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On the 19th of July 2024, when the CrowdStrike software bug hit, IT systems around the world suddenly failed, leading to disruptions at offices, stores, airports. train stations, hospitals, and more. Here is what really happened, in layman’s language.
Image source:Tesla Enthusiast.
Technology is great and digital technology, especially, has brought us wonderful advancements in the last several years. But, in light of the Internet breakdown of July 19, 2024, you have to ask yourself if your refrigerator or other home appliance really needs to be connected to the Internet. Because, on this great day, when IT systems around the world shut down, it threw the world into near-chaos.
- Introducing CrowdStrike
- Effects of the CrowdStrike software bug
- Does your fridge need to be Internet-connected?
- Severity
- Moving Forward
All around the world, when the CrowdStrike software bug happened, hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected business systems went offline, throwing the world into panic. Naturally, there were initial questions about whether this was the result of a hack job, but the problem was quickly identified as coming from a buggy software.
IntroducingCrowdStrike
CrowdStrike is a cybersecurity company that most people in the world are hearing about for the first time, thanks to this global crisis that they were responsible for. What happened was that the company , issued a software update for its flagship security product called Falcon Sensor . This update had a bug that caused any Windows computers with Falcon installed to crash without fully loading. You can imagine the rest of the story; right?
Windows operating system runs on millions of devices all over the world. It is the most widely used operating system outside of cell phones. It is especially prevalent in enterprise or business circles. While it does not directly power cell phones and IoT devices , many systems that those devices depend on for connectivity and processing were affected as well.
Effects of the CrowdStrike software bug
When the CrowdStrike software bug hit IT systems, flights were grounded at airports, train stations basically ground to a halt, and banking systems went silent. Stores experienced the failure of their payment systems and could accept only cash. Broadcasting stations, hospitals, educational institutions, and others, all took a hit. For the hours before the the problem was identified, isolated and fixed, the world of commerce took a massive hit. And no-one should be surprised about that. This kind of outage is an occupational hazard of modern business systems.
No-one ought to be surprised that a singular event like this was capable of taking down IT systems, and causing widespread mayhem, the world over. That risk has always been there, and if it can happen, given enough time, it will happen. And when it did this time, the first outages of this pre-zombie apocalypse happened in Australia and quickly spread to Asia, Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world.
It will not be surprising to hear news that malicious actors took advantage of the outage to inflict further harm to businesses and individuals around the world. Bad people love and thrive in times of chaos.
Does your fridge need to be Internet-connected?
Someone tweeted , in jest, that due to the outage, they could not open their smart fridge. Bants. Jest. The fridge in the tweeted image likely does not run Windows 10 or 11, and so it is very unlikely that the CrowdStrike software bug had any direct impact on it. But then, who knows what the next bug or hack will affect? Perhaps embedded home appliances? Or even electric cars?
The question is, why does your refrigerator or washing machine and other similar consumer electronics need to be connected to the Internet? Why the risk of immediate hunger because of a software bug or some other issue that can take down fridges and other home appliances?
As you may already know, there are multiple possible things that can trigger a shutdown of this kind. This time, it was a software bug; next time, it could be terrorists hacking into a foundational IT system. Or just some college kid messing around with a fancy new hacking software.
Imagine someone living in a smart home that was affected by this outage and they found them-self trapped inside and unable to go out because the doors and windows are all controlled by an Internet-connected system. Perhaps it did happen and I just haven’t gotten wind of the story yet. Or am I blowing this out of proportion?
Severity
Which leads to the question: How severe were the disruptions caused by the CrowdStrike software bug? I will put it at a number 7, on a scale of 1 to 10. The disruptions were massive, severe, and widespread.
Moving Forward
All of the world’s super-computing systems are sitting on multiple technological fault lines, any one of which can give way at any time, whether from a buggy software update, a hack, or some other issue that compromises it. How prepared are we to deal with the worst case scenarios of these possibilities? The CrowdStrike software bug episode is a reminder or an early warning of what is possible. The question is, Will we learn from it and adjust or will we move on and get on with our lives like nothing happened?
Author:Mister Mobility
Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004
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If you are hunting for Apple iPhones with telephoto lens, I have taken the time to draw up the list for you. In addition, this article explains and shows you how to figure out which future models will have the same feature. This is because Apple has a clear-cut strategy for determining which models get the feature.
How useful is a telephoto lens on a cell phone ? Telephoto lens offer one major benefit – the ability to zoom in ( Optical zoom ) on a scene or a subject without losing any detail. Other phones offer digital zoom, which is the phone using clever software to crop into the subject you want to focus on. Optical zoom is true zoom. As such, iPhones with a telephoto lens enable you to take fantastic, detailed zoom shots.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max is one of the best iPhones with telephoto lenses
- 2024 iPhones with telephoto lens
- Older iPhones with telephoto lens
- The best Apple iPhone with telephoto lens
Which iPhones have a telephoto lens? Here is a comprehensive list of Apple’s darlings equipped with a telephoto lens in the last four years. If you opt to buy any of these phones listed below, you will be getting a solid camera phone.
2024 iPhones with telephoto lens
- Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
- Apple iPhone 15 Pro (see our hands-on review )
The iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max are the only models released in 2023 that Apple fitted with a telephoto lens. This means they are the best ones you can buy for much of 2024, until newer models are released in October. In October, the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max will arrive to join the list.
Older iPhones with telephoto lens
- Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max
- Apple iPhone 14 Pro
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro max
- Apple iPhone 13 Pro
- Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max
- Apple iPhone 12 Pro
Looking at the above list, you must have noticed a pattern: they comprise of only the iPhone Pro and Pro Max models flagship models. All the iPhones with telephoto lens are are the top two models for each year.
A telephoto lens is an advanced piece of work, and an expensive item, too. The cost of a telephoto lens is part of the reason behind the price differences between the non-Pro models and the Pro models. Outside of Apple’s world, telephoto lenses are a rare occurrence outside of premium flagships.
For example, the iPhone SE series lack a telephoto lens, and those phones’ cameras do not measure up to those of the higher end iPhones. One fairly easy way to tell if a camera phone is top notch is to check whether a telephoto lens is on the list of features and specs. If it is, you are looking at a solid camera phone.
To answer the question, Which Apple iPhones have a telephoto lens? The answer is: the iPhone Pro models. These are models that have a “Pro” in their names e.g. iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. You can use this simple hack to figure out which future models will have telephoto lens. Of course, Apple may change their approach at any time and include telephoto lens in other class of phones. But you can almost be 100% sure that the iPhone Pro models will almost always have it.
iPhone 12 Pro Max camera with telephoto lens and sensor-shift image stabilization
The best Apple iPhone with telephoto lens
As at July 2024 when this article was originally written, the best Apple iPhone with a telephoto lens was the iPhone 15 Pro Max . Its amazing periscope telephoto camera allows for up to 5x optical zoom and has produced some of the most fantastic zoom photography ever on a mobile phone.
Author:Mister Mobility
Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004
