Study says Apple data-mining safeguards don’t protect privacy enough

During last year’s WWDC in June 2016, Apple noted it would be adopting some degree of differential privacy methods to ensure privacy while the company mined user data on iOS and Mac OS. In short, the technique adds noise to data that scrambles it enough to prevent it from becoming identifiable — though the company made clear at the time that its data collection process was opt-in. Over a year later, a study claims that Apple’s methods fall short of the digital privacy community’s expectations for how much a user’s data is kept private.

As they reveal in their study (PDF), researchers from the University of Southern California, Indiana University and China’s Tsinghua University evaluated how Apple injects static into users’ identifiable info, from messages to your internet history, to baffle anyone looking at the data, from the government to Apple’s own staff. The metric for measuring a setup’s differential privacy effectiveness is called a “privacy loss parameter” or, as a variable, “epsilon.” In this case, the researchers discovered that Apple’s epsilon on MacOS allowed a lot more personal data to be identifiable than digital privacy theorists are comfortable with, and iOS 10 permits even more.

Apple has refuted the study’s findings, especially on its alleged ability to link data to particular users. But Apple still hasn’t released much information on how it specifically implements its differential privacy. As Wired points out, the most unsettling part is that Apple keeps its epsilon numbers secret, meaning it could change the amount of privacy-enabling static conceivably at any time.

We reached out to Apple for additional comment and will add when we hear back.

Via: Wired

Source: “Privacy Loss in Apple’s Implementation of Differential Privacy on MacOS 10.12” (PDF)

Apple bans misleading apps on iOS

As soon as you get your shiny new iPhone 8, you’ll probably want to download some apps. So Apple took the opportunity to update its developer app review guidelines to make sure the App Store is in tip top shape. According to 9to5 Mac, it’s now officially cracking down on misleading apps.

The App Store has already had policies against such apps already, but the recent update makes it more explicit. The ban is against apps “including content or services that it does not actually offer.” As those fake antivirus apps don’t actually work, they’re definitely on this list. Apple has already removed a number of these apps from the App Store, but this new guideline makes the ban explicit so that they can’t get on in the first place.

In addition, the new guidelines also include clauses for ARKit and Face ID. Apple wants the ARKit apps you see in the App Store to be more than just one-note apps with single objects, adding that it needs to offer “rich and integrated augmented reality experiences.” As for Face ID, Apple added that it must offer an alternate unlocking method for children under the age of 13.

It’ll also now be possible for apps to offer 100 percent of funds to be gifted from one person to another without using In-App Purchases, thus bypassing the need to give 30 percent of it to Apple. The caveat is that giving said money must be an optional choice.

Last but not least, there is also a new clause that explicitly prohibits apps that “facilitate human trafficking and/or the exploitation of children.” They’ve always been illegal anyway, but Apple is simply adding language to make it more explicit that it will take legal action if it finds such apps.

Via: The Verge

Source: 9to5Mac

Apple Watch Series 3 Limited to 3G-Like Speeds on T-Mobile

Apple’s new Apple Watch Series 3 models support LTE and UMTS connectivity, but on T-Mobile, LTE connection speeds won’t be available. The carrier is limiting the Apple Watch to a maximum speed of 512kb/s, which is more like a 3G connection than an LTE connection.

The speed limitation is noted in T-Mobile’s fine print, which says the maximum wearables speed is 512kb/s. It’s also noted on the pre-order page when adding an Apple Watch Series 3 to your cart.

At issue is T-Mobile’s ONE plan, which limits both tethering and all wearable devices to 512kb/s. While most users are unlikely to be streaming video or doing other tasks that require high connectivity speeds on the Apple Watch, the Apple Watch is also unlikely to be a data hog, so it’s unclear why T-Mobile has this limitation in place.

A T-Mobile representative told MacRumors reader Tony that its “High Speed Data with paired DIGITS” plan would provide 4G LTE data. DIGITS is priced at $25 per month without autopay, and $20 per month with Autopay.

No other major carrier in the United States, including Sprint, Verizon, or AT&T appears to be throttling Apple Watch speeds with their standard unlimited plans.

All four of the carriers are charging the same $10 per month fee to add an Apple Watch to an existing iPhone plan, and each one is offering a limited time promotion that waives monthly fees for the first three months.

The LTE Apple Watch Series 3 models became available for pre-order early this morning, with new devices slated to arrive on Friday, September 22, the official launch date for the device.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 3, watchOS 4
Tag: T-Mobile
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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MacRumors Giveaway: Win a 22,000mAh Battery Pack from RAVPower

For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with RAVPower to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a 22,000mAh Power Bank for charging iPhones, iPads, the Apple Watch, and more.

In addition to offering several Power Banks for us to give away, RAVPower has also provided MacRumors with an exclusive 20 percent off discount code on the power bank. When ordering from Amazon, use promo code MacRumo1 to get it for just over $30.

RAVPower is mainly known for a whole line of power banks that are known for being reliable, affordable, and fast.

The 22,000mAh Power Bank features three 2.4A USB-A ports that are capable of charging three devices at the same time. At 2.4A, an iPhone will charge more quickly than with a standard 1A power adapter. There’s a total current output of 5.8A, and RAVPower says its Power Bank detects the connected devices and adjusts output accordingly to provide adequate power to each one, and there’s an “iSmart 2.0” feature that adjusts voltage to minimize charging time.

RAVPower says that the Power Bank can be fully recharged in approximately 11 to 12 hours using a the 2.4A input. It comes with microUSB charging cables and a carry pouch, but to charge iOS devices, you’ll need to supply your own cables.

Power banks are generally built for functionality over looks, and the RAVPower model is a simple black (or white) rectangular power bank that is about as tall as an iPhone 7 Plus and as wide as an iPhone 7. It measures in at 6.5 inches by 2.8 inches. It’s not quite pocketable, but ideal for a purse or a backpack. Four LEDs on the front let you see power level at a glance.

22,000mAh is enough to charge an iPhone 7 to full approximately eight times and an iPhone 7 Plus approximately four and a half times.

RAVPower normally charges $40 for the Power Bank, but we have six to give away to MacRumors readers. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winner and send the prize. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years of age or older are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

a Rafflecopter giveawayThe contest will run from today (September 15) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on September 22. The winners will be chosen randomly on September 22 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

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Apple’s Chip Partner TSMC Shares Details on 7nm Node and Advanced InFO Package Process for 2018

At the Open Innovation Platform Ecosystem Forum in Santa Clara on Wednesday, chip foundry TSMC provided an update (via EE Times) on the progress of its forthcoming technology nodes, several of which would be candidates for upcoming Apple chips. Most notably, the company’s first 7-nanometer process node has already had several tape-outs (finalized designs) and expects to reach volume capacity in 2018.

TSMC’s 10 nm node, which first showed up in Apple’s A10X chip in the iPad Pro, followed by the A11, has been fraught with issues (paid link) such as low chip yield and performance short of initial expectations. TSMC looks to change its fortune with the new 7 nm node, which would be suitable for the successor to the A11 chip given current timelines.

In addition to the 7 nm node, TSMC also shared information on the follow-up revision to this node, dubbed, N7+. Featuring the long-beleaguered Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV), the revision would promise 20 percent better density, around 10 percent higher speeds, or 15 percent lower power with other factors held constant.

While EUV has faced delays for over a decade at this point, it seems to finally be coming to fruition, and a 2019 volume availability update would allow Apple to update its chip process in subsequent years yet again. Apple had previously updated process nodes with every iPhone since the transition to 3GS before being forced to use TSMC’s 16 nm node in consecutive years with the A9 and A10. Moving forward, that annual cadence is again in jeopardy as chip foundries deal with the realities of physics and minimum transistor geometry sizes.

TSMC also unveiled some low power and low leakage processes that are suitable for Apple’s other custom designs, such as its line of wireless chips like the W1 and successor W2. TSMC is targeting availability next year of a 22 nm ultra low leakage node, which is suitable for analog and RF designs such as cellular basebands or Wi-Fi chips.

This will ultimately help Apple further lower power consumption on the Apple Watch and headphones featuring the W line of wireless chips. It is also likely to be adopted by Qualcomm for its line of modem products. The W1 and W2 manufacturing processes are not currently publicly known, but it is likely that one of TSMC’s RF-focused processes powers the Apple chips.

Finally, TSMC announced a revision of its integrated fan-out packaging process (InFO) that is targeted at integrating high bandwidth memory (HBM) into the assembly, dubbed InFO-MS. HBM has generated a lot of interest from applications where very high sustained memory bandwidths are desired, such as consumer graphics cards.

HBM and similar standards such as Wide I/O promise not only to improve memory bandwidth, but also improve power consumption for a given bandwidth, making it a suitable evolution for mobile SoC designs. This type of memory interface has yet to appear in a mobile design, though it should be considered a near-term eventuality. Despite advances in mobile memory, it still lags behind desktop and laptop systems in total bandwidth, which can be important in some tasks such as graphics rendering.

Tags: TSMC, W1, A12, W2
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New and Refurbished Apple Watch Series 2 Collections Get Discounts Following Series 3 Launch

Last night, pre-orders opened up for the new Apple Watch Series 3, which has a 70 percent faster dual-core processor, new Apple W2 chip, a barometric altimeter, and LTE capabilities on supported models. The base Apple Watch Series 3 models without LTE are now $329 (38mm) and $359 (42mm), rising from there for Stainless Steel and Ceramic.

If you aren’t interested in the speedier processor or cellular capabilities, B&H Photo has a sale going on right now that offers discounts on select models of last year’s Apple Watch Series 2. In the lists below, Series 2 prices (bold) are compared to current prices of similar Series 3 collections on Apple.com.

Series 2 Aluminum

• 38mm Space Gray Case, Black Sport Band – $289.99, compared to $329.00

• 42mm Space Gray Case, Black Sport Band – $319.99, compared to $359.00

• 42mm Gold Case, Midnight Blue Sport Band – $329.99, compared to $359.99

• 42mm Silver Case, White Sport Band – $319.99, compared to $359.00

Series 2 Stainless Steel

• 38mm Case, Milanese Loop Band – $539.99, compared to $699.00

• 42mm Case, Milanese Loop Band – $589.99, compared to $749.00

• 42mm Space Black Case, Space Black Sport Band – $499.99, compared to $649.00

• 42mm Space Black Case, Space Black Milanese Loop Band – $629.99, compared to $799.00

If you’re willing to buy refurbished, Best Buy has a few Series 2 models sold at a discount. Some of the notable mark downs include $94 off the 38mm Silver Aluminum Case & White Sport Band ($274.99), $99 off the same model in 42mm ($299.99), $129 off the 42mm Space Black Stainless Steel Case & Space Black Sport Band ($469.99), and $144 off the 38mm Stainless Steel Case & Milanese Loop ($504.99).

A few other discounts this week include $10 off any orders from Pad & Quill that exceed $50 with the promo code ThankYou10. Gazelle is automatically marking down all certified pre-owned MacBooks by $50 on its reseller storefront, but the offer only lasts until Sunday, September 17. There are a few Beats on sale at Best Buy, including BeatsX for $109.99, down from $149.99.

If you’re looking for some new gaming apps, there have been a few sales this week on the iOS App Store. Here are the most recent:

• Deus Ex: The Fall – $0.99, down from $4.99

• INKS – Free, down from $2.99

• Lara Croft GO – $0.99, down from $4.99

• Deus Ex GO – $0.99, down from $4.99

• Level 24 – Free, down from $0.99

• Space Harrier II Classic – Free, down from $0.99

• Full Throttle Remastered – $2.99, down from $4.99

Additionally, this week MacRumors has partnered with RAVPower to offer our readers an exclusive 20 percent off discount code on a 22,000mAh Power Bank for charging iPhones, iPads, the Apple Watch, and more. When ordering from Amazon, use promo code MacRumo1 to get it for just over $30.

Our Deals Roundup has even more information on the latest sales currently running for Apple products and accessories, so be sure to check back frequently for more updates. If you’re preparing for the wireless charging features of the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, or iPhone X, our recent roundup of the best (and cheapest) Qi inductive chargers on the market should help out.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 3, watchOS 4, Apple Deals
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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LTE in Apple Watch Series 3 Models Only Works in Country of Purchase

With the LTE-enabled Apple Watch Series 3 only available in a handful of countries at the current time, it might be tempting to purchase one in another country, but it won’t work. Series 3 models appear to be limited to connectivity in their original country of purchase.

An Apple support representative who spoke to MacRumors reader Thomas said that an Apple Watch purchased in the U.S. online store will only work with the four carriers in the United States, perhaps due to hardware limitations.

“If you purchased one (an Apple Watch S3 GPS + Cellular) through the US Apple Online Store, it’ll only work for the 4 US carriers. It wouldn’t work internationally unfortunately. I’m not entirely sure what type of error it would show if you took a US Watch to Germany, but it wouldn’t be compatible with Telekom”.

Additionally, Apple Watch Series 3 models do not support roaming outside of a provider’s network coverage area, according to Apple’s fine print, so roaming when traveling to another country is not supported.

Unlike iPhones, Apple Watch Series 3 models also support a limited number of LTE bands, another factor that contributes to no support between countries. In the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, for example, only bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 25, 26, and 41 are supported.

LTE Apple Watch models are currently only available in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, the UK, and the United States. Apple says availability will expand to other countries next year.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 3, watchOS 4
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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Forgot to Pre-Order Your iPhone 8 or 8 Plus? Apple Store Pickup Remains an Option for Launch Day

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus pre-orders began at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time or 3:01 a.m. Eastern Time today, and hours later, shipping estimates for select models have slipped to late September or early October for some models.

Fortunately, if you weren’t willing to wake up at those hours or haven’t yet pre-ordered for another reason, there’s still a chance to get an iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus in your hands when they launch next Friday.

In the United States and other countries where Apple retail stores operate, such as Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, many iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus models remain available for in-store pickup on September 22.

Even if a particular iPhone model isn’t estimated to be delivered on launch day, it appears some units will still be reserved for in-store pickup.

An iPhone 8 Plus in Space Gray with 64GB of storage on T-Mobile, for example, is currently estimated to ship in 3-4 weeks on Apple’s online store. Yet, the device is available for pickup on September 22 at multiple Apple retail stores.

Once you proceed to the checkout and click the blue “check out” button, select “pick up” and change the store location if necessary. Then click “continue” and select a 30-minute check-in window for your pickup.

If you will be picking up the iPhone personally, enter your phone number. If someone else will be arranging the pickup, enter his or her contact information. The person making the pickup must be carrying a valid photo ID.

Then, proceed with the checkout process as usual. Once payment has been made, wait until you receive a pickup notification email or text message by September 22 before picking up the iPhone. If you don’t receive one, call the store.

Since the iPhone is paid for ahead of time, the store should presumably hold the device in its back room until you arrive.

Of course, another option is to simply wait until next Friday and walk into an Apple store, preferably right when they open. You may have to wait in line, but the queues have typically been shorter in recent years.

You can use the pickup tool on Apple’s website on launch day to check if stores in your local area have stock, or call the store directly.

All in all, there are more than a few days to ensure you get your new iPhone on launch day, even if you missed the pre-order boat. In fact, select color, storage, and carrier combinations are still available for delivery by September 22.

If you would rather wait for the iPhone X, pre-orders of that device start October 27.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8
Tag: Personal Pickup
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Defense Zone 3 HD: What’s not to love about this game? (Review)

When was the last time you played a tower defense game? Probably some of you have done it recently, but the truth is that this enjoyable and thorough kind of game has taken a seat back in favor of endless games in recent years. There is a huge fanbase around the genre, though, and it is easy to see why. The games are entertaining, add strategy and progression elements, and most of the time look very polished in the audiovisual department. Defense Zone 3 HD is one of the most recent games in the genre, ticking the boxes for everything that a tower defense game should have.

Developer: Artem Kotov
Price: Free

Overview

Defense Zone 3 is, at its core, a tower defense game. You need to protect your base from incoming enemies through the deployment of weapons and special skills along a twisty corridor. It is funny that the game never exactly shows what you are protecting. We can all assume it is a friendly base, but the only way of knowing that you are failing in your tower defense duties is by letting enemies go through the end of the long path you’ve sworn to protect.

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There are 15 missions to choose from, and each one provides four levels of difficulty. They range from Easy to Nightmare. Since the premise of the game is pretty simple, the developer decided to omit some kind of tutorial or help for newcomers. Even though this means that you can start gaming right away, the amount of stuff on-screen can be a little bit daunting at first and you still have to figure out some stuff before you can actually enjoy the game to the fullest.

When starting the game, you will have some resources allocated to you. The primary one is money, which is used to buy new weapons to deploy through the war zone. In order to deploy one, you just need to drag them from the bottom of the screen to the designated areas, which are marked by blue squares. These weapons will start to fire automatically as soon as it detects an opponent wandering through their premises.

The armament at your disposition varies in price, strenghts, and abilities. For example, the cheapest one is a machine gun that works best when deploying at the beginning of a stage when your resources are limited, but it gets too weak for subsequent waves. There’s a much stronger missile launcher, but it is also more than twice as expensive to deploy and the firing speed is rather slow. You need to find a combination that works best for your situation.

Enemies come at you in waves (insert Trivium meme here). The last wave is normally a huge single boss that takes a lot of effort to destroy. How many waves the game throws at you depends on the level, but these can be rather long. My first game took approximately 30 minutes to complete, which could be too long for you, depending on the situation where you play mobile games. Fortunately, there are some speed settings you can change to suit your needs.

You will quickly realize that the stock weapons are too weak for some enemies, so the game lets you upgrade your turrets to increase their power, range, and firing speed (or amount of ammunition fired at the same time). Since space is limited, this is the only way to effectively stop later waves from invading your base.

Also, some weapons can engage in something called Hellfire, which is a temporary boost of power and firing speed you get from time to time at no additional cost. Finally, there are some additional weapons that you can activate from time to time, such as help from aircrafts or some weird waves that slow enemies.

General Impressions

When starting the game, you could feel a bit lost with all the options at your disposal. For people who are not used to tower defense games (or that haven’t played them in a long time), the first couple of waves could be very confusing.

However, once you get the hang of it, Defense Zone 3 is loads of fun. Enemies get more complicated as you cruise through the different levels, weapons at your disposal get more powerful, and the strategic decisions you have to make on the fly means you are challenged at all times.

The fact that you unlock weapons as you clear levels means that you feel a sense of progression when playing the game. However, I feel like the game could have experimented with some type of in-game currency in order to unlock weapons.

Graphics and Interface

Being powered by the Unity engine, graphics look superb. From trees to weapons to enemies, everything has a great amount of detail and looks outstanding. If your phone is struggling a bit, you can deactivate the drawing of certain elements. I tested this game on a Samsung Galaxy S8 and on a Huawei Honor 7 Lite and neither suffered from performance drops, so it seems like the developer found a great balance between superb graphics and smooth performance.

If there is something to complain about, it is the interface. In an attempt to follow the visual guidelines imposed by the sprites used in the game, the interface uses similar colors to the background. If favors a lot the use of brown and gray colors, which makes it difficult sometimes to clearly distinguish between the interface and the background. Also, font could be rather small in some situations.

Some other interface quirks include the lack of bulk upgrading or activation of Hellfire. If you want to upgrade several weapons, or activate Hellfire on all of them, you have to tap on each one individually and then tap the upgrade button (or Hellfire, depending on the case). Depending on the positioning on the map, tapping a weapon can get a little bit tricky, and sometimes I found myself pausing or speeding the game instead of tapping a weapon.

These are some minor annoyances, though, and they don’t erase the fact that the developer has done a great job in the graphics department. If some small UX could be fixed, then the game would have absolutely no issues in this area.

Sound

I have found out that normally war games have a good sound, since it is their duty to immerse us in the mayhem that is going on. Fortunately, Defense Zone 3 is no different. The weapons all sound great, with everything from explosions to aircrafts being executed in a great way.

However, the real star of the show is the background music. It is composed of epic, dramatic tunes that really add to the experience. Coupled with the audio effects, they converge to create a truly exceptional experience.

Conclusion

Tower defense games experimented a spike in popularity years ago with the likes of Kingdom Rush, Toy Defense, and Plants vs Zombies. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t good tower defense games in the current market, and Defense Zone 3 is a good example of that.

While some of the other tower defense games are more focused on flashy, sci-fi elements, Defense Zone 3 tries to adhere more to a real war zone, with some futuristic turrets and special skills sprinked on top. With its 15 stages and four difficulty levels, I assure you that there is something here for everyone.

Download and install Defense Zone 3 HD from the Google Play Store.

The Good2Go app will flush away your anxiety over unsanitary bathrooms

Why it matters to you

Instead of settling for any bathroom we find while traveling, Good2Go helps you find safe and sanitary locations straight through its app.

A San Francisco-based startup has set out on a mission to not only help you locate a bathroom in any major city, but also a sanitary one. Known as Good2Go, the company launched its first app, which locates and grants access to its safe and high-tech restrooms.

For anyone who travels often, Good2Go helps to eliminate the stress of having to search for a bathroom in an area you’re unfamiliar with. As for businesses, having their location listed as an option on the app helps to increase foot traffic and revenue.

Currently, Good2Go restrooms can be found throughout several locations in San Francisco. Once you download the app, you’ll be able to see a map that tells you where you can find one, how many fellow users of the app are in line, along with directions to the establishment. The app also identifies which locations are closed or offline, as well as further locations where Good2Go will soon be available.

Once you find your preferred location, you can use the app to join a virtual queue and wait without actually having to stand in line. You’ll receive a notification when it’s your turn to go, and you can enter the bathroom via an app-generated QR code. That way, only you will be able to unlock the automatic door. If you don’t have the app but made a purchase at the particular cafe you’re at, you can ask a barista for the code as well.

The main theme with Good2Go bathrooms is they’re all hands-free. The startup installs sinks, lights, hand dryers, and toilets that work by waving your hand across the sensor. While bathrooms have utilized this technology before, it’s rare to see an entire bathroom consist of strictly “touchless” devices. Every Good2Go location is all-gender and includes a baby-changing station.

With so many apps on the market these days, Good2Go isn’t the first of its kind — even though it does have an edge when it comes to cleanliness and modernized facilities. But with locations limited to the San Francisco area, it could be a while until they’re more accessible nationwide. To keep up with its expansion, you can sign up through the company’s website to be notified when the service becomes available in your city.

The Good2Go app is now available on iOS through the App Store with an Android version coming soon. For a limited time, the company is offering a free trial subscription. After that it’s $3 for a day pass, $15 for weekly, $20 for monthly, and $50 for three months.