FBI paid more than $1.3 million for San Bernardino iPhone hack

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday that the agency paid more to break into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone than he'll make in the remaining 7+ years of his tenure. Reuters crunched the numbers, and that suggests that the FBI paid more than $1.3 million for the hack.

That seems like a lot of money for a tool that doesn't work on the iPhone 5s or newer, but  speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in London today, the Director said that he believes it was worth it. And of course the FBI will be able to use the tool in other case involving older iPhones.

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Second betas of iOS 9.3.2 and OS X 10.11.5 now available to public testers

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS and OS X updates to public testers. Folks in the Beta Software Program can now install iOS 9.3.2 via OTA on their iOS devices, and OS X 10.11.5 via the App Store Software Update mechanism.

These are the same betas that Apple pushed out to developers yesterday, along with updates for watchOS and tvOS. They arrive about a month after the public releases of iOS 9.3 and OS X 10.11.4, which brought about several user-facing changes.

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Apple Store app gains 3D Touch support, now available in more countries

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple on Thursday pushed out an update for its Apple Store iOS client, bringing the app to version 3.7. The update brings about new 3D Touch features on compatible devices, and makes the app available in new countries.

As for 3D Touch support, iPhone 6s users have long been able to utilize Quick Actions on the app icon, but now the Apple Store app supports Peek and Pop. So force-pressing on a link within the app now opens up previews.

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Apple seeds tvOS 9.2.1 beta 2 to developers

Cody Lee ∙ April 21, 2016

Apple on Thursday released the second beta for tvOS 9.2.1 to developers. To update, you’ll have to connect your Apple TV 4 to a computer via a USB-C cable, and install the software through iTunes or Apple Configurator.

Todays release comes a month after Apple pushed out tvOS 9.2 to the public. That was a significant update, bringing about new user-facing features such as support for Home screen app folders and Bluetooth keyboards.

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Insiders blame iCloud technical issues on ‘open conflict’ between Siri and cloud teams at Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2016

A report Thursday published by the former Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Lessin's outlet, The Information, paints a gloomy picture for Apple's efforts to move its cloud services 100 percent in-house. That process has been slowed by “political infighting” as the company's iCloud and Siri engineering teams are now “in open conflict”.

The infighting is so bad, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation, that at least one key employee has already departed, “with more expected soon,” reads the full report behind a paywall.

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Qualcomm is “assuming” that Apple will give LTE modem orders for iPhone 7 to rival Intel

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2016

Shares of Qualcomm have dropped two percent after CEO Steve Mollenkopf told analysts on an earnings call Wednesday that it may lose some of its “biggest customers” as they are going with a “second source,” Bloomberg reported.

The fabless chip maker's been Apple's exclusive supplier of LTE modems for over three years now.

That's about to change soon: Mollenkopf is now “assuming” that a major customer will give orders to a rival, indicating a potential loss of business for the company. Analysts said they think the customer is Apple and the rival is Intel.

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Put Product Hunt right in your Mac’s menu bar

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2016

Product Hunt, the popular Y Combinator-backed service that lets users share and discover new products, earlier this month unveiled a thoroughly revamped iPhone and iPad application that puts fun back into product discovery.

It's a gorgeously done app that I use every day and it's made me want that experience on my Mac. Lo and behold, Product Hunt for Mac. A tiny, official client for OS X, this app puts Product Hunt's familiar round “P” icon right into your Mac's menu bar, where it sits and dutifully awaits a click of the mouse to present you with the latest popular products, games, books and podcasts on Product Hunt.

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Facebook launching group audio calling on Messenger with support for up to 50 participants

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2016

A year after it rolled out the ability to place and receive VoIP audio calls on Messenger, Facebook is now introducing a new VoIP calling feature with support for up to fifty people on a single group call. Group calling currently supports standard VoIP audio calls, but Facebook did tell TechCrunch that “group video calling is definitely a use case that a lot of our people might be interested in at some point”.

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Revisit the places you’ve been with Foursquare’s new history feature (bonus: Photos extension)

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2016

Since launching in 2009, there have been over nine billion check-ins on Foursquare across the globe. Celebrating its seventh anniversary, the startup pushed an update to its mobile application on the App Store which includes a handy new history features.

Similar to location history on Google, the updated Foursquare app makes it simple for users to browse any place they've been and checked into via a new History tab.

In addition, Foursquare now has its own Photos extension which makes it super easy to share a photo as a tip, right within the context of the Photos app.

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Readdle’s Calendars 5 slashed to $0 as Apple’s new Free App of the Week

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 21, 2016

Calendars 5, one of the best iOS calendar applications out there with a built-in event and task manager and native Google Calendar sync, has been slashed to zero bucks as Apple's new Free App of the Week. The $6.99 universal productivity app is now available at no charge on the App Store until next Thursday. This marks the first time Calendars 5 has gone free in years following Readdle's two-day promotion back in May 2014.

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