Even before the court order in California ignited the current fight, I opposed the idea of any encryption back door on grounds that it could also help criminals and repressive foreign governments. And I stand with Apple in its dispute with the FBI over the demand for special passcode-cracking software, for the same reasons.
But there’s an exception, a loophole, in Apple’s unyielding stance on privacy and encryption: Its iCloud service and, specifically, iCloud Backup — the convenient and comforting automatic way in which iPhones and iPads back themselves up daily to the cloud.
Unlike with the iPhone hardware itself, Apple does retain the ability to decrypt most of what’s in these backups. And the company does on occasion turn their contents over to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies when a proper legal warrant or court order is presented.
I’m still wrestling with this side of the issue. Should Apple treat an iCloud backup differently than the phone itself? One aspect of this is the fact that you have the option of backing your iPhone up locally if you don’t want your data exposed in iCloud.
Stephen Hackett finds an egregious typo in Disk Utility. Yes, it’s just a typo, but this sort of thing is highly unusual in a released Apple product. At least in my experience.
In the event Apple loses the current case to the FBI, setting a precedent that they can be compelled to unlock phones for the FBI and other government agencies, each and every defendant in such cases will have the assistance of counsel for their defense. What do you expect every defense lawyer to do in order to protect their client who has had a phone opened ?
Once the phone is “cracked” by Apple or any device or Operating System developer, whatever is found by the FBI or whatever government agency is involved, is going to be labeled “planted” or false evidence.
We’re bringing PS4 Remote Play to Windows PC and Mac. This feature won’t be available to test in the beta, but you can look forward to it soon.
The beta referred to is system software update 3.50 and it is out now. Theoretically, we could be weeks away from remote PlayStation play on our Macs. How will we get any work done?
After an extensive inquiry, American investigators concluded that the attack in Ukraine on Dec. 23 may well have been the first power blackout triggered by a cyberattack — a circumstance many have long predicted. Working remotely, the attackers conducted “extensive reconnaissance” of the power system’s networks, stole the credentials of system operators and learned how to switch off the breakers, plunging more than 225,000 Ukrainians into darkness.
In interviews, American officials said they have not completed their inquiry into who was responsible for the attack. But Ukrainian officials have blamed the Russians, saying it was part of the effort to intimidate the country’s political leaders by showing they could switch off the lights at any time.
On Monday, French Socialist MP Yann Galut proposed an amendment to French law that – if passed – would see the US companies punished if they didn’t give French officials backdoor access to terrorists’ phones.
In France last year, there were eight phones that were inaccessible to police – all tied in some way to terror attacks, reports Le Parisien.
Totally understandable. The battle to find a balance between security and privacy will play out in a lot of places over the coming months, even years. One key argument which came up in yesterday’s hearing was the question, if Apple adds a back door, will that stop the bad guys from using encryption. And the answer, of course, is no.
This cat is already out of the bag. If you force a back door into all iPhones, the bad actors will use one of the other 600 forms of online encryption to communicate.
Yesterday’s Judiciary Committee hearing was both dramatic and surprising. I watched it live, from beginning to end, live-tweeting all the way.
If you are interested in the details of the hearing, if you want to get a sense of all the players and the tone of each interaction, take a read through my Twitter stream (starting with this one) and please do follow me on Twitter if you don’t already.
At a higher level, here are some takeaways from the hearing.
The hearing was really two hearings. The first half was a Q&A with FBI Director James B. Comey. Comey was surprisingly calm and reasonable. Though he was clearly on the other side of this issue from most of the folks in the room, he seemed to be interested in finding the right solution, a balance between security and privacy. His emphasis was on security, on the ability to investigate potential wrongdoing by terrorists, pedophiles, criminals of all stripes. But he understood the call for privacy. He did not diminish the other side’s arguments. He truly seemed to be seeking a middle ground.
The people asking the questions were the members of the Judiciary Committee. And there were a lot of them. Amazingly, they almost all were on the same side of the fence as Apple, the need for privacy, and the concern about overreach by the government. It was fascinating to watch each of them unfold their cases, get their questions answered, all within each person’s 5 minute time limit. They were all professional, had done their homework. Most were surprisingly tech-savvy and understood the real issues, what Apple would have to build to enable the FBI access to the San Bernardino iPhone 5c. The painful parts of the hearing occurred when you had to listen to someone ask questions who truly did not understand how all this works. Fortunately, those members were few and far between.
FBI Director Comey had some significant weak points. He was frequently on the wrong end of the argument, and he clearly did not know the technical details. When pressed for his take on something a little deeper, he relied on the argument that he has people that know the technology, sort of a “beneath my pay grade” feel. That particular issue really stuck with me and came up time and again. The FBI needs to modernize, needs a deeper understanding of the technology with which they are grappling. That knowledge needs to run deep and start at the top.
The second half of the hearing brought in Bruce Sewell, Apple’s Senior VP and General Counsel, along with Susan Landau, Professor, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney.
They each read a prepared statement (here are links to the statements from Sewell, Landau, and Vance).
Sewell was terrific. Professional, well spoken, calm, deliberate, all in all a perfect representative for Apple. At one point during the Q&A, Representative’s Sensenbrenner and Gowdy got combative, almost attacking Sewell. The sense was that Apple was complaining about existing policy and that Sewell should have come in with some replacement legislation. Sewell dealt with each of the attacks quite well. Time was on his side, as he only had to respond to each of them for 5 minutes. As to the notion that Apple should prepare legislation, that seems preposterous to me. Congress creates legislation. They should ask for Apple’s assistance, not expect them to show up and do their work for them.
But I digress.
The real star of the show, in my opinion, was Susan Landau. The sense I got was that she knew more about this topic than anyone in the room, by far. Her opinions were reasoned, she expressed legitimate concerns, and she came down 100% on Apple’s side here. If you watch one part of this testimony, fast forward to the second half and find places where the committee asks her questions. Apple should hire her. Even better, the FBI should hire her.
I was not a fan of Cyrus Vance. Granted, he was on the opposite side of this argument, but he seemed stubborn, and perhaps ill-prepared. That’s my two cents. Read his opening statement, watch the stream, draw your own conclusions.
Bottom line, I think the Judiciary Committee, as a whole, sides with Apple here. Surprisingly, if there is new legislation, I think it would be to prohibit laws that limit encryption, prohibit laws that require a back door. They get it.
They also spanked the FBI a bit here, accusing Comey of using the courts to do an end run around Congress. This part of the issue got a bit territorial. I suspect that was a mistake on the part of the FBI, since they really want legislation requiring all encryption to come with a Comey back door.
By all accounts, Apple Maps was a damned disaster when it debuted in 2012. It was like a botched clone of Google Maps, complete with a laundry list of chromosomal abnormalities — incorrect directions, no public transit component, and rampant bugs and errors. It sucked so much, key employees were fired and Tim Cook even publicly apologized.
I count myself among the majority of iPhone owners who not only didn’t use it, but vehemently avoided it. The interface was so ugly, it made me love Google Maps even more than I had before it existed. But I reluctantly gave it a second shot when Apple unveiled the revamped version of Maps for iOS 9. To my amazement, not only did it not completely suck, but it was good. Like, better-than-Google Maps good. I got cozy with the fresh look and the handful of features that bested Google at its own game, and slowly but surely, it became my go-to navigation app.
Here are a few reasons you might find yourself a convert, too.
As a motorcyclist, I still prefer a dedicated GPS but, whenever I’ve used one of the Maps apps, I’ve always found Apple Maps to be the more “pleasing” of the two.
Google said in a statement on Monday that “we clearly bear some responsibility, because if our car hadn’t moved, there wouldn’t have been a collision. That said, our test driver believed the bus was going to slow or stop to allow us to merge into the traffic, and that there would be sufficient space to do that.”
Certainly not a major issue and a reasonable explanation from Google.
GIFs are everywhere. Sites and services like Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook breathed new life into GIFs and created demand for things like Giphy, a GIF search engine. But a good search engine isn’t always enough. Sometimes I want to make my own GIFs. For that, I use GIF Brewery 3 from Hello, Resolven Apps.
GIF Brewery 3 includes a significant update to the app’s rendering engine. The app is now 64-bit, which allows it to handle substantially more frames per GIF than in the past. Be careful about going too wild though, because now you can create much larger files that take longer to render that may be too big to post some places. A big render can really get the fans on your Mac spinning too.
I’m not a huge fan or creator of GIFs but GIF Brewery 3 is available free for a limited time (until March 12, 2016) and is fairly easy to use.
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BIAS Head represents an entirely new concept in guitar sound. Its engine has the most authentic tube modeling. Seamlessly integrated with desktop and mobile apps, BIAS Head makes it possible for guitar players to edit more deeply to create the tones that before they could only have imagined. Amp Match Technology allows users to capture their golden tube amplifier, then share that amp and download other amp models on ToneCloud.
I’m a fan of Positive Grid’s guitar products. I haven’t used this, but it’s intriguing.
Opening up the Connect tab of iTunes makes me sad. I see two or three weeks-old posts from Weezer and Panic! at the Disco, and not much else. I understand that the posts you see are a function of who you’re following, which leads me to my next concern: I don’t know how to follow bands.
I don’t see a follow button on iTunes artist pages. Maybe this is an Apple Music thing, and I can’t get to it because I don’t subscribe. On the Connect tab I might expect to see some kind of discovery mechanism, but no. Maybe I’m missing something.
As a fan I don’t feel “connected” to anything. I feel sad.
As I’ve said before, Apple should take a look at SoundShare. It lets you collaborate on playlists, add in songs from Apple Music, and relevant to this discussion, follow other folks and listen to what they are listening to. It’s like a Swiss army knife for music.
Find the iTunes interface on your Mac just too busy? Kirk McElhearn walks you through the process of walking through the setting and trimming iTunes down to its minimalistic best.
In the new Google Maps 4.16 for iOS, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners can press the app’s Home screen icon to bring up the shortcut menu with two useful Quick Actions: Directions to Work and Directions to Home.
Great add. This is an existing Apple Maps feature I really like.
Members of the House Judiciary Committee are considering filing a “friend of the court” brief in Apple Inc’s encryption dispute with the U.S. government to argue that the case should be decided by Congress and not the courts, five sources familiar with the matter said.
The sources cautioned that no final agreement had been reached on what would be an unusual intervention by congressmen in a legal proceeding. Any filing would occur after a panel hearing on Tuesday that will include FBI Director James Comey and Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell. The court deadline is Thursday.
The filing would argue that the Feb. 16 order from a federal court in California that instructs Apple to write special software to unlock an iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino shooters threatens the constitutional separation of powers, the sources said.
If true, this would be a highly unusual move, and an indication that Congress is planning legislation to address this issue. Short term, an amicus brief might sway the court in Apple’s favor, allowing the ultimate decision on “back door” encryption requirements to be made by Congress.
Part of the reason that the Echo works so well is because it has an array of seven carefully tuned microphones designed to pick up your voice from far away. Most Macs, meanwhile, have limited ambient noise correction on their internal microphones—and most have only one mic, unlike recent iPhones, which use a second mic for noise cancelling. Hearing you say “Hey Siri” may be possible, but it remains to be seen how well your Mac’s internal mic will understand your query from across the room, or when there’s a lot of background noise.
Another potential wrinkle is that we have many devices that can potentially respond to “Hey Siri” these days, including iPhones, iPads, and the Apple Watch. Will Siri know, intelligently, which device to trigger when the phrase is used? Or will we instead be greeted by a chorus of Siri responses from all our various gadgets?
This actually made me laugh. I instantly thought of all my Siris responding to my “Hey Siri”, then arguing with each other about which one I meant to call.
The whole article is worth reading. Some thoughtful insights on Siri’s potential.
Today, at 1p ET (10a PT), Apple will get the chance to testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee, alongside parallel testimony from FBI Director James Comey.
Apple’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Bruce Sewell, will start the ball rolling. From his pre-released opening remarks:
The American people deserve an honest conversation around the important questions stemming from the FBI’s current demand:
Do we want to put a limit on the technology that protects our data, and therefore our privacy and our safety, in the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks? Should the FBI be allowed to stop Apple, or any company, from offering the American people the safest and most secure product it can make?
Should the FBI have the right to compel a company to produce a product it doesn’t already make, to the FBI’s exact specifications and for the FBI’s use?
It’s worth noting that this hearing corresponds to the discovery of a massive new decryption attack that is said to affect more than 11 million HTTPS protected web sites (note the ‘S’ at the end of HTTPS).
Our information is not secure. Rather than pressing Apple to open the locks on their encryption, our emphasis should be on getting our ducks in a row, security-wise.
A federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, on Monday rejected a U.S. Justice Department request to order Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to help law enforcement access data on a locked iPhone, in a ruling that bolsters the company’s arguments in a growing privacy fight with the government.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in Brooklyn ruled that he did not have the legal authority to order Apple to disable the security of an iPhone seized during a drug investigation.
This isn’t the Apple vs FBI case that has garnered so much attention but it is interesting, if not precedent setting, that the judge in this particular case ruled against the government and its use of the All Writs Act, the same law the FBI is trying to use against Apple.
Simon Beck specializes in making ornate snow murals with just his snowshoes. The murals take at least an entire day to complete, and in order to really see them you have to take to the skies.
Absolutely mind blowing. I am unable to envision “drawing” like this on such a scale, let alone imagine the physical effort of 40,000 steps in the snow and cold. Be sure to check out the links to Beck’s other murals, all equally incredible.
I think it was Bill [sic] Schiller who said, “We gotta get this thing on the PC!” And I’m like, “Yeah, I’ll get the team working on it!” We let it sink in. This was like the fourth time it had come up, and he hadn’t wanted to hear it. But enough quarters had passed with nothing really happening. Like I say, it was a critical success, but not a business success.
He finally said, “Okay. But under one condition. We’re going to build these and run it by Mossberg. And if Mossberg says it’s good enough to ship, then we’ll ship it.” He wanted to divorce himself from having to make the decision. But Walt said, “Not bad. I’d ship it.” That’s how we actually shipped on the PC.
All the buzz from this interview is about the effort to get the iPod/iTunes on the PC. It’s an good interview regardless, going through Fadell’s illustrious career. What I find really interesting has been the lack of comment from Walt Mossberg regarding his involvement.
Pixelmator is a powerful and easy-to-use image editor for Mac. It lets you enhance your photos, create advanced image compositions with layers, shapes and text, or even draw vector grapchics, and a lot more. Pixelmator is built from the ground up for Mac, taking full advantage of the latest OS X features and technologies.
Congressman Darrell Issa, writing an op-ed piece for Wired:
Just last year, the federal government suffered numerous embarrassing cyber attacks: The Office of Personnel Management’s security breach resulted in the theft of 22 million Americans’ information, including fingerprints, Social Security numbers, addresses, employment history, and financial records. And the Internal Revenue Service’s hack left as many as 334,000 taxpayer accounts compromised‑though just this week, the IRS revised that number to over 700,000 accounts, more than twice their original estimates.
And:
Forcing Apple to manufacture new security vulnerabilities into its phones’ operating system in order to give the government access paves the way for these kinds of breaches to become all the more common. But even more alarming are the implications this decision would have for the online security of Americans for generations.
If the government is successful in forcing Apple to help decrypt the phone in this case, it would create a dangerous precedent that would allow the government to continue coming back again and again to decrypt all kinds of devices in all kinds of circumstances, far beyond national security.
And:
Law enforcement are not ill-intentioned in their attempts to gain access to the information inside this particular phone. In Apple CEO Tim Cook’s open letter, he writes, “We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI and we believe their intentions are good.”
I agree.
Whether tech companies like Apple can be forced to undermine their own products and whether they will have to leave a backdoor open for government—and whoever else may find it—in their products is currently a question left to the courts. But as Congress begins contemplating revisions to the 1789 statue upon which this court order is built, lawmakers must be sure to protect citizens’ right to privacy and preserve the integrity of the online security protocols that help keep us all safe.
Many have painted this as a partisan issue. Note that Congressman Issa is a Republican.
If you own an iPhone model with low storage, it’s likely you cut corners to manage your space better. You likely have to keep space free for the apps you need and thus have to keep fewer photos and music files on the device. One way to conserve space on a device is to use apps like Spotify to fuel your music needs but if you’re mostly working next to or near a desktop, you can use Home Sharing to get music from your PC on your iPhone without needing any extra apps. Here’s how.
First things first, you may have noticed that the article was written from a PC user’s point of view. In this case, it doesn’t make a difference. Enabling Home Sharing works the same way on Mac and PC.
Home Sharing is not just for your iPhone. But if you are on the same network as your Mac and want to save space on your phone, this is an easy way to use your Mac as a music server.
