iOS 14: How to use the smaller compact Siri

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Nice explainer from iDownloadBlog on using the iOS 14 compact Siri. I love this change to the Siri interface.

If nothing else, it lets me maintain whatever context I was in when I brought Siri to bear, lets me keep my train of thought.

How to revive Apple’s T2 Security Chip

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This particular rabbit hole dive started with this Reddit post:

I have owned macs for around 15 years and I have never had an issue more than this machine. Last night I finally got time to look into why my machine would not update to 10.15.6.

I tried everything: combo installer, safe mode, external USB, clean install. All failed, even the clean install, and I was only able to get back in because I had a time machine back up.

Called Apple this morning and they looked at my logs and said it was the T2 security ship (I hate this thing).

In a nutshell, the Reddit poster was instructed to bring their Mac in to the Apple Store to have the T2 chip re-flashed. Rather than do that, they turned to Google, found this Apple support article, which allowed them to reset the T2 chip.

Opinion: WeChat threat is Cook’s greatest Trump challenge yet

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Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:

A report earlier today cited a potentially huge WeChat threat to the future of the iPhone in China. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is concerned that the Trump administration could force Apple to remove the WeChat app not just from the US App Store, but globally.

Kuo warned that this could see a massive 30% reduction in global iPhone sales, and if that sounds hyperbolic, it’s likely not.

The linked post is worth reading both because of Ben’s op-ed take, but also because of all the background on WeChat. Very informative.

Apple legal vs the pear logo

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Prepear:

Recently @apple yes, The trillion dollar Apple, has decided to oppose and go after our small business’ trademark saying our pear logo is too close to their apple logo and supposedly hurts their brand?

This is a big blow to us at Prepear. To fight this it will cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Follow the headline link for a side-by-side of the Prepear logo next to Apple’s. Also, check out this comparison posted by John Gruber.

The core of this issue is the cost to a mom and pop to defend their logo. It’s just not a winnable battle, given the almost infinite size of Apple’s pocketbook.

That said, I wonder if Apple’s legal team ever talks with the Apple brand marketing team. I can’t help but think this situation will bruise Apple’s brand, even if the legal team is absolutely correct in their analysis, seeing the potential harm in allowing a trademark that structurally follows the form of the Apple logo.

Why not avoid all this and offer a licensing deal to the Prepear folks, one that protects the Apple logo and still lets Prepear have their preferred logo? It’d be a better look for the Apple brand.

iOS 14’s best privacy feature? Catching data-grabbing apps

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Alex Lee, Wired:

Last week, Instagram became the latest app to be called out by iOS 14’s privacy notifications feature after users began noticing that the green light indicator—which alerts users that the camera has been activated—kept turning on—even when the camera was not in use. Addressing the behavior, Instagram said that the activation of the camera was just a bug and that it was being triggered by a user swiping into the camera from the Instagram feed.

You’ve no doubt seen a steady stream of privacy-related “outings” as apps are called out for their inappropriate snooping, all revealed by iOS 14.

But this was an interesting perspective:

It’s wise to remember that most permissions abuse happens on Google’s Android operating system. Last year, researchers from the International Computer Science Institute found that up to 1,325 Android apps were gathering data, despite the researchers’ apps denying them permission to access that data. But whether Google decides to implement privacy notifications, however, is a different story.

And:

Maximilian Golla, a security researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy says that the business model on Android is different from iOS. “I wonder whether the app developers really want to change this, or Google really wants to implement such a feature, because they depend on this kind of tracking,” he thinks. “Google makes its money from Google AdSense, and I would be surprised if Google implements such a tracking notification.”

It would definitely be interesting to see Google copy this behavior from Apple. Both from a business perspective (not really in their interests to do so) and to see what it would reveal about snooping behavior of its apps.

iOS 14: A tour of Safari’s webpage translation feature

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Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

In iOS 14, Apple introduced a Translate app that can translate several different languages in real-time, and Safari picked up new translation capabilities, too.

Thanks to the new webpage Translation feature, Safari will automatically detect if it can translate a foreign webpage you visit based on your Preferred Languages list. Keep reading to learn how it all works.

At the time of writing, supported languages include English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Follow the headline link for the details. Interesting that this works on iPad, yet the new Translate app is iPhone only.

Google has already discontinued the Pixel 4 and 4 XL

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The Verge:

Google has discontinued the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, its flagship phones that were released in October of last year. Both devices are out of stock in Google’s store in the US, though some variants are still available in other regions for the time being.

And, from Google:

“Google Store has sold through its inventory and completed sales of Pixel 4 [and] 4 XL,” a Google spokesperson confirms to The Verge. “For people who are still interested in buying Pixel 4 [and] 4 XL, the product is available from some partners while supplies last. Just like all Pixel devices, Pixel 4 will continue to get software and security updates for at least three years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the US.”

When I first read this, I was shocked. But this seems to be the industry trend now, as advances in supply chain management and just in time inventory makes it easy to shift sales to the newest models only.

Take a look at the Apple Store iPhone page. The only models listed are the iPhones 11, the SE, and the “ancient” iPhone XR. New normal?

Apple shares gorgeous Vertical Cinema, made for iPhone by Academy Award winner Damien Chazelle

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[VIDEO] First things first, from Damien Chazelle’s Wikipedia page:

Damien Sayre Chazelle (born January 19, 1985) is a French-American film director, producer, and screenwriter.[3] He is best known for his films Whiplash (2014), La La Land (2016), and First Man (2018). For La La Land, he received several accolades, including the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Director; making him the youngest person to win either award at age 32.

I’d love to hear the backstory on how Apple brought Chazelle to this project. No matter, fire this up on your iPhone, it’s a great experience. Can’t help but wonder if we’ll someday see a director’s cut of a movie designed for your phone. An excellent experiment.

The movie is embedded in the main Loop. And embedded just below the movie is a behind-the-scenes, Chazelle talking about the project and shooting vertically.

This iPad sees for you

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[VIDEO] This is an amazing project, a tactile (think interactive simplified Braille) interface, attached to an iPad with Lidar. The idea is that you walk with this device and the camera tells you about obstacles in your path via this interface. Video embedded in main Loop post.

While this is a relatively simple interface, it does show a path towards something much more complex. I can imagine adding audio (via AirPods, say) to the interface to give you even more clues about the path and obstacles ahead.

Third-party RAM for 27-inch iMac still far more affordable than Apple’s add-on RAM

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Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

To max out the RAM at checkout, Apple charges an additional $2,600, which is like buying another whole ‌iMac‌. Fortunately, the memory in the 27-inch ‌iMac‌ is user-replaceable thanks to the easily-accessible memory backdoor slot, and there are far more affordable options available from third parties.

Third party RAM prices vs Apple’s add-on price:

  • 128GB (4 x 32GB DIMMs): Amazon ($599) vs Apple ($2,600)
  • 64GB (4 x 16GB DIMMs) – Amazon ($269) vs Apple ($1,000)
  • 32GB (2 x 16GB DIMMs) – Amazon ($135) vs Apple ($400)

Same as it ever was. But good reminder for folks ordering the new iMac.

Apple’s kill switch, Charlie Monroe, and a day without business

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Charlie Monroe:

On Aug 4, 2020 I woke up to a slightly different world – I had lost my business as it seemed. Full inbox of reports of my apps not launching (crashing on launch) and after not too long I found out that when I sign into my Apple developer account I can no longer see that I would be enrolled into Apple’s developer program – au contraire – it shows a button for me to enroll, which I tried clicking, but only got a message that I can’t do that.

After more investigation, I found out that the distribution certificates were revoked – evidently by Apple as no one else has access to them and I was sound asleep when all this happened. Each macOS app these days needs to be codesigned using an Apple-issued certificate so that the app will flawlessly work on all computers. When Apple revokes the certificate, it’s generally a remove kill-switch for the apps.

I got really frightened as all of sudden, no user was able to use my apps anymore.

This is an interesting read. Clearly, a mistake was made and Apple did apologize.

Do check that alert that popped up when users launched Charlie’s app. That’d certainly make me wonder about the safety of the software I was running.

27-inch iMac gets a major update

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Apple:

Apple today announced a major update to its 27-inch iMac. By far the most powerful and capable iMac ever, it features faster Intel processors up to 10 cores, double the memory capacity, next-generation AMD graphics, superfast SSDs across the line with four times the storage capacity, a new nano-texture glass option for an even more stunning Retina 5K display, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, higher fidelity speakers, and studio-quality mics.

And:

For pros who need to push iMac even further, the 27-inch iMac has a 10-core processor option for the first time, with Turbo Boost speeds reaching 5.0GHz for up to 65 percent faster CPU performance. And when working with memory-intensive applications, iMac features double the memory capacity for up to 128GB.

And:

For GPU-based rendering, editing multiple streams of 4K video, or playing a graphics-intensive game, the 27-inch iMac has more powerful next-generation AMD graphics. iMac delivers up to 55 percent faster graphics performance from its Radeon Pro 5000 series graphics, featuring AMD’s latest RDNA architecture with faster, more power-efficient compute units. And for customers using pro apps that can take advantage of large amounts of video memory for even greater performance, iMac features a graphics option with 16GB of memory for the first time — providing double the video memory capacity of the previous-generation 27-inch iMac.

And:

Apple today also announced that its 21.5-inch iMac will come standard with SSDs across the line for the first time. Customers can also choose to configure their 21.5-inch iMac with a Fusion Drive. iMac Pro now comes standard with a 10-core Intel Xeon processor. Designed for pro users who require workstation-class performance, iMac Pro features Xeon processors up to 18 cores, graphics performance up to 22 teraflops, up to 256GB quad-channel ECC memory, and a brilliant 27-inch Retina 5K display.

That’s a lot of upgrade.

As to pricing:

  • 27-inch iMac starts at $1,799
  • 21.5-inch iMac starts at $1,099
  • iMac Pro starts at $4,999.

Available to order now.

China refuses to accept ‘theft’ of TikTok if US acquisition goes ahead

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Good rollup post from Tim Hardwick on the whole Microsoft wants to buy TikTok, Trump wants a piece of the action, China likely to retaliate situation.

You’ve no doubt followed this as it’s unfolded. New to the story is in this Reuters article:

China will not accept the “theft” of a Chinese technology company and is able to respond to Washington’s move to push ByteDance to sell short-video app TikTok’s U.S. operations to Microsoft, the China Daily newspaper said on Tuesday.

The United States’ “bullying” of Chinese tech companies was a consequence of Washington’s zero-sum vision of “American first” and left China no choice but “submission or mortal combat in the tech realm”, the state-backed paper said in an editorial.

Add to that this Daring Fireball post, titled, Major American companies with a consumer internet presence in China:

if China decides to retaliate — and why wouldn’t they? — what company might they target other than Apple? Facebook and Google are already banned in China. Amazon has AWS, which has a fair-sized presence there, but AWS is sort of the anti-TikTok in terms of being consumer-facing. Microsoft would be the obvious tit-for-tat target. But does Microsoft have a neatly bundled consumer presence in China?

If I were the dictator of China, and I was angry about the Trump administration forcing a proud Chinese company like ByteDance to divest itself of TikTok, and I was looking for a way to show that China cannot be pushed around by the U.S., I’d look at iCloud and the App Store, and humiliating the biggest company in the world.

And to add to this thought, this Wall Street Journal post titled, Apple Faces $1.4 Billion Lawsuit in China in Siri Patent Fight:

Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology Co. said Monday that it is suing Apple for an estimated 10 billion yuan ($1.43 billion) in damages in a Shanghai court, after a court decision in June that upheld the validity of its Chinese patent for a chatbot similar to Apple’s Siri.

And:

As part of the suit, Shanghai Zhizhen, also known as Xiao-i, asked Apple to stop sales, production and the use of products flouting the patent—a category that includes virtually all the U.S. company’s devices.

I agree with Gruber’s take, above. Apple does seem the likeliest target for retaliation. What a mess.

I’ve worn Alexa-enabled glasses for two weeks. They’re driving me bananas.

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[VIDEO] Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post:

What do you call it when there’s a little voice in your head only you can hear? A hallucination?

Amazon calls it progress. I’ve been living with its latest talking artificial intelligence product, called the Echo Frames, for two weeks. They’re glasses with tiny speakers and a microphone so you can have your own private conversations with Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant everywhere you go.

This new version of Alexa is much more proactive about chatting — and it has driven me bananas.

According to Amazon, there’s a waiting list to buy these things. I did get an invite, and wrestled with the idea of plunking down $180 to see this brave new world.

Reading/watching this, I’m really glad I didn’t. Don’t miss the video embedded at the top of the article.

Watch SpaceX troubleshoot an iPad issue in space

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NASA astronaut Bob Behnken:

“A timeline application on my tablet, uh, gives me a error message that says Safari cannot open the page, and then it’s got a HTML address because your iPad is not connected to the internet,” Behnken reported. “Can you confirm that Wi-Fi is off and AirPlane Mode is on,” asked Menon. Then the NASA astronaut improvised with a go-to troubleshooting step.

Follow the headline link to Zac Hall’s writeup. Scroll about halfway down to watch this all unfold in the embedded video (jump to about 4h16m in).

If your Mac occasionally shows “not charging”

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Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Macs running macOS 10.15.5 or later have a Battery Health Management feature to preserve the life of the battery, and occasionally, the Battery Health Management option will cause the Mac to pause its charging for calibration purposes.

And:

Battery Health Management features are available on Mac notebooks that have Thunderbolt 3 ports and that run macOS Catalina 10.15.5 or later. The option improves the lifespan of a Mac’s battery by reducing the amount of time that the battery spends at a maximum charge, which can cut down on chemical aging.

This Apple support document walks through the details.

Demo of Google’s live-captioning for voice and video calls

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From the Google Pixel 4a announcement:

Pixel 4a also has Live Caption, which provides real-time captioning (English only) for your video and audio content. New with the Pixel 4a launch—and also rolling out for Pixel 2, 3, 3a and 4 phones—Live Caption will now automatically caption your voice and video calls.

Follow the headline link to watch The Verge’s Dieter Bohn demo this. I’d love to see Apple add a feature like this to iOS and FaceTime. It’d be great for accessibility, in the same way as closed captioning provides an assist when you are watching a movie.

Rene Ritchie makes sense of the iPhone 12 5G mess

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[VIDEO] This is a pretty solid walkthrough of how 5G will come to iPhone users (video embedded in main Loop post). Especially useful is the explainer on the differences between FR2 (the super high speed branch of 5G) and FR1 (the flavor that will roll out to the vast majority of users, those not in spitting distance of the 5G towers).

Lots of lingo, but worth your time. 5G is coming.

New ‘unpatchable’ exploit allegedly found on Apple’s Secure Enclave chip

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Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac:

One of the major security enhancements Apple has brought to its devices over the years is the Secure Enclave chip, which encrypts and protects all sensitive data stored on the devices. Last month, however, hackers claimed they found a permanent vulnerability in the Secure Enclave, which could put data from iPhone, iPad, and even Mac users at risk.

Good explainer. A few key points:

  • This vulnerability is permanent. Because the Secure Enclave is embedded in the processor and not patchable, it cannot be fixed on a specific device.
  • That said, Apple has fixed the design itself, starting with the A12. So if you’ve got a device with an A7 through A11, that issue exists on your device.
  • The good news? To take advantage of the exploit, a hacker would need physical access to your device.

Here’s a list of devices that have the Arm A12. If you’ve got one of these, or newer, you’ve got the fix in place:

  • iPhone XS and XS Max
  • iPhone XR
  • iPad Mini (5th generation)
  • iPad Air (2019, 3rd generation)

American Airlines adds free inflight Apple TV+ streaming

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Zach Griff, The Points Guy:

Beginning Aug. 1, American now offers free inflight streaming of Apple TV+ shows, an airline spokesperson confirmed with TPG.

This new streaming option is available to every flyer with a Wi-Fi capable device on flights that feature internet access. However, you don’t need to pay for internet in order to stream — you’ll just need the AA app on your phone or tablet or visit aainflight.com on your laptop.

If and when you ever fly again, be sure to download the AA app (or whatever airline you’re traveling on) to your device before you leave. That way you won’t have to pay for internet just to download the app.

If your flight is equipped with seat-back entertainment, you’ll find a selection of Apple Originals preloaded on the screen.

The deal is exclusive to American, and builds on their existing Apple Music streaming deal.

Smart for American, smart for Apple. On Apple’s side, it builds the Apple TV+ brand, builds the exposure and audience for the various shows.

Apple halved Amazon’s App Store fee to get Amazon Prime Video on devices

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Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. agreed in 2016 to halve its App Store fee for Amazon.com Inc. as part of a deal to put the e-commerce giant’s Prime Video app on Apple’s mobile devices and TV set-top box.

Eddy Cue, an Apple senior vice president, and Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos negotiated directly on the deal, according to emails released Wednesday as part of a congressional hearing on anticompetitive behavior. The companies agreed to a 15% revenue share for customers who signed up through the app and no revenue share for users who already subscribed via Amazon or elsewhere, the emails showed.

And:

Apple generally receives a 30% cut for the first year of an app’s subscriptions made through the platform. That fee drops to 15% after the first year.

And:

“That is not correct,” Cook said when asked if some developers are treated differently. “We treat every developer the same.”

Discuss.

Gruber: Parsing Tim Cook’s opening statement from today’s Congressional Antitrust Hearing

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You can watch Tim Cook’s opening statement (with bonus Q&A) in our previous post, or follow the headline link for some links to the prepared remarks.

With that in mind, take the time to read John Gruber’s walk through Tim’s opening remarks. Long, cogent, and interesting, all the way through.

And, for dessert, take a look at Michael Tsai’s rollup page on Tim Cook’s testimony, with links to various write-ups from our community.

Google One app now lets you backup your iPhone, store photos on Google’s servers

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Google blog:

Last year, we launched automatic phone backup for members on Android devices. So no matter what happens to your phone, you won’t lose the important stuff like texts, contacts and apps, and photos and videos. To bring this peace of mind to more people, we’re making some Google One features—phone backup and a new storage manager tool—free for Google users wherever Google One is available. You can back up your devices and clean up your files across Google Photos, Google Drive, and Gmail—all in the new Google One app for Android and iOS.

Two things leap out at me:

First, this feels like a push to expand Google’s pay-for-storage business. You get 15Gb for free, but once you buy into the model, you’ll inevitably want more storage, which means more money flowing to Google, less to Apple.

Second, what are the privacy rules here? I’ve not found specifics yet, but before you go down this road, be sure to read the EULA and know if Google has the rights to data mine your data, or use your photos in any way.

If the storage pricing is better, and if there’s no privacy concerns on your end, this might be a net positive, apply pressure on Apple to lower their storage prices.

Apple Store app now offers iPhone comparisons, new ‘For You’ tab

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Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple today updated its Apple Store app with a new “For You” tab that offers access to order status, devices, accessory recommendations, services, reservations, and product tips, all in one simple to access place.

And:

There’s also a feature that’s designed to allow you to compare a new iPhone you’re considering purchasing with your existing ‌iPhone‌ so you can see the difference at a glance.

First, note that this is the Apple Store app, not the App Store app.

Second, I’ve not yet gotten this extra tab on my phone, which is running iOS 13, but I did get the new tab on my iPad, which is running the beta of iOS 14.

Phil Schiller, in Reuters interview, says Apple aimed to level playing field for developers

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Reuters:

When the App Store launched in 2008 with 500 apps, Apple executives viewed it as an experiment in offering a compellingly low commission rate to attract developers, Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing and top executive for the App Store, told Reuters in an interview.

“One of the things we came up with is, we’re going to treat all apps in the App Store the same – one set of rules for everybody, no special deals, no special terms, no special code, everything applies to all developers the same. That was not the case in PC software. Nobody thought like that. It was a complete flip around of how the whole system was going to work,” Schiller said.

And this bit of history:

In the mid-2000s, software sold through physical stores involved paying for shelf space and prominence, costs that could eat 50% of the retail price, said Ben Bajarin, head of consumer technologies at Creative Strategies. Small developers could not break in.

Bajarin said the App Store’s predecessor was Handango, a service that around 2005 let developers deliver apps over cellular connections to users’ Palm and other devices for a 40% commission.

With the App Store, “Apple took that to a whole other level. And at 30%, they were a better value,” Bajarin said.

Back to Phil Schiller:

“As we were talking to some of the biggest game developers, for example, Minecraft, they said, ‘I totally get why you want the user to be able to pay for it on device. But we have a lot of users coming who bought their subscription or their account somewhere else – on an Xbox, on a PC, on the web. And it’s a big barrier to getting onto your store,’” Schiller said. “So we created this exception to our own rule.”

And:

Schiller said Apple’s cut helps fund an extensive system for developers: Thousands of Apple engineers maintain secure servers to deliver apps and develop the tools to create and test them.

This is clearly a hot button topic. Does that 30% cut make the same sense today as it did back in the early days?

And what about the fact that macOS developers can sell their apps through services like Paddle, who takes a much smaller percentage but provides no marketing exposure or security/privacy oversight? Why doesn’t Apple allow this same sort of behavior in the iOS App Store? This would provide developers the same choice they have with the Mac App Store and likely quiet the uproar.

Seems to me, the devil in this model is the critical importance, to Apple, of services revenue. As I’ve said before, Apple is a public company and is beholden to its shareholders. They need that 30% from iOS app sales. I suspect the money it gets from the Mac App Store has never been big enough to be worth the PR black eye it would bring to force that iOS model on Mac developers.

It’d be interesting to see the cost of running the App Store, with all its engineers, writers, servers, all of it, as a cost per developer. Put that cost, side-by-side against the revenue per developer that Apple takes in.