iPhone jailbreaking pioneer George Hotz secures funding for his self-driving car kit

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 9, 2016

George Hotz, one of the pioneers of the early jailbreak scene who used to go by the code-name “GeoHot”, has managed to secure funding for his self-driving kit, Forbes reported Wednesday. Among those interested in his project: the CEOs of graphics giant Nvidia and auto parts supplier Delphi.

Both CEOs have paid visits to Hotz's basement office in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood. In fact, Nvidia's boss sponsored Hotz's project with high-performance GPU cards woth $30,000.

But more important than that, he's scored an unannounced seed investment from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the fledgling company at $20 million, according to sources.

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Microsoft fires another salvo at Apple’s Mac with new Surface Book ads

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 9, 2016

Microsoft is back at it with new commercials that build up to the “I can't do that on my Mac” tagline.

The Windows giant kicked off the new theme with commercials for Windows 10 that highlight some of the things “Macs can't do” such as its built-in Cortana personal digital assistant, support for inking and drawing on notebooks with built-in touchscreens and the ability to log in to Windows with your face.

Yesterday, Satya Nadella & Co. posted new commercials for its Surface Book, a device marketed as “the ultimate laptop” because it's performant and versatile. The commercials, first spotted by The Loop, gush over Surface Book features such as a high-resolution screen and the responsiveness and precision of its stylus.

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Leaked case suggests dual cameras and stereo speakers for iPhone 7

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 9, 2016

Prolific leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer today posted claimed images of a purported case for Apple's unreleased iPhone 7 on Twitter.

While not the first iPhone 7 case, this one is pretty interesting as it seemingly corroborates that the handset will in fact ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack while adopting a dual-camera setup on the back and stereo speakers.

Apple is expected to formally announce the iPhone 7, the next major upgrade to its smartphone lineup, in September.

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Phishing emails: what they are and how to report them

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated December 18, 2018

Emails are a popular way to keep in touch with people, be it friends, family, or co-workers, but often companies that you deal business with will send you the occasional promotional email if you signed up for subscriptions.

Sometimes, you get an email that you think is legit, and it turns out it's just a fake email pretending to be something it's not and it tries to get you to click on stuff or give up your personal information. These emails are malicious and they're known as phishing emails.

In this piece, we'll go over some of the things you can look for to tell if the emails you're getting are legitimate, or if they're a con artist trying to scam you of your personal information.

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OWC launches SSD Upgrades for Mid-2013 and later Mac Notebooks

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 23, 2016

Other World Computing (OWC) has announced on Tuesday a major new step forward in upgrading the flash storage of your 2013 or later MacBook Air or MacBook Pro with Retina display.

Now available are the OWC Aura solid state drives (SSD), which come in flavors of 480GB and 1TB. These storage drive upgrades are direct PCI-e drop-ins for any of the supported computers.

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Google Docs, Slides and Sheets gain native support for iPad Pro’s 12.9-inch screen

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 8, 2016

The Internet giant Google today refreshed its mobile productivity apps in the App Store—Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides—adding support for the iPad Pro's 12.9-inch screen along with other minor improvements.

Although Google's word processor, spreadsheet and presentation apps now take full advantage of the iPad Pro's increased screen size and resolution, these apps are yet to support iOS 9's new iPad multitasking modes, like Split View and Slide Over.

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Video: Steve Wozniak sides with Apple in FBI fight

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 8, 2016

As a strong proponent of privacy and human rights, it is now wonder that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak would stand firmly with Apple in its fight against the FBI and the United States government regarding creating a backdoor into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone.

Appearing on the Conan show last night, the Woz said the FBI “picked the lamest case you ever could”. It's “worthless” to expect something’s on the shooter's iPhone 5c that the FBI wants to break into because Verizon had already turned over all the phone records and SMS messages and law enforcement got iCloud backups form Apple.

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Google’s Photos app gains support for Live Photos and other new features in latest update

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 8, 2016

Following its announcement that it will be shutting down the Picasa desktop app and the Picasa Web Albums online photo-sharing service, Google is doubling down on its mobile Photos app for iOS and Android.

Last night, the Google Photos app was updated in the App Store to support Apple's Live Photos format. In Google Photos 1.8 for iOS, you can now back up your Live Photos to the Google cloud, as well as view them within the app.

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This new service basically offers ‘the command line for the real world’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 26, 2016

A brand new Y Combinator-backed startup, Prompt, has introduced a really cool service which it likens to “the command line for the real world.” Available via SMS, through Slack's chat bot and on the web, Prompt lets you send simple text commands to access a myriad of online services, make purchases and control Internet of Things devices such as Nest's intelligent thermostats and smoke detectors, WeMo switches, Hue bulbs, Rachio sprinklers and more.

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This Apple Watch app buzzes your wrist if you’re about to leave your iPhone behind

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 8, 2016

The Apple Watch has a nifty built-in feature that lets you ping your misplaced iPhone over Bluetooth, but wouldn't it be nice if the watch could automatically notify you when you're about to leave without an iPhone in your pocket?

A new free of charge app, Lookout, solves that problem in one fell swoop. It keeps not only your iPhone, but your iPad, iPod touch and Apple Watch safe and secure and protects your devices from data loss, theft and more.

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