Apple has taken the unprecedented step of removing its strongest data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded “backdoor” access to user data.
UK users will no longer have access to the advanced data protection (ADP) tool, which uses end-to-end encryption to allow only account holders to view items such as photos or documents they have stored online in the iCloud storage service.
UK users will now be more vulnerable to data breaches from bad actors, and other threats to customer privacy, Apple said. It will also mean that all data is accessible by Apple, which can share it with law enforcement if they have a warrant.
Prof Alan Woodward - a cyber-security expert at Surrey University - said it was a "very disappointing development" which amounted to "an act of self harm" by the government.
"All the UK government has achieved is to weaken online security and privacy for UK based users," he told the BBC.
"It was naïve of the UK government to think they could tell a US technology company what to do globally," he added.
Rebecca Vincent, interim director of the privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, criticised Apple’s decision, attributing it to the Home Office’s demand to breach encryption.
She said: “This decision by Apple is the regrettable consequence of the Home Office’s outrageous order attempting to force Apple to breach encryption. As a result, from today Apple’s UK customers are less safe and secure than they were yesterday.”
The company is retaining end-to-end encryption by default for health information, passwords, Screen Time data, information in the Maps apps, data in Safari, digital journal content, Apple Card transaction history and payment information, smart home data, and messages in iCloud. Core Apple services on the iPhone, including iMessage and FaceTime, also retain end-to-end encryption.
Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that delivers helpful and relevant intelligence, will soon be available in more languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) — as well as localized English for Singapore and India.
These new languages will be accessible in nearly all regions around the world with the release of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4 in April, and developers can start to test these releases today.
Today, Apple announced Apple Intelligence is coming to Apple Vision Pro in April. With Apple Intelligence for Vision Pro, users will be able to proofread, rewrite, and summarize text using Writing Tools; compose text from scratch using ChatGPT in Writing Tools; explore new ways to express themselves visually with Image Playground; create the perfect emoji for any conversation with Genmoji; and much more. Apple Intelligence will be available in beta on visionOS 2.4 with support for U.S. English. More features and support for additional languages will roll out throughout the year.
Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the world’s top food publishers, including Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats.
Basically, your iPhone uses on-device intelligence to analyze the importance of various notifications, and puts ones deemed especially important into a new section that sits atop your other notifications.
In iOS 18.4, there's a new Ambient Music option that can be added to Control Center. There are four different sound categories, including Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing.
For the last couple months, Mac and iPad users have missed out on those changes. But now as of macOS 15.4 and iPadOS 18.4 beta 1, the redesigned Mail app is available on both platforms.
Letting another person use your Vision Pro is a hassle, and something you can’t really do without first putting it on and going through some setup. Apple is addressing a lot of that friction by making Guest Mode easier to use. For starters, you no longer have to put on the headset first before anyone else can use it. When they put it on, you’ll get a prompt on your iPhone or iPad to approve placing it in guest mode. You can then choose whichever apps you want them to have access to, and decide if you want to AirPlay what they’re seeing on your device, just like Apple employees can for in-store demos. Baby steps.
As I write this, the most pleasing sound is washing over me—gentle waves ebbing and flowing onto the shore. Sadly, I’m not actually on some magnificent tropical beach. Instead, the sounds of the sea are being generated by my Mac.
Yet, more than just being pleasing to the ear, this sound, and others the Mac can generate, have helped boost my focus in recent months when I’m under deadline and trying to get work done. The feature is called “Background Sounds.” Here are some of the benefits I’ve gotten from it and how you can use it, too.
Apple Vision Pro users can watch a new six-minute Apple Immersive Video today via the Apple TV app. It's the second episode in the company's "Boundless" series.
Photographer and app developer Drew Mylrea released Range Camera, a new iPhone camera app that promises more natural-looking photos and streamlined RAW image editing.
Apple confirmed that the C1 has nothing to do with the omission of MagSafe on the iPhone 16e. New testing conducted by an iPhone case accessory manufacturer and shared with 9to5Mac adds more detail to the situation.
File this one under “precise words matter”.
"The entire iPhone 16 lineup, including iPhone 16e, is being assembled in India for Indian consumers and for export to select countries," Apple said in a response to a query on Thursday.
But millions of people who cannot afford a smartphone or have an older device that does not support some services are increasingly being locked out of deals, discounts and even some vital services, say digital exclusion and pro-cash campaigners.
They are missing out on everything from savings on their weekly shop, to some of the best interest rates for their cash. And not signing up to the app revolution is making activities including paying for parking and going to concerts increasingly challenging.
I took the day off to not do anything -- work or hobbies or otherwise -- to rest my brain and stuff. Made breakfast and dinner for myself. Watch some TV (Severance, Mystic Quest, Scrubs, Futurama) and one movie (Terminator Dark Fate). Played some backgammon.
I hope my brain is happy.
~
Thanks for reading.