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A proposed bill in New York seeks to require that all smartphones sold in the state can be decrypted or unlocked and proposes hefty fines for vendors failing to comply.The proposed law marks the latest effort by lawmakers to make it easier for law enforcement to access and read encrypted data stored on smartphones. Should the proposed bill successfully pass through New York's state assembly and senate, Apple and Google could face fines of $2,500 per device sold in the state after January 1, 2016, if a retailer knowingly sold a smartphone that could not be unlocked or decrypted by...

Apple delivered the greatest earnings report in history on Tuesday. That's not hyperbole. Apple earned $18 billion in net income over the three-month period of October to December 2014. That's more than any other company has ever earned over a three-month span. Apple earned those mind-melting profits thanks mostly to the iPhone, which is an incredible business. Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones, up 46% from the year prior. The iPhone generated $51 billion in revenue, giving each iPhone an average selling price of $687.

Apple's iBooks platform is seeing an average of a million new users per week after the company's decision to ship iOS 8 with the app pre-installed, according to Apple Director of iBooks Keith Moerer, who spoke today at the Digital Book World Conference. efore iOS 8, the iBooks app had to be searched for and downloaded from the App Store, putting it on par with several other App Store-based e-books apps like Amazon's Kindle app for iOS. Pre-installing iBooks made it "so easy" for new users to try iBooks for the first time, said Moerer. Family Sharing, also new in...

According to reports, Apple Inc.'s iOS 8 adoption rates have started to stagnate, increasing only 1% since the last reported figure. Bidness Etc explores the possible reasons behind users' reluctance to shift to Apple's latest mobile operating system. iOS 8 was Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) eighth major mobile operating system. With its release, the company increased focused on refining and enhancing built-in features and functionality, instead of relying on a major overhaul of user interface as with the iOS 7. With iOS 8, Apple incorporated user feedback received from iOS 7 users and developers. Previously, Apple had kept the operating system...

Apple has updated its App Store to show new statistics for iOS 8, its new mobile operating system. It's not looking good. 9to5Mac reports that iOS 8 adoption has increased by just 1% since Apple last published statistics on the operating system. To make things worse, the statistic that Apple published on its developer site excludes a large number of users who are known to be slow in updating to the latest operating system.Since Sept. 21, the percentage of mobile devices visiting the App Store running iOS 8 has increased to 47% from 46%. Here's Apple's old iOS chart. On...

The iOS 8.0.1 update is no longer available after multiple users earlier reported serious issues with the new version of the operating system, one that was expected to fix a glitch with the highly anticipated HealthKit apps.

Apple's new iOS 8 is causing apps to crash 65 percent more frequently than iOS 7, according to a report updated Wednesday by mobile analytics company Crittercism. But there's a big catch here: Crittercism is comparing current rates for the week-old iOS 8 to the year-old iOS 7. New operating systems frequently launch with initial bugs and other issues -- particularly for the earliest adopters -- and Apple typically pushes system updates through quickly. Overall, iOS 8 is causing apps to crash 3.29 percent of the time as of midnight Tuesday, Crittercism said. That's compared with the current 2 percent...

iOS 8 upgrade problems have reared their ugly heads, bang on cue. Early-adopting iMagicMirror owners are finding their devices suffering some seriously poisoned Apple. Here we go again. Every major iOS update causes suspicious slowdowns in older iPhone and iPad types. It's as if Apple wants you to upgrade to the latest shiny. As if. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers set aside their cynicism. Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Gregg Keizer takes a beautiful new Queen: The initial uptake for Apple's iOS 8 has been less than half of...iOS 7. … In the 24 hours since...

Load up iOS 8 and you might not notice the difference straight away, but there are plenty of little tweaks and changes behind the scenes. Here are 25 different things you can do on your device that you couldn't do yesterday.

Apple said Wednesday night that it is making it impossible for the company to turn over data from most iPhones or iPads to police — even when they have a search warrant — taking a hard new line as tech companies attempt to blunt allegations that they have too readily participated in government efforts to collect user information. The move, announced with the publication of a new privacy policy tied to the release of Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 8, amounts to an engineering solution to a legal quandary: Rather than comply with binding court orders, Apple has reworked...

It looks like Apple has updated its app developer guidelines today to allow for Bitcoin apps. The new clause under section 11.17, which was flagged by folks on Twitter like investor Bill Lee today, reads: Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions. That sounds like Bitcoin!