We’re back from our Memorial Day hiatus with a giant-sized issue of TidBITS! Since your last email issue, Apple was grilled by the U.S. Senate about its tax practices, but is the company doing anything wrong, or even unusual? Josh Centers digs into the issues, which are far more subtle than the headlines would have you believe. The Keyboard Maestro 6 macro utility debuted in a major new revision, and Adam Engst takes you on a tour of its new features. Adobe responds to complaints about its switch to the subscription-based Creative Cloud, and Smile has updated TextExpander touch for iOS with powerful new capabilities that bring the text-expansion utility closer to the Mac version — Michael Cohen runs down the details. In security news, Glenn Fleishman explains how Twitter has added two-factor authentication and how Apple’s two-factor authentication has come under fire for not being sufficiently comprehensive. Glenn also looks at how Google is taking a page from Apple’s iMessage playbook by switching away from the open XMPP chat standard for Google Talk and the new Hangouts. Lastly, Josh rounds out the issue with an installment of FunBITS that reviews the Marvel Unlimited comic subscription service. Notable software releases this week include Napkin 1.1, Evernote 5.1, and KeyCue 6.5.
Adobe has heard the complaints about the subscription-only Creative Cloud, and says it will address them. Josh Centers has the details.
Version 2.0 of TextExpander touch, the iOS version of Smile’s text expansion software, offers fill-in snippets, date and time macros, rich text support, and other features familiar to users of the Mac version.
Twitter joins a growing club of sites that let you reduce the chance of a hijacked login with two-factor authentication.
Elcomsoft, a software firm that sells security-cracking software used for forensics and testing purposes, says Apple’s two-factor logins leave security holes that aren’t immediately apparent.
Google will no longer support the XMPP standard for its chat system as it moves from Google Talk to Hangouts. It has already severed ties with compatible, federated systems.
The U.S. Senate isn’t happy with the taxes that Apple’s paying. Is Apple worse than its competitors in using the loopholes at its disposal?
Peter Lewis of Stairways Software has updated the Keyboard Maestro macro utility to version 6, adding a slew of new features, including the capability to automate Web pages, trigger macros when USB devices are connected or disconnected, step through macros one action at a time, sync macros between Macs, and much more.
Marvel Unlimited promises to be the Netflix of comics, but does its app need beefing up?
Notable software releases this week include Napkin 1.1, Evernote 5.1, and KeyCue 6.5.
We have a heaping helping of ExtraBITS this week, including the death of the Camino browser, the EFF’s fight for podcasting, Apple’s cheaper iPod touch, Tim Cook’s grilling at D11, Glenn Fleishman’s purchase of The Magazine, and copyright in space. We ask whether Internet access is a human right and what effect electromagnetic fields have on humans. We also wanted to share pointers to a number of our own articles that didn’t fit in this week’s issue: a preview of the next generation of the Opera Web browser, the new Analog Camera app for the iPhone, how to move a Dropbox folder to another disk, the proper pronunciation of GIF, and Macworld’s ideas for Apple.