On Six Colors, Dan Moren talks about the pros and cons of actually paying for Apple Music now that it’s time to put our money where our ears are.

While there are several things I don’t like about it — particularly its confusing nature — I am dropping my cash on the subscription, mostly for the following reasons:

• Seamlessly syncing playlists across all my devices. I am very playlist-dependent and being able to set them up and then instantly have access to them across all my devices is terrific. For all the crap I give Apple about syncing services, this one really works. Well, unless you have a non-catalog item in the playlist and then it doesn’t work at all, but at least I understand that.
• Discovery. I like picking a song and having Apple Music make a playlist off of it. I often find a few songs I really like that I hadn’t heard before that way.
• Fear. I fear what will happen to my library if I try to turn Apple Music off.

I’m not sure I’ll subscribe forever, but so far it’s worth it for me.

On last week’s second episode, Lex, Dan and I talk about the iPhone 6s, watchOS 2 and the ad blocking that’s so popular with the kids these days.

Hey, we forgot to push this episode last week. Oops. So bonus this week because there will be one tomorrow as well. In this one we talk about 3D Touch, Lex’s NAS and iOS 9.

This is an interesting piece of malware. It’s introduced via local download copies of Xcode in China and then inserts malicious code into whatever apps are made with that copy of Xcode. Some of these get into the App Store because the code is so deeply hidden or, easier still, find their way into corporate app distribution that doesn’t go through Apple’s approval process.

Since I left the corporate world, I’m not up on the state of outsourcing but I wonder if Indian developers similarly download local copies of Xcode or if there are Chinese development firms that are used now (I would think if there were they’d tend to be less popular for security reasons).

(Via Craig Hockenberry and Frederic Jacobs)

Marco says the “all or nothing” approach necessitated just didn’t sit right.

Even though I’m “winning”, I’ve enjoyed none of it. That’s why I’m withdrawing from the market.

This has been a weird week.

Federico Viticci’s iOS 9 review is the place to go if you don’t want to miss a single feature. I’ve been using iOS 9 for weeks on my iPad and still missed a number of features. (One is a number. So is 27.) Viticci ate all of the dog food on this one as this tome was written entirely on an iPad.

As the iPad Pro isn’t really targeted at me, I’m interested to hear from professionals about it. (Former Apple employee) Linda Dong compares using it and the Apple Pencil against the current de facto toolset:

Quite plainly, the Cintiq sucks in comparison. And I’ve been using them for years for industrial design sketching, UI, and art.

The only exception, she says, is if you’re a professional using it with a specific set of Windows-based applications. That’s going to be the litmus test for the iPad Pro: What professional apps get made for it.

I really just want one as a glorified TV. $800 is a little rich for that. Unless I click on one of those “make money at home” web ads I’ve always been meaning to click on…

I joined Glenn Fleishman on the Macworld podcast to talk about Wednesday’s announcements.

Or, put another way, Amazon had the Fire Phone put down. And this despite the Fire Phone’s terrific sales graph.

The announcement came yesterday during the Apple event.

Jan Dawson writing for Techpinions about Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program:

Even though the carriers have largely celebrated the end of subsidies and the move to installment and leasing plans, it’s quite possible the carriers have opened the door to a trend that may well come back to bite them.

We’ve been hearing for several years how the move away from so-called “subsidies” (which were really loans) would kill Apple because its phones cost more. In reality, it was never really a threat because people just really like iPhones. Now Apple’s turned it into an advantage by getting in on the installment plan action and turning the carriers even more into dumb pipes.

Apple isn’t perfect, but I’d much rather they have my money than AT&T or Verizon.