Apple Loop: Latest iPhone 7 Leaks In Stereo, Nexus 6P Defeats iPhone 6S Plus, Apple Fights America

Taking a look back at another week of news from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop includes Apple’s next volatile step in the American Crypto War, Apple’s backtracking over Error 53, the Nexus 6P takes on the iPhone 6S Plus, what the iPhone 7 will replace the headphone jack with, price cuts for the Apple Watch, how Apple could use its profits to change the smartphone market, Eddy Cue revealing iCloud and Apple Music numbers, a look inside Apple’s chip design team, and why is Apple buying a Fiat van from 1957?

Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read the weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).

Apple Takes On The FBI And The American Government

There’s no doubt that the biggest Apple story this week is the demand by the US Courts on Apple to aid the FBI in extracting the data from an iPhone 5C tied into the San Bernardino shootings from December 2015. Apple replied publicly with a comprehensive and in-depth statement. Forbes’ Thomas Fox-Brewster goes through the basics of the case:

Apple CEO Tim Cook has written an open letter to customers warning them of a “dangerous” request from the FBI to effectively create a backdoor in their iPhones. Cook was writing in response to a court order asking Apple to create a tool that would allow for unlimited guesses at a user’s passcode, in this case to crack into the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters, who killed 14 and injured 22 others in December 2015.

This is a case that has huge political implication in the current ‘Crypto Wars’ being fought by Governments around the world against devices with ‘uncrackable’ encryption. Part of the case will hinge around the question of Apple’s ability to accommodate a backdoor that eases the security restrictions to allow a brute-force attempt to be made on the device’s PIN Code. Ben Thompson looks at the technical issues:

Specifically, Apple is not being asked to break the encryption on the iPhone in question (which is impossible — more on this in a moment), but rather to disable the functionality that wipes the memory when multiple wrong passcodes are entered in a row.

While Apple may have the ability to perform the requested action on the older iPhone 5C handset, that would set a precedent in future cases where devices are even more secure. A line in the sand has been drawn. Tim Cook is being forced to defend this hill or succumb to future Government requests to break into any iPhone. Matthew Panzarino for TechCrunch:

The point is that the FBI is asking Apple to crack its own safe, it doesn’t matter how good the locks are if you modify them to be weak after installing them. And once the precedent is set then the opportunity is there for similar requests to be made of all billion or so active iOS devices. Hence the importance of this fight for Apple.

All I would add is ‘the importance of this fight for Apple… and for you.’

Apple’s Error In Explaining Error 53 Is Explained

Following the issues around Error 53 and the software bricking iPhones where the secure hardware has been disturbed (with Apple stating there is no way to restore the device to a working state), a statement has been released to say that this approach was in error, it is possible for devices to be reset, and the update to iOS to do this is now available. Matthew Panzarino reports with Apple’s statement:

Some customers’ devices are showing ‘Connect to iTunes’ after attempting an iOS update or a restore from iTunes on a Mac or PC. This reports as an Error 53 in iTunes and appears when a device fails a security test. This test was designed to check whether Touch ID works properly before the device leaves the factory.

Today, Apple released a software update that allows customers who have encountered this error message to successfully restore their device using iTunes on a Mac or PC.

We apologize for any inconvenience, this was designed to be a factory test and was not intended to affect customers. Customers who paid for an out-of-warranty replacement of their device based on this issue should contact AppleCare about a reimbursement.

Does it work? The team at iFixit picked up one a previously bricked Error 53 handsets to give it a go:

We force restarted it, and connected to iTunes on a MacBook Pro. As expected, we were prompted to restore the iPhone to factory settings.

We’d tried this in the past, but the restore had failed and left the iPhone in a recovery mode spiral of death. This time though, the process went off more smoothly. iTunes quickly had the iPhone sorted out and restored to factory settings on iOS 9.2.1. From there, we had the option to restore our data from a previous backup.

The question now should be why Apple leaned so heavily on the security argument as Error 53 reached the mainstream media. When Tim Cook has laid out Apple’s approach to security in relation to the FBI request with a number of definitive statements around capabilities, the previous definitive Error 53 statement might not have been the smartest move to make.

Fighting Phablets 

Apple is a recent convert to the phablet category, debuting in 2014 with the iPhone 6 Plus and updating the design with the iPhone 6S Plus. Samsung pretty much created the category, but the Galaxy Note 5 has not been a critical success. Meanwhile, Google’s Nexus line of devices rolled out the Nexus 6P late last year as a challenger in the phablet category. How does Google’s champion stand up against Apple’s contender? Gordon Kelly finds out:

The next month is going to be all about Samsung, but arguably the most interesting rivalry in the smartphone world today is between Apple and its increasingly vocal nemesis Google. For the first time Google has started promoting its Nexus range and its latest flagship, the Nexus 6P, is a truly stunning handset. But how does it compare to the iPhone 6S Plus, arguably the most well known and most well rounded big smartphone available?

Having used both devices since launch I now have my verdict. So make a cup of coffee and get comfortable. You’re about to read a dissection of the two best smartphones on the planet…

Existing iOS and Android users will likely be happy to play at home and stay with their favoured platform, but for those on the fence, there is a clear winner.

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