Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Apple Returns to Growth: Company Reports Record-Smashing $78.4 Billion Revenue

After having weathered one of its worst slumps in overall revenue and growth since 2001, Apple on Tuesday afternoon reported its all-time best quarterly earnings ever.

Apple shipped a total of 78.29 million iPhone 7 handsets, comfortably besting estimates of 77.42 million units. As far as overall revenue, the Cupertino-company raked in a staggering $78.4 billion, exceeding estimates by over $1.15 billion. In comparison, the company’s previous record-setting quarter — the same fiscal Q1 of last year — saw the company bring in $75.9 billion, on sales of 45.5 million iPhone 6s handsets.

In stark contrast to the iPhone, Apple’s iPad unfortunately continues to struggle, and the company reported shipping just 13 million units during the holiday quarter, which is down 19% from the 16.1 million units shipped during the same quarter last year. Worth noting, however, is that Apple didn’t release any major iPad refreshes during fiscal Q1 ending December 30 — aside from minor storage bumps and price drops to the 12.9- and 9.7-inch iPad Pros, which were introduced during the fiscal Q1 and Q2 of 2016, respectively. Also, the rumor mill has been swirling like crazy lately, as analysts and Apple insiders are predicting that 2017 will be a big year for the iPad.

We’re thrilled to report that our holiday quarter results generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way,” said Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, adding that there was “especially strong demand” for the company’s top-tier iPhone 7 Plus. “We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch.”

Apple also reported greater than expected growth in its ever-expanding Services business, which includes iCloud, iTunes, Apple Music, and the App Store. Numerically speaking, Cupertino’s Services business, in and of itself, brought in $7.17 billion, besting estimates of $6.91 billion, and easily quashing the company’s previous record of $6.06 billion set during the same fiscal Q1 last year.

“Revenue from Services grew strongly over last year, led by record customer activity on the App Store, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline.”

As far as the future is pertinent, Cook and company have plenty of reasons to be optimistic. While the Chief Executive provided guidance of between $51.3 and $51.5 billion in earnings for Apple’s fiscal Q2 of 2017, the company still has plenty of time, over the next few quarters, to deliver on its promises of many exciting things to come.

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Newly Discovered Vulnerability in Netgear Modems and Routers Could Allow Attackers to Gain Full Access of Devices

A vulnerability in Netgear routers and modems could potentially allow hackers to gain full control of affected devices, according to a new report.

The exploit could allow attackers to bypass authentication via a device’s password recovery system. This, in turn, could allow them to gain full administrative access to the router or modem and its settings, according to Simon Kenin, a Trustwave security researcher who first discovered the exploit. Worryingly, the security hole could affect hundreds of thousands, if not over a million devices, Kenin wrote in a Jan. 30 blog post. Trustwave has since reported the exploit to the U.S. National Vulnerability Database.

Luckily, the exploit can only be done remotely if a certain remote administration setting is turned on — and it’s normally off by default, Kenin said. Still, attackers with physical access to a network running on a vulnerable router — such as public Wi-Fi networks in coffee shops, libraries and businesses — can use the security hole.

What’s worrisome about the security hole, Kenin writes, is that attackers could potentially use exploited devices at botnets to initiate large-scale hacking, like October’s 2016 DDoS attacks. In that case, hackers uses affected webcams and DVRs with easy-to-guess default passwords to create an “army” of resources that they used to cause widespread internet disruptions.

Netgear is aware of the exploit, and has already released an updated firmware patch on its website that closes the security hole. In addition, the company posted this list of affected devices. If you see your model on the list below, it’s strongly recommended that you update your firmware.

  • R8500
  • R8300
  • R7000
  • R6400
  • R7300DST
  • R7100LG
  • R6300v2
  • WNDR3400v3
  • WNR3500Lv2
  • R6250
  • R6700
  • R6900
  • R8000
  • R7900
  • WNDR4500v2
  • R6200v2
  • WNDR3400v2
  • D6220
  • D6400
  • C6300

Additionally, Netgear released a list of routers and DSL gateways running on certain firmware versions that do not have an available fix. For owners of these devices, Netgear recommends that users manually enable password recovery features and disable remote management. Those devices include:

  • R6200 on v1.0.1.56_1.0.43
  • R6300 on v1.0.2.78_1.0.58
  • VEGN2610 on v1.0.0.14_1.0.12
  • AC1450 on v1.0.0.34_10.0.16
  • WNR1000v3 on v1.0.2.68_60.0.93
  • WNDR3700v3 on v1.0.0.38_1.0.31
  • WNDR4000 on v1.0.2.4_9.1.86
  • WNDR4500 on v1.0.1.40_1.0.68
  • D6300 on v1.0.0.96
  • D6300B on v1.0.0.40
  • DGN2200Bv4 on v1.0.0.68
  • DGN2200v4 on v1.0.0.76

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Will 2017 Be the Year of the ‘Virtual Assistant’? Competition Heats up Among Leading Smartphone Manufacturers

As we progress into 2017 and the years beyond, smartphone manufacturers are increasingly waking up to the sobering fact that in an ever-competitive, and ever-evolving marketplace, no longer is it just the physical features of a device that make it great — but also the software advancements to the underlying user experience, and the fluidity thereof, that will keep loyal customers coming back with each successive release.

One of the key, software-based areas in which we’ve seen an uptick in developments lately is in the ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (AI) space, where a number of the world’s leading device manufacturers have invested heavily in an effort to create an AI-based virtual assistant that’s capable of “outsmarting all the rest.”

Apple and Google, in particular, have already been paving the path forward when it comes to their work on Siri and Google Assistant, and while each is certainly not without its hiccups and flaws, Siri has shown a great amount of promise when it comes to offering users a more natural, conversational-type response to inquiries.

Yet even as Apple and Google continue to refine and perfect their already top-notch platforms, other device manufactures — including the likes of HTC, Nokia, Samsung, and more — have decided to dive headlong into their own attempts to create viable AI-based assistants. HTC, when it unveiled its upcoming U Ultra and U Play handsets earlier this month, at the same time unveiled its forthcoming “AI assistant,” known as HTC Sense Companion, which according to PhoneArena, will supposedly offer some pretty basic voice recognition functionality.

For example, Sense Companion will be able to respond to inquiries using data like frequently used apps or contacts, as well as issue traffic and travel notifications based on your pre-existing calendar events. Not exactly a “game-changing” platform, suffice it to say, but there’s always a room to grow, right?

Samsung and Nokia, likewise, are also working on their own AI-based virtual assistants, known as ‘Bixby’ and ‘Viki’, respectively. As for Samsung, ‘Bixby’ is rumored to take the unique new form of a ‘visual search’ assistant, which will be able to analyze your photos and provide additional details about the objects pictured within them. Bixby is slated to be revealed next month alongside Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S8 flagship. So while the details are scarce right now, we should definitely know more about what ‘Bixby’ will be able to do at that time. Similarly, Nokia is reportedly experimenting with a home-brewed AI-based assistant of its own, named ‘Viki’; however there is little to no substantial information regarding Viki available yet.

Reports have also surfaced indicating that Amazon’s Echo-only ‘Alexa’ voice assistant platform will be coming to a myriad of U.S.-destined Android handsets, including offerings from Huawei; which may be a blow to Google, seeing as how the breadth of Android-powered handsets have historically relied on Google’s proprietary virtual assistant platform.

So the competition is fierce, and increasingly so, as manufacturers work to deliver devices that not only please customers with their physical bells-and-whistles, but also offer the most robust and helpful UI advancements. With that said, 2017 is shaping up to be an innovative and ultimately monumental year for AI-based virtual assistants.

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iOS 10.3 Error Suggests the End of 32-Bit App Support, Pre-iPhone 5s Devices Could Soon Become Obsolete

An upcoming version of iOS will nix support for 32-bit applications, according to an error message discovered in an iOS 10.3 beta. News of Apple dropping 32-bit support first came from Vienna, Austria-based developer Peter Steinberger, who tweeted an error message on Tuesday that he discovered in the first iOS 10.3 beta.

“This app will not work with future versions of iOS. The developer of this app needs to update it to improve its compatibility,” the message reads.

In iOS 9 and iOS 10, opening 32-bit applications triggers an error message that the app in question will “slow down [an] iPhone” — so 32-bit compatibility issues aren’t anything new. But the subtle change in wording in the iOS 10.3 developer beta seems to suggest that legacy support for 32-bit apps will be dropped entirely in a future version of iOS — which will likely be iOS 11, judging by Apple’s track record of releasing compatibility-breaking updates.

The iPhone 5s — with its A7 processor — marked the iPhone’s shift to 64-bit architecture — and in the wake of the switch, Cupertino has been putting pressure on developers to update their apps. In October 2014, Apple posted a notice to their developer’s web page that all new apps from February 1 forward would be required to offer 64-bit support. Similarly, in June 2015, they required all app updates to do the same.

In the future, this shift to 64-bit software would effectively end the 32-bit era — and cause 32-bit devices like the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and fourth-gen iPad to be left behind as far as iOS and app updates. Eventually, these devices will become obsolete.

iOS 10.3, which was seeded to developers last Tuesday, is the latest update to Apple’s iOS 10 operating system, and it adds several features such as a new Find My AirPods app, as well as general bug fixes and performance improvements. As far as iOS 11, Apple is largely expected to unveil its newest major iOS update at its Worldwide Developers Conference later this year.

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watchOS 3.2 Beta with ‘Theater Mode’ Officially Released to Developers

Apple recently released the first beta version of watchOS 3.2 to developers. At the moment, there is no public beta version of watchOS 3.2 – it’s only available to developers. It does, however, include several new features that should prove convenient to users when the official version is released. 

The first feature, and likely one of the most important additions to the Apple Watch, is SiriKit support. Introduced in iOS 10, SiriKit allows third-party developers to access Siri, enabling users to use Siri to complete actions like book rides in Uber or Lyft, send a message in WhatsApp, or send a payment with Venmo, etc. Seeing as how SiriKit support was just introduced with the Apple Watch, it will take quite some time for developers to build Siri functionality into their apps. Support for SiriKit was an important addition to iOS, however, and will likely prove to be a great addition to watchOS, as well. 

In addition to SiriKit support, watchOS 3.2 beta 1 also introduces “Theater Mode” to the Apple Watch. Originally thought to premiere in the first beta of iOS 10.3, Theater Mode is designed to allow users to quickly mute the notification sounds on the Apple Watch while simultaneously disabling the Raise to Wake function, making the watch more suitable for environments such as a movie theater where notification sounds or the light from the screen could prove distracting.

Users access Theater Mode by swiping up on the face and tapping the Theater Mode icon, represented by the classic comedy and tragedy theater masks. When in Theater Mode, users will still receive notifications via haptic feedback, but sounds are muted and the screen will remain dark until activated with a tap or via the Digital Crown. Users are still able to slowly activate the screen by slowly scrolling the Digital Crown while Theater Mode is enabled, as well.

Seeing as how the first beta version of watchOS 3.2 was just released, it will likely be quite some time before the official watchOS 3.2 update rolls out. There is no definite release date at the moment, although some are speculating that Apple will release the update this coming March.

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Trump’s Executive Order Draft Could Be Detrimental to the Tech Industry

The Trump administration has reportedly drafted an executive order that could overhaul the H-1B work visa program that tech companies depend on to bring foreign talent into their ranks. News of the draft comes just days after President Trump issued an executive order banning travel entry from seven predominantly Muslim countries last Friday.

In a press briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer characterized the potential action on work visas as “part of a larger immigration effort” that is meant to respond to “an overall need to look at all of these measures”, according to USA Today.

A copy of the proposed draft, acquired by Bloomberg, reads in part: “Our country’s immigration policies should be designed and implemented to serve, first and foremost, the U.S. national interest…Visa programs for foreign workers … should be administered in a manner that protects the civil rights of American workers and current lawful residents, and that prioritizes the protection of American workers — our forgotten working people — and the jobs they hold.”

Trump’s stance on immigration and recent immigration ban has riled Silicon Valley leaders whose companies have often used the foreign work visa program to recruit STEM talent from abroad in order to fill highly technical positions. Some, however, allege that the H1-B visa program, which is capped at approximately 65,000 per fiscal year, is being used to bring in cheap labor from overseas, dragging down wages and undercutting American workers.

Following last Friday’s travel ban, Apple CEO Tim Cook circulated an internal memo, acquired by MacRumors, pledging support for affected Apple employees and reaffirming the company’s indebtedness to the outsize contributions of immigrants: “In my conversations with officials here in Washington this week, I’ve made it clear that Apple believes deeply in the importance of immigration — both to our company and to our nation’s future. Apple would not exist without immigration, let alone thrive and innovate the way we do.”

Other tech leaders, including the heads of Netflix, Microsoft, Uber, AirBnB, and Tesla also voiced criticism of the policy. Google CEO Sundar Pichai denounced the order, arguing that it had stranded nearly 200 of his employees overseas, according to USA Today.

Immigration experts say Trump’s tough stance could end up severely disrupt tech recruitment, development, and job creation, and divert competitive talent to foreign countries with more accommodating immigration laws.

While the precise visa reforms the draft proposes are unclear, it reportedly covers a broad swathe of US visa programs including H-1B, L-1, E-2 and B1.

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Here’s Why Removal of Apple’s ‘Activation Lock’ Check Utility Can Be Harmful to Consumers

Over the weekend, Apple decided to remove its otherwise helpful ‘Activation Lock’ verification utility from its iCloud website, which previously allowed users to enter an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch’s Serial or IMEI number in order to help them determine if the device is secured by Apple’s default Activation Lock feature. In this way, the utility once enabled users to determine whether or not the second-hand iPhone or iPad they’re gearing up to purchase is locked to another user, or, in other words, whether it’s a lost or stolen device.

A quick visit to the webpage previously occupied by the utility at iCloud.com/unlock now reveals one of Apple’s notorious ‘404 Error: Not Found’ pages, complete with that surprised, ostensibly confused looking cloud, and all.

Why Does the Removal of the Activation Lock Check Utility Matter?

What’s most disappointing about the page’s absence, of course, is that the Activation Lock utility had become a sort of “go-to” authentication method for second-hand iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch buyers, in that they could personally check if the device they’re interested in was ever lost or stolen, prior to opening up their pocketbooks. The utility was extremely helpful, for instance, when users would go to buy an iPhone or iPad on eBay or Craigslist, and, by simply asking the seller for the device’s serial or IMEI numbers, the potential buyer could enter it at iCloud.com to determine if the unit is the real deal or not.

In addition to the ‘404 Error: Not Found’ page, Apple also removed the following statement from its official Activation Lock Support page; and, as of Monday afternoon, the company has provided no explanation — or even so much as a comment, for that matter — in regards to the reason why the page is missing.

“How do I check for Activation Lock before purchasing a used device?

When you buy an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Apple Watch from someone other than Apple or an authorized Apple reseller, it is up to you to ensure that the device is erased and no longer linked to the previous owner’s account.

You can check the current Activation Lock status of a device when you visit http://ift.tt/1v92Osj from any Mac or PC.”

While the absence of a viable authentication tool poses an increased danger for those who wheel and deal in the area of second-hand iPhones and iPads, its removal could also be the result of Apple’s latest security projects — as the company seeks to develop and implement newer, more advanced protocols to keep users safe.

Do you ever buy your iPhones or iPads on the second-hand market?
Let us know in the comments!

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Monday, January 30, 2017

Are People Going Deaf Due to Headphone Loudness?

From standard wired earbuds to Apple’s new AirPods, headphones are prevalent among smartphone users — and their use is only increasing. But despite how widespread they are, a new study has found that hearing loss is actually in decline among Americans.

By now, it’s common knowledge that using headphones at high volumes for extended periods of time can cause hearing loss. According to the American Osteopathic Association, around 1 in 5 teens has some degree of hearing loss — a 30 percent jump over rates in the 1980s and 1990s. Modern devices have the ability to produce sounds at around the same volume as a live music concert — 120 decibels. At that volume, permanent hearing loss can occur in just an hour and a half, according to Dr. James Foy, an osteopathic specialist from California.

Worryingly, most people who suffer hearing loss aren’t even aware of it unless they undergo a hearing test or medical examination, Dr. Foy said. Worst of all, the type of hearing loss that headphones can cause is irreversible.

And yet, despite all of the cautionary tales, hearing loss is actually on the decline, according to a study published in the JAMA Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery journal. The team of researchers behind the study found that — out of a sample of 40- to 70-year-old Americans — 14 percent had hearing loss. That sample was studied from 2011 to 2012, and had a 2 percent decline from a similar sample from 1999 to 2004. The study also found that hearing loss is continuing to decline among adults aged 20 to 69.

Why Is Hearing Loss Declining?

Why is hearing loss on the decline when music is actually getting louder and headphones are more ubiquitous than ever? According to Forbes, it’s likely due to a combination of factors, including decreasing noise pollution levels, better ear protection for workers exposed to loud noises, lower rates of smoking, and even a reduction in doctors prescribing medications connected to hearing loss.

Additionally, audiologist Gregory Flamme, one of the JAMA study’s co-authors, told NPR that few people actually use headphones “loud enough or long enough” to cause any long-term hearing damage.

Still, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be careful about exposure to loud music or sound via headphones. Apple, for example, has an entire web page dedicated to educating consumers about sound and using headphones safely. And its devices, including iPod and iPhone, have safety measures that can curb hearing loss — including a Volume Limit found in Settings > Music.

Also, it’s especially important to be vigilant about hearing loss in teenagers and children. According a December article by the New York Times, as many as half of devices that are branded as being “safe for young ears” didn’t adhere to promised volume limits.

What Else Can I Do to Lower the Risk of Hearing Loss?

As far as preventing hearing loss, Dr. Foy recommends that you set your volume to around 60 percent of its maximum level, and to limit your listening to about an hour a day. If you experience symptoms such as difficulty hearing normal conversations, ringing or buzzing in the ear, or a feeling that your ear is plugged, he recommends that you visit a doctor as soon as possible.

Do you feel that loud music has caused your hearing to worsen?
Let us know in the comments below!

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Apple Removes Prominent Iranian-Based Apps from the App Store

Apple is reportedly removing Iranian apps from the App Store. According to Iranian tech site TechRasa, Apple has been specifically removing apps that “facilitate transactions for businesses or entities based in Iran.”

Although there are, according to TechRasa, some 40 million smartphones in Iran, 6 million of which are iPhones (with an additional 100,000 iPhones smuggled into the country every month), there is currently no official App Store in Iran. Apple briefly opened the app store to Iranian users in October of last year, although most users were still unable to download paid apps or use the in-app purchase system for many apps due to the fact that Iranians still have no access to international payment mechanisms. According to TechCrunch, many Iranian companies resort to registering their apps as being created outside of Iran in order to get onto the App Store, and several Iranian banks have created iOS apps that are often side-loaded onto users’ phones.

No comprehensive list of which apps that have been removed has been compiled as of yet. Most notably, perhaps, Digikala, the largest e-commerce startup in Iran and the Middle East, had their app removed from the App store. Digikala serves around 750,000 unique visitors a day, and accounts for over 80% of Iran’s e-commerce. Digikala’s app disappeared from the App Store several days ago with no explanation, although a notice from Apple to Iranian developers rejected from the App Store hints that the removal of the aforementioned apps has to do with the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations issued by the US Department of Treasury.

Unfortunately, there is no App Store available for the territory of Iran. Additionally, apps facilitating transactions for businesses or entities based in Iran may not comply with the Iranian Transactions Sanctions Regulations (31CFR Part 560) when hosted on the App Store. For these reasons, we are unable to accept your application at this time. We encourage you to resubmit your application once international trade laws are revised to allow this functionality.

Somewhat surprisingly, the most prominent app affected by the sanctions, Digikala, uses the Shaparak payment system, which is, as TechCrunch describes, “completely isolated from international systems, so would in theory not contravene Apple’s [terms and conditions].” There are several other options available to app developers to allow in-app payments, as well, that theoretically would not violate the sanctions put forth by the US Department of Treasury. It’s unclear at this point whether or not Apple will work towards addressing the issue. The company has yet to issue an official comment on the matter.

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Apple’s Switch to OLED Displays for iPhone 8 Could Cost $50 Million in Profit, Analyst Claims

Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone is largely expected to feature an edge-to-edge OLED display — but that move could cost Cupertino around $50 million in 2017’s second quarter.

That prediction comes from analyst Timothy Arcuri, who said the cost could potentially be a “pinch point” for Apple despite gross margins remaining flat at just under 39 percent, according a Cowen and Company memo sent to investors and obtained by AppleInsider.

OLED technology offers a number of advantages over traditional LCD displays, among them sharper contrast ratios, quicker refresh rates, and lower power consumption. Still, there are few OLED manufacturers that are equipped to deal with the sheer scale and demand that Apple would require.

One company that could is Samsung — currently the world’s largest supplier of OLED displays. Back in July, iDrop News reported that the Korean company would ship nearly 40 million OLED display units to Cupertino by early 2017. Similarly, Sharp Corporation’s CEO, Tai Jeng-wu, said that the Japanese company is building out OLED manufacturing facilities in Japan, and is prepared to produce OLED panels in the U.S. if Cupertino needs them to.

“If our key customer demands us to manufacture in the U.S., is it possible for us not to do so?” Jeng-wu told students at Tatung University in October.

Apple’s demand for OLED displays is expected to be so great that many underdog manufacturers, like Vivo, Oppo and Huawei, are scrambling to secure OLED panels. Between Apple, Samsung and other manufacturers, there will likely be an OLED supply shortage in 2017, according to a source familiar with Apple’s supply chain.

As far as Apple’s bottom line, the company will release Q1 2017’s quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, Jan. 31. In the Cowen and Company’s investor memo, Arcuri predicted that Apple will report 76 million iPhone shipments during the first quarter.

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Fitbit Cuts $200 Million in Jobs and Expenses, Apple Watch Remains Wearable Market Leader

Fitbit, Inc. announced a 6 percent cut of its workforce Monday due to weak fourth-quarter revenue reports.

The company cited “softer-than-expected” holiday demand last year as a primary reason for the “direct action” according to a Jan. 30 press release. Along with realigning spending and investing, the company said it will also reduce its workforce. While the business reorganization is slated to save the company about $200 million, it will affect roughly 110 employees, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In the wake of the announcement, shares of Fitbit dropped nearly 13 percent during Monday’s morning trading, USA Today reported.

While the Fitbit lowered growth has been prevalent in its most “mature markets” — namely the United States and North America — CEO James Park did note that the company saw fast growth in several markets, including Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Despite 4th quarter reports, Parks said that the company is still in a key position to provide products for the healthcare ecosystem.

“We believe the evolving wearables market continues to present growth opportunities for us that we will capitalize on by investing in our core product offerings,” Parks said.

Additionally, while primarily a fitness tracker manufacturer, Fitbit announced that it will continue to expand into the $10 billion global smartwatch market — a move that will bring the San Francisco-based company into direction competition with Cupertino’s Apple Watch. The company is already positioning itself to do so, if its recent acquisitions of Pebble, Vector Watch and Coin are any indication.

Still, Fitbit will likely face stiff competition from Apple and other smartwatch makers. While Fitbit currently dominates the wearables market, it’s largely failed to take any ground away from Apple’s smartwatch dominance. In 2016’s 4th quarter in the U.S., the Apple Watch occupied as much as 50 percent of the smartwatch market share, according to research firm Kantar Worldpanel. That’s a sharp increase from the 24 percent the company controlled during the 3rd quarter — a jump that’s likely attributable to the release of the Apple Watch Series 2.

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Majority of Consumers Are Paying More for ‘Cooler’ Premium iPhones, New Report Claims

It appears that the majority of customers are willing to pay more money to own an iPhone boasting more premium, technologically advanced features, according to an analysis conducted by one prominent Apple research firm, whose findings were recently published in The Wall Street Journal.

More specifically, Timothy Arcuri of Cowen & Company went on record speculating that Apple sold around 58.5 million iPhone 7 handsets during its fiscal first-quarter ending December 30 — 24 million (or 40%) of which, he believes, were of the larger, more premium iPhone 7 Plus variety. What Arcuri was quick to point out, however, is that the sales estimate of 24 million iPhone 7 Plus units actually represents a sizable, 17% increase in year-over-year sales (compared to Apple’s iPhone 6s Plus handset, which launched during the same quarter of 2015.)

“The iPhone base wants a new, cooler iPhone. There’s a lot of pent-up demand for a product with newer, cooler features,” Arcuri noted, adding that the lesser-expensive, base-model iPhone 7 “doesn’t deliver.”

Launched in September of 2016, Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were somewhat different from the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus before them, mainly in that they were the first devices of the same lineage to offer up slightly differing feature sets. For instance, while the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are essentially identical in the software and internal components departments, the larger, iPhone 7 Plus — for an additional $120 premium over its smaller-screened counterpart — offers users a dramatically beefed-up, DSLR-like camera module, as well as the larger, 5.5-inch screen, an additional gigabyte of RAM, and a larger battery.

So while we’re still awaiting Apple’s official fiscal first-quarter earning results, which are slated for reveal on January 31, the considerable increase in iPhone 7 Plus sales is, as Arcuri believes, a clear indication that customers are hungering for more premium, feature-rich phones — and that they’re certainly not afraid to pay the price, either.

Yet this news comes as iPhone sales, on the whole, remain at their most stagnant levels in years. Most Wall Street analysts, for example, are warning of an overall, cautiously optimistic 4% growth in iPhone sales, year-over-year, which would make Apple’s iPhone 7 the first ‘whole-number’ upgrade to have increased by a single-digit percentage in the last several years. For instance, the unveiling of Apple’s iPhone 6 spawned a sales increase of approximately 46% during its 2014 launch season; and, two years prior to that, the company’s iPhone 5 bolstered an overall sales increase of 29% during its launch quarter.

Of course, whether or not customers are truly willing to ‘pay more’ for a more advanced, feature-rich iPhone will become resoundingly clearer this fall, when Apple is all but certain to unveil its highly anticipated, 10th anniversary iPhone, featuring uber-premium specs like a 5.5-5.8-inch curved OLED display, wireless charging, better IP68 waterproofing, and much more.

Are you among those who are willing to pay more money for a more premium iPhone? Let us know in the comments!

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Saturday, January 28, 2017

Apple to Transfer Massive International iTunes Business to Ireland in February

Late last year, Apple announced that its entire international iTunes business would relocate to Cork in Ireland, and transferred some $9 billion worth of iTunes intellectual property from Luxembourg to the island tax haven shortly thereafter. Now, Apple has announced that the official move-in date has been set for February 5.

The move entails a transfer of its non-US iTunes operations serving more than 100 countries, and covers Apple Music, the iTunes Store, the App Store, and the iBooks Store. Apple’s Luxembourg business will be shuttered on February 4.

Although Apple informed developers of its intentions and moved all developer contracts to one of its Irish subsidiaries, Apple Distribution International, back in September, the move still comes as something of surprise and a slight to European regulators.

Apple’s cozy relationship with Ireland has been embroiled in controversy for some time. In August, the European Union (EU) ordered Ireland to collect close to $14 billion in back taxes plus interest from Apple following a years-long investigation. The EU concluded that the ultra-low tax rate Apple enjoyed constituted illegal state aid that gave Ireland an unfair competitive advantage over other EU member states, which may explain Apple’s decision to leave Luxembourg. Ireland levies a 12.5 percent corporate tax rate, whereas the US demands 35 percent. In 2014, however, Apple paid an effective corporate tax rate of just 0.005 percent on its European profits– well below Ireland’s standard corporate tax rate.

Apple and Ireland have locked arms and stridently denied the accusations, with both vowing to challenge the EU ruling. Apple has operated in Ireland since 1980 and currently employs around 5,500 people in Cork, making it the city’s largest private employer, with plans to expand by 1,000 more. By some estimates, Apple’s Irish operations generate nearly $24 billion in salaries, taxes, and investment.

Some local legislators fear that collecting the sum could frighten other foreign multinational corporations away from Ireland, a nation in which roughly 10 percent of the workforce is employed by overseas companies. Others accuse the EU of interfering in Ireland’s affairs, agreeing with Apple’s position that the fine was “politically motivated.”

However, Ireland’s decision to refuse billions in back taxes from Apple has attracted criticism from some within its government, who argue that the money could go a long way toward ameliorating the effects of harsh cutbacks imposed under fiscal austerity.

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Friday, January 27, 2017

Apple CEO Tim Cook Spotted Dining with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Signifying Positive Relations

Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted having dinner Thursday with Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner at Tosca, a high-end Italian restaurant just a few blocks away from the White House. According to Politico, the influential trio were joined in their Beltway power dinner by former Obama administration official Lisa Jackson, who is currently Apple VP of environment, policy, and social initiatives. She currently also sits on the board of the Clinton Foundation.

AP/Composite via Business Insider

The meeting is yet another indication that Apple and other Silicon Valley corporations are repositioning following an acrimonious campaign season that put them at loggerheads with Donald Trump. Cook and other tech executives previously met face to face with Trump during a tech summit hosted at Trump Tower shortly after his election victory. Last month, Cook defended the decision in an internal memo to employees, in which he argued broadly that engaging and finding common ground is more profitable than simply yelling and stamping your feet in protest.

“Personally, I’ve never found being on the sideline a successful place to be,” Cook wrote. “The way that you influence these issues is to be in the arena…I think it’s very important to do that because you don’t change things by just yelling. You change things by showing everyone why your way is the best. In many ways, it’s a debate of ideas.”

Some policy priorities for Apple Cook explicitly mentioned in the memo included privacy, security, climate change, and job creation, which is a major element of Trump’s political agenda. Trump also campaigned on slashing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 15%. Cook has also famously proponed this position and publicly stated that Apple will not repatriate the billions in profit it has sheltered abroad until the US corporate tax rate is lowered.

Featured Image: Getty via The Forward

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Older Americans Are More Addicted to Social Media Than Millennials, Nielsen Report Finds

When you think of people addicted to social media, you probably think of millennials. Turns out that isn’t quite the case.

According to a new Nielsen report published this month, older Americans actually spend more time on social media than their younger counterparts.

  • Americans aged 35 to 49 spent around six hours and 58 minutes on social media a week.
  • Americans aged 18 to 34, who spent six hours and 19 minutes a week browsing their social media accounts.
  • Not surprisingly, older adults aged 50 and over spent a lot less time online — spending an average of just over four hours a week on social media, according to the report.

While the selfie generation is synonymous with social media use in the public’s mind, there might be a reason why older Americans out-social media millennials. Sean Casey, Nielsen’s social division president, told the New York Times that, while the findings initially surprised him, they made sense once he realized that Gen X was really the first adult generation to grow up with Facebook and similar platforms.

“At a time when we wanted to be connected, [Facebook] came out right when we were at the top of our media consumption,” Casey told the Times. “It’s become second nature to our generation.”

In addition to age-related statistics, the study also found some other interesting facts. Among them: the absolute ubiquity of smartphones.

  • Around 97 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds and 94 percent of 35- to 49-year-olds in the U.S. use smartphones.
  • While older Americans might not use social media as much, the study found that seventy percent of those 50 and older had access to smartphones.

As far as which social media platform dominated among mobile users:

  1. Facebook took the top position with as astounding 178.2 million unique users a month.
  2. Next in line was Instagram, with 91.5 million users.
  3. Twitter, with 82.2 million users.
  4. Pinterest, with 69.6 million users.

Interestingly, Snapchat, the much-hyped favorite of younger smartphone users, was in sixth place — and ended up behind LinkedIn. The data for these findings was collected during the month of September 2016.

The 29-page Nielsen report was based on data collected from 9,000 smartphone users and 1,300 tablet users between July and September 2016, the New York Times reported. The data was provided, not self-reported.

Of course, the study does leave out one big demographic: teenagers under 18, Quartz points out. Teens, having been raised on social media and having fewer obligations, would have more time to use these platforms. And, indeed, there’s some evidence to back that up: a 2015 article by CNN found that teens spent an average of 9 hours a day consuming various types of media. That amounts to 63 hours per week — dwarfing the reported numbers for both Gen X and millennials.

Featured Image: Denys Prykhodov / Shutterstock, Inc.

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Happy Anniversary, iPad: 7 Years Ago Today, Steve Jobs First Unveiled the Iconic Tablet

Exactly seven years ago today, Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs first introduced the iPad at a 2010 media event.

The original iPad was a device with a 9.7-inch screen. At launch, it ran on Apple’s A4 chip and was available in 16-, 32- and 64-gigabyte models. Two versions launched in the wake of January 2010’s media event: a Wi-Fi only model that rolled out on April 3, and a Wi-Fi and 3G version that debuted on April 30.

A video of the iPad’s unveiling can be seen below.

 

“iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” Steve Jobs said at the event. “iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

During the debut, Jobs also showed off impressive new apps like iBooks — which impressed with its skeuomorphic design — and a new suite of iWork apps tailored for a tablet platform. The original iPad was lauded for its stunning screen and blazingly fast operation. Unlike the netbooks of the era, the iPad managed to fuse incredible technology with many design features borrowed from the company’s iPhone.

Initial criticisms of the original iPad stemmed from its heavy weight, the lack of flash and multitasking in its OS, and no camera. Obviously, as Cupertino released newer and updated iPads, it addressed many if not all of these complaints. While Apple’s current flagship tablet, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, is about the same weight as the original iPad, it’s thinner and much more powerful.

While that original iPad blazed trails and introduced a new class of device to Apple’s ecosystem, its latest iterations might look little like their earliest ancestor. For example, this year’s much-rumored 10.5-inch iPad Pro is largely expected to ditch the iconic home button, as well as feature an edge-to-edge display and significantly reduced bezels.

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Could Apple Be Developing a Vape? The Answer Is No, Apple’s Recent Patent Has Nothing to Do with Recreational Vapes

If Apple entering the recreational vape market sounds like a far-fetched idea, that’s because it is. Despite a slew of sensationalist headlines over the last 24 hours, it’s safe to say that Apple is not going to make a vape.

An Apple patent for a “sublimator/vaporizer” device was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday, causing a stir in the Apple news blogosphere. Quite a few outlets theorized that Cupertino would be entering the recreational vape market with its own vaporizer, while others made more realistic claims that the vaporizer invention could be used in a medical setting.

In actuality, it turns out that neither is the case. The patent in question actually refers to a vaporizer device used in the fabrication of semiconductors. For example, vaporizers are often key in the etching process — which uses chemicals compounds to remove layers from the surface of a substrate during semiconductor fabrication. In another case, vaporizers are used to deposit thin layers of a substance to a wafer in a process known as chemical vapor deposition.

Case in point, there are several other patents floating around the web that describe similar vaporizer devices for the substrate processing phase of semiconductor fabrication. Semiconductor manufacturing is, obviously, a complicated field — but more information on vaporizers / sublimators used in making semiconductors can easily be found online.

As further proof, the patent’s inventor is named as Tetsuya Ishikawa, a senior Apple manager and nanotechnology specialist. Some of the other patents credited to him also focus on semiconductor fabrication, MacRumors reported. Additionally, Ishikawa’s LinkedIn profile lists photolithography — another process used in the fabrication of semiconductors — as one of his skills.

So, yes. While it’s true that a former Apple employee did go on to create his own recreational vaporizer company, it’s highly unlikely that Apple would follow its employees footsteps and enter that market itself. At the very least, that’s not the case here.

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4 iPhone Tricks to Help Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

Ah, New Year’s resolutions: every year we set them with the best of intentions in mind. Travel more, be more active, organized, and productive — so how’s that going (…crickets)? We get it: the year starts off, and you’re going strong with regular trips to the gym and green juice and color coded tabs for all of your emails. Then you get assigned that huge presentation, right around the time of your kid’s school bake sale and PTA meeting.

Life can be understandably hectic — and while we all can’t afford a personal assistant, a lot of us are lucky enough to own an iPhone. Nothing spends more time by your side than an iPhone. When you’re wandering around the city looking for that meeting address, we bet it’s your iPhone that’s delivering the step-by-step navigation. And when you need to reference your email right before talking to your Director, what’s right there? iPhone. So why not make that dynamic work for you in the best way possible? There are tools and solutions out there that will turn your iPhone into your own personal assistant — and hold you accountable to each and every resolution.

It’s still early in the year, and that means there’s still plenty of time to turn this ship back around. Here are our favorite ways your iPhone can help you check off your resolutions, one at a time:

1. Stay Focused and Be More Productive.

This is a big one: whether you’re going for a promotion this year, or just want that feeling of accomplishment, it can be hard to mute out life’s distractions and focus on the task at hand.

Luckily, there are solutions out there to aid concentration, and it can be as simple as streaming some music from your iPhone straight to your work headphones. Brain.fm is a music subscription service that plays sounds specifically developed to encourage premium states of focus, relaxation or sleep.

4 iPhone Tricks for Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions

Just select an original composition, and give your brain the boost it needs to power through your to-do list, and send off that last batch of emails. You can adjust the stream to play music for different periods of time (30 minutes up to indefinitely), and even track your work progress to see which sounds positively affected you the most. Being more focused is as simple as unlocking your iPhone, and pressing play.

Get a lifetime subscription for less than $40, here.

2. Be More Punctual for Meetings and Appointments.

There’s no other way to say it: being late is stressful. We can’t always prevent traffic or misrouted directions, but we can prevent miscommunications that result in lateness.

The biggest culprit? Our inboxes. With so many emails flying in and out daily, and multiple meetings, deadlines and other events happening, it can be easy to let something slip through the cracks.

4 iPhone Tricks for Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions

ActiveInbox is an amazing tool that transforms your inbox into a task manager — so instead of just threads of communication, your messages can turn into events, deadlines and assignments. If that sounds scary, it’s not: it’s actually the perfect way to turn long, sprawling threads into a series of to-do lists and action items.

ActiveInbox even helps organize your inbox, creating separate folders for different clients or projects. In addition to helping schedule due dates, it also lets you create notes on emails, helps you prioritize and allows you to schedule emails to be sent out later.

This handy app is trusted by Spotify, Pearson, FujiFilm, BRP and more to help their employees be more efficient and productive — so you know it’s good. Set it up on your iPhone today, and consider your inbox saved.

Get it for 37% off the original price, here.

3. Become Healthier and More Active.

Between the kids, meetings, work, home and more, the last thing on your mind might be waking up early to go on that jog. But convenient wearables like the Striiv Fusion Activity & Sleep Tracker sync seamlessly to your iPhone — making it hard to have an excuse not to get active.

The Striiv is a wearable device that helps you personalize and track your fitness journey, all while helping you stay connected to your messages, email notifications and more. That means you can keep a finger to the pulse of what’s going on with your life, and still put in 100% effort on that workout.

You’ll be able to track steps taken, calories burned, distance traveled and active minutes and also check your messages, email notifications, incoming calls and more. It’s also durable, so you can take it with you from that hike, straight into the office. It might not be as feature-packed as the Apple Watch, but it’ll surely do the trick for active-minded people on a budget.

Get it for 37% off of its original price, here.

4. Save Time.

A huge number of our interactions now happen digitally, whether we’re buying things online, setting up maintenance appointments or paying bills. Nothing’s a bigger waste of time (or more frustrating) than forgetting a password and spending 30 minutes or more trying to remember or reset it.

While it’s crucial to have complex, unique, strong passwords to maximize account security, it can be bothersome to have to try to remember all of those passwords. That’s where Sticky Password Premium: Lifetime Subscription comes in.

Just set up this password manager on your iPhone, and it’ll securely and quickly access your passwords across all your devices. Sticky Password protects your online identity by creating strong, encrypted passwords for your accounts, managed by a single master password, created by you. You’ll save on time with its ability to auto-fill online forms, and enjoy premium security across your accounts, without any of the hassle.

Get a lifetime subscription for less than $30, here.

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Apple Officially Joins Tech Giant-Dominated Artificial Intelligence Research Group

Apple has joined the Partnership on AI, a nonprofit research initiative whose members include some of the biggest tech giants in the world.  According to the Partnership on AI, “Apple has joined the Partnership on AI as a founding member. The company has been involved and collaborating with the Partnership since before it was first announced and is thrilled to formalize its membership alongside Amazon, Facebook, Google/DeepMind, IBM, and Microsoft.”

News of Apple’s alleged admission into the Partnership on AI was first reported Thursday by Bloomberg, which cited sources familiar with the situation. According to the publication, Cupertino could officially announce its intention to join the organization as soon as this week, which has been proven true this morning.

First announced in September of last year, the nonprofit organization was established to “study and formulate best practices, to advance the public’s understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society.” Some of its founders include IBM, Facebook, Google and Microsoft.

Apple, one of the biggest researchers in AI technology, was curiously absent from the organization during its inception. Other absentees include Intel, Twitter and the China-based Baidu, Inc. When the Partnership on AI was founded, however, it did anticipate gaining new members down the road, Bloomberg reported.

While Cupertino has long been a pioneer in the field, its history of secrecy has snarled some of its efforts to hire up-and-coming talent and further improve its AI technology. The company has since lost ground to other tech giants such as Google and Amazon. Recently, however, Apple has since shifted course with the announcement that it will allow its researchers to publicly publish their findings. Last month, the company published it first AI research paper.

Becoming a member of the Partnership and publishing research are just two signs that Apple is committed to furthering its own AI technology. In October 2016, Cupertino announced the construction of a new AI-focused research & development center in Yokohama, Japan. When CEO Tim Cook made that announcement, he hinted at ways that AI could benefit the iPhone: from better managing battery life to improving content recommendations, according to DigitalTrends.

Featured Image: iTechBlogger

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Upcoming watchOS 3.2 Update for Apple Watch Will Bring Advanced Siri Functionality to Select Apple and 3rd Party Apps

According to a recent report published by Business Insider, a preliminary review of Apple’s latest watchOS 3.2 developer beta software revealed that the company will soon bring advanced Siri functionality to its wildly popular wearable device.

Apps that will initially benefit from the beefed-up functionality include certain native and third party fitness apps, mobile payment apps such as PayPal and Apple Pay, Messages for watchOS, and certain location-based apps like Maps and Uber, for example.

Similar to functionality on Apple’s recent slate of iPhone, Mac, and Apple TV hardware offerings, advanced Siri on the Apple Watch will be able to carry out complete tasks, from start to finish. For example, one would be able to order a car from Uber, right from their Apple Watch using the sound of their voice; and, in that way, you would not have to obtain your iPhone to finalize or authorize the transaction.

As a recent survey conducted by Business Insider (BI) Intelligence all but confirmed, the addition of advanced, integrated Siri functionality on the Apple Watch may be exactly what the doctor ordered for Cupertino’s wearable — particularly because, according to the survey, the number two biggest reason most would-be customers have refrained from purchasing an Apple Watch is because they don’t perceive it as a device offering much in the way of functionality.

Indeed, Apple Watch’s comparatively tiny, 1.5- or 1.65-inch display doesn’t really offer much in the way of a fully-fledged, deeply interactive experience. So the addition of advanced Siri functionality built into more apps should make interacting with and getting things done on an Apple Watch easier than ever before. And, of course, Apple is likely hedging its bets that these would-be customers begin to see more value in the device as a result.

In a broader sense, Apple’s further adoption of Siri on the watchOS platform could signal an overall shift in the company’s strategy with Siri — a strategy, as we can see, by which Apple’s proprietary voice assistant is built into all of the company’s products, with universal functionality across the board. This move, of course, would be of great contrast to Apple’s fiercest competitors, such as Google and Amazon, with their Google Assistant and Alexa platforms, respectively, which are limited to being installed mainly on standalone hardware voice assistant hardware and a select few smartphones.

No word on when Apple’s watchOS 3.2 software will be available to the public, but we can only assume it’ll be released sometime this spring.

Are you looking forward to trying out Siri’s new tricks on Apple Watch?
Let us know in the comments!

Featured Image: Business Insider

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Thursday, January 26, 2017

This Week’s Apple News Video Roundup: January 23rd 2017

Featured News Stories

  1. Taiwan-Based Lite-On Semiconductor to Provide Wireless Charging Parts for iPhone 8
  2. Is the ‘Red Head’ Emoji Finally Coming to iOS? Unicode Consortium Will Meet With Apple Next Week to Discuss the Possibility
  3. Meet ‘Bixby’ Samsung’s Rumored Visual Search Assistant For the ‘Galaxy S8’, Who Just Might End Up Giving Siri a Run For Her Money
  4. Nintendo’s Latest ‘Fire Emblem’ Game to Launch on iPhone and iPad Next Month
  5. Facebook Stops Paying Publishers to Broadcast Live Videos
  6. Investigation Finds Tesla’s Autopilot, Safety Features not at Fault for Fatal Crash
  7. Google and LG are Launching First Android Wear 2.0 Watches in February
  8. HTT Signs Contract to Build First International Hyperloop System from Slovakia to the Czech Republic

See the video below.

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iPhone 7 to Replace Galaxy Note 4 as UK Military’s Secure Communications Device

Telecommunications giant BT is “hardening” the iPhone 7 so that it can securely handle military communications for the UK armed forces, the company said to TechRepublic.

BT is currently in the process of modifying the iPhone 7 for the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) such that UK military personnel can use it to safely share state secrets and store sensitive data. Steve Bunn, technical business manager for defence at BT, called the latest Apple flagship the UK MOD’s “device of choice” and informed TechRepublic that the hardened phone will support various security modes that users can calibrate to the sensitivity of the information being handled.

“We’ve been working very closely with them to develop what we’ve commonly called a ‘dual-persona device’”, Bunn said. “Essentially [it] means you can have voice at official and at secret.”

While details regarding the nature of the upgrades were scant due to security reasons, the BT exec also noted that the iPhone 7s would be bolstered with “secure storage containers” to safeguard secret data, potentially within encrypted files or folders. Bunn commented that the work was “going well” overall.

The good news for Apple comes as a blow to Samsung, as its Galaxy Note 4 smartphone was originally selected for the project. However, Bunn states that the Samsung device was eventually jettisoned in favor of the iPhone 7 when it became apparent that its security was inadequate: “As more and more development and testing was done, the security wasn’t deemed to be sufficient.”

Another contributing factor in BT’s decision was the fact that the iPhone 7 already enjoys wide usage within the MOD, according to BT business development director Derek Stretch.

Featured Image: Anna Hoychuk / Shutterstock, Inc.

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Apple’s Far out Patent Proves the Company Has Continued Interest in a Foldable iPhone

Back in November of last year, a patent that Apple was granted covering a “foldable, clamshell-style iPhone” concept began circulating the web like wildfire. Yet in our own, original report, we noted that according to documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Apple had been working on this so called “foldable iPhone” concept for several years prior.

Now, it appears that some of the world’s most influential tech-companies, including Microsoft, Samsung, LG, and possibly Apple, are engaged in somewhat of a race to fine-tune and deliver their respective smartphones and tablets boasting foldable displays. Both Samsung and Microsoft, respectively, appear to be particularly stoked on the idea of releasing a foldable smartphone, and we can almost guarantee we will be seeing something from them to that effect, soon enough.

However, while we’ve yet to hear anything about a working, functional ‘foldable iPhone’ prototype making the rounds up in Cupertino, it appears from yet another patent recently granted Apple that the company is also getting more serious in its intent to perfect the foldable smartphone concept.

As noted by PatentlyApple, one of the more popular clamshell-style designs that appears to be catching on with manufacturers is what’s called a ‘Fold-Out’ style, which, as illustrated in the photograph below, resembles a smartphone than can open — ‘fold-out’ — much akin to a book. However, as far as Apple’s most recent foldable smartphone patent is pertinent, the company appears to be shaking things up a bit, describing a device that can “Fold-Out’ and ‘Fold-In’ — a feat which would be made possible in part thanks to what Cupertino is describing as “a device display with flexible encapsulation.”

Foldable Smartphone

“The flexible display may bend about a bend axis when portions of a housing for the electronic device rotate with respect to each other,” according to a PatentlyApple report. “The flexible display may have a flexible substrate layer, a thin-film transistor layer on the flexible substrate layer, and an array of pixels having organic light-emitting diodes on the thin-film transistor layer.”

Apple’s vision of a foldable display, in other words, embodies as many as three different ‘flexible film layers’, which would be framed around a sub-layer of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) pixels, and would be able to rotate in both an inward and outward orientation depending on individual usage needs and preferences. Furthermore, Apple’s patent describes what’s called an “inorganic conformal coating layer,” which could also be employed beneath all the other layers, and would be able to consistently morph and disperse the underlying atomic particles so that they heal with every fold.

Last but not least, in order to reduce the inevitable ‘bending stress’ that would be exerted on such a display over time, Apple’s patent calls for “a polymer protective layer,” which would not only cover the outermost, moisture-dispersing film layers, but would create a protective shell of sorts — bolstered by its exceptionally resilient, self-healing properties.

Of course, while all of this sounds fine and dandy to some, it surely sounds like the quirkiest concept ever contrived to others. But, it’s worth noting, above all else, is that this would be the third of such “foldable smartphone” patents — and by far the most well thought out among them to date. So, make of that what you will, but I wouldn’t discount the possibility of something like this becoming an actual product one day.

Could you ever see yourself buying an iPhone or iPad that folds in half down the middle?
Let us know in the comments!

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Authorities Warn of New ‘Can You Hear Me’ Phone Scam

If you get a suspicious call and someone asks if you can hear them, don’t answer. Just hang up.

If you’ve received one of these mysterious calls recently, you might be a potential victim of a new scam. Local authorities in areas across the U.S. are alerting citizens about the scheme, and have been since late last year, according to CBS News.

The con works when a scammer calls an unwitting recipient, and then proceeds to ask if they can hear them clearly. Answering “yes” allows the fraudsters to record that response, and use it to sign you up for products and services or authorize unwanted charges, according to a report by the Better Business Bureau. And it’s not limited to that specific question, either. Be wary of any question from a suspicious caller that requires a simple “yes” response.

Even if scammers don’t have access to your credit card information, they can possibly authorize charges with just your phone number and a recorded “yes” response. In other cases, scammers might demand payment for something that you didn’t sign up for, and threaten legal action because they have your “yes” response as confirmation, CBS reported.

To protect yourself from this scam, police are recommending several steps: don’t answer calls from unrecognized numbers, refrain from giving out personal information, don’t confirm your phone number, and don’t answer questions over the phone, according to WTKR.

Additionally, the BBB recommends that users write down the phone number of scam callers, and file scam reports via its Scam Tracker, as well as the FTC’s Do Not Call list. An important thing to note: never trust any caller that says they are from a government or federal agency such as the DMV, Social Security, IRS, or court system. These government agencies never communicate by outgoing phone calls, so you can be sure that it’s a fraud.

If you suspect that you’ve been a victim of this scam, it’s important to check your credit card, phone bill, and other statements for fraudulent charges. Dispute any charges that you didn’t authorize. The FTC and the FCC can both help in disputing these unauthorized charges if the situation gets sticky.

The simplest solution? Just let calls from unfamiliar numbers go to voicemail. People who have an actual reason to get in contact with you will likely leave a message; scammers won’t.

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4 Easy Ways to Turn Live Photos into Still Photos

Live Photos are an awesome way to relive certain moments in a way that still pictures can’t. But, of course, there are times that Live Photos aren’t really necessary, or are just taking up too much space with their extra frames.

If you want to extract a single still shot from a Live Photo, there are a few different methods to choose from — all of them are fairly easy, so which one you go with is a matter of preference.

The Share Option

  1. Open Photos.
  2. Select the live photo you want to pull a still shot form.
  3. Tap the Share icon at the bottom-left.
  4. Tap Duplicate.
  5. Tap Duplicate as Still Photo.

The Edit Option

  1. Open Photos
  2. Tap Edit in the top-right corner.
  3. Tap the circle-in-circle icon in the top-left corner.
  4. The icon should turn blue. At this point, tap Done.
  5. To return the image to a Live Photo, just reverse the process. The circle icon should turn from blue back to white

Use the Lively app

  1. Open the App Store, search for and download the Lively app.
  2. Open Lively and give it permission to access your photos.
  3. Select any Live Photo.
  4. Tap the Frame button near the top-right of the app.
  5. Slide the bar under the image to the frame that you want to capture.
  6. Once you find the frame, tap the Export Frame button. It’ll automatically save the frame to Photos.

The Mac Option

This option, which requires a Mac with the Photos app to work, is an interesting one. It comes from an Apple Discussions forum user named leonie, but it allows you to easily save still shots to your computer’s hard drive.

  1. Import the Live Photo into the Photos app on a Mac.
  2. Go to File > Export > Export Unmodified original.
  3. This, as the user points out, will export three files: an XMP file, a .mov file and a JPG file.
  4. Use File > Import to import the .mov file.
  5. You can now play the video and use the editing tool in Photos to extract a still frame.
  6. Click the gear icon in the control bar, and choose Export Frame to Pictures

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Developer Finds Two New ‘Floating Keyboards’ for iPad Buried Deep within Code of iOS 10.3 Beta

Whenever Apple releases the first beta of a forthcoming iOS update, we can usually be certain of two things: one, being that the update will contain exciting new features and enhancements of benefit to the end user; and two, being that Apple’s iOS app developers — who are among the first to receive these inaugural beta releases — will typically dig deep, deep within the code, revealing what the lion’s share of those features are even long before Apple releases the final version to the public.

To that end, Apple recently began seeding iOS 10.3 beta to developers, and while the details of that update and all the goodies that will come along with it are still trickling in, we can add yet another interesting feature to what we know so far, courtesy of notorious hacker/developer/extraordinaire, Steve Troughton-Smith.

Word has it that Troughton-Smith, while digging through iOS 10.3 beta’s code, discovered that Apple has included two new keyboards — both of which were “hidden” and are supposedly “floating” style, meaning they can be moved anywhere on the screen at the user’s discretion.

One of the keyboards, for instance, hovers above apps and the home screen, and, with a mere press-hold gesture, can be uprooted and moved anywhere else on the screen. The keyboard is also said to feature Apple’s new iOS trackpad mode, which allows you to control the text cursor during input. A second keyboard, also of the floating variety, features advanced gesture input, for example, allowing you to swipe to the left and right on certain keys to control certain functions.

Both of these keyboards, as Troughton-Smith pointed out, will be of great benefit to iPad users, especially when using Apple’s tablet computer in spilt-screen mode, when two apps are open side-by-side. And while we’d love to see a similar floating keyboard eventually make its way to iPhone — even though it probably will sooner or later, there’s currently no word as to when, if, and in what form it could touch down on Apple’s pocket-sized device.

However, with the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) just a few short months away, we probably won’t be waiting much longer to find out.

What iOS 10.3 features are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments!

Featured Image: Denys Prykhodov / Shutterstock, Inc.

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Man Claims His iPhone 7 Plus Spent 13 Hours at the Bottom of an Icy River, Was Retrieved Unharmed

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Data-Stealing Ransomware App Found in Official Google Play Store

An app hosted by Google Play turns out to have had ransomware hidden inside of it, which infected at least one unsuspecting Android user.

The zero-day mobile ransomware, which also steals users’ data, was dubbed Charger by researchers at Check Point, a cybersecurity firm which that detected its existence. Charger was found embedded in Energy Rescue, a purported battery-saving app.

Once Charger successfully insinuated itself into the Android device, it stole contacts and SMS messages, and tricked the user into unwittingly granting it administrator rights. Once it received admin rights, the infected app would lock the device and display the following ransom note:

“You need to pay for us, otherwise we will sell portion of your personal information on black market every 30 minutes… We collect and download all of your personal data. All information about your social networks, Bank accounts, Credit Cards. We collect all data about your friends and family.”

The cybercriminals behind Charger demanded 0.2 Bitcoin, worth around $180, in exchange for returning the files and unlocking the hijacked device. The malicious agents behind the ransomware attack haven’t been identified yet, but Check Point has observed that Charger doesn’t function in Ukraine, Russia, or Belarus, which suggests they may be based in one or all of those countries. Malware developers adopt this protocol to avoid prosecution in their own countries.

This isn’t the first ransomware-infected app to have been discovered in the Google Play store. Last October, for example over 400 apps on the Google Play store were found to contain the Dresscode Trojan malware. Earlier this month, Check Point discovered a variant of the HummingBad family of malware hidden in a score of Google Play apps that were downloaded by millions.

What sets Charger apart from other malware, according to Check Point researchers, is that it used several advanced techniques to evade detection, such as encoding string into binary arrays and loading code from encrypted resources dynamically. While most Google Play malware contains a dropper that delivers malicious code to the device later, Charger adopted a more aggressive and direct approach, hiding within the official Google Play store. Finally, the payment demanded was also much higher than the typical ransom fee.

The ransomware app was only downloaded by a handful of devices and has since been purged from the official Google Play store for Android, but the incident spotlights flaws in Google’s malicious app detection system.

Featured Image: Tech Times

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Apple Files $145 Million Patent Suit Against Qualcomm in Beijing

Qualcomm’s legal woes continue to spread unabated across the globe. Just days after filing a $1 billion lawsuit against the global chipmaker in the US, Apple said Wednesday it has filed another suit against Qualcomm in Beijing’s Intellectual Property Court.

The iPhone maker’s complaint alleges the San Diego-based chip supplier abused its dominant position in the chip industry in violation of Chinese anti-monopoly law and seeks damages of 1 billion yuan ($145.32 million). Apple also filed another lawsuit against Qualcomm in Beijing charging the company of using unreasonable licensing practices.

Cupertino argued in its US lawsuit that Qualcomm had leveraged its monopoly in the baseband chip market to overcharge Apple and prevent it from choosing another chip supplier.

Qualcomm is the world’s largest supplier of mobile chips including baseband modem chips, a crucial component that connects smartphones to wireless networks. Its proprietary technology can be found in many Samsung and Apple devices, with the two companies accounting for nearly 40% of Qualcomm’s revenue in the most recent fiscal year. The bulk of this revenue comes from licensing this technology out to other chipmakers. Under its licensing structure, Apple pays Qualcomm a fee for the chipsets it purchases, and an additional fee for the intellectual property used in those chips.

Such licensing practices have brought Qualcomm under intense scrutiny across the globe in the past few months.

Earlier this month, the US Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm in which it accused the company of adopting unlawful tactics to maintain its monopoly. Last month, South Korea’s antitrust regulator fined Qualcomm $854 million for anticompetitive patent-licensing practices. And, in February 2015, Qualcomm paid China a $975 million fine over its patent-licensing practices. Apple may have been emboldened to prosecute an international legal war against Qualcomm by these developments.

Qualcomm general counsel Don Rosenberg adopted a defiant posture in a statement responding to the latest Chinese lawsuits. “These filings by Apple’s Chinese subsidiary are just part of Apple’s efforts to find ways to pay less for Qualcomm’s technology,” said Rosenberg. “Apple was offered terms consistent with terms accepted by more than one hundred other Chinese companies and refused to even consider them.”

Rosenberg also added that “Qualcomm is prepared to defend its business model anywhere in the world. We are proud of our history of contributing our inventions to the development and success of the mobile communications ecosystem.”

While Qualcomm stated that it had yet to read the full complaints filed in China, it seems likely that the company will contest them in keeping with its promises to fight both the FTC and Apple lawsuits in the US.

Featured Image: O Globo

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How to Use the New ‘Night Shift’ Feature for macOS

When the first beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.4 seeded to developers yesterday morning, it brought with it ‘Night Shift’ mode. It’s a helpful feature that ought to improve your sleep patterns and even your health, especially for those night owls who use their MacBooks right before going to sleep at night.

Night Shift changes the tint of your display to a warmer and yellower hue after sunset, helping you fall asleep more easily at night by making your laptop’s glow less disruptive to your body’s biological clock, also known as the circadian rhythm in scientific parlance.

Many studies have shown that nighttime exposure to bright-blue light emitted by your smartphone, laptop, and energy-efficient light bulbs has a harmful impact on the circadian rhythm. It suppresses the body’s secretion of melatonin, a hormone that regulates the body’s natural clock, and prevents people from getting a good night’s rest. Even more distressing, studies have linked these biological disruptions to devastating health problems including diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular issues. Which is all to say Night Shift mode serves an important function.

How to Turn on Night Shift for Mac

To use Night Shift for Mac, you’ll need macOS 10.12.4 — which is currently in developer beta. A public beta version is likely to be released in the near future.

Users can toggle the feature on and off from the Today view in the Notification Center — which is accessed by clicking on the three-lined icon in the upper right corner of the screen. The toggle is located above the date, next to the Do Not Disturb feature.

Additionally, Night Shift can also be activated or deactivated via Siri — just hail Siri and say “Turn on Night Shift” or “Turn off Night Shift.”

Night Shift’s options can also be tweaked via System Preferences > Displays > Night Shift. From here, you can set a schedule for Night Shift to be automatically enabled, and even adjust the color temperature to be warmer or cooler.

The new feature also tweaks the color temperature of connected external displays, as well as your Mac’s built-in screen — ensuring that your circadian rhythm isn’t inadvertently affected by the light of an extra display.

Remember: macOS Sierra 10.12.4 is only available in beta to developers at this time. We can expect to see a general release sometime in the spring.

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This Service Lets You Download and Use over 60 Mac Apps for $10 a Month

App subscription service Setapp has officially launched today, letting Mac owners download and use a variety of Mac applications for a fixed monthly fee.

The service, developed by developer MacPaw, aims to be an alternative to the Mac App Store, offering unlimited access to over 60 hand-picked and curated apps for $9.99 a month. The subscription price also includes app updates, major upgrades and all in-app purchases

To use Setapp, users just have to download and install the app. Once that happens, the app creates a folder in Finder, which includes a library of apps with thumbnails and descriptions. They don’t take up disk space until they are downloaded, but once they are, customers are free to use them as long as a subscription is active. Downloaded apps can be used in offline mode as well, and they’ll always be free of in-app ads, the developers promised.

One of the benefits of Setapp, according to its creators, is that the available apps are already hand-picked — negating the need to weed through pages of junk apps to find high-quality ones. At launch, Setapp will offer 61 apps, mostly focused on creative work and productivity, including Ulysses, RapidWeaver, iMazing, Gemini, CleanMyMac, Focused, and more. In the future, MacPaw said that it could offer subscribers up to 300 apps.

And it’s not just consumers that stand to benefit from a subscription model. For app developers, Setapp offers a steady stream of income. Around 70 percent of revenue will go to developers, as well as up to two-thirds of the remaining 30 percent as a “partner fee” based on the value of subscribers that developers bring to the service.

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BlackBerry’s Comeback Phone Will Finally Be Unveiled Late Next Month

BlackBerry is aiming to make a return to the smartphone market with the release of its newest device.

The BlackBerry Mercury, as the device is tentatively dubbed, is set to be officially unveiled on Feb. 25, right at the beginning of the huge Mobile World Congress tech show in Barcelona, according to a tweet the company posted on Jan. 24.

The Mercury is set to be a throwback to classic BlackBerry devices, featuring both an analog QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen display. It’ll reportedly run on a reskinned version of Android Nougat, bringing the company’s phones up to date with the latest OS technology, according to Stuff.

The physical keyboard has seen an upgrade, as well. The spacebar has a built-in fingerprint scanner, and users can scroll and flip through screens by swiping their fingers across the keyboard itself. The right side of the phone will also house a “convenience key” which can be mapped to launch frequently used apps.

Although details — such as specs, pricing or official name — are pretty scarce, the phone is confirmed to feature a headphone jack, USB-C, and an aluminum body and soft-touch back. In addition to its classic features and look, the phone will also use BlackBerry’s famed end-to-end security system, which the company said can stand up to similar Apple or Samsung systems.

The Mercury isn’t the only BlackBerry reboot in recent years, but previous comeback phones have all but failed to capture significant consumer attention, CNET reported. In fact, BlackBerry was essentially dead until TCL — the Chinese company behind Alcatel phones — acquired the license to manufacture BlackBerry-branded devices. While it is out of the hardware game, the Canadian company is working with TCL to customize the Android software that the Mercury will run on.

The Mercury will be available toward the end of February, or sometime after. By the time MCW rolls out, we’ll likely know a bit more about BlackBerry’s latest device.

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