Not every new feature announced by Apple is available in all countries. For example, in the EU, this applies to Apple Intelligence, which is not scheduled to officially appear until April. But other features such as the widely heralded hearing aid function for the AirPods Pro 2, which was recently added to the earbuds via a firmware update, are also missing in some regions of the world. Three users from India, where the function has not yet been activated, have now, according to their own statements, developed a very special way to “help their grandmother.”
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Like Ritwik Jaisimha, Arnav Bansal and Ritwik Vibhu Report on SubstackOne of them bought AirPods Pro 2 only to discover India Not in supported countries yet heard. To this end, Apple is implementing a geo-blocking system that is apparently multi-tiered. There is a GET endpoint that determines the country via the server gspe1-ssl.ls.apple.com, the Apple Store region is queried (India prohibited) and obviously the device region and possibly also time zone and language settings. . Apple also appears to use GPS queries and mobile network queries (MCC/MNC).
To activate the hearing aid function, the group used an iPad with WiFi, which does not require mobile communication. This was then packed into a (simplified) Faraday cage. In addition, there was a WLAN spoofer in the form of an ESP32, which sent SSIDs to the iPad from California (and was in a Faraday cage), and an attempt to manipulate the endpoint in question through a proxy and through “US” Was done in place of “IN”. place. After all these tricks it was finally possible to unlock the hearing aid function; It remained usable even after activation.
New MR games for Vision Pro: “Gears and Goo” and “Little Cities”maybe there is an easier way
The efforts are reminiscent of a similar “hack” by Apple Intelligence to unlock AI systems in the EU. Apple initially imposed strict restrictions here too, but they were eventually simplified – an App Store account from the USA with the appropriate language setting of US English is now sufficient. Here, too, the only solution was an iPad with WiFi (and without 5G) – as well as a WiFi hotspot with an SSID that Apple’s geodatabase couldn’t (yet) know.
Also, with set-up you had to go to an area where there were no other WiFi networks so the device couldn’t assign the location. By the way, the Faraday cage is not at all necessary for this: iPads with WLAN only still do not have GPS, the location is determined completely wifi and bluetooth,
(B.Sc.)
New MR games for Vision Pro: “Gears and Goo” and “Little Cities”
