Apple Card and three occurrences of “currently”

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From the Manage your Apple Card account Apple Support document:

Apple Card is currently available only to customers participating in the Apple Card Preview.

A reminder, this is still Apple Card Preview times. Somewhat like a beta, but with more legal obligations. So if you are not getting the card invite, have patience. Some people are really getting riled up over this. Speaks to the compelling nature of both Apple Card and the ecosystem.

Credit limit increases are not currently supported.

If you tap the “…” button, then scroll to “Credit Details”, you’ll see your credit limit. Given that the vast majority of credit cards offer some mechanism to bump your credit limit, I’d expect this to change. Again, this is a beta period.

Only the account owner can currently use Apple Card. If a family member or friends wants to use Apple Card they will need to apply for Apple Card.

This last one is interesting. There’s an implication that you’ll be able to allow future Apple Cards for family members and friends, tied to your Apple ID. Lots of credit cards allow this as well. A great way to introduce your kids to the responsibilities and mechanics of credit cards.

I wonder if we’ll eventually see a business version of Apple Card.

9to5Mac’s sneak peak at the Apple Arcade early access program

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Guilherme Rambo, 9to5Mac:

Apple is currently running an internal early access program for its employees, charging a small subscription of $0.49/mo, with one month free trial. It says the testing program ends with the launch of iOS 13.

Today, 9to5Mac was able to gain access to this Apple Arcade early testing program on the Mac App Store.

The $0.49 a month thing is interesting. I’m guessing they needed to test the billing mechanism as well as the games themselves, and the price worked for some reason. I don’t recall anything Apple ever shipped for less than $0.99. No matter, I can’t imagine that price won’t increase at least 10-fold.

How to transfer playlists from Spotify to Apple Music

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Amber Neely, AppleInsider:

The whole ordeal takes just a couple of minutes provided you’ve got a computer handy. Be aware that to do this, know that you have to be migrating from a Spotify Premium account —it isn’t possible to copy over from the free tier.

If you are making the move from Spotify Premium to Apple Music and have playlists you’d like to take with you, this seems worth reading. Another path to consider is the iOS app SongShift (free, with in-app-purchase).

I’d love to be able to tap on a Spotify playlist link and have it just play in Apple Music. Never gonna happen, I realize, but that’s the dream.

UPDATE: Another service to try – Tune My Music. Converts pretty much anything. Nice. [H/T @pinkoos]

Amazing ice hockey kid

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[VIDEO] Talk about a kid who really works hard. I have a feeling this kid is going to the show someday. Hope he makes it to my team (and not Jim’s). Video embedded in main Loop post.

[Via TYWKIWDBI]

iOS App Store links now show a lot more detail when opened on your Mac

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Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

Apple has recently updated its App Store Preview pages for stories to allow users to view the full content of stories from inside their desktop web browser. App Store stories have always been shareable as links, but the web version was just a title and a navigation link to ‘open this story in the App Store’.

Huzzah! Great to see this. I often encounter a link to an app on Mac Safari. A pain (and broken marketing for the app creator) to force me to re-find the link on my iOS device to learn more.

As an example, try opening this iOS link to PCalc on your Mac. Instead of just text telling you to open the link on an iOS device, you’ll see all the images, reviews, etc. Great!

Twitter tests letting users follow topics in the same way they follow accounts

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Casey Newton, The Verge:

Twitter will begin allowing users to follow interests, the company said today, letting users see tweets about topics of their choosing inside the timeline. When the feature goes live, you’ll be able to follow topics including sports teams, celebrities, and television shows, with a selection of tweets about them inserted alongside tweets in your home feed.

Twitter will curate the topics, minimizing the potential for abuse. And you can temporarily mute a topic so you don’t see spoilers for a game you’ve recorded, a movie or streaming episode you haven’t seen.

The company has been researching the bad incentives that Twitter can create, with the like and retweet often serving to promote outrage and polarization.

Understatement of the year.

Google Assistant will soon let you assign reminders for friends and family

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Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

Google Assistant is about to gain a new reminder feature that allows you to get someone else to do your bidding.

Called Assignable Reminders, the feature lets you set reminders for other people, so long as they are in your Google Contacts or opted in to your Family Group.

I can see the value here. As long as I have to approve a reminder before it gets added to my list.

Tricky to make this work without adding friction. I don’t want zero friction, where my friends and family can add reminders without my knowing. But I also don’t want to have to do a lot of work to prevent and/or manage outside reminders.

The good side is that I can just disable this if I don’t like it. It’ll be interesting to see if Apple adopts this idea.

The next step in the war on spam robocalls

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Engadget:

AT&T and T-Mobile have started rolling out cross-network call authentication services for their subscribers. That means the companies will now be able notify their customers if the call they’re getting from the other carrier truly is from the number shown on screen or if it’s a spoofed robocall.

Details in the linked post, but seems to me, this is a problem of our own creation. Why not just disable the ability to spoof entirely? If a call comes in that is not on my contact list, I want to see the true phone number, no fake names allowed.

No fines. Just break the spoofing mechanism in the first place. And first carrier to make this happen wins my business.

Deep Fakes: Full House…of Mustaches, and now it’s gone

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[VIDEO] There’s a clip flying around the internet of Bill Hader being interviewed by David Letterman. Hader does impressions of Al Pacino and Tom Cruise. But in this Deep Fake version of the clip, Hader’s face morphs into Pacino and Cruise as he shifts characters. It’s eerie, creepy, fascinating, and a sign of deeper fakes to come.

If you haven’t seen the clip, take a minute to watch. And then watch the clip embedded in the main Loop post. It’s a similar treatment of the opening to the show Full House, but with a special Nick Offerman mustache treatment.

The future.

One click, a bit of typing to make an Apple Card image with any name you like

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First things first, this is a terrific Apple Card explainer by Juli Clover for MacRumors.

But have a bit of fun and click on the Apple Card image in the middle of the post. Type in any name you like and see the Apple Card with that name come to life.

Mine is here. Feeling particularly clever? Feel free to reply with your own creations.

Apple locked me out of its walled garden. It was a nightmare

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Luke Kurtis, Quartz:

A few months ago, I purchased an iTunes gift card off of a popular discount website.

And:

About a week after I redeemed the gift card, I noticed my iTunes account wasn’t working. When I tried to log in, it said my account was locked. I searched online for help, but I couldn’t find a solution. I called up Apple support.

And that’s the beginning of a two month journey. Fascinating read, especially if you consider the personal impact of being locked out of your Apple ID for two months.

FAA bans recalled MacBook Pros from flights

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Bloomberg:

U.S. airline safety regulators banned select MacBook Pro laptops on flights after Apple Inc. recently said that some units had batteries that posed a fire risk.

In a statement, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it was “aware of the recalled batteries that are used in some Apple MacBook Pro laptops” and stated that it alerted major U.S. airlines about the recall.

I totally get this. A bad battery is a bad battery. But my question is, how will they enforce this ban? Will they be checking model numbers on all MacBook Pros? This going to be an honor system thing?

Here’s how Apple Card Daily Cash works

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William Gallagher, AppleInsider:

With Apple Card slowly rolling out to more users, Apple has been busy preparing a slew of support documents that explain how to use the new credit card —and it includes explanations of many things we’d been left wondering. Such as precisely how Daily Cash works.

This is the system whereby if you buy something using your Apple Card, you get rewarded with a certain percentage of the purchase price paid back to your account in cash.

Planning on getting an Apple Card? Read the linked post for the details on Daily Cash in real life usage.

Apple brings contactless student IDs on iPhone and Apple Watch to more universities

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Apple:

In the coming school year, more than 100,000 college students will enjoy the ease and convenience of carrying their student IDs on iPhone and Apple Watch. Students at Clemson University, Georgetown University, University of Tennessee, University of Kentucky, University of San Francisco, University of Vermont, Arkansas State University, South Dakota State University, Norfolk State University, Louisburg College, University of North Alabama and Chowan University will soon be able to use their student ID in Apple Wallet to get into dorms, buy lunch and more.

As recently as a few years ago, a large number of colleges used a student’s social security number as their student ID and, even worse, printed those numbers on the physical cards students had to carry.

This move to contactless student IDs has been a long time coming. Integration with Apple Wallet is an excellent next step.

CarPlay in iOS 13: A big leap forward

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John Voorhees, MacStories:

CarPlay fascinates me because it’s a relatively rare example of a successful Apple software product that isn’t tightly integrated with the company’s hardware. Of course, CarPlay runs from an iPhone, but it also relies on automaker media systems to deliver its experience to users in their cars. This lack of integration shows in cars with slower media systems; however, even when automakers’ hardware provides a subpar experience, CarPlay’s simplified but familiar interface and access to content already on users’ iPhones is superior. So much so in fact that Apple says CarPlay has managed to capture 90% of the new car market in the US and 75% worldwide.

Those are astonishing numbers. Compare them to Android’s far larger market share in smartphone representation. My gut is that this is due, in part, to the relatively high cost of buying a car. With smartphones, you have a massive low end, with some phones given away. Android dominates the low end.

But there are no car giveaways, the base cost is high enough to level the playing field for Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto.

All this aside, the rest of the article is an excellent resource, especially if you are in the market for a new car. CarPlay has certainly come a long way.

Yahoo bought Tumblr for $1.1B, six years later, owner Verizon to sell Tumblr for a few million

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This is an incredible story. At the heart of it: Pornography.

Yahoo bought Tumblr which, back in 2013, was a hotbed for pornography. Yahoo banned porn, and site traffic plummeted.

According to the linked Wall Street Journal article:

Verizon Communications Inc. has agreed to sell its blogging website Tumblr to the owner of popular online-publishing tool WordPress.com, unloading for a nominal amount a site that once fetched a purchase price of more than $1 billion.

So what’s a nominal amount? According to Axios:

Verizon is set to sell the social network Tumblr to Automattic Inc, the owner of online publishing tool Wordpress. A source familiar with the deal puts the price-tag “well below” $20 million, while another source puts it below $10 million.

And according to this tweet, the price “tumbld” to less than $3 million. Wow!

Apple lays out its efforts to source gold responsibly

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Apple:

“Salmon to our people is absolutely the most important aspect of the whole environment,” says Allen Edzerza, a Tahltan Nation elder and advisor to the British Columbia First Nations Energy and Mining Council. “But … in the pursuit of the metals, you see big scars on the landscape.”

And:

Add logging, urbanization, record wildfires and landslides in the region, and salmon runs don’t stand a chance. But RESOLVE, a nonprofit organization tackling some of the planet’s most critical challenges through innovative, unexpected partnerships, wants to fix that.

Their proposal: Combine re-mining with restoration to improve the streams and open them back up for salmon, grayling and other fish species to return.

The linked press release from Apple details partnerships that marry environmental restoration efforts to help compensate for the destructive effects of mining.

I can’t think of another company that does more to consider and offset the impact of its product creation on the environment. Props to Apple and their Supplier Responsibility program.

Susan Kare Macintosh commercial

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[VIDEO] Susan Kare is the designer behind the original Mac icons and fonts. Her work is foundational, incredibly influential.

The video embedded in the main Loop post was posted on Andy Hertzfeld’s amazing YouTube channel. Feels like time travel to me, a real moment in time.

These legit-looking iPhone Lightning cables will hijack your computer

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Joseph Cox, Motherboard:

I plugged the Apple lightning cable into my iPod and connected it to my Mac, just as I normally would. My iPod started charging, iTunes detected the device, and my iPod produced the pop-up asking if I wanted to trust this computer. All expected behaviour.

But this cable was hiding a secret. A short while later, a hacker remotely opened a terminal on my Mac’s screen, letting them run commands on my computer as they saw fit. This is because this wasn’t a regular cable. Instead, it had been modified to include an implant; extra components placed inside the cable letting the hacker remotely connect to the computer.

This was more fruit from the annual DefCon hacking conference, proof of concept that is worth keeping in mind.

Me? I avoid using unknown USB bricks, lightning or USB-C cables. I suspect I might be overly paranoid, but easy enough to just throw an extra charger in my bag when I travel so I never have to take that chance.

Very interesting read.

Samsung spamming Galaxy phones with multiple Note 10 ads

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Android Police:

That’s right, Samsung is once again spamming Galaxy phones with advertisements, this time for the Note10.

This time around, push notifications advertising the Note10 are being sent out by at least three pre-installed applications — Samsung Pay, Bixby, and the Samsung Push Service. Bixby wants you to ask it about the Note10, Samsung Pay is offering points when you look at the phone’s product page, and Samsung Push Service just gives you a banner ad with no indication of where it came from. I received the Bixby ad on my international Galaxy S10e, but I haven’t personally seen the others.

Does Apple push unasked-for ads like this? I can’t ever recall getting an ad of any kind from Siri.

WSJ Apple Card review: The credit card of the future is no card at all

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David Pierce, Wall Street Journal:

The Apple Card makes quite an impression. The white titanium slab contains no numbers or expiration date—only your name, an Apple logo and the chip. Whip it out of your wallet and it clatters onto a table with a delightful “tink” sound. James Bond might be a Black Card guy, but Q would definitely use an Apple Card.

And:

The card isn’t the point, though. The Apple Card is mostly a digital being, a combination of expense-tracker and bill-payer in an app on your phone. It’s also something of an ad for Apple Pay, the company’s tech for paying with iPhone, your Apple Watch or your Apple ID.

And:

If you have the Apple Card, you get 2% back on purchases you make using Apple Pay—3% when you use the card to buy apps, movies and devices from Apple.

And:

The most surprising thing about my testing was discovering how many places accept the tap-to-pay Apple Pay features. Apple says 65% of all U.S. retail locations now support it.

To me, the Apple Card is a no-brainer, at least to get. It’s free, and offers significant benefits on purchases from Apple. It’s also a solid first credit card for beginners, helps build financial literacy, an understanding of where your money goes.

If the built-in planning tools are not important to you, get the card as a supplement. Use your normal card for benefits and protections not offered by Apple Card, use Apple Card where it works better.

Great review, hits all the highlights.

Say cheese: Ransomware-ing a DSLR camera

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Eyal Itkin, Checkpoint:

Our research shows how an attacker in close proximity (WiFi), or an attacker who already hijacked our PC (USB), can also propagate to and infect our beloved cameras with malware. Imagine how would you respond if attackers inject ransomware into both your computer and the camera, causing them to hold all of your pictures hostage unless you pay ransom.

I can’t imagine this ever being worth the time for a hacker, but just another example of why we can’t have nice things. And the questionable value of adding the internet to everything.

The history of Clarus the Dogcow

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Clarus the Dogcow goes all the way back to the beginning of the Mac, a seminal bit of Apple lore. This is a great, fun read, filled with images and videos, digging into stuff deep at the heart of a lot of us old-timers. Nice job by Stephen Hackett.

Is Apple locking iPhone batteries to discourage repair?

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[VIDEO] Headlines have been flying around the internet similar to this one:

“Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair”

As I read through the various articles on this issue, I remained pretty convinced that Apple was not specifically trying to discourage repair. There had to be more to the logic.

Turns out, there was more to it. And Rene Ritchie did a great job laying out the issues, making this understandable. Still not thrilled with the answer, but I get Apple’s goals here. Watch for yourself. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Black Hat presenter demonstrates how to bypass Face ID on unconscious iPhone owner

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Threatpost, via 9to5Mac:

Researchers on Wednesday during Black Hat USA 2019 demonstrated an attack that allowed them to bypass a victim’s FaceID and log into their phone simply by putting a pair of modified glasses on their face. By merely placing tape carefully over the lenses of a pair glasses and placing them on the victim’s face the researchers demonstrated how they could bypass Apple’s FaceID in a specific scenario. The attack itself is difficult, given the bad actor would need to figure out how to put the glasses on an unconscious victim without waking them up.

Obviously, this is a very slim scenario, requiring an unconscious victim. But it does raise the specter of law enforcement rendering someone unconscious in order to break into their phone.

Apple makes huge increases to its bug bounty program, top award hits $1M

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Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple is introducing an expanded bug bounty program that covers macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and iCloud as well as iOS devices, Apple’s head of security engineering Ivan Krstić announced this afternoon at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.

Someone is going to pay for those vulnerability details. Way better for everyone if it’s Apple.

Some publishers are making more money from Apple News

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Digiday:

Publishers including Vice Media and The Stylist Group say they’ve gotten traffic and, more importantly, revenue lifts from Apple News in the last three months. While this is from a small base, for some publishers it signifies that patience with publishing to the platform, which has been widely accepted as good for brand awareness but lagging revenue, is starting to pay off.

Details in the linked article, but certainly good news for Apple News+. Personally, I’d take another look at the service if Apple made some UX tweaks to improve the search mechanism, make it easier for me to find and get to the original articles, and add tools to more easily manage my reading list.

Apple updates its USB-C Digital AV Multiport dongle with 60Hz 4K, HDR, more

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The big change here is the move from HDMI 1.4b to HDMI 2.0.

HDMI 1.4b:

  • 4096 × 2160 at 24 Hz
  • 3840 × 2160 at 24, 25, and 30 Hz
  • 1920 × 1080 at 120 Hz

That last is also known as 1080p, or Full HD.

HDMI 2.0:

  • Requires special higher bandwidth certified cable
  • 4K video at 60 Hz with 24 bit/px color depth

Note that there’s also an HDMI 2.1, requires still another specialized cable, for 4K at 120 Hz, and beyond. Apple’s updated dongle is rated for HDMI 2.0.