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It's Official!

It's Official!

The iPhone 15 will be announced 9/12

Brandon Butch
September 01, 2023

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Good morning! ☀️ *Tim Cook voice*

Apple’s event is official, an Apple Pay security flaw, new macOS wallpapers, and more.

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

📊 Poll

Last week, I asked: do you prefer live or pre-recorded Apple events?

Here were some of my favorite replies:

Pre-recorded - “Pre-Recorded as I LOVE the transitions and whimsical sections with Craig Federighi. However, the Live Events in the past have had unplanned funny parts too, but I just prefer the polish of Pre-Recorded” Took the words out of my mouth!

Live - “The feeling of Tim revealing a new product, with the live audience applauding, is unmatched to the pre-recorded events. In terms of production the pre-recorded ones are very cool, but to me the reaction of the live audience and the presenters on stage feels just right.” I agree, there is something I miss about actual live reveals.

This week: Do you believe Apple will increase prices for the iPhone 15 Pros this year? Why?

Will iPhone 15 Pro cost more than 14 Pro?

📆 Mark Your Calendars

Apple Event invite

Apple’s annual Fall event is now official! Here’s what to know:

The event will take place on September 12th at 1pm EST
It is titled Wonderlust - an intentional misspelling that totally means something!
The colors of that Apple logo on the invite are mighty familiar… I think it hints at the iPhone 15 Pro colors. Thoughts?

What to Expect

iPhone 15 Pro dummy units

iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max/Ultra
Apple Watch Series 9
Apple Watch Ultra 2 (with a dark color option)
AirPods case with USB-C
New iPad(s)
New FineWoven iPhone cases (to replace the leather cases)

It is currently unknown if the new AirPods case with USB-C is going to be for the AirPods Pro 2 or the AirPods 3, or both.

As for the new iPad, we could see either the iPad 11, iPad Air 6, or iPad mini 7. And according to a credible leaker, the most likely is the mini 7.

Apple will be live streaming the event on their YouTube channel, but the real fun happens in my annual live stream! Make sure to join me on Sep 12 at 11am EST as we react to the new products together.

New Macs?

According to Gurman, the M3 MacBook Air & MacBook Pro will be coming in October at a separate event.

"The structure of the event, I'm told, will match the iPhone 14 launch: A prerecorded video will be shown online, as well as at an event at the company's headquarters. There's also another launch occurring in October — likely for the first M3 Macs — but it's unclear if that will be positioned as a formal event."

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

So while no Macs are expected at the iPhone 15-focused event, at least we have another Apple event to look forward to in October!

📲 Major Apple Pay Security Flaw, macOS Sonoma, & More

Another Tuesday, another round of iOS and other Beta software updates. This week, we saw iOS 17 Beta 8/Public Beta 6 get released.

Next week should be an empty week with no iOS Beta updates, as Apple prepares the RC version of iOS 17, watchOS 10, etc for release after the iPhone 15 event. I would then expect the final release to come the following week, on the week of Sep 18th.

Here’s what else you need to know about the latest software updates:

The latest macOS Sonoma update includes 100+ new wallpapers!
- These animated wallpapers use the same footage as the Apple TV aerial screensavers. View all of them here.
- Sonoma is still expected to release after iOS 17 and all of the other software. Last year macOS Ventura came in October.
watchOS 10 Beta 8 was released and it finally fixed my Apple Watch Ultra battery life
visionOS Beta 3 was released and there are some interesting tidbits included

‘Impossible’ Apple Pay Security Flaw

There is currently a security flaw that allows anyone with a user’s credit card number & expiry date to track all journeys made on a NYC subway within the past 7 days. And guess what? Apple Pay is somehow susceptible too, even though it should not be possible.

In the mid-afternoon one Saturday earlier this month, the target got on the New York subway. I knew what station they entered the subway at and at what specific time. They then entered another station a few hours later. If I had kept monitoring this person, I would have figured out the subway station they often start a journey at, which is near where they live. I would also know what specific time this person may go to the subway each day.

During all this monitoring, I wasn’t anywhere near the rider. I didn’t even need to see them with my own eyes. Instead, I was sitting inside an apartment, following their movements through a feature on a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) website, which runs the New York City subway system.

With their consent, I had entered the rider’s credit card information—data that is often easy to buy from criminal marketplaces, or which might be trivial for an abusive partner to obtain—and punched that into the MTA site for OMNY, the subway’s contactless payments system. After a few seconds, the site churned out the rider’s travel history for the past 7 days, no other verification required.

404Media

Apple Pay is designed to offer protection against these types of vulnerabilities:

Payment transactions originating from the payment applets include a payment cryptogram along with a Device Account Number. This cryptogram, a one-time code, is computed using a transaction counter and a key. The transaction counter is incremented for each new transaction. The key is provisioned in the payment applet during personalization and is known by the payment network or the card issuer or both.

Apple Support

So basically Apple nor the merchant should have access to your real payment card details. But it happened.

And while the MTA breach is inexcusable, the bigger concern here is that Apple Pay might not be as secure as we’ve been led to believe.

Apple needs to address this ASAP because this is a potential big deal. Will update you next week, hopefully.

📰 Quick News Bites

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Until next week, ✌️

- Brandon

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