Charlotte Henry

LONDON – Popular parenting website Mumsnet reported itself to the UK’s Information Commissioner. A bug that meant users’ accounts could potentially be switched was found. This meant people could have access to other’s account details and private messages. The company confirmed to the Guardian that it had reported itself, following the incident.

A botched upgrade to the software the forum runs on meant that for three days, if two users tried to log in at the same time, there was the possibility that their accounts would be switched. Each user was able to post as the other, see their account details, and read private messages. The company doesn’t know how many user accounts were affected, but says that over the three days the bug was live, from Tuesday afternoon to Thursday morning, about 4,000 users logged in. Of that, only 14 users have reported an issue.

The news of Angela Ahrendts’s impending departure from Apple came as a surprise to many outside the company. I can only assume the same was true for people on the inside There can be little doubt that the company’s outgoing Senior Vice President Retail has made a real impact during her five-year tenure. AppleInsider provided an incisive look at how Ms. Ahrdents’s came to be at Apple, and the legacy she will leave.

While Apple does also earn money from services and other business activities, the alterations that she’s made in the stores are central to the rise of the company into being the world’s most profitable firm.  These Apple Stores have been lauded as retail successes since their very beginnings, and externally they had appeared to be doing well even before Ahrendts joined. Yet in practice, the years before her arrival were marked with problems.

LONDON – It will take 3 to 5 years for Huawei to deal with security issues raised by the UK’s National Cyber Security Council (NCSC). Reuters saw a letter to British lawmakers from the Chinese firm in which it responded to the NCSC report that found it had exposed the UK’s telecom networks to security risks. The NCSC commented that it was in “regular dialogue with Huawei about the standards expected of their products.”

In a letter to lawmakers last week, Ryan Ding, president of the company’s carrier business group, said it would take up to five years to see results. “Enhancing our software engineering capabilities is like replacing components on a high-speed train in motion,” he said in a letter to the chairman of the British parliament’s science and technology committee.“It is a complicated and involved process, and will take at least three to five years to see tangible results. We hope the UK government can understand this.”

Apple has looked into the possibility of modifying the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 after losing a patent trial to Qualcomm in Germany. AppleInsider picked up on German media reports that indicated that the components deemed to have violated Qualcomm’s “envelope tracking” patent could be removed and replace.

German-language publication WinFuture, in a report spotted by Foss Patents, that Apple is examining the possibility of creating a slightly modified version of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8. Aside from software changes, the models will apparently have an infringing component pulled from the design and replaced with another. The offending components which was the cause of the injunction were produced by Apple supplier Qorvo, and are said to have violated an “envelope tracking” patent held by Qualcomm. This refers to a method of conserving battery power while the modem is active.

LONDON – Kraken, the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency trading platform, has acquired UK crypto platform Crypto Facilities.  The specific value of the deal is not known, but Yahoo Finance reported it is at least $100 million. This makes it one of the largest ever seen in the crypto industry, despite its current slowdown.

London-headquartered Crypto Facilities offers futures contracts for leading cryptos such as bitcoin and ethereum. Its data is also used to help calculate CME Group’s bitcoin reference rate. The company is regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said in a release: “We are excited to introduce eligible clients to these industry leading futures and index products.

As ever the morning after the Super Bowl, there is as much chatter about the adverts as there is about the football. Aside from the Game of Thrones/Bud Light tie-up, the ad spots during Super Bowl LIII were as uninspiring as large parts of the low-scoring match. Time to reflect then on the most iconic Super Bowl commercial of all time then – Apple’s 1984 clip. Business Insider posted the original storyboard and ideas behind the commercial.

Before the ad was even filmed, Apple’s ad agency needed buy-in from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and then-CEO John Sculley. The tech executives were shown a storyboard, or a series of pictures that describe what the ad would look like when it was actually filmed. The ad men were nervous – especially when Jay Chiat, an executive at Apple’s ad agency, was tearing up every idea before they were finished. But it turns out that Jobs loved the idea when they showed it to him.”