Business

How Apple can fix 3D Touch

Written by

Eliz Kılıç:

3D Touch is missing the most obvious thing to be mainstream. Visual cues.

This. So much this. There is nothing in the interface that signals to a user that a particular element will respond to force/3D touch. The only way to tell is by trial and error. And then, once you’ve figured it out, you have to remember what works, or trail and error all over again.

And what’s great about this writeup is that Eliz not only identified the problem, but came up with an elegant solution. Check the last three images in the article, see if you can tell which controls are force touchable?

Eliz tied this up with a bow, handed it to Apple. Here’s hoping someone is listening.

iOS 12 lets you securely and automatically share your emergency location with 911

Written by

Apple:

iPhone users in the United States who call 911 will be able to automatically and securely share their location data with first responders beginning later this year with iOS 12, providing faster and more accurate information to help reduce emergency response times.

The way it works, prior to iOS 12:

To address this challenge, Apple launched HELO (Hybridized Emergency Location) in 2015, which estimates a mobile 911 caller’s location using cell towers and on-device data sources like GPS and WiFi Access Points.

And the new process:

Apple today announced it will also use emergency technology company RapidSOS’s Internet Protocol-based data pipeline to quickly and securely share HELO location data with 911 centers, improving response time when lives and property are at risk. RapidSOS’s system will deliver the emergency location data of iOS users by integrating with many 911 centers’ existing software, which rely on industry-standard protocols.

And:

The FCC requires carriers to locate callers to within 50 meters at least 80 percent of the time by 2021. iOS location services are capable of exceeding this requirement today, even in challenging, dense, urban environments. This new feature allows Apple to make these benefits available to local 911 centers now rather than years from now.

Not sure of the details, but sounds like a more direct, efficient process, yielding more accurate locations well ahead of the FCC required date.

Downside to Siri shortcut “trigger phrases” in iOS 12, but one with a solution already in place

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From Reddit:

When I was using an Amazon Echo, my biggest complaint was that each third party “skill” has a specific voice command associated with it, and any deviation from that syntax would cause Alexa to not recognize what I was asking for (Haven’t used one in about a year, so this may have changed). I always found this frustrating in comparison to Siri, which can make sense of natural language. i.e. Siri can hear “get me directions to…” or “take me to…” or “how do I get to…” and either way it knows you want help with navigation. Apple made a big deal of this capability when Siri first launched.

But with Shortcuts, Siri behaves more like Alexa in that even though the trigger phrases are customized by the user (which is a one-up on the echo), Siri still requires the exact phrase every time.

And:

Remembering one or two custom phrases isn’t a big deal. But if this is the way Apple is going to open Siri up to third party apps, requiring users to remember dozens of specific trigger phrases (custom or not) is, I think, a step backwards for Siri.

First things first, there is a muddying of the waters at work here. The term Siri Shortcuts is associated with the coming Shortcuts app, which lets you build your own custom workflows which you can fire off as you like. You can assign a trigger phrase to a shortcut which, as the Reddit user points out, must be an exact match for Siri to fire it.

If you build a lot of these, you might run into a problem, but this is a problem with an easy solution. Apple maintains a list of all your trigger phrases, in Setting > Siri > My Shortcuts. [H/T Marcus Mendes]

Interesting point, though. I wonder if Siri will eventually be able to “machine learning” its way to an educated guess as to the shortcut you wanted if you are pretty close.

Apple, Grayshift whac-a-mole

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From this New York Times article:

Apple said it was planning an iPhone software update that would effectively disable the phone’s charging and data port — the opening where users plug in headphones, power cables and adapters — an hour after the phone is locked. While a phone can still be charged, a person would first need to enter the phone’s password to transfer data to or from the device using the port.

And from the Elcomsoft blog:

In the second beta of 11.4.1 released just days ago, activating the SOS mode enables USB restrictions, too. This feature was not present in the first 11.4.1 beta (and it is not part of any other version of iOS including iOS 12 beta). In all other versions of iOS, the SOS mode just disables Touch/Face ID. The SOS feature in iOS 11.4.1 beta 2 makes your iPhone behave exactly like if you did not unlock it for more than an hour, effectively blocking all USB communications until you unlock the device (with a passcode, as Touch ID/Face ID would be also disabled).

And this from Motherboard, with the title Cops Are Confident iPhone Hackers Have Found a Workaround to Apple’s New Security Feature:

“Grayshift has gone to great lengths to future proof their technology and stated that they have already defeated this security feature in the beta build. Additionally, the GrayKey has built in future capabilities that will begin to be leveraged as time goes on,” a June email from a forensic expert who planned to meet with Grayshift, and seen by Motherboard, reads, although it is unclear from the email itself how much of this may be marketing bluff.

And:

A second person, responding to the first email, said that Grayshift addressed USB Restricted Mode in a webinar several weeks ago.

My instinct is that this is, indeed, a marketing bluff. But one without teeth if it doesn’t work.

Whac-a-mole (note the spelling, a trademark thing, I think).

Apple launches new wave of Mac ads

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[VIDEO] All of these ads (embedded in the main Loop post) are posted under the campaign slogan Behind the Mac. I’ll post the short YouTube writeup for each ad, followed by the ad itself. Each ad ends with the phrase Make something wonderful, followed by Behind the Mac.

On the sad state of Macintosh hardware, with a twinkle of hope

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Quentin Carnicelli, Rogue Amoeba blog, posts this list of last updates from the indispensable MacRumors Buyer’s Guide:

  • iMac Pro: 182 days ago
  • iMac: 374 days ago
  • MacBook: 374 days ago
  • MacBook Air: 374 days ago
  • MacBook Pro: 374 days ago
  • Mac Pro: 436 days ago
  • Mac Mini: 1337 days ago

And:

Worse, most of these counts are misleading, with the machines not seeing a true update in quite a bit longer. The Mac Mini hasn’t seen an update of any kind in almost 4 years (nor, for that matter, a price drop). The once-solid Mac Pro was replaced by the dead-end cylindrical version all the way back in 2013, which was then left to stagnate. I don’t even want to get started on the MacBook Pro’s questionable keyboard, or the MacBook’s sole port (USB-C which must also be used to provide power).

As if by magic, Apple released four new Mac ads yesterday, obviously a coincidence, but a good sign nonetheless.

Follow the money. We recently posted this article quoting numbers from Apple’s last holiday quarter:

  • iOS revenue: $68 billion
  • Mac revenue: $6.9 billion
  • iOS units sold: 90.4 million
  • Mac units sold: 5.1 million

Going purely by the numbers, clearly iOS should have Apple’s attention. But the Mac remains a vital part of Apple’s ecosystem. Given the WWDC announcement of the effort to port iOS apps to the Mac, and the new ad campaign, I have to feel a bit optimistic that Apple is turning their massive battleship back towards the Mac.

Hands on with macOS Mojave

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[VIDEO] Per usual, Jeff Benjamin does a wonderful job walking through macOS Mojave (embedded in the main Loop post). So much new stuff. Love the new screenshot capabilities. Another tick towards iOS with the screenshot hanging around in a floating window for you to edit.

The various flavors of Siri shortcuts

Written by

Rene Ritchie, iMore:

Developers can tap into the Continuity-derived user activity to make locations available within their apps. And they can use a new Intents API to let the system know, more expansively, the actions available in the app.

Once that’s done, Siri keeps track of what you do with them and when you do it, and tries to guess when you’ll do it next.

Rene clarifies this with examples:

For example, if you always order pizza before the game on Sunday, instead of having to go to the pizza app, pick your favorite, and place your order, it’ll have a banner waiting for you right on your Lock screen ready with your favorite order.

If you always text your child to say you’re on your way home from work, instead of having to go to messages, find the conversation with your child in the list, and tap to start a new message, a banner will be waiting for you, ready and able to send that message with a single tap.

Rene’s article is long and full of interesting detail. But the part that struck me was the way he distinguished between shortcuts you create yourself (using the Shortcuts app, rebranded from Workflow), and the voice triggers you create to label shortcuts (Hey Siri “Get pizza”), and the shortcuts Siri creates (driven by user activity reported by various apps) and suggests to you.

I’ve been using the iOS 12 beta for a week now. In that time, my Lock screen has offered to put my phone into Do Not Disturb when a Wallet pass, Open Table, and even simply iMessage indicated I might be having dinner or breakfast.

I hasn’t offered to let me order my usual Philz Mint Mojito, because I don’t have the Shortcuts enabled version of that app — yet! — but it has offered me directions to Philz after I used Maps for walking directions the first couple days of the conference.

Read Rene’s post to take advantage of his iOS 12 experience, wrap your head around what’s coming. Good stuff.

How the 12.9-inch iPad Pro took me by surprise and replaced my laptop

Written by

Paul Stamatiou:

Against my better judgement, I decided to give tablets one more chance. On the last day of a vacation that started in Rwanda and ended in the UK, I walked into the Regent Street Apple Store in London and purchased a 12.9″ iPad Pro and Smart Keyboard.

That was a few months ago. A few months in which my 13″ MacBook Pro has not even been powered up once. Any new gadget novelty has long since worn off and I’m still loving and using this iPad Pro daily.

What changed this time around?

Let me be clear about something. Though I often write about why I am still on a MacBook and the things that prevent me from moving full-time to an iPad Pro, I would love to make that move. I would love for an iPad to fill all my needs. I own a number of iPads and use them all the time.

Every time I read one of these stories, I dig down to see if, perhaps, the time has arrived. I do see us getting closer, but there are still a few things that make the MacBook my central computing device.

From Paul:

The viewing angle of the iPad Pro is not adjustable. You just get the two modes and that’s it. It’s okay most of the time but on a few occasions (usually when I’m slouching in a chair…) I have found myself stuffing something behind the iPad Pro to prop it up a bit more.

And:

Rather trivial but it’s hard to use the keyboard in a more relaxed, casual couch setting without placing a hard surface underneath.

The MacBook is its own platform. You could balance it on your lap, a small tray table (think airplane), even on a soft patch of grass. The iPad keyboard combo is not stiff enough to work on non rigid surfaces. Sure, I can use my iPad anywhere, but to type at speed, I need the keyboard, and the iPad keyboard combo requires a rigid surface.

More from Paul:

Repetitively placing a cursor or selecting text is a chore. It’s tedious to constantly move your hand from the keyboard up to the middle of the screen as opposed to a closer adjacent mouse as you have become accustomed to with a computer.

The text editing thing is the one thing I can’t get past. I would love to write a Loop post on my iPad. But typing and editing anything more than a paragraph is a chore on my iPad. I wish I could solve this. I want to believe!

All told, Paul made the transition. Terrific read, lots and lots of interesting detail, all written on the iPad Pro.

Apple tries to stop developers sharing user data

Written by

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. changed its App Store rules last week to limit how developers use information about iPhone owners’ friends and other contacts, quietly closing a loophole that let app makers store and share data without many people’s consent.

The move cracks down on a practice that’s been employed for years. Developers ask users for access to their phone contacts, then use it for marketing and sometimes share or sell the information — without permission from the other people listed on those digital address books.

Glad Apple made this move. Amazing to me that Apple continues to embrace privacy, with the constant lure of moving to the dark side.

Net neutrality repeal + AT&T Time-Warner merger = Trouble for Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, etc.

Written by

Danny Crichton, TechCrunch:

[The repeal of net neutrality] will allow telecom companies like AT&T to prioritize their own content over that of competitors. In the past, AT&T didn’t have all that much content, but the addition of Time Warner now gives them a library encompassing Warner Bros. to TBS, TNT, HBO and CNN. Suddenly, that control over prioritization just got a lot more powerful and profitable.

And:

If Comcast bids and is successful in buying 21st Century Fox, then connectivity in the United States will be made up of a handful of gigantic content library ISPs, and a few software players that will have to pay a premium to deliver their content to their own subscribers. While companies like Netflix and Alphabet have negotiated with the ISPs for years, the combination of these two news stories puts them in a significantly weaker negotiating position going forward.

So if you get your internet from AT&T or DirectTV or Time Warner (or other AT&T owned/branded ISPs), keep an eye out for either Netflix packet slowdown or an offer to make your connection net neutral.

And what about YouTube? No reason AT&T wouldn’t slow YouTube packets to allow their own content to hog the fast lane. Will this threat rekindle the stuttering Google Fiber (now spun off into Alphabet) efforts?

In what world is this a win for consumers? Feh.

A beautiful example of iOS 12 and ARKit 2

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Watch the video embedded in this tweet:

https://twitter.com/nathangitter/status/1008397365018005504

To me, this really puts the augmented in augmented reality. This is a taste of what’s coming.

Jean-Louis Gassée on iOS to macOS porting, and some possible motivation

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Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note, starts things off by talking through the Marzipan rumors and then Craig Federighi’s famous “No.” slide, followed by the details of the Marzipan announcement.

All good, but what I really liked was when Jean-Louis turned to the numbers:

By some measure, there are approximately 2.1M iOS apps in Apple’s App Store. By contrast, macOS apps number in the low thousands — a slightly misleading measure since some Mac apps are available independent of the regulated App Store. But with that caveat, iOS apps certainly outnumber macOS apps by at least an order of magnitude — a ratio that parallels the macOS vs iOS revenue and unit numbers.

He follows that with a slide that lists revenues for the 2017 Xmas quarter, AKA, 3Q2017:

  • iOS revenue: $68 billion
  • Mac revenue: $6.9 billion
  • iOS units sold: 90.4 million
  • Mac units sold: 5.1 million

And this conclusion:

The iOS-macOS UIKit bridge will pump new blood into the (relatively) anemic Mac app world. The arrangement will benefit everyone: iOS developers will find new customers on the Mac, customers who pay multiples of $10 vs single digits for iOS apps; Mac users will be given a wider choice of apps; and Apple gets a livelier macOS store.

Well said, Jean-Louis. Per usual.

macOS Mojave: A Roundup of All the Little Things

Written by

John Vorhees, MacStories:

Now that people have had a chance to dig deeper into macOS Mojave, a number of smaller features have been discovered that didn’t get mentioned during the keynote on Monday and weren’t included in our initial overview of the updated OS that will be released in the fall. Here are a few of our favorite discoveries.

This is a short read, interesting all the way. My favorite nugget:

What Apple didn’t explain when it updated the Mac App Store is that macOS updates have been moved from the Mac App Store to System Preferences.

To me, this is a step towards iOS. Can’t help but wonder if we’ll see a unified core framework for the basic App Store and software updating functionality. Looking forward to playing with Marzipan.

A walk through the new macOS Mojave Mac App store

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Nice job by Bryan M. Wolfe, iDownloadBlog. I came away from this thinking the core, recently rewritten iOS App Store code was repurposed for macOS Mojave. Made me wonder if the iOS to macOS Marzipan framework was at all involved here.

And, no matter, the results are excellent. Take a look.

Apple’s official macOS Mojave preview page vs the iOS 12 preview page

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Yesterday we shared Apple’s gorgeous new iOS 12 preview page.

Today we’re posting a few Mojave specific posts, so seems right to start off with Apple’s official Mojave preview page.

I wonder if the two pages were built by two different teams. As you scroll through both pages, do you notice a difference between them? Here’s why I ask.

To me, the main difference is animation. As you make your way through the iOS 12 preview page, the images all come alive (they are short videos). Though there is some animation on the Mojave page, it’s doesn’t have the same liveliness. To see this for yourself, scroll down to the FaceTime section of each page.

Another difference? The iOS 12 images are all on a white background, the Mojave images are on a dark background (no doubt to showcase dark mode).

No complaints here. Both are graphically stunning. But I do think the iOS 12 page is more effective, does a better job of drawing you in. Just my 2 cents.

Viso: Hands free control of your Mac, all through facial gestures

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[VIDEO] Viso uses your iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera and ARKit to allow you to use your face to control your Mac. To truly appreciate this, watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. Amazing work. Love the accessibility possibilities.

Apple’s Memoji are gender neutral — Here’s why that matters

Written by

Madeline Buxton, Refinery29:

In February, Samsung revealed AR Emoji, a clever (and slightly creepy-looking) way to create interactive avatars that speak onscreen as you speak IRL. Yesterday, Apple revealed their version of the interactive emoji, called Memoji (i.e. Animoji, but make it human).

Besides looking cute, rather than creepy, Memoji have another major plus over their direct competitor: They don’t require users to pick a gender. In fact, the entire creation process is gender neutral — there is no mention of male or female anywhere onscreen. This is an emoji set anyone can relate to, no matter how they identify, what their hair looks like, or even how many piercings they have.

Yet another reason Memoji are head and shoulders better than Samsung’s AR Emoji (which I just find creepy, way the wrong side of the uncanny valley).

As I’ve said before, I believe Memoji will help Apple sell a ton more Face ID devices.

How to recover space from an iOS update

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This TidBITS post is a good read. Even if you already know how to do this, good to walk through the interface to see what’s changed since the last time you dug into this.

Amazon’s new Fire TV Cube: Hands free control of your TV setup

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From the Fire TV Cube product page:

  • Fire TV Cube is the first hands-free streaming media player with Alexa, delivering an all-in-one entertainment experience. From across the room, just ask Alexa to turn on the TV, dim the lights, and play what you want to watch.

  • With far-field voice recognition, eight microphones, and beamforming technology, Fire TV Cube hears you from any direction. Enjoy hands-free voice control—search, play, pause, fast forward, and more. Plus, control your TV, sound bar, cable or satellite box, receiver, and more with just your voice.

  • Do more with Alexa. Fire TV Cube has a built-in speaker that lets you check the weather, listen to the news, control compatible smart home devices, and more—even with the TV off. Fire TV Cube is always getting smarter with new Alexa skills and voice functionality.

  • Experience true-to-life picture quality and sound with access to vivid 4K Ultra HD up to 60 fps, HDR, and the audio clarity of Dolby Atmos.

This seems like a major move into the living room for Amazon, and a much more direct threat to Apple TV and, more subtly, an attack on HomePod.

To get a sense of this, try to use your Apple TV with just your voice. No remote allowed, not even to turn it on. Though there are workarounds, including configurations where you can use your HomePod to turn on your Apple TV, most people will get nowhere with this challenge. And that’s the point.

HomePod is designed with Apple Music in mind, with a secondary nod to Siri. The Fire TV Cube, starting at $119.99, brings a full-fledged Alexa to the living room, designed specifically to control your TV, a direct replacement for your Apple TV.

Though you don’t get the deep access to the Apple ecosystem, you do get access to Alexa (and the growing list of 3rd party Alexa skills), and you can control the whole thing with your voice, no remote needed.

Looking forward to seeing the next generation of Apple TV. Will Apple somehow use HomePod as a bridge to bring this hands-free capability to Apple TV? Not sure that’d be enough, since my HomePod lives far from my TV. I’m hoping for built-in far-field mics in the Apple TV itself.

Your phone is listening and it’s not paranoia

Written by

Sam Nichols, Vice:

A couple years ago, something strange happened. A friend and I were sitting at a bar, iPhones in pockets, discussing our recent trips in Japan and how we’d like to go back. The very next day, we both received pop-up ads on Facebook about cheap return flights to Tokyo. It seemed like just a spooky coincidence, but then everyone seems to have a story about their smartphone listening to them. So is this just paranoia, or are our smartphones actually listening?

I have heard so many examples like this. It seems impossible that all these anecdotes are mere coincidences. I’ve been just waiting for someone to take the time and run some (relatively) controlled experiments to prove or disprove this theory.

I am still not convinced one way or the other. I’d still love to see a rigorous experiment that really nails down all the variables. But a fascinating read.

[H/T Storm Garelli]

Why you should probably wait to install iOS 12 and the other betas

Written by

Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:

With WWDC every year comes new beta versions of all of Apple’s operating systems. This year, we got iOS 12, macOS 10.14 Mojave, watchOS 5, and tvOS 12. All are currently available to developers and are meant for testing purposes. After all, they are betas and are buggy.

With beta releases come a handful of issues. Devices typically run warmer than expected and suffer from shortened battery life, as Apple typically doesn’t really optimize performance until later betas.

And:

Furthermore, you’ll likely run into app compatibility issues across all of the latest betas. The purpose of the beta period, again, is for developers to test their applications and services on the latest versions of macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. This means apps aren’t optimized and might not run properly on the beta.

That last is the biggest bugaboo for me. I can live with occasional crashes or quirky behavior, and the current slate of betas seem exceptionally stable. But for certain apps, compatibility is critical. If I move to a beta and a key app just doesn’t work, I’ve wasted a lot of time since I’d be forced to restore from a backup to get back to where I was before I took the leap.

If you are considering a backup, check out this Mojave compatibility Reddit thread. Be sure to read the comments, lots more issues revealed there.

If you depend on a 3rd party device, like a specialized trackball with programmable buttons, say, do a bit of research to see if the device still works in the beta.

I am more likely to take the leap with my phone, since that does seem stable enough with all my key apps. With Mojave, I’ve still got a bit more research to do, since I use so many specialized apps.

Obviously, make sure you have solid, reliable backups. For your iPhone, make sure you do an archived backup, which will ensure that your backup will not be overwritten by a backup of the beta, just in case you have to restore your phone back to 11.4.

And finally, keep in mind that embracing a beta is a choice. If you make it, don’t complain about things not working right. That’s the world you are entering. Stuff will break. But it will (in the vast majority of cases) get fixed, and performance will no doubt get much better as debug builds are replaced by performance builds. Report the bugs you encounter so the folks doing the heavy lifting can follow up.

100 new iOS 12 features/changes

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[VIDEO] Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac, does a fantastic job digging through iOS 12 to show off what’s new. If you have to pick one video to wrap your head around iOS 12’s new chewy goodness, this is the best one I’ve yet come across. As usual, the video is embedded in the main Loop post.

One standout from the video occurs very near the beginning, when Jeff runs a GeekBench benchmark test on two identical phones, one running iOS 11.4 and another running the first beta of iOS 12. iOS 12 shows some clear speed improvements.

I’ve been watching a number of videos testing this delta from iOS 11.4 to iOS 12 and most of the performance improvements Apple promised show up in all of them in one form or another. One video, dedicated exclusively to the iPhone 5S, clearly shows Apple has paid attention to older devices, making sure those speedups carry a good way back in the product line.

What will the Mac be like in 2020?

Written by

Jason Snell, Macworld:

Start by considering exactly what Federighi said on stage at WWDC: “We love the Mac, and we love macOS because it’s explicitly created to the unique ergonomics of Mac hardware, like the ergonomics of the keyboard and trackpad, the flexibility in displays and storage, and because of the power it exposes, it makes the Mac able to accomplish almost anything.”

And:

I’m not sure I can entirely conceive of iOS never having a tool like the Terminal—if only because it feels inevitable that app development will one day be possible on iOS—but I can accept that the wild-west feel of macOS, where you can arbitrarily install, compile, and write software, is unlikely to ever be reflected on iOS.

And:

Apple itself sells a keyboard for the iPad Pro, and even allows users to move their fingers like they’re using a trackpad when editing text. The iPhone and iMac Pro are about as far as two devices can get from one another, but the MacBook and the iPad Pro are not.

To me, there’s still a huge chasm between any Mac and any iOS device. The Mac was built to serve a cursor, a specific location on the screen that has a focus. There are windows that you can drag around, a file system designed for rapid file/folder moves and copies, searches and sorts.

On the flip side, iOS devices are built for the dynamic nature of touch. All areas of the screen are equal citizens when it comes to touch. There’s no nudging things to the side without specifically reaching for them. No arrow keys to move a text cursor back and forth, or move an object from side to side.

Though I do see Jason’s point, the differences between a MacBook and a keyboard enabled iPad Pro are less than that of the iPhone and iMac Pro, to me they are still worlds apart.

All that said, Jason’t article is a terrific read, worth your time, thoughtful as always. I look forward to next year’s WWDC when we see a truly informed Marzipan, when Apple delivers a framework specifically designed to bridge the macOS iOS chasm.

Hands-on with macOS 10.14 Mojave

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[VIDEO] Very nice walkthrough (video embedded in the main Loop post) of the major new macOS Mojave features from Dan, MacRumors.

My favorite? By far, the Finder’s new Gallery view and improvements to QuickLook.