In This Episode: The advantage of being in Europe if there’s a credit card breach (and there was). The world’s worst $99 IoT padlock. iPhones don’t tell 911 your location when you have an emergency? “Mac is Dead” (long live the Mac). Neat device help the deaf to participate in conversations.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 59:24 — 27.2MB)
This Week’s Hosts
- Randy Cassingham, founder of This is True and the Internet Spam Primer.
- Leo Notenboom, “Chief Question Answerer” at tech education site Ask Leo!
- Gary Rosenzweig host and producer of MacMost, and mobile game developer at Clever Media.
- Longer Bios on the Hosts page.
Show Notes
- In the warmup: Randy is still keeping an eye on the still-raging 416 fire, Leo is gearing up as a ham radio volunteer to support the Colors of Freedom Parade, and Gary is catching up on apps.
- How credit card “chip and PIN” helps keep credit cards secure (Bleeping Computer).
- An “Internet of Things” padlock is so bad, the bad news keeps coming and coming (Naked Security).
- Apple announces it will help with sending caller locations when iPhones are used to call 911. (Randy notes there is already ways to get locations — which has long been an FCC regulation, but this is about more accurate location data that’s not required by the FCC until 2021. (It’s still smart to give your location immediately, whether calling from a mobile or a landline!) Gary was tipped by a story by NPR.
- No, the Mac’s not “dead” — despite what ZDNet seems to think.
- A startup in the Netherlands is working on SpeakSee, a voice recognition device to help the deaf keep up with conversations among hearing people (TechCrunch and IndieGogo).
- And Gary followed on with details on how Apple’s AirPods may help the hard of hearing (Engadget).
- In the closing, Leo is reading Factfulness (“Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You Think”) by Hans Rosling, which he finds more readable than Pinker’s Enlightenment Now (and he also recommends Rosling’s TED talk, How not to be ignorant about the world). Randy is gearing up to speak at the Mensa Annual Gathering (national convention) on July 7.
It’s not just Europe. Canada uses chip and pin and I was saved a bunch of years ago when I was buying groceries with chip and pin, while someone was swiping my credit card 1000 miles away, trying to charge me 1,000s of dollars. The credit card company had already taken action by the time I got home from the grocery store. They were just wanting to confirm they had taken the right action, and they had. Chip and pin saved the day.
As a side note, I believe my card number was stolen when I took a trip down to the U.S. and an iffy gas station attendant had to swipe my credit card since the chip and pin could not be used.