As a matter of archiving and historical significance that is potentially only useful to me, I’m opting to share the current home screen of my iPhone on this, the first day of 2018.
Embracing Defaults
As the iPhone and iOS has matured over the last decade, the amount of third-party apps I have used for system-provided services seems to have dwindled. I no longer use a third-party email client because Mail is good enough for my needs. Apple Music allowed me to ditch Spotify. The Calendar app isn’t nearly as good as Sunrise used to be, but it’s good enough that I don’t want to be bothered using a third-party solution anymore.
Probably the most controversial will be my use of the Apple Podcasts app over something else. The Podcasts app isn’t nearly as full-featured as my old stalwart PocketCasts, but I was willing to trade silence trimming for easily being able to tap on a share link and have it open where most podcasts expect: Apple Podcasts.
Reading
One constant is that I read a lot on my phone. Apple News has become a mainstay for me as a way to check in on the news of the day (both real and fake!), while also mixing in some of the entertainment and music news I am interested in as well. The New York Times is my go-to in the morning for their morning briefing and for periodic push notifications throughout the day so I know when we have been nuked.
I recently received a subscription to The New Yorker and have found their app to be incredibly well done and now my preferred way to read their content. I still check the Medium app daily as well, because there are a few pearls in their sea of masturbatory posts. I do enjoy their new audio posts feature for members, which is a nice addition for longer reads that I have been meaning to read for a while, but never actually sat down to enjoy.
One change I made in the last year is that I stopped using Pocket, which was probably my most used app of the last five years. There wasn’t necessarily anything wrong with Pocket, but I found that I would just throw articles in there and never get around to reading them. Queue Guilt is a real thing.
My new system is to either read the article at the time I find it, or open it in a background tab if I know I want to read it in the evening. Each morning, I close out those tabs, even if they are unread.
Writing
One of my goals for my 35th year is to get back into the habit of writing more, so I’ve put both Ulysses and Day One on my home screen to try and facilitate that. Day One tracks my journaling, private moments (think Instagram posts , but without sharing and growth hacks), and my monthly and annual goals. Ulysses is where I do the majority of my professional and hobby writing, such as this post you are reading right now.
And yes, I use the official Twitter app for both reading and writing tweets instead of Tweetbot. It’s fine. Don’t @ me.
Photography
One break from my “defaults” rule has been switching my photography app of choice to Halide. The ability to shoot manually or with Raw when it makes sense is a major win over the default iOS Camera app. If I need to shoot a video or panorama, the system’s camera app is easily accessible via Control Center.
Halide is the first third-party camera app that seems to have eliminated the annoying delay from launch to being able to capture an image. When I’ve tried (or worked on!) camera apps in the past, I found that the delay would cause me to lose several ‘in the moment’ shots. Either Halide is doing some secret magic, or Apple has finally fixed AVFoundation to not have that delay when using a camera view.
For sharing photos or seeing what is happening in the lives of my friends & family, I still use Instagram. Facebook hasn’t completely ruined it, yet.
A Work-Free Zone
A trend I started around the middle of 2017 and hope to continue into 2018 is keeping all work-related apps and services off of my personal phone and tablet: no work email, Slack, or Asana. The TestFlight build of the TED app is the closest I get to work-related content.
My reasoning for this was to try and create a better separation from work and my day-to-day life. I realized that the notifications and always-on nature of modern work caused my anxiety to increase in ways that I didn’t like. Now, I just check these services when I am sitting at my desk and actually working, versus making myself seem accessible 24/7. If a true emergency does come up (the 1% of the time it is a true emergency), people can contact me via iMessage and I’ll install whatever app I need temporarily if I’m unable to get to my iMac.
Into 2018
If I have to guess about how my phone habits will change in 2018, I am guessing they won’t much. I rarely download new apps anymore as I’ve found the ten or so that suit me. The bar to get people to switch apps is incredibly high at this point.
Forced to pick though, I’d say Instagram and Twitter will be gone by 2018. I constantly struggle with Twitter being both a toxic cesspool of hate and abuse, while also making me laugh daily. I don’t trust Facebook as far as I can throw them, so I won’t be surprised if they do something that makes me delete my Instagram account. Given that I use Day One more for “posting” what I used to share on Instagram, I don’t know if I’ll miss it.
This is one of those "it's obvious in hindsight" problems I ran into recently.
At the day job, we have been migrating all of our logging code from Aspen to Apple's new Unified Logging System. This has been a win for the most part: we got to terminate a third-party dependency, while also getting some advanced features such as log filtering based on a category or subsystem.
The problem I ran into last week was trying to debug a background session issue on my iOS device. We use the different logging levels provided by os_log to help keep users logs a bit less chatty than just spitting out print or NSLog statements everywhere. By default, the new Console app in macOS Sierra only shows logs that match the error level (or have no level at all). I needed to see our debug and info log information.
If you watch the WWDC video on the new logging system they show you a few Terminal commands you can run to adjust your logging level on the Mac. It doesn't really show you how to adjust that for an iOS device plugged into your Mac, however.
Long story short, there's no Terminal command. There's two options in the "Action" menu on the Console. Just select "Include Debug Messages" or "Include Info Messages" and you are good to go.
I sure felt dumb once I figured that out. You win this round, Apple.
There is zero point to this post. I’m only writing it in case someone else runs into this issue. Hopefully they don’t have to spend as many hours as I did to debug this. Maybe someone can also explain why this was an issue in the first place.
For the last six months or so I have been unable to use Netflix on any iOS or tvOS device (version 10.x at the time of this writing). I could sometimes get my list of content to load, but any attempt at playback failed with generic Netflix errors. Even signing into my Netflix account would be a chore. If you search the Netflix support site they offer the basic unhelpful support information: have you tried restarting your device or router?
I have a CenturyLink Gigabit fiber line, so hearing that it might be an issue with my connection seemed wrong, especially when you consider that I use a variety of other streaming services without issue. The other questionable thing is that Netflix does work on any non-iOS device such as my Xbox One, TiVo Bolt, and (gasp) Android phone. Any device with a fruit logo, however, was a no-go.
My home network setup isn’t super complex, but it’s also not a stock setup either.
CenturyLink’s fiber line comes into the house and is routed through a Technicolor C2000T modem. This is in bridge mode so it merely acts as a passthrough.
For routing and WiFi I have a Netgear AC5300 Nighthawk X8. You might be wondering why I don’t take the C2000T out of the equation and just use PPPoE with this. I tried, but there is something with that C2000T that enables full speed. I couldn’t get above 500/500 speed with just the Nighthawk in play.
iOS and tvOS devices are all connected via WiFi. iMac and random Internet of Things devices are plugged into the router via Ethernet.
What I tried and What Actually Worked
My first thought was maybe it was some sort of Quality of Service (QoS) issue with the router. I checked and I didn’t have any QoS settings enabled. Just as an experiment I tried turning them on. Still no Netflix on iOS or tvOS.
My next experiment involved trying to put my tvOS devices as the DMZ host so they had a straight passthrough from the router to the open Internet. My hope was that maybe whatever is going on in the router that was filtering the Netflix connection would just be bypassed. Hopes dashed. Still nothing.
My last idea was based off a random guess, but turned out to actually work: I disabled IPv6 on the Nighthawk. Success!
I have no idea what issue is with the chemistry between Netflix, Apple’s network stack, my router, and IPv6. All I know is that I can now watch Black Mirror.
Update: Maybe it has something to do with IPv6 being blocked by Netflix’s war on VPNs?
I am mostly retired from the public speaking circuit. I do still make a point to try and do 360iDev in Denver each year, considering the proprietor is a friend and I can sleep in my bed every night of the conference. This year I did a talk that was a departure from my last few years of Auto Layout talks. Instead, I did a walkthrough of how I architect modern iOS apps. If you attended the conference and saw the talk, I hope you enjoyed it. If you didn’t attend, it’s already online and ready to watch.
I had a fun Friday evening. I received a Slack notification sent to everyone in our group stating that the iOS app was crashing on launch. This came as a surprise to me, because our most recent release had been out for several weeks at this point. It also was the most stable release in terms of number of crashes we’ve ever released. This was a good point release.
After a few minor heart palpitations, I grab a few iOS devices and try launching the App Store version of the app. Success. No crashes for me. A few other team members launch the app successfully as well. At this point, I make a suggestion straight out of Microsoft’s 1990’s playbook: restart your phone. No more crashing on launch.
My theory was correct. I’ve seen a few times in the last few months where an app will randomly begin crashing on launch for no rhyme or reason. I’ve never really tried debugging it because it wasn’t my app crashing, but now I was annoyed. I made a point to check the iOS device console next time I saw one of my apps doing this weird crash on launch behavior.
Fast forward to yesterday when I wanted to check a few things in the Major League Baseball app. I tapped the MLB icon and . . . crash. Rinse. Repeat. I decided to go on a round-robin through my apps and see if any others are crashing. Turns out Medium, United Airlines, and Pocket are also crashing. The odds of four of these major apps all shipping at-launch crashers at once are good enough to make you rich in Vegas. At this point, I am pretty confident what’s going on but I’m not at home so I can’t easily plug my phone in and see what’s happening. I’ll just have to forgo three of my most used apps because I’m not restarting my phone yet.
Once I get home, I plugged my iPhone into my Mac, popped open device console in Xcode and tried launching the failing apps again. Here’s what spit out:
Apr 30 11:17:55 iPhone kernel[0] <Notice>: AppleFairplayTextCrypterSession::fairplayOpen() failed, error -42028
Apr 30 11:17:55 iPhone assertiond[12347] <Warning>: Unable to obtain a task name port right for pid 14063: (os/kern) failure (5)
Apr 30 11:17:55 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Unable to register for exec notifications: No such process
Apr 30 11:17:55 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Unable to obtain a task name port right for pid 14063: (os/kern) failure (5)
Apr 30 11:17:55 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Unable to obtain a task name port right for <FBApplicationProcess: 0x13facbcf0; com.medium.reader; pid: 14063>
Apr 30 11:17:55 iPhone com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (UIKitApplication:com.medium.reader[0x7257][14063]) <Notice>: Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9
Apr 30 11:17:55 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Application 'UIKitApplication:com.medium.reader[0x7257]' exited abnormally via signal.
Apr 30 11:17:56 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Application '(null)' exited for an unknown reason.
Apr 30 11:17:56 iPhone kernel[0] <Notice>: IOAccessoryManager::configureAllowedFeatures: tristar: revoking mask=0xffff
Apr 30 11:17:56 iPhone iaptransportd[12353] <Warning>: CIapPortAppleIDBus: Auth timer timeout completed on pAIDBPort:0x15cd06f70, portID:01 downstream port
Apr 30 11:17:58 iPhone kernel[0] <Notice>: AppleFairplayTextCrypterSession::fairplayOpen() failed, error -42028
Apr 30 11:17:58 iPhone com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (UIKitApplication:com.ideashower.ReadItLaterPro[0x33c1][14064]) <Notice>: Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9
Apr 30 11:17:58 iPhone assertiond[12347] <Warning>: Unable to obtain a task name port right for pid 14064: (os/kern) failure (5)
Apr 30 11:17:58 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Unable to register for exec notifications: No such process
Apr 30 11:17:58 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Unable to obtain a task name port right for pid 14064: (os/kern) failure (5)
Apr 30 11:17:58 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Unable to obtain a task name port right for <FBApplicationProcess: 0x13fed4190; com.ideashower.ReadItLaterPro; pid: 14064>
Apr 30 11:17:58 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Application 'UIKitApplication:com.ideashower.ReadItLaterPro[0x33c1]' exited abnormally via signal.
Apr 30 11:17:59 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Application '(null)' exited for an unknown reason.
Apr 30 11:18:03 iPhone kernel[0] <Notice>: AppleFairplayTextCrypterSession::fairplayOpen() failed, error -42028
Apr 30 11:18:03 iPhone com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (UIKitApplication:com.united.UnitedCustomerFacingIPhone[0x620b][14065]) <Notice>: Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9
Apr 30 11:18:03 iPhone assertiond[12347] <Warning>: Unable to obtain a task name port right for pid 14065: (os/kern) failure (5)
Apr 30 11:18:03 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Unable to register for exec notifications: No such process
Apr 30 11:18:03 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Unable to obtain a task name port right for pid 14065: (os/kern) failure (5)
Apr 30 11:18:03 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Unable to obtain a task name port right for <FBApplicationProcess: 0x13fa60dc0; com.united.UnitedCustomerFacingIPhone; pid: 14065>
Apr 30 11:18:03 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Application 'UIKitApplication:com.united.UnitedCustomerFacingIPhone[0x620b]' exited abnormally via signal.
Apr 30 11:18:03 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Application '(null)' exited for an unknown reason.
Apr 30 11:18:07 iPhone syslogd[12297] <Notice>: ASL Sender Statistics
Apr 30 11:18:07 iPhone kernel[0] <Notice>: xpcproxy[14066] Container: /private/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/C1AEAFEE-6FDD-46F1-BBAB-F3E345D35EB9 (sandbox)
Apr 30 11:18:07 iPhone kernel[0] <Notice>: AppleFairplayTextCrypterSession::fairplayOpen() failed, error -42028
Apr 30 11:18:07 iPhone com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (UIKitApplication:com.mlb.AtBatUniversal[0x37dc][14066]) <Notice>: Service exited due to signal: Trace/BPT trap: 5
Apr 30 11:18:07 iPhone ReportCrash[14067] <Notice>: Formulating report for corpse[14066] AtBat.Full
Apr 30 11:18:07 iPhone SpringBoard[12335] <Warning>: Application 'UIKitApplication:com.mlb.AtBatUniversal[0x37dc]' crashed.
Apr 30 11:18:07 iPhone ReportCrash[14067] <Warning>: Saved type '109(109_AtBat.Full)' report (3 of max 25) at /var/mobile/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/AtBat.Full-2016-04-30-111807.ips
Fairplay is the DRM Apple uses for App Store (and iTunes purchases in general). Something is going wrong with the DRM on these apps causing them to fail to launch. Confidence inspiring!
This is as far as my investigation has taken me at this point. I don’t really have a theory what is causing this. My first thought was it was caused by an app being updated, but the United app hadn’t been updated in a while and it was crashing for no reason. I am mostly writing this up because when I was trying to defend that this was an iOS issue and not a bug in our code, I really didn’t have much of a source to cite other than the few tweets I remembered seeing from other folks running into the same issue. I’d love to know more if you have any theories.
