Mac

High Sierra automatically checks firmware integrity each week

Written by

The Eclectic Light Company:

Upgrading to High Sierra brings a new and significant security feature: your Mac will automatically check its EFI firmware. In a series of tweets, Xeno Kovah, one of the three engineers responsible for the new tool, has outlined how this works.

The new utility eficheck, located in /usr/libexec/firmwarecheckers/eficheck, runs automatically once a week. It checks that Mac’s firmware against Apple’s database of what is known to be good. If it passes, you will see nothing of this, but if there are discrepancies, you will be invited to send a report to Apple.

And:

eficheck depends on a small local library of ‘known good’ data, which will be automatically and silently updated if you have security updates turned on in the App Store pane.

That checkbox is in the App Store pane in System Preferences and should be checked by default.

macOS High Sierra keychain vulnerability should not stop you from updating

Written by

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

macOS High Sierra, released to the public today, could be impacted by a major security flaw that could allow a hacker to steal the usernames and passwords of accounts stored in Keychain.

Here’s the tweet that brought this to light:

https://twitter.com/patrickwardle/status/912254053849079808

The timing of this reveal is terrible, as it coincides with the release of macOS High Sierra. I know a number of people who have held off updating for just this reason.

Don’t let this story stop you from updating:

  1. This exploit is said to effect earlier versions of macOS as well. If you are on Sierra and considering updating, you are already as vulnerable as you would be if you updated.

  2. Apple is said to be working on a fix and Patrick Wardle has said he will not release details of the exploit until the fix patch is available.

Add to that:

For this vulnerability to work, a user needs to download malicious third-party code from an unknown source, something Apple actively discourages with warnings about apps downloaded outside of the Mac App Store or from non-trusted developers.

To be clear, do your research and a full backup before you update. I’ve done my homework and, once I finish this morning’s Loop posts, will hit the return key and start my update. I will definitely update on Twitter as I go. Hopefully, the update will be trouble-free. Fingers are crossed.

Apple’s High Sierra press release

Written by

Nice job highlighting the major features in macOS High Sierra. Don’t miss the section towards the bottom called “Additional app refinements”.

My favorite is the very last one:

Spotlight provides flight status information, including departure and arrival times, delays, gates, terminals and even a map of the flight path

Interesting.

Hackers use Find My iPhone to remotely lock Macs, demand ransom

Written by

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Over the last day or two, several Mac users appear to have been locked out of their machines after hackers signed into their iCloud accounts and initiated a remote lock using Find My iPhone.

With access to an iCloud user’s username and password, Find My iPhone on iCloud.com can be used to “lock” a Mac with a passcode even with two-factor authentication turned on, and that’s what’s going on here.

This does appear to be a genuine hole in Apple’s security scheme, though iCloud itself was not hacked.

Seems like this is fixable. From the comments:

When you go to remote lock a device you enter a lock passcode and the device’s password or passcode. When that is sent to the Mac, iPhone, whatever, if the device password doesn’t match, it won’t lock the device. That way, even if a hacker guesses your Apple ID and password using hacked credentials, they still can’t lock the device without the Mac’s login.

Not sure if this is doable, since your Mac’s password is not stored in the cloud, but maybe the entered password could be encrypted, sent to the Mac, and the Mac could decrypt and compare.

Major update to the Mac’s excellent Keyboard Maestro

Written by

I have a very short list of absolutely essential 3rd party Mac software. Tops on that list? Keyboard Maestro.

If you use a Mac and are not familiar with Keyboard Maestro, go here and watch the video, read through the list of things it can do. I use it every single day. My highest recommend.

Get ready for APFS

Written by

From a new Apple knowledge base article spotted by 512 Pixels:

When you upgrade to macOS High Sierra, systems with all flash storage configurations are converted automatically. Systems with hard disk drives (HDD) and Fusion drives won’t be converted to APFS. You can’t opt-out of the transition to APFS.

From everything I’ve heard, the transition to macOS High Sierra was easy and rock solid. But, even with that said, the transition of a file system makes it especially critical that you have a reliable, up-to-date backup of your Mac before you give High Sierra a try.

If you are planning a move to High Sierra, read the knowledge base post for specifics. It’s not long.

The life and death of the MacBook Touch Bar

Written by

Chuq Von Rospach:

It seems to me Apple fell in love with the technology of the Touch Bar system, which if you dig into it a bit is a stunning piece of engineering, and expected all of us to fall in love with it as well. The problem is: Apple rarely sells things to us based on neat technology, it sells us based on the stories of how that technology will solve problems for us, and right now, the problems a Touch Bar solve for us that we care about being solved are few and far between.

Thoughtful piece on the Touch Bar. Resonates with me.

Why the Mac needs iCloud Backup

Written by

Dan Moren:

With the announcement this week that CrashPlan was discontinuing its consumer-oriented online backup plans, more than a few users found themselves wondering what steps to take to make sure their data remained safely and securely backed up.

There are, of course, plenty of options for Mac users who don’t want to switch to CrashPlan’s small business backup plans: Backblaze, Arq, and so on. But it also put into stark relief the fact that Mac users miss out on at least one major feature accorded to their iOS-using counterparts: iCloud Backup.

Terrific piece by Dan Moren. I would gladly pay a bit extra for the ability to include my Mac in my automatic iCloud device backup regimen.

The problem with abandoned apps

Written by

Marc Zeedar, TidBITS:

While the App Store may be a senior citizen in Internet time, as a marketplace, it’s barely out of diapers. But we’ve now reached a point where I believe the App Store will either morph into something genuinely useful or fade away as a fad.

I don’t mean that the App Store itself will go away — it won’t — but it could disappear as a business opportunity for most developers. In this dystopian future, the only profitable apps left will be a handful of entertainment apps by huge companies and “business essential” apps, such as those made by banks or news organizations for their customers.

The looming threat that I see is abandoned apps.

Key here is Apple’s plans to deprecate 32-bit apps in iOS 11. If you’ve invested in an app that the developer has no plans to update, that investment may fall to zero. If it’s a 32-bit game you’ve spent a lot of time with, you’ll no longer have access to the game (it won’t load anymore) and your progress is lost to the ages (unless you stop updating your device).

More importantly, if you’ve embraced iOS as your main OS, any data you’ve created using a 32-bit app will no longer be accessible.

On the Mac, if a developer abandons an app you rely on, you can easily make backup copies and reinstall it if needed. If an app won’t run on a new version of macOS, you can theoretically boot from an older version or run the app in a virtual machine. Worst case, you can usually find a way to at least migrate your data to another app.

In iOS, the situation is different. Because Apple exercises total control over which apps are allowed to run and how you get and install them, there is no way to get abandoned apps to work (short of jailbreaking, which introduces its own set of non-trivial problems).

I can’t imagine Apple isn’t working this problem internally. They’ve certainly given plenty of warning. But the stark difference between the impact of major changes in macOS and iOS are worth thinking about.

Read the rest of Marc’s TidBITS post. Thoughtful stuff.

How to securely dispose of your old Mac

Written by

Kirk McElhearn, Intego blog:

Your Mac contains a lot of personal information, and is connected to a number of Apple accounts. When you plan to dispose of your Mac — whether you sell it, give it away, or send it for recycling — there are a number of things you should do to make sure your data and your accounts remain secure. There are also a few steps you need to take to remove that Mac from Apple’s accounts.

In this article, I go over the 8 steps you should take before getting rid of a Mac.

Some basic, common sense advice here. Bookmark, pass along, especially to folks you know who are relatively new to the Mac.

How to password protect a folder on a Mac, and add a password to a Note

Written by

Henry T. Casey:

Not all of your files are meant to be seen by everyone. Your friends and family may not appreciate this truth, but that’s just the way it is sometimes. Luckily, MacBook owners can protect their sensitive files from prying eyes by password protecting specific folders.

Every Mac owner should know how to do this. I only wish Apple would offer a more direct method of password protecting a folder, one that didn’t require the creation of a separately mountable volume. But this solution works and works well.

That said, if you are trying to protect text, as opposed to a set of files, consider placing that text into a note, then locking the individual note. This has the advantage of giving you access to that protected information on your Mac and all your iOS devices.

Here’s Apple’s support doc on adding a password to your notes.

What’s wrong with the Touch Bar

Written by

Josh Centers wanted to do a TidBITS piece on innovative uses of the MacBook Touch Bar. Things did not go as planned.

How to tell which of your Mac apps is 32-bit vs 64-bit

Written by

Why should you care whether an app is 32-bit or 64-bit?

From this Apple developer page:

At WWDC 2017, we announced new apps submitted to the Mac App Store must support 64-bit starting January 2018, and Mac app updates and existing apps must support 64-bit starting June 2018.

32 bits allows you 2-to-the-32nd addresses:

2^32 = 4,294,967,296

That’s 4 gigabytes of addressable space. A 32-bit computer can’t have more than 4 gigs of memory. A 32-bit program can’t directly address more than 4 gigs.

64 bits, on the other hand, gives you access to 2^64 which is equal to 2^32 times 2^32. Clearly, that’s a way bigger number. I won’t say we’ll never need more than 64-bits of addressable space, but I can’t imagine that need in my lifetime.

So how to tell which apps are 32-bit and soon to be end-of-lifed?

Easy. Go to the Apple menu, select About This Mac, then tap the System Report… button. In the page that appears, scroll down to the Software section (in the list on the left) and then tap Applications. Wait a minute or two while the list is built.

Once the list appears, widen the window so you can see the column labeled 64-Bit (Intel). If you tap that label, the table will be sorted into the haves and have nots, 32-bit apps on top, followed by 64-bit apps.

For me, the vast majority of 32-bit apps are legacy holdovers from previous installs that the migration assistant brought along during various system updates.

Why doesn’t Apple let you have both? In a nutshell, supporting both flavors means Apple needs to maintain and ship 32-bit and 64-bit versions of all its supporting frameworks, essentially doubling their workload as well as the size of the OS. In addition, both 32-bit and 64-bit frameworks are loaded into memory, doubling that part of the memory footprint.

Shocked commuters gawp as woman brings iMac and keyboard onto train

Written by

A picture is worth a thousand words:

https://twitter.com/davidhill_co/status/882254867066232832

I do find the whole thing entertaining, but not too hard to see this happening. Could be she needed the larger screen or, perhaps, this might be the only computer to which she had access and a project deadline that forced her hand.

They had me at gawp.

Future Macs may detect your presence and react accordingly

Written by

AppleWorld Today:

Future Macs may “wake up” when they detect your presence and take action based on exactly where you are. Apple has filed for a patent (number 20170193282) for “presence sensing.”

The “presence-based functionality” method may include operating the Mac in a reduced power state and collecting a first set of data from a first sensor. Based on the first set of data, the computer determines if an object is within a threshold distance of the Mac.

Some interesting possibilities here. Your Mac could rise to a low-power awareness mode when you are nearby, then power up more fully as more criteria are met. I’d like to see my Mac wake up, bring Safari to the front, then update the specific set of tabs I invariably read through every morning, with one set on weekdays (my Loop prep) and a different set on weekends (my feet up, coffee on the porch reading).

Part of the focus of this patent is more efficient power management. Which would react one way to me watching a video, another to my creating content (by typing/clicking), and another to my turning on some music, then running silent.

Hands on with Photos for macOS High Sierra

Written by

Jason Snell, Six Colors:

This week Apple is unleashing the first public betas of the next versions of its two major operating systems, iOS and macOS, on the world. One of the major areas of improvement in macOS High Sierra is to the Photos app, which is only a couple of years old and has plenty of room to grow. I literally wrote the book on Photos, so it’s been interesting to watch Apple’s replacement for iPhoto as it has grown and changed.

Here’s a look at the changes and new features coming to Photos for Mac as a part of macOS High Sierra.

A brand new editing pane, support for third party editors has been enhanced, and much more. If you use Photos on your Mac, take the time to read through this.

‘Inferior to a laptop in almost every way, unless you like to draw’

Written by

Yesterday we posted Matt Gemmell’s take on this iPad Pro-bashing Twitter thread from The Outline’s Joshua Topolsky:

https://twitter.com/joshuatopolsky/status/879512768206053376

Another take, this from John Gruber:

I agree with almost every single word in Topolsky’s thread — but I also think he’s completely wrong.

And:

People like me and Topolsky — and millions of others — are the reason why Apple continues to work on MacOS and make new MacBook hardware. I can say without hesitation that the iPad Pro is not the work device for me. I can also say without hesitation that the iPad Pro with a Smart Keyboard is the work device for millions of other people.

Couldn’t agree more. I live in both worlds, with half my time spent in iOS and half in macOS. I would not want to lose either, but I don’t yet see a clean way to combine them into a unified product.

To me, iOS is clean and simple, sophisticated without being clumsy, heavy, or onerous, a perfect information consumption device.

The Mac is like strapping on a power suit, one designed to let me create all sorts of content and customize my experience with powerful software and hardware add-ons, and with an interface as complex and macro-laden as I want to make it.

I like them both, appreciate having them both, find it easy to move between the two worlds. And if the day comes where iOS does everything I need for both worlds, I’ll gladly go there.

The apps are too damn big

Written by

Matt Birchler:

Auto updates only happen when you are connected to Wifi, but iOS won’t stop you from updating on cellular if you tap the update button. The fact that someone could blow through 10% of their monthly data plan (2GB) just by updating Snapchat and Messenger once. This could be tough if you do it once, but Facebook updates Messenger all the time. They’ve updated the app 5 times in the past month, which could work out to upwards of 400-500 MB over just a month.

And:

“App thinning” is not a magic bullet that erases this problem though, as Facebook Messenger, which shows as being 154 MB, still downloaded 99MB of data for its update.

And:

So are giant app sizes a problem? Yes. Do delta updates allow these updates to use less data? Yes. Do delta updates make these large apps a non-issue? Hell no!

And from this Washington Post article, titled It’s not just you: Your iPhone storage isn’t going as far as it used to:

Apple has announced some features that may be able to help with this problem down the line. In iOS 11, due out in the fall, there is a feature that lets you “offload” apps you use less often — deleting the apps themselves from your phone, but retaining enough data so that you don’t have to set them up again.

Screens are getting larger, pixels denser, which means the resources used to support those bigger/denser screens are growing larger. Add to that the steadily increasing complexity of Apple’s SDKs, and it is clear that device storage availability continues to be a tricky balancing act.

But this is “same as it ever was”. Ever since the dawn of the modern computing era, memory and drive size was always a constrained resource and memory and drive sizes grew and software techniques were developed to meet demand with every new generation.

The 30 best Mac games of 2017 (so far)

Written by

I’m a fan of Mac gaming, look forward to the updates to the MacGamerHQ top lists. This is not a competitive list (which game is #1, etc.) but more a curated list that you can browse to see which games appeal to you.

Me? I’ve got my eye on Obduction and The Witness.

iFixit’s 2017 iMac 4K teardown

Written by

Hey, there’s a headphone jack!

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

Thoughts on the iMac Pro

Written by

[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 Microsoft Surface Pro: What that $799 price really means

Written by

Microsoft just rolled out the latest and greatest version of its Surface tablet/laptop hybrid, branded as the Surface Pro. Here’s a link to the official Surface Pro product page.

Much has been made about the Surface Pro’s price of $799. But what do you get for your money?

The $799 Surface Pro ships with:

  • Intel® Core™ m3 processor
  • 128GB SSD
  • 4GB RAM
  • Intel® HD Graphics 615

That’s a pretty bare-bones machine. Apple’s cheapest machine (the $999 MacBook Air) comes with 8GB of RAM. I can’t imagine using a modern version of Windows or macOS with less than 8GB. Let’s tweak that so we can compare apples with Apples.

Bumping the Surface Pro to a minimally livable (in my opinion) 8GB brings the price to $1299. There’s just no cheaper way to get to 8GB without bumping the processor up to the Intel® Core™ i5, which is the same processor in the $999 MacBook Air. To be fair, these are different processor and screen generations, but the price bump from $799 to $1299 to get to 8GB is an important factor.

If you are considering buying a Surface Pro, take a few minutes to step through the configurations and compare the specs with the MacBook Air and 13″ MacBook Pro. And keep in mind the inherent differences between Windows and macOS.

Building a Hackintosh for $70

Written by

[VIDEO] This is insane. Faster than the 13″ MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. For $70. Video embedded in the main Loop post.

Did a mysterious Lost & Found folder just appear on your Mac? It could mean trouble

Written by

[AUTOPLAY, grrr]

Glenn Fleishman, Macworld:

Joseph Pierpoint discovered a folder in his Trash labeled “Lost & Found.” When he opened it, he found it contained over 50,000 files. Worse, “Any attempts to send these files to the Trash are thwarted by interruptions that state that this kind of solution is infeasible for one reason or another.”

Some interesting details here about fsck and the underlying Unix folder named lost+found.

Moom hit by takedown notice, removed from sale

Written by

From the ManyTricks blog:

Tonight we received notice that Moom is in violation of US patent number 8434019, Apparatus and method for positioning windows on a display. Yes, someone has patented positioning windows on a screen via a grid. Given we’ve been notified of a patent violation, we have no choice but to remove Moom from sale, effective immediately.

Honestly, we have no idea how to proceed here—the notice arrived at 8pm on a Friday evening, meaning it will be a few days until we can even speak to an attorney about our options, if any. We’re not a big company by any stretch, and certainly don’t have the resources for a patent fight.

Moom is an awesome Mac window management tool that pops up when you roll over a window’s green zoom button. Here’s a link to the Moom product page.

I get the necessity, the importance of the patent system. But there should be some sort of accommodation for situations like this, a low cost review process that includes a grace period so a product can still be sold for, say, 30 days, without harm, while the patent is reviewed by someone at the patent office and a ruling is made to either grant an exception to the patent or to approve the takedown notice.

Google recently started a program, called PatentShield (we wrote about it a few weeks ago) that allowed a company to use Google-held patents as a countermeasure to a takedown notice like this.

Another possible path would be to create a revenue threshold level. In other words, if you bring in less than, say, $100K from an invention, you could pay a percentage to a fund and not be subject to takedown notices for anything less than egregious violation (direct copying of a protected product, for example). The fund would be used to fund some form of review process.

None of these are the answer. But to me, the existing patent system has to evolve, especially when it stifles innovation, the opposite of its intended purpose.

[H/T Craig Grannell]

Mac Pro: Failure and future

Written by

Jean-Louis Gassée unpacks last month’s Apple Mac Pro confessional, seasoned with Microsoft’s new Surface devices and recent financial results.

Lots to enjoy here, but one particular conjectural question stands out for me:

Apple’s Developer’s Conference (WWDC) will be held in four weeks. We’ll be treated to the usual discussion of whether the iPad is a laptop replacement, of course, but Mac talk could prove to be even more interesting. In particular, will Apple announce an ARM-based Mac?

That seems far-fetched to me, though rolling their own Mac processors certainly seems a logical path for Apple to take in pursuit of owning the entire stack. Given how small (in terms of number of units as well as revenue) a slice the Mac Pro represents, seems to me (and I’m far from an expert) it’d be hard for Apple to recoup their investment on a custom Mac-targeted ARM chip.

That said, read Jean-Louis’ take here. Always thoughtful.