Tag: iphone

Crucial iPhone source code posted in unprecedented leak

Critical, top secret Apple code for the iPhone’s operating system was posted on Github, opening a new, dangerous avenue for hackers and jailbreakers to access the device, Motherboard reported. The code, known as “iBoot, ” has since been pulled, but Apple may have confirmed it was the real deal when it issued a DMCA takedown to Github, as Twitter user @supersat noted . iBoot is the iOS code that ensures a secure boot by loading and checking that kernel is properly signed by Apple before running the OS. The version that was posted to Github, supposedly by a Twitter user named @q3hardcore, was for iOS 9, but much of it likely still exists in the latest version, iOS 11. Fun thing about the DMCA: it required Apple to state, under penalty of perjury, that the iBoot source code was legit: https://t.co/PKHZqcEe6h — Karl (@supersat) February 8, 2018 The code can’t be compiled because certain files are missing, but researchers and hackers who know what to look for could probe it for vulnerabilities. “This is the biggest leak in history, ” author and security researcher Jonathan Levin told Motherboard . “The leaked sources of iBoot … bring us closer to a truly liberated iOS booted on generic arm boards and/or emulator, ” he added on Twitter . Levin and other security researchers believe the code is the real deal. iPhones used to be relatively easy to jailbreak before Apple introduced the ” secure enclave co-processor ” with the TouchID of the iPhone 5s. Now, it’s nearly impossible for hackers to even find bugs in iOS code, making iOS exploits relatively rare, unlike in Windows and Android. As such, the iBoot leak is exposing code that hardly anyone has seen before. The iBoot dump first appeared last year on Reddit, but received little notice from the security community until it hit Github. Apple considers iBoot to be such a critical part of iOS that it offers $200, 000 for vulnerabilities, the most in its bug bounty program. That means the release of the source code could amount to a gold rush for many researchers. Via: Motherboard Source: Github

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Crucial iPhone source code posted in unprecedented leak

Are Music CDs Dying? Best Buy Stops Selling CDs

An anonymous reader quotes Complex magazine: The future of physical music isn’t looking good. According to Billboard, consumer electronics company Best Buy will no longer carry physical CDs and Target may be following suit in the near future. Best Buy notified music suppliers that they will cease selling CDs at stores beginning July 1. The move is sure to hurt the already declining sales of CDs as consumers are switching to streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal in large numbers. CD sales have already dropped by a sizable 18.5 percent in the past year, Billboard reports. Billboard also reports Target has given an “ultimatum” to music and video suppliers. “Currently, Target takes the inventory risk by agreeing to pay for any goods it is shipped within 60 days, and must pay to ship back unsold CDs for credit… Target has demanded to music suppliers that it wants CDs to be sold on what amounts to a consignment basis…” “If the majors don’t play ball and give in to the new sale terms, it could considerably hasten the phase down of the CD format.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Are Music CDs Dying? Best Buy Stops Selling CDs

Apple to repair iPhone 7s with ‘no service’ bug for free

Today Apple announced it’s launching a repair program for a “small percentage” of iPhone 7 owners who are affected by a “no service” issue. Late last year MacRumors said Apple was investigating the problem and appeared ready to replace affected devices, which would display “No service” in their status bar even when cell signal was clearly available. The cause of the problem is apparently a failed component on the logic board, and Apple says affected units (with model #s A1660, A1679, and A1780) extend through its entire production run from September 2016 until now. If your unit is on the list then Apple will fix it free of charge (within two years of the original purchase date) by sending it to a repair center. If you’ve already paid for a repair then look out for an email about reimbursement, and if it doesn’t show up then give Apple a call. This is hardly the first recall/repair program we’ve seen for various iPhone issues, which have recently included battery problems (that preceded the software update that slowed down affected phones) for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 Plus ” touch disease .” Source: Apple

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Apple to repair iPhone 7s with ‘no service’ bug for free

LibreOffice 6.0 Released: Features Superior Microsoft Office Interoperability, OpenPGP Support

prisoninmate writes: LibreOffice 6.0 comes two and a half years after the LibreOffice 5.x series, and it’s the biggest release of the open-source and cross-platform office suite so far. It introduces a revamped design with new table styles, improved Notebookbars, new gradients, new Elementary icons, menu and toolbar improvements, and updated motif/splash screen. LibreOffice 6.0 offers superior interoperability with Microsoft Office documents and compatibility with the EPUB3 format by allowing users to export ODT files to EPUB3. It also lets you import your AbiWord, Microsoft Publisher, PageMaker, and QuarkXPress documents and templates thanks to the implementation of a set of new open-source libraries contributed by the Document Liberation project. Many great improvements were made to the OOXML and ODF filters, as well as in the EMF+, Adobe Freehand, Microsoft Visio, Adobe Pagemaker, FictionBook, Apple Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, as well as Quattro Pro import functionality, and to the XHTML export. LibreOffice Online received numerous improvements as well in this major release of LibreOffice. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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LibreOffice 6.0 Released: Features Superior Microsoft Office Interoperability, OpenPGP Support

iOS 11.3 will introduce new battery features and AR improvements

Apple is bringing iOS 11.3 to iPhones and iPads this spring, and today the company released a preview of what we can expect from the upgrade. The most notable improvements are the battery health indicator, upgrades to ARKit and the introduction of Health Records. iPhone batteries have been a big subject of discussion lately, with the recent news that Apple has been throttling performance on older phones to balance aging battery life. Now, Apple is replacing batteries on some phones for a low fee. This latest update includes a feature that shows the health of your phone’s battery, as well as if it needs to be serviced. What’s more, users will be able to see if that power management feature is turned on, and toggle it off if they so choose. Additionally, the company introduced improvements to ARKit, its AR SDK for developers. ARKit 1.5 will be able to recognize vertical surfaces such as walls and doors, as well as map objects that are irregular in shape, such as a circular or oval table. The experience will also be clearer, as the real-world view now has 50 percent sharper resolution. Apple also announced Health Records , which allows users to bring all their medical records together within one app. Rather than logging into every single provider separately, Health Records will work with your existing doctors and hospitals to put all your health information into one place. It’s currently available to patients of 12 medical institutions, but more will follow, and all data will be encrypted to ensure privacy. iOS 11.3 has four new Animoji, including a bear, a dragon, a skull and a lion; this brings the total number of Animoji up to 16. Business Chat will also launch within the Messages app as an 11.3 beta feature. This will allow users to communicate directly with businesses such as Hilton, Lowe’s, Discover and Wells Fargo. If you have an Apple developer account, the iOS 11.3 preview is available today; the free public beta preview will follow. The upgrade will be available widely this spring, for the iPhone 5s and later, all iPad Airs and iPad Pros, the iPad fifth generation, iPad Mini 2 and later and the sixth generation of the iPod Touch. Source: Apple (1) , Apple (2)

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iOS 11.3 will introduce new battery features and AR improvements

Waze’s crowd-sourced traffic info comes to Ford Sync 3 cars

In 2016, Ford wisely decided to offer Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto on all its Sync 3 infotainment system-equipped 2017 vehicles, and owners are seeing more benefits from that at CES 2018. Ford announced that it now supports Waze ‘s traffic and navigation app directly from your iPhone. After you plug it into any of the vehicle’s USB ports, the app will appear on the Sync 3 touchscreen, letting you control it from there or use voice commands. Waze, owned by Google, gathers traffic information from you and shares it, telling others if there’s a traffic jam along your route, for instance. You can be even more helpful by directly relaying unknown accidents, construction and other issues. Waze’s navigation system can then help you pick the quickest route, tell you about HOV lanes, relay your arrival time to friends and family and even find the cheapest gasoline nearby. As long as you keep your Waze iOS app updated, you’ll have the latest version on a Sync 3 car, which is one of the benefits of Ford’s wide-open system. It also unveiled Alexa support at CES 2018, giving you voice-controlled music, news and 25, 000 other skills. It’s odd that the automaker didn’t mention Waze Android support, since Google owns both Android and Waze, but we’ve reached out for more info. Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

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Waze’s crowd-sourced traffic info comes to Ford Sync 3 cars

Apple apologizes for confusion over slowdowns with older iPhones

Apple has been in hot water for the last few weeks after the company admitted that it sometimes reduced processor speeds on iPhones with aging batteries as a way to balance performance and battery life. Today, the company is apologizing for not being more transparent with its customers and released more details on how exactly iOS manages battery and performance. For starters, the company says that “we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.” That’s been perhaps the biggest point of contention among unhappy owners who feel that Apple has reduced their phone’s performance as a way to drive more sales. To help mitigate the confusion Apple caused, the company is now offering reduced out-of-warranty battery replacement. For $29, you can get a new battery for your phone regardless of whether it’s covered by AppleCare or not; that’s down from the old $79 fee. Additionally, Apple says it is going to release an iOS update early next year that’ll give users more info on the health of their iPhone’s battery so they can see if its condition is affect phone performance. Apple also explained what various users have figured out over the last week . First, it explained the circumstances under which batteries age and degrade over time, something that’s unavoidable for any battery-powered device at this point. The company also notes that older, chemically aged batteries are “less capable of delivering peak energy loads, especially in a low state of charge” — the issue that led to unexpected shutdowns on some phones. To mitigate that, iOS 10.2.1 included a feature that “improves power management” to avoid unexpected shut downs in the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus and SE. “With the update, iOS dynamically manages the maximum performance of some system components when needed to prevent a shutdown, ” Apple writes. “While these changes may go unnoticed, in some cases users may experience longer launch times for apps and other reductions in performance.” Apple later rolled this out to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus with iOS 11.2. Apple said that in recent months, it has heard more feedback from users about degraded performance in specific situations, which the company believes is coming from “continued chemical aging” of batteries coupled with minor bugs and a “normal, temporary performance impact” that comes with software upgrades. The company didn’t originally consider the batteries in the equation but now believes the the original batteries in older phones are likely playing a role. Source: Apple

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Apple apologizes for confusion over slowdowns with older iPhones

Apple’s iPhone Throttling Will Reinvigorate the Push for Right To Repair Laws

Jason Koebler, writing for Motherboard: The news that Apple throttles iPhones that have old batteries will reinvigorate the right to repair debate as the movement enters a crucial year. Third party repair shops say they’ve already seen an uptick in customers asking for battery replacements to speed up their slow phones, and right to repair activists who are pushing for state legislation that will make third party and self repair more accessible say Apple’s secrecy about this behavior will give them a powerful rallying message. “If Apple were serious about battery life, they’d market battery replacements, ” Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of Repair.org, told me in an email. “Apple clearly has a big financial benefit when people decide their phones are too slow and head to the Apple Store for a new phone.” Repair.org is a right to repair advocacy group that is made up largely of small, third party repair shops, which is spearheading the effort to get states to consider legislation that will make it easier to repair electronic devices. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Apple’s iPhone Throttling Will Reinvigorate the Push for Right To Repair Laws

Geekbench and Reddit think they’ve cracked why iPhones get slower over time

Enlarge (credit: Samuel Axon) Based on anecdotal observation, many iPhone users have long believed that older iPhones get slower over time. Generally, people have assumed that this is because of new features and additions in new versions of iOS that are better optimized for the latest phones. But Reddit user and Geekbench developer John Poole has a compelling new theory, backed up by benchmarks: the iPhone may throttle performance to preserve battery life as the battery degrades. Several days ago, Reddit user TeckFire posted a report to the iPhone subreddit stating that, after experiencing slowdown on their iPhone 6S, they replaced the battery with a new one and saw significant improvements in benchmarks—seen below, via their imgur post : Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Geekbench and Reddit think they’ve cracked why iPhones get slower over time