Apple

Researchers have discovered never-before-seen Mac malware samples, which they believe are being developed to target a recently-disclosed vulnerability in the MacOS operating system.

The vulnerability, a bypass that was disclosed in May and has yet to be patched by Apple, exists in the MacOS Gatekeeper security feature, which verifies downloaded applications before allowing them to run on Macs.  Researchers now say that they have spotted new samples of malware, dubbed OSX/Linker, which they claim are being developed to target the vulnerability.

One of the defining moments of Apple's WWDC keynote earlier this week was when Craig Federighi, Apple's software chief, declared that the iPad would now have its own operating system. "The time has come to recognize the platform in a special way," he said.

A new book compiling the doodles and jotted notes of famous figures includes two from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, each with a cryptic reference to the bane of his existence, IBM.

Debuting last week, Scrawl: An A to Z of Famous Doodles is filled with the scribbles of more than 100 historically important people, from Queen Victoria and President Dwight Eisenhower to Clara Barton and Albert Einstein. The doodles come from the private collection of the late autograph dealer David Schulson. It was written and curated by his family and published by Rizzoli.

More than a year and a half after some MacBook owners began vociferously complaining about broken MacBook keyboards, Apple is making what it says is a material change in the keyboards in its high-end MacBook Pro laptops. It will also extend its keyboard repair program, in a bid to appease Apple laptop owners who have been frustrated by stuck or double-typing keys.

The Apple Card announced this spring isn’t a new idea; it was first floated well over a decade ago. This came as a proposal by then-CEO Steve Jobs made so long ago it would have offered users rewards in the form of free iTunes music to load onto their iPods.

A blog post published today by Ken Segall describes the early version of Apple’s credit card. Segall is a former Apple ad man who worked closely with Steve Jobs for more than a dozen years. He is the guy who put the “i” in iMac and worked on the famous “Think Different” campaign.

Two reports by Guilherme Rambo at 9to5Mac citing "people familiar with the development" of both macOS 10.15 and iOS 13 may have revealed some notable new features in Apple's operating systems for Macs, iPhones, and iPads.

In the first report, published yesterday, Rambo describes new additions in iOS 13, which has long been expected to be a major release after iOS 12 was focused on improving performance and reliability.

Apple's iPad lineup has had a gap in it lately.

At the top end, you had the 2018 refresh of the iPad Pro—an immensely powerful, envelope-pushing tablet priced and positioned as a laptop replacement. At the bottom, you had the entry-level iPad, which lacked many of the best features in newer Apple products and shipped with a CPU much slower than what's in the latest iPhones.

Apple has sent invites out to members of the press and other guests for a March 25 "special event." The tagline and animation on the invitation strongly suggest that the company's long-rumored streaming TV service will take center stage.

Google has confirmed a recent update to Chrome was to patch a zero-day issue in the popular browser, an exploit that was actively used in attacks, and has recommended all Chrome users on Mac, Windows, and Linux update their installations as soon as possible.

A patch for Chrome shipped on March 1 consisting of a fix for a security flaw, identified as CVE-2019-5786. The update, which only fixed the issue without making other changes to the browser, brought Chrome on all three operating systems up to version 72.0.3626121.

For a while now, Apple has been encouraging app developers to consider subscriptions as a key revenue source, and the company is introducing some new options for developers that it hopes will make the option more attractive. In the past few days, Apple has informed developers that they will now be able to target current and recent subscribers with promotional rates on subscriptions. That means subscribers will be able to offer discounts to try to get you back if you lapse, or they might try to entice you to stay if you're considering leaving.