Maccast 2017.03.28 - Show #607

Links

Opening

Opening Music

Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles

Sponsor: Harry's

Harry's

So I've been a Harry's customer since 2014

Why have they kept me so long? Because of the quality of the product, the flexibility of the service, and the convenience.

I was totally that guy who would use a "disposable" razor way too long because I don't have to shave that frequently and I'd always forget to buy razors.

With Harry's that all went away. I get fresh blades and shaving products delivered on a schedule.

Best of all I could tailor that schedule to my needs, which is different than other shaving plans.

I order fewer blades and a longer interval and then can manually throw in product like cream when I need it.

You might be different, maybe you need a few blades a week, so you can adjust your plan for that.

Everything at an affordable price. Less than $2.00 per blade.

And the quality of everything is great. Their blades feature

5 German-engineered blades

Lubricating strip

Flex-hinge for a comfortable glide

Trimmer blade for hard-to-reach places

Weighted, ergonomic handle

The founders of the company were so obsessed with getting quality blades they bought a factory.

Harry’s is so confident in the quality of their blades, they want you to try their most popular Trial Set for FREE!

Comes with a razor handle of your choice, five-blade cartridge, and shaving gel

The starter kit is amazing, I love Harry's handles. The trial one is great, but I "upgraded" to the chrome handles "Winston" a few years ago.

Free when you sign up, just pay a small fee for shipping

To redeem your free trial offer, go to Harrys.com/maccast right now.

That’s Harrys.com/maccast.

News

New iPad, but not Pro

New 9.7-inch iPad with an A9 chip and a brighter Retina display. Replaces the iPad Air 2

Slightly thicker and heavier since Apple is not using a fully laminated display. It also seems to have lost the anti-reflective coating.

Basically the same dimensions as the 'original' Air.

Rest of the specs remain the same.

Two sizes, $329 for 32GB and $429 for 128GB.

Price is slightly higher, even adjusting for exchange in the UK. £339 a premium of £23, or around 7%, even after factoring the 20 percent VAT. Hedging a 'Brexit' increase maybe?

iPad Mini 4, now just one size

The 128GB model now comes at the 32GB price of USD $399.00

Could be the beginning of the end for the mini?

New iPhone SE

Now gets 32GB and 128GB for the old 16GB and almost 64GB (was lowered recently to $449) prices

$399 and $499 respectively

Product RED iPhone 7

128GB and 256GB models for $749/$849 and $869/$969 respectively

Percentage of sales goes to the Global Fund to support HIV/AIDS programs

Best thing about all the small updates is, I think, we now only have 32GB as a base storage size.

New 'Spring' Apple Watch band collection

Can buy Nike 'Sport' watchbands separately for USD $49

Three new Sport bans at USD $49.00

Six new colors of the USD $49 Woven nylon bands.

Seven new USD $149 leather Classic Buckle designs

Two new Hermès Leather collection bands which sell for USD$489 each

Apple also significantly reduced the 'boxed' Apple Watch options.

Series 2 Steel comes in Black or White Sport, Steel or Space Black Milanese Loop, or the Hermes versions

Sport with white, black, pink, or midnight blue. Nike Sport with white or black band.

Six new iPhone cases

Three leather and three silicone to match the Apple Watch 'Sport' band colors

Available in Azure, Camellia and Pebble

USD $35 for the silicone cases and USD $45 for the leather

Clips, app

Combine video clips, photos, and music with animated captions and effects to share on social media.

One "unique" feature called, Live Titles that lets you create animated captions and titles with voice input

Smart Suggestions will use facial recognition to detect who is in the video and offer sharing with those people (using Photos data).

Available in April and requires iOS 10.3 or later

What about "new" iPads

They may still be on the way, but no one is sure when.

Developer Steve Troughton-Smith noted code in iOS 10.3 that showed evidence of future iPad models able to render refresh rates faster than 60Hz. Could make for a smoother Apple Pencil experience, I know, as it polls input at 240Hz for precision

Most believe this rumored 10.5-inch iPad Pro is still on the way.

Remember when mobile marketing company Fiksu said they spotted four 'new' iPad model identifiers?

They say the new updated lower priced iPad was not among them

Meaning their are still likely some "Pro" models we haven't seen yet in testing at Apple.

An IHS Markit analyst told Forbes that Apple's partners are begining limited production of the rumored 10.5-inch iPad Pro this month.

It's not clear at this point though when they will actually hit the market

Speculation ranges from "soon", to "at WWDC", to "in the Fall".

It does seem like if Apple were to do a Spring launch supplies would be VERY limited.

The analyst notes they would possibly have to limit to a US and "select" countries only launch. Not likely.

And the next iPhone?

Economic Daily News is reporting that TSMC will begin mass production of the Apple A11 chip in April.

The A11 is expected to power the next generation of iPhones, including the new OLED iPhone "Edition" (aka iPhone 8) and the updated iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus models

The chip uses a 10 nanometer process which gives it better energy efficiency and better performance.

And the next Apple Watch?

One analyst believes Apple may all LTE cellular connectivity

Battery is obviously the mitigating issue, but his report mentions Apple looking at using VOIP and data across a CAT-M1 connection for superior battery life.

It also says Apple has been seeking out low-power cellular chips and that AirPods would play a key roll for making and receive phone calls.

Hackers claim to have your iCloud password

A hacker group calling themselves the “Turkish Crime Family” say they have "millions" (between 300 and 600 million?) of iCloud accounts and they will wipe them all unless Apple Pays up.

The story came out of the group contacting the tech site "Motherboard"

In what feels like a nod to Dr. Evil the ransom is set at, $100,000 worth of iTunes gift cards or $75,000 in Bitcoin.

There was screenshots provided to media as "verification" that they had been in contact with Apple security

Apple allegedly asked they to verify the data so the group, " uploaded a YouTube video of them accessing an elderly woman’s iCloud". Apple supposedly responded with a takedown notice and said they'd be contacting authorities.

They are saying they will "reset" the accounts on April 7th if their demands are not met.

Apple has officially responded saying they have not had any data breach.

The belief is the emails are aggregated from other data breaches and it's unclear if all the emails involved are even valid logins.

The hackers say at least 220 million of the login credentials are verified to work and do not have two-factor authentication enabled.

Beware that apparently some users are also getting phone calls from “Apple Support” had called about iCloud security. Not Apple.

Apple said they are actively monitoring users iCloud accounts to prevent unauthorized access and working with law enforcement to identify the criminals involved.

Using some simple rules, as always, can help protect you:

Always use good strong passwords

Always use different passwords for EVERY account.

Change passwords regularly.

If offered, enable 2-factor authentication.

Use a password manager.

Apple acquires Workflow

According to TechCrunch Apple has finalized a deal to acquire the iOS automation app Workflow.

Workflow is an amazing Apple that allows for Automator like scripting on iOS and was developed by a small team including Ari Weinstein, a former iPhone jailbreaker.

The reports says Apple is acquiring the app and the team, so it's not just an acquihire thing. The will remain available, at least for now, for free on the App Store.

Apple confirmed the deal and mentioned in a statement that they were particularly impressed by the apps, "outstanding implementation for VoiceOver".

The move comes as positive news for those of us who were a bit worried about the future of automation tools in Apple OS after the departure of Automation "legend" Sal Saghoian late last year.

The hope is that this move will allow Workflow to be more deeply integrated with the core of iOS and things like Siri, HomeKit, and more.

This is also the kind of tool that could further move things like the iPad Pro into becoming a more serious tool for production and content creation.

Apple Pay comes to ATMs

At least for some.

Wells Fargo has announced that you’ll be able to use Apple Pay to withdraw cash from many of its ATMs from later in the year.

Once enabled customers can use Wells Fargo Wallet, Apple Pay, Android Pay, or Samsung Pay to initiate ATM transactions. You pin will still be required, but not your card.

Right now they do offer a Card-Free ATM system via their mobile app, but it's clunky.

Customers log into the Wells Fargo mobile app and select Card-Free ATM access under Account Services

Then they request a "one-time" use 8 digit access code.

Then at the ATM they enter the Access Code and their PIN to use the ATM

Apple's latest OS and software updates

Apple updates all the software stuffs, or at least a lot of it.

iOS 10.3

Apple ID, iCloud, and iTunes accounts now are all in a Apple ID prompt at the top of the Settings screen

Adds "Find My AirPods" to Find My iPhone. Last GPS location they were connected at. Also play a sound to help locate a missing bud.

Also bring in APFS (Apple File System) under the hood.

Devs can now respond to customers App Store reviews

32-bit app warning now notes that they will not be supported in the next update.

To see what apps on your device are 32-bit

Settings > General > Applications

Will show a list of apps with no updates available.

Podcasts support for 3D Touch and Today widget to access recently updated shows

Podcast shows or episodes are shareable to Messages with full playback support

macOS 10.12.4

Brings "Night Shift" mode to the Mac. Activated through the Displays section of System Preferences.

Also adds support for Shanghainese, cricket score integration for Siri, improved PDFKit APIs, and new iCloud Analytics options

watchOS 3.2

SiriKit and Theater Mode

In Theater Mode all sound is disabled and raise-to-wake is turned off.

tvOS 10.2

Accelerated scrolling in apps

Support for the Device Enrollment Program

Better mobile device management

VideoToolbox, a framework that lets developers tap into hardware-accelerated encoding and decoding.

Apple TV Remote now supports iPad

The main controls for Menu, TV, Siri, Play/Pause are "persistent" (always on screen) the rest of the area is a giant touch surface

"Now Playing" sidebar with Up Next, Lyrics, etc.

Controls can be moved around the screen. Press-and-hold the button area to move it to the left, right, or center of the screen.

Updates also to the iWork apps, biggest thing being support for TouchID password-protected documents.

Apple has also released a new 2017-001 security update for OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan.

Feedback, commentary, opinions

Password reset, needs new keychain.

Jason wrote in to mention something that I did not really make clear in my coverage on the tools to reset your account passwords in OS X

Also the point of me mentioning the technique was not to advise using the tool. I was trying to explain how, without FileVault enabled, someone could use the tool to gain access to your data and accounts even if you had a strong password on your Mac.

If you need to change your account password always try to do so from the 'Users & Groups' System Preferences. That way the Keychain and FileVault passwords will also be updated.

If you end up reseting an account password you will not have access to the iCloud Keychain since the passwords now do not match.

After resetting your password and logging back in to your account, you might see an alert that the system was unable to unlock your login keychain. This is expected, because the passwords for your user account and login keychain no longer match. Just click the Create New Keychain button.

The issue is that every time an app, calendar, Mail, iTunes, or any other service that needs access to iCloud or an item in the Keychain starts up your going to be prompted for the credentials.

If you have not reset the Keychain the OS can't store is, so you'll be asked contiguously. Annoying.

Point is, make sure to reset the Keychain after resetting the password if you use the `resetpassword` technique via the recovery partition.

If you didn't see an alert about your login keychain, or you see other messages asking for your old password, reset your keychain manually:

Open Keychain Access, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.

Choose Preferences from the Keychain Access menu, then click the Reset My Default Keychain button in the preferences window. After you enter your new password, Keychain Access creates an empty login keychain with no password. Click OK to confirm.

If you don't see a Reset My Default keychain button, close the preferences window and select the “login” keychain from the left side of the Keychain Access window. Press the Delete key, then click Delete References.

Choose Log Out from the Apple menu to return to the login screen.

Darren wrote in to point out an issue with security for users who rely on accessibility features for logging in

Simply put, you can't if you can't use a physical keyboard.

Darren relies on TrackerPro to control the cursor and KeyStrokes (an onscreen keyboard)

OS X cannot display or run third party apps until the user is logged in. They don't even offer a simple on-screen keyboard.

So he HAS to enable auto-login in order to be able to boot his Mac, a big security issue.

In defense of CarPlay

Last time I played a listener comment and wanted to open up a CarPlay discussion

This listener was a bit frustrated with some parts of CarPlay and since I don't have access to a CarPlay system I wanted to hear from you.

Play comments from Kevin.

Craig had a few things to say:

Best summed up as: "I've used CarPlay in my 2016 Honda Civic nearly 2 hours every day for the past 15 months. Without exaggeration - it has been the best, single integrated use of technology in my car that has made my commute more enjoyable and even safer than any other time for the past 15+ years"

He said he loves maps and it is better than his BMW ConnectedDrive system.

Music and Podcast are get and he uses Spotify and Pandora with CarPlay

Everyone does seem to agree that more 3rd party app integrations would be welcome.

Craig mentions 3rd party HomeKit support say for garage door automation.

Another thing that was pointed out is the systems integration which might vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and could be impacting individual user experiences.

Almost to the day I released that episode Amazon added CarPlay support to their Amazon Music app for iOS.

So Apple is not completely blocking everything, but yes CarPlay apps are not as open as other apps.

iTunes 12.6 may have gone too far (for me)

OK, for many I think iTunes 10 may have gone to far, but now even I have become frustrated.

I LOVE the fact that they have finally allowed for rent once watch anywhere, thank goodness for that.

BUT… why the heck did they remove features from the "mini" player and end up making it larger

Removed the "mini" album art

Made it twice the height.

Shifted the playbar to the top.

Apple and Hollywood discuss in-theater "rentals"

Details coming out of Variety

The idea is the studios would make movies available maybe just 17 to 45 days after they hit theaters

Pricing has ranged from as low as $30 to as high as $50 and may be variable depending on the title.

Currently many title are available for purchase about 70 days after hitting theaters and for rental at 90 days.

Fox, Warner Bros, and Universal are rumored to be talking.

Negotiating with the theater chains is said to be part of the process as well (my guess is concessions or revenue shares would be up for discussion).

Interestingly Disney is said to be a hold out because they typically have longer theater runs.

At this time it just seems to be talks and “no deal is imminent”.

What your Mac tells Apple

A new option in macOS 10.12.4 is to share iCloud analytics with Apple.

This is in addition to sharing Mac analytics and App analytics (3rd party apps)

You can control all these settings in System Preferences > Security & Privacy.

Click the 'Privacy' tab

Scroll down and select 'Analytics' in the sidebar.

But you can also see what is sent, or would be sent, to Apple using the Console app

Open Console.

In the Console sidebar, click Mac Analytics data.

Console shows analytics information even if you did not select to send reports automatically.

SubmitDiagInfo entries indicate when analytics information was sent to Apple.

If you are logged in as an administrator user, you can view any item in the section. If you are not logged in as an administrator, you can only view User Analytics Reports.

I looked at mine and did not find any stuff being sent to Apple, yet. It also all looked pretty benign and boring.

Remember Apple uses differential privacy, so the data you share is not associated with you or your account.

Text message forwarding to Mac

Play question from Paul.

First of all I didn't even know this was a thing.

Basically if you have any Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that meets the Continuity system requirements you can have SMS messages forwarded via your iPhone to a Mac or non cellular iPad.

To set up SMS and MMS message forwarding:

Each device is signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID.

On iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive.

Make sure that the Apple ID at the top of the screen is the same Apple ID that you're using for iMessage on your other devices.

Add a check to your phone number and email address, so that you can be reached by iMessage at both. Do the same on your iPad or iPod touch.

On iPhone, go to Settings > Messages > Text Message Forwarding, then choose which devices to allow to send and receive text messages from this iPhone.

If you're not using two-factor authentication for your Apple ID, a verification code appears on each of your other devices:

Enter that code on your iPhone.

On Mac, open Messages, then choose Messages > Preferences. Click Accounts, then select your iMessage account.

Make sure that the Apple ID shown here is the same Apple ID that you're using on your other devices.

Add a check to your phone number and email address.

So what I'm wondering Paul is if your Apple ID is set up for 2-factor authentication. If so that may explain why you are NOT getting the verification code pop-up.

Why only one account is getting the messages?

Are you using fast user switching?

If you are, is the Messages app open and running in both accounts?

My guess is that maybe their is a priority to the accounts and since technically both accounts are "running" the message are being received first by whatever the "primary" account is.

Yes you would think it would send to both, but maybe a bug?

What happens if you log out and make sure only one account is logged in and active on the Mac at a time? Just as a test?

Running Mac Anti-virus

Seems like every so often this topic comes up and now seems to be the time again.

I have had several listeners ask me about anti-virus on the Mac. Big questions seem to be 1) Do I need it? 2) Do you use it?

Do you need anti-virus on the Mac?

This is a tough one because the answer really depends. Who are you, how do you use your Mac, who do you interact with using your computer, etc.?

If you going to sketchy websites sites, downloading pirated software, bit torrenting pirated movies, etc. Very likely you might want to run anti-virus or at least be scanning the stuff your downloading and running.

Even if you're not. Are you exchanging a lot of documents in files with people where you might be concerned about their environment or behaviors?

Do you just want to be a good citizen when you exchange files? (i.e. look for PC payloads even if your Mac is immune)

Do you always read and comprehend warning dialogs and pop-ups?

Apple provides several layers of protection out of the box:

Gatekeeper

System Integrity Protection

User accounts

Firewall (if you enable it) - System Preferences > Security & Privacy. Firewall tab.

Anti-virus, not matter what they tell you, will impact your system at least slightly, if you're using active scanning.

Do I run anti-virus?

Sort answer is no.

I do enable and take advantage of Apple's and other protections

Turn on Firewall when I'm on open wi-fi networks

Careful and aware of where I'm browsing and when and how. Use VPN services, like TunnelBear, when I think it's needed or appropriate.

Use my cellular connection instead of open wi-fi.

Occasionally run anti-malware scanner, [MalewareBytes]( https://www.malwarebytes.com/mac/)

Know that most of the really "bad" exploits are "zero-day" meaning they are undisclosed or undiscovered. Anti-virus can't protect you from those until they are exposed and not "zero-day", so even with anti-virus you can still get an exploit. Doesn't mean you shouldn't run anti-virus, but something to know.

Need to keep your anti-virus up to date.

Staying safe without anti-virus

Always keep your apps and software up to date, even older OSes.

Be safe and aware about your browsing

Always use unique and strong passwords for every login (use a password manager).

use 2-factor authentication if it's offered.

Enable the status bar and use 'tooltips' to vet links BEFORE you click them. Be careful with "short" links.

Don't install anything if you are unsure of the source.

Avoid open wi-fi if you can. When you do turn on firewall or consider using a VPN.

Use SSL for your email (if you can) Also SFTP for FTP.

Anti-virus apps:

[BitDefender]( https://www.bitdefender.com/solutions/antivirus-for-mac.html) - Free and Paid