One of the newest features in iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia is iPhone Mirroring, which allows you to connect your iPhone directly to your Mac, giving you complete control of it right from your desktop. Apple debuted the feature at this June's WWDC, but now it's finally here via the second iOS 18 dev beta. Here’s how to try it out.

How to use iPhone Mirroring in iOS 18

Before you can begin using iPhone Mirroring, you need to install at least iOS 18 dev beta 2. Newer versions of the beta will also include the feature, but you’ll need to be running at least beta 2 to get a first look at it. Additionally, you’ll also need to have a Mac running macOS Sequoia dev beta 2 or newer. I recommend installing these betas on backup machines if possible, as using them risks instability and crashes.

Once fall rolls around and both of these operating systems are fully released, everyone will be able to access them without needing a beta.

Follow the instructions here to install the iOS 18 beta. To install the MacOS Sequoia beta, open System Settings on your Mac, then navigate to General > Software Update and click Beta updates. Select the latest macOS Sequoia developer beta. Make sure you back up your Mac first, as betas are known to be buggy, and you may need to revert later on if you find yourself dealing with especially annoying issues.

With the beta installed, you can finally start using iPhone Mirroring. First, find the appropriately named iPhone Mirroring application in the Launchpad menu on your Mac.

Credit: Joshua Hawkins

Alternatively, use the search bar at the top to find it directly. Your Mac may also have it on the dock when you first update to the latest version of macOS Sequoia.

The first time you launch iPhone Mirroring, you’ll need to go through an initial setup process. This process will tell you what you can do when your iPhone is mirrored on your Mac. To connect your iPhone to your Mac, ensure that both your iPhone and your Mac are close to each other, connected to the same Wi-Fi signal, have Bluetooth turned on, and are signed in with the same Apple ID.

You should see a screen that tells you to unlock your iPhone to continue. Type in your iPhone’s passcode on the device, and then click the Get Started button when the screen displays iPhone Mirroring is Ready to Use.

Credit: Joshua Hawkins

If everything is set up correctly, your iPhone should appear in a small window on your Mac’s display. You’ll also get a pop-up asking if you want to authenticate the connection every time you connect or if you want it to authenticate automatically. For the easiest access, choose the latter, but for more security, go ahead and require authentication.

And that’s it. Your iPhone is now connected to your Mac via iPhone Mirroring. Now you can interact directly with your iPhone on your Mac display.

What can you do with iPhone Mirroring?

When you have your iPhone connected via the iPhone Mirroring app, you’ll be able to receive notifications from your iPhone directly on your Mac. You’ll also be able to drag and drop files and other content directly from your iPhone right to your Mac’s desktop and vice versa—although this feature isn’t currently available at the time of this article’s writing.

You can also watch videos from your iPhone directly on your Mac—which might sound silly, but the video and audio quality was actually very impressive when I tested it out.

Overall, iPhone Mirroring gives you a way to control your iPhone without having to physically pick it up—which can be great for quickly responding to messages and other things while typing away on your Mac. It might also be helpful for temporarily getting more precise control over specific apps, like video editors.

There are some limitations, though. You can’t control your iPhone on your Mac with it unlocked. You’ll have to lock it and leave it alone to control it. Additionally, you can’t access your iPhone's camera or microphone when it is connected to your Mac, and there’s currently no way to resize the iPhone Mirroring window, either. You also can’t enter edit mode on the home screen, so you won't be able to customize what your screen looks like from your Mac. Additionally, landscape mode only works with some apps—like YouTube, which automatically switches to landscape when you enter fullscreen mode.

Credit: Joshua Hawkins

But, considering this is our first real world look at iPhone Mirroring, it’s still impressive how well it works. Things were a little laggy for me at times, but that could also come down to the overall connection between my Wi-Fi and Bluetooth—it could also just be beta issues that will be sorted out further down the line.

from LifeHacker https://ift.tt/DAlvt50

The whole point of cloud-based devices like Chromebooks is to give you a window on to the web that's as uncluttered and straightforward to use as possible. That means ChromeOS doesn't come with the masses of software and settings options that you'll find packed into Windows or macOS. However, it still offers a number of settings you can adjust to make it work better for you.

These customizations cover everything from making ChromeOS a little easier on the eyes with themes, to boosting your productivity by putting your most-used apps within easy reach. Spend a little while working on these tweaks, and you'll end up with a Chromebook that feel much more your own.

How to change wallpapers and themes on Chromebook

Wallpaper and screensaver settings. Credit: Lifehacker

Desktop wallpaper is perhaps the most obvious way to customize your computer, and it's not difficult to switch up your backdrop on ChromeOS: Click with two fingers on the touchpad while the cursor is on a blank area of the desktop, then choose Set wallpaper and style from the menu that pops up.

The next screen lets you customize the ChromeOS wallpaper and screensaver in a variety of ways. For the wallpaper, for example, you can pick a new image from your Google Drive or opt for a solid color—and if you're using a Chromebook Plus laptop, you can also use generative AI to create something completely new.

Next, adjust the theme of the Chrome browser in ChromeOS (you can do this in Chrome on Windows and macOS too). Click the three dots in the top right corner of any browser window, then navigate to Settings > Appearance > Themes. These themes change the colors of the Chrome menus, toolbars, tab header bar and more, and you can cycle between them as often as you like.

How to pin your most used apps in ChromeOS

Pinning apps to the shelf. Credit: Lifehacker

Gathering your most-used apps front and center can be hugely useful, saving you a little bit of time every time you access one of them. ChromeOS allows you to accomplish thin using the Pin setting. When you've got an app open on the ChromeOS shelf, click on it using a two-finger press on the touchpad, then choose Pin—that app will henceforth remain available on the shelf, even when it's not open.

You can do something similar with the apps in the app drawer that opens up when you click the circular Launcher button on the far left of the shelf: Click and drag the icons around to change their positions, putting your most-used ones up at the top, perhaps (the apps you've recently used are at the very top by default). You can also create folders by dragging app icons on top of one another.

One other taskbar tweak you might consider is changing where it appears on your screen. Place your cursor over the taskbar and click it with two fingers, then choose Shelf position. This allows you to move the taskbar to the left or right of the screen, rather than having it at the bottom. The Autohide shelf option on the same menu will hide the taskbar, Windows style, when it's not in use.

How to change your touchpad and keyboard settings in ChromeOS

Changing touchpad settings. Credit: Lifehacker

You're spend a lot of time using the touchpad and keyboard while you're operating your Chromebook, so you should customize them to your tastes. Click the time widget down in the bottom right corner, then the gear icon to access Settings and the Device menu, which has entries for the Touchpad and Keyboard.

Under Touchpad you can reverse the scrolling direction—absolutely essential for some, depending on what you're used to—and change the speed of movement registered by the touchpad too. There are also options for changing how a right-click is registered if you find two-finger clicking awkward

Head to the Keyboard menu to find more customization options: You're able to treat the top row of keys as function keys if you'd like, and change the actions that special keys such as Ctrl and Alt help to trigger. The keyboard repeat rate can also be configured from the same screen.

More ChromeOS settings you can adjust

Changing cursor size settings. Credit: Lifehacker

There are various other ways to customize ChromeOS. Click the time widget (bottom right), then the gear icon, then choose Search and Assistant; here it's possible to change your default search engine. Under Security and privacy, meanwhile, you can modify how the lock screen works (your can set Chromebook to automatically lock when the lid is shut, for example).

From the Apps screen, further down in settings, you can opt to have the apps that are open when you close down your Chromebook reappear when you boot it up again. Click Notifications to tailor the alerts that apps and ChromeOS itself are able to show you (and find a full guide to managing notifications on your Chromebook here).

The Accessibility menu has some useful customization options as well. It's possible to change the colors and zoom level used by ChromeOS, bring up an on-screen keyboard, change the size and color of the cursor, and more.

And one final customization worth mentioning: Click Advanced and Date and time from Settings, and you can switch between a 12-hour and 24-hour clock.

from LifeHacker https://ift.tt/Ij2SVWN

Spotify has stealthily launched a new membership plan for its individual users. I say stealthily because despite posting an announcement about it, the company is hardly going out of its way to let current subscribers know about the plan changes—probably because a lot of them would choose to siwtch if they knew they had the option. What's more, new users can't even sign up for the plan; you can only get it by joining and then "downgrading."

The new plan is a spin-off of the service’s Premium Individual membership, and is aptly named “Basic.” It's $1 cheaper than the typical Premium plan, $10.99 versus $11.99. (A dollar a month is not much, I know, but I’ll get to that). While the plan’s name might suggest an offering similar to the “free” version of the music streaming service, which features ads while you listen, Spotify says Basic grants you all the benefits of a standard Premium plan, minus only the option to listen to 15 hours of audiobooks per month.

For most people, losing that privilege honestly makes “downgrading” to the Basic plan worth it, even if only to save $12 a year. Here's why.

Spotify Premium

Free at Google Play

Free at Google Play

Streaming is experiencing price creep across the board

Spotify is just one of many streaming services that has continued to raise prices regularly—with its most recent bump coming earlier this month, when the company increased the cost of Premium from $10.99 to $11.99, and raised the price of Premium Duo and Premium Family. Despite the steady increases, though, Spotify hasn’t really added any new features to Premium in years.

In fact, the company even took a strange backward step with its first hardware release, Car Thing, which was discontinued earlier this year—and even shutting down its functionality, so even people who had bought and paid for it couldn't keep using it (though the company did offer refunds). Given that, the introduction of a cheaper paid plan that won’t necessarily deprive you of any useful features is a nice change of pace in today's increasingly expensive, ad-choked streaming landscape.

Most Spotify users don't listen to audiobooks

Now, you’ll notice I said “useful features.” Spotify made a big deal out of supporting audiobooks when it brought them to its service last year, and while I do love audiobooks—they’re a great way to read when you don’t have the time to sit down with an actual book (or ebook)—Spotify’s inclusion of audiobooks in its service isn’t exactly anything to write home about.

Yes, there are more than 250,000 titles in the catalog, but you’re only granted 15 hours of listening per month. If you listen to books of average length (around 10 hours, depending on the word count of the original work and the reading speed of the narrator), then you’ll be limited to listening to one book per month. If you listen to longer books, though—for the record, a book in the Game of Thrones series can run to as long as 47 hours—you won’t be able to complete the entire thing in a single month, which isn't the best user experience.

Moreover, Spotify's own reports indicate that only 25 percent of Spotify’s subscribers are taking advantage of its audiobook content at all. That means a good chunk of you reading this—myself included—are paying for something you don’t actively use. (Note that it isn't clear if Spotify’s reported figure accounts for active monthly listeners, or just the percentage of users who listened to audiobook content at least once.)

Basic gives you everything Premium, except audiobooks

At $10.99, Spotify’s new Basic plan costs as much as Premium used to, before the price hike earlier this month. That means if you don't mind sacrificing audiobooks (which you probably aren't listening to anyway, based on the numbers), you can effectively bypass the price hike. This also keeps the monthly cost of Spotify on par with Apple Music.

Once Spotify finally starts adding features like lossless audio, the price and feature difference between the plans may expand further. I could see Spotify introducing a completely new pricing tier for lossless audio, for example. But that's all in the hazy future. If you’re an active Spotify subscriber right now and you don’t listen to audiobooks on the platform, you have no reason not to downgrade to Basic—over the course of a year, it's like getting a month of the service for free, and then some.

How to sign up for Spotify Basic

As noted, you can't choose to sign up for Basic directly—it's not even listed on the site's "View all plans" info page. No, you have to either be an existing Premium member, or sign up for Premium and then downgrade your membership.

Once that requirement has been satisfied, to downgrade to the new Basic plan, you'll need to open Spotify on the web, then click on your profile image in the top-right hand corner of the page. Select Account, and then click on the Your Subscription section at the top. Next, click the Change plan button, then select Basic.

You'll need to go through a few confirmation screens—including a few where Spotify will try to sell you on the idea of paying $1 more each month to keep getting 15 hours of audiobook content. Once confirmed, though, your plan will change and you'll be on the cheaper option. 

If you're subscribed on Android, you can make the change directly in the app, but a Spotify rep confirmed to TechRadar that you'll need to use a browser to make the change if you're subscribed on iOS, as Spotify's iOS app doesn't support the option directly in the app.

Additionally, it appears Spotify is also offering new Basic versions of its Duo and Family plans (the Family Basic plan is $16.99 versus the regular $19.99, while pricing for the Duo plan isn't widely available yet). Spotify didn't cover either of those options in its official announcement, nor did it reveal that the feature is also apparently available to U.K. and Australian subscribers, at least according to what the representative told TechRadar.

from LifeHacker https://ift.tt/2PR6BAd

With iOS 18, Apple is adding a number of new customization options for the iPhone's various menus. Along with the Control Center, you will be able to change the shortcuts that appear on the lock screen of your iPhone, meaning you can swap out those camera and flashlight shortcuts to something else.

How to change lock screen shortcuts in iOS 18

To change the shortcuts on your iPhone's lock screen, you need to lock the device and wake its display. Next, hold the screen and hit Customize. Tap Lock Screen and you'll now see the lock screen customization screen. You can tap the minus button next to the two shortcuts near the bottom of the display, and then tap the plus button. 

This will open a pop-up that lets you search for shortcuts to add to your iPhone's lock screen. I've added Recognize Music and Alarm since I use those functions regularly. However, you're free to go through the list and choose whatever works best for you. There are two very useful options—Open App and Shortcuts—that let you place any app or shortcut from your phone directly on the lock screen. 

In case you're unsure about removing the Camera app from the lock screen, you can still access it by swiping left on the lock screen, which tends to be faster than holding the lock screen camera shortcut anyway.

You don't have to use any shortcuts on the lock screen

While it may be tempting to place custom shortcuts on your iPhone's lock screen in iOS 18, you also have the choice to remove the old shortcuts entirely and not replace them. This is great for people who keep accidentally firing up the flashlight, camera, or other actions mapped to the lock screen buttons—or for those who simply like a more minimalist aesthetic.

from LifeHacker https://ift.tt/RK084Lr

The Control Center has been totally revamped in iOS 18. You can now move pretty much every control around, add more controls than ever before, and have access to multiple pages of controls. My only complaint is that it's still a bit too hard to launch Control Center from the top-right corner of the iPhone's display. That gripe aside, it's a great time to start with Control Center customization, and here's how to do it.

Download the iOS 18 beta

At time of writing, iOS 18 isn't generally available. The good news is that there's a free developer beta you can already sign up for. Follow the instructions here to install the iOS 18 beta on your iPhone, but be careful: you're risking instability and bugs by doing so. I suggest using a secondary phone until the official launch, if you can.

How to add controls to the Control Center in iOS 18

Credit: Pranay Parab

Through iOS 17, you had to go through the Control Center page in your iPhone's Settings app to add or remove controls. Things have changed in a big way with iOS 18, and you can now make a lot of tweaks directly in the Control Center. To get started, open the Control Center by swiping downwards from the top-right corner of the screen and hit the + button in the top-left corner. Alternatively, long press on any empty space in the Control Center, then tap the Add a Control button near the base of your iPhone.

You'll now see lots of options and a search bar up top. Go through these shortcuts and add whatever appeals to you. My favorite controls are automation routines from the Shortcuts app and the Vehicle Motion Cues feature.

Removing controls from the Control Center

To clean up the Control Center in iOS 18, open it and hold down any empty space until borders appear around the controls. Now hit the - button next to any control and it'll be gone. It's as simple as that.

Explore other pages in the Control Center

Credit: Pranay Parab

There are now three full pages in iOS 18's Control Center, but don't worry, all of the most useful controls are on the first page. Explore these pages by swiping upwards with the Control Center open.

The second page shows you music playback controls. Instead of swiping vertically, you can also open it by holding the media controls widget in the first Control Center page. You'll need this page to control other speakers connected to your iPhone, such as your HomePod.

Swipe upwards once more in the Control Center to see connectivity options. Alternatively, you can see the same options from the first page of the Control Center. Just hold the connectivity widget and you'll get the same features. This lets you quickly toggle airplane mode, AirDrop, wifi, cellular data, Bluetooth, hotspot settings, and VPNs.

Move controls around to make them easier to access

iOS 18 lets you swap the positions of all controls in the Control Center. This means that previously immovable controls such as connectivity options, media playback, and rotation lock can now be moved. The best thing is that you don't have to place all controls next to each other. I like to leave large gaps in between controls to make them easier to access. 

To do this, open the Control Center in iOS 18 and hold any empty space on the screen. When borders appear on your controls, start dragging any button or widget to any place you like. I've moved connectivity and media options to the bottom of the screen, where they're far easier for me to access. 

Your iPhone has a new shut down button

Credit: Pranay Parab

The days of a complicated shut down ritual are over. iOS 18's Control Center has a power button in the top-right corner. You can tap this button and slide the power off switch on the screen to turn off your iPhone.

Access the Control Center easily

Most of my Control Center changes involve making it more ergonomic. There's no reason to keep reaching for the top-right of the screen to launch the Control Center when a better option is available. Back Tap is that option. It allows me to tap the back of my iPhone to fire up the Control Center. You can set this up by going to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. I've mapped Triple Tap to launch Control Center to avoid accidental activations, but you can use the Double Tap option too.

from LifeHacker https://ift.tt/cuL5amH

As the financial services world becomes increasingly digitized and consumer demands evolve, fraudsters and their methods are becoming more sophisticated. Provenir is helping organizations fight back by detecting these emerging threats via sophisticated decisioning tools and advanced analytics to increase fraud detection while minimizing friction in the customer journey.

Identity theft and synthetic identities continue to be major concerns and will account for roughly half of all financial services fraud cases by 2025. Also, in a global survey of financial services executives, 43% said identifying fraud is a top challenge, yet only 7% report their anti-fraud measures are completely effective. This emphasizes the need for powerful fraud solutions that offer flexibility, putting control in the business user’s hands.

Provenir is on a mission to help businesses navigate this increasingly complex landscape and has collaborate with third-party providers to bring a fraud onboarding solution to market.

Provenir’s AI-Powered Decisioning Platform enables organizations to stay ahead of fraud threats, with readily available data sources that can be easily integrated into decisioning workflows, AI model creation and monitoring, to continuously optimize fraud risk models, with configurable rules to respond quickly when new threats arise.

Selecting, integrating and managing different third-party data sources for effective fraud screening is difficult. The Provenir platform integrates and manages multiple data sources or end point solutions within one platform for fraud decisioning. This extensibility and flexibility enables organizations to create custom strategies integrating the best performing third-party data as fraud risks and behaviors change and new vendors and offerings come to market.

The AI-powered risk decisioning platform connects fraud scores, identity checks and device validation, integrating multiple layers of fraud detection into decisioning workflows to mitigate threats at application screening, including synthetic fraud, impersonation and mule indicators. This also eliminates siloed environments between credit and fraud risk teams, to ensure holistic, end-to-end decisioning with a complete view of customers across the entire lifecycle.

“Fraud prevention is a crucial area of focus for today’s progressive financial institutions,” said Sophia Qureshi, VP of Product Management, Fraud Solutions, Provenir. “This requires an intelligent approach that reduces unnecessary (and unwelcome) friction to the customer journey. This underscores the value of having a single integrated, intelligent decisioning platform that can analyze and manage all fraud and credit risk across the customer lifecycle. This helps balance better, more accurate application fraud detection and prevention with reduced friction across the lifecycle while powering sustainable business growth.”

from Help Net Security https://ift.tt/8Wge1O9

Earlier this year Europcar discovered a hacker selling info on its 50 million customers on the dark web. The European car rental company immediately launched an investigation, only to discover that the data being sold was completely doctored, possibly using generative AI.

Why fake a data breach?

The most obvious reason why hackers are selling fake data is because there is money to be made. When you think of it, it is like a criminal trying to peddle fake jewelry or replica watches. But there are other possible reasons:

Earning notoriety: In March 2024, a Russian hacking group announced it had hacked Epic Games. Epic found zero evidence of this claim. Eventually, hackers announced that they had faked the entire incident because they were trying to gain visibility by targeting a known brand. Reputation is something that is highly valued in hacker communities and therefore it makes sense that some groups resort to such tactics.

Creating distractions: Distraction is a common battlefield tactic – preoccupy your opponent (or target) so you can attack them from another direction. Similarly, attackers can fake a data breach to keep the security team distracted with signs of a breach while adversaries execute a more dangerous attack or infiltration elsewhere. 

Destroying reputation: Cybercriminals can inflict damage to a company’s reputation without having to steal their data. In September 2023, a ransomware group announced it had breached Sony’s environment and acquired its data. Negative publicity followed. Sony eventually concluded that the hacker’s claims were false, however the damage had already been done. 

Manipulating stock prices: For publicly traded companies, the news of a cyber-attack or a data breach can impact market value or stock price by a minimum of three to five percent. Threat actors can announce a fake data breach, which can spark fears, panic and loss of public confidence, causing the stock prices to drop; in this way, cybercriminals can manipulate the market for financial gain.

Uncovering security processes and setup: Just like you need bait to hook a fish, cybercriminals can use the pretext of a data breach to understand a company’s security setup, its security capabilities, processes, and threat response time. Attackers can use this knowledge to fine-tune their attack strategy, launching a more severe and pinpointed attack. 

How do threat actors generate fake data?

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can be easily used to generate fake data complete with realistic data sets that include email formats from a real company along with local telephone numbers, and more. A smart hacker will go to the extra length of researching previous breaches or using an existing data model to reproduce another data set.

In addition, there are multiple resources online that can generate large amounts of data sets for testing purposes.

What can organizations do to tackle the threat of fake data breaches?

Below are recommendations that can help organizations mitigate the threat of fake breaches:

Proactively monitor the dark web: Have your security team or expert partner proactively monitor the dark web for signs of a breach, such as an attacker selling your data. Investigate those claims immediately.

Analyze previously leaked datasets: Recycling previously stolen data is a common ploy among scammers. When you encounter a leaked data set, compare it with old breach data (from websites like haveIbeenpwned.com) to assess whether the data is recycled or not. 

Prepare your workforce: Raise awareness among staff members around fake data breaches and explain what they should or should not be doing if they encounter news of a potential breach.

Keep communication teams on standby: As part of your incident response plan, ensure that marketing and public relations are trained and ready to address any negative word of mouth that may arise from news of a breach, whether real or fraudulent.

Deploy canary tokens: In a network, a canary token is a type of digital identifier that acts to detect unauthorized access, data breaches and intrusions. In case a hacker announces a data breach, security teams can leverage canary tokens to determine the authenticity and integrity of the alleged theft.

Utilize integrated security: Given that 47% of breaches originate in the cloud, it’s advisable that organizations adopt a converged security model like Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) that detects and blocks breaches as they happen, correlating events across their network. This approach improves visibility into security incidents, discerning genuine threats from false alarms.

from Help Net Security https://ift.tt/KYhoqAf