Apple has been sprucing up its mobile operating system, bolstering privacy and safety features and sprinkling in some new emoji to boot. But while the company shores up iOS, it has also faced renewed criticism about privacy lapses in its AirTags trackers. Reports of the devices being used by stalkers to track others without their permission have raised questions about Apple's tracking tech. Why did it take so long for the company to introduce features that could alert or protect potential victims? And why didn't Apple anticipate these types of abuse would happen in the first place?
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED product writer Brenda Stolyar joins us to run through the new features on iOS and discuss where Apple went wrong with AirTags.
Show Notes
Read more about the new features in iOS 15.4. Here’s the New York Times story about tracking people with AirTags. Read the Washington Post article, also about AirTag stalking.
Recommendations
Brenda recommends the podcast “Storytime With Seth Rogan.” Mike recommends Provecho, a vegan Mexican cuisine cookbook by Edgar Castrejón. Lauren recommends telling us your own recommendations for cool stuff by tweeting @GadgetLab.
Brenda Stolyar can be found on Twitter @BStoly. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
How to Listen
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Transcript
Lauren Goode: Mike.
Michael Calore: Lauren.
LG: Mike, remember when we used to be in the office a lot in the before times and I used to lose things a lot?
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MC: Yes, I do remember when you were constantly losing things in the office.
LG: Yeah. I was often borrowing your key card or your keys or chargers or credit-
MC: Styrofoam coffee cups.
LG: No, we did not use styrofoam. Credit cards. OK. So you would think that I would be a big Tile or AirTag aficionado. Right?
MC: Yes. It seems like a perfect product for you.
LG: But I'm not.
MC: Why is that?
LG: Well, I think we should talk about that.
MC: Well, let's do it.
[Gadget Lab intro theme music plays]
LG: Hey, everyone. Welcome to Gadget Lab. I'm Lauren Goode. I'm a senior writer at WIRED, and I guess I'm a perpetual loser, a person who loses things.
MC: I am Michael Calore. I'm a senior editor at WIRED, and I'm a person who always remembers everything always.
LG: I've got a lot better about this, I have to say.
MC: You have. Yes.
LG: I really have. And we've been back in the office a little bit and you've witnessed this. OK. Anyway, we're also joined this week by WIRED product writer, Brenda Stolyar. Hey, Brenda. Welcome back to the show.
Brenda Stolyar: Hello. Thank you for having me back.
LG: So we're going to be covering a couple of different topics today. First, we're going to talk about the new software update that's coming to iPhones very soon. Apple hasn't announced exactly when we can expect this new iOS, but we know it's going to be within the next month. The software is in beta now. We know there are some interesting new features on the way, so we're going to unpack those.
And then in the second half of the show, we're going to talk about another software update Apple has had to issue recently because of privacy concerns around AirTags, those little lost item finders, and Brenda has written about both of these topics. OK, but first let's talk about iOS. Brenda, you just wrote a story for WIRED.com about all the new features in iOS 15.4. What can we expect? What's the big one that jumps out at you?
BS: This is definitely a pretty big update compared to the last few that we've had, and there's a lot of pretty cool features, but I'd say the first thing that comes to mind is face ID with a mask. Apple has been a little strange about releasing this specific feature at the start of the pandemic and throughout the pandemic. They basically denied that it was possible, I remember, because they kept reiterating that it requires your eyes, nose and mouth in tandem to be able to work. And so you saw a lot of people tricking the system essentially by setting up an alternate appearance and scanning their face with half the mask so you could still see part of your mouth and then scanning the other half. It was very intricate, a very good idea.
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And then Apple did eventually release a feature with iOS 14 that allowed you to unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch, but not everybody has an Apple Watch, and I don't think people should have gone out to buy the Apple Watch just to be able to unlock their iPhone with a mask.
But with iOS 15, this feature utilizes the area around your eyes to authenticate face ID. So the setup is simple. You toggle it on in your settings. You scan your face the way you normally do for face ID and you don't need to wear a mask while doing it. And then you can also add glasses if you wear them, but again, since it requires the eye area is visible, it won't work with sunglasses, which is important to note. So it has to be able to see your eyes.
And then the other thing I've been using it with the beta, and I'd say it works pretty well, but you just have to remember to look directly into the camera in order for it to successfully work. But yeah, it's a pretty nice feature to have once you get used to just looking directly at the camera, otherwise it won't be able to work as well.
MC: Can we talk about the great irony that this feature is being released just as mask mandates in many parts of the country are starting to lift?
BS: Yes, it's frustrating because we all knew this feature was possible two years ago at the start of the pandemic, and the timing is hilarious because people aren't going to probably use it as much. I'm in New York, so I will continue to wear my mask. But yeah, I think now it's like, thanks Apple but no thanks.
LG: Yeah. I'm pretty much just accustomed to using the passcode again, the PIN code. Every time I go to use face ID, I'm like, yeah, I'm just going to punch it in, punch in the numbers, basically not using face ID in any capacity these days.
MC: I think the pandemic was really a big roadblock for face ID because I went through this problem. I'm a Pixel user. I went through this problem where I switched to the Pixel 4 just as the pandemic was starting, and then it has the facial unlock feature on it, and I was wearing a mask and it never worked and I would always have to pull down my mask or just use the PIN to unlock the phone. And then very recently, I switched to the latest Pixel, which ditches the Google face unlock in favor of an on-screen fingerprint reader.
LG: The fingerprint. Oh, that frustrating in-display fingerprint sensor.
MC: It actually works fine.
LG: Oh, OK.
MC: It works nine times out of 10.
LG: Wow. I think you're the one person it works for.
MC: Well, it doesn't work when my fingers are sweaty, but basically I was more than happy to get rid of face unlock just because of the mask thing. And now that I also live in a big city, also going to continue wearing my mask, although I am wearing a mask less particularly when I'm outdoors, I still prefer the fingerprint sensor to the face unlock.
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LG: It is tragically funny that Apple is introducing this two years after we first went into lockdown for the pandemic and started wearing masks.
MC: Yeah.
LG: It took them a little while, shall we say? But the truth is we don't really know how mask mandates are going to ebb and flow. It feels like maybe we're in the clear right now in cities like San Francisco are lifting mask mandates in stores and gyms and that kind of thing and office spaces, but we could end up back in another situation. Some people are going to continue to wear masks just for general health and wellness. It's certainly more of a standard in certain cultures around the world that people wear masks. And so I think this feature ultimately will be appreciated if it works as promised.
MC: So also coming is an update to iPad OS. And one thing that's coming is the universal control feature on the iPad. Have you seen a demo of this or can you tell us how this is going to work?
BS: Yeah. So I have not been able to use the beta version. I do remember Apple did show a brief demo when they first announced it last year or this year or time has just … I don't even … I can't keep track anymore. But essentially, if you own an iPad and a Mac, you'll now be able to control both devices using one mouse and one keyboard. So that's kind of supposed to, I imagine, take the place of Sidecar, which essentially turned your iPad into a secondary screen. But with universal control, you can use both respective operating systems rather than using Mac OS on your iPad because it becomes really annoying when you're using it to mirror your Mac and then you want to access something on your iPad, so you have to exit from Sidecar and then you're back on the iPad screen. So this just lets you keep both operating systems running simultaneously on their respective devices and you just literally drag stuff from the iPad to the Mac, move your mouse, type on whichever screen you want to type on, all with just one setup.
LG: That sounds fun. I like that. I could picture that cutting down the distraction a little bit. Let's say you decided not to run messages on your Mac because that's your primary machine and where you're doing a lot of your deep work. But then you had the iPad running side by side, but it's running iPad OS. That's where you've got all your mobile apps that you're using to browse or shop or respond to messages, but then you can just fluidly use your mouse for both. That's the idea behind it. It sounds fun.
BS: Yeah. I am interested to try it specifically because I know that when I go from Mac OS to iPad OS, it requires certain muscle memory like you got to switch back and forth in between. So it might take a little bit getting used to, to use these both at the same time, but Apple is known for its seamless connectivity and ease of use when it comes to those things. So I'm excited.
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LG: All right. Before we take a quick break, just put into context for us, how big of an update is this iOS 15.4 update?
BS: It feels like these are the bigger features that were part of iOS 15 that Apple first announced and they're the ones that were constantly being pushed or delayed. So it feels like this is going to be a really great one. Aside from the past versions that were just bug fixes or minor features here and there, I think users are going to find a lot of useful ones this time around.
LG: What do you think, Mike, is this going to make you want to switch from Pixel?
MC: I probably will switch to an iPhone just because it's going to be the first device to get the melting face emoji, which I'm really looking forward to making my new default emoji instead of it's currently sunglasses smiling face, and I think the melting smiling face is going to be the new one for me.
LG: So what is the melting smiley face supposed to indicate, like your face is melting?
MC: Yeah.
LG: From what?
MC: It's self explanatory, Lauren.
LG: As in your head is exploding, your face is melting or you've been in the sun too long, your face is melting or we live in the midst of Northern California and wildfire season, your face is melting.
MC: I think it's mostly positive things. Maybe you're just happy or elevated in some way. It's whatever gets you off is what's melting your face.
LG: OK. I'm pretty sure that's how Apple describes it too.
BS: I was going to say it's funny that Mike said it's a positive emoji because I have so far been using it as a self deprecating emoji to take place of the upside down smiley face or the smile with the tear drop emoji. It feels very like I'm dying on the inside but smiling on the outside type emoji.
MC: Exactly.
BS: Yeah.
MC: Exactly. That's what I'm talking about.
BS: But that is another thing, I don't know if we wanted to touch on that, is there are a few new emojis coming out, including the melting face.
LG: Melting face. There's a biting lip, which sounds fun and slightly suggestive. There are beans. There's an x-ray. What else?
MC: Bubbles.
LG: Bubbles.
MC: The salute.
LG: The salute.
MC: The saluting face.
LG: Oh yeah.
BS: There's a teary eyed smiley one now instead of a teary eyed sad face. So that one is a little bit happier.
LG: Oh. I thought there already was a tear eyed smiley.
BS: So there's the teardrop smiley and then there's the one with the two eyeballs that are a little watery and it's frowning, but this one is smiling. So this is more of like an, aw, like so cute type vibe.
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MC: For cat pics.
BS: Yeah.
LG: Wow. I want to keep talking about emoji. Just skip AirTags altogether.
MC: No, we should talk about AirTags.
LG: All right. Let's take a quick break and then we'll come back with more Apple news.
[Break]
LG: OK. So Apple's iOS 15.4 is on its way and it's going to spruce up iPhones, but Apple has also had a bit of trouble with another one of its mobile products, and those are AirTags. There have been some reports that people have used them to track other people without their knowledge, essentially stalking them, which is clearly not what Apple intended them to be used for. So recently, Apple had to issue another software update to try to address this. We're going to get to exactly what this software update does in terms of protecting your privacy.
But my question for you, Brenda, is that AirTags are definitely not the first tracking device of their kind. Tile has been around for a really long time now, I think over a decade. And while Tile has also gotten its fair share of criticism, especially in the early days when people were first trying to figure out how they worked, the conversation around AirTags has just gone to a whole other level. So what actually is the difference between how Apple's AirTags work and other lost item trackers work?
BS: So the thing about AirTags is it leverages Apple's Find My Network, which for those that don't know is a crowdsourced app for iOS users to find their missing Apple products. With AirTags, they also emit Bluetooth identifiers, so Apple devices around them can identify and notify users of their location. Now these Bluetooth identifiers are constantly being refreshed when an iPhone is nearby, which is what lets you track the AirTags in real time using Find My. And there are a billion active iPhones out there, so that means it's very, very easy to keep its location up to date because it's just constantly being refreshed by the endless iPhones around us. I've been able to track people for testing purposes and with their knowledge across the country on flights. It literally feels like this AirTag knows no bounds.
LG: Brenda, could you quickly just explain how that works? When you say you've been able to track people across the country or on flights and that sort of thing, how does that actually work from your device to a tracker that's somewhere in the vicinity?
BS: Yeah. So I connect the AirTag to my phone, so therefore it shows up under my Items Tab on the Find My App. And then for testing, I just handed it to my roommate, for example, and they put it in their bag. And from there, I would just, every time I wanted to check their location, I would open the Find My App and it would just show me on a map their exact precise location.
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LG: So instead of AirTags relying solely on Bluetooth technology, which we know has a limited range that you have to be in the relative proximity of a person who is either connected by phone or Tile or whatever it is, this is basically just tapping this vast network of iPhone users around the country, around the world even potentially who have Find My activated.
BS: It's automatically on all of our iPhones, so nobody really even has to do anything. It's not like you have to own an AirTag in order to tap into that network. It's just strictly using an iPhone and that Find My Network. And with the help of all of these iPhones around you or around the person with the AirTag, it's essentially refreshing that location, which then shows up on my phone and allows me to see where they are.
I think that in terms of your question with comparing it to other companies like Tile, it's important to look at the numbers because like I said I guess five times already, there are a billion iPhones out there. And Tile specifically sold 40 million devices in 2021, and their most extensive tracker, which is the Tile Pro doesn't allow you to track beyond a Bluetooth range of 400 feet. I compared it in testing with my roommate. I gave her an AirTag and also a Tile. And every time I opened the Tile app, it would just tell me that that tracker was out of range. Tile does have a lost mode feature that allows you to similarly track a Tile at a Bluetooth range based on other Tiles around it. But when you compare how many people have a Tile to how many people have an iPhone, you can't make the comparison because there are so many iPhones out there.
LG: Right. The network isn't nearly is vast.
MC: So AirTags came under some pretty intense scrutiny over the last couple of weeks. There were some articles that talked about how easy it is to stalk somebody with AirTags. This is something that has been ongoing ever since they came out. There's been a bunch of stories about how easy it is to unsuspectingly slip an AirTag on to somebody's person or put it in their bag or put it in their car and then watch everywhere they go. Obviously, that's not a good thing. And Apple has responded by introducing some changes. Some of them were immediate and some of them are coming soon. Could you tell us a little bit about what's changing with AirTags?
BS: Yeah. So a couple of new features that Apple is planning to roll out soon are new privacy warnings during the AirTag setup process. So with new AirTags that you're setting up for the first time, you'll see a message that states these things are not meant to be used for tracking people without their consent, which is considered a crime. And it also warns you that Apple can provide law enforcement with any identifying info tied to whoever owns the AirTag so like an Apple ID or a serial number. So Apple is also updating its support documents to include more detailed info about things like what to do if you find an AirTag on you, what to do if you receive an alert, and instructions on how to disable it.
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And then there's also a few features that will be saved for a much later update, including a display alert for sound. So currently, when an unknown AirTag is placed on someone or something, it won't automatically emit a sound until about eight to 24 hours after the fact. So now, once that timeframe passes and the AirTag plays a sound, iPhones near it will receive an alert that will let them either play the sound again or use precision finding to track its exact location. So that should make it easier to find it if it's located somewhere that makes it tough to hear like your jacket pocket or at the bottom of your bag or if someone strategically disables the speaker as well because there have been recent reports of AirTags with tampered speakers being sold. But with the precision finding feature, people can just use their iPhone, which will guide them directly to where the AirTag is. So that's hopefully going to be super useful.
And speaking of sound, Apple is also working on adjusting the tone of the AirTag so that it's a lot louder to hear because right now, I think anyone that's used an AirTag in the past or is currently using an AirTag can agree that it's a little bit too quiet, especially if it's hidden somewhere deep. And then they're also working on alerting users a lot earlier that an AirTag is following them, which will definitely help to make sure that someone can disable an unwanted or an unknown AirTag a lot sooner rather than later.
LG: It seems that maybe Apple put this product out into the world before fully weighing the consequences of how they might be used by bad actors. I don't really see how that's possible, how you don't test for these use cases when you're beta testing these things. The way they work, they're so precise. The network of devices, connected devices is so vast that inevitably it seemed like people were going to use them for this.
BS: What was interesting to me is when they first came out, obviously publications raced to review them, and people were just really … What I noticed is they were reviewing them based on their core capability, which is tracking things, whether that is your keys, your bike, your backpack. And it's interesting to me that Apple really did think that that was going to be the limit to what people were using these things for. Obviously, they knew that there was going to be some privacy things to consider, so they released things like the notifications that pop up on your phone, the fact that it will emit a sound after a certain period so that you're aware that it's on you, but these things were in practice not very useful. When I gave them to my roommates, they didn't receive a notification most of the time, and they also didn't hear the sound either. So it almost feels like they pushed these AirTags out. They said here are some privacy features. We have them and they're there, but they were not all that useful.
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LG: In fairness, The Washington Post did call out privacy issues almost immediately in their review in the spring of 2021. I think there were concerns almost right away. But yeah, now it seems like more use cases have emerged. Some of them are malicious or nefarious, and Apple is in a position where it's being reactive to this instead of proactively having coded some of this into the design of AirTags.
I will say I don't use AirTags. One, to your point, Brenda, when I first tried them last spring, I didn't find them super useful. I tried a couple of things. I mailed one across the country to myself from California to the east coast, and then eventually I was flying to the east coast to visit family and I picked up the AirTag there and it arrived and I was able to track it at different stops along the way. Actually, after I sent one back to Apple as a loner, I tracked that. But then it just seemed like the negatives actually outweighed the potential benefits because they weren't providing that much usefulness. And you would think, Mike, you would think that I would be the perfect candidate for something like this.
MC: I would.
BS: Yeah, it's definitely scary, but I think the thing that irritates me about it is the timing, how long it has taken for these features because clearly, they're possible, and they should have probably … not probably. They should have been released at the start because it felt almost like the features were released after bad things were happening, if that makes sense. Rather than avoiding these bad things from happening, they were waiting for bad things to happen and then responding based on that. Rather than just equipping you with safety features, especially for something like an AirTag where you see it being used for good. You see people putting it on the collars of their pets because their pets might run away, and who doesn't want to be able to find their pet easily? A lot of parents with special needs children also use AirTags to make sure that, God forbid, anything happens, they can find their child.
There are such good use cases for AirTags, but it's almost like we can't have these things because we have people abusing it. And that's what's sad, is if we could just have Apple release all of the safety features possible, like you can never be too safe, then I wouldn't be as harsh. But as a woman who has experienced unwanted, say, advances from people out in the world, Lauren, I'm sure you can also agree, it's scary to be a woman in the world, and it's scary to exist with an AirTag in the world out there. And so I just wish Apple was a little bit more proactive about their features.
LG: These are all excellent points, Brenda. And hopefully someday, we can all have nice things. Let's take another break and then we're going to come back with our recommendations.
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[Break]
LG: Brenda, as our guest of honor this week, what is your recommendation?
BS: OK. So my recommendation is a podcast. It is called "Storytime with Seth Rogen," and it is probably one of the most fun podcasts I've ever listened to.
LG: Not to be confused with Joe Rogan.
BS: Oh, please, now. Poor Seth. He's been confused. He's been having a rough time. I've seen people tagging Seth for Joe Rogan content. Anyway, the podcast is just him talking to a bunch of different people that he knows in the industry, whether they're actors or producers or writers where they just tell him a story of something that's happened in their lives. What's really cool about it is he just goes into this deep dive of the story. So if somebody mentions a specific celebrity, he will then go on and interview that celebrity and ask them about the event and if they remember it and just their take on it. And it's a really fun listen, and it's described as an audio documentary. So it has a bunch of cool sound effects and just makes the experience a lot more immersive.
MC: Can I tell you that I just subscribed to it three days ago probably?
BS: It's so good. You could probably binge listen, if that's a thing.
MC: Yeah, that's a thing. That's a thing.
LG: Mike, what's your recommendation?
MC: I'm going to recommend a cookbook. This is a cookbook that I got for Christmas. It is a vegan Mexican cookbook. So it's a hundred Mexican recipes. All of them are vegan, so none of them have any animal products. There's no meat. There's no dairy in any of these recipes. It is called Provecho, and it's by Edgar Castrejón. Edgar is a Bay Area chef. He's big on Instagram, and he's made a cookbook, and it's just a fantastic cookbook. Provecho is short for Buen Provecho. It basically is like you say Provecho as like bon apetit. If somebody is about to enjoy something that they're going to be eating, you say Provecho. So that's where the title comes from.
And I've been working my way through this cookbook. It's really amazing. A lot of great recipes for mushroom tacos. There's vegan cheese recipes. There are some really great salsa recipes. Mexican food is one of those cuisines that's very easy to make vegetarian and vegan because it's assembled piecemeal and the staples of the cuisine, there's a lot of rice and beans, tortillas made from corn, made from wheat, and just a lot of aromatics and really just delicious chili flavors that you don't necessarily need meat to deliver into your mouth.
So it's just a wonderful cookbook. I've used a lot of vegan and vegetarian cookbooks for different world cuisines and for Mediterranean cuisine, and a lot of them are not super inventive, like things that I probably could have just come up with myself with experimentation. This book, however, has a lot of things in it that I never would've thought of that I've made that are very easy to make that are just delicious. So if you are a vegetarian person or a vegan person or you know somebody who is one and you want to give them a great book that they will cherish and use for years, then I can highly recommend Provecho.
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LG: Some of these recipes look really delicious. There's no-bake enchiladas verde with jackfruit, sweet potato and kale tacos. Let's see, burritos de desayuno, morning burritos.
MC: Yeah, breakfast burritos.
LG: Breakfast burritos. Yeah. OK. Oh, milk horchata.
MC: Oh yeah, I made that. Yeah.
LG: Yeah. This looks great. I might have to pick up a copy of this just because I know whenever you and Hillary were thinking of dining together, I'm always like, "I have to come up with some vegan jackfruit taco recipe for Mike."
MC: Yeah. You don't have to but …
LG: I should.
MC: I can bring it over and make that at your house.
LG: That'd be great.
MC: I'll take you up on that.
BS: What is your recommendation?
LG: My recommendation this week, all right, it's a little bit lame, but I'm hoping to get our listeners engaged in the Gadget Lab podcast. So I didn't really have a good recommendation this week because I've been reading a few different books piecemeal. I haven't completed a book, and I try not to recommend a book before I've completed it. So I've been switching between Empire of Pain, which is fantastic, and Political Fictions, which is an old Joan Didion book, but I'm not done with them yet. And I've been watching Inventing Anna on Netflix at night, but I don't love it. Sorry, Shonda, because I do love Shonda Rhimes' shows typically, but I'm just really not loving this one. So I don't necessarily want to recommend that people spend their time watching that.
I was trying to think, what could I recommend this week? And the thing is I want to hear from other people. I want to delegate. So I'd like to ask our listeners, if you follow the Gadget Lab, you listen to the Gadget Lab and you like the Gadget Lab and you have recommendations, family friendly recommendations that you would like to send us, tweet them at me or leave them in our reviews in Apple podcasts. Check out our reviews. We're always looking for feedback. Give us as many stars as you think we deserve, five stars or is it four stars? What's the max you could give, four or five? Five.
MC: I think it's 13.
LG: 13 stars. Really send us your recommendations. I want to hear them. And if there are any good ones, maybe we'll share them in future episodes.
MC: Lauren is looking good for some good content to consume.
LG: That's right, UGC. Basically I'm asking you to create the content. Yeah. So sorry I don't have anything Gilad-esque this week like sliced lemons or pop in your collar, whatever recommendations he's given in the past. And I'm sorry that I don't have any great media for you to binge watch, but yeah, it's just been one of those weeks, and I'd love to get some feedback from our audience. So thanks everyone for listening.
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MC: Well, I'll tweet some recommendations at you, and I guarantee they will all be things that will make you scratch your head and wonder why you ever listen to me.
LG: Almost certainly. Brenda, thank you so much for joining us this week. It's great to have you back and you'll have to come back again soon.
BS: Thank you for having me back.
LG: And thanks to all of you for listening. If you have feedback, like I said, you can find all of us on Twitter. Just check the show notes. This show is produced by the excellent Boone Ashworth, who I recommend every week. We're going to be taking a short pause next week because it is a holiday week and we'll be back after that. See you next time.
[Gadget Lab outro theme music plays]
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