Apple

Jonathan Bell, with photos by Jonathan Schmidt, for Wallpaper:

Led by Evans Hankey and Alan Dye, the Apple Design Team holds enormous sway over our evolving relationship with technology. Opening the doors to their studio at Apple Park in Cupertino for the first time, they offered us a deep dive into the working processes behind their latest creations

And:

There are 12,000 employees on site here, including the Apple Design Team. This agile but hugely significant department thinks in terms of scope, not scale.

Working side by side to guide this division are Evans Hankey, Apple’s VP of industrial design, and Alan Dye, VP of human interface design. Both close colleagues, confidants and friends of Jony Ive, they effectively took the helm of the Design Team after his departure from the chief design officer role in 2019.

This is a long, fun read. If nothing else, follow the headline link and scan through the photos.

That first one shows a breathtaking view from the fourth floor inside Apple Park. The third shows Evans Hankey, VP of industrial design, and Alan Dye, VP of human interface design, in the Design Studio. Scroll down a bit more and you’ll see a model maker assembling camera modules for iPhone 13 Pro camera lenses into cosmetic models.

Wonderful stuff.

Luz Lazo, Washington Post:

The D.C. Council on Tuesday approved a measure to give D.C. residents access to digital versions of their driver’s license or identification card on their phone.

The legislation, which passed unanimously, gives the Department of Motor Vehicles authority to issue digital credentials and lets residents present identification in an electronic format, such as on a smartphone, instead of a physical credential, except when prohibited by federal law.

Obviously, this impacts Washington DC residents, but is a testbed for digital ID everywhere. It’d make it possible to use your phone as ID for things like cashing a check, showing your ID at a bar, or when buying alcohol, buying drugs at a pharmacy, getting through security at the airport, etc.

It does seem like digital ID is an inevitable part of our future. One issue this raises: If I get stopped by the police and I don’t carry a physical ID card, I’ll have to hand my phone over to prove my identity. My hope is that the concept of an ID on the Lock Screen, with the bare minimum of information displayed, becomes a standard.

This serves the dual purpose of protecting my privacy (my phone remains locked) and providing the information required by the requestor (proof of ID for the police, my birth date only for the clerk at the liquor store).

Ankur Thakur, iDownloadBlog:

This tutorial shows you the steps to sign out of iCloud and your Apple ID (both are the same) on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac. It also mentions the steps to sign in again. The entire process is easy but has some consequences. Let us tell you everything about this.

This is one of those topics that comes up periodically. Makes you wonder, what happens if I sign out of iCloud in this particular instance? What data will I lose?

Worth the read, well presented.

Came across this on Hacker News last night. Absolutely fascinating.

Follow the headline link, start scrolling. Bigger screen == better.

You’ll start with the December 2013 2016 first gen AirPods (have they really been in the wild that long?) As you scroll, the scan will turn and text will come into view relevant to that particular orientation. Take your time.

Next up are the AirPods Pro and then the 3rd gen AirPods. Brilliant.

York Regional Police (via MacRumors):

Since September 2021, officers have investigated five incidents where suspects have placed small tracking devices on high-end vehicles so they can later locate and steal them. Brand name ‘air tags’ are placed in out-of-sight areas of the target vehicles when they are parked in public places like malls or parking lots. Thieves then track the targeted vehicles to the victim’s residence, where they are stolen from the driveway.

And this, on how they steal the car, without keys:

Thieves typically use tools like screwdrivers to enter the vehicles through the driver or passenger door, while ensuring not to set off alarms. Once inside, an electronic device, typically used by mechanics to reprogram the factory setting, is connected to the onboard diagnostics port below the dashboard and programs the vehicle to accept a key the thieves have brought with them. Once the new key is programmed, the vehicle will start and the thieves drive it away.

Of all the suggestions on protecting your vehicle, this seems the best suggestion:

Install a lock on the data port. This simple device can be purchased online and blocks access to the computer port where the thieves gain access to reprogram the vehicle’s keys.

Here’s a video that talks about the OBD port (the data port called out above) and one device in particular you can use to lock the port.

Personally, I think an OBD lock is far more convenient than a steering wheel lock, since you only need to remove the lock when you need to access the port (for service, say).

From John Gruber’s take on this article:

I’m interested in knowing how the police figured out that AirTags were used in this way. Let’s say a thief hides an AirTag on your car while it’s in a public parking lot. Then you park the car in your home’s driveway. The thief comes in the middle of the night and steals your car. You call the police and they come to your home to investigate. How would they know an AirTag had ever been involved?

Solid question, read the Daring Fireball post for John’s best guess. If Apple could go back in time, I wonder if they’d still release AirTags, knowing what they know now.

Mere Civilian:

A few months ago, the balance on my Apple account was running low (less than $100), and therefore, I attempted to add funds to my account using my credit card. My first attempt resulted in an error, and I decided to try again in a couple of days. The very next day, all my Apple devices gave the following prompt when updating apps from the App Store: “Your Account Has Been Disabled in the App Store and iTunes.”

Follow the headline link for the details. In a nutshell, the poster’s Apple account was disabled due to alleged breach of the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions.

This was interesting (and worth reading) on a number of fronts. Part of this is the hoops the poster had to jump through to try to find out why their account was disabled, and the fact that they never did get that info.

Another part was that having their account disabled meant they lost access to all ten years worth of “app and media purchases and the funds in my Apple account”. That’s alarming.

There’s also this:

The next day, I called again and was provided with the same response. However, this time, I was told that the Back End Team had made the decision, and there is no way to appeal that decision or even contact them. Furthermore, the senior Apple support person confirmed that they do not have access to the details as to why the account was disabled. This Back End Team appears to have God-like powers.

To be fair to Apple, this is a bit one-sided, anecdotal, so take with a grain of salt.

But read on to the end, where Tim Cook’s executive team comes to the rescue.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc., suffering from a global supply crunch, is now confronting a different problem: slowing demand.

The company has told its component suppliers that demand for the iPhone 13 lineup has weakened, people familiar with the matter said, signaling that some consumers have decided against trying to get the hard-to-find item.

Demand may be slowing (not sure how to measure that outside of Apple), but the iPhone 13 is not hard to find. At least in the US, you can get a base model Sierra Blue iPhone 13, 13 mini, 13 Pro, or 13 Pro Max within a few weeks at worst.

I didn’t do an exhaustive search through all possible color/storage combinations, but “hard to find”? Doesn’t seem to be the case. Easy enough to check this for yourself.

Apple:

Each year, Apple recognizes the best and most popular podcasts for their exceptional content, unique ability to engage audiences, and innovation in craft, spanning production, presentation, sound design, and more, that expand the definition of podcasting and deepen its impact on listeners worldwide.

Here’s a “Best of 2021” link that’ll open in Apple Podcasts.

Follow the headline link, scroll down for a list of top shows, episodes, then, below that, the Apple Podcast charts.

John Gruber:

This appears to be a cause for celebration in right-to-repair circles, but I don’t see it as a big deal at all. Almost no one wants to repair their own cracked iPhone display or broken MacBook keyboard; even fewer people are actually competent enough to do so.

Not sure how big the audience for right-to-repair is, but I do count myself in its number. And if it was easier to do, I suspect that number would be much larger. Imagine if repairing a cracked display was a simple, five minute operation. Wouldn’t you rather order the new display and make the swap yourself?

It used to be relatively easy to customize and repair your gear. As parts have given way to part assemblies (glued/soldered assemblies that become a single replaceable requirement, even if a single part fails) and the quest for smaller makes devices harder to open, harder to take apart, the ability to repair your own gear has become harder, almost impossible.

So those small numbers John points out are real. But should this be the way it is? Again, wouldn’t you love the ability to swap out a display as easily as you used to be able to swap out RAM on your old Macs?

More from Gruber:

Nothing announced today changes the fact that Apple still requires Apple genuine parts for all authorized repairs, no matter who does the repairing.

Yup.

Today’s announcement, to my eyes, is about nothing more than reducing regulatory pressure from legislators who’ve fallen for the false notion that Apple’s repair policies, to date, have been driven by profit motive — that Apple profits greatly from authorized repairs, and/or that their policies are driven by a strategy of planned obsolescence, to get people to buy new products rather than repair broken old ones.

Going into an Apple Store with a problem has never felt like a money grab scheme to me. I’ve always felt like the support staff wants me to leave satisfied. If they can find a way to get me a fix without spending money, they’ll do so. But when there’s no way but to replace a parts assembly for $900 on an out-of-AppleCare device, that’s what they do.

Don’t get me wrong: this program is nice, and perhaps a bit surprising given Apple’s public stance on the issue in recent years. We’re better off with this Self Service Repair program in place than we were without it. (Making service manuals available might actually help extend the lifetime of older devices for which Apple no longer sells parts.) But to me it clearly seems to be a small deal, not a “big deal”, as Chen claims.

I agree. It’s a big deal for folks who want to do their own repairs, but for the vast majority, it doesn’t change a thing.

Questions: Will Apple expand the parts they offer for Self Repair beyond those offered in their existing Independent Repair Provider program. For example, will we be able to repair, say, charging ports? Might we be able to buy parts for our devices and bring the part and device to an independent repair shop (perhaps bringing the shop a part they cannot get from Apple)?

If you follow the Right to Repair movement, you are certainly familiar with Louis Rossman. He’s made passing Right to Repair legislation his life’s work.

As you are no doubt aware, yesterday Apple announced their Self Service Repair program. Louis Rossman’s take on the program, laced with a healthy dose of skepticism, is embedded below.

In a nutshell, Louis lays out his issues with Apple’s existing Independent Repair Provider program, and expresses concern that this new Self Service Repair program will suffer from those same issues. If you care about Right to Repair, take the time to watch the video. Louis does make his case about the IRP program pretty clearly.

And he does make this statement:

Do this right, and we can start from scratch, let bygones be bygones, and I will give you all the credit in the world. No shade. I am serious. I have no problem giving Apple credit. Do this right. If they do this right, I will buy and use a Macbook as my daily driver. Not even meming.

I do not see the same downsides in this new program, which is focused on individuals and not shops. No inventory issues (repair shops need to stock parts which, according to Louis, Apple prevents), since individuals will just order what they need. And waiting for a part is no different than waiting for Apple to ship out your device, and does not require a trip to the Apple Store.

One question that Louis does raise, that we won’t know for some time, is how granular a repair Apple’s new program will allow. Can I order just the part I need (say, a $100 MacBook LED display vs a $900 display assembly)? If so, that would be a home run for do-it-yourselfers.