Turning Off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in iOS 11's Control Center Doesn't Actually Turn Off Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (vice.com)

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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)

Posted by msmash on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @06:04AM from the apple-things dept.

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.

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Very Brave by Oswald+McWeany · 2017-09-20 06:09 · Score: 5, Funny

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
1. Re: Very Brave by sound+vision · 2017-09-20 06:15 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Another decision to impede security in the name of convenience. People act like Microsoft only does this.
2. Re: Very Brave by cayenne8 · 2017-09-20 06:19 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  You know...while I do not consider myself an Apple Fanboy....I have enjoyed many of their products over the past years.
  But man...after Steve passed away, it does seem to be going downhill there. The UI is just not as intuitive anymore. Gaffs of things not working, like the watch LTE problems on release, and stuff like this.
  I had hoped the folks he'd had following him had had some of the intuition he'd displayed on how things should be (some losers, but mostly good IMHO) and work that make products easy and fun to use for he user, and have them be intuitive.....but alas, that does not seem to be the case and we see blunder after blunder and design and UI flaw after flaw.
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
3. Re: Very Brave by ilsaloving · 2017-09-20 06:45 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  The problem is that they replaced an engineer with a pointy haired boss with an MBA. 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.
  It's ironic, Microsoft is trying so hard to be like Apple, but Apple is trying very hard to be like Oracle.
4. Re: Very Brave by ColdWetDog · 2017-09-20 07:10 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  MacPro, the dwindling mini, the 'touch bar', dongles, port starvation, thin, thin, thin!!!
  Oh, and iTunes.
  I win!
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
5. Re: Very Brave by ColdWetDog · 2017-09-20 07:13 · Score: 2
  
  Beats. Apple Music. Final Cut X, 'Minimalist' interfaces. Disappearing headphone jacks.
  Disappearing contrast.
  Oh, and iTunes.
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
6. Re: Very Brave by Khyber · 2017-09-20 07:22 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  https://youtu.be/ZBma82g3Uag
  Apple has become exactly what Jobs originally did not like.
  
  --
  Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
7. Re: Very Brave by cheesybagel · 2017-09-20 09:27 · Score: 2
  
  Yeah but he was a pretty good designer and had a sense for technology.
8. Re: Very Brave by Aristos+Mazer · 2017-09-20 10:46 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Apple needs an asshole because otherwise the shit builds up? :-)
And the point then? by SeaFox · 2017-09-20 06:09 · Score: 2, Interesting

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?
1. Re:And the point then? by A10Mechanic · 2017-09-20 06:12 · Score: 2
  
  It's like the 'close doors' button on the elevator. It's a feel-good button.
2. Re:And the point then? by BradleyUffner · 2017-09-20 06:16 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Presumably, cutting off app access would save power, as the OS could tightly manage the connecting polling while "off". Even though the radios are still on, they could be automatically cycled down, and only brought back up periodically to poll for "important" stuff, saving power. Of course, Apple is the one decided what counts as "important".
3. Re:And the point then? by Okind · 2017-09-20 06:24 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  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?
  How about theft?
  For a smartphone there may not be a reason, seeing you always carry it with you. But for clunkier items like tablets, an always-on transmitter of a radio signal is a godsend for thieves everywhere. Now they can use a simple scanner to locate items to steal.
  In fact, this is the reason you should turn your transmitting devices off (not standby) when you leave them out of sight in your locked car. It prevents them from being stolen.
4. Re:And the point then? by karnal · 2017-09-20 06:28 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Well, we could just remove the batt... oh wait.
  
  --
  Karnal
5. Re:And the point then? by quintus_horatius · 2017-09-20 06:45 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  You can turn off both radios in the settings app
  Then why have this "false" radio-off setting? Why not turn them off the way users expect when they, for instance, toggle the radios off using the easy-to-find settings?
  Also, FTFA:
  
  ...both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi will become active again when you toggle them off in the Control Center at 5 AM local time, according to Apple's documentation
  What the hell is the point of THAT?!
6. Re:And the point then? by ColdWetDog · 2017-09-20 07:21 · Score: 2
  
  Because $CluelessUser doesn't understand that the stuff that Apple is trying to leave open (Airdrop and friends) is Bluetooth or Wifi. To the typical smartphone user, it's just magic. So when you shut off Bluetooth, you can't listen to music (oops, I just **knew** that headphone jack was there for a reason) or do other Neat Things.
  The 5 AM bit is likely because even for users that understood enough to turn the radios 'off' forgot to turn them back on in the morning.
  Can't have that.
  
  --
  Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Burying the takeaway by Wrath0fb0b · 2017-09-20 06:12 · Score: 3, Insightful

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".
1. Re:Burying the takeaway by tk77 · 2017-09-20 07:07 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  If you long-press on one of the buttons in the control center, it pops up a larger display that sort of details whats going on.
  If you tap the wifi or bluetooth buttons to turn them off, the blue highlight turns gray and the text in the larger display will say "disconnected". If you turn them off in the settings app, the highlight turns gray and there's a line through the wifi/bluetooth logos and in the larger display it says "off".
  The airplane mode button which is the first button in the control center, when pressed, turns everything off.
  It's not obvious and I didn't really know that this is how it worked until I saw the Apple support doc. Knowing now how it works, I don't mind so much. It means on my iPad I can have Bluetooth on, but "disconnected" and still be able to use the pencil (rather then having to have BT fully on).
2. Re:Burying the takeaway by MagicM · 2017-09-20 07:08 · Score: 2
  
  So a power-user that knows precisely which of the two she intends can pick the right one.
  The annoying part is that one of the two is just a swipe away in the new control center, while the other is in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying âBeware of the Leopard.â
3. Re:Burying the takeaway by MichaelJ · 2017-09-20 12:59 · Score: 2
  
  It means I can no longer simply tap off BT in the Control Center to stop draining the battery of my Apple Pencil since the motion of carrying it around with the iPad wakes it up and connects it, since there's no "off" button. Because why would it need one when it has motion sensors to know when it's being used or not
  
  --
  
  Michael J.
  Root, God, what is difference?
When...? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 06:15 · Score: 5, Insightful

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 by slew · 2017-09-20 06:18 · Score: 3, Funny

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...
This is why I refuse to update my iphone by Spy+Handler · 2017-09-20 06:22 · Score: 4, Informative

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.
1. Re:This is why I refuse to update my iphone by JohnFen · 2017-09-20 07:13 · Score: 2
  
  By avoiding updates, you carry around an exploitable phone
  And by reflexively updating, you are exposing yourself to the whims and exploits of the software provider, so it's pretty much six of one, half dozen of the other.
2. Re:This is why I refuse to update my iphone by Spy+Handler · 2017-09-20 07:31 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Yes, it can happen. Here is how it goes:
  1. I go to Starbucks or a friend's house and my phone auto-downloads 2 GB worth of iOS updates on their wifi
  2. iPhone displays a popup saying "iOS 11.0.5 has been downloaded." Two choices are given: UPDATE NOW, or LATER
  3. I choose "LATER", then go into Settings - General - Storage & iCloud Usage - Manage Storage. There, it will display a list of everything that takes up space on my phone. The iOS 11 update will be at or near top of the list, being 2 GB in size.
  4. I select the "iOS 11 update" and tap to delete it. Tap again to confirm delete.
  5. Presto, my phone is still version 9.3.5 and the downloaded update is gone.
  6. !profit!
This reminds me of something... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-20 06:25 · Score: 5, Insightful

"The instrument (the telescreen, it was called) could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely." -- 1984
Re:Product Opportunity by msauve · 2017-09-20 06:37 · Score: 5, Funny

Just hold it wrong. Problem solved.

--
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Re:airplane mode? by the_skywise · 2017-09-20 06:45 · Score: 2

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 giving this some thought by the_skywise · 2017-09-20 06:54 · Score: 4, Insightful

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?!"
1. Re:After giving this some thought by Wrath0fb0b · 2017-09-20 08:01 · Score: 2
  
  That depends on what you infer (or divine really) is the user's intended outcome from hitting the button.
  I don't think the user intent (insofar as non-technical users have well-formed notions of intent, which is far from clear) when hitting the button is "I want to disabled WiFi connectivity but keep the ability to AirDrop".
  Let's play a game, which is guess-what-the-user-actually-wants
  (1) Disable all WiFi until I hit the button again, even after I get back at home so that I rack up cellular bills
  (2) Disable all WiFi except for AirDrop and a bunch of other things I don't quite understand
  (3) Get me off $CURRENT_WIFI (e.g. coffeeshop, airport) but do reconnect to my home network when I get back there even if I forget to hit the button
  I think there's a lot of reasons to believe that the user's intended outcome is (3) rather than (1) or (2). YMMV, and I agree this is something of an imprecise science.
Re:Product Opportunity by WillAffleckUW · 2017-09-20 07:01 · Score: 2

Faraday cages for iPhones make wonderful housewarming and birthday gifts IMHO.

--
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
It's a bug by JohnFen · 2017-09-20 07:25 · Score: 2

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.
Facts by sjbe · 2017-09-20 07:29 · Score: 4, Informative

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.
1. Re:Facts by ilsaloving · 2017-09-20 08:46 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  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.
  I have great difficulty believing that, considering that there has been virtually zero innovation since Jobs died. Unless you count "making products less useful and more expensive" as innovation. Seriously, only an abject idiot would leave out HDMI on a modern laptop, for example. And have you used the keyboard on the most recent MBPs? It's the single worst keyboard I have ever used in my life.
  
  There is no evidence that Apple customers are walking away in any meaningful numbers.
  Really? Then mind explaining why their laptop sales figures are tanking? I myself have been using Apple for over a decade. My "current" MBP is a 2011 because every version after that has been worse than the last. Nothing is upgradable on it anymore, and even the stuff that's built into it is crap. I already mentioned the god-awful keyboard. A whopping TWO USB-C ports, or 4 if you wanna splurge, and nothing else. Wanna connect to a meeting room TV? Nope. A projector? Nope. Someone wants to give you a file on a USB key? Nope.
  It's like they took the top 10 use cases for a laptop in the business world, gave a good belly laugh and said, "Fuck'em all."
  
  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.
  I didn't say they were Oracle. I said they were trying to be like Oracle. That takes time, but they're doing it. Have you bought a USB-C power supply from Apple? They don't even provide a USB-C cable in the box. You literally have to buy the cord separately. So you're now paying $125 for a power supply instead of $100.
  And never mind the whole donglegate thing where you literally need to buy dongles if you wanna so much as scratch your nose.
  Apple has taken nickle and diming people to amazing new heights, while *at the same time* jacking up their prices of their products across the board. You cannot possibly tell me that that is anything other than customer hostile.
  It's literally a battle of what you hate less now. Everyone I know who is an apple user is only using apple products because they hate Microsoft's bullshit more than they hate Apple's bullshit. That's not a particularly good long term strategy. It means that should Microsoft ever mistakenly pull their head out of their ass and make a product that doesn't suck, Apple is going to be in serious trouble. Google is slowly gaining ground on both of them with their chromebooks, and that's going to accelerate as they get more useful and people realize they arn't dependent on the encumbents anymore.