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During the last 12 days of Q3 2014, Apple "experienced a huge jump in sales share across almost all major markets thanks to the launch of the iPhone 6," reported Dominic Sunnebo of Kantar Worldpanel, enabling iOS to reach or exceed 40 percent market share in Australia, U.S., UK and Japan. Twelve days of iPhone 6 sales dramatically shifted quarterly market share in Europe Kantar's estimates of Apple's market share for the quarter increased by 40 percent (5.9 percentage points) over the year ago quarter across the five largest markets in Europe (Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain), while Android's...

“The No. 2 official at the Justice Department recently warned top Apple executives that stronger encryption protections added to iPhones would lead to a horrific tragedy, such as a child dying, because police couldn’t access a suspect’s device, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday,” Dan Goodin reports for Ars Technica. “The beefed up protections, Apple recently disclosed, mean that even when company officials are served with a court order, they will be unable to retrieve potentially crucial evidence such as photos, messages, or contacts stored on iPhones and iPads,” Goodin reports. “Instead, the data can be accessed only by people...

Attacks on Apple iOS devices are rising sharply, with 87 percent of the top 100 paid-for iOS apps now having been cracked and cloned - up from just 53 percent in 2013, according to a new report.87% of top Apple iOS apps have been cracked Arxan's 2014 ‘State of Mobile App Security' study also highlights the widespread targeting of Android apps. It finds 97 percent of the top 100 paid-for Android apps have been cloned, similar to previous years.The report, which was released on Monday, also reveals widespread copying of financial services, healthcare/medical and retail/merchant apps: 95 percent of Android-based...

The air is beginning to get a bit thin for the Redmond tech giant, as reports released Friday showed Microsoft climbing to the number two spot on the list of most valuable companies in the world, bumping out Exxon by roughly $9 billion. The cause for Microsoft and Exxon swapping places is two-fold, in that while the price of oil has been dropping, along with Exxon’s share price, Microsoft has been on the rise since October following reports of strong fiscal first-quarter gains with its cloud computing business at its heart. Microsoft has also been making waves recently with its...

The Cost Of 'Putinphones' Is Skyrocketing After Tim Cook Announced He's Gay Sarah Kaufman, Vocativ Nov. 12, 2014, 12:26 PM Do you have $3,600 to spend and want to be the coolest kid around? Then snatch yourself up a limited-edition “Putinphone.” Available in your choice of titanium or gold, this conversation-starting version of the popular iPhone 6 comes complete with detailed engravings of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s handsome, powerful face. The Italian boutique brand Caviar released a stunning collection of Putinphones out of the iPhone 5 in June, each one a reasonable $4,350. Naturally, all 144 of the treasurable items...

After security researcher Jeffrey Paul upgraded the operating system on his MacBook Pro last week, he discovered that several of his personal files had found a new home — on the cloud. The computer had saved the files, which Paul thought resided only on his own encrypted hard drive, to a remote server that Apple controls. “This is unacceptable,” thundered Paul, an American based in Berlin, on his personal blog a few days later. “Apple has taken local files on my computer not stored in iCloud and silently and without my permission uploaded them to their servers — across all...

Security provider FireEye (FEYE) is cautioning that an opening in Apple’s (AAPL) iOS leaves most iPhones and iPads vulnerable to hackers attempting to swap installed, trusted applications for rogue software capable of stealing sensitive and confidential information from the user. FireEye first reported the bug to Apple in late July, dubbing the way it infiltrates iOS 7.1.1 and later devices (including the most recent iOS 8 and iOS 8.1 updates), a “Masque Attack.” The hack requires users first click on a malicious link included in an email or text message that targets the location of the malware download, tricking users...

Researchers have warned that a bug in Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) iOS operating system makes most iPhones and iPads vulnerable to cyber attacks by hackers seeking access to sensitive data and control of their devices. Cybersecurity firm FireEye Inc (FEYE.O) published details about the vulnerability on its blog on Monday, saying the bug enables hackers to access devices by persuading users to install malicious applications with tainted text messages, emails and Web links. The malicious application can then be used to replace genuine, trusted apps that were installed through Apple's App Store, including email and banking programs, with malicious software through...

CNN's partnership with Bing and Microsoft was going great until someone switched the camera angle. From the front, all midterm viewers could see last night was an immaculate row Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablets: ...But like a Playboy resting comfortably in a geometry textbook, there were iPads lurking...

Other than Russia's notorious anti-gay activist Vitaly Milonov calling for a “lifetime ban” on Tim Cook's travels, the reactions to the Apple CEO's coming out Thursday were mostly predictable and tame. Social media was full of praise, as were liberal politicians. Most conservatives kept mum, except for “iPhone-loving” Ted Cruz, who dismissed Cook's orientation as “his personal choice.” And why should there be any hoopla? It's 2014, after all. Same-sex marriage is now legal for a majority of the U.S. population. Coming out isn't the big deal it once was even five years ago, especially for a CEO long rumored...

"Those are his personal choices. I’ll tell you, I love my iPhone," Cruz said. "Listen, Tim Cook makes his personal decisions, and that is his life. My focus is on the constitutional question of who has the authority to make decisions," he later added. Cruz said that marriage is a "question for the states" because of the country's federalist system. "This is something we’ve seen over and over again, which is the federal government and federal courts deciding they don’t trust the people," Cruz said. "They look down on the people, they don’t trust us to make judgments about our...

Apple CEO Tim Cook is speaking out about his sexuality, for the first time openly since he was accidentally outed by a CNBC anchor back in June. He’s coming out publicly to announce that he is proud to be gay, and to speak about the things his sexuality has taught him — and how his coming out may help others. Back in June, a CNBC anchor was discussing the story of John Browne, a former CEO of BP, who left his job after being publicly outed by a tabloid paper. In response, host Simon Hobbs commented that there are many...

Apple CEO Tim Cook came out Thursday, announcing that he is gay in a column in Bloomberg Businessweek. "Let me be clear: I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me," he wrote. Cook has not publicly discussed his sexual preferences before now, despite some rumors and speculation that he is gay. A year ago he announced support for a federal law which would have protected workers from facing discrimination based on their sexual orientation. "For too long, too many people have had to hide that part of their identity in...

Apple’s latest and greatest tablet has only just hit the shelves at retails stores nationwide, and although sales of the device have been outstanding — as has come to be the expectation of new Apple products — tech analysts say the iPad has only one competitor across the gamut of devices on the market today. And the iPad is losing.Despite being host to a throng of new features and sporting a lighter, thinner build, Apple’s newest technological must-have can’t seem to escape the shadow left by the Surface Pro 3, of all things. It’s not surprising considering the Surface Pro...

MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- While expressing his love for his home state of Alabama, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook criticized the state for being slow to grant equality to minorities and the poor. Having grown up in a loving family in Robertsdale, he said he doesn't understand why so many in Alabama and the rest of the nation are slow to grant equal rights to everyone, including the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender community. "As a state, we took too long to steps toward equality," he said. "We were too slow on equality for African-Americans. We were too slow on...

One of the chief benefits of living in a capitalist society is seeing those greedy corporations actually compete for your business.  Every so often, we get to enjoy a true cataclysmic battle between titans of commerce, and the one that’s shaping up between Apple and Walmart is a doozy that could put money in your pocket. In Apple’s corner, we have the Visa and MasterCard associations, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Barclays, and soon a host of other card issuers.  In Walmart’s corner, there’s a line-up of heavy-hitter retailers, like CVS, Rite-Aid, Best Buy, Circle K, Lowe’s,...

There's a lot of hype around Apple Pay right now, but not everyone is on board with the new mobile payments system. In fact, a significant number of merchants, including heavyweights like Walmart, Kmart, 7-Eleven, and Best Buy, are in outright competition with Apple Pay. The retailers, through a joint venture formed in 2012, are building their own mobile payment app, called CurrentC. It's expected to launch next year. In the meantime, these retailers have no intention to support Apple Pay. Following Apple's announcement last month, both Wal-Mart and Best Buy confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that customers would...

The Washington Post’s privacy story on Apple and how they got it wrong Posted on Monday, October 20th, 2014 at 6:36 pm. PT Written by Jim Dalrymple The Washington Post ran a sensationalistic story this morning that claimed Apple would have user’s location, unique identifying codes and search terms when using Spotlight in OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. The function is part of Spotlight search, which was updated with last week’s launch of new Mac computers and Apple’s latest operating system, Yosemite OS X, which also is available for download to owners of older machines. Once Yosemite is...

Apple Inc's iCloud storage and backup service in China was attacked by hackers trying to steal user credentials, a Chinese web monitoring group said, adding that it believes the country's government is behind the campaign. Using a method called a "man-in-the-middle" (MITM) attack, unknown hackers interposed their own website between users and Apple's iCloud server, intercepting data and potentially gaining access to passwords, iMessages, photos and contacts, Greatfire.org wrote in its blog post. Greatfire.org, a group that conducts research on Chinese Internet censorship, alleged government involvement in the attack, saying it resembled previous attacks on Google Inc, Yahoo Inc and...

FBI Director James Comey gave a strong speech today (Oct. 16) explaining why law enforcement should have access to data on encrypted smartphones. But he failed to cite any examples in which such law-enforcement access could have made the difference between life and death.... The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) of 1994 mandates that telecommunications companies must give police the ability to listen in on telephone conversations. CALEA covers landlines and cellular carriers, and was expanded in 2004 to cover Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers and broadband Internet service providers. For the past few years, the FBI...