Apple’s final court filing in its ongoing case against the FBI says that the FBI’s invocation of the 18-century All Writs Act goes too far. Ars Technica reports Apple saying the request by the FBI to assist in providing access to the iPhone at the centre of all this is entirely unprecedented and goes beyond what the All Writs Act would normally be used for. TechCrunch reports Apple saying that the government misunderstands the technology that would be involved in decrypting an iPhone.
A fascinating look at the entire debate from a legal perspective, from the former Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy to US President Barack Obama, says that a twenty-year old statute prevents the government from telling manufacturers how to design or configure software for a phone. Notably, there’s one section of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act that says the government can’t request companies to design something new — “like a backdoor” — once a device has been released, which seemingly puts the FBI’s request under the All Writs Act into perspective.
In his Ask Me Anything Q&A on Reddit, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has sided with Apple and the side of civil liberties. Wozniak says that if Apple was ever forced to use less secure methods of protecting iOS, those methods would soon be exploited by bad people.
Google has scored Apple as a customer, with the latter signing a contract reportedly worth between $400 and $600 million to use Google’s Cloud Platform, moving away from its current AWS infrastructure and cutting its AWS spending by half.
Speaking of the cloud, Apple is working on beefing up iCloud security in a way that won’t inconvenience users. Apple’s current method of keeping an encryption key for a user’s iCloud data also makes it liable to provide information to agencies that present valid legal requests — but the issue is the if Apple discards that key, then any user who forgets their iCloud password also loses all their data.
AppleInsider reports the EU claiming the Irish government hasn’t handed over all the data in the ongoing tax investigation against Apple’s operations in the country.
The latest Apple Watch innovation is a medical-grade EKG that comes in the form of an aftermarket Apple Watch band, with the Kardia Band linking into an app to provide single-lead EKG results in 30 seconds.
Apple is giving DJI’s Phantom 4 drone prime real estate at Apple Stores, with both boxed units and accessories on shelves in prominent locations. Apple is the exclusive retailer for the Phantom 4 drone, although that’s only set to continue for the next few weeks.
IMore tells us how to use Siri on the Apple Watch to hand off tasks to your iPhone.
Steven Troughton-Smith has a WWDC wishlist, and even thought I disagree with the premise that OS X is living on borrowed time, his thoughts on where iOS should be heading as one of Apple’s major platforms have some merit.
Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/03/thursday-morning-news170316/