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iPhone - page 166

DOJ accuses Apple of deliberately making iPhone unhackable (no duh)

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Apple wants to keep everyone (even the feds) out of iOS.
Apple wants to keep everyone (even the feds) out of iOS.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a new motion in court today regarding its battle against Apple to compel the iPhone-maker to unlock the iPhone 5c that belonged to San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.

In the new filing the feds argue that Apple has “deliberately raised technological barriers” on iOS to make it harder for the government and other attackers to hack Apple devices. They also claim that demanding Apple to unlock one iPhone won’t result in a security vulnerability for all users.

Everything we know about Apple’s new 4-inch iPhone

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That iPhone in your pocket is much more well-traveled than you are.
That iPhone in your pocket is much more well-traveled than you are.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple is expected to unveil a brand new iPhone in a little over a week, only instead of going big, the first new iPhone of 2016 will be perfect for people with tiny hands and those who don’t want to spend a lot on a new smartphone.

The rumor mill has been serving up juicy bits of gossip on Apple’s upcoming handset for over a year, so as the big day approaches we have some pretty solid clues about the next iPhone’s design, hardware, price, name and much more.

Here are the probable answers to all your iPhone SE questions.

Why iPhone battery life will never last more than 1 day

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Your iPhone will always need to be recharged everyday.
Your iPhone will always need to be recharged everyday.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Every year Apple introduces a new iPhone, and every year I get my hopes up that this will finally be the model that can go two or three days without needing to be recharged. But according to a lithium-ion battery expert, the odds of Apple adding a power source capable of boosting iPhone battery life like that are practically zero.

Dee Strand, chief scientific officer at battery research firm Wildcat Discovery Technology, says the throughput on smartphone batteries is rapidly improving every year. The problem is, new features are bogging them down.

AmpMe’s new offline mode turns friends’ phones into a giant boombox

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No stereo? No problem. AmpMe app creates a sound system with all the phones at a party.
No stereo? No problem. AmpMe app creates a sound system with all the phones at a party.
Photo: AmpMe

AmpMe, the magical app that syncs multiple phones together to create one giant speaker, is getting a much needed update today that lets you take the party anywhere, even if you don’t have internet.

The Montreal-based startup revealed today that it has added a new ‘Offline Mode’ that will let users sync an unlimited number of phones together regardless of whether or not you have a data connection. And to make it easier to get the party started, the app has add a new ‘Auto-Join’ mode that makes it easier than ever to get the music listening party started.

Chinese couple sold 18-day old daughter for iPhone

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baby-iphone
Sorry, baby. Daddy needs an upgrade.
Photo: Tatsuo Yamashita/Flickr CC

A young man in China was found guilty of selling his 18-day old daughter in exchange for enough money to buy himself a new motorcycle and iPhone.

The 19 year-old man identified as ‘A Duan’ by local Chinese media reportedly found a buyer for his newborn through the popular messaging app QQ and negotiated the entire deal without the consent of the child’s biological mother.

iPhone may get even bigger in 2017 with 5.8-inch OLED screen

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Does iPhone really need to get bigger?
Does the iPhone really need to get bigger?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

If the iPhone 6s Plus seems just a little bit too small in your monstrous hands, fret not dear giant friends: Apple may be planning to go even bigger with a super-sized iPhone 7s Pro.

Apple is looking to add a 5.8-inch OLED display to the iPhone in 2017 or 2018, according to a new rumor that claims Samsung is already on board to supply the screens.

ExxonMobil finally brings Apple Pay to the gas pump

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Apple Pay iPhone
Paying at the pump is about to get a lot easier.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Filling up your car with gasoline is about to get a lot quicker, now that the world’s biggest oil company is finally adding Apple Pay to its pumps.

Starting today, ExxonMobil is activating Apple Pay at more than 6,000 gas stations across the U.S., allowing customers to buy gas or a car wash without having to bust out their wallets.

5 tips to keep your iPhone on lockdown

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iphone_disabled
Secure your iPhone with these handy tips.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

iPhone security has dominated the news for the past couple of weeks, so it’s understandable if you’re worrying about your own iPhone.

Have no fear, though: here are some handy tips to help keep your iPhone secure, from both hackers and the FBI.

Today’s video will walk you through 5 easy-to-do tips that will make your iPhone more secure.

Justice Department hopes to overturn Apple’s privacy win in New York

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iPhone mobile encryption touch id
The government would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for those meddling iKids.
Photo: Olly Browning/Pixabay

The U.S. Justice Department is seeking to overturn a ruling protecting Apple from unlocking the iPhone at the center of a New York drug case. The recent ruling from a New York magistrate judge stated that the government can’t compel Apple to unlock an iPhone involved in a criminal investigation, using the All Writs Act.

So the decision must have been wrong, of course!

Use a mouse on iPad without jailbreaking

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Add a mouse (and other peripherals) to your iPad or iPhone.
Add a mouse (and other peripherals) to your iPad or iPhone.
Photo: DoBox

The development team at DoBox wants to make your iPad even more useful. This wireless box will let you connect a mouse, a wired keyboard, or even a printer to your iOS device (or Mac) and let you turn your iPad into even more of a productivity workhorse.

Check out the video below.

Apple seeds new betas for iOS, tvOS, watchOS, and OS X

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iOS 9.3 beta 6 is here!
iOS 9.3 beta 6 is here!
Photo: Apple

Less than a week after dropping a big batch of new software on developers and public testers, Apple is back with a sixth beta build of iOS 9.3 as well as new betas for watchOS, tvOS, and OS X El Capitan.

The software updates bring a host of new features to developers and public testers the iPhone like NightShift mode, folders on Apple TV, multiple Apple Watch pairings on one iPhone, improved Apple News and Apple Music apps, and some great education features for iPad.

Here’s a preview of some of the new goodies:

NYPD chief: iOS is a gift to ‘kidnappers, robbers and murderers’

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iPhone mobile encryption touch id
Public enemy no. 1?
Photo: Olly Browning/Pixabay

Making it sound like the 2016 version of a souped-up getaway car, NYPD counter-terrorism chief John Miller described iOS as the perfect tool for “kidnappers, robbers and murderers” in a recent interview — all due to its uncrackable privacy policy.

“You are actually providing aid to [felons] who have actually been recorded on the telephones in Riker’s Island telling their compatriots on the outside, ‘You gotta get iOS 8. It’s a gift from God,’ — and that’s a quote — ‘because the cops can’t crack it,’” he said — referring to Apple’s current privacy standoff with the FBI.

Not groovy: iPhone users receive undeletable emails from 1970

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disco
Received any emails from the '70s lately?
Photo: Ste Smith

A strange iOS glitch has some iPhone and iPad users complaining after they received undeletable emails dated January 1, 1970.

The emails in question are blank, with no subject or content — which means that sadly we’re not in line for scalper messages about tickets to the farewell concert of Diana Ross and The Supremes (which took place that month), or reminders about meetings we’re very, very late to.

FBI’s iPhone backdoor could cause companies to flee U.S.

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iPhone hack
There are plenty of ways the FBI's demands hurt the U.S.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

There’s no shortage of possible repercussions to Apple’s current standoff with the FBI, regarding whether or not the company should create a backdoor to help unlock iPhones involved with potential terrorist or criminal cases.

But while Apple (and others) have argued that this represents a damaging blow against privacy, a recently-filed amacus brief in support of Apple by former secure technology company Lavabit has a more direct example of how the FBI’s demands may hurt America: by driving tech companies offshore to avoid having their reputations damaged.

Apple could receive hefty fines for not handing over data in France

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euros2
That's a whole lot of euros.
Photo: Godzimama

France’s lower house of parliament has passed an amendment which could see Apple charged heavy fines, and even handed out jail time, if it fails to hand over encrypted data as part of government investigations.

The amendment affects both tech and telecoms companies. The punishment could reach up to €350,000 ($385,000) and five years in jail, although a proposed amendment asking the French government to hand out fines of €1 million was rejected.

Apple plans to sell refurbished iPhones in India

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Apple wants to get more iPhones into customers' hands.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is planning to import and sell refurbished iPhones in India as a way of getting its handsets into more people’s hands.

“An application from Apple regarding import of certified pre-owned iPhones for sale in India and manufacturing certified pre-owned iPhones for sale in India has been received in the ministry of environment and forests,” telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.

FBI will fight for iOS backdoors even if it loses to Apple

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iPhone hack
Bruce Schneier thinks the FBI isn't going to stop fighting any time soon.
Photo: Ste Smith

The FBI is unlikely to give up trying to pry its way into iPhones even if it loses the current standoff with Apple over encryption, says security expert Bruce Schneier.

Schneier, who is one of the leading experts on modern cryptography, says it is “clear that the San Bernardino case was preselected as a legal precedent case” by the bureau — despite the fact that FBI Director James Comey has claimed this is not the case (only to later contradict himself.)

Don’t expect the iPhone sales slump to last long

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Didn't we like the sharpe edges of the iPhone 5 more anyway?
The end of the iPhone sales boom? Hardly.
Photo: TechRax/YouTube

iPhone sales may be set to level off this year, according to Tim Cook, but don’t think that Apple handsets are entering an irreversible decline.

According to the latest forecast from analysts at IDC, in their Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, iPhone growth should return as soon as 2017 — thanks to Apple’s trade-in programs and expansion into new markets outside the United States.

Does the world really need a thinner iPhone?

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Apple's new aluminum will kill Bendgate.
Do phones need to be this skinny?
Photo: Unbox Therapy

A joke in Zoolander 2 pokes fun at the ’90s craze for tiny cellphones, something which today seems as retro as flannel shirts and Pulp Fiction posters in your dorm room.

With the upcoming iPhone 7, Apple is apparently showing us the next iteration of that ideal by bringing us a smartphone so thin — just 6.1 mm thick — that even Victoria’s Secret models would advise it to eat a sandwich.

But are super-slim iPhones what users really want, or have Jony Ive and Apple’s design team taken things too far?

Apple’s privacy policy could earn it massive fines in France

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euros2
That's a lot of euros!
Photo: Godzimama

Although most of the attention on Apple’s privacy standoff with the government has so far focused on the United States, the U.S. isn’t the only place where Apple’s fighting with the authorities over iPhone encryption.

In France, politician Yann Galut, a member of the country’s Socialist Party, has submitted an amendment to a bill designed to strengthen the French government’s fight against terror — by arguing that Apple should pay €1 million per smartphone if it does not “promptly” agree to unlock devices when asked to by law enforcement.

Apple files an appeal against creating iPhone backdoor

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iPhone hack
Apple is fighting the court's original verdict.
Photo: Ste Smith

Apple filed an appeal late on Tuesday, protesting the government’s order that it create software to help the FBI to hack an iPhone used by one of the terrorists in the mass-shooting of 14 people in San Bernardino.

The appeal was filed just before 11pm PST, and lists formal objections to Judge Sheri Pym’s order — stating that Apple is making the appeal out of what the company calls,”an abundance of caution.”

Every time a baby is born Apple sells two iPhones

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baby-iphone
Perspective can change everything.
Photo: Tatsuo Yamashita/Flickr CC

Four years ago Apple hit the milestone of selling more iPhones per day than babies born per day. Now, four years later, we wanted to revisit those statistics since iPhone sales have grown quite significantly since then. It turns out, with current sales numbers, Apple sells nearly two iPhones for every baby born.

The math works out like this: Apple sold a record total of 231.4 million iPhones in 2015. Divide that number by 365 days in a year to get 633,963 iPhones sold every single day. The UN estimates that there are 360,000 babies born every day across the world. So technically, that comes out to 1.76 iPhones for every one baby.

How to create cheap bullet-time effects using your iPhone and string

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All you need is string and an iPhone to create this effect.
All you need is string and an iPhone to create this effect.
Photo: Nicolas Vuignier

Swiss freeskier Nicolas Vuignier blew our minds with his incredible slinging iPhone contraption that creates killer bullet-time videos. Now he’s unleashing his creation called the Centriphone to the public and it’s surprisingly simple and super cheap to make.

Vuignier detailed the making of the Centriphone in a new video that runs through the seven different prototypes he tested for weeks before finally coming up with the perfect device that flies around its wielder while capturing jaw-dropping 360 degree video.

The best part of the Centriphone is Vuignier made it an open source project so now anyone can 3D print it at home. Even if you don’t own a 3D printer you can still buy one for just $39.

Here’s how to make your own:

Apple’s privacy fight with FBI could land Tim Cook in jail

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iPhone 6s
And all this over one iPhone!
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

With Apple not yet willing to accept court orders to unlock the iPhone at the center of the San Bernardino shooing case, legal experts are weighing in on what penalties the company (and, conceivably, Tim Cook) may face if the parties involved refuse to do so.

The answer? Anything from some pretty big fines to jail-time for Apple’s CEO.

Apple flips FBI the bird, seeds new betas, and iPod shuffle is reborn

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Apple stands firm in the name of privacy.
Apple stands firm in the name of privacy.
Cover Design: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s been getting a lot of flack for its refusal to create a “GovtOS” from the FBI and Department of Justice. Tim Cook and company have also garnered plenty of support for their forceful stance from other tech companies as well as the rank and file Apple consumer.

Check out this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine to figure out why Apple refuses to create GovtOS, how to get its latest and greatest software, find the best iPhone and iPad password managers around, check out a virtual tour of Tim Cook’s office, and see how the beloved iPod shuffle has been reborn for the age of Spotify.

Here are the week’s top stories.