Apple

Apple taps drone specialist to lobby Washington on aviation

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Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. has engaged a specialist in drone and aviation law as a Washington lobbyist, suggesting the company is pushing further into the growing field.

The Cupertino, California-based tech giant retained Lisa Ellman, a parter at Hogan Lovells, to conduct the lobbying. Ellman leads the law firm’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems practice. She also co-founded the Commercial Drone Alliance and is working to expand the commercial drone industry, according to her biography online.

And:

The company used drones a few years ago to help it collect mapping data. In December, it met with regulators about a proposed law that would require drones to sport virtual license plates. The company also sells several drones from DJI through the Apple website and Apple retail stores.

And:

Apple has a team exploring satellites, a type of unmanned aircraft, and Ellman could assist in regulatory efforts that would need to be conducted to launch such an effort. Apple rivals, including Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc., have developed drones in recent years.

Drones are certainly a massive business, especially on the military side. Does this connect to Apple’s reported autonomous vehicle efforts? Does this simply fall under miscellaneous?

Why everyone is copying AirPods

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[VIDEO] MKBHD is answering an obvious question here. It’s all about the money.

But watch it anyway (video embedded in the main Loop post). I found this a fascinating dive into the AirPods business, starting with Phil Schiller’s “courage” announcement, then branching into Apple’s success and everyone else revving up their copiers.

An avenue by which it might be technically possible to give an iPhone ‘the software equivalent of cancer’

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Nick Heer, on the FBI asking Apple for a backdoor version of iOS:

At no point — then or now — has Cook or anyone at Apple publicly confirmed how such a backdoor may be installed, or if it’s even possible. Presumably, it would use the iOS update mechanism, but how could permission be granted if the passcode to the iPhone isn’t known?

Nick then takes a Mac with a clean Catalina install, and an iPhone that has never been connected to that Mac, creating a simulation of a stolen, locked iPhone. He then installs an iOS update on that iPhone, all done without entering a passcode.

That said:

To be clear, my iPhone still prompted for its passcode when the update had finished its installation process. This did not magically unlock my iPhone. It also doesn’t prove that passcode preferences could be changed without first entering the existing valid passcode.

But it did prove the existence of one channel where an iPhone could be forced to update to a compromised version of iOS. One that would be catastrophic in its implications for iPhones today, into the future, and for encrypted data in its entirety. It is possible; it is terrible.

Does Nick’s experiment show a weakness in the process? Could a compromised iOS update be added which disables the passcode?

Certainly interesting. Taking this with a grain of salt, at least until someone follows this all the way through and unlocks an iPhone using this approach. Which I hope never happens.

Spike Jonze’s ‘Beastie Boys Story’ lands at Apple TV+

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Hollywood Reporter:

The Apple streamer has picked up the documentary about the legendary hip-hop group directed by Spike Jonze and featuring Grammy Award-winning bandmembers Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz talking about their music career and 40-year friendship.

And:

A special cut of the feature documentary will open exclusively in select Imax theaters for a limited run from April 3, before the film debuts globally on Apple TV+ on April 24.

Looking forward to this one. Hoping there’s a good amount of focus on Def Jam and Rick Rubin. From the Beastie Boys Wikipedia page:

Following the success of “Cooky Puss”, the Beastie Boys began to incorporate rap into their sets. They hired a DJ for their live shows, New York University student Rick Rubin, who began producing records soon thereafter. He formed Def Jam Recordings with fellow NYU student Russell Simmons, and approached the band about producing them for his new label.

As important a subject as the Beasties are, I think Rick Rubin is an even more important figure in the tree of musical history. Would love to see Apple produce a Rick Rubin doc as a follow-on.

Using an iPad Pro to create posters for Apple TV+ shows

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[VIDEO] These two videos, released yesterday by Apple, act as ads for both Apple TV+ and the iPad Pro (videos embedded in main Loop post). They also serve to highlight artists and their specific techniques.

Some great artwork. Watching these two, it struck me how incredibly complex these posters are, how many layers they each had.

I’m told that that “layers rendering slowly” effect is a feature of Procreate, gives the artist a chance to see all the elements fall into place, something the iPad Pro renders too quickly to see without help.

Apple takes a (cautious) stand against opening a killer’s iPhones

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Inflammatory headline aside, this New York Times piece is chock full of interesting quotes:

Executives at Apple have been surprised by the case’s quick escalation, said people familiar with the company who were not authorized to speak publicly. And there is frustration and skepticism among some on the Apple team working on the issue that the Justice Department hasn’t spent enough time trying to get into the iPhones with third-party tools, said one person with knowledge of the matter.

And:

The stakes are high for Mr. Cook, who has built an unusual alliance with President Trump that has helped Apple largely avoid damaging tariffs in the trade war with China. That relationship will now be tested as Mr. Cook confronts Mr. Barr, one of the president’s closest allies.

And:

At the heart of the tussle is a debate between Apple and the government over whether security or privacy trumps the other. Apple has said it chooses not to build a “backdoor” way for governments to get into iPhones and to bypass encryption because that would create a slippery slope that could damage people’s privacy.

And:

Bruce Sewell, Apple’s former general counsel who helped lead the company’s response in the San Bernardino case, said in an interview last year that Mr. Cook had staked his reputation on the stance. Had Apple’s board not agreed with the position, Mr. Cook was prepared to resign, Mr. Sewell said.

And:

Mr. Cook has made privacy one of Apple’s core values. That has set Apple apart from tech giants like Facebook and Google, which have faced scrutiny for vacuuming up people’s data to sell ads.

“It’s brilliant marketing,” Scott Galloway, a New York University marketing professor who has written a book on the tech giants, said of Apple. “They’re so concerned with your privacy that they’re willing to wave the finger at the F.B.I.”

And:

A Justice Department spokeswoman said in an email: “Apple designed these phones and implemented their encryption. It’s a simple, ‘front-door’ request: Will Apple help us get into the shooter’s phones or not?”

This is a giant issue. I don’t think there’s any way for a master encryption key to be created that won’t eventually get leaked or stolen.

If such a key was created, is there a case so important that would make putting that key in the hands of the world at large worth the risk? To me, that’s the heart of the dilemma.

Benjamin Mayo: Text selection on iOS 13, one way it is a downgrade from iOS 12

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[VIDEO] I find text cursor placement in iOS 13 a vast improvement over the same in iOS 12. The team clearly recognized the problem of your finger blocking your target, giving you the ability to easily grab and drag the text cursor from place to place, making the “drag cursor” both large and a bit raised so your finger doesn’t get in your way.

As Benjamin Mayo points out in the video embedded in the main Loop post, text selection is a different beast. I find this true, especially when you try to select text or place the cursor in the Safari address bar.

Watch, judge for yourself.

Apple’s official response to AG Barr over unlocking Pensacola shooter’s phone

Written by

Input:

Earlier today Attorney General William Barr called on Apple to unlock the alleged phone of the Pensacola shooter — a man who murdered three people and injured eight others on a Naval base in Florida in December. Apple has responded by essentially saying: “no.”

I disagree with this characterization. Read Apple’s response. It’s more nuanced. If I had to capture it simply, I’d quote this paragraph:

We have always maintained there is no such thing as a backdoor just for the good guys. Backdoors can also be exploited by those who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers. Today, law enforcement has access to more data than ever before in history, so Americans do not have to choose between weakening encryption and solving investigations. We feel strongly encryption is vital to protecting our country and our users’ data.

Follow the headline link, read Apple’s response for yourself.

Gruber: How to add “Quit Confirmation” to macOS Safari

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One of the first anomalies I came across in my life of Mac was that you could never quit the Finder. Everything else (mostly) responded to Command-Q, but the Finder was backstopped.

But I digress.

One of the apps that I almost never quit is Safari. If I quit, it’s usually because something went wrong and I need a fresh start. But that rarely ever happens. Safari has gotten better and better over the years at isolating problems, meaning I can usually solve any issues by closing a problematic tab.

Like Caps-lock, the Safari Command-Q is ripe for replacement. John Gruber:

I don’t accidentally quit Safari often, but it does happen. And it’s mildly annoying every time. The last time it happened, I resolved to fix it myself. That’s where my AppleScript comes in.

AppleScript is free, this is worth a look, especially if you’ve never used AppleScript before.

As John footnotes, there is another, simpler solution:

If the only thing you want to do is disable ⌘Q in Safari (or any other shortcut, in any other app, for that matter), the easiest thing to do is use the Keyboards panel in System Prefs (then go to Shortcuts: App Shortcuts) to either set Safari’s shortcut for File → Quit to nothing at all, or to something you won’t hit accidentally, like, say, Control-Option-Shift-Command-Q. Almost no work at all, no third-party software required.

I like the experiment. If you do take it on, be sure to read Gruber’s article in full.

AirPods Pro firmware update shows “fairly significant drop” in noise cancelation, “significantly better” frequency response

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Via MacRumors, RTINGS.com published updates to their AirPods Pro analysis, in response to firmware update 2C54.

Follow the headline link and search for the word Update. There are a number of them, all dated 1/10/2020.

The most significant negative:

After updating to Firmware 2C54, we retested the headphones and our results showed a fairly significant drop in isolation performance, primarily in the bass-range. This means that with ANC turned on, these headphones won’t do nearly as good a job blocking out the low engine rumbles of planes or buses as they did before this update.

From the MacRumors post:

Apple pulled the 2C54 firmware only days after its release, so it is presumably working on the issues described. You can tell what firmware version you have by going to Settings -> General -> About -> AirPods Pro.

UPDATE: A Loop reader offered this comment:

In my opinion, the difference is huge! I initially thought my AirPods were not working well. Many times a day I would me moving them in my ears to see if I could get a better fit. Grabbed my dad’s AirPod Pros, and the noise cancellation was amazing.

Today with the news, I checked my AirPods, and saw I had the bad update. Checked my dad’s AirPods, his still running the old firmware. Re-did my Ear Tip Fit Test using my AirPods and it now says that it’s not a perfect fit. When I bought it, it said it was.

Anecdotal, but from a source who knows this space. I hope Apple fixes this.

Low power mode for Mac laptops

Written by

Marco Arment:

Modern hardware constantly pushes thermal and power limits, trying to strike a balance that minimizes noise and heat while maximizing performance and battery life.

And:

Apple’s customers don’t usually have control over these balances, and they’re usually fixed at design time with little opportunity to adapt to changing circumstances or customer priorities.

The sole exception, Low Power Mode on iOS, seems to be a huge hit: by offering a single toggle that chooses a different balance, people are able to greatly extend their battery life when they know they’ll need it.

Mac laptops need Low Power Mode, too.

Marco digs into the benefits of disabling Turbo Boost, in effect, offering a low power mode that helps your MacBook run significantly cooler, likely extending battery life as a result.

The one remaining use of the word “Macintosh”

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Adam Engst, TidBITS:

A quick quiz—just answer quickly, without thinking about it: Are you a Macintosh user?

I’m not actually interested in what computer you use, but your reaction to the word “Macintosh.” If you didn’t blink at it, you’ve probably been using Macs for over two decades, whereas if it sounds funny, or even entirely foreign, your experience with Macs is probably shorter. Or you respond well to branding changes.

If you are a Mac user, think about where you might encounter the word Macintosh. Interesting post.

Apple shares goal of “closed-loop” manufacturing that does not rely on the mining industry

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Reuters:

Apple Inc. is trying to change the way electronics are recycled with a robot that disassembles its iPhone so that minerals can be recovered and reused, while acknowledging rising global demand for electronics means new mines will still be needed.

Daisy, Apple’s recycling robot, is not news. But this is an interesting slant:

The Cupertino, California-based company says the robot is part of its plan to become a “closed-loop” manufacturer that does not rely on the mining industry, an aggressive goal that some industry analysts have said is impossible.

And:

“There’s this ego that believes they can get all their minerals back, and it’s not possible,” said Kyle Wiens, chief executive of iFixit, a firm advocating for electronics repair, rather than replacement.

Ego or not, I applaud this effort. The more rare earths that can be reclaimed, reused, the less we have to pull out of the ground. And the less dependent we are on specific regions where rare earths can be found.

Apple slashes estimated trade-in values of iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models overnight

Written by

Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

Yesterday on Apple’s device trade-in program web page, the iPhone XS Max had an estimated trade-in value of up to $600, but today Apple is only offering up to $500 –– a full $100 less than it did 24 hours ago. The only devices that have been spared reductions are the MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, Mac mini, and ‌Apple Watch‌ Series 1, 2, and 3.

Follow the headline link for details on old vs. new trade-in pricing.

There’s a benefit, to me at least, of bringing your old iPhone to the Apple Store, doing the transfer from old to new, then leaving with a complete transaction, no need to worry over packaging up your old iPhone and fretting over the pricing you get.

But at some point, that trade-in number matters, tips the scale, makes the search for a better trade-in deal worth the hassle. This that point for you?

BeOS, the OS that almost saved Apple

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Back in the day, Apple was beleaguered, and made the decision to acquire an OS from outside the company to come in and save the day, pave a new path for Apple.

The choice was narrowed down to, of course, Steve Jobs and NeXT, and a little known company called Be, Inc, with an OS called BeOS. The company was founded by long-time Apple exec Jean-Louis Gassée.

The linked article tells a bit of the Be side of the story.

Future iPhones may act as emergency beacons even without cell service

Written by

William Gallagher, AppleInsider:

A new Emergency Power Save Mode (EPSM) will be able to broadcast a distress signal in multiple different ways while also minimizing battery use in order to keep the device working until the user is rescued.

This is from a patent application. No guarantee we’ll ever see this in a shipping iPhone, but I do like the idea.

Can Rob McElhenney’s ‘Mythic Quest’ help Apple build its programming brand?

Written by

Variety:

When Rob McElhenney was initially approached by Ubisoft about writing a series set in the video game industry, he was reluctant: He didn’t see a way into that world. But when the company invited him to tour its Montreal headquarters, he figured there was nothing to lose. Once there, he found the inspiration he needed.

And:

The resulting series, “Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet,” is set to launch on Apple TV Plus on Feb. 7.

I’m really looking forward to this series. Funny is not easy. And this will be Apple’s first kick at this particular genre. My two cents, they’ve picked a good team for their first comedy.

The Variety piece goes into a lot of detail on this show, and on the Apple TV+ show launch process. There are issues to address, but it does seem as if Apple’s team is learning, and making changes where needed. Apple TV+ is a long play and, in my mind, seems like a winner.

Gruber: The Concept Electronics Show

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Interesting post from John Gruber about the Consumer Electronics Show being all about concepts, and most frequently, concepts that will never become products.

But where it really hit home for me was when John turned to Apple and, more specifically, this anecdote from Lev Grossman’s Time Magazine profile of Steve Jobs from 2005:

“You know how you see a show car, and it’s really cool, and then four years later you see the production car, and it sucks? And you go, What happened? They had it! They had it in the palm of their hands! They grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory!”

And:

When Jobs took up his present position at Apple in 1997, that’s the situation he found. He and Jonathan Ive, head of design, came up with the original iMac, a candy-colored computer merged with a cathode-ray tube that, at the time, looked like nothing anybody had seen outside of a Jetsons cartoon. “Sure enough,” Jobs recalls, “when we took it to the engineers, they said, ‘Oh.’ And they came up with 38 reasons. And I said, ‘No, no, we’re doing this.’ And they said, ‘Well, why?’ And I said, ‘Because I’m the CEO, and I think it can be done.’ And so they kind of begrudgingly did it. But then it was a big hit.”

Great read, all the way through.

Apple Pay glitch saddles NYC straphangers with accidental charges

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Love a good NY Post headline.

From the article:

The OMNY tap-and-go fare readers have been taking a $2.75 charge from people who have enabled a passcode-skipping Apply Pay service — which allows straphangers to enter the subway with a swipe of their iPhone at the turnstile — even while trying to use a regular MetroCard.

And:

MTA Chief Revenue Officer Al Putre confirmed that “about 30 customers” had complained about “unintended charges when the Express Transit feature of their iPhones is activated.”

And:

An Apple rep said the company has not had the issue in other cities where the Express Transit feature is available.

If 30 customers complained, my bet is there is a pool of people who were charged, but didn’t notice it.

That said, the fact that this appears to be specific to the OMNY contactless fare payment system makes me think this is an implementation issue, maybe a hardware issue, not necessary a flaw in Apple Pay. We’ll see.

Apple announces Night Mode photo contest

Written by

Apple:

Apple is starting the new year by celebrating more captivating ways to shoot on iPhone with an all-new Night mode photo challenge. Users are invited to share their impressive Night mode images captured with iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Beginning today through January 29, Apple is in search of the most stunning Night mode shots from users around the world. A panel of select judges will evaluate submissions to reveal five winning photos on March 4.

Follow the headline link, check out some of the examples. Some amazing shots.

Wonder if this contest will tip someone towards an iPhone 11 purchase.

Oh Samsung

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The headline of the linked iMore article says it all:

“Samsung’s at it again and this time it stole Apple’s Face ID icon”

I can’t even. Why, Samsung, why?

How I modded the silicone tips of AirPods Pro with a memory foam layer

Written by

Federico Viticci, MacStories:

I love my AirPods Pro and, ever since I bought them last October, I’ve been taking advantage of their noise cancellation technology to use them in more contexts than the original AirPods.

And:

There’s one thing I don’t particularly like about them, though: the default silicone tips.

Whether you can’t get a well-sealed fit with any of the AirPods Pro tips, or if you are after a more comfortable fit, take a few minutes to read Federico’s journey. Hard to explain it here, but just scroll through the images in Federico’s post and you’ll get a sense of how he used memory foam from another pair of headphones to make a much better fit, one that offers a better seal.

Ten years of Apple on one page

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Incredible piece of work, a real labor of love, pulled together by Benjamin Mayo for 9to5Mac.

Follow the headline link, scroll through the headlines that defined Apple’s past decade. Wave after wave of Apple nostalgia.

Apple shares some historic Services numbers

Written by

Apple:

Apple has marked the close of a historic 2019 for its Services offerings, a year that introduced Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple News+ and Apple Card, and celebrated the continued success of the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud and more experiences only Apple can create and deliver.

And:

Since the App Store launched in 2008, developers have earned over $155 billion, with a quarter of those earnings coming from the past year alone. As a measure of the excitement going into 2020, App Store customers spent a record $1.42 billion between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, a 16 percent increase over last year, and $386 million on New Year’s Day 2020 alone, a 20 percent increase over last year and a new single-day record.

That second paragraph is packed with interesting info. A quarter of all App Store earnings, since 2008, came in 2019. That’s remarkable.

And $386 million on New Year’s Day? Does that indicate a ton of new Apple product unwrapped over the holidays? Is New Year’s Day the day people kick back, relax, and start customizing their devices?

No matter, some incredible success for Apple. Congrats to the Services team.

Desktop-class Safari for iPad: A hands-on look at the difference the iPadOS update makes to Apple’s browser

Written by

John Voorhees, MacStories:

With the release of iPadOS 13, Safari took a big step forward as a ‘desktop-class’ browser with a wide variety of enhancements that collectively eliminate a long list of complaints leveled against the app in the past. Safari’s ability to dynamically adjust the viewport to fit the iPad’s screen, enhanced support for pointer events, hardware-accelerated scrolling of frames and other regions of a webpage, along with other under-the-hood changes add up to a genuinely new browsing experience that has made work in sophisticated web apps like Mailchimp a viable option for the first time.

Great read. John Voorhees uses a specific use case to make clear the value of desktop Safari on iPadOS 13. To me, this is one of the tethers keeping me tied to my Mac falling away.

Apple plans to switch to randomized serial numbers for future products starting in late 2020

Written by

MacRumors:

Apple has indicated that it plans to update its serial number format to a randomized alphanumeric string for future products starting in late 2020. Apple says all serial numbers that exist before the change is made will remain the same.

And:

Apple already uses alphanumeric serial numbers, but it has long been possible to determine the date and location that a product was manufactured based on the current format.

Interesting.