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Evan Killham - page 17

Tim Cook: ‘Morality demands’ security with privacy

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Tim Cook addresses the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection. Photo: White House
Tim Cook addressed the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection in February.

In a speech to nonprofit research firm Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) at its annual “Champions of Freedom” awards dinner last night, Apple head Tim Cook had some strong words about online security, government monitoring, and corporate data mining.

Cook was the first business leader to receive recognition from EPIC, which lauded his “corporate leadership” on matters of maintaining Apple customers’ privacy.

Everything is awesome about these homemade Apple Watch stands

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Apple Watch stand
Emmett just looks so happy to be involved in this cool Apple Watch stand.
Photo: aj305 (via Imgur)

Now that you’ve dropped a few hundred bucks on your shiny new Apple Watch, you may be tempted to give it someplace to live while you charge it. But you don’t have to shell out even more cash to provide your new gadget with a resting place. Odds are you even have the stuff you need laying around your house right now.

Here are a few cool, creative, and cheap ways Apple Watch owners have found to prop up their preciouses.

Pinterest will become a giant store thanks to buy buttons

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Pinterest Buyable Pins
Soon, you'll be able to buy stuff straight from Pinterest. Oh, no.
Photo: Pinterest

If you’ve ever been browsing through the Pinterest app and saw something that made you think, “OMG WANT,” but you were away from your computer or just didn’t feel like going online to make that thing yours, you may be interested in the program the company announced today.

“Buyable Pins” will let you purchase select items directly from the app using a credit card or Apple Pay.

Senate wiretapping debate comes to an end

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wiretapping debate
The U.S. Senate is hashing out the USA Freedom Act, which concerns government wiretapping.
Screencap: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

The U.S. Senate has taken one step closer to a final vote on changing the government’s controversial program to freely tap and monitor citizens’ phones.

Senators voted 83-14 to end debate on the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ending Eavesdropping, Dragnet-collection and Online Monitoring” (USA Freedom) Act. The bill will extend lapsed provisions of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act and aims to add transparency to the NSA’s activities surrounding wiretapping and data collection.

A final vote could happen as early as this afternoon.

WWDC party plan: Here’s where the action will be

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WWDC parties
You can even filter events based on whether or not they're serving booze.
Screenshot: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

If you’re attending Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco next week and want to know where the parties are, here’s a website that’ll help you plan your evenings.

This cool gadget puts the weather outside into a box on your desk

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Tempescope
Yes, it even does clouds and lightning.
Gif: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac (via Ken Kawamoto)

The best way to check the weather is usually pulling up an app or website, turning on a TV, or simply going to a window and looking outside. But what if you had a gorgeous device on your desk that could actually show you what’s going on out there?

Tempescope is that pretty little thing; it simulates present and future weather conditions inside of a clear acrylic case.

Unicode of Death got you down? Here’s how to fix it

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Unicode of Death 2015
I didn't actually send someone the Unicode of Death. Don't believe anything Rob LeFebvre says.
Screen: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

Some iPhone users are getting a flashback to 2013 as a new version of the so-called “Unicode of Death” has returned to wreak havoc with their iMessages.

The security exploit, which activates when someone sends you the message in the image above, reportedly forces jailbroken handsets into Safe Mode and completely removes other units’ ability to access the Messages app.

World’s most spoiled dog scores two Apple Watch Editions

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Billionaire's son who bought Apple Watches for his dog lands on China's 'discredited' list
Above: The oblivious new owner of two new Apple Watch Editions.
Photo: Wang Sicong

The son of China’s richest man has bought not one, but two gold Apple Watch Editions. For his dog.

Wang Sicong’s father, real-estate magnate Wang Jianlin, is worth about $34 billion dollars, and the 27-year-old son officially has too much disposable income.

See an Apple Watch hater nearly choke to death mid-rant (NSFW)

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Apple Watch ranter
This Apple Watch hater might have some rage stuck in his throat.
Photo: LiveLeak

When you’re ranting about Apple and its products, don’t forget to breathe.

One incredibly angry man learned that crucial lesson the hard way: His profanity-laden diatribe about the Apple Watch ended when he broke into a coughing fit. You can see the whole NSFW rant and its shocking twist ending below.

Flickr’s lame auto-tagging feature infuriates users

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Auschwitz
Above: A jungle gym, according to Flickr's highly questionable tagging robots.
Photo: History.com

Photo-hosting site Flickr is taking some heat today over some unfortunate tags automatically showing up on users’ pictures. Specifically, the auto-tagging program has described people (of various races) as “animals” and identified concentration camps as “jungle gyms” and “sport.”

The auto-tag system remains in place, but some users want it gone.

Safari exploit allows attackers to spoof URLs

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Whatever, Safari. I'm not believing a thing you say anymore.
Whatever, Safari. I'm not believing a thing you say anymore.
Screenshot: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

Tech-wizard scientists have discovered a crack in the Safari web browser’s armor that will let evildoers trick it into showing false information in its address bar.

The exploit could lead to users giving up sensitive information when they think they’re just trying to buy some pants or something.

Apple execs killed plans to make UltraHD TV last year

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Apple SuperHD TV
Not just yet.
Photo: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

As it turns out, not only is Apple not pursuing an entry into the UltraHD TV market, but it stopped development on the project last year.

That’s not to say that it won’t ever grace your living room (even more than it already is), but maybe don’t chuck out your old TV just yet.

‘Businessman’ who made $43,000 scamming Apple jailed

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Defraud Apple, go to Egypt.
Defraud Apple, go to Egypt.
Photo: Edward Hornsey/Facebook

Edward Hornsey has had an impressively long relationship with Apple’s customer service department. The 24 year-old has returned 51 iPhones in the past year, and Apple has replaced them with brand-new units.

The only problem is that none of those phones were his, and he’s now in jail for fraud.

Court keeps cellphone network ‘kill switch’ a secret

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The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s plus are coming on September 18th, according to German carriers.
This could be the government's doing.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

It only took one sentence for the United States Court of Appeals to keep the federal government’s emergency plan to disable cellular service a secret. It was a very long sentence, but it got the job done.

This ruling reinforces the Department of Homeland Security’s attempts to block Freedom of Information Act requests that it feels will endanger public safety.

Newt Gingrich asks the Internet to help him review Apple Watch 

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Here is the new face of tech journalism.
Here is the new face of tech journalism.
Photo: Newt Gingrich (via YouTube)

Former House Speaker and architect of the “Contract with America” Newt Gingrich has joined Mashable as a tech blogger.

You did not misread that.

The new reviewer took to Twitter this evening to ask for some suggestions for his upcoming coverage of the Apple Watch, and he probably should have suspected he’d get some weird responses.

Apple objects to RadioShack data selloff

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RadioShack
Everything must (or must not) go.
Photo: Wikipedia

RadioShack’s bankruptcy proceedings have hit another interesting bump; Apple has joined the states of Texas and Tennessee in trying to prevent the liquidating company from selling off its customers’ data.

The latest complaint is just one more obstacle to RadioShack’s already checkered attempts to go out of business.

Here’s what your Apple Watch can do with nothing but Wi-Fi

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Apple Watch
Sometimes, it's okay to leave the phone at home.
Photo: Apple

Your Apple Watch doesn’t need an iPhone to make it whole.

The new wearable is capable of performing a variety of tasks without a tether to your phone. All it needs is a connection to a familiar Wi-Fi network, and you can start putting it to use even if its iPhone buddy isn’t around.

Design nerds will love this beautiful Apple Watch schematic

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post-322567-image-d5685fb22f97f21d48d666d230ffff25-jpg
If you think the Apple Watch is good-looking now, wait until you see it with lines and numbers everywhere.

If you’d like to see the Apple Watch in a cool new way, we have something to show you.

Apple created the below Apple Watch assembly drawing as part of its Made for Apple Watch program, which supports designers who are interested in creating third-party bands for the new wearable. It includes guidelines, notes and measurements of every part of the Watch, but mostly it’s just beautiful to behold.