August 10 & 11, 2024 Show Notes
Brian & Gary's Weekend Edition
🎙️ Show airs live
Saturday: 10:05am-Noon
🔁 Rebroadcast
Sunday: 1:05pm-3pm
🎧 Podcast
Anytime
Your guest co-hosts this week:
Alan is on vacation with Suzanne in Newfoundland and Labrador, and will be back next Saturday.
1) Apple has come up with a way to dramatically boost the security of personal data: homomorphic encryption, or HE
When iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 are released this fall, the new operating systems will include a dramatic new level of encryption for some personal data, to make it faster and safer to do online functions.
It's called Homomorphic encryption (HE) and it's a cryptographic technique that enables computation on encrypted data without revealing the underlying unencrypted data to the operating process.
Homomorphic encryption provides a means for clients to send encrypted data to a server, which operates on that encrypted data and returns a result that the client can decrypt. During the execution of the request, the server itself never decrypts the original data or even has access to the decryption key. Such an approach presents new opportunities for cloud services to operate while protecting the privacy and security of a user’s data, which is obviously highly attractive for many scenarios.
The article below is rather geeky, but gives some great insight into this breakthrough…
2) Canada's Privacy Commissioner is investigating Ticketmaster's huge data breach
Canada's Privacy Commissioner has launched an investigation into a cybersecurity breach at Ticketmaster after an attack by a hacker group compromised the personal information of millions of customers around the world, including millions of Canadians.
Privacy Commissioner Philippe Dufresne says his investigation should reveal how and why this breach happened and what needs to be done to prevent it from happening again.
A hacking group called ShinyHunters claimed it had stolen the user data of more than 500 million Ticketmaster customers and demanded a ransom of $500,000 US ($680,000 Cdn).
CBC
Privacy commissioner launches investigation into Ticketmaster data breach | CBC News
Canada's privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into a cybersecurity breach at Ticketmaster after an attack by a hacker group saw the personal information of millions of customers around the world compromised.
3) No more going to concerts if you don't have a smartphone
To eliminate people being scammed by buying fake tickets, and scammers from selling screenshoits of real tickets, Rogers Arena and most other concert venues are moving away from printed tickets, and are instead using moving QR codes.
As a result, screenshots of ticket barcodes, and printed tickets, are no longer being accepted at more and more concert venues.
This means that in order to gain admission, you'll have to show the moving QR code on the ticket app on a smartphone (or on an internet-connected tablet).
In order to speed-up transactions and avoid theft risks, virtually all concert venues also no longer accept cash, accepting only debit and credit cards and Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Tech News Of The Week
Items start at #10, so the numbers don't get thrown-off if we add more security items above!
Tip: if an item in these Show Notes has the icon on the right in the upper-right corner, you can click/tap on it to make the additional info open in a new tab.
11) Google has an illegal monopoly on search, US judge finds
A U.S. judge ruled on Monday that Google violated antitrust law, spending billions of dollars to create an illegal monopoly and become the world's default search engine, the first big win for federal authorities taking on Big Tech's market dominance.
Reuters
Google has an illegal monopoly on search, US judge finds
A U.S. judge ruled on Monday that Google violated antitrust law, spending billions of dollars to create an illegal monopoly and become the world's default search engine, the first big win for federal authorities taking on Big Tech's market dominance.
12) B.C. scam victim forces Scotiabank to reveal ID of con man so he can sue
The Vancouver man, 70, realized immediately that the $8,400 he transferred after getting a text from his son was a swindle but the bank refused to release the funds
13) We've updated our collection of Travel Tech Tips!
There are now more than 40 of them, and they're in a separate Travel Tech Tips notes, which you can find on our Home Page, or on the toolbar at the top of any of our Notes.
You can bookmark them, as we update them often, at Tech-Talk.ca/travel-tech-tips.
The current Travel Tech Tips notes are also below as a PDF…
14) You may be able to unlock future Apple devices with your heart
Passwords, Touch ID, and Face ID could all be a thing of the past, as Apple is working on a future where unlocking your devices is as easy as just holding a future iPhone or letting your Apple Watch sense your unique heart rhythm.
AppleInsider
You may soon be able to unlock your Apple devices with your heart
Passwords, Touch ID, and Face ID could all be a thing of the past, as Apple is working on a future where unlocking your devices is as easy as just holding a future iPhone or letting your Apple Watch sense your unique heart rhythm.
15) With Google in its sights, OpenAI unveils SearchGPT
OpenAI may have designs to get into the search game — challenging not only upstarts like Perplexity, but Google and Bing, too.
OpenAI has unveiled SearchGPT, a search feature designed to give “timely answers” to questions, drawing from web sources.
UI-wise, SearchGPT isn’t too far off from OpenAI’s chatbot platform ChatGPT. You type in a query, and SearchGPT serves up info and images from the web along with links to relevant sources, at which point you can ask follow-up questions or explore additional, related searches in a sidebar.
16) iOS 18 Adds Camera Setting to Allow iPhone Audio Playback When Shooting Video
In iOS 18, Apple has added a control in the Camera app's Settings menu that lets you choose whether audio playing on your iPhone should pause or continue when you start recording in Video mode.
17) Tesla Owner Catches Car and House on Fire After Plugging Directly Into Power Line
A Tesla Model S owner in Mexico recently earned the distinction of being the first reported Tesla EV fire in Tijuana. But they also burned down a neighbor’s house in the process!
18) Schools in a London borough are banning smartphones
The plan aims to help tackle bullying and sleep concerns, among other issues. There has been a 52% rise in children's screen time, a government report found.
19) ChatGPT unexpectedly began speaking in a user’s cloned voice during testing
The plan aims to help tackle bullying and sleep concerns, among other issues. There has been a 52% rise in children's screen time, a government report found.
20) Breakthrough flexible solar panels are so thin they can be printed on any surface
A coating that's just one micron thick can be applied to almost any surface.
TechSpot
Breakthrough flexible solar panels are so thin they can be printed on any surface – even backpacks
Scientists at Oxford University Physics Department have developed a groundbreaking solar-power innovation. They have miniaturized solar panels that are thin enough to print on any object while...
Greetings from the East Coast
Alan and Suzanne are enjoying the trip of a lifetime, exporing Newfoundland and Labrador…
…and finally, our "Sign Of The Week"…
And so it goes…