We all watch a bit too much food porn. But food is art, so we should really be treating our food photography as art. And for this week’s Shooting Challenge, that’s just what you did. More »
Jeep’s Twitter account has been hacked, a day after the Burger King account fell. Must be a slow week. More »
Almost a third of The Avengers may have been set in New York, but as this video from Industrial Light & Magic’s YouTube channel shows us, hardly any of the filming took place in the Big Apple itself. Since actually filming in New York would have been difficult—what with the many road-blocking restrictions and the city generally looking down on setting their streets and/or citizens on fire—almost everything had to be digitally recreated. More »
As expected from last week, an update for iOS has been released today that fixes that annoying Exchange calendar bug that’s been plaguing a lot of users recently. iOS 6.1.2 should be rolling out now to all iOS 6.x devices, and the fix should also improve connectivity, as well as increase battery life.
It’s not said whether or not this update fixes the lockscreen vulnerability that was discovered last week, but we’re guessing that Apple may have quietly put in a fix for that as well without mentioning it in the release notes for obvious reasons. The total update size is just a small 12.8 MB (the image above says 910 MB, but that’s simply because that specific device is still on iOS 5 and hasn’t upgraded to iOS 6 yet).
The Microsoft Exchange bug had led to many users reporting decreased battery life, as well as problems with network connectivity, which led to high amounts data and power consumption without a reasonable explanation. However, Apple has ended up fixing the issue today, just a week or so after it was discovered.
The update is available now through the Settings > Software Update section on your iOS device or by plugging it into iTunes and updating through your computer. It’s a targeted update, so it’s nothing too major, but if you’ve been having problems with Microsoft Exchange lately, the update will no doubt be a big one for you.
Apple releases iOS 6.1.2 update to fix Exchange bug is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Last week, Facebook was the target of of a sophisticated hacking attack and now reports have surfaced that Apple’s been victimized by a similar scheme. Reuters is reporting that a number of Apple’s employees’ Macs were infiltrated by a hacking scheme, but “there was no evidence that any data left Apple.” To address the cyber security flaw found by the digital ne’re-do-wells, Apple has promised a software patch will be released later today [Psst… it’s available now.]. So, it appears the folks in Cupertino have things under control, and we’ve reached out to the company to confirm that’s the case. We’ll update things here when we hear back.
Update: Apple has provided us with the following statement regarding the matter.
“Apple has identified malware which infected a limited number of Mac systems through a vulnerability in the Java plug-in for browsers. The malware was employed in an attack against Apple and other companies, and was spread through a website for software developers. We identified a small number of systems within Apple that were infected and isolated them from our network. There is no evidence that any data left Apple. We are working closely with law enforcement to find the source of the malware.
Since OS X Lion, Macs have shipped without Java installed and as a added security measure OS X automatically disables Java if it has been unused for 35 days. To protect Mac users that have installed Java, today we are releasing an updated Java malware removal tool that will check Mac systems and remove this malware if found.”
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Apple
Source: Reuters
According to a report by NPD, Apple accounted for 19.9 % of all consumer technology items sold in the US in 2012. Apple was also the third largest consumer technology seller in the US for 2012. Sales figures were at 17.3 % for 2011, and the company has had an increase of 2.6 %. It seems that Apple has been doing great with the sales of its iPhone and iPads.
Apple’s competitor Samsung came at 9.3 % in the same report. Samsung has done better from 2011 as it is up from 7 %. Sony and Dell unfortunately have gone down to 4.4 and 3 % respectively. Together with Samsung, Apple added $6.5 billion in new revenues. However, due to a 2 % decline in overall technology sales, the total sale figure came out to $143 billion. Stephan Baker, vice president of NPD said “While sales fell in consumer technology for the second consecutive year, there was an uptick in Q4 which is cause for optimism, after struggles with declining categories, and increasingly saturated markets over the last few years, fourth quarter’s results may be the first sign that even as a mature industry consumer technology can grow again, albeit with a very different dynamic than in previous growth spurts.”
Desktop computer sales have declined as well as HDTV sales, while tablets and smartphone sales have increased, according to the same report. With Samsung and Sony both coming out with new smartphones and LG pumping money into OLED TV designs, we wait to see if the consumer market’s trend changes.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple Loses To Amazon As Top Trusted Company, Orangutans Now Use iPads ,
Is this the One? That’s pretty much the question we put to HTC’s Peter Chou, whose company has had a tough time battling other mobile giants with its original One series. The CEO was kind enough to have a little chat with us after the One launch — although his responses were often vague. We covered topics from what went wrong last year, how the new flagship device will bring the company back in the game, and where does HTC see itself from the perspective of consumers. Read on for the highlights as well as the full video clip after the break.
Looking back at the good old days since the original One series launch, Chou once again acknowledged the fact that his company didn’t do so well with marketing. “We had a few great devices, a lot of innovation, but we just need to let people know all of these HTC innovations. So today we are introducing the HTC One and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” said Chou. The CEO is also confident that his new flagship device has what it takes to deter consumers from the competition. “HTC will be offering consumers a great phone with great experience, these qualities are non-compromised. We are very confident that consumers will appreciate these innovations, experience and quality.”
“We just need to let people know all of these HTC innovations.”
In the face of the likes of Samsung and many Chinese manufacturers, Chou believes that HTC’s ability to work very closely with partners is a key to success — something that the company’s been very proud of since its OEM days. On the same subject, Chou also hinted at the changes that happened inside HTC not so long ago to help it stay in the game. “We are driving changes inside the company, pushing the innovation and pushing the execution.”
As any executive would do at a launch event, Chou went on to pimp the highlights of the One: BlinkFeed (live feed of ambient information), BoomSound (dual front-facing loudspeaker) and Zoe (multimedia gallery and editor on steroids). Again, the exec emphasized the importance of great experience, especially with Zoe where the user doesn’t need to do much, and yet they still get this “awesome emotion and personality” with the movies they share with people. “We think that this is a great way of providing new experience to smartphone users,” Chou added.
“The megapixel myth is the wrong way to go.”
We went on to ask how HTC will handle the tricky task of convincing consumers into the low-res (4-megapixel) but more sensitive and efficient UltraPixel camera, to which we were given a familiar response. “The megapixel myth is the wrong way to go, so what really matters is to give you much better image quality with great innovative, exciting experience. So that’s where we’re focusing on.”
Interestingly, the One doesn’t come with a microSD slot (as featured on the Japanese and Asian Butterfly variants) and Qi wireless charging (as featured on the Verizon versions of some HTC flagships), but Chou wasn’t too keen on addressing these drawbacks, and neither was he up for talking about the seemingly smaller battery size when compared to some of the competition. “Our differentiation is very, very clear,” Chou said. Of course, we shall see about that when we eventually get to review the One.
Sharif Sakr and Mat Smith contributed to this interview.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Apple has revealed that it was attacked by the same group that went after Facebook in a recent attempt to break that network’s security. The company says a “small number” of its employees’ Macs were affected, but there is “no evidence that any data left Apple,” according to a report by Reuters. The company will be issuing software to prevent customers from being attacked in the same manner, Apple said.
Apple’s report follows the news from Facebook on Friday that it was targeted by hackers apparently operating out of China. Facebook also reported that none of its users’ data was compromised through the attack. Apple is said to be workign with law enforcement on trying to find the source of the hacking attempt, and will be releasing a software tool aimed at its customers to help them protect their own Macs against the malware used by the unidentified assailant.
The goal for both Apple and Facebook, in being the source of these reports about attacks on their own companies is to be proactive and get out ahead of the news, in order to reassure customers that they’re doing everything possible to ensure the security of any data they hold. The object lesson of Sony’s PlayStation network breach, and the ensuing criticism and lawsuits that resulted from it being perceived as “slow” to notify outsiders of the attack is probably one cause of heightened transparency on the part of companies facing cyber-security threats.
For Apple, admitting to a security breach is a rare occurrence. The company acknowledged some 400 iTunes accounts were hacked back in 2010 in response to customer complaints, but this kind of pre-emptive move indicates that we’re likely dealing with a different level of security threat altogether. On the plus side, account data seems not to have been leaked, and this means authorities will have the help of two technology giants and their considerable resources in tracking the perpetrators down.
Google’s stock has just passed $800 for the first time. The technology juggernaut has many services that it can thank for that. There’s its monopolizing search engine, its variety of services like Gmail and YouTube, and of course its extremely popular Android operating system. Google has made some very great decisions within the last few years that brought it to its great milestone today. However, things didn’t always look so bright for the company.
Back in late 2008, Google’s stock price fell all the way down to $247.30. This was all due to the recession that swept the nation in 2007. Good Guy Google made a decision to re-price its stock options for its employees that would allow them to make more money once Google’s stock picked itself back up. Late 2008 began a pretty dark period for Google. Investors were scared that Google was losing its dominance in the market. They were also scared when Facebook started booming with popularity because they feared that it would replace Google as the most important online advertisement medium.
Things started picking back up in late 2009 when the recession began to fade out and Google’s stock began to rise. Despite the rise, Google’s stock was still falling behind in the market. This resulted in a change of leadership in April 2011. Larry Page took over the Google CEO position from Eric Schmidt, and since then Google’s stock has risen over 35%. Things have turned around. Facebook’s popularity has died down while Google’s is consistently rising. Google’s own social media service, Google+, has been gaining a lot of traction since its inception in 2011. Some reports say that it may be the 2nd most popular social media platform.
Google will continue to rise, and it doesn’t look like it will be falling anytime soon. The company has a lot going for it. It’s going to be opening its own retail stores by the time the holidays roll around, it’s Android operating system is only getting better and better, and its services are continually increasing in popularity. There are a lot of things that Google is planning that should keep investors happy and optimistic.
[via CBS News]
Google’s stock price passes $800 for the 1st time is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Reuters says Apple was targeted by the same crew that recently hit Facebook, and managed to infect a “small number” of the company’s computers. More »
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