Glenn Fleishman
TidBITS
Seattle, WA, United States
Contact Glenn
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
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Past articles by Glenn:
Mastodon: A New Hope for Social Networking
With centralized, ad-driven social networks in disarray and suffering from misinformation, harassment, and declining users, can the long-simmering Mastodon microblogging system offer a distributed future for conversation and community? → Read More
Is Your Future Distributed? Welcome to the Fediverse!
A growing set of services let users on independently operated servers interlink with standard, open-source protocols for microblogging, photo sharing, and dozens of other purposes. Could the Fediverse be a solution to the ugliness of commercial service algorithms designed to drive outrage and titillation? → Read More
Austere VII Series Power 4-Outlet review: Compact surge protection
This multi-outlet surge protector focuses on noise reduction and clamping down on surges. → Read More
Bring Yourself Recurring Joy with Apple’s New Lock Screen Photo Shuffle
Technology has a hard time delivering happiness. Apple has cracked the code with how it uses machine learning to populate the Lock Screen Photo Shuffle feature and Featured Photos widget with images you’ll like. → Read More
Mac 911
Glenn Fleishman answers your most common Mac questions and offers useful troubleshooting tips and tricks in Macworld's Mac 911 blog. → Read More
An Apple a Day: iOS 16 Medications Feature Provides Alerts, Logging, and Peace of Mind
Apple quietly added a Medications section to the Health app in iOS 16 that lets you list all your medications, remind you when to take them, and log when you do. → Read More
USB Simplifies Branding but Reintroduces Active Cables
The group that creates USB standards listened to feedback and has released a reduced set of logos that make it easier to figure out the capabilities of your ports, peripherals, and cables. But changes to USB4 also mean the return of active cables to provide maximum throughput for a new 80 Gbps data rate over distances beyond 0.8 meters. → Read More
eSIM and the iPhone 14: Everything you need to know
An eSIM identifies your phone to a carrier without the fuss of swapping in a physical identity module. → Read More
Tune Find My for Travel Tracking to Avoid Annoying AirTag and Apple Device Alerts
Apple’s AirTag and other Find My trackers—along with Find My-tracked Apple devices—may be too aggressive about telling you where they are—or aren’t. They can be useful for tracking luggage and other valuables while traveling, particularly with others, but you will likely need to tune your settings to reduce notifications. → Read More
IOGear GBB1000N UPS review: The high price is mostly justified
If you have fragile equipment that needs perfectly tuned electricity and can’t suffer a power loss, this UPS could be the right fit. But it will be overkill for many. → Read More
Apple Adds Lockdown Mode to Protect Activists and Government Targets
Apple announced it will add an enhanced security mode to this year’s planned operating system updates to deter government-level spyware. → Read More
Apple Brings Mail Merge Back to Pages
Years after removing the feature in a major rewrite, Apple has returned mail merge to Pages so you can use data from Contacts or a spreadsheet to customize letters, envelopes, or cards. → Read More
Why Passkeys Will Be Simpler and More Secure Than Passwords
Passkeys are a new way to log into websites and apps that replaces passwords. The industry-standard passkey technology is simpler and more secure than passwords (even with two-factor authentication), resists phishing, and is built to be compatible across browsers and platforms. → Read More
Understand Cryptocurrency, but Don’t Invest in It
Cryptocurrency is volatile, expensive to trade, illiquid, and rife with scams and account hijacking. Yet it contains kernels of technology and principles that likely will dominate financial markets in the future. → Read More
Audio Hijack 4 Brings Interface Improvements and Recording Upgrades
The latest version of Rogue Amoeba’s Mac app for grabbing, mixing, and manipulating audio from apps and sound inputs makes it easier to design and improve workflows. It also offers new and improved audio recording and processing features. → Read More
Clocker review: Get easy access to time zone info on your Mac
This menu bar app could be vital to those who work routinely with people across multiple time zones. → Read More
Firewalla Gold review: Powerful home network security in a tiny box
The Firewalla Gold router allows easily configurable and powerful control over a home network, from resisting attacks to identifying internal device threats to blocking ads and adult sites. → Read More
Never Change Your Password
Many websites advise you to change your password routinely. That advice is nearly universally wrong: you should only update a password when there’s a weakness. Why does it persist? → Read More
Enbrighten Smart Surge Protector review: This low-cost surge protector with smart outlets fails in nearly every way
Smart outlets, regular outlets, two power switches, and surge protection in one device to no good end. → Read More
Roku Express 4K+ Provides an Affordable Alternative to the Apple TV
The compact, inexpensive Roku Express 4K+ could give you everything you want from a streaming media player for your TV, including AirPlay 2 support. It’s a fraction the cost of an Apple TV 4K and nearly as well designed. → Read More