Monthly Archives: September 2019

On Tuesday, 10 September Apple’s keynote event revealed the new iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max. There has also been updates to the Apple Watch series 5 and a brand new dedicated operating system for iPad.

We’ve already had two big Apple events in 2019: launching the new subscription services TV+, News+ and Apple Arcade, plus Apple Card, on 25 March. The new Mac Pro desktop and display was announced in June, along with the details of the new operating system updates. The main announcement yesterday was the release of the three iPhone 11 models (across three different screen sizes).

Updates to iPhone:

Some updates appear to be minor, although there have been improvements made to the cameras. Most features look like a progression of features, rather than new innovations. The pricing has been set as cheaper than previous models in the US, however this has hit the UK badly with an increase in pricing.

The iPhone 11 starts at £729, with the premium smartphones iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone Pro Max starting from £1,049 and £1,149 respectively. This is a £200 increase from the price of the iPhones sold in the US. The pricing strategy in the US has been made cheaper, whereas in the UK it has increased from the previous iPHone XR’s by £50.

A new camera system in Pro iPhones gives a triple lens for ultra-wide angle photos. This means users will be able to zoom out further and capture a larger field of view. The sensors will capture three images simultaneously, and then use new artificial intelligence software to automatically combine the photo.

The iPhone 11 has an LCD screen, reverting iPhone users back to the standard screen used on most iPhones, aside the XS which uses OLED display. Users of the XS will likely be displeased to upgrade to an iPhone 11 and loose this display. The iPhone X, XS and XS Max (unlike all other iPhones) have OLED screens. In most respects OLED is great: it offers deeper blacks than LCD, brighter whites, overall better colour reproduction and even superior power efficiency. But, it’s more expensive to make, which may be why Apple has decided to revert to the standard LCD screen. The iPhone 11 does however come with a 0.3-inch bigger display plus the new, faster A13 processor chip.

Two recent iPhones – the SE and XR – did not have 3D Touch (where the screen responds to different weights and lengths of taps/presses), the latter instead having what Apple calls Haptic Touch, and this is the same for the iPhone 11. Bloomberg has confirmed (via its sources) that 3D Touch will be dropped from all iPhones in 2019.

Despite these improvements and new camera features, this year’s iPhones miss out on new technology which was expected to be included, for example, Apple Pencil support, 5G connectivity, and USB-C ports like the iPad Pros.

Updates to Watch:

The Apple Watch 5 was announced, which includes new LTPO (Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxid) OLED screens and the intriguing addition of a built-in compass.

The new OLED screen was also used in the Apple Watch 4 but has been used differently in this edition for longer battery life and for the screen to stay constantly on. No longer will the screen turn off; it will now automatically slowly dim when it is not being looked at.

The built-in compass has been added instead of a software compass. iWatches start at £399 for the GPS-only model in the smaller 40mm size. It’s a bit more for the cellular 44mm size at £429.

Updates to iPad:

Apple has released a new iPad with one key update, a larger 10.2 screen. Apple has made this edition without making the device larger or increasing the price from the previous model, making this an attractive product. It also offers new features, is made with 100% recycled aluminum, and also allows full connection to Apple’s Smart Keyboard.

The price is set to start at £349 for 32GB storage which is roughly the same as the 2018 entry-level iPad, however if you want more storage (128GB) prices are increased to start at £449.

One of the most notable things on the new iPad 10.2 is the new operating system, iPadOS. This operating system is very similar to the iOS 13 platform used in Apple smartphones but now enhances iPads for the larger screen. iPadOS is also able to handle widgets and the ability to place more apps in windows around the screen. SD cards and a mouse can now be connected, which makes a new experience on the iPad.

Overall these are not mind-blowing updates, but the new features and price make this a product worthwhile to consider.

The release date of the new iPad is September 30 , but can be pre-ordered via us with a discount.

In all it has been an interesting event with announcements of the new iPhone 11s, updated Apple Watch 5 and a new iPad. However, no new AirPods were released and we also didn’t see a 16-inch MacBook, as heavily rumored. Apple have made some notable improvements however is still going to have a hard time keeping up with competition with the likes of Samsung who provide close matches such as the Galaxy S10 and Samsung Galaxy Tab S6.

Typical advice on how to create and maintain passwords says things like ‘use a complex password with numbers and punctuation’. Whilst this is theoretically good advice and good practice, it can be difficult to maintain, and crucially it is very likely not enough to protect your accounts and services online.

The vast majority of breaches occur when hackers already have your password, usually in one of two key ways:

1. Credential Stuffing – where credentials are purchased or gathered, and then tried against multiple services. These have likely been previously stolen or leaked in a breach of a different service. For example, if you use Facebook and that password was compromised, a hacker could try that password against other accounts you are known to use, eg other social media or email etc.

2. Phishing – where credentials are gained under false pretences by sending you emails or links to sign in to fake versions of services you use, thereby giving away your password for that service.

In both cases above, the strength of your password does not matter. All other hacking methods – which we tend to imagine, probably due to Hollywood movies – such as logging keystrokes on your keyboard and attempting to guess passwords using powerful computers using brute force.

Microsoft report that they see Credential Stuffing attempts on more than 20 million accounts per day across their platforms (source), which is a huge amount, and shows just how many services have been compromised and how many peoples’ credentials have been leaked.

So what can you do you protect your accounts and services, in light of this? You should implement all of the below points for the best protection.

1. Do not use an obvious and easy to guess password. Anything based on “…1234…” or “…password…” and the like can be easily tried against your account. If you don’t use these very common passwords (there are typically around 45 variations), even if someone does try to access your account then they will very likely move along if these don’t work.

2. Use a different password for every single account/service to guard against Credential Stuffing, as one compromised password cannot be used to access another service. However, this is arguably quote laborious to do, and could lead to keeping notes of all passwords in one place, which is a problem in itself.

3. The real answer is to use Multi Factor Authentication (MFA), which requires you to enter an additional code or some sort of verification from another device (typically your smartphone) in order to access your account. Using MFA means you are 99.9% less likely to be compromised (source).

Google discovered that for two years thousands of iPhones have been indiscriminately hacked. Someone has exploited a large number of iPhone vulnerabilities without restraint or careful targeting.

On Thursday evening, Google’s Project Zero security research team publicly revealed a broad campaign of iPhone hacking. They highlight five “exploit chains” which have allowed hackers to penetrate each layer of iOS digital protections. The rare and intricate chains of code took advantage of a total of 14 security flaws. All users of iPhone versions from iOS 10 to iOS 12 were potentially vulnerable. The hack simply required users to visit a website, which has been active since at least 2017, and had thousands of visitors per week.

Once the iPhone had been made vulnerable hackers had access to everything from the browser’s sandbox isolation mechanism to the core of the operating system known as the kernel, ultimately gaining complete control over the phone. Once installed, it could monitor live location data, access photos and contacts, read certain messages for example WhatsApp and iMessages, and gain passwords or other sensitive information from the iOS Keychain. This is a serious vulnerability, of which users were completely unaware.

This is potentially the biggest iPhone hacking incident that has ever been reported. Apple has so far declined to comment on these findings. Security vulnerabilities were reported to them by Google on February 1, which Apple amended in the iOS 12.1.4 update released on February 7. Google has just publicly released this information, which could be timed to clash with Apple’s annual launch event which this year is happening on 10 September, and is suspected to include new iPhone models.

Previously it was believed such hacks were very expensive and therefore targeted. This incident has upturned these beliefs and changed these assumptions. There is not much that can be done in terms of prevention, however, users should be conscious that mass exploitation can still exist. Smartphones should be treated as devices which are vulnerable to attack and which can be compromised. It’s been shown hackers can get access to extremely personal information, and so users should keep this in mind when deciding what information to put on their devices.