> TikTok can circumvent security protections on Apple and Google app stores and uses device tracking that gives TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance full access to user data, according to the summaries of two major studies obtained by TheWrap that appear to confirm longstanding concerns raised by privacy experts, like it Edmonton, about the popular video-sharing app. > > The studies, conducted by “white hat” cybersecurity experts that hack for the public good, were completed in November 2020 and January 2021. TheWrap verified the studies and confirmed their conclusions with five independent experts. > > When asked by TheWrap, reps for TikTok — whose parent company ByteDance has had ties to the Chinese government — declined to confirm or deny the validity of the research.
Most alarming of all:
> The summaries of the studies, shared exclusively with TheWrap, suggest that TikTok is able to avoid code audits on the Apple and Google app stores. More alarmingly, the research found that TikTok is capable of changing the app’s behavior as it pleases without users’ knowledge and utilizes device tracking that essentially gives the company and third parties an all-access pass to user data. This is highly unusual and exceeds the abilities of U.S.-based apps such as Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.
And:
> Examining the backend, researchers also found that the app essentially acts like a web browser. It uses a JavaScript bridge, the programming language for the web, to directly pull the app from TikTok’s servers when it’s launched. This makes the security of the app hard to assess, because that can keep changing, according to Lockerman at Conquest Cyber. Theoretically, it also means TikTok can change its app behavior dynamically or test certain things on the fly without pushing an update to users.
If true, how is this possible? How does the TikTok app get through the App Store review process?
> A spokesperson for TikTok declined to address the studies directly, but told TheWrap that the company adheres to app store policies, adding that its product meets information security standards in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, India and Singapore and recently received certification by the ioXt Alliance for meeting standards and commitments to cybersecurity and transparency. In fact, TikTok said it works with the ethical hacker community and researchers through a program called HackerOne to test its product.
So is this much ado about nothing? Or is TikTok getting away with privacy-evading practices? And, if the latter, how is this getting past App Store reviewers?
Starting this week, Uber passengers can see what ratings drivers such as Clarke have left them, though they are kept anonymous for everyone’s safety. In the past, riders were able to see an average score based on all past trips, for example 4.25 stars. The new setting, buried deep in the Uber app, breaks it down so you can see totals for how many drivers assigned you 5 stars or 4 stars, all the way down to a 1-star rating. The chart only shows your last 500 trips.
When Heather says “buried deep in the Uber app”, she’s not kidding. If you want a challenge, launch the app (make sure you have the latest update) and try to find your ratings.
Even following Heather’s instructions, it was not easy to find. I laid out the steps as a list, tweeted here, might make it a bit easier to find.
Another excellent Apple Support video. This one walks through the process of syncing your Apple TV watching experience with other folks on a FaceTime call.
Interesting that the Mac is not mentioned, even though SharePlay via FaceTime was introduced in macOS Monterey 12.1, as described here.
No matter, good to see the SharePlay process in action. Well done.
UPDATE: Note that everyone on the SharePlay needs to be in the same Apple Store Region (no simultaneous watching with folks from UK and US, say). [H/T Samir Estefan]
Xiaomi built its well-regarded reputation by selling affordable Android smartphones under its Mi, Redmi, and POCO brands, which consisted of devices that frequently “borrowed” popular features and design language from other tech products, with Apple typically being a target for “inspiration”.
Jarring dissonance there, with “well-regarded reputation” fighting against “frequently borrowed features and design language”.
The release of the iPhone 13 series allowed Apple to roar ahead again, and by Q4 2021 the fruit company had soared to 22% of worldwide smartphone shipments while Samsung lost a bit of ground on 17% and Xiaomi dipped drastically to 12%.
And, therefore, Xiaomi now sees its salvation in the high end market dominated by Apple.
Facebook built one of the most amazing money machines the world has ever seen. Then Apple came and threw a wrench in the gears.
That’s one of the narratives that sprang from last week’s news, when Facebook’s parent company Meta delivered an alarming earnings report to Wall Street, which promptly cut an astonishing $250 billion out of the company’s value in a single day — a 26 percent drop.
Obviously, the goal was better privacy, not a move against Facebook specifically. But Facebook did get hammered. But they are still healthy enough:
Facebook is still making an enormous amount of money from advertising — analyst Michael Nathanson estimates the company will generate $129 billion in ad revenue in 2022. But that would mean its ad business will only grow about 12 percent this year, compared to a 36 percent increase the previous year.
A specific sign of the drop:
Alex Austin, the CEO of Branch, a company that helps advertisers figure out how their campaigns are working: After Apple introduced its anti-tracking changes in the spring of 2021, advertisers who used Branch’s services to measure paid ads on iOS dropped by 20 percent.
And this, on the push to grow Facebook’s Marketplace Platform, with digital storefronts on Insta and Facebook:
Facebook can’t tell a shoe store if someone saw their ad on the app, then clicked through to the store’s site or app and bought something — but it can tell them if a Facebook user saw the ad on Facebook and then bought the shoes on Facebook.
Obviously, that depends on building traffic to Facebook and Instagram, having people view those platforms as a trusted shopping option.
Follow the headline link, click on dailydordle or freedordle. Both will display a Wordle-like word guessing setup, with two words being guessed in parallel.
Once you get one of the words (all green), that word will lock and you’ll be left working on the other word.
A nursing student in Australia is encouraging Apple Watch owners to enable heart rate notifications, after the wearable device detected symptoms of a thyroid condition months before being diagnosed.
And:
“Instead of me waiting for the symptoms to get really bad, I could have gone to the doctor back in October, when there was this dramatic drop in a matter of days,” Lauren adds, alongside a screenshot of a graph from the Health app. “It dramatically dropped, which means my cardiovascular system wasn’t working as well as it once was.”
The drop also correlated with other symptoms, including fatigue, a sensitivity to heat, gaining weight, dry skin, and increased irritability. In December, she was diagnosed with thyroid hemiagenesis, and is undergoing treatment.
A few years ago, I had a long conversation with a cardiologist about the future of Apple Watch and the patterns that indicate various health conditions. I walked away from that conversation feeling that the potential for Apple Watch as diagnostic tool is massive, far beyond the benefits we already see, especially as more sensors are developed and integrated with Apple’s Health infrastructure. Lauren’s video made me feel this even more strongly.
Crypto rivals Coinbase and FTX made a significant splash with their Super Bowl ads, but the real game-changer was the innovative approach of the Coinbase ad, featuring a floating, corner-seeking QR code. This unique strategy propelled the Coinbase ad from 186th place to 2nd place on the App Store, creating a buzz in the cryptocurrency community. Read about those at bitcoincenter. Interestingly, the ad’s success even led to an overwhelming demand on Coinbase servers. For more insights into the world of cryptocurrency trading bots, you can visit https://immediate.net/it/. You can also check out bitcoinsentralen.no to learn more about these cryptocurrencies.
@coinbase just saw more traffic than we've ever encountered, but our teams pulled together and only had to throttle traffic for a few minutes. We are now back and ready for you at https://t.co/ZUJqRlnZPH. Humbled to have been witness to this. #WAGMI
Interestingly, from all the NFL and Super Bowl crypto hype, the NFL prohibits crypto, as covered in The Athletic:
> “Clubs are prohibited from selling, or otherwise allowing within club controlled media, advertisements for specific cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, other cryptocurrency sales or any other media category as it relates to blockchain, digital asset or as a blockchain development company, except as outlined in this policy,” according to the new guidelines, as read by a team official, who requested anonymity.
Another ad that stuck out in yesterday’s ad-apalooza was the Meta/Facebook Oculus ad (Third embed below). Quality of the ad aside, it’s interesting that the Facebook brand is completely absent (gives me a feeling that peak Facebook is in the past) and that Meta is betting its future on its take on the future of VR.
Whets my appetite to see what AR/VR device Apple has up its sleeve. Four months until WWDC.
Dave and I talk about a few things we would like Apple to add or fix in their current software. We also look at how dominating Apple has become in the headphone industry with its AirPods line of products. Finally, is realityOS finally coming to the consumer?
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Q: Why is your website so popular? Are you one of those famous people that no one knows why they’re famous? A: No, I’m not famous. It seems likely that most visitors simply mistype gmail.com and end up visiting gail.com by mistake.
And:
Q: How did you manage to get gail.com? A: My husband registered it as a birthday gift back in 1996.
Gmail launched in 2004. So this domain is OG.
And, finally:
Q: How many times a day is this page visited? A: In 2020 this page received a total of 5,950,012 hits, which is an average of 16,257 per day. Looking at just unique hits, we received a total of 1,295,284, for an average of 3,539 unique hits per day. Occasionally, we get Twitter-bombed and may get several tens of thousands of visitors a day. As an example, on July 21st 2020 we received 109,316 hits.
That’s amazing traffic, all accidental. Fascinating.
When Apple introduced AirPods alongside the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in September 2016, the reactions were mixed at best. While many were impressed with the technology behind Apple’s first true wireless headphones, their design drew a lot of criticism and the internet was having a field day cracking jokes about the headphones’ looks, price and overall appeal.
That was then. This is now. Follow the headline link and check out the numbers.
Apple has 34.4% of the market
Beats is next with 15.3% of the market
Taken together, that’s 49.7% of the market. Astonishing.
Inside Apple, your job classification can mean a lot. The difference between a “level 4″ engineer and a “level 5,” for instance, could mean a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation. And those titles help determine how much Apple employees can make when they leave the company for another job.
And:
In widely used databases that companies refer to for verification of job information, Apple changes the job title for every employee, whether they’re a PhD in computer science or a product manager, to “associate,” the company confirms.
And:
The practice recently came to light when Cher Scarlett, a former Apple software engineer who raised concerns about alleged discrimination and misconduct at the company, filed a complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging that when Apple changed her job title to “associate,” it delayed the hiring process at a prospective employer by nearly a week, during which time the company rescinded the offer.
This is a long-standing practice for Apple, but it seems obvious that this can be an issue for folks who leave Apple and list a specific job title on their resume. What’s the harm to Apple if they change someone’s title to, say, “Former Level 4 Engineer” or some such? And what’s the benefit to Apple in changing someone’s title to “Associate”?
From OS X Daily. Follow the headline link for a detailed walkthrough.
In a nutshell, go to Terminal and enter:
defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool true; killall Dock
To return to normal:
defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool false; killall Dock
This has been around a long time, but I’ve never encountered anyone using it. Would love an option to put all running apps in its own section of the dock, as is done with recently used applications. There a setting for that?
Fantastic trailer for Pixar’s “Lightyear”. Was expecting a Toy Story look and feel. Very different than that. It’s about the fictional astronaut who inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy.
Also, Buzz is voiced by Captain America, Chris Evans. Coming June 17th.
For years, Apple has had thousands of software and hardware engineers working on an AR and VR device. The first iteration of this project is believed to be a standalone headset, featuring high-resolution displays and M1 Pro comparable performance.
We are now seeing more references to ‘realityOS’, the operating system that the headset will run, leak out in Apple open source code, as the hardware gets closer … to being a reality.
First things first, accident or not, have to acknowledge Benjamin’s pun game there at the end. My brain automatically substituted this link when I saw the ellipsis at the end of the second para.
Back to reality:
Excited to see Apple’s AR/VR device tip-toeing closer to announcement. Will the first generation focus on Augmented Reality, as opposed to Virtual Reality or Mixed Reality? That seems to be the thinking in the rumor mill. Completely different set of applications. Can’t imagine Apple will eventually play in all three spaces. Massive application potential in each.
Imagine having adjustable lenses for your glasses, able to zoom in on something that would normally be beyond your range of vision, for example.
Or switching between far view and detailed close up view, sort of like bifocals or progressive lenses, but with a full field of view and the ability to change on command. Need to read a far away street sign? No problem. Thread a needle? No problem. Same lenses, just a Siri command away.
Might we get a hint of what’s coming in June’s WWDC? Just four months away.
Apple today announced plans to introduce Tap to Pay on iPhone. The new capability will empower millions of merchants across the US, from small businesses to large retailers, to use their iPhone to seamlessly and securely accept Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets through a simple tap to their iPhone — no additional hardware or payment terminal needed. Tap to Pay on iPhone will be available for payment platforms and app developers to integrate into their iOS apps and offer as a payment option to their business customers. Stripe will be the first payment platform to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone to their business customers, including the Shopify Point of Sale app this spring. Additional payment platforms and apps will follow later this year.
With advancements in digital payment solutions, businesses of all sizes now have access to diverse payment options that go beyond traditional methods. For companies looking to provide a smooth and secure transaction experience for their customers, selecting the right merchant account service is crucial. From online payment gateways to mobile point-of-sale options, today’s payment services offer flexibility and convenience tailored to the specific needs of each business. Additionally, robust merchant accounts help ensure safe processing of customer data and provide advanced features like fraud prevention and chargeback management, enhancing the overall customer experience.
Choosing a specialized merchant account service is especially important for high-risk businesses that may face unique challenges in the payment processing landscape. Providers in this space offer customized solutions that can accommodate industries often excluded by traditional financial institutions, such as CBD, travel, and subscription services. By partnering with a merchant account provider that understands high-risk requirements, businesses can benefit from secure, scalable solutions that support sustainable growth. From secure e-commerce payments to recurring billing options, there are plenty of ways high-risk businesses can streamline their payment processes and improve customer satisfaction.
And:
Once Tap to Pay on iPhone becomes available, merchants will be able to unlock contactless payment acceptance through a supporting iOS app on an iPhone XS or later device
And:
Tap to Pay on iPhone will be available to participating payment platforms and their app developer partners to leverage in their software developer kits (SDKs) in an upcoming iOS software beta. Choose the best seo agency for startups and experience unparalleled growth.
Coming later this year to a future release of iOS and a partner-enabled iOS app.
It’s time for our annual look back on Apple’s performance during the past year, as seen through the eyes of writers, editors, developers, podcasters, and other people who spend an awful lot of time thinking about Apple.
This is the seventh year that I’ve presented this survey to a hand-selected group. They were prompted with 12 different Apple-related subjects, and asked to rate them on a scale from 1 to 5 and optionally provide text commentary per category.
Look forward to this every year. Great read, interesting takes. Happy to take part in this.
Apple’s upcoming iOS 15.4 software update appears to have quietly added a massive quality of life change for its Shortcuts app: the ability to disable the incredibly annoying notifications for personal automations that users have set up on their devices, as spotted by Fjorden developer Florian Bürger on Twitter.
Here’s the tweet:
iOS 15.4 Beta allows you to remove the notification (& delay) when running personal automations via Shortcuts…
This means, opening Fjorden (or any other camera app) from the lock screen is now super quick and almost seamless 🤩 pic.twitter.com/Ez2JGeVo6l
This is a huge step forward. The Notification is annoying, but it’s the delay that it causes in the sequence that is the real issue. Great to have this eliminated.
Note that this is a feature in the iOS 15.4 beta. No guarantee that this will make it into the actual release version, but why would they remove it?
Things are looking great for Severance, a new Apple TV+ thriller series that launches February 18th (week from Friday).
From Apple:
From Ben Stiller and creator Dan Erickson, Severance centers around Mark Scout (Adam Scott), a leader of a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives.
This experiment in ‘work-life balance’ is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself.
Incredible cast including Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation), Oscar winners Patricia Arquette and Christopher Walken, Emmy-winner John Turturro, lots more.
“Outtie” is Lumon’s sickly cute terminology for an employee when they’re outside the office. The “Innie” clearly receives the short end of the stick: What would motivate your work self without the memory of your family or outside life in general? You don’t know if you’re putting kids through college or saving up for a tropical vacation. You never experience nights and weekends or even sleep. Lumon’s severed employees aren’t pursuing their passions, either, as the work is so tedious it almost feels deliberate. Why would anyone endure this for the sake of their “Outtie,” who’s technically another person entirely? Well, it’s not so easy to leave. “Innies” can submit resignation requests but their “Outtie” must approve them, and Helly’s “Outtie” is quite content with the current situation. There’s a chilling moment when Helly’s “Outtie” tells her through a pre-recorded message that she’s not a “person.” Only Helly’s “Outtie” is real.
And:
Lower is a delight to watch as Helly, who moves through every scene like a caged animal.
And:
Severance’s entire cast is a symphony without a single off-note.
This week, Dave and I talk about the advances Apple has made with Face ID, especially around the pandemic and wearing a mask. We also talk about Wordle and how it has become so popular and then being sold to The New York Times. The World Trade Center is replacing office keys with Apple Wallet and Dave gives us a few shows and movies that he’s watching.
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An armed man who allegedly searched for former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg’s daughters and kidnapped a housekeeper was arrested on Thursday, after being tracked down via the victim’s iPad.
And:
Investigators arrested Beecher on Thursday at a motel in Cheyenne, after determining the housekeeper’s location via her iPad. It is unclear whether the Find My network was used, or other methods.
Check out that business card, with the embossed Apple logo (just to the left of the word Apple), the old school name (Apple dropped the word “computer” from its name back in 2007), and Steve’s title (Vice President, Operations). I tweeted a still frame of the card here.
Even more interestingly, jump to about 1:23 in to see a floor plan for that Stevens Creek address. Amazing to see how small Apple was back then.
The auction will close on March 17th. Bidding does not yet appear to be open, but here’s a link to the auction calendar page, on the chance you’d like to own this piece of history yourself.
I have to search for a lot of movies to watch on my Apple TV because I have a movie podcast. If a movie is located within a service that I’m already paying for, then I’d like to get that.
Amen. Far too often, I search for a movie that’s available on a streaming service to which I already subscribe, and I get pointed to a place to rent/buy the movie instead.
But it gets worse:
Recently, I asked Siri to display “Fight Club,” and was presented with a button to start watching it right away in Prime Video. So easy!
Unfortunately, when it started playing, it was a very compressed, blocky stream, and I could immediately tell something was amiss. I pressed the back button and discovered that what I had clicked on was actually “Popular Movies and TV — Free with ads” within Prime Video. In other words, Amazon had embedded its ad-supported IMDb TV service inside of Prime Video, with very little to differentiate the two very different presentations.
Yup.
But in fairness, it’s also possible that some of these cases are simply caused by underfunded tech staffs at billion-dollar companies where money is spent wildly on the next big swords-and-sorcery streaming series but not on the developer who has to maintain an AppleTV app and interact with a huge back-end media database.
If Apple wants to be the hub for all movie/TV streaming, they need to solve this problem, make the user experience richer, do a better job identifying the user’s current context (I’m already watching the movie on, say, HBO, so find that before you offer to rent me the same movie).
I recognize that proprietary data might be a big part of the problem here, that Netflix/HBO/Amazon/Disney databases might be incompatible with Apple’s, and that third parties enthusiasm to make the Apple TV experience rich might be limited.
The bill prohibits a covered company from (1) requiring developers to use an in-app payment system owned or controlled by the company as a condition of distribution or accessibility, (2) requiring that pricing or conditions of sale be equal to or more favorable on its app store than another app store, or (3) taking punitive action against a developer for using or offering different pricing terms or conditions of sale through another in-app payment system or on another app store.
A covered company may not interfere with legitimate business communications between developers and users, use non-public business information from a third-party app to compete with the app, or unreasonably prefer or rank its own apps (or those of its business partners) over other apps.
In effect, this would force Apple to allow sideloading. As Mark Gurman states:
If passed into law, this would put more than $20 billion per year in Apple revenue at great risk.
This bill prohibits certain large online platforms from engaging in specified acts, including giving preference to their own products on the platform, unfairly limiting the availability on the platform of competing products from another business, or discriminating in the application or enforcement of the platform’s terms of service among similarly situated users.
Further, a platform may not materially restrict or impede the capacity of a competing business user to access or interoperate with the same platform, operating system, or hardware or software features. The bill also restricts the platform’s use of nonpublic data obtained from or generated on the platform and prohibits the platform from restricting access to platform data generated by the activity of a competing business user. The bill also provides additional restrictions related to installing or uninstalling software, search or ranking functionality, and retaliation for contact with law enforcement regarding actual or potential violations of law.
The first paragraph of the bill talks about Apple giving preference to its own apps over third party apps (think App Store ratings, exposure).
But to me, the second paragraph has the bigger potential impact. Feels like this would open the door for third party apps to use Private APIs, typically forbidden by Apple. It also opens up any data gathered by Apple, and addresses what seems to be whistleblower retaliation.
> A Connecticut man has been arrested after police witnessed him attempting to use Apple AirTags to track a victim’s car. This domestic abuser is now facing domestic violence cases for his acts. Contact a Galveston domestic violence defense lawyer if you were arrested for any type of domestic violence.
And:
> Local police in the town of Waterbury, say they were dispatched following a “reported domestic dispute.” An investigator on the scene “discovered the accused placing a tracking device… in the victim’s vehicle.” > > Even if the perpetrator had not been witnessed, Apple’s anti-stalking prevention methods would have alerted the victim. After a period of time, the victim’s iPhone would show a notification that an AirTag had been tracking them.
This is still jarring to me. Specifically, the phrase “After a period of time”. If someone wants to stalk someone home from, say, a bar. Is the period of time short enough that the victim would see the alert in time to know not to go home?
And:
> When asked by authorities, Apple will report who the registered owner of that AirTag is.
Not clear if this is a comment on official public policy, or a comment on the possibility of Apple reporting on the ownership of an AirTag.
