Apple

[tek]

They decided it was to their advantage to keep iMessage because it would force families to buy iPhones when kids got a phone.

The raging capitalist's version of "competition"

[qbawl]

Apparently Apple will be implementing RCS this fall. RCS is the replacement for SMS which is how iMessage implements interoperability when dealing with Android phones. RCS. is an industry (carrier) standard that does NOT support end to end encryption. Google however has an implementation of RCS which does support E2E and that is what most but not all Android phones use. Rumor says Apple will utilize the Google implementation of RCS though there is some talk of Apple implementing its own version (smart money is on using Google). This will mitigate all the valid criticism of Apples interoperability issue. However the bubbles will still be green!

[Rolodex]

They decided it was to their advantage to keep iMessage because it would force families to buy iPhones when kids got a phone.

The raging capitalist's version of "competition"

Yeah I had a discussion with my applespouse who insists "well Apple sells more because it's a better product. It's how capitalism works!"

The bubbles will still be green.

Yes so Apple users will know they're texting to a superior phone (LOL)
I'm actually pretty sure that droid is the most common phone world-wide. The US is an outlier with iPhones.

[raison de arizona]

IMG_7627.png (243.81 KiB) Viewed 2367 times

https://worldpopulationreview.com/count ... by-country

[qbawl]

Worldwide the split is roughly 70% to 30% Android. In the US the split is roughly 60% to 40% iOS.
Which is why I find the EU's market actions hard to understand re. Apple.

[RTH10260]

New Apple Wi-Fi Vulnerability Exposes Real-Time Location Data
Apple Wi-Fi vulnerability risks real-time location leaks; researchers demonstrate potential covert tracking with AirTags.

Monday, May 27, 2024

Aside from Find My, maps, routes, and emergency SOS, Apple's location services are quite handy, and they have many useful features. A research team at the University of Maryland has uncovered a critical vulnerability in Apple's location services, which might allow an unauthorized person to access the location information of millions of routers and potentially even information about a person's movements in a matter of seconds.

It has been reported that Erik Rye and Dave Levin from the University of Maryland have found that Apple's location services are working strangely, according to Krebs on Security. It is possible to sneak information from one place to another using a passing Apple device, such as a computer on the other side of the world, over the air, without any other connection to the internet at all.

Using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) broadcasts and microcontrollers programmed to function as modems, Fabian Bräunlein, co-founder of Positive Security, devised a way of transmitting a limited amount of arbitrary data from devices without an internet connection to Apple's iCloud servers. Using a Mac application, he can retrieve data from the cloud and subsequently use a Mac application to retrieve that data from the cloud. His proof-of-concept service Send Me was dubbed in a blog post that he wrote on Wednesday.

As a crowd-sourced location-tracking system, the Find My network on Apple devices functions as a crowdsourced location-tracking tool when it is enabled. Participating devices broadcast via BLE to nearby attentive Apple devices, which relay the data back to Cupertino's servers through their network connection to Cupertino's servers via their network connection. Through Find My iPhone, an iOS/macOS version of the company's Find My app, authorized device owners will be able to receive location reports about enrolled hardware using iCloud.

To reduce energy consumption, smartphone manufacturers are trying to use alternatives to GPS and its constant queries. To determine the precise location of a device, it is necessary to analyze the data from surrounding Wi-Fi networks and calculate a device's location based on the number of networks that are detected and how strong the signal is at the moment. In Apple’s and Google’s databases, active Wi-Fi networks are used as names for active networks (Wi-Fi-based Positioning Systems, also known as WPS) to make calculations a great deal of time.

Researchers discovered that Apple's WPS system had an oddity: it sent the necessary data to the user's device, which enabled the user to make these calculations locally, as opposed to sending the necessary data to the server on the user's computer. Apple's WPS server also appears to be sending out up to 400 other known Wi-Fi networks in the approximate vicinity of the device as part of its location database that has been crowdsourced by users of the app.

From this list, the requested device searches for eight possible variants and then calculates its location by that data. WPS technology on Apple's iOS device, the router on which the network is based, and the MAC address of the device are all identified using the so-called BSSID (Basic Service Set Identification) and are usually accompanied by a MAC address, which is usually static. ESP32 microcontrollers running OpenHaystack-based firmware were used by Bräunlein as the basis of his data exfiltration scheme because it was able to broadcast a hardcoded default message and to listen to new data over the serial port.

The signals will be picked up by nearby Apple devices that are using Find My Broadcasting and transmitted to Apple's servers if they have this feature enabled. It is necessary to use an Apple Mail plugin that is running with elevated privileges to obtain the location data from a macOS device, as Apple requires authentication to access location data stored on Macs. For the user to be able to view unsanctioned transmissions, OpenHaystack must also be installed as well as DataFetcher, which was developed by Bräunlein under the Mac OS X platform.

This is not exactly a high-speed attack since Send Me does not have a lot of speed. Considering that the microcontroller can send three bytes per second and can retrieve sixteen bytes in five seconds, along with latency ranging from one to sixty minutes depending on the number of devices in the vicinity, there are certainly faster channels of data transmission than what is available through the microcontroller. The fact that Send Me can be used by sophisticated adversaries does not make it impossible for an adversary could find a way to exploit it.

[Reality Check]

Apple released iOS 18 today. I was particularly awaiting iOS18 because it fixes annoying problems that occur when you text between iPhones and Androids. Apple devices use a more modern but proprietary protocol called iMessage when texting to other iOS devices. However when texting with Android users Apple devices fall back to an ancient protocol called SMS/MMS that is over 20 years old. Finally Apple will now include an open modern protocol used by Androids called RCS (Rich Communication System). The things that RCS will bring are read receipts, typing notifications, and better quality pictures and videos among other things.

After I upgraded my phone today to iOS 18 today I tried texts to my son who is a Android user. We noticed a huge difference in picture and video quality. We noticed that videos that would not even go through worked now. I think we can thank the EU who told Apple if they wanted to keep selling phones there they better quitting using only their own proprietary messaging protocol.

[northland10]

Apple released iOS 18 today. I was particularly awaiting iOS18 because it fixes annoying problems that occur when you text between iPhones and Androids. Apple devices use a more modern but proprietary protocol called iMessage when texting to other iOS devices. However when texting with Android users Apple devices fall back to an ancient protocol called SMS/MMS that is over 20 years old. Finally Apple will now include an open modern protocol used by Androids called RCS (Rich Communication System). The things that RCS will bring are read receipts, typing notifications, and better quality pictures and videos among other things.

After I upgraded my phone today to iOS 18 today I tried texts to my son who is a Android user. We noticed a huge difference in picture and video quality. We noticed that videos that would not even go through worked now. I think we can thank the EU who told Apple if they wanted to keep selling phones there they better quitting using only their own proprietary messaging protocol.

I use Google Messenger on an Android, which uses RCS. This will be nice with a few iPhone users I text with often. Hopefully, theirs new enough and will get upgraded.

[qbawl]

Yes but, keep in mind that RCS as implemented in the standard is not end to end encrypted. Iirc the google implementation (PIXEL?) is e2e encrypted but I believe Apple's uses the standard RCS implementation.

[Reality Check]

Yes but, keep in mind that RCS as implemented in the standard is not end to end encrypted. Iirc the google implementation (PIXEL?) is e2e encrypted but I believe Apple's uses the standard RCS implementation.

Yes, you are correct Apple does not implement end to end encryption. The carrier might since RCS messages from iPhones go through the carrier and not Apple servers like iMessage does.

My largest issue with SMS/MMS that Apple reverted to on text messages with Androids was that lots of messages never went through using WiFi calling on ATT. I have had messages delayed for days until I got back to an area where I had cell phone coverage. I am hoping RCS fixes this.

[sugar magnolia]

Does this mean emojis will actually show up instead of just getting that little box thing?

[Reality Check]

Does this mean emojis will actually show up instead of just getting that little box thing?

I believe so. You can also like texts, format texts, and schedule to send later.

[sugar magnolia]

Does this mean emojis will actually show up instead of just getting that little box thing?

I believe so. You can also like texts, format texts, and schedule to send later.

The "like text" is the bane of my existence. 2 people I deal with a good bit use it, and it makes me want to scream every time it says they liked a text and it copies the entire text. I absolutely HATE that shit.

[Reality Check]

The "like text" is the bane of my existence. 2 people I deal with a good bit use it, and it makes me want to scream every time it says they liked a text and it copies the entire text. I absolutely HATE that shit.

I know, they're annoying. I have an older brother who on FB Messenger answers about 90% of texts with a thumbs up emoji. At least FB doesn't copy the entire text.

[Reality Check]

Unfortunately Apple cut off the availability of iPadOS 18 at iPad 7s and later. I have an iPad 6. I wish they would have a release wiith only RCS. Most of the rest of the new features like more colorful icons on apps is just fluff. However, they did greatly improve the Calculator app on iPhones. Of course Apple hasn't bothered including a Calculator app for iPads even after 20 years.

Edit: I read that Apple finally included a calculator app in iPadOS 18. It might be time to retire my 6th generation iPad. I usually drop and break the screens on them by this age.

[Foggy]

... it says they liked a text and it copies the entire text.

My Google Pickle doesn't do that, but it does release onscreen balloons and fireworks from the text they liked. Which is still annoying, but nothing gets copied.

[northland10]

... it says they liked a text and it copies the entire text.

My Google Pickle doesn't do that, but it does release onscreen balloons and fireworks from the text they liked. Which is still annoying, but nothing gets copied.

I use Google Messenger on my Samsung and I get the likes from an iPhone user, along with the annoying and . The Samsung delivered app I used to use on my old S5 until switching to Google would do the copy thing for the likes. I originally switched because the Samsung app had issues with photos and other oddities. The old AT&T app was worse, sometimes losing txts.

I am not sure what the Samsung app on my much newer phone does now or if it uses RCS.

[pipistrelle]

Does this mean emojis will actually show up instead of just getting that little box thing?

I believe so. You can also like texts, format texts, and schedule to send later.

The "like text" is the bane of my existence. 2 people I deal with a good bit use it, and it makes me want to scream every time it says they liked a text and it copies the entire text. I absolutely HATE that shit.

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[qbawl]

... it says they liked a text and it copies the entire text.

My Google Pickle doesn't do that, but it does release onscreen balloons and fireworks from the text they liked. Which is still annoying, but nothing gets copied.

You might want to check that should be configurable on your cuce.

[MN-Skeptic]

However, they did greatly improve the Calculator app on iPhones. Of course Apple hasn't bothered including a Calculator app for iPads even after 20 years.

Edit: I read that Apple finally included a calculator app in iPadOS 18. It might be time to retire my 6th generation iPad. I usually drop and break the screens on them by this age.

I can confirm that iPadOS 18 installs a Calculator app. Since I installed a calculator app years ago, I doubt that I'll switch to Apple's calculator.

iPadOS 18 also gives you a Passwords icon. Passwords used to be in your Settings app, now it's been separated out.

Current rumors are that Apple will introduce updated iPad Minis (iPad Mini 7) and regular iPads (iPad 11) in October. My current iPad Mini is 5½ years old, so I'm looking forward to getting an updated version this year.

[Reality Check]

I might hold off if the iPad 11 is coming that soon. I upgraded to an iPhone 15 even though I knew the 16 was coming in September but I was having issues updating my XR.

I can it up with ads on my calculator until October.

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

I'm an Android user*, Dr. Vicklund is an iPhone user, we've never had issues texting.

*any Apple device more recent than an Apple IIe has a MTBF of about 6 hours in my hands - I've been known to crash entire computer clusters just by logging in

[pipistrelle]

With iOS 18 and Sequoia, the ability to mirror my iPhone on my MacBook Pro is superlative.

[qbawl]

Ok here is a 20 min review of the camera features of the iPhone 16 Pro (semi commercial) but balanced with some good nature pictures.

[Reality Check]

I have been running iOS 18 on my iPhone 15 pro now for several weeks. I can report that adding RCS to the Message app is a huge improvement. Several relatives have Samsung phones and texting was always problematic. Either texts never made it through at all and pictures and videos came through at low quality. Both our places have either poor or no 4G coverage so I am dependent on WiFi calling for voice and text for the most part.

With RCS texts, pictures and videos seem to work well and go through with full resolution. . I decided to replace my old 6th generation iPad, which would not run iOS 18, with a 10th generation so I could run iPadOS 18. I don't have cell service for my iPad but as long as my phone is on the same WiFI or close by I can make or recive calls and text using iMessage and RCS. About the only feature that is missing from iPad OS is the indication someone is typing a message on an Android. It works on my phone.