First up, an update to the AppleTV is reportedly bricking, or breaking them so that they don’t work. 9to5 Mac has the details:
After Apple TV 6.0 was released on Friday with iTunes Radio and other enhancements, there were many reports of botched updates that required the user to restore their Apple TV. In some particular instances, Apple TVs have also been permanently bricked or they lost the content on the device during the update. Other devices could not download any internet content even when an internet connection was connected.
Last night, Apple took down the on-device update, and now devices on Apple TV 5.3 are seeing no update available. Of note, the 6.0 firmware is still available as a download on Apple’s website. The update is still available for some Apple TV users, although it seems sporadic and may be a result of background downloading.
Not good, but not unusual. That’s why it’s so important to back up your device before updating it as these sorts of updates can and do break things or erase data. We’ll see what Apple does about this in the next few days.
The next reason why this isn’t a good weekend for Apple comes from Germany. A group calling themselves the Chaos Computer Club has allegedly defeated Touch ID using a copy of the original fingerprint. The group has published a video on YouTube that shows how they did it:
Here’s a description of what they did:
First, the fingerprint of the enroled user is photographed with 2400 dpi resolution. The resulting image is then cleaned up, inverted and laser printed with 1200 dpi onto transparent sheet with a thick toner setting. Finally, pink latex milk or white woodglue is smeared into the pattern created by the toner onto the transparent sheet. After it cures, the thin latex sheet is lifted from the sheet, breathed on to make it a tiny bit moist and then placed onto the sensor to unlock the phone. This process has been used with minor refinements and variations.
Seeing that Apple made a big deal deal about the security of Touch ID, this is a wee bit embarrassing if this is confirmed.
It looks like people at Apple will have a very, very long week ahead of them.
UPDATE: CNet is reporting that the Apple TV update is back. They are also saying that the Touch ID hack is legit.
This entry was posted on September 22, 2013 at 8:22 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
AppleTV Updates Bricks Devices & Touch ID Defeated Says Hackers [UPDATED]
This might not be the best weekend for Apple.
First up, an update to the AppleTV is reportedly bricking, or breaking them so that they don’t work. 9to5 Mac has the details:
After Apple TV 6.0 was released on Friday with iTunes Radio and other enhancements, there were many reports of botched updates that required the user to restore their Apple TV. In some particular instances, Apple TVs have also been permanently bricked or they lost the content on the device during the update. Other devices could not download any internet content even when an internet connection was connected.
Last night, Apple took down the on-device update, and now devices on Apple TV 5.3 are seeing no update available. Of note, the 6.0 firmware is still available as a download on Apple’s website. The update is still available for some Apple TV users, although it seems sporadic and may be a result of background downloading.
Not good, but not unusual. That’s why it’s so important to back up your device before updating it as these sorts of updates can and do break things or erase data. We’ll see what Apple does about this in the next few days.
The next reason why this isn’t a good weekend for Apple comes from Germany. A group calling themselves the Chaos Computer Club has allegedly defeated Touch ID using a copy of the original fingerprint. The group has published a video on YouTube that shows how they did it:
Here’s a description of what they did:
First, the fingerprint of the enroled user is photographed with 2400 dpi resolution. The resulting image is then cleaned up, inverted and laser printed with 1200 dpi onto transparent sheet with a thick toner setting. Finally, pink latex milk or white woodglue is smeared into the pattern created by the toner onto the transparent sheet. After it cures, the thin latex sheet is lifted from the sheet, breathed on to make it a tiny bit moist and then placed onto the sensor to unlock the phone. This process has been used with minor refinements and variations.
Seeing that Apple made a big deal deal about the security of Touch ID, this is a wee bit embarrassing if this is confirmed.
It looks like people at Apple will have a very, very long week ahead of them.
UPDATE: CNet is reporting that the Apple TV update is back. They are also saying that the Touch ID hack is legit.
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This entry was posted on September 22, 2013 at 8:22 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.