MyAppleMenu

The As-Secure-As-Possible Edition Sunday, February 4, 2024

Apple’s Phil Schiller Says Alternative App Stores Expose iPhone Users To Major Risks. He’s Right, by Michael Grothaus, Fast Company

With alternate app stores, Apple will have much less power to stop nefarious apps from hitting users’ iPhones. However, Schiller and company aren’t just throwing up their hands and saying it’s the other app stores’ problem. Quite the contrary. Apple still wants iPhone users who use alternative app stores to have the best and safest iPhone experience possible, and it has created tools to help developers in alternative app marketplaces make their apps as secure as possible under the requirements of the DMA.

[...]

For more than 15 years, Schiller says, “we have dealt with a lot of input from families, from governments, on things that we need to do to try to either not allow certain kinds of objectionable content on our App Store, or give users control over that experience to decide what’s best for themselves—and we have rules around that,” Schiller says. “Those rules will not apply in another marketplace unless they choose to make rules of their own, [with] whatever criteria they come up with. Does that increase the risk of users, and families, running into objectionable content or other experiences? Yes, it does.”

Into the Spatialverse

Answering A Few Early Vision Pro Questions, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

This is hard to get across in flat screenshots, but I was able to sit a desk in my son’s room, right up against the wall, and place a window deep behind behind the posters on the wall. The discontinuity didn’t really bother me. Then again, visionOS space is so weird that my brain may have already noped out and turned itself off for the day.

[...]

What I will say after a day and a half is that the Vision Pro is most definitely a computer. It feels like the most computery device Apple makes, after the Mac itself. A lot of that is the fact that it’s got a freeform multi-window interface.

Apple Vision Pro – What About Comic Books?, by Ron Brinkmann, Digital Composting

Obviously the Vision Pro isn’t the first VR/AR/whatever device, but it’s the first one that’s got enough resolution to prevent me from getting pissed off as soon as I stick it to my face.

And while there have already been reams of articles published about other aspects of using the Vision Pro, I haven’t seen anybody yet discuss what it’s like to read a comic book with it. So… here you go.

Stuff

Apple Vision Pro's Virtual Display Feature Works With Intel Macs, But Limited To 3K Resolution, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

In a new support document, Apple has confirmed that the Vision Pro's Mac Virtual Display feature is compatible with any Mac running macOS Sonoma. If the Mac has an Apple silicon chip, the headset can show its display at up to 4K resolution. If the Mac has an Intel processor, however, Apple says resolution is limited to up to 3K.

Optic ID: Apple Explains Vision Pro's Iris Authentication System, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Optic ID can recognize the uniqueness of your irises, the colored part of your eyes, allowing you to quickly unlock your Vision Pro, authorize Apple Pay purchases, sign in to many third-party apps, access sensitive personal data, and more. Apps that support Face ID and Touch ID on the iPhone and iPad automatically support Optic ID. After setting up Optic ID, it also becomes a requirement in order use your Persona.

Apple Vision Pro Launches With New Spatial App From PGA TOUR, Compatible Apps From MLB, MLS, NBA, And More, by Jason Dachman, SVG News

At launch, Vision Pro offers a wealth of new sports-focused spatial apps — such as PGA TOUR Vision — on top of immersive experience in compatible apps like the NBA App, MLB App, Red Bull TV, MLS Season Pass, and others.

Long Exposures On An iPhone: No Tripod Needed, by Mel Martin, Fstoppers

Enter Spectre. Basically, it's an AI-powered shutter for your iPhone.

Notes

The Apple Vision Pro Is Spectacular And Sad, by Ian Bogost, The Atlantic

For a time, at what may have been the height of the internet’s thrall, it became popular to pretend that the digital and material worlds were continuous—that the “real” one had no special meaning, because cyberspace had become a part of it. That turned out to be wrong. We live in cars and on couches and, separately, we also live on phones. Apple believes it can resolve this conflict—that the digital and material worlds can be merged together—but it has only put the conflict into higher resolution. A headset is a pair of spectacles, but a headset is also a blindfold.

Could The Apple Vision Pro Fund My Retirement?, by Michael Grothaus, Fast Company

Back in July 2007, I got my hands on the hottest tech product of the day: the original iPhone with 4GB of storage. It cost $499. Stupidly, I opened and used mine. I say “stupidly” because almost exactly 16 years later an original, unopened iPhone with 4GB of storage sold at auction for $190,373.

Now, 17 years later, do I have a chance at redemption? Could the latest first-generation Apple device, the Vision Pro, which went on sale to the public yesterday, appreciate in value as much as that original iPhone did? If I were to buy a Vision Pro today and leave it in the box for 20 years, could I auction it off for six figures, giving my retirement years a nice financial cushion?

Apple May Be Acquiring This AI Startup For Vision Pro Privacy, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Sources indicate Apple plans to acquire Brighter AI, a German AI startup specializing in anonymizing face and license plate data. Apple aims to use this acquisition to enhance privacy features on Apple Vision Pro, 9to5Mac is told. Apple may be considering Brighter AI’s technology to minimize the risk of Apple Vision Pro capturing identifiable information in videos or photos taken in public.

The U.S. Economy Is Booming. So Why Are Tech Companies Laying Off Workers?, by Gerrit De Vynck, Danielle Abril and Caroline O'Donovan, Washington Post

For many tech workers, the shine has come off an industry that they had given their lives to in return for steady employment, flashy perks and the chance for lucrative stock options. Google and Meta in recent years have cut down on employee perks like free laundry, free massages, and food and fitness offerings.

Bottom of the Page

Don't you hate it as a programmer when your customers reports bugs to you with demands on how you should fix the problem? The very same customers who don't know anything about programming or security or marketing or business?

~

Thanks for reading.