Tracking Apple
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 572 Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2022
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Apple has been sprucing up its mobile operating system, bolstering privacy and safety features and sprinkling in some new emoji to boot. But while the company shores up iOS, it has also faced renewed criticism about privacy lapses in its AirTags trackers. Reports of the devices being used by stalkers to track others without their permission have raised questions about Apple's tracking tech. Why did it take so long for the company to introduce features that could alert or protect potential victims? And why didn't Apple anticipate these types of abuse would happen in the first place?
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED product writer Brenda Stolyar joins us to run through the new features on iOS and discuss where Apple went wrong with AirTags.
Show Notes:
Read more about the new features in iOS 15.4. Here’s the New York Times story about tracking people with AirTags. Read the Washington Post article, also about AirtTag stalking.
Recommendations:
Brenda recommends the podcast “Storytime With Seth Rogan.” Mike recommends Provecho, a vegan Mexican cuisine cookbook by Edgar Castrejón. Lauren recommends telling us your own recommendations for cool stuff by tweeting @GadgetLab.
Brenda Stolyar can be found on Twitter @BStoly. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Mike. |
| 0:01.0 | Lauren. |
| 0:01.9 | Mike, remember when we used to be in the office a lot, you know, like in the before times? |
| 0:07.0 | And I used to lose things a lot. |
| 0:10.6 | Yes, I do remember when you were constantly losing things in the office. |
| 0:13.9 | Yeah, you know, it was often borrowing your key card or your keys or chargers or... Starfoam coffee cups credit no i did not use styrofoam credit cards um |
| 0:28.5 | okay so you would think that i would be a big tile or air tag aficionado right yes it seems like a |
| 0:35.3 | perfect product for you but i'm not why. Why is that? Well, I think we |
| 0:38.9 | should talk about that. Well, let's do it. Hey, everyone, welcome to Gadget Lab. I'm Lauren |
| 0:50.1 | Good. I'm a senior writer at Wired, and I guess I'm a perpetual loser person who loses things. I am Michael Colori. I'm a senior writer at Wired, and I guess I'm a perpetual loser, person who loses things. I am Michael Colori. I'm a senior editor at Wired, and I'm a person who always remembers everything always. You know, I've got a lot better about this, I have to say. You have, yes. I really have. And we've been back in the office a little bit, and you've witnessed this. Okay, anyway, we're also |
| 1:11.0 | joined this week by Wired Product Writer Brenda Stoliar. Hey, Brenda, welcome back to the show. Hello, |
| 1:16.7 | thank you for having me back. So we're going to be covering a couple of different topics today. |
| 1:21.3 | First, we're going to talk about the new software update that's coming to iPhones very soon. Now, |
| 1:26.4 | Apple hasn't announced exactly when we can expect this new iOS, but we know it's going |
| 1:31.1 | to be within the next month. |
| 1:32.6 | The software is in beta now. |
| 1:34.7 | We know there are some interesting new features on the way, so we're going to unpack |
| 1:38.2 | those. |
| 1:39.2 | And then in the second half of the show, we're going to talk about another software update Apple |
| 1:43.4 | has had to issue recently |
| 1:44.8 | because of privacy concerns around air tags, those little lost item finders. And Brenda has |
| 1:51.1 | written about both of these topics. Okay, but first, let's talk about iOS. Brenda, you just |
... |
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