Apple has wasted no time getting its newest iOS 17.3 launch out to the general public, delivering the replace even sooner than anticipated.
Whereas the ultimate launch of iOS 17.3 has been anticipated to reach by the top of January for the reason that first beta debuted late final yr, Apple has managed to beat that deadline. Final week’s information of Apple’s 2024 Black Unity Assortment and the next iOS 17.3 Launch Candidate (RC) made it clear that iOS 17.3 could be arriving for everybody in some unspecified time in the future this week. Nonetheless, with per week being the standard timeframe between an RC and public launch, few people had Monday on their bingo playing cards.
Nonetheless, iOS 17.3 has arrived, and with it come the previous couple of large options Apple has promised for the iOS 17 household, plus a couple of extra. Right here’s what’s new.
Stolen Machine Safety
One of many marquee options in iOS 17.3 is one thing we didn’t see coming: Stolen Machine Safety. This safety enhancement is designed that will help you defend your iPhone and your private information from crooks who handle to get entry to each your system and your passcode.
It’s one thing that Apple has seemingly been engaged on ever for the reason that Wall Avenue Journal reported final February on how shoulder-surfing criminals have been ready to make use of individuals’s passcodes to not solely get into their stolen iPhones but additionally use it to reset their unique proprietor’s Apple ID password and thereby disable Discover My to stop the iPhone from being tracked or wiped.
Earlier than that was reported, few even realized that an iPhone passcode might be used to reset an Apple ID password — and, in consequence, many people seemingly weren’t utilizing safe passcodes or weren’t guarding their iPhone passcode practically in addition to they need to. In a later follow-up report, the Wall Avenue Journal’s Joanna Stern (Apple Information+) interviewed a convicted felony who defined precisely how he’s exploited this loophole to not solely steal iPhones however clear out individuals’s financial institution accounts:
Johnson, together with a crew of others, operated in Minneapolis for at the least a yr throughout 2021 and 2022. In and round bars at night time, he would befriend younger individuals, slyly be taught their passcodes and take their telephones. Utilizing that code, he’d lock victims out of their Apple accounts and loot hundreds of {dollars} from their financial institution apps. Lastly, he’d promote the telephones themselves.
Joanna Stern, The Wall Avenue Journal
Though Apple may have closed this vulnerability by eradicating the characteristic that permits an iPhone passcode to reset an Apple ID password, the corporate responded solely to say that it takes “all assaults on our customers very critically” and was “at all times investigating further protections.”
The brand new Stolen Machine Safety characteristic is the results of these “investigations.” Moderately than eradicating the power to simply reset your Apple ID password along with your iPhone, the brand new characteristic provides an additional layer of safety to make sure you’re the just one who could make these adjustments.
As soon as Stolen Machine Safety is switched on, you’ll nonetheless be capable to change a forgotten Apple ID password out of your iPhone, however you’ll be required to make use of biometric authentication — Face ID or Contact ID — as an alternative of your passcode. This helps to make sure that a thief who absconds along with your iPhone and your passcode gained’t be capable to do that.
Nevertheless, there’s another layer of safety. Since a criminal may conceivably “social engineer” your biometric authentication — having you have a look at your iPhone in a bar, for instance — Stolen Machine Safety would require that once you’re away from a “trusted” location like your private home, you authenticate with Face ID or Contact ID two occasions at the least an hour aside earlier than any password adjustments undergo.
Along with defending your Apple ID password, Stolen Machine Safety may even require biometric authentication for different high-security duties like accessing your saved passwords and Apple Card or Apple Pay options, turning off Misplaced Mode if it’s been activated, or wiping your iPhone or utilizing it to arrange one other iPhone. The one-hour delay will likely be enforced for altering different account or authentication settings, together with disabling Discover My, altering your iPhone passcode, including or eradicating Face ID or Contact ID, and, after all, turning off Stolen Machine Safety.
You have to be prompted to allow Stolen Machine Safety after you end updating to iOS 17.3, however when you missed it or declined, you will discover the choice within the Settings app underneath Face ID & Passcode (or Contact ID & Passcode when you’re utilizing an iPhone SE or different Contact ID-enabled system). Observe that Stolen Machine Safety is just out there on the iPhone, not the iPad.
Collaborative Playlists in Apple Music
The opposite piece of excellent information about iOS 17.3 is that Apple has delivered on Collaborative Playlists in Apple Music, a characteristic that was promised for “later this yr” when iOS 17 was unveiled in June however didn’t make the reduce for the top of 2023.
Collaborative Playlists briefly appeared within the early iOS 17.2 betas, however was eliminated within the fourth beta and nowhere to be seen within the ultimate iOS 17.2 launch in December. Some reviews urged that, though the characteristic was working superb in iOS 17.2, Apple had some safety considerations it needed to deal with — particularly, discovering a method to forestall its abuse by a spammer.
Nonetheless, the characteristic got here again within the first iOS 17.3 beta with some enjoyable new twists, and it’s made it by way of to the ultimate iOS 17.3 launch.
Because the identify implies, it will assist you to share playlists with different Apple Music customers to allow them to add their very own tracks and even share emoji reactions to point their ideas on what’s already in there.
Collaborative Playlists are shared by hyperlink, so you may invite individuals as far and huge as you want — which might be why Apple was involved about them being misused. You’ll be capable to approve who joins if you wish to hold extra management over issues, however that’s an non-obligatory setting, so you may simply share a public playlist with a bigger group, comparable to everybody in your organization, faculty, or membership.
As soon as a playlist turns into collaborative, you’ll see new choices for emoji reactions and the identify of the one who contributed every monitor on the Now Taking part in display. You’ll additionally be capable to see the names of everybody within the playlist, whether or not them or not. This is applicable whether or not you shared the playlist or joined an invite hyperlink from another person, though when you created the playlist, you may also take away individuals, generate new sharing hyperlinks, or toggle approval on and off.
What Else is New in iOS 17.3?
As anticipated, iOS 17.3 additionally provides the brand new Unity Lock Display screen wallpaper, matching the Unity Watch Face that got here to the corresponding watchOS 10.3 right this moment and the Black Unity Sport Band that’s now on sale.
Apple has additionally expanded the AppleCare & Guarantee part discovered underneath Normal within the Settings app to indicate protection data for the entire units which might be signed in underneath your Apple ID, not simply these related along with your iPhone.
Lastly, the iOS 17.3 replace additionally delivers on one other delayed characteristic from 2023, with AirPlay lodge assist letting you stream on to TVs in choose motels. Apple hasn’t mentioned which motels are supported, however LG has been rolling out new TVs with assist for the characteristic since final summer time.