Alexa.com (via MJTsai’s blog):

We will be retiring Alexa.com on May 1, 2022

Twenty-five years ago, we founded Alexa Internet. After two decades of helping you find, reach, and convert your digital audience, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Alexa.com on May 1, 2022. Thank you for making us your go-to resource for content research, competitive analysis, keyword research, and so much more.

Alexa.com was the go-to site to check web traffic. Back in the day, there were a handful of companies that regularly dominated the web traffic rankings. Memory serves, nytimes.com and Kottke.org were always near the top of the list.

From the Alexa Wikipedia page:

Alexa was founded as an independent company in 1996 and acquired by Amazon in 1999 for $250 million in stock.

Have to wonder when Amazon made the decision to use that name for its voice assistant and how much it helped that decision that they owned this domain.

Also wondering why they are shutting down the site. Is something new coming to Alexa.com, or is this purely not a viable business for Amazon?

Reddit user Heyyoudvd:

I’m not sure if anyone is interested in this, but I recently got a call from Tim Cook’s office, which I thought was pretty cool.

This is a pretty good read, very interesting to see things that catch Tim and team’s attention.

Once you’re done reading all about App Privacy Report and adding a Legacy Contact, follow the headline link and allow Juli Clover, MacRumors, to walk you through all the rest of the goodies that came with iOS 15.2.

There really is just a ton of new stuff. If nothing else, scan all the headlines just so you are aware of what’s new.

No one likes to think about death. Of course. But do spend a few minutes thinking about adding a legacy contact to your Apple ID. Or helping your again relatives add legacy contacts to their Apple ID. It’s important.

Follow the headline link for all the details but in a nutshell:

Starting in iOS 15.2, iPadOS 15.2, and macOS 12.1, Apple users can add a Legacy Contact for their Apple ID. Adding a Legacy Contact is the easiest, most secure way to give someone they trust access to the data they stored in their Apple account after they pass away. This data may include photos, messages, notes, files, apps they downloaded, device backups, and more.

And, very importantly:

Certain information, like movies, music, books, or subscriptions they purchased with their Apple ID, and data stored in their Keychain, like payment information and passwords, can’t be accessed by a Legacy Contact.

To add a Legacy Contact on your iPhone:

• In Settings, tap your name
• Now tap Password & Security > Legacy Contact
• Tap Add Legacy Contact

You’ll get an access key, which you’ll share with your Legacy Contact. The choosing of your contact and the sharing of the access key is all part of the process. Apple makes this very easy.

To access your account, your LC will need that access key, along with a death certificate. Meaning, they won’t be able to access your account while you are still alive.

Here’s a link to the page that lets you request access to a deceased friend or family member’s account.

Kirk McElhearn, Intego blog:

A new feature in iOS and iPadOS 15.2 is the App Privacy Report. Your iPhone or iPad can record and display activity carried out by apps, such as which apps access your location, contacts, or photos, which apps access a network, websites that contact trackers, and more. You can then view a detailed report of this activity over the past seven days.

To turn on App Privacy Report (can’t think of a reason not to):

• Go to Settings > Privacy > App Privacy Report
• Tap “Turn On App Privacy Report”

That’s it. The results will start appearing on that same page as you start using various apps.

Kirk’s walkthrough is worth reading. He does a great job painting a picture of what kinds of results you might see, how to dig into those results, and what the data actually indicates.

Bookmark, pass along.

Unite 4 for macOS allows you to turn any website into an app on your Mac. Using a lightweight, WebKit powered browser as a backend, you can easily create isolated, customizable apps from any site.

Unite 4 includes dozens of new features, including support for native notifications, new customization options, M1 support, and much more. Unite apps also serve as a great alternative for resource hogging Electron apps or half-baked Catalyst apps.

Some examples of apps you could create in mere minutes with Unite:

• A Gmail web client that behaves like a native mail client.
• A status bar app for Apple Music or Overcast
• An isolated workspace for apps that may track you like Facebook
• A lightweight and power efficient version of Slack, Discord, or Whatsapp with full notification support
• A fully featured Instagram app that has a resizable window, unlike the M1 version.
• A Robinhood, Figma, or Roam Research app for your desktop.

The Loop readers get 20% off this week when you purchase Unite 4 or when you use the promo code ‘LOOPINSIGHT’ at checkout.

You can also try Unite for 14 days absolutely free or use it as part of your subscription if you’re a Setapp subscriber!

Ankur Thakur, iDownloadBlog, walks through all the different ways you can use Shazam on your iPhone and, more importantly, shows you how to find your multiple Shazam histories. Yes, multiple histories.

1. On iPhone, launch the iTunes Store app, the tap the Siri tab. That’s the list of songs you asked Siri to identify
2. Launch the Shazam app, tap the My Music sheet at the bottom of the screen. A different list, songs you’ve used the app to identify
3. Pull down on Control Center, press and hold the Shazam icon (assuming it’s installed in Control Center) for yet a third list.

Read the article, it’s well done, there’s lots more to it. Don’t miss the bit about automatically creating a playlist of your Shazam requests.

Click the headline link to see the current stock price. Look at the data table for the term market cap.

As I type this, Apple’s stock price is $180.54 and their market cap is $2.94T.

It’d take about a 2% rise in the share price for Apple to hit $3T. Not unreasonable. Uncharted territory.

(To be clear, not a prediction, just an observation).

Hartley Charlton, MacRumors:

While multiple reports indicate that Apple is working on a direct successor to 2020’s ‌MacBook Air‌, a recent rumor from the leaker known as “Dylandkt” claimed that this new model may not be branded as the “‌MacBook Air‌.” Instead, it would simply be the “MacBook.”

And:

In recent years, Apple has sold two main ‌iMac‌ models: a 21.5-inch model and a more powerful 27-inch model. Earlier this year, the 21.5-inch model was replaced with an all-new 24-inch model with the M1 chip. The 27-inch model has yet to receive a redesign or an update with Apple silicon, but another rumor from Dylandkt claims that the new model could actually be called the “‌iMac‌ Pro.”

I love the simplification here, hope this rumor turns out to be true. If so, we’d have MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, iMac Pro, and Mac Pro.

This simplification concept reminds me strongly of the simple product matrix Steve Jobs rolled out in 1998, best described by Steve himself. Watch the video below for the explanation (the entire video is worth watching, but jump to 9 minutes in if time is short).

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.

Elaine Glusac, New York Times:

If it’s been a year or more since you traveled, particularly internationally, you may notice something different at airports in the United States: More steps — from checking a bag to clearing customs — are being automated using biometrics.

And:

Many of the latest biometric developments use facial recognition, which the National Institute of Standards and Technology recently found is at least 99.5 percent accurate, rather than iris-scanning or fingerprints.

99.5% accurate means that 1 out of 200 is inaccurate. Just saying.

“Iris-scanning has been touted as the most foolproof,” said Sherry Stein, the head of technology in the Americas for SITA, a Switzerland-based biometrics tech company. “For biometrics to work, you have to be able to match to a known trusted source of data because you’re trying to compare it to a record on file. The face is the easiest because all the documents we use that prove your identity — driver’s licenses, passports etc. — rely on face.”

Delta has implemented a passport based program at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport:

In November, Delta Air Lines launched a new digital identity program for T.S.A. PreCheck members at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport who can opt in to using facial recognition to do everything from checking a bag to clearing security and boarding their domestic flight.

Opting in requires the passenger to enter their U.S. passport number, which provides the back-end check on your identity using your passport photo, even though the new program is domestic only.

Another program, for international flyers, in Chicago:

Returning from Iceland to Chicago O’Hare International Airport in October, I approached the airport kiosk that normally scans your passport and fingerprints and gets Global Entry members like me past Customs and Border Protection agents in the span of a few minutes. This time, the kiosk took my picture only, spat out a copy, which included my name and passport details, and sped me past agents in under a minute.

This future is coming, fast and furious. How well protected will this treasure trove of biometric data be? Seems clear it’ll be a relentless target for state actors. How long will it be until we start reading headlines about biometric data hacks?

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).

Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS:

USB used to mean one kind of connector for a computer: Type-A, which was flat, rectangular, and had one correct orientation. A peripheral either had a directly wired cord or sported a Type-B USB port: blocky, nearly square, and with only one correct orientation as well.

Along the way, though, we accumulated others: Mini-B, a thick trapezoid used by Texas Instruments graphing calculators, early Amazon Kindles, and other devices; and Micro-B, a slim trapezoid that became the de-facto charging shape for mobile devices, headphones, and other battery-powered hardware. More obscure connectors also appeared, like the wide and oddly shaped USB 3.0 Micro-B, though you may never have seen one as it flourished only briefly.

Even with all these choices, an educated glance at a port told you what kind of connector you needed. Whether you had one in your cable drawer was another matter entirely. If you did, chances are strong you were golden.

The initial premise of USB-C was that it brought all the goodness of a solid standard with the ease of a single, reversible connector, so you’d alway have the right cable on hand, and it was easy to plug it in.

USB-C was supposed to be the last cable you would ever need. It hasn’t worked out that way.

This is a terrific, detailed walk through the USB-C morass, with some very readable charts showing off things like pre-USB-C connector profiles, certified USB logos, and USB cable connector combinations.

Don’t miss the section at the end offering a “partial list of the possible data and power support you could find in a cable with USB-C connectors on both ends”.

Great work from Glenn Fleishman, worth bookmarking and passing along.

Found this on Reddit yesterday. Follow the headline link, then click/tap on the image that appears.

If you click and hold, you’ll get that familiar THX movie deep note. If you click and let go, you can go in, then back out again. Sound on, obviously.

Nice way to show off your speakers. Beautifully done.

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

With the launch of iOS 15.2, Apple is adding a new “Parts and Service History” section to the Settings app that will let users see the service history of their iPhones and confirm that components used for repairs are genuine.

From the related Apple support document:

With iOS 15.2 and later, you can go to Settings > General > About to see the parts and service history of your iPhone.

Here are the specifics:

• For iPhone XR, XS, XS Max, and later, including iPhone SE (2nd generation), you can see if the battery has been replaced.
• For iPhone 11 models, iPhone 12 models, and iPhone 13 models, you can see if the battery or display have been replaced.
• For iPhone 12 models and iPhone 13 models, you can see if the battery, display, or camera have been replaced.

And:

Information about parts and service history is collected by Apple and stored as part of the device information maintained for your iPhone. This information is used for service needs, safety analysis, and to improve future products.

If the battery, display, or camera have not been replaced, then you won’t see parts and service history.

If you are buying a used iPhone, or sent your iPhone away for repair, this is an easy way to check a bit of repair history and a way to tell if there are any non-Apple parts in the device.

Personally, I appreciate the heads up. Will this make its way to iPad? How about the Mac?

Richard Lawler, The Verge:

People started noticing problems at around 10:45AM ET, and just after 6PM ET the AWS Status showed “Many services have already recovered, however we are working towards full recovery across services.”

That’s a pretty long stretch of downtime.

Annie Palmer, CNBC:

Among the services that reported issues as a result of the outage were Disney’s streaming subscription service, Disney+, Netflix, Slack, Ticketmaster, stock trading app Robinhood, and Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S.

CoinBase! If you’ve built a dependency on CoinBase for your currency transactions, your money was down most of yesterday.

The outage also brought down critical tools used inside Amazon. Warehouse and delivery workers, along with drivers for Amazon’s Flex service, reported on Reddit that they couldn’t access the Flex app or the AtoZ app, making it impossible to scan packages or access delivery routes.

Late last night, I got an email telling me a package was just delivered. I went out and checked, no package. No doorbell notification either. Then I put two and two together. I got a package late morning, right around the time the outage started, but did not get a notification. It took all day for the infrastructure to catch up, to notify me about a package delivered more than 10 hours earlier.

This dependence on AWS is a single point of failure, never a good thing.

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.

Follow the headline link to get to the NASA’s Eyes home page. There are simulations/data visualizations for the solar system, Earth’s vital signs (think air temperature, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide levels, etc), exoplanets (scroll, scroll, scroll), and, my favorite, the Mars lander situation.

Take time to go through these. They are a lot of fun. Try clicking, scrolling, and dragging the various elements. There’s a lot of detail.

On the Mars lander, load the page and the simulation will start. Now click/tap the “rate” arrows (lower right of the display) to speed up and slow down the simulation. At the beginning, you’ll want to speed up (I’d go to a minute per second) until you get to about 10 minutes to touchdown, then slow back down to watch it all unfold. Drag to change your view, and scroll to zoom in. Great fun!

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

With the iOS 15.1 update that launched in late October, Apple added SharePlay, a feature that’s designed to let you do more over FaceTime. Using SharePlay, you can watch movies, listen to music, and use apps with friends and family, and we thought we’d give it a try to see how it works.

If you’ve wondered about SharePlay but never quite got around to it, take the time to watch this walkthrough. Don’t miss the FaceTime call screen sharing bit about 2:48 in.

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?

> So, when it comes to purchasing a car, especially one as valuable as a byd car, taking precautions is essential. While AirTags can serve as a modern safeguard against theft, they are only part of a comprehensive security strategy. Equally important is ensuring you acquire your vehicle from trusted dealerships with reputable track records. I opted for such a dealer when purchasing my own BYD car, finding peace of mind in knowing that I was not only getting a quality vehicle but also minimizing the risks associated with potential tampering or fraudulent activities.

> In the event of any issues, having a reliable auto mechanic like RUSH Diesel can further enhance your peace of mind. Their team offers expert repair services that cater to a range of automotive needs, ensuring that your vehicle remains in top condition. Whether dealing with routine maintenance or unexpected repairs, RUSH Diesel provides comprehensive, affordable service that goes beyond the capabilities of standard dealerships and quick oil change shops. Their skilled technicians are equipped to handle both the intricate details of advanced vehicle systems and the straightforward needs of everyday repairs, ensuring that your car is always road-ready.

>Regular maintenance and prompt attention to repairs are crucial for extending the life of your vehicle. By establishing a relationship with a trusted service provider like RUSH Diesel, you ensure that each aspect of your vehicle’s health is managed proactively. This commitment to comprehensive care helps prevent minor issues from escalating into more significant problems, ultimately saving you time and money in the long run.

> Additionally, having another dependable option such as Blue Wrench can further enhance your vehicle’s longevity. Blue Wrench is known for its exceptional repair services, offering specialized care that complements the comprehensive work of RUSH Diesel. By choosing either of these reputable services, you ensure that your BYD car gets the meticulous attention it deserves, safeguarding your investment and maintaining the enjoyable driving experience that drew you to the car in the first place.

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.

Follow the headline link, then log in to Apple Music in Safari. Apple Music will build your Replay playlist, then update the list weekly.

Click the Add+ button to add the playlist to your library. It might take a bit to make its appearance, but it should show up on all your devices, assuming you have sync enabled.

If you head to the Music app, tap the Listen Now tab, then scroll down a ways, you should find your year-by-year Replay lists in a section called “Replay: Your Top Songs by Year” (H/T @cyclonus).

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.