MyAppleMenu - Wed, Aug 5, 2015

Wed, Aug 5, 2015The Fright-Fest Edition

What You Need To Know About The Thunderstrike 2 Worm, by Rich Mogull, TidBITS

Nearly everyone can ignore Thunderstrike 2 entirely. The research really is excellent, compelling work that the Wired piece unfortunately turned into a bit a fright-fest. The Web attack vector, in particular, is blocked in OS X 10.10.4. The worm can’t automatically jump air gaps — those in sensitive environments can easily protect themselves by being careful where they source their Thunderbolt devices, and this entire family of firmware attacks is likely to become a lot more difficult as hardware improves, and as device manufacturers update their firmware code.

Don't panic.

Don't Let A Disability Stop You From Using Your Smartphone, by Edward C. Baig, USA Today

A quarter of a century ago, when the Americans with Disabilities Act became law, the idea that we'd all be carrying smartphones (and some of us wearing smart watches), much less scaling mountains with them, would have seemed unfathomable. It would have been even more remarkable to think back then that people with a variety of physical impairments — poor vision, motor disabilities, hearing loss — would be getting the same rich experiences from such devices.

Apple Pay To The Rescue!, by Craig Hockenberry, iMore

The first time you experience this seamless transfer of your accounts with Apple Pay, you're going to want it everywhere you purchase goods and services. That, combined with very positive word-of-mouth, is going to make entering a card number feel very antiquated. And I suspect this change will come about very quickly.

The Apple experience described by Craig Hockenberry is very interesting and positive.

On the other hand, I just realized last night that one of the iMessage from my wife never reached my phone.

Stuff.

Manage Classical Music In iTunes 12, by Kirk McElhearn, Macworld

iTunes has always been designed for “songs,” and, for the most part, classical music isn’t a song-based genre. Because of this, organizing classical music in iTunes can be a bit complicated. But with a few workarounds, it’s possible to maintain a large classical music library in iTunes. Here’s how.

How To Get A New Finder Window The Size You Want, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

Thumbly 1.0 Review: A One-Handed Alternative iOS Keyboard, by Brian Beam, Macworld

As its name implies, Thumbly is an alternative iOS keyboard with a layout that's optimized for one-handed typing. Rather than using the regular typewriter-style keyboard layout that spans the entire screen, Thumbly's keyboard is laid out like a fan at the bottom corner of the device.

Develop.

A Eulogy For Objective-C, by Aaron Hillegass, Realm

With Swift coming out last year and everyone being very excited about it, including me, I thought it might be fun to do a talk that was sort of a eulogy for Objective-C. I’ll try to stick with the standard eulogy tropes: we go over the life of the person, we say what we appreciated about them, then we talk about how their influence lives on. Then, in a break from tradition, at the end I’m going to say that Objective-C is not really dead. It’s a Eulogy with a twist.

We're Heading Straight For AOL 2.0, by Jacques Matteij

If the current trend persists we’re heading straight for AOL 2.0, only now with a slick user interface, a couple more features and more users. I personally had higher hopes for the world wide web when it launched. Wouldn’t it be ironic if it turned out that the end-run the WWW did around AOL because it was the WWW was open and inclusive ended up with different players simply re-implementing the AOL we already had and that we got rid of because it was not the full internet.

Notes.

Beats 1 Replays Let You Catch Shows You Missed, by Dan Thorp-Lancaster, iMore

Apple has now started uploading full versions of its Beats 1 radio shows on Apple Music's Connect. If you follow a favorite DJ on Connect, such as Zane Lowe or Julie Adenuga, you'll be able to find full replays of their most recent shows, commentary and all.

Taylor Swift, Pop Star And Apple Music Crusader, Graces Vanity Fair's September Cover, by Josh Duboff, Vanity Fair

Apple surprised Swift by almost immediately changing its plan not to compensate artists during the trial period of its new streaming service. Says Swift, “Apple treated me like I was a voice of a creative community that they actually cared about,” she says. “And I found it really ironic that the multi-billion-dollar company reacted to criticism with humility, and the start-up with no cash flow reacted to criticism like a corporate machine.”

How To Vacation Like It’s 1999, by Nick Bilton, New York Times

One obvious solution is to leave your smartphone and tablet at home. But that ignores the fact that our devices have replaced some vacation essentials, including physical books, magazines, music player, cameras, maps and in-flight entertainment.

Believe it or not, there are ways to unplug that don’t require you to downgrade to a CD player.

Parting Words

pic.twitter.com/zKCiHljaC8

— loydcase (@loydcase) August 5, 2015

Thanks for reading.