Having a multi-platform messaging app like Beeper is wonderful. But it’s main failing is sharing. Randomly doesn’t appear in the share sheet on iOS, doesn’t show in quick contacts, and little things like sharing a Wordle score fails often. Enough to prevent me from recommending it.

I cannot begin to tell you how much “LiveJournal Reuters” delights me. All thanks to Arc’s Boost feature.

Interesting new tech from Leica of all companies! Their latest M11 variant adds in dedicated hardware to produce authenticity certificates for images. The Verge’s Antonio G. Di Benedetto does a good job breaking down what the announcement means in practice.

When activated, the M11-P will embed an encrypted signature into the DNG raw and JPG files containing the artist’s name, the camera make and model, and the photo EXIF data.

He rightly wonders if this tech will come to other camera makers. One item not considered, Leica has its L2 partnership with Panasonic, so I would expect this tech comes from them and will make it’s way to new Panasonic mirrorless bodies with their next refresh.

Of course, this only means something if these certificates are actually effective in an age of mass produced imagery from LLMs. Given how easy it is to remove watermarks from AI-generated images, these types of certificates for captured images might be a good alternative.

Do not name something you want to be successful Pebble.

• Pebble (watch)
• Pebble (social network)
• Pebble (ghost town)

I love the passive-aggressive move of referring to something as “laudable.” Like I could totally just praise this thing, but instead I’m just going to point it out. Just some lovely repression to the whole thing.

For Cyber Security Headlines’ Week in Review show, I’ve been using a prompter and my Fuji X-T30. It’s a super kludgey solution. The camera AF stops tracking in webcam mode. It requires a Fuji plugin, and is inconsistentstent in connecting. I’d use my iPhone with continuity camera, but the lens is too wide and gets the proper in the shot.

So I want to get a mirrorless camera that’s UVC/UAC compliant for an easier connection. The natural upgrade would be the X-S20, but I’m open to changing systems. But I can’t find a list that shows all compatible cameras. The feature is usually buried in product specs, so it’s been a pain to confirm.

In the analog photography world, there’s been a growing rumor mill around efforts by Cinestill to enforce it’s trademarks for its 800T film. If this is a totally foreign world to you, essentially Cinestill made a name for itself selling Kodak cinema film in still photography formats. Anyone could spool Kodak film into canisters before, but Cinestill differentiated with a process to remove a backing that otherwise prevents it from being developed in typical color chemistry.

All the discourse around this fundamentally misunderstood what a trademark is and what legal recourse CInestill could do with it. Luckily Jeremy Gray of PetaPixel actually did reporting on this. He looked into claims from the company CatLABS, got comment from Cinestill and people supposedly impacted by their actions, and provided context for how trademarks actually work (he spoke to lawyers)! It provides level headed stuff like this:

However, the very fact that the trademark application was originally rejected and then approved following additional explanation does not serve to undercut the legitimacy of the trademark itself. No trademark is inherently less legitimate just because it required the filer to provide additional explanation in order to be granted the trademark.

This probably won’t stop people from being mad at Cinestill. I’m fine with people voting with the dollar. But I’m grateful to still get quality reporting in a field as niche as film photography. It can be very insular and lead to a mob mentality on forums with very little regard to facts.

For the CISO Series, I get to brainstorm ideas for podcast titles. I was told by David Spark in no uncertain terms these titles will never be used. I share them here because I love them so.

Schroedinger’s Cryptography Horse Barn

Will Post-Quantum Cryptography Leave Cybersecurity in a Superposition?

Upgraded to macOS Sonoma and my machine didn’t launch Magnet on reboot. Made me realize how unfriendly macOS window management is by default, especially on multiple monitors.

I’ve said I’m a single-issue phone buyer and the new Pixel’s are now viable. Seven years of updates, not just security updates, may surpass Apple’s iPhone commitments. I really hope this keeps pushing the rest of the Android ecosystem. My kid will be a teenager when this is out of support. GULP.

Driver exploits like this make me hesitant to move back to Android. Given, this seems like a very limited exploit. But this is a situation where researchers know a flaw is being exploited. They released a patch before going public with it. But as a users, I have no way to apply it until it goes through an OEM. Pixel devices and Chromebooks are already patched, but lots of popular phones from big OEMs are still waiting:

Devices believed to use the affected chips include the Google Pixel 7, Samsung S20 and S21, Motorola Edge 40, OnePlus Nord 2, Asus ROG Phone 6, Redmi Note 11, 12, Honor 70 Pro, RealMe GT, Xiaomi 12 Pro, Oppo Find X5 Pro, and Reno 8 Pro and some phones from Mediatek.

Again, I’m not saying it is a trivial process to apply these driver updates. But as a consumer, I don’t care, I want my device to get the latest security updates. The current Android ecosystem is getting better at shortening this window, but there’s still a big gap.

I subscribed to get the Sunday NYT at home because I’m becoming an old man and the Plain Dealer is just the sports page and the penny saver ads anymore. It’s a pleasant anachronism.

My son discovered the movie Cars which means I am now listening to non-zero amounts of Rascal Flatts.

There’s a new Raspberry Pi out! And it finally adds PCIExpress connectivity, the biggest bottleneck of all the old boards. This will give it much better I/O for storage and Ethernet. It has a more powerful processor and it can do more things, yay! What’s not to like?

Well it now starts at $60, which goes up to $80 for an 8GB version. It’s only a $5 increase from the RPI4, but something about that crosses a threshold. The Raspberry Pi was an awesome device because its cost was almost incidental. You could get a board for a project or a mini PC for peanuts.

Plus if you want to use that new I/O, add an M2 drive, you need an add-on board at extra expense. Also hearing that the RPi5 gets noticeably warm in casual use. Again, a case or heat sink can be had for $5, but it’s another expense.

Now the “affordability” of the Rapsberry Pi line has been an academic point for the last few years. Supply chain woes left them almost always out of stock, with resellers charging a high markup. Luckily this should be resolved with a partnership announced with Sony this summer.

I’m torn on the RPi5. As an upgrade, it offers a wishlist of improvements. It’s not just a spec bump, the I/O additions change what you can do with it. And I didn’t even mention multi 4K display support! But it seems further away from the Pi’s original appeal of a dirt cheap SoC that can decode HD video. I’ll probably still get one.

I am a YouTube Music subscriber and generally like the service. However searching for YouTube Music is unconfusing to exactly no one.

This visualization on the increase in Kia-Hyundai thefts is insane. Good roundup by Motherboard on this.

This is odd phrasing from Logitech:

2023 has been an exciting year for Logitech. Following its acquisition of the popular audio equipment brand Blue Microphones, Logitech is rolling out several new products in the Logitech G line of gaming devices.

“Following its acquisition…” It acquired Blue Microphone in 2018. You didn’t acquire it this year, you phased out a brand.

For all the fun to be had poking fun at Apple calling a phone Pro, the iPhone 15 Pro does let you record ProRes video to an external SSD, something you only find on prosumer cameras. It’s incredibly niche, but actually is a pro feature.

How useful is it given the sensor size? ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Well due to my healthcare provider using the MoveIT MFT, both my kids have now had data leaked. So at age 5 and 6 they’ve had SSN, DoB, and medical conditions exposed. Good thing they get (checks notes) two years of credit monitoring.

I’m sorry T2, there can only be one Pebble in my heart.

iPhone 15 Pro or a Honda Motocompacto e-scooter for a cool grand? I know I’m going cool mod scooter.

So in 10 minutes, I read two amazing things. From this Guardian piece on X potentially violating its consent decree with the FTC:

The DoJ filing also counters X Corp’s argument that Musk should not have to testify about its [data privacy] compliance with the order. The DoJ argues that Musk has “unique, firsthand” knowledge about the company’s data practices.

Compared to this excerpt from the upcoming Is Walter Isaacson bio (from Tech Dirt):

The servers had user data on them, and James did not initially realize that, for privacy reasons, they were supposed to be wiped clean before being moved. “By the time we learned this, the servers had already been unplugged and rolled out, so there was no way we would roll them back, plug them in, and then wipe them,” he says. Plus, the wiping software wasn’t working. “F—, what do we do?” he asked. Elon recommended that they lock the trucks and track them.

So James sent someone to Home Depot to buy big padlocks, and they sent the combination codes on a spreadsheet to Portland so the trucks could be opened there. “I can’t believe it worked,” James says. “They all made it to Portland safely.”

Physically ripping out servers yourself without doing any due diligence that they might contain personal data and then suggesting that sticking AirTags and consumer locks on them as adequate…. seems like there may be some cause to testify.

The Surface Duo was an experimental form factor and I appreciate Microsoft taking a swing at it. But ending software support (including security updates) this soon after launch is just another reason why I’m a single-issue phone buyer.

Going live at 3:30pm ET with VillageMD CISO Dan Walsh for the Cyber Security Headlines Week in Review! Going to be talking about the details of Microsoft’s MSA key leak, Mudge working for the feds, how the LastPass breach got worse.

Polaroid just announced the I-2, a high-end instant camera like they haven’t made since the venerable SX-70 or SLR 680. Lomography has done this with Instax instant cameras for a while, but basically your options for Polaroid film were to buy a 40-50 year old camera and hope for the best. Might by most excited for external flash syncing. One thing that’s weird, Polaroid says the lens is sharp, but seems to go out of its way to not say if its glass or plastic. I imagine if it was glass, they’d crow about it.

But this seems to be another example of companies realizing that the camera supply might be something there is economic incentive to address. For years, it was hard to invest the R&D into building a camera for a very limited market, given that the cheaper used cameras available are often more technically advanced and reliable. But we’re hearing that Pentax and MiNT are designing new 35mm film cameras. So clearly they see a tipping point as a market opportunity.

This also comes as we’re starting to see the supply chain crisis subside for actual film production. Kodak stock actually seems somewhat reflective of demand as of late, with some actual price cuts coming after years of not insignificant increases.

But Polaroid, a company sometimes chided for being too much of a brand and less of a “serious film company,” is actually making a high end camera. What a time to be shooting film!