Apple Testing Expanded iPhone Repair Options Through Authorized Service Providers in Canada
Apple has launched an iPhone repair pilot program for Apple Certified Service Providers in Canada that will allow certain certified centers to offer iPhone repairs after store technicians have completed Apple-required iOS Certification.
According to a tipster, the third party service sites will be able to offer repairs for the battery, camera, speaker, and more, after the program launches in the next few weeks. In addition to passing an iOS Qualification exam, Service Provider technicians have also been required to attend several training sessions to learn how to disassemble the iPhone.
While the program is currently limited to Canada, it seems reasonable to suspect that it may roll out to other countries in the future should the test run prove successful.
Documents given out to technicians suggest that Apple is aiming to provide a quality alternate repair option for its customers in Canada, while cutting down on unauthorized Apple repairs.
Program Overview – Goals
1. Provide APR with authorization to provide iPhone repair service to walk in customers as alternate channel
2. Provide same service level for iPhone as our Apple Retail Stores
3. Reduce proliferation of unauthorized repair centres and third party parts
Apple has furnished its Apple Certified Service Providers with a detailed set of rules and requirements that must be met, including troubleshooting all cases and providing same day service with a maximum of six hours in turn around time for devices with a warranty.
Out of warranty requests follow similar rules, with a 12-hour deadline for potential repairs. While the documentation estimates that the majority of repairs will be replacements, it requires each repair location to hit a Same Unit Repair rate of 10% or higher.
In early June, Apple began offering in-house iPhone 5 display replacements in an effort to cut down on repair costs. The company is also planning to offer additional same device repairs later this year, which could save more than $1 billion per year.
Apple’s move to allow Apple Certified Service Providers to offer iPhone repairs is likely part of the same initiative, designed to cut down on overall repair costs while providing greater convenience to customers who might otherwise seek out unauthorized repairs. Even in the United States, few Certified Repair centers are able to offer iPhone service at this time, which could change as Apple continues to expand its repair options.
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Apple’s New Mac Pro Begins Showing Up in Benchmarks
While Apple offered a sneak peek at its dramatically redesigned Mac Pro at its Worldwide Developers Conference, the new machine is not scheduled to launch until “later this year” and the company has yet to reveal detailed specs and pricing information.
But if a new Geekbench result is authentic, it appears that the new machine is already starting to show up in public benchmarking databases. Rather than showing up as a “MacPro6,1″ as would be expected for Apple’s next-generation Mac Pro, the new machine is dubbed “AAPLJ90,1″, perhaps a reference to a J90 code name following Apple’s usual format.
Also supporting the authenticity of the entry is the listing of a custom build of OS X Mavericks, 13A2054, running on the machine. The listed motherboard ID is also one which was discovered in OS X Mavericks as corresponding to the new Mac Pro.
The machine in question is running a single 12-core processor from the upcoming Ivy Bridge E family, specifically the Xeon E5-2697 v2 running at 2.7 GHz. It is also equipped with 64 GB of RAM.
A comparison of this new Mac Pro entry with Apple’s current high-end 12-core Mac Pro running a pair of 3.06 GHz Westmere processors reveals improved performance on Geekbench benchmarks by most measures, ranging from slight improvements for certain tasks to substantial improvements for others.
We chatted with John Poole of Primate Labs, who highlighted the substantial improvements in many single-core measures and in memory performance, suggesting that lower multi-core scores later in the Integer Performance testing run could be indicative of thermal issues.
Poole notes that with a public launch of the new Mac Pro likely still many months away, it is entirely possible that Apple is still ironing out both software and hardware issues on the new Mac Pro and that the company’s work could lead to even more substantial performance gains once those issues are addressed.
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Analyst Flip-Flops Again: Thinner iPad Mini in Late 2013, Retina Display in Early 2014
DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim is going back on statements he made back in May, when he said the next model of the iPad mini — expected this fall — would come equipped with a Retina display and an updated processor. In an added twist, before he made that statement, Shim said the Retina iPad mini would not ship before 2014.
Now, Shim writes that Apple will refresh its iPad mini line later this year, but the Retina display will not make an appearance before 2014.
Apple is expected to refresh its iPad mini in the second half of the year. The new iPad mini will continue to use a 7.9-inch display with a 1024×768 resolution, but it will use the iOS 7 operating system and an A6 processor, in a slimmer design than the current generation. Another iPad mini is also planned for production but not until early 2014. That device is expected to feature a QXGA (2048×1536) resolution display and the iOS 7 operating system.
It’s unclear which DisplaySearch report is correct, though it’s widely expected that Apple will ship a Retina-display equipped iPad mini at some point.
More notably, Shim does expect the iPad mini update this fall to bring a thinner case, regardless of whether it has a Retina display or not. Apple CEO Tim Cook did warn analysts and other Apple watchers to take rumors from the Apple supply chain with a grain of salt.
Apple is expected to introduce new versions of the iPhone, iPad mini and iPad this fall.
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Apple Scores $30 Million iPad Contract from L.A. Unified School District
Though Microsoft has been making a strong push to disrupt Apple’s foothold in the education market by offering K–12 schools its Surface tablets at the low price of $199, its pricing incentives didn’t have an effect on the Los Angeles Unified School District, reports AllThingsD.
On Tuesday night, the school board voted to spend $30 million dollars on Apple iPads, which will see the company equipping every student in the district with a tablet.
The deal, which was approved in a 6–0 vote by the district’s school board, will see Apple supplying about 35,000 iPads to 47 LAUSD schools at a cost of about $678 per device. That’s higher than retail, but I’m told the devices are to be preloaded with an assortment of educational software prior to distribution — an additional expense. They also come with a three-year warranty.
According to the LA Times, the district did test runs with multiple devices and the iPad “received the highest scoring by the students and the teachers.” Winning a contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District is a major boon for Apple, as the district is the second largest school system in the United States and could influence other districts to follow in its footsteps.
Apple has long had a heavy focus on the educational market, which ramped up with the introduction of the iPad in 2010. Apple offers discounts across its product lineup for students and earlier this year, it was reported that the company had sold more than 8 million iPads to educational institutions around the world.
In February, Apple also met with the Turkish President to further discuss another huge educational deal that would see the country purchasing more than $4.5 billion worth of Apple products.
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Researchers Crack iOS-Generated Hotspot Passwords in 50 Seconds
When tethering an iPhone or an iPad, iOS users have the option of using an automatically generated password for their personal hotspots, which Apple implemented to provide all users with a secure password option.
According to researchers at Germany’s University of Erlangen (via ZDNeT), the way that the keys are generated – with a combination of a short English word along with random numbers – is predictable to the point where the researchers are able to crack the hotspot password in less than a minute.
In their paper, the three researchers detail the process that they used to figure out the weak spots in the hotspot’s protection. Apple’s word list uses approximately 52,500 entries, so initially, cracking the hotspot took almost 50 minutes. After finding a WiFi connection, the researchers used an AMD Radeon HD 6990 GPU to run through word and number combinations.
“This list consists of around 52,500 entries, and was originated from an open-source Scrabble crossword game. Using this unofficial Scrabble word list within offline dictionary attacks, we already had a 100 percent success rate of cracking any arbitrary iOS hotspot default password,” the researchers wrote.
The team discovered that only a small set of Apple’s larger word list was being used, so with GPU cluster of four AMD Radeon HD 7970s, they narrowed their iOS-generated hotspot password cracking time down to just 50 seconds. In the paper, the team goes on to criticize Apple’s password generation standards, suggesting that system generated passwords be composed of random letters and numbers.
“In the context of mobile hotspots, there is no need to create easily memorizable passwords. After a device has been paired once by typing out the displayed hotspot password, the entered credentials are usually cached within the associating device, and are reused within subsequent connections,” the paper states.
“System-generated passwords should be reasonably long, and should use a reasonably large character set. Consequently, hotspot passwords should be composed of completely random sequences of letters, numbers, and special characters.”
As noted by ZDNet though Apple’s password generation system is flawed, it is a more robust solution than what is used by other companies like Microsoft. For example, the Windows 8 phone utilizes default passwords that consist of eight digit numbers.
To avoid a weak iPhone hotspot password, users can still choose to use passwords of their own creation, which should contain a sequence of random numbers and letters for enhanced security.
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Leaked Image Suggests ‘Voice Memo’ Will Return in Future iOS 7 Beta Release
A leaked image from a WWDC developer session is making the rounds, showing that the Voice Memo app that isn’t currently included in the iOS 7 Beta 1 will make an appearance in a future release.
Also, a tipster tells us the release notes for the first iOS 7 Beta mention the Voice Memo app:
Voice Memos – Known Issues
The VoiceMemos app is not available in this seed.
The Voice Memo app doesn’t seem to appear in any of the iOS 7 marketing materials on Apple’s website, but developers should see it in a future iOS 7 beta release and we expect it to be included in the final iOS 7 release this fall.
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Apple Giving Retail Employees Beta Access to OS X Mavericks
Last year, roughly a month before Apple released OS X Mountain Lion, it extended its beta program to certain Apple Retail Store staff members. This year, the company appears to be doing something similar.
9to5Mac reports that retail store staff are again being invited to try the beta of OS X Mavericks.
You are invited to participate in the pre-release OS X Mavericks seed program. Participation, including submitting feedback, is completely voluntary and not an expectation of your job. If you accept, we will provide you with a pre-release version of OS X Mavericks to install and use. You will get to preview all of the exciting new features like iBooks, Maps, Calendar, Safari, iCloud Keychain, Multiple Displays, Notifications, Finder Tabs, Tags, and much more! You should use OS X Mavericks only your personal computer and on your personal time. Apple will provide you with ways to submit feedback on your experiences with OS X Mavericks, should you choose to do so. Apple also asks that you use future builds of OS X Mavericks as they are made available. The responses from prior seed programs have been overwhelmingly positive. Thank you to everyone who participated!
The site also notes that Apple has provided prerelease versions of Mavericks to its AppleSeed beta testing group.
Before WWDC, a leak suggested that Apple was well into the development of OS X 10.9, with a build number of 13A451 appearing on a recent internal release. One possible implication of the high build number was that Apple was closer to a public release of Mavericks after its unveiling than with previous OS X beta releases.
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New Video May Show iOS 7 Running on an iPad
Apple has yet to release iOS 7 for the iPad, which has led to speculation about what the operating system will look like on a larger screen.
Over the weekend, photos from the iOS 7 simulator in Xcode 5 surfaced, demonstrating how several stock iOS apps might look on Apple’s tablet, and now a tipster has directed us to Russia-based YouTube user Rozetked, who has released a video of what he claims is iOS 7 “alpha” running on an iPad.
Rozetked does not explain where the software came from nor how it was installed on the tablet, so there is no proof that the video depicts a bona fide version of iOS 7 running on the iPad. In fact, at one point, a crash displays the iOS 6 Apple loading icon rather than the flatter iOS 7 version, which means it could be an elaborately crafted rendering.
Though the video’s legitimacy is questionable, it does offer a clearer picture of what iOS 7 might look like when installed on an iPad. Both the Notification Center and the Control Center appear in appropriate portions to the screen size and the Control Center lacks the Flashlight setting that was found in the simulated screenshots, instead offering iPad-specific options that include just AirDrop and AirPlay.
In comparison, the iPhone Control Center offers a Flashlight along with quick access to the Clock, the Calculator, and the Camera.
In addition to displaying the Notification Center and the Control Center options on the iPad, the video also offers a look at several apps, including Music and Videos. Both folder functionality and 2x app mode are demonstrated as well, and several stock app icons are identical to the iPhone versions.
It is unclear when Apple plans to release iOS 7 on the iPad for developers, having chosen to instead focus its attention on the iPhone version of the operating system.
(Thanks, Gary!)
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Hidden iOS 7 Settings Reveal Potential Gesture and Folder Enhancements
As the developer beta testing period for iOS 7 continues, user Hamza Sood (via 9to5Mac) has discovered hidden settings within Apple’s latest iOS that include toggles for additional gesture, folder and multitasking options. It is unclear, however, how Sood came across the settings.
Image via Hamza Sood
The gesture settings include options for a new “corner swipe” gesture. In addition, there appear to be expanded options for the “press and hold” gesture, which has so far only been used to prompt “edit mode”, which allows users to move and delete apps. There also appears to be a section for “edge swipe”, which has become prominent in Apple’s redesigned stock iOS 7 apps. 9to5Mac notes that the settings indicate that these gestures could be used for quick app switching.
Other settings include additional functionality on the home screen, such as being able to completely delete stock apps like Newsstand, which has long been a requested feature from some users. The ability to create folders within folders is also present.
The final group of settings is used to tweak the visual flow of the new operating system, with settings responsible for blur effects, coloring and animation speed.
As 9to5Mac notes, it is highly unlikely that most of these features will make their way into the final public version of iOS 7. Instead, the hidden settings are likely to be used and tested by Apple internally to not only tweak iOS performance but explore future features. Some could, however, be adopted as public options to allow for further customization of the user experience.
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Apple TV iOS 7 Beta Adds iTunes Radio and Conference Room Display Mode
Last week, Apple released iOS 7 Beta 1 for iPhone to developers. At the same time, it released a new beta for the Apple TV as well.
Users of the Apple TV beta have discovered at least two new features inside. AppleInsider notes that Apple built an iTunes Radio client for the Apple TV — something that Eddy Cue mentioned during the WWDC Keynote and that Apple has promoted to potential iTunes Radio advertisers — with in-line video advertisements.
Apple has also added a ‘Conference Room Mode’ for use in business and academic settings that displays simple instructions for connecting to a Wi-Fi network and sending data from both a Mac or iOS device.
The final version of the Apple TV Beta software should be released alongside iOS 7 in the fall.
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