FCC ready to propose changes to protect net neutrality Industry analysts and lobbyists said the FCC will push to group ISPs as a telecommunication service under Title II of the Communications Act, according to the New York Times. That change would give the FCC much more authority over ISP practices, but chairman Tom Wheeler is…
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Congress Takes Apple CEO's Advice, Eyes Corporate Tax Changes
Congress may be taking Tim Cook's advice to heart and changing corporate tax policies When grilled by the subcommittee, Mr. Cook said, The tax system handicaps American corporations in relation to our foreign competitors who don’t have such constraints on the free movement of capital. It is in this spirit that we recommend a dramatic…
Comarco Hits Apple with Patent Lawsuit over iPhone Chargers
Apple ht with patent infringement lawsuit over Lightning connector tech Comarco's 8,492,933 patent, titled Power Supply Equipment for Providing a Data Signal, Identification Information and Power to an Electronic Device, describes a system where device chargers include a cable with a smart tip that can communicate with the device its charging, much like Apple's Lightning…
The Unofficial Apple Weblog Will Shut Down February 3rd
Particularly keenly felt by the Apple watching community will be the loss of TUAW (pronounced “too-ah” sort of like a Marine). First posting Apple news starting in December 2004, the site will close on Tuesday, February 3rd—the archives will remain as a section of Engadget. Many former TUAW writers have gone on to other notable…
Repatriation Tax Bill Holds Promise, but Faces Uphill Battle
Senate bill aims to get Apple, other companies to bring money into the US The bill is cosponsored by Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) and proposes to use the tax funds it generates to extend the U.S. Highway Trust Fund. Titled Invest in Transportation Act of 2015, the two are promoting the bill…
Wall Street Continues Apple Love Fest as $AAPL Closes at $118.90
$AAPL ended the day at $118.90 per share, a gain of $+3.59 (+3.11 percent), on heavy volume of 84.2 million shares trading hands. The stock hit an intra-day high of $119.19 just before the closing bell. $AAPL Chart for Year Ending January 29th, 2015 Source: Yahoo! Finance On Tuesday, Apple reported record high quarterly revenues…
China Demands Back Door into Computers, Software
China demands back door into computers, apps The rules are targeting companies selling to the Chinese banking industry, according to the New York Times. Groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have come out against China's new regulations, and President Barak Obama is expected to offer up some negative comments on the changes, too. There…
FCC Says Hotels Can't Block Personal Hotspots
FCC to hotels: Stop blocking hotspots Hotspots are devices like Verizon's MiFi that let users create their own personal network with a wireless broadband Internet connection. They're handy in areas where other Internet options are limited, and are popular with travelers who don't want to pay hotels high fees for poor Internet access. The FCC's…
Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs Movie Starts Filming with Michael Fassbender as Jobs
Micahel Fassbender, from a 2012 GQ Spread Seth Rogan (The Interview, and we'll leave it at that) is playing Steve Wozniak. Danny Boyle is directing, and the film is now officially named Steve Jobs. Seemingly on the fasttrack to get made in the first year or two after Steve Jobs died in 2011, this movie…
YouTube Puts Another Nail in Flash's Coffin with HTML5 on the Desktop
YouTube switches to HTML5, gives Flash the kiss of death HTML5 isn't anything new to YouTube. The company started supporting the format a few years ago for mobile devices, but didn't make the same jump on the desktop because of technical limitations. YouTube Engineering Manager Richard Leider said, At the time, there were limitations that…
Older Dropcam Models Going Dark April 15, Google's Nest Offering Free Replacements
Dropcam HD Here's the statement from the support page about the program: We’re always trying to improve Dropcam and the software behind it. But that means some features won’t work with our older Dropcam models. As we improve Dropcam, we’ll no longer be able to give Original Dropcam and Dropcam Echo owners an experience that…
Apple Continues to Plunder Fashion Industry with Another Burberry Hire
Chester Chipperfield's LinkedIn Profile. Mr. Chipperfield also offered his goodbyes to native London on Twitter, as noted by 9to5Mac: Goodbye London. I have been lucky to call you home for 31 years, time to discover another city.. http://t.co/CRxTDxckQB — Chester Chipperfield (@chesterchip) December 28, 2014 Apple also raided Burberry for Musa Tariq, head of Burberry's…
BlackBerry CEO Lobs Desperate Hail Mary to Bolster His Company
John Chen Executive Chairman and CEO of BlackBerry In the roughly 15 months since he took over BlackBerry, Mr. Chen has delivered the company from death's door. Using a well-articulated strategy of focusing on services, Mr. Chen has convinced Wall Street that BlackBerry has, if not a bright future, some kind of future. That's no…
What it's Like Watching TV With Hue Light Integration
First off, you need a set of Hue bulbs, the color-changing ones with the hub (available at Apple stores as a “starter kit”), and you also have to get the free SyFy Sync app for your iOS (or Android) device. Within the app there's a setting where you connect to the hub for the Hue…
Goodbye Privacy: White House Sides with UK, Wants Backdoor to Encrypted Data
President Obama sides with UK, wants backdoor to our encrypted data Mr. Obama offered up the threat of terrorism as justification for the need to make encryption a privacy and security feature in name only. According to the Wall Street Journal he said, If we find evidence of a terrorist plot… and despite having a…
I Know Apple. And You, Xiaomi, Are No Apple
This device is a sleek beauty with specs that beat many of the specs in the iPhone 6 Plus. And it's cheap, at roughly $370 in China. The iPhone 6 Plus is roughly a grand. Here's a promo video for the device:
High iPhone 6 Demand has RBC Raising its AAPL Target to $123
RBC's Amit Daryanani thinks Apple will report shipping between 67 million and 68 million iPhones for the holiday quarter, and that the current quarter will see upwards of 50 million iPhones shipped. He also expects Apple to see more growth as more retailers and banks support Apple Pay, and when Apple Watch ships this spring.…
Can Tony Fadell Save Google Glass? Probably Not
At the same time, sales of Google Glass are being halted as Google ends the Explorer Program, which put the device in the hands of Glassholes. The program officially ends on January 19th. In other words, Google Glass needs saving, and CNBC characterized the “graduation” as a “reorganization.” Ivy Ross, the current head of Google…
Samsung's Ultrafast, Low Power SSD Possibly Headed for Next MacBooks
Image credit: Samsung On January 7, Samsung released information about this new SSD. The SM951 boasts outstanding performance, supporting both PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 2.0 interfaces. For use in the latest ultra-slim notebooks, it can read and write sequentially at 1,600 MB/s (megabytes per second) and 1,350 MB/s respectively based on PCIe 2.0… If PCIe…
Samsung Warns Investors of Fourth Quarter Profit Decline as Smartphone Margins Shrink
Although final results won’t be released until late January, Samsung’s report predicts a profit of 5.2 trillion South Korean won (about US$4.7 billion) on revenues of 52 trillion South Korean won (about US$47.3 billion) for the December quarter of 2014. That’s about a 37 percent decline in profit and 12 percent decline in revenues compared…
With Filming to Begin this Month, Steve Jobs Biopic Casts Perla Haney-Jardine as Lisa Jobs
The film, Steve Jobs, has been troubled with production and casting issues, but appears to be finally gaining traction as cast members are confirmed. Natalie Portman was recently rumored to be up for the part of Lisa, but reportedly passed on the role. Other actors thus far signed to the project include Michael Fassbender as…
These 'The Price is Right' Contestants Have No Idea How Much an iPhone 6 Costs
The item up for bid: a 16GB 4.7-inch iPhone with one year’s worth of mobile service on a 4GB per month data plan. There are four contestants tasked with guessing the price of this fairly nice prize, and not a single one of them comes close. Most people will initially be shocked by the $7,500…
Swiss Watchmaker Montblanc Announces eStrap Smartstrap for Mechanical Watches
Montblanc Timewalker Urban Speed with eStrap The short version of the eStrap is that it has sensors in the part of the strap that passes underneath the watch, as shown above. For non-watch nerds, this is a “pass-through” or “NATO-style” strap, but Montblanc has designed the eStrap so that it will work with any of…
New iCloud Exploit Claims to Circumvent Failed Password Limit and 2-Factor Authentication
What is this? A 100% Working iCloud Apple ID Dictionary attack that bypasses Account Lockout restrictions and Secondary Authentication on any account. What this isn't: A bypass or fully automated removal Why? This bug is painfully obvious and was only a matter of time before it was privately used for malicious or nefarious activities, I…