Apple stores have Music Labs that let customers remix songs of popular musicians. Taylor Swift is the third musician to have a session.
Andrew Orr
Since 2015 Andrew has been writing about Apple, privacy, security, and at one point even Android. You can find him most places online under the username @andrewornot.
Articles by Andrew Orr
Following its Release, Apple Card Twitter is Here to Help
The Apple Card Twitter account is here to help you with all your credit card needs. Well, maybe. Right now there’s only one tweet.
Apple Stops Selling 'Designed by Apple in California' Book
After about three years in print, it appears that Apple is canceling its ‘Designed by Apple in California’ book.
Want a Clean Apple Card? Here's How
Want a clean Apple Card? Apple has a new support page that tells customers how to do just that.
Apple Blocks Spying Kazakhstan Root Certificate
The Kazakhstan government is trying to spy on citizens with a government-issued root certificate for websites. Apple, Google, and Mozilla are blocking it in their browsers.
The root certificate in question, labeled as “trusted certificate” or “national security certificate,” if installed, allows ISPs to intercept, monitor, and decrypt users’ encrypted HTTPS and TLS connections, helping the government spy on its 18 million people and censor content.
Once installed, the certificate allowed the Kazakh government to decrypt and read anything a user visiting popular sites—Facebook, Twitter, and Google, among others—types or posts, including intercepting their account information and passwords.
Twelve South Launches New iPad Pro Journal Case
Today Twelve South announced the launch of its iPad Pro Journal case, giving your aluminum and glass devices an attractive, leather wrap.
Driving App Waze Adds YouTube Music Integration
Driving app Waze is adding YouTube Music integration for YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium subscribers.
Rolling out from today and soon available to all 50 markets where both YouTube Music and Waze are accessible, subscribers can now easily play music as they drive safely. Check out these YouTube Music playlists to queue up while on the road, and happy cruising!
You'll Be Able to Convert Your Logins to Sign In With Apple
Ryan Christoffel has been testing Sign In with Apple in some beta versions of apps this summer. Using it is as easy as Apple said it would be. And the feature that I hoped would be included will arrive too: Converting your existing logins to Sign In with Apple.
Although Sign In with Apple is mainly beneficial for new users who don’t yet have an account for a given app or service, with the system Apple has built, developers have the option of letting existing users convert their accounts to Sign In with Apple for its convenience and security benefits.
I hope there will be widespread adoption of this. Another thing I wondered: If some companies complain that iOS 13’s location feature is anti-competitive, what will they say about Sign In with Apple?
Apple's Health Team Have Different Visions for the Future
Some employees have left Apple’s health team over the past year, and it seems they all have different visions of the future.
The GitHub Student Developer Pack Can Save You $45,000
The GitHub Student Developer Pack is back, and it can save you up to US$45,000 in software and services.
Verified students who join the Pack receive GitHub Pro at no charge while in school, plus exclusive offers from our GitHub Education partners. More than doubling in size with 21 new partners, the Pack now represents almost $45,000 dollars in savings available to you during your time as a student.
MoviePass Breach Exposed Unencrypted Credit Card Numbers
Movie ticket subscription service MoviePass store customer credit card numbers in plain text on an exposed server.
Apple's Privacy Rule for Kids Apps Delayed
At WWDC 2019, Apple announced stricter rules for kids apps. Developers of these apps aren’t allowed to use analytics within them. Ads would also be limited. Apple is now delaying the rule to give developers more time.
Apple says it is making the move in part to better protect users’ privacy by shielding children from data trackers, a move that has been lauded by some privacy advocates. But some developers say they fear that the new rules won’t protect kids — possibly exposing them to more adult apps — and could pointlessly reduce their businesses.
Maybe don’t make preying on kids your business model?
Plex Desktop Lets You Control Your Media From Your Mac
There’s a new Plex desktop app with the features of Plex Media Player and some offline capabilities. It will be available on macOS and Windows.
The desktop “side” of the (admittedly Janus-esque) Plex Media Player will live on in the form of the new desktop app. For the TV layout lovers out there, we want to be clear about this: the long-term plan is for the new desktop app to replace Plex Media Player as our only desktop solution. The new desktop app is notably lacking TV mode, which means that we’re going to stop supporting the traditional HTPC setup (using a desktop computer connected to your TV or home theater) with this app.
New Porsche Taycan Car Will Support Apple Music
Porsche is introducing an electric sports car called Porsche Taycan, and it’s partnering with Apple to add Apple Music support in its system.
We Need a New Internet That Can Withstand Climate Change
The internet infrastructure is vulnerable to climate change. The fiber optic cables that ferry data can handle some water damage, but they weren’t meant to be permanently underwater.
…within the next 15 years, in a scenario that projects about a foot of sea level rise by then, 4,067 miles of fiber conduit cables are likely to be permanently underwater. In New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, the rising seas could drown roughly 20 percent of all metro fiber conduit. These are the lines that physically ferry our Internet traffic from place to place.
Another 1,101 “nodes”—the buildings or places where cables rise out of the ground, which often house computer servers, routers, and network switches to move our data around—are also expected to be swamped.
Apple Pay Now Available to Danske Bank Customers
Apple Pay is now available to customers of the country’s largest bank, Danske Bank. Both private and business customers can use it.
New Shazam Discovery Playlist for Apple Music
Today Apple Music launches the Shazam Discovery Top 50 playlist, which is a weekly global ranking of 50 trending artists.
The chart will be updated every Tuesday and is exclusively available to stream on Apple Music. Artists at the top of the first list include Ohana Bam, A$ton Wyld, Tones and I and Regard…The chart ranks songs that are trending in the U.S. and “over 10 countries”; artists from more countries will be featured soon.
Sounds cool but I hope it’s not filled with hip-hop, because that seems to be Apple Music’s focus.
YubiKey 5Ci Security Key Launches for iPhones
Today Yubico launches the YubiKey 5Ci, an authentication device made for iPhones. This gives Apple users true two-factor authentication.
Apple Card Officially Launches for Everyone in the U.S.
After months of beta testing and a soft launch earlier this month, Apple Card is now available to all Apple customers in the United States.
180 CEOs With Tim Cook Want to Redefine a Corporation's Purpose
180 CEOs, including Tim Cook, signed a statement from Business Roundtable to reimagine what a corporation’s purpose is. Instead of (or alongside) maximizing profits for shareholders, there are other important qualities.
Businesses play a vital role in the economy by creating jobs, fostering innovation and providing essential goods and services. Businesses make and sell consumer products; manufacture equipment and vehicles; support the national defense; grow and produce food; provide health care; generate and deliver energy; and offer financial, communications and other services that underpin economic growth.
It’s a nice sentiment, and i hope that these are more than just good PR words.
Meet the Professor Behind Netflix's 'The Great Hack'
David Carroll sued Cambridge Analytica after news broke that it used Facebook user data for targeted political advertising. Netflix’s The Great Hack tells his story, and Business Insider interviewed him.
My pursuit is a highly individualized narrative, which obscures the reality that it’s a story about all of us. Quitting your Facebook account doesn’t do anything. You can try to do the work of going through all your settings and being really hygienic about your data, but it’s only going to reduce the scope of data leaking all over the place. It’s certainly not going to have a total effect that people might want.
I’m putting this on my list to watch.
Some Companies Don't Like iOS 13 Location Privacy Feature
App developers wrote a letter to Apple saying how much they don’t like iOS 13 location privacy rules, accusing the company of anti-competitive behavior.
We understand that there were certain developers, specifically messaging apps, that were using this as a backdoor to collect user data. While we agree loopholes like this should be closed, the current Apple plan to remove [access to the internet voice feature] will have unintended consequences: it will effectively shut down apps that have a valid need for real-time location.
The letter was signed by Tile CEO CJ Prober; Arity (Allstate) president Gary Hallgren; CEO of Life360, Chris Hullsan; CEO of dating app Happn, Didier Rappaport; CEO of Zenly (Snap), Antoine Martin; CEO of Zendrive, Jonathan Matus; and chief strategy officer of social networking app Twenty, Jared Allgood.
A helpful list of all the apps I’ll never download. I hope Apple does more when it comes to privacy.
Apple Celebrates National Parks With Donations, Podcasts, More
Apple is celebrating the 103rd anniversary of the U.S. National Park Service with donations, an Apple Watch Activity Challenge, and more.
Apple Accident iPhone Leads to iOS 12.4 Jailbreak
Apple accidentally unpatched a vulnerability first patched in iOS 12.3, and researchers used it to create an iOS 12.4 jailbreak.