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Web browser extensions for Chrome and Edge snorkel data

If you use Chrome or Edge extensions to download videos from, for example, Facebook, Instagram and Vimeo in your web browser, you should uninstall the add-ons for security reasons and check your computer with a virus scanner.

As Avast security researchers write in a post, they are on at least 28 third-party extensions for Chrome and Edge that are infected with malicious code. These should be used by a total of 3 million users.

Find extensions A list of the affected add-ons can be seen in the article. This includes, for example, “Downloader for Instagram”, “Spotify Music Downloader” and “The New York Times News”.

Avast claims to have informed Google and Microsoft about the problem. They now want to take a closer look at the add-ons. A random sample from heise Security showed that many of the extensions are still online.

Several malicious functions Den According to security researchers, the malicious code directs add-on users to phishing and advertising websites. In addition, the code should be able to record personal data such as IP addresses. The researchers assume that the makers of the infected extensions collect rewards through the website redirects. What exactly happens to the personal data is so far unclear.

How and when the malicious code was implemented, the researchers do not currently know. The code could have been active for a long time. This is indicated by user comments about redirects from December 2018.

The code should be well hidden in the add-ons. It also analyzes user behavior to a certain extent. If this indicates that the victim is an experienced web developer, no malicious functions are started in order to avoid detection.

(des)

Tracking protection in iOS 14: Facebook wants to torpedo Apple's “forced update”

With a broad-based PR campaign, Facebook is trying to stop a data protection function set for iOS 14: The one soon to be prescribed by Apple Opt-in for tracking in apps reduces the effectiveness of targeted advertising and thus harms small companies, who would thereby reach fewer customers, argued Facebook in a message – and in full-page ads in large US daily newspapers.

Apple’s specification does not serve data protection, but the profit of the iPhone group: The change would “force” companies to switch from advertising to subscription models and in-app purchases, on which Apple also earns.

Facebook and Instagram soon with tracking opt-in Facebook plans to implement the opt -in-Dialog for tracking can also be integrated into the Facebook app and Instagram on iOS. One does not agree with “Apple’s approach and solution”, but is forced to show the warning dialog, otherwise there is a risk of being kicked out of the App Store. This will have “tough” effects for companies that advertise their products on mobile devices and on the web, Facebook says – everything will be done to keep the effects of optimizing and targeting advertising campaigns as small as possible.

Apple is using its control over its own app store to its own advantage and is damaging developers and companies at the same time, according to Facebook – that is anti-competitive and that action will be taken against it. For example, in the legal dispute between Epic Games and Apple about in-app purchases, the group wants to explain how Apple’s “unfair guidelines” around app sales would harm third parties.

Apple: Users should decide In a statement to the US media, Apple emphasized that Facebook would not have to change anything in its model for targeted advertising through the tracking opt-in, it was setting it only in advance that the user is informed and given the option to decline.

Apple’s software boss recently called on European data protectionists and regulators to encourage Apple to introduce the deferred anti-tracking function to support. It is obvious that “some companies” want to stop the function in order to retain their “unrestricted access to user data”. The fact that Apple is abusing its market power under the guise of data protection are “strange claims” and “wrong arguments,” according to the Apple manager. He also doesn’t believe that the move will “dramatically damage” advertising-financed products – the advertising industry will adapt and find new ways “for effective advertising without invasive tracking”.

Advertising ID in iOS up to iOS 13 apps have free access to the so-called IDFA (Identifier for Advertising) – a unique advertising ID of the device. It is accessible by default, but users can switch it off in the privacy settings – it is similar in Android.

Apple’s new framework App Tracking Transparency (ATT) turns the tables in iOS 14: Before accessing the advertising ID, the operating system displays a warning and gives the user the choice of consenting to the tracking or of rejecting it. The use of App Tracking Transparency is currently optional, but should be mandatory for apps in the App Store from the beginning 2021. The introduction was originally planned for autumn 2020, but was postponed by Apple.

(lbe)

Facebook is temporarily disabling some Messenger and Instagram features in Europe

Facebook is notifying Messenger and Instagram users in Europe that some features are temporarily unavailable. A small message has appeared in both the Facebook Messenger and Instagram apps for European users this week, noting that some features aren’t available to “respect new rules for messaging services in Europe.”

Facebook doesn’t outline exactly what features will be missing, but the company does reveal on its support pages that polls on both Messenger and Instagram are currently unavailable in Europe, alongside a lack of stickers in Instagram and no personalized replies on Messenger. Other missing features may include a lack of certain file sends on Messenger, missing nicknames, or the ability to share AR effects in DMs on Instagram.

Facebook’s warning in Instagram DMs.

Facebook has temporarily disabled some of these features to comply with new rules on data usage in EU countries. It’s part of the national implementations that are taking place of the 2002 Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive (ePrivacy Directive). This directive imposes stricter rules on data use across communications services that operate in countries that are part of the European Union.

It’s not clear when Facebook will reinstate these features for European users, but a spokesperson tells The Verge that most will return “very soon.”

The year Instagram became Facebook

Instagram spent much of the past eight years fighting to maintain its independence from Facebook. In 2020, the fight was over.

Instagram has rolled out a series of features that are thoroughly Facebookian in nature. They’re largely focused around getting you to use the app for longer (and also tend to feel messy and incomplete). It’s hard not to see this as the moment that Instagram succumbed to Facebook’s worst tendency: a focus on growth at all costs, even if it means making a product that’s less enjoyable to use.

The changes are numerous. Facebook Messenger was integrated into Instagram DMs, a beat-for-beat TikTok clone was created and given its own section within the app, the primary “post a photo” button was tucked away into a corner, and an entire tab was given over to shopping.

The most telling change was one of the less explosive ones: it was a tweak to the app’s classic photo feed. Instagram now displays an endless row of algorithmically recommended posts once you get through the pictures your friends put up. (On my feed, I’m mostly presented with vibey pictures of European models, with some ads mixed in between.)

This is a simple growth hack (see: Facebook injecting news stories and your friend’s friend’s dad’s questionable political group post into your News Feed), but it’s the kind of cheap trick that Instagram had avoided for a decade. It seems plainly antithetical to a goal outlined by Instagram’s founding CEO, Kevin Systrom, who said that any time spent on the app “should be positive and intentional.” At the time, Instagram was adding an alert that told you when you were out of new posts in the feed, which served as a gentle nudge that you might be able to close the app and move on to something else.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg increasingly applied pressure on Instagram over the years to, in essence, play more like Facebook, despite an initial promise to leave the company alone, as detailed in Sarah Frier’s No Filter, a chronicle of Instagram’s rise. The pressure culminated in Instagram’s co-founders walking out the door in late 2018, when they were replaced by Adam Mosseri, who previously ran Facebook’s News Feed. While the app mostly had a quiet 2019 on the surface — it tweaked the camera interface, hid like counts, and restricted more problematic content — behind the scenes, there was a significant shake-up of Instagram’s top leadership taking place, and more orders were starting to come down from Facebook proper, The Information reported last year.

That set the stage for this year, when those changes became visible to users. The home screen layout, which — aside from the addition of story bubbles at the top — had largely stayed unchanged since Instagram’s founding, has been shuffled around to make room for two new initiatives. The most notable of those, Reels, is a TikTok ripoff with no original ideas that’s purely meant to crush an innovative and competing product. The other addition, the Shop tab, presents an underwhelming array of product posts in a way that mixes the confusion of a Pinterest page with the blandness of Google Shopping ads.

None of this is to say Instagram has been “ruined” or even changed all that dramatically on the surface. The app has always been teeming with brands and influencers, Stories had ruthlessly sidelined Snapchat as the hot new app years ago, and Instagram’s aesthetic has long since gone from cultural phenomenon to ubiquitous cliche. It’s still fun to look through your friends’ photos, and the new features aren’t strictly bad — Reels offers creators another avenue to promote their work, and shopping is an obvious, if undercooked, addition to Instagram.

The difference is that so many of Instagram’s prior changes felt like Instagram. In 2020, the changes felt like new services shoehorned into Instagram so that the moment we got bored, we could find our next distraction without closing the app. If that feels familiar, maybe it’s because that’s what Facebook does, too. This year, Instagram didn’t just build more services — its service starting demanding more from you.

Facebook: Fake campaigns in Africa attacked each other

Facebook has removed networks of accounts that are accused of coordinated inauthentic behavior and that are said to have attacked each other. The competing disinformation campaigns therefore concentrated on the Central African Republic and had their origins in France and Russia, explains the social network.

It is that the first time that such networks were discovered that actively interacted with each other and, for example, accused each other of being “fake”. The responsible persons in France therefore used false accounts, while the campaigns controlled from Russia clamped in local users.

Fake accounts defame each other While such allegations are not new to Russia, the one directed at France is more extraordinary. The people behind it had tried to conceal their identity, but Facebook claims that it has found connections to individuals in the French military. In total, there are several dozen accounts on Facebook and Instagram. Some of the articles that have now been published are directed directly against Russia’s foreign policy. So far there has been no comment from France’s Ministry of Defense. The focus of the campaign was on the Central African Republic and Mali, but other former French colonies in North Africa were also targets.

Several hundred blocked accounts opened Facebook and Instagram meanwhile attribute Facebook to Russia and there individuals with previous connections to the Internet Research Agency, which is associated with attempted attacks on the US presidential election 2016. Here the social network has also determined that tens of thousands of dollars were spent on advertising on Facebook. Here, too, Facebook has published examples that are directed directly against France. According to its own information, the network also has examples of accounts in the opposing networks having added each other as friends and commenting on each other.

Facebook now publishes information on its own action against undesired activities with great regularity Platform that are more or less directly attributed to nation states. Just a few days ago, the US company announced the action against two groups in Vietnam and Bangladesh who had used the infrastructure to spread malware and hack accounts. The target was, among others, human rights activists, foreign governments and the media.

(mho)

Facebook’s UK users will lose EU privacy protections next year

Facebook is moving its UK users out from under the strict privacy protections of the European Union, according to a report from Reuters. Users of the social media site, and of Instagram and WhatsApp, will have to sign a terms of service agreement in the coming months with Facebook’s headquarters in California, instead of its European branch based in the Republic of Ireland. Moving the user agreements to the US means that UK users will no longer be covered by data policies crafted to adhere to the EU’s stringent privacy regime.

This change is similar to the one Google made earlier this year. It’s meant to avoid a situation where UK citizens are no longer citizens of the European Union, but have agreements based in an EU country, where Facebook is subject to the EU’s data protection laws. Users will still be protected by the UK’s data privacy laws, which currently mirror the EU’s GDPR.

Some UK privacy advocates are concerned the UK could eventually weaken its privacy laws once it’s outside the EU. The executive director of Open Rights Group said to Reuters that “[t]he bigger the company, the more personal data they hold, the more they are likely to be subject to surveillance duties or requirements to hand over data to the U.S. government.”

The worries aren’t founded on nothing. Back in 2018, the US passed the CLOUD Act, which makes it easier for the US government to share US companies’ data with foreign law enforcement (which UK agencies would count as).

There’s also the matter of bargaining. Because the UK will no longer be included in the EU’s trade agreements, the country will have to start making their own — and privacy advocates are worried about what protections the US may ask to be given up in negotiations.

Facebook’s UK branch told Reuters that “there will be no change to the privacy controls or the services Facebook offers to people in the UK,” but users of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram will have to re-agree to the terms and conditions again, which Facebook will ask them to do sometime in the next six months.

Handling of user data: US consumer authority requests information from Facebook & Co

As part of a far-reaching investigation, the US antitrust and consumer protection agency, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), asked a total of nine well-known social networks and video streaming companies to provide information on their business practices in connection with the use of user data put. The companies the FTC wrote to on Monday include Amazon, Facebook and its subsidiary WhatsApp, Reddit, Snap as the parent company of Snapchat, Twitter, Google parent Alphabet, YouTube, Discord and Bytedance as the TikTok owner.

As stated in the FTC notice, companies should provide information on how they collect and use personal data of their users . In detail, the FTC is interested in user tracking and the extent to which personal data and demographic information are used for advertising purposes. The companies should explain on what basis which advertisements are displayed to consumers and whether they apply algorithms or data analyzes to personal data. In addition, the FTC is calling for clarification on how they measure user engagement and what measures they use to promote it. The aim is for companies to show how these practices affect children and young people.

“Social media and video streaming companies track users everywhere via apps on their mobile devices that are always available these companies monitor where users go, what people they interact with, and what they do. But for what purpose? ” FTC commissioners Rohit Copra, Rebecca Slaughter and Christine Wilson believe that too much remains “dangerously opaque” about the industry, a joint statement said. Together with FTC Chairman Joseph Simons, the three commissioners had decided to request the information. The panel’s fifth commissioner, Noah Phillips, voted against. Although he also sees the overriding goal of shedding light on the business practices of big tech companies, the information requested is too detailed.

No prosecution measure The investigation now initiated by the FTC is not related to any law enforcement measure. The information provided by the companies could, however, be used to initiate possible action against the social networks and video streaming companies.

The FTC as an independent authority has the right to obtain information from US companies in order to to prevent unfair and unfair business practices if necessary and to ensure a functioning market.

Of the four big tech companies Alphabet, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, the FTC had 2020 Obtained extensive information on the business conduct of the companies in order to also investigate possible effects under antitrust law. The FTC filed a competition lawsuit against Facebook in December because Facebook is said to have bought Instagram and WhatsApp in order to secure its own dominance in the market.

( olb)

Facebook launches its Collab music app to the public

Facebook has publicly launched Collab, an experimental music-making app that first launched as an invite-only beta back in May, TechCrunch reports.

The app allows users to create short-form music videos by combining up to three independent videos. So, for example, three musicians could each play a different part of a song and combine them into one video. But each video that’s created is also posted to a public “Collab” feed, where people can view and play along with it if they choose.

So you could also record one part, then mix it with two other parts you find on the Collab feed that other people have recorded. Or you can just mix other people’s videos together — you don’t need to be a musician yourself. (Every user is properly credited for their contributions, according to Facebook.)

You won’t have to worry about lining all the videos up — Collab includes in-app tools to sync the parts together. Per its App Store page, “We make sure that as you swipe, the videos play at exactly the right moment to be in sync.”

The app isn’t directly integrated with Facebook (yet, at least), but you can export the finished products to your Instagram story (as well as other platforms, including TikTok) via iOS share sheet.

Collab is free on the App Store, and you can download it today.

The FTC is investigating data collection at YouTube, Facebook, and seven other companies

The Federal Trade Commission announced Monday that it is launching a new inquiry into the privacy practices of some of the largest tech companies and social media platforms in the world.

In a press release published Monday, the FTC announced that it is ordering nine social media and video streaming companies — including Amazon, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, Discord, Facebook, Reddit, Snap, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube — to provide data on how they collect and use personal information provided by their users. The companies have 45 days to respond.

Each of the nine companies was contacted for comment but did not immediately respond to requests from The Verge.

The FTC’s orders were authorized as part of a wide-ranging investigative inquiry and do not serve specific law enforcement purposes. However, the FTC could pursue enforcement actions should it find wrongful behavior throughout the study. In the agency’s Monday orders, the FTC requested that the companies provide information related to how they collect personal data, how that data determines which ads and content users are shown, and whether they “apply algorithms or data analytics to personal information.”

The commission voted 4-1 to approve the orders with Commissioner Noah Phillips dissenting, saying that the probe was too wide-ranging to produce useful results.

“These digital products may have launched with the simple goal of connecting people or fostering creativity. But, in the decades since, the industry model has shifted from supporting users’ activities to monetizing them,” three FTC commissioners who voted to approve the orders said in a joint statement Monday. “This transition has been fueled by the industry’s increasing intrusion into our private lives.”

In February, the FTC used this same investigative authority to request information on past acquisitions made by big tech companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft. Last week, the FTC sued Facebook to unwind its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

iOS 14.3 turns the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max into even better cameras

If you’ve got an iPhone 12 Pro or 12 Pro Max and consider yourself something of a photographer, the latest iOS update will help you get the most out of your phone’s cameras. That’s because it includes the new ProRAW feature that Apple first announced back at its October event. ProRAW combines the editing flexibility of RAW with Apple’s computational photography tricks like Smart HDR and Deep Fusion for the first time. You no longer have to choose between the flexibility of a standard RAW file and a JPEG or HEIC file that has all of Apple’s computational magic but limited potential for post-processing because ProRAW gives you both.

Shooting RAW photos on an iPhone is nothing new; for some time now, apps like Halide and Adobe Lightroom have let you capture all of the data the iPhone’s sensor can gather. And all of the usual benefits of RAW are here with ProRAW — vastly improved control over white balance is always the biggest factor for me — but it gives you greater leeway with adjusting exposure, sharpness, dynamic range, and more. You can make better adjustments to facial tone in a portrait or nail the exposure in a landscape shot.

But standard RAW images can look very grainy out of the iPhone since, well, these are still small smartphone camera sensors, and they’re without any computational photography optimization. Now, you should notice all the same detail as before but with less noise. That’s because ProRAW images do the same multiframe image processing as ordinary iPhone shots. Even with that, you get around 14 stops of dynamic range to work with in editing software. This video from Josh Stunell on YouTube does a good job of illustrating the differences between RAW and ProRAW:

ProRAW can be used with all of the rear cameras on the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max — it’s not going to suddenly turn the ultrawide into a magic lens, but anything helps — and it also works in night mode. You can even access the depth mapping information captured by the sensor to make portrait mode-style adjustments after the fact, provided your editing app allows you to control it.

You can shoot ProRAW images with all three of the cameras on the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max.

Photo by Becca Farsace / The Verge

How to use ProRAW

To use ProRAW, first, you’ve got to enable it under the camera options in the settings menu. After that, you’ll see a “RAW” button appear at the upper-right of the camera viewfinder, which is how you can quickly toggle ProRAW on and off.

I should emphasize that while it’s easy to switch this on, you’re definitely not going to want to use ProRAW all the time. Files average around 25MB in size, which is dramatically larger than your everyday iPhone images. This is a feature best reserved for those very intentional photos with people you care about or at places that matter. ProRAW images appear in the camera roll like normal, but if you try to share them in apps like Instagram, you’ll get an error message. So you’ll want to export them as either a smaller JPEG or HEIC file first before sending them to social media.

Another nice thing about ProRAW is since it uses Adobe’s widely supported DNG file format, there is already a plethora of apps that can open and edit the files without any update. But apps that use Apple’s own RAW converter will offer even more control since they’ll be able to access tone and distance mapping. Halide has already released an update to get the most out of ProRAW, and I’d expect others like Pixelmator, Darkroom, and Affinity Photo to follow.

Apps that have their own RAW converter, namely Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Capture One, can edit the DNG files today but won’t have all of the same capabilities as those that use Apple’s RAW converter. It’s possible Adobe and others will update their conversion tools in the future to make them work better with ProRAW. You can, of course, also just edit the images inside the Apple Photos app, too.

A sample ProRAW image edited in Darkroom.

If you want to share a ProRAW image, there are various ways to go about it depending on what you’re trying to do:

If you want to transfer an Apple ProRAW to the computer: ensure the photo is unedited, then either AirDrop or plug the device into USB and use Image Capture or the Windows Photos app.
If you want to share an edited ProRAW photo: edit the photo in the Photos app, then AirDrop, email, or send via Messages. A JPG with the edits will be shared.
If you want to email a ProRAW DNG to someone: open the Photos app first and use the share button to share via Mail.
If you edit a ProRAW and want both the original DNG file and the edited JPG: use Image Capture or Windows Photos app.
If a ProRAW is edited but you want to transfer a DNG: duplicate the photo, then revert the edits (makes it an unedited file). A DNG can then be AirDropped, etc.
If you used a third-party app that can take RAW+JPG, and you want both: use Image Capture to grab each file individually

I’ve been trying out ProRAW on my iPhone 12 Pro Max over the last few days, and I’m already appreciating the difference it can make. It’s just plain easier to get the most from a photo — retrieve highlights, boost shadows, fix the white balance, etc. — if you’re willing to put in the work of editing after the fact.

Iran: “Zombie” instagrammaker sentenced to 10 years in prison

In Iran, a young woman has been sentenced to ten years in prison for allegedly breaking the law by distributing heavily edited self-portraits on Instagram. Some of her pictures had attracted worldwide attention and her account now has hundreds of thousands of followers, writes the Guardian. In the photos that Sahar Tabar – whose real name is Fatemeh Khishvand – shared on her Instagram channel, she sometimes looks like a zombie.

Tabar was best known for photos in which she looks like a zombie version of the US actress Angelina Jolie, but her role model was probably the film “Corpse Bride – Wedding with a Corpse” by Tim Burton. At first, there were rumors that she had undergone dozens of cosmetic surgeries, according to the BBC. However, she later stated that the photos were largely based on makeup and digital image manipulation. In October 2019 the then 22 – year old was arrested, the authorities had accused her of blasphemy, among other things. Her confession was then presented on Iranian television as an example of how trying to become famous on social media “ruined a real life”.

How The Guardian goes on to write that she was initially still accused of inciting violence, making inappropriate money and driving young people to corruption. Of the total of four charges, two were dropped, but it is unknown which ones. The harsh sentence now came in parallel with the execution of journalist and blogger Ruhollah Zam, who had spread revelations about Iranian state officials on Telegram, among other things. Both make it clear once again how hard the Islamic Republic is against the Internet and unwanted content and those responsible for it.

(mho)

Snapchat is releasing Bitmoji Paint, a massively multiplayer online painting game

Today, Snapchat is getting a new original game called Bitmoji Paint. As the name suggests, the game involves Bitmoji — those cutely grotesque customizable avatars — and painting. It’s Snap Inc.’s second title from its internal games studio, which began putting out games last year. “Our goal with Bitmoji has always been to be the world’s avatar, to give people a digital version of themselves that represents them and lets them be themselves online,” says Ba Blackstock, co-founder of Bitmoji. “And so now with games, it’s also letting people play together in a really new and fun and exciting way.”

Bitmoji Paint places players on a gigantic, pixelated grid, and lets them paint those squares as a shared canvas. Zoom out, and you get pixel art. You get there by pressing the rocket icon or through search; the first thing you’ll see are floating islands in space, which are different servers you can join with hundreds of other players. There are three modes — move, paint, and map — and users can also interact with other players around the world using stock emotes. There’s also a voice chat function in Snap’s game menu so you can talk to your friends while you’re scribbling. Creations persist, so you can keep working on the things you’ve started.

“A lot of the playability in the game is things like simple scribbles,” says John Imah, head of games and entertainment partnerships at Snap. “You can send fun messages, and also even [make] giant landscapes, all these things are all possible in Bitmoji Paint.” He’s been playing the game for a while now and says he’s excited for the world to see it, and then to see how people have fun with it. (As far as moderation goes, players can’t see each other’s Snap IDs unless they’re already friends, and the company emphasized that it’ll provide easy access to reporting tools.)

Snap has used games and unique filters to pull people into its app and stand apart from competitors like TikTok and Instagram. Its recent anime lens went viral outside the app and was used 3 billion times in its first week. That said, to hear Imah tell it, the games program has already been a big success. “To date, we’ve had more than 100 million Snapchatters play our games, which we’re incredibly proud of,” he says. “An average of 20 minutes are played per player every day, when they’re playing Bitmoji Party,” Imah says. Sounds like Bitmoji Paint has some large shoes to fill.

In a roundabout way: also install unauthorized iOS apps on Macs with ARM CPU

One of the great advantages of Apple’s new ARM architecture for the Mac is that iOS and iPadOS programs can now also be run on the company’s computers. For this purpose, Apple has implemented a new operating strategy in which, for example, the trackpad of a MacBook simulates the screen of an iPhone or iPad. That doesn’t always work very well, but users who thirst for certain mobile apps should accept that – the main thing is that their favorite programs are running.

Big developers don’t (yet) want The problem: By default, by far not all apps are included, because Apple allows developers to opt out if they wish, in order not to use the so-called Unified App Store to show up. The rejection applies to the official application of Facebook as well as to its daughters Instagram and WhatsApp. The iOS version of Facebook Messenger does not run on the Mac either. Google doesn’t always take part either: Google Maps, Google Drive and Gmail are annoyingly missing. Various well-known games have also remained outside so far. And Amazon too initially decided against participating in its Prime Video application.

Like MacRumors now demonstrated in a video, there is a way to still get to beloved iOS and iPadOS apps on the Mac. However, a tool is required for this, the well-known administration tool iMazing. This has also allowed applications to be downloaded from the App Store for a long time, as long as they have been purchased in the regular way. The “Manage Apps” feature also offers the export of complete iOS and iPadOS applications in the form of so-called .ipa files – these were once accessible directly on the Mac via iTunes, which Apple has been preventing for a long time.

Download, click, use First you download the desired application in iMazing. The .ipa file is then written to the desktop or to the download folder via the export menu. Then you move it to the application folder and you only have to run it to start the installation: Voila, the iPhone or iPad app runs on the M1 Mac.

Unfortunately, many of these programs do not work perfectly, after all, they are even less optimized for macOS than applications that are officially approved. For example, many programs lack full screen modes and sometimes crashes. It is worth a try, however. iMazing can be tested free of charge, a license for three devices costs later 45 euros. Alternatively, you can use Apple’s Configurator 2 application to extract .ipa files; however, this is a little less convenient. (bsc)

How to easily create free QR codes

by Antonio Delgado Ago 11 hours …

Create QR codes

QR codes offer many possibilities when it comes to communicate with people , you can have a QR code to direct whoever scans it to a website with information, connect to a Wi-Fi or send an email . We simply have to scan the code with our phone and it will direct us directly to this site, instead of having to enter cumbersome and long web addresses, passwords or write email addresses that on many occasions can lead to errors if written by hand .

These QR codes can be used by everyone, even you can create your QR codes . In this guide we are going to show you how, it is very simple and it is not necessary to install any application, although there are also apps to create them , so you will have your own QR codes to share and that can lead to that link that you want in an easier way.

First we will see some online services from where to create our QR codes on any device that has a browser, then we will see how create these QR codes by installing an application on our phone , both ways allow us to customize our QR codes by adding color, embedding our logo or modifying the appearance of the points that form it.

How to create QR codes online for free

There are several web pages that allows us to create codes very quickly QR, just fill in We give the data and will give us the code that we can share or download it to attach it wherever we want, let’s see the best pages to create these codes.

codes-qr.com

On this website we can create QR codes for Internet addresses, SMS, Telephone, E-mail, Text, Business card, Geolocation, Calendar event or Wifi . This website is very simple, we tell you how to create QR codes.

We access the web www.codigos-qr.com .
Let’s go to the section of QR code generator .
We select the service we want to use above , we briefly tell you each one
Size and redundancy are common values for all options, the size indicates how big the QR code will be and redundancy the ease of reading the code when it is deteriorated.
URL , enter the URL, including http: // , wherever we want the QR code to take us.
SMS , we enter the phone number in the field and write in Message: the text to send.
PHONE , Simply enter the phone number that we want to call when they scan the code.
EMAIL , we introduce the email address in the email field , below the subject and fill in message the text of the email.
TEXT , in the field text we write the message that we want to appear when scanning the QR code.
VCARD , here we will fill in the details of the business card , Name and Surname, Address, Position, Telephone Number, Company, email and Web, when scanning the code it will allow us to save everything in the agenda , it is not necessary to fill them all .
GEOLOC , we will have to enter the latitude and longitude coordinates to locate us on the map of our phone.
EVENT , here we will put a event start date, event end date and a description of it.
WIFI , we will have to fill in the name of the wifi network, the password and the type of security it has.
Once we have entered the data in the section we want, click on generate QR code .
Now we will only have to click with the right mouse button or leave pressed if we are on the mobile to save it, print it and place it where we want , we can also get the code in HTML to insert it into a web.

Qrcode-monkey.com

On this website we have some more options to create QR codes than the previous one, such as codes to enter Facebook, Twitter or for bitcoin transactions.

We enter the web www .qrcode-monkey.com and directly we will see the different sections available above.
We select the section for which we want to create the QR code, works in a similar way to the previous web.
This page allows us customize the QR code , we can choose colors , add an image as logo and customize the design with different shapes for the body, for the frame and the shape of the eye.
1. Once the data has been entered, we select the option Choose Colors .
2. We can choose between a single color , or a blurring between two colors , in the latter we will have to select the start and end colors of the blur and the type that can be Radial or Linear.
3. We can customize the color of the QR code Eye , we check the box and choose the color.
4. We can also put a background color , which by default it is white.
5. Now we go to the option Add Logo Image. Here we select one of the images that they already have predefined, related to the topics for which we want to create the QR code or we can add our own image, for that we click on Image , and it will allow us to add one.
6. Finally, we can customize the design by choosing the body shape, eye frame shape and eye shape .
Now we only have to adjust the resolution and click on Create QR Code or Download PNG, We can also save it in SVG, PDF and EPS without customizing the design.
Do not worry if your design is not as you expected, go back to the step you want to modify, change what you need and click again on Create QR Code to see the new result.

Free applications to create QR codes

Simply with a search in the Play Store create QR code We see many applications, most of them free. We have chosen the best ones to tell you how these applications work and how to generate a QR code in a different way.

QR code generator

This application allows us to create codes QR to share text, URL, Email, Telephone, SMS, Contact, Geolocation or Wifi .

Its operation is very simple, but allows us to change the background of the QR code for a drawing , let’s see how it works.

Top right, on the gearwheel, we will enter the application options, where we can change the color of the QR code, the quality, the type of format and the level of correction .

In the center we will see a field TEXT that if we press we can choose the type of QR code we want to create , we select for example URL.

We fill in the data according to the type of QR code we want to create , in our case we put the web www.geeknetic.es, here we already have the https: // written.

Click at the top left on the square of the QR code , we see the option to unlock more designs by viewing a simple ad , So we can add a background to the generated code selecting it from the list.

Once the background is selected we will only have to click on Generate to create our code.

Now we will see the QR code with the selected background, top right we will have three lines that if we click we can see all the codes generated , the following icon of a disk saves the design on the device, and the button of share allows us send it to other people through the usual means such as WhatsApp or Telegram among others.

QR code generator- Make QR code

With this application we can create QR codes to share much more data than in the previous one , in addition to the previous ones we have for PayPal, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok and many more social networks and messaging apps . Its operation is also very simple.

We select the type of content to create in the QR code at the bottom of the application, we will select Website.
We fill in the data of the website, we have the buttons to fill in text automatically, also works with the clipboard , click on create up to the right.
Now we will have the basic QR code and we can customize it , we can use a template, customize color, dots, code eye, add text, etc. Some options are paid and a subscription is required.

Once the configuration of the QR code is finished we can share it, save it as a template or add it to an image to create a composition.

Conclusion
In this way we can have QR codes saved to share information with other friends, either our virtual business card , our profile of a social network or simply our contact or personal website . We can also use them to share some text that we can read simply by scanning the QR code, which in most cases will suffice with our mobile camera application.

A quick way to share data that would otherwise be a hassle to copy by hand most of the time, just captures, scans and saves .

End of Article. Tell us something in the Comments or come to our Forum!

Antonio Delgado

Computer Engineer by training, editor and hardware analyst at Geeknetic since 2011. I love gutting everything that comes my way, especially the latest hardware that we get here for reviews. In my spare time I fiddle with 3d printers, drones and other gadgets. For anything here you have me.

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