Technology - Google News

Track Your Lost iPhone, iPad, or Mac Even When Its Offline — As Long as This Feature Is Enabled - Gadget Hacks
Labor Day deals: the best discounts to take advantage of this weekend - The Verge
What’s a NormaTec? The compression therapy elite athletes love - CNET

Track Your Lost iPhone, iPad, or Mac Even When Its Offline — As Long as This Feature Is Enabled - Gadget Hacks

Posted: 30 Aug 2019 11:39 AM PDT

Apple's latest updates to its operating systems add another security feature to its Find My service, so you have an even better chance at locating your lost iPhone, iPad, or Mac should it ever happen. As long as you have the option enabled, you can leverage other Apple users' devices to find yours on the map.

Why would that even be necessary if your lost Apple device is still connected to the internet via a Wi-Fi network or cellular data? It wouldn't. But if your missing iPhone, iPad, or MacBook were away from any hotspots and in a no-service area, Apple's anonymous crowd-sourcing enhancement could be the key to geolocating the device. It's a great companion to "Send Last Location," which transmits your device's last location to Apple's servers before its battery dies and stores it for 24 hours.

The feature in question, Offline Finding, utilizes your lost device's low-energy Bluetooth connection to talk to other nearby Apple devices with Bluetooth enabled. And best of all, the whole process works using end-to-end encryption.

With E2E encryption, nobody can abuse the system. Hackers won't be able to intercept and decode your device's location, snooping marketers won't be able to track you in their stores, and even Apple won't see any of the data being sent or received. It's totally anonymous.

How Offline Finding Works

Offline Finding uses a background process called "Search Party" to broadcast and receive Bluetooth beacon signals at regular intervals, and it can even do its work when the device is in a sleep state. And it does this with limited battery impact for all devices involved, so you should see little to no difference in power consumption.

Your device is assigned an ephemeral public encryption key, so it frequently changes over time. It does so because a static identifier could allow others to latch onto it for tracking purposes. But since it's ever-changing, there's no way to abuse it.

When the lost smartphone, tablet, or computer has no internet connection, it will transmit its public encryption key to another nearby Apple device over Bluetooth. That other device then uploads its own encrypted location data, along with the hash of your lost device's public key, to Apple's servers to help you identify it later. Then, when you use the Find My iPhone, Find My iPad, or Find My Mac service, you will be sent that encrypted location data, and your device will decrypt it.

But that's where the catch comes in. To take advantage of Offline Finding, you need to have at least two Apple devices using the same iCloud account with two-factor authentication set up. That's because all of your connected devices use the same private key and set of rotating public keys.

When you use Find My on your non-missing device, it uploads the hash of the public key to Apple's servers. Apple then searches its servers of encrypted locations automatically for a matching identifier. When the cryptographic identifier is found, Apple sends it back to your device where your private key decrypts it.

Apple hasn't stated exactly how often public keys rotate or how it keeps track of their hashes. Since your missing device's hash of the public key has likely changed since the last time location data for it was uploaded, it wouldn't match the current public key identifier for your non-missing Apple device. So it's likely that they store and keep a short history of previous public keys to find matches in those cases.

How to Verify Offline Finding Is On

By default, if you had Find My iPhone, iPad, or Mac turned on before updating to iOS 13, iPadOS 13, or macOS 10.15 Catalina, Offline Finding should already be on. However, if only one of the device's had the Find My service enabled but not another device, it may not have turned on automatically. To make sure it's on, check the following.

On iOS 13 & iPadOS 13:

On either iOS 13 for iPhone or iPadOS 13, open the Settings app and tap your name up top to view your Apple ID settings. Next, tap "Find My," then "Find My iPhone." On the next page, make sure "Enable Offline Finding" is toggled on.

On MacOS Catalina 10.15:

Open up "System Preferences," then tap the "Apple ID" option to view your account information. Next, select "iCloud" from the sidebar, then make sure "Find My Mac" is toggled on under the list of apps. If you need to turn it on, check it, then hit "Allow" when prompted. With Find My Mac activated, tap "Options" next to it, then make sure "Enable Offline Finding" is turned on.

Track Your Lost iPhone, iPad, or Mac Even When Its Offline — As Long as This Feature Is Enabled

It's Not a Perfect Solution

Let's say you left your MacBook at a public library or someone snagged your open laptop when you went to the bathroom in a coffee shop. If it were open, it could connect to a hotspot to send location data. But if it were closed, which would most likely be the case, it could still send out its public key to other devices using Bluetooth. A thief won't have a lot of time to open the Mac up and disconnect Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, so you have a good chance of locating it if you're quick.

However, if your iPhone was stolen, the thief may power it down or enable Airplane Mode, which would not only disable Wi-Fi and cellular connections but Bluetooth as well. In those cases, neither Send Last Location or Offline Finding would be of much use. And now that Offline Finding exists, thieves are more likely to make sure that Bluetooth is disabled alongside the other connections.

Cover photo and screenshots by Justin Meyers/Gadget Hacks

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Labor Day deals: the best discounts to take advantage of this weekend - The Verge

Posted: 31 Aug 2019 08:00 AM PDT

Labor Day is Monday, September 2nd, in the US. Whether you have the day off or not, we salute our hard-working readers, and we're here to share the best Labor Day-themed deals from around the internet.

Compared to the holiday season, opportunities to save on tech gadgets during the summer and fall are sparse. But if you're looking to spend a little cash, these discounts will help you get more for your money. We've pulled together deals from brands like Ring, Dyson, Google, and retailers like Best Buy and Amazon below.

If an end date is applicable for any these sales, you'll find it appended to each discount.

Everything that Satechi makes, including its new dual HDMI USB-C hubs (shown in the image above), is 20 percent off on Amazon for Labor Day. Just add one of its products to your cart and paste in the code SATECHI20 at checkout. This sale ends on September 2nd.

Hulu is only $2.99 per month for six months if you're a new or returning subscriber (usually $5.99 per month). This deal is only good for the ad-supported plan, and after your sixth month of paying the discounted rate, it will raise to $5.99. This offer ends on September 3rd.

Various Dyson products, including new and refurbished upright vacuums, cordless vacuums, fans, and purifiers, are 20 percent off on eBay with the offer code JGETDYSON. This offer lasts until September 3rd.

Toshiba's 55-inch 4K HDR Fire TV Edition is $329.99 at Best Buy, (usually $449.99), and the TV comes with a free third-generation Amazon Echo Dot smart speaker. This TV is the latest model that supports Dolby Vision HDR.

Beats Solo 3 Wireless on-ear headphones are $159.99 at Best Buy and Target. These were originally released in 2016, but they have Apple's W1 wireless chip that aids in quickly pairing and switching between your iPhone, Apple Watch, and other Apple products.

The latest revision of the Nintendo Switch, which features improved battery life over the original model, is $279.64 (before tax) at Rakuten with the offer code SAVE15. It's usually $299.99, so it's a small discount, but it's the best price available right now.

Amazon is offering big discounts on some of its Echo products if you're a student who subscribes to Prime Student. You can save 40 percent on products like the Amazon Echo Plus, Amazon Echo Show 5, and Amazon Echo Spot. The final prices at checkout are almost as good as what we saw during Amazon Prime Day 2019, so they're worth checking out.

TCL's SOCL200 in-ear wired headphones (yes, TCL makes headphones) are already cheap on Amazon, usually costing no more than $15. However, using the offer code 50SOCL200 at checkout will knock 50 percent off of their cost. The TCL SOCL300 floored us earlier this year, and the model on sale has bigger drivers, though it doesn't create a seal in your ear. The bud design looks akin to the AirPods, which rest gently outside of your inner ear. This deal will end on September 14th.

Best Buy is offering a $50 gift card with the purchase of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6. Additionally, the keyboard attachment is 50 percent off with purchase, bringing the accessory down to $89 instead of $179.

Dell's G3 15.6-inch gaming laptop with a 9th Gen Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, Nvidia's GTX 1660 Ti, and a 512GB SSD is $829.99 (usually $1,079.99) at Best Buy. Nvidia says that the GTX 1660 Ti performs 1.5x faster than last generation's GTX 1060, and it's rare for this graphics card to appear in laptops that sell for less than $1K.

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What’s a NormaTec? The compression therapy elite athletes love - CNET

Posted: 31 Aug 2019 06:00 AM PDT

normatec-crossfit-group — Would you don these "space" boots for quicker workout recovery?
NormaTec

The merging of technology and fitness has certainly offered up some interesting, giggle-worthy devices. I mean, who'd have thought we'd see roundtables of athletes chilling in space suits?

Except, they aren't going to space. They're just recovering from their last workout and preparing for the next. The suits themselves are complex, but what they actually do is straightforward: They're compressing and decompressing, encouraging blood flow throughout the athlete's bodies.

Here's how this simple but helpful recovery technique works.

What is compression therapy?

Like cryotherapy, compression therapy has been around for decades as a medical treatment. In fact, NormaTec -- one of the biggest compression therapy names in the market -- started as a medical device company to treat a condition called lymphedema (chronic swelling).

Now the company's focus is athletic recovery, but its roots lie in the science of blood flow: Your circulatory system delivers oxygen, nutrients and hormones to every cell in your body. Simultaneously, this complex circuit removes metabolic wastes such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid, effectively flushing your system of toxins.

The idea behind compression therapy is that by increasing blood flow to specific parts of the body -- encouraging your body to deliver more oxygen and nutrients to those areas -- you can speed up recovery, relieve pain and improve athletic performance.

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Benefits of compression therapy

Athletes of all disciplines have been suiting up in puffy, intergalactic-looking contraptions to reap the benefits of compression therapy. Long before these suits existed, athletes have worn (and still wear) compression garments during and after exercise.

The benefits of this recovery method, which are essentially the benefits of improved blood flow, include:

Reducing swelling and inflammation
Speeding up muscle recovery
Preventing delayed-onset muscle soreness
Relieving muscle pain
Improving athletic performance
Increasing flexibility and range of motion
Removing exercise-related wastes, like lactic acid
Decreasing muscle fatigue

Overall, the science backing these claims is conflicting, though NormaTec does offer an impressive list of research studies that look at this particular product's methodology. Now that new products are popping up, it's hard to lump all forms of compression therapy into one group.

For example, wearing a knee sleeve won't produce the same results that NormaTec's "pulsing, distal release, gradient" method will. That's because the knee sleeve simply squeezes your leg above and below your knee, forcing blood and fluid away. When you take the knee sleeve off, blood rushes back to the area, thus inducing the benefits.

A NormaTec suit, on the other hand, squeezes your legs in intervals and by section -- starting at your feet, the suit inflates intermittently to mimic natural blood flow.

So both types of compression therapy can offer benefits, but on different levels, kind of like percussive therapy versus foam rolling.

How you can try compression therapy

Convinced you need to add this technique to your recovery regimen? Here's how to test it out.

Suit up

That's right: Try one of these space suits out yourself. If you're not keen to purchase one of your own, search for gyms, chiropractic offices and recovery lounges (like cryotherapy centers) that offer suits for customer use.

By far the most well-known, NormaTec has partnered with thousands of businesses across the country to provide boots and even full-body suits at a more affordable price. But you can also find other brands, such as Rapid Reboot, Speed Hound, Air Relax and RecoveryPump.

rapid-reboot — There are several brands that make compression boot and suits, though not all of them use the same pulsing patterns.
Rapid Reboot

Wear compression garments

The evidence for compression garments such as knee sleeves, compression tights and elbow sleeves is largely anecdotal. For some people, wearing compression garments during or after exercise seems to improve physical performance and speed up recovery, but the research isn't quite clear.

There are conflicting studies into compression garments, and it's not clear whether you should wear them during or after exercise, and which types of exercise they positively influence.

But hey, like they say about diets: If it works for you, it works for you.

Get a massage

I've talked about massage versus high-tech recovery before, and traditional massage still stands the test of time (and lots and lots of clinical trials). For example, one study on ultramarathon runners found that post-exercise massage offered the same benefits as post-exercise compression therapy.

Another study compared compression therapy, massage, cryotherapy, stretching, electrostimulation, water immersion and more. Its aim was to discover the best modality for reducing delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

The kind-of-unsurprising answer? Massage.

normatec-6477-madi-lauren-steve-gym — Popular among elite and recreational athletes alike, these compression suits essentially do what compression garments do, but way better.
NormaTec

Worth the hype?

Personally, I think yes. Despite some wishy-washy clinical trials, these products are backed by a valid scientific principle: Compression therapy increases blood flow, which delivers nutrients to your muscles and removes waste like lactic acid. That's why active recovery (like stretching and walking) is so much better than passive recovery (doing nothing).

Obviously, compression boots and suits like those from NormaTec, Rapid Reboot and Speed Hound don't fit everyone's budgets — and that's totally fine. You don't need one of these suits to yourself, but if you're a regular gym-goer, you might consider popping in at a recovery lounge, chiropractic clinic or other establishment that offers one-off sessions.

However, if you can afford it, a high-tech compression suit could theoretically cost less in terms of cost per session. Think about it: A massage costs, on average, $100 to $150 per session. Let's say you get one massage per month. That's anywhere from $1,200 to $1,800 per year.

NormaTec is the most expensive of the products discussed in this article -- if you purchase a complete NormaTec set for $2295, that's about $190 per month over one year. Even at one use per month, it's not outrageously expensive compared to massage.

But if you have your NormaTec at home, on hand for use whenever, the cost per session decreases drastically: If you use your NormaTec just once a week, the cost per session drops to less than $50 per use.

It's a big investment up front, but potentially worth it.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

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