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iCloud - page 9

Hackers try to extort Apple with threats of resetting iCloud accounts, wiping devices

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Apple offers up to $1.5 million to anyone who spots a software flaw
Hackers claim they have access to up to 559 million Apple accounts.
Photo: Hackers, United Artists

Hackers who claim to have access to millions of iCloud and Apple email accounts are reportedly trying to extort Apple, threatening to remotely wipe individuals’ devices if their demands aren’t met.

Identifying themselves as the “Turkish Crime Family,” the attackers are demanding $75,000 in cryptocurrencies Bitcoin or Ethereum, or else $100,000 in iTunes gift cards. In exchange, they claim they will delete the data cache.

iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4 inch closer to public release

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iPhone 7 in hand
Apple's new iOS update is nearly ready for primetime.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Developers received new beta software updates today for iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4, possibly signaling that a public release is just around the corner.

The new updates come just a few days after Apple dropped the last betas of macOS 10.12.4 and iOS 10.3 on developers. Both updates come with a number of bug fixes and under the hood improvements to go with new features that were added in previous versions.

Apple seeds macOS 10.12.4 beta 5 to developers

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macOS Sierra logo
A new macOS beta is out.
Photo: Apple

Registered Apple developers received some new beta software from Apple today with the release of macOS 10.12.4 beta 5.

The new beta comes one week after Apple released macOS 10.12.4 beta 5, bringing a number of new bug fixes and performance improvements to the Mac.

It’s not just you, iCloud is down now for some users

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icloud-music-library-itunes-match
iCloud is down.
Photo: Apple

Are you having a hard time backing up files to iCloud or listening to songs on Apple Music? You’re not alone.

It appears that Apple’s iCloud services are currently impacted by a major Amazon web services outage that has crippled the internet on the East Coast. It’s unclear what is causing the problem but Apple says only 0.04 percent of users are effected by “slower than normal performance.”

Here are all the Apple services that are down:

Apple buys iCloud domain from Chinese social network

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iCloud site
Breaking news: iCloud's closing. (Not that one!)
Photo: iCloud.net

In an attempt to crack down on confusion and protect its intellectual property rights, Apple has acquired the website iCloud.net, previously the home of a small Chinese social network.

The web address now displays a message revealing that the site as it currently exists will be closing at the end of the month, and that all existing user data will be destroyed.

macOS 10.12.4 beta 3 arrives for devs and public testers

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macOS Sierra is here!
Grab the new macOS beta while it's hot.
Photo: Apple

Developers and members of Apple’s public beta software program can now install the latest beta of macOS 10.12.4 after Apple seeded the new update to testers this morning.

The new beta comes just one day after Apple gave developers a new fresh of software update for iOS 10.3, tvOS 10.2 and watchOS 3.2, bringing a bunch of bug fixes and under the hood improvements.

iCloud secretly stores your deleted Safari history for years

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Hacker who tried to extort Apple for $100k is spared prison
iCloud knows what you were looking at last summer.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

iCloud has been caught storing “deleted” browser history from Safari for well over a year.

Even after users clear their data, it can be found in iCloud using software that’s readily available to anyone. But has Apple been quickly trying to clear its tracks?

Apple seeds new betas for iOS, watchOS and tvOS

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iPhone 7
There are a lot of new goodies in iOS 10.3.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The second beta of iOS 10.3 is now available for download. Apple seeded the new software update to developers this morning, alongside watchOS 3.2 beta 2 and tvOS 10.2 beta 2.

All three updates contain under-the-hood improvements as well as new features, including Theater Mode for Apple Watch, Find My AirPods and some UI tweaks for Apple TV.

10 key takeaways from Apple’s historic earnings call

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Apple is worth more than the entire US energy sector combined
Apple made a ton of money. What more do you need to know?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple managed to shock Wall Street today by beating its own expectations for Q1 2017, the most profitable quarter in the company’s history.

There was good news all around as iPhone sales, services and even the Mac all performed better than predicted. During today’s earnings call, Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri revealed some of the secret sauce that made Apple’s earnings one for the history books.

Here are the top takeaways from today’s call.

Apple pulls tool that helped identify stolen iOS devices

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iCloud-Activation-Lock-dead
The Activation Lock checker has mysteriously disappeared.
Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Apple has pulled its iCloud Activation Lock page which helped users find out if an iOS device was locked to an iCloud account.

The tool could be used to verify that a used iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch wasn’t stolen before you purchased it — but the website’s URL now leads to an error page.

Everything new in iOS 10.3: Hidden keyboard, AirPods finder and more

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x
There's a lot to love in iOS 10.3.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple gave developers their first look at the next big update for iOS 10 yesterday, and it packs a surprising number of new features.

The public will have to wait a few weeks (or months) to get their hands on the new goodies packed inside iOS 10.3, which brings improvements for AirPods, iPads and more.

Here are all the new additions coming soon to iOS devices near you.

Nope, Apple won’t manufacture servers at AZ center

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court order iCloud access
Apple isn't making iCloud servers in the US.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple says it has no plans to manufacture high-tech servers in the USA, despite a recent report claiming the iPhone-maker applied for permission to do “high-tech manufacturing” at its site in Mesa, Arizona.

The Mesa center was previously the home of Apple’s ex-sapphire supplier that went bankrupt in 2014. Instead of seeking permission to manufacture on the site, Apple clarified that it is actually just applying to renew the original Foreign Trade-Zone status of the location that brings some big tax benefits.

You can now report Calendar spam through iCloud.com

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Hacker who tried to extort Apple for $100k is spared prison
Apple is finally doing something about Calendar spam.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple has added a new Calendar spam reporting feature to iCloud.com, allowing users to flag bogus invitations with ease. The feature comes after some iCloud users started being hit by a bombardment of spam last month.

It’s surprisingly easy to crack iOS 10.1.1’s Activation Lock

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When it was introduced in iOS 7, Apple called Activation Lock
When it was introduced in iOS 7, Apple called Activation Lock "a really powerful theft deterrent."
Photo: Apple

Since its introduction with iOS 7, Activation Lock has gotten stronger and stronger. But every so often, researchers stumble across a bug that allows it to be cracked. The latest is found in iOS 10.1.1, and it makes it surprisingly easy to get into a locked iPhone or iPad.

Beloved Tiny Wings takes to the skies on Apple TV

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With split-screen multiplayer!
Photo: Andreas Illiger

Tiny Wings, one of the most addictive games you’ll ever play on iOS, is now available on the fourth-generation Apple TV. It costs just $2.99, and it comes with a new two-player game mode that lets you battle it out with a friend for the first time.

iCloud hacker gets 18 months in jail for stealing nudes

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Hacker who tried to extort Apple for $100k is spared prison
Ryan Collins has been sentenced for his role in "Celebgate."
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

One of the iCloud hackers behind 2014’s “Celebgate” scandal has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. Ryan Collins helped break into celebrity iCloud accounts and steal private photos, which were later published online.

Liveblog: Apple reveals its (relatively) meager Q4 2016 earnings

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Will Apple reach its own targets for Q2?
Revenues are expected to be down year-over-year.
Photo: Ste Smith

Apple is set to report its Q4 2016 earnings today, only instead of it being a time for celebration, the company is expected to announce its first annual revenue decline in 15 years.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri warned Wall Street that this quarter wouldn’t smash any records, but with the iPhone 7 doing better than expected, could relief be on the way?

Investors and analysts will grill Apple about how well the company expects to perform next quarter during today’s earnings call. And Cult of Mac will be right here, liveblogging the whole shebang when it starts at 2 p.m. Pacific.

Come join the fun — it’s livestreaming on Apple’s investor site.

Apple’s spaceship campus will hold even more employees than previously thought

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What the finished product will look like.
"What is this?! A campus for ants?"
Photo: Apple

The epic scale of Apple’s Campus 2 “spaceship” awed many people when it was first announced — with impressive stats like the fact that it is wider than the Empire State Building is tall, and that it will house 13,000 Apple employees — or the equivalent of 35 fully-stocked Boeing 747 jetliners’ worth of people.

But according to a new report, Apple’s new HQ will now house considerably more than that number of staffers, as Apple aims to bring as many teams under one roof in the name of collaboration.

Apple adds another AI startup to its machine learning team

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Apple adds 5 new vice presidents to its executive lineup
Apple just bought another AI startup.
Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac

Apple has bought another machine learning startup as part of its effort to boost its AI prowesses for features like intelligent search and Siri.

The company that was acquired this time is India/US-based Tuplejump. The startup’s old website has already been taken down, but it appears that it specialized in big-data technologies for businesses.

Apple adds real-time collaboration to iWork apps for Mac

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Real-time collaboration is now on the Mac.
Real-time collaboration is now on the Mac.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s iWork productivity software received a huge update today alongside the launch of macOS Sierra.

Pages, Keynote and Numbers all got upgraded with the new real-time collaboration Apple gave us a glimpse of at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. The new feature is still in beta, but it makes the apps more powerful than ever in the workplace by allowing teams to edit documents simultaneously.

How to back up your data and hand off an old iOS device

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Hold off on iOS 10 for now.
Backing up your data is easier than ever before.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

If you’re planning to get hold of a new iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus in the coming weeks, you’re probably planning to get rid of your old handset — either by selling it or handing it over to a friend or family member.

Before you do that, however, make sure you follow our handy guide so you know exactly what to do to safely hand off an old iOS device.

Google Photos ad capitalizes on iPhone’s biggest weakness

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Don't you hate this message?
Don't you hate this message?
Photo: Google

Google has decided to attack Apple directly in a funny new ad that rips the iPhone for its paltry 16GB of storage on entry models.

The new ad has been played heavily during NBC’s Rio Olympics coverage and promotes Google Photos “free up space” feature the upload an unlimited number of pictures to the cloud so users have more storage for apps, videos, music and other content. Apple has a similar feature with iCloud, but you have to pay for it.

Watch the hilarious ad below:

Apple is ready to pay hackers a big bounty for bugs

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iOS 10
Apple needs help squashing bugs.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s head of security and engineering architecture, Ivan Kritic, revealed yesterday that the iPhone maker is finally creating a bug bounty program that will offer rewards of up to $200,000 to security researchers who find vulnerabilities on the company’s various software platforms.

The news came during a keynote at the annual Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas where Kritic also gave attendees a behind-the-scenes look at iOS 10 security as part of Apple’s effort to become more open about its architecture in hopes of improving it.

Former Apple engineers build app to take on iCloud

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iCloud
iCloud has a new rival.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s iCloud platform is getting fresh competition this week from some of its former engineers who want to completely change the way content is stored on your iPhone.

Co-founded by Bertrand Serlet, former senior VP of software engineering at Apple, the new startup called Upthere is launching its first iOS app that allows users to store digital photos in Upthere’s cloud that was custom made to be screaming fast.