An interesting piece from Ars Technica kicks us off this morning by taking a look at the possible ways the FBI could crack the PIN on the iPhone at the centre of the San Bernardino investigation, without Apple doing it for them. While the FBI has already asked Apple to assist them in doing so by building a custom firmware that removes some of the security features in order for the phone’s PIN to be cracked more efficiently, without any fear of the device wiping itself after incorrect attempts or lengthy lockout periods for incorrect guesses, there are potentially other ways it could accomplish the same thing with little to no Apple assistance.
The first third-party cases for the next iPhone are out. Going off the designs, it looks as though case-manufacturers are taking the rumours to heart and designing their cases sans headphone jack — either that, or they know something we don’t. Of course, there’s also a third option that says they’re just producing whatever designs they want in order to be the first to market when the new iPhone launches sometime later this year.
Similarly, cases for the iPhone SE have also started appearing, and by all accounts, it looks as though the design of the iPhone SE will closely mirror that of the iPhone 5 series.
MacBook Pros from 2010 and the 2009 Xserve have been marked as vintage, which means they’re no longer viable for hardware service due to a lack of parts unless serviced in California or Turkey. But unless you live in either of those places, your 2010-era MacBook Pro and XServe are obsolete, which means no hardware service of any kind for you, even if you’re willing to pay.
Now that the iPad Pro has a decent stylus to go with it, it’s time for Apple to start building some handwriting recognition features into iOS. IMore’s feature request doesn’t even mind if the feature sucks to start off with, because like all things Apple, it will be built on until it’s actually worth using.
Also from iMore is a primer on what Siri on the Apple TV can do. Although Siri on the Apple TV isn’t available everywhere, Australia is one of the countries on the list that it works with.
Writing at iMore, Federico Vitcci’s guide to start using Workflow when you don’t know where to start is a good intro to one of the most powerful productivity apps on the platform.
Meanwhile, over at MacStories David Chartier checks out Ulysses 2.5, which comes to iPhone for the first time. In his own words, Ulysses is more than just a text editor, or a distraction-free writing app — it’s a fully fledged writing environment.
Touch Arcade points out there’s a point-and-click adventure game coming to iOS in the near future. The Frostrune is set in the age of Vikings, and judging by the trailer, is shaping up to be pretty cool.
The latest ad from Microsoft showcases things a Mac just can’t do. And if that wasn’t enough, they add insult to injury by borrowing music from an older Apple ad for the retina MacBook Pro.
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/03/thursday-morning-news100316/