Obama makes disappointing remarks on encryption ⇢

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While Obama didn’t speak directly about the Apple/FBI case in his appearance at SXSW, I sure don’t like his comments. Michael Shear at The New York Times:

“If, technologically, it is possible to make an impenetrable device or system, where the encryption is so strong that there is no key, there is no door at all, then how do we apprehend the child pornographer?” Mr. Obama said. “How do we disrupt a terrorist plot?”

If the government has no way into a smartphone, he added, “then everyone is walking around with a Swiss bank account in your pocket.”

The argument of “bad things may happen so we need less security” is a scary one. John Gruber writes:

Our phones are either insecure, making life easier for law enforcement — or, our phones are secure, making life more difficult for law enforcement, rendering some potential evidence unobtainable. We don’t ban matches to prevent people from burning evidence. We don’t mandate weak locks to make it easier for the police to crack safes.

On handwriting recognition and iOS ⇢

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Serenity Caldwell at iMore, talking about the possibilities of handwriting recognition on something the iPad Pro:

Much as I hated longform writing and as terrible as my penmanship was, there was still something pretty magical and otherworldly about writing block or cursive letters and having them transform into digital text. By the year 2000, I had convinced most of my teachers that I could turn in typed work, but I probably saved future Serenity’s penmanship from becoming truly atrocious because I had that Newton MessagePad. I was constantly writing and doodling with it.

I’ve got a couple of Newtons laying around[1] and I recently was playing with the handwriting engine on one of them. It’s nowhere near perfect, but Serenity is right. There is something nice about writing — as opposed to typing — for some types of work.

It’s easy to thing that if Apple were to roll this out, it’d be far better than the Newton ever was. However, while the iPad Pro is hilariously more powerful than the Newtons, the underlying technology probably hasn’t been getting a lot of love from Apple. If the company were to revisit this, Apple’s tech would have to work far better than it did in the 90s. Here’s Ren again:

If nothing else, Apple has some pretty good handwriting recognition software lying around: The company’s aging Inkwell technology is based off the original Newton Rosetta framework, and lets people with a connected tablet transcribe letters and draw pictures. It hasn’t been officially updated in an age, but it’s still supported as of OS X El Capitan, and the recognition engine is halfway decent.

Still, I’d like to see this be an option for Pencil-powered input. I still use physical notebooks, and while this wouldn’t change that, I think a lot of people would like something in between handwriting and typing on a sheet of glass.

  1. Shocking, right?  ↩

Kbase Article of the Week: Apple Cinema Display ADC: USB ports don‘t work ⇢

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I’m not sure anything makes me think “old computer” as fast as the possibility of bent pins in a connector:

If the USB ports of an Apple display with an Apple Display Connector (ADC) won’t work, a pin or pins on the connector may be bent.

When you turn on the computer you hear the startup sound and the picture on the display appears, but the USB ports on the display don’t work.

Here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry for the Apple Display Connector, first shown off in 2000. Data, power and video all over one cable, just like we have today.

Apple’s Campus 2 continues to take shape ⇢

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Mashable has a photo gallery up of progress being made on Apple’s new campus in Cupertino. At the center of the piece is an update on the company’s new theatre:

The 120,000-square-foot Theatre, with a capacity of 1,000 seats, is a subterranean auditorium, but that’s not to say it doesn’t make a statement from the outside.

Designed by U.K.-based architect firm Foster+Partner, the cylinder-shaped lobby can be seen at ground level and doesn’t have any columns. Instead, the space is open, encased by glass and will have stairs down to the event hall.

But perhaps the most stunning addition is its roof, which Apple believes is the largest freestanding carbon-fiber roof ever made. Created by Dubai-based Premier Composite Technologies, it’s a massive statement piece, in addition to a design feat. But please, Apple doesn’t want you to call it a UFO. The roof was added to the Theatre last month.

Craig Federighi on encryption ⇢

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Apple’s SVP of software engineering, in The Washington Post:

Security is an endless race — one that you can lead but never decisively win. Yesterday’s best defenses cannot fend off the attacks of today or tomorrow. Software innovations of the future will depend on the foundation of strong device security. We cannot afford to fall behind those who would exploit technology in order to cause chaos. To slow our pace, or reverse our progress, puts everyone at risk.

Mac App Store certificate problems affect previously-downloaded Mac OS X installers ⇢

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I can’t believe I didn’t think about this during the recent certificate issues with the Mac App Store, but here’s TidBITS’ Josh Centers:

The Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Intermediate Certificate is required for all apps in the Mac App Store, including OS X installers. When used to sign an app, the certificate enables OS X to confirm that the app has not been corrupted or modified by an attacker. This certificate expired on 14 February 2016, causing error dialogs and preventing some apps from launching. Most apps affected have already been updated with the new certificate. But if you downloaded an OS X installer in case of trouble, you may be in for a surprise the next time you try to use it.

To get around this, you can set the system clock back in time, or download new installers. I learned today that you can’t download an older version of OS X than your machine will run. For example, my current-gen MacBook Pro refuses to download OS X Mountain Lion becuase it can’t install it.

One of my Mac minis can run it, so I used it to download the OS, but got a concerning warning from the Mac App Store about downloading an older version of OS X then I’m actually running.

Head. Into. Desk.