Teen Charged with Hacking in to Apple Servers, Stealing Files

A teenager from Melbourne, Australia, has been arrested for hacking in to Apple’s servers, making off with over 90 GB of files, and accessing customer accounts. Apparently the boy developed a system that «worked flawlessly» until he was caught. The Sydney Morning Herald said,

His offending from the age of 16 saw him develop computerised tunnels and online bypassing systems to hide his identity until a raid on his family home uncovered a litany of hacking files and instructions all saved in a folder titled ‘hacky hack hack.’

Aside from the poor life choice of heading down a path of international crime, the boy’s big mistake was bragging online about what he did. Lessons learned: Don’t break federal laws and hack into company servers, and don’t tell anyone if you do.

Check Out Apple's Giant Cafeteria Doors Opening

Apple’s new campus is pretty impressive, and even things like opening the cafeteria doors is something worth watching. In this case, it’s because the doors are multi-story tall glass panels that slide out of the way to expose the dining area to nature. Apple CEO Tim Cook shared a GIF on Twitter showing the doors in action. Check it out!

Kids Can Drown While Parents Immersed in Smartphone

The article’s opening paragraph puts it bluntly. «The world’s largest lifeguard organization claims there’s a direct link between child drownings and the smartphones parents hold in their hands.» Parents know that kids under 4 must be watched like a hawk, especially around water. Or do they?

Maybe Wi-Fi Could Replace Invasive TSA Body Searches

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been groped by the TSA. A team of researchers claim that ordinary Wi-Fi can detect weapons and explosives, and maybe it could replace TSA body searches.

The team behind the research tested 15 types of objects and six types of bags. The wi-fi system had success rates of 99% for recognizing dangerous objects, 98% for metal and 95% for liquids. When objects were wrapped inside bags, the accuracy rate dropped to about 90%. The system works by analyzing what happens when wireless signals penetrate and bounce off objects and materials.

The Right to Disconnect From Work

In France, the right to disconnect from work has been solidified into law. In the El Khomri law, every employee contract must include a negotiation of obligations required of an employee regarding how connected they are outside of office hours.

A new study has found you may be suffering from excessive stress and anxiety about work expectations even if you don’t actively check work emails in your off-hours. The mere expectation of being in contact 24/7 is enough to increase strain for employees and their families, the new research suggests. In today’s ultra-connected world, with many people often getting work emails sent to their smartphones, a growing number of countries and companies are endorsing «right to disconnect» laws, recreating a much-needed boundary between work and home.

WALTR 2: $19

We have a deal on WALTR 2, an app that lets you manage the content on your iOS device from your Mac or Windows device. It will handle some file conversions, too. Check out the promo video below. You can get WALTR 2 for $19 through us. There’s a deal on the Windows version on the page, too.

YouPorn AI Generated a List of Future Porn Star Names (SFW)

Last year, YouPorn Foresights used AI to predict what the most popular search terms would be in porn. This year the company did something similar. The data science and machine learning teams trained a recurrent neural network to look at the current most popular performer names, and have now created what science has predicted that the next generation of stars will call themselves. There are 69 names, both male and female, and the results are hilarious. As you would expect from AI, the names sound weird and goofy. My favorite names from the list are Man Master, Al Gorr (obviously my future kid), Summer Sax, and Paris Buttomina. It’s a safe-for-work list that you can check out here.

Sarah Jones, Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman Cast in Ronald D. Moore's Apple Sci-fi Series

Sarah Jones, Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman are joining the cast of Ronald D. Moore’s sci-fi series for Apple. Variety says,

Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman, and Sarah Jones have all been cast in the series, which takes place in a world where global space race never ended. Kinnaman will play Edward Baldwin, one of the top NASA astronauts. Dorman and Jones have been cast as Gordo and Tracy Stevens, a prominent NASA couple.

Apple is lining up what looks like a power house of shows with big names writing and producing, as well as very talented actors. The first shows are expected to start rolling out some time in 2019, and I’m really looking forward to see how they stack up against Netflix and Amazon original content.

We Shoot Lightning Into Rocks and Metal to Create iPhones

Wired offers a fascinating behind-the-scenes article about the «ultra-pure, super-secret sand» we use to create iPhones.

Spruce Pine, it turns out, is the source of the purest natural quartz—a species of pristine sand—ever found on Earth. This ultra‑elite deposit of silicon dioxide particles plays a key role in manufacturing the silicon used to make computer chips. In fact, there’s an excellent chance the chip that makes your laptop or cell phone work…