Maccast 2016.03.16 - Show #564

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Opening

Opening Music

Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles

Sponsor: HelloFresh

HelloFresh

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They let me try out the service for a week and I can tell you it exceeded my expectations

Picked my 3 meal choices for the week.

They came and they were perfectly packed.

They use a special insulated box and shipping is always free.

Everything for each meal was in it's own box and the meats and seafood were packed below on ice and perfectly fresh and cold.

There were easy recipe sheets for each meal with step-by-step instructions. Each meal is designed to take about 30 minutes to prepare whether your an expert or a novice

All the ingredients are provided in exact proportions so you don't have waste and we were impress at the quality. Fresh, perfect veggies, and quality ingredients.

The end results were also delicious. All three meals. We had shrimp risotto, Chimichurri steak, and a chickpea curry with rice.

And the recipe sheets are right there you so you can build up your recipe library and re-make your favorites anytime you want.

Hello fresh seems perfect for busy couples and families who want to have sit down meals at home, but don't have all the time for shopping and prep. Or really anyone who want to eat at home more.

It also solve the "what are we going to eat this week" meal planning problem. A big one in my house.

You can order 3, 4, or 5 different meals per week designed for either 2 or 4 people

Now here's a deal.

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I think you'r gonna love it and thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring the Maccast.

News

Apple's event confirmed for March 21st

Official invites went out last week and the date is confirmed.

It will be live streamed and will happen on Apple's Camus in Cupertino at 10 AM Pacific time

iPhone SE

"Special Edition" (Small Edition)?

4-inch iPhone with iPhone 6s like specs.

A9 processor, NFC/Apple Pay support, metal case with curved edges

Ports and buttons still configured like the iPhone 5s

Priced starting at around USD $400 - $500 in 16GB and 64GB storage options.

Gene Munster thinks Apple might keep the "excess stock" of iPhone 5s' around at a cheaper price

Could appeal to emerging iPhone markets like India, Brazil and Russia.

iPad Pro 9.7-inch

Leaked case designed appear to confirm a lot of what we think we already know

Opening for a SmartConnector, LED flash, and quad-stereo speakers

Supposed to have the faster A9X processor with 4GB RAM

Pencil and Smart Keyboard support

Likely a appropriate sized version of the Smart Keyboard as an accessory

Pricing expected to start at $499 for a 16GB wi-fi model.

Also new Apple Watch bands and pre-configured combinations

A black Milanese Loop

Expect iOS, watchOS, and tvOS updates to come out as well

Apple shipped iOS 9.3 beta 7 already just a week after beta 6f

New MacBook updates could happen at the same time

Macbook Pros and the 12-inch Macbook are over due for updates.

New Skylake processors and configurations

Might just be spec updates on Apple's website.

Products announced during the even will possibly be available for order at the end of the same week or the next.

Latest China sales numbers from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech showed growth, but at a slower rate

The numbers covered a three month period ending in January and showed that iOS had a 25 percent marketshare in China

Grew from 19 percent in the three month period ending September 2015 to over 27% in the three month period ending December 2015.

January was the weakest month, but might have been due to consumers waiting for Chinese New Year deals in February

iPhone 7 rumors increase

French blog NowhereElse posted a leaked rear case design for an iPhone 7.

reduced camera bump, but larger camera hole

antenna lines that are closer to the top and bottom edges and no line across the middle.

The same French blog also posted alleged pictures of the dual-lens component for the iPhone 7 Plus (which also surfaced back in January)

The dual lens technology

Acquired from Apple's acquisition of LinX Imaging

A wide angle and a 2-3 x optical zoom lens

Software to combine data rom both sensors for images with more clarity, detail, depth.

Also can enhance low light capabilities.

A Chinese site supposedly posted the first images of an iPhone 7 Plus

Shows the "reduced camera bump" and a pill shaped camera housing with the dual lenses.

Also has the minimized antenna lines along the top and bottom

It also shows a "Smart Connector" on the back.

Another set of leaked Chinese images show a front and bottom of an "iPhone 7"

As expected there is no headphone jack, but it's also missing a home button.

There has been speculation for years of Apple toying with eliminating the Home button.

If you're wondering "What about Touch ID", they say the technology has been integrated into the display. Something we've seen hinted at in Apple patent filings.

I think it's unlikely.

iPhone modding company Feld & Volk says based on their research both the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus may include dual-lens cameras

They have been accurate in the past.

It's still believed Apple will drop the headphone connection on the 7 series devices

There are also new rumors that the Plus model may get a 256GB storage option.

The justification for this rumor is a 256GB NAND flash memory produced by SanDisk

It's actually smaller than the current 64GB modules Apple uses allowing for a thinner design and more storage.

Apple Insider doubts the rumor, but speculates that if true Apple could introduce the iPhone 7 Plus in sizes of 64, 128, and 256.

Seems to me more likely to be 32, 128, and 256

Personally I feel that basing much on leaked images or rumors right now is very speculative at best

A lot of what we are seeing could be pre-production or spec designs

Apple is well know for trying may options out during the prototype phases and changes designs and specs up to the final minutes of going into production.

The idea of a Smart Connector has not been proposed before, but could be interesting

It certainly gives credit to the idea that Apple might be considering an iPhone 7 "Pro" design.

Apple's FBI fight heightens encryption debates

The fallout seems to continue with companies, governments, and agencies on both sides pushing legislation and technology to give their side an edge in future fights

In the UK the Investigatory Powers Bill

A draft is currently in Parliament, only a draft, so now law yet

It has language in it that seems to give state agencies the power to compel companies to build in ways for them to be able to hack devices

This includes communication service provider (CSPs), these are Internet and phone companies.

It also includes a non-disclosure to companies asked to do so could not reveal what they were compelled to do.

The U.K. Government seems to want to get the legislation through the Parliament before the end of this year.

The concern is that doesn't leave a lot of time for review or scrutiny of the proposed changes to the law

The the Security and Intelligence Committee and other government committees who looked at an earlier proposal of the legislation expressed concerns that it was too broad and didn't account for privacy protections

Current revisions reportedly don't address those concerns.

Government seems to be posturing that things could get a lot worse if Apple fights this order

DOJ filed a response with a warning that made it sound like they considered filing for an order that would have compelled Apple to turn over the iOS source code and signing keys so the FBI could write the hack themselves.

Saying they didn't because, "…such a request would be less palatable to Apple"

President Obama was as SXSW and warned of what might happen in a battle ensues between tech companies and the government over encryption

""What will happen is, if everybody goes to their respective corners, and the tech community says 'either we have strong perfect encryption or else it's Big Brother and an Orwellian world', what you'll find is that after something really bad happens, the politics of this will swing and it will become sloppy and rushed and it will go through Congress in ways that are dangerous and not thought through,"

Seems to basically imply that if companies take steps to ensure encryption is so strong that they can't be compelled to let the government in then the government would be forced to mandate back doors.

Republican Congressman Darell Issa called the comments "tone deaf" with regards to the technology involved.

There is no way to create a special key just for the US government and law enforcement.

For it's part Apple also seems to be reacting for the future based on the current case

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is making plans to secure iCloud data in a way where they will no longer have the encryption keys for the data they store

As mentioned perviously Apple can currently decrypt iCloud backups and data stored on their servers when presented with a valid warrant

Something they did for the FBI in the San Bernardino case

That is because Apple holds the keys that encrypt that data

If they change that, then Apple would no longer be able to decrypt that data even if presented with a warrant.

There are currently some things, like iCloud Keychain data, that Apple already encrypts in iCloud this way.

This would seem to expand that technique to apply to ALL iCloud data.

Sounds like the basic idea is that Apple would combine the encryption keys for iCloud with a user set passcode or passphrase that Apple would not have access to outside the authentication process.

The disadvantage to the change for customers is that if a use forgot their iCloud password it would be impossible for Apple to help recover any iCloud data or to get access back

This is something that Apple can currently do.

It comes up too in cases where a family member had died and they family want to transfer the data.

Apple News gets new ad formats

Apple updated the support document for ad sizes, titled Ad Specifications for iAd, to add a new format called "News Ad Format"

It's in the "Native Banner" section.

Seems like it will allow for feeds to have sponsored ad content.

Like many of these kinds of ads there seems to be little to let you know this is an ad

Just a small line of "Sponsored by" text.

Apple this week also opened up the Apple News service to smaller publishers and individual bloggers

So far Apple has allowed publishers to submit their feeds, but been approving only select publishers

Adding new ways to generate ad revenues and opening up the platform should help bring more publications and potentially more eyeballs to Apple's News app.

Do you use the News app regularly? What do you think?

I've used it a bit more lately and find it's good when I want to just "browse" what's happening.

As a tailored digital newspaper/magazine it's interesting.

The most frustrating thing though is feeds that are not offering full articles. Kills the experience.

Wish there was a way to filter and identify these to weed them out.

I doesn't and really can't replace my dedicated RSS readers.

Feedback, commentary, opinions

Ransomware follow-up

Jill had some good feedback.

One way to protect against malware and ransomware is to set Gatekeeper to only allow apps from the Mac App Store.

This isn't a 100% guarantee, but will severely limit your exposure

System Preferences > Security & Privacy. Set the Allow Apps Downloaded from to 'Mac App Store'

You can then Command+Click an app or installer and choose 'Open' to temporarily allow installation of that one non-app store app. Or temporarily change the Gatekeeper setting.

Also, many pointed out that using the checksum trick is not good advice because if a hacker has access to the site they could also change the checksum

True, so it's not a 100% certainty, but if you do it and get a checksum fail you at least know to not install.

Flaky HomeKit? Check your router.

Last week I tried to help Matt out with some HomeKit issues.

In the segment I mentioned that HomeKit is in some ways, to coin a Steve Jobsism, "a bag of hurt".

It can be finicky and some hubs will give you trouble. My for example will responds as if it worked via Siri when it didn't. Reporting "the lights are now on" when I'm still sitting in a dark room.

Updating the hubs firmware, running in off and on again, rebooting the iOS device were all fixes.

But Matt resolved his own issue and it actually had nothing to do with HomeKit, or at least not directly.

I had suggested trying Settings > HomeKit. Then selecting the "Home" and just turning off "Remote Access"

My thought was maybe it wasn't staying internal to the local network, but attempting to go through the Internet and getting stopped.

Well when Matt tried it kept giving him an error, "Can't configure this option. Please try again."

So he thought let me try using LTE. When he switched the option was ON, but when he changed back to wi-fi it would go off.

The testing on LTE everything was working. So maybe the issue was the wi-fi

Sure enough resetting the network setting and router cleared everything up.

Gary also wrote in to ask about some of the complexity of each kind of HomeKit thing having it's own app.

If you buy a set of devices, iDevices, ElGato, Ecobee, Phillips each has it's own hub and own apps.

There isn't much you can do on the hub front. Though, using something like Homebridge might work if someone has written a plug-in for your Homekit devices

So can you have one app to control everything?

The answer is YES.

You might have to set up and register your devices with HomeKit in their own app, but once registered any app that sees HomeKit should see all the Homekit devices that are registered

There are third party apps, like Home for iOS

Or you can use El Gato's Eve App or Insteon's Insteon+ App

I like Eve's

In each app you can set up zones, rooms, and create scenes with access to all your devices.

And really if you use Siri voice commends you don't directly interface with any App.

Mail Move To Shortcuts

Here's a couple cool Mail tips to make accessing key mailboxes and moving messages to them easier

Use the 'Favorites' Bar. which is like the 'Bookmarks Bar' in Safari

Under View > Show Favorites Bar (Command + Option + Shift + H)

You can drag Mailboxes and folders into the Favorites Bar

Access by clicking on them

The first nine will have a shortcut assigned by default

Command + #, where # is the items numbered position left to right in the Favorites bar. The first item is 1 the second 2 and so on. So Command + 3 will take you to the third mailbox listed in the Favorites Bar.

Reorder them by dragging them in the favorites bar.

You can also move items to the Favorite mailboxes

Drag a message or group of messages directly onto the Favorite item in the bar

If it's a folder you can hover and the favorite will expand (spring-loaded)

There is also a menu item. Mailbox > Move to Favorite Mailbox. Then you'll see the list.

Plus you get 'Move to Favorite Mailbox' shortcuts.

Command + Control + #. Works the same as the Favorite Mailbox shortcuts. The # is the favorite mailbox number.

If you need even more scripting for moving or copying messages then you could try using something like Alfred 2 and the Alfred scripts Alfred Mail Actions Workflow

These don't seem to have been updated for two years, so I'm not entirely sure they will still work

The source code is on GitHub, so if there is an issue you could likely modify the script to get it to work.

Fix Network issues with DHCP reservations

Every had issues on you home network where your network name kept changing, adding a (number) after the name?

Or maybe you connect and get the message, “Another device on the network is using your computer’s IP address”

This is often because of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service in your router not expiring the IP address or that being cached on the network, but then attempting to assign it to another Mac.

To fix it you could reset the router. Then it would assign each device and Mac on your network a new IP.

You could also turn off DHCP on your router and manually assign each device and computer an IP address. Time consuming and what if you want to just plug-in a new device or want to give a guest access to your home network?

You can actually have the best of both worlds with something called DHCP reservations.

DHCP Reservation

A way to assign the same IP address to the same computer or devices from the DHCP server (router)

Supported by Airport Express, Macs and iOS devices. Also many 3rd party routers.

Finding a client id

You will use either the DHCP Client ID or the MAC address to assign the DHCP reservation on your router

DHCP Client ID

On Mac, System Preferences-->Network-->choose interface (Ethernet, AirPort, etc.)

Click the 'Advanced…' button

When set to 'Configure Using DHCP' in the TCP/IP tab there is a box for DHCP Client ID

Set the ID to whatever you want, but remember it for later

On iOS

Settings-->General-->Network-->Select the network

Under 'DHCP' add a 'Client ID'

MAC Address

Media Access Control address.

A number consisting of six groups of two hexadecimal digits separated by a colons

For ANY network device, or more specifically interface. Not just an Apple thing.

On the Mac

System Preferences-->Network-->Select the Interface

Click on the 'Ethernet' tab

Note the Ethernet ID

Can also find it in the System Profiler under 'Network'-->'Locations' and looking for the 'MAC Address' value for each interface.

On iOS

Settings-->General-->About

Note the 'Wi-Fi Address'

Make the reservation

Specific instructions will vary slightly based on your network setting and router

I use an AirPort extreme and private IPs in the 10.0.0.0 range. 192.168.0.0 and 172.16.0.0 are also possible

In the Airport Utility

Select the Airport and click the "Manual Setup" button

Select the 'Internet' section

Then click on the 'DHCP' tab

Setting the DHCP address range (optional)

I do this to leave part of the range open for static IPs

Normally DHCP will assign numbers from 1 to 255 in the last IP slot. So, 10.0.0.1 to 10.0.0.255 for example

Here you can limit where the range will stop to a lower value.

You can also check your DHCP lease time here

Section for DHCP Reservations

Click the "+" button

In the 'Description' enter anything you'd like to remember the reservation

Reserve by, choose MAC Address or DHCP Client ID

Then enter the MAC Address or Client ID depending

Set the desired IP address. Preferably outside the range of already DHCP assigned addresses on your network, but still in the DHCP range.

Click 'Done' and then Update to reset the Airport

You may need to reset the device or renew the DHCp lease for it to take effect on the client.

From this point forward on your network it should always assign that IP address to that device.

Once set now each time a device connects it will get the same IP every time. Devices without reservations will get an IP address from the DHCP service on the router as normal.

Doing this can also be helpful for troubleshooting since you will know the exact IP address for specific items on your network

A trick I use is to reserve IPs based on device types.

All my iOS devices are in the .20 range, all my Macs in the .40 range, my Home automation .50s, Sonos .70s

Thing of the Moment: RadTech Sleevz for iPad Pro

I think I've told you about the RadTech Sleevz for Macbooks and Macbook Pros in the past

Now they have them for iPad Pro and they are just as awesome.

They sent me one to try out and now my iPad Pro will never be without it.

It's a tight fitting microfiber fabric cover that slides over and protects the entire device some scratches

Give me piece of mind when sliding it into a bag with other items.

The cloth is called Optex Super80 and it is super durable. I've had my Macbook Pro one for years and it looks like new

You can use the Sleev as a cleaning cloth to wide away grease and smudges.

Doesn't add any bulk

Slide it on with the Smart Connector on the open side and you can still attach the Smart Keyboard cover.

Has an option to get slots on the back for Apple Pencil

Comes in six color options. Grey, Fuchsia, Indigo, Green, Grape, or Black.

USD $30.95 and add $1.00 for the Apple Pencil slots.

Worth every penny and you'll find them at radtech.com

Closing

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