Category Archives: News

News

Apple updating security for iCloud

Image Leave a comment

After last week’s mass release of nude photos from multiple Hollywood actresses, Apple Inc. announced new security measures to keep user accounts safe.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Chief Executive Tim Cook said hackers were able to brute force into the actresses’ phones by correctly guessing security questions and opening their passwords.

None of the passwords were leaked directly from the company’s servers, he claimed.

Cook says Apple will now alert users through email notifications and allow them to take action immediately when someone moves iCloud data to a new device, logs into an account for the first time, or when changing a password. Apple will start notifying members of the changes in two weeks.

Cook admitted Apple should have done more to make people aware of the dangers of hacking.

“When I step back from this terrible scenario that happened and say what more could we have done, I think about the awareness piece,” Cook said. “I think we have a responsibility to ratchet that up. That’s not really an engineering thing.”

Apple will also increase two-factor authentication, which requires an Apple user to have both a main password and either a separate four-digit one-time code or a long access key purchased with the system in order to unlock the device.

With the feature is turned on, these steps will be needed to to sign into an iTunes account from another device. Two-factor authentication will also be used for iCloud accounts.

Cook claimed that most users don’t have two-factor authentication, so Apple will encourage people to download the newest version of iOS and activate it. If the celebrities already had the system in place, hackers wouldn’t have had an opportunity to guess the correct answers to security questions, Cook said.

Outside security experts critized Apple for made the previous security too easy to hack, in only requiring answers to security questions.

“There’s a well-understood tension between usability and security,” said security researcher Ashkan Soltani to the Wall Street Journal. “More often than not, Apple chooses to err on the side of usability to make it easier for the user that gets locked out from their kid’s baby photos than to employ strong protections for the high-risk individuals.”

The new notifications will only notify users after their devices have been hacked, Soltani claimed.

The company is trying to salvage its reputation ahead of a new product launch announcement next week. Apple is cooperating with federal law enforcement to investigate and prosecute the hackers. The company did not release information on how many users were affected.

News

Weekly iPhone 6 rumor roundup

Image Leave a comment

With the iPhone 6 announcement rumored to be just three weeks away, rumors are coming into technology blogs by the dozens. Some of them reaffirm what has already been said, some are brand new. This article will summarize some of the hottest rumors from this last week.

iPhone 6 Hits Production Snag

Perhaps the biggest rumor of the last week came Friday when Reuters posted that iPhone 6 production had come to a standstill back in July because of a last minute problem with the screen. That problem, according to the report, forced Apple to tweak the screen before production could continue.

This delay back a month or so ago, has led to speculation that the September 9th announcement, rumored a couple weeks ago, might need to be pushed back by Apple in order to ensure enough stock on hand before the official launch.

iPhone 6 Will Run On All Chinese Carriers

One of the things Apple does best is eliminate SKUs. They want a single product that can be sold in as many countries as possible. A leak on the Chinese site Weibo, from a China Mobile carrier, suggests that Apple will be releasing just a single iPhone 6 model in China. That model will work on all the different Chinese carriers.

Full Fledged Sapphire Production Won’t Be At Full Throttle Until 2015

This is yet another leak that suggests that Apple is having some problems getting iPhone 6 production up to full speed. Rumors have speculated for months that the iPhone 6 would be Apple’s first smartphone to use the ultra durable glass replacement. Over the course of those same months, there have been countless reports that the production of sapphire wasn’t up to Apple’s initial demand.

This new rumor suggests that current sapphire production still isn’t up to meeting Apple’s demand for it, and that point won’t be reached until the first quarter of 2015.

New Leak Gives Dimensions of Both iPhone 6 Models

Finally, a report out of Foxconn, appears to give the exact dimensions of the next generation iPhone. The leak suggests that the 4.7 inch iPhone 6 will have the dimensions of 138mm long, 66mm wide and 6.9mm thick. The 5.5inch version will be 158mm long, 78mm wide, and 7.1mm thick. 

The weight of the 4.7 inch model wasn’t listed in the leak, however, the 5.5 inch model is reported to weigh around 168.5grams.

News

iMessage is being overrun by spammers

Image Leave a comment

iMessage, Apple’s popular messaging service for iOS and OS X has been overrun by spammers, according to a new report from security researching firm Cloudmark. That isn’t that huge a surprise given that spam has been a huge problem on traditional SMS for many years.

According to the report, spam has been reported from designer fashion brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Michael Kors. The report suggests that the reason why iMessage is being used is because anyone with a lot of free iCloud accounts can send a ton of messages easily and cheaply. 

imessage-spam
Example of spam seen on iMessage

The study suggests that nearly 28 percent of all iMessages were spam in July 2014. To compare, in North America only 1% of all SMS messages are spam. Though in Asia that number is 30%. It’s also worth noting that the number of text messages sent everyday using SMS technology is in the tens of billions, much more than the amount of iMessages sent every day.

iMessage Technology Causing Problems

One of the problems, according to the report, is that the way iMessage allows for “read receipts” allows for spammers to build huge lists of legitimate phone numbers. They can then sell that list to other spammers for huge amounts of money. Read receipts allow iPhone and Mac users to tell the sender when a message has been read. 

This, however, isn’t an exclusively “Apple Problem”. SMS alternatives have become a huge business over the last few years. Earlier in 2014, Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $19 billion. WhatsApp is the largest mobile messaging platform behind SMS. One of the things that set these platforms apart from SMS, beyond pricing, is that they are able to offer technology like read receipts. The study suggest that Apple’s iMessage platform isn’t the only one that is seeing the influx of spam. 

Users worried about being added to one of these spam lists can turn off read receipts by going into the settings app under iMessage and turning the “Send Read Receipts” option to off.

Hacking is Another Problem

While spammers are able to sign up for free iCloud accounts, the researchers found that nearly 60% of the spam sent over iMessage in May and June 2014 was sent from Apple IDs with Chinese Domains. In July most of the traffic came from Apple IDs associated with Hotmail addresses. The researchers suggest that these aren’t actually mass registered iCloud accounts, but are instead hacked accounts. 

The report also found that the United States was by far the biggest target of the iMessage spam. That isn’t unexpected as the United States has the largest market share of Apple products.

News

Samsung and Apple end patent disputes outside the USA

Image Leave a comment

According to Bloomberg, Apple and Samsung have dropped all patent disputes outside of the United States. The companies, two of the largest technology companies on Earth, agreed to drop lawsuits in Japan, South Korea, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.

No statement was made on any licensing agreements, and the two companies are still embroiled in battle in the United States. In a joint statement, the two companies write:

“Apple and Samsung have agreed to drop all litigation between the two companies outside the United States. This agreement does not involve any licensing arrangements, and the companies are continuing to pursue the existing cases in U.S. courts.”

The two companies have a “rich” history of litigating against each other over perceived patent infringements. Back in 2012 Apple secured a $1 billion victory over Samsung; and in 2013 both companies were found to have infringed on competing infrastructure patents. 

Over the last year both companies have shown a willingness to resolve these battles out of the courtroom. Apple resolved all patent disputes with Google and Motorola Mobility in May 2014. In June 2014, Apple agreed to stop seeking injunctions on some Samsung devices, which is a change of attitude in the tech giant.

Some analysts are expecting the two companies to come closer together on these patent issues, as Samsung has started to see significant competition from lower-end Android manufacturers. Despite the signs of peace, every attempt at agreeing on a licensing deal has been met with resistance on both sides.

News

Apple begins storing iCloud data in China

Image Leave a comment

China is the world’s most populous country, and one of Apple’s biggest markets. Apple, it was reported this week, has started to keep personal data on servers located in China. This marks the first time that an American technology company has stored user data in China.

The rationale behind the move, according to Apple, is to allow for faster transfer speeds of iCloud data to iOS and Mac users. iCloud allows users to synchronize data between Apple devices, as well as store certain types of data in the cloud. 

Google, one of Apple’s main rivals in China, has refused to store user data on Chinese soil due to censorship and privacy worries.

According to a report out of Reuters, Apple’s iCloud data will be stored on servers that will be provided by China Telecom, one of China’s largest mobile telecom carriers. 

In a statement on Friday, Apple said:

“Apple takes user security and privacy very seriously We have added China Telecom to our list of data center providers to increase bandwidth and improve performance for our customers in mainland china. All data stored with our providers is encrypted. China Telecom does not have access to the content.”

Several sources close to the matter have said that Apple will heavily encrypt the data, and will store the encryption keys off shore. That will make the data unavailable to China Telecom.

Privacy and Security

Security and privacy have long been two of Apple’s main concerns when it comes to online data. The California company has repeatedly stated that they have devised encryption systems for services like iCloud and iMessage that even they themselves cannot break. 

Even with these security measures in place, placing data in China is dangerous according to some analysts. “If they’re making out that the data is protected and secure that’s a little disingenuous because if they want to operate a business here, that’d have to comply with demands from the authorities,” Jeremy Goldkorn said in a statement to Reuters. Goldkorn is the director of Danwei.com, a Chinese research firm.

China is the fastest growing market Apple competes in for both its Macs and iOS devices. Sales of the iPhone were up 50% year over year just this past quarter.