Another Password Related Bug Found in macOS High Sierra

Another password-related bug has been discovered in macOS High Sierra, this time in the App Store Preferences in the Settings.app.

Joe Rossignol, reporting for MacRumors, says:

The security vulnerability means that anyone with administrator-level access to your Mac could unlock the App Store preferences and enable or disable settings to automatically install macOS updates, app updates, system data files, and, ironically, even security updates that would fix a bug like this one.

This sounds really embarrassing for Apple, but this is far from being a major bug. First, the App Store preferences are unlocked by default for admin users — and it doesn’t work for/affects the non-admin users. Additionally, if anyone with malicious intent has admin access to your Mac, there’s a lot worse that is possible. That’s not to say that this bug shouldn’t be taken seriously. Apple has already fixed this bug in the beta of its upcoming High Sierra release.

I’d love to join Apple’s QA team. Seriously!

January 11, 2018 ✚ Permalink

UIDAI Announces Virtual ID & Limited KYC

The UIDAI has today announced that it will be introducing a way to generate Virtual IDs from their website.

The Virtual ID, which would be a random 16-digit number, together with biometrics of the user would give any authorised agency like a mobile company, limited details like name, address, and photograph, which are enough for any verification.

Officials said a user can generate as many Virtual IDs as he or she wants. The older ID gets automatically canceled once a fresh one is generated. UIDAI will start accepting these IDs from March 1, 2018.

In theory, this would work like Virtual Credit Card numbers do — use and throw. But practically, I think it’s still going to be a mess.

January 10, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Apple’s Privacy Feature in Safari Costs Ad Companies Millions

Alex Hern, writing for The Guardian,

Internet advertising firms are losing hundreds of millions of dollars following the introduction of a new privacy feature from Apple that prevents users from being tracked around the web.

The feature in question is Safari’s ability to prevent cross-site tracking.

Advertising technology firm Criteo, one of the largest in the industry, says that the Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) feature for Safari, which holds 15% of the global browser market, is likely to cut its 2018 revenue by more than a fifth compared to projections made before ITP was announced.

LOL!

January 10, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Apple Being Probed Over iPhone Planned Obsolescence in France

Natasha Lomas, writing for TechCrunch:

Programmed obsolescence is illegal in France under a 2015 law which prohibits “the use of techniques by which the person responsible for the marketing of a product aims to deliberately reduce the duration to increase the replacement rate “.

The law carries a penalty of a maximum sentence of two years in prison and up to 5 per cent of a company’s annual turnover.

AFP cites a judicial source stating that the Paris prosecutor’s office of the Directorate General of Competition, Consumption and Repression of Frauds opened a preliminary investigation against Apple on January 5, for “programmed obsolescence” and “deception”.

This whole thing is getting pretty nasty for Apple now.

January 9, 2018 ✚ Permalink

GoPro is Looking to Put Itself Up for Sale

Alex Sherman, reporting for CNBC, writes:

GoPro has hired J.P. Morgan Chase to help it seek a potential sale, according to people familiar with the matter.

J.P. Morgan helped underwrite GoPro’s initial public offering in 2014. No sale is assured, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. It’s unclear if there is an interested buyer for the company.

This scoop comes right on the heels of its decision to quit the drone business and to lower the price of its Hero6 Action Camera by $100, in an effort to turn profitable.

January 9, 2018 ✚ Permalink

Airtel Removes 1,000 Retailers from Network for Flouting Norms

People familiar with the matter said the company levied a penalty of around 50 times the commission paid on several retailers who violated the guidelines for the first time, and removed repeat offenders from the network besides imposing a fine on them.

This is in response to the massive Aadhaar-related fraud that came to light a few weeks ago.

[…] UIDAI imposed a fine of Rs 2.5 crore on Airtel for allegedly opening payment bank accounts for its mobile subscribers without consent. The report also notes that Airtel routed the LPG subsidies of 31 lakh users (payments worth Rs 190 crore) to their Airtel payment bank accounts instead of the beneficiaries’ original bank accounts.

It still boggles my mind all the crazy shit that Aadhaar has enabled to happen, so easily.

January 8, 2018 ✚ Permalink

ISRO set to launch 31 Satellites on January 12

This first mission of 2018 will be launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh and the payaload includes a Cartosat-2 Series satellite, one micro and one nano satellite each from India, along with 28 foreign satellites from the US and other countries.

January 8, 2018 ✚ Permalink

App Store Sees Record-Breaking Numbers

Apple has announced that its App Store had a fantastic run in 2017, especially during the holiday season leading up to the new year.

App Store customers around the world made apps and games a bigger part of their holiday season in 2017 than ever before, culminating in $300 million in purchases made on New Year’s Day 2018. During the week starting on Christmas Eve, a record number of customers made purchases or downloaded apps from the App Store, spending over $890 million in that seven-day period.

Apple says that it paid out $26.5 Billion to iOS developers, an increase of over 30 percent compared to 2016. Since its launch in 2008, the App Store has made $86 Billion for iOS developers around the world.

The new App Store introduced in iOS 11 got a lot of things right, and Apple knocked it out of the park with their approach. I’m loving the curation on the US App Store — I just wish I had landed that App Store Editor job I had applied for at Apple India.

January 5, 2018 ✚ Permalink