Apple:

Apple’s conference call to discuss second fiscal quarter results is scheduled for Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. PT / 5:00 p.m. ET.

Apple announced back in February it wouldn’t make its Q2 earnings range due to the coronavirus pandemic but this has been a brutal quarter for Apple and the numbers to be announced will reflect that.

Macworld:

Similar to the ever-present Sign in with Facebook and Sign in with Google options, Apple’s solution is meant to allow you to sign up for apps and sign in with a single ID instead of creating new ones for every app and service in the world.

But it differs from those options in several important ways. Here’s what you need to know about the Sign in with Apple SSO option.

Here’s what you need to know – use it every chance you get because it’s safer and more secure than anything you’ll use with Facebook or Google.

TechHive:

If you’ve been meaning to catch up on such streaming TV hits as Narcos, Fleabag, The Good Fight, and Twin Peaks: The Return (a show I’ve long been meaning to check out), our current stay-home situation is the perfect time to start, and you won’t need to pay a dime for the pleasure.

Some of the biggest brands in streaming video are now offering 30-day free trial periods for sampling their TV and movie offerings. While you will (in most cases, at least) need to provide your credit card information to begin your free trial, you can always cancel before you’re charged. You might, however, lose streaming access as soon as you cancel if you do it before the trial has run its course, so be sure to read each service’s terms and conditions.

Along with this list, here are some more options. If I weren’t already a member, I’d get the free trial of Amazon Prime just to binge Fleabag and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

BTW, the simplest way to not forget to cancel these offerings before the full price kicks in is to set yourself a Calendar “appointment” as a reminder to cancel.

AppleInsider:

Apple, along with a slew of major media platforms, will later this month air “One World: Together At Home,” a special broadcast featuring celebrities and musical performances in support of COVID-19 relief efforts.

Arranged by Global Citizen and the World Health Organization (WHO), the multi-hour program will air globally on April 18 as part of a continuing initiative to drive funds to the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, Global Citizen said in an announcement. The project has raised $35 million over the past week.

Apple is due to stream a digital version of the special in tandem with television broadcasters ABC, NBC, ViacomCBS Networks, iHeartMedia. In Canada, Bell Media will host the show on its various platforms, while BBC One plans to air the program on Sunday, April 19. Where Apple intends to host “One World: Together At Home” has not been announced, though the company has in the past streamed similar special events on Apple TV and Apple Music.

This is the Covid-19 version of 1985’s Live Aid.

If you listen to audio on your Mac, SoundSource is for you. It lives in your menu bar, and provides you with superior control over all your audio.

Get control of audio on a per-application basis. Now you can change the volume of any app relative to others, and play individual apps to different audio devices.

With the Magic Boost and Volume Overdrive features, you can hear your audio even in loud environments, and the built-in equalizer can sweeten the sound. More advanced users will love the ability to apply Audio Units to any audio.

SoundSource also provides fast access to all the settings your Mac’s Output, Input, and Sound Effects audio devices offer. Adjust input and output levels, tweak the balance, and even switch sample rates, right from the menu bar. You may never need to open the Sound System Preference again!

SoundSource is made by Rogue Amoeba, the masters of Mac audio who bring you Audio Hijack, Airfoil, and more. Download the free trial, then purchase today. Loop readers can save 20% with coupon code LOOP2020 (Good through May 10th).

Ars Technica:

The latest streaming-exclusive service: Quibi. Unlike most other streaming services of the past few years, which have largely battled over which classic TV exclusives they can secure, this one has been built out of new, celeb-filled series with one thing in common: the “mini-sode” concept. Every Quibi video clocks in at 10 minutes or less.

Quibi may not be for you, and I went into its preview catalog utterly skeptical. But I came out of it surprised by how charming its scattershot launch lineup has mostly turned out to be.

Jeffrey Katzenberg spent more than a billion dollars on launching this. I think he wasted his and his investors’ money.

Android Police:

Even if you don’t like Apple, or you think iOS is derpy and restrictive — which is, in my opinion, unarguably true — iPads really do offer the best big-screen tablet environment.

The first half of that sentence is what I expect from Android Police. But what I didn’t expect is the linked post’s rave about the iPad.

Consider how I got here. The linked post’s headline is Do yourself a favor and buy an iPad during lockdown. And they’re not wrong.

Bradley Chambers, 9to5Mac:

I closed out the mobile version of the Kindle website, and I reinstalled Apple Books. As I opened it, it felt like a breath of fresh air. The overall design is just stunning. I hadn’t spent a lot of time with the new interface that Apple released with iOS 12, but I was quickly blown away.

When I read this piece by Bradley Chambers, I. realized that I had been locked into the Kindle app on my iPad for a long, long time. So I fired up Books and dug in. Bradley is right. Apple Books really is a breath of fresh air.

Two things stand out in particular to me. First, the process of sliding the scrollbar to jump to a different location is so much better in Books. As you slide, a popup appears that shows both chapter number/title and page number. Much better than Kindle’s clunky navigation process.

Add to that, the process of searching for and purchasing new books. To be fair, Apple’s 30% fee makes it obvious why Amazon makes you exit the Kindle app and buy your books on the web. Definitely not their fault. But still. Buying new books in the Apple Books app is a pleasure.

MediaPlayNews:

Apple TV Channels, which like Amazon Channels, offers access to third party over-the-top video platforms, is offering extended free access to content during the coronavirus pandemic.

Apple is extending to 30 days free trials to ViacomCBS’ Showtime OTT and MGM-owned Epix (through May 2 with no subscription required), AMC Networks’ Acorn TV and Lifetime Movie Channel, among others.

Lots of great, binge-worthy content here. If you’ve not yet seen it, check out the excellent Pennyworth (on EPIX), a sort of Batman pre-history, but focused on Alfred.

And on Showtime, there’s Billions, Dexter, and Ray Donavon. My tastes do run a bit dark, don’t they?

Marvel:

Marvel Unlimited, Marvel’s digital comics subscription service, is now offering all fans FREE access to some of Marvel’s most iconic stories from recent years, including now-classic Marvel Comics events and critically acclaimed runs featuring the Avengers, Spider-Man, Black Widow, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and more. Fans who are social distancing will be able to escape into the Marvel Universe and revisit their favorite stories from a curated selection of complete story arcs – completely free – on Marvel Unlimited, starting Thursday, April 2 until Monday, May 4.

To access Marvel Unlimited’s free comics offering, download or update the Marvel Unlimited app for iOS or Android at the respective Apple and Google Play app stores, and click “Free Comics” on the landing screen. No payment information or trial subscriptions will be required for the selection of free comics.

Sitting at home reading a bunch of comic books sounds like a great idea right now.

TidBITS:

Of all the tech companies that have benefitted from the massive shift to telecommuting that the global pandemic has forced, Zoom stands at the top. The company’s multi-platform videoconferencing software was well known before, being a frequently used, market-leading choice mentioned in the same breath as Adobe Connect, Cisco Webex, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, and Skype. But now Zoom has become a verb among businesses, schools, and people making social connections.

Any time we discuss Zoom and consider recommending its use or thinking about its future, we have to look at a series of bad programming, security, marketing, and privacy decisions the company has taken.

Let me put it bluntly: Zoom is sloppy.

There’s no doubt Zoom is and was shitty software that you really shouldn’t be using if you give a damn about your privacy and security. Unfortunately, many are forced, for various reasons, to use the software so this article may help you lock down your Zoom vulnerability.

No Film School:

Thanks to Oscilloscope and Mailchimp Presents, these SXSW 2020 official short film selections have been given new life.

The indie film community suffered a major blow after the cancelation of SXSW 2020. Hundreds of filmmakers, who worked so hard to get into one of the biggest film festivals in the world, wouldn’t see their films screened thanks to the COVID-19 crisis.

However, Oscilloscope Laboratories and Mailchimp have partnered with SXSW to give official short film selections “a digital home”, allowing anyone with an internet connection and a love of cinema to watch them for free online.

Personally, I’m all in favour of SXSW being canceled but it does hurt the indie filmmakers. If you’ve got the time (and who doesn’t now?), you might find a few cinematic gems in here.

William Gallagher, AppleInsider:

It may seem as if the iPhone, iPad, and even Mac, have not changed their user interface in years, but in truth Apple is continually revising its software. Apple is also increasingly good at hardware surviving underwater, plus it continues to look into actually making devices remain usable when submerged.

These issues are revisited in two new patents, one of which will concern anyone who’s truly wanted to operate an iOS device underwater. And the other uses technology to solve a small but recurring annoyance.

I would absolutely love the ability to use my iPhone camera under water (without a special case). There are issues with waterproofing the phone itself, but beyond that is the complexity of interacting with a phone within the physics of water. Complicated problem.

Then there’s using your face to orient your device:

All iPads have always automatically rotated their screen so that you can hold them in landscape or portrait, and such that you can hold them any way up. However, every iPad user has also had the experience of having to physically rotate the device in order to get it to check again after it’s turned the wrong way.

Happens to me every single time I fire up my iPad. Every time. I’d love to see this problem solved.

Great read.

John Voorhees wrote a terrific appreciation piece, for MacStories, on the under-appreciated iPad mini. Worth reading, especially worth scrolling through to see all the use cases for which the iPad mini is just perfect.

At the very least, I think the iPad mini is perfect for reading. It’s got the right screen proportion, bigger than iPhone, but still very light. And it supports trackpad and mouse input. Spot on.

Ryan Pickren:

This vulnerability allowed malicious websites to masquerade as trusted websites when viewed on Desktop Safari (like on Mac computers) or Mobile Safari (like on iPhones or iPads). ​> Hackers could then use their fraudulent identity to invade users’ privacy. This worked because Apple lets users permanently save their security settings on a per-website basis. ​> If the malicious website wanted camera access, all it had to do was masquerade as a trusted video-conferencing website such as Skype or Zoom.

And:

I reported this bug to Apple in accordance with the Security Bounty Program rules and used BugPoC to give them a live demo. Apple considered this exploit to fall into the “Network Attack without User Interaction: Zero-Click Unauthorized Access to Sensitive Data” category and awarded me $75,000.

If this sort of thing concerns you, put a post-it over your Mac and Mac display cameras.

Apple Platform Security document:

All Mac portables with the Apple T2 Security Chip feature a hardware disconnect that ensures the microphone is disabled whenever the lid is closed. On the 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air computers with the T2 chip, and on the 15-inch MacBook Pro portables from 2019 or later, this disconnect is implemented in hardware alone. The disconnect prevents any software—even with root or kernel privileges in macOS, and even the software on the T2 chip—from engaging the microphone when the lid is closed. (The camera is not disconnected in hardware, because its field of view is completely obstructed with the lid closed.)

That’s the Mac side. On the iPad:

iPad models beginning in 2020 also feature the hardware microphone disconnect. When an MFI compliant case (including those sold by Apple) is attached to the iPad and closed, the microphone is disconnected in hardware, preventing microphone audio data being made available to any software—even with root or kernel privileges in iPadOS or in case the firmware is compromised.

The culture of camera and mic access on the Mac and iPad are very different. On my Mac, when the camera is in use, I see a light. And, as the note states, when the lid is closed, the camera is blocked.

Hardware disconnect does prevent the mic from working when the iPad case is closed. But what if I use my iPad without a case? And what about the camera without a case? There’s no hardware disconnect to rely on. Instead, Apple requires apps to ask for permission to access the camera and microphone.

Seemingly foolproof, but no.

Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac:

After bringing the long-awaited feature to iOS last fall, Spotify has updated its app today to take advantage of Siri support on Apple Watch in watchOS 6.

And:

Spotify mentions in the release notes to use Siri with the music service on Apple Watch users can say, “Hey Siri, Play music on Spotify,” or just add “on Spotify” to any voice command to play content.

Works pretty much everywhere for me now, except HomePod. For that, you’ll need to use AirPlay.

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

In a memo to employees, Apple Senior Vice President of Retail and People Deirdre O’Brien told staff that the company anticipates that “flexible work arrangements will remain in place for all offices, and all retail stores will remain closed, until early May.”

She said that Apple is “continuing to monitor local conditions for every Apple facility on a daily basis” and that the company will make “reopening decisions on the basis of thorough, thoughtful reviews and the latest guidance from local governments and public health experts.”

Apple deciding to open a specific Apple Store will definitely be a canary in the coal mine, a sign that we’re heading back to normal, at least in that area.

Wondering what those early days will be like. Will there be social distancing methods in place? After all, until we have tests for everyone, and a widely available vaccine, how will stores prevent the spread of COVID-19?

HBO:

To provide some entertainment relief for those doing their part to keep everyone safe and healthy in this time of social isolation, HBO is making almost 500 hours of top programming available to stream for free for a limited time on HBO NOW and HBO GO–without a subscription–starting this Friday, April 3. The list of free programming includes every episode of nine iconic HBO series such as The Sopranos, Veep, Six Feet Under and The Wire; major Warner Bros. blockbusters from HBO’s current catalog like Pokémon Detective Pikachu, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and Crazy, Stupid, Love; and 10 riveting HBO documentaries and docu-series including McMillion$ and The Case Against Adnan Syed.

Sadly, not available outside the US.

Eric Yuan, Zoom founder, on the Zoom blog:

Usage of Zoom has ballooned overnight – far surpassing what we expected when we first announced our desire to help in late February. This includes over 90,000 schools across 20 countries that have taken us up on our offer to help children continue their education remotely. To put this growth in context, as of the end of December last year, the maximum number of daily meeting participants, both free and paid, conducted on Zoom was approximately 10 million. In March this year, we reached more than 200 million daily meeting participants, both free and paid.

That’s amazing growth. Zoom has made Yuan one of the world’s richest people.

But Zoom is beset by security issues, with reports of attacks that can take over Windows machines and Macs, and lots of trolling Zoom-bombing (where an uninvited person joins a conference, frequently harassing the rest of the attendees).

Continuing:

We recognize that we have fallen short of the community’s – and our own – privacy and security expectations. For that, I am deeply sorry, and I want to share what we are doing about it.

Read the rest of the post for all the details. This feels like about as good of a response as we could have hoped for. Feels like the team got in over their head, were not prepared for this growth, did not anticipate the security issues that have emerged.

A big black eye for Zoom. Let’s see if they can recover. In the meantime, here are some alternatives.

Greg Kumparak, TechCrunch:

If you’ve ever tried to buy the Harry Potter audiobooks, you probably noticed something kind of tricky: there are two very different versions. The version most widely available in the U.S. is narrated by Jim Dale. The U.K. version is read by Stephen Fry.

And:

Audible has put the Stephen Fry version of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” up online, for free, until further notice.

This is part of J.K. Rowling’s COVID-19 response, which grants teachers an open license to post videos of themselves reading from the books as part of the #HarryPotterAtHome program.

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

In an effort to encourage social distancing, Apple has indicated that it will provide subsidies to Apple Authorized Service Providers that offer product repairs on a pickup and drop-off basis in the United States and Canada.

Here’s how this works. Go to https://getsupport.apple.com/ and start a repair request. Go through the first few screens to describe your issue. Then, when you get to the screen titled “How would you like to get help?”, select “Send in for repair”.

Apple is doing double-service here. They’re providing repair when their stores are closed, and they are helping keep small businesses afloat.

The Verge:

Amazon’s Prime Video iOS and Apple TV apps now let customers make in-app purchases, including renting and buying films and TV shows. The change marks a huge shift in Amazon’s approach to the App Store, which mandates a 30 percent cut on all in-app purchases. Prior to the change, Amazon would not allow you to rent or buy content on the Prime Video app, instead, directing users to a web browser to avoid the App Store fee.

The prices do not appear to have been raised to account for the 30 percent fee, as some platform owners like Spotify have done in the past. It is not clear whether Amazon reached a deal with Apple or whether it is indeed deciding to pay the full cut.

Great news for Amazon Prime Video customers. But unless this was negotiated with or approved by Apple, it will likely get shut down pretty quickly

UPDATE: CNBC confirms Apple has made an arrangement with Amazon, among others.

CNET:

Major League Baseball is attempting to fill the void of this baseball-less spring by opening its vaults to past seasons and classic games throughout its history. First, it opened up the archives to MLB.TV for the past two seasons. And now you can watch classic games on MLB’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages in a new series it’s calling #MLBAtHome. The games start at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) each night and are available to watch after they are first shown.

If you’re like me, you’ll really enjoy being able to watch baseball again.

Google:

In lieu of our normal April Fools’ joke, today we’re getting serious. Over the past few weeks, the world has come to a halt, our healthcare systems have been overwhelmed, and countless people are experiencing food and housing insecurity. This crisis has caused Google to reflect on how critical it is to respond to another global emergency: climate change. Today, we would like to announce a small step in that direction: we will stop our funding of organizations that deny or work to block action on climate change, effective immediately.

For 21 years, Google’s mission has been to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. However, since 2013, we have funded think tanks, policy-makers, and lobbyists that supported strong technology policies, but also spread misinformation about climate change. Many of these organizations have actively worked to derail environmental protections, often successfully. Today, Google is ready to say that this is completely unacceptable, and we are declaring a zero tolerance policy for funding any entities that oppose aggressive actions to halt climate change.

A small step and arguably one that should have been taken sooner.

UPDATE: As Doney den Ouden pointed out to me on Twitter, this is a fake page/post. I pride myself on not getting caught by these but this one got me because I didn’t read all the way to the end. My bad.

MacStories:

Apple has released noteworthy updates for its iWork suite of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, alongside a new version of iMovie, all of which have as their hallmark feature mouse and trackpad support on iPadOS. There are a variety of other nice changes too, big and small, that make these apps more powerful than ever across all platforms.

It’s been a couple weeks since iPadOS 13.4 officially brought proper trackpad support to the iPad, but now Apple’s most important productivity apps on the platform fully support it. Although you could still use a mouse or trackpad in an app like Pages before today, the app wasn’t optimized to support those input methods, whereas now UI elements will respond appropriately to the interactions of the iPad’s new cursor. This involves, for example, having the cursor shift to different shapes to indicate what it can do.

If you use these apps, these updates will be very welcome.