Apple Updates iMacs; T-Mobile 5G Net-Better Indoor & Rural Coverage; Google Brings Nearby Share to Android; Microsoft-Much Bigger Bug Bounties

Apple freshened its iMacs today. Theverge.com reports that both the 21.5 inch and 27 inch models get Intel’s 10th ten Comet Lake processors, and the webcams will also be 1080p HD instead of the low-res 720p ones found on other Macs. SSDs are now standard across the line. There are a raft of configurations, but the base 27 inch iMac starts at $1799, and the entry level 21.5 inch iMac is priced at $1099. They ship next week. Note that the powerhouse iMac Pro is not getting updated at this time.

An Apple feature I use daily is AirDrop..which lets me send a file from my phone to my laptop, or vice versa. Now, Google is bringing this handy feature (albeit with a different name) to Android devices. According to businessinsider.com, Google calls it ‘Nearby Share.’ It will allow sharing between Android devices, and also will be coming to Chromebook in the next few months. It will work on Android 6.0 and higher. Google Pixels and some Samsung phones will be first to get the update with the new feature.

By now, most everyone has heard about the blindingly faster speed coming with 5G networks and phones. Cnet.com says that’s not all. T-Mobile’s 5G network upgrade is also bringing better indoor and rural coverage. T-Mobile claims its Standalone 5G doesn’t have to be anchored to any existing 4G LTE service, which allows them to offer better coverage and performance. For one thing, you won’t get the latency that happens on nets that are tied to older LTE services. This will make the net seem much faster. T-Mobile claims latency improvements of up to 40%. You should have pretty glitch free streaming over this new network, even if indoors or out further into the countryside.

Microsoft has stepped up its bounty game for bug finds, paying out $13.7 million to security researchers since last July. Zdnet.com reports that now Microsoft’s bounties have far exceeded Google’s, which were about $6.5 million in 2019. So far this year, 11 zero-day vulnerabilities have been squashed, and Microsoft patched a grand total of 115 vulnerabilities in just March alone.