Tag: apple

WSJ: U.S. technology companies are in a pitched battle with Europe’s sovereign states

Staff Writer

Discontent on Continent Highlights Battle Over Economics, Culture, Internet Control BRUSSELS—From Berlin to Madrid, from London to Paris, U.S. technology companies are in a pitched battle with Europe’s sovereign states. It is a clash that pits governments against the new tech titans, established industries against upstart challengers, and freewheeling American business culture against a more regulated European framework. And it poses one of the greatest threats to U.S. technology giants since their emergence from garages and college campuses over the past four decades. First and foremost, the battle is about…

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WashingtonPost: Why Obama’s plan to save the Internet could actually ruin it

On Monday, President Obama joined the chorus of those urging FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to inject federal and state regulators directly into the heart of the Internet, “reclassifying” wired and mobile broadband ISPs as public utilities under a 1934 law written to control the former Bell telephone monopoly. While Obama has long supported the notoriously slippery idea of “net neutrality,” this is the first time the White House has explicitly asked the FCC to take specific action, let alone to embrace the most radical and legally uncertain approach being considered…

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Apple downplays Masque bug risk for users of iOS devices

Apple has downplayed exploit fears stemming from the discovery of a security loophole which could trick users into downloading malicious apps on to their iOS devices. On Monday, security researchers at FireEye detailed the discovery of the Masque bug in a new report. The researchers said the bug, in which apps running on iOS 7.1.1 and later — including the latest iOS 8 — can be replaced with malicious, legitimate-looking applications. Once granted access to a user’s device, these apps could theoretically install malware or steal user data. The “Masque…

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Apple users raise privacy concerns after hard-drive files uploaded to iCloud

Staff Writer

Line between devices and cloud services fades as online storage allows users to switch without losing data by for the Washington Post

After security researcher Jeffrey Paul upgraded the operating system on his MacBook Pro last week, he discovered that several of his personal files had found a new home – on the cloud. The computer had saved the files

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Apple and Google brands worth $100bn each

Staff Writer

PARIS: The US Apple and Google brands which have become household names around the globe are worth more than $100 billion each, and top a ranking of the world’s biggest brands, consultancy Interbrand said. In number one place, computer brand Apple has risen 21 percent in value this year to worth an estimated $118.9 billion (93.0 billion euros). In second place, the brand value of Internet search engine Google has increased by 15 percent to $107.43 billion. “The fact that Apple and Google have exceeded $100 billion is proof of…

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Apple vs. Google: New privacy battle looms

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A new battle is brewing over privacy for mobile devices, after moves by Google and Apple to toughen the encryption of their mobile devices sparked complaints from law enforcement Washington (AFP) – A new battle is brewing over privacy for mobile devices, after moves by Google and Apple to toughen the encryption of their mobile devices sparked complaints from law enforcement. The issue is part of a long-running debate over whether tech gadgets should have privacy-protecting encryption which makes it difficult for law enforcement to access in time-sensitive investigations. FBI…

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California Passes Smartphone Remote Kill Switch Law

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Mobile Apps

In a move that has me scratching my head, the California legislators have seen fit to pass a law that requires smartphones to have a remote kill switch built into them. Don’t worry for the time being as this only affects smartphones sold after July 1, 2015. Still, it leaves one wondering, what are they thinking? While the premise here is to protect people when they have their phones stolen the possibility of this being perverted by either law enforcement of criminal alike has not gone unnoticed. This reminds me…

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Microsoft Office for iPad, How it all started

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Han-Yi Shaw didn’t like what he saw, and he told Microsoft so. The software giant, by Shaw’s reckoning, didn’t really understand Apple’s platform or how to develop Office for it. Shaw told Microsoft exactly what he thought — and the company responded by agreeing to all of his changes, then hiring him. That was more than a decade ago. Today, Shaw heads up Microsoft’s Office Design Studio and is the architect of one of the tech giant’s most important innovations in years: Office for iPad. The product is available now…

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Microsoft May Introduce Office for Apple’s iPad Next Week

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Microsoft

Newly appointed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is said to be announcing a version of the company’s popular Office productivity suite, including Word, Excel and Powerpoint for Apple’s iPad tablet devices at an event next week Microsoft may finally introduce a version of its Office software suite for Apple’s iPad devices at an event next Thursday, according to multiple reports. Sources close to Reuters, ZDNet and The Verge have said Microsoft’s about to introduce a suite of Microsoft Office applications designed for the Apple tablet. The suite is expected to include…

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Facebook-WhatsApp Deal Haunted by Past Web Merger Flops

Staff Writer

Facebook Inc. (FB) investors who pushed the company’s shares to a record after it unveiled the $19 billion deal for WhatsApp Inc. would be well served to remember — every Internet takeover of more than $10 billion has flopped. Last week’s proposed purchase would be the biggest Web acquisition in more than a decade and only the fifth ever to top that threshold, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That puts it in the same category as AOL’s merger with Time Warner and Terra Network SA’s takeover of Lycos, which…

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