Apple Daily Report for February 23, 2017

The AWT News Update is on hiatus while my compadre, Steve, takes a trip. In its place, I’ll offer a text-only (no podcast) summary of breaking stories with a tip o’ my hat to my former website, Apple Daily Report.

Earlier this year, FORBES revealed a search warrant that allowed police to walk into a building and unlock all phones inside that could be opened with a fingerprint, including iPhones with Apple’s famous TouchID feature. And now, in what may be a landmark decision, a federal court in Illinois has determined that feds could not proceed with such a search, saying the government needed to be more specific about the devices and data they wanted, according to Forbes.

In related news Cellebrite —the firm thought to be responsible for helping the FBI extract data from the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook — says it’s doing “lawful unlocking and evidence extraction” from Apple devices through the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, according to the company’s Forensics Research director.

In a statement to Axios, an unnamed Apple spokesman decried Trump’s decision to withdraw guidelines covering the use of public school bathrooms by transgender students. The recommendations date back to the Obama administration and urge schools to grant transgender students the right to use bathroom facilities designated for the gender to which they identify. 

According to a new report, Apple plans to continue its slow Latin America expansion with a new store in Argentina. The store comes following Apple’s first Latin American store in Brazil 3 years ago, which was followed by a new store in Mexico City last year.