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Andrew Orr

Since 2015 Andrew has been writing about Apple, privacy, security, and at one point even Android. You can find him most places online under the username @andrewornot.

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Articles by Andrew Orr

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Apple Could Let You Edit iMessages in the Future

Andrew Orr ·

A patent filed in December reveals a method to let Apple customers edit iMessages as a method of correction. The edit history would also be available so everyone can see what the sender originally wrote.

The patent filing has an example to demonstrate Apple’s system for editing previously-sent texts. Two people are discussing a trip, and one of them accidentally writes and sends “Can I get a ridiculous up with you?”

They then press and hold on that text to bring up a windows with “Edit” as an option. They make the change so the text reads “Can I get a ride up with you?”

This is a great feature and I hope Apple adds it to iOS. Memojis and Animojis are fun, but Messages needs features like this that are actually useful to people.

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Cellebrite Pitches its iPhone Hacking Tools as COVID-19 Surveillance Solution

Andrew Orr ·

Cellebrite, a company known for its iPhone hacking tools, is pitching its products to governments as a surveillance alternative to contact tracing.

When someone tests positive, authorities can siphon up the patient’s location data and contacts, making it easy to “quarantine the right people,” according to a Cellebrite email pitch to the Delhi police force this month.

This would usually be done with consent, the email said. But in legally justified cases, such as when a patient violates a law against public gatherings, police could use the tools to break into a confiscated device, Cellebrite advised.

I get the feeling that there are many who are unhappy that Apple and Google’s solution is private and opt-in. Companies like Cellebrite and Palantir can’t pass up such an opportunity.

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The Inside Story of How Apple and Google Worked on Contact Tracing

Andrew Orr ·

CNBC has a report today on how a small team at Apple started developing ideas on how to help with the pandemic. It was codenamed Project Bubble.

In mid-March, with Covid-19 spreading to almost every country in the world, a small team at Apple started brainstorming how they could help […] Within a few weeks, the Apple project — code-named “Bubble” — had dozens of employees working on it with executive-level support from two sponsors: Craig Federighi, a senior vice president of software engineering, and Jeff Williams, the company’s chief operating officer and de-facto head of healthcare.

It’s a fascinating read.

Cool Stuff Found

Apple Support 4.0 Update Adds Dark Mode, New User Interface

Andrew Orr ·

The Apple Support app was updated today with Dark Mode and a new, streamlined user interface. It‘s easier to find topics like Device Performance and Repairs & Physical Navigation, as well as support for services like Apple TV+. Release notes: All new customized user interface, including ‌Dark Mode‌ support; Get smarter solutions for even more topics using guided, step-by-step troubleshooting; It’s now easier to find support for all of your Apple services and subscriptions; New and improved chat and call experiences. App Store: Apple Support – Free

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Examining the iPhone SE Single Lens Camera

Andrew Orr ·

The team behind camera app Halide have taken a look at how well the iPhone SE can take Portrait Mode photos with a single lens camera.

The new iPhone SE can’t use focus pixels, because its older sensor doesn’t have enough coverage. Instead, it generates depth entirely through machine learning. It’s easy to test this yourself: take a picture of another picture.

A good write up, and interesting that it can do this purely with software, while the iPhone XR still had some hardware basis for these types of photos.

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8 Year Old Finds iPhone Screen Time Workaround

Andrew Orr ·

An eight year old has found an iPhone Screen Time workaround, after her older brother noticed something odd (His post on Reddit has since been deleted).

It turns out she’d developed a pretty simple trick to keep browsing videos: just access YouTube through the iMessage App Store…For example, the Reddit post specifies that the eight-year-old in question was unable to access YouTube on the iPhone’s Safari app or even in the iMessage version of YouTube. The kid had to go to some lengths to figure out that she could access YouTube by searching for it in the iMessage App Store.

She’s a security researcher in the making.

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Verizon Late Fees for Customers, Small Businesses Waived Until June 30

Andrew Orr ·

Verizon announced today that it won’t terminate service or charge late fees for customers through June 30.

Verizon today signed onto the FCC’s new “Keep Americans Connected” pledge. Verizon’s new customer commitment will help ensure connectivity and offer assistance to customers and small businesses facing challenges from the global crisis.

Good to know if you’re a Verizon customer.

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GDPR Hasn’t Been as Aggressive as Critics Would Like

Andrew Orr ·

Two years later, Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation has struggled with a lack of enforcement, not enough funding, limited staff resources, and stalling tactics by tech companies.

Privacy groups and smaller tech companies complain that companies like Facebook and Google are avoiding tough oversight. At the same time, the public’s experience with the G.D.P.R. has been a frustrating number of pop-up consent windows to click through when visiting a website.

I expected a lot more out of it as well. Sounds like the government needs to take it more seriously.

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Apple Disputes Zero Day Found in Apple Mail

Andrew Orr ·

Apple disagrees with a report from security company ZecOps that found an exploit that took advantage of the default iOS Mail app.

In the now-disputed report, ZecOps had said the critical flaw was located in the Mail app and could be triggered be sending specially manipulated emails that required no interaction on the part of users[…]

The critics said if the exploit was able to delete the emails ,it would have been able to delete the crash log data as well. The critics said that failure and some technical details contained in the ZecOps report strongly suggested the flaw was a more benign bug that was triggered by certain types of emails. Also skeptical, the critics said, is that an advanced exploit would cause a crash at all.

An interesting update to this saga. The bug certainly caused these devices to crash, but it remains to be seen whether that resulted in stolen data.

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Facebook Removes ‘Pseudoscience’ Category for Targeted Ads

Andrew Orr ·

Facebook is no longer allowing advertisers to use pseudoscience as a category with which to target people.

The company eliminated the pseudoscience category from its “detailed targeting” list on Wednesday, the spokeswoman said by phone, after tech news site The Markup showed that it could advertise a post targeting people interested in pseudoscience.

The Markup demonstrated that Facebook was allowing such ads after saying it would police COVID-19 misinformation on its platform. More than 78 million Facebook users were interested in “pseudoscience,” it said, citing Facebook’s ad portal.

Good to see Facebook doing this. Now we just need YouTube to stop recommending conspiracy videos.