Category: Apple Insider

A keen mountain bike rider, Ryan McConnaughey of Spring Valley, California, was a regular visitor to trails in Jamul. However, one daily ride in April involved an accident that would change his life.

Recounting the incident to 10News San Diego, McConnaughey explains the accident took place about 40 minutes into the evening ride. “It was a steep section. My bicycle went forward, and I went over the handlebars, headfirst into the ground,” he said.

After the impact to his helmet-protected head, the rider ended up on his back, and immediately knew that it was a serious issue. “I didn’t have movement from my neck down,” he explains.

“I knew for sure that I need to get medical attention as quickly as possible. My brain kind of kicked into survival mode,” he adds. Realizing his iPhone was in his backpack and unreachable, McConnaughey remembered “I’m wearing my watch.”

Primarily used by the rider as a fitness tracker, he used the Apple Watch to ask Siri to call a friend who knew his location. Both McConaughey and his friend called 911 for assistance, with the rider then placing a call to his girlfriend’s voicemail.

“Didn’t know what was going to happen. Just wanted to say goodbye,” he told his girlfriend in the three-minute message.

After being located and airlifted to hospital, several surgeries to his shattered vertebrae in his neck led to him being diagnosed a quadriplegic. After months at a spinal cord rehabilitation facility in Colorado, McConnaughey has since returned home.

“That watch saved my life. No doubt about it. No way anybody would have found me. I never would have thought I’d be using an Apple Watch to make a life-saving phone call,” McConnaughey concludes.

McConnaughey’s story is the latest to proclaim the Apple Watch had a hand in saving lives. In January, an Apple Watch placed an automatic emergency call to police in Hermosa Beach, after a man took a hard fall off an electric bike, while in September 2021, it summoned an ambulance for a man in Singapore following a hit-and-run incident.

Apple announced this scanning technology on August 5, 2021 to appear in iCloud Photos, iMessage, and Siri. These tools were designed to improve the safety of children on its platforms.

At the time, these tools would release within an update for watchOS, iOS, macOS, and iPadOS by the end of 2021. Apple has postponed since then, removing mention of CSAM detection in iCloud Photos and posting an update to its Child Safety page.

And then, the complaints started. And, they started, seemingly ignorant that Microsoft had been scanning uploaded files for about 10 years, and Google for eight.

Apple had also already been doing so for a few years, with a server-side partial implementation even before the iOS 15.2 announcement. Its privacy policy from at least May 9, 2019, says that the company pre-screens or scans uploaded content for potentially illegal content, including child sexual abuse material. However, this appears to have been limited to iCloud Mail.

Likely in response to the massive blowback from customers and researchers, in September 2021, Apple said that it would take additional time to collect input and make improvements before releasing its child safety features for iCloud Photos. It kept some initiatives going, and followed through with Messages and Siri.

In Messages, iOS warns children between 13 years and 17 years old included in an iCloud Family account of potentially sexually explicit content detected in a received text. For example, if the system detects a nude image, it automatically blurs it, and a popup appears with a safety message and an option to unblur the image.

For children under 13 years, iOS sends parents a notification if the child chooses to view the image. Teens between 13-17 can unblur the image without the device notifying parents.

Child communication safety in the Messages app

Siri, along with search bars in Safari and Spotlight, steps in next. It intervenes when an Apple user of any age performs search queries related to CSAM. A popup warns that the search is illegal and provides resources to “learn more and get help.” Siri can also direct people to file a report of suspected child abuse material.

Finally, iCloud Photos would also detect and report suspected CSAM. Apple’s plan was to include a database of image hashes of abuse material for on-device intelligence. This National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) database aims to ensure that Apple platforms only report child abuse material already found during law enforcement investigations.

Apple says that the event of a false positive match is rare, saying that the odds are one-in-a-trillion on any given account. There is also a human review team that makes the final call on whether to notify law enforcement or not, so the slope doesn’t immediately end with a police report.

The detection tools in iCloud Photos were the most controversial. As one example, an open letter penned by Edward Snowden and other high-profile people raises concerns that certain groups could use the technology for surveillance. Democratic and authoritarian governments could pressure Apple to add hash databases for things other than CSAM, such as images of political dissidents.

Child safety feature in Siri

Indeed, the Electronic Frontier Foundation noted that it had already seen this in action, saying: “One of the technologies originally built to scan and hash child sexual abuse imagery has been repurposed to create a database of “terrorist” content that companies can contribute to and access for the purpose of banning such content.”

The slippery slope does have bumps on it, however. In August 2021, Apple’s privacy chief Erik Neuenschwander responded to concerns in an interview, saying that Apple put protections in place to prevent its technology from being used for content other than CSAM.

For example, the system only applies to Apple customers in the U.S., a country that has a Fourth Amendment barring illegal search and seizure. Next, since the technology is built directly into its operating systems, they have to apply to all users everywhere. It’s not possible for Apple to limit updates to specific countries or individual users.

A certain threshold of content must also be met before the gears start turning. A single image of known CSAM isn’t going to trigger anything, instead, Apple’s requirement is around 30 images.

Apple published a document of frequently asked questions in August 2021 about the child safety features. If a government tried to force Apple to add non-CSAM images to the hash list, the company says it will refuse such demands. The system is designed to be auditable, and it’s not possible for non-CSAM images to be “injected” into the system.

Apple says it will also publish a Knowledge Base with the root hash of the encrypted database. “users will be able to inspect the root hash of the encrypted database present on their device, and compare it to the expected root hash in the Knowledge Base article,” the company wrote.

Security researchers can also assess the accuracy of the database in their own reviews. If the hash of the database from an Apple device doesn’t match the hash included in the Knowledge Base, people will know that something is wrong.

“And so the hypothetical requires jumping over a lot of hoops, including having Apple change its internal process to refer material that is not illegal, like known CSAM and that we don’t believe that there’s a basis on which people will be able to make that request in the US,” Neuenschwander said.

Apple is right to delay the feature and find ways to improve the accuracy of its system, if needed. Some companies that scan for this type of content make errors.

And one of those problems was highlighted recently, by a fairly monumental Google screw-up.

A major example of flawed software happened on August 21 with Google. The New York Times published a story highlighting the dangers of such surveillance systems.

A father in San Francisco took a picture of his toddler’s genitals at his doctor’s request due to a medical problem. He sent the image through the health care provider’s telemedicine system, but his Android phone also automatically uploaded it to Google Photos, a setting the company enables by default.

Flagged as CSAM, even though the image wasn’t known as CSAM at that point, Google reported the images to law enforcement and locked every one of the father’s accounts associated with its products. Fortunately, police understood the nature of the images and didn’t file charges, although Google didn’t return his account access.

Google Photos on the App Store

Google’s detection system doesn’t work exactly like Apple’s technology. The company’s support page mentions hash matching, such as “YouTube’s CSAI Match, to detect known CSAM.”

But as shown in the medical case, Google’s algorithms can detect any child’s genitals, in addition to hashes from the NCMEC database. The page mentions machine learning “to discover never-before-seen CSAM” that obviously can’t distinguish between crime and innocence.

It’s a big problem and one of the reasons why privacy advocates are so concerned with Apple’s technology.

And yet, Apple’s implementation of CSAM detection in iCloud Photos is only a matter of time, simply because its system strikes a middle ground. Governments can’t tell Apple to include terrorist content into the CSAM database.

The delay is only due to public outcry; Apple’s mistake was in its initial messaging when announcing the feature, not with errors within the detection system.

In a report from February 2022, security company PenLink said Apple is already “phenomenal” for law enforcement. It earns $20 million annually by helping the US government track criminal suspects and sells its services to local law enforcement. Leaked presentation slides detailed iCloud warrants, for example.

Apple makes no secret of how it helps law enforcement when presented with a subpoena. Examples of information Apple can share include data from iCloud backups, mail stored on its servers, and sometimes text messages.

Governments worldwide are constantly developing ways to increase online surveillance, like the Online Safety Bill the UK introduced in May 2021. A proposed amendment to the bill would force tech companies such as Apple to detect CSAM even in end-to-end encrypted messaging services. Apple would have to move this scanning to on-device algorithms to screen iMessages before it encrypts and uploads them.

Thus far, Apple has managed to fight efforts from the US to build backdoors into its devices, although critics refer to iCloud Photo scanning as a backdoor. The company’s famous fight with the FBI has kept Apple customers safe from special versions of iOS that would make it easier to crack into devices.

Whether an iOS 16 update brings iCloud Photo scanning or not is unclear, but it will happen someday soon. After that, Apple customers will have to decide if they want to continue using iCloud — or move to an end-to-end alternative solution. Or, they can turn off iCloud Photos, as Apple assured everyone that the detection process only happens with its syncing service.

For quite a few years, there has been a belief amongst gamers that Apple’s ecosystem isn’t meant for “real” gaming. The meme would say that Apple’s products can’t really do the high-end graphics you would expect from a console or a PC built for gaming.

Certainly, there is a grain of truth in there, with the vast bulk of Apple-related gaming being more casual-friendly and mobile-focused than other platforms. However, it’s not the whole story.

Titles such as Genshin Impact, Call of Duty: Mobile, and PUBG Mobile all prove it’s possible to get a great gaming experience on a device you can fit into your pocket.

That’s before you consider games that work across other platforms, including the Apple TV and the Mac. Or even game-streaming services that gives you a full-fat graphical experience for games that aren’t made for Apple’s platforms.

Apple’s promotion of gaming on its ecosystem via Apple Arcade has also helped other non-mobile game types become more available to users, opening up the prospect of it being more of a serious gaming platform.

There is still one element that is missing, and that is dedicated game controllers. Gamers who may be more used to console gaming probably would feel more at home playing similar games on mobile if they had a controller in their hand instead of tapping or swiping a screen all the time.

Getting a controller could improve your overall gaming experience. It’s also not as bewildering as you may think.

Getting a controller for a platform is relatively straightforward, as it’s usually quite easy to tell whether a product will be compatible or not. The easiest way to do this is to go for first-party accessories, but that’s not possible in this case.

While Apple has seemingly looked into the concept, with patents and rumors surfacing around the concept it hasn’t yet created its own peripheral dedicated to gaming. Unlike an Xbox or PlayStation, you can’t search for an Apple-manufactured game controller at this time.

Even so, there are still quite a few options out there for gamers to buy right now and use with their iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV. You do have to be careful, though.

For a start, Apple itself has made it possible to use first-party game controllers for major modern consoles with its ecosystem. If you have a game console, there’s a good chance that it will be compatible, with the controllers generally pairing over Bluetooth.

The second is that MFi accessories are a good general bet to work with Apple’s hardware but not everything. Made For iPhone hardware will work with an iPhone or iPad most of the time, but they will also primarily focus on working with just the mobile hardware Apple produces.

For example, an MFi controller made to fit an iPhone may need to receive power from the iPhone to work, since it may not have a built-in battery.

Check the MFi controller works beyond the iPhone and iPad if you intend to turn your Apple TV into a game console for your TV.

One of the most sought-after controllers on the planet due to the rarity of the console itself, the Sony PlayStation 5 DualSense Wireless Controller is one of the major game console peripherals that will also work with all of Apple’s hardware.

Sporting Sony’s signature four symbol buttons on the right, the DualSense includes two analog thumbsticks, a directional pad, a PS button, bumpers, and triggers. While you won’t be able to use things like the built-in audio features or enjoy the haptic feedback, you’ll still be able to game with a handset with a console feel.

Sony PlayStation DualSense Wireless Controller

A big advantage of using the DualSense is that you can pair it to your Apple devices and still use it with your PlayStation 5, if you happen to own one. This could potentially be a money-saving option, and is especially handy if you’re already used to the feel of Sony’s peripheral.

Amazon sells the PlayStation DualSense Wireless Controller for $69, and it is available in a variety of colors.

An alternative to the DualSense Wireless Controller is the DualShock 4 Wireless Controller. Originally produced for the PlayStation 4, it offers practically the same basic features as the DualSense in terms of Apple-based gaming.

It is also cheaper, at $59.99 on Amazon, and again is sold in a variety of colors.

Just as Sony’s popular console controllers work on iOS, so too does Microsoft’s. Apple includes support for the Xbox Wireless Controller with Bluetooth, the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, Xbox Adaptive Controller, and the Xbox Wireless Controller Series S and Series X.

Our pick is the Xbox Wireless Controller, which provides pretty much the same controls as Sony’s version: a D-pad, two analog sticks, four main buttons, a pair of bumpers, and a pair of triggers.

Xbox Wireless Controller

You can use Bluetooth to connect it to your Apple hardware, though it also has USB-C, so you could use a wired connection to your Mac if you don’t want to drain any batteries. Again, you can also use them with your main game console, if you don’t want to spend the money on a dedicated controller.

The Xbox Wireless Controller, available in a variety of colors, can be bought for $59.99 on Amazon, with deals bringing it down to around $49.

Rounding out the main consoles, the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers are able to work with Apple’s hardware range. Rather than being a single device, the Joy-Con controllers are two elements that make up one controller.

While they can slide onto either end of a Nintendo Switch or another accessory, they can also be used without being hooked up to anything else.

Nintendo Switch Joy-Con

Each Joy-Con provides four buttons, an analog stick, and a bumper, so combined they offer a lot of control options within games.

However, bear in mind that the support is being added as part of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and tvOS 16, so it won’t be available to the public until the fall.

A long-time supporter of Apple products, the SteelSeries Nimbus+ is one of the most versatile third-party controllers available that has support for Apple’s hardware. Supporting iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and macOS, the controller offers all of the main functionality you would expect from a DualSense wireless controller.

The controller offers support for thousands of titles across the App Store, along with Apple Arcade, so there will be a good chance that most games you play will work with the peripheral. It sports dual analog sticks, four main buttons, a D-pad, bumpers, and new hall-effect magnetic triggers.

SteelSeries Nimbus+

To boost its utility, it also has an iPhone mount, so you can connect your mobile device to the top for a better viewing angle while away from home. It will also last quite a while, with up to 50 hours of usage from its rechargeable battery.

The SteelSeries Nimbus+ is priced at $69.99 on Amazon, and includes up to four months free of Apple Arcade.

One of the cheaper options on the list, the GameSir T4 Pro is a wireless game controller that models itself on the Xbox controller. Like its inspiration, it offers identical control options, including four buttons, a D-pad, two analog sticks, and bumpers and triggers.

While cheaper, it still offers a lot of utility, including wired support as well as Bluetooth, the ability to use the controller with MFi-supporting games, and a 600mAh battery.

GameSir T4 Pro

On top, the controller includes a semi-transparent cover with RGB backlighting, if you want to add some wild illumination to your gaming session.

HexGaming provides controllers intended for serious gamers, such as those into esports. Rather than a normal controller experience, HexGaming instead aims to make it more exclusive and premium, complete with many customization options.

Made from a genuine DualSense controller, the Rival Pro is HexGaming’s take on the concept. This includes adding in four remappable buttons rear buttons that can be changed on the fly, switchable thumbsticks with variable heights, and assorted thumbgrip designs.

HexGaming Rival Pro

Since it’s a DualSense controller at its heart, it’s also MFi-certified and works as a normal DualSense controller would with Apple’s hardware.

The HexGaming Rival Pro starts at $199.99 (5% off with promo code APPLEINSIDER, but that can easily go up as you customize the controller to your preferred color scheme and options.

Modeled on the Xbox controller, the RiotPWR Cloud Gaming Controller for iOS is very close to the standard Microsoft offering, but with a lot of changes to make it more usable for gaming from your iPhone.

The MFi-certified controller has a section in the top for a device holder, so you can slot the iPhone in perfect view above the buttons. A cable connects the controller to the iPhone’s lightning port, and provides pass-through charging via a port in the base.

RiotPWR Cloud Gaming Controller for iOS

The controller also has a headphone jack for audio, along with another addition: A dedicated Xbox button. Pressing the Xbox button will open up Xbox Game Pass for quick access to games.

It also has an affiliate app, Ludo Mapp, providing over 1,000 downloadable games, and it also works with other game-streaming services, including Steam Link, PS Remote Play, Amazon Luna, and Google Stadia.

The RiotPWR Cloud Gaming Controller for iOS Xbox Edition costs $69.99 on Amazon.

Attempting to provide as much of a console-gaming experience on mobile, Backbone One does so by providing both an excellent hardware and software experience.

On the hardware side, the Backbone One slides the iPhone between two controller sections, featuring four normal buttons, two analog sticks, a D-pad, bumpers and triggers. There’s a secondary Lightning port for recharging while in use, and a headphone jack.

Backbone One

There’s also a bunch of buttons mapped to features in the second element, the app. You could use the controller without the app as a standard MFi device, but the software adds in a game launcher, highlights system with screen recordings, and communications between players.

A well-known gaming brand, the Razer Kishi is a controller for the iPhone that splits into two large sections with an interconnecting spine. Connecting via Lightning, the Kishi cradles the iPhone in the middle, with the controls spread to either end.

A pair of analog sticks, four main buttons, an eight-way D-pad, bumpers, and triggers are included, as well as a selection of function buttons for taking users home, for example.

Razer Kishi

Taking power from the iPhone, it also has pass-through charging via its own port. Cloud gaming support is also touted, while its ergonomic design promises to help players go for long sessions.

However, Razer is working on bringing out a second version that adds in microswitch buttons instead of using a membrane, along with dedicated screenshot and recording buttons, and a Razer Nexus app launch button, among other changes.

The newly-discovered case has been filed in India, making it the third such case based in the country, although Match is the first foreign entity to file against Apple there.

The filing claims that Apple customers in countries other than the U.S. prefer to use third-party payment systems, such as transfer systems backed by the government.

Match’s head of global government relations Mark Buse, claims in the suit that Apple uses its dominant position on its own platforms to shut out competing payment systems.

Other similar lawsuits have been filed against Apple in India, accusing the company of similar behavior. In September 2021 a non-profit organization based in the country filed an antitrust case against the iPhone maker.

Apple tried to prevent this investigation, saying its market share within India was “insignificant” at between 0% and 5% of the total market. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) ultimately issued a probe to investigate. That probe also inquired if Apple uses app data collected from potential competitors to improve its own services.

About 87% of apps in the Indian version of Apple’s App Store pay no commissions, although Match argues that Tinder is one of the country’s top dating apps. Data from Sensor Tower showed that 51% of consumer spending in the top five dating apps during Q2 2022 can be attributed to Tinder.

Match goes further, however, alleging that Apple views ride-sharing apps in India as physical goods and services, which lets them offer third-party payment systems according to App Review Guidelines. Match argues that these apps perform “a similar matchmaking function” to a dating app such as its own.

Since the App Store payment saga started with Epic Games sued Apple in 2020 over payments in its game Fortnite, Apple has reduced the App Store commission fee under certain circumstances.

For developers who make less than one million per year from the App Store, their commission will decrease to 15% instead of the usual 30%.

The CCI will now investigate all three cases against Apple in India.

As is often the case, Apple’s software aspirations are too ambiguous. Some features were announced as coming in future updates while others will go missing during the beta process.

So far, here is what we know about the features that won’t make it to the point-zero release of iOS 16.

One of the most notable delayed features is support for Live Activities. These allow you to view real-time updates directly on your Lock Screen. This could be your GrubHub order, your Uber’s status, or the score of the ongoing football game.

Live Actives in iOS 16

Apple’s Freeform app won’t in iOS 16, though the iPhone-maker said this from the start. It will be arriving in a future update across all of Apple’s platforms.

Freeform app coming later in iOS 16

Another feature that we won’t see for a bit is support for Matter. Technically, iOS 15 already supports the beta of Matter and iOS 16 will fully support Matter — when the standard is released itself.

Matter is supposed to be available to end-users this fall and iOS 16 will — theoretically — be ready when it arrives.

Contact integration for Game Center as well as SharePlay support for Game Center will also be missing.

With a few major issues still lagging in iPadOS 16 beta, there were several reports saying Apple was planning on delaying its release until at least October.

When Apple issued the seventh beta of the updates, iPadOS 16 was renamed iPadOS 16.1, confirming it as the first public-facing release.

We expect iPadOS 16.1 to be released alongside new iPads in October, instead. Hopefully we’ll see enhancements to Stage Manager and the missing iPad-specific Focus filters.

Apple hasn’t officially set a release date for iOS 16 though we can speculate based on current event rumors and previous schedules.

The most recent rumors identify September 7 as the most likely date for Apple’s fall iPhone 14 event. If precedent holds, Apple will issue the RC, or release candidate, of iOS 16 to developers and public beta testers that same day.

We’d then theoretically see pre-orders of iPhone 14 that Friday, September 9. This would mean iPhone 14 will be arriving to customers starting a week later, on September 16.

Apple would officially release iOS 16 to everyone then between September 12 to September 15. Any day preceding the iPhone release is plausible though we’d put our money on Tuesday or Wednesday as the most likely of the lot.

After a long period of COVID-19 restrictions, people are keen to make the most of being able to travel again. That could be a temporary holiday in a far-away city or a more permanent shift to a new home in a different state or country.

These movements always lead to the problem of needing to know what’s local to your new lodgings. It’s not just the big prominent tourist areas, but also more day-to-day services, such as doctor surgeries, libraries, and local stores for food and supplies.

One way to work out what’s near you is to check the various map apps you can use on iOS 16. Though you may typically use them to take you from one place to another as a route-planning tool, they can also help inform you of your local surroundings.

Here are ways to look up what’s nearby to your location after you’ve just arrived in a new city or just before you travel so you know the lay of the land.

The default navigation app in Apple’s ecosystem, Apple Maps provides a very comprehensive experience, both in iOS 16 and on its other operating systems. It’s also extremely upfront about what local services it can offer to you.

• Open Apple Maps.
• Use your current location as framed on screen, or navigate to a location you want to search around.
• Tap the Search Maps text box.
• Under Find Nearby, select the type of service or item that you want to search for, such as Restaurants.
• If a business type doesn’t appear on Apple’s list, enter the generic term for it into the text box then tap Search, or one of the suggested searches.
• You will be presented with a list of relevant businesses and their locations. Swipe up the results box to see more details, such as review scores on Trip Advisor and opening hours.
• Tap a listing for more information, including links to a website, a calling option, and to receive directions.

This same search system can be used for exact names if you know it, such as summoning a list of all Starbucks locations in an area.

It can also go beyond the suggested default searches for an area. While you could search restaurants using Apple’s provided option, you could also manually search for “Chinese restaurants” if you want that specific cuisine.

This search section is also helpful as you can look up guides for things to see or do in an area, written by publications with expert travel knowledge. This is especially useful for tourists who may not necessarily know all of the best locations to visit on their trip.

Just as Google produces one of the most-used search engines in the world, it also uses one of the most-used navigation services. Leaning on its trove of data, Google Maps provides excellent navigation, as well as ways to find nearby things to see or do.

Searching for places of interest in Google Maps

• Open Google Maps.
• Use the current location or search for an area you want more information about.
• If it is a default search type, select the relevant option below the search bar, such as Restaurants or Parking.
• Alternately, use the search box and type in the general term for what you’re looking for, then tap Search.
• You will be shown nearby places on the map that meet the criteria, with a scrollable list at the bottom providing more information about the results.
• To further improve the results, select the drop-down boxes below the search box and make some selections. Once confirmed, the results will narrow down based on the new criteria.
• Tap a listing for more information, including directions, a website link, a call option, cost guidance, review scores, photographs, and other details.

While more a navigation-centric tool than the others, Waze can still help you find essential services near your location, or near wherever you search for using the app.

Waze does all this in a fairly neat and easy-to-understand way, with minimal extra details and clutter. This may not be as useful if you want to peruse menus, for example, but if you just want directions, it’s a good no-frills option.

Waze’s points of interest system is a little more navigation-based than the others.

• Open Waze.
• Use your current location or navigate to an area you want more details about.
• Tap the Where to? Search box.
• Tap one of the icons at the top for basic services, such as a Drive-thru, a restaurant, a gas station, or parking. If the option isn’t visible in the shortlist, tap the three dots to bring up a long list of service types, and tap one.
• Tap the required service in the search results to bring up routes to get to the location.

While the three apps outlined above are good general-purpose ways to find things nearby to a specific location, you may want to use something a bit more structured if you’re going on vacation.

A quick search of the App Store can bring up quite a few apps to solve the itchy feet problem by giving vetted lists of attractions, restaurants, and other things of interest to tourists.

There is a lot of variety available, too, ranging from the straightforward Tripadvisor and Visit A City, to the more purpose-made.

For example, if you’re on a road trip in the United States, you can look up the unusual attractions on Roadside America. Avid walkers and cyclists may want to try out AllTrails if they want to find picturesque landscapes as part of a hike or a quiet afternoon’s ramble.

If you’re visiting a location with a particular interest in mind, it’s worth giving the App Store a shot to try and find specialist apps to scratch that itch. You may get something a bit more refined than the mainstream apps, and maybe even better travel advice than mass-generated reviews of restaurants.

Apple is thought to be working on increasing its advertising business aggressively in the coming years, with an initiative to expand Apple’s overall use of ads in apps as part of that push. It seems users may not have to wait that long before seeing it being implemented.

One of the big candidates for advertising is Apple Maps, with Mark Gurman’s “Power On” newsletter for Bloomberg claiming engineering work is “already underway to launch search ads in the Apple Maps app.” Gurman believes it should be functional “sometime next year.”

The advertising in Apple Maps won’t necessarily be banner ads, but instead leans on the search result-based ads it already displays in the App Store. Users searching for companies, businesses, or items may be fed promoted listings based on the keywords.

The move would be part of an attempt by Apple’s advertising teams to increase revenue in the ad arm from $4 billion in annual revenue and into double digits. Other apps, such as Podcasts, could also see the new ads.

Apple confirmed in July that more ads are on the way, with it trialling ad slots in the App Store such as a placement on App Store Today, as well as the “You Might Also Like” section.

The auction, listed on eBay as an “Apple Sam Sung business card,” consists of a framed employee T-shirt and lanyard, along with a business card. While not normally notable, the lot is unusual due to the name printed on the business card: “Sam Sung.”

Now known as Sam Struan, the employee was genuinely called Sam Sung during his time as a Specialist at the Buchanan Street store in Glasgow, Scotland between 2010 and 2012. He later moved to Vancouver and worked at the Pacific Center Apple Store in 2012, reports iPhone in Canada, before his business card gained some notoriety due to the close competition between Apple and its South Korean rival.

After leaving Apple’s retail arm in 2013, the employee auctioned off the business card using the Sung surname, raising over $2,500 for Children’s Wish BC & Yukon.

Since leaving Apple, Struan now works as a career coach.

Earlier in 2022, a family member found another business card created during Struan’s time at the Buchanan Street store, which brought up the idea of a second charity auction.

Rather than just the business card, Struan’s lot has been dressed up considerably, with the shirt, lanyard, and business card mounted in a frame and behind glass. Struan also signed the glass, “just for fun.”

Struan adds “I hope this card goes to a fellow Apple enthusiast who also wants to contribute to a great cause.”

The auction is set to run until Tuesday, and at the time of publication has a bid of CAD $620 ($477.35) after 31 bids. Funds raised by the auction will be donated to the Downtown Eastside Women’s Center of Vancouver.

The Apple-1 computer hit the auction block in late July, with bidding coming to a close on Aug. 18, 2022. It was expected to fetch at least $500,000.

According to Boston-based RR Auction, the prototype Apple-1 sold for $677,196. Other Apple memorabilia was also sold during the auction, including a first-generation iPhone that was sealed in its box and a tax-exemption card signed by Steve Jobs.

The Apple-1 computer in question is said to be the one owned personally by Jobs and presented to The Byte Shop owner Paul Terrell.

However, earlier in August, the provenance of the prototype Apple machine came into question. A report from Mercury News cited a few key witnesses — including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak — and cast doubt on the actual history of the Apple-1.

In a statement, RR Auction pushed back against those claims, stating that the board sold at auction Wednesday was matched to Polaroid pictures taken by Terrell in 1976.

“In conversations with Paul Terrell, after reviewing the images, we both agreed that he photographed this Apple-1 prototype while it was fully operational in the Byte Shop in 1976,” said Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction.

In an email to RR Auction, Achim Baque, who maintains the Apple-1 registry, also backed up the idea that the board was the one presented to Terrell by Jobs.

“I have no doubts it is the prototype presented to Paul Terrell. I have very detailed copies of the Polaroids and every little detail is the same. The 20+ resistors are all in the same position, angle and direction,” Baque said.

The winning bid came from a collector in the San Francisco Bay Area who chose to remain anonymous, RR Auction said.

Encryption, data storage, and audits are all features to consider when shopping for a secure note-taking app. Some apps provide encryption, while others offer end-to-end encryption. In addition, open-source apps, especially in security, should receive a third-party audit to verify the source code and ensure there are no bugs.

Three of these note-taking methods are built into Apple devices, and two of them are third-party options. Each app offers a unique experience, and Keychain Access is the first on the list.

Keychain Access is a password manager built into macOS and supports secure notes. Unfortunately, these plain text notes aren’t synced to multiple Apple devices via iCloud, so it’s not a good option if syncing is a must-have feature.

To create a secure note, open Keychain Access and click on the Secure Notes tab. Next, click on the square icon with a pencil to create one. Pressing Shift-Command-N on the keyboard also creates a note.

Writing a secure note in Keychain Access

Each note has a title and body of text without formatting options such as bold, italics, or underlining.

Supported Platforms: macOS

Apple Notes is another app included by default on Apple platforms, and it’s an excellent option if syncing notes is essential. However, notes can also be limited to local storage that isn’t synced via iCloud.

Users can lock notes with a password, but they aren’t end-to-end encrypted. The iCloud Security Overview page says notes are encrypted in transit and on the server.

On iOS, Settings > Notes > Password is the location for an Apple Notes password. Options include the device passcode or a custom password, with Face ID and Touch ID available to unlock notes.

Writing a secure note in Apple Notes

Inside Apple Notes, opening a note, tapping the three-dot menu icon, and tapping Lock will secure the note with the chosen password. Locked notes still display their title in the notes list. Supported note attachments include PDFs, audio, video, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers documents. However, locked notes can’t have attachments.

Supported Platforms: iOS, iPadOS, macOS

An unorthodox method to write secure notes is iCloud Keychain. Starting in iOS 15.4, notes can be added to password entries. These are basic notes similar to Keychain Access’s option, without text formatting or attachments.

On iOS, Settings > Passwords reveals items that iCloud Keychain stores. Tapping on an entry reveals a field for notes.

Notes don’t have to be added to an actual password. Instead, an entry can be created in iCloud Notes by tapping the plus button and filling out a website, username, and password. Text must appear in all three fields with text, but the website can be example.com or even something like “gxyr.com.”

Writing a secure note in iOS Settings

Supported Platforms: iOS, iPadOS, macOS

Notesnook is a zero-knowledge for taking private notes. It includes popular features of note-taking apps, such as tags, PDF exports, note locking, and organizing via notebooks.

The company promises no spying or tracking of notes and is working to make Notesnook open source. Currently, the app doesn’t support self-hosting, although it will happen in the future.

The app is free to use under the Basic plan, which limits users to three notebooks, five tags, and various export and editing tools. The Pro plan provides unlimited features at $4.49 per month or $49.99 per year.

Notesnook

Standard Notes is a powerful app that goes beyond encrypted notes. Supported Note types include tasks and to-do lists, spreadsheets, code, and more. Blogs can be created and published with Standard Notes through the Listed blogging platform.

The app supports a range of customization options and themes to personalize the experience. In addition, various plans are available for every price point, from free to a $13.99 monthly professional plan.

Standard Notes