The War to Sell You a Mattress Is an Internet Nightmare

Fast Company

David Zax, writing for Fast Company:

In January 2015, Krim wrote Mitcham that while he supported objective reviews, “it pains us to see you (or anyone) recommend a competitor over us.”

Krim went on: “As you know, we are much bigger than our newly formed competitors. I am confident we can offer you a much bigger commercial relationship because of that. How would you ideally want to structure the affiliate relationship? And also, what can we do to help to grow your business?”

This entire story is bonkers.

Serious Flaw in WPA2 Protocol

Dan Goodin, writing for Ars Technica:

Researchers have disclosed a serious weakness in the WPA2 protocol that allows attackers within range of vulnerable device or access point to intercept passwords, e-mails, and other data presumed to be encrypted, and in some cases, to inject ransomware or other malicious content into a website a client is visiting.

The proof-of-concept exploit is called KRACK, short for Key Reinstallation Attacks.

This is bad.

Rene Ritchie, writing for iMore:

Apple has confirmed to me that the KRACK exploit has already been patched in iOS, tvOS, watchOS, and macOS betas. As soon as the updates leave beta, they’ll be pushed out to everyone. We’ll have to wait and see how fast other manufacturers are to respond, and how many of our connected devices receive updates.

Movies Anywhere App Launches With Joint Studio Backing

Stephanie Prange, writing for Variety:

Five of the six major Hollywood studios have joined forces to make digital movie collecting easier than ever.

Movies Anywhere, a free app and website digital locker service, launches tonight at 9 p.m. PT, backed by four top digital retailers and content from Walt Disney (including Pixar, Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Entertainment — a combined library of more than 7,300 digital movies.

Movies can be redeemed through digital retailers Amazon Video, Google Play, iTunes and Vudu (owned by Walmart).

Twitterrific 5.0 for Mac

Twitter

Twitterrific, the long running Twitter client, has released a new Mac version today:

Twitterrific for macOS features a clean, uncluttered timeline displaying just the content you care about. There are no advertisements, promoted tweets, or “while you were away” updates getting in the way of the stuff you care about most. In addition, tweets are presented in chronological order and other people’s likes aren’t cluttering up your timeline.

It looks like a solid release. I still prefer Tweetbot, but the customization options offered here are really nice. I hope this inspires Tweetbot to keep pushing forward and improving their version.

AOL to Discontinue AIM

On December 15th, AOL will be discontinuing their instant messaging service:

If you were a 90’s kid, chances are there was a point in time when AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was a huge part of your life. You likely remember the CD, your first screenname, your carefully curated away messages, and how you organized your buddy lists. Right now you might be reminiscing about how you had to compete for time on the home computer in order to chat with friends outside of school.

R.I.P. Twenty8FootFall.

Dropbox Unveils New Logo and Brand

Dropbox

Dropbox have announced a new logo and “brand” (and the website feels like it was written by hipster Don Draper):

Our old logo was a blue box that implied, “Dropbox is a great place to store stuff.” The new one is cleaner and simpler. And we’ve evolved it from a literal box, to a collection of surfaces to show that Dropbox is an open platform, and a place for creation.

Armin, over at Brand New (no, not that one), has a good run-down on the changes:

While there is something exciting about all the individual identity elements, concepts, and executions of each, perhaps there is too much to each of them and when they come together, it’s hard to tell what we are supposed to take away from it. Right now, you can see the new identity on this Dropbox area of their website and it all feels kind of random, from the color of the logo to the background colors to the co-creation image. I feel like I should like this more than I do and perhaps it’s my hesitation to accept Dropbox not just as file-storage but as a tool that enables and empowers me to be more creative… because it is not. It would be like saying that my portable 1 terabyte hard drive allows me to come up with ideas. It does not. The same way Dropbox does not. Which is fine as I am not expecting or looking for a product like Dropbox to inspire me.

The logo looks fine, the type looks great, but I don’t know why all the other stuff is needed. I still love me some basic Dropbox though. A folder that syncs. That’s all I want.

Twitter Testing Expanding Character Limit

Twitter

Twitter is testing giving users 280 characters in tweets:

We want every person around the world to easily express themselves on Twitter, so we’re doing something new: we’re going to try out a longer limit, 280 characters, in languages impacted by cramming (which is all except Japanese, Chinese, and Korean).

I’m not a fan of this implementation. Quick thoughts:

  • The rampant abuse and harassment on Twitter is disgusting and remains unfixed. I have a small to medium following on Twitter and when something I tweet goes outside my little music community network, I can’t keep up with the shit that comes into my replies. And what I see is nothing compared to the hate speech thrown at other people on this platform on a daily basis. This should be the number one priority to fix; however, since Twitter needs their “active user” numbers to keep going up for Wall Street, I doubt it’ll ever be.1

  • An edit button for tweets seems like a clear need and a relatively easy add. Give a few minutes to edit right after posting and then include a history/version of edits after that so someone can’t edit a post later and change the entire meaning after it’s been quoted/embedded places.

  • Extra text should be added to a post in the same way a photo or video or link is added. Make it additional to the main tweet, easy to access/expand, and in plain text. This can cut down on tweetstorms and massive threads and still allow people to respond/get longer thoughts out. I’m not opposed to more characters in a tweet, I just don’t like this implementation.


  1. And they’ll never ban Trump, no matter how many threats he makes. He’ll be tweeting nuclear Armageddon and the last one posting.

Rogue Amoeba’s 15th Anniversary Sale

Apps

Rogue Amoeba is having a 15-year anniversary sale on a bunch of their fantastic audio software. I record the Encore podcast each week using Audio Hijack, and it comes highly recommended:

We want to celebrate with savings for customers both new and old. For a limited time, we’re matching our 15 years in business with 15% off all our apps! But it gets better: Scratch the card below to save even more! The savings boost you uncover will multiply your discount, with a lucky few saving as much as 60%!

iOS 11: The MacStories Review

iPhone

iOS 11 is out today. As always, Federico Viticci over at MacStories has a fantastic review:

But perhaps more importantly, unlike iOS 10, iOS 11 presents a cohesive narrative for both the iPad and iPhone. A story where, for the first time in years, the iPad is informing some of the design principles and features of the iPhone’s software. Even from different angles, and each with its own past struggles, both acts in iOS 11 end up asking the same question:

Where does the modern computer go next?

Apple’s Craig Federighi Answers Some Face ID Questions

Apple

Matthew Panzarino, writing for TechCrunch:

The simple answer, which is identical to the answer for Touch ID, by the way, is that Apple does not even have a way to give it to law enforcement. Apple never takes possession of the data, anonymized or otherwise. When you train the data it gets immediately stored in the Secure Enclave as a mathematical model that cannot be reverse-engineered back into a “model of a face.” Any re-training also happens there. It’s on your device, in your SE, period.

My Home Screen

iPhone

Yours truly was asked to talk a little bit about my iPhone home screen over at MacSparky.1 It’s basically a picture of my home screen and some commentary about the apps I use the most. I’ve had a few people ask me about the second screen on my phone, so there’s a screenshot of that below for anyone curious.

Read More “My Home Screen”


  1. A really good blog and podcast, definitely worth checking out.

iTunes Gets a Little Streamlined

iTunes has seen a slight revamp. MacStories reports:

The update to iTunes also adds the Friends feature first seen in the iOS 11 beta. Apple Music subscribers can set up a profile and follow friends to see the music and playlists they are listening to. I’ve been using the Friends feature all summer and it’s been a great way to find and try new music.

You can follow me if you want.

Equifax’s Unacceptable Unaccountability

Technology

Farhad Manjoo, writing at The New York Times:

If a bank lost everyone’s money, regulators might try to shut down the bank. If an accounting firm kept shoddy books, its licenses to practice accounting could be revoked. (See how Texas pulled Arthur Andersen’s license after the Enron debacle.)

So if a data-storage credit agency loses pretty much everyone’s data, why should it be allowed to store anyone’s data any longer?

Here’s one troubling reason: Because even after one of the gravest breaches in history, no one is really in a position to stop Equifax from continuing to do business as usual. And the problem is bigger than Equifax: We really have no good way, in public policy, to exact some existential punishment on companies that fail to safeguard our data. There will be hacks — and afterward, there will be more.

What to Do if You Were Affected by the Equifax Breach

If you were affected by the Equifax breach, I’ve found these resources to be helpful in sharing with friends and family.

The New York Times:

In the meantime, here’s hoping that this breach is the nudge you need to finally sign up for permanent freezes on your credit files. I’ve used them for years, and here’s how they work. You sign up (and pay some fees, because you knew it wasn’t going to be free to protect data that you didn’t ask these companies to store, right?) at Equifax’s, Experian’s and TransUnion’s websites.

Lifehacker:

This breach actually happened three months ago, so there’s a chance that your information is already being used. Check your credit report and make sure there’s nothing out of the ordinary happening.

Reddit:

If you do nothing else, place an initial 90 day fraud alert on your file. This is free and will require lenders to contact you if someone (including yourself) tries to apply for credit.

Brian Krebs:

I’m here to tell you that if you’re an American, your basic personal data is already for sale. What follows is a primer on what you can do to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft as a result of all this data (s)pillage.