With the threat of $3 a gallon gas now a very real possibility, consumers may be reevaluating their laissez-faire attitude toward ransomware attacks.

It’s about time.

For those blissfully unaware of ransomware, it’s when hackers infiltrate your systems, encrypt your data, and then hold it for a ransom that can run well into the thousands of dollars (or more). It’s happened to small businesses, school districts, hospitals, governments, and more recently, perhaps realizing our greatest cybersecurity fear, infrastructure.

The sophisticated attack by the DarkSide group on Colonial Pipeline that delivers gasoline up and down the East Coast is not the…

The trouble started last year shortly after Apple launched watchOS 7 (along with the new Apple Watch Series 6 and Watch SE). My wife’s Apple Watch Series 3 ($199 GPS model), which I bought for her almost two years ago, did not like the update at all.

It should have. WatchOS 7 is compatible with all Apple Watches back to version 3, but it turns out it’s compatible in the figurative sense: Apple Watch Series 3 can run watchOS 7 but getting it on the wearable is like trying to stuff 16 clowns into an eight-clown car.

The issue boils…

Former President Donald Trump is, as of this moment, still banned from Facebook, but before you cheer or deride the decision, know this: The Reckoning is just beginning.

The Oversight Board agreed with Facebook’s initial actions: kicking Trump off its platforms (Facebook and Instagram) as the Capitol riots unfolded and then extended it indefinitely the next day. However, the board, which operates independently of Facebook, also called out the social media giant for seeking to avoid its responsibilities. Facebook tried punting on the long-term decision to permanently ban the ex-president.

Now, however, the ball is back in Facebook’s court. Will…

Apple’s 13-year-old App Store (and its slightly younger in-app purchases and commission system) is facing its biggest test, not with consumers but in a trial that kicked off Monday in Oakland, California.

At stake is the 30% revenue cut Apple takes on every app and in-app purchase. Fortnite maker Epic didn’t like it and, last summer, it launched a carefully calibrated campaign (breaking Apple’s rules on direct purchases, teasing Apple about it in a “1984-style” ad, and suing them) to upend it and bring the entire issue to court.

I couldn’t be there (nor could most of the witnesses who…

“I called you, but I guess you didn’t hear it,” said my mother.

“This line?” I said, popping my AirPods Pros in my ears.

“No,” she said, sounding a bit concerned (or annoyed).

“Oh, you called the house phone.”

That’s when I realized my landline was unplugged. It wasn’t broken. I’d done this on purpose.

Let’s go back two weeks ago.

My home phone rang, and even though I suspected it was a spam or robocall, I glanced at the caller ID. …

How odd, an Apple device without a single moving part, button, display, or touch-sensitive part. Apple’s new AirTag item tracker is a tab that is, aside from a startling ability to produce sounds without a speaker grill, essentially inert.

It’s not dead though. Inside is a little circuitry, Bluetooth, ultra-wideband (UWB), sensors, and a watch battery all working together to look after your stuff. Actually, it’s more accurate to say AirTag keeps a watchful eye on momma iPhone, bleating like a lost lamb if the device (and its owner) strays too far, for too long.

Apple’s AirTags ($29.00 for one…

There’s a new privacy sheriff in town. His name is ATT and he rode in Monday on a horse named iOS 14.5. He likes apps just fine but not ones that pick your pockets for bits and pieces of data debris that he can share with his posse.

I don’t think it’s stretching the analogy too far to say that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy for app developers is one of the most talked-about and potentially feared updates since Wyatt Earp strolled into Tombstone.

Now that it’s here, though, I’m astounded at all the misinformation and confusion surrounding this…

Poor Artificial Intelligence, technology’s scapegoat.

It’s played the villain in innumerable films and is the boogeyman waiting to pluck your face from a crowd, take your job, put your face on someone else’s body, and carelessly launch a nuclear strike.

These concerns are so concrete that A.I. regulation is now racing far ahead of more general, and possibly more necessary, tech industry regulation (data, competition, content control, and moderation).

Earlier this week, the European Union dropped a 108-page A.I. policy document proposing sweeping A.I. regulations that attempt to touch on virtually every aspect of A.I. development. As senior analyst, A.I…