Major Security Flaw Found in Silent Circle's Blackphone

Security researchers at SentinelOne on Wednesday revealed a vulnerability they discovered in the Blackphone.

The flaw -- an obscure socket -- lets an attacker take over and control communications on the Blackphone, a highly secure Android smartphoneSilent Circle developed and marketed in reaction to news of government surveillance of people's communications.

Silent Circle began taking preorders for the device in 2014, and "despite [its] best attempts, a severe zero day remained undetected for nearly a year before we uncovered it," said Tim Strazzere, SentinelOne's director of mobile research.

No Evidence of Exploitation

The vulnerability, a socket left open and accessible on the Nvidia Icera modem used in the Blackphone, lets attackers take control of many of the modem's functions, including sending and receiving text messages, dialing or connecting calls, and changing the phone's settings.

Attackers could use a malicious application that exploits the vulnerability in the background without the device owner's knowledge, Strazzere told TechNewsWorld.

Exploit-based attacks would be used against this open socket, and "any antivirus- or antimalware-based technology wouldn't prevent it," he observed. "Even an HIPS-based solution that focused on exploits would have missed it since this is a zero-day-based vulnerability with no available signatures used for protection."

The options available to an attacker "are extensive," Strazzere remarked, but "we have seen no evidence that [it] was ever used for surveillance or malicious purposes."

The vulnerability was discovered during a reverse engineering exercise to prepare for a Red Naga training session. Red Naga is a security training group Strazzere and friends created to teach, train and grow the mobile security community at no cost.

The Icera modem is fairly obscure, used only by the Nvidia Shield tablet and "a few phones in India," Strazzere noted.

Because it's obscure, few security researches have looked into it, and devices in the field "might not be getting updates or the attention that more popular modems would receive," he said.

Following notification from SentinelOne, Silent Circle patched the vulnerability, which was found on the Blackphone 1.

It's not clear whether it exists in the Blackphone 2, which Silent Circle released in September.

The Third-Party Risk Factor

It's possible the socket was left open for debugging purposes in preproduction and was mistakenly left that way in production devices, Strazzere speculated.

Most mobile makers use third-party technology.

Third parties for both hardware and software components "are part of the supply chain for mobile device manufacturers and represent a significant risk," said Tim Erlin, director of IT security and risk strategy for Tripwire.

However, providing assurance for both hardware and software "has really been limited to high-level government equipment, so there are few assurance operations [for] the consumer goods market," he told TechNewsWorld.

Third-party providers typically are granted access to critical elements of the internal infrastructure and to sensitive data, said István Szabó, product manager at BalaBit. One remedy would be to monitor and record all activities when third parties access internal systems.

Such monitoring "gives the mobile device producer the ability to detect and immediately terminate sessions if something suspicious occurs ... and provides important evidence to help investigations should an incident occur," he told TechNewsWorld.

Another option is to use a behavioral-based technology such as the one SentinelOne offers to detect, prevent and remediate against attacks.

Silent Circle did not respond to our request to comment for this story.


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

iPhone Sales Could Be Slowing

In the runup to the release of Apple's Q1 2016 earnings report Tuesday, one of the big unanswered questions was whether the iPhone could maintain its sales momentum.

Q1 2015 iPhone sales hit a record 74.5 million units, and it's possible the latest quarter's shipments may not equal -- let alone exceed -- that mark.

IDC has forecast of slowing sales industrywide for 2016. The smartphone market will see the first single-digit growth year ever.

The slowdown in China's economy, weak demand for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and sluggish Apple Watch sales are also of concern.

However, "we think sales are actually going to be up in volume this year compared to a year ago," said Jeff Orr, a senior practice director at ABI Research.

First, China is still a great opportunity despite the slowing down of its economy, and second, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus were launched "a little later than iPhones used to be launched previously, so we aren't sure whether or not they'll hinder Apple's quarter," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Great Expectations

Apple historically has exceeded analysts' expectations while playing down its performance prior to releasing its earnings reports.

FactSet StreetAccount estimated Apple sold 75.5 million iPhones in the quarter -- surpassing the previous year's record by about 1 million units, according to news reports.

FBR, which slashed its estimates for iPhone 6s sales in December, earlier this month predicted a huge uptick for the upcoming iPhone 7 and dismissed investors' fears about slowing growth at Apple as being overblown, while acknowledging the company has been through a rough patch.

The market agrees -- Apple shares were up by US$1.28 to $100.72 at the time of writing.

"Should we expect any company to keep setting records year over year? The answer is no," Orr said. "The problem Apple has is that investors always expect it to show a meteoric performance. The question is, at what point do you become disgruntled because you don't get meteoric performance out of the company?"

Leveraging Preowned Phones

Sales of refurbished smartphones are taking off, and Apple has ventured into this area.

Refurbished iPhones "can be sold in price-sensitive but growing markets without any brand dilution," pointed out Andreas Scherer, managing partner at Salto Partners.

"It could be tempting to develop a cheaper product that's being sold utilizing a different brand name in order to win in Africa, India and Indonesia, but the better strategy is to sell refurbished iPhones," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Grabbing Market Share

In the future, the replacement business will outpace the new phone business, ABI's Orr suggested.

"For Apple the issue no longer will be offering items good enough for first-time buyers to purchase an Apple product; it will be about getting Android or Microsoft phone users to switch," he explained.

It's "getting increasingly difficult to get that kind of differentiation, but that's not just an Apple problem. It's the same thing Samsung has been facing over the past two years and being hammered by investors over," Orr said.

Where Apple Might Go

Apple "needs to continue to win in its core markets," Scherer observed. That means "relentlessly focusing on replacing existing iPhones with newer versions" in markets such as the United States, and introducing upgrade incentive programs and incentives to buy additional phones as part of family plans through carriers.

Perhaps Apple could move away from its image as the largest manufacturer of smartphones, Orr said.

"We're hearing talk about moving the audio jack and creating a new accessories market that's exclusive and led by Apple -- Beat headphones and other products using the Lightning connector or wireless interfaces," he elaborated.

Other possibilities for Apple are wireless charging, improving battery life, wraparound screens, incorporating OLED technologies, and making iPhones "more user-proof and water-resistant," Orr suggested.


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

Rugged Turing Phone to Run on Sailfish OS, Not Android

Turing Robotic Industries this week announced that it has uninstalled Google's Android mobile platform in favor of Jolla's Sailfish OS in its yet-to-appear secure smartphone.

The Turing Phone, molded from a single unit of the Liquidmorphium liquid-metal alloy, is designed to be more durable to absorb shocks and prevent screen breakage.

Preorder pricing ranges from US$610 for the 16-GB version to $870 for the 128-GB model.

Optimized for Swiftness

TRI started taking preorders for the smartphone last year. It delayed the planned shipping date of Dec. 18 to resolve remaining developmental steps for the device, including its security platform and operating system. The new projected shipping date is in April.

Customers found out about the OS switch this week through an email.

The Sailfish OS is optimized to run fast on the Turing Phones and the Snapdragon 801 processor, according to the notice.

"It has a super-secured platform environment, which Android lacks, and it does not use Java for UI (Android). So Turing targets design-savvy users and those who care about their privacy," said Steve Chao, CEO of TRI.

Google Play Store apps and Android apps in general will run on the Sailfish OS via the Alien Dalvik engine. User experience with Android will not be impacted, he told LinuxInsider.

Sailfish vs. Android

The Sailfish OS is a continuation of the Linux MeeGo OS, which was developed by an alliance of Nokia and Intel. The MeeGo mobile software platform was created through the merging of Moblin and the Maemo OS, which was developed by Nokia, according to Turing officials.

"TRI decided to use Sailfish OS because it has a long-term plan to build a trustworthy communications network. Sailfish is based on a pure mobile Linux platform with unmatched speed and with great performance," Chao said.

The decision was not made from a comparison with Android. Rather, the goal is to enable TRI to build an ecosystem around its own devices. The Turing Phone is just one example, he said.

"Sailfish is the perfect platform in which Turing may start building its ecosystem surrounding the IoT and the Future Networks (ISO/IEC 29181)," Chao said.

Tarnished Efforts

It's hard to understand why Turing would swap out the mature Android distro it originally promised. Sailfish is too new to know how it will perform, according to Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

"Turing claims it's the fastest mobile OS in the market. That may matter since the Turing Phone is running a 2-year-old CPU. While Sailfish is capable of supporting Android apps, early reviews have also noted significant glitches," he told LinuxInsider.

TRI may have discouraged potential buyers with the change in OS. The company got a lot of good press for its idea of shipping a highly durable and secure phone aimed at consumers.

"But the project's delays have tarnished the effort somewhat, and it is not clear how this latest twist will play among Turing supporters," said King.

Better Plan In the Works

The change in OS will have little impact on buyers' interest in the Turing Phone, Chao maintained. The phone will be unique and secure.

"Most Turing users went for Turing's unique design. The design was the most important part of their decision in purchasing it. Most of them were tired of the iPhone and the same looks that Android phones had to offer," he said.

The OS change strengthens the interest of Turing fans who sought a secured environment for mobile computing. Sailfish is the perfect answer to that, he said.

Security Factors

TRI developed a decentralized authentication technology that provides a dramatic improvement over the logic of identity-based encryption, according to the company.

Both the master public key and the unique private key are anonymously bundled into the phone. Each Turing Phone can directly verify the identity of other Turing devices without the need for a third-party key center, it said.

This complete authentication creates a protected communications network insulated from cyberthreats and privacy intrusions, the company said. This circle of trust lets users exchange sensitive data such as Social Security numbers or bank wiring instructions with the assurance the information will reach only the device intended.


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

Vaio's Phone Biz to Test Windows 10's Reception in Asia

Vaio on Wednesday announced Phone Biz, a Windows 10 mobile phone.

The device doesn't have a SIM, leaving users free to select their own carriers.

The Phone Biz lets users easily access corporate apps, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange, as well as the Azure cloud, according to Vaio.

The OS is synced with the latest version of Windows 10. Users can manage settings from the same Microsoft account as their PCs.

The Phone Biz incorporates Microsoft's Continuum feature, which lets users connect phones to TVs or monitors, if they want to work on a larger screen.

The Phone Biz supports single sign-on and connection speeds of up to 225 Mbps.

The position and size of tiles are customizable, and the phone comes with the Cortana digital assistant.

The phone can use encryption or a virtual private network. It includes built-in GPS and supports remote data erase and remote locking.

Admins can change users' access to apps and data remotely.

The Phone Biz will be available on NTT DoCoMo's network. It reportedly will begin selling in Japan in April for about US$430.

More About the Phone Biz

The Phone Biz has an aluminum body and a full high-definition tempered glass screen. It has a microUSB 2.0 port, said Vaio.

Four versions will be available. Two use eight-core 1.5-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processors. One of them has a 5.5-inch 1080x1920 screen and the other a 5-inch 720x1280 screen.

The other two are 5-inch devices with 720x1280 screens. One has a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and the other a 1.1 GHz quad-core processor.

RAM ranges from 1 GB to 3 GB, and internal storage from 8 GB to 16 GB.

Rear cameras are 8 MP or 13 MP, depending on the model, and front cameras range from 1 to 5 MP.

None of the features is particularly outstanding, said Mike Jude, a program manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

However, "the Continuum capability that allows the phone to serve as a platform or CPU for a desktop ... makes the Vaio phone better suited for business use than personal use," he told TechNewsWorld.

"With Sony, it's all about design, so this phone is incredibly good-looking," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.

Sony has a minority stake in Vaio, which it spun off in 2014.

Alternative platforms often work far better in Asia than they do in the U.S., Enderle told TechNewsWorld. The Asia-Pacific region as a whole "is more accepting of diversity, making it a far better geography to launch a phone like this."

Fighting an Uphill Battle

Worldwide smartphone shipments hit a record in Q4 2015, totaling nearly 400 million units, IDC reported. That is nearly 6 percent higher than the same quarter in 2014. As a whole, 2015 was a record year for phone shipments.

However, the Windows Phone OS' share of the market has been hovering around 2 percent since March, according to Netmarketshare.

That hasn't deterred Microsoft, which last fall announced that several Japanese companies would be making Windows 10 phones.

That said, Windows Phone "never really caught on that much, because it's highly dependent on a very good network connection," said Frost's Jude. "With active tiles, you need a reliable data connection and, if you're roaming, that might be hard to come by."

The current push in Japan indicates Microsoft is "fighting for a beachhead and have found Asia a far better geography to get one," Enderle said.

Microsoft "isn't giving up on mobile as the SwiftKey purchase clearly showcases," he noted. "It's looking for a geography to take back and use as a springboard to once again become relevant in this space."


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

FBI Director Makes Case for Security Trade-Off in Congressional Hearing

FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday testified before the House Judiciary Committee that the government has the legal right to gain limited access to the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters and other suspected terrorists.

Congress and the judicial system can create a mechanism to protect the safety of the American people while preserving constitutional rights against government overreach, he said in prepared testimony.

New methods of electronic communications have transformed society, Comey noted, adding that he supports the creation of strong encryption technology that protects large institutions and private citizens against cybercriminals and others who might attempt to gain access to proprietary data.

At the same time, terrorists and others criminals have used this technology to stay one step ahead of law enforcement, he said.

"We have always respected the fundamental right of people to engage in private communications, regardless of the medium or technology," Comey testified. "Whether it is instant messages, texts or old-fashioned letters, citizens have the right to communicate with one another in private -- without unauthorized government surveillance -- not simply because the Constitution demands it, but because the free flow of information is vital to a thriving democracy."

Clear and Present Threat

However, groups like the Islamic State have used social media to recruit and radicalize individuals to commit terrorist acts, he warned. Law enforcement needs additional tools to gather evidence to prosecute cases and in some instances prevent the acts from occurring.

The FBI is seeking only limited steps from Apple to help it open the San Bernardino shooter's encrypted iPhone. It wants the ability to bypass the encryption and spread out the time between individual attempts to guess a password, Comey said during a question-and-answer session with House members.

He likened the request to removing a group of guard dogs so that investigators could access the iPhone and get enough time to essentially break into the device themselves.

Asked repeatedly if the FBI had gone to other private companies or agencies to try to use alternative methods for unlocking the phone, Comey admitted that he was not an expert on the technology and that the FBI and other agencies had been stymied in their attempts to break into the phone.

Agency Assistance

The FBI asked San Bernardino County, where the shooter was employed, for assistance in retrieving data from the iPhone in December, county spokesperson David Wert said.

"The statements that have been made contending that resetting the Apple ID password is what made the backup impossible are incorrect. The fact that the phone was off and PIN locked is what made a cloud backup impossible before the Apple ID password was reset," he told the E-Commerce Times.

An iCloud backup requires a WiFi connection, and an iPhone that's turned off won't link to WiFi until the phone is unlocked, Wert said.

"At that point, the county said the best that could be done was to check the cloud for any past data uploads, but we would need to reset the Apple ID password because no one knew it. The FBI asked the county if it would do that, and the county agreed, unlocking the cloud and providing the FBI with the data that was in the cloud," he said.

Can of Worms

Granting the backdoor software request in the San Bernardino case will open the door for countless other requests by the Department of Justice -- and foreign governments -- in far less important circumstances, according to Eli Dourado, director of the Technology Policy Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

"This isn't a trade-off between security and privacy -- it's a trade-off between two kinds of security," he told the E-Commerce Times. One type of security is the kind provided by the FBI; the other is the security that iPhone users can get from encryption on their phones.

"In a world with repressive regimes as well as cybercriminals, the latter takes on greater importance," Dourado said.

A U.S. magistrate judge in New York ruled Monday that Apple did not have to assist the government in accessing the phone of a drug dealer whose encrypted iPhone was seized along with other mobile devices in a 2014 raid by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

The government did not have the legal authority under the All Writs Act to make Apple provide a way to bypass the encryption built into the phone and give law enforcement the ability to search for additional evidence, the judge ruled.

The dealer in that case pleaded guilty last year, and any new evidence would be used at sentencing or to pursue co-conspirators or others involved in the drug ring, according to court documents.

"We are disappointed in the magistrate's ruling and plan to ask the district judge to review the matter in the coming days," DOJ spokesperson Emily Pierce said.

"As our prior court filings make clear, Apple expressly agreed to assist the government in accessing the data on this iPhone -- as it had many times before in similar circumstances -- and only changed course when the government's application for assistance was made public by the court," she told the E-Commerce Times.

"This phone may contain evidence that will assist us in an active criminal investigation," Pierce added, "and we will continue to use the judicial system in our attempt to obtain it."


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

Apple Lawyer Pushes Back Against FBI Testimony to Judiciary Committee

Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell on Tuesday testified before the House Judiciary Committee that his company should not be required write new code for software that would weaken the security of the iPhone in the wake of the San Bernardino, California, terrorist attacks.

The FBI wants Apple to take action that would put the privacy and security of millions of the company's customers at risk, he said.

Apple has no sympathy for terrorists, said Sewell, who noted that the company immediately cooperated with authorities in the investigation.

The request not only sets a dangerous precedent, but would open the company to countless other requests in the future, putting the security of all those involved in jeopardy, he said. Congress should settle the debate based on a thoughtful and honest conversion on the facts.

"Most importantly, the decisions should be made by you and your colleagues as representatives of the people, rather than through warrant based on a 220-year-old statute," Sewell told the committee in prepared testimony.

During questions and answers with committee members, Sewell pushed back on the notion Apple was engaged in some sort of marketing exercise in its quest to fight the order. The government claimed in some court filings that Apple had complied numerous times with the requests until they were made public.

Apple was doing what was in the best interests of its shareholders, FBI Director James Comey told the committee, noting that he had previously worked in a corporate capacity and understood the company's corporate accountability.

Microsoft plans to file an amicus brief on behalf of Apple this week in its court battle with the Department of Justice and the FBI, a spokesperson for Apple told the E-Commerce Times.

Prosecutors Stymied

Congress should take the lead on deciding how to balance the issues involved with accessing data on encrypted devices, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. testified at the House hearing.

Ninety-five percent of the criminal cases in the U.S. are handled by state and local law enforcement agencies, and Apple's switch to default device encryption in 2014 has severely hampered their ability to investigate many criminal cases, he said.

As of November, Vance's office was locked out of 111 smartphones running iOS 8 or higher, he said, citing a report released by the DA's office, called "Report on Smartphone Encryption and Public Safety." The number has grown to 175 devices since then, representing 25 percent of the phones received by his office's cyber lab.

With more users migrating to the newer operating systems, investigators can't access half of the phones coming into the DA's office, he said. The phones are involved in investigations of attempted murder, child pornography, sex trafficking, sexual abuse of a child and other crimes.

The district attorney in Harris County, Texas, has more than 100 iPhones that it can't access, involving cases of human trafficking, violent sex crimes and other crimes, said Vance, who also was representing the National District Attorneys Association. Prosecutors in Cook County, Illinois, can't access 30 devices, and authorities in Connecticut can't access 46 devices.

His office has drafted language for legislation that would require designers of operating systems to provide a way for law enforcement to access unencrypted data on the phones as long as they had a warrant, he said. The legislation would not require the makers to do anything themselves unless the encryption was part of the design.

Other telecom and technology companies have received official requests for data, Vance noted. Verizon received 149,810 in the first half of 2015; Facebook received 17,577 during the same period.

FBI Fighting Last Battle

Law enforcement is using outdated methods and laws to combat a 21st century problem, Susan Landau, who teaches cybersecurity policy atWorcester Polytechnic University, testified. Many law enforcement agencies lack the tools and expertise to fight modern cybercriminals and terrorists using new technologies.

Counter to claims by FBI Director Comey, encryption has been an issue for decades, dating back to at least the 1970s, she said. Other experts in the private sector have ways of accessing the data that the FBI insists only Apple can provide.

Landau, a former policy analyst at Google and distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems, cited the Chaos Computer Club, a group of European hackers that has exposed flaws in security systems over 30 years. The group last year demonstrated that it could recover data on security chips using electron microscopes.

Technological Misunderstandings

Landeau's testimony echoed the wider security community and computer security experts that Apple should not be forced to reengineer its devices, said Mark Jaycox, civil liberties legislative lead at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"Director Comey kept on urging Congress to handle this issue -- clearly implying legislation -- despite the fact that President Obama and the administration said they did not plan on proposing or supporting any legislation," he told the E-Commerce Times.

"The law enforcement witnesses appear to not understand the technology or wide-ranging precedent at stake in this case," Jaycox said, adding that committee members did seem to be trying to understand the technological details.

"A majority of the committee appear to be on Apple's -- and the Constitution's -- side," he said.

The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday announced that it will file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Apple's fight against the FBI request to create software that will open encrypted iPhones.

The brief notes that Congress deliberately withheld authority from the government to require that technology companies bypass the security built into their own devices.

"Law enforcement may not commandeer innocent third parties into becoming its undercover agents, its spies or its hackers," the brief states.


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

Apple FBI Standoff Stretches Into Week Two

Apple on Monday called for the creation of a government panel to help resolve a standoff between the company and the Federal Bureau of Investigation over the issue of national security vs. data privacy.

The proposal for a commission followed FBI Director James Comey's Sunday post on Lawfare -- an apparent effort to quell the controversy. Comey emphasized that the bureau was not seeking a master key that would allow it to snoop into American citizens' devices at will.

The American public expects the bureau to do its utmost to investigate the killings carried out in last year's terrorist attack in San Bernardino, and that includes examining the data contained in a locked iPhone 5c used by shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, he argued.

The FBI's goal is to obtain any information that will aid its investigation within the limits of the law, and it would seek search warrants when appropriate, Comey reaffirmed.

The bureau wants Apple to disable some of the passcode protections on Farook's iPhone, Comey said. Officials are concerned that any efforts to gain access to the device without Apple's assistance could result in the handset self-destructing, or in the data becoming corrupted.

Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California last week ordered Apple to provide assistance to the FBI by creating software that could allow authorities to access data on Farook's handset. However, Apple has objected on the grounds that such a move would result in a general loss of user privacy.

Apple CEO Tim Cook shone a spotlight on the company's dispute with FBI with the publication of an open letter defending Apple's resistance to the federal magistrate's order.

Master Key

The dispute appears to be one in which existing laws have not kept pace with technological advances, and both sides are making their cases on the issue.

"The FBI insists that it's not making a blanket request covering all iPhones, but simply [seeking] Apple's assistance unlocking one device," said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

"Since that would require Apple to break what it says is an unbreakable security technology, doing so would resonate across the company's business," he told TechNewsWorld.

The public in the past has supported government agencies' investigation efforts, and given that 14 people were killed in the San Bernardino terrorist shooting, opinion could swing to the FBI's side.

"Given the heinous acts related to this phone, I expect most people -- were they asked directly -- would side with the FBI," said King.

Locked Horns

Judging from the tenor of their arguments, it doesn't appear that the FBI and Apple have found any common ground.

Although a judge already has ruled in favor of the FBI, "this is going to be decided in the court of public opinion, and it will play out based on who makes the best argument to support their case," opined Scott Steinberg, founder and principal analyst at TechSavvy Global.

"The FBI is not trying anything nefarious here. They have a concrete argument that they are trying to look for evidence that can shed some light on the shooting," he told TechNewsWorld.

"Comey's statement is clearly meant to counter support Apple has received from other IT vendors, but in a way that's turned this thing into a battle of PR agencies," observed Pund-IT's King.

Privacy Issues

Apple could sway public opinion its way through its dire warnings of how its compliance with the order could result in a loss of privacy by all handset users.

"There is the danger of creating a skeleton key that could find its way to unwanted hands and which could be abused," Steinberg pointed out.

"The FBI claims this is a one-time use case, but who is to say that this couldn't open Pandora's Box, which couldn't be closed again?" he asked.

Given that other governmental organizations -- notably the National Security Agency -- have been called out for surveillance programs that in some cases were conducted with the support of tech firms, it isn't hard to see why Apple would take a hard line approach this time around.

"Absolutely, it is a concern in the age of big data, where so much information is out there, and there is this increasingly sense of paranoia -- some of it rightly so -- that anything you put out there could be susceptible to prying eyes," said TechSavvy's Steinberg.

Technological tools "can be used for good or bad by those who choose to use them," he added.

The more powerful encryption is, and the more difficult it is to break, the more useful it can be for carrying out clandestine operations and for other disreputable purposes," Steinberg noted.

Orchestrated Moves

Apple has demonstrated that it's one of the least spontaneous vendors in the marketplace when it comes to reacting to issues such as this one, noted Pund-IT's King.

"Virtually everything the company does is orchestrated, and it would be silly to think that any statement Apple or its executives make hasn't been vetted by PR and legal teams," he pointed out.

"The company's request for a 'commission' to study the FBI request seems like little more than a delaying tactic, but that's not surprising given the size of the stakes," said King. "If Apple obeys the court order, it seems likely that the company's business will be injured -- particularly in overseas markets, including China, that it hopes will drive next-generation growth."


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

Samsung Raises Curtain on Galaxy S7 Models

Samsung on Sunday introduced two new models of its flagship Galaxy smartphone line at the annual gala for the mobile world, the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Both phones have similar features, but one, the Galaxy S7 Edge, has a 5.5-inch display, the same size as the iPhone 6s Plus.

The units have curved screens that support quad HD resolution, as well as a slight curve on the back, making them easier to hold.

To soothe complaints about the battery life of the previous Galaxy generation, the units have received power boosts. The S7 Edge has a 3,600-mAh battery, a jump from the S6 Edge's 2,600, and the S7 has a 3,000-mAh power supply, while the S6's battery was only 2,550.

In addition, the units are water and dust resistant, support microSD storage, and run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Fewer Megapixels

Samsung also has made some changes in the Galaxy's camera. It has reduced the number of megapixels on the shooter's sensor to 12 from 16, but increased the size of the pixels, which should improve the camera's performance in low light conditions.

The pixels in the new Galaxy models are 30 percent larger than those in the iPhone 6s Plus, 1.4 micron compared to 1.22 micron for Apple.

Both Apple and Google have gone the fewer-but-bigger-pixel route with some success, so Samsung's rivals already have done some of the consumer education about the move.

"It will work as long as they frame it in terms of bigger pixels get more light," said Daniel Matte, an analyst with Canalys.

Larger pixels also make it easier to incorporate into each pixel autofocusing technology, which allows the camera to take sharper pictures faster.

"Autofocus is really fast now -- nearly instantaneous anywhere across the image," Matte told TechNewsWorld.

"That's been in DSLRs and quality cameras for a while, and now it's migrated to the smartphone market," he added. "That's a big improvement."

Mixed Reviews

"They're a nice improvement over previous versions, but they're not groundbreaking," said Bob O'Donnell, founder and chief analyst atTechnalysis Research.

"There isn't any one feature that's a killer and will massively move the needle in the market," Matte said.

"The best addition they made was adding Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820, which in certain use cases doubles the performance," Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told TechNewsWorld.

Virtual Reality

For consumers who preorder either of the new phone models up to March 18, Samsung is offering a sweet deal: a free Gear VR headset.

In addition, Oculus is offering those who preorder the phones six Gear VR games for free.

Will the lure of a free VR headset help boost initial sales?

"There's not that much content out there for VR, so it's more of a gimmick at this point," Technalysis' O'Donnell told TechNewsWorld.

"They're going to incent people to try VR," said Gartner Research Director Brian Blau.

"It's a nice incentive if you're interested in doing VR with a Samsung phone," he told TechNewsWorld. "Beyond that, it's not going to change the picture for overall smartphone sales."

Cooling Market

Samsung, as well other smartphone makers, would very much like to change the current picture for smartphone sales.

"We're seeing a lengthening of upgrade cycles for smartphones and growth is slowing. It's going to be hard for anyone to do well in the smartphone market in the next few years in terms of growth," Canalys' Matte said.

"As phones mature," he continued, "they become good enough for most people, so it's more difficult to sell them."

In the United States, another factor contributing to longer upgrade cycles is the phasing out of phone subsidies.

"Now that people are paying full price for their phones, they want them to last longer," O'Donnell said.

"Lifetimes are extending beyond two years, so just as we saw lifetimes extend for PCs, we're going to see them extended for phones," he added.

Nevertheless, Canalys is predicting another double-digit growth year for smartphones this year. Globally, it predicts smartphone shipments will crack 1.5 billion in 2016.

"Despite turbulence for certain vendors and countries," it noted in a report released Monday, "the industry will still grow by over 10 percent this year thanks to new opportunities."


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

Gates Sees Both Sides in Apple vs. FBI Ruckus

Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Tuesday attempted to clarify his position regarding Apple's conflict with the FBI, telling Bloomberg he was disappointed that his earlier comments had been construed as taking sides with the government.

Apple has sparked a public debate through its resistance to a court order to unscramble the data on the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.

The FBI has sought to access the data in the course of its investigation, but Apple has argued that unlocking it could jeopardize the privacy of millions of people.

Gates on Monday appeared to discount Apple's position in an interview with the Financial Times, noting that the government's request was specific to one case, and that it was not seeking a means for general access. He compared it to obtaining phone or bank records to aid specific investigations.

However, Gates had more to say on the subject a day later, when he acknowledged that the government had a history of overstepping its bounds.

Still, with the right safeguards in place, he told Bloomberg, government should be able to access information to perform valuable services for citizens, such as fighting terrorism.

"The government shouldn't have to be completely blind," Gates said.

Dubious Privacy Issue

"Gates is absolutely right," maintained Al Berman, president of DRI International.

"It's a very specific case. It doesn't extend beyond this phone in the possession of the FBI," he told the E-Commerce Times.

"It's a one-off, and it's such a specific one-off that I think we're trying to make it bigger than it is," Berman added.

Apple should cooperate with the FBI, said Darren Oved, a partner in Oved & Oved.

"The facts of this case are very favorable to the government," he told the E-Commerce Times.

"What we have is a dead murderer's alleged right to privacy versus a very real right to protect the citizens of San Bernardino, the state of California and the United States from any potential real harm," Oved contended.

"When you weigh those two against each other," he reasoned, "I think Apple should do what the FBI wants it to do."

Further, the data on the iPhone doesn't need Apple's protection to ensure the privacy of the phone's operator, Oved maintained.

"The device in question here belongs to San Bernardino County. The law is undisputed that any information on a device that belongs to an employer is the employer's," he explained.

"Since San Bernardino County is a public organization, the government can make a very compelling argument that the information contained on the phone is part of the public record, and we should be allowed to see it," Oved added.

Need to Hunt Terror Cells

Apple should help the FBI find more terrorists, noted Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, founder of the Israel Law Center.

"The FBI needs Apple's help because there are other terrorist cells that the FBI needs to hunt down before [those cells] harm others," she told the E-Commerce Times.

"There's no reason to believe that the FBI will reuse this one-time case to create a broad precedent for more and more subpoenas," Darshan-Leitner said.

"Bill Gates realized that, and that's why he said what he said," she added.

Slippery Slope

Gates is out of touch with the industry he helped create, opined Michael Harris, chief marketing officer with Guidance Software.

"Gates doesn't understand the real issue. He sounds like a guy who hasn't moved forward in 20 years in terms of what technology can do and how it works," he told the E-Commerce Times.

The analogy between what the FBI was asking of Apple and searching bank records is misguided, Harris contended.

"They want Apple to write custom code," he said. "Once you do that, that's not at all the same as supplying records from a database."

If Apple does what the FBI wants done, it will set a dangerous precedent, maintained Nathan Leamer, policy analyst at the R Street Institute.

"You're compelling a company to create out of thin air an FBI OS to enable access to a phone. I'm not sure how you limit that," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Upsetting Delicate Balance

The San Bernardino case -- however it's resolved -- could have a significant ripple effect.

"There are 15 other cases where the FBI wants Apple's help to break into other iPhones," observed Amit Sethi, principal consultant for mobile security at Cigital.

"If Apple helps in this one case, it will have to help in those 15 cases as well. Then what about other law enforcement agencies and foreign governments?" he asked.

"It's a bad precedent," Sethi told the E-Commerce Times, "because while it may seem like a one-off case, it's really not."

Forcing Apple to cooperate with the FBI could upset a delicate balance in society, noted Suzanne Nossel, executive director of the PEN American Center.

"We're concerned that the careful balance between security and liberty plays out differently when a counterterrorism investigation is involved," she told the E-Commerce Times."Our concern is that by complying with this request, Apple is going to compromise the privacy not just of these individuals who are associated with this terrible crime but the privacy of millions of others."


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

Apple Motion Seeks to Block Feds From Acquiring 'Dangerous Power'

Apple last week filed a motion to vacate a federal order requiring the company to create a tool or code to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters.

The order would set a dangerous precedent and release a powerful means to breach security on potentially millions of phones around the world, Apple argued.

It transcends one phone and would empower government to make private companies compromise the security of all their users whenever it sees fit, the company said.

"This is not a case about one isolated iPhone. Rather, this case is about the Department of Justice and the FBI seeking through the courts a dangerous power that Congress and the American people have withheld: the ability to force companies like Apple to undermine the basic security and privacy interests of hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe," the motion says.

Signature Required

Apple already has tools that could compromise the security of millions of people, so the implication that this code is any different from similar capabilities the company possesses is baseless, according to Stewart Baker, partner at Steptoe & Johnson.

Furthermore, Apple has security in place to protect itself and its users from data breaches, he told TechNewsWorld.

"The code that they're so worried will get out is no different than any of the other codes they write, in that if it gets out, then bad things will happen. Apple already protects its code very aggressively because they don't want that to happen, so there's no super-burden to protecting this code, Baker noted.

"This is particularly true because in order to install this code on the phone that is the target it is going to be necessary for Apple to sign the code with their super-secret signature," he added.

"What would happen is that Apple would send this signature to the phone, which will identify itself back to Apple, which means Apple almost certainly has to be right in the middle of any such transaction. It's not like you can just steal the code and walk off and use it -- because you also have to have Apple's signature, Baker said.

"If Apple's signature is compromised, it's the end of security for everyone, and they're already in a position where they have to protect that aggressively," he added.

The case is a matter of getting information that's imperative to an ongoing investigation, according to Paul Charlton, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson.

"What we can say with absolute certainty is that if you think about this as something other than a technology company -- if you think about this in terms of Apple being the landlord that holds within its building evidence of terrorist activity -- there wouldn't be any doubt in anyone's mind that the government should be allowed, with the appropriate court authority, ... to go in and take what they need," he told TechNewsWorld.

FBI director James Comey "has made it very clear that what he's interested in is not a back door, not a wide open door into this apartment complex, if you will, but entry into a specific apartment ... to grab this specific piece of information. That seems narrowly tailored and wholly reasonable to me," Charlton said.

Uninted Consequences

Creating the code the government is asking for would open a Pandora's box of unforeseen consequences, according to Christopher Maurer, assistant professor of information technology and management at the University of Tampa.

"We see time and time again that there are really good intentions. There might be a real problem and government is not addressing the underlying issue and instead is creating other issues in the form of loopholes or unintended side effects," he told TechNewsWorld.

One such side effect would be a precedent allowing other law enforcement agencies to order phones to be unlocked, noted Chris Calabrese, vice president for policy at the Center for Democracy & Technology.

"In terms of the idea that this is no different and that this back door doesn't create a vulnerability is just not true. What we're talking about is a precedent that will not just be for the FBI but will almost certainly be for those state and local law enforcement, of which there will be tens of thousands across the country. They're all going to encounter iPhones. They're all going to want them to be unlocked," he told TechNewsWorld.

A back door would be a potentially hazardous tool if it fell into the wrong hands, Calabrese added.

"There's going to have to be an entire process in place on unlocking iPhones somehow, which is to say subverting their security. That's a giant process designed to be exploited by bad guys. And you just can't say somehow that this is a one-off," he said.

Congressional Action Ahead

Congress eventually will have to answer the larger privacy question, Steptoe & Johnson's Charlton noted.

"We are constantly weighing our rights to privacy versus our need for security. That's why we have a Fourth Amendment. That's why we have to get search warrants before we conduct searches on individual's homes," he said.

"Here, that's exactly what happened. The FBI obtained a valid court order after showing probable cause to believe that there's evidence of terrorist activity on this phone, and right now that court order is still in place, absent the lawyers from Apple being able to reverse that order they're going to have to turn that information over," Charlton added.

However, incentives already are in place to ensure that customer data is secure, the Center for Democracy & Technology's Calabrese maintained, citing the Sony hack.

"There are a lot of incentives to want to build devices that are private and secure. There are reputational harms, potential liability, the requirement that they do a data breach notice if the information gets out," he said.

"We've all seen, for example, what happened with Sony and the devastating result of not having good security in their systems," Calabrese said.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has published standards for good security and cryptology, he noted. "There are guidelines in place that help people know what they need to do. There are best practices out there that have nothing to do with legislation."

On the other hand, rigid mandates might freeze the development of security technology, Calabrese added.

"You don't want to say you must do the following six things to secure a phone when in three years those things could be totally out of date but you still have a legal requirement to do them," he said.

"There's a push pull when it comes to whether you should mandate security," Calabrese added. "Our view is that you need baseline security standards, and you need to let people know what best practices are and then create incentives to get people to meet those best practices without mandating anything in particular."


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

Apple Event Date Nudges Court Showdown

Apple has changed the date for the launch event for its 4-inch iPhone and new iPad Air from March 15 to March 21, according to news reports.

If the rumor is correct, Apple will be holding the event the day before it appears in a federal court in California to contest a controversial court order. Apple has filed a motion to vacate the order requiring it to comply with the U.S. Justice Department's request for assistance in accessing data on an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.

"The timing seems to be a miscalculation on Apple's part," said John Carroll, a mass communications professor at Boston University.

"They're stepping on their own story because the focus on the following day's new coverage is going to be all about the FBI," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Worse yet, the whole event could backfire on Apple in a bad way.

"If their product rollout gets any kind of coverage, it's possible it will be covered as an attempted smokescreen to divert attention away from the FBI issue," Carroll added.

Trial Balloon

On the other hand, the date change could be a calculated move by a company known for its marketing acumen.

"It's possible the rumor is a trial balloon from Apple to see what kind of reaction it gets," Carroll said. "If the reaction is skeptical enough or critical enough, that's their signal to pull back."

Although just a rumor, the March 21 date "makes sense," noted Patrick Moorhead, founder and principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.

"Apple has reasons to refresh their lineup to be more competitive in emerging regions and to help turnaround declining iPad sales," he told the E-Commerce Times.

Grief Over Shipping

If Apple did indeed change the date of the event, "maybe it's because they want the announcement to be made closer to when the products are going to ship," suggested Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research.

"They caught a fair amount of grief for the big gap between the time of the announcement and shipping of the Apple watch," he told the E-Commerce Times. "That was an unusually long gap, so maybe they're trying to make a statement about being able to deliver products immediately after an event."

There's also the possibility that everything rumored to be announced at the event won't be announced there, remarked Carolina Milanesi, chief of research at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.

"We have seen before when products are incremental, Apple will just put out a press release about them," she told the E-Commerce Times. "It could be we will not see everything, and some will just come out in a press release at a different date."

Maturing Market

Apple is expected to schedule an event to unveil an iPhone with a 4-inch display and upgraded components, as well as a new iPad Air that will have features similar to the iPad Pro.

"If you look around and see the other devices doing well, it's not tablets -- It's two-in-ones," O'Donnell said. "This new iPad looks like it will be another form of two-in-one because you can use a keyboard and pencil with it."

If the rumors prove true, Apple appears to be adjusting its product line to meet the demands of a maturing market.

"Overall, they're filling out their options in terms of screen sizes to address a wide range of interests," O'Donnell said. "That's how the world works now. As you get a more mature market, you need to have a few different buckets into which people can find a product that best meets their needs."

As for the event being overshadowed by Apple's tussle with the FBI, "from the consumer perspective, it doesn't matter," Milanesi observed. "What consumers think about when a new product is out is the new product."


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

Fed Judge Rules for Apple in Drug Case Involving Encryption

A federal magistrate judge on Monday ruled that Apple did not have to unlock an encrypted iPhone used in a federal drug case.

The ruling gave the company a key victory against the Department of Justice in the midst of a legal struggle over an FBI request that the encrypted phone of one of the suspected shooters in the San Bernardino, California, massacre also be unlocked.

Federal Magistrate Judge James Orenstein ruled that the government failed to prove that it had the power under an 18th century law called the "All Writs Act" to force Apple to unlock the phone of the drug dealer.

Following a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency search and seizure of mobile devices belonging to an alleged dealer -- a New York man named Jun Feng -- in June 2014, the government spent more than a year not doing anything to pursue what evidence there was on his phone, until getting a warrant in July 2015, the court noted.

The DEA was not able to get the information and sought help from the FBI, which was unable to get evidence off the password-protected device. They sought Apple's help two weeks after the expiration of the device warrant, and Apple said it would help if the government obtained a court order, consistent with its practice in 70 other instances.

Feng pleaded guilty in October. However, the government continued the request while it was pursuing additional evidence prior to sentencing and potentially to uncover evidence in related cases of coconspirators, according to court documents.

Apple last month filed documents seeking a review of the repeated requests by the government to unlock encrypted phones under the All Writs Act.

A federal magistrate judge on Monday ruled that Apple did not have to unlock an encrypted iPhone used in a federal drug case.

The ruling gave the company a key victory against the Department of Justice in the midst of a legal struggle over an FBI request that the encrypted phone of one of the suspected shooters in the San Bernardino, California, massacre also be unlocked.

Federal Magistrate Judge James Orenstein ruled that the government failed to prove that it had the power under an 18th century law called the "All Writs Act" to force Apple to unlock the phone of the drug dealer.

Following a U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency search and seizure of mobile devices belonging to an alleged dealer -- a New York man named Jun Feng -- in June 2014, the government spent more than a year not doing anything to pursue what evidence there was on his phone, until getting a warrant in July 2015, the court noted.

The DEA was not able to get the information and sought help from the FBI, which was unable to get evidence off the password-protected device. They sought Apple's help two weeks after the expiration of the device warrant, and Apple said it would help if the government obtained a court order, consistent with its practice in 70 other instances.

Feng pleaded guilty in October. However, the government continued the request while it was pursuing additional evidence prior to sentencing and potentially to uncover evidence in related cases of coconspirators, according to court documents.

Apple last month filed documents seeking a review of the repeated requests by the government to unlock encrypted phones under the All Writs Act.


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

IPAD AIR 3 NEWS AND RUMORS

Apple's iPad Air 3 may finally arrive in March with a much sharper screen



It’s been more than a year since the iPad Air 2 launched, but finally, rumors are starting to emerge about the iPad Air 3. Apple is said to be planning a spring launch for its refreshed 9.7-inch tablet.

Here’s everything we think we know about the iPad Air 3 so far.

A new spring launch

Apple used to release new iPads like clockwork in the fall, but when the iPad Pro launched, the iPad Air 3 was nowhere to be found. Now, a 9to5Mac report hints at the possibility of a March launch date, which is in tune with earlier rumors. Sources say that the event will only take place the week of March 14 if the stars align and three products are all ready for launch: the iPhone 5SE, an Apple Watch refresh, and the iPad Air 3.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo backed up the spring launch date theory with a research note, asserting that the iPad Air 3 would launch in spring 2016.He didn’t mention a date, though.

Related: Read our review of the iPad Mini 4

Updated specs and accessories

When it comes to the iPad Air line, it sometimes seems that there isn’t much of a difference between models. This time around, the specs might get a bigger boost.

 

In September, MyDrivers reported the iPad Air 3 may feature a 2,334 x 3,112-pixel display, which would be a hugeleap from the current 1,536 x 2,056-pixel display on the iPad Air 2.

The iPad Pro features an A9X processor, Apple’s newest chipset, and we suspect the iPad Air 3 may run on the same chip. The A10 processor has not been revealed yet, and Apple usually adds a new number chip to the iPhone first.

Related: 7 must-have iPad Pro accessories for your new tablet

Ming-Chi Kuo claims that the iPad Air 3 will not feature Force Touch, Apple’s new pressure-sensitive display technology for iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. The iPad Pro didn’t have Force Touch, so it is unlikely the iPad Air 3 would receive special treatment.

Accessories are a possibility for the iPad Air 3, considering the iPad Pro launched with the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard. We might see a smaller keyboard for the 9.8-inch tablet to interest professional types who want a smaller display, though this is nothing more than speculation for the moment.

We expect a lot more leaks and rumors to arrive in the time between now and March, and we will continue to update this article as we receive more information.

 


http://www.digitaltrends.com

Samsung's S7 May Fall Just Shy of Innovation

Samsung's forthcoming Galaxy S7 smartphone will have several new features, including a pressure-sensitive display like the one available on the iPhone 6s, according to a report published Monday in The Wall Street Journal.

The S7 also will have a USB Type-C port, which will make for faster charging; a camera optimized for low-light photography; and possibly a retina scanner and an external memory card slot in some versions, the report said. The camera lens will be flush with the back of the phone instead of bulging out as the Galaxy S6's lens does.

As it did with the Galaxy S6, Samsung reportedly will offer two versions of the S7, one a premium curved-screen device to be named the "Galaxy S7 Edge."

"The smartphone market is all about keeping up with the Joneses, and Apple has had its fair share of rule-making features," remarked Ramon Llamas, a research manager at IDC.

"Then again, Samsung did start the phablet craze," he told TechNewsWorld.

The Galaxy S7 series reportedly will be available in the United States in mid-March after being announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in late February.

Galloping to Stay Current

Most of the new features to be included in the S7 are widely available in competitors' devices, and one, the microSD card slot, is returning to the Galaxy family after having been dropped in the Galaxy S6 series.

There have been rumors of a USB Type-C port for the S7 since this fall. It's available already on smartphones from some makers, including LG Electronics and Huawei Technologies. It's one of the technologies Apple reportedly is testing for the iPhone 7.

Fujitsu released a smartphone with a retina scanner earlier this year, as did ZTE. Its Grand S3, available in China, also offers retinal scanning.

"No vendor wants to be left out in the cold as one of the few who didn't adopt a new technology," IDC's Llamas said.

Taking on the Competition

Apple is the only maker that's a threat to Samsung at the high end.

"The S7 is really competing head-on with the iPhone," said David McQueen, a research director at ABI Research. "Most other Android vendors -- such as Motorola/Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, LG and Sony -- have tried and failed to compete at the high end."

The recently launched US$700 BlackBerry Priv is "an obvious exception," he told TechNewsWorld, but "I'm not so sure that's going to fare well against Apple and Samsung at that price point, despite the obvious security benefits and hard keyboard."

Shoring up Samsung Sales

Sales of the Galaxy S6 reportedly have not hit the 70 million units Samsung predicted at launch. Deutsche Bank pegged sales at about 45 million, according to media reports.

Samsung has offered consumers a $100 Google Play credit to trade in their iPhones for an S6.

It offered a $300 gift bundle of accessories to new purchasers of the Galaxy S6 family or the Galaxy Note 5 to boost holiday sales last month.

The new features for the Galaxy S7 aren't likely to increase sales, Llamas predicted, because they "are incremental at best, and by themselves don't represent reasons for a jump-start. What end users want to see is not what these features can do, per se, but what these features can do for them."

While the new features make the Galaxy S7 even more Apple-like, "the problem Samsung and Apple, to some extent, face is how to make the new iteration of their flagship device different enough from last year's version to entice users to upgrade," ABI's McQueen pointed out.

"This is becoming ever harder to achieve," he said. "All [the flagships] look and feel the same, and are packed with very similar features, so it can ... boil down to brand strength, ecosystem and price."


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

Gadget Ogling: Unappetizing Apple Juice, a Fistful of Virtual Reality, and Considerate Drones

Welcome, dear friends, to another edition of Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, the column that plunges into the muddy waters of the latest gadget announcements in the hopes of plucking a pearl or two.

In our pool of enlightenment this week are the first official Apple iPhone battery case, a palm-sized 360-degree camera, and possibly the safest drone around.

As ever, these are not reviews and the ratings relate only to how much I'd like to try out each item. I'm not sure I'd be seen dead in public with that battery case, though.

Amplified Apple

After years of seeing third-party companies release battery pack cases for its iPhone line, Apple finally has entered the market itself.

The Smart Battery Case (pictured above) aims to protect your iPhone and provide it with extra power when you need it.

A full charge on the phone and the battery case delivers up to 25 hours of talk time, and up to 18 hours of LTE Internet use. The iPhone's lock screen and Notification Center show how much charge you have left, and the case supports Lightning accessories.

Regular readers will note that I'm an admirer of devices with long battery lives. That's difficult with smartphones, given their data usage and energy-sapping screens. So on the surface, there's a lot for me to like about the Smart Battery Case, especially with the charge display function.

You'd think after all that time watching what others were creating, and with its own storied design history, Apple could have whipped up something a little more aesthetically pleasing here. There's an unsightly bump on the back that does not jibe with Apple's typical design standards. It calls attention to the case in a way that iOS devices and accessories usually do not.

Meanwhile, the silicone case will cause problems for those, such as myself, who keep their smartphones in a pocket. That material clings to fabric, and I might not be able to fish out my phone in time to answer a call.

As a new owner of an iPhone 6, an external charger is something I'll need down the line after my battery's gone through a few hundred charges and the capacity starts dropping -- but I don't think this is the answer for me.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Phones Stuck in Pockets

Full Circle

As the virtual reality movement gathers steam, so too will demand for consumer technology to record footage in all directions.

Luna, a camera currently on a crowdfunding campaign, has two wide-angle lenses that can record 360-degree footage at 2K resolution.

Luna also will give users the option of live streaming their surroundings over WiFi.

Memora, the company behind Luna, has equipped it with gyro-stabilization. That's just as well, since the device can fit in the palm of your hand.

If holding it steady isn't really for you, there's also the option of fixing it to a metal surface, since it's magnetic. It's apparently rugged, too, and I'm looking forward to seeing what virtual-reality videos emerge from someone taking Luna for a swim.

I like Luna a bunch, and at US$299 for those backing the camera, it's good value. I certainly want to try my hand at creating 360-degree videos, and Luna's the most accessible dedicated device I've seen, so it could prove a viable option for me.

Rating: 4 out of 5 All the Way Arounds

Safe Eye in the Sky

Fleye is a drone that promises to be a little safer than many others of its ilk.

Whereas quadcopters have four rotating blades that might cause injury if one is not too careful, Fleye encases all of its moving parts, meaning you can gently nudge it out of the way if it moves a little too close to you, or shift it into position for a better shot..

It has automated controls, so you can tap a button to send Fleye into the air for a selfie or panoramic shot, or tell it to hover in place while you adjust the altitude or viewing angle and watch what it's capturing through an accompanying app. You can, of course, take manual control as well.

While battery life is limited to a 10-minute flight, it's seemingly easy to swap out the battery.

The open source platform is a plus, and I admire the safety aspect to a degree -- it's something I'd like to see in Amazon's delivery drones, for instance.

Yet there's a niggling sense that we shouldn't quite rush to child-proof hobby drones. In my mind, we're still in the punk rock era of testing drones and creating new rules, and it feels as though we need to shed a little blood in the process.

 

 


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com

Gadget Ogling: Baring Souls, Soaking Up Sound, and Tracking Babes

Welcome to Gadget Dreams and Nightmares, the column that sips a warm cocoa while delving through the latest gadget announcements and recovering from the CES barrage.

It seems most manufacturers went back into hibernation after revealing myriad new gadgets at CES, so here's a look at some of the other gizmos that caught my eye from the event: a tracker that counts the time you spend with others, an all-in-one soundbar, and a baby monitor you can check using a smartphone.

As always, the ratings denote only how much I'd like to try each. They are by no means reviews, as I haven't laid eyes on any of these items in the physical world.

Body and Soul Together

As time advances, more responsibilities seep into our lives. We get wrapped up in our own worlds, and don't necessarily make enough time to spend with the friends and family members who've been important parts of our worlds for decades.

Concepter's Soul time tracker (pictured above) seeks to make us more conscious of the time we spend with those who matter most to us. It comes as a wristband or keyfob with Bluetooth connectivity, which is simple enough.

The real essence here is in the accompanying app, which tracks the time you spend with other people who use Soul. Thankfully, you don't need to persuade anyone to buy a wristband for this to work, as there's a free app that connects to other Souls over Bluetooth.

I've found myself getting more intrigued by hyperfocused, single-purpose wearables -- especially in the activity tracker field for specific sports -- but one whose function could be fulfilled by a stopwatch (or, indeed, a free mobile application) seems inconsequential.

I'm uncertain this is something we need to quantify, as the total number of hours and minutes we spend in proximity to someone doesn't matter unless we spend that time making meaningful memories or actively engaging with that person.

Still, I'm tentatively on board, as most of us could use a little more time with those important to us, and if Soul can push us toward that, who am I to argue?

Rating: 3 out of 5 Not a Soldiers

Sound Un-Barrier

I readily admit I have little experience with soundbars, but I do know good design when I see it, and Bang & Olufsen's BeoSound 35 sure is pretty. Its construction lends itself well to intelligent speaker placement, with a larger loudspeaker in the middle and tweeters at the ends.

That means it can project sound 180 degrees around a room, so you should get a clear audio profile anywhere in a space if you mount this on a central wall and you are not somehow behind it.

Bang & Olufsen is positioning this as an all-in-one system, so it has Spotify and Deezer integration, and you can connect to it using Airplay, Chromecast and Bluetooth. You can control it using an app or the system's own touch controls.

I typically enjoy the rich tones of Bang & Olufsen's products, so I've little doubt I would find satisfaction in the audio output. Yet for me, the real selling point here is that striking, stretched-out design. It commands attention -- but it also seems as though it could fit seamlessly into one's home entertainment setup with relative anonymity. It's the most beautiful jack of all trades I've seen in an age.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Meat in the Middles

Better Booties

I do not have children, so I'm not privy to the worries I assume many parents face on a daily basis. Baby monitors to help keep an eye on little ones from afar have been available for a long time, but Owlet's version elevates the baby monitor.

The technology is packed into a washable booty that does more than listen for sounds of distress. It monitors the tot's heart rate and blood oxygen levels. Bluetooth connectivity means you'll have access to the data on your smartphones, and the base station changes color if something seems amiss.

The crowdfunded monitor also comes in a three-size pack to make sure the early warning system fits over your tot's foot until he or she is 18 months old.

I dismissed this at first, thinking there can't be too many parents eager to strap wearable technology onto their young child. As I say, I'm also not attuned to parenthood -- but if it is indeed helping save lives, it'll be worth every penny.

The lack of a newborn in my vicinity means I can't give this a high rating, but I am eager to see how it shapes out, and whether monitoring kids' health is an increasingly prevalent direction for wearable technology.


Source by: http://www.technewsworld.com