News - page 1052

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.

Some reports have suggested that when the 4-inch iPhone SE arrives next month, it’s updates over the iPhone 5s will top out with the addition of an A9 chip and NFC for Apple Pay. But reputable KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi Kuo says shutterbugs have something to look forward to, too: a sick 12MP camera.

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show thinks the government is going about this privacy battle with Apple all wrong. Instead of going through court orders and CEO Tim Cook, why not just ask Siri?

In a clip from last night’s show, a government agent takes the digital assistant to a black site to shake it down for the info investigators want. And if asking doesn’t work, it might be time for a bit of torture “enhanced interrogation.”

See how Siri holds up in the full clip below.

The company’s privacy battle with the FBI was the main focus at the Apple shareholder meeting today.

CEO Tim Cook reiterated the company’s intention to fight a court order that compels engineers to create software capable of bypassing the iPhone’s passcode security system. Yesterday, Apple filed its official objection to the ruling.

“We are a staunch advocate of privacy,” Cook told shareholders. “Being hard doesn’t scare us.”

Ted Olson, the legendary lawyer hired by Apple to represent it in the company’s battle against the FBI, warned that the government’s demand to unlock the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone will have wide ranging implications, and could possibly create a police state.

In an interview this morning, Olson said that if the FBI wins it would create an avalanche of requests from both federal and state courts to unlock iPhones in other cases that prosecutors believe may possibly contain evidence that could be used against the owner.

Apple and the FBI are locked in a bitter legal battle over San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook’s iPhone 5c that was recovered at the terrorist event, but according to San Bernardino’s chief of police we’re all overlooking one very important issue: there might not be any useable intelligence on it.

The game of ‘what is Apple going to call it’s next cheap iPhone’ just took another turn today with a new rumor that claims the new 4-inch device won’t be called the iPhone 6c, or the iPhone 5se.

It shall be called the ‘iPhone SE’

After Samsung and LG announced exciting new iPhone rivals at Mobile World Congress this week, we’ve had heated debates behind the scenes here over whether Apple’s smartphone can still compete against the big guns in an increasingly competitive smartphone market.

Without features like wireless charging, water-resistance, and expandable storage, will it be harder for Apple to reverse slowing iPhone growth? Or are these things just gimmicks that the iPhone doesn’t need, and will have been forgotten just a few years down the line?

Join in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we take our spat public and ask you to wade in!

Tidal, the high fidelity music streaming service owned by Jay Z, has been struggling to compete with Spotify and Apple Music, but according to a new report Samsung is planning to throw the fledgling company a lifeline with a new acquisition deal.

This is the first installment in a series of memoirs on the intersection of technology and daily life.

When my fraternity brother Grant and I began a drive from Arkansas to Los Angeles to visit friends on the West Coast, I believed it would be the greatest road trip of my life.

I was wrong.

Samsung’s new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge have a front-facing flash feature that helps you shoot brighter selfies, but it doesn’t come from an extra LED. Instead, the new devices have stolen the same trick Apple uses on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

Apple Pay is likely to launch in France by the end of 2016, according to a new report — claiming that it will be a gradual rollout over the course of several months.

There’s no exact date cited, but it is quite possible that it will take place by September, before Apple ships the iPhone 7.

The fourth beta for watchOS 2.2 adds cool new features that work with the latest version of iOS 9.3 as Apple continues its push to make Apple Watch even more powerful. In today’s video, we’re going to take a tour of all the new changes and improvements the latest beta has in store.

This week on The CultCast: With the FBI-versus-Apple privacy battle heating up, some lawyers say Tim Cook could land in jail; why Siri in the next version of OS X may point to redesigned MacBooks; and, just how much would you pay for a box of Steve Jobs’ old crap? Plus we pitch you our favorite tech and apps in an all-new Faves ‘N Raves!

Apple avoided a potentially embarrassing incident by altering OS X marketing materials on its website to make the word “click” in the slogan “There’s more to love with every click” look … well, less like a certain term for the male sexual apparatus that begins with a “D.”

More and more videos are being shot on iPhones and iPads, and if you’re looking for a great video editing app to help you make the most out of your footage, you’ll find it with Videoshop — the ultra-popular movie editing app which currently carries a 4.5-star rating in the App Store, following more than 2,100 reviews.

The best news? Right now, it’s available for free, down from its usual price of $1.99.

Everyone associates the Mac’s creation with Steve Jobs (with very good reason), but there is another person without whom we wouldn’t have Apple’s iconic home computers: user interface guru Jef Raskin, who passed away on February 26, 2005 — exactly 11 years ago today.

Raskin not only named the Macintosh — after his favorite type of apple, the McIntosh (even though that spelling was already being used by an audio company) — he also gave the lovable computer some of its lasting personality traits.

Anyone who eats out with friends has likely used their iPhone to split the bill at some point, perhaps making a few extra pluses or minuses according to whether your friend ordered the gold-plated lobster thermidor while you went for a salad and a glass of water.

But a new iOS app in the making promises to make bill-paying a whole lot more contentious: by splitting it based on the race and gender of those people eating at the same table.

Because why should billionaire Oprah Winfrey have to pay the same amount as my pallid white Cult of Android friend, Killian Bell?

Color us somewhat unsurprised, but all five remaining GOP presidential candidates are siding with the FBI over Apple in the ongoing disagreement over whether Apple should help hack the iPhone of one of the dead San Bernardino shooters — thereby setting a potential precedent regarding future user security.

We fully support efforts to reuse and recycle garbage, but two Apple Watch scammers are using their conservation powers for evil.

The Encinitas, California sheriff’s department is on the lookout for these men (pictured above), who have worked out an effective and completely infuriating way to convert a water bottle and a few paper towels into hundreds of dollars. And authorities are offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to their arrest.

Selfie sticks are bad enough, and while we’ve not seen anyone taking photos with an iPad and a long stick yet, here’s something even wackier: a MacBook on the end of a stick.

Created by an artist collective and showing on the streets of New York City, the oversize selfie sticks seem to be making the point that perhaps the technology that serves our obsession with selfies should be as outsize as our egos.

Apple has officially asked a judge to dismiss a court order requiring the company to unlock a terrorist’s iPhone at the FBI’s request.

We knew the legal filing was coming, but now we have the actual defenses Apple is using to defend its refusal to create what it calls a “GovtOS” that would let officials potentially bypass the security measures of millions of iPhones. The 65-page document released today details Apple’s history of assistance in the case — and the reasons it believes the original order is both bothersome and possibly illegal.

The FBI’s demand that Apple build a backdoor into a terrorist’s iPhone has done the seemingly impossible by getting Microsoft, Google and Apple all on the same team.

Many of the country’s top tech firms have revealed that they will file friend-of-the court briefs in defense of Apple’s position that no company should be compelled by the government to break its own security and thus put the public safety of millions of users at risk.

The new Apple Store coming soon to San Francisco appears to be making decent progress. Leo Cheng snapped a nice photo from Solano Labs across the street from the new location and tweeted it at us. The store still looks like a hot mess, but the workers are apparently working on the glass doors for the entrance in this picture. Take a look.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee announced both FBI director James Comey and Apple’s general counsel Bruce Sewell are testifying at a congressional hearing on encryption March 1. The saga is far from over, since both will state their cases on the matter of whether the government should have access to users’ iPhone data.

The congressional hearing ultimately revolves around a single question: how can the FBI efficiently do what’s necessary to combat threats without invading users’ privacy and potentially making iOS a more vulnerable operating system? Right now there are two polar opposite positions.