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Zoom gained access to private iPad camera API for special multitasking

Galaxy Expert May 11, 2021 Apple, Apple 5G, Apple iPad, Apple User Guide, Culture, Featured, iPad User Guide, Lifestyle, News, Repair Service, Review, Top Stories, World Apple, Apple iPad, Apple Repair, Apple Repair Costs, Apple Screen Replacement Costs, Apple Sydney CBD Repairs, iPad camera, iPad camera API, iPad Repair, iPad Repair Costs, iPad Screen Replacement Costs, iPad Sydney CBD Repairs, Zoom, Zoom App, Zoom Application

App developer Jeremy Provost discovered that Apple has given Zoom access to a private iPad camera API. With that, the meeting app is the only one, except by Apple’s FaceTime, being able to use the camera during iPad Split View multitasking.

With this feature only available on the Zoom app, it gives an advantage to the app among the others, since the user can use the Split View multitasking to access Twitter, a notes app, etc.

As Provost explains in his blog post, when he first discovered Zoom could take advantage of the Split View feature, he started to search for the process for other developers being able to do the same.

“We asked Zoom and to our surprise, they gave us the answer, and in the process revealed an apparently private process, available only to those deemed worthy by Apple.“

To receive access to some API, Apple must give an “entitlement,” which is a right or privilege that grants an executable particular capabilities. Apple explains:

“For example, an app needs the HomeKit Entitlement — along with explicit user consent — to access a user’s home automation network. An app stores its entitlements as key-value pairs embedded in the code signature of its binary executable.“

While Apple provides public documentation and a process for requesting access to entitlements, for example, Provost discovered that there isn’t a public process for requesting this specific API.

As we’ve been informed, it is called com.apple.developer.avfoundation.multitasking-camera-access. Unfortunately, unlike with CarPlay there is no public process for requesting this entitlement. In fact, its existence is not even documented by Apple publicly. Go ahead and Google it, you’ll only turn up the Zoom Developer Forum.

While it’s still unknown why Apple only gave this particular feature for the Zoom app — as the company says, it treats every developer the same, on Thursday, App Store VP testified in Epic trial as emails revealed special API access for Hulu and other devs:

“One email shows there was an internal question about why Hulu was able to switch between App Store billing and Hulu billing. As it turns out, Hulu is part of a “set of whitelisted developers” with access to the subscription cancel/refund API. The company had initially given Hulu access to this API to support upgrade and downgrade plan changes before this was natively built-in to the App Store.“

On the other hand, in the ‘Spring Loaded’ event in April, Apple announced a feature called Center Stage, exclusively available on the M1 iPad Pro, and will let all videoconference apps be able to take advantage of it if their developers choose to.

With the Center Stage feature, the Ultra-Wide front camera will be able to track the user in a conference and position him in the center of the frame. As for now, if you use an iPad in landscape mode, you’ll probably not look good in front of the camera.

iPad Camera Multitasking

A few months back I was surprised to see that Zoom had somehow been able to tap into using the camera during iPad Split View multitasking. This is an obvious feature for a videoconferencing app so that you can keep one eye on your meeting while you consult notes, look at a presentation, or slack off on Twitter.

I scoured the web and found no reference to how to enable this feature for our own iOS Zoom client, Participant for Zoom. We asked Zoom and to our surprise they gave us the answer, and in the process revealed an apparently private process, available only to those deemed worthy by Apple.

This capability is enabled by means of an entitlement. You can read more about entitlements here. In order to access certain OS features, app developers enable public entitlements, like iCloud access or push notifications. But for quite some time there have also existed private entitlements. One example is the ability for an app to integrate with CarPlay.

Apple provides public documentation and a process for requesting CarPlay access that any developer can apply for. Of course, Apple wisely restricts what types of apps can integrate with CarPlay. You need to fall into one of the following categories:

Audio
Automaker
Communication
EV Charging
Navigation
Parking
Quick Food Ordering

Once Apple has granted you the entitlement it will appear in your developer account for you to add to a particular app.

So then, what is the entitlement for iPad Camera Multitasking? As we’ve been informed, it is called com.apple.developer.avfoundation.multitasking-camera-access. Unfortunately, unlike with CarPlay there is no public process for requesting this entitlement. In fact, its existence is not even documented by Apple publicly. Go ahead and Google it, you’ll only turn up the Zoom Developer Forum.

It’s understandable that this entitlement may not be appropriate for every app, or perhaps there may be ways for it to be abused. Maybe it makes sense for there to be an approval process, like with CarPlay. But it doesn’t make sense for this to be private, undocumented, and only accessible to Apple’s preferred partners. You can’t say “we treat every developer the same” while privately giving special capabilities to certain developers.

We’ve gone ahead and reached out to Apple through their developer contact page and made a request for “iPad Camera Multitasking”. We’ll see where this goes.

❤ Telegram for iOS to add long-awaited video group calls feature in May

Galaxy Expert April 29, 2021 Apple, Apple 5G, Apple iOs, Apple User Guide, Culture, Featured, iOS, Lifestyle, News, Repair Service, Review, Smartphones, Top Stories, World Apple, Apple iOS, Apple Repair, Apple Repair Costs, Apple Screen Replacement Costs, Apple Sydney CBD Repairs, Telegram, Telegram for Apple, Telegram for iOs

Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced the app will add group video calls starting next month. This feature has been long anticipated by many Telegram users.

Telegram often taunts rivals over their tardiness to add new features but on video calls it has been a laggard, only adding the ability to make one-on-one video calls last August — rather than prioritizing a launch of group video calls, as it had suggested it would a few months earlier.

In an April 2020 blog post, to mark passing 400M users, it wrote that the global lockdown had “highlighted the need for a trusted video communication tool” — going on to dub video calls in 2020 “much like messaging in 2013”.

However it also emphasized the importance of security for group video calling — and that’s perhaps what’s caused the delay.

(Another possibility is the operational distraction of needing to raise a large chunk of debt financing to keep funding development: Last month Telegram announced it had raised over $1BN by selling bonds — its earlier plan to monetize via a blockchain platform having hit the buffers in 2020.)

In the event, rather than rolling out group video calls towards the latter end of 2020 it’s going to be doing so almost half way through 2021 — which has left videoconferencing platforms like Zoom to keep cleaning up during the pandemic-fuelled remote work and play boom (even as ‘Zoom fatigue’ has been added to our lexicon).

How secure Telegram’s implementation of group video calls will be, though, is an open question.

Durov’s post mades repeat mention of “encryption” — perhaps to make a subtle dig at Zoom’s own messy security claims history — but doesn’t specify whether it will use end-to-end encryption (we’ve asked).

Meanwhile Zoom does now offer e2e — and also has designs on becoming a platform in its own right, with apps and a marketplace, so there are a number of shifts in the comms landscape that could see the videoconferencing giant making deeper incursions into Telegram’s social messaging territory.

The one-to-one video calls Telegram launched last year were rolled out with its own e2e encryption — so presumably it will be replicating that approach for group calls.

However the MTProto encryption Telegram uses is custom-designed — and there’s been plenty of debate among cryptography experts over the soundness of its approach. So even if group calls are e2e encrypted there will be scrutiny over exactly how Telegram is doing it.

Also today, Durov touted two recently launched web versions of Telegram (not the first such versions by a long chalk, though) — adding that it’s currently testing “a functional version of web-based video calls internally, which will be added soon”.

He said the Webk and Webz versions of the web app are “by far the most cross-platform versions of Telegram we shipped so far”, and noting that no downloads or installs are required to access your chats via the browser.

“This is particularly good for corporate environments where installing native apps is now always allowed, but also good for users who like the instant nature of web sites,” he added, with another little nod toward enterprise users.

As reported by Yahoo Finance, Durov made the announcement via a text message posted to his official Telegram channel today. He wrote:

“We will be adding a video dimension to our voice chats in May, making Telegram a powerful platform for group video calls”.

“Screen sharing, encryption, noise-canceling, desktop and tablet support — everything you can expect from a modern video conferencing tool, but with Telegram-level UI, speed, and encryption. Stay tuned!”.

While Telegram usually taunts its competitors over their delay in offering new features, the app is behind WhatsApp, which already offers end-to-end encrypted video calls.

Also today, Durov touted two recently launched web versions of Telegram, adding that it’s currently testing “a functional version of web-based video calls internally, which will be added soon.”

“He said the Webk and Webz versions of the web app are ‘by far the most cross-platform versions of the app we shipped so far’, and noting that no downloads or installs are required to access your chats via the browser.”

While Telegram is focusing on this new feature, WhatsApp is currently testing ways to integrate Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, as well as migrating chat history between an iPhone and an Android device.

❤ Apple execs address merging the iPad and Mac, mini-LED, and more in new interview

Galaxy Expert April 24, 2021 Apple, Apple 5G, Apple iPad, Apple iPadOS, Apple Mac, Apple MacBook, Apple MacOS, Apple User Guide, Culture, Featured, iPad User Guide, Lifestyle, Mac User Guide, News, Repair Service, Review, Top Stories, World Apple, Apple execs, Apple iPad, Apple Mac, Apple Macbook, Apple Repair, Apple Repair Costs, Apple Screen Replacement Costs, Apple Sydney CBD Repairs, iPad, Mac, Mac and iPad merging, MacBook, merging the iPad and Mac

Following the announcement of the new M1 iPad Pro and M1 iMac on Tuesday, Apple executives John Ternus and Greg Joswiak have sat down with the Independent for an in-depth interview. The two Apple executives spoke in the interview about Apple’s plans for the iPad and Mac, the new features of the 2021 iPad Pro, and more.

On merging the iPad and Mac

The most notable comments during the interview came from Joswiak, who serves as Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing. When asked about the future of the iPad and Mac, as the lines start to blur in terms of power, Joswiak explained that Apple has no plans to merge the two platforms.

“There’s two conflicting stories people like to tell about the iPad and Mac,” says Joz, as he starts on a clarification that will lead him at one point to apologise for his passion. “On the one hand, people say that they are in conflict with each other. That somebody has to decide whether they want a Mac, or they want an iPad.

“Or people say that we’re merging them into one: that there’s really this grand conspiracy we have, to eliminate the two categories and make them one.

“And the reality is neither is true. We’re quite proud of the fact that we work really, really hard to create the best products in their respective category.”

(Joz, however, is reluctant to name the category he’s talking about: he jokes that he “can’t even stand using” the word, because the “iPad is better than tablets”. “I hate to diminish it by calling it the category name,” he says.)

Ternus, who is Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, echoed Joswiak’s sentiment. He explained that Apple does not look at things with the lens limiting what one device can do in order to note “step on the toes” of another device.

“But we’re just going to keep making them better. And we’re not going to get all caught up in, you know, theories around merging or anything like that.”

“We don’t think about well, we’re going to limit what this device can do because we don’t want to step on the toes of this [other] one or anything like that,” he says. “We’re pushing to make the best Mac we can make; we’re pushing to make the best iPad we can make. And people choose.

“A lot of people have run both. And they have workflows that span both – some people, for a particular task, prefer one versus the other.

On the new iPad Pro’s M1 chip

When asked about the M1 processor in the new iPad Pro and the software part of that story, Joswiak explained that Apple has “provided that performance even before the need was there.”

“It needs to exist first, right? You can’t have an app that requires more performance than the system’s capable of – then it doesn’t work. So you need to have the system be ahead of the apps.

Joswiak went on to list examples of powerful third-party apps from companies like Adobe and Affinity, but he wouldn’t say whether Apple was working on its own ways to tap into the new power of the M1:

(When asked again, the morning after the reveal, whether Apple is one of those developers that is planning to take advantage of the extra headroom with its professional app, Joz jokes that he’s not going to let something like that slip out.)

Joswiak also explained that this gives users more headroom and ensures their new iPad Pro purchase “isn’t going to be immediately obsolete.”

On mini-LED in the new iPad Pro

Terns also provided some interesting detail on the mini-LED display in the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro. He explained that one of the biggest undertakings in this process was shrinking the display technology — which is also used in the Pro Display XDR — into the 12.9-inch form factor.

“Shrinking it was a huge undertaking,” says Ternus. “If you just look at the two products, obviously the iPad is a lot thinner than a Pro Display XDR, and the way the architecture works – you have the LED backlight behind the display.

As you shrink it down, you necessarily need to add more LEDs; you need to kind of increase the density, because you don’t have as much room for mixing the light and creating zones.

From the very beginning it was: how do we create a backlight with sufficient density? So we had to design a new LED. We had to to design the process for putting down 10,000 LEDs on this backlight in this incredibly precise manner.”

Ternus and Joswiak also noted that one of the reasons Apple is able to make technological leaps like this is because it develops so much of the technology in-house.

On the new Center Stage front-facing camera technology in the iPad

One of the most interesting new features of the 2021 iPad Pro is something called Center Stage. The new iPad Pros pack a 12MP Ultra Wide camera sensor on the front, and Apple is using this to follow users during video chats to ensure that they are always in the frame.

Ternus explained:

“One of the things that I found really cool about it is – spending all this time in these meetings, you sit a lot,” says Ternus. “And it’s so liberating to be able to just stand up and stay framed in the image, and stretch and move around and sit down,” he says, noting that it is a neat way to still be able to close rings on the Apple Watch.

“And one of the things I found sometimes is in group scenarios – you may be FaceTiming with your family and be able to get the family in the frame, or those kind of things, I think are going to be really, really big and powerful. It’s certainly an amazing technology for the times we’re in.”

❤ How to get your music video on Apple Music

Galaxy Expert April 20, 2021 Apple, Apple 5G, Apple Music, Apple User Guide, Culture, Featured, iTunes, Lifestyle, News, Repair Service, Review, Top Stories, World Apple, apple music, Apple Repair, Apple Repair Costs, Apple Screen Replacement Costs, Apple Sydney CBD Repairs, Submitt your music video on Apple Music, Submitting your music video on Apple Music, Video on Apple Music, your music video on Apple Music

Today we are taking a look at how to get your music video on Apple Music. More specifically, the various options and difficulties with regards to independent digital distribution of our music videos and music-related video content to Apple’s streaming platform. We have previously discussed services like TuneCore — one of the better options for getting your music on Apple Music, Spotify, and many others — however, things have evolved in the space since then with TuneCore competitor Distrokid now making waves, but to some degree, options are still somewhat limited when it comes distributing your companion video content. So let’s take a closer look at Apple’s official list of distributor partners, the best options available for independent music makers/content creators, and how to distribute your music video on Apple Music.

How to get your music video on Apple Music

At this point it seems, for the most part, quite straight forward to get your music on Apple Music and other comparable services. Music videos, however, are a slightly more complicated beast for completely indie artists.

Apple’s Music Partner Search list – Apple Music video distribution

Apple’s official Music Partner Search list is an obvious place to start here, but there really aren’t very many of the officially highlighted services that you can just go sign up for, pay your money, and watch you music video on Apple Music (usually a few weeks later) as far as we can tell. You’ll find loads of them on there that say they do, and that might very well be the case, but it seems as though many of them are really more like a small label you would need to submit your package to before you’re even considered — or something to that effect. And on the other hand, much of the larger, well-known services on the list (TuneCore, Distrokid, etc.) do not support music video distribution.

Which services are the best for distributing music videos to Apple Music?

This leaves independent artists, bedroom producers, and aspiring content creators at a bit of a loss, or in a somewhat confusing mess of options to consider with limited possibilities for personal authorship when it comes to how to get music videos on Apple Music. Parsing through the royalty splits and pricing for each music video distribution avenue, policies/pricing for changes to content after delivery, and understanding video content requirements/limitations for each service, among other things, is already way more than enough for independent creatives to deal with — never mind some of the services on Apple’s list that present a complicated mess of a home page and/or are really only available for folks outside of North America.

So finding a service that’s simple and easy to understand with the details clearly laid out, is invaluable, even despite all of the other monetization considerations here. Some creatives just want to get their content out there to the world and on the biggest platforms in the game, so the ability to just submit content, pay the cash, and go without having to worry about the rest of it is what we are really after here today.

Symphonic music video distribution

And that brings us to Symphonic. Of all the options Apple mentions on its official Partner list, Symphonic appears to be the most straight forward for how to get your video on Apple’s platform. While TuneCore and Distrokid (use this link for 7% off your distribution job)— arguably the two biggest players in the indie music distribution game — don’t offer music video services, Symphonic appears to have a simple submission process that anyone can use.

The usual royalty splits and video spec requirements apply here as expected (no lyric videos on Apple Music anymore, no Facebook uploads unless you have a public official artist page, etc.), but in the end, you fill the forms out, send your cash, and you’re on your way. No need to have a million Spotify plays or a massive Instagram following for the independent distributor to consider you, just pay your cash and get your content out there.

Symphonic has a simple to follow submission process available that walks creatives through the entire process with several tips and details on what is required on your end and what to expect from the various streaming services, including Apple Music. There’s a handy four step checklist you can use to ensure your music video is ready to go as well as some important specifics regarding VEVO and videos featuring content in another language. You can browse through all of these details right here before you lay any cash down and you can review the Symphonic royalty schedule here.

More Apple Music distribution options

Sure, there are loads of options on Apple’s list that will get the job done, but most of them aren’t entirely open services. Popular distributor CD Baby, for example, is listed as supporting music videos but they don’t appear to offer or advertise that service anywhere. Does anyone have any experience paying for distribution with CD Baby and/or the music video situation?

Of the five services on the Partners list denoted as being a “Preferred Plus” option by Apple, CD Baby is the only one that doesn’t look like some kind of music label that has to want to distribute your creations to get your content out to the world or at least require some kind of private communication and submission process that feels like you’re trying to get a record deal or something. The others fall into the label-like side of things or aren’t even in english when you hit the home page.

While there are certainly other ways beyond Symphonic for getting your music video on Apple Music, when it comes to the officially supported options, it does appear to be the easiest way to make it happen at this point.

❤ How to transfer Apple Music songs to Spotify, Pandora, and more

Galaxy Expert April 10, 2021 Apple, Apple Music, Apple User Guide, Culture, Featured, Lifestyle, News, Repair Service, Review, Spotify, Top Stories, World Apple, apple music, Apple Repair, Apple Repair Costs, Apple Screen Replacement Costs, Apple Sydney CBD Repairs, How to transfer Apple Music, How to transfer Apple Music song, spotify, Transfer Apple Music, transfer Apple Music song, Transfer music, transfer music song

If you’ve ever thought about switching your Apple Music subscription to Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music, Deezer, or the vice versa, one thing that probably made you change your mind is “how am I going to transfer all my songs from a streaming service to another?” Well, here’s the answer.

If you have thousands of songs and lots of playlists, adding one by one doesn’t seem like a good call. And if for any reason you have multiple music streaming services, there’s a simple way to keep all of them updated with the FreeYourMusic app.

The app has two options: you can transfer one hundred songs and that’s it or you can pay for it. Here are the tiers:

Basic: One-time-purchase with the possibility to transfer an unlimited number of songs, playlists, and albums on all platforms, and with lifetime updates.
Premium: Pay per month and receive e-mail support, share playlists across streaming services, auto-synchronization of all playlists/albums, backup your playlist in the cloud, and the ability to cancel anytime.
Lifetime: One-time-purchase and you get everything available on the Premium plan.

FreeYourMusic is available on iOS, macOS, Android, Windows, and Linux and offers support to basically every music streaming service available.

How to transfer Apple Music songs to Spotify

Once you installed the app, it allows you to easily transfer your music library:

Select your current platform as a source, for example, Apple Music.
Then select the platform where you want to create a new playlist, for example, Spotify.
Find playlists, albums, or tracks you want to transfer from Apple Music to Spotify.
Confirm your action and done.

One tip I give you is if you have thousands of songs, you may want to transfer first your main playlists. The transfer between services is really fast, but if you have a lot of songs, it can take a few days.

❤ Apple Music vs Spotify

Galaxy Expert April 10, 2021 Apple, Apple Music, Apple News, Apple User Guide, Culture, Featured, Lifestyle, News, Repair Service, Review, Top Stories, World Apple, apple music, Apple Music vs Spotify, Apple Repair, Apple Repair Costs, Apple Screen Replacement Costs, Apple Sydney CBD Repairs, spotify

In the same way people argue about iOS over Android, the debate between Apple Music vs Spotify has also grown since 2015. As the music streaming service war starts to bring podcasts and HiFi to the battlefield, are you planning to stay with your current streaming service, or are you considering switching?

Many been using Apple Music since it launched. Even when Apple erased a few times all my library, They didn’t care. Then, when some songs appeared duplicated, They also didn’t mind. Now, Apple Music struggles to show the correct album artwork for some artists and faces some reliability bugs. Should they care now?

On the other hand, they’ve been reporting regularly on all of the changes Spotify is making on its platform. It added podcasts, and the early data shows this has been a success. It also plans to launch a HiFi tier subscription this year and it recently revamped all of its applications.

They used to complain because they didn’t get Spotify’s user interface, but as they started to compare with Apple Music, now they see that they’re very similar. Compare for yourself :

Apple Music

Spotify

If you compare prices, they’re exactly the same: $9.99/month for an individual tier, $14.99/month for a family subscription, and $4.99/month for a student application. The difference here is that Apple now offers Apple One, so it’s easier to stay with Apple Music because you can also receive iCloud, Apple Arcade, and Apple TV+ altogether.

The Individual Apple One plan is $14.95 per month, while the Family plan is $19.95 per month: a really nice deal. On the other hand, Spotify has a free-ad-based version and a Premium Duo, for two people who live together for $12.99/month.

With any of the services, you can get a nice deal depending on your need. But if you’re an Apple kind of person, you may be asking if Spotify can integrate with all your devices. Spotify has an Apple Watch app, a macOS app, and a browser app, but the company does not yet support HomePod integration.

For example: if you enjoy sharing and know what your friends are listening to, you can do that in real-time with Spotify. If you like to combine podcasts and music in the same place, Spotify also supports that. If you want a nice end-of-year recap, Spotify can also do better than Apple Music.

❤ Tips and tricks to fix Bluetooth connection issues on Mac

Galaxy Expert March 20, 2021 Apple, Apple 5G, Apple Mac, Apple MacBook, Apple User Guide, Culture, Featured, Lifestyle, Mac User Guide, News, Repair Service, Review, Top Stories, World Apple Mac, Apple Macbook, Apple Repair, Apple Repair Costs, Apple Screen Replacement Costs, Apple Sydney CBD Repairs, Bluetooth, Bluetooth connection, Bluetooth connection issues, Bluetooth connection issues on Mac, Bluetooth connection on Mac, Bluetooth on Mac

We rely on Bluetooth for more and more devices, and while the wireless standard is very convenient, it can be really frustrating when our peripherals don’t work consistently. Read along for five tips and tricks to fix Mac Bluetooth issues, including resetting your Bluetooth module and ways to remove interference.

Bluetooth issues aren’t anything new, but there has been a recent wave of more Bluetooth problems with the first Apple Silicon M1 Macs and macOS Big Sur. Notably, Bluetooth reliability should have been improved for Mac users with macOS 11.2.

But whether you’ve got a new M1 Mac or are having trouble with Bluetooth on an Intel one, we’ll cover multiple approaches to fix Mac Bluetooth issues.

How to fix Mac Bluetooth issues

Software update, power cycle, unpair

You’ve probably tried these steps, but if not, start here:

Check if macOS is up to date ( > About This Mac > Software Update…)
Make sure your Bluetooth device is charged
Turn off your Bluetooth device and back on again, you can do the same with Bluetooth on your Mac (click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar – top right of your Mac’s screen)
You can also unpair a Bluetooth device and re-pair to see if there’s an improvement (Bluetooth in the menu bar > Bluetooth preferences > hover over a device > click the “x” icon > choose “Remove”)
Reboot your Mac

Remove interference

Apple notes in a support document that if you’re seeing intermittent Bluetooth issues, it’s good to check for interference. Tips include:

Bring your Mac and Bluetooth devices closer together
Remove other devices like phones, cameras, power cables, etc. that might be on your desk or nearby
Move some WiFi devices to 5GHz since Bluetooth and WiFi both use 2.4GHz
Move USB/Thunderbolt hubs further away from your Mac and Bluetooth devices (and don’t place them on top of your Mac)
Turn off USB devices that aren’t in use
Finally, don’t have materials between your Mac and Bluetooth devices like metal, concrete

Reset your Mac’s Bluetooth module

If you’re still having trouble with Bluetooth issues, you can reset your Mac’s Bluetooth Module:

While holding option + shift on your keyboard, click the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar
Click “Reset the Bluetooth module”
On the confirmation prompt, choose “OK”
Your Bluetooth devices will disconnect for a moment as the module resets and should automatically reconnect

Here’s how this looks:

Remove all devices + reset Bluetooth module

If that didn’t work, you can remove all of your Bluetooth devices and then reset the module (keep in mind you’ll need to re-pair all of your Bluetooth devices after this):

Hold option + shift on your keyboard and click the Bluetooth icon again
This time, choose “Remove all devices” > click OK
Do option + shift on Bluetooth in the menu bar again > click “Reset the Bluetooth module”
Re-pair your Bluetooth device(s)

Have a dongle?

This isn’t always an ideal solution depending on your setup, but if your Bluetooth device came with a USB dongle for a direct connection, that often eliminates any Bluetooth issues you’re seeing.

The most common devices to come with USB dongles are third-party mouse and keyboards.

❤ NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover is powered by an iMac G3 processor

Galaxy Expert March 4, 2021 Apple, Apple 5G, Apple Mac, Culture, Featured, Lifestyle, Mac User Guide, NASA, News, Review, ROG, Top Stories, World Apple, Apple iMac, Apple iMac Repair, Apple iMac Repair Costs, Apple Repair, Apple Repair Costs, Apple Screen Replacement Costs, Apple Sydney CBD Repairs, iMac, iMac G3, iMac G3 processor, Mars, Mars Perseverance rover, NASA, Perseverance rover

How far do you think a 90s-era Mac can go? Actually, it can go to Mars. NASA’s rover Perseverance, which reached the Red Planet on February 18, is powered by the PowerPC 750 processor, the same chip that is inside the iconic 1998 iMac G3.

According to New Scientist (via Gizmodo), the Mars Perseverance rover uses the RISC CPUs that Apple went all in on before switching to Intel. The iMac G3 was colorful (you could see through it), and it ultimately saved Apple from bankruptcy.

The PowerPC 750 was a single-core 233MHz processor with 6 million transistors, which is now considered slow, but it was the first to incorporate dynamic branch prediction and is still used in modern processors.

Given that the Perseverance launch was in July 2020, you could be wondering why it’s using such an old processor. What it comes down to is reliability.

There’s also a pretty big difference between the iMac G3 CPU and the one inside the rover. This PowerPC 750 chip can withstand 200,000 to 1,000,000 Rads and temperatures between -55 and 125 degrees Celsius.

Given that Mars doesn’t have the same type of atmosphere as Earth, one flash of sunlight could damage the rover before its adventure can even begin.

“A charged particle that’s racing through the galaxy can pass through a device and wreak havoc,” James LaRosa at BAE Systems told NewScientist. “It can literally knock electrons loose; it can cause electronic noise and signal spikes within the circuit.”

Apple used PowerPC chips on Mac until 2005, then switched to Intel. Nowadays, Apple is making a new transition to its own Apple Silicon processors, starting with the M1 chip on MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini.

❤ Apple Photos bug prevents precise latitude and longitude geotagging of images

Galaxy Expert February 27, 2021 Apple, Apple 5G, Apple iOs, Apple User Guide, Featured, Lifestyle, News, Repair Service, Review, Top Stories, Uncategorized, World Apple, Apple Photo, Apple Photo Bug, Apple Photos, Apple Photos Bug, Apple Repair, Apple Repair Costs, Apple Screen Replacement Costs, Apple Sydney CBD Repairs, geotagging, geotagging of images, latitude geotagging of images, longitude geotagging of images

Apple Photos users are reporting a bizarre issue related to geotagging. The issue, which 9to5Mac has confirmed, centers around manually editing the location of an image and using exact latitude and longitude coordinates.

A variety of threads focused on this bug have surfaced on Apple’s Support forums . When you try to manually edit an image via Apple Photos and set the location as a specific latitude and longitude, the location will automatically jump to the reverse-geocoded location.

Here’s a quick explanation courtesy of Wikipedia on reverse geocoding:

Reverse geocoding is the process of converting a location as described by geographic coordinates (latitude, longitude) to a human-readable address or place name. Reverse geocoding permits the identification of nearby street addresses, places, and/or areal subdivisions such as neighbourhoods, county, state, or country.

What this means is that when you enter the latitude and longitude into the Photos app, the Photos app will attempt to convert this into a suggested location that could in practice be far away from the actual latitude and longitude.

Other describe their experience with this bug:

Apple Photos geotagging doesn’t seem to work properly anymore since a few months.

When manually editing the location of an image and using exact GPS Coordinates (Lat, Lon) then these coordinates are not being set for the image but only a Reverse-Geocoded location which could / will be far from the original location.

Example: When I try to geotag a picture with Coordinates “36.6972,24.4707” (Airport in Milos, Greece), I can only pick one entry, but this one entry is completely wrong.

In this user’s specific example, the Photos app suggestion is for the Aegean Sea, far away from the intended airport. 9to5Mac has seen similar incorrect suggestions across locations in the United States and the UK.

The problem appears to be tied to Apple Maps. When you enter latitude and longitude details in Apple Maps, it will show a suggested location for those details. The Photos app seems to be pulling in the first suggestion from Apple Maps, which again, could be inaccurate.

❤ Apple launches 2021 Platform Security guide with iOS 14, macOS Big Sur, Apple Silicon deep dive

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Apple has published its 2021 update to its Platform Security guide today along with refreshing the Apple Platform Security landing page. The latest guide goes in-depth on the new and updated security features that have arrived with iOS 14, macOS 11 Big Sur, Apple Silicon Macs, watchOS 7, and more. Apple has also launched an all-new Security Certifications and Compliance Center website and guide.

Apple has long held that secure software necessitates the foundation of security built into hardware. With the shift to using its own custom Apple Silicon in its first three M1 Macs starting last fall, the company has been able to realize that goal across its entire lineup of devices.

2021 Apple Platform Security guide

Device security is a never-ending mission and the latest Apple Platform Security guide details all the effort and changes Apple has implemented over the last year – highlighted by the guide growing 39 pages with this edition to a total of 196.

This documentation provides details about how security technology and features are implemented within Apple platforms. It also helps organizations combine Apple platform security technology and features with their own policies and procedures to meet their specific security needs.

While there a number of security updates that apply to existing/older devices, Apple Silicon has been notable with the M1 Macs allowing Apple to step up security to new levels when it comes to Data Protection via a rebuilt FileVault, System integrity, password protection, and more.

Another notable change in the last year has been the advanced BlastDoor security for iMessage (not specifically mentioned in the new security guide). While it was just recently discovered as present in iOS 14, we’ve learned Apple has built it into macOS Big Sur as well. It’s a totally under the hood change that users won’t notice, but it’s the biggest security improvement to iMessage since the service got end-to-end encryption.

Check out all the new topics added to the Apple Platform Security guide this year:

Memory safe iBoot implementation
Boot process for a Mac with Apple silicon
Boot modes for a Mac with Apple silicon
Startup Disk security policy control for a Mac with Apple silicon
LocalPolicy signing-key creation and management
Contents of a LocalPolicy file for a Mac with Apple silicon
Signed system volume security in macOS
Apple Security Research Device
Password Monitoring
IPv6 security
Car keys security in iOS

And here are all the security topics that have been updated:

Secure Enclave
Hardware microphone disconnect
recoveryOS and diagnostics environments for an Intel-based Mac
Direct memory access protections for Mac computers
Kernel extensions in macOS
System Integrity Protection
System security for watchOS
Managing FileVault in macOS
App access to saved passwords
Password security recommendations
Apple Cash security in iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS
Secure Business Chat using the Messages app
Wi-Fi privacy
Activation Lock security
Apple Configurator 2 security

You can find the full, updated Apple Platform Security guide on Apple’s website. Back in December, Apple also updated its Privacy website as it launched App Store Privacy labels.

Apple Security Certifications and Compliance Center

Along with the updated Apple Platform Security guide, Apple has an all-new Security Certifications and Compliance Center. It’s a robust resource covering Apple hardware, software, and services and also features a 50-page, in-depth guide.

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