I was on my iPhone 6S, in an Uber coming back home from a late-night San Francisco Giants baseball game, when I realized my phone’s passcode requirement had changed from four digits to six. No, I didn’t change it, it just happened. My old password wouldn’t work of course, so I used the fingerprint scanner …
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Best Buy Black Friday in July’s top deals
Best Buy’s Black Friday in July sale is underway and ends tonight (Saturday) at 11.59 p.m. CT. It’s nothing like Amazon’s Prime Day or even Best Buy’s true Black Friday sale, but there are a handful of decent deals to be had. Here’s a quick look at the ones that caught our eyes. Several of these products are available for …
Read More »Google bans cryptocurrency mining from Android Play Store
Google banned cryptocurrency mining Android apps from the Android Play Store, following in Apple’s footsteps. The company continues to allow mining as long as the processing takes place in the cloud, but on-device mining on Android hardware is no longer allowed, CNET sister site ZDNet reports. “We don’t allow apps that mine cryptocurrency on devices. We permit apps that remotely …
Read More »Your 2018 iPhone may be slower than Android phones
Apple appears to be making some big changes to the chips in its upcoming iPhones — and that could mean your next iPhone downloads data slower than rival Android devices. Qualcomm, a major supplier of 4G chips for smartphones, on Wednesday said it doesn’t expect to supply modems for any upcoming iPhones. “We believe Apple intends to solely use our …
Read More »How to back up your iPhone or Android phone
When my phone acts buggy, I spend a few horrifying moments trying to remember the last time I backed it up. These things always seem to happen at the worst time (like after a vacation), and the only way to avoid losing precious data is with preventative measures. Backing up my phone has saved me a lot of heartache, but …
Read More »Apple will fix any device for free if damaged by Japan’s devastating floods
Apple says it’ll fix any repairable Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or iPad damaged by floods in Japan this month at no charge. Customers can call Apple Support at 0120-27753-5 to have their devices picked up for repair, a support page on the company’s Japan site says. There could be delays in pickup and delivery because of the floods. …
Read More »MacOS Mojave moved System Updates: Here’s where to find them
This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET’s complete coverage from and about Apple’s annual developers conference. In addition to Dark mode, Stacks and a new and improved Finder, MacOS Mojave introduces a revamped Mac App Store. A long overdue revamp at that. The Mac App Store has remained virtually unchanged since its inception in 2011 — the days of …
Read More »Why can’t Wear OS smartwatches be security keys too?
Google’s campus boasts fewer hacks and greater security over the last year and a half, thanks to little keychains that replace entering passwords. Google is selling its own Titan Security Key later this summer, in both USB/NFC and Bluetooth versions. CNET’s Alfred Ng has already been using one. Last year, I tried something similar, briefly: the Token Ring, a wearable with its …
Read More »Spotify hits 83 million subscribers
Spotify hit 83 million subscribers at the end of June, the music streaming service said Thursday. The company continues to outshine its closest competitor, Apple Music, which had 40 million subscribers as of April. Spotify’s growth matched the high end of the range that it predicted in May. Amid a cultural shift to streaming as the most common way people listen to tunes, Spotify and …
Read More »Bluetooth pairing has a security hole. Get ready for updates
When you pair a couple of Bluetooth devices, like your phone and computer, they exchange encryption keys. But it turns out the Bluetooth specification didn’t require that both of them completely validate those keys. Well, it does now. This comes after it was revealed Tuesday that an attacker within wireless reach could insert themselves into communications between the two devices …
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