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Showing posts with the label devices

Solar plane lands in New York City

A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said.  The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website.  Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...

The latest software update for iPhone 6 handsets is rendering the devices useless

The problem is known as "error 53" and has appeared in Apple products before.  The Guardian reports that users' phones were disabled after the Touch ID home button was repaired by a non-Apple engineer.  Apple has confirmed that the error message is a "security measure" taken to prevent fraudulent transactions.  "We take customer security very seriously and error 53 is the result of security checks designed to protect our customers. iOS checks that the Touch ID sensor in your iPhone or iPad correctly matches your device's other components," it said in a statement. "If iOS finds a mismatch, the check fails and Touch ID, including for Apple Pay use, is disabled. This security measure is necessary to protect your device and prevent a fraudulent Touch ID sensor from being used.  "If a customer encounters error 53, we encourage them to contact Apple Support." In its report, the Guardian cites the experiences of a freelance p...

Google paid tech rival Apple $1billion in 2014 to keep its search function the default option on iOS devices, Bloomberg reports

A transcript of court proceedings from a copyright lawsuit against Google allegedly contains reference to a deal between the Silicon Valley firms.  The alleged agreement involves Google paying Apple a percentage of revenue - as much as 34% - gained through iOS devices.  Both companies declined to comment.  Bloomberg added that the referenced document has since been removed from the web.  "The transcript vanished without a trace from electronic court records at about 15:00," the report noted. The court proceedings in question regard a lawsuit by Oracle Corp. in which the firm claims that Google used its Java software to develop Android but failed to pay for it.Analyst firms, such as Morgan Stanley, have quoted the $1bn figure in the past, but this appears to be the first time that a reference has been found in court documents.  "It's a very lucrative business to be the browser of choice on a device or the search engine on a device," Chris Green, a tech...

Apple devices rise in attacks on its operating systems, security experts suggest

According to security firm Symantec, the amount of malware aimed at Apple's mobile operating system (iOS) has more than doubled this year, while threats to Mac computers also rose.  Security firm FireEye also expects 2016 to be a bumper year for Apple malware.  Systems such as Apple Pay could be targeted, it predicts.  Apple is an obvious target for cybercriminals because its products are so popular, said Dick O'Brien, a researcher at Symantec.  While the total number of threats targeting Apple devices remains low compared with Windows and Android, Symantec is seeing the range of threats multiply.  Last year, it was seeing a monthly average of between 10,000 and 70,000 Mac computers infected with malware.  This is far fewer than Windows desktops and we don't want to scaremonger. Apple remains a relatively safe platform but Apple users can no longer be complacent about security, as the number of infections and new threats rise," said Mr O'Brien. ...