Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) - @bbusschots
• Simon Parnell from the Essential Apple Podcast - @serenak
• Nick Riley - @spligosh

The show starts with some followups to stories from last month’s show including the FaceTime bug, the abuses of Apple’s Enterprise Developer certificates, and the Project Titan Layoffs. That’s followed by a look at two legal stories, some notable numbers that made the news in February, and some Apple staffing changes including Angela Ahrendts’ departure. The three main stories are the Cellebrite iPhone hacking tools found for sale on eBay for $100, a bad month for privacy on Apple’s App Stores, and foldable phones. The show finishes with a quick run-down of some other Apple-related stories that made the news in February.

You'll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar - the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

[audio mp3=”http://www.mymac.com/podcast/lta/LetsTalkApple-EP66-February2019.mp3”]

Followup

• The Group FaceTime Bug:
  • As promised Apple released a security update and then re-enabled the service — tidbits.com/…
  • A high-level Apple executive flew to Tucson to meet the teenage discoverer of the flaw and his mother — www.loopinsight.com/…
  • Apple will also be compensating the teenager through its bug bounty program — www.theverge.com/…
  • Democrats Question Tim Cook Over FaceTime Bug — www.macobserver.com/…
• Abuses of Apple’s Enterprise Developer program:
  • FaceBook are completely shutting down their Onavo VPN at the root of their controversial ‘research’ app — techcrunch.com/…
  • It has emerged that FaceBook and Google were not the only companies abusing Apple’s Enterprise Developer program to side-load apps that would never be acceptable in the App Store. Gambling, Porn, and Piracy apps were distributed this way too — arstechnica.com/…
  • Apple are now forcing all developers to have 2FA on their accounts to help combat abuse of their various developer programs — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…
• More details of the ‘Project Titan’ redundancies emerge; Apple are letting 190 employees go, mostly engineers — www.macobserver.com/…

Legal Latest

• 🇺🇸 Apple closes two Dallas stores in apparent bid to ward off patent trolls — arstechnica.com
• Apple -v- Qualcomm
  • 🇩🇪 Apple to Sell iPhones with Just Qualcomm Chips Inside in Germany — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related: Reuters report that Apple have moved their modem design group into their chip design team, implying that Apple are moving towards making their own modems like they do their mobile CPUs. Apple have not made any announcements to that effect — www.reuters.com/…

Notable Numbers

• 🇺🇸 US music fans throw more money at vinyl, CDs than iTunes downloads now — www.cnet.com/…
• 🇺🇸 US iPhone users spent, on average, $79 on apps last year, up 36% from 2017 — techcrunch.com/…
• Strategy Analytics: Apple Watch Captures Half of 18 Million Global Smartwatch Shipments in Q4 2018 — www.businesswire.com/…
• Apple Pay has 383 Million Users Globally — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Related: Apple Pay expansion continues with 20+ new bank partners around the world — 9to5mac.com/…
  • Related: Apple Pay Comes to Saudi Arabia, Czech Republic — www.macobserver.com/…

Apple HR News

• Angela Ahrendts is amicably leaving Apple in April, when Deirdre O’Brien, currently VP of People will step up to become Senior VP of Retail + People reporting directly to Tim Cook — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Tim Cook’s Letter to Employees announcing the change — www.businessinsider.com/…
  • Examining Angela Ahrendts’ five-year tenure as head of Apple Retail — appleinsider.com/…
• AR pioneer Avi Bar-Zeev has left Apple (apparently amicably) — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple have promoted 21-year Apple veteran Frank Casanova to Senior Director, Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple Augmented Reality — www.macobserver.com/… & www.bloomberg.com/…
• Apple have hired Apple hired Sam Jadallah, a former Microsoft executive, to join their Apple Home team — www.macobserver.com/…

Main Stories

1. Celebrate iPhone Hacking Tool found on sale on eBay for $100 — www.forbes.com/… & nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…
2. A bad month for privacy on the iOS App Store
   • Reporting found many apps inappropriately using UI analytics APIs to silently send screenshots showing sensitive data to app developers. Apple made it clear that developers need to tell users about this kinds of analytics code or remove it form their apps — techcrunch.com/…
     • These kinds of analytics APIs are not malicious by-design, but they can be mis-used with unwanted privacy implications — www.macobserver.com/…
   • Many Android & iOS apps found to be sending highly personal data to FaceBook servers:
     • Facebook apps secretly sending sensitive data back to the mothership — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/…
     • These apps are stealing your most private data and it should be a crime — www.imore.com/…
   • Members of Congress Write to Tim Cook, Demand Saudi Arabia Female Tracking App Removed From App Store — www.macobserver.com/…
3. Foldable Phones!
   • Samsung’s foldable phone is the Galaxy Fold, available April 26th starting at $1,980 — www.theverge.com/…
   • Daring Fireball: Huawei’s Mate X Foldable Phone — daringfireball.net/…
   • Samsung Galaxy Fold vs. Huawei Mate X — Are foldables the future? — www.imore.com/…
   • New Folding iPhone Invention describes a Heating Method to Protect the Fold from Cracking & Magnetic Locking System — www.patentlyapple.com/…

Quick Stories

• 🇺🇸 The SEC have charged Gene Levoff, a former Vice President of Corporate Law at Apple with Insider Trading while he was at Apple — www.cnbc.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
• 🇫🇷 Apple have agreed to pay back taxes in France. The figure is not known, but thought to be around €570Bn — www.macobserver.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
• 🇺🇸 Apple has partnered with the VA to bring Apple Health Records to US veterans — www.macobserver.com/…
• 🇨🇳 Apple team up with Ali Pay to allow Chinese customers to borrow interest-free over 24 months to buy Apple gear — www.macobserver.com/…
• SoundCloud Artists Can Publish Straight to Apple Music — www.macobserver.com/…
• Apple Maps Continues to gather more data:
  • Apple Maps Transit and indoor navigation has been expanded in 17 of US states — www.macobserver.com/…
  • Apple Maps Vehicles to Begin Surveying Final U.S. States — www.macrumors.com/…
• Toyota and Volkswagen Vehicles Getting CarPlay Support — www.macobserver.com/…