M1 Mac Troubleshooting, Quick Tips, and More — Mac Geek Gab 864

M1 Macs have only been available for a few months, but y’all are buying them up like crazy. Of course, troubleshooting them is a bit different than familiar Intel models, and Dave and John talk through some of that while answering your questions. Quick Tips help to make this episode accessible for all, in addition to some non-platform-specific questions about troubleshooting in general. Listen in as your two favorite geeks help share the knowledge, and perhaps you’ll learn five new things, too!

New Exploit Shows We Should Just Skip to iOS 13.1

A contacts exploit was discovered in iOS 13 that lets a person bypass Face ID / Touch ID to see an iPhone’s contacts.

Relatively little is at stake with this exploit. Beyond the inherent danger of an assailant having your iPhone, this method only allows someone to view the contacts within the target iPhone, provided that they have physical access to the target phone and can complete the VoiceOver exploit.

Little is at stake, but there have been so my iOS exploits in the news lately that we might as well go straight to iOS 13.1.

Def Con 2019 and Hacking iOS Contacts

Another Apple hack shown off over the weekend at Def Con 2019 involves iOS Contacts and a SQLite vulnerability. But it’s not something we need to worry about. Emphasis mine:

Documented In a 4,000-word report seen by AppleInsider, the company’s hack involved replacing one part of Apple’s Contacts app and it also relied on a known bug that has hasn’t been fixed four years after it was discovered…

They replaced a specific component of the Contacts app and found that while apps and any executable code has to have gone through Apple’s startup checks, an SQLite database is not executable.

Basically, it sounds like the bug is only available if you specifically remove a key component of Contacts.

Vignette App Lets You Update Your Contact Photos Privately

Vignette app allows you to change all those ugly grey circles with initials into actual photographs. By searching Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Gravatar—no login required—Vignette will attempt to pair your contacts with their profile pictures on social media. After amassing all these images, using Vignette’s easy to use interface, you can select which avatar you’d like to use, or none at all. Once you’re all set, Vignette will write those updates to your contacts database on your phone. That means in Messages, Phone, and all of your other apps, you see beautiful images instead of ugly initials. Vignette is free to try, but in order to save the updates to your contact list, you will need to buy the one-time in-app purchase. Vignette app runs entirely on your phone; your contacts stay on your device and are never transmitted *anywhere*. Privacy is a critical factor to Vignette; your trust is important and will not be squandered. App Store: Free (Offers In-App Purchases)

Mac Contacts App Cardhop Arrives on iOS

Cardhop is a popular contacts app for the Mac. It’s made by Felxibits Inc. makers of another popular app Fantastical 2. Cardhop has finally arrived on iOS. The app’s parsing engine is incredibly intuitive, letting you search, add, edit, and interact with your contacts using a simple sentence. Just type in “John G” and John’s card will instantly appear. Or enter “Sarah Smith [email protected]” and Cardhop will add a new contact to Sarah’s card. Or type in “call Michael S” and Cardhop will instantly start a phone call. Cardhop automatically loads your contacts in Apple’s Contacts app, so you don’t need to do much except tap the Allow button. Plus, the company says that your contact information stays on your iPhone and isn’t uploaded to their servers. Right now the app is available for 20% for a limited time as part of the launch sale. App Store: US$3.99

macOS: Turning Off Calendar and Contacts Suggestions

Today’s Quick Tip is all about those grey suggestions in Calendar and Contacts that may be coming from other apps around your Mac. If you’ve made a flight reservation and see that event show up automatically on your calendar, that may be handy! But if you’d rather someone’s business phone number not get added to her contact card, for example, you may find the feature less helpful. We’ll tell you how to stop this from happening in either program!

iOS 11 Contacts App Icon gets a Little Gender Flexibility

iOS 11 Developer Beta 4, and now Public Beta 3, changed the Contacts icon from a notebook with the silhouette of a man to a man and a woman. That’s a subtle detail, but one that people are noticing. The tech world has a strong cis male bias—so much so that women, transgender, and anyone that doesn’t embrace the good-old-boys-club attitude are often ridiculed and harassed—that needs some serious shaking up, so sometimes those little things can be a big deal.

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