Essential Apple Podcast 215: WWDC & Simon’s Silly Siri

This week Simon’s Siri goes weird, Jim returned. his Onyx Boox Note Air, Nick found some helpful software, Apple turned 45, ARM announced their v9 architecture, Facebook details of 553million users appeared online, new Beta 6 has surprise new features and WWDC 2021 was announced and we chat about all of that and more.

GIVEAWAYS & OFFERS

Glenn Fleishman’s book Take Control of Securing Your Mac can be found at takecontrolbooks.com along with many other titles by him, Joe Kissell, Jeff Carlson and others.
Steve at Geeks Corner has a podcast which is usually 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 4th April 2021

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

Simon’s Siri voice has a bit of a problem…
Apple was founded 45 years ago, on April 1, 1976 – AppleInsider
Hands-on: iOS 14.5 beta 6 changes and features – new Siri voices, and battery recalibration (Video) – 9to5Mac
Apple WWDC 2021 announced as online-only event – The Verge
Apple books initiation production of 4nm successor to the M1 chip — Apple World Today
- TSMC says plans to spend $100B on chip fabrication expansion over next 3 years – Apple Insider
Apple is Building a Battery Farm Capable of Storing 240MW Hours of Energy – The Mac Observer
- Apple powers ahead in new renewable energy solutions with over 110 suppliers – Apple Newsroom
Apple Arcade Expands More Originals and iOS Classics – Mac Stories

TECHNOLOGY

ARM introduces v9, its first new chip architecture in a decade – Engadget
Jim and the Onyx Boox Note Air

SECURITY & PRIVACY

Signal usage is skyrocketing after WhatsApp’s disastrous privacy policy changes — Fast Company
Personal data from over 500M Facebook users leaked online – 9to5Mac
- Check if your data is known to have leaked in the past – Have I been pwnd
PSA: These Apps Are Collecting (and Selling) a Ton of Your Personal Information – iDrop News

WORTH A CHIRP / ESSENTIAL TIPS

Both of these from @dougee in the Slack
- There’s a Hidden App on Your iPhone — One That Won’t Show Up on Your Home Screen or App Library – iOS Gadget Hacks
- ‎Scan Thing: Scan Anything – App Store
and one from https://quip.com/HNBAEAPd0LS
- ‎Mimeo Photos – photo printing service – App Store

JUST A SNIPPET

For things that are not worth more than a flypast

William Shatner Is Having His Personality Copied Into an AI — Comicbook.com

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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