Apple opened up its bug bounty program to all its operating systems and made the maximum possible payout to a researcher $1.5 million.
HomePod Has Just 5 Percent of U.S. Smart Speaker Market
Apple’s HomePod made up just 5 percent of the U.S. smart speaker market in the second quarter of 2019, new data revealed.
Ofcom Data Shows Nearly Half of UK Households Pay for Video Subscription Service
Regulator Ofcom revealed that nearly half of UK households pay for at least one subscription video-on-demand (SVod) service.
Researchers Spoof Face ID Using Tape and Glasses
During the Black Hat 2019 conference, researchers demonstrated a way to spoof Face ID using nothing more than glasses and tape.
To launch the attack, researchers with Tencent tapped into a feature behind biometrics called “liveness” detection, which is part of the biometric authentication process that sifts through “real” versus “fake” features on people. It works by detecting background noise, response distortion or focus blur. One such biometrics tool that utilizes liveness detection is FaceID, which is designed and utilized by Apple for the iPhone and iPad Pro.
iOS 13 Will Prevent Location Tracking via SSID, BSSID
During Apple’s WWDC 2019 developer session 713 titled, “Advances in Networking” revealed that iOS 13 will stop location tracking using your device’s SSID/BSSID using the CNCopyCurrentNetworkInfo API. Developers have reported getting an email from Apple that says:
Starting with iOS 13, the CNCopyCurrentNetworkInfo API will no longer return valid Wi-Fi SSID and BSSID information. Instead, the information returned by default will be:
SSID: “Wi-Fi” or “WLAN” (“WLAN” will be returned for the China SKU) BSSID: “00:00:00:00:00:00”
Apple Awarded Patent for Mac Face ID
Apple was recently granted a patent for Mac Face ID with a smart auto-wake feature. This version sounds more intelligent than current Face ID.
Apple Digital Masters Launches with Mastered Music Collection
Apple Digital Masters is a new initiative that combines all of the Mastered for iTunes music into one global catalog.
Apple, Eli Lilly Introduce Dementia Study With Apple Watch
Apple is working with pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and health startup Evidation on a dementia study using data captured from devices.
Apple Music for Artists Now Available to Musicians
Apple Music for Artists is a platform Apple launched last year that gives musicians an analytics dashboard. It leaves beta today.
Apple Locks New iPhone Batteries to Each Model
With a special chip on the battery, Apple is locking down new iPhone batteries to prevent third-party repairs. Instead, you’ll have to go to an Apple store or an authorized repair center.
iFixit reports that replacing a battery in the iPhone XR, XS, or XS Max generates a “service” message saying the phone is “unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple battery.” The phone will also not display any battery health readings.
The change is due to the chip on the battery itself. In addition to being able to relay information about battery cycles and temperature to the phone, the chips on the newer iPhone models also have an authentication feature for pairing with a specific phone.