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“You can’t really understand what is going on now without understanding what came before.” Steve Jobs is explaining why, as a young man, he spent so much time with the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs a generation older, men like Robert Noyce, Andy Grove, and Regis McKenna. It’s a beautiful Saturday morning in May, 2003, and I’m sitting next to Jobs on his living room sofa, interviewing him for a book I’m writing. I ask him to tell me more about why he wanted, as he put it, “to smell that second wonderful era of the valley, the semiconductor companies leading into...

At their long, developer-focused Build conference this morning, Microsoft announced a plethora of new things regarding Windows 10 and its new identity as a service-based company. Windows 10 is the company’s new attempt at recapturing the interest of longtime Windows 7 users, after a fairly limited turnout for Windows 8.In case you haven’t heard, yes—Microsoft skipped “Windows 9” and went straight to Windows 10. The good news is that the OS looks to be a pretty balanced and powerful system that takes the best of Windows 7 and Windows 8 and finds a happy medium in between the two....

“Photographer Catalin Marin was taking photos of Dubai’s sunrise from the top of a building when he accidentally dropped his iPhone from the roof—and the device captured its entire 40 story plunge on video,” Reem Nasr reports for CNBC. “Amazingly the phone was without a scratch and on top of everything it captured the whole fall on video as I was filming at the moment I dropped it,” Marin wrote in a blog post,” Nasr reports. Read more in the full article here. Catalin Marin writes, “Unfortunately the shoot was cut unexpectedly short when I managed to drop my phone...

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.

Just a few weeks ago, the idea that Apple might make a car seemed like an outlandish rumour. Today, it's accepted by many as gospel. Numerous reports have filtered through in recent days, providing more detail on Apple's automotive ambitions. Of course, nothing has been confirmed yet. The Apple Car would be a massive, multi-year undertaking. But here's what we've heard so far: It's called Project Titan. The detail comes via a report from the Wall Street Journal. It's an electric car. This puts the company in competition with Tesla, which develops cutting edge electric-powered vehicles. VC and entrepreneur Jason...

The long reigning king of the desktop OS is in trouble. Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, is rapidly steering the company into the back office and service spaces, while their nascent mobile and desktop platforms are crumbling around them. Microsoft is putting on a brave face continuing to heavily advertise the 2-in-1 Surface debacle, but Nadella is only buying time, as he must surely know that Apple and Google is the two-headed beast that Microsoft can not stop. In less than a decade, Microsoft will be associated with IBM or Oracle, not Apple or Google. Apple’s iOS is poised for...

If adopted, these proposals will impact record labels, music publishers, producers, royalty collection groups, terrestrial and satellite radio, and music streaming services. In a 245-page report issued on Thursday, the U.S. Copyright Office is throwing its weight behind what would be the most radical changes to how music is licensed in nearly a half century. Many of the copyright laws governing music were first erected at the time that player pianos became popular and have developed through the advent of radio, new recording devices and, most recently, digital networks. Maria Pallante, director of the Copyright Office, believes the law is...

Got a smartphone and a telescope? It’s a sight now common at many star parties. Frequently, you see folks roaming through the darkness, illuminated smartphone aimed skyward. Certainly, the wealth of free planetarium apps has done lots to kindle a renewed interest in the night sky. Inevitably, after peering through the eyepiece of a telescope, the question then arises: “Can I get a picture of that with my phone?” The short answer is yes, with a little skill and patience. Now simply aiming a camera at the eyepiece of a telescope — known as afocal astrophotography — and shooting without...

BlackBerry's CEO John Chen wants companies to stop "discriminatory practices" against BlackBerry by not allowing them to use certain apps. Chen called out Apple and Netflix in a blog post about net neutrality and what he called a "two-tiered wireless broadband ecosystem" where developers create apps only for iOS and Android devices. "Unlike BlackBerry, which allows iPhone users to download and use our BBM service, Apple does not allow BlackBerry or Android users to download Apple's iMessage messaging service," he wrote. Apple's iMessage service is only available to customers using the company's ecosystem of devices. Calling out Netflix, Chen said...

“Apple has been hit with a lawsuit alleging that it doesn’t inform users just how much storage its new operating system will eat up – and then prods them to buy more space through its iCloud service,” Julia Love reports for The Mercury News. “The case, filed in the Bay Area’s federal court on Tuesday, claims iOS 8 can take up as much as 23.1 percent of the advertised storage capacity on Apple gadgets, but few users realize that when they make their purchases.” “‘We feel that there are a substantial number of Apple consumers that have been shortchanged, and...

A Sony employee has described the company as being “stuck in 1992″ following the massive hacks, with employees desperately trying to avoid using any technology that could be compromised, reports TechCrunch. There has, though, been one exception to the ban on modern technology: Apple kit. “People using Macs were fine,” she said. She said most work is done on iPads and iPhones. Sony may need to buy a few extra Macs, with some departments having only one or two computers for the entire office. It is, she said, like “living in an office from ten years ago.”

The latest monthly report from internet security specialist Doctor Web shows that whilst Windows and Android users have no cause for complacency, November saw substantial numbers of malicious programs aimed at Mac OS X and Linux platforms. Trojans remain the most popular form of attack making up 8.7 percent of all malware detected. Trojan.InstallCore.12, which installs different adware, toolbars and browser extensions, ranks first. BackDoor.Andromeda.404, which downloads other malicious programs into an infected system when commanded to do so by intruders, ranks second. In November BackDoor.Andromeda.404 was distributed in large quantities by email thanks to a mass spam campaign. It...

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...

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...

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...

We stress test Apple's new phones, plus comparable models from Samsung, LG, and HTCCell phones Two days ago, the Internet erupted with photos of bent iPhone 6s, and a very-viral video of a guy creasing an iPhone 6 Plus with his bare hands. It seemed like a serious concern, yet everything about the uproar was highly unscientific. We don’t like unscientific, so we promised then that we would use our lab equipment to find out just how delicate the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus really are. We also promised to run the same tests on comparable smart phones. We’ve done...

One day after a bungled iOS update disrupted key features on thousands of iPhones, Apple on Thursday issued a follow-on version of the software to set things right. The newest update, iOS 8.0.2, is available immediately. The bruise to Apple's public image -- also dinged in the last few days by the discovery that its iPhone 6 Plus can be bent -- may take longer to heal.

After first displayed publicly at its annual developer conference in June, Apple has finally released iOS 8 for iPhones and iPads. Just days before the Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant opens its retail stores to sell the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, existing smartphone and tablet users can upgrade to the latest mobile operating system.

While Android phones are constantly targeted by cybercriminals, the iPhone is considered more secure. Now, leaked documents from one of the world's leading surveillance companies have reaffirmed the idea. As spotted by the Washington Post, a leaked document from Gamma Group, a secretive seller of surveillance tools, emerged on the Internet last week. Hosted on Netzpolitik, the document (.PDF) reveals interesting information concerning Gamma Groups' extensive range of surveillance tools, but in particular, notes that the iPhone is notoriously difficult to infiltrate -- the only exception being when a user has jailbroken their device. A particular piece of software is...