PC Magazine October 2022

In psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, “safety”—personal security, employment, resources, health, and property—is just one tier up from the most basic pillar of “physiological needs.” According to his theory, that means once food, water, shelter, and so on are taken care of, safety is the next most important need, without which you can’t climb further up to more sophisticated things like self-actualization. Maslow created his pyramid of needs long before the days of personal computing, but I’d argue that cybersecurity belongs somewhere on the safety tier now. Online scams and dangers are nothing new. But they are constantly evolving and becoming harder to identify and defeat—the better to take in victims and steal our personal data, identity, and money, not to mention our dignity and, yes, our overall sense…

IROBOT AND ITS ROOMBAS COULD GIVE AMAZON A WINDOW INTO YOUR HOME This is all very new stuff and growing pains are inevitable. What we need to do is come to terms with new tech’s ability to “know us.” It has to [know us], to serve us, but [tech’s knowledge of us] can also be used for any number of things we would rather wasn’t used for. We need to identify those things and pass legislation to forbid it being used as such. Of course, that would require elected officials representing the will and needs of their constituents over those of special interests in whose back pockets these politicians reside.—Moresuo This is the stuff from The Jetsons that we wanted years ago. Now that we’re getting some of it, people are complaining.…

Craigslist emerged in 1995 to connect strangers through a free, web-based platform that has endured as rival services including Zillow, Facebook Marketplace, and countless dating apps emerged with advanced features and slick interfaces. These platforms survive on advertising and subscription revenue. Craigslist, of course, has none of that. Over the years, the OG online marketplace has all but refused to modernize; its mobile app came out in 2019, only after nearly 25 years in business. Why does the website still look the same after so many decades? That was the main question I had when I sat down for a video call with craigslist founder Craig Newmark, who joined me from the New York City apartment he shares with his wife, Eileen Whelpley. Newmark stepped down as CEO of craigslist in 2000 after…

Darren Clark lives in Michigan, where he used to receive dismal internet speeds ranging from 2.5Mbps to 3.5Mbps. The DSL internet was so bad that he’d have to drive his family elsewhere to find faster broadband and finish software and game downloads. “Many times, we ended up going to McDonald’s or out to the local Meijer grocery store for internet access,” he told PCMag. But in recent days, Clark’s home internet is getting speeds between 10Mbps and 100Mbps. The reason? He’s among the first people to try out Starlink’s Best Effort tier, the latest offering from SpaceX’s satellite internet service. “I have to say, Starlink Best Effort is a lifesaver for me and my family,” he said. “My kids are amazed that a 1GB download can finish in a couple of minutes instead…

No notch; a 48MP camera; an autofocus selfie cam. These were all Apple iPhone 14 rumors that turned out to be true, with Apple’s latest phones adopting some new features that were first reported as far back as 2021. PCMag had a wish list for the iPhone 14 based on potential additions, but like every year, Apple didn’t include every rumored feature in its new hardware. Here’s what we’d still like to see in the future. USB-C This potential change was a tossup. The consumer electronics industry has long chided Apple for sticking with its proprietary Lightning port for a full decade while (practically) everything else moved on to USB-C. There was some talk that the iPhone 14 might be the first to adopt the universal port for charging and data transfer, but it…

Like many internet users, I love schadenfreude. And few things have given me more pleasure to read than August’s Twitter whistleblower story. It’s a veritable feast of terrible things. The company allegedly has half its 500,000 server fleet running an insecure operating system that’s no longer supported by vendors. And the site has allegedly experienced one security incident per week. Delicious! As thrilling as that is, there are other parts of the story that are a lot less entertaining. An internal report says in no uncertain terms that Twitter is completely unequipped to cope with misinformation and disinformation on its platform. That’s more than a little worrying, especially with the US midterm elections coming up. (In the company’s defense, Twitter says it’s working hard in advance of the midterms, which is good…