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Apple may bring Siri Shortcuts and Screen Time to macOS
Details on what Apple may have in store for the next major versions of its operating systems are trickling out ahead of June's Worldwide Developers Conference. The latest leaks are linked to macOS 10.15, to which Apple could add some iOS features, such as Siri Shortcuts and Screen Time, according to 9to5 Mac.
Apple apologizes for phishing scam that stole Chinese user IDs
Apple apologized today over stolen Apple IDs that were used to make unauthorized App Store purchases in China. The Wall Street Journal reports that the IDs were obtained through phishing scams. Users had connected their Apple accounts to mobile payment systems Alipay and WeChat Pay; these IDs were then used to purchases through the App Store. "We are deeply apologetic about the inconvenience caused to our customers by these phishing scams," Apple said in a statement to its Chinese users.
Stolen Apple IDs reportedly used for mobile payment theft in China
Users of two major mobile payment services in China -- Alipay and WeChat Pay -- have reported unauthorized Apple App Store spending in recent days, with some losing nearly $300 through fraudulent transactions. The companies say that stolen Apple IDs are to blame, the Wall Street Journal reports, and Alipay has asked Apple to investigate. In the meantime, Alipay is telling its customers to minimize potential losses by reducing how much money can be used from their accounts without a password.
Apple will let all users download their collected personal data
Virtually every tech company is bending over backwards to comply with Europe's impending GDPR rules, and Apple is no exception to the rule. It just opened a Data and Privacy site that lets people with accounts in the European Union (plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) download everything the company knows about them. While it is only available for European users right now, Apple will make it available globally in the future. This mostly revolves around your Apple ID account and device info as well as data you've synced through iCloud, although it also includes your activity on services like Apple Music and the App Store, your AppleCare support history and your online shopping habits.
Teen phone tracking app exposed thousands of Apple accounts
Parents understandably pour a lot of trust into apps that monitor their kids' activity. That makes it all the more painful when there's a lapse in security, and that's unfortunately the case today. Security researcher Robert Wiggins discovered that TeenSafe, a mobile app that lets parents track teens' locations and text messaging habits, left the data thousands of accounts exposed on two Amazon servers. One of them held nothing but test data, but the other included kids' Apple ID email addresses and passwords, not to mention the email addresses of the parents.
Apple makes it easier to change your registered email
Does it irk you that you can't replace your Gmail, Outlook or any other third-party Apple ID with one of your Apple email addresses? Sure, it's a minor inconvenience, but if you really prefer using an @icloud.com, @me.com or @mac.com email account to sign into your Apple devices, then you can now make the switch. A few weeks after a MacRumors reader emailed some Cupertino execs asking for the feature, the tech titan deployed its engineering team to implement it.
iOS users report Apple ID lockouts (update: temporary fix)
You might want to hold off on trying the iOS 10 beta if you can't bear to be without two-factor sign-ins. At least a handful of users are reporting a two-part problem that has locked them out of their Apple IDs. The first part is a bug with app-specific passwords that can force a password reset, regardless of the iOS version you use. It's not the worst issue if you're using a stable version of iOS, since it takes mere moments to get a new password. Things may go haywire if you're an iOS beta tester with two-factor authentication turned on, however. Users say that Apple's iForgot password system doesn't work for those experimenters, shutting them out of their accounts the moment the app-specific password glitch creeps up.
FBI could use dead suspects' fingerprints to open iPhones
Having been denied by Apple, despite having a court order, the Federal Bureau of Investigations is quickly running out of options in its efforts to unlock one of the San Bernardino shooter's cell phones. They can't brute force the phone open for fear of the device wiping its data if they guess the wrong passcode too many times and many commercially available hacking tools require the phone already be unlocked. While the FBI is hamstrung in this specific investigation, the solution for similar cases in the future might instead lie with a mobile device's fingerprint reader.
Apple is making it easier for schools to put iPads in classrooms
Apple's dreams of putting iPads in classrooms have run into a number of roadblocks, but one of the biggest is simply the amount of work involved -- each slate needs its own account, making it a nightmare if you want to outfit an entire school. That won't be a problem for much longer, however. Both MacRumors and 9to5Mac have discovered that Apple is ditching the requirement for individual IDs on school-supplied iPads as of this fall. Staff will just have to decide which devices get apps or books, letting teachers focus on the actual education instead of getting things running. They'll still have plenty of control, so kids can't load up on games and other distractions unless they get the green light. It's too soon to know if this will lead to more kids taking home tablets instead of textbooks, but there will at least be fewer barriers to making that happen. [Image credit: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images]
Apple iCloud backups are finally protected by two-factor authentication (update)
Need another reason to activate two-factor authentication on your Apple device? Ars Technica and Apple Insider report that the security check now extends to cover iCloud device backups too, something it didn't do before. That means if someone gets your password, or is able to reset it, they could pull down the data with a tool like Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker and have access to anything stored there -- it's thought that many of the stolen personal photographs of celebrities recently posted online were obtained by this method. With two-factor authentication, they'd need access to your trusted device to generate a four digit code to get in. Another security tweak Apple just turned on is a notification that lets users know when their account has been accessed, to make sure it's for legit reasons. Before your new iPhone and Watch show up to handle your selfies, payments and anything else better kept private -- hit Apple's website and turn the extra level of security on. Update: Tonight Apple sent out an email to Apple ID accounts detailing the change. It also mentions that beginning October 1st, app-specific passwords will be necessary for third-party apps that don't support two-factor (like Outlook or Thunderbird) to access iCloud. If you have an account it should be in your inbox, or you can check out the text after the break.
'Find My iPhone' exploit may be to blame for celebrity photo hacks (update)
We don't need to rake over the gory details here, but in the last 12 hours, the internet has lost its "you know what" over some leaked celebrity photos. Initial reports suggested that hackers targeted the iCloud accounts of the high-profile victims, and held eager would-be-viewers to ransom on notorious bulletin-board 4chan, demanding Bitcoin in exchange for a peek of the images (reportedly earning a princely $95 for their troubles). As yet though, no one has been able to confirm how the images actually leaked, but some keen programmers think they may have spotted at least one (now fixed) route into accounts.
How to use multiple Apple IDs in iOS 7
If you have been used to using different Apple IDs for different apps in iOS 6, you can still do that in iOS 7, but some of the details have changed. One of the first complaints that came in was about Find My iPhone, with several people writing in worried that Apple had done away with the ability to use different Apple IDs with the app. But there is a "Sign Out" button on the first screen. Simply tap that button, and you will be able to use a different Apple ID for Find My iPhone. (Aside: you really should be using Find My iPhone, especially with the new improvements to it that came with iOS 7, which make it harder for anyone who might steal your iPhone to disable the feature.) The same is also true for Messages, but the logout button is a bit harder to find. You have to go to Settings » Messages » Send & Receive. At the top of that window you will see the Apple ID currently associated with Messages on that iOS device. Tap it, and you will be shown several options, including one to sign out of Messages. Likewise, FaceTime has a setting under Settings » FaceTime » Apple ID. Tap it, and the same options will appear as described for Messages. The same goes for iTunes and the App Store. And Game Center. And so on. The options are there, even if they aren't always immediately available. So if you need to use separate Apple ID accounts, start your search in the Settings app, and work your way from there. Update 11:27 AM: Thanks to Greg Deichler for pointing out to me on Twitter that I had missed an important detail. If you want to use Find My iPhone on iOS 7, you must do so using the primary iCloud account on the device. As with iOS 6, you can add additional iCloud accounts in iOS 7, but they do not have access to "Find My iPhone." I have always set up our family's iOS devices using the "family" Apple ID as the main iCloud device, and then added the personalized iCloud accounts as a secondary account, so I did not notice it had changed. You can see the difference by comparing the images below, showing the "Add a Secondary iCloud Account" options. So, I take it back: Apple did change this, and they changed it for the worse. I don't know why Apple changed this, but I am hoping that it is a temporary oversight that will be fixed in a later release of iOS 7.
Daily Update for September 12, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Set up a new Mac on your birthday for a cupcake
Steve Jobs once said that Apple aims to "surprise and delight" its customers. Here's a cute example of just that. David Chartier at Finer Things in Tech shares a photo he received from Dan Cameron. Apparently, when you register a new Mac on your birthday, the Apple ID set-up process produces a birthday cupcake icon and the message, "Happy Birthday!" This reminds me of this story about Disney from Signal Vs. Noise. A customer ordered a Woody costume from the online Disney store. When it arrived, he noticed that a worker had written "Love-- Andy" on the box. Surprise and delight.
Macworld looks at the trouble with Apple IDs
Kirk McElhearn over at Macworld has an excellent piece summarizing the ways Apple IDs present all kinds of headaches and troubles for their users. It's nothing others haven't said before, indeed -- we've written about it many times on TUAW, but the issue is so important, it's worth repeating as often as possible: the current implementation of Apple IDs suck. Almost anyone with an Apple ID has an Apple ID horror story. They began when Apple unleashed its dotmac email service, then iTunes IDs, the failed MobileMe service and now its so-so iCloud service. All of those services could have one or multiple Apple IDs. Some IDs could belong to a single user, or some users could have an Apple ID that is an email they don't use anymore. And that's just the start of the problems. In his article, McElhearn lays out the three most common scenarios users get into a jam with regarding their Apple IDs. It's an article everyone should read. And by "everyone," I mean, "Apple." And after they read it, they should fix the Apple ID mess soon, because in its current state, Apple IDs aren't going to get any easier to manage.
Apple ID accounts reportedly vulnerable to password reset hack, forgot password page taken offline for maintenance (update 2: back)
Gaping security holes are a pretty terrifying thing, especially when they involve something as sensitive as your Apple ID. Sadly it seems that immediately after making the paranoid happy by instituting two-step authentication a pretty massive flaw in Cupertino's system was discovered and first reported by The Verge. Turns out you can reset any Apple ID password with nothing more than a person's email address and date of birth -- two pieces of information that are pretty easy to come across. There's a little more to the hack, but it's simple enough that even your non-tech savvy aunt or uncle could do it. After entering the target email address in the password reset form you can then select to answer security questions to validate your identity. The first task will be to enter a date of birth. If you enter that correctly then paste a particular URL into the address bar (which we will not be publishing for obvious reasons), press enter, then -- voilà -- instant password reset! Or, at least that's the story. While we were attempting to verify these claims Apple took down the password reset page for "maintenance." Though we've received no official confirmation from Apple, it seems the company is moving swiftly to shut down this particularly troublesome workaround before word of it spreads too far. Update: We've heard back from Apple on the matter, which stated, "Apple takes customer privacy very seriously. We are aware of this issue, and working on a fix." No real surprises that a fix is in the works, but there you have it from the horse's mouth. Update 2: The forgotten password page is back as of late Friday evening -- that was (relatively) quick. iMore reports (and we've verified ourselves) that the security hole is now closed.
Daily Update for March 22, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple adds two-factor authentication to your Apple ID
Apple is beefing up the security of its Apple ID by adding two-factor authentication to the account login process. Customers concerned about unauthorized access to their Apple ID can login to their account at Apple's My Apple ID webpage and turn on the feature as described below: Go to My Apple ID (appleid.apple.com) Click the "Manage your Apple ID" button to login to your Apple ID Enter your Apple ID and password and click "Sign In" Select "Password and Security" in the left-hand column Type in the answers to your account security questions if you are prompted to answer them. You will see Two-Step Verification at the top of the page. Click on "Get Started" and follow the on-screen instructions. If you have two-factor verification enabled, you will be required to enter both your password and a 4-digit code to verify your identity. According to Apple's support page, you will need this information whenever you sign in to My Apple ID to manage your account, make an iTunes / App Store / iBookstore purchase from a new device or get Apple ID-related support from Apple. You can read more about the security feature on Apple's support website, and check out Glenn Fleishman's thorough pros and cons rundown on TidBITS.
Apple on the verge of rolling out two-step verification for iCloud, Apple ID
According to a report on 9to5 Mac, Apple has begun training support personnel in advance of rolling out two-step authentication for iCloud and Apple ID. This is a significant step towards enhanced security for Apple accounts as it requires both a trusted device and an extra security code in addition to a password. Other cloud providers currently providing two-step authentication include Dropbox and Google. Apple's relatively weak security for its online services came under the spotlight last year when tech writer Mat Honan suffered a hack attack that compromised his iCloud account. It appears that 9to5 Mac may have jumped the gun in terms of posting this information, as the My Apple ID website referenced heavily in their post displays placeholders instead of actual text and links (see image at the top of this post). The way the system will work is that whenever you log in to manage your Apple ID on My Apple ID or make a purchase via iTunes, the App Store or iBookstore from a new device, you'll be asked to enter your password and a four-digit verification code. Without entering both the password and verification code correctly, account access is denied. ' Apple will also provide a 14-digit Recovery Key that they recommend printing and keeping in a safe place. This allows Apple ID users to regain access to their accounts if they lose their devices or forget their password. One other good feature -- you'll no longer need to create or remember any security questions. Two-step verification will initially be available in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland, with additional countries added over time.
Merging Apple IDs still not possible. Now what?
TUAW reader Glenn Thorpe wrote about Apple ID problems: "I recently upgraded to iOS 6 as recommended and I am now faced with some challenges when using FaceTime and Messages. "My Apple ID account which I use to download apps cannot be used for FaceTime nor Messages. I had to create new AppleIDs for both of these applications. The frustrating issue is that I now have three AppleIDs to manage and I am not sure of what impact this will have when I buy apps or try to perform other transactions. "Please advise me if I can somehow consolidate these IDs or will I be able to use my original ID again for all of my apps." This has been a long-standing problem, made worse by the advent of iCloud. A year ago there were rumors that Apple was working on a way to merge Apple IDs, and Tim Cook was reported to have called someone who had complained about the problem and said "we are aware of this issue and are working on it." Well, as the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. When I wrote about this a year ago, I noted that Apple's AppleID FAQ said "At this time, Apple IDs cannot be consolidated." This led some people to speculate that Apple would be announcing a way to consolidate Apple IDs. Today that page says "Apple IDs cannot be merged." Maybe Apple is still working on this, but a year has passed, a new version of iOS has been released, this problem has still not been addressed, and the only official word we have from Apple has changed from "This can't be done yet" to "This can't be done." I think it is a much safer assumption to make that Apple either tried to figure out a way to do this and couldn't make it work, or that Apple has simply given up because it had bigger things to worry about. Either way, don't hold your breath. My Apple ID history I created my first Apple ID back when the iTunes Music Store first opened. It was just a username, not an email address, and even though I had an email address associated with it, the email address was completely unrelated to my Apple ID username. With the advent of MobileMe, Apple started moving people towards using their email address as their Apple ID, but it was not required. Eventually it was no longer possible to create an Apple ID that was just a username, and finally we arrived at the point where an Apple ID which is not an email address cannot be used for some features such as iCloud or Messages. Somewhere along the line I managed to create a second Apple ID which was username@mac.com and I thought that meant they were interchageable. Unfortunately I was wrong, these were considered completely separate Apple IDs and caused no small amount of frustration and confusion. I continued to use my username for iTunes/App Store purchases and used username@mac.com for those services which required an email address. However, in light of my recent iCloud debacle (which was never solved and the AppleCare rep I was working with stopped returning my calls and emails), I decided that it was time to stop fighting Apple and just stick to one Apple ID. Fortunately I have never used iCloud for email, so dropping that email address was not that big of a deal. Not everyone will be so lucky. However, if you still need to use that Apple ID for email you can add it under "Mail, Contacts, Calendars." Your 'username' Apple ID can be updated to an email address I liked having an Apple ID that wasn't an email address, and I wanted to keep it that way. I kept hoping that Apple would make it easier to use, but they have made absolutely no movement in that direction. In fact, if you have an Apple ID which is not an email address, Apple will strongly suggest that you change it. I resisted this for a long time, but finally gave in. Here is how to change your "username" Apple ID to be an email address: Go to http://appleid.apple.com. Select "Manage Your Apple ID." Log in with your Apple ID and password. If your "Apple ID and Primary Email Address" are not the same, there will be a prominent box prompting you to change that. Make sure that your Primary Email Address is the one that you want to use as your Apple ID. (If not, add it and verify it to your Apple ID account.) Note that this email address cannot be the same as your "Rescue Email Address" so if you want to use that email address, you will have to change the "Rescue Email Address" in the "Password and Security" section of the "My Apple ID" at http://appleid.apple.com. Once your Primary Email Address is correct, select the option to make your Apple ID and Primary Email Address the same. On your Mac(s): Log out of iCloud in System Preferences and then log back in with your new Apple ID. In the Messages app, delete your Apple ID and then re-add it using your email address. Log out of iTunes and the App Store app, then log back in. On your iOS device(s): Log out of iCloud and then back in. Log out of FaceTime and then back in (tap the 'Use your Apple ID for FaceTime). Check Messages to make sure that your Apple ID is listed there. Log out of iTunes & App Stores in Settings. Also, if you use Find My iPhone or Find My Friends you may need to reconfigure those on iOS and Mac OS X. Note that after you make this change you may be asked to confirm your billing information for iTunes. Usually that just means re-entering the credit card security number (that three- or four-digit code on the back of the card). Temporary frustration versus on-going frustration Making this switch isn't very difficult, although it is a bit annoying and can be time-consuming, depending on how many Macs and iOS devices you have. It's a decision between the temporary frustration of changing everything to be the way that Apple now wants it to be versus the ongoing frustration of trying to fight against the way Apple wants it to be. Apple doesn't seem to be making any movement towards making this easier for those of us with more than one Apple ID, so it's up to us to decide which frustration we prefer.
