Luke Dormehl - page 302

In addition to Apple devices, noted security expert and The Mac Hacker’s Handbook co-author Charlie Miller has carried out some fascinating (and potentially terrifying) research into hacking vehicles.

Last year, alongside fellow hacker Chris Valasek, Miller demonstrated that it is possible to hijack the steering and brakes of a Ford Escape and Toyota Prius using only a laptop connected to the car.

Having done that, he has now moved onto exploring vulnerabilities in other vehicles — including his new 2014 Cherokee jeep. All that research comes at a high price, however, since Miller recently revealed on Twitter that he has managed to “brick” his vehicle, after hacking the head unit.

As he put it, “This is an expensive hobby.”

Apple is said to have resolved yield issues with various Apple Watch components, and the device is set to go into mass production in January — one month earlier than many were expecting — according to a new report from Taiwan’s United Daily News.

The news story also claims that Apple has ordered 24 million Apple Watches for 2015, and that supplier Quanta is massively boosting its workforce to accommodate. Quanta has already increased its number of workers from 2,000 to 10,000 — and it will supposedly expand again to 20,000 employees at the height of first year Apple Watch production.

GlobalFoundries, a.k.a. the largest silicon foundry in the United States, is pushing to to become a mobile device chipmaker for Apple, according to a new report.

On the back of the enormous success of the iPhone 6, the battle to build Apple’s next generation 14-nanometer A9 chips has been raging as of late — with the three leaders being Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Samsung and GlobalFoundries.

The chips in question are set to debut with Apple’s 2015 iOS devices, including the next generation iPhones and iPads.

After unveiling a partnership with IBM back in July this year — designed to combine IBM’s enterprise data specialties with Apple’s iOS hardware and software — Apple today announced the first 10 of its iOS apps released as part of the agreement.

In a press release, Apple’s Phil Schiller describes it as a “big step for iPhone and iPad in the enterprise,” and notes how “Apple and IBM are bringing together the world’s best technology with the smartest data and analytics to help businesses redefine how work gets done.”

It was a rocky start for iOS 8, but adoption figures continue to creep upwards. As per the latest figures released by Apple, 63% of active iOS users are now running the latest version of the company’s mobile OS, while 33% are using iOS 7, and 4% are running earlier versions of the operating system.

Apple measured usage via visits to the App Store on Monday this week.

The increase is likely related to the continued high sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus — which are predicted to sell a massive 71.5 million units over the holidays. Most recently, Apple released iOS 8.1.2 to the public, helping to solve the mystery of disappearing ringtones on iOS devices.

Apple’s latest class-action lawsuit made the news primarily because it featured none other than Steve Jobs as a key witness, as he appeared courtesy of a video deposition taken shortly before his untimely death in 2011.

Immediately, news outlets jumped on the opportunity to publicly release the footage, with The Associated Press, Bloomberg, and CNN filing a motion to have the tape released.

“Steve Jobs is not your typical trial witness, and that’s what makes this a unique circumstance,” said a lawyer acting on behalf of the media companies, adding that, “We’re not asking for anything other than what the jury heard.”

However, it seems like cooler heads may prevail — and we won’t see the footage after all.

In a very strong year for iOS games, inventive platformer Leo’s Fortune was one of my undisputed favorites — a game that Cult of Mac described in its review as “one of the most beautiful iOS games” we’d seen in ages.

Currently seen as part of Google’s giant billboard display in Times Square, Leo’s Fortune is celebrating its success by going on sale for $2.99 in the App Store.

Great design doesn’t finish when you go home if you’re a member of Apple’s Industrial Design team.

San Francisco’s SFGate has published new pictures showing the home of long-time Apple industrial designer Peter Russell-Clarke, one of the inner sanctum of designers who work with Jony Ive.

Russell-Clarke is named on multiple Apple design patents — including ones for the iMac, iPod nano, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. With that kind of résumé, a house that is anything less than a stunner would be a missed opportunity.

Fortunately, Peter Russell-Clarke doesn’t disappoint.

Apple is set to open its seventh New York Apple Store, with its long-awaited first brick-and-mortar retail premises in Brooklyn. The store will be located at 247 Bedford Avenue, on the corner of North 3rd Street, according to The New York Post.

The Brooklyn store boasts an impressive 20,000-square-feet of space over two floors. Prior to opening, the building will be refurbished, with the highlights being dramatic arching windows which will keep the space airy and light. Work is set to be completed in April 2015.

A class action suit accusing Apple of violating antitrust laws with the iPod and iTunes will continue — despite every plaintiff in the case being disqualified.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers disqualified the last remaining plaintiff in the case on Monday, after Apple’s lawyers successfully argued that she did not buy any of the iPods she is seeking damages for.

Apple wanted the case thrown out of court, but Judge Rogers has given the plaintiff lawyers one more chance: ordering them to find more iPod customers ready to step into the case. The qualifications of these new plaintiffs will be analysed at a hearing on Tuesday, to take place out of earshot of the jury.

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin previously claimed that Steve Jobs’ life was rich enough that it could make 10 movies. Based on the evidence we’ve been presented with, however, it’s having a tough enough time making one.

This week’s setback is the news that Natalie Portman, who was reportedly in talks to play a role in the movie, has decided to part ways with the project for unknown reasons.

This is the latest in a long line of challenges for the movie adaptation of Walter Isaacson’s bestselling movie. Multiple A-list actors and directors passed on the project early on, before Sorkin’s handpicked Steve Jobs thesp Christian Bale was cast as Apple’s co-founder, only to later throw in the towel.

Most recently, the movie was put up for sale by its original studio Sony, which wound up selling to Universal Studios for development costs only.

Apple’s got some great things planned for 2015, but before we get there we need to look back at the year that was 2014.

With that in mind, today marks the release of the company’s annual iTunes Store awards — highlighting the best music, movies, books, podcasts, apps and games from one of Apple”s most eventful years in history.

If you’re looking for the best possible recommendations for enjoyably passing the time this holiday season (at least until Cult of Mac announce our own “best of 2014” lists), you can find out Apple’s list of winners after the jump:

A crooked former Apple manager will serve one year in prison and pay a whopping $4.5 million fine for leaking details of future Apple products.

Paul Shin Devine faced a maximum of 20 years behind bars for selling secrets to suppliers, which allowed them to negotiate more favorable deals with Apple. Devine was a global supply manager at Apple from 2005 until his arrest in 2010.

Three years ago he pleaded guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering after his home was raided and investigators discovered more than $150,000 in cash hidden away in shoe boxes — with more cash apparently kept in safety deposit boxes.

A British politician has owned up to sneaking a quick game of Candy Crush Saga during a particularly dull parliamentary debate.

Nigel Mills, a Conservative MP for Amber Valley in the U.K., was photographed getting his Crush on during a Work and Pensions Committee debate. In a statement to tabloid newspaper The Sun, Mills admitted that his attention wandered during the session, at which point he turned to the sugary fun of freemium games for a pick-me-up.

“There was a bit of the meeting that I wasn’t focusing on and I probably had a game or two,” he said, adding that he shall “try not to do it in future.”

Over the weekend, Apple debuted its latest ad for the iPad Air 2, named “Change.” As with all of the ads in Apple’s “Your Verse” campaign for the first generation iPad Air, the upbeat “Change” demonstrates the flexibility of the iPad Air 2, as it’s used by motorbike enthusiasts, teachers and artists to carry out a variety of tasks.

The ad also showcases the thinness of Apple’s slimmest ever tablet, by featuring a clever letter-boxing effect that gradually closes in over the course of the ad — eventually revealing itself to be the thickness of the iPad Air 2. In this way, the ad is reminiscent of Apple’s pencil ads for the iPad Air, in which the extreme slimness of the tablet is likened to a an everyday household object.

Check out the ad after the jump.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has lashed out at Tim Cook’s privacy policy, calling it “ridiculous,” and knocking Apple for pricing its products as highly as it does.

Zuckerberg’s rebuttal follows comments made by Cook in September, in which he noted that, “When an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product.” While the message was most likely meant for long-time rival Google, Facebook’s head honcho definitely took it personally.

Read Zuckerberg’s impassioned response after the jump:

After an expansion into China that is nothing short of spectacular, Apple next has its sights set on India, with its vast population of 1.2 billion citizens and rapidly-growing smartphone market.

With that in mind, the company is reportedly finalizing plans to open 500 “iOS stores” in the country, ranging from smaller 300-600 square foot retail outlets, to ones over 2,000 square foot in larger locations.

These stores will likely be run as a franchise model, and operated by Redington, one of Apple’s two distributors in India, which supplies Apple devices to regional stores. Remington currently accounts for around 70 percent of Apple sales in India.

President Obama might not be allowed an iPhone for security reasons, but an iPhone 6 Plus did make into the White House recently — to photograph the Presidential Christmas decorations.

“If you are looking to capture something candid, people are so used to seeing mobile devices that their reaction time is slower,” said photographer Brooks Kraft in an interview with TIME magazine. “You have a better chance of getting the shot, and that was the case at the White House.”

Because the pre-Christmas event is less formal than many occasions at the White House (the President isn’t there for one thing), Kraft said he seized the opportunity to “try out new gear that I might use later in more news-oriented environments.”

And what better gear to try out than an iPhone 6 Plus?

Foxconn has been working to replace its human workforce with robotic “Foxbots” for some time now, but it seems that a 2011 promise by CEO Terry Gou to unleash an army of production robots by the end of 2014 won’t be coming true after all.

According to the Chinese financial publication Jiemian, Foxconn is facing numerous difficulties building robots capable enough to carry out the kind of precision needed for constructing Apple devices. First and foremost is the fact that the bots are simply too clunky to do the work required of them — primarily because they were designed for automotive work rather than for assembling iPhones.

The current crop of bots reportedly have a production accuracy of 0.05mm, making them a little shy of the 0.02mm accuracy needed to build Apple products.

Christmas is still a few weeks away, but Apple is getting into the holiday spirit by activating a number of its festive-themed curated iTunes Radio stations — ranging from collections of country Christmas songs, to stations featuring the kind of Christmas standards we all know and love.

The ten stations include Children’s Christmas Holiday Sing-Along, Country Holiday, Classical Holiday, Holiday Classics, Holiday Hits, Latin Holiday, Rockin’ Holiday, Soulful Holiday, Swingin’ Holiday and The Sounds of Christmas.

Many people haven’t even gotten their iPhone 6 devices yet, and already the rumors are starting up about what Apple has planned for its next generation handsets.

One slightly sketchy rumor, citing sources in the Apple supply chain in China, suggests 2015’s iPhone lineup could include a 4-inch model, in line with the size of the iPhone 5 and 5s. According to the report, the idea would be to appeal to “female users” who are put off by the larger screen size of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

The rumor doesn’t elaborate on whether Apple would create a new 4-inch iPhone from scratch, or refresh a previously launched model instead.

We’re not convinced!

As part of its Apps for (RED) AIDS initiative, Fall Out Boy singer-songwriter Patrick Stump will make a special musical appearance at Apple’s SoHo brick-and-mortar retail store in New York City later today. Kicking off at 8pm Eastern, the December 4 performance is part of what Apple has called its “biggest fundraising push yet” to battle HIV.

Stump won’t just be playing, however. In addition, he’ll talk about Apple’s GarageBand app, and how he uses it as part of his creative process.

For almost a decade, between 1985 and 1994, award-winning documentary photographer Doug Menuez photographed Steve Jobs — focusing particularly on his work at NeXT, but also getting some fascinating snaps of what was happening at Apple at the time.

Menuez was recently interviewed by the BBC World Service about his time with Steve Jobs, with the photographer telling a few of the stories behind some of his iconic images. The resulting short video, which shows off a few of Menuez’s rarer images alongside his best known ones, can be seen after the jump.

For anyone who enjoys hearing stories about Steve Jobs (including how he wooed investor Ross Perot, and his dream that one day someone would use one of Jobs’ computers to cure cancer) it’s well worth checking out:

An anti-discrimination bill designed to protect LGBT employees is set to be named after Tim Cook, according to a new report from Reuters.

The bill was put forward by Alabama’s only openly gay lawmaker, Democratic state Representative Patricia Todd. Given Cook’s status as not only the head of the world’s most valuable company, but also an Alabama native, the suggestion to put his name on the bill was first made by Todd “in jest” — only for the comments to be taken seriously and published.

Soon after, she heard from Apple, which was initially hesitant about Cook’s name being associated so publicly with such a politically sensitive issue. However, Apple apparently reconsidered, and Todd received a positive call from Apple’s general counsel, Bruce Sewell, saying Cook was happy to lend his name to the cause.

In a statement, Apple said that, “Tim was honored to hear that State Rep. Todd wanted to name an anti-discrimination bill after him, and we’re sorry if there was any miscommunication about it. We have a long history of support for LGBT rights and we hope every state will embrace workplace equality for all.”