Alexander Cohen:
The Post reported that UK security officials had issued such a TCN, in secret, in January 2025, requesting that Apple create a way to access encrypted iCloud data belonging not just to UK users, but to Apple users worldwide. The chutzpah of it all was astonishing.
Apple’s position (privately, since they were prohibited from commenting publicly on the reported TCN) showed fidelity to its previous stance: deliberately weakening end-to-end encryption, for whatever purpose or for whomever the intended beneficiary, would make every user less secure. So the dispute became the UK government saying it needed access, Apple saying it couldn’t decrypt the data, and the UK effectively replying: then change the system so that you can.
[…]
Faced with a legal order that would have required it to change the security architecture on which ADP depended, Apple found a third option: stop offering the feature that made this dilemma exist in the first place. It reverted affected UK iCloud data to Standard Data Protection, where Apple does hold the keys and can respond to lawful legal process (except the baseline categories that stay end-to-end encrypted either way). This satisfied the underlying legal requirement without ever building a ‘backdoor’.
Apple said the decision to withdraw ADP in the UK left them “gravely disappointed”. There was, however, an important disclaimer. Apple only stopped allowing new UK users to turn on Advanced Data Protection.
Apple:
For users in the UK who have already enabled Advanced Data Protection, Apple will soon provide additional guidance. Apple cannot disable ADP automatically for these users. Instead, UK users will be given a period of time to disable the feature themselves to keep using their iCloud account.
I wonder whether Apple will actually lock users out of their accounts if they don’t turn off ADP or whether they’ll quietly not enforce it like with Emergency SOS via satellite.
Cohen:
In July 2026, Apple lodged a fresh complaint at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which became public the following month. Then, on the 11th of September 2026, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (a Democrat) and Republican Congressman Warren Davidson called on the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal to open up its proceedings concerning Apple’s encrypted-data dispute.
[…]
On the 17th of September The Daily Telegraph reported that Apple had asked the Investigatory Powers Tribunal to remove restrictions that gag them from confirming the existence of the reported TCN.
Previously:
iCloud iCloud Advanced Data Protection iOS iOS 27 Legal Mac macOS 27 Golden Gate Privacy Security United Kingdom
Alex Blake (Hacker News):
The ‘ads’ in question appear in the Settings app in iOS. They can be found near the top of the iPhone’s display and promote several products to the user, including paid-for iCloud+ storage, free trials for services like Apple Music and Apple TV, and the AppleCare+ extended warranty.
Infuriatingly for iOS users, the only way to disable these promos is to either let them expire — which in many cases could take weeks or even months, leaving a persistent notification badge on the Settings app in the meantime — or pay for the service being offered. There is not always a “dismiss” button to shoo them away for good, and when there is, some people have reported that it doesn’t seem to work.
Previously:
Advertising Apple Music Apple Services Apple TV+ AppleCare Dark Patterns iCloud+ iOS iOS 27 System Preferences
Juli Clover:
The iPhone 18 Pro Max has a battery capacity over 20 watt-hours, which means there are additional shipping requirements. If an iPhone 18 Pro Max needs to be shipped somewhere, its maximum battery capacity has to be limited through firmware.
[…]
Customers who need to ship the iPhone 18 Pro Max for repair, trade-in, or other purposes have to use a new Prepare to Ship feature. Prepare to Ship discharges the battery to below 20Wh and sets a charge limit so the iPhone stays below the threshold during the shipping process.
Laptops, of course, have larger batteries, but they aren’t affected because each cell is below the limit.
Battery Life iOS iOS 27 iPhone 18 Pro Max Legal
Mike Bombich:
I remember seeing this one way back in Big Sur; you’d create a perfectly functional bootable copy of the system, but it wouldn’t show up in the Startup Disk Preference Pane. Apple ultimately resolved that issue in macOS Monterey, but now we’re seeing it again — unfixed in the Golden Gate release candidate.
The new CCC has a workaround, as does SuperDuper.
CCC 7.2 introduces a hybrid approach for bootable backups: as long as the source and backup OS versions are the same, CCC will update the backup incrementally without requiring any task configuration changes. This new approach will make many of the CCC-specific features available for bootable backup tasks, e.g. backup versioning, Quick Update, insight into what changes were made to the source between events. For the long stretches of time where your Mac’s OS isn’t getting updated every day, now you can enjoy the full benefits of the CCC backup solution.
These are great benefits for anyone that requires a bootable backup, but this isn’t a panacea. If the OS versions don’t match, the destination (and all backup versions) still must be erased and recloned; again, to offer the most reliably-bootable copy of macOS. We made improvements here, too. By default, CCC will ask for your approval before erasing the destination — this allows you to schedule your backup task without the fear of the backup getting automatically erased whenever the source OS is updated. That also allows you to retain the option of downgrading the source volume’s macOS, which you might want a day or so to assess.
Previously:
Backup Carbon Copy Cloner Mac Mac App macOS 27 Golden Gate Startup Disk
