Articles about iOS

Apple may have just released iOS 11.3 beta 2, but the attention of world turned to the iOS source code that leaked to GitHub. The iPhone maker has confirmed that code for iOS 9's iBoot had leaked, but stressed its age.

The company said that the leak does not pose a security threat to users, insisting that "the security of our products doesn't depend on the secrecy of our source code." But while Apple tries to play down the leak, there's no denying that it is highly significant and an unprecedented embarrassment.

Continue reading →

The source code for the iOS bootloader iBoot has been leaked to GitHub, prompting Apple to issue a DMCA takedown notice.

Although the source code is for iOS 9.3 and a couple of years old, it appears to be the real deal and would still cause something of a headache for Apple. Copies of the code have been circulating online despite the takedown notice, and the concern is that it could be used to exploit iOS with malware.

Continue reading →

Going under the banner of Emoji 11.0, a raft of new emojis are due to hit the screen of iOS and Android devices later this year.

After being previewed late last year, the full list of emojis has now been published by the Unicode Consortium, and they're due to be launched in the second half of 2018 -- August or September. What can you look forward to? New red-haired and bald men and women feature, as do a female superhero, a pirate flag and a microbe.

Continue reading →

The iPhone X was among the best-selling smartphones in major markets like Europe, Japan and US in December, according to a new report from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Apple's flagship helped iOS gain market share in five major European markets.

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech's report comes just after Nikkei claimed that iPhone X was selling bellow expectations. Nikkei based its analysis on supply figures from Apple's partners, which may not accurately reflect consumers' interest in the flagship.

Continue reading →

Most CI and DevOps vendors are focused on Linux-based applications, which means supporting Windows or iOS requires multiple platforms, or managing their own instances of Jenkins. This can lead to an inefficient, expensive and inconsistent experience.

Automation platform Shippable is addressing this issue with the launch of support for applications built on Mac OS X, iOS, and Windows, plus new analytics tools.

Continue reading →

Many iPhone owners were disappointed to learn that Apple had been purposefully slowing their handsets, with many people believing it confirmed rumors that Apple slowed older iPhones to encourage upgrades.

Facing a backlash, the company explained that the forced performance degradation was an attempt to maximize battery life, and it then announced a cheaper battery replacement program. Now Tim Cook has said that a future iOS update will make iPhone throttling optional.

Continue reading →

Every few years or so, news breaks about a new bug that can cause iPhones and Macs to crash.

In 2013, it was discovered a string of Arabic characters could kill applications in OS X 10.8 and iOS 6, and then in 2015, the "Effective Power" bug allowed anyone to remotely reboot iPhones -- again by using a special sequence of characters.

Continue reading →

Google's latest update for YouTube on iOS promises 'general fixes and stability improvements', but also includes a welcome hidden extra -- a Dark Mode that looks especially amazing on iPhone X, and might even save you some battery life. However, there is a catch.

To activate this new mode, you need to be running YouTube for iOS version 13.01.4 (or later), and even then it might not be available to you. It seems Google is rolling the feature out slowly to select users. To see if you’re one of the lucky ones, here’s what you need to do.

Continue reading →

As technology firms around the world try to mop up the mess that the Meltdown and Spectre chip bugs are making, Intel has been keen to stress that the impact patches will have on performance will be minimal. The company has already released benchmark results that show the hardest hit will be older computers. Now new benchmarks show that iPhone users may notice slowdowns too.

One iPhone 6 owner decided to benchmark his phone and found that the performance hit is significant. So significant, in fact, that some tasks see a performance degradation of more than 50 percent.

Continue reading →

Following accusations that children are addicted to iPhones, Apple has said that it will introduce improved parental controls in iOS.

At the weekend, an open letter from a group of investors expressed concern about the overuse of Apple devices by children and teenagers. Responding to the letter, Apple says that while it considers itself a leader when it comes to parental controls, it will make the feature even "more robust" in the future.

Continue reading →

Following the Meltdown and Spectre revelations, let's just say that 2018 is off to a bad start for many tech companies. Apple is among the biggest players affected by the two security vulnerabilities, with all iOS and Mac users at risk.

The company was quick to patch Meltdown, however, with iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2 and tvOS 11.2 getting mitigations against the vulnerability. And, now, it's tackling Spectre too through new updates for its major operating systems.

Continue reading →

Apple has confirmed that all of its Macs, iPhones and iPads are affected by the recently revealed Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. The company points out that while a huge number of devices are affected, there are "no known exploits impacting customers at this time."

Just as Microsoft has already pushed out an emergency patch for Windows 10 users -- with Windows 7 and 8 to follow soon -- Apple has already rolled out some patches for Meltdown with iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2. An update to Safari to protect against Spectre is promised in the coming days.

Continue reading →

The Apple Pay Cash 'app' is built in to iOS, so you might well expect that it would be locked in place, completely un-uninstallable. But that's not the case. In fact, you can remove -- or at least hide -- the app, but you will run into problems if you ever change your mind and decide you want it back.

If you are running iOS 11.2 -- which introduced Apple Pay Cash -- you can easily uninstall the app if you feel you don't want it. But there is no obvious way to get it back, meaning that while you can still use Siri to make payments, you won't be able to do so in iMessage. This is something that may well be fixed in iOS 11.3, but in the meantime there are a couple of work arounds.

Continue reading →

Third-party Android and iOS keyboard ai-type is at the center of something of a privacy nightmare after a misconfigured database leaked the personal details of more than 31 million of its users.

Researchers at Kromtech Security Center discovered an unprotected database had been exposed by developers, revealing incredibly detailed information about its users. The database was found to be freely available for anyone to download, with no password required to access a treasure trove of information.

Continue reading →

In a move that's likely to raise a few eyebrows, Facebook today opened up its messaging platform to children under the age of 13. A new app, Messenger Kids, is now available in the US for iOS users.

The app is currently available as a preview, and Facebook says that it has worked with parents and groups such as the National PTA to ensure safety. The company also emphasizes the fact that parents are in full control of who their children are able to connect with.

Continue reading →