Activity++ 

Speaking of David Smith, his new Activity++ app just shipped. Includes a Watch complication that, hallelujah, is always in monochrome. I’d pay $3 for that alone.

A Nerd’s Review of the Tesla Model S 

Speaking of Tesla, I really enjoyed David Smith’s review of his Model S:

The only real analogy I can think of to describe how different this feels is to compare it to SSD hard-drives. SSD hard drives when they came out were ‘worse’ than traditional spinning disks in a wide variety of ways. They were smaller capacity, sometimes had lower maximum throughput and were considerably more expensive. But, from the moment you first used one it completely ruined computers for you. Going back to spinning disks once you have tasted instantaneous delivery feels broken.

It is the same with driving a Tesla. There is essentially no latency in your driving interaction with the car. I’ve often heard car fanatics (especially those who love manual transmissions) describe the feeling of being ‘connected’ to their car as they drive it. That their desire and the car’s ability to deliver it become closely and completely linked. Tesla delivers that experience but without all the training and skill needed to dance with a transmission.

‘It’s a Tesla’ 

Ben Thompson:

With that out of the way, can we marvel at what Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk has accomplished? Nearly 300,000 people have willingly parted with $1,000 despite the fact they will not have a chance to purchase a car for years; an astounding 115,000 of them sent in their deposit before they even knew what the car looked like. A friend got in line to make his reservation at 6:45am and there were 123 people in front of him. This is, no matter how you measure it, a phenomenon that is nearly unprecedented; the only possible comparison is Apple and its iPhone. […]

The real payoff of Musk’s “Master Plan” is the fact that Tesla means something: yes, it stands for sustainability and caring for the environment, but more important is that Tesla also means amazing performance and Silicon Valley cool. To be sure, Tesla’s focus on the high end has helped them move down the cost curve, but it was Musk’s insistence on making “An electric car without compromises” that ultimately led to 276,000 people reserving a Model 3, many without even seeing the car: after all, it’s a Tesla.

My favorite take on the Tesla Model 3 announcement. I’m not sure how you can not make a comparison to Apple.

Michael Tsai on TextExpander 6 and Subscription Pricing 

Michael Tsai:

You can debate whether the app is worth it, but the bottom line is that the price increase is huge in percentage terms. TextExpander 4 was $35 in 2012, and there was a $20 update for TextExpander 5 in May of 2015, about three years later. Now, after less than a year, the price for a yearly subscription is $47.52. (There is a one-time, one-year 50% discount for previous customers.) So the price for three years has gone from $20 to $142.56. I have paid for a lot of apps recently, and the only ones that are in that price range are Microsoft Office, Adobe Lightroom, and TurboTax. TextExpander is a great app, but it just doesn’t feel like it’s in that league.

With Microsoft and Adobe, it takes multiple years of subscription payments to equal the previous single payment. So it was more a change in payment model than an increase in price. And the subscription offered the benefit of never having to suddenly make a large payment.

I’ve been loath to pile on here, because I try to be outspoken in favor of sustainable app pricing, especially for utility apps. But TextExpander was already well-priced. Tsai has (as usual) an incredible collection of links to commentary on this story, and there’s near-unanimous agreement that Smile is charging too much for an upgrade that to many users only takes away useful features (Dropbox and iCloud syncing).

Wednesday, 6 April 2016

Twitter Beats Amazon, Verizon for Global NFL Streaming Deal 

Peter Kafka, writing for Recode:

While the NFL and Twitter haven’t disclosed the price for the package, people familiar with the bidding said Twitter paid less than $10 million for the entire 10-game package, while rival bids topped $15 million. Those numbers are a fraction of the $450 million CBS and NBC collectively paid for the rights to broadcast the Thursday games.

I think the NFL chose Twitter because Twitter is the platform for live commentary on sports. My Twitter feed was nuts — and a lot of fun — during Monday’s NCAA men’s championship game.

iPhone SE Availability Tightening Online and at Apple Stores 

Three weeks delivery time for most configurations.

Tuesday, 5 April 2016

Macminicolo Merges With MacStadium 

Big news from Brian Stucki, founder of Macminicolo:

In short, I’ve decided to sell ownership of Macminicolo and merge it with another company. I will stay on as President of Macminicolo and also serve as a Vice President of the parent company, MacStadium.

Now, I could just announce this with no explanation and be done with it . I could also write one of those generic acquisition posts focused on sunsets and brands and blah. Instead, I’ll be forthright and real like I’ve always tried to be with customers.

Macminicolo is one of my favorite companies. Yes, they’re a longtime sponsor, but I’ve used their services personally and recommend them wholeheartedly. And Brian is the guy behind Fireballed.org, which attempts to cache all sites linked from DF.

The Loop Magazine App Is Dead 

Jim Dalrymple:

It is with tremendous sadness that I write this post today. I have tried to figure out a way for The Loop Magazine app to work on the App Store, for the last few months. It turns out, it just won’t. This morning, I removed the app from the App Store.

Wasn’t meant to be.

TJ Luoma on TextExpander 6’s Subscription Pricing 

TJ Luoma, on Smile shipping the newest version of TextExpander as a $45/year subscription service:

To be clear, I’m not saying that the Smile folks are bad, evil, mean, money-grubbers or anything like that. What I am saying is this: as an experienced power-user of your software, I do not have the slightest clue why you decided to make this service mandatory when it seems to offer very little for individual users, and I have no idea why I should pay a monthly fee for something that has worked fine before. What problem does TextExpander 6 solve for me?

I can’t answer that question.

And if I can’t answer that question, Smile has a big problem.

Subscription pricing makes sense, but I do think $45/year is a bit high.

Update: Joe Cieplinski has a good take, too.

WhatsApp Enables End-to-End Encryption 

WhatsApp co-founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton:

From now on when you and your contacts use the latest version of the app, every call you make, and every message, photo, video, file, and voice message you send, is end-to-end encrypted by default, including group chats.

The idea is simple: when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to. No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us. End-to-end encryption helps make communication via WhatsApp private — sort of like a face-to-face conversation.

If you’re interested in learning more about how end-to-end encryption works, you can read about it here. But all you need to know is that end-to-end encrypted messages can only be read by the recipients you intend. And if you’re using the latest version of WhatsApp, you don’t have to do a thing to encrypt your messages: end-to-end encryption is on by default and all the time.

Wired has a good story on this, but with a headline that makes it sound like they were trying to hit their quota of Apple-related stories: “Forget Apple vs. the FBI: WhatsApp Just Switched on Encryption for a Billion People”. WhatsApp’s use of end-to-end encryption doesn’t have anything to do with Apple — and the last thing anyone who cares about encryption and private communication should do is “forget” about Apple and the FBI. So strange.

Monday, 4 April 2016

Daring Fireball RSS Feed Sponsorship Openings 

The DF RSS feed sponsorship schedule is booked through mid-May, but due to a scheduling error by yours truly, this week’s spot is open. If you’ve got a product or service you’d like to promote to DF’s savvy audience, get in touch.

Update: This week’s spot has been sold.

Longtime Apple Software Engineer Francois Jouaux Killed in Car Crash 

Heartbreaking news:

Francois Jouaux played just as hard as he worked, according to his family.

On Sunday, the longtime Apple software engineer was returning home from kitesurfing at Waddell Beach in Davenport when a suspected drunken driver crossed the double-yellow line on La Honda Road and hit him head-on. Jouaux, 46, of Woodside, died at the scene.

There is a fundraising campaign for Jouaux’s family — would love to see the DF audience give it a bump.

Inside the Unorthodox Donald Trump Campaign 

Fascinating look inside Trump’s campaign by Gabriel Sherman for New York Magazine:

It was also thanks to some information he had gathered that Trump was able to do something that no other Republican has done before: take on Fox News. An odd bit of coincidence had given him a card to play against Fox founder Roger Ailes. In 2014, I published a biography of Ailes, which upset the famously paranoid executive. Several months before it landed in stores, Ailes fired his longtime PR adviser Brian Lewis, accusing him of being a source. During Lewis’s severance negotiations, Lewis hired Judd Burstein, a powerhouse litigator, and claimed he had “bombs” that would destroy Ailes and Fox News. That’s when Trump got involved.

“When Roger was having problems, he didn’t call 97 people, he called me,” Trump said. Burstein, it turned out, had worked for Trump briefly in the ’90s, and Ailes asked Trump to mediate. Trump ran the negotiations out of his office at Trump Tower. “Roger had lawyers, very expensive lawyers, and they couldn’t do anything. I solved the problem.” Fox paid Lewis millions to go away quietly, and Trump, I’m told, learned everything Lewis had planned to leak. If Ailes ever truly went to war against Trump, Trump would have the arsenal to launch a retaliatory strike.

Nest to Shut Down Revolv Home Automation Hubs 

Rob Price, Business Insider:

Just over a month ago, Revolv updated its website to announce that it is closing down completely, pulling the plug on its existing products in May. “We’re pouring all our energy into Works with Nest and are incredibly excited about what we’re making,” wrote Revolv founders Tim Enwall and Mike Soucie. “Unfortunately, that means we can’t allocate resources to Revolv anymore and we have to shut down the service.”

Shutting down Revolv does not mean that Nest is ceasing to support its products, leaving them vulnerable to bugs and other unpatched issues. It means that the $300 devices and accompanying apps will stop working completely.

Seems like a good way to create angry former customers.

Saturday, 2 April 2016

‘Superman’ Director Richard Donner Tells the Inside Story of the 1978 Superhero Movie 

Stephen Galloway interviews Superman director Richard Donner for The Hollywood Reporter:

I called [writer] Tom Mankiewicz, who had been a friend for years. He said, “I don’t want to get involved. I don’t want to do a comic book.” I said, “Tom it’s more than a comic book. Please come over.”

I got a little stoned, smoked some weed, put on the Superman costume. I was in pretty good shape then. It was like elastic. And Tom pulled up, and I ran across the lawn and Tom turned and looked at me and ran back to his car.

Tom says, “You’re crazy. Get the fuck away from me!” I said, “Tom, listen. You’ve got to read this.” I gave him all my feelings about what we should do. I said, “The most important thing when you look at it is this: Make a love story. And prove a man can fly.” So he read it and he called me that night and said, “You know, there’s a lot we can do with this.”

Igloo 

My thanks to Igloo for once again sponsoring the DF RSS feed. Igloo is a modern intranet — one that you’ll actually like. With so many ways for teams to collaborate today — chat apps, shared file servers, email, etc. — it’s easy for things to get fragmented and overwhelming.

That’s why you should try Igloo. It combines department spaces, team calendars, corporate file sharing, internal communications capabilities, social features, and plenty more. It’s easy to get started, easy to customize, and most importantly, easy to use. Try Igloo today — you can get a free trial with no credit card required.

‘I Can See the Wind, Feel the Flowers’ 

Dillan’s Voice — wonderful two-minute film about teenager Dillan Barmache, who is autistic and non-verbal, and who uses his iPad to express himself.

40 Years Later: Apple 3.0 

Nice piece by Jean-Louis Gassée on Apple’s 40th anniversary.

Friday, 1 April 2016

Bloomberg Identifies FBI’s iPhone-Cracking Partner: Cellebrite 

Yaacov Benmeleh, reporting for Bloomberg:

The FBI was already a Cellebrite client before this project, the people said, who asked not to be identified as the matter is private. Cellebrite, founded in 1999, is a unit of Japan’s Sun Corporation. Sun Corp.’s shares are up almost 40 percent since March 21 when U.S. authorities said a third party had demonstrated a way to get into the iPhone.

Interesting that their share price would move so much on this.

Apple Flies Original Mac Team’s Pirate Flag for Company’s 40th Anniversary 

Apple Insider:

The flag resembles a stereotypical pirate flag, with the notable difference of a rainbow Apple “eyepatch”. It was originally hoisted by the Mac team in 1983, sewn together by programmer Steve Capps with an emblem painted by graphic designer Susan Kare.

The gesture was a reference to a quote by Jobs, “It’s better to be a pirate than join the navy,” and also marked the Mac team’s arrival in a new office building.

Update: Andy Hertzfeld on the story behind the flag.

Google Takes Internet Jackass Day to New Low With Gmail ‘Mic Drop’ Button 

You would think that the people who run Gmail understand that you can’t fuck around with people’s email. A terrible idea poorly executed. Exemplifies everything that’s wrong with Google’s company culture — they are institutionally socially inept.

Harry McCracken:

I am NEVER going to get in a Google self-driving car on April Fools’ Day.

Tesla Unveils Model 3 

A few notes and observations:

  • This car looks impressive, and with a starting price of just $35,000, it’s built to sell. As Musk explains on stage, this is the car they’ve been working toward — one for the mass market.
  • Tesla really has a great story.
  • “At Tesla we don’t make slow cars” — great line from Musk, on the quality of the baseline model.
  • At just 22 minutes, the event was wonderfully succinct. If you haven’t watched the whole event, I recommend it.
  • I thought Musk was a little under-rehearsed.
  • The crowd enthusiasm was palpable. Tesla took over 115,000 pre-orders before anyone had even seen the car. That is trust — and rather incredible for a car that they don’t intend to ship until the end of next year.
  • I think the car looks a little weird from the front, because it lacks a grill. But perhaps that’s just skating to where the puck is going to be in the EV world.

Extremely impressive overall. Tesla has a lot to do between now and putting hundreds of thousands of these Model 3s on the road, but it certainly looks like they’re building something amazing.

The iPhone SE

Thursday, 31 March 2016

“Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age.” —Obi-Wan Kenobi

After WWDC last June, I wanted to spend some time testing the iOS 9 betas without installing them on my iPhone 6. I used my year-plus old iPhone 5S instead. I’ve done this in years past, as well, but this time was different. In previous years, this has always been borderline torture. Each new iPhone since the 3G1 has always made the previous year’s model feel slow, and installing a beta version of iOS on the year-old phone has sometimes exacerbated that.

But I had a very different experience going back to my 5S. I liked it. I didn’t stick with it for more than a few weeks, because it was slower, and the camera wasn’t as good, but I sure did like how it felt in my hand.

Apple has called the Watch their “most personal device ever”, but I would argue that the iPhone remains the most personal. For one thing, I doubt there’s anyone who spends more time interacting with their Watch than their iPhone. For another, it’s the device we hold in our hands. The one we touch the most.

Feel matters. And to me, the classic 4-inch display form factor shared by the iPhones 5, 5S, and now SE feels the best in hand. This is obviously highly subjective, but in my mind it’s not even a close call. There are obvious reasons to prefer the larger 4.7- and 5.5-inch models, but how they feel in your hand isn’t one of them.

I prefer the flat sides. (It stands up!) I prefer the small circular volume buttons. I prefer the power button at the top, rather than directly opposite the volume-up button. I absolutely loathe the camera bump on the 6/6S; the lack of said bump on the SE feels downright luxurious in contrast.

There have been six basic iPhone form factors to date. (Seven, if you choose to count the Plus-sized 6 and 6S separately.)

  • The aluminum original iPhone (3.5-inch, non-retina)
  • The plastic iPhone 3G and 3GS (3.5-inch, non-retina)
  • The glass-backed iPhone 4 and 4S (3.5-inch, retina)
  • The aluminum iPhone 5, 5S, and SE (4-inch, retina)
  • The plastic multi-colored 5C (4-inch, retina)
  • The aluminum iPhone 6 and 6S (4.7- and 5.5-inch, retina)

With the introduction of the new iPhone SE, the iPhone 5-style industrial design is the first to be used for three separate product generations. But it’s worth noting that this form factor skipped a generation — there was no 4-inch iPhone with iPhone 6-class internals. It truly says something that an industrial design first introduced in 2012 remains utterly modern and relevant in 2016.

In my real-world use, the iPhone SE is very much exactly what I was hoping it would be: a 4-inch iPhone with iPhone 6S performance and camera quality. There are some differences:

  • The iPhone SE has a slower first-generation Touch ID sensor. I don’t mind this at all in practice, and I actually enjoy being able to use the home button to see the lock screen. (As I noted in my iPhone 6S review, the second-gen Touch ID sensor is so fast that it’s difficult to use to show the lock screen — it unlocks the phone with even the briefest tap. You have to use a fingernail or unregistered finger.)

  • The iPhone SE display remains unchanged from that of the 5S, with a contrast ratio of 800:1. The iPhone 6S has a contrast ratio of 1400:1. Noteworthy, but by no means a deal-breaker.

  • The iPhone SE has a significantly inferior front-facing camera. I almost never use this camera, so again not a deal-breaker.

  • The iPhone SE lacks a barometer, which is used for more accurately measuring the flights of stairs you ascend and descend.

  • No 3D Touch. After almost two weeks of using the SE, I almost forgot to mention this.

  • A detail that does not appear on Apple’s iPhone tech specs comparison page: according to Geekbench, the A9 CPU in the iPhone SE runs at only 1.77 GHz; on the iPhone 6S it runs at 1.85 GHz. I consider that 6.5 percent difference negligible, though.

    Update: Looking at Geekbench’s public results for “iPhone8,4” (the SE’s model number), they’re all running at 1.85 or 1.83 GHz. Not sure why it’s showing 1.77 on mine. Let’s call the difference literally negligible — the SE really seems to be just as fast as the 6S. Update 2: Turns out GeekBench’s clock speed numbers are only estimates. The SE really is just as fast as the 6S.

The technical limitation of the SE that makes the most difference for me, personally, is that its largest storage capacity is only 64 GB, instead of 128. My iPhone 6S is using just under 90 GB of storage. I was able to restore my SE review unit from a backup of my personal 6S, but after it finished downloading and restoring everything, there wasn’t any space left at all. It was easier for me to just wipe the phone and start clean.

Ultimately, the biggest reason to prefer the 6S over the SE is the glaringly obvious one — the larger display, which can either show more content, or (in Zoom mode) show the same content at a larger size.

If your eyesight is strained by the smaller 4-inch screen, that alone might seal the deal. Another advantage to the bigger display: a bigger on-screen keyboard that makes typing faster and less error-prone. I’ve been using the iPhone SE for close to two weeks, and the single most surprising thing to me is how many more errors I make while typing compared to the 6S. For anyone who does a lot of typing on their iPhone, that could be the deciding factor.

Me, though, I typically don’t do a lot of typing on my iPhone. I do a lot of reading, and I tend to flag things to deal with later, when I’m on a Mac. And for that, the smaller 4-inch display is actually better, simply because I can easily reach from corner-to-corner with my thumb while holding the phone in one hand. The iPhone SE is a credible one-handed device. The iPhone 6/6S, not so much. The iPhone 6/6S Plus, not at all.

It’s all about trade-offs, of course. But one-hand-ability is so nice a feature that Apple even dedicated a Jeff Daniels-narrated TV commercial to it when the iPhone 5 shipped. “Pretty sure it’s the common sense thing”, indeed.

I also find the smaller size and flat sides make me feel much more sure-handed when using the iPhone SE camera.

There’s another significant difference between the 6S and SE — price. The 16 and 64 GB versions of the iPhone 6S cost $650 and $750, respectively. The same capacity versions of the SE are only $400 and $500. Those are extraordinary price points for an iPhone with the current top-tier A9 SoC and camera. You save an entire third of the price by choosing a 64 GB iPhone SE over a 64 GB 6S. You save $150 and get far more storage by choosing a 64 GB SE instead of a 16 GB 6S.

Yes, it has a smaller display with fewer pixels (and, as noted above, a lower contrast ratio). Yes (again, as noted above), there are a few other technical aspects that are inferior to the 6S. But these are noteworthy, groundbreaking price points for the iPhone.

The iPhone 6S and iPhone SE are both great products, and both have great sizes — but for entirely different reasons. The SE is easier to pocket, easier to hold, and easier to use one-handed. The 6S displays more content, and is better for two-handed use — particularly when it comes to thumb-typing. Judging between these two devices, with no consideration for future devices, I personally am completely torn. But I lean toward the SE.

But therein lies the rub: there are future iPhones coming, and my guess is that the 4-inch size will soon again be relegated to the second-tier, spec-wise, in the product lineup. When Apple introduces new iPhones in September — presumably the “7” and “7 Plus”, but you never know when Apple will change its naming scheme — I expect only 4.7- and 5.5-inch models. Nor do I expect an updated 4-inch model with 7-class specs in March next year.

For anyone with an iPhone 5S (or older) who has been holding out on an upgrade in the hopes of a new top-tier “small” iPhone, the iPhone SE is cause for celebration. If you are such a person, run, don’t walk, to buy one. You will be delighted.

If you’ve already upgraded to an iPhone 6 or 6S and have made peace with the trade-offs of a larger, heavier, less-grippy-because-of-the-round-edges form factor, the appeal is less clear. Me, I talk the talk about preferring the smaller form factor, but ultimately I’m a sucker for top-of-the-line CPU/GPU performance and camera quality. For the next six months or so, the iPhone SE stands on the top tier. After that, it won’t — I think — and it’ll be back to the 4.7-inch display form factor for me. So why bother switching back for just a few months? I keep asking myself.

And then I pick up the iPhone SE, and hold it in my hand. 

  1. The iPhone 3G had the same CPU as the original iPhone. Kind of a weird fact, in hindsight. ↩︎

Thursday, 31 March 2016

Reddit’s Warrant Canary Just Died 

Cory Doctorow, writing at BoingBoing:

In early 2015, Reddit published a transparency report that contained heading for National Security Requests, noting, “As of January 29, 2015, reddit has never received a National Security Letter, an order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or any other classified request for user information.”

Five hours ago, Reddit published its 2015 edition, which contains no mention of classified requests for user information.

“Warrant canaries” are a response to the practice by governments of serving warrants on service providers that include gag orders forbidding the service from disclosing the warrant’s existence.

The idea of warrant canaries is ingenious — but when one works, it’s both terrifying and sad.

Joanna Stern on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro Smart Keyboard 

From Joanna Stern’s review of the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro and its related accessories:

Typing on the claustrophobic Smart Keyboard tailored to fit the 9.7-inch screen is like sitting in the middle airplane seat, elbows pulled together. (The 12.9-inch iPad Pro’s spaciousness allows for a much more comfortable keyboard.) Not only are the keys cramped, they aren’t backlit — a trait that’s more necessity than luxury if you have to work in dim locations. The screen only adjusts to a single angle, and good luck using it on your lap without it toppling over.

Jason Snell Reviews the Smart Keyboard for 9.7-Inch iPad Pro 

Jason Snell:

So what can I say? I really like the new, smaller Smart Keyboard for the new, smaller iPad Pro. It’s surprisingly easy to type on, even for someone who usually freaks out when presented with a keyboard that’s not a standard size. And it’s light enough to be your iPad’s everyday screen cover when you’re out and about.

Same for me. I type much better on it than I expected to.

Recode: Budget Trouble Ahead for Nest 

Mark Bergen, writing for Recode:

That budget was set for three years, according to multiple sources familiar with the deal. Unless Alphabet agrees to continue funding Nest, that budget runs out at the end of this year. Several sources said that initial budget was around $500 million annually.

To keep employees from leaving after the acquisition, Google created a vesting schedule that prevents Nest’s executives from cashing out their shares before a certain date — that date could come as soon as this year. In addition, according to sources, as part of the acquisition, Nest and Google agreed on a sales target for the company: $300 million annually.

Two years later, Nest still could not hit that target alone — it did it only after adding sales from Dropcam, which Nest acquired for $555 million six months after joining Google.

Keep in mind that Dropcam founder Greg Duffy wrote:

I can’t publish Dropcam’s revenue, but if you knew what percentage of all of Alphabet’s “other bets” revenue was brought in by the relatively tiny 100-person Dropcam team that Fadell derides, Nest itself would not look good in comparison.

The knives are coming out for Fadell. I’m curious if Fadell is using Alphabet’s PR team to help him manage this, or if he has his own PR team within Nest. Whoever it is, they’re not serving him well.

Wednesday, 30 March 2016

OS X to Be Rebranded ‘macOS’ at WWDC? 

Apple Insider:

Following the naming conventions of iOS, watchOS and tvOS, Apple’s Mac operating system could soon return to the name “macOS,” if code spotted in the latest release of El Capitan is to be believed.

I thought Phil Schiller sort of hinted at this last year when he was on my WWDC podcast. From iMore’s excellent transcript:

Gruber: watchOS, with a lower-case “w”. Are you trying to kill me?

Laughs.

Schiller: [laughs] It’s, um… I think it works really well. I think it’s nice, it’s ownable, it’s special…

I think, you’ll see. Give us time, we’ve been through many fun naming things. This is an easy one. There have been many fun naming things through the years — some very emotional, some very easy — and most of the time, when all’s said and done, you look back years later, people say “Yeah, you guys were right, it all made sense together.”

So I think we’re doing the right thing.

David Sparks on What’s New in Fantastical 2.2 

Great video documenting what’s new in one of my very favorite apps.

ACLU Map Documents the 63 Known Cases in Which Government Has Tried to Use All Writs Act to Overcome Encryption: 

Eliza Sweren-Becker, writing for the ACLU:

The FBI wants you to think that it will use the All Writs Act only in extraordinary cases to force tech companies to assist in the unlocking of phones. Turns out, these kinds of orders have actually become quite ordinary.

The Colbert Emoji 

Kinda weird to see the deliberations of the Unicode Consortium discussed on a late night talk show. Fun, though.

Introducing Safari Technology Preview 

Ricky Mondello, from Apple’s Safari team:

Starting today, there’s a new, convenient way to see what features and improvements are coming to Safari and other applications that use WebKit. Safari Technology Preview is a version of Safari for OS X, distributed by Apple, that includes a cutting-edge, in-development version of the WebKit browser engine. It’s a great way to test upcoming WebKit features and give feedback to the people building them when it’s most useful — early in development.

Safari Technology Preview is a standalone application that can be used side-by-side with Safari or other web browsers, making it easy to compare behaviors between them. Besides having the latest web features and bug fixes from WebKit, Safari Technology Preview includes the latest improvements to Web Inspector, which you can use to develop and debug your websites. Updates for Safari Technology Preview will be available every two weeks through the Updates pane of the Mac App Store.

Very cool. Once installed, updates will come every two weeks through the Mac App Store — but you have to initially install from the website download. And unlike Webkit nightly builds, Safari Technology Preview is signed by Apple, which allows it to work with iCloud features (bookmark and tab syncing, etc.).

SoundCloud Go and Artist Payments 

Dave Wiskus, on the fact that SoundCloud’s new $10/month streaming music service only pays artists who are in their invitation-only “Premier Partners” program:

You can slice it, package it, or spin it however you like, but the bare fact is that you’re making money off of songs you aren’t paying for. Worse, you’re doing it while perpetuating an air of exclusivity around the concept of making money. All while you’re pretending to be a friend to the little guy. There’s nothing artist-friendly about this approach.

But wait! There’s more!

Airplane Mode has a SoundCloud Pro account to get access to unlimited uploads and a few other features that make the service useful. This account costs us $15 per month. So not only are you getting our music for free and paying us nothing, we’re actually paying you to take it. What an excellent deal. For you.

MLB and Apple Announce Deal to Put iPads in the Dugout 

MLB:

Major League Baseball (MLB) today announced its latest technology collaboration with Apple to integrate powerful new on-field capabilities through the approved use of iPad Pro and a newly developed advance scouting, analytics and video app - MLB Dugout - during MLB games. The announcement, made by Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr., brings iPad Pro into all 30 Major League dugouts and bullpens and marks the first-ever on-field integration of next generation technology, putting advance scouting video and customizable reports at the fingertips of all managers, coaches and players.

Entering the 2016 MLB season, each iPad Pro has been customized for each Club and loaded with the MLB Dugout app, allowing every team’s manager, coaches and players to utilize their own proprietary and strategic statistical reports, data visualizations and advance scouting videos during every MLB game from dugouts and bullpens giving them easy access to valuable, actionable baseball insights. Clubs also will have the ability to include any of their own reports with data generated from last year’s first full season of Statcast tracking technology, bringing new stats for pitch tracking, hitting, baserunning and fielding, right on iPad Pro.

So the NFL has Surface, MLB has iPad.

Tuesday, 29 March 2016

Apple Acknowledges iOS 9 Crashing Bugs When Tapping Links, Fix Coming ‘Soon’ 

Benjamin Mayo, writing for 9to5Mac:

Since posting our original story, we have heard from a lot of readers that are affected by iOS 9 crashes or app hangs when tapping links, spanning multiple iOS versions (not just 9.3) and devices. In a statement, Apple has now confirmed that they are working on a fix for the problem, coming in a software update (presumably iOS 9.3.1).

The bug was triggered by third-party apps misusing the Universal Links feature in iOS 9 — it’s a coincidence that it seemingly affected many people only after they updated to iOS 9.3.

In the meantime, if you’ve been hit by this bug, Ben Collier has a step-by-step workaround guide. (It’s not simple.)

Dropcam Founder Greg Duffy Digs in Against Tony Fadell 

Greg Duffy, responding to Tony Fadell’s claim that “a lot of the [Dropcam] employees were not as good as we hoped”:

I can’t publish Dropcam’s revenue, but if you knew what percentage of all of Alphabet’s “other bets” revenue was brought in by the relatively tiny 100-person Dropcam team that Fadell derides, Nest itself would not look good in comparison. So, if Fadell wants to stick by his statement, I challenge him to release full financials (easy prediction: he won’t).

The ~50 Dropcam employees who resigned did so because they felt their ability to build great products being totally crushed. All of us have worked at big companies before, where it is harder to move fast. But this is something different, as evidenced by the continued lack of output from the currently 1200-person team and its virtually unlimited budget. According to LinkedIn, total attrition to date at Nest amounts to nearly 500 people, which suggests that we were not alone in our frustrations.

Brutal.

Monday, 28 March 2016

Apple Statement: ‘This Case Should Never Have Been Brought’ 

Finally, Apple and the FBI agree about something.

A Photo That Closes the Book on a Late Night Era 

Ian Crouch, writing for The New Yorker:

Of all the images and videos that have resurfaced in the days of mourning following the death of Garry Shandling, one particular photograph stands out for me. It was taken in 1988, on the set of the “Tonight Show,” during an episode marking the twenty-sixth anniversary of Johnny Carson’s run as host. It shows Carson during a bit with three of the recurring guest hosts on the show — Shandling, David Letterman, and Jay Leno — each of whom, by that point, had some designs on taking over for Carson when he finally came around on the idea of calling it quits. There is a lot of comedy firepower in that photo, and a lot of ego. Four famous white men onstage in tuxedos: it’s like a Hollywood version of one of those photographs from the early Soviet era that show political leaders in an uneasy alliance, before all the backstabbing, purges, and power grabs.

But what’s most striking about the image is how it captures, in the faces and manner of the four men, the precise nature of their comedic appeal.

It really is a remarkable photo. I changed my Twitter profile banner to this picture a few days ago.

Maciej Ceglowski’s Heroic and Lazy Stand Against IFTTT 

Pinboard creator Maciej Ceglowski:

Because many of you rely on IFTTT, and because this email makes it sound like I’m the asshole, I feel I should explain myself.

In a nutshell:

  1. IFTTT wants me to do their job for them for free

  2. They have really squirrely terms of service

Bending the Universe 

Marcin Wichary on the joy of writing a software hack as a teen:

There’s more to life than hacks, of course. Hacks are seductive, but they need to be exceptions, rather than norm. Many better engineers I’ve worked with taught me the value of hard, methodical work; writing code that’s simple to understand and easy to maintain, be it days or decades later.

But that first little assembly program put in my mind a very powerful notion: that there’s always a way out. Always a solution. That if you care enough, put in enough time, and take ownership of the messy consequences, you can sometimes bend — or, in my case un-bend — the rules of the universe.

Charlie Stross on Apple vs. the FBI 

Charlie Stross:

The FBI thought they were asking for a way to unlock a mobile phone, because the FBI is myopically focussed on past criminal investigations, not the future of the technology industry, and the FBI did not understand that they were actually asking for a way to tracelessly unlock and mess with every ATM and credit card on the planet circa 2030 (if not via Apple, then via the other phone OSs, once the festering security fleapit that is Android wakes up and smells the money).

If the FBI get what they want, then the back door will be installed and the next-generation payments infrastructure will be just as prone to fraud as the last-generation card infrastructure, with its card skimmers and identity theft.

And this is why Tim Cook is willing to go to the mattresses with the US department of justice over iOS security: if nobody trusts their iPhone, nobody will be willing to trust the next-generation Apple Bank, and Apple is going to lose their best option for securing their cash pile as it climbs towards the stratosphere.

The most interesting part of Stross’s piece is his argument that Apple needs to become a bank just to manage its massive, ever-growing reserve of cash. I think he’s too cynical in arguing that Apple Pay is Apple’s primary motivation behind its stance on encryption and privacy, though. It’s without question part of it, but I think Apple would have the same stance today even if Apple Pay didn’t exist. iMessage is designed around end-to-end encryption, for example, and it has nothing to do with Apple Pay.

Update: A few readers have pointed out that iMessage doesn’t have anything to do with Apple Pay yet, but could soon. Turning iMessage into a user-to-user payment system would be very cool, indeed. Another example: Apple is widely believed to be working on encrypted iCloud backups. I don’t think there’s any Apple Pay tie-in there. My point is that I think both of the following statements are true: Apple believes in strong encryption as a matter of principle; strong encryption is fundamental to Apple Pay’s success.

Brief Thoughts and Observations Regarding Today’s ‘Loop You In’ Apple Event

Monday, 21 March 2016

  • I detect an undercurrent of “That’s it?” in the collective response to today’s event, but I’m not sure what Apple could have done differently. A new iPhone and a new iPad demand a proper on-stage unveiling. That the event was held in Town Hall and not a larger venue was a signal that Apple wasn’t going to unveil anything spectacular. It’s not reasonable to expect the spectacular from every single event.

  • Speaking of the venue, Tim Cook even addressed what I’ve been wondering for a while: today’s event was likely the last Apple will hold in Town Hall. I’m all for nostalgia, but I for one will not miss Town Hall. The seats are incredibly cramped, and the seat backs are hard. Half of the chit-chat before the event starts is about how uncomfortable everyone finds the seats. And don’t get me started about the insanely crowded hands-on area.

  • iPhone SE: If you listen to my podcast, you know how ambivalent I remain about the physical size of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 6S. I was really hoping that the iPhone SE would effectively have iPhone 6S specs — CPU and GPU performance, and similar camera quality. That seems to be exactly what Apple delivered. I honestly think this is the phone I’m going to use for the next six months.

    In hand, the iPhone SE is nearly indistinguishable from an iPhone 5S. Other than the matte finish on the chamfered edges, the only difference I could spot is the “SE” on the back of the phone. No curved sides, no curved glass.

    The list of tradeoffs compared to an iPhone 6S is short. The SE doesn’t support 3D Touch, has the slower first-generation Touch ID sensor, and the front-facing camera remains 5S-class. I can live with all those trade-offs. Oh, and its largest storage capacity is 64 GB, not 128.

  • 9.7-inch iPad Pro: This new iPad Pro is a bit more than just a smaller version of the 12.9-inch model. The display technology on the new one is a step ahead of its bigger sibling, and the new color temperature-shifting “True Tone” feature seems amazing. I really hope they can bring this feature to future iPhones.

    Apple really pounded on the angle that an iPad Pro is a credible replacement for a PC for many people. I was hoping to see updated MacBooks today, but as soon as Phil Schiller started in on his “replacement for a PC” angle and reiterated that the iPad Pro is Apple’s vision of the future of personal computing, I knew new Macs weren’t coming today. When Apple says “PC” they mean “Windows PC”, but the argument applies just as much to the Mac.

    In addition to its superior display, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro also has a superior camera: 12 megapixels instead of 8, f/2.2 aperture instead of f/2.4. It comes with a notable aesthetic price, however: an iPhone 6-style camera bump. Gross.

    The new Smart Keyboard is exactly what you think: cramped but serviceable. Could be great for someone with small hands.

  • New Apple Watch Bands: It seems clear that Apple is going to change the band lineup every six months. If you see one you like, you’d better buy it, because it might be gone in six months. I like the new nylon bands quite a bit.

  • Renewable Energy: It was nice to see Lisa Jackson on stage. It strikes me as a little absurd though for Apple to describe their use of renewable energy as addressing climate change. Apple is a very big company, but surely their actions alone aren’t making a measurable difference in the climate. It’d be better if they simply held up their use of renewable energy as proof that it can be done, and as a challenge to other Fortune 500 companies to follow. They’re setting a great example, but they need other companies to do the same thing.

  • Where’s Jony: As far as I could see, Jony Ive did not attend today’s event. He never appears on stage, but I’ve always seen him in the audience, usually seated next to Laurene Powell Jobs.

  • Apple Turns 40: The “40 years in 40 seconds” opening video was fun. I loved the gag where they showed “Newton” and then scribbled it out. 

On the San Bernardino Suspect’s Apple ID Password Reset

Sunday, 21 February 2016

The latest news in the Apple-FBI legal fight has resulted in much confusion. John Paczkowski, reporting for BuzzFeed:

The FBI has claimed that the password was changed by someone at the San Bernardino Health Department. Friday night, however, things took a further turn when the San Bernardino County’s official Twitter account stated, “The County was working cooperatively with the FBI when it reset the iCloud password at the FBI’s request.”

County spokesman David Wert told BuzzFeed News on Saturday afternoon the tweet was an authentic statement, but he had nothing further to add.

The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday; an Apple spokesperson said the company had no additional comment beyond prior statements.

Here is what the FBI wrote in its legal motion, in a footnote on the four ways Apple suggested they obtain the data they seek:

(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);

To unpack this, the “owner” is not Syed Farook, the shooter. The iPhone at the center of this was supplied by Farook’s employer, the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. They are the “owner”. The “government” is the federal government: the FBI and the Department of Justice.

The iPhone had been configured to back up to iCloud. However, at the time of the attack, it had not been backed up to iCloud for six weeks. Under warrant, Apple supplied the FBI with the data from that six-week-old backup. The FBI (for obvious reasons) would like the most recent six weeks of data from the phone, too.1

iCloud backups are triggered automatically when the phone is (a) on a known Wi-Fi network, and (b) plugged-in to power. Apple’s suggestion to the FBI was that if they took the iPhone to Farook’s office and plugged it in, it might trigger a backup. If that had worked, Apple could supply the FBI with the contents of that new backup, including the most recent six weeks of data.

It is not clear to me from any of the reports I have read why the iPhone had not been backed up in six weeks. It’s possible that Farook had disabled iCloud backups, in which case this whole thing is moot.2 But it’s also possible the only reason the phone hadn’t been backed up in six weeks is that it had not been plugged-in while on a known Wi-Fi network in six weeks. The phone would have to be unlocked to determine this, and the whole point of this fight is that the phone can’t be unlocked.

The FBI screwed this up by directing the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health to reset Farook’s Apple ID password. They did not, and apparently could not, change anything on the phone itself. But once they reset the Apple ID password, the phone could not back up to iCloud, because the phone needed to be updated with the newly-reset Apple ID password — and they could not do that because they can’t unlock the phone.

The key point is that you do not have to unlock an iPhone to have it back up to iCloud. But a locked iPhone can’t back up to iCloud if the associated Apple ID password has been changed.

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.

How did the county reset Farook’s Apple ID password? We don’t know for sure, but the most likely answer is that if his Apple ID was his work-issued email account, then the IT department at the county could go to iforgot.apple.com, enter Farook’s work email address, and then access his email account to click the confirmation URL to reset the password.

In short:

  • The data the FBI claims to want is on Farook’s iPhone.
  • They already have access to his iCloud account.
  • They might have been able to transfer the data on his iPhone to his iCloud account via an automated backup, but they can’t because they reset his Apple ID (iCloud) password.

The only possible explanations for this are incompetence or dishonesty on the part of the FBI. Incompetence, if they didn’t realize that resetting the Apple ID password could prevent the iPhone from backing up to iCloud. Dishonesty, if they directed the county to do this knowing the repercussions, with the goal of setting up this fight to force Apple to create a back door for them in iOS. I’m not sure which to believe at this point. I’d like to know exactly when this directive to reset the Apple ID password was given — ” in the hours after the attack” leaves a lot of wiggle room. 

  1. Much (or all?) of the data stored on Apple’s iCloud backup servers is not encrypted. Or, if it is encrypted, it is encrypted in a way that Apple can decrypt. Apple has a PDF that describes the information available to U.S. law enforcement from iCloud, but to me it’s not clear exactly what is available under warrant. I would bet a large sum of money that Apple is hard at work on an iCloud backup system that does store data encrypted in a way that Apple cannot read it without the user’s Apple ID password. ↩︎

  2. Another possibility: Farook’s iCloud storage was full. If this were the case, presumably Apple could have granted his account additional storage to allow a fresh backup to occur. But again, this became moot as soon as the county reset the Apple ID password at the behest of the FBI. ↩︎︎

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