Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Planning System for Retail Stores to Update iPhone Software With No Need to Open Box
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I got my iPhone 15 from the store with IOS 17.5 installed! It started praising North Korea and it's Great Leader upon startup so I guess this In-The-Box update feature works great. 🤣
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Instead of buying on launch, try buying the same phone 3 months from now. It will probably still come with 17.0.2 out of the box... and then you'll need to upgrade it to 17.2 or .3 or whatever it is at the time.
Others buying the 14s instead of the 15s now may boot up into iOS 16 because that was the latest available iOS version that existed when they were boxed.
Last edited:
Maybe it's somehow able to only work on a non setup phone that doesn't yet have a passcode set, etc. A new phone in the box has never had any security enabled at all. As long as the normal activation process and setting of the secure enclave, etc. prevents this tool from working in the future, I guess it's okay. Hopefully there is also some safeguard to prevent the installation of any sort of malware on a "new" phone before it is setup by a user.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Or perhaps it is put on the pad(s) at the time of sale, updates during the transaction, and customer walks out with an up-to-date iDevice? If so, maybe user can punch in their AppleID and it goes ahead and downloads their apps, music, etc too so that when they unbox it, it doesn't even need all of the initial setup steps? Just unbox and start using the Home Screen you already setup, the apps already where you want them, etc.
Or perhaps stores know about how many will sell today, that number are updated this way each morning and others are on standby in case the numbers show today is going to sell some unexpected extra volume (at which point, more are proactively updated to cover the surge)? If Jimmy Johns is prepared to sell the usual number of turkey subs but they notice many more orders of turkey subs by noon, they likely source some more turkey before they run out. I suspect Apple can be that smart too... instead of ordering all available turkey just in case today everyone wants lots of turkey at the same time.
It doesn't always have to be an extremism scenario.
However, that shared, I worked in jewelry retail in college and the retailer wanted all watches set to 1:50 because of some kind of perfect symmetry for display philosophy. It was never clear why 3:45 or 4:40, etc were not just as good... but they wanted 1:50. Most watch inventory would arrive with them set to random times and/or already ticking... so that was always a fun "busy work" job of adjusting all watch & clock faces as they arrived. Maybe it helped sell more??? What I observed first hand was people who noticed often suggesting that "our" watches were not running/working.
Last edited:
I’m not so much concerned about security in an Apple Store as much as I think that a software update could fail resulting in that phone being sent back to the warehouse. That would suck for certain models that are kept in low inventory.
So they can ship it earlier by boat, have “less” carbon footprint than by air and still provide the correct software even though at the time of shipping the software wasn’t anytime out of beta.
Shocking Apple only thought of this until now, for a trillion dollar company? Powering up a device to update and turn off lol
You don't have concerns about hacking (state sponsored and such) taking place during the manufacturing process when the device is built and configured in China, but you do when it's sat in an Apple store in NYC with an Apple employee in charge of whether the phones get stuck on a 'Magic Update' pad? Riiiiiiiiight.
Last edited:
Great idea and it's these kinda small differences that make all the difference - bravo Apple! And for all those naysayers about it being a security risk, don't you think Apple might have considered that?
I'd like to hear more about this - is this an existing feature?
Seems like there would have to be at least some chip always running in sleep-mode to detect the Power On signal, whatever it is. I know there are common microcontrollers that sleep at micro-amps power consumption, but not sure exactly what in iPhone handles this. Very interesting
That is not possible because the system does not exist yet because if it had everyone's iphone 15 would have been updated to 17.0.2. The only current way for a brand new in the box iphone to be updated to 17.0.2 is to have it removed from the box. Yours's would had to have been removed from the box, updated and then resealed again (people can buy resealers).
I’m sure there will be plenty of folks in the comments hating on Apple saying “Make better software” but you have to admit this is incredibly cool and very Apple-like. Samsung and Google wouldn’t do this.
And the “make better software” is ridiculous. People forget that iOS has millions of lines of code, and there are always bound to be issues here and there, but the software is incredibly resilient nonetheless.
And the “make better software” is ridiculous. People forget that iOS has millions of lines of code, and there are always bound to be issues here and there, but the software is incredibly resilient nonetheless.
Hearing from industrial source that this update method will be also be available to premium retail partners as well, (Best Buy, Amazon, etc) and carriers (starting in the US with AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, etc) so it won’t be just limited to Apple Retail Stores. Apple wants to make sure all devices are running latest software out of the box.
It’s already deployed at some store as beta testing and it’s hoped to be rolled out in US starting next year.
It’s already deployed at some store as beta testing and it’s hoped to be rolled out in US starting next year.
Nation state hackers are licking their chops hoping to get their hands on this machine — no guarantee your factory sealed iPhone hasn’t been infected w malware
The last thing I want T-Mobile to have. You wanna breach of the system, that is how you get a breach of the system.
iOS 17.0 was released Sep 18, 2023. iOS 17.0.1 (update #1) was released Sep 21, 2023. iOS 17.0.2 (update #2) was released Sep 21, 2023 for iPhone 15 and Sep 26, 2023 for iPhone XS and later. iOS 17.0.3 (update #3) was released Oct 4, 2023
That's 3 iOS updates within a span of 2.5 weeks for iPhone 15 models. It's 4 updates for iPhones prior to the 15.
Last edited:
Have to assume they'd have some kind of validation in the process. Tim Cook is still in charge, wasted inventory space in the warehouse must still keep him up at night. And a bricked phone on a cargo ship or on a shelf somewhere is wasted space.
You don't have to do it for every new update. You only have to do it once, right as the phone is sold. It can sit on the shelves for several updated without being updated, and only needs to be updated once to the latest when it's sold.
The updates themselves are usually not so huge. I bet it's enough time to download the latest update while the customer is checking-out, and then it can do the unpack, verify, and and install the update in the box in a low-power state as the customer goes on with their day or heads home.
How so? It seems like all the wireless pad does is wake up the phone. After that, the phone connects to a known Apple domain to get the update. If that part is compromised, then all out phones are compromised and the wireless pad thing is irrelevant. Also, Apple's update includes a verification step when it checks the known signatures and hashes of the update before installing.
I am sure I head about them doing (or wanting to do) this years ago.
I'd be interested in learning how they plan to accomplish this. Maybe we never be able to turn our iPhones off completely and they will forever remain in a low powered state out of the factory so that they can be remotely activated even if it's just by Apple.
I'd be interested in learning how they plan to accomplish this. Maybe we never be able to turn our iPhones off completely and they will forever remain in a low powered state out of the factory so that they can be remotely activated even if it's just by Apple.
If Apple want to slap your device down on a pad and have it update the OS and set up a phone from an iCloud back up then they will need to find out a way of doing it real quick. Sorry but I am not waiting about for an update to complete or for the phone to set up.Or perhaps it is put on the pad(s) at the time of sale, updates during the transaction, and customer walks out with an up-to-date iDevice? If so, maybe user can punch in their AppleID and it goes ahead and downloads their apps, music, etc too so that when they unbox it, it doesn't even need all of the initial setup steps? Just unbox and start using the Home Screen you already setup, the apps already where you want them, etc.
Or perhaps stores know about how many will sell today, that number are updated this way each morning and others are on standby in case the numbers show today is going to sell some unexpected extra volume (at which point, more are proactively updated to cover the surge)? If Jimmy Johns is prepared to sell the usual number of turkey subs but they notice many more orders of turkey subs by noon, they likely source some more turkey before they run out. I suspect Apple can be that smart too... instead of ordering all available turkey just in case today everyone wants lots of turkey at the same time.
It doesn't always have to be an extremism scenario.
However, that shared, I worked in jewelry retail in college and the retailer wanted all watches set to 1:50 because of some kind of perfect symmetry for display philosophy. It was never clear why 3:45 or 4:40, etc were not just as good... but they wanted 1:50. Most watch inventory would arrive with them set to random times and/or already ticking... so that was always a fun "busy work" job of adjusting all watch & clock faces as they arrived. Maybe it helped sell more??? What I observed first hand was people who noticed often suggesting that "our" watches were not running/working.
Now, if they added an extra 30-60 minutes to in store pick ups (and confirmed your credentials/back up) then sure I wouldnt mind turning up a half hour/hour later but I'm not going to a store and waiting.
How would that work for people who walked in and wanted to buy a phone there and then?
It's not too difficult that Apple could set up their stock rooms with X amount of updating pads. I don't know... say they had 200 iPhones in stock but they had 50 iPhones on the pads at any time. They could only sell the iPhones that had completed updating on the pads. Each time a phone is sold they add a new one and that goes to the end of the queue for sale.
Backing up in store isn't something that can be done "behind the scenes". If you want your iPhone restored to a back up then you can book that time to get it done or do it on your own time.