Tag: infinite loop

OS X is holding back the 2013 MacBook Air’s 802.11ac Wi-Fi speeds

Apple’s 2013 MacBook Air and new Airport Extreme Base Station are the company’s first 802.11ac products, and there are some bugs that need to be worked out. Apple Apple’s 2013 MacBook Air doesn’t look like much of an upgrade from the outside, but the story is different on the inside. We’ve spent the better part of a week using the new Air and measuring just how Intel’s new Haswell processors , the PCI Express-based SSD , and the 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter change the laptop compared to last year’s model. The new Wi-Fi chip was the change that I was the most eager to get my hands on. I’m always looking to boost my network speeds, but I’ve been waiting for hardware based on the new 802.11ac standard to become more widely available before upgrading everything on my network. Reviewing both the new Air and Apple’s new 802.11ac-capable Airport Express Base Station simultaneously would give me a chance to see just how close the lauded “Gigabit Wi-Fi” would come to fulfilling its promises. I was unpleasantly surprised by the results. Both the 2012 and 2013 MacBook Airs use four antennas to transmit data—two to send data and two to receive it. Each set of antennas can theoretically send and receive 150Mbps (or 18.75MBps) using 5GHz 802.11n for a total of 300Mbps (37.5MBps). Under 802.11ac, the size of each stream is increased to 433Mbps, making for a maximum theoretical link speed of 866Mbps (108.25MBps) in the 2013 MacBook Air. Actual network transfer speeds rarely (if ever) come within spitting distance of these theoretical maximums, but we would at least expect the actual 802.11ac transfer speeds to increase by a similar percentage compared to 802.11n. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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OS X is holding back the 2013 MacBook Air’s 802.11ac Wi-Fi speeds

How OS X “Mavericks” works its power-saving magic

Apple execs talk up the new features in OS X Mavericks. At yesterday’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote, Apple made some bold claims about the future of battery life in its laptops. A new 13-inch Macbook Air, for instance, should now run a full 12 hours on a single charge , up from 7 in the previous model. Assuming that testing bears out Apple’s numbers, how did the company do it? The obvious part of the answer is “Haswell”—but that turns out to be only part of the story. The power efficiency gains found in Intel’s new Haswell CPUs should provide modest gains in battery life, and such gains were widely expected. Back in January, Intel claimed that the new Haswell CPUs featured the “largest generation-to-generation battery life increase in the history of Intel” and said that the chips were the first of its architectures designed “from the ground up” for Ultrabooks and tablets. The new chips run at lower clockspeeds and at lower wattages. Less expected was the announcement of OS X 10.9 “Mavericks” and its own focus on mobile power usage. While Apple made a few comments during the keynote about the new technologies meant to enable longer battery life, more information appeared later in the day with the separate release of a Core Technology Overview (PDF) document that offers a high-level look at some of the Mavericks internals. Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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How OS X “Mavericks” works its power-saving magic

Apple announces flatter, sleeker iOS 7

A new version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 7, was announced at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The release will feature, among a number of changes, a departure from the bubbly, skeuomorphic design that has prevailed on both iOS and OS X for the last several years in favor of flatter, more angular design elements influenced by Apple SVP of Industrial Design Jony Ive. The most front-facing part of the OS, the home screen, now has app icons that lack the dimension and gloss effect of previous versions. Design elements within the icon, like the musical note on the Music app icon, appear as a flat design flush with the background rather than a cutout like before. iOS 7 isn’t doing away completely with dimensionality, as some text elements shown in the intro video still feature embossing, and Ive emphasized that the OS focuses on “depth and vitality.” The look of several key apps in iOS 7. Many of the skeuomorphic touches are also gone from the OS, such as the textured paper in the iBooks app and the leather-bound elements in the Calendar app. Of the Game Center redesign, Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi stated, “we just ran out of green felt.” Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple announces flatter, sleeker iOS 7

Apple unveils OS X 10.9, “Mavericks”

Apple today unveiled OS X 10.9 at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), showing off the first major revision of the Mac’s operating system since last year’s Mountain Lion . Apple has apparently run out of cat names and is now naming releases after places in California, where OS X is developed. The new OS X is thus named ” Mavericks .” Developers are being given a preview version of Mavericks today. It will be available to the general public in the fall. New features include tabs in the Finder, allowing multiple Finder windows to be drawn together in tabs. Apple is bringing tagging to documents—any tags you add to a document will appear in the Finder sidebar and in iCloud. Multiple tags can be added to each document, and these tags will allow new search capabilities. Mavericks will make life easier for users who have multiple monitors. Menus will be spread across the different displays, and users will be able to take a window full-screen on one display without disturbing the desktop on another display. HDTVs connected to Apple TV boxes can also act as displays. Mission Control has been “super charged for multiple displays,” Apple said, making it easier to drag apps and windows from one monitor to another. Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple unveils OS X 10.9, “Mavericks”

iCloud users take note: Apple two-step protection won’t protect your data

A diagram showing how Apple’s two-step verification works. Apple If you think your pictures, contacts, and other data are protected by the two-step verification protection Apple added to its iCloud service in March , think again. According to security researchers in Moscow, the measure helps prevent fraudulent purchases made with your Apple ID but does nothing to augment the security of files you store. To be clear, iCloud data is still secure so long as the password locking it down is strong and remains secret. But in the event that your account credentials are compromised—which is precisely the eventuality Apple’s two-factor verification is intended to protect against—there’s nothing stopping an adversary from accessing data stored in your iCloud account. Researchers at ElcomSoft—a developer of sophisticated software for cracking passwords—made this assessment in a blog post published Thursday . “In its current implementation, Apple’s two-factor authentication does not prevent anyone from restoring an iOS backup onto a new (not trusted) device,” ElcomSoft CEO Vladimir Katalov wrote. “In addition, and this is much more of an issue, Apple’s implementation does not apply to iCloud backups, allowing anyone and everyone knowing the user’s Apple ID and password to download and access information stored in the iCloud. This is easy to verify; simply log in to your iCloud account, and you’ll have full information to everything stored there without being requested any additional logon information.” Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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iCloud users take note: Apple two-step protection won’t protect your data

Why Apple added debt to its $145 billion cash hoard

Anton TwAng Apple is making headlines with rumors of a record-sized bond sale. According to reports, Cupertino is likely taking advantage of historically dirt-cheap interest rates on corporate debt by raising about $17 billion from a series of six types of bond papers. It’s not the largest non-bank bond sale in history, but it does rank near the top. Automaker General Motors raised $17.5 billion in bond financing a decade ago, for example. Then again, GM’s financing arm, then known as GMAC, sort of made a bank out of the car builder. Pharma giants Abbott Laboratories and Roche Holdings also issued $14.7 billion and $16 billion in bond debt fairly recently. Record-level or not, Apple’s sale certainly ranks right up there with the big boys. Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Why Apple added debt to its $145 billion cash hoard

OS X 10.9 said to focus on the “power user”

OS X 10.9 will reportedly focus on the “power user,” according to sources speaking to 9to5Mac . The release, code-named “Cabernet,” isn’t expected to significantly overhaul how the operating system functions, but will reportedly bring over more iOS features that could benefit OS X. What might those features be? According to 9to5Mac’s sources, Apple has been “testing a new multi-tasking system” that’s similar to the app-switcher within iOS. “The multitasking feature will be functional for applications in the background, according to this person. Additionally, Apple could use app-pausing technologies from iOS to pause background application processes in OS X,” the site wrote, though apparently it’s unclear whether this feature will make the official 10.9 release. The other “power user” features reportedly include modifications to the Finder that would bring a tabbed browsing mode, an updated version of Safari with “a redesigned backend for improved page loading, speed, and efficiency,” and the ability to keep different Spaces open on separate monitors. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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OS X 10.9 said to focus on the “power user”

Apple supercharges R&D with extra $500 million spent in last six months

Apple product sales are flattening out a bit compared to last year, save for iPads. Casey Johnston Apple boosted its research and development spending by 33 percent in the second quarter of 2013 compared to the same period last year, according to a quarterly report filed with the Securities Exchange Commission. If the rate of spending continues, Apple could drop over $4 billion on R&D this fiscal year. During the quarter ending March 30, 2013, Apple spent $1.119 billion on R&D, compared to $841 million from a year ago. In the first six months of its fiscal year, Apple has spent $2.129 billion total on R&D, while it spent only $1.599 billion last year. Apple stated that the spending for the quarter was up 33 percent due to “an increase in headcount” and “expanded R&D activities.” The statement went on to say that the “focused investments” in R&D are “directly related to timely development of new and enhanced products that are central to the Company’s core business strategy. As such, the Company expects to make further investments in R&D to remain competitive.” Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple supercharges R&D with extra $500 million spent in last six months

A flood of prank iMessage texts shows the app can be crashed easily

Human can’t be blamed for thinking this show of affection comes off as a little clingy. Adam Bell/The Next Web On Friday, The Next Web reported that a group of iOS developers were experiencing rapid-fire texts over iMessage, causing bothersome and repetitious messages and notifications. While the prank wasn’t serious on the level of, say, a full-scale DDoS of a bank website , and concern over spam via iMessage is not new either, the unwanted messages were fresh proof of some problems with the iMessage app, specifically in the lack of good spam-detection in iMessage, and in the lack of a way for users to block a message sender. One of the recipients of the spam, an iOS jailbreak tool and app developer who goes by the moniker iH8sn0w , informed The Next Web of the prank when it happened. iH8sn0w told Ars over Twitter that he simply disabled the handle that was getting flooded. “It’s just a bunch of kids bored playing with AppleScript,” he said. Another app and extension developer for iOS devices, Grant Paul, reported on Twitter that he was getting spammed on iMessage with very large messages, causing his iMessage app to crash. “The iMessage spammer has now completely locked me out of my iOS Messages app, by sending long strings of Unicode chars. Definitely a DoS,” Paul wrote on his Twitter account . Ars reached out to Paul but has not yet heard back from him. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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A flood of prank iMessage texts shows the app can be crashed easily

One day after iOS 6.1.3, a new iPhone lock screen bug emerges

Just a day after Apple released iOS 6.1.3 , a new lock screen bug has been discovered that could give an attacker access to private information. The vulnerability is different from the passcode bug(s) addressed by Tuesday’s iOS update, but the end result is similar: access to iPhone’s contact list and photos. The new lock screen bug was first documented by YouTube user videosdebarraquito , who posted a video demoing the procedure. The basic gist, seen in the video below, is to eject the iPhone’s SIM card while using the built-in voice controls to make a phone call. Bypassing the iPhone passcode lock on iOS 6.1.3. There are a couple important things to keep in mind, though. For one, it seems  like this bug applies to most modern iPhones, though apparently the procedure isn’t as easy as it looks. The YouTube video above shows the hack being executed on an iPhone 4, and iphoneincanada was able to replicate it on an iPhone 4. TheNextWeb was able to replicate it on an iPhone 4S but not an iPhone 5. But the iPhone 5 didn’t get away scot free, as German language site iPhoneblog.de appears to have been able to replicate the bug on that version of the phone. We have not yet seen a confirmed case of the bug existing on the iPhone 3GS, though it’s probably safe to assume that it does. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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One day after iOS 6.1.3, a new iPhone lock screen bug emerges