The iPhone SE isn’t the kind of device that will generate long lines around Apple stores. But some new research indicates that the device will be a small but important part of Apple’s iPhone lineup. Analysis from research firm Slice Intelligence shows that the iPhone SE has generated significant interest since its announcement, particularly from people who haven’t bought a new phone in a couple of years.
Read more here:: Boy Genius Report
44 years. That’s how long it’s been since Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the Moon, returned to Earth. With all of the technological advancements that have come about in the past four decades, you might think that a trip to the Moon would be a walk in the park, but NASA’s priorities lie elsewhere.
Thankfully, those same advancements have made it possible for us to relive the Apollo 17 mission without ever leaving our homes.
Read more here:: Boy Genius Report
The FBI confirmed on Monday what many people suspected: The San Bernardino iPhone can be unlocked without Apple’s help.
Using the services of a security company familiar with the inner workings of iOS 9 and the iPhone, the FBI cracked Apple’s security features. The agency bypassed the San Bernardino iPhone’s encryption and was able to retrieve the data stored on the iPhone using a mysterious technique that rendered phone’s the PIN protection useless.
As much as it would obviously like to, Apple can’t force the FBI to disclose the security hole, which means others could use a similar hack to break into iPhones in the future until Apple discovers the vulnerability and patches it.
Read more here:: Boy Genius Report
This Grabber Blue 1970 Boss 429 is the one and only 1970 Boss 429 to date that has ever won an Authenticity Award in Mustang Club of America judging.
Read more here:: Mustang 360
We now live in a world where deleted scenes warrant their own trailer. On Thursday, Disney shared a short preview video with footage from the deleted scenes that will appear on the Star Wars: The Force Awakens home release.
DON’T MISS: Critics hate ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’
This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise after a 30-second production announcement managed to rack up over 11 million views, but it’s further proof that Star Wars really is back. Here’s the short teaser:
The list of deleted scenes expected to appear on the digital and disc releases also made its way around the Internet earlier this month:
That’s less than four minutes of new footage, but hopefully it’ll be enough to tide us over until the first trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story drops later this year. At this point, we’re basically trapped in an endless cycle of Star Wars.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already leaked to torrent sites, but it will be available online legally in Digital HD on April 1st and will hit store shelves in Blu-ray and DVD formats on April 5th. If you want to see all the other special features and bonus content that comes with the home release, check this post.
Read more here:: Boy Genius Report
Planes and high winds aren’t the best of friends, especially when the aircraft is grounded. We’ve seen storms lift parked planes off the ground in the past, but that’s nothing compared to what you’re about to see in this video. Hurricane winds in the Siberian city of Norilsk were able to pull a Boeing 737-800 jet along a runway while witnesses recorded the whole thing.
DON’T MISS: This gorgeous iPhone 7 concept looks too good to be true
Empty, the airliner weighs some 41.5 tons, RT reports, and as much as 79 tons when fully loaded at takeoff. But the high-speed Siberian winds have no problem moving the plane along the runway.
“The first time I see such a thing. Northern elements are unleashed in earnest,” Kraina Kalinushkina said on Facebook when posting the video embedded below.
The entire event was recorded at the Alykel airport, located west of Norilsk, a region that’s facing some bad weather at the moment. Winds were reaching speeds of 33 meters per second on Wednesday when the video was uploaded, which translates to speeds of up to 120kmh, or about 74mph. RT says that on the same day, a roof fragment was torn from one of the city’s buildings and dropped on a car, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring three others.
Read more here:: Boy Genius Report
With the FBI reportedly employing the services of an Israeli forensic software company to access the San Bernardino shooter’s locked iPhone, you might be forgiven for thinking that the back and forth legal battle between Apple and the FBI is finally coming to an end.
The reality, though, is a bit more complex. Even if the FBI successfully manages to access the iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, Bloomberg relays that the FBI might be obligated to divulge the mechanics of the hack to Apple.
DON’T MISS: Apple stared down the FBI and won
“The FBI’s new tactic may be subject to a relatively new and little-known rule that would require the government to tell Apple about any vulnerability potentially affecting millions of iPhones unless it can show a group of administration officials that there’s a substantial national security need to keep the flaw secret,” the report states. “This process, known as an equities review, was created by the Obama administration to determine if new security flaws should be kept secret or disclosed, and gives the government a specific time frame for alerting companies to the flaws.”
Now imagine if the FBI is ultimately forced to reveal the workaround to Apple, what happens next? Well, more than likely, Apple would take immediate steps to patch up the means by which the FBI was able to circumvent iOS’ security protections.
And next thing you know, we’re right back at square one. Indeed, this is precisely why the issue of mobile encryption isn’t going to go away until Congress figures out a way to handle it. Notably, Apple has already indicated that if the FBI’s workaround solution proves successful, it would like to be aware of the methods involved.
One wrinkle to be aware of, according to former FBI special agent Leo Taddeo, is that if the hack used by the FBI is sufficiently complex such that it can’t be easily replicated by laypeople, the FBI may not be forced to reveal its tactics to Apple.
Read more here:: Boy Genius Report
Think about how far the flat-screen television market has come over the past decade. New tech used to cost an arm and a leg for years after it first came out. But now, the industry moves so quickly that company’s can’t afford to keep trying to charge a premium. Why? Because the competition will undercut them every time. Here’s a perfect example: you can now get a huge top-rated 4K Ultra HD television from a leading manufacturer for less than I paid for my 64GB iPhone 6s.
For a limited time on Amazon, the LG Electronics 49UF6700 49-Inch 4K Ultra HD LED TV (2015 Model) is just $699.99 with free Prime shipping.
Here are some key details from the product page:
LG Electronics 49UF6700 49-Inch 4K Ultra HD LED TV (2015 Model): $699.99 with free Prime shipping
Follow @BGRDeals on Twitter to keep up with the latest and greatest deals we find around the web
Read more here:: Boy Genius Report
Apple may have won its first major battle with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, at least in the public eye. But the iPhone encryption wars are far from over, and there’s no telling whether the FBI will indeed stop from harassing the company about creating backdoors into its software. Furthermore, there’s no telling what the NSA can already do when it comes to encrypted iPhones, and Apple is apparently worried that spies may have an out-of-the-box way to tap into iPhone data — one that doesn’t require court orders, public debates or new legislation.
It’s all very simple for intelligence agencies, and very scary for everyone else: Spies could be adding backdoors to Apple’s cloud.
DON’T MISS: We asked every member of Congress with a computer science degree about Apple’s war with the FBI
A report this week said that Apple is struggling to build its own data centers, and that’s why it’s forced to rent cloud servers from other companies, including Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Apple needs huge data centers to power some of the popular products tied to the iPhone, including iTunes, the App Store and iCloud.
But Apple is worried that some of the equipment makers and cloud services it has to deal with have already been compromised by vendors who agreed to insert backdoors into their equipment, The Information reports.
Apple suspects that the servers it has been ordering from others might be captured during shipping so that backdoors can be installed. If that sounds familiar, it’s because an Edward Snowden leak explained in late 2013 that the NSA has a project that does that: Capture hardware before it reaches its destination to bug it.
Apple is apparently so paranoid about this potential issue that at one point it even had people taking photos of the motherboards in the computer servers it was using, and then mark down exactly what each chip was. That’s why building its own data centers is such an important project for Apple — it’s the only way to ensure no one is tampering with its equipment.
It’s unclear if Apple’s paranoia is warranted, or whether iCloud data is already easily accessible to the NSA and other intelligence agencies. Of note, even if spies could tap into Apple server data, local data on the iPhone remains encrypted by the user.
Read more here:: Boy Genius Report
Earlier this week, longtime technology journalist Walt Mossberg penned a piece for The Verge arguing that the iPhone 7 needs to “be spectacular,” particularly because the products Apple introduced at its special media event this week were nothing special.
I found Mossberg’s take in this regard to be a little bit off base. This week’s media event wasn’t intended to show off Apple’s latest and greatest technologies. Rather, it was intended to shore up holes in the company’s product line, specifically as it pertains to a 4-inch iPhone.
Remember, Apple last introduced a 4-inch iPhone more than two and a half years ago when it released the iPhone 5s. The iPhone SE, therefore, is simply Apple playing catch-up and realizing that a large portion of its user base actually prefer using a more compact device. After all, 30 million new 4-inch iPhones were sold in 2015 alone.
DON’T MISS: Today’s top paid iPhone and iPad apps on sale for free
Similarly, the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro is simply Apple’s way of incorporating its more advanced tablet features into a more compact form factor.
So when Mossberg proclaims that Apple’s new “iPhones and iPads don’t break much new technology ground,” he appears to be missing the point entirely. Apple’s media event on Monday was more about strategic business maneuvering than it was a technology showcase.
Also curious is that Mossberg states that the “premium iPhone 6S and 6S Plus are the best smartphones on the market” while simultaneously suggesting that the iPhone is being challenged by Samsung’s new Galaxy S7 phones. If the iPhone models Apple released months ago are still better than Samsung’s current offerings, in Mossberg’s estimation, why is there a “iPhone 7 better be spectacular or else!” theme in play?
In any event, Mossberg proceeds to list out a number of features Apple can add to the iPhone 7 to transform it into a “spectacular device.” The list is mostly reasonable and naturally sparked a whole a lot of conversation about how the iPhone 7’s new features are just going to copy features that Android devices have had for months and, in some cases, years.
For instance, many of the items on Mossberg’s iPhone 7 wish list – quick charging, waterproofing, insane battery life – aren’t unicorn features that the world is waiting for Apple to introduce. Again, many of them already exist on Android. You want a smartphone that can survive a 900 foot drop? Try the Motorola Droid Turbo 2 on for size. Want insane battery life, about 48 hours worth? Again, the Motorola Droid Trubo 2 might be what you’re looking for. Interested in a completely waterproof device? Sony, Samsung and HTC have no shortage of models for you to choose from.
But comparing the iPhone 7 to Android doesn’t really tell us a whole a lot about how Apple’s next-gen device will perform in the marketplace. More to the point, for the iPhone 7 to truly be a success, it simply needs to be a better device than the iPhone 6s. If this involves incorporating longstanding Android features, 99.9% of iPhone users could care less.
If the iPhone 7 is a waterproof device, sales won’t be impacted by tech pundits shouting that Sony had waterproof phones on the market years ago. The reality is that prospective iPhone 7 buyers will only make a note that their current iPhone isn’t waterproof and that the new iPhone is.
Same thing goes for battery life. As long as the iPhone 7 can last as long as the iPhone 6s, devices like the Motorola Droid Turbo 2 will continue to fly under the radar for the vast majority of consumers, and especially for the bulk of interested iPhone 7 upgraders.
The iOS ecosystem is extremely sticky, which is to say that iPhone owners are more likely to stay with the iPhone than Android owners are likely to stay with Android. As a result, the iPhone 7 won’t be competing against whatever Samsung or other Android handset manufacturers have out on the market, it will be competing against previous iPhone models.
Even if the only new iPhone 7 features Apple comes out with are a faster processor, a better camera, a thinner design, no headphone jack (admittedly not a feature) and waterproofing, the iPhone 7 will more than likely break all previous iPhone sales records. Whether or not it’s a “spectacular” upgrade won’t really factor into the equation.
Read more here:: Boy Genius Report