December 8, 2017
Written by Dave Mark
Geoffrey A. Fowler, Washington Post:
> I gave Amazon.com a key to go into my house and drop off packages when I’m not around. After two weeks, it turns out letting strangers in has been the least-troubling part of the experience. > > Once Amazon owned my door, I was the one locked into an all-Amazon world.
And:
> Make no mistake, the $250 Amazon Key isn’t just about stopping thieves. It’s the most aggressive effort I’ve seen from a tech giant to connect your home to the Internet in a way that puts itself right at the center.
And:
> The Key-compatible locks are made by Yale and Kwikset, yet don’t work with those brands’ own apps. They also can’t connect with a home-security system or smart-home gadgets that work with Apple and Google software. > > And, of course, the lock can’t be accessed by businesses other than Amazon. No Walmart, no UPS, no local dog-walking company.
And:
> Amazon is barely hiding its goal: It wants to be the operating system for your home.
First things first, note that this article appeared in The Washington Post. The Post is owned by Jeff Bezos. Which tells me that Bezos truly is allowing the Post to be the Post, and that the Post is not afraid to bite the hand that feeds.
That said, the issue here is the walled garden. Once Amazon controls the lock on your door, they can control who has access to that lock, keeping out eventual home delivery by rivals like Walmart, and keeping rivals like Apple and HomeKit from offering door-unlocking services. And if you ever find yourself locked out of your own home, you can always call this Emergency locksmith Long Island for help. Contact Locksmith Ninja Perth if you plan to change and upgrade the locks in your home to boost home security.
Written by Dave Mark
Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:
A HomeKit vulnerability in the current version of iOS 11.2 has been demonstrated to 9to5Mac that allows unauthorized control of accessories including smart locks and garage door openers. Our understanding is Apple has rolled out a server-side fix that now prevent unauthorized access from occurring while limiting some functionality, and an update to iOS 11.2 coming next week will restore that full functionality.
And this from Apple:
“The issue affecting HomeKit users running iOS 11.2 has been fixed. The fix temporarily disables remote access to shared users, which will be restored in a software update early next week.”
Props to Zac Hall for the scoop and the way he handled the whole issue.
Written by Dave Mark
Reuters:
Uber announced on Nov. 21 that the personal data of 57 million users, including 600,000 drivers in the United States, were stolen in a breach that occurred in October 2016, and that it paid the hacker $100,000 to destroy the information. But the company did not reveal any information about the hacker or how it paid him the money.
Uber made the payment last year through a program designed to reward security researchers who report flaws in a company’s software, these people said. Uber’s bug bounty service – as such a program is known in the industry – is hosted by a company called HackerOne, which offers its platform to a number of tech companies.
Crazy. Just crazy. [H/T Robert Walter]
December 7, 2017
Written by Shawn King
Apple:
Apple has unveiled its 2017 charts and trends, celebrating the most popular apps, music, movies, TV shows, books and podcasts across the App Store, Apple Music, iTunes, iBooks and Apple Podcasts. Editors and curators from Apple Music, App Store and iTunes highlight great content from indie artists and developers from around the globe.
As a follow up to Apple’s Best of Canada list, here’s the one for our neighbours to the south.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Bitcoin’s massive leaps and volatile swings have brought a lot of new people to the technology. We’ll explain what Bitcoin is, how Bitcoin works, how Bitcoin wallets work, and throw a mention in for getting free Bitcoins through faucets.
If you’re interested in Bitcoin, you should give this a read.
Investing in 600 bitcoin can significantly empower individuals interested in entering the cryptocurrency market. With the current valuation of Bitcoin, this substantial amount provides a robust foundation for diversifying an investment portfolio. For newcomers, owning a significant quantity like 600 BTC can foster confidence and legitimacy, attracting potential investors and peers who recognize the value. This investment can also facilitate participation in various Bitcoin-related ventures, such as trading, lending, or staking, allowing investors to explore multiple income streams. Moreover, holding such a large quantity can position investors strategically during market fluctuations, enabling them to take advantage of price increases or mitigate losses during downturns. Additionally, with the growing interest in Bitcoin as a store of value, this investment can serve as a hedge against inflation, safeguarding wealth over time. For those dedicated to learning, having 600 BTC encourages deeper research into market trends, technology advancements, and the evolving regulatory landscape, ultimately leading to more informed decision-making. Furthermore, it opens doors to networking opportunities within the crypto community, facilitating collaborations and partnerships that can enhance investment strategies. In essence, 600 Bitcoin not only represents financial capital but also serves as a catalyst for growth, education, and engagement in the dynamic world of cryptocurrency.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
YouTube plans to introduce a paid music service in March, according to people familiar with the matter, a third attempt by parent company Alphabet Inc. to catch up with rivals Spotify and Apple Inc.
This will be a big thing for YouTube if they can convert a lot of the people that currently use the service for music—and there are a lot of them. I’m not convinced they can make those people pay for a service, but we’ll see. Considering many of the Google Play Music staff were moved to YouTube, it makes sense that they are going to cancel that service.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
I really enjoyed this article from Shawn Blanc. At a time when most of us are moving to the iPhone, he’s looking at the tech in actually cameras.
Written by Shawn King
Daily Hive:
As we get closer to the end of 2017, ‘Trends’ and ‘Best Of’ lists are beginning to circulate the web.
And one of the more important lists is easily Apple’s breakdown of what Canadians are listening to, watching, and playing with the most.
Apple’s “Best of 2017” list shows that 2017 was the year of Ed Sheeran, as he took the top album spot with his album “÷”, while his song “Shape of You” took the top song spot.
Apple also celebrated the most downloaded movies, television shows, apps and podcasts. Check out the best of everything, according to Apple.
Want to know what we Canadians like up here in the Great White North?
Written by Shawn King
Mashable:
More than any year in recent memory, 2017 saw the launch of many (mostly) gimmick-free tech products.
Here at Mashable, we’re all for the weird oddity that makes you perk up in bewilderment. But we get even more hyped for the more practical tech innovations that actually improve our lives in meaningful ways in our day-to-day.
With careful curation by the Mashable Tech Team, here are our picks for best tech of the year.
I’m a “Best of…” list addict. Apple has several bits of kit on this list and I’m sure we’ll see them on many more before the end of the year.
Written by Shawn King
Petapixel:
As 2017 comes to a close, Flickr has been doing some data crunching on the billions of photos uploaded during the year by photographers around the world. Today the photo-sharing service revealed the most popular pictures of the year.
These are all beautiful images (even if many are staged and/or heavily Photoshopped) and some of them are utterly spectacular, particularly for me #9, #8, and #1.
I enjoyed going through Apple’s tops of 2017 list.
But, it did remind me of one broken piece of Apple’s app-purchasing system, still unaddressed after all this time. To see it, you have to open the list on your Mac.
On your Mac, if you click on Apple’s top movie link, after a bit of shuffling, you’ll be taken to an iTunes page listing the top movies of the year. Click on a movie and you’ll be taken to that movie’s iTunes page so you can rent or buy.
BUT.
Still on your Mac, still looking at that same best of list, try clicking on an app. To save you time, here’s a link to the iPhone game of the year, a fun little number called Splitter Critters.
You’ll be taken to a Safari App Store Preview page, with this note embedded on the page:
Used to be, you could click a link of an app you want to buy, the app page would open in iTunes, and you could purchase the app, even from your Mac. For a while, app links that used to work took you into the void, clearly broken. My hope was that this was a temporary situation, that Apple would work through their changes with iTunes and, eventually, restore the ability to buy an iOS app from a link shown on a Mac.
Why is this important? Why care about an iOS app that will never run on a Mac? It’s all about app developers and bloggers making a living.
App developers need publicity for their apps. And that publicity often comes from blogs (like MacStories, Daring Fireball, iMore, 9to5Mac, Six Colors, iDownloadBlog, etc.) When a blog links to an app, the best chance a developer has to close the deal with a reader is if that reader can click on a link and buy the app right then and there.
If the reader happens to be reading about the app on a Mac, there is no chance to close the deal with a simple click and purchase. At the very least, they have to remember to make the purchase the next time they are on an iOS device. This is bad for the developer and, ultimately, bad for the blogger. It widens the gap, reduces the intimacy between the writer who recommended the app, and the reader. And it lessens the chance that a blog will be able to make a bit of money from an affiliate link.
My two cents? Apple should fix this. As is, this makes the Mac a bit of a second class citizen.
Written by Dave Mark
Christian Zibreg, iDownloadBlog:
Text Replacements, an often overlooked iOS and macOS feature that automatically expands custom text snippets into longer phrases or whole sentences as you’re typing, should no longer be plagued with the widely reported intermittent syncing issues.
As first noted by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, an Apple spokesperson told him back in September that an update that moves text replacement syncing to CloudKit was scheduled to roll out to iOS 11 and macOS 10.13 High Sierra users in the next month or so.
Brian Stucki, who first explained why Text Replacements didn’t sync reliably between iOS devices and Macs, has now confirmed in an update to his original post that snippet syncing now at long last works reliably across all devices running macOS High Sierra and iOS 11.
Nice to see this CloudKit progress.
Written by Dave Mark
Glenn Fleishman, writing for Macworld, pulled together some advice on remote access between Macs (pretty easy, though worth the read) and between Macs and other platforms (not so easy). Interesting.
Written by Dave Mark
Jonny Evans, writing for Computerworld, on the top reasons switchers are switching to iPhone, as laid out by Creative Strategies. Though the title might seem click-baity, the logic is thoughtful.
A taste:
Today’s smartphone user may have subscriptions with multiple such services. They are also likely to own multiple devices, and that’s where the problem emerges. In contrast to competitors, Apple’s platforms are far better at syncing passwords, settings, images and other items between all your devices using the same Apple ID. You can even set up a new iPhone just by tapping it with your old one in iOS 11.
That kind of convenience makes it so much easier for consumers rapidly engaging in a multi-device, multiple-service, cross platform digital existence. This sync extends across to Apple’s Macs, of course.
Solid read.
Written by Dave Mark
Farhad Manjoo, New York Times:
On the surface, the camera doesn’t sound special. Like home internet cameras made by Nest or Netgear, the Wyze device can monitor an area for motion or sound. When it spots something, it begins recording a short clip that it stores online, for access on your phone or your computer.
But the WyzeCam has one groundbreaking feature that no rival can match. It is being sold for such an unbelievably low price — $20 — that it sent me tunneling into the global gadget industry to figure out how Wyze had done it. That, in turn, led to a revelation about the future of all kinds of products, from cameras to clothes.
And:
Nest’s and Netgear’s comparable indoor cameras sell for around $200 each, while Wyze’s device goes for $20 plus shipping if you buy directly from the company’s website.
And, most importantly:
Wyze did not create a home internet camera for a tenth of the price of rivals by skimping on quality. Though the camera comes in extremely spare packaging, it otherwise offers many features you would expect in big-brand devices, including tough security.
This is a remarkable story, with Amazon leading a wave of coming disruption, allowing incredibly inexpensive Internet-of-things gadgets to skip the traditional retail stepping stones and markups, ship directly to you at just about cost (plus Amazon’s markup, of course).
Reminds me of big-box disruption, where a seller would bring a parade of cheaply made goods into their offices, pick one that combined “good enough” quality with the lowest possible price, then buy at huge volumes to stock their stores.
Very interesting read.
Written by Dave Mark
Google blog:
Featured Snippets are algorithmically generated highlights of what’s available on the web that provide quick, relevant answers for your queries. Today, we’ve added more images and related searches inside select Featured Snippets to help you learn even more about your topic, or to discover new things related to your interest.
If you use Google for search, you’ve no doubt encountered Featured Snippets, a block of info at the very top of your search results, often with exactly the info you need.
Two interesting reads:
December 6, 2017
Written by Shawn King
Variety:
Programming veteran Michelle Lee has joined Apple’s venture into scripted television content.
Lee has been named a creative executive at Apple Worldwide Video, the unit tasked with leading Apple’s push into series programming. She will report to Matt Cherniss, who in August joined Apple.
Last month, Apple announced its first two scripted series efforts: a network morning-show drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon and a revival of Steve Spielberg’s anthology series “Amazing Stories.”
As Jan Dawson said on Twitter, “If you’re still judging Apple’s original video content strategy on the basis of Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps, you’re way wide of the mark at this point.”
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Right there on the corner of Brannan and Fourth Streets, there is a billboard advertising some marijuana brand, saying “Hello marijuana, goodbye stress.” It got me thinking about stress and what is that is making people stressed out? Also, what does it say about people living in this tech town — are we so stressed, because of work?
I really enjoyed this article.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Gaining insight into the overall user population is crucial to improving the user experience. The data needed to derive such insights is personal and sensitive, and must be kept private. In addition to privacy concerns, practical deployments of learning systems using this data must also consider resource overhead, computation costs, and communication costs. In this article, we give an overview of a system architecture that combines differential privacy and privacy best practices to learn from a user population.
A new article from Apple’s Machine Learning Journal, which includes a link to a PDF with in-depth equations and other details.
Written by Dave Mark
From Apple’s press release:
> Starting today, customers around the world can access the Amazon Prime Video app on Apple TV to stream award-winning and critically acclaimed titles including Prime Original Series and Movies. Also starting this week, the Apple TV app — a unified place for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV users to discover and start watching the best shows and movies — supports live sports such as those which would showcase a brand new bowstring, giving fans in the US a simple and seamless way to keep track of their favorite teams and games in real time. Participating sports apps in the Apple TV app include ESPN and the NBA, developed in partnership between the NBA and Turner Sports, with more to be added soon. Starting tomorrow, Prime members in the US can enjoy Thursday Night Football on the Apple TV app for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV.
It’s a big day for Apple TV. They’ve added the Amazon Prime Video app (here’s a first look we posted earlier today) as well as live sports to the Apple TV app.
> Live sports in the Apple TV app means fans in the US can now follow their favorite teams to ensure those live games show up first in their Up Next queue. Fans can also receive on-screen notifications when a game is about to start, and when their favorite teams are in a close game, so they can easily switch to catch the most exciting sports moments live. Additionally, through a new dedicated Sports tab in the Apple TV app, fans can see the teams, leagues and sporting events currently playing or coming up soon, along with the time remaining and current scores.
You’ll want to update your Apple TV to the latest version of tvOS for all this to work.
Today marks the 100th anniversary of the largest man-made, non-nuclear explosion in history – The Halifax Explosion.
A new stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion
On the morning of 6 December 1917, two ships, the SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship laden with high explosives, and the Norwegian vessel SS Imo, collided in Halifax harbour, eventually catching fire.
The CBC has a really good interactive video explaining some of the reasons why the disaster happened.
Approximately 2,000 people were killed by blast, debris, fires or collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured. The sound of the explosion was heard 60 miles away and felt as far away as the city of Boston.
Boston, in particular, offered extraordinary assistance to the city and, in recognition of their generosity, the province of Nova Scotia provides the people of Boston with their official city Christmas tree each year.
UPDATE: Scroll to the bottom for a list of questions I’ve been responding to on Twitter.
I’ve been looking forward to an Amazon Prime Video app on my Apple TV for quite some time.
The good news is, the app is here and available for download. The better news? The app works quite well. One caveat, which I’ll get to in a minute, but the overall experience is excellent, just what you’d expect from a well-written Apple TV app.
First things first, if you haven’t kept up, download and install the latest and greatest version of tvOS. The Amazon Prime Video app requires tvOS 11.1 or later.
On your Apple TV, go to: Settings > System > Software Updates > Update Software
The update will take a few minutes. Once your Apple TV is up to date, launch the App Store app on the Apple TV.
In the App Store, tap up, then over to the right to get to Search. Tap “am” and you should see the Amazon Prime Video app, like so:
Tap install, then tap open to launch the app. The first thing that will appear is this (somewhat confusing) launch screen:
The three choices are:
- Sign in and start watching: You’ll need to enter your email and password, log in to Amazon to access your Prime Video content.
- Register Apple TV online: This is a great, though slightly broken shortcut, allowing you to add your Apple TV to your Amazon account via your browser. This bring up the caveat I mentioned above, and the path I will follow in a sec.
- No thanks, start browsing: A guest mode, let’s you browse around.
I tapped the second button, which displayed a code on the screen, told me to head over to amazon.com/mytv. When I typed that URL into Safari, it took me to a “My TV” product page on the Amazon site (the issue is Safari autocompleting the URL). If this happens to you, try clicking on the URL in this post (just above). That should work. If it doesn’t, head on over to Chrome and open the link there.
You’ll be presented with a text box, asking you to enter the code displayed on your Apple TV. Enter the code and, hopefully, the behind the scenes elves will make the proper connections and you’ll see something like this on your Apple TV:
Your Amazon Prime Video app is now linked to your Amazon account, all pretty painlessly. Dismiss the alert, and you are good to go.
The app works quite well. I was able to use the remote microphone to do search, just as you’d expect. One thing I’d like to see added is Hulu/Netflix style individual user accounts. Since Amazon’s shopping experience is not built for account sharing, I’m not sure how they will be able to implement this. But if they are going to play in this space, they should consider adding this.
Questions? Ping me on Twitter.
QUESTIONS:
- Does the Amazon Prime Video app support the new Apple TV 4K? In short, yes. From the Apple press release:
Prime members can now access thousands of titles through the Prime Video app on Apple TV 4K and previous generations of Apple TV, including Prime Original Series and Movies such as “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “The Big Sick,” with additional titles coming to the service every month. Prime Video also offers a wide array of award-winning kids content, including “Tumble Leaf,” “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” and “The Snowy Day.” Prime Video further expands the library of TV shows and movies available in 4K HDR on Apple TV 4K.
Does the Amazon Prime Video app support Siri search? Yes, though it does not appear to be integrated into the TV app. But if you go to the top level Apple TV Search function, you’ll find Amazon Prime Video content, and selecting that content will launch the Prime Video app.
Note that the Safari link (amazon.com/mytv) appears to work for some people, not others. So give it a try. If it doesn’t work, head over to Chrome.
December 5, 2017
Written by Shawn King
Open Culture:
Over the past few years, the Youtube channel Every Frame a Painting has become one of the modern cinema video essay’s most respected purveyors, examining everything from how editors think to the bland music of superhero films to why Vancouver never plays itself to the signature technique of auteurs like Martin Scorsese, Jackie Chan, and, yes, Michael Bay.
Alas, Every Frame a Painting has come to an end.
This has been a remarkable series I have enjoyed immensely. Anyone who is a fan of movies and wants to understand how what occurs on screen is painstakingly created should watch these videos.
Written by Shawn King
Consumer Reports:
The iPhone X is an innovative device with a fantastic camera and beautiful display, but other phones are tougher and can operate longer on a charge.
Overall, the iPhone X—as in 10, not the letter that follows W—easily made Consumer Reports’ recommended list and broke into the extremely tight list of top 10 rated phones, where all the devices are separated by only two points on our 100-point scale.
It was edged out by Apple’s less-expensive iPhone 8, starting at $700, and 8 Plus, starting at $800, which both proved hardier in a test designed to reproduce the drops and fumbles that can cause cracked screens and other damage.
Many of us are justifiably skeptical about Consumer Reports and their tests of Apple products in general but many others rely on them for help in making purchase decisions.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Apple is said to have bought Oakland’s audio tool developer Pop Up Archive, known for the audiosear.ch podcast search engine, in a move that could bolster the company’s own podcast service.
It will be interesting to see what Apple does with this technology to help its service.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
With the addition of both fast charging and wireless charging to Apple’s 2017 iPhone lineup, there are more ways than ever to charge your iPhone. Every method is different — some are faster and more expensive, while others are slower but more convenient.
Juli Clover did a good job with these tests.
Written by Jim Dalrymple
Browser-based interfaces are slow, clumsy, and require you to be online just to use them. Browsers are perfect for reading web content, but not ideal for creating it. If you’re serious about writing for the web, you need a desktop blog editor. If you’re lucky enough to have a Mac, nothing is more powerful, or more elegant than MarsEdit.
I absolutely love MarsEdit. Every post I write on The Loop goes through this app and has for many years.
