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The Small-Frustrations Edition Friday, June 17, 2016

Apple’s Big Security Upgrades Will Save You From Yourself, by Brian Barrett, Wired

While Apple appears to have delayed some of its bigger security projects—most notably, encrypting iCloud backups so that not even Apple can access them—it’s still showing serious ambition, sometimes in surprising places. The result will be an iOS and macOS experience that trades convenience for protection in a few key ways. Apple will introduce small frustrations now, to prevent large, even unfixable, frustrations down the road.

iOS 10 Adds AirPrint Bluetooth Beacon, ‘Create PDF’, Multi-user & Password-only Printing, by Jordan Kahn, 9to5Mac

New in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra, Apple’s AirPrint is getting some welcomed improvements including ‘AirPrint Bluetooth Beacon’, the ability to create PDFs from the print panel in iOS, and support for multi-user and password-only printing.

Stuff

Apple Drops Free AppleCare, Lowers Discount On Macs For U.K. Students, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

As of this week, Apple's online higher education store in the U.K. now offers up to 10 percent off Macs and other qualifying purchases, whereas the discount was previously up to 15 percent off. [...] Apple also no longer includes three years of complimentary AppleCarewith Macs, with one year of phone support, and instead offers students 50 percent off the protection plan.

FamilyTime Premium (For iPhone), by Neil J. Rubenking, PC Magazine

In order to do its job, a parental control utility needs to have low-level access to network and operating system functions. Apple's tight control over what iOS apps can do makes life tough for parental control vendors. FamilyTime Premium (for iPhone) is one of several recent releases that have managed to find ways to exert the necessary control. It does quite a bit, but many of its features aren't yet implemented.

Develop

TestFlight Updated With Support For Testing Apps In iOS 10, watchOS And tvOS Betas, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple has also updated its App Analytics feature with data on App Store Impressions, allowing developers to tell how many times an app’s icon has been viewed in App Store search results, the Featured section of the App Store, the Top Charts, and the App Store product page.

Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy, by Corbett Barr

We often mix up those concepts, simple and easy. They’re two different things. You hear this confusion sometimes after a successful strategy is revealed to be incredibly simple, when people respond by saying, “it can’t be that easy.” It’s not easy, it’s simple.

Notes

Apple iPhones Found To Have Violated Chinese Rival’s Patent, by David Ramli, Bloomberg

Apple Inc. violated the design patents of a Chinese device maker and may have to halt sales of its latest iPhones in Beijing, the city’s intellectual property authority ruled, handing the U.S. company its latest setback in a pivotal market.

The Truth About Working For Deliveroo, Uber And The On-demand Economy, by Homa Khaleeli, The Guardian

Supporters argue that this “on demand” economy offers those who choose to work for them the independence and flexibility to fit their work to their lifestyle, or supplement their income from another job. Uber’s UK chief, Jo Bertram, points out: “Over two-thirds of new people signing up to drive with Uber have been referred by an existing partner-driver because they love the freedom and flexibility.” While Deliveroo say they have more than 3,000 riders in the UK – a number that is rising weekly.

But maybe it’s not as simple as it seems: strikes and class actions by workers in the on-demand economy, along with government restrictions, seem to be popping up as quickly as new apps. So what is it really like working in the on-demand world? We asked four people about their experience.

8 Gadgets Devoted Solely To Spreading Butter On Stuff, by Mary Beth Quirk, Consumerist

You know what would make that bread better, that corn on the cob more delectable, that muffing more muffin-y? Butter. Yet apparently so many people have difficulty spreading butter evenly that multiple companies have come up with supposed solutions to this age-old problem.

Are these gadgets any better than heating a traditional knife under hot water and going at it? Is spreading butter so difficult that the average consumer must arm themselves with a drawer full of dedicated devices? We don’t know — all we know is that they exist — and here are a bunch of them.

Bottom of the Page

Seems like any company doing business in China should simply treat any profits as bonus, and should have an expectation that, at any moment, the business can be wiped out.

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Thanks for reading.