Maccast 2015.09.20 - Show #541

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Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles

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News

iPhone sales strong

According to Apple they were on pace to beat last years opening weekend sales record of 10 million iPhones.

Most versions are now shipping in 3-6 weeks, but still seem to be able to get most 6s models (other than Rose gold) by the 25th.

Rose gold by far sold out the quickest

iPhone 6s and 6s deliveries for pre-orders will begin arriving on Friday the 25th

Some customers in NYC and Philly might not get their shipments if their coming via UPS

Pope Francis is due to be in those areas in the 24th and 25th and UPS has posted a temporary service notice on its website that states no pickups and deliveries will be available in some areas.

The impacted ZIP codes are:

New York City: 10001, 10007, 10017, 10021, 10022, 10023, 10029

Pennsylvania: 19102, 19103, 19104, 19106, 19107, 19109, 19123, 19130, 19146, 19147

Apple does use FedEx and other carriers so if you’re in one of the impacted areas I would say what for your tracking

If it is UPS you can possibly opt for the option of personal pickup at a holding facility.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says backlight module production issues at Japanese supplier Minebea have slowed down production of iPhone 6S Plus models

Apple’s statement was that demand simply out paced their pre-sale supply forecasts

Kuo says Apple is tapping Radiant to help keep up supplies.

Depending on where you are in the world a 16GB iPhone 6s might cost you a bit more

The Telegraph crunched the numbers and France and Germany are the most expensive places to buy an iPhone after conversion rates and taxes are applied. About 30 percent more expensive

They are followed by the UK where the price of a 16GB iPhone 6s is £539, or about USD $832.73. $183.73 more than the US price advertised.

Keep in mind these straight conversions don’t tell the whole story.

European prices include VAT and are also adjusted for exchange rates and account for import tariffs.

Also, many US states have sales tax up to 9 percent or more, so depending on the state you buy in the gap narrows slightly.

It’s not like the increased prices are revenue going into Apple’s pockets.

Another point made in the piece is that in the UK Apple is still selling the iPhones at last years prices despite the Pound being a lot weaker against the dollar at this time. Same goes for China.

Plus in the UK you get a better deal on Apple Music subscriptions which HAVE been straight converted to pounds. $9.99 in the US and £9.99 in the UK.

Your old cases will fit the new models

Apple's website notes that both its leather and silicone cases for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will also fit the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

AT&T users with legacy unlimited data plans can use up to 22GB of data per month without getting throttled.

Devs want, and get, their Apple TVs

Apple held a new Apple TV developer kit lottery

Now lucky "chosen" developers are getting their units.

Apple also charged them just USD $1.00 for the privilege.

The package is a "special" developer version

"As (not yet) seen on TV"

Apple TV, Siri Remote, power cord, a lightning to USB cable, and a USB-A to USB-C cable

Some discoveries

When you pick up the remote it can turn on the TV without any buttons being pressed

Old Apple TV remotes do work.

Both Plex and VLC have announced that they plan to make apps for the Apple TV

VLC says they have a ways to go but have already achieved video playback.

Apple TV Dev kits are surfacing on eBay and Craigslist for up to $1,000 bucks.

Apple reversed the language that would have allowed developers to require a 3rd party MFi controller for their game

"Your game must support the Apple TV remote. Your game may not require the use of a controller."

tvOS games that support controllers must support the extended control layout.

Games must be playable using standalone controllers.

You must support the pause button.

A concern with the new limit is on the remote you have just a d-pad, accelerometer, and one button. Really two if you cont clicking the touchpad, but that’s hard to do if that’s also being used as a d-pad.

Listener Mark had some great new Apple TV questions

1. Is there any way to migrate current settings on Gen. 3 Apple TV to the new one?

2. Will the yet-to-be-updated Remote app let the user employ Siri Apple TV searches by invoking it on the iPhone or iPod Touch?

iPad Pro availability rumors

DigiTimes says that Apple is experiencing panel shortages for the iPad Pro and it could effect the initial availability.

They claim Apple might have just 3 million units ready to go at launch.

There are very few details as to the reason why or where in the chain the shortage is.

Sharp is reportedly supplying the bulk of the displays, with Samsung Display and TPK serving as secondary suppliers.

GIS is responsible the touch modules, lamination and LCD assembly.

It remains to be seen how high demand for the iPad Pro will be, but Apple sold 12.3 million iPads in Q4 last year and that was a decline from 14.1 million in 2013.

Tim Cook was asked in a BuzzFeed interview about the iPad Pro and said this:

“I think that some people will never buy a computer,” Cook says. “Because I think now we’re at the point where the iPad does what some people want to do with their PCs.”

iOS 9 out. Watch OS 2 delayed.

iOS 9 is out. You can get it via Software update. More on all the great features and stuff later.

And many of us have already. Mixpanel says 22% of the overall iOS user base has already upgraded.

Some may have wanted to but been stopped by the "Slide to Upgrade" bug.

After updating you get the "Slide to Upgrade", but it’s unresponsive

Connect an affected iOS device to a computer running iTunes via USB.

Select the device in the devices list in iTunes. If it’s not there do a force restart.

Select Restore Backup... in the Backups box and choose a recent backup file

If you don’t have a recent backup then use the Back Up Now button first, then do the restore.

Bug delays WatchOS 2

"We have discovered a bug in development of watchOS 2 that is taking a bit longer to fix than we expected,"

It’s not certain, but PCalc developer James Thomson might have discovered the bug.

The trouble might be FairPlay errors that stopped watchOS 2 apps from running.

Apple Watch is epcted to go on sale in Ireland, Austria and Denmark on September 25th.

iTunes 12.3 was also released with iOS 9

Updated for OS X 10.11 El Capitan which should arrive on 9/30

Improved Apple Music accessibility with VoiceOver

Resolved a problem that prevented ordering of songs within Up Next

Fixed a problem where some radio stations did not appear within Recently Played

Addressed an issue where songs you loved on iOS did not appear loved on iTunes

Support two-factor authentication to secure your Apple ID

And, of course, the usual improvements to overall stability and performance and security updates

iMovie for iOS also updated

Support for editing 4K video which will be possible with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus

Can run 1080p video at 60 frames per second

New 3D Touch gestures for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

Option to disable Ken Burns animation on a photo

Support for Slide Over and Split View when multitasking with the iMovie Extension for Photos

Performance and stability improvements, and a whole bunch more tweaks

iPad Mini 4 torn apart

Geekbench scores show an A8 runs at 1.5 GHz, slightly faster than the 1.4 GHz A8 used in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus

Not an A8X which is in the iPad Air 2

64-bit dual core vs. triple core

PowerVR GX6450, the Air 2 has a GXA6850

Does have 2GB of RAM

A smaller, thinner single-cell battery at 5,124 mAh, vs. the 6,471 mAh of the iPad mini 3

Wi-Fi antenna arrays are split, one on top next to the camera and another on the bottom near the speaker.

Thinner overall at 6.1 mm

As such many of the internal components are thinner. The FaceTime camera, the LCD and front glass, and of course the battery.

In case you missed it Apple also has a new Silicone Case for iPad mini 4

Available in the same colors as the iPad mini Smart Cover.

Will work with a Smart Cover

Cost USD $59.00

First look at Apple’s new Store design

Apple's newest retail store opened in Brussels, Belgium

It has an all new, "under the watch of Jony Ive", design.

Huge glass panels around the front and side

Live trees in the store

Massive video wall replaces the backlit displays

Tables are now made of redwood with power outlets that pop open when you touch the table near them

Cases stored in slide out drawers behind display units in a wall display

In the US, the first of these redesigns will be seen in Germantown, Memphis.

WSJ reports that Apple has created a company in the Shanghai free-trade zone specifically to operate its Apple Pay business in China

It’s also seeded that company with $13.4M of capital.

China could be a huge market as they already use mobile payments,

Alipay, run by ecommerce giant Alibaba, already has more than 300 million users

Apple still needs regulatory approval to launch in the country and there have even been talks of an Alibaba partnership to speed things up.

Apple recently added Halifax and Lloyds to their Apple Pay expansion in the UK bringing the total number of banks there up to 11.

More hints of an Apple car

The Guardian claims that Apple senior legal counsel Mike Maletic held an hour-long meeting with the California Department of Motor Vehicles last month to review "autonomous vehicle regulations".

Apple would be required to obtain an Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit from the California DMV to test autonomous vehicles on public roads.

Apple’s preference for secrecy might give them pause though

Manufacturers applying for a permit have to detail the make, model and vehicle identification number (VIN) of cars they want to test

One reason Apple might also seek a partner, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Google, Tesla Motors, Nissan, BMW, and Honda all have already applied for Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permits

BMW may be that preferred partner as Apple has been rumored to be considering using BMW's i3 as the basis for its project.

Or they could opt to go the private route for testing.

Remember it was already rumored that Apple talked with GoMentum Station, a 2,100-acre facility on a former naval base in the San Francisco Bay Area run by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority

Apple is also said to be looking at a new property it purchased in San Jose last month for $138 million for development and perhaps eventual assembly of "Project Titan."

Bloomberg reported in February that Apple aims to begin electric car production as early as 2020

But when asked on the recent Steven Colbert interview Tim Cook continued to be coy.

Feedback, commentary, opinions

Clean install from Recover Partition

Many have pointed out this is possible, just not maybe directly to the new OS

You can boot from the recovery partition, erase the main partition, then clean install the current OS.

Then you would need to setup as a new Mac and then run the "upgrade" to the latest OS via. MAS

SuperDuper has been updated and will support El Capitan in the latest version

Tandy points out the easiest way he knows of to do a clean install. Update your cloned drive with SuperDuper. Boot up off of it, wipe your internal, and then install the newest OS X from the clone onto your internal. Done.

Carbon Copy Cloner has a 'Create Installer' feature to create a bootable drive once you’ve downloaded the new OS X installer app.

Listener Ken noted that he has been using a "trick" with DiskMaker X and the betas to build bootable installers.

Just rename the Installer file. "Install OS X Yosemite" and DiskMaker X seems to work fine.

Try at your own risk as this is not officially supported by the developer.

Talk about re-installing Dropbox and 1Password first

This is where I keep my product keys, passwords, etc.

If you use iCloud syncing you could just start with 1Password first.

Clarifying opinions on Apple iPhone payment plans

Wow did this set off a barrage of feedback.

Many have taken issue with my use of the word "lease"

Most point out that that there are no fees or interest.

"a contract by which one party conveys land, property, services, etc., to another for a specified time, usually in return for a periodic payment." -

It’s also pointed out that you would pay it off after 24 moths and then "own" it. So we could say "rent to own", but I think that has a more negative connotation than "lease".

Apple officially calls it an "Installment Loan".

Point is you don’t own it until you’ve paid for all of it. You could sell it, but you’d still be on the hook to Apple for any remaining payments.

It’s still "debt", yes with 0% interest, but it is debt.

There is also a trick here. Payments are auto debited from another credit card you own.

If you don’t pay off that card balance every month then those payments would be subject to the interest rate of that card

"Debit, corporate, and prepaid cards are not accepted."

To be eligible to upgrade you must "Trade-in your Financed iPhone in good physical and operational condition".

Power on and hold a charge;

Have an intact and functioning display;

Have no breaks or cracks; and

Have Activation Lock disabled (you may be asked to disable at the time of upgrade).

If Apple determines the value on your traded in iPhone doesn’t cover the cost of the upgraded phone then you will owe any difference

"You will, however, owe the difference, if any, between the prevailing Reuse and Recycling Program value at the time of exercising the Upgrade Option on your original Financed iPhone that you traded-in, as determined solely by Apple or its Trade-In Service Provider, and the remaining balance of your original Installment Loan"

All repairs while you’re under the terms of the load must be done through an Apple Store or through an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

This is not to pass judgement on Apple’s program or anyone who uses it.

I think this is a personal choice.

A good one if you are a person who is:

Really good at taking care of their iPhone and can easily have all repairs done at Apple or an Apple Authorized Repair center

Really responsible and pay off your credit card balance every month.

For me all these things are just too complicated.

I’m going to pay the money eventually, either now or over 24-months. I prefer to pay up front and not draw things out.

I own the device the day I get it and now I can choose what I want to do with it, who I give or sell it to, if and when and where I want to repair it, etc.

It’s a personal choice and I’m simply sharing what I plan to do and why.

What can you do with iOS 9?

Siri and "proactive"

Siri can search photos and videos stored on your device by date, location, and album title

"Remind me about this"

Can "guess" who might be calling by attaching an unknown number to data say in the signature of an email.

Suggest apps that you might use at a certain time or place

If it sees a meeting date in an email it will offer to create a calendar entry at the top of the message

Events that contain an address now offer the option to use a Time to Leave notification

Device specific and not sync’d due to privacy

has some advantages and disadvantages.

Spotlight & iOS Search

Spotlight (swipe down) and iOS Search (leftmost screen)

Place and news suggestions

Deep links (open apps to specific points), back links (quick way back to where you were), Universal links (iOS 9 can open into a native app instead of its website).

Turn off Apps you don’t want Spotlight to search

Settings > General > Spotlight Search

Can no longer seem to order the results though.

Mass Transit in Maps

Baltimore, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Mexico City, London, Berlin, and Toronto, and 300 cities in China.

Passbook is now Wallet

Can now add rewards cards from some retailers. Kohl’s, Walgreens, and JC Penney

Discover is now supported in Wallet and Apple Pay

Notes App

Sketch

Add Photos

URLs and maps show up as graphical links

Use "Share" button to save images and URLs to notes.

Checklists and formatting tools

Attachment browser icon at bottom.

Security

Six digit passcodes

Easier 2-factor authentication

2-Factor support for Apple ID in iTunes

Battery Life

Not light up screen in "face-down" mode

Low-power mode when battery is low

Asks at 20 percent battery and again at 10 percent. Can also be activated manually in Settings > Battery

When Low Power Mode is active, the iPhone's battery icon turns yellow, and the battery percentage is displayed

iOS turns it off automatically once an iPhone reaches ~80% charge

Low Power Mode isn't available on the iPad

Keeps Bluetooth or Location Services running

Throttles the GPU and CPU to optimize for battery life

Stops background apps running or updating

Turns off fetch/push for email

Auto-Lock in 30 seconds is enforced

Disables AirDrop and Continuity

Settings > Battery

Now show battery time in foreground and background.

News

iPad UI enhancements

Slide Over

Picture-in-Picture video

Split Screen (iPad Air 2 & iPad Mini 4 only)

And iPad Pro when it gets here

Keyboard

Shortcuts Bar on iPad

Support for OS X shortcuts and icons on iPad keyboard

Adapts to apps

Can press and hold icons for pop-up (contextual) options.

With hardware keyboard hold down the Command key to see a 'Discoverability' cheat sheet

Command tab between apps

Now shows lowercase keys and upper case keys

Shift key is now more obvious (white with filled in arrow)

Settings > General > Accessibility > Keyboard and turn off 'Show Lowercase Keys'

An option to disable Character Preview in Settings > General > Keyboard.

iPad "trackpad"

Place two fingers on the keyboard when editing text and you can manipulate the cursor and

Safari

If you have a link copied in the clipboard, you can tap & hold the address bar and hit "Paste and Go" or "Paste and Search" if you have just text

Tap and hold "refresh" icon to get "Request Desktop Site" and "Reload without content blockers"

Safari bar will turn "red" on suspected Phishing sites

Support for content blockers

Several available in the App Store

Install them and then in Safari Settings you can enable them

Lesser know features

Search in Settings

4 x 4 App folders on iPad

New folders for selfies and screenshots in the Photos app

Home Sharing is back in Music

My Music. Tap the drop down to switch between Songs, Artists, Albums, etc. 'Home Sharing' should be there if you’ve enabled it.

Enable iCloud Drive. You’ll be prompted, but if you missed it Settings > iCloud > iCloud Drive and turn the ‘Show on Home Screen’

In iOS 9 you can zoom in on a video the same way you would a photo. (in Photos, not Videos)

iCloud Photo Library now shows the size of your downloads and uploads

Siri is silent, not her voice, but her familiar chime. Now you get a double vibration only, unless you use "Hey Siri" to activate.

Settings > Notifications

Sort Order. Recent or Manual

Group by App toggle.

Swipe to highlight images in Photos

Keep in mind too that not all features are available in all countries or on all devices.

My issues with iOS 9

Explain how I had troubles with the Apple Podcast App and Siri

Need to re-enable and train Siri

Only fix for iOS 9 woes was to do an erase and install, plus set up as new.

How to prep for upgrades

Backup to iCloud (if you use it)

Backup via. iTunes and check the 'Encrypt iPhone Backup' option

Lets you save your account passwords and Health data.

Backup the backup.

Download and install the update.

Can do OTA, but I prefer via iTunes.

If you have an Apple Watch it’ll need to be re-setup and re-paired if you do an iTunes restore.

Trick, if you download Apple IPSW directly (links at iClarified) you can hold the 'Option' key and select the IPSW file via iTunes and just do an "over the top" upgrade.

If you do have to do a set up as new

You’ll need to reactivate iCloud, all your email accounts, Touch ID, Siri, etc.

Reload apps. Actually a good time to do an assessment.

Any data for apps that’s not sync’d via cloud will be lost

Can use a tool like Phone View, or iExplorer to extract and restore the data

You’ll need to extract the data BEFORE doing the iPhone Restore

Restriction Settings in iOS 9

Discuss question from Tony

Parental controls seem to have some wholes.

Album covers, book artwork, etc. tend not to be blocked.

Siri image search cannot be restricted or the controls are outside Restrictions.

Communicate back to Apple that we want updated and better parental controls.

Album covers aren’t blocked.

Can block podcasts that are tagged as 'explicit' in iOS 9, but it’s grouped in Music, Podcasts, News, & iTunes U and I don’t thin it stopped searching, just subscribing.

Siri can block 'Explicit' language, but I don’t think images. Though I couldn’t seem to get Siri to show me "adult" images via a Bing search

May also be controlled more via the Web restrictions. Which you can limit to white listed sites only or block "adult" content.

The trouble here is every family or person will have a different definition of what is or is not OK.

Parental controls are tricky and on mobile I think Apple is doing better than any other provider at least with the built in controls.

Maybe on Android there are better 3rd party apps for this than Apple’s built in?

Apple does constantly improve and update them, but there’s always going to be "holes" depending on the users specific desires.

There is a balance of technology and also just trust and responsibility.

You’ll never be able to block everything from the web and some stuff might slip through.

The key I think is having a relationship with your children where you have discussed what is expected when this content is encountered and give them ways to deal with the holes.

Nasty malware impacts WeChat

Palo Alto Networks has discovered a nasty Chinese malware called XcodeGhost that was in unauthorized infected copies of Apple’s Xcode tools used by some Chinese developers to compile apps and submit them to the App Store.

The malicious version of Xcode was uploaded to Chinese cloud file sharing service Baidu. Some Chinese developers then unknowingly compiled iOS apps using the modified Xcode IDE and submitted them to the AppStore

Developer in China apparently turn to alternate servers because Xcode is a large file that can take a long time to download from Apple's servers in China.

The malware affects both stock and jailbroken devices.

Palo Alto Networks has shared a full list of 39 infected iOS apps, including WeChat, NetEase Cloud Music, WinZip, and more

Palo Alto XcodeGhost List

iOS apps infected with XcodeGhost malware collect information about devices and then encrypt and upload that data to command and control (C2) servers run by attackers through the HTTP protocol.

Current time

Current infected app’s name

The app’s bundle identifier

Current device’s name and type

Current system’s language and country

Current device’s UUID

Network type

Can also receive commands to:

Prompt a fake alert dialog to phish user credentials;

Hijack opening specific URLs based on their scheme, which could allow for exploitation of vulnerabilities in the iOS system or other iOS apps;

Read and write data in the user’s clipboard, which could be used to read the user’s password if that password is copied from a password management tool.

Most of the Apps appear to be in China only, but not all. MacRumors notes that CamCard, for example, is a popular business card reader and scanner app available in the United States and several other countries.

WeChat is also very popular globally. The flaw is in WeChat version 6.2.5, so updating to 6.2.6 has the fix.

Palo Alto Networks is working with Apple on the issue and several developers have updated their apps to remove the malware.

What you need to do

Immediately uninstall any infected iOS app from the Palo Alto Networks list or update to a newer version that has removed the malware

If you had an infected app on your device, reset you iCloud password any other passwords input on your iOS device while you had an infected app installed.

Closing

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