I, like many tech literate people, end up having multiple hats. One of those "jobs" that many tech literate people end up performing is being tech support for others. When you do need to provide tech support for others, there are instances when that can be accomplished via email, text message, or even over the phone. However, there are those times when you need to actually see what is happening. This requires connecting to a computer. For this, this is where remote control software can be handy.

There are a variety of options available depending on your needs. If you only need to connect to your own computers, you can probably use Apple's built-in software. It becomes a bit trickier if you need to connect to remote devices, but there are some solutions. Some of the available options are Jump Desktop, ZoHo Assist, AnyDesk, and Team Viewer, just to name a few.

Let us look at one in particular, the one I used, Team Viewer.

Team Viewer

For the last decade I have been using Team Viewer. Team Viewer is one of the myriad options available for remotely connecting to devices. The reason that I have been using Team Viewer is because it is cross-platform. I, as you probably guessed, use a Mac, but the other person I support is using a Windows computer.

Team Viewer offers a couple of different methods for connecting to a remote device. The first is by prompting the remote user to allow you to connect to their computer. This method is good if you are on the phone with them. The second option is by using a password. You can configure one so that you can always connect to the device, provided it is powered on.

The reason I chose Team Viewer was because it was free to use for personal use. According to their website:

"...Remote access software connects individuals and devices, allowing you to collaborate, interact, and provide support for free..."

Team Viewer has worked well for over a decade, at least, it did until earlier this year.

The Issue

Over the last couple of months Team Viewer has, incorrectly, been thinking that I am using Team Viewer in a "commercial" manner. Now, I have only ever had two computers connected to my account. One being my own computer, and the second being someone else's. I only ever connect to the other person's computer when they call and need help. When I setup the other computer, I created a password so I could connect automatically if I needed to.

Because Team Viewer thinks I am using their software in a commercial manner it only allows you to be connected for five minutes. To add even more friction, it is not possible to immediately reconnect. Instead, you had to wait at least one minute between connections. This arrangement effectively makes the software useless for remote support and troubleshooting. I struggled through getting kicked off every five minutes for two different sessions, but ultimately decided this was untenable.

Possible Solution

You, reader, might be wondering, "Doesn't Team Viewer have a paid version?". Yes, they do. I am not opposed to paying for software. Not only because I am a software developer and would like people to buy my apps (and books), but because if you like good software, you should probably pay for it. I pay for quite a bit of software, even on a subscription basis.

Paying for the service is one way of that I could have made the error disappear. Team Viewer has a few options, with different levels depending on your needs. The package that would have made sense for me is called "Team Viewer Personal". When I first encountered the issues I looked into the pricing for this. It would cost just $25 per month, and billed on an annual basis. This is comes out to just under $300 per year. To me, this is an absolutely ridiculous amount to pay, per year, to support a single computer.

A second possible solution was to contact Team Viewer support and explain that their software had incorrectly identified me as a commercial user. However, I figured that this approach would go nowhere. Therefore, I only had one option remaining; just completely replace the software with another solution, and that is what I did.

Screens

Once the trouble started the first time, I thought about what software I could use to replace Team Viewer. I looked at several different options, but ultimately landed on a piece of software that I have used before, Screens by Edovia. I am not new to Screens, I actually use the iOS version regularly to connect to my Macs from my iPhone and iPad. When I am on my Mac and need to connect to another of my devices, I just use the built-in Screen Sharing app.

I went back and looked at when I first purchased the Screens app, and it was in 2011 when I purchased Screens for iOS. I then purchased Screens VNC for the Mac in 2014. As mentioned above you can use the Screens apps on your local network and connect to other devices, but Screens really comes into play when you use it to connect to remote computers.

The way that the system operates is by using a relay server, hosted by Edovia, to connect your computers together. This relay software is called "Screens Connect".

Screens connect runs as a service in the background and will keep your computer connected to relay servers so you can access any registered computer at any point. The use of a relay server means that you do not need to open up ports on your router just to use the service.

Setup

Previously, I have done Screen Connects installs on a Mac, but this was my first time doing an install of Screens Connect on Windows. The install was pretty straightforward but one of the steps is to install TightVNC. This is standard free remote connection software. When you set up TightVNC you are required setting up a password, which you can be prompted for when you actually connect to a remote Windows computer.

This password can be entered every time you connect, or you can configure it to be saved within the Connection Settings for a device. This option is good so you do not need to enter in the password each time. Once you have installed Screens Connect, you will not likely need to worry about managing settings later on, but you can do so by right-clicking on a computer and then clicking on "Edit".

Screens App

In order to use Screens Connect, you will need to purchase the Screens app on your Mac. Technically, the app is free, but there is an in-app purchase.

Once you download the app you will have a few options. There are two subscription options; a $2.99 monthly subscription and a $24.99 yearly subscription. The monthly subscription is great for those who only need to do remote support, or need remote access to their computers, on an infrequent basis. There is a third option, which s particular good for those with subscription fatigue. There is a one-time "lifetime" purchase. This, as you might suspect, is more expensive. The one-time purchase is $79.00.

Given how infrequent I need the app, I could have opted for the monthly subscription of $2.99 and just re-purchase it each time I really need it. However, I actually opted to go for the one-time purchase of $79.00. I opted for the one-time purchase partially due to subscription fatigue, but also because I would rather just have a one-time purchase for the software.

I may have to re-purchase the software again once Screens 6 comes out, but, as of this writing, Screen 5.0 just came out four months ago so it will likely be a while before they end up releasing the next major version that requires purchase. So, I do not have any issues with spending the money.

Overall Experience

After I had installed Screens connect on the remote computer, where I previously had Team Viewer installed, and connected using the Screens app I immediate noticed one difference, the screen quality. When using the Screens app the quality was significantly better than when using Team Viewer. It is not like the Windows PC was using a 4K monitor or anything, but it was noticeably clearer and sharper.

The second thing I noticed was the improved responsiveness overall. Instead of clicking taking multiple seconds for an action to complete, things just actually worked as expected. I would absolutely expect a bit of delay due to the age of the computer, and the fact that it is a remote connection, but I did not realize just how poorly the Team Viewer experience was.

Screens 3

As mentioned earlier, I purchased the Screens VNC app back in 2014. Out of curiosity I re-downloaded the latest version of that, which is from 2018, to see if it would work. And, guess what, it actually did run, and it will connect to newer devices. This was simultaneously surprising, and not surprising.

It means that I did not necessarily need to purchase the Screens 5 app, but I do not know how long the Screens 3 app will continue to run. Besides that, supporting small software companies is always a good thing, particularly if you want the software to stay around.

Closing Thoughts

If you have a Mac and are looking for an app that allows you to connect to a remote Windows computer, you may want to look at Screens and Screens Connect. Yes, you will need to purchase a license for the Screens app, but you do have three options, a monthly subscription, a yearly subscription, or even a one-time "lifetime" purchase. The one-time purchase is not an insignificant amount, but it is not exorbitant amount either.

Screens is designed for the Mac, but the fact that they have Screens Connect for Windows means that they do know that a certain segment of their user base does need to connect to other devices.

Today Apple announced that WWDC 24 will take place from June 10th to June 14th.

The format will be the same as the past few years, in that there will be an in-person experience for a limited group of developers and the conference will be available to stream online for everyone. You will be able to stream the videos online at developer.apple.com or via the Apple Developer App.

Should you wish to attend in-person you have a short amount of time to do apply to attend in-person.

As part of their effort to help the next generation of developers, Apple will be announcing the winners of the Swift Student Challenge on Thursday, March 28th, 2024. These winners will be eligible to attend the keynote in-person. Along with them, 50 Distinguished Winners will be invited to the Apple Campus for a three-day experience. You can read more about the criteria for these on the Apple Developer website.

Source: Apple Newsroom

By now you have likely heard that the United States Department of Justice, along with 15 States Attorneys General, and the District of Columbia, are suing Apple under the Sherman Antitrust act.

I am not a lawyer, nor have I ever studied to become one. Instead of me trying to decipher everything, I want to point you an article titled Understanding the DOJ’s Antitrust Complaint Against Apple by John Voorhees from MacStories. John is a lawyer and as such he has a much better understanding of the nuances, and the laws, than most pundits talking about the lawsuit.

I have read through John's article and I do want to pull a couple of relevant parts:

So far, all we have to go by in the DOJ’s action against Apple is the DOJ’s complaint. Under federal law, Apple has 60 days to file an answer, and that deadline could get extended. I mention that because it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that what the DOJ has filed are merely allegations and arguments. The complaint simply represents the facts the DOJ thinks it can prove and how they apply to antitrust law.

This is a good little legal factoid.

Regarding Messaging:

What releasing RCS won’t do is eliminate the DOJ’s argument that third-party messaging services should have access to it just like Messages will as a fallback when a service’s own network is unavailable. That’s something, but the DOJ’s messaging arguments still feel like a bit of an empty sack.

Many have attempted to argue that Apple should be forced to open up their iMessage protocol because lower quality videos are sent to Android phones. This has nothing to do with iMessage, but the fact that SMS is a global industry standard. Apple has not yet implemented the newer Rich Communications Services, or RCS. However, it will be doing so by the end of the year. There is nothing stopping families from using another service, like WhatsApp, Google Chat, or any other messaging app to send images and videos in higher quality.

Regarding Game Streaming:

(Game Streaming) is another good example of a situation where Apple hasn’t done itself any favors. In 2020, Microsoft was beta testing an app-based version of Xbox Cloud Gaming. When Apple told the company that every app on the service would need to be downloaded locally and reviewed by Apple’s App Review team, Microsoft abandoned its app for the Apple-favored, browser-based approach.

To me, this one in particular is entirely on Apple and wanting to boost revenue. If I have subscribe to a game streaming service, there are no security implications for any of Apple's devices. This is because streaming, by its very nature, is merely transmitting audio and video over the internet to the device, just like a movie streamed from a service. Deliberately blocking this is just egregious. As John states:

The DOJ’s arguments will still apply to the period when streaming wasn’t permitted, which may lead to financial penalties...

My Thoughts

This is going to be a long and drawn out case. There are some aspects of this case that I find super flimsy. Futhermore the re-writing of history regarding the iPod, which is not covered in John's article, is particularly egregious, because the U.S. has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the iPod. Additionally, the iPod has nothing to do with the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in the 1990s, but that is a whole other topic.

I am not sure how much coverage of this I will have on the site, given that it is super nuanced and Apple is going through legal fights all of the time. If there is a settlement and major changes come out of it, I will likely cover it, but as stated before, that could be years from now. I also would not be super suprised if Apple attempted to settle instead of going to trial, but only time will tell.

Today Apple has announced updated 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models, now with the M3 System on a Chip. According to Apple, the M3 processor in the MacBook Air is up to 60 percent faster than the M1 model, and up to 13 times faster than the last Intel-based MacBook Air.

The 13-inch M3 MacBook Air starts at $1099, with an 8-Core CPU, 8-Core GPU, and 16-core Neural Engine, and 256GB of storage. The 15-inch model offers the same specifications, except for the 15-inch screen, is $200 more and starts at $1299. You can configure up to 24GB of unified memory, and 2TB of storage.

The M3 MacBook Air does come with a three new features. The first is the AV1 decode engine built directly in the chip, making decoding even faster. This is not present in the M2 MacBook Air. The second feature is support for Wi-Fi 6E, which can result in faster Wi-Fi connections with the right access points.

The last, and arguably more meaningful feature for many users, is the ability to connect two external displays. This is more than the single display you could connect previously. The M3 MacBook Air can support the internal display and one external display up to 6K. In order to use two external displays, you will need to have the MacBook Air lid closed. This second display can be up to 5K resolution running at 60Hz.

You can order them today and they will be available starting this Friday, March 8th, 2024.

The 13-inch M2 MacBook Air remains on sale and now starts at $999 for an 8-core CPU, 8-Core GPU, 8GB of unified memory, and 256GB of storage. You can still configure the M2 MacBook Air with up to 24GB of unified memory, and 2TB of storage.

Source: Apple Newsroom

Apple’s Security Research team has published an article about how they are upgrading iMessage with improved security, specifically, with a new protocol called Post-Quantum 3, or PQ3. PQ3 should be resistant to its encryption being broken, even with a Quantum Computer. Before diving into the features of PQ3, a brief history, and comparison, of current encryption, starting with a brief history.

Brief History of Encryption

Encryption, at its most basic and fundamental level, is any method, or means, of taking readable text and making it unintelligible. This could be something as simple as a substitution cipher, like ROT13. ROT13 replaces each letter with one that is 13 characters ahead of it. For instance, the letter "A" would be replaced with "N", "B" would be replace with "O", and "C" would be replaced with "P". Given that there are 26 standard letters in the English alphabet, the letters end up being swapped. To illustrate what I mean, let us take the word "Apple". If you use ROT13 it would become "NCCYR". This is a very basic example of an encryption algorithm, and should not be used for anything sensitive, but it does provide a basic understanding.

Early computers did not take encryption into account, primarily because the computing power was not available. The first modern encryption protocols were developed by Netscape in 1995 and was called Secure Socket Layer, or SSL. SSL was eventually adopted by most browsers, and subsequently went through a number of revisions. Ultimately, to appease everyone involved, SSL was superseded by Transport Layer Security, or TLS, in 1999, and became an industry standard. TLS is currently at version 1.3.

Encryption is comprised of keys, and can be any length. The length of the key ends up indicating its security. The strength of a key is measured in bits, specifically the length of the key. The longer the key, the more difficult it is to break.. The first SSL algorithms could be up to 40 bits long. This was due to an export restriction by the United States government. However, that limitation has been lifted. The most common key lengths are 1024, 2048, and 4096. The longer the key length, the more difficult it would be to guess. The difficulty is not linear, instead it is logarithmic in terms of difficulty. The actual given length of time does depend on many factors, including the key length, but also the computers being used. You can easily calculate the possible number of keys, by taking 2 and raising it to the length of the key, minus 1. Therefore, for a 1024-bit key it would be 2 ^ 1023, or

possible keys. This would take an extremely long time to attempt to get the base keys used.

Another example, for a 4096 bit key, the number of combinations would be 522194440706576253345876355358312191289982124523691890192116741641976953985778728424413405967498779170445053357219631418993786719092896803631618043925682638972978488271854999170180795067191859157214035005927973113188159419698856372836167342172293308748403954352901852035642024370059304557233988891799014503343469488440893892973452815095130470299789726716411734651513348221529512507986199933857107770846917779942645743159118957217248367043905936319748237550094520674504208530837546834166925275516486044134775384991808184705966507606898412918594045916828375610659246423184062775112999150206172392431297837246097308511903252956622805412865917690043804311051417135098849101156584508839003337597742539960818209685142687562392007453579567729991395256699805775897135553415567045292136442139895777424891477161767258532611634530697452993846501061481697843891439474220308003706472837459911525285821188577408160690315522951458068463354171428220365223949985950890732881736611925133626529949897998045399734600887312408859224933727829625089164535236559716582775403784110923285873186648442456409760158728501220463308455437074192539205964902261490928669488824051563042951500651206733594863336608245755565801460390869016718045121902354170201577095168 possible combinations.

As you can see, it’s not just that it gets longer, but significantly longer.

There are a number of different means of generating the keys. These means are what is called a cipher suite, or set of algorithms. There are a number of different cipher suites, including Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA), Data Encryption Standard (DES), or Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The suite used depends on the intended usage.

There are two different types of encryption, symmetrical and asymmetrical encryption. Symmetrical encryption is where you use the same key to encrypt as well as decrypt the data.

Asymmetric encryption uses two keys, a private and public key, for encryption and decryption. Asymmetrical encryption is the basis for TLS. These two keys work in conjunction to be able to encrypt and decrypt. Only these two keys will work together. Another public key cannot function with the private key.

DES and AES are used for symmetric key cryptography, while RSA is used for public key cryptography.

How Keys Are Exchanged

One of the more common tasks for any type of encryption is the exchanging of keys. The way that this works is as follows:

1. The client sends a synchronization packet to the server.
2. The server sends a synchronization acknowledgment packet back to the client.
3. The client sends an acknowledgment back to the server, along with a Client Hello packet.
4. The server sends back a Server Hello, certificate, and Server Hello Done packet back to the client.
5. The client sends Client Key exchange, Change Cipher Specification, and Finished packet to the server.
6. The server sends a Change Cipher Specification and Finished packet to the client.

At this point, the ciphers to be used, and the public keys are established. There is a lot more information that is contained within these six steps. I will not go into detail for all of them. You can learn more about that by reading an article from CloudFlare titled What happens in a TLS handshake?, but this is a brief overview.

There are a few things that need to be pointed out. First, during the initial exchange the client sends which TLS protocols that it can understand. This is needed because the server or client may not be able to handle a particular protocol. The client and server should agree upon the highest level protocol that both can support.

The second thing to mention is that it may seem like this interaction would take a long time, but as you can probably guess, today’s devices are fast enough to support this and have this interaction take, at most, a few seconds, but in most situations this is much faster.

Now that we have a basic understanding of how key exchanges occur, let us look at how encryption works with iMessage.

How iMessage Encryption works

According to Apple’s "iMessage security overview" support article, quote:

When a user turns on iMessage on a device, the device generates encryption and signing pairs of keys for use with the service. For encryption, there is an encryption RSA 1280-bit key as well as an encryption EC 256-bit key on the NIST P-256 curve. For signatures, Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) 256-bit signing keys are used. The private keys are saved in the device’s keychain and only available after first unlock. The public keys are sent to Apple Identity Service (IDS), where they are associated with the user’s phone number or email address, along with the device’s APNs address.

For iMessage keys, there would be 2^1279 possible combinations, so it is not likely that anybody could guess your private key. There is no way to derived from your private key from your public key.

Using today’s hardware, it will take an extremely long time to decrypt the data. While it may take a significantly long time on today’s hardware, that will not always be the case. This is where being proactive with post-quantum

Post Quantum Cryptography with iMessage

In Apple’s security article, Apple has outlined how it is incorporating this new PQ3 protocol into iMessage, starting with iOS 17.4.

There are actually currently four levels of cryptography, Level 0 to Level 3, with future levels possible. Level 0 and 1 are part of the "Classical Cryptography", while Level 2 and 3 are "Post-Quantium Cryptography".

Level 0

Level 0 is no-end-to-end encryption, or what is commonly called "clear-text" communications. This includes apps like Telegram, WeChat, SMS, and Skype.

Level 1

Level 1 is services that have encryption enabled by default. This includes the previous version of iMessage, as well as other apps like WhatsApp, Line, and previous versions of Signal.

Level 2

Level 2 contains services who have Post-Quantum Cryptography for key establishment only. This means that the methods used to generate the encryption keys are resistant to being broken by current day computers, as well as quantum computers. The only app that has this is Signal.

Level 3

Level 3 is similar to Level 2, except it also includes ongoing Post Quantum Cryptography rekeying . The only service that will support this, for now, is iMessage starting in iOS 17.4. Let us look at this re-keying a bit in depth.

Protecting Data

One of the possible issues with any encryption is that computers will get better and may be able to easily break previous encryption schemes. With most encryption, if a key is compromised then all of the previous messages, as well as any future messages using the same key, would be easily decrypted.

In order to protect against a key being compromised, Apple’s PQ3 takes this into account by adding the level 3 feature of ongoing rekeying. The way that this works is by changing the keys on a regular basis. Per Apple’s security article:

PQ3 employs a hybrid design that combines Elliptic Curve cryptography with post-quantum encryption both during the initial key establishment and during rekeying. Thus, the new cryptography is purely additive, and defeating PQ3 security requires defeating both the existing, classical ECC cryptography and the new post-quantum primitives. It also means the protocol benefits from all the experience we accumulated from deploying the ECC protocol and its implementations.

This re-keying should go a long way to being able to protect conversations should a key get compromised. And even if a flaw s found in a cipher,

Closing Thoughts

Quantum computers being capable of breaking encryption is not anything that one needs to worry about right now. Even though there is no current worry, it is best to be proactive and Apple is doing just that. With iOS 17.4 they are updating the encryption of iMessage to include cryptography that is not only resistant to being broken by today’s computers, but also resistant to quantum computers.

Apple could match Signal and just have post-quantum keys, but instead they are going beyond that to re-keying on a regular basis and minimizing the ability to access data even if a key is compromised at some point. Even if a post-quantum cipher is broken, the current level of cryptography will still protect

This post is just an overview, and Apple’s security article has a lot more in-depth information about the ciphers used, the encryption algorithms, and additional details, should you be interested.

Today Apple has made a number of announcements with many of these being related to complying with the European Union Digital Markets Act, or DMA. The DMA requires big technology companies, like Apple, to comply with a number of various new regulations.

There is a lot of information. I could attempt to detail all of the changes, but I would do a poor job of it. Instead, I am going to provide a brief overview of each of the changes, with links to a much more in-depth article. Most of these will be limited to the EU, but there are some new items that are not.

Request for Improved Interoperability

Developers can now make a request improved interoperability with the iOS hardware and software. This request form does not guarantee that a feature will be implemented. Developers will need to be explicit in their request and why they are requesting it. There are, of course, limitations. Anything that would weaken security will be rejected. This request is limited to EU developers.

You can read more information at MacRumors

Third-Party App Stores in the EU

The biggest requirement for the DMA is that Apple will be required to allow side-loading of apps from third-party app stores. These companies will be required to comply with. One requirement is that the companies must have a 1 million euro line of credit with an A-Plus rating. This is to be able to make sure they can pay some fees, but more on that in a bit.

Apps that are made available on these marketplaces will be required to be notarized through Apple, which will ensure safety and security checks, but they will not be checked for content.

More details are available at 9to5Mac.

Reduced Commissions in the EU

The third item announced is that there will be a reduced commission structure for EU developers. The new structure will drop down to 10% for Small Developers, down from 15%. For larger developers, it will be 17%. Apps that are within third-party app marketplaces can use any payment processor that they want. Including Apple’s. If they opt to use Apple’s, they will pay an additional 3% fee.

For developers who have more than 1 million installs per year, they will need to pay a Core Technology Fee, or CTF. This is €0.50 per install. This fee will need to be paid regardless of where the app is installed, via Apple or via a third-party marketplace.

Third-party Marketplaces will need to pay the Core Technology Fee for apps downloaded through the marketplace. There is no threshold for marketplaces.

You can read additional details via target="_new">9to5Mac.

Web Browsers and Near Field Communications

Apple will be opening up iOS to allow apps to access the Near Field Communication, or NFC, chip. This will allow apps to offer non-Apple "Tap to Pay" options. Details are available at MacRumors.

For the entire lifetime of iOS, there has only been a single browser engine, WebKit. To date, third-party browsers, like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, have all had to use the WebKit engine on iOS and iPadOS. This will change. They will now be able to use their own browser engine. Users will even be prompted to choose a default. This is similar to the Browser Ballet that Microsoft had to implement on Windows in the European Union.

Additional details are available on 9to5Mac.

New Gaming Streaming Options

The gaming landscape has changed significantly since iOS was initially released in 2007. When it was released, physical games were prominent. iOS has contributed to digital games being even more prevalent. One of the downsides to modern games is that they can be rather large in size. Along with this, internet speeds have become much faster. In order to limit the needs to constant updates, as well as be able to game on anything, streaming games have become more commonplace.

To date, Apple has required developers to submit every game as a discrete app. This was an untenable solution for streaming games. This will no longer be the case. This change will allow services like Xbox Game Pass and GeForce Now to be viable options via an App on the App Store. Previously these were only available via a web browser. This will apply to the App Store world wide, not just in the EU.

More details can be found on MacRumors.

New Developer Reports

The last item that was announced is that developers will be getting access to 50 new additional reporting metrics. Four of the new metrics will be engagement of users, additional details with in-app purchases, improved app usage, like crashes and deletions. The one that might be the most interesting is framework usage. This will allow developers to see how their app interacts with frameworks like Widgets, CarPlay, and PhotoPicker.

There will be more information available in March about the new metrics and reports that will be available.

Additional information can be found on MacRumors.

Closing Thoughts

Apple has clearly indicated that they will not be brining any of the EU-specific changes to any other markets, unless required to by law, so do not expect these changes to come to other markets without changes in laws.

Many of the changes announced are specific to the European Union. However, I think the new streaming game option could be a big boon to the Apple TV. This is possibly a boon because more people might opt to purchase an Apple TV and game controller and use that with Xbox Game Pass instead of purchasing an Xbox Console. Beyond this, having access to Xbox Game Pass available natively on an iPad can improve the experience overall.

Apple Vision Pro pre-orders have begun with initial availability in two weeks, February 2nd, 2024. As outlined before, Apple Visoin Pro starts at $3499 for the 256GB model. While there has been some additional previous available, but that information was limited. I thought it would make sense to provide additional specs and options available, because these have not been previously announced.

Pre-Order Needs

In order to pre-order an Apple Vision Pro you need to have an iPhone with Face ID, since face scanning is done to determine the proper light shield and headband size. On January 8th, Apple announced what would be included with the Apple Vision Pro as well as lens options. There are two lens options, readers for $99 and prescription lenses for $149. One thing that was not previously outlined, but has seen been made known is that you will need to have a current and valid prescription from a provider.

Included with Apple Vision Pro

The Apple Vision Pro does come with some items within the package. This list of items included is

• A Solo Knit Band
• A Dual Loop Band
• A Light Seal
• Two Light Seal Cushions
• An Apple Vision Pro Cover
• A Polishing Cloth
• Battery Pack
• USB-C Charge Cable
• USB-C Power Adapter

Additional Specs

At the announcement of the Apple Vision Pro, Apple indicated that it would have an M2 processor, but the details of the processor were not specified at the time. The Apple Vision Pro will come with an 8-Core CPU that has 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. Along with this is a 10-core GPU, a 16-Core Neural Engine, and 16GB of unified memory.

Additional Options

When the Apple Vision Pro pre-orders were announced, the $3499 price included the 256GB model. You can order a 512GB or 1TB model. The prices for these are $3699 for the 512GB and $3899 for the 1TB.

AppleCare+ for the Apple Vision Pro is $499 for two years of coverage, or $24.99 for monthly coverage.

The Apple Vision Pro can be powered by a battery pack, which provides up to 2 hours of regular usage and 2 1/2 hours of vidoe playback. If you wish to purchase an additional battery pack, it will cost $199.

Closing Thoughts

As of this writing pre-orders have slipped to mid February for the 256GB model, with the 512GB and 1TB model still having launch day pickup or delivery.

Today Apple has announced that the Apple Vision Pro pre-orders will begin next Friday, January 19th, 2024 at 5 a.m. Pacific Time. While pre-orders will start then, the product itself will begin arriving on February 2nd, 2024.

While Apple has provided some basic information, like the starting price, there were some other pieces of information that has not been known.

As previously stated, the Apple Vision Pro will be available starting at $3,499 (U.S.). What is new is that this will come with 256GB of storage. The Apple Vision Pro will be available at all U.S. Apple Store locations and the U.S. Apple Store online.

One item that has not been known is how much the lenses that are used with the Apple Vision Pro will cost. Apple's press release deliniates this. Optical Inserts that are Readers will cost $99 and prescription-based inserst will be $149.

The Apple Vision Pro needs to be secured to one's face. This is done using a band. The Apple Vision Pro comes with a Solo Knit Band and Dual Loop Band. This gives users two options for the fit that works best for them. Apple Vision Pro also includes a Light Seal, two Light Seal Cushions, an Apple Vision Pro Cover for the front of the device, Polishing Cloth, Battery, USB-C Charge Cable, and USB-C Power Adapter.

There are something things that we do not yet know, like the cost of additional battery packs, how many units will be available, and what additional storage tiers (if any) are available. I am sure that information will come out in due course.

Source: Apple Newsroom

For the last couple of years I have posted a "Year in Review". You can check out the post for 2021 or 2022. To continue this, I have opted to post another year in review. Here are the statistics for the year for the site, my books, and my apps.

Overview

In October of 2022 I completely changed the entire infrastructure of the site moving away from wordpress and now I use a static site generation package called "Publish" by John Sundell. Having used this method for over a year now, it has provided some insight.

The first thing is that it does take a bit more work to create a new post. It is not the writing of the post itself, because that can take various amounts of time depending on the post, but the extra work comes from the actual generation of the pages. It can take anywhere from 70 seconds to 90 seconds to generate the site. This generation needs to occur everytime that anything is changed.

Because of this, I have actually created a development site. This site takes approximately 2 seconds to fully generate and run. This is the site that I use to write my longer posts because it takes so much less time to generate the entire site. Once I have an article in the state that I want, I then copy and paste it to my live directory and then regenerate the site.

Now, let us look at individual aspects of the site and apps.

Posts

Total Posts: 171. This is approximately 10% fewer posts in 2023 as compared to 2022. Number of "Availability" posts: 113, there were 117 last year, so just a few less. Number of "Non-availability" posts: 48, as compared to 69 in 2022, and 70 in 2023. Reviews: 6 reviews in 2023. There were 7 reviews in 2022, and 12 reviews during 2021.

Total "Review" word count: 24,530, or an average of 4,088.33 words per review. Shortest Review: Super Mario Wonder at 1,264 words Longest Review: Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max at 7,790 words

Total Word Count (not including "availability" posts): 59,087 for an average of 1,053.13 words per post Average Word Count (all posts): 1,089.98 words per post

Most popular post in 2023: Review of the 2nd Generation HomePod - 583 views 2nd most popular review in 2022: Review of the iPhone 15 Pro Max - 442 views

Here are the top 12 posts overall:

1. Replacing my AirPort Extreme Routers
2. Using Loopback to Output to Multiple Speakers on macOS Simultaneously
3. A Review of the 5th Generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro
4. "Account Locked" After Updating macOS Big Sur
5. Review of the 2nd Generation Homepod
6. Review of the iPhone 14 Pro Max
7. Apple Introduces Apple Business Connect
8. Ongoing Problems that need to be fixed within Apple’s Ecosystem
9. macOS Mojave and Websites
10. Review of the 14-inch M2 Max MacBook Pro
11. Initial Thoughts on the 14-inch M2 MacBook Pro
12. Site, App, and Books: 2022 Year in Review

What I find interesting about this list is that five of them are from 2023, three of them are from 2022, three from 2021, and one is from 2018.

Page Views

With changing the entire infrastructure of the site, one thing that needed to change was the mechanism for calculating page views.

Total Page Views from 2016 to 2022 (Wordpress using JetPack plugin):

• 2022: 9,392 (January 1st to October 27th - 300 days) / 31.30 per day.
• 2021: 13,860 / 37.97 per day
• 2020: 9,594 / 26.21 per day
• 2019: 13,475 / 36.91 per day
• 2018: 11,573 / 31.71 per day
• 2017: 29,126 / 79.80 per day
• 2016: 34,166 / 93.35 per day

New Method:

• 2023: 125,836 / 345.71 views per day.
• 2022: 31,337 (October 28th to December 30th - 64 days) / 489.64 views per day.

The new calculation mechanism reads all of the log files and then calculates the total per individual page. This script excludes certain urls, like the upload directories, css files, and any other static files. This script also excludes bots, feed readers, tag pages, the RSS Feed, and similar items. Additionally, it only looks at successful items served, meaning it excludes any 400, 401, 403, 404, 301 and 302 redirects, as well as 500 errors.

Book Statistics

Here are the statistics for the total number of books sold from 2019 to 2022. These are the actual number of books sold across all avenues of sales.

The number of books sold this year is less than last year. I had mentioned last year that it may be prudent to re-evaluate whether or not to do a Kindle version, and I opted to not create a kindle version. I still did manage to sell 13 e-books even without having a new one. The paperback purchaes were up significantly, with 41 paperback books sold.

App Statistics

Last year I launched a second app, "4077: An Unofficial MASH Trivia App".

MASH Trivia

It is a trivia app that covers the classic TV show, M*A*S*H. It requires iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or macOS Ventura (and newer). You can view more information about this on its site: MashTrivia.app, as well as play the web-version of the game.

• 2023: 148
• 2022: 41

This is an increase in downloads, it is not exactly a ton, but it is still a decent number for a game for a single show. You can download it and give your M*A*S*H knowledge a try.

wwriteLite

This year there were only a few updates or wwriteLite, specifically there were 3. Here are the new downloads of wwriteLite per year:

• 2023: 47
• 2022: 49
• 2021: 69
• 2020: 56
• 2019: 66
• 2018: 136
• 2017: 101
• 2016: 132

I cannot say that I am surprised that wwriteLite has gotten fewer downloads this year as compared to last year, but it is very close to last year's downloads. Feel free to download wwriteLite and let me know of any bugs.

Reading Lists

Every month I post my Reading Lists I thought I would add some statistics for those as well. Over 2023 I read 167 titles, 133 of these were distinct titles, and of these, 25 were new titles that I had not listened to previously..

This comes down an average of 13.92 titles overall, 11.08 distinct titles, and 2.08 new titles per month. The month where I listened to the largest number of books was May. During that month I listened to 24 titles listened to, or 0.775 books per day. The last reading list that will be published was actually published earlier today.

Closing Thoughts

A lot has happened this year on the site. I am not sure how best to improve the sales of my books. The trend has been going down since 2019 and I am not sure if there is a way to meaningfully increase that.

I do not know how the web statistics nor app downloads. I am not one who wants to keep posting the same thing again and again because it would annoy any followers, but maybe I will need to post it at different times to be sure that everybody knows about the things I have created.

Today is the last day of December of 2023. I normally would post my reading list on the first, but this is a special one. As mentioned in my November reading list, this is the last reading list that I will be posting.

As mentioned in that post a majority of the books that I read are ones that I have read before. And December is not much different. Also as mentioned in that post, I have actually cancelled my Audible subscription which means that I will not be purchasing new books beyond what I have already purchased; at least not a regular basis.

Now, here is my reading list for December.

In December I listened to 22 books total. Four of these titles were new, or approximately 18.18 percent. I want to highlight two of the new titles that I listened to. The first is The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush.

When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots—a group then made up exclusively of men—had the right stuff. It was an era in which women were steered away from jobs in science and deemed unqualified for space flight. Eventually, though, NASA recognized its blunder and opened the application process to a wider array of hopefuls, regardless of race or gender. From a candidate pool of 8,000 six elite women were selected in 1978—Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid, and Rhea Seddon.

In The Six, acclaimed journalist Loren Grush shows these brilliant and courageous women enduring claustrophobic—and sometimes deeply sexist—media attention, undergoing rigorous survival training, and preparing for years to take multi-million-dollar payloads into orbit. Together, the Six helped build the tools that made the space program run. One of the group, Judy Resnik, sacrificed her life when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded at 46,000 feet. Everyone knows of Sally Ride’s history-making first space ride, but each of the Six would make their mark.

It is likely that you might have heard of Sally Ride, but the remaining five women are likely people that you have not heard about before. If you want to learn more about the early history of women astronauts.

The second book that I want to highlight is The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough.

The dramatic and enthralling story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time, a tale of greed, corruption, and obstruction but also of optimism, heroism, and determination, told by master historian David McCullough.

This monumental book is the enthralling story of one of the greatest events in our nation’s history, during the Age of Optimism—a period when Americans were convinced in their hearts that all things were possible.

In the years around 1870, when the project was first undertaken, the concept of building an unprecedented bridge to span the East River between the great cities of Manhattan and Brooklyn required a vision and determination comparable to that which went into the building of the great cathedrals. Throughout the fourteen years of its construction, the odds against the successful completion of the bridge seemed staggering. Bodies were crushed and broken, lives lost, political empires fell, and surges of public emotion constantly threatened the project. But this is not merely the saga of an engineering miracle; it is a sweeping narrative of the social climate of the time and of the heroes and rascals who had a hand in either constructing or exploiting the surpassing enterprise.

The reason I want to highlight this one is because it is a good detailed history of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. I do not normally listen to abridged books, but this one I did because the abridged version was narrated by Edward Herrmann.

Other Reading Lists