Archive for July 19, 2024

Friday, July 19, 2024

Google Docs Can Import and Export Markdown

In 2022, we introduced expanded support for composing with Markdown in Google Docs on web. Today, we’re introducing highly-requested features that enhance Docs’ interoperability with other Markdown supporting tools. These include the ability to:
Convert Markdown to Docs content on paste
Copy Docs content as Markdown
Export a Doc as Markdown (from File > Download)
Import Markdown as a Doc (from File > Open or “Open with Google Docs” from Drive)

This sounds great, reminiscent of OmniFocus’s support for TaskPaper. You can collaborate on a big document in Google Docs and then convert it to a more useful format. And it’s also great to be able to copy and paste little snippets, as Markdown has become kind of an interchange micro format for formatted text.

Google Docs Markdown OmniFocus TaskPaper Web

3 Comments

iDOS 3 Still Rejected From the App Store, Despite UTM

Litchie (Hacker News):

Appeal was rejected by App Review Board: “We understand that you might disagree with our findings. However, the app still provides emulator functionality but is not emulating a retro game console specifically. Only emulators of retro game consoles are appropriate per guideline 4.7.” As to why UTM was approved but not iDOS, they wrote: “If you believe that you have identified apps that don’t comply with the App Review Guidelines, you may use the Report an app form at any time to report trust and safety concerns for apps on the App Store.” Thanks, but no, that is ridiculous, I have zero concern about trust and safety running an emulator.

Christina Warren:

This is so bogus. UTM SE gets into the App Store after it was accepted into @rileytestut’s Alt Store but iDOS 3 is still not allowed. Just bogus.

alanlammiman:

Our app Sticky has been rejected based on guideline 4.7 too. We are a social media app and included HTML5 games. Apple kept claiming that “offering HTML5 games appears to be the primary purpose of your app” which is not the case (certainly not in the update we are submitting) as we have several other features with equal weight. The changes to guideline 4.7 which allow HTML5 mini-games or mini-apps and which allow emulators were made in late January of this year, shortly before the US DOJ antitrust suit, where these issues are central, was filed (March). I imagine Apple changed the guideline for a legal or PR reason related to that suit, but does not really want to follow its own updated guidelines and so is finding every excuse it possibly can to reject emulators and apps with HTML5 mini-games/mini-apps. In our case, after the appeal, we were called up by someone from Apple who started the call saying they did not consent to it being recorded (how’s that for inspiring trust?), who walked-back what they had said about HTML5 (and of course they did not put that in writing in the message they sent afterwards), but then came up with a couple of brand-new reasons for keeping our update off the store: claiming that we had changed the app concept… because our app was different some 4 years ago and hundreds of updates ago when it started! And including mentioning rule 4.7 regarding emulators… which we are not and do not claim to be!

Previously:

Update (2024-07-22): Craig Grannell (Mastodon):

Apple has been inconsistent in the past with App Store rules and approvals, but this pairing is especially stark and egregious. At this point, I wouldn’t spend a single second developing an emulator for iOS. Which is probably how Apple wants it anyway.

[…]

What gets me is this is all so stupid and unnecessary. There’s clearly reluctance from somewhere senior in Apple about emulators. But then the company sort of changed its mind, yet provided no rules. It instead went for the developer-hostile “we’ll know it when we see it”. Only ‘it’ doesn’t mean anything specific. If it did, we wouldn’t currently have ZX81, C64 and MSX emulators on the App Store, given that they emulate hardware platforms that are not retro gaming consoles.

App Store App Store Rejection Emulator iDOS iOS iOS 17 iOS App MS-DOS Sticky

2 Comments

Apple Passwords App in Sequoia and iOS 18

Jay Peters (Hacker News):

Password managers are essential. They keep track of your passwords, encourage better security practices, and generally help to manage your life across your devices. They’re the kind of feature that really should be built into every device — and Apple is massively expanding their reach with the launch of its new Passwords app, announced this week at WWDC.

We have companies like 1Password and LastPass to thank for the popularity of today’s password managers. But an announcement like Apple’s puts them in a tough position: now that Apple has a free, built-in Passwords app, is there a future for the third-party apps that defined the space?

I assume they’ve been expecting a Sherlocking for a long time, which is why they pivoted to the enterprise, multiple platforms, and multi-user stuff.

I see nothing to tempt me from PasswordWallet—which has a separate long password, uses standard files, and supports HTML export, a compact UI, and auto-typing. But the new Passwords app will be nice for managing my 2FA codes and passkeys, and for family passwords. I haven’t used it extensively yet, but my initial impression is that it’s the best-feeling SwiftUI app from Apple. (Hopefully they’ll add drag and drop to groups.)

Matthias Gansrigler:

Passwords app. At last an app that is released for all of Apple’s platforms at once.

Ricky Mondello:

There’s an awesome new tool in the journey to replace passwords: Automatic passkey upgrades.
For a short window after a user signs in using Password AutoFill, apps and websites can “conditionally” request passkey creation for that same account. The Passwords app then creates a new passkey and notifies the user. No upsells or speed bumps.
All credential managers can support this! (There’s lots of new API for credential managers this year!)
[…]
Here’s how I think about this: we’ve transferred the consent-to-upgrade from being something every website secures to something that the password manager secures. Up to the password manager to decide how to talk to the user about it. In Apple’s Passwords app, users can turn this off.

See also: WWDC and Hacker News.

Ricky Mondello:

Yes, the Passwords app has importing, but only on macOS. (File-based importing and exporting of password manager data isn’t all that common on iOS and iPadOS.)

1Password has the ability to export its data into a CSV file, which Apple Passwords will happily import.

Ricky Mondello:

You can manually add additional domains to passwords, but more importantly, when you choose to fill a password on a domain it isn’t saved for, you’ll be prompted to attach the new domain to the password.

Mario Guzmán:

I love the new Passwords app in macOS Sequoia has a menu bar item you can use to access your passwords quickly

Mario Guzmán:

My favorite part of the new Passwords app. Also right clicking on an item allows you to quickly copy a username or password. 😄

Mario Guzmán:

The new Passwords app does not store specific types like Notes you’d like to secure or Credit Card entries.

However, it does now let you store entries that have only a password. You no longer have to enter a fake username and URL.

Ricky Mondello:

Some people missed this and I think it’s a big deal: the Passwords app on iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia lets you to save passwords without a website! It even allows you to import them from other password managers! When adding passwords, you can specify a website or a custom label, like “Router”, "Passport Number”, or “Garage Door”.

Jeff Johnson:

The New Secure Note item… menu item in Keychain Access app is missing on macOS 15

Sohan Subhash:

Another thing holding back the new Passwords app is the lack of Chrome and Firefox support.
Neither browser has support for the macOS password autofill api (introduced in macOS Big Sur).
I saw that Apple added/negotiated support for Apple Pay in third party browsers. Hopefully they can do the same for password autofill this summer.

I’d like to see an API for other browsers to access SMS verification codes, too.

Ricky Mondello:

The new Passwords app does encourage Chrome and Edge users to install the extension on first launch, however. Button opens the browser to the relevant Chrome/Edge Web Store page.

René Fouquet:

I guess the dedicated Apple Passwords app would be a great option for me if Apple also offered an Android version. My little experiment with using Android for a while has taught me that one-platform services can be a real dead end, and this is especially true for something like a password manager.

It does apparently work on Windows via the iCloud app.

John Voorhees:

Federico and I finally got one of our long-term wishes this year with the introduction of a standalone Passwords app on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac that syncs between devices securely using iCloud. I have been slowly but surely transitioning my saved logins from 1Password to Apple’s system for a couple of years in anticipation of this day, and it has paid off. When I opened the new Passwords app on my Mac, it was already pre-populated with over 1,500 passwords, passkeys, verification codes, and Wi-Fi credentials. The app also collects the apps and websites where you’ve used ‘Sign in with Apple’ or ‘Hide My Email’ and includes both a Security category alerting you to any issues with your passwords and a Deleted section where you can recover any recently deleted passwords. There is a section that collects shared passwords, and the app supports importing and exporting passwords, too.

What you won’t find in Passwords is the ability to save attachments or take notes about accounts. That’s too bad because I’ve used 1Password to securely store important legal documents and add notes to shared passwords about how to use certain web accounts in the past. However, with password-protected shared notes in the Notes app, you can partially accomplish the same result, albeit in a different app.

Jason Snell:

And since Apple lets you share passwords with other people—you can create a seemingly unlimited number of arbitrary groups and then move passwords into those groups—it’s really a full-featured option that will suffice for many users.

[…]

I can’t drag an item out of the list and drop it on a Shared Group to assign it to that group, which is a perfectly reasonable thing for a Mac app to allow. And when I imported my 1Password file—a couple thousand passwords that, I admit, could stand to be pruned back—the app slowed to a crawl. Deleting items would sometimes just not stick, search results appeared and disappeared, and even small tasks like deleting a few selected items generated a beach ball pointer. I sure hope these are beta growing pains, because if this performance persists to the fall, the Passwords app runs the risk being branded a dog.

Howard Oakley:

Currently macOS still supports keychains in their original Classic Mac OS format, and file-based keychains remain in wide use. As they can never provide the same level of security as Data Protection keychains, and can’t benefit from biometrics or the Secure Enclave, Apple is moving on to Data Protection keychains as much as possible. The Passwords app looks to be a good step in that direction, particularly for those who share their Data Protection keychain in iCloud.

Apple still has one significant problem to solve: code such as LaunchDaemons and LaunchAgents that don’t run in a user context, but through launchd, can’t currently access a Data Protection keychain, and must rely on file-based keychains. Traditional keychains aren’t going away yet.

System Settings in Sequoia

Malcolm Owen:

Apple has refreshed the System Settings app of macOS Sequoia, with tweaks to how it looks and performs.
[…]
The biggest difference for System Settings is that Apple has shuffled around the positioning of items in the sidebar. This does make it slightly difficult to find things if you’re used to Sonoma placements, but everything’s still findable.

[…]

While there was previously a Passwords section in System Settings, Apple has now moved it to its own dedicated Passwords app.

Jeff Johnson:

This is the System Settings “redesign” LOL

reycat (via Accidental Tech Podcast):

Network locations are back in Sequoia. 👏 👏 👏

Jeff Johnson:

System Settings Privacy & Security now show the number of apps that have access (e.g., None and 0), which is a bit of a relief.

Jeff Johnson:

Look at this ridiculous UI.

I have 5 startup disks.

Is this the oldest instance of horizontal scrolling UI in macOS? It was annoying from the beginning and is even harder to use with the larger icons.

Mario Guzmán:

New iCloud UI in System Settings.

Thomas Tempelmann:

Can someone explain why macOS System Settings lets me reveal non-apps in Finder, via the (i) button, but not “Background” apps? Right-clicking there doesn’t work (that works only in the “Open at login” section). What a UI mess!

This is not fixed in Sequoia.

Mario Guzmán:

We already have to scroll a lot to get to many things due to the lazy list-y design of Setting Settings but do they have to make it so we have to scroll more? Not sure how necessary these headers are.
It’s also a header, so not sure it needs its own visual box around it or row box -- whatever you want to call it.

Ryan Jones:

iOS 18 Settings app is not really different.

big explainer headers

new Apps section

Previously:

Update (2024-07-22): Jeff Johnson:

This is macOS 15 all the time for me.

Apple Password Manager Design iOS iOS 18 Mac macOS 15 Sequoia Software Update System Preferences Transparency Consent and Control (TCC)

8 Comments