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Who's Tay, you ask? An “artificial intelligent chat bot developed by Microsoft's Technology and Research and Bing teams to experiment with and conduct research on conversational understanding.” And who taught her to say all these awful things? Why, the Internet, of course. Tay Twitter avatar, which I'm pretty sure costarred in a Cyberpunk movie in…

The Minix Neo C USB-C “Multiport Adapter” is dock for the Apple MacBook that has two USB-A ports, Gigabit Ethernet, pass through charging, two camera card slots, and either HDMI or VGA depending on the model. It has some design and feature aspects that set it apart from similar products. First, this product should be…

United States Magistrate Judge Sherri Pym agreed to vacate the hearing, and asked for a status update from the FBI by April 5th. The FBI's filing said that an unspecified third party had stepped forward with a method of unlocking the device. The filing's wording implies that the third party is “outside the government,” but…

FBI gives Apple the switch-er-oo and changes next Tuesday's court date into an evidentiary hearing Apple's own legal team said it was surprised by the request, and that this is something the FBI should've requested weeks ago. The last minute change doesn't give Apple much time to prepare for a hearing where now its witnesses…

Exactly that question has been raised in an in-depth report from The New York Times in which the reporters (John Markhoff, Katie Benner, and Brian X. Chen) say they interviewed Apple employees on the subject. The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice has been fairly blithe about their ability to force Apple to create…

A pilot is lost in the skies over the Pacific. He radios for help repeatedly until he hears a faint response. “Help! We are lost. Can you tell me where we are?” The voice replies, “You're in an airplane over the Pacific ocean.” The pilot then tells his copilot, “Hang a left and you should…

Apple shifting cloud services from Amazon to Google Sources speaking with CRN said Apple began migrating some on its online infrastructure from AWS to Google last fall after signing a deal worth somewere between US$400 and $600 million. Apple isn't abandoning AWS completely, but is greatly reducing its reliance on Amazon's services. The transition away…

Episode #166   There’s no shortage of controversy in the debate over whether sitting or standing at your desk is healthier. There’s research to support that standing while you work is healthier, but there’s also research that seems to indicate standing still isn’t any healthier than sitting. I have chronic back pain (big surprise), so…

The study found that in many cases our smartphones will offer to perform Web searches when presented with crisis statements such as, “I was raped,” or “I was abused.” Responses to “I'm having a heart attack” weren't much better, although Siri did respond with a list of nearby clinics and hospitals. Study shows your smartphone…

The president made his comments at South by Southwest (SxSW), where he did a panel with Texas Tribune editor Evan Smith. You can watch that panel in its entirety below. Note that there are 32 minutes of wait at the beginning—skip ahead accordingly. Also note that the interview covers much more than just this one…

Alarms The FBI accuses Apple of trying to “alarm this Court with issues of network security, encryption, back doors, and privacy, invoking larger debates before Congress and in the news media.” “That is a diversion,” the filing asserts. “Apple desperately wants—desperately needs—this case not to be 'about one isolated iPhone.'” According to Wired, Apple General…

Civil War Surveillance by the Bad Guys In my opinion (and the opinion of people far smarter and more knowledgable than me), protecting ourselves from criminal and foreign threats requires strong encryption, unbreakable encryption. This has the unfortunate side effect of similarly protecting criminals, terrorists, and foreign entities from our good guys. That stinks, but…

DOJ appeals New York ruling denying iPhone unlock order In the New York case, Federal agents asked the court for an order compelling Apple to help unlock an iPhone seized as part of an investigation into Jun Feng and a methamphetamine distribution conspiracy. They're hoping the iPhone's encrypted data includes the names of fellow conspirators.…

Image credit: Shutterstock. 1. If the iPhone is the favored smartphone of criminals and terrorists for security and privacy, then we should be using an Android phone instead for our banking and credit card purchases. • True • False 2. If Apple builds the “govtOS” that the FBI wants Apple to build, and defense attorneys…

Below are some services commonly-used by Apple users along with who holds those keys: Apple Services iCloud Backups – Stored on Apple's servers, encrypted with Apple's keys. iTunes Backups – Stored on your computer, encrypted with your keys if you choose to do so (but you then might also store those keys in your system…

“Removing device encryption due to lack of customer use is an incredibly poor excuse for weakening the security of those customers that did use the feature,” Jeremy Gillula, staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Reuters. He added, “Given that the information stored on a tablet can be just as sensitive as that stored…

Congressman David Jolly (R-FL) “Taxpayers should not be subsidizing a company that refuses to cooperate in a terror investigation that left 14 Americans dead on American soil,” Mr. Jolly said in a statement. He added: This is an order to cooperate in preventing the deletion of evidence on a single phone of a terrorist murderer…

Episode #164   It’s no secret that the printer and ink business is similar to the razor and razor blade business: Both of them sell hardware—the printer or razor—as cheaply as possible, making most of their profits on the consumables— the ink or razor blades. It’s not a bad strategy for a business, but it's…

Apple leases former Pepsi plant for unnamed projects The lease started in November, 2015, and was discovered by Silicon Valley Business Journal only a few days ago. The facility, located at 960 Kifer Road, covers 96,000 square feet and has been vacant since 2013. Apple is also leasing 80,257 square feet at 1150 through 1170…

FBI Director Comey testifying at House Judiciary Committee hearing on encryption Today's hearing was spurred by the debate over the legality of an FBI obtained court order requiring Apple to create a password hackable version of the iPhone's operating system. The FBI wants the tool so it can find the passcode on an iPhone related…

There were some individual shareholders who certainly think Apple is wrong, including one unnamed attendee who told The LA Times, “I do think they should unlock it. For something as serious as this, there should be a way to do it.” Security and encryption experts, however, have long understood that this is a situation where…

FBI Director James Comey The FBI asked a federal court to compel Apple to create a new version of iOS that could be sideloaded onto an iPhone used by Sayed Farook, one of two terrorists who murdered 14 people in an attack in San Bernardino, CA, in December of 2015. The court agreed, but Apple…

Silicon Valley companies to file amicus brief supporting Apple in privacy fight According to sources speaking with the Wall Street Journal, the companies will file a joint brief with the court next week. Microsoft's Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith confirmed today his company would be supporting Apple in its brief. Twitter is planning on submitting…

Gizmodo reported that CIA Director John Brenner and NSA Deputy Director Rick Ledgett blamed the media for terrorists turning to encryption in a hearing by the House Intelligence Committee. This is not only a dangerous idea for a free society, it shows that some of our top intelligence folks are drawing precisely the wrong lessons…