-
By John Gruber
-
@@ -49,7 +47,6 @@ else {
// ]]>
- The Talk Show -
- Vesper
- Projects
- Contact
- Colophon @@ -58,667 +55,229 @@ else {
- Sponsorship
+
+Total device visibility for you & your users. Sign up for the macOS private beta.
+Thursday, 23 November 2017
- -San Bernardino DA Says Seized iPhone May Hold ‘Dormant Cyber Pathogen’ ★ +How Much Faster is the iPhone X’s ‘Telephoto’ Lens Than the iPhone 7 Plus’s? ★
-
-
Ars Technica:
+Dan Provost:
-
-“The iPhone is a county owned telephone that may have connected to the San Bernardino County computer network. 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 (PDF) by Michael Ramos, the San Bernardino County district attorney.
+I also used the manual camera app Halide to get an ISO and shutter speed reading at the various light levels, and came to the conclusion that the iPhone X requires roughly 2 fewer stops of light before switching to the telephoto lens, as compared to the iPhone 7 Plus. This is obviously great news, and speaks to how improved the second lens is after just one year. In my own use of the phone for the past couple weeks, it does indeed seem to be the case that I am very rarely presented with a 2X cropped image.
Sounds to me like Ramos has watched Skyfall too many times.
+Impressive.
Friday, 4 March 2016
+Wednesday, 22 November 2017
- -Igloo, a Modern Intranet ★ +FCC Unveils Plan to Repeal Net Neutrality Rules ★
-
-
My thanks to Igloo for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Collaboration can be incredibly fragmented today — files shared one way, messaging via various chat apps, email lists for groups, etc. It can be overwhelming.
+Brian Fung, reporting for The Washington Post:
-That’s why you should try Igloo. It combines department spaces, team calendars, corporate file sharing, internal communications capabilities, social features, and more. It’s really easy both to use and to configure. Igloo is an intranet you’ll actually like. Try Igloo today, free of charge.
++
+ +The Federal Communications Commission took aim at a signature Obama-era regulation Tuesday, unveiling a plan that would give Internet providers broad powers to determine what websites and online services their customers see and use.
+ +Under the agency’s proposal, providers of high-speed Internet services, such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T, would be able to block websites they do not like and charge Web companies for speedier delivery of their content.
+This is literally bad for everyone but these mega-ISPs. Horrendously bad — and unpopular — policy.
Thursday, 3 March 2016
+Tuesday, 21 November 2017
- -Apple Hosts Public Letter From San Bernardino Victim to Judge Sheri Pym (PDF) ★ +Google Collects Android Users’ Locations Even When Location Services Are Disabled ★
-
-
Salihin Kondoker:
+Keith Collins, reporting for Quartz:
-
-When I first learned Apple was opposing the order I was frustrated that it would be yet another roadblock. But as I read more about their case, I have come to understand their fight is for something much bigger than one phone. They are worried that this software the government wants them to use will be used against millions of other innocent people. I share their fear.
+Many people realize that smartphones track their locations. But what if you actively turn off location services, haven’t used any apps, and haven’t even inserted a carrier SIM card?
-I support Apple and the decision they have made. I don’t believe Tim Cook or any Apple employee believes in supporting terrorism any more than I do. I think the vicious attacks I’ve read in the media against one of America’s greatest companies are terrible.
+Even if you take all of those precautions, phones running Android software gather data about your location and send it back to Google when they’re connected to the internet, a Quartz investigation has revealed.
+ +Since the beginning of 2017, Android phones have been collecting the addresses of nearby cellular towers — even when location services are disabled — and sending that data back to Google. The result is that Google, the unit of Alphabet behind Android, has access to data about individuals’ locations and their movements that go far beyond a reasonable consumer expectation of privacy.
+ +Quartz observed the data collection occur and contacted Google, which confirmed the practice.
+ +The cell tower addresses have been included in information sent to the system Google uses to manage push notifications and messages on Android phones for the past 11 months, according to a Google spokesperson. They were never used or stored, the spokesperson said, and the company is now taking steps to end the practice after being contacted by Quartz. By the end of November, the company said, Android phones will no longer send cell-tower location data to Google, at least as part of this particular service, which consumers cannot disable.
The battle is being fought both in the courtroom, and in the court of public opinion. Support like this helps Apple with the latter — which in turn helps with the former.
+If they were “never used or stored”, why did they start collecting them in the first place? This is like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar saying they weren’t going to eat any cookies. Sure.
- -Box Chief Information Security Officer’s Perspective on Apple and the FBI ★ +CNBC’s Google Pixel Buds Review ★
-
-
Joel de la Garza:
+Todd Haselton, writing for CNBC:
-
-I’ve been working to help secure computer systems for the entirety of my professional career. It is incredibly difficult to build computer systems that are not vulnerable to attack. As we’ve seen, a number of companies and governments have had great difficulty protecting the front door of their computer systems. I’ve dedicated my career to making sure our systems are designed, built, and operated to the most secure standards. And even with that tremendous investment, bugs still happen. Due to the many layers of security controls built into our systems software bugs are usually not damaging or catastrophic in nature. But peeling away those layers of control to create a backdoor means that even the most basic security bug could potentially have a catastrophic effect. This reality is missing from our current debate about the FBI’s order to Apple in the San Bernardino tragedy.
+There’s nothing I recommend about the Pixel Buds. They’re cheap-feeling and uncomfortable, and you’re better off using the Google Translate app on a phone instead of trying to fumble with the headphones while trying to translate a conversation. The idea is neat, but it just doesn’t work well enough to recommend to anyone on any level.
-
-
- - -@AppleSupport ★ - -
-
-
Neat: Apple has a new Twitter account for tips, tricks, and support. Right now they’re answering 3-4 questions per minute.
- -
-
-
- - -Full Frontal With Samantha Bee ★ - -
-
-
Four episodes in and I’m loving this show. The no-desk thing threw me off at first — the staging has a Tosh.0 vibe — but it works. The show has a fast pace and Bee jabs hard. A desk is leisurely, and Full Frontal is anything but.
+Hardware is hard.
Wednesday, 2 March 2016
+Monday, 20 November 2017
- -The Talk Show: ‘Occupy Portland’ ★ +iPhone 7 Plus and Portrait Mode Lighting Effects ★
-
-
Special guest John Moltz returns to the show. Topics include the Apple/FBI encryption fight, Apple’s upcoming event and the products they’re expected to announce. And Campo Santo’s fantastic new video game Firewatch.
+Steven Troughton-Smith discovered that portrait mode lighting effects can be edited on an iPhone 7 Plus after using a hex editor on an exported photo to enable the feature:
-Sponsored by:
++
+ +Just to add insult to injury, if you AirDrop that photo back to the iPhone 7 Plus now it shows the Portrait Lighting UI, and lets you change mode. So Portrait Lighting is 100% an artificial software limitation. 7 Plus photos can have it, 7 Plus can do it.
+My understanding is that these effects aren’t enabled on iPhone 7 Plus because performance was really slow at capture time. It really does require the A11 Bionic chip for adequate performance live in the camera. And Apple decided against shipping it as a feature for 7 Plus that could only be applied in post, because that felt like half a feature. So I’ve heard.
+ +What I don’t know is why the new lighting effects are not available when you use an iPhone X or 8 Plus to edit a portrait mode photo that was taken using an iPhone 7 Plus. This should be possible.
+ +
+
+
+ - +The Best iPhone Fast Chargers and Wireless Chargers ★ + +
-
+
Joanna Stern, writing for The Wall Street Journal:
+ ++
+ +Wireless charging means you can toss your phone on a pad (sold separately!) on your desk and it will charge throughout the day. With a fast charger (sold separately!), you can plug your phone in and go from zero to 50% in 30 minutes.
+ +Both can make a real difference in how you combat battery anxiety disorder. But figuring out which gear you need is complicated.
+ +I went in search of the best options for both speed and wireless convenience, charging and draining iPhones nearly 30 times. My finding: Getting the best chargers doesn’t mean running up your charge card.
+I second her recommendation of this 3-in-1 cable from Monoprice — Lightning, USB-C, and micro USB all on a single cable.
+ +
+
+
+ - +BuzzFeed: McMaster Mocked Trump’s Intelligence in a Private Dinner ★ + +
-
+
Joseph Bernstein, reporting for BuzzFeed:
+ ++
+ +Over a July dinner with Oracle CEO Safra Catz — who has been mentioned as a candidate for several potential administration jobs — McMaster bluntly trashed his boss, said the sources, four of whom told BuzzFeed News they heard about the exchange directly from Catz. The top national security official dismissed the president variously as an “idiot” and a “dope” with the intelligence of a “kindergartner,” the sources said.
+ +A sixth source who was not familiar with the details of the dinner told BuzzFeed News that McMaster had made similarly derogatory comments about Trump’s intelligence to him in private, including that the president lacked the necessary brainpower to understand the matters before the National Security Council.
+
+
+
+
Saturday, 18 November 2017
+-
+
- +The Talk Show: ‘Christmas Mitzvah’ ★ + +
-
+
Merlin Mann returns to the show for a Thanksgiving-week holiday spectacular. Topics include the history of Markdown, nerding out with Keyboard Maestro, kids today and the computers they want to use, caring about idiomatic native UI design, a look back at last year’s election, and more.
+ +Brought to you by these fine sponsors:
-
-
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- Squarespace: Build it beautiful. Use code GRUBER for 10% off your first order. -
- MailRoute: Hosted spam and virus protection for email. Use this link for 10 percent off for the life of your account. +
- Away: Travel smarter with the suitcase that charges your phone. Get $20 off with code TALKSHOW. +
- Eero: Finally, Wi-Fi that works. Use code THETALKSHOW for free shipping in the U.S. and Canada. +
- Fracture: Your photos, printed directly on glass. Great gift idea. Save 15% off your first order with code TALK15.
- -Fiat Chrysler CEO: Apple Should Not Try Making a Car on Its Own ★ +Microsoft App Center ★
-
-
Reuters:
+My thanks to Microsoft for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote App Center, their recently-launched service for Apple developers that connects to your GitHub repo to automatically build, test, distribute, and monitor iOS and Mac apps. App Center is the next generation of HockeyApp, which was acquired by Microsoft a few years ago.
--
+Speaking to journalists at the Geneva auto show, Marchionne said -there was sufficient capacity available among car makers to deal -with Apple’s requirements and it would make more sense for them to -partner with a car manufacturer rather than become an actor itself -in such a “complex business”.
-The basic HockeyApp features like beta distribution and crash reporting got a revamped user interface, and Microsoft added new features for building, testing, analytics, and push notifications. Simply connect your repo, build the app on App Center’s Mac cloud, and run automated UI tests on thousands of real iOS devices in their hosted device lab. You can not only distribute your builds to testers, but also deploy directly to the App Store.
-I can see it now: the Fiat Rokr.
- --
- -“If they have any urges to make a car, I’d advise them to lie down -and wait until the feeling passes,” Marchionne told journalists. -“Illnesses like this come and go, you will recover from them, -they’re not lethal.”
-They’ve struggled for a few years here, figuring out how to make a decent car. Phone guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.
- -
-
-
- - -David Sparks on Apple Notes ★ - -
-
-
David Sparks:
- --
- -Then I stated using Apple Notes and the strangest thing happened. -I liked it. Not only is Apple Notes a contender, Apple has -continued to refine the product. Just last week we got a new beta -of an upcoming Mac OS X release that includes additional Apple -Notes features. One of those new features is the ability to import -Evernote and plain text files. It seemed to me like a perfect -excuse to slurp in the rest of my nvALT database so I could really -push the application’s limits. Now I’ve got 787 notes in my Apple -Notes database. It’s growing daily.
- -So first this was all a big experiment to see what was wrong with -Apple Notes and then I just started using the application. I -didn’t admit to myself, or anyone else, that I become an Apple -Notes user but apparently I have.
-Now that its syncing is based on CloudKit instead of IMAP, and with the features that have been added in iOS 9 and Mac OS X 10.11, Apple Notes is a solid notes app. I echo Sparks on this complaint:
- --
- -That doesn’t mean Apple Notes is without fault. I wrote before, -and it still remains true, that the text size on the Mac version -is just too small. They keep adding new features with the betas -and it keeps amazing me that they don’t address this problem.
-It’s almost mind boggling that you can’t change the default font size on the Mac. It’s not just a matter of preference, it’s a genuine accessibility problem. You can hit ⌘+ to increase the font size of the current note, but there’s no way to change the default for new notes. So if Helvetica 12 is too small for you to read, you’re stuck hitting ⌘+ for every single note.
- -Update: And why is it Helvetica instead of San Francisco? Does the Apple Notes Mac team live in a cave?
- -
-
-
- - -A Complete History of the Millennium Falcon ★ - -
-
-
Michael Heilemann, writing for his remarkable Kitbashed:
- --
- -One of the things I find so interesting about Star Wars is how the -creative process so clearly wasn’t locked from the beginning. It -was a long and winding road, and throughout writing the essays for -Kitbashed I’ve found that despite intense pressure there was -always an energetic adventurousness with ideas which inevitably -lead to some of the most iconic designs in film history.
- -The Falcon is a great example of that, specifically because the -final design is so distinct. It makes it a much more enticing to -try to decipher how it came about.
- -While I’ve been pursuing this subject for years, it wasn’t until I -starting putting together this essay that I finally began to find -some of the finer details of the Falcon’s creation.
-The Millennium Falcon is my favorite thing in all of Star Wars — and it was almost something altogether different. The original design was a fine space ship, but it had none of the character the actual Falcon has.
- -
-
-
- - -Former Google CEO Schmidt to Head New Pentagon Innovation Board ★ - -
-
-
Andrea Shalal, reporting for Reuters:
- --
- -Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive officer of Google, will -head a new Pentagon advisory board aimed at bringing Silicon -Valley innovation and best practices to the U.S. military, Defense -Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday. Carter unveiled the new -Defense Innovation Advisory Board with Schmidt during the annual -RSA cyber security conference in San Francisco, saying it would -give the Pentagon access to “the brightest technical minds focused -on innovation.”
- -Schmidt, now the executive chairman of Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), the -parent company of Google, said the board would help bridge what he -called a clear gap between how the U.S. military and the -technology industry operate.
-Coming soon to a headline near you: Google to Become Major Defense Contractor.
- -
-
-
- - -A Procastinator on Doing a TED Talk About Procrastination ★ - -
-
-
Tim Urban:
- --
- -All TED speakers do a fully mic’ed and dressed rehearsal on the -real stage the weekend before the conference starts. Mine was -three days before my talk — and it was pretty rough, confirming -to me and everyone present that I was officially not a fraud when -it came to my topic. The irony of a guy rehearsing his TED Talk -about how he’s a bad procrastinator, and being clearly -underprepared while doing so, was not lost on anyone.
-This whole thing was white-knuckle reading for me.
- -
-
-
- - -‘Warrant-Proof Places’ ★ - -
-
-
From The Financial Times’s report on yesterday’s Apple/FBI hearing before Congress:
- --
- -“Our job is simply to tell people there is a problem,” Mr Comey -said. “If there are warrant-proof spaces in American life, what -does that mean and what are the costs of that?” He added: “The -tools we use to keep you safe are becoming less and less -effective.”
-There have always been “warrant-proof places” containing information inaccessible to law enforcement: our minds. I support the right to use unbreakable encryption for the same reason I support Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, especially the right to remain silent.
- -
-
-
- - -Motherboard: ‘The Apple-FBI Encryption Hearing Was Unexpectedly Hostile to the FBI Director’ ★ - -
-
-
Sarah Jeong, reporting for Motherboard:
- --
- -A couple of representatives were openly hostile to Comey, but most -launched passive aggressive, loaded questions at the FBI director. -Even though the representatives (both Democrats and Republicans) -were mostly polite, the tone of the the questioning was a huge -departure from how the House Judiciary Committee typically -addresses Comey.
- -“I would be deeply disappointed if it turns out the government is -found to be exploiting a national tragedy to pursue a change in -the law,” Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) told Comey. […] The questions -got more hostile. Rep. Conyers asked Comey if the San Bernardino -case was an “end-run around this committee” — a loaded question -that Comey of course denied. […]
- -After that, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) opened his questioning by -quoting the late Justice Antonin Scalia: “There is nothing new in -the realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the -criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of all of -us.” Issa’s questioning was overtly hostile in tone, delving deep -into the technical details of the iPhone 5c. Comey was at loss, -admitting, “I have not answered the questions you have asked me -today and I am not entirely sure I understand the questions.”
- -Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) then said to Comey, “As I was hearing your -opening statement talking about a world where everything is -private, it may be the alternative is a world where nothing is -private. Because once you have holes in encryption, the question -is not if but when those holes will be exploited.”
-I’m actually not surprised at the hostility toward Comey. Democrats tend to support civil liberties against overreach from law enforcement, and Republicans — especially those in today’s House of Representatives — are extremely skeptical of an ever-more-powerful federal government. And both Republicans and Democrats yesterday seemed aware that the FBI’s use of the All Writs Act is, as Conyers put it, “an end-run around” Congress.
- -If there’s one thing that can unite both parties in today’s polarized Congress, it is the protection of congressional authority. The idea that the Department of Justice (which is part of the Executive Branch) and the Judicial Branch could dictate the terms of this debate is not going to fly.
- -Update: To be clear, there was also hostility toward Apple. That was expected by everyone. Some congresspeople are card-carrying members of the Golden Key Wizard Society.
- -
-
-
- - -February 2016 Was Very Warm ★ - -
-
-
Eric Holthaus, writing for Slate:
- --
- -Keep in mind that it took from the dawn of the industrial age -until last October to reach the first 1.0 degree Celsius, and -we’ve come as much as an extra 0.4 degrees further in just the -last five months. Even accounting for the margin of error -associated with these preliminary datasets, that means it’s -virtually certain that February handily beat the record set just -last month for the most anomalously warm month ever recorded. -That’s stunning.
-February is typically brutally cold here in Philadelphia. It’s the month when I question why the hell I live here. This year, we had eight days with a high temperature in the 60s, and another four in the 50s. There were only four days where the temperature didn’t rise above freezing.
+You can use all of these features together, or just the pieces that complement your current workflow. Spend less time on drudgery, and more time on your app. Sign up now.
Tuesday, 1 March 2016
+Friday, 17 November 2017
- -Silvia Killingsworth Takes Over The Awl ★ +HomePod Delayed Until ‘Early 2018’ ★
-
-
The Awl:
+I just got this statement from an Apple spokesperson:
-
-We’re thrilled to announce that Silvia Killingsworth will be -joining us here in April. Silvia is currently the Managing Editor -of the New Yorker, where she has spent the last seven years -managing the workflow of the magazine. (You may also know her from -the web’s greatest food vertical, De Gustibus.) Silvia’s -breadth of experience and wealth of ideas and just genuine -enthusiasm (an emotion you may have noticed as being in short -supply over the last, say, seven years here) about things make her -the clear and obvious choice to head The Awl as it evolves into -its next stage of life.
+“We can’t wait for people to experience HomePod, Apple’s +breakthrough wireless speaker for the home, but we need a little +more time before it’s ready for our customers. We’ll start +shipping in the US, UK and Australia in early 2018.”
Great hire. Go Awl.
- -Update: And in more media industry news, Nick Bilton has left The New York Times to become a special correspondent for Vanity Fair. Another great hire.
- -
-
-
- - -The Q4 2015 Smartphone Scorecard: Apple Gazes Down at the Rat Trap ★ - -
-
-
Smart piece from Charles Arthur on the state of the handset industry.
- -
-
-
- - -Steve Ballmer Dunks During Clippers Halftime Show ★ - -
-
-
Not sure about the Clips’ new mascot, though.
+I had a feeling this would happen when the iPhone X press briefings came and went without a word about HomePod. It’s a tough miss for Apple — there are surely going to be a lot of Amazon Echo devices under Christmas trees this year.
Monday, 29 February 2016
+Thursday, 16 November 2017
- -Apple Wins Major Court Victory Against FBI in a Case Similar to San Bernardino ★ +Apple Machine Learning Journal: ‘An On-Device Deep Neural Network for Face Detection’ ★
-
-
Glenn Greenwald and Jenna McLaughlin, reporting for The Intercept:
+Apple Machine Learning Journal:
-
- -Judge Orenstein applied previous legal decisions interpreting the -AWA and concluded that the law does not “justif[y] imposing on -Apple the obligation to assist the government’s investigation -against its will.” In a formulation extremely favorable to Apple, -the judge wrote that the key question raised by the government’s -request is whether the AWA allows a court “to compel Apple — a -private party with no alleged involvement in Feng’s criminal -activity — to perform work for the government against its will.”
- -The court ruled that the law permits no such result — both -because relevant law contains limits on what companies like Apple -are required to do, and because Congress never enacted any such -obligations. Moreover, the judge said of the government’s -arguments for how the AWA should be applied: “The implications of -the government’s position are so far-reaching — both in terms of -what it would allow today and what it implies about congressional -intent in 1789 — as to produce impermissibly absurd results.”
-This seems like great news for Apple and supporters of civil liberties in this case.
- - - -
-
-
- - -San Bernardino Survivor’s Husband to Judge: Terrorist iPhone ‘Unlikely’ to Hold Valuable Information ★ - -
-
-
I hope I don’t have to keep repeating this, but this is the wrong argument to make. The implication is that the result should be different if the iPhone in question was “likely” to contain valuable information. That’s wrong. Civil liberties apply equally in all situations.
- -Don’t get me wrong — I’m glad they’re saying this particular iPhone is unlikely to actually contain useful information. But someday there will be a locked iPhone that is either likely or certain to contain useful information.
- -
-
-
- - -Fred Wilson: ‘The Twitter Contradiction’ ★ - -
-
-
Fred Wilson:
- --
- -I just don’t understand the narrative around Twitter. “It is in -trouble. It isn’t growing. It’s time has come and gone. The kids -all use Snapchat and Instagram.”
- -That last part is true, to a degree. But it isn’t as simple -as that.
- -The presumptive Republican nominee for President of the United -States has largely conducted his campaign on Twitter and in -massive public appearances that feel like rock concerts. He has -avoided the traditional media channels and taken his message -direct to the people on Twitter. Not on Facebook. Not on -Instagram. Not on Snapchat. Not on Pinterest. Not on his website -or mobile app. On Twitter.
-He makes a good point, but I don’t think there’s a contradiction. On the one hand, Twitter is a powerful publishing platform that has become the de facto official medium for famous people to make public statements about what is going on right now.
- -The problem is, that’s not the description of a social network. It’s a description of a publishing platform. Twitter’s trouble is that it’s being viewed by investors as a social network.
- -
-
-
- - -Getting Called Up From the Big Leagues ★ - -
-
-
M.G. Siegler, on Bill Simmons putting his new publication, The Ringer, on Medium:
- --
- -In a way, it almost feels like the thing to do now is the opposite -of what is typical in professional sports. In most leagues, -athletes play in minor leagues (or college) before graduating up -to the big leagues. In our new era of publishing, writers may -start at the big leagues, building up their skills and brands, -before venturing out on their own (or with a group of peers).
-
-
-
- - -The Washington Post on Industry Support for Apple in Encryption Fight ★ - -
-
-
Ellen Nakashima, writing for The Washington Post:
- --
- -Former Justice Department official Jennifer Daskal said both sides -are overstating their arguments. “The government is wrong to say -this is just about one case,” said Daskal, a law professor at -American University. “On the other hand, it is wrong to say that -if Apple loses this case, there’s absolutely no limits to what the -government can order a company to do” in cases involving encrypted -communications.
-This is false equivalence. The government really is wrong about this case being about just this one particular phone. But nobody (and certainly not Apple) is using words like “absolutely no limits to what the government can order a company to do” to describe what will happen if the government wins and sets precedent. The results will be significant, and I think chilling — but not limitless. This is just a bullshit quote to make the story sound “balanced”.
- --
- -One argument that companies and civil liberties groups are -expected to make is that if the government’s order is upheld, -then the FBI might be able to order a technology firm to create, -say, malicious software to send to a user’s device in the form of -a routine update. “That is the third rail for tech companies — -to be forced to deliver a software update that breaks the -security of the device,” said Alex Abdo, a staff attorney for the -American Civil Liberties Union, which is also filing a brief in -support of Apple.
-This would be one of the worst case scenarios I can imagine.
- -
-
-
- - -The State of Apple Music Connect ★ - -
-
-
Dave Wiskus:
- --
- -If Connect is a social network, it fails miserably. There’s -nothing inherently social about the experience, which feels more -like a local bulletin board than a way for artists to engage -with fans.
- -It’s also not a very good broadcast medium. Sure, I can post to -Connect and share out to Twitter and whatnot, but why? There’s -nothing unique or powerful about Apple’s system that makes it a -good hub. Because I have no idea how many followers we have, I -can’t even make a numerical argument for Connect-first posting. -And since we can’t even invite people from other places to follow -us on Connect, there’s no incentive to try.
- -As a fan, it’s a confusing mess. As an artist, it’s a black hole. -All media, no social.
-Connect was a big part of the Apple Music introduction back in June, but I haven’t heard a word about it since other than when Dave writes about it.
- -
-
-
- - -Apple’s Statement to Congress on the FBI Warrant Fight ★ - -
-
-
Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell testifies before Congress tomorrow. From his prepared opening statement:
- --
- -As we have told them — and as we have told the American public — -building that software tool would not affect just one iPhone. It -would weaken the security for all of them. In fact, just last week -Director Comey agreed that the FBI would likely use this precedent -in other cases involving other phones. District Attorney Vance has -also said he would absolutely plan to use this on over 175 phones. -We can all agree this is not about access to just one iPhone.
- -The FBI is asking Apple to weaken the security of our products. -Hackers and cyber criminals could use this to wreak havoc on our -privacy and personal safety. It would set a dangerous precedent -for government intrusion on the privacy and safety of its -citizens.
-
-
-
- - -It Doesn’t Matter Whether the San Bernardino iPhone Contains Useful Information ★ - -
-
-
Jeff Gamet, writing for The Mac Observer:
- --
- -The iPhone recovered from Syed Farook after he shot and killed 14 -coworkers and then died in a shootout with police most likely -doesn’t hold any valuable information. So says San Bernardino -police chief Jarrod Burguan. Chief Burguan was asked about the -phone during an NPR interview and he replied:
- --
-I’ll be honest with you, I think that there is a reasonably good -chance that there is nothing of any value on the phone. What we -are hoping might be on the phone would be potential contacts that -we would obviously want to talk to.
-There’s a small point to be made here, insofar as it suggests the FBI is being disingenuous. They’re saying that it’s not about precedent, it’s just about this one phone, this one investigation. But the real reason they’re making a big deal out of it is that it’s politically useful. The phone itself likely isn’t important but the situation surrounding the phone — “terrorism” and the tragedy of 14 innocent people being killed — lends sympathy to their desire for access to encrypted devices all the time.
- -But for those of us on Apple’s side, this is not a point to hang our hats on. Even if law enforcement claimed to know with certainty that the phone contained useful information, Apple’s arguments would all still stand. Eventually there will be such a phone.
- -And, likewise, I’m glad law enforcement is doing their best to check the contents of the phone. We want law enforcement to pursue all leads — within the confines of the law — even those that are unlikely to produce useful information.
- -
-
-
- - -Dan Frommer Named Editor in Chief at Recode ★ - -
-
-
Kara Swisher:
- --
- -As Re/code has grown and morphed, we have always been on the -lookout for great talent to take the site to a new level.
- -That’s why I’m very excited to announce that we’ve hired Dan -Frommer as the new editor in chief of Re/code. Dan brings our site -the energy, curiosity and tech-savvy we need to succeed in digital -publishing, an industry that gets more exciting — and challenging -— daily.
-Congratulations, pal.
- -
-
-
-
Saturday, 27 February 2016
--
-
- -Apple Product Event: Monday March 21 ★ - -
-
-
Kara Swisher, writing at Recode, broke the news:
- --
- -Attention Apple nerds, investors, media and everyone else who -needs to know when Tim Cook’s next product event is going to be -held: It’s going to be the week of March 21.
- -Or to put it another way, it’s not going to be on March 15, the -time frame that other outlets previously reported, according to -several sources. It is not clear if the event was moved or if this -was the same timing as Apple had always planned.
-Swisher doesn’t have the exact date, although the
- -<title>tag on her story reads “Apple Product Event Will Be Held March 22”. John Paczkowski (who usually gets these leaks first), confirms the week change, and says the event will be on Monday 21 March:-
- -Sources in position to know say the company has settled on March -21st as the date it will show off a handful of new products. These -people declined to say why Apple postponed the date by a week, but -it’s worth noting that it is one day prior to the company’s March -22 showdown with the government over a motion to compel it to help -hack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.
-For what it’s worth, last year’s March event was on a Monday as well.
- -Update: Jim Dalrymple:
- --
This sounds right to me.
+We faced several challenges. The deep-learning models need to be +shipped as part of the operating system, taking up valuable NAND +storage space. They also need to be loaded into RAM and require +significant computational time on the GPU and/or CPU. Unlike +cloud-based services, whose resources can be dedicated solely to a +vision problem, on-device computation must take place while +sharing these system resources with other running applications. +Finally, the computation must be efficient enough to process a +large Photos library in a reasonably short amount of time, but +without significant power usage or thermal increase.
@@ -726,353 +285,534 @@ hack the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.
Friday, 26 February 2016
+Wednesday, 15 November 2017
- -Manuscripts and Findings ★ +Face ID’s Innovation: Continuous Authentication ★
-
-
My thanks to Nucleobytes for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Nucleobytes is a fascinating company. They specialize in creating Mac and iOS software for scientists and researchers, and they do it with great style — their apps have won multiple Apple Design Awards.
+Rich Mogull, writing at TidBITS:
-Their latest creations are two apps for researchers, useful for anyone who researches anything from lab results, cooking recipes, or research for blog posts: Manuscripts and Findings.
++
+ +Every year, as I travel around the security conference circuit, +the hallway conversations always turn to the interesting things +attendees have seen lately. To be honest, I can’t remember the +last time I was excited about a legitimately cool security +technology. I see plenty of security evolution, but not much +revolution.
+ +That is, until my iPhone X arrived on launch day, and I got to try +Face ID in real-world usage. Put simply, Face ID is the most +compelling advancement in security I have seen in a very long +time. It’s game-changing not merely due to the raw technology, but +also because of Apple’s design and implementation.
+
+
+
+ - +Vector ★ + +
-
+
Rene Ritchie has re-launched Vector as a daily — yes, daily — podcast. I’m halfway through yesterday’s “Designing for iPhone X Roundtable” episode, with guests Sebastiaan de With, Linda Dong, Marc Edwards, and Brad Ellis, and it’s terrific.
+ +
+
+
+ - +The Ringer: ‘The 50 Best Superhero Movies of All Time’ ★ + +
-
+
I
+ +largelysomewhat agree with these rankings — but far more so than I usually do with such lists. But the whole thing is worth it just for the sub-list of the best superhero villains of all time — they nailed that one.
+
+
+ - +Jimmy Iovine and Most Bomb Record in the Solar System ★ + +
-
+
Jason Kottke on the golden record NASA sent into deep space with Voyager:
+ ++
+ +Carl Sagan was project director, Ann Druyan the creative director, +and Ferris produced the Record. And the sound engineer for the +Golden Record? I was surprised to learn: none other than Jimmy +Iovine, who was recommended to Ferris by John Lennon.
+As Kottke asks, how was this not in The Defiant Ones?
+ +
+
+
+
Tuesday, 14 November 2017
+-
+
- +How Facebook Figures Out Everyone You’ve Ever Met ★ + +
-
+
Excellent investigation by Kashmir Hill, writing for Gizmodo, on Facebook’s creepy “People You May Know” system:
+ ++
-In the months I’ve been writing about PYMK, as Facebook calls it, +I’ve heard more than a hundred bewildering anecdotes:
-
-
Manuscripts is a writing tool that helps you concentrate on your story. Outline, plan and edit your project, insert figures, tables and math, then format citations using a killer workflow. Manuscripts supports both importing and exporting Markdown, Word, LaTeX, and HTML.
-Findings is a lab notebook app that helps you keep a journal of your research, connected to notes, photos, and files. Plan your week, track progress, and share your findings with your colleagues or the world.
+- A man who years ago donated sperm to a couple, secretly, so they +could have a child — only to have Facebook recommend the child +as a person he should know. He still knows the couple but is not +friends with them on Facebook. +
- A social worker whose client called her by her nickname on their +second visit, because she’d shown up in his People You May Know, +despite their not having exchanged contact information. +
- A woman whose father left her family when she was six years old +— and saw his then-mistress suggested to her as a Facebook +friend 40 years later. +
- An attorney who wrote: “I deleted Facebook after it recommended +as PYMK a man who was defense counsel on one of my cases. We had +only communicated through my work email, which is not connected +to my Facebook, which convinced me Facebook was scanning my work +email.”
Try the free basic versions, and use coupon DARINGFIREBALL for a special discount on the unlimited versions, this week only. (They have an even better offer for students.)
+Even if, like me, you’ve never even signed up for Facebook, they almost certainly have a detailed profile of you.
+ +
+
+
+
Monday, 13 November 2017
+-
+
- +Ming-Chi Kuo on 2018 iPhones ★ + +
-
+
MacRumors on the latest from Ming-Chi Kuo:
+ ++
+ +Kuo expects the 5.8-inch model to have 458 pixels per inch, +suggesting the second-generation iPhone X’s display will likely +continue to have a resolution of 1,125×2,436. He said the 6.5-inch +model will have roughly 480 to 500 PPI, while the 6.1-inch model +is estimated to have between 320 and 330 PPI.
+ +In his latest research note, obtained by MacRumors, Kuo said the +6.1-inch model will have a lower-resolution LCD display and target +the low-end and mid-range markets with an estimated $649 to $749 +starting price in the United States.
+ +If accurate, next year’s new iPhone lineup would consist of the +second-gen iPhone X with the same size screen, a larger 6.5-inch +version that we’re tentatively calling the iPhone X Plus, and a +mid-range 6.1-inch LCD model that adopts an iPhone X form factor +and features but with a cheaper price point.
+A “Plus” sized version of the iPhone X makes perfect sense. Even without these rumors from the supply chain, I’d have been surprised if Apple didn’t create such a phone next. The iPhone X may well draw some current Plus-sized iPhone users, but in use it feels like a “regular” sized iPhone with an edge-to-edge display. Given the popularity of Plus-sized phones, I can’t see why Apple wouldn’t do that with the X design.
+ +But this 6.1-inch model with an LCD display makes no sense to me. First, I’d be surprised to see the X design trickle down to the $750 price range after just one year. Second, the size makes no sense to me. There’s a clear difference between the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch regular and Plus classic-style iPhones. There would be a clear difference between 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch X-style phones. An additional 6.1-inch lower-priced X-style phone would just confuse things terribly. I don’t think Kuo has the story right on this phone.
- -Donald Trump Vows to ‘Open Up’ Libel Laws ★ +Ina Fried Reviews Google’s Pixel Buds ★
-
-
Hadas Gold, writing for Politico:
+Ina Fried, writing for Axios:
-
-During a rally in Fort Worth, Texas, Trump began his usual tirade -against newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington -Post, saying they’re “losing money” and are “dishonest.” The -Republican presidential candidate then took a different turn, -suggesting that when he’s president they’ll “have problems.”
- -“One of the things I’m going to do if I win, and I hope we do and -we’re certainly leading. I’m going to open up our libel laws so -when they write purposely negative and horrible and false -articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We’re going to -open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit -piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which -is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them -and win money instead of having no chance of winning because -they’re totally protected,” Trump said.
+Apple’s AirPods are more elegant as well as smaller and more +comfortable. However, Pixel Buds have some other appeals, most +notably the ability to aid in real-time language translation.
Not worrisome at all. No sir.
+The real-time translation feature is cool, but how often would you need it? I’ve been using AirPods for about a year and I don’t think I would have used this feature even once. And it seems like it’s more of a feature of the Google Translate app, not the Pixel Buds themselves.
+ +Given that they both cost $159, Apple comes out way ahead here.
- -Most Android Phones Are Not Encrypted ★ +Long-Term Coffee Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease ★
-
-
Jose Pagliery, writing for CNN Money:
+New paper published in Circulation:
-
-Although 97% of Android phones have encryption as an option, less -than 35% of them actually got prompted to turn it on when they -first activated the phone. Even then, not everybody chooses that -extra layer of security.
+Background — Considerable controversy exists regarding the +association between coffee consumption and cardiovascular disease +(CVD) risk. A meta-analysis was performed to assess the +dose-response relationship of long-term coffee consumption with +CVD risk. […]
-A Google spokesman said that encryption is now required for all -“high-performing devices” — like the Galaxy S7 — running the -latest version of Android, Marshmallow. But only 1.2% of Android -phones even have that version, according to Google.
- -By comparison, most Apple products are uniformly secure: 94% of -iPhones run iOS 8 or 9, which encrypt all data. Apple (AAPL, -Tech30) makes its devices, designs the software, and retains full -control of the phone’s operating system.
- -“If a person walks into a Best Buy and walks out with an iPhone, -it’s encrypted by default. If they walk out with an Android phone, -it’s largely vulnerable to surveillance,” said Christopher -Soghoian, the principal technologist at the American Civil -Liberties Union.
+Conclusions — A non-linear association between coffee +consumption with CVD risk was observed in this meta-analysis. +Moderate coffee consumption was inversely significantly +associated with CVD risk, with the lowest CVD risk at 3 to 5 +cups/d, and heavy coffee consumption was not associated with +elevated CVD risk.
Google is moving in the right direction, but here’s an area where the slow uptake of new versions of Android has a serious effect.
+I like that 5 cups of coffee per day qualified as “moderate”. That’s right around what I consume.
+ +
+
+
+
Saturday, 11 November 2017
+-
+
- +Squarespace Domains ★ + +
-
+
My thanks to Squarespace for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. Buying a domain name from Squarespace is quick, simple, and fun. Search for the domain you want, or type any word or phrase into the search field, and Squarespace will suggest some great options. Every domain comes with a beautiful, ad-free parking page, WHOIS Privacy, and a 2048-bit SSL certificate to secure your website — all at no additional cost. Once you lock down your domain, create a beautiful website with one of Squarespace’s award-winning templates.
+ +Try Squarespace for free. When you’re ready to subscribe, get 10 percent off at squarespace.com with offer code “DARING17”.
- -9to5Mac: ‘Apple Likely to Drop the “5”, Call New 4-Inch Model the “iPhone SE”’ ★ +The Talk Show: ‘Bed Is Where My Problems Are’ ★
-
-
Mark Gurman:
+Ben Thompson returns to the show to talk about the iPhone X.
--
- -In January, we reported that Apple is preparing a new 4-inch -iPhone that is essentially 2013’s iPhone 5s with upgraded -internals. At the time, we heard that Apple would call the device -the “iPhone 5se” based on it being both an enhanced and “special -edition” version of the iPhone 5s. Now, we are hearing that Apple -appears to be going all in on the special edition factor: sources -say that Apple has decided to drop the “5” from the device’s name -and simply call it the “iPhone SE.” This will mark the first -iPhone upgrade without a number in its name and would logically -remove it from a yearly update cycle.
-A few points:
+Brought to you by these fine sponsors:
-
-
Apple was never going to call this phone the “5 SE”. I don’t know where Gurman got that, but that was never going to happen. Why would Apple give a new phone a name that makes it sound old?
-Isn’t it more accurate to think of this as an iPhone 6S in a 4-inch body than as an iPhone 5S with “upgraded internals”? Other than the display, aren’t the “internals” the defining characteristics of any iPhone?
-Dropping the number entirely fits with my theory that this phone is intended to remain on the market for 18-24 months.
+- Casper: You can be sure of your purchase with Casper’s 100 night risk-free, sleep-on-it trial. +
- Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order. +
- Fracture: Photos printed in vivid color directly on glass. Get 10% off your first order.
+
Friday, 10 November 2017
+- -Gogo Wi-Fi and Email Security ★ +Logitech Makes It Right ★
-
-
Reporter Steven Petrow published a scary first-hand tale in USA Today, claiming that his email was hacked by another passenger on a Gogo-enabled flight. The implication was that you shouldn’t use email on Gogo unless you’re using a VPN.
- -But Petrow’s email didn’t get intercepted because of some flaw with Gogo. It got intercepted because he wasn’t connecting to the POP or SMTP servers via SSL. In fact, his email provider, Earthlink, doesn’t even support SSL for email.
- -Robert Graham at Errata Security explains:
+Logitech, on their company blog:
-
-Early Internet stuff wasn’t encrypted, because encryption was -hard, and it was hard for bad guys to tap into wires to eavesdrop. -Now, with open WiFi hotspots at Starbucks or on the airplane, it’s -easy for hackers to eavesdrop on your network traffic. -Simultaneously, encryption has become a lot easier. All new -companies, those still fighting to acquire new customers, have -thus upgraded their infrastructure to support encryption. Stagnant -old companies, who are just milking their customers for profits, -haven’t upgraded their infrastructure.
+We heard you and we want to make it right.
-You see this in the picture below. Earthlink supports older -un-encrypted “POP3” (for fetching email from the server), but not -the new encrypted POP3 over SSL. Conversely, GMail doesn’t support -the older un-encrypted stuff (even if you wanted it to), but only -the newer encrypted version.
+If you are a Harmony Link user, we will reach out to you between +now and March 2018 to make arrangements to replace your Link with +a free Harmony Hub, a product with similar app-based remote +control features to Link, with the added benefit of controlling +many popular connected home devices plus, it works with popular +voice assistants.
Gogo is far from perfect, but it certainly wasn’t at fault in this case.
+
- - +Equifax Faces Hundreds of Class-Action Lawsuits and an SEC Subpoena Over the Way It Handled Its Data Breach ★ + +
-
+
Hayley Tsukayama, reporting for The Washington Post:
+ ++
+ +Equifax also said in its filings that it had received subpoenas +from the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the U.S. +Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia “regarding +trading activities by certain of our employees in relation to the +cybersecurity incident.” Shortly after news of the breach broke, +reports circulated that top officials had sold Equifax stock after +the company found out about the breach, but before disclosing it +to the public. Equifax said this week that it had cleared its +executives of wrongdoing after an internal investigation found +that the executives did not personally know about the breach +before their stock sales.
+Yeah, I’m sure the SEC will just take their word for it.
+ +
+
+
+ - +Clips 2.0 ★ + +
-
+
Major new release of Apple’s app “for making and sharing fun videos with text, effects, graphics, and more.” Headline feature for iPhone X:
+ ++
+ +Selfie Scenes on iPhone X make Clips even more fun by using the +TrueDepth camera to place you in beautifully animated +landscapes, abstract art, and even onboard the Millennium Falcon +from Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Each scene is a full 360‑degree +experience, so however you move iPhone X, the scene surrounds +you on all sides.
+Here’s a perfect example from Rian Johnson.
+ +For an app that only debuted six months ago, Clips 2.0 is an ambitious 2.0. The entire user interface has been redone, and I think it makes everything more clear and obvious. I think Clips is the single best example of a productivity app designed for iOS.
+ +Ryan Christoffel, writing for MacStories, has a really good rundown of what’s new and what’s changed in 2.0:
+ ++
+ +When Clips first debuted earlier this year, it was unknown what +kind of support the app would receive from Apple going forward. +Would it be another Music Memos, released to the public then +largely left alone? While Clips 1.1 was an encouraging sign of +life, today’s 2.0 clearly demonstrates Apple’s commitment to this +app. And I’m glad for that.
+I think Clips has flown under the radar since its release, but Apple seems very serious about it. It’s a big hit, apparently, in schools, where kids are using it to create presentations for classwork using iPads.
+ +And one for the road: Rene Ritchie has a good look at it for iMore.
+ +
+
+
+ - +SuperDuper 3.0 ★ + +
-
+
Dave Nanian, Shirt Pocket Software:
+ ++
+ +With that last bit of explanation, I’m happy to say that we’ve +reached the end of this particular voyage. SuperDuper! 3.0 +(release 100!) is done, and you’ll find the download in the normal +places, as well as in the built-in updater, for both Beta and +Regular users.
+ +SuperDuper! 3.0 has, literally, many hundreds of changes under the +hood to support APFS, High Sierra and all version of macOS from +10.9 to the the present.
+ +SuperDuper! 3.0 is the first bootable backup application to +support snapshot copying on APFS, which provides an incredible +extra level of safety, security and accuracy when backing up. +It’s super cool, entirely supported (after all, it’s what Time +Machine uses… and it was first overall), and totally transparent +to the user.
+Fantastic update to one of my very favorite Mac utilities. I bought SuperDuper 1.5 in 2005, and I believe every single update since then has been free. I wish they’d charge me, I love SuperDuper so much.
+ +If you’re not familiar with it, SuperDuper lets you clone any volume to another drive or disk image. It’s really configurable, but with a very easy to understand UI. It’s also really smart, and incredibly trustworthy. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
+ +
+
+
+ - +Wallpaper Interview With Jony Ive on Apple Park ★ + +
-
+
Nick Compton, writing for Wallpaper:
+ ++
+ +The building, though, is not a metaphor for open systems, or +creative flow made concrete. It is a made object. Apple’s success +has been built on higher-order industrialisation; not just +designing beautiful objects that do all manner of new things but +producing them in incredible numbers and at consistent quality. +Its new building is, in some ways, the ultimate Apple product, in +places using the same materials the company uses in its laptops +and phones.
+ +Ive, above all else, is a maker, thrilled to have his CNC milling +machines close at hand. This culture of making was at the heart of +what Behling calls the ‘hybrid studio’ forged by the Apple and +Foster + Partners teams. ‘One of the connections that we made very +quickly was that their approach to problem solving was uncannily +similar to ours,’ Ive says. ‘We both make lots and lots of models +and prototypes. We made full-size prototypes of parts of the +building, we made prototypes to examine and explore a material. +The prototyping took many forms.’
+Gorgeous architectural photography throughout this piece — save it to read on the biggest display you have.
+ +
+
+
+ - +USB-C Earbuds: Slim Pickings ★ + +
-
+
Helen Havlak, writing for The Verge:
+ ++
+ +Two weeks after starting my cheap Pixel 2 earbud search, I finally +have a working pair — but they cost almost twice the amount I +wanted to spend, and don’t feel very premium. If I lose or break +them, it’ll cost me almost $50 and another 10-day wait. The next +time I upgrade my phone, they may not be compatible. Even the +Apple Store sells $29 Lightning EarPods. Google needs to do a lot +better by its Pixel owners than a single $149 USB-C option. Even +better, just give us back the damn headphone jack.
+Apple does better than selling $29 Lightning earbuds — they include a pair in the box with every iPhone. It’s embarrassing that Google doesn’t include a pair of USB-C earbuds with the Pixels.
+ +
+
+
+ - +Nintendo at Its Best ★ + +
-
+
Chris Compendio, reviewing Super Mario Odyssey for Paste:
+ ++
+ +I found that this videogame was persistent in its mission to bring +me joy. Super Mario Odyssey is extra — in that same area in the +Wooded Kingdom, I stood next to a boom box, and Mario, without any +button prompt, automatically began dancing to the music. When I +left Mario alone for more than a few seconds, he would lay down +for a nap, and a bird would eventually land on his nose, with each +kingdom having a different kind of bird. There are many moments +like this that serve little to no purpose other than smiles, +laughs and entertainment. Nintendo has a classic charm in all of +their products. They do not simply go for the extra mile, but for +at least fifty miles beyond that.
+I bought it last week, but haven’t had time to play yet. Looking forward to it.
Update: Like a lot of you, I’m not even sure I buy the whole story. Whole thing seems fishy.
+ +Thursday, 25 February 2016
+Thursday, 9 November 2017
- -Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft Plan to Support Apple ★ +Forking the iPhone ★
-
-
Deepa Seetharaman and Jack Nicas, reporting for the WSJ:
+Jean-Louis Gassée:
-
-Several tech companies, including Google parent Alphabet Inc., -Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp., plan to file a joint motion -supporting Apple Inc. in its court fight against the Justice -Department over unlocking an alleged terrorist’s iPhone, according -to people familiar with the companies’ plans.
- -At least one other tech company plans to be included in a joint -amicus brief next week generally supporting Apple’s position that -unlocking the iPhone would undermine tech firms’ efforts to -protect their users’ digital security, these people said. Twitter -Inc. also plans to support Apple in a motion, though it is unclear -if it will join the combined filing, another person familiar said.
- -Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith told -Congress on Thursday that his company would file a motion -supporting Apple.
+What we see is Apple is doing what they do best: Taking chances. +They made a risky bet with the iPhone X and covered it with the +iPhone 8. The new and improved perception of Apple might come from +the realization that both bets are winning, and that the iPhone X +is a radically new, as opposed to a merely improved, breed of +smartphone — and probably is the start of a new succession of +carefully incremented future models.
Nice.
+A fork is exactly right: the iterative, familiar iPhone 8 and 8 Plus on one side of the fork, and the novel, back-to-the-drawing board iPhone X on the other.
- -Apple’s Motion to Vacate FBI Order ★ +TripAdvisor Removed Warnings About Rapes and Injuries at Mexico Resorts ★
-
-
A clear, cogent read. I often shy away from reading legal motions because they’re so often written in dense legalese, but this one is clear.
- -This stuck out to me:
+Raquel Rutledge and Andrew Mollica, reporting for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
-
-Congress knows how to impose a duty on third parties to facilitate -the government’s decryption of devices. Similarly, it knows -exactly how to place limits on what the government can require of -telecommunications carriers and also on manufacturers of telephone -equipment and handsets. And in CALEA, Congress decided not to -require electronic communication service providers, like Apple, to -do what the government seeks here. Contrary to the government’s -contention that CALEA is inapplicable to this dispute, Congress -declared via CALEA that the government cannot dictate to providers -of electronic communications services or manufacturers of -telecommunications equipment any specific equipment design or -software configuration.
+Seven years ago, TripAdvisor repeatedly removed a post written by +Kristie Love, a 35-year-old mother of two from Dallas. Love told +how she had been raped by a security guard at a highly rated +all-inclusive Mexican resort owned by the global chain, Iberostar, +based in Spain.
-In the section of CALEA entitled “Design of features and systems -configurations,” 47 U.S.C. § 1002(b)(1), the statute says that it -“does not authorize any law enforcement agency or officer —
+She wrote how, after an evening with friends, she had returned to +her room to find the electronic key card no longer opened her door +at the Iberostar Paraiso near Playa del Carmen. She headed to the +lobby of the sprawling resort to get her card reactivated and +stopped to ask a uniformed guard whether she was walking in the +right direction.
--
+(1) to require any specific design of equipment, facilities, - services, features, or system configurations to be adopted by - any provider of a wire or electronic communication service, - any manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, or any - provider of telecommunications support services.
+He motioned her to follow him, then overpowered her, dragged her +into some bushes and raped her. When she reached the lobby in +tears, hotel staff refused to call police.
-(2) to prohibit the adoption of any equipment, facility, service, - or feature by any provider of a wire or electronic - communication service, any manufacturer of telecommunications - equipment, or any provider of telecommunications support - services.
-A TripAdvisor moderator spotted the post soon after it had +published and deemed it in violation of the company’s “family +friendly” guidelines.
+ +The following year, another young woman, 19 and on vacation with +her family, reported to hotel officials in the same resort complex +that a security guard had raped her in the bathroom.
+ +And in 2015, still another woman, Jamie Valeri, 34, a mother of +six from Wisconsin, was sexually assaulted at the same resort +after she and her husband simultaneously blacked out in the middle +of the day, barely into their third drink.
What Apple is arguing is that the All Writs Act is intended only to fill the gaps covering scenarios not covered by other laws, but CALEA (the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) is a law that was passed specifically to cover exactly this sort of scenario. This strikes me as a very compelling argument.
+It’s positively sickening that as a matter of TripAdvisor policy, actual rapes, sexual assaults, and druggings are OK, but reports about these crimes on their forums are not. TripAdvisor should get sued out of existence.
- -Microsoft Will File Amicus Brief Supporting Apple ★ +Most-Used OS in the World? ★
-
-
Dina Bass, reporting for Bloomberg:
+Andrew Tanenbaum, creator of the MINIX operating system, in an open letter to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich:
-
-Microsoft Corp. backs Apple Inc. in its fight with the U.S. -government over unlocking a terrorist’s iPhone, said President and -Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith.
- -The company will file an amicus brief to support Apple next week, -Smith said at a congressional hearing to discuss the need for new -legislation to govern privacy, security and law enforcement in the -age of Internet-based cloud services.
+Thanks for putting a version of MINIX 3 inside the ME-11 +management engine chip used on almost all recent desktop and +laptop computers in the world. I guess that makes MINIX the most +widely used computer operating system in the world, even more than +Windows, Linux, or MacOS. And I didn’t even know until I read a +press report about it. Also here and here and +here and here and here (in Dutch), and a bunch of +other places.
Nice.
+It’s an interesting development, having a full-blown operating system running inside a CPU. And it’s a nice feather in the cap for MINIX, which heretofore had best been known as a teaching OS for computer science students. But it can’t be the most-used OS in the world. Android is. (Or, if you only want to count the kernel-level operating system, Linux, which runs at the heart of Android.)
+ +MINIX is now almost certainly the most widely-used OS on Intel-based computers, but Intel-based computers are now far outnumbered by ARM-based ones.
- -Apple to Tighten iCloud Backup Encryption ★ +Horace Dediu: Apple Watch Will Soon Generate More Revenue Than iPod at Peak ★
-
-
Tim Bradshaw, reporting for the Financial Times:
- --
+Apple is working on new ways to strengthen the encryption of -customers’ iCloud backups in a way that would make it impossible -for the company to comply with valid requests for data from law -enforcement, according to people familiar with its plans.
- -The move would bolster Apple customers’ security against hackers -but also frustrate investigators who are currently able to obtain -data from Apple’s servers through a court order. Apple has -complied with thousands of such orders in the past.
- -Developing such technology is in some ways more complex than -adding the kind of device-level security that Apple introduced to -the iPhone in 2014 with its iOS 8 update.
- -Building new protections that mean Apple no longer has access to -iCloud encryption keys may inconvenience some customers. Such a -change would most likely mean that customers who forget their -iCloud password may be left unable to access their photos, -contacts and other personal information that is backed up to -Apple’s systems.
-Bookmark this for the next time you see someone claim Apple Watch is a flop.
- -The Dangerous All Writs Act Precedent in the Apple Encryption Case ★ +Notcho ★
-
-
Amy Davidson, writing for The New Yorker:
+Notcho, from Cromulent Labs:
-
-It is essential to this story that the order to Apple is not a -subpoena: it is issued under the All Writs Act of 1789, which says -that federal courts can issue “all writs necessary or appropriate -in aid of their respective jurisdictions and agreeable to the -usages and principles of law.” Read as a whole, this simply means -that judges can tell people to follow the law, but they have to do -so in a way that, in itself, respects the law. The Act was written -at a time when a lot of the mechanics of the law still had to be -worked out. But there are qualifications there: warnings about the -writs having to be “appropriate” and “agreeable,” not just to the -law but to the law’s “principles.” The government, in its use of -the writ now, seems to be treating those caveats as background -noise. If it can tell Apple, which has been accused of no -wrongdoing, to sit down and write a custom operating system for -it, what else could it do?
+Not a fan of the notch? Want to hide the horns? Now you can +quickly and easily create wallpapers that hide the notch on your +new iPhone X.
Lost amid the technical debate over encryption is the legal debate over this incredibly broad application of the All Writs Act.
+It’s a clever little hack: you give Notcho an image, and Notcho lets you export a version with black bars and rounded corners at the top to hide the iPhone X’s sensor array notch. I don’t actually think this is a good idea — if there’s anywhere where I think embracing the notch is just fine, it’s on the lock and home screens. Where the notch should have been hidden is when you’re using apps. This utility doesn’t (and can’t) do anything about it. This was Apple’s decision to make, and even if you disagree with how they decided to handle it, I don’t think you should fight it. I still don’t like it, but I have to say that after nearly two weeks with iPhone X, I really don’t notice it.
-
+ - -Twitter’s Missing Manual ★ - -
-
-
Eevee:
- --
- -Here, then, is a list of all the non-obvious things about Twitter -that I know. Consider it both a reference for people who aren’t up -to their eyeballs in Twitter, and an example of how these hidden -features can pile up. I’m also throwing in a couple notes on -etiquette, because I think that’s strongly informed by the shape -of the platform.
-
-
-
- - -Sharp Accepts Foxconn Takeover Bid ★ - -
-
-
Huge news for both companies. Interesting for Apple, too.
- -Update:
- --
- -A deal to take over Japanese electronics giant Sharp by Taiwanese -manufacturer Foxconn, has been thrown into question by a last -minute delay.
- -Foxconn said it had received new information from Sharp which -needed to be clarified.
-Whoops.
+(I really hope that floppy disk icon for the Save button is a joke.)
@@ -1083,77 +823,382 @@ needed to be clarified.
- +Understanding Apple’s Multinational Tax Payments ★ + +
-
+
Great piece by Shawn Tully for Fortune:
+ ++
+ +I figured that if this reporter found corporate taxes baffling, so +did lots of sophisticated Fortune readers. So I dug into the +financials of Apple to grasp how the world’s most valuable +publicly traded company accounts for taxes. Albert Meyer, a +forensic accountant and former academic who runs investment firm +Bastiat Capital, helped explain how and why Apple books or defers +taxes on different categories of income, and which rates it +applies to each category. With his help, I present a primer on +taxation of multinationals, using Apple as a case study.
+I still don’t quite understand the whole thing, but I have a much better grasp than I did before. And I’m more convinced than ever that Apple is doing something complicated, not something devious.
+ ++
+ +It’s important to emphasize that Apple actually pays a lot of tax +compared to other U.S.-based corporations with immense foreign +earnings, and takes a highly conservative approach to tax +accounting. […]
+ +For FY 2016, Apple booked total pre-tax earnings of $61.4 billion. +On its income statement, Apple showed a “provision for taxes” of +$15.685 billion. That number is an expense that’s deducted +straight from pre-tax income of $61.4 billion to yield net income +of $45.7 billion. Hence, its reported “effective tax rate” was +25.6% ($15.685 billion divided by $61.4 billion), well below the +official 35%, but on the high side for multinationals, many of +which are in the teens.
+The news coverage on Apple’s tax avoidance would lead you to believe (and in fact has led many to believe) that Apple pays a lower effective tax rate than most companies, when the truth is they pay a higher rate than most of their peers.
+ +And later:
+ ++
+ +It’s important to note that Apple is extremely responsible in the +use of this exemption for reinvested earnings. Many multinationals +report that they intend to plough all of their foreign profits +into operations, and hence, don’t make any accruals for U.S. taxes +on their offshore earnings. Apple is the rare tech titan that books +large annual accruals that lower net income.
+The problem isn’t Apple’s tax structure, it’s U.S. law. You can argue that Apple should voluntarily pay more in taxes than they’re legally obligated to, but no one who holds such views would ever get hired as a finance executive at a large publicly held company.
+ +
+
+
+ - +Barry Ritholtz: ‘Why Apple Should Buy Netflix’ ★ + +
-
+
Barry Ritholtz, writing for Bloomberg:
+ ++
+ +I try not to give billionaires or corporate managers unsolicited +advice on what they should do with their money. Warren Buffett and +Apple Inc. both have done rather well for themselves and their +investors without my help. Today, I violate my own rule: Apple +should buy Netflix Inc. in an all-stock deal for about $100 +billion. […]
+ +The upsides for Apple are fairly obvious; the biggest downside is +the cost. If anything, it might spare us the boring quarterly +routine of analysts expecting soft iPhone sales and then being +shocked when the company beats to the upside.
+ +If Apple passes on Netflix, don’t be surprised if Amazon does not. +That alone is reason to make the purchase.
+Usually when someone proposes Apple make a huge acquisition, I hurt my eyes by rolling them so far back in my head. I remain unconvinced that Apple should buy Netflix, but I don’t roll my eyes at the notion.
+ +I think the main problem is that there’s nothing magical about Netflix. Surely Apple could buy HBO for less money than Netflix would cost, and I would put HBO’s original content up against Netflix’s any day. I also think it’s a mistake to underestimate Apple’s ability to build its own first-class original content streaming service based on the crappy shows it’s released to date. A couple of more deals like the Amazing Stories one with Steven Spielberg and they’ll already have a foot in the game — for way less than the $100 billion it would take to buy Netflix.
+ +And, just as I was about to publish this post, this just in: Apple has announced a deal for a two-season scripted TV series starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon as competing morning TV show hosts, with House of Cards producer Jay Carson writing the pilot and serving as showrunner.
+ +Ritholtz (and others, like Om Malik and Ben Thompson) argue that Apple’s incredible cash hoard would allow them to make an expensive acquisition like Netflix. My argument is that Apple’s cash hoard would allow them to outbid the competition for the best new shows. Make Apple Studios the place where top notch talent takes new pitches first, knowing they’ll get paid top dollar and treated well. The trick isn’t the money — the trick is hiring the right executives to identify the best new shows.
+ +
+
+
+ - +Logitech Will Brick Its Harmony Link Hub for All Owners in March ★ + +
-
+
Chris Welch, reporting for The Verge:
+ ++
+ +Logitech has announced that it’s shutting down all services for +the Harmony Link hub, a plastic puck the company released in 2011 +that gave smartphones and tablets the ability to act as universal +remotes for thousands of devices.
+ +Owners of the product have received an email from the company +warning that the Link will completely stop working in March. “On +March 16th, 2018, Logitech will discontinue service and support +for Harmony Link. Your Harmony Link will no longer function after +this date,” the email says. There’s no explanation or reason given +as to why service is ending in the email, but a Logitech employee +provided more details on the company’s forums. “There is a +technology certificate license that will expire next March. The +certificate will not be renewed as we are focusing resources on +our current app-based remote, the Harmony Hub.”
+This sucks, but it seems like the way of the future with cloud-backed products. In the old days, products stopped working when they broke. Now, they stop working when the company that sold them loses interest in continuing to support them. It feels spiteful. More than ever, it matters how much you trust the company from which you buy stuff.
+ +
+
+
+ - +Apple at Its Best ★ + +
-
+
Ben Thompson, writing at Stratechery:
+ ++
+ +In these instances the iPhone X is reaching the very pinnacle of +computing: doing a necessary job, in this case security, better +than humans can. The fact that this case is security is +particularly noteworthy: it has long been taken as a matter of +fact that there is an inescapable trade-off between security and +ease-of-use; TouchID made it far easier to have effective security +for the vast majority of situations, and FaceID makes it +invisible.
+ +The trick Apple pulled, though, was going beyond that: the first +time I saw notifications be hidden and then revealed (as in the +GIF above) through simply a glance produced the sort of +surprise-and-delight that has traditionally characterized Apple’s +best products. And, to be sure, surprise-and-delight is +particularly important to the iPhone X: so much is new, +particularly in terms of the interaction model, that frustrations +are inevitable; in that Apple’s attempt to analogize the iPhone X +to the original iPhone is more about contrasts than comparisons.
+“Surprise and delight” are intangibles. You can’t measure them with a benchmark or instrument. There are contingents of hardcore power user and open source nerd types who disdain surprise and delight as product attributes — and no surprise, those are the folks who seem to be dismissing iPhone X as a cynical cash grab.
+ +
+
+
+ - +Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Mosaic’ ★ + +
-
+
Angela Watercutter, writing for Wired:
+ ++
+ +Where they ended up was a smartphone-enabled story, developed and +released by Silver’s company PodOp, that lets viewers decide which +way they want to be told Mosaic’s tale of a children’s book +author, played by Sharon Stone, who turns up dead in the idyllic +ski haven of Park City, Utah. After watching each segment — some +only a few minutes, some as long as a standard television episode +— viewers are given options for whose point of view they want to +follow and where they want to go next. Those who want to be +completest and watch both options before moving on can do so, +those who want to race to find out whodunit can do that too. +Because each node, filmed by Soderbergh himself, feels like a TV +show, launching Mosaic can be akin to sneaking a quick show on +Netflix while commuting to work or waiting on a friend; but +because it’s a long story that’s easily flipped through, it can +also be enjoyed like the pulpy crime novel on your nightstand, +something you chip away at a little bit at a time before bed.
+This sounds fantastic, especially in the hands of someone as innovative and talented as Soderbergh. iOS-only (for now?), but that includes Apple TV.
+ +
+
+
+ - +iPhone X 4K Video vs. the Panasonic GH5 Professional Video Camera ★ + +
-
+
Impressive side-by-side comparison. The Panasonic GH5 sells for $2000 for the body only, and costs around $2800 with a lens. The iPhone X camera largely held its own in outdoor lighting.
+ +
+
+
+ - +Apple to Release Software Update to Solve iOS 11 Issue When Typing the Letter ‘i’ ★ + +
-
+
Benjamin Mayo, writing for 9to5Mac:
+ ++
+ +Some iPhone and iPad users are facing a weird bug after updating +to iOS 11.1. When trying to type the lowercase letter ‘i’, +autocorrect replaces the word with the letter ‘A’ and a question +mark symbol.
+ +Apple has documented steps for a workaround fix until a real +bug-fix software update is released …
+Such a weird bug — and embarrassing for Apple because it makes the device look so dumb. What I’ve heard is that this is a machine learning problem — that, more or less, for some reason the machine learning algorithm for autocorrect was learning something it never should have learned.
+ +
+
+
+ - The data the FBI claims to want is on Farook’s iPhone. -
- They already have access to his iCloud account. -
- They might have been able to transfer the data on his iPhone to his iCloud account via an automated backup, but they can’t because they reset his Apple ID (iCloud) password. +
- Face ID works great. In practice it’s like not even having a passcode on the phone. You just swipe and you’re in. It’s also very quick to set up — way quicker than setting up even a single fingerprint in Touch ID. +
- I don’t really notice the notch while using it. +
- I do notice the lack of a home button. I think I’ll get used to the new no-home-button UI soon, but 10 years of habits die hard. +
- The device feels great.
-
-
Much (or all?) of the data stored on Apple’s iCloud backup servers is not encrypted. Or, if it is encrypted, it is encrypted in a way that Apple can decrypt. Apple has a PDF that describes the information available to U.S. law enforcement from iCloud, but to me it’s not clear exactly what is available under warrant. I would bet a large sum of money that Apple is hard at work on an iCloud backup system that does store data encrypted in a way that Apple cannot read it without the user’s Apple ID password. ↩︎
-
- -
-
Another possibility: Farook’s iCloud storage was full. If this were the case, presumably Apple could have granted his account additional storage to allow a fresh backup to occur. But again, this became moot as soon as the county reset the Apple ID password at the behest of the FBI. ↩︎︎
-
- -
-
I do wonder about the purported Apple car. Would that be assembled in China, too? The U.S. does have automobile manufacturing expertise. And a car is so utterly unlike any product Apple has ever made that I feel like anything is possible. ↩︎
-
-
But damn if the name “Notcho” isn’t clever — it might be the best possible name for a utility that does this. Also clever is the monetization strategy: Notcho is free to download and use, but any wallpapers you create with it are watermarked with “Notcho” in the bottom right corner. For $2 you can remove the watermark. And if anyone is going to be bothered by that watermark, it’s the same sort of person who’s bothered by the notch.
- -On the San Bernardino Suspect’s Apple ID Password Reset
-Sunday, 21 February 2016
+Twitter’s 280-Character Own Goal
+Thursday, 9 November 2017
-The latest news in the Apple-FBI legal fight has resulted in much confusion. John Paczkowski, reporting for BuzzFeed:
+J.K. Rowling, on Twitter raising the per-tweet character limit to 280:
--The FBI has claimed that the password was changed by someone at -the San Bernardino Health Department. Friday night, however, -things took a further turn when the San Bernardino County’s -official Twitter account stated, “The County was working -cooperatively with the FBI when it reset the iCloud password at -the FBI’s request.”
- -County spokesman David Wert told BuzzFeed News on Saturday -afternoon the tweet was an authentic statement, but he had nothing -further to add.
- -The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment on -Saturday; an Apple spokesperson said the company had no additional -comment beyond prior statements.
+Twitter’s destroyed its USP. The whole point, for me, was how +inventive people could be within that concise framework.
Here is what the FBI wrote in its legal motion, in a footnote on the four ways Apple suggested they obtain the data they seek:
+USP is “unique selling proposition”. By doubling the character limit, Twitter has eliminated what made them unique. Yes, there were many trade-offs with the 140-character limit, both pros and cons. But one of the pros is it made Twitter unique. Twitter timelines now look more like Facebook — but Facebook is already there for Facebook-like timelines. Twitter trying to be more like Facebook is like basketball trying to be more like football — a bad idea that won’t work.
+ +Stephen King was more succinct:
--(3) to attempt an auto-backup of the SUBJECT DEVICE with the - related iCloud account (which would not work in this case - because neither the owner nor the government knew the password - the iCloud account, and the owner, in an attempt to gain - access to some information in the hours after the attack, was - able to reset the password remotely, but that had the effect - of eliminating the possibility of an auto-backup);
+280 characters? Fuck that.
To unpack this, the “owner” is not Syed Farook, the shooter. The iPhone at the center of this was supplied by Farook’s employer, the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. They are the “owner”. The “government” is the federal government: the FBI and the Department of Justice.
+ -The iPhone had been configured to back up to iCloud. However, at the time of the attack, it had not been backed up to iCloud for six weeks. Under warrant, Apple supplied the FBI with the data from that six-week-old backup. The FBI (for obvious reasons) would like the most recent six weeks of data from the phone, too.1
++-I like the word-Tetris of making a complete thought fit in a +140-character box.
+
iCloud backups are triggered automatically when the phone is (a) on a known Wi-Fi network, and (b) plugged-in to power. Apple’s suggestion to the FBI was that if they took the iPhone to Farook’s office and plugged it in, it might trigger a backup. If that had worked, Apple could supply the FBI with the contents of that new backup, including the most recent six weeks of data.
+John Dingell, 91-year-old retired Congressman from Michigan (who is truly excellent at Twitter):
-It is not clear to me from any of the reports I have read why the iPhone had not been backed up in six weeks. It’s possible that Farook had disabled iCloud backups, in which case this whole thing is moot.2 But it’s also possible the only reason the phone hadn’t been backed up in six weeks is that it had not been plugged-in while on a known Wi-Fi network in six weeks. The phone would have to be unlocked to determine this, and the whole point of this fight is that the phone can’t be unlocked.
++-99% of you people don’t even deserve 140 characters.
+
The FBI screwed this up by directing the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health to reset Farook’s Apple ID password. They did not, and apparently could not, change anything on the phone itself. But once they reset the Apple ID password, the phone could not back up to iCloud, because the phone needed to be updated with the newly-reset Apple ID password — and they could not do that because they can’t unlock the phone.
+It’s no surprise that writers, in particular, object to this change. I agree with Ihnatko — the 140-character limit made it a challenge. Fitting certain complex thoughts into a mere 140 characters sometimes felt like solving a small challenge, like one of The New York Times’s tiny little 5 × 5 crossword puzzles.
-The key point is that you do not have to unlock an iPhone to have it back up to iCloud. But a locked iPhone can’t back up to iCloud if the associated Apple ID password has been changed.
+But perhaps the best commentary comes from William Shakespeare:
-Again, there are two password-type things at play here. The Apple ID (iCloud) password, and the four-digit device passcode locking the iPhone. The county, at the behest of the FBI, reset the Apple ID password. This did not allow them to unlock the iPhone, and, worse, it prevented the iPhone from initiating a new backup to iCloud.
++-Brevity is the soul of wit.
+
How did the county reset Farook’s Apple ID password? We don’t know for sure, but the most likely answer is that if his Apple ID was his work-issued email account, then the IT department at the county could go to iforgot.apple.com, enter Farook’s work email address, and then access his email account to click the confirmation URL to reset the password.
+Given 280 characters, people are going to use them, even to express thoughts that could have fit in 140. Given unlimited characters, such as in email, people ramble aimlessly.
-In short:
+That’s why email feels like a dreary chore, and Twitter feels like fun. The fewer tweets that fit in a single screen at a time, the less fun Twitter feels. I’m sure Twitter considered this change carefully, but I’m convinced they’ve made a terrible mistake. ★
+ ++ + +
Wednesday, 8 November 2017
+-
+
Tuesday, 7 November 2017
+-
+
+ + +
iPhone X Review Roundup
+Tuesday, 31 October 2017
+ +Because I’ve only had about 24 hours with the iPhone X, I’m in no position to write a review yet. But my quick take:
-
-
The only possible explanations for this are incompetence or dishonesty on the part of the FBI. Incompetence, if they didn’t realize that resetting the Apple ID password could prevent the iPhone from backing up to iCloud. Dishonesty, if they directed the county to do this knowing the repercussions, with the goal of setting up this fight to force Apple to create a back door for them in iOS. I’m not sure which to believe at this point. I’d like to know exactly when this directive to reset the Apple ID password was given — ” in the hours after the attack” leaves a lot of wiggle room. ★
+I was far from alone in not getting an extended period of time to test the phone before the review embargo lifted.
--
-
-
Here’s what others are saying in their reviews.
+ +Matthew Panzarino used iPhone X for a week, and stress-tested it with a family trip to Disneyland. (He did the same thing with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus three years ago — it’s a great conceit for a review.) He also got on-the-record interviews with Phil Schiller, Dan Riccio, Craig Federighi, and Alan Dye. Riccio flatly denied reports that Apple was scrambling to get Touch ID working with iPhone X:
+ +++ +“I heard some rumor [that] we couldn’t get Touch ID to work +through the glass so we had to remove that,” Riccio says, +answering a question about whether there were late design +changes. “When we hit early line of sight on getting Face ID to +be [as] good as it was, we knew that if we could be successful we +could enable the product that we wanted to go off and do and if +that’s true it could be something that we could burn the bridges +and be all in with. This is assuming it was a better solution. +And that’s what we did. So we spent no time looking at +fingerprints on the back or through the glass or on the side +because if we did those things, which would be a last-minute +change, they would be a distraction relative to enabling the more +important thing that we were trying to achieve, which was Face ID +done in a high-quality way.”
+
Panzarino, on the iPhone X’s OLED display:
+ +++ +I hate to say it, but it makes the iPhone 8 Plus LCD look kind +of like butt. I love it, even though it is flawed in one +noticeable way.
+ +The one area where this display falls prey to standard OLED gripes +is in off-axis viewing. Apple tells me that it has done work to +counter the drop in saturation and shift to blue that affects OLED +screens traditionally. I can tell you that, compared to other OLED +screens, you have to get further “off of center” to see a real +shift in color, holding the phone 30 degrees or more off of dead +on. But it is still there. For people who share their phone’s +screen or use it at odd angles a lot, it will be noticeable. On +some phones, OLEDs go super blue. On the iPhone X it’s more of a +slight blue shift with a reduction in saturation and dynamic +range. It’s not terrible, but it definitely exists.
+
I see the same thing with mine.
+ +Nicole Nguyen also used iPhone X for a week and wrote a great review for BuzzFeed:
+ +++ +Whatever. I don’t feel strongly about the notch either way, but +it’s really the other end of the screen that feels awkward. It’s +when the keyboard, in any app, is on screen (which, for me, is +most of the time): There’s all this dead space on the bottom, +where Apple could have put common punctuation, frequently used +emojis, or literally anything, but instead left it blank. Other +full-screen apps on other phones put navigation or other design +elements in that area, and it doesn’t look crowded or crammed. It +looks fine. It’s puzzling why Apple didn’t put something more +useful down at the bottom, or why it didn’t add a row of numbers +or emojis up top and push down the keyboard to make it more +thumb-accessible.
+
It does look like a waste of space, but I wonder if testing showed that there needs to be some space under the keyboard to separate it from the virtual home button? If there weren’t a gap under the keyboard, you might hit the home button while trying to hit the space bar, and vice versa. Update: I’ve heard from a little birdie that my speculation is correct; also: it’s about typing comfort.
+ +++ +For a normal human who isn’t aware of the 30,000 invisible dots +being projected on their face or the 3D map of their head +encrypted somewhere deep inside their phone, there’s nothing +“futuristic” about these interactions. Using Face ID is what life +without a passcode — life before we all became paranoid +technofreaks — felt like.
+
That’s my take too. It’s like not having a passcode set.
+ +Lance Ulanoff, in his review for Mashable:
+ +++ +During my first 24 hours of using the iPhone X, I helplessly +pressed the space where a button should be. It’s a kind of Phantom +Home Button Syndrome that I expect all iPhone X owners will +experience in the early days.
+ +It fades, though, and rather quickly, thanks to a smartly designed +gesture interface and something Apple calls Face ID. […]
+ +One important limitation of Face ID: It only lets you register one +face. That may strike many as unnecessarily limiting since Touch +ID lets users register up to 10 fingerprints, but Apple says it +found the number of people who register more than one person’s +fingerprints is miniscule. There’s also the simple and obvious +fact that humans have 10 fingers, but just one face.
+
I’m surprised it’s only a minuscule number. I’ve got a fingerprint registered on my son’s iPhone — I’m sure other parents do the same thing. And last week my wife let me put a fingerprint on her iPhone so I could use Apple Pay while pre-ordering her iPhone X while she slept. ★
Apple’s App Problem
-Wednesday, 3 February 2016
+Face ID FUD
+Wednesday, 25 October 2017
-Following up on Walt Mossberg’s column regarding the quality of Apple’s first-party apps, Jim Dalrymple writes:
+Seemingly-sensational Apple story from Bloomberg today, reported by Alex Webb and Sam Kim, “Inside Apple’s Struggle to Get the iPhone X to Market on Time”:
--I understand that Apple has a lot of balls in the air, but they -have clearly taken their eye off some of them. There is absolutely -no doubt that Apple Music is getting better with each update to -the app, but what we have now is more of a 1.0 version than what -we received last year.
+As of early fall, it was clearer than ever that production +problems meant Apple Inc. wouldn’t have enough iPhone Xs in time +for the holidays. The challenge was how to make the sophisticated +phone — with advanced features such as facial recognition — in +large enough numbers.
-Personally, I don’t care much about all the celebrities that Apple -can parade around — I care about a music service that works. -That’s it.
- -If Apple Music (or any of the other software that has -problems) was the iPhone, it would never have been released in -the state it was.
+As Wall Street analysts and fan blogs watched for signs that the +company would stumble, Apple came up with a solution: It quietly +told suppliers they could reduce the accuracy of the +face-recognition technology to make it easier to manufacture, +according to people familiar with the situation.
Software and hardware are profoundly different disciplines, so it’s hard to compare them directly. But it seems obvious to me that Apple, institutionally, has higher standards for hardware design and quality than it does for software.
- -Maybe this is the natural result of the fact hardware standards must be high, because they can’t issue “hardware updates” over the air like they can with software. But the perception is now widespread that the balance between Apple’s hardware and software quality has shifted in recent years. I see a lot of people nodding their heads in agreement with Mossberg and Dalrymple’s pieces today.
- -We went over this same ground a year ago in the wake of Marco Arment’s “Apple Has Lost the Functional High Ground”, culminating in a really interesting (to me at least) discussion with Phil Schiller at my “Live From WWDC” episode of The Talk Show. That we’re still talking about it a year later — and that the consensus reaction is one of agreement — suggests that Apple probably does have a software problem, and they definitely have a perception problem.
- -I’ll offer a small personal anecdote. Overall I’ve had great success with iCloud Photo Library. I’ve got over 18,000 photos and almost 400 videos. And I’ve got a slew of devices — iPhones, iPads, and Macs — all using the same iCloud account. And those photos are available from all those devices. Except, a few weeks ago, I noticed that on my primary Mac, in Photos, at the bottom of the main “Photos” view, where it tells you exactly how many photos and videos you have, it said “Unable to Upload 5 Items”. Restarting didn’t fix it. Waiting didn’t fix it. And clicking on it didn’t do anything — I wanted to know which five items couldn’t be uploaded, and why. It seems to me that anybody in this situation would want to know those two things. But damned if Photos would tell me.
- -Eventually, I found this support thread which suggested a solution: you can create a Smart Group in Photos using “Unable to upload to iCloud Photo Library” as the matching condition. Bingo: five items showed up. (Two of them were videos for which the original files couldn’t be found; three of them were duplicates of photos that were already in my library.)
- -My little iCloud Photo Library syncing hiccup was not a huge deal — I was even lucky insofar as the two videos that couldn’t be found were meaningless. And I managed to find a solution. But it feels emblematic of the sort of nagging software problems people are struggling with in Apple’s apps. Not even the bug itself that led to these five items being unable to upload, but rather the fact that Photos knew about the problem but wouldn’t tell me the details I needed to fix it without my resorting to the very much non-obvious trick of creating a Smart Group to identify them. For me at least, “silent failure” is a big part of the problem — almost everything related to the whole discoveryd/mDNSresponder fiasco last year was about things that just silently stopped working.
- -Maybe we expect too much from Apple’s software. But Apple’s hardware doesn’t have little problems like this. ★
- -- - -
Why Apple Assembles in China
-Wednesday, 20 January 2016
- -Arik Hesseldahl, writing for Recode on Donald Trump’s “we’re gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries” campaign promise:
+That sounds terrible. But what exactly does it mean? Does it mean Face ID will create too many false positives? Does it mean it will be too slow? Does it mean there will be too many false negatives? Surprise surprise, Bloomberg doesn’t say.
--Any honest presidential candidate regardless of party should say -clearly and indeed proudly that America doesn’t want these jobs to -come back. Final assembly jobs are low-skilled, low-paying -occupations; no American would wish to support a family on what -the jobs would pay. Workers at China’s Foxconn, which -manufacturers the iPhone, make about $402 per month after three -months of on-the-job probation. Even at the lowest minimum wage in -the U.S. — $5.15 an hour in Wyoming — American workers can’t -beat that.
+Apple is famously demanding, leaning on suppliers and contract +manufacturers to help it make technological leaps and retain a +competitive edge. While a less accurate Face ID will still be far +better than the existing Touch ID, the company’s decision to +downgrade the technology for this model shows how hard it’s +becoming to create cutting-edge features that consumers are +hungry to try.
It’s not that simple. These jobs are certainly menial, but they’re not low-skill. As Tim Cook said on 60 Minutes:
+“Downgraded technology” sounds terrible. But which components, exactly, were “downgraded”?
--Charlie Rose: So if it’s not wages, what is it?
- -Tim Cook: It’s skill. […]
- -Charlie Rose: They have more skills than American workers? They -have more skills than —
- -Tim Cook: Now — now, hold on.
- -Charlie Rose: — German workers?
- -Tim Cook: Yeah, let me — let me — let me clear, China put an -enormous focus on manufacturing. In what we would call, you and I -would call vocational kind of skills. The U.S., over time, began -to stop having as many vocational kind of skills. I mean, you can -take every tool and die maker in the United States and probably -put them in a room that we’re currently sitting in. In China, you -would have to have multiple football fields.
- -Charlie Rose: Because they’ve taught those skills in their -schools?
- -Tim Cook: It’s because it was a focus of them — it’s a focus of -their educational system. And so that is the reality.
+Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said “Bloomberg’s claim that it +reduced the accuracy spec for Face ID is completely false and we +expect Face ID to be the new gold standard for facial +authentication. The quality and accuracy of Face ID haven’t +changed; it continues to be one in a million probability of a +random person unlocking your iPhone with Face ID.”
Wages are a huge factor, but for the sake of argument, let’s say Apple was willing to dip into its massive cash reserves and pay assembly line workers in the U.S. a good wage. Where would these U.S.-made iPhone be assembled? A year ago Apple sold 75 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of calendar 2014. There is no facility in the U.S. that can do that. There might not be anywhere in the world other than China that can operate at that sort of scale. That’s almost one million iPhones per day. 10 iPhones per second. Think about that.
+It is extraordinary for Apple to issue a blanket “this is completely false” statement on any news story. Apple, as policy, no-comments every news story, even when they know it’s bullshit. So either this story is particularly strong bullshit, or Apple is lying, on the record, under an employee’s real name (as opposed to the anonymous “an Apple spokesperson” attribution).
-You can say, well, Apple could dig even deeper into its coffers and build such facilities. And train tens of thousands of employees. But why would they? Part of the marvel of Apple’s operations is that they can assemble and sell an unfathomable number of devices but they’re not on the hook for the assembly plants and facilities. When iPhones go the way of the iPod in 10 or 15 or 20 years, Apple doesn’t have any factories to close or convert for other uses. Foxconn does.
+And what exactly is the point of Bloomberg’s story if, as reported, “Face ID will still be far better than the existing Touch ID”?
-The U.S. can’t compete with China on wages. It can’t compete on the size of the labor force. China has had a decades-long push in its education system to train these workers; the U.S. has not. And the U.S. doesn’t have the facilities or the proximity to the Asian component manufacturers.
++-To make matters worse, Apple lost one of its laser suppliers early +on. Finisar Corp. failed to meet Apple’s specifications in time +for the start of production, and now the Sunnyvale, +California-based company is racing to meet the standards by the +end of October. That left Apple reliant on fewer laser suppliers: +Lumentum Holdings Inc. and II-VI Inc.
+
The only way Apple could ever switch to U.S. assembly and manufacturing would be if they automated the entire process — to build machines that build the machines. That, in fact, is what NeXT did while they were in the hardware business. But NeXT only ever sold about 50,000 computers total. Apple needed to assemble 35,000 iPhones per hour last year.
+Apple didn’t “lose” a supplier — Apple cut the supplier because they weren’t producing adequate yields.
-So long as assembling these devices remains labor intensive, it has to happen in China. And if someday it becomes automated — if the machines are built by machines — by definition it’s not going to create manufacturing jobs.1 ★
+++ +To boost the number of usable dot projectors and accelerate +production, Apple relaxed some of the specifications for Face ID, +according to a different person with knowledge of the process. As +a result, it took less time to test completed modules, one of the +major sticking points, the person said.
+ +It’s not clear how much the new specs will reduce the technology’s +efficacy.
+
Now we get to the real heart of the story. Did Apple adjust the specifications for the components, or just the testing parameters? And if “it’s not clear how much the new specs will reduce the technology’s efficacy”, what is the point of this story? When did Apple “relax” these specifications? Before or after the September event?
+ +To be clear, I have no idea whether Face ID works as advertised or not. I haven’t used it even once yet. Maybe it stinks, maybe it’s great, maybe it’s somewhere in between. But Bloomberg clearly doesn’t know either, yet they published this story which has a headline and summary — “The company let suppliers reduce accuracy of the phone’s Face ID system to speed up production” — which suggests that Face ID is going to stink because Apple’s suppliers couldn’t get enough good components out the door. If this weren’t merely clickbait, they’d be able to say how well it actually works.
--
-
-
Frankly, I don’t trust anything Bloomberg reports about iPhones any more. On July 3, they published this piece by Mark Gurman, “Apple Tests 3-D Face Scanning to Unlock Next iPhone”:
+ +++ +Apple Inc. is working on a feature that will let you unlock your +iPhone using your face instead of a fingerprint.
+ +For its redesigned iPhone, set to go on sale later this year, +Apple is testing an improved security system that allows users to +log in, authenticate payments, and launch secure apps by scanning +their face, according to people familiar with the product. This is +powered by a new 3-D sensor, added the people, who asked not to be +identified discussing technology that’s still in development. The +company is also testing eye scanning to augment the system, one of +the people said.
+ +The sensor’s speed and accuracy are focal points of the feature. +It can scan a user’s face and unlock the iPhone within a few +hundred milliseconds, the person said. It is designed to work even +if the device is laying flat on a table, rather than just close up +to the face. The feature is still being tested and may not appear +with the new device. However, the intent is for it to replace the +Touch ID fingerprint scanner, according to the person. An Apple +spokesman declined to comment.
+
Apple did in fact replace Touch ID with Face ID in the iPhone X, but the timing on Gurman’s story is wrong. They weren’t “testing” the viability of any of this in July. According to several trusted sources within Apple, including multiple engineers who worked directly on the iPhone X project, the decision to go “all-in on Face ID” (in the words of one source) was made over a year ago. Further, the design of the iPhone X hardware was “locked” — again, a source’s word — prior to January 2017. If I had to wager, I’d say it was locked a few months before the end of 2016. This was a nine-month-old decision that Bloomberg reported in the present tense.
+ +Beyond Bloomberg, there are the slew of reports from various “analysts” that suggested Apple was still working to incorporate Touch ID into the iPhone X display as late as this summer.
+ + + +++ +In a note sent out to investors on Friday, and subsequently +obtained by AppleInsider, well-connected KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo +says he believes Apple is developing a new class of +bio-recognition technologies that play nice with “full-face,” or +zero-bezel, displays. Specifically, Kuo foresees Apple replacing +existing Touch ID technology with optical fingerprint readers, a +change that could arrive as soon as this year, as Apple is widely +rumored to introduce a full-screen OLED iPhone model this fall.
+
By January, there were no plans to embed an “optical fingerprint reader” in the display of any Apple device this year. Apple did, of course, investigate ways to embed Touch ID sensors in edge-to-edge displays, but, again, those efforts were abandoned in favor of Face ID over a year ago.
+ +Cowen and Company analyst Timoth Arcuri, on June 21 (of this year), under the AppleInsider headline “Apple Still Undecided on Fingerprint Tech for ‘iPhone 8’, No Shipments Until October”:
+ +++ +The OLED-embedded fingerprint technology for Apple’s “iPhone 8” +is “still being worked out,” an analyst claimed on Wednesday, +with the company only deciding on one of three options by the end +of June.
+ +The one settled point appears to be that there won’t be a sensor +on the back of the phone, Cowen and Company’s Timothy Arcuri +indicated in a memo obtained by AppleInsider. The three options +include thinning the cover glass over a sensor area, creating a +pinhole through the glass for an optical or ultrasonic sensor, or +trying a “film” sensor integrated into the display, using either +capacitive or infrared technology.
+
This, it turns out, was complete nonsense. Again, Apple was “all-in” on Face ID over a year ago. The idea that they were still “working this out” in June is a joke.
+ +And back to Ming-Chi Kuo, in August:
+ +++ +Apple has decided against an embedded Touch ID solution for its +forthcoming “iPhone 8” handset, according to well-connected +analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, leaving the door open for competitor Samsung +to debut similar technology in next year’s Galaxy Note 9.
+ +In a note to investors obtained by AppleInsider, Kuo says Apple +has “cancelled” plans to embed a fingerprint recognition solution +in the next-generation flagship iPhone. The analyst left embedded +Touch ID off a list of standout “iPhone 8” features published in +July, but did not indicate that Apple had abandoned the initiative +altogether.
+
As with Gurman’s report in June, the problem here is with the timing, not the facts. By August of this year, this was a nearly year-old decision.
+ +The Wall Street Journal, in a September 7 report attributed to reporters “Yoko Kubota in Tokyo, Tripp Mickle in San Francisco, and Takashi Mochizuki in Tokyo”:
+ +++ +The production delays earlier this summer stemmed in part from +Apple’s decision to build new phones using organic light-emitting +diode, or OLED, screens similar to those used by rival Samsung +Electronics Co. At the same time, Apple decided to ditch the +physical home button that contains fingerprint sensors for +unlocking the device. Apple tried to embed the Touch ID function, +or fingerprint scanner, in the new display, which proved +difficult, the people familiar with the process said.
+ +As deadlines approached, Apple eventually abandoned the +fingerprint scanner, the people said, and users will unlock the +phone using either an old-fashioned password or what is expected +to be a new facial-recognition feature. Nonetheless, precious time +was lost and production was put back by about a month, according +to people familiar with the situation.
+
I quote the two Tokyo datelines in the byline because I don’t think this information came from Apple. Again, my sources at Apple, directly familiar with the decision, have told me that they chose Face ID over a year ago because they were convinced it was better than Touch ID. Touch ID was not abandoned because it was difficult to embed in the display.
+ +For good measure while I’m pouring out the claim chowder, here’s Zach Epstein, writing for BGR on July 20, “I Might Know the Truth About Touch ID on Apple’s iPhone 8” (note that the device he refers to as “iPhone 8” is the iPhone X):
+ +++ +I have now received information from three different well-placed +sources over the past few weeks, and they have all told me the +same thing: The iPhone 8’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor is in the +power button.
+ +The news first came to me about a month ago from a source I know +well. I’ve since been told the same thing by two additional +sources I haven’t known for quite as long. All three sources have +provided information to me in the past that has proven to be +accurate.
+
That’s a lot of “well-placed sources” for a bullshit story.
+ ++ +
All of this fits with what I’ve heard from rank-and-file engineering sources within Apple for years. To wit, producing hardware at the iPhone’s scale, while pushing the boundaries of the industry in technology, is so difficult, so complicated, that it requires hardware designs to be locked down far in advance of when iPhones are actually announced and released. Apple’s iPhone hardware engineering teams did not spend 2017 working on the iPhone X and iPhone 8 — they spent this year working on new iPhone hardware for 2018 and 2019 (and perhaps beyond). Hardware is nothing like software. If Apple had really been dithering over Touch ID-embedded-in-the-display vs. Face ID in June of this year, iPhone X wouldn’t be hitting the market until 2018. And the final decisions on the hardware for the iPhones that will be debuting next year are being made right now.
+ +So where do these rumors come from? I don’t know. My guess is that if there’s an intent behind them, it’s that competitors (cough, Samsung?) within the Asian supply chain are attempting to sow doubt about Face ID. The narrative presented by analysts and certain news reports this summer was that Apple was still scrambling to get Touch ID working embedded within the iPhone X display, suggesting that Face ID was their Plan B.
+ +People are naturally skeptical about biometric ID systems. They were skeptical about Touch ID when it was still only rumored, just like they’re skeptical now about Face ID. Today, though, Touch ID is both trusted and familiar. So rumors claiming that Apple really wanted to get Touch ID into iPhone X but had to settle for Face ID play into both the skepticism of the new and the comfort of the familiar. FUD is one of the oldest tricks in the book.
+ +The other, simpler explanation is that it simply takes 9 months or longer for engineering decisions made within Apple to percolate out to the rumor reporters and analysts — and their sources are so far removed from the halls of Cupertino that they mistake old news for new news. ★
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