iTunes Music Bug Victim gets Personal Visit from Apple   James Pinkstone blogged a week or so ago about how his personal iTunes music library was wiped away by Apple Music, and his Apple support call led him to believe that was simply how the streaming music service worked. Sign up, and Apple Music blasts…

Apple isn't anti-spy detection, it's anti-developer guideline violation Mr. Esser said his app was rejected for providing “potentially inaccurate and diagnostic functionality,” which sounds rather ominous. He said on Twitter this was Apple's way of shielding users from knowing iOS could potentially have security holes. Here. It basically says: we do not want our users…

iTunes bug fixes won't be enough to make users happy Apple told iMore, In an extremely small number of cases users have reported that music files saved on their computer were removed without their permission. We're taking these reports seriously as we know how important music is to our customers and our teams are focused…

Don't get me wrong. I'm not entirely sold on this notion myself. In fact, I'll play devil's advocate in a bit, but I find the idea compelling and interesting. Skating to the puck On Thursday evening, news broke that Apple had invested US$1 billion into Chinese ride sharing giant Didi. I posted a piece earlier…

The comments came during an interview at TechCrunch's Disrupt this week, where General Hayden spoke about a wide ranging series of topics relating to national security, politics as related to national security, and encryption—Jeff Gamet and I discussed his interview during this week's Apple Context Machine. Here's the interview in full: Former NSA and CIA…

There are several problems here. There's a definite movement by Apple's customers away from purchasing and towards streaming music. While the article facts may be in question, you can see for yourself the projected trend in music downloads. Managing and backing up a music library in itself is a chore. iTunes bugs and opacity into…

There was a time, perhaps 20 years ago, when our computers didn't have a lot of supporting infrastructure. We knew they were powerful tools, and there was a sense that they would become instrumental in our lives. But lacking the Internet and modern video capabilities, we were left with the idea that as we prepared…

Internet of Things devices offer almost no security protections A Disrupt New York 2016 panel said the fact that so many devices collect information about us poses a serious privacy risk because data could be intercepted, and also creates enticing targets for criminals, hackers, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies around the world. “It's a field…

Episode #173   Last month I spent nine days in Germany as a guest of Germany Trade & Invest, the foreign trade and investment agency of the Federal Republic of Germany. The theme for our visit was Industry 4.0, a worldwide initiative (conceived in Germany) to develop standards and protocols to integrate the Internet of…

New warrant rules give DOJ sweeping computer surveillance powers The changes where made at the Department of Justice's request and are part of what's known as Rule 41. Unless Congress overrides them, they will go into effect on December 1. The key change states: A magistrate judge with authority in any district where activities related…

Warrant let FBI use suspect's finger to unlock iPhone Paytsar Bkhchadzhyan was arrested in late February, and only 45 minutes later FBI agents had a warrant in hand compelling her to place her finger on her iPhone's Touch ID sensor to unlock the device. Considering how quickly the warrant was obtained, the FBI probably assumed…

Let's get this out of the way right up front: The SolarTab is the best solution I've seen for using solar energy to charge your gear in the wild. The problem is, with the ubiquity of cheap, high-capacity external batteries, I'd pretty much written off solar chargers as obsolete. But more on that later. A…

I chose that wording with care, because I'm not saying he's right, I'm saying he isn't wrong. There's a difference, and in that difference Mr. Icahn demonstrated how he has amassed a fortune worth billions. To that end, look at how much money Carl Icahn made in his three year investment in $AAPL—more than US$2…

House of Representatives bill reaffirms the Constitution is still here

CareKit apps hit the App Store CareKit is an open source platform from Apple developers can use to create apps that let users track and manage medical conditions. Users can track medications, symptoms, and more, and share that data with their doctor—assuming your doctor has made the move to the digital age. Glow Nurture and…

I noticed something interesting during Apple's quarterly conference call with analysts on Tuesday: during opening remarks, Tim Cook was working hard to sell the message that Apple is doing well despite turning in a “challenging” quarter. I've never noticed Tim Cook trying to sell it during a call, but then I heard something else that…

To set this up, first select the range of cells you’d like to apply your formatting to.  Make sure the “Format” pane is open, but if you don’t see that sidebar on the right, click “Format” in your toolbar. Then under the “Cell” tab, you’ll see the “Data Format” drop-down. Under that drop-down, you have…

Backstory On February 9th, President Obama issued an Executive Order, the “COMMISSION ON ENHANCING NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY.” Section 3 describes the mission. Mission and Work. The Commission will make detailed recommendations to strengthen cybersecurity in both the public and private sectors while protecting privacy, ensuring public safety and economic and national security, fostering discovery and development…

“Your papers and smartphone, please.” To say that I'm awash in a sea of mixed emotions is an understatement, but there's almost nothing I like about what we know so far. My biggest concern is that the makers of the Textalyzer technology itself—whatever the heck it is—are backing the bill, and the company is draping…

The “Mark 1” Android.  Image credit: Reuters. The Particle Debris standout article of the week is from Wired. “The Scarlett Johansson Bot Is the Robotic Future of Objectifying Women.” For reference, here's the original article via Reuters Building a humanoid Hollywood star. One might think the Wired piece is a overly sensational article, but it's based…

I think another, perhaps larger group are folks who aren’t happy about the net increase in price of Smile’s TextExpander with the new subscription model. Depending upon how you do the math, it’s reasonable to presume that the new version of TextExpander will cost you double what you paid before without offering you any new features…

Before we get started, note that I don’t really recommend writing down your passwords. If you’re the type of person who feels comfortable putting those in your home safe, more power to you, but I prefer knowing my passwords and other critical data are in an encrypted database like the one 1Password offers. So when…