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iOS 8 Tidbits: Randomized MAC Addresses, Safari Credit Card Scanning, Indoor Mapping, and More

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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With iOS 8 installed on thousands of developer devices, details about the operating system continue to leak out. We covered quite a few new iOS 8 features listed during the keynote by Apple, including battery usage by app, and then followed that up with even more iOS 8 tweaks and changes, such as time-lapse mode, Messages improvements, WiFi calling, and grayscale mode.

Pulling from an extensive list maintained by our forum members and other iOS 8 users on Twitter and the web, we've catalogued even more improvements to the operating system below.

Randomized MAC addresses - iOS randomizes the MAC addresses of iOS devices when scanning for WiFi networks, which makes it more difficult for companies to track and gather location data on a customer. Each iOS device has a unique MAC address, which could previously be used for location tracking and data collection via WiFi scanning. iOS 8 will use random, locally administered MAC addresses that "may not always be the device's real (universal) address."

macaddressesios8.jpg
Safari credit card scanning - In iOS 8, Safari can utilize the camera to scan in credit card numbers when making online purchases, a faster alternative than manually entering a credit card number. Currently, this scanning function is available in the App Store to scan in iTunes Cards, and the credit card scan functions in the same way.

Photos in the Notes app - Photos can be inserted into the Notes app from the Photos app for the first time in iOS 8.

imagesnotesapp.jpg
Hide images from Photos app - Images in the Photos app can now be hidden from the Moments, Collections, and Years view in the Photos app. Holding a finger on a photo will bring up an options menu and selecting "Hide" will keep it from being visible in those sections. Hidden photos are still visible in the albums view, however, in new "Hidden" album.

hiddenvideo.jpg
Background location notifications - iOS 8 has new popups that will notify users of apps that access Location information while running in the background. The popup asks users if they want to continue to allow the apps to access the information or turn it off, giving users more information on apps that could potentially be using a lot of battery life. There are also more Location Services options in the Settings menu and more options per app, for more control over how Location is used.

backgroundlocation.jpg
iTunes Radio Control Center - When playing a song on iTunes Radio, the Control Center will now offer a "Buy" button to give users a quick way to purchase a song.

buybutton.jpg
Indoor Mapping - iOS 8 adds the M7 processor and iPhone motion sensors to the CoreLocation API, allowing venue owners to create indoor positioning systems. In use at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences, the Westfield Center in San Francisco, and the San Jose Airport, the system can be used to display floor number or direct users to points of interest.

Keep up with all of the new changes introduced in iOS 8 on our forums, where our readers are discussing and sharing feature enhancements and tweaks in the "iOS 8, All The Little Things" thread.

Article Link: iOS 8 Tidbits: Randomized MAC Addresses, Safari Credit Card Scanning, Indoor Mapping, and More
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/06/09/even-more-ios-8-tidbits/
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mathcolo

macrumors 6502a
Sep 14, 2008
860
16
Boston
Will MAC address randomization mess up people who have MAC filtering on their wireless networks? Is it required?
 
B

britboyj

macrumors 6502a
Apr 8, 2009
814
1,086
Mac Swtiching - "Please use iBeacons"

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mathcolo said:
Will MAC address randomization mess up people who have MAC filtering on their wireless networks? Is it required?
Click to expand...

I would assume there's a "trust this network with my unique device ID" option under wifi? That would make some sense.
 
Sky Blue

Sky Blue

Guest
Jan 8, 2005
6,856
11
mathcolo said:
Will MAC address randomization mess up people who have MAC filtering on their wireless networks? Is it required?
Click to expand...

I think it's only when you're not connected (scanning) for a network. When you connect it uses the proper MAC address.
 
B

Brian Y

macrumors 68040
Oct 21, 2012
3,776
1,064
<Removing this post, since people are still replying to it 3 pages later instead of reading the topic>
 
Last edited:
AngerDanger

AngerDanger

Graphics
Staff member
Dec 9, 2008
5,452
29,002
The "hide images from photos app" seems a bit odd. Why would anybody want to hide the pictures they are—oh, wait…
 
R

ricardobeat

macrumors member
Sep 23, 2008
61
13
Hopefully the Beats acquisition will quickly turn the music division around. That buy button in the control panel looks hideous.
 
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darkslide29

macrumors 68000
Oct 5, 2011
1,860
886
San Francisco, California
I don't want to accidentally hit "BUY" in iTunes Radio control center. I'm sure I'll still need to confirm, but it will probably switch over to the iTunes Store app and I'll have to home out of that. Sounds annoying.
 
Parasprite

Parasprite

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2013
1,698
144
Brian Y said:
If there's no way to disable this randomised MAC stuff, then no iOS 8 device is going to be able to connect to my network at home, or my corporate network at work.

It also means that networks which rely on MAC for authentication (such as the WiFi on the underground here in London) won't work.

Bit silly if you ask me. I'm not sure how a randomised MAC address helps improve security in any way.
Click to expand...

It's more for privacy than anything. From what I understand, it's only for when the device is scanning for new wifi to connect to. When you actually connect (or have already connected) the real MAC address is used just as always.
 
M

mbh

macrumors 6502
Jul 18, 2002
400
73
Brian Y said:
If there's no way to disable this randomised MAC stuff, then no iOS 8 device is going to be able to connect to my network at home, or my corporate network at work.

It also means that networks which rely on MAC for authentication (such as the WiFi on the underground here in London) won't work.

Bit silly if you ask me. I'm not sure how a randomised MAC address helps improve security in any way.
Click to expand...

This is a privacy issue, not a security issue. And I'm sure you'll still be able to connect to your networks. Give Apple a little credit.
 
Parasprite

Parasprite

macrumors 68000
Mar 5, 2013
1,698
144
Komrad808 said:
My favorite app is the "Bug Reporter". I been using this app like crazy! It makes reporting issues super easy! LOVE IT!:cool::apple:
Click to expand...

At least it's better than doing it from the website. I don't know how many times I've had it time out on me without warning...
 
D

darkslide29

macrumors 68000
Oct 5, 2011
1,860
886
San Francisco, California
Brian Y said:
If there's no way to disable this randomised MAC stuff, then no iOS 8 device is going to be able to connect to my network at home, or my corporate network at work.

It also means that networks which rely on MAC for authentication (such as the WiFi on the underground here in London) won't work.

Bit silly if you ask me. I'm not sure how a randomised MAC address helps improve security in any way.
Click to expand...

From what I read elsewhere, the fake MAC addresses are just for when you're walking around, not on and not attempting to get on wifi.
" When iOS 8 devices look for a connection, they randomize that address, effectively disguising any trace of the real device until it decides to connect to a network."

So once you actively try to connect to a network, this spoofing is disabled. Unless I am understanding this wrong also?
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
MAC randomization, clear/simple app permission management, DuckDuckGo, double-checking that you want to be tracked, strict sandboxing of apps and extensions... security and privacy really are king at Apple. How's Android innovation doing on that front? :p

With iOS 8, we have our cake and eat it too: the flexibility and extensibility that Android crammed in first (with too little regard for safety) but done carefully and correctly, built on a deep security architecture. There's no "band-aid" Google can invent to bring that kind of safety and privacy to Android. But privacy isn't really Google's core mission...
 
zioxide

zioxide

macrumors 603
Dec 11, 2006
5,737
3,726
Brian Y said:
If there's no way to disable this randomised MAC stuff, then no iOS 8 device is going to be able to connect to my network at home, or my corporate network at work.

It also means that networks which rely on MAC for authentication (such as the WiFi on the underground here in London) won't work.

Bit silly if you ask me. I'm not sure how a randomised MAC address helps improve security in any way.
Click to expand...

It's only when you aren't connected and scanning for available networks. Once you go to connect, it will provide the real MAC address.
 
R

RabidMacFan

macrumors 6502
Jun 19, 2012
356
170
California
I'm still not able to find any definitive information on whether or not the iPhone also randomizes Bluetooth MAC addresses. If anybody has information on that, please share.
 
Tankmaze

Tankmaze

macrumors 68000
Mar 7, 2012
1,707
351
Hide images from photos app, I wonder if this would hide the images from photostream. I can only think of naughty purposes as to why you want to hide images :D
 
Starflyer

Starflyer

macrumors 6502a
Jan 22, 2003
696
1,076
I can see grocery stores making use of the indoor mapping feature. I don't know how many times I wish I could pull up maps to find the tomato sause when my wife sends me to the store.
 
ArtOfWarfare

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,557
6,057
nagromme said:
MAC randomization, clear/simple app permission management, DuckDuckGo, double-checking that you want to be tracked, strict sandboxing of apps and extensions... security and privacy really are king at Apple. How's Android innovation doing on that front? :p
Click to expand...

I know that in Chrome, using a new search engine is trivial. You type in the URL of the search engine's main page and bam, that's your search engine in Chrome. With Safari on the desktop, on the other hand, I had to install a plugin to get DuckDuckGo working.

I haven't used an Android device in ~19 months, so I couldn't say how they're doing on the other fronts right now.
 
Robert.Walter

Robert.Walter

macrumors 68040
Jul 10, 2012
3,082
4,318
Background location notifications.

Re. this feature, I read the Apple presentation on this sub topic and in future, these specific app badges for permissions will (have to?) display the reason why the app is requesting permission. Debs are encouraged to request only those permissions truly needed by the app to do its job.
 
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