Articles about Apple

Following a somewhat problematic initial release of iOS, Apple pushed out iOS 11.0.2 to fix a number of issues. But people are already looking forward to the next incremental, non-bug-fixing release. This is iOS 11.1, and Apple has revealed a little of what we can expect.

iPad and iPhone users are to be treated to a new batch of emoji -- hundreds of new ones in total -- encompassing "more emotive smiley faces, gender-neutral characters, clothing options, food types, animals, mythical creatures and more."

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Since macOS is a Unix-based operating system, it is often seen as being stable and secure. For the most part, the OS is. With that said, it is not perfect, and certainly not infallible. Quite frankly, no operating system is impervious to security issues.

Unfortunately for Apple, its latest and greatest desktop operating system, macOS High Sierra 10.13, has some very serious flaws. First, it was discovered that the supposedly secure keychain password system could be easily infiltrated by malware. Arguably worse, it was then discovered that encrypted APFS disks had their passwords erroneously saved in plain text in the "hint" field. Yeah, that is not only bad, but embarrassing too. Both of these issues were patched today, however, with the emergency "Supplemental Update."

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Even though smartphone manufacturers rigorously test new devices before releasing them into the market, defects sometimes do make it into production. In the best-case scenario, you can live with them. Sometimes though, you get one so serious that the manufacturer has to recall the smartphone -- take the Galaxy Note7 for example, which had the bad habit of catching fire spontaneously.

Apple seems to have a potentially major problem of its own with the iPhone 8 Plus. A number of users are claiming that their new smartphone has split open while charging, effectively turning it into a very expensive brick.

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Apple's launch of the iPhone 8 and Apple Watch Series 3 has certainly not been without its problems. Buyers of the latest addition to the iPhone range have complained about crackling audio, while owners of the new smartwatch have been less than impressed by problematic LTE and battery life.

Now Apple has pushed out a couple of updates that should help with the issues -- watchOS 4.0.1, and iOS 11.0.2.

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The European Union has ordered Amazon to repay €250m ($294m) after it ruled that the retailer was granted illegal state aid by Luxembourg. The tax advantage dates back to 2003, but Amazon says that it is considering making an appeal.

At the same time, the European Commission has announced that it is going to sue the Irish government for failing to collect €13bn ($15.3bn) in tax from Apple. The Irish government will need to defend itself in the European Court of Justice for failing to gather money from the iPhone-maker following a 2016 ruling by the commission.

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The iPhone is rarely the first smartphone to bring a new technology to market, but when Apple decides to implement a novel feature it typically gets it right from the start. This also seems to be the case with the TrueDepth camera on the iPhone X, which is said to be a few years ahead of the Android competition.

TrueDepth works as an iris scanner and front-facing camera on the iPhone X and, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple's rivals will need around two and a half years to offer the same level of functionality on their Android smartphones.

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A judge has ruled that the FBI will not have to reveal any details about the hacking tool it bought to crack the iPhone at the center of the San Bernardino shooting case back in early 2016.

Following a Freedom of Information request by Vice News, USA Today and the Associated Press, federal judge Tanya Chutkan ruled in favor of the FBI, meaning that the agency will be able to keep this information secret.

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For some time now, Apple has regularly released the source code for the shared iOS and macOS kernel. That the company has done so again might not be news, but Apple has, for the first time, released the source code for the ARM versions of the kernel.

Pushed to GitHub, the source code gives anyone who likes the idea of seeing exactly what makes iOS and macOS tick the opportunity to do just that.

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In the wake of big storms recently, the National Association of Broadcasters and the FCC has piled the pressure on Apple to enable the FM radio in iPhones so they might be used for emergency broadcasts.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai went as far as issuing a statement saying that "Apple is the one major phone manufacturer that has resisted" enabling FM chips in its phones. There's just one problem, as Apple points out. The iPhone simply doesn't have an FM chip to enable.

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The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) has steadily replaced BIOS in recent years as means of booting and controlling hardware devices.

Mac systems have used EFI since 2006 but an analysis by Duo Labs, the research arm of Duo Security, of more than 73,000 Mac systems finds that in many cases the EFI is not receiving security updates, leaving users vulnerable to attacks.

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Apple has launched a revamped privacy page proclaiming that its products are "designed to protect your privacy." Describing privacy as "a fundamental human right," the page explains the privacy functions of apps, Siri, Apple Pay and Touch ID.

The company describes not only how it protects personal data with encryption, but also how it responds to government and legal requests for data. Apple has additionally published a paper which goes into some detail about how the Face ID feature of the iPhone X works -- and reveals its limitations.

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A number of iPhone 8 owners have complained of a crackling sound in their phone's earpiece during calls. The problem is not specific to any particular carrier, and it also affects the iPhone 8 Plus.

Apple says that only a "small number of cases" of the audio problem have been reported, but there are lengthy threads on Reddit and Apple support forums with comments from those suffering with the issue. The good news is that there is a fix in the works and it's going to be delivered as a software update -- so it would seem there is not a physical problem with hardware.

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Leading UK technology company Imagination Technologies is being acquired by a Chinese investment firm in a multi-million pound deal.

CBFI Investment Limited (owned by Canyon Bridge) is shelling out £550m to acquire the hardware maker, based in Kings Langley just outside of London, the parties confirmed late last week.

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There are times when you may not want to use the App Store or the recovery mode to install macOS 10.13 High Sierra on your Mac. So Apple gives you the option of creating a bootable USB drive. You can use it anytime and anywhere to quickly get the operating system running on any compatible Mac. An Internet connection is not even required as everything you need is already on the drive.

Creating a bootable macOS 10.13 High Sierra USB drive is very easy. All you need is a Mac, as the tools provided for the process are only available on OS X and macOS, and a USB drive with a capacity of 8GB or more. I will also explain how to use a dedicated third-party tool, in case you decide that this option suits you better.

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With the launch of macOS High Sierra, Apple is making some changes to Safari. One of the key changes is the introduction of differential privacy technology which gathers data about the websites users visit in order to identify those that are problematic because of high memory usage or crashes.

As the name of the technology implies, as well as gathering useful data from users, one of the key features of differential privacy is that it respects the privacy of individuals. The AI-powered technology keeps, according to Apple's Craig Federighi, "the information of each individual user completely private" while still collecting data that will enable Apple to decide the priority with which it should tackle problematic sites.

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