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The Electric-Shock Edition Friday, January 29, 2016

Apple Recalls Some International Wall Plug Adapters, by Josh Centers, TidBITS

Apple has issued a recall for some two-prong wall plug adapters used in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Continental Europe, Korea, and New Zealand. [...] These adapters shipped from 2003 to 2015 with various Apple devices. The danger is that the prongs may break off and create an electric shock risk.

Important Notice For Certain AC Wall Plug Adapters & World Travel Adapter Kit Customers, by Apple

Apple® today announced a voluntary recall of AC wall plug adapters designed for use in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Continental Europe, New Zealand and South Korea. In very rare cases, affected Apple two-prong wall plug adapters may break and create a risk of electrical shock if touched. These wall plug adapters shipped with Mac® and certain iOS devices between 2003 and 2015 and were also included in the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit. Apple is aware of 12 incidents worldwide.

Erasing, In The World Of SSDs

Erasing A Drive In Mac OS X: Step By Step, by Robin Harris, ZDNet

With Mac OS 10.3 - El Capitan - Apple has removed the Secure Empty Trash function. Why? Because with solid state drives - SSDs - Apple couldn't guarantee that a secure erase would actually erase the data.

Thus when you sell a Mac - almost all of which have had SSDs for the last 4 years - using Secure Empty Trash with an older version of OS X, or trusting Empty Trash to nuke your data is asking for trouble. Follow these instructions and your data will be well and truly vaporized.

Stuff

To Catch Up On The News On Your Apple TV, Just Watchup, by Jeff Byrnes, AppAdvice

While live sports might be the biggest thing many cord cutters look for in the way of content, news probably doesn’t come in too far behind. There are already plenty of apps for the new Apple TV centered around consuming news, but Watchup has joined the ranks aiming to redefine how you watch the news by providing you with a daily newscast of local, national, and international news stories to watch on your own schedule.

5 Apple TV Fitness Apps To Get In Shape On A Budget, by Caitlin McGarry, Macworld

I chose five apps that met at least some of my criteria, the most important being the variety and quality of workout videos at a decent price point. After spending some time with Zova, Beachbody On Demand, Grokker, DailyBurn, and Cody, I realized Apple TV has huge potential for health and fitness apps, though it’s not quite there yet.

Develop

Seven Deadly Annoyances Of API Design, by Chicken Wing Software

Designing an API is an art and a science. Many intelligent people have failed. Those who succeed do so by keeping in view the main goal of an API: to annoy the hell out of developers.

Notes

Apple Merges iTunes Radio Channels Into Apple Music, Beats 1 Now Lone Free-to-stream Service, by Mikey Campbell, AppleInsider

As announced earlier this month, Apple on Friday discontinued free access to ad-supported iTunes Radio channels, folding the content into Apple Music as part of a broader push to grow adoption of its subscription service.

Apple Acquires Education-Tech Startup LearnSprout, by Eric Newcomer and Adam Satariano, Bloomberg

Apple Inc. said it acquired education-technology startup LearnSprout, which creates software for schools and teachers to track students’ performance.

Apple is working on education tools for the iPad, which will allow students to see interactive lessons, track their progress, and share tablet computers with peers. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," said Colin Johnson, a spokesman for Apple.

Why The iPad Is Going Extinct, by Navneet Alang, New Republic

The tablet may not be dead, but the dreams that accompanied its arrival probably are.

The Tower Records Stuck In Time, by S.Mubashir Noor, Medium

Okay, so I’m borderline otaku. Maybe not the I-hate-everyone-but-Miku-chan kind, but I absolutely adore Japanese manga and anime. That said, I never understood why the average Japanese teenager-in-ink is the music technology equivalent of Amish. They’re still swapping CDs in tankōbon-land! What gives?

Bottom of the Page

The problem with the iPad for me personally is that it is hard to figure out how to make better use of the tablet.

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Thanks for reading.