New York Judge Rules U.S. Government Can’t Force Apple to Unlock an iPhone

Alongside its battle with the U.S. government over an order to break into the iPhone owned by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, Apple has also been embroiled in a dispute over a similar case in New York. In late 2015, the Department of Justice asked a NY federal magistrate judge to order Apple to help authorities gain access to an iPhone seized as evidence in a drug trafficking case.

At the time, Apple explained that while it could technically unlock the iPhone in question because it was running an older version of iOS, being forced to comply with the order could “substantially tarnish the Apple brand.” This afternoon, Judge James Orenstein, who is presiding over the New York case, decided in favor of Apple (via TechCrunch), handing down a ruling that could potentially impact the much more prominent San Bernardino dispute.

According to the New York ruling, Apple cannot be forced to help law enforcement access data on an iPhone using the justification that the court has the power to make such an order under the All Writs Act, an argument the FBI also uses in the San Bernardino case. Apple has also argued the All Writs Act does not give the government a pass to “conscript and commandeer” the company.

“The established rules for interpreting a statute’s text constrain me to reject the government’s interpretation that the AWA empowers a court to grant any relief not outright prohibited by law,” writes Orenstein. “The extraordinary relief [the government] seeks cannot be considered ‘agreeable to the usages and principles of law,’” reads another section. He goes on to outline his reasoning and concludes with the opinion that the larger issue of encryption should be decided by legislation, not by the court.

In deciding this motion, I offer no opinion as to whether, in the circumstances of this case or others, the government’s legitimate interest in ensuring that no door is too strong to resist lawful entry should prevail against the equally legitimate societal interests arrayed against it here. […]

How best to balance those interests is a matter of critical importance to our society, and the need for an answer becomes more pressing daily, as the tide of technological advance flows ever farther past the boundaries of what seemed possible even a few decades ago.

But that debate must happen today, and it must take place among legislators who are equipped to consider the technological and cultural realities of a world their predecessors could not begin to conceive. It would betray our constitutional heritage and our people’s claim to democratic governance for a judge to pretend that our Founders already had that debate, and ended it, in 1789.

According to TechCrunch, a senior Apple executive has suggested that while New York case does not set a binding legal precedent in regard to the San Bernardino case, it sets “an important precedent of opinion.”

Apple has officially opposed an order that would require it to help the FBI break into the iPhone owned by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook and will now face off against the government in court on March 22.

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.

Tag: Apple-FBI
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HTC Vive Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

You can now preorder the HTC Vive. The VR headset — which requires a fairly muscular PC to use — will begin shipping on April 5.

The Vive is jointly developed by Taiwanese phone maker HTC and Bellevue, Washington-based game developer Valve. The system costs $799 (£689 in the UK), but — unlike its archrival, the $599 Oculus Rift — it includes a bevy of accessories, including motion sensors and special motion controllers. Both products will need to be attached to a Windows gaming PC in the $1,000 to $2,000 range.

We’ll have more details and context on the Vive soon. In the meantime, what follows is our most recent hands-on experience with the hardware, originally published on January 5, 2016.

I was told to summon the Chaperone.

As I stood on the deck of a submerged pirate ship on the bottom of the ocean, I stepped towards the railing. Fish scattered around me. A glowing grid appeared, indicating a wall — not in the virtual world, but the real one. I’d done all this before. I tried HTC Vive, a full-room immersive VR experience for PCs coming later this year, back in early 2015. But here at CES in Las Vegas, in early 2016, there was a new twist.

Suddenly, glowing shapes appeared behind the walls: I could see the entire room I was in, like X-ray vision. The furniture, the weird Vegas carpet patterns…and my CNET video crew filming me.

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While Oculus readies its Rift VR system that’s just around the corner, and Sony prepares the PlayStation VR for its PS4 console, the HTC Vive feels like the third competitor in the virtual reality wars. The Vive was supposed to debut at the end of 2015, but was delayed until this April. What I got to see at CES in Las Vegas was the reason: the hardware has been revamped and improvements made. Most importantly, a new room-sensing camera has been added to the outside of the Vive’s head-worn display.

HTC Vive: room-filling VR freedom, now with better hardware.

Josh Miller/CNET

The Vive is, by far, the most ambitious virtual reality platform. It aims to be a full-room experience, a VR kit that senses an entire room and frees the user to wander around in a space up to 5 meters (16 feet) diagonally: two Yoga mats side by side, as HTC’s Dan O’Brien, VP of HTC’s Virtual Reality Group, described it during a briefing in Las Vegas.

Wandering around in a virtual world with a helmet on is dangerous, even in a sterile Las Vegas demo room. HTC and Valve developed a way for the Vive to sense walls and furniture in its previous hardware, but that wasn’t quite enough. The latest developer hardware can use its camera to look at the room and provide continuous updates on where everything is. I felt like Batman using his bat-sense vision in “The Dark Knight.”

The new camera’s on the bottom, but sees the whole room.

Josh Miller/CNET

The Vive shows the world around me when I double-click a home button on the newly revamped and lighter wireless controllers (which now last 4 hours on a charge, an improvement on the older Vive hardware). But the strange night vision-meets-X-ray graphics layer isn’t the same as a real camera feed — for latency-reducing purposes, according to Valve’s Chet Falisze. You can see a smaller picture-in-picture view of what the camera sees, but blown up large it feels like bizarro sonar.

It’s not like the sort of virtual-enters-reality feel of augmented reality, like Microsoft’s HoloLens. It’s something different: the real entering the virtual.

The Vive’s improved headset and controllers on some primo Vegas carpet.

Josh Miller/CNET

All the Vive’s parts are new and refined. The controllers now seem more like something you’d buy in a real store. The room-sensing base stations that come with Vive — laser-emitting boxes that are meant to be installed high up, like little speakers — are smaller, compact cubes. The helmet is lighter, with refined strap design and replaceable parts for better nose and face fit that HTC calls “gaskets.” The visual display has also been markedly boosted: The resolution is the same, but an engineering tweak to remove “mura” (the processing layer that dims and fades the VR image, according to HTC and Valve) resulted in much poppier, brighter, vivid colors during my brief demo.

A better-feeling headset.

Josh Miller/CNET

The fish that flitted by me down in the virtual ocean popped with detail. A slow-swimming blue whale in front of me stared back with a massive eye that seemed more real than I remembered. I stared up at sunlight through water that felt more vibrant. Another demo I never tried before — the brilliant Job Simulator game, also coming to Oculus — had me pouring coffee, plugging in my clownish computer and attempting light office work in a brightly colored cubicle that showed off how much crisper the Vive’s VR now looks. It seemed to help the pixels melt away.

This still isn’t the final hardware: According to HTC and Valve, this developer’s unit will be followed by another version before release. But it’s much further along than before. But I still wonder about HTC and Valve’s vision of full-motion, full-room VR. Vive’s two controllers, room sensors and tethered helmet — plus the required PC with the level of gaming graphics necessary — will limit the appeal of Vive no matter what the price.

HTC and Valve are clearly committed to pushing the boundaries of VR into a space that’s starting to feel almost like augmented reality, but VR — and most people — might not be ready to take that full step. Nevertheless, it’s amazing stuff.

Samsung WA52J8700 review – CNET

The Good Samsung’s $1,199 WA52J8700 Activewash washing machine has quite a few features, including a built-in sink, but it’s still easy to use. It’s also easy on the eyes.

The Bad If you don’t expect to use the sink, it will probably just get in your way. The WA52J8700 did pretty well in terms of stain removal, but not great, and the detergent dispenser is hard to reach.

The Bottom Line Samsung’s Activewash washer offers a lot, but you’ll want to look elsewhere for top-of-the-line performance.

Top load washing machines tend to get a bad rap. You can’t stack them and they’re usually limited in terms of features and storage capacity compared to their front load cousins. One benefit is that they typically cost less, but that isn’t always enough to make a top load washer purchase worthwhile.

Samsung’s $1,199 Activewash machine, model number WA52J8700AP, is giving traditional top load laundry a makeover, starting with a built-in sink and jet that lets you hand wash, prewash and directly target tough stains without having to travel to the kitchen or the nearest bathroom for a water source. Currently restricted to the US, there are actually four models in this series starting with the 4.8-cubic-foot $899 WA48J7770AW with a white finish and ending with the pricier WA52J8700AP we reviewed here.

Although this unit, finished with a silvery-gray “platinum” coat of paint, looks nice and is mostly easy to use (with the exception of the oddly placed and hard-to-reach detergent dispenser), it didn’t blow us away during testing. It performed worse than the $1,500 front load LG WM5000HVA and the $1,400 front load GE GFWR4805FMC, but better than the $1,500 top load LG WT7700HVA. And if you don’t care about the built-in sink, it’s really just going to get in the way.

Even so, I’d suggest taking a look at the $1,199 WA52J8700AP — it’s less expensive than its top load competition from LG, but performed better overall.

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A built-in sink? Why?

An attached sink struck me as a totally bizarre and unnecessary washer feature at first, as I have never presoaked anything in my life and tend to use the delicate cycle as my hand-wash catch-all. But, after spending time with Samsung’s Activewash, I’m beginning to question my current laundry technique; maybe my clothes would last longer with this sort of rig.

It works like this: Lift the washer door, make sure that the sink is lowered and press the Water Jet button. The jet will spit out a stream of water into the basin, press it again to stop the water. That’s it.

Then you can presoak any grass, wine, mustard or other stubborn stains before starting a regular wash cycle. Or you can use the sink as a complete hand wash cycle. And when you’re done, simply lift the sink and the remaining water will pour into the main tub and out through your washer’s designated drain hookup.

It’s so easy that I could imagine actually trying to presoak or hand wash certain items when previously I would’ve just shoved them in the washer. But, if you don’t plan to use it — either because you already have a standalone sink in your laundry room or because you don’t foresee a lot of presoaking in your future — this feature will just get in your way. (Do you pre-soak your clothes? Leave a comment and let me know whether you’d use a built-in sink.)

Catch more laundry coverage here:

• Whirlpool’s giant washer wants to shrink your dirty clothes pile fast
• Marathon wants to remove dryers from the laundry equation
• How we test: Washing machines

What else can this washer do?

Aside from the sink, this machine offers a lot of other features. It has a 5.2-cubic-foot capacity, which is big for a top load unit (although LG’s top load WT7700HVA is even larger, with 5.7 cubic feet of space). Samsung’s model also boasts several special settings: Heavy Duty, Bedding, Activewear, Deep Steam, Sanitize, Eco Plus and even Super Speed, which Samsung claims can complete a full cycle in only 36 minutes.

Beyond these options, this washer also happens to look nice and, at 27 inches wide by 46 inches tall with a depth of 29.3 inches, it won’t take up too much space. The Activewash’s transparent lid showcases the sink below and its sparkly gray finish and intuitive, easy-to-read display gives it a clear edge over many top load washers. That isn’t true for the LG WT7700HVA, though, which has a very similar design aesthetic.

The sensitivity of the touch display did throw me off at first, as it’s extremely responsive. My instinct to press on the display overcomplicated things, too, as a light touch is more than enough to adjust the temperature, soil level and other settings. There’s also a difference between the power and start/pause buttons and the rest of the panel. The first two are actual buttons that you press, while the rest respond to touch alone.

U-Turn Orbit Basic turntable review – CNET

The Good The precalibrated cartridge cuts the initial setup time down to under five minutes, the Web store has plenty of custom options for colors and upgraded parts, and the turntable has a smooth, clear sound that spans all genres.

The Bad The plastic cover and tone arm holder could be prone to long-term damage from everyday use; some users report speed fluctuations, though none were experienced here.

The Bottom Line The U-Turn Orbit Basic turntable manages to keep costs low while streamlining the set-up and offering shoppers a lot of options to customize the color and build. It’s currently our favorite sub-$200 turntable and deserves the attention of audiophiles and casual listeners alike.

Buy directly from U-Turn

There are plenty of options for turntables under $200 — but not plenty of good ones. If you’ve done any research yet, you’ve likely been advised to stay away from trendy brands like Crosley that make “retro-designed” turntables with cheap, non-replaceable parts that can actually damage your records.

Audio-Technica’s LP60 is a decent option for first-time buyers, but you can’t upgrade the needle or bypass the preamp and some people like to have that option.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The possibility for future upgrades and an attractively minimal design made the U-Turn Orbit a hit on Kickstarter when the campaign initially launched in 2014: it gave audiophiles and vinyl-curious music fans an opportunity to invest in a audiophile-worthy turntable without the complicated set up.

Two years later, the company is still honoring its commitment to US-made parts in its Boston factory. Only the motor, phono cartridge, and a few small plastic molded parts are sourced overseas. U-Turn is also involved in every step of the manufacturing process: each Orbit is put together by hand, goes through a rigorous 15-point quality control regimen, and is listened to by a U-Turn technician before shipping out.

Since that first Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $230,000, U-Turn has quickly earned the favor of vinyl enthusiasts on the Internet and has now expanded its product line to include a bespoke “builder” option that lets customers choose their base color, platter material, cartridge, and more.

Sarah Tew/CNET

U-Turn sent over an Orbit Basic Turntable for this review with the company’s own Pluto preamp already installed (the Builder also gives you this option). The table includes a basic Audio-Technica cartridge preinstalled and comes in a choice of five colors (black, blue, green, red and white) — prices start at $179 US (£124, AU$255 ) and go up depending on your choice of extras.

Design and setup

If you’re looking for a turntable that you can use to DJ, forget about the Orbit and start saving up for the new Technics SL-1200G coming out later this year. The Orbit is a belt-driven turntable, which means it relies on an elastic belt that connects the motor to the record platform, also called a platter, to rotate the record.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Audiophiles prefer belt-driven turntables because they don’t transfer motor noise to the needle as much as direct-drive turntables, but the latter are favored by DJs and casual listeners for their strong torque, quick spin-up times, and durability.

U-Turn designed the Orbit to be as easy as possible to put together when you first get it, and it’s a no-brainer compared to other turntables. Just install the platter over the base and put the felt slip mat on top, then you can plug in the power cord and slide the clear plastic dust cover over the hinges.

All that’s left to do after that is to wrap the large rubber band (also called the belt) around the pulley on the top-left side of the unit. The pulley has two grooves that will spin the platter at 33rpm (top groove) or at 45rpm (bottom groove) depending on the speed of your record.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Let’s pause for a second to talk about workflow. It’s slightly more complicated to adjust the belt position every time you switch between a 33 and a 45, so if you listen to an equal amount of both you might prefer a turntable like the LP120 that has dedicated buttons for each speed.

Everyone else that listens to 33rpm full-length albums the majority of the time probably won’t be touching the belt very often after the initial setup. It’s not very hard to switch to 45rpm every once in awhile, but it does require a little finesse to get the belt to balance evenly across the side of the platter and onto the groove. After awhile, it’ll become second nature.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The base of the turntable, also called the plinth, measures 17 inches by 13 inches (43cm by 33cm) and has three rubber feet on the bottom for dampening external vibrations that could otherwise cause audible skips and distortions in playback. The low voltage AC synchronous motor also sits underneath the plinth and has an open port on the back where you plug in the wall adapter.

If you opt to have the Pluto preamp built into turntable, U-Turn will also install a small box on the rear panel with a small switch to bypass it. That might not mean much right now, but it’ll come in handy in the future if you want to upgrade to a new phono stage. Thankfully, the back of the Orbit also features open RCA ports so you can swap out cables, should they fail over time.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Since there aren’t any speed select buttons, the only physical button is the power switch on the front left side of the turntable. The tone-arm is just as simple to operate, as well, but keep in mind that the way U-Turn keeps costs low is to omit fancy extra features like a tone arm cue lever and auto-return playback.

What you do get is a straight tone arm with a unipivot-style bearing that sits close to the record, so the needle has an easier time accurately tracking inside the record grooves. With no cue lever to help you drop the needle, you need to have a steady hand to grab the finger lift on the tone arm’s head shell, but it’s worth noting that the company also sells a lever separately for $40 (£27.85, AU$56.98) that installs underneath the tone arm rest.

Sony to shutter its native PSP store at the end of March

Sony announced on Monday that it will shutter the PSP’s native store on March 31, 2016. Customers will still be able to purchase PSP content from the company’s webstore, just not directly through their devices. That said, users will still be able to access their previous purchases from their on-device Download list and can still make in-game purchases directly. This move comes just days after Sony announced that it will no longer sell its PlayStation TV accessory in Japan.

Via: PlayStation (Twitter)

Source: Sony

MasterCard May Support Apple Pay in Canada, Brazil and Asia This Year

Apple Pay is supported by large financial institutions in the United States, United Kingdom, and China, but the mobile payments service can only be used with non-bank-issued American Express credit cards in Australia and Canada. Apple Pay does not support big banks in either country.

That could soon change in at least Canada, as MacRumors has learned that MasterCard has Apple Pay support in that country on its 2016 roadmap. The information is based on an unverified internal document, however, so the plans cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt until other evidence surfaces.

MasterCard credit cards are issued by a number of Canada’s largest banks, including BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotiabank, and TD Canada Trust, while store-branded MasterCards are available from large retailers such as Canadian Tire, Costco, and Walmart. Most of these stores and institutions also offer Visa, but their plans remain unknown.

MasterCard is also looking to support Apple Pay in Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore in 2016, according to the document. Apple previously announced that its Apple Pay partnership with American Express will expand to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Spain this year, while Brazil and Japan would be entirely new markets.

Earlier this month, a hidden “NetworkInterac” string was uncovered in iOS 9.2.1 code that hints at Apple Pay support at Canada’s big banks. Interac is Canada’s official debit card network, adopted by the country’s largest financial institutions nationwide. TD already stirred speculation in October when it inadvertently listed Apple Pay as a method of payment on its website, before quickly removing it.

Meanwhile, it was reported that Apple is preparing to launch Apple Pay in France, and it could make an announcement by September 2016 — perhaps at WWDC in June. The original report did not specify when Apple Pay will become available in French stores, nor did it have information about which French banks and participating issuers will support iPhone payments upon launch.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tags: Brazil, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, MasterCard
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One of Google’s self-driving cars hit a California municipal bus Feb. 14

One of Google’s self-driving cars was the subject of a collision with another vehicle earlier this month. The car hit a California municipal bus in a minor accident, but it may be the first time one of Google’s automated automotives hit another vehicle.

Reuters reports:

“In a Feb. 23 report filed with California regulators, Google said the Feb. 14 crash took place in Mountain View, Calif., when a self-driving Lexus RX450h sought to get around some sandbags in a wide lane. The vehicle and the test driver “believed the bus would slow or allow the Google (autonomous vehicle) to continue.” But three seconds later, as the Google car reentered the center of the lane it struck the side of the bus, causing damage to the left front fender, front wheel and a driver side sensor.”

No one was injured as a result of the crash. Google’s modified Lexus cars have been on California roads for some time, and in 2015 they were joined by the company’s own prototype self-driving vehicles.

Source: Reuters

Ring unveils its own solar panel for powering its Stick Up Cam security camera

Ring, the company behind a connected doorbell and the Stick Up Cam, has debuted a new product, the Ring Solar Panel. First debuting at CES 2016, the Stick Up Cam can be placed practically anywhere, and the Ring Solar Panel lets you power the camera wherever it ends up.

Like the Stick Up Cam, the solar panel can be mounted nearly anywhere, and comes with its own mounting bracket. You can tilt the panel up or down at multiple angles depending on your needs. The panel plugs directly into the Stick Up Cam using a micro-USB cable, and Ring says it can keep the cam charged with only a few hours of direct sunlight.

You can pre-order the Ring Solar Panel now directly from Ring for the limited-time price of $29, down from the normal price of $49. Solar panels are expected to start shipping in April.

Pre-order at Ring

Spigen is selling select Galaxy S7 and S7 edge cases for $5 at Amazon with coupon

Spigen is offering its selection of Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge cases for just $4.99 with a coupon code at Amazon. Each case has its own code, and the discounts only work on the Prime listings for each. Should you be an Amazon Prime member — which you should be by now — you can save on some cases for your new phone before it even arrives. A list of the cases for both phones include:

Galaxy S7 cases

• Wallet Case Black – Coupon: ZKINZUPM
• Ultra Hybrid Crystal Clear – Coupon: RBUTFXSB
• Tough Armor Gunmetal – Coupon: ORCII4EV
• Thin Fit Black – Coupon: JGE5QOOD
• Rugged Armor Black – Coupon: CJY5T4UQ
• Neo Hybrid Satin Silver – Coupon: RBFD7EUJ
• Neo Hybrid Crystal Gunmetal – Coupon: WLP9ZLDE
• Liquid Crystal Clear – Coupon: D669P6MG

Galaxy S7 edge cases

• Wallet S Case Black – Coupon: XW3QR5GY
• Ultra Hybrid Clear Black – Coupon: 8QNXC223
• Tough Armor Gunmetal – Coupon: G4NQOG3H
• Thin Fit Black – Coupon: AALT8PIF
• Rugged Armor Black – Coupon: OWQ8CMXZ
• Neo Hybrid Crystal Gunmetal – Coupon: 7X77HYRN
• Neo Hybrid Satin Silver – Coupon: L3YVFPSO
• Liquid Crystal Clear – Coupon: 4WLTCE66

You will need to use the corresponding coupon code for each case. As previously mentioned, this will only work on the Prime listing for each case, which is indicated as Sold by Spigen Inc and Fulfilled by Amazon.

Samsung Galaxy S7

• Galaxy S7 and S7 edge hands-on
• Galaxy S7 and S7 edge specs
• Here are all four Galaxy S7 colors
• Details on the Galaxy S7’s camera
• The SD card is back on the GS7
• Join our Galaxy S7 forums

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Samsung rumored to be in talks to acquire Jay Z’s Tidal music streaming service

The troubled music streaming service Tidal could have a buyer. A new, but unconfirmed, report claims Samsung is currently in talks to acquire Tidal, which was launched in October 2014 and bought in early 2015 by hip-hop artist Jay-Z.

The New York Post reports:

“Samsung is re-engaging; they are working on something really big, and they’re keeping it very quiet in case it leaks,” said a source close to the talks. A spokesperson for Samsung said: “It is our policy to not comment on rumors or speculation.”

The same report also claims that Google and Spotify have also been interested in Tidal, but for smaller partnerships rather than a full-fledged acquisition. Tidal, which was supposed to offer high-fidelity music that was owned by its artists, has not made much of a dent in the streaming audio space with just over a million subscribers since it launch over a year ago.

Source: New York Post