Seven Years Ago Today: Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple, Tim Cook Named His Successor

Today marks the seventh anniversary of the late Steve Jobs resigning as CEO of Apple. In a letter addressed to Apple’s Board of Directors, dated August 24, 2011, Jobs strongly recommended then-COO Tim Cook be named his successor.

Letter from Steve Jobs:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Apple’s Board of Directors approved the request, effective immediately, with Jobs elected Chairman of the Board. Jobs reportedly remained closely involved with Apple’s strategic decision-making until passing away October 5, 2011.

Tags: Tim Cook, Steve Jobs
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T-Mobile Discloses Recent Security Breach Impacting 2M Customers, No Financial Data Compromised

T-Mobile and its subsidiary MetroPCS today disclosed a recent incident where hackers gained “unauthorized access to certain information” of its customers, which the companies have already reported to the police and shut down. The security breach occurred earlier this week on Monday, August 20, and affected two million customers (via Motherboard).

T-Mobile promises that no financial data, credit card information, social security numbers, or passwords were compromised in the breach. However, “some of your personal information may have been exposed,” the company states in the letter shared online, including one or more of the following: name, billing zip code, phone number, email address, account number, and account type (prepaid or postpaid).

A T-Mobile spokesperson says that the security breach affected “slightly less than” three percent of its 77 million customers, but did not reference a specific number. The incident reportedly happened “early in the morning” on August 20, and was perpetrated by hackers part of “an international group” that accessed T-Mobile servers through an API that “didn’t contain any financial data or other very sensitive data.”

The intrusion was discovered by T-Mobile’s cybersecurity team the same day:

“We found it quickly and shut it down very fast,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said she couldn’t give “specifics” of the attack and did not know whether the hackers were criminals or part of a government.

T-Mobile is reaching out to victims directly via text message to notify them, she said.

T-Mobile is now reaching out to notify all affected customers, and “if you don’t receive a notification then that means your account was not among those impacted by this incident.” The breach occurred less than a week after T-Mobile announced its new customer service initiative “Team of Experts.”

Tag: T-Mobile
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What does that high score cost you? Why one in five gamers falls victim to fraud

Fortnite, the incredibly popular battle royale shooter by Epic Games, has seen a recent rise in scams that trick players into giving scammers access to their account in hopes of scoring some free V-bucks, the premium in-game currency that players buy with real money and can be used to purchase various cosmetics and emotes.

(in)Secure is a weekly column that dives into the rapidly escalating topic of cybersecurity.

The threats in games are many, whether it’s a world-ending boss monster or an army of the undead. But there are real-world dangers we face when playing games too. Thanks to the way subscription models and microtransactions dominate the way games are purchased these days, hackers, cheaters, and trolls have more tools than ever to take advantage of gamers.

Financial fraud has become an issue in gaming like never before, and it’s having a lasting impact on how games are being made and played.

Everyone knows a victim

A new study from payment solutions company ACI Worldwide and gaming research firm, Newzoo, discovered that as many as one in five gamers have been a victim of payment fraud in popular games. One in three gamers go out of their way to avoid paying for anything in games, simply because they are concerned about the risk involved.

That’s a disturbing number of people who have been affected by the financial fraud that modern day gaming makes possible.

Andy McDonald, Vice President of Merchant Payments at ACI Worldwide

“With the rise of micro-transactions and consumers demanding a seamless gaming experience, game publishers increasingly want to store payment information to ensure the next purchase is just one click/tap away,” Andy McDonald, Vice President of Merchant Payments at ACI Worldwide told Digital Trends. “A gaming company that has payment credentials on file makes an attractive target for hackers – and data breaches are one concern.”

As McDonald notes, the accessibility of digital wallets and the tokenization of card data has made protection against breaches a bit easier. But there’s a larger problem that game companies have far fewer tools to combat it with.

“The bigger danger comes from the growing number of scams and ‘phishing’ attempts that are aimed at luring gamers into parting with sensitive data and payment credentials,” said McDonald.

“When a player goes to make a deposit on a gaming site, Paysafe ensures that the payment is secure … “

As with email, there is an enormous audience of potential victims to target in gaming. The Newzoo and ACI study discovered that of the 2,000 gamers polled, some 50 percent of console and PC gamers spend money on in-game purchases. That number increased to 75 percent of mobile players. Although there is a sizable portion of gamers who are concerned enough about fraud to prevent them from investing heavily in games, or at all, fraudsters are finding enough of a market for their scams that it’s proving profitable.

That near 20-percent victim rate suggests that the problem has become pervasive within the industry.

Bring in the professionals

To try and combat financial fraud in gaming, developers are turning to professional organizations to protect their games and gamers.

“Making fraud prevention a priority […] typically means working with a third-party vendor that provides comprehensive enterprise fraud detection and prevention,” McDonald explained. “Real-time, multi-tiered solutions are becoming the norm, and dedicated risk analysts can help gaming companies to constantly tweak their fraud strategy as new threats emerge.”

Some security companies, such as Paysafe, want to remove the direct financial link between gamers’ credentials and the games. Its Paysafecard, which acts like a prepaid debit card, has been accepted as a payment option on Steam since 2010, and can today be used to pay for content in games like Final Fantasy XIV, League of Legends, or in Wargaming.net titles like World of Warships.

Just as popular games can create a potential for fraud, popular payment providers can also become fodder for fraudsters.

“When a player goes to make a deposit on a gaming site, Paysafe ensures that the payment is secure using its many risk and fraud prevention tools including velocity, geo-location and computer fingerprinting among others,” Paysafe EVP of business development, Neil Erlick told Digital Trends. “Paysafe indemnifies the merchant, so that there are no associated chargebacks and conducts your customer (KYC) checks to confirm the player’s identity.”

A unified, singular payment provider across multiple titles makes it easier for gamers to trust the financial service to safeguard their information too. The ACI and Newzoo study found that trust was the biggest consideration gamers had in whether they put money into a game or not. While enjoyment of the game might encourage their interest in doing so, most gamers would only follow through with that if they trusted the company behind it.

McDonald championed the idea of collaboration and unification of payment models between providers, suggesting such a “consortium approach” could help better identify potential fraud by profiling gamers and the types of payments they make.

Paysafe Card can be used to pay for virtual goods in games like Final Fantasy XIV and League of Legends.

But just as popular games can create a potential for fraud within those expansive player bases, popular payment providers can themselves become fodder for fraudsters.

Scamming doesn’t change

A quick search for anything much related to Paysafecards quickly turfs up a number of tutorials and guides on how to “hack” them or artificially increase the balance on them without paying. If such flaws in the card system existed, they would effectively invalidate it as a legitimate way to pay for anything, whether in games or not.

As Erlick highlights, there’s nothing legitimate about them.

Neil Erlick, Executive Vice President of Business Development at Paysafe

“Software or websites claiming to be able to hack Paysafecard PINs, or to be able to increase the balance on Paysafecard PINs with downloadable software, are always scams,” he said. “Criminals use such methods in an attempt to access the balance of Paysafecard PINs. For this reason, we make it very clear on our website, and through other communications, that customers should never enter Paysafecard PINs into such software or on such websites.”

Despite these claims, videos that purport to make such hacks possible have tens of thousands of views, suggesting that a good number of gamers may have put themselves at risk of financial fraud. ACI’s McDonald highlighted too, that phony giveaways have become a major way for fraudsters to target gamers.

“Gamers have all come across ‘giveaways’ – whether it’s gems, coins, bucks or a free copy of the latest DLC,” he said. “All you need to do is ‘download the app’ or ‘sign-up’ through entering personal details. But if it seems too good to be true, it’s probably a fraud.”

Protecting yourself

As with the return of spam, there is some heart to be taken in the fact that scams and phishing are such prevalent methods of financial fraud in gaming: It allows gamers themselves to fight back against it, as long as they’re aware.

For both Erlick and McDonald, the best first step gamers can take in protecting themselves from financial fraud is sticking to established marketplaces. Reputable companies with longstanding reputations are unlikely to provide ready access to scammers and fraudsters.

Reducing the number of platforms where financial details are stored can also make it far harder for nefarious groups to get hold of your details.

Even age old advice like strong, unique passwords can play a major role too. Changing them regularly prevents repeated instances of fraud and two-factor or biometric authentication makes it harder still.

While microtransactions themselves might feel like interruptions to the gaming experience, there’s nothing more jarring to an realizing you’ve been had. Taking steps to avoid that, while tiresome, are well worth it.

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Alleged Leaked Image of Case for Redesigned iPad Pro Shows Mysterious Rear Cutout Above Lightning Connector

Alleged leaked images of a case for one of the upcoming redesigned iPad Pro models were shared by Slashleaks today showing a mysterious new cutout on the back.

Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said Apple is working on two new iPad Pro models, to measure 11 and 12.9-inches. These images are said to be for the “10.5-inch” model – likely a reference to the new 11-inch device with slimmer bezels and a corresponding larger display – and reveal a pill-shaped hollow on the rear of the case that is horizontally aligned with the Lightning connector.

The case images hark back to a July Mac Otakara report suggesting Apple has relocated the Smart Connector on its upcoming redesigned iPad Pro models from the side to the bottom near the Lightning port.

Shortly after the Mac Otakara report emerged, an alleged CAD image shared by mobile leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer appeared to depict the Smart Connector gone from its usual place and a new oblong indentation near the Lightning port.

The cutout in today’s alleged iPad case leak looks just like the indentation in the CAD render, however unlike the render this case still has a horizontal cutout similar to where a Smart Connector resides on the current crop of iPad Pro models, albeit on the opposite side of the device alongside the volume buttons.

The image throws up a number of questions. Not least of those is how a proposed Smart Connector on the bottom of an iPad Pro would work with Apple’s Smart Keyboard accessory.

The relocated connector would require a new vertically oriented Smart Keyboard, but a keyboard in that orientation would presumably be unstable, especially for the larger iPad Pro, plus it would likely be unsuitable for Office-style productivity work.

Alleged CAD image of new iPad Pro via @OnLeaks
Mac Otakara has suggested that Apple is making the change because Face ID will work only when the iPad Pro is in a vertical orientation. However, previous information from Mac Otakara suggested Apple was working on horizontal Face ID in iOS 12 for the new iPad Pro models, which are expected to incorporate Apple’s TrueDepth Camera system first introduced on the iPhone X.

Commenting on the Mac Otakara report, well-connected Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman also said the horizontal Face ID support is designed for the upcoming iPad Pro models, expected to be announced in September.

But what if the new pill-shaped hollow in the alleged case images is actually for something other than a new Smart Connector, as suggested by the continuing existence of a horizontal cutout?

Is it a magnetic alignment for another type of keyboard or accessory? A wireless charging contact? USB-C? The (highly unlikely) relocation of Touch ID in lieu of support for horizontal Face ID? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Related Roundups: iPad Pro, iOS 12Buyer’s Guide: 10.5″ iPad Pro (Don’t Buy), 12.9″ iPad Pro (Caution)
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Hydra 1.5 Camera App Update Brings New Zoom and HDR Modes

High-resolution photography app Hydra received an update today that brings a couple of much-requested improvements its camera support.

For those unfamiliar with the app, Hydra merges up to 60 individual images to make a single high-quality picture, effectively getting more light from the scene.

In this way, Hydra produces up to 32-megapixel high-resolution images (4x the 8-megapixel sensor resolution), enhanced HDR, better 2x/4x/8x zoom, and reduced camera noise in low-light scenes.

With the just-released version 1.5 update, users can now activate the telephoto camera in Zoom mode on iPhone with double lenses, as well as the front-facing camera in High Dynamic Range and Lo-Light modes.

The update means Hydra users can now take selfies with improved quality in poor lighting conditions, while the Zoom mode can be used in up to 8x for long shots.

It’s worth noting before you update that Hydra 1.5 now requires iOS 10 or later to work. Hydra costs $4.99 and is available to download for iPhone from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: photography
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Lyft wants to drop you off closer to your seat on your next stadium visit

While having a large quadcopter fly you to your seat would surely be the ideal way to arrive for a stadium event, we’re guessing such a service is still a ways off.

Second best way might be Lyft’s new offering. Announced this week, the ridesharing company said it’s partnered with ticket service SeatGeek to make the process of getting to your seat at a gig or sports game as simple as possible.

Anyone who’s ever been to a huge stadium — and yes, most of them are huge — will know all too well how much time can be wasted trying to hunt down the right ticket gate. If you’re running late, chances are you’ll end up reaching your seat out of breath in a sweaty funk, having missed the start of whatever it is you’ve gone to see.

In an effort to ensure a more dignified arrival, Lyft and SeatGeek are working together to drop you off as close to your seat as possible, “saving up to 30 minutes in walking time at larger stadium venues,” the ridesharing company said in a post announcing the new service.

Lyft said that customers “who request a Lyft ride through the SeatGeek app will automatically have their seat location featured in the Lyft app, ensuring the driver drops them off as close to their seat as possible.”

Sounds good. The only downside is the extremely narrow nature of the launch, limited as it is to fans visiting Providence Park in Oregon, home to Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers. “Timbers fans attending games via the SeatGeek app [iOS and Android] will automatically be dropped off at the best gate for their seats when taking a Lyft, saving them crucial time getting around the stadium,” Lyft promised.

The company has been working on improving pick-up and drop-off accuracy for a couple of years, though this is the first time it’s partnered with another outfit for stadium rides.

In 2016, it launched a “precise location selection” feature for its app at 200 sites across the U.S. So where as you’d ordinarily indicate that you want to be driven to a particular airport, the feature — if it’s active for that particular location — will offer up more precise drop-off points, such as a particular entry door for the terminal you’re heading to. Of course, you could explain a precise arrival point to your driver as you go, but Lyft hopes the option helps to improve the journey experience by letting you focus on other things.

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IBM’s drone idea knows when you want a coffee, and then flies it to you

Coffee-delivering drones are already a thing — well, in a couple of gimmicky cafe-sponsored setups, at least — but tech firm IBM has had an idea to take the concept one step further.

Designing its system for both cafe and office environments, the company suggests using its technology to understand a person’s state of mind to determine whether a cup of coffee is required. And then using a drone to deliver it.

In other words, if the drone’s on-board sensors detect someone sitting at their desk with their head tilted and their eyes half closed, then it’s a safe bet a strong dose of caffeine is needed. Fast.

IBM’s offbeat idea is explained in a patent that was granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month.

While IBM dominated the early days of computing, in recent years it’s turned its attention to fast-expanding sectors such as artificial intelligence (A.I.), unveiling a range of ideas far more impressive than a coffee-delivering drone, though even this system is very much rooted in A.I.

For example, the patent describes how the drone’s technology would use cameras and smart sensors to interpret a person’s pupil dilation and facial expressions, using the information to decide whether that person could do with a cup of the ol’ bean juice. The document also says that with drinking being a habitual or ritualistic process for many people, the system’s A.I. smarts would enable it to “learn times and places at which an individual tends to prefer to consume coffee,” and then use that history to improve the efficiency of its drink delivery system.

On a simpler level, the technology could also be programmed to respond to hand gestures indicating the desire for a drink.

Special delivery

Several delivery methods are suggested in the patent. For example, the drink could be lowered to a recipient on an “unspooling string,” with the piping hot liquid refreshment sealed safely in a bag to prevent an unfortunate scalding incident should anyone knock it on its way down. Alternatively, the beverage could be dispensed directly into a cup from a coffee-carrying package carried by the drone.

Downsides to IBM’s idea? With drones constantly buzzing about as they try to determine who needs a cup of joe, the constant noise is likely to become unbearable for most office workers, especially in an open-plan office. The sensible alternative would be for the caffeine-deprived employee to place one foot in front of the other until they arrive at the kitchen, whereupon they can prepare their favorite drink. The light exercise may even be beneficial.

While it’s true that many patents never make it off the page, it should be noted that IBM’s effort comprises 16 pages of extremely detailed explanation and drawings and would likely have cost several thousand dollars to file. In addition, we’re pretty confident there are plenty of folks out there who rather like the idea of a drink-delivering drone, especially one that knows they need a coffee before they even do.

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T-Mobile Customers Can Now Enroll in iPhone Upgrade Program Online

T-Mobile customers are now able to enroll in the iPhone Upgrade program online, a process that used to require a visit to an Apple Store.

The change is reflected in updated language in the Apple Store app, which now says that customers can join the iPhone Upgrade Program online with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon.

AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint users have been able to enroll in the iPhone Upgrade Program online since the program launched, allowing for online purchases of new iPhones, but T-Mobile subscribers who wanted to upgrade to a new iPhone using the iPhone Upgrade Program could not do so online like other customers for previous iPhone launches.

With this policy change, T-Mobile customers who plan to purchase a new iPhone using the iPhone Upgrade Program when the 2018 iPhones launch should be able to do so entirely online without visiting a retail store.

Apple last year offered pre-approvals for the iPhone Upgrade Program, which allowed iPhone Upgrade Program customers to get through the checkout process more quickly when pre-orders kicked off.

Apple is likely to offer the same pre-approval process this year, which customers of all carriers will be able to participate in. Apple also offered Trade-in kits delivered by mail last year, another option previously not available to T-Mobile users.

[via Reddit]

Tags: T-Mobile, iPhone Upgrade Program
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Meet Fusion: A helpful robotic ‘parasite’ that lives on your back

You have probably seen (or you may even be) one of those parents who walks around with their baby on their back in a kind of modified backpack. Imagine how useful and extra productive a parent would be if their kid didn’t just sit there babbling, but could actually use their arms to reach out and assist with tasks. Now imagine that the kid was a robot, and you’ll get the gist of Fusion, a crazy new research project coming out of Japan’s Keio University.

Shown off to great acclaim at SIGGRAPH 2018, Fusion offers its wearers a second pair of working arms. What makes this different the other “extra limbs” projects we have covered at Digital Trends is the fact the operator of the Fusion robot is another human user, who controls the arms remotely using the magic of virtual reality. Essentially, it gives you two bodies (and brains) for the price of one.

“Fusion is a wearable telepresence backpack system that acts as an extension to the wearer body — or surrogate — so a remote user can dive into and operate it,” Yamen Saraiji, one of the researchers on the project, told Digital Trends. “The backpack is equipped with two humanoid arms and a head. Using it, two people can share the body and physical actions. One remote person uses a virtual reality headset to see live visuals from the robot head’s binocular vision, and can control the arms naturally using two handheld controllers. Thus, the user can feel ‘fused’ with the surrogate body, and both can share their actions. This system can enable a wide variety of applications and scenarios that can be explored using it.”

Keio University

Saraiji said that one idea they have for said applications would be teaching someone to perform actions. For example, it could be used by a therapist to assist with a patient’s physical practice. (Or, and we’re projecting here, by an old-school boss to clip you round the ear when you make a mistake!)

“From our research perspective, we have been focusing on body augmentative technologies and their applications to enhance our wellbeing,” Saraiji continued. “For Fusion, we imagined the situation at which our bodies can become surrogates for others, so we can collectively perform tasks and solve problems from one shared body. The most evident problem was the disjointed collaboration between remote people that we actively face in the current telepresence systems. With the proposed concept of body sharing, we not only solve the collaboration problem, but also propose its potentials as a skill transfer and rehabilitation system.”

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IBM’s Holodeck-style classroom tech makes language-learning apps look primitive

Whether it’s apps like Duolingo or the ease of travel, there are plenty of ways technology has made it more straightforward to learn a second (or third or fourth …) language. Now, IBM Research and New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have come up with an entirely new high-tech approach — and it totally reminds us of the Vulcan school from 2009’s Star Trek movie.

Called the Cognitive Immersive Room (CIR), it pairs an A.I.-powered chatbot smart assistant with a 360-degree panoramic display system to place users into a variety of immersive locations to try out their language skills. Currently, it’s being used for Mandarin, which is widely considered to be among the more difficult languages for Westerners to learn. The CIR setup drops students into scenarios like a restaurant in China and a tai chi class, where they can put their Mandarin to the test.

“The Cognitive Immersive Classroom is a very important use case for us,” Hui Su, Director of the Cognitive and Immersive Systems Lab at IBM Research, told Digital Trends. “We are currently focusing on language learning, and are building the classroom for students who study Mandarin as a second language. In this classroom, students are immersed into a 360-degree [environment], surrounded by real-life scenes such as a restaurant, street market, and garden. They can talk to the avatars, such as the waiters and salesmen on the screens, and perform tasks like ordering drinks and food and buying products. These tasks are developed as games for students to complete. In these games, the students will be able to practice and learn Chinese languages in a culture-rich environment, and talk to the A.I. agents who can understand what they just said.”

To make the experience even more immersive, the room is kitted out with cameras, Kinect devices, and microphones. This makes it possible to, for instance, point at an object and say “what is that?” and have the question answered. The microphones, meanwhile, can pick up on every nuance of a speaker’s words.

“A pitch contour analysis function was developed to visualize the difference between the students’ pronunciations and those by native speakers, so that students could see easily where their tone pronunciations need to be improved,” Su said. “The classroom is a brand-new initiative to integrate A.I. technologies and human-scale immersive technologies together for Mandarin teaching. We are using IBM Watson speech recognition and natural language understanding for English and Chinese.”

Coming soon to a classroom near you. Or, at least, we really, really hope it is.

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