Apple
- If you want to install the iOS 8 update but your iPhone or iPad tells you it doesn’t have enough free space, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes.
- Plug the charging cable into your computer’s USB port and then connect it to your iPhone or iPad.
- If iTunes isn’t already opened, it will open. If it doesn’t open automatically you’ll just have to open it yourself (a first-world problem if ever I heard one).
- Click on the iPhone button that appears in iTunes and, if iTunes isn’t already offering to update your phone, click Check for Update.
- Wait. iTunes will download the five-gigabyte update to your computer and install it on your device.
Apple users targeted in first known Mac ransomware campaign
Apple users targeted in first known Mac ransomware campaign
Jim Finkle reports for Reuters:
Hackers infected Macs through a tainted copy of a popular program known as Transmission, which is used to transfer data through the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing network, Palo Alto said on a blog posted on Sunday afternoon.
The cynical part of me wonders whether this is a clever move by one or more media companies to discourage the use of BitTorrent clients.
I know, maybe I need to order a tin-foil hat. But when even Kanye is pirating stuff it’s really time to bust out some innovative new tactics.
Apple has learned nothing from Microsoft's Surface
Apple has learned nothing from Microsoft’s Surface - The Verge
iPad sales are indeed down, but it does not follow from that fact that iPad use is down. This Time article did the yeoman’s work of aggregating some data about iPad sales. The bottom line is that in the five years since the iPad’s 2010 launch, Apple has sold more than 258 million of the tablets. That’s more iPads in the wild than people living in Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Egypt, Germany, Iran, Turkey, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Thailand, France, United Kingdom, or Italy (thanks Wolfram|Alpha).
My dad has an Android tablet and a Windows PC. Since he got the tablet (which, interestingly from a marketing perspective, he insists on calling an iPad) he does nothing on the PC except pay bills, and that’s primarily because most of the apps you use to pay bills on mobile devices are, to put it mildly, user-hostile antichrists of design and experience.
He is a sample of one, but my dad isn’t even your typical cutting edge older gentleman. For example, he was on Aol dial-up until sometime around 2013, and refuses to use a non-clamshell mobile phone. So his taking so quickly to using a tablet implies to me that the replacement of PCs by iPads and other tablets may be closer than Tom Warren of The Verge thinks, although still far off.
I don’t see my dad using an iPad Pro though because most of his use is on the couch as a second screen. I suspect that the second screen use case coupled with the price point will dampen iPad Pro sales outside of the geek and artist demographics.
Hackers Can Silently Control Siri From 16 Feet Away
Hackers Can Silently Control Siri From 16 Feet Away
Well this is concerning:
A pair of researchers at ANSSI, a French government agency devoted to information security, have shown that they can use radio waves to silently trigger voice commands on any Android phone or iPhone that has Google Now or Siri enabled, if it also has a pair of headphones with a microphone plugged into its jack. Their clever hack uses those headphones’ cord as an antenna, exploiting its wire to convert surreptitious electromagnetic waves into electrical signals that appear to the phone’s operating system to be audio coming from the user’s microphone. Without speaking a word, a hacker could use that radio attack to tell Siri or Google Now to make calls and send texts, dial the hacker’s number to turn the phone into an eavesdropping device, send the phone’s browser to a malware site, or send spam and phishing messages via email, Facebook, or Twitter.
You can disable Siri whenever your iOS device is locked by going to Settings > Touch ID & Passcode > Allow Access When Locked and toggling the Siri switch to the “off” (as in not green) position. This doesn’t guarantee a hack like the one deascribed above won’t work on your device, but it does guarantee you’ll see Siri doing something weird and can thus be alerted to the hackery.
Thoughts on ad blockers
Google's alleged gender-based pay disparity
Ex-Googler says she exposed company-wide pay inequality with crowdsourced spreadsheet
Kristen V. Brown wrote for Fusion about Googler Erica Joy’s recent salary spreadsheet. Google had no response to her request for comment, which is the worst kind of response to something like this. Apple released, deliberately, a dismal diversity report (read: majority male, majority white) last year, and Tim Cook took responsibility for fixing it.
If there is a pay disparity problem at Google, or even the illusion of a pay disparity problem, Google PR needs to be on top of this story. The only time silence is ever okay is when you’re prepping a statement that will include unequivocal evidence that there is no disparity.
iOS 9 Public Beta coming today?
iOS 9 Public Beta coming today?
I rarely cross-post from my geekery-focused Tumblr, but I’m so excited about this I had to share it here, where I have literally thousands more followers.
I’ll be writing a proper post about the public beta after I’ve used it for a few days. There are some interesting legal consequences of agreeing to use beta software.
Monster sues their way out of Apple's licensed accessories program
Apple Revokes Monster’s Authority to Make Licensed Accessories
Daisuke Wakabayashi writes at The Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Tognotti said he told Apple that the move would significantly disrupt Monster’s business and that the two companies had worked well for years, with Monster paying Apple more than $12 million in licensing fees since 2008. Monster said roughly 900 of its more than 4,000 products were made through the MFi program.
Lawyers are paid to be good at chess. Monster’s counsel should have seen this coming and advised executives that they should pursue their lawsuit against Apple only if the potential upside would vastly outweigh the likely downside of a licensing termination.
Photo of Monster’s HQ courtesy Wikipedia user Coolcaesar
Apple under federal anti-competition scrutiny, again
Apple under federal anti-competition scrutiny, again
Micah Singleton writes for The Verge:
Sources also indicated that Apple offered to pay YouTube’s music licensing fee to Universal Music Group if the label stopped allowing its songs on YouTube. Apple is seemingly trying to clear a path before its streaming service launches, which is expected to debut at WWDC in June. If Apple convinces the labels to stop licensing freemium services from Spotify and YouTube, it could take out a significant portion of business from its two largest music competitors.
I dislike hyperbole, but the fact that Apple would even engage in behavior that is capable of misperception as anti-competitive is shocking.
Image credit: “Apple Headquarters in Cupertino” by Joe Ravi. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Tim Cook: Pro-discrimination ‘religious freedom’ laws are dangerous
Tim Cook: Pro-discrimination ‘religious freedom’ laws are dangerous
Tim Cook, in an op-ed at the Washington Post:
Our message, to people around the country and around the world, is this: Apple is open. Open to everyone, regardless of where they come from, what they look like, how they worship or who they love. Regardless of what the law might allow in Indiana or Arkansas, we will never tolerate discrimination.
I admire the visible positions Cook is taking on more and more issues these days.
Tim Cook will lend his name to Alabama LGBTQ bill
Tim Cook will lend his name to Alabama LGBTQ bill
Apple initially expressed corporate reluctance, but Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell later told Pamela Todd, Alabama’s only openly gay lawmaker, that CEO Tim Cook “would be delighted” to have a bill named after him which would protect LGBTQ Alabama state employees from discrimination.
Cook said when he came out publicly in an essay for Bloomberg Businessweek that while he doesn’t usually like to draw attention to himself,
At the same time, I believe deeply in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, who said: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ ” I often challenge myself with that question, and I’ve come to realize that my desire for personal privacy has been holding me back from doing something more important.
It may seem like letting someone name a law after you isn’t that profound, but it is. The law will get national and even international attention primarily because of Tim Cook’s name. Without it, the law would have been written about by Alabama press and journalists in surrounding states, and would have been covered by LGBTQ publications.
But this small thing Mr. Cook can do, this simple thing, lends a volume to Pamela Todd’s proposal it may otherwise have lacked. And it’s already worked: I don’t think I’ve ever read a single word about Alabama state law of any kind, despite graduating from law school, becoming a licensed attorney and frequently writing about law in general and LGBTQ legal developments in particular.
Update to iOS 8 even without enough free space
I’ve heard from many people who insist their iPhone or iPad “can’t handle” or “doesn’t fit” iOS 8. I read an article about a slow-down in updates to iOS 8. John Gruber of Daring Fireball first posited that some well-documented software bugs were making people reluctant to update.
But his follow-up post reminded me how many times I’ve been asked by “normals” how I managed to update my iPhone 5. Their phones, the common story goes, just don’t have enough free space available to perform the update.
I know this is frustrating, so I wanted to share some quick and easy advice on the topic. First, if your iOS device is low on space, it’s probably because of all those photos and videos you’re taking. Learn how to move that stuff to your computer so you can safely delete it from your device.
Second, if you have an iPhone 4 or 4s, think hard before updating to iOS 8. Some reports suggest you’ll have a much slower device after the update. There are some neat new features, but none of them are worth slowing your phone down.
Third, make sure your iPhone or iPad is fully charged before you try to update. While it will be plugged into the computer and therefore charging during the update, it’s best to be safe about these things. Make sure your battery icon is green before you start the update and you should be fine.
Update to iOS 8 with iTunes
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p>Check out Apple’s support page for more information.
A sense that it wasn’t design
Robert Sullivan has such a good interview with Jony Ive over at Vogue:
In other words, the secret weapon of the most sought-after personal-electronics company in the world is a very nice guy from Northeast London who has a soft spot for woodworking and the sense that designers ought to keep their design talents backstage where they can do the most good. “There’s an odd irony here,” he observes. “I think our goal is that you would have a sense that it wasn’t design.”
I’m not sure the Apple Watch is for me because I haven’t had the chance to hold one yet. But the passion and sincerity Ive exudes for his work compels me to at least check it out.
FBI Director dislikes encryption on Apple and Google devices
FBI Director dislikes encryption on Apple and Google devices
Encryption of data on mobile devices is a big selling point in our post-Snowden world. But FBI Director James Comes isn’t happy about it:
What concerns me about this is companies marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves beyond the law.
David Kravets of Ars Technica reports Comey has “reached out” to the companies about the issue. Absent new or amended legislation, though, there is little he can do about it, precisely because there is such a sales incentive to marketing encryption these days.
Apple can't bypass your iOS passcode
Apple can’t bypass your iOS passcode
Apple says in the latest revision of its page on government information requests:
On devices running iOS 8, your personal data such as photos, messages (including attachments), email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, notes, and reminders is placed under the protection of your passcode. Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data. So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8.
Sure enough, the company also updated its Legal Process Guidelines (PDF) to reflect the increase in user privacy:
For all devices running iOS 8.0 and later versions, Apple will no longer be performing iOS data extractions as the data sought will be encrypted and Apple will not possess the encryption key.
This is obviously good news for people concerned about the amount of our data swishing around in the binary ocean, ripe for government fishing expeditions.
However, it’s also worth noting the overwhelming majority, 93 percent, of law enforcement requests to Apple are made at the behest of the customer themselves, usually in the case of a lost or stolen device.
You can find more information about what Apple discloses to law enforcement at its transparency reports page.
Tim Cook and the same question
Tim Cook and the same question
When Cook turned the spotlight on someone, he hammered them with questions until he was satisfied. “Why is that?” “What do you mean?” “I don’t understand. Why are you not making it clear?” He was known to ask the same exact question 10 times in a row.
Once upon a time I had a boss who was verbally abusive of everyone he met, loose with the law and prone to what can only be called temper tantrums.
He was also a genius.
And one of his staples in a meeting was the same thing that quote above explains about Tim Cook. Eventually I was ready for it every time, and it’s a valuable lesson.
Mac turns 30
Steve Jobs, in 1985:
We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people — as remarkable as the telephone.
The remarkable thing is that, at least for people my age, ~30, as old as the Mac itself, the computer is far more remarkable than the telephone ever was. We were raised with the telephone as a commonplace thing, the way our children and nephews and nieces are growing up with iPhones and iPads.
Our computers used the telephone as merely a means to an end, a mode of connectivity. Think about that for a moment: the previous household’s most advanced piece of technology (except perhaps for the television, which is an interesting argument) ended as just a feature in the next generation’s most advanced pieces of technology.
I don’t know whether that’s good or bad for society taken in the aggregate, but the ability of technology to truly and ineffably amaze is gloriously unrelenting. I see no difference, no separating line, between technology and art. Each is made to convey meaning, to delight, to terrify, to teach, to challenge perceptions, and to inspire those who come after us.
Technology and art, or technology as art, or art as technology, are always examples of the same thing:
Humans dreaming, and then building the dream.
What a neat idea.
Apple and "market realities"
Apple, it turns out, is not happy about the legal consequences of its ebook price-fixing scheme. I would be unhappy as well if the attorney assigned by a federal judge to make sure I reformed my anti-competitive practices was sending me $1,100-per-hour bills.
The monitor, Michael Bromwich, submitted to the court on Dec. 30 a detailed explanation of Apple’s treatment of him and his team since their assignment in mid-September. He quotes Kyle Andeer, Apple’s director of competition law, as complaining he is “disappointed by [Bromwich’s] position on rates and other fees. They do not reflect market realities.”
As a former trial attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, Andeer should know a thing or two about “market realities.”
But then again, it’s a distaste for those realities that got Apple a monitor in the first place.
A Day In The Life Of An iPhone Factory Worker
A Day In The Life Of An iPhone Factory Worker
This is something everyone should read. Apple isn’t the only company benefiting from working conditions like this, and that makes it worse, not better.
The dominant press narrative is that Apple is profiting from the misery of toiling foreign workers.
The truth is that much of the electronics industry, not to mention the apparel and the toy industries, are also built on the underpaid and overworked backs of non-Americans all over the world.
Apple removes app curation app from App Store
Apple removes app curation app from App Store
"Yes, you can live here," Apple seems to say to developers, "but if you ever break one of our vague rules, or if we ever decide for any reason or even for no reason at all that you must go, you will be evicted. No appeal, no questions asked, no discussion."
I wish only the best to the folks at AppGratis, but this is the danger in building your business, and your employees’ livelihoods, on something over which you have absolutely no control.
Apple store trade dress
I wonder if there are any retail stores out there that have looked like Apple stores since before Apple stores, and before this trademark was granted earlier this month. I don’t mean knock-off stores, though. I’m thinking make-up shops, art galleries, and other entities that often embrace a minimalist store design aesthetic.
Here’s a direct link to the very-user-hostile USPTO page for the filing.