Apple is adding some great new features to iOS 17. Standby turns a charging iPhone into a smart display when turned to landscape orientation. With the update, users will be able to create their their own Contact Posters which show up on the recipient’s phone when they make a call. Live Voicemail gives you a transcription of a voicemail being left as it is happening in real-time. If you see that the call is of interest, you can quickly connect to it.
The update to iOS 17 will arrive in September for the iPhone XS and later models. It will also include a new iMessage feature that will alert you when a friend or family member reaches their destination safely.
According to MacRumors, another new feature coming to iOS 17 will allow an iPhone user to reset a newly submitted passcode with the previously used passcode if done within 72 hours of the change. For example, let’s say that you change your iPhone’s passcode but forget the new one. You still have 72 hours to use the old passcode, assuming you remember what that one was, to create another new passcode.
Here is how it works. Let’s say you type in what you think is the new passcode, but it is wrong. Tapping on “Forgot Passcode?” will take you to another screen that has a “Try Passcode Reset” option. Tapping on that link will take you to another page which will allow you to enter the previous passcode and then create yet another new one. As is typical whenever Apple and Google add a feature dealing with security like this, extra thought was given to how to develop it.
For example, going to Settings > Face ID & Passcode will take you to an option that reads “Expire Previous Passcode Now.” This will allow you to cancel the previous passcode so that it can’t be used by a phone thief to change the passcode on your iPhone. This is important because as of iOS 17 DP1, an Apple ID account password can still be changed using an iPhone passcode.
This could be a huge security issue because of those bad actors who spy on you when you are entering your iPhone passcode, get away with your device, and change your Apple ID password. Apple software engineering chief Craig Federighi stated on Jon Gruber’s Daring Fireball podcast last week that Apple continues to “look at other ways to address this.”
While sometimes you can’t help it if your phone is stolen, you can reduce the odds of having someone running off with your device by refusing to lend it to a stranger. Yes, this could be rather selfish, but these days if you don’t have physical control of your handset, you could have your entire bank account wiped out.
