In a blog post, Apple said it was issuing a security update for iPhones and iPads because a "maliciously crafted" PDF file could lead to them being hacked. He said the malicious file causes devices to crash.Ĭitizen Lab says the case reveals, once again, that NSO Group is allowing its spyware to be used against ordinary civilians. It was discovered during a second examination of the phone, which forensics showed had been infected in March. Malicious image files were transmitted to the activist's phone via the iMessage instant-messaging app before it was hacked with NSO's Pegasus spyware, which opens a phone to eavesdropping and remote data theft, Marczak said.
This morning, all we got was a simple and enigmatic tweet.World What To Know About The Spying Scandal Linked To Israeli Tech Firm NSOĪlthough security experts say that average iPhone, iPad and Mac user generally need not worry - such attacks tend to be limited to specific targets - the discovery still alarmed security professionals. Last fall, the announcement of new iPad Pros was deemed worthy of a large-scale event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. And the new iPads were announced with much less fanfare than usual.
Last year around this time, Apple held an iPad event in Chicago focused on both hardware and software: The new Pencil-friendly version of the iPad was accompanied by software aimed at teachers and students.īut clearly, Apple didn’t want to mix its hardware and software announcements this time around. The release of the new iPads is coming exactly a week before Apple is set to host a media-focused event at which the company is expected to reveal a new subscription service for news and potentially flex its streaming video muscle in an attempt to compete more seriously with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. So if Apple was ever going to refresh its once-popular iPad models, “It’s a now or never moment in that sense,” says Guenveur. Guenver added that she believes AR glasses will fulfill a lot of those kinds of in-the-field needs at some point in the near future. “They still need a device that’s slightly more capable than a smartphone in what they do.” “One of the only bright spots in the slate segment right now is the commercial segment, especially field workers,” says Guenveur.
Despite Apple’s pedigree as a consumer tech company, it knows that consumers don’t upgrade their tablets all that often, and there’s opportunity in the commercial space. It’s also a popular choice for small businesses looking to modernize their point-of-sale terminals. It’s the kind of hardware that can appeal to a wide range of people, from game-obsessed kids, to people looking for something Kindle-sized for media consumption, to frequent flyers, to doctors and other professionals who want something (sort of) pocketable when they’re out in the field. “The Air is the ‘in-between’ selling price and ‘in-between’ brand name that they needed to sell in order to get people up the stack.”īut the iPad Mini is also uniquely positioned because of its small size.
It fills an important gap, especially since Apple also quietly killed off the 10.5-inch iPad Pro today. Lauren Guenveur, a senior research analyst at IDC, told WIRED that the new iPad Air is a kind of “jumping point” between the lower-range iPads and the high-end iPad Pros. The new iPads add two more models to Apple’s entire iPad lineup, which now totals five versions of the mobile computer-even as the tablet market continues to decline. But their names and their builds are throwbacks: white bezels where Apple's pricier tablets have none, a Lightning port instead of USB-C, and a familiar home button in an era when Apple is doing away with them everywhere else. They effectively replace all previous Mini and Air tablets. They also both now support the Pencil, Apple's $99 stylus. The iPad Mini and iPad Air are “new” in the accurate sense of the word they have new processors and updated displays. New versions of both were announced by Apple this morning. It’s been so long since the Mini saw an update, some people presumed the product to be dead.īut it turns out the iPad Mini lives again, as does the sleek iPad Air. An updated Mini is the device that small-tablet fans have been hoping for since 2015, the year the iPad Mini 4 launched. Blink and you might have missed the early-morning tweet from Apple CEO Tim Cook-the one showing him scrawling the word "Hello" on an iPad Mini using a stylus.