iCloud

Chinese government apparently collecting iCloud credentials through phishing attacks

The Chinese government is reportedly phishing iCloud credentials of millions of people by staging a so-called man-in-the-middle attack which redirects unsuspecting users to a spoofed webpage that appears shockingly similar to the real iCloud.com website, Great Fire reported Monday.

Fooled users who type in their username and password into the fake web form risk exposing their iMessage communications, photos, contacts, reminders, calendars and other personal information associated with their Apple ID to a third-party. The problem is further accentuated by the fact that the popular Chinese browser Qihoo does not warn users that they're visiting a fake website.

iCloud Photos is now available for iOS 8.1 beta users

Ahead of October 20's public launch of iOS 8.1, Apple has released iCloud Photos to users running the iOS 8.1 beta on their devices. Qualifying accounts will be able to access iCloud Photos to view their iCloud Photo Library on the web through the beta version of iCloud.com.

Reports indicate that iCloud Photos looks and functions much like the stock Photos app on iOS, with the ability to view photos and select them to download to your computer.

iCloud Photos will require iOS 8.1, Apple confirms

Apple on Friday unofficially confirmed that a new Photos web app will be available through the iCloud web interface, most likely after iOS 8.1 launches next Monday. As we previously reported, visiting the beta.iCloud.com/#photos URL used to produce an unusual error message indicating a web-based version of the iOS Photos app was in the works.

Folks who have signed up for iCloud Beta should now visit the same URL as there's a brand new webpage showing teaser graphics and the message saying “To use iCloud Photos on the web, upgrade your iOS device to iOS 8.1”.

All iCloud services currently down for some users [updated]

If you're having issues with some, or all, of your iCloud services you're not alone. It appears that several of Apple's iCloud services are down for a number of users. We've seen numerous complaints of it on Twitter, and Apple has updated its System Status page to reflect the outages.

A few of us here at iDB are experiencing iCloud issues—I specifically am receiving pop up warnings on both my Mac and iPhone saying that my iCloud password is incorrect for various applications. Others have reported that they are unable to access iCloud.com, or iCloud backups.

iOS 8 bug in ‘Reset All Settings’ feature deletes iCloud Drive files

A new bug has been discovered in iOS 8 that will indadvertedly delete iCloud Drive documents. MacRumors reports that selecting the 'Reset All Settings' option from the Reset menu in the Settings app of iOS 8 will erase iWork-related files in iCloud Drive.

The issue here is that when the 'Reset All Settings' option is selected, users are specifically told that "no data or media will be deleted." But that doesn't seem to be the case with iOS 8, as MacRumors says it has confirmed the process is also deleting select files.

PDF Expert 5 and Documents 5 updated with iCloud Drive, Touch ID and other enhancements

Yesterday, Ukrainian developer Readdle released a pretty big update to its PDF Expert 5 and Documents 5, apps that let you edit, annotate and manage PDFs and other documents on your iPhone and iPad.

I wanted to share a few key improvements with you quickly because the app's now a showcase example of how iOS 8 enables a whole new level of inter-app integration.

A free update to existing owners, PDF Expert 5.2 features a number of enhancements, including a few iOS 8 exclusives such as support for iCloud Drive document storage and Touch ID authentication to unlock the app instead of a regular passcode.

GoodReader updated for iOS 8 with iCloud Drive and Handoff, native iPhone 6 and 6 Plus support

GoodReader, a robust PDF reader for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, has received an update Friday bringing out support for a pair of distinct new features in iOS 8: Handoff and iCloud Drive.

Handoff lets you continue reading on an iPad right where you left off on an iPhone or iPod touch, and vice versa. Moreover, if you run iOS 8 and have upgraded to iCloud Drive, GoodReader can now import documents stored in it.

And because the app now uses iOS 8’s standard iCloud Drive picker, you can easily access other online storage services that have advertised their Document Provider extension system-wide, such as Dropbox.

Researcher warned Apple of iCloud vulnerability six months before nude celeb pics leaked

A string of bad news for Apple continues with a revelation published Thursday on The Daily Dot that London-based computer security expert Ibrahim Balic gave Apple a heads-up about a vulnerability he had discovered in iCloud, but the company discounted the severity of the issue and ignore the problem for six months.

As you know, the issue blew up in a major way, becoming the topic of late-night shows, after several celebrities with weak Apple ID passwords saw their nude photographs hijacked and posted on the web.

Apple likely readying Photos app for iCloud.com

Apple is most likely developing a Photos web app for iCloud.com to support desktop viewing of photos backed up in iCloud Photo Library using any computer with a standard-compliant web browser, according to a screenshot and other evidence discovered Wednesday in an Apple support document by Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac.

Furthermore, error messages from iCloud.com shown when trying to access the beta.iCloud.com/#photos URL strongly indicate there's a Photos app in development for iCloud's interface on the web.

The best new features of iOS 8

Admittedly, the myriad of new and useful capabilities that Apple's just-released iOS 8 brings to your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad are going to prove hugely popular with mainstream users, to say the least. With iOS 8, Apple is appeasing harsh critics who'd frequently point out that Android is capable of things iOS cannot do, and then some more.

iOS 8 opens up Apple's mobile operating system to third-party development to a much greater extent than ever before. And stemming from relaxed policies, iOS 8 boosts on-the-go productivity with deeper inter-app sharing while implementing some of the features our Android friends have grown accustomed to, but in a typical hassle-free Apple fashion, things like third-party keyboards, custom actions, photo editing extensions within the context of Photos and Camera apps and way more.

And though evolutionary rather than revolutionary, we have no doubt in our minds that iOS 8 is going to significantly improve the functionality of Apple's mobile platform, and perhaps even give some folks less reasons to jailbreak.

To celebrate today's release of the free iOS 8 software update, we proudly present you this detailed overview of more than two dozen iOS 8 features we think you're going to fall in love with at first sight.

How to setup a new iPhone from an iCloud backup

I know quite a few iPhone users that upgrade their smartphone once every few years, often coinciding with the two-year contract they locked into with AT&T or other carriers. For some reason, a lot of these people seem to think that transferring all of their content over to the new iPhone is a daunting task. In reality, the process is actually fairly simple. Read ahead for step-by-step instructions on how to restore an iCloud backup on a new iPhone.