There are multiple reports on Twitter and elsewhere indicating that the App Store, iTunes and iBooks services are either down or functioning erratically. The downtime appears to be affecting users in the United States, Sweden and possibly other regions. On top of that, the App Store appears to be loading incorrectly for some users as well. Hit the break for the latest updates…Â
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Russian authorities have detained two young hackers for hijacking iOS devices through iCloud and holding them ransom for payment. The suspects, both residents of the Southern Administrative District of Moscow, are a 23-year-old named Ivan and an unnamed 17-year-old that served as his accomplice.
Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs announced on Monday that the hackers were detained during the course of "operational activities" by the Russian Interior Ministry. The hackers were caught on closed-caption TV after attempting to withdraw ransom payment from an ATM machine. The ministry also noted that one of the suspects has already been tried before…Â
In addition to all of the other big announcements Apple made during its WWDC keynote today, the company unveiled some significant iCloud changes. The service now has a Dropbox-like front end called iCloud Drive that allows you to access your files across all of your devices.
And that's not all. Apple also announced some much needed new storage tiers for iCloud that will allow you to store more things in the cloud, for cheaper. Unfortunately, the free tier stays the same at 5GB, but users can now get 20GB of iCloud storage for just $0.99 per month...
Apple has updated the Photos app in iOS 8 with some great changes. Most importantly, Photos now sync with iCloud—a feature called iCloud Photo Library—so that users can access all of their photos from all devices at any time. In fact, iCloud can store more photos on the cloud that your physical device can hold, meaning you can get to all of your photos and any time courtesy of the cloud.
Even the edits that you make on your devices go up live to the iCloud Photo Library, and sync with all devices, including the Mac. Apple is working on a new build from the ground up photos solution on the Mac, which will be shipping later next year.
You can even upload videos, and save the original and full resolution versions of both photos and videos. This is all possible via a new tiered pricing plan, which is detailed inside.
Apple just announced iCloud Drive, which allows you to store files directly into iCloud and synchronize them in folders across your Macs and iOS devices, and even Windows machines.
iCloud Drive will allow you to access not only the personal files that you wish to sync, but it will also allow you to access files from apps synced with iCloud, even if those apps are from iOS devices.
On Monday, a number of iOS and Mac users came forward with complaints that their devices had been remotely locked by hackers. In most of the cases, a message appeared via Find My iPhone on the locked devices, demanding payment for the hack to be reversed.
As far as we can tell, the attacks have been concentrated on Mac and iOS products in Australia. And among the various theories of how the hackers were able to set a remote lock has been the fear that iCloud was breached. But Apple says it hasn't been compromised...
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…Â
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...