Apple has reportedly been ordered by the UK government to create a backdoor that would give security officials access to users’ encrypted iCloud backups. If implemented, British security services would have access to the backups of any user worldwide, not just Brits, and Apple would not be permitted to alert users that their encryption was compromised.
The Washington Post reports that the secret order, issued last month, is based on rights given under the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act of 2016, also known as the Snoopers’ Charter. Officials have apparently demanded blanket access to end-to-end encrypted files uploaded by any user worldwide, rather than access to a specific account.
Having my SuperDuper-cloned backup drive be bootable is nice to have, but I really can’t say I need it any more. 20, 15, even just 10 years ago, that wasn’t true — I really did want the ability to boot from my backup drive at a moment’s notice. But that’s really not true any more for me. It probably isn’t for you, either. It definitely isn’t true for most Mac users.
But it remains true for some people, who are using (or responsible for) Macs in high-pressure tight-deadline production environments. Live broadcast studios. Magazines or newspapers with a deadline for the printer that’s just hours (or minutes) away. Places with strict security/privacy rules that forbid cloud storage of certain critical files. If the startup drive on a production machine fails, they need to get up and running now. Plug in a backup drive, restart, and go. Anything longer than that is unacceptable.
“Audio erotica apps cannot have the word ‘desire’ in their names [if they want] to be visible on the store,” while developers of apps like those for controlling sex toys “have a hard time having the apps approved on the store, which puts their entire product in jeopardy,” said Ana Ornelas, erotic author, sex educator and advocacy officer for the Digital Intimacy Coalition.
According to Alessandro Polidoro, a lawyer and coordinator of the Digital Intimacy Coalition, “other apps that host adult content — like X and Reddit — are still allowed on the official App Store, so Apple’s moral argument seems quite contradictory.”
Apple Inc plans to unveil a long-anticipated overhaul of the iPhone SE in the coming days, a move that will modernise its lower-cost model in a bid to spur growth and entice consumers to switch from other brands.
The company expects to announce the device as early as next week, ahead of it going on sale later in the month, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Apple's inventory of iPad Air and MacBook Air models is running low at its retail stores, indicating that refreshes for the devices are likely just around the corner.
Information on new "SparkCat" malware infesting a small number of iOS apps was shared yesterday by Kaspersky, and shortly after the report came out, Apple pulled the apps from the App Store.
Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, and Eurowings this week rolled out support for the feature. Other airlines that already offered the feature include Delta, United, Air Canada, and Air New Zealand.
The iOS App Store is awash with apps using subscriptions and in-app payments, but our attention has been drawn to a brand new release that goes back to the old way of doing things — charging a one-off payment. It’s such a rare approach, the company has even drawn attention to it in the app’s top features list.
The app is Practice Pro, a release from developers Dynamic App Design, and it is made to help musicians practice and improve with use. The studio claims it’s suitable for professional and amateur musicians due to its clever modular design. Using different widgets, the app can be set up to only include the practice tools relevant to you, a better option than either using multiple apps, or having a cluttered, unfocused menu.
Thanks to a break in production for the 2023 Hollywood strikes, Stiller got to spend a lot of time tinkering with season two. While work was halted for writers and actors, Stiller, as a non-writing producer, was editing the first seven episodes and noticing things he wanted to change, particularly around building out the backstories of Scott and Arquette’s characters, notes that necessitated the rewrites and reshoots. “If you have the ability to look at the whole and go back and fix things that you think need to be fixed or address questions that bother you, that’s really important,” Stiller says. The show had undergone a similar retooling on season one thanks to a break imposed by COVID. Puck reported that this season of Severance approached the price tag of $20 million per episode. Stiller declines to state a budget for the show, saying: “Both seasons have been interrupted by these force majeure things that threw everything upside down, so it’s never had a regular season where you could just say, ‘Yeah, this is what it is.’ But we never have looked at it like, ‘Oh, whatever it takes.’ It’s really been figuring out how to make the show in the best and the most cost-efficient way.” Apple TV+ has reason to be forgiving of a costly show — season one of Severance generated more than $200 million for the service in new subscribers, especially internationally, according to Parrott Analytics.
A team of robotics researchers at Apple have designed and prototyped a lamp-like robot with lifelike movements, according to a blog post and accompanying video published last month on the Apple Machine Learning Research website. The lamp, which reminds us of the cute Pixar mascot Luxo Jr., may hint at Apple's future plans.
Just finished reading: Make Something Wonderful, edited by Leslie Berlin. (I read the e-book version.)
Oh boy.
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Thanks for reading.