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Schools complain that upgrading student iPads to iOS 7 removes security filters
When Apple announced iOS 7, it made a big deal about how good the operating system would be for educators looking to manage iPads in their classroom. There's a whole page set up making that claim. But a new report from AllThingsD shows that while iOS 7 has some great tools for educators, its initial installation may be opening up some security flaws. Several school districts have discovered installing iOS 7 accidentally removed the supervision profiles administrators have placed on district-provided iPads. These profiles allowed the schools to put content blocks, web filters and app blocks on the iPads to ensure they were used for purely educational activities. In a memo from the Manituou Springs School District in Colorado obtained by AllThingsD, parents were warned of the district iPad's compromised security. Apple did not realize that installing iOS 7 would remove our (and thousands of organizations across the country) safety protection measure, which now makes the iPad devices unfiltered when accessing the internet away from school. The district announced it would be collecting iPad's at the end of each school day until they have time to reinstall the safety measures on the devices. It was a difficult task; schools had to collect hundreds of iPads, manually wipe them, then reinstall the OS, apps and school content they originally contained. When AllThingsD reached out to Apple for a comment, the company said they were aware of the issue and would have a fix up within the month. Of course there are problems for school administrators trying to control iPads beyond the unintended effects of new software updates. Sometimes, as we've seen recently in the LA school system where students found workarounds to installed content blocks, the kids are simply smarter than the security.
iOS 7 video tip: View tweeted links in Mobile Safari
Today's video tip highlights a little-known feature in Safari under iOS 7. At any time while you're using the mobile browser, tap on the bookmarks button, then tap the "@" button to see links that have been shared via Twitter by people you follow. Once you've found a link you want to look at, tapping it not only opens the associated web page, but also displays the tweet it was linked from at the top of the mobile Safari window. As with all of our video tips, this one can be enlarged to full-screen for easier viewing.
Apple confirms iOS 7 removes content filters from school-issued iPads, fix coming soon
It seems you can't release a major operating system update these days without a few things going wrong. The latest iOS 7 issue is affecting iPads issued by schools. After updating, the content filters put in place through the Apple Configurator tool are no longer effective, leaving students with unrestricted access to the internet when used at home (school WiFi networks often have separate filters in place that restrict access through all devices). According to an AllThingsD report, a school district in Colorado is collecting iPads at the end of each school day in the meantime -- it's hardly a sustainable long-term solution, but Apple, which acknowledged the issue, expects a fix this month. One crafty administrator set up a DNS block to prevent students from upgrading to iOS 7, but for many other schools, the damage is already done.
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.
iOS 7 video tip: How to AirDrop information between devices
One of the new features of iOS 7 is the ability to send photos, contacts and other information from one iOS device to one or more other devices through AirDrop. AirDrop works on: iPhone 5 or later iPad (fourth generation) iPad mini iPod touch (fifth generation) It's surprisingly easy to use. In this short video, we'll show how to set up AirDrop and use it to send a note between iOS 7 devices. Once you have that down, you'll be able to use any app that supports AirDrop, including Photos, Safari, Contacts, Notes, Reminders and Camera+. For troubleshooting information, be sure to check Apple's Support Knowledge Base page for AirDrop. As with our other video tips, this one can be resized to full-screen for easier viewing.
iOS 7 video tip: Using Reminders
One of the unsung heroes among the built-in apps on iOS devices is Reminders. Reminders are different from calendar events. Calendars mark your appointments, while reminders tell you what you have to do. In this short video, I'll show you how to create a new reminder list, enter a reminder, set a deadline or prioritize a reminder and show items as completed. We'll also cover deleting reminders and creating them with Siri. As with all of our video tips, this one can be expanded to full-screen for more detail.
Siri's inexplicable rickroll
TUAW received an email this afternoon from Brett M. who noted that under iOS 7, the query "What is today going to be like?" ends up displaying the WIkipedia page for "Never Gonna Give You Up". In case you missed it, that's a 1987 pop song by British singer Rick Astley that was used for rickrolling other people... As Brett mentioned, "If my query had a sly connection to one of the lyrics, I could see this, or if my query was so outrageous that I deserved to be rickrolled. But this? Very strange." If any of our readers can figure out the link between the query and the oddball response, please let us know. By the way, this does not work when asking Siri the same question under iOS 6 -- in that case, the answer is always today's weather. A TUAW hat tip to Brett M.
iOS 7 video tip: Adding the emoji keyboard and other keyboard tricks
Today we're going to pass along another short tip for those who may not have yet figured out how your friends send those emoji -- smiley faces, little animals, cars and trucks, etc... -- in Messages, emails or tweets. In addition, you'll see how to change settings to make working with your iOS virtual keyboard less frustrating and more efficient. As with all of our videos, you can go full-screen to see the details up close. If you have any tips or tricks you'd like us to include in the video tips, please use the red Tip Us button to give us your ideas.
MLB to use iOS 7's iBeacon for pointing out sights (and seats) in stadiums
Major League Baseball is becoming very iPhone-friendly: it gave iOS 6 users Passbook ticketing this season, and it's now planning a treat for iOS 7 users. A 2014 update to MLB's At the Ballpark app will use iOS 7's iBeacon feature to guide sports fans as they pass by low-power Bluetooth transmitters in the stadium. Enter the ballpark and you'll get seat directions; visit specific points and you may get coupons or highlight videos. Only the New York Mets are testing the feature at Citi Field, but the league believes that other teams are likely to follow suit.
Archiving iPhone app workflows
For app developers and bloggers, it's very instructive to have an idea of what has changed in the user interface of an app. App developers can look back and see how both the "look and feel" and steps required to perform a workflow have changed, while bloggers and other writers can use the information to update books or write posts about upgrades. Fortunately for both parties, there's a website called UX Archive run by two French developers (one of whom has moved to the Bay Area) and an American that plans to be an online museum of sorts, exhibiting the changes in app user interfaces and workflows over time. The site neatly divides the screenshots by app and task, so you can narrow down a search to just one particular task -- like creating, deleting, recording, sharing or uploading -- in one specific app. While there aren't a tremendous number of apps and versions currently archived (I counted 60 apps, with only a few showing the changes between iOS 6 and iOS 7 versions of those apps), it's a good start and UX Archive will be a helpful tool in the future provided the curators keep up with the updates. If you sign up for a free email list, UX Archive will ping you when a new workflow is added to the site.
Fiksu: iOS 7 adoption rate at 58 percent after one week
For the past week, analytics and advertising firms have been checking in with word on the adoption rate of iOS 7 -- that is, what percentage of all iOS devices are currently running the new operating system. The latest is Fiksu of Boston, which announced yesterday that iOS 7 was on 58.5 percent of all Apple mobile devices that were accessing its clients' apps. By comparison, iOS 6 was only at a 47.5 percent share after one week, while iOS 5 was at just 27.2 percent in the same amount of time. Chitika has also updated its data, and now says that iOS 7 accounts for 51.8 percent of the Apple devices accessing its servers. For iOS 6, the company saw an uptake rate of 47 percent after one week. Mixpanel has been posting hourly adoption rate figures and now shows 61.24 percent of all Apple devices running iOS 7. Taking an average of the data from all three of these firms shows an impressive 57.2 percent adoption rate, incredible when taking the huge number of iOS devices into account.
iOS 7 video tip: Short names and nicknames in Messages
Some TUAW readers have been concerned that in the Messages app under iOS 7, all they see is a person's first name in the header. It turns out that there's a setting to help change that information so that you can see the full name, first name and last initial, nickname or some other choices. In this TUAW Video Tip, you'll see just how one setting controls how names are viewed on your device. As with all of our videos, this one can be resized to full-screen mode for easier viewing.
Daily Roundup: Google's 15th anniversary, Stir's Kinetic Desk, iOS 7.0.2 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.
Square prompts iOS 7 users to allow microphone access for its reader
Square has sent an email out to its users noting that they may have to make some slight settings changes if they want to continue using the Square credit card reader on their iPhone. The changes come from a new security setting in iOS 7 in which the user needs to grant each app access to the microphone or else the app will not be able to use it -- or anything that's plugged into it, like the Square reader. The email lays out the steps users must take to approve Square Register for microphone access: When you update your Apple device to iOS 7, you may need to adjust your microphone in order to swipe payment cards with your card reader. If you have already updated to iOS 7, please allow Square Register to access the microphone. Here's how: 1. Go to Settings > Privacy > Microphone 2. Turn on the Square Register slider 3. Relaunch Square Register and swipe away! If you have not yet updated to iOS 7, your app will function normally. When you do update, follow the prompt to allow microphone access the first time you open Square Register. Though this email addresses how to approve Square Register, you follow the exact same steps for any other app that needs microphone access. You'll only have to go through these steps for existing apps on your iPhone that were on it before you updated to iOS 7. Any new apps you download will prompt you to give them access to your microphone the first time you launch them.
Is the Decline button missing from incoming calls in iOS 7? It's not just you
I've not found a ton of bugs in iOS 7; some weird behaviors (mostly in older apps) and visual artifacts, sure. Bugs? Thus far the biggest one I've found is the Decline button for incoming calls disappears, seemingly at random. I've had two calls from the same number over the course of a couple of days and sometimes the Decline button is there, and sometimes it isn't. Of course, 7.0.2 hit just as I was writing this, so maybe it's fixed. Are you seeing it?
Apple release iOS 7.0.2, fixes lock screen bypass bugs
Apple released iOS 7.0.2 and fixed the two lock screen bugs that made headlines earlier this week. One affected Control Center and the other took advantage of an exploit in the emergency dialer. These hacks allowed unauthorized users to access photos, contacts and social-sharing features without entering a passcode. Besides these pretty big bug fixes, the update also brought back the Greek keyboard for passcode entry. Folks running iOS 7 can download the update over the air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. You can also manually install it by connecting your iPhone or iPad to your computer and launching iTunes.
Apple addresses lockscreen bypass bug with iOS 7.0.2 rollout
Apple confirmed and assured everyone that it was working on a fix to the iOS 7 lockscreen bypass bug last week that let sneaky individuals mess with users' email and social network accounts. And now, exactly seven days later, said update is hitting handsets in the form of iOS 7.0.2. Directly to the point, the update is said to "fi[x] bugs that could allow someone to bypass the lock screen passcode." And hey, there's also a Greek keyboard option for passcodes thrown into the update for good measure.
Maxthon updates iOS browser with 'shake-and-send' cloud push and more
It's been a long while since Maxthon updated its iOS app, and hot on the heels of iOS 7, it finally has. Not only does it offer the usual speed and performance enhancements, the latest update to the mobile browser also reveals easier access to social media, a unique "shake-and-send" feature that lets you send content to the cloud by shaking the phone, localization in 15 more languages and a new "Push Away Menu" that supposedly helps you navigate the web one-handed. Seeing as Safari didn't get a ton of updates with iOS 7, it might prove useful to hit the source and seek out a possible alternative.
iOS 7 video tip: Organizing Notification Center
iOS 7's Notification Center can be a great way to see notifications at a glance, but when every app on your device suddenly decides to join the party, things can get a little hectic. In today's iOS 7 video tip, we'll show you how to turn off notifications from specific apps or delete them from your Today screen. The video, as always, can be expanded to full-screen for clarity.
