Hasta La Gadget!

One of the ways we would be able to tell that our webcams are active, regardless whether used as a microphone or as a webcam, would be a light on the device that basically lets us know that it is on. Unfortunately it would seem as though there are ways to go around disabling that, as researchers from the John Hopkins University have shared in which they demonstrated how hackers are able to remotely control MacBook iSight cameras without alerting the user, namely due to their ability to disable the LED indicator light.

According to the report, “We describe how to disable the LED on a class of Apple internal iSight webcams used in some versions of MacBook laptops and iMac desktops […] This enables video to be captured without any visual indication to the user and can be accomplished entirely in user space by an unprivileged (non- root) application.” This is accomplished by reprogramming the camera’s micro-controller, from which they were able to turn on the webcam separately from the light.

The semi-good news is that the hack affects older MacBook computers up to 2008’s models, include the iMac G5, so if you’re a new owner of a MacBook Air/Pro or iMac, you can rest easy, but if you want to be safe, you could always place a tape over the iSight camera when not in use.

Researchers Discover Method To Hack The MacBook’s iSight Camera original content from Ubergizmo.

Welcome to our coverage of all the best Black Friday deals. Deals are continuing to pour in, and this post will be constantly updated right up to the point when our Cyber Monday guide goes live. These deals are all subject to change and subject to price-matches (especially online price matches), and we can tell you that there are lots of deals still embargoed or not yet announced.

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If you’ve a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display which has a temperamental keyboard and touchpad, don’t worry too much: Apple is working on a fix.

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It’s been a while since a new MacBook Pro has hit the market, so if you’ve been holding out for a long time waiting for a new model of Apple’s top-end laptop to hit, you’ll be happy to know that a new model has finally been announced.

The 2014 MacBook Pros have gotten a bump in processor speed, battery life and overall performance. Both the 13″ and 15″ have Retina displays, use fast PCIe Flash memory for storage, and also beefed up networking performance with 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Both models also offer a speedy Thunderbolt 2 connection, running at twice the speed of the prior port.

The new 13″ MacBook Pro is just .71″ thin, and powered by the latest-gen Intel Haswell i5 Dual-Core CPU. Graphics are powered by Intel Iris, which runs up up to 90% faster than the past generation. Battery life for the 13″ model is rated at a substantial nine hours. Prices for the 13″ MacBook Pro starts at $1299(USD), $200 less than the last generation. The base model includes a 2.4GHz CPU, 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD storage.

The 15″ MacBook Pro runs a fast quad-core Intel Crystalwell i7 CPU and Intel Iris Pro graphics – with the option to upgrade to NVIDIA GeForce GT750M graphics. Battery life for the 15″ is rated at up to eight hours. Prices for the 15″ MacBook Pro start at $1999, vs. $2199 for the previous gen. That model includes a 2.0GHz i7 CPU, 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD.

All MacBook Pros ship with the latest and greatest version of Mac OS X, Mavericks pre-installed, and should be available from the Apple Store later today.

Today at Apple’s press conference, the company unveiled updated MacBook Pro models with retina displays. The new laptops sport the latest Intel processors based on the Haswell architecture. Both the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros got updated.

The 13-inch model is lighter (under 3.5 lbs), slimmer (.71 inch thick) and has a bigger 9-hour battery. It has integrated graphics and Thunderbolt 2 – the new Thunderbolt could help drive external retina displays. The flash-based storage is faster and this laptop comes with a new Wi-Fi chip supporting the faster 802.11ac standard. The new 13-inch model starts at $1,299 instead of $1,499. For $1,299, you get a 2.5GHz dual core i5, 4GB of RAM, 128GB of storage and the Intel Iris graphics chip.

The 15-inch model comes with a quad core processor and Intel Iris Pro graphics. There are separate models with discrete graphics, but the entry-level one won’t get a dedicated AMD or Intel chip. It now sells for $1,999 instead of $2,199. For this price, you get a 2.0GHz quad core i7, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and the Iris Pro graphics integrated chip. Not shipping a dedicated graphics card is a step backward in some way, but it will certainly improve battery life. We will have to wait for benchmarks to see if the Intel chip is enough for a wide range of tasks.

These two MacBook Pros ship today. Phil Schiller didn’t say anything about the old MacBook Pro laptops with a DVD drive. These models will maybe be slowly phased out, but it’s unclear. Schiller kept saying “MacBook Pro”, like it was the only existing version. For now, there is one thing for sure – Apple is not putting any emphasis on its thick MacBook Pro.