Suppose you’re listening to some music, then glance over an realize your iPhone has loaded a porn site all on its own. That’s the nightmare scenario researchers say is possible after they proved voice commands can be concealed in songs.
It’s also possible to get Siri to recognize commands given at frequencies outside the range of human hearing.
One of the reasons Apple Watch has no problems fending off competition running Google’s Wear OS is that they all use a two-year-old processor. Qualcomm is finally readying a new smartwatch chip for release this fall.
In addition, the next version of Watch OS will make greater use of Google Assistant, the company’s artificial intelligence powered system for voice control.
Martin Hajek is best known for producing beautiful renders of rumored iPhones, but he came up with something different today: a 3D model of the logo for Apple’s upcoming developer conference. Not a render — an actual model that can be held in your hands.
The wait for an iPhone replacement battery has reportedly shrunk to little or nothing. This is good news for anyone with an older model who wants to take up Apple’s offer of a new battery at a discount price.
The company will swap out an aging battery for just $29, less than half what it used to cost, as an apology for surreptitiously throttling some devices.
One of the most appreciated features of Signal for Mac is that messages sent by this communication app can be set to automatically erase themselves. However, security researchers have found a flaw in the system.
The problem comes from the notifications macOS provides for incoming Signal messages.
Anyone who’s used an iPhone X already knows how to navigate around in the next version of Google’s mobile operating system. The company showed off Android P at its developer conference today, and it includes a touch bar at the bottom of the screen, just like Apple’s flagship phone.
Android P also natively supports screen cutouts, so device makers will be able to easily produce iPhone X clones.
A TV advertisement for the iPhone 7 Plus’ camera won Best in Show at the prestigious ADC annual awards. The ‘Barbers’ ad comically demonstrates that Apple’s smartphone can make anyone look good.
Watch it below:
Microsoft acknowledged today that PCs take second place to phones for most consumers. This wouldn’t be an amazing admission for most companies, but it’s startling coming from one that makes virtually all its revenue from desktop/laptop software.
Especially considering Microsoft’s attempts to compete with the iPhone all went nowhere.
The co-founder of Microsoft joined the chorus of voices speaking positively about Apple today. Bill Gates’ relationship with Apple goes back to the very dawn of the company, and he and Steve Jobs were the best of frenemies.
Now that he’s a philanthropist rather the CEO of Microsoft he can speak openly about a former rival.
Microsoft unveiled an app today designed to allow Windows users to show the text messages and notifications from their smartphone. Plus, Your Phone will make moving images between phone and PC easier.
Also at its Build 2018 developer conference, the company announced that the new Windows Timeline is coming to iPhone and iPad.
Apple just put its foot down about supporting its latest tech. Starting in July, every update submitted to the App Store must take full advantage of the iPhone X’s Super Retina display. They also must be built with the iOS 11 SDK.
Support for the unusually-shaped iPhone X screen has been happening gradually, but expect a rush in the coming weeks.
The fourth beta of the next versions of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS just became available for developers. Apple has apparently reached the point where it’s not adding new features to these, but is fixing bugs.
It’s possible features could be removed from the various betas, though.
Thanos isn’t just appearing in theaters everywhere, he’s also showing up in Fortnite. The villain of Avengers: Infinity War is crossing over into one of the most popular iOS games for a short time.
Even better, one player in each session transforms into Thanos to wield the Infinity Gauntlet.
Scotty Allen loves to tinker. He followed up on his recent project manually expanding the storage capacity of his iPhone with a new trick: extracting an iPhone memory chip and converting it into a USB drive.
To be clear, Allen isn’t suggesting this is practical. Buying a USB drive is cheaper and vastly easier. But he sure seems to have fun doing it.
iOS 12 is right around the corner, but iPad users should be thinking longer term. It’s iOS 13 “Yukon” in 2019 that’s expected to bring more new features to Apple’s tablet.
At the top of the list of the ability to work with multiple windows from the same application side-by-side. This would allow the user to, for example, have two Pages documents open next to each other.
Just in time for May the Fourth-be-with-you, Star Wars: Jedi Challenges added multiplayer lightsaber battles so you can take on your friends in virtual reality combat.
Of course, doing so requires a couple of $150 AR helmets and lightsabers. But still.
Google’s service making its accounts uncommonly secure has been extended to iOS native apps. This is only for people who carry around really sensitive information and who therefore expect their iPhone or iPad to come under sophisticated attack.
Starting today, the Advanced Protection Program supports Apple Mail, Calendar, and Contacts. Naturally, this is only for those who connect these iOS apps to Google accounts.
Reviews of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery don’t agree whether it’s a good iOS game, but all say it’s vastly too expensive. It’s actually free to download, but playing the game essentially requires buying expensive power-ups.
But now developer Jam City may have changed course because reports are coming in that the cost of power-ups has dropped by up to 80 percent.
There’s no doubt who’s top dog in the global wearables market. Just over 4 million Apple Watches shipped during the first quarter of this year. That’s nearly double the number of Fitbits shipped.
The performance of Apple’s wearable was also up dramatically when compared to the same period of last year.
Apply now for the 2018 class of the Apple Developer Academy to learn to create iOS apps. And did we mention you get to live in Naples? And it’s free?
This isn’t a basic bootcamp. In addition to learning Swift programming and user interface design, students are taught how to be an entrepreneur.
The butterfly keyboard in recent MacBooks draws frequent complaints. And these have now escalated to the point where an online petition is requesting that Apple recall every MacBook Pro released since 2016.
These laptops are super-slim, and so are their keyboards. Reducing the thickness left room for very little key travel, resulting in accusations that even a small speck of dust underneath one of the keys can cause it to stop functioning.
iPhone fast charging is possible with the 2017 models, but it’s a seriously underutilized feature because the devices don’t come with the right adapters. But Apple is reportedly going to ship the 2018 iPhone models with the adapter and cable needed to get a 100% charge much quicker.
It’s one of the puzzles of last year’s devices. They support USB-C fast charging, but come with USB-A adapters that take much longer.
The total number of smartphones shiped worldwide in the first quarter of the year declined, but Apple was immune, experiencing a small increase. Its share of the global market grew as a result.
Arch-rival Samsung was hit though, seeing a small decrease year over year despite the launch of its new flagship models.
Apple and other tech companies are fighting back against a newly proposed method for giving law enforcement access to encrypted smartphones, bypassing users’ passcodes.
The iPhone backdoor proposal comes from Ray Ozzie, who was once chief technical officer at Microsoft, and its chief software architect.
Fitbit wants Google’s help to turn its fitness trackers into health monitors. The wearables maker will use Google’s cloud solutions to tie directly to users’ electronic medical records.
The real goal, of course, is to help Fitbit be more competitive with arch-rival Apple Watch.