Apple’s WWDC 2018; that thing about rebooting your router

WWDC 2018

On Monday the 4th Apple kicked off the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference with it’s keynote address. On some occasions they use this platform to introduce new hardware.

This was not one of those occasions.

I’ve been advising folks who are looking for new laptops to hold off till now to see if there are any new developments. If you’ve been putting off a purchase, you may as well go ahead, because you probably won’t see anything new until the Fall. Right now you may picture me putting on my “Sad Clown” face.

I don’t know why the absence of new hardware affects me like this. I should be used to it by now. Apple has a thing about introducing new stuff. They don’t see a need. After all it’s not like the most valuable company on the planet needs the money.

“What about that update to the Mac Pro that was promised?” you say? Don’t hold your breath. They pushed it back to 2019.

I bet two dudes at Best Buy could assemble a modular Mac Pro with decent specs in about a week. Maybe Apple should give them a call.

Ok, I’m gonna quit my crying and cut to the chase. The WWDC is for software developers, and Apple did introduce a bunch of new “OS’s”:

• iOS 12 (iPhone, iPad) - Alternative Reality (AR) software, Siri improvements, iPhone addiction prevention (!?)
• macOS Mohave (Mac) - New Mac App Store, Dark Mode, iOS apps on Mac, security updates
• watchOS 5 (Apple Watch) - Walkie Talkie Mode
• tvOS 12 (Apple TV) - Dolby Atmos Surround Sound support

Apple has been lax in the software realm recently as well. We’ll see if they have taken this criticism to heart and makes those basic quality improvements we’ve been hearing about.

Not much to see here, so moving on.

That Thing About Rebooting Your Router

You’ve probably seen it in the news: the FBI wants you to reboot your router. There is malware out there called VPNFilter (Yeah, it’s probably the Russians again) that has the ability to intercept your web traffic and insert malicious code into it, among other things.

What’s a Router?

The router is part of your internet gear. Most of us have a modem of some sort that brings the internet into your house. Then the router takes that internet and distributes it to all your devices, either wired or via Wifi. The router is usually built into the modem these days, but not necessarily.

The quick & dirty fix is to reboot your router (turn it off and back on again). But there is the possibility that a trace of it is left on the router and it could come back. You will want to reset the router, apply firmware updates if available, and further harden the settings.

If you have an Apple Airport installed by me, you can rest a little easier in that the Airport is not on the list of affected devices. But it won’t hurt to reboot it anyway.

If you would like me to visit and take care of this, I would be happy to help.

Make Your Mac Sing!