person / partner / dad / sre@mozilla
If you’re mailing in your iPhone for a trade-in, I highly recommend taking a quick video of the device, highlighting its condition and serial number before packing it up and handing it to the UPS worker. It saved me this time, and has helped others I know in the past
Some days I think I know almost all there is to know about Apple software/hardware. Other times, especially being new to the CI/CD world professionally, I feel like I know very little.
A week ago a friend sent me an image they had taken at a bar over iMessage. Because he was traveling, I wondered if the location data was attached. To my surprise, it was.
Another friend working in Apple Retail confirmed this was expected behavior. If you wish to not share that data, there is a workaround but you do have to apply it on a case by case basis.
When sharing an image from the Share Sheet, you will see an Options menu that will allow you disable location data from being shared.
This approach seems problematic in many ways. One scenario that could be quite common is the influx of individuals using dating apps. Sharing images via those channels more than likely strips this information (hopefully), but surely its puts those at risk who share photos with people over iMessage that they are just getting to know.
I decided to file my first Apple Security bug and receive confirmation that this is expected behavior. I’d like to see Apple implement a setting to disable sharing this information by default.
Yesterday a friend shared an interesting story. They decided to take advantage of Apple’s zero percent financing option for a new MacBook. To their dismay, having an Apple Card that was half utilized caused (in their opinion) a THIRTY point drop in their credit score.
Upon trying to pay it off entirely he informed me that there was no way to do so. While there is a “Make Additional Payment” option, it only allows you to pay off a finite amount, which seemed really strange.
It turns out there isn’t a way to do this through the Wallet app, but if you use the online portal (https://card.apple.com) you can pay off as much as you’d like.
iCloud Keychain got a nice update with iOS15 that enables you use it as your MFA provider. Not only does it make the likes of Google Authenticator/Authy unnecessary, it also makes for a much more seamless experience for the end user in Safari. If you have MFA enable for a service (Gmail, Reddit, etc.) you will first need to disable it. Next, locate the entry for that service in iCloud Keychain and select Setup Verification Code.
Setup:
Execution:
Bravo, Apple.