Extra Future

Phil Nelson's blog and outboard brain storage

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GrayKey: The little box that unlocks iPhones

Phil Nelson 1 Comments

Thomas Reed, for MalwareBytes:

Two iPhones can be connected at one time, and are connected for about two minutes. After that, they are disconnected from the device, but are not yet cracked. Some time later, the phones will display a black screen with the passcode, among other information. The exact length of time varies, taking about two hours in the observations of our source. It can take up to three days or longer for six-digit passcodes, according to Grayshift documents, and the time needed for longer passphrases is not mentioned. Even disabled phones can be unlocked, according to Grayshift.

Nothing is safe. Encrypt and delete constantly.

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Introducing TapMeasure – Occipital’s new measurement / room CAD generation tool

Phil Nelson 0 Comments

TapMeasure is a whole new way to build a 3D model of any room in a few seconds. It works with Apple’s new ARKit framework, and adds Occipital’s special sauce to provide artwork alignment, quick measurements, and the aforementioned generation of (SketchUp-compatible) CAD files. It’s free, and will ship as soon as iOS 11 drops later today.

See the website at tapmeasure.io.

For my part, I got to push some iOS code to this one! As well as helping out with some of the graphic design and UX, I was also able to design and edit the tutorial videos and the launch trailer embedded above. We have the luxury of one of the most seasoned computer vision teams in the world here, and I think it shows.

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Instapaper for Android

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“Finally.”

I use a fairly cheap Android phone, because I don’t want to give ATT or Verizon any of my money, and I hate cell phone contracts. Instapaper was one of the apps I use everyday that was really hampered by the lack of a native client. Looks like that’s fixed, now.

The interesting thing here is that Marco Arment, Instapaper’s founder/developer, didn’t code the Android app himself. He hired an Android development house to do it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more iOS-only apps go this way if it works out for him.

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HP Says To Bye Bye TouchPad, Pre

Phil Nelson 0 Comments

Almost hidden in this press release about HP’s plans to buy Autonomy Corporation:

In addition, HP reported that it plans to announce that it will discontinue operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. HP will continue to explore options to optimize the value of webOS software going forward.

A real shame. webOS and the devices built around it were the only real competition to iOS and the iPad/iPhone line.

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Amateur Hour

Phil Nelson 0 Comments

Jesper of Waffle Software on the new, published, App Store rules:

[…] I don’t think it’s unfair for Apple to have a list of the applications produced for its platform that it believes is decent and upstanding, and which it is proud to be associated with. I just don’t think that that list should be the same as the list of all applications that can run, ever. I honestly think that even my detractors will concede this as a fair point.

I’m constantly surprised, myself, how many people still don’t see this as a problem. Is Apple totally within their rights to arbitrarily block apps? Yep. Nobody I know is arguing they shouldn’t be allowed to. However, it is troubling to me that they would want to. A dick move is a dick move is a dick move.

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