Items tagged with iPhone
Facebook is a company that is no stranger to controversy, privacy lapses, or downright bizarre behavior that has drawn the ire of users and politicians on Capitol Hill. The company's latest misstep is likely to further tarnish the company, which just hasn't been able to catch a break during 2019. There is apparently a "bug" in the current version of the Facebook app for iOS that results in some pretty atypical behavior. According to Joshua Maddux, who first discovered the oddity and posted video evidence to Twitter, the Facebook app is actively querying the iPhone's camera in the background when scrolling through the News Feed. If you have an iPhone, and have given the app access...
Read more...
iOS 13 and its various iterations have been hell for Apple and its users. Surprisingly, iOS 13 hasn't been a radical overhaul for Apple's mobile operating system, but the sheer numbers of bugs in this major release has been astounding. The latest issue that Apple has addressed is a multitasking bug that became exacerbated by the release of iOS 13.2 on October 26th. While some people had experienced some multitasking oddities with all iOS 13.x releases, iOS 13.2 truly brought the problem to the masses. In a nutshell, multitasking -- as iPhone and iPad users have come to know it over the years -- was practically non-existent. Users could be working on an email, answer a phone call, then go...
Read more...
Apple's 2019 family of smartphone consists of the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. The new family represented yet another yearly refresh with a heavy emphasis placed on the cameras and battery life. However, the 2020 iPhone lineup is expected to be the most significant step forward for the family since... perhaps, the iPhone X. According to a new report from the Japanese publication Nikkei, the 2020 iPhones will be powered by the [obvious] A14 Bionic SoC. This will allegedly be the first Apple SoC to use TSMC's new 5nm process tech. The shift to 5nm should allow for even greater increases in performance, while reducing power consumption compared to the 7nm A13...
Read more...
Security researchers discovered 17 malicious iPhone apps that managed to get through Apple's review process and land on the App Store. The infected apps, which have now been removed, had been infected with clicker trojan malware "designed to carry out ad fraud related tasks in the background," such as clicking on links and continuously opening webpages. "The objective of most clicker trojans is to generate revenue for the attacker on a pay-per-click basis by inflating website traffic. They can also be used to drain the budget of a competitor by artificially inflating the balance owed to the ad network," researchers at security firm Wandera state in a blog post. All of the apps came from the same...
Read more...
Some fans of the Pixel 4 smartphone who ordered one weren't happy to hear that Google isn't offering free original quality photo uploads to Google Photos. Free original quality uploads had been an offering in the past as a much-appreciated perk for Pixel device owners. A redditor has furthered inflamed those tensions, pointing out that iPhone users have been enjoying unlimited original quality backups on Google Photos for free. Google says that it is a bug, and that it will be addressed. iPhone users get free original quality backups because the iPhone itself saves its images in HEIC format according to Android Police. The format provides a smaller file size than a compressed JPEG that most...
Read more...
Apple has a new patent application that has turned up at the USPTO that outlines a new system of haptic feedback that aims to make on-screen keyboards feel more like the real thing. The haptic tech described in the patent is called "Static Pattern Electrostatic Haptic Electrodes," and the goal is to to provide more tactile feedback like a computer keyboard. The patent relates to haptics that use multiple static pattern electrostatic haptic electrodes that are driven by different voltages, which allows a range of different haptic outputs. The static pattern electrostatic haptic electrode could include conductive material and voids inside the conductive material that allows the material to be the...
Read more...
In a perfect world, data caps would not exist—we would all have access to a wide open spigot of data at a low price. Here in the real world, however, it is not that simple—unlimited data plans, while widely available, can be more than some willing users are willing to pay. Hence why there is a new (sort of) Low Data Mode for iPhone handsets. The new Low Data Mode is one of the features of iOS 13, which launched alongside Apple's latest iPhone 11 series. If you have not yet been automatically updated, you can force the issue by heading to Settings > General > Software Update. That is also where you can toggle automatic updates on or off. What's neat about the Low Data Mode is...
Read more...
Smartphone users have become used to smartphones that only offer marginal performance gains over past models with each new release. Apple's new iPhone 11 family has better cameras, vastly better battery life, and the promise of better performance over their predecessors. In a new video posted to YouTube, the iPhone 11 Pro is being pitted against the iPhone XS and iPhone X to see how the processor inside each of the three generations performs compared to the other generations. EverythingApplePro puts all three of the devices on the screen at the same time with the generation marked in the bottom left corner in the early tests. The iPhone X is notably slower on games like Fortnite, lagging well...
Read more...
Apple takes its time bringing entering new product categories, and that appears to be the case with its upcoming AR headset. The clearest evidence ever that Apple has an AR headset in testing has surfaced from code hidden inside iOS 13. IOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith has found a readme file tucked inside iOS 13 that explains to Apple employees how to run augmented reality apps on the iPhone when a headset isn't available. The developer says that the code suggests the rendering might be handled on the iPhone itself and will work with an additional gamepad/motion control device. With the readme file telling workers how to test AR apps without having the AR headset, and no mention of AR tech...
Read more...
Apple had its big keynote address for this year, and the highly anticipated iPhone 11 family has been revealed. As expected, there are three new models that have been announced, which are successors for the iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max respectively. Meet the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. Let's start off with the iPhone 11, which is the least inexpensive of the bunch. It features a 6.1-inch LCD (like its predecessor) along with a revised (and faster) version of Face ID. The screen resolution remains the same (1792x868), but Apple has made some slight modifications to the panel to make improve colors and overall performance. Inside, Apple is using a new A13 Bionic SoC,...
Read more...
A scathing report by China Labor Watch (CLW) outlines an alleged "string of labor rights violations" at Foxconn (otherwise known as Hon Hai Precision) in relation to the production of Apple iPhone handsets. The disconcerting report arrives just as Apple is getting ready to launch a new line of flagship iPhone devices. CLW's latest report focuses on the Zhengzhou Foxconn factory in China. This location has been dubbed "iPhone City" because it the largest iPhone factory in the world, spanning 1.4 million square meters. Over half of all iPhones sold worldwide come from there. "Our recent findings on working conditions at Zhengzhou Foxconn highlights several issues which are in violation of Apple’s...
Read more...
Last week we reported on multiple flaws in iOS that were found by Google's Project Zero team that primarily affected iPhones. There were a total of 14 vulnerabilities uncovered, which included exploits for the Safari web browser and the iOS kernel itself. Amazingly, perpetrators of these exploits were able to perform "drive by" attacks to pilfer photos, user contact details, and app data from users that simply visited malicious websites with their iPhones. While Apple was quick to fix the vulnerabilities when it was alerted about them, we didn't learn last week who had actually carried out the attacks using these previously unknown vectors. Now, thanks to reporting from TechCrunch,...
Read more...
A member of Google's Project Zero security team has written a lengthy blog post detailing a series of iOS exploit chains discovered in the wild. According to Project Zero's findings, a hacking group underwent a "sustained effort to hack the users of iPhones" for a period of at least two years. This was accomplished through hacked websites. Project Zero member Ian Beer says Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) discovered a small collection of hacked websites that were used in "indiscriminate water hole attacks" against iPhone users, by way of a zero-day attack. "Simply visiting the hacked site was enough for the exploit server to attack your device, and if it was successful, install a monitoring...
Read more...
Apple has been under fire for years with regards to its onerous policies regarding "unofficial" hardware repairs. Most recently, Apple began displaying warning messages within iOS for iPhone users that had their batteries replaced with non-genuine hardware. For some people that live nowhere close to an Apple Store or an Apple authorized service centers, getting repairs performed by indie shops is the only course of action if they want to have their device fixed within a reasonable amount of time. And given that Apple wouldn't provide genuine hardware replacements, tools, or manuals necessary to perform repairs to non-authorized shops, the company was in fact exacerbating the problem....
Read more...
