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Don’t do it without a very good reason though
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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Apple will let you remove the security patches installed by iOS 16’s Rapid Security Response system, which can install patches without the need to fully update your iPhone (or even without having to restart it, in some cases). According to a support document spotted by MacRumors, you can remove a Rapid Security Response update by going to Settings > General > About, then tapping on the iOS Version. From there, you’ll be presented with a “Remove Security Update” button.
The document doesn’t give any examples of why you’d need to uninstall one of the patches, leaving your phone open to the vulnerability it protects against. It’s easy to imagine a few special circumstances where the feature could be useful, perhaps if one messes up some special work-related software or management tools, for instance. Otherwise, it’s one of those features that most people should probably never use unless they have a very specific reason and fully understand what they’re doing — kind of like the new extreme Lockdown Mode, which is included to protect users from “highly sophisticated” targeted cyberattacks.
It’s nice to have control, but most people shouldn’t need it
Rapid Security Response is turned on by default, although you can turn off the updates by going to Settings > General > Software Update > Automatic Updates and toggling “Security Responses and System Files.” If you do so, you’ll have to wait for full iOS updates to get the security patches. Again, I’d personally recommend against turning the feature off unless you have an explicit reason to, given how many of Apple’s recent updates have patched out pretty serious vulnerabilities.
The system is also coming to macOS in Ventura, which hasn’t been officially released yet — so far, Apple’s support documents for its desktop OS don’t mention whether you’ll be able to roll back those updates as well.
Nilay Patel35 minutes ago
Apple’s satellite deal with Globalstar will probably save the company.
Globalstar was an also-ran in satellite services, but Apple has basically taken over the company without taking it over. Here’s analyst Tim Farrar in FierceWireless:
Yet getting the deal with Apple is still “pretty impressive,” he said. “It’s still very good to have gotten anything out of this because Globalstar has been languishing for years with revenues of not much more than $100 million a year and this is potentially going to nearly triple their revenues, so that’s a massive improvement in their satellite business,” Farrar said.
David Pierce40 minutes ago
A good read on “the tyranny of WhatsApp groups.”
Group chats are great, and are replacing social media for a lot of people. They also, this smart Guardian piece points out, flood your life with notifications and raise the stakes for reading them all. So what do you do? And can you ever get out? (This is a good companion to last week’s WSJ piece about texting being the new email, too.)
Amazon Go’s ‘just walk out’ tech comes to the LA suburbs.
The new Amazon Go Whittier location is enticing locals with $3 made-to-order Avocado Toast, kombucha on tap, and local beers from Smog City and Three Weavers brewing companies. Torrance location coming soon.
Yummy Google potato chips land in Japan.
You can now enter an official Google Store lottery in Japan to win boxes of Snow Cheese, Hazel Onion, Salty Lemon, or Obsidian Pepper flavored “Google Original Chips.” Get it? Original chips… because the Pixel 7 phones launching on October 6th will be powered by Google’s own Tensor G2 silicon.
Mmm, cheese made from snow.
You can now listen to podcasts inside Twitter.
If you pay Twitter, at least. The latest feature to join the Twitter Blue subscription is early access to the redesigned Spaces tab on iOS, which includes support for tuning into podcasts.
I am not entirely convinced this will take off (short-form social network + long-form audio = ?), but I can see a compelling use case if Twitter eventually lets podcasters promote clips from their shows. My colleague Ariel Shapiro wrote about the launch last month:
Fantastical’s new calendar automatically keeps work appointments at work
I hope every app adds support for Apple’s “Focus filters.” I’d love a future where I can split work and personal stuff between Focus Modes, rather than having to use different apps.
Let me watch TV on the Apple Watch Ultra
We have the technology to view TV from our wrists, but where is the feature?
Andrew MarinoSep 10
What does it mean to have “brain fog?” Scientists are finally looking into it.
Long COVID isn’t the only thing that can cause brain fog — other culprits include chemotherapy, hormone trouble, and multiple sclerosis — but it’s nice to see that people are starting to take it seriously.
The electrical grid has a lot of problems, but EV charging is not one of them — for now.
The Union of Concerned Scientists says that the US electrical grid is up to the EV challenge, even in states like California with a lot of grid problems and a lot of EVs. The group even has high hopes for the future, as EVs grow more prevalent on the road. Utilities and grid operators will need to invest in more capacity and better transmission, though, if and when EVs become the dominant vehicle type on the road.
I bet the 64GB iPhone 12 will be the most popular model this year.
There’s a report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo going around stating that demand for the iPhone 14 is less than demand for the 13 was last year during the first pre-order weekend. Given how little has changed with the 14, I’m tempted to say “duh” and that we shouldn’t really think about this gen’s performance until the 14 Plus is released, at the very least.
But it also made me think that the 64GB iPhone 12 is going to be this year’s iPhone XR. It’s got what the people want: modern look, lots of colors, and the cheapest price on the shelf.
