MyAppleMenu - Fri, Sep 25, 2015

Fri, Sep 25, 2015The Waiting-To-Thin-Apps Edition

Apple's Space-Saving App Thinning Feature Delayed Due To iCloud Issue, by AppleInsider

Users looking to take advantage of iOS 9 App Thinning, a suite of optimization technologies created to reduce the size of app installs, will have to wait, as Apple announced unavailability of a key component due to an iCloud bug.

Fun With iPad Backup And Restore, by Dan Moren, Six Colors

Sandboxing To The Rescue

XcodeGhost: App Store Malware Shows The Weakest Links And Apple’s Advantage, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

The inserted code could have been far worse but still highly limited, due to how Apple sandboxes each app and the restrictions on information access.

iPhone Adventures

What Are Those Kids Doing With That Enormous Gun?, by Will McGrath, The Atlantic

But the phone stayed off for the next two weeks. She gave up hope of recovering it and switched to an old flip phone for a while. Soon afterwards, she moved to Canada, got another smartphone, and started a new job. The whole matter drifted almost entirely from her mind.

Then, in August, she got another email. Find My iPhone had located the device again: It was in Sana’a, Yemen. That’s when the pictures began appearing in her iCloud account.

Stuff

Adobe Releases Photoshop And Premiere Elements 14 For Mac With New Tools, by AppleInsider

With Photoshop Elements 14, Adobe introduces tools for removing camera shake and haze from still images. Like other Elements features, fine adjustments are possible for a custom look.

Microsoft's New Invite App Makes Scheduling Meetings On iPhone A Breeze, by Blair Hanley Frank, IDG News Service

It's a product of the company's Garage idea incubator, and focused on helping people coordinate meetings on the go. Users sign up with their Office 365 or other email account, and can then set up an event invitation with a few taps that includes information about the meeting along with some suggested times that invitees can get together. Invite can then reserve all of the possible event times on an organizer's schedule, to help prevent double booking.

Hipstamatic Camera App Is Available For Free With New iPhone 6S Features, by Sam Byford, The Verge

The interface also supports 3D touch — for example you can press lightly on a thumbnail to "peek" at the image, or press harder to "pop" into the editing mode. There are also various shortcuts accessible from the home screen icon.

Netflix Adds In-App Subscriptions For iPhone And iPad, by Rich McCormick, The Verge

The company has added in-app purchases to its iOS apps that allow you to subscribe directly from the Netflix app on your iPhone or iPad, taking after other streaming services such as HBO Now, Spotify, and Hulu, all of which already supported in-app subscription.

Google Keep Brings Its Note-Taking Prowess To The iPhone And iPad, by Dan Thorp-Lancaster, iMore

BookPress For iPad Lets You Create Your Book On The Go, by Istvan Fekete, Tech Co

Adblock Fast: A Free And Open Source Ad Blocker For iOS 9, by Jim Lynch, CIO

Develop

Apple Redesigns iTunes Connect, Updates Apple Store App For iPhone 6s, by AppleInsider

Perhaps the biggest functional feature addition is an automatic release feature that lets developers specify a date and time they want their app to be published to the App Store after it passes review. Pricing and availability options are also enhanced with easier control over promotional price and regional rollout settings.

Apple Updates TestFlight App With Support For tvOS Internal Testing, by Mike Beasley, 9to5Mac

Notes

Apple Propels An Ad-Blocking Cottage Industry, by Jack Marshall, Wall Street Journal

There is money to be made blocking ads and, as it turns out, allowing ads to evade ad blockers.

Eyeo GmbH, the company behind popular desktop ad-blocking tool Adblock Plus, now accepts payment from around 70 companies in exchange for letting their ads through its filter. Eyeo stipulates that they must comply with its “acceptable ads” policy, meaning their ads aren’t too disruptive or intrusive to users. In total, ads from some 700 companies meet the acceptable ads policy, an Eyeo spokesman said.

Obama Administration Explored Ways To Bypass Smartphone Encryption, by Andrea Peterson and Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post

An Obama administration working group has explored four possible approaches tech companies might use that would allow law enforcement to unlock encrypted communications — access that some tech firms say their systems are not set up to provide.

The group concluded that the solutions were “technically feasible,” but all had drawbacks as well.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

I told the EMT I was attempting autoerotic asphyxiation because it was less embarrassing than telling him I was 46 & couldn't tie a necktie.

— Uncle Duke (@UncleDuke1969) September 23, 2015

Thanks for reading.