Is Apple Banning Free Analytics SDKs?
Feb 10, 2021, 4:24 PM
Allen Pike (tweet, Hacker News): The most popular analytics SDKs are free because they’re owned by companies that sell ads, or share data with those companies: Google Analytics, Flurry, and Google’s Firebase. Paid competitors...
Student’s Developer Account Mistakenly Terminated
Feb 10, 2021, 4:24 PM
Anne Drewa (also: MacRumors, tweet): A free Indigenous language app developed by a first-year UBC student from Prince Rupert, B.C. is up and running again after Apple mistakenly accused the young developer of dishonest and fraudulent acts....
Apple Removes Apps for Pakistani Government
Feb 10, 2021, 4:24 PM
Megha Rajagopalan (Hacker News): Over the last two years, the government of Pakistan has forced Google and Apple to take down apps in the country created by developers based in other nations who are part of a repressed religious...
“EDR” Brings HDR to Non-HDR Displays
Feb 10, 2021, 4:23 PM
Stu Maschwitz (via Hacker News): When I watched the announcement of this display, I was curious how Apple would handle an HDR video monitor that was also tasked with the mundane duty of displaying your email and a web browser. Was Apple...
The Battle Inside Signal
Feb 10, 2021, 4:23 PM
Casey Newton (The Verge, Hacker News): But Signal’s rapid growth has also been a cause for concern. In the months leading up to and following the 2020 US presidential election, Signal employees raised questions about the development...
macOS 11.2.1
Feb 9, 2021, 4:44 PM
Juli Clover: According to Apple’s release notes, macOS Big Sur 11.2.1 addresses an issue that could prevent the battery from charging in some 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro models. Juli Clover: According to an Apple security support...
Apple’s Supply Chain
Feb 9, 2021, 4:44 PM
Austin Carr and Mark Gurman (tweet, via Josh Centers, MacRumors): Biden’s question put Cook, who’d become Apple’s CEO the previous August, in an awkward position. He was the architect of the strategy to outsource...
iOS 14.5: Setting the Default Music Service
Feb 9, 2021, 4:44 PM
Jay Peters (tweet): But users who have already installed the beta discovered another great feature: you’ll be able to select a third-party default music service when you ask to play a song using Siri — including Spotify (via...
Scammy WatchChat Competitors
Feb 9, 2021, 4:44 PM
WatchChat Alex (tweet, Dave Mark): I have spent the last four years of my life working on my very successful app only to have it ruined by scam apps with very obvious fake reviews as well as false advertising claims that Apple does not...
Remaining Issues New in Catalina
Feb 9, 2021, 4:43 PM
After staying on Mojave for an extra year due to the large number of issues with Catalina, I started using it on my main Mac with macOS 10.15.7. This post lists some of the problems I’ve run into that were not present in Mojave....
Check Free Space Before Updating to Big Sur
Feb 8, 2021, 3:56 PM
Mr. Macintosh: The macOS Big Sur upgrade is not checking for available HD space. The upgrade will run out of space and fail. Even worse, if FV2 encryption is enabled, you will be locked out of your data! […] This isn’t the...
Intel’s M1 Benchmarks
Feb 8, 2021, 3:55 PM
Joe Rossignol: Nearly three months after the launch of Apple’s rave-reviewed M1 Macs, Intel has fired back, but there are some asterisks involved.In a slideshow shared by PCWorld this week, Intel highlighted what PCWorld described as...
iPhone’s Adult Content Filter Blocks Anything “Asian”
Feb 8, 2021, 3:55 PM
Victoria Song (via Hacker News): Enabling Apple’s “Limit Adult Websites” filter in the iOS Screen Time setting will block users from seeing any Google search results for “Asian” in any browser on their...
Call Recorder Succumbs to Apple Silicon
Feb 8, 2021, 3:55 PM
Ecamm: Call Recorder for Skype is not compatible with Apple’s M1 Macs. […] Call Recorder for Skype will not be updated for compatibility with M1 Macs. Jason Snell: Over the past year, nearly every Skype update has broken...
Homebrew 3.0.0
Feb 5, 2021, 4:19 PM
Mike McQuaid (MacRumors, Hacker News): The most significant changes since 2.7.0 are official Apple Silicon support and a new bottle format in formulae.[…]formulae.brew.sh formula pages indicate for which platforms bottles (binary...
AdWords Phrase Match Changes
Feb 5, 2021, 4:19 PM
Google: Over the years, we’ve improved our understanding of intent to make it easier for you to reach your customers. For example, your keywords can now match to the meaning of a search, and broad match is now more effective at...
macOS 11.3 Beta
Feb 5, 2021, 4:19 PM
John Voorhees (tweet, MacRumors): Similar to iOS and iPadOS, Reminders is gaining the option to print lists. Music adds a dedicated ‘Made For You’ section in the sidebar that includes your annual Replay playlists and...
Yottamaster 4-Bay Hard Drive Enclosure
Feb 5, 2021, 4:19 PM
Tyler Hall: But it always drove me crazy giving up USB ports for multiple drives. And especially the awfulness of giant power bricks and their cables. I have no idea why I never thought to look for something like this before, but that...
Apple Wants Developer Transition Kits Back
Feb 4, 2021, 9:30 PM
Filipe Espósito (Hacker News, MacRumors, tweet): In an email sent to developers today, Apple says that soon developers will have to return the Developer Transition Kit (DTK) as it was only designed to test the apps on the Apple...
Deleting DerivedData the Right Way
Feb 4, 2021, 9:28 PM
Jeff Johnson: Finder is good about automatically unregistering apps with Launch Services when you put them in the trash and empty it (but not before emptying the trash). However, the rm command-line tool bypasses the trash, and thus also...
SwiftDtoa v2
Feb 4, 2021, 9:27 PM
tbkka (via Steve Canon): SwiftDtoa is the C/C++ code used in the Swift runtime to produce the textual representations used by the description and debugDescription properties of the standard Swift floating-point types. This update includes...
Tim Cook to Be Deposed for Epic Case
Feb 4, 2021, 9:27 PM
Tim Hardwick (tweet): A judge presiding over preparatory hearings in the Apple vs. Epic Games court case has ruled that Apple CEO Tim Cook must attend a seven-hour long deposition to testify about how the company views App Store...
Jeff Bezos to Step Down as Amazon CEO
Feb 3, 2021, 4:27 PM
Jeff Bezos (Hacker News): I’m excited to announce that this Q3 I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO. In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new...
LAMBDA: The Ultimate Excel Worksheet Function
Feb 3, 2021, 4:27 PM
Andy Gordon and Simon Peyton Jones: The Calc Intelligence project at Microsoft Research Cambridge has a long-standing partnership with the Excel team to transform spreadsheet formulas into a full-fledged programming language. The fruits of...
Scammy KeyWatch and Trezor Apps
Feb 3, 2021, 4:27 PM
Kosta Eleftheriou (Hacker News): Just a few months ago, I was way ahead of my competition. By the time they figured out just how hard autocorrect algorithms were, I was already rolling out the swipe version of my keyboard, quickly...
Chrome Browser Extension for iCloud Passwords
Feb 2, 2021, 4:54 PM
Tim Hardwick: Apple has released an iCloud password extension for Google’s Chrome browser on Windows that allows iCloud Keychain passwords to be used on PCs.Called simply “iCloud Passwords,” the extension allows users to...
iOS 14.5: Unlock an iPhone While Wearing a Mask
Feb 2, 2021, 4:54 PM
Juli Clover (tweet): In iOS 14.5, there’s a new option to unlock an iPhone with Face ID and an Apple Watch paired together, with the Apple Watch’s authentication providing an extra layer of security.If you’re wearing an...
Xcode 12.5 Beta
Feb 2, 2021, 4:54 PM
Apple: Xcode 12.5 Beta requires a Mac running macOS Big Sur 11 or later. […] The Reveal Build Products Folder item in the Product menu reveals the build products directory in Finder. […] Code completion is more reliable in...
macOS 11.2
Feb 2, 2021, 4:54 PM
Juli Clover: According to Apple’s release notes, macOS Big Sur 11.2 addresses several bugs, such as an issue that could cause external external displays to show a black screen when connected to an M1 Mac mini using an HDMI to DVI...
Old SuperDuper for Big Sur
Feb 1, 2021, 4:51 PM
Dave Nanian (Hacker News, tweet): To accomplish this, use an old version of SuperDuper—specifically, v3.2.5—to copy the Data volume, which is shown in the older version!v3.2.5 is well tested, having been on the market for quite...
CDC’s Vaccine Data System
Feb 1, 2021, 4:51 PM
Cat Ferguson (via Hacker News, Reddit): Unless you’re in one of the few states using it, you may not have heard of VAMS. But it was supposed to be a one-stop shop where employers, state officials, clinics, and individuals could...
Misleading and Inaccurate iOS Privacy Labels
Feb 1, 2021, 4:50 PM
Geoffrey A. Fowler (Hacker News, MacRumors): I downloaded a de-stressing app called the Satisfying Slime Simulator that gets the App Store’s highest-level label for privacy. It turned out to be the wrong kind of slimy, covertly...