Archive for July 27, 2020

Monday, July 27, 2020

64-bit ScanSnap Manager for Older Scanners

Dave Kitabjian:

Fujitsu announced it wouldn’t support Catalina well over a year ago, and many ScanSnap owners have already gone through the Five Stages of Grief and resolved to buy either a new scanner or one of the third-party software solutions I previously mentioned. In all likelihood, many have already done so.

One possible explanation is that the series of TidBITS articles on this topic and those from elsewhere on the Web may have resulted in enough negative press to get Fujitsu’s attention.

But another factor may have weighed more heavily in the decision. Lots of people have been complaining about ScanSnap Home, the 64-bit software that replaced ScanSnap Manager. Complaints center around its lack of features in comparison to the older ScanSnap Manager. Fujitsu has been saying that it would gradually update ScanSnap Home with the features that people missed from ScanSnap Manager. Perhaps that effort was later determined to be greater than just porting ScanSnap Manager to 64-bit.

[…]

Interestingly, a TidBITS reader found that ScanSnap Manager V7 worked with his older ScanSnap S300M though it’s not listed as being compatible. So it’s worth giving the new ScanSnap Manager a try even if your older ScanSnap scanner isn’t explicitly included in the compatibility list.

See also: ExactScan Might Be the ScanSnap Replacement You Need.

Previously:

Hopper for Apple Silicon and Big Sur

Vincent Bénony:

Today, I’m happy to announce that Hopper will fully support macOS Big Sur and Apple Silicon CPU!

macOS Big Sur changes a lot of things under the hood. For instance, there is a new way of referencing Objective-C selectors in the executable metadata which forces me to rewrite a lot of things. Also, the system frameworks are not stored in the same way as before, but rather in a shared cache almost like iOS. Some of these changes are now handled by Hopper but not all of them yet. I expect to release an update of the current version which includes the handling of these modifications.

Previously:

Logitech Folio Touch Keyboard Case

Juli Clover:

Logitech today announced the launch of the Logitech Folio Touch, a new keyboard case with trackpad designed for the 11-inch iPad Pro models released in 2018 and 2020.

It’s $160 vs. $350/$300 for the Magic Keyboard for iPad. The design is more like the Combo Touch: it doesn’t have the rigidity of Apple’s solution, but the keyboard can fold behind the iPad.

Previously:

Update (2020-08-27): Juli Clover:

In our latest YouTube video, we compare the $160 Folio Touch to Apple’s $300 Magic Keyboard to see which is better.

USB-C Is Still a Mess

Robert Triggs (via Hacker News):

Moving phones between different chargers, even of the same current and voltage ratings, often won’t produce the same charging speeds. Furthermore, picking a third party USB-C cable to replace the often all too short in-box cable can result in losing fast charging capabilities. As can opting for a third-party USB-C power adapter that supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge or USB Power Delivery rather than one of the numerous proprietary standards.

[…]

The USB data naming scheme is undoubtedly a mess. This table below will hopefully help to sort out what each specification offers you.

[…]

Unfortunately, the USB-C ecosystem is more, not less convoluted in 2020 than it was when I first looked at this issue back in 2018. The announcement of USB 3.2 and USB 4 makes the standard more complex without giving the end-user clear information about what’s supported. While the growth in USB Power Delivery support is a good sign, the introduction of PPS has already hampered any hopes that the industry might soon coalesce around a single charging standard.

My pet peeve has long been that no matter how many newer devices you have with USB-C, you still end up with a mess of cables and adapters because the hubs are still USB-A. Each device needs a different cable depending on whether you’re plugging into your hub or your laptop.

Reader Robert Horrion has finally found a somewhat reasonably priced hub that actually increases the number of USB-C ports, the Sitecom CN-386. For $53 plus $11 shipping (Amazon ships it from the UK.) you can turn 1 USB-C port into 3 and add power delivery.

Unfortunately, the reviews aren’t great—3/5 stars in both the US and German stores, with purchasers complaining of glitches with Mojave and Catalina.

Previously:

Update (2020-07-29): coachmike66:

To accentuate the mess: the USB-C cable that Apple includes with your fancy new $3000+ MacBook Pro. Think you’re gonna use that with Migration Asst. (which prompts you during setup)…?

NOPE! That USB-C cable is USB2, and thus incapable of MA (which Apple obfuscates very well).

Update (2021-07-16): Walt Mossberg:

Why can’t they color-code USB C ports and cables so you always know which cable do only data transfer but not power. Or both. And which support Thunderbolt?

Nilay Patel:

Full circle!

E-Verify’s “SSN Lock” Is Nothing of the Sort

Brian Krebs:

One of the most-read advice columns on this site is a 2018 piece called “Plant Your Flag, Mark Your Territory,” which tried to impress upon readers the importance of creating accounts at websites like those at the Social Security Administration, the IRS and others before crooks do it for you. A key concept here is that these services only allow one account per Social Security number — which for better or worse is the de facto national identifier in the United States. But KrebsOnSecurity recently discovered that this is not the case with all federal government sites built to help you manage your identity online.

A reader who was recently the victim of unemployment insurance fraud said he was told he should create an account at the Department of Homeland Security’s myE-Verify website, and place a lock on his Social Security number (SSN) to minimize the chances that ID thieves might abuse his identity for employment fraud in the future.

[…]

Imagine my surprise when I was able to create a separate account as me with just a different email address (once again, the correct answers to all of the KBA questions was “none of the above”). Upon logging in, I noticed my SSN was indeed locked within E-Verify. So I chose to unlock it.

Did the system ask any of the challenge questions it had me create previously? Nope. It just reported that my SSN was now unlocked.

Previously: