Year: 2019

Hackers hack into family’s Nest surveillence camera, send fake warning of North Korean Missle Attack

CompuScoop Staff January 23, 2019 0

“Laura Lyons was preparing food in her kitchen Sunday when the lazy afternoon took a turn for the absurd,” Matthias Gafni reports for The Mercury News. “A loud squawking — similar to the beginning of an emergency broadcast alert — blasted from the living room, the Orinda mother said, followed by a detailed warning of three North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles headed to Los Angeles, Chicago and Ohio.”

“‘It warned that the United States had retaliated against Pyongyang and that people in the affected areas had three hours to evacuate,’ Lyons said Monday. ‘It sounded completely legit, and it was loud and got our attention right off the bat… It was five minutes of sheer terror and another 30 minutes trying to figure out what was going on,'” Gafni reports. “Lyons and her husband stood slack-jawed in the living room, terrified but also confused because the television continued airing the NFC Championship football game. As their scared 8-year-old son crawled underneath the rug, the couple realized the apocalyptic warning came from their Nest security camera atop their living room TV.

“After many panicked minutes and phone calls to 911 and to Nest, the couple learned they likely were the victims of a hacker,” Gafni reports. “And that panic turned to anger when they found out that Nest knew that there had been a number of such incidents — none involving nuclear strike scenarios — but failed to alert customers. Lyons said a Nest supervisor told them Sunday they likely were the victims of a ‘third party hack’ that gained access to their camera and its speakers.”

Read more in the full article here.

Report: Next-Generation AirPods to include ‘Health-Monitoring’

Dan Uff January 23, 2019 0

News web site DigiTimes is reporting that Apple is working on the 2nd generation of its AirPod hardware to include some sort of health monitoring feature, somewhat like what’s currently in the Apple Watch Series 4.

In terms of wireless headsets, Apple is set to release AirPods 2 sometime in the first half of 2019, and the new wireless earbuds with discrete designs to carry health monitoring functions are expected to receive enthusiastic market responses.

Apple is expected to release a new version of its AirPods sometime in 2019.

 Apple offering another ‘Shot on iPhone Challenge’ to possibly be featured in advertisements

CompuScoop Staff January 22, 2019 0

Apple is kicking off 2019 by celebrating the most stunning photographs captured on iPhone, the world’s most popular camera, by inviting iPhone users to submit their best shots.

From January 22 to February 7, Apple is looking for outstanding photographs for a Shot on iPhone Challenge. A panel of judges will review worldwide submissions and select 10 winning photos, to be announced in February. The winning photos will be featured on billboards in select cities, Apple retail stores and online.

iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR bring innovations to photography, from sophisticated portraits with an adjustable depth of field, to Smart HDR which leverages multiple technologies — like faster sensors, an enhanced ISP and advanced algorithms — to bring more highlight and shadow detail to photos.

Meet the Judges

Pete Souza (US)
Pete was the chief official White House photographer for President Obama. His book, “Obama: An Intimate Portrait,” debuted as the #1 New York Times bestseller and is one of the best-selling photography books of all time.

Austin Mann (US)
Austin is an iPhone photographer, filmmaker and creative who’s traveled around the world and has worked with numerous non-profit organizations to help better cast their vision worldwide. Austin has published iPhone photography reviews in outlets including National Geographic and CNN over the years.

Annet de Graaf (Netherlands)
Graaf is a travel photographer who uses iPhone exclusively for her craft. She’s the author of two iPhone photography books: “Morning Amsterdam” and the upcoming “GO d’Azur,” the latter of which was shot entirely on iPhone 8 Plus. She’s taken portraits of Syrian ballet dancer Ahmad Joudeh as well as the late mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan.

Luísa Dörr (Brazil)
Luísa is a photographer based in Brazil who rose to fame after she photographed TIME’s Firsts issue exclusively on iPhone. TIME won Documentary Project of the Year for the story in the prestigious Pictures of the Year International.

Chen Man (China)
Chen is a Chinese contemporary visual artist and entrepreneur who created a unique visual language that revolutionized fashion photography in China. Her work has been permanently collected at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. She also co-founded an Internet company called Vnision that developed photography-based social apps including Bigshot.

Phil Schiller
Phil has helped Apple reinvent mobile phones with iPhone. A keen photographer, Phil helps with efforts in developing breakthrough camera technology as senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

Kaiann Drance
Kaiann works with talented teams at Apple to deliver products that put great photographic tools in the hands of many, including the first iPod touch with a camera and multiple generations of iPhone, in her role as senior director in Worldwide Product Marketing.

Brooks Kraft
Brooks is a professional photographer and worked in editorial and commercial photography prior to joining Apple. He was a contributing photographer at TIME magazine, where he covered the White House during the Bush and Obama administrations, as well as seven presidential campaigns.

Sebastien Marineau-Mes
Sebastien brings over 20 years of software development knowledge to iPhone in his role as vice president of Software at Apple. His focus on advanced photography features includes innovations like Smart HDR and Portrait mode with Depth Control.

Jon McCormack
Jon is an accomplished photographer who currently leads Apple’s camera software team. Jon’s images have been published by international organizations including TIME, The New York Times, UNESCO, The Nature Conservancy, Africa Geographic and others.

Arem Duplessis
Arem works closely with some of the most accomplished photographers in the world in his role as the director of photography in Apple’s marketing team. He previously served as design director of The New York Times Magazine for nearly a decade.

Submitting Your Best Shot

Post your best photo taken on iPhone to Instagram or Twitter with the #ShotOniPhone hashtag to participate in the the Shot on iPhone Challenge. Weibo users can participate as well using #ShotOniPhone#. In the image caption, note which model was used. Alternatively, you can also submit the photo in its highest resolution to shotoniphone@apple.com with the file format ‘firstname_lastname_iphonemodel.’ Photos can be straight from the camera, edited through Apple’s editing tools in the Photos app or with third-party software. Submissions for photos begins at 12:01 a.m. PST on January 22 and ends at 11:59 p.m. PST on February 7. You must be 18 years of age or older to participate, and this challenge is not open to Apple employees or their immediate families.

Ten winning photos will be featured on Apple Newsroom, Apple’s Instagram channels, apple.com, in Apple retail stores, Apple WeChat, Apple Twitter accounts, Apple Weibo accounts and billboards around the world. Winners will be notified on or about February 26, 2019.

If you’re submitting your photo on social media, you must make your photos public. Ineligible submissions include photos that violate or infringe upon another person’s rights, including but not limited to copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or any other intellectual property rights or civil rights; contain sexually explicit, nude, obscene, violent or other objectionable or inappropriate content; or in any way disparage Apple or any other person or party.

You retain your rights to your photograph; however, by submitting your photo, you grant Apple a royalty-free, world-wide, irrevocable, non-exclusive license for one year to use, modify, publish, display, distribute, create derivative works from and reproduce the photo on Apple Newsroom, apple.com, Apple Twitter accounts, Apple Instagram (@Apple), in Apple retail stores, Apple Weibo, Apple WeChat, on billboards and any Apple internal exhibitions. Any photograph reproduced will include a photographer credit. If your photo is selected to be featured on a billboard, you further agree to grant Apple exclusive commercial use of the photo for the life of the license.

View PDFs at apple.com

 Apple Pay Coming to Target, Taco Bell, and other retail outlets

Apple Inc January 22, 2019 0

Seventy-Four of the Top 100 US Merchants Now Accept Apple Pay

Target, Taco Bell, Hy-Vee supermarkets in the Midwest, Speedway convenience stores and Jack in the Box are the latest merchants to support Apple Pay, the most popular mobile contactless payment system in the world that lets customers easily and securely pay in stores using their iPhone and Apple Watch. With the addition of these national retailers, 74 of the top 100 merchants in the US and 65 percent of all retail locations across the country will support Apple Pay.

“Whether customers are buying everyday household items, groceries, snacks for a road trip or grabbing a quick meal, Apple Pay is the easiest way to pay in stores, while also being secure and faster than using a credit or debit card at the register,” said Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “We’re thrilled even more customers will be able to pay at their favorite stores and restaurants using the Apple devices that are always with them.”

Apple Pay is rolling out now in Target stores and will be available in all 1,850 locations across the US in the coming weeks. Customers can use Apple Pay today at more than 245 Hy-Vee stores in the Midwest and inside the store at all of Speedway’s approximately 3,000 locations across the Midwest, East Coast and Southeast. Apple Pay is also rolling out to more than 7,000 Taco Bell and 2,200 Jack in the Box locations in the next few months.

These top merchants join other national retailers that already support Apple Pay. In 2018, Costco completed the rollout of Apple Pay to over 500 US warehouses and CVS Pharmacy introduced Apple Pay at all of its nearly 8,400 stand-alone locations. 7-Eleven launched Apple Pay at 95 percent of its US stores last year.