Published 17:32 13 Sep 2017 GMT

Apple's new FaceID fails in first demonstration

Regardless of where you stand on the iOS vs. Android debate, we're all at least a little intrigued whenever Apple brings out a new iPhone. Apple really set the bar for smartphones when in 2007, the late Steve Jobs and his veritable dream team unveiled the iPhone. The now-fabled smartphone is credited for spawning an impressive array of things; not only did it literally put the World Wide Web in people's pockets but, it transformed the face of the photography industry forever, making it an integral part of everyday life. So when Apple CEO Tim Cook declared the latest iteration of the iPhone, the iPhone X, to be "the biggest leap forward since the first iPhone" at its launch, we all couldn't wait to see what magic had been cooked up at Apple HQ. Certainly the iPhone X boasts an impressive list of never-before-seen features including, a 5.8-inch "Super Retina" screen, FaceID and perhaps most importantly, wireless charging. However, to the surprise of all the loyal Apple-ites out there, the company has chosen to eschew the home button, making this iPhone very special indeed. As such, everyone was very excited about this launch. But unfortunately for Tim Cook, when it came to demonstrating the phone's features, the iPhone X's new FaceID feature failed on its first demonstration, in front of a whole crowd of people... Yesterday evening, Apple's senior vice president, Craig Federighi, demonstrated the new iPhone's features on stage, in front of large crowds of press and iPhone fans. Explaining the FaceID feature, he said that all you need to do to unlock the phone was to look at it, however, when Craig tried this out on his own iPhone X, it didn't work and instead asked him to enter a passcode to unlock the device. As you can see in the video, Craig starts off by stating: "with iPhone X, your iPhone is locked until you look at it, and it recognizes you. Nothing has ever been more simple, natural and effortless. We call this Face ID. Face ID is the future of how we unlock our smartphones and protect our sensitive information." However, the demonstration did not go to plan as Craig was unable to unlock the phone using his face alone. FaceID replaces the TouchID feature that has been used on several previous versions of the iPhone. The phone is designed to recognize its user's face using an infrared camera, and it's alleged to be so intelligent that it can't be fooled with hats, wigs or anything else that obstructs your face. However, according to Tech Insider, the fail wasn't necessarily Apple's fault. As they point out, the phone had just restarted meaning that Craig would have had to enter a code anyway. Consequently, it's not the device's fault, just a little accident made in preparation for the launch. In any case, I don't know about you, but I'm still excited to get my hands on the iPhone X. But whilst I wasn't bothered by this little glitch, I am a little put off by the retail price of the product. The iPhone X is Apple's most expensive smartphone to date and it retails for a whopping £999 - £1,149 in the UK and begins at $999 in the US. Guess we better start saving up those pennies, eh?

uncategorised2 min(s) read

Published 22:13 03 Nov 2017 GMT

A lot of iPhone X's are being broken even though they've only just gone on sale

Tom Wood

Ever since Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, the technological world has never quite been the same. Irrespective of whether you're even a user of the Apple device, you'll undoubtedly keep up with all the speculation over what fancy new feature the new iteration will boast, and many iPhone veterans have spent entire summers saving up their pennies, eagerly awaiting the new update. Certainly, regardless of where you fall in the iPhone versus Android debate, I think we can all attest to the fact that we do care about what Tim Cook and his dream team have managed to conjure up. And this is mainly because almost everything that the tech company has produced to date has been deemed "revolutionary". The now-modest iPhone 3G is credited for an impressive array of things, including the fact that it was the first mobile device to literally put the internet into people's pockets. Yes, that means that we may not have had social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter if Steve Jobs didn't have his lightbulb moment. Frightening, eh? The recently released iPhone X has been the most coveted smartphone in Apple's history to date, however, we have been hearing more tales of woe than delight, as it appears that clumsy iPhone users keep dropping and destroying the things. For once, it appears that it's a better idea to save your money and forego purchasing the new iPhone, as more and more videos are appearing of people dropping and destroying their shiny new iPhone X's. Footage of excited customers dropping and smashing their new purchases hit Twitter earlier this week, and it's certainly going to lessen some of that FOMO you've been feeling about not being able to afford the new Apple product. I mean, just check out this epic fail...as the uploader appropriately captioned the video, "it's painful to watch". [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/trustedreviews/status/926406742191345664]] And yes, the damage here is rather "catastrophic". [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/Merrily13NEWS/status/926396380888825856]] The new iPhone, like other models, features a glass front to back. What sets it apart, however, is it's edge-to-edge screen which can be unlocked using facial recognition. The iPhone X is available to purchase for $999 in the USA, and rather bizarrely for £999 in the UK, which means that us poor brits are having to fork out substantially more for the same exact product. And unfortunately, the bad news doesn't end there. According to the Mirror, if you've smashed your edge-to-edge screen, you'll have to pay around £286.44 (that is, $376.05) to get it fixed. But that's not all, if you damage other parts of the pricey model, like the speaker or microphone it could set you back an eye-watering £419 ($549). Well, if you're considering getting an iPhone X, you better get that thing insured, stat. I mean, you really do not want to be forking out that kind of money, given how much it costs to purchase one in the first place.

uncategorised3 min(s) read

Published 17:33 13 Nov 2017 GMT

Hackers find major security flaw in iPhone X after just one week

Tom Wood

Did you wait twenty hours in the cold, wind and rain for a shot at that brand new iPhone X? If so, have you already dropped and shattered the thing like a glass table? If not, fret not - there are other ways to ruin your iPhone! In fact, hackers have cracked the face scanning technology wide open. It was to be expected - the iPhone X isn't a fortress or anything. If people can jailbreak these things, they can confuse the facial censor, which is in its infancy of production for sure. When you try to strip down and make design sleeker, often, the unexpected happens. These convenient new modules become totally exploitable! With new technology, it's easier than ever to pry a curious finger into the gaps and peel the whole thing wide open. Basically, for a mere 150 bucks, a cyber security company called Bkav has printed out a 3-D mask that can trick the iPhone X like it's a common fool. However, Bkav noted that common people are far less likely to be targeted by this kind of fraud than, say, serious world leaders and billionaires: "Potential targets shall not be regular users, but billionaires, leaders of major corporations, nation leaders and agents like FBI need to understand the Face ID’s issue. Security units’ competitors, commercial rivals of corporations, and even nations might benefit from our PoC." Basically, to unlock Trump's hypothetical iPhone X, all you have to do is print out a mask, paste printed photos of Trump's eyes into the eye holes, and use silicon to make the face realistic. You just need a 3-D printer and a craftsman who knows what they're doing. Of course, there's the chance that Bkav has uncovered a minor exploit that will be fixed soon, or altered Face ID somehow. But it seems plausible that with printed eyes, you can trick it into thinking a mask is actually you. Of course, the face-scanning has always been a point of controversy. Taking out the Home button is a big move, and if people can unlock their phones with just their faces, what else can be read in their faces? Technology is getting closer and closer to knowing extreme details about us just from a simple face scan. It can already determine your politics with high accuracy just from facial structure. Do you really think Apple isn't collecting ANY biometric or facial data on its users? Just for marketing purposes, of course they would. There's no proof of it, but after the NSA revelations, I don't trust corporations to protect my privacy. If you do, you may not like the outcome. Allowing a corporation to download a map of your face is, uh...just a little dystopian? In the end, it remains to be seen just how pregnable the fortress of Apple's iPhone security really is. Will it be paper-thin, and not private, or well-protected, and still probably not nearly as private as we hope? Either way, enjoy that 1,000 dollar iPhone! Precious few years remain until the next one...

innovation3 min(s) read

Published 13:33 04 Aug 2018 GMT

Apple have accidentally leaked images for a brand-new, bigger iPhone X

Tom Wood

Since Steve Jobs introduced the revolutionary touchscreen phone to the world back in 2007, we've been transported sharply into the smartphone age, and several iPhones, iPads and smart devices later, some people were saying that the Cupertino-based tech giant's time in the limelight was over. But then, on the iPhone's 10th birthday, we saw something we'd never seen before.

For those of you who really want to live like you're in Star Trek, the iPhone X was perhaps the phone which helped you feel like you'd taken a time machine into the future. While other iPhones had featured the signature home button and more recent models introducing fingerprint sensors, the iPhone X was the first model that could be unlocked with your face.

The iPhone X was an unmitigated commercial success, selling millions of units to become the best-selling smartphone in the world, and in the intervening months, competitors have scrambled to match the new iPhone's sale. Most notably, their competitors Samsung.

Samsung recently announced their latest model, the Galaxy Note 9, which comes with the customary USB-C connector, headphone jack and S-Pen stylus, but what was interesting is that the phone's design was 'leaked' in the form of a pre-order form for customers in New Zealand.

Now, a similar leak has occurred in Apple's camp, and with a new line of iPhones expected to be announced this fall, images have been spotted of a new and improved iPhone X - one that looks even bigger than the model we've come to know and love. Yay!

But rather than having to comb random corners of the phone world, the leak in question comes from inside the Apple firmware itself! Notorious Apple firmware reverse-engineer Guilherme Rambo spotted a rather interesting image in the beta for the upcoming iOS 12, along with another icon for a bezel-less iPad. Check it out:

[[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/_inside/status/1025461747912765441]]

Rambo notes that since this is the beta, we should take these images with more than a little pinch of salt, as there's a possibility they won't look exactly like this moving forward. What we can expect, however, is the presence of dual-SIM for the new iPhone; Forbes' Gordon Kelly says code for this is hidden in the firmware for iOS12.

"Hidden within iOS 12 beta 5, Rambo found references to ‘second sim status’ and ‘second SIM tray status’ in the software’s diagnostic reporting. Interestingly, the latter reveals Apple will have two physical slots for SIMs, rather than one standard and one eSIM - something the company has been working on for years.

At this stage, it is unknown if only the iPhone X Plus is getting this feature, or whether it will also be included in the second generation iPhone X (details) and iPhone 9 (details). Given a second sim takes up more space, I suspect it could be an iPhone X Plus exclusive. It would also prove a useful differentiator to justify the higher price."

Oooh, so there you have it! The new iPhone X Plus could be the next phone announced, and you might be able to enjoy dual SIMs along with it! I can't wait for the next WWDC conference!

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songkran

uncategorised6 min(s) read

Published 15:40 20 Sep 2017 GMT

Ten Years after the first iPhone release, here’s how it’s evolved

Tom Wood

I’ll put my hands up and admit it; I’m a technophobe. In 2008, the year of the first iPhone release, I didn’t quite get the hype. Unimpressed by smartphones, I was content to carry around a brick in my back pocket, like a kleptomaniac at a building site. But then, something magical happened: I was given an iPhone of my very own and it was only then that I saw the beauty of Apple’s creation. Funny how free stuff can change your mind like that, huh? Immediately, I noticed some big differences from my old phone. It was shinier for starters, and did things my Nokia couldn’t dream of. Suddenly I always had something to read, watch or listen to, and as a bonus I could still download Snake from the App Store. It's hard to believe that was a decade ago now, but somehow here we are ten years later with endless versions of the iconic handset on sale and many more to come in the future. It's difficult to overstate the impact the iPhone had on the technological landscape, so in honour of the tenth anniversary, we take a look back at how the iPhone has evolved.

1. iPhone 1

The Apple iPhone went on sale on 29 June, six months after Steve Jobs introduced the new smartphone to a packed crowd of journalists and staff in January, telling the crowd that it was the day he’d been waiting for for the past two years. The first model, a far cry from the iPhones we own these day was presented as three devices in one; a touchscreen iPod, a mobile phone, and a mobile web browser. The original iPhone had no third-party apps, no GPS and no video recording, but with its 3.5-inch screen, 320 x 480 pixel resolution, a 2MP camera built in and up to 8GB of storage, it was a true revolutionarily device at the time.

2. iPhone 3G

Apple quickly realised they were onto a true winner and the iPhone 3G was launched just over 12 months later. With high-speed internet becoming big news in 2008, “3G" was included in the title to make it clear that if you bought one, you were getting the very best of the best. Largely identical to the original iPhone, the key differences included the appearance of the App Store icon, a slightly thinner shape and plastic back.

3. iPhone 3GS

June 2009 brought disappointment for iPhone fans as the iPhone 3GS came out and was dismissed as being too similar to its predecessor. But if you looked closely, you realised that Apple had attempted to redefine the iPhone experience in order to bring speed, video capture and a digital compass, as well as a faster 600MHz ARM A8 CPU, double the RAM at 256GB and fingerprint-resistant screen coating.

4. iPhone 4

The turn of the decade saw Apple completely up its game and show Blackberry users how it was done. The key improvements included a brand new design with an integrated antenna, a high-resolution Retina display (640 x 960 pixels) and an impressive 5MP camera, featuring HD video recording. It was a game-changer. No surprises then when people began to queue up in the street in record-breaking numbers to get their hands on one.

5. iPhone 4S

With the release of the iPhone 4S, we all met someone who would become a permeant fixture in our lives: Siri. Now, whether you liked it or not, your phone talked to you and offered an exclusive personal assistant who never quite understood what you said. Pulling out the “S” again for their fifth generation iPhone, Apple also added on an 8MP camera with 1080p video recording. Their improvements were widely praised, but the iPhone as a whole was still criticised for its low battery life and lack of Near field communication, Flash support or option for memory expansion. But we had to take what we could get.

[[heroimage||http://cdn.junglecreations.com/wp/junglecms/2017/09/iPhone-4S-compressor.jpg]]

6. iPhone 5

After six handsets, Apple decided it was time to alter the iPhone’s screen size and aspect ratio and we loved them for it. Weighing in at 20% lighter than its predecessor, the 2012 version boasted a 4-inch screen, running at 640 x 1136 pixels. In addition, it also introduced a new connector, Lightning, making it a phone that millions of users were grappling to upgrade to. Until the next version, of course.

7. iPhone 5C/iPhone 5S

From the very first iPhone release, Apple targeted a market who had money to spare, but with the arrival of the slightly cheaper iPhone 5C, it was clear they wanted to expand their reach to the mobile middle market. The new addition was pretty much a carbon copy of the iPhone 5, aside from the plastic back. More importantly, with the launch of the iPhone 5S brought the introduction of the fingerprint reader under the home button which provided a way to unlock the phone and authorise purchases from the App Store, as well as longer battery life, better camera and more power.

8. iPhone 6/6 Plus

Apple was back and bigger than ever in September 2016 when they launched the iPhone 6. The most noticeable change was no doubt that screen size, with the display soaring up from 4 inches to 4.7 inches, not to mention increasing the resolution from the 1136 x 640 to 1334 x 750. But we hadn’t seen nothing yet; the iPhone 6 Plus had a massive 5.5 inch display and a high definition resolution of 1920 x 1080. The idea of round corners were also introduced, with screens that curved into the body of the device. Unsurpisingly, the two new phones broke the record for pre-orders for the first night they were available.

9 iPhone 6S/6S Plus

Apple’s iPhone 6S and 6S Plus came with some meaty upgrades that made it a must-have. These included a new force touch technology called 3D Touch which was able to perceive the amount of force a user put on the touch screen to activate different functions. Not to mention the beefed up 12-megapixel iSight camera that could shoot 4K video.

10. iPhone 7/iPhone 7 Plus

All of the people out there who had become accustomed to putting their phone in a bag of rice after dropping it down the toilet were no doubt thrilled to hear that the iPhone 7 was somewhat water resistant. Otherwise, the ten generation iPhone wasn’t a massive game changer, despite causing a stir by giving users the option of a jet black or bright red version. Perhaps the most controversial thing about the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 plus was the fact that the company had waved farewell to the 3.5mm headphone jack in favour of wireless earphones, which caused many local customers to say goodbye. So, here we are, 10 years after the first iPhone release. A decade on, the Apple creation has become our loyal companion and you’d be forgiven if you couldn’t remember a time with it. But, what exactly does the future hold for the iPhone? Who knows, we can only wait and see.

uncategorised3 min(s) read

Published 10:22 13 Sep 2017 GMT

Here are all the things Apple didn't tell us about the 256GB iPhone X

Tom Wood

So finally, after months of speculation and leaks, the new iPhone has finally arrived and everyone is losing their minds for a variety of reasons. The iPhone 8 and the iPhone8+ are the latest bits of kit to be created by the tech giant and there is also the iPhone X - the phone that has plenty of tech fans licking their lips. The X is the anniversary phone and it contains exciting features like no home button and facial recognition, although this feature failed on its first presentation to the mass media yesterday. On Tuesday, Apple revealed the new batch of phones, including the iPhone X, to much fanfare. The new features that were highlighted during the slick presentation were wireless changing, "true depth cameras", and longer battery life (hurrah!), as well as being waterproof; so you will no longer need to chuck your phone in bags of rice when you drop it down the toilet. Apple revealed a lot of details about the iPhone X, but there was also plenty that the company didn't tell us. Phil Schiller, who is soon to be Apple's SVP of marketing, told us how much the 64GB version of the iPhone X would cost, but he failed to reveal the same amount of information regarding the 256GB version. The smaller version of the phone is set to cost $999, or £999 for UK customers (how does that exchange rate work, Apple?), but the cost of the bigger brother is absolutely eye-watering. For a while now, we've been wondering when a phone will break the $1,000 mark, and that time is now. Yep, Apple's 256GB version of the iPhone X, will set you back $1,149. To put that into context, that is the same price as a MacBook Air with a 13.3-inch display and more expensive than an iPad and an iMac desktop computer. Now maybe I'm being a bit stupid here, but over $1,000 for a mobile phone seems completely and utterly ridiculous. Can we just go back to the days when phones cost $50 and we weren't so obsessed with them? In addition, the iPhone X will support fast charging, something which is fairly common in android phones already and will allow users to get a 50 percent charge in 30 minutes. The iPhone X also features Galileo support, Europe's new satellite system, which means it will now be harder than ever to lose your phone, although seeing as it costs over $1,000, you shouldn't really be misplacing it in the first place. Despite the fact that the iPhone X will also have a super retina display, it won't be as bright as Samsung's Galaxy Note 8, but it does mean it won't burn a hole in your eyes when you're trying to get to sleep at night.

It's all very exciting, and no doubt despite the ridiculous price, people will be rushing to buy the iPhone X. Apple seem to have some sort of power over people; I mean, they bought out the most losable wireless headphones I have ever seen and everyone went crazy for them - the world is a funny place.