Friday, March 7, 2025

Brother Denies Blocking Third-Party Toner

Mark Tyson:

Louis Rossmann has shared a new video encapsulating his surprise, and disappointment, that Brother has morphed into an “anti-consumer printer company.” More information about Brother’s embrace of the dark side are shared on Rossmann’s wiki, with the major two issues being new firmware disabling third party toner, and preventing (on color devices) color registration functionality.

Rossmann is clearly perturbed by Brother’s quiet volte-face with regard to aftermarket ink. Above he admits that he used to tell long-suffering HP or Canon printing device owners faces with cartridge DRM issues “Buy a brother laser printer for $100 and all of your woes will be solved.”

Sadly, “Brother is among the rest of them now,” mused the famous RepairTuber.

Scharon Harding (via Slashdot):

The video, spotted by Tom’s Hardware, has 163,000 views as of this writing and seems to be based on a Reddit post from 2022. In that post, Reddit user 20Factorial said that firmware update W1.56 caused the automatic color registration feature to stop working on his Brother MFC-3750 when using third-party cartridges.

“With the colors not able to be aligned, the printer is effectively non-functional,” 20Factorial said. The Redditor went on to say that when asked, a Brother customer service agent confirmed that “the printer is non-functional without genuine toner.”

[…]

Brother denied to Ars Technica that it intentionally bricks printer functionality when users install third-party toner or ink.

[…]

20Factorial isn’t the only one who has claimed to see printer capabilities decline when trying to use a third-party cartridge.

The general consensus seems to be that official Brother cartridges work a little better, but that Brother doesn’t block you from using alternatives.

Previously:

Brazilian Court Mandates iOS Sideloading

Filipe Espósito (via Dare Obasanjo):

As reported by Brazilian newspaper Valor Econômico (via O Globo), a federal judge in Brazil ruled on Wednesday that Apple will have to open up the iOS ecosystem to third-party apps in Brazil just like the company did in the EU. The judge considers that the “limitations” imposed by the company on developers could jeopardize the entry of new competitors in the segment.

In November 2024, the Brazilian antitrust regulator “Cade” ruled that Apple can no longer prevent developers from selling content and distributing apps outside the App Store in Brazil. The company would have 20 days to comply with Brazil’s antitrust legislation, otherwise it would be fined more than $40,000 a day.

[…]

Judge Pablo Zuniga has ordered that Apple will have to implement the required changes in Brazil within the next three months. The judge states that, despite Apple’s claims, the company “has already complied with similar obligations in other countries, without demonstrating a significant impact or irreparable damage to its business model.”

Nick Heer:

The rules are changing worldwide. Apple can make this easy for itself, or it can tediously lose its fights one country at a time.

Previously:

Digg Returns

Reuters (YouTube):

Digg founder Kevin Rose has teamed up with former rival Alexis Ohanian to buy the once-popular content aggregator as they bet on an artificial intelligence-powered revival of the platform that once drew around 40 million monthly visitors.

Launched in 2004 by a then 27-year-old Rose, Digg was once called the “homepage of the internet” and was a rival to Reddit, opens new tab, a firm co-founded by Ohanian.

Mike Isaac (via Hacker News):

“This is the perfect time to revisit this idea with fresh eyes,” Mr. Rose, 48, now a venture capitalist at True Ventures, said in an interview. He said social media had become so ubiquitous that “it doesn’t need to be winner take all,” adding that “we don’t need to take down Reddit to win.”

Ben Lovejoy:

It’s an interesting move given that Reddit was a competitor who pretty much inherited that “homepage of the web” accolade. Also ‘interesting’ is the pair’s belief that most moderation can be done by AI …

[…]

The site was essentially killed by a combination of an unpopular update, widespread manipulation, and the growing popularity of Facebook – whose Like and Share buttons proved more popular. In 2012, the company was broken up and sold for parts.

Nick Heer:

Before it was acquired by Money Group, a publisher and advertising company, Digg was previously owned by BuySellAds. No word on how many people were working on the most recent version and whether any of them will continue.

Previously:

Private GitHub Data Lingers in Copilot Training

Carly Page:

Security researchers are warning that data exposed to the internet, even for a moment, can linger in online generative AI chatbots like Microsoft Copilot long after the data is made private.

[…]

Lasso co-founder Ophir Dror told TechCrunch that the company found content from its own GitHub repository appearing in Copilot because it had been indexed and cached by Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Dror said the repository, which had been mistakenly made public for a brief period, had since been set to private, and accessing it on GitHub returned a “page not found” error.

[…]

Lasso extracted a list of repositories that were public at any point in 2024 and identified the repositories that had since been deleted or set to private. Using Bing’s caching mechanism, the company found more than 20,000 since-private GitHub repositories still had data accessible through Copilot, affecting more than 16,000 organizations.

Any passwords or keys that were ever made public, however briefly, should be revoked. However, there may be other information of interest that’s now stored, and it was not obvious to me that it would be accessible via Copilot when it doesn’t show up in Bing.

Previously:

Thursday, March 6, 2025

Alexa Plus

Ina Fried:

Amazon on Wednesday showed off Alexa+, a generative AI version of its digital voice assistant that draws on a variety of models and works with many of the company’s older Echo devices.

[…]

Alexa+ will be available in late March and cost $19.99 per month on its own — but it’s free for Amazon Prime customers.

[…]

In demos at a press event in New York, Amazon executives showed Alexa+ doing a variety of tasks, including ordering groceries, analyzing documents and making up stories.

Alexa+ will also be able to navigate the web on its own to handle some tasks, Amazon said.

Via Nick Heer:

These voice-controlled assistants seem like a natural fit for large language models and, if Amazon’s ad is anything to go by, this looks impressive. Something I think about a lot is an accessibility spectrum I first saw from Microsoft. I am not someone with a permanent physical disability, for example, but I cook often and do not want to touch my phone. Voice controls are a situational boon.

M.G. Siegler:

But after listening to Amazon’s head of devices and services, Panos Panay, on Nilay Patel’s Decoder podcast, I’m actually even more skeptical now.

Previously:

Lightroom Classic 14.2

Adobe:

The Adaptive profiles help with image-adaptive adjustments in color, tone, and contrast of raw images.

[…]

The Lightroom Classic 14.2 update introduces substantial performance improvements for interactive editing tasks, delivering a smoother, faster, and more responsive experience.

[…]

Better manage your catalog backups with a new backup panel in Catalog Settings > Backup. You can now easily open backup locations, check backup size, or delete older backups. Additionally, you can remove single or multiple backup catalog entries from the list without deleting the actual backup files from their location. View Manage Backup Catalogs to learn more.

Previously:

Chrome Warning About Manifest V2 Extensions

Thomas Claburn:

This story starts in 2019 when Google detailed its plans to improve extensions’ security and privacy features with a project it called Manifest V3 (MV3) that changes the way extensions use various APIs. MV3 is currently being rolled out, and Google looks set to stop supporting extensions that use its predecessor MV2 this year. Back in 2019 Google insisted it was not trying to kill content blockers.

[…]

The search and ad giant’s privacy and security concerns are legitimate. Extensions written under the legacy Manifest V2 API have broad access to the browsing activities of users and have long been abused by miscreants to steal data and compromise systems.

[…]

MV3, however, appears not to be meeting Google’s stated goals.

AdGuard, a privacy service that makes an ad blocking extension for Chrome and related applications, recently complained that MV3 is making it hard to deliver its desired features.

[…]

Miagkov described an unresolved problem that means Privacy Badger is unable to strip Google tracking redirects on Google sites. “We can’t do it the correct way because when Google engineers design the [chrome.declarativeNetRequest API], they fail to think of this scenario,” he said.

Raymond Hill (via Hacker News):

uBO is a Manifest v2 extension, hence the warning in your Google Chrome browser. There is no Manifest v3 version of uBO, hence the browser will suggest alternative extensions as a replacement for uBO[…]

Zalaphyr (via Hacker News):

Ublock Origin extension got removed from my Chrome browser by force, with a message saying that it was not supported anymore.

Jeff Johnson:

Chrome version 134, which started rolling out yesterday, has added a new restriction: unpacked extensions can no longer be used while developer mode is disabled. There’s a new warning, “Turn on developer mode to use this extension, which can’t be reviewed by the Chrome Web Store.”

[…]

Thus, you’ll now need to keep developer mode enabled permanently to use StopTheMadness Pro in Chrome.

Previously:

Ladybird Browser

Joe Brockmeier (via Hacker News):

Ladybird is an open-source project aimed at building an independent web browser, rather than yet another browser based on Chrome. It is written in C++ and licensed under a two-clause BSD license. The effort began as part of the SerenityOS project, but developer Andreas Kling announced on June 3 that he was “forking” Ladybird as a separate project and stepping away from SerenityOS to focus his attention on the browser completely. Ladybird is not ready to replace Firefox or Chrome for regular use, but it is showing great promise.

Kling started working on SerenityOS in 2018 as a therapy project after completing a substance-abuse rehabilitation program. The SerenityOS name is a nod to the serenity prayer. Prior to working on the project, he had worked on WebKit-based browsers at Apple and Nokia. Eventually he made SerenityOS his full-time job, and funded the work through donations, sales of SerenityOS merchandise, and income from YouTube.

[…]

Comparing the README file in the standalone Ladybird repository against the README file in the SerenityOS repository, the goal has evolved from creating a standards-compliant, independent web browser with no third-party dependencies to developing an independent browser using a novel engine based on web standards.

Tim Anderson (Hacker News):

According to a post this week, the new 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, with initial directors being lead developer Andreas Kling and GitHub co-founder Chris Wanstrath, is funded entirely by sponsorships from those who “care about the open web” and will only accept “unrestricted donations.”

The software is open source on GitHub and uses the permissive BSD-2-Clause License which is means it is free software and approved by the open source initiative.

Jack Kelly (Hacker News):

Chrome is eating the web. I have wanted to help fund a serious alternative browser for quite some time, and while Firefox remains the largest potential alternative, Mozilla has never let me. Since I can’t fund Firefox, I’m going to show there’s money in user-funded web browsers by funding Ladybird instead.

Robert O’Callahan:

If you’ve done all that and implemented all the Web specs, you might still only be a less-Web-compatible Firefox or Chromium. What can you do better? My knowledge is a bit out of date, but here are a few guesses.

Go parallel from the ground up. You’ll get more and more E-cores, so you should try to use them. Parallel parsing and layout seem like endless opportunity.

Use a programming language that lets you write clean, fast, memory-safe, parallel data-race-free code — probably Rust.

Andreas Kling (Hacker News):

We’ve been evaluating a number of C++ successor languages for @ladybirdbrowser, and the one best suited to our needs appears to be @SwiftLang 🪶

[…]

Something that matters to us a lot is OO. Web specs & browser internals tend to be highly object-oriented, and life is easier when you can model specs closely in your code. Swift has first-class OO support, in many ways even nicer than C++.

The Swift team is also investing heavily in C++ interop, which means there’s a real path to incremental adoption, not just gigantic rewrites.

Previously:

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Mac Studio 2025

Apple (Hacker News):

Mac Studio with M4 Max is up to 3.5x faster than Mac Studio with M1 Max, and is up to 6.1x faster than the most powerful Intel-based 27-inch iMac.

[…]

Mac Studio with M3 Ultra pushes demanding workflows to a whole new level. It delivers nearly 2x faster performance than M4 Max in workloads that take advantage of high CPU and GPU core counts, and massive amounts of unified memory. Mac Studio with M3 Ultra is up to 2.6x faster than Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and up to 6.4x faster than the 16-core Intel Xeon W-based Mac Pro.

[…]

Mac Studio with M3 Ultra starts with 96GB of unified memory, which can be configured up to 512GB — the most unified memory ever in a personal computer — and up to 16TB of ultrafast SSD storage, so content and data can be kept locally.

[…]

The new Mac Studio features Thunderbolt 5 ports that deliver transfer speeds up to 120 Gb/s, up to 3x faster than the prior generation, enabling faster external storage, expansion chassis, and powerful hub solutions. For those who rely on PCIe expansion cards for their workflows, Thunderbolt 5 allows users to connect an external expansion chassis with higher bandwidth and lower latency. And with M3 Ultra, Mac Studio now drives up to eight Pro Display XDRs at the full 6K resolution.

The only Xcode benchmark mentioned is that the Mac Studio with M4 Max is 2.1× faster than with M1 Max, so perhaps it doesn’t scale as well as other tasks.

Joe Rossignol:

This is the first Mac Studio refresh since it was updated with M2 Max and M2 Ultra chip options in June 2023.

The overall design of the Mac Studio has not changed.

Jason Snell:

It seems like a few things are going on here: first, that the development of the Ultra chip takes longer and that Apple won’t commit to shipping an Ultra chip in every chip generation. Second, that the first-generation three-nanometer chip process of Apple’s chipmaking partner, TSMC, isn’t as dead and buried as generally thought. Just this week Apple also introduced an iPad Air with an M3 processor, and of course the new iPad mini shipped with an A17 Pro processor based on the same process.

[…]

Though the prices for the two base models remain the same at $1999 and $3999, there’s one wrinkle: more memory. The M4 Max Mac Studio starts at 36GB of RAM, up from 32GB on the same-priced M2 Max model. And the M3 Ultra Mac Studio starts at 96GB, up from 64GB on the same-priced M2 Ultra.

Previously:

Apple M3 Ultra

Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors):

M3 Ultra is built using Apple’s innovative UltraFusion packaging architecture, which links two M3 Max dies over 10,000 high-speed connections that offer low latency and high bandwidth. This allows the system to treat the combined dies as a single, unified chip for massive performance while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading power efficiency. UltraFusion brings together a total of 184 billion transistors to take the industry-leading capabilities of the new Mac Studio to new heights.

[…]

It features up to a 32-core CPU with 24 performance cores and eight efficiency cores, delivering up to 1.5x the performance of M2 Ultra, and up to 1.8x that of M1 Ultra. It also has the largest GPU in any Apple chip, with up to 80 graphics cores that bring up to 2x faster performance than M2 Ultra, and up to 2.6x faster than M1 Ultra.

[…]

The unified memory architecture of M3 Ultra integrates the most high-bandwidth, low-latency memory ever available in a personal computer. Starting at 96GB, it can be configured up to 512GB, or over half a terabyte.

Previously:

MacBook Air 2025

Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors, ArsTechnica):

Apple today announced the new MacBook Air, featuring the blazing-fast performance of the M4 chip, up to 18 hours of battery life, a new 12MP Center Stage camera, and a lower starting price. It also offers support for up to two external displays in addition to the built-in display, 16GB of starting unified memory, and the incredible capabilities of macOS Sequoia with Apple Intelligence — all packed into its strikingly thin and light design that’s built to last. The new MacBook Air now comes in an all-new color — sky blue, a metallic light blue that joins midnight, starlight, and silver — giving MacBook Air its most beautiful array of colors ever. It also now starts at just $999 — $100 less than before — and $899 for education, making it an incredible value for students, business professionals, or anyone looking for a phenomenal combination of world-class performance, portability, design, and durability.

The previous model started with only 8 GB of memory and went up to 24 GB. Between the RAM increase and the price decrease, the base model is much better than before. Upgrading to 32 GB of memory costs $400, though, and of course the SSD prices are still outrageous.

Howard Oakley:

In Apple’s current M4 models, the smallest internal storage on offer is 256 GB. For the great majority, that’s barely adequate if you don’t install any of your own apps.

[…]

Don’t be tempted to skimp with a USB 3.2 Gen 2 external SSD if that’s going to be your main storage. While it might seem a reasonable economy now, in 3-5 years time you’ll regret it. Besides, it may well have severe limitations in not Trimming as standard, and most don’t support SMART health indicators.

Thus, your expected saving by buying a Mac with only 512 GB internal storage, and providing 2 TB main storage on an external [Thunderbolt] SSD, is around $/€/£ 200-220, and that’s really the only advantage in not paying Apple’s high price for an internal 2 TB SSD.

Using an external boot drive just doesn’t work very well these days, in my experience, especially with a laptop and if you want to put the Mac to sleep. On the other hand, if you mostly need the storage for a media library, USB is fine and much less expensive. A 2 TB Samsung T7 is currently only $130 vs. $800 for Apple’s 2 TB upgrade.

Many noticed rapid changes in their SSD wear indicators, and some were getting worryingly close to the end of their expected working life after just three years. Users also reported that SSD performance was falling. The reasons for those are that SSDs work best, age slowest, and remain fastest when they have ample free space. One common rule of thumb is to keep at least 20-25% of SSD capacity as free space, although evidence is largely empirical, and in places confused.

Jason Snell:

The M4 also completely unlocks a feature that some MacBook Air fans have been clamoring for since the Apple silicon era began: The ability to drive two external displays and its own display, simultaneously.

[…]

A big quality-of-life upgrade in this model is the addition of a new 12-megapixel camera that supports Center Stage. These specs are identical to those found in the recently upgraded M4 iMac and M4 MacBook Pro. If this upgrade is anything like those, it’ll be a major improvement.

Christian Selig:

New MacBook Airs look great but Apple really needs to R&D the tech to add an extra USB-C port so you can charge from either side

Basic Apple Guy:

The Apple Color Czar needs to get Apple’s Blue Accessory Department under control. 11 current products, all with different blues…

Previously:

Leitmotif Acquires Taska

Florian Albrecht:

Taska is a beautiful and versatile Mac native app for issue tracking.

Since working on issues typically is a team effort, it’s not an isolated or proprietary app. Instead, it acts as a frontend to the popular services GitHub and GitLab, maintaining full compatibility with other users of those services, whether they are using Taska or not.

[…]

We are celebrating our acquisition of Taska by providing 50% on all our products. We even set up a promotion page for that.

Zac Hall:

The app is available as a free download from the Mac App Store with a 14-day free trial and an unlimited read-only mode. Users can purchase the full app for a single $119.99 charge, or subscribe annually for $39.99/year.

Previously:

Tuesday, March 4, 2025

iPad Air (M3, 7th Generation)

Apple (Hacker News):

iPad Air with M3 empowers users to be productive and creative wherever they are, from aspiring creatives using demanding apps and working with large files, to travelers editing content on the go. The powerful M3 chip offers a number of improvements over M1 and previous-generation models. Featuring a more powerful 8-core CPU, M3 is up to 35 percent faster for multithreaded CPU workflows than iPad Air with M1.

Though note that the model it replaces had an M2.

Joe Rossignol:

With the M3 chip, the new iPad Air should offer up to 20% faster performance compared to the previous-generation model with the M2 chip, which was released in May 2024. In addition, the M3 chip brings hardware-accelerated ray tracing to the iPad Air for the first time, providing improved graphics rendering in games.

[…]

We have yet to discover any other changes for the new iPad Air beyond the M3 chip and the updated Magic Keyboard.

[…]

In the U.S., the 11-inch model continues to start at $599, and the 13-inch model continues to start at $799. The device remains available in the same Space Gray, Starlight, Blue, and Purple color options that were offered for the previous model.

Dan Moren:

It’s definitely a muted update, which is no surprise as it comes just nine months after the introduction of the M2 iPad Air last May. The use of the M3 processor is also somewhat surprising, given that it’s based on an outdated manufacturing process that Apple has otherwise been aggressive about transitioning away from on the rest of its product line.

Matt Birchler:

My Mac does everything I could imagine, so when you show me a Mac that looks exactly like what I already have but is way faster, then I go “hell yeah, gimme that!” But when you show me a faster iPad, I largely go, “well, speed isn’t what I feel holds me back on the iPad, it’s the software.” My evidence is literally every iPad review in the past 10 years.

Hartley Charlton:

The new keyboard features a larger built-in trackpad, a 14-key function row, and a new aluminum hinge.

Devon Dundee:

It’s great to see these features from the iPad Pro’s Magic Keyboard make their way to the iPad Air. At the same time, the Air version does include some compromises, most notably its omission of backlit keys. It also lacks the aluminum palm rest and trackpad haptic feedback found on the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, and it only comes in a single color option: white.

The iPad Air’s Magic Keyboard is marginally cheaper than the iPad Pro version (and the Magic Keyboard for last year’s iPad Air), costing $30 less at $269 for the 11-inch version and $319 for the 13-inch version.

Previously:

Update (2025-03-05): John Gruber:

$269 feels like a crummy deal. The new-from-last-year $299 Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, with an aluminum top, feels way more than $30 better than the old-style silicone-covered ones like this new Magic Keyboard for iPad Air. It kind of feels like a design failure of some sort that these new iPad Airs can’t use the same Magic Keyboards as the iPad Pros of the same size.

iPad (11th Generation)

Apple:

Apple today also updated iPad with double the starting storage and the A16 chip, bringing even more value to customers. The A16 chip provides a jump in performance for everyday tasks and experiences in iPadOS, while still providing all-day battery life. Compared to the previous generation, the updated iPad with A16 is nearly 30 percent faster.

Hartley Charlton:

The new iPad starts with 128GB of storage, and is also available in 256GB and a new 512GB configuration. The previous model was only available in 64GB and 256GB configurations.

It is available in blue, pink, yellow, and silver, and continues to start at $349.

Craig Grannell:

Given how important Apple Intelligence seemingly is to Apple, I’m floored that the new iPad doesn’t support it. Baffling.

Adam Engst:

Frankly, I can’t see that many people with functional iPads purchased in the last four or five years will benefit greatly from upgrading to a newer model. Either their current iPad still works well enough, or performance issues will push them towards the iPad Air.

However, as an affordable entry point to the lineup, the 11th-generation iPad becomes even more appealing with the A16 chip and 128 GB of storage (up from 64 GB) for the $349 base model.

[…]

Although the screen size has not changed—it still measures 9.79-by-7.07 inches, with a 2360-by-1640-pixel resolution at 264 ppi—Apple is now referring to it as “11-inch” instead of “10.9-inch.”

Previously:

Premium Hardware, Subpar Software

Eliseo Martelli (via Hacker News, Reddit):

As a long-time Apple user, I’ve always appreciated the integration of hardware and software, signature of the Apple ecosystem. However, recent experiences with my iPad Air 11" M2 has left me questioning whether Apple has lost sight of what once made their products great.

[…]

The performance issues don’t stop at sluggish response times. During these use cases, my iPad overheated, making it uncomfortable to hold or even rest the palm on, raising concerns about potential long-term hardware damage.

What made this particularly frustrating is that these aren’t third-party applications pushing the hardware to its limits. These are Apple’s own applications that should be theoretically optimized for their hardware.

[…]

Since my original complaint, I’ve discovered numerous forum threads and social media discussions from iPad users experiencing similar issues. This suggests a systemic problem rather than isolated incidents.

Francisco Tolmasky:

This is such a funny way of saying

“The Apple Store’s first and only troubleshooting step for Apple Notes being slow on my iPad was to give me a brand new iPad, but Notes just overheated that iPad too, so we realized that Notes is just crap.”

yalok:

This has been going on for years. I used to do a lot of iOS development, and have an eye for bugs. Almost every Apple app/service has been regressing in quality.

Take basic functionality - a phone app (calling). After certain audio sessions use (calling via WhatsApp) I can’t make regular calls over cellular - the UI app immediately cancels the call. Only reboot helps.

Or notes - for many years/iOS versions, they lived with a bug where a text note may just become blank - and only restarting Notes app makes it visible again.

Or AppStore - if an app has to be updated (I have auto updates off) - and I press Update - it gets downloaded, installed - and then AppStore is back to showing “Update” button! If you just go to the app, it’s a new version. But if you press that “Update”, it will redo update from scratch.

Sometimes I’m so frustrated, and thinking of my options - it’s either move to Android, or go get hired at Apple with a mandate to fix bugs in various products… but knowing Apple secrecy culture/silos, it’s not going to work, and requires change in their hiring process/perf review/QA.

RIPreason:

Chamath’s new iPhone bricks constantly and he has difficulty performing basic functions like calling his wife.

In 2024, the way to get bugs fixed on an iPhone is to be a billionaire and rant about it in a top podcast.

[…]

I disagree with Chamath about the problem. The problem is not due to a lack of testing, but a bloated culture infected with careerism and empire-building. And unfortunately, nobody climbs the ladder for shipping quality. You can’t point to quality like you can point to the useless new button they added, or the touchbar, etc.

Dave B.:

Apple used to be a UX company. The entire foundation of the company was “How can man interact with machine to improve all our lives?” and that was done via intuitive software and clever hardware input mechanisms. Supply chain, marketing, and even engineering were all done in service of that goal.

Today, that has utterly flipped.

Design and UX feel like they’re just a department off to the side somewhere, while the crux of the company’s existence is “How can we build efficient supply chains and sell many SKUs via effective marketing?”

Previously:

Linus Sebastian Switches to iPhone for 30 Days

Linus Tech Tips:

Linus takes a long-overdue trip back into the iOS ecosystem. Will daily-driving a shiny new iPhone 16 Plus for an entire month convert him into Apple’s newest fan?

[…]

“I started to look a little differently at the Apple users in my life. They describe Apple products with market slogans like, ‘It just works,’ as though they actually believe them. And it made me wonder does Apple have one version of their products for the True Believers and then a different one for the scrubs like me? Because my time with the iPhone 16 plus has been absolutely riddled with unintuitive design choices unnecessarily limited functionality and some of the weirdest bugs that I’ve have encountered on a supposedly finished product[…]”

Via John Gruber (Mastodon):

Sebastian is a long-time Android user, but he’s not really a phone guy at all. He doesn’t review phones, typically. His own personal Android phone is several years old. His interest and renown is entirely in the field of PCs. So his video isn’t really “Android power user reviews iOS”, but more like “PC power user who is also an Android user tries an iPhone for a month”.

[…]

He complains repeatedly about iOS’s animated transitions making everything feel slow. That’s 100 percent true. As an everyday iPhone user I’m just completely used to that. But those animations really do make iPhones feel slower than they are. In terms of tech specs iPhones are literally the fastest phones on the planet. Apple’s A-series silicon is, and always has been, years ahead of the best silicon money can buy in an Android handset. But a lot of aspects of iOS feel slower than Android because of animated transitions for which iOS offers no option to speed up. It should. And the Accessibility setting to completely turn off animations doesn’t solve the problem; what I want, and I think what Sebastian wants, is faster animations.

[…]

Again, it didn’t leave me with an iota of envy for life on the Android side of the fence, but it reminded me about a bunch of things on iOS that don’t make sense, and seemingly are the way they are only because that’s how they always have been.

Kirk McElhearn:

When was the last time Apple used the phrase “It just works” in marketing? More than a decade ago? If anything, people used that to Mark Apple. Citing that as an apple marketing term it’s just wrong. It’s more a meme than anything else now.

I recently set up a brand new iPad for my father, and we ran into a dozen or so bugs just between plugging it in and getting the built-in apps working. (The impetus for the iPad was that he needed a backup device for travel because Mail on his iPhone was unreliable. Messages were displayed incompletely, and after trying to fix this by deleting and re-adding the account, he was unable to re-add it because the settings screen kept going blank. Webmail in Safari didn’t fully work because the screen was too small. Eventually Mail did re-add the account but would only load a few of the mailboxes, until a month later when everything suddenly worked again.)

Anyway, with the iPad, the first problem was that the proximity pairing to copy the settings from his iPhone didn’t work. The iPad offered it, but then it wouldn’t actually start the process. We finally had to cancel, and then no amount of waving the devices together would get it offer the option again.

In configuring the settings manually, a variety of buttons just didn’t respond. Some controls that were supposed to be enabled weren’t. The account setup sheet in Mail kept spontaneously closing, and then we would have to re-open it and type in everything again. App icons wouldn’t drag out of the search onto the home screen. Various iCloud services would neither sync nor show why they weren’t syncing and then spontaneously turned themselves off. It took several hours to activate the cellular service. On the plus side, Safari is really really fast compared with his Intel MacBook Air, and the AT&T plan is only $21/month for unlimited data.

The old 1Password stopped Dropbox-syncing on his iPhone and couldn’t be installed on the iPad, so this seemed like a good time to switch to Apple’s password manager. The MacBook Air can’t run Sequoia, so the Passwords app is unavailable, but we were able to update it to Sonoma, which has the password manager in Safari’s Settings. Right after updating, the Mac kept getting stuck at the login screen: it would accept the password but then sort of half-reboot and end up at the login screen again. After four cycles of this it just started working.

In order to use the latest importer, I set up temporary account on a Sequoia Mac to import from 1Password to the Passwords app. It reported lots of errors because of items that didn’t have the URL entered properly and because sometimes there were multiple accounts for the same site. There was no way to copy or export the list of errors to go back to 1Password and fix them. I wish it had just imported everything, sticking any unknown or error information into the notes, so that I could fix it up later in the Passwords app. Instead, I had to keep going to 1Password to fix things and retrying the export until all the errors were fixed. Then I realized that the 1Password CSV export doesn’t include the notes, so I copied and pasted those individually via screen sharing. We also backed up all the 1Password stuff to a giant PDF in case it turns out that something didn’t import properly.

The next problem was that Photos on the Mac wouldn’t sync with iCloud. It would just say “Syncing with iCloud paused. Mac needs to cool down.” I don’t know what that means or what I was meant to do. The MacBook Air was plugged in and did not seem to be overheated—the fan was not running, and Activity Monitor did not show high CPU use. Why would syncing cause overheating, anyway? Isn’t that primarily a network task?

Lastly, we ran into trouble seeing up a new flash drive for Time Machine. The drive came formatted for Windows. I thought macOS used to offer to use a newly attached drive for Time Machine, but it didn't. There was no option to erase it as APFS. I was able to format it as HFS+, but Disk Utility’s Convert to APFS command kept failing with an error. Eventually I remembered that you have to use View ‣ Show All Devices before you can change the partition scheme from Master Boot Record to GUID Partition Map. Then I was able to Erase it as APFS.

The final part of the story is that, some days later, his iPhone updated to the latest version of iOS. Mail auto-enabled the new categories feature, and he was completely confused as to why the number of messages shown in each mailbox was suddenly different and couldn’t figure out how to get it to show all the messages. I was able to explain how to swipe sideways to show the hidden All Messages button. But I was confused myself because I thought this was an Apple Intelligence feature and so it was only available on iPhone 15 Pro and later, not on an iPhone SE.

Previously:

Monday, March 3, 2025

Citibank’s $81 Trillion Error

Doloresz Katanich:

An error almost led to a Citigroup account being credited with $81tn (€77.8tn) - an amount that is about 5 times the total wealth of the UK, which was estimated at €14.7tn in 2023 by ONS.

[…]

The erroneous internal transfer, which occurred last April, was initially missed by two employees, one of whom was assigned to check the transaction.

[…]

The first employee had to go through a rarely-used back-up screen following another system’s fault to send $280 (€269) to a client’s account. One quirk of the rarely-used screen was that the amount field came pre-filled with 15 zeros, something that would have to be deleted but that did not happen[…]

Pre-filling the field sounds like such a terrible design that wouldn’t happen by accident, so there must be an interesting reason why that was done.

Stephen Gandel and Joshua Franklin:

A third employee detected a problem with the bank’s account balances, catching the payment 90 minutes after it was posted.

[…]

The bank said its “detective controls promptly identified the inputting error between two Citi ledger accounts and we reversed the entry” and that these mechanisms “would have also stopped any funds leaving the bank”.

[…]

A total of 10 near misses — incidents when a bank processes the wrong amount but is ultimately able to recover the funds — of $1bn or greater occurred at Citi last year, according to an internal report seen by the FT.

In the financial world, fractions of a second matter, but somehow 90 minutes after the fact is considered prompt. A good Mac app will preemptively warn the user if they do something that’s probably an error, like try to open 100 documents at a time. The G-SIB’s “detective controls” sound like the equivalent of killing the process after it’s used up all the RAM but before it brings down the whole machine. OK, that’s a good thing, but there’s really no input validation or sanity checking earlier in the process? I suppose that’s not actually necessary when there are legal means of undo.

Previously:

Swift 6.1

Mishal Shah:

This post describes the release process, and estimated schedule for Swift 6.1.

Donny Wals:

The Xcode 16.3 beta is out, which includes a new version of Swift. Swift 6.1 is a relatively small release that comes with bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and some features.

[…]

Starting in Swift 6.1, Apple has made it so that we no longer have to explicitly define the return type for our child tasks. Instead, Swift can infer the return type of child tasks based on the first task that we add to the group.

[…]

However, it’s kind of strange in a way that the compiler is using an extension on Int that’s defined in a module that I didn’t even import in this specific file.

[…]

In Swift 6.1, we can opt into a new member visibility mode. This member visibility mode is going to work a little bit more like you might expect.

Matt Massicotte:

I really like proposals that make things work more intuitively. What this one does is expand the use of nonisolated so you can better control global isolation inference.

[…]

I completely missed this one when it was pitched! It’s just a great little quality-of-life improvement for the with*TaskGroup family of APIs.

[…]

Another area that has seen attention is around the sending keyword. There were a number of situations where the compiler was too conservative with sending and 6.1 has gotten a lot better!

Previously:

StopTheMadness for Safari Web Apps?

Jeff Johnson:

There’s now a Safari web extension version of Noir specifically for Safari web apps, in addition to the Safari app extension version of Noir for Safari. Of course, this solution is non-ideal, because it’s confusing to users, and you’ll notice in the above screenshot that Noir for Web Apps has to warn users—with red exclamation points!—not to enable it for regular Safari. You don’t want two different versions of the same extension running simultaneously in Safari.

[…]

In theory, I could follow Noir in creating a Safari web extension version of StopTheMadness specifically for Safari web apps on macOS. The question is, should I, and why? The project would be a lot of work, which I’m not opposed to, but the work needs to be worth it. Some StopTheMadness customers have requested Safari web apps support, but not a lot of customers so far.

Besides the work involved, another problem is that Safari web apps are… weird. They have no address bar. They have no tabs. They lack some of the standard contextual menu items. They open cross-origin links in Safari rather than in the web app—unless you select Open Link in New Window! In general, the weirdness of Safari web extensions would break some of the crucial features of StopTheMadness, such as protecting ⌘-click to open links in a new tab, the Tab Rules, and the contextual menu options.

Previously:

2024 Apple Vision Accessibility Report Card

AppleVis:

Overall, survey participants expressed satisfaction with the VoiceOver features available on iOS. Several participants expressed a desire for deeper AI integration for functionality like image description, photo labeling, voices, and screen recognition. Multiple participants expressed dissatisfaction with the VoiceOver features available on macOS, particularly when compared to iOS. People who use devices in languages other than English reported particular issues with VoiceOver unique to their language. Multiple participants expressed a desire for Apple to prioritize fixing existing bugs before introducing new features.

[…]

As with the comments on VoiceOver features, participants spoke most favorably about the VoiceOver user experience on iOS; however, long-standing bugs, like the issue with focus jumping, remain and detract.

[…]

Apple received high praise from participants for the new Braille Screen Input features introduced in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. Several participants reported issues with the cursor jumping when using a braille display, and others reported issues when using particular displays and concerns about overall ease-of-use of braille display functionality.

[…]

While opinions on the utility of the new accessibility features introduced in 2024 were not universal, a large number of users praised Apple's efforts in this regard. In particular, participants expressed appreciation for the improvements to Braille Screen Input (including Command Mode); Live Recognition; the Voices Rotor; the customizable Commanders in macOS; Audio Ducking enhancements; and the VoiceOver Tutorial on iOS. Some users reported difficulty using the Vocal Shortcuts feature. Some expressed that VoiceOver is stagnating, while others expressed a wish for Apple to prioritize fixing bugs and existing features before implementing new ones. Multiple participants expressed a desire for Apple to improve image descriptions using artificial intelligence.

Previously:

Friday, February 28, 2025

Mozilla Changes Firefox Terms of Use

Asif Youssuff (Hacker News):

On Wednesday, Mozilla introduced legal updates to users of Firefox, and something feels off. I read, and re-read the new Terms of Use and while much of it reads like standard boilerplate from any tech company, there’s a new section that is unexpected:

When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox.

The community has also zeroed in on this phrase, with contributors asking directly what up with that?

[…]

Ultimately, Microsoft specifically disclaims ownership of your content - something Mozilla does not do.

Mozilla (Hacker News):

When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox.

Ajit Varma:

We’ve seen a little confusion about the language regarding licenses, so we want to clear that up. We need a license to allow us to make some of the basic functionality of Firefox possible. Without it, we couldn’t use information typed into Firefox, for example. It does NOT give us ownership of your data or a right to use it for anything other than what is described in the Privacy Notice.

Then why didn’t it say that or specifically limit how they can use the content?

In addition to the Terms of Use, we are providing a more detailed explanation of our data practices in our updated Privacy Notice.

This is the same thing Adobe did. It’s not great to put the key information in what is essentially a FAQ that doesn’t seem as legally binding as a ToS. And the clarification says that they can only use the data as described in the Privacy Notice, while the actual Terms of Service say that that Mozilla gets “all rights necessary” including using it as described in the Privacy Notice. So it seems like the Privacy Notice cannot constrain their behavior, but they want us to think it does.

Alex Kontos (Hacker News):

This situation reveals a recurring issue in how Mozilla communicates with its user base. I believe this represents a fundamental disconnect in communication strategy. Internally at Mozilla, I’m certain there were extensive discussions, agreements, disagreements, and careful consideration about how to phrase and present these changes. The team likely developed a clear understanding of the what, where, and why behind these policy updates.

However, when it came time to present this information to users, Mozilla seems to have forgotten that we—the external community—were not privy to those internal discussions. Critical context, nuance, and rationale that informed their decision-making process were missing from the initial announcement. What may have seemed perfectly clear to those inside Mozilla appeared ambiguous and concerning to those of us on the outside.

David Gerard (via Dave Rahardja, Hacker News):

New Mozilla TOS diff. This is what they just removed:

* Does Firefox sell your personal data?

Nope. Never have, never will. And we protect you from many of the advertisers who do. Firefox products are designed to protect your privacy. That’s a promise.

The purpose of the new TOS appears to be to enable them to do this - such as for their advertising and AI sidelines.

Vlad Prelovac:

There are only two business models on the web - either you pay with your data/attention or you pay with your wallet.

Previously:

Update (2025-03-03): Peter N Lewis:

if the previous terms that were mutually agreed with include “never will”, then it seems unclear how they can now change that. They can introduce a new agreement, but can then unintroduce the old agreement?

I guess they could sell only information collected after the introduction of the new agreement.

Stevie Bonifield (Hacker News):

Firefox users are also concerned about what exactly Mozilla could do with their data within the somewhat vague bounds of “a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license.” The most obvious possible explanation is some sort of AI feature for Firefox. For AI to function well, it needs to consume huge amounts of training data, and that data has to come from somewhere.

Jay Peters:

Mozilla is revising its new Terms of Use for Firefox introduced on Wednesday following criticisms over language that seemed to give the company broad ownership over user data. With the change, “we’re updating the language to more clearly reflect the limited scope of how Mozilla interacts with user data,” the company says in a Friday post.

[…]

Friday’s post additionally provides some context about why the company has “stepped away from making blanket claims that ‘We never sell your data.’” Mozilla says that “in some places, the LEGAL definition of ‘sale of data’ is broad and evolving,”and that “the competing interpretations of do-not-sell requirements does leave many businesses uncertain about their exact obligations and whether or not they’re considered to be ‘selling data.’”

Liam Proven and Thomas Claburn (Hacker News):

Varma said its contractual language has been updated in an effort to assuage concerns. For one thing, it now states “this does not give Mozilla any ownership” of the data you put into Firefox to use it.

While much of the confusion can be written off as an unforced error in communication – legalese is often misunderstood – the developer’s privacy commitment has changed, in its wording at least. The answer to “what is Firefox?” on Mozilla’s FAQ page about its browser used to read:

The Firefox Browser is the only major browser backed by a not-for-profit that doesn’t sell your personal data to advertisers while helping you protect your personal information.

Now it just says:

The Firefox Browser, the only major browser backed by a not-for-profit, helps you protect your personal information.

Jeff Johnson:

Mozilla has failed to pay its bills.

sylvestre:

Please don’t read too much into this ;) We moved from self-hosted Discourse to hosted Discourse. The transfer was initiated late from the Mozilla side (my bad) and the automatic system from Discourse kicked in.

See also: Louis Rossmann (Hacker News).

Microsoft Shutting Down Skype

Tom Warren (9to5Mac, Hacker News, Slashdot):

Microsoft is shutting down Skype in May and replacing it with the free version of Microsoft Teams for consumers. Existing Skype users will be able to log in to the Microsoft Teams app and have their message history, group chats, and contacts all automatically available without having to create another account, or they can choose to export their data instead. Microsoft is also phasing out support for calling domestic or international numbers.

From my perspective, that was the most useful part of Skype.

Zac Bowden:

Skype first launched in 2003 and was a very popular VOIP messaging platform in its heyday.

Dan Moren:

But there was a time when Skype was a revolution: free, good sounding voice calls across the Internet. Not to mention the ability to make cheap actual phone calls internationally, in a day and age when that was usually ridiculously expensive.

Hartley Charlton:

Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion in what was then its largest-ever acquisition. At its peak, Skype had more than 300 million monthly active users and was synonymous with internet-based voice and video calling. The service steadily declined in relevance in recent years, with its active user base shrinking to approximately 36 million by 2023 as competitors such as Zoom, WhatsApp, and Microsoft’s own Teams platform gained traction.

Teams has since grown to 320 million monthly users, far surpassing Skype’s remaining user base. The company’s decision to discontinue Skype is apparently part of a broader effort to prioritize artificial intelligence features within Teams.

Dare Obasanjo:

Skype was a victim of Microsoft’s focus on Windows to the detriment of every other platform and a culture of mismanaging acquisitions under Steve Ballmer.

It was a great product in its heyday but that hasn’t been the case in over a decade.

Christina Warren:

The best part of Skype (RIP) was Ecamm’s Call Recorder plugin (also RIP) that was not only good for podcasting for YEARS but was a great way to record your phone calls if you used a Skype-out number. When I was a journalist, it was so useful.

Om Malik:

It makes me incredibly sad, but I am not surprised. The writing was on the wall. Skype has been dying a slow death for a long time. As far back as 2018, it was obvious what lay in store. At the time, I wrote about the great Skype vanishing.

[…]

Microsoft now talks about Teams being their focus, showing that even today they haven’t realized what made Skype a cultural, consumer force. Microsoft Teams is a terrible product — and I dread using it. In simplest terms, Teams is a perfect encapsulation of a bureaucratic, archaic, and outdated 50-year-old company that is trying to reinvent itself as an AI leader.

Previously:

Update (2025-03-03): Adam Engst:

Microsoft wants Skype users to transition to Microsoft Teams, but it remains unclear if Teams will fulfill all the functions for which people used Skype, such as calling landlines and cell phones from an app. If you’re still using Skype, how do you plan to replace it?

John Gruber:

The writing has been on the wall for a long time that Skype was no longer strategic for Microsoft. Really, even right after the acquisition, it never seemed Microsoft had any sort of plan for what to do with Skype — even though, at the time, it was their largest-ever acquisition.

But man, for a long while, Skype was singularly amazing, offering high-quality / low-latency audio calls at a time when everything else seemed low-quality / high-latency.

iOS Declared Age Range API

Sarah Perez:

Apple on Thursday announced a range of new initiatives designed to help parents and developers create a safer experience for kids and teens using Apple devices. In addition to easier setup of child accounts, parents will now be able to share information about their kids’ ages, which can then be accessed by app developers to provide age-appropriate content. The App Store will also introduce a new set of age ratings that give developers and App Store users alike a more granular understanding of an app’s appropriateness for a given age range.

[…]

Nine U.S. states, including Utah and South Carolina, have recently proposed bills that would require app store operators like Apple to check kids’ ages in order to get parental consent before minors can download apps, for instance.

[…]

Several of the changes for child accounts are available in the public beta of iOS 18.4, out now. The ability to make updates to the age of a child account after it’s already created, as well as the Declared Age Range API, Age Ratings and App Store updates will be available later this year, Apple says.

I think this makes sense. It’s not clear to me whether Apple is just getting ahead of legislation or sort of had a change of heart. It still kind of sets up a strawman in describing its reluctance.

Nick Heer:

The company is developing a habit of sending PDF links directly to media outlets to circulate.

[…]

This is a direct response to a proposed U.S. law that would require Apple — and Google — to verify ages at the App Store level; it says its solution is an effective alternative. It may well be, but I do not buy this line of argument. It could, for example, wait to verify a user’s age until they attempt to download an app where it would be needed. Also, while Apple’s own data collection would be minimized by hypothetically offloading that responsibility onto third-parties, it would increase the number of copies of this sensitive information floating around.

Dan Moren:

There’s still a lot of work to be done, however. As the father of a two-year-old who gets only limited and controlled access to an iPad, I’ve run into numerous frustrations trying to both maintain appropriate security practices and let me conveniently manage the device. There are also numerous issues with critical features like Screen Time, which suffers from both inaccuracies in its measurements as well as methods for circumvention.

Previously:

Lawsuit Over Apple Watch Carbon Offsets

Jonathan Stempel (MacRumors, 9to5Mac):

Apple has been sued by consumers who said its claim that three versions of Apple Watches are “carbon neutral” and environmentally friendly is false and misleading.

[…]

Apple, also known for the iPhone, launched the watches in September 2023, saying they would be carbon neutral through a combination of lower emissions and purchases of carbon offsets.

[…]

“In both cases, the carbon reductions would have occurred regardless of Apple’s involvement or the projects’ existence,” the complaint said. “Because Apple’s carbon neutrality claims are predicated on the efficacy and legitimacy of these projects, Apple’s carbon neutrality claims are false and misleading.”

I doubt that large numbers of people wouldn’t have purchased Apple Watches without them being carbon neutral, but I guess this is the easiest legal route to try to hold a company to account for (alleged) misleading advertising claims.

Benjamin Turner:

for me it came down to the realization of what apple was saying about the environment versus what they were doing locking down devices through software and hardware pairing that ultimately juices the circulation of ewaste

Previously:

Thursday, February 27, 2025

Xcode Spell Checking

Jesse Squires:

Did you know that Xcode can spell check your code and comments? Based on my experience working on large teams and large Xcode projects, this is a little-known feature. I routinely find spelling errors, not only in code comments but in symbol names. For the latter, this is particularly frustrating when a misspelled symbol is widely used because correcting that error — a rename that affects a substantial portion of the codebase — produces a large diff.

[…]

In Xcode, you can enable spelling from the Edit menu, Edit > Format > Spelling and Grammar > Check Spelling While Typing. Just like a typical word processor, Xcode will helpfully underline misspelled words and offer to apply corrections.

Even better, Xcode understands variable names and will correctly identify errors in camelCase, snake_case, and other common identifier formats.

A good reminder. I think I used to have this enabled, and then it got turned off, and then I forgot Xcode could check spelling because the option isn’t in the contextual menu like in most apps.

It seems to ignore single-letter prefixes and some multi-letter ones like rw, but it doesn’t like ns or most Hungarian notation.

nRootTag

Nathan Kahl (post, Hacker News, MacRumors):

George Mason University researchers recently uncovered a way for hackers to track the location of nearly any computer or mobile device. Named “nRootTag” by the team, the attack uses a device’s Bluetooth address combined with Apple’s Find My network to essentially turn target devices into unwitting homing beacons.

“It’s like transforming any laptop, phone, or even gaming console into an Apple AirTag - without the owner ever realizing it,” said Junming Chen, lead author of the study. “And the hacker can do it all remotely, from thousands of miles away, with just a few dollars.”

The team of Qiang Zeng and Lannan Luo—both associate professors in the Department of Computer Science—and PhD students Chen and Xiaoyue Ma found the attack works by tricking Apple’s Find My network into thinking the target device is a lost AirTag. AirTag sends Bluetooth messages to nearby Apple devices, which then anonymously relay its location via Apple Cloud to the owner for tracking. Their attack method can turn a device—whether it’s a desktop, smartphone, or IoT device—into an “AirTag” without Apple’s permission, at which point the network begins tracking.

Via Filipe Espósito:

The researchers informed Apple about the exploit in July 2024 and recommended that the company update its Find My network to better verify Bluetooth devices. Although the company has publicly acknowledged the support of the George Mason team in discovering the exploit, Apple is yet to fix it (and hasn’t provided details of how it will do so).

The researchers warn that a true fix “may take years to roll out,” since even after Apple releases a new software update that fixes the exploit, not everyone will update their devices immediately. For now, they advise users to never allow unnecessary access to the device’s Bluetooth when requested by apps, and of course, always keep their device’s software updated.

Previously:

Update (2025-03-03): Dan Goodin:

But it isn’t until page 5 of the research paper that we learn the attack requires the successful infection of one device if it’s running Linux and two devices when running Android or Windows.

So unless I’m missing something, this attack is only an iterative development. An attacker could already track infected devices connected to the Internet pretty accurately if they had location services turned on, and even if not, an IP address could give a rough approximation. All that’s new here is the abuse of Apple Find My to make tracking more accurate and allow it to occur even when the infected device isn’t connected to the Internet.

That last part still seems like a big deal to me.

The Tyranny of Apps

Rupert Jones (Hacker News):

Apps have burrowed their way into seemingly every aspect of our lives and there are lots of reasons why companies are pushing us to use them. With an app, it is often “one click and you’re in”, rather than having to faff around online finding the website and remembering passwords. It is also for the “push notifications” that mobile apps send to grab our attention and get us to buy stuff. Many tech experts also argue that apps are generally more secure than websites and allow banks and others to carry out sophisticated ID verification using face, voice and fingerprint biometrics.

But millions of people who cannot afford a smartphone or have an older device that does not support some services are increasingly being locked out of deals, discounts and even some vital services, say digital exclusion and pro-cash campaigners.

They are missing out on everything from savings on their weekly shop, to some of the best interest rates for their cash. And not signing up to the app revolution is making activities including paying for parking and going to concerts increasingly challenging.

I do have a smartphone, so I can run the apps, but I don’t like it when they could have just been Web sites. Having a large number of these limited-use apps takes up a lot of space: in phone storage, on the home screen, and in the App Store’s list of updated apps. Sometimes an app will have lower quality images/maps than the Web site or will refuse to function, right when you need it, unless you install an update. They’re often less reliable, worse at remembering logins, or require an e-mail magic link dance.

Apple:

Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the world’s top food publishers, including Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats.

With the new Food feature, users will be able to find stories curated by Apple News editors, as well as browse, search, and filter tens of thousands of recipes in the Recipe Catalog — with new recipes added every day.

I think Apple News would have a better user experience with a Web site and an RSS feed than as an app.

Previously:

Update (2025-02-28): Nick Heer:

If you do not have enough money for a smartphone, you might be locked out of discounts for basic goods. My local supermarket is currently offering a dollar off eggs if I use my personalized coupon — but it is only available in the app.

Even for those of us with smartphones — a majority of people in Canada in all under-75 age groups, for example — we might not want to install software to get grocery coupons or park their car. These apps are often clunky experience, and seem to usually be a website in an app wrapper. Web apps are not treated as mainstream citizens on iOS, in particular, so these bad apps are all we get.

Nick Heer:

Apple News is not only a mediocre app experience, but its existence also causes regressions on the open web.

Stories in Apple News have a permalink, like anything else on the web. However, unlike just about any link you have seen from a mainstream publication for the past, say, twenty years, these links are inscrutable. Instead of being in a format containing the source of an article and its title, all Apple News permalinks are something like https://apple.news/Ayls8UZCzQnWfFNRugL3tPA.

[…]

In MacOS browsers, I am prompted to open Apple News to view the article; if I decline, I have no next steps.

Update (2025-03-04): P. Martin Ortiz:

The smartphone boom changed everything. Suddenly, apps were everywhere, connecting people, solving problems, and entertaining us. But for a while now, they’ve started to feel more like a burden than a blessing. In today’s web-first world, most native apps feel redundant, cluttering our phones unnecessarily. With how far modern web technologies have come, it’s time to rethink if we really need them.

Jeremy Keith:

This is all true. But this post from John Gruber is equally true: One Bit of Anecdata That the Web Is Languishing Vis-à-Vis Native Mobile Apps[…]

[…]

Ten or fifteen years ago, the gap between the web and native apps on mobile was entirely technical. There were certain things that you just couldn’t do in web browsers. That’s no longer the case now. The web caught up quite a while back.

But the experience of using websites on a mobile device is awful. Never mind the terrible performance penalties incurred by unnecessary frameworks and libraries like React and its ilk, there’s the constant game of whack-a-mole with banners and overlays. What’s just about bearable in a large desktop viewport becomes intolerable on a small screen.

This is not a technical problem. This doesn’t get solved by web standards. This is a cultural problem.

Via John Gruber (Mastodon):

There are mobile web proponents who are in denial about this state of affairs, who seek to place the blame at Apple’s feet for the fact that WebKit is the only rendering engine available on iOS. But WebKit’s limitations have nothing to do with the reasons so many websites suck when experienced on mobile devices. The mobile web sucks just as bad on Android.

[…]

And the app experiences from the same companies (whose websites suck on mobile) are much better.

We must be using different apps. The apps-that-should-have-been-web-sites that I see are mostly just wrappers over the same Web-based content. So we end up with the bloat of the app plus the bloat of the JavaScript libraries, and the end result is slower and less reliable than just going to Safari.

Update (2025-03-05): Marc Kalmes:

I’m starting to notice worse eyesight and increased the font-size on the iPhone. There are not many apps adhering to this change and websites-inside-container-apps are definitely not among them.

Our Changing Relationship With Apple

Brent Simmons (2024):

Apple’s positive effect on my life should not be underestimated. […] But I need to remember, now and again, that Apple is a corporation, and corporations aren’t people, and they can’t love you back. You wouldn’t love GE or Exxon or Comcast — and you shouldn’t love Apple. It’s not an exception to the rule: there are no exceptions.

Apple doesn’t care about you personally in the least tiny bit, and if you were in their way somehow, they would do whatever their might — effectively infinite compared to your own — enables them to deal with you.

Marco Arment:

This week’s Under The Radar is significant, therapeutic, and my favorite episode in recent memory:

Our Changing Relationship with Apple

How our values have diverged and our perceived relationship has changed with Apple, forcing our motivations for iOS development to evolve.

Jeff Johnson (2023):

I’m organizing a boycott of Apple’s Feedback Assistant, starting immediately, and I encourage all Apple developers to join me.

Matt Massicotte (Mastodon):

To put it mildly, I have been struggling with this. I have been trying to find ways to respond. Something that could give me some kind of leverage.

Apple relies heavily on feedback from third-party developers to find bugs in new APIs and OSes. Because of their development cycle, this is especially critical during a beta period.

So I’m just no longer going to use Feedback Assistant. I will not use beta OSes. I will not share crash reports for Apple software. Because of Swift’s exclusive use of X, I will no longer participate in the Swift forums or evolution process. I will also actively discourage others from doing these things.

Drew McCormack:

For him to swear off participating in the Swift Forums is immense, knowing how active he has been. I feel the same way.

Swift has since joined Mastodon.

Francisco Tolmasky:

People haven’t put 2 and 2 together that Apple doesn’t give a shit about developers or their feedback. You’d think after years of being notoriously known for never acknowledging or responding to feedback people might take the hint, but instead they construct a fantasy where it’s some prized asset they don’t want you to know about. Look at the new Settings. You think Apple cares about software quality? Apples ideal state is you making them 30% and never bugging them.

To be clear, I’m not saying “file feedback” to get back at them! I’m saying “he’s just not that into you”. You’re not gonna fix him babe. You wouldn’t work this hard to reform Google or Facebook, right? Apple just sent their army of lawyers to defend Google’s web monopoly. Time to wake up, they’re not on your team. There is no version of participating in their closed ecosystem that somehow “fixes the problem from the inside” or whatever you think might happen aside from a revenue relationship.

Craig Hockenberry:

Empires crumble. This is how Apple’s begins.

I think peak Apple was somewhere around 2010. But the innovations and progress since are underrated, and I don’t think it’s crumbling in any sort of business sense. Even if you think they’ve lost their quality or design or moral authorities—which I think are all true to varying degrees, but these are not binaries—what would the effect of that actually be? What alternative do people have?

Boycotting seems futile to me, but I support Johnson and Massicotte participating or not participating however is best for them. It’s healthy to reevaluate your goals, how you spend your time, and how your actions play into the bigger picture. To me, the main point is that there isn’t really a relationship with Apple and never was. It’s in our heads, which actually means it’s under our control. Not Apple, but how we think about Apple.

I think Arment and Tolmasky have it right, which is that Apple’s going to do what it’s going to do. Mostly, all we get to decide is whether or not we want to play in their sandbox. If you do, make it about the satisfaction of what you’re building and about serving your customers and a community that shares your values. Apple should be seen as a tool to those ends, not as a parent or partner or religion. Such expectations will only lead to disappointment.

Previously:

Update (2025-03-03): See also: Hacker News.

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Testimony on External Purchase Fee and Scare Screens

Tim Hardwick:

Apple Fellow Phil Schiller testified in court on Monday that he initially opposed the 27% commission Apple now charges on purchases made outside the App Store, citing compliance risks and potential developer backlash (via AP News).

Schiller, who oversees the App Store, said he had concerns that the fee would create an “antagonistic relationship” between Apple and developers, and worried about Apple becoming “some kind of collection agency” that might need to audit developers who didn’t pay.

[…]

The current hearings are scheduled to continue until Wednesday, and are focused on determining whether Apple has violated the original court order. Judge Gonzalez Rogers has expressed frustration with Apple witnesses’ hazy recollections about how they developed rules for the alternative payment system.

According to court documents, Apple extensively analyzed how the “less seamless experience” of external purchases would affect transaction completion rates, which helped the company work out when developers would likely return to using Apple’s in-app purchase system.

Paul Thurrott:

Long-time Apple executive Phil Schiller admitted in court that the 27 percent fee Apple imposed likely violated a court order in Epic v. Apple. In effect, he simply confirmed what everyone already knows about Apple’s bad faith compliance with antitrust rulings around the globe: It is doing as little as possible to meet the letter of the law to forestall actual compliance for as long as possible.

[…]

Schiller said he opposed the fee initially, and that multiple Apple executives, including CEO Tim Cook, were involved in the process of determining the fee structure for web-based fees. He also admitted that the fee structure it came up with was “antagonistic,” though he did sign off on it.

The Judge was already unimpressed by Apple’s behavior before this week. “All this does is maintain the non-competitive environment that exists,” she told Schiller last year. Since then, the only thing that’s changed is that Apple hasn’t complied with the court order for a longer period of time. What’s left is for Judge Gonzalez-Rogers to hold Apple in contempt of the court and order it to make more meaningful changes that address her original ruling. From four years ago.

Schiller has been a particularly bad witness for Apple, as he’s claimed to forget almost anything related to Epic Games each time he’s testified. But Epic’s lawyers are using evidence to “refresh” his memory during this week’s hearings.

Tim Sweeney:

And it wasn’t explicitly said, but the testimony had the vibe that Phil didn’t want to do any of this - not even charging the commission - but was overruled by the “revenue committee” (CEO Tim Cook and then-CFO Luca Maestri).

He wasn’t sure it would even be legal, and this lines up with the previous reporting that Schiller wanted to cap the App Store profits at $1 billion per year, in the interest of ecosystem health. Obviously, the buck stops at Tim Cook.

Tim Sweeney:

Exhibit 225 shows that Apple CEO Tim Cook PERSONALLY directed the App Store team to add misleading security warnings to undermine developers and users transacting directly. This is one of the critical points in the Contempt of Court proceeding.

Perhaps he will testify, too, and tell the court that Apple has to deal with the same fees and warnings as developers.

Tim Sweeney:

Now we’re in court reading Apple’s internal emails on making the third-party payment scare screens as scary and intimidating as possible. “It raises questions and hesitancy, ha ha!”, one writes of the latest scare screen.

Now this witness, a UX designer, is on the stand being examined by a friendly Apple lawyer, redefining the English word “scare” as some sort of benign benevolent gesture. 🙄

Previously:

Update (2025-02-28): Josh Sisco (via Tim Sweeney):

Carson Oliver, who oversees the App Store, said he and other executives weighed the judge’s directive to provide “competitive pressure” on pricing against revenue considerations before they introduced “link outs” that allow app developers to collect payments outside the store.

While charging no commission at all “would be an extremely attractive option” for developers, Oliver said, some of his colleagues didn’t want to forgo compensation completely, including then-Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri.

There was also an internal debate about how much to charge. Oliver said setting the fee at 20% for outside payments would make it hard to justify preserving the store’s standard 30% on most payments made in apps.

xroissance:

Bombshell from Schiller testimony: If just 5% of in-app purchases from top 200 apps shifted to web payments, 🍏 would lose “hundreds of millions of dollars” - and this was their “most conservative” estimate.

Even more telling: This 5% shift scenario was the FLOOR in Apple’s internal analysis. Other scenarios showed potential losses in the billions. But apparently they never analyzed what their IP is actually worth…

The smoking gun: “Option 3” - allowing links without commission - was extensively modeled by the team, showing exactly how much 🍏 stood to lose.

Yet mysteriously, before presentation, “Option 3" disappeared. Schiller claims neither he nor Cook ever saw it, despite financial teams doing detailed analysis.

Hyperspace 1.0

John Siracusa (Mastodon):

There are plenty of Mac apps that will save disk space by finding duplicate files and then deleting the duplicates. Using APFS clones, my app could reclaim disk space without removing any files! As a digital pack rat, this appealed to me immensely.

By the end of that week, I’d written a barebones Mac app to do the same thing my Perl script was doing. In the months that followed, I polished and tested the app, and christened it Hyperspace. I’m happy to announce that Hyperspace is now available in the Mac App Store.

Hyperspace is a free download, and it’s free to scan to see how much space you might save. To actually reclaim any of that space, you will have to pay for the app.

It costs $19.99/year, $9.99/month, or $49.99 lifetime. As he says, it’s “dangerous,” but I trust Siracusa to be careful and get it right. However, this and other duplicate finder apps are not for me. I know from first principles where most of my duplicates are, and how they result from the way I build my apps and Web sites. You have to pay to see which duplicates Hyperspace found, but the overall total was in the expected range. I don’t really care about saving a quarter of a percent of the space on my SSD. I assume my situation is not typical or this wouldn’t be such a popular app category.

Nick Heer:

On my MacBook Pro, used for far less strenuous tasks, the potential savings are around 57 MB.

John Voorhees:

I took Hyperspace for a spin to see what it could find on my Mac Studio, which stores about 2.5 TB of data. The scan was impressively fast at around 30 seconds, identifying 4.04 GB of data that it could free up. That’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it was also nice to know that I don’t generate a lot of duplicate files with my workflows.

Update (2025-02-28): John Siracusa:

The current version doesn’t look inside Photos libraries or any other kind of “bundle” file. This may change in future versions.

“Phonetic Overlap”

Tripp Mickle and Eli Tan (Hacker News, MacRumors):

While using Apple’s automatic dictation feature to send messages on Tuesday, some iPhone users reported seeing a peculiar bug: the word “racist” temporarily appearing as “Trump,” before quickly correcting itself.

The message blip, which was replicated several times by The New York Times, provoked controversy after appearing in a viral TikTok post, raising questions about Apple’s artificial intelligence capabilities.

An Apple spokeswoman blamed the issue on phonetic overlap between the two words, and said the company was working on a fix.

[…]

“This smells like a serious prank,” Mr. Burkey said. “The only question is: Did someone slip this into the data or slip into the code?”

Juli Clover:

Speaking the word racist with dictation doesn’t always show “Trump” first, though it did show up more often than other words in our testing. We also saw “Rhett” and “Rouch” appear before the iPhone corrects to racist.

Chance Miller:

The New York Times story cleverly omits the fact that other words like “rampage” trigger this glitch, not just “racist.” This leads some credence to Apple’s explanation that this is due to “phonetic overlap.”

Except that there is overlap with “rampage.” There are a variety of possible explanations, from a prank to some sort of semantic adjacency in a training dataset, but I think the idea that it’s because the phones are similar is laughable. I wonder why Apple PR felt the need to give this specific explanation instead of just saying that it was a bug.

Previously:

Amazon Removes Direct Downloads of Kindle Books

Andrew Liszewski (Hacker News, Reddit):

Starting on February 26th, 2025, Amazon is removing a feature from its website allowing you to download purchased books to a computer and then copy them manually to a Kindle over USB. It’s a feature that a lot of Kindle users are probably not aware of, given books can be more easily sent to devices over Wi-Fi, but it’s especially useful for backing up purchases or converting them to other formats compatible with non-Kindle e-readers.

[…]

It doesn’t happen frequently, but as Good e-Reader points out, Amazon has occasionally removed books from its online store and remotely deleted them from Kindles or edited titles and re-uploaded new copies to its e-readers.

[…]

The feature is also the easiest way to convert books purchased from Amazon to other formats like EPUB that can be used on alternative devices such as a Kobo. Books downloaded through Amazon’s website are delivered in the older AZW3 format which allows DRM to be easily removed using various software tools.

Jason Snell:

This feature was designed for users who had connectivity on their computer, but not on their Kindle. But it’s also been the easiest pathway to get ebook files out of Amazon’s copy protection scheme so that they can be converted to play back on other devices.

[…]

While I remain optimistic about the ability of scrappy underdogs to circumvent the copy protection regimes of big tech companies, the fact is that Amazon’s newer file format has been incredibly difficult to crack—hence the value of the USB downloading hole that Amazon’s about to close.

[…]

I used the Amazon Kindle eBook Bulk Downloader by friend of the site Sam Davis.

David Sparks (Mac Power Users):

There is something about this that stinks to me. I pay for the books. I feel like I should be able to download them. I’ve bought hundreds of books from Amazon over the years and this push toward cloud-based model data control feels like crossing a line. Maybe this is a thing with me and I should have realized that I was only purchasing a “license” to read the books instead of “ownership” of the books all along.

Nathan (Hacker News):

Amazon recently changed the wording on their website when it comes to buying Kindle ebooks.

As the screenshot above shows, they now have a disclaimer under the buy now button that says, “By placing your order, you’re purchasing a license to the content and you agree to the Kindle Store Terms of Use”.

[…]

I read somewhere about a new law that was passed in California where companies have to “conspicuously” disclose that customers are buying a license when it comes to digital media like ebooks, so that’s likely the reason why Amazon made the change.

Previously:

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

FBI Also Wants to Break iCloud Advanced Data Protection

Zak Doffman (via Eric deRuiter, Hacker News):

What has just shocked the U.K. is exactly what the FBI told me it also wants in the U.S. “Lawful access” to any encrypted user data. The bureau’s quiet warning was confirmed just a few weeks ago.

The U.K. news cannot be seen in isolation and follows years of battling between big tech and governments over warranted, legal access to encrypted messages and content to fuel investigations into serious crimes such as terrorism and child abuse.

As I reported in 2020, “it is looking ever more likely that proponents of end-to-end security, the likes of Facebook and Apple, will lose their campaign to maintain user security as a priority.” It has taken five years, but here we now are.

[…]

When December’s encryption warnings hit in the wake of Salt Typhoon, the bureau told me while it wants to see encrypted messaging, it wants that encryption to be “responsible.”

Because the backdoor worked so well then?

Previously:

Update (2025-03-03): Jaanus Kase:

It’s not far fetched to imagine that the US government will walk up to Apple and demand data about the users of your app, including the data they have stored with your app.

How will Apple respond?

That is the point of this post. I don’t know. I would like to know.

Apple is not going to side with you over the government in cases where they could easily comply. They have no history of doing that. It seems obvious that, if iCloud Advanced Data Protection is disabled, Apple will just give them the data. This has happened many times already. If it’s enabled, Apple will prevent you from using it (as in the UK), so data already encrypted will probably remain safe but future data will not be E2EE. It’s possible, but I think unlikely, that Apple would backdoor the encryption so that you think it’s safe, but it isn’t. It’s also possible that there’s already a vulnerability that Apple did not intentionally put there. Regardless, only way to ensure privacy with such a single point of failure would be to use an app that doesn’t rely on Apple’s services for its encryption layer.

See also: Nick Heer.

Previously:

Update (2025-03-05): John Gruber:

Apple’s most recent [government transparency] report for the United States covers January to June 2023. They didn’t always lag this far behind. […] it has me looking as much at what Apple doesn’t say about government data demands as what Apple does say about them.

XcodeBenchmark

Maxim Eremenko:

XcodeBenchmark measures Mac performance in Xcode by compiling a relatively large codebase.

The project has already saved thousands of dollars for developers and companies when they purchase or upgrade their Macs and I believe these results will help you make the right cost/performance choice.

The code is primary C-family languages, but it also includes some Swift.

Of note:

paya_:

When going from M4 to 12-core M4 Pro, we are adding p-cores and removing e-cores and thus the increase to score per core is justified. When going from the 12-core M4 Pro to any higher-tier chip, we are again adding p-cores but the score per core decreases, indicating diminishing returns (you would expect the score per core to increase because the e-core / p-core ratio is changing in favor of p-cores).

Previously:

Show Network QR Code

Ryan Christoffel:

Tap to open a Wi-Fi network inside the Passwords app, and you’ll see a button that reads, ‘Show Network QR Code.’

This QR code can then be scanned by anyone nearby to instantly connect them to your network.

[…]

Most readers will know that Apple already has a popular solution for sharing your Wi-Fi password with others: its pop-up prompt that sometimes feels like magic.

In practice, the magic solution almost never worked for me, so I’m very happy to see a still-easy solution that should be more reliable.

Humane Acquired, Ai Pin Discontinued

Juli Clover (Hacker News, William Gallagher):

Humane today informed customers that it is discontinuing its $700 Ai Pin at the end of February, with the device set to be taken offline less than a year after it launched in April 2024.

[…]

Humane recommends that Ai Pin users sync their devices over Wi-Fi to download stored pictures, videos, and notes before February 28 because data will be deleted after that.

The sudden discontinuation of the Ai Pin comes as Humane is being sold to HP for $116 million. HP is purchasing Humane’s CosmOS AI platform and more than 300 patents and patent applications, plus HP will be hiring Humane’s employees.

John Gruber (Mastodon):

This was a $700 purchase (for the matte black base model — polished metal ones were $800) with a mandatory $24/month service charge (which included cellular networking) and extra battery “boosters” were $70. Customers who bought when it launched last April have spent at least $1,000, but probably more, all told. Humane gave them 10 days notice before the thing turns into a brick.

M.G. Siegler:

A regular person might read that headline and think, “wow, a startup sold for nine-figures – impressive.” Of course, it’s not impressive in this case. It’s a fire sale for a company that has been under duress for months after their product, the Ai Pin, failed to catch fire in the market.

Nick Heer:

Only so much of that can be blamed on not having access to certain APIs or it being a first-generation product. It still cost $700 and required a subscription of $24 per month. And, while HP’s deal — for less than half what the company raised — includes the software, patents, and most of the staff, it excludes the A.I. Pin.

Manton Reece:

Eventually I believe there will be a successful product like it. It will need to be simpler, though. No laser. Cheaper. Faster.

I won’t judge the team too harshly for being so ambitious. They probably knew 1.0 had fallen short but were expecting to iterate after shipping it, keep improving it. Instead, they had hyped up expectations so beyond what could be achieved at launch that when the first version flopped, it was crippling.

Louie Mantia (in 2022):

I can’t imagine that product being successful.

Which makes me wonder— is the whole idea for Humane to patent any technologies it develops in the hopes of licensing those technologies to big companies? Maybe the product is effectively a demo to facilitate Humane selling patents.

Vidit Bhargava:

I wore the Ai Pin every day for almost six months, and very early on in those six months, I realized one thing, the Ai Pin wasn’t a complete failure. There were kernels of something truly unique and ambitious there, even if the execution was flawed. What started as an albatross around my neck (or shirt) for spending $700 on a device that barely worked, turned into a tiny research project for my thesis on ambient computing, and where a ubiquitous computer like this one would fit into people’s lives.

Previously:

Monday, February 24, 2025

ProVUE at the First Macworld Expo

Jim Rea:

Forty years ago today the doors opened for the very first MacWorld Expo in the Brooks Hall basement in San Francisco. For most of you this event probably seems like ancient history, somewhere back in the mists of time. But for me this was a very real and exciting event that I participated in as an exhibitor, the start of my amazing journey with the Mac community, a journey that continues on today.

As I recall there were two or three dozen software booths that first year. Some of the software on display included Multiplan (Microsoft), PFS:File, Think Tank, FileVision, Mac Slots, Habadex, Mac Draft, Mac Lion, Music Works, Click Art and of course OverVUE (the direct predecessor to today’s Panorama X). Of course all of these companies have long since disappeared, except for two - Microsoft and ProVUE Development.

What an inspiration. OverVUE was originally written in 68k assembly code that he macro-translated from PDP-11 assembly. Now it does AppKit, Unicode, and Apple Silicon. He continues to add major new features and directly support his customers.

To celebrate that, and this 40 year anniversary, I’ve set up a 40% discount code for new users - MACEXPO40.

John Gruber:

There are old-school Mac developers still going strong, and there are old school Mac developers still going strong.

Previously:

Update (2025-02-26): Adam Engst:

While it’s impressive that ProVUE has survived and thrived for so many years, it’s mostly a testament to Jim Rea’s skill and tenacity as a developer, tech writer, and business owner.

Delivering Malware Through Abandoned Amazon S3 Buckets

Bruce Schneier:

Here’s a supply-chain attack just waiting to happen. A group of researchers searched for, and then registered, abandoned Amazon S3 buckets for about $400. These buckets contained software libraries that are still used. Presumably the projects don’t realize that they have been abandoned, and still ping them for patches, updates, and etc.

[…]

Had this been an actual attack, they would have modified the code in those buckets to contain malware and watch as it was incorporated in different software builds around the internet. This is basically the SolarWinds attack, but much more extensive.

[…]

But there’s a second dimension to this attack. Because these update buckets are abandoned, the developers who are using them also no longer have the power to patch them automatically to protect them.

Previously:

Seeing the Location Name in Apple TV’s Aerial Screensaver

Apple:

Ever wonder what location you’re watching in an Aerial screen saver? While the location is playing, just tap the Touch surface on your Apple TV Remote.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work if, like me, you’ve turned off the touch surface of the remote because it causes unwanted inputs. It used to be possible to see the location name by pressing the Up button, but Apple changed that in tvOS 18.

Previously:

Update (2025-02-26): Martyn Arnold and IT Troll have the unintuitive and undocumented answer: you press the Down button on the remote.

CIFilterBuiltins

Matthias Gansrigler:

Browsing the Core Image headers, I did find functions for these filters where you could just call let filter = CIFilter.colorPosterize()

Yet every time I tried, it never worked and would give me an error that CIFilter has no member 'colorPosterize'. Well, “Crap!”, I thought, this must be something that will become available eventually.

How wrong I was. This has been available for a while, you just need to know how to do it! The “trick” is to not only import CoreImage, but also (why!?) import CoreImage.CIFilterBuiltins.

Apple:

The type-safe approach returns a non-optional filter. Because the returned filter conforms to the relevant protocol—for example, CIFalseColor in the case of falseColor()—the parameters are available as properties.

Saturday, February 22, 2025

New Blog Server

My apologies for this site being slow and dropping connections over past few days. It’s been moved to a new server and should be much faster now. Please let me know if you continue to see any issues.

Friday, February 21, 2025

Apple Pulls iCloud Advanced Data Protection From UK

Zoe Kleinman (Hacker News):

Apple is taking the unprecedented step of removing its highest level data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded access to user data.

Advanced Data Protection (ADP) means only account holders can view items such as photos or documents they have stored online through a process known as end-to-end encryption.

[…]

Apple would not comment on the notice and the Home Office refused to either confirm or deny its existence[…]

[…]

It is not clear that Apple’s actions will fully address those concerns, as the IPA order applies worldwide and ADP will continue to operate in other countries.

John Gruber:

More insidiously and outrageously, they are apparently forbidden by UK law, under severe penalty (imprisonment), from even informing the public about this demand, or, if they were to comply, from telling the public what they’ve done.

[…]

Re-read Apple’s statement above, which I’ve quoted in full, including the hyperlink. What stands out is that Apple is offering no explanation, not even a hint, why the company “can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature”. On issues pertaining to security and privacy, Apple always explains its policies and features as best it can. The fact that Apple has offered no hint as to why they’re doing this is a canary statement of sorts: they’re making clear as best they can that they’re under a legal gag order that prevents them from even acknowledging that they’re under a legal gag order, by not telling us why they’re no longer able to offer ADP in the UK.

Matt Birchler:

It is crazy that Apple would seemingly rather close down the company than let people install apps from outside the App Store, even running an extended PR campaign against it, but they roll over immediately for this.

Even if they didn’t want to risk acknowledging the notice—which I was hoping they would—you’d think Apple could say something in general about the law and the process. On the other hand, I guess Apple is so far doing more than other companies that presumably also received the notice. Are they silently building in backdoors?

Tim Hardwick:

Note that the loss of Advanced Data Protection in the UK does not affect the existing end-to-end encryption of several other Apple features available in the country, including iMessage, FaceTime, password management and health data.

Dan Moren:

As of February 21, users in the country can no longer enable the feature; those users who currently have it on will have to disable it in the near future.

[…]

According to Apple, this change won’t affect data that is end-to-end encrypted by default, such as health data and iCloud Keychain. That does, however, leave one longstanding loophole: though Apple’s Messages in the Cloud system is end-to-end encrypted, the encryption key for those messages is backed up in iCloud Backups, for which Apple holds the keys. Those are, in turn, accessible to law enforcement under the proper procedures.

Previously:

Update (2025-02-25): See also: Matthew Green, Glenn Fleishman, Jaanus Kase, Rui Carmo.

Update (2025-02-26): Bruce Schneier:

Should the UK government persist in its demands, the ramifications will be profound in two ways. First, Apple can’t limit this capability to the UK government, or even only to governments whose politics it agrees with. If Apple is able to turn over users’ data in response to government demand, every other country will expect the same compliance.

[…]

Apple isn’t the only company that offers end-to-end encryption. Google offers the feature as well. WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal, and Facebook Messenger offer the same level of security. There are other end-to-end encrypted cloud storage providers. Similar levels of security are available for phones and laptops. Once the UK forces Apple to break its security, actions against these other systems are sure to follow.

It seems unlikely that the UK is not coordinating its actions with the other “Five Eyes” countries of the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand: the rich English-language-speaking spying club.

Matthew Green:

Apple’s decision to disable their encrypted cloud backup feature has triggered many reactions, including a few angry takes by Apple critics, accusing Apple of selling out its users[…]

With all this in mind, I think it’s time to take a sober look at what might really happening here.

[…]

So if you’re Apple and faced with this demand from the U.K., engaging with the demand is not really an option. You have a relatively small number of choices available to you. In order of increasing destructiveness[…]

Francisco Tolmasky:

“What else could Apple have done in response to the UK encryption law?” I dunno. Seems they’ve come up with all sorts of creative responses to the DMA and other antitrust cases. I guess the creativity just wasn’t flowing when it comes to important things though.

The most obvious idea would be for Apple to provide a way for users to securely store their data outside of iCloud, either with other providers or on their own Time Capsule–like device. This is much easier said than done, however.

Previously:

Update (2025-02-27): John Gruber:

Upon learning of the UK’s odious demands on Apple, the Biden administration’s response wasn’t to defend Apple (or Americans’ privacy), but instead to try to hide it from Congress. Unreal.

Tulsi Gabbard (Hacker News):

My lawyers are working to provide a legal opinion on the implications of the reported UK demands against Apple on the bilateral Cloud Act agreement. Upon initial review of the U.S. and U.K. bilateral CLOUD Act Agreement, the United Kingdom may not issue demands for data of U.S. citizens, nationals, or lawful permanent residents (“U.S. persons”), nor is it authorized to demand the data of persons located inside the United States.

Via John Gruber:

The gag-order aspect of the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act prevented Apple from even fighting it in court. But a US ruling that would hold it illegal for Apple to comply would put Apple in an impossible situation, where they can’t comply with a UK legal demand without violating the law of the home country. That would actually give Apple the ground to fight this in the UK.

It’s unclear how much of the US intelligence establishment agrees with the new DNI.

Update (2025-02-28): John Gruber (Mastodon):

Ben Domenech interviewed President Trump yesterday in the Oval Office, after Trump’s meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The Spectator has published the entire transcript, and I read it so you don’t have to, to get the part about Apple and the UK’s encryption backdoor demand[…]

Update (2025-03-05): Connor Jones (Hacker News):

Apple has reportedly filed a legal complaint with the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) contesting the UK government’s order that it must forcibly break the encryption of iCloud data.

The appeal will be the first of its kind lodged with the IPT, an independent judicial body that oversees legal complaints against potential unlawful actions by a public authority or UK intelligence services, according to the Financial Times, which broke the news.

Nick Heer:

It looks like I, by way of Mike Masnick, was wrong to believe the only grounds on which Apple could fight this are financial. It turns out there is an appeals process which I could have found at any time — and in even more detail (PDF) — if I had double-checked. That is on me. However, in the first four years appeals were permitted on legal grounds, just two cases (PDF) were heard, with one being dismissed.

The way this is playing out is farcical. Nobody is legally permitted to discuss it, so we have only on-background leaks from Apple (almost certainly, I am guessing) and U.K. intelligence (maybe) to the same handful of reporters.

Icons in Passwords.app and App Privacy Report

Mysk:

The Passwords app now categorizes the network requests to download the icons as “websites visited in app” and this way the number of requests sent isn’t included in the main count in the #privacy report.

This new categorization makes the requests less visible to privacy-conscious as the app won’t show spikes of 130+ requests as we demonstrated before in iOS 18 and iOS 18.2.

[…]

iOS still doesn’t provide an option to disable downloading the icons, which is the best way to tackle this issue.

[…]

If the app directly contacts the websites, which is the case with Apple Passwords, the app might be at risk of receiving a malicious payload from remote web servers.

It was using unencrypted HTTP, but that’s fixed in iOS 18.2.

Previously:

Orion’s Password Manager

Kagi:

Orion includes a built-in Password Manager that makes it easy to store and automatically fill your usernames and passwords.

[…]

As an alternative to importing passwords from Safari into Orion, you can also access your Safari passwords in Orion directly. To enable this, first go to Orion > Settings > Passwords, and then disable the Use Orion’s Keychain checkbox.

However, I don’t think there’s a way for Orion to add new entries to the Apple password manager.

Orion 130 (tweet, issue):

Added support for passkeys on macOS 14+ to enhance secure authentication.

Previously:

Secrets 4.4 and Passkey Credential Exchange

Paulo Andrade (Mastodon):

One major issue preventing some users from adopting [passkeys] is that neither Apple’s Passwords app nor many password managers offer an option to export them, making it harder to switch platforms or password managers.

Secrets, on the other hand, has always allowed users to export any passkeys it stored. However, since no other password manager could import them, this feature was primarily useful for backups rather than migrations.

The good news is that the FIDO Alliance has been working on a standard to address this issue, and Apple has shipped its initial implementation in iOS 18.2 and macOS 15.2.

[…]

As of this writing, Secrets supports importing items exported from eight different password managers. That requires a lot of code and reverse engineering to handle mostly undocumented file formats.

With this new API, password managers that adopt it will become compatible with each other.

[…]

Additionally, given the preview nature of this API, Apple still has it behind developer toggles[…]

See also: Miles Wolbe.

Previously:

Thursday, February 20, 2025

Git Tower 12.5

Bruno Brito:

Now you can create, check out, and manage Worktrees directly from within your favorite Git client! 🫡

[…]

The git-worktree feature was introduced in version 2.5.0 of Git. The main advantage is that it allows you to have multiple working trees attached to the same repository, enabling you to check out more than one branch simultaneously from a single repository.

[…]

Another great use case is for long-running operations. You can perform time-consuming tasks, such as large builds or extensive tests, in one worktree while continuing to work in another.

Previously:

Beej’s Guide to Git

Brian Hall (via Hacker News):

Which leads us directly to the goal: let’s make sense of all this and go from complete Git novice up to intermediate! We’ll start off easy (allegedly) with commands mixed in with some theory of operation. And we’ll see that understanding what Git does under the hood is critical to using it correctly.

And I promise there’s definitely a chance that after you get through some of this guide, you might actually start to appreciate Git and like using it.

He also has some other great guides, most notably the one about network programming.

Update (2025-02-25): ednl:

Deserves a mention: @b0rk’s “Oh shit, git!” which has a slightly different premise but in the end probably targets the same people who want to better understand git, and her git cheat sheet.

Julia Evans:

ah yeah it’s a bit confusing, “how git works” is the one that explains how git works

Kaleidoscope 5.3

Kaleidoscope 5.1:

Kaleidoscope 5.1 comes with a URL scheme, yet another new way to integrate with other apps on your Mac.

[…]

There’s a very specific use case we had in mind when adding this feature: running tests within Xcode, in particular snapshot testing using swift-snapshot-testing.

[…]

Using the new Kaleidoscope 5.1 and a little diffTool configuration for SnapshortTesting, you instead get a clickable link within Xcode.

Kaleidoscope 5.2:

While Kaleidoscope has always automatically resolved some conflicts using the Base file provided by Git, it lacked the ability to display that file directly. Some merge tools display the Base file alongside the input files and the merge file. However, we never favored this approach because it further complicates the conflict resolution process by presenting you with four rather similar files simultaneously instead of the already confusing three.

But what if you were able to show the Base only in cases where you actually need it? And what if you were able not only see the Base itself, but instead compare what changed between Base and side A or B? After all, why should you try to figure out the difference between Base and A or B while having a diff app at your disposal? And what if, only in cases where that short comparison is unclear to you, you were able to then compare the entire files and inspect what changed between those versions, commit by commit?

Kaleidoscope 5.2 offers exactly all of that.

Florian Albrecht:

We understand that adapting to new keyboard shortcuts can be challenging, especially when you’ve developed muscle memory around the old ones. However, we believe that these changes in Kaleidoscope 5.2 will ultimately enhance your merge experience.

We encourage you to give the new shortcuts a try. If you find that you still prefer the old shortcuts, use System Settings to revert them to your liking.

Florian Albrecht:

Repositories can have a custom icon and/or a colored background.

Florian Albrecht:

In File Properties, you’ll find all the data except for the actual content. Even Extended Attributes and the presence of a BOM in UTF-8 files are included.

[…]

Did you accidentally open a branch comparison in the wrong order? No worries! Just right-click on the row in Recents and select Open Inverted.

[…]

When looking at the commit history of a file, Navigate > File History > Select Previous A & B (keyboard ⌃[), and …Select Next A & B (⌃]) let you browse changes one by one, without lifting your fingers from the keyboard.

Kaleidoscope 5.3:

The new top section shows the current status of the repository.

[…]

You can now see a list of recent commits to any branch in your repository, sorted by date, with the latest commit on top. The current working copy branch will be shown by default. You’ll see the most important information about each commit in the row, and for each commit there are two main actions:

  1. Double-click an entry to immediately show all changes made in that commit (the changeset of that commit).
  2. Click the more button to see more details about that commit, like the entire formatted commit message.

[…]

Using the search field, and by picking one of the two available modes, you can either filter the list of commits, or select commits matching your search in the list.

I love the idea of searching for a commit and seeing other commits that are adjacent to it.

Previously:

Retcon 1.2

Nathan Manceaux-Panot:

Get sprawling diffs under control with commit splitting. Break down oversized commits into granular, meaningful ones.

While editing any commit, unstage some of its changes, then confirm the edit. The changes will be moved to a new commit.

Previously:

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

iPhone 16e

Apple (MacRumors, Hacker News):

Apple today announced iPhone 16e, a new addition to the iPhone 16 lineup that offers powerful capabilities at a more affordable price. iPhone 16e delivers fast, smooth performance and breakthrough battery life, thanks to the industry-leading efficiency of the A18 chip and the new Apple C1, the first cellular modem designed by Apple. iPhone 16e is also built for Apple Intelligence, the intuitive personal intelligence system that delivers helpful and relevant intelligence while taking an extraordinary step forward for privacy in AI. The 48MP Fusion camera takes gorgeous photos and videos, and with an integrated 2x Telephoto, it is like having two cameras in one, so users can zoom in with optical quality.

[…]

iPhone 16e features the Action button, allowing users to easily access a variety of functions with just a press.

[…]

The Action button on iPhone 16e also unlocks a new visual intelligence experience that builds on Apple Intelligence to help users learn about objects and places.

[…]

iPhone 16e will be available in white and black in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage capacities, starting at $599 (U.S.) or $24.95 (U.S.) per month for 24 months.

Hartley Charlton:

Just like the now-discontinued iPhone SE, the iPhone 16e does not have MagSafe connectivity.

Juli Clover:

The newer Photographic Styles are also only for the iPhone 16, 16 Pro, and Pro Max. With Photographic Styles, the iPhone 16 models released in September feature an option to set an overall look for all images captured with the iPhone camera, but this doesn't exist for the 16e. Older style filters are available, however.

There are also several missing video recording features, including Cinematic mode and Action mode, but the new Audio Mix feature is supported.

Previously:

Update (2025-02-27): See also:

Update (2025-03-04): John Gruber:

I’ve been waiting for iFixit’s teardown to see if removing MagSafe components might help explain the 16e’s physically larger battery. It doesn’t seem to. The 16e battery seems taller, not thicker, and the MagSafe components in an iPhone 15 don’t seem thick or space consuming.

Matt Birchler:

Just days after I got my iPhone 16e, Apple’s (less) budget (than ever before) iPhone, Nothing is out here with new their new budget phones, the Phone (3a) and (3a) Pro. These models start at $379 and $459 respectively, so they certainly undercut the new iPhone, so let’s take a look at what the differences are and whether they make the iPhone 16e look silly.

Hiding Data in Emoji

Paul Butler (GitHub, via Andy Baio):

This tool allows you to encode a hidden message into an emoji or alphabet letter. You can copy and paste text with a hidden message in it to decode the message.

It does this by encoding the text as a sequence of variation selectors after the emoji.

Previously:

Hiding Vulnerabilities in Source Code

Ross Anderson (via Bruce Schneier):

Today we are releasing Trojan Source: Invisible Vulnerabilities, a paper describing cool new tricks for crafting targeted vulnerabilities that are invisible to human code reviewers.

Until now, an adversary wanting to smuggle a vulnerability into software could try inserting an unobtrusive bug in an obscure piece of code. Critical open-source projects such as operating systems depend on human review of all new code to detect malicious contributions by volunteers. So how might wicked code evade human eyes?

We have discovered ways of manipulating the encoding of source code files so that human viewers and compilers see different logic. One particularly pernicious method uses Unicode directionality override characters to display code as an anagram of its true logic.

Previously:

fileReferenceURL vs. NSURLFileResourceIdentifierKey

Thomas Tempelmann (Mastodon, tweet):

There is a fine but important difference between the two - they behave differently if the item is a hard linked file.

If, especially on a APFS formatted volume, you have multiple hard links for the same file content, then

  • NSURLFileResourceIdentifierKey will return the same value (classic “inode”) for all these hard links, whereas
  • fileReferenceURL returns unique “link IDs” that keep the reference for each hard link entry’s path.

Jim Luther:

Don’t use that info to construct your own URL string. First, the info in that answer is incomplete. Second, that string format could change.

[…]

fileReference URLs were added because AppKit used FSRefs and they wanted a URL equivelent. Bookmarks are always more reliable but not as fast.

BTW, fileReference URLs on non-Mac devices are much less useful because there’s no coreservicesd.

Previously:

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

BenQ PD2730S 5K Display

Tim Hardwick:

Speaking of adjustments, BenQ hasn’t skimped here. The stand offers a comprehensive range of movement: height adjustment up to 150mm, -5° to 20° tilt, and smooth 60° swivel capabilities. This versatility comes as standard - no $400 upgrade required, Apple. For those preferring alternative mounting solutions, there’s a standard VESA mount option.

[…]

The panel employs BenQ’s Nano Matte coating, which effectively manages reflections without compromising image clarity.

[…]

At $1,199, it delivers 5K resolution, excellent color accuracy, Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, and other thoughtful features at a significantly lower price point than Apple’s Studio Display. Yes, the speakers are terrible, but that seems par for the course in third-party monitors. And no, it doesn’t have a webcam like the Studio Display, but that just means you can invest in a better one than the latter offers. While the PD2730S can’t match Apple’s premium build quality or 600-nit brightness, it compensates with superior ergonomics and connectivity options.

Paul Haddad:

VESA Apple Studio is often $1299 and tons more premium. Getting a KVM is nice but still. I’ll give them credit for doing a nice job on the Mac software for it, doesn’t look like your typical Windows port hack job.

Previously:

Update (2025-02-25): D. Griffin Jones (Mastodon):

The BenQ display proves nicer than the Asus ProArt 5K I reviewed two months ago, but it also costs more ($1,199 compared to $799).

ArtIsRight:

In this video, we’re unboxing the BenQ PD2730S, a 27-inch QHD designer monitor built for creatives. We’ll closely examine what’s inside the box, including the monitor itself, accessories, and setup process. Plus, we’ll review its key features like 95% P3 and 100% sRGB color gamut coverage, factory calibration, and ergonomic design. In addition, this display can unofficially show Adobe RGB as well. It has a thunderbolt connection to display daisy chains and many more.

ASUS ProArt 5K Display

Juli Clover (Amazon):

There aren’t too many 5K displays on the market that can compete with Apple’s Studio Display, but ASUS recently came out with the ASUS ProArt Display 5K, which is a solid competitor. The ProArt Display 5K features a 27-inch 5K screen with 218 pixels per inch, aka retina quality.

ASUS sells the ProArt Display 5K for $799, so it’s actually half the price of the Studio Display, and much, much cheaper than the Pro Display XDR.

Previously:

Update (2025-02-25): Ezekiel Elin:

I’m really enjoying my 5K 27” ASUS that I picked up a few months ago. Dual input to a Mac mini and laptop with keyboard/mouse through the display has been great. And it was only $700.

D. Griffin Jones:

Admittedly, Asus’ 5K desktop monitor misses some of the Studio Display’s premium features. The stand wobbles and the body is made of creaky plastic. Plus, the panel isn’t quite as bright as Apple’s display, and it doesn’t come with a webcam.

Still, with very similar specs — and a budget-friendly $799 list price, compared to the Studio Display’s $1,599 (or $1,999 if you dare to desire an adjustable stand) — Asus is making an offer that’s hard to refuse. Keep reading or watch our video review.

Jettison 1.9

St. Clair Software (Mastodon, tweet):

Jettison now asks you to give it permission for Full Disk Access in your system’s privacy controls. This is necessary because macOS will sometimes refuse to let Jettison mount external USB drives unless it has this special permission.

[…]

[A] number of disk images are automatically mounted by the system. Some, known as cryptexes, are encrypted volumes used for augmenting or updating parts of the system itself, while others such as the iOS Simulator are mounted if you use Apple’s Xcode developer tools. […] Jettison used to show all of these in its “Eject” menu, which could be confusing because they’re not shown by the Finder, so they no longer appear there.

[…]

When Jettison can’t eject a drive because there are open files on it, it pops up an error message to tell you so. These messages have been improved to provide more detail, and when you’re manually ejecting a disk you’ll also see “Quit” buttons to quit any offending apps.

This is safer than the Force Eject that Finder offers and much easier than looking up the offending app yourself. Unfortunately, sometimes Sequoia reports an error when ejecting with Jettison, and I have to use Force Eject, anyway.

Previously:

MailMate 2.0 Beta

Benny Kjær Nielsen:

I’ve been very quiet here, but I’ve actually been working on MailMate during all that time — which should be obvious based on the other blog post today about the latest beta and its release notes. For years now, the main focus has been on improving/maintaining MailMate and that is great for existing beta/test users of MailMate, but obviously it’s not great for generating revenue from new users.

[…]

In the new license key setup, a MailMate license key is obtained by starting a subscription ($10 every 3 months). An active subscription means that MailMate will run in its “Paid Mode”. An inactive/cancelled subscription means that MailMate will run in its “Free Mode”. These modes are (almost) identical. Essentially, this means the price of a MailMate license key is now $10, but it is strongly encouraged to continue the subscription and for many users it is, in principle, required.

Why do it this way? First of all, paid upgrades are not a realistic option for me. It requires working on two versions of MailMate at the same time and I’ve clearly proven that I’m not able to do that. The first license key was sold more than 14 years ago and it is still valid!

Previously, it was a $50 one-time charge. One of the reasons it’s not a traditional subscription is that he had promised that 2.0 would be a free upgrade.

Maintaining software requires the same amount of effort as creating, but it is not a straightforward source of revenue. I do not think I can or should make major flashy rewrites which could justify upgrade fees. Instead, a large number of subscribers is going to be an incentive for me to focus on keeping existing users happy. This means iterative/frequent updates improving the details of existing features, improving performance, fixing bugs, and to at least some extent answering support emails. This is essentially how I’ve worked in the past.

Freron Software:

When Paid Mode expires, MailMate will automatically switch to Free Mode. In this mode, you continue to have access to all features of MailMate, but it is not intended to be used by all users. If you are part of a business or you run a business relying on the use of MailMate then it is also required that you use MailMate in Paid Mode.

As described above, MailMate adds a header line to every outgoing email stating the email client used. In Free Mode, this header line will explicitly use “MailMate Free Mode” as the email client name. Most of your correspondents will never see this, but some email clients will display it when it’s available.

Jeff Johnson (Mastodon):

I recently purchased an M4 MacBook Pro with a nano-texture display and set up Mail app fresh on the new machine, which is running macOS Sequoia. In the following weeks, I encountered a bunch of the same old problems—the Mail main window sometimes fails to come to the front when clicking on the Dock icon, requiring one or more additional clicks; the Flagged mailbox lists some unflagged messages, which can be removed from the list only by moving them to a new containing folder and back again; Mail app refuses to quit entirely because it's connecting to Gmail; a message sometimes isn't marked as read when opened in a window; my column widths are forgotten when switching folders—as well as a new problem: the Unread smart mailbox showed a phantom count of 1 when no messages appeared in the folder.

[…]

Although my immediate problem was solved, I started to wonder why Mail app hadn't downloaded that unread message. So for each of my email accounts, I used the Get Account Info contextual menu item to show the number of messages in each mailbox on the IMAP server, comparing it to the number of messages in each mailbox displayed in Mail app. To my horror, I discovered that there were multiple discrepancies, in multiple mailboxes, in multiple accounts. Mail app seems to download most of the messages from each mailbox, but for some unknown reason it doesn't always download every message from every mailbox.

This was the final straw for me, an irreparable loss of confidence in the reliability of Mail app. In my opinion, Apple Mail is a formerly great app, during the 2000s, that has steadily declined in quality since then and ultimately became shoddy. […] RIP Mail app, long live MailMate!

The IMAP problem I’ve been having with Apple Mail for the last few years is that some message moves/deletions don’t get synced to the server promptly. So if I view my account on my iPhone or Webmail I see a sampling of old messages—going back perhaps a month—still in the inboxes. Eventually those messages to get properly moved on the server, but by then new ones have taken their place.

MailMate's IMAP support appears to be flawless: unlike Mail app, MailMate downloaded every message in every mailbox for every account. How is it possible that one developer, Benny Kjær Nielsen, can succeed where an entire team of Apple engineers failed?

[…]

Moreover, Apple Mail has some problems with junk mail filtering. As of macOS Ventura, there's no longer a way to mark a message as not junk that Mail mistakenly marked as junk. And my junk mailboxes accumulate old messages despite the fact that I set Mail to erase junk messages after one month.

Of course, if you have Apple Mail or MailMate you should be using SpamSieve.

Pierre Igot:

Welcome to the club! I am fairly confident, based on your quality standards, that you will not regret it. I switched from Mail to MailMate in 2020 and have never regretted it.

Previously:

Update (2025-02-18): Jeff Johnson notes that Free Mode shows an alert when sending a message and is limited to sending two messages per launch. This seems reasonable to me but is not what I expected given the description of it being “almost identical” to Paid Mode.

Update (2025-02-18): Bernd suggests that the alert Johnson was seeing is due to the trial running out and that this is distinct from the Free Mode that you get after you pay once and stop paying. This is makes more sense given the documentation, so I guess the way to think about it is that there are actually four different modes.

Monday, February 17, 2025

Swift Proposal: InlineArray

SE-0453:

This proposal introduces a new type to the standard library, InlineArray, which is a fixed-size array. This is analogous to the classical C arrays T[N], C++’s std::array<T, N>, and Rust’s arrays [T; N].

[…]

It’s important to understand that Array is a heap allocated growable data structure which can be expensive and unnecessary in some situations. The next best thing is to force a known quantity of elements onto the stack, probably by using tuples.

[…]

We introduce a new top level type, InlineArray, to the standard library which is a fixed-size contiguously inline allocated array. We’re defining “inline” as using the most natural allocation pattern depending on the context of where this is used. It will be stack allocated most of the time, but as a class property member it will be inline allocated on the heap with the rest of the properties. InlineArray will never introduce an implicit heap allocation just for its storage alone.

[…]

InlineArray will be a simple noncopyable struct capable of storing other potentially noncopyable elements. It will be conditionally copyable only when its elements are.

Initialization is special-cased to avoid constructing a temporary array from the literal, and it does not conform to Sequence or Collection.

We do plan to propose new protocols that look like Sequence and Collection that avoid implicit copying making them suitable for types like InlineArray and containers of noncopyable elements. SE-0437 Noncopyable Standard Library Primitives goes into more depth about this rationale and mentions that creating new protocols to support noncopyable containers with potentially noncopyable elements are all marked as future work.

[…]

With the introduction of InlineArray, we have a unique opportunity to fix another pain point within the language with regards to C interop. Currently, the Swift compiler imports a C array of type T[24] as a tuple of T with 24 elements.

But they haven’t decided how to do that yet without breaking compatibility.

Previously:

Grammarly vs. Apple’s Writing Tools

Adam Engst:

Keep that background in mind when I say that my $144 annual subscription to Grammarly is one of my most worthwhile tech expenses. While Apple is just now getting into the game with its Writing Tools, Grammarly has been helping my writing since 2016. Its interface and capabilities have improved over time, and for what I need to write and edit in Google Docs, WordPress, Discourse, Mimestream, and now Lex, Grammarly has become an essential tool. For native Mac apps, you need the Grammarly Desktop app; for Web apps, Grammarly provides extensions for Safari, Chrome (and Chromium browsers like Arc), and Firefox.

[…]

Although Grammarly lets you turn off numerous aspects of its checking, my gripes are not among them.

[…]

However, thanks to the judicious addition of generative AI tools, I’m now happy to accept a few editing tics for the significant improvements that Grammarly makes to my drafts.

[…]

Since late October, I’ve become hooked on a feature that allows you to select text and hover over a blue button to the left of the paragraph to see an improved version with changes clearly highlighted.

[…]

While Grammarly integrates seamlessly into your text and clearly shows what will happen if you accept a change in nearly all situations, Apple’s Writing Tools require constant activation and provide significantly less feedback about their changes.

Chit Chat Across the Pond:

This week, the delightful Adam Engst of TidBITS joins us to talk about how he learned to write so well, what it’s like having an editor, and then moves into how he uses the AI tool Grammarly to improve his writing.

He says that Grammarly has gotten a lot better recently.

Previously:

Update (2025-03-03): Collin Donnell:

I’m back on Grammarly, at least until we see what improvements Apple has in a few months. I still like Proofread, but the UI is pretty lacking. There’s nothing between “add missing commas” and “rewrite this and completely change the tone.”

On the Undesign of Apple Intelligence Features

Nick Heer:

The flaws in results from Apple Intelligence’s many features are correctly scrutinized. Because of that, I think some people have overlooked the questionable user interface choices.

[…]

Apple is not breaking new ground in features, nor is it strategically. It is rarely first to do anything. What it excels at is implementation. Apple often makes some feature or product, however time-worn by others, feel so well-considered it has reached its inevitable form. That is why it is so baffling to me to use features in the Apple Intelligence suite and feel like they are half-baked.

[…]

What this looks like on my Mac, sometimes, is as a blue button beside text I have highlighted. This is not consistent — this button appears in MarsEdit but not Pages; TextEdit but not BBEdit. These tools are also available from a contextual menu, which is the correct place in MacOS for taking actions upon a selection.

In any case, Writing Tools materializes in a popover. Despite my enabling of Reduce Transparency across the system, it launches with a subtle Apple Intelligence gradient background that makes it look translucent before it fades out. This popover works a little bit like a contextual menu and a little like a panel while doing the job of neither very successfully. Any action taken from this popover will spawn another popover.

As with Translate, I don’t think popovers work well for large blocks of text that I want to interact with.

Jason Snell:

I’m sure Apple is pouring everything it can into building better, more modern models, and we’ll hear about that effort in detail in June. But what troubles me most about the Apple Intelligence rollout isn’t that Apple was caught flatfooted by the AI hype train and is struggling to catch up—it’s that Apple’s implementation of AI features also feels slapdash and rushed.

Apple doesn’t have to end up with the best large language model around in order to win the AI wars. It can be in the ballpark of the best or partner with the leaders to get what it needs. But it can’t fail at the part that is uniquely Apple: Making those features a pleasure to use, in the way we all expect from Apple. Right now, that’s where Apple is failing.

Nick Heer:

Apple has a chance to move A.I. features beyond a blinking cursor in a chat bot — like a plain language command line. Very little of what is out today is a thoughtful implementation of these features. Cleanup in Photos is pretty good. Most of the other stuff — summaries of phone calls, Notification Summaries, Writing Tools, Memory Movies in Photos, and response suggestions in Mail and Messages — are more cumbersome than they are elegant.

Previously:

Copyright © 2000–2025 Michael Tsai.