October 2016 Archives

"Today's settlements make it clear that no company has a right to deceive New Yorkers for its own profit," New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement Tuesday, announcing the settlement.

Read entire article...

Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed into law a bill that could deal a blow to Airbnb's operations in New York State.

The bill is a follow-on to a 2010 law that bans rentals of less than 30 days in a multi-unit building if the tenant is not present, which was aimed at cracking down on illegal hotels.

The 2016 bill bans the advertising of such rentals, meaning that hosts could not list a full apartment for rent on Airbnb for less than 30-day increments. Hosts caught listing their unit would be fined up to $7,500 -- more than most Airbnb hosts in New York make in a year. 

The bill passed in both houses of the New York State Legislature in June and arrived on Cuomo's desk on Tuesday, meaning that the governor had 10 days to make his decision. The governor signed the bill Friday and Airbnb says it will immediately file a lawsuit against the city of New York and the state attorney general -- who are charged with enforcing the new law -- on grounds that the law violates the First Amendment and the Communications Decency Act.

By DAVID E. SANGER and NICOLE PERLROTHOCT. 22, 2016

Last month, when Apple (AAPL) released iOS 10, the latest system software for the iPhone/iPad, it made a big deal out of the major features, like a redesigned Music app and contextual predictions in Autocorrect.

But Apple's engineer elves worked for a year to overhaul iOS 10, and they've planted lots of hidden gems. In today's video, all in one 12-minute lesson, I'm happy to present a dozen of the best iOS 10 features that Apple forgot to mention.

(In this crash course, I didn't say anything about the new Messages app. That one gets a whole lesson unto itself!)

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EDITOR'S NOTE:  One tip on using the "Home" button is worth the read:

Eliminate the click

You can get an extra efficiency when it comes to waking up your phone by eliminating the requirement to click the Home button.

Instead, you can just touch your finger to it. That wakes the phone and unlocks it in a single motion.

To find this feature, open Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Home Button. Turn on "Rest finger to open."

Opponents were outraged at the payments, perceiving them as an attempt to buy votes, and complained to state officials.

But Michael O. Duane, senior assistant attorney general, said the payments did not violate state law. The proposal "doesn't say that the funds go only to those people who signed a sworn statement that they had voted for it," he said.

Still, the payment proposal has left a sour taste. As The Rutland Herald put it in an editorial on Sunday, "The naked offer of money to individual citizens may be even more corrosive to the civic life of the town than the potential environmental effects of the wind turbines."

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On this website, you can:

• Submit comments and suggestions on newly proposed rules before they are adopted
• See a schedule and map locations of upcoming public hearings on proposed rules
• Read newly adopted final rules
• Search the Rules of the City of New York
• Learn about the rulemaking process
• View copies of agencies' regulatory agendas explaining rules they anticipate proposing in the coming year
• Sign up for the City's weekly newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest rule making news

Dropbox has long been an essential service for iOS power users but you wouldn't know that based on their app. Today that changed with the release of a new version with several substantial new improvements including:

1. PDF Signing

2. Messages Support

3. Widget Support

4. Notifications and Lock Screen

5. Picture in Picture

David Sparks has more for you here...

Tax practitioners who missed the recent IRS webinar, "Protect your Clients, Protect Yourself from Data Theft," can now view it anytime on demand. In the broadcast, IRS and private sector experts discuss client data safeguards, legal requirements and best practices involving the handling of taxpayer data and tips for responding to a loss of taxpayer data.

Visit the Protect Your Clients, Protect Yourself page on IRS.gov for more information on identity theft scams targeting the tax professional community. The page includes links to publications such as Safeguarding Taxpayer Data, security alerts and educational videos.

"We are temporarily adjusting the Galaxy Note7 production schedule in order to take further steps to ensure quality and safety matters," a company spokesperson said. 

Production of the phone has been temporarily suspended, a person familiar with the matter told CNN on Monday.

Read more here...

HAA, Bhutan -- Under the gaze of the Buddhist god of wisdom, embodied in the form of a craggy hillside here, an American academic stood in front of 500 teenagers and posed a simple question: "What does a lawyer do?"

As the vice dean of Bhutan's first law school, the American, Michael Peil, has been doing a lot of explaining lately. Draped in the country's national dress, Mr. Peil and a Bhutanese colleague have spent the better part of six weeks traversing this Buddhist kingdom armed with fliers and a PowerPoint presentation.

For many students here in this western village, it was the first they had heard of plans to open the Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law, which will admit its inaugural class of about 25 students next spring for instruction at a temporary campus in Thimphu, the capital. A permanent campus is being built in Paro, to the west.

Read more here...

Authorities in the western Indian city of Thane said they were investigating another 630 people suspected of being involved in the extortion scam.

Workers at nine call centers allegedly impersonated IRS agents during calls to the U.S., according to local police commissioner Param Bir Singh. The victims were told they owed back taxes and would risk arrest if they hung up.

Singh told CNN the call center workers had been trained to speak with an American accent.

The call centers were making $150,000 a day for up to a year before being discovered. Money would be transferred by victims of the scheme to U.S. bank accounts before being sent to India.

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Read more here...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2 Brownfields team would like to invite you to participate in its upcoming Brownfields Proposal Guidelines Workshops (Helping Applicants Understand Grant Requirements).

The workshops will assist local government and nonprofit organizations to better understand the proposal criteria and selection process for EPA's Brownfields Assessment and Cleanup grants. The following topics will be addressed during the workshops:

• The different EPA Brownfield grant types and candidates eligible to apply
• The grant application process
• Proposal tips and strategies

Workshops will be held at locations in New York on October 25, November 3, and November 9, 2016.

Please use the following link for registration information:

http://www.dec.ny.gov/data/der/factsheet/epabfgrantws.pdf

The informational flyer is in PDF format. You can save, open, and read the flyer by using Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can go to the following web page on the NYSDEC web site to download the program for free: http://www.dec.ny.gov/about/590.html .

In "ScanSnap Users Should Delay Sierra Upgrades" (20 September 2016), we warned users of Fujitsu's ScanSnap scanners to avoid upgrading to macOS 10.12 Sierra, based on the company's dire predictions of potential data loss. Happily, it turns out that Fujitsu was just playing it safe until its engineers were able to pin down the exact conflicts, and they turn out to be far more minor than previously predicted.

In its updated notice, Fujitsu (a TidBITS sponsor) now outlines three activities that ScanSnap users should avoid when running in Sierra:

Read entire article here, with activities listed...