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Apple Needs to Put Hardware at The Heart of its Smart Home Strategy

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple needs to dive headfirst into the smart home industry, with hardware at the center of the strategy. That’s according to Jason Snell, who laid out his argument for MacWorld.  He argues for the creation of a new product, a kind of hub, that will sit at the heart of it all.

Apple can contribute to the smart-home industry and its own bottom line by doing what it does best, namely creating a new product that’s a fusion of hardware, software, and cloud services. It’s time for Apple to build a product that makes your home smarter and more secure. It’s time for Apple Home. Apple got out of the home router game a while ago, with the discontinuation of the AirPort line. I’m recommending that Apple bring it back, because today’s smart homes require rock-solid wireless connectivity, and while Apple’s two biggest competitors have home-network offerings, Apple’s got nothing. An Apple-built mesh networking system a la Amazon’s Eero seems like a natural.

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Cellebrite’s Acquisition Adds Computer Forensics to its Portfolio

Andrew Orr ·

Cellebrite, a company specializing in hacking smartphones for law enforcement, has acquired BlackBag Technologies, a company specializing in hacking computers for law enforcement. This will let Cellebrite offer law enforcement an “all-in-one” forensic solution to cover smartphones, laptops, desktops, and cloud data.

It also means offering a broad array of field acquisition capabilities including consent-based evidence collection along with an integrated solution set that provides access, insight and evidence management to facilitate and control large-scale deployments and orchestrate the entire digital intelligence operation.

Cellebrite offers all of these capabilities to law enforcement, but the FBI still wants Apple to create a backdoored version of iOS.

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Apple TV+ Series 'Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet' Appearing at PAX South

Charlotte Henry ·

Forthcoming Apple TV+ series Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet looks set to appear at gaming expo PAX South this weekend. AppleInsider reported that the comedy is listed as a registered exhibitor.

Though details are scarce, Apple, specifically “Apple TV+ Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet,” is now registered as an exhibitor on a rolling list of PAX South participants maintained on the PAX event website. The expo begins on Friday, Jan. 17 and runs through Jan. 19. The company has yet to confirm an official presence at the popular annual event, but an appearance would not be too far fetched as “Mythic Quest’s” plot orbits the gaming world.