Just about every lawyer stores lots of confidential information on an iPhone or iPad, protected by the device’s passcode. But both good guys and bad guys are always looking for ways to hack that passcoce. Olivia Solon of NBC News reported this week that Grayshift, a company that makes iPhone-cracking devices for law enforcement, has a new trick up its sleeve. In the past, the Grayshift device would try to guess the iPhone passcode. As John Gruber of Daring Fireball explains, an iPhone is made so that it cannot accept more than 12.5 guesses per second. That means that a four-digit passcode would take on average seven minutes to crack (14 minutes maximum, if the last possible guess was the right one), and a six-digit passcode (the current default) takes on average 11 hours to guess, 22 hours at most. Go up to ten digits, and the average goes up to 12.5 years. Go over ten digits and/or use letters in addition to numbers (which is what I do), and the time to crack a passcode goes up exponentially. But with the new software from Grayshift, called Hide UI, a law enforcement official takes your iPhone, connects it to the Grayshift hardware, and then returns the iPhone to you. When you next enter your passcode, Hide UI secretly runs in the background and watches the passcode that you enter. Then the official takes your iPhone back, and they can get in. When this type of tool is used by good guys, like law enforcement trying to protect lives, that’s great news. When bad guys steal your phone and do the same thing to access your confidential attorney-client information, that’s horrible news. Be careful out there, and advise your clients to do the same. And now, the news of note from the past week:
- If you use Microsoft Teams for videochat, you saw this week that Microsoft finally added 3×3 video so that you can see nine people at once (plus yourself) instead of four. It’s a nice improvement, and long overdue. But unfortunately, the iPad app still only shows four people, one of whom is you. According to a post on Microsoft User Feedback Forum, Microsoft is “continuing to work to include more videos during a meeting, as well as enabling support for mobile devices.”
- Many attorneys are now attending trial and appellate court hearings via videochat. (I had my first such hearing earlier this week, and the process worked well.) Ideally, you will be in a well-lit environment with a nice background, but if not, you can use a virtual background with Zoom, Teams, and many other services. As Ray Ward of the Louisiana Civil Appeals blog wrote this week, the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal has offered some background images that oral advocates can use to make it look like they are standing in the courtroom in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Cute idea.
- Apple added many more Pride Apple Watch faces this week — the ones with rainbows. Killian Bell of Cult of Mac explains how to access them.
- Harry McCracken of Fast Company reviews the Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro.
- Dave McNary of Variety reports that the new Tom Hanks submarine drama called Greyhound was supposed to be the big movie in theaters right now, but in light of COVID-19, Sony decided to sell the release rights to Apple for its Apple TV+ video service. No word yet on when the movie will be available to watch.
- Don’t force quite apps on your iPhone unless they are not working correctly and need to be restarted. Adam Engst of TidBITS explains why.
- Leif Johnson of PCWorld notes that if you pair AirPods with Windows 10, the microphone doesn’t work as well as it does on an iPhone or Mac. I didn’t know that.
- And finally, here is a beautiful video released by Apple a few months ago called Otherworldly: Valley of Fire. The whole thing was filmed on an iPhone 11 Pro using the Ultra Wide camera.: