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Adding to the evidence that Apple is intending to change the name of OS X, the company on Thursday posted an updated webpage referring to the software as "MacOS" instead. The term can be found on an FAQ page within Apple's Environment subsite, specifically in a section about greenhouse gases and product lifecycles. The text is the only direct reference to either Macs or OS X in the FAQ — notably, the rest of Apple's website still appears to insist on using "OS X." In late March it was discovered that one framework in OS X 10.11.4 refers to "macOS."...

Sen. Chuck Schumer issued an urgent plea Monday for iGunControl ahead of the release of a new firearm that looks like a smartphone. The .380-caliber double-barrel handgun, manufactured by Ideal Conceal, is expected to hit the shelves in mid-2016 and will only cost $395, Schumer said. . . . "It's clearly being marketed for nefarious purposes — 4,000 people are ready to pull the trigger on this dangerous weapon," Schumer said. . . . "Why would we want to make it easier for criminals or terrorists like those who attacked Paris and Brussels to wreak havoc?" he said.

Apple announces plans to hand over iCloud encryption key management to users Apple has announced its plans to transfer iCloud encryption key management to account holders, a move which could stand in the way of or even prevent the FBI and other law enforcement agencies from requesting users' information.The tech giant currently manages the encryption key management for all iCloud account holders.eWeek reports that because of this level of control, Apple provided federal authorities with several iCloud backups of Syed Rizwan Farook, an individual who participated in a mass shooting and attempted bombing in San Bernardino, California back in December....

"all you have to do is go in the lab, apply more technology, and you should be able to make a bigger quantum computer" So the only thing preventing a more general purpose quantum computer is money and enough engineers... Hmm... (POLL-AT-LINK) Via: PC World: Much of the encryption world today depends on the challenge of factoring large numbers, but scientists now say they've created the first five-atom quantum computer with the potential to crack the security of traditional encryption schemes. In traditional computing, numbers are represented by either 0s or 1s, but quantum computing relies on atomic-scale units, or...

Apple’s March 21st special event invitation (below) features the message: “Let us loop you in.” What could this cryptic sentence mean?Well, Apple does offer the stainless steel (silver) Milanese Loop for Apple Watch and there are rumblings of a new black Milanese Loop coming at the event, but it that really enough to warrant being the marquee on the special event’s invitation?What if the phrase refers to Apple Smart Bands? Or “Smart Loops?” Think Apple Watch bands loops that add extra functionality (GPS, for just one example) to the Apple Watch.Wouldn’t such a Smart Loop or a line of Smart...

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey has poured water on the idea of his Rift virtual reality headset supporting the Mac by saying that Apple doesn't make any computers powerful enough to run it. "That is up to Apple and if they ever release a good computer we will do it," Luckey tells ShackNews when asked about Mac support. "It just boils down to the fact that Apple doesn’t prioritize high-end GPUs. You can buy a $6,000 Mac Pro with the top of the line AMD FirePro D700, and it still doesn’t match our recommended spec." Apple's high-end Mac Pro computers come...

Apple was hailed as a champion of digital privacy this week after refusing to help the FBI hack into an iPhone belonging to a suspect in the San Bernardino shooting. But the firm hasn't always been so scrupulous about user data, especially in China. The standoff between the FBI and Apple over the investigation into the San Bernardino shooting, which claimed the lives of 14 people in early December, has divided the United States. While some have argued that the company should, in this particular case, help investigators by bypassing the phone's security system, others have insisted that doing so...

My buddy David Gewirtz recently wrote about the question of whether you should move from Windows 7 to Windows 10 or a Mac. I have another suggestion: Linux. Specifically Linux Mint 17.3, Rosa, with the Cinnamon desktop. Linux Mint 17.3 is a great replacement for Windows 7. In fact, it's a great desktop operating system period. sjvn Yes, I'm serious. I use all the above desktops -- yes I'm a Windows 7 and 10 user as well as a Linux guy -- and for people I think Mint 17.3 makes a great desktop. I've been using Mint as my main...

Security is something that is always on the minds of users these days, and that includes those who use Linux. TechWeek Europe has a disturbing article about a Linux trojan that captures audio and takes screenshots. It remains to be seen how widespread this Trojan is among Linux users and what the exact attack vector is for it. Steve McCaskill reports for TechWeek Europe: Security researchers have found a new Linux Trojan capable of taking screenshots of infected systems and even recording sound. Russian anti-virus firm Dr Web says that once the Linux.Ekoms.1 malware is launched it checks for two...

A zero-day vulnerability in the FFmpeg open-source multimedia framework, which is currently used in numerous Linux kernel-based operating systems and software applications, also for the Mac OS X and Windows platforms, was unveiled recently. The vulnerability was discovered on January 12, 2016, by Russian programmer Maxim Andreev in the current stable builds of the FFmpeg software, and it would appear that it allows anyone who has the necessary skills to hack a computer to read local files on a remote machine and send them over the network using a specially crafted video file. The vulnerability is limited to reading local...

In 2015 Apple grabbed a 94 percent share of the world's global smartphone profits, sold the only profitable tablets and smartwatch, increased its Mac unit sales,, launched a successful NFC payment platform, took a huge slice of the music streaming market and introduced a new platform for the living room. How can it possibly beat that performance in 2016? That's the premise set out by clickbait legend Jay Yarow of Business Insider, who penned a compendium of worries of potential scenarios of doom for the world's largest and most successful tech company, bravely entitled "Apple is going to have a...

Detail from the cover of Scientific American's March 9, 1907 issue, which had a glowing article about the telharmonium. (Image: archive.org)It's a tumultuous time for streaming music services. One of the year's biggest albums, Adele's 25, was released on November 20, but not made available on Apple Music, Spotify, or any other streaming app by the artist's own decision. On November 23, music service Rdio, the first smartphone-era music streaming service to try to crack the U.S. market, began winding down after five years of struggling to attract paying subscribers.Rdio, however, was not the first service to allow American subscribers to stream music from their phones. That honor goes to the...

Moscow requires major companies to move information to servers in Russia by start of next year A Russian law could place the personal data of millions of Internet users, including Americans, at risk if international digital companies comply by the start of next year, analysts say. The law, enacted last year, requires digital companies to store the personal information of Russians in servers on Russian soil. While officials in Moscow have cited concerns that Russians’ information could be vulnerable to foreign intelligence services such as the National Security Agency (NSA) if it is located outside the country’s borders, critics of...

Earlier this week, Apple stated that it would be nearly impossible for it to access the data on a passcode-locked iOS device running iOS 8 or later. The company also noted, however, that even if it were possible, it would not feel comfortable doing so as to not tarnish the trust it shares with its customers. The Department of Justice has now dismissed that argument, saying that Apple should be required to unlock encrypted data because iOS is “licensed, not sold” to customers (via DailyDot). “Apple designed, manufactured, and sold [the phone] that is the subject of the search warrant,” the government...

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 73.7 million units in the third quarter of 2015, a 7.7 percent decline from the third quarter of 2014, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. “The global PC market has experienced price increases of around 10 percent throughout the year, due to the sharp appreciation of the U.S. dollar against local currencies. In the third quarter of 2015, this continued to be a major cause for weaker demand in those regions,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, in a statement. “These impacted regions, which include EMEA, Japan and Latin America, posted double-digit declines in...

Linus Torvalds The Linux community often recognizes two anniversaries for Linux: August 25th is the day Linus Torvalds first posted that he was working on Linux and said “Hello, everybody out there…” and October 5th is the day he released the first kernel.To mark the anniversary of the first kernel release in 1991, we look at some facts and consider the progress that has been made since that early version. Version 0.01 of the Linux kernel had 10,239 lines of code (source: Wikipedia). Version 4.1, released in July 2015, has more than 19 million lines of code (source: Phoronix). ...

I think we can now all agree: Microsoft Microsoft’s hardline policy on Windows 10’s forced updates is silly. Very silly. Since launching nine days ago Windows Update has sent out an unstable graphics driver which switched off monitors, a buggy security patch which corrupted Windows Explorer and there are now a number of reports that a third update is causing Window 10 machines to crash over and over again…The patch in question is KB3081424 (ironically enough a roll-up of bug fixes) and during its update process affected users find it fails and triggers the message: “We couldn’t complete the updates, undoing...

Windows 10 will be the last edition of Microsoft's operating system, so it's no wonder that the tech giant has gone all out to make it the best OS to date. Microsoft has already revealed features, such as a smarter Cortana and Xbox integration, that may appeal to existing Windows users and lure those on other operating systems. Here are 10 reasons why Windows 10 could effortlessly pull you away from your Mac or Chrome operating system when it debuts for PCs and tablets on July 29. 1. Cortana is back and better than ever Forget Siri and all of...

Nick Lee, a dedicated programmer with access to WatchOS 2.0, has ported Mac OS 7.5.5 to his wrist. That’s right: the OS you used in the 1990s to make your ‘zine can now boot – albeit slowly – on your Apple Watch. He used Mini VMac, an “early Mac emulator,” and recompiled it for the Watch. Can the Watch actually run these sorts of programs well? Sure. The Watch’s S1 chip is roughly equivalent to the iPhone 4S’s A5 chip which, as we well know, is plenty fast. “MacOS System 7.5.x shipped on ~100MHz PowerPC chips with ~24MB of RAM,...

The first time I seriously tried to use the Apple Watch was to board a plane on a recent cross-country trip. The experience showed the promise of wearable devices, but it also revealed there are challenges to solve before smartwatches are worth buying for anyone other than tech enthusiasts eager to try the latest gadget. I previously read that I’d be able to call up my boarding pass on the Apple Watch, so I opened the United Airlines app by tapping its logo in the app menu. But the process was a bit more complicated than I thought. The app...