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Engadget Daily: Samsung's VR headset, the new Leica T and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours – all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Apple says a fix is coming for iMessage bug affecting former iPhone owners
Recently a large number of former iPhone users who have switched to Android have discovered they are no longer receiving messages sent from their friend's iPhones. The issue is effecting users who didn't disable their iMessage account before switching over. Given there was previously no reason to think to do this before switching phones, a lot of people are upset. Thankfully, a fix is on the way. Apple released a statement to the Re/code blog today addressing the issue, and promising help would be coming in the form of a software update. We recently fixed a server-side iMessage bug which was causing an issue for some users, and we have an additional bug fix in a future software update," Apple told Re/code in a statement. "For users still experiencing an issue, please contact AppleCare." Users who contact Apple are being directed to the company's support page for instructions on how to deactivate iMessage. While the software fix is on its way, please make sure you do your part in the meantime and warn friends and family who are thinking about switching over to Android to turn off iMessaging before deactivating their phones.
Apple and the environment plus other news for May 22, 2014
Good afternoon, readers! Today Pixelmator has released a very nice update, Apple addresses the "iMessage Purgatory" issue and Lisa Jackson, Apple's VP of environmental initiatives, talks about her role at the company. Apple's environmental initiatives VP and former head of the EPA, Lisa Jackson, addressed her company's environmental efforts at Fortune's recent Brainstorm Green conference. Jackson discussed her recruiting by Tim Cook, her role at Apple and the company's environmental initiative. Apple has fixed the server-side iMessage issue that some former customers are experiencing, and promises that a forthcoming software update is coming. An Apple spokesperson recently told Ina Fried, "We recently fixed a server-side iMessage bug which was causing an issue for some users, and we have an additional bug fix in a future software update." Those still experiencing problems are encouraged to contact AppleCare. In software news, Pixelmator 3.2 is out with full 16-bit channel support and new Repair tool with three different settings: Quick, for small fixes, plus Standard and Advanced for big changes. Pixelmator 3.2 requires Mac OS X Mavericks.
Apple to fix iMessage bug that causes ex-iPhone users to lose their texts
Apple says it's fixed a server bug that was affecting "some" former iMessage users who had tried to switch to Android or another OS. However, it admits there's another problem with its messaging platform that it still hasn't managed to address. According to Re/code, the first bug was making it difficult for Apple staff to keep track of which phone numbers are currently associated with an iPhone -- information that is essential for the proper running of the iMessage system. Without an accurate database, ex-iPhone users could find that some of their SMS messages are mistakenly treated as iMessages and sucked into the bowels of an Apple's datacenter, from whence they may never return. As for the remaining flaws, and iMessage's broader dependence on up-to-the-minute record-keeping, Apple says it's working on a fuller solution that will come in a "future software update." In the meantime, the best advice for any iPhone leaver is still to manually disable iMessage and return to regular SMS before they power down for the final time.
Another Apple Store for NYC and more news for May 19, 2014
The sun rises on yet another Monday and like a phoenix from the ashes, a new week is born. Here's a bit of news to get you going. NYC gets yet another Apple Store (Apple Store Cape Cod. Make it happen, Apple) and Apple gets sued. Stop me if any of this sounds familiar. NYC will get yet another Apple Store, according to city building permits issued last week. The permits, dated last week, bear the names of Apple's typical architect and structural engineer. IFO Apple Store confirmed the Upper East Side construction project on May 6. Android user sues Apple over "iMessage Purgatory." Some former iPhone owners who switch to Android are finding that their text messages aren't making the transition. Instead, the missives are trapped in an iMessage purgatory and unattainable. Adrienne Moore claims that Apple has "interfered" with cell contracts by hindering her text messages.
Apple hit with lawsuit over disappearing iMessages for iPhone to Android switchers
Well, that sure didn't take long. Shortly after we highlighted how a number of iPhone to Android converts are no longer receiving text messages sent from other iPhones, Apple has been slapped with a lawsuit over the matter. Bloomberg reports that a frustrated Android user filed suit against Apple late last week in San Jose. The suit seeks class action status and alleges that consumers who decide to switch from Apple's ecosystem to Android are being "penalized and unable to obtain the full benefits of their wireless-service contracts." The text-messaging lawsuit, which seeks class-action status and undetermined damages, claims Apple failed to disclose that switching to a device other than one running on Apple's iOS operating system would result in the interference. The suit is based on contractual interference and unfair competition laws. Unquestionably, not receiving text messages has to be a terribly frustrating experience. According to a widely circulated blogpost from Lifehacker Editor-in-Chief Adam Pash, Apple is aware of the problem and is working, albeit unsuccessfully, to come up with a solution. One suggestion to hopefully help iPhone to Android users avoid this predicament altogether is to deactivate iMessage before switching over to Android. Barring that, some fixes that have reported worked for some affected users include the following: Deregister your phone number from iMessage by going to Settings > Messages and turning iMessage off Go to https://supportprofile.apple.com/MySupportProfile.do. Next, log in and click on "edit products." Lastly, click on the "x" to the right of the product and click "unregister." Sign out of your App Store account on any device where it may be open Go to https://appleid.apple.com and change your password If none of these solutions alleviate the problem, your last resort is to call 1-800-My-Apple and ask them to deactivate iMessage for you. According to one TUAW reader, doing so will result in Apple sending you a verification code and "revoking your certificate" in the iMessage system.
How to fix disappearing iMessages after switching from iPhone to Android
As mentioned in this morning's news roundup, a number of iPhone users who have since switched to Android are finding that they are unable to receive messages sent from iPhone users. The problem lies in the fact that some folks have phone numbers tied to iMessage even after leaving the iOS ecosystem. Lifehacker EIC Adam Pash recently experienced this problem and detailed it in a post aptly titled "iMessage purgatory." I recently switched from an iPhone to Android, and discovered shortly thereafter that my phone number was still associated with iMessage, meaning that any time someone with an iPhone tried texting me, I'd receive nothing, and they'd get a "Delivered" receipt in their Messages app as though everything were working as expected. While disassociating one's number from its associated Apple ID seems to fix the problem for some, Pash, and others, are still finding that texts sent from iPhone users aren't coming through. This isn't an entirely new problem as there are a number of support threads on the topic on Apple's website. Fix 1: The official response from Apple, naturally, is for users to deactivate iMessage. To deregister your phone number, tap Settings > Messages and turn iMessage off. Funny enough, Eric Schmidt's guide on converting to Android from iPhone even mentions this. An in-depth guide for deactivating iMessage can be found here on OS X Daily. Fix 2: Another recommendation via Apple's support forums reads: Go to: https://supportprofile.apple.com/MySupportProfile.do Log in if not already logged in. Click on "edit products" Click on the "x" to the right of the product. Click "unregister" Fix 3: Some commenters on Apple's discussion forums also recommend that users sign out of their App Store accounts if possible. While some users have found that texting the word "stop" to 48369 seems to alleviate the problem after about a 12 hour period, Apple's support document explicitly states that doing so "won't deregister iMessage." How to prevent this problem in the first place! To hopefully avoid this type of frustrating experience altogether, Apple reportedly recommends that users should deactivate iMessage before switching their phone number to a new device. If none of the above serve to fix the problem, or if you happen not to have access to your iPhone anymore, Apple recommends contacting Apple support at 1-800-My-Apple.
Apple's HIG in the iBookstore and other news for May 14, 2014
We've got some Wednesday afternoon news for you. Apple's HIG becomes a more convenient to read, iCloud angers a Norwegian watchdog group, Logic Pro X gets an update and some users are stuck in iMessage purgatory. Finally, iOS apps run on Android, but very, very slowly. Apple has published its Human Interface Guidelines to the iBookstore. The guide has been available via the company's developer portal for some time, but now it's much more convenient for those with an iPad, an iPhone or the iBooks app on OS X Mavericks. This edition has the added benefit of inline video playback and annotations. Go get it, developers. A watchdog group says iCloud agreements are at odds with Norwegian law. The Norwegian Consumer Council recently conducted a study of seven cloud companies operating in its market. The results found that iCloud's customer agreement is difficult to understand and, at 8,600 words, is "convoluted and unclear." The group has filed a formal complaint. Logic Pro X update brings some nice improvements. Version 10.0.7 offers 24 processing threads for those 12-core Mac Pro models, plus smaller changes like fixes to the snap and alignment guides. "iMessage purgatory" is a problem for some. A Lifehacker editor switched from an iPhone to an Android device, and brought his number along with him. Unfortunately, his text messages aren't making the journey. It seems they're being re-routed to iMessage, where they reside in a state of limbo. An Apple rep told him that it's an issue they're aware of and working on. Some students have gotten iOS running on an Android device. By "running" I mean "operating so slowly you'll think the video has frozen." They're using the Cider compatibility layer, which tricks apps into believing they're in their natural setting by adjusting code on the fly. It's fun to watch, but cross-compatibility is still a dweam within a dweam. The charity auction for lunch with Apple CEO Tim Cook has ended, generating US$300,001. The revenue will benefit the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, not to mention the lucky devil (and friend) who gets to have lunch with Tim. While the auction beat its goal of $100K, it fell short of last year's winning bid of $610K.
iPhone 101: How to easily combine multiple iMessages into a single message
Have you ever received a series of iMessages with important information that you need to share with someone else? You could forward each iMessage separately and spam your recipient. You also could copy and the contents of each message and then paste them into another message, but that is time consuming. Or you could use our tip below to quickly combine multiple messages into a single message that can be forwarded to a third party. Here is how you can combine several iMessages into one message that is ready to be sent to someone else: 1. Tap and hold the first iMessage that you want to forward and then select "More" from the popup menu as shown above. 2. Tap on the checkmark bubbles to select the messages that you want to forward. Each selected message will have a white checkmark inside of a blue circle as shown below. 3. Tap on the arrow in the bottom right corner of the screen. 4. This will open the "New Message" window, as shown above, with an iMessage that contains the text from the messages that you selected in step 2. You can edit the text as needed and also enter the name, email address or phone number of the recipient(s). 5. Hit the "Send" button in the right corner to send along the message. If you have any particularly helpful tips or tricks for iMessage, please share them in the comments.
Southwest Airlines offers iOS users $2 iMessaging
Southwest Airlines just announced a new deal for iOS users. Instead of ponying up US$8 for all-day, in-flight WiFi, people with iPads or iPhones can get all-day iMessaging for $2. According to the airline "any Apple user that has iOS 5 or later with the iMessage feature pre-loaded on their device can take advantage of this option. Now you can stay powered up and connected to friends and family like you never left the ground." This is a pretty clever idea that will please a lot of holiday travelers who might want to keep in touch with family and friends while they are in the air, or update them on those frequent late arrivals. It's only a quarter the cost of full WiFi, so it might be a pretty popular option. The new service begins today. As of now, it's for iOS only, although Android options are in the works.
Backing up your iPhone's text messages
Whether it's for personal or legal reasons, you may want to back up text messages -- both SMS and iMessage. Think about wanting to keep a personal memory of a friend or relative who died suddenly, or the importance of keeping threatening texts from someone, and you'll see why it's important to have a way to do this. Wired's Kif Leswing looked into a few methods for backing up iPhone text messages, and we have a few tips of our own as well. First, Leswing notes that the SQLite database containing all of those messages is stored on your computer. On a Mac it's in Library > Application Support > Mobile Sync > Backup, in the cryptically-named file 3d0d7e5fb2ce288813306e4d4636395e047a3d28.mddata (to view your Library from the Finder, hold down the Option key while clicking the Go menu -- Library will appear between Home and Computer) . On a Windows PC, you'll find that file in C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming. However, you'll need some way of opening the file and parsing the messages hidden within. Leswing suggests Ecamm's PhoneView app (US$29.95) for Mac or CopyTrans (US$19.99) for PC, but if you just want a copy of the file, you know where to find it and can just copy it to an external drive. This, of course, assumes that you are using iTunes and a USB connection to sync and back up your iPhone, which many people do NOT do. If you're using iCloud for iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch) backup, then you're not going to have access to that file. I also found the text message files in another place on my Mac, and they were much more up-to-date since I do a lot of iMessage chatting on that machine. Here, I went to Library > Messages and found a completely up-to-date set of three databases: chat.db, chat.db-shm, and chat.db-wal. Those contain all of the messages -- both SMS and iMessages -- and the same folder also contains an Attachments folder that contains hidden treasures. Inside are all of the images and other attachments that were sent to you in those messages, so your cat GIFs are saved for posterity. Once again, you'll need some way of opening the database files to be able to read the messages, although I did notice that just looking at the chat.db file in TextEdit did make it possible to read all of the messages that were buried in a pile of other meaningless garble. There's one more really easy way for Mac users to back up iMessages. Your Mac should reflect the messages that are sent back and forth from the Messages app on your iOS devices (if not, make sure that you're using the same Apple ID on all devices and the Mac). To create an easy-to-read archive of a string of conversations with your BFF, just launch Messages on your Mac, highlight the person you were texting with, and then bring up File > Print. You'll see both sides of your conversation in the printing thumbnail. Now, click on the PDF button in the lower-left corner of the print dialog (see image below) and save the conversation as a PDF document. You can even add that PDF to iBooks on an OS X Mavericks Mac. (Note that this printout does NOT include delivery times for the messages; that metadata is included in the database files). Do you have any other hints or tips for Messages backups? Let us all know in the comments.
Daily Update for October 18, 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: No, we can't read your iMessages
Just yesterday, we reported on the claims of security firm QuarksLab that Apple could read iMessage communications, despite the company's statement to the contrary back in June when the NSA Prism program first came to light. Well, Apple has jumped right on those claims -- with a vengeance. The QuarksLab research explains how since Apple controls the encryption keys for iMessage, it could theoretically perform a "man-in-the-middle attack" and read or alter the communications between two people, either for nefarious purposes or for the government. Apple spokesperson Trudy Miller sent a statement to AllThingsD about the research, saying "iMessage is not architected to allow Apple to read messages. The research discussed theoretical vulnerabilities that would require Apple to re-engineer the iMessage system to exploit it, and Apple has no plans or intentions to do so." AllThingsD's John Paczkowski sums up his story about Apple's declaration with a good comment about the state of surveillance these days, saying "perhaps in today's world iMessage's encryption is only as good as your trust in Apple." With other companies being asked by the NSA to enable methods of intercepting messages, one security researcher told AllThingsD that "it would be naive to think that Apple wasn't at least approached by the government at some point."
Daily Update for October 17, 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
Researchers challenge Apple's 'unbreakable' iMessages
Shortly after revelations about the NSA's data-snooping programs became public, Apple publicly stated that the end-to-end encryption used in iMessage was so good that it was impossible for anyone -- including Apple -- to break the code. Now security researchers are saying that it could be possible for someone inside Apple to intercept uncoded messages either for themselves or the government. The researchers spoke at the Hack in the Box conference in Kuala Lumpur, with iOS jailbreaker Cyril Cattiaux going so far as to call Apple's assertion that iMessage encryption is rock-solid "just basically lies." The team noted that there's no evidence that Apple or the NSA is actually reading iMessages, but say that it's possible. Apple uses public key cryptography to encrypt iMessages, and Cattiaux says that "Apple has full control over this public key directory." That means that a sender doesn't have the ability to see whether a key has changed, or if the key is actually under the control of the recipient. Another researcher noted that "they give the key and nobody can really know if it's a substitute or anything like that ... it's a matter of trust." Cryptography expert Moxie Marlinspike wasn't involved with the research, but noted that trusting another party to manage cryptography keys on your behalf is no more secure than trusting them with unencrypted text. As Paul Kocher of Cryptography Research put it in an email to Computerworld, "It isn't fair to criticize Apple too heavily since other services aren't better (and most are worse)."
This week on gdgt: Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 Jawbone's Mini Jambox, and iMessage issues
Each week, our friends at gdgt go through the latest gadgets and score them to help you decide which ones to buy. Here are some of their most recent picks. Want more? Visit gdgt anytime to catch up on the latest, and subscribe to gdgt's newsletter to get a weekly roundup in your inbox.
Daily Update for October 2, 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 acknowledges iMessage bug in iOS 7, says fix is on the way
As is typically the case with any major iOS update, the release of iOS 7 has brought with it a small number of bugs. One such bug is a glitch in iMessage wherein some users aren't receiving iMessages sent to them while others are finding that they can't send iMessages at all. While restarting a troubled iOS device seems to alleviate the issue for some, this solution reportedly doesn't do the trick for everyone. To that end, Apple late on Tuesday night confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that it is aware of the issue and plans to implement a fix in an upcoming software update. "We are aware of an issue that affects a fraction of a percent of our iMessage users, and we will have a fix available in an upcoming software update," Apple said in a statement. "In the meantime, we encourage any users having problems to reference our troubleshooting documents or contact AppleCare to help resolve their issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes impacted users." Apple issued iOS 7.0.2 last week and we can only assume that iOS 7.0.3 can't be too far off.
Apple acknowledges iMessage delivery issues, is working on a fix
A number of iOS 7 users have reported problems sending and receiving using iMessage (not that it's the first time), and tonight Apple has responded. The Wall Street Journal has a statement from the company claiming the issue affects "a fraction of a percent" of its iMessage users, and says it will be fixed in a future software update. TechCrunch points out a support document that may provide temporary relief to those experiencing the issue, otherwise users may need to fall back to one of the many, many, many other messaging services out there (but not BBM, yet, and Google Hangouts had its own issue recently) to make sure those messages are getting through.
Easy fix for pesky iOS 7 Messages bug
It's always "fun" to experience an issue just before a fix for it appears in our TUAW newsroom. In this case, I was receiving iMessages from my wife, but she wasn't seeing mine. Fearing that the worst had happened and I had been run over by a truck (while sitting at my desk), she called me. It turns out that a lot of people are running into this Messages app bug with iOS 7, where iMessages aren't being reliably sent out. Fortunately, there's a quick and easy fix for this issue -- just restart your iPhone or other iOS device. In case you're new to the iPhone / iPad world and don't know how to shut down and then power up your device, it's easy. Just push down on the power button on top of your iPhone or iPad for about five seconds. A red stripe appears across the display saying "slide to power off." Swipe to the right on that stripe to shut down your device. Make sure that the screen goes completely black (no spinning "rotor"), and then press the power button again for about a second to turn the device back on. Now you should see all iMessages that weren't successfully sent, and should also be able to send new ones to your BFF.
