Tech

visionos-1.1-tries-to-make-personas-less-unsettling,-plus-other-apple-os-updates

visionOS 1.1 tries to make Personas less unsettling, plus other Apple OS updates

Apple, macOS, Tech, tvos, visionOS, watchos / /

persona non grata —

Apple starts picking low-hanging fruit in visionOS; other OSes see minor improvements.

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A blurry, ghostly Persona in visionOS 1.0. They should at least look less bad in visionOS 1.1.

Enlarge / A blurry, ghostly Persona in visionOS 1.0. They should at least look less bad in visionOS 1.1.

Samuel Axon

Apple has released a long list of medium-sized software updates for most of its devices today. The macOS Sonoma 14.4, watchOS 10.4, tvOS 17.4, and visionOS 1.1 updates are all available now, and most of them add at least one or two major features as they fix multiple bugs and patch security vulnerabilities.

The visionOS 1.1 release is the first major update for Apple’s newest operating system, and as our coverage of the headset has demonstrated, there’s still plenty of low-hanging fruit to fix. Most notably for people who are trying to use the headset for work meetings, Apple says that there have been multiple changes to the look of Personas, the 3D avatars that show up in your place when you’re video chatting with the Vision Pro on your face. The update improves “hair and makeup appearance,” “neck and mouth representation,” and “rendering of the eyes,” and while it’s clear that it’s an improvement over the 1.0 release of Personas, the core uncanniness still seems to be intact. The Persona feature is still labeled as a beta.

Apple has also made tweaks to the appearance and functionality of the headset’s virtual keyboard, improved the Virtual Display feature’s Mac connectivity, and added a handful of mobile device management features for IT administrators.

Apple’s headlining feature for macOS 14.4 is the addition of new Unicode 15.1 emoji, plus podcast transcriptions in the Apple Music app. It’s unclear whether this release enables multiple external displays for users of the $1,599 M3 MacBook Pro, a feature that Apple announced alongside the new M3 MacBook Airs.

Apple Watch owners can look forward to the resolution of one annoying bug I’ve run into a few times on my own watch: a bug that would make the screen act as though it was receiving touch input even when you weren’t touching it. Sometimes referred to as a “ghost touch” or “phantom touch” bug, the only way to get it to go away was to reboot the watch. I haven’t noticed the bug since I installed one of the later watchOS 10.4 betas a couple of weeks ago.

Version 17.4 of the HomePod operating system now allows users to set their preferred music service, so telling Siri to play music will automatically use whatever service you want instead of defaulting to Apple Music unless you specify. The tvOS 17.4 update doesn’t appear to include any particular features or fixes of note.

All of the new releases follow iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4, which came out a few days ago with mostly minor changes unless you happened to live in the European Union. For European users, that update ushers in Apple’s first attempt at compliance with new regulations that require the company to allow the use of third-party app stores, alternate browsing engines, and sideloaded apps. These changes come with plenty of conditions and caveats, as Apple seeks to remain the ultimate arbiter of what software can and can’t run on iPhones and iPads.

visionOS 1.1 tries to make Personas less unsettling, plus other Apple OS updates Read More »

“disgraceful”:-messy-tos-update-allegedly-locks-roku-devices-until-users-give-in

“Disgraceful”: Messy ToS update allegedly locks Roku devices until users give in

arbitration, Policy, Roku, streaming, Tech, TVs / /

Show’s over —

Users are opted in automatically unless they write a letter to Roku by March 21.

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A promotional image for a Roku TV.

Enlarge / A promotional image for a Roku TV.

Roku customers are threatening to stop using, or to even dispose of, their low-priced TVs and streaming gadgets after the company appears to be locking devices for people who don’t conform to the recently updated terms of service (ToS).

This month, users on Roku’s support forums reported suddenly seeing a message when turning on their Roku TV or streaming device reading: “We’ve made an important update: We’ve updated our Dispute Resolution Terms. Select ‘Agree’ to agree to these updated Terms and to continue enjoying our products and services. Press to view these updated Terms.” A large button reading “Agree” follows. The pop-up doesn’t offer a way to disagree, and users are unable to use their device unless they hit agree.

Customers have left pages of complaints on Roku’s forum. One user going by “rickstanford” said they were “FURIOUS!!!!” and expressed interest in sending their reported six Roku devices back to the company since “apparently I don’t own them despite spending hundreds of dollars on them.”

Another user going by Formercustomer, who, I suspect, is aptly named, wrote:

So, you buy a product, and you use it. And they want to change the terms limiting your rights, and they basically brick the device … if you don’t accept their new terms. … I hope they get their comeuppance here, as this is disgraceful.

Roku has further aggravated customers who have found that disagreeing to its updated terms is harder than necessary. Roku is willing to accept agreement to its terms with a single button press, but to opt out, users must jump through hoops that include finding that old book of stamps.

To opt out of Roku’s ToS update, which primarily changes the “Dispute Resolution Terms,” users must send a letter to Roku’s general counsel in California mentioning: “the name of each person opting out and contact information for each such person, the specific product models, software, or services used that are at issue, the email address that you used to set up your Roku account (if you have one), and, if applicable, a copy of your purchase receipt.” Roku required all this to opt out of its terms previously, as well.

But the new update means that while users read this information and have their letter delivered, they’re unable to use products they already paid for and used, in some cases for years, under different “dispute resolution terms.”

“I can’t watch my TV because I don’t agree to the Dispute Resolution Terms. Please help,” a user going by Campbell220 wrote on Roku’s support forum.

Based on the ToS’s wording, users could technically choose to agree to the ToS on their device and then write a letter saying they’d like to opt out. But opting into an agreement only to use a device under terms you don’t agree with is counterintuitive.

Even more pressing, Roku’s ToS states that users only have “within 30 days of you first becoming subject to” Roku’s updated terms, which was February 20, to opt out. Otherwise, you’re opted in automatically.

Archived records of Roku’s ToS website seem to show the new ToS being online since at least August. But it was only this month that users reported that their TVs were useless unless they accepted the terms via an on-screen message. Roku declined to answer Ars Technica’s questions about the changes, including why it didn’t alert users about them earlier. But a spokesperson shared a statement saying:

Like many companies, Roku updates its terms of service from time to time. When we do, we take steps to make sure customers are informed of the change.

What Roku changed

Customers are criticizing Roku for aggressively pushing them to accept ToS changes. The updates focus on Roku’s terms for dispute resolution, which prevent users from suing Roku. The terms have long forced a described arbitration process for dispute resolution. The new ToS is more detailed, including specifics for “mass arbitrations.” The biggest change is the introduction of a section called “Required Informal Dispute Resolution.” It states that except for a small number of described exceptions (which include claims around intellectual property), users must make “a good-faith effort” to negotiate with Roku, or vice versa, for at least 45 days before entering arbitration.

Roku is also taking heat for using forced arbitration at all, which some argue can have one-sided benefits. In a similar move in December, for example, 23andMe said users had 30 days to opt out of its new dispute resolution terms, which included mass arbitration rules (the genetics firm let customers opt out via email, though). The changes came after 23andMe user data was stolen in a cyberattack. Forced arbitration clauses are frequently used by large companies to avoid being sued by fed-up customers.

Roku’s forced arbitration rules aren’t new but are still making customers question their streaming hardware, especially considering that there are rivals, like Amazon, Apple, and Google, that don’t force arbitration on users.

Based on comments in Roku’s forums, some users were unaware they were already subject to arbitration rules and only learned this as a result of Roku’s abrupt pop-up.

But with the functionality of already-owned devices blocked until users give in, Roku’s methods are questionable, and Roku may lose customers over it. Per an anonymous user on Roku’s forum:

I’m unplugging right now.

“Disgraceful”: Messy ToS update allegedly locks Roku devices until users give in Read More »

review:-apple’s-efficient-m3-macbook-airs-are-just-about-as-good-as-laptops-get

Review: Apple’s efficient M3 MacBook Airs are just about as good as laptops get

13-inch MacBook Air, 15-inch MacBook Air, Apple, Apple M3, Features, MacBook Air, Tech / /

Air apparent —

For Intel or even M1 upgraders, there’s a lot to like about the M3 Air.

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Apple's M3 MacBook Airs put a new chip in 2022's design.

Enlarge / Apple’s M3 MacBook Airs put a new chip in 2022’s design.

Andrew Cunningham

Right off the bat, the M3 MacBook Airs aren’t as interesting as the M2 models.

July 2022’s M2 MacBook Air updated the design of the 13-inch laptop for the Apple Silicon era after the M1 Air’s external design played it safe. And the first-ever 15-inch MacBook Air, released over a year later, was an appealing option for people who wanted a larger screen but didn’t need the extra power or cost of a MacBook Pro. Together, they were a comprehensive rethink of Apple’s approach to its mainstream laptops, modeled after the similarly dramatic Apple Silicon MacBook Pro redesigns.

The M3 Airs don’t do any of that. They are laptop designs we’ve already seen, wrapped around a processor we’ve already seen. But they may end up being more important than the M2 Airs because of when they’re being released—as the last of the Intel Macs slowly age and break and Apple winds down software support for them (if not in this year’s macOS release, then almost certainly next year’s). Between the faster chip and a couple of other feature updates, the new machines may also be the first ones that are truly worth a look for M1 Air early adopters who want an upgrade.

Apple left us a scant 48 hours to test and use this laptop, but here’s what we’ve observed so far.

Does the design hold up?

  • The 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs. Same design, but the 15-inch Air has a bigger screen and trackpad and better speakers, while the 13-inch Air is smaller and lighter. Note both the fingerprints on the Midnight finish and how the notch can be either more or less visible based on your settings.

    Andrew Cunningham

  • Air footprints compared: the 13-inch on top of the 15-inch.

    Andrew Cunningham

The M1 MacBook Air is still the one I use most days, and anyone coming from a 2018–2020 Intel MacBook Air will be familiar with the design. So the M2/M3-era MacBook Air design is still striking to me, despite being the better part of two years old.

By and large, I think the newer design holds up pretty well; I don’t mind the loss of the taper, even if it makes the laptop look a bit more boxy and less sleek. The full-height function row and tweaked keyboard are both good, and I don’t generally have issues with trackpad palm rejection on either the 13- or 15-inch models. It’s nice to have MagSafe back, though in the end, I almost always charge the Air with one of the many USB-C chargers I have strategically tucked into most rooms in the house.

Specs at a glance: Apple M3 MacBook Air (as reviewed)
Screen 13.6-inch 2560×1664 IPS LCD 15.3-inch 2880×1864
OS macOS 14.4 Sonoma
CPU Apple M3 (4 E-cores, 4 P-cores)
RAM 16GB unified memory
GPU Apple M3 (10 GPU cores)
Storage 512GB soldered SSD
Battery 52.6 WHr 66.5 WHr
Networking Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3
Ports 2x Thunderbolt/USB4, MagSafe 3, headphones
Size 11.97×8.46×0.44 inches (304.1×215×113 mm) 13.40×9.35×0.45 inches (340.4×237.6×115 mm)
Weight 2.7 lbs (1.24 kg) 3.3 lbs (1.51 kg)
Warranty 1-year
Price as reviewed $1,499 $1,699
Other perks 1080p webcam, TouchID

I’m also reminded anew of just how much I like the 15-inch MacBook Air as someone who likes a big screen but doesn’t use a laptop for much gaming or anything heavier than Photoshop or Lightroom (and I generally don’t care that much about high-refresh-rate displays). The combination of size and weight really is close to ideal, and though the 15-inch Air is unmistakably larger and heavier than the 13-inch model, the difference isn’t so large in daily use that I spend a lot of time thinking about it. The improved speaker setup is also nice to have when you’re playing music or using that bigger screen to watch something.

The biggest downside of the design remains the display notch. As we and others have noted multiple times, it’s not that you don’t get used to it, and in typical desktop use (especially in dark mode and with a dark wallpaper), you can often forget it’s there. But in the absence of FaceID or some major other functional addition, it feels like a lot of space to take up for not a lot of user-visible benefit.

Sure, a 1080p webcam instead of a 720p webcam is nice, but I would choose a notch-less screen with more usable space every time if given the choice. (The strips of screen to either side of the notch can only really display the macOS menu bar; go into the Control Center area of the Settings and change “automatically hide and show the Menu Bar’ to “Never” if you don’t want those strips of screen to go totally wasted in full-screen mode).

  • The Midnight finish as seen on a 15-inch MacBook Air, freshly cleaned and pristine.

    Andrew Cunningham

  • This is what the laptop looked like before I cleaned it. I’ve had it for two days. You’ll definitely still see fingerprints.

    Andrew Cunningham

One design change that Apple has highlighted for the M3 Airs is a new coating for the Midnight (read: blue-tinted black) version of the Air that is said to reduce its fingerprint-y-ness. Apple did the same thing for the M3 version of the MacBook Pro last year.

The new finish looks a shade or two lighter than the old Midnight coating and does show fingerprints a bit less. But “less” isn’t “none,” and my Air was immediately, visibly fingerprint-y and skin-oily, both on the lid and in the palm rest area. It remains more noticeable than on either the Starlight finish of the 13-inch M3 Air or the space gray finish on my M1 Air. Choose your color finish accordingly.

Review: Apple’s efficient M3 MacBook Airs are just about as good as laptops get Read More »

max-confirms-2024-password-crackdown,-explores-adding-transactional-ads

Max confirms 2024 password crackdown, explores adding transactional ads

max, streaming, Tech, warner bros. discovery / /

Monkey see, monkey do —

WBD looking for ways to grow newfound streaming business profitability.

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Ellie in the HBO show

Enlarge / Max viewers will soon need their own account to watch Ellie in The Last of Us.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has confirmed that it will be cracking down on password sharing for its Max streaming service starting this year. The news follows streaming rivals, including Netflix and, soon, Disney-owned Disney+ and Hulu, in banning the sharing of account login information with people outside of the account holder’s household.

As spotted by TheWrap, while speaking at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media, and Telecom 2024 conference in San Francisco on Monday, JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games at WBD, said that WBD sees a password-sharing crackdown as a “growth opportunity.”

“Obviously Netflix has implemented [its password crackdown] extremely successfully. We’re gonna be doing that starting later this year and into ’25,” Perrette said.

Netflix famously launched the password crackdown trend in March 2022 and brought the rule changes to US subscribers in May 2023. Netflix had excused password sharing for years, but in 2022, it lost subscribers—about 200,000—for the first time since 2011. At the time, Netflix had 221.64 million subscribers; its most recent subscriber count was 260 million.

However, Max is unlikely to see the same subscriber surge as Netflix did. After all, Netflix’s ban on password sharing started after 17 years of gaining millions of subscribers. The Max streaming service has only been around for four years, a number that includes HBO Max, as Perrette pointed out, noting that banning account sharing is still a ”meaningful” financial prospect.

Perrette didn’t get into details about how Max’s password crackdown would work and how it might apply to the Discovery+ streaming service that WBD also owns.

New types of ads on Max

WBD is aiming to grow its streaming business with more subscribers and less churn as it expands to other markets and tries to boost content selection following a light year impacted by strikes.

On Monday, Perrette also discussed interest in changing the types of ads its streaming service shows. On the network side, HBO is known as a channel with very few commercials and a primary focus on its own content. Now that WBD is focusing on driving the streaming side of HBO through the Max app, it would prefer that the content be more synonymous with ads. Streaming services report making more money per user on average when they use a streaming subscription with ads rather than paying more for no commercials.

Per Perrette:

On the ad format size, we’ve made lots of improvements from where we were, but we still have a lot of ad format enhancements that will give us more things that we can go to marketers with, [like] shoppable ads [and] other elements of the ad format side of the house that we can improve …

Again, Max isn’t starting a trend here. Amazon Prime Video, for example, is already looking at transactional ads. Disney+ announced beta testing for shoppable ads to advertisers in January. Hulu has worked with transactional ads for years. Peacock sells them, too. Apple TV+ still doesn’t have an ad tier for its streaming service, but recent hires have people suspecting that that may change.

Perrette also touched on scaling WBD’s streaming business by bundling with third-party services, as Max does with Verizon. Perrette said WBD is in discussions with other partners for potential bundles.

WBD’s strategies come as it tries to grow the profitability of its streaming businesses. In its earnings report shared on February 23, WBD said that its direct-to-consumer (DTC) business, which includes the Max and Discovery+ streaming services and HBO network, made a profit of $103 million in 2023. In 2022, WBD’s DTC business lost $2.1 billion. The company most recently reported having 97.7 million DTC subscribers, compared to the 95.8 million that it finished Q2 2023 with.

Outside of Max, WBD is planning to launch a joint sports-streaming app with Fox and Disney; some, including rival streamers, however, have challenged the proposed joint venture as monopolistic. This week, also at Morgan Stanley’s event, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said he expects the future sports-streaming service to have 5 million subscribers five years after launch, Bloomberg reported.

But as streaming services like Max contemplate ways to make more money in the near term, subscribers are facing a pivotal point. Streaming is increasingly mirroring traditional cable companies in terms of being ad-driven, promoting long-term subscriptions, enacting price hikes, bundling, and threatening possible consolidation. While such moves might make sense from a business perspective, in many cases the result is unhappy subscribers.

Max confirms 2024 password crackdown, explores adding transactional ads Read More »

oregon-oks-right-to-repair-bill-that-bans-the-blocking-of-aftermarket-parts

Oregon OKs right-to-repair bill that bans the blocking of aftermarket parts

Apple, Oregon, parts pairing, Policy, repair, right to repair, Tech / /

Right to repair —

Governor’s signature would stop software locks from impairing replacement parts.

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iPhone battery being removed from an iPhone over a blue repair mat

Getty Images

Oregon has joined the small but growing list of states that have passed right-to-repair legislation. Oregon’s bill stands out for a provision that would prevent companies from requiring that official parts be unlocked with encrypted software checks before they will fully function.

Bill SB 1596 passed Oregon’s House by a 42 to 13 margin. Gov. Tina Kotek has five days to sign the bill into law. Consumer groups and right-to-repair advocates praised the bill as “the best bill yet,” while the bill’s chief sponsor, state Sen. Janeen Sollman (D), pointed to potential waste reductions and an improved second-hand market for closing a digital divide.

“Oregon improves on Right to Repair laws in California, Minnesota and New York by making sure that consumers have the choice of buying new parts, used parts, or third-party parts for the gadgets and gizmos,” said Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of Repair.org, in a statement.

Like bills passed in New York, California, and Minnesota, Oregon’s bill requires companies to offer the same parts, tools, and documentation to individual and independent repair shops that are already offered to authorized repair technicians.

Unlike other states’ bills, however, Oregon’s bill doesn’t demand a set number of years after device manufacture for such repair implements to be produced. That suggests companies could effectively close their repair channels entirely rather than comply with the new requirements. California’s bill mandated seven years of availability.

If signed, the law’s requirements for parts, tools, and documentation would apply to devices sold after 2015, except for phones, which are covered after July 2021. The prohibition against parts pairing only covers devices sold in 2025 and later. Like other repair bills, a number of device categories are exempted, including video game consoles, HVAC and medical gear, solar systems, vehicles, and, very specifically, “Electric toothbrushes.”

Apple had surprised many with its support for California’s repair bill. But the company, notable for its pairing requirements for certain repair parts, opposed Oregon’s repair bill. John Perry, a senior manager for secure design at Apple, testified at an Oregon hearing that the pairing restriction would “undermine the security, safety, and privacy of Oregonians by forcing device manufacturers to allow the use of parts of unknown origin in consumer devices.”

Perry also noted Apple’s improved repair workflow, which no longer requires online access or a phone call to pair parts. Apple devices will still issue notifications and warnings if an unauthorized screen or battery, for example, is installed in an iPhone.

Disclosure: Kevin Purdy previously worked for iFixit. He has no financial ties to the company.

Oregon OKs right-to-repair bill that bans the blocking of aftermarket parts Read More »

macbook-airs-get-an-m3-upgrade,-while-the-m1-model-is-finally-retired

MacBook Airs get an M3 upgrade, while the M1 model is finally retired

Apple, Apple M3, Mac, MacBook Air, Tech / /

bout time —

M2 Air is the new $999 base model, M1 Air goes away after more than 3 years.

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Apple is refreshing the MacBook Air with M3 chips but leaving everything else about the 2022 redesign intact.

Enlarge / Apple is refreshing the MacBook Air with M3 chips but leaving everything else about the 2022 redesign intact.

Apple

Apple has quietly refreshed its MacBook Air lineup, bringing new chips (and in some cases, new prices) to its most popular laptops. New 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs include Apple’s latest-generation M3 chip, while the old M2 MacBook Air now replaces 2020’s M1 MacBook Air as Apple’s $999 entry-level laptop. The new 13- and 15-inch M3 systems start at $1,099 and $1,299; they can be ordered today and will be released on March 8.

The new Airs use the same design as the M2 versions. Compared to older M1 and late-Intel-era Airs, they have slightly larger displays with a prominent notch, a non-tapered but still thin-and-light chassis, larger trackpads, modestly refined keyboards, and a MagSafe port for charging.

All of the new Airs use the M3, with no options to upgrade to faster or more capable processors (frustratingly, this means the Air is still restricted to just a single external display). The $1,099 13-inch Air does use a slightly cut-down version of the chip with 8 GPU cores instead of 10, with the 10-core GPU available as a $100 upgrade; all 15-inch models use the fully enabled M3 with the 10-core GPU.

Aside from the M3 chip, the new laptops also support Wi-Fi 6E, and hardware-accelerated video decoding for the AV1 video codec. But other specs, including RAM and storage options, stay the same as before. Both laptops start with 8GB and 256GB or RAM and storage, respectively, and top out at 24GB and 2TB. Both Airs’ performance should generally be similar to the 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro that starts at $1,599, though the Pro has a cooling fan that may help it run heavy workloads a bit more quickly.

All versions of the M3 include four high-performance CPU cores and four high-efficiency CPU cores, the same as the M1 and M2, though Apple says that chip upgrades have made the M3 “up to 60 percent faster” than the M1. Performance upgrades compared to the M2 will be a bit milder.

The update gets the 13- and 15-inch Airs onto the same update schedule, though the timing is a bit awkward for the barely nine-month-old 15-inch M2 MacBook Air. That’s an even shorter life cycle than we saw with the M2 MacBook Pros that Apple replaced last November after just 11 months. But the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air originally came out in July of 2022 and was well overdue for an upgrade.

The only Macs without an M3 update are Apple’s desktops: the Mac mini, the Mac Studio, and the Mac Pro. Of these, the M2 Mac mini is the oldest, and Apple has already released the M3 and M3 Pro chips that would probably be used in a refresh. It’s possible that Apple is waiting to get the mini and the Studio models in sync with one another to prevent some of the awkward overlap that happened last year when the Mac mini got an M2 upgrade but the Studio still used M1 chips.

MacBook Airs get an M3 upgrade, while the M1 model is finally retired Read More »

i-worked-exclusively-in-vision-pro-for-a-week—here’s-how-it-went

I worked exclusively in Vision Pro for a week—here’s how it went

Apple, Features, Reviews, Tech, vision pro, visionOS / /

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

    Samuel Axon

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

    Samuel Axon

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

    Samuel Axon

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

    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

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

    Samuel Axon

You can get a lot of work done while wearing Apple’s Vision Pro and have fun doing it—but it’s not yet at the stage where most of us will want to fully embrace spatial computing as the new way of working.

I spent more than a week working almost exclusively in the Vision Pro. I carried on Slack conversations, dialed into Zoom video calls, edited Google Docs, wrote articles, and did everything else I do within my day-to-day responsibilities as an editor at Ars Technica.

Throughout the experience, I never stopped thinking about how cool it was, like I was a character in a cyberpunk novel. The Vision Pro opens some new ways of approaching day-to-day work that could appeal to folks with certain sensibilities, and it offers access to some amenities that someone who hasn’t already invested a lot into their home office setup might not already have.

At the same time, though, I never quite zeroed in on a specific application or use case that made me think my normal habit of working on a MacBook Pro with three external monitors would be replaced. If you don’t already have a setup like that—that is to say, if you’ve just been working on a laptop on its own—then the Vision Pro can add a lot of value.

I plan to explore more use cases in the future, like gaming, but this is the last major piece in a series of sub-reviews of the Vision Pro that I’ve done on various applications, like entertainment or as an on-the-go mobile device.

My goal has been to see if the Vision Pro’s myriad use cases add up to $3,500 of value for today’s computing enthusiast. Productivity is front and center in how Apple markets the device, so this is an important one. Let’s see how it holds up.

The basics

Outside the realm of entertainment, visionOS and its apps are mostly about flat windows floating in 3D space. There are very few apps that make use of the device’s 3D capabilities in new ways that are relevant to productivity.

There are two types of visionOS apps: spatial apps and “Compatible Apps.” The former are apps designed to take advantage of the Vision Pro’s spatial computing capabilities, whereas Compatible Apps are simply iPad apps that work just fine as flat windows within the visionOS environment.

Let's find out if the Vision Pro can be an adequate replacement for this, my usual work space.

Enlarge / Let’s find out if the Vision Pro can be an adequate replacement for this, my usual work space.

Samuel Axon

In either case, though, you’re usually just getting the ability to put windows around you. For example, I started out by sitting at my kitchen table and putting my writing app in front of me, Slack and my email app off to the side, and a browser window with a YouTube video playing on the other side. This felt a bit like using several large computer monitors, each with an app maximized. It’s cool, and the ability to shift between your real environment and fully immersive virtual ones can help with focus, especially if you do intensive creative work like writing.

If there’s one thing Apple has nailed better than any of its predecessors in the mixed reality space, it’s the interface. Wherever your eyes are looking, a UI element will glow to let you know it’s the item you’ll interact with if you click. Clicking is done by simply tapping two of your fingers together almost anywhere around your body; the headset has cameras all over, so you don’t have to hold your hands up or in front of you to do this. There are also simple pinching-and-moving gestures for scrolling or zooming.

I worked exclusively in Vision Pro for a week—here’s how it went Read More »

huge-funding-round-makes-“figure”-big-tech’s-favorite-humanoid-robot-company

Huge funding round makes “Figure” Big Tech’s favorite humanoid robot company

AI, boston dynamics, Figure AI, Robots, Tech / /

They’ve got an aluminum CNC machine, and they aren’t afraid to use it —

Investors Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and Intel value Figure at $2.6B.

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The Figure 01 and a few spare parts. Obviously they are big fans of aluminum.

Enlarge / The Figure 01 and a few spare parts. Obviously they are big fans of aluminum.

Figure

Humanoid robotics company Figure AI announced it raised $675 million in a funding round from an all-star cast of Big Tech investors. The company, which aims to commercialize a humanoid robot, now has a $2.6 billion valuation. Participants in the latest funding round include Microsoft, the OpenAI Startup Fund, Nvidia, Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions, Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, and ARK Invest. With all these big-name investors, Figure is officially Big Tech’s favorite humanoid robotics company. The manufacturing industry is taking notice, too. In January, Figure even announced a commercial agreement with BMW to have robots work on its production line.

“In conjunction with this investment,” the press release reads, “Figure and OpenAI have entered into a collaboration agreement to develop next generation AI models for humanoid robots, combining OpenAI’s research with Figure’s deep understanding of robotics hardware and software. The collaboration aims to help accelerate Figure’s commercial timeline by enhancing the capabilities of humanoid robots to process and reason from language.”

With all this hype and funding, the robot must be incredible, right? Well, the company is new and only unveiled its first humanoid “prototype,” the “Figure 01,” in October. At that time, the company said it represented about 12 months of work. With veterans from “Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Google DeepMind, and Archer Aviation,” the company has a strong starting point.

  • Ok, it’s time to pick up a box, so get out your oversized hands and grab hold.

    Figure

  • Those extra-big hands seem to be the focus of the robot. They are just incredibly complex and look to be aiming at a 1:1 build of a human hand.

    Figure

  • Just look at everything inside those fingers. It looks like there are tendons of some kind.

    Figure

  • Not impressed with this “pooped your pants” walk cycle, which doesn’t really use the knees or ankles.

    Figure

  • A lot of the hardware appears to be waiting for software to use it, like the screen that serves as the robot’s face. It only seems to run a screen saver.

    Figure

The actual design of the robot appears to be solid aluminum and electrically actuated, aiming for an exact 1:1 match for a human. The website says the goal is a 5-foot 6-inch, 130-lb humanoid that can lift 44 pounds. That’s a very small form-over-function package to try and fit all these robot parts into. For alternative humanoid designs, you’ve got Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, which is more of a hulking beast thanks to the function-over-form design. There’s also the more purpose-built “Digit” from Agility Robotics, which has backward-bending bird legs for warehouse work, allowing it to bend down in front of a shelf without having to worry about the knees colliding with anything.

The best insight into the company’s progress is the official YouTube channel, which shows the Figure 01 robot doing a few tasks. The last video, from a few days ago, showed a robot doing a “fully autonomous” box-moving task at “16.7 percent” of normal human speed. For a bipedal robot, I have to say the walking is not impressive. Figure has a slow, timid shuffle that only lets it wobble forward at a snail’s pace. The walk cycle is almost entirely driven by the hips. The knees are bent the entire time and always out in front of the robot; the ankles barely move. It seems only to be able to walk in a straight line, and turning is a slow stop-and-spin-in-place motion that has the feet peddling in place the entire time. The feet seem to move at a constant up-and-down motion even when the robot isn’t moving forward, almost as if foot planning just runs on a set timer for balance. It can walk, but it walks about as slowly and awkwardly as a robot can. A lot of the hardware seems built for software that isn’t ready yet.

Figure seems more focused on the hands than anything. The 01 has giant oversized hands that are a close match for a human’s, with five fingers, all with three joints each. In January, Figure posted a video of the robot working a Keurig coffee maker. That means flipping up the lid with a fingertip, delicately picking up an easily crushable plastic cup with two fingers, dropping it into the coffee maker, casually pushing the lid down with about three different fingers, and pressing the “go” button with a single finger. It’s impressive to not destroy the coffee maker or the K-cup, but that Keurig is still living a rough life—a few of the robot interactions incidentally lift one side or the other of the coffee maker off the table thanks to way too much force.

  • For some very delicate hand work, here’s the Figure 01 making coffee. They went and sourced a silver Keurig machine so this image only contains two colors, black and silver.

    Figure

  • Time to press the “go” button. Also is that a wrist-mounted lidar puck for vision? Occasionally, flashes of light shoot out of it in the video.

    Figure

  • These hand close-ups are just incredible. I really do think they are tendon-actuated. You can also see all sorts of pads on the inside of the hand.

    Figure

  • I love the ridiculous T-pose it assumes while it waits for coffee.

    Figure

The video says the coffee task was performed via an “end-to-end neural network” using 10 hours of training time. Unlike walking, the hands really feel like they have a human influence when it comes to their movement. When the robot picks up the K-cup via a pinch of its thumb and index finger or goes to push a button, it also closes the other three fingers into a fist. There isn’t a real reason to move the three fingers that aren’t doing anything, but that’s what a human would do, so presumably, it’s in the training data. Closing the lid is interesting because I don’t think you could credit a single finger with the task—it’s just kind of a casual push using whatever fingers connect with the lid. The last clip of the video even shows the Figure 01 correcting a mistake—the K-cup doesn’t sit in the coffee maker correctly, and the robot recognizes this and can poke it around until it falls into place.

A lot of assembly line jobs are done at a station or sitting down, so the focus on hand dexterity makes sense. Boston Dynamics’ Atlas is way more impressive as a walking robot, but that’s also a multi-million dollar research bot that will never see the market. Figure’s goal, according to the press release, is to “bring humanoid robots into commercial operations as soon as possible.” The company openly posts a “master plan” on its website, which reads, “1) Build a feature-complete electromechanical humanoid. 2) Perform human-like manipulation. 3) Integrate humanoids into the labor force.” The robots are coming for our jobs.

Huge funding round makes “Figure” Big Tech’s favorite humanoid robot company Read More »

apple-changes-course,-will-keep-iphone-eu-web-apps-how-they-are-in-ios-17.4

Apple changes course, will keep iPhone EU web apps how they are in iOS 17.4

Apple, apple home screen web apps, apple progressive web apps, EU, iOS, Tech, web apps / /

Digital Markets Act —

Alternative browsers can pin web apps, but they only run inside Apple’s WebKit.

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EU legislation has pushed a number of changes previously thought unthinkable in Apple products, including USB-C ports in iPhones sold in Europe.

Enlarge / EU legislation has pushed a number of changes previously thought unthinkable in Apple products, including USB-C ports in iPhones sold in Europe.

Getty Images

Apple has changed its stance on allowing web apps on iPhones and iPads in Europe and will continue to let users put them on their home screens after iOS 17.4 arrives. They will, however, have to be “built directly on WebKit and its security architecture,” rather than running in alternative browsers, which is how it had worked up until new legislation forced the issue.

After the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) demanded Apple open up its mobile devices to alternative browser engines, the company said it would remove the ability to install home screen web apps entirely. In a developer Q&A section, under the heading “Why don’t users in the EU have access to Home Screen web apps?”, Apple said that “the complex security and privacy concerns” of non-native web apps and what addressing them would require “given the other demands of the DMA and the very low user adoption of Home Screen web apps,” made it so that the company “had to remove the Home Screen web apps feature in the EU.” Any web app installed on a user’s home screen would have simply led them back to their preferred web browser.

Apple further warned against “malicious web apps,” which, without the isolation built into its WebKit system, could read data, steal permissions from other web apps, and install further web apps without permission, among other concerns.

That response prompted an inquiry by the European Commission officials, who asked Apple and app developers about the impact of a potential removal of home screen web apps. It also prompted a survey conducted by the Open Web Advocacy group. Apple has until March 6 to comply with the DMA. Apple’s move to block web apps entirely suggested that allowing web apps powered by Safari, but not other browser engines, might violate the DMA’s rules. Now, some aspect of that cautious approach has changed.

Under an updated version of that section heading, Apple reiterates its security and privacy concerns and the need to “build new integration architecture that does not currently exist in iOS.” But because of requests to continue web app offerings, “we will continue to offer the existing Home Screen capability in the EU,” Apple writes.

The long, weird road to where web apps are now

Apple has long offered web apps (or Progressive Web Apps) that opened as a separate application rather than in a browser tab. Web apps installed this way offer greater persistence and access to device features, like notifications, cameras, or file storage. Web apps were initially touted by Apple co-founder and then-CEO Steve Jobs as “everything you need” to write “amazing apps” rather than dedicated apps with their own SDK. Four months later, an iPhone SDK was announced, and Apple declared its enthusiastic desire for “native third-party applications on the iPhone.”

While Apple does not break out App Store revenues in its earning statements, its Services division recorded an all-time high of $22.3 billion in the company’s fourth quarter of 2023, including “all time revenue records” across the App Store and other offerings.

As part of its DMA compliance as a “gatekeeper” of certain systems, Apple must also allow for sideloading for EU customers, or allowing the installation of iOS apps from stores other than its own official App Store. This week, more than two dozen companies signed a letter to the Commission lamenting Apple’s implementation of App Store rules. Developers seeking to utilize alternative app stores will have to agree to terms that include a “Core Technology Fee,” demanding a 0.50 euro fee for each app, each year, after 1 million downloads. “Few app developers will agree to these unjust terms,” the letter claims, and will thereby further “Apple’s exploitation of its dominance over app developers.”

In a statement provided to Ars, Apple said that its “approach to the Digital Markets Act was guided by two simple goals: complying with the law and reducing the inevitable, increased risks the DMA creates for our EU users.” It noted that Apple employees “spent months in conversation with the European Commission,” and had “in little more than a year, created more than 600 new APIs and a wide range of developer tools.” Still, Apple said, the changes and safeguards it put in place can’t entirely “eliminate new threats the DMA creates,” and the changes “will result in a less secure system.”

That is why, Apple said, it is limiting third-party browser engines, app stores, and other DMA changes to the European Union. “[W]e’re concerned about their impacts on the privacy and security of our users’ experience—which remains our North Star.”

Apple changes course, will keep iPhone EU web apps how they are in iOS 17.4 Read More »

hp-wants-you-to-pay-up-to-$36/month-to-rent-a-printer-that-it-monitors

HP wants you to pay up to $36/month to rent a printer that it monitors

Biz & IT, HP, printers, subscriptions, Tech / /
HP Envy 6020e printer

Enlarge / The HP Envy 6020e is one of the printers available for rent.

HP launched a subscription service today that rents people a printer, allots them a specific amount of printed pages, and sends them ink for a monthly fee. HP is framing its service as a way to simplify printing for families and small businesses, but the deal also comes with monitoring and a years-long commitment.

Prices range from $6.99 per month for a plan that includes an HP Envy printer (the current model is the 6020e) and 20 printed pages. The priciest plan includes an HP OfficeJet Pro rental and 700 printed pages for $35.99 per month.

HP says it will provide subscribers with ink deliveries when they’re running low and 24/7 support via phone or chat (although it’s dubious how much you want to rely on HP support). Support doesn’t include on or offsite repairs or part replacements. The subscription’s terms of service (TOS) note that the service doesn’t cover damage or failure caused by, unsurprisingly, “use of non-HP media supplies and other products” or if you use your printer more than what your plan calls for.

HP is watching

HP calls this an All-In-Plan; if you subscribe, the tech company will be all in on your printing activities.

One of the most perturbing aspects of the subscription plan is that it requires subscribers to keep their printers connected to the Internet. In general, some users avoid connecting their printer to the Internet because it’s the type of device that functions fine without web access.

A web connection can also concern users about security or HP-issued firmware updates that make printers stop functioning with non-HP ink.

But HP enforces an Internet connection by having its TOS also state that HP may disrupt the service—and continue to charge you for it—if your printer’s not online.

HP says it enforces a constant connection so that the company can monitor things that make sense for the subscription, like ink cartridge statuses, page count, and “to prevent unauthorized use of Your account.” However, HP will also remotely monitor the type of documents (for example, a PDF or JPEG) printed, the devices and software used to initiate the print job, “peripheral devices,” and any other “metrics” that HP thinks are related to the subscription and decides to add to its remote monitoring.

The All-In-Plan privacy policy also says that HP may “transfer information about you to advertising partners” so that they can “recognize your devices,” perform targeted advertising, and, potentially, “combine information about you with information from other companies in data sharing cooperatives” that HP participates in. The policy says that users can opt out of sharing personal data.

The All-In-Plan TOS reads:

Subject to the terms of this Agreement, You hereby grant to HP a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free right to use, copy, store, transmit, modify, create derivative works of and display Your non-personal data for its business purposes.

HP wants you to pay up to $36/month to rent a printer that it monitors Read More »

$30-doorbell-cameras-have-multiple-serious-security-flaws,-says-consumer-reports

$30 doorbell cameras have multiple serious security flaws, says Consumer Reports

Amazon, doorbell camera, doorbell cameras, eken, Security, Tech, tuck, video doorbell, walmart / /

Video doorbell security —

Models still widely available on e-commerce sites after issues reported.

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Image showing a delivery person saying

Enlarge / Consumer Reports’ investigation suggests that, should this delivery person press and hold the bell button and then pair using Eken’s app, he could see if other delivery people get such a perfunctory response.

Eken

Video doorbell cameras have been commoditized to the point where they’re available for $30–$40 on marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, Temu, and Shein. The true cost of owning one might be much greater, however.

Consumer Reports (CR) has released the findings of a security investigation into two budget-minded doorbell brands, Eken and Tuck, which are largely the same hardware produced by the Eken Group in China, according to CR. The cameras are further resold under at least 10 more brands. The cameras are set up through a common mobile app, Aiwit. And the cameras share something else, CR claims: “troubling security vulnerabilities.”

The pairing procedure for one of Eken's doorbell cameras, which allows a malicious actor quite a bit of leeway.

Enlarge / The pairing procedure for one of Eken’s doorbell cameras, which allows a malicious actor quite a bit of leeway.

Eken

Among the camera’s vulnerabilities cited by CR:

  • Sending public IP addresses and Wi-Fi SSIDs (names) over the Internet without encryption
  • Takeover of the cameras by putting them into pairing mode (which you can do from a front-facing button on some models) and connecting through the Aiwit app
  • Access to still images from the video feed and other information by knowing the camera’s serial number.

CR also noted that Eken cameras lacked an FCC registration code. More than 4,200 were sold in January 2024, according to CR, and often held an Amazon “Overall Pick” label (as one model did when an Ars writer looked on Wednesday).

“These video doorbells from little known manufacturers have serious security and privacy vulnerabilities, and now they’ve found their way onto major digital marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart,” said Justin Brookman, director of tech policy at Consumer Reports, in a statement. “Both the manufacturers and platforms that sell the doorbells have a responsibility to ensure that these products are not putting consumers in harm’s way.”

CR noted that it contacted vendors where it found the doorbells for sale. Temu told CR that it would halt sales of the doorbells, but “similar-looking if not identical doorbells remained on the site,” CR noted.

A Walmart representative told Ars that all cameras mentioned by Consumer Reports, sold by third parties, have been removed from Walmart by now. The representative added that customers may be eligible for refunds and that Walmart prohibits the selling of devices that require an FCC ID and lack one.

Ars contacted Amazon for comment and will update this post with new information. An email sent to the sole address that could be found on Eken’s website was returned undeliverable. The company’s social media accounts were last updated at least three years prior.

Consumer Reports' researchers claim to have found JPEG file references passed in plaintext over the network, which could later be viewed without authentication in a browser.

Consumer Reports’ researchers claim to have found JPEG file references passed in plaintext over the network, which could later be viewed without authentication in a browser.

Consumer Reports

CR issued vulnerability disclosures to Eken and Tuck regarding its findings. The disclosures note the amount of data that is sent over the network without authentication, including JPEG files, the local SSID, and external IP address. It notes that after a malicious user has re-paired a doorbell with a QR code generated by the Aiwit app, they have complete control over the device until a user sees an email from Eken and reclaims the doorbell.

With a few exceptions, video doorbells and other IoT cameras tend to rely on cloud connections to stream and store footage, as well as notify their owners about events. This has led to some notable privacy and security concerns. Ring doorbells were found to be pushing Wi-Fi credentials in plaintext in late 2019. Eufy, a company that marketed its “No clouds” offerings, was found to be uploading facial thumbnails to cloud servers to send push alerts and later apologized for that and other vulnerabilities. Camera provider Wyze recently disclosed that, for the second time in five months, images and video feeds were accidentally available to the wrong customers following a lengthy outage.

Listing image by Amazon/Eken

$30 doorbell cameras have multiple serious security flaws, says Consumer Reports Read More »

speedy-“sd-express”-cards-have-gone-nowhere-for-years,-but-samsung-could-change-that

Speedy “SD Express” cards have gone nowhere for years, but Samsung could change that

microSD, samsung, Tech / /

fast, but for whom? —

Compatibility issues and thermals have, so far, kept SD Express from taking off.

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Samsung's SD Express-compatible microSD cards.

Enlarge / Samsung’s SD Express-compatible microSD cards.

Samsung

Big news for people who like (physically) small storage: Samsung says that it is sampling its first microSD cards that support the SD Express standard, which will allow them to hit sustained read speeds of as much as 800MB per second. That’s a pretty substantial boost over current SD cards, which tend to top out around 80MB or 90MB per second (for cheap commodity cards) and around 250MB per second for the very fastest UHS-II-compatible professional cards.

As Samsung points out, that 800MB/s figure puts these tiny SD Express cards well above the speeds possible with older SATA SSDs, which could make these cards more useful as primary storage devices for PCs or single-board computers that can support the SD Express standard (more on that later).

Samsung is currently sampling a 256GB version of the SD Express card that “will be available for purchase later this year.”

Because this is a tech company announcement in 2024, Samsung also makes an obligatory mention of AI, though there’s absolutely nothing specific the cards are doing to make them particularly well-suited for generative AI tasks other than “be faster.” Adding extra storage to phones or PCs could be useful for on-device generative AI—storing larger language models locally, for example—but most software companies that are offering generative AI features in their OSes or browsers are mostly using server-side processing to do all the heavy lifting for now.

What’s the SD Express standard, again?

The SD Express standard allows SD cards to take advantage of a single lane’s worth of PCIe bandwidth, boosting their theoretical speeds well beyond the 104MB/s cap of the UHS-I standard or the 312MB/s cap of UHS-II (UHS-III exists but isn’t widely used). The SD Express spec was last updated back in October 2023, which bumped it up from PCIe 3.0 to 4.0; it also defines four speed classes with read/write speeds of between 150MB and 600MB per second—a target these Samsung cards claim to be able to surpass.

But the original version of SD Express goes back to mid-2018, when it was added to version 7.0 of the SD specification. And adoption from SD card makers and device makers has been slow to nonexistent so far; AData makes full-size SD Express cards in 256GB and 512GB capacities that you can buy, but that’s about it. Lexar announced some cards back in 2021 that never ended up being released. And even if you had a card, you’d have trouble finding devices that could actually take advantage of the higher speeds, since most cameras, phones, and computers have opted to stick with the more common UHS.

One issue blocking SD Express adoption is that the card and the device have to support SD Express to get the promised speeds; an SD Express card inserted into a regular run-of-the-mill UHS-I SD card slot will be limited to UHS-I speeds. And because both the slots and the cards are visually identical, it’s not always easy to tell which slots support specific speeds.

Heat may also be a major limiting factor when using these SD Express cards to move around hundreds of gigabytes’ worth of data or when using the SD card as the primary storage device in a computer (as you might in a Raspberry Pi or other single-board computers). There’s no room for this kind of thing within the confines of a microSD card slot, so the sustained read and write speeds of Samsung’s new cards could be a bit lower than the promised 800MB-per-second maximum.

The SD Express spec does have mechanisms for keeping thermals in a reasonable range. Samsung also mentions a “Dynamic Thermal Guard” technology that promises to manage the temperatures of its SD Express cards, though it’s not clear whether this is different from what’s already in the SD Express spec.

Samsung jumping into SD Express cards may be what the format needs to take off, or at least to become a viable niche within the wider market for external storage. It’s certainly not difficult to imagine a scenario where something with SSD-ish speeds in an SD card-sized package would be useful. But SD cards are mainly useful because they’re cheap, they’re widely compatible, and they’re fast enough for things like recording video, taking pictures, and loading games. SD Express cards have a long way to go before they can check all the same boxes.

Speedy “SD Express” cards have gone nowhere for years, but Samsung could change that Read More »