Podcast

Malware? Not Malware — Mac Geek Gab 841

John F. Braun & Dave Hamilton · · 1 Comment

Sometimes you feel like … a malware. Sometimes you don’t. That’s not how it goes, but that’s exactly how it felt for a lot of you this week! John and Dave talk through this and get to the bottom of it all. That’s hardly half of it, though. You know how Mac Geek Gab goes… your questions answered, your tips share, all with the goal of learning at least five new things along with your two favorite geeks!

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iFixit Shares iPhone 12/12 Pro Internal Wallpapers

Andrew Orr ·

iFixit is back this year to provide iPhone 12 internal wallpapers to let you see what the devices look like beneath the display.

Need a zoom party icebreaker? Take some folk on a phone tour, tell everyone Apple has pressed pause on unique battery shapes. And let us know how that goes because we’re running out of Kahoot topics…

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Apple Maps in Italy Gets Transit Directions

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple Maps now includes transportation directions across Italy. MacRumors  reported that it works on systems like train, bus and tram in a number of cities now, instead of just Rome where the functionality originally rolled out.

The feature can be accessed by selecting the Transit tab or button in Apple Maps on iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch. Supported modes of transportation include trains, buses, trams, and more in and between cities such as Milan, Naples, Turin, Palermo, Genoa, Florence, and Venice. Google Maps has supported transit directions for several years now, but Apple Maps is steadily catching up with detailed routing information.

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Apple’s 85/15 Subscription Split Doesn’t Help Developers Much

Andrew Orr ·

Unlike Apple’s 70/30 split for in-app purchases, it offers an 85/15 split for subscriptions from customers that stay subscribed for at least a year. But Jacob Eiting writes how that doesn’t really help developers because of subscriber churn.

No matter how great an app is, subscribers are going to churn. Sometimes it’s because of a credit card expiring or some other billing issue. And sometimes it’s more of a pause, and the user comes back after a few months. But the majority of churn comes from subscribers who, for whatever reason, decide that the app just isn’t worth paying for anymore. If a subscriber churns before the 1-year mark, the developer never sees that 85% split. And even if the user resubscribes, Apple and Google reset the clock if a subscription has lapsed for more than 60 days.

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MagSafe Fast Charging Won’t Damage Your iPhone 12 Battery

Andrew Orr ·

With the right charging brick, Apple’s MagSafe charging pad can quickly charge your iPhone 12 at an estimated 50% battery in 30 minutes. Although it was written last year, Clifford Colby’s article is a helpful investigation into fast charging. The short answer is that fast charging won’t damage your iPhone’s battery.

Damage is rare if everything’s well-managed inside. A battery’s management system closely monitors the two charge phases and drops the charging speed during the second phase to give the battery time to absorb the charge and avoid issues, which is why it can take 10 minutes to get those last few percentage points.