How so? If you have someone's Apple ID, the damage is done. Continuity does not make acquiring an Apple ID easier or more valuable in any way that I can see.
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'Continuity Activation Tool' for Adding Handoff to Older Macs Now Supports Bluetooth 4.0 Dongles
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How so? If you have someone's Apple ID, the damage is done. Continuity does not make acquiring an Apple ID easier or more valuable in any way that I can see.
Remember how all those Celebs had (private) pictures of themselves spread all over the web from their iDevices. Apple IDs can be acquired. Passwords can be brute forced.
You're conflating different issues here.
The celebrities that had their data exposed were not "hacked", they simply had weak, easily-guessable passwords and security questions. They also did not have two-factor authentication enabled. These issues have nothing to do with Continuity.
Good stuff, but what about my mid 2010 13" MBP?
Not sure I would use handoff much, but if I can go ahead and bring my MB up to ac, that would be great.
Not sure I would use handoff much, but if I can go ahead and bring my MB up to ac, that would be great.
While Handoff uses Bluetooth, making calls and SMS forwarding do not. Making calls only requires you to be on the same WiFi network as your iPhone, Bluetooth is not involved. SMS forwarding I believe goes through Apple's servers (the SMS comes into your phone and then your phone forwards it through Apple's servers back to your devices) -- you don't even need to be on the same WiFi network.
So SmileyBlast! is right, this increases your security risks. If SMS forwarding was compromised, things like two-factor authentication that use SMS would become vulnerable. And attackers who penetrate your WiFi network could potentially make/receive your calls.
It's not as simple as having your iCloud user/password, though. I know at least the SMS forwarding requires you to enter a code on your iPhone that you receive on your Mac when you enable SMS forwarding. I couldn't even use it with my old Mac Pro 1,1 (hacked to run Yosemite) without contacting Apple with my serial number to enable my machine. So there are some safeguards in place. But a determined attacker could get by these things. And of course if an attacker compromises your Mac or other enabled device, they can now make phone calls from it and send/receive SMS.
Edit: Also if an attacker compromised Apple's servers, they could potentially send/receive SMS. Though maybe it does end-to-end encryption and the code that you have to enter is a key for encrypting the SMS in such a way that even Apple can't decrypt. That doesn't seem likely, because it is a very short number (5 or 6 digits IIRC), and would be easy to brute force. I'd like to know more details on this and if Apple did anything to make it more secure.
Personally, I'm aware of these risks, and still choose to use SMS forwarding and calling from my Mac. There's probably things Apple can do to tighten things up. For example, whitelist/blacklist specific SMS numbers for forwarding from your iPhone. And I only use the calling part to notify me when I'm receiving a call or missed a call, and just use my iPhone for actual calls -- would be nice if you can restrict it to being only a notification mechanism.
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I don't get phone calls.... It rings but does not answer. I get an error message all the time. Tried everyone I know how to solve the issue.
You mean the Apple ID that is on my phone, two computers, two tablets, and three Apple TVs plus which I use to log into my work laptop sometimes for email? That Apple ID and password? Yeah, that is supper secure.
I really want my phone calls to remain on my phone. Somehow I now get them on my computer, but I'm going to try to figure out a way to turn that off.
Thanks for the additional context. I think the main point I'm trying to get at is that while there may be some additional risk introduced, it isn't as if Apple just handed the key to our data to anyone that wants it. Being vigilant is great, but I don't think we need to flatly say that the feature is a security hole and that no one should use it.
To turn off phone calls other devices: go to Settings -> FaceTime. Disable "iPhone Cellular Calls"
I'm glad to see this is getting attention. I hope they continue to improve handoff. I've had a great deal of trouble with it between my 2013 Macbook Pro and iPhone 5S. Sadly, Dropbox seems to update my documents more reliably than handoff. I try to hand off, say, a modest 150KB Pages document and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait. Seems it sometimes wants a common wifi connection in addition to the bluetooth connection. I just don't know.
You are somehow implying that because people managed to break into the iCloud accounts of several celebrities, breaking into iCloud (ie, any Apple services that connect different hardware over a network connection) is too easy such that no one should use any Apple services. Presumably while other cloud services do not have any such problems because they never had been hacked into? (Except that moment a few years ago when for several hours one could access dropbox accounts without needing a password.)
- Yes, definitely. Ebay.
You need a card with part number BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX. See the compatibility table here. I purchased this for my Early 2011 15" MBP, and it works flawlessly with Continuity Activation Tool. For installation instructions on the hardware side of things, have a look at this IFixIt guide. Also see this forum thread for all relevant information on the upgrade. The work done by UncleSchnitty, doktordok and others is nothing short of extraordinary!
- You're getting this mixed up a bit. You're right that the AirPort card from a rMBP won't fit a cMBP. However, the part needed for the 2011 MBPs to gain BlueTooth 4.0 is the AirPort card from the 2012 cMBP, which fits wonderfully in the 2011 models (I've installed it myself in mine). It does not, however, include 802.11ac. The only difference is the BT 4.0, which is needed for certain Continuity features (mainly Handoff and AirDrop between Mac and iOS).
This isnt true, is it? Do say the 2010 Mac Minis get calling and messaging continuity automatically without any workaround?
Gotcha, I understand now. I still think it would be sweet to get BT 4.0 and 802.11ac with one card into the cMBP's.
SMS and phone calls were and are used for two-factor authentication because they were considered to be independent from computers, web browsers and email. And while they were independent for a long time, hacking into phones (at least mobile phones) has a long history as well.
The advent of the smartphone changed that because somebody in possession of a smartphone had easy access to both. And remote hacking got also easier as one only had to hack one device and one operating system to get access to both SMS and emails. Combining messages and emails into one service (iMessages for Apple, Google Voice etc.) meant hacking into one account was sufficient (instead of hacking a physical device which combined the two). The user can of course spread things over multiple providers (emails from Google, Whatsapp for messages, iCloud for photos) but then one tends to use email as the recovery tool for other services and cracking an email account can meaning cracking almost anything.
Handoff turns your non-phone computing devices into Bluetooth (or WiFi) headsets (and like Bluethooth headsets it requires a similar pairing). WiFi is certainly increasing the range but I doubt you would have reacted similarly if a new version of Bluetooth had three times the range as the previous version.
- It's partly true. Call relay works via Wi-Fi, so that's available on all network-enabled computers. SMS relay works via BlueTooth 2.1 (or later, of course), so that includes the 2010 Mac Minis, too.
What isn't true, though, is that the Continuity Activation Tool only enables Handoff. It enables AirDrop between Macs and iOS devices, too (a very handy feature).
- It would, indeed! Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any method to achieve that.
Hey there,
How difficult is it to set up the Continuity Activation tool? I have a late 2009 iMac and according to the chart it should work work a USB 4.0 dongle. What is the preferred brand? Best buy sells ones by Insignia, Startech, Iogear and a few others. Which would work best? Can someone please post a link to one from Best Buy or Amazon.
Thanks,
Rob
How difficult is it to set up the Continuity Activation tool? I have a late 2009 iMac and according to the chart it should work work a USB 4.0 dongle. What is the preferred brand? Best buy sells ones by Insignia, Startech, Iogear and a few others. Which would work best? Can someone please post a link to one from Best Buy or Amazon.
Thanks,
Rob