While I am a Linux guy at heart, I love OS X. After all, both Apple's operating system and Linux distributions are Unix-like. While Microsoft's Windows is relatively safe nowadays, I still feel safest on OS X or Fedora. Well, at least I did feel safe. While Linux remains rock solid, OS X and iOS have been dealt a huge blow from a trust perspective.
Researchers said they have identified a flaw in Apple's iOS that makes it possible for attackers to surreptitiously log every touch a user makes, including characters typed into the keyboard, TouchID presses, and adjustments to the volume control.
A German security company has released an unauthorized patch for Apple's OS X Mavericks that it claimed closes the hole the Cupertino, Calif. giant left wide open in the operating system's implementation of basic Internet encryption.
Apple on Friday issued an update that fixed a rather severe vulnerability in their SSL/TLS implementation in iOS. In short, the flaw allowed any hacker the ability to intercept data during supposedly secure and encrypted transfers when using an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch on a public network. Estimates suggest that the vulnerability was introduced in iOS 6.0 back in September 2012 (Apple was added as a PRISM partner in October 2012, utterly circumstantial but just sayin'). After some reverse engineering of the patch, people discovered it overhauled some fairly major portions of iOS.
First, Apple revealed a critical bug in its implementation of encryption in iOS, requiring an emergency patch. Then researchers found the same bug is also included in Apple’s desktop OSX operating system, a gaping Web security hole that leaves users of Safari at risk of having their traffic hijacked. Now one researcher has found evidence that the bug extends beyond Apple’s browser to other applications including Mail, Twitter, Facetime, iMessage and even Apple’s software update mechanism.
Apple may be getting closer to production of its A8 processor as news from Asia points to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) as the main supplier.
Taiwan-based TechNews (via MacRumors) reported that TSMC has already started production of Apple's next-generation A8 processor.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Basis has been actively seeking a buyer for its health tracking smartwatch business over the "past few weeks" and has talked with Apple, Google and possibly others about an acquisition, reports TechCrunch.
Basis is supposedly shooting for a "sub-hundred million" dollar price target, which narrows down potential buyers to a select few with deep pockets and serious interest in entering the health tracking device market. Barring a buyout, Basis could go for round C funding, the people said.
Flappy Bird knock-offs proliferated almost as soon as Flappy Bird became a (blessedly short-lived) phenomenon, and it seems that Apple and Google are both fighting back. The companies have started rejecting submissions with the word "flappy" in their names, reports TechCrunch, citing tweets from developers.
Games are being rejected from the Apple store with the company saying that they're attempting to "leverage a popular app." Google, more obtusely, is rejecting flappy applications from the Play Store as "spam."
Based on a report by Business Insider, an analyst with JP Morgan believes that Apple needs to radically change iOS, presumably starting with iOS 8, to be more like Windows 8. The new iOS would blend OS X and iOS into a single operating system, much along the lines of Windows 8. The thought of an Apple mobile OS with live tiles shows it is not likely something the folks in Cupertino would do.
According to research group OnePoll's "Mobile Mountain Study," conducted for resale website SellCell.com, iPhone owners are leaving a collective pile of unused legacy hardware on the table estimated to be worth $13.4 billion on the resale market, reports MarketWatch. That number has grown from the year-ago period, which saw about $9 billion worth of iPhones stashed away.
