A growing number of iPhone, iPad and Mac users in Australia are turning to the Apple Support Communities and Twitter to report incidents of their device being remotely locked through iCloud. In some cases, a fraudulent message appears through the Find my iPhone service demanding payment between $50 and $100 to someone named Oleg Pliss for the device to be unlocked…
Two hackers have created a tool that they claim can bypass Apple's 'Activation Lock.' It's called 'doulCi, and it uses a man-in-the-middle attack to intercept users' Apple ID credentials as well as unlock devices disabled by the highly-lauded security feature.
The hack utilizes a vulnerability in iTunes for Windows that has to do with verifying security certificates. And apparently, all you have to do to get it to work is plug in the device to a computer, and alter a file, directing it to an alternate server instead of iCloud...
Apple has updated its iWork for iCloud apps with a number of improvements today. The web versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote have each received new features with a focus on enhancing the user's ability to collaborate with others on a document.
All three apps have been updated to support collaboration with up to 100 people, edit larger documents of up to 1 GB, and support for images of up to 10MB. Additionally, they all now support chart formatting, and allow you to create 2D/interactive charts...
According to a new report from CDN and Internet Services analyst Dan Rayburn, Apple is going ahead with plans to develop its own content delivery network. Rayburn says the company is working on interconnection deals with Internet Service Providers, as it prepares to take its CDN live.
Apple is said to have spent the last 5 years building its CDN, which would be responsible for carrying out iTunes and iCloud content to customers. Currently, the iPad-maker outsources this delivery to third-party companies like Akamai, which means it has no control over quality of service...
Good news for iOS users in Germany today, as Apple has expanded iTunes in the Cloud in the country. The cloud-based sync-and-storage service now supports the streaming of movies and television shows.
What this means is that German users will now be able to access previously-purchased movie and television content on any Apple device, including the Apple TV, by accessing the 'Purchased' tab in iTunes...
Continuing with its recent 'green' marketing push, Apple offered folks a rare look inside its Maiden, North Carolina data center last night. The company paired up with NBC chief environmental correspondent Anne Thompson to do a spot on Thursday's edition of the 'Today' show regarding its various environmental initiatives.
The piece is fairly short—just under 3 minutes—but it's interesting because it gives you a peek inside Apple's data center operations, and details some of the equipment used to power the large buildings. Also, it features a brief appearance by the company's newly-appointed Vice President of Environmental Initiatives Lisa Jackson...
In another sign that Apple under Tim Cook's leadership is opening up a little bit more in a stark departure from the notoriously secretive operation it'd been under the Steve Jobs regime, Wired's Steven Levy was able to get a rare inside look at Apple’s newest data center in the Nevada desert and a massive solar field in Yerington that "takes up as much space as a sizable suburban backyard"...
Hot on the heels of Microsoft's Office for iPad release, Apple has updated its iWork for iCloud apps with a number of improvements. The web versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote have each received new features, and it looks the changes will soon be hitting the Mac and iOS apps as well.
As a group, all three apps have been updated with Retina display support, as well as the ability to share view-only documents and the option to open documents directly from iCloud Mail. Individually, each app has received updated designs for their respective editors and other enhancements...
Google announced some drastic price cuts for its Drive cloud storage today, dropping its 100GB plan down to just $1.99 per month. The service now significantly undercuts rivals like Dropbox, which charges $10 per month for 100GB, and iCloud, which doesn't even offer a 100GB option.
To be fair, Google's Drive pricing was already lower than Dropbox, with a 100GB plan costing $4.99 per month vs. $9.99. But that extra $3 per-month savings equates out to $36 per year, making it even more attractive. Don't mind paying $9.99 monthly? Drive now offers 1TB at that price...
After reporting yesterday that Apple is considering moving iTunes Radio to its own standalone app in iOS 8, the same reliable blogger is now citing sources with knowledge of Apple's initiatives as claiming that the next major revision to Apple's mobile operating system will bring two apps over from the Mac - Preview and TextEdit - both supporting Documents in the Cloud, a feature that lets software store documents in iCloud to be readily available on all devices.
Preview and TextEdit in OS X Mavericks already have support for iCloud documents so this development indicates Apple's intent to make iOS 8 and OS X even more tightly integrated...
Mac games developer Aspyr released Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) for iPad last May and today the app has received its second major update while slashing the retail price in half. Previously costing ten bucks a pop, the game is now available 50 percent off celebrating this update, or just $4.99 a pop in the App Store. The price drop is valid for a limited time only so bargain hunters should grab the game now before the price goes back up.
As for the new features, the freshly updated versions has an improved support for iOS 7 'Made for iPhone' controllers, such as Steel's Series Stratus, Moga's Ace Power Controller and Logitech's PowerShell. Both extended and standard controllers are fully supported. There are also new languages in this KOTOR update as well as iCloud saves for keeping your progress synchronized across all devices...
Apple's iCloud is a great way to keep your content synchronized across any number of Macs, iPhones, iPads and iPod touches.
It keeps your photos, calendar items, contacts, passwords and more up to date across devices, including Safari items like bookmarks and open tabs.
This useful feature, called iCloud Tabs, unfortunately is limited to the Apple ecosystem and only works with the company's own Safari browser for the Mac and iOS. As a result, people who rely on a non-Apple browser such as Mozilla's Firefox or Google's Chrome are unable to access the tabs they have open on their other devices.
That is, unless they consider CloudyTabs, a nifty little utility by Josh Parnham that puts iCloud Tabs right in the Mac’s menu bar...