product rants

Apple and Google Maps should let you lock their app’s UI in portrait or landscape mode, apart from the system-wide iOS setting

spencerdailey

You either use Maps in PORTRAIT or LANDSCAPE mode. It’s a very polarizing issue, but one thing is universal: when the phone changes to your non-preferred orientation, it’s frustrating — and frustrating at the worst possible time: when you’re wondering if you should turn left or right, or keep driving straight. If a reading app… Continue reading Apple and Google Maps should let you lock their app’s UI in portrait or landscape mode, apart from the system-wide iOS setting

CurrentKey Stats · maker stories

Building my first Swift app, from a background of web app hacking

spencerdailey

Quick note/disclaimer: This blog post is from a historically introverted solo hacker, who – aside from personal-use command line tools – has exclusively shipped web app projects until this app. A long time ago I took a day in the library with my (still shiny new) mid-2011 Macbook Air and poked around Xcode with the… Continue reading Building my first Swift app, from a background of web app hacking

product rants

Apple, Google, Twitter: your products are broken. Here are 3 simple ways to improve them to handle scams, threats, and disinformation

spencerdailey

Google/YouTube: Make it possible for users on your platform to know if a YouTube video has been edited after it’s been posted. It’s insane that I can clip out chunks of a video and there is no record (as far is the public is concerned) of me having done so. Like, if you edit a… Continue reading Apple, Google, Twitter: your products are broken. Here are 3 simple ways to improve them to handle scams, threats, and disinformation

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Robocalls and spam texts deliver fake news silently, at scale, but won’t stop anytime soon

spencerdailey

… unless carriers like AT&T open up to researchers and improve their networks. While the FCC is applying pressure in this regard, any decent solution is likely years away, and may be hamstrung by net neutrality-esque message discrimination concerns. Nonetheless, fake robocalls and texts are a crisis. Borrowing from my last post: Right now, any… Continue reading Robocalls and spam texts deliver fake news silently, at scale, but won’t stop anytime soon

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In 2019, Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

spencerdailey12 Comments

Right now, any robocall hacker in the world can instantly take over your phone’s screen, knocking you out of your mobile gaming experience, disrupting you as you check out at the store, or breaking your concentration as you try and type out an email. And disrupt they do, at a massive scale. Several billion fake… Continue reading In 2019, Apple needs to change iPhone’s call UI because robocalls are killing us

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Could you disable your admin password? A stressful opsec story from an Apple Store

spencerdailey3 Comments

Tl;dr: Apparently Apple Geniuses ask customers who are dropping off their Mac for repair (where the device can’t be repaired in-store) to turn off their admin password under some circumstances (even when better options exist). 😲 Be ready, because I wasn’t. Millions of people walk through Apple Stores, and I think Geniuses asking people to… Continue reading Could you disable your admin password? A stressful opsec story from an Apple Store