We all know their are scammers out to get our personal information by any means they can.
Radio Station B-104 from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania area came across a 'gotcha' scam using one's iPhone. The user gets an official looking text from Apple, informing the user that his/her account is about to be terminated, and to tap on a link.
First, Apple does not text users of any of its services. Second, if you do receive this text - just delete it.
Via: MacNN.com:
A change in watchOS 2 has disabled a "secret" repair port that is located inside the band attachment slot in the Apple Watch, which has also killed off the business model of Reserve Strap, which offered a "battery pack" watch strap that could extend the battery life of the Watch by taking advantage of the port. The company has suspended shipments of the strap to customers who have upgraded, but is urging fans to encourage Apple to license such uses that take advantage of the port in a future MFi Apple Watch program.
The licensed accessory program, which is widely used for other iOS accessories, has not come to the Apple Watch yet, leaving most accessory makers unable to take advantage of some features, such as their own designs for the magnetic charger (some companies have simply included one of Apple's at their own expense). Apple has been awarded a patent for "functional band links for wearable devices," which could suggest it may someday take advantage of the port itself for something similar to the Reserve Strap, or perhaps develop bands with additional sensors that would draw power and report results using the "secret" port.
"For the time being, Apple has suspended use of this port until they unveil an official MFi program for Watch," Reserve Strap said in a statement, holding out hope that it would be allowed to start selling the Reserve Strap again if Apple initiates a Watch-based MFi program. The Reserve Strap continues to work for Apple Watches that have not been upgraded, and extends the (typical use) 18-hour lifespan of the Apple Watch battery by up to 50 percent.
In a cost cutting move, Intel announced it will be cutting its workforce of up to 12,000 jobs by the middle of 2017. This move is being billed as "restructuring to speed its transition" into a company refocused on building its "Internet of Things (IoT) and data center businesses as it fights the effect of the PC market's continuing decline.
According to the manufacturer, both data centers and IoT products are Intel's main areas of growth, with memory and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) helping accelerate progress. Both these areas provided $2.2 billion in revenue growth last year, making up 40 percent of revenue, and the "majority of operating profit."
An e-mail provided to Intel employees from CEO Brian Krzanich justifies the losses by claiming "Our results over the last year demonstrate a strategy that is working and a solid foundation for growth. The opportunity now is to accelerate this momentum and build on our strengths."
The layoffs are expected to continue until mid-2017, along with site consolidations worldwide, with employees to be advised of these actions in more detail over the next 60 days. The program is expected to provide $750 million in savings for this year, with annual run rate savings of $1.4 billion by mid-2017.
The announcement arrives at the same time as Intel's latest quarterly earnings report, with it bringing in a revenue of $13.7 billion, an operating income of $2.6 billion, net income of $2 billion, and an earning per share of 42 cents. Approximately $4 billion in cash was generated from operations, $1.2 billion in dividends were paid, and 27 million shares were bought back at a cost of $793 million.
"Our first-quarter results tell the story of Intel's ongoing strategic transformation, which is progressing well and will accelerate in 2016," said Krzanich. "We are evolving from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices."
For its key business units, the Client Computing Group saw revenue of $7.5 billion, down 14 percent sequentially, but up 2 percent on the same quarter last year, with its Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group also seeing a reduction in revenue sequentially to $557 million, down 6 percent year-on-year. Intel Security Group rose 12 percent year-on-year to $537 million, Programmable Solutions contributed $359 million, Internet of Things was up 22 percent year-on-year to $651 million, and the Data Center Group increased on an annual basis by 9 percent to $4 billion.
According to web site AppleInsider.com, AMD Polaris 10 and 11 will be seeing their way into next generation Macs later in 2016.
“Several sources have claimed that an OEM design win AMD secured last year was indeed for Apple, according to WCCFTech,” Fingas reports. “Apple currently uses AMD graphics cards in the Mac Pro, 27-inch iMacs, and the highest-end configurations of the MacBook Pro. The Polaris 10 is believed to be best-suited to iMacs, while the Polaris 11 could make its way into MacBook Pros.”
“On a per-watt ratio, the new chips are expected to be about twice as fast as their predecessors, thanks largely to a smaller 14-nanometer FinFET architecture,” Fingas reports. “It’s unknown when Apple might release updated iMacs and MacBook Pros, but these are likely to ship in time for the start of the U.S. school year this fall, traditionally one of Apple’s best seasons for Mac sales.”
Read more in the full article here.
