Matt Birchler’s Relatively Modest Proposal for watchOS 5

Over on BirchTree, Matt has a modest proposal for Apple’s upcoming release for Apple Watch software:

It strikes me this year that we’re hitting the 5th major version of watchOS. This is not a brand new platform anymore, even though the Apple Watch feels relatively new in the grand scheme of things.

Some of the items on Matt’s list have been requested since watchOS 1.0, but we’re yet to see them. I see myself buying the next Apple Watch Series only if it has an always-on display and custom watchfaces.

January 17, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Mozilla Files Suit Against FCC to Protect Net Neutrality

The internet is a global, public resource. It relies on the core principle of net neutrality (that all internet traffic be treated equally) to exist. If that principle is removed — with only some content and services available or with roadblocks inserted by ISPs to throttle or control certain services — the value and impact of that resource can be impaired or destroyed.

Ending net neutrality could end the internet as we know it. That’s why we are committed to fighting the order.

If you’re reading this and live in the US, you can help by making a call.

January 17, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Popular BitTorrent Client Transmission Suffers from a Critical “Low Complexity” Flaw

Dan Goodin, reporting for ArsTechnica:

There’s a critical weakness in the widely used Transmission BitTorrent app that allows websites to execute malicious code on some users’ computers. That’s according to a researcher with Google’s Project Zero vulnerability reporting team, who also warns that other BitTorrent clients are likely similarly susceptible.

The issue is explained here and is said to likely affect other BitTorrent clients too.

Although the flaw was reported to the Transmission developers back in November 2017, an update with a patch has still not been issued. If you’re a Transmission user, you can temporarily disable the “Remote Access” option to mitigate any attacks.

January 16, 2018 ✚ Permalink

WhatsApp Reportedly Testing Anti-Chain Letter Spam Warning

Natasha Lomas, writing for TechCrunch:

Two WhatsApp blog sites, Whatsappen.nl and WABetaInfo, report spotting notification messages in the app which appear intended to warns users that they are at risk of forwarding some spam — by displaying a notice that the message “has been forwarded many times”.

A similar warning is also shown displayed on a frequently forwarded message when it’s received, although the feature is described as still in development and it’s not clear whether WhatsApp intends to officially roll it out or not.

I think WhatsApp first needs to offer a way to mark messages manually before they introduce the feature described above.

January 16, 2018 ✚ Permalink

On UIDAI’s “Launch” of Facial Authentication and Giving More “Choice” for Aadhaar Authentication

In a report published today on ETtech, the headline reads, “UIDAI launches facial authentication to give more ‘choice’ for Aadhar Authentication“.

First of all, Aadhaar is misspelled as ‘Aadhar’ in the headline itself.

According to the report:

In order to provide more choice to citizens authenticating using Aadhaar, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has introduced face authentication along with fingerprints and iris.

This measure will be used in “Fusion” along with existing modes of authentication such as fingerprints, iris and OTP (one-time-password). Implemented by July of this year, facial authentication is also expected to increase security by adding another layer of verification.

There’s a couple of issues I have with this report:

— First, not only do we have no details about UIDAI’s proposed facial authentication system, it will only be “Implemented by July of year”. For ETtech to blindly claim that “UIDAI launches facial authentication” is beyond stupid.

— Second, according to the second paragraph quoted above, the new facial authentication measure will work in “Fusion” with the three existing modes, i.e. fingerprints, iris, and OTP. ETtech quotes the UIDAI notification saying that face authentication will provide “additional choice” for those having difficulty with their fingerprints/iris authentication. If the facial authentication measure is going to work in fusion with existing methods, that’s hardly a “choice” for citizens. It’ll rather work as a fallback mechanism, in case the first level of authentication isn’t fully successful or as an additional factor of authentication. Nothing in the UIDAI notification, or this report, says that facial authentication will be offered as a ‘choice’ — as a primary method of authentication.

Then again, UIDAI began collection of user biometrics as early as 2009. People’s facial features surely change over time, don’t they?

January 15, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Cloudflare Gets Ready for a Massive Expansion in 2018 with Two New Data Centers in India

Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, announces their 120th data center in Salt Lake City, Utah and says the company has planned a “massive expansion” for 2018.

We have big plans. By the end of the year, we’re forecasting that we’ll have facilities in 200 cities and 100 countries worldwide. Twelve months from now we expect that 95% of the world’s population will live in a country with a Cloudflare data center.

In the post linked above, I noticed the network map includes five (maybe six) dots for India.

Cloudflare Network Map for India

Cloudflare Network Map for India

This includes the three existing Cloudflare data centers in New Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai, which the company launched in November 2015. The fourth dot, seen in Orange, looks like a new data center in progress in or around Nagpur in central India. Similarly, the fifth dot, seen in teal here looks like a new data center in or close to Bengaluru planned for sometime in 2018. It also looks like Cloudflare will be launching a new data center in Nepal.

As someone who lives in Mumbai and builds websites for clients — the majority of whom are located in the Indian subcontinent, I’m incredibly excited about all this.

January 12, 2018 ✚ Permalink

FBI Hacker Calls Apple ‘Jerks’ and ‘Evil Geniuses’ for Encrypting iPhones

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, writing for Motherboard:

FBI forensic expert Stephen Flatley lashed out at Apple, calling the company “jerks,” and “evil geniuses” for making his and his colleagues’ investigative work harder.

Sure, buddy. The people that are actually giving a fuck about customer privacy are “jerks” because it’s making your job harder to do.

That means, he explained, that “password attempts speed went from 45 passwords a second to one every 18 seconds,” referring to the difficulty of cracking a password using a “brute force” method in which every possible permutation is tried. There are tools that can input thousands of passwords in a very short period of time—if the attempts per minute are limited, it becomes much harder and slower to crack.

Yeah, no shit, Sherlock!

January 12, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Shahid Kamal Ahmad has a Few Things to Say about his MacBook Pro

Shahid Kamal Ahmad — best known for his work at Sony’s PlayStation division, has a few words to say about his MacBook Pro in his post titled, “MacBook Pro? No“.

Let me count the way my latest MacBook Pro is not suitable for professional use, but before I do that, you should know that I’ve been buying and recommending Macs since 2001. I’ve spent a fortune on them. I love them, but I only like my latest MacBook Pro (a 2016 model with the Radeon Pro 460). I write this with a heavy heart and a malfunctioning keyboard.  This is a story about unrequited hardware love.

and

You know that a design has failed when you’re forced into using it. The Touch Bar is Apple’s Clippy. An embarrassment.

I currently use a Mid-2011 iMac as my desktop computer and a Mid-2013 MacBook Air as my notebook. Both these Macs are now old, slow and I’m looking to replace them with better & faster Macs. The iMac will probably be replaced by a 27-inch 5K iMac, largely because I cannot afford the iMac Pro at ₹4,15,000 here in India. The MacBook Air on the other hand, or just in general for that matter, won’t be replaced with another notebook — at least in the near future, for one very simple reason.

Apple does not currently make a better & faster notebook computer.

The current MacBook Pro lineup raises more questions than it solves, and Shahid outlines many of them perfectly. I’d have loved to replace both my Macs with a single MacBook Pro machine, but today’s lineup is anything but a “Pro”.

There are so many incredible things that Apple brought to the table in the past years, but decided to throw them away for no good reason.

  • I want a MacBook Pro that’s actually powerful.
  • I want a MacBook Pro with a keyboard keys that doesn’t stop working in a few months.
  • I want a MacBook Pro with a decent number of ports
  • I want a MacBook Pro without a Touch Bar — or at least one where the Touch Bar doesn’t take away functionality. Move it to the bottom of the screen if you want to.
  • I want a MacBook Pro where I can upgrade the default RAM. Apple doesn’t offer BTO options in India.
  • I want a charger with an indicator light at the end to tell me the charging status.
  • Heck, I want a charger that ships with a goddamn cable.

I absolutely loved my 2008-era 15-inch MacBook Pro and I’d love to use a MacBook Pro as my primary machine, but as it stands today, I just can’t.

January 11, 2018 ✚ Permalink