Yahoo Inc warned on Wednesday that it had uncovered yet another massive cyber attack, saying data from more than 1 billion user accounts was compromised in August 2013, making it the largest breach in history.

What the hell is going on over there?

President-elect Donald Trump and some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful executives met at his Manhattan tower on Wednesday, a summit convened to smooth over frictions after both sides made no secret of their disdain for each other during the election campaign.

I find it very odd that Trump’s three kids were at the head of the table.

Uber has rolled out its self-driving car fleet in its hometown of San Francisco, despite lacking the proper permit that state regulators say is required.

Starting Wednesday, riders who request an UberX, one of the company’s budget ride options, may be matched with a self-driving Uber. It is unclear how many of these cars Uber has in San Francisco.

There will be people in the car for now, but I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what I’d do if one of these pulled up to give me a ride when the people are gone.

Nintendo Co will make a big push into mobile gaming on Thursday with the launch of the popular Super Mario Bros franchise on the iPhone, a risky bet because users will need to pay upfront, at a time when the gaming market is getting crowded.

While investors are hoping Super Mario Run will be a hit for Nintendo, its decision to charge $9.99 for full access to the game may limit revenues and put its fate at the mercy of loyal Nintendo console-game fans.

I’m betting it will be a huge success. Let’s face it, that’s not much money for a game that so many people enjoy.

I know some people like to read up on the security content on Apple’s updates, so here you go:

Apple on Tuesday released a significant update for macOS Sierra, fixing a number of issues users had with the Mac operating system. […]

We make safe and useful apps for Mac, PC and Linux trusted by millions. Try Video Downloader, YouTube to MP3 tool & Instagram downloader, you’ll love it!

Apple today announced AirPods are available to order online now from Apple.com and will start delivering to customers and arriving at Apple Stores, Apple Authorized Resellers and select carriers next week.

This is great news. I’ve been using these since they were announced in September and you will love them.

From a source close to Trump’s transition team:

Those items, said the source, are U.S.-focused job creation, and how these tech firms can work with government to improve efficiency.

Among those attending the meeting will be Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet CEO Larry Page and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

According to Apple’s System Status page, the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store, and the Mac App Store are currently unavailable for some users, making it impossible to do things like purchase new apps and download app updates.

I’m affected by this. I’m also getting a message that says iTunes can’t process purchases right now.

More people are switching from Macs to Surface than ever before. Our trade-in program for MacBooks was our best ever, and the combination of excitement for the innovation of Surface coupled with the disappointment of the new MacBook Pro – especially among professionals – is leading more and more people to make the switch to Surface, like this. It seems like a new review recommending Surface over MacBook comes out daily. This makes our team so proud, because it means we’re doing good work.

Microsoft has come out with things like this in the past for products competing with Apple, including a mock funeral for the iPod years ago—the number of times they’ve done that makes it hard for me to believe them. However, if this is true, Apple has a problem.

Benjamin Mayo:

Apple is rolling out a fix for the iCloud Calendar spam issue that has plagued users over the past few weeks. On iCloud.com, the company has added a new Report Junk feature. This lets users remove spammy invites from their calendar and reports the sender to Apple for further investigation.

The feature is currently only available on Apple’s iCloud.com Calendar web app but it is likely to roll out to the iOS and Mac native Calendar in a future software update.

Great, great, great!

This is a fascinating article on WSJ. It profiles a new service called Music Aficionado that caters to getting the older crowd to pay for music.

Although older, wealthier fans raised in the age of record stores make up the demographic that is most comfortable with the idea of paying for music, they’ve been among the most reluctant groups to pay for monthly streaming subscriptions, which offer ad-free access to up to tens of millions of songs.

I’ve seen this myself. People with millions of dollars that are using free services or just using their own music, instead of paying for a service. I pay for Pandora, Apple Music, and Spotify, but I’m not sure any of them really talk to me as a long-time music buyer and listener. Pandora is probably the best, followed by Spotify, but it feels like Pandora’s new service may have an edge in this next year because their new service will be tailored around what you listen to and like instead of pushing the music the service wants you to listen to.

While older consumers can generally be slower to adopt new technology, there are other factors at play. Streaming companies have been primarily built by young techies and generally use what Mr. Penn calls a “DJ model” to cater to a younger audience, promoting pop-heavy playlists that serve primarily as soundtracks for activities such as partying, exercising and “chilling.” Record companies, meantime, haven’t rushed to convert their album buyers to subscribers, since physical music sales are still highly profitable and accounted for nearly 40% of the recorded music industry’s global revenue last year.

The over-50 “demo is largely being ignored in the digital world even though these folks are the most passionate about music because they lived all of it the first time around,” said Fred Goldring, a 58-year-old veteran music lawyer.

Agreed. This is why I think Pandora has a chance—they’ll show me what I want to see as a music listener.

When I open up Apple Music and see the newest Pop/Hip Hop in my “For You” section, one of two things is happening: Either Apple’s “Love” feature doesn’t actually work, or they are pushing these albums to all users regardless of their choices. Either way, it’s not good for the user.

Apple released the next major update for iOS this morning. You can download iOS 10.2 by going to Settings > General > Software Update on your iOS device.

“Just seeing how defenses are playing me, playing us,” James told cleveland.com. “Kind of watching and paying attention to the minutes I was in, so at the last three minutes of the first quarter when I come out, I can watch and see from when I was in. Then I go back in for the second, and I get it once again at the six minute mark of the second quarter. Just trying to stay above the curve and see how i can help.”

James is the only one using the iPad on the Cavs at this point, but he’s using it wisely. Studying how the other team is playing him on the court and seeing if he can come up with ways for the Cavs to counteract that.

Being a session guitarist is a vastly different gig than being a member of a band in the studio. Session guitarists are a great breed of musicians that can be very helpful on a project if asked.

While the exact reason for the delay remains unclear, a person familiar with the development of AirPods told The Wall Street Journal that Apple’s troubles appear to be related to its “efforts to chart a new path for wireless headphones,” in addition to resolving what happens when users lose one of the earpieces or the battery dies.

I’ve been using the AirPods since they were introduced at the event and I love them. I’ve had a couple of very minor issues over the last couple of months, but nothing significant. These things are going to sell really well.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday that a software update for Galaxy Note 7 smartphones will be released mid-December in the United States preventing them from charging and functioning as mobile phones, rendering them useless.

Good, they are dangerous to the general public.

However, Verizon Communications Inc said it would not take part in the update because of the added risk this could pose to Galaxy Note7 users that do not have another device to switch to.

Are you kidding me? These things have caught on fire mid-flight!

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The former Marine and US Senator is best known for circling the earth in 1962 aboard a space capsule dubbed Friendship 7.

Please 2016, go away.

Tech giant Apple argued in a Beijing court on Wednesday that its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus mobile designs do not copy a Chinese product and should be allowed to be sold on the Chinese mainland.

There was no verdict announced, but they argued the case in court for 8 hours.

The digital music marriage that many wanted to happen isn’t happening after all. Spotify has given up on its latest effort to buy SoundCloud following months of talks between the two, according to a source at Spotify who is familiar with discussions.

I never understood the appeal of this deal for Spotify.

These are pretty cool.

Greenery is a fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring when nature’s greens revive, restore and renew. Illustrative of flourishing foliage and the lushness of the great outdoors, the fortifying attributes of Greenery signals consumers to take a deep breath, oxygenate and reinvigorate.

We’ve teamed up with Sonos to make it easier than ever to keep the music going strong. Now Spotify Premium users can control their Sonos straight from the Spotify app using Spotify Connect. Use all the features you love about Spotify: the curation, discovery, and sharing and hear it all throughout your home in crystal clear sound. You can also access the multiroom power of the Sonos home sound system directly in the Spotify app. We’ve brought out the best of both worlds to give you the smartest and most seamless home sound system yet.

This is huge. I love Sonos, but using their app is a real pain.

The National Hockey League has informed teams that it is in late-stage negotiations to strike a partnership with Apple that could see the company’s iPads and other technology become commonplace on team benches, TSN has learned.

I have noticed lately that there are screens behind the benches during Bruins games, but I’m not sure what they are. I believe they are just monitors for the coaches to look at replays.

21st Century Fox Inc., Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. and Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures all confirmed over the past week that they are looking to offer high-priced, home-video rentals of new movies shortly after they open in theaters. Some studio executives have been pushing to allow home rentals as early as two weeks after theatrical debuts and are considering a deal with iTunes as one option, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

One option is a premium-priced online rental for new movies, at prices of $25 to $50, a possibility under consideration at the studios, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

I think this would be great, and I’d be willing to pay a premium to be able to rent movies that are still in theaters. However, $25 is a bit rich for me. I’d wait until they dropped the price to about half of that.

Just over a year after acquiring the scraps of Rdio, Pandora has revealed Premium, its take on an on-demand music streaming service, designed to compete against the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. Just like every other $10-a-month music streaming service, Pandora Premium will offer users an extensive library featuring millions of songs available on-demand, ad-free streaming, and the ability to save your music offline.

Where Premium separates itself from the Spotifys of the world is personalization. Pandora’s smart playlists will allow users to automatically add similar songs to a playlist at the tap of a button. Premium also features personalized search, which will give different users different results based on their listening history. The browse section is tailored to your tastes, including the new release section.

I’ve been a customer of Pandora for quite some time and love it—they have the best algorithmic radio stations in the industry. With Premium, they are combing that with on-demand music just like the other music services offer. This is going to be an interesting battle to watch in 2017.

In an interview with Billboard today, Apple’s Eddy Cue revealed that Apple Music has surpassed 20 million paid subscribers. There are a few other tidbits of info in the article as well. […]

I love Portrait mode and use it all the time. Having a few tips from pros will only make it better.