Essential Apple Podcast 201: Weird News Weekly

As we move into December Simon, Nick and Jim take a look at some of the news of the week including a weird camera for your Apple Watch, people putting WiFi routers in Faraday cages, and speculation around an Apple “Christmas Surprise!“

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 Essentials free as well.
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 6th December 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

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

APPLE

How a nightmare wormable, wireless, automatic hijack-a-nearby-iPhone security flaw was found and fixed — The Register
Apple launches recall program for iPhone 11 display with touch issues – 9to5 Mac
- How to check if your iPhone 11 is eligible for Apple’s new display module replacement program — 9to5 Mac
It’s not just you: Complaints about iPhone 12 battery life and dropped calls are widespread — Cult of Mac
Rumor: Apple memo to service providers suggests potential new hardware announcement next week – 9to5 Mac
App Store Award winners receive their physical trophies — Apple Insider
iPhone Upgrade Program Resumes in England — Mac Rumors
How to Install macOS Big Sur on an Unsupported Mac – THE EASY WAY using Big Sur Patcher! – Mr Macintosh on YouTube
Apple redesigns its Accessibility website and debuts new support videos — iMore
After Ransomware Attack, School District Says Chromebooks Safe But Not Windows Laptops — Forbes

TECHNOLOGY

The Wristcam is a camera for your Apple Watch — The Verge
People are putting their routers in jail to protect themselves from harmless Wi-Fi — The Verge
Family Sharing for App Store Subscriptions Now Available – Mac Rumors
Salesforce escalates Microsoft rivalry with £20.7bn Slack acquisition – IT Pro

SECURITY & PRIVACY

ProtonVPN is packed full of features to protect your data – Mashable

WORTH A CHIRP / ESSENTIAL TIPS

QGeeM 12 in 1 Hub – Amazon: £48UKP / $55USD

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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