iOS

iOS wish list from a non-techie

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By non-techie, I mean she isn’t an engineer, programmer, analyst or reporter. It’s pretty clear she has a good handle on things though.

iOS 7 wish list

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Federico Viticci has a long list of features and improvements that he would like to see in the next version of iOS. Some will never make to the operating system, but there are others that I would never of even thought of, like separate language support for Maps.

Apple’s “All-Time Top Apps”

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Federico Viticci has a list of the top apps from the past few years. I found the “interesting facts about the new charts” section to be great.

Apple releases iOS 6.1.4

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According to Apple, iOS 6.1.4 has an updated audio profile for speakerphone, as well as security content originally included in previous iOS Software Updates. Go to Settings > General > Software Update on device to get the update.

Lawsuit forces Apple to change VPN On Demand for iOS

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Due to a lawsuit by VirnetX, Apple will be changing the behavior of VPN On Demand for iOS devices using iOS 6.1 and later.

Devices using iOS 6.1 and later with VPN On Demand configured to “Always” will behave as if they were configured with the “Establish if needed” option. The device will establish a VPN On Demand connection only if it is unable to resolve the DNS name of the host it is trying to reach. This change will be distributed in an update later this month.

Apple’s Maps being updated often and significantly

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There is no doubt that Apple is working hard on improving its iOS Maps application in the past few months. The results can be seen in an update to the app this week in Japan, but Apple has been steadily releasing updates for countries and cities from around the world. […]

Apple’s iOS kills Android among airline passengers

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Apple devices are still reigning above the clouds, following the tablet trend with the iPad being the device of choice. Among all mobile devices being used to connect through Gogo, 84 percent carry Apple’s iOS operating system while 16 percent carry the Android operating system. If you look only at the smartphones our customers are using, the iPhone makes up 73 percent and all Android devices make up 26 percent, with Blackberry and Windows based devices each making up less than 1 percent of devices being used in air.

Maybe Android users are too busy getting rid of all the Malware on their devices.

Researchers get around Android security by freezing the phone

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To get around this, researchers Tilo Muller, Michael Spreitzenbarth and Felix Freiling from FAU put Android phones in a freezer for an hour until the device had cooled to below -10C.

The trio discovered that quickly connecting and disconnecting the battery of a frozen phone forced the handset into a vulnerable mode. This loophole let them start it up with some custom-built software rather than its onboard Android operating system. The researchers dubbed their custom code Frost – Forensic Recovery of Scrambled Telephones.

Not a good day for Android. Then again, not many days are good for Android.

iOS dominates the enterprise market

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This quarter’s report showed a clear preference for iOS devices, which accounted for 77 percent of all activations and captured eight of the top ten spots on the most popular device list this quarter. While Android activations dropped 6.3 percent as compared to Q4 2011, they still accounted for 22.7 percent of all activations for the quarter, which were primarily driven by Android tablets. Windows Phone devices came in a distant third for the quarter, capturing just 0.5 percent of overall activations.

The iPhone 5 was the most popular device activated in Q4 2012.

Another iOS 6 lock screen flaw found

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The difference between the first exploit and this one is how it can make the iPhone screen go black, allowing an attacker to plug the device into a computer via USB and access the user’s data without having their PIN or passcode credentials.

I don’t know how they find this stuff, but Apple has to get this fixed.

More demos of iOS controlling Philips Hue lights

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I got a note last night from Kai Aras about some demos he’s done using iOS to control the Philips Hue lights. He has an explanation on each video page about what exactly is going on, so you can read those as well. […]

Rampant abuse of push notifications

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Jeff Hunter: The abuse of push notifications is spreading across the App Store. As a result, users are starting to reflexively reject app requests to send push notifications. I couldn’t agree more. Some of the uses of push notifications have … Continued

Oh Google

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Google’s Andy Rubin talking to Aliyun OS’s John Spelich:

So there’s really no disputing that Aliyun is based on the Android platform and takes advantage of all the hard work that’s gone into that platform by the OHA.

You mean like how you stole iOS and built Android? Never good when that happens Andy.

[Via Electronista]

Thermonuclear

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I’ve seen a number of comments around the Internet about how Apple didn’t exactly go “Thermonuclear” in its win against Samsung. There’s an important point to remember — Steve Jobs wasn’t talking about Samsung, he was talking about Google. […]

Apple removes YouTube app from iOS 6

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Apple said in a statement on Monday that its license to include the YouTube app in the iOS operating system “has ended.” Apple noted that “customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the app store.”

Seems odd for Apple to issues a statement for an operating system that’s in beta and under NDA.

Show me the money Android

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Matt Gemmell:

Piracy isn’t a symptom of social disease. Well, it might be, but your bank manager won’t care about that inconsequential detail. Piracy is a symptom of failure to find an effective business model.

So many good points in this article.

Mid Atlantic Consulting is wrong

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A couple of days ago Mid Atlantic Consulting published a post detailing how iOS 6 has a limit on the number of apps that can be installed on an iOS device. I call bullshit on this for a couple of reasons.

I talked to some of my sources about the claims of the blog and the supposed limitations of iOS 6. Mid Atlantic says at 500 apps, the device will slow down and at 1,000 apps it won’t even boot. The person I was speaking with had over 1,100 apps on his phone running iOS 6 and said there was no virtual or other type of limit on the number of apps that could be installed. […]

Apple kills sites selling iOS betas

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Federico Viticci:

While most of our emails bounced, we heard back from one of the site owners (who asked to remain anonymous), who confirmed his hosting provider took down the site after a complaint for copyright infringement by Apple.

This is a good thing. You’re not allowed to sell access to the beta, so they should be shutdown. Here’s the thing — these OS updates are betas and most people don’t realize the damage they can do to their phones if something goes wrong. As a developer, I have full access to the beta, but I still don’t have it on my phone.

iOS 6

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Rene Ritchie wrote a very in-depth piece on some of the things Apple could improve on with iOS 6. He didn’t just look at elements of the current OS, but also what Apple could learn from Android, webOS and Windows.

Apple releases iOS 5.1.1

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Apple released the iOS update on Monday that addresses the following:

  • Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
  • Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
  • Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
  • Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
  • Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase

Plug your device into iTunes and update or use the iPhone’s built-in update mechanism.