Maccast 2015.07.01 - Show #531
Links
V Opening
V Opening Music
* Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
V Sponsor: Tunnel Bear
V Tunnel Bear
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* Browse the internet privately, get around censorship and unblock websites
* Encrypts all your traffic so it can’t be seen by governments, ISPs and corporations
V Secures your internet when you’re on public wifi (important when traveling or working from a cafe)
* You know you see that guy with the Windows laptop in the corner with the hacker stickers all over it. Do you trust him?
* I joke, but when you’re on public wi-fi isn’t better to be safe than sorry.
* Mobile, desktop and browser apps (iOS, Mac, Chrome)
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V Plain English privacy policy
* The biggest concern I think when picking a VPN is you have to trust the provider
* These guys have one of the most transparent polices I’ve seen for ANY service
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V News
V What we think we know about what’s next
V iPhone 6s
V Ming-Chi Kuo thinks Apple is upping it’s orders for flexible printed circuit boards necessary for incorporating Force Touch into the next iPhone
* The sensor also don’t just detect force, but can monitor where and how much pressure is used.
* The more advanced sensors are said to be 2.5 times more expensive.
V Same sizes, but possibly 0.2mm thicker. Though recent supposed leaked images of the case contradict this.
* Only the internal mounting locations appear to be changed.
* Some reports think Force Touch might be limited to only the higher end 6s Plus model.
V Dual camera system for iSight camera
* Apple has reportedly been investigating the technology for years
* Problem has been blurred images and not enough suppliers for cameras
* Apple acquired an Israeli company LinX Imaging which developed multi-aperture cameras systems designed for mobile devices.
* Reports say the supplier is Largan, which will get 80 percent of all iPhone 6s and 6s Plus camera lens orders
V No home button?
* Unlikely for this release, but maybe in the future.
* Apple reportedly acquired more than two dozen biometric authentication patents from privately-held Virginia firm Privaris.
* This was in a report from CNN.
* The company hasn’t been active since 2009 and seems like it’s possibly become a patent holding company, so there doesn’t appear to be any acquisition talks.
* The patents deal with integrating fingerprint sensing technology into touchscreens
V Improved LTE chip from Qualcomm, the MDM9635M or '9X35' chip
* Up to 300 Mbps download speeds, double the speeds currently found in the latest iPhones
* It’s also more power efficient and more compact.
* An improved 12MP camera, 7000 series aluminum (same as Apple Watch which might also add thickness) , and a new rose gold color option.
* Rumors of an updated iPhone 6c that will be a tweaked version of the iPhone 5s with a metal case (in colors?)
V iTunes 12.2 updates has hints of updated iPods in new colors
* Updates for the Touch, nano, and shuffle
* Silver, space gray, red, bright pink, deep blue, and light gold.
* No indication if any of the internals have changed.
* Hopefully the Touch comes in 128GB version
V 21.5-inch 4K iMac
* The new El Capitan Beta has references for a Retina display with a 4096 x 2304 resolution
* There is also a reference to an Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200, the graphics chipset.
* That could come with either a Broadwell or Skylake processor. (I assume the latter).
* 9to5 Mac thinks this combo would be the right fit for a Retina 21.5-inch iMac update, since only the 27-inch 5K model currently has a Retina display.
* Also a mention of AMD Radeon M380 - M395X graphics, which could indicate a higher level model too.
V Apple TV
* El Cap also has references to what looks like a new Bluetooth Remote
* It’s believed it would be a remote destined for the next Apple TV
* The reference seems to indicate hardware with a dedicated Bluetooth wireless chip, ability to connect to devices via infrared sensor, and a Multi-Touch trackpad.
* The remote would be slightly thicker than the current model to accommodate the touchpad and would retain the menu and play buttons according to the report.
V Recent Apple software updates
V iTunes U
* Homework hand-in, integrated PDF annotation, grade books, and one-to-one discussions.
* The new features are the result of feedback from real teachers and students using iPads and iTunes U in the classroom.
* Discussions enable teachers and students to connect so that everyone can contribute towards learning.
* Homework hand-in includes the ability to timestamp deliveries, annotate PDFs with marks, and otherwise makes it easy to exchange term papers, book reports, essays, problem sets, and more.
* Direct import for teaching materials and student work into iTunes U from Keynote, Pages, iMovie, Explain Everything, Stop Motion Studio, Book Creator, and more.
* Grade Book integration, so teachers can track students work and even send push notifications as reminders.
V Check out, "Teaching App Development with Swift for High School Instructors"
* A course from WWDC
* You’ll get Lesson plans, project files and GitHub sample code in iTunes U
V iOS 8.4
* Apple Music, more later
* Music App updates. New Mini Player, Now Playing slides up from bottom, global search, new Radio with Beats 1
* Audiobooks moved from Music to iBooks
* Books that are "Made for iBooks" now work on iPhone and iPad
* A new setting lets you turn off the Auto-Night theme
* Stand alone Audiobooks app in CarPlay
V OS X Yosemite 10.10.4
* Replaces the broken Discocoveryd with good ole mDNSResponder
* Addresses an issue that prevented some external displays from functioning properly
* Improves the reliability of upgrading iPhoto and Aperture libraries to Photos
* Improves reliability when syncing photos and videos to iCloud Photo Library
* Addresses an issue that could cause Photos to unexpectedly quit after importing some Lecia DNG files
* Resolves an issue that could delay outgoing email messages in Mail
* Fixes an issue where a website could prevent the user from navigating away by presenting repeated JavaScript alerts in Safari
V iTunes 12.2
* Has the Apple Music updates
V GarageBand 10.1
* Bug fixes
* Updates for Force Touch gestures
* Publish directly to Apple Music Connect
* Tons of new content in the form of loops, patches, drummers
* I need them to bring back Podcast support before I can upgrade.
* iOS was also updated with bug fixes and the Apple Music Connect publishing
* Minor updates to iBooks Author and iMovie
V Mac EFI Security Update 2015-001
* For OS X 10.8.5 Mountain Lion and 10.9.5 Mavericks, which prevents a malicious application with root privileges from modifying a Mac s EFI flash memory.
* Shuts down a memory corruption bug (also known as “Rowhammer”)
* These are also part of the 10.10.4 update for OS X Yosemite users
V Apple Watch coming to more countries
* Last week Apple Watch went on sale in seven more countries, Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan.
* And now Apple’s websites for The Netherlands, Sweden, and Thailand list a July 17 availability date.
V Cult of Mac also did some checking and found 13 previously unannounced markets show "Available in 2015."
* Those are India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, New Zealand, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Russia, Finland, Turkey, and Brazil.
* There are not firm dates for those locations, but as distribution agreements get finalized it’s possible some more of these could be added to the July 17th launch.
* If you’re in one of those countries stay tuned.
V Apple Music Drops
* Launched with over 30 million songs
V Free for 90 days and after that $9.99/mo for single user and $14.99 for family up to 6 people
* Cheaper (or more expensive) depending on the country
* $1.89 (120 rupees) and $2.99 (190 rupees) for individual and family plan in India
* $4.99/$7.99 in Brazil
* $6.19/$10.06 in Hong Kong
* €9.99/€14.99 in Italy which is more like $11.05/$16.57
* £9.99/£14.99 in the UK which equates to $15.60 and $23.41
V Start by selecting your favorites artists and genres using bubbles
* Tap once for like, twice for really like. Tap and hold to "pop"
* Link to tap for more selections
V Organized into five tabs
* For You, recommendations both algorithms and human curated
* New, the latest stuff, charts, etc.
V Radio, Beats Radio 1 and your playlists
* Visit http://applemusic.tumblr.com for the Beats 1 Schedule or tap the 'Beats 1' artwork in the 'Radio' section on iOS to see the upcoming schedule
* Additional "Featured Stations"
* "start a station" will make a station from a song, artist, etc.
* You can see ALL your stations under 'Recently added'
* Old iTunes Radio radio stations are converted. No easy way to see your "play more" and "never play" options
* "Genre" stations.
V Beats 1 requests at http://beats1radio.com/requests
* Or you can send an iMessage (including an audio message) to beats1radio@icloud.com
* Tweet to #Beats1Requests
* I think only valid during request shows (check the schedule)
* There is a show called 'Requests' that aired Tuesday from 5 to 8 PM EDT.
V Connect
* Where you can follow artists and get updates
* Can comment
V Tap the "profile" icon on iOS or go into your account to turn off auto follow when you add new music
* On iOS you can also go into the 'Following' list an follow or unfollow artists
* In iTunes you have to find the artist and unfollow from that page
* Also from the Profile you can tap/click on your name to claim your Apple Music nickname
V My Music
* You can add Apple Music items to 'My Music' they don’t appear any differently/
* In iTunes you can turn on the 'iCloud Status' column to see 'Apple Music' tracks
V Like iTunes Match, but not quite
* Can Match and upload your own Music, but any downloaded tracks would be in the Apple Music AAC format with DRM
* You can’t keep/play downloaded Apple Music AAC format tracks without an Apple Music subscription.
* So, if you want to keep your "Matched" tracks you’ll need to keep iTunes Music Match or keep backups of the stuff you ripped yourself.
V You can remove the New and For You Music tabs if you don’t plan on using Apple Music
* On Mac got to Preferences > General and uncheck 'Show Apple Music'
* On iOS go to Settings > Music and toggle off 'Show Apple Music'
* This will put back the 'Playlists' tab on iOS.
V Music App for iOS Changes
V My Music is where all your tracks live
* Tap the "category" at the top to toggle between views (Artists by default). Has toggle for only showing 'Offline' Music, no more having to go to settings!
V Playlists
* If you’re using Apple Music they are a tab at the top of the UI. Toggle between Library and Playlists
* If you’ve blocked Connect (using parental controls) or aren’t using Apple Music they are still an item in the bottom tabs
V Mini Player
* Tap the Mini Player to see the new Now Playing screen
* Tan the "collapse" arrow (upper left) to minimize the Mini Player
* Tap "…" to get the Mini Player menu with share, add to my music and other options
* Tap the Album title in then Mini Player menu to get to the track list, add to my music (for album), "love" button
V AirPlay
* Can be done now right from the 'Now Playing' window, just tap the AirPlay icon
* Search is divided between Apple Music and My Music
V Home Sharing has been removed from Music in iOS 8.4
* Video sharing is still supported, but not audio.
* Still in iTunes 12 under File > Home Sharing and on Apple TV
* In iTunes when Home Shares are available the 'Home' icon appears next to the 'Music' tab to let you select the source
V I suspect it was a last minute pull because of music licensing for Apple Music
* Could share and stream when it wouldn’t be credited.
* Genius Mixes are also gone, but not too many people seem to be missing those
* Song uploaded song limit is still 25K, but Apple is trying to increase to 100K in iOS 9
* iOS 9 Beta will get Apple Music next week.
V Sonos is working to get Apple Music support by the end of the year.
* If you migrate from Beats to Apple Music it will break the Sonos integration.
V Overall the launch was smooth
* Took a while for iTunes 12.2 to show up
* Upgrading 10.10.4 was also tricky for me, but the OTA iOS update went well.
V Beats 1 Radio is eclectic and interesting, but it also is traditional Radio
* I’ve already discovered some new music I like with it though. Stuff I’ve "loved", followed, and added to my Music
* It can get a bit repetitive at least after a two days of listening. Like standard Radio.
* The did have a brief outage on the first day, but otherwise it’s been smooth I think.
V Some users have reported major issues with turning on the iCloud Music Library
* Reports of deleted songs and playlists
* Also mixed up metadata and artwork
* Duplicates
* Restoring previously delete iTunes Match tracks.
* These issue might no be new though. We’ve had reports like this since Match launched.
* I personally had no issues, at least none that I know of yet.
V To me iTunes and Music apps are fine
* They still have a lot of the UI inconsistency issue
* Will take a while to find everything
* My biggest gripe is with Radio, since iTunes Radio no longer works the way it did.
* So far I like Apple Music and will probably drop Spotify for it.
* In the two days I’ve had it I’ve found the recommendation to more meet my tastes and I’ve discovered more new music than I had with Spotify.
V Feedback, commentary, opinions
V Apple Music rate correction
* I misunderstood how the rates that Spotify were paying was written. They listed $0.006 and $0.0084 so six thousands to 8.4 thousands of a dollar. In essence six tenths to 8.4 tenths of a cent per stream.
* I also probably accidentally said the rate for streams during the trial period was two cents, that is obviously inaccurate. It’s two tenths of a cent or about 1/3 the subscription paid rate.
* Apple is still paying slightly more than Spotify’s free rate which is reported to be about 1.4 tenths of a cent per stream.
* Another big difference is that Spotify’s free tier is ad supported, while Apple won’t have any revenue from free trial subscription. So, Apple will have to pay the free trial fees out of pocket. Of course the free trial will hopefully convert more customers to paying customers, so they are banking on revenue that will come later.
V Free trials will automatically renew into paid subscription at the end of the trial period. But you can change that setting.
V On iOS:
* Launch Music on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
* Tap the Account Profile icon. A circle in the upper left corner of the app with a person's silhouette.
* Tap View Apple ID.
* Scroll down to Subscriptions and tap Manage.
* Tap the Automatic Renewal switch to turn off auto payments.
* Tap Done.
V On the Mac:
* In iTunes, click on your Name (account) next to the search and in the drop down choose 'Account Info’
* Enter your iTunes credentials
* On the 'Account Info' screen scroll down to 'Settings' and click 'Manage' net to 'Subscriptions'
* Click 'Edit >' next to 'Your Membership'
* Change the setting for 'Automatic Renewal' to 'Off' and click 'Done'
V Even more on passwords
* This topic seems to have struck a chord in our little community and I’m getting a LOT of feedback.
* Play comment from John:
V Scott also chimed in:
* "I am a security expert. I have been doing this… for over 20 years. If one thing I can tell you and give you advice on that if you put anything deterministic in your password, you will run the risk of being attacked.

In MacCast 2015.06.07 (yes, I am behind) you provided password tips and the recommendation that you should add the name of the website to the end of the password. Regardless of how you construct your password, if you add anything deterministic you provide intelligence to the attacker that will give them a head start to figuring out your password. While you were right in saying that attackers have a database of known translations and password hints, these attack programs also know to look for known information. "
* We covered some of this in the follow up episode last week when we talked with Bart Busschots
* Read Steve Gibson’s Password Haystacks piece
* Even using my method and yes, it has known words from potentially know sources, that attacker would still not know the formula I used to assemble those words, nor where I inserted other special characters, numbers, or padding.
V Using Gibson’s "Search Space" calculator my password would take 9.38 hundred billion trillion centuries to crack using a Massive Cracking Array Scenario (Assuming one hundred trillion guesses per second)
* His tool doesn’t account for Password Strength though.
* Meaning that because my password is likely using words that are in a hackers known dictionary that time would be cut down.
* But, they still have to determine the formula I used and that’s still going to be difficult.
V Do I care if my password can be brute forced cracked in 100 years, or even 20 years? How about 10 years, or even 1 year?
* 2-factor is best, because they can’t get in without the token.
* Hackers are not going to wait a year and even if they do I change my 1Password more frequently than that.
V All this to say, I’m saying use the best and most secure system you are willing to use.
* Personally I have 1Password generate 24 character completely random passwords that are different for every site or service that I log into.
* The exception is when I have a site that limits the total number of character, then I use it’s max length.
* I never use the same password twice.
* You might not be willing to do that, but if not know the risk you’re taking. It’s your data and your life I’m not going to tell you how to live it.
V Migrating passwords from Keychain to 1Password.
* Scott also let me know about a tool called, 'Mr. C’s tools'
* It can convert exported password data from various password managers and bring it into 1Password
* Warning, it’s a command line utility written in PERL, so read the instructions.
V Using external boot SSDs
* Well I have heard back from more of you and talked to some other in the community and sounds like my mostly theory based advice may have been a bit off.
V I argued that the data transfer rate on an external SSD vs and internal meant you should probably go with an internal one if you want to speed up an aging Mac.
* There’s also the cost advantage if your are thinking of using a TB external
* Also, resell value and convenience
* Many have said that using even a bare drive with an inexpensive USB 3 enclosure has given then a significant performance boost.
* Samsung USB 3.0 500GB External for around $215
V Podcast car integration trouble
* Play question from John
* My issue is I don’t have a new or fancy enough car to test or troubleshoot this.
* I would think there has to be some sort of setting in the Podcast app, but I couldn’t find it.
* So is this a thing and does anyone know a fix?
* John came up with a workaround which was to simply create a blank audio track with the title 'AAA' and add that to his iTunes Music, so that is the track that it flips over too, but that still sucks.
V One thing may be to use the 'Most Recent' playlist in the Podcast app under 'My Stations' That puts all your unplayed podcast in one list so that you can play one to the next in order.
* Under settings you can choose which podcasts to include, if you want only the unplayed podcasts, and what order (oldest to newest or vice versa).
V Asking Siri to do the impossible
* Do it and she’ll get pissed.
* Play Siri response
V Division by zero is an operation for which you cannot find an answer, so it is disallowed.
* The reason, and Dan Bachman from Dan’s Mathcast will tell me if I’m wrong, is the answer is "indeterminate"
* Makes sense if you understand the relationship between division and multiplication
* 12 divided by 6 is 2 because 6 times 2 is 12.
* But, 12 divided by zero is "indeterminate" because zero times "nothing" would ever equal 12. Anything times zero is always zero.
V Closing
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* Smile
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