iOS

Motherboard: Key iPhone source code gets posted online in ‘biggest leak in history’

Written by

Nope. Nope. Nope.

I hate headlines like this. Biggest leak in history? Come on.

Here’s where the reaction comes from:

Someone just posted what experts say is the source code for a core component of the iPhone’s operating system on GitHub, which could pave the way for hackers and security researchers to find vulnerabilities in iOS and make iPhone jailbreaks easier to achieve.

The GitHub code is labeled “iBoot,” which is the part of iOS that is responsible for ensuring a trusted boot of the operating system. In other words, it’s the program that loads iOS, the very first process that runs when you turn on your iPhone. It loads and verifies the kernel is properly signed by Apple and then executes it—it’s like the iPhone’s BIOS.

This is true. It’s also true that Apple filed a copyright takedown and GitHub removed the post. But that’s a side note. Important, but a side note.

Buried down in the Motherboard article is this nugget:

This source code first surfaced last year, posted by a Reddit user called “apple_internals” on the Jailbreak subreddit.

This has been known about for some time. It’s iOS 9 source code and, while it’s likely true that some of that source code remains in iOS 11, Apple has known about this for long enough that they’ve certainly made any necessary changes to limit their exposure. I’d suggest that this GitHub publication had more value to the original poster and to Motherboard than to the anyone trying to hack the current version of iBoot.

And that said, I hope I’m right about this.

Android Nougat, which first shipped in August 2016, finally surpasses Marshmallow as most used Android version

Written by

Up until this week, the most used version of Android was Marshmallow, which shipped in October of 2015. That has now changed.

As you can see in this official Android pie chart, Android Nougat (which shipped in August 2016) has just squeaked by, with an adoption rate of 28.5% (as opposed to Marshmallow’s 28.1%).

Here’s the current (as of January 18th) iOS adoption picture:

iOS 11, which shipped this past September, is used on 65% of devices. Fragmentation is still a big issue for Android. If nothing else, those old versions of Android carry the malware susceptibilities that, presumably, have been patched in the most recent version of Android, called Oreo.

The capper? Oreo was released one month before iOS 11 and has an adoption rate of about 1%.

How to transfer your iPhone or Mac Photo library to an external drive

Written by

I think it’s incredibly important to backup your photos onto some form of removable media, tuck it away somewhere safe. This is in addition to your Time Machine or cloud backup.

Personally, I periodically backup all my photos to a single removable drive and store the drive in a safe deposit box.

All that said, this is a terrific article, with detail on prepping for backup, locating all relevant files, importing/moving as needed, and more. Worth reading and passing along.

iOS 11.3 brings final fix to Calculator app

Written by

[VIDEO] As a reminder, the Calculator app hit a bit of a stumble back in October.

The issue was that the keypress animation for one key took long enough to complete that the follow-on keypress was missed. Apple fixed the problem by eliminating the animation.

The video (embedded in the main Loop post) shows the fix, with the animation back in place.

iOS App Store vs Google Play Store in two charts

Written by

From App Annie’s quarterly analysis of the iOS App Store and Google Play revenues.

Chart 1 shows app downloads for each store, in billions:

As you can see, Google Play has about 2-1/2 times the number of downloads as the iOS App Store.

Now let’s look at revenue:

The conclusion from this chart? Customers for the iOS App Store spend almost twice as much as Google Play customers.

That’s a pretty big swing.

Video: Hands-on with AirPlay 2 on iOS 11.3 & tvOS 11.3

Written by

Andrew O’Hara, iDownloadBlog, jumped through the hoops necessary to test out the beta version of AirPlay 2 using multiple Apple TVs, each running their latest betas.

Watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. This is especially timely, given the fact that we’re just a few weeks away from our first public HomePods and the importance of AirPlay to the HomePod experience.

Apple overhauls App Store web interface with new iOS-like design

Written by

Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:

Apple today has rolled out a major redesign for the App Store web interface. The new redesign replaces the dated and clunky interface that previously housed the App Store on the web

The new redesign takes cues from the all-new App Store in iOS 11, which offers larger images, a focus on curation and reviews, and more. On the new webpage, you’ll see a larger app heading, preceded by “This app is only available on the App Store for iOS devices.”

To see this for yourself, here’s a link to today’s iOS app of the day, MUBI. Open the link on your Mac.

As Chance points out, there’s now a big warning towards the top of the page (blue background) telling you you have to go to the iOS App Store if you want to buy the app.

While the refreshed look is nice, it still feels like a broken marketing link, forcing me to switch devices (from my Mac to my iOS device) and type in the name of the app in an iOS App Store search field to find the app and make a purchase.

And this, from Craig Grannell, in a post entitled Apple’s App Store Preview needs to steal some ideas from Google Play:

It’s 2018. Apple has Apple Pay. If I’m sent to An App Store Preview page after reading an article about an amazing new iOS app, I should be able to buy it there and then, and send it to my iOS devices. Likewise, if I’m on my iPhone, I should be able to buy and send an iPad-only app to my iPad (or vice-versa). I shouldn’t have to remember it later, by sending myself an email or note.

There’s clearly a reason Apple is doing this. But to me, it’s just as clear that this is adding friction to the purchase process.

Safari 11 tips and tricks

Written by

Apple Insider pulls together the details on what’s new with Safari 11 on both iOS and macOS. Don’t miss the video embedded at the top of the Apple Insider post.

HomePod: It’s more important to be right than first

Written by

Dan Moren, Macworld:

Late last year, Apple announced that it would delay the promised release of its HomePod smart speaker to early 2018. It was a disappointment for those customers hoping to score one for the holiday season, but in an interview with Dutch site Bright.nl, Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller said Apple needed “more time to make it right.”

And:

A new report from Canalys says that the smart speaker market is forecast to spike this year, outpacing other technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality. In a rare moment of (for it) transparency, Amazon said it had sold tens of millions of Echo devices during the holidays. (Though many of those sales are likely for the low-cost devices that Apple won’t compete with.)

And:

By all accounts, the version of the HomePod shown to press during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference last year was far from a fully functional prototype. Those to whom Apple gave access reportedly got a demonstration of the device’s audio quality, but not much beyond that.

Add to this mix, is a new survey (reported by CNBC) on the impact of smart speakers on people’s smartphone habits:

Two thirds of people who use digital voice assistants like the Amazon Echo or Google Home use their smartphones less often, according to a new survey published by tech consultancy Accenture.

The results suggest that the next big wave of consumer technology will be centered around these digital assistants, and may spell trouble for smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung— who lag behind Amazon and Google in this emerging space.

Here’s a link to that survey. Be sure to click Key Finding #1.

No matter what Apple ships as HomePod 1.0, I suspect there is already a team hard at work on HomePod 2.0, and perhaps on HomePod satellite products. I wouldn’t waste a second worrying about the impact of the smart speaker market on iPhone sales, nor about the first HomePod being the be-all and end-all of smart speakers.

Just as they did with Apple Watch, Apple will revise and tune, learning from every sale, with HomePod eventually landing in a sweet spot that makes money and extends the ecosystem for iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple Music, and Siri.

The demise of Transmit and the future of pro level iOS apps

Written by

From the Panic blog, announcing the suspension of the iOS version of the very popular Transmit app:

Transmit iOS made about $35k in revenue in the last year, representing a minuscule fraction of our overall 2017 app revenue. That’s not enough to cover even a half-time developer working on the app. And the app needs full-time work — we’d love to be adding all of the new protocols we added in Transmit 5, as well as some dream features, but the low revenue would render that effort a guaranteed money-loser.

David Sparks from his blog:

Panic has made public statements about how little income they’re making off their pro-level iOS apps, and I really can’t blame them for pulling Transmit if it is losing them money.

What is even more upsetting is that an app of the calibre of Transmit for iOS is a financial failure and none of us are much surprised.

And:

I use Transmit both on my Mac and iOS devices. I don’t recall what I originally paid for Transmit, but I believe it was in the neighborhood of $50. Since then I’ve upgraded twice so let’s say I’ve now given Panic $100 for the privilege of having their app on my Mac.

When I bought Transmit for my iOS devices, I paid $10. That is it. I’ve been using the app for years and all the money Panic ever got out of me was $10, less than I’m going to spend today on lunch.

That’s the issue. Somehow, consoles like Nintendo Switch and the Xbox, as well as the Mac, have avoided the race to the bottom that makes iOS apps want to be free, or dependent on in app purchases. While in-app-purchases make sense for a game, it is a harder sell for a pro-level app.

Panic is pulling Transmit for iOS but keeping the Mac version. Part of the issue is the massive size of the iOS App Store compared to the Mac App Store. The iOS App Store is large enough that it attracts people willing to build something for free just for the experience. And once there’s a free alternative, it becomes exponentially harder to get people to pay for an alternative, even if it is a better experience.

Using drag and drop to reorder the icons on your iOS share sheet

Written by

Not sure how long this has been the case (likely since the very beginning of share sheets), but this feature is definitely new to me, thought it worth sharing.

  • Bring up an iOS app, then bring up a share sheet. In the Safari app, bring up a web page, then tap the share icon (square with up arrow) to bring up the Safari share sheet.
  • Press and hold an icon until it grows slightly, then slide to the left or right to move it to a new location.

This technique works with both the app shelf and the tool shelf.

To see this in action, watch the video in the tweet below:

https://twitter.com/ulliverti/status/947937748777885696

Good stuff.

Transferring SD card data to iOS, fast

Written by

Jason Snell, Six Colors:

When I’m traveling with only my iPhone and iPad, I can record audio on an external device—an SD-card recorder from Zoom, usually—but how do I get those files onto my iOS device? iOS can’t see the contents of a standard SD card.

And:

It’s still a little bit silly that, now that iOS has a file-management app, you still can’t plug in a mass storage device via a USB adapter and copy files off of it directly.

And this from John Gruber:

Apple even makes an SD card reader for iOS devices. It just seems downright wrong that it only allows you to import photos to your camera roll. Clearly a connected SD card ought to show up as a source in the iOS 11 Files app, right?

To me, the inability of iOS to handle external drives, SD-cards, etc., is a barrier to an iPad becoming a first class computing citizen.

Matt Birchler: Android Oreo, as seen through the eyes of an iOS user

Written by

Matt Birchler has his magnum opus, a massive 8-part, 13,000 word review of Android Oreo. But written with iOS in mind.

It’s a worthwhile read, lots of talking points, a chance to see what switching to Android would be like.

If you are considering the move, read this first. Nice job, Matt.

iOS 11 indoor maps feature now available at more than 40 airports and malls

Written by

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Starting in iOS 11, Apple introduced support for indoor maps for select malls and airports around the world. Indoor maps have been slow to roll out, but Apple has been steadily adding additional mall and airport maps since September.

Apple today began listing indoor maps for malls and airports on its iOS 11 feature availability page, giving us a clear picture of exactly where the indoor mapping feature is available for the first time.

Here’s a link to Apple’s official iOS feature availability page. Definitely worth a minute to scroll down the page, see what categories are being tracked. Indoor maps for airports and malls are about halfway down the page.

Great resource.

Apple reveals 2017’s top charts, but don’t try to buy an iOS app from your Mac

Written by

I enjoyed going through Apple’s tops of 2017 list.

But, it did remind me of one broken piece of Apple’s app-purchasing system, still unaddressed after all this time. To see it, you have to open the list on your Mac.

On your Mac, if you click on Apple’s top movie link, after a bit of shuffling, you’ll be taken to an iTunes page listing the top movies of the year. Click on a movie and you’ll be taken to that movie’s iTunes page so you can rent or buy.

BUT.

Still on your Mac, still looking at that same best of list, try clicking on an app. To save you time, here’s a link to the iPhone game of the year, a fun little number called Splitter Critters.

You’ll be taken to a Safari App Store Preview page, with this note embedded on the page:

Used to be, you could click a link of an app you want to buy, the app page would open in iTunes, and you could purchase the app, even from your Mac. For a while, app links that used to work took you into the void, clearly broken. My hope was that this was a temporary situation, that Apple would work through their changes with iTunes and, eventually, restore the ability to buy an iOS app from a link shown on a Mac.

Why is this important? Why care about an iOS app that will never run on a Mac? It’s all about app developers and bloggers making a living.

App developers need publicity for their apps. And that publicity often comes from blogs (like MacStories, Daring Fireball, iMore, 9to5Mac, Six Colors, iDownloadBlog, etc.) When a blog links to an app, the best chance a developer has to close the deal with a reader is if that reader can click on a link and buy the app right then and there.

If the reader happens to be reading about the app on a Mac, there is no chance to close the deal with a simple click and purchase. At the very least, they have to remember to make the purchase the next time they are on an iOS device. This is bad for the developer and, ultimately, bad for the blogger. It widens the gap, reduces the intimacy between the writer who recommended the app, and the reader. And it lessens the chance that a blog will be able to make a bit of money from an affiliate link.

My two cents? Apple should fix this. As is, this makes the Mac a bit of a second class citizen.

A first look at Apple Pay Cash, just released with new iOS 11.2 update

Written by

[VIDEO] Lots of goodies in the iOS 11.2 update. Biggest of all was the release of Apple Pay Cash. I’ve been playing with it, looks very useful. In a nutshell, you’ll tie a debit card to the Apple Pay Cash card in your wallet, then use the Apple Pay Cash card to send or receive cash. A bit like Venmo or PayPal, but tied in to the secure enclave.

The folks from MacRumors put together a nice intro to Apple Pay Cash that I found quite easy to follow. It’s embedded in the main Loop post.

Once you’ve installed the iOS 11.2 update, fire up the Wallet app and you’ll be prompted to set up Apple Pay Cash.

UPDATE: There have been some comments about Apple Pay Cash only being available in beta. While this might be true, I can tell you that I played with it on a phone running the beta as well as on a phone that has a public release of iOS 11.2. So, perhaps it’s the Apple Pay Cash server that’s in beta?

iOS 11.2 rolls out some emoji updates

Written by

I think Emojipedia is a terrific resource. If you’ve not spent time here before, jump to the linked page, showing the emoji changes that came with this iOS release. First, there’s there’s the high resolution images of the 17 emoji that have changed.

To get a sense of these, take a look at the tumbler emoji. Here’s the old, iOS 11.1 version. And here’s the version updated for iOS 11.2.

I love the attention to detail here. The old one looks like a bit flat, and the scotch (or whatever is in it) looks cloudy. The new one looks more realistic.

[UPDATE: Apparently, the tumbler emoji was updated, then reverted back to the old version, then updated back to the new one, perhaps as a result of a QA oversight. Regardless, nice to see the design improvement.]

Another thing to note about this page is “all, changed, new, removed” links. Each gives you a different, useful view into the current emoji.

And, if you are interested, you can scroll down and tap on the links for previous versions of iOS, to see what was new with those releases. Good stuff.

iPhone autocorrecting the word ‘it’ to ‘I.T’ on iOS 11 and later

Written by

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

At least a few hundred iPhone users and counting have complained about the word “it” autocorrecting to “I.T” on iOS 11 and later.

This is a bizarre new class of bugs. It started with autocorrect capitalizing the first letter of some words, even in The Middle of a sentence.

Then we saw a rash of autocorrects of the letter I to A[?], much to the amusement of Ohio State fans.

And now this. What’s going on here? Is this machine learning going awry? Is this the future of AI? Works most of the time, but every so often a robot goes insane and starts breaking things?

One problem with machine learning is that it creates evolving behavior, which creates a complex tree of possible behaviors, impossible to completely test.

That said, is that what’s going on here? Or is this something more mundane? It’d be good to actually know the cause of these issues. So far, mum’s the word.

Mac vs iPad

Written by

Gabe Weatherhead, MacDrifter:

When my 10.5″ iPad Pro arrived I decided to do a little experiment. You see, I honestly believe that the iPad, iPhone, and other micro super-computers are the future of computing and I want to force myself out of old-man complacency. Five months ago I committed to that experiment and avoided using my Mac unless there was absolutely no way to do something on my iPad or iPhone. Last week I ended my experiment and I have a few opinions (big surprise).

I use my Mac, iPhone, and iPad in a mix throughout the day. My iPhone is always with me, gets all the looks when I am away from my desk. My Mac gets all my looks at my desk. And my iPad gets the rest, those times when I am bopping about, laying about, or in a car (not driving!)

[Of course, my Apple Watch gets its share of looks, no matter the device I’m using, but in my view, does not impact the Mac vs iPad argument.]

Gabe’s piece really captures my feelings about the Mac, why it is the best solution for certain (but by no means all, or even most) situations. Here’s a taste:

I do a lot of text editing, so this is a category where I feel friction the most. There’s really no comparison for me. Text editors on the Mac are more feature rich and I can edit faster than on iOS.

Friction is a perfect word. The Mac is customizable to the point where I can really get at those friction points, ease them to make my process more efficient. iOS, on the other hand, is more portable, easier to get going and, for me, always with me every second I’m awake.

Apple has found a perfect blend of devices. At least for me and my habits.

That said, read Gabe’s piece. See if it resonates for you.

iOS jailbreaking fading away

Written by

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

ModMy today announced it has archived its default ModMyi repository on Cydia, which is essentially an alternative App Store for downloading apps, themes, tweaks, and other files on jailbroken iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices.

ZodTTD/MacCiti also shut down last week, meaning that two out of three of Cydia’s major default repositories are no longer active as of this month.

And:

The closure of two major Cydia repositories is arguably the result of a declining interest in jailbreaking, which provides root filesystem access and allows users to modify iOS and install unapproved apps on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

I’ve always thought of jailbreaking as a wild west frontier, with few rules, little oversight and, correspondingly, no real way to prevent malware. Jailbreaking also technically violates your iPhone warranty.

But, that said, jailbreaking also brought some interesting, experimental features to iOS. Over time, Apple caught up, bringing the more successful jailbreaking features into the fold.

We’re seeing the end of an era.

A new phone comes out. Yours slows down. A conspiracy? No.

Written by

Brian X. Chen, New York Times:

It happens every year: Apple releases new iPhones, and then hordes of people groan about their older iPhones slowing to a crawl.

And:

The phenomenon of perceived slowdowns is so widespread that many believe tech companies intentionally cripple smartphones and computers to ensure that people buy new ones every few years. Conspiracy theorists call it planned obsolescence.

That’s a myth. While slowdowns happen, they take place for a far less nefarious reason. That reason is a software upgrade.

And:

Tech companies make it simple to upgrade to a new operating system by pressing an “update” button, which seamlessly migrates all your apps and data over. While that’s convenient, it isn’t the best way to ensure that things will continue running smoothly.

A better practice is backing up all your data and purging everything from the device before installing the new operating system. This “clean install” works more reliably because the engineers developing operating systems were able to test this condition more easily, Mr. Raiz said.

The premise is that a clean install will clear cruft from your iPhone, make your phone run faster with a newer version of iOS.

Read the article, see if you agree. Is there any truth to this recommendation? Is a clean install going to yield enough of a speedier phone to be worth the effort?

Anecdotal, but I’ve run lots of betas, all via the update mechanism, have never (ok, maybe once or twice in ten years) felt the need to do a clean install.

Interesting article, looking forward to reading the comments.

iOS 11.2 accelerated wireless charging speed vs wired

Written by

Matt Birchler compared the time it took to charge an iOS device using:

  • Stock wired charger
  • Apple 29W charger
  • Wireless charging (available on iPhone 8, 8 Plus, iPhone X)
  • Accelerated wireless charging (New with iOS 11.2)

Follow the link, check out the graph. To really get a sense of the difference, look how many minutes it takes each to get to a 40% charge (the second horizontal gray line).

The 29W charger took just under 30 minutes. Accelerated charging took about an hour and 40 minutes.

I don’t know how rigorous this analysis was, but wow, what a difference. We could be seeing the limitations of inductive charging, or we could see these numbers improve with each new release.

Important to note that Matt used a Samsung wireless charging pad. So it is certainly possible we’d see better numbers when Apple releases their branded pad.

But as is, what price convenience?

UPDATE: Had a lot of conversations about this post, about the value of the convenience brought by wireless charging. Add to that the fact that the latest iPhones have plenty of battery life, and the use case comes into focus. Instead of placing my phone on my desk while I type away, if I simply place it on the charging pad, I’ll get a nice little power top-off without the hassle of plugging in.

Conclusion? Wired is clearly a faster charge than wireless, but that’s just fine. Wireless does the job it was designed to do and brings great convenience to the process.

The iOS 11 camera “floor crosshair”

Written by

From Cabel Sasser on Twitter:

https://www.twitter.com/cabel/status/927983729137483776

First things first, this is a great new feature. To see it for yourself, go to Settings > Camera, and make sure that Grid is enabled.

Now, when you tilt your camera flat and facing the floor (or, interestingly, the ceiling), a crosshair will appear.

But what really struck me was reading the replies to the thread, where the Apple developer who created the feature as an intern chimes in. For all its faults, this is the gold heart of Twitter.

Apple: 52% of devices are now using iOS 11

Written by

Apple has updated their pie chart. Amazingly, more than half of all devices have updated to iOS 11, which was released less than 2 months ago. Let’s take a look at the adoption rates of iOS and Android side by […]

iOS bug autocorrects letter “i” to “A” plus unicode symbol. Here’s a workaround and a clue to the cause.

Written by

Over the weekend, a steadily growing number of iPhone users were reporting a bug where they’d type the letter “i”, but iOS would autocorrect it to “A” plus a strange symbol (a “?” in a box).

Contrary to some rumors, this behavior is not spreading from phone to phone, or via Twitter. It is limited to iOS 11.1 and any spread is due to updates to iOS 11.1 and spread of awareness.

Note that not everyone running iOS 11.1 sees this and it is not clear what triggers this behavior.

Apple posted this knowledge base article suggesting you do a text replacement for the letter “i”. Obviously, that’s a temporary workaround until Apple releases a patch, which should be soon.

As to the cause, here’s Jeremy Burge from Emojipedia:

What’s really going on is that the letter “I” is being appended with an invisible character known as Variation Selector 16 when auto-correct kicks in to replace the lowercase “i”.

This VS-16 character is intended to be used to make the previous character have emoji appearance.[1] When used in conjunction with the letter “I” it displays in some apps as “A ⍰”.

The correct behaviour should be to ignore the invisible variation selector if the previous character doesn’t have an emoji version.

Here’s more detail on Variation Selector 16.

This will all be a bad (fond?) memory in a few days, when Apple ships their patch and it quickly makes its way to iPhones around the world.

UPDATE: And there’s this tweet, showing the “i” bug mutating. Is autocorrect learning?

The iOS privacy loophole

Written by

Felix Krause:

Once you grant an app access to your camera, it can:

  • access both the front and the back camera
  • record you at any time the app is in the foreground
  • take pictures and videos without telling you
  • upload the pictures/videos it takes immediately
  • run real-time face recognition to detect facial features or expressions

Have you ever used a social media app while using the bathroom? ?

All without indicating that your phone is recording you and your surrounding, no LEDs, no light or any other kind of indication.

The point is that when you grant an app access to your camera, you grant complete access. There is no granularity, no access limitation for a single task.

Is this paranoia? Perhaps. But seems like this is worth some thought.

Collection of Google Maps tips

Written by

If you are religious about Apple Maps, avert your eyes. Me, I use Apple Maps and Google Maps pretty equally.

With the exception of the “OK, Google” tip at the beginning, this is a useful list. Ignore the upper-left, lower-right sorts of references, as this seems written primarily for Android. But the tips work in the iOS Google Maps app.

Worthwhile read.

Try quickly typing 1 + 2 + 3 into the iOS Calculator. I bet you won’t get 6.

Written by

I came upon this Reddit thread and thought, “Impossible. This can’t be true.”

But yes, it is. Try this yourself. When you hit the plus sign for the second time, the calculator app goes into some odd state. Not sure if this is intentional, or a bug, but either way, this is not what you’d expect.

The good news? PCalc gets it right.

UPDATE: Looks like this is an animation lag issue and goes back at least through iOS 9, possibly earlier. Also, Apple employee #8 weighed in about filing a radar.

Deleting and reinstalling default apps in iOS 11, and the infinite loop of sadness

Written by

This article talks you through a pretty obvious and straight-forward process. But 3 things:

  1. Important to note that you can now delete built-in apps like Weather, Stocks, etc. Delete them just as you would any other app.
  2. Finding the originals if you decide to go back is the trick. You can search the app store, but the article has a list of links to the originals. Bookmark the article. A nice resource.
  3. If you click on the App Store links on your Mac (DO NOT DO THIS), you’ll plunge down the infinite loop of sadness, as Safari tries to get iTunes to do what it is no longer programmed to do.