Firefox 🦊: Interesting Changes and Pet Bugs

List of interesting changes in my favorite browser and pet bug list: Open 2000-04-05 #34572: Use native context menus on Mac OS Native integration into the different OSs Firefox runs on is the basis for user adoption. Otherwise you will feel like a cowboy showing up at a pyjama party: that is both inappropriate and…

MacBook Pro bricked by macOS Catalina Security Update 2020-001

This issue has been going on for several years and there are reports for macOS 10.14 Mojave and 10.13 High Sierra. The update that brought the problem into my life was macOS Catalina Security Update 2020-001 and I am not alone. Round 1 ❌: Usual SMC and NVRAM resets did not help. Round 2 ❌:…

Apple macOS Siri: why does Siri not know, which language a text is in?

This is quite an annoyance and I find it fascinating that even in 2020 Apple seems still unable to solve this challenge. Having Siri read text on macOS is quite handy. If you are not from an english speaking country, you will face the problem, that Siri is currently unable to know which language the…

Broken Apple #31 Custom lyrics not showing iOS 11.2 (fixed in 11.3)

When iOS 11.2 arrived I was still hoping it would fix some of the outstanding issues I was seeing since updating to iOS11. Instead iOS 11.2 added another problem: music.app on iOS no longer showed any song lyrics. At first there was some glitchy workaround by dancing around the music.app menu structure and long-pressing a…

Broken Apple #30 Apple killing Server.app

It’s fascinating to what degree Apple, on a regular basis, manages to break essential functionality for users. An example would be local contact & calendar sync from macOS to iOS which they removed in 10.9 and then added again in 10.9.2. Now someone at marketing at Apple thought it would be wise, to just kill…

Broken Apple #29 CardDAV & CalDAV not working after iOS device restore from iTunes backup

After restoring an iPhone from an iTunes backup CardDAV & CalDAV were no longer working. What solved the problem: Settings > Accounts & Passwords – remove both CardDAV and CalDAV and create new entries for both. After that iOS asked about the self-created certificate as expected and CardDAV and CalDAV are again working. Thought I’d…

Broken Apple #28: Apple entfernt Bewertungssystem für macOS 10.12 Sierra im MacAppStore

OS X ist tot, lang lebe macOS. So oder so ähnlich stellt sich Apple das renaming seines Betriebssystems vor. Kundenbewertungen sind vor allem dann wichtig, wenn ein neues Betriebssystem auf den Markt kommt. Doch genau dieses Bewertungssystem hat Apple aktuell deaktiviert und zwar für genau eine einzige Software: macOS Sierra. Wie immer ist von Apple…

Broken Apple #28 Fritz!App Fon + Bose Soundlink Mini II

Heute trägt Apple keine Schuld. Ob AVM oder Bose hier nachbessern müssen ist noch zu klären. Es geht um das Zusammenspiel von Bose SoundLink Mini II Bluetooth Speaker [1] Fritz!App Fon v3.0.1 unter iOS [2] Das Bose Bluetooth Mini II fungiert als Lautsprecher und eignet sich, dank integriertem Mikrofon, auch als Freisprech-Einrichtung bei Telefonaten. Von…

Broken Apple #27 – iOS 8.4 kills Home Sharing without telling users

Home Sharing, a feature allowing users to share access to an iTunes library and stream that content to all iOS devices on the same WiFi, has been removed from iOS 8.4 without notice.

Broken Apple #26 – Bookmark syncing between OS X 10.10 and iOS 8 without iCloud (not possible)

I didn’t write an article for a long time because live was filled with other things. But this problem has been nagging me for a long time. So let’s go. Apple and Privacy On 13th feb 2015 Tim Cook held an impressive speech at the cybersecurity summit and called privacy a ‘life and death’ issue…