If you run a business on Macs (and many companies do) then you should become familiar with FileVault, the disk encryption system that’s built into macOS. When used properly, it makes it extremely hard for any malicious person to access your company’s confidential data in the event your Mac is lost or stolen.
What’s the problem FileVault tries to solve?
Most businesses possess various forms of sensitive data. This might include corporate or supplier data, confidential order books, financial records, contact names and addresses, and more. That information has business value, but if compromised could also place you, your employees, or your customers at risk. In many industries, protection of such information is mandatory and legally required.
Apple’s FileVault makes it much harder for unauthorized users to extract this kind of data from company Macs. It does so by encrypting the data on the Mac and decrypting it only once an appropriate login is used. FileVault encyrypts and decrypts data in the background, so the system can be used while the it does.
What is FileVault?
Apple introduced FileVault in 2005 with Mac OS X Panther (10.3). At that time, it only protected a user’s Home folder. The technology has evolved since then and now offers XTS-AES 128 data encryption for the whole disk, protected by a 256-bit key.
When it comes to business, IT can manage FileVault using most available MDM systems and consoles. When a Mac is protected by FileVault, no one can access its data unless they have the FileVault decryption key or user account credentials.
The current implementation of FileVault is available on both recent Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.
How to enable FileVault
FileVault is not enabled by default.
To enable it you must be an Admin user on your Mac. If so, you can open System Preferences>Security & Privacy and check the FileVault tab.
You will be given two choices, to protect the Mac using your iCloud account and password, or to use a Recovery Key. The first option is fine for personal users, but most enterprises will probably use a Recovery Key.
It is very important to note your login password and the recovery key generated for you when you enable FileVault. That’s because if you forget them both, all the data on your Mac will be unavailable to you. One protection here is that console-based MDM-based systems may be able to remotely assign new keys.
NB: Once you enable FileVault, it cannot be turned off until the first full encrypt has taken place. That first encryption can take time, depending on how much information you have on your Mac. Subsequently, in the event the passphrase or recovery key is changed the entire volume must be decrypted and re-encrypted.
Know your limits
It is extremely important to note that an individual user who cannot recall their password or recovery key will never be able to access that data, as they will eventually need to delete and reinstall macOS.
However, a business that makes use of a modern MDM system to manage its Macs can also assign institutional recovery keys that can be managed and stored from the MDM console. That’s useful as it means that if a user forgets their password, IT can use the recovery key to reset FileVault and assign a new password to get them back in.
What to consider when creating passcodes
Companies should consider passcode policy for FileVault volumes. A generalization is that longer passcodes are stronger passcodes (so long as they aren’t 12345678910), but it’s also important to consider passcode rotation schedules and alphanumeric codes. In my experience, the challenge with the FileVault recovery key is that since it is used so infrequently, it is very easy to forget the code. This is one code that needs to be written down and locked away somewhere, even if you use a transposition cipher to secure that written key.
[Also read: How to stay as private as possible on the Mac]
Some Macs already encrypt
Macs equipped with an Apple T2 Security chip automatically encrypt data already. It’s still worth using FileVault with those systems as it enhances the inherent protection by requiring your login password to decrypt your data.
Apple maintains a list of Macs that make use of the T2 Security Chip here.
Should all your Macs be protected by FileVault?
As a rule of thumb, any Mac that carries or has access to personal or sensitive business data should use FileVault encryption.
What are the consequences of using FileVault?
Other than the complete loss of data in the event you forget your passcodes and lose access to your Mac, the biggest negative outcome when using FileVault is that I/O performance can sometimes be affected.
What can I use instead of FileVault?
Though FileVault has the big advantage of being Mac-native, some businesses may prefer to use alternative solutions such as VeraCrypt.
Where can I find out more about FileVault?
Apple’s current advice on use of FileVault in macOS Monterey is available here.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
Friends, rabbits, internet-persons, lend me your ears (bunny-shaped or otherwise). Today, we need to take a titillating trip back in time — ’cause a pivotal part of our Android-flavored past is about to poke its way into the present.
So rewind with me for a sec, won’t ya? The year was 2012 — the same exact numbers as our current moment on this earth, only with a flickety-flick of those final two digits. The Android version of the era was Android 4.1, better known as sweet, juicy Jelly Bean. Google’s Pixel phones didn’t yet exist; rather, the Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus served as the flagship of the platform that summer, while the LG-birthed Nexus 4 was on its way out of the virtual womb and into the world.
And at that precise moment in time, lemme tell ya: We were getting a glimpse of the future.
That future was a groundbreaking Google service called Google Now. Remember it? Google Now launched as part of Android 4.1 and showed us just how good Google’s existing intelligence could be when it was woven together in clever new ways and transformed into a whole new whole.
Google Now was Google’s golden ticket — its key to a future no other company could unlock. The service combined bits of innocuous-seeming info only Google could know to create a predictive personal portfolio, which then conjured up what you wanted before you even asked for it and served it to you automatically at exactly the right time.
[Psst: Got a Pixel? Check out my free Pixel Academy e-course to uncover all sorts of advanced intelligence lurking within your phone!]
It. Was. Incredible. And then, in typical Google fashion: It. Was. Abandoned.
Well, my Google-gawking gaggle, have I got good news for you. Google Now is on the brink of an explosive comeback — but this time, it isn’t being called Google Now. It isn’t being made available across all of Android, either — only for us Pixel-carryin’ folk, at least as of this moment. And in typical fashion, Google doesn’t seem to be doing much of anything to promote it or make average phone-owning schmoes aware of its existence.
Blink, in fact, and you might miss it entirely — or fail to recognize its familiarity and the step-saving brilliance it can bring into your life. Believe you me, though: You wouldn’t want to do that.
Google Now 2.0: From Jelly Bean to Pixel
Before we can get to the present, we have to catch up on the past.
Google Now, in case you weren’t around in those days or maybe just ingested a few too many memory-blurring substances in the years since, was a panel that’d pop up as part of the main Android home screen. At one point, there was even a standalone Google Now Launcher that anyone could install to bring the fully Googlefied home screen setup onto any Android phone, no matter who made it. (Google, naturally, killed that off eventually, too.)
So what sort of stuff would Google Now give you in that pre-Pixel period? Well, let’s see:
If you searched for a flight on your computer, it’d have a card waiting for you on your phone with the latest status of that flight and a one-tap option to navigate to the appropriate airport when the time arrived. As the flight’s status evolved, Google Now would continue to keep you updated.
If you searched for a business on any device where you were signed in, Google Now would pull up a card on your phone with a map to that business, an estimate of how long it’d take you to get there, and a one-tap option to navigate any ol’ way your heart desired.
The service would monitor your Google Calendar for you and let you know when you needed to leave for an upcoming appointment in order to make it on time, based on both your current location and the latest traffic conditions.
It’d automatically pop up traffic and total travel time info whenever you were likely to be headed to work, too, or any other frequently visited destination (the sandwich shop, your local platypus polishing professional, etc).
And all of that was just the start. Google Now would recommend restaurants or bars when you were in new areas, offer to translate text or convert currency when you were in foreign cities, and provide all sorts of other proactive pieces of info exactly when you needed ’em — before you ever had to ask.
That’s why Google Now was heralded at the time as “the predictive future of search.” It brought the countless tidbits Google knows about our lives and our world together in a fantastically useful new way — a way, again, that no company other than Google could truly manage.
And then, Google did its Google thing and gave up on the concept before it had the chance to fully develop. The company saw another squirrel, basically — the traffic-driving news feeds its more socially minded competitors were creating — and scurried off to chase that, abandoning all of Now’s originality and intelligence and morphing it into Yet Another Indistinguishable Stream™ of scrolling stories.
As a dashing and unusually observant writer observed at the peak of Now’s deconstruction, Google’s once-groundbreaking home for predictive intelligence had devolved into “a clumsily constructed shell of its former self”:
Five years ago, Google Now felt like the future. Today, the Google feed feels like the past — like a mildly different spin on a ubiquitous concept and a step backwards from what Google achieved when it put the full power of its resources front and center. It comes across as more desperate than daring. And for those of us on Android in particular, where predictive intelligence was once an exciting marquee element of the operating system, that’s a damn shame to see.
Sniff. All right — now that we’ve all shed a tear or two over the past, let’s transport ourselves back to the present and think ahead to Google Now’s Pixel-centric reinvention and the context-enriched future it’s once again promising.
The Google Now Pixel rebirth
Pixels are first and foremost Google phones. That much is obvious, right? And since shortly after their arrival in 2016, Google’s self-made Pixels have featured an especially Googley widget on their home screens called At a Glance. The widget can surface an assortment of useful info all throughout your day, including everything from the weather to calendar reminders, traffic and commute alerts, and even travel-related alerts pulled programmatically from itineraries in your Gmail-stored emails.
Now, a new analysis of under-development Google software makes it look like that very piece of the Pixel experience is poised to get a meaty upgrade that’ll make it almost eerily familiar for anyone who’s been paying attention.
Specifically, the shrewd crew from 9to5Google discovered some code that suggests Google will soon connect the Pixel’s At a Glance element to Assistant and reframe its purpose thusly:
Your Assistant shows you what you need, right when you need it, on your home screen and lock screen.
Ringing a bell yet? Just wait.
In addition to its current capabilities, the Pixel’s At a Glance area will soon gain the following features, according to the info unearthed by our friendly neighborhood code spelunkers:
At a store: Shopping lists and Google Pay rewards cards when you’re in supported stores
Bedtime: Your upcoming bedtime from the Clock app
Connected devices: Connection status and battery info for your Bluetooth devices
Doorbell: Show who’s at the door when your doorbell rings
Fitness: Activity info from your fitness app
Flashlight: Reminder when flashlight is on
Safety check: Safety check countdown from the Personal Safety app
Timer & stopwatch: Timer and stopwatch info from the Clock app
Combine that with the Pixel-based At a Glance features shown off at Google’s I/O conference earlier this year — including expanded travel plan info, contextual auto-summoning of scannable boarding passes, and a newly scrollable interface that lets you swipe through the various updates — and what do we have, my Android-adoring amigo?
Yep, you’d better believe it: It’s Google Now.
The feature’s been updated to include some more contemporary elements like all the connected-tech stuff, and it’s in a slightly different shell that fits in more naturally with Google’s current Pixel interface — but beneath the surface, by golly, it’s the same bones, the same concept, the same gentle mixing of proactive, contextual info from lots of different Google-associated sources.
And just like with Google Now, blending all those ingredients together has the potential to create a wildly impressive new whole — one that’ll show off the power of predictive technology and make our lives a whole lot easier.
Now, let’s not beat around the bush: It is absolutely hilarious that Google’s pulling yet another 360-degree flip-flop and coming back to the concept it sold us on and then abandoned years earlier. On the other hand, we’re the ones who’ll benefit in the end — so, heck, we’ll take it.
The real question now is if this go-round will be followed by another platform-wide expansion effort, à la the Google Now Launcher, or if it’ll remain a Pixel exclusive perk and be available only to those of us who carry Google’s self-made Android devices.
In 2012, platform-wide availability across the entire Android ecosystem seemed like the obvious way for Google to go. In 2021, it’s tough not to wonder if Google Now’s latest incarnation will ultimately become another point on the Pixel’s list of “helpful and intelligent” points of differentiation.
In many ways, we’ve sure come full circle with this whole contextual intelligence theme. But while the technology at the center of this story is almost shockingly familiar to the stuff we saw back in the Android 4 era, everything on the outside is about as different as can be — and so, too, it would seem, is Google’s motivation for making all of this happen.
Don’t let yourself miss an ounce of Pixel magic. Sign up for my free Pixel Academy e-course and discover tons of hidden features and time-saving tricks for your favorite Pixel phone.
Enterprise adoption of Macs, iPads, and iPhones grew dramatically during the pandemic. Apple and its enterprise partners want to consolidate this expansion in 2022, which should be another big year in hardware investment.
Delivering a growth strategy
We’ve been watching the Apple in the enterprise expand rapidly throughout the pandemic; 2021 was a record year for hardware sales as companies invested in computers and devices to support hybrid teams. Apple evidently benefited.
Apple in the business sector is now served by more MDM providers than ever and competition among Apple-focused enterprise service providers is intensifying. Why? Because enterprise demand for Apple products has never been higher, and — pushed by employee preferences — deployment continues to grow. At the same time, enterprise spending on devices climbed 15.1% this year and will maintain those levels (albeit with slower growth) into 2022, according to Gartner.
Apple surely wants to maintain its foothold of this expanding market. It knows M-series Macs are winning converts, even as enterprise iPad sales continue to grow. With a view to maintaining this momentum, Apple Business Essentials is a strategically important step to make its solutions more attractive to business users. The scheme acts as a gateway to provide smaller businesses with an easy-to-manage entry point into the larger world of MDM solutions served by Apple partners, including Jamf.
Get your lease on
But enhancing the availability of support for Apple devices isn’t the only trend in the enterprise space the company is trying to address. There’s an emerging desire among enterprise users to lease their technology hardware, claims BNP Paribas.
The BNP Paribas research shows 76% of IT hardware continues to be purchased outright in Europe, but suggests businesses are moving toward access, rather than ownership. That’s not surprising, given that 77% of businesses already lease vehicles. Leasing computers makes sense — particularly while handling limited budgets during international crisis.
Apple perhaps is quietly working to meet the growing desire for leasing tech. We recently learned of an arrangement between Apple and financing partner CIT under which US businesses can lease their Macs from as little as $30/month/machine. The scheme makes it easier for companies to field Apple devices across their business – and may also help them deploy devices across remote teams as hybrid workplaces are normalized.
We don’t yet know if this push reflects a wider global strategy to enable business users to access Apple as a service, or whether it reflects a single offer from one place. But even this isn’t the end of the story.
What follows deployment?
That’s because even with effective MDM solutions and leasing schemes, businesses have a lot of work to do to unlock the opportunities of digital transformation. Pre-pandemic, a Deloitte survey showed that despite huge mobile device deployments, many enterprises continue to use dated business practices.
That report describes simple, but critical, key tasks that can’t yet be handled by mobile devices: 59% of employees can’t complete timesheets, for example; 39% can’t file holiday requests; and just 41% are able to approve invoices on mobile devices.
This reflects a reality in which many businesses haven’t yet shifted their mindset enough to change existing business practices, and changing them poses additional demand on tech budgets. Gartner says 65% of corporate board members want to accelerate digital transformation projects.
There’s a need to meet those pain points head on — particularly when enterprises are juggling a big basket of challenges, not limited by but including: COVID-19 issues, supply chain challenges, a mass move to hybrid work, employees who want technology choice, the Great Resignation, considerations around office space reduction, and the need to deploy new kit to support the new workplace.
This cornucopia of challenge is nurturing recognition that investment in new digital business processes may be essential in order to help businesses navigate these sometimes-conflicting problems.
While Apple Business Essentials and the new business leasing scheme may help resolve some of these pain points, the next stage to consolidate Apple’s gains in the enterprise market will depend on partners such as IBM, Cisco, SAP, and others delivering accessible tools Apple-wielding businesses can affordably use to quickly and easily digitize their business processes.
Perhaps Apple might encourage such development by creating an App Store for the enterprise?
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
There’s a real lack of nuance and context these days in so much of the reporting about Apple. Products the company has never announced are declared delayed, while rumored products might be described as being abandoned — not because they are delayed or abandoned, but because those rhetorical terms fit the narratives being put together by the latest breed of crisis journalists.
What if everything is true?
Some math is simple. One plus one usually equals two. But there are exceptions. And it’s the lack of awareness of those exceptions that’s fostering cognitive dissonance in the Apple sphere.
Take Apple’s work in energy.
Energy is essential. Apple invests in energy across the lifecycle of its products: It invests in energy production in the form of renewable sources; it continues to improve product energy consumption and invests in battery and power delivery technologies, as seen in MagSafe.
The company has been investing in wireless energy for years. Research sometimes hits hurdles, however, as proved when AirPower was announced and subsequently withdrawn, presumably because the tech at the time proved itself less capable of delivering a consistent experience than required in a mass market product. But AirPower’s stumble didn’t mean Apple stopped working on energy technologies. Work continued somewhere in Apple’s massively financed c.$21 billion R&D department.
That shouldn’t be surprising.
Taking a look at it all
To be blunt, it’s simply common sense that Apple’s research teams continue to explore every possible pillar supporting its consumer electronics empire. It stands to reason that Apple continues to develop short-range and long-range wireless charging and the capacity for devices to charge up each other inductively. (It would be more surprising if it didn’t — particularly when QuantumScape, Volkswagen’s favored solid-state battery technology firm, is based in its San Jose back yard.)
The same logic applies to Apple Car.
Over the many years this speculation has existed, we’ve been told the project has stopped, been rebooted, delayed — and now we hear the car will be hitting roads perhaps as soon as 2025 (with a subsequent report claiming another delay).
Confusing, isn’t it?
The more nuanced approach to this topic would be to report that Apple is developing a range of technologies that relate to autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle design. Those technologies must surely include everything from the wheels to seat design, from building processors capable of running the AI to developing Face ID for door entry. Not every component will be improvable, but those that can benefit from Apple’s touch will be redesigned (and many may be outsourced). Though redesigning everything takes time.
Think about the M1 Macs.
We were told speculation Apple wanted to move Macs to Arm chips was misplaced. And yet, we’ve now learned that Apple worked for years to achieve its own Mac chips.
Once again the polarized “all-or-nothing” approach to Apple reporting masked a more nuanced truth: Apple is always working on alternative solutions somewhere in its labs. That implies it may already looking at other processor designs to replace ARM.
Apple probably has a patent for that
Apple’s researchers do keep a low profile, but they show up, attend industry events, and deeply examine emerging technologies. Apple’s people even work with others on industry standards, including for future tech evolutions such as 6G.
Look at Apple’s patents. It files hundreds every year. Most come to nothing, but each reflects research that has taken place behind the scenes. In the last few weeks, dozens of patents for gesture controls for headsets and displays, holographic projections, AR headsets, glass ceramics in imaging sensors, retractable keyboards, vehicle suspensions and smart clothing have all been granted.
Does Apple plan a range of kinetic energy powered smart clothing with built-in textile screens? Perhaps — it owns more than 40 patents associated with the idea. It won a patent to anchor virtual to real-world environments in 2016, one year before AR hit iPhone.
That’s the nature of Apple. If you want to get a sense of what’s possible, spend time glancing through the c.147,000+ patents it holds.
They don’t all come to life, of course.
What it doesn’t do
How many times have we been told the company is as proud of the things it doesn’t ship as of those it does? But don’t imagine Apple’s internal teams don’t occasionally dust off those old project files to see if the plan makes more sense now, given any relevant technology advances that may have emerged
You can even tell this is what the company does.
How many Apple TV patents and products existed before Apple TV? How many tablet-style mobile devices? How many portable gaming devices that may look more tempting with Apple Arcade? Will Apple introduce an M-processor powered 8K QuickTake video camera to reclaim the brand that launched the digital camera industry while putting its AI-enhanced imaging technologies into the heart of Hollywoodland?
To my mind, it’s way more interesting to embrace the many different areas in which Apple is applying its research muscle, rather than remaining trapped in a product-driven and inherently polarized “good/bad,” “true/false” narrative.
I see it as the best approach to thinking about the company, particularly if it is your business to be ready first when Apple turns its research into mass market platforms that unleash new opportunity. Such as the incoming Apple AR glasses.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
I use Edge, the built-in browser in Windows, though I’m very much in the minority. I even think it has the potential to be a better browser than Firefox or Chrome. Case in point: the recent “Super Duper Secure Mode” that has rolled out to the default Edge version after being in beta channels for several weeks. (Let’s call it the “SDSM” setting.)
As noted in a past Edge blog post, SDSM provides additional security features that allows you to disable just-in-time Javascript and then enable Controlflow-Enforcement Technology (CET) instead. Just-in-time Javascript has been used in many zero-day browser attacks in the past — thus, blocking it will help protect our systems and platforms going forward. In my testing so far, I have not seen any side effects running Edge in this mode, even when doing online shopping or banking.
Do you want your security balanced or strict?
If you use Edge, or are considering using it, I recommend that you try the following settings:
Launch Edge and click on the three dots to go into the settings menu. In the search settings box, type in Security. Now, scroll to the section called “Enable Security mitigations for a more secure browser experience.” Click on Balanced, which adds security protection for sites you don’t visit often. You can even go one more level and click on Strict, which boosts security for all sites. (If you have issues with any site, you can click on Exceptions and add websites you want to exclude from this setting.)
Microsoft
Users can choose varying levels of security in Edge.
While you’re there, review the setting for “Blocking potentially unwanted applications.” This blocks downloads of low-reputation apps that might cause unexpected behaviors. Especially if you download from various websites, this helps block any apps that could be malicious.
While I love the SDSM mode in Edge, I’m not a fan of some of the other settings included in the Edge browser beta testing process. One add-on, in particular, I hope Microsoft drops — or, at a minimum, allows me to block — is the “Buy now, pay later” setting. It lets online shoppers break up purchase payments into equal installments, often interest-free, so they get the item up front, instead of having to wait until it’s paid in full.
The setting opens with third-party payer Zip (previously known as Quadpay) for any purchase between $35 and $1,000. As Consumer Reports noted earlier this year, these spread-out spending plans cause challenges for purchasers, ranging from cash management to problems obtaining refunds if you have a problem. You can tell from the six pages of feedback that there are other Edge users who are seriously disappointed in Microsoft about this setting and want it to reconsider offering this option.
…And if you’ve set another browser as your default
You’ve probably read recently that Edge in a recent Insider Preview of Windows 11 is blocking programs such as EdgeDeflector, which was designed to help a user change default browsers on their. As noted in a statement to The Verge, Microsoft is blocking the developers of EdgeDeflector from changing the search that’s integrated with the search box on Windows 11. (Windows 11 doesn’t just have default settings for https: it also has a specific protocol of Microsoft Edge.)
I can understand — to a point — the need to ensure that the Microsoft-Edge protocol is limited to purely Edge processes. But in not explaining why the end-to-end security or encryption the new protocol provides, Microsoft is not making its case well and is looking a bit like a bully. Rather than being so heavy handed, it needs to provide more settings like SDDM to allow users to choose a more secure browser.
Additional Edge settings to consider
There are other ways to make Edge better: go to Settings, then to Privacy, search and services. Review the tracking prevention you have set. (I set mine to strict, which blocks a majority of trackers from all sites.) You can click the button for Blocked trackers to see how many times you’ve been protected from tracking. It’s interesting to see companies that I don’t even do business with track me.
You should also review whether you want sites to check on whether you have payments methods saved. (I don’t recommend saving passwords or payment methods in any browser; it’s wiser to manually enter your payment methods.)
I also recommend disabling the setting that allows your web experience to be customized by using your browsing history for personalizing advertising, search, news, and other Microsoft services. As acknowledged by Microsoft, once you disable this setting, the company will no longer collect and use your browsing activity for personalization of advertising or experiences.
Another setting I suggest turning off is one Edge introduced last year. Scroll down to Services, and disable Save time and money with Shopping in Microsoft Edge. I find the coupon offers not only annoying, but many times they’re out of date and don’t work. (I also disable travel recommendations.) Finally, you can decide which search engine you which to have as your default.
For businesses, using group policy to control and manage Edge policies makes it easier to control and protect fusers rom malicious sites. One setting in particular, Blocking extensions based on their permissions, allows IT admins to control which extensions get installed. Open the group policy management editor and go to Administrative Templates > Microsoft Edge > Extensions and then select Configure extension management settings.
Though these changes will help make Edge more secure, my message to Microsoft is to keep working. Make Edge the best and most secure browser available, because that’s the feature we need most.
Apple says its lawsuit against NSO Group this week is an attempt to hold the surveillance firm “accountable for … the surveillance and targeting of Apple users.” And it spared no ire in accusing the Israeli spyware company of its selling surveillance software to authoritarian governments — regardless of whether those governments use it to target dissidents, journalists, and activists.
NSO Group was already facing legal problems after messenger platform provider WhatsApp filed suit in 2019 for similar reasons. Earlier this month, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the spyware company’s claim that it should be protected under sovereign immunity laws. In the high-profile case, WhatsApp alleged NSO’s spyware was used to hack 1,400 users of the messaging app.
The two lawsuits open the company to discovery requirements as the cases move forward. Until now, NSO Group has been able to cloak its business practices in secrecy.
In September, Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog organization, released a report outlining what it found to be zero-day zero-click exploits by NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware against various electronic devices and digital documents.
“I think it’s highly unlikely they had no ability to control and no idea about the misuses of their software — especially over the past year or two because Citizen Lab and other organizations have been documenting the misuse of the software,” said Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco. “I mean, after [Jamal] Khashoggi was killed, how do you not wonder.”
Various media outlets have alleged that NSO Group’s hacking malware was used to monitor people close to Saudi Arabian journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi both before and after his death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
The NSO Group emphatically denied that its government clients used the spyware to target the journalist or his family.
The EFF published a paper, Know Your Customer, arguing the burden should be on the technology company to document its customers’ human rights records before selling them software that could be used to spy on citizens.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize if you’re selling to the government of Saudi Arabia, it’s quite likely this software will be used against dissidents,” Cohn said.
Apple has made four claims for relief against NSO Group, specifically:
Violations of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act;
Violations of California Business and Professions Code § 17200;
Breach Of Contract (specifically around iCloud Terms of use);
Unjust Enrichment (as an alternative to the third count).
In Apple’s filing, it described the NSO Group as “notorious hackers — amoral 21st century mercenaries who have created highly sophisticated cyber-surveillance machinery that invites routine and flagrant abuse. They design, develop, sell, deliver, deploy, operate, and maintain offensive and destructive malware and spyware products and services that have been used to target, attack, and harm Apple users, Apple products, and Apple.”
Apple protrayed the NSO Group as dealing in spyware for its own commercial gain, allowing customers to abuse its offerings “to target individuals, including government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and even U.S. citizens.”
Apple revealed NSO Group’s “FORCEDENTRY” exploit had also been used to break into an Apple customer’s device to install the latest version Pegasus.
Apple claimed that the NSO Group’s software did not breach data contained on Apple servers, but it did abuse the company’s services and servers to perpetrate attacks on users users and the data stored on their devices. (The Israeli firm sells software that can aid governments and security personnel in the hacking of iPhones.)
The EFF raised questions about whether the legal action now under way could set a precedent enabling the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to be used against legitimate actors such as Citizens Lab or other entities that investigate tech companies for improprieties.
“It’s a vague law that gets misused by prosecutors and private companies a lot,” Cohn said. “…We’re going to be watching this case very closely to make sure the impact of this case stays grounded in these bad actors and doesn’t spill over to the very researchers like Citizen Lab who brought this information public. Sadly, the law is not well defined in a way to make us comfortable that that will automatically happen.”
Jack Gold, president and principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, said if successful, Apple’s lawsuit has the potential to render the NSO’s main product “worthless,” since it depends on granting clients “full access” to targeted smartphones. But,Gold also questioned how effective a win would be in the end because the NSO Group is headquartered in Israel, not the US, and Apple would have to file separate lawsuits in each country in which they operate.
“Apple might win in the US courts and bar NSO here, but that is only in the US,” Gold said. “The EU and other countries would have to somehow sign on to any lawsuit. It’s not clear to me if Apple intends to pursue NSO in every country in the world where it operates, which it would have to do to completely prevent NSO working on any Apple devices.”
It’s also not clear to Gold how Apple as a company has been harmed. “It has caused damage to a few Apple users, but it might be hard for Apple to prove any damage to its reputation,” he said. “So, in essence, it is suing on behalf of its users, and I don’t know if that will fly.”
The jurisdictional reach of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is broad, according to Cohn. The US government uses it regularly to bring international cases against entities not based within its borders.
“So I’m not too worried about jurisdiction. There are some risks in an overbroad interpretation of the CFAA and some of the other claims Apple is doing, but I think if it’s done correctly, it could be extremely affective,” Cohn said.
In some ways, Apple’s case may rely on the financial impact spyware can have on its bottom line, according to Cohn.
“These companies have to spend a lot of resources to try to block out these bad actors,” she said. “I appreciate these companies are ultimately standing up for the human rights of these users. But what comes clear out of the complaint is [Apple has] got a financial interest, as well, in stopping this arms race situation and protecting their own bottom line and the amount of money they have to spend to try to deal with these malicious programs,” Cohn said.
The EFF is an unlikely cheerleader of Apple; it has been highly critical of the company for its own device surveillance efforts.
Over the past few months, the digital rights group has been protesting Apple’s new scanning system for Child Sexual Abuse Material on users’ devices. In September, EFF flew a protest banner over Apple’s Cupertino, Calif. headquarters calling on the company to stop scanning user’s iPhones.
They’re still doing stuff we don’t like, but now they’re finally doing something we do like,” Cohn said. “So, it’s a much better way to start the holiday to praise them rather than complain about them.”
If you use Apple Silicon Macs, there’s a slightly improved chance you may soon be able to run a licensed version of Windows on your machines, as an Arm-exclusive deal between Microsoft and Qualcomm seems set to expire.
Qualcomm has a key
XDA-Developers tells us Qualcomm holds an exclusive arrangement with Microsoft to provide the processors to drive Windows on Arm. That’s why you find Qualcomm’s chips inside Windows for Arm devices, and don’t find processors from anyone else.
The report claims this deal will expire soon, which means MediaTek, Samsung, and others may begin to manufacture Arm-based chips for Windows — and may also give Mac users a chance to run Windows on M-series Macs.
There is certainly a chance this won’t happen. Microsoft recently suggested an Arm version of Windows 11 for Apple Silicon is not “a supported scenario” – but things do change in tech.
Why it matters
Apple’s Mac sales continue to grow across most enterprise markets, but at present the M-series Macs have no official Windows support. All the same, we have known they can run Windows on Arm insider builds using virtualization tools such as Parallels. Beyond that, other than using Windows 365, there has been no official, fully-supported way to run Windows on an M-series Mac — you don’t even get Boot Camp.
Most Mac users — and Parallels — had been hoping Microsoft would simply offer up Windows for Arm licenses for sale, enabling businesses using multiple computing platforms to run Windows, iOS, and Mac apps on a single machine.
Microsoft has never given us much hope of this, and I think many industry watchers had begun to give up on the idea. But for many enterprises, the ability to run Windows in some way is an essential requirement, particularly for businesses still reliant on legacy systems for some tasks.
A stumbling block
One thing that might be in the way is Nvidia’s ongoing attempt to acquire Arm from Softbank. This attempt is currently being investigated by the UK Competition & Markets Authority. (They are concerned the deal would give Nvidia too much power in the growing number of markets that rely on Arm reference designs.)
We won’t know the conclusions of this investigation until 2022. But it’s a decision that will have far-reaching industry consequences, given we are the cusp of massive Arm adoption.
Where the industry is going
Apple has been working with Arm to develop its chips since 2014, when it introduced the A4 processor inside iPhone 4. Since then, the company’s decision to develop its own processors has paid dividends. Mac users upgrading to an M-series system seem thrilled with the performance and capability of these machines. Apple devices sit at or near the top of most benchmark charts in each category and competitors in the same class now seem to be running at best one year behind.
Apple has blazed a trail — and as usual in time-honored fashion, competitors want to follow that path, too. Most recently, Qualcomm announced plans to manufacture Apple M1-competitive silicon by 2023 with help from former Apple silicon team developers from Nuvia, which it acquired earlier this year.
What comes next?
XDA-Developers isn’t clear about when the Qualcomm deal will expire, but things could get more interesting when it does. Not only might we see a rash of faster PCs running Arm chips and Windows, but we may also see Microsoft’s OS appear on M-series Macs.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
Apple has punched back against the “amoral” surveillance as a service industry of smartphone snoopers, filing suit against the NSO Group and its owner, Q Cyber Technologies, and taking steps to further secure digital lives.
Why this should matter to your business
Israeli firm NSO Group is a spyware firm that provides surveillance services to governments. It effectively privatizes state-sponsored snooping and enables even the most repressive government to outsource such tasks. It has been widely reported that software from NSO Group was used to target family members of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
These attacks are expensive and aimed at a very small number of people.
The problem is that some governments also use the technology to spy on journalists, political opponents — even businesses.
It’s that last part that may be of most importance, particularly (but not exclusively) to larger enterprises working on highly confidential matters. No business user should approve of unconstrained use of technologies of this kind as they undermine trust and enable disgraceful attempts at business sabotage.
In what could be seen as an ironic representation of that truth, it is interesting that NSO Group has never published a complete list of its clients.
Apple’s extensive litigation, described in more detail below, is an attempt to require NSO Group to reveal who it was working for and what data it obtained for those clients. If it succeeds, this will bring some instances of egregious surveillance into the light, where the consequences can be judged by all.
What is Apple saying?
Apple’s complaint against NSO Group pulls no punches:
“Defendants are notorious hackers — amoral 21st century mercenaries who have created highly sophisticated cyber-surveillance machinery that invites routine and flagrant abuse. They design, develop, sell, deliver, deploy, operate, and maintain offensive and destructive malware and spyware products and services that have been used to target, attack, and harm Apple users, Apple products, and Apple. For their own commercial gain, they enable their customers to abuse those products and services to target individuals including government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and even U.S. citizens.”
The litigation observes that the US government has sanctioned the company, and seeks redress at every available level, including breach of the terms of use we all agree to every time we use a product.
It also points out that NSO has admitted the attacks it sells for profit have led to violations of fundamental human rights.
What NSO Group had to say
In a very brief statement, NSO Group said:
“NSO Group is dismayed by the decision given that our technologies support US national security interests and policies by preventing terrorism and crime, and thus we will advocate for this decision to be reversed.
“We look forward to presenting the full information regarding how we have the world’s most rigorous compliance and human rights programs that are based the American values we deeply share, which already resulted in multiple terminations of contacts with government agencies that misused our products.”
Apple security chief weighs in
Ivan Krstić, head of Apple Security Engineering and Architecture, doesn’t agree:
“At Apple, we are always working to defend our users against even the most complex cyberattacks. The steps we’re taking today will send a clear message: In a free society, it is unacceptable to weaponize powerful state-sponsored spyware against those who seek to make the world a better place.”
“Our threat intelligence and engineering teams work around the clock to analyze new threats, rapidly patch vulnerabilities, and develop industry-leading new protections in our software and silicon. Apple runs one of the most sophisticated security engineering operations in the world, and we will continue to work tirelessly to protect our users from abusive state-sponsored actors like NSO Group.”
How Apple threat notifications work
Moving forward, Apple says it will notify users if its security teams spot activity consistent with a state-sponsored attack being made against them. (Update: Reports claim the first such threat warnings have been received across multiple nations).
While most people won’t be impacted by such larcenies (in part because these attacks are expensive), they may be visible against certain individuals, such as journalists, politicians, industry leaders, strategically important business leaders, NGOs, and others. It really just depends if a government somewhere is willing to pay to surveil.
If Apple discovers activity consistent with a state-sponsored attack, it will send an affected user an email, an iMessage, and place a notification on the Apple ID page. It states:
A Threat Notification is displayed at the top of the page after the user signs into appleid.apple.com.
Apple sends an email and iMessage notification to the email addresses and phone numbers associated with the user’s Apple ID.
The notification will also suggest additional steps that can be taken to help protect the targeted person. Apple concedes such attacks are highly sophisticated and evolve over time, which means threat intelligence signals may sometimes yield false positives and that some attacks may not be detected.
Apple threat notifications will never ask you to click any links, open files, install apps or profiles, or provide your Apple ID password or verification code by email or on the phone.
To verify that an Apple threat notification is genuine, sign in to appleid.apple.com.
If Apple sent you a threat notification, it will be clearly visible at the top of the page after you sign in.
Basic security steps everyone should take
Human nature remains both the best and the worst line of defense. We live in a world in which everyone knows hacks happen, but “123456,” “password,” and “12345” continue to be the top three most commonly used passwords in the US.
While I imagine most business owners and employees understand the need to display more security intelligence than that, it’s not reassuring that even today so many people don’t. And while you can argue in the context of state-sponsored attacks that a person’s password is unlikely to provide all the defense you need, it does provide some protection.
In addition, while you may be highly secure, your close relative may not be — and their vulnerability represents an attack surface hackers can and do use en route to undermining your security. Like coronavirus, in this connected world no one is safe until everyone is safe.
Apple has published the following best practice recommendations:
Update devices to the latest software, which includes the latest security fixes.
Protect devices with a passcode.
Use two-factor authentication and a strong password for Apple ID.
Install apps from the App Store.
Use strong and unique passwords online.
Don’t click on links or attachments from unknown senders.
What claims for relief has Apple made?
Apple has made four claims for relief against NSO Group under the following counts:
Violations of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act;
Violations of California Business and Professions Code § 17200;
Breach Of Contract (specifically around iCloud Terms of use);
Unjust Enrichment (as an alternative to the third count).
What does Apple want?
Apple seeks numerous injunctions and financial penalties to punish NSO Group and also provide insight into who its clients are and whose data they obtained.
These include:
A permanent injunction to stop NSO Group from accessing and using any Apple servers, devices, hardware, software, applications, other Apple products or services.
A permanent injunction requiring NSO Group to identify the location of any and all information obtained from any Apple users’ Apple devices, hardware, software, applications, or other Apple products.
That all such data is deleted and that any and all entities with whom Defendants shared such information be identified.
An injunction to prevent NSO from developing, distributing, using, causing to be developed, or enabling use of spyware, malware and so on against any Apple hardware, software or services without consent.
Damages in compensation.
Punitive damages.
An accounting and disgorgement of profits made as a result of these acts.
Any additional relief the court sees as appropriate.
What about the security researchers?
Apple paid tribute to the independent security teams that have been investigating the work NSO Group does. The company is offering much more than lip service. It is contributing $10 million to support cybersurveillance researchers and advocates and says any compensation received as a result of the NSO litigation will be poured into the same pot.
In other words, Apple is prepared to flex its legal muscle to take on an international organization accused of human rights abuses against its customers, and is also very happy to invest in research it thinks may be able to help protect customers against such acts.
Apple will also support what it called the “accomplished” researchers at the Citizen Lab with pro-bono technical, threat intelligence, and engineering assistance. Where appropriate, it will offer the same assistance to other organizations doing critical work in this space.
What Apple says about NSO Group attacks
Apple also shared new information on NSO Group’s FORCEDENTRY exploit used to break into a victim’s Apple device to install the latest version of NSO Group’s spyware product, Pegasus. The exploit was originally identified by the Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto.
To deliver FORCEDENTRY to Apple devices, attackers created Apple IDs to send malicious data to a victim’s device. These allowed NSO Group or its clients to deliver and install Pegasus spyware without a victim’s knowledge. While Apple’s servers were misused during the process, the company’s servers were not hacked or compromised.
I’m pleased to see Apple take this action and I hope its litigation against NSO succeeds.
While NSO argues that it acts within the law and has vigorous protections in place, it seems appropriate that it should be forced to prove this to be true. After all, Amnesty International has identified at least 180 journalists around the world who have been attacked by Pegasus, which suggests the tech has in fact been abused.
As Apple CEO Tim Cook warned in 2018:
“We see vividly — painfully — how technology can harm rather than help. Platforms and algorithms that promised to improve our lives can actually magnify our worst human tendencies. Rogue actors and even governments have taken advantage of user trust to deepen divisions, incite violence, and even undermine our shared sense of what is true and what is false.”
I continue to believe tools such as those provided by NSO or mandated security back doors into products will enable more criminal and terrorist activity than they prevent.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
One of the best parts of using a Pixel is the way tasty little specks of Google intelligence get sprinkled all throughout the experience. Those small but significant morsels show off the value of having Google’s greatest ingredients integrated right into your phone’s operating system, without any competing forces or awkwardly conflicting priorities at play.
And Goog almighty, does that make a world of difference. The features in question may not always be the most eye-catching or marketing-friendly advantages, but they’re incredibly practical touches that can make your life easier in some pretty powerful ways.
Today, we’re gonna zoom into an especially possibility-packed part of the Pixel’s software setup, and that’s the Android Overview area. The simple-seeming interface for switching between recently used apps is overflowing with advanced actions on a Pixel phone, and once you discover (or maybe just remind yourself) what’s there, you’ll be saving time and flyin’ around your phone like nobody’s business.
So as a supplement to my popular Pixel Academy e-course — a totally free seven-day email adventure that helps you uncover tons of next-level Pixel treasures — join me for this tour of outstanding and out-of-the-way Pixel Overview gems. Check ’em out, try ’em out, and then come sign up for the course for even more super-practical Pixel awesomeness.
(Note that most of the possibilities on this page require Android 11 or higher to work. That means if you’re still hangin’ onto a first-gen Pixel phone, they won’t be available for you, unfortunately. But don’t despair. You can still find lots of other worthwhile goodies in my Pixel Academy!)
Pixel superpower No. 1: The quick text copy
We’ll start with a simple but supremely helpful feature for copying text from practically anywhere in a snap. You can use it to snag words from something like a web page or a document, sure, but you can also use it to highlight and copy anything from within an image, a screenshot you’d previously saved, or even an area of Android that wouldn’t typically let you select and copy text — like a specific screen within the system settings, for instance.
Whatever the case may be, all you’ve gotta do is open up your Pixel’s Overview interface — by swiping up an inch or so from the bottom of the screen and then stopping, if you’re using Android’s current gesture system, or by tapping the square-shaped button at the bottom of the screen, if you’re still holding onto the old legacy three-button nav setup — and then press and hold your finger onto the words you want within the view of your most recently used app (or any other app in your current history).
JR
As long as your phone is running Android 11 or higher, you should see the text in question get selected. And you can then slide your finger around as needed to expand or refocus the selection. If you want to select all of the visible text on the screen, you can also use the relatively new “Select” command at the bottom of the Pixel Overview interface. Either way, once your text is selected, all that’s left is to hit the “Copy” command in the menu that comes up and then do a spritely little jig of celebration.*
At that point, you can head into any other app or process you want — an in-progress email draft, a messaging app, or perhaps a note-taking tool of some sort — and press your finger down in any text editing field to pull up the “Paste” command and send your freshly copied contents wherever they need to be.
* Spritely jig optional but highly recommended.
Pixel superpower No. 2: The speedy text share
In addition to copying and pasting text from anywhere, the Pixel’s Overview interface allows you to share text and send it directly into other apps and processes on your phone. It’s an even easier way to beam the info you need directly to the place where you want it, especially if the final destination is a new email, note, or message (as sharing will typically place the info in question into a new item instead of a draft you were already working on).
Performing this feat is quite similar to pulling off our first bit of Pixel sorcery: Once more, you’ll open up the Overview interface and then press and hold your finger onto whatever text you want to copy within the preview of any recently used app. The only difference is that this time, you’ll select “Share” from the menu that comes up, then select whatever app you want to send the text to from there.
If what you require is context, you can also select “Search” instead of “Share,” and your Pixel will send the text into a new Google Search instance faster than you can say “Aw, shucks, Siri sucks.”
Doesn’t get much easier than that.
Pixel superpower No. 3: The language-translating genie
Here’s a Pixel power you’d probably never know existed: If you highlight some text within your Pixel phone’s Overview interface that isn’t in your native tongue, your phone will automatically offer to translate the text on the spot for you.
See?
JR
Fantástico, ¿no?
Pixel superpower No. 4: The smooth text operator
This is probably my favorite tucked-away Pixel possibility — ’cause once you get in the habit of using it, it can really be a major step- and time-saver. So here it is: Anytime you’ve got a bit of text that’s associated with an action on your phone, you can highlight it in your Pixel’s Overview interface (using the same process we’ve used in our first few superpowers) and then find a specific option for acting on it in whatever way makes the most sense.
Let’s think through some concrete examples, shall we?
If you highlight a phone number within Overview — in a web page, an email, even a screenshot you captured of something six months ago and just pulled up in the Photos app — your Pixel phone’s Overview spirit will summon up the option to call that number with a single fast tap. (You should also be able to find an option to send a message to the number in question within that three-dot menu icon.)
JR
Highlighting an address in Overview will give you the option to beam it over directly into a Google Maps navigation — no copying, pasting, or fussing required.
If you have any ride-sharing apps like Lyft on your phone, you should also see the option to send any addresses directly into them for easy and immediate processing. Those sorts of options are often tucked away within that three-dot menu icon alongside “Copy,” “Share,” and the other more standard choices, so be sure to look closely to see if they’re available.
When you select a word within the Overview area that your Pixel phone thinks you might not know, you’ll see an option to get a definition for it on the spot.
JR
Hey, Google: Give a guy a little credit, would ya?!
Pixel superpower No. 5: The lovely link lifter
Need to grab a link from a web page you’re viewing — maybe to share with someone or to save for your own future reference? Just head into your Pixel phone’s Overview area directly from Chrome, and holy moly, wouldya look at that?
JR
On Pixels running Android 12, you’ll find a fancy new link-lifting button right then and there, just waiting for your finger-tappin’ pleasure. Give that bad boy a tap, and…
JR
Ta-da! Just like that, you’ll have your link.
Pixel superpower No. 6: The instant image extractor
This next one’s cool: When you’ve been looking at anything involving an image in an app — a web page, a social media feed, even a screenshot that had photos within it — you can press and hold the image inside your Pixel’s Overview area and then pull it out of the preview for simple sharing or saving.
JR
It’s a spectacular way to save anything you encounter anywhere — even in places where you can’t usually extract images easily — and then zap it over into a note, email, message, or anywhere else you might need it.
Pixel superpower No. 7: The intelligent image searcher
You know how much I love Google Lens, right? Well, you’d be forgiven for forgetting (or maybe failing to notice in the first place!), but Google’s excellent image intelligence technology is built right into your Pixel phone’s Overview area for super-easy searching within images in any apps you’ve been using.
This one’s pretty wild: Just pull up your Pixel’s Overview interface and press and hold any image you see within an app’s preview. That should make “Lens” pop up as an option. And if you tap it, Google’s almost eerily smart system will do a number of different things, depending on the context:
It’ll identify a landmark, a painting, or even a plant or an animal, if one is pictured, and then offer up additional info about that object.
It’ll show you images similar to the one on your screen within Google Image Search along with information and links related to what’s pictured — including even shopping-related links so you can compare prices and purchase the item in the picture, when relevant.
JR
It’ll scan a barcode or QR code for you — no futzing around with third-party software required.
It’ll offer to read text within an image out loud to you.
It’ll offer to send text within image over to a computer where you’re also signed in (in Chrome) for hassle-free cross-platform copying.
And all of that’s just the start of what Lens is capable of doing. Remembering that it’s always standing by and available in your Pixel phone’s Overview area is one of the most efficient ways to tap into its magic.
Pixel superpower No. 8: The simple screenshot machine
Android’s always allowed you to capture screenshots with a quick press of a phone’s power and volume-down buttons, but that key combo isn’t always convenient to activate — at least, not without some serious hand yoga involved.
So make yourself a mental note of this: You can always capture a screenshot of anything by sliding your way over to your Pixel’s Overview area. Ergonomics aside, that gives you the advantage of getting a completely clean and neat image of whatever’s on your screen, without all the usual system interface elements (the status bar, the navigation bar or buttons, and so on) around it.
Just march your way back into that Pixel Overview area and look for the “Screenshot” command at the bottom of the screen.
JR
Tap that son of a sausage and tap it good, and you’ll be staring at a static image of whatever you last had open by itself, without any extra gobbledygook above or below it.
(If you don’t see that command, by the way, you’re probably still using one of the older Android navigation setups — either the legacy three-button nav model or the Android-9-era two-button gesture system. Go into the System section of your phone’s settings and select “Gestures” followed by “System navigation.” Change the setting there to “Gesture navigation,” and everything should work flawlessly from here on out!)
Pixel superpower No. 9: The app info shortcut
Ever find yourself needing to head into an app’s information screen — maybe to adjust its notification behavior or permissions or even to open up its Play Store page so you can search for an update or revisit some introductory info?
The swiftest way to get there while you’re using an app is to open up the Overview area on your Pixel, tap the app’s icon at the top, and then select “App info” from the menu that comes up.
JR
Fast, easy, and fuss-free — yes, please.
Pixel superpower No. 10: The speedy screen-splitter
One of Android’s most overlooked features is the system-level option for splitting your screen in half and viewing two apps at the same time. It isn’t something you’re likely to need all that often, but when the right occasion comes along — working on a document while simultaneously referencing a web page or email, for instance, or maybe peeking in at a spreadsheet whilst also staring at photos of Gary Busey (as one does) — good golly, it sure can be handy.
And guess what? That same sweet Pixel Overview area of ours is the key to tapping into that magic.
Just glide your fancy person-feet back into Overview, tap the icon of the first app you want to use in your split-screen setup, and then tap “Split screen” in the menu that appears. That app will move up into the upper area of your screen, and you can then select the second app you want to complete the picture.
JR
Whee!
Pixel superpower No. 11: The app-pinning possibility
A handy but hidden Android feature I always forget to use is the software’s app-pinning system. Once activated, it lets you lock one specific app or process to your screen and then require a pin, passcode, or other method of authentication before anything else can be accessed.
The idea is that you could pass your phone off to a friend, a co-worker, or some manner of rabid jungle bird — maybe so they can see a document, look at something on a website, or peck out a quick call while their own tiny bird-phone isn’t handy. And since you proactively pinned whatever app was relevant to that purpose to your screen, you can rest easy knowing the rest of your stuff will remain secure and inaccessible until the phone’s back in your hands.
To get this one going, you first need to fire up the feature within your Pixel phone’s settings:
Swipe down twice from the top of the screen, then tap the gear-shaped icon to open up the system-level settings.
Tap the Security section.
Tap the “Advanced” or “Advanced settings” line at the very bottom of the screen, then tap “App pinning.”
Make sure the toggle at the top of that screen is in the active and on position, and make sure the secondary toggle (“Lock device when unpinning” or “Ask for unlock pattern before unpinning,” depending on your Android version) is also active.
Got it? Good. Now, with that option active, hop back into your Pixel Overview area, tap the icon of any app you want to pin, and look for the aptly named “Pin” option in that adorable little menu.
JR
Tap that, say “Ooga, booga, gherkin, workin’!” for good measure (and for my own personal amusement), and whoomp: That app will be locked in place. To get past it and into anything else, you’ll first have to swipe your finger up from the bottom of the screen and hold it in place for a few seconds, then provide whatever manner of unlocking authentication (PIN, pattern, password, appendage, 14 drops of blood from your pinky toe, etc) is appropriate to continue.
If you’re still using Android’s old three-button nav system, you’ll instead press the square-shaped Overview button to get to the Overview interface, and you’ll press and hold the Back and Overview buttons together from there when you’re ready to unpin.
Pixel superpower No. 12: The pausing power
This next item is another oft-overlooked Android option. It lets you temporarily pause an individual app, which means the app’s icon will get grayed out and the app won’t be able to send you any notifications until either you unpause it or the day ends — whichever comes first. It’s a fine way to give yourself a reprieve from the horrors of social media, the alleged humans of your workplace Slack channel, or whatever other force is demanding too much of your attention during your (theoretically) off-work hours.
The app-pausing power is always just two taps away in your Pixel’s Overview area: Get to that Overview interface, touch your favorite phalange to the icon of whatever app you want to pause, and then press the “Pause app” option. If you decide you want to unpause the app before the day’s done, just find and tap its icon within your home screen or app drawer, and your phone will prompt you to undo the deed.
Pixel superpower No. 13: The fresh start flick
Last but not least in our Pixel Overview superpower collection is an option that’s widely misunderstood and probably used more often than it oughta be. But it’s certainly worth being aware of for the right sorts of situations.
So here ’tis: Whilst viewing any app within your phone’s Overview area, you can flick its card upward to dismiss it from the list. That’ll also dismiss the app out of your phone’s active memory and cause it to start up fresh the next time you open it instead of picking up where you left off, as it normally would.
Despite what some folks believe, there’s really no need to do this as a matter of habit. Android automatically manages its active memory and removes stuff as needed. Because of that, constantly closing everything out as a form of compulsive “cleaning” is both unnecessary and often even counterproductive (since the system will automatically restart anything that needs to be running, which then leads to even less efficient use of resources). But when an app is acting funky or for some other reason requires a reset, this one-two flickeroo is a fine Overview tool to remember.
And remember, too: There’s lots more where this came from. Come join my completely free Pixel Academy e-course for seven full days of delightful Pixel knowledge — starting with some camera-centric smarts and moving from there to advanced image magic, next-level nuisance reducers, and oodles of other opportunities for advanced Pixel intelligence.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over time, it’s that here in the land o’ Googley matters, there’s always something new just waiting to be discovered.
Today, Microsoft dukes it out with the FAANG stocks for top place in the tech stock market. But 20 years ago, Microsoft let out a big sigh of relief when it dodged a bullet.
US District Court judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who oversaw the Department of Justice vs. Microsoft, had ruled in 2000 that Microsoft was a monopoly that should be broken up into two companies. This part of his decision was overturned in 2001, or we’d be living in a very different technology world.
The root cause of Jackson’s decision? Microsoft had used its Windows monopoly to crush its web browser rival Netscape. The final decision gave Microsoft a wrist-slap and required it to give other browsers a chance to run on Windows. So what the heck is going on now with Windows 11 and Edge, Microsoft?!
In case you haven’t heard, a new Windows 11 Insider Preview build gets in the way of workarounds that enable users to set up other web browsers, such as Firefox and Chrome, as defaults for handling web links. So, for example, if I sent you an e-mail with a link to one of my favorite xkcd cartoons and you opened it in Outlook on a PC with this preview version of Windows 11, it would open in Edge — even if your preferred browser is Chrome.
This is not the first time Microsoft has tried to force Edge down users’ throats, just as it did with Internet Explorer in the 1990s. For example, in Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17623 in 2018, Microsoft began “testing a change where links clicked on within the Windows Mail app will open in Microsoft Edge.”
This wasn’t an isolated instance. For example, in Windows 10 if you open an MSN news article, the default is to show you the page in Edge. Users are always complaining about being forced to use Edge. Last year, not long after Microsoft introduced its Chrome-based version of Edge, it pushed the revamped Edge onto all systems when they updated to Windows 10, version 2004. People were not happy.
No one much minded that legacy Edge was put out with the trash, but when people switched on their PCs they saw Edge launch itself; demand to replace your existing browser; pin itself to the desktop and taskbar; and then when you tried to open a website, it asked if you really wanted to use Firefox instead of Edge. That’s no way to win friends and influence users.
In the past, you could replace Edge as your default browser. What you can’t do is get rid of Edge. For better or worse — I think worse — you’re stuck with Edge.
According to Daniel Aleksandersen, who created the free EdgeDeflector app, which intercepts Windows all-common embedded microsoft-edge:// links and redirects them to regular https:// links, his approximately 500,000 users can no longer avoid Edge with his program. “You can no longer bypass Microsoft Edge using apps like EdgeDeflector.” Microsoft’s new order will also block such functionality in upcoming versions of Brave and Firefox.
Aleksandersen looked deeper and found this: “Windows 10 and 11 no longer care about the default web browser setting. Microsoft even removed the default web browser setting from Windows 11. Instead of a single setting for the default web browser, customers must set individual “link associations” for the http:// and https:// protocols; as well as file associations for the .html file type. This is a huge jump in complexity compared to the previous design. It’s clearly a user-hostile move that sees Windows compromise its own product usability in order to make it more difficult to use competing products.”
As for what users can do about all this, Aleksandersen was blunt: The “best action is to complain to their local antitrust regulator or switch to Linux. Your web browser is probably the most important — if not the only — app you regularly use. Microsoft has made it clear that its priorities for Windows don’t align with its users.”
He’s right. And Microsoft is wrong to make this move. Granted, it’s in a preview build, which means it’s possible it won’t make it into a shipping version of Windows. But I expect it will.
This is no bug. This is a deliberate move throughout Windows to return to the past when your only real browser choice was the Microsoft choice. It backfired on the company then; I hope it backfires now.
We’ve seen lots of significant changes to Android over the past decade. For the first time in a long time, though, Android 12 actually feels like a whole new smartphone experience.
That’s because Android 12 is the first Android version in years to introduce sweeping changes to the software’s front-facing appearance. The new Material You design standard represents a gigantic evolution for the way Android looks and what a device running the operating system is like to use.
By and large, that evolution is a good thing. But with any progression comes certain quirks that don’t always jibe with your day-to-day desires.
For lots of folks, one such element is Android 12’s adjusted approach to Quick Settings — y’know, that panel of fast-access tiles you can reach by swiping down from the top of your device’s screen. That was certainly the case with one of my Android Intelligence Platinum members, who recently contacted me on my Platinum Help Desk with the desperate plea for a creative solution to help her customize her phone’s Quick Settings and undo the “improvements” Android 12 introduced.
Well, here’s the good news — and the same thing I told her: As with most things in Android, the power to decide how you want your device to work ultimately resides in your hands. (Novel concept, no?) And if Android 12’s Quick Settings setup isn’t quite cuttin’ it for ya, lemme tell ya: You’ve got a spectacularly simple way to flex that phone-owner muscle and take control.
[Psst: Love shortcuts? My new Android Shortcut Supercourse will teach you tons of time-saving tricks for your phone. Sign up now for free!]
Allow me to explain.
The Android 12 Quick Settings conundrum
As you probably know, being the smart and exceptionally attractive lizard that you are, Android’s Quick Settings area actually exists in two different forms. There’s the full Quick Settings panel, which you find by swiping down twice from the top of your display (or swiping down once with two fingers side-by-side). And then there’s the partial Quick Settings view, which shows up above your notifications when you swipe down a single time from the top of your suspiciously greasy screen.
On earlier Android versions, that partial view allowed you to see and interact with six splendid shortcuts — whichever Quick Settings tiles were in the first six positions within that area:
JR
On Android 12, though, the tiles bulked up. And consequently, you can see only four shortcuts in that same amount of space.
JR
Is it purty? Well, sure. But from a purely functional perspective, it’s tough to deny that having fast access to only four items instead of six in the same amount of space is a bit of a regression.
Now, you may well adjust to the change and not be bothered by it after a while. But if you really aren’t feelin’ the larger, less dense Quick Settings arrangement Android 12 introduces, there’s a very effective way to eliminate it.
The trick revolves around a fantastically useful app called Power Shade. It’s a thoughtfully designed tool that lets you replace your device’s entire default Quick Settings area with your own highly customized alternative — kind of like a custom Android launcher, only for Quick Settings instead of your home screen.
And in fact, going back to the pre-Android-12, smaller Quick Settings style couldn’t be much easier. If you fire Power Shade up and leave it with its out-of-the-box settings, it’ll give you a shiny new Quick Settings panel that looks a lot like Google’s older style — almost exactly what you’re used to from Android 11 and earlier:
JR
Uncanny, right? And here’s where things get especially nifty: If you want, from there, you can fine-tune and tweak practically every imaginable pixel of the Power Shade interface to make it look and work any way you like.
I mean, this app’s got options for everything:
JR
Heck, you could even expand the panel beyond those standard six first-swipe shortcuts and show even more tiles in that initial single-swipe view!
JR
Not too shabby, I say. So, yeah: Android 12-induced frustrations aside, this could bring some interesting little improvements in both visual appeal and efficiency in ways you weren’t even expecting.
Speaking of customization, one practical adjustment I’d strongly suggest making is tapping into Power Shade’s extra Quick Settings gesture possibility. That makes it easier to get to your phone’s Quick Settings panel without having to do that always-awkward smartphone hand yoga routine, and it helps with the occasional issue of the default Android Quick Settings panel popping up behind the Power Shade replacement (which, annoyingly, does seem to happen on occasion with this arrangement).
All you’ve gotta do to activate that feature is:
Open up Power Shade.
Tap “Edge Triggers” in its main menu.
Tap either “Left” (if you tend to hold your phone in your left person-paw) or “Right” (if you usually grip it with your right grabber).
Flip the toggle next to “Enabled” into the on position.
Once that’s done, you can simply swipe your thumb down along the side edge of your screen — at whatever exact place you picked within that same setup area — to trigger your fancy new Quick Settings panel without having to reach all the way to the top of your screen.
Capisce? Capisce. Now, before we call it a day and return to our respective snack mix consumption processes, let me mention a few important asterisks to this:
First, most of the Power Shade basics will work for free. There’s an optional premium upgrade if you want to unlock all the app’s advanced options, but it’s not at all required for the basic sort of stuff we’re talking about today.
Second, be aware: Going with a third-party setup like this will require you to give up the spiffy-looking Android 12 Material You theming within your Quick Settings area — the way that part of the interface automatically adjusts its coloring to match your current wallpaper at any given moment. An app like Power Shade could tie into that system eventually and act just like the default system-level setup, but as of now, it ain’t gonna happen.
And finally, by its nature, an app like this requires a fair number of permissions to operate — nothing alarming, but a level of access you may or may not feel comfortable granting. When you first set Power Shade up, you’ll be prompted to allow it access as an Android accessibility service and to grant it the ability to read your notifications. The app wouldn’t be able to do what it’s doing without both of those being available, and its privacy policy is perfectly clear that nothing is ever collected, stored, or anything like that. Power Shade has also been around for a long time and has overwhelmingly positive ratings in the Play Store. Still, it warrants a mention that those permissions are there and that it’s up to you to weigh ’em over.
And with that, my goodness: Your Android phone’s Quick Settings are now exactly the way you like ’em — recent design changes be damned. Sure is nice to be the one in control of your own mobile-tech experience, isn’t it?
Get six full days of advanced Android knowledge with my free Android Shortcut Supercourse. You’ll learn tons of time-saving tricks!
Apple this week released a Safari Technology Preview update that among changes appears to address a problem that surfaced with its new MacBook Pro laptops and ProMotion adaptive refresh display software.
The problem came to light when owners of the laptops — which were just unveiled last month — began using Firefox, Chrome, and even Apple’s own Safari browser on the MacBook Pro. They found scrolling was anything but smooth, despite the higher refresh rates offered by the new hardware.
Apple’s release notes for Safari Technology Preview 135 say it has addressed “lazy image loading, and updated smooth scroll animations to run at 120Hz on 120Hz displays.”
The issue cropped up quickly on user forums at MacRumors; the purported fix in Safari Technology Preview 135 was noted initially by 9to5 Mac.
First, a little background on how the issue has unfolded.
Last year, Apple introduced a major software change in support of the launch of its own M1 ARM-based silicon (The company is phasing out the use of Intel’s x86 processors.) Programs running on the new ARM-based silicon relied on an emulation layer until developers could update their code. (An emulation layer simulates the x86 architecture, so the CPU, file system and system information functions are all virtualized.)
This year, on Oct. 18, Apple launched the new 14- and 16-in MacBook Pros running macOS Monterey. One of big features in the new laptops is a new Mini-LED-based display offering more vibrant colors and a 120Hz refresh rate through Apple’s ProMotion adaptive technology.
ProMotion was initially launched in 2017 on the iPad Pro, and is now offered on the iPhone 13 Pro. The technology enabled adaptive refresh rates that would adjust to the responsiveness needed by applications. The promise ProMotion’s 120Hz refresh rate on the new MacBook Pro was improved responsiveness and smoother scrolling.
After the MacBook Pro launch, however, it appeared that some front-line applications, including Apple’s own Safari browser, didn’t support the new refresh rate via ProMotion. Users began complaining that scrolling was running at 60Hz, creating a jerky experience when navigating through web pages. (ProMotion works for other features such as minimizing windows or moving them around the desktop.)
Apple’s Safari Technology Preview is designed to provide users with an experimental version of the browser aimed at developers; their feedback weighs into what features the final version will have.
The release of the latest version of Safari Technology Preview prompted a new round of complaints from MacRumors users that the scrolling issue remains unfixed.
Because the process for vetting software updates via the Preview program will likely take time, it’s unclear when the regular release version of Safari will get the changes designed to bring full ProMotion support.
You can now run FileMaker scripts using Apple’s Siri Shortcuts app on Macs, iPhones, and iPads, a promising move that makes more automation possible for some business users.
Shortcuts for FileMaker
Apple subsidiary Claris first introduced support for Shortcuts a couple of years ago in FileMaker Go, the mobile version of its venerable cross-platform relational database application. The company has now extended this support to Mac users with its very recent macOS Monterey update.
The introduction of this support means you can run FileMaker scripts just like any other Shortcut, including via Siri.
You do need to designate which of your scripts you want to “donate” to Shortcuts, after which you can use those scripts in routines that you design. You also need to assign privileges to those scripts to enable access to them. “You can then run a shortcut using the Shortcuts app or Siri voice commands to open the file, run your script, and pass in an optional parameter,” says FileMaker.
This support makes it possible for companies using FileMaker to build voice commands to enable some tasks. These could include automations, inventory updates, or simply a process launcher.
You can also integrate your donated FileMaker scripts within workflows of any other Shortcut-enabled application. (This video may help explain how this works on iOS, but make sure your devices aren’t listening for the ‘Hey Siri’ command the narrator uses way too often during the presentation.)
How would you use this?
How useful is this? Prosaic deployments will include the capacity to automatically open specific databases or send business cards while more sophisticated uses include the capacity to check customer orders, create reports, or get business-critical data. You may want to ask Siri how many orders your company received last week or yesterday or check the status of a specific order, for example.
These Shortcuts will proliferate across all the devices you use signed into a specific iCloud account. They don’t necessarily need to be activated by Siri, they can also be location- or proximity-based and appear as a button (or application icon) on the Mac desktop or Home screen.
I think this feature will work well along with the application’s support for Apple’s CoreML.
FileMaker developers can already use CoreML to add machine learning to apps. This makes it possible to achieve tasks such as object/face detection, image classification, text predictions and more. In conjunction with Shortcuts, it makes it possible to build automated inventory management systems leveraging cameras in iPads and iPhones, for example.
Why this matters
What’s most useful about this feature is that it is relatively accessible. While FileMaker Pro is complex, it’s not too complex, and many businesses worldwide use the app to support their work.
That’s because it is becoming a good example of a low-code solution that can be configured to meet real-world business tasks that can also scale up to deal with more complex demands. We know low-code and no-code environments will become increasingly popular across enterprise IT, particularly as demand for developers continues to grow. Reflecting this, Gartner claims the low/no-code market will be worth around $13.8 billion this year.
In part, this is because these kinds of options enable businesses to quickly build and deploy solutions to respond to changing needs without competing for (expensive) developer time. In part, relatively frictionless yet powerful development environments match the expectations of Millennials and Generation-Z employees. The idea is you scale up when you need to, but most routine tasks should be easy to automate.
“Globally, most large organizations will have adopted multiple low-code tools in some form by year-end 2021,” said Fabrizio Biscotti, research vice president at Gartner. “In the longer term, as companies embrace the tenets of a composable enterprise, they will turn to low-code technologies that support application innovation and integration.”
It is in this context that Claris’ move to embrace Apple’s Shortcuts tech matches emerging business needs. It also suggests that Shortcuts itself should evolve as a business-focused solution, serving more than primarily consumer needs.
Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
A recent Windows 11’s Insider Preview build appears to foil workarounds that let users set rival browsers as defaults, forcing them to rely on Microsoft’s Edge to handle web links.
Typically, a system uses whatever browser is set as the default in order to bring up https:// links. The latest Windows 11 build (22494), however, appears to push a user to set Edge as their browser by bringing up links as microsoft-edge:https://.
In other words, Microsoft updated the Windows 11 Preview to block any attempts to redirect some URLs away from the Edge browser.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Windows Insider program offers three channels for early adopters: a Dev Channel where new features are introduced for initial testing; a Beta Channel, where more complete features are included for final testing (best for users who want the most stable builds); and a Program Release Preview channel for testing cumulative updates. After feedback from the Insider community, Microsoft may modify, keep, or remove updates.
That latest change to the Windows 11 build for users of the Insider program precludes user systems from bypassing Microsoft Edge in order to use third-party browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Brave, as well as workaround apps, such as EdgeDeflector.
Daniel Aleksandersen, who created the free EdgeDeflector app four years ago to counter the forced use of Edge and enable links to open using third-party browsers, said Windows 11 will now aggressively push the user to set Edge as the default web browser.
EdgeDeflector works by intercepting microsoft-edge:// links — found throughout the Windows 10 and 11 shells and other Microsoft apps — and redirecting them to regular https:// links that open in the user’s chosen default web browser, according to Aleksandersen. A user simply installs the app and chooses it as the default for microsoft-edge:// links instead of Microsoft Edge.
Aleksandersen said he created the app in response to “Microsoft’s anti-competitive practices.”
“Edge will even ‘declutter’ your browser settings, as Microsoft calls it, and unpin competitors from the taskbar and replace the pinned apps with Edge,” Aleksandersen wrote in a blog post last week.
According Aleksandersen, about 500,000 people use EdgeDeflector, a relatively small number compared to the 1.3 billion systems running Windows 10. Windows 11 was rolled out Oct. 5. Within three weeks, it was on more than 5% of “modern” PCs.
According to AdDuplex, a Lithuanian company whose metrics technology is embedded in thousands of Windows Store apps, the Windows 11 adoption number includes 4.8% of general Windows users and 0.3% of Windows Insider users. Ad Duplex’s latest data comes from 60,000 Windows 10 and 11 PCs that were surveyed.
So, what specifically changed in Windows 11 build 22494? Users can no longer set anything but Microsoft Edge as the protocol handler for the microsoft-edge:// protocol. Or rather, users can choose between Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Edge (Insider Beta), and Microsoft Edge (Insider Dev). No third-party apps are allowed to handle the protocol.
“These aren’t the actions of an attentive company that cares about its product anymore. Microsoft isn’t a good steward of the Windows operating system,” Aleksandersen argued. “They’re prioritizing ads, bundleware, and service subscriptions over their users’ productivity.”
For users, Aleksandersen advises, the best action is to complain to their local antitrust regulator — or switch to Linux. Your web browser is probably the most important — if not the only — app you regularly use. “Microsoft has made it clear that its priorities for Windows don’t align with its users,” he said.
Security is important. That much is obvious, right?
And despite all the over-the-top, hilariously sensational headlines suggesting the contrary, the most realistic security threats on Android aren’t from the big, bad malware monster lurking in the shadows and waiting to steal your darkest secrets whilst drinking all of your cocoa.
Nope — the biggest risk to your security on Android is (drumroll, please…) you. The likelihood that you’ll at some point provide personal information to an ill-intending person or fail to properly secure an account in some way is without a doubt the most realistic threat to your virtual wellbeing. Malware? Meh. That’s rarely scary in anything more than a theoretical sense.
And guess what? The best way to protect yourself, aside from that always-advisable juicy dollop of common sense, is to secure every account possible with both a strong, unique password and the extra layer of protection that’s two-factor authentication. That’s especially important for your Google account, but the same steps are advisable for any account where two-factor auth is an option.
The one problem with two-factor authentication, or 2FA for short, is that it can be a bit of a pain in the patootie (to use the technical term) in practice. The whole point of 2FA is that it requires a second step to sign into any account where it’s active. In many cases, that step is a single-use code that’s generated by a special app and then entered into the sign-in screen. And that typically means you have to stop what you’re doing, go back to your home screen, open your app drawer, and then open your 2FA code-generating app to get the necessary code and copy it over into whatever form you’re facing.
[Want even more advanced Android knowledge? Check out my free Android Shortcut Supercourse to learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone.]
That’s a hassle, to say the least. But hang on, my efficiency-adoring amigo, for there is a better way.
The Android security shortcut you’ll wonder how you lived without
It occurred to me the other day that I open Authy, my two-factor authentication code-generating app of choice on Android, all the freakin’ time. I have every account where it’s possible secured with 2FA, and that means I’m constantly doing the exact phone-hoppin’ dance we just described — every single time I’m signing into one of those services.
So I thought to myself: “Well, goodness gracious, Gertrude, there’s got to be a smarter way to handle this.” Then I thought: “Stop calling me Gertrude, you flat-faced goober. Also, I could really go for some Jujyfruit right about now.” But then I forced myself to put both sweet treats and self-conflict out of mind and focus firmly on the task at hand.
And here’s what I realized: With about 20 seconds of setup, it’s possible to put an app like Authy — or any other app you rely on constantly and want fast access to from anywhere, without having to do that silly ol’ dance — into your Android device’s Quick Settings panel.
And then, you can get to the app anytime simply by swiping down once from the top of the screen and tapping its icon in that area.
The secret resides in a simple little app called Shortcutter. So install that bad boy on your phone, open it up, and march your way through the initial setup screens.
Once you reach the app’s main screen, tap “Pull-Down” followed by “Custom Tiles.” Next, tap the line that says “Custom Tile 1” and then select “Application” and choose Authy (or whatever app you want to use for this purpose) from the list. Tap the same line again, select “Rename,” and change its name to “Authy” (or “Schmauthy,” “Gabourey Sidibe,” or anything else you like, really).
At that point, all that’s left is to find your freshly birthed tile within Android’s Quick Settings area and drag it up into an active position. Four fast steps will make that happen:
Swipe down twice from the top of your screen to open up the full Android Quick Settings panel.
Edit your Quick Settings by tapping the small pencil-shaped icon toward the bottom of the panel (or by tapping the three-dot menu icon and then looking for the edit command there, if you’re using a Samsung phone).
Scroll all the way to the bottom (or to the right, with Samsung) to find the inactive Quick Settings tiles.
Look for your fancy new custom tile in that area. Touch and hold your finger to it and drag it to the tippity-top of the list. If your phone is running Android 12, be sure to put it in one of the first four available positions so it’ll be accessible with a single swipe down from the top of the screen. With Android 11 and earlier, you can use any of the first six positions to achieve the same effect.
And wouldya look at that? You can now just swipe down once from the top of your phone’s screen, no matter what app you’ve got open or what manner of mischief you’re up to at that moment, and bam! It’s just one more tap to open up your 2FA app on top of whatever else you’re doing — no home-screen-floppin’, Android-phone-hoppin’ dancing required. Huzzah!
JR
Shortcutter is free to use in its basic form, which is all you’ll need for this particular purpose. The app does have a modestly priced premium upgrade if you decide you want to unlock some of its more advanced options.
For now, though, you’ve given yourself a smarter, simpler way to stay on top of your security on Android — and that, my dear potato, is downright invaluable.
Get even more advanced shortcut knowledge with my new Android Shortcut Supercourse. You’ll learn tons of time-saving tricks for your phone!
Apple this week released a Safari Technology Preview update that among changes appears to address a problem that surfaced with its new MacBook Pro laptops and ProMotion adaptive refresh display software.
The problem came to light when owners of the laptops — which were just unveiled last month — began using Firefox, Chrome, and even Apple’s own Safari browser on the MacBook Pro. They found scrolling was anything but smooth, despite the higher refresh rates offered by the new hardware.
Apple’s release notes for Safari Technology Preview 135 say it has addressed “lazy image loading, and updated smooth scroll animations to run at 120Hz on 120Hz displays.”
The issue cropped up quickly on user forums at MacRumors; the purported fix in Safari Technology Preview 135 was noted initially by 9to5 Mac.
First, a little background on how the issue has unfolded.
Last year, Apple introduced a major software change in support of the launch of its own M1 ARM-based silicon (The company is phasing out the use of Intel’s x86 processors.) Programs running on the new ARM-based silicon relied on an emulation layer until developers could update their code. (An emulation layer simulates the x86 architecture, so the CPU, file system and system information functions are all virtualized.)
This year, on Oct. 18, Apple launched the new 14- and 16-in MacBook Pros running macOS Monterey. One of big features in the new laptops is a new Mini-LED-based display offering more vibrant colors and a 120Hz refresh rate through Apple’s ProMotion adaptive technology.
ProMotion was initially launched in 2017 on the iPad Pro, and is now offered on the iPhone 13 Pro. The technology enabled adaptive refresh rates that would adjust to the responsiveness needed by applications. The promise ProMotion’s 120Hz refresh rate on the new MacBook Pro was improved responsiveness and smoother scrolling.
After the MacBook Pro launch, however, it appeared that some front-line applications, including Apple’s own Safari browser, didn’t support the new refresh rate via ProMotion. Users began complaining that scrolling was running at 60Hz, creating a jerky experience when navigating through web pages. (ProMotion works for other features such as minimizing windows or moving them around the desktop.)
Apple’s Safari Technology Preview is designed to provide users with an experimental version of the browser aimed at developers; their feedback weighs into what features the final version will have.
The release of the latest version of Safari Technology Preview prompted a new round of complaints from MacRumors users that the scrolling issue remains unfixed.
Because the process for vetting software updates via the Preview program will likely take time, it’s unclear when the regular release version of Safari will get the changes designed to bring full ProMotion support.
Update 1/9/20: Chase has clarified that upgrades won’t be available until Jan. 13, rather than Jan. 12, as previously reported. Well, I’m not exactly thrilled to be sharing this news, but hopefully it’ll save you some time on the phone. A number of readers …
Microsoft
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