tech

Apple advances user security with powerful new data protections – Apple

Apple advances user security with powerful new data protections – Apple:

Apple today introduced three advanced security features focused on protecting against threats to user data in the cloud, representing the next step in its ongoing effort to provide users with even stronger ways to protect their data. With iMessage Contact Key Verification, users can verify they are communicating only with whom they intend. With Security Keys for Apple ID, users have the choice to require a physical security key to sign in to their Apple ID account. And with Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, which uses end-to-end encryption to provide Apple’s highest level of cloud data security, users have the choice to further protect important iCloud data, including iCloud Backup, Photos, Notes, and more.

The below is a nice touch… I dig it!

Apple introduced two-factor authentication for Apple ID in 2015. Today, with more than 95 percent of active iCloud accounts using this protection, it is the most widely used two-factor account security system in the world that we’re aware of. Now with Security Keys, users will have the choice to make use of third-party hardware security keys to enhance this protection. This feature is designed for users who, often due to their public profile, face concerted threats to their online accounts, such as celebrities, journalists, and members of government. For users who opt in, Security Keys strengthens Apple’s two-factor authentication by requiring a hardware security key as one of the two factors. This takes our two-factor authentication even further, preventing even an advanced attacker from obtaining a user’s second factor in a phishing scam.

[Making security easy is really hard. That 95% is pretty amazing outside of corporate you-don’t-have-a-choice settings. Allez!]

Abstraction is Expensive – Speculative Branches

Abstraction is Expensive – Speculative Branches:

Ideally, you would like all of the abstractions you use to have aligned goals with your system. If you can buy a dependency that aligns with your goals, that’s great. If not, you will likely have to “massage” your dependencies to be able to do what you want. This is the first time an abstraction costs you. If you use the wrong database schema (or the wrong technology), you may find yourself scanning database tables when a different schema would do a single lookup. For a non-database example, if you make an electron-based computer game, it will likely be unplayably slow (but you will be able to build it in record time!).

[Abstractions can be a complete drag…]

MarsEdit 5

MarsEdit 5:

MarsEdit 5 features a beautiful new icon, a “Microposting” feature for streamlined short-form blogging, enhanced plain-text editing with built-in Markdown syntax highlighting, a completely rebuilt rich text editor based on Apple’s latest WebKit2 technologies, and a variety of nuanced improvements to make your blogging workflow smoother, and more enjoyable than ever.

[Congrats to Daniel. I’ve been using MarsEdit since its inception (I didn’t want to continue to maintain my own editor “Archipelago” for reasons. MarsEdit was, and is, the solution I chose.)]

Apple announces biggest upgrade to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points – Apple

Apple announces biggest upgrade to App Store pricing, adding 700 new price points – Apple:

Under the updated App Store pricing system, all developers will have the ability to select from 900 price points, which is nearly 10 times the number of price points previously available for most apps. This includes 600 new price points to choose from, with an additional 100 higher price points available upon request. To provide developers around the world with even more flexibility, price points — which will start as low as $0.29 and, upon request, go up to $10,000 — will offer an enhanced selection of price points, increasing incrementally across price ranges (for example, every $0.10 up to $10; every $0.50 between $10 and $50; etc.).

[Marketing people are a special group.]

The GigRig | G3 Software Updates v.512

The GigRig G3 Software Updates:

Link to Software version 512 (iOS). Also, the focus I set on my iPhone while updating.
Featuring:

  • FLIP/FLOP STOMP:  Group several StompBox mode presets together and flip/flop between them
  • SUBTRACTIVE STOMP:  StompBox mode presets now subtract as well as add
  • UP TO 20 MIDI MESSAGES:  We’ve increased the amount of MIDI messages available pre preset from 15 to 20
  • MIDI SEND ON PRESET OFF: When you turn a preset off in StompBox mode you can send a separate MIDI message
  • MIDI SEQUENCER:  Send a string of MIDI commands in sequence
  • BANK DOWN BUTTON:  Assign a button to act as ‘Bank Down’
  • G3 REMOTE/STAGE MIDI CODE:  Link 2 units together and remote access presets between them
  • NAME SONG TITLES WITHIN G3:  You can now name songs within G3 without need for the app

[I don’t know why I don’t find these easy to find, but it won’t hurt to spread them around. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Some of the features in this update are quite helpful. I dig stombox mode, and like the notion of “subtractive”, but I don’t like the notion of it being “different” from regular stomp. It should “toggle” the loop.]

Recovery Options on Apple Silicon Macs

Michael Tsai – Blog – Recovery Options on Apple Silicon Macs:

When pressed briefly, it starts the Mac up in normal macOS mode; when pressed and held until the Mac reports that it’s loading Recovery Options, it engages Recovery mode, where you navigate startup and other options using buttons and menus. These invariably work fully with Apple’s wireless keyboards and mice/trackpads, so there’s no need to connect them with their charging leads.

[Lots more links and info, but I’m sure I’ll be looking this stuff up if needed.]

The Incentivized Waste of Free Returns and the Gutting of Alexa

The Incentivized Waste of Free Returns — Pixel Envy:

The supposedly efficient marketplace has produced a system where the cost of production has decreased so much — through deliberately seeking the lowest-wage factory workers and taking a hands-off approach to their safety — that it is trivial for some retailers to discard huge amounts of merchandise from returns and overstock. The incentives are all backwards.

Also:

Amazon Is Gutting Alexa:

It seems none of these predictions has fully panned out. There are many people who will continue ordering groceries with curb-side pickup, buy everything online with the understanding anything unwanted can simply be sent back, and maybe some people will yell at their speaker to send them a new box of Dutch Blitz after a particularly aggressive board game night. Most people probably will not. We will mostly continue to click “Add to Cart” and shop in stores near where we live. We should make cities more accessible and less car-centric because that helps our communities far more than pressing a button near your laundry machine to have more detergent shipped to you.

[It can be hard to tell when something isn’t working and when the tech isn’t good enough, and when new horrifying habits are enabled. But I feel like part of that difficulty is momentum.]

MailMate

MailMate:

MailMate is an IMAP email client for macOS featuring extensive keyboard control, Markdown integrated email composition, advanced search conditions and drill-down search links, equally advanced smart mailboxes, automatic signature handling, cryptographic encryption/signing (OpenPGP and S/MIME), tagging, multiple notification methods, alternative message viewer layouts including a widescreen layout, flexible integration with third party applications, and much more.

[I’m not currently using it… but thinking of goiing back to it.]