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The Rational-and-Secure Edition Friday, September 27, 2019

Why Apple Asks For Your Passcode Or Password With A New Login (And Why It’s Safe), by Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS

What this process appears to show is that Apple never sees, handles, or stores your device passcode or password in unencrypted form, and it never passes the passcode or password over anything but secure transport. It requires only your Apple ID account name and password, sent over HTTPS, as the first stage of logging into iCloud, but not for the later stages.

Overall, this new approach seems rational and secure. Apple would do well to give users more confidence in what’s happening by providing an explanatory support document, and I hope Apple will provide in-depth details when it updates the iOS security white paper for iOS 13.

The Clever Tech Powering The New Apple Watch's Always-On Display, by David Nield, Gizmodo

The excellent power efficiency of LTPS, plus the way that IGZO handles lower display frequencies very well, is what helps make the Apple Watch 5 display special. Of course, it’s easier to do this sort of display circuitry manipulation on a smaller scale, so it might be some time before it appears in Apple’s phones and tablets.

Apple Content

Apple Plans To Bring Feature-Length Films To Theaters, by Tripp Mickle and Erich Schwartzel, Wall Street Journal

The company has made overtures to cinema chains and consulted with an entertainment executive as it pursues a traditional theatrical-release plan that would keep its movies in theaters for weeks before becoming available on Apple TV+, these people said.

By reaching out to theater-industry representatives now and releasing films early, Apple is hoping to attract big-name directors and producers and avoid some of the tension created by another Hollywood newcomer, Netflix Inc., people familiar with Apple’s strategy said.

Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus Will Enter Europe Playing Catch-Up To Netflix, Amazon, by Elsa Keslassy, Variety

Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus are the next global streaming services slated to roll into Europe, joining Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in some of the world’s most lucrative markets. But along with the opportunities come local programming and investment obligations that the new players — including upcoming services Peacock and HBO Max — may struggle to meet.

Chief among these is a requirement that their catalogs offer at least 30% European content by the end of 2020. It’s still unclear how that 30% will be assessed — according to number of hours or number of titles — but officials are expected to clarify the issue by the end of this year. “It’s going to be a challenge for the European Commission to come up with a fair system for the quota,” says Ed Border of London-based consultancy Ampere Analysis. Counting either by titles or hours could be open to abuse.

Stuff

13 Features Of iOS 13: Mail Improvements, by Dan Moren, Six Colors

First and foremost among them—for me anyway—is the addition of multicolored flags on iOS. 1 While this has long been supported on macOS, it’s one of those areas where the two platforms have been out of sync.

Apple’s iOS And iPadOS 13 Support Multiple PS4 Or Xbox One Controllers, Which Could Be Huge For Arcade, by Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch

Apple added Xbox One and PlayStation 4 controller support in the updates, and after doing some digging, I can confirm that you can use multiple of either type of controller on one iOS device running the update, with each controlling a different player character.

Moon++ Is A Standalone Apple Watch App With An Astronomically Accurate Lunar Complication, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

The goal of Moon++ is simple. The moon you see on your Apple Watch will look like the moon you see in the sky based on where you are on the planet.

Develop

Open Offices Are A Capitalist Dead End, by Farhad Manjoo, New York Times

Much will be written in the coming weeks about how WeWork failed investors and employees. But I want to spotlight another constituency. WeWork’s fundamental business idea — to cram as many people as possible into swank, high-dollar office space, and then shower them with snacks and foosball-type perks so they overlook the distraction-carnival of their desks — fails office workers, too.

Cross The World Four Times, by Derek Sivers

First, in your teens or 20s, as soon as you’re ready to take it all in. See it all, and learn. Get involved. Stay up all night talking with strangers, everywhere. Kiss and fall and promise to them all. Make lots of mistakes.

Cross the world the first time to fall in love.

Notes

Apple Has Begun Hiring For Its In-house Siri Grading Team In Response To Privacy Concerns, by Joshua Fruhlinger, Thinknum

In total, 19 localized Siri Grading jobs listings have appeared at the various offices, with Grading Analysts being the most common, with the Cork, Ireland, office seeing the most hiring activity so far. That office is where Apple recently laid off 300 Siri Grading contractors.