In a new documentary about the evolution of the iPhone, Apple's marketing chief Greg Joswiak was seen calling Samsung "annoying" and accusing them of poorly copying Apple's technology. "They were annoying," said Joswiak. "And they were annoying because, as you know, they ripped off our technology. They took the innovations that we had created and created a poor copy of it, and just put a bigger screen around it. So, yeah, we were none too pleased." MacRumors reports: Samsung launched the Galaxy S4 with a 5-inch display in early 2013, at a time when the iPhone 5 had a 4-inch display. Apple did eventually release its first larger smartphones with the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus in 2014, and the devices were met with strong demand and went on to be among the best-selling iPhone models ever. Apple sued Samsung in 2011 for patent infringement, alleging that Samsung copied the iPhone's design with its own Galaxy line of smartphones. Apple was initially awarded around $1 billion in damages, but the amount was lowered in a subsequent retrial. In 2018, Apple finally settled with Samsung and reiterated the following statement: "We believe deeply in the value of design, and our teams work tirelessly to create innovative products that delight our customers. This case has always been about more than money. Apple ignited the smartphone revolution with iPhone and it is a fact that Samsung blatantly copied our design. It is important that we continue to protect the hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple. We're grateful to the jury for their service and pleased they agree that Samsung should pay for copying our products." The full documentary can be watched on The Wall Street Journal's website.

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Researchers suspect the checkm8[dot]info service is used by criminals to launder stolen iPhones. The tool's administrator claims the service is just a response to Apple's poor right to repair policies. From a report: "Activation Lock," a message displayed across the iPhone's screen read. "This iPhone is linked to an Apple ID. Enter the Apple ID and password that were used to set up this iPhone." This lock essentially turns iPhones into very expensive paperweights until the owner enters the requested credentials. The feature is designed to stop anyone else from using the phone if it's lost, or thieves from making money by reselling a stolen device. In part, Activation Lock is intended to make iPhones less attractive to thieves because stolen devices can't be used. Now, an underground group is offering people a way to strip that lock from certain iPhones with its pay-for-hacking service. iOS security experts suspect it is being used to remove protections from stolen iPhones. The hacking group called Checkm8[dot]info offering the service, which lifts its name from a popular free-to-use jailbreak, insists its tool cannot be used by thieves. "Our goal is the ability to repair electronics as it's the key to saving resources, tackling e-waste and environmental damage," the administrator of Checkm8[dot]info told Motherboard in an email. Motherboard has previously written about how criminals have used phishing emails to grab necessary login credentials to remove the Activation Lock. Checkm8[dot]info provides a much easier method, and appears to streamline what is ordinarily a complicated process into one that non-technical users can follow. Checkm8[dot]info is correct in that Activation Lock can be frustrating to iPhone repair professionals, electronic waste facilities, and refurbishers, and has caused many perfectly good phones obtained through legal means to be shredded or destroyed. A user of the Checkm8[dot]info site told Motherboard they used the service as part of their legal phone reselling business.

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In 2018, Engadget described Cydia as the maker of an app store for jailbroken iPhones that shut down claiming it just wasn't profitable (after operating for nearly a decade). But now Cydia has filed an antitrust case against Apple, Engadget reports: On Thursday, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the same judge that oversaw the case between Apple and Epic Games, ruled Cydia's creator, Jay "Saurik" Freeman, could present his claim against the company after rejecting a bid by Apple to dismiss the complaint. [According to a paywalled article from Reuters.] Freeman first sued Apple at the end of 2020, alleging the company had an "illegal monopoly over iOS app distribution." Judge Gonzalez Rogers dismissed Cydia's initial complaint against Apple, ruling the suit fell outside the statute of limitations. But she also granted Freeman leave to amend his case, which is what he did. In its latest complaint, Cydia argues that iOS updates Apple released between 2018 and 2021 constituted "overt" acts that harmed distributors like itself. That's a claim Judge Gonzalez Rogers found credible enough to explore.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from MacRumors: Apple has agreed to settle a long-lasting six-year class-action lawsuit that accused it of knowingly slowing down iPhone 4S devices following the iOS 9 update in 2015, agreeing to pay some iPhone 4S owners who had experienced poor performance $15 each for their claims. The class-action lawsuit was initially filed in December 2015 by plaintiffs representing a group of iPhone 4S customers from New York and New Jersey. The lawsuit accused Apple of falsely marketing the iOS 9 update as providing enchanted performance on devices it supports, including the iPhone 4S. Under the settlement, Apple allocated $20 million to compensate iPhone 4S owners in New York and New Jersey who experienced poor performance after updating to iOS 9. Customers who believe they are entitled to the $15 must "submit a declaration under the penalty of perjury that, to the best of their knowledge, they downloaded iOS 9, or any version thereof, onto their iPhone 4S... their iPhone 4S experienced a significant decline in performance as a result, are entitled to a payment of $15 per applicable device." A website will be created where customers who believe they are entitled to the settlement will be able to submit a form, providing their name, email, iPhone 4S serial number (if possible), and mailing address. See the full motion here.

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According to some iPhone users, the Apple Music iOS app is installing itself directly to the iPhone's dock when downloaded, instead of to the phone's home screen. "It's also kicking out other apps users had set up in their dock and taking their spot, which is not something apps would normally do," adds TechCrunch. From the report: Some iPhone owners also found the bug was causing Apple Music to establish itself as the default music service for Siri requests, even if another service had previously been configured for this, like Spotify. It's unclear how widespread the bug is at this time, as we've tested it internally with mixed results. However, we've seen the dock issue taking place across different versions of iOS 15, old and new, so it does not appear to be related to a recent iOS update. It's also been seen impacting different iPhone models. [...] Apple was not able to provide further details about the bug, but said it's looking into it. You can view the "odd behavior" in a video posted on Twitter by iOS developer Kevin Archer.

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"As a response to recent coverage of software being purged from the App Store, Apple is sharing its criteria for how it chooses to remove abandoned apps," reports 9to5Mac. Apple's announcement say it's only flagging apps for possible removal "that Developers will also have more time to comply after being notified." (90 days instead of 30 days). And 9to5Mac adds that Apple "is also reiterating that the practice is not new but instead part of an initiative that started six years ago. But the Verge took a different message from "Apple to developers: if we deleted your old app, it deserved it." [T]he company has responded — by issuing a press release effectively saying that nobody was downloading the apps anyways.... Apple's explanation does clear up why it, as some developers noted, seemed to apply the rules inconsistently. For example, one developer noted that Pocket God, a popular game from the iPhone's early days, hasn't been updated for seven years but is still on the App Store. Apple is basically saying it's still up because it's still popular. From one angle, this reasoning doesn't necessarily gel with the first half of Apple's post, where it says it removes old apps to ensure "user trust in quality apps," and to improve discoverability, security and privacy, and user experience. After all — if an app is problematic because it's outdated, more downloads would make a bad app a bigger issue. Who's being harmed if there's an outdated app almost no one is downloading? But Apple says it doesn't want the App Store cluttered up with apps that both developers and users have forgotten about. It has enough problems making it easy for users to find good apps as it is, and it's easy to imagine Apple seeing deleting old, seemingly irrelevant apps as a good solution.

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"Apple may be cracking down on apps that no longer receive updates," reports the Verge: In a screenshotted email sent to affected developers, titled "App Improvement Notice," Apple warns it will remove apps from the App Store that haven't been "updated in a significant amount of time" and gives developers just 30 days to update them.... In 2016, Apple said it would start removing abandoned apps from the App Store. At the time, it also warned developers that they would have 30 days to update their app before it got taken down. That said, it's unclear whether Apple has continuously been enforcing this rule over the years, or if it recently started conducting a wider sweep. Apple also doesn't clearly outline what it considers to be "outdated" — whether it's based on the time that has elapsed since an app was last updated, or if it concerns compatibility with the most recent version of iOS. Critics of this policy argue that mobile apps should remain available no matter their age, much like old video games remain playable on consoles. Others say the policy is unnecessarily tough on developers, and claim Apple doesn't fully respect the work that goes into indie games. Earlier this month, the Google Play Store similarly announced it would begin limiting the visibility of apps that "don't target an API level within two years of the latest major Android release version." Android developers have until November 1st, 2022 to update their apps, but also have the option of applying for a six-month extension if they can't make the deadline.

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Apple has started making the iPhone 13 in India, the company said on Monday. Reuters reports: The phone is being produced at a local plant of Apple's Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, situated in the town of Sriperumbudur in Southern Tamil Nadu state, according to a source. Apple has been shifting some areas of iPhone production from China to other markets including India, the world's second biggest smartphone market, and is also planning to assemble iPad tablets there. India and countries such as Mexico and Vietnam are becoming increasingly important to contract manufacturers supplying American brands as they try to diversify production away from China. The iPhone 13 is the fourth model to be produced locally after Apple launched manufacturing operations in India in 2017 with the iPhone SE.

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Apple, looking to address criticism of its competitive practices by the European Union, developers and U.S. lawmakers, pointed to a report showing that third-party apps are thriving on the iPhone and other devices. From a report: In a study published by Analysis Group and touted by the iPhone maker, analysts said that Apple's own apps are infrequently the dominant option and only account for a small share of app usage. "We found that Apple's own apps, while used by many, are rarely the most popular of a given type and are eclipsed in popularity by third-party apps for nearly every country and app type we considered," the report said. In the U.S., the report found that Spotify is 1.6 times more popular than Apple Music, that Google Maps is used 1.5 times more than Apple Maps, and that Netflix is 17 times more popular than Apple's service. The Amazon Kindle service, meanwhile, was 4.5 times more popular than Apple's Books app.

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Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers will now be alerted if an iPhone has been reported as missing in the GSMA Device Registry when a customer brings in the device to be serviced, according to an internal memo obtained by MacRumors. From the report: If an Apple technician sees a message in their internal MobileGenius or GSX systems indicating that the device has been reported as missing, they are instructed to decline the repair, according to Apple's memo shared on Monday. The new policy should help to reduce the amount of stolen iPhones brought to Apple for repair. The GSMA Device Registry is a global database designed for customers to report their devices as missing in the event of loss or theft. The report notes that Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers "are already unable to service an iPhone if the customer cannot disable Find My iPhone."

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juul_advocate shares a report from iTWire: Apple's output of the iPhone SE will drop by a fifth in the coming quarter, indicating that the Russia-Ukraine conflict and fears of inflation have affected demand for the device, a report claims. The Nikkei Asia website reported that the company had been telling a number of suppliers that production orders for the next three months would be lower by about two or three million units. Orders for AirPods earphones were also down, by about 10 million units for the whole year, the website said, citing four unnamed individuals as sources. Apple announced the third-generation iPhone SE earlier this month at its "Peek Performance" event. It features the A15 Bionic chip, improved battery life, 5G connectivity, and a new camera system, among other things, for a starting price of $429.

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The New Yorker argues that photos on newer iPhones are "coldly crisp and vaguely inhuman, caught in the uncanny valley where creative expression meets machine learning...." "[T]he truth is that iPhones are no longer cameras in the traditional sense. Instead, they are devices at the vanguard of 'computational photography,' a term that describes imagery formed from digital data and processing as much as from optical information. Each picture registered by the lens is altered to bring it closer to a pre-programmed ideal." In late 2020, Kimberly McCabe, an executive at a consulting firm in the Washington, D.C. area, upgraded from an iPhone 10 to an iPhone 12 Pro... But the 12 Pro has been a disappointment, she told me recently, adding, "I feel a little duped." Every image seems to come out far too bright, with warm colors desaturated into grays and yellows. Some of the photos that McCabe takes of her daughter at gymnastics practice turn out strangely blurry. In one image that she showed me, the girl's upraised feet smear together like a messy watercolor. McCabe said that, when she uses her older digital single-lens-reflex camera (D.S.L.R.), "what I see in real life is what I see on the camera and in the picture." The new iPhone promises "next level" photography with push-button ease. But the results look odd and uncanny. "Make it less smart — I'm serious," she said. Lately she's taken to carrying a Pixel, from Google's line of smartphones, for the sole purpose of taking pictures.... Gregory Gentert, a friend who is a fine-art photographer in Brooklyn, told me, "I've tried to photograph on the iPhone when light gets bluish around the end of the day, but the iPhone will try to correct that sort of thing." A dusky purple gets edited, and in the process erased, because the hue is evaluated as undesirable, as a flaw instead of a feature. The device "sees the things I'm trying to photograph as a problem to solve," he added. The image processing also eliminates digital noise, smoothing it into a soft blur, which might be the reason behind the smudginess that McCabe sees in photos of her daughter's gymnastics. The "fix" ends up creating a distortion more noticeable than whatever perceived mistake was in the original. Earlier this month, Apple's iPhone team agreed to provide me information, on background, about the camera's latest upgrades. A staff member explained that, when a user takes a photograph with the newest iPhones, the camera creates as many as nine frames with different levels of exposure. Then a "Deep Fusion" feature, which has existed in some form since 2019, merges the clearest parts of all those frames together, pixel by pixel, forming a single composite image. This process is an extreme version of high-dynamic range, or H.D.R., a technique that previously required some software savvy.... The iPhone camera also analyzes each image semantically, with the help of a graphics-processing unit, which picks out specific elements of a frame — faces, landscapes, skies — and exposes each one differently. On both the 12 Pro and 13 Pro, I've found that the image processing makes clouds and contrails stand out with more clarity than the human eye can perceive, creating skies that resemble the supersaturated horizons of an anime film or a video game. Andy Adams, a longtime photo blogger, told me, "H.D.R. is a technique that, like salt, should be applied very judiciously." Now every photo we take on our iPhones has had the salt applied generously, whether it is needed or not.... The average iPhone photo strains toward the appearance of professionalism and mimics artistry without ever getting there. We are all pro photographers now, at the tap of a finger, but that doesn't mean our photos are good.

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Apple on Tuesday sent out invitations to the media for an event on March 8, with the tagline "Peek Performance." According to CNBC, the company is "expected to announce a new low-cost iPhone model" and a midrange iPad. From the report: Apple could announce a new low-cost iPhone with 5G support and a fingerprint reader, as well as a midrange iPad, according to media and analyst reports. The company currently offers a low-cost iPhone called the iPhone SE, which was introduced in the spring of 2020, and retails for $399. It's the most recent iPhone model with Apple's Touch ID fingerprint sensor. The new iPad is expected to be an updated version of the iPad Air, according to Bloomberg. That device was last updated in October 2020 and currently retails for $599. Apple could also release iOS 15.4, the latest version of iPhone software, with several new features including the option to use facial recognition to unlock the device while wearing a mask, and the ability to accept contactless credit card payments without additional hardware.

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A flaw in Apple's software exploited by Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group to break into iPhones in 2021 was simultaneously abused by a competing company, Reuters reported Thursday, citing five people familiar with the matter. From the report: QuaDream, the sources said, is a smaller and lower profile Israeli firm that also develops smartphone hacking tools intended for government clients. The two rival businesses gained the same ability last year to remotely break into iPhones, according to the five sources, meaning that both firms could compromise Apple phones without an owner needing to open a malicious link. That two firms employed the same sophisticated hacking technique -- known as a "zero-click" -- shows that phones are more vulnerable to powerful digital spying tools than the industry will admit, one expert said. "People want to believe they're secure, and phone companies want you to believe they're secure. What we've learned is, they're not," said Dave Aitel, a partner at Cordyceps Systems, a cybersecurity firm. Experts analyzing intrusions engineered by NSO Group and QuaDream since last year believe the two companies used very similar software exploits, known as ForcedEntry, to hijack iPhones.

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Apple appears to be testing a feature that will let you use Face ID to unlock the phone even when wearing a mask. From a report: The first developer beta for iOS 15.4 has a screen that asks if you want to be able to use Face ID while wearing a mask, at the cost of reduced security, according to photos from Brandon Butch on Twitter and MacRumors. According to pictures of the screen, Apple says that "iPhone can recognize the unique features around the eye area to authenticate" but warns that Face ID is going to be more accurate if you have it set to not work with a mask.

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Apple warned U.S. senators that bipartisan antitrust legislation aimed at curbing the power of big technology companies would harm the privacy and security of American iPhone users if enacted into law. From a report: On Tuesday, Apple sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, the panel's ranking Republican Chuck Grassley, Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, and the subcommittee's ranking Republican, Mike Lee. The letter, which was obtained by Bloomberg News, underscores Apple's continued push to protect its App Store from government oversight and changes that would disrupt its business model. "After a tumultuous year that witnessed multiple controversies regarding social media, whistle-blower allegations of long-ignored risks to children, and ransomware attacks that hobbled critical infrastructure, it would be ironic if Congress responds by making it much harder to protect the privacy and security of Americans' personal devices," Tim Powderly, Apple's senior director of government affairs, said in the letter. "Unfortunately, that is what these bills would do."

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Slashdot reader PolygamousRanchKid quotes a report from Apple Insider: Apple's color-coding of SMS communications in green in iMessage plays a role alongside other feature in getting teenagers to switch from Android to iPhone, a report claims, with a pressure to fit in with their peers promoting moves to turn their messages blue. The use of green and blue to show whether a message to a user is made through iMessage or via other devices has become more than a simple convenience indicator for users. It's also a form of status indicator, showing the user not only owns an iPhone, but can also make use of features on the platform that others cannot. In a profile of the color-indication system by the Wall Street Journal, teenagers and students explain how not having an iPhone and seeing green messages are seemingly a negative to them. New York masters student Jocelyn Maher said she was mocked by her friends and younger sister when dating, if the potential suitor used Android. 'I was like, Oh my gosh, his texts are green,' and my sister literally went Ew, that's gross,'' said Maher. Apple is apparently well aware that iMessage is a serious draw to its users, with it surfacing in the Epic-Apple trial as part of a series of claims it was used to lock users into its ecosystem. Epic pointed to statements by senior Apple management that the company had blocked the creation of an Android version of iMessage. The Wall Street Journal headlined its piece, "Why Apple's iMessage Is Winning: Teens Dread the Green Text Bubble."

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Apple plans to add a 48-megapixel camera lens to the iPhone next year, followed by a periscope lens in 2023, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. MacRumors reports: In a research note today with TF International Securities, obtained by MacRumors, Kuo said these iPhone camera upgrades over the next two years will help to boost Taiwanese manufacturer Largan Precision's market share, revenue, and profit. Kuo did not provide any further details, but he has previously claimed that the 48-megapixel camera will be limited to iPhone 14 Pro models and allow for 8K video recording, up from 4K currently. These high-resolution 8K videos would be suitable for viewing on Apple's AR/VR headset that is expected to launch next year, he said. Kuo also previously claimed that iPhone 14 Pro models may support both 48-megapixel and 12-megapixel output, which would likely be achieved with a process known as pixel binning. Already in use on some Android smartphones, like Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra, pixel binning could allow iPhone 14 Pro models to shoot 48-megapixel photos in bright conditions and 12-megapixel photos in low-light conditions to preserve quality. Further ahead, Kuo reiterated his belief that at least one iPhone 15 model will gain a periscope lens in 2023, paving the way for significantly increased optical zoom. This lens would have folded camera optics, where light absorbed by the image sensor is bent or "folded," allowing for increased optical zoom while maintaining a compact design appropriate for smartphones.

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Apple's iPhones of at least nine U.S. State Department employees were hacked by an unknown assailant using sophisticated spyware developed by the Israel-based NSO Group, Reuters reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The hacks, which took place in the last several months, hit U.S. officials either based in Uganda or focused on matters concerning the East African country, two of the sources said. The intrusions, first reported here, represent the widest known hacks of U.S. officials through NSO technology. Previously, a list of numbers with potential targets including some American officials surfaced in reporting on NSO, but it was not clear whether intrusions were always tried or succeeded.

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Apple says it will back off its plan to break Face ID on independently repaired iPhones. Ars Technica reports: The company's often contentious relationship with the repair community was tested again when "unauthorized" iPhone 13 screen replacements started resulting in broken Face ID systems. A new report from The Verge says that Apple "will release a software update that doesn't require you to transfer the microcontroller to keep Face ID working after a screen swap." Screen replacements are the most common smartphone repairs. Apple included a new microcontroller in the iPhone 13's display that pairs each screen with other components in the phone. As iFixit reported, if a third-party repair shop replaced the iPhone 13 display, Apple would disable the phone's Face ID system. [...] After a wave of bad press, it's "crisis averted" for the repair community. It would be nice if this was never an issue in the first place, though.

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