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Good morning! ☀️ *Tim Cook voice*
The UK is trying to ban security updates, we could see the first Ultra iPhone, boring iPhone 15 Pro colors, iOS 17 is quickly approaching, and more!
Estimated reading time: 3.7 minutes
📊 Poll
Last week, I asked: will average consumers care about USB-C?
Here were some of my favorite replies:
No - “Average consumers aren’t thinking about that sort of stuff. The phone has to work so they can use social media and take photos. For them, a charger is a charger.” I’m increasingly finding myself in this camp as I’ve asked around lately.
No - “Most don't care, but will be happy when their cables are consistent across all devices. I think the pressure should be more focused on Apple keeping their cable up-to-date with modern technology rather than USB-C specifically.” I agree, I also think Apple needs to make a more durable cable than the standard ones
Yes - “Yes, but not in a positive way. The average consumer will be quite upset at having to replace cables for everything once again. There was quite an uproar the last time the iPhone changed its charging port.” Idk, I think Apple is going to really “sell” USB-C at the event & in stores so that you don’t think of it as “replacing” but rather “upgrading” - you know Apple will do some magic marketing like always!
Yes - “So many devices now use USB-C including water pics, toothbrushes, flashlights, lighters, and many others, It's convenitent to be able to use the same charging station and cables for all.” This is the most common sentiment and I agree!
This week: Do you prefer pre-recorded Apple Events, or live/in-person Apple Events? Why?
Live or Pre-Recorded Apple Events? |
🤦🏻♂️ The UK wants to Ban Apple Security Updates
You know, I’m getting sick of legislators trying to change the path of technology when they clearly do not understand the subject matter as well as they think they do.
The latest case in point? Security updates from Apple. The UK is now trying to ban security updates.
The United Kingdom government has unveiled plans to revise the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA)
In the revised plan, they state that tech companies would need to notify the British government before rolling out a security fix
But if the security fix blocks a vulnerability that’s being exploited by security services, it could be refused permission to push the update
Device manufacturers would likely also have to notify the government before making available important security updates that fix known vulnerabilities and keep devices secure. Accordingly, the Secretary of State, upon receiving such an advance notice, could now request operators to, for instance, abstain from patching security gaps to allow the government to maintain access for surveillance purposes.
E2E Encryption
Keep in mind, this is the same government who has wanted to ban end-to-end encryption since 2017.
Apple recently stated that they would remove iMessage and FaceTime entirely from the UK instead of removing E2E encryption.
This isn’t just something that can be removed from an app or service. Gruber puts it best:
It’s a complete fantasy that E2EE can be toggled like a light switch and still allow messages to be delivered. The end-to-end encryption isn’t a sugar coating, some sort of extra layer of protection — it’s fundamental to the messaging protocols themselves. It has to be, when you think about it. If it were possible for, say, Signal, to silently disable E2EE but still have messages go through, how could users ever trust the service?
You could neither trust that what you were sending would be delivered securely, nor that what you received wasn’t intercepted by an interloper. There’s an explicit guarantee with all of these E2EE messaging platforms that messages can only go through securely.
Removing E2EE wouldn’t require some mere tweak to the protocols, it would require replacing the protocols entirely (with inherently insecure ones).
The craziest part about all of this is: The UK could very well pass this law. And they will think that Apple, WhatsApp, and other companies who are all-in on E2EE will just abide by their new laws. They think Apple is bluffing.
But I can see a scenario where Apple follows through and bans FaceTime and iMessage in the UK. And this could set the example for WhatsApp, Signal, and other E2E messaging apps to do the same and pull their apps from the App Store in the UK.
This is madness and will be very interesting to see where we go from here.
😳 iPhone 15 Ultra & Boring Colors
‘Titan Gray’ color
One of the early rumors surrounding the iPhone 15 Pro was from 9to5Mac, who said that the exclusive color for this year’s Pro iPhones would be red.
Well, turns out that’s likely not happening.
Here are the colors we’re now expecting the iPhone 15 Pro to come in (via 9to5):
Space Gray
Silver
Titan Gray
Dark Blue
It looks like Apple will be ditching the Gold & Purple colors for Gray & Blue.
Boring, yes. But I will say, Titan Gray could have a very similar color tone to the Apple Watch Ultra. And if you like matching tech like I do, that will be the color to go for!
What about the regular iPhone 15?
Things are usually less boring for the base model iPhones, and that seems to be the case again this year. Here' are the expected colors:
Black
Green
Blue
Yellow
Pink
Yes, a pink color will [hopefully] finally be coming! We’ve seen various shades of “pink” from Apple in the past, but this time Apple is aiming at a more vibrant pink shade.
Color-Matching Cables!
Here’s another unexpected twist with the 15 series: we might get color-matching USB-C cables in the box!
Not only that, but these cables are also rumored to be 1.5m in length, making them potentially 50% longer than the cords we’ve received in the past! That’s a huge increase!
Leakers have also mentioned that the cables will be more durable than your typical USB-C cable.
And to be honest, I think average consumers will care more about the longer, colored, braided USB-C cables than the actual switch to USB-C itself.
iPhone 15 Ultra?
I’ve always thought the “Pro Max” title for the top-end iPhone sounded clunky and long. It never rolled off the tongue.
Last year, Apple used the word Ultra for the Apple Watch, and that might be expanding to the iPhone as soon as next month!
Apple will use the “iPhone 15 Ultra” moniker for the top-end phone, according to AppleInsider
This was an early rumor that got backpedaled. Most have since referred to it as iPhone 15 Pro Max
However, Mark Gurman says that the “Ultra” iPhone is not coming until 2024, at the earliest
Regardless of whether we see it this year or next, you already know Apple and their genius marketing will find a way for the “Ultra” iPhone 15 to be a much better option than the iPhone 15 Pro. Will be interesting to see!
📲 iOS 17, Threads Desktop, & More
New in Beta 7
Another Tuesday, another round of iOS and other Beta software updates. This time we saw iOS 17 Beta 7/Public Beta 5 get released.
Here’s what else you need to know about the latest software updates, aside from the one mentioned in the image above:
iOS 17 Beta 7 changes the haptic feedback vibration pattern when flipping the mute switch - a potential hint at the Action Button coming to the iPhone 15 Pro
macOS Sonoma Beta 6 added a new 'Sonoma Horizon' wallpaper
Threads on the Web
Meta’s Threads app has finally launched a desktop version of the app and while I haven’t really been on Threads much since the launch week, this was much needed. But I honestly think it’s too late.
With X now paying creators [good money] for tweet post impressions, it just encourages them to keep using that platform. I mean it is literally paying them to be there.
So now, even with the desktop version, what’s the point of posting on Threads? Besides those who just dislike Elon Musk and other outside factors, I’m struggling to find any reason to ever log in to Threads again. Am I alone in feeling this way?
📰 Quick News Bites
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Until next week, ✌️
- Brandon
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