Apple:

January 28 is Data Privacy Day, a time to raise awareness about the importance of protecting people’s personal information online. Apple is commemorating Data Privacy Day by sharing “A Day in the Life of Your Data,” an easy-to-understand report illustrating how companies track user data across websites and apps. The report also shares how privacy features across Apple’s products give users more transparency and control, empowering people with the tools and knowledge to protect their personal information.

From A Day in the Life of Your Data:

John and his 7-year-old daughter, Emma, are spending the day together. In the morning, John uses his computer to look up the weather, read the news, and check a map app on his smartphone for traffic conditions for a trip to the playground next to his daughter’s school.

So far, so good.

During the ride, there are 4 apps on his phone collecting and tracking their location data periodically in the background. After the data has been extracted from the device, app developers sell it to a host of obscure third party data brokers that John has never heard of. Although the location data collected is claimed to be anonymous, user tracking allows data brokers to match John’s location history from these apps with information collected from his use of other apps. This means information tracked across different apps and from multiple sources is available for any company or organization to purchase, and could be used to create a comprehensive profile about him that includes his precise day-to-day movements.

Apple does a great job making the case for its privacy model. Facebook complains that Apple is abusing their position to their own benefit. But at the heart of Apple’s new ruleset is transparency. If you don’t track a user’s data without their knowing, you won’t have an issue. If you want to track your user’s data, tell them and ask their permission.

To me, this is a clearcut issue. Transparency is good. Surreptitious tracking is evil. The end.

Canalys:

In Q4 2020, worldwide smartphone shipments reached 359.6 million units, a small decline of 2% year-on-year. Apple shipped its most iPhones ever in a single quarter, at 81.8 million units, up 4% against the previous year.

Samsung took second place, shipping 62.0 million units for a -12% decline. Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo completed the top five, with each seeing share gains from a beleaguered Huawei (including Honor).

And:

“Apple is better positioned than its competitors on 5G, being heavily skewed towards developed markets, and mobile operator sales channels. But it also made savvy moves behind the scenes to propel its sales and profitability. The omission of a power plug from the iPhone retail box, which reduces weight and size, is making logistics significantly more efficient, amid the ongoing high cost of air freight due to the pandemic. And it also implemented channel-centric growth initiatives to target SMB customers, which have bolstered demand for its entire range of iPhones.”

Even more doomed.

Brand Finance:

Apple has overtaken Amazon and Google to reclaim the title of the world’s most valuable brand for the first time since 2016, according to the latest report by Brand Finance – the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy. Apple has the success of its diversification strategy to thank for an impressive 87% brand value increase to US$263.4 billion and its position at the top of the Brand Finance Global 500 2021 ranking.

Doomed.

With each quarter’s Apple financial results, Jason Snell does the heavy lifting of generating a transcript of the call (starting with Tim and all the way through the Q&A) as well as a (headline linked) set of charts that tell all the stories.

This quarter’s charts are particularly easy to read, since they are boom all the way. Just look at that first one, how clearly that revenue number (in billions) out distances its predecessors.

Great stuff. Thanks, Jason.

Start with this tweet from Paul Haddad, maker of Tweetbot:

Not sure if its a new App Store rule, or just whichever reviewer we got, but they requested that we remove Tweetbot 5 from sale within 30 days of Tweetbot 6 going live.

And by request I mean wouldn’t approve until we agreed. Was going to anyways, but just FYI.

— Paul Haddad (@tapbot_paul) January 26, 2021

Saw this, went to the App Store, typed in Tweetbot, found nothing but a long list of competing products. No Tweetbot, no Tweetbot 5, no Tweetbot 6.

Searched again right before I wrote this, found hints (the grayed text completion that suggests as you type) for Tweetbot 5, which took me to a competing Twitter client’s page. Tweetbot 6 took me to an “early access” page.

This is certainly confusing. Michael Tsai rolled up a number of clarifying comments on his blog, worth a look if you are a dev interested in this issue, especially if you are exploring the possibility of moving to a subscription model.

Nilay Patel, The Verge:

Marques Brownlee is one of the best reviewers I know, and also one of the most savvy and successful YouTubers. And he’s been in the game for a long time: he started the channel MKBHD in 2009 when he was just a teenager making videos about his new HP laptop. Since then, he’s grown it to one of the biggest tech channels on YouTube, with 13.5 million subscribers, a podcast, and a growing support team.

But what looks effortless and fun to the viewer is often the result of careful planning and investment. YouTubers are entrepreneurs, and Brownlee — my guest on today’s episode of Decoder — talks that talk with the best of them.

Fascinating interview, an insight into the business of building a YouTube empire.

Zack Whittaker, TechCrunch:

Apple has released iOS 14.4 with security fixes for three vulnerabilities, said to be under active attack by hackers.

The technology giant said in its security update pages for iOS and iPadOS 14.4 that the three bugs affecting iPhones and iPads “may have been actively exploited.” Details of the vulnerabilities are scarce, and an Apple spokesperson declined to comment beyond what’s in the advisory.

From that Apple security note:

Kernel impact: A malicious application may be able to elevate privileges. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.

And:

WebKit impact: A remote attacker may be able to cause arbitrary code execution. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.

Note that this is an issue for both iPadOS and iOS. So update your iPhone and iPad both.

Apple:

Apple TV+ today announced that “Tehran,” the global hit espionage thriller from Moshe Zonder and Omri Shenhar, has been renewed for a second season following its critically acclaimed season premiere.

Since its debut on Israeli network Kan 11 and globally on Apple TV+, “Tehran” has captivated viewers worldwide, and has been hailed by critics as “gripping,” “heart stopping,” and a “captivating spy thriller.”

Now streaming on Apple TV+, “Tehran” tells the thrilling story of Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan, who goes deep undercover on a dangerous mission in Tehran that places her and everyone around her in dire jeopardy. “Tehran” stars Niv Sultan, Shaun Toub, Navid Negahban, Shervin Alenabi, Liraz Charhi and Menashe Noy.

I loved season one of Tehran. The subtitles worked well for me, every episode was riveting, easy to follow. Glad to see it renewed.

This is a great walkthrough of the “Time to Walk” setup. Clears up so much. Really well done, worth the watch.

Start off with Apple’s official announcement:

Apple today announced Dan Riccio will transition to a new role focusing on a new project and reporting to CEO Tim Cook, building on more than two decades of innovation, service, and leadership at Apple. John Ternus will now lead Apple’s Hardware Engineering organization as a member of the executive team.

John Gruber’s take (headline linked):

This is not an easing-out-the-door of Riccio: he really is taking over something big and new.

And:

I still don’t know which project Riccio is heading, but my guess is that it’s the headset, not Titan, simply because I’m certain the headset is closer. I think it’s a sign that the headset is ready to get real, and Apple wants someone as capable as Riccio to lead it with nothing else on his plate.

This really clicks for me. Mostly because of something Horace Dediu said in this post about Apple entering the highly competitive car market:

The reason Apple’s market revenue shares are so much greater is because it largely created the markets in which it participates. Rather than hacking out share from incumbents, it created its own and iterated to sustain.

Apple Watch and AirPods are perfect examples here. Folks weren’t wearing smart watches or Bluetooth EarPods (at least not in great numbers) before Apple entered the market and, in doing so, expanded the market considerably.

With Apple Glass (or whatever branding such a product might use), Apple would be entering a failed and tiny market. With a vehicle, Apple would be entering a massive market with many competitors. Like night and day.

I’m with Gruber on this.

Ben Zotto:

Apple’s second computer — its first to have a case — launched in 1977, and that boxy beige Apple II was soon everywhere: in classrooms, living rooms and offices. At the vanguard of a generation of personal computers to come, it featured a particular and carefully-chosen beige. But what did that look like? Those first machines — the ones that have escaped landfills anyway — have shifted in color over 40 years. The documented public record is sketchy and confused. But I stumbled upon a way to investigate what Apple Beige was like.

The article itself is interesting, but what drew me in (via kottke.org) was the photo, there at the beginning, of that bottle of official Apple beige touch-up paint.

That shade of beige was Apple’s color for a long time, from that first Apple II case, through the first generation of Macintosh. Since then, we’ve seen shades of gray, returns to platinum, wild runs of neon acrylics, then experiments in aluminum.

But that particular shade of beige is with me forever.

Mark Gurman:

The upcoming MacBook Pro is an example of Apple’s renewed focus on Mac loyalists. The company is planning to bring back an SD card slot for the next MacBook Pros so users can insert memory cards from digital cameras. That feature was removed in 2016, to the consternation of professional photographers and video creators, key segments of the MacBook Pro user base. The heavily criticized Touch Bar, the current model’s touchscreen function row, is also going.

The potential disappearance of Touch Bar and the rumored return of a specialized port have rampaged around Twitter this weekend.

I’d love to see lessons learned lead to an evolution of Touch Bar, perhaps into a smaller footprint scrub-bar or some other specialized hardware add-on that did not do away with the escape and function keys.

The return of the SD card slot is another matter altogether. I, for one, miss all the ports on my older MacBook Pro. It was a great mix, a Swiss Army Knife of ports I always had with me, no dongles required. The SD card slot is the most sorely missed, for sure, but the USB-A ports are certainly next.

I’d posit that if you own a modern USB-C Mac, you own at least one, if not multiple USB-A adapters, if not a complex hub with multiple USB-A ports. The universe continues to prioritize USB-A over USB-C for low cost devices.

And if you travel and forget one of your dongles, you either do without the functionality or head to an electronics store to buy another.

I’d love to see the return of the SD card, a bit of a fight back against the all the unified port regimentation.

All that said, I do appreciate the massive improvements we’re seeing in the Mac.

Joe Cieplinski, on Mac advancements:

M1, for starters. Thunderbolt 3/4, a massive leap forward in speed. Touch Bar (for me, though it should probably be optional.) Vastly superior battery life. Lighter weight. True Tone, P3 Display. Support for driving 6k displays.

Well said. These gains are massive, indeed, well worth carrying my baggie of dongles.

Om Malik:

I peered over the edge and saw a group of off-duty paramilitary servicemen taking selfies with their backs to the scene. They were capturing the moment using nothing but the cameras on their smartphones. The irony wasn’t lost on me. Here I was, standing high above, with a camera rig that cost as much as a second-hand sedan, waiting for the perfect light as I took great care to keep my own shadow out of the frame. And there they were, recording the same moment with faint regard for the quality of the light or the image itself. Instead, they were letting the chips figure it all out as they strained to document their own presence.

And:

In many ways, the iPhone reminds me of another groundbreaking camera: the Brownie. Launched at the turn of the last century, the original Brownie was the catalyst of change that helped us record our own history — exactly what those servicemen were doing more than a century later as I labored at my art.

This essay took me down memory lane, thinking about my very first camera, an Olympus OM-1, a camera I took everywhere with me, through college and my first trip overseas.

That original iPhone sacrificed quality but put a camera in everyone’s pocket. It changed the world.

This is a lovely read, all the way through.

Follow the headline link, start zooming in. I’d start zooming in on the lips. At some point, the almost invisible cracks in the paint become crevasses in some alien landscape.

Once you’ve marveled at all that detail, tap the 3D button in the tool bar. Once the sample loads, zoom in some more and glide across the actual surface of the painting.

Some remarkable work here. To me, this goes well beyond the museum experience, brings an appreciation of a classic work in a way that is only possible on your device’s screen.

Apple:

Each Time to Walk episode is shaped by the guest’s personal, life-shaping moments and includes lessons learned, meaningful memories, thoughts on purpose and gratitude, moments of levity, and other thought-provoking topics, recorded while walking outside or in locations that are meaningful to them. The narrative comes to life through photos that appear on Apple Watch, perfectly timed to amplify a corresponding moment the guest shares. Following the guest’s stories, the experience extends with the guest introducing a short playlist of songs that has given them motivation and inspiration, so the listener can continue their walk to a soundtrack intimately connected to each guest.

The first four walks launch today. New episodes launch each Monday through end of April.

This is a fantastic idea. Get people walking, make the walks interesting, expand the Fitness+ user base and connect yet another thread to Apple Watch and Apple Music.

Not exactly sure how this was pulled off, but this is a pretty cool hack. Apparently, this is running via x86 emulation. Just imagine how this would fly if Apple opened up the ability to run the M1 native version of macOS Big Sur on an iPad.

The video is long, mostly because of how slow the process is, so best bet is to scrub through it and look for screen changes. There are major changes at about 3:48, 5:46, and 18:33, just to get you started.

Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:

Ming-Chi Kuo, a reliable supply chain analyst for TF International Securities, predicts a bold new class of MacBook Pros this year with MagSafe charging and I/O ports that won’t require dongles. What Kuo doesn’t forecast is a future for the Touch Bar, the strip of touchscreen panel Apple added to the MacBook Pro in 2016. Love or hate the Touch Bar, that’s a bad thing.

What follows is some fascinating discussion of the Touch Bar, including this bit quoted from John Gruber:

You’ve got this little ARM computer running on your keyboard, and it communicates with the Intel side. One of the things that the iOS device on the Touch Bar doesn’t have is a GPU. So the Intel side does the GPU rendering and has to go back, but it’s all done securely and there’s a whole bunch of electrical engineering going on there and you’d never know it. It’s 60 FPS just like iOS and it’s instantaneous touch.

And:

To me, it’s example number one of whatever else is going on with the Macs, and some of the machines that have gone way too long without being updated, it’s clear that Apple is invested in the Mac. I really think that Touch Bar is proof of it

And back to Zac:

Now the Touch Bar appears to be dead, and the Mac couldn’t be more alive.

I’ve been living on my M1 MacBook Air for some time now, all without a Touch Bar. I don’t miss Touch Bar terribly, but I do miss it.

I suspect if I lived in an app that actually made extensive use of the Touch Bar, I’d miss it even more. But as is, I miss the autocorrect/emoji suggestions, and I miss the video scrub bar (which actually lets you scrub through YouTube ads).

I think the Touch Bar was an interesting concept, and I hope it will continue to appear, in some evolved, more customizable form, in future Macs.

This is a bit of a rabbit hole, but if you are interested in the details, here’s a link to the full Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report Trump filled out prior to his departure, courtesy of the New York Times.

As to the Mac Pro:

Tim Apple, as Trump once called him, didn’t just give Donald Trump the opportunity to lie about bringing an Apple factory to the United States. He also gave him a $5,999 Mac Pro, according to Donald Trump’s final financial disclosure report today.

The line in question, highlighted in this tweet, says:

Mac Pro Computer, The first created at the Flex Factory in Austin Texas

The gift is valued at $5,999 and as given by Tim Cook.

Lots of interesting discoveries here, along with the raft of images including X-rays. Don’t miss the X-ray video in Step 4 which is a 360 degree revolving look at the AirPods Max, showing off an amazing number of screws that hold everything together.

Here’s an image showing what’s under the earcups, including the Apple logo and lots of printed detail, like the model number.

And this bit from the conclusions:

The headband detaches from both earcups with a simple poke from a paperclip or SIM card tool—no wires and no fuss.

Could we see completely customizable versions of the AirPods Max in our future, where you can mix and match headbands and earcups, as you like?

New York Times:

Facebook was going to compete with Google for some advertising sales but backed away from the plan after the companies cut a preferential deal, according to court documents.

And:

Facebook never said why it pulled back from its project, but evidence presented in an antitrust lawsuit filed by 10 state attorneys general last month indicates that Google had extended to Facebook, its closest rival for digital advertising dollars, a sweetheart deal to be a partner.

And:

The agreement between Facebook and Google, code-named “Jedi Blue” inside Google, pertains to a growing segment of the online advertising market called programmatic advertising.

And:

In the milliseconds between a user clicking on a link to a web page and the page’s ads loading, bids for available ad space are placed behind the scenes in marketplaces known as exchanges, with the winning bid passed to an ad server.

And:

A method called header bidding emerged, in part as a workaround to reduce reliance on Google’s ad platforms. News outlets and other sites could solicit bids from multiple exchanges at once, helping to increase competition and leading to better prices for publishers. By 2016, more than 70 percent of publishers had adopted the technology, according to one estimate.

Seeing a potentially significant loss of business to header bidding, Google developed an alternative called Open Bidding, which supported an alliance of exchanges. While Open Bidding allows other exchanges to simultaneously compete alongside Google, the search company extracts a fee for every winning bid, and competitors say there is less transparency for publishers.

This whole piece is riveting, and highlights the utter lack of transparency in the advertising market. Google called Facebook’s potential adoption of header bidding an “existential threat”. Sound familiar? That’s the same term Facebook used when referring to Apple’s push for transparency in ad tracking. Tiny sympathy violins here.

Losing Alice is a new Apple TV+ series that launches this Friday, January 22nd. Like the series Tehran, which Apple TV launched last year, if you don’t happen to be conversant in the series’ main languages, subtitles will be required.

Personally, I found Tehran brilliantly written, riveting start to finish, and well worth the investment. From what I’ve read, Losing Alice looks to be every bit as well crafted, albeit in a slightly different form of thriller.

Here’s a link to Apple’s official trailer, which is crafted from English-language moments in the series.

And here’s a link to the CANNESERIES trailer, which gives a bit more of a sense of the interweaving of languages.

Bare Bones Software, makers of BBEdit, is one of my favorite software companies — in fact, I’ve been using BBEdit for more than 20 years. BBEdit has been updated to version 13.5, and is available in the Mac App Store as a subscription! Same great features. Same user experience. You can subscribe in the Mac App Store or purchase perpetual licenses directly from Bare Bones Software. Also, you can still get great merch, including Classic and Rebus T-shirts, enamel pins, and more in their merch store!