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How is the Fitbit faring against the Apple Watch? We now know, thanks to an upcoming report from 1010data's Ecom Insights. AppleWorld.Today received an advance copy of the report, which will be released next week.In just three months of availability, Apple now has 42% of total dollars sold in the first half of the year followed by Fitbit at 31%. Motorola, Garmin, Jawbone, Polar, Pebble and Samsung combined make up just 15%, according to 1010data's Ecom Insights, which measures what consumers are purchasing online. However, when we look at units, Fitbit is number one with 35% of the market...

The hackers are selling Remote Access Trojan (RAT) to the interested wannabe hackers, and believe it or not, most of the purchasers of these malware programs are youngsters and novice hackers. The malware and Trojans being provided by the hackers will allow anyone to take control of the targeted electronic device, eventually attacking the victim. The report calls them “ratters.”

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So it looks like the Windows 10 launch was a big success if early adoption numbers are to be believed. The Register drops some data from StatCounter showing that Windows 10 already accounts for over 3.5% of desktop operating systems, up from just under 1.4% the week before. More interestingly, The Register says, “the biggest loser looks to be Windows 8.1, which dipped from 16.45 per cent share to 14.93 per cent,” while “Windows 7 went from 54.41per cent to 53.8 per cent and Windows 8 dropped from 3.6 percent to 3.46 percent.” Of course, Windows 10 has some key advantages going...

Faulty Stagefright patch and newly reported sandbox bypass leave users exposed. Link only due to copyright infringement issues from Ars Technica. Read more at the link. READ THE ARTICLE AT ARS TECHNICA: Android security on the ropes with one-two punch from researchers

The company abused the Windows installer's anti-theft mechanism, which reads the firmware for executables at install-time, embedding a ton of crappy, insecure shovelware that would be added to your computer every time you reinstalled the OS. I'm a Lenovo user, though none of this affects me: I always take the Lenovo-supplied drives out of my Thinkpads, swap in an SSD and install Ubuntu GNU/Linux. But it's pretty gross nevertheless. Based on this, I wouldn't recommend Lenovo to Windows users, if I knew any. Lenovo eventually offered a removal tool. This is the second time this year they got caught pre-loading...

Apple releases OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 Thursday, August 13, 2015 · 3:57 pm · Apple today released OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 update which improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, and is recommended for all users.This update: • Improves compatibility with certain email servers when using Mail • Fixes an issue in Photos that prevented importing videos from GoPro cameras • Fixes an issue in QuickTime Player that prevented playback of Windows Media filesFor detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222.For more detailed information about this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT205004.OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 is available via Software...

Apple releases iOS 8.4.1 with Apple Music improvements Thursday, August 13, 2015 · 1:45 pm · Apple today released iOS 8.4.1 which includes improvements and fixes to Apple Music. • Resolves issues that could prevent turning on iCloud Music Library • Resolves an issue that hides added music because Apple Music was set to show offline music only • Provides a way to add songs to a new playlist if there aren’t any playlists to choose from • Resolves an issue that may show different artwork for an album on other devices • Resolves several issues for artists while posting to...

It's no wonder that privacy activists are up in arms. Read more at Ars Technica — Link only due to copyright restrictions on FreeRepublic: LINK TO THE ARTICLE: Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can’t stop talking to Microsoft

What is Will Hurd, Republican Congressman from Texas, doing here? “The best way to defend digital networks is to have an attacker’s mentality,” Hurd told Defense One. Hurd, who spent nearly a decade as an undercover CIA operative in places like Afghanistan, doesn’t freak out easily. ... For one thing, he ran a cybersecurity firm for four years. Naturally, he’s made cybersecurity a cornerstone of his legislative efforts.

Apple has updated Boot Camp, its utility that allows Windows to run on a Mac, to support Windows 10, two weeks after Microsoft launched its latest OS. Only the 64-bit version of Windows 10 will work with Boot Camp, Apple said Wednesday in a support document. Additionally, Windows 10 will only work on Macs running OS X Yosemite. Apple reminded users that only Macs with Intel processors work with Boot Camp, a requirement since the multi-boot utility debuted in 2006. An ISO file of the 64-bit version of Windows 10 is needed and Apple provides instructions on how to make...

Microsoft has done a good job rolling out Windows 10 in the first two weeks, analysts said today, and the general vibe for Windows 8's replacement has been positive, even though glitches have dampened some enthusiasm. "If I had to give Microsoft a letter grade, it would be a B or a B+," said Steve Kleynhans of Gartner. "It's not an A because it hasn't gone perfectly. They've stubbed their toe over privacy issues, for example." Microsoft began serving up the free Windows 10 upgrade late on July 28, giving participants in the firm's Insider preview program first shot at...

If you are currently a Microsoft user running either Windows 7 or 8, you are eligible for a free upgrade to the "new and improved" Windows 10. But before you upgrade, be aware that it's free as in price, not as in liberty. Many of the new features and settings of Windows 10 have been deemed spyware by computer security experts. It's one thing to have programs and applications spying on you. It's another thing altogether to have your operating system designed to do it. When Microsoft announced the "free" upgrade, many were left wondering why the Redmond giant would...

Here is an edited transcript of the two men’s conversation: A: (Profanity) Where is the explosion? (Profanity) The sky is (profanity) lit up. B: Where is this? A: I don’t know. (Profanity) This is going to make the news tomorrow. Oh! (Profanity) The building is shaking. (Profanity) Oh, my God. It’s like an atomic bomb! (Profanity) The glass is broken. (Profanity). (Profanity) The shock wave is too strong. B: Stop looking at it. A: Hope the building won’t (profanity) collapse. B: Quick. Put on your clothes. Hope the building won’t collapse. Will there be another one? A: This is it...

Many of us are familiar with Apple’s iOS assistant – but have you ever thought about the lives behind the voice that answers your queries and requests? Siri Australia:Karen Jacobsen, Siri UK: Jon Briggs and Siri USA: Susan Bennett. Photograph: courtesy Karen Jacobsen/Jon Briggs/Susan Bennett Apple users are all familiar with Siri, the company’s voice-activated personal assistant that helps out with everything from speed dialling, scheduling meetings and searching for directions. Users of iOS have had the privilege of Siri’s help since its introduction as part of iOS 5 for the iPhone 4S in 2011, and the function was also...

Google and Samsung are gearing up to join Apple Pay in the battle to replace your wallet later this year, but another payments app backed by big retailers like Walmart may wait a little longer before entering primetime.CurrentC, the payments app being created by a consortium of big retailers known as MCX, may not launch widely this year as originally planned, MCX CEO Brian Mooney told Re/code in an interview on Tuesday. The company will begin a public pilot of its app in Columbus, Ohio, in a few weeks and will not rush a wider rollout if the product...

Full Title: The robot that BREEDS: 'Mother' machine builds and tests 'children' models to make each generation better than the last The robots were built by engineers from the University of Cambridge, lead by Dr Fumiya Iida. Dr Iida and his team designed the 'mother' robot and programmed it simply to build a robot capable of movement. From this, and without any further human intervention or computer simulation, the robot built 'children' made of between one and five plastic cubes with a small motor inside. In each of five separate experiments, the mother designed, built and tested generations of ten...

Supported Android 5.1 Devices that might be updated to patch security issues and All Others that will not be updated. LINK TO THE ARTICLE: Editorial: Android's update strategy doesn't scale, and that's recipe for disaster. Read the article at the link above. . . cannot be posted on FreeRepublic due to copyright issues.

Android biometric banks more Fort Nope than Fort Knox. Four FireEye researchers have found a way to steal fingerprints from Android phones packing biometric sensors such as the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One Max.The team found a forehead-slapping flaw in HTC One Max in which fingerprints are stored as an image file (dbgraw.bmp) in a open "world readable" folder. "Any unprivileged processes or apps can steal user’s fingerprints by reading this file," the team says, adding that the images can be made into clear prints by adding some padding.It is one of four vulnerability scenarios in which biometric...

Microsoft has just released a fix for a Windows 10 software update said to be causing machines to enter a restart loop. A patch for a patch? Yes, this is patchception. The troublesome update, titled KB3081424 was released last week, and it didn't take long for users to voice their issues with it on a Microsoft support forum. Many users reported the update was causing their machines to restart over and over again. But the company is now pointing to a newer update that fixes the bug, a Microsoft spokesperson told Mashable in an email. The update is initially downloaded...