Apple pondered having both Face ID and Touch ID on the same iPhone, a European patent reported by AppleInsider revealed. Having multiple forms of biometric authentication is not considered particularly efficient for either the user or the device. Ultimately, Apple decided against having both touch and facial recognition on the same iPhone model. Face ID was introduced in 2017 with the iPhone X, and Touch ID was not available on the device.

Text buried in the filing mentions the use of an “alternative form of authentication than that associated with the biometric feature.” In effect, this means if one biometric authentication check fails, such as Face ID, an alternative like Touch ID could still be used to log in, instead of using the passcode. The passage suggests that Apple at least thought about including both Face ID and Touch ID mechanisms on the iPhone or iPad before deciding against the prospect.

Tumblr’s ban on pornography goes into effect today. The company is using algorithms to automatically flag adult content. This has resulted in some hilarious missteps, like having images of raw chicken flagged for porn.

Starting December 17 Tumblr’s algorithms will start removing content that meet the following criteria: Any photo, video, or GIF that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, and any content—including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations—that depicts sex acts.

Apple has hired designer Andrew Kim. Mr. Kim first got traction back in 2012 for creating a design language for Microsoft as an experiment.

His LinkedIn profile says that he joined the company in December of this year, while his Instagram confirms that his first day working at Apple Park was last Tuesday. Along with the recent news of Tesla’s chief vehicle engineer returning to Apple, Kim’s move will certainly stoke speculation that Apple is once again working on an actual car.

While his hiring is certainly interesting, I personally don’t see this as evidence of Apple’s car project, at least not a consumer car. I think the project was for their fleet of Apple Maps vehicles.

There’s a short article on Medium where the author explains how iOS push notifications work. Apple added push notifications in 2009.

Push notifications were introduced to the greater public by Apple in 2009 to solve the problem of wanting to receive messages in real time without having to run the entire app in the background. Until then, there were two predominant methods of sending notifications to applications.

There aren’t a lot of technical details but that makes it easier for people to understand.

If you’ve ever had a jailbroken iOS device you’ll be familiar with the Cydia app store. But Cydia’s creator Saurik says it’s being shut down after a bug was discovered on the platform that put user data at risk.

The reality is that I wanted to just shut down the Cydia Store entirely before the end of the year, and was considering moving the timetable up after receiving the report (to this weekend); this service loses me money and is not something I have any passion to maintain…

Nowadays I’m surprised to hear that people still jailbreak. But back in the day it was a bit more relevant. I remember jailbreaking my 5th gen iPod touch back in 2011.