Apple locks down iPhone security flaw, frustrates law enforcement

Apple has long been the major tech company to put consumers first when it comes to privacy and data safety, often to the frustration of law enforcement trying to gain access to data stored on iPhones. Now, it looks like Apple is making it even harder for the police to access a phone — by closing a technological loophole that law enforcement has been using for some time to gain access to information.

According to Apple, the loophole will be closed in an iPhone software update that will disable the Lightning port one hour after the phone is locked. To transfer data to and from the iPhone, users would then need to use Touch ID, Face ID, or their PIN code directly on the phone. Thankfully, power can still be transferred — so users will still be able to charge their phone without having to authenticate every time.

Of course, news of the update won’t necessarily be well-received by law enforcement. Some agencies have been using special software designed to unlock iPhones, helping them gain access to the data stored on those iPhones for use in their investigations.

Privacy advocates, on the other hand, say that Apple is right to fix the issue. Apple has long been working on ways to make the iPhone safer, and preventing data from being transferred to and from the iPhone without user consent will help the company in that goal. It makes sense — if there is software that law enforcement can use to gain access to an iPhone, then there is software that criminals can use to gain access to an iPhone.

“We have the greatest respect for law enforcement, and we don’t design our security improvements to frustrate their efforts to do their jobs,” Apple spokesman Fred Sainz told The New York Times.

The move is just the latest in a string of moves by tech companies to lock down user data. Apple and Google both began encrypting phone data in 2014, making it almost impossible for others to decipher that data without a key. That, too, was a move that frustrated law enforcement but was widely considered to be the right move by privacy advocates and for the general public.

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Comcast gives the internet a victory, ends throttling — for now

Comcast

A decade after deploying a congestion management system to slow down heavy internet users, Comcast announced it no longer needs to resort to throttling its customers. Although heavy internet users will no longer experience slowdowns in speed while surfing the web, however, Comcast will still maintain data caps and charges for overages in 27 states that may deter users from unnecessarily clogging the network.

“As reflected in a June 11, 2018 update to our Xfinity Internet Broadband Disclosures, the congestion management system that was initially deployed in 2008 has been deactivated,” Comcast said in a statement released earlier this week. “As our network technologies and usage of the network continue to evolve, we reserve the right to implement a new congestion management system if necessary in the performance of reasonable network management and in order to maintain a good broadband internet access service experience for our customers, and will provide updates here as well as other locations if a new system is implemented.”

The disclosure was likely made in order for Comcast to comply with the recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) transparency rules, which were updated at the same time that the agency eliminated net neutrality regulations.

A study by the Electronic Frontier Foundation found that Comcast had employed a system to manage network congestion as early as 2008, as the internet provider tried to disrupt the influx of traffic that came from peer-to-peer sharing. Comcast admitted to using a congestion management system, but maintained that it was not targeting specific applications, like BitTorrent, when slowing down traffic.

Comcast’s congestion management system has been inactive for more than a year, and that the “network and consumer devices have evolved to a point that our old congestion-management system is no longer necessary,” Comcast told Ars Technica.

“Comcast has generally stopped short of claiming that data caps are needed for congestion management, but it has argued that overage fees are necessary to pay for network upgrades,” Ars Technica retorted.

Comcast also released a separate disclosure detailing how it manages speed on its network. “Comcast provisions its customers’ modems and gateways and engineers its network with the goal of enabling customers to enjoy the broadband internet access service speeds to which they subscribe,” the company said.

USB-C was supposed to be a port paradise, but it’s become a nightmare

Maurizio Pesce/Flickr

When the transition to USB-C began, we were all promised a better life. Connections would be faster and simpler. One connection to end all connections. The reality of what happened couldn’t be further from that dream.

USB-C is a mess. The way manufacturers implement and communicate its features is confusing — and downright misleading at times. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

USB-C was meant to be a standard

In its most basic form, USB-C is a new kind of physical connection. It’s smaller than the rectangular USB-A connection that’s existed since USB was first implemented on PCs, and that makes it better for very thin notebooks and tablets. It’s also reversible, meaning that you don’t need to worry about plugging it in the “wrong” way. Finally, it’s also a standardized port, and it essentially replaces all of the variations you’ll find with the older USB technology.

On top of all that, USB-C is also a new specification that provides additional features and functionality. Because it’s all very complex, we’re not going to delve into the details of USB-C here. Suffice it to say, though, that USB-C can provide three basic capabilities: Data, power deliver, and display support.

So far, so good, right? Well, yes — but that’s also where things get frustrating.

In terms of data, USB-C fully supports all of the usual USB specifications up to USB 3.2. That includes USB 3.1, which is also the latest specification for the older USB-A port. USB 3.1 has two levels, Gen 1 that supports up to 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) and Gen 2 that supports up to 10Gbps. Confusingly, USB 3.0 was renamed as USB 3.1 Gen 1, and so you’ll see recent notebooks list USB-A 3.0, USB-A 3.1 Gen 1, and USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 — and all of them support the same 5Gbps data rate.

Confused yet?

USB has long supported power delivery, both outgoing to charge external devices and more recently incoming to charge a PC itself. The most recent Power Delivery Specification 2 supports up to 100 watts, which is enough to charge many (but not all) notebooks. USB-C can support this latest power delivery specification and it’s bi-directional, making it a great solution for hubs power both external devices and the notebook itself.

Finally, USB-C can provide display support via its alternate modes, including HDMI and DisplayPort. Of these two, DisplayPort Alternate Mode is the most useful, with active cables and adapters supporting a number of display protocols including DVI-D, HDMI 2.0b, and DisplayPort 1.4. Note that USB-C does have some display limitations, for example it can only support a single 4K display at a full 60Hz, and so you’ll want to make sure all of your desired monitors will be supported before deciding on your notebook. And HDCP 2.2, the latest copy protection standard that allows PCs to play Netflix at 4K, is also supported on USB-C.

But here’s the real kicker: Not every USB-C port from every manufacturer supports all of these features. Asus, for example, only supports data on some of its newer notebooks with USB-C (not Thunderbolt 3) ports. And you won’t find that anywhere in the specifications. Microsoft supports data, power, and display on the Surface Book 2’s USB-C port, but it only supports the older HDCP 1.4 standard — that means no 4K Netflix. HP supports almost all of the data, power, and display capabilities of USB-C, although its consumer machines tend to omit the ability to power the notebook itself.

Whew.

A note on Thunderbolt 3

To make things even more confusing and messy, there’s another connection type that uses the same USB-C physical connection but is not the same thing as “simple” USB-C. That’s Thunderbolt 3, which is a specification that provides PCIe and DisplayPort connections to external devices. Thunderbolt 3 is a much more powerful connection type, providing 40Gbps of bandwidth and support for niceties like two 4K displays at 60Hz and external GPU enclosures. But it looks identical to a standard USB-C port, outside of the tiny Thunderbolt symbol, which (sometimes) appears next to it.

If your chosen notebook has one or more Thunderbolt 3 ports, then that’s a very good thing. Not only is it more powerful, but once you know it’s a Thunderbolt 3 port then you’re pretty much guaranteed that it’s going to support all of the usual Thunderbolt 3 capabilities.

The only caveat is that some vendors implement Thunderbolt 3 ports with only two lanes of PCIe rather than the usual four lanes, and only up to 20Gbps of bandwidth. And so even with Thunderbolt 3, you’ll want to check with the manufacturer to make sure you’re getting the full capabilities.

USB-C is like a box of chocolates…

If all you want from your USB-C port is to connect to the usual USB devices by using a USB-C to USB-A dongle, then chances are you’ll be fine with the ports on any notebook on your list.

If you want power delivery and display support, however, then you’ll want to contact the manufacturer to make sure any USB-C ports will do what you want them to do. And be sure to use precision when asking your questions, because things like HDCP 2.2 support aren’t guaranteed — even when it might seem obvious that they should be. So much for our USB-C utopia.

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MacBook 12-inch vs. MacBook Pro 13

If you can’t wait to see whether Apple’s rumored  six-core MacBook materializes later this year, then there are plenty of MacBooks to choose from right now.

If you want to consider the entire range, our MacBook buying guide will see you right, but if you already have it whittled down to our two participants in this head to head, read on to see which comes out on top in the when you compare the equally-priced MacBook 12-inch and MacBook Pro 13. So let’s see which is more deserving of your $1,300?

Design

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

While one of the laptops in this head to head has the “Pro” moniker attached to its name, you wouldn’t know that just by looking at them. Both the MacBook 12-inch and MacBook Pro 13 look fantastic and have a premium feel, though the Pro’s slightly weightier and heftier design does make it the more substantial of the two devices. Each laptop also comes with a surprisingly robust set of built-in speakers.

The two notebooks do differentiate when it comes to inputs, with the Pro featuring a second-generation “butterfly” keyboard, which is slightly improved over the standard MacBook. We’re not huge fans of either, but typists will certainly prefer the experience on the Pro. That laptop also has configuration options to include the Touch Bar, which is a rather gimmicky feature in our experience, but it does offer a unique input option if you want it — and some fun customization opportunities. Just expect to pay a premium for it.

Ports on both laptops are limited to a headphone jack and USB-C, though the Pro does offer up to four of them, where the standard MacBook only offers a single port. That can prove extremely frustrating during everyday use.

Performance

There’s no getting away from it: The MacBook Pro is a far more capable machine than the MacBook 12-inch. Its standard model comes with a dual-core, 7th-gen Core i5 processor that boosts up to 3.6GHz and there are options to increase that to 4.0GHz. The onboard graphics chip choices are the Intel Iris Pro 640 or 650, which are solid onboard graphics cores.

In comparison, the standard MacBook comes equipped with a dual-core, 7th-generation Core m3 processor that boosts up to 3.0GHz for the base model. That can be improved to a Core i5 CPU that boosts to 3.2GHz. Graphically, the best you can hope for is an Intel HD Graphics 615 chip, which is considerably weaker than the Iris Pro core found in the MacBook Pro.

Although both notebooks can have up to 16GB of RAM, the Pro also offers up to a terabyte of solid-state storage, where the 12-inch MacBook can only be equipped with 512GB. The MacBook Pro’s display is of a slightly higher-quality too, with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 across its 13.3-inch panel. In comparison, the MacBook’s smaller 12-inch screen is a lower 2,304 x 1,440. Both maintain the same aspect ratio though and a near identical pixel density, so there is no real difference between the two in terms of visual clarity.

The only hardware advantage that the standard MacBook has is that it offers more storage at a lower price point than the Pro.

Portability

The size discrepancy between the MacBook 12-inch and MacBook Pro 13 isn’t dramatic, but when it comes to lugging around a laptop all day, it can make a real difference to the comfort of the user. Where the MacBook Pro 13 measures up at 11.97 x 8.36 x 0.59 inches, the MacBook is 11.04 x 7.74 x 0.52 inches.

It has an even greater advantage in terms of weight. Where the MacBook Pro weighs just over three pounds, the MacBook is just over two. That one third cut in weight will absolutely be noticeable over a long day and highlights one of the greatest advantages of the MacBook in this head to head.

Better yet, it’s also longer lasting too. While its battery is smaller (41.4 watt-hours vs. 54.5 watt-hours in the Pro), it’s rated iTunes movie playback time of 12 hours tops the Pro’s 10 hours. Both are said to offer 10 hours of wireless web browsing and 30-days of standby time, but the standard MacBook will typically last a little bit longer than its Pro counterpart — a serious upside of its lower-powered hardware.

The Pro 13’s extra heft is worth it

Digital Trends

As much as the standard MacBook’s lower weight and longer-lasting battery are nice touches, that doesn’t make a big enough impact for it to pull ahead in this comparison. The MacBook Pro might cost a little more in most configurations — although it doesn’t have to — but its more powerful hardware, improved keyboard design, and the added functionality of all of those extra USB-C ports makes it a much more capable laptop and a nicer one to use too.

While we’d pick both of these laptops over the aging MacBook Air, when it comes to the MacBook 12-inch versus the MacBook Pro 13, we know which one we’d choose every time. Just save yourself some money and go with the non-Touch Bar version.

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Apple Confirms Plans to Disable Law Enforcement Access to iPhone via Tools Like GrayKey Box

Apple has confirmed that it is closing a technological loophole that allows law enforcement officials to hack into iPhones through USB-based hardware solutions like the GrayKey box, reports The New York Times.

Apple said it was planning an iPhone software update that would effectively disable the phone’s charging and data port — the opening where users plug in headphones, power cables and adapters — an hour after the phone is locked. In order to transfer data to or from the iPhone using the port, a person would first need to enter the phone’s password.

As we shared last week, the feature that prevents USB accessories from connecting to an iPhone or iPad if it’s been more than an hour since the device was last unlocked is included in iOS 12. This setting is enabled by default and it will not allow USB-based accessories like the GrayKey box to connect to an iOS device until a passcode is entered. Charging, however, is still possible as it does not require a data connection.

Apple’s new setting effectively disables the techniques that law enforcement officials are have been using to access locked iPhones over the past couple of years. A current popular iPhone unlocking option, for example, is the GrayKey box, which has been sold to hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the United States.

The GrayKey box is designed to plug into the Lightning port of an iPhone where it uses a data connection to brute force a passcode in as little as a few hours. With the change, the GrayKey box will not work on an iPhone unless it has been less than an hour since the device was last unlocked. The short time period available for access via USB essentially renders the GrayKey box useless.

Located under Touch ID & Passcode, the USB access setting can be disabled, but most users will have no reason to turn it off as there’s no real benefit to doing so. All iOS devices will have this setting turned on by default after upgrading to iOS 12, which means law enforcement officials will have a much more difficult time accessing devices running iOS 12 and beyond.

As The New York Times points out, law enforcement officials have become aware of the changes Apple is planning to implement in iOS 12 and they’re not happy. Chuck Cohen, who leads an Indiana State Police task force on internet crimes against children, told The New York Times that the Indiana State Police had unlocked 96 iPhones using the GrayKey box in 2017.

“If we go back to the situation where we again don’t have access, now we know directly all the evidence we’ve lost and all the kids we can’t put into a position of safety,” said Cohen.

iPhone unlocking devices like the GrayKey box, however, are often not only used by law enforcement officials and can be used by hackers and other nefarious individuals, making it crucial for Apple to patch the security flaw that allows the devices to work.

Apple is not aiming to thwart law enforcement efforts with its on-device security changes. The company regularly complies with requests for the data that it stores on its servers, and has a dedicated team of professionals to respond to these requests. Since 2013, Apple has responded to more than 55,000 U.S. government requests seeking information relating to over 208,000 devices, accounts, or financial identifiers.

Apple also has a team for responding to national security requests, and in 2017 alone, Apple received 29,250-29,748 National Security Requests from the U.S. government. Specific numbers are not available because of U.S. law.

An Apple spokesperson told MacRumors that Apple is always working on strengthening security protections and addressing iPhone vulnerabilities as quickly as possible to defend customers against hackers.

“At Apple, we put the customer at the center of everything we design. We’re constantly strengthening the security protections in every Apple product to help customers defend against hackers, identity thieves and intrusions into their personal data. We have the greatest respect for law enforcement, and we don’t design our security improvements to frustrate their efforts to do their jobs.”

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Related Roundup: iOS 12
Discuss this article in our forums

A Week in the Life of WWDC 2018 Scholarship Winners

Last week, Apple hosted its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, where over 5,000 developers descended upon the McEnery Convention Center for five days of coding labs and sessions, one-on-one consultations with Apple engineers, get-togethers, and even some early morning exercise.

Apple CEO Tim Cook with WWDC 2018 scholarship winners
Among those developers were some 350 scholarship winners, who each received a complimentary WWDC ticket, lodging for the week, and a one-year membership in the Apple Developer Program.

Each year, students aged 13 or older at accredited schools and STEM organizations can apply to become a WWDC scholar. This year, Apple tasked applicants with creating a short interactive scene in a Swift playground, and winners were selected based on the technical skills shown, creativity, and accompanying written responses.

An example of a winning submission from Giovanni Filaferro, a four-time WWDC scholarship winner from Italy.

This year’s scholars come from all corners of the world, including Australia, Bulgaria, China, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, Canada, and dozens of others. Many of the 2018 winners are listed on the WWDCScholars website, run by two-time WWDC scholar Sam Eckert.

Apple was kind enough to provide me with a media pass to attend WWDC this year, and during my week in San Jose, I crossed paths with a few of these scholars. After learning about how much fun they were having, I was inspired to connect with more scholars to have them share their day-to-day experiences.

WWDC 2018 scholarship winners at Steve Jobs Theater
Many of the photos in this article were provided to me by Axel Boberg, a talented photographer and WWDC 2018 scholarship winner from Sweden. Check out Axel’s personal website for galleries of other beautiful photos.

Saturday

Lodging was provided to all scholarship recipients between Saturday, June 2 and Saturday, June 9 at San Jose State University dorms, located approximately a half mile east of the McEnery Convention Center.

San Jose State University student housing where WWDC scholars lodged via Omar Al-Ejel
Upon arriving, many developers used what little free time they had to travel around the San Jose area, with some making the obligatory visit to the Apple Park Visitor Center in nearby Cupertino. There, a terrace on the roof provides a unique view of Apple Park’s main circular building and its surrounding landscape.

Unbeknownst to them, the scholars would have a much closer view of Apple’s new headquarters the very next day.

Sunday

The scholars headed to McEnery on Sunday morning to receive their WWDC 2018 badges, jackets, and a collection of Apple-themed pins, with their own line separate from other developers to expedite the process.

WWDC 2018 jacket and pins via Axel Boberg and Erik Martin
After a quick breakfast, they were instructed to board a shuttle bus to a “secret location,” which turned out to be Apple Park. The group was unable to tour the main building, but they did have lunch at a Caffè Macs employee cafeteria in one of Apple’s ancillary office buildings on nearby Tantau Avenue.

Next, they walked to Steve Jobs Theater, a gorgeous glass structure with a nice view of Apple Park in the distance.

Steve Jobs Theater staircase via Axel Boberg
“Steve Jobs Theater was easily one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen,” said Sai Kambampati, a 16-year-old WWDC 2018 scholar and contributor at programming tutorial website AppCoda. “There were leather chairs, beautiful lights in the auditorium, and a concave white wall with a big Apple logo.”

After a short time for photo opportunities, the group headed down the stairs to the actual theater on the lower level for orientation. There, they were welcomed on stage by Esther Hare, Senior Director of Worldwide Developer Marketing at Apple, who was the lead chaperone for this year’s group of scholars.

Esther Hare at Steve Jobs Theater during the WWDC 2018 Scholarship Orientation via Axel Boberg
During the orientation, they were given advice on how to make the most of their opportunities at WWDC. Apple also stressed the importance of areas like accessibility, inclusion, diversity, the environment, security, and privacy.

After listening to Apple’s environmental chief Lisa Jackson, and software engineering manager Tim Isted, the scholars were ecstatic to be greeted by Apple CEO Tim Cook, who congratulated all of the winners for their accomplishments.

Later on, Cook, who had told them all he had to leave to prepare for the WWDC keynote, surprised them by appearing for photo opportunities. After that, dozens of Apple engineers were on hand to answer any questions about software development, which many of the scholars found to be very helpful.

Apple CEO Tim Cook posing for a photo with a scholar via Axel Boberg
On the way down the hill after leaving Steve Jobs Theater, each scholar was provided with a free pair of AirPods. The group then boarded shuttle buses back to their lodging, where many developers relaxed ahead of an eventful Monday.

Monday

In the morning, the scholars returned to McEnery to attend the WWDC keynote, where they had a reserved seating area. Like the media, they had a dedicated line to get inside, unlike the rest of the developers.

WWDC keynote stage via Axel Boberg
Like everyone else, they then took in all of Apple’s announcements:

“A friend of mine had a good perspective on the keynote this year: things were more evolutionary than revolutionary with respect to software,” said Omar Al-Ejel, a WWDC 2018 scholar and University of Michigan computer science student. “So many things were cleaned up and improved, though we didn’t get obviously radical changes.”

“However, I believe that Siri Shortcuts will be a game changer for the HomePod and the rest of the Apple ecosystem,” he added. “They’re easier to setup than Alexa skills, are not limited to small domains, and most importantly, allow users to customize commands in their native language.”

More succinctly, the keynote was “lit,” in the words of 18-year-old scholarship winner Amit Kalra. That’s slang for fun, or exciting, or awesome, among other things, for those reading this and feeling a bit old.

Apple’s software engineering chief Craig Federighi at WWDC keynote via Axel Boberg
After the keynote, some of the developers went to the Scholarship Lounge that Apple set up at McEnery. There, they had complimentary lunch and downloaded the beta software that had just been previewed at the keynote. Multiple scholars told me the lounge had extremely fast internet via Ethernet.

Next up was the annual State of the Union, a few hours after the keynote. This event provided developers with a closer look at what’s new in iOS 12, macOS Mojave, watchOS 5, and tvOS 12, including tools and frameworks.

Many scholars also sat in on the Apple Design Awards on Monday afternoon, recognizing excellence in app and game design over the past year.

Tuesday

Tuesday marked the first day in which scholars participated in almost entirely the same activities as the general track of developers attending WWDC.

Apple began its sessions on this day, ranging from What’s New in watchOS to Introducing Dark Mode on macOS. Labs also began, enabling developers to book appointments with Apple engineers for one-on-one help on user interface design, accessibility, app review guidelines, marketing, analytics, distribution, and more.

Labs area at McEnery Convention Center via Axel Boberg
“At the labs, I got quite a bit of help on some issues we’ve been struggling within our Apple Watch tennis app Swing regarding custom table view cells and Watch-to-Watch communication,” said Swupnil Sahai, a 26-year-old, two-time WWDC scholar who recently completed his PhD in Statistics at Columbia University.

“Even cooler were the consultations,” he added. “I talked one-on-one with an Apple designer about how to make our app more accessible, and how to redesign our app to fit larger dynamic text in a prettier way.”

Labs area at McEnery Convention Center via Ferdinand Loesch
In the evening, some scholars headed to the California Theatre, where Daring Fireball’s John Gruber sat down with Apple’s vice president of marketing Greg Joswiak and vice president of AR/VR engineering Mike Rockwell for a live recording of his podcast The Talk Show. MacRumors was also in attendance.

Wednesday

Labs and sessions continued on Wednesday after an early morning WWDC Run through San Jose with Nike Run Club, where some scholars met Jay Blahnik, Director of Fitness and Health Technologies at Apple.

WWDC 2018 scholar Nicola Giancecchi at WWDC Run with Nike Run Club
Wednesday also marked the beginning of Women@WWDC initiatives, starting with breakfast at the Hilton San Jose. Later in the day, Apple hosted a panel discussion with female WWDC scholarship winners, moderated by Adele Peterson, co-chair of Women@WWDC and an engineering manager at Apple.

One of the scholars who attended the panel discussion was 25-year-old Marina Rose Geldard, better known by her nickname Mars.

Women@WWDC panel via Marina Rose Geldard
“I was very nervous, but I think it went okay,” said Geldard, who is in her final year of studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia. “I got to be a voice of the minority of scholars that got into tech later in life and came from a non-academic background. I met some lovely, lovely humans at the event.”

Thursday

A third day of labs and sessions was followed by the WWDC Bash on Thursday evening, featuring a DJ and rock band Panic! at the Disco.

WWDC Bash featuring Panic! at the Disco via Axel Boberg
Apple provided a variety of beer and wine at the Bash, although of course, many of the scholars were under the age of 21 required to drink alcohol in the United States. Nevertheless, most had an enjoyable time.

“The Bash was super fun,” said Erik Martin, a 17-year-old WWDC scholarship winner going into his senior year of high school in Orange County, California. “I was basically front row in the audience. You could also see Craig Federighi rocking out right behind the left of the stage, which was super funny.”

Friday

The final day of WWDC involved a handful of final labs and sessions, but by this point, some scholars were heading to the airport to fly home. It was a bittersweet ending to an equally fun and exhausting week.

A trio of WWDC 2018 scholarship winners, including Omar Al-Ejel on the right
“Just like any WWDC, this will always be an event to remember for the rest of my life,” said Kambampati. “The ability to meet people from all over the world, discuss code with the valley’s top engineers, and enjoy this hub of techies is always exciting! I loved every moment of this experience.”

“All in all, WWDC was one of the best experiences I have ever had the opportunity of going to,” wrote Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old WWDC 2018 scholarship winner, in a post on Medium. The designer-developer at CoherentHub in Toronto, Canada also provided us with some advice for future scholars.

German scholarship winners at WWDC 2018 via Ferdinand Loesch
“For those who do go in the future, make sure to network a lot and go to as many events as possible,” Ibrahim recommends. “All the sessions can be live streamed on Apple’s website, but the people are why you are there — the 5,000 other talented and brilliant individuals who share the same passion as you.”

Meet the Scholars

From top left to bottom right: Amit, Omar, Ferdinand, Marina, Sai, Nicola, Swupnil, and Erik. Not pictured: Axel and Sophia.
Apple awarded hundreds of developers with WWDC scholarships this year, including these talented individuals who helped make this write-up possible:

• Ferdinand Loesch, a 20-year-old German student studying computer science at Oxford Brookes University. He is currently developing an accessibility tool for macOS to control the mouse with facial movements.
• Marina Geldard, a 25-year-old Australian student in her final undergraduate year at the University of Tasmania in Australia. She is interested in Data Science/Machine Learning and Information Security.
• Axel Boberg, a talented, aspiring photographer and WWDC 2018 scholarship winner from Sweden who provided many of the beautiful photos in this write-up.
• Omar Al-Ejel, a WWDC 2018 scholar and University of Michigan computer science student. He has published seven apps on the App Store and is an aspiring engineer.
• Sophia Kalanovska, a Bulgarian computer science student at King’s College London. She is also a committee member of KCL Tech Society, a teaching assistant at iOS workshops, and an intern at Salesforce for summer 2018.
• Erik Martin, a 17-year-old WWDC scholarship winner going into his senior year of high school in Orange County, California. After he graduates, he plans on pursuing a degree in Computer Science.
• Amit Kalra, a soon-to-be high school senior from Union City, California. He is the developer of the popular app 6284 Calc and Our SolAR.
• Sai Kambampati, a 16-year-old WWDC 2018 scholar, soon-to-be high school senior in in Carmichael, California, and contributor at programming tutorial website AppCoda. He has a popular news app for iOS named Views News Redesigned, and he has also recently developed a macOS app called MagicDown, a Markdown text editor.
• Swupnil Sahai, a 26-year-old, two-time WWDC scholar who recently completed his PhD in Statistics at Columbia University. He is currently a Senior Computer Vision Engineer on the Autopilot team at Tesla. On the side, he has developed an Apple Watch tennis app named Swing that incorporates CoreML.
• Nicola Giancecchi, a 25-year-old, four-time WWDC scholarship winner from San Marino. He is studying for a Master of Science in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Bologna, while working as an iOS developer at Wire, a secure communication platform.
• Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old WWDC 2018 scholarship winner and designer-developer at CoherentHub in Toronto, Canada.

I’m confident that these bright, young minds will help to shape the future of technology in the years to come. Many of them have already come up with innovative apps and ideas. Congratulations to this year’s winners.
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Twitter Launching Personalized News Features, More Robust Search and Revamped Moments Section

Twitter today announced several changes to the desktop and mobile Twitter experience to make relevant breaking news, events, and stories easier to discover.

Going forward, the Explore section of Twitter will be organized using topic tags so users can more quickly see what’s happening in news and entertainment and what’s most relevant to them.

Twitter is also improving search with related news, events, or stories that are listed at the top of search results when you search for something.

Twitter’s “Happening now” timeline that was introduced last year for sports is being expanded to include breaking and personalized news, with Twitter offering up personalized news offerings at the top of your timeline.

Notifications are also being expanded to include news based on user interest in addition to breaking news. These notifications can be toggled off by going to the recommendations section of Twitter’s settings.

As for Moments, the feature that aggregates trending news stories and relevant happenings, Twitter is organizing it into a vertical display like the Twitter timeline, rather than a horizontal orientation.

For some Moments in the United States, Twitter is implementing multiple timelines, which are designed to help users see all of the best tweets surrounding a story. These timelines will include a recap showing tweets you may have missed, a collection of the latest tweets, and top commentary.

For the World Cup, which kicks off tomorrow, Twitter has also introduced a dedicated World Cup page that will be available at the top of the timeline on Twitter for web, Android, and iOS.

The Explore, notification, and search changes are coming to iOS and Android “in the coming months,” while the changes to Moments are available starting today.

Tag: Twitter
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Smart door attachment slows house fires with devilishly simple technique

There are plenty of smart home gadgets around, but relatively few which could actually help save your life. That’s where a new product called LifeDoor comes into the picture. Recently launched on Kickstarter, LifeDoor is a device designed to be mounted onto the existing bedroom doors in your house. In the event that it hears your smoke alarm go off, it automatically shuts the door, illuminates the room with an LED light, sounds a secondary alarm, and sends you a notification through the connected app. This means that you’ll know if it’s been activated even if you’re not home at the time.

“A closed door is vital in the event of a fire; this is especially true for those with limited mobility, [such as] kids [or the] elderly,” Joel Sellinger, a professional firefighter and co-founder of LifeDoor, told Digital Trends. “With today’s modern furnishings and building construction, you now have three minutes to escape a house that is on fire. This number was 17 minutes, 40 years ago. A device is [therefore] needed to increase times of survivability.”

LifeDoor

Sellinger said that he set out to create LifeDoor after wanting to find a similar device for his own home, only to discover that it didn’t exist. “I assumed there was a product like this and while on duty one evening, worrying about my own family and our habits of sleeping with the door open, I went on Amazon to order one,” he continued. “When I realized there wasn’t anything like it, I started sketching the idea that very night.”

Installing the device is straightforward, on a par with putting on a door stop which mounts to a door hinge. “We have a broad target audience from smart home enthusiasts, new parents, fire service families on the consumer side, but also we see traction through insurance companies that insure un-sprinkled multi-family buildings,” he said.

As ever, we offer our usual warnings about the risks inherent in crowdfunding campaigns. However, if you’re aware of these issues and still want to get involved, head over to the project’s Kickstarter page to put down your hard-earned cash. Prices for the LifeDoor device start at $79. Provided it is able to reach its fairly modest $50,000 production funding target, shipping should take place in January 2019.

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How to use Apple’s augmented reality Measure app in iOS 12

Brenda Stolyar/Digital Trends

Tape measures are one of those things that you never seem to be able to find when you need it. Fortunately, it’s likely that you have your phone somewhere near you these days, and now  Apple is making it incredibly simple to use it for measurements in iOS 12.

Yes, there are third-party AR apps you can install, but a new app called Measure will be built into the iPhone after it updates to iOS 12. It utilizes Apple’s augmented reality framework, ARKit, to measure objects and spaces in the real world with the phone’s camera. It can measure a piece of furniture or distance between points, and there’s also a level built in so it’s easy to make sure floating shelves or paintings are straight. The Measure app is only available on the new iOS 12 operating system, but it should work with any iPhone or iPad running iOS 11 in the future.

Here’s how to use Apple’s new Measure app.

How to measure an object with one tap

After opening the Measure app, you’ll have to calibrate it first by moving the iPhone around in a circle. If you are pointing the camera at a square or rectangular object — such as a picture frame, poster, sign, or box — then it will automatically gauge its complete dimensions.

When there’s an object to measure, make sure the camera is hovering directly above it. A yellow outline will appear around the object, which helps ensure it’s aligned correctly. You can reposition it by moving the camera around the device until it’s exactly right. Then, tap on the yellow outline and the measurements will appear.

Tap on each measurement for more information — each one will show conversions from inches to centimeters as well. At the bottom, there’s an option to copy the measurement straight from the app to paste somewhere else, like the Notes app. Another way to save the entire measurement is to use the built-in camera button, which takes a screenshot and saves it to your Photos.

How to find individual measurements

To find the distance between two objects or individual measurements, wait for a white circle to appear and point your camera at the corner you want to start measuring. A white dot in the middle of the circle will become bigger, and there will also be some haptic feedback when it has found the best place for you to start measuring — the same will happen with the endpoint as well.

As you move the phone, a yellow dotted line will appear and you will start to see the measurement in real time. At the endpoint, just tap on the end or tap on the plus sign at the bottom of the screen. The plus sign will not only mark the end of the measurement but also begins a new measurement so you can continue.

After each individual measurement, measurements may shift a bit as you move around the item, so you want to keep an eye out for any misalignment and inaccurate dimensions.

In the upper left-hand and right-hand corners of the app, there’s a back arrow along with the option to clear. If you’re taking separate measurements and want to delete one without erasing all of your work, then tapping the back arrow will only get rid of your most recent measurement. If you want to erase all the measurements, tap the Clear button.

Using the level

Originally located in the Compass app, Apple has merged the level feature into the Measure app instead. Located next to the Measure option, tap on Level and the app will automatically display degrees. Once you place the phone on the surface of an object horizontally, the degrees will fluctuate. You want to keep it at zero, which means the object is straight or level. The display turns green when it hits zero.

How accurate is it?

To see how accurate the Measure app is, we decided to check the measurements with a tape measure.

We started with the external battery pack and found the length and width were off by about half an inch. Since we measured the battery with one tap, we also decided to find each measurement individually using the app, which gave us correct measurements — 4.5 inches for width and 7.5 for the length. It could be that because the battery has curved edges, the app has trouble recognizing the exact measurements.

As for the chess board, we found the one side we measured with the app was also off by about half an inch — coming in at 15 inches when it actually is 14.5 inches. But when we measured the same side with the app a second time (only that individual side), it gave us the correct 14.5-inch measurement, which is when we realized how meticulous and careful you have to be with the app when choosing the end point, because it can easily jump about half an inch. Since it’s extremely sensitive and the white dot is a bit large, it can be hard to pinpoint exactly where you’re stopping the measurement.

To test the app further, we also measured the bottom of the door frame in our office, which the app measured at 38.4 inches. The tape measure gave us 39 inches, so the Measure app came very close.

So what’s the verdict? The Measure app can certainly be handy when you find yourself without a tape measure or a measuring stick, but if you need precise data, it’s best to use a physical measuring device. The Measure app is also in beta, so it could improve immensely by the time the final version of iOS 12 is released in the fall.

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How to change file associations in Windows 10

If you’ve ever run into the problem of Windows trying to open up a file in entirely the wrong application, you’re not alone. Although you can get around it using the “Open with,” command, there is a way to make sure you don’t have to do that every time: Learn how to change file associations.

Note: If you aren’t sure which file type that you want to change the association of, right-click the particular file and click “Properties,” from the resulting menu. Look for “Type of file,” at the top of the properties window. The three-letter designation next to that is its file type. You can do it on an individual file type basis, or change all of them from one location.

Changing one file

The quickest method to change a single file type is to do it from that “Open with,” menu we mentioned. The only problem is you can only change one file type at a time. If you want to change more than one file type, skip on to the next section.

Step 1: Right-click on a file of the type you wish to change the association for.

Step 2: Select “Open with,” from the resulting menu.

Step 3: Windows will then offer you an app or a list of apps that can act as the default for that file type. If you see the one you want, select it and make sure that the box labeled “Always use this app to open [file type] files” is ticked.

If you don’t see your preferred app, either search for one using the “Look for an app in the Store,” button, or click “More apps,” for an expanded list of already installed applications.

Step 4: When you’ve found the app you want and it has been selected, simple click the grey “OK” button.

From now on, any files of that type will be opened with your chosen application.

Changing any and all

If you want to change a few different file types — or even all of them — then the Settings menu is the best place to go.

Step 1: Press Windows Key and “X” and click “Settings” from the resulting menu.

Alternatively, search for “Settings” in the Windows search bar and click the relevant result.

Step 2: Select “Apps” from the list of options.

Step 3: Click “Default apps,” from the left-hand menu.

Step 4: Scroll down if needed, and click “Choose default apps by file type.”

You’ll then be presented with a list of all of the file types Windows 10 supports with their associated applications on the right-hand side. If a file type doesn’t have a particular application set up to handle it, there will be a grey “+” icon instead.

Step 5: Scroll through the list to find the file type that you want to change the file association for. Click the application or “+” icon to its right.

Step 6: Choose your preferred application from the list that appears and click its corresponding icon.

In the case of some file types, there will be multiple options, whereas others may have none.

If there isn’t an option, you can either go and download a compatible application from the web yourself, or choose the “Look for an app in the store,” icon, which will take you to the Microsoft Store. In the window that appears, relevant applications that can open the file type in question will be presented to you.

Once you’ve chosen your preferred application, that’s it! Your file associations are changed and your default application for that particular file type will now be the one you want, rather than something else. You can change others or change them back using the same method, but if you ever get a bit too trigger happy with your file associations and just want to reset them to their defaults, here’s our guide on how to reset Windows.

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