Chinese Authorities Allegedly Harvesting iCloud Logins Using Redirected Dummy Site [iOS Blog]
Chinese authorities allegedly are using a man-in-the-middle attack to harvest Apple ID information from Chinese users visiting Apple’s iCloud service, reports web censorship blog Great Fire (via The Verge). A similar attack reportedly targets Microsoft’s login.live.com website.
According to Great Fire, Chinese users trying to access iCloud.com are redirected to a fake site that resemble’s Apple’iCloud website. While some browsers will issue a warning, popular Chinese browser Qihoo gives no indication users are entering their Apple credentials into a dummy site. Users fooled by the site may be putting their personal information at risk as attackers can then use these login details to access contacts, messages and more stored in iCloud.
This is clearly a malicious attack on Apple in an effort to gain access to usernames and passwords and consequently all data stored on iCloud such as iMessages, photos, contacts, etc. Unlike the recent attack on Google, this attack is nationwide and coincides with the launch today in China of the newest iPhone. While the attacks on Google and Yahoo enabled the authorities to snoop on what information Chinese were accessing on those two platforms, the Apple attack is different. If users ignored the security warning and clicked through to the Apple site and entered their username and password, this information has now been compromised by the Chinese authorities.
This attack follows the Chinese launch of the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and may be related to the encryption options and increased security of Apple’s iOS 8. It is possible Chinese authorities are using this hack to penalize Apple for taking extra measures that would prevent the government from snooping on phones.
Great Fire advises Chinese users to switch to a trusted browser such as Firefox and Chrome, which will warn users when they access an illegitimate site. Apple owners also can use a VPN to bypass this redirection and connect directly to iCloud.com. Two-factor authentication may also prevent attackers from accessing an iCloud account using a compromised username and password.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Virgin Galactic’s ready to resume test flights to space
We’ve been waiting for Virgin Galactic to begin ferrying passengers to the edge of space for what seems like forever, but now it looks as if we might be getting close. CEO George Whitesides has announced that test-flights of the SpaceShipTwo are about to recommence, after spending almost all of 2014 rooted firmly to the ground. The hold-up was caused by the company’s decision to switch to a different brand of rocket fuel that, while improving the vehicle’s performance, forced the team to begin engine testing from scratch. Now that the necessary certifications have been granted, we can expect to hear much more from the company as it tries to make Sir Richard Branson’s promise of flights in 2015 a reality.
[Image Credit Mars Scientific / Clay Center Observatory]
Filed under: Transportation
Via: CNET
Source: Space
Notti smart light does notifications and wake-up calls with style
There are already a good handful of options in the smart bulb market, but if you’re after something more of a portable mood light with notification feature, then Hong Kong startup Witti may have something for you. The Notti, a project just launched on Kickstarter, is a ‘polygonic’ smart LED box that hooks up to your iPhone or Android phone over Bluetooth. This cool-looking device comes with a companion app that lets you set the color theme for the mood light mode, and you can do the same for specific types of notifications — be it from e-mails, social networks, calls, messages and more. Better yet, the device also serves as a music visualizer as well as a wake-up light — as shown in the video after the break. As for battery life, a single charge will last up to a month.
The Notti is now up for grabs from as low as $30 each — a steal compared to its $79.99 suggested retail price — or from $55 for two of them. If all goes well, you can expect shipment in March.
Source: Kickstarter
Spotify anounce new family plans starting at $14.99 a month
Good news for those of you sharing your Spotify subscription with your family, the popular streaming service has finally launched a discounted plan for families. This means no more of your weird son’s dubstep playlists mixed in with your Marvin Gaye collections. The plan allows you to have up to five people on the same account, while keeping playlists, libraries and recommendations completely separate.
Starting at $14.99/month for two users, the Spotify Family deal gets users up to 50% off of Spotify Premium. Sounds like a great deal and should give Spotify a bit of an edge over competitors like Play Music and Rhapsody. Spotify plans to roll out the Spotify Family plan globally over the coming months. Let us know in the comments if this deal piques your interest!
Source: Spotify
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Were OEMs to blame for Android Silver never coming to fruition?
Back in May, we saw news leak from the now retired evleaks that suggested that Google was working on a program for premium Android devices known as Android Silver. The program would offer a pure Google designed Android experience on next-gen hardware and all for a premium price. The program would have been something offered on all the majors carriers, however, about a month before the release of the Nexus 6, word spread that the unconfirmed program was scrapped and it’s possible that the major carriers were to blame.
Re/code learned that Google struggled to convince OEMs to get onboard with the program.
“The company wanted to promote a less-customizable version of the OS that would make it easier for app developers to create one version of its software for the Android devices, instead of having to make many versions for different flavors of Android,”Re/code wrote. “The program was shelved after lukewarm interest from device makers that didn’t want to share its branding with another company or employ such a restricted version of the software.”
According to other reports, Google’s licensing agreements for Android have become tougher for OEMs that push its online services but it looks like Google couldn’t push forward with Silver. Google’s VP of engineering Hiroshi Lockheimer didn’t comment on Silver in a recent interview, rather dodged the unconfirmed program by saying that the “Nexus brand of devices will continue well into the future.” While Google is tightening the reigns on some aspects of Android it looks like the search giant may loosen its grasp on certain aspects.
As was previously stated, Google is thinking about opening up Android Wear, TV, and Auto for customizations. That is, as soon as Google hammers out the basics of each of the respective platforms.
That said, it’s kind of easy writing off a program that never existed. Unlike previous Nexus devices — that skimped in a few areas to cut cost — the new Nexus 6 looks to to be what Android Silver could have been; a premium device with next-gen hardware and a pure Google experience. Android Silver never existed, maybe OEMs weren’t onboard, maybe Google scraped the program and integrated the idea into making the new Nexus. One thing’s for certain, the program that never existed, continues to not do so.
Come comment on this article: Were OEMs to blame for Android Silver never coming to fruition?
LG teases a new concept phone that has mood swings
LG has teased a new phone they’re going to announce at the World IT Show in a few days, and it’s a pretty crazy concept. The device, currently going by the name LG AKA, is a smartphone that has different moods. It also has a large pair of staring eyes. Definitely not creepy at all.
The AKA is customizable and you’ll be able to swap out the back panels for a few different colors. The eyes on the device, however, act all on their own. The eyes have different emotions and moods and will change depending on how you use the phone and the kinds of apps and music you keep on it.
Maybe if you have tons of games the eyes will have a happy expression, and if you store a bunch of documents and office apps it’ll take a more serious demeanor. LG hasn’t really clarified anything other than this will be a concept device, so we don’t know too much about it.
The device will launch in South Korea in November, and although we’ll very likely never see it anywhere else in the world, it’s an interesting idea to keep an eye on. No pun intended.
source: LG
via: Phone Arena
Come comment on this article: LG teases a new concept phone that has mood swings
You can now filter apps in the Play Store by ratings
Google has finally added a much needed option to finding apps in the Play Store: filtering apps by ratings.
Normally if you’re looking for a new app, you’d have to scroll through every app on the Play Store. If any of you have done that for more than five minutes, you probably know there’s just as much junk and spam as actual apps. Fortunately, most of those apps get poor ratings and it’s easy to see bad apps from a distance, but with this new filter, you won’t even have to see those apps.
As of right now, the filtering can only block apps with less than 4 star ratings, so if you wanted to get a broader result and show everything with 3 stars and up, you’ll have to wait for Google to refine things a bit. It’s also currently only available on the web version of the Play Store, but, like every other new feature, it’s bound to make its way to the Android application sooner or later.
source: Phone Arena
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Play Music gets a Material Design makeover in Nexus 4 port
As we edge closer to the Nov. 3 release of Android 5.0 Lollipop for WiFi devices, we’re going to start seeing more and more Google apps go Material Design. One app, everyone’s been hoping to see in material is Google Play Music. Over the weekend, a port of the developer preview for the Nexus 4 was created and in it, came material-designed Play Music. Well the gents over at Droid-Life were able to take a look at it, this past weekend.
As we can see from the images Google Play Music gets a little prettier in its redesign. Play Music 5.6.1640 incorporates the design guidelines and it looks great. Google+ user, Brandon Lall, was able to pull and create a gif of Google Play Music in action.
While the APKs are available, they’re not straight from Google so we recommend you exercise caution when/if you install them. That being said. Google Play Music should get the Material Design makeover sometime here in the next two weeks. Until then, we’ll just have to patiently wait.
source: Droid-Life
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Apple Pushing for $5 Beats Music Subscriptions as Spotify Debuts Discounted Family Plan
As previously reported, Apple plans to relaunch its recently acquired Beats Music subscription early next year and hopes to offer the service with with a lowered monthly cost. According to new “industry scuttlebut” relayed to Re/code, Apple is pushing music labels to cut streaming music subscription prices in half to $5 per month.
The logic of Apple’s argument, relayed by people who’ve heard the pitch secondhand: Apple’s best iTunes buyers spend about $60 a year on downloaded music — $5 a month. So if subscription services dropped that low, any download buyers that switched over to the streaming model would generate just as much revenue for the music labels. And, more important, the market of potential subscribers would get much larger.
Any reduction offered to Apple would be available to other services, making it less likely music industry executives would approve of a 50 percent discount. Re/code notes Apple will more likely meet the music labels in the middle with a monthly fee in the range of $7-8.
While Apple negotiates the terms for its Beats Music streaming service, rival Spotify is upping the ante with a new Spotify Family plan. Similar to Rdio’s Unlimited Family plan, Spotify Family allows a premium subscriber to add up to four additional members for $4.99/month each, a 50 percent discount off the regular $9.99 individual premium plan. Spotify announced the family plans today and will roll then out globally in the coming weeks.
[New Android Wear App] Tempo-Motion is another great option for watch faces
The developers for Tempo-Motion have been teasing their app for a couple of months now, and they finally released it over the weekend. It’s another app in which you can download and store various watch faces for your Android Wear smartwatch.
The one difference with Tempo-Motion as opposed to apps like Facer is that there is no customizing and other users cannot share any creations. That’s a bit of a downer, but they do offer a lot of watch faces that are both free and paid. Some of them are very cool in that they include really nice looking sweeping second hands. It’s just another example that one app can’t suit all your needs and it’s good to have a few installed for more choices.
The one advantage that Tempo-Motion does offer is that you will create an account on their server so that means any watch faces that you download will be saved in your profile. That means if you switch phones, your downloaded watch faces will automatically appear.
I used it all day yesterday and it worked smoothly. However, I did notice a lot more battery drain than usual, so I will monitor that to make sure it was indeed the app. Even it is, I am sure the developer will continue to make tweaks to rectify it.
Tempo-Motion currently supports Moto 360, the G Watch, and the Gear Live, but there is a heavier emphasis on round faces.
It’s free in the Play Store so download it today and let us know what you think.
Click here to view the embedded video.
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