Special guest Jim Dalrymple returns to the show. Topics include the litany of problems with MacBook keyboards, speculation regarding why Apple’s AirPower multi-device charging mat still isn’t shipping, Google’s proposal to replace SMS with a new protocol that isn’t encrypted, and more.
\n\nSponsored by:
\n\nLink: daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2018/04/27/ep-220
\n" }, { "title" : "Gus Mueller: ‘Apple Should Make an Instagram Clone’", "date_published" : "2018-04-27T22:47:18Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-27T22:47:19Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/27/mueller-instagram-clone", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/27/mueller-instagram-clone", "external_url" : "http://shapeof.com/archives/2018/4/apple_instagram_clone.html", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nGus Mueller:
\n\n\n\n\nInstagram is one of the last social networks I use these days,\nwhich I actually enjoy visiting. But I always get a little twitchy\nusing it because it’s owned by Facebook (which I’m really not a\nfan of). And the ads are getting pretty annoying these days.
\n\nSo wouldn’t it be awesome if Apple made a privacy focused clone of\nit? I know Apple doesn’t really do well when it comes to social\nservices, but I’m wondering if a simple photo sharing site might\nnot be impossible for them to do well.
\n
I’ve been thinking about this ever since Mueller posted this a week ago. I think this could be great. At a technical level, iMessage shows that Apple can build a system that scales. The biggest problem I can think of is usernames. Apple IDs don’t have to be icloud.com / me.com / mac.com usernames — you can use any email address. And you wouldn’t want to expose your email and iMessage address publicly. But Game Center uses nicknames to avoid the same problem. Apple could either piggyback on Game Center nicknames, or set up a new namespace of nicknames for this hypothetical Instagram clone.
\n\nLink: shapeof.com/archives/2018/4/apple_instagram_clone.html
\n" }, { "title" : "Katie Notopoulos: ‘I’m Sorry to Report Instagram Is Bad Now’", "date_published" : "2018-04-27T22:39:19Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-27T22:39:20Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/27/notooulos-instagram", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/27/notooulos-instagram", "external_url" : "https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/what-if-instagram-is-bad-now?utm_term=.rpx6m4AZE#.xkG5Q3OKr", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nKatie Notopoulos, writing at BuzzFeed:
\n\n\n\n\nLook, I don’t want to talk about this any more than you do. I\ndidn’t want this to be true. I wanted this to work out; I thought\nthis was the platform that could be The One to make it with us for\nthe long haul. But it’s time to get real. It’s not working out.\nInstagram kind of sucks now. And it’s not Instagram, it’s not us,\nit’s an outside force that is tearing us apart. That homewrecker\nis Stories.
\n
I found myself nodding my head in agreement throughout — and she doesn’t even mention the non-linear algorithmic timeline.
\n\nLink: buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/what-if-instagram-is-bad-now…
\n" }, { "title" : "Samsung Sees Slow Demand for OLEDs Used for Apple’s iPhone X", "date_published" : "2018-04-27T17:54:57Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-27T22:25:01Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/27/samsung-oleds", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/27/samsung-oleds", "external_url" : "https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-26/samsung-sees-slow-demand-for-oleds-used-for-apple-s-iphone-x", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nMark Gurman and Sam Kim, reporting for Bloomberg:
\n\n\n\n\nSamsung Electronics Co. is the latest Apple Inc. supplier to offer\na sign of weaker iPhone X sales, saying that it’s seeing slow\ndemand for the screens used in the flagship product.
\n\nThe South Korean electronics manufacturer said in an earnings\nreport today that profits for its display business “were affected\nby slow demand for flexible OLED panels.” The division’s sales\nrose 3.4 percent in the latest quarter, compared with 20 percent\nfor Samsung as a whole.
\n\nFlexible OLED panels are the screens used inside the iPhone X, and\nthose are supplied exclusively by Samsung. Other component makers\nfor Apple, which reports quarterly earnings results next week,\nhave also issued gloomy outlooks pointing to lackluster demand for\nthe top-end phone.
\n
Starting to sound like iPhone X sales really are falling short of expectations. You often can’t judge iPhone sales from the perspective of a component maker, because Apple could have switched to another company for the same component. But these flexible OLED displays only come from Samsung. Apple reports earnings for the first calendar quarter on Tuesday.
\n\nMy spitball theory: the iPhone X is not “too expensive”, but it is too expensive for mass market casual phone buyers. iPhone sales always peak in the fourth calendar quarter by a large margin, for two reasons: (1) it’s the holiday quarter, so anyone buying an iPhone as a gift is going to buy it in November or December; and (2) that’s the first full quarter when new top-tier iPhones debut, and enthusiasts buy them as soon as they can. iPhone X sales were great in the holiday quarter, but perhaps the enthusiasm of the early adopter crowd isn’t shared by the mass market.
\n\nPerhaps I’m just stating the obvious here — the existence of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus indicates that Apple anticipated the need for brand new high-end iPhones in the $700-800 price range. Assuming they keep going with the new $1000-1100 tier, those phones might be even more biased toward the holiday quarter than other iPhones.
\n\nUpdate: M.G. Siegler:
\n\n\n\n\nGood points, and the flip side of why the iPhones 8 didn’t sell as\nwell out of the gate: the early-adopters/die-hard were waiting for\nX. In an ideal world, the releases would have been inverted (X\nfirst, 8 a couple months later).
\n
Link: bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-26/samsung-sees-slow…
\n" }, { "title" : "3D Touch Needs to Be Pervasive", "date_published" : "2018-04-27T17:25:21Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-27T22:25:14Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/27/3d-touch-pervasive", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/27/3d-touch-pervasive", "external_url" : "https://www.macrumors.com/2018/04/26/kuo-no-3d-touch-6-1-inch-2018-iphone/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nJuli Clover, writing for MacRumors:
\n\n\n\n\nKuo says that the 6.1-inch iPhone will use what he calls “Cover\nGlass Sensor” (CGS) technology, relocating the iPhone’s touch\nmodule from the display panel (in-cell technology) to the surface\nglass. The CGS method reportedly results in a display that’s\nlighter and more shock resistant.
\n\nWith this display technology, Apple will add a thin-film sensor to\nthe touch film sensor included in the CGS, but the purpose of the\nnew layer is unknown. It will, however, result in a 15 percent\nincrease in the cost of the touch panel, resulting in a higher\npurchase price of $23 to $26.
\n\nTo offset the cost of the new display it plans to use, Kuo\nbelieves Apple will remove the 3D Touch functionality on the\n6.1-inch iPhone, which would be a curious move as 3D Touch is\nwell-integrated throughout the operating system that runs on the\niPhone at this point.
\n
I don’t generally link to rumors like this, but this one caught my eye because I’ve been thinking a lot about 3D Touch lately. 3D Touch is the sort of feature that either needs to be on all iPhones or else should be dropped. If it’s not pervasive across the entire platform, developers can’t count on it. I think that’s why it’s underutilized today. But it’s one thing to wait for older iPhones from the pre-3D Touch era to drop out of usage. It’s another for Apple to sell a brand new phone in 2018 without it. I’m not going to rant and rave about something that’s only a rumor — but if September rolls around and Apple ships this new phone without 3D Touch to save a few measly dollars, I’m going to rant and rave.
\n\nI also think it’s a serious problem that iPhones have 3D Touch and iPads don’t, yet iPads are stuck running an OS where 3D Touch is the way to bring up a contextual shortcut menu, but that’s a different rant.
\n\nLink: macrumors.com/2018/04/26/kuo-no-3d-touch-6-1-inch-2018…
\n" }, { "title" : "The Fonts of Google Tasks", "date_published" : "2018-04-26T18:23:22Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-26T18:23:23Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/26/heer-google-tasks", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/26/heer-google-tasks", "external_url" : "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/google-tasks/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nNick Heer, writing at Pixel Envy about Google’s new Google Tasks app:
\n\n\n\n\nIt isn’t just about what these typefaces look like, either, but\nhow they’re used. For example, when entering a new task, the name\nof the task is set in Product Sans; when it is added to the list,\nit becomes Roboto. Tapping on the task takes you to a details view\nwhere, now, the name of the task is in Product Sans. There are\nthree options to add more information: if you want to add details,\nyou’ll do it in Roboto, but adding a due date will be in Product\nSans. The “add subtasks” button — well, text in the same grey as\neverything else except other buttons that are blue — is set in\nProduct Sans, but the tasks are set in Roboto.
\n
Such an odd inattention to detail.
\n\nLink: pxlnv.com/linklog/google-tasks/
\n" }, { "title" : "30 Years of Frontier", "date_published" : "2018-04-25T20:08:35Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-25T20:08:37Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/25/30-years-of-frontier", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/25/30-years-of-frontier", "external_url" : "http://scripting.com/2018/04/18/164609.html", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nDave Winer:
\n\n\n\n\nLittle-known fact: I designed and developed a programming\nlanguage.
\n\nMy goal was to create an environment I would work in for the rest\nof my career. I just realized it’s exactly 30 years later, and\nI’m still using it.
\n\n30 fucking years. I think I earned the right to say it that way.
\n\nNow that I also work in JavaScript, it amazes me how easy the\nsimple things are in Frontier, compared to JS, esp when you have\nto tack on a database. You really have to work at seeing what’s\ngoing on. In Frontier, you just click around expanding things. You\ncan even look at the runtime stack that way.
\n
If you never used Frontier, it’s hard to explain what made it so special. My very favorite thing about Frontier is the “object database”. It wasn’t like using a database in the SQL sense. It was just persistent storage. You didn’t have to deal with the file system at all. You just wrote to, say, scratchpad.foo or examples.bar or any other unique identifier and whatever you wrote would be there when you went to read it. And, even better, there was a visual interface for exploring everything in the object database. You could see it and explore it, because in addition to being a language, Frontier was also a real Mac app. You could even customize the app’s menu items just by editing the system.misc.menubar table in the object database. It’s a wonderfully self-contained design. Re-reading the documentation makes me wonder why there’s nothing like Frontier’s object database in other scripting languages.
Link: scripting.com/2018/04/18/164609.html
\n" }, { "title" : "Tim Cook and Lisa Jackson Attend President Trump’s First State Dinner", "date_published" : "2018-04-25T19:01:00Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-25T19:01:01Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/25/cook-jackson-state-dinner", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/25/cook-jackson-state-dinner", "external_url" : "https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/04/24/tim-cook-and-lisa-jackson-attend-president-trumps-first-state-dinner", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nCook met with Trump in the White House this afternoon, ostensibly to talk about trade policy.
\n\nLink: appleinsider.com/articles/18/04/24/tim-cook-and-lisa…
\n" }, { "title" : "Casey Johnston Gives Up on the Current MacBook Pro Keyboard", "date_published" : "2018-04-25T18:09:22Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-25T18:48:48Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/25/johnston-mbp-keyboard", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/25/johnston-mbp-keyboard", "external_url" : "https://theoutline.com/post/4277/dont-buy-the-new-macbook-pros-even-on-sale-in-my-opinion", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nCasey Johnston, writing for The Outline:
\n\n\n\n\nA few months ago, I wrote about how my one-year-old MacBook Pro’s\nkeyboard keys stopped working if a single piece of dust slipped\nunder there, and more importantly, that neither Apple nor its\nGeniuses would acknowledge that this was actually a problem.\nToday, Best Buy announced it is having a significant sale on these\ncomputers, marking them hundreds of dollars off. Interesting.\nStill, I’d suggest you do not buy them.
\n\nSince I wrote about my experience, many have asked me what\nhappened with the new top half of the computer that the Apple\nGeniuses installed, with its pristine keyboard and\nmaybe-different key switches. The answer is that after a couple\nof months, I started to get temporarily dead keys for seemingly\nno reason. Again.
\n
This keyboard has to be one of the biggest design screwups in Apple history. Everyone who buys a MacBook depends upon the keyboard and this keyboard is undependable.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\nI know that we Apple-watchers sit around wondering if Apple will\nrelease new laptops with new keyboards that don’t have these\nissues, but Apple’s relative silence on this issue for existing\ncustomers is deafening. If these problems are remotely as common\nas they seem to be, this is an altogether defective product that\nshould be recalled.
\n
Link: theoutline.com/post/4277/dont-buy-the-new-macbook-pros-even…
\n" }, { "title" : "Nvidia Tegra Flaw Allows Nintendo Switch to Be Jailbroken", "date_published" : "2018-04-25T16:45:58Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-25T16:46:00Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/25/nintendo-switch-hack", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/25/nintendo-switch-hack", "external_url" : "https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/24/17276214/nintendo-switch-hack-jailbreak-security-homebrew-apps-games", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nTom Warren, writing for The Verge:
\n\n\n\n\nNintendo’s Switch was hacked to run Linux in February, and\nnow it’s clear that hackers could go further and run homebrew apps\nand games on the device. Eurogamer reports that two exploits\nhave been detailed this week that allow hackers to exploit a\nhardware flaw in Nvidia’s Tegra X1 (that powers the Switch) and\ngain access to the Switch’s operating system. Nintendo cannot\npatch the hardware flaw without releasing a new version of the\nSwitch, which means that at least 14 million devices are\nvulnerable.
\n\nIt’s a jailbreak that’s similar to a “tethered” iPhone jailbreak,\nmeaning it needs to be performed on every boot via USB. The hack\ndoesn’t require a modchip, although it’s likely that third parties\nwill now create Switch hardware mods to assist with the jailbreak.
\n
It’s not what you want, but I’m going to say this is not a “nightmare scenario” for Nintendo. A nightmare scenario would be something that exposes people to a remote exploit, and this isn’t that. Nintendo must be pissed at Nvidia though.
\n\nLink: theverge.com/2018/4/24/17276214/nintendo-switch-hack…
\n" }, { "title" : "How Merchants Use Facebook to Flood Amazon With Fake Reviews", "date_published" : "2018-04-24T22:25:33Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-24T22:25:34Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/24/facebook-amazon-fake-reviews", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/24/facebook-amazon-fake-reviews", "external_url" : "https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-merchants-secretly-use-facebook-to-flood-amazon-with-fake-reviews/2018/04/23/5dad1e30-4392-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nElizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg, reporting for The Washington Post:
\n\n\n\n\nOn Amazon, customer comments can help a product surge in\npopularity. The online retail giant says that more than 99 percent\nof its reviews are legitimate because they are written by real\nshoppers who aren’t paid for them.
\n\nBut a Washington Post examination found that for some popular\nproduct categories, such as Bluetooth headphones and speakers, the\nvast majority of reviews appear to violate Amazon’s prohibition on\npaid reviews. Such reviews have certain characteristics, such as\nrepetitive wording that people probably cut and paste in.
\n
What a shitshow. I don’t understand why Amazon doesn’t clean this mess up — it does them no good whatsoever to have all these fraudulent reviews. Same thing with counterfeit products, but they’ve let that fester too. (Via Dave Mark.)
\n\nLink: washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-merchants-secretly…
\n" }, { "title" : "The iPad’s Focus Problem", "date_published" : "2018-04-24T21:02:20Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-24T21:38:47Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/24/ipad-kanies-focus", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/24/ipad-kanies-focus", "external_url" : "https://medium.com/@lkanies/apple-has-a-focus-problem-8a1acee28b7d", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nLuke Kanies:
\n\n\n\n\nUnlike touch, keyboards are inherently targeted. While touch is\npowerful specifically because of your ability to directly\nmanipulate the software you’re using, keyboards must first be\npointed at a place that needs text. They need focus. And here’s\nwhere the iPad falls down.
\n\nIt has no concept of focus. Or rather, it obviously does, but its\ndesigners are in denial about it. Keyboard focus is littered\nthroughout the platform, from the presence of a cursor when\ninputting text, to the software keyboard auto-hiding when no text\nfield is in use. When you’re producing text, this generally works\npretty well.
\n\nBut the keyboard is used for far more than typing. Whether it’s\ncommand-tabbing between applications or using shortcuts within\nthem, the keyboard is a critical control device. And it just does\nnot work right on the iPad.
\n
I tweeted about this same thing over the weekend, while testing out a new keyboard that Jason Snell convinced me to buy. It seems crazy to me the iPad lets you command-tab between full-screen apps, but when you’re in split screen mode there’s (a) no way to switch between the apps on screen using the keyboard, and (b) no indication of which app has keyboard focus.
\n\nOff the top of my head, I think command-tab switching should include the individual apps in split screen mode.
\n\nLink: medium.com/@lkanies/apple-has-a-focus-problem-8a1acee28b7d
\n" }, { "title" : "John Paczkowski on Facebook and Google", "date_published" : "2018-04-24T20:18:29Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-24T20:18:31Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/24/paczkowski-facebook-google", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/24/paczkowski-facebook-google", "external_url" : "https://www.buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/make-developers-great-again", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nJohn Paczkowski, writing for BuzzFeed:
\n\n\n\n\nA few weeks from now, Facebook and Google will hold their yearly\ndeveloper conferences, massive events meant to celebrate their\nplatforms and visions for the future. They’re typically packed\nfull of grand pronouncements, flashy demos, and Google\nGlass-wearing skydivers or CEO-impersonating celebrities. Bands\nplay. Drinks flow. They are spectacles, intended to ignite\nenthusiasm and burnish the Facebook and Google brands. But after a\nyear in which Facebook and Google played pivotal roles in\nspreading misinformation and were exposed as data-greedy growth\ngoblins, there should be little cause for celebration.
\n\nIf the platforms are serious about healing themselves, you should\nbe able to see it in a show that’s more about fixing what’s broken\nrather than building something new. And if they aren’t serious?\nExpect the same shiny, happy-fun wow-fests.
\n
I would bet big money on “the same shiny, happy-fun wow-fests”.
\n\nLink: buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/make-developers-great-again
\n" }, { "title" : "Turn Touch Wooden Smart Home Remote", "date_published" : "2018-04-21T23:13:25Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-21T23:13:26Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/21/turn-touch", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/21/turn-touch", "external_url" : "https://turntouch.com/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nMy thanks to Turn Touch for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed to promote their beautiful wooden smart home remote. Ever wanted to control Spotify on your phone without looking at your phone? Do you have smart lights like Philips Hue and want a phone-free way to change scenes and colors? Turn Touch is your answer.
\n\nTurn Touch is a wooden smart home remote. Forget plastic, this is a remote as stylish as your home. It controls every smart home device that speaks Wi-Fi. You can also use it to control your Mac and iOS devices over Bluetooth. This includes Keynote, iTunes, Quicktime, Spotify, Sonos, and lots more.
\n\nBuy a remote for your home or office for only $59 (with free shipping). It’s a great gift for friends or yourself.
\n\nLink: turntouch.com/
\n" }, { "title" : "iPhone X Customer Satisfaction: Impressively High Across All Features, With One Predictable Exception", "date_published" : "2018-04-21T01:30:47Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-21T01:41:31Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/iphone-x-customer-satisfaction", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/iphone-x-customer-satisfaction", "external_url" : "https://techpinions.com/top-takeaways-from-studying-iphone-x-owners/52639", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nBen Bajarin, on the result of a survey of iPhone X owners conducted last month:
\n\n\n\n\nWhen it came to overall customer satisfaction, iPhone X owners in\nour study gave the product an overall 97% customer satisfaction.\nWhile that number is impressive, what really stands out when you\ndo customer satisfaction studies is the percentage who say they\nare very satisfied with the product. Considering you add up the\ntotal number of very satisfied, and satisfied, to get your\ntotal customer satisfaction number a product can have a high\nnumber of satisfied responses and lower number of very satisfied\nresponses and still achieve a high number. The higher the very\nsatisfied responses, the better a product truly is. In our study,\n85% of iPhone X owners said they were very satisfied with the\nproduct.
\n\nThat number is amongst the highest I’ve seen in all the customer\nsatisfaction studied we have conducted across a range of\ntechnology products. Just to contrast that with the original\nApple Watch research with Wristly I was involved in, 66% of\nApple Watch owners indicated they were very satisfied with Apple\nWatch, a product which also ranked a 97% customer satisfaction\nnumber in the first Apple Watch study we did.
\n
Wait until you see the feature-by-feature results.
\n\nLink: techpinions.com/top-takeaways-from-studying-iphone-x-owners…
\n" }, { "title" : "Google Gives Up on Allo, Backs Unencrypted Successor to SMS", "date_published" : "2018-04-21T01:07:26Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-21T03:23:52Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/google-rcs", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/google-rcs", "external_url" : "https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/19/17252486/google-android-messages-chat-rcs-anil-sabharwal-imessage-texting", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nDieter Bohn, writing for The Verge:
\n\n\n\n\nInstead of bringing a better app to the table, it’s trying to\nchange the rules of the texting game, on a global scale. Google\nhas been quietly corralling every major cellphone carrier on the\nplanet into adopting technology to replace SMS. It’s going to be\ncalled “Chat,” and it’s based on a standard called the “Universal\nProfile for Rich Communication Services.” SMS is the default that\neverybody has to fall back to, and so Google’s goal is to make\nthat default texting experience on an Android phone as good as\nother modern messaging apps.
\n\nAs part of that effort, Google says it’s “pausing” work on its\nmost recent entry into the messaging space, Allo. It’s the sort of\n“pause” that involves transferring almost the entire team off the\nproject and putting all its resources into another app, Android\nMessages. […]
\n\nBut remember, Chat is a carrier-based service, not a Google\nservice. It’s just “Chat,” not “Google Chat.” In a sign of its\nstrategic importance to Google, the company has spearheaded\ndevelopment on the new standard, so that every carrier’s Chat\nservices will be interoperable. But, like SMS, Chat won’t be\nend-to-end encrypted, and it will follow the same legal\nintercept standards. In other words: it won’t be as secure as\niMessage or Signal.
\n
It is unconscionable for Google to back a new protocol that isn’t end-to-end encrypted. End-to-end encryption is table stakes for any new communication platform today. Apple should ignore this — if it’s not secure it should be a non-starter.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBottom line: Google builds an insecure messaging system controlled\nby carriers who are in bed with governments everywhere at exactly\nthe time when world publics are more worried about data collection\nand theft than ever.
\n
Link: theverge.com/2018/4/19/17252486/google-android-messages…
\n" }, { "title" : "Susan Kare to Be Awarded AIGA Medal", "date_published" : "2018-04-20T22:10:51Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-20T22:49:56Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/kare-aiga", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/kare-aiga", "external_url" : "https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-woman-who-gave-the-macintosh-a-smile", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nAlexandra Lange, writing for The New Yorker:
\n\n\n\n\nKare, who is sixty-four, will be honored for her work on\nApril 20th, by her fellow designers, with the prestigious AIGA\nmedal. In 1982, she was a sculptor and sometime curator when her\nhigh-school friend Andy Hertzfeld asked her to create graphics for\na new computer that he was working on in California. Kare brought\na Grid notebook to her job interview at Apple Computer. On\nits pages, she had sketched, in pink marker, a series of icons to\nrepresent the commands that Hertzfeld’s software would execute.\nEach square represented a pixel. A pointing finger meant “Paste.”\nA paintbrush symbolized “MacPaint.” Scissors said “Cut.” Kare told\nme about this origin moment: “As soon as I started work, Andy\nHertzfeld wrote an icon editor and font editor so I could design\nimages and letterforms using the Mac, not paper,” she said. “But I\nloved the puzzle-like nature of working in 16 × 16 and 32 × 32\npixel icon grids, and the marriage of craft and metaphor.”
\n
Susan Kare deserves every award in the world. Her work was central — essential — to what made the Macintosh the Macintosh. The early Macintosh was not just the most endearing computer ever made, I’d argue that it remains the most endearing computer ever made — and in large part that was due to Susan Kare’s icons and fonts.
\n\nMy interview with Kare at the Layers conference in 2016 is one of the highlights of my career.
\n\nLink: newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-woman-who-gave…
\n" }, { "title" : "SmugMug Acquires Flickr", "date_published" : "2018-04-20T21:43:57Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-20T21:43:59Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/smugmug-flickr", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/smugmug-flickr", "external_url" : "https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/04/20/smugmug-buys-flickr-verizon-oath/537377002/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nJessica Guynn, reporting for USA Today
\n\n\n\n\nFlickr has been snapped up by Silicon Valley photo-sharing and\nstorage company SmugMug, USA Today has learned.
\n\nSmugMug CEO Don MacAskill told USA Today he’s committed to\nbreathing new life into the faded social networking pioneer,\nwhich hosted photos and lively interactions long before it\nbecame trendy.
\n\nSmugMug, an independent, family-run company, will maintain Flickr\nas a standalone community of amateur and professional\nphotographers and give the long neglected service the focus and\nresources it deserves, MacAskill said in an exclusive interview.
\n
I hope it works. Flickr was so great back in the day. But I fear it’s too late, and the world has moved on.
\n\nLink: usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/04/20/smugmug-buys-flickr…
\n" }, { "title" : "Regarding Linus Sebastian’s Damaged iMac Pro Saga", "date_published" : "2018-04-20T20:56:39Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-20T21:58:49Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/sebastian-imac-pro", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/sebastian-imac-pro", "external_url" : "https://www.macrumors.com/2018/04/18/linus-tech-tips-imac-pro-repair-video/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nJoe Rossignol has an excellent piece at MacRumors on the saga of Linus Sebastian’s iMac Pro that Apple has declined to repair:
\n\n\n\n\nAfter the repair was declined by Apple, Sebastian and his team\ncontacted an Apple Authorized Service Provider in Canada, where\nthey are located. The repair shop also declined the repair, but\ntheir reason was allegedly that Apple has yet to offer the\nrequired certification courses to service the iMac Pro.
\n\nHowever, Apple’s internal iMac Pro Service Readiness Guide\nobtained by MacRumors states that ATLAS online training and\nlearning resources for servicing the iMac Pro have been\navailable in English since December. We also spoke to multiple\nsources who completed the course and received certification\nmonths ago.
\n\nThe guide adds that iMac Pro service parts availability began in\nearly to mid January, with replacement logic boards, flash\nstorage, and memory available by late February. Multiple sources\nat Apple Authorized Service Providers also confirmed that iMac Pro\ndisplays are available with two-week-or-less delivery estimates.
\n\nMacRumors contacted a reliable source who confirmed that Apple\nAuthorized Service Providers are permitted to deny service for any\nproduct that has been opened or modified by a customer, regardless\nof warranty, both for safety reasons and to avoid responsibility\nif the machine cannot be fixed.
\n
Sebastian’s video about his saga is deeply disingenuous — he makes it sound as though Apple isn’t able to repair any iMac Pro with a damaged display. As Rossignol’s reporting makes clear, that’s not true. On the surface it does sound wrong that Apple refuses to repair Sebastian’s iMac Pro, even though he’s willing to pay for it. But in car terms, Apple is saying his iMac is totaled. Apple — or at least the technicians and Genius Bar staffers who’ve looked at it — want no part of this machine, for legitimate reasons.
\n\nSee also: Rene Ritchie’s video on the saga.
\n\nLink: macrumors.com/2018/04/18/linus-tech-tips-imac-pro-repair…
\n" }, { "title" : "Daisy, Apple’s iPhone Disassembling Robot Successor to Liam", "date_published" : "2018-04-20T20:35:46Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-20T21:32:44Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/daisy", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/daisy", "external_url" : "https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/04/apple-adds-earth-day-donations-to-trade-in-and-recycling-program/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nAmong Apple’s Earth Day-related announcements:
\n\n\n\n\nApple’s newest disassembly robot, Daisy, is the most efficient way\nto reclaim more of the valuable materials stored in iPhone.\nCreated through years of R&D, Daisy incorporates revolutionary\ntechnology based on Apple’s learnings from Liam, its first\ndisassembly robot launched in 2016. Daisy is made from some of\nLiam’s parts and is capable of disassembling nine versions of\niPhone and sorting their high-quality components for recycling.\nDaisy can take apart up to 200 iPhone devices per hour, removing\nand sorting components, so that Apple can recover materials that\ntraditional recyclers can’t — and at a higher quality.
\n
Perhaps it’s just my 2001 obsession, but I think it’s a solid bet that Daisy is named after the song HAL sings while Bowman is disconnecting him.
\n\nLink: apple.com/newsroom/2018/04/apple-adds-earth-day-donations…
\n" }, { "title" : "Apple GiveBack", "date_published" : "2018-04-20T20:31:54Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-20T21:47:56Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/apple-giveback", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/apple-giveback", "external_url" : "https://www.apple.com/shop/trade-in", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nNew recycling program from Apple:
\n\n\n\n\nTrade in your eligible device for an Apple Store Gift Card. If\nit’s not eligible for credit, we’ll recycle it for free. No matter\nthe model or condition, we can turn it into something good for you\nand good for the planet.
\n\nAnd through April 30, we’ll make a donation to Conservation\nInternational for every device we receive — getting us even\ncloser to leaving the world better than we found it.
\n
I tried my space black first-generation Apple Watch — which I paid $1,100 for in 2015 — and Apple is offering me $75. I suspect I could sell it for more than that. It’s fully functional and the display and case are in near-mint condition, thanks to the scratch resistance of sapphire and DLC-coated stainless steel. Perhaps this is obvious, but this GiveBack program seems intended for devices that are no longer useful. I’d find it interesting if Apple had one unified program for trading in old devices, both still useful (which Apple could sell as refurbished) and not (which would be recycled).
\n\nLink: apple.com/shop/trade-in
\n" }, { "title" : "Jackass of the Week: Analyst Neil Campling", "date_published" : "2018-04-20T19:49:32Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-20T21:28:30Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/campling-jackass", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/campling-jackass", "external_url" : "https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/20/apple-iphone-x-discontinued-this-year-analyst-says.html", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nArjun Kharpal, writing for CNBC under the jacktastic headline “Apple’s iPhone X Will Be Killed Off This Year, Analyst Says”:
\n\n\n\n\nTSMC’s record inventory levels are due to Apple not buying\ncomponents for any future iPhone X models, suggesting the device\nwill be killed off this year, Campling said.
\n\n“With the declines in iPhone X orders and the inventory issue at\nTSMC at record highs, which basically reflect a need to burn off\ninventory. Why? Because the iPhone X is dead,” Campling wrote in\nhis note.
\n\n“The simple problem with X is that it is too expensive,” Campling\ntold CNBC by phone on Friday, talking about the device’s $999\nprice tag. “Consumers are turning their backs on high-priced\nsmartphones.”
\n
It might be true that the iPhone X will be discontinued in September when new iPhones are announced, but I guarantee it will be replaced by a successor. It actually makes sense that Apple wouldn’t keep the iPhone X around for another year at a lower price — that’s the iPhone 8’s role.
\n\nI don’t know why CNBC is paying credence to Campling on this, because by all accounts the iPhone X is selling well or very well. Tim Cook told CNBC in February that “iPhone X was our most popular iPhone, despite not beginning to ship until November.” A report this week from Counterpoint claims the iPhone X alone accounted for 35 percent of all profits in the industry in Q4 2017 — even though it only went on sale in November. (The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus combined for 34 percent; all iPhones combined accounted for 86 percent. I don’t know how much credence to give to Counterpoint’s report because I don’t know their methodology, but if their numbers are even vaguely accurate, Apple has almost no competition in the premium handset market. Samsung’s top two phones combined account for less than 5 percent of industry profits, and no other company had a phone that cracked the top 10.)
\n\nLink: cnbc.com/2018/04/20/apple-iphone-x-discontinued-this-year…
\n" }, { "title" : "‘2001: A Space Odyssey’: What It Means, and How It Was Made", "date_published" : "2018-04-20T19:24:05Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-20T19:59:33Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/2001-chiasson", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/20/2001-chiasson", "external_url" : "https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/23/2001-a-space-odyssey-what-it-means-and-how-it-was-made", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nNice piece by Dan Chiasson for The New Yorker “on the tedium and the triumph of 2001: A Space Odyssey”:
\n\n\n\n\nKubrick brought to his vision of the future the studiousness you\nwould expect from a history film. 2001 is, in part, a fastidious\nperiod piece about a period that had yet to happen. Kubrick had\nseen exhibits at the 1964 World’s Fair, and pored over a magazine\narticle titled “Home of the Future.” The lead production designer\non the film, Tony Masters, noticed that the world of 2001\neventually became a distinct time and place, with the kind of\ncoherent aesthetic that would merit a sweeping historical label,\nlike “Georgian” or “Victorian.” “We designed a way to live,” he\nrecalled, “down to the last knife and fork.” (The Arne Jacobsen\nflatware, designed in 1957, was made famous by its use in the\nfilm, and is still in production.) By rendering a not-too-distant\nfuture, Kubrick set himself up for a test: thirty-three years\nlater, his audiences would still be around to grade his\npredictions. Part of his genius was that he understood how to rig\nthe results. Many elements from his set designs were contributions\nfrom major brands — Whirlpool, Macy’s, DuPont, Parker Pens, Nikon\n— which quickly cashed in on their big-screen exposure. If 2001\nthe year looked like 2001 the movie, it was partly because the\nfilm’s imaginary design trends were made real.
\n
Link: newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/23/2001-a-space-odyssey-what…
\n" }, { "title" : "CNN: YouTube Ran Ads From Hundreds of Mainstream Brands on Extremist Channels", "date_published" : "2018-04-19T23:43:15Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-19T23:43:16Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/youtube-cnn", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/youtube-cnn", "external_url" : "http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/19/technology/youtube-ads-extreme-content-investigation/index.html", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nPaul P. Murphy, Kaya Yurieff, and Gianluca Mezzofiore, reporting for CNN:
\n\n\n\n\nAds from over 300 companies and organizations — including tech\ngiants, major retailers, newspapers and government agencies — ran\non YouTube channels promoting white nationalists, Nazis,\npedophilia, conspiracy theories and North Korean propaganda, a CNN\ninvestigation has found.
\n\nCompanies such as Adidas, Amazon, Cisco, Facebook, Hershey,\nHilton, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Netflix, Nordstrom and Under Armour may\nhave unknowingly helped finance some of these channels via the\nadvertisements they paid for on Google-owned YouTube.
\n\nUS tax dollars may have gone to the channels, too. Ads from five\nUS government agencies, such as the Department of Transportation\nand Centers for Disease Control, appeared on the channels.
\n
Facebook is getting a lot of attention lately, but it’s starting to feel like YouTube is losing its credibility too.
\n\nLink: money.cnn.com/2018/04/19/technology/youtube-ads-extreme…
\n" }, { "title" : "Amazon and Best Buy Team Up to Sell Smart TVs", "date_published" : "2018-04-19T22:41:04Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-19T22:41:05Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/amazon-best-buy-fire-tv", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/amazon-best-buy-fire-tv", "external_url" : "https://www.wsj.com/articles/retail-rivals-amazon-and-best-buy-team-up-to-sell-smart-tvs-1524045603", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nDavid Pierce:
\n\n\n\n\nRivals Amazon.com Inc. and Best Buy Co. are joining forces to sell\ntelevision sets powered by Amazon’s Fire TV operating system.
\n\nAmazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly revealed the\npartnership on Tuesday at a Best Buy store in Bellevue, Wash. The\ncompanies will sell 11 models, starting this summer with TVs by\nToshiba and Best Buy house brand Insignia. Best Buy will feature\nthe Amazon-powered TVs in its stores and on its website and become\nthe exclusive merchant of these TVs on Amazon.com.
\n\n“What we’re doing is so deeply integrated,” Mr. Bezos said,\nacknowledging the fact that his company and Best Buy are\noften considered rivals. “It’s only possible because we trust\neach other.”
\n
I don’t know if Best Buy should trust Amazon or not, but I do know I wish Apple would get it together and make some TVs with Apple TV built-in.
\n\nLink: wsj.com/articles/retail-rivals-amazon-and-best-buy-team-up…
\n" }, { "title" : "Pew: Majority of U.S. Teens Worry About School Shootings", "date_published" : "2018-04-19T20:51:44Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-19T21:22:18Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/pew-us-teens-worried-about-shootings", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/pew-us-teens-worried-about-shootings", "external_url" : "http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/18/a-majority-of-u-s-teens-fear-a-shooting-could-happen-at-their-school-and-most-parents-share-their-concern/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nNikki Graf, writing for Pew Research Center:
\n\n\n\n\nIn the aftermath of the deadly shooting at a high school in\nParkland, Florida, a majority of American teens say they are very\nor somewhat worried about the possibility of a shooting happening\nat their school — and most parents of teens share that concern,\naccording to new Pew Research Center surveys of teens ages 13 to\n17 and parents with children in the same age range.
\n\nMeanwhile, when it comes to what can be done to prevent this kind\nof violence, far more teens view proposals focused on mental\nillness, assault-style weapon bans and the use of metal detectors\nin schools as potentially effective than say the same about\nallowing teachers and school officials to carry guns in schools.
\n
It is absolutely shameful that we as a country have let it get to the point where a majority of teenagers are worried about a shooting at their school. When I was in high school 30 years ago, the notion that there even could be a shooting at my school never crossed my mind.
\n\nLink: pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/18/a-majority-of-u-s…
\n" }, { "title" : "Barack Obama on the Parkland Students", "date_published" : "2018-04-19T20:37:55Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-19T20:37:56Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/obama-parkland", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/obama-parkland", "external_url" : "http://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5217568/parkland-students/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nBarack Obama, writing for Time magazine’s “Most Influential People of 2018” on Parkland, Florida students Cameron Kasky, Jaclyn Corin, David Hogg, Emma González, and Alex Wind:
\n\n\n\n\nAmerica’s response to mass shootings has long followed a\npredictable pattern. We mourn. Offer thoughts and prayers.\nSpeculate about the motives. And then — even as no developed\ncountry endures a homicide rate like ours, a difference explained\nlargely by pervasive accessibility to guns; even as the majority\nof gun owners support commonsense reforms — the political debate\nspirals into acrimony and paralysis.
\n\nThis time, something different is happening. This time, our\nchildren are calling us to account.
\n\nThe Parkland, Fla., students don’t have the kind of lobbyists or\nbig budgets for attack ads that their opponents do. Most of them\ncan’t even vote yet.
\n\nBut they have the power so often inherent in youth: to see the\nworld anew; to reject the old constraints, outdated conventions\nand cowardice too often dressed up as wisdom.
\n\nThe power to insist that America can be better.
\n
He has such a distinct writing style — I can hear his voice as I read his words.
\n\nLink: time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5217568…
\n" }, { "title" : "A Flaw-by-Flaw Guide to Facebook’s New GDPR Privacy Changes", "date_published" : "2018-04-19T19:14:00Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-19T19:14:04Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/facebook-gdpr-constine", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/facebook-gdpr-constine", "external_url" : "https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/17/facebook-gdpr-changes/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nJosh Constine, writing for TechCrunch:
\n\n\n\n\nFacebook is about to start pushing European users to speed through\ngiving consent for its new GDPR privacy law compliance changes. It\nwill ask people to review how Facebook applies data from the web\nto target them with ads, and surface the sensitive profile info\nthey share. Facebook will also allow European and Canadian users\nto turn on facial recognition after six years of the feature being\nblocked there. But with a design that encourages rapidly hitting\nthe “Agree” button, a lack of granular controls, a laughably\ncheatable parental consent request for teens and an aesthetic\noverhaul of Download Your Information that doesn’t make it any\neasier to switch social networks, Facebook shows it’s still hungry\nfor your data.
\n
A good example of the dark patterns they’re employing:
\n\n\n\n\nBut the fact that the button to reject the new Terms of Service\nisn’t even a button, it’s a tiny “see your options” hyperlink,\nshows how badly Facebook wants to avoid you closing your account.\nWhen Facebook’s product designer for the GDPR flow was asked if\nshe thought this hyperlink was the best way to present the\nalternative to the big “I Accept” button, she disingenuously said\nyes, eliciting scoffs from the room of reporters. It seems obvious\nthat Facebook is trying to minimize the visibility of the path to\naccount deletion rather than making it an obvious course of action\nif you don’t agree to its terms.
\n
Not only is it a tiny hyperlink instead of a button, the link is just a few pixels above the big “I ACCEPT” button.
\n\nLink: techcrunch.com/2018/04/17/facebook-gdpr-changes/
\n" }, { "title" : "How Jason Snell Writes on iPad", "date_published" : "2018-04-19T18:27:09Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-19T18:27:10Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/snell-ipad-writing", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/snell-ipad-writing", "external_url" : "https://sixcolors.com/post/2018/04/writing-on-my-ipad-at-home/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nI asked, Jason answered:
\n\n\n\n\nA reader on Twitter suggested I buy this iPad stand on\nAmazon, and I’ve been using it ever since. It’s surprisingly\nsturdy. The base that approximates the foot of an iMac is metal,\nnot plastic. A hinge lets me pivot the iPad up and down and\nlikewise doesn’t feel cheap. And the clip mechanism — the stand\ncomes with clips for large and small iPads — is strong enough to\nhold my iPad without any worry of it sliding out. Best of all, the\nthing rotates, so I can use my iPad in portrait (for more words on\nthe screen) or landscape (for use with Split View) as I see fit.
\n
The stand is only $40, so I ordered one yesterday. I also ordered a Matias Laptop Pro, a Bluetooth mechanical keyboard that Snell — who’s in even deeper than I am with a mechanical keyboard collection — says feels and sounds quite a bit like an Apple Extended Keyboard II.
\n\nLink: sixcolors.com/post/2018/04/writing-on-my-ipad-at-home/
\n" }, { "title" : "Reuters: Facebook to Put 1.5 Billion Users Out of Reach of New EU Privacy Law", "date_published" : "2018-04-19T18:16:15Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-19T18:16:17Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/facebook-gdpr-ireland", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/19/facebook-gdpr-ireland", "external_url" : "https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-privacy-eu-exclusive/exclusive-facebook-to-put-1-5-billion-users-out-of-reach-of-new-eu-privacy-law-idUSKBN1HQ00P", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nDavid Ingram, reporting for Reuters:
\n\n\n\n\nIf a new European law restricting what companies can do with\npeople’s online data went into effect tomorrow, almost 1.9 billion\nFacebook Inc users around the world would be protected by it. The\nonline social network is making changes that ensure the number\nwill be much smaller.
\n\nFacebook members outside the United States and Canada, whether\nthey know it or not, are currently governed by terms of service\nagreed with the company’s international headquarters in Ireland.
\n\nNext month, Facebook is planning to make that the case for only\nEuropean users, meaning 1.5 billion members in Africa, Asia,\nAustralia and Latin America will not fall under the European\nUnion’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes\neffect on May 25.
\n
This sounds like bullshit to me, if they plan to continue funneling the revenue they generate from those users through their Irish subsidiary.
\n\nLink: reuters.com/article/us-facebook-privacy-eu-exclusive…
\n" }, { "title" : "[Sponsor] Turn Touch Wooden Smart Home Remote", "date_published" : "2018-04-19T16:52:00-04:00", "date_modified" : "2018-04-21T19:13:32-04:00", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2018/04/turn_touch_wooden_smart_home_r", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2018/04/turn_touch_wooden_smart_home_r", "external_url" : "https://turntouch.com/", "author" : { "name" : "Daring Fireball Department of Commerce" }, "content_html" : "\nEver wanted to control Spotify on your phone without looking at your phone? Do you have smart lights like Philips Hue and want a phone-free way to change scenes and colors? Turn Touch is your answer.
\n\nTurn Touch is a wooden smart home remote. Forget plastic, this is a remote as stylish as your home. It controls every smart home device that speaks Wi-Fi. Also use it to control your Mac and iOS devices over Bluetooth. This includes Keynote, iTunes, Quicktime, Spotify, Sonos, and lots more.
\n\nBuy a remote for your home or office for only $59 (with free shipping). A great gift for friends or yourself.
\n\nLink: turntouch.com/
\n" }, { "title" : "Daring Fireball Sponsorship Openings", "date_published" : "2018-04-18T22:00:00Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-18T22:04:27Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/18/df-sponsorship-openings", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/18/df-sponsorship-openings", "external_url" : "https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nThe next few weeks — including this current one — are open on the DF sponsorship calendar. Get in touch if you have a product or service to promote to DF’s savvy audience.
\n\nThe display ads — where it says “Your Ad Here” over there on the left — have openings too. If you jump on this week’s opening or next week’s, I’ll throw in the display ad for the remainder of April as a bonus.
\n\nLink: daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/
\n" }, { "title" : "Jeff Bezos Releases Non-Bezos Number: 100 Million Prime Subscribers", "date_published" : "2018-04-18T21:49:51Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-18T21:49:53Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/18/bezos-100m-prime-subscribers", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/18/bezos-100m-prime-subscribers", "external_url" : "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312518121161/d456916dex991.htm", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nJeff Bezos, in his annual Amazon shareholder letter:
\n\n\n\n\n13 years post-launch, we have exceeded 100 million paid Prime\nmembers globally. In 2017 Amazon shipped more than five billion\nitems with Prime worldwide, and more new members joined Prime than\nin any previous year — both worldwide and in the U.S. Members in\nthe U.S. now receive unlimited free two-day shipping on over 100\nmillion different items.
\n
Link: sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000119312518121161…
\n" }, { "title" : "The Menu Bar", "date_published" : "2018-04-18T20:14:05Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-18T20:21:08Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/18/wellborn-menu-bar", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/18/wellborn-menu-bar", "external_url" : "http://wormsandviruses.com/2018/03/the-menu-bar/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nJack Wellborn:
\n\n\n\n\nThe menu bar has been, and in my opinion remains, the best\nmechanism for providing familiarity, discoverability, and\nprogressive disclosure in user interfaces on any platform. Even\nbeyond the Mac, anyone who has clicked on a File menu in one\nplatform has a pretty good shot at guessing where a Save command\nmight be when provided a File menu somewhere else. Likewise and\nalso regardless of operating system, someone presented with an\nentirely new application can safely open and explore menus to try\nand locate features they might need. Never pivoted data before,\nbut need to for the first time? Hey look, there’s a menu in the\nbar called Data! Finally, let’s say that same seemingly one-time\noperation becomes a regular course of action that is needed\nmultiple times a day. The best menu bars provide an equivalent\nkeyboard shortcut right next to the command so, for example,\nanyone can discover how to save using command — s without having\nto be told.
\n\nSo then why are menu bars fading out of more modern UX\nconventions?
\n
Such a great piece. The menu bar, in my opinion, is the single biggest reason why Mac apps can grow to a greater manageable complexity than iOS apps. I’m not saying iOS should get a menu bar — I’m saying this is why it makes sense for Apple to maintain its dual platform strategy. The Mac’s menu bar — and the many dozens of commands it allows an app to offer in an organized, out-of-your-way-until-you-want-to-see-it system-wide standard interface — epitomizes my argument from when the iPad first shipped: It’s the heaviness of the Mac that allows iOS to remain light.
\n\nLink: wormsandviruses.com/2018/03/the-menu-bar/
\n" }, { "title" : "A Tale of Two QuickTimes", "date_published" : "2018-04-18T16:57:44Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-18T20:10:33Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/18/two-quicktimes", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/18/two-quicktimes", "external_url" : "https://sixcolors.com/post/2018/04/a-tale-of-two-quicktimes/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nDan Moren, writing for Six Colors:
\n\n\n\n\nAmong the casualties of the impending transition to 64-bit apps is\none long-lasting oddity: QuickTime 7 Pro.
\n\nWhat makes this app so unusual are a few factors. For one thing,\nit’s one of Apple’s own apps. For another, it was first released\nin 2005, making it almost 13 years old, though it hasn’t seen an\nupdate in about 8 years.
\n\nBut despite its age and the fact that the writing was on the wall\nfor QuickTime 7, news that it wouldn’t see an update when macOS\nmakes the jump to all-64-bit-all-the-time sparked some cries of\nfrustration from users, including both myself and Jason, who have\ncarved out a place in their workflows — and their hearts — for\nthis little anachronism.
\n\nThe biggest reason that people are up in arms about the death of\nQuickTime 7 Pro is that its successor, QuickTime Player X, never\nquite filled its shoes when it came to features.
\n
I still use QuickTime 7 Pro, too — I have it set as my default app to open any video file. When I checked my list of installed apps looking for any remaining 32-bit hold-outs, none of the apps I use regularly are 32-bit. But I spotted several irregularly used apps that are.
\n\nThis was not the case with iOS’s deprecation of 32-bit apps. With iOS, the only apps I lost use of were a few old games (including Apple’s own Texas Hold ’Em game, which was really rather fun). With the Mac, I’ll be losing a few useful apps. But that was true of the PowerPC to Intel transition, and the Motorola 68K to PowerPC transition. I vaguely recall some software that ran under System 6 but broke under System 7 in 1991. This is the price we pay for a platform that remains both relevant and (at least compared to Windows) low-cruft.
\n\nWhat makes QuickTime 7 Pro particularly irksome, as Moren points out, is that it’s Apple’s own software and Apple has resolutely refused to address QuickTime X’s deficiencies for over a decade, so nobody expects to ever see a full replacement for QuickTime Pro. Maybe there’s an opportunity here for a third-party app to take up the mantle — but if that hasn’t happened in the last decade, I’m not too hopeful about it happening now.
\n\nLink: sixcolors.com/post/2018/04/a-tale-of-two-quicktimes/
\n" }, { "title" : "★ Design Plagiarism", "date_published" : "2018-04-18T01:00:00Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-18T01:08:09Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/2018/04/design_plagiarism", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2018/04/design_plagiarism", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nIn response to my piece earlier today on normalizing design rip-offs, a few readers who object to my statement that every company does not copy from everyone else pointed me to this 2015 piece by Ron Amadeo for Ars Technica, “Everybody Copies Everyone: iOS 9 Features Inspired by Android”:
\n\n\n\n\nApple announced iOS 9 on Monday, and while watching the keynote, I\nhad just a little bit of déjà vu. Most of iOS 9’s new features\nseem to be squarely aimed at Apple’s biggest rival in mobile:\nAndroid. Specifically, they were about catching up to Android.
\n\nSearch improvements, proactive assistance, split screen, and\ntransit directions? It’s been done, but the differences are the\nfun part, so we chased down the new iOS 9 screenshots and compared\nthem to their Android counterparts. It’s not just about who copied\nwhom; it’s also a chance to look at the different designs of the\ntwo operating systems. And hey, Apple isn’t the only one taking\nideas from a competitor. Android M’s selectable app permissions\nare an exact copy of the iOS model.
\n
This is not copying. Following? Sure. That’s how competition works. I’m not arguing that if Company A implements a certain feature first, that no other company can ever implement that feature without ripping off Company A. Look at the side-by-side screenshots in Amadeo’s article. Were all these features on Android first? Sure. Do any of these screenshots leave even one iota of confusion regarding which is iOS and which is Android? No. If you don’t see the difference between these examples and what Huawei did with their Portrait mode feature, I don’t know what to say. There’s a difference between copying an idea and copying an implementation of that idea.
\n\nThat’s why I like the phrase “design plagiarism”. Maybe you think Amadeo’s examples do constitute “copying”. But they’re not plagiarism. If you write an article, and then I write my own article about the same topic, that just means you were first. But if I copy your article and just change a few words, that’s plagiarism. There’s a big difference.1
\n\nThis, by the way, is why I’ve always felt Apple’s misguided “look-and-feel” lawsuit against Microsoft in the mid-90’s was a huge mistake from the outset. Windows was clearly not a rip-off or copy of the Mac. There was no confusion which was which, and the Mac was elegant and Windows — especially pre-Windows 95 — was simply gross. Have you ever seen screenshots of Windows 1 or 2? They’re so startlingly ugly it’s hard to believe they’re real. Even Windows 3, the first version that became popular, was seriously ugly. Apple wasn’t trying to prevent Microsoft from copying the Mac — they were trying to prevent Microsoft from using the basic idea of a windows / icons / mouse pointer GUI. As I wrote about this years ago, good ideas are meant to spread. ↩︎
\nVlad Savov, a few weeks ago at The Verge:
\n\n\n\n\nI know I’m supposed to be outraged about tech companies blatantly\ncopying each other’s designs, but I don’t have the naivety for it\nanymore. Huawei, the company that’s been shipping copycat Apple\nEarPods with its Android smartphones for years, has decided to\nalso clone Apple’s wireless AirPods, and the product of that is\ncalled the Huawei FreeBuds. I got my hands on the FreeBuds at\nHuawei’s P20 launch event, and I found myself pleasantly\nsurprised by their styling and comfort. Yes, Huawei is copying\nApple; but I’m not a patent lawyer, I just want to see good tech\nproliferate, and the FreeBuds look promising.
\n
I have so many problems with this. First, it’s not “tech companies blatantly copying each other’s designs” in the abstract. That phrasing makes it sound like everyone copies from everyone. What’s going on, and which Huawei exemplifies, is that device makers from China and Korea blatantly copy hardware and software from one company: Apple.
\n\nIn this case Savov was writing about Huawei’s copycat wireless earbuds. But the most telling example — which Savov himself has documented better than anyone else — is the iPhone X notch. The notch is unquestionably the worst thing about the iPhone X design — it is a worthwhile compromise, but a severe and glaring one. But it lends the iPhone X a distinctive look and can be easily copied, and so of course these companies are shamelessly copying it. Anything they can copy from a successful Apple product, they do. (How many PC laptops look like MacBooks?)
\n\nHere’s a software example, from the same Huawei launch event last month: their camera app’s Portrait mode with a “Stage Lighting” effect. Huawei didn’t just copy the feature — they copied Apple’s UI almost to a T. (Apple uses a 3D wireframe cube to indicate the currently selected lighting effect; Huawei uses a 3D wireframe sphere.) This is design plagiarism.
\n\nI don’t think outrage is the right term for how the media should react to such rip-offs. I suggest a mix of contempt and mockery. But they certainly shouldn’t be pooh-poohed with an “Eh, everyone does it” attitude. Everyone does not do it, and the companies who do original design work are not each ripped off in equal measure.
\n\n\n\n " }, { "title" : "Elon Musk Memo on the State of Tesla", "date_published" : "2018-04-17T22:48:22Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-18T21:39:07Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/17/musk-tesla", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/17/musk-tesla", "external_url" : "https://electrek.co/2018/04/17/tesla-model-3-production-goal-6000-units-per-week/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nSkip the Electrek summary and scroll down to the memo itself. It’s a cogent and fascinating read:
\n\n\n\n\nMost of the design tolerances of the Model 3 are already better\nthan any other car in the world. Soon, they will all be better.\nThis is not enough. We will keep going until the Model 3 build\nprecision is a factor of ten better than any other car in the\nworld. I am not kidding.
\n\nOur car needs to be designed and built with such accuracy and\nprecision that, if an owner measures dimensions, panel gaps and\nflushness, and their measurements don’t match the Model 3 specs,\nit just means that their measuring tape is wrong.
\n\nSome parts suppliers will be unwilling or unable to achieve this\nlevel of precision. I understand that this will be considered an\nunreasonable request by some. That’s ok, there are lots of other\ncar companies with much lower standards. They just can’t work\nwith Tesla.
\n
Link: electrek.co/2018/04/17/tesla-model-3-production-goal-6000…
\n" }, { "title" : "The Guardian: ‘Far More Than 87 Million Facebook Users Had Data Compromised by Cambridge Analytica’", "date_published" : "2018-04-17T21:50:06Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-17T21:50:07Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/17/far-more-than-87m", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/17/far-more-than-87m", "external_url" : "https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/17/facebook-users-data-compromised-far-more-than-87m-mps-told-cambridge-analytica", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nAlex Hern, reporting for The Guardian:
\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFar more than 87 million people may have had their Facebook data\nharvested by Cambridge Analytica, according to evidence from\nformer employee Brittany Kaiser.
\n\nSpeaking to the Commons digital, culture, media and sport select\ncommittee, Kaiser said Cambridge Analytica had a suite of\npersonality quizzes designed to extract personal data from the\nsocial network, of which Aleksandr Kogan’s This Is Your Digital\nLife app was just one example.
\n\nIn evidence to the committee, Kaiser wrote: “The Kogan/GSR\ndatasets and questionnaires were not the only Facebook-connected\nquestionnaires and datasets which Cambridge Analytica used. I am\naware in a general sense of a wide range of surveys which were\ndone by CA or its partners, usually with a Facebook login — for\nexample, the ‘sex compass’ quiz.”
\n
Link: theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/17/facebook-users-data…
\n" }, { "title" : "50 Shades of Space Gray", "date_published" : "2018-04-16T22:21:18Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-17T19:47:46Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/16/steeber-space-gray", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/16/steeber-space-gray", "external_url" : "https://9to5mac.com/2018/04/16/space-gray-odyssey/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nMichael Steeber, writing for 9to5Mac:
\n\n\n\n\nYet, ubiquity has not brought consistency. Each new generation of\na product seems to bring with it a slightly different take on\nspace gray. Those with large device collections have noted\nthe discrepancies between shades, and discussions brew online\nover the term’s exact definition.
\n\nWhile subtle variations in material, texture, lighting, and even\nthe shape of a product can play tricks on the eyes, every device\nApple currently offers or has produced in space gray can be\ngrouped into one of several loosely defined categories. Below,\nwe’ve cataloged and categorized the vast universe of Apple’s\nrecent dark material finishes in an attempt to unravel the\nmysteries of space gray.
\n
Unsurprisingly, I found this article a lot of fun. Certainly seems comprehensive.
\n\nLink: 9to5mac.com/2018/04/16/space-gray-odyssey/
\n" }, { "title" : "Spotify and Hulu Team Up for $13 Subscription Bundle", "date_published" : "2018-04-16T21:55:56Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-16T21:55:57Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/16/spotify-hulu-bundle", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/16/spotify-hulu-bundle", "external_url" : "http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/11/technology/business/spotify-hulu-bundle-subscription/index.html", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nJackie Wattles, writing for CNN Tech:
\n\n\n\n\nThe companies said Wednesday that a $12.99 per-month plan will get\nyou access to Spotify’s ad-free music streaming service and Hulu’s\nbasic package that allows you to stream TV shows and movies with\nsome ad breaks.
\n\nPaying for both services separately would set you back about $18\n— $9.99 for Spotify Premium and $7.99 for Hulu.
\n
Seems like a good deal and a smart partnership.
\n\nThis is why I think Apple will roll its upcoming exclusive TV shows into Apple Music — people are naturally reluctant to sign up for yet another subscription. Spitball: $10 a month for Apple Music only (same as now); $15 for Apple Music and TV. Or maybe just give the shows to everyone at the current $10 — focus more on getting as many people signed up as possible, not extracting additional revenue from those who are signed up.
\n\nLink: money.cnn.com/2018/04/11/technology/business/spotify-hulu…
\n" }, { "title" : "GrayKey iPhone Unlocker Poses Serious Security Concerns", "date_published" : "2018-04-16T21:48:37Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-16T21:48:38Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/16/graykey-unlocker", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/16/graykey-unlocker", "external_url" : "https://blog.malwarebytes.com/security-world/2018/03/graykey-iphone-unlocker-poses-serious-security-concerns/", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nThomas Reed, writing for the Malwarebytes Labs blog:
\n\n\n\n\nThanks to an anonymous source, we now know what this mysterious\ndevice looks like, and how it works. And while the technology is a\ngood thing for law enforcement, it presents some significant\nsecurity risks.
\n\nGrayKey is a gray box, four inches wide by four inches deep by two\ninches tall, with two lightning cables sticking out of the front.
\n\nTwo iPhones can be connected at one time, and are connected for\nabout two minutes. After that, they are disconnected from the\ndevice, but are not yet cracked. Some time later, the phones will\ndisplay a black screen with the passcode, among other information.\nThe exact length of time varies, taking about two hours in the\nobservations of our source. It can take up to three days or longer\nfor six-digit passcodes, according to Grayshift documents, and the\ntime needed for longer passphrases is not mentioned. Even disabled\nphones can be unlocked, according to Grayshift.
\n\nAfter the device is unlocked, the full contents of the filesystem\nare downloaded to the GrayKey device. From there, they can be\naccessed through a web-based interface on a connected computer,\nand downloaded for analysis. The full, unencrypted contents of the\nkeychain are also available for download.
\n
So the phone is only connected to the box for two minutes, and then the phone itself displays the passcode after it’s cracked? If I’m reading this right, the box must jailbreak the iPhone and install the cracking software on the iPhone itself. I guess that would explain how they get around iOS’s (optional) wipe-after-10-wrong-guesses feature, as well as the escalating delays after a few wrong guesses.
\n\nHopefully Apple can figure out how to fix this jailbreak. If you’re concerned about this, you ought to switch to a stronger alphanumeric passphrase.
\n\nLink: blog.malwarebytes.com/security-world/2018/03/graykey-iphone…
\n" }, { "title" : "Nikola Tesla Predicted the Smartphone in 1926", "date_published" : "2018-04-16T19:22:32Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-16T19:22:33Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/16/tesla-smart-phone", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/04/16/tesla-smart-phone", "external_url" : "https://kottke.org/18/04/nikola-tesla-predicted-the-smartphone-in-1926", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nRemarkably prescient predictions from Tesla, in a 1926 interview with Collier’s:
\n\n\n\n\nWhen wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be\nconverted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being\nparticles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to\ncommunicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance.\nNot only this, but through television and telephony we shall see\nand hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face,\ndespite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the\ninstruments through which we shall be able to do his will be\namazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will\nbe able to carry one in his vest pocket.
\n\nWe shall be able to witness and hear events — the inauguration of\na President, the playing of a world series game, the havoc of an\nearthquake or the terror of a battle — just as though we were\npresent.
\n
Streaming video is getting to be old hat. It’s human nature that we take every breakthrough for granted after just a few years. But sometimes when I’m watching a live baseball game on my phone while I’m walking around, it strikes me just how futuristic it would seem to my younger self.
\n\nLink: kottke.org/18/04/nikola-tesla-predicted-the-smartphone-in…
\n" }, { "title" : "★ Company-Wide Apple Memo on ‘The Impact of Leaks’ Leaks", "date_published" : "2018-04-13T19:06:52Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-13T19:30:16Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/2018/04/the_impact_of_leaks", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2018/04/the_impact_of_leaks", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nMark Gurman has obtained a copy of a company-wide memo on leaking, and published it at Bloomberg. I suggest skipping Gurman’s summary of the memo and scrolling down to the memo itself. Curiously, Gurman doesn’t say when the memo was posted and he omits its headline. I’ve heard the memo was posted on Monday this week, and the headline was “The Impact of Leaks”. Some observations, starting with the opening:
\n\n\n\n\nLast month, Apple caught and fired the employee responsible for\nleaking details from an internal, confidential meeting about\nApple’s software roadmap. Hundreds of software engineers were in\nattendance, and thousands more within the organization received\ndetails of its proceedings. One person betrayed their trust.
\n\nThe employee who leaked the meeting to a reporter later told Apple\ninvestigators that he did it because he thought he wouldn’t be\ndiscovered. But people who leak — whether they’re Apple\nemployees, contractors or suppliers — do get caught and they’re\ngetting caught faster than ever.
\n
Gurman doesn’t mention that the meeting was leaked to Gurman himself — the person who leaked this story was caught and fired. I can see why Gurman and Bloomberg might not want to emphasize that.
\n\n\n\n\nInvestments by Apple have had an enormous impact on the company’s\nability to identify and catch leakers. Just before last\nSeptember’s special event, an employee leaked a link to the gold\nmaster of iOS 11 to the press, again believing he wouldn’t be\ncaught. The unreleased OS detailed soon-to-be-announced software\nand hardware including iPhone X. Within days, the leaker was\nidentified through an internal investigation and fired.
\n
The iOS 11 GM leak revealed the name “iPhone X”. It also confirmed features like Face ID and wireless charging, but the name was the big one. Face ID and wireless charging had been rumored for a year, but until that leak just three days before the event, we had no idea what Apple was going to call its new phones.
\n\n\n\n\nGlobal Security’s digital forensics also helped catch several\nemployees who were feeding confidential details about new products\nincluding iPhone X, iPad Pro and AirPods to a blogger at 9to5Mac.
\n
It’s unclear which stories at 9to5Mac this is about, but the AirPods story is probably this one, which was a huge scoop published 9 months before AirPods were announced — by none other than Mark Gurman. It seems possible that every single specific example cited by Apple in this memo was someone leaking to Mark Gurman. Makes you wonder who had the balls to send this memo to him. We’ll be getting into Inception territory if the leaker of the memo on leakers getting fired for leaking to Gurman gets fired for leaking it to Gurman.
\n\n\n\n\nLeakers do not simply lose their jobs at Apple. In some cases,\nthey face jail time and massive fines for network intrusion and\ntheft of trade secrets both classified as federal crimes. In 2017,\nApple caught 29 leakers. 12 of those were arrested. Among those\nwere Apple employees, contractors and some partners in Apple’s\nsupply chain. These people not only lose their jobs, they can face\nextreme difficulty finding employment elsewhere. “The potential\ncriminal consequences of leaking are real,” says Tom Moyer of\nGlobal Security, “and that can become part of your personal and\nprofessional identity forever.”
\n
Getting fired for leaking — we all knew that happened. But this is the first I’ve heard of leakers being prosecuted criminally and going to jail. Apple is not fucking around regarding leaks.
\n\n\n\n " }, { "title" : "★ Regarding Mark Zuckerberg’s Unused Talking Points on Tim Cook and Apple", "date_published" : "2018-04-11T21:20:25Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-12T18:04:16Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/2018/04/zuckerbergs_notes", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2018/04/zuckerbergs_notes", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nDuring a break in Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony before Congress yesterday, Zuckerberg inexplicably left his prepared notes — PR-approved talking points for anticipated lines of questioning — behind on the table. Associated Press photographer Andrew Harnik snapped a photo of them before a Facebook aide could close them, and it was widely shared on Twitter. The AP’s Behind the News site has a piece today on how Harnik got the shot:
\n\n\n\n\nOnce I was able to sit down at the end of the event and see the\nresponse from Twitter and read what was in Zuckerberg’s notes, I\nrealized this was pretty important information. I read some\nresponses on Twitter — the photo was congratulated and celebrated\nby many fellow journalists, while others thought it was an\ninvasion of privacy. Others simply saw the irony of someone’s\nnotes being shared so publicly during a major congressional\nhearing on data privacy.
\n
The section in the talking points that got my attention, as well as that of many others, regarded Tim Cook and Apple. It never actually came up during his testimony, but Zuckerberg and Facebook were clearly anticipating questions pertaining to Tim Cook’s recent remarks on Facebook’s business model and privacy. Basically, the whole “If you’re not the customer, then you’re the product” argument.
\n\nHere is the section from Zuckerberg’s notes, verbatim:
\n\n\n\n\nTim Cook on biz model
\n\n\n
\n- Bezos: “Companies that work hard to charge you more and\ncompanies that work hard to charge you less.”
\n- At FB, we try hard to charge you less. In fact, we’re free.
\n- [On data, we’re similar. When you install an app on your iPhone,\nyou give it access to some information, just like when you login\nwith FB.
\n- Lots of stories about apps misusing Apple data, never seen Apple\nnotify people.
\n- Important to hold everyone to the same standard.]
\n
Zuckerberg used the first two points — citing Jeff Bezos’s quote about there being two types of companies, and asserting that Facebook is decidedly on the “working hard to charge you less” side of that equation — when he was asked about Cook’s remarks during his (excellent) podcast interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein last week. The speciousness of that defense was the subject of the column I wrote last week, so I don’t need to cover it here.
\n\nThe other three points — hoo-boy. To be fair, these are only prepared notes. Zuckerberg didn’t say them, and we don’t know if he would have if questioned about Cook’s remarks. So it’s not fair to treat them as though they’re actually quotes from Zuckerberg.1 But what a pile of horseshit they would have been if he had.
\n\n\n\n\nOn data, we’re similar. When you install an app on your iPhone,\nyou give it access to some information, just like when you login [sic]\nwith FB.
\n
There is almost nothing similar about how Apple and Facebook treat user data. Installing an app on an iPhone is nothing like signing in to Facebook. Yes, apps on iOS do get access to some data. But anything remotely private is only accessible to apps after the user has granted explicit permission for this access, and such access is also easily and clearly revokable in the Settings app’s Privacy section. Apple provides the user with clear control.
\n\nAs for where Zuckerberg might have gone with the item about “Lots of stories about apps misusing Apple data”, I’m not sure what that’s about. Maybe something like the 2012 story where the now-nearly-forgotten app Path was caught uploading users’ entire contacts database to their servers? That was bad for user privacy, and Apple can be blamed for having allowed apps to access the address book without the user’s permission. But Apple responded, quickly, by making access to the address book something that required the user’s permission. (They made the same change on MacOS too.)
\n\nApple was, at worst, naive about what apps would do with unfettered access to users’ address books. Facebook is facing criticism today — and losing its users’ trust — not because they’ve been naive about privacy, but because they’ve been devious about it.
\n\nNobody is arguing that Apple collects too much data about users. If anything, I see some people arguing the opposite: that Apple is falling behind in the machine learning race because they don’t collect and aggregate enough data. And as for third-party apps collecting privacy-invasive data from devices, we now know that Facebook has been collecting phone call and SMS messaging history from Android devices — but not iOS, because iOS has never allowed third-party apps access to phone call or text messaging data.
\n\nZuckerberg should stick to the “some companies work hard to charge you more, other work hard to charge you less” angle. Trying to argue that Apple is in the same boat as Facebook on the privacy front is simply laughable.
\n\nI’m curious about the brackets that surround the last three points. (Close-up image.) At first I thought they were typos, because they’re located within the bullet points. But I suspect the bullet points were generated by a word processor like Word or Pages, where the bullet glyphs are auto-generated by the word processor and aren’t editable. I strongly suspect that those brackets are meant to group these three points together. ↩︎
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\n" }, { "title" : "★ A Really Dumb Wall Street Journal Story on Apple Pay That Almost Makes a Good Point at the Very Beginning", "date_published" : "2018-04-04T03:59:00Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-04T05:38:49Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/2018/04/wsj_apple_pay", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2018/04/wsj_apple_pay", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nTripp Mickle, writing for The Wall Street Journal:
\n\n\n\n\nApple Inc. is nagging iPhone users to enroll in its mobile-payment\nservice with a persistent red circle badge. The strategy has\nworked with some, but is irritating others who say it is\nheavy-handed and exploits the tech giant’s clout in ways that\ncould disadvantage rivals.
\n\nThe tactic, part of the iPhone’s latest operating software\nlaunched last fall, is subtle. Users who opt not to input\ncredit-card information for Apple Pay when setting up their phones\nnow constantly see the red circle over their settings icon,\nindicating their setup is incomplete. Some users also periodically\nget notification reminders that go away only once they start the\nenrollment process.
\n
Mickle has a point here. This does annoy people who, for whatever reason, don’t want to set up Apple Pay. There is a way to dismiss the red badge, but it’s not obvious how, because the button you have to tap says “Set Up Apple Pay”. (After that, you tap “Cancel” or “Set Up Later in Wallet”.) It is inscrutably counterintuitive to need to tap a button that says “Set Up Apple Pay” when your intention is to stop being nagged to set it up because you don’t want to set up Apple Pay.
\n\nBut the Journal article never explains that you can turn off this red badge. As Mickle tells it, the only way to turn off the badge is to sign up for Apple Pay. That’s just wrong, and renders the remainder of his article moot.
\n\nIn act 2, the article turns weird:
\n\n\n\n\nThough payment analysts say the service speeds up checkout times\nand is more secure than traditional cards, Apple Pay has struggled\nto earn broad adoption in the U.S. Many remain skeptical that it\nis more secure, including Jack Frederick, a 29-year-old\nprofessional comedian from Queens, N.Y., who prefers using his\ncredit card directly.
\n\n“This is the most aggressive they’ve ever been,” said Mr.\nFrederick, who has had a red badge over his iPhone settings since\nupdating his software in mid-January. He said the notification has\nmade him consider trading his iPhone 6 for a Google Pixel. “All\nthat from one dot,” he said.
\n
Experts say using Apple Pay is faster and more secure than using a credit card, but here’s a 29-year-old comedian who thinks otherwise. Who wouldn’t take credit card security advice from a completely random guy on the street?
\n\nI do think Apple has a marketing problem with Apple Pay, though. I can tell from talking to family members that a lot of people just don’t see why they should try Apple Pay, because they have no idea how it works or why they’d want to use it. And I think they worry that because it’s new and sort of science-fiction-y it will make their credit card more likely to be hacked, when the truth is the opposite. I think Apple needs more ads that explain and demonstrate the convenience and indisputable security advantages of using Apple Pay instead of a credit card, and the extraordinary convenience of Apple Pay Cash. I can see how a lot of people think, “Eh, I’ll just keep using my credit card” when they’re paying for something in a retail store. But Apple Pay Cash could be enough to get these people to set up Apple Pay.
\n\nAnyway, in act three, Mickle takes things to the absurd:
\n\n\n\n\n“Everyone is doing essentially the same trick,” said Roger Kay, an\nanalyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates. “It’s really\nantitrust behavior.”
\n\nMr. Kay compared Apple Pay setup badges and notifications to\nMicrosoft Corp. bundling its Internet Explorer browser with\nWindows in the 1990s — a strategy the Justice Department\nsuccessfully sued to stop on antitrust grounds saying it hurt\nrivals. “They used to have actual behavioral remedies and say you\ncan’t do this,” Mr. Kay said.
\n
This is a ridiculous comparison in several ways, but I’ll point out just one. With the benefit of 20 years of hindsight, it’s now clear that one aspect of Microsoft’s defense was correct: web browsers do belong built into operating systems at the system level. Good luck removing Safari from MacOS or iOS. I wish you even better luck removing Chrome from a Chromebook.
\n\nNetscape didn’t lose to IE because IE was built into Windows; it lost because IE was better. And when first Firefox and then Chrome came along, they thrived on Windows because they were better than IE.
\n\nApple Pay, as conceived, has to be built into the OS. By Kay’s argument, most of the built-in features in any OS are anticompetitive. What new features could be added to iOS without hurting some sort of competitor?
\n\n\n\n\nApple declined to comment on potential antitrust concerns.
\n
Probably because they were stifling laughter.
\n\n\n\n " }, { "title" : "★ Users and Customers", "date_published" : "2018-04-02T23:36:31Z", "date_modified" : "2018-04-02T23:36:32Z", "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/2018/04/users_and_customers", "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2018/04/users_and_customers", "author" : { "name" : "John Gruber" }, "content_html" : "\nFascinating, wide-ranging podcast interview (with an excellent transcript) between Vox’s Ezra Klein and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:
\n\n\n\n\nKlein: One of the things that has been coming up a lot in the\nconversation is whether the business model of monetizing user\nattention is what is letting in a lot of these problems. Tim Cook,\nthe CEO of Apple, gave an interview the other day and he was asked\nwhat he would do if he was in your shoes. He said, “I wouldn’t be\nin this situation,” and argued that Apple sells products to users,\nit doesn’t sell users to advertisers, and so it’s a sounder\nbusiness model that doesn’t open itself to these problems.
\n\nDo you think part of the problem here is the business model where\nattention ends up dominating above all else, and so anything that\ncan engage has powerful value within the ecosystem?
\n\nZuckerberg: You know, I find that argument, that if you’re not\npaying that somehow we can’t care about you, to be extremely glib\nand not at all aligned with the truth. The reality here is that if\nyou want to build a service that helps connect everyone in the\nworld, then there are a lot of people who can’t afford to pay. And\ntherefore, as with a lot of media, having an advertising-supported\nmodel is the only rational model that can support building this\nservice to reach people. […]
\n\nBut if you want to build a service which is not just serving rich\npeople, then you need to have something that people can afford. I\nthought Jeff Bezos had an excellent saying on this in one of his\nKindle launches a number of years back. He said, “There are\ncompanies that work hard to charge you more, and there are\ncompanies that work hard to charge you less.” And at Facebook, we\nare squarely in the camp of the companies that work hard to charge\nyou less and provide a free service that everyone can use.
\n\nI don’t think at all that that means that we don’t care about\npeople. To the contrary, I think it’s important that we don’t all\nget Stockholm syndrome and let the companies that work hard to\ncharge you more convince you that they actually care more about\nyou. Because that sounds ridiculous to me.
\n
There is certainly something to Zuckerberg’s argument here, but the speciousness of the way he formulates it is that a company working hard to charge you more money is undeniably incentivized to care more about you, if you can afford their product or service. I think it’s undeniable that Apple cares more about the hundreds of millions of people who buy its products than Facebook cares about any of its billions of users.
\n\nThe more apt Tim Cook quote that applies here is this long-standing internet adage: “When an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product.” Amazon is undeniably focused on low prices. But Facebook doesn’t charge low prices — they charge high prices. To their customers: advertisers. And a cursory look at their financials indicates they’ve been working hard to raise those prices.
\n\nThe linguistic trick Zuckerberg pulls here is that nowhere in the entire interview does he mention the words user or customer. He only says you (in the plural sense) and people. That’s a dodge, because unlike Apple — and Amazon — Facebook’s users are not its customers — and most of the controversies they are dealing with today all stem from the fact that they favored their customers (advertisers willing to pay ever-higher sums for ever-more-invasively-targeted ads) at the expense of their users.
\n\n\n\n " } ] }![what Huawei did with their Portrait mode feature](\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2018/04/huawei-stage-lighting.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Close-up image](\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2018/04/zuckerbergs-notes.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Good luck removing Safari](\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2018/04/safari-required.png\"){kind=link}