Items tagged with iPhone
Slowly but surely, Apple has begun trending towards a future where USB Type-C is the default charging standard, though not on its iPhone devices. That could change with the iPhone 14 (or whatever comes after the newly announced iPhone 13 series—perhaps an iPhone 13s lineup?), if the European Commission pushes through proposed legislation to make it a requirement. This appears not to be an 'if' and rather a 'when' type scenario. The European Commission wants to see USB Type-C become the common charging format for electronic devices, calling the initiative "an important step against e-waste and consumer inconvenience." And indeed, it can be both frustrating and inconvenient to upgrade a gadget,...
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Mental health is a topic that has been gaining some much-needed attention in recent years, including some interesting research being conducted by Apple, according to a new report. It is said Apple is working with the University of California, Los Angeles and a pharmaceutical company called Biogen on research that could find its way to future iPhone devices. Up to this point, Apple's focus on health has mostly been centered on its Apple Watch devices, with various monitoring sensors and related software tools. However, Apple is said to be looking into ways its iPhone handsets could detect mental states such as depression, as well pick up on signs of cognitive decline that could be a precursor...
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After going through numerous betas during the summer, Apple today released iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 for iPhones and iPads (and just days ahead of the iPhone 13 launch). As is typical for most recent new Apple software releases, iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are all about steady refinements instead of bringing drastic changes to the familiar operating systems. From this point on, we'll refer to the two operating systems as simply iOS 15 (except where noted). Some of the new features that Apple brings to the table include SharePlay, which allows you to maintain FaceTime video chats with friends/family as you watch TV and movies or listen to music. FaceTime has also been enhanced with Spatial Audio, a feature...
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If you're an iPhone user that also happens to ride a motorcycle, Apple has a stern warning for you. In a new support document posted to Apple's website, the company tells iPhone users not to directly mount their iPhones to a motorcycle due to issues that can arise from high amplitude vibrations caused by "high-power engines." The issue stems from the optical image stabilization (OIS) and closed-loop autofocus (AF) systems used on iPhones. The magnetic sensors and gyroscopes used in conjunction with the tiny motors that power these systems are highly susceptible to high-frequency vibrations, resulting in component failure. Apple writes: The OIS and closed-loop AF systems in iPhone are designed...
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Late last week, we covered Apple’s new plan to screen text messages for explicit images and files uploaded to iCloud for child sexual abuse material. The announcement, however, garnered quite a bit of attention and concern rather quickly, contrary to what Apple likely wanted. Now, the Cupertino-based company has published a frequently asked questions document to hopefully quell concerns. On August 5th, Apple announced that it would be scanning images for sexually explicit material sent to children. These photos would then be blurred, and a warning about the image’s content would be shown to the child. If the child decided to view the content, their parent would be alerted if they...
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Passengers on a recent United Airlines flight departing from San Francisco, California and bound for Orlando, Florida, had to exit the plane and be re-screened because of an ill-advised iPhone prank. A teenager on board the aircraft had used Apple's AirDrop feature to send an unsolicited photo of an airsoft gun to other passengers on board the plane. In today's climate, that is a big no-no. While some may see the de-boarding and re-screening as an overreaction, an abundance of caution is to be expected when taking to the skies on a commercial airline. The boneheaded teen who sent the photo was likely not born yet during the terrorist events of 9-11, or if they were, they would have been less...
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Google is making waves when it comes to privacy at a rapid pace. Just last week, the company introduces a new way to quickly delete the last 15 minutes of search history with the push of a button. This week, the company is opening up a new option that will allow you to lock Incognito tabs in Chrome with biometric authentication. For those not familiar with Incognito mode, it allows you to browse the web privately and won't save your site history, cookies, site data, or form data. However, if you don't close out your Incognito tab when switching to your "normal" tabs, the last site that you visited would still be visible when switching back. For example, let's say you use Incognito mode to search...
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Do you know what would be great? If Apple would stop dragging its feet on a weird bug in iOS that makes it possible to disable an iPhone's ability to connect with a Wi-Fi network. Same goes for iPad devices, presumably. The problem lies with SSIDs that contain certain characters—if you connect to one with your iPhone, it could kill your Wi-Fi, possibly requiring a factory restore to get it back. This came to light last month when researcher and reverse engineer specialist Carl Schou found that when joining a network with the SSID set as %p%s%s%s%s%n, it would disable the device's Wi-Fi. In some cases, however, it seems the issue could be resolved by resetting the phone's network settings,...
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T-Mobile's "Test Drive" program just received a sweet upgrade for people that want a hassle-free way to test drive its burgeoning 5G network. The long-running Test Drive program allowed you to obtain a physical SIM to sample its network for free for up to 30 days. Now, Test Drive leverages eSIM technology, making it even easier to hop onto T-Mobile's network. Thanks to eSIM tech, taking a Test Drive is as simple as downloading the T-Mobile Network Test Drive app and installing it on your supported device. In this case, the app is currently only supported on unlocked Apple iPhones (iPhone XS or newer) running iOS 14.5 or higher. Current T-Mobile/Sprint/Metro customers are not eligible for the...
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Perhaps it is good to have a normal WiFi name or SSID, as one researcher found. Earlier this week, a new iPhone bug appeared that bricks any iPhone’s WiFi, if connected to a specifically named access point. While something like this could be used maliciously in theory, it would be hard to miss a hotspot named %p%s%s%s%s%n. On June 18th, researcher and reverse engineer Carl Schou found that when he joined his personal WiFi with the SSID set to %p%s%s%s%s%n, it “permanently disabled its WiFi functionality.” Even a reboot or changing the SSID to something else would fix the problem, he tweeted. After some testing, it was eventually found that the only way to fix this would be to...
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When you purchase a new iPhone direct from Apple, or any number of retail/cellular partners, the device comes preinstalled with dozens of Apple apps. These apps include several necessities for the basic operation of a modern smartphone, including Phone, Messages, Camera, and Contacts apps. Additional installed apps include the iTunes Store, Health, FaceTime, Books, and Music (and many others). However, a proposed bill lead by Democratic Representative David Cicilline (R.I.) would change this practice of loading smartphones with apps from the device manufacturer. According to Cicilline, this bundling practice gives Apple an advantage over other app makers that use the iOS platform. The standard...
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While Qualcomm and Apple buried the [legal] hatchet in 2019 concerning lawsuits regarding licensing and copyright infringement over 4G LTE modems, the latter is still far along with the development of its own next-generation hardware. In years past, Apple used a mixture of Intel and Qualcomm modems (its current iPhones and iPads exclusively use Qualcomm hardware). But we all know that Apple is quickly bringing major component design in-house, and the modem is a pricey piece of the smartphone puzzle. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple's first in-house 5G modems will debut in 2023 iPhones. That means that Qualcomm will have just two more years of exclusivity before Apple charts its...
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Once again, word from the rumor mill is that Apple is working on a foldable version of its popular iPhone, though it will not be ready for release this year or even next year. Instead, it bound for a launch sometime in 2023, according to notorious Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. No announcement has been made, but Kuo has been somewhat reliable in the past. Folding smartphones are a new concept, though the segment is in its relative infancy. They can also be tricky to build, as Samsung discovered with its first attempt at making one—issues plagued the original Galaxy Fold, prompting Samsung CEO DJ Koh to admit, "I pushed it through before it was ready." The Galaxy Z Fold 2 was a better attempt....
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Last week, the CEO of messaging app Signal got his hands on Cellebrite software, which is typically used for extracting data from mobile devices. Several security vulnerabilities were discovered with this acquisition, leading to Signal including files in its app that would corrupt all present and future data collected by the Cellebrite utility. Now, the Cellebrite Physical Analyzer, or “the most intrusive phone cracking tool offered by the company,” is no longer fully supporting iPhones. Cellebrite is an Israeli digital forensics and intelligence company that provides both hardware and software to crack phones. These products are used by law enforcement agencies around the world and...
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If you've been looking forward to enjoying Microsoft's Project xCloud game streaming beta on platforms other than Android, then we've got some good news in store for you. Microsoft says that starting tomorrow, it will send out a limited number of invites to existing Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members to test out xCloud on iOS devices (iPhones, iPads) and Windows 10 PCs. With Android smartphones and tablets, accessing xCloud is made possible via the Xbox Game Streaming app. However, iOS and Windows 10 access will come via a web browser. You'll have to visit xbox.com/play using either Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. Browser access is the only way for iOS users to access xCloud, as Apple...
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How do you get an iPhone user to switch over to Android? Well if you are Samsung, you could try sending them a free Galaxy handset. Of course, that would get expensive in a hurry, and quite frankly, is not going to happen. So, Samsung has come up with a different, more economical stunt—it's offering up a free web-based demonstration that turns iPhone handsets into a simulated Galaxy device. I gave it a test run myself, as you can see in the photo above. At first glance, it appears to be a Galaxy phone, but look closer and you will see an it is an iPhone XS Max. How did Samsung pull it off? The company's team in New Zealand concocted the demonstration, which you can try out yourself by directing...
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When Apple first introduced Face ID with the iPhone X back in 2017, it tossed Touch ID fingerprint recognition into the trash bin for its flagship smartphones. All you had to do was simply lift your iPhone and look at it and would unlock. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made things a lot harder for those with a Face ID-equipped iPhone. Because most of us are now wearing a mask when we go out, unlocking your device, authenticating purchases, and opening banking apps means that you must dip your mask down so that the Face ID hardware can fully scan your face (or enter your passcode to unlock the device). That kind of defeats the purpose of wearing a mask and is more than annoying if you must...
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We are just a few months removed for the launch Of Apple's iPhone 12 lineup of smartphones, but the rumor mill is already cranking into high gear about their upcoming successors. The iPhone 12 family brought the introduction of 5G technology for Apple's flagship smartphones, and brought a smaller form-factor with the iPhone 12 mini. A new report, however, suggest that the next-generation iPhone 13 Pro family will include a feature that was previously rumored for the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max: a 120Hz display panel. 120Hz panels are commonplace in today's Android flagships, while we've also seen 90Hz options in mid-range Android smartphones. Apple, for its part, has stuck with 60Hz panels...
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In May of this year, Apple patched a silent but deadly exploit that went after iPhones using specially crafted wireless payloads. This exploit is a simple memory corruption attack that allows any malicious person to do whatever they want to an iPhone: be it collecting data such as images and messages, or shutting down the device entirely. First unveiled on Tuesday, the exploit is spectacular to watch and learn about over the course of the 30,000-word writeup. This exploit was discovered by Ian Beer of Google’s Project Zero earlier this year. As he was locked away at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he used his time to create a “wormable radio-proximity exploit” which lets...
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It's time for Apple to face the music [again] when it comes to “throttlegate”, which came to a head nearly three years ago after it was determined that the company was throttling the performance of iPhones that had chemically aged past a certain threshold (usually around 80 percent or below original capacity). Once Apple was caught red-handed, it apologized, issued the iOS 10.2.1 update with Battery Health functionality, and started offering battery replacements on its iPhones for a low $29. Unfortunately for Apple, that wasn't the end of the matter. Over the summer a number of states -- spearheaded by Arizona -- decided to action against Apple for anti-consumer practices...
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It does not appear as though Epic Games and Apple are close to kissing and making up, which means Fortnite remains a no-show in the App Store. However, that does not necessarily mean there is no way to play it on an iPhone or iPad device. Fortnite could be making a semi-triumphant return to iOS devices, and without Epic Games conceding its dispute with Apple. And NVIDIA would be the one to thank. Say what, now? NVIDIA does not have a dog in this fight, but it does have a cloud gaming service. I am of course talking about GeForce NOW. The streaming service has been expanding its catalog of games, and also extending its reach, having added support for Chrome OS devices (Chromebooks, mostly) this...
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Yesterday, Apple reported a record-breaking quarter, where it earned $64.7 billion in revenue thanks to strong Mac sales, better than expected iPad sales, and its booming Services division. However, one area that saw a significant decline was its iPhone business. Apple recorded $11.1 billion in sales in the China region during Q3 2019, but that number fell 28.9 percent to $7.9 billion. During the company’s earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook talked about the poor showing in China. "Back in April, I said we were in the most challenging environment in which Apple, as a company has ever operated," said Cook. "China is the region that was most heavily impacted by the absence of the new iPhones...
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