MacLife February 2022

There’s been some exciting things happening in the world of Apple just recently. The first of these is that Apple has announced the availability of Self Service Repair (p8) — starting early next year. Now, I’m sure you’re already aware that you can’t officially repair Apple devices yourself, or through a non–approved repair shop — without borking them, so the fact that consumers will soon have access to parts and tools direct from Apple is a pretty major deal. Having never attempted a repair myself on any of my Apple gear (though I have a small box full of defunct devices, including an iPhone 3G), I’m not entirely confident about doing such a thing, but it’s definitely tempting for those Apple users who are out of warranty (and frankly, out…

I am frustratingly disappointed with what Apple has done with my media over the last decade. My media doesn’t feel like it’s mine anymore. I imported my whole CD collection onto a laptop I had at the time. A couple of years later, I migrated the songs in iTunes from my MacBook to an iMac. I bought iPods and iPhones — managing my music was a dream. Then, I started using Match and iCloud, and I lost numerous songs: dozens of albums worth just gone, or listed with the dreaded dotted cloud. Trying to manage songs on my current iPhone is a nightmare. I got out of the hell that is Match three years ago, but I am screwed. I can’t even buy songs without the fear that I won’t be…

APPLE HAS ANNOUNCED that it will make genuine parts, tools, and manuals available to individual consumers who wish to undertake their own repairs, starting early 2022 in the US and expanding to other countries in the course of the year. Apple says the Self Service Repair program will kick off with “the most commonly serviced modules” for the iPhone 12 and 13 lines, such as the display, battery, and camera. Parts, tools, and manuals for Macs with M1 chips will follow, and resources for “additional repairs” will be available later in the year. The new program comes after years of campaigning by Right to Repair advocates and initiatives by state and federal legislators. Last July, a Presidential executive order directed the FTC “to issue rules against anticompetitive restrictions on using independent repair…

MAIL ON THE Apple Watch does not use the new privacy features in iOS 15, a security researcher has found. Mail Privacy Protection, introduced with much fanfare in iOS 15, hides your location, prevents tracking, and stops senders using techniques such as hidden pixels to learn when you open an email. You need to switch this feature on, but even after you have done so, it turns out it does not operate if you view emails — or just preview them — on your Apple Watch. Developer and security researcher Mysk found that both the Mail app and the notification preview on Apple Watch will download remote content embedded in an email using the device’s IP address, which allows tracking to occur. What’s more, Apple Watch does not use iCloud Private Relay either.…

SHAREPLAY ARRIVES One of the coolest features of iOS 15 has arrived as advertised, and Apple is trumpeting growing support for it in third–party apps. SharePlay is available in iOS 15.1, iPadOS 15.1, and tvOS 15.1, and coming to Mac this Fall. With SharePlay support in Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple Fitness+, as well as many popular apps such as NBA, TikTok, Twitch, Paramount+, and SHOWTIME — users can watch movies and TV shows, listen to music, or work out with friends together on a FaceTime call. SharePlay extends to Apple TV so users can watch on the big screen while using FaceTime on iPhone or iPad. With screen sharing support, users can also browse the web together, look at photos, or show friends something in a favorite app. SharePlay enables…

PREVIOUSLY IN THIS COLUMN, I’ve mentioned that I find Apple’s positioning of the Apple Watch as a potentially life–saving revolution to be a bit at odds with having premium strategies for that device, and for it to be locked to Apple’s also–premium–priced phones. Shouldn’t a health revolution be available to all, regardless of phone OS preference, or budget? However, you do need to actually get the thing working somehow, and the iPhone is key to that, since the Watch doesn’t have any setup system of its own. But the Apple Watch Series 7 got me thinking that we could be coming to the end of that time. With its bigger screen, you now have a QWERTY keyboard, so entering your Apple ID and password on setup — or for logging into apps…