iphone

An iPhone safety feature has backfired in embarrassing fashion. 911 dispatchers say they've had multiple false alerts of car crashes involving people who were actually on a rollercoaster. The iPhone 14, the latest model, has a crash detection ... feature. It's triggered by the built-in accelerometer and other sensors that are normally used for features such as automatically rotating the display when a user turns the phone to landscape mode. When triggered, the phone will eventually call 911 and play an automatically generated message saying "The owner of this iPhone was in a severe car crash ... (view more)

Using the average phone a year longer would have the same environmental impact as taking 636,000 cars off the road each year according to campaigners. It's a claim that's sparked calls to end the habit of manufacturers to produce a new model every ... year. The calls come in the run-up to a major climate change conference, but remains unclear what incentive gadget-makers have to respond. The 636,000 cars figure comes from the Public Interest Research Group, whose campaigns include giving consumers a right to repair devices. It told The Register that an average of 416,000 US cellphones are ditched ... (view more)

Phone and tablet makers could be forced to update devices for at least seven years. The proposed law would only affect Europe but, if passed, could change policies around the world. At the moment, how long phones get security and feature updates is ... largely up to manufacturers. In many cases it can be as little as three years. Critics say that brings several problems, including unfairly pressuring owners to buy new devices even when their existing one works well. That also creates environmental problems with users struggling to find responsible ways to recycle old devices. Spare Parts Must Be ... (view more)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has voted unanimously to enforce "right to repair" laws. The rules should make it harder for manufacturers to maintain monopolies over fixing gadgets such as phones. The FTC follows an executive order from the ... President that covered economic competition issues in general but included a specific reference to smartphones. (Source: theverge.com ) The moves aim to tackle companies such as phone makers which either block or restrict third-party companies or device buyers from carrying out repairs. This involves a range of tactics such as refusing to supply ... (view more)

A consumer group has warned a time limit on updates could mean phones become a security risk before they wear out. The group wants laws to make it clearer how long devices will receive support. The warning comes from Which?, a British organization ... similar to Consumer Reports in the US. It surveyed 15,000 people about how long they kept their phones. The questions covered how long people had been using their current phone, whether it was newly manufactured when they got it, and how long they had used their previous handset. The calculations only took account of handsets that were replaced ... (view more)

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Microsoft will block Adobe Flash in its web browsers from the end of the year. It's the last major browser developer to drop the technology. While Adobe Flash was once the primary tool used for multimedia content on websites, it earned a poor ... reputation for security. It wasn't just that it had numerous security holes, but that when those holes were exploited, hackers were often able to access a computer's memory and gain a worrying level of control just by using a web browser. Steve Jobs a Noted Flash Hater Apple was arguably the first company to crack down on Adobe Flash content with Steve ... (view more)

Apple has issued new guidance on how to clean iPhones, iPods and laptops. Though it doesn't mention the reason for the update, it's almost certainly a reaction to concerns about COVID-19, otherwise known as the coronavirus. Most of the medical ... advice for people to minimize the risk of catching or spreading the coronavirus has centered on regular hand washing with hot water for at least 20 seconds and avoiding touching the face. However, portable devices are certainly an area of concern, given how often many owners touch them during a day. Apple already offers official advice for keeping ... (view more)

Reports suggest that Apple has been pressured by the FBI to drop plans to improve the security of its customer backups. The plan was to better encrypt backups on the iCloud service. iCloud serves two purposes: it's a way for Apple users to store ... data and documents online and access them from anywhere (from any Apple device) with a password; it's also a way to automatically backup the contents of iPads and iPhones. Data from the iCloud is stored on Apple servers in an encrypted format, which means that if somebody gained access to the files (either through a remote hack, or a physical breach ... (view more)