Linked List: September 12, 2017

Tuesday, 12 September 2017

New Apple Developer Video: Designing for iPhone X ★

Long story short: embrace the notch.

Update: To be clear, I’m just summarizing Apple’s advice here. I’m not saying I think this is good. In landscape in particular, the notch looks downright goofy.

Disney Is the Lone Holdout From Apple’s Plan to Sell 4K Movies for $20 ★

Ben Fritz, reporting for Morningstar:

Apple Inc. has signed new deals to sell movies in ultra high-definition with every major Hollywood studio except the one with which it has long been closest: Walt Disney Co.

As someone with a significant collection of already-purchased movies from iTunes, I love that Apple arranged to get them “upgraded”. I don’t know what Disney’s problem is, though, but I hope they get on board.

So many people refuse to pay for movies. I’m not even talking about piracy here, but people who simply only watch what they can stream for “free” from Netflix or other streaming services. Why not reward the people who have paid for your movies? Re-buying previously purchased movies just because you’ve gotten a better TV makes you feel like a schmuck.

Verizon and AT&T Announce Cellular Apple Watch Pricing ★

$10 a month, and Verizon is giving away the first three months free.

Claim Chowder: X Man ★

Well, you can’t win them all.

Locking It All Down ★

Rene Ritchie:

As hard as it is to believe someone inside Apple would leak the firmware, it just as hard to believe such a leak was possible. The firmware was live on the internet, protected only through obscured URL. That means, when the URLs were leaked, anyone could access the firmware. No VPN, login credentials, or other security checks required.

It’s absolutely the fault of the leaker but my guess is that the days of security through obscurity are done and Apple locks down the firmware delivery process ASAP.

I don’t want to get into a “blame the victim” scenario, but Ritchie makes a good point here. The wrongdoer is the person who leaked the URLs. But given how sensitive these GM builds of iOS 11 were, there’s no way they should have been publicly accessible. The richest company in the world — and a computer company at that — must do better than security by obscurity.