Tag Archives: ios 7

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Worst (and Dumbest) Apple Stories of the Month

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Since it’s the last Friday of September, and we feel like we’ve had a whirlwind of a month, what with the all the new Apple products to talk about — the iPhone 5S, the iPhone 5C, and the iOS 7 — we thought we’d enjoy ourselves a bit, and talk about some of the worst Apple stories of the month. From security hacks to hoaxes to INTENTIONALLY BROKEN IPHONES (!!!), we’ve got a whole bunch of good stuff to talk about. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the worst of the worst. You’ve earned it.

Apple Security Issues

One of the most touted aspects of the new iPhones has been its new security systems, particularly the Touch ID system. Thanks to a “bounty” put up on the internet, offered to the person who could crack the Touch ID, someone quickly claimed the prize, with a YouTube video as proof.

From ZDNet.com:

In a statement on its website, the CCC confirmed that the bypass had taken place, adding: “A fingerprint of the phone user, photographed from a glass surface, was enough to create a fake finger that could unlock an iPhone 5s secured with Touch ID.”

The video posted online on Sunday shows one user enrolling their finger, while later accessing the device using a different finger with a high-resolution latex or wood glue cast. The group detailed in a blog post how it accessed the device using a fake print by photographing a fingerprint and converting it.

“Apple’s sensor has just a higher resolution compared to the sensors so far,” said CCC spokesperson Frank Rieger on the group’s website. “So we only needed to ramp up the resolution of our fake.”

Another security issue was found to originate not in the hardware of the new iPhone 5S technology, but in the software of the iOS 7. Courtesy of Business Insider:

If you have an iPhone 5 or older and have updated your operating system to Apple’s new iOS 7 version, you should be aware that the password (or “passcode”) required on your phone’s lock screen no longer prevents strangers from accessing your phone.

They can use Siri, the voice-command software, to bypass the password screen and access your phone, instead.

Simply hold down the home button, even while the phone is locked, and wait for Siri to ask you what you want. From there, we accessed Facebook, Twitter, text messages, email and phone calls, all on our iPhone 5. We even got access to our contacts app.

The Ugly

But the most ridiculous story of the month has to be the whopper that the new iOS 7 actually will make your iPhone or iPad waterproof. Yes, you read that right: someone was able to convince others that a software upgrade could actually prevent an electronic device from being affected by water:

As The Independent first reported, a pretty convincing fake iPhone ad recently surfaced that promised just that for Apple’s new mobile operating system. The ad said that iOS 7 is able to “instantly detect sudden changes in thermo-distribution with the touch sensitive screen and home button.” It even went as far as to indicate that the update included a emergency “smart-switch” that would turn off the phone’s power if it came in contact with water.

And so that segues us into our last dumb story of the week — someone is wantonly breaking iPhones, and people are mad as hell about it! Oh, that would be us. Here’s a sample of some of the comments on our YouTube video of our iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C drop test:

why dont u guys just give them away to poeple [sic] instead of breaking them. no point we all know that phones break.

I cant [sic] buy a iPhone because its to [sic] expensive and they break them xD U should raffle the broken phones :DD

I think I could have figured out that all the screens would smash without breaking over $1500 worth of phones….

I just want to point out to our concerned viewers that we are an iPhone repair shop. We didn’t destroy these phones; we’re going to fix them all up! Everything is going to be okay!

Other people felt cheated that the phones were dropped multiple times, or with force:

Difference between drop test, and Throw test ? This noob

Of course it’s going to shatter when you chuck it on the ground. Who chucks their phone faced own on the ground?

The “drop test” was poorly done. When the 5s and 5c didn’t break, you chucked them down to the ground to ensure that they shattered. Very lame.

Fair enough. However, the whole point of these videos is that we want to show the durability of the phones. If you go back to our earlier drop tests, you’ll see that the phones were much more fragile. We hope that we’re doing a service by showing you the amount of stress an iPhone can handle. If we get a little rough, it will only serve to show you the force that a phone can no longer withstand. If anything, we think that this crop of iPhones — especially the 5C — is much more durable than its predecessors, and we give them a thumbs up.

Lastly, and our favorite: apparently there are a bunch of conspiracy theorists, speculating that indeed we did not break an iPhone 5S, but a cleverly disguised iPhone 5.

later in the drop test the white iphone is a normal 5 not a 5s

The white one wasn’t the 5S. You can see by the way he is covering up the home button when dropping it.

Don’t you think its funny how he dose [sic] not show the home button on the 5s during the drop test. I think it was a 5 so that he could use the 5s.

Booo ! The white iphone was’t [sic] the 5s. You can tell by the way he’s covering up the home button.

Keep studying that Zapruder tape, guys. And thanks everyone for watching!

 

 

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Top iOS 7, iPhone 5S, and iPhone 5C Stories of the Month

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What a month to talk about iPhones. After the Apple Conference on the 10th about iOS 7 and the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c and all the speculation thereafter, and the subsequent release of those products on the 18th, not to mention our own durability video, we’ve been one-track-minded for some time. And since all of that, we’ve read review upon review about the benefits, drawbacks, myths, and overall quality of each new thing.

After about a week’s time, we’ve finally been able to sort through it all, and choose the best, the worst, and the outright ridiculous things on the internet about the iOS 7, the iPhone 5S, and the iPhone 5C. In this post, we’re going to go over the top stories — the best of them, the worst of them, and the just plain stupid.

iPhones 5S and 5C Sell $9 Million in First Weekend

Apple had high hopes for the release of the iPhone 5S and 5C, but even this was a surprise. Wall Street Journal reports:

The company also said that its quarterly sales and profit margin would likely be at the high end of the company’s previous forecast. Apple in July projected revenue between $34 billion and $37 billion and gross margin between 36% and 37%. The company’s stock jumped $23.23, or 5%, to close at $490.64 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Even the iOS 7 was an unexpected success. WSJ continues: “Apple also said that more than 200 million of its devices already were running iOS 7—a free overhaul released last week of the operating system used on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices.”

Even more interesting: the iPhone 5C, which was supposedly to appeal to lower-end markets like China, was outsold 4 to 1. And not just in the US. From the website Quartz:

Twenty-four hours after we found out that the iPhone 5s is out-selling the cheaper iPhone 5c by a ratio of nearly four to one, new data show that China and Australia, where the 5s is outselling the 5c five to one, are the two countries where the iPhone 5s is most popular.

Improvements in the iOS 7

There have been a lot of lists and breakdowns of the new operating system the iOS 7, so we picked from among them what we thought were the best qualities:

From C-Net:

Control Center

One of the most talked about new changes for iOS 7 is not new at all on Android phones, but I think I speak for most iOS users when I say the Control Center is an extremely welcome addition. It was always a pain to sift through the settings using a number of taps just to access the brightness controls. Same for Wi-fi settings, which — because of an old router at home — I ended up having to access frequently. Now, a simple swipe upward gives me easy access to these settings and more. Oh, and the flashlight button to turn on your flash when it’s dark is a great touch.

iTunes Radio

Frankly, when I heard Apple was making a Pandora-like radio option, I wasn’t that impressed. I mean, there are a slew of streaming-music and audio apps in the App Store and many of them are free — at least the radio features are. But now that I’ve used the app for a few days, I like it better than most streaming-radio apps I’ve seen.

Not only can you create a stream based on songs or multiple artists, but there are featured streams that are great for music discovery. Also, when I really like a song I’m listening to, I can buy it straight away from iTuneswithout missing a beat of the song or closing the app.

Camera app

The iOS 7 camera app is not a huge change over what we had in iOS 6, but I really like having the ability to swipe between shot types. The filters are also a nice touch for adding a quick effect, though I wish there were more to choose from. But what I particularly like is the ability to take burst shots. Everyone knows that not all photos come out perfectly, but if you can take several at a time, chances are at least one will be to your liking. I have an iPhone 5 so the burst shots feature is not as good as it is on the iPhone 5S (10 photos per second, along with slow-mo), but I’m glad there’s a slower variation available on the iPhone 5.

Keep checking in for more iPhone news, coming soon.

 

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iFixYouri Talks with Bargaineering.com about iOS 7

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Recently one of our techs, J. D. Williams, sat down with Bargaineering.com, discussing the latest operating system update to Apple’s mobile devices, the iOS 7. The article deals with the software updates with respect to the devices that have the ability to use them. The author muses whether, as the title implies: “Is iOS 7 an Evil Plot to Obsolete Your Old iPhone?” J. D. Williams explains:

Apple’s pattern has been to eventually cut older devices off from new updates, largely because their aging hardware can’t handle the demands of the operating system’s new features, says J.D. Williams, a regional manager for the iPhone repair company iFixYouri. That likely means that this is the last operating system upgrade iPhone 4 devices will get.

“I would think that the next operating system, the iPhone 4 will not be upgraded to,” Williams says. “They just push the hardware to its limit. If it can handle it, they do it. If it can’t, it can’t, and I’d say that iPhone 4 is just on the back end of being able to handle iOS 7.”

Read the rest of the article at the link above.

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Apple Keynote Address 2013, Part I: iOS 7

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Well, the day has finally arrived, as millions of geeked-out tech fans have been waiting anxiously for word about the newest Apple products at this year’s keynote address in Cupertino, California — specifically the iOS 7, and the newest members of the iPhone family: the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S. And it didn’t disappoint, from the amount of traffic and tweets and live blogs around the internet. Even Elvis Costello got in on the action, showing up for those in the audience with a rendition of Peace, Love, and Understanding. But we digress. Let’s get to the good stuff.

Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering who heads iOS and OSX, came up to introduce the latest updates for iOS 7, of which there are over 200. Aside from stressing the beauty and the ease of use of the new Apple operating system, he went on to describe some of the newer functionality and compatible apps that it has. Here’s the run-down:

  • New interface: color pallettes, parallax wallpapers, single-swipe control panel
  • More convenient pull-down search function
  • new camera app with filters (think Instagram)
  • AirDrop, the new peer-to-peer file sharing system. Can share photos or other files between two devices.
  • New default ringtones and text tones.
  • Improvements to Siri – male voice, new voice commands, such as searching Wikipedia or other web sites, to compete with Google’s voice search on Android.
  • New music app with built-in iTunes Radio support

The last software-related topic touched upon was iWork, presumably trying to break the stereotype that Apple devices aren’t conducive for getting work done or creating content, which is one of the continued knocks that Android manufacturers and users often pile onto Apple.

Apple's Newest Apps

Here’s what Tim Cook, CEO of Apple had to say about it: “iWork has three amazing apps. The first is Keynote. Keynote allows you to create world class presentations on your iPad or iPhone. And Pages. It allows you to create and edit documents from anywhere. And Numbers. Numbers is the best spreadsheet design software anywhere. iPads aren’t great just for consuming content. They’re also great for creating content. We have content like iPhoto, which lets you take your photo editing to the next level. And iMovie, which lets you create movies straight from your iPad.”

 He went on to announce that all 5 of these content-creating apps will be free, and will automatically download when setting up your iOS 7.

Lastly, Cook went over the compatibility of the iOS 7 with the other Apple devices (that are not the new iPhones). It’ll support the iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad Mini, and 5th generation of the iPod Touch. Downloads of the iOS 7 will be available from the Apple store starting on September 18th.

If you think the iOS 7 updates are impressive, what until you see what they’ve done with the iPhone; or rather, iPhones. In the interest of space and focus, we are going to continue the discussion of the Apple keynote on the next blog post. Click here for Part 2 on the iPhone 5c.

[thanks to Greg and Darrell at Techcrunch for the live blogging]