If your mobile connection keeps cutting out, this update should fix it.
Apple on Monday released iOS 10.0.3, an update for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. To install the update, open the Settings app and tap General > Software Update. The update can also be installed by connecting your iPhone 7 to your Mac and using the iTunes app.
iOS 10.0.3 addresses an issue that could cause the iPhone 7 to “temporarily lose cellular connectivity.” The workaround to the issue before the update was to turn off Voice over LTE.
Since the 10.0.3 update addresses an issue specifically for the iPhone 7, the update is not seen by other iPhone models. For now, the iPhones in Apple’s current lineup are on different iOS versions. When Apple releases the iOS 10.1 update, which includes the Portrait mode camera feature, the iPhones will probably be back in iOS version alignment.
Tip:Before updating your iPhone 7, be sure to back up your data.
Microsoft is now offering significant discounts on its product upgrades. Discounts are available for Open License programs.
Microsoft officials are well aware that its biggest Windows 7 and Office 2010 competitors are its own previous product iterations (Windows XP and Office XP/2003). To try and wean users away from older, “good-enough” releases, Microsoft is introducing a new licensing promotion.
The revamped “Up to Date Discount” program is targeted at small/mid-size business (SMB) customers running older versions of Windows and Office. Between January 1 and June 30 of this year, Microsoft is enabling users running Windows XP or Vista (on the operating system side) and Office XP, Office 2003 or Office 2007 (on the productivity suite side) to receive a discount of 50 percent on the cost of their licenses for Windows 7 and Office 2007 (or Office 2010, once it is released by June 2010).
The 50% discount calculations “are based on estimated retail prices and reseller prices may vary,” Microsoft officials acknowledge. But the Softies say U.S. customers who sign up for the program “would be paying $35.00 for a Windows 7 Professional Upgrade and/or $91.00 for Office 2007 Professional Plus in year 1, plus receiving all of the Software Assurance benefits (such as an automatic upgrade to Office 2010 when it launches, Office Home Use Rights, and much more) for that price.”
As you’d expect, there are lots of caveats. First,customers get the 50 percent discount only for the first year of their Open Value Subscription (OVS) payment. (OVS is a Microsoft licensing program, introduced last year for SMBs, which allows users to pay for software licenses over time and includes many of the same provisions as Microsoft’s Software Assurance licensing program.) The new deal applies only to those customers using the Professional versions of Windows and/or the Professional versions of Office.
The new promotion, which Eric Ligman, Global Partner Experience Lead with Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Group, announced via the Microsoft SMB Community Blog on January 1, goes beyond the current Up-to-Date Discount offer. Before the new so-called “N-2? update to the program was put in place, Windows XP users and Office XP users were ineligible for the discount. But Microsoft is now offering users of the older Windows and Office releases coverage if they’re willing to sign up for the Open Volume Subscription plan.
Meanwhile, speaking of new Microsoft licensing promotions, Microsoft is introducing “version 4.0? of another SMB promotional licensing offer, known as “The Big Easy,” according to Ligman.
Starting January 3, SMB customers can increase dollars available for them to spend with Microsoft partners “by purchasing multiple qualifying product groups, adding Software Assurance to their orders and/or acquiring advanced, premium or Enterprise editions of the MIcrosoft Solutions.” To qualify, customers need to buy products through their Microsoft partners between January 3 and March 31 via the Microsoft Open License, Open Value and/or Open Value Subscription programs.
Products included under the program include Dynamics CRM, Office Communications Server, SharePoint Server, SQL Server, Systems Center and Windows Server, among others.
Following a recommendation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Microsoft will block Windows from accepting SSL certificates encrypted with the Secure Hash Algorithm-1 (SHA-1) algorithm after 2016. Given the number of mission-critical SSL certificates that are allowed to expire from inattention, administrators have their work cut out for them. By knowing what will happen, why it’s happening, and what you need to do, you won’t be surprised by these important policy changes.
What’s Happening?
On November 12, 2013, Microsoft announced that it’s deprecating the use of the SHA-1 algorithm in SSL and code signing certificates. The Windows PKI blog post “SHA1 Deprecation Policy” states that Windows will stop accepting SHA-1 end-entity certificates by January 1, 2017, and will stop accepting SHA-1 code signing certificates without timestamps after January 1, 2016. This policy officially applies to Windows Vista and later, and Windows Server 2008 and later, but it will also affect Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
SHA-1 is currently the most widely used digest algorithm. In total, more than 98 percent of all SSL certificates in use on the Web are still using the SHA-1 algorithm and more than 92 percent of the certificates issued in the past year were issued using SHA-1.
Website operators should be aware that Google Chrome has started warning end users when they connect to a secure website using SSL certificates encrypted with the SHA-1 algorithm. Beginning in November 2014 with Chrome 39, end users will see visual indicators in the HTTP Secure (HTTPS) address bar when the site to which they’re connecting doesn’t meet the SHA-2 requirement. Figure 1 shows those indicators.
Figure 1: Visual Indicators in the HTTPS Address Bar
Google is doing this to raise end users’ awareness and to help guide other members of the Internet community to replace their SHA-1 certificates with SHA-2 certificates.
Why Is Microsoft Deprecating SHA-1?
SHA-1 has been in use among Certificate Authorities (CAs) since the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and NIST first published the specification in 1995. In January 2011, NIST released Special Publication 800-131A, “Transitions: Recommendation for Transitioning the Use of Cryptographic Algorithms and Key Lengths.” This publication noted that SHA-1 shouldn’t be trusted past January 2016 because of the increasing practicality that a well-funded attacker or government could find a SHA-1 hash collision, allowing them to impersonate any SSL website.
Realizing that it’s highly unlikely that CAs and the industry at large will adopt more powerful encryption algorithms on their own, Microsoft is leading the charge by making Windows reject certificates using SHA-1 after January 1, 2017. Doing this will lead website operators to upgrade to stronger SHA-2 certificates for the betterment of all Windows users and the broader public key infrastructure (PKI) community. The Windows PKI blog post “SHA1 Deprecation Policy” noted that, “The quicker we can make such a transition, the fewer SHA-1 certificates there will be when collisions attacks occur and the sooner we can disable SHA1 certificates.”
In the end, the issue isn’t if SHA-1 encryption will be cracked but rather when it will be cracked.
What Do I Need to Do?
January 1, 2017, might seem like a long way away, but now is the time to understand the problem and how to mitigate it.
As per Microsoft’s SHA-1 deprecation policy, Windows users don’t need to do anything in response to this new technical requirement. XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) and later versions support SHA-2 SSL certificates. Server 2003 SP2 and later versions add SHA-2 functionality to SSL certificates by applying hotfixes (KB968730 and KB938397).
Web administrators must request new certificates to replace SHA-1 SSL and code-signing certificates that expire after January 1, 2017. As of this writing, that would probably affect only public SHA-1 certificates that were purchased with a long expiration date (three years or more) or long-duration certificates issued by internal SHA-1 CAs. Most third-party CAs will rekey their certificates for free, so you simply need to contact the CA to request a rekeyed certificate that uses the SHA-2 algorithm.
When ordering new SSL certificates, you should confirm with the CA that they’re being issued with the SHA-2 algorithm. New certificates with expiration dates after January 1, 2017, can only use SHA-2. Code-signing certificates with expiration dates after December 31, 2015, must also use SHA-2.
Note that the algorithm used in SHA-2 certificates is actually encoded to use SHA-256, SHA-384, or SHA-512. All of these are SHA-2 algorithms; the SHA number (e.g., 256) specifies the number of bits in the hash. The larger the hash, the more secure the certificate but possibly with less compatibility.
It’s important that the certificate chain be encrypted with SHA-2 certificates. (A certificate chain consists of all the certificates needed to certify the end certificate.) This means that any intermediate certificates must also use SHA-2 after January 1, 2017. Typically, your CA will provide the intermediate and root CA certificates when they provide the SHA-2 certificate. Sometimes they provide a link for you to download the certificate chain. It’s important that you update this chain with SHA-2 certificates. Otherwise, Windows might not trust your new SHA-2 certificate.
Root certificates are a different story. These can actually be SHA-1 certificates because Windows implicitly trusts these certificates since the OS trusts the root certificate public key directly. A root certificate is self-signed and isn’t signed by another entity that has been given authority.
For the same reason, any self-signed certificate can use the SHA-1 algorithm. For example, Microsoft Exchange Server generates self-signed SHA-1 certificates during installation. These certificates are exempt from the new SHA-2 policy since they aren’t chained to a CA. I expect, however, that future releases of Exchange will use SHA-2 in self-signed certificates.
What About My Enterprise CAs?
If your organization has its own internal CA PKI, you’ll want to ensure that it’s generating SHA-2 certificates. How this is done depends on whether the CA is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or later and if your CA has subordinate CAs.
If you have a Server 2008 R2 or later single-root CA without subordinates, you should update the CA to use SHA-2. Doing so will ensure that subsequent certificates generated will use the SHA-2 algorithm. To check which hash algorithm is being used, you can right-click the CA and go to the General tab. If SHA-1 is listed, you can run the following certutil command to configure the CA to use the SHA-256 algorithm:
certutil -setreg ca\csp\CNGHashAlgorithm SHA256
You must restart the CertSvc service to apply the change. Now when you view the CA properties, you’ll see that the hash algorithm is SHA-256. All future certificates issued by this CA will use SHA-256, but keep in mind that existing certificates will still be using SHA-1. You need to renew any SHA-1 certificates issued by this CA to upgrade them to SHA-2 certificates.
If your CA is older than Server 2008 R2, you can’t upgrade the CA to use SHA-2. You’ll need to rebuild it with a newer version.
If your organization’s internal CA is multi-tiered with one or more subordinate CAs, you’ll need to reconfigure them to use SHA-2. This is done using the same certutil command just given on each subordinate or issuing CA. Keep in mind that if you use subordinate CAs, you’re not required to update the root CA to SHA-2 since that certificate is at the top of the certificate chain, but it won’t cause any problems if you do. You still need to renew any SHA-1 certificates issued by the subordinate CAs to upgrade them to SHA-2 certificates.
Take Action Now
Administrators and website operators should identify all the SSL certificates used in their organizations and take action, as follows:
SHA-1 SSL certificates expiring before January 1, 2017, will need to be replaced with a SHA-2 equivalent certificate.
SHA-1 SSL certificates expiring after January 1, 2017, should be replaced with a SHA-2 certificate at the earliest convenience.
Any SHA-2 certificate chained to an SHA-1 intermediate certificate should be replaced with another one chained to an SHA-2 intermediate certificate.
The following tools and websites are useful for testing and for further information about SHA-1 remediation:
Microsoft Security Advisory 2880823. This website discusses the deprecation policy for the SHA-1 hashing algorithm for the Microsoft Root Certificate Program.
“Gradually sunsetting SHA-1.” This Google Online Security Blog post explains how the transition to SHA-2 affects Chrome and details Google’s rollout schedule.
SHA-256 Compatibility. This GlobalSign web page lists OS, browser, server, and signing support for SHA-256 certificates.
DigiCert SHA-1 Sunset Tool. This free web application tests public websites for SHA-1 certificates that expire after January 1, 2016.
DigiCert Certificate Inspector. This tool discovers and analyzes all certificates in an enterprise. It’s free, even if you don’t have a DigiCert account.
Qualys SSL Labs’ SSL Server Test. This free online service analyzes the configuration of any SSL web server on the public Internet.
For the fourth generation Apple TV, the possibilities are endless
Update: The new Apple TV is finally here and available to buy right now in all Apple Stores. Here’s the final pricing: $149 and $199 pricing for the 32GB and 64GB versions in the US respectively, £129 and £169 in the UK, while in Australia the cost is AU$269 and AU$349 for the different versions.
Original story below…
Three years of waiting for a major upgrade and six months of rumors have lead to this point: the new Apple TV, announced earlier in September at the company’s iPhone 6S event.
When it came time to think about the upgrade to the Cupertino company’s seminal streamer, it seems one Steve Jobs-ian point made it through the chopping board: the new Apple TV needs to be just as smart if its predecessor and just as easy to use. It needs to offer a slew of contemporary features but still remain relatively clean looking.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the new Apple TV is all of those things.
Now, before you go down into the comments and leave a nasty retort, we know that “new Apple TV” is a fairly confusing name. But Apple bows to no numerical and/or logic system, and since the Apple TV has yet to see a true sequel until now, instead receiving iteration after iteration of internal upgrades, this is just the way the Apple peels.
It’s been about two years since the last minor change to the Apple TV and three since the last major one. Which, for a company that’s bound and determined to release a new iPhone every 12 months, seems a little strange that Apple’s popular streamer has been MIA since the iPhone 5.
But our patience has been rewarded, and Apple has delivered the next iteration of a great streaming device. It packs a faster processor than its predecessor, a great-looking UI, too. It has an all-new remote that comes with a built-in microphone and works with Siri, not to mention the fact that it doubles as a Wii-like motion game controller.
It has a sharp new OS – a hybrid of OSX and iOS – and comes with a loaded app store that Tim Cook says will usher in a new age of television. It’s ostentatious and bold vision packed into a tiny box. But that’s Apple for you.
Cut to the chase What is it? The next generation of Apple’s set-top box, the Apple TV When is it out? Monday October 26 2015 in over 80 countries worldwide How much does it cost? The 32GB version will cost $149 (£129, AU$269) while the 64GB version will come in at $199 (£169, AU$349) Why is it better? It has a faster processor, better interface, more apps, a Wii-esque remote and has voice search functionality
When WWDC 2015 came and went without an Apple TV announcement, we were a little disappointed. But when rumors started to circulate about the Cupertino company’s September 9 event, our hopes and dreams for a brand-new set-top box started to solidify into reality. It turns out it wasn’t all wishful thinking, either. Rumors of Apple’s next set-top box practically boiled over until most, if not all, of the Apple’s big secrets saw the light of day before the 9th. (You can find the key points highlighted in bold!)
New Apple TV user interface
User interfaces are absolutely crucial, and Apple built its reputation on putting together some of the sleekest, most easy-to-use pieces of software on the market. The new Apple TV harnesses that long tradition of doing things right and wildly improves the old model’s layout into something more modern.
The new UI is purposefully flat, with top-level boxes for music and movies on the iTunes store, your most used apps like Netflix and Hulu, as well as the recently added App Store – which is like to pack TV-optimized games alongside Apple Music and its music-streaming kin.
It’s all built on top of a new OS called tvOS that works like a hybrid of iOS and OSX. There are 11 million developers on the platform according to Apple senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, which means you can expect a ton of third-party apps available on the first day.
tvOS will support Siri and include universal search results that enable searches across multiple streaming video services as well as Apple’s iTunes Store. That means instead of searching for a movie on each individual app, you’ll be able to see a select number of services in every search (think Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video, Hulu, YouTube, Vimeo, etc).
New Apple TV remote
Also, we know that the New Apple TV will include an updated remote control (goodbye, boring aluminum IR remote) that operates over Bluetooth and features a mix of physical buttons and a touchpad.
Inside the remote, Apple looks to be packing in some Wii-esque motion sensors, which would make playing games on the App Store that require tilt easy. Speaking of Bluetooth, we’ve heard whispers that you might be able to connect any console-style controller made for iOS to the Apple TV if the new remote doesn’t do it for you.
Of course the remote will include an internal microphone so you can chat withSiri, meaning that the new Apple TV might be fully operable just with your voice.
Apps shown off so far that use the remote are a new-and-improved Crossy Road, Beats Sports – a Wii-like game from the Rock Band developers, MLB At Bat andApple Music. And for fans of the old-fashioned Home Shopping Network, Gilt will allow you to shop for deals from the comfort of your couch.
There are thousands more apps in the works, and techradar has confirmed with a handful of developers that even though the store looks sparse, many more apps are right around the corner.
New Apple TV hardware
But like my mama always said, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. And inside the New Apple TV is packing a 64-bit A8 processor, currently found in the iPhone 6 Plus. It’s several times more powerful than the current Apple TV, and gives it the necessary horsepower to truck through the latest wave of graphically intense games. Does this mean that your Apple TV will become the premier spot to play the latest Call of Duty or Madden game? Most likely not. But for fans of casual or semi-casual gaming, the New Apple TV will be a pretty mean gaming machine.
It will support Bluetooth 4.0 (necessary to work with the all-new Siri remote),802.11ac WiFi with MIMO and come with either 32GB or 64GB of internal flash storage. None of this, however, is going to come cheap.
New Apple TV price
As expected, the 32GB will cost $149 (£129, AU$269) while the 64GB version will come in at $199 (£169, AU$349). It’s about three times the cost of the current Apple set-top box, but that price feels justified with all the new bells and whistles.
The only thing that would’ve sweetened the deal? A subscription to the purported cable alternative Apple has been working on for the past few months. This feature is likely to be coming, but we can now confirm that it missed the Apple TV announcement on September 9.
New Apple TV release date
So when can you get it? Apple launched the new Apple TV in over 80 countries on Monday October 26, and will expand to over 100 by the end of 2015.
New Apple TV competition
Looks like the new Apple TV isn’t the only shiny new set-top box on the market this holiday season. Recently Amazon launched a 4K version of the Amazon Fire TV, while Google has recently shipped out a Chromecast 2.
Finally, after techradar caught wind of the new Roku 4 thanks to a filing with the FCC in late September, Roku launched its stellar new streaming box at the tail end of October.
So far the consensus among reviewers is that the Chromecast 2 offers a faster response time and extremely affordable price tag if you can stand living without a user interface, while the the 4K Amazon Fire TV is great, but ultimately too dependent on a Prime subscription to do much good.
Conversely, the Roku 4 brings one of the best operating systems and universal search functions to the table, however the unit is noticeably louder and hotter than the Roku 3.
The first rumors of an Apple owned and operated cable service was given life on the web around the same time Sling TV made a splash in the US. The only problem with this plan is that Apple would need a lot of partners – FOX, NBC, ABC, Viacom, etc… – within a short time period.
The potential package in question would have a number of channels you know and love from cable but streamed over your Internet service for a lower monthly cost than traditional vendors like Sky, Virgin, Verizon or Time Warner Cable.
A service like that, exclusive to Apple TV, could be a huge differentiator and killer app for Cupertino. Whether Apple’s TV streaming dreams come to fruition – or actually exist at all – however, remains to be seen.
Apple pulls the plug on TV
After 10 years of research and development, Apple has officially stopped working on the fabled Apple television set, according to The Wall Street Journal.
According to a source familiar to the situation, because it was unable to add anything new to the world of flat-panels and 4K Ultra-HD TVs, Apple has thrown in the towel once and for all.
Apple is still expected to release both an updated version of the traditional set-top box as well as an over-the-top streaming service like Sling TV at its World Wide Developers Conference which starts on June 8.
The history of Apple TV
The first Apple TV launched back in 2006 and stuck out from the crowd by boasting its own hard drive and composite cables to hook up to then-new SD TV sets. It had a measly Intel Crofton Premium M processor and 256MB of DDR2 memory.
Version 2 ditched the internal storage for a better 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi antenna, upgraded Apple A4 processor and favored streaming media over anything stored on physical drives. While some lamented the disappearance of a HDD, some appreciated the Apple TV’s smaller size as a result of the change.
Launching in 2012, Apple TV Version 3, the latest version of the Apple TV, didn’t offer much of an upgrade over its predecessor. It still streamed media and had a streamlined user-interface based on iOS (at that time it was iOS7). Of course the processor got a bump to the A5 to handle 1080p video and it finally doubled down on RAM to a solid 512MB.
Starting on March 9, 2015, the currently available Apple TV will drop to $69 (about £45, AU$90) and has first-dibs on HBO’s new standalone streaming service, HBO Now.
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