Technology

Apple has turned off users’ ability to unofficially install iOS apps onto their M1 Macs (via 9to5Mac). While iOS apps are still available in the Mac App Store, many apps, such as Dark Sky and Netflix, don’t have their developer’s approval to be run on macOS. Up until now, there was a workaround that allowed the use of third-party software to install the apps without having to use the Mac App Store, but it seems like Apple has remotely disabled it. When we tried to install an unsupported app on an M1 Mac running macOS 11.1, we got an error message saying that we couldn’t install it and should “try again later”. You can see a screenshot at the top of this article. Mac users have been used to having more freedom in what programs they’re able to run According to 9to5Mac, the message on the mos...

Facebook won’t let people create events that take place “in close proximity” to the White House, the US Capitol building, or any state capitol buildings through Inauguration Day, the company announced on Friday. The move builds upon Facebook’s previously announced Inauguration Day preparations aiming to prevent the platform from being used to organize a violent event like the January 6th attack on the US Capitol. Facebook is also doing a “secondary review” of all inauguration-related events and will remove those that violate the platform’s rules. The company is also continuing a policy that blocks pages and accounts based outside the US from creating events located in the US. That policy was first put in place for the US presidential election. Facebook has come under scrutiny for allowing ...

WhatsApp on Friday announced a three-month delay of a new privacy policy originally slated to go into effect on February 8th following widespread confusion over whether the new policy would mandate data sharing with Facebook. The update does not in fact affect data sharing with Facebook with regard to user chats or other profile information; WhatsApp has repeatedly clarified that its update addresses business chats in the event a user converses with a company’s customer service platform through WhatsApp. WhatsApp is trying to clear up confusion about its privacy practices “We’ve heard from so many people how much confusion there is around our recent update. There’s been a lot of misinformation causing concern and we want to help everyone understand our principles and the facts,” the compan...

According to 9to5Mac, Apple will be extending its free year-long trials of its TV Plus service to customers until July 2021. The trials were originally included with the purchase of any Apple device (e.g., an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV) and were initially set to last until November 1st, 2020. This is the second extension, with the first extending from November 2020 to February 2021. Subscribers who had free subscriptions that were set to expire any time from February 2021 to June 2021 will also get an extension until July. The extension comes in the wake of production delays. Only one of the shows the service launched with (Dickinson) has had its second season premiere, while others — like For All Mankind, The Morning Show, and See — are still waiting for their second seasons to come out....

A discount on HBO Max that was supposed to end today, January 15th, has been extended until March 1st, 2021. The fine print of the offer hasn’t changed: you can get six months of HBO Max for 20 percent off the normal total cost, which is usually $90 before tax. You’ll pay $70 with this deal (it’s like paying just under $12 per month instead of $15), but the catch is that you have to prepay in full and it’s nonrefundable. This discount is open to both new and returning HBO Max subscribers, but it can’t be stacked with a free trial or any other promotion. WarnerMedia kicked off this deal in early December 2020 on the heels of Warner Bros. announcing that its 2021 slate of films would debut on HBO Max alongside the theatrical releases and remain available to stream for 30 days. Wonder Woman 1...

Getting a MagSafe car charger for your iPhone seems like a simple process, but the current landscape is one of trade-offs: there are no all-in-one solutions that will wirelessly hold and charge your phone and are MagSafe certified to provide up to 15W of power. However, manufactures have been finding workarounds. First, there’s Belkin’s Car Vent Mount Pro, which is the only MagSafe Certified car mount, and it sells for $39.99. Being certified doesn’t mean it provides power, though. You’ll have to plug your phone in with a Lightning cable (which you’d have to do anyway for wired CarPlay compatibility). This does technically let you charge your phone faster than regular wireless charging, but it leaves you messing around with a cable. Then there’s the Scosche MagicMount, which provides a 20W...

\\If you’ve finally given up on the world’s most popular social media network, it’s not too complicated to remove yourself from the service. But before you delete all of those pictures, posts, and likes, you should download your personal information from Facebook. Your Facebook archives contain just about all of the pertinent information related to your account, including your photos, active sessions, chat history, IP addresses, facial recognition data, and which ads you clicked, just to name a few. That’s a ton of personal information that you should probably maintain access to. To download your archive using the web: Click on the “down” arrow in the upper right corner. Go to “Settings & Privacy” > “Settings.” In the left-hand column, click on “Your Facebook Information.” In the ce...

Briana became Storymodebae when she started her Twitch channel in January 2018. Back then she was still a year away from graduating from college, and in her own words, got the idea to start making things online after she started watching Let’s Plays on YouTube when she found herself stuck in games. “I was like, ‘I mean, I like playing video games and I think I can crack a joke on occasion. So maybe I should give this a try.’” Three years later, Storymodebae has made Twitch her full-time career — though she’s still understandably a little nervous about putting her full name online. (“You know, I don’t put the government out there,” she jokes.) Last year, Storymodebae hosted three shows for Twitch — This is Dope, Follow Fridays, and The Weekly — and also live concert shows for Live Nation. H...

WandaVision, the first original television series produced by Marvel Studios, isn’t quite like anything Marvel has released before. It’s absurdist and pays authentic tribute to some of the best American sitcoms produced in the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, including Bewitched and The Dick Van Dyke Show. WandaVision is still a Marvel Studios show, however, and that means it ties into the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first two episodes, now streaming on Disney Plus, set up a key organization that ties WandaVision into the current Marvel Cinematic Universe’s moment, while also setting up the enticing “cosmic universe” era it’s about to enter. [This is your mandatory spoiler warning. Stop reading here if you don’t want to know anything that happens in the first two episodes.] A S.W.O....

Let’s just get to it: Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Pro are the best true wireless earbuds that the company has made yet. For their $200 asking price, you get a comfortable fit, effective active noise cancellation, and good, punchy sound quality. These earbuds improve on Samsung’s prior efforts with clever features like a speech detection mode that automatically lowers your music and lets you hear the outside world as soon as you start talking. But they also inch Samsung closer to a siloed-off world, not unlike Apple, where the best experience is reserved for people who stick to Samsung-branded devices. A few features like 3D audio and automatic device switching — sound familiar? — only work if you’re using these earbuds with a Samsung phone or tablet. Most people aren’t going to be cross-shopping...

Dating app Bumble has temporarily disabled a feature which allowed users to filter potential matches based on their political leanings, the service has announced. The feature allows users to identify and filter matches with options such as “Apolitical,” “Moderate,” “Liberal,” and “Conservative.” In a statement given to Mashable, Bumble said it had temporarily removed the feature in the US to “prevent misuse and abuse.” News of the change emerged after Bumble users reported seeing individuals on the app who appeared to have participated in the riots at the Capitol building last week. On January 7th, Twitter user Alia Awadallah reported seeing “dozens” of men on dating apps that appeared to be in Washington, DC on the day of the riots. They suggested taking screenshots of these profiles, and...

Apple is planning a major MacBook Pro redesign for the third quarter of 2021, according to a research note written by TF International Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo and reported on by MacRumors, 9to5Mac, and Apple Insider. Kuo calls it the first major redesign of the MacBook Pro since the introduction of the current generation in 2016. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has followed up with a report corroborating many of the same details. The new MacBook Pro is said to have squared-off sides like the iPad Pro and the iPhone 12; the current laptop already has sharp edges, but it sounds like the top and bottom panels are going to be flatter than before as well. The new model will reportedly come in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes both featuring Apple-designed Arm processors, with no Intel options. Kuo says...