Hack

How Apple secures its products and services

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 7, 2016

Apple's security and privacy features that come standard on every iOS device, such as end-to-end encryption and Activation Lock, are getting all the talk around the internet as of late as the Apple vs. FBI case continues to escalate.

What can be learned from this case is not only does Apple want to protect your privacy, but the a large number of American people also want to have their privacy. The FBI, on the other hand, wants a quick way to get into any iPhone they deem "suspicious" so long as they can get a court order to search it.

So just how secure is your Apple data, and what protection standards does Apple have in place for you? That's just what we're going to talk about in this piece.

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It’s possible to upgrade your iPhone’s storage to 128GB for $60

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 3, 2016

When deciding what iPhone to buy so you end up with the right amount of storage capacity, you can get the bare-bones $16GB model, or you can end up with an upgraded 64GB, or 128GB model, which are probably your best bets with the new video cameras capable of recording at 4K quality.

That's not to say you won't pay a pretty penny though; moving up to 64GB from 16GB is $100 more, and moving up to 128GB from 16GB is a staggering $200 more. But if paying that much more for a storage upgrade is going to be too much for you, then you'll be happy to know there are cheaper alternatives, so long as visiting Shenzhen, China is on your bucket list for the near future.

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Hacker shows off untethered jailbreak for iOS 9.2, 9.2.1, & 9.3 beta

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 2, 2016

We haven't seen a public jailbreak release for iOS since the Pangu 9 jailbreak for iOS 9.0-9.0.2, and as a result of the slowness in the jailbreak scene, many are either stuck without a jailbreak or are living without the latest features and performance/security improvements Apple brings to the table in current iOS releases.

But for those that are still hoping for another jailbreak to appear soon, iOS hacker qwertyoruiop has demonstrated that it is possible to jailbreak untethered iOS 9.2, 9.2.1, and 9.3 beta.

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Developer demonstrates Picture in Picture mode on Apple TV

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 31, 2016

One of the major new features Apple introduced in iOS 9 was the ability to take advantage of Picture in Picture mode on supported iPad models; a multitasking mode perfect for watching videos while tackling other tasks at the same time, such as web browsing, document writing, social networking, and more.

Oddly enough, the Apple TV, which is essentially a media entertainment system in itself, doesn't come with a similar feature for users wanting to multitask more efficiently on their television sets.

Developer Steve Troughton-Smith has demonstrated Picture in Picture multitasking on the Apple TV 4 via a custom app he made for himself, showing that the hardware inside of the Apple TV on the latest firmware is capable of handing the feature, but it appears Apple has chosen not to include it (yet).

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Well-known hacker teases iOS 9.2.1 jailbreak

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

iOS 9.2.1 isn't even out of beta yet, but a well-known iOS hacker is already flaunting a purported jailbreak for the unreleased software. Luca Todesco, better known as @qwertyoruiop, teased an iPhone 6 screenshot of Cydia running on iOS 9.2.1 beta.

Whether the jailbreak is legit is still up for debate, but he's no slouch when it comes to security research involving iOS. In fact, Todesco was recently credited by Apple in one of its iOS security fix acknowledgements for iOS 9.2.

Will this jailbreak ever see the light of day as a public release?

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These hacks enable custom Apple Watch faces and 3D Touch gestures on iPad Pro via Apple Pencil

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 24, 2015

watchOS 2, the operating system powering Apple's wearable gizmo, includes support for third-party complications on select watch faces designed to support them.

But as far as watch faces themselves go, users are limited to a handful of built-in styles as Apple's software development kit (SDK) doesn't allow for downloadable watch faces yet.

As it turns out, a quick hack that prolific iOS developer Hamza Sood posted on Twitter back in August (no, it didn't fly under our radar) gets around Apple's limitations and permits unofficial development and installation of custom faces for Apple's wearable device.

And earlier this morning, Sood also posted another hack which brings 3D Touch Peek and Pop gestures to the iPad Pro via the Apple Pencil's pressure sensing technology.

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Hack makes new Apple TV run native tvOS browser

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 6, 2015

A new hack by Dutch developer jvanakker makes the fourth-generation Apple TV run a native tvOS web browser despite the fact that Apple's operating system powering the set-top box lacks web browsing functionality.

The most interesting thing about this hack is its use of Apple's private API based on the UIWebView class, which the company typically provides to iPhone and iPad developers as an officially sanctioned solution for embedding web views inside apps.

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Developer shows Apple TV can support app folders

Jeff Benjamin ∙ November 4, 2015

Well-known developer Steve Troughton-Smith has been experimenting with debugging tvOS and has figured out a way to create folders on the Apple TV using the LLDB debugger. Support for folders is there in tvOS, but it's not currently being used and is not available to end users on tvOS 9.0 or the tvOS 9.1 beta.

As you might expect, folders in tvOS work very much like folders in iOS. Once enabled, all that's required is to drag an app icon on top of another app icon to create a folder. While this finding paints no timetable as to when Apple might enable folder support in tvOS, it does at least let us know that Apple has at least thought about doing so.

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How to check to see if your iPhone is infected by the KeyRaider malware

Jeff Benjamin ∙ September 5, 2015

DylibSearch is a new jailbreak app that helps you quickly check to see if you have any known malicious tweaks, like KeyRaider, installed on your device. It does so by scanning the contents of the .dylib files contained in the filesystem's MobileSubstrate directory.

By checking for known strings contained in malicious files, DylibSearch can quickly tell you if your iPhone is infected, or if it has a clean bill of health. This open source tweak is available by means of a special third-party repo, which you'll find inside of this post.

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Developers hack Apple Watch to run native apps

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Developers Steve Troughton-Smith and Adam Bell, with the help of saurik, have managed to hack watchOS 2 to run fully-native apps. As noted by 9to5Mac, Troughton-Smith posted a video last night showing evidence of the feat.

The big deal here is that even though Apple says that support for native apps is coming in watchOS 2, developers are still going to be limited on what they can do. This hack, however, breaks those limitations, allowing the use of all accessible iOS UI frameworks.

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Hackers find easy way to steal large sums of money through Starbucks app

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Hackers are stealing money from users' credit cards, banks, and PayPal accounts through the Starbucks mobile app, the coffee giant confirmed to CNN on Tuesday.

The app, which lets users pay at checkout and reload Starbucks gift cards, has an auto-reload function that makes it easy for hackers to take from users, not needing any account numbers.

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