Hasta La Gadget!

If you’ve been wondering why Apple’s Developer portal was down for a few days, blame it on a security breach. Apple announced yesterday that their dev center was hacked into, but no personal information was accessed, thankfully. So who’s behind the intrusion? A security researcher is taking the credit.

Independent security researcher Ibrahim Balic claims that his effort to breach into the developer portal was not intended to be malicious at all, and he ended up reporting all of the vulnerabilities that he found to Apple. Balic found 13 bugs in total, and was even able to access user details, but he only accessed 73 Apple employees just to prove to the company about the vulnerability.

Balic claims he comes in peace and even contacted Apple to make sure he wasn’t putting them through any difficulty. He says that he hasn’t published or used any of the information that he was able to access, but some users have reported getting password reset notifications after a possible breach to their accounts.

Apple’s Developer portal has been down for four days now, and it’s still showing that it’s down right now. There’s no word on when we might expect it to come back to full throttle, but most likely in the next day or two. While this is certainly an inconvenience for developers, this could pose an even greater problem for beta software versions.

We could see a delay on beta releases for both iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks. It seems Apple is focusing on getting their Developer portal back up and running before anything else, which means it may take longer for beta versions to release. However, we still have plenty of time before Apple’s proposed fall release of iOS 7.

SOURCE: Ibrahim Balic (TechCrunch)

Apple Developer portal breach credited to security researcher is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

What was once a private beta meant only for developers is now trickling out into the public. For those who signed up to be invited to the public beta of iWork for iCloud should be getting them now. Apple originally unveiled the new cloud-based office suite at WWDC last month, and now the software is ready for a public chewing as the company looks to get feedback before an official launch.

As expected, iWork for iCloud is Apple’s version of Google Drive and Microsoft Office 365. The software offers users cloud-based versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, which provide a word processor, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint-like presentations, respectively. Users will be able to access the software via the web browser of their choice (as long as it’s either Safari, Chrome, or IE).

If you received an invite, all you have to do is sign in to iCloud on any computer and then click on either Pages, Numbers, or Keynote to get started drafting up your first iWork for iCloud document. From there you can save a document and it’ll automatically be saved to the cloud where you can access it on another computer. iWork for iCloud can be accessed on either a Mac or Windows PC (no word on Linux, specifically, but we’re guessing that works too). Mobile devices will have support as well.

Essentially, it works just like the traditional version of iWork, where you have access to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, only this time it’s available in cloud. However, it comes with a bit of caveats. For starters, collaboration is pretty much out of the question. Unlike Google Drive, users won’t be able to share documents with other iCloud users.

Apple still has a lot of work to do to make iWork for iCloud a true competitor, but the company knows that. They’re working on adding several more features in the future, including the ability to print documents. As for collaborative editing, Apple hasn’t mentioned such a thing yet, but it’s certainly a feature that iWork for iCloud will need if it wants to compete with Google Drive and Office 365.

iWork iCloud public beta rolling out today: here’s what you’ll get is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple was quick to invite developers to the iWork for iCloud beta in the aftermath of WWDC, but us commoners have had to settle for watching from afar. The company is quickly opening things up, however — it just started sending out beta invitations to ordinary iCloud users, including some Engadget readers. While this isn’t likely to represent Apple’s promised public beta, it’s clear that we’re now much closer to the day when everyone can give the web-based iWork a try.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Internet, Apple

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Via: MacRumors

Source: iCloud.com

BitTorrent Sync Alpha isn’t ready to equal rivals like Dropbox or Google Drive without a mobile component. It’s a good thing that BitTorrent just launched Sync Beta, then — the more polished release includes an Android app that syncs with computers and shares files with fellow Android users. The update also brings versioning through SyncArchive, which stores previous file iterations in a folder. Sync Beta is available on both Android and the desktop today, and BitTorrent promises that an iOS equivalent is coming in the near future.

Filed under: Storage, Internet

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Source: BitTorrent Labs, Google Play

It’s that time of the year again, and we’re not talking about the long Independence Day weekend. Microsoft has opened up public beta registration for the 2013 Xbox Live update, and this time around you’ll need to log your interest directly through an Xbox 360 console. Xbox owners in Japan will be missing out, although they’ll have the same opportunity “at a later date.” There should be a tile on the dashboard home screen entitled “Xbox Beta Program,” and with limited spots available, we recommend you sign up immediately if you’d like to participate — last year’s spots were filled pretty quickly. There doesn’t appear to be anything exciting included in the beta; Major Nelson cites “updates to improve overall performance” and the option to purchase content with actual money instead of MS points. There may be more details in the beta FAQ when it goes live later today, but if you get into the program and find anything juicy MS neglected to mention, it hopes you’ll honor the NDA which you’ll agree to as part of the registration process.

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Microsoft

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Source: Major Nelson