iPadOS • Hacker News Board

Re: iPadOS

#201

Post by Abishek_Muthian » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:32 PM UTC

eugeniub wrote: post #198

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #100

Track record for Apple when it comes to iOS/iPadOS updates has been impressive, but once they stop updating their device it becomes more vulnerable than their android counterpart for basic Internet browsing just because Apple doesn't update Safari via AppStore and doesn't allow any other browser engine . Case in point : Google Project Zero's latest iOS Exploit chains on webkit shows how easy it was(*is?) for an iOS u…

> But many of the exploit chains did use public jailbreak exploits and Semi-unthethered jailbreaks exist for 32-bit iOS devices running up to iOS 10.3.3. Apple released iOS 10.3.4 on July 22, 2019 for iPhone 5 and iPad 4g.[1] So it's not completely unheard of for Apple to release iOS updates after officially dropping iOS support for old devices. From the Apple website:[2] > iOS 10.3.4 addresses an issue that could im…

Unlikely, if it was a security update then iPhone5C should have received it as well. iPhone5C didn't receive 10.3.4 update because its GPS hardware supposedly was an updated one than the iPhone5.

Also, Google Project Zero article(link in parent comment) gives the clear timeline of the attacks and that the exploits were updated to mitigate patches with every new OS updates; so even if 10.3.4 had security patches older devices still might be vulnerable to later attacks.

Re: iPadOS

#202

Post by pdimitar » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:32 PM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #4

(It came out today, for those wondering why it’s being posted here.)

I’ve read a week ago that it will start rolling out from September the 30th, though. And still no software update available on my iPad Pro.

Re: iPadOS

#203

Post by Someone » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:33 PM UTC

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #174

Spivak wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorta, the actual browser chrome is provided by the 3rd party but the underlying rendering and JS engine are required to be the OS provided facilities (i.e. Safari) Apple’s security model is that Apple has to be able to inspect and review all the code you’re app is going to run. There is a special exception for JS provided that you run it though Apple’s interpreter. Browsers are caught in the crossfire of a much broa…

I agree, but apple has made an exception for coding apps to run arbitrary code for some years now. So, it doesn't make any sense for Apple to not allow 3rd party browsers apart from its intention for a walled garden even if it means compromising security for its users.

Are there non-Apple apps that compile and _run_, rather than _interpret_ code users can enter?

Python, for example, typically gets compiled to bytecode, but the bytecode is interpreted.

Re: iPadOS

#204

Post by jbigelow76 » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:34 PM UTC

Pfhreak wrote: post #140

Nice list of feature improvements. Still, it doesn't look like there's a way to support multiple accounts on a single device (e.g. parent and child with different configurations.) Maybe I'm wrong and missed something? There's a long list of improvements and I definitely skimmed it.

Not in there, that would have been a pretty big shift for Apple to concede that not every member of the family needs their own iPad and support multiple accounts. Only whatever the Apple educational software is called unlocks the ability for iPads to share accounts.

Re: iPadOS

#205

Post by fastbeef » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:35 PM UTC

UIZealot wrote: post #189

iOS has been dead to me since iOS 7. I stopped buying iPhone/iPads and stopped developing for it. Now that Jony "no taste" Ive is gone, can we go back to the classic look already?

Username checks out.

Re: iPadOS

#206

Post by ymolodtsov » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:36 PM UTC

la_barba wrote: post #139

Analemma_ wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Apple's defense, the SOCs on iPads are improving much, much faster than PC chips. Intel chips have been getting faster at something like 5% per year for the last decade, compared to 50% for Apple's A-series. So I think supporting 5 years worth of iPad devices is somewhat comparable to supporting 20 years worth of PC hardware: in both cases it's about a 100x performance difference between the bottom and top, and be…

That really isn't a like-like comparison. You are looking at just one product from Apple. In the Android and Windows world for each generation there are hundreds of thousands of hardware combinations from entry level to high end that are expected to run Windows. Also MS/Google cannot test their software with future un-released hardware. If anything, this should be a cakewalk for Apple - if they choose to. I don't kno…

They stopped updating 5S because it only has 1Gb of RAM. They only do it when the device really falls short of technical requirements.

Re: iPadOS

#207

Post by username3 » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:39 PM UTC

dallen33 wrote: post #18

The list of supported devices is impressive. The iPad Air 2 came out in 2014. 12.9-inch iPad Pro 11-inch iPad Pro 10.5-inch iPad Pro 9.7-inch iPad Pro iPad (7th generation) iPad (6th generation) iPad (5th generation) iPad mini (5th generation) iPad mini 4 iPad Air (3rd generation) iPad Air 2

iPad Air 2 users beware. An iPadOS update made my iPad 1 useless and crash all the time.

Re: iPadOS

#208

Post by pjmlp » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

biztos wrote: post #194

pjmlp wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until Apple acquired NeXT, terminals were meaningless on Mac OS, developers were doing just fine with IDE REPLs.

This developer was doing just fine with NSCA Telnet to do UNIX work. Without a terminal emulator I couldn't have justified owning a Mac.

So not Apple's target audience of Mac developers, developing Mac software.

Re: iPadOS

#209

Post by csande17 » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:41 PM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #183

Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't explain why it fails to update Safari via AppStore. Also Apple has been allowing coding apps for years now which can download and run executable code, so it is hard to buy the argument.

> That doesn't explain why it fails to update Safari via AppStore. Another reason is that it's extra work to decouple the browser with the OS. > Also Apple has been allowing coding apps for years now which can download and run executable code, so it is hard to buy the argument. Not native code.

Doesn't the Swift Playgrounds app let you download, compile, and run Swift code?

Re: iPadOS

#210

Post by vbezhenar » Tue, Sep 24, 2019, 6:43 PM UTC

Jyaif wrote: post #158

saagarjha wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In any case, I don't think there can be any opposing arguments on the side of security for Apple not updating Safari via AppStore or now allowing proper 3rd party browsers. Third party browsers entitled with dynamic codesigning poke a huge hole in Apple's security model for iOS devices.

Can you explain why allowing apps to ship with a JIT compiler be a security issue?

Apple libraries use private APIs but developers must not use them directly. If you allow developers to execute arbitrary bytes, they can submit app which does not call private API but will be able to call them later after approve. JavaScript is safe, because it can't call C API, but arbitrary JIT engine is not.