Here are some essential tricks all holiday shoppers should know

Black Friday and Cyber Week offer a great deal of savings but they're also a time of potential peril as retailers will come up with some ways to make you spend extra cash that you don't need to spend. Consumer Reports has put out a list of five tips and tricks for holiday shoppers and they're definitely all things that you should bookmark because they'll be a big help this holiday shopping season.

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Posted in 2014 at 08:10PM, December 02

iMessage and FaceTime Ranked as Most Secure Mass-Market Messaging Options

The Electronic Frontier Foundation or EFF, a non-profit digital rights group, has investigated the security of various messaging apps and created a new Secure Messaging Scorecard, ranking messaging apps and tools like iMessage, FaceTime, BlackBerry Messenger, Skype, Snapchat, and more, based on seven different factors:



- Is a message encrypted in transit?

- Is it encrypted so the provider is unable to read it?

- Can you verify contacts' identities?

- Are past communications secure if keys are stolen?

- Is the code open to independent review?

- Is security design properly documented?

- Has the code been audited?



Unsurprisingly, the apps that score highest on the EFF's chart are those dedicated to secure messaging, such as iPhone apps ChatSecure , Signal , and CryptoCat , both of which scored checkmarks in all categories.



Apple's iMessage scored five out of seven checkmarks, earning points for encrypting messages in transit and encryption that's unreadable by Apple, but the messaging app was faulted for an inability to verify contact identities and the fact that Apple's code is not open to independent review.





FaceTime was scored in the same way as iMessage, also offering encryption but no contact verification/independent review capabilities. Outside of dedicated secure chat messaging apps, both FaceTime and iMessage scored higher than competing messaging platforms like Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Snapchat, Kik, Google Hangouts, and BlackBerry Messenger.



Few of the competing messaging services offer encryption that prevents the companies offering the services from accessing messages, though all encrypted messages in transit. Most iMessage/FaceTime competitors also fail to secure past communications if keys are stolen, and few had properly documented security design. QQ, a highly popular Chinese messaging app, failed at providing any of the qualities the EFF was looking for in a secure messaging app, not even bothering to encrypt messages.



According to the EFF, Apple's iMessage and FaceTime products were the "best of the mass-market options," which is not much of a surprise given Apple's unparalleled focus on user privacy. Apple has a comprehensive privacy site that details all of its privacy policies and the security of various apps and services, including iMessage and FaceTime.



On the site, Apple specifically says iMessage and FaceTime calls "are your business, not ours." The company offers end-to-end encryption and Apple has no way to decrypt it. "Unlike other companies' messaging services, Apple doesn't scan your communications and we wouldn't be able to comply with a wiretap order even if we wanted to," reads the site.

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Posted in 2014 at 08:10PM, November 05

First Third-Party SSD With Native OS X TRIM Support Launched by Angelbird

With the growing popularity and declining cost of solid-state drives (SSDs) for Macs and other personal computers, users have becoming increasingly interested in putting third-party SSDs into their machines. But one issue Mac users have been running into involves support for TRIM, a system-level command that allows the operating system and the drive to communicate about which areas of the drive are considered unused and thus ready to be erased and rewritten to.



Without TRIM, writes to the drive can see significant slowdowns as the system must read and erase each block on the fly before writing new data. But unfortunately for users looking to install third-party SSDs into their machines, Apple only officially supports TRIM on Apple-branded SSDs. Workarounds such as Trim Enabler have naturally been developed to enable TRIM on non-Apple SSDs, but a new lineup of SSDs released earlier this month by Austrian firm Angelbird claims to be the first third-party SSD to support SSD right out of the box with no need for additional software tweaking.



Exactly how Angelbird has achieved native TRIM support on Mac is unclear, as the company has not responded to requests for comment. French site MacBidouille reports [Google Translate], however, that Angelbird's SSDs appear to simply be masquerading as genuine Apple SSDs, thereby qualifying for native TRIM support. While the method appears rather questionable and likely to draw Apple's attention, the drive could still be an appealing option for users looking for the easiest possible solution for upgrading to an SSD



OS X Yosemite has added yet another wrinkle for third-party SSD users, as the new kext signing security measure included in the new operating system means that Yosemite systems will refuse to load modified drivers such as those used by TRIM-enabling software. Cindori, the company behind Trim Enabler, is for now recommending that users interested in enabling TRIM on third-party SSDs with Yosemite disable the kext-signing check entirely. The company acknowledges that turning off this global setting is far from ideal and "for most users it will not be worth it", but for now it is the only solution.



Angelbird has not specified whether its SSDs bypass the Yosemite TRIM issues, but if the drives do indeed simply qualify as Apple SSDs due to the way the model number is presented, it is possible that native TRIM support may still function under Yosemite. Angelbird's SSD wrk lineup is available in three capacities: 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB starting at an MSRP of $99.99.

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Posted in 2014 at 08:10PM, October 31

iTunes Users Downloaded U2's 'Songs of Innocence' 26 Million Times, 81 Million 'Experienced Songs'

U2's partnership with Apple that saw its latest album, "Songs of Innocence" distributed for free to iTunes users appears to have been a wild success, with the album reaching more than 81 million Apple customers across iTunes, iTunes Radio, and Beats Music.



Eddy Cue, Apple's iTunes chief, told Billboard that the album had been downloaded in its entirety more than 26 million times since its September 9 release, and that more than 81 million customers had "experienced songs" from the album.

"To help put this into perspective," [Cue] says, "prior to this, 14 million customers had purchased music from U2 since the opening of the iTunes Store in 2003."

During Apple's September 9 keynote event, Bono took the stage with Tim Cook to announce that the "Songs of Innocence" album would be available at no cost to 500 million iTunes customers. Apple even went so far as to push the album to iTunes accounts, causing some devices to download the album without explicit user permission.



There was some backlash over the automatic downloads, prompting Apple to create a tool to allow users to remove the free U2 album. Despite the negativity over auto downloads, Apple announced that "Songs of Innocence" had been "accessed" by more than 33 million customers just under a week after it had been made available.



Apple's deal with U2 and Universal Music Group is worth an estimated $100 million and is said to be part of a "long-term relationship" that will see U2 continuing to work with Apple to promote innovation in music.

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Posted in 2014 at 08:10PM, October 09

Apple, Paypal Talks Over Apple Pay Soured Due to Samsung Deal

Apple and PayPal were in talks that would potentially have seen PayPal becoming a "preferred payment process" for Apple Pay, reports Bank Innovation , but those talks ended abruptly after PayPal inked a deal with Samsung to allow users to make PayPal payments with the Galaxy S5's fingerprint sensor.



Apple was reportedly so annoyed with the partnership between the two companies that it ended talks with PayPal and even went so far as to exclude PayPal from Apple Pay all together, not listing it as an acceptable payment platform in its developer documentation.

But while these talks were going on, PayPal went ahead and partnered with Samsung on the Galaxy S5 fingerprint scanner, a move that was reportedly forced onto PayPal by eBay CEO John Donahoe. PayPal's now-former president David Marcus was purportedly categorically against the Samsung deal, knowing that it would jeopardize PayPal's relationship with Apple. Donahoe won the day, however.

Apple and PayPal appear to be in somewhat of a dispute following the introduction of Apple Pay and PayPal's exclusion, with the latter company recently launching an ad campaign that subtly attacks Apple and Apple Pay.



In the advertisement, PayPal alluded to the recent hacking of celebrity iCloud accounts and suggested PayPal was the safer platform for transferring money. Without a deal between the two companies, PayPal is facing significant competition from Apple Pay.



In addition to allowing users to make purchases in retail stores with their phones, Apple Pay also lets users buy items in support apps using a debit or credit card connected with an iTunes account. PayPal works in a very similar way, letting users attach a credit or debit card and then make purchases through the service, alleviating the need to enter credit card details.



Apple has plans to launch Apple Pay in the coming weeks, through an update to iOS 8.

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Posted in 2014 at 08:10PM, September 30

All of the Moto X+1’s specs just leaked ahead of next month’s announcement

Motorola will finally unveil its next-generation flagship smartphone during an event in Chicago on September 4th. The handset, which is regularly referred to as the "Moto X+1," will face the steepest imaginable competition following its debut; Samsung is widely expected to unveil its new Galaxy Note 4 one day prior to Motorola's event, and Apple will take the wraps off of the completely redesigned iPhone 6 just five days after the X+1 debuts.

For Android fans interested in the new Motorola flagship phone, however, it looks like they may be in for a treat.

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Posted in 2014 at 08:10PM, August 15

A 13-year old just came up with the perfect anti-trolling weapon

The Internet is filled with many trolls, and one young scientist has figured out how to stop them... some of the time, at least. Trisha Prabhu is just 13 years old, but she already has a study that got her a spot in Google’s 15 Global Science Fair finalists, and it’s quite an interesting one. Prabhu wants to put a stop to cyber-bullying by making teens and tweens rethink the things they want to post online that may be hurtful to others. In short, she's appealing to their conscience to prevent annoying messages from being posted online.

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Posted in 2014 at 08:10PM, August 07

Detailed Yet Sketchy Report Claims 802.11ac Wi-Fi, NFC, Improved Touch ID, but No Sapphire Display for iPhone 6

VentureBeat today posted a detailed overview of features that are said to be built into Apple's upcoming iPhone 6, with the outline provided by an unspecified source. While many of the proffered specifications in VentureBeat's outline echo past rumors, there are a few new specific details worth highlighting.



According to the site's source, Apple will introduce both the 4.7 and 5.5-inch iPhones at its upcoming September 9 event, but while the 4.7-inch version will ship in mid-September, the larger 5.5-inch iPhone won't ship until up to a month later. This is in line with rumors suggesting the 5.5-inch iPhone isn't entering mass production until August or September, a month to two months after production is said to have began on the 4.7-inch iPhone.




iPhone 5s with mockups of 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 models


Feature wise, VentureBeat points towards a new 2.0GHz A8 chip, NFC capabilities, and 802.11ac WiFi, all of which have been mentioned in previous rumors as possible specifications for the iPhone 6. The site does get into some specifics, however, suggesting the device will use Qualcomm's MDM9x35 cellular modem along with an NFC chip made by NXP and a WiFi chip from Broadcom.



Apple's Touch ID fingerprint sensor is said to include minor improvements that "speed up read times, cut down on false rejections, and improve security for mobile payments and biometrics," and the source suggests the iPhone 6 will not use a sapphire screen.

We've also heard rumors that the new screens will be made of ultra-durable sapphire glass. Our source says the screens are made of an extremely hard material that's slightly harder than Gorilla Glass but not as hard as sapphire. That corroborates an earlier video report showing that the purported iPhone 6 screen is harder than previous models' screens but softer than sapphire crystal.

While a front panel said to be for the 4.7-inch iPhone has undergone some testing that suggests it may not be composed of sapphire, many rumors have pointed towards the use of a pure sapphire crystal display or sapphire laminated glass display in at least one of the iPhone 6 models. The volume of sapphire production at Apple's Arizona sapphire plant run by GT Advanced also points towards the heavy use of the material and it is unlikely that all of the company's sapphire is being allocated towards the iWatch. During Q2 2014 alone, GT Advanced spent over $45 million on "sapphire production ramp up costs, and previous rumors have suggested the plant can output enough sapphire to outfit approximately 100 to 200 million iPhones.



In addition to outlining possible features for the iPhone 6, VentureBeat also suggests that Apple is experimenting with special connectivity between the iPhone and Beats headphones using the Lightning connector. Apple did recently introduce a Lightning Cable MFi specification for headphones, making such a project a possibility.

Our source adds that Apple has also been playing around with some technology that would form a special "handshake" between iPhones and Beats headphones. This consists of a chip that would authenticate Beats headsets on iPhones using the Lightning connector. Whether or not that feature materializes is anybody's guess.

VentureBeat's sources have not been particularly reliable in the past. For example, the site recently suggested Apple was pairing up with Swatch to develop the iWatch, a rumor that was quickly shot down by Swatch CEO Nick Hayek. The site's source also "stresses" that the listed features may not be the "final spec list" for the iPhone 6, so the overall reliability of the provided information is unclear.

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Posted in 2014 at 08:10PM, August 06