Month: October 2017

Apple tells U.S. Senator Al Franken (D) that the iPhone X’s facial recognition is not raciest (no, really!)

Dan Uff October 17, 2017 0

“Shortly after Apple introduced iPhone X with Face ID biometric security in September, U.S. Senator Al Franken challenged CEO Tim Cook to address the technology’s potential impact on consumer privacy,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider. “Apple has since responded in a letter detailing the system’s built-in security features. ”

“Beyond consumer privacy, Franken questioned Apple over steps taken to protect against racial, gender and age bias,” Campbell reports. “In its response, penned by VP for Public Policy Cynthia Hogan, Apple explained Face ID confirms the presence of an attentive face (via gaze detection), projects and reads a depth map of a user’s face and sends that information to the Secure Enclave for processing. Face ID data, which includes a mathematical representation of a user’s face, is encrypted and never leaves the device. ”

Read more in the full article here.

Apple Pledges $1M to Northern California Wildfire Wine Country

Dan Uff October 12, 2017 0

“Bay Area technology firms, many of whose workers and leaders can smell smoke in their offices from distant wildfires, are donating money and services to the relief efforts for the many left without shelter by the blazes raging across Northern California,” Kate Galbraith reports for The San Francisco Chronicle.

“It’s the latest round of corporate giving in the wake of natural disasters,” Galbraith reports. “Many tech companies also pledged aid in the wake of devastating hurricanes that hit the Gulf and East coasts and Puerto Rico.”

Galbraith reports, “Apple said it plans a $1 million donation to fire-relief efforts and is also matching employee donations two-for-one.”

Read more in the full article here.

Equifax Hacked yet again – Distributes Fake Adobe Flash Plugin

Dan Uff October 12, 2017 0

“We were already positively dumbfounded when Equifax reported that a security breach resulted in the personal information of over 140 million Americans — including social security numbers – has been stolen via a website security vulnerability,” Brandon Hill reports for HotHardware. “What was even more unfathomable is that the attack went undetected for months, and that it took a few more months for Equifax to disclose the magnitude of the breach.”

“Now we’re learning that Equifax has done it again. Just when we thought we couldn’t think any less of the company, Randy Abrams, an independent security analyst, discovered that the Equifax website has been hacked again,” Hill reports. “When visiting the Equifax website to inquire about some rather fishy information that showed up on his credit report, Abrams’ browser was redirected to a malicious website that offered to update his version of Adobe Flash Player (which is a much-hated piece of software in its own right).””

Read more in the full article here.

Apple Maps vs. Google Maps

Dan Uff October 12, 2017 0

“Once upon a time, Google Maps was the go-to maps provider for Apple’s iOS. That was until iOS 6 in 2012, when it was announced that Apple was creating its own rival service – and Apple Maps is now the default option on iPhones and iPads,” Lewis Painter reports for Macworld UK. “In this article we compare the state of these two services, five years on.”

“The days of major gaffes are long behind Apple Maps, and in most respects you will find it as or close to as accurate as Google Map,” Painter reports. “But while road maps seem to be as accurate as Google Maps, there are still a few inaccuracies – mainly with regards to business markers being very slightly in the wrong place (occasionally in the middle of a road instead of on one side, for example). It also got very mildly confused about which part of a town a postcode was in – directions were fine, it simply used a name that is applied to an area a couple of miles down the road. No harm done, really… Indeed, Google does have similar problems on occasion – but less often, in our experience. And it tends to be better at offering useful, up-to-date information up front, such as the date when a public library is scheduled to reopen.”

“The centrepiece in a plethora of features in both Google & Apple Maps, turn-by-turn navigation has negated the need for a traditional (and usually expensive) satnav in many people’s lives. While both are easy to set up and both boast audio prompts for every step of the journey, there are some subtle differences,” Painter reports. “Throughout testing, we expected to find that Google trumped Apple in every category, as it did when we first compared the two in 2012. But this isn’t entirely true: Apple Maps has vastly improved since it was first launched and we now feel the turn-by-turn navigation is better than Google’s offering.”

Read more in the full article here.