Linked List: June 1, 2021

Tuesday, 1 June 2021

The 2021 Apple Design Award Finalists ★

Nice selection of apps and games from Apple. Some of the apps on the list that I’m familiar with: 1Password, Carrot Weather, Craft, Nova, Brief, (Not Boring) Weather, and Universe. Not one but two clever weather apps. Nova is the only app on the list that isn’t in the App Store.

My favorite inclusion, though, is Poolside FM, under the category “Delight and Fun”. There’s a lot of “delight and fun” on this list of finalists — again, Carrot Weather and (Not Boring) Weather — but Poolside FM’s entire point is delight and fun. As I wrote back in September, “To team Poolside: 🍸.”

Update 10 June: The winners.

Amazon Devices Will Soon Default to Sharing Your Wi-Fi With Other Nearby Amazon Devices ★

Dan Goodin, reporting for Ars Technica:

On June 8, the merchant, Web host, and entertainment behemoth will automatically enroll the devices in Amazon Sidewalk. The new wireless mesh service will share a small slice of your Internet bandwidth with nearby neighbors who don’t have connectivity and help you to their bandwidth when you don’t have a connection.

By default, Amazon devices including Alexa, Echo, Ring, security cams, outdoor lights, motion sensors, and Tile trackers will enroll in the system. And since only a tiny fraction of people take the time to change default settings, that means millions of people will be co-opted into the program whether they know anything about it or not. The Amazon webpage linked above says Sidewalk “is currently only available in the US.” […]

Amazon has published a white paper detailing the technical underpinnings and service terms that it says will protect the privacy and security of this bold undertaking. To be fair, the paper is fairly comprehensive, and so far no one has pointed out specific flaws that undermine the encryption or other safeguards being put in place. But there are enough theoretical risks to give users pause.

The instructions for opting out are easy, but this seems like something that ought to be opt-in, not opt-out. (My only Amazon device that’s plugged in is a first-generation Echo, which is too old for Sidewalk, so I don’t even see the preference setting in the Alexa app. Apparently the setting only appears if you have at least one eligible device — you can’t opt-out in advance.)

Canada Has Covidiots, Too ★

Bryce Hoye, reporting for CBC News:

Staff at Boundary Trails Health Centre are routinely hearing from sick and unvaccinated patients who believe the pandemic is a hoax — some remaining defiant even on the brink of death.

“We hear this almost every day, and I know that’s startling,” said Dr. Ganesan Abbu. “It’s difficult … to know that almost 100 per cent of our admissions have not been vaccinated.” […]

“I’ve had two patients who have died and even right until the time that they died, they didn’t believe that they had it,” Abbu said. “It’s not as though we are trying to get the patient to acknowledge that they have COVID before they die. These patients are so much in denial, they are volunteering this information.”

A lot of these folks probably don’t believe in Darwinism, either, which I suppose is ironic.

Thomas Brewster, writing for Forbes:

But the privacy pledges made by UCWeb are misleading, according to security researcher Gabi Cirlig. His findings, verified for Forbes by two other independent researchers, reveal that on both Android and iOS versions of UC Browser, every website a user visits, regardless of whether they’re in incognito mode or not, is sent to servers owned by UCWeb. Cirlig said IP addresses - which could be used to get a user’s rough location down to the town or neighborhood of the user - were also being sent to Alibaba-controlled servers. Those servers were registered in China and carried the .cn Chinese domain name extension, but were hosted in the U.S. An ID number is also assigned to each user, meaning their activity across different websites could effectively be monitored by the Chinese company, though it’s not currently clear just what Alibaba and its subsidiary are doing with the data. “This could easily fingerprint users and tie them back to their real personas,” Cirlig wrote in a blog post handed to Forbes ahead of publication on Tuesday.

Not what you want.

WWDC Highlights Through the Decades ★

Parker Ortolani, writing for 9to5Mac:

Every WWDC has its moments, but there are some moments in particular that are impossible to forget. From earthshaking announcements to retrospectively goofy quotes, there are so many memories that bring a smile to our faces. As we approach WWDC 2021, let’s take a look back at some of those moments.

Even though WWDC technically started in 1990, let’s start where things got interesting, which is in 1997. Apple was on the brink and Steve Jobs had just returned to the company following the NeXT acquisition.

Another reason to start in 1997: there’s not much video surviving from earlier WWDCs. What a remarkable compilation Ortolani has put together here.

Claim Chowder: Google Duplex ★

Three years ago Google announced a service called Duplex at their I/O conference. They also played purported demos of Duplex in action. I was highly skeptical, and cast doubt that the demos Google offered were legitimate. A lot of people gave me a lot of shit about my skepticism.

In a follow-up post, after Google provided a handful of journalists with a very limited hands-on demo, I wrote:

Right now it feels like a feature in search of a product, but they pitched it as an imminent product at I/O because it made for a stunning demo. (It remains the only thing announced at I/O that anyone is talking about.) If what Google really wanted was just for Google Assistant to be able to make restaurant reservations, they’d be better off building an OpenTable competitor and giving it away to all these small businesses that don’t yet offer online reservations. I’m not holding my breath for Duplex ever to allow anyone to make a reservation at any establishment.

Three years later and I’m still not holding my breath.

Update: Apparently Duplex has launched, but it’s unclear how often the AI system — not human operators — make the phone calls. Would love to hear some recordings of this in action.

Apple in the Enterprise: A 2021 Report Card ★

Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors:

This year, we’re trying something new. Device-management startup Kandji approached Six Colors to commission a new Report Card, but with a focus on how Apple’s doing in large organizations, including businesses, education, and government. We worked with Kandji and the hosts of the Mac Admins Podcast, Tom Bridge and Charles Edge, to formulate a set of survey questions that would address the big-picture issues regarding Apple in the enterprise. Then we approached people we knew in the community of Apple-device administrators and asked them to participate in the survey.

High marks for hardware quality and security/privacy, low marks for software reliability and deployment.

**See also: Snell is the guest on this week’s episode of the Mac Admins Podcast.