Microsoft laying off 1,850 employees as its smartphone business goes on life support CEO Satya Nadella made a point to say Microsoft isn't out of the smartphone business, but instead is shifting its efforts to the parts of the market where it has a chance of succeeding. He said, We are focusing our phone efforts…

For Mr. Enderle, Chief Demagogue in the Church of Apple's Doom, called Apple “desperate.” Isolated like that it seems preposterous, but this was a case where context amps it up to something where words fail. TMO Artist's Rendition of Rob Enderle's Characterization of Apple Mr. Enderle's comments were given to The San Francisco Chronicle for…

I spoke with CEO Todd Weaver at Pepcom, and it was one of the most significant conversations I've had with a tech exec in a long time. I was already on board with Mr. Weaver's general message when he laid that phrase on me, “surveillance capitalism.” That's when he really had me hooked. Surveillance Capitalism…

Symantec's antivirus tools expose Mac, Windows, and Linux to hackers The flaw, discovered by Tavis Ormandy, is rooted in Symantec's antivirus engine and takes advantage of the way it intercepts system input and output. Simply scanning a file or incoming email message, for example, is enough to trigger the exploit—no need to open files or…

iTunes Music Bug Victim gets Personal Visit from Apple   James Pinkstone blogged a week or so ago about how his personal iTunes music library was wiped away by Apple Music, and his Apple support call led him to believe that was simply how the streaming music service worked. Sign up, and Apple Music blasts…

Apple isn't anti-spy detection, it's anti-developer guideline violation Mr. Esser said his app was rejected for providing “potentially inaccurate and diagnostic functionality,” which sounds rather ominous. He said on Twitter this was Apple's way of shielding users from knowing iOS could potentially have security holes. Here. It basically says: we do not want our users…

iTunes bug fixes won't be enough to make users happy Apple told iMore, In an extremely small number of cases users have reported that music files saved on their computer were removed without their permission. We're taking these reports seriously as we know how important music is to our customers and our teams are focused…

Don't get me wrong. I'm not entirely sold on this notion myself. In fact, I'll play devil's advocate in a bit, but I find the idea compelling and interesting. Skating to the puck On Thursday evening, news broke that Apple had invested US$1 billion into Chinese ride sharing giant Didi. I posted a piece earlier…

The comments came during an interview at TechCrunch's Disrupt this week, where General Hayden spoke about a wide ranging series of topics relating to national security, politics as related to national security, and encryption—Jeff Gamet and I discussed his interview during this week's Apple Context Machine. Here's the interview in full: Former NSA and CIA…

There are several problems here. There's a definite movement by Apple's customers away from purchasing and towards streaming music. While the article facts may be in question, you can see for yourself the projected trend in music downloads. Managing and backing up a music library in itself is a chore. iTunes bugs and opacity into…

There was a time, perhaps 20 years ago, when our computers didn't have a lot of supporting infrastructure. We knew they were powerful tools, and there was a sense that they would become instrumental in our lives. But lacking the Internet and modern video capabilities, we were left with the idea that as we prepared…

Internet of Things devices offer almost no security protections A Disrupt New York 2016 panel said the fact that so many devices collect information about us poses a serious privacy risk because data could be intercepted, and also creates enticing targets for criminals, hackers, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies around the world. “It's a field…

Episode #173   Last month I spent nine days in Germany as a guest of Germany Trade & Invest, the foreign trade and investment agency of the Federal Republic of Germany. The theme for our visit was Industry 4.0, a worldwide initiative (conceived in Germany) to develop standards and protocols to integrate the Internet of…

New warrant rules give DOJ sweeping computer surveillance powers The changes where made at the Department of Justice's request and are part of what's known as Rule 41. Unless Congress overrides them, they will go into effect on December 1. The key change states: A magistrate judge with authority in any district where activities related…

Warrant let FBI use suspect's finger to unlock iPhone Paytsar Bkhchadzhyan was arrested in late February, and only 45 minutes later FBI agents had a warrant in hand compelling her to place her finger on her iPhone's Touch ID sensor to unlock the device. Considering how quickly the warrant was obtained, the FBI probably assumed…

Let's get this out of the way right up front: The SolarTab is the best solution I've seen for using solar energy to charge your gear in the wild. The problem is, with the ubiquity of cheap, high-capacity external batteries, I'd pretty much written off solar chargers as obsolete. But more on that later. A…

I chose that wording with care, because I'm not saying he's right, I'm saying he isn't wrong. There's a difference, and in that difference Mr. Icahn demonstrated how he has amassed a fortune worth billions. To that end, look at how much money Carl Icahn made in his three year investment in $AAPL—more than US$2…