Year: 2017

Report: Apple buys facial recognition firm “RealFace” for $2M

Dan Uff February 20, 2017 0

Rumor has it that the next major update of the iPhone will have facial recognition technology.

To further fan those rumors, it is being reported that Apple has acquired a company called RealFace which specializes in said technology.

The company, formed in 2014, appears to have been purchased for $2 million, or several million dollars, according to the Times of Israel or Calcalist respectively. The company previously developed an app to mathematically determine the user's best photos using its in-house facial recognition software.

The RealFace software provides "frictionless face recognition" directly on a relatively low-powered device like an iPhone. According to the company, it aims to "offer customers a smart biometric log-in solution" for mobile deployment.

The company had previously garnered $1 million in start-up funds, and employs somewhere between 5 and 10 people. The RealFace website is down, either by demand or intentional removal by the company or Apple is not yet known.

Recent rumors have claimed that the "iPhone 8" and possible other 2017 iPhone models will come equipped with a practical face scanning utility powered by a laser 3d scanner, not aimed at augmented reality application, at least to start.

The technology has more use than facial recognition. An API release could open up other uses like ultimate use in augmented reality and virtual reality headsets, clothing sizing, accurate distance measurements for home improvement, scanning for 3D printing, appliance and HomeKit integration, and other applications needing precise volumetric scans, or range-finding.

Apple not allowing some apps to install due to expired Developer’s Certificates

Dan Uff February 20, 2017 1

(MacRumors.com): A number of Mac apps failed to launch for users over the weekend because of a change to the way Apple certifies apps that have not been bought directly from the Mac App Store.

Several users of apps including Soulver and PDFPen who had downloaded the apps from the developers' websites all reported immediate crashes on launch. Developers of the apps quickly apologized and said that the issue was down to the apps' code signing certificates reaching their expiration date.

Apple issues developer signing certificates to assure users that an app they have downloaded outside of the Mac App Store is legitimate, comes from a known source, and hasn't been modified since it was last signed. In the past, the expiration of a code signing certificate had no effect on already shipped software, but that changed last year, when Apple began requiring apps to carry something called a provisioning profile.

A provisioning profile tells macOS that the app has been checked by Apple against an online database and is allowed to perform certain system actions or "entitlements". However, the profile is also signed using the developer's code signing certificate, and when the certificate expires, the provisioning profile becomes invalid.

Victims of expired provisioning profiles over the weekend included users of 1Password for Mac who had bought the app from the developer's website. AgileBits explained on Sunday that affected users would need to manually update to the latest version (6.5.5), noting that those who downloaded 1Password from the Mac App Store were unaffected. The developers' surprise was explained in a blog post:

We knew our developer certificate was going to expire on Saturday, but thought nothing of it because we believed those were only necessary when publishing a new version. Apparently that's not the case. In reality it had the unexpected side effect of causing macOS to refuse to launch 1Password properly.

Currently, the common factor among affected apps appears to be those that were issued iCloud entitlements as part of their provisioning profile. Smile, developers of PDFpen and PDFpenPro, told TidBITS that users would need to manually download the latest updates to the apps to fix the problem.

Acqualia, developers of number-crunching app Soulver, also apologized for the problem and asked affected users to download an update to fix the issue.

As the above suggests, the immediate solution for developers with potentially affected apps is to renew their code signing certificates before they expire. AgileBits said the incident had given them "a new understanding of the importance of expiring provisioning profiles and certificates" and would be renewing its current certificate, due to expire in 2022, "far before then".

To read the rest of the article, click here.

How to: Quickly close unused Tabs in Safari on Mac

Dan Uff February 20, 2017 1

If you surf the web like I do, you probably open different Safari tabs for different web sites. Before you know it, you have 2o or more open tabs. Now you don't want to go to each tab to close it.

Fortunately, Apple has provided a way to close all of the Tabs except the one you want to keep open.

Here's how:

Put the Mouse on the Tab that you want to keep open.
Right Click (ctrl+click) on that Tab.
Select the close other tabs option.
The other tabs will close.

How to install the Google Play Store on the Amazon Fire

Dan Uff February 18, 2017 0

Normally, the Amazon Fire restricts you to the Amazon App Store for all apps.

But their is a way to get the Google Play Store on the Amazon Fire without having to root the device. The below should work with all current Fire tablets.

Note:
Make sure you install the said files in the order that is shown or the store may not work. In that case, you will have to remove the Google Play Store and reinstall it.

This how to will cover how to install it from the tablet itself which is the easiest and fastest way.

Before trying to install these files, go into Settings > Security > Apps from unknown sources and enable it. This will allow the necessary files to install without problems.

Next, there are four (4) files that you need to download using the built-in web browser. The best way to do this is read this article on the actual tablet and tap the links below. Again, make sure you install the files in the order shown below.

Google Account Manager APK

Google Services Framework APK

Google Play Services APK

Google Play Store APK

You will get a security warning about how each file could harm your device. Ignore this by clicking [OK].

After you've downloaded each file, select Docs > Local Files > Downloads

Tap on each file in the order shown above to install it. Follow the screens as they will help you along the way.

After the above, go back to the Main Menu and you should see the ever familiar Google Play Store icon. Tap it, and you should be able to login into the store.

Happy computing!