The U.S. Supreme Court just handed down a victory for privacy advocates: police can no longer access mobile phone tracking data without a warrant.
Wireless providers know which of its cell towers each of their customers is connected to, giving it a basic idea of where all of them are. Law enforcement agencies used to be able to obtain this data without permission from a judge.
“Coopetition” best describes the relationship between Apple and Qualcomm. Wireless modems made by Qualcomm are used in iPhones even as the two companies are locked in a years-long patent dispute over billions of dollars.
The fight reached a new phase today as Apple challenged four Qualcomm patents, arguing they shouldn’t have been awarded in the first place.
Apple is actively working on a handwriting recognition system. This raises the distinct possibility that you might someday enter text by writing words on your iPhone or iPad screen, rather than tapping out letters on a virtual keyboard.
Some will remember that Apple’s tried something similar before and it didn’t go well.
A Grand Prix in the Cannes Entertainment awards went to “Welcome Home,” a long-form ad for the HomePod created by Spike Jonze. The goal of the “Lions” is to reward education or advertising excellent enough to qualify as art..
Watch the brilliant 5-minute ad below:
AT&T wants to stand out in the wireless market by combining streaming TV with unlimited data. Two newly-announced WatchTV options add dozens of TV channels and thousands of on-demand TV shows to the carrier’s unlimited data plans.
This move comes in the wake of the $85B AT&T/Time Warner merger, giving the carrier far greater access to video content that can be streamed to your iPhone or iPad almost anywhere.
Everyone’s attention is on iOS 12, but Apple still has a team working on a “bug fix” update to iOS 11.4. Among the reasons for this is the complaints from numerous iPhone users that this version causes their camera to malfunction in various ways.
This is on top of the battery problems with iOS 11.4 that have been widely reported.
Cupertino’s city government decided to ask voters next year whether it should charge businesses a tax on every worker. Apple is the city’s largest employer, so most of the cost would have fallen on the iPhone maker.
The original plan, while vague, was to use the additional revenue to create more affordable housing options and improve Cupertino’s transit system.
A pilot project allows people who run Facebook groups to charge subscription fees for the content they create. During the testing process, this is an option for a limited number of group admins.
The fees can range from $4.99 to $29.99 a month. Facebook isn’t taking a share of the revenue.
A Malaysian man perished in a fire in his bedroom, but his family and his company say he was actually killed when the phone charging near his bed exploded.
“He had two phones, one Blackberry and a Huawei. We don’t know which one exploded,” said the brother-in-law of Nazrin Hassan, the CEO of a venture capital fund.
Surely you’ve said to yourself, “My Mac desktop is messy, but it could be messier.” No? Well, someone at Apple has, and built a tool into the macOS Mojave beta to disorganize everything on your desktop.
This easter egg is almost certainly a feature needed during testing, but it’s also a sign that the Apple developers are willing to have a bit of fun.
It was widely reported yesterday that iPhones assembled in China are safe from having tariffs placed on them by the Trump administration. Now the White House trade advisor says he’s unaware of any such exemption.
Import taxes placed on the import of iPhone units could significantly raise the cost of these devices, if Apple chooses to pass these costs on to consumers.
It shouldn’t shock anyone to hear that new Apple Watch models are coming soon. But a bit of confirmation is nice. That confirmation is buried in iOS 12 beta 2, released today.
There are four additional Watches in the offing. Their internal identifiers seem to indicate that Apple isn’t shaking up its wearable offerings this year.
T-Mobile and Sprint promised the FCC today that their proposed merger will lower costs for consumers and create more jobs. They also launched a website laying out the advantages of the New T-Mobile to the general public, including millions of iPhone users.
Combining the third and fourth largest U.S. carriers is a controversial idea. Megamergers typically lead to higher costs for consumers and significant layoffs, not the opposite. It’s up to the two companies to convince the FCC that things will be different this time.
Apple’s CEO has joined the chorus opposed to the Trump administration’s policy of separating the children of illegal immigrants from their parents at the U.S. border. He called the practice “inhumane.”
Tim Cook appears to have President Donald Trump’s ear. The two have met face-to-face, and Trump promised Cook there’d be no tariffs on iPhones assembled in China, even though trade barriers are going up on billions of dollars of Chinese products.
An Australian court levied a A$9M ($6.7M) fine against Apple for refusing to fix iPhones and iPads because they’d had third-party repairs. That’s against the law in that country.
The refusals happened in the midst of the “Error 53” mess, in which iPhone units became permanently disabled after having their Home button replaced by non-Apple repair techs.
The release of Apple’s next smartphones is apparently close enough that the Asian supply chain has detailed specifications on the design. These have been used to create 3D mockups.
A video comparing these to current iPhone models reveals new details about Apple’s plans.
Square provides cash registers for small businesses. For years, these were built around iPads, but the company now makes Square Register, its own Android-based point-of-sale terminal.
It hasn’t dropped the iPad version, but recommends its own system for businesses that take in over $125,000 per year.
Software developers filed a lawsuit years ago claiming Apple uses the App Store to enforce a monopoly on iOS software. Apple argues that developers don’t have the right to bring this lawsuit, only consumers do.
The legal maneuvering has dragged on, but U.S. Supreme Court just announced that it will take up the question during its next term, which starts in October.
4G LTE will soon be supplanted by something better, stronger, and faster. But before 5G can be rolled out, it had to pass an important hurdle: a final design needed to be agreed apron.
The 3GPP agreed on a standard this week, opening the way to significantly faster browsing and downloads.
Even though the iPhone X has proved very popular, its screen cutout nevertheless has critics. A rival phone maker unveiled a device that shows why Apple went with the design it did.
The Vivo NEX has a nearly edge-to-edge screen, with no notch in sight. This was accomplished by putting the front-facing camera on pop-out tab. An easily broken tab.
The FIFA World Cup, soccer/football’s quadrennial championship, kicked off this week in Russia, and literally billions around the world are watching. If you’re planning to actually attend one of the matches, be sure to leave behind your personal electronics.
This is the recommendation of both British and American government security services. They warn that the odds of your devices being hacked in Russia are very high.
Apple and Samsung are both supposedly working on foldable phones. The Korean company will get its out first though, but hold onto your wallet, it’s going to be shockingly expensive.
An analyst predicts that this device, allegedly called the Galaxy X, will cost about 2M Korean won, or $1815. That’s nearly double the iPhone X, which drew criticism for its $999 price tag.
Jaime Waydo is leaving Google’s Waymo for Apple. This should help silence anyone who doubts that Apple is serious about its autonomous car efforts.
Waydo describes her old job at this Alphabet subsidiary as “Helping make self driving cars a reality!” Presumably, that’s what she’ll be doing in her new position too.
There’s a new line of bags, totes, and sleeves on the Apple Store today. Rapha produced these just for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users.
Rapha is a sportswear brand focused on clothing and accessories related to road bicycle racing. Its new Apple offerings are aimed at commuters, though.
Apple put a feature in the first iOS 12 beta designed specifically to thwart iPhone unlocking tools that use the Lightning port to get access to the device. But Grayshift, maker of a prominent unlocking tool, says it already has a workaround.
This is good news for the many law enforcement agencies around the U.S. who’ve invested in Grayshift’s GrayKey unlocker. It’s not so good for anyone who wants to be sure their iPhone can’t be hacked.