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### Linked by Dan Moren

March 6, 2016 1:46 PM PT

# Transmission Bit Torrent client possibly infected with malware

Some copies of Transmission, a popular OS X Bit Torrent client, have reportedly been infected with a ransomware program, according to security researchers Palo Alto Networks:

> The KeRanger application was signed with a valid Mac app development certificate; therefore, it was able to bypass Apple’s Gatekeeper protection. If a user installs the infected apps, an embedded executable file is run on the system. KeRanger then waits for for three days before connecting with command and control (C2) servers over the Tor anonymizer network. The malware then begins encrypting certain types of document and data files on the system. After completing the encryption process, KeRanger demands that victims pay one bitcoin (about $400) to a specific address to retrieve their files. Additionally, KeRanger appears to still be under active development and it seems the malware is also attempting to encrypt Time Machine backup files to prevent victims from recovering their back-up data.

Oof. At least that 3-day waiting period gives a window for folks to remove the infected apps. I checked all three of my Macs, which all had the reportedly infected version, but none of them appeared to include the malware. It’s a good idea to do the same if you’re concerned. Instructions for checking are at the address above, and at Transmission’s website.

Ads via the Deck

### Podcast

March 6, 2016 • 1 hour, 31 minutes

# The Incomparable #290: Team Bucket

The recently released game “Firewatch,” by Campo Santo and Panic, is the subject of discussion on this week’s episode of The Incomparable. This is a game that’s got a plot, but so much of the richness comes from characters and dialogue. Also, there are a lot of trees. Jason is joined by John Siracusa, Tiffany Arment, Serenity Caldwell, Tony Sindelar, and Brian Hamilton.

### Linked by Jason Snell

March 6, 2016 10:19 AM PT

# A marvelous marble-based music machine

Michael Rundle at Wired UK:

> The Wintergatan Marble Machine, built by Swedish musician Martin Molin and filmed by Hannes Knutsson, is a hand-made music box that powers a kick drum, bass, vibraphone and other instruments using a hand crank and 2,000 marbles.

The video of it in operation is amazing.

### Sponsor

March 5, 2016 10:09 AM PT

# Six Colors Subscriptions ↦

We didn’t have a sponsor this week, so all the pay we got for the work we did on the site this week came thanks to Six Colors subscribers. Thank you, subscribers!

If you would like to support Jason and Dan and the site, consider becoming a member today. It’s $6/month or $60/year. Subscribers get benefits including a monthly email magazine and access to a subscriber-only weekly podcast featuring Dan and Jason.

### Linked by Jason Snell

March 4, 2016 4:29 PM PT

# Simple automation

I’m spending some time building some complex workflows in Keyboard Maestro—more on those in the future. But it’s worth reading Dr. Drang’s post on the benefits of even the simplest automation.

### By Jason Snell

March 4, 2016 9:12 AM PT

# Automate This: Connect to the Web with cURL

One of the best utilities on the Mac is one you might not be familiar with, because it requires the use of Terminal. It’s cURL, and it’s a valuable part of my scripting, automation, and debugging toolbox.

`curl` is a command-line utility that works kind of like a web browser. I use it mostly to download web content or ping web services. Using cURL for a lot of basic tasks is quite easy. Just type `curl` followed by a web address, and you’ll see that web page spewed across your Terminal window. type `curl https://sixcolors.com/ > sixcolors.html` and you’ll have dumped the contents of that URL to a file in your user folder.

As a person who does a lot of podcast-related stuff, I am occasionally called upon to debug a podcast’s feed. Podcast feed files are XML files, and don’t display in a friendly way in a web browser. No problem — I use cURL to download the file and open it in my text editor of choice, BBEdit.

    curl http://feeds.theincomparable.com/tpk > tpk.rss ; bbedit tpk.rss

This is the command I usually use — it’s actually two commands in one, separated by a semicolon. The first command downloads the RSS feed to a text file; the second uses the `bbedit` command-line utility1 to open the resulting file directly in BBEdit.

You could also omit the BBEdit step and direct cURL to save the file to a more convenient location, like the Desktop:

    curl http://feeds.theincomparable.com/tpk > ~/Desktop/tpk.rss

When I wanted to use IFTTT to automate some stuff in my house, I needed my computer to activate one of IFTTT’s “custom triggers” simply by loading a particular URL, in the format https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/trigger-name-here/with/key/key-goes-here. In other words:

    curl https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/mytrigger/with/key/this-is-my-key

The app I’m using for this particular trigger can’t run Terminal commands itself, but it can launch apps. One great thing about terminal commands is that they’re easily integrated into AppleScript or Automator workflows. In this case, the “app” my app launches is this:

    do shell script "curl https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/mytrigger/with/key/this-is-my-key"

That’s it. With cURL and the AppleScript command “do shell script” (or the Automator equivalent, the Run Shell Script action), you can quickly and cleanly automate Web connections without using a web browser. And scripting aside, cURL is quite useful in downloading content from the Internet that you want to view in something other than a web browser2.

1. BBEdit ships with three different command-line tools! Pretty awesome. ↩

2. As with most command-line software, there’s a lot more to cURL. Type `man curl` or visit the online documentation to see all the options. ↩

### Dan Moren for Macworld

March 4, 2016 5:52 AM PT

# 3 ways Apple could improve email ↦

Despite all the many forms of communicating with people online—iMessage, Twitter, Facebook, Slack—email still reigns supreme for me. I conduct business via email, keep in touch with my family, send links to friends, and coordinate events. And yet, Apple’s approach to email has remained largely static for years.

That’s not to say that the company hasn’t tried to integrate new features into the email experience. Hardly a release of iOS or OS X comes without some improvements to the Mail app. While some are more successful than others, overall our email has hardly been—I hesitate to even whisper the word—disrupted.

Despite the surfeit of ways for us to communicate, I don’t think email is going away anytime soon. And while dealing with it may not be the most pleasant of tasks, a few changes might bring it up to date with the rest of our modern online experience.

Continue reading on Macworld ↦

### Linked by Jason Snell

March 3, 2016 7:33 PM PT

# San Bernardino DA: iPhone may hold “dormant cyber pathogen”

David Kravets of Ars Technica, quoting Michael Ramos, the San Bernardino County District Attorney:

> “The seized iPhone may contain evidence that can only be found on the seized phone that it was used as a weapon to introduce a lying dormant cyber pathogen that endangers San Bernardino’s infrastructure,” according to a court filing…

> Jonathan Zdziarski, a prominent iPhone forensics expert, said in a telephone interview that the district attorney is suggesting that a “magical unicorn might exist on this phone.”

Michael Ramos may have watched too many episodes of “24”. I suspect he’s also a probationary member of the Golden Key Wizard Society. He can come to meetings on his magical unicorn.

### Linked by Jason Snell

March 3, 2016 2:55 PM PT

# Apple shareholders reject board diversity plan

The Guardian:

> Apple shareholders have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would require the board of America’s largest company to adopt an “accelerated recruitment policy” for minorities among company leaders.

This is the shareholder proposal that Apple opposed in January, formally failing. Apple opposed the proposal on the grounds that it was “unduly burdensome and not necessary because Apple has demonstrated to shareholders its commitment to inclusion and diversity.”

### By Jason Snell

March 3, 2016 9:56 AM PT

# Amazon Echo Dot and Sonos? Not… yet.

Sonos Play:5 comes with a line-in jack.

As Dan wrote about earlier today, Amazon has expanded the Echo family, and I’m intrigued by the $90 Echo Dot. It seems to be the original Amazon Echo, with most of its speaker technology sliced out, so it’s shorter and cheaper. Instead of having the better-quality speakers of the original, the Echo Dot is made to work in contexts where audio quality is less important (as a bedside clock radio, for example) or with external audio sources, such as Bluetooth speakers or any speaker that can use a standard headphone jack.

Echo Dot can play out via a headphone jack. Buddies?

As someone with a couple of Sonos speakers in my house, I immediately wondered if this might be the first step toward a joyous combination of Sonos’s whole-home audio system and Amazon Echo’s smart voice control. It might very well be, but Sonos and Amazon really need to work together if this is going to be a bountiful relationship.

An esoteric, somewhat unsung Sonos feature could be helpful: If you’ve got a Sonos device with a line-in jack (such as a Play:5 speaker or a Connect), you can connect an external device like the Echo Dot and use it as an audio source. Most important is an esoteric feature called Line-In Autoplay, which will force a Sonos device to immediately switch to the line-in jack if it detects any audio being played by the device on the other end. Without this feature turned on, you have to manually switch a Sonos speaker to the line-in input before you can hear the audio.

With a device like the Echo Dot (or an AirPort Express), you wouldn’t want to have to get out your phone and launch the Sonos app before you could even hear what was going on. You’d want to ask Alexa a question and hear the answer, even if that meant the music you listened to would be paused while the interaction went on. It looks like Sonos and the Dot can do that today.

Still, it’s only a first step. Amazon’s Echo infrastructure currently has no support for Sonos speakers.1 If Sonos cut a deal with Amazon to allow you to control Sonos audio from the Echo, most of the problems here would vanish entirely. (You might not even need to attach the Echo Dot’s audio to your Sonos system at all, since Sonos already supports pretty much all the audio sources that the Echo supports.) I’d love to be able to voice control Sonos with an Echo or Echo Dot.

If you’re someone who wants to use an Amazon Echo with a home stereo system or a really nice external speaker, the Echo Dot seems like it’s going to be a great addition. If you’ve already got a Sonos system, though, I don’t think the existence of the Echo Dot will help you much. But if Sonos and Amazon can agree to talk to each other, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

1. There’s a hack for this on GitHub if you want to play around with that. I don’t think I do. And there’s no official IFTTT support for Sonos, either. ↩

### Linked by Dan Moren

March 3, 2016 9:35 AM PT

# Apple Support now available via Twitter

For those times when you just can’t make it to the Genius Bar, now you can tweet to get support, tips, and tricks from Apple.

Cupertino has been incredibly strategic about its use of Twitter. Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Eddy Cue, and other executives have certainly started using the platform more in the past few years, and there have long been accounts for the App Store and iTunes Trailers, and more recently Apple Music. But for all of that, there is still no official Apple Twitter account1.

What’s most interesting about this to me is that it’s the first of Apple’s Twitter accounts that’s actually based on listening and responding to people. The rest, including Apple executives for the most part, are one-way experiences that focus on broadcasting information.

1. In fact, @apple is an account from 2011 that has never posted and yet has 37 thousand followers. ↩

### Podcast

March 3, 2016 • 54 minutes

# The Rebound 75: Siriously?

It should have been a short show, really. It should have. But after Dan, John, and Lex discuss some developments in the Apple-FBI case—including the fact that yes, you can get C-SPAN online for free!—and then discuss the rumored upcoming Apple event, we launch into a discussion of the Apple Watch’s successes and failures as we approach its first anniversary. There may be some yelling. Happy 75th episode!

### Linked by Dan Moren

March 3, 2016 7:38 AM PT

# Apple posts amicus briefs in FBI case

As the Case of the Locked iPhone1 moves on to the next phase, Apple has posted a list of supporting amicus—or “friends of the court”—briefs to its website. Included in the list so far are the ACLU, a relative of the San Bernardino victims, an official of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, the App Association, and Access Now.

Conspicuously absent at present are any other technology companies, though it’s still early. The next stage in the case is a hearing to be held before Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym on March 22 in Riverside, California, the day after Apple’s rumored to hold its next press event.

1. Worst Sherlock Holmes story ever. ↩

### Linked by Dan Moren

March 3, 2016 7:28 AM PT

# Bustin’ makes me feel good

Hey, it’s the first trailer for the Ghostbusters reboot with Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Chris Hemsworth!

I kind of wish the titlecards didn’t lean on the old franchise, especially when it seems like this is a complete and utter reboot, but I guess that’s marketing for you.

Also starring are Charles Dance (!!!), batter known as Tywin Lannister from Game of Thrones, and Michael K. Williams, aka Omar Little from The Wire. The whole thing is directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) and comes out on July 15.

### By Dan Moren

March 3, 2016 7:05 AM PT

# The Amazon Echo family expands by two

Meet Dot and Tap. No, they’re not lovable cartoon characters—they’re new additions to Amazon’s Echo family of smart, connected speakers.

The Dot is essentially a small version of the existing Echo, just 1.5 inches tall, as opposed to the Echo’s 9.9 inches. From what I can tell, it has all of the features of the Echo, as well as two new tricks up its sleeve: it includes a standard 3.5mm audio output jack, letting you connect it to an existing set of speakers; and it can connect to Bluetooth speakers as well, so you can pipe music from online music sources—Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora—to better speakers. (The Dot includes its own internal speaker, but given the size difference, I’d guess it’s not as good as the Echo’s speaker, which itself wasn’t going to win any awards.) At $90, it’s half the price of the full blown Echo, but there is one catch: currently it’s only available to order via an Amazon Echo, thanks to apparently limited supplies.1 It ships at the end of March.

The Tap is, as rumored, a smaller portable version of the Echo—6.2 inches tall and 2.6 inches in diameter—complete with a rechargeable battery and charging cradle (you can also charge it via micro-USB). Despite sharing most of its siblings’ capabilities, though, it lacks one significant feature: you can’t address it by saying “Alexa”; instead, like a pre-6s iPhone, you need to tap a button on the side to trigger the voice assistant. Amazon says the battery should be good for up to 9 hours of playback, and the Tap will even announce to you when its juice is running low. It also has a 3.5mm audio input port, if you don’t want to connect an audio source via Bluetooth. The Tap runs $130, plus another $20 if you want the Sling case that makes it look like a waterbottle. Like the Dot, it ships at the end of March.

As my favorite gadget of 2015, I’ve been overwhelmingly positive about the Echo, and I’m intrigued to see what these new additions offer. Of the two, the Dot is probably the less exciting, although its lower price point is firmly within “impulse buy” territory, which could bring in new users who have been curious about the Echo. The portability of the Tap is interesting: at $130, it’s not cheap, but it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg more than comparable portable Bluetooth speakers (as Amazon’s product page is quick to note). I wonder if having to manually trigger Alexa will dull some of the appeal, but perhaps it’s better to consider this as a Bluetooth speaker with Alexa capability than an Echo you can tote around with you.

I’m also pretty convinced that within the next year or two, there will be a portable Echo with the voice-activated Alexa prompt. Amazon has been extremely diligent about bringing new features to the Echo, and I’ve definitely gotten attached to the device. Seems like these new models provide a good opportunity for Amazon to spread the love.

1. To forestall questions: Yes, I ordered one. In the name of science, people! ↩

[Dan Moren is a freelance writer, podcaster, and former Macworld editor. You can email him at dan@sixcolors.com or find him on Twitter at @dmoren.]

### By Jason Snell

March 3, 2016 7:00 AM PT

# Quick Tip: Push notifications from Mac to Apple Watch

Last month, reader Patrick M. wrote in with an interesting question:

> I was wondering if you knew of a way to easily push Mac notifications to an Apple Watch? I’ve been doing a lot of FCPX exports and typically leave my iMac while it completes. I’d love to be notified while I’m out when it’s done. The same goes for any number of time intensive apps or jobs I have my Mac do. Just thought you might have ran into something that might be a good solution.

There was a time that I pushed notifications to my iPhone from my Mac, using Growl and the first iteration of the Boxcar app for iOS. After trying a few things, though, I don’t think the current implementation of Boxcar for iOS is reliable enough to use here.

A Mac notification, right on my Apple Watch.

Instead, I found success with a combination of Growl ($4 from the Mac App Store and Prowl ($3 from the iOS App Store).

Growl is a Mac utility that lets you send custom notifications from your Mac. In many ways it’s been subsumed by Notification Center, but it’s still got some skills—like the ability to trigger actions other than displaying an alert bubble—that OS X doesn’t offer by itself. The Prowl app comes with a Growl plug-in that allows you to set Growl to trigger a Prowl notification on your iPhone (and, yes, Apple Watch).

Is this pretty? No. In fact, both apps are not particularly attractive, but they do the job. Once you sign up for a Prowl account, you can get an API key and paste that into the Prowl action within Growl, which connects your Mac to the Prowl app on your iPhone. Once that’s done, you can alert yourself on your watch whenever your Mac needs you.

And since this is all done via the Internet, you don’t need to be near your Mac to be alerted about what it’s doing. I once got a Growl alert on my phone that a video encode had completed when I was at one of my daughter’s softball games. I like the idea that my Mac can reach out and find me if it needs me.

Now, the app you want to notify you needs to support Growl for this to work. (I had to open HandBrake’s preferences and change its notification setting to Growl before it would work, for instance.) But once I did that, I was receiving notifications that my video encoding job had finished, right on my Apple Watch.1

So, Patrick M.: Growl plus Prowl may be just what you’re looking for.

1. If you’re wanting to script other notifications, you could also consider Pushover, which—for the cost of a $5 in-app purchase—lets you send push notifications to your phone via web service. Thanks to TJ Luoma for the tip. ↩

### By Dan Moren

March 2, 2016 12:44 PM PT

# Automate This: Turn on your Xbox One from afar

A few weeks ago, I wanted to download a really big file—the beta for the upcoming game The Division—to my Xbox One. Given how large it was—several gigabytes—I figured it would be best to do it while I was out of the house anyway.

Using Xbox Live’s web-based marketplace, it’s pretty easy to queue up a download from anywhere, but the trick is that the Xbox has to be powered on in order to start the download. I spent a while trying to find a way to turn the Xbox One on remotely, including messing around with Microsoft’s Smart Glass app over my VPN and trying a Python script installed on my Mac mini, but ultimately had no luck.

IFTTT’s Do Button app
Fool that I am, I didn’t realize until I got home that it was far, far easier than I’d thought. As I described in an earlier post, I’ve set up a Harmony Hub so that I can use my Amazon Echo to activate my various entertainment components, including the Xbox One. At first I was thinking through stupid ideas like triggering the Echo using speech synthesis via Terminal on one of my home apps, until I remembered that the Harmony Hub is hooked up via IFTT, so all I needed to do was trigger that particular recipe via the web or iOS app.

I even took it a step further, thanks to IFTTT’s Do Button app which lets you create nice big buttons to easily initiate a recipe. (Do Button also has a Today widget for the phone and an Apple Watch app, which makes it even faster.)

So now, when I want to start something downloading on the Xbox while I’m out of the house, all I need to do is reach for my phone or my Apple Watch, and I’m never more than a few taps away.

[Dan Moren is a freelance writer, podcaster, and former Macworld editor. You can email him at dan@sixcolors.com or find him on Twitter at @dmoren.]

### Podcast

March 2, 2016 • 29 minutes

# Clockwise #126: Go into Space with Jerks

This week on our 30-minute run through four tech topics, Dan and Jason are joined by Andy Ihnatko and Brianna Wu to discuss choosing between convenience and privacy, our virtual-reality future, the viability of voice interfaces, and spending time in outer space.

### Jason Snell for Macworld

March 2, 2016 8:33 AM PT

# Apple may be about to shake up its naming scheme ↦

Apple’s general approach to naming its products is refreshing in an industry filled with products with complicated names and model numbers. Macs have model numbers, but nobody really uses them: I own an iPad Air 3 and a 2014 5K iMac and a 2012 11-inch MacBook Air, and between the model name, the release year, and maybe a screen size, that’s all any of us needs to know.

Still, the ebb and flow of technology and fashion means that sometimes Apple needs to take a breath and adjust how it presents its products to the world. The PowerBook became the MacBook, the Power Mac became the Mac Pro, the MacBook Air appears to be diminished and headed for the west in favor of the new (adjectiveless) MacBook. So it goes.

Which brings us to the report from 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman that Apple is about to announce a new, updated iPad with the same 9.7-inch screen size as the iPad Air 2—but rather than calling it the iPad Air 3, Apple will consider it a smaller version of the iPad Pro.

Continue reading on Macworld ↦

### Linked by Jason Snell

March 1, 2016 7:31 PM PT

# ‘Twitter Has Become a Park Filled With Bats and Perverts’

Julieanne Smolkinski in New York Magazine:

> Let me try to explain how I see it. Twitter is like a beloved public park that used to be nice, but now has a rusty jungle gym, dozens of really persistent masturbators, and a nighttime bat problem. Eventually the Parks Department might rip up the jungle gym, and make some noise about fixing the other problems, because that’s what invisible administrators like Twitter staff and municipal recreation departments tend to do. But if the perverts and the bats got to be bad enough with no recourse, you’d probably just eventually stop going.

> (Additionally frustrating is that everybody is complaining about the safety issues at the park, and instead of addressing them, the city installs a crazy new slide. What? Nobody was calling for that. What about the perverts? What about the bats?)

Every time Twitter launches a new feature, or discusses launching one, what I hear from people currently on Twitter is always a variation on, “What about the bats?”

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