Apple

Jean-Louis Gassée: Apple at 40

Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note, takes a long look at the company he once helped run, as Apple approaches their 40th birthday later this week.

Rent a movie, instantly free up space on your iOS device

Mac Kung Fu:

Renting a title larger than the remaining capacity on your device forces iOS to use a hitherto undisclosed clean-up routine, thereby freeing-up space. Even if the download is way too big, it’ll still try to free-up space.

This cleaning technique has been around for quite some time.

Apple vs the FBI: Follow the money

Charlie Stross homes in on the core problem with an FBI backdoor into iOS . It involves the world’s payment/credit card infrastructure. Fascinating take.

Latest iOS 9.3 update breaking links for many users

Benjamin Mayo, writing for 9to5Mac:

Readers are reporting a strange bug with iOS 9.3 (and older versions apparently, exact characteristics of affected devices is unclear), primarily affecting the latest Apple devices, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. The issue has also been reported on older phones and some iPad models as well. The cause is unknown, but many users are finding themselves unable to open links in Safari, Messages, Mail, Notes and other apps. Instead of visiting the target website, the app crashes, freezes or hangs.

Apple Pay coming to the web later this year

I wonder how this will impact PayPal. Will Apple create an ecosystem where I can generate a bill and have someone pay me (or vice versa), all using Apple Pay?

Apple TV ad: The Kiss

This is an odd one. It helps to know that the two main actors are Alison Brie (Community, Mad Men) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones).

What’s New in iTunes 12.3.3

Kirk McElhearn walks you through the tweaks and more major changes in the just released iTunes 12.3.3.

Bipartisan encryption back-door legislation proposal starts circulating in the Senate

The rumored back-door legislation from the Senate Intelligence Committee has now surfaced. From Reuters:

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has begun circulating long-awaited draft legislation that would give federal judges clear authority to order technology companies like Apple to help law enforcement officials access encrypted data, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

On the FBI’s “alternative” method

Speculation from iOS security expert Jonathan Zdziarski on the nature of the third party the FBI is calling on to crack the San Bernardino iPhone.

Apple’s online store closed for today’s event

Apple has a message up on their site (image in the main post) in preparation for today’s event. The main post also has a link to Apple’s event page if you haven’t already tucked that away.

Johns Hopkins researchers poke a hole in Apple’s encryption

Matthew D. Green, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University who led the research team:

“Even Apple, with all their skills — and they have terrific cryptographers — wasn’t able to quite get this right,” said Green, whose team of graduate students will publish a paper describing the attack as soon as Apple issues a patch. “So it scares me that we’re having this conversation about adding back doors to encryption when we can’t even get basic encryption right.”

The law is clear: The FBI cannot make Apple rewrite its OS

Susan Crawford is a Harvard Law Professor and was President Barack Obama’s Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy. She lays out exactly why the FBI is wrong in its full court press against Apple.