iOS 17.2 RC is available along with other platforms

Apple publishes Release Candidate for iOS/iPadOS 17.2, macOS Sonoma 14.2, watchOS 10.2 and tvOS 17.2.

Xcode 15.1 RC is also available for download.

iMessage Contact Key Verification is being added in this RC. Also RC fixes wireless changing for GM cars, as well as enabling Qi2 support on iPhone 13 and newer. Improvements for telephoto camera for iPhone 15 Pro is also reported.

Siri gets access to health data on iPhone and Apple Watch.

Apple also prepared RC for iOS/iPadOS 16.7.3.

Beta download: Operating Systems

Release notes:

References:

Swift community announces Swift MMIO

Swift community already started bringing Swift to embedded platforms. Now memory-mapped IO library is being announced.

swift-mmio is designed to provide safe and secure APIs for fundamental low-level operations required in embedded firmware development, such as reading and writing memory-mapped registers. Drawing inspiration from mmio libraries in languages like C++ and Rust, swift-mmio focuses on improving the correctness of code interacting with MMIO.

Rauhul Varma, Swift Forums

Library is available as Swift Package on GitHub.

GitHub: swift-mmio

Swift Forums: Introducing Swift MMIO

Developer successfully emulates iPhoneOS 2.1 on QEMU

Ongoing effort to emulate iPhone software on QEMU is now resulted in major milestone. iPhoneOS 2.1 (emulating iPod touch) is now available. In his tweet Martijn de Vos showcases the progress.

https://twitter.com/devos50/status/1720504769003843624
https://twitter.com/devos50/status/1720504769003843624

GitHub: qemu-ios

Reference: Developer shows progress on QEMU-based iPhone OS emulator, now running version 2.1

Bluetooth communications are still not safe in 2023

Multiple active exploits could affect iPhone use of Bluetooth.

Flipper Zero hacker tool could be used to trigger iPhone DDoS attack using Bluetooth signals by AirPods, HomeKit accessories, etc. These signals usually trigger popup on iPhone allowing to connect to headphones or perform other actions. Crafting these signals in a specific way could result in iOS restart.

Newly discovered BLUFFS attack could be used to impersonate devices and trigger disclosure of private information. It is not yet clear, if AirDrop is affected by this attack as it uses more than just Bluetooth to authenticate the device. However, it is still possible to hijack audio or other Bluetooth connection. Fix would require device manufacturers to modify security mechanisms of Bluetooth stack.

References:

Alaska Airlines adopts Tap to Pay for in-flight purchases

Apple's Tap to Pay framework is getting support in many countries. Now one of the major US airlines adopts framework to process in-flight purchases.

Alaska Airlines is teaming with Stripe to provide support for purchases and uses Tap to Pay on iPhone to accept contactless payments.

Reference: Alaska Airlines adopts Tap to Pay on iPhone for in-flight purchases

Weekend good reads for Apple developers #2023/48

It's December already. And we're getting our last installments of good reads in this year.

And this is it for today. Next week we'll have more great articles to read.

Beta 4 for iOS 17.2 and other platforms is published

Apple published another beta for iOS/iPadOS 17.2, macOS Sonoma 14.2, watchOS 10.2 and tvOS 17.2. No new Xcode beta is available.

New beta brings configuration for notification sounds, removes Apple Music collaborative playlists and implements other updates.

Beta download: Operating Systems

Release notes:

References:

Open-source library of Metal shaders

Paul Hudson announced Inferno – open-source Metal shader library. Library provides shader source code, as well as sample apps for iOS and macOS.

Together with the open-source project, several videos are published:

Reference: Introducing Inferno: Metal shaders for SwiftUI

GitHub: Inferno