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The Vulnerable-To-Attack Edition Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Dozens Of Popular iOS Apps Vulnerable To Intercept Of TLS-protected Data, by Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica

These sorts of vulnerabilities are nothing new; thousands of applications have had incorporated bugs that caused TLS to become vulnerable to attack, both on iOS and Android. But the fact that they persist even as Apple tries to push developers toward greater security is disconcerting, to say the least—especially in applications that could expose financial or health data along with user credentials.

Low Light

Apple Shares New 'One Night' Ad Showcasing iPhone 7 Camera, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

According to Apple, the "One Night" campaign is designed to showcase the low light photography capabilities of the iPhone 7, featuring the everything from clubs in Johannesburg, South Africa to rooftops in Shanghai, China to ice caves in Iceland.

Singaporean Finds Art In Night Light For #ShotoniPhone Billboard, by Elissa Loi, Stuff

In this particular instance, he manages to capture his friend’s expression bathed in the light of the sparkler as he wanted to create contrast - something really bright in the dark.

Coming Soon

Channeling Steve Jobs, Apple Seeks Design Perfection At New "Spaceship" Campus, by Julia Love, Reuters

Apple's in-house construction team enforced many rules: No vents or pipes could be reflected in the glass. Guidelines for the special wood used frequently throughout the building ran to some 30 pages.

Tolerances, the distance materials may deviate from desired measurements, were a particular focus. On many projects, the standard is 1/8 of an inch at best; Apple often demanded far less, even for hidden surfaces.

The company's keen design sense enhanced the project, but its expectations sometimes clashed with construction realities, a former architect said.

As He Continues France Trip, Tim Cook Talks AI/AR, Taxes, iPhone Production, And More In New Interview, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Concerning the falling sales of the iPhone, Cook pointed to the PC as a preview of industry that declined and later rebounded as technology advances with things like augmented reality.

Relax, Apple Isn’t Introducing Another New Connector, by Vlad Savov, The Verge

The new-old connector is the same 8-pin plug you might have seen (and probably ignored) with your Nikon camera. People familiar with Apple’s plans tell us that the company has no intention to replace Lightning or install this as a new jack on iPhones or iPads. Instead, UAC will be used as an intermediary in headphone cables.

Stuff

Apple Kicks Off Back To School 2017 Promotion On Macs And iPads In Australia And New Zealand, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

Apple is launching its annual Back to School promotion on Macs and iPads this week in New Zealand and Australia. Localized as ‘Back to Uni’, this year’s promotion runs from February 7 to March 16 and includes Apple Store credit for qualified purchases.

Apple SIM Can Now Be Used With Truphone In 40 Countries, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Truphone has introduced international data plans for iPad users with an Apple SIM. [...] For now, iPad users need to be in Spain when purchasing an Apple SIM plan from Truphone for the first time, but the data can then be used in any of the 40 participating countries. Truphone said it plans to roll out its Apple SIM plans for purchase across Europe and beyond in the coming weeks.

Notes

The Real Threat Is Machine Incompetence, Not Intelligence, by Michael Byrne, Motherboard

The past couple of years have been a real cringe-y time to be an AI researcher. Just imagine a whole bunch of famous technologists and top-serious science authorities all suddenly taking aim at your field of research as a clear and present threat to the very survival of the species. All you want to do is predict appropriate emoji use based on textual analyses and here's Elon Musk saying this thing he doesn't really seem to know much about is the actual apocalypse.

It's not that computer scientists haven't argued against AI hype, but an academic you've never heard of (all of them?) pitching the headline "AI is hard" is at a disadvantage to the famous person whose job description largely centers around making big public pronouncements. This month that academic is Alan Bundy, a professor of automated reasoning at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, who argues in the Communications of the ACM that there is a real AI threat, but it's not human-like machine intelligence gone amok. Quite the opposite: the danger is instead shitty AI. Incompetent, bumbling machines.

Bottom of the Page

Can Apple 'extend' iOS into the cloud, and sandbox individual user's data, even within the same app?

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