Newsletter Archives

• Revolutionary battery tech changes the way we charge

  Posted on August 2nd, 2021 at 02:43 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The dream of renewable-energy advocates everywhere may finally have been realized. The goal is a battery technology that stores solar and wind energy and releases it for days on end. Now, a new tech allows companies to meet demand at peak times with no need to fire up any spare fossil-fuel generators.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.29.0 (2021-08-02).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Batteries, Public Defender

• What’s up with Firefox 90? Should you go back to version 88?

  Posted on July 26th, 2021 at 02:42 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  In rapid succession, the Mozilla Foundation recently released versions 89 and 90 of its Firefox browser. Cries of pain immediately arose from users seeking a way to roll back to Firefox 88.

  What’s the problem?

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.28.0 (2021-07-26).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, browsers, Firefox, Public Defender

• How to tell whether a fintech app such as Chime is a scam

  Posted on July 19th, 2021 at 02:44 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  We’ve recently seen an explosion of activity in the field of fintech — financial technology — which is causing ripples in the old-school world of banking and Wall Street.

  The most-downloaded fintech app in the first six months of 2021, according to data firm Apptopia, belonged to Chime Financial, Inc., a seven-year-old, San Francisco–based unicorn that’s a darling of Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.27.0 (2021-07-19).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Banking, Fintech, security

• Microsoft Edge imports other browsers’ passwords

  Posted on July 12th, 2021 at 02:45 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ISSUE 18.26 • 2021-07-12

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  When some readers installed the new Microsoft Edge browser — which replaces the old “legacy Edge” — they got a big surprise. They discovered that Edge had somehow magically absorbed all the usernames and passwords they’d carefully saved in their previously installed browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and legacy Edge.

  What’s even more surprising is that Edge — which until recently couldn’t import or export passwords at all — may be doing this new behavior by design.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.26.0 (2021-07-12).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.26.F (2021-07-12).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Edge, privacy, security

• Have a smart home? A company may change your thermostat.

  Posted on June 28th, 2021 at 02:43 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

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  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  You may be surprised to learn that installing “smart home” devices could mean that a private company can turn your thermostat up and down — no matter what setting you thought you had entered.

  As parts of the US swelter in a heat wave — Houston hit a blistering 95°F (35°C) on June 19 — area residents reported to local station KHOU-TV that energy companies had remotely raised their thermostats from 74°F to 78°F without their knowledge.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.24.0 (2021-06-28).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Electricity, Public Defender, Public Utilities, Smart home

• Anom: A $2,000 smartphone that let the FBI listen in

  Posted on June 21st, 2021 at 02:45 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ISSUE 18.23 • 2021-06-21

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Special smartphones that were supposedly the most super-secretive in the world actually resulted in at least 800 arrests, the seizure of eight tons of cocaine, and the recovery of $48 million in currency from organized-crime gangs on June 6 and 7.

  The FBI, Europol, Australian Federal Police, and the law-enforcement agencies of several other countries announced on June 8 that they had quietly intercepted 27 million messages from what’s being called “WhatsApp for criminals.”

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.23.0 (2021-06-21).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.23.F (2021-06-21).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, privacy, smartphones

• Amazon quietly halts arbitrations — consumers can now sue

  Posted on June 14th, 2021 at 02:43 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  With no announcement, Amazon.com has changed its terms of service, which previously compelled aggrieved consumers to submit their claims to mandatory arbitration. But last month, the retail giant eliminated arbitration as a requirement and now allows customers to join in class-action lawsuits.

  This may make a big difference for you — and for anyone who’s ever used any of Amazon’s products and services — because you may someday be eligible for large, court-ordered refunds.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.22.0 (2021-06-14).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender Amazon, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender

• Buying crypto? Watch out for these 100 problems

  Posted on June 7th, 2021 at 02:45 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ISSUE 18.21 • 2021-06-07

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  People in the tech industry tend to find cryptocurrency very attractive as a concept. After all, crypto coins are totally digital — there are no paper bills or metallic coins to handle — and you can transfer these “digicoins” to anyone in the world, instantly (in theory).

  The reality is that digital money is prey to all kinds of hacks and cons. Many people have lost their life savings because they converted their hard currency into crypto and got hacked. Bad actors used one security flaw or another to transfer the victims’ funds to themselves.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.21.0 (2021-06-07).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.21.F (2021-06-07).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Cryptocurrency, Public Defender

• Don’t click those pop-ups that say you’ve been infected!

  Posted on May 31st, 2021 at 01:03 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  It’s been said before, but it bears repeating — when you see a pop-up window on your desktop, laptop, or smartphone screen that says you’ve been infected with a virus and must act immediately, don’t click it!

  These frightening warnings are invariably “bad ads” that use advertising networks to insert these pop-ups into websites and phone networks. Their goal is to get you to click a link and download malware, whether it’s a fake “antivirus program,” a malicious “virtual private network,” or some other backdoor into your personal life.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.20.0 (2021-05-31).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, phishing, Public Defender, security

• Amazon is turning Echo and Ring into transmitters on June 8

  Posted on May 24th, 2021 at 01:02 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  You may not have been expecting this, but those nice little Echo speakers you bought to play music — as well as your Ring Cams, Video Doorbell Pros, Level door locks, etc. — will begin talking on June 8 to a gaggle of gadgets that may be up to a mile from your home or office.

  These always-on communications will not use Wi-Fi, although your speakers, security cameras, and so forth probably already connect with your Wi-Fi router. Instead, Amazon has built a new capability into devices that the corporation may have sold to you as long ago as 2018.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.19.0 (2021-05-24).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender Amazon, Amazon Echo, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LoRa, Public Defender, Ring

• Should you give Microsoft all of your passwords?

  Posted on May 17th, 2021 at 01:01 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  A new feature of Microsoft’s Edge browser is causing our readers to ask, “Is this MS initiative going to place our account info at risk?” Should Web users allow their browsers to store usernames and passwords for sites they must sign in to?

  You’re not going to like the answer, but it’s: Yes and No.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.18.0 (2021-05-17).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft, passwords, Public Defender

• Buy the drives you need before ‘chia’ gets them all

  Posted on May 10th, 2021 at 01:06 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Prices of high-capacity solid-state drives (SSDs) have almost doubled at the producer level just in the past few weeks — and shortages are already affecting us. The cause is a new kind of cryptocurrency that demands vast amounts of disk space around the world for its financial network to function.

  The new digital coins, which began trading only a week ago, bear the odd moniker of “chia.”

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.17.0 (2021-05-10).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Cryptocurrency, hard drives, Public Defender, SSDs
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