iCloud

Major security flaws leave iOS and OS X vulnerable to wide ranging password theft

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 17, 2015

Your confidential information ranging from web passwords in Chrome and other browsers to app passwords to banking credentials stored and synced between devices though Apple's iCloud Keychain service—even data you thought was stored safely in password managers like 1Password and LastPass—can be easily compromised due to a trio of major vulnerabilities discovered in Apple's desktop and mobile operating systems.

As discovered by a team of researchers at Indiana University, Georgia Tech and China's Peking University and reported by The Register, Keychain's access control lists, URL schemes and OS X's app containers contain flaws creating serious attack vectors.

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Flaw in Mail for iPhone and iPad can be used to hijack your iCloud password

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 10, 2015

A serious bug in Apple's stock Mail application for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad permits attackers to fool users into providing their iCloud credentials.

Such phishing attacks can be devastating as iCloud increasingly becomes home for our digital life in the Apple universe, including our photo libraries, notes, contacts and other personal data.

The scam takes advantage of an exploit in the Mail application that makes it easy to deliver convincing-looking pop-ups resembling iCloud password prompts through a simple email message, The Register reported Wednesday.

While such emails look like they're coming from a real company, they're spoofed and once an unsuspecting user opens them on their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad running iOS 8.3, the operating system will execute malicious HTML content embedded inside.

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iOS 9 includes a standalone iCloud Drive app

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 12, 2018

Since Apple's WWDC keynote ended a few hours ago, we've installed the iOS 9 beta and begun digging for new stuff. Apple previewed a handful of the software's features at the event, but as usual, there are a number of additions and improvements it didn't talk about.

One of those features is a standalone iCloud Drive app. It's not immediately apparent, but while launching an app we received a pop-up asking us if we wanted to install it. We were also able to access it via the Settings app iCloud > iCloud Drive > Show on Home Screen.

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Apple beefing up iCloud infrastructure ahead of rumored TV push and streaming-music launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 8, 2015

As it gears up to launch its subscription music-streaming service today and a rumored television service later in the year, Apple's reportedly been building out a high-speed network to ensure glitch-free delivery of content, Bloomberg reported Monday. But the firm isn't just building a more efficient iCloud.

In a typical Apple fashion, it's been pouring billions of dollars into upgrading how it builds data centers in order to speed up content delivery, and optimize services such as iCloud, iTunes and Siri.

Additionally, the initiative should help with iCloud outages that have become the norm lately as web services have traditionally been Apple's weak spot.

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How to change your email display name

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated August 10, 2022
Change email display name on iPhone and Mac

When you send someone an email, it usually shows the name you set while creating the account. Suppose you made a typo while setting up your email, or used your nickname or a fake name, and now every email you send has this name you no longer like.

In this tutorial, we show you how to change the name that's displayed in the email you send to someone from your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iCloud.

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Poll: how does Google Photos compare to Apple’s Photos app + iCloud Photo Library combo?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Among a flurry of yesterday's announcements at the Google I/O developer conference, the Internet giant launched Google Photos, its brand spanking new photography service available across iOS, Android and on the web. It offers unlimited storage (with a  few caveats) and has many other compelling features that give Apple's iCloud Photo Library a fairly good run for its money.

To name but a few: world-class facial recognition that understands aging, sleek design, fast performance, unmatched search and machine intelligence, the ability to create a movie, collage or animated GIF in seconds and more.

The question is, will you be turning to Google Photos as a backup solution for the media you've amassed on your iOS device? Or, perhaps you'll be sticking with Apple's iCloud Photo Library even though it offers a meager five gigabytes of free cloud storage? Planning on using Google Photos alongside iCloud Photo Library, are we? Not a big fan of either service, you say?

Tell us in today's poll!

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More than a dozen iCloud services were unavailable or responding slowly for 7 hours

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 21, 2015

According to Apple's status page, multiple iCloud services have been experiencing various issues for six hours straight. “Users may experience slower than normal response when using most iCloud services,” reads a notice on the webpage.

More than a dozen iCloud services were affected at post time, with many services going completely offline.

UPDATE: Apple said that all services were restored as of 6:30am PT, adding that the outages affected a whopping 40 percent of iCloud users.

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Apple doubles previous iCloud Contacts limit to 50,000 contact cards

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 15, 2015

As indicated in the official support document which was updated last evening, Apple has now doubled the previous iCloud Contacts limit from 25,000 contacts to 50,000 items.

These contact cards can be shared and synchronized with the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices, as well as with Mac and Windows PCs, and can be accessed through any modern web browser at iCloud.com.

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Apple acquires database company FoundationDB to bolster web services

Jake Smith ∙ Updated August 4, 2016

As it looks to build out its web services, Apple has acquired FoundationDB, a company that specializes in speedy, durable NoSQL databases, Apple essentially confirmed to iDownloadBlog after TechCrunch first reported the news.

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” the company said in a boiler plate statement it gives when it acquires smaller companies. 

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Apple issues an apology for iTunes/iCloud downtime, blames outage on internal DNS error

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 16, 2017

Chances are you've by now realized that Apple's content stores and other iCloud services are experiencing widespread downtime.

Earlier this morning, Twitter lit up with complaints from users around the world who reported being unable to download apps, music, movies, TV shows and books, as well as buy in-app content, with some even unable to sign in to online service like iCloud Mail.

In an official statement issued to CNBC, Apple's apologized for inconveniencing customers and said the multi-hour outage is caused by “an internal DNS error” at the firm. As you could imagine, they're scrambling to produce a fix.

UPDATE: following what became an eleven-hour long outage, the App Store and iTunes services are now back online.

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App Store, Mac App Store iTunes/iBooks Store and other iCloud services experiencing outage

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 11, 2015

If you're unable to update your apps or buy books and music on Apple's content stores, you're not alone — there's trouble in iCloud. Apple's App Store, Mac App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store services have been experiencing widespread outage for straight six hours now.

At first, the company's iCloud Status Page would not acknowledge the downtime. Earlier this morning, the company refreshed the dashboard which now shows the App Store, Mac App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store as being unavailable “for all users”.

UPDATE: following what became an eleven-hour long outage, the App Store and iTunes services are now back online.

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