Apple updates ‘Field Test’ app on iOS 10.3!

Apple seeded the first beta of iOS 10.3 yesterday right after they released iOS 10.2.1 to the public. The field test app is a “hidden app” within iOS which can be accessed from the phone app by dialing *3001#12345#* on the dial pad.

The field test app can be used to quickly find out a lot of information about your cellular connection like the LTE Band you’re connected to, the bandwidth available etc.. Apple hasn’t updated the app for a very long time fence falling behind the curve and not showing a lot of the information the new iPhone(s) now support like carrier aggregation.

The new screenshots show that the app is now updated for the larger screens, shows a lot more information about different “carriers” of LTE bands and most importantly showing the current carrier aggregation status.

Currently the new app is only on the Intel version of the iPhone 7s’ but, it should roll out to other devices in future betas.

A bunch of Apple service are down.

After multiple reports the status page from Apple has confirmed the large outage of it’s services. Current the list of services extends to:

  • App Store
  • Mac App Store
  • Apple TV
  • Back to My Mac
  • Documents in the Cloud
  • Find my Friends
  • Find My iPhone
  • iCloud (All services)
  • iMovie Theater
  • iPhone Calls to iPad and Mac
  • iTunes in the Cloud
  • iWork for iCloud
  • Mail Drop
  • Photos
  • Volume Purchase Program

Services which are not working for us but, are not listed as “down” on the status page from Apple:

  • Apple Music

As more and more services continue to go down the page from Apple will be updated.

Many users are also facing the problem of their iOS devices showing “The iTunes Store is unable to process purchases at this time.” – This is related to the services going down.

We’ll update this story as we learn more.

UPDATE 7:50 PM EST – Multiple service are now online. Here are the list of services still down as of now:

  • iCloud Backup
  • iCloud Drive
  • iCloud Notes
  • iCloud Web Apps
  • iWork for iCloud
  • Photos

UPDATE 10:00 PM EST – All services are now back up. They may be slow for some users.

ICYMI – Apple is now offering student discounts for Apple Music..

After Apple’s very successful launch of Apple Music, it’s music streaming service.. There were a few things that separated it from it’s competitors like Spotify.

First being the much larger library of music especially for music in languages other than English.

The second very big difference was the price, for example – both Spotify and Apple Music offer individual and family subscriptions for $9.99/mo. or $14.99/mo respectively. However Spotify offered it’s service to most college and university students for 50% off at just $4.99/mo. Apple is now matching that price and is also offering Apple Music individual subscriptions for $4.99/mo.

Both services give students access to the entire catalog. The Apple Music student prices is only for one account – no a family subscription. If are already part of a family subscription – remove yourself and then signup for a individual subscription.

NOTE: If you are connected to a family membership and decide to sign up for a student subscriptionship then you’ll end up paying both the family price and the individual price.

The student validation is done though the UNiDAYS service. To find out more about getting a student Apple Music subscriptionship go: here.

WWDC 2016 dates set for June 13-17th!

Apple has just confirmed the date for it’s annual developer conference to be held between June 13th to the 17th..

Considering this year’s theme it’s very likely that we won’t see any new hardware.. and is going to be more targeted towards developers; hence the name World Wide Developer Conference..
This year the event is being held at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium instead of Moscone West..wwdc16-home-hero-large

After a quick analysis of the invitation here are some apps the line of code could to be referring to:

Hello love at first swipe. Tinder
Hello other side of the road. Crossy Road
Hello yogi on my wrist. Pocket Yoga
Hello driver, fast as you can. Uber
Hello workout in my living room. 7 Minute Workout
Hello every pitch, every highlight. MLB At Bat
Hello self-combusting selfies. Snapchat
Hello double tap heart. Instagram
Hello rain in five minutes. Dark Sky
Hello 6 seconds of fame. Vine

You can order your tickets to WWDC here.

Apple launches offical Twitter for support!

After so long Apple has finally launched a official Twitter account for providing support for it’s customers. Many companies have used the social media to help customers solve their problems.

It is a much faster and more modern way of helping customers since they don’t have to go though phone three and than wait for a representative to pick up.

The account is @AppleSupport that’s the ONLY twitter account officially backed by Apple. The twitter account is also verified by twitter so don’t give your personal information to any other account pretending to be the official account.

Other then support the account is also going to be providing helpful tips and tutorials for better using your device.

iOS 9.2.1 Release, Changelog and exploit patched list.

iOS 9.2.1 was just pushed out to users using a OTA update. The update was just pushed out with the comment:

This update contains security updates and bug fixes including a fix for an issue that could prevent the completion of app installation when using an MDM server.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/HT201222

The official list of exploits patched was just released to public domain here:

Disk Images

Available for: iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and later

Impact: A local user may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue existed in the parsing of disk images. This issue was addressed through improved memory handling.

CVE-ID

CVE-2016-1717 : Frank Graziano of Yahoo! Pentest Team

IOHIDFamily

Available for: iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and later

Impact: A local user may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue existed in an IOHIDFamily API. This issue was addressed through improved memory handling.

CVE-ID

CVE-2016-1719 : Ian Beer of Google Project Zero

IOKit

Available for: iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and later

Impact: A local user may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed through improved memory handling.

CVE-ID

CVE-2016-1720 : Ian Beer of Google Project Zero

Kernel

Available for: iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and later

Impact: A local user may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed through improved memory handling.

CVE-ID

CVE-2016-1721 : Ian Beer of Google Project Zero and Ju Zhu of Trend Micro

libxslt

Available for: iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and later

Impact: Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: A type confusion issue existed in libxslt. This issue was addressed through improved memory handling.

CVE-ID

CVE-2015-7995 : puzzor

syslog

Available for: iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and later

Impact: A local user may be able to execute arbitrary code with root privileges

Description: A memory corruption issue was addressed through improved memory handling.

CVE-ID

CVE-2016-1722 : Joshua J. Drake and Nikias Bassen of Zimperium zLabs

WebKit

Available for: iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and later

Impact: Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to arbitrary code execution

Description: Multiple memory corruption issues existed in WebKit. These issues were addressed through improved memory handling.

CVE-ID

CVE-2016-1723 : Apple

CVE-2016-1724 : Apple

CVE-2016-1725 : Apple

CVE-2016-1726 : Apple

CVE-2016-1727 : Apple

WebKit CSS

Available for: iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and later

Impact: Websites may know if the user has visited a given link

Description: A privacy issue existed in the handling of the “a:visited button” CSS selector when evaluating the containing element’s height. This was addressed through improved validation.

CVE-ID

CVE-2016-1728 : an anonymous researcher coordinated via Joe Vennix

WebSheet

Available for: iPhone 4s and later, iPod touch (5th generation) and later, iPad 2 and later

Impact: A malicious captive portal may be able to access the user’s cookies

Description: An issue existed that allowed some captive portals to read or write cookies. The issue was addressed through an isolated cookie store for all captive portals.

CVE-ID

CVE-2016-1730 : Adi Sharabani and Yair Amit of Skycure

Apple’s ugly looking $99 battery case

Apple has started selling it’s own battery case but, from what you would expect from a product made by Apple is something every stylish and high quality however, this battery case looks very unattractive use a very odd looking bump on the back which holds the battery.

The case is made out of soft-touch silicone exterior with a soft microfiber lining on the inside. Apple claims the iPhone 6S and the battery case will have an increased talk time up to 25 hours along with LTE usage up to 18 hours! Since the battery is made by Apple itself, It includes the ability for the battery status to be displayed on both the iPhone’s lock screen and the notification center. Unlike third-party battery cases this case will actually use a lightning cable to charge both the case and phone but, most of the other cases just a micro-usb cable.

The odd look of the case gives it the ability to be used with existing Lightning accessories like the lightning dock. It has been reported that the odd look of the case is to avoid patent violation from other battery case companies like Mophie.

Mophie patent #9,172,070

Apple is getting a lot of hate for the ugly design of the battery case but, if you would like to get a first-party battery case then this is your only option as of now.. It’s available in two colors, Black and White and is available for $99.

iOS 9.2 has been released!

Apple just pushed out the OTA (Over the Air) update for iOS 9.2 to users. The update promises much better stability and bug fixes in the iOS 9 operating system.

Here is a full list of updates in the iOS 9.2 update:

This update contains improvements and bug fixes including:

  • Apple Music improvements
    • You can now create a new playlist when adding a song to a playlist
    • Your most recently changed playlist is now listed at the top when adding songs to playlists
    • Download albums or playlists from your iCloud Music Library by tapping the iCloud download button
    • See which songs have been downloaded with the new download indicator next to each song in My Music and Playlists
    • See works, composers, and performers while browsing Classical music in the Apple Music catalog
  • A new Top Stories section in News so you can stay up to date with the most important news of the day (available in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia)
  • Mail Drop in Mail for sending large attachments
  • iBooks now supports 3D Touch to peek and pop pages from the table of contents, your notes and bookmarks, or from search results inside a book
  • iBooks now supports listening to an audiobook while you browse your library, read other books, or explore the iBooks Store
  • iPhone support for the USB Camera Adapter to import photos and videos
  • Improved stability of Safari
  • Improved stability of Podcasts
  • Fixing an issue that caused mail attachments to be inaccessible for some users with POP email accounts
  • Resolving an issue for some users that caused attachments to overlap text in mail
  • Fixing an issue where Live Photos could have turned off after restoring from a previous iCloud backup
  • Addressing an issue that could cause search in Contacts to display no results
  • Resolving an issue that could have prevented Calendar from displaying all seven days in week view
  • Fixing an issue where Camera screen on iPad could be black when attempting to capture video
  • Addressing an issue that could cause instability in the Activity app when viewing the day of Daylight Savings Time transition
  • Fixing an issue that could prevent data from appearing in Health
  • Fixing an issue that could prevent Wallet updates and Lock screen alerts from displaying
  • Addressing an issue where updating iOS could prevent an alarm from going off
  • Fixing an issue where some users were unable to login to Find my iPhone
  • Fixing an issue that prevented some manual iCloud Backups from completing
  • Addressing an issue where using the iPad keyboard could unintentionally trigger text selection mode
  • Improved keyboard responsiveness when using Quick Reply
  • Improved punctuation input on the 10-key Chinese (Pinyin & Stroke) keyboards with new expanded view of punctuation symbols and better predictions
  • Fixing an issue on Cyrillic keyboards where caps lock would be enabled when typing in URL or email fields
  • Accessibility improvements
    • Fixing issues with VoiceOver when using Camera face detection
    • Adding support for VoiceOver to wake up the screen
    • Adding support for VoiceOver to invoke app switcher with 3D Touch gesture
    • Fixing an issue with Guided Access when trying to end phone calls
    • Improved functionality for Switch Control users when using 3D Touch
    • Fixing an issue with speech rate of Speak Screen
  • Siri support for Arabic (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates)

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/HT201222

As of now there isn’t any news about the jailbreak for iOS 9.2 or 9.1 but, a twitter user, EveryApplesPro shared a rumor tweet:

You can keep up with the latest jailbreak news on /r/jailbreak!

Apple’s new 2015 Apple TV is available for pre-order!

Apple’s long waited Apple TV refresh which was announced 3 months ago is available for per-order starting today. The new Apple TV is much different from the it’s really old predecessor.

The new Apple TV runs of a 64-bit A8 chip, that all we know now.. But, something else that we do know is the I/O on the new model of the device. There is power plug, HDMI 1.4 port, USB-C port and a 10/100 Ehternet port. Even though it has an HDMI 1.4 port the maximum output resolution is still 1080p (Not 2160p or 4K). Also the USB-C port is only used for servicing the Apple not for storage or anything else.

ports_medium

With the more power on the Apple TV, it’s 1.4 inches tall compared to 0.9″ on it’s predecessor. With the new design and power there is also a new software.. TVOS which has been wildly redesigned for both the modern stream services and the new remote..

apptv5_size

.. Talking about the new remote, it’s now much much better, first off there is a glass touch surface which you use to navigate the interface and use the new gestures for quick controls. Other then that it’s has a Menu, Home, Volume, Playback and a Siri button. There are also dual microphones on the remote for using Siri.

The new remote also uses Bluetooth 4.0 for controls instead of IR. It also has a Accelerator and a Gyroscope for third-party games and apps. The battery on the new remote is also rechargeable with a standard lightning cable.

siri_remote_medium

As far as the price goes it’s $149 for the 32GB and $199 for the 64GB version.

Apple sued over Wi-Fi Assist overage data charges for over $5 Million Dollars!

The latest iOS system – iOS 9 has a feature called “Wi-Fi Assist” which automatically switches to the cellular data network when you’re connected to a poor wifi connection. This feature is turned on by default on iOS 9 with poor explanation of what it does or the risks the come with using it.

Apple is currently being used for over $5 Million Dollars for the data overage charges caused by the feature automatically using the data connection and for a poor explanation of what the feature does. The lawsuit accuses Apple for “Violating California’s Unfair Competition Law and of negligent misrepresentation”. It (lawsuit) was filled by William Scott Phillips and Suzanne Schmidt Phillips on Friday.

… you might use more cellular data. For most users, this should only be a small percentage higher than previous usage …

There is no warning or indication except for a small “cellular data” icon that phone is using your cellular data even if you’re on Wi-Fi. Apple reported on their site it’s should on increase their data usage by a tiny bit and not using almost 75% of their data plan as this user reported:

On Apple’s website they have stated that Wi-Fi Assist is only used for foreground system apps like Safari when the Wi-Fi is too slow load a web page and not for any other apps in the background or the ones that download any type of content like, Video and/or Audio Streaming; unless it’s a system app like Apple Music, Safari, Mail or more.. [button color=”” size=”small” type=”” target=”_blank” link=”https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205296″]- Apple[/button]

The only way to stop iOS from using your data without your knowledge is to turn of turn off “Wi-Fi Assist” by Going into Settings > Cellular > (At the very bottom) Turn off “Wi-Fi Assist”.

Apple has kindly declined the request for a comment.