Articles about Apple

FBI director James Comey made the news last month when he admitted that he tapes over his laptop's webcam to avoid being spied upon. Mark Zuckerberg does it too. As Comey puts it, blocking the webcam is a "sensible" thing to do -- and if you too care about your privacy you should follow suit. But, there is a problem.

When you remove the tape to chat with someone you are left vulnerable. And, as a security researcher will demonstrate today at the VB2016 conference, a hacker could use that opportunity to record Mac users' activities "in an essentially undetectable manner".

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Yahoo has been having something of a rough time of late, and things are not getting any easier. It has emerged that the company created a custom tool to search customers' emails for specific terms as directed by the NSA and FBI.

Reuters shares the story of two former Yahoo employees who say the company complied with a government directive to search through all incoming emails. In response to the revelations, Apple, Google and Microsoft have all denied engaging in similar activity.

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It may have been one of the worst kept secrets in tech launches, but today Google officially took the wraps off its Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones. In terms of hardware it could be argued that there is nothing too spectacular here, but even if you ignore the (still very impressive) hardware side of things there are two features that directly take on Apple: Google Assistant to compete with Siri, and unlimited full-resolution photo backup.

Unlike Google's previous Nexus range, the Pixel handsets carry no other branding -- these are the first phones designed and built inside and out by Google and Google alone. We already knew just about everything about the two handsets -- which neatly compete with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, but now everything, and more, has been confirmed.

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Apple is doing something out of the ordinary. Shortly after launching macOS Sierra, it started to automatically download the latest version of the operating system onto Mac devices. This is great if you want to upgrade to macOS Sierra now, but annoying if you planned to wait a bit longer to make sure all the major kinks are ironed out, or want to forgo the upgrade altogether.

Fortunately, it is very easy to close the door shut on any attempts to push the large setup file onto your device. All that you need to do to prevent macOS Sierra from automatically downloading on your Mac is to disable automatic updates.

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"Third time's the charm", VirnetX is probably now thinking, as a US court has, for the third time, ruled that Apple has infringed the company’s patents. A federal judge in Tyler, Texas ruled on Sunday that Apple must pay $302.4 million (£235.10m) for infringing VirnetX’s patents in services like FaceTime and iMessage.

Back in 2010, VirnetX was awarded $368.2 (£286.25m), but the ruling was partially overturned because it wasn’t exactly clear how the jury calculated the damages. The second time, earlier this year, the court ruled Apple should pay, setting the figure at $625.6 million (£486.37), but that ruling too was voided because the "repeated references to the earlier case could have confused jurors and were unfair to Apple".

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It's something that has faint echoes of Microsoft's approach to pushing Windows 10 on to users. This week Apple is making macOS Sierra available to users as an automatic download -- interestingly, users who receive the automatic download treatment are being selected randomly.

Apple confirmed the nature of the roll out to The Loop, which also reports that the download will only start for people who have automatic updates switched on, and if they have sufficient storage space available. Unlike Microsoft, Apple is taking a rather less aggressive approach when it comes to suggesting users might like to upgrade to the latest version of the operating system.

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In order to help boost sales of its mobile device amongst enterprises, Apple has announced a partnership with the consulting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP.

On Wednesday, the two companies said that they had formed a new service called Enterprise Next, which would entail 5,000 consultants from Deloitte advising clients in a range of enterprises as to how they could put Apple devices to the best use within their organization.

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Much has been said about Apple's decision to drop the headphone jack in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, but one thing is clear: there are many folks out there who would like to get it back. Some more than others, going as far as drilling a hole in their new smartphone -- and damaging it in the process -- to be able to plug their old headphones in.

Apple has, of course, provided a dongle which lets you use standard headphones, but a new case offers a more elegant solution. It's called Fuze and it comes with a 3.5mm jack built in, so you can forget about carrying an adaptor or buying new headphones.

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Consumer group Which? has conducted a series of battery life tests on the latest smartphones, and the news is not good for the iPhone 7. Pitted against the Samsung Galaxy S7, HTC 10 and LG G5, Apple's latest handset came in last place... and by some distance.

In terms of call time, the Samsung Galaxy S7 lasted for more than twice as long as the iPhone 7, while the HTC 10 had two and a half times the longevity. Things were not quite as bad for the iPhone 7 in internet usage tests... but it was still found bringing up the rear.

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Apple has historically been very guarded and secretive. While this is still true today, the company has definitely become more open after Steve Job's death. Quite frankly, the fact that there are now public betas for both iOS and macOS is mind-blowing for the Apple faithful. Last month, the company even launched its first bug bounty program! Why did Apple soften its guarded position? It had to. As the technology market advances, and security becomes a bigger focus, it is not possible to catch all bugs and vulnerabilities in house.

While the bug bounty and public betas were very wise moves, the company is apparently taking things a step further. According to Forbes, Apple is enlisting iPhone jailbreakers and other hackers (such as Luca Todesco, Nicholas Allegra and Patrick Wardle) to bolster the security of its products using the aforementioned bug bounty program. In fact, it is rumored to be happening at a secret meeting. If true, is the company smart to trust these people?

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Five of the biggest names in the world of technology have joined forces to create the Partnership on AI. The aim of the group is to increase public awareness of artificial intelligence, conduct research, and promote best practice guidelines.

Comprising Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft -- although, interestingly, not Apple -- the group says that it does not intend to lobby government or government bodies. Instead, the aim is to promote AI so that it can be used to "help humanity address important global challenges such as climate change, food, inequality, health, and education".

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Apple is setting up its new London headquarters in one of the most iconic buildings of the capital's skyline. Battersea Power Station will soon be home to 1,400 Apple staff, who will occupy 40 percent of the building.

Sitting next to the River Thames, the former power station has been unused for a number of years, but is set to enjoy a new lease of life as part of a redevelopment project in the area.

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Apple is on a mission to buy virtually every machine learning start-up it stumbles upon. The latest "victim" in its shopping spree is an Indian-US company called TupleJump. The news was first broken by TechCrunch, and even though Apple is yet to confirm the acquisition there are signals out there to back such an event.

First things first. Apple did give a statement, and a pretty vague one that is arguably open for interpretation. "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans".

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There have been numerous cases of iCloud accounts being hacked over the years, but it's the celebrity ones that hit the headlines. Well, that and things like the Fappening. The latest celebrity account to fall victim to hackers is Pippa Middleton, sister of British royal Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge.

A reported 3,000 images have been stolen from Pippa's account, and these are said to include photographs of Kate and her children. Leaked images also show photos from private parties, and shots of wedding dresses.

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As you're probably well aware, with the launch of the iPhone 7 Apple ditched the familiar headphone jack in favour of a wireless audio option. Many people have questioned the sense in this 'courageous' decision which has led some owners to take drastic steps to allow them to use their favorite set of wired headphones.

Some have been spurred on by a YouTube video that reveals a 'secret hack' for returning the headphone jack to the iPhone 7. YouTuber TechRax has created a tutorial for uncovering the hidden jack that Apple left inside the new phone. Except, of course, it is complete nonsense.

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