By Dan Moren

April 19, 2016 7:57 AM PT

Apple releases government information request report for second half of 2015

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

While the spotlight has been on Apple’s objection to the government’s request in the San Bernardino case, that’s hardly the only time that Cupertino has been asked by the authorities to provide information on devices or accounts. The company has detailed those requests for the latter half of 2015 in its latest transparency report (PDF).

The company breaks out requests into different types: the most common seems to be requests for device information, which Apple says are predominantly for lost iPhones and the like. The winners there are Germany, which made 11989 requests encompassing 31,360 devices, and Poland, which made just 22 requests…but which covered an eyebrow-raising 56,447 devices–a footnote does say that those were mostly requests from the country’s Customs and Revenue Authorities–so potentially a concern on smuggling phones into the country?

Account requests, where the authorities ask for information stored in, say, iTunes or iCloud accounts, were most prominent here in the U.S., where the government asked for information on 1015 accounts–Apple objected in 116 of those cases, and ultimately provided some data in 82 percent of cases. (In another interesting footnote, Apple mentions that China’s 32 requests for information on 6724 were largely those in phishing-related investigations.)

Finally, there are emergency requests–just 178 worldwide–the ever elusive National Security Orders (somewhere between 1250 and 1499, which is as precise as the company is allowed to be), and account deletion requests: just 3 in that six month period, all of which were honored.

Apple notes upfront that it tries to inform customers when it has complied with a government request “unless we are explicitly prohibited from doing so,” referring to the broad use of gag orders that Microsoft has recently challenged. And, of course, the company notes its ongoing thoroughness and objections when it believes requests are unreasonable. And Apple’s latest report still says that Apple has “to date…not received any orders for bulk data.”

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Jason Snell

April 19, 2016 6:59 AM PT

Apple updates MacBook: rose gold, no Thunderbolt 3

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

This morning Apple announced a MacBook update that adds a new rose gold finish to the laptop model introduced last year. Oh, and it’s also got a processor bump:

The updated MacBook features sixth-generation dual-core Intel Core M processors up to 1.3 GHz, with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz, and faster 1866 MHz memory. New Intel HD Graphics 515 deliver up to 25 percent faster graphics performance, and faster PCIe-based flash storage makes everyday tasks feel snappier — from launching apps to opening files.* And now with up to 10 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 11 hours of iTunes movie playback, MacBook is the perfect notebook for all day, on-the-go computing.

(Generally Apple achieves improved battery life in processor-bump models such as this because the new processors are more energy efficient than the old ones. The new battery seems to be a bit more efficient, too. An hour of extra battery life is nothing to sneeze at.)

While it might seem to be surprising that the new MacBook doesn’t offer any physical changes (such as an extra USB-C port), that’s not really shocking: It’s rare that Apple would introduce a laptop and then change the external design the very next year. A bit more surprising is that, for all the speculation about how Thunderbolt 3 is the obvious future of the Mac given its plug compatibility with USB-C and its greater capabilities, the port on this MacBook is still just regular old USB-C.

In Zombie Laptop news, Apple also announced that it’s making 8GB of RAM standard on the 13-inch MacBook Air, which still exists even though it wasn’t updated and probably won’t ever be updated again.

By Jason Snell

April 18, 2016 4:28 PM PT

Ahead of WWDC, Apple updates developer resource site

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Along with announcing WWDC for June 13-17, Apple’s developer site was also updated today with some new resources for developers.

New developer videos include profiles of Seriously (“Building a Brand on Social Media”), Evernote (“Localizing Evernote for Japan”), Grailr (“Making Carrot Weather for Apple Watch”), and Smule (“Releasing App Updates”).

The site also added new resources including Discovery on the App Store, Using the Freemium Business Model, Engaging Users with App Updates, Choosing a Business Model, App Analytics, and even Choosing a Category.

By Dan Moren

April 18, 2016 10:59 AM PT

WWDC dates revealed by Siri, confirmed by Apple

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Looks like Siri has let the cat out of the bag. As first reported by 9to5Mac, if you ask Siri “when is WWDC?” the intelligent agent will respond by telling you it’s the second full week of June, the 13th-17th.

Those dates had been widely rumored, though Apple has still not officially announced them elsewhere. As of this writing, Apple’s WWDC page still only has information about last year’s event, though the Siri response indicates that such an announcement may be imminent.

Personally, I thought it was funny that Siri also pronounced the event’s abbreviation “Dub Dub Dee Cee,” as many regulars also do.

Update: It’s official! But in a first, day one events will be at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, not Moscone West. The Thursday-night beer bash has also moved from the Yerba Buena Gardens to Bill Graham.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Jason Snell

April 15, 2016 10:48 AM PT

Typing test: The 12.9-inch iPad Pro advantage

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Anyone who writes as a part of their profession—whether it’s technology articles, novels, business documents, you name it—cares about typing. Typing is how we put one word after another, and computer keyboards are the best tool yet devised to allow us to do that¹.

The importance of typing has always been one of the problems with using an iPad as a device to get work done. Typing on glass offers limited tactile feedback compared to physical keys, and the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen is too small to fit a full keyboard. You can attach a Bluetooth keyboard (or with the advent of the iPad Pro models, a Smart Keyboard) and improve your typing speeds dramatically, but the ergonomics of using a keyboard with an iPad counteract the iPad’s small size and ability to be used just about anywhere.

When I first began using the original, 12.9-inch iPad Pro, I was skeptical of its software keyboard. Years spent with the original-sized iPad had trained me that while I could write long documents on the software keyboard, I could save a lot of time and effort by attaching an external keyboard. But over the time, as I use the 12.9-inch iPad Pro’s keyboard more, I started to appreciate it.

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro’s software keyboard is full sized. Which is to say, the main keys are the same size and location as a standard physical keyboard—a feat possible on the 12.9-inch model because its display is 10.4 inches wide. The display on 9.7-inch models only have 7.8 inches of width to work with, and as a result, the keys are slightly smaller and crammed more closely together. More importantly, there’s very little room left over for modifier keys, forcing the layout into three layers (regular text input, a number-and-symbol keyboard, and another keyboard for less common symbols).

The 12.9-inch keyboard offers tab and caps lock keys and a wide shift key, plus six additional symbol keys on the main key layout. And, most importantly, the big keyboard provides an entire extra row of 14 keys at the top of the screen, including numbers, more symbols, and the ability to generate 14 more symbols by holding down the shift key.

Now, this larger keyboard isn’t without its flaws. The top row of keys is only half the height of the other rows, and as a result, I find myself missing the delete key all the time. It might also be nice if it offered a Command key, so that I could use iOS 9’s expanded set of keyboard shortcuts from the software keyboard.

Once I started using the large software keyboard, I began to appreciate just how much better it was than the one on the smaller model. When I reviewed the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, one of the reasons I found myself preferring my large iPad Pro was its superior software keyboard. And while I praised the 9.7-inch Smart Keyboard as being less bulky and more convenient than the larger model, there’s no denying that its shrunken-down keyboard slows me down.

Last week I was writing a story on a warm, summery day—rare for early April, even in sunny California—and I was despairing about being inside rather than in my backyard. I ended up sitting out in the backyard and writing the story on my iPad Pro’s software keyboard, sitting under a redwood tree in a hammock. I kept the iPad flat in my lap and typed as I would on a laptop keyboard². And I was shocked at how fast my typing speed was when I really focused on the large software keyboard—not hardware keyboard speeds, but noticeably faster than my experience with the smaller iPad software keyboards.

To quantify this experience, I decided to take a typing test with TapTyping, an app recommended by Fraser Speirs on the typing episode of the Canvas podcast. I took the test, which involves three different sessions of typing a few random sentences, on both iPad Pro models, using their software keyboards as well as their Smart Keyboards. I also took the test on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Apple’s Magic Keyboard attached via Bluetooth.

The results were pretty much as I expected. I was slowest on the 9.7-inch iPad’s software keyboard, at 80 words per minute. The 9.7-inch Smart Keyboard didn’t fare as well as I thought—once I was forced away from the letter keys for punctuation I lost track of the geography of the keyboard and made a bunch of mistakes. The software keyboard on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro clocked in at 96 words per minute, and I once would never have believed that I could type nearly 100 words per minute on a software keyboard. Attaching the 12.9-inch Smart Keyboard boosted my score to 104 words per minute. And typing full speed on the Magic Keyboard, I managed 116 words per minute.

Or to look at it another way, by foregoing a physical keyboard and typing with the smaller iPad’s software keyboard, I gain the benefit of portability and flexibility at the cost of 31 percent of my typing speed. On the 12.9-inch model, it’s only a 17 percent sacrifice.

By Dan Moren

April 14, 2016 6:01 PM PT

Quick Tip: A keyboard shortcut to bring up the emoji keyboard on iOS

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

My good friend Casey Liss was casting about for an answer to the question that has perplexed many an iPad user: if they use a Bluetooth keyboard–such as Apple’s Magic Keyboard or my favorite, the Logitech K811–how can they still access Apple’s emoji picker from said keyboard, without resorting to tapping the screen? Apple’s own Smart Keyboards have a dedicated key for switching the onscreen keyboards, but others, not so much.

Good news! There is a way. On any Bluetooth keyboard, just hit Control-Spacebar to bring up an onscreen keyboard switcher. (Make sure the cursor is in a text field; it doesn’t seem to work otherwise.) You can then either hit Control-Spacebar to switch between various keyboards, or use the Up and Down arrows on the keyboard.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a way to navigate the emoji picker via an external keyboard, so you’ll still need to use the touchscreen for that part. It would be nice to see that functionality added along with, say, a search box or something. Maybe in iOS 10.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Dan Moren

April 14, 2016 5:38 PM PT

Another sign points towards “MacOS” rename

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Update: Apple has since changed the language back to “OS X,” but Ars and others still have the original screenshots.

More evidence that “OS X” is not long for this world, caught by Ars Technica, among others. From Apple’s new environmental programs page:

Years of use, which are based on first owners, are assumed to be four years for MacOS and tvOS devices and three years for iOS and watchOS devices. More information on our product energy use is provided in our Product Environmental Reports. [emphasis added]

This after a text string in OS X 10.11.4 made a similar reference, and CFO Luca Maestri used the term in January’s Q1 2016 conference call. And, of course, fearless leader Jason Snell made the suggestion last summer.

Interestingly enough, the written versions have been “MacOS” not “macOS”, though many–myself included–thought the company would want to standardize it with iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. One reason they might not? “Mac” is still a specific, trademarkable term, while watch, TV, and the letter “i”…not so much.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Dan Moren

April 14, 2016 2:36 PM PT

Screens 4 brings one-touch passwords, groups, redesign

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Edovia’s Screens is one of my indispensable iOS apps, if for no other reason than it brings much of the power of the Mac to my iPad and iPhone, no matter where I am. The screen-sharing app’s major 4.0 update is replete with features, many of which I didn’t even know I wanted until I saw them, as well as a design overhaul.

While the purple/white aesthetic stays, Screens’s interface has been simplified. There’s now just a single top-level screen showing you all your saved connections–even better, on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, you can use 3D Touch on the iOS app icon to quickly jump right into a session, no waiting.

My very favorite new additions, however, are both password related. For one thing, there’s now even better integration with 1Password–you can access the extension from the Action menu and send any of your stored passwords back to your remote Mac. But my true love is the new One-Touch Password feature. When you reach the login screen of your Mac, you can tap and hold on the Action menu in Screens’s toolbar, and it will automatically type your saved password into the the text box, saving you the time of entering it via your iOS keyboard. Brilliant.

There a bunch of other improvements as well: everything from the ability to group connections into folders to Spotlight integration and multitasking support on the iPad. All of those just go to making Screens an even better version of itself.

Screens 4 is a free update for existing users of the iOS app; if you’re buying it new, it’s $20.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]