Besides updating its line of iMacs, Apple has quietly made MacBook Pro SSD upgrades more affordable.
2TB and 4TB SSD upgrade options for 13 and 15-inch machines are now more affordable, with Apple dropping prices as much as $400. Upgrading to 2TB of storage on the 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models is now $200 cheaper, while upgrading to 4TB on the 15-inch MacBook Pro is $400 cheaper.
Bandersnatch, the interactive Black Mirror movie on Netflix, was something of a hit. Viewers could pick the narrative path they went down. However, the Register reported on research that showed the data about choices could be snooped on using network packet analysis. Indeed, the scientists behind the research claims that they successfully determined what choice users made 96% of the time.
When viewers watching the video choose one of the two narrative paths at various branch points in the story, that information gets sent back to Netflix to display the appropriate video segment. And it turns out to be possible to discern which branch each viewer took through network packet analysis. In a paper just released through pre-print service ArXiv, “White Mirror: Leaking Sensitive Information from Interactive Netflix Movies using Encrypted Traffic Analysis,” a handful of the institute’s computer scientists show that story choices – sent from the viewer’s browser to Netflix via a JSON file – can be inferred despite the encryption of network traffic.
The Flexgate issue – whereby the ribbon cable that connects the body of some MacBook Pros to their display wears down too quickly, was revealed in January 2019 by iFixit. It seems to be a design flaw. These things happen. However, there has been frustration among users at Apple’s reaction. On The Verge, Vlad Savov said it is time for the company to acknowledge and deal with the issue.
A petition, now numbering more than 15,000, would beg to differ. It calls for Apple to publicly recognize Flexgate as a design flaw, and to commit to repair all MacBook Pro laptops affected by it. I think that’s exactly what Apple should do, and it’s no less than we should expect from a company that touts its reliability and user satisfaction numbers any chance it gets. No one should have to pay upwards of $500 to replace an entire display just because Apple (a) decided to affix a fragile cable to one of the most expensive components in its MacBook Pro, and (b) miscalculated the necessary length of that cable in its first design.
This year is GarageBand’s 15th birthday, and Rolling Stone wrote a great article on how it changed how musicians created their art.
In the first media visit Apple has ever allowed to its under-the-radar Music Apps studio, the team of engineers showed Rolling Stone how the creation process for Garageband’s two types of sounds — synthetic and “real” — can span weeks or sometimes months per instrument, with new hurdles at every turn.
At ZDNet, Chris Matyszczyk, recounts his discussion with a former Apple store manager. Described are the three eras of the Apple retail stores, starting with the “golden age” under SVP Ron Johnson. After Johnson left Apple, in this employee’s opinion, the experience went vastly down hill. It’s just one ex-employee’s view. but fascinating reading nevertheless.
LONDON- Apple’s March 25th “It’s Showtime” event looks like it is going to be a bit different from normal tech-company shows. The Times of London reported that Hollywood A-Listers like Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Oprah Winfrey, who is producing a show for Apple, could attend. It is just another element of the firm’s battle for streaming supremacy with the likes of Netflix.
The iPhone maker is ramping up the star power to support its long-awaited push into the entertainment business. For nearly two years Apple executives have been signing up the cream of Tinseltown on lucrative contracts for its on-demand TV and movie service. Next Monday, Apple will explain how it plans to dethrone Netflix and Amazon, the largest players in paid-for video streaming. It may also unveil a subscription news and magazine service, sources said.
In June 2018, Steve Hardigree awoke to find that his marketing firm, Exactis, was at the centre of a massive data leak. In fact, his company had accidentally exposed the personal records of almost everyone in the U.S. Mr. Hardigree spoke to Wired, who broke the news originally, about what is was like to be at the center of data scandal.
The ordeal has been a grueling lesson for Hardigree, who says that he’s learned the hard way how much even a tiny firm like his has to prioritize security. “Be careful with your data, and be careful with the people who manage your data,” Hardigree says. “I hired some guys that were careless. But at the end of the day it’s the CEO who’s responsible. I take responsibility.”
There have been a number of amazing stories about how an Apple Watch alerted users to a heart condition, saving their life. Results from a large Apple-funded study, presented Saturday at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology, backed-up the company’s healthcare claims. Reuters reported that the study found that 84% of irregular heart pulse notifications sent by the Apple Watch were confirmed as episodes of atrial fibrillation. Furthermore, 57% of participants who received such an alert on went and sought medical attention.
Of the 400,000 participants, 0.5 percent, or about 2,000 subjects, received notifications of an irregular pulse. Those people were sent an ECG (electrocardiography) patch to wear for subsequent detection of atrial fibrillation episodes. A third of those whose watches detected an irregular pulse were confirmed to have atrial fibrillation using the ECG technology, researchers said. Some 84 percent of the irregular pulse notifications were later confirmed to have been AF episodes, data showed.
Writing for ZDNet, Chris Matyszczyk thinks Apple’s latest privacy ad is a joke. He was expecting a serious message about privacy and thinks the video was too superficial.
We’re offered scenes from everyday life, in which people assert their need not to have their conversations overheard, yet they’re played for comedy. There are times when you need to lock strangers — or teachers or even members of your family — out of your personal life.
In my opinion, that’s exactly why I think the ad was great. Most non-tech people don’t want or don’t understand conversations about encryption, open-source, VPNs, etc. Non-tech people are still using Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram despite the awful things Facebook does. Non-tech people are who Apple makes products for.
Brian Krebs wrote a good article on how our phone numbers have become security and authentication tools, and thus closely tied to our identity. But there’s a problem with that.
Phone numbers stink for security and authentication. They stink because most of us have so much invested in these digits that they’ve become de facto identities. At the same time, when you lose control over a phone number — maybe it’s hijacked by fraudsters, you got separated or divorced, or you were way late on your phone bill payments — whoever inherits that number can then be you in a lot of places online.
We have a cool device for today’s deal, the GOSPACE SuperCharger. It can charge up to four devices at once, with two USB charging ports, a USB-C charging port, and built-in Qi wireless charging. It plugs into the wall with a replaceable plug, and it comes with a US, UK, EU, and Australian plug, too. AND, it has a built-in 10,000mAh battery for charging things on the go. That’s a great combo of features, especially if you have a mix of Apple devices that use different charging cables. It’s $44.99 through our deal, but coupon code MADNESS15 brings it down to $38.24 at checkout.
Facebook is in a bit of a dilemma when it comes to news. Back in November it launched a feature called Today In, which would give people local news in their area. But the company is having trouble filling Today In with enough news, and this is because Facebook is a big contributor to the demise of news.
Today In may be live in 400 cities, but it’s unavailable across large parts of the country that perhaps most need it, namely, those with few or no local newspapers. Of course, Facebook contributed heavily to death of so many local news outlets as a large portion of advertising spending shifted from legacy media to the web, leading to dwindling newspaper revenue. Facebook isn’t the only reason hundreds of outlets have bitten the dust. Consolidation and mergers have played a role, but the likes of Facebook and Google have certainly been key factors.
I’ve used iNaturalist for a couple years and think it’s a great tool. Two features that help the app stand out from competitors are 1: The machine learning it uses. Once you take a picture, it can automatically suggest what species you’re looking at. 2: With every photo you upload and tag with location and other metadata, you’re contributing to real science. iNaturalist shares data with scientific data repositories like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
The app is a joint initiative between The California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society and works sort of like a Shazam for Nature in that it lets you snap a shot of something you come across and instantly get an answer for what that planet, animal, or bug might be.
We have a deal on the Mixvibes DJ Software Bundle. This package includes three apps for Mac (and Windows) aimed at DJs: Cross DJ, Remixvideo, and Remixlive. Together, they can help DJs mix music, mix videos, and create beats and loops. This bundle is $49 through us.
Beto O’Rourke is a Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential race. In a recent interview he revealed he was part of the Cult of the Dead Cow, the oldest hacking group in the U.S.
The hugely influential Cult of the Dead Cow, jokingly named after an abandoned Texas slaughterhouse, is notorious for releasing tools that allowed ordinary people to hack computers running Microsoft’s Windows. It’s also known for inventing the word “hacktivism” to describe human-rights-driven security work.
Roger Fingas put together a brief guide to watching the 2019 March Madness tournament on your Apple devices.
For college basketball fans, the NCAA’s March Madness tournament is nigh — 2019’s games run March 19 through Apr. 8. Here’s how to follow along on an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV if you’re not watching on cable or satellite.
Reports suggest that a Snapchat gaming platform will launch next month, which is currently codenamed Project Cognac.
The new games initiative will be unveiled at Snap’s first-ever summit for content and developer partners in Los Angeles on April 4, the person said, adding that video initiatives like more original shows will also be announced. An invitation to the event that was seen by Cheddar includes the tagline, “Less talk. More play.” — a nod to the gaming platform.
Everyone seems to be trying to conquer gaming now. Facebook, Apple, Google, and now Snap.
A federal judge recently ruled that Qualcomm owes Apple almost US$1B in patent royalty rebate payments.
Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California on Thursday ruled that Qualcomm, the world’s biggest supplier of mobile phone chips, was obligated to pay nearly $1 billion in rebate payments to Apple, which for years used Qualcomm’s modem chips to connect iPhones to wireless data networks.
Both Facebook and YouTube moved to delete footage of the terror attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, that resulted in the deaths of 49 Muslim worshipers in 2 mosques on Friday. Parts of the attack were live-streamed over the two platforms. CNET reported that Facebook had removed unverified footage and praise for the shooting. YouTube made a similar commitment in a tweet from its official twitter account.
Facebook told CNET it had removed the unverified footage and was also pulling down “praise or support” posts for the shootings. “New Zealand Police alerted us to a video on Facebook shortly after the livestream commenced and we removed both the shooter’s Facebook account and the video,” said Mia Garlick, a Facebook representative in New Zealand. “We’re also removing any praise or support for the crime and the shooter or shooters as soon as we’re aware. We will continue working directly with New Zealand Police as their response and investigation continues.
Tesla unveiled its latest vehicle Friday, the Model Y. The Verge reported that CEO Elon Musk bragged that despite being SUV-like, the vehicle “will ride like a sports car.” It will be available in the fall of 2020, with prices starting at $47,000.
“It has the functionality of an SUV, but it will ride like a sports car,” Musk said. “So this thing will be really tight on corners.” The $47,000 long range Model Y will come first in the fall of 2020, and will have a range of 300 miles, Musk said. Tesla will also sell an all-wheel-drive dual motor version for $51,000, and a performance version for $60,000— both of which will also be available in fall 2020. The cheaper, standard range version with a range of 230 miles won’t be available until 2021, Musk said, and will sell for $39,000.
The days of bored teenagers passing notes around a classroom are long gone. However, it is not the likes of Snapchat, Instagram or TikTok that they now use to plot, gossip and flirt during class. According to The Atlantic, teens have turned Google Docs into the place to talk. The service is often used in the classroom and has a live chat function – quite a dangerous combination!
“We don’t really pass physical notes anymore,” said Skyler, 15, who, like all the other students in this story, is identified by a pseudonym. As more and more laptops find their way into middle and high schools, educators are using Google Docs to do collaborative exercises and help students follow along with the lesson plan. The students, however, are using it to organize running conversations behind teachers’ backs.
Security expert Maik Morgenstern talks about iPhones and viruses and how in theory an iPhone could get one.
“In theory, yes,” Maik Morgenstern, chief technology officer for AV-Test, told Digital Trends. “However, the practical hurdles are quite high, and it is unlikely for a normal user to get affected. But vulnerabilities exist that can be exploited by attackers.”
Digital Trends writes:
At Mobile World Congress, a spotlight usually shines on new and improved smartphones, and this year was no different. From the LG V50 ThinQ to the Sony Xperia 10, a number of handset announcements were made at MWC. But handsets are only part of the news from the show. Carriers made some big announcements too — especially when it comes to the deployment of 5G.
AT&T and Verizon are off to the races.
The developers of the Spectre camera app shared some news about their app. They added stabilization support for iPhone 7, iPhone 6s, and iPhone SE.
With Spectre 1.0, we only supported stabilization on iPhone 8 and later. Stabilization pushes your phone to its limit, and if it can’t keep up, it creates a noticeable drop in quality. We hoped to someday bring it to older devices, but wanted to under-promise and over-deliver.
