down: Users unable to connect to broadband across UK – Independent
Plex launches free Live TV on iPhone, Apple TV, web without a tuner or antenna – 9to5 Mac
Spotify launches Video Podcasts worldwide starting with select creators – Techcrunch
Pan Tilt Zoom cameras – PTZ Optics and Nick’s was from Minrray and is the UV510A
- NewTek NDI on YouTube
- Simon’s cheapo IoT PTZ Cammy “Penguin”

SECURITY & PRIVACY

Apple Will Start Sending Special Devices to iPhone Hackers – Vice

WORTH A CHIRP / ESSENTIAL TIPS

Weyhan’s daughter has added another design Citrus Summer by TangyTees

JUST A SNIPPET

For things that are not worth more than a flypast

Ronnie Lutes new podcast released – The Liner. Project

NEMO’S HARDWARE STORE (34:42)

OFG Long Ranger wireless charger $65 US direct. No international information currently.

Essential Apple Recommended Services:

Pixel Privacy – a fabulous resource full of excellent articles and advice on how to protect yourself online.
Doug.ee Blog for Andy J’s security tips.
Ghostery – protect yourself from trackers, scripts and ads while browsing.
Simple Login – Email anonymisation and disposable emails for login/registering with
33mail.com – Never give out your real email address online again.
AnonAddy – Disposable email addresses
Sudo – get up to 9 “avatars” with email addresses, phone numbers and more to mask your online identity. Free for the first year and priced from $0.99 US / £2.50 UK per month thereafter… You get to keep 2 free avatars though.
ProtonMail – end to end encrypted, open source, based in Switzerland. Prices start from FREE… what more can you ask?
ProtonVPN – a VPN to go with it perhaps? Prices also starting from nothing!
Comparitech DNS Leak Test – simple to use and understand VPN leak test.
Fake Name Generator – so much more than names! Create whole identities (for free) with all the information you could ever need.
Wire – free for personal use, open source and end to end encryted messenger and VoIP.
Pinecast – a fabulous podcast hosting service with costs that start from nothing.

Essential Apple is not affiliated with or paid to promote any of these services… We recommend services that we use ourselves and feel are either unique or outstanding in their field, or in some cases are just the best value for money in our opinion.

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