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It’s time to talk about the B-word again! Jeff couldn’t trick Kirk into saying “bokeh,” but this week we’re looking at a few ways to get background blur using Portrait mode in the iPhone and editing in Lightroom. Technology has improved quite a lot in the last couple of years, to the point where simulated bokeh can sometimes pass off as natural lens blur.

Find out more, and subscribe to the podcast, at the PhotoActive website. You can follow The PhotoActive on Twitter at @PhotoActiveCast to keep up to date with new episodes, and join our Facebook group to chat with other listeners and participate in photo challenges and more.

The Chrome browser just got another update with security patches for serious vulnerabilities. A new Bluetooth vulnerability has been discovered that could allow hackers to listen in on your personal audio. And how much personal information are you actually transmitting when you share your contact info using Apple’s Name Drop feature?

Follow the The Intego Mac Podcast, which I co-host with Josh Long. We talk about Macs and iOS devices, and how to keep them secure.

RCS, the messaging protocol used by Android, is coming to the Apple iPhone. How will it affect your messaging habits? The Nothing phone we talked about last week has failed miserably. And alarmingly. And new Apple patents suggest some interesting new iPhone features that can prevent spying.

Follow the The Intego Mac Podcast, which I co-host with Josh Long. We talk about Macs and iOS devices, and how to keep them secure.

The photographer’s dilemma rears again. Not only are we sometimes struck by gear acquisition syndrome when new cameras are announced, we run into it when new computers that can process our images come to market. In this case, it’s the new M3 MacBook Pro and M3 iMac models from Apple. Will the M3 processor make a difference when working with photos? If you bought an M1 iMac when it came out, is it time to upgrade? Kirk and Jeff hash it out.

Find out more, and subscribe to the podcast, at the PhotoActive website. You can follow The PhotoActive on Twitter at @PhotoActiveCast to keep up to date with new episodes, and join our Facebook group to chat with other listeners and participate in photo challenges and more.

Has Apple dropped the ball on providing a security patch for a popular macOS command line too? A user receives a counterfeit phone instead of an iPhone, but in a way that even Houdini might have had trouble making happen. And some tips on shopping for tech devices safely and securely during Black Friday sales.

Follow the The Intego Mac Podcast, which I co-host with Josh Long. We talk about Macs and iOS devices, and how to keep them secure.

Apple has updated many of its operating systems, but there don’t seem to be any security fixes. Can we be sure? We also discuss BlueNoroff hackers, Google deleting unused accounts, and new AI tools, including Grok, and how there are already scam apps pretending to offer access to it.

Follow the The Intego Mac Podcast, which I co-host with Josh Long. We talk about Macs and iOS devices, and how to keep them secure.

We discuss Miles Davis’s groundbreaking 1970 album Bitches Brew.

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Google’s Pixel phones are held up as the Android smartphones to follow, and their cameras are often pitted against the iPhone as examples of the state of the art. However, as Kirk discovered when he bought a Pixel 8, the details matter… such as the Pixel 8 not being able to use the full resolution of its main camera. Also in this episode, we check in with some new developments in the generative photography world with Adobe’s release of Firefly 2 and GenAI integration in Photoshop.

Find out more, and subscribe to the podcast, at the PhotoActive website. You can follow The PhotoActive on Twitter at @PhotoActiveCast to keep up to date with new episodes, and join our Facebook group to chat with other listeners and participate in photo challenges and more.

Apple has updated all its operating systems again, the company introduced new M3 chips and upgraded MacBook Pros and iMacs, and we discuss how Apple’s product line is not to big, not too small, just about right.

Follow the The Intego Mac Podcast, which I co-host with Josh Long. We talk about Macs and iOS devices, and how to keep them secure.

John Wyver writes about the history of television in the United Kingdom, produces films about the arts and performance, and is a Professor of the Arts on Screen.

Read the rest of the article on The L&L Blog.

To learn how to use Scrivener for Mac, Windows, and iOS, check out my book Take Control of Scrivener 3.