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The Daily-Interactions Edition Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Apple Taps 'Ted Lasso' Star In iPhone Privacy Push, by Roman Loyola, Macworld

Starting on January 28, Apple is introducing a new in-person Today at Apple session at the Apple Store where iPhone users can learn about the device’s privacy settings. “Taking Charge of Your Privacy on iPhone” shows the areas where users need to show caution–Mail Privacy Protection, Safety Check, Location Services, and passkeys–and how to adjust these settings on the iPhone. [...]

Before you attend the session, you can watch Apple’s new video, created to make users aware of the daily interactions that impact data privacy. “A Day in the Life of an Average Person’s Data” stars Ted Lasso actor Nick Mohammed as he goes about his day and the four data privacy issues that anyone encounters.

Apple Releases HomePod 16.3 Software With Humidity And Temperature Sensing, Find My Improvements, Audio Tuning, And More, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Ambient sounds have been remastered to be more immersive and can be added to scenes, automations, and alarms in the Home app, and recurring Home automations can be set up using Siri commands. Apple has also added a unique confirmation tone that will play when smart home requests are enacted for accessories that are located in a different room or that do not show a visible change.

Getting a MacBook Pro

Five Reasons Why M1 Pro Users Might Want To Upgrade To The M2 Pro MacBook Pro, by Michael Simon, Macworld

There are still a few reasons why power users might want to trade in their M1 model and upgrade.

M2 Pro And M2 Max MacBook Pros Feature Faster SSD Write Speeds, Tests Show, by Sami Fathi, MacRumors

The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros powered by the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips feature faster SSD write speeds compared to their predecessors, according to tests and reviews of the new laptops.

2023 MacBook Pro SSD Has Performance Drop Similar To M2 MacBook Air, by Derek Wise, 9to5Mac

Like the base level M2 MacBook Air, the base level of the latest MacBook Pro seems to feature fewer NAND chips – at a higher capacity – than the last generation. This results in SSD read and write performance that’s dramatically lower than the previous generation.

Stuff

Apple Patches Exploited iOS Vulnerability In Old iPhones, by Eduard Kovacs, SecurityWeek

Apple announced the release of iOS 12.5.7, which patches CVE-2022-42856, a WebKit vulnerability that has been exploited by hackers against devices running iOS prior to version 15.1.

The vulnerability, whose exploitation was first seen by Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG), can be used for arbitrary code execution through specially crafted web content.

Hands-on: Sunsama Is A New Daily Planner App That Claims It’s ‘Not A Productivity App’, by Fernando Silva, 9to5Mac

It will ask you when you like to plan your day and set it as a routine; the idea is to take 5-10 minutes every morning to plan your day. You are then told to plan your daily goals, then reflect on what you accomplished the previous day, and take note of what you plan to accomplish the following day. Everything with a very positive connotation, which is what brings me back to this every morning. It’s almost like a breathing exercise before taking on the day.

Tested: Brydge ProDock Offers Instant Connectivity For Desktop Setups, At A Price, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

Even if you only have a single-cable connection to your Mac, it still beats having to put the Mac down, then connect it. Obviously the more accessories you have connected, the more convenient it seems.

[...]

Even then, you still have to weigh convenience and time-saving against the cost. That’s going to be a personal balancing act, so only you can decide.

Notes

Apple Beefs Up Smartphone Services In ‘Silent War’ Against Google, by Patrick McGee, Financial Times

Apple is taking steps to separate its mobile operating system from features offered by Google parent Alphabet, making advances around maps, search and advertising that has created a collision course between the Big Tech companies.

[...]

One of these people said Apple is still engaged in a “silent war” against its arch-rival. It is doing so by developing features that could allow the iPhone-maker to further separate its products from services offered by Google. Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

Perfectly Good MacBooks From 2021 Are Being Sold For Scrap Because Of Activation Lock, by Matthew Gault, Motherboard

The problem is Apple’s T2 security chip. First introduced in 2018, the laptop makes it impossible for anyone who isn’t the original owner to log into the machine. It’s a boon for security and privacy and a plague on the second hard market. “Like it has been for years with recyclers and millions of iPhones and iPads, it’s pretty much game over with MacBooks now—there’s just nothing to do about it if a device is locked,” Bumstead told Motherboard. “Even the jailbreakers/bypassers don’t have a solution, and they probably won’t because Apple proprietary chips are so relatively formidable.” When Apple released its own silicon with the M1, it integrated the features of the T2 into those computers.

Apple’s Privacy Policies Under Fire From Ad Tech Industry, by Garett Sloane, AdAge

Cohen said that Apple is using double standards. For its ads, Apple can gently persuade consumers to accept “personalization” on iPhones, but third parties are forced to use starker language when making the pitch to users—they have to ask for permission to “track.”

“It can’t be that ‘personalization’ in the Apple ecosystem equals ‘tracking’ outside of it,” Cohen said in a phone interview ahead of IAB’s leadership meeting. “That’s not really a fair fight.”

Bottom of the Page

Whenever I clear my email inbox, or whenever I clear my todo-list inbox, I get a nice congratulatory message about how I am all done for the day, and to take some enjoyment out of that.

And I always want to shout: That's not how life works!

~

Thanks for reading.