Table of contents for Issue 113 in iPad & iPhone User

Software developer Nexedi is so keen to see Apple improve the rendering engine in its iPhone browser that it’s filed suit against the company in a French court. Nexedi develops cross-platform business apps in HTML5 that can run unchanged on Windows, Linux, and Android. On Apple’s iOS, however, it runs into a problem: The browser rendering engine on iOS, WebKit, doesn’t have the same HTML5 capabilities as the rendering engines used on other platforms. Among the HTML5 capabilities missing in the iOS version of WebKit are access to APIs for vibration, ambient light detection, battery status, notifications, file system access and the WebRTC videoconferencing protocol, according to a copy of Nexedi’s lawsuit seen by the IDG News Service. The absence of those capabilities makes it impossible to use videoconferencing websites,…

It may sound paranoid, but the next time you enter a highly confidential meeting, leave your smart watch behind. It’s possible the device could be spying on you. That’s what government ministers are reportedly being told. They’ve recently been banned from wearing Apple Watches during cabinet meetings on fears that the devices could be hacked by Russian cyberspies, according to The Telegraph. Mobile phones have already been prohibited from cabinet meetings, but the UK government has reportedly taken the extra step of also banning smartwatches. The risk is that such devices could be hijacked to secretly eavesdrop on users, especially those with top secret information. Security experts warn that this possibility isn’t so far-fetched and that business executives should also take precautions. “Wearable computing devices, such as the Apple Watch…

Good news, privacy enthusiasts: Facebook’s one-on-one encrypted messaging feature called Secret Conversations is now live for all Android and iOS users. Secret Conversations allows Messenger users to send end-to-end encrypted messages to their Facebook friends. There are a few caveats, however. First, it only works on a single device. Facebook says it doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to distribute encryption keys across your phone, tablet, and PCs. You also have to explicitly start a Secret Conversation in Messenger. Encryption isn’t the default mode, and encrypted messages are not integrated into the primary thread of your conversations with a given contact. In other words, if Alice and Bob have been chatting for years on Messenger, they’ll have to start a separate encrypted thread, and that encrypted thread will never integrate…

In the wake of an FBI investigation, Apple mounted a high-profile campaign on behalf of its users’ privacy, but it turns out our privacy is still being compromised. Apple keeps a log of everyone you try to contact using iMessage, according to a leaked documented. These logs contain personal contact information, including phone numbers, and are stored in Apple’s servers for 30 days before being deleted. Furthermore, Apple has shared these server logs with police after being compelled by a court order, according to the leaked document obtained by The Intercept. Apple has exalted iMessage for its end-to-end encryption, meaning that the contents of the messages cannot be accessed anywhere else outside of the iPhone. But Apple is storing contact information and metadata every time an iPhone is used to…

Facebook has launched Events, a standalone app that lets you RSVP to your friends’ events, manage your calendar, and find things to do in your area. The new app lets you see only an event-focused Newsfeed from all your Facebook friends and search for events on a map or in a different city if you’re planning an upcoming trip. The app is available now for iOS with an Android counterpart coming soon. According to Facebook, over 100 million people use Facebook events every day, so it made sense to spin the feature out into its own app, a la Facebook Messenger. For now you can still access your events via the flagship Facebook app, but it’s unclear whether Facebook will push users to use the standalone app to check out…

From £369 • apple.com/uk It’s been a while coming. The constantly evolving iPhone and iPad line-up has taught us to expect Apple products to be updated on a yearly basis, but the first-generation Apple Watch was on the market for 16 months before its successor was released. And here it is: the Apple Watch Series 2, which attempts the classic second-generation tech product trick of correcting everything that went wrong with the original, retaining everything that went right, and expanding its appeal from early adopters to the elusive mainstream. Apple’s new flagship wearable, takes the niche-popularity Apple Watch and adds much-needed features such as GPS; improves and ratifies its waterproofing capabilities; and ups the processor clock speed so that (in concert with the streamlined watchOS 3 software) the device should…

It’s been nearly five years since Scott Forstall stood on stage and introduced Siri to the world. Siri has come a long way since the days of the iPhone 4s, and now Apple’s voice-controlled assistant is on our iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and even – thanks to macOS Sierra – our Macs. But by almost any measurement, these are the very earliest days of intelligent-assistant technologies. Five years might as well be a blink of an eye. The next few years will be very important for Siri and its cousins – Cortana, Alexa, and the Google Assistant. Here’s a look at where Siri goes from here. SiriKit, today and tomorrow With the release of iOS 10, you can now use Siri to control six different kinds of apps: ride booking,…

£99 • apple.com/uk While the iPhone 7 design isn’t that different to the older 6 or 6s it is sufficiently changed that you’ll likely need a new case for your new phone, and that includes battery cases for the iPhone 7. The iPhone 7 is the same size (138.3x67.1x7.1mm) as the 6s, but slightly (5g) lighter; it’s 9g heavier and a little fatter than the 6 (138.1x67x6.9mm). The design change that means you need a new case for the 7 is the larger camera bump on the back. 7 Plus users will have a similar need for a new case, with its new dual back-camera. So when Apple changed the camera from 6s to 7, in a swipe it made the new phone incompatible with older cases. Apple says that…

If you’re an Android user thinking about switching to iPhone (or if you’ve already made the switch from Android to iPhone), you may be concerned about transferring all your data – music, photos, contacts, calendar and so on – and making sure nothing is lost in the process. The good news is that transferring contacts and the rest from Android phone to iPhone really couldn’t be simpler – it turns out that Google is good at this stuff. The basic principle is to back up to either the cloud or a desktop machine, and then sync to iPhone. Even better, Apple recently launched an Android app specifically to guide you through this process. Move to iOS app When iOS 9 launched, it brought a new “Move to iOS” app that…

I always resisted joining a music-subscription service. My former colleague Chris Breen was always a fierce proponent of them, first Rhapsody and then Spotify. (Now that he works at Apple, I assume he also likes Apple Music.) I was never comfortable with subscription services. I was comfortable liking what I liked, and buying new stuff from familiar artists as well as new stuff from artists I discovered… elsewhere, and didn’t see the value in an unending tap of music from every artist everywhere. The second was that I was concerned that by renting my music, I would end up trapped, with years of music discovery that would disappear (or have to be purchased at a high price) if I decided to cancel my subscription. I’ve been a paying Apple Music…