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Ionic 7 framework is here!

Ionic 7 is the latest and greatest version of the popular mobile app development framework. It’s so good, it’ll make you want to put on your favorite coding socks and dance around your computer like nobody’s watching.

But in all seriousness, Ionic 7 offers some fantastic benefits over its older versions. Its improved performance will have your app running like a well-oiled machine, or at least like a machine that’s had a few cups of coffee in the morning. And with the updated design system, your app will look so good it’ll make your users wonder why they ever bothered with other apps in the first place.

And let’s not forget Capacitor 3, the native runtime that allows developers to build cross-platform mobile apps using web technologies. It’s like having a magical wand that can turn your web app into a mobile app with just a few flicks of your wrist.

But upgrading to Ionic 7 isn’t just a walk in the park, it’s more like a marathon. You’ll need to update your dependencies, configuration files, and code. It’s enough to make a developer break out in a cold sweat, or at least reach for the coffee (or energy drink) to power through.

But fear not, intrepid developer! Once you’ve upgraded and tested your app, you can sit back and relax knowing that you’ve done your part to keep up with the latest and greatest in mobile app development. And who knows, maybe your app will become the next big thing and you’ll be able to retire to a tropical island with nothing but your laptop and a good book (or maybe just a good IDE).

So what are you waiting for? Upgrade to Ionic 7 and start building mobile apps that will make your users say “Wow, this app is so great I want to give the developers a hug… or at least a virtual high-five.”

Benefits of Upgrading to Ionic 7

Upgrading your Ionic app to version 7 offers several benefits:

  • Improved Performance: Ionic 7 comes with a faster rendering engine and improved performance optimizations that can significantly improve the speed of your app.
  • Updated Design System: The new version of Ionic features an updated design system that provides a more modern and polished look for your app. It also comes with new UI components that can enhance the user experience of your app.
  • Support for Modern Web Platform Features: Ionic 7 is built on top of the latest web technologies, which means that it comes with support for modern web platform features such as CSS grid, CSS variables, and more.
  • Bug Fixes and Security Improvements: Upgrading to Ionic 7 ensures that your app benefits from the latest bug fixes and security improvements.

To upgrade your Ionic app to version 7, follow these simple steps:

  1. Check Compatibility: Before upgrading, check the Ionic documentation to ensure that your existing app is compatible with version 7.
  2. Update Dependencies: Use the npm-check-updates tool to update your project’s dependencies to the latest version of Ionic.
  3. Update Configuration Files: Update your project’s configuration files, such as package.json and angular.json, to reflect the changes in version 7.
  4. Update Code: Update your app’s code to use the new APIs and components introduced in Ionic 7.
  5. Test Your App: After updating your code, test your app thoroughly to ensure that it works as expected.
  6. Deploy Your App: Once you have updated and tested your app, deploy it to your production environment.

By upgrading your Ionic app to version 7, you can take advantage of these benefits and build high-quality mobile apps using web technologies.

  • Ionic Academy – A comprehensive collection of Ionic tutorials ranging from beginner to advanced levels.
  • Official Ionic Docs – The official documentation for Ionic 6, covering everything from installation to advanced topics.
  • Simon Grimm’s Tutorials – A series of Ionic 6 tutorials by Simon Grimm, covering a range of topics from beginner to advanced.
  • Josh Morony’s Tutorials – A collection of Ionic 6 tutorials by Josh Morony, with a focus on practical examples and real-world use cases.
  • Angular Firebase’s Tutorials – A set of tutorials on building Ionic 6 apps with Firebase integration by Angular Firebase.
  • Javabrains’ Tutorials – A series of video tutorials covering the basics of Ionic 6 by Javabrains.

How Much Access Does Facebook App Have?

These are the permissions Facebook app has on Android devices:

Device & app history:

Retrieve running apps

Storage:

– read the contents of your USB storage
– modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Location:

– approximate location (network-based)
– precise location (GPS and network-based)

Phone:

– write call log
– read phone status and identity
– read call log
– directly call phone numbers

Microphone:

– record audio

Identity:

– add or remove accounts
– read your own contact card
– find accounts on the device

Wi-Fi connection information

– view Wi-Fi connections

SMS:

– read your text messages (SMS or MMS)

Calendar:

– add or modify calendar events and send email to guests without owners’ knowledge
– read calendar events plus confidential information

Contacts:

– read your contacts
– modify your contacts
– find accounts on the device

Device ID & call information:

– read phone status and identity

Photos/Media/Files:

– read the contents of your USB storage
– modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Camera:

– take pictures and videos

Other:

download files without notification
receive data from Internet
adjust your wallpaper size
control Near Field Communication
create accounts and set passwords

toggle sync on and off
view network connections
send sticky broadcast
change your audio settings
set wallpaper

reorder running apps
modify system settings
read sync settings
install shortcuts
prevent device from sleeping
connect and disconnect from Wi-Fi

pair with Bluetooth devices
run at startup
read battery statistics
full network access
control vibration

expand/collapse status bar
access Bluetooth settings
draw over other apps
read Google service configuration
change network connectivity

How to Set proper Rules on Google Firebase DB

How to Set proper Rules on Google Firebase DB:

Here is an example of a pretty simple rules setting. We don’t want just anyone to access user information. The users sub directory is restricted to the user logged in. The rest is fully restricted and is only accessible via admin api.

service cloud.firestore {
  match /databases/{database}/documents {
    // Make sure the uid of the requesting user matches name of the user
    // document. The wildcard expression {userId} makes the userId variable
    // available in rules.
    match /someusercollection/{userID}/{document=**} {
      allow read, update, delete: if request.auth.uid == userId;
      allow create: if request.auth.uid != null;
    }
    match /somecollection/{document=**} {
      allow read, update, delete, create: if false;
    }
  }
}

Read more on the Firebase Docs.

Raspberry PI used to hack NASA Secrets

Engadget reporting:

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) suffers from multiple cybersecurity weaknesses despite the advances it has achieved in space technology, according to the agency’s Office of Inspector General (PDF). Investigators looked into the research center’s network security controls after an April 2018 security breach, wherein a Raspberry Pi that was not authorized to be linked to the JPL network was targeted by hackers. The attackers were able to steal 500 megabytes of data from one of its major mission systems, and they also used that chance to find a gateway that allowed them to go deeper into JPL’s network.

Probably happens all the time.

All The Things Game of Thrones Left Hanging in the Air

The Verge has the full list:

A few of my favorites:

Where did the Dothraki go?

Unclear. There’s a clear shot of some Dothraki just chilling by the docks in King’s Landing while Jon makes his sad walk to his boat, but while there’s some clear information about why the Unsullied didn’t riot, kill Jon Snow, and take the city themselves, the same courtesy isn’t given the Dothraki, who were apparently pretty chill about their queen being murdered.

Given that they only came to Westeros to serve Dany and help her kill the men in metal suits and break their stone houses, it’s not clear what they have to do now, especially with their Khaleesi dead. Still, for a Dothraki fighter, the whole Westeros trip was probably a pretty successful vacation, given those goals.

What about the Unsullied?

While Tyrion does offer them land in the Reach and the chance to become a house of Westeros, we see Grey Worm captaining a ship of Unsullied later in the episode, alongside a fleet of similarly black-sailed ships. It’s not entirely clear whether the entire band of Unsullied is joining Grey Worm as he sails to Naath, presumably to liberate Missandei’s people. But it does seem likely that they’re going collectively.

It seems that with or without Daenerys to lead them, the Unsullied will continue to fight to liberate people — a fitting ending for the freed slaves.

Why does the North just get to stay independent?

It’s a little strange that Sansa casually breaks the North away from the rest of the Seven (now Six) Kingdoms in accordance with the North’s well-established independent streak, and the lords of the Vale, the Riverlands, Casterly Rock, Storm’s End, the Reach, and Dorne don’t have the faintest word to say about their own status.

Honestly, there’s no real reason why the North should get its independence — especially since, say, Dorne is a far more independent kingdom, which joined the Seven Kingdoms two centuries after Aegon conquered the others. Dorne has historically been far more independently minded than the North, even though the North’s rebellion against the Iron Throne got a lot more air time on the show.

What’s Daario up to?

Daario Naharis was part of the Mereen subplot on the show. He eventually led the Second Sons, a mercenary company, and was one of Daenerys’ paramours, as well as part of her inner circle when she led the city. But when Daenerys leaves for Westeros at the end of the sixth season, she leaves Daario behind in Meereen alongside the Second Sons, and we haven’t seen him since.

Given his importance to Daenerys and the large military force he commands, it’s possible that the show could have brought him back for the war against Cersei, but it seems like Daario is still stuck in Mereen.

A Retro Adventure Game Creator for Your Favorite Handheld Video Game System

John Gruber via Daring Fireball:

GB Studio is “A free and easy to use retro adventure game creator for your favourite handheld video game system”, by which they mean, but don’t want to name specifically, Nintendo’s GameBoy.

What a fun idea from developer Chris Maltby. You can output ROMs for emulators, play them on actual GameBoy hardware with a flash cartridge, or even export them for the web (which will even work on phones). It’s a remarkably polished IDE.

Get it here.

What is SoftBank, and who is behind the Silicon Valley’s largest VC fund?

Recode:

SoftBank is a Tokyo-based company founded almost four decades ago by Masayoshi Son at the age of 24. What started as a store for computer parts has become one of Japan’s most important public companies, valued at over $115 billion. It now is essentially a tech, media, and telecom conglomerate — it owns more than 80 percent of Sprint, more than one-quarter of Alibaba, and 100 percent of the robotics company Boston Dynamics, whose nightmare-inducing animatronics might be familiar to you.

But SoftBank in recent years has been transitioning from a Verizon or AT&T of Japan to something like more of a Blackstone of the world, intentionally moving from a telecom-based giant to a global investing vehicle — thanks, largely, to the Vision Fund.

To understand SoftBank is to understand Son, an eccentric, Star Wars-quoting, diminutive man who is known in the world of high finance solely as “Masa.” To his fans, Son is a daring savant, whose early investment in Alibaba has become part of venture capital lore and at one point made him one of the richest men in the world. To his detractors, Son is an arrogant fool who got lucky once but has since run roughshod over a venture capital system that was already working.

Scary & interesting read.

Uber Stock is a Disaster

Gizmodo reporting:

According to one analyst, the company may be profitable by 2024, though its only real plan so far is to continue to screw workers and eventually replace them with unproven technology. As former CEO Travis Kalanick said in 2014, “the reason that Uber could be expensive is you’re not just paying for the car, you’re paying for the other dude in the car who’s driving.”

Presently, investors are probably realizing that what they’re paying for is an unsustainable company so huge that its main justification for existing is sunk cost.

Ouch.

Facebook Deleted Mark Zuckerberg Early Posts

Business Insider:

Old Facebook posts by Mark Zuckerberg have disappeared — obscuring details about core moments in Facebook’s history.

On multiple occassions, years-old public posts made by the 34-year-old billionaire chief executive that were previously public and reported on by news outlets at the time have since vanished, Business Insider has found. That includes all of the posts he made during 2007 and 2008.

Reached for comment, a Facebook spokesperson said the posts were “mistakenly deleted” due to “technical errors.”

Right. Mistake.

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Facebook Saved Passwords in Regular Text File

Ars Technica:

Brian Krebs reports that hundreds of millions of Facebook users had their credentials logged in plain text by various applications written by Facebook employees. Those credentials were searched by about 2,000 Facebook engineers and developers more than 9 million times, according to a senior Facebook employee who spoke to Krebs; the employee asked to remain anonymous because they did not have permission to speak to the press on the matter.

In a blog post today, Facebook Vice President of Engineering, Security, and Privacy Pedro Canahuati wrote that the unencrypted passwords were found during “a routine security review in January” on Facebook’s internal network data storage. “This caught our attention because our login systems are designed to mask passwords using techniques that make them unreadable. We have fixed these issues and, as a precaution, we will be notifying everyone whose passwords we have found were stored in this way.”

Not surprised.

Eggs Are Bad For You, Again

Gizmodo:

Ultimately, they found there was a 17 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease associated with every extra 300 milligrams of dietary cholesterol a day, along with an 18 percent increased risk of early death, even after adjusting for factors like the amount of calories eaten per day. And each extra half-egg a day was similarly linked to a 6 percent and 8 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease and early death, respectively.

The link between egg consumption and poorer health went away after accounting for a person’s cholesterol intake, suggesting their high cholesterol content was the principle reason behind the increased risk.

F***