MacRumors

Verizon today announced the launch of a third "Unlimited" data plan option, which provides users with 75GB of LTE data, 20GB of LTE hotspot access, 720p video streaming, 5 TravelPass sessions per month, and 500GB of Verizon Cloud storage.

The new "Above Unlimited" plan joins Verizon's two other "Unlimited" plans, Go Unlimited and Beyond Unlimited. While Verizon calls these plans unlimited, all three have data caps on the amount of LTE data that users can access per month before having their speeds downgraded or limitations on video quality.

The existing Go Unlimited plan, Verizon's cheapest option, provides users with unlimited LTE data, but it restricts streaming video to 480p and limits mobile hotspot speeds to 600Kb/s.

The current Beyond Unlimited plan provides users with 22GB of LTE data per month, with access to 720p video streaming and 15GB of hotspot data.

Neither of the two current plans include TravelPass access or extra cloud storage. Verizon's TravelPass is designed to let customers use their domestic talk, next, and data allowances while traveling outside of the United States for $5 to $10 per day, with Above Unlimited offering five free days.

Verizon's new Above Unlimited plan is priced at $95 for one line, compared to $85 for Beyond Unlimited and $75 for Go Unlimited. For a family of four, pricing for Above Unlimited is at $60 per line. The new plan option will be available for Verizon customers and those new to Verizon starting on June 18.

Unlimited data plans from carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have become increasingly complicated in the year and a half since carriers readopted unlimited data options. All three carriers now offer different unlimited tiers with various add-ons and restrictions, making unlimited cellular data plans as difficult to decipher as prior non-unlimited plans.

In the United States, carriers began seriously embracing affordable "unlimited" data plans starting in 2015, when T-Mobile introduced its simple T-Mobile ONE plan with unlimited talk, text, and 4G data for $70 per month. Verizon followed in February of 2017 with its first unlimited plan, as did AT&T.

Prior to 2015 and T-Mobile's intervention, carriers primarily relied on limited data plans that provided 2-10GB of data to customers after largely eliminating unlimited data plans in the years following the launch LTE networks.

A few weeks after Apple rejected Valve's planned Steam Link app due to App Store review guideline violations related to in-app purchases, among other things, the company has made a key change to the app in hopes of getting it approved.

Namely, in the latest beta version of Steam Link on TestFlight, Valve has removed the option to purchase games within the app. Instead, the app now informs users that games are available to purchase on a PC, or Mac, according to Eli Hodapp, editor-in-chief of MacRumors sister website TouchArcade.

Moments ago, Valve pushed out an updated version of the Steam Link app to TestFlight testers which […] removed the ability to buy anything through the actual app itself. When you connect to your PC via the Steam Link app and browse the store, the button you used to be able to push to buy things has been changed to say "Available to purchase from your PC."

Shortly after Steam Link was rejected, Apple's marketing chief Phil Schiller explained that it had "discussed these issues with Valve" and would "continue to work with them to help bring the Steam experience to iOS and Apple TV in a way that complies with the store's guidelines," in an email shared by MacStories.

Steam Link, unveiled early last month, will allow users to stream Steam games to an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV from a Mac or PC via a 5GHz Wi-Fi network or a wired Ethernet connection. The app, originally set to launch May 21, will include support for both the Steam Controller and Made for iPhone controllers.

In his hands-on last month, Hodapp said the app works so well that "it feels like there's some kind of actual wizardry powering it all."

If you're the kind of person who is always hungry for "real" PC-like game experiences on your Apple device, but have been dismayed by the amount of junk on the App Store, you can basically delete everything else but the Steam Link app. I'm still dumbfounded by Apple apparently allowing this on their platform, as I could see a very real situation where many people just straight up stop buying things from the App Store and exclusively purchase Steam games through Valve instead.

Valve hasn't specified when it will resubmit Steam Link to Apple for reconsideration, and it remains to be seen if the change will satisfy Apple's guidelines, but it sounds like the app is one step closer to being released on the App Store.

Russian company ElcomSoft today claimed that the latest version of its Phone Breaker software can remotely access iMessage conversation histories stored in iCloud, although there are several strings attached.

Namely, the person attempting to extract iMessages from an iCloud account would need the following before being able to do so:

• Elcomsoft Phone Breaker version 8.3
  

• The associated Apple ID email and password for the iCloud account
  

• The passcode, if an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or system password, if a Mac, of at least one device on the account enrolled in Messages in iCloud, which requires iOS 11.4 and macOS 10.13.5 or later
  

• Access to a two-factor authentication method, such as a trusted secondary device, which may or may not have the same passcode or system password, or a SIM card for a phone number that has been authorized to receive one-time verification codes via SMS

It's worth noting that if the perpetrator has obtained physical access to at least one of your trusted secondary devices, and its passcode, they would be able to read at least part of your iMessage history regardless by simply opening the Messages app.

Apple obviously cares very deeply about the security of its customers, but if a bad actor has gained access to another person's Apple ID credentials, your passcode, and at least one of your Apple devices, or your SIM card, there arguably isn't really much the company can do at that point to protect you.

That's why it's so important, as Apple routinely stresses, to set a strong password for your Apple ID, not share that password with others, enable two-factor authentication, and keep careful possession of your devices. It also helps to set a strong alphanumeric passcode on an iOS device, rather than a four-digit one.

Apple says iMessages are protected with end-to-end encryption, and notes that messages can't be accessed by anyone without your device passcode. As an additional safeguard, Apple requires that users have two-factor authentication turned on for their Apple ID accounts to enable Messages in iCloud.

ElcomSoft's tool seems to be taking advantage of the fact that, if iCloud Backups are turned on, a copy of the encryption key protecting iMessages is included in the backup, according to a support document on Apple's website:

If you have iCloud Backup turned on, a copy of the key protecting your Messages is included in your backup. This ensures you can recover your Messages if you’ve lost access to iCloud Keychain and your trusted devices. When you turn off iCloud Backup, a new key is generated on your device to protect future messages and it is not stored by Apple.

Given the extenuating circumstances required, the vast majority of users shouldn't have anything to worry about. But it's a good reminder to maintain strong security practices on all of your devices to stay safe.

Last week, Apple hosted its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, where over 5,000 developers descended upon the McEnery Convention Center for five days of coding labs and sessions, one-on-one consultations with Apple engineers, get-togethers, and even some early morning exercise.

Among those developers were some 350 scholarship winners, who each received a complimentary WWDC ticket, lodging for the week, and a one-year membership in the Apple Developer Program.

Each year, students aged 13 or older at accredited schools and STEM organizations can apply to become a WWDC scholar. This year, Apple tasked applicants with creating a short interactive scene in a Swift playground, and winners were selected based on the technical skills shown, creativity, and accompanying written responses.

An example of a winning submission from Giovanni Filaferro, a four-time WWDC scholarship winner from Italy.

This year's scholars come from all corners of the world, such as Australia, Bulgaria, China, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, and Canada. Many of the 2018 winners are listed on the WWDCScholars website, run by WWDC scholars Sam Eckert, Andrew Walker, Matthijs Logemann, Michie Riffic, Oliver Binns, Moritz Sternemann, and Amol Kumar.

Apple was kind enough to provide me with a media pass to attend WWDC this year, and during my week in San Jose, I crossed paths with a few of these scholars. After learning about how much fun they were having, I was inspired to connect with more scholars to have them share their day-to-day experiences.

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Apple has confirmed that it is closing a technological loophole that allows law enforcement officials to hack into iPhones through USB-based hardware solutions like the GrayKey box, reports The New York Times.

Apple said it was planning an iPhone software update that would effectively disable the phone's charging and data port -- the opening where users plug in headphones, power cables and adapters -- an hour after the phone is locked. In order to transfer data to or from the iPhone using the port, a person would first need to enter the phone's password.

As we shared last week, the feature that prevents USB accessories from connecting to an iPhone or iPad if it's been more than an hour since the device was last unlocked is included in iOS 12. This setting is enabled by default and it will not allow USB-based accessories like the GrayKey box to connect to an iOS device until a passcode is entered. Charging, however, is still possible as it does not require a data connection.

Apple's new setting effectively disables the techniques that law enforcement officials have been using to access locked iPhones over the past couple of years. A current popular iPhone unlocking option, for example, is the GrayKey box, which has been sold to hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the United States.

The GrayKey box is designed to plug into the Lightning port of an iPhone where it uses a data connection to brute force a passcode in as little as a few hours. With the change, the GrayKey box will not work on an iPhone unless it has been less than an hour since the device was last unlocked. The short time period available for access via USB essentially renders the GrayKey box useless.

Located under Touch ID & Passcode, the USB access setting can be disabled, but most users will have no reason to turn it off as there's no real benefit to doing so. All iOS devices will have this setting turned on by default after upgrading to iOS 12, which means law enforcement officials will have a much more difficult time accessing devices running iOS 12 and beyond.

As The New York Times points out, law enforcement officials have become aware of the changes Apple is planning to implement in iOS 12 and they're not happy. Chuck Cohen, who leads an Indiana State Police task force on internet crimes against children, told The New York Times that the Indiana State Police had unlocked 96 iPhones using the GrayKey box in 2017.

"If we go back to the situation where we again don't have access, now we know directly all the evidence we've lost and all the kids we can't put into a position of safety," said Cohen.

iPhone unlocking devices like the GrayKey box, however, are often not only used by law enforcement officials and can be used by hackers and other nefarious individuals, making it crucial for Apple to patch the security flaw that allows the devices to work.

Apple is not aiming to thwart law enforcement efforts with its on-device security changes. The company regularly complies with requests for the data that it stores on its servers, and has a dedicated team of professionals to respond to these requests. Since 2013, Apple has responded to more than 55,000 U.S. government requests seeking information relating to over 208,000 devices, accounts, or financial identifiers.

Apple also has a team for responding to national security requests, and in 2017 alone, Apple received 29,250-29,748 National Security Requests from the U.S. government. Specific numbers are not available because of U.S. law.

An Apple spokesperson told MacRumors that Apple is always working on strengthening security protections and addressing iPhone vulnerabilities as quickly as possible to defend customers against hackers.

"At Apple, we put the customer at the center of everything we design. We're constantly strengthening the security protections in every Apple product to help customers defend against hackers, identity thieves and intrusions into their personal data. We have the greatest respect for law enforcement, and we don't design our security improvements to frustrate their efforts to do their jobs."

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

The iOS 12 update introduces a comprehensive set of built-in features designed to help you focus, limit distraction, monitor your iOS device usage, and get a better understanding on how you're using your time throughout the day.

These new features are housed in the Screen Time section of the Settings app, which we decided to take a closer look at to give MacRumors readers eagerly awaiting the iOS 12 update an idea of what to expect from Apple's new monitoring features.

Apple designed Screen Time to be incredibly detailed, and it provides a surprising amount of information on how and when you're using your iPhones and iPads. With the main view, accessible in the Settings app, you can see just how much time you've spent on the iPhone each day.

A bar at the top lets you know which apps you've been using, separated by category or specific app, and a small arrow lets you know whether your daily usage is higher or lower than normal.

Tapping into more specific details, there's a full breakdown on every app that you've used in the last 24 hours or across the last 7 days. This breakdown shows each individual app and it displays the websites that you've been viewing. You won't see specific content that was browsed, but it will, for example, note that you spent five minutes viewing MacRumors.com.

If you scroll down, you can see how many times you've picked up your phone per hour and how many total times you've picked up your phone during the day. There's also a measurement of how many notifications you've received and which apps are sending them most frequently.

A report is available each week with a summary of your device usage across the last seven days, and you can also quickly get a glimpse of how you're using your device through a Screen Time widget in the Today Center.

Apple makes no recommendations based on Screen Time information, with the company simply providing the data so you can decide for yourself if you're spending too much time on your devices and want to alter your usage habits. Screen Time collects data from every iOS device where you're logged into your Apple ID, but it does not include Mac data.

If you do want to cut down on app usage, Apple has included App Limits, which let you set a time limit on app categories. So, for example, if you want to spend less time on Instagram or playing games, you can set a time limit, with Apple delivering a notification when your time is up.

Downtime similarly restricts access to content on the iPhone for when you'd like to be left alone to focus, while new notification control options and Do Not Disturb features also give you new ways to cut back.

All of these features are also available to parents, who can use them through Family Sharing to better monitor how their kids are spending time on their iOS devices and introduce necessary limitations.

What do you think of Apple's new Screen Time features? For more details on how Screen Time, notifications, Do Not Disturb, and Downtime, and App Limits work together to give you more control over your devices, make sure to check out our iOS 12 roundup.

Bloomberg Television today published a full-length interview between Apple CEO Tim Cook and David Rubenstein, one of three billionaire founders of private equity firm Carlyle Group, following a brief preview last month. The conversation took place at Cook's alma mater Duke University on May 13.

Cook reflected on a wide range of topics, including his education and career path, relationship with the late Steve Jobs, the Apple Watch's life-saving capabilities, politics, and social issues such as privacy, immigration, and equality.

On the subject of Apple's earnings:

Rubenstein: You’ve now been the CEO of Apple since about July of 2011. The earnings are up about 80 percent. So, have you ever thought you can’t do better than this, and maybe you should just say, “well, I’ve done a great job, and now I’m going to do something else with my life?”

Cook: We view the stock price and revenue and profits as a result of doing things right on the innovation side, on the creativity side, focusing on the right products, treating customers like they’re jewels, and focusing on the user experience. I didn’t even know the numbers that you just quoted. It’s not even in my orbit, to be honest with you.

Rubenstein: When you announce your quarterly earnings, analysts always say, “well they didn’t sell as much of this product as we thought they would,” and so does that bother you?

Cook: It did at one time. It doesn’t anymore. We run Apple for the long term. It’s always struck me as bizarre that there’s a fixation on how many units are sold in a 90-day period. We’re making decisions that are multi-year kinds of decisions. We make it very clear that we don’t want to run the company for people who want to make a quick buck. We run the company for the long term.

Cook's view on billionaire investor Warren Buffett recently purchasing an additional 75 million shares in Apple:

Rubenstein: One of the shareholders who recently surfaced as having bought an additional 75 million shares is Warren Buffett. Are you pleased to have him as your shareholder?

Cook: I’m overjoyed. I’m thrilled. Warren is focused on the long term, so we’re in sync. It’s the way we run the company. It’s the way he invests. So, yeah, I could not be happier.

On the subject of Apple Park:

Cook: Steve had the vision that the workplace should facilitate people working together… having these common areas that people could work together and run into each other without planning on doing it… and that the level of ideas and creativity and innovation that would come out of that would be phenomenal. And we’re seeing that.

Rubenstein: You’re convinced standing up working is better than sitting down?

Cook: We have given all of our employees, 100 percent, standing desks. If you can stand for a while and then sit, and so on and so forth, this is much better for your lifestyle.

Cook reflecting on leaving Compaq to work at Apple:

Rubenstein: You were at Compaq, which at the time I think was one of the biggest manufacturers of personal computers… you’re there for about six months, and you get a call from Steve Jobs, or somebody working for him, asking you to come join Apple. Apple was modest compared to Compaq, so why did you take the interview, and why did you join Apple?

Cook: It’s a good question. Steve had come back to the company and was essentially replacing the executive team that was there at the time. I thought, you know, this is an opportunity to talk to the guy who started the whole industry. Steve met me on Saturday. It was just minutes into talking to him… I want to do it. I totally shocked myself. There was a sparkle in his eyes that I’ve never seen in a CEO before. He was sort of turning left when everyone was turning right. On almost everything he talked about, he was doing something extraordinarily different than conventional wisdom. Many people were abandoning the consumer market because it was a blood bath. Steve was doing the exact opposite. He was doubling down on the consumer at the time everyone else, the conventional wisdom said “go put your money in storage and servers.” Talking with him, and the type of questions he asked, were also different. I did, literally before I left, was thinking “I hope he offers me a job, because I really want to do this.”

On the subject of succeeding Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple:

Rubenstein: Steve’s health was such that he couldn’t continue to be CEO. He told the board that. And you were announced as the new CEO, I think around July of 2011. When you became the CEO, do you feel that Steve would say, here’s what I was interested in doing, and you fulfill my goals, or do you feel you had your own view on what you should do, and how did you balance the two? You’re succeeding a legendary figure…

Cook: It’s not so sequential as that. We have a really open company, so most of us could finish the other person’s sentences, even when we might disagree with them. So, it wasn’t a matter of Steve having a secret file or anything. He was always sharing his ideas — all the time. So, it was very different than that. Honestly, my view at that time was that he would be Chairman and would do that forever, and we would sort of figure out the relationship change there. That’s what I thought. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way.

On the iPhone:

Rubenstein: You have a product that is the most successful consumer product in the history of mankind — which is the iPhone.

Cook: There was a sense that it was a profound product… that it was a game changer. If you go back and watch the keynote that Steve announced it, you can feel his passion in it, and the way he described it. I still remember it like it was yesterday.

On the Apple Watch and its life-saving capabilities:

Rubenstein: So, how are they doing?

Cook: They’re doing fantastic. Cellular is now on the watch. You don’t have to travel with your iPhone… you can just use your watch. One of my best moments of the day is to go through my emails that are from users. I get so many each week from people that found out they have a heart problem from their watch. It’s alerting you if you’ve been sitting and your heart rate has climbed to a level that doesn’t make sense relative to the activity you’ve been doing.

Rubenstein: I suppose you don’t want to know if you have a heart problem.

Cook: Well, we think most people do, because then you can go get help. Seriously though, David, so many people have written and said, “the watch alerted me to the problem, I took action and went to the cardiologist, and he told me, if I had not gone there, I wouldn’t be alive.”

On the topics of privacy and equality:

Rubenstein: Let’s talk about some of the values that you’ve been espousing. One is privacy.

Cook: We see privacy a fundamental human right. So, to us, it’s right up there with some of the other civil liberties that make Americans what they are… defines us as Americans. We see that this is becoming a larger and larger issue for people. Our tact on this is we take a minimum amount of data from customers… only that which we need to provide a great service. Then, we work really hard to protect it with encryption and so forth.

Rubenstein: You’ve also talked about the importance of equality. Why is that so important to you?

Cook: Many of the problems of the world come down to the lack of equality. It’s the fact that it’s the kid who is born in one ZIP code doesn’t have a good education because he happens to be born in that ZIP code. It’s someone who is maybe in the LGBT community who is fired because of that. It’s someone who has a different religion than the majority and are therefore ostracized in some way. If one day you could wave a wand and everybody would treat each other with dignity and respect, there are many, many problems that would go away with that.

Cook on why he publicly revealed he is gay:

Rubenstein: You exposed your own personal life a bit. The privacy that you said other people should have. You kind of gave up some of your privacy. Why did you do that?

Cook: I did it for a greater purpose. I realized there were a lot of kids out there that were not being treated very well—including in their own families. Kids need someone to say “oh, they did okay in life, and they’re gay, so it must not be a life sentence in some kind of way.” We’re getting these notes… it would tug on my heart even more, and it got to the point, and it got to the point where I thought, I’m making the wrong call, by trying to do something that is comfortable for me, which is to stay private. I needed to do something for the greater good.

Cook's recent meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump:

Rubenstein: Now, you’re obviously in the public eye. Recently you had a meeting with President Trump. What was that like?

Cook: I talked about trade, and the importance of trade, and how I felt that two countries trading together make the pie larger. It’s true, I think undoubtedly true, that not everyone has been advantaged from that in either country, and we’ve got to work on that. I felt that tariffs were not the right approach there, and I showed him some more analytical kind of things to demonstrate why. We also talked about immigration, and the importance of fixing the Dreamer issue now. We’re only one court ruling away from a catastrophic case there.

On the subject of how Apple plans to use its cash holdings:

Rubenstein: Apple has roughly $260 billion in cash, more or less. What do you plan to do with that cash?

Cook: We’re going to create a new site, a new campus within the United States. We’re going to hire 20,000 people. We’re going to spend $30 billion in capital expenditure over the next several years. Number one, we’re investing, and investing a ton, in this country. We’re also going to buy some of our stock, as we view our stock as a good value.

Cook's response to ever considering running for President of the United States:

Rubenstein: You’re obviously a public figure. You weren’t before. Have you ever thought that maybe you could run for President of the United States?

Cook: I’m not political. I love focusing on the policy stuff, but in the dysfunction kind of in Washington, between the legislative branch and so forth, I think I can make a bigger difference in the world doing what I’m doing. I appreciate the comment. You know, it’s something that you’d love to be President, but not ever run. That should never happen in our country, so that kind of eliminates me.

The full interview will air on The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations, which explores successful leadership.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.