Rick's Daily Tips

Why I believe Apple should help the FBI break into Syed Farook’s iPhone

Posted on February 26, 2016

apple-logo2 As you probably know, Apple and the FBI are currently waging a war of wills over whether Apple should assist the FBI in breaking into dead terrorist Syed Farook’s employer-issued iPhone.

In a nutshell, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook is fighting a court order demanding that the company work with the FBI to retrieve the data from the phone.

Cook says he believes that creating a “back door” into the phone’s encrypted storage area will make all iOS devices vulnerable to hacking, putting their users at risk of losing their privacy. In my opinion, that’s a dubious claim at best. [Read more…]

Facebook adds 5 new ‘Reaction’ buttons to the ‘Like’ button

Posted on February 24, 2016

As you probably know, Facebook users have been asking the company to add a “Dislike” button for years.

Well, the folks at Facebook finally got around to supplying one. Actually, they went even further than that by adding five additional “Reaction” buttons: [Read more…]

Apple apologizes for intentionally bricking customers’ iPhones (and releases a fix)

Posted on February 23, 2016

iphone-6-plus A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post explaining how you could brick your iPhone 6 by having it repaired by anyone other than Apple’s own techs.

To recap, Apple recently released an update to iOS that caused any iPhone 6 that was repaired by a third-party repair shop to freeze up and display a permanent “Error 53” the next time it was booted up.

Apple’s response to the thousands of customers who asked the company to fix the error was, in effect, “Sorry, but you’ll have to buy a new phone”. [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I remove old Wi-Fi networks from my laptop in Windows 10?

Posted on February 19, 2016

Question from Cindy P.: I love your blog Rick, and I really appreciate all the great info you provide.

I’ve been following RicksDailyTips for a long time, and now I have question for you.

My company is expanding rapidly and I’ve spent the last 5 months travelling from city to city helping train all the new hires in our stores.

My laptop now has a long list of Wi-Fi networks from the hotels I’ve been staying in. I know I’ll never be staying in most of those hotels again so I’d like to remove those wireless networks.

Can you tell me how to do that? My laptop is a Dell and it’s running Windows 10.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

ATTN MacBook Owners: Apple might have just recalled your USB-C Charge Cable

Posted on February 16, 2016

macbook Did you purchase a MacBook with an included USB-C type charge cable prior to July 2015? If so, your charge cable might have just been recalled.

According to Apple, some of the USB-C charge cables that were shipped with MacBooks through June of last year have a design flaw that prevents them from reliably charging any attached devices.

They also say that some cables that were purchased as stand-alone accessories are also included in the recall.

If you have a MacBook that was shipped with a defective USB-C charge cable, how you can request/receive your free replacement cable will depend on a couple of factors: [Read more…]