push notifications

How to block iPhone apps from using push notification tracking to spy on you

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Apple Privacy: How To
Apps are spying on you with push notification tracking. But you can block them today.
Image: Apple/Cult of Mac

Any time a company sends a push notification to an iPhone, its application can gather information about the user, including their location, according to security researchers. Meta and TikTok reportedly use push notification tracking, and many other companies do it, too.

Fortunately, there’s a simple solution for users to protect their privacy and keep apps from spying on them.

Apple makes ‘push notification spying’ more difficult

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Apple makes ‘push notification spying’ more difficult for government agencies
A court order is now required for push notification spying on iPhone users.
Photo: rawpixel.com/Pexels CC

Governments will find push notification spying harder to do now that they no longer enjoy easy access to records of push notifications sent to iPhone users. Apple changed its policy so that law enforcement and other government agencies need a court order to obtain this data.

Previously, the data — which could be used to gain info about users’ activities — was available from Apple with just a subpoena.

Apple confirms ‘push notification spying’ by government agencies [Updated]

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A red-tinted image of a hand holding an iPhone, meant to depict push notification spying.
Unidentified countries request push notification records from Apple and Google to gain info about smartphone users.
Photo illustration: Bagus Hernawan/Unsplash License/Modified by Cult of Mac

Some governments are spying on push notifications sent to iPhone users, Apple confirmed Wednesday. By examining logs of push notifications sent by various apps, authorities can piece together surprisingly detailed information about smartphone users and their activities.

The previously undisclosed data gathering, which also affects Android devices, became public after Sen. Roy Wyden published an open letter to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on Wednesday requesting disclosure of the surveillance method.

One of the best weather apps for iPhone just got a huge update

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Dark Sky 5.0 displays 24-hour forecasts in a new timeline.
Dark Sky 5.0 displays 24-hour forecasts in a new timeline.
Photo: DarkSky

The Dark Sky app — famous for its crazy accurate weather predictions that give you down to the minute details on everything — has been updated to version 5.0 today, bringing with it an awesome new design and feature improvements.

Among the most noticeable differences is a new vertical timeline that dispenses weather predictions over the next 24 hours. It’s also adjustable so you can view precipitation, temperature, wind, humidity or the UV index.

Disable Web Page Push Notifications In Mavericks [OS X Tips]

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nba push notification

There are quite a few web sites these days that will send you notifications when you visit them via Safari. Sites like NBA.com and the New York Times will drop you a dialog box when you visit them for the first time to ask you if you would like to receive the push notifications.

If you allow them, all hope is not lost should you reconsider your decision. You can drop right into System Preferences and disable them on a site by site basis.

Save Your iPhone Battery: Turn Off Push Mail And Push Notifications [iOS Tips]

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Push Services

This just in: your iPhone (and iPad or iPod touch) is a marvel of engineering and does some amazing things, keeping you connected to the rest of the world with its super amazing technology. All that connectivity, though, can come with a price.

Push services are there to let you know when you have stuff to do, or emails to check. It’s pretty handy. However, when you need to conserve your battery, it’s probably time to turn them off. Here’s how, straight from Apple.

iCloud Push Services Could Resume In Germany After Court Stays Motorola Patent Trial

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iCloud-services

iCloud push services could soon resume in Germany more than a year after they were killed after a high court stayed Motorola’s patent trial against Apple on Wednesday. Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court issued a press release that said both Apple and Google — which now owns Motorola — agreed to the stay, which has called into question the validity of Motorola’s patent.

Twitterrific For iOS Finally Gets Push Notifications In Latest 5.2 Update

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twitterrific_photo.png

There’s no denying that Twitterrific 5 is a beautiful third-party Twitter client for the iPhone and iPad, but the app has been lacking a huge feature until today: push notifications. Now that push has become an expected feature in modern Twitter apps, it was only a matter of time before The Iconfactory added it to their app.

You can get push notifications for new mentions, direct messages, favorites, retweets, and followers. The catch is that only 1,000 Twitterrific users will get access to the feature initially. Availability will be then rolled out gradually to new users.

Twittelator Neue Finally Ditches Annual Charge For Push Notifications

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For free? Yes, please!
For free? Yes, please!

I’ve always been a fan of Twittelator Neue, a clean Twitter client for iPhone that’s super fast and has a unique way of handling pictures in your timeline. However, I never agreed with its pricing policy. The app costs $4.99 upfront, but users had to pay an extra $1.99 per year on top of that for push notifications.

Fortunately, its creators have had a change of heart. With its latest update, Twittelator Neue provides push notifications for free.

Seven Rules Can Deliver iPhone Marketing Success

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Seven simple rules about push notifications help craft killer iPhone/iPad marketing campaigns.
Seven simple rules about push notifications help craft killer iPhone/iPad marketing campaigns.

Over the past few months, a number of different studies have shown the iPad (and to a lesser extent the iPhone) is a near-perfect advertising vehicle that enourages ad click-throughs, user engagement, and purchase decisions in ways that generally aren’t seen with other technologies.

A truly well-crafted marketing campaign aimed at iPad and iPhone users in, however, is more than just a series of ads. Instead it’s a series of interactions that build a relation with mobile customers. According to the marketing gurus at MarketingProfs, one key to building those relationships is using push notifications – and using them in the right ways.

10 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Mountain Lion Server [Feature]

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Profile Manager is a killer feature in Mountain Lion Server, but it isn't the only killer feature.
Profile Manager is a killer feature in Mountain Lion Server, but it isn't the only killer feature.

Apple is expected to launch Mountain Lion next week. At the same time, the company will be launching Mountain Lion Server. The new edition of Apple’s server platform is revolutionary in a lot of ways, not the least of which is its $19.99 price tag.

Mountain Lion Server includes the basic server functionality that you’d expect from a product intended for the small to mid-size business (SMB) market. That means features like file sharing, network printing, client backups, website hosting, VPN, email services, centralized contacts for an organization, and shared calendaring. All of that is important and Mountain Lion Server seems destined to make those services easy to set up and manage.

In addition to those basic capabilities, however, Mountain Lion Server comes with some pretty incredible functionality for businesses or workgroups of any size or type. Here are ten of the big money features that are easy to overlook.

Has Boxcar Thrown In The Towel On Third-Party Push Notifications?

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Is Boxcar down for you?
Is Boxcar down for you?

Before every iOS app in the App Store began sending you push notifications — whether you want them or not — the best way to stay on top of your alerts was with Boxcar, a free app that delivers push notifications on behalf of a huge catalog of apps. In its App Store description, Boxcar boasts about delivering over 1 billion notifications since its debut in July 2009. But it seems the service may have finally ended.

How To Make Your iPhone’s Notification Center Shut Up [Jailbreak]

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Need some peace and quiet?
Need some peace and quiet?

Have you ever been making a phone call and had an email notification chime in your ear? Or how bout a banner notification pop up during a game or video? Sometimes you may just want to get away from alerts and incoming messages. Instead of notification after notification endlessly causing vibrations in your pocket, why not tell your iPhone that you’re out for lunch?

It would be nice for Apple to implement a “Do Not Disturb” feature into the iOS Notification Center, but until that day comes, jailbreakers can tell Notification Center to shut up with a couple of handy Cydia tweaks.

Spotify Updates iOS App With Push Notifications

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spotify-for-ipad.jpg

Spotify updated its universal iOS app today with some new features, including push notifications. The app store description says it all:

What’s New in Version 0.5.1
• New: Push notifications. Receive notifications when your subscribed playlists are updated, you get new subscribers, and more. You can choose which notifications to receive in Settings.
• New: Intro guide for new users.
• Fixed: Missing retina graphics on log in screen (iPad).
• Fixed: Retina album art is now always synced when you offline sync playlists.
• Fixed: App could sometimes become unresponsive after scrolling and navigating at the same time.
• Other improvements to Facebook login, screen locking when offline syncing, performance and stability.

Spotify, last updated on May 2 and available in 15 different countries, allows access (for subscribers) to its Premium music service on iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. There’s a two-day trial available for free, after which you’ll have to choose a Premium plan or cancel. You’ll still be able to listen to wirelessly sync songs from your Mac, edit playlists, and see Spotify’s catalog of music without a subscription, but you won’t be able to stream to your iOS device.

Source: iTunes App Store Via: iPad Insight

Make Sparrow Your Default Mail Client & Introduce Push Notifications With Sparrow+ [Jailbreak]

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Sparrow+ fixes two of Sparrow's biggest issues.

Sparrow is possibly the best iPhone app I’ve purchased so far this year; it has completely replaced the built-in Mail client on my device. But it does have a couple things missing: It doesn’t yet support push notifications, and of course, it’s impossible to make it your iPhone’s default mail client.

However, a new tweak for jailbroken devices called Sparrow+ fixes both of these things.

New Tweak Adds Push Notifications To Sparrow For iPhone Email App [Jailbreak]

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Sparrow Push brings badge notifications to the iPhone's newest email app.
Sparrow Push brings badge notifications to the iPhone's newest email app.

A new jailbreak tweak adds push notifications to the popular iPhone email app called Sparrow. We’ve already shown you a roundabout way to get push for Sparrow with the Boxcar app on a non-jailbroken iPhone, but you can now easily enable notifications with a Cydia tweak called Sparrow Push.

Instead Of Getting Sherlocked, Growl Plans To Make Notifications Better In Mountain Lion

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mono-growl1

Apple has brought the iOS 5 Notification Center to the Mac with OS X Mountain Lion. The new interface displays incoming notifications from different apps in one place, mimicking the functionality of the Mac app called Growl. You’ve most likely used Growl before whether you know it or not, as the tool integrates with many popular Mac apps for displaying notifications through popups.

With the birth of Notification Center on the Mac in Mountain Lion, one would assume that Growl has been sherlocked. According to the app’s developers, that is not the case. In fact, Grow will make Mountain Lion’s notification system even better.

Hiss Pipes Growl Alerts To Mountain Lion Notification Center

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Hiss integrates Growl into Notification Center on OX X 10.8
Hiss integrates Growl into Notification Center on OX X 10.8

If you went ahead and loaded the developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion onto your Mac, you likely already played around with the new Notification Center. Until you got bored and fired up Growl once again so you could enjoy notifications from all your apps, not just Mail and Calendar. Wouldn’t it be great, though, if all those Growl-capable apps could talk to Notification Center instead? With Hiss, they can.