Lit Apple Mac, iPhone, iPad User Group

[sandysgeek]

Several major websites go down in widespread internet outage

Several major websites were down on Thursday in what appears to be a widespread outage.

Delta Air Lines, British Airways, Capital One, Go Daddy, Vanguard, UPS, LastPass, AT&T and Costco were among the websites loading slowly or showing “DNS failure.”

Some of the outages appear localized, meaning some users may be able to access the sites while others cannot.



UPDATE:

The Delta outage means customers can’t check in for flights or look up fares online, but the company said customers can check in with a Delta agent at the airport.

“We’re experiencing temporary technical issues serving our customers on delta.com and the Fly Delta mobile app,” said a message on Delta’s website. “We apologize for the delay, and are working to restore the site as quickly as possible.”

Akamai, a content distribution network, or CDN, which helps data move around the internet, said on its website it’s investigating “an emerging issue with the Edge DNS service.”



UPDATE:

Akamai, a content distribution network, or CDN, which helps data move around the internet, said on its website it’s investigating “an emerging issue with the Edge DNS service.” The company said it expects to provide an update on its service disruption around 1 p.m. Eastern Time.

Oracle, a cloud service provider, said Thursday afternoon it is “monitoring a global issue related to Akamai edge DNS that is impacting access to many internet resources, including Oracle cloud properties.”

Oracle said resources within its cloud service are not impacted by the incident.



UPDATE:

The internet outage that took down several major websites seems to be fixed

By about 12:50 p.m. Eastern Time, Akamai said it fixed the issue and the service seemed to be back to normal.

The Domain Name System is like a phone book for websites. The technology figures out the right IP addresses to use when people try to go to individual websites. The Edge DNS service from Akamai takes care of this work for apps and websites and protects against distributed denial-of service, or DDoS, attacks.

 

[sandysgeek]

Apple's record $81.4 billion Q3 obliterates Street expectations

Apple demolishes earnings expectations with iPhone sales surging nearly 50%

Apple reported strong fiscal third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, demolishing Wall Street expectations. Every one of Apple’s major product lines grew over 12% on an annual basis.

Apple stock was slightly up in extended trading.

Overall, Apple’s sales were up 36% from the June quarter last year. iPhone sales increased nearly 50% on an annual basis.

Here’s what Wall Street is expecting, per Refinitiv estimates:

• EPS: $1.30 vs. $1.01 estimated
  
  
• Revenue: $81.41 billion vs. $73.30 billion estimated, up 36% year-over-year
  
  
• iPhone revenue: $39.57 billion vs. $34.01 billion estimated, up 49.78% year-over-year
  
  
• Services revenue: $17.48 billion vs. $16.33 billion estimated, up 33% year-over-year
  
  
• Other Products revenue: $8.76 billion vs. $7.80 billion estimated, up 40% year-over-year
  
  
• Mac revenue:$8.24 billion vs. $8.07 billion estimated, up 16% year-over-year
  
  
• iPad revenue: $7.37 billion vs. $7.15 billion estimated, up 12% year-over-year
  
  
• Gross margin: 43.3% vs. 41.9% estimated

Apple’s quarter ending in June is typically one of its slowest of the year, but the company has benefited from work-at-home and remote schooling trends that have boosted sales of its premium computers.

Apple declared a dividend of $0.22 per share of stock. In a statement, Apple said that it spent $29 billion on shareholder return during the quarter. Apple CFO Luca Maestri told CNBC that the company has bought back almost $450 billion in stock in recent years.

Apple’s quarter could have been even better if it had not grappled with supply shortages likely linked to the global chip shortage, which mostly affected its Mac and iPad sales.

“The shortage primarily affected Mac and iPad,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said. “We had predicted the shortages to total $3 to $4 billion. But we were actually able to mitigate some of that, and we came in at the lower than the low end part of that range.”

Apple declared a dividend of $0.22 per share of stock. In a statement, Apple said that it spent $29 billion on shareholder return during the quarter. Apple CFO Luca Maestri told CNBC that the company has bought back almost $450 billion in stock in recent years.

 

[sandysgeek]

Most Apple Stores to Require Masks Again for Shoppers, Staff

• Company to make change Thursday in areas with rising cases
  
  
• Company asks, but doesn’t require, retail staff to get vaccine

Apple Inc. plans to restore a mask requirement at most of its U.S. retail stores on Thursday for both customers and staff, even those who are vaccinated, in response to a resurgence in Covid cases.

The company informed retail staff of the move Wednesday in a memo obtained by Bloomberg News. Apple already started requiring masks for employees at select stores earlier this month, and it pushed back a return-to-office deadline for corporate employees. It also began requiring masks for customers in a few counties based on local guidelines.

Now, Apple will again require masks for shoppers and employees at more than half of its about 270 U.S. stores. The decision was spurred by rising cases, new local mandates and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

“After carefully reviewing the latest CDC recommendations, and analyzing the health and safety data for your local area, we are updating our guidance on face masks for your store,” Apple told staff. “Starting July 29, face masks will be required in store for customers and team members -- even if they’re vaccinated.” The company added it is making the change “out of an abundance of caution.”

It also urged retail staff to get vaccinated, but is not requiring it at this time. “Apple encourages everyone who is eligible to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, to take it,” the company wrote to retail employees. “Please talk to your doctor and decide what’s right for you.”

Alphabet Inc.’s Google on Wednesday told corporate staff that they must be vaccinated to return to the office. Apple has also informed corporate staff that they must wear masks inside of Apple office buildings, but not when they’re outside. An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

In June, before cases began to climb again, the Cupertino, California-based company dropped its mask mandate at its U.S. retail stores. Apple has also launched a new hybrid program for retail employees to let some staff work at either their retail location or from home -- where they can handle online sales -- depending on consumer demand.

 

[sandysgeek]

Apple redesigns online store and brings back dedicated ‘store’ tab

Following a short period of downtime, the Apple Store is back up again and now features an entirely new design. Apple has also restored the old dedicated “store” tab in the navigation bar. The new store webpage looks very similar to the Apple Store app on iPad and iPhone. You can check out the new storefront here.

The new design starts with a simple carousel of product categories that you can choose from and offers quick links to shop with a specialist or find an Apple store nearby.

Directly below the product carousel you can see what’s new on the store. New items are displays as cards, much like they are in the app. Apple is currently highlighting their back-to-school deal where you can get free AirPods when you buy a Mac or iPad for college.

There’s a new dedicated help section that you can use to set up a personal session for learning how to use a new device. Apple has also included a quick link to set up a Genius appointment if you need to get a device repaired.

Below the help section there are a few store highlights, like callouts to free two-hour delivery, various pickup options, Apple trade in, and more.

There are several carousels that includes different accessories for various products as well. At the very bottom of the new storefront, Apple has added sections for services and their other stores. You can learn more about Apple One or find a Today at Apple session.

Individual product category pages have also been redesigned and have a sleek card-based look. This new design applies to some product lines, including: Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch.

Apple is also highlighting what they call “The Apple difference” which includes info about customizing your product before purchase, gift packaging, and personal sessions you can take online to learn more about your device.

 

[sandysgeek]

Apple accused of promoting scam apps in App Store

Apple mistakenly promotes scam apps in App Store feature

App Store users and developers in Australia have reported today that Apple has featured scam apps on the App Store. This time, in a “Slime Relaxations” story, the company is promoting apps that have $10+ weekly subscriptions, many of which don’t do anything.

Since the Epic vs. Apple court case took place a few months ago, the Cupertino company said that it would be bad to let other companies and developers sideload apps on the iPhone or even have competing app stores.

But it didn’t take long for people to start exposing scam apps on the App Store. In February, a developer exposed multiple scam apps on the App Store, with some of them bringing in millions of dollars in revenue.

In June, for example, a Washington Post story showed that scam apps make up almost 2% of top-grossing apps in the App Store. In Apple’s defense, Tim Cook stated that the App Store is a “safe and trusted place:”

“We wanted to create a safe and trusted place for users to discover apps–and a means of providing a secure and supportive way for developers to develop, test and distribute apps to iPhone users globally.

Curation has always been one of the App Store’s chief features and sources of value for our users. We held a quality department store as a model: place where customers can find a great variety of options, but can feel confident that the selection is high-quality, reliable and current.”

However, more than just Apple approving a scam app, it also promoted multiple scam apps in an App Store story today in Australia. First highlighted by Twitter users Beau Nouvelle and Simeon, one of these apps named Jelly: Slime simulator, ASMR” costs $13 per week and basically doesn’t do anything.

After the media started covering this story, Apple apparently removed the feature article about “Slime Relaxations,” which was found here.

Apple promoting these slime apps again.

A few of them have $10+ weekly subscriptions.

One of them doesn’t even do anything.https:/*******d0dKLCkiVF
https:// t . c o /d0dKLCkiVF

— Beau Nouvelle (@BeauNouvelle) August 4, 2021

This is infuriating. How is Apple *featuring* these scams?

Let's take a look at one of these apps!

"Jelly: Slime simulator, ASMR"

1/https:/*******lDTn8eEVfz pic.twitter.com/VyYKUSLdJE
1/https:// t . c o /lDTn8eEVfz pic.twitter.com/VyYKUSLdJE

— Simeon (@twolivesleft) August 5, 2021

 

[sandysgeek]

Apple announces new protections for child safety

Apple announces new protections for child safety: iMessage features, iCloud Photo scanning, more

Apple is today announcing a trio of new efforts it’s undertaking to bring new protection for children to iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This includes new communications safety features in Messages, enhanced detection of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) content in iCloud, and updated knowledge information for Siri and Search.

One thing Apple is emphasizing is that its new program is ambitious, but that “protecting children is an important responsibility.” With that in mind, Apple says that its efforts will “evolve and expand over time.”


Messages

The first announcement today is a new communication safety feature in the Messages app. Apple explains that when a child who is in an iCloud Family receives or attempts to send sexually explicit photos, the child will see a warning message.

Apple explains that when a child receives a sexually explicit image, the image will be blurred and the Messages app will display a warning saying the image “may be sensitive.” If the child taps “View photo,” they’ll see a pop-up message that informs them why the image is considered sensitive.

The pop-up explains that if the child decides to view the image, their iCloud Family parent will receive a notification “to make sure you’re OK.” The pop-up will also include a quick link to receive additional help.

Additionally, if a child attempts to send an image that is sexually explicit, they will see a similar warning. Apple says the child will be warned before the photo is sent and the parents can receive a message if the child chooses to send it, for kids under the age of 13.

Apple further explains that Messages uses on-device machine learning to analyze image attachments and make the determination if a photo is sexually explicit. iMessage remains end-to-end encrypted and Apple does not gain access to any of the messages. The feature will also be opt-in.

Apple says that this feature is coming “later this year to accounts set up as families in iCloud” in updates to iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey. The feature will be available in the US to start.


CSAM detection

Second, and perhaps most notably, Apple is announcing new steps to combat the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material, or CSAM. Apple explains that CSAM refers to content that depicts sexually explicit activities involving a child.

This feature, which leaked in part earlier today, will allow Apple to detect known CSAM images when they are stored in iCloud Photos. Apple can then report instances of CSAM to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an entity that acts as a comprehensive reporting agency for CSAM and works closely with law enforcement.

Apple repeatedly underscores that its method of detecting CSAM is designed with user privacy in mind. In plain English, Apple is essentially analyzing the images on your device to see if there are any matches against a database of known CSAM images provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. All of the matching is done on device, with Apple transforming the database from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children into an “unreadable set of hashes that is securely stored on users’ devices.”


Apple explains:

Before an image is stored in iCloud Photos, an on-device matching process is performed for that image against the unreadable set of known CSAM hashes. This matching process is powered by a cryptographic technology called private set intersection, which determines if there is a match without revealing the result. Private set intersection (PSI) allows Apple to learn if an image hash matches the known CSAM image hashes, without learning anything about image hashes that do not match. PSI also prevents the user from learning whether there was a match.

If there is an on-device match, the device then creates a cryptographic safety voucher that encodes the match result. A technology called threshold secret sharing is then employed. This ensures the contents of the safety vouchers cannot be interpreted by Apple unless the iCloud Photos account crosses a threshold of known CSAM content.

“For example, if a secret is split into 1,000 shares, and the threshold is 10, then the secret can be reconstructed from any 10 of the 1,000 shares. However, if only nine shares are available, then nothing is revealed about the secret,” Apple says.

Apple isn’t disclosing the specific threshold it will use — that is, the number of CSAM matches required before it is able to interpret the contents of the safety vouchers. Once that threshold is reached, however, Apple will manually review the report to confirm the match, then disable the user’s account, and sent a report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The threshold technology is important because it means accounts are not incorrectly flagged. The manual review also adds another step of confirm to prevent mistakes, and users will be able to file an appeal to have their account reinstated. Apple says the system has a low error rate of less than 1 in 1 trillion account per year.

Even though everything is done on-device, Apple only analyzes pictures that are stored in iCloud Photos. Images stored entirely locally are not involved in this process. Apple says the on-device system is important and more privacy preserving than cloud-based scanning because it only reports users who have CSAM images, as opposed to scanning everyone’s photos constantly in the cloud.

Apple’s implementation of this feature is highly technical, and more details can be learned at the links below.

• Detailed technical summary for CSAM detection
  
  
• Technical Assessment of CSAM Detection by Professor Benny Pinkas
  
  
• New Child Safety Landing Page on Apple.com

Apple says the feature will come first to the United States but it hopes to expand elsewhere eventually.


Siri and Search

Finally, Apple is making upgrades to Siri and Search:

Apple is also expanding guidance in Siri and Search by providing additional resources to help children and parents stay safe online and get help with unsafe situations. For example, users who ask Siri how they can report CSAM or child exploitation will be pointed to resources for where and how to file a report.

Siri and Search are also being updated to intervene when users perform searches for queries related to CSAM. These interventions will explain to users that interest in this topic is harmful and problematic, and provide resources from partners to get help with this issue.

The updates to Siri and Search are coming later this year in an update to iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and macOS Monterey.

 

[sandysgeek]

Open letter criticizing Apple's plan to scan iPhones attracts 5,000 signatures

Open letter criticizing Apple's plan to scan iPhones for child sexual abuse material attracts 5,000 signatures

An Apple store employee in New York.


An open letter asking Apple to rethink its rollout of photo scanning to identify child sexual abuse material has been signed by about 5,000 organizations and individuals.

"While child exploitation is a serious problem, and while efforts to combat it are almost unquestionably well-intentioned, Apple's proposal introduces a backdoor that threatens to undermine fundamental privacy protections for all users of Apple products," the letter said.

Apple on Thursday said it would later this year begin scanning photos for child sexual abuse material (CSAM.) The scans would create data hashes of the photos that would be compared to CSAM databases held by anti-abuse organizations, according to Apple.

"Before an image is stored in iCloud Photos, an on-device matching process is performed for that image against the known CSAM hashes," Apple said.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation on Thursday published a blog opposing the update, calling it a "backdoor" that could be used to spy on Apple users. Parts of that blog were excerpted on the open letter's website, appleprivacyletter.com.

The letter was posted on Friday, and by Sunday morning it had been signed by about 5,000 individuals and organizations. The list of co-signers was a who's-who of privacy advocates and orgs, including Freedom of the Press Foundation, where NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is a board member and president.

Apple CEO Tim Cook in Oakland.



"No matter how well-intentioned, Apple is rolling out mass surveillance to the entire world with this," Snowden said on Twitter. "Make no mistake: if they can scan for kiddie porn today, they can scan for anything tomorrow. They turned a trillion dollars of devices into iNarcs—*without asking.*"

Some who signed the letter identified themselves as current or former Apple employees. Insider has reached out to Apple for comment.

WhatsApp head Will Cathcart on Friday said Apple's decision to scan images raised concerns. "I think this is the wrong approach and a setback for people's privacy all over the world," he wrote in a Twitter thread.

In another Twitter thread, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said he'd "tried hard" to see the move from Apple's point of view. "But inescapably, this is government spyware installed by Apple based on a presumption of guilt," he wrote.

Sweeney's company has previously criticized Apple in a well-publicized court battle over its App Store rules.





Whew! I've been told during the dark days of Apple in the mid 90's, while Apple was teetering, people were so supporting that they wouldn't even share Apple software, making others buy it themselves from Apple.

This however, from what I've been reading, is the other end, blasting Apple. It's not only competitors and those that have something against Apple. Rather customers of their hardware, software, and services.

 

[sandysgeek]

Apple employees fear that repressive governments could exploit a new feature

Apple employees fear that repressive governments could exploit a new feature that scans iPhones for child sex abuse images, a report says

Apple's child protection features spark concern within its own ranks -sources

A backlash over Apple's move to scan U.S. customer phones and computers for child sex abuse images has grown to include employees speaking out internally, a notable turn in a company famed for its secretive culture, as well as provoking intensified protests from leading technology policy groups.

Apple employees have flooded an Apple internal Slack channel with more than 800 messages on the plan announced a week ago, workers who asked not to be identified told Reuters. Many expressed worries that the feature could be exploited by repressive governments looking to find other material for censorship or arrests, according to workers who saw the days-long thread.

Past security changes at Apple have also prompted concern among employees, but the volume and duration of the new debate is surprising, the workers said. Some posters worried that Apple is damaging its leading reputation for protecting privacy.

Though coming mainly from employees outside of lead security and privacy roles, the pushback marks a shift for a company where a strict code of secrecy around new products colors other aspects of the corporate culture.

Slack rolled out a few years ago and has been more widely adopted by teams at Apple during the pandemic, two employees said. As workers used the app to maintain social ties during the work-from-home era by sharing recipes and other light-hearted content, more serious discussions have also taken root.

In the Slack thread devoted to the photo-scanning feature, some employees have pushed back against criticism, while others said Slack wasn't the proper forum for such discussions.

Core security employees did not appear to be major complainants in the posts, and some of them said that they thought Apple's solution was a reasonable response to pressure to crack down on illegal material.

Other employees said they hoped that the scanning is a step toward fully encrypting iCloud for customers who want it, which would reverse Apple's direction on the issue a second time.


PROTEST

Last week's announcement is drawing heavier criticism from past outside supporters who say Apple is rejecting a history of well-marketed privacy fights.

They say that while the U.S. government can't legally scan wide swaths of household equipment for contraband or make others do so, Apple is doing it voluntarily, with potentially dire consequences.

People familiar with the matter said a coalition of policy groups are finalizing a letter of protest to send to Apple within days demanding a suspension of the plan. Two groups, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) both released newly detailed objections to Apple's plan in the past 24 hours.

"What Apple is showing with their announcement last week is that there are technical weaknesses that they are willing to build in," CDT project director Emma Llanso said in an interview. "It seems so out of step from everything that they had previously been saying and doing."

Apple declined to comment for this story. It has said it will refuse requests from governments to use the system to check phones for anything other than illegal child sexual abuse material.

Outsiders and employees pointed to Apple's stand against the FBI in 2016, when it successfully fought a court order to develop a new tool to crack into a terrorism suspect's iPhone. Back then, the company said that such a tool would inevitably be used to break into other devices for other reasons.

But Apple was surprised its stance then was not more popular, and the global tide since then has been toward more monitoring of private communication.

With less publicity, Apple has made other technical decisions that help authorities, including dropping a plan to encrypt widely used iCloud backups and agreeing to store Chinese user data in that country.

A fundamental problem with Apple's new plan on scanning child abuse images, critics said, is that the company is making cautious policy decisions that it can be forced to change, now that the capability is there, in exactly the same way it warned would happen if it broke into the terrorism suspect's phone.

Apple says it will scan only in the United States and other countries to be added one by one, only when images are set to be uploaded to iCloud, and only for images that have been identified by the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children and a small number of other groups.

But any country's legislature or courts could demand that any one of those elements be expanded, and some of those nations, such as China, represent enormous and hard to refuse markets, critics said.

Police and other agencies will cite recent laws requiring "technical assistance" in investigating crimes, including in the United Kingdom and Australia, to press Apple to expand this new capability, the EFF said.

"The infrastructure needed to roll out Apple’s proposed changes makes it harder to say that additional surveillance is not technically feasible," wrote EFF General Counsel Kurt Opsahl.

Lawmakers will build on it as well, said Neil Brown, a U.K. tech lawyer at decoded.legal: "If Apple demonstrates that, even in just one market, it can carry out on-device content filtering, I would expect regulators/lawmakers to consider it appropriate to demand its use in their own markets, and potentially for an expanded scope of things."

 

[sandysgeek]

T-Mobile Investigating Claims of Massive Customer Data Breach

T-Mobile is investigating an alleged data breach affecting 100 million users - and the hacker is offering private data in exchange for bitcoin

T-Mobile says it is investigating a forum post claiming to be selling a mountain of personal data. The forum post itself doesn't mention T-Mobile, but the seller said they have obtained data related to over 100 million people, and that the data came from T-Mobile servers.

The data includes social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver licenses information, the seller said. Samples of the data, and confirmed they contained accurate information on T-Mobile customers.

"T-Mobile USA. Full customer info," the seller said in an online chat. The seller said they compromised multiple servers related to T-Mobile.

On the underground forum the seller is asking for 6 bitcoin, around $270,000, for a subset of the data containing 30 million social security numbers and driver licenses. The seller said they are privately selling the rest of the data at the moment.

"I think they already found out because we lost access to the backdoored servers," the seller said, referring to T-Mobile's potential response to the breach.

They said that although it appears T-Mobile has since kicked them out of the hacked servers, the seller had already downloaded the data locally.

"It's backed up in multiple places," they said.

T-Mobile said in a statement that "We are aware of claims made in an underground forum and have been actively investigating their validity. We do not have any additional information to share at this time." T-Mobile repeatedly declined to answer follow-up questions about the scale of the breach.

 

[sandysgeek]

T-Mobile Confirms Data Breach, Unclear If Personal Customer Data Was Accessed

T-Mobile confirmed that some of its data had been accessed without authorization in a breach that may impact more than 100 million of its users.

Over the weekend, T-Mobile began investigating a forum post that offered data from more than 100 million people. T-Mobile was not mentioned in that post, but the person selling the data said that it had come from T-Mobile's servers, thus leading T-Mobile to look into it. The hacker claimed that several T-Mobile servers had been breached.

T-Mobile has now confirmed that there was indeed unauthorized access to some customer data, but T-Mobile in a statement says it does not yet know if personal customer data has been accessed.

We have been working around the clock to investigate claims being made that T-Mobile data may have been illegally accessed. We take the protection of our customers very seriously and we are conducting an extensive analysis alongside digital forensic experts to understand the validity of these claims, and we are coordinating with law enforcement.

We have determined that unauthorized access to some T-Mobile data occurred, however we have not yet determined that there is any personal customer data involved. We are confident that the entry point used to gain access has been closed, and we are continuing our deep technical review of the situation across our systems to identify the nature of any data that was illegally accessed. This investigation will take some time but we are working with the highest degree of urgency. Until we have completed this assessment we cannot confirm the reported number of records affected or the validity of statements made by others.

We understand that customers will have questions and concerns, and resolving those is critically important to us. Once we have a more complete and verified understanding of what occurred, we will proactively communicate with our customers and other stakeholders.

According to the original forum post, the data for sale includes social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, IMEI numbers, and driver licenses information. Samples provided of data and were confirmed that they contained accurate information on T-Mobile customers.

T-Mobile says that the entry point used to gain access to the data has been closed, and it is now conducting a "deep technical review" of the situation to determine the nature of the data that was obtained. The company will not be able to confirm the reported number of records affected until the internal investigation is complete, and it plans to proactively communicate with customers when the information is available.

 

[sandysgeek]

T-Mobile Data Breach Included Personal Information of Almost 50 Million Customers

T-Mobile hack confirmed, carrier says 47.8M records taken; not just customers

T-Mobile has issued a statement with further details about a cyberattack that the company confirmed earlier this week, confirming that the data breach included the personal information of almost 50 million current, former, and prospective customers.

The T-Mobile hack reported earlier this week has now been confirmed by the company. Some of the details differ from claims made by the hacker, but the carrier has admitted that 47.8 million records were taken – and not just from customers. You could be at risk if you have ever even applied for a T-Mobile account, whether or not it was ever opened…

T-Mobile also confirmed the claim that the personal data includes both social security numbers and driver’s license details for “a subset’ of people” along with account PINs for some.


Background

On Monday, a hacker began offering for sale personal data from T-Mobile customers.

A hacker is selling what they claim is personal data from 100 million T-Mobile customers in the US, stating that this means full records for each customer.

The forum post itself doesn’t mention T-Mobile, but the seller told Motherboard they have obtained data related to over 100 million people, and that the data came from T-Mobile servers […]

Motherboard has seen samples of the data, and confirmed they contained accurate information on T-Mobile customers.

The data appears comprehensive: Names, Social security numbers, phone numbers, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver’s license information.

T-Mobile initially said it couldn’t confirm or deny the privacy fail, but later confirmed that unauthorized access had occurred and that it was investigating what was accessed.


T-Mobile hack confirmed

The carrier has now issued a statement giving details of the data obtained in the security breach, which it says is from a mix of past, present, and prospective T-Mobile customers.

While our investigation is still under way and we continue to learn additional details, we have now been able to confirm that the data stolen from our systems did include some personal information.

We have no indication that the data contained in the stolen files included any customer financial information, credit card information, debit or other payment information.

Some of the data accessed did include customers’ first and last names, date of birth, SSN, and driver’s license/ID information for a subset of current and former postpay customers and prospective T-Mobile customers.

Our preliminary analysis is that approximately 7.8 million current T-Mobile postpaid customer accounts’ information appears to be contained in the stolen files, as well as just over 40 million records of former or prospective customers who had previously applied for credit with T-Mobile. Importantly, no phone numbers, account numbers, PINs, passwords, or financial information were compromised in any of these files of customers or prospective customers.

Though it then says PINs of prepaid customers were included.

At this time, we have also been able to confirm approximately 850,000 active T-Mobile prepaid customer names, phone numbers and account PINs were also exposed. We have already proactively reset ALL of the PINs on these accounts to help protect these customers, and we will be notifying accordingly right away. No Metro by T-Mobile, former Sprint prepaid, or Boost customers had their names or PINs exposed.

Although T-Mobile is trying to downplay the seriousness by stating that no financial data or passwords were obtained, the personal information would put those affected at significant risk of identity theft. The company does implicitly acknowledge this by offering two years of protection.

As a result of this finding, we are taking immediate steps to help protect all of the individuals who may be at risk from this cyberattack. Communications will be issued shortly to customers outlining that T-Mobile is immediately offering 2 years of free identity protection services with McAfee’s ID Theft Protection Service.

Additional protections include making it harder for accounts to be taken over, and recommending that all customers change their account PINs.

T-Mobile will be contacting those affected, but it sounds like you are at risk if you are a current customer, have been a customer in the past, or have ever applied for a T-Mobile plan, even if your application was declined or you changed your mind before the account was activated.

 

[sandysgeek]

Apple Now Selling Refurbished 24-Inch M1 iMacs in the United States

Apple this evening began offering refurbished versions of the 24-inch M1 iMac in its U.S. online store, one day after starting to sell refurbished *M1* iMacs in the UK.

Apple has over a dozen *M1* iMacs available at the current time, and this is the first time the *M1* iMacs have been available through the refurbished store in the U.S. since the machines launched in April.

The entry-level model with 8-core GPU, 7-core GPU, and 256GB SSD is available for $1,099, which is a $200 discount from the regular price of $1,299.

Apple also has higher-end refurbished models available for purchase, up to an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU option with a 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM, which is available for $1,779. At full price, the machine would cost $2,099.

There are multiple color options and configurations available at the current time, though stock will fluctuate going forward based on the machines that people are sending Apple for repairs and returns.

Apple's refurbished *M1* iMacs are sold with the same one-year warranty offered with a new *iMac*, plus they come with all manuals and accessories. Apple uses a rigorous testing, repair, repackaging, and cleaning process to ensure refurbished devices are identical to new devices.





As usual, these refurbed iMacs are fifteen percent less than new comparable iMacs.

 

[Pad_Foot]

Wow! Informative Thread!
Thank you !!

 

[sandysgeek]

T-Mobile discloses 5.3M more accounts compromised

Wow! Informative Thread!
Thank you !!

you're welcome. However sadly, there's more



T-Mobile discloses 5.3M more accounts compromised, sensitive data including DOB and address leaked

In a massive data breach we first learned about earlier this week, T-Mobile is continuing to discover the extent of the damage that’s rising beyond 50 million accounts. In an update today, the uncarrier says it has found an additional 5.3 million current postpaid customer accounts had their name, address, date of birth, or other personal information compromised.

T-Mobile previously shared that 47.8 million records were taken including customers and those who even just applied for coverage with the carrier but never went through with it.

• T-Mobile hack confirmed, carrier says 47.8M records taken; not just customers
  
  
• Hacker selling ‘full data from 100M T-Mobile customers’ – carrier statement
  

This morning, T-Mobile has shared its latest discoveries as it continues its investigation. That includes 5.3 million more current postpaid customer accounts that were compromised:

We previously reported information from approximately 7.8 million current T-Mobile postpaid customer accounts that included first and last names, date of birth, SSN, and driver’s license/ID information was compromised. We have now also determined that phone numbers, as well as IMEI and IMSI information, the typical identifier numbers associated with a mobile phone, were also compromised. Additionally, we have since identified another 5.3 million current postpaid customer accounts that had one or more associated customer names, addresses, date of births, phone numbers, IMEIs and IMSIs illegally accessed. These additional accounts did not have any SSNs or driver’s license/ID information compromised.

In addition to the 40 million “former or prospective T-Mobile customers” the company says another 667,000 of those have been found to be compromised.

We also previously reported that data files with information from about 40 million former or prospective T-Mobile customers, including first and last names, date of birth, SSN, and driver’s license/ID information, were compromised. We have since identified an additional 667,000 accounts of former T- Mobile customers that were accessed with customer names, phone numbers, addresses and dates of birth compromised. These additional accounts did not have any SSNs or driver’s license/ID information compromised.

Clarifying more on those breaches, the uncarrier says:

Separately, we have also identified further stolen data files including phone numbers, IMEI, and IMSI numbers. That data included no personally identifiable information.

We continue to have no indication that the data contained in any of the stolen files included any customer financial information, credit card information, debit or other payment information.

As for the work ahead, T-Mobile shared today that:

We are continuing to take action to protect everyone at risk from this cyberattack, including those additional persons we recently identified. We have sent communications to millions of customers and other affected individuals and are providing support in various ways.

That includes:

• Offering two years of free identity protection services with McAfee’s ID Theft Protection Service to any person who believes they may be affected
  
  
• Recommending that all eligible T-Mobile customers sign up for free scam-blocking protection through Scam Shield
  
  
• Supporting customers with additional best practices and practical security steps like resetting PINs and passwords
  
  
• Publishing a customer support webpage that includes information and access to these tools at https://www.t-mobile.com/brand/data-breach-2021

 

[sandysgeek]

Hacker Selling Private Data Allegedly from 70 Million AT&T Customers

Update: AT&T has initially denied the breach in a statement to RestorePrivacy. The hacker has responded by saying, “they will keep denying until I leak everything.”

A well-known threat actor with a long list of previous breaches is selling private data that was allegedly collected from 70 million AT&T customers. Analyzing the data and found it to include social security numbers, date of birth, and other private information. The hacker is asking $1 million for the entire database (direct sell)


Hot on the heels of a massive data breach with T Mobile earlier this week, AT&T now appears to be in the spotlight. A well-known threat actor in the underground hacking scene is claiming to have private data from 70 million AT&T customers. The threat actor goes by the name of ShinyHunters and was also behind other previous exploits that affected Microsoft, Tokopedia, Pixlr, Mashable, Minted, and more.

The hacker posted the leak on an underground hacking forum earlier today, along with a sample of the data that analyzed. The original post is below:

This is the original post offering the data for sale on a hacking forum.


70 million AT&T customers could be at risk

In the original post that was discovered on a hacker forum, the user posted a relatively small sample of the data. Having examined the sample and it appears to be authentic based on available public records. Additionally, the user who posted it has a history of major data breaches and exploits, as we’ll examine more below.

While cannot yet confirm the data is from AT&T customers, everything examined appears to be valid. Here is the data that is available in this leak:

• Name
  
  
• Phone number
  
  
• Physical address
  
  
• Email address
  
  
• Social security number
  
  
• Date of birth

The data is currently being offered for $1 million USD for a direct sell (or flash sell) and $200,000 for access that is given to others. Assuming it is legit, this would be a very valuable breach as other threat actors can likely purchase and use the information for exploiting AT&T customers for financial gain.


Potential impact for AT&T users

A data breach of this scale is a very serious issue, especially if the data includes detailed private information, particularly social security numbers.

Specifically, AT&T users could be at risk of the following attacks:

• identity theft
  
  
• phishing attempts
  
  
• social engineering attacks
  
  
• hacked accounts
  
  
• social security scams

Strongly urge AT&T customers to be vigilant against any suspicious activities and/or compromised accounts on other platforms. The website haveibeenpwned, which is maintained by cybersecurity researcher Troy Hunt, is a useful tool to check if your personal information has been compromised.


UPDATE: AT&T comments on the situation

AT&T has provided a comment on the situation, posted below in its entirety:

Based on our investigation today, the information that appeared in an internet chat room does not appear to have come from our systems.
-AT&T Corporate Communications Officer (sent to RestorePrivacy on August 19, 2021).

This is an interesting response. The claim that this was posted in an “internet chat room” is simply not correct. It was posted in a well-known hacking forum by a user with a history of large (and verified) exploits.


ShinyHunters posted about AT&T’s statement:

It doesn’t surprise me
I think they will keep denying until I leak everything

ShinyHunters’ past exploits and breaches

Should also point out that ShinyHunters is a well-known threat actor with a laundry list of previous exploits. You can see a small sample on the hacker’s Wikipedia page here. This gives further credibility to the hacker’s claims in light of AT&T’s initial denial.

 

[sandysgeek]

Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella Visit White House on Cybersecurity

Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella Plan to Visit White House

• Tech, energy, water and banking companies among invitees
  
  
• White House meeting comes with cyberattacks on the rise

Tim Cook and Satya Nadella



The chief executive officers of Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. plan to attend a White House meeting with President Joe Biden this week to discuss efforts by private companies to improve cybersecurity following a dramatic uptick in ransomware and online attacks over the past year.

Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Amazon’s Andy Jassy plan to attend the event scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, according to people familiar with the matter.

The executives could discuss efforts undertaken by critical infrastructure entities, including those in the banking, energy and water utility sectors, to improve cybersecurity and collaborations with the government. The tech executives are likely to discuss how software can drive better security in the supply chain, according to a senior official familiar with the event.

The chief executives of companies including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, International Business Machines Corp., Southern Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. have also been invited, the senior official said. Southern Co. CEO Tom Fanning plans to attend, according to the official.

The meeting follows massive cyber and ransomware attacks on critical energy infrastructure, including that of Colonial Pipeline Co., as well as software and cloud providers such as Microsoft and SolarWinds Corp., which have largely been perpetrated by cyber groups based in Russia and China.



As expected, details about the event are unknown since it will be held behind closed doors, and the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

 

[sandysgeek]

How Tim Cook reshaped Apple in his first decade as CEO

Tim Cook is a very different Apple CEO than Steve Jobs was. but the company's astounding growth and evolution has its roots in all of Cook's previous experience.

Tim Cook was officially announced as Apple's CEO on August 24, 2011, but the company's preparation for him to take over had begun much earlier. So had Cook's own preparation, the way that each element of his career and life up to then would become key to running Apple.

It was actually on August 11, 2011 when Steve Jobs told Tim Cook he was to be the new, permanent CEO of Apple. Jobs had phoned Cook, then 51, asking him to come over to Jobs's house to discuss Apple.

Jobs was severely ill, yet the two men discussed the handover with the specific assumption that Jobs would remain. The plan was for Jobs to be chair, but even as they both avoided discussing Jobs' health, issues, there were signs it couldn't be ignored.

First was how when Jobs called and Cook asked how soon they should meet, Jobs said, "Now." And the second was the way that during the following conversation, Jobs told Cook that, "you make all the decisions."

Unable to imagine Steve Jobs not controlling the company, Cook has said that he tried testing his friend. Repeatedly, Jobs said that decisions would be Cook's - though he hoped he'd be asked his opinion.


Long time planning

As far as the outside world was concerned, Tim Cook was barely ever in the running to replace Steve Jobs. And as far as some people outside the company were concerned, Apple had been failing in its duties to work out a succession plan.

In early 2011, failing in its duties investors tried to force Apple into doing this, not knowing that a plan existed and was about to be put into action. Precise details of the plan and of who else may have been considered have not been revealed, but the decision to go with Tim Cook has.

In Steve Jobs's official resignation letter as CEO, he said so. "I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple," he said.

The outside world hadn't dismissed Cook because he was not a product person like Jobs, or Jony Ive. It hadn't dismissed him because he lacked the stand-out reality-distortion field that Jobs did.

Instead, most people had failed to consider Cook because what he did for Apple was so invisible. It was invisible in the sense of the steps and the processes not being publicly discussed, yet they were supremely visible in the way that Apple was on its way to becoming an astounding global success.

It was how he did that, how he pulled off a worldwide effort across all of Apple, that made him CEO material. And it was exactly how he'd done this that he'd learned from his previous business and life experience.

Tim Cook L-R: 1978, 1982, unknown, and 2020 (sources; various, including Apple and Auburn University)



Coder and business manager

Tim Cook has said repeatedly that he believes programming should be taught in schools because of the benefits it gives in critical thinking. He isn't just saying it, either, as it was coding and technology that he studied at Auburn, working on an Apple II.

Presumably he doesn't get to compile iOS much these days, but back then he did create more efficient software for a traffic light system. And the local police adopted his software.

Cook has said that he doesn't think he was a star at anything in his studies, but he was unusually strong across multiple disciplines that have since proven essential. Alongside technology studies, for instance, he also became business manager of his school yearbook.

That year saw him responsible for selling advertising to fund the book project. And reportedly, he set new records for the amount of ads sold, plus then the number of copies of the book bought.


Joining IBM

Cook graduated in 1982 and was very soon working for IBM. The IBM PC had launched in 1981, and Cook joined the team working on it at the company's facility in the Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.

He would spend a dozen years working for IBM, and throughout the time was steadily progressing up the corporate ladder. Quite early on, he was ranked first in an internal list of High Potential, or HiPo, people who were expected to go far within the corporation.

Cook's roles and duties would change over those 12 years, but they started with him learning about the manufacturing process called Just in Time.

If there is one thing that Cook brought to Apple that made the company the success it is, it's Just in Time and related production control. JIT is far from rare, it is often used in technology firms, but Apple got it down to an extreme art.

Apple still makes Macs, and other devices, then stores them in warehouses until they're sold. But instead of them sitting there for months, they wait in this inventory chain for at most a few days.

Back when Cook started at Apple, that saved a lot of money on warehouse fees. Both back then and to this day, it also means that Apple has a lot of flexibility.

When Apple relied on Intel, if that firm brought out a new processor, Apple was able to use it faster than rivals because of JIT engineering and product control. It didn't have to wait until huge stocks of the new outdated models were sold first.

Cook learned this at IBM, and at the same time he also learned an MBA at Duke University on IBM's dime. Ultimately, he was so effective on what IBM called pipeline management — getting products from components to customers — that he was made director of fulfilment for North America.

Tim Cook and Jony Ive in 2015



Moving on from IBM

In 1994, Cook got an offer he didn't resist. A Denver company called Intelligent Electronics made him Chief Operating Officer, with a base salary of $250,000 plus a signing bonus, and shares.

He earned it. During his time at IE, Cook suffered a serious health scare. For a time, it was misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis, but it turned out to be exhaustion.

On the happier side, in 1997 Cook recommended that IE sell itself to General Electric, and it did. Shortly afterwards, Cook left and joined Compaq.

Doubtlessly he brought the IBM Just in Time ideas with him everywhere he went, but reportedly it was at Compaq that he introduced Build to Order. Now familiar to Apple buyers, it was a new departure for Compaq and leveraged the flexibility that its JIT production line gave it.

Tim Cook only stayed at Compaq for six months. It's likely that he would have stayed much longer, quite possibly for the rest of his career, if it hadn't been for an invitation to meet Steve Jobs.


Enter Steve Jobs, exit Compaq

Cook has repeatedly said that he had not been interested in working at Apple. He took the meeting with Jobs specifically in order to meet this man who had been so influential in the technology industry.

That man who had been so influential on the industry was then so influential on Cook. Tim Cook, so known for precision decisions about production pipelines and operational technicalities, basically joined Apple on his gut feeling that it was the right thing to do.

"Any purely rational consideration of cost and benefits lined up in Compaq's favor, and the people who knew me best advised me to stay at Compaq," Cook said later. "One CEO I consulted felt so strongly about it he told me I would be a fool to leave Compaq for Apple."

He joined Apple on March 11, 1998. Nearly twenty years later, he spoke about the decision again in a commencement speech at MIT.

"I was never going to find my purpose working some place without a clear sense of purpose of its own," he said. "I tried meditation. I sought guidance and religion. I read great philosophers and authors. In a moment of youthful indiscretion, I might even have experimented with a Windows PC. And obviously, that didn't work."

Not to knock Cook's claim of it being a gut feeling, he did get a half million dollar signing bonus from Apple, on top of a $400,000 salary. Yet in moving from Compaq, he was leaving a secure job for a company that was perilously close to bankruptcy.

One of Cook's main hires at Apple was retailer Angela Ahrendts in 2014



And reportedly Cook was genuine about moving to Apple to do good, to make a difference.

"To this day I remember meeting Tim," said Deirdre O'Brien, now head of Apple Retail and People. "And right off the bat it was very clear that he was very focused."

"He was incredibly excited about being at Apple," she continued. "He had a big job to do. You could tell he knew he had a mission."


Changing Apple and changing Apple's fortunes

Not everyone can have been as impressed with Cook as O'Brien was, because he was responsible for a lot of people being laid off. There's no clear accounting of how many jobs were lost, but Cook very soon shuttered warehouses and changed supply lines.

By at most October 1998, six months after joining, Cook had got Apple's stock inventory down from 30 days to just 6. At some point in 1999, he got it down to 2 days.

He didn't change Apple by cutting costs. He did it by spending a lot of money in very precise and actually rather brave ways.

During 1998, his first year there, Cook bought $100 million worth of air transportation, of freight space on aircraft. He did it many months in advance of when the iMac G3, then not even announced, was going to ship.

Cook bought that space so that the iMac could get to customers — and so that if Apple had a hit, it wouldn't lose out because rivals had all the shipping space. As it was, Cook's decision paid off because the iMac G3 was a success, and it was all of Apple's rivals who struggled to deliver their products.

If it sounds odd to describe spending Apple's money as brave, remember how fragile the company was at the time. And if it weren't brave, Cook wouldn't have succeeded because every firm would've been doing the same thing.

It takes some nerve to commit funds to a project, and Cook does not figure this out on his fingers. Reports vary, but there are at least very many thousands of Apple staff whose jobs are directly related to figuring out this product pipeline.

Tim Cook at WWDC 2020



Cook becomes CEO

All of this far-sighted attitudes, coupled to precise control of the production cycle, was surely what made Cook the right person to replace Steve Jobs. He was far from being a clone of Jobs, had far from the same approach, but he was right for the next stage of Apple.

Tim Cook has increased how Apple donates to charity, and he's become a much more visibly and politically outspoken CEO than Steve Jobs was. That's at least partly down to how the world has changed, and technology companies have become so crucial, but it is also seemingly part of how Cook works.

We'll never know what Tim Cook is really like, he is as shielded as any company CEO, and most of the time you can assume his public image is as crafted as an Apple product. But at times, what appears to be the real man comes through — and not always intentionally.

In 2014, the right-win National Center for Public Policy Research tried to use a shareholders' meeting to force Apple to justify its environmental and accessibility practices in the dollars and cents of its return on investment.

"When I think about making our products accessible for the people that can't see or to help a kid with autism, I don't think about a bloody ROI," he said in an unscripted, off the cuff reply.

He was much more considered, he chose much more carefully, when he wrote a key op-ed for Bloomberg in 2015. In that editorial article, he announced that he is gay and that he was doing so to help.

"If hearing that the CEO of Apple is gay can help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is," he wrote, "or bring comfort to anyone who feels alone, or inspire people to insist on their equality, then it's worth the trade-off with my own privacy."


Changing perceptions of Tim Cook

Tim Cook didn't particularly set out to make his mark as CEO, to make quick moves to show that he was now in charge. He was quick to eject Steve Jobs favorite Scott Forstall, but that was not removing a rival, it was in response to how Forstall handled the poor launch of Apple Maps.

Instead, it appears now that Cook just got on with what he believed needed to be done. Whether he gets criticism or praise in the moment, his ten years to date demonstrates a long-term view.

Apple is often described as working to the long game and if anything it has been doing more of that under Tim Cook's aegis.






I remember the Scott Forstall fiasco. Also on the same day, John Browett, (that Tim hired) who was SVP of retail, after only six months on the job for messing up Apple Stores that Jobs, and Browett's predecessor Ron Johnson created.

 

[sandysgeek]

How much Apple stock has grown since Tim Cook became CEO in 2011

Tim Cook became CEO of Apple 10 years ago. Here’s how much money you’d have if you invested $1,000 in the tech giant the day he took over

Apple CEO Tim Cook.


It’s been 10 years since Tim Cook took over as Apple CEO from co-founder Steve Jobs. In the ensuing decade, Cook took the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech company from a giant of Silicon Valley to the biggest publicly traded company in the world.

And for investors who have held Apple stock since Cook took the reigns, his tenure has been a massive financial success, with the stock delivering a nearly 1,200% return over the past decade.

If you invested $1,000 in Apple the day Cook became CEO in 2011, the market value of your shares would be worth $12,970.28 today, according to CNBC calculations. In contrast, a $1,000 investment in the S&P 500 index would have seen a 365.9% return over the same period and would be worth about $4,659.

Though he hasn’t introduced many new hardware products — the Apple Watch and AirPods, released in 2015 and 2016, respectively, are the two most notable new devices launched under Cook, with the rest coming in the form of annual upgrades to iPhones, iPads and Macs — Cook has boosted Apple’s profits by leveraging its massive, loyal user base into a recurring source of subscription revenue through services like Apple Music and iCloud storage.

Apple’s services business, which includes the Apple News+ magazine subscription service and streaming platform Apple TV+, raked in $2.95 billion in fiscal year 2011, a number that ballooned to $53.77 billion in fiscal year 2020.

Under Cook’s leadership, Apple has grown from a $364.4 billion market cap to $2.45 trillion, becoming the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market cap in 2018, and hitting $2 trillion just over two years later.

But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Apple. The company has received criticism in recent years from users (Throttlegate), rivals (Facebook) and Washington for a number of practices, including the 30% fee it charges on most App Store transactions.

But remember, despite Apple’s strong stock growth, any individual stock can over- or under-perform and past returns do not predict future results. Make sure to carefully research your options before investing your money in the stock market.

 

[sandysgeek]

10 years ago, Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple

Remembering Steve: 10 years ago, the legendary cofounder of Apple resigned his post as CEO

Around 6:30 p.m. EST on August 24, 2011, Steve Jobs stepped down as the CEO of Apple. I remember sitting in my friend’s living room as the television switched to the breaking news. I was only in middle school at the time, but Steve’s influence had already weighed heavily on me. It was a difficult moment. As a kid I’d put together faux keynotes on our family iMac and presented my product ideas to an imaginary audience. I remember making movies about him at Apple Camp at my local Apple Store. His portraits even adorned my wall. He was my hero and I knew the moment that he resigned was the beginning of the end.

Since January of 2011, Steve had been on another medical leave because he was experiencing issues with his liver transplant that he had received in 2009. All of us fans knew that Tim Cook had been at the helm and that he was more than capable as leader. In the years leading up to this moment, Tim had been rolled out more than once on the keynote stage to become one of Apple’s handful of prominent and familiar faces.

But nothing can prepare you for the moment something earth shattering yet completely inevitable happens. We knew that Steve was in a fragile state, but he had always pulled through. After all, that was Steve’s thing. He was the quintessential comeback kid.


Breaking the news

When we all saw that dreaded press release, it was clear something was very wrong. Titled “Letter from Steve Jobs,” it was a short note from Steve himself addressed to both Apple’s board of directors and to the Apple community. Steve was succinct. He said he could no longer meet his “duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO.” After reading that sentence it was pretty evident what was to come next, but it was still shocking nonetheless. With a few more keystrokes, he had resigned.

Steve didn’t want to give up all of his duties at Apple though and asked the board to allow him to remain as chairman. He told the board to name Tim as CEO and he thanked his team for their work and friendship.

As a compliment to Steve’s note, Katie Cotton and Steve Dowling put out a press release with more details about the transition. Art Levinson, one of Apple’s board members and soon-to-be chairman said:

Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company.

Art Levinson, chairman of Genentech and Apple Board Member

Apple fans, writers, customers, investors, and employees all felt a variety of emotions. First and foremost, sadness. Steve had revived a company we all adored and turned it into an empire of epic proportions. He was the most brilliant businesspeople of our time with an uncanny ability to empower people to do their best work. Would Apple be the same without him at the helm? That sadness turned into fear as people asked whether or not an operations guru like Tim Cook could lead Apple into its next chapter and keep it the most innovative company in the world. There was a great feeling of uncertainty about the company we loved and the founder we admired. But the message was clear, if Steve trusted Tim, we should too.


Reactions from the community

When looking back on articles and videos from that day, I’m hit with chills. I can place myself exactly then. As I said before, we knew that this could happen but it would still be absolutely stunning to us. That day John Gruber said on Daring Fireball: “This is not out of nowhere, it’s not even unexpected. We could all see this was coming — but it is a shock.” He also captured the feeling I had and I am sure many of you did as well: “I saw that headline and my nervous system took a jolt.” His piece is well worth revisiting and I think he put it best when he said: “Jobs’s greatest creation isn’t any Apple product. It is Apple itself.”

Seth Weintraub reacted to the news shortly after Steve made the announcement. Seth said:

This is of course a sad day and one that we’ve had in the back of our minds for years now. After founding Apple 35 years ago in his garage in Silicon Valley, and subsequently getting pushed out less than a decade later, Jobs was brought back in 1997 when Apple was on the brink of collapse. In the 14 years since his return, Apple has turned into the most valuable company in the world by market cap. To say that he’s leaving the CEO position on top would be an understatement.

Seth Weintraub, publisher of 9to5Mac

Jason Snell compiled quotes from various Apple analysts and community members that day for Macworld. Mike Isaac wrote for Wired calling Steve “the tech-savvy equivalent of Walt Disney.” He said:

Under Jobs, Apple delivered innovations from the first widely used mouse-driven user interface to the pocketable iPod media player, which created the digital-music revolution. It delivered the first popular tablet computer, the iPad, prompting a wholesale reinvention of the media business in the process.

As chief executive officer of Pixar Studios, Jobs became the tech-savvy equivalent of Walt Disney, fine-tuning the art of computer-generated storytelling beginning with Toy Story. Today, Apple continues to expand its reign in the mobile wireless industry with its phenomenally successful iPhone.

Mike Isaac, Wired

If you want to, you can still watch the breaking news announcement on CNN from that day on YouTube. There are also snippets from ABC News’s coverage available to watch. You can read more stories from that day from The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Verge, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

 

[sandysgeek]

Apple launches new iPhone 12 service program for ‘no-sound issues’

Apple today has launched a new service program for iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro users who are facing issues with their device’s speakers. Apple says that the affected devices “may experience sound issues due to a component that might fail on the receiver module.” This marks the first service program for the iPhone 12 lineup.

According to Apple, this issue affects “a very small percentage” of iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro devices manufactured between October 2020 and April 2021. Apple says that your iPhone is eligible for the program if it “does not emit sound from the receiver when you make or receive calls.”

In a support document, Apple says:

Apple has determined that a very small percentage of iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro devices may experience sound issues due to a component that might fail on the receiver module. Affected devices were manufactured between October 2020 and April 2021.

If your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro does not emit sound from the receiver when you make or receive calls, it may be eligible for service.

The program only applies to the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro, not the iPhone 12 mini or the iPhone 12 Pro Max. The program covers affected iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro devices for two years after the first retail sale of the unit.

Apple says that Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider will service affected devices free of charge.

• Find an Apple Authorized Service Provider.
  
  
• Make an appointment at an Apple Retail Store.
  
  
• Contact Apple Support to arrange mail-in service via the Apple Repair Center.

As always, Apple says that if your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro has “any damage which impairs the ability to complete the repair,” including a cracked screen, that issue will need to be resolved prior to the service.

 

[sandysgeek]

Steve Jobs' Most Magical Feat Took a Decade to Reveal Itself

Why it took Steve Jobs' most magical feat a decade to reveal itself

It is human nature to have vivid memories of where you were when history happens. An earlier generation recited their whereabouts the moment John F. Kennedy was shot. I recall exactly what I was doing when the Challenger exploded (chatting with my college roommate) and when news of Michael Jackson's death flashed on TV (having drinks with colleagues in Manhattan).

And I can pinpoint my location on Aug. 24, 2011, when my phone rang—it was a booker for Lou Dobbs at Fox Business calling—to inform me that Steve Jobs was stepping down as CEO of Apple. The world-famous entrepreneur was to be replaced by the still-not-particularly-well-known Apple operations chief, Tim Cook, whom I had profiled in Fortune three years earlier. Ten years ago this week I was at a playground with my daughter on vacation at the Jersey Shore, and so the best I could manage was a cell-phone interview.

Fox wanted me to address the uncomfortable question on everyone's mind, then and for years to come: Could Apple survive without its singular leader? Jobs had been ill for a while, and he died less than two months later. The widespread assumption that Cook didn't stand a chance would dog the new CEO for years.

The doubts about Cook were justified. He had none of the Jobsian qualities that made Apple one of the greatest business successes of our lifetimes. Where Jobs was a creative genius, Cook was a technocrat. Jobs studied fonts, personally reviewed ad copy, and broke the rules of business. Cook was an industrial engineering major with an MBA who'd spent years refining Apple's supply chain.

I had a pressing professional reason for wrestling with this question. When Jobs died I was in the final throes of writing a book about Apple. It was to be an explanation of the culture and business processes Jobs had put in place during his second reign at the pioneering computer company, beginning in 1997. My book editor was leaning hard on me to make a call. Yes or no: Would Apple decline under Cook? I sought out clear-eyed opinions from people I respected. I interviewed Jack Welch, the retired General Electric CEO, who had known Jobs. He was emphatic that Apple's best days were behind it.

And yet one of my conclusions from my reporting was that Jobs wanted it both ways. He liked being thought of as the all-knowing decisionmaker. But he also took great pride in the systems he had put in place that made Apple hum. So I came up with an artful dodge. Under Cook, if he lasted as CEO, Apple would no longer be "insanely great" — one of Jobs's stock phrases to describe Apple's products — but instead would become merely great. Even had Jobs lived, I argued, Apple wouldn't have had another 15 years like the previous decade and a half, an explosively and uniquely innovative period. This burst of creative and commercial energy, after all, saw the introduction of the iMac, iTunes, the iPhone, and the iPad. But if the culture held up reasonably well, Apple would be fine on the strength of these products.

Members of the cult of Jobs were generally disdainful of my conclusion. George Colony, the CEO of tech-industry researcher Forrester, published an essay predicting Apple would now go the way of Sony, which declined when its charismatic leader passed from the scene. Already Apple was flagging. Siri was embarrassing in its mediocrity. Apple Maps were worse. The conventional wisdom at the time was that once Apple released the products in the pipeline while Jobs was alive, it would cease to be either exciting or outlandishly successful. It would, in short, be just another company.

So how has Cook done? Simply put, better than everyone expected. The company's market capitalization has increased by a factor of seven, from $350 billion to $2.5 trillion. While the iPad has faded, the iPhone charges along. Meantime, Cook built up a services businesses — songs, subscriptions, storage, movies and TV shows, games, and so on — that was an afterthought at $3 billion in revenue and $54 billion today.

It's true that Apple hasn't been the innovative machine it once was. Its neatest hits—the Apple Watch, AirPods—have been modest relative to their industry-defining predecessors. But as a businessman, Cook has lived up to his billing. He made Apple slightly more open to the rest of the world, while generally retaining its cult-like secrecy. Once a wooden speaker and internally focused executive, he has transformed himself into an able spokesman and adroit political operator. His handling of Donald Trump, for instance, will be studied for years as a case study of how a CEO who presumably has a certain set of political beliefs holds his nose and engages with a repugnant government official for the good of his company. For clarity, I'm neither praising nor condemning Cook for his dance with Trump. I'm saying Apple repeatedly escaped the worst of Trump's wrath under Cook's watch.

Those who doubted Cook mostly have conceded defeat. "He has played a perfect Brigham Young to Jobs's Joseph Smith," says Forrester's Colony now, referring to the founder of the Mormon church and his successor. "He took a small religion and made it a very large religion, a dominant religion. I was a doubter, but he was the perfect leader at a bad moment. Half the CEOs would have messed that up."

The doubts will never evaporate completely. Colony points out that Apple's revenue has grown only 7% at a compounded annual rate since 2012. Income is up a mere 36% in total. And 14 years after its introduction, Apple still has no successor breakout product to the iPhone. With sales of phones still accounting for half of Apple's revenue, the iPhone remains the Jobs-blessed sun around which all Apple products orbit.

Apple today is no longer insanely great. And Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs. But Apple is the world's most valuable company, and that happened under Cook's extended watch. A decade of success is no fluke.






Saying Siri was embarrassing and Maps worse are polite understatements.

And Jack Welch, the retired General Electric CEO, said that Apple's best days were behind it, is the same man that shifted GE's business from manufacturing to financial services, which brought the conglomerate to it's knees, then while selling itself off in pieces until rescued by the federal government.

 

[sandysgeek]

iPhone 12 no sound recall eligibility: How to check yours

How to check if your iPhone 12 is eligible for the no sound recall

Just under a year since launching the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, Apple has started a service program for devices that see their speakers fail. Here’s how to check iPhone 12 no sound recall eligibility.

Apple announced the no sound service program at the end of August with the affected iPhone 12 and 12 Pro smartphones being made between October 2020 and April 2021.

The company says a “very small percentage” should see the speaker failure, but with Apple selling more than 100 million iPhone 12 devices, even a tiny percentage could mean hundreds of thousands of impacted smartphones.

The no sound issue stems from a failure that can occur in the receiver module of the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro.


How to check iPhone 12 no sound recall eligibility

This service program is only for iPhone 12 and 12 Pro (not iPhone 12 mini or Pro Max)
Your iPhone 12 may be eligible for a free repair if sound isn’t working when you make or take calls
Apple is not offering a serial number checker for this program, so you’ll need to reach out to Apple Support to verifiy if your iPhone is covered under the recall

More details on the iPhone 12 no sound recall:

Apple notes this program doesn’t extend the normal warranty for the iPhone 12 and 12 Pro but does cover the failure of the receiver for “two years after the first retail sale of the unit.”

This is a worldwide service program. Apple also adds:

If your iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro has any damage which impairs the ability to complete the repair, such as a cracked screen, that issue will need to be resolved prior to the service. In some cases, there may be a cost associated with the additional repair.

You can find the official service program landing page here.

 

[sandysgeek]

Apple Music to launch standalone classical genre app based on Primephonic

Apple Music to launch standalone classical genre app based on Primephonic following acquisition

Apple Music will soon upgrade the streaming experience for fans of the classical music genre after acquiring a service called Primephonic. Plans to bolster classical music offerings in Apple Music will include a standalone app from Apple dedicated specifically to the genre.

Here’s the announcement from Apple:

Apple today announced it has acquired Primephonic, the renowned classical music streaming service that offers an outstanding listening experience with search and browse functionality optimized for classical, premium-quality audio, handpicked expert recommendations, and extensive contextual details on repertoire and recordings.

Apple plans to integrate “Primephonic playlists and exclusive audio content” into Apple Music. Subscribers will also find “better browsing and search capabilities by composer and by repertoire, detailed displays of classical music metadata, plus new features and benefits.”

For current subscribers of the $14.99/month service, Primephonic has published its own article describing what happens next for the now-defunct classical music service:

As a classical-only startup, we can not reach the majority of global classical listeners, especially those that listen to many other music genres as well. We therefore concluded that in order to achieve our mission, we need to partner with a leading streaming service that encompasses all music genres and also shares our love for classical music. Today, we are therefore thrilled to share a great step forward in our mission – Primephonic is joining Apple Music!

We are working on an amazing new classical music experience from Apple for early next year, but unfortunately, the Primephonic service will be taken offline starting September 7. You may continue to use it at no charge until then.

Please check your email for more details about your 6 month free trial on Apple Music, your refund and more.

Notably, Primephonic has already been removed from the App Store, and existing subscribers will lose access starting September 7. Apple plans to launch its own standalone music player dedicated to classical music next year, but existing Primephonic subscribers will have to rely on the current Apple Music experience until then:

Apple Music plans to launch a dedicated classical music app next year combining Primephonic’s classical user interface that fans have grown to love with more added features. In the meantime, current Primephonic subscribers will receive six months of Apple Music for free, providing access to hundreds of thousands of classical albums, all in Lossless and high-resolution audio, as well as hundreds of classical albums in Apple Music’s Spatial Audio, with new albums added regularly.

Long-time Apple Music subscribers may recall that Apple’s streaming music subscription service is based on another acquisition in 2014 when Beats Music joined the family and became the foundation for the current service. Primephonic launched some three years later in 2017.

 

[sandysgeek]

People will need to update their birthday info to keep using Instagram, Facebook says

To create “safer, more private experiences for young people,” Facebook said today that it will need people to update their birthday information to keep using Instagram.

It’s been a while since Facebook started its plans to create an Instagram for kids under 13. While this “new experience” hasn’t become a reality, the company is creating safety tools to ensure Instagram provides “the right experiences to the right age group.”

For example, in March, Instagram announced that adults couldn’t send messages to people under 18 who don’t follow them, and in July, Facebook started to default new accounts belonging to people under the age of 16 into a private setting.

Now, Facebook says that if you haven’t already shared your birthday information with Instagram, when you open the app, you’ll see a notification a handful of times to provide this data. If you do not, Facebook says you won’t be able to continue using Instagram.

If you haven’t provided us with your birthday by a certain point, you’ll need to share it to continue using Instagram. This information is necessary for new features we’re developing to protect young people.

Facebook says that it will also add warning screens placed on posts asking for your birthday before you can see it.

These screens aren’t new, and we already show them on posts that may be sensitive or graphic, but we don’t currently ask for your birthday when viewing these posts. Now, we’ll start asking for your birthday on some of these screens if you haven’t shared it with us previously.

Facebook clarifies that as some people may want to give the company their wrong birthday data, so it’s developing new systems to address this.

As we shared recently, we’re using artificial intelligence to estimate how old people are based on things like “Happy Birthday” posts. In the future, if someone tells us they’re above a certain age, and our technology tells us otherwise, we’ll show them a menu of options to verify their age. This work is still in the early stages, and we look forward to sharing more soon.

Oh there will be no problems with Facebook having people's birth dates

Trust me.

 

[sandysgeek]

Apple acknowledges ongoing iCloud Mail outage for some users

Instagram isn’t the only online service experiencing an outage this morning. Apple has acknowledged an ongoing issue with iCloud Mail as well.

Apple says “some users are affected” by the outage and “may be unable to send, receive, or access mail.” The iCloud status board only lists Mail as experiencing issues, however, so all other services should be working as expected.

At the time of writing, the outage has been listed for just over two hours.

In the meantime, you may experience turbulence when trying to use your Apple email account today. You can also check for updates on Apple online service outages here.