Merely days after the release of its new operating system – iOS 17 – Apple has had to issue urgent updates. 

iOS 17.0.1, now available globally, fixes three security flaws that left devices exposed to ‘malware’ – malicious computer software. 

The update is for all iPhone models still supported by the tech giant – so those released in 2018 and later (including iPhone XS and the 2nd generation iPhone SE). 

However, if you’ve got yourself a brand new iPhone 15 in the last few days, you’ll need an even newer update – iOS 17.0.2. 

iOS 17.0.2 also fixes an issue that may prevent the transfer of data directly from an older iPhone during setup.

Therefore, if you have the new iPhone 15, you should update it to iOS 17.0.2 before you try transferring data from your old device, not after.

To get either of the latest updates for your iPhone (or iPad, which is also affected), you just need to head to your device’s Settings and select ‘General’ followed by ‘Software Update’.

Tapping ‘Download and Install’ should start the update, which could take a few minutes to complete. 

Apple’s new iOS mobile operating system, iOS 17, was released last week, a few days before the iPhone 15 hit the shelves (although iOS 17 was made available for other recent iPhone models too). 

In a web post, Apple disclosed the three security flaws that are affecting iOS 17.0, which will be fixed in minutes as long as you update. 

One of these flaws allowed a malicious app to be able ‘to bypass signature validation’ – meaning it may be able to run without the user noticing. 

Apple disclosed the flaws following tip-offs from Google and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab research group. 

iOS 17.0.1 – which is for all recent iPhone models apart from the new iPhone 15 – fixes the bugs.  

Meanwhile, iOS 17.0.2 includes the three security fixes of iOS 17.0.1, but it also corrects the iPhone 15’s data transfer issue, the tech giant said in another post.

If you have any one of the new iPhone 15 models, you should notice in your Settings that the newest software update available is iOS 17.0.2.

iOS 17.0.2 fixes the data transfer issue that is issue specific to the iPhone 15 lineup, so the update is not necessary for older iPhone models. 

Therefore, if you have an older iPhone and you see the latest update available is iOS 17.0.1, you don’t not have to worry that iOS 17.0.2 is not available. 

The most important thing is updating your iPhone from iOS 17.0 (or iPadOS 17.0 if you have an iPad) because it leaves your device vulnerable to bugs. 

Once this is done you should be able to enjoy the new functionality offered by iOS 17, as intended by Apple. 

The generation of software includes several exciting features, including a Live Voicemail tool and the ability to share your contact details simply by touching your iPhone to another. 

iOS 17 was released a few days before iPhone 15 hit the shelves, leading to packed crowds from London to Beijing. 

The standard range of new iPhones start at £799 and are equipped with a new titanium frame, USB-C charging port and new artificial intelligence features. 

The two most expensive options in the iPhone 15 family, the Pro and Pro Max, reach a whopping £1,499 and £1,599, depending on storage. 

A tranche of UFO videos — including never-before-seen footage — has been quietly released by federal law enforcement.

US Customs and Border Protection, the agency responsible for keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the country, uploaded 10 videos that appear to show craft moving in strange ways in our skies.

The videos were released on August 9 without warning, a press release or much in the way of context, only to be discovered by UFO enthusiasts and online sleuths earlier this week.

The videos document a fighter jet pursued by an apparently baffling flying orb, as well as something that appears to be a propeller-powered hang-glider, and yet another apparent floating orb, hovering this time near a parked 16-wheeler truck.

But the enigmatic nature of the drop — which offered little detail regarding the times and locations of these sightings, plus more than a few sweeping redactions — has left more questions than answers.

The quiet video drop follows rising tensions within the corridors of power in Washington on the once taboo subject of UFOs. 

Open congressional hearings, federal legislation and even brand new government offices have now been dedicated openly to the investigation of these aerial mysteries, with at least one former senior US intelligence official calling the strange sightings ‘a national security issue.’

The videos were released on a dedicated site for agency records made public via requests under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). 

But perhaps most significantly, the release confirms, at least tacitly, the veracity of a heavily-scrutinized, 2013 thermal UFO video leaked to UFO researchers in 2015.

For the first time since that leak, the April 25, 2013 Aguadilla, Puerto Rico UFO video first investigated by the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies has now been confirmed by the US government as genuinely unidentified. 

Asked by NBC News, Chris Mellon, a former official with the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, described the release as ‘very significant.’

‘This will help the public understand what our military personnel are encountering all over the world,’ Mellon said. 

‘We’re getting, on the Defense Department side, 50 to 100 [UFO] reports per month — and this is happening globally.’ 

‘It’s happening overseas. It’s happening off the east coast and the west coast,’ he elaborated. ‘This will help people better understand why Congress takes the issue seriously [and] why it’s a national security issue.’

While Mellon praised US Customs’ show of openness and transparency with the official release of these 10 videos,  America’s dedicated community of UFO skeptics were less impressed. 

Mick West, a prolific and dedicated examiner of UFO claims and the owner of the skeptics forum Metabunk, described the videos as ‘mostly not new.’ 

‘And those that are new are not particularly interesting,’ West told the DailyMail.com, noting that several had already been the subject of unofficial leaks to reporters and researchers on the UFO beat.

West, a retired computer programmer and video game designer, described the first of US Customs’ UAP videos as something that ‘looks like a microlight aircraft.’

Several others, he noted, appeared to be ‘ambiguous white dots, […] a balloon or a plastic bag.’

The second video, West said, was the so-called ‘Rubber Duck’ UAP, which the noted skeptic devoted considerable time to investigating on his YouTube channel and in Metabunk’s forum back in 2021. 

West identified CBP video 9 as the ‘infamous ‘Aguadilla’ video,’ which he has argued reveals a thermal signature ‘consistent with a pair of wedding lanterns drifting in the wind.’ 

West has taken the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) to task for errors located in an Appendix to their lengthy report on the Aguadilla case, but at least according to the SCU’s co-founder, engineer Robert Powell, those errors do not undermine the remainder of his team’s assessment.

‘The report does not depend on Appendix L,’ Powell told the DailyMail.com, stating that West did not have an answer for why floating wedding lanterns would veer from west to north, as the Aguadilla UFO is recorded doing in the video’s final moments.

‘The second reason it’s not Chinese lanterns,’ according to Powel, ‘is that Chinese lanterns can’t survive the wind speeds that were occurring that day. The wind speeds were around 13 miles an hour.’ 

‘It’s basically a little candle that sits on these little wires, and you’ve got a very light [plastic or paper] bag around it,’ Powell said. ‘Heavy winds will collapse the outside of your Chinese lantern.’ 

Whatever the mystery of Aguadilla proves to be, US Customs’ 10 videos were not the only agency records quietly released this August under FOIA. 

The agency’s official confirmation of these previously only leaked thermal videos and security recordings were also accompanied by a 389-page PDF document, ostensibly of UAP records held internally by US Customs. 

While the paperwork includes much chaff — news clippings, and already public government reports — the FOIA drop also included internal emails detailing internal deliberations on the law enforcement agency’s UFO cases.

Several agency emails from August 2021, document an exchange between a UFO enthusiast and his superior regarding efforts to comply with spirit of the then-recent congressional legislation on UFOs and the resulting UAP Task Force report.

‘As a pet project, or for fun, do all the research you want,’ the redacted official wrote to the CBP’s equivalent to X-Files FBI agent Fox Mulder. ‘I know this topic is of great interest to you and there’s a ton of information to sift through.’

‘There just isn’t an avenue for any formal research or reporting any type of findings or conclusions,’ the redacted official stressed.

The also-redacted CPB employee responded, ‘T4… I apologize, and took The Director of National Intelligence’s UAP report seriously.’  

But the release also includes over two dozen tantalizing pages that have been redacted in their entirety. 

Per statute, each page lists the legal exemption under which US CBP is permitted to withhold certain records relevant to an open records request. 

The majority of these redactions, in this case, were justified under the b(5) and b(7)e exemptions clauses of federal FOIA law. 

Investigative reporters and open government advocates have dubbed the b(5) exemption the ‘The Withhold It Because You Want To Exemption‘ as its guidelines were even described by the US Justice Department as ‘opaque.’

The b(7)e exemption pertains effectively to law enforcement’s own ‘sources and methods,’ as it withholds details that would ‘disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions’ and other material that officials believe ‘could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law.’

To this end, several of the released videos have notably redacted the majority of the heads-up-display information from US CBP’s infrared or thermal video recordings: which would likely include data on the altitude, bearing and range of these UAP.

All summer long, a sweltering UFO fever has gripped Washington DC, stoked in no small measure by a series of extraordinary claims and revelations from lawmakers, former US intelligence and Navy personnel.

This past June, charges of an illegal, hidden UFO crash retrieval program operating within the shadows exploded across television airwaves and online as made by Air Force and intelligence agency veteran David Grusch.

Soon thereafter, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Marco Rubio revealed he too had been briefed by several other US government officials with top-level security clearances, who professed that they personally had ‘first-hand’ knowledge of UFO programs.

By late July, Grusch was reasserting many of his claims under oath before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, along with Ryan Graves, an esteemed former pilot, and veteran Navy fighter pilot Commander David Fravor, who witnessed the now famous 2004 ‘Tic Tac’ UFO.

In his further comments on the new CPB videos, former DOD intelligence official Chris Mellon hoped that the newly official US Customs videos would spur the Pentagon toward greater transparency itself.

Mellon noted that these mysterious UFO videos highlight ‘the challenges we are facing monitoring and controlling our airspace.’ 

He cited both last February’s infamous Chinese spy balloon affair (and still-as-yet-unidentified UAP), and ‘of course the explosion of drone use around the world,’ as examples of the new threats to US sovereignty posed by the weak official reporting and widespread stigma surrounding unidentified aerial phenomena.

‘I hope that the Defense Department and [US] Intelligence Community are paying attention,’ Mellon told NBC. 

‘They have many videos that are of a similar, unclassified nature,’ he noted, ‘or were, until they — out of nowhere — created this new classification guide.’ 

Echoing comments by Grusch on the legality of the Pentagon’s actions, Mellon went on to express the opinion that the DoD’s new and more expansive classification standards for its own UAP or UFO videos might not be ‘lawful.’ 

‘I don’t think that’s consistent with the executive order governing classification,’ the former intelligence official said. ‘But they are withholding a lot of similar kinds of videos from the public on that basis.’ 

 

 

Let’s be honest. Most phone hardware upgrades aren’t worth the money. Sure, it’s a little faster, and the camera is better, but that doesn’t mean much for most people.

Especially when you consider the price, rumor has it that when Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max (with 2TB of storage) is announced in mid-September, it’s expected to cost $2,100. Yes, the high-end iPhone costs about 60 percent more than a MacBook.

Software upgrades, on the other hand, are free. Apple’s iOS 17 update includes many new changes and features you won’t want to miss. 

DailyMail.com rounded up five of our favorites — and how to upgrade now if you don’t want to wait until the September release.

Just checking in

Asking your loved ones to text you when they get home is so yesterday. With Apple’s new Check In feature enabled, you’ll automatically be notified when a family member or friend gets to their destination safely.

Check In also shares your pal’s location, how much battery they have left and whether or not they have good cell service. 

Apple says all of this info is end-to-end encrypted, so no worries about a creep getting their hands on it.

Tech tricks and tips to your inbox: Get my pro advice, totally free.

Coming to you live

If you’re over a certain age, you definitely remember old-school voicemail machines — the kind that let you pick up the phone in the middle of the message if you decided the call was worth answering. 

Apple’s bringing that back with the Live Voicemail feature.

Live Voicemail transcribes the message in real time and lets you take the call.

Every transcription is stored on your device and private so you don’t have to worry about where your voicemails go.

One of the best parts is that spam calls are automatically declined and won’t appear as Live Voicemail. Woohoo!

Will your phone get the update? Not every model supports iOS 17. Check here to see if your iPhone is eligible.

Drop me a line

AirDrop makes sharing photos with a nearby iPhone or Apple device easy. 

Now, Apple’s taking things to the next level with NameDrop. 

This feature replaces clunky business cards by allowing users to share contact information by bringing two iPhones (or an iPhone and an Apple Watch) together.

NameDrop isn’t just for networking events. The feature also includes SharePlay, where you can easily share your favorite music, games and movies with other iPhone users nearby. Pretty sweet.

Listen up

Love your AirPods? This one’s for you. The new iOS update includes a bunch of new features to personalize the audio experience and improve Automatic Switching and call controls.

● Adaptive Audio allows you to adjust the volume of whatever you’re listening to based on your surroundings and interactions.

● Conversation Awareness automatically lowers the volume of your music and cuts down on background noise when it detects a nearby conversation.

● Personalized Volume gets to know about you and your preferences to keep your volume settings where you like them.

It’s personal

With the personalized Contact Poster feature, you can customize your image and change the look of incoming calls from friends and family. 

You’ll also have access to upgraded typography and font colors. 

It’s way better than just one little picture to show you who’s calling.

Get it before everyone else

You can update to iOS 17 immediately if you’re willing to be a beta tester. Keep in mind beta software may still have some bugs and glitches. This far into the process, iOS 17 is pretty close to being optimized.

● Sign up for the Apple Beta Software Program on Apple’s website.

● Backup your device on iCloud or your computer.

● Go to Settings > General > Software Update.

● Look for a menu called Beta Updates and enable it.

● Select iOS 17 Public Beta and install.

Don’t forget to back up your phone before you install the beta version software. You can switch to your last backup if things get extra buggy on your testing journey.

The Director of National Intelligence on Friday released to Congress their long-awaited report into Intelligence Community conclusions about the origins of COVID-19, and their assessment of the ‘lab leak’ theory. 

In March, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill to declassify intelligence on the origins of COVID-19.

The DNI’s 10-page report did not provide any fresh conclusions as to the Wuhan lab, and shows the various agencies are divided as to the origin of the pandemic.

The Department of Energy, which oversees biological research labs in the U.S., concluded with ‘low confidence’ in February of this year that the virus most likely came from a lab in Wuhan. The FBI concluded the same with moderate confidence. 

The National Intelligence Council and four other agencies disagree, saying the pandemic likely begun naturally. 

The CIA, meanwhile, is on the fence and has been unable to say with certainty how it begun, given repeated blocks imposed by the Chinese authorities. 

‘The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency remain unable to determine the precise origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, as both hypotheses rely on significant assumptions or face challenges with conflicting reporting,’ the report states.

The Intelligence Community (IC) was asked to explore ‘whether the first human infection with SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—was the result of natural exposure to an infected animal or a laboratory-associated incident.’

The report states that both natural exposure and lab leak could be the source of the outbreak, and none of the U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded definitively how the pandemic begun.

‘All agencies continue to assess that both a natural and laboratory-associated origin remain plausible hypotheses to explain the first human infection,’ the report says.

The report notes that the Wuhan lab did work with the Chinese army on bioweapons programs.

Scientists in the lab were employed from 2017-19 ‘to enhance China’s knowledge of pathogens and early disease warning capabilities for defensive and biosecurity needs of the military.’

The report notes, however, that they have not found any evidence that COVID-19 was manufactured by the lab technicians.

‘Prior to the pandemic, we assess WIV scientists conducted extensive research on coronaviruses, which included animal sampling and genetic analysis,’ the report says. 

‘We continue to have no indication that the WIV’s pre-pandemic research holdings included SARSCoV-2 or a close progenitor, nor any direct evidence that a specific research-related incident occurred involving WIV personnel before the pandemic that could have caused the COVID pandemic.’

The DNI noted that the lab had one of the world’s largest collections of bat samples, and has worked with pangolins and mice, among others, to study coronaviruses.

The lab worked to genetically alter the viruses. 

But they do not believe that COVID-19 resulted from their experimentation.

‘We assess that some scientists at the WIV have genetically engineered coronaviruses using common laboratory practices,’ the report states. 

‘The IC has no information, however, indicating that any WIV genetic engineering work has involved SARS-CoV-2, a close progenitor, or a backbone virus that is closely-related enough to have been the source of the pandemic.’

The DNI did say there was concern about the safety protocols in the lab, although they could not definitively say that lax safety caused a lab leak.

‘Some WIV researchers probably did not use adequate biosafety precautions at least some of the time prior to the pandemic in handling SARS-like coronaviruses, increasing the risk of accidental exposure to viruses,’ the report says. 

‘Before the pandemic, the WIV had been working to improve at least some biosafety conditions and training. 

‘We do not know of a specific biosafety incident at the WIV that spurred the pandemic and the WIV’s biosafety training appears routine, rather than an emergency response by China’s leadership.’

The report points to ‘a need to update aging equipment, a need for additional disinfectant equipment, and improvements to ventilation systems.’

The DNI report discusses illnesses among scientists working at the lab in the fall of 2019, with symptoms similar to COVID.

But again they say the evidence is not definitive either way.

‘Several WIV researchers were ill in Fall 2019 with symptoms; some of their symptoms were consistent with but not diagnostic of COVID-19. 

‘The IC continues to assess that this information neither supports nor refutes either hypothesis of the pandemic’s origins because the researchers’ symptoms could have been caused by a number of diseases and some of the symptoms were not consistent with COVID-19.’

San Francisco’s DA has released graphic footage of a Walgreens security guard shooting dead a transgender shoplifter – and said she will not charge him because he was in ‘mortal danger’.

Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, 33, was working at the drugstore in the downtown area on April 27 when he shot unarmed Banko Brown, 24. A murder charge against Anthony was dropped after the DA ruled the killing was self-defense.

Graphic surveillance footage released on Monday shows Brown holding a bag as he walks toward the store exit. Anthony steps in his path, confronts him about allegedly stealing from the store, which leads to a scuffle before Brown is shot. 

His death sparked outrage across the Bay Area, but despite this, DA Brooke Jenkins’ office announced on Monday they were not pressing charges against Anthony.

The surveillance footage shows Brown in a white T-shirt and gray sweatpants, walking out of the store, when the confrontation between him and the security guard unfolds. 

Anthony is able to pin Brown to the ground, but then lets him go and Brown walks out of the store, still clutching his bag. 

More words are exchanged and then Brown appears to move slightly forward with his arms out, then backs up just as Anthony shoots him. 

Brown collapses on the sidewalk outside the store and a crowd of people gather around him. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he later died. 

Anthony was originally booked on suspicion of murder the day after the shooting, but then released without charge after the District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Anthony was in ‘mortal danger’ and ‘acted in self-defense.’

In the report released on Monday, the DA citied ‘insufficient evidence’ that his actions equated to a murder or manslaughter charge. Instead, the evidence showed Anthony was ‘sincerely afraid,’ the DA’s office said. 

‘All of this evidence strongly suggests that Anthony firing at Brown in self-defense was objectively reasonable,’ the office’s report reads. 

The report also notes that that Anthony claimed Brown had repeatedly threatened to stab him. However, investigators found no knife at the scene or on Brown, the SF chronicle reported. 

Protests had already began following the decision to drop the charges against Anthony last week and at a meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, activists held up signs reading ‘Justice for Banko Brown’. 

One protestor, who identified herself as Lia McGeever, erupted into a scream over the death of Brown, who was homeless and an intern with the Young Women’s Freedom Center.

She said: ‘I hate a lot of people on this board for the reasons that led up to Banko Brown’s death.

Speaking to The San Francisco Standard , Anthony said: ‘[I’m] still dealing with it, still don’t understand and don’t have the time to reflect.

‘It’s not like I go through this many times. This is a very life-changing matter.’

Anthony pointed to the pressure that security guards are under during these types of confrontations, saying: ‘This is important for more people to be more aware of,’ he said. It was happening too frequently.

‘It’s a lot to deal with. It’s a lot of pressure. A person can only take so much. When you are limited to certain options, something will happen.’

‘Who has my back? Nobody. You are left with no support. It’s a frightening feeling with a lot of people around you.’ 

Last week, a group of community activists gathered outside the Walgreens in downtown San Francisco for a vigil to honor Brown’s memory. 

Many local residents have since left floral tributes and candles in memory of Brown.

In a social media post, the Young Women’s Freedom Center wrote: ‘Our community stands strong together in the face of tragedy.

‘In times like these, we show up for each other and we fight for our folks, especially for our siblings that are taken from us way too soon.

‘Thank you to every voice that has spoken, every foot that has marched, and every fist raised in solidarity.’

The incident comes after a number of major chains announced they would be shuttering stores in San Francisco due to soaring crime figures.

Retailers including Nordstrom, Whole Foods, Office Depot and Anthropologie have all said they would be pulling out of the city.

Nordstrom chief stores officer Jamie Nordstrom blamed the state of San Francisco in recent years for reducing foot traffic ‘and our ability to operate successfully.’

Remaining stores like Target have been reduced to locking up their entire stock behind glass to deter shoplifters.