Kevin Johnson, USA Today:

The Justice Department is expected to withdraw from its legal action against Apple Inc., as soon as today, as an outside method to bypass the locking function of a San Bernardino terrorist’s phone has proved successful, a federal law enforcement official said Monday.

The official, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said the method brought to the FBI earlier this month by an unidentified entity allows investigators to crack the security function without erasing contents of the iPhone used by Syed Farook, who with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the December mass shooting that left 14 dead.

So the way I read this, the FBI got help and was able to crack the San Bernardino iPhone. Apple’s help no longer required. In this case.

Think this is over? No. One interesting question is, will the FBI explain to Apple how the iPhone was cracked, if indeed this story is true.

Though Apple hasn’t announced any official sales figures, preorders for the iPhone SE are said to have exceeded 3.4 million so far in China alone, according to data from local retailers.

These aren’t official numbers, but they are very strong preorder sales.

Gear Junkie:

Currently raising funds on Indiegogo, the Triton claims to be the world’s first “artificial gills rebreather,” a concept that has eluded the world’s top scientists and military contractors for years. If true, it would revolutionize snorkeling and recreational diving overnight.

Experts say that the Triton’s claims are bold, and implausible, and the company’s lack of third-party verification or industry experience raises red flags.

The consensus: The Triton faces limitations in battery design, high-pressure storage, and filtration that will likely not be overcome for decades.

I received a pitch for this product last week and as soon as I saw the email, I thought it was BS even though I’d love for it to be real. I’m not an expert in scuba diving but I have done it often in the past and I know companies have been trying to make this technology work for decades, with little to no success for the reasons mentioned in the article. Sadly, I’d be willing to be the 2,000 backers who have put up over $800,000 so far will be out of luck and will never see an actual functioning product. It once again brings to mind the old adage, “If it seems to good to be true, it is”.

iMore:

Apple has released yet another update for iOS 9.3 for older devices affected by activation issues that cropped up in the original release last week. This new build, 13E237, corrects the activation issues in older devices, and does not need to be installed on iPhones and iPads that successfully installed a previous build.

For those of you affected by this bug, Apple says this new build should solve the issue for you.

The guys at Pro Tools Expert take a look at Pro Tools 12.5 and its new Cloud Collaboration feature. It seems to work better than they expected.

“We need your help!” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a confidential “Flash” advisory that was dated March 25 and obtained by Reuters over the weekend.

Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts a victim’s data so they cannot gain access to it on their computers, then offers to unlock the system in exchange for payment.

Sometimes I get confused. The FBI wants us to be safe and secure, but other times they want a dangerous master key which would make us all less secure.

Interested in design? Go here, then start clicking the right arrow. Lots of facts.

[Via Kottke]

Quentin Hardy, writing for The New York Times:

Timothy D. Cook has found himself in a strange position. It looks like someone knows about an important flaw in Apple’s flagship product, and won’t tell its chief executive what it is.

That could be because Apple doesn’t pay outside hackers who find exploitable flaws in Apple software. Paying so-called “bug hunters” has become the norm at many tech companies, and the United States government does it too.

Interesting premise. Google, others, have a bug bounty program, where they pay 3rd parties who identify major bugs in their products. Apple does have a number of funnels to bring bug reports into their bug-tracking system. But they do not pay for those reports.

Does a third party company (rumored to be Cellebrite, FBI denies it is them) have a technique to crack an iPhone? Would a bug bounty have prevented this possibility?

My two cents: I certainly don’t think paying for bug reports would, by itself, make a difference to the stability of Apple’s software. There’s no shortage of officially reported bugs that are in Apple’s official bug queue.

The question is, would a hacker aware of a critical vulnerability be more likely to report it to Apple if there was a cash payout for them?

Imagine you are at a baseball game and a science fiction level of clouds appeared overhead. Click the headline link and take a look at these pictures from Friday’s Braves/Astros game. Holy cow.

Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note, takes a long look at the company he once helped run, as Apple approaches their 40th birthday later this week.

Ryan Faas, writing for Computerworld:

Although OS X is now an integral part of the Mac experience, it represented a big gamble for Apple when the first general release version — code-named Cheetah — arrived on March 24, 2001. It was also a gamble that Apple had little choice in making — and one that has paid off in the 15 years since, becoming, directly and indirectly, one of the critical factors in Apple’s success.

The biggest benefit to Apple of the NeXT Acquisition was bring back Steve Jobs. But the Unix underpinnings that became OS X and the programming paradigm that came along with it were also critical. This post walks through through the history of the birth of OS X. Fascinating.

Mac Kung Fu:

Renting a title larger than the remaining capacity on your device forces iOS to use a hitherto undisclosed clean-up routine, thereby freeing-up space. Even if the download is way too big, it’ll still try to free-up space.

[I’m rewriting this post, with feedback from a number of people]

This technique has been around for quite some time. From this OSXDaily post [H/T Mark G]:

You may have noticed that some iOS apps will turn dark as if they’re being launched and simultaneously rename themselves as “Cleaning…”, seemingly out of the blue and at random. This is demonstrated happening with the attached iPhone screenshot, showing the Instagram app going through the process. So the big question for many users is, what’s going on here and why does that iPhone or iPad app say it’s cleaning?

And:

In short, when an iOS app name says “Cleaning”, it means that the operating system is going through and clearing out caches and temporary files associated with the app in question.

The post goes into detail, but bottom line, when your iOS device is low on memory, it will look to reclaim temporarily used memory, asking each app to return what it can.

Charlie Stross:

Here’s my theory: Apple see their long term future as including a global secure payments infrastructure that takes over the role of Visa and Mastercard’s networks—and ultimately of spawning a retail banking subsidiary to provide financial services directly, backed by some of their cash stockpile.

The FBI thought they were asking for a way to unlock a mobile phone, because the FBI is myopically focussed on past criminal investigations, not the future of the technology industry, and the FBI did not understand that they were actually asking for a way to tracelessly unlock and mess with every ATM and credit card on the planet circa 2030 (if not via Apple, then via the other phone OSs, once the festering security fleapit that is Android wakes up and smells the money).

If the FBI get what they want, then the back door will be installed and the next-generation payments infrastructure will be just as prone to fraud as the last-generation card infrastructure, with its card skimmers and identity theft.

And this is why Tim Cook is willing to go to the mattresses with the US department of justice over iOS security: if nobody trusts their iPhone, nobody will be willing to trust the next-generation Apple Bank, and Apple is going to lose their best option for securing their cash pile as it climbs towards the stratosphere.

This whole thing was a fascinating read.

I disagree with his assessment of Tim Cook’s motives (Cook has just done too many positive things that were unrelated to or, at the very least, not directly motivated by Apple’s cash position), but I do agree that the risk of a back door goes far beyond your email credentials. The more iOS and Apple Pay become part of the world’s payment and credit card infrastructure, the more vital a backdoor-less encryption model becomes.

Benjamin Mayo, writing for 9to5Mac:

Readers are reporting a strange bug with iOS 9.3 (and older versions apparently, exact characteristics of affected devices is unclear), primarily affecting the latest Apple devices, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. The issue has also been reported on older phones and some iPad models as well. The cause is unknown, but many users are finding themselves unable to open links in Safari, Messages, Mail, Notes and other apps. Instead of visiting the target website, the app crashes, freezes or hangs.

To see this more directly, take a read through some of these bug reports on Apple’s support forum.

This is one of those maddening, difficult to reproduce bugs that makes it hard to predict whether your device is susceptible to this problem. I just upgraded my iPhone 6s Plus, no problem. But could be I don’t have the right model, or the right combination of apps that trigger the bug.

Other users are reporting that tapping on links simply does nothing, whereas a tap-and-hold causes a crash. A permanent fix for the issue is not known and Apple has yet to comment on what may be going on. Some people have reported that disabling JavaScript partially solves the issue for opening links in Safari, but remains for other apps.

I wonder if the Chrome browser suffers from the same problem on an affected machine. [From Ben via Twitter: Chrome worked for me. Doesn’t seem consistent.]

No doubt Apple has a team working on this around the clock. Hopefully, a patch will come out quickly.

Terry Collins, writing for CNET:

Medical researchers at Harvard University have created an app that lets former players share how on-field injuries may still be affecting their brains and bodies.

Ex-players spend about 20 minutes a week with the app, called TeamStudy, recording their pain tolerance, mobility and memory. The broader public is also encouraged to use the app so researchers can compare the health of nonathletes to that of the former players.

Great use of HealthKit.

Wired:

We saw hyper-efficient sedans—some apparently designed on drugs—high-performance machines tuned to within inches of their lives, silky-smooth drop-tops, and smart safety and powertrain technologies that continue to trickle up, down, and sideways within manufacturers’ lineups. These are our favorites from the Big Apple—ten cars that caught our attention in big ways and small.

I really miss the New York Auto Show. The Vancouver version is on now and it’s more of a “car dealer show”. Sadly, we get few of the “cool cars” the Detriot, LA and New York shows are lucky enough to see. I’d give up body parts for that 2017 Nissan GT-R.

Mashable:

You probably already know how to customize ring tones on your iPhone, but there’s a way to personalize vibrations to tell who’s calling, too.

With a few setting adjustments, it’s easy to set up customized vibration so you can know when mom’s calling when your phone is on the other side of the room.

This is one of my favorite tips to show to those unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the iPhone’s OS. It’s really helpful because you can set customized vibrations so you don’t even need to look at the screen or hear the ringer to know who’s calling.

Appleinsider:

Netflix has been throttling video for AT&T and Verizon mobile subscribers for over five years, the streaming service has newly admitted, claiming it was in customers’ best interests.

The company said it was trying to “protect consumers from exceeding mobile data caps,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The issue came to the fore last week when T-Mobile CEO John Legere noted that AT&T and Verizon subscribers were getting lower-quality video. The latter carriers denied doing any throttling.

The line, “to protect viewers”, feels like a load of bull. If that’s what they were doing, why not be transparent about it and let the users make the decision whether or not they wanted to be throttled?

Microsoft:

As many of you know by now, on Wednesday we launched a chatbot called Tay. We are deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay, which do not represent who we are or what we stand for, nor how we designed Tay. Tay is now offline and we’ll look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that conflicts with our principles and values.

I want to share what we learned and how we’re taking these lessons forward.

I find this whole story fascinating. Not just Microsoft’s seeming cluelessness about how this would turn out (entirely predictably) but how Twitter reacted to Tay (offensively and again, entirely predictable) and the hows and whys of AI chatbots in general.

This is a fantastic story about a young skinny kid who was constantly overlooked, by high school coaches, by Virginia Tech and, ultimately, by Nike.

Nike owned the first opportunity to keep Curry. It was its privilege as the incumbent with an advantage that extended beyond vast resources. “I was with them for years,” Curry says. “It’s kind of a weird process being pitched by the company you’re already with. There was some familiar faces in there.”

Curry was a Nike athlete long before 2013, though. His godfather, Greg Brink, works for Nike. He wore the shoes growing up, sported the swoosh at Davidson. In his breakout 54-point game at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 28, 2013, he was wearing Nike Zoom Hyperfuse, a pair of sneakers he still owns, tucked away in his East Bay Area home, shielded from the light of day.

Then came the pitch meeting, where Nike tells Curry how much he means to them. Remember, this is before his truly breakout season, before everyone knew how elite a player Curry truly is.

The pitch meeting, according to Steph’s father Dell, who was present, kicked off with one Nike official accidentally addressing Stephen as “Steph-on,” the moniker, of course, of Steve Urkel’s alter ego in Family Matters. “I heard some people pronounce his name wrong before,” says Dell Curry. “I wasn’t surprised. I was surprised that I didn’t get a correction.”

It got worse from there. A PowerPoint slide featured Kevin Durant’s name, presumably left on by accident, presumably residue from repurposed materials. “I stopped paying attention after that,” Dell says. Though Dell resolved to “keep a poker face,” throughout the entirety of the pitch, the decision to leave Nike was in the works.

There’s an Apple angle here, too:

As athletic companies move into wearable technology, Nike boasts Apple CEO Tim Cook as a member of its board. Sonny Vaccaro is less sanguine on what losing Curry means for one of the world’s biggest companies. “This is Nike’s biggest fear,” he says. “They can’t overcome this in the shoe business. This is going to be detrimental to them. Psychologically.”

Finally, there’s this gem:

In 2013, Nike retained Curry’s matching rights, analogous to how NBA restricted free agency works. They still could have signed Curry, regardless of his preferences. According to a Sept. 16, 2015, report from ESPN’s Darren Rovell, “Nike failed to match a deal worth less than $4 million a year.”

Curry’s current value to Under Armour is pegged by Morgan Stanley as $14 billion. That’s a helluva miss.

[H/T Daniel Mark]

Apple Inc said the U.S. Justice Department’s new attempts to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters without the tech giant’s help could eliminate the government’s need for its assistance in a similar dispute in New York.

And

“On the other hand, if the DOJ claims that the method will not work on the iPhone here, Apple will seek to test that claim, as well as any claims by the government that other methods cannot be used,” Apple said in the letter.

If there is a flaw in its encryption, Apple wants to know what it is so it can lock it down. Makes perfect sense.

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Jason Del Rey, writing for re/code:

Apple has been telling potential partners that its payment service, which lets shoppers complete a purchase on mobile apps with their fingerprint rather than by entering credit card details, is expanding to websites later this year, multiple sources told Re/code.

The service will be available to shoppers using the Safari browser on models of iPhones and iPads that possess Apple’s TouchID fingerprint technology, these people said. Apple has also considered making the service available on Apple laptops and desktops, too, though it’s not clear if the company will launch that capability.

Sources say that Apple is telling potential partners that the Apple Pay expansion to mobile websites will be ready before this year’s holiday shopping season. An announcement could come at WWDC, Apple’s conference for software developers, which typically takes place in June, though sources cautioned that the timing of an announcement could change.

I wonder how this will impact PayPal. Will Apple create an ecosystem where I can generate a bill and have someone pay me (or vice versa), all using Apple Pay?

Very interesting. This is a search of the General Services Administration public facing web site for Cellebrite and the FBI. One match. A purchase order for $15,278.02 dated March 21, 2016, the day before the original hearing was scheduled.

[Via BGR]

Emily Steel, writing for the New York Times:

Apple announced on Thursday that it was working with the entertainer Will.i.am and two veteran TV executives, Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens, on a new show that will spotlight the app economy.

“One of the things with the app store that was always great about it was the great ideas that people had to build things and create things,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, said in an interview.

Details about the production are scant, and it was unclear how directly the show would promote or refer to Apple’s own app store. Executives declined to discuss specifics, such as financing, title, timeline, storylines, episode length or how people will watch the show.

I mean, we’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent TV show. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in. (With apologies to Ed Colligan).

Can’t wait to see what they come up with.