Apple adds Touch ID security in updated iOS, macOS versions of Numbers, Pages & Keynote

AppleInsider

Alongside macOS 10.12.4 Sierra and iOS 10.3 releases, Apple has also updated its Numbers, Pages, and Keynote productivity apps with Touch ID authentication, and assorted bug fixes.

Keynote now allows users to import Keynote 1 presentations, post presentations on other websites like Medium and WordPress-hosted sites, easily replace missing forts, and quickly open password-protected presentations using Touch ID on the 2016 MacBook Pro, or any iOS device with the fingerprint sensor.

Pages improvements include better text formatting, bookmarking, mathematical equation entry with LaTeX or MathML notation, RTF import and export, language and region time and currency customization, and also allows for Touch ID authentication for protected documents.

Numbers adds the ability to add current or historical stock information to spreadsheets, a new My Stocks template, a new editing process for data and formula entry, improved text formatting, rich text editing within table cells, and the same Touch ID support as found in Keynote and Pages.

For iOS, all three apps require iOS 10.0 or later. Keynote occupies 695MB of device storage space, with Pages, and Numbers taking 481MB and 361MB respectively. All three apps cost $9.99, but are included free with new devices -- so most users that have purchased an iOS device new in the last four years already have access to the app suite.

While the three productivity apps were released at the same time as iOS 10.3, none of them require it. Apple's iOS 10.3 update includes Find My AirPods, APFS implementation, and other improvements for developers and the App Store.

The macOS versions all require macOS 10.12 or greater, and retail for $19.99, but again, most users already have a license for the suite. Numbers occupies 173MB, with Pages demanding 230MB, and Keynote taking 472MB.

SpamSandwich

A reminder that any documents you want to remain secure and away from prying eyes should not be locked using Touch ID only.

JanNL

SpamSandwich said:

A reminder that any documents you want to remain secure and away from prying eyes should not be locked using Touch ID only.

Can you please explain? Why is Touch ID not sufficient? Thanks.

anome

JanNL said:

SpamSandwich said:

A reminder that any documents you want to remain secure and away from prying eyes should not be locked using Touch ID only.

Can you please explain? Why is Touch ID not sufficient? Thanks.

I would guess that it's because of the grey area around whether the police can require you to unlock Touch ID without a warrant. Or that you can even be physically coerced into unlocking Touch ID. (Although I doubt many people have to worry about someone grabbing their thumb and forcing it onto the sensor.)

Aside from the legal issues, Touch ID is pretty secure. Whether you need to worry about law enforcement access, or someone using coercion of some sort is for you to decide.

SpamSandwich

anome said:

JanNL said:

SpamSandwich said:

A reminder that any documents you want to remain secure and away from prying eyes should not be locked using Touch ID only.

Can you please explain? Why is Touch ID not sufficient? Thanks.

I would guess that it's because of the grey area around whether the police can require you to unlock Touch ID without a warrant. Or that you can even be physically coerced into unlocking Touch ID. (Although I doubt many people have to worry about someone grabbing their thumb and forcing it onto the sensor.)

Aside from the legal issues, Touch ID is pretty secure. Whether you need to worry about law enforcement access, or someone using coercion of some sort is for you to decide.

Actually it isn't a legal gray area. Recent rulings have made it crystal clear that a person cannot prevent an unlock of a device using their fingerprint if so ordered by law enforcement. One cannot be compelled to provide a password/passcode to unlock a device. It's the differnce between having something on you (your finger) versus your private thoughts. I suppose if a person had their password written down somewhere that could be collected and used properly and legally.

mdriftmeyer

Nice to see LaTeX and MathML formula support. Wishlist still includes full Embedded TeXLive access to create full XeTeX embedded objects that manage all the formatting, while letting Pages manage the DTP aspects.

gunner1954

I hope they find those missing 'forts' real soon. Wouldn't want to go unprotected for very long.

tallest skil

mdriftmeyer said:

Nice to see LaTeX and MathML formula support.

It took WAY too long for them to support that. And would it kill them to give us a UI that includes the special characters we can use? This is not a “solution,” and it’s not typical Apple elegance.

osmartormenajr

The way I see, the LaTeX support was poorly implemented. The generated equations are embedded into the text as (probably) PNG images, which makes for shoddy typography. Also, this way, if you export to ePub (say, to publish on the iBooks Store), your readers won't be able to read the equations on night mode, because the embedded image won't change the font color, making it black text on a black background.

Even though, a step in the right direction, LaTeX is the de facto standard (more like lingua franca) of math typesetting.

tallest skil

osmartormenajr said:

The generated equations are embedded into the text as (probably) PNG images, which makes for shoddy typography. Also, this way, if you export to ePub (say, to publish on the iBooks Store), your readers won't be able to read the equations on night mode, because the embedded image won't change the font color, making it black text on a black background.

Kudos to you for thinking of that. You checked that they're images already? What about equations that are built in OS X's Grapher and copied into Pages? Are those images too, or are they "smart objects" (the vector things that can be resized without fidelity loss)?