★ My 2020 Apple Report Card

A good year across the board for Apple’s products, with one glaring exception.

WSJ: ‘Facebook Knew Calls for Violence Plagued “Groups”, Now Plans Overhaul’

The Trend of CEOs Transitioning to Executive Chairmen

Jeff Bezos to Step Down as Amazon CEO, Will Become Executive Chairman

WSJ: ‘Facebook Knew Calls for Violence Plagued “Groups”, Now Plans Overhaul’

Jeff Bezos to Step Down as Amazon CEO, Will Become Executive Chairman

Chrome Browser Extension for iCloud Passwords

Tim Hardwick: Apple has released an iCloud password extension for Google’s Chrome browser on Windows that allows iCloud Keychain passwords to be used on PCs.Called simply “iCloud Passwords,” the extension allows users to access passwords in Google C…

iOS 14.5: Unlock an iPhone While Wearing a Mask

Juli Clover (tweet): In iOS 14.5, there’s a new option to unlock an iPhone with Face ID and an Apple Watch paired together, with the Apple Watch’s authentication providing an extra layer of security.If you’re wearing an unlocked Apple Watch and use …

Xcode 12.5 Beta

Apple: Xcode 12.5 Beta requires a Mac running macOS Big Sur 11 or later. […] The Reveal Build Products Folder item in the Product menu reveals the build products directory in Finder. […] Code completion is more reliable in expressions that contain e…

macOS 11.2

Juli Clover: According to Apple’s release notes, macOS Big Sur 11.2 addresses several bugs, such as an issue that could cause external external displays to show a black screen when connected to an M1 Mac mini using an HDMI to DVI converter and a pro…

iOS 14.5 Beta 1 Allows Your Apple Watch to Unlock Your iPhone if You’re Wearing a Mask

iOS 14.5 Beta 1 Allows Your Apple Watch to Unlock Your iPhone if You’re Wearing a Mask

iOS 14.5 Beta 1 Allows Your Apple Watch to Unlock Your iPhone if You’re Wearing a Mask

Old SuperDuper for Big Sur

Dave Nanian (Hacker News): To accomplish this, use an old version of SuperDuper—specifically, v3.2.5—to copy the Data volume, which is shown in the older version!v3.2.5 is well tested, having been on the market for quite some time, and is reliable. …

CDC’s Vaccine Data System

Cat Ferguson (via Hacker News, Reddit): Unless you’re in one of the few states using it, you may not have heard of VAMS. But it was supposed to be a one-stop shop where employers, state officials, clinics, and individuals could manage scheduling, in…

Misleading and Inaccurate iOS Privacy Labels

Geoffrey A. Fowler (Hacker News, MacRumors): I downloaded a de-stressing app called the Satisfying Slime Simulator that gets the App Store’s highest-level label for privacy. It turned out to be the wrong kind of slimy, covertly sending information —…

iMessage’s BlastDoor Sandbox

Samuel Groß (via Hacker News, MacRumors): One of the major changes in iOS 14 is the introduction of a new, tightly sandboxed “BlastDoor” service which is now responsible for almost all parsing of untrusted data in iMessages (for example, NSKeyedArch…

The Talk Show: ‘Soviet Toilet Paper’

[Sponsor] Flatfile Concierge

Listen Notes

★ My 2020 Apple Report Card

A good year across the board for Apple’s products, with one glaring exception.