Mac Chatter

Apple To Enforce Mac App Store Sandboxing March 1, 2012

Corey — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:54:56 +0000

Apple is sending the following message to developers. Sandboxing has usually been done through web browsers to protect PC’s and Mac’s from viruses and bad scripts that can be found all over the Internet. Apple appears to be enforcing this to all Apps that will be sold through the Mac App Store. This makes sense as a security measure to protect users from rogue Apps that could make it through the App Store. It’s a known issue that all stores face as Apple, Microsoft, or whoever puts forth a store gives the impression that those apps are secure. It is in fact the opposite.

The best security against a bad app is to investigate it through Google and see if the publisher has a website. They usually do, but it’s not a end all to find out if an app is corrupt.

Sandboxing your app is a great way to protect systems and users by limiting the resources apps can access and making it more difficult for malicious software to compromise users’ systems.

As of March 1, 2012 all apps submitted to the Mac App Store must implement sandboxing. Enabling the default sandbox environment is as simple as checking the Enable Entitlements checkbox in Xcode target settings, allowing you to begin sandboxing your app.

If your app requires access to sandboxed system resources you will need to include justification for using those entitlements as part of the submission to the Mac App Store. Apps that are being re-engineered to be sandbox compatible may request additional temporary entitlements. These entitlements are granted on a short-term basis and will be phased out over time.

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Automatic Time Zone Detection in iOS 5, Cause of Battery Drain?

Corey — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:18:30 +0000

iPhoneDownloadBlog has an article that details how to turn this setting off and how it’s draining your battery. While not an official bug as of yet, the problem is connected to this function constantly checking location through GPS and keeping the GPS circuitry active all the time which is a huge battery drain. Perhaps Apple should talk with Garmin, I have a eTrex that runs weeks off a pair of AA batteries.

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iTunes Match Coming Tuesday Oct 25th?

Corey — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 01:57:38 +0000

*Warning Unverified Rumor*

We have received an anonymous tip that iTunes Match will come out next week on Tuesday October 25th. While the rest of iCloud launched last week, there were many problems with the system being overloaded. Apple probably delayed iTunes Match due to the intensive processing they will have to do to build up everyone’s playlists that subscribe once it’s release. We were also told that likely the service will be rolled out for the US first then other countries in a staggered fashion.

*Warning Unverified Rumor*

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iPhone Upgrade Advice: 3G/3GS Upgrade, 4G Wait

Corey — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 19:36:11 +0000

If you’re still on the fence about upgrading your iPhone it may be for good reason. Many Verizon customers wanted a LTE enabled iPhone which many of the Android phones already have as a service, although with poor battery life. The iPhone 5 may be a LTE model, but it’s anyone’s guess when that comes out. I believe that the iPhone 5 will be just a radio refresh to include LTE sometime early next year. This would be done to avoid the backlash of the 2G to 3G conversion Apple made in a few months after the iPhone 2G was released.

If you own a iPhone 3G or a 3GS, then it’s a good move to upgrade, IOS 5 will bring some new features, but performance always lags on full version upgrades. If you have a iPhone 4 and it works great for you already, then have fun with IOS 5, and wait it out. Especially if you have to pay expensive upgrade fees because you only have had it for a year or so.

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iCloud’s iTune’s Match Feature Missing

Corey — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:21:07 +0000

iCloud and iOS 5 launched today, but notably iTunes Match was a missing feature. On October 12th Apple released iTunes 10.5.1 beta which is another test of the iTunes Match feature so it seems there are still problems that need ironing out, or it is possible that this is a final test of the system before they release it publicly. Considering how slow the servers were today, Apple must have known to possibly delay this feature a few days to allow the iPhone 4S release etc to go through first before committing to a large data flood created by the release of this feature.

Only time will tell.

Answers to AppleID iCloudID Confusion

Corey — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:37:17 +0000

If you’re like me and share an iTunes account with my wife, but also have me.com addresses for both your phones contacts etc I have finally found a definitive answer on setting up iOS 5.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4895

Essentially go to settings > iCloud and use your me.com username (After converting it), and for iTunes you go to Settings > Store and used your iTunes ID there. Same for Mac. Settings Me.com use your iCloud info, and in iTunes use your iTunesID for your iTunes.

So you keep your iCloud individuality, but your iTunes are kept separate so they can still be shared with the family.

iOS 5.0 Released

Corey — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:00:41 +0000

I’m just now finishing my upgrade to iOS 5.0 on my 4G and waiting on the sync to finish, takes about an hour once the code downloads. Servers are giving failure, just click again once you click ok to acknowledge the alert. It will download eventually.

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A Macbook Pro Dock That Does Not Bite, Byte-Dock

Corey — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 02:00:25 +0000

Techne Industries Ltd. has come up with what I consider an improvement over other docking stations. The Byte-Dock is a docking station for your MacBook Pro’s in all sizes. It features all the ports you need such as front USB and audio in/out ports, and on the rear there is FireWire, DisplayPort/Thunderbolt, Ethernet, and USB. It is very stable even with a 17″ MacBook Pro which I tested by smacking it around some until it was about to go over. It felt sturdy enough for those in California that they don’t have to worry about the shaking sending their precious MacBook Pro into the floor. Insertion and taking the unit out worked great and was easy for anyone, and the best part (It’s Black!) it matches your AV equipment. Unless you’re some white freak who has managed to come down with a full set of Apple white products of course.

Accessories consisted of a single DisplayPort to HDMI Cable which worked with our HDMI Switch that goes into our TV. The packaging was simple and the instructions as if you really needed it were to the point, concise, and easy to understand. Setup was instant unlike some competing products which could 30 minutes or more, your most difficult decision was deciding if the white cable needed replacing. A quick remedy on mono price I’m sure if it’s that important to you. In our house it blended in well enough.

The Byte-Dock is priced at 149 Euros, and for us Americans that translates 199.99 roughly. You can find them and more information by clicking here.

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Certain Baptist Church To Picket Steve Jobs Funeral

Corey — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 17:31:08 +0000

I’m not going to name this church they get enough exposure already, but I actually got a good piece of spam today which let me know these awful people are going to picket the funeral of Steve Jobs. There’s an article about it on IBTimes News which talks of it. The irony of which is that they use their iPhones to preach their hate messages on Twitter.

I ask that anyone who can be at Steve’s funeral show up and outnumber these cowards and show them that Americans are tired of this behavior. They’re bullies and nothing more and we need to treat them as such. I would ask our overseas friends to complain to their MP’s about this with the hope that if any of these cowards were to go overseas they can be held accountable for their hate speech if possible. I do not appreciate their abuse of freedoms that soldiers current and former like myself sacrificed much to protect, they spit on the efforts of countless men and women before any of us were born.

Update: Looks like Steve’s funeral was Oct 7th. It was a private affair so these loons did not have a chance to be there. However that does not stop their hate messages online. Time for a twitter bomb?

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Steve@Apple.com Should Live On

Corey — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 23:58:20 +0000

I really think as a tribute to Steve Jobs that all Apple CEO’s should occasionally respond to steve@apple.com emails. Apple would never be where it is today without Steve and as a way to have one part of his legacy live on is to keep the responses to Steve@apple.com going.

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