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iPad Camera Multitasking

blog.thinktapwork.com

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Re: iPad Camera Multitasking

#81

Post by gregoriol »

mrtksn wrote: post #51

This doesn't bother me at all. Wouldn't it mean that if you talk to Apple about something you need they might actually give it to you? I suspect that people imagine Zoom getting a privilege due to their inartistic value but I don't think that this is the case. I think that it's just a business and there's no reason why you can't have it with Apple too. I imagine, engineers in Zoom needed this to accomplish something…

It would be business if there was a way to know this thing exists and to contact them and request it; otherwise it's a hidden secret between them and that partner, which is a disadvantage to all other developers paying 99$ every year to have access to it.

Re: iPad Camera Multitasking

#82

Post by judge2020 »

xuki wrote: post #40
judge2020 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chances are it'd be the same as the carplay drop-down - you only get access if your app is part of a market that apple allows the API to work on. You have no idea if it'll stay "only for Apple's friends" once they do this; even the current CarPlay app selection has no-name apps like Next[0] (74 total ratings), and I doubt they pulled any favors to get on there. 0: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1476724373

They have a documented process to apply for CarPlay. There is not even a way to apply for this special entitlement.

I said “it’d” (it would) - this isn’t a thing yet and they likely threw it into iPadOS on short notice due to the WFH boom and giving it out is still an informal process. I’m not defending this action of Apple’s - they have the resources to copy and paste the CarPlay drop down into a new one for camera access, but the comment i was replying to was specifically talking about ‘when apple adds the application process for this entitlement’.

Re: iPad Camera Multitasking

#83

Post by ksec »

judge2020 wrote: post #9
hrktb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you’re telling indie developers that no matter how hard they try, they won’t be able to match the functionality of Apple’s special friends. To note, the entitlement switching from private-only-zoom-is-in-the-loop to public-and-documented doesn’t mean that indie devs get access to it. Apple still will grant it to special friends only, and random indie devs can request but will just be rejected.

Chances are it'd be the same as the carplay drop-down - you only get access if your app is part of a market that apple allows the API to work on. You have no idea if it'll stay "only for Apple's friends" once they do this; even the current CarPlay app selection has no-name apps like Next[0] (74 total ratings), and I doubt they pulled any favors to get on there. 0: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1476724373

When Smartphone is the centre of our digital society ( and this is not an exaggeration ). And Apple gives API and special features only to select companies within each different industries. Say only certain car makers get X, or others gets Y for Banking / Finance. At what point will this be Not OK for government and regulators?

Or judging from comments on MacRumors and 9to5 or dozen of other Apple's focused website, Apple devices Apple rules, and this is a perfectly acceptable norm?

Re: iPad Camera Multitasking

#84

Post by ksec »

matwood wrote: post #66
josephg wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their record isn't perfect, but there's plenty of evidence Apple cares about privacy. For example, Apple added E2E encryption of iMessages long before signal and whatsapp made E2E popular. They also E2E encrypt the location of AirTags - which they absolutely did not need to do. Or the recent opt-in iOS data sharing rules - much to Facebook's frustration. But companies, like governments, countries and people are not w…

I was going to say tech people, but I think more generally people like to view the world in black or white or 0 or 1 when in reality there are few issues that clear. As you stated very well, most of the world exists in the gray. Apple can care about privacy while not being perfect. Privacy can also be good for their bottom line at the same time. Even the App Store policies are not wholly bad or good for users, just a…

I need some time to come up with an augment against that. But the tone and message with privacy differs a lot between Steve Jobs's Apple and Time Cook's Apple. I cant quite figure out precisely what is wrong but I just smell lots hypocrisy.

For example Apple tracks its user within App Store. Which is perfectly fine except their PR make its sounds like they dont.

Re: iPad Camera Multitasking

#85

Post by mrtksn »

gregoriol wrote: post #81
mrtksn wrote: post #51

This doesn't bother me at all. Wouldn't it mean that if you talk to Apple about something you need they might actually give it to you? I suspect that people imagine Zoom getting a privilege due to their inartistic value but I don't think that this is the case. I think that it's just a business and there's no reason why you can't have it with Apple too. I imagine, engineers in Zoom needed this to accomplish something…

It would be business if there was a way to know this thing exists and to contact them and request it; otherwise it's a hidden secret between them and that partner, which is a disadvantage to all other developers paying 99$ every year to have access to it.

Anyone acan do any business deal with anybody and not disclose it as long as it complies with the government regulations. Companies rarely disclose their dealings with other companies, trade secrets are often the most guarded secrets out there and its completely legal.

Re: iPad Camera Multitasking

#86

Post by ksec »

isatty wrote: post #25
vbsteven wrote: post #10

This is what bothers me most about Apple devices and software. They probably have the "best" devices out there in terms of user experience. I use an iPhone and iPad every day because of it. But they keep very tight control over what software can be installed and run on it in order to safeguard their views on UX and security/privacy. This means for me as a developer that it's hard to write software and tools for my ow…

The tight control over what the software can do is a big part of what makes apple devices have such a good user experience. Even as a power user/SWE/tinkerer I hope that does not change because I want my daily driver devices to be as reliable and zero config as they can be. Sideloading/rooting an idevice as long as it can’t do Apple Pay/bypass find my iPhone is fine of course.

>Sideloading/rooting an idevice as long as it can’t do Apple Pay/bypass find my iPhone is fine of course.

Epic actually made a case or suggestion for this all the way back in 2015. The App Store distribution doesn't need to tie with App Submission Compliance.

Re: iPad Camera Multitasking

#87

Post by LeoNatan25 »

bydo wrote: post #80
agsnu wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dev certs won't give you access to private entitlements

I'm not an iOS dev, so correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't these specifically App Store entitlements? So if you try to submit an app using an API covered by one without having been granted permission to it, that request will fail, but if you're just building and running on your own hardware you can use any private API you feel like?

Not the way it works. On non-jailbroken iOS, entitlements are enforced at the kernel level. If your app is signed with an entitlement that isn’t listed in the provisioning profile (which only Apple can generate with its private key), the system rejects the binary. It’s the same on Mac, but you can disable amfi to get rid of that shit, which used to also be possible on jailbroken iOS.

Re: iPad Camera Multitasking

#89

Post by grishka »

josephg wrote: post #61
andrepd wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well you can see people in HN are very keen to defend Apple as being the world's most privacy friendly tech company, despite no evidence in that direction :)

Their record isn't perfect, but there's plenty of evidence Apple cares about privacy. For example, Apple added E2E encryption of iMessages long before signal and whatsapp made E2E popular. They also E2E encrypt the location of AirTags - which they absolutely did not need to do. Or the recent opt-in iOS data sharing rules - much to Facebook's frustration. But companies, like governments, countries and people are not w…

E2E encryption and closed-source software don't mix imo. They claim that they encrypt iMessages and AirTag locations, but you don't have much in the way of actually verifying that everything is implemented the way they claim it is. And even if it is, their threat models are usually such that Apple is an unconditionally trusted party. Moreover, they hinder reverse engineering of iOS as much as they technically could.

Re: iPad Camera Multitasking

#90

Post by mcot2 »

I am not defending Apple here but perhaps they intend to make this a public entitlement or even an official API but they are working with Zoom to test it first.

We know Apple gives testing priority to certain developers, they mention it at practically every presentation they do. Granted those are usually for NDA’d features for making demo-only apps.

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