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Apple updates nearly every app for iOS 6, sneaks in key GarageBand, iPhoto and Podcasts updates
If you didn't already know that iOS 6 was out in the wild, Apple just delivered a torrent of mobile app updates to make it perfectly clear. Virtually every app that isn't preloaded now has explicit iOS 6 support to keep it running smoothly, and some of the upgrades are thankfully more than just skin-deep compatibility tweaks. Among the highlights are Podcasts' new subscription list syncing through iCloud, ringtone creation with GarageBand and iPhoto support for 36.5-megapixel image editing on the latest devices -- you know, for that moment you need to tweak Nikon D800 photos on an iPhone 5. We're including direct links to a few of the juicier updates, but we'd recommend checking AppleInsider's comprehensive list to see everything that you're missing.
Compromised iCloud password leads to nightmare (updated)
Updated. Former Gizmodo writer & current Wired Gadget Lab staffer Mat Honan is having a pretty bad day. As you can read on his Tumblr post (not to mention elsewhere), hackers compromised his iCloud account. They used that access to reset his iCloud password, reset his Gmail password, gain control of his Twitter account (which in turn gave them access to Gizmodo's Twitter feed and 400K followers) and generally wreak mayhem. Unfortunately, Honan's iCloud account was tied to his iPhone and iPad, which both had Find my iPhone/iPad turned on. In the attackers' hands, the FMI utility was turned against Honan and both devices were remotely wiped. It got worse: his MacBook Air had Find My Mac enabled, which meant the hackers could erase his SSD... and they did. Honan's iCloud password was unique to that service, but it was also only seven characters long and hadn't been changed in years. [This turns out not to be a key to the puzzle, see update #2 below.] Given the many points of exposure when iCloud accounts are compromised -- and the potential risk of serious consequences if remote wipe utilities like Find My Mac are controlled by malicious actors -- we recommend using a memorable but strong password for iCloud. (Strong and unique passwords are a good idea in general, but while Google's accounts have options for two-factor authentication with SMS or the Google Authenticator app, iCloud doesn't.) [Honan was targeted by a hacker group that had previously gone after high-profile Twitter users, which is an unlikely scenario for most of us. However, the risks of an unintended or malicious data wipe if you lose control of your iCloud password are real whether you're an Internet celebrity or not. –Ed.] The easiest way to come up with a strong password is to use a tool such as Diceware, but as our Twitter followers point out you do need to be able to enter your iCloud password quickly and easily on iOS devices if you plan to install or update App Store apps. It's not always simple to balance security and convenience, but it's important to consider the risks before you go with an easy-to-crack password. Unfortunately there's no easy way to segregate the Find My Mac feature from the other Mac iCloud features like Photo Stream, Documents in the Cloud and Back to My Mac; if there was, you could have a 'shadow' iCloud account used only for that, with no email or App Store exposure at all. You can, however, set up separate iCloud accounts for email, calendars and contacts and/or App Store purchases -- but that rapidly defeats the "all your data, anywhere" advantages of iCloud in the first place. A toggle switch to disable Find My Mac's remote wipe capability could also it a little more consumer-friendly, with a separate PIN code to turn the feature off or on; alternatively, with FileVault 2 Apple could replace the drive wipe with an encryption/lock pass to prevent thieves from accessing the data. But the odds of encountering a determined hacker clan set on wiping your computer remotely are arguably far lower than those of losing your MacBook to carelessness or theft; good backup strategy plus Find My Mac is a better choice for the latter risk. Our sympathies to Mat; we wish him luck in recovering his data and piecing his digital life back together. Update: Mat reports that he is working with Google to restore his account access (and, since his phone was linked to his Google Voice number, his ability to receive and send text messages) and has a Genius Bar appointment today to review his options for data recovery on his MacBook Air. Update 2: Mat has determined that the hackers did not brute-force his password or cobble together answers to his security questions; they apparently did some clever social engineering on Apple's support reps and managed to wrangle a password reset without those answers. Mat told his story on TWIT Sunday and will detail all the machinations in a story for Wired that comes out on Monday. He has contacted Apple corporate and PR to give them an opportunity to address the policy issues brought to light by this incident.
David Pogue's iPhone lost, searched for, found, world safe for kittens
Are you sitting? You'd better be sitting down for this one. Go ahead, we'll wait -- safety first. Sitting now? Ok, here we go: David Pogue lost his iPhone. Don't worry, don't worry! It's ok -- he found it eventually. Pogue, author and personal tech columnist for the New York Times, lost track of his iPhone on an Amtrak train back from Philadelphia, and after searching for it on the train he discovered that it had been taken and powered down. Later, Pogue's phone reappeared online, so he was able to spot its location. After he tweeted out pictures of the location via Find my iPhone, Gizmodo tracked down the house corresponding to the GPS signal, and the local Prince George's County police stopped by to see what they could do. We hate to spoil the big reveal (which Pogue has posted to his NYT blog), but the happy ending is that David Pogue has been reunited with his iPhone, and all's right with the world once more.
Apple tests new iCloud beta features
Developers who are enrolled in the iOS 6 beta are now able to see a new iCloud Beta portal at beta.icloud.com that is complete with new versions of Calendar and Find My iPhone, as well as two new iCloud additions -- Reminders and Notes. The expected timeframe for the general release of the new iCloud features is the same time that iOS 6 launches -- this fall. Changes that are apparent in the beta (according to a post on MacRumors) include a revision to Find My iPhone that shows the approximate battery life of the device you're trying to find, a web version of the iOS Notes app complete with yellow lined paper, a web version of the iOS (and soon OS X Mountain Lion) Reminders app. Apple announced during the WWDC 2012 keynote that more than 125 million people now use iCloud. It's good to see that all platforms -- OS X, iOS, and the Web -- will have nearly identical apps by this fall.
Apple releases iBooks 2.1 and new Find My iPhone
There's been a flurry of software activity from the Apple mothership today, and just when we think things are settling down, some new software appears. If you're on an iOS device you'll see a new version of iBooks, now at version 2.1. It's a redesign to support the new iPad Retina Display and adds a feature that lets page numbers correspond to the printed editions. This only works on some titles, but obviously the feature will be spreading to more and publications. You can now search for a page number and jump to it with a single tap and you can use your finger as a highlighter when swiping over text. Find My iPhone changes are mainly to support the iPad Retina Display, and there are the usual bug fixes and stability enhancements. Find my iPhone has rescued many a lost iPhone and iPad, so if you're not signed up, it's free to do so.
NYPD meets FMI: Cop nabs iPhone thief in NYC
Don't walk past police with a stolen iPhone in your boot. According to the New York Times, a quick-thinking police officer and Apple's Find My iPhone managed to retrieve a woman's stolen iPhone. The woman was in a handbag store in Manhattan when a thief allegedly held her up at gunpoint and took her iPhone. After searching the immediate area, NYC police officer Robert Garland entered the woman's Apple ID on his own iPhone and used "the iCloud feature" (we're going to assume that means Find My iPhone) to track the phone. Once they had arrived at its apparent location, the suspect walked past with the iPhone beeping in his boot. He was apprehended and the iPhone returned to its rightful owner. Well done, Officer Garland! For another lost-and-found NYC iPhone story, check out Newsday's LIRR report.
TUAW Best of 2011: Vote for the best iPhone utility app
The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you -- the readers -- and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We'll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often! TUAW is asking for your votes for the best iPhone utility app of 2011. Since a majority of nominations were from the wrong categories, and some were even for the wrong platform, a straw poll of favorite iPhone utilities was taken with a sampling of Web luminaries and makes up our list of candidates. The nominees are Flashlight (sale priced at US$0.99, regularly $1.99), Apple's Airport Utility (free), Skyfire Web Browser ($2.99), 1Password for iPhone ($5.99), and the app that has saved a lot of iPhones, Apple's Find My iPhone (free). And now, let the voting begin! The results will be announced on December 26, 2011. %Poll-72269%
Daily Update for December 12, 2011
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.
Home invasion suspects caught with iPhone's help
A Chicago thief and his accomplice may regret stealing an iPhone during a series of home invasions. In one robbery, the suspect took an iPhone after he pistol-whipped a woman and two men and then forced them into a bathroom. The suspect was apprehended after police used a GPS app to locate the stolen phone. The report doesn't mention what GPS app they used, but it's likely Find my iPhone or a third-party competitor. Apple hasn't released any stats on the number of people using the Find My iPhone service, nor how many devices have been recovered thanks to its presence. Judging from the news reports and the tips we receive, the list of recovered devices is probably long. I've enabled Find My iPhone and Find My Mac on all my Apple products just in case I ever need it, have you?
One family, two Find My iPhone adventures
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, an Australian family has recently gone through not one, but two adventures related to stolen iPhones. While on holiday at a Hilton in Fiji, the family's mother, Fiona Donohoe, had her iPhone ripped off by a hotel concierge. In a move worthy of a featured spot on Dumb Criminals, the theft was discovered and the iPhone recovered after the concierge accidentally synced all of his/her own contacts with Donohoe's MobileMe account. After that it was presumably simple to track down the thief, who has been fired from the Fiji Hilton and jailed for six months. Only two weeks later, 13-year-old Tahira Donohoe had her iPhone stolen while at school. She and her father used the Find My iPhone app on his iPad to track the thief's progress along a bus route for a while before deciding to give up the chase and let the police deal with it. They walked into a police station, set the iPad on the counter, and reported a theft in progress. Police caught up with the thief shortly thereafter, and when they were at first unable to find the stolen goods, they asked the Donohoes to ping the phone using Find My iPhone. Once the telltale sonar sound went off, police recovered the phone, arrested the 13-year-old thief after a brief chase, and brought everything in to the station to sort things out. The Donohoes did not press charges against the young thief. The Herald reports that the Donohoes had already replaced the iPhone stolen in Fiji before that phone was recovered, so they now have an extra iPhone. Hopefully they can hang on to all of them from now on. Find My iPhone is available for free from the App Store and does not require a paid MobileMe account if you have an iPhone 4, any iPad, or a fourth-generation iPod touch. Once iCloud launches, the service will presumably be free for all users on all devices. Find My iPhone is hands-down the first app that should be installed on new iOS devices and the first service you should enable.
Find My iPhone helps find Chilean plane crash site
We've seen many stories of iOS owners using Find My iPhone to retrieve a lost or stolen device. But this may be the first time, the technology was used to help find a missing airplane. Last week, a military airplane disappeared off Chile's Pacific coast and all 21 people aboard were killed instantly in the crash. Four bodies were recovered soon after the accident, but the exact location of the crash site remains unknown. As part of its recovery effort, the government has turned to technology to help locate the wreckage and remaining victims. Besides sonar equipment, Chilean officials are also using GPS co-ordinates provided to them by a relative of one of the victims. The victim had an iPhone that reported its GPS location to Apple's Find My iPhone service. The phone presumably remained on up until it hit the water. This last location may help the government retrieve the missing fuselage. Once found, Chilean officials could determine the cause of the crash and hopefully bring closure to the relatives of the victims. Our thoughts go out to all who were affected by this tragic accident. [Via 9to5 Mac]
Apple updates Find My iPhone app
Apple has pushed out a minor update to the Find My iPhone app. The app allows users to track their iOS devices right from their iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Today's update doesn't bring any major changes to the app -- just "stability improvements" -- but it does seem to find devices quicker than the previous version for those of you running the iOS 5 beta (at least on my iPad 2). I was personally hoping this update would enable you to track your Macs running Lion, however that is still yet to come apparently. Hopefully when it does, Apple will rename the app to something that describes all the devices its capable of finding. "Find My Devices" anyone?
Apple offers Find My Mac for beta testing, wants to play Cops and Robbers
Ever misplaced your hard earned MacBook Air or had an entire project vanish at the hands of a dirty thief, only to be gone forever? Well friends, the time is coming soon for the Find My Mac feature to provide a highly sought after sigh of relief, Find My iPhone-style. Apple has released the software into the wild for registered iOS devs, with the only other requirements being OS X Lion and an iCloud subscription. Using WiFi networks to locate your missing appendage via a web browser or iOS device, the location tool offers you a number of anti-theft options -- send a threatening message, lock down the machine remotely, or even wipe the machine's drive clean. Perhaps we will see this security detail launch with iCloud in fall, which was also released in beta form earlier this week.
Apple iCloud and iWork beta for iOS hands-on
We've had a few weeks to get accustomed to iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion, but one headlining feature has been notably inaccessible since it was unveiled earlier this summer. During his WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs touted iCloud as a service that will sync many of your Apple devices, for free. Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even Windows computers can synchronize documents, contacts, calendar appointments, and other data. You'll also be able to back up your iOS devices remotely, use an Apple-hosted email account, and store your music in the cloud. Well, this week Apple finally lit up its cloud-based service for developers, letting some of us take a sneak peek at the new service. Apple also announced pricing, confirming that you'll be able to add annual subscriptions with 10GB ($20), 20GB ($40), or 50GB ($100) of storage 'atop your free 5GB account. We took our five gig account for a spin, creating documents in Pages, spreadsheets in Numbers, and presentations in Keynote, then accessing them from the iCloud web interface to download Microsoft Office and PDF versions. We also tried our luck at iOS data syncing and the soon-to-be-controversial Photo Stream, so jump past the break for our full iCloud hands-on.%Gallery-129793%
iPhone survives 13,500 foot fall from skydiver's pocket
A few months ago we told you about an iPhone that survived a 1000-foot fall unscathed. CNN reports that another skydiver's iPhone recently flew out of his pocket during a dive and made an uncontrolled descent to Earth -- 13,500 feet below. Skydiver Jarrod McKinney's iPhone wasn't quite as lucky in its fall as the other iPhone was; although the iPhone technically survived the fall and was still capable of receiving calls, both glass surfaces shattered. Using what CNN calls a GPS tracking app (probably Find My iPhone), McKinney located his iPhone 4 atop a two-story building half a mile from where he landed. McKinney did have his iPhone in an Incipio case, but a 2.5-mile fall is asking a bit much from any case. He plans to get the screen replaced. Meanwhile, a skydiving instructor on the same jump was so impressed that the iPhone survived its own impromptu dive that he plans to pick one up himself. For the rest of you skydivers, please either leave your phones behind or at least keep them secure inside a zipped pocket when you dive. It's amusing to read these stories and fascinating to see how much abuse the iPhone can take, but I'd really rather not have some skydiver's wayward iPhone hit me in the head at 120 miles per hour, would you?
Finding an iPhone the old-fashioned way
Ben Patterson and his wife learned a hard lesson on using Find My iPhone after traveling to Manhattan's East Village to visit a friend. After a lovely evening, they hopped from one cab to another as they traveled back to Brooklyn. His wife froze with fear when she realized her iPhone was missing. All her contacts, emails, photos and more were likely in the backseat of another cab and possibly in the hands of a stranger. The couple fired up the Find My iPhone app on Patterson's iPhone 4 and was disappointed to discover his wife's phone was not being tracked. There was no way to find it, lock it or wipe it. Patterson remembered setting up the tracking service, but he never double-checked to make sure it was working. Now that the iPhone was gone, it was too late. The pair followed the standard protocol for handling a lost phone. They called the cab company, but got nowhere since they did not have a cab number or any identifying information. Then they called AT&T and both deactivated the SIM card and reported the phone missing. She fired up an old iPhone 3GS and moved on. Almost a week later, she received a phone call from an unusual number. She answered the call and was shocked to discover it was a sales associate from a local AT&T store. They had her phone! A young woman had found it in the back of the cab and returned the phone to the store. For once, it wasn't technology like Find My iPhone that led to the return of a missing phone, but the kindness of strangers.
Apple patent reveals possible Find My iPhone improvements
Apple filed a patent application detailing new security features that could potentially make their way into the Find My iPhone service. These new features would greatly expand the control each user has over his or her missing iPhone and include: The ability to let users selectively protect files on a handset instead of locking the entire phone. A scrambling feature that would prohibit access to sensitive data on the phone without taking the drastic step of a remote wipe. Unscrambling would be available when the handset is retrieved. A remote recording feature that uses the mic on the iPhone to capture the voice of the thief and his or her surroundings. Remote messaging feature that would warn the thief of any recording or location tracking activity. An enterprise-friendly feature that prohibits access to sensitive functions or apps on the missing handset. Patent applications are not to be mistaken for future product roadmaps, and many of the ideas detailed in them never make out of the concept stage. Fingers crossed that these security features are some of the few that actually land in their targeted product.
Find My Mac kicks off with Lion
In the latest Developer Preview of Lion, Apple has activated the new Find My Mac feature. Like Find My iPhone, Find My Mac allows users to locate their Macs from any web browser or iOS device. As noted by 9to5 Mac, the Find My Mac setup is available through the Mail, Contacts and Calendars setting in System Preferences. Simply click "Allow," and your Mac is ready to be tracked. Once enabled you can use any web browser or iOS device to track your Mac. When found you can choose to play a sound or send a message, remote lock the Mac or remote wipe the Mac. However, remote locking and wiping will prevent you from locating the Mac again. The Find My Mac feature will be free, all you need to use it will be Lion and a free iCloud membership. This feature is sure to be a bane to thieves, and no doubt we'll be hearing stories about how Find My Mac thwarted more thieves in the future.
Apple updates Find My iPhone app with offline device support
Among all the hoopla about iCloud and iOS 5 today, Apple has also quietly updated its Find My iPhone iOS app. Version 1.2 adds features for devices that are offline. Now when a user is unable to locate a device because it is offline, that user will receive an email if the device comes online and is located. The update also adds the ability to remove an offline device from their list of Find My iPhone devices using the app itself. Previously the user had to log into MobileMe's Find My iPhone page through a desktop-based web browser. Find My iPhone is a free download.
Umpire strikes out as Find My iPhone goes horribly wrong
Find My iPhone: helpful utility or breeder of social discord? You be the judge... or, in this case, the umpire. In New Jersey, youth baseball umpire Carl Ippolito lost track of his iPhone and became convinced it had been stolen out of his car, reports the Hunterdon County Democrat. Ippolito used the FMi app on his son's phone to track down his device, and the service's location readout led him to the spot where he found 27-year-old Brent Johnson chatting on an iPhone. The aggrieved Ippolito, assuming that Johnson was holding his iPhone, tried to talk to him about it. When Johnson moved to walk away, Ippolito grabbed him and punched him, cutting his chin. Foul ball! Not only is it inappropriate to assault people, even if you think they stole your phone, but it turns out Ippolito's iPhone was at the snack shack at the nearby baseball field, in the spot where he accidentally left it -- Johnson was using his own, perfectly legal iPhone. Ippolito was later arrested on charges of assault and disorderly conduct. The moral of the story? As we have said repeatedly before, confronting someone based on Find My iPhone tracking is Not. A. Good. Plan. If you think your phone's been stolen, call the cops -- not the brute squad. Thanks to Charles for the tip.
