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<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<title>Daring Fireball</title>
<subtitle>By John Gruber</subtitle>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/" />
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://daringfireball.net/feeds/main" />
<id>http://daringfireball.net/feeds/main</id>
<updated>2016-02-28T21:06:52Z</updated><rights>Copyright © 2016, John Gruber</rights><entry>
<title>Apple Product Event: Monday March 21</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://recode.net/2016/02/27/remark-your-calendars-apples-product-event-will-week-of-march-21/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/otp" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/27/swisher-apple-event" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32173</id>
<published>2016-02-27T21:59:47Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-27T22:39:17Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Kara Swisher, writing at Recode, broke the news:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Swisher doesn&#8217;t have the exact date, although the <code>&lt;title&gt;</code> tag on her story reads &#8220;Apple Product Event Will Be Held March 22&#8221;. John Paczkowski (who usually gets these leaks first), confirms the week change, and says <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/apple-to-debut-new-ipad-smaller-iphone-at-march-15-event">the event will be on Monday 21 March</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For what it&#8217;s worth, <a href="http://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/09/march-2015-event-live/">last year&#8217;s March event</a> was on a Monday as well.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> <a href="http://www.loopinsight.com/2016/02/27/apples-march-event/">Jim Dalrymple</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This sounds right to me.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Product Event: Monday March 21’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/27/swisher-apple-event">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Manuscripts and Findings</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://nucleobytes.com/df.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/oto" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/26/manuscripts-and-findings" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32172</id>
<published>2016-02-27T00:11:11Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-27T00:13:11Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>My thanks to Nucleobytes for sponsoring this week&#8217;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 &#8212; their apps have won multiple Apple Design Awards.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>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. </p></li>
<li><p>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.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Try the <a href="http://nucleobytes.com/df.html">free basic versions</a>, and use coupon <strong>DARINGFIREBALL</strong> for <a href="http://nucleobytes.com/df.html">a special discount</a> on the unlimited versions, <em>this week only</em>. (They have an even better offer for students.)</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Manuscripts and Findings’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/26/manuscripts-and-findings">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Donald Trump Vows to ‘Open Up’ Libel Laws</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/02/donald-trump-libel-laws-219866" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/otn" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/26/trump-libel" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32171</id>
<published>2016-02-26T21:47:27Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-26T21:47:28Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Hadas Gold, writing for Politico:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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&#8217;re &#8220;losing money&#8221; and are &#8220;dishonest.&#8221; The
Republican presidential candidate then took a different turn,
suggesting that when he&#8217;s president they&#8217;ll &#8220;have problems.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;One of the things I&#8217;m going to do if I win, and I hope we do and
we&#8217;re certainly leading. I&#8217;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&#8217;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&#8217;re totally protected,&#8221; Trump said.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not worrisome at all. No sir.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Donald Trump Vows to &#8216;Open Up&#8217; Libel Laws’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/26/trump-libel">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Most Android Phones Are Not Encrypted</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/25/technology/android-apple-police-encryption/index.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/otm" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/26/android-encryption" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32170</id>
<published>2016-02-26T17:43:11Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-28T21:06:52Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Jose Pagliery, writing for CNN Money:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>A Google spokesman said that encryption is now required for all
&#8220;high-performing devices&#8221; &#8212; like the Galaxy S7 &#8212; running the
latest version of Android, Marshmallow. But only 1.2% of Android
phones even have that version, according to Google.</p>
<p>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&#8217;s operating system.</p>
<p>&#8220;If a person walks into a Best Buy and walks out with an iPhone,
it&#8217;s encrypted by default. If they walk out with an Android phone,
it&#8217;s largely vulnerable to surveillance,&#8221; said Christopher
Soghoian, the principal technologist at the American Civil
Liberties Union.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Google is moving in the right direction, but here&#8217;s an area where the slow uptake of new versions of Android has a serious effect.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Most Android Phones Are Not Encrypted’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/26/android-encryption">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>9to5Mac: ‘Apple Likely to Drop the “5”, Call New 4-Inch Model the “iPhone SE”’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://9to5mac.com/2016/02/26/apple-iphone-se-4-inch-2016/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/otl" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/26/9to5mac-se" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32169</id>
<published>2016-02-26T17:24:11Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-26T18:32:34Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Mark Gurman:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In January, <a href="http://9to5mac.com/2016/01/22/apple-readies-iphone-5se-not-6c-for-marchapril-with-curved-edges-live-photos/">we reported that Apple is preparing a new 4-inch
iPhone</a> 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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A few points:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Apple was never going to call this phone the &#8220;5 SE&#8221;. I don&#8217;t know where Gurman got that, but that was never going to happen. Why would Apple give a <em>new</em> phone a name that makes it sound old?</p></li>
<li><p>Isn&#8217;t it more accurate to think of this as an iPhone 6S in a 4-inch body than as an iPhone 5S with &#8220;upgraded internals&#8221;? Other than the display, aren&#8217;t the &#8220;internals&#8221; the defining characteristics of any iPhone?</p></li>
<li><p>Dropping the number entirely fits with my theory that this phone is intended to remain on the market for 18-24 months.</p></li>
</ul>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘9to5Mac: &#8216;Apple Likely to Drop the &#8220;5&#8221;, Call New 4-Inch Model the &#8220;iPhone SE&#8221;&#8217;’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/26/9to5mac-se">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Gogo Wi-Fi and Email Security</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://blog.erratasec.com/2016/02/early-internet-services-considered.html#.VtCA1eS6FaQ" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/otk" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/26/gogo-email-security" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32168</id>
<published>2016-02-26T17:12:34Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-26T19:00:17Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Reporter Steven Petrow published <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2016/02/24/got-hacked-my-mac-while-writing-story/80844720/">a scary first-hand tale</a> in USA Today, claiming that his email was hacked by another passenger on a Gogo-enabled flight. The implication was that you shouldn&#8217;t use email on Gogo unless you&#8217;re using a VPN. </p>
<p>But Petrow&#8217;s email didn&#8217;t get intercepted because of some flaw with Gogo. It got intercepted because he wasn&#8217;t connecting to the POP or SMTP servers via SSL. In fact, his email provider, Earthlink, doesn&#8217;t even <em>support</em> SSL for email.</p>
<p>Robert Graham at Errata Security <a href="http://blog.erratasec.com/2016/02/early-internet-services-considered.html#.VtCA1eS6FaQ">explains</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Early Internet stuff wasn&#8217;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&#8217;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&#8217;t upgraded their infrastructure.</p>
<p>You see this in the picture below. Earthlink supports older
un-encrypted &#8220;POP3&#8221; (for fetching email from the server), but not
the new encrypted POP3 over SSL. Conversely, GMail doesn&#8217;t support
the older un-encrypted stuff (even if you wanted it to), but only
the newer encrypted version.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/01/05/gogo_creates_fake_ssl_tls_certificates_so_it_can_block_video_streaming.html">Gogo is far from perfect</a>, but it certainly wasn&#8217;t at fault in this case.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Like a lot of you, I&#8217;m not even sure I buy the whole story. Whole thing seems fishy.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Gogo Wi-Fi and Email Security’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/26/gogo-email-security">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft Plan to Support Apple</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-facebook-to-support-apple-in-court-1456434617" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/otj" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/tech-companies-support-apple" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32167</id>
<published>2016-02-25T22:56:47Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-25T22:56:48Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Deepa Seetharaman and Jack Nicas, reporting for the WSJ:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Microsoft President and Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith told
Congress on Thursday that his company would file a motion
supporting Apple.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nice.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft Plan to Support Apple’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/tech-companies-support-apple">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple’s Motion to Vacate FBI Order</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2722199-5-15-MJ-00451-SP-USA-v-Black-Lexus-IS300.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/oti" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/apple-fbi-motion" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32166</id>
<published>2016-02-25T20:24:56Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-25T20:25:28Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>A clear, cogent read. I often shy away from reading legal motions because they&#8217;re so often written in dense legalese, but this one is clear.</p>
<p>This stuck out to me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 &#8212;</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(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.</p>
<p>(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.</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple&#8217;s Motion to Vacate FBI Order’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/apple-fbi-motion">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Microsoft Will File Amicus Brief Supporting Apple</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-25/microsoft-says-it-will-file-an-amicus-brief-to-support-apple" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/oth" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/bass-microsoft" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32165</id>
<published>2016-02-25T18:59:14Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-25T18:59:15Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Dina Bass, reporting for Bloomberg:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nice.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Microsoft Will File Amicus Brief Supporting Apple’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/bass-microsoft">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple to Tighten iCloud Backup Encryption</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0%2Fcd295840-db6c-11e5-98fd-06d75973fe09.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/otg" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/bradshaw-icloud-encryption" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32164</id>
<published>2016-02-25T18:02:44Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-25T18:02:45Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Tim Bradshaw, reporting for the Financial Times:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple to Tighten iCloud Backup Encryption’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/bradshaw-icloud-encryption">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The Dangerous All Writs Act Precedent in the Apple Encryption Case</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/a-dangerous-all-writ-precedent-in-the-apple-case" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/otf" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/davidson-all-writs-act" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32163</id>
<published>2016-02-25T17:07:13Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-25T17:07:15Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Amy Davidson, writing for The New Yorker:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Lost amid the technical debate over encryption is the legal debate over this incredibly broad application of the All Writs Act.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The Dangerous All Writs Act Precedent in the Apple Encryption Case’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/davidson-all-writs-act">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Twitter’s Missing Manual</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://eev.ee/blog/2016/02/20/twitters-missing-manual/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ote" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/twitter-missing-manual" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32162</id>
<published>2016-02-25T16:45:49Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-25T16:45:50Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Eevee:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Twitter’s Missing Manual’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/twitter-missing-manual">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Sharp Accepts Foxconn Takeover Bid</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35657077" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/otd" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/foxconn-sharp" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32161</id>
<published>2016-02-25T05:21:30Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-25T17:46:42Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Huge news for both companies. Interesting for Apple, too.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>A deal to take over Japanese electronics giant Sharp by Taiwanese
manufacturer Foxconn, has been thrown into question by a last
minute delay.</p>
<p>Foxconn said it had received new information from Sharp which
needed to be clarified.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whoops.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Sharp Accepts Foxconn Takeover Bid’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/25/foxconn-sharp">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The Next Step in iPhone Impregnability</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/25/technology/apple-is-said-to-be-working-on-an-iphone-even-it-cant-hack.html?smid=tw-bna" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/otc" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/24/iphone-impregnability" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32160</id>
<published>2016-02-25T03:26:27Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-25T04:35:17Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Matt Apuzzo and Katie Benner, reporting for the NYT:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apple engineers have already begun developing new security
measures that would make it impossible for the government to break
into a locked iPhone using methods similar to those now at the
center of a court fight in California, according to people close
to the company and security experts.</p>
<p>If Apple succeeds in upgrading its security &#8212; and experts say it
almost surely will &#8212; the company would create a significant
technical challenge for law enforcement agencies, even if the
Obama administration wins its fight over access to data stored on
an iPhone used by one of the killers in last year’s San
Bernardino, Calif., rampage. The F.B.I. would then have to find
another way to defeat Apple security, setting up a new cycle of
court fights and, yet again, more technical fixes by Apple. [&#8230;]</p>
<p>Apple built its recent operating systems to protect customer
information. As its chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, wrote in a
recent letter to customers, “We have even put that data out of our
own reach, because we believe the contents of your iPhone are none
of our business.”</p>
<p>But there is a catch. Each iPhone has a built-in troubleshooting
system that lets the company update the system software without
the need for a user to enter a password. Apple designed that
feature to make it easier to repair malfunctioning phones.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The way the iPhone works today, when put into <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201263">recovery mode</a> you can restore the operating system without entering the device passcode. The only restriction is that the version of iOS to be installed must be properly signed by Apple.</p>
<p>I just tried it here with my old iPhone 6, which had been turned off for weeks. I powered it up, but did not unlock it. I put it in recovery mode, and then updated it to iOS 9.3 beta 4. Then it restarted. Now it&#8217;s running iOS 9.3 beta 4, and I still have not unlocked it. All my data is still on the phone &#8212; but it&#8217;s running a new version of iOS, without my having unlocked it.</p>
<p>What the FBI wants Apple to do is create (and sign) a new version of iOS that they can force the San Bernardino suspect&#8217;s phone to install as an update &#8212; and this new version of iOS will allow them to easily brute-force the passcode.</p>
<p>I think what Apple is leaking here is that they&#8217;re going to change this (perhaps as soon as this year&#8217;s new iPhone 7), so that you can&#8217;t install a new version of iOS, even in recovery mode, without entering the device&#8217;s passcode. (I think they will also do the same for firmware updates to the code that executes on the Secure Enclave &#8212; it will require a passcode lock.)</p>
<p>If you do a full <em>restore</em>, you can install a new version of the OS without the passcode, but this wipes the data. See also: <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201365">Activation Lock</a>, which allows you to bypass the passcode to completely wipe an iPhone, but requires you to sign into iCloud before you can use it.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The Next Step in iPhone Impregnability’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/24/iphone-impregnability">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Scalia in 1987: ‘The Constitution Sometimes Insulates the Criminality of a Few in Order to Protect the Privacy of Us All’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/04/us/opinion-by-scalia-opposes-broad-view-of-police-power.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/otb" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/24/scalia-1987" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32159</id>
<published>2016-02-25T02:53:17Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-25T02:53:18Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>NYT report on a 6-3 Supreme Court decision in 1987:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Justice Scalia&#8217;s opinion was forcefully denounced as an
unjustified obstacle to law enforcement in dissenting opinions by
Associate Justices Sandra Day O&#8217;Connor and Lewis F. Powell Jr.
Chief Justice Rehnquist joined in both of the dissents.</p>
<p>Justice Scalia, however, said, &#8220;There is nothing new in the
realization that the Constitution sometimes insulates the
criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us
all.&#8221; [&#8230;]</p>
<p>Justice Scalia&#8217;s majority opinion today said that although the
search for weapons was lawful &#8212; a shot had just been fired through
the floor of the apartment, injuring a man below &#8212; the police were
not justified in moving the stereo components even slightly to
check the serial numbers without &#8220;probable cause&#8221; to believe they
were stolen. He thus affirmed a ruling by an Arizona appellate
court that the stereo components, which turned out to have been
stolen in an armed robbery, could not be used as evidence against
the occupant of the apartment.</p>
<p>Associate Justice William J. Brennan Jr., the Court&#8217;s senior
member, who is its leading liberal, apparently assigned Justice
Scalia to write the majority opinion, which he joined. Under the
Supreme Court&#8217;s procedures, the Chief Justice assigns opinions
when he is in the majority. When the Chief Justice dissents, as
in the Arizona case, the senior member of the majority has
assignment power.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Conservative judges, as a general rule, tend to side with law enforcement in search and seizure cases. Scalia was certainly a conservative, but by no means was he in lockstep with them.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Scalia in 1987: &#8216;The Constitution Sometimes Insulates the Criminality of a Few in Order to Protect the Privacy of Us All&#8217;’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/24/scalia-1987">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>ABC News Posts Extensive Interview With Tim Cook on FBI/iPhone Case</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/exclusive-apple-ceo-tim-cook-iphone-cracking-software/story?id=37173343" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ota" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/24/abc-news-cook" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32158</id>
<published>2016-02-25T00:59:51Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-25T02:17:14Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Solid, thorough, and I think very fair interview by David Muir. Cook made his case about as well as it could be made &#8212; a passionate defense of civil liberties. It&#8217;s 30 minutes long and worth every minute of it.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘ABC News Posts Extensive Interview With Tim Cook on FBI/iPhone Case’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/24/abc-news-cook">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Former Bush Administration Official Argues Supreme Court Should Count Scalia’s Vote in Pending Cases</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/hans-von-spakovsky-count-scalia-votes" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ot9" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/24/scalia-votes" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32157</id>
<published>2016-02-24T22:46:11Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-24T22:46:12Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>This is how we get from here to <a href="http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/Antonin_Scalia's_head">there</a>.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Former Bush Administration Official Argues Supreme Court Should Count Scalia&#8217;s Vote in Pending Cases’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/24/scalia-votes">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>David Ortiz Makes a Final Plea to Yankees Fans</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://nypost.com/2016/02/23/david-ortiz-makes-a-final-plea-to-yankees-fans/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ot8" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/24/ortiz" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32156</id>
<published>2016-02-24T22:02:58Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-24T22:17:46Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Kevin Kernan, writing for the NY Post:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When Ortiz, 40, makes his final Yankee Stadium appearance on Sept.
29, this is what he wants, and it speaks volumes about Ortiz the
player, the competitor, the enemy, the star.</p>
<p>“You know what I want most of all?’’ Big Papi told The Post on
Tuesday at JetBlue Park. “I would love it if the fans at Yankee
Stadium gave me a standing ovation.’’</p>
<p>That’s what he wants, and that would be the perfect tribute to
Ortiz, who owns 503 home runs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I would wholeheartedly join in that ovation. Great player, great rival, and his retirement really marks the end of the epic Yankees-Sox rivalry from the early 2000s. I would expect appearances from Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Joe Torre. Just thinking about it makes me want to buy tickets.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘David Ortiz Makes a Final Plea to Yankees Fans’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/24/ortiz">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Spotify Moves Infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://news.spotify.com/us/2016/02/23/announcing-spotify-infrastructures-googley-future/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ot7" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/spotify-google" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32155</id>
<published>2016-02-24T03:01:04Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-24T03:01:06Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>You heard it here first: this presages Google acquiring Spotify. (I heard it <a href="https://twitter.com/om/status/702194246489546752">from Om Malik first</a>.)</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Spotify Moves Infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/spotify-google">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Was Pew’s Polling Question on the Apple/FBI Debate Misleading?</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160222/18020433677/pew-asks-stupid-misleading-question-about-fbi-apple-fight-gets-stupid-misleading-answers.shtml" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ot6" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/pew-poll-misleading" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32154</id>
<published>2016-02-23T22:16:51Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-23T22:16:52Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Mike Masnick, writing for TechDirt:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The question asked was</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As you may know, RANDOMIZE: [the FBI has said that accessing the
iPhone is an important part of their ongoing investigation into
the San Bernardino attacks] while [Apple has said that unlocking
the iPhone could compromise the security of other users’
information] do you think Apple [READ; RANDOMIZE]?</p>
<p>(1) Should unlock the iPhone (2) Should not unlock the iPhone (3)
Don&#8217;t Know.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>But that&#8217;s not the issue in this case!</em></p>
<p>As noted in the past, when it&#8217;s possible for Apple to get access
to data, it has always done so in response to lawful court orders.
That&#8217;s similar to almost every other company as well. <em>This case is
different</em> because it&#8217;s not asking Apple to &#8220;unlock the iPhone.&#8221;
The issue is that Apple <em>cannot unlock the iPhone</em> and thus, the FBI
has instead gotten a court order to demand that Apple create an
entirely new operating system that undermines the safety and
security of iPhones, so that the FBI can hack into the iPhone.
That&#8217;s a really different thing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He makes a good point. But when it comes to public polling on an issue like this, you can&#8217;t expect the public to understand the technical issues. Ideally, yes, the language used by Pew would have been much more precise. But basically what they were asking is &#8220;<em>Do you think Apple should do whatever the FBI wants them to do to get the information from the San Bernardino suspect&#8217;s iPhone?</em>&#8221; For polling purposes, I don&#8217;t think it matters much what &#8220;whatever&#8221; is.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s true that if phrased differently, it&#8217;s quite possible you&#8217;d get a polling showing more support for Apple. But the bottom line is that a <em>lot</em> of Americans think Apple should just do what the FBI is asking them to do.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Was Pew&#8217;s Polling Question on the Apple/FBI Debate Misleading?’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/pew-poll-misleading">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>On Ribbons and Ribbon Cutters</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=5714" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ot5" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/zdziarski-ribbon-cutters" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32153</id>
<published>2016-02-23T22:00:23Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-23T22:00:24Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Jonathan Zdziarski (who has been killing it with his analysis of the Apple/FBI fight):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With most non-technical people struggling to make sense of the
battle between FBI and Apple, Bill Gates introduced an excellent
analogy to explain cryptography to the average non-geek. Gates
used the analogy of encryption as a “ribbon around a hard drive”.
Good encryption is more like a chastity belt, but since Farook
decided to use a weak passcode, I think it’s fair here to call it
a ribbon. In any case, let&#8217;s go with Gates’s ribbon analogy. [&#8230;]</p>
<p>Instead of cutting the ribbon, which would be a much simpler task,
FBI is ordering Apple to invent a ribbon cutter &#8212; a forensic tool
capable of cutting the ribbon for FBI, and is promising to use it
on just this one phone. In reality, there’s already a line
beginning to form behind Comey should he get his way.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘On Ribbons and Ribbon Cutters’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/zdziarski-ribbon-cutters">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple to Restore UI Navigation With Pencil in Next iOS 9.3 Beta</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://m.imore.com/pencilers-rejoice-apple-restoring-navigation" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ot4" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/pencil-pro-hallelujah" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32152</id>
<published>2016-02-23T21:37:34Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-23T22:26:45Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>That didn&#8217;t take long. Apple, in a statement to iMore and a few <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/23/11101594/apple-pencil-features-coming-back-ios-93">other</a> publications:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apple Pencil has been a huge hit with iPad Pro users, who love it
for drawing, annotating and taking notes,&#8221; an Apple spokesperson
told iMore. &#8220;We believe a finger will always be the primary way
users navigate on an iPad, but we understand that some customers
like to use Apple Pencil for this as well and we&#8217;ve been working
on ways to better implement this while maintaining compatibility
during this latest beta cycle. We will add this functionality back
in the next beta of iOS 9.3.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One thing I take away from the vocal reaction to this: the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro have passionate users.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple to Restore UI Navigation With Pencil in Next iOS 9.3 Beta’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/pencil-pro-hallelujah">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple vs. FBI: ‘Just This Once’?</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.justsecurity.org/29453/apple-vs-fbi-just-once/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ot3" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/sanchez-cato" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32151</id>
<published>2016-02-23T21:20:18Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-23T21:20:19Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Julian Sanchez, writing for Just Security: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Consider: Possibly the next iPhone simply eliminates Apple’s
ability to assist in <em>any</em> way. But it’s hard to imagine a
scenario where the designer and key-holder for a device designed
to be used by normal humans can do literally nothing, at the
margin, to assist an attacker. That means every improvement in
device security involves a gamble: <em>Maybe</em> the cost of developing
new ways to attack the newly hardened device becomes so high that
the courts recognize it as an “undue burden” and start quashing
(or declining to issue) All Writs Act orders to compel hacking
assistance. Maybe. But Apple is a very large, very rich company,
and much of the practical “burden” comes from the demands of
complying <em>securely</em> and <em>at scale</em>. The government will surely
continue arguing in future cases that the burden of complying
<em>just this one time</em> are not so great for a huge tech company like
Apple. (And, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=526GPD_hCi4">to quote The Smiths</a>, they’ll never never do it
again &#8212; of course they won’t; not until the next time.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sanchez makes an interesting point here about Apple being disincentivized from improving iPhone security if they lose this case. Imagine if Apple made safes, but the government could compel them to crack their own safes under warrant. The harder they make these safes to crack, the more work they bring upon themselves when compelled to crack them.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t think Apple would succumb to that and stop improving their device security, but it shows what an untenable position the government is trying to put Apple in. The only easy way out for Apple, if they lose, is to stop making iPhones truly secure.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple vs. FBI: &#8216;Just This Once&#8217;?’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/sanchez-cato">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>High-Profile Attorney Ted Olson Joins Apple’s Fight Against FBI Terror Probe</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-ted-olson-joins-apple-fight-against-fbi-20160218-story.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ot2" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/ted-olson" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32150</id>
<published>2016-02-23T20:49:09Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-23T21:11:40Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Taylor Goldenstein, reporting for the LA Times:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Olson and Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. are the attorneys of record
representing Apple, according to a court filing. Boutrous and
Olson worked together to fight California’s previous ban on
same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Olson is best known for successfully arguing on behalf of George
W. Bush in the Supreme Court case Bush vs. Gore, which decided the
2000 presidential election, and for challenging California’s
Proposition 8, the measure that banned gay marriage, before the
Supreme Court.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Olson is truly an extraordinary figure, both in terms of his career (winning landmark cases for conservatives, like Bush v. Gore and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/20/AR2011012005149.html">Citizens United</a>; then <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2014/07/david-boies-theodore-olson-marriage-equality">winning the case that legalized gay marriage nationwide</a>), and his personal life (his wife was a passenger on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11).</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘High-Profile Attorney Ted Olson Joins Apple&#8217;s Fight Against FBI Terror Probe’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/ted-olson">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>iOS 9.3 Betas Remove the Ability to Navigate iPad UI With Apple Pencil</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.imore.com/apple-dont-cripple-pencils-navigation-ios-93" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ot1" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/caldwell-apple-pencil" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32149</id>
<published>2016-02-23T19:24:01Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-23T21:39:01Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Serenity Caldwell, at iMore:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Unfortunately, whether by bug or intentional design, the Pencil&#8217;s
navigational prowess appears to have vanished in the iOS 9.3
public betas. With 9.3, you can no longer scroll or manipulate
text; the only places the Pencil works are on canvas or when
pressing digital buttons.</p>
<p>Normally, I don&#8217;t write about beta bugs and features, because it&#8217;s
a beta: There are always bugs, and features change. But this
functionality is important enough that I wanted to talk about it
before Apple submits its final 9.3 release. It could be a bug,
yes: But several betas in, we&#8217;ve seen fixes for Smart Connector
keyboards and new features, and the Pencil remains crippled. Which
makes me think, more and more, that this is a conscious decision
on the part of Apple&#8217;s engineering team. (I did reach out to the
company about the issue, and will update if and when I receive a
response.)</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://overcast.fm/+E7b5k-upU/50:00">Myke Hurley and CGP Grey talk about this</a> on the latest episode of their podcast, Cortex. Grey says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sources in the know confirm that removing the functionality of the
Apple Pencil is a decision inside of Apple. It is not a bug they
have overlooked for three betas. It is a decision.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My only guess as to why Apple would change this is that they want to enable you to scroll/pan (with your finger) while drawing/marking-up with the Pencil. If so, the mistake wasn&#8217;t making this change in iOS 9.3 &#8212; the mistake was allowing the Pencil to control the UI in the first place.</p>
<p>I hate to say it, but now that iPad Pro users have gotten used to using the Pencil to navigate the UI, maybe it should be a setting? Maybe under Accessibility? Grey, for example, says using the Pencil to navigate the UI helps him avoid RSI pain.</p>
<p><strong>Update, two hours later:</strong> <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/23/11101594/apple-pencil-features-coming-back-ios-93">Apple has told The Verge</a> that UI navigation via Pencil will return in the next iOS 9.3 beta.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘iOS 9.3 Betas Remove the Ability to Navigate iPad UI With Apple Pencil’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/caldwell-apple-pencil">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Bill Gates Breaks Ranks Over FBI Apple Request</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/3559f46e-d9c5-11e5-98fd-06d75973fe09.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ot0" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/gates-apple-fbi" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32148</id>
<published>2016-02-23T19:00:59Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-23T19:45:52Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Stephen Foley and Tim Bradshaw, writing for The Financial Times:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“This is a specific case where the government is asking for
access to information. They are not asking for some general
thing, they are asking for a particular case,” Mr Gates told the
Financial Times.</p>
<p>“It is no different than [the question of] should anybody ever
have been able to tell the phone company to get information,
should anybody be able to get at bank records. Let’s say the bank
had tied a ribbon round the disk drive and said, ‘Don’t make me
cut this ribbon because you’ll make me cut it many times’.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gates is so smart &#8212; surely he understands that if the FBI prevails, this will set precedent that will be used again and again. It seems to me he&#8217;s arguing that we should not be allowed to have devices protected by strong encryption.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/02/23/bill-gates-backs-fbi-battle-apple/80791116/">Gates said today he thinks the FT mischaracterized his position</a>, but I&#8217;m not really seeing it. He certainly isn&#8217;t siding with Apple &#8212; his stance seems, at best, lukewarm, like Sundar Pichai&#8217;s.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Bill Gates Breaks Ranks Over FBI Apple Request’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/gates-apple-fbi">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Poll Shows More Support for Justice Department Than for Apple</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.people-press.org/2016/02/22/more-support-for-justice-department-than-for-apple-in-dispute-over-unlocking-iphone/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/osz" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/poll-apple-fbi" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32147</id>
<published>2016-02-23T18:54:44Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-24T03:22:36Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Pew Research Center:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As the standoff between the Department of Justice and Apple Inc.
continues over an iPhone used by one of the suspects in the San
Bernardino terrorist attacks, 51% say Apple should unlock the
iPhone to assist the ongoing FBI investigation. Fewer Americans
(38%) say Apple should not unlock the phone to ensure the security
of its other users’ information; 11% do not offer an opinion on
the question.</p>
<p>News about a federal court ordering Apple to unlock the suspect’s
iPhone has registered widely with the public: 75% say they have
heard either a lot (39%) or a little (36%) about the situation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is exactly why Apple&#8217;s stance on this issue is so commendable. They&#8217;re doing what they believe to be right, even though it is unpopular.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Poll Shows More Support for Justice Department Than for Apple’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/poll-apple-fbi">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>WSJ: ‘Justice Department Seeks to Force Apple to Extract Data From About 12 Other iPhones’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.wsj.com/article_email/justice-department-seeks-to-force-apple-to-extract-data-from-about-12-other-iphones-1456202213-lMyQjAxMTI2MjIzMzMyMTMwWj" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/osy" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/wsj-about-12" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32146</id>
<published>2016-02-23T18:53:40Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-23T18:53:41Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Devlin Barrett, reporting for the WSJ:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Justice Department is pursuing court orders to make Apple Inc.
help investigators extract data from iPhones in about a dozen
undisclosed cases around the country, in disputes similar to the
current battle over a terrorist’s locked phone, according to a
newly-unsealed court document.</p>
<p>The other phones are evidence in cases where prosecutors have
sought, as in the San Bernardino, Calif., terror case, to use an
18th-century law called the All Writs Act to compel the company to
help them bypass the passcode security feature of phones that may
hold evidence, according to a letter from Apple which was unsealed
in Brooklyn federal court Tuesday. [&#8230;]</p>
<p>The letter doesn&#8217;t describe the specific types of criminal
investigations related to those phones, but people familiar with
them said they don&#8217;t involve terrorism cases. The 12 cases remain
in a kind of limbo amid the bigger, more confrontational legal
duel between the government and the company over an iPhone seized
in the terror case in California, these people said.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But it&#8217;s really just about that one, single iPhone in the San Bernardino case.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘WSJ: &#8216;Justice Department Seeks to Force Apple to Extract Data From About 12 Other iPhones&#8217;’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/wsj-about-12">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘Absolutely Right’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/technology/apple-unlock-iphone-san-bernardino.html?_r=0" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/osx" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/absolutely" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32145</id>
<published>2016-02-23T18:36:27Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-23T18:39:51Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Katie Benner and Matt Apuzzo, reporting for the NYT on whether the FBI&#8217;s request for Apple to unlock the San Bernardino shooter&#8217;s iPhone will open the door to more such requests:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a note posted to its website on Monday, Apple reiterated that
the government’s request seems narrow but really isn’t. “Law
enforcement agents around the country have already said they have
hundreds of iPhones they want Apple to unlock if the F.B.I. wins
this case,” the company said.</p>
<p>To that point, the New York City police commissioner, William J.
Bratton, and the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.,
criticized Apple after it refused to comply with the court order
and said that they currently possessed 175 iPhones that they could
not unlock.</p>
<p>Charlie Rose recently interviewed Mr. Vance and asked if he would
want access to all phones that were part of a criminal proceeding
should the government prevail in the San Bernardino case.</p>
<p>Mr. Vance responded: “Absolutely right.”</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘&#8216;Absolutely Right&#8217;’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/23/absolutely">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Mark Zuckerberg Stole Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Show</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/21/11082992/mark-zuckerberg-galaxy-s7-event-mwc-2016" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/osw" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/22/zuck-s7" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32144</id>
<published>2016-02-23T03:46:31Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-23T03:46:32Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Interesting marriage of convenience. Samsung has hardware but no interesting software. Facebook has interesting software but no hardware.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Mark Zuckerberg Stole Samsung&#8217;s Galaxy S7 Show’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/22/zuck-s7">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>MDM Software Would Have Unlocked San Bernardino Shooter’s iPhone</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/common-software-would-have-unlocked-san-bernardino-shooters-iphone/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/osv" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/22/mdm" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32143</id>
<published>2016-02-23T01:18:25Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-23T01:18:27Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>CBS News:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the technology, known as mobile device management, had been
installed, San Bernardino officials would have been able to
remotely unlock the iPhone for the FBI without the theatrics of a
court battle that is now pitting digital privacy rights against
national security concerns.</p>
<p>The service costs $4 per month per phone.</p>
<p>Instead, the only person who knew the unlocking passcode for the
phone is the dead gunman, Syed Farook, who worked as an inspector
in the county&#8217;s public health department.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I had assumed they weren&#8217;t using MDM, but it&#8217;s good to have confirmation.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘MDM Software Would Have Unlocked San Bernardino Shooter&#8217;s iPhone’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/22/mdm">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>FBI Director James Comey Publishes Op-Ed on Apple/Encryption Case</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/we-could-not-look-survivors-eye-if-we-did-not-follow-lead" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/ost" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/22/comey-apple-oped" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32141</id>
<published>2016-02-22T21:52:48Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-22T21:52:49Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>James Comey, in a brief op-ed published last night by Lawfare:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The San Bernardino litigation isn&#8217;t about trying to set a
precedent or send any kind of message. It is about the victims and
justice. Fourteen people were slaughtered and many more had their
lives and bodies ruined. We owe them a thorough and professional
investigation under law. That&#8217;s what this is. The American people
should expect nothing less from the FBI.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is very difficult to take Comey&#8217;s opening sentence seriously. Everyone &#8212; on <em>both</em> sides of the issues &#8212; knows that this is about setting precedent.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The particular legal issue is actually quite narrow. The relief we
seek is limited and its value increasingly obsolete because the
technology continues to evolve. We simply want the chance, with a
search warrant, to try to guess the terrorist&#8217;s passcode without
the phone essentially self-destructing and without it taking a
decade to guess correctly. That&#8217;s it. We don&#8217;t want to break
anyone&#8217;s encryption or set a master key loose on the land. I hope
thoughtful people will take the time to understand that. Maybe the
phone holds the clue to finding more terrorists. Maybe it doesn’t.
But we can&#8217;t look the survivors in the eye, or ourselves in the
mirror, if we don&#8217;t follow this lead.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is a purely emotional appeal. By Comey&#8217;s logic here, FBI agents should be considered above the law, able to pursue any and every avenue possible in the pursuit of information in a case with high stakes. That&#8217;s not how our system works. We are governed by the rule of law. Encryption is legal.</p>
<p>Ultimately, that is where Comey and the FBI are going to take this. They&#8217;re going to try to make strong encryption illegal.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘FBI Director James Comey Publishes Op-Ed on Apple/Encryption Case’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/22/comey-apple-oped">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>In Internal Email, Apple CEO Tim Cook Says Refusal to Unlock iPhone Is an Issue of Civil Liberties</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/22/in-employee-email-apple-ceo-tim-cook-calls-for-commission-on-interaction-of-technology-and-intelligence-gathering/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/oss" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/22/cook-email" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32140</id>
<published>2016-02-22T21:07:23Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-22T21:07:24Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Tim Cook, in a company-wide memo:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apple is a uniquely American company. It does not feel right to be
on the opposite side of the government in a case centering on the
freedoms and liberties that government is meant to protect.</p>
<p>Our country has always been strongest when we come together. We
feel the best way forward would be for the government to
withdraw its demands under the All Writs Act and, as some in
Congress have proposed, form a commission or other panel of
experts on intelligence, technology and civil liberties to
discuss the implications for law enforcement, national security,
privacy and personal freedoms. Apple would gladly participate in
such an effort.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘In Internal Email, Apple CEO Tim Cook Says Refusal to Unlock iPhone Is an Issue of Civil Liberties’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/22/cook-email">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple Publishes FAQ on Their Fight Against the FBI</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/answers/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/osr" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/22/apple-faq" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32139</id>
<published>2016-02-22T21:06:12Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-22T21:06:13Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Cogent.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Publishes FAQ on Their Fight Against the FBI’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/22/apple-faq">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://nucleobytes.com/df.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/osu" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/feeds/sponsors//11.32142</id>
<author>
<name>Daring Fireball Department of Commerce</name>
</author>
<published>2016-02-22T20:11:01-05:00</published>
<updated>2016-02-22T20:11:03-05:00</updated>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Everybody does research. Whether you investigate gravitational waves, do fact-finding for blog posts, study the genetics of <em>Rhagoletis pomonella</em>, or design the next revolutionary cupcake recipe, you are a researcher.</p>
<p>Research needs great tools &#8212; that’s where we come in! We build innovative Mac and iOS apps for researchers, that even got us several Apple Design Awards. Today, we present our latest creations: Manuscripts and Findings.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>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. Import and export of Markdown, Word, LaTeX and HTML is included. </p></li>
<li><p>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.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Try the <a href="http://nucleobytes.com/df.html">free basic versions</a>, and use coupon <strong>DARINGFIREBALL</strong> for <a href="http://nucleobytes.com/df.html">a special discount</a> on the unlimited versions, this week only. We hope you&#8217;ll like Manuscripts &amp; Findings!</p>
]]></content>
<title>[Sponsor] Manuscripts and Findings: Your Research Is Ready for a Big Upgrade</title></entry><entry>
<title>The Talk Show: ‘iTools or Whatever’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2016/02/21/ep-147" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/osq" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/21/the-talk-show-147" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32138</id>
<published>2016-02-21T23:15:40Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-21T23:15:43Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>For your enjoyment, a new episode of my podcast, with special guest Jim Dalrymple. Topics include the Apple/FBI legal showdown, the debate over Apple software quality, and more.</p>
<p>Sponsored by:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://squarespace.com/">Squarespace</a>: Build it beautiful. Use code <strong>GRUBER</strong> for 10% off your first order.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.fractureme.com/">Fracture</a>: Photos printed in vivid color directly on glass. Use promo code <strong>TALKSHOW10</strong> for 10% off your first order.</li>
<li><a href="http://harrys.com/">Harry&#8217;s</a>: An exceptional shave at a fraction of the price. Use code <strong>TALKSHOW</strong> for $5 off your first purchase.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The Talk Show: &#8216;iTools or Whatever&#8217;’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/21/the-talk-show-147">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/2016/02/san_bernardino_password_reset" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/osp" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016://1.32137</id>
<published>2016-02-21T22:05:40Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-21T22:45:23Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>The key point is that you do not have to unlock an iPhone to have it back up to iCloud. But a locked iPhone <em>can&#8217;t</em> back up to iCloud if the associated Apple ID password has been changed.</p>
]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>The latest news in the Apple-FBI legal fight has resulted in much confusion. <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/apple-terrorists-appleid-passcode-changed-in-government-cust">John Paczkowski, reporting for BuzzFeed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The FBI has <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2716011/Apple-iPhone-Access-MOTION-to-COMPEL.pdf">claimed</a> 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 <a href="https://twitter.com/CountyWire/status/700887823482630144">stated</a>, “The County was working
cooperatively with the FBI when it reset the iCloud password at
the FBI’s request.”</p>
<p>County spokesman David Wert told BuzzFeed News on Saturday
afternoon the tweet was an authentic statement, but he had nothing
further to add.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2716011/Apple-iPhone-Access-MOTION-to-COMPEL.pdf">Here is what the FBI wrote in its legal motion</a>, in a footnote on the four ways Apple suggested they obtain the data they seek:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(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);</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To unpack this, the &#8220;owner&#8221; is <em>not</em> Syed Farook, the shooter. The iPhone at the center of this was supplied by Farook&#8217;s employer, the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. They are the &#8220;owner&#8221;. The &#8220;government&#8221; is the federal government: the FBI and the Department of Justice.</p>
<p>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.<sup id="fnr1-2016-02-21"><a href="#fn1-2016-02-21">1</a></sup></p>
<p>iCloud backups are triggered automatically when the phone is (a) on a known Wi-Fi network, and (b) plugged-in to power. Apple&#8217;s suggestion to the FBI was that if they took the iPhone to Farook&#8217;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.</p>
<p>It is not clear to me from any of the reports I have read <em>why</em> the iPhone had not been backed up in six weeks. It&#8217;s possible that Farook had disabled iCloud backups, in which case this whole thing is moot.<sup id="fnr2-2016-02-21"><a href="#fn2-2016-02-21">2</a></sup> But it&#8217;s also possible the only reason the phone hadn&#8217;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&#8217;t be unlocked.</p>
<p>The FBI screwed this up by directing the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health to reset Farook&#8217;s Apple ID password. <em>They did not, and apparently could not, change anything on the phone itself.</em> 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 &#8212; and they could not do that because they can&#8217;t unlock the phone.</p>
<p>The key point is that you do not have to unlock an iPhone to have it back up to iCloud. But a locked iPhone <em>can&#8217;t</em> back up to iCloud if the associated Apple ID password has been changed.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><em>How</em> did the county reset Farook&#8217;s Apple ID password? We don&#8217;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 <a href="https://iforgot.apple.com/">iforgot.apple.com</a>, enter Farook&#8217;s work email address, and then access his email account to click the confirmation URL to reset the password.</p>
<p>In short:</p>
<ul>
<li>The data the FBI claims to want is on Farook&#8217;s iPhone.</li>
<li>They already have access to his iCloud account.</li>
<li>They might have been able to transfer the data on his iPhone to his iCloud account via an automated backup, but they can&#8217;t because they reset his Apple ID (iCloud) password.</li>
</ul>
<p>The only possible explanations for this are incompetence or dishonesty on the part of the FBI. Incompetence, if they didn&#8217;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 <em>knowing</em> the repercussions, with the goal of setting up this fight to force Apple to create a back door for them in iOS. I&#8217;m not sure which to believe at this point. I&#8217;d like to know exactly when this directive to reset the Apple ID password was given &#8212; &#8221; in the hours after the attack&#8221; leaves a lot of wiggle room.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2016-02-21">
<p>Much (or all?) of the data stored on Apple&#8217;s iCloud backup servers is not encrypted. Or, if it is encrypted, it is encrypted in a way that Apple can decrypt. <a href="http://images.apple.com/privacy/docs/legal-process-guidelines-us.pdf">Apple has a PDF that describes the information</a> available to U.S. law enforcement from iCloud, but to me it&#8217;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 <em>does</em> store data encrypted in a way that Apple cannot read it without the user&#8217;s Apple ID password.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr1-2016-02-21" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2-2016-02-21">
<p>Another possibility: Farook&#8217;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.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr2-2016-02-21" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ On the San Bernardino Suspect’s Apple ID Password Reset</title></entry><entry>
<title>White House Petition to Side With Apple in FBI Fight</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/apple-privacy-petition" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/oso" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/21/white-house-petition" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32136</id>
<published>2016-02-21T21:38:07Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-21T21:38:09Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>I don&#8217;t have high hopes for this (the Obama administration seems hopelessly tied to law enforcement on this subject), but I signed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The FBI, is demanding that Apple build a &#8220;backdoor&#8221; to bypass
digital locks protecting consumer information on Apple&#8217;s popular
iPhones.</p>
<p>We the undersigned, oppose this order, which has implications far
beyond the legal case at hand.</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘White House Petition to Side With Apple in FBI Fight’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/21/white-house-petition">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>New York Times Publishes Report on iPhone Security and China</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/technology/apple-sees-value-in-privacy-vow.html?mwrsm=Twitter&amp;_r=0" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/osn" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/20/iphone-china-nyt" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32135</id>
<published>2016-02-20T22:36:43Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-20T22:39:02Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Katie Benner and Paul Mozer, reporting for the NYT and revisiting the topic <a href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/18/nyt-china-apple">excised from a report</a> earlier this week:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In China, for example, Apple &#8212; like any other foreign company
selling smartphones &#8212; hands over devices for import checks by
Chinese regulators. Apple also maintains server computers in
China, but Apple has previously said that Beijing cannot view the
data and that the keys to the servers are not stored in China. In
practice and according to Chinese law, Beijing typically has
access to any data stored in China.</p>
<p>If Apple accedes to American law enforcement demands for opening
the iPhone in the San Bernardino case and Beijing asks for a
similar tool, it is unlikely Apple would be able to control
China’s use of it. Yet if Apple were to refuse Beijing, it would
potentially face a battery of penalties.</p>
<p>Analysts said Chinese officials were pushing for greater control
over the encryption and security of computers and phones sold in
the country, though Beijing last year backed off on some proposals
that would have required foreign companies to provide encryption
keys for devices sold in the country after facing pressure from
foreign trade groups.</p>
<p>“People tend to forget the global impact of this,” said Raman Jit
Singh Chima, policy director at Access Now, a nonprofit that works
for Internet freedoms. “The reality is the damage done when a
democratic government does something like this is massive. It’s
even more negative in places where there are fewer freedoms.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another way to look at this is a choice between the lesser of two evils. Is it a bad thing if law enforcement loses access to the contents of cell phones as state of the art for security increases? Yes. But it would be far, far worse &#8212; for entirely different reasons &#8212; if we eliminate true security by mandating back doors.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘New York Times Publishes Report on iPhone Security and China’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/20/iphone-china-nyt">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>San Bernardino Officials: Apple ID Password for Terrorist’s iPhone Reset at FBI Request</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/apple-terrorists-appleid-passcode-changed-in-government-cust" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/osm" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/20/san-bernardino-county-crawls-out-from-under-the-bus-the-fbi-threw-them" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32134</id>
<published>2016-02-20T22:14:38Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-20T23:45:31Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>This story keeps getting weirder. John Paczkowski, at BuzzFeed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The FBI has <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2716011/Apple-iPhone-Access-MOTION-to-COMPEL.pdf">claimed</a> 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 <a href="https://twitter.com/CountyWire/status/700887823482630144">stated</a>, “The County was working
cooperatively with the FBI when it reset the iCloud password at
the FBI’s request.”</p>
<p>County spokesman David Wert told BuzzFeed News on Saturday
afternoon the tweet was an authentic statement, but he had nothing
further to add.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The additional wrinkle here is that when the FBI first revealed this, in <a href="https://twitter.com/panzer/status/701087822522949636">this footnote</a> (screenshot) of their legal motion (whole motion linked above, on &#8220;claimed&#8221;), they strongly implied that the San Bernardino Health Department did this on their own, like they were a bunch of yokels who panicked and did the wrong thing. Instead, it turns out, they were following the FBI&#8217;s instructions.</p>
<p>The FBI says this happened &#8220;in the hours after the attack&#8221;. My question: How many hours?</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘San Bernardino Officials: Apple ID Password for Terrorist&#8217;s iPhone Reset at FBI Request’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/20/san-bernardino-county-crawls-out-from-under-the-bus-the-fbi-threw-them">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>DevMate by MacPaw</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://devmate.com/free-version?utm_source=pr&amp;utm_medium=sponsorship&amp;utm_campaign=DF" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/osl" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/19/devmate" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32133</id>
<published>2016-02-20T00:23:57Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-20T00:23:58Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>My thanks to MacPaw for sponsoring this week&#8217;s DF RSS feed to announce that their developer platform DevMate is now available free of charge. DevMate is a single SDK that provides a slew of back-end services for Mac developers: in-app purchasing, software licensing, update delivery, crash reports, user feedback, and more. Plus real-time analytics, with sales and downloads, are available from DevMate&#8217;s dashboard.</p>
<p>Among the indie Mac developers using DevMate for their apps are MacPaw themselves (for <a href="http://macpaw.com/cleanmymac">CleanMyMac</a>), <a href="https://smilesoftware.com/">Smile Software</a>, and <a href="https://www.realmacsoftware.com/">Realmac</a>. It&#8217;s a robust, dependable solution for developers who want to sell their Mac apps outside the App Store.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘DevMate by MacPaw’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/19/devmate">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>More Mac App Store Certificate Problems</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://mjtsai.com/blog/2016/02/16/more-mac-app-store-certificate-problems/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/osk" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/19/mac-app-store-problems" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016:/linked//6.32132</id>
<published>2016-02-20T00:12:10Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-20T00:19:07Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Lost amid the FBI/iPhone encryption hubbub was another bad week for the Mac App Store &#8212; apps just stopped launching, with the only solution being to delete the app(s) and re-install from the store. Michael Tsai (as usual) compiled a thorough roundup of information and commentary.</p>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘More Mac App Store Certificate Problems’" href="http://daringfireball.net/linked/2016/02/19/mac-app-store-problems">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/2016/02/apples_app_problem" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/oqe" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016://1.32054</id>
<published>2016-02-04T01:28:15Z</published>
<updated>2016-02-04T16:33:43Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Maybe we expect too much. But Apple&#8217;s hardware doesn&#8217;t have little problems like this.</p>
]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>Following up on <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/3/10900612/walt-mossberg-apple-iphone-ios-mac-osx-app-problems">Walt Mossberg&#8217;s column</a> regarding the quality of Apple&#8217;s first-party apps, <a href="http://www.loopinsight.com/2016/02/03/about-walt-mossberg-and-apples-app-problem/">Jim Dalrymple writes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t care much about all the celebrities that Apple
can parade around &#8212; I care about a music service that works.
That’s it.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Software and hardware are profoundly different disciplines, so it&#8217;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.</p>
<p>Maybe this is the natural result of the fact hardware standards <em>must</em> be high, because they can&#8217;t issue &#8220;hardware updates&#8221; over the air like they can with software. But the perception is now widespread that the balance between Apple&#8217;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&#8217;s pieces today.</p>
<p>We went over this same ground a year ago in the wake of Marco Arment&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://marco.org/2015/01/04/apple-lost-functional-high-ground">Apple Has Lost the Functional High Ground</a>&#8221;, culminating in a really interesting (to me at least) <a href="http://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2015/06/09/ep-123">discussion with Phil Schiller at my &#8220;Live From WWDC&#8221; episode of The Talk Show</a>. That we&#8217;re still talking about it a year later &#8212; and that the consensus reaction is one of agreement &#8212; suggests that Apple probably does have a software problem, and they <em>definitely</em> have a perception problem.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll offer a small personal anecdote. Overall I&#8217;ve had great success with iCloud Photo Library. I&#8217;ve got over 18,000 photos and almost 400 videos. And I&#8217;ve got a slew of devices &#8212; iPhones, iPads, and Macs &#8212; 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 &#8220;Photos&#8221; view, where it tells you exactly how many photos and videos you have, it said &#8220;Unable to Upload 5 Items&#8221;. Restarting didn&#8217;t fix it. Waiting didn&#8217;t fix it. And clicking on it didn&#8217;t do anything &#8212; I wanted to know <em>which</em> five items couldn&#8217;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.</p>
<p>Eventually, I found <a href="https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7174772?start=0&amp;tstart=0">this support thread</a> which suggested a solution: you can create a Smart Group in Photos using &#8220;Unable to upload to iCloud Photo Library&#8221; as the matching condition. Bingo: five items showed up. (Two of them were videos for which the original files couldn&#8217;t be found; three of them were duplicates of photos that were already in my library.)</p>
<p>My little iCloud Photo Library syncing hiccup was not a huge deal &#8212; I was even lucky insofar as the two videos that couldn&#8217;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&#8217;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&#8217;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, &#8220;silent failure&#8221; is a big part of the problem &#8212; almost everything related to the whole <a href="http://daringfireball.net/s/discoveryd">discoveryd/mDNSresponder fiasco</a> last year was about things that just silently stopped working.</p>
<p>Maybe we expect too much from Apple&#8217;s software. But Apple&#8217;s hardware doesn&#8217;t have little problems like this.</p>
]]></content>
<title>★ Apple’s App Problem</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/2016/01/why_apple_assembles_in_china" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/ooq" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2016://1.31994</id>
<published>2016-01-21T00:00:17Z</published>
<updated>2016-01-21T00:18:18Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>A year ago Apple sold 75 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of calendar 2015. There is no facility in the U.S. that can do that. There might not be anywhere in the world <em>other than China</em> that can operate at that sort of scale.</p>
]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p><a href="http://recode.net/2016/01/19/how-donald-trump-got-everything-wrong-about-apple-in-one-sentence/">Arik Hesseldahl, writing for Recode</a> on Donald Trump&#8217;s &#8220;we’re gonna get Apple to start building their damn computers and things in this country, instead of in other countries&#8221; campaign promise:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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. &#8212; $5.15 an hour in Wyoming &#8212; American workers can’t
beat that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It&#8217;s not that simple. These jobs are certainly menial, but they&#8217;re not low-skill. <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-apple-tim-cook-charlie-rose/">As Tim Cook said on 60 Minutes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Charlie Rose: So if it&#8217;s not wages, what is it?</p>
<p>Tim Cook: It&#8217;s skill. [&#8230;]</p>
<p>Charlie Rose: They have more skills than American workers? They
have more skills than &#8212;</p>
<p>Tim Cook: Now &#8212; now, hold on.</p>
<p>Charlie Rose: &#8212; German workers?</p>
<p>Tim Cook: Yeah, let me &#8212; let me &#8212; 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&#8217;re currently sitting in. In China, you
would have to have multiple football fields.</p>
<p>Charlie Rose: Because they&#8217;ve taught those skills in their
schools?</p>
<p>Tim Cook: It&#8217;s because it was a focus of them &#8212; it&#8217;s a focus of
their educational system. And so that is the reality.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wages are a huge factor, but for the sake of argument, let&#8217;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 <a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/01/27Apple-Reports-Record-First-Quarter-Results.html">Apple sold 75 million iPhones in the fourth quarter of calendar 2014</a>. There is no facility in the U.S. that can do that. There might not be anywhere in the world <em>other than China</em> that can operate at that sort of scale. That&#8217;s almost one million iPhones per day. 10 iPhones <em>per second</em>. Think about that.</p>
<p>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&#8217;s operations is that they can assemble and sell an unfathomable number of devices but they&#8217;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&#8217;t have any factories to close or convert for other uses. Foxconn does.</p>
<p>The U.S. can&#8217;t compete with China on wages. It can&#8217;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&#8217;t have the facilities or the proximity to the Asian component manufacturers.</p>
<p>The only way Apple could ever switch to U.S. assembly and manufacturing would be if they automated the entire process &#8212; to build machines that build the machines. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSj6kvv7_Sg">That, in fact, is what NeXT did while they were in the hardware business</a>. But NeXT only ever sold <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT">about 50,000 computers total</a>. Apple needed to assemble 35,000 iPhones per <em>hour</em> last year.</p>
<p>So long as assembling these devices remains labor intensive, it has to happen in China. And if someday it becomes automated &#8212; if the machines are built by machines &#8212; by definition it&#8217;s not going to create manufacturing jobs.<sup id="fnr1-2016-01-20"><a href="#fn1-2016-01-20">1</a></sup></p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2016-01-20">
<p>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.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr1-2016-01-20" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ Why Apple Assembles in China</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/2015/12/the_curious_case_of_the_curious_case" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/oll" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2015://1.31881</id>
<published>2015-12-11T21:19:40Z</published>
<updated>2015-12-15T00:38:58Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Regarding Apple&#8217;s new Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 6/6S.</p>
]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-smart-battery-case-review-iphone-battery-life-nearly-doubled-1449581402?mod=ST1">Joanna Stern tested Apple&#8217;s new Smart Battery Case for five days, and likes it a lot</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Let’s get this out of the way: The bar for battery-case design is
extremely low. Most are chunky and made of black matte plastic,
requiring you to attach two pieces to your phone. You choose a
battery case for utility, not fashion.</p>
<p>Apple&#8217;s Smart Battery Case, though still fairly unsightly, is
ahead of those. Bend back the top and slide in your phone. It
feels just like Apple’s smooth, soft-touch wraparound silicone
case, except… with a protruding, awkward battery on the back. The
battery juts out as if your phone will soon give birth to a
rectangular alien.</p>
<p>Still, I’ll take it over all the ugly messes sold by Mophie,
Anker and others, especially since it provides better protection
for the phone. A lip curves just above the screen to prevent the
glass from hitting a hard surface and an interior lining provides
better shock absorption than hard plastic. Plus, the grippy
material is much easier to hold and doesn’t feel like it will
slip from my hands.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/8/9867996/apple-smart-battery-case-iphone-6-6s-hands-on">The Verge&#8217;s Lauren Goode disagrees</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apple’s smart battery case is fine, then, if you want a softer
case or a &#8220;passive&#8221; battery charging experience, with zero control
over or understanding of how the case actually charges your phone.
Maybe that’s what Apple is hoping: that buyers of this thing will
slip it on and never take it off, charging their iPhones entirely
through the case’s Lightning port going forward, forgetting about
its big ol’ bump in the back. They will be pleased, finally, with
their iPhone 6’s or 6S’s battery life, and the memory of spending
an extra $99 for it, rather than having it just work that way in
the first place, will eventually fade away.</p>
<p>It’s fine if you don’t want exterior indicator lights, or a even a
case that gives you a 0 to 100 percent charge. After all, this one
was designed <em>for the iPhone</em>, by the same company that <em>made your
iPhone</em>. For some people, that’s a big draw.</p>
<p>In either case this will probably sell like hot cakes. It fits
nicely in holiday stockings. ’Tis the season. Just know that from
a pure performance and even a design perspective, Apple’s effort
is not the best you can get.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(I can almost see her eyes rolling as she typed those italicized words in the second quoted paragraph.)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siTDA-n1hFg">Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy best captured</a> what most of us thought when we first saw it: &#8220;These things look weird.&#8221;</p>
<p>That was certainly my first impression when I got mine Tuesday morning. The looks-like-it&#8217;s-pregnant-with-an-iPod-Touch design is certainly curious. I think to understand why it looks like this we have to ask why it even exists:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>People who use their phones heavily &#8212; <em>power users</em>, if you will &#8212; struggle to get through a day on a single charge with the iPhone 6/6S.</p></li>
<li><p>The Plus models offer so much more battery life that getting through the day on a single charge isn&#8217;t a problem, even for power users who are on their phones all day long. But most people don&#8217;t want an iPhone that large.</p></li>
<li><p>Apple has long sold <a href="http://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-accessories/cases-protection?page=1#!&amp;f=batterycase&amp;fh=458b%2B45bf">third-party battery cases in its stores</a>, so they know how popular they are.</p></li>
<li><p>Existing battery cases all suffer from similar design problems, as outlined by Joanna Stern above. They make the entire device look and feel chunky, and most of them are built from materials that don&#8217;t feel good. None of them integrate in any way with the software on the iPhone, and most of them use micro USB instead of Lightning for charging the case.</p></li>
<li><p>Lastly, Apple claims the Smart Battery Case tackles a problem I wasn&#8217;t aware existed: that existing battery cases adversely affect cellular reception because they&#8217;re putting a battery between the phone&#8217;s antenna and the exterior of the case.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>So I think Apple&#8217;s priorities for the Smart Battery Case were as follows &#8212; and the order matters:</p>
<ol>
<li>Provides effective battery life equivalent to the iPhone 6S Plus.</li>
<li>Feels good in your hand.</li>
<li>Makes it easy and elegant to insert and remove the phone.</li>
<li>Works as a durable protective case.</li>
<li>Prevents the case&#8217;s battery from affecting cellular reception.</li>
<li>Looks good.</li>
</ol>
<p>That &#8220;looks good&#8221; is last on the list is unusual for an Apple product, to say the least. Looking good isn&#8217;t always first on Apple&#8217;s list of priorities, but it&#8217;s seldom far from the top. But in this case it makes sense: Apple sells great-looking silicone and leather cases for people who aren&#8217;t looking for a battery case, and all existing third-party battery cases are clunky in some way.</p>
<p>Ungainly though the case&#8217;s hump is, I can&#8217;t help but suspect one reason for it might be, counterintuitively, a certain vanity on the part of its designers. Not for the sake of the case itself, but for the iPhone. Third-party &#8220;thick from top to bottom&#8221; battery cases make it impossible to tell whether the enclosed phone is itself thick or thin. Apple&#8217;s Smart Battery Case makes it obvious that it&#8217;s a thin iPhone in a case which has a thick battery on the back. And I&#8217;ll say this for Apple: they are <em>owning</em> that hump. The hero photo of the case on the packaging is a face-on view of the back of the case.</p>
<p>But I think the main reasons for this design are practical. The battery doesn&#8217;t extend to the top in order to accommodate the hinge design for inserting and removing the phone. Why it doesn&#8217;t extend to the bottom is a little less obvious. I suspect one reason is that that&#8217;s where the &#8220;passively coupling antenna&#8221; is.<sup id="fnr1-2015-12-11"><a href="#fn1-2015-12-11">1</a></sup> Extending the battery to cover it would defeat the purpose. Also, there&#8217;s a hand feel aspect to it &#8212; normally I rest the bottom of my iPhone on my pinky finger. With this case, I can rest the bottom ridge of the hump on my pinky, and it&#8217;s kind of nice. I also like putting my index finger atop the hump.</p>
<p>So the Smart Battery Case <em>looks</em> weird. Typical battery cases look fat. Whether you prefer the weird look of the Smart Battery Case to the fat look of a typical case is subjective. Me, I don&#8217;t like the way any of them look. But after using the Smart Battery Case for three days, and having previously spent time using the thinnest available cases from Mophie, I feel confident saying Apple&#8217;s Smart Battery Case <em>feels better</em> when you&#8217;re holding it than any other battery case, both because of the material and its shape. It&#8217;s not even a close call. It also feels sturdier &#8212; this is the most protective iPhone case Apple has ever made, with rigid reinforced sides and a slightly higher lip rising above the touchscreen. The Smart Battery Case also clearly <em>looks</em> better from your own face-on perspective when using the phone. (Mophie&#8217;s cases look better than most, but they emboss an obnoxious &#8220;mophie&#8221; logotype on the front-facing chin. If Apple doesn&#8217;t print anything on the front face of the iPhone, why in the world would a case maker?)</p>
<p>Patents, by the way, are a non-issue regarding the Smart Battery Case&#8217;s design. A well-placed little birdie who is perched in a position to know told me that <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/8/9872238/is-apples-smart-battery-case-mophie-patents">Nilay Patel&#8217;s speculation</a> that the unusual design was the byproduct of Apple trying to steer clear of patents held by Mophie (or any other company for that matter) are &#8220;absolute nonsense&#8221;. This birdie was unequivocal on the matter. Whether you like it, hate it, or are ambivalent about it, this is the battery case Apple wanted to make.</p>
<p>My take is that the Smart Battery Case is an inelegant design, but it is solving a problem for which, to date, <em>no one</em> has created an elegant solution. Apple has simply chosen to make different severe trade-offs than the existing competition. In that sense, it is a very Apple-like product &#8212; like the <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hockey+puck+apple+mouse&amp;t=osx&amp;iax=1&amp;ia=images">hockey-puck mouse</a> or the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G4">iMac G4</a>.</p>
<h2>On Capacity, Simplicity, and the Intended Use Case</h2>
<p>Most battery cases have an on/off toggle switch, controlling when the case is actually charging the phone. The reason for this is that you can squeeze more from a battery case if you only charge the phone when it&#8217;s mostly depleted. Here&#8217;s a passage from <a href="http://www.mophie.com/frequent-questions">Mophie&#8217;s FAQ page</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>When should I turn on my mophie case?</em></p>
<p>To get the most charge out of your case, turn it on around 10%-20%
and keep the case charging without using it until your iPhone hits
80% battery life. From there, you can either wait until it gets
low again or top it off when the battery is less than 80%. Apple’s
batteries fast-charge to 80%, then switch to trickle charging for
the last 20%.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Simplicity is a higher priority for Apple than fiddly control. If a peripheral can get by without an on/off switch, Apple is going to omit the switch. (Exhibit B: Apple Pencil.) The whole point of the Smart Battery Case is that you charge it up and put your iPhone in it and that&#8217;s it. Complaining about the lack of an on/off toggle or external charge capacity indicator lights on the Smart Battery Case reminds me of the complaints about the original iPhone omitting the then-ubiquitous green/red hardware buttons for starting and ending phone calls. Sure, there was a purpose to them, but in the end the simplification was worth it. If your iPhone is in the case, it&#8217;s charging. That&#8217;s it.</p>
<p>Regarding the battery capacity of the case, here&#8217;s Lauren Goode, author of the aforelinked review for The Verge, <a href="https://twitter.com/LaurenGoode/status/674256583589662720">on Twitter</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A quick comparison for you: $99 Apple Battery Case 1877 mAh,
$100 Mophie Juice Pack Air 2750 mAh, $50 Incipio Offgrid Express
3000 mAh</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nothing could better encapsulate the wrong way of looking at the Smart Battery Case than this tweet. The intended use of the Smart Battery Case is to allow prolonged, heavy use of an iPhone 6/6S throughout one day. In my testing, and judging by the reviews of others, its 1,877 mAh battery is enough for that. Adding a bigger battery would have just made it even heavier and more ungainly.</p>
<p>And the very name of the Incipio <em>Offgrid</em> Express suggests that it is intended for an entirely different use case: traveling away from power for more than a day.</p>
<p>Which in turn brings me to <a href="http://mashable.com/2015/12/09/tim-cook-iphone-smart-battery-case-hump/">Tim Cook&#8217;s comments to Mashable&#8217;s Lance Ulanoff yesterday</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some also see the introduction of an Apple battery case as an
admission that battery life on the iPhone 6 and 6s isn’t all it
should be.</p>
<p>Cook, though, said that “if you’re charging your phone every day,
you probably don’t need this at all. But if you’re out hiking and
you go on overnight trips… it’s kind of nice to have.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Smart Battery Case would certainly help with an overnight hiking trip, but I think Cook was off-message here, because that scenario is really not what it was designed for. Big 5,000 mAh (or more) external battery chargers (or the highest capacity, extremely thick battery cases from third parties) are far better suited to that scenario than the Smart Battery Case. But Ulanoff&#8217;s preceding paragraph points to the marketing predicament inherent in a first-party Apple battery case: that it implies the built-in battery of the iPhone 6S is insufficient.</p>
<p>The clear lesson is that it&#8217;s far better to give a phone more battery life by making the phone itself thicker and including a correspondingly thicker (and thus bigger) internal battery than by using any sort of external battery. After a few days using this case, my thoughts turn not to the Smart Battery Case itself but instead to my <em>personal</em> desire that Apple had made the 6/6S form factor slightly thicker. Not a <em>lot</em> thicker. Just a little &#8212; just enough to boost battery life around 15-20 percent or so.<sup id="fnr2-2015-12-11"><a href="#fn2-2015-12-11">2</a></sup> That wouldn&#8217;t completely alleviate the need for external batteries. But it would eliminate a lot of <em>my</em> need &#8212; my phone dies only a few times a year, but when it does, it almost invariably happens very late at night.</p>
<p>I emphasized the word &#8220;<em>personal</em>&#8221; in the preceding paragraph because I realize my needs and desires are not representative of the majority. I think the battery life of the iPhone 6S as-is is sufficient for the vast majority of typical users. I suspect Cook went with the overnight hiking scenario specifically to avoid the implication that the built-in battery is insufficient. But the better explanation is that the built-in battery is insufficient for power users who use their iPhones far more than most people do.</p>
<h2>My Advice</h2>
<p>If you find yourself short on battery with your iPhone every day (or even most days), and you can&#8217;t make an adjustment to, say, put a charging dock on your desk or in your car to give your iPhone&#8217;s internal battery a periodic snack, then you should probably bite the bullet and switch to a 6S Plus. However bulky the Plus feels in your pocket and hands, it feels <em>less</em> bulky to me than the iPhone 6S with <em>any</em> battery pack. An iPhone 6S Plus, even with a normal case on it, weighs noticeably less than an iPhone 6S with the Smart Battery Case. If you need the extra battery capacity every day, you might as well get the Plus. (If you actually prefer the bigger Plus to the 4.7-inch devices, you&#8217;re in luck &#8212; you get the screen size you prefer, <em>and</em> a significantly longer-lasting battery. My advice here is for those who prefer the 4.7-inch size, other considerations aside.)</p>
<p>That doesn&#8217;t describe me, however. On a typical day, my iPhone 6S seldom drops below 20 percent by the time I go to sleep. But when I&#8217;m traveling, I often need a portable battery of some sort. Cellular coverage can be spotty (which drains the battery), and when I&#8217;m away from home, I tend to do more (or even the entirety) of my daily computing on the iPhone. Conferences, in particular, can be dreadful on battery life. At WWDC my iPhone can drop to 50 percent by the time the keynote is over Monday morning.</p>
<p>In recent years, rather than use a battery case, I&#8217;ve switched to carrying a portable external battery. My favorite for the past year or so is <a href="http://www.mophie.com/shop/universal-batteries/powerstation-plus-2X">the $80 Mophie Powerstation Plus 2X</a>. It&#8217;s relatively small, packs a 3,000 mAh capacity, and has built-in USB and Lightning cables. At conferences or for work travel, it&#8217;s easily stashed in my laptop bag, so my pockets aren&#8217;t weighed down at all, and my iPhone isn&#8217;t saddled with an unnatural case. If I do need to carry it in my pocket, it&#8217;s not too bad. It&#8217;s also easier to share with friends or family than a battery case. At night, I just plug the Powerstation into an AC adapter, and my iPhone into the Powerstation, and both devices get charged &#8212; no need for a separate charger or any additional cables.</p>
<p>The big advantage to using a battery case instead of an external battery pack is that you can easily keep using your phone while it charges. That&#8217;s awkward, at best, while your phone is tethered by a cable to a small brick.</p>
<p>If I were going to go back to using a battery case, there&#8217;s no question in my mind that I&#8217;d go with Apple&#8217;s. The only downside to it compared to Mophie&#8217;s (and the others &#8212; but I think Mophie is clearly the leader of the pack) is that it looks funny from the back. But to my eyes it doesn&#8217;t look <em>that</em> funny, and though third-party cases don&#8217;t look <em>weird</em>, they don&#8217;t look (or feel) <em>good</em>. In every other way, Apple&#8217;s Smart Battery Case wins: it&#8217;s all Lightning, so any Lightning peripherals you have will work, and there&#8217;s no need to pack a grody micro USB cable; it supplies more than enough additional power to get you through an active day; its unibody design makes it much easier to insert and remove the phone; and it feels much better in hand.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2015-12-11">
<p>My understanding of how this &#8220;passively assistive antenna&#8221; works is that it takes the cellular signal and amplifies it as it passes through the case in a way that makes it easier for the iPhone&#8217;s antenna to &#8220;hear&#8221;. Sort of like the antenna equivalent of cupping your hand around your ear. I have no idea whether this is legit, or some sort of placebo marketing bullshit, but it would be interesting to see someone measure the cellular reception of (a) a naked iPhone 6S, (b) the same iPhone in a, say, Mophie battery case, and (c) the same iPhone in the Smart Battery Case.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr1-2015-12-11" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2-2015-12-11">
<p>The iPhone 6 and 6S are actually 0.2mm <em>thinner</em> than their <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/">corresponding Plus models</a>. That&#8217;s sort of crazy. The difference is barely perceptible, but if anything, the 6 and 6S should be a little thicker, not thinner, than the Plus models.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr2-2015-12-11" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ The Curious Case of the Curious Case</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/2015/11/what_goes_up" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/oj7" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2015://1.31795</id>
<published>2015-11-14T04:57:52Z</published>
<updated>2015-12-09T03:58:34Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>Take away every single iPhone sold &#8212; all of them &#8212; and Apple&#8217;s remaining business for the quarter was almost as big as Microsoft&#8217;s, bigger than Google&#8217;s, and more than four times the size of Facebook&#8217;s.</p>
]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>This piece by Bryan Clark for TheNextWeb caught my eye last weekend &#8212; &#8220;<a href="http://thenextweb.com/opinion/2015/11/07/weve-reached-maybe-passed-peak-apple-why-the-narrative-needs-to-change/">We’ve Reached &#8212; Maybe Passed &#8212; Peak Apple: Why the Narrative Needs to Change</a>&#8221;:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Last month, Apple’s latest earnings call announced its “most
successful year ever.” The numbers were reported, the stories
were spun and Wall Street basically anointed Apple the god of
capitalism.</p>
<p>They’re all wrong.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Apple wasn&#8217;t wrong &#8212; fiscal 2015 was Apple&#8217;s most successful year ever, by the objective measures of both revenue and profit. I suppose you can decide to define &#8220;most successful year ever&#8221; in terms of something else, like percentage growth or stock price gains, but revenue and profit are pretty fair measures.</p>
<p>I missed it where &#8220;Wall Street basically anointed Apple the god of capitalism&#8221;. All I noticed was that Apple&#8217;s stock price went up <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=AAPL&amp;a=09&amp;b=27&amp;c=2015&amp;d=09&amp;e=28&amp;f=2015&amp;g=d">about two percent the day after earnings were announced</a> and has since fallen back to where it was before Q4 earnings were announced.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The actual story, the story we should be telling, involves a
different narrative. Apple is the largest company in the world,
but success is fleeting. While the numbers are impressive, they
don’t come close to painting an accurate picture about how much
trouble Apple is really in.</p>
<p>Apple’s rise under Steve Jobs was historic. Its fall under Tim
Cook is going to be much slower, more painful.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The fall usually is more painful than the rise. Who writes a sentence like that?</p>
<p>And if Apple&#8217;s fall under Cook is much slower than its rise under Steve Jobs, it&#8217;s going to take 20 or 30 years. Apple&#8217;s revival was long, slow, and relatively steady.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apple lives and dies by the iPhone. iPad sales are flat,
iPod’s are all but irrelevant, and while Mac sales are up,
they’re nowhere close to the workhorse that can continue to
carry Apple should they experience a downturn in iPhone sales.
There is no Plan B.</p>
<p>One look at the numbers tells a pretty decisive tale.</p>
<p>Percentage of revenue derived from iPhone sales:</p>
<ul>
<li>2012: 46.38%</li>
<li>2013: 52.07%</li>
<li>2014: 56.21%</li>
<li>2015: 62.54%</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>This is the part of Clark&#8217;s piece that got my attention. It&#8217;s a common refrain these days &#8212; just search Google for &#8220;<a href="https://www.google.com/#q=apple+is+too+dependent+on+iphone">Apple is too dependent on the iPhone</a>&#8221;.</p>
<p>Clark makes it sound like this is because the rest of Apple&#8217;s business is in decline, whereas the truth is that the iPhone continues to grow at an astonishing rate that even Apple&#8217;s other successful products can&#8217;t match. Is it worrisome that iPad sales continue to decline? Sure. Would it be better for Apple if the iPad were selling in iPhone-esque quantities? Of course. But iPad still sold 9.9 million units and generated $4.3 billion in revenue last quarter.</p>
<p>Arguing that Apple is in trouble because the iPhone is so popular is like arguing that the ’90s-era Chicago Bulls were in trouble because Michael Jordan was so good. It&#8217;s true Jordan couldn&#8217;t play forever &#8212; and the iPhone won&#8217;t be the most profitable product in the world forever. But in the meantime, the Bulls were well-nigh unbeatable, and Apple, for now at least, is unfathomably profitable.<sup id="fnr1-2015-11-13"><a href="#fn1-2015-11-13">1</a></sup> Just like how it&#8217;s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, it&#8217;s better to have tremendous success for some period of time than never to have had tremendous success in the first place. Right?</p>
<p>What I don&#8217;t get is why Apple gets singled out for its singular success, but other companies don&#8217;t. <a href="https://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html">92 percent of Google&#8217;s revenue last year came from online advertising</a>. And more importantly, I don&#8217;t get why Apple&#8217;s non-iPhone businesses are so quickly written off only because they&#8217;re so much smaller than the iPhone.</p>
<p><a href="http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/q4fy15datasum.pdf">Apple&#8217;s total revenue for last quarter</a> was $51.5 billion. The iPhone accounted for $32.2 billion of that, which means Apple&#8217;s non-iPhone business generated about $19.3 billion in revenue. All of Microsoft in the same three months: <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/PressReleaseAndWebcast/FY16/Q1/default.aspx">around $21 billion</a>. <a href="https://investor.google.com/earnings/2015/Q3_google_earnings.html">All of Google</a>: $18.78 billion. <a href="http://investor.fb.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=940609">Facebook</a>: $4.5 billion. Take away every single iPhone sold &#8212; all of them &#8212; and Apple&#8217;s remaining business for the quarter was almost as big as Microsoft&#8217;s, bigger than Google&#8217;s, and more than four times the size of Facebook&#8217;s. And this is for the July-September quarter, not the October-December holiday quarter in which Apple is strongest.</p>
<p>Nothing in the world compares to Apple&#8217;s iPhone business, including anything else Apple makes. But a multi-billion-per-quarter business here (Mac), a multi-billion-per-quarter business there (iPad), a &#8220;<a href="http://www.asymco.com/2015/01/22/bigger-than-hollywood/">Services&#8221; division</a> that generates more revenue than Facebook, and an &#8220;Other&#8221; category (Watch, Apple TV, Beats, iPod) that booked $3 billion in a non-holiday quarter &#8212; and it&#8217;s clear that Apple&#8217;s non-iPhone businesses, combined, amount to a massive enterprise. </p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a Larry Dignon column about whether iPad Pro will make &#8220;<a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/ipad-pros-tall-order-making-the-ipad-material-to-apple-agai/">iPad material to Apple again</a>&#8221;:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apple&#8217;s iPad sales are on the borderline of being immaterial to
the company, but some analysts are betting that enterprise sales
of the iPad Pro can turn the product line around. [&#8230;]</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the iPad franchise is sucking wind relative to the
iPhone. Apple&#8217;s annual report shows the iPad is 10 percent of
overall sales. Once a business falls below 10 percent a company
doesn&#8217;t have to break it out. In other words, the iPad could be
lumped into &#8220;other&#8221; with the Apple Watch and iPod if current
trends continue.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is a product line that, in and of itself, generated just about exactly the same revenue <em>last quarter</em> as all of Google&#8217;s non-advertising business did for the <em><a href="https://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html">entire fiscal year</a></em>. But Apple is the company that is considered lopsided and worrisomely dependent upon a single product.</p>
<p>Name a product introduced in the last five years that has been more successful than the iPad &#8212; either in terms of revenue and profit for its maker, or in terms of aggregate hours of daily use and customer satisfaction of its users. I can&#8217;t think of one.</p>
<p>Now consider the Apple Watch. <a href="http://www.fastcodesign.com/3048375/why-the-apple-watch-is-flopping">Fast Company called it &#8220;a flop&#8221; back in July</a>. Here&#8217;s a guy on Quora &#8212; Jason Lancaster, editor of a website called <a href="http://www.accurateautoadvice.com/">Accurate Auto Advice</a> &#8212; answering, in the affirmative, <a href="https://www.quora.com/Has-Apple-already-lost-the-market-for-self-driving-cars">whether Apple has &#8220;already lost the market for self driving cars&#8221;</a> (not joking):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Third, Apple may have peaked. Call me a hater, but what reason is
there to assume Apple&#8217;s reputation is going to stay where it is?
The watch was a flop, and their only consistent source of success
is the iPhone, as the market for Macs and iPads is drying up (as
it is for all computer hardware companies).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Forget the fact that Mac sales are <em>growing</em>, or that iPad sales, though in decline, remain roughly 10 million per quarter. What I enjoy about this is Lancaster&#8217;s having written off the Watch as a flop &#8212; he even uses the past tense.</p>
<p><a href="http://recode.net/2015/11/04/canalys-estimates-apple-has-shipped-seven-million-watches-fewer-than-some-projected/">Here&#8217;s what that flop looks like</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apple has shipped seven million Apple Watches since its
introduction this spring, giving the technology giant a firm lead
in the nascent smartwatch market, according to researcher Canalys.</p>
<p>That number falls shy of some Wall Street analysts’ expectations
for Apple’s first new device category since 2010. But, for
perspective, consider this: Apple sold more smartwatches from
April through September than all other vendors combined sold over
the past five quarters, Canalys reports.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If we estimate the average selling price for an Apple Watch at $500 (<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/30/us-apple-watch-idUSKCN0RU1AA20150930">reasonable</a>), that&#8217;s $3.5 billion in revenue for the year to date &#8212; prior to the holiday quarter that is almost certainly going to be the strongest for watch sales annually.</p>
<hr />
<p>Back to Bryan Clark&#8217;s TheNextWeb piece:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Steve Jobs is almost entirely responsible for Apple’s cult-like
following.</p>
<p>By streamlining the company in an attempt to make it profitable,
the same vision started to makes its way through every product
Apple created. Rather than bloated and flashy, Jobs created a
movement of decidedly minimalist devices that required not much
more than an occasional charge and a user that knew where the
power button was.</p>
<p>Between aesthetically pleasing design, rock-solid hardware, and
software that responded as if it were built for the machine &#8212;
not in spite of it &#8212; Apple culture became a cult of
Jobs-worshipping consumers willing to buy anything with a
lowercase “i” in front of it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That never happened. The G4 Cube didn&#8217;t sell. iPod Hi-Fi didn&#8217;t sell. Those weren&#8217;t just non-hit products &#8212; they were both products that Steve Jobs himself really liked. I&#8217;ve heard that he had a stack of unopened iPod Hi-Fis in his office. Apple products have never been blindly accepted by the mass market &#8212; they&#8217;ve succeeded on their merits and by meeting actual demand. <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2013/12/the_year_in_apple_and_technology">As I wrote two years ago</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To posit that Apple customers are somehow different, that when
they feel screwed by Apple their response is to go back for more,
is “Cult of Mac” logic &#8212; the supposition that most Apple
customers are irrational zealots or trend followers who just
mindlessly buy anything with an Apple logo on it. The truth is the
opposite: Apple’s business is making customers happy, and keeping
them happy. They make products for discriminating people who have
higher standards and <em>less</em> tolerance for design flaws or
problems.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Clark finally tells us what Apple&#8217;s biggest problems are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are larger issues on the horizon: For example, how does
Apple compete with Windows and Android?</p>
<p>Both have proven to be amazingly adept in recent years not only at
competing with Apple in form factor, but functionality as well.</p>
<p>Two companies that are innovating, not searching for identity
outside of a singular product.</p>
<p>Two companies that are on the way up, not down.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Windows and Android, got it.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Apple Watch is great, but it’s never going to carry Apple like
the iPhone until it works like one. The watch is undeniably cool,
but it really fails to do anything better than your phone.</p>
<p>To make matters worse, you have to have an iPhone close by in
order to even use most of its features. Similar Android models are
self-contained and only require an occasional sync.</p>
<p>The autonomous car project sounds promising, but competing against
Google and Tesla in addition to auto industry giants like Lexus
and Mercedes is an uphill battle full of technology challenges,
government red tape and changing century-old transportation
conventions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The best I can gather from this mishmash of a conclusion is that Apple Watch should have somehow debuted as a first-generation product that could stand toe-to-toe with the iPhone (which is now in its ninth generation), and that Apple&#8217;s car product should already be here. If there were no rumors of an Apple car, we&#8217;d be hearing that Apple is going to miss out on the next big industry that is ripe for disruption from the tech industry. But because there <em>are</em> rumors and hints pointing to an Apple car, we&#8217;re hearing that cars are too difficult, the established companies too entrenched. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2006/11/colligan_head_stuck">Ed Colligan&#8217;s line for the ages</a> &#8212; &#8220;<em>PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.</em>&#8221; &#8212; was also about an industry full of longstanding giants, Google, technology challenges, government red tape, and century-old conventions. Minus the &#8220;government red tape&#8221;, that&#8217;s a pretty good description of the watch and home entertainment system industries, too.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not here to argue the opposite of Colligan &#8212; that Apple&#8217;s success in these new fields is preordained &#8212; because that would be foolish. But it&#8217;s just as foolish to argue that Apple <em>can&#8217;t</em> succeed &#8212; or that anything less than iPhone-sized success in a new endeavor is a failure.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2015-11-13">
<p>The iPhone, however, is unlikely to take a year off in the prime of its career <a href="http://espn.go.com/30for30/film?page=jordan-rides-the-bus">to play baseball</a>.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr1-2015-11-13" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ What Goes Up</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://daringfireball.net/2015/11/the_ipad_pro" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/oiq" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2015://1.31778</id>
<published>2015-11-11T13:08:58Z</published>
<updated>2015-11-13T08:05:24Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>The future of mass market portable computing involves neither a mouse pointer nor an x86 processor.</p>
]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="http://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<p>First impressions last a lifetime, goes the adage. You&#8217;re going to have to forget your first impressions of the iPad to understand the iPad Pro.</p>
<p>When Apple introduced the original iPad in 2010, it was explicitly positioned in a new role for a device &#8212; somewhere between an iPhone and a MacBook. That seems obvious, but the problem, for the iPad, is that people loved their iPhones and MacBooks. The only way iPad would succeed, Steve Jobs said, was if it were &#8220;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/technology/companies/28apple.html">far better at doing some key things</a>&#8221; than <em>either</em> an iPhone or MacBook.</p>
<p>Apple succeeded. Simply by nature of having a bigger display, the iPad was better than the iPhone for numerous tasks &#8212; watching videos or reading long-form text, to name just two. No one would dispute that bigger displays are better for certain tasks &#8212; you can <em>prove</em> <a href="http://www.nngroup.com/articles/productivity-and-screen-size/">the productivity gains</a>.</p>
<p>What made the iPad better than a MacBook, in at least some ways, was more subjective than objective. Objectively, a MacBook was faster, by a large factor, could multitask, and offered a rich library of serious productivity apps. A Mac was, simply put, more powerful than an iPad &#8212; both in terms of hardware and software. The iPad had <em>some</em> objective advantages &#8212; battery life and the pixel density of its display are two that come to mind.<sup id="fnr1-2015-11-11"><a href="#fn1-2015-11-11">1</a></sup></p>
<p>The trade-offs were obvious. The iPad offered the same conceptual simplicity and intimacy as the iPhone, with the &#8220;lean-back&#8221; ergonomics of a tablet, at the cost of <em>power</em> &#8212; hardware performance and software complexity.</p>
<p>It was, in short, <em>just a big iPhone</em>. To the eyes of many in the tech industry, &#8220;just a big iPhone&#8221; was damning. They wanted the iPad to impress in terms of power. To the eyes of tens of millions of users, however, &#8220;just a big iPhone&#8221; was strong praise. An iPhone with a 10-inch display sounded just great.</p>
<p>The intervening five years have turned all of this upside down. The iPad Pro now impresses solely by dint of its engineering. Anyone who doesn&#8217;t see this is blinded by their established impressions of the first few iPads.</p>
<p>For the moment, put aside the form factor differences (tablet with optional keyboard vs. hinged clamshell), conceptual differences in iOS and OS X (direct touchscreen manipulation of full-screen apps vs. a mouse pointer and tiled windows) and software differences (simpler iOS apps vs. more complex OS X apps). All those points are worth consideration, but for now, put them aside. Right now, today, the iPad Pro is a peer to the current lineup of MacBooks in terms of computational hardware performance.</p>
<p>The iPad Pro is without question faster than the new one-port MacBook or the latest MacBook Airs. I&#8217;ve looked at several of my favorite benchmarks &#8212; <a href="http://www.primatelabs.com/geekbench/">Geekbench 3</a>, <a href="http://krakenbenchmark.mozilla.org/">Mozilla&#8217;s Kraken</a>, and <a href="https://developers.google.com/octane/?hl=en">Google&#8217;s Octane 2</a> &#8212; and the iPad Pro is a race car. It&#8217;s only a hair slower than my year-old 13-inch MacBook Pro in single-core measurements. Graphics-wise, testing with GFXBench, it blows my MacBook Pro away. <em>A one-year-old maxed-out MacBook Pro, rivaled by an iPad in performance benchmarks.</em> Just think about that. According to Geekbench&#8217;s online results, the iPad Pro is faster in single-core testing than Microsoft&#8217;s new Surface Pro 4 with a Core-i5 processor. The Core-i7 version of the Surface Pro 4 isn&#8217;t shipping until December &#8212; that model will almost certainly test faster than the iPad Pro. But that&#8217;s a $1599 machine with an Intel x86 CPU. The iPad Pro starts at $799 and runs an ARM CPU &#8212; Apple&#8217;s A9X. There is no more trade-off. You don&#8217;t have to choose between the performance of x86 and the battery life of ARM.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ve now reached an inflection point. The new MacBook is slower, gets worse battery life, and even its cheapest configuration <em>costs $200 more</em> than the top-of-the-line iPad Pro. The iPad Pro is more powerful, cheaper, has a better display, and gets better battery life. It&#8217;s not a clear cut-and-dry win &#8212; MacBooks still have more RAM (the iPad Pro, in all configurations, has 4 GB of RAM, although Apple still isn&#8217;t publishing this information &#8212; MacBook Pros have either 8 or 16 GB), are expandable, and offer far more storage. But at a fundamental level &#8212; CPU speed, GPU speed, quality of the display, quality of the sound output, and overall responsiveness of interface &#8212; the iPad Pro is a better computer than a MacBook or MacBook Air, and a worthy rival to the far more expensive MacBook Pros.</p>
<p>The entire x86 computer architecture is living on borrowed time. It&#8217;s a dead platform walking. The future belongs to ARM, and Apple&#8217;s A-series SoC&#8217;s are leading the way.</p>
<p>The A9X didn&#8217;t come out of nowhere. Watching Apple&#8217;s A-series chips gain on x86 over the past five years, we&#8217;ve all been speculating about whether Apple might someday start using ARM chips in MacBooks. As of now, it&#8217;s only a question of whether they want to.</p>
<h2>What Apple Means by &#8216;Pro&#8217;</h2>
<p>With the Mac Pro, the &#8220;pro&#8221; really does stand for &#8220;professional&#8221;. There&#8217;s pretty much no reason for anyone to buy a Mac Pro unless their work is computationally expensive. There aren&#8217;t many people left whose work is slowed down regularly by the performance of their computer. The Mac Pro is aimed at that market. (That said, a higher-end iMac will outperform a Mac Pro in many tasks that aren&#8217;t well-suited to multicore parallel computing. The Mac Pro is due for an update.)</p>
<p>With the MacBook Pro, on the other hand, &#8220;pro&#8221; isn&#8217;t really short for &#8220;professional&#8221;. It&#8217;s more like &#8220;deluxe&#8221; &#8212; a signifier that it&#8217;s a higher-end product than its non-pro siblings. Faster, better, and accordingly higher-priced. A MacBook Pro with 1 TB of SSD storage is indeed a terrific portable computer for &#8220;professional&#8221; use by, say, a photographer or film editor or software developer &#8212; people who truly stretch the performance of any computer today, portable or otherwise. But a decked-out MacBook Pro is also a terrific and perfectly reasonable choice for anyone who can simply afford one. MacBook Airs don&#8217;t have retina displays (and likely will never be upgraded to offer them), and the one-port MacBook is relatively slow.</p>
<p>The iPad Pro is &#8220;pro&#8221; in the way MacBook Pros are. Genuine professionals with a professional need &#8212; visual artists in particular &#8212; are going to line up for them. But it&#8217;s also a perfectly reasonable choice for casual iPad users who just want a bigger display, louder (and now stereo) speakers, and faster performance.</p>
<p>Anyone <a href="https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/ios/7740/thinking-about-the-ipad-pro">tying themselves in knots</a> looking for a specific target audience for the iPad Pro is going about it the wrong way. There is no single target audience. Is the iPad Pro meant for office workers in the enterprise? Professional artists creating content? Casual users playing games, watching movies, and reading? The answer is simply &#8220;Yes&#8221;. </p>
<h2>Smart Keyboard and Converting to a Laptop Form Factor</h2>
<p>So unlike the original iPad of 2010, which carved out new territory between that of an iPhone and MacBook, the iPad Pro is clearly an alternative to a MacBook. I&#8217;m sure someone out there will carry both a MacBook (of any sort) and an iPad Pro while traveling, but I don&#8217;t really see the sense of that. The iPad Mini makes perfect sense as a travel companion to a MacBook. The iPad Air does too &#8212; especially for someone who watches a lot of video or prefers larger type while reading. But the iPad Pro stands as an alternative to a MacBook. If you want to carry a MacBook, you want a smaller, lighter iPad as a companion, and you don&#8217;t need a keyboard for it. If you want to carry an iPad Pro, you might as well get the Smart Keyboard cover and leave the MacBook at home.</p>
<p>The trade-offs are varied. If you don&#8217;t type much, or don&#8217;t mind using the on-screen keyboard when you do, you&#8217;re probably already sold on the iPad-as-primary-portable-computer lifestyle. If you do type a lot and want a hardware keyboard, the appeal of the iPad Pro is going to largely hinge on your affinity for the Smart Keyboard.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been using this iPad Pro review unit (128 GB, with cellular &#8212; top of the line kit, natch) for eight days, and most of that time I&#8217;ve had the Smart Keyboard attached. For just plain typing, it&#8217;s not that bad &#8212; I&#8217;ve written this entire review using it, <a href="https://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-9-review/">Federico Viticci-style</a>. I went into it thinking that my biggest complaint would be the keys themselves &#8212; I like my keyboards clicky, with a lot of travel. But I adjusted to it pretty quickly, and I kind of like the way it feels, as a tactile surface. It almost feels like canvas.</p>
<p>My complaints and frustrations are more from the software, both iOS 9.1 itself and individual apps, both from Apple and third-party developers. Trying to use the iPad Pro as a laptop with the Smart Keyboard exposes the seams of an OS that was clearly designed for touchscreen use first. These seams aren&#8217;t new &#8212; I&#8217;m sure anyone who has tried using an iPad of any sort with a paired Bluetooth keyboard has run into the same things. This is simply the first time I&#8217;ve tried using an iPad with a hardware keyboard for an extended period for large amounts of work.</p>
<p>I almost wrote &#8220;for large amounts of writing&#8221; in the preceding paragraph, but the problems with an iPad and a hardware keyboard are more than about typing. A large part of my work is <em>reading</em>, and with a laptop, the keyboard is a big part of the reading experience. In fact, with the iPad Pro, the keyboard is even more important than it is on a MacBook &#8212; and today, it falls short.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s what I mean. First, when the iPad Pro is open with the keyboard attached, holding your arm up to touch the screen for anything longer than a moment or two is ergonomically uncomfortable. Apple has stated for years that this is why they don&#8217;t make the displays on MacBooks or iMacs touchscreens (that, combined with the relatively tiny click targets of Mac OS X, which are designed for very precise mice and trackpads, not imprecise finger tips). Scrolling through a long document using the iPad Pro touch screen is uncomfortable when it&#8217;s in laptop position. Going through a slew of new emails, likewise. In laptop mode, I want to use the keyboard for these things &#8212; and in most cases, because of bugs and/or software limitations, I can&#8217;t. That the keyboard falls short in these cases is even worse on iPad than it would be on a MacBook, because a MacBook has a trackpad. The point is, if my fingers are on the keyboard, I don&#8217;t want to move my hands. With a trackpad, I don&#8217;t have to. With the iPad Pro, I do.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s an ancient (meaning dating back to the Classic era) Mac convention that in a read-only scrolling view, you can use the space bar to page down. When your eyes get to the bottom of the display, you can just hit space and the view should scroll to show the next screen full of content &#8212; with the last line or two of the previous screen now repeated at the top of the new screen to provide context as your eyes move from the bottom to the top of the display. This works almost everywhere on OS X, and anywhere it doesn&#8217;t work should be considered a bug.</p>
<p>On iOS 9.1, Safari tries to support this, but it is dreadfully buggy. Instead of paging down just less than one screen-height of content, it pages down about 1.5 screen-heights of content. It literally scrolls right past huge amounts of content, rendering the feature completely unusable. </p>
<p><a href="http://daringfireball.net/misc/test/1000.text">Here&#8217;s a sample page I&#8217;ve created to illustrate</a>. It&#8217;s just a simple text file with 1,000 lines, numbered in order. When I view that on my MacBook Pro, I see lines 1–45 (and half of line 46). When I hit space to page, the view scrolls and I now see lines 44–89. Hit space again and the view scrolls to show lines 88–132.</p>
<p>On iPad Pro, I see lines 1–49 initially. But when I hit space to page down, the view scrolls to show me lines 75–123. Lines 50–74 are completely skipped past. It&#8217;s not even just a line or two &#8212; it&#8217;s huge chunks of text. This happens in all web pages in Safari on iOS 9.1, and it is not specific to the iPad Pro and Smart Keyboard. I see the exact same behavior on any iPad with a paired Bluetooth keyboard.</p>
<p>Mail is another app in which, on my Macs, I depend heavily on the keyboard for scrolling and selection. On iPad, Mail does let you move from message to message using the keyboard (⌘↓ and ⌘↑), but it doesn&#8217;t support scrolling the actual message content &#8212; the space bar does nothing, and the Smart Keyboard doesn&#8217;t have a proper Page Down key.</p>
<p>The space bar doesn&#8217;t work as a Play/Pause toggle for audio or video, either. I think it should.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s inherently problematic that iOS has no conceptual support for a mouse pointer, and thus <em>can&#8217;t</em> work with any sort of trackpad. But, given this constraint, good support for navigating as much of the UI as possible using the keyboard is more important on the iPad than it is on the Mac. But iOS&#8217;s support for navigating using the keyboard is <em>worse</em>.</p>
<p>Another problem: when editing a long document, if you use the arrow keys to move the insertion point above the first line on screen or below the last line on screen, the insertion point just disappears off screen. The view doesn&#8217;t scroll to keep the insertion point visible, which is clearly what should happen (and does happen on OS X). Surely iOS will work this way eventually, but right now it still shows its roots as a touchscreen OS where a hardware keyboard is a decided second-class citizen.</p>
<p>All is not lost, however. ⌘-Tab works for app switching just like it does on the Mac. Tap it and release and you switch to the most-recently used app. Tap it and keep holding down ⌘ and you get a visual switcher showing the 10 most-recently-used apps. (Again, this works with any hardware keyboard connected to any iPad &#8212; it&#8217;s just that this has been the first time it&#8217;s been relevant to me, personally.) The Smart Keyboard lacks a Home button, but there is a system-wide shortcut that maps ⌘-Shift-H to &#8220;Home&#8221;. Not bad, but once you&#8217;re at the iOS home screen, there&#8217;s not much you can do without touching the screen. For a few days, I sort of wished that I could use the arrow keys to navigate the home screen, with the selected app icon popping &#8220;up&#8221; like in the &#8220;focus&#8221; UI of the new Apple TV. But that idea, I suspect, is too far afield from the regular touchscreen-based UI of the iOS home screen. My keyboard idea requires a select-then-act two-stage model &#8212; the regular touch-based launcher is single-stage: just tap.</p>
<p>But then I realized that the problem I wanted to solve wasn&#8217;t that I wanted the home screen to be keyboard-navigable. The problem was that I wanted to use the keyboard to launch apps that weren&#8217;t listed in the ⌘-Tab switcher. To do that on iOS without a hardware keyboard, you go home, then tap the app. With a keyboard, though, you can do it, just in a different way.</p>
<p>Hit ⌘-Space system wide, and you&#8217;ll be taken to the home screen&#8217;s system-wide &#8220;<a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201285">Quick Search</a>&#8221;. It&#8217;s like the iOS equivalent of Spotlight. Start typing the name of the app you want to launch, and there it is.</p>
<p>But go ahead and play a sad trombone <em>wah-wah</em> here, because at this point, you still have to pick your arm up and touch the screen to launch the app. You can also use Quick Search for starting a web search in Safari, or anything else. But you can&#8217;t use the keyboard arrow keys to navigate the list of results. (Another problem with Quick Search using the keyboard: you have to wait a second or so for the Quick Search text field to accept input. I&#8217;m pretty sure it&#8217;s because we&#8217;re waiting for the animation to complete &#8212; first to show the home screen, then to jump to Quick Search. So if you type ⌘-Space and immediately begin typing what you&#8217;re looking for, the first few characters you type are lost. The user should never have to wait for the computer, especially if it&#8217;s just for an animation. Any Mac user with muscle memory trained by LaunchBar, Alfred, Quicksilver, or even Spotlight is going to find this enforced delay on iOS maddening.)</p>
<p>This lack of keyboard support is prevalent system-wide. In Messages, if you start a new conversation and type the partial name of a contact, you can&#8217;t select from the list of matches using arrow keys or auto-complete the name you&#8217;ve partially typed using Tab. You&#8217;ve got to &#8212; you guessed it &#8212; reach up and touch the screen. You <em>can</em> use the arrow keys to select from a list of suggestions in the recipients fields in Mail, however, and arrow keys also work for selecting from the list of suggestions in the Safari location field.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that the potential of the iPad Pro as a laptop is tremendous. The keyboard is just fine for typing, and the magnetic connection between the iPad Pro and the keyboard is surprisingly sturdy. You can absolutely use it as a literal laptop without any worry that the iPad Pro is going to fall off the Smart Keyboard. I even like the 4:3 aspect ratio &#8212; it shows more lines of text when reading than my 13-inch MacBook Pro. It also occupies a smaller footprint than an open MacBook Pro, meaning it should fit better on the seatback tray of an airplane. But the lack of pervasive support for keyboard-based UI navigation in iOS is a problem for anyone with longstanding Mac keyboard shortcuts ingrained in their muscle memory.</p>
<p>As an actual cover, the Smart Keyboard does feel thick, and when closed, it bothers me a little that it&#8217;s thicker on the outer two thirds (where the keyboard is folded under) than the inner third. I wouldn&#8217;t recommend the Smart Keyboard for anyone who doesn&#8217;t plan to actually use the keyboard quite a bit. But if you do plan on using the keyboard frequently, the trade-off in thickness (compared to the non-keyboard Smart Cover) is well worth it.</p>
<p>(It occurs to me that for many people, the Smart Keyboard might best be thought of not as a thick cover, but as a thin very portable desktop docking station.)</p>
<h2>Keyboard Bugs</h2>
<p>I experienced some flakiness with the keyboard throughout the week. Sometimes, system-wide keyboard shortcuts would stop working: ⌘-Tab, ⌘-Space, and ⌘-Shift-H. Typing within apps still worked, and keyboard shortcuts within any given app still worked, but the system-wide shortcuts inexplicably stopped working. </p>
<p>Less frequently, I&#8217;ve seen the opposite problem: the system-wide keyboard shortcuts work, but keyboard shortcuts within any given app stop working. (iOS 9 has a very clever feature, by the way: press and hold the ⌘ key and you&#8217;ll see a HUD pop-up displaying all keyboard shortcuts available in the current context. This makes keyboard shortcuts <em>more</em> discoverable than they are on the Mac, where they&#8217;re spread across multiple menus in the menu bar.)</p>
<p>In either case, I&#8217;ve been able to fix these keyboard problems by detaching and re-attaching the iPad from the Smart Keyboard. I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s a bug in iOS 9.1 or a faulty Smart Keyboard. (Apple has shipped me a second Smart Keyboard to test, but it won&#8217;t arrive until later in the day, after this review has been published. I&#8217;ll update it after the replacement arrives.)</p>
<h2>Apple Pencil</h2>
<p>It&#8217;s about precision: accuracy where you touch (Apple claims sub-pixel precision on screen), accuracy regarding pressure, and low latency regarding what you see on screen. I am not an illustrator, but I do know my own signature. My signature never looks like my actual signature when I have to sign electronically on a point-of-sale terminal. Usually it doesn&#8217;t even look close. On iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, it looks exactly like my signature when I sign with paper and ink. My handwriting looks like my handwriting, period (for better or for worse).</p>
<p>All previous iOS devices have touchscreens designed for input from one source: fingertips. Fingertips are relatively fat and capacitive. The relatively fat size and imprecise location of a finger on screen is why tap targets are relatively larger and more spaced apart on iOS than OS X. This is also why third-party styluses for iOS devices have broad tips made of capacitive rubber &#8212; they&#8217;re more or less fake fingertips. The capacitive touchscreens on iPhones and (non-Pro) iPads aren&#8217;t designed for &#8220;fine tips&#8221;.</p>
<p>Apple has done a few things regarding sampling the screen for input with Apple Pencil. First, there is something new in the display itself &#8212; something in the layer between the glass surface and the LCD display, I think. Or perhaps it&#8217;s under the LCD? Apple alludes to it in <a href="http://www.apple.com/apple-pencil/">the Jony Ive-narrated video on the Apple Pencil web page</a>, but they&#8217;re not really talking about it in detail.</p>
<p>For capacitive (finger) touch, the iPad Pro samples at twice the rate of previous iPads &#8212; 120 times per second instead of 60. With the Pencil, though, the iPad Pro samples 240 times per second. The way the Pencil works requires cooperation with the display, and so there&#8217;s no way this Pencil could be made to work with existing iPads. The Pencil is not iPad Pro-exclusive out of product marketing spite &#8212; it&#8217;s exclusive to the Pro because the two were engineered in coordination with each other. And if Apple had designed the Pencil differently, to allow it to work with existing iPads, there&#8217;s no way it could have had this level of accuracy, because the tip would have needed to be broader and capacitive. (The Pencil&#8217;s tip is not capacitive at all &#8212; it doesn&#8217;t register as a touch <em>at all</em> on any other iOS device.)</p>
<p>My guess is we&#8217;ll start to see Pencil support in future iOS devices in addition to the iPad Pro, starting with the iPad Air 3.</p>
<p>Because the Pencil is round-barreled and has no clip on the cap, I was worried that it would roll around (and eventually, off) a table top. But it&#8217;s actually weighted inside, sort of like a <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dFzhjnjXc2o">Weeble Wobble</a>, so unless it&#8217;s on a sloped surface, it won&#8217;t roll more than an inch or so before settling in place. In hand, I can&#8217;t tell that it&#8217;s weighted like this.</p>
<p>I think most people who buy an iPad Pro are going to want a Smart Keyboard. The Apple Pencil is the more technically remarkable peripheral, but I suspect it&#8217;ll prove useful to far fewer people. Sketching apps like <a href="https://www.fiftythree.com/">53&#8217;s Paper</a> and Apple&#8217;s own built-in Notes app certainly have appeal and utility to people who aren&#8217;t artists, but I suspect a lot of Apple Pencils are going to be bought out of curiosity and then go largely unused.</p>
<p>For actual illustrators and artists, however, the Pencil and iPad Pro seem poised to be a career/industry-changing combination. What has been largely abstract &#8212; drawing using a device over <em>here</em>, looking at the results on a screen over <em>there</em> &#8212; can now be direct.</p>
<h3>Miscellaneous</h3>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>Weight:</strong> The iPad Pro certainly feels heavier than recent iPads, but only in a way that&#8217;s commensurate with its increased size. It&#8217;s not too heavy.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Audio:</strong> The speakers are surprisingly loud. Apple told me the iPad Pro produces three times the audio volume of the iPad Air, and that certainly matches my experience. If you use your iPad as a small TV, the audio improvements might be more meaningful than the bigger display. The four-speaker stereo system is also very clever &#8212; no matter which way you rotate the iPad Pro, the top two speakers are for treble and the bottom two for bass.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Snap:</strong> Speaking of audio, if there&#8217;s a downside to the snug connection between the iPad Pro and the Smart Keyboard, it&#8217;s that the magnetic connection makes a rather loud <em>snap</em> when you connect or disconnect it. I can imagine some scenarios &#8212; in bed with a sleeping spouse, say &#8212; where this might be a problem.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Size classes:</strong> I think even Apple&#8217;s own apps are still figuring out how best to arrange layouts on this larger display. For example, in Mail, when the iPad Pro is in portrait, it only shows one column at a time. I think there&#8217;s clearly enough room horizontally, even in portrait, for a two-pane layout (narrow list of messages on left, wide message detail on right). The iPad Pro in portrait is as wide as the iPad Air in landscape &#8212; and the iPad Air in landscape uses two panes for Mail. Third-party developers are going to want to adjust their apps after they get a feel for what it&#8217;s like to use the iPad Pro for real.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Battery life:</strong> Simply outstanding. I didn&#8217;t even plug it in once between Monday and Friday, and it still had plenty of charge left. I&#8217;ve been using it for eight continuous hours as I type this sentence, and it still has more than a 50 percent charge remaining.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Missing apps:</strong> It&#8217;s been like this ever since the original iPad, but it still strikes me as odd that the iPad version of iOS lacks the Calculator, Weather, and Stocks apps. The Mac doesn&#8217;t have &#8220;apps&#8221; for Weather or Stocks, but it does have widgets for them in Notification Center. And it seems downright crazy for a computer not to have a built-in means for doing arithmetic. (Although you can do some arithmetic using Quick Search.)</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Touch, Don&#8217;t Touch:</strong> For the past week I&#8217;ve really only used two computers. The iMac on my desk, and this iPad Pro. Today, though, I used my MacBook Pro while the iPad Pro was running benchmarks. And within a few minutes, I did something I have never once done before: I reached up and tried to touch something on the display. Ten minutes later I did it again. I point this out not to argue that I think MacBooks should have touch screens, but simply as an observation that even a lifelong Mac user can quickly get accustomed to the iPad Pro as a laptop.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>From a hardware perspective, the iPad Pro strikes me as a seminal device. It runs faster than the Intel x86-based MacBooks, gets better battery life, and costs significantly less. And it has a better display with significantly more pixels than even a 15-inch MacBook Pro.</p>
<p>Software-wise, support for the Smart Keyboard needs to get even smarter &#8212; but I&#8217;d be shocked if it doesn&#8217;t. For me, the iPad Pro marks the turning point where iPads are no longer merely lightweight (both physically and conceptually) alternatives to MacBooks for use in simple scenarios, to where MacBooks will now start being seen as heavyweight alternatives to iPads for complex scenarios.<sup id="fnr2-2015-11-11"><a href="#fn2-2015-11-11">2</a></sup></p>
<p>Is it a MacBook replacement for me, personally? No. For you? Maybe. For many people? Yes.</p>
<p>It brings me no joy to observe this, but the future of mass market portable computing involves neither a mouse pointer nor an x86 processor.</p>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2015-11-11">
<p>It&#8217;s kind of funny to think of a 2010 iPad with its 133 PPI display as &#8220;high resolution&#8221; &#8212; such a display looks comically fuzzy by today&#8217;s standards. But at the time it was a noticeably sharper display than what was in the MacBooks of the day &#8212; <a href="https://support.apple.com/kb/sp541?locale=en_US">a 2009 13-inch MacBook Pro had a display with 113 PPI resolution</a>.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr1-2015-11-11" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn2-2015-11-11">
<p>iOS 9&#8217;s split-screen multitasking really shines on the iPad Pro. I&#8217;ve found it useful on my iPad Air, but it&#8217;s downright natural on the iPad Pro.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr2-2015-11-11" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ The iPad Pro</title></entry></feed><!-- THE END -->
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