news and technology: Apple

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Saturday, July 9, 2011

Secret Service raids Apple store artist for snapping 1000 spy photos (Yahoo! News)

A young digital artist secretly recorded shoppers peering into computers at New York Apple stores

A sneaky act of experimental Apple store art led the Secret Service to raid a young Brooklyn resident's apartment this morning. Kyle McDonald, a 25-year-old digital artist, secretly snapped a thousand images of unsuspecting Apple store shoppers for a project that sought to explore "how we stare at computers and how computers see us." Using his own custom spyware, McDonald secretly documented exactly that over the course of 3 days in June.

To pull the feat off, McDonald installed the hidden program onto Macs at New York's 14th street and Soho Apple stores. The stealth software, which made use of the computer's built-in cameras, took photographs of unaware New Yorker shoppers as they peered into the seeming abyss of the computer screen. He collected the photos, which were automatically transmitted to a private server, but had to reinstall the software in person each morning during the experiment.

Earlier this week, a video that documents his undertaking in full went live on Vimeo, followed by a Tumblr blog also appropriately entitled "People Staring at Computers." McDonald says he would honor individual requests to remove the photos, though his Twitter account suggests that the federal raid hasn't dampened his commitment to the feat of public art.

The stealthy undertaking resulted in the confiscation of McDonald's two computers, his iPod, and some other storage devices, but it isn't yet clear if the McDonald was actually in violation of any laws. While the Secret Service warrant cited 'computer fraud' as the cause for the raid, the clever digital artist reportedly asked an Apple security worker for permission to take photos in the store — though the guard probably couldn't have imagined the scope of what he had in mind.

(Source)

Artist Gets Secret Service Visit Over Apple Store Webcam Spying (PC Magazine)

A Brooklyn-based artist has caught the attention of the Secret Service after installing software on Apple Store computers that takes Webcam photos every two minutes, and posting those images on the Internet.

The "@secretservice just stopped by to investigate ... and took my laptop. please assume they're reading any emails you send me," Kyle McDonald tweeted on Thursday.

McDonald took the photos and posted them on a Tumblr blog called "People Staring at Computers." He told Mashable that he got permission from Apple security guards to take photos in the store, but it's unclear if they were aware that McDonald also meant installing software and snapping Webcam shots. Given that it attracted Secret Service attention, it's safe to say that not everyone was excited by the project.

When asked on Twitter if he got permission from every person whose photo appeared on his blog, McDonald said no because "as i understand, photography in open spaces is legal unless explicitly prohibited." He will, however, remove any photos if asked, he said.

It appears McDonald was committed, however; Apple wipes its computers every night, so he had to reinstall the program every day he took photos, Mashable reports. That program focused only on photos; "keylogging public machines would make me uncomfortable," he tweeted.

McDonald said the warrant he received from the Secret Service said his actions violated 18 USC section 1030. That deals with "fraud and related activity in connection with computers," and covers, among other things, accessing a computer without authorization.

McDonald said he contacted the Electronic Frontier Foundation for help with the case, and "they've encouraged me to stay quiet for now," he tweeted.

In a video (below) describing the project, McDonald said he was "thinking about how we stare at computers" and thought, "maybe if we could see what our computer sees we would stare differently?" As a result, he took 1,000 photos over three days at computers in New York Apple Stores. The video shows McDonald at the 14th Street store for what he called a "public exhibition." As shoppers are perusing Macs, the screen flashes and takes a photo; sometimes it displays photos of other people. Most shoppers look confused and try to get their images off the screen. "Most people just hit 'escape,'" when their photos popped up, the video said.

McDonald's fascination with faces continues. He just released a face-tracking app, FaceOSC.

People Staring at Computers from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Judge rejects Apple bid for injunction against Amazon (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A U.S. judge denied Apple Inc's attempt to quickly stop online retailer Amazon.com Inc from using the "App Store" name, according to a court document.

Apple, the maker of best-selling iPhones and iPad tablets, filed a trademark lawsuit saying that Amazon has improperly used Apple's App Store name to solicit software developers throughout the United States.

Apple also asked a federal judge in Oakland, Calif. for a preliminary injunction to stop Amazon from using the name, which Apple says is trademark protected. However, Amazon argued that the term is generic and therefore not protectable.

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton did not agree that the term is purely generic, according to an order released on Wednesday. However Apple has not established "a likelihood of confusion" with Amazon's services to get an injunction, Hamilton wrote.

On Wednesday Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet referred to the company's prior statements, which said Apple asked Amazon not to copy the App Store name because it will "confuse and mislead customers."

An Amazon representative could not immediately be reached for comment.

In an earlier ruling on Wednesday, Hamilton set a trial date for October 2012.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc v. Amazon.com Inc, 11-1327.

(Reporting by Dan Levine; editing by Carol Bishopric)

Germany warns of Apple software security hole (AP)

BERLIN – Germany's IT security agency says the software running Apple's iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch has "critical weaknesses."

The Federal Office for Information Security said Wednesday that clicking on an infected PDF file "is sufficient to infect the mobile device with malware without the user's knowledge" on several versions of Apple's iOS operating system.

It says the same could occur when opening a website that carries an infected PDF file, possibly opening the device to criminals spying on passwords, planners, photos, text messages, e-mails and even listen in on phone conversations.

The agency says Apple Inc. has not yet offered a patch to fix the problem.

Apple Germany spokesman Georg Albrecht told The Associated Press he was aware of the warning, adding that Apple would not comment on it.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Analyst thinks Apple should cut iPhone 3GS cost to $0 in September (Appolicious)

Apple’s iPhone is performing well in all its forms for being a single device that recently doubled the number of cellular providers carrying it – to two. But Apple’s iOS platform has nothing on Google’s Android, an operating system that currently dominates the market with better than 50 percent of the smartphones on the market running it.

It’s tough to keep up with Android simply because Apple’s iOS system is limited. The company can’t expect the iPhone to compete with all manner of Android phones, from top-tier to entry level and mid-range. Or can it? One analyst thinks that Apple not only can compete with lower-cost Android phones, but that the company is planning a pricing move in September to do just that.

According to a story from Forbes, RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky says he expects Apple to drop the price of the iPhone 3GS to nothing with a two-year contract from AT&T this fall. That’s when Apple is expected to roll out the iPhone 5 (or at least some new generation of its smartphone), and Abramsky thinks a price tag of free could help Apple seriously capitalize on users who are interested in the iPhone but for whom cost has been a limiting factor.

Here’s a quote from the Forbes story:

‘As its entry-level iPhone strategy, Apple is expected to cut iPhone 3GS to $0 (on contract, $399 unsubsidized) in conjunction with iPhone 5 launch,’ Abramsky writes in a research note. ‘This approach is intended to target mid-market smartphone buyers and counter Android’s mid-market expansion.’

A proprietary study from RBC Capital states that a free iPhone 3GS “would double the company’s global market opportunity and re-accelerate iPhone share growth outside of North America,” according to the Forbes piece. Abramsky also expects the iPhone 4 to drop to $99 with a contract in September, and the iPhone 5 to start at $199 on contract.

Can we expect two iPhones in September?

And while we’re talking about markets that the iPhone could expand into given the right circumstances, it’s worth mentioning a rumor one analyst chucked out into the ether recently stating that he thought Apple would break out two iPhones in September – one, a scaled-back, unlocked model called the iPhone 4S, and the other the true design revamp, the iPhone 5.

A few outlets around the Internet reacted negatively to the story, and it sounded like bunk to us too. After all, analyst Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank didn’t really have any “facts” to back up his “rumor” of two iPhones. But another analyst, Horace Dediu of Asymco, raises a good point: There are far more prepaid cellular phone users out there in the world than on contracts, and Apple isn’t really serving any of them.

Apple does offer a few unlocked iPhones that can be placed on any carrier, but Dediu writes that there’s still 70 percent of the cellular phone market worldwide that Apple isn’t reaching:

Roughly 1.5 billion [phone users] are post-paid and 3.7 billion are pre-paid. That means that nearly 70% of the world is not being addressed by the iPhone as it currently stands. Put another way, a shift in positioning might result in a 250 percent increase in addressable market.

So maybe all these analysts aren’t too far off the mark when they suggest that Apple might be planning to make some changes with its mobile strategy. It would certainly help in the fight against Android, in which Apple is staying relatively steady but not gaining much ground.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Will Apple Ditch Google Maps in iOS 5? (PC Magazine)

Apple could be ditching Google Maps in favor of its own navigation software in iOS 5.

MacRumors uncovered a new section in the legal disclaimers section of iOS 5 called "Map Data" that references several different third-party mapping and naviation companies such as CoreLogic, Getchee, Localeze, and TomTom, among others.

It wouldn't be much of a shock if Apple ditched Google Maps and launched its own mapping service. In recent years, Apple has snapped up a couple of mapping companies, Placebase and Poly9. Apple has also been hiring engineers with mapping and navigation experience to join the iOS team. On top of that, when Apple responded to the outpouring of media scrutiny about iPhone location tracking in April, the company revealed it was creating its own traffic database.

But Apple is still using Google Maps for now, and Google's former CEO Eric Schmidt said last month at the D9 conference that Google "just renewed [its] Map and Search agreements with Apple."

Reports of an Apple-powered mapping service have been circulating for quite some time. Last month, 9to5Google attempted to quash the rumors, claiming while "Apple is working to improve the iOS Maps application, iOS 5 will not bring an Apple developed maps service and Google Maps is still in."

MacRumors speculates that Apple is actively working on its own mapping solution, but it's possible that it's not ready for iOS 5, meaning consumers will have to wait a while to see what it would look like.

Apple showed a preview of iOS 5 earlier this month at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). It includes more than 500 new features including a notification center, over-the-air updates, a new messaging solution, and AirPlay mirroring, among other goodies. iOS 5 will be released to customers this fall.

New iPhone 5 rumors stir buzz among Apple fans (Yahoo! News)

The months before Apple announces a new gadget are always filled with wild rumors, rampant speculation, and plenty of mythical hardware details that may or may not show up in the final product. Right now, Apple devotees are playing that very same waiting game, crossing their collective fingers that the iPhone 5 is in the Cupertino pipeline and swapping rumors in the mean time.

Both small fan sites and news giants alike are getting in on the act, citing anonymous sources who claim to have an inside line on Apple's hottest new smartphone. The juiciest of these rumors — courtesy of a pair of tipsters spilling secrets to Bloomberg — points to the iPhone 5 gaining a major boost in processing power with the inclusion of Apple's lauded A5 microprocessor.

The A5 is already wowing consumers in the company's top-selling iPad 2 tablet, and a move to include it in the next generation of Apple's smartphone doesn't seem outlandish by any means. Compared to the A4 chip which currently resides in the iPhone 4, the A5 is up to twice as fast. That kind of speed would give the new handset some extra muscle for games and other processor-heavy tasks.

A beefy 8-megapixel camera is also rumored to be in the works for the next iPhone, up from the 5-megapixel resolution offered by the current model. The rumored handset is expected to run Apple's new iOS 5 operating system, due out this Fall, which would give it the newly-announced iMessage and wireless syncing features from day one.

There has been much speculation surrounding the look of the next iPhone, with some sources claiming the phone's design will be radically different from the current model, perhaps even sporting a teardrop-shaped silhouette. Bloomberg's sources claim otherwise, stating that the new device would closely resemble the current iPhone 4. The distinction could have implications for the next device's name too: a total redesign would likely be dubbed the iPhone 5, whereas a slight update (akin to the iPhone 3G's upgrade to the iPhone 3GS) could be called the iPhone 4S.

It's important to remember that, despite having a new version of its mobile operating system on the horizon, Apple may not be ready to shake up its iPhone line at all. The company's Worldwide Developers Conference — held earlier this month in California — is usually the place Apple announces new additions to the iPhone family. At WWDC 2011, that announcement never came.

So while a laundry list of anonymous sources claims a new iPhone will be in stores by September, it's probably safest to wait until the official announcement before setting aside a chunk of change in your bank account.

(Source)