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Apple Security Research: ‘Private Cloud Compute: A New Frontier for AI Privacy in the Cloud’
Apple:
We designed Private Cloud Compute to ensure that privileged access doesn’t allow anyone to bypass our stateless computation guarantees.
First, we intentionally did not include remote shell or interactive debugging mechanisms on the PCC node. Our Code Signing machinery prevents such mechanisms from loading additional code, but this sort of open-ended access would provide a broad attack surface to subvert the system’s security or privacy. Beyond simply not including a shell, remote or otherwise, PCC nodes cannot enable Developer Mode and do not include the tools needed by debugging workflows.
Next, we built the system’s observability and management tooling with privacy safeguards that are designed to prevent user data from being exposed. For example, the system doesn’t even include a general-purpose logging mechanism. Instead, only pre-specified, structured, and audited logs and metrics can leave the node, and multiple independent layers of review help prevent user data from accidentally being exposed through these mechanisms. With traditional cloud AI services, such mechanisms might allow someone with privileged access to observe or collect user data.
Many details here, but many still to come.
★
Apple:
We designed Private Cloud Compute to ensure that privileged access doesn’t allow anyone to bypass our stateless computation guarantees.
First, we intentionally did not include remote shell or interactive debugging mechanisms on the PCC node. Our Code Signing machinery prevents such mechanisms from loading additional code, but this sort of open-ended access would provide a broad attack surface to subvert the system’s security or privacy. Beyond simply not including a shell, remote or otherwise, PCC nodes cannot enable Developer Mode and do not include the tools needed by debugging workflows.
Next, we built the system’s observability and management tooling with privacy safeguards that are designed to prevent user data from being exposed. For example, the system doesn’t even include a general-purpose logging mechanism. Instead, only pre-specified, structured, and audited logs and metrics can leave the node, and multiple independent layers of review help prevent user data from accidentally being exposed through these mechanisms. With traditional cloud AI services, such mechanisms might allow someone with privileged access to observe or collect user data.
Many details here, but many still to come.
Ming-Chi Kuo Says This Year’s Series 10 Apple Watches Will Increase in Size
Ming-Chi Kuo:
The Series 10 will feature form factor upgrades, including larger
screen sizes (increasing from 45mm/41mm to about 49mm/45mm) and a
thinner design.
Unlike other devices Apple sells, Apple Watch sizes are given not by screen diagonal but by case height. So what Kuo is claiming is that the current “big” size will become the small size and the new big size will be much bigger. I find this very hard to believe. Since its inception Apple Watch has stood out among smartwatches for making models that are appropriate for people with small wrists.
Anecdotally, almost all women I see wearing and Apple Watch are wearing a small one, and I see a fair number of men who’ve chosen the smaller size as well.
Worth noting too that three years ago Kuo, along with Mark Gurman, was completely wrong about the design of the Series 7 watches, with both of them claiming it would have flat sides like the iPhone 12.
★
Ming-Chi Kuo:
The Series 10 will feature form factor upgrades, including larger
screen sizes (increasing from 45mm/41mm to about 49mm/45mm) and a
thinner design.
Unlike other devices Apple sells, Apple Watch sizes are given not by screen diagonal but by case height. So what Kuo is claiming is that the current “big” size will become the small size and the new big size will be much bigger. I find this very hard to believe. Since its inception Apple Watch has stood out among smartwatches for making models that are appropriate for people with small wrists.
Anecdotally, almost all women I see wearing and Apple Watch are wearing a small one, and I see a fair number of men who’ve chosen the smaller size as well.
Worth noting too that three years ago Kuo, along with Mark Gurman, was completely wrong about the design of the Series 7 watches, with both of them claiming it would have flat sides like the iPhone 12.
Apple Discontinuing Apple Pay Later, Just 8 Months After Rolling Out to Countries Other Than the U.S.
Apple, in a statement to 9to5Mac:
Starting later this year, users across the globe will be able to
access installment loans offered through credit and debit cards,
as well as lenders, when checking out with Apple Pay. With the
introduction of this new global installment loan offering, we will
no longer offer Apple Pay Later in the U.S. Our focus continues to
be on providing our users with access to easy, secure and private
payment options with Apple Pay, and this solution will enable us
to bring flexible payments to more users, in more places across
the globe, in collaboration with Apple Pay enabled banks and
lenders.
This always seemed a like weird offering from Apple. Apple Pay Later did not charge interest, which is great, but it still seemed contrary to the spirit of helping people develop good financial habits.
★
Apple, in a statement to 9to5Mac:
Starting later this year, users across the globe will be able to
access installment loans offered through credit and debit cards,
as well as lenders, when checking out with Apple Pay. With the
introduction of this new global installment loan offering, we will
no longer offer Apple Pay Later in the U.S. Our focus continues to
be on providing our users with access to easy, secure and private
payment options with Apple Pay, and this solution will enable us
to bring flexible payments to more users, in more places across
the globe, in collaboration with Apple Pay enabled banks and
lenders.
This always seemed a like weird offering from Apple. Apple Pay Later did not charge interest, which is great, but it still seemed contrary to the spirit of helping people develop good financial habits.
Financial Times Reports EC to Charge Apple With Non-Compliance Under DMA for CTF
Javier Espinoza reporting from Brussels, and Michael Acton from San Francisco, for the Financial Times (archive link in case your FT subscription isn’t working):
The European Commission has determined that the iPhone maker is
not complying with obligations to allow app developers to “steer”
users to offers outside its App Store without imposing fees on
them, according to three people with close knowledge of its
investigation. The charges would be the first brought against a
tech company under the Digital Markets Act, landmark legislation
designed to force powerful “online gatekeepers” to open up their
businesses to competition in the EU.
The commission, the EU’s executive arm, said in March it was
investigating Apple, as well as Alphabet and Meta, under powers
granted by the DMA. An announcement over the charges against Apple
was expected in the coming weeks, said two people with knowledge
of the case. […]
If found to be breaking the DMA, Apple faces daily penalties for
non-compliance of up to 5 per cent of its average daily worldwide
turnover, which is currently just over $1bn.
The EC leaks everything to the Financial Times. Reuters points out that EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager leaves office in November. Makes me wonder if there’s a clock-running-out aspect to this. Does the incoming regime share her politics regarding US tech companies?
Forget about trying to figure out what the EC wants from reading the DMA. It doesn’t say. I suspect they want Apple to completely forgo monetization of its IP on iOS — to allow the distribution of iOS apps without any charge or fee whatsoever other than the $99 annual developer program fee. I’m not sure, at all, how Apple is going to respond, but I do not think the EC going to get that.
★
Javier Espinoza reporting from Brussels, and Michael Acton from San Francisco, for the Financial Times (archive link in case your FT subscription isn’t working):
The European Commission has determined that the iPhone maker is
not complying with obligations to allow app developers to “steer”
users to offers outside its App Store without imposing fees on
them, according to three people with close knowledge of its
investigation. The charges would be the first brought against a
tech company under the Digital Markets Act, landmark legislation
designed to force powerful “online gatekeepers” to open up their
businesses to competition in the EU.
The commission, the EU’s executive arm, said in March it was
investigating Apple, as well as Alphabet and Meta, under powers
granted by the DMA. An announcement over the charges against Apple
was expected in the coming weeks, said two people with knowledge
of the case. […]
If found to be breaking the DMA, Apple faces daily penalties for
non-compliance of up to 5 per cent of its average daily worldwide
turnover, which is currently just over $1bn.
The EC leaks everything to the Financial Times. Reuters points out that EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager leaves office in November. Makes me wonder if there’s a clock-running-out aspect to this. Does the incoming regime share her politics regarding US tech companies?
Forget about trying to figure out what the EC wants from reading the DMA. It doesn’t say. I suspect they want Apple to completely forgo monetization of its IP on iOS — to allow the distribution of iOS apps without any charge or fee whatsoever other than the $99 annual developer program fee. I’m not sure, at all, how Apple is going to respond, but I do not think the EC going to get that.
DetailsPro
My thanks to DetailsPro for sponsoring last week at DF. DetailsPro brings SwiftUI to designers working on Apple platforms. (What a perfect week for a developer/designer tool to sponsor DF.) Without writing a line of code, you can bring your next idea to life in SwiftUI right from your iPhone. Design apps for the iPhone, on your iPhone. Or use it on your iPad or Mac.
DetailsPro has an easy, approachable interface, built-in templates, and a community of designers who share files. It is very easily to get started — you’ll be up and running in minutes. Designs in DetailsPro are 1:1 SwiftUI, so you can export to Xcode at any time. Intuitive features like side-by-side Dark Mode preview and Repeating Elements — a huge timesaver — use the smarts of SwiftUI to make the process enjoyable.
DetailsPro is available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro. DetailsPro is so good and so fun it makes me want to come up with ideas for new apps just to have an excuse to use it. Download it now and give it a try — it’s free forever up to five files, and very reasonably priced for a professional tool.
★
My thanks to DetailsPro for sponsoring last week at DF. DetailsPro brings SwiftUI to designers working on Apple platforms. (What a perfect week for a developer/designer tool to sponsor DF.) Without writing a line of code, you can bring your next idea to life in SwiftUI right from your iPhone. Design apps for the iPhone, on your iPhone. Or use it on your iPad or Mac.
DetailsPro has an easy, approachable interface, built-in templates, and a community of designers who share files. It is very easily to get started — you’ll be up and running in minutes. Designs in DetailsPro are 1:1 SwiftUI, so you can export to Xcode at any time. Intuitive features like side-by-side Dark Mode preview and Repeating Elements — a huge timesaver — use the smarts of SwiftUI to make the process enjoyable.
DetailsPro is available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro. DetailsPro is so good and so fun it makes me want to come up with ideas for new apps just to have an excuse to use it. Download it now and give it a try — it’s free forever up to five files, and very reasonably priced for a professional tool.
Pixar’s ‘Inside Out 2’ Heads for Historic $140–$150M Box Office Opening
Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter:
Pixar’s tentpole earned a massive $62 million on Friday, well
ahead of expectations and putting the movie on course to open in
the $140 million to $150 million range domestically over Father’s
Day weekend, one of the top three starts ever for an animated film
and the second-best for Pixar. Rival studios believe it could
climb as high as $155 million to $160 million, but Disney is being
more circumspect. Friday’s haul includes a huge $13 million in
Thursday previews.
Great news for a great studio that needed a hit. Maybe we should stop griping about Pixar making sequels and just encourage them to make great films, original or not.
★
Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter:
Pixar’s tentpole earned a massive $62 million on Friday, well
ahead of expectations and putting the movie on course to open in
the $140 million to $150 million range domestically over Father’s
Day weekend, one of the top three starts ever for an animated film
and the second-best for Pixar. Rival studios believe it could
climb as high as $155 million to $160 million, but Disney is being
more circumspect. Friday’s haul includes a huge $13 million in
Thursday previews.
Great news for a great studio that needed a hit. Maybe we should stop griping about Pixar making sequels and just encourage them to make great films, original or not.
Japan Enacts Law to Mandate Third-Party App Stores, and You’ll Never Guess Which Class of Devices Aren’t Included
Kyodo News:
Japan’s parliament enacted Wednesday a law to promote competition
in smartphone app stores by restricting tech giants Apple Inc. and
Google LLC from limiting third-party companies from selling and
operating apps on their platforms.
The law will prohibit the providers of Apple’s iOS and Google’s
Android smartphone operating systems, app stores and payment
platforms from preventing the sale of apps and services that
directly compete with the native platforms’ own.
Laws like this are protectionist attacks that specifically target two U.S. companies — Apple and Google. The United States should treat this as a trade war, and reciprocate by passing legislation mandating third-party game stores and payments on game consoles from Sony and Nintendo. See how they like it. It’s patently hypocritical that Japan’s law targets only phones; this law wouldn’t exist if Sony were a player in phones and mobile platforms.
Violations of the new law will bring a penalty of 20 percent of
the domestic revenue of the service found to have breached the
rules. The fine can increase to 30 percent if the companies do not
cease the anticompetitive practices.
Unlike the EU, which believes it can assess fines comprising a hefty percentage of companies’ worldwide revenue (which, in the case of the DMA, I doubt they’ll ever collect), Japan, quite reasonably, only assesses fines on companies’ Japanese revenue.
★
Kyodo News:
Japan’s parliament enacted Wednesday a law to promote competition
in smartphone app stores by restricting tech giants Apple Inc. and
Google LLC from limiting third-party companies from selling and
operating apps on their platforms.
The law will prohibit the providers of Apple’s iOS and Google’s
Android smartphone operating systems, app stores and payment
platforms from preventing the sale of apps and services that
directly compete with the native platforms’ own.
Laws like this are protectionist attacks that specifically target two U.S. companies — Apple and Google. The United States should treat this as a trade war, and reciprocate by passing legislation mandating third-party game stores and payments on game consoles from Sony and Nintendo. See how they like it. It’s patently hypocritical that Japan’s law targets only phones; this law wouldn’t exist if Sony were a player in phones and mobile platforms.
Violations of the new law will bring a penalty of 20 percent of
the domestic revenue of the service found to have breached the
rules. The fine can increase to 30 percent if the companies do not
cease the anticompetitive practices.
Unlike the EU, which believes it can assess fines comprising a hefty percentage of companies’ worldwide revenue (which, in the case of the DMA, I doubt they’ll ever collect), Japan, quite reasonably, only assesses fines on companies’ Japanese revenue.
Ken Kocienda Left Humane
Ken Kocienda, who was Humane’s head of product engineering, has left the company. his Twitter bio and LinkedIn profile both state “working on something new”:
Working on something new. Past: Humane, 15 years at , inventor of
iPhone autocorrect, author of “Creative Selection”
Kocienda’s book Creative Selection is one of the best insider description of working at Apple ever written, and two years ago he was a splendid guest on The Talk Show.
★
Ken Kocienda, who was Humane’s head of product engineering, has left the company. his Twitter bio and LinkedIn profile both state “working on something new”:
Working on something new. Past: Humane, 15 years at , inventor of
iPhone autocorrect, author of “Creative Selection”
Kocienda’s book Creative Selection is one of the best insider description of working at Apple ever written, and two years ago he was a splendid guest on The Talk Show.
★ The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2024
Recorded in front of a live (and lively) audience at The California Theatre in San Jose Tuesday evening, special guests John Giannandrea, Craig Federighi, and Greg Joswiak join me to discuss Apple’s announcements at WWDC 2024. Presented both in standard 4K video and 3D video with spatial audio.
Recorded in front of a live (and lively) audience at The California Theatre in San Jose Tuesday evening, special guests John Giannandrea, Craig Federighi, and Greg Joswiak join me to discuss Apple’s announcements at WWDC 2024.
3D video with spatial audio: Exclusively in Sandwich Vision’s Theater app on Vision Pro, available on the App Store. Just launch Theater and tap the “Watch Live Event” button.
Presenting sponsors:
iMazing 3 — The all-new version of the world’s best iPhone manager, for Mac and Windows. Save 20 percent.
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As ever, I implore you to watch on the biggest screen you can (real, or virtual). We once again shot and mastered the video in 4K, and it looks and sounds terrific. All credit and thanks for that go to my friends at Sandwich, who are nothing short of a joy to work with.
The livestream of 3D video with spatial audio went almost perfectly, and the feedback from viewers who joined the stream has been unanimously positive. My sincere thanks and gratitude to SpatialGen for their remarkable work on that.
Not just shooting this event in 3D, but also streaming it live, was entirely the initiative of my dear friend, Mr. Sandwich himself, Adam Lisagor. I was asked a few times this week whether it was Apple who wanted to stream this live in 3D for viewing on Vision Pro. Nope. It was Adam who pitched me on the idea, only about eight weeks ago. I was like, “Well, sure, that sounds awesome, but how in the world would we do that? What camera could we use to shoot with? How would we stream it? What app would people be able to view it in? It’s a great idea but none of this seems possible.” Adam was like “I think we can do it.”
And, son of a bitch, they did it.
Once I started talking with Apple about arranging for guests, we did let them know our plans to shoot and livestream in 3D for viewing in Theater on Vision Pro — an app that, at the time, was in early beta. Maybe even alpha. Apple’s reaction echoed my own: sounds great but how?
The how is a long story and I get zero credit for any of it, but it involves a custom camera rig with two Lumix BGH1 cameras, each with Olympus 17mm PRO prime ƒ/1.2 lenses (35mm equivalent field of view with the BGH1’s Micro Four Thirds sensor). The lenses were about 3 inches apart — as close as possible — and microphones were placed throughout the theater to capture spatial audio.
The results exceeded my expectations, and I think everyone else’s as well.
To be clear, we shot the show two entirely different ways. The standard multi-camera cut on YouTube, embedded above, was shot exactly as we’ve done in previous years. That video turned out great too. The 3D version in the Theater app was shot from a single point of view, roughly simulating the perspective from a front-row center seat in front of the stage. It looks cool and sounds even better. If you have a Vision Pro or access to one, I highly encourage you to check it out.
We’re describing it as “3D video with spatial audio”, not “spatial video”, because that’s a more precise description of the effect. True spatial video would be more immersive — “Look left to see Joz, look right to see Gruber” — and the effect we achieved wasn’t quite like that. But what we did get is immersive, and very compelling. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first event livestreamed in 3D for viewing in VisionOS, and while my role was simply as the host of the show, that’s pretty damn cool. I’m just amazed at what Lisagor and his team at Sandwich (and SpatialGen) were able to pull off in a matter of weeks.
Reactions From Social Media
Matt Birchler: “I was only able to watch the first 40 minutes or so live, but it was really good, and really compelling to watch in immersive video. Can’t wait for the rest.”
Kevin Pfefferle: “Wow, The Talk Show Live exceeded all expectations. So many candid and insightful answers straight from Apple execs (plus a fair share of generic no-comment answers with a wink and a smile). Bravo! ??”
Kalani Helekunihi: “I watched the Talk Show Live on Vision Pro tonight. It was a really great experience, and felt close to sitting in the front row. Only real issue was bitrate / bandwidth related. If that can be solved, I imagine I’d prefer this to the real thing.”
Dave Marquand: “Really enjoyed the spatial livestream of The Talk Show Live. Taking the front row center seat in the Theater app definitely did feel a lot like sitting in row 1 at a stage performance. Oddly, the “most 3D” thing about the show was the glint off of your watch reflecting off of the floor of the stage in the foreground.”
Kalani Helekunihi, again: “Yep, there was even a moment where the glint caught the right eye camera. Was one of the most “accidentally real” experiences I’ve had with a headset, ever. Those sort of things just can’t be experienced with a TV screen. It all felt like sitting there, and looking into the stage.”
Michael Edlund: “I’ve never been lucky enough to attend @gruber’s The Talk Show live in person, and I was blown away by the 3D #live stream for #VisionPro that was literally like sitting in the first row at the edge of the stage.”
Nick Bodmer: “Watched The Talk Show Live on my Vision Pro last night — what an incredible experience! ? Streaming it in spatial vision made me feel like I was right there in the front row. Sure, there were a few frame rate hiccups, but the immersive experience more than made up for it. Kudos to SpatialGen, Sandwich, and @gruber for pulling off a fantastic live event! ?”