Let’s Talk Apple — Ep. 81 (May 2020)

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots
• Kelly Guimont from App Camp for Girls – @verso
• Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet

The show starts with a few followup stories (including the virus-shaped elephant in every room these days), one notable number, a few quick legal stories, a few Apple staffing changes and acquisitions, and a quick overview of news related to Apple’s original content. The four main stories are the launch of Apple & Google’s Exposure Notification API, the George Floyd protests affect on Apple, the US government’s latest attack on Apple over encryption, and the Unc0ver Jailbreak. The show ends with a quick rundown of some smaller Apple-related stories that made the news in May.

You’ll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar – the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

Followup

• COVID-related Developments
  • We got a date for the virtual WWDC: Apple to host virtual WWDC 2020 starting June 22 — www.imore.com/…
  • Many stores are re-opening all over the world, but all with many restrictions compared to previous “business as usual”:
    • More than half of all Apple Stores worldwide have reopened — 9to5mac.com/…
    • 🇺🇸 These are the U.S. Apple Stores that are reopening and their hours of operation — www.imore.com/…
    • 🇺🇸 Apple to Reopen About 100 U.S. Stores This Week — www.macobserver.com/…
    • 🇺🇸 Apple Premier Partner Simply Mac reopening six U.S. stores — www.imore.com/…
    • 🇦🇹 Austria’s one Apple Store is set to reopen tomorrow, May 5 — www.imore.com/…
    • 🇦🇺 Apple Stores reopen in Australia with masks and temperature checks — www.imore.com/…
    • 🇩🇪 All German Apple Stores will reopen on May 11 — www.imore.com/…
      • Apple store temperature checks probed over EU privacy rules in Germany — www.imore.com/…
    • 🇨🇭 Apple will open all of its stores in Switzerland this week — www.imore.com/…
    • 🇯🇵 Apple is reopening some of its Japanese Apple Stores this week — www.imore.com/…
    • 🇮🇹 Apple is reopening the last five Italian Apple Stores tomorrow — www.imore.com/…
  • 🇺🇸 Apple expands mobility trends data throughout the US — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple awards $10 million to COPAN Diagnostics — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple has a new online store hub to make it easier to spend your money — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple is preparing to bring some of its employees back into the office — www.imore.com/…
    • This is how Apple will keep people safe when reopening Apple Park — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple 2020 Supplier Responsibility Report Includes Info on COVID–19 Impact — www.macobserver.com/…
  • 🇺🇸 Apple updates its COVID–19 app with best practices for quarantining — www.imore.com/…
  • iOS 13.5 brings quicker unlocking while wearing masks: How to unlock your Face ID iPhone while wearing a mask — www.imore.com/…
  • COVID–19 drives 52% surge in data used for mobile app downloads — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple to help Authorized Service Providers pay for PPE and cleaning supplies — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple Updates Schoolwork, Classroom Apps — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Your Apple Card’s June payment can be deferred thanks to the Customer Assistance Program — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple updates Research app with new hearing test and COVID–19 survey — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple capitalizes on emergency measures to issue cheapest bonds in years — www.imore.com/…
  • Coronavirus sees Health and Fitness app installs skyrocket 47% in Q2 — www.imore.com/…
  • iFixit Creates Free Medical Repair Database — tidbits.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Apple continues to incrementally improve Apple Card
  • Get $50 in Cash when you spend $50 at Walgreens with your new Apple Card — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple Card adds Quicken and QuickBooks to data export options — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple Card web page gets sleek new redesign and new financial health section — www.imore.com/…
• 🇮🇳 Apple Continues to Push into India
  • India drops restrictive manufacturing clauses, opening the door to Apple — www.imore.com/…
  • Apple finally offering customization options for Macs in India — www.imore.com/…

Notable Numbers

• Apple tops overall smartphone customer satisfaction index — www.imore.com/…

Legal Latest

• 🇮🇹 Apple loses appeal in Italy over iPhone slow down scandal — www.imore.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Appeals court dismisses anti-conservative bias lawsuit against top tech companies — www.imore.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Apple awarded $2.3M in legal fees over case that should ‘never have been brought’ — www.imore.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• Policy executive Cynthia Hogan is leaving Apple to join Biden campaign — www.imore.com/…
• Apple quietly hiring some of the world’s best cloud talent — www.protocol.com/…
• Ipsita Dasgupta joins Apple as head of streaming services in India — www.imore.com/…
• Apple confirms it has acquired NextVR, a live streaming AR/VR company — www.imore.com/…
• Apple acquires machine-learning startup to help improve Siri — www.imore.com/…

Apple Original Content Update

• ‘The Morning Show’ Showrunner Extends Deal With Apple — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple TV+ hires BBC factual controller behind ‘Planet Earth II’ and ‘Blue Planet II’ — www.imore.com/…
• A new Apple Music radio show will see Billie Eilish and her dad co-DJ — www.imore.com/…
• Sofia Coppola to Develop Edith Wharton’s ‘Custom of the Country’ as Apple Series — variety.com/…
• Apple signs first-look TV deal the Ridley Scott’s production company — www.imore.com/…
• Santigold Joins Apple TV+ Kids Stars ‘Helpsters’ — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple lands four-part docuseries from the duo who created McMillion$ — www.imore.com/…
• Tom Hanks WWII Greyhound film coming to Apple TV+ in $70M deal — www.imore.com/…
• Sports docuseries featuring Lebron James and Tom Brady coming to Apple TV+ — www.imore.com/…
• Apple Announces Short-Form Docuseries ‘Greatness Code’ — www.macobserver.com/…
• J.J. Abrams and Sara Bareilles “Little Voice” to debut July 10 on Apple TV+ — www.imore.com/…
• All original episodes and full reboot of Fraggle Rock coming to Apple TV+ — www.imore.com/…
• Apple announces Fraggle Rock reboot, partnership with Jim Henson Company — www.loopinsight.com/…
• Apple TV+ lands Scorsese film starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio — www.imore.com/…
• Judge dismisses lawsuit against Apple TV+ show ‘Servant’, directed by M. Night Shyamalan — www.imore.com/…
• New Series ‘Central Park’ Arrives on Apple TV+ — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple Orders ‘Hedy Lamarr” Series Starring Gal Gadot — www.macobserver.com/…
• Zane Lowe brings Beats 1 interviews to Apple Podcasts in new show — www.imore.com/…
• Apple unveils ‘Ted Lasso’ first look for TV+, debuting August 14 — www.imore.com/…
• Apple TV+ signs deal with WME’s Theresa Kang-Lowe — www.imore.com/…
• Apple TV+ Sports Play Looks Set to be Led by Former Amazon Exec — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple releases new TV+ documentary series ‘Dear…’ featuring Stevie Wonder, Spike Lee and more — www.imore.com/…

Main Stories

1. Apple & Google’s Exposure Notification API goes live — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…
   • Apple-Google Exposure Notification API: Everything you need to know — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple will let you delete coronavirus contact tracing data in iOS 13.5 — www.imore.com/…
   • Apple and Google to ban location tracking in contact tracing apps — www.imore.com/…
   • How to Turn on COVID–19 Exposure Logging on Your iPhone — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Apple responds to false Facebook claims about contact tracing update in iOS 13.5 — www.imore.com/…
   • More European Countries Moving to Apple/Google Framework For Covid–19 Contact Tracing Apps — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Governments ignore Apple and Google’s contact tracing technology at their own peril — www.imore.com/…
   • 🇪🇺 Five EU states criticize Apple and Google ‘imposing technical standards’ over contact tracing — www.imore.com/…
   • 🇦🇺 Australian government admits its COVIDSafe app doesn’t work on iOS — www.imore.com/…
   • 🇫🇷 France snubs Apple, moves forward with its own contact tracing technology — www.imore.com/…
   • 🇬🇧 UK now looking into adopting Apple and Google’s contact tracing tech — www.imore.com/…
     • Related: Under pressure, UK government releases NHS COVID data deals with big tech — www.opendemocracy.net/…
   • 🇨🇭 The first contact tracing app powered by Apple and Google has been launched — www.imore.com/…
   • 🇱🇻 Latvia to launch Google-Apple friendly coronavirus contact tracing app — www.reuters.com/…
   • 🇮🇹 Italy launches contact-tracing app based on Apple and Google’s technology — www.imore.com/…
   • Related: 🇸🇬 Spurred by low adoption of its app, Singapore introduces highly-invasive, mandatory COVID–19 surveillance — www.imore.com/…
2. Apple & the George Floyd Protests
   • Apple Music joins wider music industry Black Out Tuesday awareness campaign with app takeover — 9to5mac.com/…
   • Tim Cook pens open ‘Speaking up on racism’ letter — www.imore.com/…
     • Tim Cook says “we must do more” in memo to employees about George Floyd — www.imore.com/…
     • Billionaire investor calls on Tim Cook to speak out against President Trump: ‘Memos to employees is easy’ — www.imore.com/…
   • Riots, looting push Apple and others to shut down retail stores … again — www.imore.com/…
     • “Local authorities will be alerted”: iPhone looters end up with useless phones — arstechnica.com/…
     • Boarded up Apple Stores become unofficial canvases for peaceful protest — 9to5mac.com/…
   • Police scanning app downloads rocket amidst U.S. protests — www.imore.com/…
3. 🇺🇸 The US Government have renewed their attacks on Apple
   • Summary:
     • The FBI let it be known that they succeeded in breaking into the iPhones belonging to the Pensacola Naval base shooter by contracting with a 3rd-party grey-hat security contractor.
     • It has been reported that the phones were unlocked used brute-force passcode guessing hardware.
     • The head of the FBI & the Attorney General used the news as an opportunity to attack Apple for not cooperating with the government, not unlocking the phones, and for making them secure in the first place (though they seem to have gone out of their way never to say ‘secure’ and to instead imply encryption is only about privacy).
     • Apple responded strongly, pointing out that they did cooperate, handing over all the material they could ‘within hours’, and that it is impossible to make a device secure and to have a back door at the same time.
   • FBI finally unlock shooter’s iPhones, Apple berated for not helping — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…
   • FBI Cracks Pensacola Shooter’s iPhone, Still Mad at Apple — tidbits.com/…
   • Apple denies “false claims” by Justice Department over Pensacola attack — www.imore.com/…
   • How the FBI Cracked Pensacola Shooter’s iPhone: An Automated Passcode Guesser — daringfireball.net/…
   • Related Stories:
     • Law enforcement using covert software to trick suspects into handing over passcodes — www.imore.com/…
     • FBI looking at your phone’s lock screen without a warrant unconstitutional, says Judge — www.imore.com/…
4. The Unc0ver Jailbreak Allows any currently supported iOS device to be jailbroken. Note that the jailbreak requires a physical USB connection, and does not survive a reboot — arstechnica.com/…
   • Apple have patched the kernel bug that underlies the the jailbreak — tidbits.com/…
   • A good description of the pros-and-cons of jailbreaking your own phone (Editorial by Bart: unless you’re a security researcher, you probably shouldn’t!) — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…

Quick Stories

• Apple announces new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Magic Keyboard, faster chips, more storage — www.imore.com/…
  • Only high-end 2020 13-inch MacBook Pros support the Pro Display XDR — www.imore.com/…
• Apple unveils massive Logic Pro X update featuring Live Loops — www.imore.com/…
  • A detailed look at the new features in Logic Pro X 10.5 — www.loopinsight.com/…
• Apple announces two new Pride Edition bands for Apple Watch — www.imore.com/…
• Powerbeats Pro dropping in four new colors: Blue, Red, Yellow, and Pink — www.imore.com/…
• The latest macOS update brings battery health management to the Mac — arstechnica.com/…
• FaceTime has been updated to allow users disable the automatic focusing of the speaker while on group calls — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple adds celebrity picks from the AFI Movie Club to the Apple TV app — www.imore.com/…
• Apple releases support advice for AirPods Pro users with crackling audio and noise cancellation issues — 9to5mac.com/…
• Apple fixes AirPods firmware debacle with latest update — www.imore.com/…
• 🇺🇸 HBO drops support for Apple TV channels, directs customers to HBO Max — www.imore.com/…
• Apple’s Deirdre O’Brien in Top Five of Inaugural ‘Queer 50’ Business Leaders List — www.macobserver.com/…

Legend

Note: When the textual description of a link is part of the link it is the title of the page being linked to, when the text describing a link is not part of the link it is a description written by Bart.