‘Secret’ iPhone feature lets you easily sign online documents for free, with no scanning, printing, or app installing

In the age of digital communication, needing to sign important documents online has become increasingly common, but it’s not necessarily the easiest process.

For an iPhone you can just use the standard Photos app to open it, hit Edit, click the Markup button, and add signature. Useful that you can also move it around.

I see on my Samsung Galaxy phone I can similarly use the Samsung Notes app and just a PDF with the S Pen. The selection tool will also allow me to select and move that signature around or resize it.

Both phones will allow you to sign, or complete, a document offline and no 3rd party apps needed.

See thefocus.news/lifestyle/secret…
#Blog, #ios, #signature, #technology

Palm OS and the devices that ran it: Before smartphones, we had PDAs in our pockets, and Palm did them best

I remember my PalmPilot very well. I used its Graffiti handwriting recognition to take many memos and keep my life organised.

I’m pretty sure before the PalmPilot I only had fixed ROM organisers which had the standard notes, calendar, contact, etc functionality (like the Sharp ZQ-3200 organiser with 64kB of RAM and a serial link). The PalmPilot also allowed 3rd party apps to be installed. It would also interface with some PC apps to sync data when you pressed the sync button on the cradle.

I think I moved to a Psion 5 after the Palm Pilot. Its EPOC OS was the forerunner to the Symbian OS that appeared on Nokia phones later on.

The 1990’s was an exciting time of innovative breakthroughs in all sorts of consumer computing devices.

There is a pretty good history and context and the link below and covers both the rise and the fall of Palm.

See arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/0…
#Blog, #palmpilot, #retrocomputing, #technology

Caillou dans le ciel mouillé

#textimage #poesiecontemporaine #sète #ecriresurcaillou #auteur #blog #poesie #actu #culturevivante

http://www.alainlasverne.fr/caillou-dans-le-ciel-mouille-a215709339?logout

Caillou dans le ciel mouillé

  A l'occasion, je pose un brin de poésie sur un caillou...         Caillou au pied d'une statue que les sétois connaissent bien. Manière d'hommage à la statue et au canal à ses pieds......

A Privacy Policy: We do not display advertising on the website or app but…

I can’t recall what this service was for as I don’t find any login saved for it, but I was reading the updated privacy policy they sent me in an e-mail (looks like it may have been a service a tried a long time ago). It’s very long and starts out quite well, but it was when I got to these paragraphs below that it really starts to worry me as they are basically claiming all sorts of metadata will be passed on online advertising networks, social media companies and other 3rd party services, including GPS locations and click stream information. This includes for children 13 years and older. It’s similar to what WhatsApp passes up to Meta, which made me drop WhatsApp like a hot potato, because of who that data gets passed to.

An extract: “Specifically, we permit third party online advertising networks, social media companies and other third-party services, to collect information about your use of the VERO Website over time so that they may play or display ads for our products and services on other websites or services you may use, and on other devices you may use. Typically, though not always, the information used for interest-based advertising is collected through tracking technologies, such as cookies, web beacons, embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies, and similar technology, which recognize the device you are using and collect information, including click stream information, browser type, time and date you visited the VERO Websites, AdID, and other similar information. If permitted by your device settings, they may also collect location data through GPS, Wi-Fi or other methods. We and our third-party partners use this information to make the advertisements you see online more relevant to your interests, as well as to provide advertising-related services such as reporting, attribution, analytics and market research. We may also use services provided by third parties (such as social media platforms) to serve targeted ads to you and others on such platforms.”

This extract could imply your data gets made available to data brokers even: “Please be aware that your Personal Information and communications may be transferred to and maintained on servers or databases located outside your state, province, or country. We store and process the information that we collect in the United States in accordance with this Privacy Policy though our Service Providers may store and process data outside the United States. The laws in the United States may not be as protective of your privacy as those in your location.”

Well, this re-assuring that they don’t “sell” the information: “We do not “sell” personal information as most people would typically understand that term. However, on certain portions of the VERO Website, we do allow certain third-party partners and providers to collect information about consumers directly through our services for purposes of analyzing and optimizing our services, displaying ads on third party sites, providing content and ads that are more relevant, measuring statistics and the success of ad campaigns, and detecting and reporting fraud. This practice may be interpreted to constitute a “sale” under the U.S. state privacy laws, or may constitute the “sharing” or processing of your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising purposes.”

They at least do expand here on selling: “We have “sold” or “shared” the following categories of personal information for the purposes described in our Privacy Policy, subject to your settings and preferences and your Right to Opt-Out: Identifiers, Commercial Information, and Internet/Network Information.”

This is what is stated about 3rdparty identity services: “VERO does not receive the biometric identifier generated from the images, however, for identity verification and security purposes, VERO will receive the results of the identity verification process, including the images of your ID and the results of the liveness check, as well as text extracted from the ID scan. We may use some or all of this information and associated information to verify your account.”

And this: “We do not sell sensitive information, and we do not process or otherwise share sensitive information for the purpose of targeted advertising.” Except that this contradicts what was said earlier about targeted advertising! Because I understand “to make the advertisements you see online more relevant to your interests” to mean targeted advertising. Maybe relevant and targeted mean two different things?

We don’t always have time to read updated privacy policies, but many do contain these hidden gems, that quite frankly can put you off using such services. The sites of course are usually “free” to use, so are funded by advertisers who require these conditions to be in place.

One can see why so many then flock to the Fediverse and other decentralised platforms which are funded by volunteers. It worth considering giving some small donations to these volunteer projects when they’re keeping you free from invasive advertising and data collection policies.

From vero.co/privacy-policy
#Blog, #privacy, #technology

South African app receives 46,693 potholes reports — 7,842 have been closed

The app is not so much about potholes themselves, but more about how transparency is needed to measure success or failure to provide services to citizens. Too often, reports just disappear into a back-end system and no-one sees the full picture, nor how the resolution rate is progressing.

Seeing municipal services are actually public funded services for citizens, I really wonder why not all electrical, roads, water, etc requests are not publicly visible for citizens to judge how their service delivery is going. If this could have been done for the Municipal Money website in South Africa, why not for other municipal services too? Right now, anyone can compare one municipality with another for their financial key performance indicators.

Maybe what is needed is more transparency for citizens to see what is going on, or not, with their municipal service delivery. Then we’ll at least be dealing with objective judgements around service delivery, and be able to measure real improvement.

See mybroadband.co.za/news/motorin…
#Blog, #accountability, #government, #southafrica, #technology

Fujifilm X100 VI vs iPhone 15 Pro Max camera shootout: the most hyped against the most mainstream

LOL the “most mainstream phone camera” in my country is certainly not an iPhone, but OK, you can substitute with any other flagship brand phone.

In case you were wondering about the Fujifilm camera, it is a retro-style digital camera with a 40MP sensor and fixed-lens that shoots around the equivalent of a 35 mm lens. Why this one specifically over maybe a Canon or Nikon DSLR? Well, it was apparently made famous on TikTok at some point a year ago, and is now permanently sold out.

The camera is a lot more compact than any DSLR, but a downside then also is it not being able to take additional lenses. Like it or not, we just have to accept that in 2024 a really good camera phone mostly will outrank any camera when it comes to auto mode, compactness, size, and versatility. A DSLR will certainly outperform any smartphone when it comes to the extremes of low light, massive zoom levels, and resolution, but the extra dedicated cost, weight, bulk, and lack of quick versatility make it impractical for day-today users.

See xda-developers.com/fujifilm-x1…
#Blog, #FujifilmX100VI, #photography, #technology

StreamController is a brand-new open-source app for enabling and managing the Elgato Stream Deck on Linux

Many of us were using Stream Deck UI, which was a fork from a previous such app which was no longer being maintained. The devs decided to restart the initiative using a different coding language (Python), which would allow them to do a lot more.

So, what a surprise when I saw an announcement in the Discord chat that we should migrate to the new app called StreamController. Not only is it noticeably faster, but it also has support now for plugins, wallpapers, screensaver, as well as automatic page switching for Gnome and Hyprland (For example, you could see your favourite music albums when you open Spotify, your projects when you open VSCode, or your favorite websites in Firefox).

It is still in Beta and I installed the Flatpak version on Manjaro Linux, which is working just fine.

It has its own in-app Store for plugins and icon packs, so you are not installing these directly from Elgato. But there are already a number of useful plugins available such as Audio Control, Audio Switcher, Clocks, Counter Deck Controller, Gnome Window Calls, Media, OBS, OS, Pi-hole, HTTP requests, Speediest, Volume Mixer, and Weather.

Various of the plugins are supporting animation, so the OS one for CPU can display the live CPU percentage, or even show a graph that updates in the button display. The clock plugin will show the time as it updates. The volume level will show the volume percentage as it changes.

The OBS plugin correctly sends its button presses to the OBS app, when it is running with its standard server active. I was able to get all my main scenes working for zooming in around the screen, and to trigger the various hotkeys I have active inside OBS. There are still a few more features that likely need to be added to the OBS plugin.

There is only one icon pack right now in the store for Material Icons designed by Google (unofficial). But you can easily add Custom Assets such as your own JPG or PNG icons by just uploading them into the app. And of course, anyone else can contribute extra plugins and icon packs.

Overall, I’m really impressed with this app and can see why it needed a complete rewrite. It is already a lot of fun to use, so I’m looking forward to further enhancements over the coming months.

See core447.com/
#Blog, #linux, #opensource, #StreamDeck, #technology

Petivity Smart Litterbox Monitor System: Uses Existing Pet Litter Box

It takes about a week or so for it to learn your cats’ habits accurately. During that time, the app alerts you when an event is detected and, based on the weight recorded, you select which cat it was (or if it was a non-cat event, like you scooping). Once it learns who’s who, it compiles that day’s activities into the app, letting you know when each cat peed, pooped, or did a little dance inside the litter but didn’t actually go, complete with cute illustrated icons. You can set up multiple monitors if you have several boxes.

I like that this using exiting litter boxes, and seemingly has no subscription cost. It appears to recognise which pet it is as well (well it prompts you to tell it), and it monitors the frequency the pet uses it, for any changes.

It’s also a handy ‘weigh’ to monitor their weight as well.

Interesting gadget, but is probably a bit pricey for most of us.

See https://www.wired.com/review/petivity-smart-litterbox-monitor/
#Blog, #cats, #gadgets, #technology

The Best Podcasts for Your Smart, Bored Kid

Some excellent kid safe and also informative podcasts in the list at the linked article. I’d say though they are not just for long trips in the car, as it is actually a good habit to listen to focussed and informative topics at any time. Much of my own day, including shopping trips and when driving, are spent listening to podcasts.

Audio podcasts are great for those times when you are busy doing something, and cannot be watching a screen the whole time. You can slow down, or speed up, podcast listening too.

See https://www.wired.com/story/best-podcasts-for-kids/
#Blog, #kids, #podcasts, #technology

Why after nearly 20 years I moved away from Vodacom – Loyalty often does not Pay

I’ve been with Vodacom since just after number porting went live in South Africa, and I’ve been on a contract with them for most of that time until after I retired from work, and no longer had a work cellphone allowance. It was just cheaper to move to a pre-paid service.

When I moved to pre-paid, I just asked them to change my contract to pre-paid, and I went on from there, topping the account up every second month or so. Whenever I topped up I saw I was offered 30% extra airtime for whatever I bought – that’s nice, so if I spent R100 I’d actually get R130 or whatever it was. But over the last 3 months after moving medical aids I do now spend up to an hour or longer talking on the phone to my medical aid and I noticed the costs are nearly R100 a call.

Today I got another offer from Afrihost to switch to their new AirMobile offering (which is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator). So I checked out the call costs and noted they were 64c per minute. I phoned Vodacom to check what I was paying as I can never see in the VodaPay app what the call rates were, and I also cannot see any history of itemised calls (except for the data use on my data SIM). I was then told I’m paying R1.53 per minute for calls! So, I get an extra 30% of airtime when I top up, but I’m paying over 100% more in costs! What a rip-off. It was explained to me that there are actually three different pre-paid plans, and I was on the Power Bonus one, but there is a different one that is only 79c per minute, if I’d like them to switch me to that one. No-one told me there were three options when I was switched to pre-paid, and I always thought there was just “pre-paid”. Well…. I replied that actually don’t worry, I’m going to rather switch providers, but I asked her to escalate the issue that no-one gave me any options when I was changed to pre-paid and how come I ended up on the most expensive one – there is no loyalty from the company after you’ve been with them for 20 years.

I’m not going to (yet) say Afrihost’s AirMobile is the best out there, but for me, it is certainly way better than I was getting from Vodacom. The whole migration was completed online and live after about 3 hours, including the RICA process and the number porting. As I have a phone with eSIM capability, I just scanned the QR code that came in the e-mail, and my eSIM was set up.

Apart from the way cheaper costs, visibility of pricing, and way simpler online management (without all the adverts and bonus offer popups in the VodaPay app), the AirMobile offering also shows me detailed usage of both the data usage and itemised phone calls with the cost for each call (no itemised billing was included on pre-paid with Vodacom).

The fact that I received a free R100 of airtime and 10GB of data from AirMobile was not at all why I changed, as I look only at ongoing monthly usage costs. But it is a nice sweetener seeing I had R88 credit left at Vodacom which I lose.

The moral of the story though is, just like with short term insurance, life insurance and bank accounts, you have no investment value in those companies at all, no matter how long you’ve been with them. If you want a better deal, you need to look around and then just make a move. An exception may be if you get quite hefty loyalty bonuses, like I get from my short term insurance for no claims. But still, factor that in and decide if you want to move after your bonus is paid out, or weigh up what you will save overall over 3 or 5 years anyway.

So, let’s see how this goes with Afrihost. Afrihost has been my fibre ISP for the last few years, and I’ve been really happy with their service so far. My migration described above, though, was purely my own initiative, and all I received was the standard migration package and pricing that everyone else receives. I know it sounds a bit like an advert, but it is an important principle to look around for better offers you can get, no matter where you decide to go.
#Blog, #Afrihost, #AirMobile, #southafrica, #technology, #vodacom

#google #job #blog #news #history

♲ Digital Angel - 2024-04-10 22:22:14 GMT

Surprise: #Google has transformed itself from a #hipster #startup into a cheesy, normal #company, where you are now just as much of an #employee as anywhere else.https://social.clawhammer.net/blog/posts/2024-01-19-CultureChange/
#job #history #economy #internet #software #developer #coder #nerd #change #news #business #management #blog

Digital Angel (@digitalangel)

Hailing Frequencies Open: h3x3@xmpp.chat

Free app Actions adds nearly 150 features to Apple Shortcuts

Highlights include many tools for converting units, a bunch of system integrations for checking things like whether a particular Bluetooth device or Wi-Fi device is connected, and a bunch of features for working with images and lists. The application works for both mobile devices, including the iPhone and iPad, as well as Macs. A few of the actions only work on one or the other but the vast majority work on all devices.

To get started, simply install the application and create a new shortcut. The best way to get a feel for the new abilities is to go to Shortcuts, create a new shortcut, and browse the actions by app. You’ll find everything under “Shortcuts”.

See https://lifehacker.com/tech/actions-app-adds-new-features-to-apple-shortcuts
#Blog, #ios, #shortcuts, #technology

Kobo announces its first colour e-readers

Rakuten Kobo is launching its first colour e-readers, the Kobo Libra Colour and the Kobo Clara Colour. Both use E Ink’s latest Kaleido colour screen technology, which has subtle, pastel-like hues and drops from a 300ppi grayscale resolution to 150ppi when you view content in colour.

Prices seem to be about $10 to $30 more than the black and white model, and a stylus will cost extra if you want one.

It will be interesting to see what thew reviews show from May 2024 after they’ve shipped. Kobo’s are actually excellent readers and this also shows again how they can out-innovate Amazon. Kobo’s also have long supported the ePub format, which Amazon only started to support about a year or two back. Amazon’s only big strength is their massive bookstore.

It is quite easy to buy books and use Calibre to push them to a Kobo reader.

See https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/10/24124411/kobo-libra-colour-clara-colour-e-reader-kindle-e-ink
#Blog, #ereader, #Kobo, #technology

The Fairbuds noise-canceling earbuds have an easily swappable battery

Fairphone, the makers of the ultra-repairable Fairphone 5, have launched a new pair of easy-to-repair wireless earbuds. Instead of tossing away your earbuds when the batteries eventually die, Fairphone’s new Fairbuds let you replace the batteries inside the buds themselves and their charging case.

In addition to replacing the batteries, you can repair or exchange the left or right earbud, the silicone ring, earbud tips, the charging case outer shell, and the charging case core. The new buds also come with a standard two-year warranty, but you can add one extra year if you register them online.

Certainly, these objectives should be embraced by all manufacturers. I will never forget my first (and only) Apple AirPods and their batteries failing just a month past the warranty period ended. They were super expensive, and I vowed to never again pay so much money for a disposable product.

The downside though with Fairphone products is they are not the cheapest around, so many are still going to buy cheap disposal earbuds. They are very likely not as good as the top end earbuds are either, but I’d be interested to see some reviews around the sound quality.

One would have to assume these could last at least two or three times longer than any earbuds which have non-replaceable batteries (batteries are usually the component that fails). But the cost of any batteries being replaced also needs to be factored in.

I’d hope though if there is enough support and sales, that these prices could actually get cheaper over time too.

See https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/9/24125089/fairbuds-fairphone-noise-canceling-earbuds-battery-replace-repairability
#Blog, #earbuds, #environment, #technology

Modder made an IRC client that runs entirely inside the motherboard’s BIOS chip

#join edk2. User has then posted a private message in that channel saying "Hello from UEFI!". There is a single reply shown saying "what?".">
Phillip Tennen, developer of the open-source axleOS, has recently decided to use what he learned from that project to create an IRC client that runs entirely within the UEFI pre-boot environment, with no operating system required. This “UEFIRC” is nearly fully functional, with a graphical interface and a TrueType font renderer, and it’s all written in the Rust programming language.

Wow! It does suggest two things to me:

1. IRC is really the lightest weight social chatting app of them all…
2. IRC users are a bit different…

Technically I suppose any text based micro-blogging type service could work. Twitter or Mastodon without videos and photos may also work. But the nature of how IRC still works today, means you can get a pretty close experience to the real thing even in the BIOS.

See https://www.tomshardware.com/software/someone-made-a-functioning-irc-client-that-runs-entirely-inside-the-motherboards-uefi
#Blog, #BIOS, #IRC, #technology

Solved e-mail not working in luckyBackup app with smtp-cli app

I love the free and open source luckyBackup app for doing rsync backups of my user data, as rsync is fast and reliable, and you can easily verify seeing your files that are backed up. I’ve been using luckyBackup for many years now, despite it no longer being supported from about 12 years ago (little has changed with regards to rsync, which it uses, and rsync updates still).

The only problem I, and many others had, was when Google tightened up their SMTP access for sending of mail. We started getting authentication errors for SMTP logins with app passwords. But I’d seen many complain but no easy solution was ever mentioned for luckyBackup, which executes a command line execution to send the logs via e-mail.

This week it became critical as I noticed my backups stopped running a few days ago, and of course, I got no error e-mail. I looked to using Duplicati backup now which is really excellent and saves masses of space, but it is horribly slow, especially on the first run. For my 1.1 TB of data it has now been running nearly 24 hours and it has 230 GB still to go!

So, a renewed effort on luckyBackup finally found a breakthrough. I looked at alternative CLI mail command apps and actually got ssmtp to work, by adding an option AuthMethod=LOGIN. This got me to realise that of course GMail’s (and some other SMTP servers) are not always standard. But the ssmtp app does not execute properly from within luckyBackup.

Then I came upon a comment in a post where someone said they had created an open-source app called smtp-cli for the command line, and it also did some diagnostics along with some optional parameters including also an option --auth-login. And it worked, including inside of luckyBackup!

The app only had updates done 5 years ago, but I see various issues have been closed, and more than once it was said no update was actually required as users can use the numerous parameters to control various issues. It also has a --verbose option to give lots of feedback on its progress or issues.

This app is also pretty useful if you’re having any issue with e-mailing from cron jobs as it will handle that job pretty well too.

I just wish I’d come across this app sooner!

See https://github.com/mludvig/smtp-cli
#Blog, #luckybackup, #opensource, #smtp, #technology

Magnets are switching up the keyboard game with an additional keystroke setting

These keyboards rely on magnets and springs and activate by sensing changes in the magnetic field. Popularized by Dutch keyboard startup Wooting, these switches rely on the Hall Effect and have actually been around since the 1960s.

You can change how far you need to press down to register the keystroke, as well as for the release point.

The one thing you can’t change, though, is the switch’s resistance. Despite all the talk of magnets, that’s still handled by the spring inside the switch, after all (for the moment, until the xyz is released).

But interestingly, this also means with temperature differences, you may also have to “calibrate” your keyboard. The price point for the Akko MOD007B PC Santorini keyboard at around US$110 to $150 is certainly not more expensive than many mechanical keyboards.

See https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/07/magnets-are-switching-up-the-keyboard-game/
#Blog, #keyboards, #technology

How to update the firmware on Raspberry Pi

Essentially, firmware is a form of low-level software that instructs hardware on how to operate and interact with other devices and components. For instance, firmware tells a computer to turn on when you press the power button, and it also tells a Raspberry Pi how to read micro-SD cards and USB drives.

Depending on what you do with your Raspberry Pi, you might never need to update its firmware. Aside from the occasional bug fix, you only have to update your Raspberry if you upgrade a project with new processors, memory chips, or printed circuit boards. You probably won’t need a firmware update if you only use the Raspberry Pi to power a mini RC rover, but if you feel like adding a bit more processing power to a device running Windows 11, you’d better install new firmware.

So, this may mostly not really be required, but it is handy to know if you plan to re-purpose your Pi with newer hardware.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/how-to-update-the-firmware-on-raspberry-pi/
#Blog, #raspberrypi, #technology

Starlink in Zimbabwe: Techies Find Ways to Disguise Kits, Evading Authorities

In a country choked by high internet costs and limited options, Zimbabweans are turning to remarkable ingenuity. Facing arrest and equipment seizure for using Starlink, tech-savvy individuals have devised a way to disguise the kits.

One such individual who communicated anonymously with us here at Techzim has said he’s helping people hide their Starlink terminals from the authorities.

They modify the terminal so that it looks like a solar panel, or just a light. They are also able to make it work without the indoor router, removing any evidence of the presence of a Starlink connection, even if the authorities suspect, or a neighbour snitches.

It now seems to be a sort of business helping do this via kits that can be purchased. It is certainly also needed in countries where the Internet is itself censored (LOL yes also including Australia).

IT’s just really sad also where suppliers can get away with not having enough innovative competition for them to lower their prices through a competitive market. Governments too are not always putting their citizens first as licensing seems to have some other objectives. Ask citizens, and they’re probably going to just say they want to have choices.

See https://www.techzim.co.zw/2024/04/starlink-in-zimbabwe-techies-find-ways-to-disguise-kits-evading-authorities/
#Blog, #africa, #technology, #zimbabwe

This Asus PC case monitors your dust filter so you don’t have to

Traditionally, one would have to periodically check the status of the dust filtering on a PC case, but that’s not the case (pun intended!) with the Asus ProArt PA602. This chassis has a fancy infrared (IR) sensor behind the front-facing dust filter. Should this detect a set layer of dust covering the filter material, a small LED will illuminate on the side of the case. It’s tastefully done. No alert on an LCD screen, no obnoxious sound. With this activated, you will know to clean the filter (and give the inside a quick air blast) next time the system has been shut down.

Quite a thoughtful case, apart from having the dust filter warning, it also has wheels to move it more easily.

But it does show also, is that even cases can innovate as well. I’d like to see more of these and maybe have the sensors also on the other dust filters (my case has one underneath as well), as IR sensors themselves are not very expensive to incorporate.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/this-asus-pc-case-monitors-your-dust-filter/
#Blog, #cases, #dust, #technology