MacRumors

Following the release of a new version of iOS, there are typically complaints about battery problems, issues with apps, and minor bugs, and the launch of iOS 11 has proven to be no exception.

On reddit, numerous users who have installed iOS 11 claim to be experiencing much slower app performance, app crashes, and other similar issues. The initial reddit post calls launching apps "an absolute chore," a sentiment echoed by dozens of additional comments.

Ever since I upgraded, launching apps is an absolute chore. Safari, Reddit, ESPN, Yahoo, texts, etc all have a terrible time opening. They either crash back to home, freeze and require closing the app or take well over a minute to load. I never had a single issue with my 7+ before last night and now suddenly it's like this phone is stuck in quicksand. I've never had to hard reset this phone before but I've had to do it twice in the past two days.

Users are complaining that their phones "just get stuck on apps" and that a hard reset is the only way to fix the problem. Reddit, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Messenger, Safari, and more are all affected apps. Sometimes, apps refuse to open just launching from the Home screen, while at other times, apps launched from Notifications won't work, and there are issues with Bluetooth.

I've been using the beta and it's been super fine for me. But now on the GM I get all the same issues. Apps don't launch, or if they finally do they crash. Things are freezing and crashing. Sometimes just bringing up CC stalls my phone and makes it unresponsive. Something in the update broke the Bluetooth controls connection and now I can't use the skip button from my transmitter (which worked in the beta) to change songs.

The Now Playing widget in the Control Center is also a chief complaint, with multiple users unable to control songs on Spotify and Apple Music using the widget, and some users say their battery life has taken a serious hit since updating.

Not all customers who upgraded to iOS 11 are seeing these issues but based on the reddit thread, it seems a fair number of people are having problems. App updates and subsequent iOS 11 updates are likely to resolve these issues over time, but customers who want an immediate fix can try some of the methods reported to work on reddit

Some reddit users claim that resetting their settings (Settings --> General ---> Reset --> Reset All Settings) fixed all of the app issues, while others have restored their devices and set it up as new to solve the problem. Others have backed up and restored and had better results. From one reddit user on backup and restore:

Exactly. I think people think this is a placebo effect but it really does work. Brought my 6S from a sluggish beast to more or less the same performance I had in iOS 10.

Multiple iPhone models appear to be affected, with redditors reporting issues on the iPhone 6s, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and other earlier models. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus do not appear to be affected, and there are few complaints about iPad Pro models.

With the release of macOS High Sierra, Apple is now collecting data from the Safari browser using differential privacy technology, reports TechCrunch. Apple is aiming to gain information about browsing habits to help identify problematic websites that use excessive power or too much memory.

This form of data collection is the first of its kind for Safari, aimed at identifying sites that use excessive power and crash the browser by monopolizing too much memory. Apple is also documenting the popularity of these problematic domains, in order to prioritize which sites it addresses first.

Apple first announced its adoption of differential privacy in 2016 alongside the debut of iOS 10. Differential privacy is a technique that allows Apple to collect user information while keeping user data entirely private. It uses hashing, subsampling, and noise injection to enable crowd-sourced learning without compromising user privacy.

Differential privacy is already in use on Mac and iOS devices for emoji use, search predictions, predictive text, and other small features that use machine learning for improvement.

Because of this, Apple does not have a specific message about the new Safari data collection when macOS High Sierra is installed, and it is lumped in with the general Mac analytics data notice that is presented when setting up a new Mac. From Apple's Privacy notice regarding analytics:

If you agree to send Mac Analytics information to Apple, it may include the following:
- Details about app or system crashes, freezes or kernel panics.
- Information about events on your Mac (for example whether a certain function such as waking your Mac was successful or not).
- Usage information (for example, data about how you use Apple and third-party software, hardware, and services).

Analytics data contains your computer's hardware and software specifications, including information about devices connected to your Mac and the versions of the operating system and apps you're using on your Mac. Personal data is either not logged at all in the reports generated by your Mac, is subject to privacy preserving techniques such as differential privacy, or is removed from any reports before they're sent to Apple.

While users are given the option to turn off analytics when setting up a Mac, there's also a Security and Privacy setting that can be accessed to turn it off any time. To get to the feature, click on the Apple at the top of the menu bar, and choose "System Preferences." From there, open up Security and Privacy, select the "Privacy" tab and then choose Analytics to choose whether or not to share data with Apple.

macOS High Sierra, released to the public today, could be impacted by a major security flaw that could allow a hacker to steal the usernames and passwords of accounts stored in Keychain.

As it turns out, unsigned apps on macOS High Sierra (and potentially earlier versions of macOS) can allegedly access the Keychain info and display plaintext usernames and passwords without a user's master password.

Security researcher and ex-NSA analyst Patrick Wardle tweeted about the vulnerability early this morning and shared a video of the exploit in action.

As demonstrated in the video above, Wardle created a proof-of-concept app called "keychainStealer" that was able to access plaintext passwords stored in Keychain for Twitter, Facebook, and Bank of America. Wardle spoke to Forbes about the vulnerability and said it's actually not hard to get malicious code running on a Mac even with Apple's protections in place.

"Without root priveleges, if the user is logged in, I can dump and exfiltrate the keychain, including plaintext passwords," Wardle told Forbes. "Normally you are not supposed to be able do that programmatically."

"Most attacks we see today involve social engineering and seem to be successful targeting Mac users," he added. "I'm not going to say the [keychain] exploit is elegant - but it does the job, doesn't require root and is 100% successful."

Wardle has not provided the full exploit code for malicious entities to take advantage of, and he believes Apple will patch the problem in a future update.

As Wardle has not released the full exploit code, it has not been double-checked by MacRumors or another source, so full details on the vulnerability are not known just yet.

Apple has not yet responded to requests for comment about the potential vulnerability.

Apple today released the newest version of its operating system for Macs, macOS High Sierra, to the public. macOS High Sierra is a free download that's available today for everyone who has a compatible Mac.

macOS High Sierra can be downloaded directly from the Mac App Store or through the Software Update function in the Mac App Store. Some users are seeing an error that prevents installation, so the update may still be propagating. macOS High Sierra is compatible with all Macs able to run Sierra, with a full list below:

2009 and Later
- iMac (Late 2009)
- MacBook (Late 2009)

2010 and Later
- MacBook Air (Late 2010)
- MacBook Pro (Mid 2010)
- Mac mini (Mid 2010)
- Mac Pro (Mid 2010)

macOS High Sierra is designed to improve on the previous macOS Sierra operating system with some major under-the-hood upgrades and a handful of outward-facing changes.

Apple File System (APFS), a file system designed for solid state drives, is the new default for these drives in macOS High Sierra. APFS is safe, secure, and optimized for modern storage systems. It features native encryption, safe document saves, stable snapshots, and crash protection, plus it brings performance improvements.

APFS is available for all Macs with solid state storage, but it is not available for Fusion drives or standard hard drives.

macOS High Sierra introduces support for High Efficiency Video Encoding (HEVC) for better compression without loss of quality, and HEIF for smaller photo sizes.

Metal 2, Apple's next-generation Metal graphics API, is included in High Sierra, offering a range of improvements to games, apps, and overall animations on the Mac. Metal 2 brings support for machine learning, external GPUs (coming in Spring 2018), and VR content creation for the first time.

Along with these invisible upgrades, several apps have been updated with new features. Photos has a new look and new editing tools for Curves, Selective Color, and Live Photos, and the Memories feature in Photos has been expanded.

Safari now blocks autoplay videos and includes Intelligent Tracking Prevention to protect your privacy, and there's also a new always-on option for Safari Reader. Mail search is better than ever, Mail storage has been optimized to take up 35 percent less space, and iCloud Drive file sharing and iCloud storage family plans have been added.

As with iOS, Siri has gotten smarter with cross-device syncing. There are also tweaks to FaceTime (you can snap live photos), Notes (tables and pinning), and Spotlight (improved search), along with dozens of other tiny changes and tweaks.

Additional information on macOS High Sierra can be found in our macOS High Sierra roundup, which includes details on all of the new features found in the update.

Starting today, Apple search results from Siri and Spotlight on Mac and iOS will be provided by Google rather than Microsoft's Bing. Apple announced the news in a statement that was given to TechCrunch this morning, claiming consistency across iOS and Mac devices is the reason behind the switch.

"Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search within iOS and Spotlight on Mac will allow these services to have a consistent web search experience with the default in Safari," reads an Apple statement sent this morning. "We have strong relationships with Google and Microsoft and remain committed to delivering the best user experience possible."

Prior to this morning, all results from a search conducted on Spotlight using Finder on Mac or the swipe down search bar on iOS were Bing search results, as was all search information provided by Siri. Now, when you search using Spotlight or when you ask Siri a question that ends up involving a web search, info will come from Google.

According to TechCrunch, the swap will include both web links and video results from YouTube, but web image results in Siri and Spotlight searches will continue to be provided by Bing for the time being. Google searches will use the standard search API and will provide the same search results you'd get from a Google.com search.

While Apple has used Bing for search results for things like Siri and Spotlight, Google has remained the default search engine on iOS and Mac devices. Earlier this year, reports suggested Google paid Apple nearly $3 billion to maintain its position as the default search engine on iOS devices.

The search engine swap began rolling out to users at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

Update: Microsoft has provided a statement to TechCrunch on the shift from Bing to Google.

We value our relationship with Apple and look forward to continuing to parter with them in many ways, including on Bing Image Search in Siri, to provide the best experience possible for our customers. Bing has grown every year since its launch, now powering over a third of all the PC search volume in the U.S., and continues to grow worldwide. It also powers the search experiences of many other partners, including Yahoo (Verizon), AOL and Amazon, as well as the multi-lingual abilities of Twitter. As we move forward, given our work to advance the field of AI, we're confident that Bing will be at the forefront of providing a more intelligent search experience for our customers and partners.

Following a report claiming Apple's suppliers are shipping only about 40 percent of the components originally planned for initial production of the iPhone X, a new report suggests the TrueDepth camera is the primary bottleneck.

The word comes from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who said the facial recognition system is "far more complex" than those on competing devices, which is making it challenging for Apple to achieve mass production.

An excerpt from Kuo's research note obtained by MacRumors:

TrueDepth camera may be main production bottleneck of iPhone X ramp. The 3D sensing (TrueDepth camera) on iPhone X is composed of a structured-light system, time-of-flight system and a front-facing camera, which represents a far more complex structure than those of rivals. It will therefore be harder to achieve mass production. While we project iPhone X will see output ramp up meaningfully in mid/ late October, tight supply may only start to ease in 1H18F due to strong demand.

Kuo said shipments of iPhone X components will likely ramp up in mid to late October. Given pre-orders begin October 27, with in-store availability starting November 3, all signs point towards the iPhone X being in extremely short supply.

Kuo believes iPhone X pre-orders have the potential to exceed 40-50 million units, so it's clear the device won't achieve supply-chain balance for quite awhile.

Apple has instructed some of its suppliers to slow down delivery of iPhone X components, according to Taiwanese website DigiTimes.

The report, citing unnamed sources from within Apple's supply chain, claims the suppliers are now shipping only about 40 percent of the components originally planned for the initial production of the iPhone X.

Apple is allegedly waiting to see how many iPhone X pre-orders it receives, and monitoring how well the already-released iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus sell, before fully ramping up production overseas.

However, the report mentions some suppliers still need to step up production to meet the 40 percent requirement due to low yield rates at their production lines, which is the more likely reason for the slowdown.

Essentially, since some suppliers are manufacturing iPhone X parts more slowly than others, Apple could be capping shipments from all suppliers so it has an equal number of all components when the device launches in just under six weeks.

Whatever the case may be, this report provides yet another indication that the iPhone X is proving especially challenging to make.

Just one day before the device was unveiled, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said iPhone X production totaled fewer than 10,000 units per day. In a follow-up research note, Kuo said the device is unlikely to achieve complete supply-demand equilibrium until at least the first half of next year.

All signs point towards overwhelming demand for the iPhone X. Earlier today, Kuo said pre-orders may exceed 40-50 million units. Lower adoption of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, and shorter lines at Apple retail stores, also suggest that many customers may be waiting for the iPhone X, but it remains to be seen.

iPhone X pre-orders begin Friday, October 27, followed by in-store availability in limited quantities starting Friday, November 3.