Apple fights FBI in Court order to break iPhone encryption with breach prone ‘back door’

It’s set to be the greatest battle of 2016. On one end, we have Apple, a leading technology firm trying its best to stand by its customers by ensuring their privacy. On the other end, we have FBI, backed by the US Government, trying to carry out an investigation trying to ensure justice is meted out. Politicians have taken the obvious side; Tech CEOs have also sided with their own. Who will win the battle? Or will it escalate into a full blown war? This long standing dispute was reignited…

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Apple under pressure to scrap controversial policy of permanently disabling repaired iPhone 6s

Apple has come under pressure to scrap its controversial policy of permanently disabling repaired iPhone 6s when software is upgraded, following a global consumer backlash and claims the company could be acting illegally. At least one firm of US lawyers said it hopes to bring a class action against the technology giant on behalf of victims whose £500 phones have been rendered worthless by an Apple software upgrade. In the UK, a barrister told the Guardian that Apple’s “reckless” policy of effectively killing people’s iPhones following the software upgrade could…

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iPhone Sales Slumping, Is This Why They Are So Expensive?

Voice App

The iPhone is arguably the most popular phone in the world. While it has yet to catch on famously in Kenya and Africa, in other areas of the world, it is ubiquitous and in vogue. One of the primary reasons why it is not the most popular phone in Kenya and Africa is the steep cost. While most smartphones range between 10,000 to 20,000Kshs, an iPhone may set you back 50,000Kshs and above. According to an article by CNN, iPhones are just as expensive in other parts of the world.…

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Apple suspends online TV service development efforts: Bloomberg

Apple Inc has suspended plans to offer a live Internet-based television service and is instead focusing on being a platform for media companies to sell directly to customers through its App Store, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Apple’s plan to sell a package of about 14 channels for $30 to $40 a month has run into resistance from media companies that want more money for their programing, Bloomberg reported, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. Apple was in discussions with broadcasters such as CBS Corp and Twenty-First Century Fox…

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Study: Retailers Ignore Over 80% of Customers’ Requests via Social Media

Sprout Social has found most that merchants fail to respond to consumer questions on Facebook and Twitter, a problem compounded during the holiday shopping season when the volume of requests increases. The stats from the Spout Social’s Q4 2015 Index are damning. Retailers failed to respond to more than 80 percent of consumer questions and requests on social media in the last year. And the cold shoulder from merchants was coldest when you’d think they could least afford it, during the holiday shopping season. During the fourth quarter of 2014,…

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Flurry Report Reveals U.S. Consumers Now Spend More Time In Mobile Apps Than Watching TV

Mobile Apps

At yesterday’s Apple event in San Francisco, CEO Tim Cook spoke about the need to bring apps to the TV’s big screen, while introducing the new Apple TV. Today, a new report from Flurry also highlights how apps have edged their way further into our lives, noting that, for the first time ever, the time spent inside mobile applications by the average U.S. consumer has now exceeded that of TV. Traditional cable TV has already been suffering in recent months, as more consumers are cutting the cord or opting never…

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How 5 most valuable internet companies have changed over the past 2 decades

Google

It’s mind-boggling how the 5 most valuable internet companies have changed over the past 20 years In 1995, the internet was just about to get started. It was only a year after big internet companies like Yahoo and Netscape were founded. Fast forward 20 years later, and the web business landscape looks a lot different from back then. In fact, only 1 out of the 5 most valuable public internet companies from 1995 are still in the top 5 list, according to Mary Meeker’s “Internet Trends” report. Check out the…

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Xiaomi: China’s big Apple rival isn’t worth getting excited about (yet)

Xiaomi, the third-largest smartphone maker in the world, is coming stateside, but not in the way pundits expected. The company announced at a conference Thursday that its e-commerce website, Mi.com, could start selling products to U.S. customers in five months. Surprisingly, smartphones will not be among them — at least, at first. Instead, Hugo Barra, Xiaomi’s Global VP, suggested the company might start with items such as a recently-launched pair of headphones and its popular external battery pack, the latter of which sold 15 million units in 2014. The company has…

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Apple posts $18 billion profit, the largest in its history

Apple just posted its first quarter results, and as expected, it was a big one. Led once again by record sales of new iPhones and holiday sales of iPads and Macs, Apple posted earnings of $18 billion on $74.6 billion in revenue, far above what it forecasted back in October, and marking the highest quarterly profit in its history. By product, Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones, 21.4 million iPads, and 5.52 million Macs. Those numbers were up big from the number of iPhones and Macs Apple sold during the same time…

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Facebook, Apple, And Microsoft Are Ganging Up On Google — And It Couldn’t Happen At A Worse Time

Back in the old days, the big bad company in tech that all the other companies teamed-up against was Microsoft. Microsoft was the evil empire. So, Apple and Google worked together to squash Microsoft. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs used to mentor Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google CEO Eric Schmidt used to sit on the Apple board. This is no longer the case. These days, the common enemy is Google. In recent years, there have been a number of explicit and implicit partnerships between the three biggest…

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