Apple

imessage-gets-a-major-makeover-that-puts-it-on-equal-footing-with-signal

iMessage gets a major makeover that puts it on equal footing with Signal

Apple, Biz & IT, iMessage, messaging apps, MESSENGER, quantum computing, Security, signal / /
Stylized illustration of key.

iMessage is getting a major makeover that makes it among the two messaging apps most prepared to withstand the coming advent of quantum computing, largely at parity with Signal or arguably incrementally more hardened.

On Wednesday, Apple said messages sent through iMessage will now be protected by two forms of end-to-end encryption (E2EE), whereas before, it had only one. The encryption being added, known as PQ3, is an implementation of a new algorithm called Kyber that, unlike the algorithms iMessage has used until now, can’t be broken with quantum computing. Apple isn’t replacing the older quantum-vulnerable algorithm with PQ3—it’s augmenting it. That means, for the encryption to be broken, an attacker will have to crack both.

Making E2EE future safe

The iMessage changes come five months after the Signal Foundation, maker of the Signal Protocol that encrypts messages sent by more than a billion people, updated the open standard so that it, too, is ready for post-quantum computing (PQC). Just like Apple, Signal added Kyber to X3DH, the algorithm it was using previously. Together, they’re known as PQXDH.

iMessage and Signal provide end-to-end encryption, a protection that makes it impossible for anyone other than the sender and recipient of a message to read it in decrypted form. iMessage began offering E2EE with its rollout in 2011. Signal became available in 2014.

One of the biggest looming threats to many forms of encryption is quantum computing. The strength of the algorithms used in virtually all messaging apps relies on mathematical problems that are easy to solve in one direction and extremely hard to solve in the other. Unlike a traditional computer, a quantum computer with sufficient resources can solve these problems in considerably less time.

No one knows how soon that day will come. One common estimate is that a quantum computer with 20 million qubits (a basic unit of measurement) will be able to crack a single 2,048-bit RSA key in about eight hours. The biggest known quantum computer to date has 433 qubits.

Whenever that future arrives, cryptography engineers know it’s inevitable. They also know that it’s likely some adversaries will collect and stockpile as much encrypted data now and decrypt it once quantum advances allow for it. The moves by both Apple and Signal aim to defend against that eventuality using Kyber, one of several PQC algorithms currently endorsed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Since Kyber is still relatively new, both iMessage and Signal will continue using the more tested algorithms for the time being.

iMessage gets a major makeover that puts it on equal footing with Signal Read More »

report:-apple-is-about-to-be-fined-e500-million-by-the-eu-over-music-streaming

Report: Apple is about to be fined €500 million by the EU over music streaming

antitrust, Apple, Apple Music, EU, Policy, Spotify, streaming, syndication / /

Competition concerns —

EC accuses Apple of abusing its market position after complaint by Spotify.

–

Report: Apple is about to be fined €500 million by the EU over music streaming

Brussels is to impose its first-ever fine on tech giant Apple for allegedly breaking EU law over access to its music streaming services, according to five people with direct knowledge of the long-running investigation.

The fine, which is in the region of €500 million and is expected to be announced early next month, is the culmination of a European Commission antitrust probe into whether Apple has used its own platform to favor its services over those of competitors.

The probe is investigating whether Apple blocked apps from informing iPhone users of cheaper alternatives to access music subscriptions outside the App Store. It was launched after music-streaming app Spotify made a formal complaint to regulators in 2019.

The Commission will say Apple’s actions are illegal and go against the bloc’s rules that enforce competition in the single market, the people familiar with the case told the Financial Times. It will ban Apple’s practice of blocking music services from letting users outside its App Store switch to cheaper alternatives.

Brussels will accuse Apple of abusing its powerful position and imposing anti-competitive trading practices on rivals, the people said, adding that the EU would say the tech giant’s terms were “unfair trading conditions.”

It is one of the most significant financial penalties levied by the EU on Big Tech companies. A series of fines against Google levied over several years and amounting to about 8 billion euros are being contested in court.

Apple has never previously been fined for antitrust infringements by Brussels, but the company was hit in 2020 with a 1.1 billion-euro fine in France for alleged anti-competitive behavior. The penalty was revised down to 372 million euros after an appeal.

The EU’s action against Apple will reignite the war between Brussels and Big Tech at a time when companies are being forced to show how they are complying with landmark new rules aimed at opening competition and allowing small tech rivals to thrive.

Companies that are defined as gatekeepers, including Apple, Amazon, and Google, need to fully comply with these rules under the Digital Markets Act by early next month.

The act requires these tech giants to comply with more stringent rules and will force them to allow rivals to share information about their services.

There are concerns that the rules are not enabling competition as fast as some had hoped, although Brussels has insisted that changes require time.

Brussels formally charged Apple in the anti-competitive probe in 2021. The commission narrowed the scope of the investigation last year and abandoned a charge of pushing developers to use its own in-app payment system.

Apple last month announced changes to its iOS mobile software, App Store, and Safari browser in efforts to appease Brussels after long resisting such steps. But Spotify said at the time that Apple’s compliance was a “complete and total farce.”

Apple responded by saying that “the changes we’re sharing for apps in the European Union give developers choice—with new options to distribute iOS apps and process payments.”

In a separate antitrust case, Brussels is consulting with Apple’s rivals over the tech giant’s concessions to appease worries that it is blocking financial groups from its Apple Pay mobile system.

The timing of the Commission’s announcement has not yet been fixed, but it will not change the direction of the antitrust investigation, the people with knowledge of the situation said.

Apple, which can appeal to the EU courts, declined to comment on the forthcoming ruling but pointed to a statement a year ago when it said it was “pleased” the Commission had narrowed the charges and said it would address concerns while promoting competition.

It added: “The App Store has helped Spotify become the top music streaming service across Europe and we hope the European Commission will end its pursuit of a complaint that has no merit.”

The Commission—the executive body of the EU—declined to comment.

© 2024 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.

Report: Apple is about to be fined €500 million by the EU over music streaming Read More »

apple-disables-iphone-web-apps-in-eu,-says-it’s-too-hard-to-comply-with-rules

Apple disables iPhone web apps in EU, says it’s too hard to comply with rules

Apple, apple digital markets act, apple home screen web apps, Policy / /

Digital Markets Act —

Apple says it can’t secure home-screen web apps with third-party browser engines.

–

Photo of an iPhone focusing on the app icons for Phone, Safari, Messages, and Music.

Getty Images | NurPhoto

Apple is removing the ability to install home screen web apps from iPhones and iPads in Europe when iOS 17.4 comes out, saying it’s too hard to keep offering the feature under the European Union’s new Digital Markets Act (DMA). Apple is required to comply with the law by March 6.

Apple said the change is necessitated by a requirement to let developers “use alternative browser engines—other than WebKit—for dedicated browser apps and apps providing in-app browsing experiences in the EU.” Apple explained its stance in a developer Q&A under the heading, “Why don’t users in the EU have access to Home Screen web apps?” It says:

Addressing the complex security and privacy concerns associated with web apps using alternative browser engines would require building an entirely new integration architecture that does not currently exist in iOS and was not practical to undertake given the other demands of the DMA and the very low user adoption of Home Screen web apps. And so, to comply with the DMA’s requirements, we had to remove the Home Screen web apps feature in the EU.

It will still be possible to add website bookmarks to iPhone and iPad home screens, but those bookmarks would take the user to the web browser instead of a separate web app. The change was recently rolled out to beta versions of iOS 17.4.

The Digital Markets Act targets “gatekeepers” of certain technologies such as operating systems, browsers, and search engines. It requires gatekeepers to let third parties interoperate with the gatekeepers’ own services, and prohibits them from favoring their own services at the expense of competitors. As 9to5Mac notes, allowing home screen web apps with Safari but not third-party browser engines might cause Apple to violate the rules.

Apple warns of “malicious web apps”

As Apple explains, iOS “has traditionally provided support for Home Screen web apps by building directly on WebKit and its security architecture. That integration means Home Screen web apps are managed to align with the security and privacy model for native apps on iOS, including isolation of storage and enforcement of system prompts to access privacy impacting capabilities on a per-site basis.”

Apple said it won’t be able to guarantee this isolation once alternative browser engines are supported. “Without this type of isolation and enforcement, malicious web apps could read data from other web apps and recapture their permissions to gain access to a user’s camera, microphone or location without a user’s consent. Browsers also could install web apps on the system without a user’s awareness and consent,” Apple’s FAQ said.

Despite the change, Apple said that “EU users will be able to continue accessing websites directly from their Home Screen through a bookmark with minimal impact to their functionality.”

Apple previously announced that its DMA compliance will bring sideloading to Europe, allowing developers to offer iOS apps from stores other than Apple’s official App Store.

Browser choice, security requirements

One browser-related change will be immediately obvious to EU users once they install the new iOS version. “When users in the EU first open Safari on iOS 17.4, they’ll be prompted to choose their default browser and presented with a list of the main web browsers available in their market to select as their default browser,” Apple’s developer FAQ said.

Apple said it had to prepare carefully for the requirement to let developers use alternative browser engines because browser engines “are constantly exposed to untrusted and potentially malicious content and have visibility into sensitive user data,” making them “one of the most common attack vectors for malicious actors.”

Apple said it is requiring developers who use alternative browser engines to meet certain security standards:

To help keep users safe online, Apple will only authorize developers to implement alternative browser engines after meeting specific criteria and committing to a number of ongoing privacy and security requirements, including timely security updates to address emerging threats and vulnerabilities. Apple will provide authorized developers of dedicated browser apps access to security mitigations and capabilities to enable them to build secure browser engines, and access features like passkeys for secure user login, multiprocess system capabilities to improve security and stability, web content sandboxes that combat evolving security threats, and more.

Overall, Apple said its DMA preparations have involved “an enormous amount of engineering work to add new functionality and capabilities for developers and users in the European Union—including more than 600 new APIs and a wide range of developer tools.”

Apple disables iPhone web apps in EU, says it’s too hard to comply with rules Read More »

our-unbiased-take-on-mark-zuckerberg’s-biased-apple-vision-pro-review

Our unbiased take on Mark Zuckerberg’s biased Apple Vision Pro review

Apple, apple vision pro, gaming, mark zuckerberg, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro / /
No way would Zuckerberg be photographed wearing a Vision Pro, but let's just imagine he's looking at a picture of one in his headset here...

Enlarge / No way would Zuckerberg be photographed wearing a Vision Pro, but let’s just imagine he’s looking at a picture of one in his headset here…

@zuck Instagram | Aurich Lawson

Since the launch of the Apple Vision Pro, it’s not been hard to find countless thoughts and impressions on the headset from professional reviewers and random purchasers. But among all those hot takes, the opinions of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stand out for a few reasons—not least of which is that he and his company have spent years of development time and lost tens of billions of dollars creating the competing Quest headset line.

For that reason alone, Zuckerberg’s Instagram-posted thoughts on the Vision Pro can’t be considered an impartial take on the device’s pros and cons. Still, Zuckerberg’s short review included its fair share of fair points, alongside some careful turns of phrase that obscure the Quest’s relative deficiencies.

To figure out which is which, we thought we’d go through Zuckerberg’s review and give a quick review of the points he makes. In doing so, we get a good viewpoint on the very different angles with which Meta and Apple are approaching mixed-reality headset design.

There’s “high-quality” and then there’s “high-quality”

Near the start of his analysis, Zuckerberg says that the “Quest 3 does high-quality passthrough with big screens, just like Vision Pro.” This is only true in the most technical sense. Saying both headsets have “high-quality passthrough” is like saying an old 720p LCD TV and a new 4K OLED both have “high-quality screens.”

Compared side by side, Apple’s array of cameras and higher-resolution displays combine for a much sharper and more dynamic view of the “real world” than the Quest 3, which barely limps over the “good enough” passthrough threshold, in my experience. That display quality extends to the “big screens” Zuckerberg mentions, too, which are noticeably clearer and easier to read on the Vision Pro.

A view of my mixed reality

Enlarge / A view of my mixed reality “office” in the Quest 3 app Immersed.

Speaking of those “big screens,” the experience with 2D virtual displays is quite different in both headsets. The Vision Pro seems built from the ground up with the ability to place and resize thousands of flat iOS apps anywhere around your virtual space. Those virtual windows react to the light in the room, cast gentle shadows in your virtual view, and get occluded by objects in the real world, adding to the sense that they are really “there” with you.

The Quest, on the other hand, was built more with immersive VR experiences in mind. Yes, recent Quest OS upgrades added the ability to snap selected flat apps and system tools (e.g., the store) into place in your Quest “home environment.” But the system-level “huge floating screens” experience is still much more limited than that on the Vision Pro, which offers easy free positioning and resizing of all sorts of apps. Quest users looking for something similar need to rely on a third-party tool like Virtual Desktop, which also has its own quirks and limitations.

Our unbiased take on Mark Zuckerberg’s biased Apple Vision Pro review Read More »

asahi-linux-project’s-opengl-support-on-apple-silicon-officially-surpasses-apple’s

Asahi Linux project’s OpenGL support on Apple Silicon officially surpasses Apple’s

Apple, Apple M1, Apple M2, Apple silicon, asahi linux, OpenGL, Tech, vulkan / /

who needs metal? —

Newest driver supports the latest versions of OpenGL and OpenGL ES.

–

Slowly but surely, the Asahi Linux team is getting Linux up and running on Apple Silicon Macs.

Enlarge / Slowly but surely, the Asahi Linux team is getting Linux up and running on Apple Silicon Macs.

Apple/Asahi Linux

For around three years now, the team of independent developers behind the Asahi Linux project has worked to support Linux on Apple Silicon Macs, despite Apple’s total lack of involvement. Over the years, the project has gone from a “highly unstable experiment” to a “surprisingly functional and usable desktop operating system.” Even Linus Torvalds has used it to run Linux on Apple’s hardware.

The team has been steadily improving its open source, standards-conformant GPU driver for the M1 and M2 since releasing them in December 2022, and today, the team crossed an important symbolic milestone: The Asahi driver’s support for the OpenGL and OpenGL ES graphics have officially passed what Apple offers in macOS. The team’s latest graphics driver fully conforms with OpenGL version 4.6 and OpenGL ES version 3.2, the most recent version of either API. Apple’s support in macOS tops out at OpenGL 4.1, announced in July 2010.

Developer Alyssa Rosenzweig wrote a detailed blog post that announced the new driver, which had to pass “over 100,000 tests” to be deemed officially conformant. The team achieved this milestone despite the fact that Apple’s GPUs don’t support some features that would have made implementing these APIs more straightforward.

“Regrettably, the M1 doesn’t map well to any graphics standard newer than OpenGL ES 3.1,” writes Rosenzweig. “While Vulkan makes some of these features optional, the missing features are required to layer DirectX and OpenGL on top. No existing solution on M1 gets past the OpenGL 4.1 feature set… Without hardware support, new features need new tricks. Geometry shaders, tessellation, and transform feedback become compute shaders. Cull distance becomes a transformed interpolated value. Clip control becomes a vertex shader epilogue. The list goes on.”

Now that the Asahi GPU driver supports the latest OpenGL and OpenGL ES standards—released in 2017 and 2015, respectively—the work turns to supporting the low-overhead Vulkan API on Apple’s hardware. Vulkan support in macOS is limited to translation layers like MoltenVK, which translates Vulkan API calls to Metal ones that the hardware and OS can understand.

Apple’s OpenGL support has been stuck at the 4.1 level since macOS 10.9 Mavericks was released in 2013. Since then, the company has shifted its focus to its proprietary Metal graphics API, which, like DirectX 12 and Vulkan, is a “low-overhead” API meant to reduce the performance overhead sometimes associated with older APIs like OpenGL. But despite declaring OpenGL officially deprecated in 2018, Apple has left its existing OpenGL implementation alone since then, never updating it but also maintaining support even as it has transitioned from Intel’s processors to its own CPUs and GPUs.

Rosenzweig’s blog post didn’t give any specific updates on Vulkan except to say that the team was “well on the road” to supporting it. In addition to supporting native Linux apps, supporting more graphics APIs in Asahi will allow the operating system to take better advantage of software like Valve’s Proton, which already has a few games written for x86-based Windows PCs running on Arm-based Apple hardware.

Though there are still things that don’t work, Fedora Asahi Remix is surprisingly polished and supports a lot of the hardware available in most M1 and M2 Macs—including the webcam, speakers, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and graphics acceleration. Other features, like Thunderbolt, running displays over USB-C, the system’s built-in microphone, and the Touch ID fingerprint sensors, remain non-functional. Asahi’s most recent update blog post, published in mid-January, highlighted HDMI support, support for DRM-protected websites via Google’s proprietary Widevine package, Touchbar support for the handful of Apple Silicon Macs that use one, and more.

As for the newest wave of M3 Macs, Asahi developer Hector Martin said in October 2023 that basic support for the newest chips would take “at least six months.” Among other things, the team will need time to support the M3 GPU in their drivers; the team also relies primarily on Mac mini models for development, and the M3 Mac mini doesn’t exist yet.

Asahi Linux project’s OpenGL support on Apple Silicon officially surpasses Apple’s Read More »

why-walking-around-in-public-with-vision-pro-makes-no-sense

Why walking around in public with Vision Pro makes no sense

Apple, augmented reality, Features, Mixed Reality, Reviews, spatial computing, Tech, vision pro, visionOS / /

  • A close-up look at the Vision Pro from the front.

    Samuel Axon

  • The Apple Vision Pro with AirPods Pro, Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and an Xbox Series X|S controller.

    Samuel Axon

  • You can see the front-facing cameras that handle passthrough video just above the downward-facing cameras that read your hand gestures here.

    Samuel Axon

  • There are two buttons for Vision Pro, both on the top.

    Samuel Axon

  • This is the infamous battery pack. It’s about the size of an iPhone (but a little thicker) and has a USB-C port for external power sources.

    Samuel Axon

  • There are two displays inside the Vision Pro, one for each eye. Each offers just under 4K resolution.

    Samuel Axon

  • Apple offers several variations of the light seal to fit different face shapes.

    Samuel Axon

If you’ve spent any time in the tech-enthusiast corners of Instagram of TikTok over the past few weeks, you’ve seen the videos: so-called tech bros strolling through public spaces with confidence, donning Apple’s $3,500 Vision Pro headset on their faces while gesturing into the air.

Dive into the comments on those videos and you’ll see a consistent ratio: about 20 percent of the commenters herald this as the future, and the other 80 mock it with vehement derision. “I’ve never had as much desire to disconnect from reality as this guy does,” one reads.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going all-in on trying the Vision Pro in all sorts of situations to see which ones it suits. Last week, I talked about replacing a home theater system with it—at least when traveling away from home. Today, I’m going over my experience trying to find a use for it out on the streets of Chicago.

I’m setting out to answer a few questions here: Does it feel weird wearing it in public spaces? Will people judge you or react negatively when you wear it—and if so, will that become less common over time? Does it truly disconnect you from reality, and has Apple succeeded in solving virtual reality’s isolationist tendencies? Does it provide enough value to be worth wearing?

As it turns out, all these questions are closely related.

The potential of AR in the wild

I was excited about the Vision Pro in the lead-up to its launch. I was impressed by the demo I saw at WWDC 2023, even though I was aware that it was offered in an ideal setting: a private, well-lit room with lots of space to move around.

Part of my excitement was about things I didn’t see in that demo but that I’ve seen augmented reality developers explore in smartphone augmented reality (AR) and niche platforms like HoloLens and Xreal. Some smart folks have already produced a wide variety of neat tech demos showing what you can do with a good consumer AR headset, and many of the most exciting ideas work outside the home or office.

I’ve seen demonstrations of real-time directions provided with markers along the street while you walk around town, virtual assistant avatars guiding you through the airport, menus and Yelp reviews overlaid on the doors of every restaurant on a city strip, public art projects pieced together by multiple participants who each get to add an element to a virtual statue, and much more.

Of course, all those ideas—and most others for AR—make a lot more sense for unintrusive glasses than they do for something that is essentially a VR headset with passthrough. Nonetheless, I was hoping to get a glimpse at that eventuality with the Vision Pro.

Why walking around in public with Vision Pro makes no sense Read More »

apple’s-imessage-is-not-a-“core-platform”-in-eu,-so-it-can-stay-walled-off

Apple’s iMessage is not a “core platform” in EU, so it can stay walled off

Apple, beeper, beeper mini, brendan carr, Digital Markets Act, European Union, FCC, federal communications commission, iMessage, IPhone, messaging, Policy, SMS, Tech / /

Too core to fail —

Microsoft’s Edge browser, Bing search, and ad business also avoid regulations.

–

Apple Messages in a Mac dock

Getty Images

Apple’s iMessage service is not a “gatekeeper” prone to unfair business practices and will thus not be required under the Fair Markets Act to open up to messages, files, and video calls from other services, the European Commission announced earlier today.

Apple was one of many companies, including Google, Amazon, Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Meta, and Microsoft to have its “gatekeeper” status investigated by the European Union. The iMessage service did meet the definition of a “core platform,” serving at least 45 million EU users monthly and being controlled by a firm with at least 75 billion euros in market capitalization. But after “a thorough assessment of all arguments” during a five-month investigation, the Commission found that iMessage and Microsoft’s Bing search, Edge browser, and ad platform “do not qualify as gatekeeper services.” The unlikelihood of EU demands on iMessage was apparent in early December when Bloomberg reported that the service didn’t have enough sway with business users to demand more regulation.

Had the Commission ruled otherwise, Apple would have had until August to open its service. It would have been interesting to see how the company would have complied, given that it provides end-to-end encryption and registers senders based on information from their registered Apple devices.

Google had pushed the Commission to force Apple into “gatekeeper status,” part of Google’s larger campaign to make Apple treat Android users better when they trade SMS messages with iPhone users. While Apple has agreed to take up RCS, an upgraded form of carrier messaging with typing indicators and better image and video quality, it will not provide encryption for Android-to-iPhone SMS, nor remove the harsh green coloring that particularly resonates with younger users.

Apple is still obligated to comply with the Digital Markets Act’s other implications on its iOS operating system, its App Store, and its Safari browser. The European Union version of iOS 17.4, due in March, will offer “alternative app marketplaces,” or sideloading, along with the tools so that those other app stores can provide updates and other services. Browsers on iOS will also be able to use their own rendering engines rather than providing features only on top of mobile Safari rendering. Microsoft, among other firms, will make similar concessions in certain areas of Europe with Windows 11 and other products.

While it’s unlikely to result in the same kind of action, Brendan Carr, a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, said at a conference yesterday that the FCC “has a role to play” in investigating whether Apple’s blocking of the Beeper Mini app violated Part 14 rules regarding accessibility and usability. “I think the FCC should launch an investigation to look at whether Apple’s decision to degrade the Beeper Mini functionality… was a step that violated the FCC’s rules in Part 14,” Carr said at the State of the Net policy conference in Washington, DC.

Beeper Mini launched with the ability for Android users to send fully encrypted iMessage messages to Apple users, based on reverse-engineering of its protocol and registration. Days after its launch, Apple blocked its users and issued a statement saying that it was working to stop exploits and spam. The blocking and workarounds continued until Beeper announced that it was shifting its focus away from iMessage and back to being a multi-service chat app, minus one particular service. Beeper’s experience had previously garnered recognition from Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

Ars has reached out to Apple, Microsoft, and Google for comment and will update this post if we receive responses.

Apple’s iMessage is not a “core platform” in EU, so it can stay walled off Read More »

more-on-the-apple-vision-pro

More on the Apple Vision Pro

Apple / /

Previously: On the Apple Vision Pro

The reviews are coming in. What say the people, other than the complaining about the two to three hour battery life?

Then later I’ll get to my own thoughts after the demo.

Ben Thompson reviews the Apple Vision Pro. He continues to find it a technical marvel, but is ultimately disappointed for uses other than entertainment. There is no support for multiple users beyond a highly unwieldy guest mode. There is insufficient width of coverage and inability to support multiple large screens, which is severely limiting to productivity. The eye tracking is a huge improvement over earlier attempts but not ready for such applications.

Ben anticipates that Apple will fail over time to evolve the product to support the things that would enable it to be a killer productivity app, which is what he was most excited about. He loves it for movies and watching sports (and presumably television), especially if new offerings support its features, but especially when the device is hard to share the $3,500 price tag is a tough sell.

Ben frames this as an intentional trade-off to maximize the entertainment experience. I do not get this claim. I see no reason the Vision Pro could not in the future support the entertainment experience it offers now, while also offering a distinct productivity experience that allows streaming multiple screens and using more precise controls and letting you use an iPhone or iPad as an additional control panel and navigation guide.

Andrej Karpathy offers his thoughts on the Vision Pro. Amazingly great in some ways, jank in other ways, including overly long setup. Several complaints here gave me hope, since they are concerns that won’t much matter over time, either you get through it or it gets fixed. Device weight is clearly a major issue. The review was essentially saying this is a device that will be great but has not yet handled the last mile.

Vanity Fair on why Tim Cook bet on the Apple Vision Pro, I would not call it ‘all-in’ since Apple will be fine no matter what. A strange article, worried about future versions being essentially too good. Like Thompson’s review, makes clear that the entertainment mode is well ahead of the productivity mode, although its motives lie elsewhere. The anecdote about having trouble finding apps after moving rooms is telling.

Aaron Slodov says ‘it’s amazing and this is the future’ as he moves objects around a room.

Senior Editior Devindra Hardawar of EnGadget calls it ‘beta testing the future.’ Her first warning is of eye strain. Her second is to not even think of buying one unless you are either a developer or an Apple fanatic. Her view is this is the beta, the real version will come a few years later. For now, it’s buggy, heavy, has a very short battery life and lacks native apps. She does find the interface intuitive and easy, and she praises both the ability to watch movies and the Mac integration.

She also notes the iPad Steam Link app works, so yes you can play at least many games on it. Similarly, it seems Sony’s Remote Play app will work for casting a PlayStation. For a Nintendo Switch and full portability, you will need to do more work, with a video capture card with HDMI input and then a USB-C output for the Vision Pro.

ZdNet’s Matthew Miller tried it for a workday. He recommends sticking to MacOS apps (what happened to ‘programs’?) because iPad ones aren’t ready yet, notes that you will need a Bluetooth keyboard to do any real work in practice, finds the ‘personas’ unplayable in practice, and found it hard to do productivity while traveling because of movement constraints and the lenses fogging up. He notes Microsoft’s apps (Word, Excel and so on) work but are currently bare bones.

He thinks it can work for those whose workflows only have 1-3 apps or content creators. He also oddly mentions day traders, from my experience trading no way in hell, you want precision above all, if you are tempted to day trade with the Vision Pro I am going to tell you to quit day trading.

Their editor-in-chief Jason Hiner says try it for yourself, but most people should pass. Cheaper alternatives are coming or already here, and the ecosystem isn’t ready.

Mark Spoonauer of Tom’s Guide emphasizes how good the device is for watching movies, and likes the spatial video and photos features and ability to view photos in a new light, as well. He doesn’t talk about productivity.

Tim Urban, who like many others keeps having holy smoments with VR devices and then getting disappointed that they are not there yet and not finding sustained worthwhile uses, goes through that cycle once again. He is excited for the future, and finds the present super cool already, but thinks that the costs still exceed benefits for now. He expects that we are soon to be on the part of the development curve, like iPhones 3G to 5, where new models are importantly better and you start to get a lot of additional surplus each cycle.

Sam Altman thinks this is big. Point, counterpoint:

Sam Altman: Vision pro is second most impressive tech since the iPhone.

Peter Wildeford: Disagree, vision pro is the seventh best and the ranking is:

1.) LLMs 2.) CRISPR 3.) mRNA vaccines 4.) semaglutide 5.) Perovskite solar cell 6.) Faster internet 7.) Apple Vision Pro

I have mRNA vaccines at least at #2 here, and I think you can argue #1. Gemini splits LLMs into several discoveries and also suggests EVs, Starlink, self-driving cars, wearable health tech, cloud computing, internet of things, 3D printing, robotics and more. The Apple Vision Pro has potential, but it is hard to put it that high on such a list.

Grimes and derek guy emphasize the importance of aesthetics.

The giant Apple vision Pro is a look. It can be a good look, but if you want that you have to do the work. Which I agree is worth doing if you intend to do this on the regular. Also, she’s in Tokyo, so double cyberpunk points all around.

derek guy: Aesthetically, this is basically how you have to dress to make things like the Vision Pro and Cybertruck look cool. These things mainly look bad in public because there’s no congruity between the business casual gear most ppl wear and these futuristic designs.

Grimes: Good aesthetics are a moral good and directly related to the health of society.

The difference this woman and me? She makes this look good.

So what about my experience? On Thursday, I had the chance to do the demo at the Apple Store at Grand Central. It is about a 20 minute experience, with an employee walking you through various things they want to show off. You can try a few things, but your freedom of movement is highly limited in every sense, and there is no time for you to play around, although they will answer your questions.

There was an attempt to sell me the device, but he didn’t press when I made it clear it was a no on putting down $4k on the spot.

Like most others, I was impressed and disappointed, inspired and frustrated.

The great stuff is really great. The hardware itself is amazing. A true marvel. Visuals are off the charts. All the issues are about the software, and of course the price, except for questions of weight and battery life.

The killer app right now is as a video screen. If you want to watch movies or television, this is a damn good, movie theater level experience. Top notch, and a lot of customization, although I couldn’t make it quite as big as I would have liked during the demo. They didn’t show us the Apple TV+ theater experience, but I assume that is great. If I was richer I would buy purely for this.

The native software support is not there for all the uses of that screen. They will hook up your Mac, but they will not make it easy for your PC, PlayStation or Switch. The good news is there are workarounds.

But why not make this native? If you are selling me a four thousand dollar screen, let me use it with whatever I want, and do not make me work for it, this is 2024.

There are native games, but Apple did not even try to demo those. I assume they are not exciting yet, and Apple historically hates fun anyway.

The sound is very good natively, but it does leak a bit. They said you can use any headphones with it, and that even the big Bose-style ones can physically work, so that part looks good. I would appreciate the ability to watch things without disturbing those around me. For audio-only, of course, this is massive overkill.

Even better than a video screen were the panoramas, the full 180-degree experiences. The moment of being in the ballpark was fantastic. However, in order to get value, these have to be supported. There is no sign that anyone plans to actually offer MLB or other games in this mode. If and when they do for the Mets, if this is the only way to get that service and the additional costs aren’t too obscene, I think this would put me over the top. Going out to the ballgame is pretty great.

The other immersive environments also looked great, and I would love if we had lots of designed media experiences like that. It would be ten times better if you could meaningfully move around as well. There is a version of this, that is presumably coming within the decade, that will be worth paying a lot to get if necessary.

The special photos and personal video shots are nice, but not vital or killer apps.

The other killer app people mention is Mac integration, but that was not available during the demo.

Reading a book via Kindle seemed highly viable, including highlighting, but is it better than reading on a phone or tablet? My guess is no.

Playing board games with other humans via Tabletop Simulator, or playing Magic: The Gathering against someone who is not there, or other similar activities? Yes, please. That too could be the killer app for me. First they have to get there. For now, you can chat with someone’s avatar, but that is a totally different thing than simulating being in the same location.

What about productivity?

The virtual keyboard is password-entry only. They only track at most two fingers, so you cannot properly type even if you don’t need keys to do so. Effectively this is much slower than on a phone. You can dictate if you want, when that would work. It got regular English sentences reliably, as you would expect. For my name it thought I had a very different (and very Asian) name, whoops. You will 100% need a Bluetooth keyboard to do any real work.

The choice of what to include in the demo reveals what Apple thinks are the strong selling points. They lead with photos and personal videos and panoramas and watching movies. They give almost no attention to productivity of any kind, beyond showing you how to scroll through a web page. No mention of help with physical navigation or helping you with activities like cooking or shopping. No mention of AI of any kind, despite some very obvious things you would want to do there.

The navigation system relies on your eyes and their precision. I definitely worry about eye strain, and I had trouble hitting precise targets reliably. Meanwhile, my brain kept trying to use my hand to navigate like a mouse, which is totally supported once you start a movement, but unsupported otherwise. So they have the technology, but have chosen to deploy it differently than I would like.

Similarly, the Guest mechanism right now is rather poor and broken. You have to configure every time, it does not last, all your work gets lost and so on. It would be a big help if they would outright support multiple profiles.

Where I do see potential for productivity, and also for entertainment to shine as well, is while traveling. If you are on an airplane or a train, and you can suddenly work or watch on a real theater screen, that would be a big game. Travel enough and it is well worth paying for that, or it could even enable more travel.

So overall, yes. I see the potential. This could be an insanely great device with proper software support, both from Apple and support from others. Already it is likely a great device for watching movies. For other purposes, the software and ecosystem are not there yet.

I said in my previous post that I expect the Apple Vision Pro is either worth far more than the price, or it is worth very little, but it was unlikely to be something in between.

Could this still be a dud? Absolutely. What I do not expect is something I’d have been happy to pay $500 or $1,000 for, but not $3,500. Either the game will be changed, or it won’t be changed quite yet. I can’t wait to find out.

What I neglected to think about was the possibility that it would be a great device for narrow use cases, while not being good enough for other uses cases.

In this case, That One Killer App that I am confident in, right now, is as a way to watch movies. Also television or YouTube or other video, potentially, but especially movies where you want to give your full attention and they are designed for the biggest possible screen.

Meanwhile, it is plausible that the other uses are still stuck at zero value until they get a lot better, given the costs of the mode shift involved, the extent to which Apple is protecting its ecosystem, and the potential isolation effects.

It is also plausible they are not zero value at all. I can see a MacBook Air plus a Vision Pro being very good for productivity, and I can see a lot of value in gaming as well. And if they ever get the sports panoramas online, we’re golden.

If you are buying an at-home movie theater level experience, including watching other things if they are high enough resolution to support that, what is that worth on its own?

So here we are, where I know I would pay $1,000 for the device, but am unsure whether I am willing to pay approximately $5,000, on the assumption that this implies being willing to also buy a MacBook Air.

What say you, dear readers? Should I take the plunge?

And what about you? Will you take the plunge?

More on the Apple Vision Pro Read More »

can-a-$3,500-headset-replace-your-tv?-we-tried-vision-pro-to-find-out

Can a $3,500 headset replace your TV? We tried Vision Pro to find out

Apple, Apple TV, apple vision, apple vision pro, Disney, Features, Tech, visionOS / /

Apple Vision Pro Review —

We kick off our multi-part Vision Pro review by testing it for entertainment.

–

  • The Apple Vision Pro with AirPods Pro, Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and an Xbox Series X|S controller.

    Samuel Axon

  • You can see the front-facing cameras that handle passthrough video just above the down-facing cameras that read your hand gestures here.

    Samuel Axon

  • There are two buttons for Vision Pro, both on the top.

    Samuel Axon

  • This is the infamous battery pack. It’s about the size of an iPhone (but a little thicker) and has a USB-C port for external power sources.

    Samuel Axon

  • There are two displays inside the Vision Pro, one for each eye. Each offers just under 4K resolution.

    Samuel Axon

  • Apple offers several variations of the light seal to fit different face shapes.

    Samuel Axon

  • A close-up look at the Vision Pro from the front.

    Samuel Axon

The Vision Pro is the strangest product Apple has introduced in the time I’ve been covering the company. By now, it’s well established that the headset is both impressively cutting-edge and ludicrously expensive.

You could certainly argue that its price means it’s only for Silicon Valley techno-optimists with too much money to burn or for developers looking to get in on the ground floor on the chance that this is the next gold rush for apps. But the platform will need more than those users to succeed.

Part of Apple’s pitch behind the price tag seems to be that the Vision Pro could replace several devices, just like the iPhone did back in the late 2000s. It could replace your laptop, your tablet, your 4K TV, your video game console, your phone or other communications device, your VR headset, and so on. If it truly replaced all of those things, the price wouldn’t seem quite so outrageous to some.

And those are just the use cases Apple has put a lot of effort into facilitating for the launch. Many of the most important uses of the company’s prior new product categories didn’t become totally clear until a couple of years and generations in. The iPhone wasn’t originally intended as a meditation aid, a flashlight, and a number of other common uses until third-party developers invented apps to make it do those things. And Apple’s approach with the Apple Watch seemed to be to just throw it out there with a number of possible uses to see what stuck with users. (The answer seemed to be health and fitness, but the device’s distinct emphasis on that took a bit of time to come into focus.)

So while I could write a dense review meandering through all the possibilities based on my week with the Vision Pro, that doesn’t seem as helpful as drilling in on each specific possibility. This is the first in a series of articles that will do that, so consider it part one of a lengthy, multi-step review. By the end, we’ll have considered several possible applications of the device, and we might be able to make some recommendations or predictions about its potential.

So far, I believe there’s one use case that’s a slam dunk, closer to clarity during launch week than any of the others: entertainment. For certain situations, The Vision Pro is a better device for consuming TV shows and movies (among other things) away from a dedicated theater than we’ve ever seen before. So let’s start there.

My (perhaps too) exacting standards

I know I’m not the usual TV consumer. It’s important to note that before we get too deep.

I bought my first OLED television (a 55-inch LG B6) in 2016. I previously had a 50-inch plasma TV I liked, but it only supported 1080p and SDR (standard dynamic range), and Sony had announced the PlayStation 4 Pro, which would support 4K games (sort of) and HDR (high dynamic range). Game consoles had always driven TV purchases in the past, so I sprung for the best I could afford.

I always cared about picture quality before I bought an OLED, but that interest turned into something more obsessive at that point. I was stunned at the difference, and I began to find it hard to accept the imperfections of LCD monitors and TVs after that. Granted, I’d always disliked LCDs, going straight from CRT to plasma to avoid that grayish backlight glow. But the comparison was even harsher once I went to OLED.

My fellow Ars Technica writers and editors often talk about their robust, multi-monitor PC setups, their expensive in-home server racks, and other Ars-y stuff. I have some of that stuff, too, but I put most of my time and energy into my home theater. I’ve invested a lot into it, and that has the unfortunate side effect of making most other screens I use feel inadequate by comparison.

All that said, some have argued that the Vision Pro is a solution in search of a problem, but there is one pre-existing problem I have that it has the potential to solve.

I travel a lot, so I spend a total of at least two months out of every year in hotel or Airbnb rooms. Whenever I’m in one of those places, I’m always irritated at how its TV compares to the one I have at home. It’s too small for the space, it’s not 4K, it doesn’t support HDR, it’s mounted way too high to comfortably watch, or it’s a cheap LCD with washed-out black levels and terrible contrast. Often, it’s all of the above. And even when I’m home, my wife might want to watch her shows on the big TV tonight.

I end up not watching movies or shows I want to watch because I feel like I’d be doing those shows a disservice by ruining the picture with such terrible hardware. “Better to hold off until I’m home,” I tell myself.

The Vision Pro could be the answer I’ve been waiting for. Those two displays in front of my eyes are capable of displaying an image that stands up to that of a mid-range OLED TV in most situations, and I can use it absolutely anywhere.

Can a $3,500 headset replace your TV? We tried Vision Pro to find out Read More »

a-password-manager-lastpass-calls-“fraudulent”-booted-from-app-store

A password manager LastPass calls “fraudulent” booted from App Store

App Store, Apple, Biz & IT, lastpass, Security / /

GREAT PRETENDER —

“LassPass” mimicked the name and logo of real LastPass password manager.

–

A password manager LastPass calls “fraudulent” booted from App Store

Getty Images

As Apple has stepped up its promotion of its App Store as a safer and more trustworthy source of apps, its operators scrambled Thursday to correct a major threat to that narrative: a listing that password manager maker LastPass said was a “fraudulent app impersonating” its brand.

At the time this article on Ars went live, Apple had removed the app—titled LassPass and bearing a logo strikingly similar to the one used by LastPass—from its App Store. At the same time, Apple allowed a separate app submitted by the same developer to remain. Apple provided no explanation for the reason for removing the former app or for allowing the latter one to remain.

Apple warns of “new risks” from competition

The move comes as Apple has beefed up its efforts to promote the App Store as a safer alternative to competing sources of iOS apps mandated recently by the European Union. In an interview with App Store head Phil Schiller published this month by FastCompany, Schiller said the new app stores will “bring new risks”—including pornography, hate speech, and other forms of objectionable content—that Apple has long kept at bay.

“I have no qualms in saying that our goal is going to always be to make the App Store the safest, best place for users to get apps,” he told writer Michael Grothaus. “I think users—and the whole developer ecosystem—have benefited from that work that we’ve done together with them. And we’re going to keep doing that.”

Somehow, Apple’s app vetting process—long vaunted even though Apple has provided few specifics—failed to spot the LastPass lookalike. Apple removed LassPass Thursday morning, two days, LastPass said, after it flagged the app to Apple and one day after warning its users the app was fraudulent.

“We are raising this to our customers’ attention to avoid potential confusion and/or loss of personal data,” LastPass Senior Principal Intelligence Analyst Mike Kosak wrote.

There’s no denying that the logo and name were strikingly similar to the official ones. Below is a screenshot of how LassPass appeared, followed by the official LastPass listing:

The LassPass entry as it appeared in the App Store.

Enlarge / The LassPass entry as it appeared in the App Store.

The official LastPass entry.

Enlarge / The official LastPass entry.

Here yesterday, gone today

Thomas Reed, director of Mac offerings at security firm Malwarebytes, noted that the LassPass entry in the App Store said the app’s privacy policy was available on bluneel[.]com, but that the page was gone by Thursday, and the main page shows a generic landing page. Whois records indicated the domain was registered five months ago.

There’s no indication that LassPass collected users’ LastPass credentials or copied any of the data it stored. The app did, however, provide fields for users to enter a wealth of sensitive personal information, including passwords, email and physical addresses, and bank, credit, and debit card data. The app had an option for paid subscriptions.

A LastPass representative said the company learned of the app on Tuesday and focused its efforts on getting it removed rather than analyzing its behavior. Company officials don’t have information about precisely what LassPass did when it was installed or when it first appeared in the App Store.

The App Store continues to host a separate app from the same developer who is listed simply as Parvati Patel. (A quick Internet search reveals many individuals with the same name. At the moment, it wasn’t possible to identify the specific one.) The separate app is named PRAJAPATI SAMAJ 42 Gor ABD-GNR, and a corresponding privacy policy (at psag42[.]in/policy.html) is dated December 2023. It’s described as an “application for Ahmedabad-Gandhinager Prajapati Samaj app” and further as a “platform for community.” The app was also recently listed on Google Play but was no longer available for download at the time of publication. Attempts to contact the developer were unsuccessful.

There’s no indication the separate app violates any App Store policy. Apple representatives didn’t respond to an email asking questions about the incident or its vetting process or policies.

A password manager LastPass calls “fraudulent” booted from App Store Read More »

apple-overhauls-its-entire-windows-app-suite,-including-icloud-and-apple-music

Apple overhauls its entire Windows app suite, including iCloud and Apple Music

Apple, Apple Music, iCloud, iTunes, Tech, Windows / /

apple <3 windows —

New iCloud, music, TV, and device-management apps bring macOS features to PCs.

–

  • The new iCloud for Windows app, which does a surprisingly good job of looking like a native Windows 11 app. It also respects the system dark mode setting.

  • The old iCloud for Windows app, which has looked pretty similar to this for its entire existence up to this point.

Big news for people who prefer iPhones but also prefer to use Windows PCs: Apple has quietly overhauled its entire suite of Windows apps, including non-beta versions of the Apple Music, Apple TV, and Devices apps that it began previewing for Windows 11 users over a year ago. Collectively, these apps replace most of the functionality from the iTunes for Windows app; iTunes for macOS was discontinued all the way back in 2019. Apple has also released a major iCloud for Windows update with an overhauled design.

All of the apps are currently available in the Microsoft Store. While the previews that Apple released last year required Windows 11 22H2 or newer, the final versions of all four new apps also work in Windows 10 for people who have chosen not to upgrade or whose PCs do not meet the system requirements.

The Apple Music and Apple TV apps both offer access to Apple’s streaming music and video libraries for people with subscriptions, though both apps will also import and play your local music and video libraries from iTunes if you have them.

That said, these apps don’t put the final nail in iTunes for Windows’ coffin just yet; iTunes is still used to manage podcasts and audiobooks in Windows, as the app will inform you if you try to launch it after installing the Music or TV apps. If Apple eventually plans to launch Windows versions of the Podcasts or Books apps from macOS and iOS, the company hasn’t done so yet.

The Apple Devices app is what you’ll use if you want to back up an iPhone or iPad to your PC or perform system restores for iDevices in recovery mode. It can also be useful when trying to install updates on devices without enough free space to download and install updates themselves. This app doesn’t exist in macOS, but it’s broadly similar to a bunch of features that landed in the Finder when Apple initially discontinued iTunes for macOS back in 2019.

The biggest change in the new iCloud for Windows app is an overhauled design, and though some will lament the decreased information density, it actually does a surprisingly good job of looking like a native Windows 11 app. It supports Dark Mode in both Windows 10 and Windows 11, and in Windows 11 it even uses the “mica” background material that Settings and other Windows 11 apps use to pick up a color tint from your PC’s underlying desktop wallpaper (Apple does something similar in macOS). The app also features a streamlined first-time setup process that asks you what you would like to sync and how.

But functionally, the app still does pretty much what it did before. The iCloud for Windows app will sync iCloud Drive files locally; offers password syncing via a Chrome/Edge browser extension; will bookmark syncing for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox; has mail, contact, and calendar syncing via the new Outlook for Windows app; and also provides iCloud Photos syncing, with the option to download either native HEIF images that modern iPhones capture by default, or more-compatible JPEG versions.

There are still plenty of iCloud features that aren’t available in Windows, including syncing for Notes and Reminders, native versions of the Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps, and a handful of other things. But iCloud for Windows has gradually become much more useful and full-featured after existing for many years as a glorified sync service for browser bookmarks.

Though it’s still nowhere near as seamless as using an iPhone with a Mac, using an iPhone with a PC has gradually become more pleasant over the past year or two. Besides the addition of iCloud photo and password syncing, Microsoft also added rudimentary iMessage support to its Phone Link app back in April, finally allowing iPhone users to see and respond to basic text messages via their PC. The app (previously called “Your Phone”) had already supported syncing Android phones for years.

If you want to know why Apple is putting more care into its Windows apps these days, a look at the company’s revenue offers a potential suggestion: for the past few years, its “Services” division has continued growing at a steady clip even as revenue from hardware sales has stayed level or declined slightly. The Services division encompasses all the revenue Apple makes from iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, and its other subscription plans.

Though Apple would clearly prefer that you buy Apple hardware to use Apple services, offering decent apps for competing ecosystems at least ensures that people who use a mix of devices—an iPhone with a PC, or an Android phone with a Mac or iPad—have the option of staying within Apple’s ecosystem rather than going with broadly compatible third-party apps like Spotify or Dropbox.

Listing image by Apple/Microsoft/Andrew Cunningham

Apple overhauls its entire Windows app suite, including iCloud and Apple Music Read More »