Rosyna

The problem with not having a probationary period for 15% cuts is developers will move to subscriptions en masse because 85% is far more than 70%.

And no one wins if every single app/game developer moves to subscriptions. It only ends up screwing all users and those developers that choose not to go to the subscription route.

The probationary period Apple added was to discourage developers from being jerkasses and moving to subscriptions without having the services/content to offer.

A simple database bug doesn't explain why people claimed their music was deleted from their drive. A database bug would only lose reference to the file on disk and would either force a file locate dialog or a download from Apple Music.

dick applebaum said:

I assume the LA police had the body in the morgue ... if the iPhone used TouchID ...   

As it has been far than 48 hours, that isn't possible. Furthermore, the source article says the device had been turned off, which also makes it impossible to use TouchID.

gatorguy said:

Yeah, I think the article author was momentarily confused. AFAICS both iOS data and that from 3rd party apps was encrypted by default in iOS7.  What the author perhaps had intended to point out was that unless you used a passcode there would be no encryption (which changed with iOS8 didn't it?). Without a passcode tho it seems the LAPD could have accessed that phone long ago. 

It is always encrypted. This encryption is non-optional. If the is a passcode set, then the master decryption key for that protection class of data is encrypted with a key derived from the passcode. If there is no passcode set, the key is only encrypted with a key derived from the UID and GID.

This "double encryption" is used so users can easily change the passcode without having to re-encrypt all user data. It's also so employers that provide iPhones to employees can use MDM to get a backdoor decryption token without needing to know the user's passcode.

FileVault2 on Mac OS X also uses this double encryption method to support multiple users and recovery keys.

SpamSandwich said:

As I've mentioned a number of times, for any who require complete security with their iPhone, Touch ID should only be used for Apple Pay, but not to open the phone.

Anything you "have on you" (including your fingerprint) may legally be used against you. The contents of your brain (including a passcode) are secure (for now, at least until they perfect live brain activity scans and thought visualization...and believe it or not, this is being worked on).

This isn't correct. TouchID has numerous safeguards for this exact type of situation. TouchID does not use the fingerprint as a master password and is automatically disabled in these cases:

After 48 hours of non-use.
After a reboot.
After five incorrect attempts. (You cannot be forced to tell LEOs which finger it is).
If a lock command is sent to the device via Find My iPhone.

TouchID is meant to enable the usage of much longer and more secure passcodes without the risk of lookiloos seeing you enter it.

When TouchID is disabled, people tend to choose extremely short, 4 digit PINs due to how tedious it is to enter better passcodes on a mobile device.