The Essential Apple Podcast Essential Apple Crew

Recorded 30th July 2020

Simon, Jim and Nick take another look at the world in Apple and related “stuff” before taking a summer holiday break... Big Tech is getting grilled, and rumours abound, We have some feedback on stuff which is nice, and Simon admits that although it is his wedding anniversary he is struggling to remember exactly how many years he’s been married - but at least his wife is no better!

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.


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 TV+ wins pair of Emmys for Ghostwriter and Peanuts in Space – Cult of Mac
Apple Reveals Ground-Breaking New iPad Technology – Forbes
Congress grilled the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. Here are the big takeaways – CNN

TECHNOLOGY

Mmhmm turns your boring Zoom call into a Weekend Update-style TV show – The Verge
Google's Enormous Underwater Cable to Link US, UK, and Spain to Improve Internet Connection – Tech Times
Google One App launching for Android and iOS - Geeky Gadgets – Geeky Gadgets

FEEDBACK

Listening to the show. The thing that’s interesting about Microsoft Teams versus Slack is possibly the purchase model. My company was using on-premises MS Exchange and we’re looking to the future. They evaluated Google Apps and Microsoft 365. Google won comfortably on features and price except for one factor. We have a large corporate license for a whole plethora of Microsoft software and services including Windows. If we had gone with Google Apps, our bill for Microsoft would not have reduced. So we would have had to ditch Windows as well. And you know how well that went down. So we use MS365 including Teams.

SECURITY & PRIVACY

Sick of AI engines scraping your pics for facial recognition? Here's a way to Fawkes them right up – The Register

JUST A SNIPPET
For things that are not worth more than a flypast


My daughter has started an Etsy site for her handmade crochet velveteen bunnies

NEMO’S HARDWARE STORE (45:17)

StarTech TB3CDK2DP Laptop Dock $331 US Direct. Amazon $198 US / £183 UK
Nemo says “They have excellent pro quality 24-hour 5-day online support and great raves for the product on its own web page. Plus adapters for almost every device and situation a serious user will encounter.”




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... Y

Recorded 23rd July 2020

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.


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] (https://9to5mac.com/2020/07/23/plex-launches-free-live-tv-iphone-apple-tv-web/)
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. Pric

Recorded 12th July 2020

Jim and Simon are joined by Weyhan NG our very own iOS developer to talk WWDC, the Public Betas and various other bits and pieces that come along in the course of the conversation.

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.


On this week’s show:
WEYHAN NG

On Twitter as @weyhan
On GitHub as weyhan
iOS Developer who goes by handle the Eccentric iOS developer
Developer / Maintainer of the iOS Compo writing app
TangyTees

JAMES ORMISTON

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

APPLE

Public Betas released - Simon jumps in with the iOS 14 beta... but leaves macOS 11 until he figures out how he’s going to approach it.
Tom Hank’s Greyhound debuts on Apple TV+
Apple warns customers not to close its laptops with a camera cover attached — The Verge
Apple’s Surprising MacBook Air Decision — Forbes

SECURITY & PRIVACY

Linked in Class Action Suit

WORTH A CHIRP / ESSENTIAL TIPS

Duronic Monitor Arm Stand DM25D1 – Amazon
Descript Create podcasts, videos, and transcripts - Record. Transcribe. Edit. Mix. As easy as typing.

JUST A SNIPPET
For things that are not worth more than a flypast

NEMO’S HARDWARE STORE ()

New goodies on the way.


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.


Social Media and Slack
You can follow us on:
Twitter / Slack / EssentialApple.com / Spotify / Soundcloud / YouTube / Facebook / Pinecast

Also a big SHOUT OUT to the members of the Slack room without whom we wouldn't have half the stories we actually do – we thank you all for your contributions and engagement.
You can always help us out with a few pennies by using our Amazon Affiliate Li

Recorded 7th July 2020

Nick, Jim and Simon are joined by Son Nguyen Kim of SimpleLogin.io to talk about his service (which allows you to create disposable email aliases for many purposes) and later take a look at some stories from the week.

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.


On this week’s show:
SON NGUYEN KIM

Creator of Simple Login
@simple_login on Twitter
SimpleLogin on Reddit
SimpleLogin code on Github

JAMES ORMISTON

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

NICK RILEY

@spligosh on Twitter very occasionally.
Sometimes appears on Bart Busschots' Let's Talk Apple

APPLE

PSA: Don’t Install macOS Big Sur on the Same APFS Container as Older Versions – The Mac Observer
Apple’s A12Z Bionic GPU Running macOS 11 Through Rosetta 2 Beats Both Ryzen 5 4500U, Core i7-1065G7 iGPUs in OpenCL Test – Wccftech
App Library for iOS 14 allows hiding of 3rd party apps as well as Apple ones and whole pages...

TECHNOLOGY

Microsoft OneDrive updates include 100GB file size boost, dark mode, new admin controls – ZDNet
Most Americans Are At Great Risk of Losing Their Computer Data – Backblaze

SECURITY & PRIVACY


Police bust organized crime networks linked to special Android smartphones – Input Mag



@Robrait says:
“This is an incredible story that shows the true value of co-operation between international police forces. The French managed to decrypt the system and passed details of several million messages to their colleagues all over the world. In the UK they have, apparently, recovered over £20 million in cash, loads of guns and other weapons, huge quantities of drugs and, most importantly, managed to nail the Mr (and Mrs) Big types who run the crime syndicates who normally manage to keep their noses clean whilst their minions get caught.”



@Dougee says:
“The EncroChat phones were a really good device. They are based on a customized OnePlus X device and later transitioned to BQ Aquarius device.It worked by changing the Android Recovery partition with a heavily modified OS.The cool thing was when it first boots it looks like it was wiped. They have been a royal pain the butt for us for quite awhile.”





TikTok and others revealed to be Clipboard scraping by iOS 14...


Which Apps Spy on the iOS Clipboard? – Mac Observer


New Mac ransomware spreading through piracy – Malwarebytes
This is a good write up from ObjectiveSee about Mac Ransomeware. It also features 'Suspicious Package' a really good app for looking at the contents of packages on Mac, I have been using it for a while now. {Objective See](https://objective-see.com/blog/blog_0x59.html)



WORTH A CHIRP / ESSENTIAL TIPS

Pocket Earth App – Offline Maps & Travel Guides for iPhone & iPad
I wish I'd found this iPhone accessory years ago – ZDNet
This one is for Mark!! *‎*Adobe Fill & Sign－Form Filler
Handoff shared clipboard - shared clipboard usually works for me but you have to be quick as the ability to handoff the clipboard only lasts 30 seconds - for security I guess

JUST A SNIPPET
For things that are not worth more than a flypast


Some are thinking that Apple's iPh

Recorded 30th June 2020**

Nick, Jim, Simon and Nick get together once more to talk about more WWDC stuff basically - there was so much news, so much stuff, and so many changes ahead that we are probably going to all be talking about it for months. Still better than having nothing to talk about.

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.


On this week’s show:
MARK CHAPPELL

@oceanspeed, @essentialapple and @essentialmac on Twitter
Puts Essential Apple related stuff on YouTube
Co-host of the The Watching Men Podcast with Karl Madden

JAMES ORMISTON

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

NICK RILEY

@spligosh on Twitter very occasionally.
Sometimes appears on Bart Busschots' Let's Talk Apple

APPLE

Big Sur is officially macOS 11
First Apple Silicon Macs this year, and a two year transition
Here’s the full list of macOS Big Sur compatible Macs – 9to5 Mac
iOS 14 Supported Devices: A Wide Range Of Compatibility – iGeeks Blog
One of the Best Features of iPadOS 14- It Runs On 6 Year Old Devices – iPad Insight


BootCamp won’t make it to Apple Silicon and at least for now virtualisation apps won’t be able to run x86 Windows (no news yet regards Microsoft’s ARM version)
Say Goodbye to Boot Camp and Windows Virtualization on Apple’s New ARM-Based Macs – iDrop News


Steven Sinofsky full of praise for Apple
Apple’s Relentless Strategy, Execution, and Point of View – Medium


And a piece from directly before WWDC
Apple Macintosh and ARM Processors – Medium


And a more recent one posted after we recorded
Apple Drags The PC Into The 21st Century – Seeking Alpha - Another long article from Sinofsky but it’s worth the effort as he lays out a lot of info here


Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak talk with Gruber – The Talk Show
Craig Federighi talks to Marques Brownlee – 9to5 Mac
First Dev Kit Benchmarks appear – 9to5 Mac
13 years of iPhone: Fans line up to get their hands on the very first iPhones – Cult of Mac

SECURITY & PRIVACY

Apple Reveals Touch ID And Face ID Are Coming To Safari – Forbes

WORTH A CHIRP / ESSENTIAL TIPS


@Dougee says “If anyone is looking for services like 33mail, I have been using both Anonaddy and Simplelogin.
Both are very good services and don’t seem to get blocked as often on sites like 33mail.”


AnonAddy
Simple Login
GhoSTORIES – a new podcast by Pete Knowlton of Ghostery – Anchor



NEMO’S HARDWARE STORE (1:17:31)

Freemove Collapsible Trekking Poles – Amazon $35 US / Not in the UK store.
AirTurn Stands, Tablet Holders and more – Nemo says “they have a ton of useful and affordable products for every possible situation, and that the MANOS clamp works with all iPads and all iPhones!”
Probably best to either buy direct or search Amazon as there is a wide selection of clamps, pedals etc.




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.
33mail.com – Never give out your

Recorded 23rd June 2020

Simon, Mark and Jim are joined by the wonderful Kelly Guimont of The Mac Observer to talk about WWDC 2020 and what it all means. In the usual Essential Apple manner we don’t talk about WWDC so much as get into a conversation about a variety of things that WWDC kind of made our addled brains think about...

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 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.


On this week’s show:
KELLY GUIMONT

@verso on Twitter
Host of TMO Daily Observations Podcast
The Aftershow Podcast
Greetings from the Uncanny Valley (a Westworld podcast)
Various other shows on the Incomparable Network

MARK CHAPPELL

@oceanspeed, @essentialapple and @essentialmac on Twitter
Puts Essential Apple related stuff on [YouTube] (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvXHkqN9IWFlKtQFptemRcQ/)
Co-host of the The Watching Men Podcast with Karl Madden

JAMES ORMISTON

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

NEMO’S HARDWARE STORE (1:18:43)

Kensington Privacy Screens for MacBook 2016 & Later – ($50-$65 US) – Amazon £48 - £77 UK Full range from 2016-2019 and 13“, 15” and 16“) – Unable to find a sensible link on Amazon US from here in the UK... sorry!
Diamond Dog DiamondClad Tempered Glass Screen Protector – Amazon $30 US – Doesn’t appear to be available in the Amazon UK store.


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.
33mail.com – Never give out your real email address online again.
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.


Social Media and Slack
You can follow us on:
Twitter / Slack / EssentialApple.com / Spotify / Soundcloud / YouTube / Facebook / Pinecast

Also a big SHOUT OUT to the members of the Slack room without whom we wouldn't have half the stories we actually do – we thank you all for your contributions and engagement.
You can always help us out with a few pennies by using our Amazon Affiliate Link so we get a tiny kickback on anything y