Archive for March 31, 2017

PSA: Today Is The Last Day To Get Discounted USB-C Accessories From Apple If You’re Living The #DongleLife

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 31, 2017 by itnerd

Since early November when the costs of USB-C accessories sparked outrage online, Apple has been discounting all of its USB-C adapters and accessories, including the 4K and 5K LG UltraFine displays. This was being done to allegedly ease the transition from USB-A to USB-C for new MacBook Pro owners. The thing is that after an extension, those discounts expire today. Which means I guess that Apple feels that from tomorrow onward, there’s no longer a need to ease people into the world of USB-C, or they just want to recoup the cash that they lost by offering these discounts. Either reason is plausible. Thus, if you are living the dongle life and you need to grab some USB-C accessories, head to your local Apple Store ASAP or order online today.

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“Exited?” Would Like Access To Twitter Accounts…. WTF Is This?

Posted in Tips with tags on March 31, 2017 by itnerd

This morning, I had this pop up on the screen of my iPhone 7 Plus:

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I had no idea what this was and there was zero chance I was going to grant access to an application that I didn’t recognize as that’s a excellent way to get pwned by hackers. Thus I clicked “Don’t Allow.” But that got me nowhere as no matter how many times I clicked “Don’t Allow”, the prompt came back.  Thus I was ultimately forced to reboot the iPhone to get rid of this prompt.

My concern was that I had some sort of malware lurking around my phone. So to cover myself, I did two things that I found by searching around the Internet for solutions to this problem, and a third that falls under the category of “just in case.” The first thing that I did comes via this Apple Discussion Boards post:

  1. Close Safari completely from the multitasking window by double clicking the Home button and swiping up the Safari preview pane until it disappears from the screen.
  2. Go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data.
  3. Do a forced restart of the iPhone.

It made sense to do this as I was thinking that maybe I had picked up some drive by malware via browsing the web that was responsible for this. Thus this would clear it up.

The second thing that I did came from this Reddit post:

  1. Turn off all notifications for Twitter in iOS’s settings app.
  2. Completely uninstall Twitter.
  3. Sign out of iOS’s Twitter in the Settings app.
  4. Reinstall Twitter.
  5. When you open Twitter, it’ll ask for notification permission. Grant it.

Doing this makes sense as it clears the Twitter app and the data along with it and resets all the permissions too. Now the Reddit post references jailbreaking. I do not jailbreak my phones as that’s another great way to get pwned by hackers. Thus whatever this issue is, it affects non-jailbroken devices as well.

Finally, as an security precaution, I will be changing the password to my Twitter accounts. That way if I have been somehow pwned, at least I will maintain control of my Twitter account.

It still leaves me with this question. What is this “exited?” app and why does it want access to my Twitter accounts? Is this perhaps a bug related to the Twitter app that’s been around for a while (some web results on this go back to 2012), or is it something more sinister? I’d love to know the answer to that question. If you have any feedback on this, please leave a comment below. In the meantime, I will be watching my iPhone carefully to see if this comes back.

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Today Is World Backup Day….. Which Means You Should Think About Backing Up Your Data

Posted in Tips with tags on March 31, 2017 by itnerd

You value your data. Right? Of course you do. But do you actually have a strategy to back it up and keep it safe? I’m guessing not. Today is a good day to come up with a strategy as it is World Backup Day which is a day to remind you that having a good backup strategy is a great idea 365 days a year. If you don’t presently have a back up strategy, you might want to click the link as it will give you all sorts of reasons why you should and discounts to online backup services. If that isn’t enough, I’ll toss in my two articles on the subject as I am a big believer in making sure you have a backup strategy.

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Globe & Mail Discusses Bell & Rogers Rollouts Of Gigabit Internet

Posted in Commentary with tags , on March 31, 2017 by itnerd

There’s an interesting article in The Globe & Mail today that talks about the rollout of Gigabit Internet in Canada and the costs and challenges associated with that rollout for Bell and Rogers. Here’s a snippet of what I am talking about:

“Rogers has completed its upgrade to the next generation of cable technology (known as DOCSIS 3.1) and said Thursday that between itself and BCE, the city of Toronto is now covered by gigabit Internet services.”

“It costs cable companies such as Rogers and Videotron Ltd., which is BCE’s biggest competitor in Quebec, about $250 to $300 a home to upgrade their networks and provide gigabit speeds, according to an estimate by Desjardins Securities Inc. analyst Maher Yaghi. In contrast, he estimates it costs BCE from $1,000 to $1,500 a home to make its fibre-to-the-home upgrades.

However, in both Toronto and Montreal, BCE is making use of aerial options – such as hydro poles – to string its cables, which is cheaper than building underground. Barclay’s Capital analyst Phillip Huang estimates it costs about $400 to $700 to connect homes using aerial infrastructure. He said that while 60 per cent of the build in Toronto had to be done through buried infrastructure, it will only be about 10 per cent in Montreal.”

This explains to some degree why Rogers and Bell have been engaged in battle to grab as many users as possible. They have to recoup the costs of this rollout somehow. I suspect that this will escalate over the next few months. That means that users will win because prices for Gigabit Internet will drop because of the competition between the two. If you’re in the market for Gigabit Internet, see if both Bell and Rogers can service your area with that service. If they can, I can say from personal experience that you’ll have leverage over both to get the best deal that you can. Especially if you bundle your services.

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