Report: Apple to buy Shazam (Update) ⇢

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Ingrid Lunden at TechCrunch:

As Spotify continues to inch towards a public listing, Apple is making a move of its own to step up its game in music services. Sources tell us that the company is close to acquiring Shazam, the popular app that lets people identify any song, TV show, film or advert in seconds, by listening to an audio clip or (in the case of, say, an ad) a visual fragment, and then takes you to content relevant to that search.

We have heard that the deal is being signed this week, and will be announced on Monday, although that could always change.

I assume this will just become a Siri feature, and that the stand-alone app will go away. Or maybe the recognition engine behind the app is what Apple is after as they continue to push into AR. Wild.

Update: They did.

Zero-day iOS HomeKit Vulnerability Discovered, Patch Coming Next Week ⇢

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Zac Hall at 9to5Mac:

A HomeKit vulnerability in the current version of iOS 11.2 has been demonstrated to 9to5Mac that allows unauthorized control of accessories including smart locks and garage door openers. Our understanding is Apple has rolled out a server-side fix that now prevent unauthorized access from occurring while limiting some functionality, and an update to iOS 11.2 coming next week will restore that full functionality.

The hits just keep coming.

Become a Member and Support 512 Pixels ⇢

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If you enjoy my work at 512 Pixels, consider becoming a member to help support it. Memberships run $5.12/month or $51.20/year1 and include a monthly newsletter featuring interviews, guest posts, Apple history topics and more. Members also get to see my videos before I publish them to YouTube, one of which should be going out very soon. Thanks!

  1. See what I did there? I believe it was actually Viticci’s idea… ↩

Amazon Prime Video Ships for Apple TV

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Months after it was initially announced, the Amazon Prime Video is now available for the Apple TV.

The app comes with many of the features of the iOS version, including X-Ray, which provides additional information on actors and trivia based on scenes. Watch lists created on other versions of the app sync to the Apple TV one, and content within Amazon’s ecosystem is exposed to tvOS’ universal search.

There’s no word if this means Amazon will be selling the Apple TV on its store again, but this news comes as the rift between Google and Amazon grows. Amazon seems to love getting into fights with competitors.

Update: As Casey Liss pointed out, the app has launched in conjunction with the second season of The Grand Tour, the show that rose from the ashes of Top Gear. Season 1 of the new show was used to launch Amazon Prime Video in many more countries. I have no idea if there’s more than “just politics” behind this app taking so long to make it out, but I bet once Fall 2017 was on the table, the launch was set to coincide with The Grand Tour.

Connected #171: Leave it to Stephen ⇢

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On today’s episode of Connected:

Apple’s had a rough week, Myke’s office is full of assistants and Federico is back with a new task manager and an iPhone X review.

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MarsEdit 4 Launches ⇢

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I use Daniel Jalkut’s MarsEdit everyday to publish articles, update pages and fix typos here on 512 Pixels. It’s the best WordPress client I’ve ever used, including the WordPress web dashboard.

Version 4 comes with an updated design that looks much more at home in our post-Yosemite world. WordPress users can now set the featured image for posts, set the Post Format and change the author of published posts. The app can now download the entire history of published posts and pages locally and preview Markdown, MultiMarkdown and “Convert Line Breaks” content before publishing.

The app can be used as a 14 day trial period and requires macOS Sierra. A full license will run you $49.95, with a $24.95 upgrade available to MarsEdit 3 owners, even those who purchased on the Mac App Store, thanks to a new in-app purchase in version 3.

Kbase Article of the Week: Mac OS X v10.6, 10.6.1: Active Directory User May Not be Able to Log In ⇢

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Even our beloved Snow Leopard had issues:

An Active Directory user may not be able to log in to Mac OS X v10.6.0 or Mac OS X v10.6.1 client. This can happen when the Active Directory connector in Directory Utility is configured to “Create mobile account at login,” and a Home folder is specified in Active Directory for the user.

The fix? Waiting around for Mac OS X 10.6.2.