Jim Hamm found this intriguing article that briefly highlights the major new features of the new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. It sounds mouth-watering to John Carter whom we are sure will get the new 6S Plus for the advanced photo and video features. Maybe he won’t be the only one. So the question is, do you get a smartphone like this to make phone calls, or is it mostly a handy pocket video/camera?
False message from Apple iTunes! BEWARE!
If you get an e-mail message supposedly from Apple asking you to confirm your iTunes ID and password, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK! The link does NOT go to an Apple website. You WILL get something you never wanted, especially if you give away your Apple ID and password.
Apple - in fact, no reputable company - will ever ask you to verify your ID and/or password or any other personal or financial information by e-mail. If you need to make sure that your ID and password are good, go directly to the company's website and login. That will verify your ID and password.
Below is the exposed content of the phishing message. Notice that the link for "Verify now" goes to "lookslikedesign" and not Apple. Always hover over links to confirm their true identity.
Dear,
We just need to verify that the information account belongs to you. Simply click the link below and sign in using your itunes ID and password. To complete the process, click the link below.
Verify now > <http://lookslikedesign.com/blog/Update.Your.Credit.Card.OnlineINFO.USIP343.12.675.18%20/apples/>
This link will expire three days after this email was sent.
Extend our this request, it's likely that another user has entered your email address by mistake and your account is still secure. If you believe an unauthorized person has accessed your account, you can enter your account information at My Apple ID <http://lookslikedesign.com/blog/Update.Your.Credit.Card.OnlineINFO.USIP343.12.675.18%20/apples/>.
Apple Support
My Apple ID <https://appleid.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MyAppleId.woa/wa/chooseYourCountry> | Support <https://www.apple.com/support/country/> | Privacy Policy <https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/privacy/>
Copyright Š 2015 Apple Inc. 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014, United States. All Rights Reserved.
Free Photoshop course!
Jim Hays gives us this good news: "Photoshop Mastery: Zero to Hero Course" for free!
Udemy offers Dr. Chad Neuman's Photoshop Mastery: Zero to Hero Course for $29. Coupon code "LEARN_PHOTOSHOP" makes it free. It includes 40 lectures and three hours of video covering the essentials of Adobe Photoshop. It's not clear how long this offer is valid for.
Interested? Click on this link.
John Carter thanks you, Jim. John now has one more course to take to add to the nearly hundred hours of things to do every week.
The future of Mac User Groups
Jim Hamm provides us with a New York Times article (link below) about Mac user groups, suggesting that they may have faded in popularity, as evidenced by the following comment in the article: “We’re all suffering the same thing. We’re not getting new people,” said Bob White, 72, a MacNexus member. “A lot of us are senior citizens.” Since PMUG is going strong, Jim hasn't noticed the impact the internet, forums, Apple stores, etc., have had on Mac clubs.
Jim also belongs to the Mac club in Phoenix (AMUG), and has noticed how their membership has shrunk over the years. He enjoys the personal presentations in Mac meetings, and likes to contribute a bit when he can, such as his frequent contributions to the PMUG Blog.
Jim adds, "One can't help but wonder, what does the future hold for Mac user groups?"
John Carter notes that the Prescott Computer Club membership has increased to 140+ recently, and a lot of that increase is due to the flurry of excitement about the Windows 10 release and the public announcements the club makes to get the news out. Just how much attention will the new announcements by Apple this month will bring new members to PMUG is unknown, but due to the high success rate of individuals being able to do their own updates, probably none.
Mac User Groups Fade in Number and Influence, but Devotees Press On
Info Manager Update
Check out the weekly InfoManager update on our Apple User Group page for interesting news tidbits about the world of computing and the web. This week find out more about adding 3D text to photos, the best free Mac apps, software for children (and grandchildren, and more.
Google's New OnHub Router
Jim Hamm brings us more news of new products. If you are perhaps in the market for a new router, here is a review of Google's new OnHub router.
However, both John Carter and Jim agree that this is probably not the best router for you. So you really need to read the review to help make up your mind.
Hearing Loss Problem? Try this.
Costco is offering a top of the line hearing loss solution for - not $7500 - only $1800. And this unique hearing aid can be adjusted using your iPhone or iPad! What's more, this hearing aid can receive phone calls, music, podcasts and other audio directly from Apple iPhones, iPads or iPod Touch devices without requiring an intermediate streaming device.
Jim Hamm submitted this article by a more-than-pleased user of the Kirkland Signature 6.0 hearing aid. And John Carter did a little research on it and found this article by another pleased user. There are literally dozens of more-than-pleased reviews about that particular hearing aid, and you can get these reviews just be searching with this phrase: "kirkland signature hearing aids reviews." Or this: "Kirkland Signature 6.0 hearing aids."
Mail Messages Don't Wrap
In Mac Mail, have you ever experienced that some (not all) of your e-mail messages do not wrap? Yet the same message in the iPhone and iPad wrap just fine. This is a problem with Mac Mail, and it has been around for a long time. You can search the Internet for many stories of users who are experiencing this problem. But there seems to be only one solution.
You can actually read the message normally in Mac Mail if you just hit the reply button, whether you intend to reply or not.
How to get your Mac hijacked
Yes, it is possible that your Mac could get hijacked. On August 17, 2015, PC World posted an article about how your Mac could get hijacked. PC World reports, "An Italian teenager has found two zero-day vulnerabilities in Apple’s OS X operating system that could be used to gain remote access to a computer."
The good news for Apple is that it doesn't appear to be in OS X El Capitan.
Is there a patch? Sort of, but it doesn't come from Apple. And because it takes two bugs together to cause the kind of memory corruption that would allow a hacker to gain root access, it's kind of unlikely that any Mac user would be affected. In other words, if you're not a high profile target, this should be the least of your worries.
Read the full PC World article here. And Cult of Mac has a similar article here.
Macbook Air For Sale
Take a look in the Member For Sale page of the PMUG website - there's a MacBook Air for sale that you might be interested in. Posted 8/28/2015.
Smoke and Mirrors at Amazon.com?
Jim Hamm likes to keep his eyes on the Internet for anything new and interesting. He has found something new about Amazon. If you shop on Amazon, Jim found an article that you may find interesting -- especially if you're a Prime subscriber. Also mentioned in the article is another website he hadn't heard of: jet.com. Jim plans to check out the news about Amazon here just to see what it's all about. How about you?
Google OnHub: The Ultimate WiFi Router?
Jim Hamm sends us this tidbit about a new product: OnHub. For your possible interest, here is an informative article about OnHub -- the new router from Google. It will be interesting to read the blogs about OnHub once it's available for consumers. The features seem impressive. See the detail here.
Costco Online Photo Center is OFFLINE
Update as of August 17, 2015
Costco has this notice on their online photo center:
"We appreciate and thank you for your ongoing patience - we understand the impact this is having on each of you! Through today, we've made significant progress toward re-enabling the Photo Center site; however, there's additional work to be done before it's ready to go live. We know the previous anticipated dates have come and gone, but we're doing everything we can to bring a safe & secure site back on line as soon as possible. With that said, we are now anticipating that the site will be back online within the next 1-2 weeks. Thank you again for your loyalty and ongoing patience.
"The current coupon book, mailed or found in the Costco.com app, offers $10 Off Canvas Prints, valid 8/6 to 8/30/15. While we are unable to take your order online, we can fulfill your order at the Photo Center kiosk in most warehouses.* For assistance, please check with the Photo Center staff."
See http://www.costcophotocenter.com for a coupon. Hurry! This offer won't last.
Cybercrime and Phishing
This information is always worth repeating. The following was captured from the Prescott Computer Society (pcs4me.com) Messenger. The first 7 items were originally written by Kathy Frey, Member, Computer Club of Green Valley, AZ, (www.ccgvaz.org) as found in the Summer 2015 edition of Green Bytes, the club newsletter. At one time or another we all will be a victim of some form of Cybercrime and Phishing. The use of any preventive product is of little help if you don't practice safe computing. Help protect yourself:
1. Watch out for "phishy" emails. The most common form of phishing is emails pretending to be from a legitimate retailer, bank, organization, or government agency. Delete them. Do not open them.
2. Don't click on links within emails that ask for your personal information.
3. Beware of "pharming." This was also known as redirect. In this version of online ID theft, a virus or malicious program is secretly planted in your computer and hijacks your Web browser. When you type in the address of a legitimate Web site, you're taken to a fake site without realizing it. Malicious programs can be either spyware, adware or malware. Run your spyware scanning programs. Malwarebytes is a recommended program.
4. Never enter your personal information in a popup screen.
5. Only open email attachments if you're expecting them and know what they contain.
6. Phishing also happens by phone. You may get a call from someone pretending to be from a company or government agency, making various kinds of false claims and asking for your personal information. Quite often it is about some problem with your computer. There is no way they can possibly know if you even own a computer. If you have caller ID, screen your calls, and do not answer calls from phone numbers you do not recognize.
7. If someone contacts you and says you've been a victim of fraud, verify the person's identity before you provide any personal information. Get a phone number and call them back. Or call who they are supposed to represent and ask if that business is making those kinds of calls.
8. Report phishing, whether you're a victim or not. Tell the company or agency that the phisher was impersonating.
9. Don't be embarrassed, take action immediately if you've been hooked by a phisher. If you provided account numbers, PINS, or passwords to a phisher, notify the companies with whom you have the accounts right away. For information about how to put a "fraud alert" on your files at the credit reporting bureaus, contact the Federal Trade Commission's ID Theft Clearinghouse, www.consumer.gov/idtheft.
Most Recent Scam Alerts from the Federal Trade Commission: (For the following articles, paste the title into a search bar in your browser) Stand up to fake debt collectors - April 10, 2015 Unlocking the code - April 3, 2015 The FTC didn’t send that sweepstakes letter - April 2, 2015 Scammers play name game and get caught - March 27, 2015 An invoice today gets the doctor to pay - March 26, 2015 Reluctant to be rude? - March 25, 2015 Don’t pay for a vacation to nowhere - March 19, 2015 It’s the IRS calling…or is it? - March 12, 2015 Cleaning up without getting cleaned out - March 6, 2015
10. When shopping online be careful and look for boxes that are pre-checked for you to receive offers from them or their partners. Be sure to uncheck the boxes and opt-out if you don't want to receive any communications. Even legitimate retailers count on you not unchecking the boxes to opt-out.
InfoManager Update
Check out the weekly InfoManager update on our Apple User Group page for interesting news tidbits about the world of computing and the web. This week find out more about safenetting, cybersecurity, net neutrality, halloween fonts, Apple music, and more.
Your PMUG website has been updated!
With a lot of help from friends, the Menu Bar of the PMUG website has been updated.
You can now access the PMUG meeting minutes directly from the Menu Bar instead of looking around for the link that is (still) buried in the Home page.
The other big change is that the Newsletter is no longer hosted by Blogspot. When clicking on the Newsletter item in the Menu, instead of being switched to a different website, the content of the Newsletter is shown in the current window/tab.
By the way, the Newsletter isn't really a Newsletter. Technically, it is a Blog. And we have a new Newsletter Editor. Her name is Sharon Walsh (backed up by John Carter). You can still submit your comments, news, photos, and favorite recipes by e-mail to "editor (at) pmug (dot) us". Sharon may possibly change the content (she is the editor after all), and then post it for you. Unlike other blogs, there is no way to directly post comments.
The presentation of the Newsletter hasn't changed (much). Instead of seeing all the tags on the right side, a list of past blogs by month is shown. If you want to find an article, simply enter a keyword in the Search bar to the right of the Menu bar (found on every page).
In fact, the Search bar in the Menu of the PMUG website is an excellent way to find anything in the PMUG website. Give it a try.
Speculation on iPad Air 3
Keeping us informed David Passell says, "Here is some late news and speculation about Apple iPAD Air." Some are expecting it in September or October.
Man in the Cloud Attack
"Something else to worry our readers about," comments David Passell as he forwards this URL to us. At the end of the article click on “How to secure your computer and online accounts” for 10 actions to consider for your protection.
Zagg Bluetooth Keyboard
"If there's any 'iPaders' in our azapple group, the following comments are for you," says Jim Hamm. He continues, " I've owned an iPad for a long time, but had never used a separate keyboard with it previously. Then my wife got a Zagg bluetooth keyboard for her iPad, and really liked it. So, not to be left behind, I bought one from Amazon for my iPad. What a difference this keyboard makes. Really nice.
"If you've already moved to a bluetooth keyboard for your iPad, read no further. For the rest of you, I recommend you try one."
Jim explains, "I didn't realize how much easier, and nicer, it is to type on a keyboard instead of tapping on the screen with my finger. And the best thing I like about it is no more -- to correct a mistake -- a finger on the screen, with the bubble, trying to move the cursor around. Now I just use the up/down/back/forward arrows on the keyboard to move the cursor and correct a misspelling. I like this.
"We're presently on an RV caravan tour and I haven't even used my MacBook Air once since we left. I find it so convenient and handy just to use my iPad with the Zagg keyboard. Plus, since I've got a cellular data package for my iPad, I don't have to worry if we don't have wifi in the campground. Like right now -- no wifi but a good LTE signal.
"There are other brands of keyboards available for the iPad, but the Zagg is the only one I've tried. There were over a thousand reviews on Amazon for the Zagg keyboard for my particular iPad, with most of them favorable."
And Jim concludes, "I'm not pushing Zagg -- only the use of a bluetooth keyboard for your iPad. Just a thought for your consideration."
Attackers Exploit Mac Vulnerability
Vulnerability in Mac operating systems described in this article published 8-5-2015 the Fox News writer declares that “since Apple has not fixed the issue, those with Yosemite operating systems have little recourse except to be as careful as possible when downloading new files online . . . “ Read the article here.