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Apple Watch will replace your car keys, says Tim Cook Exclusive interview: The Apple chief executive reveals to Allister Heath how the revolutionary features in the company's smartwatch could forever alter our daily lives. Like millions of people, Tim Cook stopped wearing a watch a while back. The Apple boss no longer needed one: his iPhone told the time just fine. There was just one problem, as he readily acknowledges in his interview with The Telegraph: glancing at one's wrist can be a very useful way to find out information. It is less rude and less intrusive. So Apple now...

Heads up: you can currently download a free copy of onOne Software’s Perfect Effects 9. It’s a $60 program that can be used as a Photoshop or Lightroom plugin or as a standalone tool. Inside are customizable filters and hundreds of presets that allow you to quickly apply custom looks to your photos.

I hate texting. I hate the way it restricts me. It's great that I can stay in touch while on the road, but it's a pain in the butt. I can't reference my thoughts with links that would generally be a few "copy and paste" clicks away. I can't stand the screen size of my "Smart Phone" and I have one of the largest available. I hate using the pop up key board that tries to "Help" me. Ever try to search for and paste a link to something that wasn't already planned for? Good luck. I love my PC....

“Ericsson AB said Friday it is suing Apple Inc. for infringing technology patents it says are critical to many aspects of the U.S. tech giant’s popular mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads,” Dominic Chopping and Juhana Rossi report for The Wall Street Journal. “The Swedish telecom equipment supplier said Apple had declined a licensing deal and refused an offer to have a court determine fair licensing terms by which both companies would be bound. ‘Our last offer was to have this determination either in [a federal court in] Texas or in a court selected by Apple in California. They...

Apple CEO Tim Cook is doing a tour in part to help prepare the world for the launch of the Apple Watch, which is likely going to be the start of the show at a special even on Monday March 9 at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. He spoke to The Telegraph about the company’s first smart wearable, and in that interview he talked about what will motivate a purchase decision for the Apple Watch now, and why it’ll only get more attractive as time goes on. Cook told the Telegraph that he suspects an initial driver for...

Samsung has announced that it has begun mass production of mobile application processors on its 14nm FinFET process technology, which the company states is an industry first. Compared to the company's existing 20nm process technology, 14nm FinFET is said to enable up to 20 percent higher speeds and 35 percent less power consumption. As the industry moves towards smaller manufacturing processes, the physical limitations of transistor design have become more apparent. 3D FinFETs allow the electronic Field-Effect Transistor "gate" to wrap around three sides of a raised "fin" in order to provide adequate insulation against current leakage, which has...

Beating the worldSamsung has shocked the tech press by showing off the world's first 10nm FinFET chip at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). Samsung Electronics Semiconductor Business chief, Kim Ki-nam teased the future for Samsung when he took the stage and provided a sneak peak at its 3D V NAND technology.Samsung wants its 10nm chips to power more than smartphones, there are plans to put them in data centers and power the Internet of Things. The new chips will be more power efficient and produce less heat, vital for phones and other battery-powered devices.Kim said that he expects that...

Due to copyright restrictions, Link only to article: Only 40 Percent of World's Population Has Ever Gone Online

The powers behind the FCC’s muscling of the Internet Today’s vote by a bitterly divided Federal Communications Commission that the Internet should be regulated as a public utility is the culmination of a decade-long battle by the Left. Using money from George Soros and liberal foundations that totaled at least $196 million, radical activists finally succeeded in ramming through “net neutrality,” or the idea that all data should be transmitted equally over the Internet. The final push involved unprecedented political pressure exerted by the Obama White House on FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, head of an ostensibly independent regulatory body. “Net...

As a tribute to Photoshop for its recent 25th birthday, Lynda created this “before there was Photoshop” video that shows the darkroom tools and techniques that were used by film photographers before Photoshop and digital photography arrived on the scene. Photographer Konrad Eek works on a print by dodging, burning, adding gradients, using masks, feathering, and more. If you’ve never made a print in a darkroom before, this video could be quite illuminating.

Overtly political acts are often breathtaking, usually for the arrogance, ignorance and desperation they bring to light. They are made even more so when appointed officials of a so-called independent agency who should be concerned with public policy and technical standards act politically. Today, one’s breath is taken away by the actions of the FCC and its chairman Tom Wheeler. In addition to seizing control of the Internet, in a purely partisan vote and flying in the face of a Supreme Court ruling (In 2004, the Supreme Court in Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League rejected federal pre-emption of a state...

FireEye's Mandiant found that the average data breach was discovered in 205 days, dropping from 229 days (2013) and 243 days (2012). Enterprises were only able to self-detect 31 percent of breaches, with third-parties and the government helping identify cybersecurity incidents.    Companies are becoming more vigilant in detecting cybercrime-related activity, such as credit card companies noticing fraudulent behavior.  "Over the last several years, organizations like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have gotten increasingly involved in notifying US businesses that they have been identified as being compromised," said Ryan Kazanciyan, technical director at Mandiant, in a statement to eWEEK....

Google’s Android has gobbled up market share world wide, now accounting for over 80% of all smartphone shipped globally. But when it comes to actually making money, Apple is eating all the profits as it continues its focus on premium devices. Today Strategy Analytics said that Apple in Q4 last year accounted for 89% of all smartphone profits, equating to $18.8 billion, with Android taking only 11%, or $2.4 billion. The blow for Android is softened only slightly less so only by the fact that other platform players like Microsoft, Blackberry and Firefox seemingly made no profit at all.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook was in Israel on Wednesday, and had a meeting with President Reuven Rivlin, as Apple is prepared to open a new office in the country. There was much speculation for weeks about an impending visit from Cook to Israel, and that was confirmed on Wednesday when the Apple CEO sat down with Israel's president. Photos of a discussion between Cook and Rivlin were shared by Inbal Orpaz. Cook's appearance coincides with the opening of a new research and development office in Herzliya Pituach, about 20 minutes north of Tel Aviv. The building will house 800...

Chinese computer and smartphone firm Lenovo Group said its website was hacked on Wednesday, its second security blemish days after the U.S. government advised consumers to remove software called “Superfish” pre-installed on its laptops. Hacking group Lizard Squad claimed credit for the attacks on microblogging service Twitter. Lenovo said attackers breached the domain name system associated with Lenovo and redirected visitors to lenovo.com to another address, while also intercepting internal company emails. Lizard Squad posted an email exchange between Lenovo employees discussing Superfish. The software was at the centre of public uproar in the United States last week when security...

This article has an employment lawyer as saying you have to fire people who post inappropriate things - including non-PC opinions.

Great news for consumers in Florida: Governor Rick Scott has proposed $470 million in communications services tax relief. Governor Scott’s proposed budget would reduce the communications services tax for mobile, cable services and non-residential landlines by 39 percent. Furthermore, his proposed budget would also reduce the communications services tax for satellite services by 27 percent. Under the governor’s budget proposal, a family spending an average of $100 a month on cell phone, cable and satellite television services could save about $43 a year. Currently, Florida’s state and local communications services tax is one of the highest in the nation, with...

Just how ginormous is Apple Inc. now? As the iPhone-maker’s shares continue to set fresh record highs, its market cap is now above $765 billion. Combined with Exxon Mobil Corp.'s pullback over the past six months, Apple has pulled off the rare occurrence of being worth at least double any other publicly traded U.S. company. No. 2 Exxon’s market cap has eased to $374 billion.

Apple today announced a €1.7 billion plan to build and operate two data centers in Europe, each powered by 100 percent renewable energy. The facilities, located in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark’s central Jutland, will power Apple’s online services including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for customers across Europe. “We are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date. We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating...

Yolo. Rekt. Bae. Xans. Lordt. Every era has its own version of emerging language, and the new words and phrases of our time tend to spring from the Internet – from emails, texts, tweets and other rapid-fire, written communication. They’re often acronyms or abbreviations. Some become enduring parts of communication – as O.K., P.S. and R.S.V.P. did, from earlier times – while others flare briefly and then fade. To get a sense for which of today’s emerging terms are on the rise, which are fading and which may have longevity, Jack Grieve, a linguist at Aston University in England, analyzed...

It’s really quite remarkable, how much more energy-efficient everything is these days. Our houses are built to higher standards; our fridges use a fraction of the power they used to, our cars get better mileage — yet we are using more energy per capita than we ever have. I am loath to bring up good old Stanley Jevons here. His theory, also known as the rebound effect, was that if things become more efficient, we use more of them. Even as our houses get more efficient, they get bigger and we fill them with more stuff, pretty much negating the...

My Keedox A10 quadcore TV box is launching directly into XBMC upon powerup and bypassing the factory OS and launchers. How can I reset this device to factory settings? I no longer have access to a file manager or android settings.

Checked Google Play for my Samsung S4 to see if FR has an app but don't see it. Please advise when one will be created.

I love it when one of the tech press -- Daring Fireball's John Gruber in this case -- slaps down the mainstream media for their idiocy. In this case, the "topic" the media was tossing around was that the upcoming Apple Watch was going to be shipping without some of the health-tracking features that had allegedly been promised at the reveal last fall. Nothing could be further from the truth. The story that started it all was on the CBS News website, featuring a quote from CNET's Jeff Bakalar that said: ““They were going for some super groundbreaking and innovative...

What are the LIDAR units doing on this Apple van? Photo: AppleInsider The mysterious Apple minivans roaming the roads in California, Florida and elsewhere are generally assumed to be self-driving cars, but they are not. They are almost undoubtedly collecting data for maps.They are “almost certainly a mapping vehicle,� said Paul Godsmark, chief technology officer with the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence, who examined photos of the mystery vehicles at Cult of Mac’s request. Spotted around the country in recent weeks, the mysterious minivans jump-started the rumor mill with regard to a possible Apple car rolling out in the...

Apple fanboys and Samsung’s “Next Big Thing”ers would hoot with derisive laughter if The Wall Street Journal or Financial Times reported that GM or Ford planned to rewrite the rules of smartphone innovation. But when media coverage suggests Apple may redesign the automobile, even the most cynical car-lovers quiver with righteous curiosity. They should. Could Sir Jonny Ive be the next Battista Pininfarina, Harley Earl, or Akihiro Nagaya? Don’t bet against him. Steve Jobs’ successors are at least an order of magnitude more credible as disruptive innovators than the heirs of Ford and Sloan. The computer, software, telecoms, music,...

Preponderance of left-wing drivel on AT&T Yahoo home page, specifically leading with loony Huffington Post stories.

Apple is the fastest growing retailer in history and has dominated the holy covet of retail metrics, sales per square foot, almost since its inception, which currently sits at $4,551. Pair that with rampant expansion plans that puts the technology giant at 420+ stores around the world, and we're talking some serious revenue numbers, approximately $170 billion worth (2013). Keeping all that in mind, more and more retailers are trying to figure out Apple's "secret sauce" when it comes to its retail experience, specifically when it comes to customer service, hoping to inspire the same degree of customer loyalty or...

In Silicon Valley, people like to say failure is a badge of honor in the technology business. If that’s the case, A123 Systems is one of the most accomplished companies in clean technology history. The battery maker—which has filed a lawsuit against Apple and five former employees over nondisclosure agreements—has a singular history of being on the wrong side of history. They were the Solyndra of clean technology before the real Solyndra swept them off the headlines. (Disclosure: I have always been skeptical about the company, even during the feverish build up to their IPO, but events have shown that...

Making smartphones that run Google’s Android mobile operating system is less profitable than it once was, so Samsung is increasingly looking to software and services for new sources of income. The shift can put Samsung at odds with Google, its long-time Android partner. Nowhere is this tension clearer than in mobile payments, where both companies are working on their own services. “We’re thinking more about software and how to integrate it well with hardware,” said David Eun, head of Samsung’s Global Innovation Center. “One area that’s really ripe to create compelling experiences is payments and commerce.” Samsung acquired LoopPay this...

I value the technical advise found on FreeRepublic concerning technical matters, so looking for a bit of assistance. I have a web site I've built and I'm ready to host it. Much of it will be links to videos that are all housed via Google Drive. I found out youtube no longer supports private (ie login required) links. These videos are mostly family recordings so we wish to provide them only for family members. Google Drive does allow restrictions via specific gmail login accounts. There will also be many other pages supporting Christian literature and links. I've written several articles...

iPhone owners finding it difficult to connect with their peers through the tetrahydrocannabinolic haze have a new option with High There, a Tinder-like matchmaking app that specializes in bringing together users with a penchant for bud. To differentiate itself from similar social networks, High There gives users the ability to define their marijuana preferences in detail. When creating a profile, users can specify their preferred method of THC ingestion, their energy level while baked, and various pastimes that hold their interest. Typical features needed to reach parity with competitors — such as person-to-person text chat — are of course included....

Emojis have become a cultural phenomenon, and now you can bring the fun to a face near you.

WorldVu Satellites Ltd., which has a license to operate a global network of low-orbiting Ku-band satellites to provide Internet access to fixed and mobile terminals, on Jan. 15 said it has secured chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group as investors. SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who had been in discussions with WorldVu founder Greg Wyler, is absent from the investor list, at least for now, Wyler said. But with Musk set to announce Jan. 16 that he is building a satellite production facility in Seattle, Musk may be in a position to win at least part of the...

If you're MacBook looks like this, you may be in luck. Photo: Change.org Does your MacBook Pro freak out with distorted graphics or randomly restart? Then you’ll want to take advantage of Apple’s new repair program. After deeming that a “small percentage of MacBook Pro systems may exhibit distorted video, no video, or unexpected system restarts,” Apple will start fixing parts for free on select MacBook Pro models. image: https://stackcommerce-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ad/image/151/singleproduct_web_the-6-ft-mfi-certified-ios-android-charging-cable_1423083568.png A class action lawsuit was filed against Apple last October over graphics issues with 2011 MacBooks. A petition on Change.org for Apple to offer free repairs currently has over 38,000...

Today marks the 25 year anniversary of Adobe Photoshop being launched and changing the way we see the world. Here’s a look at how Photoshop started and how far it has come in the past two-and-a-half decades. The birth of the software can be traced back to 1987, when developer Thomas Knoll created a simple pixel imaging program called Display. It was able to display grayscale photos on a black-and-white monitor.

Today, Fortune is out with its 32nd annual list of the World’s Most Admired Companies. Apple tops the list for the eighth consecutive year and is followed by Google, Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon.com and Starbucks. Of this year’s list, Fortune Senior Editor Christopher Tkaczyk writes: “What becomes a reputation most? Healthy financials and stock performance, for starters. This year four companies have landed on the 50 All-Stars for the first time — Chipotle, CVS Health, Salesforce.com, and the financial services giant USAA, which at No. 28 is this year’s strongest ­debut. But not all companies fared as well. Consumer criticism and...

I started a thread on this years ago, been too busy and forgot about it.TERRAGEN generates landscapes. Depending on your effort they can be amazing.

Forget HoloLens, forget smart glasses and forget augmented reality -- scientists have proposed a "cortical modem" that plugs into your DNA and your visual cortex to cure sight loss and show a heads-up display in front of your very eyes. The cortical modem concept is the brainchild of DARPA, the US Defense Research Projects Agency. Originally founded in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnik, DARPA is the US military's research and development agency. It's perhaps best known outside of military circles for the development of ARPANET, an early packet switching network that formed a precursor to the Internet....

GoDaddy is working with me to solve an access problem that appeared yesterday. The configuration of multiple clients are MS Windows XP with IE8. Browsing to www.godaddy.com began to result in an error message saying there was a problem with the security certificate, and the IE8 browser then crashes. Godaddy says they have no other reports about this problem. We have at least 6 or more such clients showing the same issue. Does anyone else have a similar configuration, and do they experience the same problem? Note: Firefox seems to function normally on this same client.

The Operation Arid Viper campaign has successfully stolen more than 1 million files with current malware campaigns underway, though it's not the usual suspects, according to Kaspersky Lab and Trend Micro. The Arab-speaking group, with ties to Gaza, have targeted foreign government offices, critical infrastructure, military, universities, and other high-profile targets. The attacks likely occurred starting in mid-2013 and a full investigation into their actions is underway.   "Whoever the real culprits are, it is clear that they are part of the Arab world, evidence of a budding generation of Arab hackers and malware creators intent on taking down their...

The Internet Ain't Broke, So Don't Try To Fix It

The malware reprograms the hard drive’s firmware, creating hidden sectors on the drive that can only be accessed through a secret API (application programming interface). Once installed, the malware is impossible to remove: disk formatting and reinstalling the OS doesn’t affect it, and the hidden storage sector remains. “Theoretically, we were aware of this possibility, but as far as I know this is the only case ever that we have seen of an attacker having such an incredibly advanced capability,” said Costin Raiu, director of Kaspersky Lab’s global research and analysis team, in a phone interview Monday.

I don't currently have an antivirus program on my computer due to very tight finances. I've been holding my breath hoping that I wouldn't have an incident before I can afford to download or update an antivirus program. I used to have Kaspersky, and lately it has been popping up with an alert that I have a Trojan horse. The local computer geek people recommended Kaspersky when they worked on my computer a few years ago, so that's why I was using it. Since then, they have worked on my friend's computer and told her that she didn't really need...

It's not really an endorsement, and it doesn't really change payments. Apple CEO Tim Cook just announced that Apple Pay, the company's mobile-payment system, will work with payment cards issued by the federal government, and some federal agencies will start taking Apple Pay payments in the fall. Bloomberg is calling it a "big win" for Apple Pay. Well, hold on there. Yes, the government does $26.4 billion in transactions a year on GSA SmartPay cards. But what are these cards? They're not some strange, alien form of payment. They're just plastic Visa and MasterCard cards issued by Citibank, JPMorgan Chase,...

Apple is the second most innovative company in the world, according Fast Company's 2015 rankings. Apple was #14 in the Fast Company's 2014 rankings, while Google placed first. Fast Company attributes Apple's success in 2014 to its different software refinements that make its existing hardware more powerful. Both iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite brought many features to both developers and consumers. It’s too early to judge the long-term impact of all these features, given that they depend on what other companies do with them. Still, they’re evidence that Tim Cook’s Apple is developing its own character—one deeply influenced by...

Everyone knows that Apple had a great fourth quarter and that its most successful product line, the iPhone, is doing better than ever, too. But it's difficult to grasp what a mind-blowingly successful company Apple is until you take the time to gather and digest news about the company that has emerged in the past week or two. I've done it. And it has become obvious to me that Apple is not only successful, not only the most successful company in technology, not only the most successful company in the world but the most successful company in the history of...

Summary:The Apple boss said people have entrusted the company with their most personal bits of information. "We owe them nothing less than the best protections we can possibly provide." Apple chief executive Tim Cook said that there should not have to be a trade-off between national security and personal privacy. In a speech as part of a cybersecurity summit hosted by The White House at Stanford University, the Apple boss said history has shown that sacrificing rights to privacy can have "dire consequences" on society. "We risk something far more valuable than money. We risk our way of life," he...

He fears that future generations will have little or no record of the 21st Century as we enter what he describes as a "digital Dark Age". Mr Cerf made his comments at a large science conference in San Jose. ... His focus now is to resolve a new problem that threatens to eradicate our history. Our life, our memories, our most cherished family photographs increasingly exist as bits of information - on our hard drives or in "the cloud". But as technology moves on, they risk being lost in the wake of an accelerating digital revolution.

The typical design for an Apple Mini-Store. Wave goodbye! Photo: Apple While many of us will be celebrating Valentine’s Day this Saturday, for Apple it represents the end of an era. At 10pm today, Apple will close its existing Oakridge retail store in San Jose, California — with a new, larger one set to open Saturday morning at 10am. In the process, Apple will have marked the end of its mini-store experiment, with the Oakridge venue being the last of its kind. First launched in 2004, Apple’s mini-stores were an effort to quickly roll out new Apple Stores to keep...