Apple’s 2017 iPad does not support untethered Hey Siri

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 9, 2017

Apple's fifth-generation iPad, which launched in March 2017, does not support tetherless “Hey Siri” functionality even though the device features an embedded M9 motion coprocessor. As first noted by AppleInsider, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is the only Apple tablet the feature is currently available on.

An always-on Siri requires that the device be outfitted with a low-power motion coprocessor embedded into the main chip. This lets iOS listen for the “Hey Siri” wake up phrase on battery power, in the background, without waking up the main power-hungry processor.

TUTORIAL: “Hey Siri” not working? Here's your troubleshooter!

“Hey Siri” made its debut with iPhone 6s, the first Apple device to embed the motion coprocessor in the main processing chip. All iPhones from iPhone 6s onward support “Hey Siri” on battery power, including iPhone SE and the latest iPhone 7 series.

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro is another Apple tablet without support for tetherless “Hey Siri” despite the inclusion of the M9 chip. It's unclear at the moment if Apple could eventually enable untethered “Hey Siri” in software on the new iPad and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

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Apple sends press invites for June 5 WWDC 2017 keynote

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 9, 2017

Apple on Thursday sent out press invites for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off with a keynote presentation on June 5. As reported by 9to5Mac, the keynote address has been scheduled for Monday, June 5, at 10am Pacific Time.

WWDC 2017 will take place at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, the site of the original WWDC located minutes from the new Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino.

The five-day event will focus on Apple's platforms: iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS.

The keynote presentation will be live-streamed through the Apple Developer website and on the WWDC app for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. The Cupertino company could unveil of its own Siri-driven Echo rival at the event alongside potential hardware updates to the iPad Pro lineup and a next-generation Apple TV with 4K video support.

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Bloomberg: Apple employees are testing rumored Siri smart speaker at home

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 31, 2017

In its write-up about Amazon's newly announced touchscreen-enabled Echo device, Bloomberg mentioned in passing that Apple's employees are now reportedly testing the company's rumored Siri smart speaker at home. “Apple employees have been testing a device at home for several months,” according to people familiar with the matter.

Apple's marketing chief recently talked up the benefits of having a screen on a voice-activated device, but “it's unclear whether the Apple version will in fact have one,” said Bloomberg.

Amazon's $230 Echo Show, pictured below, streams music from Amazon's own service, Spotify and Pandora, but not Apple Music. “We'd love to have Apple, but they're not super big on opening up Apple Music integration,” said Amazon devices chief Dave Limp.

Apple's upcoming AI speaker is likely to feature native Apple Music integration.

It's not unusual for Apple to allow its employees to test unreleased products at home. The fact that the rumored Siri device is being tested with Apple employees indicates that the product is nearly finished and being prepared and bug-tested ahead of a rumored launch next month.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted it would be powered by an iPhone 6s-class custom processor and a custom version of iOS, supporting features like Siri and AirPlay.

“We expect Apple’s first home AI product will have excellent acoustics performance (one woofer and seven tweeters) and computing power similar to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s application processor,” Kuo told clients.

KGI believes there's more than a 50 percent chance that Apple will announce its first home AI product at WWDC 2017 next month. It should start selling in the second half of 2017 and be priced higher than Amazon's existing Echo appliances.

Siri wireless speaker mockup via Twitter user “iFunnyVlogger”.

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Toshiba warns Western Digital not to interfere in sale of its lucrative chip unit

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 9, 2017

Reuters reported Tuesday that Toshiba has now formally warned Western Digital not to interfere in the sale of its semiconductor unit. This follows recent reports that the US-based storage maker held talks with the iPhone maker regarding a potential acquisition of the Japanese giant's highly lucrative NAND flash chip business.

This is interesting because the two companies jointly operate Toshiba's main semiconductor plant. Western Digital accused Toshiba of violating their contract by transferring their joint venture's rights to the newly formed unit, which Toshiba denied.

The Japanese giant is now threatening legal action.

Western Digital's “campaign constitutes intentional interference with Toshiba's prospective economic advantage and current contracts,” reads Toshiba's letter.

“It is improper, and it must stop,” it added.

After Toshiba narrowed the list of bidders to Western Digital’s rivals, the US firm has formally complained to Toshiba because it felt the Japanese conglomerate should negotiate with it first.

Wester Digital even asked for exclusive negotiating rights.

Western Digital is not seen as a favored bidder for Toshiba's chip business because it put in a much lower offer than other suitors, sources with knowledge of the matter have said.

Toshiba is the world's second biggest NAND chip producer.

Among other suitors, technology giants such as Apple’s contract manufacturer Foxconn, flash memory chip maker SK Hynix and wireless chip maker Broadcom are said to be interested in investing into Toshiba's semiconductor business.

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Amazon unveils $230 Echo Show with 7-inch touchscreen, video calling & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 9, 2017

Amazon today added a new smart home device to its range of Echo-branded smart speakers. Dubbed Echo Show, it has all of the features of the basic Echo system, and then some more. The $230 device resembles a tablet with a built-in speaker and a seven-inch touchscreen.

Thanks to a built-in camera and Amazon's video technology, users can make hands-free video calls to other Echo Show owners or to the people who use Amazon's mobile Alexa app.

But first, check out the promotional video for Echo Show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQqxCeHhmeU

The addition of a touchscreen marks a new direction for Amazon's Echo family of smart speakers, which up until today supported voice-only interactions.

The touchscreen lets you swipe through photos, view weather forecasts, edit shopping lists and reminders, watch YouTube clips, check out video flash briefings, see music lyrics, watch video feeds from their smart home security cameras, including Ring and Arlo, and more.

Echo Show helps keep you organized at home. Start a timer in the kitchen and watch as it counts down, or easily see your family’s calendar.

Sign in to the Alexa App to take your to-do and shopping lists with you. Just add an item to the list from home, and whoever is out shopping will see it added instantly on their Alexa App.

With smart home control, you can use your voice to interact with smart home accessories like Philips Hue bulbs, Ecobee thermostats, Wink smart home accessories and more.

On the hardware front, Echo Show features Dolby-powered speakers with “crisp vocals and dynamic bass response”, plus eight microphones with beam-forming and noise cancellation that work in conjunction with Amazon's reliable far-field voice recognition technology to let the device hear the user from anywhere in the room, even while playing music.

A Drop In feature is also interesting, as per Amazon:

You can also enable a new feature called Drop In for the special cases when you want to connect with your closest friends and family. For example, you can drop in to let the family know it’s time for dinner, see the baby’s nursery, or check in with a close relative.

Amazon Echo Show is available to pre-order in Black and White for $230.

Amazon is sweetening the deal for those who'd purchase two Echo Show devices at once by allowing them to save $100 off of their order (use the promo code “Show2Pack” at checkout).

The new Echo Show will start shipping to customers June 28.

What do you think about Amazon's latest Echo-branded gadget?

Let us know in the comments!

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WhatsApp quietly added encryption to iCloud backups in late 2016

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 9, 2017

WhatsApp last year closed an important security loophole by adding encryption to users' chat backups stored in iCloud. Before the change, hackers could theoretically gain access to WhatsApp chat archives in iCloud using third-party forensic tools to access underlying messages in a readable form.

Rather than rely on iCloud Drive to protect customer data, the Facebook-owned company has added a unique encryption key created by the WhatsApp app.

A spokesperson confirmed iCloud backups are now being encrypted, telling Forbes: “When a user backs up their chats through WhatsApp to iCloud, the backup files are sent encrypted.”

Although Apple holds the encryption keys for iCloud, it's up to app makers to use encryption when sending user data to iCloud. According to TechCrunch, a Russian company called Oxygen Forensics, which supplies mobile and cloud hacking tools, was able to generate encryption keys for WhatsApp's iCloud backups.

The workaround requires that an attacker have access to a SIM card with the same mobile number that the app uses to send a verification code to generate the encryption key for the iCloud backup. Of course, Oxygen still needs a user's Apple ID and password to gain access to their iCloud user space in the first place.

“Then, using the associated SIM, Oxygen said it can generate the encryption key for decrypting the data by passing the verification process again,” explains TechCrunch. Forbes suggests the method could be used by police in possession of a device where the WhatsApp account has been deleted but iCloud backups have not been wiped.

https://twitter.com/FiloSottile/status/861569977681412096

In other words, after realizing that forensic tools could be used to download encrypted WhatsApp data from iCloud backups in a readable form, WhatsApp has beefed up security and quietly rolled out encryption for iCloud backups last year.

You can backup your entire WhatsApp chat archive to iCloud by tapping the Settings tab in the lower-right corner of the app. Now tap Chats, then Chat Backup and finally hit Back Up Now.

By the way, WhatsApp should update the wording of the Chat Backup screen because it states, somewhat confusingly, that “media and message you back up are not protected by WhatsApp end-to-end encryption while in iCloud.”

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How to install Kodi on Apple TV 4

Joaquim Barbosa ∙ Updated April 15, 2019

Kodi, previously known as XBMC, is an open source media player, and a veritable one-stop shop for all your media needs. Whilst it has been a favourite of Apple TV users for a long time, there is not always a recent tvOS release, and the process to install it has been complex at times. This guide gives the simplest process, without recourse to unofficial distributions.

It doesn't require a jailbreak, and should work on both tvOS 10 and tvOS 9.

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FileMaker 16 releases with improvements to mobility, security and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 9, 2017

Apple subsidiary FileMaker today announced the release of FileMaker 16, the latest version of its popular custom app platform. The Mac suite includes everything needed to create, share and run custom apps for business teams that work across iPad, iPhone, Windows, Mac and the web. The software helps simplify the design and delivery of custom apps for mobile, cloud and on-premises deployments.

A new Layout Objects window helps you visualize the hierarchical order of objects in your layouts while new cURL options and predefined JSON functions allow your apps to exchange data with other web services.

Key highlights in FileMaker 16 include:

Mobility: The addition of animations and transitions with scripts provide visual cues to help orient users as they navigate through their custom apps on the FileMaker Go app. Enhanced signature capture for the FileMaker Go app allows users to sign documents on iPad and iPhone just as they would on a paper form. Integration: Easily exchange data with other web services and applications using enhanced cURL options and predefined JSON functions in FileMaker Pro. Development: The new Layout Objects window provides a hierarchical list of all objects in a layout. This makes it easy to make changes to an object without having to ungroup the entire set of objects. Scalability: Custom apps accessed via FileMaker WebDirect now can be used by up to 500 users simultaneously, making it easier to share data with an entire team. Security: Simplified credential management with OAuth 2.0 using third-party authentication providers improves security and safety of custom apps. Existing Amazon, Google or Microsoft Azure account credentials now can be used to log into FileMaker-based custom apps.

Individual users can buy FileMaker Pro 16 for $329, or $549 for FileMaker Pro 16 Advanced.

Teams of five users can subscribe to FileMaker for $888 per year, which gives them unlimited access to FileMaker Server and all the apps included in the suite on desktop, mobile and the web, plus future updates.

A perpetual license for a team of five users, which does not include access to future versions of FileMaker, is $2,664.

To learn more about FileMaker 16 Platform, visit filemaker.com/r/16.

A free trial of FileMaker 16 is available at filemaker.com/r/16trial.

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See more at a glance in the Music app with MusicMoreColumns

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 9, 2017

Apple’s own Music app underwent several major UI changes since the debut of Apple Music, and one part of the latest redesign is how the app displays two columns of your music on the screen at once.

Because two columns can be limiting, and because modern iPhones have larger displays, a new free jailbreak tweak called MusicMoreColumns by iOS developer HiDan enables three columns in the Music app so you can see more at a glance.

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This tweak makes your iPhone animations bouncier

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 9, 2017

Bouncy10 is a new free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Rishanan that gives iOS a system-wide fun and quirky animation makeover rather than the smooth and boring animations you've become to used to.

It takes a bouncier approach to iOS animations, and more importantly, they're fully adjustable, allowing you to have a different animation effect than other Bouncy10 users.

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