Newsletter Archives

• Look who’s stalking: Protect yourself from Apple AirTags

  Posted on January 10, 2022 at 02:44 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Ever since Apple started selling $29 tracking devices called AirTags last April, criminal types have used them to tail people, pinpoint and heist their cars, and worse — but warnings of planted devices were made available only to iPhone owners. Now, people who have more common phones can find out whether they’re being tracked, too.

  The AirTag is a small, plastic-encased device that’s approximately the size of three or four dollar coins stacked on top of each other. It competes with such trackers as the Bluetooth-based Tile Pro and the GPS-based Verizon Hum^x. But most Bluetooth devices connect only to phones within 50 meters or so, and GPS trackers require you to pay monthly fees.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.02.0 (2022-01-10).

  Public Defender AirTags, Apple, Crime, Newsletters, Privacy, Public Defender

• A $1,000 hot technology? It’s quite a steal.

  Posted on March 15, 2021 at 01:02 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  Every technology has unintended consequences, but this is ridiculous.

  Essential elements in the devices we use every day — lithium, platinum, palladium, rhodium, basic semiconductors — are soaring in price as demand outstrips the facilities we humans have built to extract and produce them.

  It’s gotten so bad that common street thieves are stripping tech parts from autos and trucks simply to fence the “hot” components, which are literally worth more than their weight in gold.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.10.0 (2021-03-15).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Crime, Precious metals, Recycling