Fed up with the constant onslaught of spam phone calls? Glenn Fleishman explains that there may soon be a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the STIR/SHAKEN protocol, which Apple uses to mark verified calls. Be careful when deleting conversations in Messages because it may ask if the messages are spam. Reply in the affirmative too many times, and Apple might lock the sender’s account. Apple has published a list of the privacy labels for all its apps, which has the side effect of showing just how many apps Apple makes. Finally, Adam Engst dips his toes into the world of knock-off Apple Watch bands and discovers that third-party Sport Loop bands are just as good as Apple’s, for a tenth the price. Notable Mac app releases this week include Typinator 8.7, Lightroom Classic 10.2, Acorn 7.0, Rumpus 9.0, Microsoft Office for Mac 16.47, and 1Password 7.8.
Apple has mandated App Store privacy labels for all apps, but the company is going a step further with its own apps by publishing the complete collection of those labels on the Web to make them easy to scan.
There are reports of iMessage access being restricted on some accounts after messages from them were inadvertently reported as spam. Always read Apple’s prompts carefully, and let us know if this has happened to you.
Two interlocking technologies that phone carriers began rolling out a couple of years ago are helping dramatically reduce unwanted calls from spammers and fraudsters, while giving law enforcement better tools to track those that remain.
Adam Engst dips his toes into the sketchy world of knock-off Apple Watch bands but finds that Apple is charging ten times as much for seemingly identical nylon Sport Loop bands.
Watchlist
Brings user interface improvements and enhanced compatibility with macOS 11 Big Sur to the text expansion utility. (€24.99 new, free update, 8.7 MB, macOS 10.10+)
Maintenance update with performance improvements for the desktop-focused photo cataloging and editing app. ($9.99/$19.99/$52.99 monthly Creative Cloud subscription, free update for subscribers, macOS 10.14+)
Major upgrade to the powerful image editor with an updated user interface and native support for M1-based Macs. ($39.99 new, 19.5 MB, macOS 10.14+)
Major upgrade to the file transfer server with updated security and cryptographic libraries and protocols. ($295 new, free update, 27 MB, macOS 10.6+)
Monthly update brings a smattering of improvements to Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. ($149.99 new for one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update)
Password manager now runs natively on M1-based Macs. ($64.99 new, free update, 71.1 MB, macOS 10.13+)
