Posts tagged with "apple"

Mat Honan: How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking→

Mat Honan: How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking

You may have heard about Mat Honan (Wired writer) being hacked last week, with his Twitter account being compromised and the hackers using iCloud to remote wipe his iPhone, iPad and Mac. Today he’s written up a detailed article on Wired that goes through how exactly the hackers got access to it all. The scary thing is that it wasn’t done by brute force, but rather by using social engineering to trick Apple and Amazon support staff.

But what happened to me exposes vital security flaws in several customer service systems, most notably Apple’s and Amazon’s. Apple tech support gave the hackers access to my iCloud account. Amazon tech support gave them the ability to see a piece of information — a partial credit card number — that Apple used to release information. In short, the very four digits that Amazon considers unimportant enough to display in the clear on the web are precisely the same ones that Apple considers secure enough to perform identity verification. The disconnect exposes flaws in data management policies endemic to the entire technology industry, and points to a looming nightmare as we enter the era of cloud computing and connected devices.

It’s undoubtedly a scary story about the perils of putting our entire lives in the hands of a cloud service - because more so than ever, physical access isn’t needed to wreak havoc. It’s also a friendly reminder to ensure you’re using strong passwords, isolating critical accounts and creating local backups wherever feasible as a last resort if indeed this or something similar does happen to you.

My experience leads me to believe that cloud-based systems need fundamentally different security measures. Password-based security mechanisms — which can be cracked, reset, and socially engineered — no longer suffice in the era of cloud computing.

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Angry Birds Update Adds New “Power-Ups”, 15 New Levels

Rovio may have just released Amazing Alex a few weeks ago, but it’s committed to bringing more levels to its Angry Birds franchise that continues to be popular. In an update released today, the original Angry Birds game for iOS got 15 new tropical levels that sees the “piggies continue their beach vacation”, that is, until the birds show up.

Today’s update also sees the addition of four power-ups; King Sling, Birdquake, Super Seeds, and Sling Scope.

  • King Sling upgrades your slingshot for “maximum power and velocity”
  • Birdquake will bring the pigs’ defenses “crashing to the ground”
  • Super Seeds will turn your bird into a “pig-popping giant”
  • Sling Scope lets you use laser targetting for “pinpoint precision”

Upon launching the update you’ll get 20 free uses of a power-up and each day you get one additional use. But of course, if you can’t wait that long there’s a bunch of in-app purchase bundles to give you more uses of those power-ups, ranging from a 5-pack of any power-up for $1.99, 10 uses of a single power-up for $0.99 or you could go all in for 125 power-ups for $20.99.

A little side-note, Rovio has now (finally) brought full retina support for the iPad 3 so you can enjoy the game on the wonderful Retina display.

July 2012 In Review

July was an interesting month for MacStories as we covered the launch of the latest version of OS X, Mountain Lion, and launched our first eBook. Containing all our Mountain Lion coverage from the site in addition to exclusive articles, the book was a challenging but immensely rewarding project. With the exception of some advice from a few trusted people, we handled the book’s creation entirely by ourselves and are very proud of the end result. If you haven’t grabbed a copy yet, it’s not too late to change that — and remember that 30% of all proceeds will go directly to the very worthy cause that is the American Cancer Society.

Besides Mountain Lion, the other notable pieces of news were Google’s acquisition of Sparrow, and the all-but-confirmed rumour that the next iPhone and iPad mini will be announced on September 12th. Apps-wise, July was a quiet month as developers readied theirs for Mountain Lion, but we did see the release of the Tweetbot for Mac alpha along with Rovio’s new franchise, Amazing Alex. For stories, we had two great interviews, an excellent piece on discovering and making music on the iPad, talked about the apps and tools we use to write more efficiently, and created some hands-on examples of what the rumoured 7.85” iPad would look and feel like.

Jump the break for the full month in review, and feel free to read previous ‘Month in Review’ editions from 2012.

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Chuck Skoda’s September 2012 Rumor Roundup→

Chuck Skoda’s September 2012 Rumor Roundup

Speaking of Apple’s rumored event for September 12, Chuck Skoda has posted a good roundup of products and updates Apple could be working on.

We’re still months out, but I see Apple’s fall announcements shaping up to be substantial. Tim Cook finished off the new iPad announcement with the words “across the year, you’re going to see a lot more of this kind of innovation, we are just getting started.” Since then, we’ve seen a new Retina MacBook Pro as well as some moderate updates across the MacBook line. But Cook seemed to really be driving home that this year has a lot in store.

The last event that was so heavily rumored to set the stage for several product releases was WWDC. While many predictions before June 2012 didn’t quite turn out to be true, Apple didn’t disappoint either.

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Apple To Hold New iPhone Event On September 12→

Apple To Hold New iPhone Event On September 12

According to multiple websites that have posted the rumor today, Apple’s next generation iPhone will be unveiled at a media event on September 12th, 2012. iMore was first to report on the rumored date, claiming that Apple will announce a new iPhone and a smaller iPad at the event.

iMore has learned that Apple is planning to debut the new iPhone at a special event on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, with the release date to follow 9 days later on Friday, September 21. This information comes from sources who have proven accurate in the past.

The iPad mini will be announced at the same September 12 event, as will the new iPod nano.

Following the iMore post, typically well-sourced John Paczkowski at AllThingsD wrote:

IMore was first to report that the company has scheduled a special event for Wednesday, September 12, and now we’ve confirmed it as well. Sources tell AllThingsD that Apple is currently planning an event for that week.

The Verge also confirmed the media event with their own sources:

 The rumor cycle this time around for the next iPhone has been a bit unusual — multiple leaks have all depicted the exact same components — but it looks like we’ll be seeing what Apple has up its sleeves come Wednesday, September 12th. Our own sources familiar with the matter have confirmed that date, and multiple websites have similar reports as well.

And last, always-reliable Jim Dalrymple at The Loop weighed in with his “Yep” on the rumor.

Both Dalrymple and iMore have been accurate with their predictions and “confirmations of rumors” in the past. iMore correctly predicted the new iPad launch date earlier this year, and the iPhone 4S pre-order date last year. AllThingsD also successfully predicted a number of Apple-related rumors in the past, including one about the January 2012 education event.

The new iPhone is rumored to feature LTE, a bigger display, and a design similar to the 4S. According to recent speculation, the smaller iPad will feature a 7.85-inch screen with the same resolution of older-gen iPads.

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Mountain Lion Downloaded 3 Million Times In Four Days

Apple hast just announced over 3 million copies of OS X Mountain Lion were downloaded in four days of sale on the Mac App Store, translating to roughly $60 million in revenue on launch day. Apple says it has been the most successful release in the history of OS X.

Just a year after the incredibly successful introduction of Lion, customers have downloaded Mountain Lion over three million times in just four days, making it our most successful release ever,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

On the MAS, Mountain Lion has over 7000 ratings with over 5200 being five-star reviews. Apple has not made Mountain Lion available offline via a $69 USB key as they’ve done with Lion, so far sticking to the Mac App Store (or the purchase of a new Mac) as the only upgrade paths. Apple customers whom have purchased a new Mac between June 11th and July 25th are eligible for a free upgrade through Apple’s Up-to-Date program.

By comparison, OS X Lion exceeded 1 million downloads on its first day of sales (Lion was priced at $29.99); 76 days later, on October 4th, Apple announced 6 million copies of Lion had been downloaded.

Mountain Lion, available for $19.99, includes a wide assortment of new features, including AirPlay Mirroring, the Notification Center, Game Center, Messages, Power Nap for compatible Macs, and apps such as Notes and Reminders. You can read more about Mountain Lion’s new features in our comprehensive review.

NYT: Apple Considering Stake In Twitter→

NYT: Apple Considering Stake In Twitter

The New York Times’ Nick Bilton and Evelyn Rusli are tonight reporting that Apple is considering an investment in Twitter to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Whilst the companies are not currently in negotiations and there is no guarantee that the two would come to an agreement, earlier talks do suggest “they may form a stronger partnership”.

As the New York Times report explains, the deal would be one of Tim Cook’s “most important strategic decisions as chief executive” because of intensifying competition from Google and Facebook and the fact that Apple has struggled in the past with social. It would be a unique move for Apple, which typically buys a small start-up and absorbs it into the company rather than investing in a company.

The turf wars have fortified alliances and pushed companies to choose sides. Apple’s dealings with Twitter, for instance, began after its relationship with Facebook soured. In 2010, the company was eager to integrate its Ping service with Facebook, but discussions broke down. Mr. Jobs, the Apple chief executive who died last year, told the technology news site AllThingsD that Facebook had demanded “onerous terms that we could not agree to.”

Apple, which had spent months preparing to hook Facebook into iOS, its mobile operating system, swiftly reworked it for Twitter. One former Twitter employee, who described Twitter as the “lucky mistress” in this chain of events, said the partnership was essentially “handed to Twitter on a silver platter.” Ping, in the end, never caught on with users.

One big question to be resolved is whether Twitter would want a large investment from Apple. Earlier this year, chief executive Dick Costolo said Twitter had “truckloads of money in the bank”. At the same time though, Costolo also recently said in an interview that “[Apple] is a great partner, we think of them as a company that our company looks up to”.

The relationship with Apple is so prized at Twitter that the company assigned a vice president, Kevin Thau, to work with Apple full time, according to an Apple employee who asked not to be named.

[via The New York Times]

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A History of Skeuomorphism In Apple Interfaces→

A History of Skeuomorphism In Apple Interfaces

Thomas Brand has published a detailed overview of Apple’s past skeuomorphic designs in applications for classic Mac OS and OS X. As he notes, the trend towards designing apps that resemble real-life objects didn’t start with iOS at all.

As time progressed, the Aqua interface has evolved to reflect the changes in Apple hardware. Gone are the over the top transparencies, deep drop shadows, and distracting pinstripes. Subtle grays, mute reflections, and soft gradients now fill the retina displays of Apple’s latest portables. Some might say that Aqua is not a skeuomorphic interface because it does not resemble a specific real world object. To them I say Aqua is a mirror reflecting back the design decisions that have made Apple’s hardware so appealing over the last 10 years.

In his article, Thomas mentions old software such as Sherlock, the Appearance Manager of Mac OS 8, Apple CD Audio Player, and the Classic Calculator that Steve Jobs famously designed himself with a “build your own” kit created by a former Apple engineer. iOS may not have reinvented skeuomorphism in software per sè, but it surely gave this way of designing apps a whole new meaning and set of interactions thanks to screen constraints and multi-touch.

Check out Egg Freckles’ article for the full list of apps that influenced Apple’s skeuomorphic interfaces.

Image via TUAW

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Rovio’s Amazing Alex Is Now Available

The next game from Rovio, creators of Angry Birds, Amazing Alex has today arrived for iPhone, iPad and Android. The game, like Angry Birds, fits into the genrè of a physics puzzler but this time you’re setting up “objects to bounce, pop, ricochet, bash, and crash into each other and create an elaborate Rube Goldberg device”.

Meet Amazing Alex! With his boundless imagination, this whiz kid turns everything into adventure! From cleaning his room to battling cardboard robots in his backyard, Alex creates amazing chain reactions to get the job done. Now he has some challenges for you! What’s the most creative solution YOU can create? With 100 challenging levels, there’s a whole world of creations to explore!

The game features 100 levels across four locations but as Rovio has already said, regular future updates will see more levels added, just like Angry Birds. Where Amazing Alex gets more interesting is the ability for you to create your own levels with “35 interactive objects” and then share them with friends or even the whole world.

You can purchase Amazing Alex for the iPhone ($0.99) or iPad ($2.99).
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