iOS Devices

The latest to speak out on the Apple and FBI controversy is none other than President Obama who earlier today attended a talk at South by Southwest Interactive. While the talk was about “civic engagement in the 21st Century,” the conversation not surprisingly turned to the government’s role in the high-profile Apple and FBI case.

Obama made it clear that he isn’t behind Apple in the case, saying that tech companies shouldn’t “take an absolutist view” on encryption and encouraging them to make concessions instead of forcing Congress to pass new law:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Out of seemingly nowhere, the Pangu hacking team has released an update to its jailbreak tool for devices running iOS 9.1. The tool, which is available for both Mac and Windows, allows users to jailbreak the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. More interestingly, the same team is promising to release a jailbreak for the 4th generation Apple TV next week.

Expand
Expanding
Close

If Apple’s most recent hardware events were about going bigger (larger iPhones, a jumbo iPad, and a new Apple TV), Apple’s March 21st event is about going smaller. Apple yesterday officially sent invites to its much-anticipated event to be held at its Cupertino campus with the tagline “Let us loop you in.” The event, which was originally internally scheduled for a week earlier, will focus on Apple’s new 4-inch iPhone SE, a smaller, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and new Apple Watch bands. The company will likely also reveal the final versions of iOS 9.3, tvOS 9.2, watchOS 2.2, OS X 10.11.4, and an iTunes update. We’ve reported nearly the entirety of what’s expected to come at the event, so read on for a full roundup of everything we’re likely to see. (Updated March 18th with the latest information):

Expand
Expanding
Close

ACLU principal technologist and Yale Law School visiting fellow Christopher Soghoian drew attention to a rather dramatic raising of the stakes in the DOJ’s latest filing in the San Bernardino iPhone case. It contains an implicit threat that if Apple isn’t willing to create the special version of iOS needed to break the passcode protection, the government could force the company to hand over both the source code and signature so that its own coders could do it instead.

For the reasons discussed above, the FBI cannot itself modify the software on Farook’s iPhone without access to the source code and Apple’s private electronic signature. The government did not seek to compel Apple to turn those over because it believed such a request would be less palatable to Apple. If Apple would prefer that
course, however, that may provide an alternative that requires less labor by Apple programmers.

It then goes on to cite a case it believes provides a precedent for this …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Earlier today, the Department of Justice filed its latest response to Apple regarding the encryption case centered around the San Bernardino iPhone. In the filing, the FBI said that its request “invade no one’s privacy” and accused Apple of being “corrosive and false” in its rhetoric. Now, Apple general counsel Bruce Sewell has replied to the filing with some choice words…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Will Apple stick to business as usual later this month at its press event for the new iPhone SE, Apple Watch, and Mac updates? Or will it use the very public stage to also address the ongoing FBI/San Bernardino/encryption controversy?

Expand
Expanding
Close

Just over a week since the last tvOS 9.2 beta, Apple has released tvOS 9.2 beta 6 for developers with the fourth-gen Apple TV. Apple TV gains several new abilities with the upcoming release including iOS-style app folders, a redesigned app switcher user interface, voice dictation input for search and username/password entry, complete iCloud Photo Library support, and much more. We’ll check out the latest beta version of the upcoming release and highlight any changes below.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has officially announced its upcoming spring event (via @tim) scheduled for March 21st in Cupertino at Apple’s 1 Infinite Loop campus at 10 am PT/1 pm ET. The company is expected to introduce the 4-inch iPhone SE, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, new Apple Watch bands, software updates, and more. As for what’s in store for this event, this is what’s rumored and what we expect to see:

Expand
Expanding
Close

As we’ve reported in the past, Apple is expected to introduce a new 9.7-inch iPad Pro at an event later this month, and now we’ve seen the first alleged case made for the device. Nowhereelse.fr on Twitter has found a pair of cases supposedly made for the iPad Pro 9.7-inch that fall in line with reports that the device will feature Smart Connector support, camera flash, and more.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Somehow, it has become a part of mainstream culture for iPhone and iPad users to quit all their apps in multitasking as some kind of regular tech maintenance ritual to improve battery life or speed up the hardware. An understanding of how iOS multitasking works however, shows that this is completely unnecessary to close every app in the multitasking view frequently. A 9to5Mac reader decided to ask Tim Cook for an official stance on whether he quits all his apps and if it’s necessary. Although Cook didn’t answer, Apple iOS chief Craig Federighi did with an unambiguous answer ‘no and no’ …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has rolled out a nice enhancement to the Radio tab in the Music app, further promoting Beats 1 as a live always-on service. As pictured above, rather than displaying the same static image of the Beats 1 logo with a Listen Now subtitle, the Radio tab now updates along with the live schedule … displaying live show titles, host names, description and artwork for the current show. This change allows users to quickly find out what’s on right now and could convert more people into actively listening to the free Beats 1 radio station.

The Radio tab content is largely controlled by server-side data, so Apple has been able to apply this change without an iOS system update; it is appearing on devices running the public iOS 9.2.1 and beta iOS 9.3 seeds.

Expand
Expanding
Close

While we’re still a ways off from the announcement and subsequent release of the iPhone 7, early rumors have suggested that the device will largely feature the same design as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s. This goes against Apple’s general habit of refreshing the design of its flagships every other year, so we’re curious: Would you upgrade to the iPhone 7 if the design was largely the same as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s?

Google surprised everyone earlier today with the very first preview release of Android N — the next operating system update for Android devices — which anyone savvy enough with the right hardware can try out now for free even before Google’s upcoming I/O developer conference. Included in the first preview version of Android N are many new features that catch Google’s mobile OS up with Apple’s iOS 9 like split-screen apps and picture-in-picture mode. Like Apple, Google’s even launching a public beta program for consumers soon. Check out the full details at 9to5Google and see how each feature compares between Android N and iOS 9 below:

Expand
Expanding
Close

We said yesterday that the war of words on the Apple/FBI dispute were hotting up, and Edward Snowden has now taken things a step further, suggesting that the FBI’s claims that they need Apple to access the iPhone are … not true. His comments were reported by The Intercept, which posted video of the discussion at a civil liberties conference.

“The FBI says Apple has the ‘exclusive technical means’” to unlock the phone, Snowden said during a discussion at Common Cause’s Blueprint for Democracy conference.

“Respectfully, that’s bullsh*t,” he said, over a video link from Moscow.

Snowden had earlier described how the FBI could physically extract the passcode from the iPhone chip, and has now linked to an explanation of how the agency could bypass the auto-erase feature …

Expand
Expanding
Close

It has begun. The first images of purported iPhone 7 case leaks have started to appear online today. If true, the new iPhone will look very similar to the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 with curved corners and a flat back. Notably, this case does not include a hole for a 3.5 mm headphone jack — reinforcing rumors that Apple will drop it in favor of Bluetooth or Lightning headphones.

On the bottom of the phone, it appears to feature only a Lightning port surrounded by two equal-width speaker grilles, which could mean the phone will include some kind of stereo sound output. Aside from the lack of a headphone port, it’s hard to see any other major differences from the case leak. More images after the break, via @OnLeaks …

Expand
Expanding
Close

Sonos speakers offer some of the best features in the game, but they come with one drawback: it’s expensive to get the whole-home setup that people love so much. The cheapest speaker, the Sonos Play:1 comes in at $200, while the Play:3 runs $299, and the Play:5 goes for $499. And remember, to get that whole-home setup, you’ll have to buy at least two speakers. While the Sonos speakers definitely offer the added benefit of being easy to use, it’s hard to justify spending so much if you’re living on a budget. Thankfully, there are a couple of other ways to get a whole-home speaker setup at a fraction of the cost…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Following a report last week that said Apple is looking to release an OLED iPhone sometime in 2017, Digitimes today reports that the company is planning a 5.8-inch OLED device (via The Motley Fool). While the report should be taken with a grain of salt considering the source, it claims that Apple is pushing to release the larger device sometime in 2018, or perhaps even earlier in 2017, which lines up with last week’s report.

Expand
Expanding
Close

One of the things that makes iOS special is its SpringBoard animations. The animations help orient the user around iOS using 3D space.

But not everyone is a fan of iOS’ animations — some for purely aesthetic reasons and others for health reasons. With this in mind, Apple has provided a way to reduce the animations using the Reduce Motion switch found in the Accessibility settings. Even with that option available, some wish to take the reduction of animations even further and disable them altogether.

Up until now, many of the available options for disabling animations relied on jailbreaking. But a new iOS glitch found by a redditor makes it possible to completely get rid of SpringBoard animations until you reboot your iPhone. Watch our step-by-step video walkthrough inside to see how.
Expand
Expanding
Close