Hasta La Gadget!

1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone?
Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.

The big hubbub that arose last week around location tracking within the iPhone has now received its due response from Apple itself. Firstly, the Cupertino company claims it does not, and has no plans to, track users’ iPhones. What it’s actually doing is “maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location,” which are then used to provide speedier calculation of your position when you want to use the device’s maps or other location-based services. The data collection that was recently brought to the public attention represents, according to Apple, the location of WiFi hotspots and cell towers around you, not your actual iPhone. Still, the fact iPhones have been shown to store as much as a year’s worth of data is considered a bug by Apple, who plans to limit that period to a week in a future software update. The additional issue of data being collected after users turned off Location Services is also a bug, also to be fixed by Apple in that upcoming update. Left unanswered, however, are the questions of when Apple “uncovered” these bugs, as it claims, and why the fix for them is only coming now. Specialists have known about this behavior since at least September of last year. Either way, the software remedy is promised over the next few weeks, while the next major iteration of iOS should encrypt the cache file that’s been the subject of all the scrutiny. You’ll find the full Q&A after the break.

P.S. — One of Apple’s answers seems to disclose an extra bit of new information: “Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.”

Continue reading Apple officially answers questions on location tracking, says it doesn’t do it

Apple officially answers questions on location tracking, says it doesn’t do it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nintendo has just announced it plans to introduce a successor to its Wii console next year, a “playable model” of which will be shown off at the E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles coming up on June 7th. No details are available as to how the next Wii will improve on the first one, though we imagine Nintendo will be happy if it simply matches the success of its current-gen home entertainer — the brief note publicizing the new roadmap also comes with a total of Wii sales accumulated between its launch in ’06 and the end of last month: 86.01 million. That’s said to be on a “consolidated shipment basis,” so maybe Nintendo is mixing its definitions of sales and shipments the way Sony likes to, but it’s a mighty big number either way. Bring on E3, we say!

Update: Bloomberg has provided the first official hint about Nintendo’s next console with a quote from company President Satoru Iwata. Nintendo will “propose a new approach to home video game consoles,” though it won’t be a simple move to 3D, as Iwata notes “it’s difficult to make 3-D images a key feature, because 3-D televisions haven’t obtained wide acceptance yet.” Given that motion gaming is no longer new and 3D is off the table until 3DTVs go mainstream, we’re now left facing only one potentiality — Nintendo is planning on bringing genuine innovation to our living rooms. We suppose it also adds fuel to the rumor of a crazy next-gen controller to go with this next-gen console.

Continue reading Nintendo confirms next Wii coming in 2012, will preview it at E3

Nintendo confirms next Wii coming in 2012, will preview it at E3 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 03:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google may have stashed the locations of every WiFi access point and convenience store goodie the world over, but there are things that even 360-degree cameras, massive algorithms and self-driving cars can’t do; things like map out the locations of all your favorite neighborhood haunts. That’s why Google needs you. This week, the company unleashed Google Map Maker on the United States, which is basically a parallel version of Google Maps that anyone can add to — fleshing out the existing grid with additional details like precise structures, secret passages, whatever you care to name. Google plans to review all crowdsourced edits, however, so it won’t quite be a free-for-all — prepare for a wee bit of skepticism when you divulge the locations of buried nuclear launch silos, alien artifacts, and your local Jedi dojo.

Google’s Map Maker is a clone of Maps, except you can scribble local data all over it originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now we’re talking. After Nintendo slyly told us that the 3DS set a day-one US sales record for its handheld division, it has now been more forthright and actually disclosed some cold hard numbers. 400,000 3DS units were shifted in the month of March, says Nintendo of America chief Reggie Fils-Aime, which amounts to just one working week’s worth of sales when you consider the portable console launched on March 27th. That was still enough time for it to threaten the DS’ overall March tally of 460,000, however, and extrapolated over a full 30 days would total a whopping 2.4 million transactions. Of course, sales rarely sustain such a roaring pace after launch, but Reggie foresees good things for the 3DS with a marquee Legend of Zelda game, the launch of the E-Shop, and Netflix integration all coming over the summer. So the future’s bright, we just wish it didn’t have to be turquoise.

Nintendo 3DS clocks up 400,000 US sales in opening week, nearly matches month-long total for DS originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Apr 2011 04:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Self-encrypting drives are hardly new, but that doesn’t mean researchers aren’t still looking for ways to give those IT folks behind the curtain more ways to lock down sensitive intel. Toshiba just launched a line of self-encrypting HDDs that will “invalidate” the data — essentially, rendering it useless — when the laptop connects to an unknown host. IT departments can also use Toshiba’s so-called Wipe Technology to scrub a machine before tossing it, or encrypt the drives every time someone powers down. The company won’t be peddling these directly to consumers, of course, and in fact, Tosh is planning on shopping them around not just for laptops, but multifunction printers and point-of-sale systems, too. They’ll come in five sizes, ranging from 160GB to 640GB, and will all run at 7,200RPM. And Tosh says it’ll work with OEMs to help them customize the conditions that will trigger a data lockup. It’s too soon to say what laptops will pack this technology, though the company is clearly moving quickly — it’ll start showing off samples this month and will ramp up mass production by late June.

Continue reading Toshiba’s Wipe HDDs render data useless when you get online in a strange place

Toshiba’s Wipe HDDs render data useless when you get online in a strange place originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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