Apple

Apple offers up to $1.5 million payout for security exploits

Apple has announced the expansion of the scope and the payouts of its security bounty program. After first making the program invite-only, it now encourages all security researchers to participate. What's more, researchers that discover heretofore unknown exploits in Apple operating systems and services can earn up to $1.5 million, a huge bump from the previous $200,000 cap.

Downgrades from iOS 13.3 no longer possible as Apple unsigns iOS 13.2.3

Apple stopped signing iOS 13.2.3 Thursday evening, barely over a week after releasing iOS 13.3 to the general public. It’s an expectable move on the company’s behalf that prevents iPhone and iPad users from restoring to that particular firmware version, or from downgrading from the newer iOS 13.3 release.

Apple’s official reasoning for doing this is to facilitate software upgrades to ensure that users take advantage of the latest features, bug fixes, and security patches. Behind that marketing façade, it’s also evident that Apple prevents software downgrades in an effort to keep the jailbreak community at bay, as most jailbreak tools only operate on older versions of iOS, and Apple quickly patches these jailbreaks in its software updates.

With Connected Home over IP, Apple hopes to bring order to smart home chaos

Apple's newly announced Connected Home over IP initiative - made with Amazon, Google, the Zigbee Alliance and others in tow - is a grand attempt to unify a really broken environment for smart home appliances. Apple's participation will help HomeKit gain a leg up in the smart home wars going forward, and should also help devices from other makers be more secure.