Business

China uncovers massive underground network of Apple employees selling customers’ personal data

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Hong Kong Free Press:

Chinese authorities say they have uncovered a massive underground operation run by Apple employees selling computer and phone users’ personal data.

Twenty-two people have been detained on suspicion of infringing individuals’ privacy and illegally obtaining their digital personal information, according to a statement Wednesday from local police in southern Zhejiang province.

And:

Of the 22 suspects, 20 were Apple employees who allegedly used the company’s internal computer system to gather users’ names, phone numbers, Apple IDs, and other data, which they sold as part of a scam worth more than 50 million yuan (US$7.36 million).

The statement did not specify whether the data belonged to Chinese or foreign Apple customers.

The good news is, it looks like this is news about the breaking up of this black market, not simply uncovering it. But the allegation that this was an operation run by Apple employees is, if true, a big black eye for Apple in China.

Rallying around a young developer who made a huge, embarrassing mistake

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Quartz, on this Reddit story about a junior developer who inadvertently erased all data from the company’s production database:

The CTO told me to leave and never come back. He also informed me that apparently legal would need to get involved due to severity of the data loss. I basically offered and pleaded to let me help in someway to redeem my self and i was told that i “completely fucked everything up”…

This is a timeless tale, oft repeated. Some examples:

In December, a coding error in Snap’s latest iOS update accidentally jammed the network that keeps more than 15 million computer systems synchronized to the clock. A typo from a busy Clinton campaign aide inadvertently opened the door to the Russian hack of John Podesta’s emails. The British Airways power outage that disrupted tens of thousands of flights last week was reportedly caused by a tech support worker accidentally flipping the power off.

And this, about psychological safety:

An extensive review of employee teams at Google found that the most successful were those with a high level of psychological safety. In other words, when employees felt safe enough to take risks (and make mistakes) without being shamed or criticized, they did better work.

And:

“For all that’s wrong with Amazon, the best part was when someone fucked up, the team and the company focused only on how we make it never happen again,” a former employee wrote on the forum. “A human mistake was a collective failure, not an individual one.”

Terrific read.

Earth — Shot on iPhone

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[VIDEO] This is one of my all-time favorite iPhone ads (embedded in the main Loop post), mostly due to the voiceover by the great Carl Sagan.

To get a sense of why I think so highly of him, spend a minute reading Sagan’s Wikipedia page. To me, he’s the real deal and his words ring true.

Hands on with iOS 11

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[VIDEO] If you missed the keynote and want to learn more about iOS 11, Jeff Benjamin from 9to5Mac has your back.

The video embedded in the main Loop post does an excellent job walking you through the interface changes, and there are a lot of them. This video is definitely worth your time.

iFixit’s 2017 iMac 4K teardown

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Hey, there’s a headphone jack!

Lots and lots of interesting stuff here, both in pictures and in the walkthrough text.

Amazon exec: Alexa should be able to talk to Siri

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Edward C. Baig, USA Today:

Alexa and Siri, rival voice assistants on Amazon’s Echo and Apple’s iPhone, don’t directly communicate with one another. But the Amazon executive in charge of Alexa and the Amazon Echo said he’d welcome the idea.

“You should be able to tell `Alexa, ask Siri X,’” said David Limp, senior vice president of devices at Amazon.

“If Apple or Google want to come calling, my phone number is out there, they can call…I don’t know if I can envision it but I hope that will happen on behalf of customers,” Limp told a group of journalists at the Wired Business Conference Wednesday in New York.

Interesting politics, Limp reaching out through the media.

I would welcome a common currency for AI assistants, a language that would allow them to communicate with each other. There’s obvious resistance to that approach, since it would weaken the walls of the ecosystem. But it would open doors for collaboration, and that’s a win for end users.

Watch the first episode of Planet of the Apps

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From Apple’s Planet of the Apps web site:

The season premiere is finally here! Watch this groundbreaking new series about apps and their creators. Featuring Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, Gary Vaynerchuk, and will.i.am.

The first episode is available here for a limited time. Join Apple Music to get new episodes weekly.

The feel of the show is like Shark Tank meets The Voice, all built around app developers looking for funding. You can watch the first episode, for a limited time, on Apple’s official Planet of the Apps site.

Will my iPhone run iOS 11? What apps will I lose access to?

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iOS 11 is a 64-bit only operating system. That means that any phone made before the A7 chip was released won’t be able to upgrade to iOS 11.

The first iPhone with the A7 chip was the iPhone 5s. The iPhone 5 and 5c do not have the A7. The iPad Mini 2 does have the A7. The iPad Air does. The iPad 4 (iPad with Retina Display, released September 2012) does not.

As to your apps, head over to Settings > General > About, then tap Applications. You’ll likely see a list of applications under the heading NO UPDATES AVAILABLE. Those are the apps you’ll likely lose access to if you upgrade to iOS 11.

Once you make the transition to iOS 11, if you follow the same path, you’ll see a similar list. If any of these apps are critical to your workflow, check with the developer to see if there’s an update planned. If not, start looking for a replacement and a way to port any data you may still need.

Apple makes iPhone screen fixes easier as states mull repair laws

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Reuters:

Apple Inc customers will soon have more choices as the company looks to reduce long wait times for iPhone repairs at its retail stores.

By the end of 2017, Apple will to put its proprietary machines for mending cracked iPhone glass in about 400 authorized third-party repair centers in 25 countries, company executives told Reuters.

Among the first recipients is Minneapolis-based Best Buy, which has long sold and serviced Apple products. The electronics retailer already has one of the screen-repair machines at a Miami-area store and one coming soon to an outlet in Sunnyvale, California.

This should take some of the pressure off of Apple Stores, extend the reach of iPhone repair to people who live near a Best Buy, etc., but not near an Apple Store.

Bloomberg interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook focuses on HomePod

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[VIDEO] Some very interesting questions from Bloomberg’s Emily Chang (video in the main Loop post), including the question of HomePod being able to place a phone call, and whether Apple has retails aspirations (ordering product on your HomePod). The answer seems to be no to both. The approach seems to be, a limited version of Siri for starters, then more and more domains added in over time.

Thoughts on the iMac Pro

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[VIDEO] Some thoughts on the iMac Pro, serving the needs of the Mac Pro crowd, and a video, all in the main Loop post.

The new iPad Pro: Two ads and a WWDC video

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[VIDEO] All three videos are embedded in the main Loop post.

The first video, titled On Any Given Wednesday, ran during the WWDC keynote. Though its focus is the new iPad Pro, it also highlights a lot of what’s new in iOS 11. Drag and drop, split view, the dock all featured prominently in the quick cuts.

Seeing this video again after having spent a good amount of time using iOS 11, I can appreciate the subtleties in the video and I now want to move to the new iPad Pro.

The two ads below the WWDC video are new entries in the iPad Pro series.

Appocalypse

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[VIDEO] This is how Apple brought up the curtain on this year’s WWDC (video embedded in the main Loop post). Note the extra P in the title. It’s all about the apps.

I love it when Apple takes chances. I think this was well done and worked well. Enjoy.

The difference between Siri and Alexa

Written by

Stephen Nellis, Reuters:

Currently, Apple’s Siri works with only six types of app: ride-hailing and sharing; messaging and calling; photo search; payments; fitness; and auto infotainment systems. At the company’s annual developer conference next week, it is expected to add to those categories.

And:

But even if Siri doubles its areas of expertise, it will be a far cry from the 12,000 or so tasks that Amazon.com’s Alexa can handle.

The difference illustrates a strategic divide between the two tech rivals. Apple is betting that customers will not use voice commands without an experience similar to speaking with a human, and so it is limiting what Siri can do in order to make sure it works well.

And:

Now, an iPhone user can say, “Hey Siri, I’d like a ride to the airport” or “Hey Siri, order me a car,” and Siri will open the Uber or Lyft ride service app and start booking a trip.

Apart from some basic home and music functions, Alexa needs more specific directions, using a limited set of commands such as “ask” or “tell.” For example, “Alexa, ask Uber for a ride,” will start the process of summoning a car, but “Alexa, order me an Uber” will not, because Alexa does not make the connection that it should open the Uber “skill.”

Apple is investing in foundational natural language processing (NLP) expertise, building an experience that will scale.

My 2 cents: This is a better long play. In the long run, interacting with Siri will be much more like speaking with a person, complete with slang and idiom, requiring a much smaller learning curve but with a limited domain.

It’d be interesting to see a set of benchmarks develop to test Siri and Alexa, a standardized set of statements to gauge progress.

WWDC’s oldest attendee

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Fortune:

Retired banker Masako Wakamiya was frustrated by the lack of mobile games that catered to the elderly, who have a tougher time keeping up with the action-packed games that are popular with teens. So the 82-year-old from Japan started taking online tutorials to learn how to write software code.

And:

Wakamiya will be the oldest developer attending WWDC, Apple’s annual developer conference that starts Monday in San Jose, Calif. Like many of her fellow attendees, Wakamiya’s free app, called Hinadan, is available in Apple’s App Store, and she is eager to create more.

In contrast, the youngest attendee at this’s year’s WWDC is Yuma Soerianto, a 10-year old boy from Melbourne, Australia who started coding at age six by following online courses on Code.org and from Stanford University that he found on Apple iTunes U, which provides free college courses online. In four years, he has created four apps for Apple’s App Store, including Weather Duck, a weather app for kids.

Welcome, Masako. Welsome Yuma. Have a great week!

Christies to auction off working Apple I

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Christies auction page:

An Apple-1 motherboard: labelled Apple Computer 1 Palo Alto Ca. Copyright 1976 on obverse with four rows A-D, and columns 1-18, white ceramic MOS Technologies 6502 microprocessor, 8K bytes RAM in 16-pin 4K memory chips with an additional 4k piggy-packed onto on RAM bank to create 12K of RAM the heat sink removed along with voltage regulators which have been placed onto the metal casing enclosure (which acts as a heat sink), original 3 “Big-Blue” power supply capacitors, firmware in PROMS (A1, A2), low-profile sockets on all integrated circuits, fitted with original Apple cassette interface card lettered with “G” within triangle, above D9 is an added 1702 EPROM ; the metal casing painted green with Datanetics keyboard to front (20 ¼ x 17 x 6in.) ; vintage Viatron monitor model no. 3001-301 (20 x 11 x 9in.) ; in working condition. Provenance: The EPROM and extra RAM added by the first owner; acquired by Frank VanGilluwe III; sold to Andrew “Zack” Zacharias for $300 May 1978.

The auction is scheduled for next Thursday, June 15th.

What If the iPad Smart Keyboard Had a Trackpad?

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John Gruber, Daring Fireball:

Here’s an idea I tossed out on the latest episode of The Talk Show, while talking with Jim Dalrymple about what Apple might do with the iPad Pro: what if they added a trackpad to the Smart Keyboard?

And:

I’m not talking about adding an on-screen mouse cursor to iOS for clicking and dragging. That’s a terrible idea.

And:

When you’re using the iPad’s on-screen keyboard, you have a crummy (or at the very least sub-par) keyboard for typing but a nice interface for moving the insertion point around. When you’re using the Smart Keyboard (or any other hardware keyboard) you have a decent keyboard for typing but no good way to move the insertion point or select text. Using your finger to touch the screen is imprecise, and, when an iPad is propped up laptop-style, ergonomically undesirable.

Great read. Moving the insertion point and selecting text is one of the least satisfying things about iOS. Not sure this is exactly the right answer, but it is a thoughtful talking point, well worth chewing on.

Apple Park’s tree whisperer

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Steven Levy, Backchannel:

As the campus came into shape, Muffly — who was granted full-time status as Apple’s senior arborist in 2011 — had to actually get the trees. This task was even harder because the arborist and his small team (he calls them his “elves”) needed more trees than originally estimated. When Jobs presented his plan to the Cupertino City Council in June 2011, he said that Apple would add to the 3,700 existing trees for a total of 6,000. But when Muffly began his work, he realized that nearly all the (non-indigenous) existing trees would have to go.

“It was all junk trees and parking lots here,” he says. “So it was a long process.

There’s a lot to enjoy in this story. There’s the background on Steve Jobs and his history with trees, coupled with the process of selecting trees for Apple Park, with an emphasis on saving and planting native trees. Native trees are built to consume the rainfall for a specific area, grow well in the native soil without supplement. Steve Jobs knew this and hired an arborist who shared his vision.

Siri creator, now with Samsung, on the future of AI assistants

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Arjun Kharpal, CNBC:

Adam Cheyer was one of the people behind Siri which was acquired by Apple in 2010. Since then, Cheyer has created a next generation voice assistant called Viv which was acquired by Samsung in 2016. Viv is [now] a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung with the South Korean titan looking to integrate the technology into future products.

Watch the video embedded at the top of the article. Interesting to hear Cheyer’s point of view. Interesting that he specifically leaves out Google in his list of companies competing in this space.

Android vs. iOS: Are iPhones really safer?

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The article leads off with this:

In a new Apple ad, a thief breaks into “your phone” but struggles to get into an iPhone. Here’s how it plays out in the real world.

I was all set to read about how the ad was wrong, that Android phones were actually just as safe. But:

There are several reasons why iPhones are more secure than the various phones running Android software, according to Mike Johnson, who runs the security technologies graduate program at the University of Minnesota.

Side note: That’s no small-time opinion. The University of Minnesota has one of the best computer science programs in the US.

Moving on:

The old rule about PC viruses seems to be holding true with mobile phones, as well. Android phones make up more than 80% of the global smartphone market, and hackers are more likely to succeed if they write programs for these devices, just because of sheer numbers.

The Windows vs Mac logic. Certainly true.

Plus, he says, the process of “patching” security holes is easier on iOS devices. Apple’s iOS operating system only runs on iPhones, while Alphabet’s Android software runs on phones made by numerous manufacturers. It’s more complicated to deliver patches, or bug fixes, that work across so many device makers and carriers. Android can release a patch, but it won’t necessarily be available on all devices right away.

“Fragmentation is the enemy of security,” Johnson says.

And:

Last year, Wired magazine reported that one security firm was offering up to $1.5 million for the most serious iOS exploits and up to $200,000 for an Android one, a sign that iOS vulnerabilities are rarer.

Add to that Apple’s underlying review process, designed to restrict the use of private APIs, controlling techniques that could end-around Apple’s security processes. Not perfect, but world’s better than the more wild-west Android ecosystem.

The Siri Speaker, screen or no screen, and some thoughts about actual news

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Mark Gurman and Alex Webb, this Bloomberg post:

The iPhone-maker has started manufacturing a long-in-the-works Siri-controlled smart speaker, according to people familiar with the matter. Apple could debut the speaker as soon as its annual developer conference in June, but the device will not be ready to ship until later in the year, the people said.

There’s more to the post, but that’s certainly the core chunk of news.

Now make your way over to this Daring Fireball post, where John Gruber digs through the Bloomberg piece, making three major points.

  • The Bloomberg article is long on words, short on actual news, journalism stretched for time. I hate to see this become habit and I certainly do my best to keep my stuff short and to the point (but being an old codger, I do tend to wander occasionally).

  • This:

The closer we get to the WWDC keynote, the more likely things are to get spoiled. But here we are 5 days out and no one has leaked just about anything about iOS 11 or MacOS 10.13, or what’s going on with this 10.5-inch iPad Pro, or if there’s anything new coming for WatchOS or tvOS. Again, there’s a lot of time between now and Monday morning, but it might be time to give Tim Cook credit for “doubling down on secrecy”.

Excellent point. In the olden days, Apple was a much smaller universe, with far fewer analysts, journalists, and op-ed speculators. To keep secrets in these times is truly an accomplishment. Kudos.

  • And finally, there’s the question of screen or no screen. From Gruber:

At the end of Gurman and Webb’s report: “Apple’s speaker won’t include such a screen, according to people who have seen the product.” That sets up a delicious claim chowder standoff with Ming-Chi Kuo, who wrote two weeks ago, “We also believe this new product will come with a touch panel.”

I put the question out there on Twitter, what recent products has Apple shipped without a touch screen? My thinking was, are any of these products similar to the Siri speaker concept? There’s the iPod shuffle, the Mac Pro, AirPods, the Airport Express, and the Apple TV.

To me, the Airport Express and the Apple TV seem the closest to the Siri speaker, screen-wise. To configure either of these devices, you use a separate screen. The complexity of the settings is too much for a built-in panel to properly serve.

And if the screen is intended as a feedback device, like a built-in iPad, for showing the weather or playing videos, that seems like a second generation add-on, a secondary SKU. Pure conjecture on my part, but I cast my claim-chowder-registered vote for no-screen.

The greenest Apple Store in the world

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Nick Mafi, Architectural Digest:

Apple—the forty-one year old technology company from Cupertino, California—is known for unveiling technology that is often ahead of the curve. Which is to say, once Apple does something, the competition tends to follow suit. Climate scientists will hope this will again be the case as Apple recently unveiled their most eco-friendly store to date. The store will not only be filled with trees, but will operate from a handful of sustainable sources as well. Aptly, the store will be located in Singapore, the greenest city in Asia. With the opening over the weekend, Apple finally opened their first-ever store in Southeast Asia.

If nothing else, click through to the article and check out the picture of that staircase, beautifully crafted from Italian marble. Gorgeous.

At Amazon’s bookstore, no coffee but all the data you can drink

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Francis X. Clines, New York Times:

We all may have thought that product delivery by drone was the next big Amazon thing. But the future turns out to be a typical retail store in the Time Warner Center off Columbus Circle. Another half dozen are due this year, including a second Manhattan store, on 34th Street.

The speculation is that dozens more are planned nationally and that Amazon, which already handles nearly half of the nation’s book sales, may eventually expand into selling far more products than the books and Kindle electronics the stores currently offer.

And:

Ask a worker about the narrow predictability of data mining, and the reply comes: “It’s data with heart.” Amazon says its recommendations include in-house “curators’ assessments” to add a variable touch to the crowdsourcing.

This seems the future of the brick and mortar, slowly crushing the mom and pops under a massive pile of data.

Latest Apple Park drone footage — Is that a barn?

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[VIDEO] Matthew Roberts latest footage is gorgeous (click through to the main Loop post to watch it).

One question: About two minutes in, we see a shot of an outbuilding that looks like a barn, sitting off center on what appears to be a concrete pad. Anyone know what that is? If so, please tweet at me.

I do find it fascinating to watch an architectural vision come to full fruition. This is a beautiful design, incredibly detailed, massive in scope.

UPDATE: Yup, it’s a barn. According to this Mercury News article:

Underscoring that Apple Campus 2 is at once one of Silicon Valley’s wildest sketches of the future and a portal to its past, the company has set aside a place on its state-of-the-art campus for the Glendenning Barn, named for a pioneer family whose land became a magnet for tech companies after the blooms faded from their orchards. Constructed in 1916 with planks of redwood, the barn was built to last, though its founders couldn’t have foreseen all that it would withstand: the decline of local agriculture, the rise of big tech and several changes of the guard in Silicon Valley, not to mention Apple’s earth movers.

Thanks for all the response. Love this bit of preserved history.

Eurasian filings indicate new MacBooks, iPads and Apple Magic Keyboard coming at WWDC

Written by

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

Several reports have indicated WWDC will introduce several new Apple hardware products alongside the headline software announcements like iOS 11 and macOS 10.13. Today, Eurasian regulator filings (which have proved reliable before) suggest that new iPad and MacBook (Pro?) models are on the way, as has been reported before.

The filings also suggest that a revision to the wireless Apple Magic Keyboard is imminent

Can’t wait for the keynote. We are so close!