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Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix Vol. 2 – Apple Music playlist →
This is Volume 2 of the Awesome Mix series from Guardians of the Galaxy, again as a custom playlist for Apple Music. You can find Vol. 1 here and Vol. 3 here.
Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix Vol. 1 – Apple Music playlist →
I don’t know what’s happening with the official Disney OSTs for Guardians of the Galaxy, but they keep on disappearing for me. Additionally, the three mix tapes were combined into one huge one. This led me to create my own playlist in Apple Music, linked directly under the title of this post and embedded below.
You can find Vol. 2 here and Vol. 3 here.
Steve Jobs: “This doesn’t do that. I want you to make this, do that.” →
John Gruber, on Daring Fireball, has a fantastic story about Steve Jobs:
I’ve told this story on podcasts, but I’m not sure I’ve ever written it, and I think the time is right. Steve Jobs was on medical leave for the first half of 2009. When he returned in early summer, he devoted most of his attention and time to crafting and launching the original iPad, which was unveiled in April 2010. After that, he had meetings scheduled with teams throughout the company. One such meeting was about MacBooks. Big picture agenda. Where does Steve see the future of Mac portables? That sort of thing. My source for the story was someone on that team, in that meeting. The team prepared a veritable binder full of ideas large and small. They were ready to impress. Jobs comes in carrying a then-brand-new iPad and sets it down next to a MacBook the team had ready for demos. “Look at this.” He presses the home button on the iPad: it instantly wakes up. He does it again. The iPad instantly wakes up. Jobs points to the MacBook, “This doesn’t do that. I want you to make this” — he points to the MacBook — “do that” — he points to the iPad. Then he picks up the iPad and walks out of the meeting.
Steve Jobs would have fucking loved these M1 Macs.
Five People Hacked Apple for 3 Months and Here’s What They Found →
Sam Curry:
Between the period of July 6th to October 6th myself, Brett Buerhaus, Ben Sadeghipour, Samuel Erb, and Tanner Barnes worked together and hacked on the Apple bug bounty program.
There were a total of 55 vulnerabilities discovered with 11 critical severity, 29 high severity, 13 medium severity, and 2 low severity reports. These severities were assessed by us for summarization purposes and are dependent on a mix of CVSS and our understanding of the business related impact.
As of October 6th, 2020, the vast majority of these findings have been fixed and credited. They were typically remediated within 1-2 business days (with some being fixed in as little as 4-6 hours).
I was genuinely surprised Apple reacted so fast. The whole thing is well worth a read.
The End of Democracy in Poland →
Yascha Mounk:
Now that the government’s power is secured for another three years, the fear that the government will further undermine free speech and independent institutions is not a hostile assumption: it is a promise the government itself repeatedly made over the course of the campaign. The most immediate step will likely be to capture those remaining newspapers and television channels that are free to criticize the government. Since many of them are owed by companies based outside the country, the government has vowed to “re-Polonize the media.”
In the final step towards authoritarianism, Kelemen warns, the government is likely to start attacking the integrity of the electoral system itself. The opportunities to do so are many: Law and Justice could try to get the electoral commission under tight control, make it harder for Poles who live abroad to participate in democratic elections, and take away powers from big city mayors, who tend to belong to the opposition party.
[…] Yesterday’s elections, though no longer fair, were largely free. There is no guarantee that this will still be true when Law and Justice next has to face the electorate.
I seriously doubt that our next elections will be democratic.
You Download the App and It Doesn’t Work — Accepted and Rejected →
I don’t know who made this website (click the title and go see it for yourself), but this it has a few perfect examples of the App Store’s inconsistencies in their guidelines. They let things slide for some, for years, but not for others. Oh yeah, and if you’re huge, like Netflix, you’re good.
The WWDC 2020 keynote is coming up in less than 24 hours and I’ll be really curious as to what Apple has to say.
Apple’s Butterfly Keyboard Might Make a Comeback →
L0vetodream on Twitter:
apple did not give up on butterfly keyboard, they are trying to improve on the structure, and solve the issue, we might see it comes back again in future.
L0vetodream’s leaks are 90.5% accurate, according to AppleTrack.org, so I’m really hoping this is one of those that he get’s wrong. I have been using the butterfly mechanism on my own MacBook Pro for years now (since December 2016) and having had the chance to use the new MacBook Pro 16″ (late 2019) and MacBook Air (early 2020) for a month or so, typing on them daily, the new/old scissor mechanism, with twice the key travel, is clearly superior for my needs and preferences.
Apple Doubles the Price for Entry-Level MacBook Pro RAM Upgrade →
Taylor Lyles, for The Verge:
The price increase is actually a price correction […] The price to upgrade RAM from 8GB to 16GB is $200 on other Macs, including the iMac and MacBook Air, and this change is meant to keep the fee consistent.
I’m seriously appalled at what Apple is charging its customers for RAM and SSD upgrades. This was OK while there were 3rd party alternatives available, but not now.
Zero-Day in Sign in With Apple →
Bhavuk Jain:
In the month of April, I found a zero-day in Sign in with Apple that affected third-party applications which were using it and didn’t implement their own additional security measures. This bug could have resulted in a full account takeover of user accounts on that third party application irrespective of a victim having a valid Apple ID or not.
For this vulnerability, I was paid $100,000 by Apple under their Apple Security Bounty program.
Fine-Tune the Calibration of the Pro Display XDR on Mac →
Apple Support:
On your Mac, you can fine-tune the current calibration of your Apple Pro Display XDR by adjusting the white point and luminance to more precisely match your own in-house display calibration target.
Meanwhile, Apple still hasn’t fixed automatic contrast adjustment (Ambient Light Compensation), which totally wrecks the calibration of Mac screens, when Displays → Display → Automatically adjust brightness is turned on. I wonder if this also applies to the Pro Display XDR.
Automating iPod Hi-Fi’s Volume Control →
Jason Snell, on Six Colours:
Here was the plan: Find a device that could be controlled by my Mac and press the volume-up button on my iPod Hi-Fi every morning when I started up the computer.
I love it when you can get something done by tinkering with various technologies. I don’t love maintaining such designs over longer periods of time though, such as my Homebridge setup.
Building the Perfect Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder [YouTube] →
Please watch the whole video, from beginning to end — it’s extremely entertaining. It also shows that you can spend your time away from other people extremely creatively.
Imperial March From Star Wars Arranged and Performed for 8 Cellos by Samara Ginsberg [YouTube] →
Brilliant.
Zork Source Code from 1977 →
MIT Libraries Department of Distinctive Collections:
This repository contains the source code for a 1977 version of Zork, an interactive fiction game created at MIT by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling.
SmartyKit — Apple I-Compatible Computer Construction Kit for Geeks to Understand How Computers Work →
The Apple I was the original Apple computer built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, so naturally every Apple fanatic has dreamed of playing around with an Apple I or even having their own. But you won’t need to keep dreaming, because you’ll be able to build your own DIY Apple I replica thanks to a new project called SmartyKit.
This looks like a lot of fun.
’Game Changer’ by Banksy Unveiled at Hospital to Thank Doctors and Nurses →
Associated Press:
A new work by the elusive street artist Banksy, honoring health workers, has been unveiled at a British hospital.
The framed picture, titled “Game Changer,” depicts a young boy sitting on the floor playing with a nurse superhero toy. Batman and Spiderman action figure toys lie in a wastepaper basket next to the boy.
More photos of Game Changer on Banksy’s Instagram, along with close-ups of the details.
Public Enemy →
Ruth Franklin:
From the jury selection process that took place over three days in June for the trial of Martin Shkreli, an investor and hedge fund founder who is facing eight counts of securities and wire fraud. In 2015, when Shkreli was CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company raised the price of its drug Daraprim by 5,000 percent. In 2016, Shkreli was widely criticized for defending the 400 percent increase in the price of EpiPen, an emergency allergy injection sold by Mylan. More than two hundred potential jurors were excused from the trial. Judge Kiyo Matsumoto presided. Benjamin Brafman is a lawyer representing Shkreli […]
The court: All right. I’m going to excuse you. Juror Number 59, come on up.
Juror no. 59: Your Honor, totally he is guilty and in no way can I let him slide out of anything because —
The court: Okay. Is that your attitude toward anyone charged with a crime who has not been proven guilty?
Juror no. 59: It’s my attitude toward his entire demeanor, what he has done to people.
The court: All right. We are going to excuse you, sir.
Juror no. 59: And he disrespected the Wu-Tang Clan.
Read the whole thing — it’s amazing.
Lovers in Auschwitz, Reunited 72 Years Later — He Had One Question →
By Keren Blankfeld, for The New York Times:
For a few months, they managed to be each other’s escape, but they knew these visits wouldn’t last. Around them, death was everywhere. Still, the lovers planned a life together, a future outside of Auschwitz. They knew they would be separated, but they had a plan, after the fighting was done, to reunite.
It took them 72 years.
I might have teared up a bit.
Lenovo’s ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II →
This keyboard design is an extremely cool design, if it had some way to attach an iPad to it. I would prefer mechanical switches but even with the current scissor switches, this would be a perfect lap keyboard for iPad Pros. Though it would need to be programmable, to be truly useful and universal.
James Thomson’s Trip to Infinite Loop From 20 Years Ago →
James Thomson, on 512 Pixels:
I visited Infinite Loop for the first time around twenty years ago, and decided to properly document my visit. All these photos were all taken on my trusty film camera, and the negatives scanned some years later. They were promptly forgotten about until now.
Worth it, just to see Clarus.
Graystudio Think6.5° Keyboard Guide →
Everything you need to know about this wonderful keyboard. I currently have two of these — one in polycarbonate and one in aluminium — and they’re both wonderful.
John Gruber: ‘Who Is the Low-End MacBook Pro For?’ →
John Gruber, on Daring Fireball:
The high-end 13-inch MacBook Pro is the professional model. Faster and more modern processors, double the ports, up to 32 GB of RAM (and the RAM is faster too). The low-end models are something else altogether. They’re not bad MacBooks by any sense — but I genuinely wonder who they’re for.
I bought a Touch Bar MacBook Pro in 2016 and returned it, because of its poor battery life and because I couldn’t accept the Touch Bar. I promptly ordered the MacBook Pro Escape in January 2017. Turns out I didn’t really need the extra horsepower of the more expensive models and preferred the additional hour of battery life.
But why did I go for it?
- It was cheaper and I was glad I could save some money.
- I had a mid 2014 MacBook Pro before this one. I upgraded it for the display, which supports the Display P3 colour gamut. This makes it on par with my iPhone and iPad, making it easier to colour-correct photos.
- I had a 2013 11” MacBook Air before I upgraded to the 2015 Pro. I upgraded because I needed a bigger screen, but I was completely satisfied with the performance of the Air and its 15W CPUs. The same category which is now in the low-end MacBook Pros.
I would have upgraded my late 2016 MacBook Pro to one of these new low-end models, despite them using 8th gen. Intel chips, if it didn’t have the cursed Touch Bar. It does have a physical Esc key now, so I might still change my mind, but the new MacBook Air is out of the question — the screen is sRGB. If it had a P3 screen, I would strongly consider the Core i5 model.
AR Cut & Paste →
Cyril Diagne:
An AR+ML prototype that allows cutting elements from your surroundings and pasting them in an image editing software.
Although only Photoshop is being handled currently, it may handle different outputs in the future.
This is amazing. Cyril’s code is up on Github.
Each time I view this clip, I think of Clarke’s third law. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. pic.twitter.com/6reZVIOI7D
— Soona (@soonaorlater) May 4, 2020
Tuning an Apple Extended Keyboard II →
Carlos Fenollosa:
When the keyboard finally arrived, I tried to type on it, and unfortunately I didn’t like its sound at all. After a month reading about clicky keyboards, watching Youtube videos and remembering an IBM Model M I had at college for some time, the AEKII had muffled, plain, boring keystrokes […]
Now there are two options: stick with it, as is, or open the keyboard and see that could be done. Since I had opened and repaired my laptop, my old Gameboy, and almost every object that had fallen into my hands, why not a keyboard? I might learn something as a collateral.
If you’re into AEK II’s, this is a must read.
John Gruber: ‘The Whole Thing With 3D Touch and Haptic Touch Is Confusing’ →
John Gruber, on Daring Fireball:
But the whole thing with 3D Touch and Haptic Touch is so confusing, and has been handled so poorly by Apple in terms of how 3D Touch was used in iOS and which devices had it and which did not […] that you can’t possibly expect regular iPhone buyers to understand that the reason the new SE doesn’t support long-pressing notifications […]
The single thing I still miss most in my iPhone is 3D Touch. It’s been a few years now and Haptic Touch — long-pressing something — still feels so amazingly awkward, while slowing down the interaction at the same time. One of my favourite uses of the feature was to position my cursor precisely where I wanted to, when editing text. This is still possible by long-pressing the Spacebar and then moving the cursor to the desired location. The problem with the latter is that I often have to let go and restart this interaction, because I ran out of space on the screen to continue my drag. I really hope 3D Touch comes back one day, but I won’t be holding my breath.
Reuters: Flaw in iPhone and iPads May Have Allowed Hackers to Steal Data for Years →
Christopher Bing:
The bug, which also exists on iPads, was discovered by ZecOps, a San Francisco-based mobile security forensics company, while it was investigating a sophisticated cyberattack against a client that took place in late 2019. Zuk Avraham, ZecOps’ chief executive, said he found evidence the vulnerability was exploited in at least six cybersecurity break-ins.
An Apple spokesman acknowledged that a vulnerability exists in Apple’s software for email on iPhones and iPads, known as the Mail app, and that the company had developed a fix, which will be rolled out in a forthcoming update on millions of devices it has sold globally.
Apple declined to comment on Avraham’s research, which was published on Wednesday, that suggests the flaw could be triggered from afar and that it had already been exploited by hackers against high-profile users.
These 30 Regimes Are Using Coronavirus to Repress Their Citizens →
David Gilbert:
Poland: The current regime is seeking to force through the presidential election next month, despite a ban on campaigning due to the health crisis — a move the opposition says highly favors the incumbent, President Andrzej Duda.
Vulnerability in Safari Allowed Unauthorized Websites to Access iOS and macOS Webcams →
Ryan Pickren:
This vulnerability allowed malicious websites to masquerade as trusted websites when viewed on Desktop Safari (like on Mac computers) or Mobile Safari (like on iPhones or iPads).
Hackers could then use their fraudulent identity to invade users’ privacy. This worked because Apple lets users permanently save their security settings on a per-website basis.
If the malicious website wanted camera access, all it had to do was masquerade as a trusted video-conferencing website such as Skype or Zoom […]
[…] Apple considered this exploit to fall into the “Network Attack without User Interaction: Zero-Click Unauthorized Access to Sensitive Data” category and awarded me $75,000.