Avya improves notification banner privacy when sharing your iPhone’s screen with friends

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 7, 2021

When your iPhone is locked, iOS will try to mask the contents of your Lock Screen’s incoming notification banners until you authenticate yourself so that onlookers who shouldn’t be snooping on your notifications won’t be able to in the first place.

This is a brilliant privacy feature on Apple’s part, and such a feature may also have uses when your iPhone is unlocked, such as when showing a friend or co-worker your iPhone’s screen to look at a photo or video and an unexpected notification banner pops up.

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FTC tasked with drafting new right to repair rules

Evan Selleck ∙ July 6, 2021
This marketing image from Apple shows an independent repair provider using genuine parts to service an iPhone

Apple, like many large tech companies, is not particularly fond of the idea of third-party repair offerings. Part of that comes from the fact that the company itself offers repair services. Some of it is a requirement for genuine parts (that might not always be available for third-party repair shops). And in the end, it means a lot of lobbying by Apple and those other companies to try and stop right to repair efforts across the globe.

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How to install macOS 12 Monterey public beta on your Mac

Siddharth Suvarna ∙ Updated October 10, 2024
macOS Monterey beta

Apple released the first public beta of macOS 12 Monterey last week, which means that anyone can now test out the latest macOS. The latest macOS 12 Monterey comes with several new features and improvements. If you've been wanting to try out the new software, then you can now install the macOS 12 public beta.

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WiFiNameBugFix protects jailbreakers from the newly discovered malformed Wi-Fi name bug

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 5, 2021

Another notable bug was discovered and publicized just over the weekend by security researcher Carl Schou in which the presence of a malformed Wi-Fi network name, also known as the SSID, could ‘permanently’ disable an iPhone’s ability to view and connect to nearby Wi-Fi networks. It’s not the first time a Wi-Fi name glitch has affected iPhones, which understandably raises some eyebrows.

Citing the security researcher, the bug would be triggered if the iPhone comes within range of a Wi-Fi network or personal hotspot with the offending name or SSID. Consequently, the Settings app’s Wi-Fi toggle switch becomes disabled and grayed out, preventing the user from turning it back on. Not even resetting the iPhone’s network settings fixes this, compelling the iPhone owner to effectively restore the device to factory settings.

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