Mothers Ruin Software:
macOS uses many different binary file formats.
Some — like binary property lists — have broad tool support and are relatively easy to inspect…
Some — like X.509 certificates, configuration and provisioning profiles
or App Store receipts — use standard formats, but lack macOS-native inspection tools, or
only have command-line tools that can be awkward to use…
Some — like compiled nibs, keyed archives, code signatures or URL bookmarks — use Apple-proprietary formats
that are not documented and that have no (public) inspection tools.
Even a file in a well-known format often contains data blobs encoded in
one of the other formats — such as an app’s preferences property list, which might contain
URL bookmarks or an archive of serialized objects.
Archaeology gives you a way to dig into a number of these binary files.
This is a delightful app from the developer of Apparency and Suspicious Package. Aside from what’s mentioned above, it supports more formats such as notarization tickets and Mach-O binaries (showing embedded Info.plist files, SDK info, and linked libraries).
Previously:
Archaeology Code Signing Developer Tool Disk Image Interface Builder JSON Mac Mac App Mach-O macOS 15 Sequoia macOS Tahoe 26 Notarization Security Scoped Bookmarks
Apple (MacRumors, 2, Hacker News):
Jeff Williams will transition his role as chief operating officer later this month to Sabih Khan, Apple’s senior vice president of Operations, as part of a long-planned succession. Williams will continue reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook and overseeing Apple’s world-class design team and Apple Watch alongside the company’s Health initiatives. Apple’s design team will then transition to reporting directly to Cook after Williams retires late in the year.
Benjamin Mayo:
I like how the press release says this succession is long planned, and yet they aren’t ready to say who is taking over Apple Watch and Health initiatives.
Also, Cook (himself set to retire in the foreseeable future) has so many direct reports now lol.
John Gruber:
What’s intriguing about the announcement is the design part — a functional area where, especially on the software side, Apple’s current stature is subject to much debate. While Williams is staying on until “late in the year” to continue his other responsibilities — Watch, Health, and serving as the senior executive Apple’s design teams report to — Khan isn’t taking over those roles when Williams leaves. And so by the end of the year, Apple’s design teams will go from reporting to Williams to reporting directly to Tim Cook.
I’ve long found it curious, if not downright dubious, that Apple’s design leaders have reported to Williams ever since it was announced in 2019 (the very same day that Khan was promoted to SVP of operations) that Jony Ive would be stepping down as chief design officer and leaving Apple to found the (as-yet-unnamed) design firm LoveFrom. Williams had no background in design at all.
[…]
I’m of the mind that, in hindsight, it was a mistake for Jony Ive to bring HI (software human interface design) under the same roof as ID (hardware industrial design). That arrangement made sense for Ive’s unique role in the company, and the unique period in the wake of Steve Jobs’s too-young demise. But it might have ultimately made Ive more difficult to replace than Steve Jobs.
I don’t think it ever made sense because it doesn’t seem like Ive really understood software design. And Alan Dye’s background is in advertising and web/print design.
Jeff Johnson:
We’ve come to accept the myth that there’s such a thing as “design” in the abstract, as if some one person were qualified to design anything and everything. That’s ridiculous and nothing but a product of Jony Ive’s hubris.
Mark Gurman:
Apple didn’t announce what will happen to the Watch and Health teams but here’s the likely outcome: Apple never said this but Watch HW was already given to Ternus years ago. You can bet watchOS and health software will go to Federighi. Fitness+ will obviously go to Services.
M.G. Siegler:
Williams joined Apple in 1998 (from IBM), the year after Steve Jobs returned. The same year Cook joined (from Compaq, though he had also been at IBM for a dozen years before that).
Khan joined Apple in 1995, which was obviously before Jobs returned.
The only members of the leadership team that have been at Apple longer are: [Cue, O’Brien, and Joswiak]
[…]
It’s certainly possible that Apple is going to try to spend these next five months finding that design executive. It’s also possible that they promote Dye to such a role – he did have one of the most prominent slots at the WWDC keynote this year thanks to “Liquid Glass” – though as Gruber notes, in hindsight, it may have been a mistake to have one person overseeing hardware and software design – something that only happened because Ive stepped in on the software side after Scott Forstall was forced out in 2012.
Previously:
Alan Dye Apple Apple Watch Design iOS iOS 26 Jonathan Ive Liquid Glass Mac macOS Tahoe 26 Tim Cook watchOS watchOS 26
When I went to download the new Xcode beta, I again ran into an annoying Safari behavior, which seems to be specific to Apple’s sites. It pops up an Apple Account sheet offering to sign me in. But it can only sign in with my personal Apple ID, not my developer one. I have to click the blue text “button” to pick a different account, and there’s no keyboard shortcut for that.
Signing into Apple sites normally requires Apple’s special 2FA, which doesn’t work with Safari auto-fill. So I thought I’d try the Sign in with Passkey button to log in with one step. This should be an ideal use case: Apple’s browser, Apple’s Web site, Apple’s password manager. The first time I clicked the button it showed a progress spinner, and nothing happened for 30 seconds. I reloaded the page and tried again. After 5 seconds, it showed a Sign In sheet, but like the first one it wanted to use my personal Apple ID. I clicked Other Sign in Options, but that only let me use a passkey from a different mobile device or a hardware key.
I thought it was supposed to let me choose from multiple passkeys. Maybe the problem is that I don’t have one for my developer account? I opened the Passwords app, and the Passkeys section showed nothing for Apple. How could this be when account.apple.com does let me sign into my personal account with a passkey? I’m losing hope for the new credentials exchange feature if the app doesn’t even show all of my passkeys.
It seems like I need to create a passkey for my developer account, but I don’t see how to do that. I see nothing about passkeys at account.apple.com or at developer.apple.com/account/. The documentation is almost comically unhelpful:
From anywhere on the Apple Developer website, click Account on the top right.
Sign in to your Apple Account.
Stack Exchange has no idea, saying only that passkeys are created automatically.
Previously:
Apple ID Apple Password Manager iTunes Connect Mac macOS 15 Sequoia Passkeys Safari Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Web Xcode
Apple:
Removed support for creating new Style Transfer projects.
This is the only change that’s noted as being in beta 3. Why can’t Apple write release notes that tell us what’s actually new in this build?
Ryan Ashcraft:
The Beta 3 SDK adds support for Glass.clear, which looks like the glass material used more commonly throughout the system in Beta 1 and 2 of iOS 26. Less contrast, more glass-like.
Xcode Releases:
The download page says it requires macOS 15.4 or later, but Xcode’s Info.plist says it requires 15.5. The Info.plist is always correct.
[…]
Most importantly, #Xcode 26.0 beta 3 sees the return of the “BETA” badge on its app icon!
Malin Sundberg:
Whoop whoop! Now we can finally find a workaround for this 😬
John Siracusa:
I still can’t create a release build of my app in Xcode 26 beta 3 on Tahoe beta 3 due to a “swift-frontend” error. After three betas of this, I’m starting to worry that I won’t be able to release an updated build for Tahoe!
It looks like beta 3 may have fixed a problem I was having with Swift Testing, but it also brought a flurry of SourceKit crashes when editing code.
Sean Heber:
My Xcode beta 3 installed yesterday seemingly forgot I had the iOS 26 SDK installed today and I had to reinstall it.
Kinda feels like nothing on my computer is mine, ya know? It’s all being managed externally by unknown entities and changes on a whim. Can’t trust anything to just…. be left alone.
Previously:
Mac macOS Tahoe 26 Programming Xcode
