Apple will pay (some) for stepping on bugs

[Xairbusdriver]

Actually heard about this on NPR last week! Not my normal "Apple news" source. Here is a blog that provides some details about the program that is currently limited to iOS and iCloud.

Thoughts on Apple’s Bug Bounty Program
by TidBITS Security Editor Rich Mogull

[Xairbusdriver]

Apple not offering enough? How about $500,000?

The initial Zero-Day hitlist includes maximum bounties of US$500,000 for Apple iOS exploits and US$125,000 for Microsoft Edge exploits.
<Exodus Intelligence Announces New Acquisition Program
for Both Zero-Day and N-Day Vulnerabilities in iOS>

[Dreambird]

Interesting... I'm wondering if I ought to upgrade my iPad3 to iOS 9.3.4 now? It's been out some time so I was hoping it would have some of the bugs worked out.

I'm still running iOS 8.x.x something... I don't want to run into the situation where iOS 9 is put away and iOS 10 comes out because I'm not sure my iPad will be up to running that much properly. I don't want it to turn into a slow brick!  

Perhaps, Jim you might have an idea how I could archive the version I have now in case needed... or even how to use it... these days once you update the iPad you are generally stuck with it.

[Xairbusdriver]

I installed 9.3.4 a couple of weeks ago on our iPhones 6's and a couple of iPads (mine is a version 2, I think). No problems that I can see.

Only way I know of "archiving" anything on an iDevice is iTunes. Use the "Manually Back Up and Restore  function to... uhm... manually backup the device to your own computer. You can then ... uhmn .. Restore from that backup... from your own computer.

Some apps, like 1Password, can use Dropbox for your data syncing and backup. BTW, they now have a $3/mon subscription method that allows all devices to use an encrypted transfer to their own well protected servers. That option is optional, they will still be selling licenses when major updates come out.

[Dreambird]

OK... I'll look into the Dropbox idea then...  

The backups of the device on my computer won't allow you to back up to a previous version of iOS... found that out when I got 8 a little too soon and hated it until a couple of updates came out. Either that or I didn't do something right but it was my understanding... that... "no can do!"   Even restoring from Time Machine... nope, it put all the new junk back in. I tried that one with iTunes once.

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

OK... I'll look into the Dropbox idea then...  notworthy.gif

Dropbox is used by some apps (like 1Password) to back up their own data. It is can not be used, as far as I know, to backup any iDevice nor the iOS

QUOTE

The backups of the device on my computer won't allow you to back up to a previous version of iOS.

iOS 8 did have a bad bug in it, but Apple created a way to downgrade back to 7.x. 8.0.2 fixed the bug.

Well, you can't wait too long. Apple 'disallows' a previous iOS from being installed after a certain period of time (times may vary, but it seems to be ~2 weeks). Some have stated that the key is finding a "iOS x.y.z IPSW restore file" file on your hard drive.

Time Machine does not back up anything from any iDevice, that I know of. Of course, if you'd like to JailBreak your phone, you might be able to access its files system and even make TM think its just another hard drive...

[Dreambird]

Those files "used" to be so easy to find... they aren't where they should be that I can find now. However... there are sites like this:
http://osxdaily.com/tag/ipsw/page/2/