During the pandemic, many small businesses grappled with worst-case scenarios: lenders tightened borrowing conditions, and revenues were down. In these cases, a personal loan may be used for payroll or vendor payments when a business has used up its business line of credit and cannot obtain a traditional business loan.

It’s possible for entrepreneurs to be so driven that they would do anything to keep their business going, whether that’s a good idea or not. However, here are some reasons why getting a personal loan for a small business may or may not be a good idea.

Personal Loan: A Definition

Based on your credit history and income, you can borrow a predetermined amount of money for nearly any reason through a personal loan. Over time, you repay it with interest.  Therefore, you can get a lump sum of money from a bank, credit union, or internet lender that ranges from $1,000 to $100,000; the money is typically repaid over the course of two to five years in monthly installments.

Your creditworthiness, a gauge of how dangerous of a borrower you are, plays a significant role in whether or not you are approved for a personal loan. You have a better chance of getting authorized for a loan with the lowest interest rate if your income and credit score are strong.

Notwithstanding the differences between personal and business loans, both can depend on an owner’s credit history for acceptance.

Getting A Personal Loan for Your Small Business

Personal loans are not always a wise business decision. For instance, a person about to retire may not wish to take on extra debt. However, younger businesspeople are considering the long-term impact of the extra money on their businesses. 

Here are a couple of reasons why you would want to obtain a personal loan for your company:

Personal loans are quick and flexible. 

A personal loan might be the best option if you require money urgently to cover the financial requirements of your business, from payroll to vendor expenses. On the other hand, it can take weeks or even months for a Small Business Administration loan, and a personal loan can be approved in a matter of days.

Obtaining personal loans is much easier than securing business loans. One reason is that, with a personal loan, you won’t have to put up collateral to reduce the lender’s risk. A business loan is often more difficult to obtain than a personal loan. However, the current economy has made it considerably more difficult. 

Comparatively speaking, personal loans are less expensive.

Entrepreneurs with tight cash flows could be tempted to take on sales-based loans like invoice loans or merchant cash advances. Because the interest can compound quickly, it is advisable to carefully read the fine print. Hidden clauses can wreak havoc on your finances if you don’t recognize what they really are. 

Although personal loans typically offer lower interest rates, you can also consider using all available credit on your company and personal credit cards. Yet, compared to personal loans, conventional business loans have lower interest rates and bigger credit ceilings.

Conclusion

A personal loan may be the answer for your business if a business loan is not feasible right now. However, make sure that it won’t do more harm than good. After all, your personal credit is something that will follow you throughout your life. Therefore, it’s wise to guard it carefully. 

What Is Wearable Fitness Technology?

Wearable fitness tech is a type of technology that measures and collects data about our physical activity levels, heart rate, calorie burn, sleep patterns, and more. The data collected is used to create detailed graphs and reports about our current health and fitness status, allowing us to monitor our progress over time.

The report and data collected about your current health status are then printed and saved in PDF by online printing services for future health adjustments. Some of the most popular types of wearable tech include:

• Smartwatches
• Smart clothing
• Fitness trackers
• Virtual reality headsets
• Wearable ECG monitors

Wearable technology has the potential to revolutionize how we manage our overall health, providing data-driven insights into our activity levels and other health metrics. Wearable tech is not just a trend, it is here to stay and it can offer us a powerful way to track our progress and make changes in our lifestyle choices.

How Wearable Fitness Tech Is Used

Wearable fitness tech is used to help users understand their activity levels, set fitness goals, and create action plans to reach those goals. This technology can be used in various ways:

• To monitor your daily exercise habits
• To track nutrition
• Sleep patterns
• Hydration

Wearable tech can also be used to provide actual feedback on your progress and offer insights into where you need to make changes to reach your goals.

How Wearable Tech Can Enhance Your Fitness and Health

• Tracking your physical activity levels on a daily basis: You can use this information to make small adjustments to your lifestyle and improve your overall health.
• By setting goals for yourself and using the data from wearable tech to track your progress: You can stay motivated and encouraged to continue working towards better health. 
• Wearable tech can also help you become more aware of your body’s limitations and give you the tools to adjust accordingly.

Examples of Wearable Devices in Healthcare

Wearable devices are becoming more popular in healthcare settings, allowing for more efficient monitoring of patients’ health. Devices such as Apple Watches, Fitbits, and glucose monitors have been used to detect changes in blood pressure or glucose levels, alert patients when they need to take medication or rest, and remind them when to get regular check-ups with their doctor. Wearable devices can be used to give doctors more accurate data on their patients’ signs, which can lead to earlier detection of health issues and improve patients’ health outcomes.

Endnote

With the ability to track our activity levels, monitor our signs, and even help us manage our mental health, wearable technology can empower us to take charge of our health like never before. However, it’s important to remember that technology alone is not a substitute for a healthy lifestyle. We must use these devices as tools to help us achieve our health and fitness goals, while also prioritizing things like regular exercise, a balanced diet, and adequate sleep.

Panic is well-known in the Mac community for making incredibly high-quality apps, some of which have even won Apple Design Awards. Unfortunately, when the company tried to submit its ‘Untitled Goose Game,’ App Store reviewers rejected it twice, according to co-founder Cabel Sasser.

A short story. We once submitted Untitled Goose Game to the Mac App Store. It was rejected by the reviewer because they thought you couldn’t skip the credits. (?!?) We explained that you could skip the credits by holding space. It was then rejected for something else and at that point we just gave up and never bothered to resubmit. Fin

Cabel Sasser, @cabel@panic.com, March 6, 2023

Panic went on to release the game via Steam and the Epic Game Store.

Unfortunately, this example is just the latest that illustrates Apple’s overall lack of commitment to the Mac gaming market. For example, former App Store Editor Neil Long recently made the case that Apple doesn’t care about the gaming market and views game developers much as a “contemptuous landlord” would.

The woefully understaffed team of app reviewers couldn’t handle the volume of games coming through – and seemingly still can’t today. Ask any staffer at a mobile game studio and they’re guaranteed to have an app review horror story involving their game being repeatedly rejected for an arbitrary reason, or removed from sale entirely. Developers are being treated with contempt.

Given the success of Panic’s software in the market, and how much they have supported and contributed to the success of the Mac platform, Sasser would probably agree with Long’s sentiment.

Samsung is one of the world’s leading chipmakers, but its own Exynos chips have lagged far behind Apple’s offerings. According to a report in South Korea’s Pulse News, the company is stepping up its efforts to develop its own CPU core, the central component of the application processor (AP) that powers a mobile device. Samsung even recruited a senior CPU developer from AMD to further its goals.

Samsung’s current Exynos AP has an Arm CPU core, but the company wants to reduce its reliance on the British chip designer. Using its own CPU core will also give it more opportunity to customize and optimize performance, much as Apple has done with its chips.

Pulse News believes the first of these new chips, dubbed the ‘Galaxy Chip,’ could be available as early as 2025. Because Samsung’s CPU core development has just started, the first generation of the Galaxy Chip would likely still have an Arm CPU core. This would be replaced in later generations by Samsung’s own core.

“Samsung Electronics will be able to boost completion level of its Galaxy Chip if it successfully develops a CPU core,” an unnamed industry official told the outlet. “It will be able to load its own CPU in 2027 if development is carried out as planned.”

Interestingly, the 2025 release data coincides with earlier reports that Samsung was assembling a semiconductor design ‘dream team’ to tackle Apple’s dominance. Dubbed “Dream Platform One,” the team’s goal was to surpass Apple’s M1 by 2025.

While Pulse News doesn’t specifically mention Dream Platform One, it’s a safe bet the team is responsible for the upcoming Galaxy Chip.

Long served as an App Store Editor, giving him a behind-the-scenes look into how Apple’s processes work. Unfortunately, the picture he paints in an article in The Guardian is less than flattering, saying Apple is pocketing billions without making the necessary re-investment in the App Store.

Long lists a number of early game hits and then makes the case that Apple was unprepared for its newfound success:

So what did Apple do next? Nothing really. It seemed to create a whole new games ecosystem by accident, and ever since has presided over it like a contemptuous landlord. It takes a tasty 30% cut of almost every in-app purchase while doing next to nothing to earn that fee. Recent privacy policies – including the introduction of that “ask app not to track” pop-up you will have seen again and again – have even actively harmed the mobile games business.

Apple’s issues are especially apparent during the app review process:

The woefully understaffed team of app reviewers couldn’t handle the volume of games coming through – and seemingly still can’t today. Ask any staffer at a mobile game studio and they’re guaranteed to have an app review horror story involving their game being repeatedly rejected for an arbitrary reason, or removed from sale entirely. Developers are being treated with contempt.

Long also takes aim at the plague of copycat apps that so many game developers have to deal with, arguing that Apple could and should have improved the situation through further investment:

Apple could have reinvested a greater fraction of the billions it has earned from mobile games to make the App Store a good place to find fun, interesting games to fit your tastes. But it hasn’t, and today the App Store is a confusing mess, recently made even worse with the addition of ad slots in search, on the front page and even on the product pages themselves.

App developers have increasingly grown tired of Apple’s stewardship of the App Store, pushing for more freedom regarding how they publish their apps and make money off of them. Reading Long’s take on the condition of the App Store — especially for game developers — one comes away understanding developers’ plight a little more.

Tech companies have already laid off hundreds of thousands of workers, blaming an economic downturn and overly-aggressive hiring during the pandemic for the current cuts. It appears many of those cuts are not necessary, instead reflecting a fundamental truth about human nature, Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer told Business Insider’s Sarah Jackson:

The idea that human behavior is influenced by what others do is really old. If you’re a pedestrian and you see a stop signal, but no cars are coming and somebody steps into the street, you’ll probably do it too. It’s almost automatic behavior.

We should expect this to also be true in business. A lot of companies were hiring during the pandemic, so everybody decided to hire. Now, companies are laying off, and everybody decided to follow each other and lay people off. A lot of this is just imitation.

Read more: LinkedIn Hit With Layoffs

Professor Pfeffer goes on to question the dubious “advantages” many companies tout when laying off employees:

In many instances, layoffs don’t increase stock prices or cut costs. Between things like the cost of severance and the loss of productivity, layoffs have pretty nasty and negative consequences for the company. It’s not clear they actually increase profits.

The irony is that these same companies were talking a year ago about people as their most important asset, and now they’re treating their employees pretty badly, laying them off via email or by abruptly cutting off their access to the company. These layoffs are a decision that reflects the company’s values, and these companies have basically given their employees the middle finger.

Virtually every one of the world’s biggest tech firms has already laid off thousands, including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta. In fact, only Apple stands apart among Big Tech companies as the one that has yet to engage in mass layoffs.

Perhaps, given Professor Pfeffer linking layoffs to “copycat behavior,” it’s not all that surprising Apple is the one Big Tech company to avoid layoffs. Apple has a long history of bucking popular conventions and the company and has rarely, if ever, been accused of being a copycat.

The Asahi Linux Project has been working to reverse engineer drivers for the M1 in an effort to bring native Linux support to Apple’s chip. The project has been making major progress and, thanks to their work, mainline support for the M1 is now in the kernel.

Read More: Asahi Linux Shows the M1’s Greatest Limitation May Be macOS

Phoronix details the extent of the support:

There is now mainline support for the Apple M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra SoCs. There was already supported carried by Asahi Linux’s kernel build while more of that work has been upstreamed for Linux 6.2. There is additional driver work for these newer Apple Silicon SoCs still to be upstreamed. For now the best hardware support for Apple M1/M2 devices on Linux is with using the Asahi Linux code.

Unlike Windows, where drivers must often be installed manually, most Linux users simply rely on the kernel — the core component of the OS — to provide the drivers for their hardware. Having mainline support for the M1 in the kernel is a major step forward, giving Linux users the ability to run some of the most powerful and efficient chips currently on the market.

Fastlane is an automation tool for building and releasing iOS and Android apps. Google acquired the company in early 2017 and supported its continued development for several years.

Peter Steinberger, PSPDFKit founder, noted on Mastodon that the Fastlane project no longer has any active maintainers on GitHub:

Good luck. Google abandoned Fastlane, it has no maintainers currently.

RT @testableapple Ridiculous and long-lived nightmare. CI is especially scared.

@FastlaneTools, what if I say this tiny PR might mitigate this issue?”

Josh Holtz, Fastlane’s lead maintainer, chimed in, saying that he was still involved but had been struggling with his schedule to find time for the project:

@jesusfdiaz @steipete Still working on it! Just been struggling schedule wise with a new addition to the family in October

But almost back to a new normal over here which should make things easier

In response to a question about Google no longer sponsoring the project, Holtz confirmed that has been the case for more than a year:

@steipete @jesusfdiaz This is facts Have not been paid/sponsored since November-ish of 2021

Holtz said Google still owns the copyright for Fastlane, but is not contributing anything toward its development, making the project a labor of love:

@leohidalgo Yup, Google owns the IP… the community just does all (majority) the work these days

Edit: I think I meant copyright instead of IP but… hello Hackernews

Google has a long history of abandoning projects after they gain traction. In fact, the company has such a notorious reputation for doing so that it had to reassure cloud customers that they could, in fact, depend on the company long-term.

It’s a shame to see Fastlane join the list of Google abandonware.

Apple just released the first beta of iOS 16.4. The new version brings a number of new features including Web Push, a new way of implementing push notifications for web apps.

According to 9to5Mac, another new feature is vastly improved 5G speeds:

Among the new features and changes with the first developer beta of iOS 16.4, a new toggle has arrived in the Cellular settings for iPhone. The new option brings support for the 5G Standalone (SA) service offered by T-Mobile. Notably, 5G SA can deliver wildly fast speeds up to 3Gbps and it looks like iPhone could be the next device to take advantage of the tech.

T-Mobile is already leading the US 5G race. Having the iPhone support its latest network technology will be a big win for the magenta carrier, and could help drive even more defections from other carriers.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe Reader is a free download that can be used to open, view, and print PDFs. It can also be used to make light edits to PDFs, although this feature is limited compared to other options. Adobe Reader supports document properties such as fonts, colors, and annotations, but it does not support embedded files or forms.

PDF.Live Cloud-Based Editor

Another option is PDF.Live, a web-based PDF editing and conversion tool. They offer limited free tasks every day, and then a subscription-based model for regular edits. The advantage of using a tool like PDF.Live is that you don’t need to download and install software. It works across many devices, including Windows PC and Mac.

Apple Preview to Edit PDFs

Today’s Apple laptop and desktop computers come with a program called Preview that’s easy for viewing, printing and making edits to PDFs. Preview’s PDF editor is best used for proofreading-type edits, annotations and markups.

Canva to Create and Edit PDFs

For creating PDF documents from scratch and then making edits, Canva is a go-to tool for creating logos, business cards, fliers, invitations, ebooks and more. It offers a number of features for free, and then a monthly plan for professionals and teams. They offer special pricing for teachers and schools.

Editing PDFs on a Mobile Device

For many people, editing PDFs on their desktop or laptop computers is the preferred way to go. But what about when you’re on the go and want to edit a PDF? Well, there are a few options for you.

One option is to use a mobile app. There are several available, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some allow you to edit PDFs from your phone or tablet, while others require you to upload the PDF first and then edit it.

●  Get Adobe Acrobat Reader from Google Play

●  Get PDF Editor for iPad and iPhones

Another option is to use a website that offers free online editing of PDFs. Many of these websites offer features that paid apps don’t, such as support for drag-and-drop editing and annotation tools. However, some websites have been known to have issues with security and stability, so be sure to read reviews before using them.

The best option may be somewhere in between these two extremes: a website that allows free online editing but also offers paid subscriptions that give you extra features (like password protection). This type of website, including PDF.Live, will offer the most flexibility and power for editing PDFs, while still being easy enough for anyone to use.

Calls for a ban on TikTok have been increasing as a result of the company’s continued privacy and security scandals, as well as the security implications of its ties to Beijing. The company has recently admitted to surveiling US journalists, has mislead Congress about how it handles US data, and ultimately refused to keep such data out of China. Multiple states and government entities have already banned the app from government devices, and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has called for Apple and Google to ban it.

Senator Bennet has joined that call, asking Apple and Google to remove the app.

“Like most social media platforms, TikTok collects vast and sophisticated data from its users, including faceprints and voiceprints. Unlike most social media platforms, TikTok poses a unique concern because Chinese law obligates ByteDance, its Beijing-based parent company, to ‘support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work,’” wrote Bennet.

Read More: TikTok Accused of Illegally Collecting Data and Uploading It to China

“Beijing’s requirement raises the obvious risk that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could weaponize TikTok against the United States, specifically, by forcing ByteDance to surrender Americans’ sensitive data or manipulate the content Americans receive to advance China’s interests,” continued Bennet in the letter. “No company subject to CCP dictates should have the power to accumulate such extensive data on the American people or curate content to nearly a third of our population.”

Bennet then highlighted the steps Congress has already taken to limit the app, making the case that Apple and Google should do the same.

“Last year, Congress recognized the unacceptable security risks from TikTok and banned it from all federal government devices. At least 27 state governments have also passed full or partial bans on the app. Given these grave and growing concerns, I ask that you remove TikTok from your respective app stores immediately,” concluded Bennet.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is scheduled to testify before the House Energy & Commerce Committee on March 23. Given the increasing push to ban the platform, his testimony should prove interesting.

In the era of digital transactions and wallets, traditional banks have found themselves playing second fiddle to tech companies. According to CNBC, several of the biggest banks want to change the status quo and exert more direct influence.

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo are among those reportedly looking to work together to create their own digital wallet that will link to customers’ debit and credit cards.

The new cards reportedly could launch later in 2023, with both Visa and Mastercard on board.

The banks are likely driven by a desire to maintain a more direct relationship with the customer, along with the possibility of selling them additional services as a result of that relationship. Banks are probably also somewhat leery of tech deals that leave them with the short end of the stick. For example, Goldman Sachs has reportedly lost somewhere between $1 to $3 billion on the Apple Card deal.

Nonetheless, entering the market and competing with established tech companies won’t be easy, experts warn.

Bernstein analyst Harshita Rawat said banks have “likely always had PayPal envy,” but that didn’t mean the way forward is going to be easy.

“It simply takes a very long time, a killer customer experience (which needs to be better than incumbents, not just similar), and a compelling merchant value proposition to build the two-sided network effects in payments to achieve scale,” Rawat said in a note to clients.

Samsung is one of the leading companies dipping its foot into the self-repair market, along with Apple and Microsoft. According to the company, it is significantly expanding the supported models.

“The Self-Repair program has exceeded our expectations and we hear one resounding message: people want more models. Enterprise customers in particular told us they need solutions for PCs,” said Mark Williams, Vice President of Customer Care at Samsung Electronics America. “People want to get more out of their devices and need durable products that last. Samsung is committed to offering Care options that meet their needs.”

The company is partnering with iFixit to make repairing the Galaxy Book Pros easier.

In collaboration with iFixit, the leading online repair community, Galaxy Book owners will have access to seven authentic components to take repair into their own hands. This includes the case front, case rear, display, battery, touchpad, power key with fingerprint reader, and rubber foot. Those interested can access online guides provided on iFixit.com.

Rob Locascio, CEO of LivePerson, predicts that the AI-driven conversational space will ultimately have as much impact and be as big an industry as ecommerce, search, or social. Locascio was interviewed by Jim Cramer on CNBC:

Ecommerce, Search, Social… and Conversational Space?

When I look at the conversational space I think it’s going to have as much impact as ecommerce or search or social. The ability to talk to a machine and have a natural conversation, it’s in the collective consciousness of people. We all believe the Alexa type situation should happen with every company. 

We do that with Delta and T-Mobile and all these big brands. What we’re looking at now is how do we take that to the world? LiveIntent is proprietary technology to look at the intent that a consumer is having with the brand. In terms of I want to buy something, we have a way to analyze that and then use machine learning algorithms to then scale those conversations. That’s what this is about. 

Healthcare Companies Defending Themselves From Amazon Via AI

In Q4 we signed a couple healthcare companies. They want to talk about defending themselves from Amazon because Amazon said they want to go into healthcare. The way they think they can do that is scaling the conversations they are having with their customers and creating a totally different experience. You go to a doctor, you have an experience with them, you capture that on a messaging platform and an AI will help you with whatever is wrong with you. You want to process a bill instead of calling and being put on hold, you do that through a conversational experience. 

They want to game change it. The only way they’re going to defend themselves is to get into the conversational space. That’s what they see and we’re the company they’re trusting to scale their operations with the conversational platform.

Conversational Space Is Going To Be As Big As Search and Social

The conversational space is going to be as big as search and social. I think you’ll see one day that there will be a trillion dollar company in this space and I want it to be us. The things we’re investing in right now and setting up for will allow us to do that. That’s what’s important. The Amazon’s and the Facebook’s and Apple’s, they’re in the space. Jeff Bezos made a big bet obviously in Alexa to say this is the way it’s going to be. 

It can’t just be Amazon and Alexa. It has to be other companies getting access to that technology and that’s what we are providing. Who else is providing it? We’re one of the largest companies in the world to do this. Even though we’re not big tech, we are large enough to go ahead and go after them. We are large enough to go ahead and define a space and win it.

Apple has been working to improve its advertising and marketing offerings, and Apple Business Connect is the latest example. The service provides a way for businesses to take advantage of location place cards and better manage their online presence across Apple’s ecosystem.

“We created Business Connect to provide Apple users around the world with the most accurate information for places to eat, shop, travel, and more,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services. “Apple Business Connect gives every business owner the tools they need to connect with customers more directly, and take more control over the way billions of people see and engage with their products and services every day.”

The tools will offer improved ways for businesses to connect with customers and provide them with the most current and useful information.

With Business Connect, businesses around the world can now directly manage their information in the interactive Apple Maps place card, including adding and updating photos and logos; inviting customers to take actions like ordering food or making a reservation directly from Maps; and presenting customers with special promotions.

Showcases, a new feature in the place card, helps businesses present customers with offers and incentives, like seasonal menu items, product discounts, and more. Businesses can easily update the Showcase section of their place card through Business Connect. Showcases are available to businesses in the US beginning today, and will be available to businesses globally in coming months.

Apple has tried to position itself as a privacy-first company, often highlighting the difference between it and Google or Meta. A major part of that marketing is making the case that Apple doesn’t want, need, or care about user data. Unfortunately, the reality isn’t quite matching up to the hype.

The CNIL has fined Apple for collecting data from iPhone users that it then used for targeted ads, all without obtaining prior consent from the users. According to the regulatory agency, the Cupertino company did not get “the consent of French iPhone users (iOS version 14.6) before depositing and/or writing identifiers used for advertising purposes on their terminals.”

What’s more, the CNIL says Apple make it unnecessarily difficult for individuals to deactivate the data collection, especially since the option was not available during initial setup.

The fine is unusual for Apple, given the company’s well-cultivated reputation, but it does illustrate a growing disparity between Apple’s image and reality. Apple has previously been accused of being the primary beneficiary of its privacy crackdown, while other companies have been significantly harmed.

Similarly, Apple has been accused of turning a blind eye to companies that have used loopholes to bypass the iOS App Tracking Transparency feature, continuing to track users against their wishes.

If Apple wants to continue to maintain its reputation as a privacy-first company, it clearly has work to do in order to live up to its own marketing hype.

Therefore, to maintain good digital hygiene and protect our data online, these are some of the habits that we should keep:

Opt for safe browsers

We can use a wide variety of web browsers to access all kinds of web pages, but not all of them are the same, so it is convenient to choose the ones that are the most secure.

Browsers such as Chrome, Safari, or Edge are developed by Google, Apple, and Microsoft, respectively, which tend to favor the installation of cookies and the collection of data for advertising purposes. That is why it is usually more advisable to use robust and independent browsers such as Firefox or Brave.

Browse encrypted

Using a VPN for gaming and browsing is one of the best ways to protect our data online, especially when browsing from insecure Wi-Fi networks. The possibility of a cyber attacker intercepting your passwords or credit card details while you are connecting to Wi-Fi in a coffee shop is very real. Still, this data will be indecipherable if you use a premium VPN.

In most cases, you will also be able to use a free VPN for at least the first month of trial, which will help you assess its services.

Use strong passwords

In the absence of a better method – which will presumably be biometric verification systems – passwords continue to be the main way we can authenticate our identity on the internet. However, reports are continually being published denouncing the weakness of most of the keys we use online, making them very easy for hackers to break.

The use of random, long, and unique passwords is essential to ensure the security of our digital accounts.

Activate two-step verification

As an extra layer of security, two-factor authentication should be enabled on all platforms where it is possible to do so. Generally, this type of verification uses the cell phone to confirm transactions or attempts to access our digital accounts, thus preventing hacking.

For example, if your online banking password is leaked and a cyber attacker tries to use it to access your bank account, Two-Step Verification will ask for confirmation on your phone, allowing you to deny access and keep your funds safe. 

Minimize the use of social media

In recent years, security recommendations on social networks have multiplied, and the notion that we should limit the personal content we share is more widespread. However, millions of people still share their private lives openly and almost without any type of filter.

Social networks can be addictive and even become a fast track to gaining popularity. Still, the information we publish on them can lead to serious cases of harassment, and, in addition, it is often used by hackers to try to violate other online accounts. 

Monitor the apps that we install on the cell phone

There are millions of apps on the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store, but not all apps are equally reliable. When we install apps on the phone, they request a series of permissions that can be very dangerous, including the possibility of accessing the photos in our gallery, reading our SMS, or making calls without our knowledge.

Furthermore, these are not isolated cases. Apps as popular as Facebook are among the most requested permissions from their users, and often millions of people accept them without considering their risks. That is why it is important to review them carefully and, if in doubt, avoid installing suspicious apps.

Apple introduced AirTags in April 2021 as a way for individuals to keep track of items. Unfortunately, the devices were quickly used for nefarious purposes, including tagging vehicles for theft and stalking, to name just a couple. Apple announced plans to address the issues in early 2022, but that hasn’t stopped the company from facing a class-action lawsuit.

The lawsuit (courtesy of Ars Technica) was filed in the state of California and describes the impact AirTags have had on stalking:

One of the products that has revolutionized the scope, breadth, and ease of location-based stalking is the Apple AirTag. Introduced in April 2021, this device is roughly the size of a quarter, and its sole purpose is to transmit its location to its owner.

The lawsuit then goes on to describe in damning detail just how AirTag works and why it is such an effective tool for stalkers:

What separates the AirTag from any competitor product is its unparalleled accuracy, ease of use (it fits seamlessly into Apple’s existing suite of products), and affordability. With a price point of just $29, it has become the weapon of choice of stalkers and abusers.

The AirTag works by emitting signals that are detected by Bluetooth sensors on the hundreds of millions of Apple products across the United States. These sensors comprise Apple’s “FindMy” network. When a device on the network detects a signal from the missing device, it reports that missing device’s location back to Apple, which in turn reports it to the owner.

The ubiquity of Apple products, and their constituency in the FindMy network, means that an AirTag can more reliably transmit location data than any competitor. Indeed, in all metropolitan areas, and even many rural areas, one is never more than 100 yards away from an Apple device. Thus, one is never more than 100 yards away from having location data transmitted back to Apple.

The lawsuit goes on to cite two murders wherein AirTags were used to stalk and track the victims.

While Apple’s goal in creating AirTag may have been well-intentioned, the device clearly has flaws that are not being addressed adequately, flaws that have had disastrous consequences.

Apple has been rumored to be working on its Apple Car, code named Project Titan, for several years. The project has seen changes of leadership, as well as changes in the direction of the project. The last change saw Project Titan focus on delivering a fully autonomous solution, rather than a more modest option that would be similar to other automakers.

See also: LG May Produce the Apple Car

According to Bloomberg, Apple executives have come to the realization that current technology does not allow for the fully autonomous approach the company was hoping for, one without steering wheel, pedals, or other traditional means of control. Apple hoped to sell such a vehicle for $120,000, but will now scale back its aims.

According to the report, Project Titan will now have a steering wheel and pedals, only offer fully autonomous driving on the highway, and will cost less than $100,000. The car’s launch will also be delayed to 2026.

There’s no doubt Apple will one day release a fully autonomous vehicle, but current technology will have to catch up to the company’s ambitions.

Apple and Google have an undisputed duopoly in the mobile market. Blackberry, Palm, Nokia, Microsoft Windows, and others have all fallen by the wayside, unable to compete with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating the companies’ duopoly following complaints from developers “that the status quo is harming their businesses, holding back innovation, and adding unnecessary costs.”

A market investigation is an in-depth investigation that will look at the state of the market and see if competition is being negatively impacted. The CMA has the authority to impose rules on how a business operates, or can even force a company to sell off some of its businesses if they are deemed anti-competitive.

“We want to make sure that UK consumers get the best new mobile data services, and that UK developers can invest in innovative new apps,” said Sarah Cardell, interim Chief Executive of the CMA.

“Many UK businesses and web developers tell us they feel that they are being held back by restrictions set by Apple and Google,” Cardell added. “When the new Digital Markets regime is in place, it’s likely to address these sorts of issues. In the meantime, we are using our existing powers to tackle problems where we can. We plan to investigate whether the concerns we have heard are justified and, if so, identify steps to improve competition and innovation in these sectors.”