Apple
has agreed to pay 318 million euros in Italy to settle an investigation
that determined the iPhone and iPad maker failed to pay nearly triple
that amount in corporate taxes in the country over a five year period,
according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Italian regulators in Milan concluded a tax probe of Apple
in March, accusing the company of booking profits generated in Italy
through an Irish subsidiary in an effort to lower its taxable income
base and save 879 million euros between 2008 and 2013.
Apple has yet to comment on the deal, but previously said it has paid
all necessary taxes in countries that it operates. "These new
allegations against our employees are completely without merit and we’re
confident this process will reach the same conclusion," the company
said in March.
Image copyrightReutersImage caption
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been pictured in
the vicinity of Apple computers, not widely available in the state
The first in-depth
analysis of North Korea's internal computer operating system has
revealed spying tools capable of tracking documents offline.
Red
Star OS was designed to superficially mimic Apple's OS X, but hidden
features allow it to watermark files and tie them to an individual.
The covert tools were discovered by two German researchers who conducted the analysis over the past month.
They presented their findings at the Chaos Communication Congress on Sunday.
Florian Grunow and Niklaus Schiess pored over the code of Red Star OS version 3.0, which first surfaced online about a year ago.
The system's coders "did a pretty good job" of mimicking the
basic design and functionality of Apple computers, Mr Grunow tells the
BBC, but with a twist.
Any files uploaded to the system via a USB
stick or other storage device can be watermarked, allowing the state to
trace the journey of that file from machine to machine. Red Star can
also identify undesirable files and delete them without permission.
'Far more sophisticated'
The
watermarking function was designed in response to the proliferation of
foreign films and music being shared offline, says Mr Grunow. "It
enables you to keep track of where a document hits Red Star OS for the
first time and who opened it. Basically, it allows the state to track
documents," he says.
The
system will imprint files with its individual serial number, although
it is not known how easily the state can link those serial numbers to
individual users.
One element puzzling Mr Grunow is the discovery
of an extended version of the watermarking software which he and Mr
Schiess do not fully understand, but which he says may help identify
individual users.
"What we have seen is the basic watermarking,
but we found evidence of an extended mechanism that is far more
sophisticated, with different cryptography," he says.
"It could be
that this file is your individual fingerprint and they register this
fingerprint to you, and that could help them track down individual
users."
Red Star also makes it nearly impossible for users to
modify the system. Attempts to disable its antivirus software or
internet firewall will prompt the system to reboot.
Watermarking free speech
The
idea for an internal operating system was first conceived by Kim
Jong-il, according to Mr Grunow. "He said North Korea must create their
own operating system and that is what they've done.
"If you look
at North Korea, Red Star resembles how the state is operating. It's
pretty locked down, they focus on integrity a lot and they have
mechanisms to track users."
As with many things about the world's
most insular state, the extent to which Red Star is used in North Korea
is not known. It is likely installed in libraries and other public
buildings, says Mr Grunow, where operating systems can be decided by the
state.
Red Star was built using Linux, a free and open-source
platform which can be modified at will, and was designed that way to
make it as accessible as possible. There is an inherent irony in North
Korea's use of the system, says Mr Grunow.
"They are using a system that was built to promote free speech, and they are abusing it by watermarking free speech," he says.
More
ironic still is the name of the file used by Red Star to hunt for
suspicious files on the machine: "The pattern file we found which is
used by the so-called anti-virus software is called Angae," says Mr
Grunow.
"That translates to fog or mist - as in, to obfuscate or
not be transparent. We have no idea why they picked this name, but it
fits, doesn't it?"
The UK is the world leader in e-commerce, former Google boss Eric Schmidt has told the BBC.
Now
executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, Mr Schmidt said
there was no reason why a hundred billion pound tech start up could not
be launched in Britain.
He said UK entrepreneurs tended to sell up earlier than their US counterparts.
But he said the lesson from the US was that when tech companies run, they can become "very, very big".
"If you have a strong franchise that's growing quickly, you're probably better off waiting a while [before selling]," he said.
This lesson could "easily be learned in Britain".
Perfect environment
Speaking
to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Schmidt said that "Britain is the
Image copyrightAVGWeb TuneUp is offered as a free tool to protect PCs from malware and web trackers
It has emerged that
a popular tool meant to ward off malware contained a flaw that put
millions of people's personal data at risk.
AVG's Web TuneUp software is marketed as a free way for users to defend themselves from "hidden threats".
But
earlier this month Google's security team spotted that it was
overriding safety features built into the search firm's Chrome browser.
AVG said it had addressed the problem, but it now faces repercussions.
Google's Tavis Ormandy first flagged the issue to other members of his Project Zero team on 15 December.
He
highlighted that Web TuneUp was "force installing" a plug-in into
Chrome, meaning that users of the product had no way to opt out of it
altering the browser's settings.
As a result, he said, people's
internet history and other personal data could be seen by others if they
knew where to look online. Furthermore, he said, the code could
potentially let hackers spy on people's email and other online
activities.
Panama's former president Ricardo
Martinelli (C) stands outside the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN)
in Guatemala City January 29, 2015.
Stringer
A U.S.
federal judge identified the former president of Panama, Ricardo
Martinelli, as one of several alleged co-conspirators in a bribery
scheme that helped SAP to sell millions of dollars in software to
Panama, according to a document reviewed by Reuters. The
reference to Martinelli as a co-conspirator, which has not been
previously reported, comes as the former president faces unrelated
allegations of corruption and misconduct in Panama – accusations he has
said are politically motivated.
Apple is close to signing a final
agreement with LG Display and Samsung to provide OLED screens for
next-generation iPhones, according to a new report from ET News [Google Translate] (via Reuters). The OLED panels are rumored to be included with iPhones starting in 2018.
The two Korean companies plan to spend around $12.8 billion (15 trillion
won) combined to build up OLED production capacity over the next two to
three years. ET News also adds that Apple is likely to provide
some funding to both LG and Samsung to help with their investments.
Additionally, LG plans on converting existing LCD production lines into
OLED production lines to reduce costs. Samsung, on the other hand, will
produce 30 percent fewer orders than LG.
Last month, Nikkeireported
that Apple plans to switch iPhones over to OLED displays starting in
2018, with both LG and Samsung sharing a large portion of OLED panel
production. LG was already planning capacity upgrades for high-volume
OLED screen production that would be required for iPhone demand. Earlier
this month, it was reported that Japan Display was also planning mass production of OLED displays for iPhones starting in 2018.
OLED displays can provide sharper images and brighter colors compared to
LCD displays. However, OLED displays tend to have shorter lifespans and
come with higher manufacturing costs. Apple has been reportedly "consulting with display makers" on how to minimize potential drawbacks.
The Twitter logo is shown at its
corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California April 28, 2015.
Robert Galbraith
Twitter
Inc has clarified its definition of abusive behavior that will prompt
it to delete accounts, banning "hateful conduct" that promotes violence
against specific groups. The
social media company disclosed the changes on Tuesday in a blog post,
following rising criticism it was not doing enough to thwart Islamic
State's use of the site for propaganda and recruitment.
"As
always, we embrace and encourage diverse opinions and beliefs, but we
will continue to take action on accounts that cross the line into
abuse," Megan Cristina, director of Trust and Safety, said in the blog.
The new rules do not mention Islamic State or any other group by name.
"You
may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other
people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual
orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age,
disability or disease," according to the revised rules. (bit.ly/1MFueNn)
The company previously used a more generic warning that banned users from threatening or promoting "violence against others."
J.M.
Berger, co-author of a March 2015 Brookings Institute "census" of ISIS
Twitter use, which found that the militant group had operated at least
46,000 accounts from September to December of last year, said the change
would lead to more aggressive reporting of abuse by users who flag
accounts that break the rules.
"The
new definition is much clearer and takes some of the guesswork out of
determining if a Tweet violates the rules," Berger said.
Rabbi Abraham
Cooper, who heads the Digital Terrorism and Hate Project at the Simon
Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said that "terrorists and hate groups
will leave" if Twitter enforces the revised rules.
He
said that would require blocking repeat offenders from setting up new
accounts with altered handles and remove thousands of existing counts
that violate the policy.
Tuesday's
announcement did not disclose changes to Twitter's enforcement strategy.
A company spokesman declined to say if any were in the works.
The
new rules also said that Twitter might respond to reports that somebody
is considering "self-harm" by contacting the person to express concern
and provide contact information to mental health practitioners.
Lawmakers
in Congress proposed legislation earlier this month that would require
social media operators, including Twitter and Facebook Inc, to notify
federal authorities of any detected "terrorist activity."
(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston and Dustin Volz in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)
The Apple logo is pictured at a retail
store in the Marina neighborhood in San Francisco, California April 23,
2014.
Robert Galbraith
Italy's tax office said on Wednesday it
had reached a deal with U.S. tech giant Apple in a dispute over taxes
but declined to comment on details of the settlement. La
Repubblica newspaper reported on Wednesday that Apple had agreed to pay
318 million euros ($347.76 million), in line with the figure the paper
said the Italian agency had asked for.
"Apple has agreed to our request," an agency spokesman said. He would not say how much the iPhone maker had agreed to pay.
Italian prosecutors
have been investigating allegations that Apple failed to pay corporate
taxes to the tune of 879 million euros ($964 million), sources told
Reuters earlier this year.
Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak, editing by Isla Binnie)
Zagg's newest Slim Book is its first product
designed specifically for the iPad Pro. Following in the footsteps of
its previous Slim Books for other iPads, the Slim Book for iPad Pro features a protective case that snaps around the iPad and fits into an accompanying full-sized keyboard.
The Slim Book is one of the few keyboard cases available for the iPad
Pro, and it essentially turns the iPad Pro into a full-fledged laptop,
plus it is versatile because it's able to serve as a standalone case or a
case that offers full protection. That might sound appealing, but as
I've discovered testing it for the last week, there are some downsides
to Zagg's latest offering.
Design
The Slim Book consists of two pieces: a black plastic shell that fits
around the back of the iPad Pro and a matching silver aluminum keyboard
with black MacBook-style keys and a matching black plastic exterior. The
shell piece that fits around the iPad Pro is relatively slim, snapping
into place to protect the back of the iPad. It doesn't feel cheaply
made, but it also doesn't feel as premium as an Apple product given all
the plastic.
All of the ports on the iPad Pro are left open with the shell on,
leaving everything from the headphone jack to the Lightning port
accessible. Because the shell fits so tightly to the iPad Pro, it's
difficult to remove. This is not a shell that I would want to be taking
off my iPad on a regular basis, because it takes a lot of force to get
it off. It also makes the volume and the sleep/wake buttons on the iPad
Pro more difficult to press because it causes them to be recessed.
For a while after I put it on, I wasn't even sure my iPad Pro would ever
come out, so expect a tight fit there. Given the amount of force it
took to get that shell off, I'm concerned about future breakage,
especially at weak spots near ports. If you get this case, you're going
to want to leave the back shell on all the time, so that's something to
keep in mind. On the plus side, it does offer some rear protection from
scratches and dings.
The shell is thin enough that it doesn't add a lot of bulk on its own,
but the whole setup gets a lot heavier when the keyboard is added. On
the left side of the shell, the
The new rules for autonomous autos were presented for public
commentary. The DMV has invited the public to weigh in on the proposal
in two workshops, one in Sacramento and the other in Los Angeles, early
next year.
The draft is the next step in allowing the
A
decision in the European Commission probe of Ireland's alleged
"sweetheart tax deal" with Apple will likely be delayed until after the
Irish elections in early 2016, as Financial Times reports the executive cabinet has now requested supplementary questionnaires in the lengthy investigation.
The European Commission began Apple's Irish tax probe in June 2014, and the Brussels-based executive body formally accused the iPhone maker of receiving illegal state aid from Ireland
in September 2014. A decision was originally expected earlier this
year, but the additional information requested will likely cause further
delays.
Apple's tax policies have been scrutinized on numerous occasions over the past three years, as the company is said to utilize multiple subsidiary companies located in the Irish city of Cork to move money around without significant tax penalties.
Apple continues to deny any wrongdoing, and Ireland vows to take the
European Commission to court over any negative ruling, according to the
report.
Apple's Irish tax probe is part of a larger crackdown by the European
Commission on possible corporate tax avoidance in EU countries. Earlier
this month, the commission reportedly accused McDonald's of "benefiting
from arrangements that allowed it to pay no tax on European royalties in
Luxembourg," and Fiat and Starbucks were ordered in October to repay up
to €30 million in back taxes.
As
it looks to find a better foothold in the Indian smartphone market,
Apple today reduced the price of the bestselling iPhone 5s in the
country by nearly half of what it sold for in September (via CNET).
Officially, the 2013 iPhone has been reduced from 44,500 Rupees ($665)
to 24,999 Rupees ($370) in an effort by Apple to make the two-year-old
smartphone more attractive to users in India, where smartphone
competition is normally priced below $300.
Samsung's
flagship Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge due early next year will feature a
pressure-sensitive display that functions similarly to 3D Touch on
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The next-generation Android-based smartphones will reportedly also
feature high-speed USB-C ports that provide up to a full day's charge in
under 30 minutes, and improved cameras that are optimized for low-light
photography.
Over the past week, we've been sharing some
of the favored Apple-related accessories that our editors and writers
use on a daily basis, but we also wanted to highlight the best products
that our readers and forum members use on a daily basis.
We asked for your suggestions in our MacRumors 2015 Holiday Gift Guide Master List post, and then organized those picks by category. We're going to keep building this list, so make sure to mention your favorite product in the comments and we'll add it to the guide.
We've organized this list into categories by product and added a short description of each item.
iPhone
Tech21 Cases - Tech21 is
known for its high-quality, highly protective cases, which are also sold
in Apple Stores. Available in a range of price points, there are cases
to fit the iPhone 4s and up. Prices range from $45 to $100, for the
company's battery case. Tech21 also makes cases for Macs and iPads.
Tech21 products are available from Apple and some are available at cheaper prices from Amazon.
MyCharge Rapid Recharge external battery
- Recommended by our own Arnold Kim, the Rapid Recharge is a 4,000 mAh
external battery that fits in a pocket and has outlet prongs built right
in. It's priced at $70. There's also a larger 8,000 mAh version for those that need more power, priced at $120.
Zagg InvisibleShield Glass Screen Protectors - Recommended by MacRumors
forum moderator Maflynn, Zagg's InvisibleShield screen protectors are
available for a wide variety of devices, from the newest iPhones to the
newest iPads. The glass version is made from fortified tempered glass
for superior scratch protection and better clarity. Prices for Zagg's
screen protectors start at $35 on its website, but can be often be found
cheaper on Amazon.
Anker PowerCore 20100
- This Anker battery pack is good for charging your iOS devices, iPads,
and more. At a 20,100 mAh capacity, it's going to be good for several
uses, and it has dual 2.4 amps ports to charge two devices at once. The
best part? It's super affordable at $40. Get it from Amazon.
iPad
Apple Smart Cases - Apple's Smart Cases are available for the earlier iPad minis and iPad Air 2. They offer full front and back protection for the iPad, merging a Smart Cover with
GeckoLinux is a custom spin of the
openSuse project. It offers an impressive variety of options and easier operation than typical Suse-based Linux distros provide.
GeckoLinux is a newcomer. I mean very new. Its first release was last
week. You shouldn't view this distro as a wailing infant, however. It's
based on openSuse Leap 42.1 and was leapfrogged into near-instant
maturity from
Suse Studio, a Web application for building and testing software applications in a Web browser.
No, it's not a Chromebook-like operating system. Rather, it's a fully
functional Linux distro that taps into the Suse Linux infrastructure.
It is a marked improvement over traditional
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks about new
Autopilot features during a Tesla event in Palo Alto, California October
14, 2015.
Reuters/Beck Diefenbach
Tesla
Motors Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and other prominent tech
executives are pouring $1 billion into a non-profit aimed at creating
artificial intelligence that augments humans' capabilities, rather than
making them obsolete.The
effort announced on Friday, called OpenAI, joins significant
investments from companies such as Alphabet Inc's Google, Facebook Inc
and A
Google has filed for a patent on needle-free blood-drawing technology, described in a USPTO application published last week.
Application 20150342509
suggests four potential implementations of the
Otono Networks today announced the launch of AlwaysOnline Wireless,
a global LTE roaming network exclusively for iPads with Apple SIM. The
roaming network will be available in 45 countries, but will expand to
additional countries in the future.
AlwaysOnline will offer LTE data plans starting from $0.99 an hour for
15 MB, and users can pay by hour, data or megabyte. Otono CEO Emir
Aboulhosn says that the
Apple this week has encouraged customers
to trade in and upgrade to a new iPhone through its website, email and
an App Store banner advertisement.
Apple's new section on its iPhone website
reminds customers about trading in their current smartphone at the
Apple Store or online through partner Brightstar for up to $320 instant
credit. Apple accepts the iPhone 4 or later for trade in.
Apple's website, left, and email, right, promoting iPhone upgrades this week
Apple's mass email to U.S. customers promotes the iPhone Upgrade Program
and shares details about how the financing program works. The email
also provides similar details about trading in a smartphone for up to
$320 instant credit.
Apple has also made the controversial decision to advertise the iPhone
6s and iPhone 6s Plus to older iPhone users directly in the App Store,
with a pop-up banner advertisement that can be dismissed by tapping on
"skip" in the top-right corner.
App Store banner advertising the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus
iPhones are unsurprisingly one of the hottest gifts during the
Mercedes-Benz has issued an internal announcement to U.S. dealers (via C450 AMG) that confirms CarPlay will be supported in a number of 2016 model year vehicles starting with December 1, 2015 or January 8, 2016 production or later.
CarPlay can be controlled using the central controller or touchpad, if
equipped, on supported Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Siri voice commands can
be activated by pressing the voice control button on the steering wheel.
CarPlay works with compatible iPhones plugged into a specific USB port
on supported Mercedes-Benz vehicles, labeled "2" below on the right.
Apple
CarPlay® will be a completely different interface than the customary
Mercedes-Benz infotainment. The customer will not be able to use the
Mercedes-Benz headunit functions at the same time as CarPlay®. For
example, use of the Spotify app cannot be done simultaneously with
COMAND Navigation.
CarPlay is available in 2016 CLA, GLA and
B-Class vehicles with December 1, 2015 production or later as a
standalone $350 package or "Multimedia Package with Smartphone
Integration" upgrade.
Apple's in-dash software is also available in the 2016 E400 Coupe, E550
Coupe, E400 Cabriolet, E550 Cabriolet and CLS400 Coupe with
Mike Cannon-Brookes (C), co-founder and CEO
of Atlassian Software Systems, and Scott Farquhar (3rd L), co-founder
and CEO of Atlassian Software Systems, smile during it's opening PO at
the Nasdaq at a MarketSite in New York, December 10, 2015.
Mike Cannon-Brookes (C) and Scott Farquhar
(centre, L), co-founders and CEO's of Atlassian Software Systems smile
during its opening public offering (PO) at the Nasdaq at a MarketSite in
New York December 10, 2015.
Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
Shares
of Australian business software maker Atlassian Corp Plc soared as much
as 33.3 percent in their market debut on Thursday, valuing the company
at about $5.85 billion in one of the most highly valued initial public
offerings of the year.Atlassian's
strong debut signals to investors that among the crop of 145 tech
unicorns - venture-backed private companies worth $1 billion or more -
there are still some that are not overvalued.
The company's IPO raised $462 million after the shares were priced at $21 each, above the expected range of $19-$20.
The stock hit a high of $28.05 in
A magnifying glass is held in front of a
computer screen in this picture illustration taken in Berlin May 21,
2013.
Reuters/Pawel Kopczynski
The U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission plans to bring more cases against
investment advisers who do not have policies to prevent hacking, the
agency's enforcement chief said on Thursday.The
SEC is targeting advisers in cyber-related cases that focus on
regulatory obligations to keep customers' information private, said
Andrew Ceresney, head of the SEC's enforcement division.
In
September, the SEC slapped St. Louis-based investment advisory firm
R.T. Jones Capital Equities with a $75,000 fine
Chances are, you know an
Apple fanatic -- someone whose iPhone, Mac or iPad is a prized
possession. If you don't know a true fanatic, you probably know a fan --
or barring that, someone who might appreciate an Apple-made gift this
holiday season.
To help you cut through the chaff, from one Apple fanatic to...
someone else entirely, I've put together a list of the best Apple gifts
this holiday season, covering multiple price points.
Of course, we should get this out of the way right now: Most of
Apple's price points are pretty high. While an Apple Watch, for example,
might fit into a stocking, it's not exactly a gift that comes in at a
stocking stuffer price.
In addition, you should know that Apple basically has turned its
whole website into a storefront, so going to Apple to browse a
traditional online store is just gone. You now browse product pages, and
when you think you want to buy, you've got to find the "Buy" button.
For a person considering a
Hi! At Unity we are currently developing a number of new
Image Effects. The idea behind these effects is that they should look
amazing and scale to different hardware levels (where possible).
The effects currently in development are:
Screen Space Reflections
Tonemapping & Color Grading
New Antialiasing (SMAA)
Depth of Field
We will be adding more as we start to finish these current effects up.
Open Source development
Each of the listed effects are at a different phase of
Popular product discovery site Product Hunt
is today updating its iOS app, adding new features to bring it in line
with the Product Hunt web experience. The Product Hunt site itself was
updated with a more visual look a few weeks ago, which is now coming to
the Product Hunt app.
Moving beyond tech, the app now offers an "Explore All Categories"
option that lets users see products that are trending in categories like
books, games, and podcasts. There's also a new "Popular" feed that
surfaces a range of content including products and collections,
organizing it into an Instagram-style visual layout.
Product Hunt for iOS is gaining Live chats, letting users view, subscribe to, and participate in the Live chats
hosted on the site. Upcoming chats will be conducted with people like
Quora co-founder Charlie Cheever and Braintree founder Bryan Johnson.
GoPro today announced an update
to its iOS app that will bring Apple Watch integration to users of the
popular outdoor recording hardware. The new Apple Watch features will
give users access to a GoPro camera's controls, letting them preview
their shot, toggle between capture modes, begin and end recording, and
even add HiLight tags to important moments in a video.
Also introduced in the 2.11 version of the GoPro app is the ability to
browse frame-by-frame through a video and capture still images from it.
The company has streamlined media browsing in the app as well, with
easier-to-discover photos, videos, HiLights and clips, along with some
expanded iOS abilities that make "nearly everything" available on the
Apple version of the software that was previously restricted on mobile.
iFixit has completed a Smart Battery Case teardown,
providing a closer look at the case's brushed aluminum inner shell,
rechargeable lithium-ion battery and tiny logic board housing two
Lightning connectors.
The inner aluminum plate serves as a door for the battery compartment,
which houses a 1,877 mAh battery (7.13 Whr) that more than doubles the
iPhone 6s battery capacity of 1,715 mAh. iFixit says the battery is
"very strongly adhered in place" with a connector rather than soldering.
Much of what makes Apple's Smart Battery Case "smart" is powered by the
iPhone, as the case only has a few other components, including a NXP
NX20P3 load switch, also found in Lightning to USB cables, and a NXP
1608A1 charging chip.
iFixit awarded the Smart Battery Case a repairability score of 2 out of
10, with ten being the easiest to repair. While the battery pack can
technically be replaced, the case has a strong adhesive lining, and all
other repairs would destroy the accessory.
When the iPad Pro launched, Zagg had a third-party keyboard ready to go for the device - the Messenger Universal, an affordable universal keyboard designed to fit a wide range of tablets as large as the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
As a simple universal keyboard, it has the benefit of being readily
available for purchase and it's relatively cheap compared to other
options, but there are some definite downsides to the Messenger
Universal that may prevent it from being a viable option for some
people.
Rather than taking advantage of the Smart Connector on the iPad Pro, the
Messenger Universal connects over Bluetooth like any traditional
Bluetooth keyboard, pairing via the Settings app on the iPad Pro. I had
no problems with setup and there were no loss-of-connection issues
during my time testing the keyboard.
The Messenger Universal consists of a magnetic Smart Cover-style flap
that props up the iPad and an accompanying full-sized keyboard. It
doesn't double as a case or a cover for the iPad like the Logitech
CREATE or Apple's own Smart Keyboard -- it's strictly a keyboard and a
stand. Because it's made for a range of different devices, the Messenger
Universal can be paired with other tablets and smartphones in addition
to the iPad Pro.
When not in use, the keyboard folds up folio style with the cover
portion protecting the keys, so it's fairly compact for travel. It is as
wide as the iPad Pro at 12 inches, so it's going to take up a fair
amount of space in a bag or backpack, and it's also just over a half an
inch thick. The outside cover of the keyboard is a soft water-resistant
material that'll protect the keyboard from rain and
A sales assistant uses her mobile phone
next to the company logos of Apple and Samsung at a store in Hefei,
Anhui province September 10, 2014.
Reuters/Stringer
Samsung
fought until the bitter end to avoid paying Apple, but the company now
says it will finally hand over the more than $548 million it owes for
infringing the patents and designs of its biggest smartphone rival.In
papers filed in federal court in San Jose, California on Thursday,
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it will make the payment by Dec. 14 if
Apple Inc sends an invoice on Friday.
Asked if it had done so, Apple declined to comment on Friday.
The
payment comes after a U.S. appeals court last May reduced a $930
million judgment against Samsung by $382 million, stemming from a
Google today acknowledged an ongoing issue
causing a number of iPhone, iPad and Mac apps to display incorrect
one-star ratings in its search results on the web, and confirmed that a
fix should be implemented by early next week.
"I'm happy to share that we've been working hard on providing a
solution, and a new fix has been scheduled for the next release, which
should be rolling out early next week," wrote Google Search community
manager AJ in the Google support forums.
A growing number of developers, including the makers of Dandelion,
have reported incorrect one-star ratings in Google search results since
late October, despite actually having higher-than-one-star ratings on
iTunes.
The
Wikimedia Foundation this week rolled out a service designed to improve the quality of Wikipedia articles.
The Objective Revision Evaluation Service uses artificial
intelligence and machine learning to help Wikipedia editors identify
damaging articles more quickly and assign quality scores to them more
rapidly.
Every day, Wikipedia is edited some 500,000 times, Wikimedia said.
Editors, most of them volunteers, have to review all those changes.
ORES allows those editors to peer into incoming content to identify
potentially damaging edits swiftly and quarantine them for future
scrutiny.
A damaging edit might include the insertion of personal opinion or obscenity into an article.
Edit Triage
"If you're in the media at all, there's a chance that someone is going
to dislike something that you said and is going to try to damage your
Wikipedia page," said Rob Enderle,
principal analyst at the Enderle Group. That behavior, though, fits a pattern -- a pattern that a system like
ORES can address. "Low-level AI is really good at identifying patterns
and taking prescribed action against the patterns it recognizes," he
told TechNewsWorld.
"Unless you have a ton more people than Wikipedia has, you'd never be able to keep up with the bad edits," Enderle said.
With ORES, "Wikipedia can be more trusted and less likely to be used as a tool to harm somebody," he added.
It provides Wikipedia editors with a suite of tools they can use to
help them sort edits by the probability that they're damaging.
Apple's second "spaceship" campus is
scheduled to be completed in late 2016, giving the company just 12
months to wrap up construction to stay on schedule. Apple's construction
crews have been hard at work over the past few months, making a lot of
headway on the main ring-shaped building, the underground auditorium,
and the parking structures.
Drone pilot Duncan Sinfield today shared another monthly campus update video with MacRumors, giving a close-up look at how construction has progressed since November.
Four levels of the main ring-shaped building have been completed, bringing Steve Jobs' original vision of the campus
to life. With the walls in place, the special curved glass windows that
will encircle the building will likely be
VTech's products are seen on display at a toy store in Hong Kong, China November 30, 2015.
Reuters/Tyrone Siu
Hong Kong-based digital toymaker VTech Holdings Ltd (0303.HK) said FireEye Inc's (FEYE.O)
Mandiant forensics unit was helping the company secure its systems
after a hacking attack exposed data on 6.4 million children.VTech said it was cooperating with law enforcement worldwide to investigate the cyber attack, which surfaced last week.
A Tesla Motors logo is shown on a Tesla
Model S at a Tesla Motors dealership at Corte Madera Village, an
outdoor retail mall, in Corte Madera, California May 8, 2014.
Reuters/Robert Galbraith
U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla
Motors Inc has met with government authorities in Chile to discuss a
lithium venture with state copper miner Codelco, a local newspaper
reported on Thursday. Lithium
is a key ingredient of the electric car batteries used in Tesla's
autos. The world's largest known deposits of the chemical straddle huge
salt flats in Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.
"Top
executives from the company visited Chile to meet with government
authorities and suggest an agreement with Codelco," financial newspaper
Pulso reported, without citing sources.
A coalition of authors and well-known booksellers have come forth to back Apple
in a petition to overturn a recent ruling that stated the company was
liable in conspiring to fix the prices of electronic books when its
iBooks store launched on the iPad in 2010 (via Cult of Mac).
Together, the Authors Guild, Authors United, the American Booksellers
Association, and Barnes & Noble have filed a 37-page amicus brief
that states Apple was in fact enhancing competition and benefiting its
customers.
“We are pleased to lend our support in this matter, critical
to anyone interested in a competitive and diverse literary
marketplace,” said Mary Rasenberger, executive director of the Authors
Guild, in a statement. “We fundamentally question the wisdom of the
Second Circuit’s use of antitrust law to punish a business arrangement
that demonstrably increased competition in the e-book marketplace.”
A
decision in the European Commission probe of Ireland's alleged
"sweetheart tax deal" with Apple will likely be delayed until after the
Irish elections in early 2016, as 
As
it looks to find a better foothold in the Indian smartphone market,
Apple today reduced the price of the bestselling iPhone 5s in the
country by nearly half of what it sold for in September (via 
Samsung's
flagship Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge due early next year will feature a
pressure-sensitive display that functions similarly to 3D Touch on
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, according to 
Otono Networks today 
