Linked List: June 10, 2016

Friday, 10 June 2016

How Activist DeRay Mckesson’s Twitter Account Was Hacked ★

Kate Conger, writing for TechCrunch:

After regaining control of his Twitter account, Mckesson explained that the hacker or hackers were able to take over by convincing Verizon to reset his SIM. With the SIM reset, the person responsible was able to receive text messages intended for Mckesson and therefore bypass the two-factor authentication the activist used to keep his account secure.

“Verizon takes the security and privacy of our customers very seriously. We are aware of Mr. Mckesson’s claims and Verizon security teams are investigating,” Verizon told TechCrunch.

Goes to show that two-factor authentication is only as strong as the second factor — and with Verizon it would appear your phone is not a strong factor. Scary.

Update: All the attacker needed were the last four digits of Mckesson’s SSN.

‘Bluetooth 5’ to Be Announced Next Week ★

Tim Hardwick, writing for MacRumors:

Bluetooth 5, the next generation of Bluetooth standard, will be formally announced next week, offering quadruple the range and double the speed of the current low-energy wireless protocol.

Executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Mark Powell, revealed the news in a published email sent to UK health and monitoring company Blue Maestro. The Bluetooth SIG, which is backed by Apple, Intel, and other major technology companies, will officially make the announcement on June 16 in London.

I repeat: “Next year it will work great” should be Bluetooth’s slogan.

NYT: ‘Gawker, Filing for Bankruptcy After Hulk Hogan Suit, Is Said to Be for Sale’ ★

Sydney Ember, reporting for the NYT:

Gawker Media, under pressure from a $140 million legal judgment and facing a determined foe in the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is putting itself up for sale..

The company is beginning an auction process and Ziff Davis, a digital media company, has submitted an opening bid of $90 million to $100 million, according to a person briefed on Gawker’s plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the auction..

Such an offer is known as a stalking-horse bid, meant to set a floor in a court-supervised auction.

Tom Brokaw Interviews David Letterman ★

These two always had a great rapport.

(Thanks to my mom for the link.)

Apple Energy ★

Seth Weintraub, 9to5Mac:

Apple has quietly created an energy subsidiary, “Apple Energy” LLC, registered in Delaware but run from its Cupertino headquarters. The company was seemingly formed to allow it to sell excess electricity generated by its solar farms in Cupertino and Nevada, with plans to sell electricity across the whole of the US.

Interesting. (And who says 9to5Mac can’t get scoops post-Gurman?)

BitCam ★

Gorgeous, unbelievably faithful one-bit camera app for iPhone done in the style of the original Mac. A lovely tribute to Bill Atkinson’s remarkable dithering algorithm. “Catnip for old-school Mac users,” says John Siracusa. Check out the fun recent-hire-at-Apple Chris Espinosa is having with it.

Also, try it with a Bluetooth keyboard connected.

Jason Snell on App Store Subscriptions ★

Jason Snell:

But does Apple really want to take the position that ongoing maintenance of a web service has value, but ongoing maintenance and development of an app does not? I don’t think it does.

Bingo.

Glenn Fleishman: ‘App Store Subscriptions Don’t Solve Problems for Most Developers’ ★

Glenn Fleishman, again at Macworld:

We’ve confirmed with Apple that Schiller’s expansive vision is an accurate one: any developer can submit an app that relies entirely on a subscription to perform a task. It can be effectively a login screen, like with Netflix and Hulu, rather than conform to the broader policy Apple has enforced on most apps that weren’t periodicals and streaming media libraries to date. Schiller’s examples included enterprise apps, which are effectively in continuous development. In fact, many enterprise apps are already sold on a subscription basis, but typically couldn’t charge a subscription fee directly within iOS.

But Apple also stressed that not just every business model will pass its muster. Unlike with periodicals and streaming media apps, which are allowed to have no content or use without a subscription, apps in other categories will need to “make sense.” As Apple notes on the What’s New page, “the experience must provide ongoing value worth the recurring payment for an auto-renewable subscription to make sense.”

We don’t yet know precisely how Apple will evaluate that, and uncertainty is bad for developers. Schiller also promised much faster app review turnaround for developers, but speed doesn’t matter if an app doesn’t meet Apple’s test, and Apple doesn’t yet offer formal advance review of app features or business model. (We have heard of developers discussing features more broadly, but informally, with developer relations staff.)

What I was told from people at Apple today is that “Content” and “Service” are merely examples of the type of apps that qualify for subscription pricing, and they are willing to accept “all categories and apps that make sense as subscriptions”. They are very much open to feedback from developers on this; will be listening to developers on this next week at WWDC; will have more information about this during WWDC sessions on the new subscription features; and, most importantly, Apple will be providing more details on subscriptions, including a detailed FAQ and updated guidelines, after WWDC.

In short, we don’t have all the answers we need yet. But Apple is aware of the questions.

Macworld FAQ on Apple’s New App Store Subscriptions ★

Glenn Fleishman, writing for Macworld:

Does this change allow apps to offer a free trial?

Sort of. Apple lets developers optionally offer a free trial for in-app purchase subscriptions, which range from 7 days for a one-month recurring subscription to one month for a one-year term. If an app requires a subscription to use at all, then a free trial of the subscription effectively translates to a free trial of the app. An app that has some features and sells the rest with subscription can also offer a free trial just of those added options.

I confirmed with Apple today that free trials are definitely an option for any app that is approved for subscription pricing.