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While the investing community this morning is focused squarely on the very disappointing iPhone 5 relaunch and the lack of a cemented China Mobile deal, which has resulted in a $20 billion loss in market cap in early trading for the second most widely held hedge fund stock, a thing that we find more curious in the aftermath of the latest revalations of an implicit, if not explicitly voluntary, joint venture between Apple and the US government and specifically its NSA uberspies, is just how much of Apple's product suite is derived thanks to developments by the US government....

Florida resident Thomas S. Ross has filed a lawsuit against Apple this week, claiming that the iPhone, iPad, and iPod infringe upon his 1992 invention of a hand-drawn "Electronic Reading Device" (ERD). The court filing claims the plaintiff was "first to file a device so designed and aggregated," nearly 15 years before the first iPhone. ​ Between May 23, 1992 and September 10, 1992, Ross designed three hand-drawn technical drawings of the device, primarily consisting of flat rectangular panels with rounded corners that "embodied a fusion of design and function in a way that never existed prior to 1992." Quote...

The I Sea app claimed to help people call lifeboats to refugees by locating their vessels, but actually showed static images of the sea A mock-up of the I Sea app. The actual app, as released, would never show a boat because it lacked the capacity to do so. Photograph: Grey Group An app which purported to offer aid to refugees lost in the Mediterranean has been pulled from Apple’s App Store after it was revealed as a fake.The I Sea app, which also won a Bronze medal at the Cannes Lions conference on Monday night, presented itself as a...

Current versions of Apple products use the updated version of Bonjour. For previous versions, Apple has issued a security update. Apple has issued a security update for mDNSResponder, the low-level open source software that implements Bonjour in Apple and third-party products. Which Apple platforms are affected?OS X:  Versions prior to OS X El Capitan v10.11.1  Versions prior to OS X Yosemite v10.10.5 with Security Update 2015-004 Yosemite  Versions prior to OS X Mavericks v10.9.5 with Security Update 2015-007 Mavericks  iOS versions prior to iOS 9.1  watchOS versions prior to watchOS 2.1  AirPort Base Station Firmware versions prior to 7.7.7 and...

A new translation of the Bible updates the religious text with modern technology, replacing several words with emojis. The digital text titled “Bible Emoji: Scripture 4 Millenials” uses Apple’s vast library of emoticons to retell all 66 books of the Bible in a way intended to relate to young people.

CUPERTINO, California and WALLDORF, Germany — May 5, 2016 — Apple® and SAP today announced a partnership to revolutionize the mobile work experience for enterprise customers of all sizes, combining powerful native apps for iPhone® and iPad® with the cutting-edge capabilities of the SAP HANA platform. This joint effort will also deliver a new iOS software development kit (SDK) and training academy so that developers, partners and customers can easily build native iOS apps tailored to their business needs. “This partnership will transform how iPhone and iPad are used in enterprise by bringing together the innovation and security of iOS...

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 has released an updated build of iOS 9.3 for users affected by an activation bug, first reported last week. Although the version number is still 9.3, the update features a new build number, 13E5237, to signify the change. The issue prevented some iPhone and iPad owners from successfully completing the upgrade steps for iOS 9.3 if they could not recall their Apple ID info immediately, to pass Activation Lock. Apple stopped signing iOS 9.3 for older devices due to this bricking bug. Affected customers can now download the new firmware to upgrade to iOS 9.3. This may involve DFU mode and a cable to download the new firmware via iTunes, if currently...

"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...

iOS 7.1.2-8.3 appears vulnerable: its ECDSA implementation, in CommonCrypto, exhibits scalar-dependent leakage and thus appears vulnerable. iOS 9.x does not appear vulnerable: its implementation uses side-channel mitigation techniques and we have no evidence that it is vulnerable.

Apple shipped iOS 9.3 Monday afternoon, less than an hour after the media event that introduced the newest version of Apple's mobile operating system. New features include Night Shift, updated Apple News, CareKit, and other improvements. The update can be found in Software Update on your iOS device, or in iTunes watchOS 2.2 Rolls Out with Multi-watch Pairing Apple released watchOS 2.2 on Monday to go along with iOS 9.3. The update added support for pairing multiple watches with a single iPhone, and improved Maps support. watchOS 2.2 lets you pair multiple Apple Watches with your iPhone Maps now offers...

A group of Johns Hopkins University researchers found a bug in Apple’s encryptionthat would let a skilled attacker decrypt photos and videos that were sent as secure instant messages. (Matthias Schrader/AP) Apple’s growing arsenal of encryption techniques — shielding data on devices as well as real-time video calls and instant messages — has spurred the U.S. government to sound the alarm that such tools are putting the communications of terrorists and criminals out of the reach of law enforcement. But a group of Johns Hopkins University researchers has found a bug in the company’s vaunted encryption, one that would enable...

We’ve discovered a new family of iOS malware that successfully infected non-jailbroken devices we’ve named “AceDeceiver”. What makes AceDeceiver different from previous iOS malware is that instead of abusing enterprise certificates as some iOS malware has over the past two years, AceDeceiver manages to install itself without any enterprise certificate at all. It does so by exploiting design flaws in Apple’s DRM mechanism, and even as Apple has removed AceDeceiver from App Store, it may still spread thanks to a novel attack vector. AceDeceiver is the first iOS malware we’ve seen that abuses certain design flaws in Apple’s DRM protection...

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...

Gartner has released its smartphone stats for Q4 2015 and the news is especially bad for Microsoft. In Q4 2014, the software giant owned 2.8 percent of the smartphone market -- not great, but still good enough for around 10 million units sold. In the same quarter of 2015, however, Windows Phone sales fell to 4.4 million, giving the OS a mere 1.1 percent of the total market. That means that it's basically in a death spiral, as consumers and app developers alike lose interest. Microsoft's rumored Surface Phone now looks like its last hope to rescue the division. The...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — A digital prank making the rounds on Facebook has been ruining iPhones everywhere, and it now has Apple’s attention. The company has acknowledged that the prank is actually a bug that will prevent your phone from restarting. The message looks like an old Macintosh ad, and asks people to set their phone back to January 1, 1970 to experience a special feature that allows you to “relive the magic” of the past. Indeed, when the date is set back and you restart your phone, it will leave your phone stuck on the greeting screen. According to...

We’re going to show you how this date trick works to destroy an iPhone so that you can avoid it yourself. Absolutely do not try this yourself, do not set the iPhone clock to January 1 1970 under any circumstances, it will break any iPhone. It will supposedly also brick any iPad or iPod touch as well, so do not try it on any iOS device. Do not try this yourself, you will ruin the iPhone. That can’t be made more clear, if you try this, you will ruin the iPhone. In other words, do not try this yourself...

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...

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...