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Turning Off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in iOS 11's Control Center Doesn't Actually Turn Off Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (vice.com)
An anonymous reader shares a Motherboard report: Turning off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when you're not using them on your smartphone has long been standard, common sense, advice. Unfortunately, with the iPhone's new operating system iOS 11 - which was released to the general public yesterday - turning them off is not as easy as it used to be. Now, when you toggle Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off from the iPhone's Control Center -- the somewhat confusing menu that appears when you swipe up from the bottom of the phone -- it actually doesn't completely turn them off. While that might sound like a bug, that's actually what Apple intended in the new operating system. But security researchers warn that users might not realize this and, as a consequence, could leave Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on without noticing. Numerous Slashdot readers have complained about this "feature" this week.
It was very brave and forward thinking of Apple to not allow you to turn off Wifi.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Besides cutting off access to those radios to apps, what would be the purpose of turning them off now if it doesn't really turn them off?
The takeaway is that if you want to really and completely turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on iOS11 you can't do it from the Control Center anymore, you'll have to do it through the Settings app.
So the takeaway is that there is still a UI element that powers the radio off and the only thing changed is that a different UI element performs a disconnect rather than a power off. So a power-user that knows precisely which of the two she intends can pick the right one.
Calling it 'stupid' is a bit of an overreaction to what is basically a UI change to map a more-commonly-held button on what is perceived to the more-commonly-intended outcome. Maybe that attribution of intended outcome is wrong (as anyone that has tried to help less technical people, trying to figure out what someone is actually trying to do is a hell of a thing) but it seems at least reasonable to me that "get me off this shitty coffeeshop WiFi but do associate with my home WiFi when I get there" is a more common intent than "don't get on any network whatsoever until I remember to hit the button again".
Can we go back to the 'old' way, where I buy something, its mine, and I get to determine how I want it to work.
I know, I know, grumpy old man grumbling about progress....
Maybe just go back to the old dictionary... where "off" meant off, and progress meant something other than "up yours".
Courage in the wake of wifi stack vunerabilities.
Courage that they won't have a bluetooth stack vulnerability like android.
Courage is what it takes, courage...
my iphone 6+ will stay on 9.3.5 forever, or until the hardware dies... whichever comes first.
How do I stop the auto updates? It's impossible to stop the phone from downloading updates automatically, unless you jailbreak it... OR you block the following URLs on your wifi router:
appldnld.apple.com
mesu.apple.com
This will prevent your iDevice from auto downloading OS updates. Don't worry, you can still update your installed apps, it only blocks iOS updates.
"The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely." -- 1984
Once again, Apple does whatever the hell it wants to in the OS because it thinks the average user is too stupid to know what they actually want. This mindset has been around since the original Macintosh, and yet the fanatic Apple fanbois keep buying their products and insisting that they are more secure than other devices/OSs. That's why I don't buy Apple products, the headaches and risks are just too high.
Beware of Sales Reps bearing gifts.
A Tin Foil hat for your iPhone.
No, seriously. At night you don't want to be disturbed anyway. So a case that is completely opaque to the electromagnetic spectrum.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I didn't check but I'm guessing it does otherwise it makes them in violation of regulations probably worldwide.
But that sort of defeats the purpose because you're turning off ALL radios including the cellphone - so no texts or calls when, presumably, you're turning off the wifi/bluetooth for power saving/security reasons.
After being outrageously outraged I lied down and took a stresstab and I think I see the usability standpoint. They're probably getting tons of customer support calls from naive users whining that they can't airdrop from their iPhone to their iPad because they turned off wifi on their iPhone. (I do that all the time as I leave my macbook connected to an ethernet connection and turn off the wifi and then can't figure out why my macbook doesn't show up on airdrop but the 15 people's iPhone in the office cubes around me do!)
That said, they've broken the first law of UI design - DON'T CHANGE THE BEHAVIOR OF A BUTTON ONCE YOU'VE ESTABLISHED ITS USE. If anything it should be a tri-state button now - full on - apple services only - off. That would've clarified the intent to the user of the change AND alerted the user to its valid state.
Is it any wonder that many considered Steve Jobs an asshole when he would go off? He was probably going off on UI designers doing stuff like this. "DUDE - I PAY YOU A QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR AND YOU'RE PUSHING THIS S$*@ ON ME?! WTF?!"
they also changed the settings on podcasts to poll for new episodes every hour, instead of every six hours. So at 5 am your cell wakes up and uses the insecure bluetooth to connect to your hacker neighbor kid in the basement. If that source is too far away, it uses insecure Join Any Network wi-fi to connect to your hacker neighbor kid across the street in her basement.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
A short press should pop up two choices. 'disconnect from wifi connection ' and disable wifi radio'
I award you some imaginary mod points on this one.
Hell here's an imaginary grant don't spend it all in one dream.
It's strange that nobody has not stated the obvious reason why Apple is doing this: iBeacons. This way indoor positioning works always.
I always know, Apple is just too busy in innovations that She or He or it (whatsoever) forget to do the proper planning. Launched iPhone X with so late delivery. iPhone 8 sales are dipped. Released Wireless battery charging function and the AirPower, the Charging Pad by Apple, will release in 2018! So Well un-planned!
-Pratyaksh Somani reach me at https://www.techkt.com Posts about Technology, cool gadgets, Android, iPhone and lots mo
While that might sound like a bug, that's actually what Apple intended in the new operating system.
It may be what Apple intended, but it still counts as a bug. Any time that the UI is actively misleading, that's a bug.
The problem is that they replaced an engineer with a pointy haired boss with an MBA.
The only thing factually correct in that sentence is that Tim Cook does have a MBA degree and there is no evidence that constitutes a problem for Apple. Steve Jobs was not an engineer and did not have an engineering degree (or any other degree for that matter). Tim Cook IS an engineer and does have an engineering degree from Auburn University.
Tim Cook knows how to do is squeeze people for more cash, exploiting their captive user base until people throw their hands up in the air and walk away.
There is no evidence that Apple customers are walking away in any meaningful numbers.
It's ironic, Microsoft is trying so hard to be like Apple, but Apple is trying very hard to be like Oracle.
If you think that then I don't think you've actually dealt with Oracle. The experience of working with Apple is NOTHING like the experience of working with Oracle.
May I get some citations on this? I'm rather curious.
A quick Google search didn't show up anything. So either you're trolling, making this up, or quoting from something I cannot seem to find. I really hope the latter, as that sounds really interesting.
Corporations, like Target, can't track users if they have bluetooth disabled. Keeping bluetooth "always on" will make it easier for them to passively track iOS11 shoppers as they travel through their stores (whether they use the app or not).
https://techcrunch.com/2017/09...
Here's my understanding of what the buttons in Control Center now do:
Airplane Mode - same as before, turns off all radios - wifi, BT, cell.
The green cellular lollipop - not intuitively obvious to me that this was for cellular, but anyway it turns off the cellular radio entirely as one would expect.
Blue wifi icon - this is the one with the new functionality. It's a 'disconnect' button now, not a 'turn off' button. The use case, from what I can tell, is for people who want to not use wifi at a particular location (like at a restaurant that offers wifi but their Internet connection is down) but don't want to worry about turning wifi back on once they leave that location. There are some anecdotes on reddit about people who have turned off wifi but forgot to turn it back on once they got home and blew through their data plan in a couple days. Wifi can be turned off entirely via the Settings app like before.
Blue BT icon - again, like the wifi button, it's simply a 'disconnect' button now. I'm having a hard time thinking of a use case for this, however. Maybe some people want to temporarily disconnect from their keyboard, speakers, card, headphones, whatever, without having to remember to turn BT back on again later when they do want to connect...? I only ever use BT for in-car stuff, and never had need to turn off BT.
So I think the new ability is a good one to have, and a good one for the control center, but yeah it's questionable to change an existing button's function without a more clear indicator of what it does. Like a pop-up that says 'This just temporarily disconnects you from your wifi network, instead of turning wifi off. [] Do not show again.' would perhaps have been advisable?
"If you want to really and completely turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on iOS11 you can't do it from the Control Center anymore, you'll have to do it through the Settings app."
And here I thought that everyone went through the Settings app to begin with. I always have.
"Shall we play a game?" -W.O.P.R.
It was very brave and forward thinking of Apple to not allow you to turn off Wifi.
We don't want the kiddies skipping ads in their games, amiright? ;)
"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer
Hey, Apple. You're programming it wrong.
#DeleteFacebook
do nothing. Eventually the door will close, but it takes a while. Now repeat experiment, but press the close door button. Door will close predictably sooner (time it if you like).
That used to be the case. But nowadays more and more lifts are produced with the button not even wired.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Sounds like a bug in either your device or LineageOS. You might want to submit a bug report about that.
I know that on my android phone, turning off the radios actually turns off the radios.
It's for non-power users who turn off their Bluetooth and don't understand why their Apple Pencil stopped working or why their Watch won't connect to their phone. I'd imagine the Genius Bars get to answer this question 20 times every day. I'd be OK with it if they'd give power users the option to revert back to the old behavior.
Can you name a smartphone that doesn't meet that description? I think that any cell phone you can sell is legally required to enable tracking by official parties (ie., must have a GPS), and practically the cell phone towers would provide that information anyway. The part that isn't legally required is the non-removable battery, but that was invented by marketing, and ensures that phones will be replaced every few years. That it means the phone is an always-on tracker was a bonus that the governments appreciated, but didn't require.
Mind you, I don't like smartphones. I think they are lousy phones. A lot worse than the cell phones of a decade ago, and the screens are so small that they aren't useful for anything else. I have occasionally thought of getting a tablet, but after using a smartphone I've pretty much decided against it. The OS doesn't work very well, the applications are poor, etc. They aren't even good cameras, though there they do have some advantages, especially in low light conditions. But I see no advantages over a laptop the same size.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
They said ack because they used an analog version of TCP/IP.
I'm a little sorry for this post, but just a little.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Even the first gen iPad got cut and paste. It even works between applications. You can cut a URL and paste it into your email client, apps, or another tab in Safari.
I know because I still have one. I still sometimes use it as a disposable device. If something happens to it, I don't much care. So, I use it in places I'd not willingly risk a newer device. Other than Safari crashing when sites are bloated, it's still very functional.
Why yes, yes I did just defend Apple.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
I find it interesting that this and the Purism phone news are next to one another, when one of the main drivers of Purism is they provide hardware killswitches for wireless (and webcams, and mics).
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It is the same in Android and for a long time, when you turn off wifi, it is still on, it will always scan for available SSID and it helps for location. There is a deep setting to really turn it off however.
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
Apple users are not expected to know what is WiFi or bluetooth, let alone need to turn them off.
Damn right I don't. I want my phone to be a good phone. Anything else is extra and readily sacrificed to improve the phone aspect. (The built-in address book is an example of a smart phone acting well. The camera is "OK, that's unobtrusive, but I wouldn't pay extra for it". Much of the other stuff is garbage that gets in the way. It's totally lousy as a computer. The interaction is too limited, you can't really type on it, etc. Before I got the smartphone I was thinking a tablet might be a good idea, but after the phone I don't want anything with a similar OS. It's jammed full of misfeatures, there's more misfeatures than features. And it's a very poor phone, which is what I got it to be.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.