Question: I heard Federico spell this out in a recent episode of Canvas, but I’m still running into problems. When using trackpad mode to select text on the iPad, how does one switch between manipulating the “in” and “out” of the selection? I’ve found myself getting stuck only moving around the second selection point, unable...
Craig Federighi on Encryption and the FBI’s Demands→
Craig Federighi, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Apple, writing for The Washington Post:
That’s why it’s so disappointing that the FBI, Justice Department and others in law enforcement are pressing us to turn back the clock to a less-secure time and less-secure technologies. They have suggested that the safeguards of iOS 7 were good enough and that we should simply go back to the security standards of 2013. But the security of iOS 7, while cutting-edge at the time, has since been breached by hackers. What’s worse, some of their methods have been productized and are now available for sale to attackers who are less skilled but often more malicious.
A cogent argument from Federighi. It follows on from Tim Cook’s open letter and interview with ABC News, as well as Bruce Sewell’s testimony to a congressional committee.
Transmission Infected with KeRanger Ransomware
It was discovered this weekend that popular BitTorrent client Transmission was infected with what is believed to be the first fully functional ransomware on OS X. Palo Alto Networks discovered the infection and report that attackers infected two installers of version 2.90 of Transmission’s Mac app with the ransomware, dubbed KeRanger, on March 4. The ransomware works by encrypting all files in the “/Users” and “/Volumes” directories and then demands payment of 1 Bitcoin (~US$400) from victims in order to decrypt and retrieve their files.
It is not yet known how the Transmission installers were infected. Palo Alto Networks promptly disclosed the ransomware to the Transmission Project and Apple, and both have taken swift action. Transmission has since been updated to 2.9.1 (removing the ransomware from the installer) and 2.9.2 (automatically removing KeRanger if it had been installed on a user’s system). Whilst Apple has revoked the certificate used to install KeRanger, updated Gatekeeper to block the malicious installer, and updated its XProtect (Apple’s built-in anti-malware software) signatures.
How to Protect Yourself
The following is excerpted from Palo Alto Networks’ report on KeRanger. We recommend you read their full report if you would like further, and more detailed, information.
Users who have directly downloaded Transmission installer from official website after 11:00am PST, March 4, 2016 and before 7:00pm PST, March 5, 2016, may be been infected by KeRanger. If the Transmission installer was downloaded earlier or downloaded from any third party websites, we also suggest users perform the following security checks. Users of older versions of Transmission do not appear to be affected as of now.
[via MacRumors, Palo Alto Networks]
Q&A
Question: I’m a web/app designer. Over the past year I’ve been doing more and more of my work on the iPad, and that trend has increased exponentially with the iPad Pro. The only thing that I still do entirely on my Mac is coding. But I would love to be able to also do this...
Apple Launches @AppleSupport Account on Twitter→
As first reported by MacRumors, Apple has today launched @AppleSupport, a support account on Twitter:
Apple today created an official Twitter support account to provide customers with tips, tricks, and tutorials about the company’s product and services. One of the account’s first tweets provides users with step-by-step instructions on how to turn lists into checklists in the stock Notes app on iPhone.
Apple’s presence on social media is slowly but surely expanding. This is now the second support account that Apple runs on Twitter, following last October’s launch of @AppleMusicHelp which provides help and tips relating to Apple Music.
Developers: Apple’s App Review Needs Big Improvements
Since the App Store launched in 2008, every app and every app update has gone through a process of App Review. Run by a team within Apple, their objective is to keep the App Store free from apps that are malicious, broken, dangerous, offensive or infringe upon any of Apple’s App Store Review Guidelines. For developers who want to have their app on the iOS, Mac, or tvOS App Store, App Review is an unavoidable necessity that they deal with regularly. But in the public, little is heard about App Review, except for a few occasions in which App Review has made a high-profile or controversial app rejection (such as the iOS 8 widgets saga) or when App Review has mistakenly approved an app that should never have been approved (such as the app requiring players to kill Aboriginal Australians).
Earlier this year we set out to get a better understanding of what developers think about App Review. We wanted to hear about their positive and negative experiences with App Review, and find out how App Review could be improved. It is hard to ignore from the results we got, from a survey of 172 developers,1 that beneath the surface there is a simmering frustration relating to numerous aspects of App Review. There is no question that App Review still mostly works and very few want to get rid of it, but developers are facing a process that can be slow (sometimes excruciatingly so), inconsistent, marred by incompetence, and opaque with poor communication. What fuels the frustration is that after months of hard work developing an app, App Review is the final hurdle that developers must overcome, and yet App Review can often cause big delays or kill an app before it ever even sees the light of day.
Developer frustration at App Review might seem inconsequential, or inside-baseball, but the reality is that it does have wider implications. The app economy has blossomed into a massive industry, with Apple itself boasting that it has paid developers nearly $40 billion since 2008 and is responsible (directly and indirectly) for employing 4 million people in the iOS app economy across the US, Europe and China. As a result, what might have been a small problem with App Review 5 years ago is a much bigger problem today, and will be a much, much bigger problem in another 5 years time.
App Review is not in a critical condition, but there is a very real possibility that today’s problems with App Review are, to some degree, silently stiffling app innovation and harming the quality of apps on the App Store. It would be naïve of Apple to ignore the significant and numerous concerns that developers have about the process.
Sneak Peek
Developers: Apple’s App Review Needs Big Improvements [[graham]] Tomorrow we’ll be publishing a story about developer frustration at App Review. I’ve been working on it for a while now and I’m excited to share it with you all. But today we thought it might be a nice treat for Club MacStories members to get a...
Q&A
A good tip by member Steven Davis on how to get MP3s in Apple Music without using a Mac directly: With regards to Mark’s question on getting MP3s into Apple Music: Like you, I’m unaware of any way to do this with iOS alone. There is however a way to do this if you have...
Apple, FBI, and iPhone Security: A Roundup of News and Links
Apple made headlines around the world last week when Tim Cook announced, in an open letter to their customers, that Apple would oppose a court order requiring it to circumvent iOS security features. Since then, new developments in the story have broken and many have contributed with explanations of why the outcome of this battle between Apple and the FBI is significant.
Our relative silence on this topic at MacStories is not because we don’t think this story is important. To the contrary, we believe it is incredibly important and we applaud the principled stand that Cook’s Apple has decided to make. But we are hesitant to wade into this important debate, which can be incredibly technical, when there are far smarter minds out there who better deserve your time and attention.
To that end, we’ve compiled a list of useful news articles, opinion pieces, and other resources that we believe are worth a few minutes of your time.