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Chat App ‘Signal’ Beta Tests Crypto Payments With MobileCoin

Andrew Orr ·

For Signal users in the United Kingdom, the company is releasing a new feature for beta testing that lets people send payments to each other using the cryptocurrency MobileCoin (MOB).

There’s a palpable difference in the feeling of what it’s like to communicate over Signal, knowing you’re not being watched or listened to, versus other communication platforms. I would like to get to a world where not only can you feel that when you talk to your therapist over Signal, but also when you pay your therapist for the session over Signal.

The limitation is because MobileCoin is listed for purchase on only one exchange, FTX, which doesn’t allow trades from U.S. residents. I’ve never heard of MobileCoin before but I’d say it’s something to keep an eye on.

 

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John Ternus Now on Apple Leadership Website

Charlotte Henry ·

John Ternus has finally made his way onto the Apple Leadership website. iMore spotted the updated for the exec, who took over Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering from Dan Riccio in January.

Now, Ternus has been formally added to the Apple Leadership website. Below is Apple’s profile of Ternus as is listed on his page: “John Ternus is Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. John leads all hardware engineering, including the teams behind iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, and more. John joined Apple’s Product Design team in 2001 and has been a vice president of Hardware Engineering since 2013. Throughout his tenure at Apple, John has overseen hardware engineering work on a variety of groundbreaking products including every generation and model of iPad, the latest iPhone lineup, and AirPods. He has been a key leader in the ongoing transition of the Mac to Apple silicon. Prior to Apple, John worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.”

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LinkedIn Data Leak of 500 Million People Sold Online

Andrew Orr ·

Just days after a Facebook data leak was discovered, security researchers found another one, this time involving LinkedIn. It affects a similar amount of users, 500 million, with data being sold on a “popular hacker forum.”

The leaked files appear to only contain LinkedIn profile information – we did not find any deeply sensitive data like credit card details or legal documents in the sample posted by the threat actor. With that said, even an email address can be enough for a competent cybercriminal to cause real damage.

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Three Annoying Apple Problems on the Way to Being Fixed

Charlotte Henry ·

We all have particular bugbears with certain Apple products or services – the things that don’t work quite how we want. Over at MacWorld, Dan Moren lists three that are on their way to being fixed – the Apple TV remote, upgrades to Siri, and a battery health reporting in iPhone 11s.

One thing that surprised but didn’t delight owners of iPhone 11 series handsets was an issue reporting the health of their batteries. In some cases that meant the battery draining too fast or performance being degraded—but the bug, as it turned out, issued from software, not the batteries themselves. Apple says iOS 14.5 will attempt to rectify this issue by re-calibrating the battery health reporting system on the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.

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LG to Exit Smartphone Market

Charlotte Henry ·

LG is to stop making smartphones. However, according to an analyst who spoke to Reuters, Samsung, not Apple, may be best placed to pick up the gap in the market vacated by the South Korean firm.

“In the United States, LG has targeted mid-priced – if not ultra-low – models and that means Samsung, which has more mid-priced product lines than Apple, will be better able to attract LG users,” said Ko Eui-young, an analyst at Hi Investment & Securities. LG’s smartphone division has logged nearly six years of losses totalling some $4.5 billion. Dropping out of the fiercely competitive sector would allow LG to focus on growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices and smart homes, it said in a statement. In better times, LG was early to market with a number of cell phone innovations including ultra-wide angle cameras and at its peak in 2013, it was the world’s third-largest smartphone manufacturer behind Samsung and Apple.

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Facebook Leaks Data of 553 Million People Like Phone Numbers

Andrew Orr ·

The personal data of 553 million Facebook users was posted in a hacking forum over the weekend. Data includes phone numbers, full names, locations, email addresses, and other information.

While it’s a couple of years old, the leaked data could prove valuable to cybercriminals who use people’s personal information to impersonate them or scam them into handing over login credentials, according to Alon Gal, the chief technology officer of the cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock, who discovered the trough of leaked data on Saturday.

Facebook PR has been downplaying the leak, saying it’s “only” two years old. But for most people, their phone number, email addresses, and full names probably haven’t changed in that time.

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Supreme Court Sides With Google in Legal Battle Over APIs

Andrew Orr ·

Google and Oracle have been fighting for a decade over the copyright status of APIs, or application programming interfaces. But Google just won [PDF].

The high court punted on whether APIs can be copyrighted in the first place. But the court’s fair use reasoning was broad enough that it should provide a strong defense for most API copying, making the question of API copyrights much less important.

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The Singularity: Can Computers Make Themselves Smarter?

Andrew Orr ·

Writing for The New Yorker, Ted Chiang believes that the concept of a technological singularity, in which computers / AI would be able to make themselves ever smarter, is similar to an ontological argument. In other words, it probably won’t happen.

How much can you optimize for generality? To what extent can you simultaneously optimize a system for every possible situation, including situations never encountered before? Presumably, some improvement is possible, but the idea of an intelligence explosion implies that there is essentially no limit to the extent of optimization that can be achieved.

TMO Deals

GoFish Cam Wireless Underwater Fishing Camera: $199.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

Our friends at Stack Commerce have a fun deal for us today on the GoFish Cam Wireless Underwater Fishing Camera, a wireless underwater fishing camera that sits on your fishing line and works with a mobile app so you can see your footage right from your phone. The camera attaches in-line between your main line and leader line, and it allows you to both view and share your underwater fishing footage. It’s $199.99 through our deal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKUJI2R_vlo