The Apple vs DoJ encryption battle is far from over

The Apple versus FBI showdown that’s been playing out over the past six weeks is over. But in reality, the battle to circumvent encryption has just started.

Yesterday’s news that the government was dropping its case against Apple wasn’t a surprise. Last week the Department of Justice informed the courts that it had found a third-party solution to break into the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook and no longer need the tech company’s help. Case closed.

But there are other phones out there, which means there will be other cases. Each device in the possession of local and federal law enforcement is a potential avenue to convince a court to force Apple to circumvent its encryption.

Or the Justice Department can just wait until another phone is used in the course of crime that’s as horrific as the the one perpetrated by Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, in San Bernardino. Higher-profile cases give law enforcement additional leverage with judges and the public. There are hundreds of phones in police custody right now; it’s no coincidence the DoJ asked for help with the one used by a terrorist.

Buzzfeed reports that a government official said it’s “premature to say anything about our abilities to access other phones.” Even if it does manage to use this exploit on other iPhones, there’s a chance the FBI won’t be able to access new devices from Apple.

Farook used an iPhone 5C. The encryption on this phone is software based. It doesn’t have the additional hardware security found in Apple’s A7 and later processors. With the introduction of that chip in the iPhone 5S, the company added a secure element that makes it even tougher to crack the encryption on a device. Apple insists that even the company itself can’t read the encrypted handshake between the hardware and software when a passcode or Touch ID is used to unlock the phone.

But the thing is, we don’t know the full capabilities of the exploit the FBI is using. According to The Guardian, the Justice Department wants the exploit to be classified. So it could potentially keep the vulnerability a secret from not only the public but also Apple. Without transparency or proper disclosure, the capabilities of the tool are unknown. If the government says the exploit won’t work on an iPhone 6, we have to take its word for it.

So while Apple has stated that “this case should never have been brought,” it should prepare itself for others like it. And not just Apple: Other tech companies like Google and Microsoft should be ready for a call from the FBI, CIA, NSA or Homeland Security if an encrypted device is used during the course of a crime.

All the government needs is to set a precedent to circumvent encryption. If the courts rule that a company has to help law enforcement bypass the security of a device, it doesn’t matter if it’s Apple or not. It’ll be the first step in a series of court battles against tech giants that’ll be tougher to fight as more phones are unlocked.

There are now two security races going on. One is to build tougher encryption to keep hackers out of users’ devices. The other is to build a legal team to keep the government out of users’ phones. It’s not a quick sprint solved by a single case. This is an ultramarathon that started with that first motion.

Twitter adds image descriptions to help the visually impaired

To make Twitter more accessible, the company has rolled out an update today that lets users add descriptions to their images. Once the feature has been enabled — you’ll find it under Settings and Accessibility — you’ll get the option to write a caption with each new photo. They can be up to 420 characters and will be available to users who are visually impaired, through assistive technology such as text-to-speech screen readers and braille displays. Twitter’s platform has also been updated so the feature can be supported in specialized clients such as Chicken Nugget.

Source: Twitter (Blog Post)

Amateur astronomers caught a Jupiter impact on camera

Jupiter gets hit by wayward celestial objects surprisingly often (about once per year), but you’d be forgiven if you didn’t know it. Not all of them are visible, and professionals can only observe so much. However, the rise in readily accessible astronomy tech just helped detect one of these encounters. Amateur astronomers from Austria and Ireland have recorded videos showing that something, most likely an asteroid or comet, struck Jupiter on March 17th. The collision only lasted for a split second (blink and you’ll miss it in the videos below) but it was ferocious — even if the object was only a few hundred feet across, Jupiter’s intense gravity guaranteed a high-velocity impact that would be visible from Earth.

It’d take much more data to explain what happened in detail. However, the very fact that it was caught on camera at all is telling. It shows that the combination of low-cost telescopes, video capture and easy online sharing is producing the kind of collaborative stargazing that scientists yearn for. There’s an increasingly good chance that someone, somewhere is not only watching a given patch of sky, but can share their findings to confirm unusual events.

Via: Slate, Gizmodo

Source: Gerrit Kernbauer (YouTube), John McKeon (YouTube)

Behind Facebook Messenger’s plan to be an app platform

A year ago, Facebook announced at its F8 developer conference that Messenger would evolve into more than just a simple chat app. For one thing, you’d be able to chat with businesses and stores to, say, get an update on an order or make reservations at a restaurant. But the big reveal was that Facebook was turning Messenger into a platform for other apps. The initial integration was with GIF keyboards and games, but fast forward a year later and you can see the idea start to take shape. You can now request an Uber or a Lyft right within Messenger, or share a song with your chat buddy via Spotify. Soon you might even be able to book a flight or pay for store purchases — all without leaving Messenger.

The question is: Why? Why would you as a user want all this integration? Why not just download Uber and request a car that way? Meanwhile, why would a developer or a business want to bake their services into Messenger? Wouldn’t they rather users get their apps instead? Lastly, why does Facebook want to add all of these features anyway, and potentially weigh it down with so many added complications?

There are several answers to these questions, but it all starts with a single fact: Messaging is now the number one activity most people do on their smartphones. A Pew Internet study published last year found that fully 97 percent of smartphone owners used text messaging at least once a week. Messaging was also found to be the most frequently used feature, with smartphone owners reporting that they used text messaging within the past hour. Further, 35 percent of smartphone users in the US use some kind of messaging app to communicate.

Facebook’s own stats confirm that. In the last quarter of 2015, the company reported 900 million monthly Whatsapp users and 800 million monthly Messenger users. “We have seen messaging volume more than double in the past year,” said Frerk-Malte Feller to Engadget. Feller is a Director of Product Management for Facebook who heads up Messenger’s business initiatives. “Businesses want to be where the people are.”

This is certainly why Lyft wants to be involved. “As the heart of so many of our users’ day-to-day communications, [Messenger] felt like a natural fit to make getting from place to place as simple as typing ‘hello’ to a friend,” a Lyft spokesperson told Engadget.

From the user standpoint, having a third-party service like Uber integrated into Messenger bypasses the whole rigmarole of signing up for an account. “You’re already registered on Messenger using your Facebook identity,” said Feller. “When you start using a new service, you don’t have to fill out all those forms […] You can just use the identity you have on Messenger.”

More importantly, however, it also means one less app to download. Sure, downloading an app sounds like a pretty trivial activity, but it’s still an extra step, one which a lot of users are unwilling to take. A recent Nielsen study showed that despite the increased number of apps in both Google Play and Apple’s App Store over the past few years, people still generally use the same number of apps — about 26.7 per month. But while the total number of applications doesn’t seem to have increased, the amount of time spent on them has gone up — about a 63 percent rise in two years.

We’re not as interested in trying new apps, but the apps we do have, we’re using more.

This means we’re not as interested in trying new apps, but the apps we do have, we’re using more. It’s a scenario that’s ripe for enriching existing apps — like the heavily used Messenger — with additional features. As for businesses, it’s a chance to increase awareness without having to rely on app downloads.

Beyond that, Messenger offers a valuable social component that most existing apps don’t have. With the Uber integration, for example, you can message an address to a friend, who can then tap that address to request a car. Alternately, if you’re already in an Uber, you can use Messenger to share your location to a friend so he or she can see when you’re going to arrive. All of this is on top of the ability for you to directly message the company if you’re having any issues. And because this is Messenger and not an email or a phone call, whoever’s reading your messages will be able to see past conversations to gain context of the existing message thread.

The kinds of interactions are richer too. Spotify’s integration, for example, offers a more seamless sharing experience than just copying and pasting a link. “It’s a huge upgrade,” a Spotify spokesperson told us. “[It allows] users to deep link into Spotify to consume content.”

There is some precedent to all of this. Mobile messaging apps in Asia have been experimenting with these added features for a while now. Line, for example, has billed itself as a “social entertainment platform,” and has branched out into offering a music service plus a news feed, both of which are easily accessible from within the main messaging app. It also offers games, much like Messenger is currently doing, and is even going so far as becoming a phone carrier.

Of course, adding third-party services is just the beginning; Messenger’s ambitions go much deeper. As a recent report from The Information indicates, Facebook’s chat app could soon have plenty of other features like calendar syncing, News Feed-style status updates and the ability to directly share quotes from articles. Add the M personal assistant to the equation, and it’s easy to imagine a future where Messenger could be the central hub of smartphones everywhere. Perhaps even more so than Facebook itself.

There is one potential downside, however, and that’s the arrival of advertising. After all, that’s Facebook’s bread and butter, and it’s naturally going to want to slap ads on an app that’s getting to be this popular. And with all these business partnerships, it won’t be surprising if Facebook ends up allowing companies to spam you with the occasional advertisement, especially if you voluntarily added these integrations yourself.

“The feedback from people in the last 12 months have been strong,” said Feller. “It really has all the right attributes and characteristics.” And with F8’s annual developer conference coming up next week, we imagine there will be even more to come.

Bowie tribute concert at Radio City will be streamed on Skype

A pair of concerts will offer a tribute to David Bowie in New York City this week, and you’ll be able to stream one of them. Due to “unprecedented interest,” concert organizers are teaming up with Skype and Ammado so that Bowie fans around that world can watch live performances from Radio City Music Hall on April 1st. This is actually the second show, added after the response for the first event that’s set for Thursday at Carnegie Hall. The Carnegie Hall date for “The Music of David Bowie,” a tribute show that will raise money for music education, was announced just before the singer passed away in January. Both nights sold out immediately.

If you want to tune in this Friday at 8:00 PM ET, you’ll be asked to make a donation or a minimum donation equivalent to $20 or £15 to one of the event’s partner charities. Once you donate via the event’s website, you’ll be given a link to the stream. In return for your donation, you can watch scheduled acts like the Pixies, Blondie, the Flaming Lips, The Roots, Mumford & Sons, The Polyphonic Spree and several more.

Via: BBC

Source: The Music of David Bowie

NCAA to stream Final Four and championship game in VR

Streaming sports in VR isn’t that novel these days, but that’s not stopping the NCAA from employing the tech this weekend in Houston. The collegiate sports governing body announced plans to livestream the Final Four and National Championship games in virtual reality Saturday, April 2nd and Monday, April 4th. This is the first time a VR stream will be available for the culmination of March Madness, offering 180-degree views of the action on the hardwood. The stream will be available on Samsung’s Gear VR through the March Madness Live app in the Oculus Store. If you don’t have a headset, there will be a 2D 180-degree livestream on the March Madness website alongside 360-degree game highlights.

Source: NCAA

Apple Working on a Fix for iOS 9.3 Web Links Crashing Issue

Apple has confirmed that it is aware of an issue causing web links to crash in multiple iOS apps like Safari, Mail, and Messages, reports TechCrunch. Following multiple complaints about the bug over the past few days, Apple says it is working on a fix that will be released “soon” via a software update.

Shortly after the release of iOS 9.3, iPhone and iPad users began complaining about a bug that causes multiple built-in and third-party apps to crash or freeze after a web link is tapped or pressed using a long press. The issue does not affect all users, but based on threads in the MacRumors forums and the Apple Support Communities, it is impacting a wide range of iOS users and a long list of iOS devices including the iPhone 5, 5s, 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini.

The specific cause for the issue is still unconfirmed, but there is speculation that it is related to Apple’s Universal Links feature. According to mobile specialist Ben Collier, the Shared Web Credentials daemon, which allows apps and websites to share login credentials for Universal Linking purposes, may be a factor.

Apps with large deep linking files for use with Universal Linking could also be causing the problem, as many users who had installed the Booking.com app have experienced crashing and freezing issues. The Booking.com app, though now fixed, was originally using an overly large 2.3MB deep linking file.

While there is no fix for the crashing issue, some users have had success turning off JavaScript in the Settings app by going to Safari –> Advanced, but this is a suboptimal option because it will degrade the web browsing experience. Force closing affected apps and restarting the iOS device does not solve the problem.

The web links fix may be bundled into iOS 9.3.1, which Apple is already working on. Over the last few days, we’ve seen an increasing number of visits from devices running iOS 9.3.1, suggesting Apple has sped up testing on the update.

The web linking bug is the second major bug to affect iOS 9.3 users. The first rendered some older devices unusable due to a problem with Activation Lock, which required customers to enter the information originally used to set up their iPhone or iPad. Apple issued a new version of iOS 9.3 on Monday to fix the issue.

Related Roundup: iOS 9
Tag: iOS 9.3
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Apple Expands ‘Nearby’ Maps Feature to More Countries, Adds New Flyover Locations

Apple today expanded its “Nearby” feature in the Maps app to Austria, Denmark, Japan, and Switzerland. Introduced in iOS 9, Nearby is a feature that allows Apple Maps users to see restaurants, coffee shops, retailers, and other local points of interest using easily accessible categories.

Nearby is now available in a total of 13 countries, including Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, and USA.

Apple has also expanded the availability of traffic information in Maps to include Turkey, and it has introduced several new Flyover locations in the Maps app in Germany, England, and Japan, which are listed below:

– Augsburg, Germany
– Braunschweig, Germany
– Hanover, Germany
– Newcastle upon Tyne, England
– Niigata, Japan

For those unfamiliar with the Flyover feature in Apple Maps, it lets users see photo-realistic 3D videos of select locations, with tools for zooming, panning, and rotating to get a closer look at notable landmarks and points of interest. Some of the locations listed may have previously been available as Flyover destinations, but were just added to Apple’s list of Flyover locations.

Apple is continually working to improve its Maps app, expanding the availability of Nearby, traffic information, and transit directions to additional countries, as well as introducing new Flyover locations on a regular basis.
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