Apple

TSMC announces intention to build and operate an advanced semiconductor fab in the United States

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This is not a rumor. It’s a press release from TSMC itself.

TSMC today announced its intention to build and operate an advanced semiconductor fab in the United States with the mutual understanding and commitment to support from the U.S. federal government and the State of Arizona.

As a reminder, TSMC is a chip fabricator with a long relationship with Apple, starting with the the A5 SoC back in 2011, and is said to be the chip fabricator behind the rumored ARM-based Mac (that last bit is a rumor).

Construction is planned to start in 2021 with production targeted to begin in 2024.

Can’t help but think about the fabled Foxconn plant in Wisconsin.

Rene Ritchie digs into the new, high-end MacBook Pro

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[VIDEO] Lots of detail here, with just a bit on the lower end model (with two ports) and the MacBook Air. But mostly a thoughtful running commentary on the high end model. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Utah rejects Apple-Google exposure notification API, turns to app made by start-up instead

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Kif Leswing, CNBC:

More than 45,000 people have signed up for Utah’s contact tracing app, Healthy Together, since it was released in late April, the app’s developers told CNBC. That represents about 2% of the state’s population, but could still be helpful to the state’s health department as they attempt to track and notify people who might have been exposed.

And:

Healthy Together was built by Twenty, a social media start-up that previously built an app that helps young people meet up in person. After the pandemic started, the state of Utah reached out to the company, the founders said. With their staff of about 50 employees, they repurposed their social media-oriented technology for contact tracing in three weeks.

Privacy? No. Here’s how it works:

“Jeff and Sarah are two individuals in this example who don’t know each other but they both have the app on their phones. And so the both phones are emitting Bluetooth and GPS signals,” Allgood said. “Through that data we can identify whether or not two people have spent some time together.”

Here’s the costs involved:

Utah’s governor’s office spent $2.75 million for the app and other improvements, and will pay $300,000 per month in maintenance fees, according to public records cited by Utahpolicy.com, a website focusing on local politics.

One issue I struggle with, no matter the approach, is adoption. If few people (2% of the population, in Utah’s case) sign up for the app (fair to assume even fewer actually use the app?), can it still be effective?

And with all that juicy data out there, how long until that data finds its way into other hands, hands without the public good at heart?

The user also has a choice to share their location data with the public health department if they test positive, and any Bluetooth or GPS data is deleted after 30 days, Twenty said.

Good to know.

Some iPad Pro users complaining that the Magic Keyboard causes excessive battery drain

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Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

A number of users are now airing their frustrations about battery life issues. A slice of Magic Keyboard owners are noticing that their iPad’s battery drops quickly when using the keyboard with the backlight enabled, and some reports indicate battery drain problems arise even when the iPad is idle and not in use.

I’ve seen a good number of people complain about this on Twitter. Hopefully, this is fixable with a software/firmware patch.

FBI serves warrant on Apple to obtain information from Senator’s iCloud account

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Los Angeles Times:

Federal agents seized a cellphone belonging to a prominent Republican senator on Wednesday night as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into controversial stock trades he made as the novel coronavirus first struck the U.S., a law enforcement official said.

And:

The seizure represents a significant escalation in the investigation into whether Burr violated a law preventing members of Congress from trading on insider information they have gleaned from their official work.

On the Apple side:

A second law enforcement official said FBI agents served a warrant in recent days on Apple to obtain information from Burr’s iCloud account and said agents used data obtained from the California-based company as part of the evidence used to obtain the warrant for the senator’s phone.

I’m curious what part of Burr’s iCloud account the FBI got access to. Was it iCloud Drive? Was it iCloud backup (perhaps Burr’s backup was not set to be encrypted)?

From Apple’s iCloud security overview:

iCloud secures your information by encrypting it when it’s in transit, storing it in iCloud in an encrypted format, and using secure tokens for authentication. For certain sensitive information, Apple uses end-to-end encryption. This means that only you can access your information, and only on devices where you’re signed into iCloud. No one else, not even Apple, can access end-to-end encrypted information.

For a clue on what information might have been available to the FBI, take a look at Section III of Apple’s Legal Process Guidelines (H/T Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider).

Bit of a rabbit hole there, but an interesting read. Seems clear the FBI got what they needed.

Apple plans to return more staff to offices in break from rivals

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Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. plans to soon start returning more employees to its major global offices while other tech companies are continuing work-from-home policies through at least the end of 2020 due to Covid-19.

And:

The first phase, which includes staff members who can’t work remotely or are facing challenges working from home, has already begun in some regions globally. It will expand to major offices across late May and early June, Apple has told staff.

See also, Twitter Will Allow Employees To Work At Home Forever.

Apple urges ambitious Chinese supplier to challenge Foxconn

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Nikkei Asian Review:

Apple has advised one of its Chinese AirPods assemblers to make a major investment in an iPhone and MacBook metal casing provider, a move the California tech titan hopes will create a formidable alternative to another of its longtime suppliers, Taiwan’s Foxconn, multiple sources told the Nikkei Asian Review.

And:

The deal, if realized, would give Luxshare the ability to produce high-quality metal casing as well as access to smartphone assembly know-how, which would take it a step closer to becoming the Chinese version of Foxconn — a single company with operations that span nearly the entire electronics supply chain. Such a move could ultimately help Luxshare grab a share of iPhone production, which ships around 200 million units each year.

Good move to diversify the supply chain. Interesting that that diversification brings Apple deeper into China.

Second gen AirPods (not Pro) get new firmware

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The AirPods Pro got their new firmware update last week. Now that same firmware version is rolling out to the second generation of the original AirPods.

To check your firmware, go to:

Settings > General > About > (Your AirPods)

Interestingly, my second gen AirPods grabbed that since-pulled 2C54 firmware update and have still not updated. No clue how long they’ll be stuck on 2C54 and there’s no way to force an update.

The amazing lever mechanism at the heart of the iPad Pro Magic Keyboard trackpad

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iFixit updated their iPad Pro Magic Keyboard teardown with a look underneath the trackpad.

Take a minute, follow the headline link, scroll about halfway down the page to that GIF showing the innards of the trackpad, with a finger pressing the switch to show how it works.

What looks like multiple buttons in the X-ray is actually just one button and a simple, elegant lever system. The single button is at the center of the trackpad, where the mechanism is rigid. When you apply pressure near the center, whether top, middle, or bottom-center, you are directly pressing the button. Press near the top, bottom, or one of the corners, however, and the lever system comes into play, forcing the contact plate in the center upward to make a click happen.

To quote Phil Schiller, Can’t innovate anymore my ass!

All the gear that goes into capturing Google Street Views

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This article popped up on Hacker News this morning, though it is dated December 20th. Glad it did. Fascinating read, with lots of photos of the various gear used to create Street View models.

I’d love a similar detailed look at Apple’s mapping gear.

Some of the world’s best cloud talent is assembling in an unlikely place: Apple

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Protocol:

It’s getting cloudy over at Apple.

Nice little turn of phrase there, Tom Krazit!

A new book from BuzzFeed News’ Alex Kantrowitz reported that Apple’s internal engineering teams operate “in a state of tumult,” staffed by contractors from different firms that find themselves in constant conflict over resources and priorities. “Until Apple gives the division a hard look, its employees will be stuck spending their time reworking broken internal software, and wishing they were inventing instead,” he wrote.

The book in question is Always Day One, released April 7th.

In late 2018, Apple announced plans to invest $10 billion in data center construction over the next five years, adding capacity in Iowa alongside five existing data centers.

I’ve always wondered when Apple would follow their “own the entire stack” approach (that has seen them use their chip-design prowess to create and extend their hardware lead in the phone space) to wean themselves from dependence on Amazon’s cloud expertise as “one of AWS’ biggest customers”.

Looks like that day is arriving.

Apple unveils biggest update to Logic since the launch of Logic Pro X

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Apple:

Apple today unveiled a major update to Logic Pro X with a professional version of Live Loops, a completely redesigned sampling workflow, and new beat-making tools.

Just one example of the new tools Logic rolled out:

With Live Loops on the Mac, Logic users can now create music in new freeform and nonlinear ways. Loops, samples, and recordings can be organized into a new musical grid, where musicians can spontaneously perform and capture different arrangement ideas into the timeline.

And:

Logic Pro X has been optimized to take advantage of the latest Mac hardware and the power of macOS, delivering incredible performance when working with the most demanding projects with thousands of tracks and hundreds of real-time plug-ins.

If you use Logic Pro X, spend a few minutes reading Apple’s press release. There’s a lot of new stuff to play with. Better yet, jump to Apple’s Logic Pro page. There’s a ton to absorb.

Props to Apple for keeping this a free upgrade.

Side note: I wonder what is meant by “latest Mac hardware”? Does this include the new 13″ MacBook Pro? The picture in the release shows the Mac Pro, released last December. Hoping the optimizations apply to the later laptops too.

COVID-19: Which Apple Stores have reopened?

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Michael Steeber has pulled together an interactive map of US Apple Store openings.

Follow the link above and uncheck the Temporarily Closed checkbox to see US Apple Stores reopening this week.

I asked, Michael said he’d keep updating the map over time, so bookmark the link if you’re interested. Anyone know of such a map for the rest of the world’s Apple Stores?

How to mirror your Apple TV to your Mac

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Josh Centers, TidBITS:

A reader recently emailed me to ask how to mirror an Apple TV on a Mac. There are two main reasons you might want to do this: to capture screenshots or video for documentation, or so you can give a remote presentation that involves the Apple TV.

Interesting that the only requirement with the current model is that both your Apple TV and your Mac be on the same WiFi network.

The secrets behind the runaway success of Apple’s AirPods

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Not sure there are a lot of secrets revealed here, but this is an interesting read.

A few callouts:

“It was almost like wildfire how quickly it spread,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of product marketing, says. “It’s done even better than we could ever imagine.”

And:

Compared with, say, the Apple Watch, which took years to gain momentum, AirPods are a much easier, and cheaper, product to market. “Everyone’s using a smartphone, and so therefore headphones,” says Neil Cybart, founder of Apple analyst firm Above Avalon, “whereas the younger demographic is moving away from wristwatches.”

And:

According to Joswiak, Apple “had a vision for our wireless future for many years” before the first AirPods were unveiled. “We had this incredible wireless product, the iPhone,” he says. “And yet, what began to feel odd is when you saw somebody using wired headphones. Right then you thought, why would you attach the wire?”

When was the last time you saw someone wearing old-school wired Apple EarPods? Apple got rid of the floppy/CD drives when they were still widely used. Same with the headphone jack. Looking back, the “courage” decision has turned into an unquestioned success for Apple.

Comparing the base 13-inch MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air

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Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

Apple recently updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the $1,299 base model remains a popular alternative to the $999 MacBook Air. To help with your buying decision, read our comparison of the notebooks below.

This comes up a lot. Is it worth the extra $300 for the 13-inch MacBook Pro? Where’s the value?

If you are considering this question, dig in. Obviously, the choice depends on what you’ll be doing, and how much you care about the display, speakers, Touch Bar, speakers, processing speed. The article lays out the specifics.

Thunderbolt security vulnerabilities and the Mac

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The linked Thunderbolt security report details 7 specific vulnerability scenarios. I can only imagine that Apple is long aware of these and will address them.

One in particular I found interesting is the weakness on Macs that run Boot Camp:

Apple supports running Windows on Mac systems using the Boot Camp utility. Aside from Windows, this utility may also be used to install Linux. When running either operating system, Mac UEFI disables all Thunderbolt security by employing the Security Level “None” (SL0). As such, this vulnerability subjects the Mac system to trivial Thunderbolt-based DMA attacks.

The way I read it, the vulnerabilities occur when a device is allowed to update its firmware. A Mac running Boot Camp disables Thunderbolt security and opens the door for attack. Here’s detail on the DMA attack.

Apple COO Jeff Williams talks supply chain and optimism

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Solid interview with Apple COO Jeff Williams. It’s an easy watch, about 3 minutes long, and packed with interesting comments about the supply chain, opening Apple Stores, and Apple’s response to leakers and bloggers.

Apple rolls out Apple Store Online, a one stop Apple shopping hub

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When I want to shop Apple online, I tend to go to apple.com and pick a product category from the menu bar at the top of that main page.

If I want support for a product, or find info about Apple Store hours or Genius Bar appointments, all bets are off. More times than not, I end up doing a Google search to find the right link.

With Apple’s Apple Store Online hub, things like chatting with a specialist, getting help with trade-ins, financing, order tracking, and Genius Bar appointments just got a bit easier to find.

Here’s a link to the new hub. Worth taking a minute to swipe through it, just to get a sense of the options available. Don’t miss that “Find a store” link at the bottom.

‘Defending Jacob’ is shaping up as an Apple TV+ breakout hit

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Nellie Andreeva, Deadline:

According to sources, Defending Jacob ranks among the top three series premieres for Apple TV+, logging a big opening weekend with viewership continuing to build in Week 2 and the audience growing by five times in its first 10 days (April 24-May 3) to rank among the two fastest-growing series premieres for Apple TV+.

And:

Defending Jacob also is believed to be setting Apple TV+ records for viewer engagement. The vast majority of viewers who sampled the show during its premiere weekend watched all three available episodes, and nearly all who watched those also completed the fourth episode released May 1, I have learned.

Episode 5 of Defending Jacob is scheduled to drop today.

Facebook SDK crashing a ton of apps on the iOS App Store

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Guilherme Rambo, on Twitter yesterday:

https://twitter.com/_inside/status/1258168816623923201

Amazing how many apps depend on the Facebook SDK. All of them started crashing, without warning, last night. Some developers worked out their own workarounds, other apps remained broken. Facebook seems to have identified a fix which is said to be rolling out now.

From Gui Rambo’s (headline linked) blog post:

The issue was caused by some bad data being sent by Facebook’s server to their SDK, which caused code in the SDK to crash, which in turn brought down the app that was running the SDK. Since this happened during the initialization of the SDK — something that occurs right after launching the app — the apps simply became unusable.

And:

You know how people are saying these days that it’s dangerous how companies like Apple and Google control their ecosystems, to the point of accusing them of monopoly? I’m not going to dismiss that completely here, but I think we have a much bigger problem that’s been lurking in our apps for several years, unnoticed: third-party SDK creep.

On a similar note, this blog post shock wave announcement from Wink:

Since 2014, Wink has grown to support more than 4 million connected devices. During this time, Wink has relied solely on the one-time fee derived from hardware sales to cover ongoing cloud costs, development, and customer support. Providing users with local and remote access to their devices will always come at a cost for Wink, and over the years we have made great progress toward reducing these costs so that we can maintain that feature.

And:

We have a lot of great ideas on how to expand on Wink’s capabilities and satisfy the many requests from our user base. In order to provide for development and continued growth, we are transitioning to a $4.99 monthly subscription, starting on May 13, 2020.

And:

Should you choose not to sign up for a subscription you will no longer be able to access your Wink devices from the app.

Dependence on any single technology or company can produce unwelcome surprises. As we were reminded last night.

Without Apple and Google, the UK’s contact-tracing app is in trouble

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James Vincent, The Verge:

A beta app launched by the UK this week shows the huge challenges they face and, crucially, the difficulty in designing an effective app without the help of the tech giants that make our phones.

And:

Instead of decentralizing the data across devices, the UK will pool the information it collects in a single database operated by the National Health Service.

And:

In addition to privacy issues, researchers have identified a major problem in the UK’s efforts to build an app without Google and Apple: it simply won’t work as advertised.

One major problem is Bluetooth pinging. From this Register article:

Apple’s iOS normally forbids applications from broadcasting via Bluetooth when running in the background. That means you would have to leave a contact-tracing app open in the foreground all the time for it to work properly.

Read both articles for the details but, in a nutshell, the centralized data pooling approach seems to rely on people leaving their app running in the foreground (rendering the phone useless for all other purposes, not going to happen) or negotiating exceptions with Apple to allow Bluetooth to ping in the background.

Apple TV+ offers tour of For All Mankind moon base

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[VIDEO] From the video writeup:

Take a guided tour of For All Mankind’s first lunar base. Former Astronaut and technical advisor Garrett Reisman helps show us around Jamestown.

Pretty well done. Video embedded in main Loop post.

More Apple TV confusion

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Benjamin Mayo:

The Library may share the same tab bar as the other buttons in the TV app but they are otherwise disconnected. It’s like having two separate apps rolled into one, each with their own UI components and each operating on a different set of data. It’s like having two people living in the same house that do not talk to each other. For the Library tab, Apple essentially took the old iOS Videos app and transposed it as one screen inside of TV.

They didn’t modernise it all, and its age shows through.

And:

Everything is just very disjointed, both in concept and in their underlying implementations. A better TV app would have everything holistically driven by the same shared data source. You should be able to add any show to your library; it shouldn’t matter if that show is backed by a physical file on disk or not. The Apple Music app does a much better job at unifying the deprecated iTunes Store and the modern subscription-based experience.

Couldn’t agree more. I spend a fair amount of my TV watching experience in the Apple TV ecosystem. I would be more than happy to live in the TV app, consume all my content from that one focused source. But as is, things are just too confusing. Drives me to the individual apps, with their myriad ways of doing things. Confusing switching contexts, too. I’d love a rewrite.

Apple Watch and iPhone can automatically send vital Medical ID info to first responders in iOS 13.5

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Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:

Apple Watch and iPhone have supported a feature called Medical ID that lets you collect critical health data in one place. Medical ID can include your contact information, date of birth, medical conditions, blood type, and more.

And:

iPhone and Apple Watch offer a separate feature called Emergency SOS. When you hold down the Side Button on an iPhone and Apple Watch for several seconds, the device can call local emergency services for you.

And:

What’s new in iOS 13.5 and watchOS 6.2.5 is a new capability that connects Medical ID and Emergency SOS together. Starting later this month, customers can opt into a new Emergency SOS feature that automatically shares Medical ID information with emergency services.

Nice evolution.