Recently Apple confirmed that they would comply with EU legislation, and introduce USB type C into all of their new products. So with this shift in stance from Apple, and the release of iPhone 15. I got the idea that I could ditch all the USB cables I have laying around, for a single multi-purpose cable that will charge anything.
Over the last couple of years I was slowly being driven to distraction by all of the different types of charging cables I have to have laying around. So when I saw the Rolling Square inCharge cable, with its interchangeable head for Lightning and USB type C ports. I thought I could finally de-clutter the power sockets I have around my home.
For the first month everything was great, as the inCharge cable finally gave me a single cable charging point that can charge my smartphone, laptops and tablets. However, after updating all of the iPhones in my home to iOS 16.6. I began to notice that the inCharge cable was not charging any of the 2022 iPhone SE’s my family currently like to use.
What to do?
The fact that my inCharge cable was working, then suddenly stopped. Could simply indicate that I have a faulty cable. However, as I have a second inCharge cable and that also will not charge a iPhone SE. I concluded that something must have changed with the introduction of iOS 16.6 and above.
While I have no conformation that an iOS update caused my issue. I did notice that the update 16.5.1, had to fix an issue that would prevent charging with the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter. So there is evidence that past updates have caused charging issues for non standard USB cables.
This means that for now I’m simply going to have to wait and see if Apple fix my problem with a future update. Which unfortunately means that I’m back to square one with multiple USB cables next to my power sockets, and a big box of spare USB cables stashed away in a cupboard.
References
- Hern, Alex. Oct 2022. Apple to put USB-C connections in iPhones to comply with EU rules. The Guardian [online].
- Apple article, Oct 21 2022. About iOS 16 Update. The Guardian [online]
- Hardy, Ed, Nov 10 2022. Charge Apple devices from almost any power source with this 5-in-1 multiport cable. CultofMac [online]
More Security patches and updates that will need your attention!
Last month saw most of the main operating systems receive security patches for zero day exploits. However, as the zero day exploits keep coming. You need to double check that all of your devices are running the latest firmware updates and the applications you use are up to date.
Of particular importance make sure that your are using the latest version of your web browser. Last month Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox were vulnerable to a zero day exploit and it looks like Chrome browser now has a venerability of its own.
- Goodin, Dan. Oct 28 2023. A new Chrome 0-day exploit is sending the Internet into a new chapter of Groundhog Day. ArsTechnica [online]
- Cunningham, Andrew. Oct 7 2023. Apple patches “clickless” 0-day image processing vulnerability in iOS, macOS. ArsTechnica [online]
- Gatlan, Sergiu. Sept 6 2023. September Android updates fix zero-day exploited in attacks. BleepingComputer [online]
- Glover, Cludia. Sept 2023. New Google Chrome zero-day flaw discovered by tech giant [online]
Posting to the website and YouTube
While we really love our Google Chromebook, its list of applications is very limited. So over the past year we have been releasing video that demonstrate how to use Linux Development Environment in order to run Linux applications on our Chromebook.
While we have now covered most of the applications that we think a typical student or home user might want to use. This month we are going to round out the series by releasing a final set of videos. So we are going to take a look at how you update LDE and any of the applications you may have installed using Flatpak. Then we will show you how to uninstall an application installed using Flatpak, and a final video that demonstrates how you properly close LDE.
A couple of years ago we made a video to answer the question “What are the home and homes folders on a Synology NAS?” While the video was very successful, due to changes to Disk Station Manager, we felt that we needed to produce an updated video. So this month we will be releasing an update.
Finally at the end of the month we will be releasing the next video in our Synology NAS series by looking at how you create user accounts. Which is a very important step on the path to creating network shares that users can use.
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