The auto-generated passwords for iOS Personal Hotspots can be cracked in under a minute, a group of German researchers claim. In a paper (PDF) out of the University of Erlangen, the people explain that iOS generates passwords based on word list of about 52,500 entries, but only relies on 1,842. The word selection process is moreover said to be insufficiently random, making it easy to brute-force an attack.
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1 hour ago | Posted in: software
Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac has been updated with support for the OS X Mavericks beta. The new Desktop build, 8.0.18494, lets users run Mavericks virtualized within another copy of OS X. Parallels classifies its Mavericks support as "experimental" however, and notes that since the OS is still unreleased, people must be registered Apple developers to make use of the feature.
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Apple has won a $30 million contract to provide iPads to every student in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the LA Times reports. The Board of Education voted 6-0 in favor after hearing senior staff claim that the iPad was both the best and least expensive option for meeting the District's specifications. The tablet "received the highest scoring by the students and the teachers," according to Deputy Superintendent Jaime Aquino. The vote authorizes deployment at 47 campuses; since Apple is the only authorized vendor though, the District will end up paying hundreds of millions to Apple over the course of two years.
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4 hours ago | Posted in: industry, Apple
Apple's most recent head of Patent Licensing & Strategy, Boris Teksler, has left the company to become president of the Technology Group at French media company Technicolor. The departure is confirmed by a Technicolor press release issued this week. At his new employer, Teksler will also serve on the company's executive committee, where he will help in the "exploitation of its IP assets."
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A new listing for a rare Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh has appeared on eBay. Recognized as the first major design project for Jonathan Ive, the TAM was introduced as a limited production in the spring of 1997. Only 12,000 machines were ever produced, and 399 of those were kept by apple to be used as spare parts. The system comes in all of its original packaging and includes all of the accessories that came with the system when it was shipped. Biding will remain open until June 23 with shipping limited to locations with the United States.
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4 hours ago | Posted in: gadgets
Cinema camera manufacturer Red has started shipping its 4K media player. Users of the Red User forum have started to receive their pre-orders of the Redray Player, which Red bills as a comprehensive media source for owners of Ultra HD televisions that is capable of playing back native 4K video, upscaled HD video, and the company's own 4K .Red file format.
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Apple has issued a v5.3 update for second- and third-generation Apple TVs. The new firmware adds support for several video services, most notably HBO Go, WatchESPN, and Sky News. Also included are Crunchyroll, which concentrates on anime and other Asian content, and Qello, which hosts concerts and music documentaries.
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5 hours ago | Posted in apps
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With EarthDesk users can replace their static desktop with an image of the Earth showing current sun, moon and city illumination, as well as real-time global cloud coverage. Version 6.2 includes updated NASA photography and better support for ISS tracking with some network configurations. Minor logging and performance changes are also included.
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Little Snitch is an internet traffic monitoring and management utility. The software informs a user when a program attempts to establish an outgoing internet connection and provides options for allowing or denying the connection. The default selection of hostname in connection alerts has been improved in this release. Additionally, an issue which cased the connection alert to display IP addresses in sated of hostnames under some VPN configurations has also been fixed.
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Hazel monitors a designated set of folders and automatically organizes files according to user created rules. The v3.1 update adds a new upload action for uploading files via FTP, SFTP or WebDAV, a well as a custom date token type. Users can also now use patterns to match against and extract a file's contents.
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Photomarks is a watermarking app that allows users to protect their copyrighted images with a personal watermark. The software offers batch photo processing with support for multi-core processors, and can be used to apply customized text and logo watermarks. Photomarks can also be used to edit images with various grunge and vintage photo effects.
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BackupLoupe allows users to browse Time Machine backups and find frequently copied items. The software shows users how many versions of a specific item are available within the backups, along with the date that each was created. A rare crash that could occur when mounting a new volume while the software initializes has been fixed. Endless indexing will also now be avoided when encountering directories with zero-length names.
Leaked schematics -- allegedly drawn by Apple, and now in the hands of a major accessory maker -- show the dimensions of the iPhone 5S and an "iPhone Lite/Light," according to AppleInsider. The 5S appears to maintain roughly the same design as its predecessor, but with a pill-shaped flash on the back that may fit dual LEDs. The iPhone Light plans match recent rumors and case production surrounding a low-cost iPhone. That includes details like a thicker body, and rounded edges.
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6 hours ago | Posted in: iPod, iPhone, iPad
Apple is considering LinkedIn integration for iOS 7, beta code references suggest. In particular the references hint that LinkedIn could be supported in the same manner as Facebook and Twitter, meaning single sign-in support, and the ability to quickly post content via a share sheet or hooks in iOS apps. Some essential code strings are missing though, preventing LinkedIn options from turning on in the current iOS 7 release.
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Siri is a feature that was unveiled with much fanfare during the iOS 5 launch two-years ago, bringing with it more fully featured voice actions to the iPhone. Although Siri has received a mixed reception from critics and users, Apple has continued to pursue the voice-controlled interface, giving it an all-new look and functional tweaks in the iOS 7 beta that help to refine the user experience. Has Apple done enough with the revisions in Siri to warrant a second look?
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Security software company Cloudmark has made a version of its award-winning anti-spam software available for Mac users in both a free and paid version. In addition to supporting Apple's default Mail program and Microsoft's Outlook 2011, the company has added support for Mozilla's Thunderbird 17 and later email client, running on Snow Leopard (10.6.x) and later versions of OS X. The program acts as a plug-in to each of the mail programs, allowing users to set filters and flagging any potential spam or phishing emails.
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The graphically-violent third-person shooter Max Payne 3 is coming to the Mac App Store beginning on Thursday, June 20. The game is reported to "include a number of advanced graphics options, scaleable high-resolution textures and character models, DirectX11 features, multi-monitor support and 3D," according to the announcement from Rockstar Games, and has exceptionally high Mac system requirements.
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Samsung Electronics today introduced the industry’s first Near Field Communication (NFC)-enabled color laser printer and multi-function printers. The new Xpress C410W series allows users to print high quality photos and documents from their smartphones or from a computer wirelessly. The new printers consist of the C410W color laser printer, the C460W color laser MFPs with print, copy and scan functionality, and the C460FW color laser MFPs with print, copy, scan and fax capabilities.
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18 hours ago | Posted in: industry, Apple
In apparent response to a question that compared the computer and Internet revolution of the 80s and 90s to a new Renaissance, a never-publicly-seen video of Steve Jobs in 1994 -- while he was still with NeXT -- sees the bearded and reflective Apple co-founder commenting on his likely legacy and the place of the industry he helped create. The video was uploaded to a YouTube channel called "EverySteveJobsVideo" on Tuesday and comes from the Silicon Valley Historical Association.
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Social network Facebook has updated its iOS app to v6.2, which brings new access to change who can see something a user has shared, the ability to start a conversation based on photos users receive in messages, and the addition of icons to status updates that show emotions or what a user is reading or watching. The "status update icons" were added to the desktop version of the program in April, but mobile support has been missing until now. The update also includes the usual bug fixes, and the app can be downloaded for free from the App Store.
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Apple has updated its iOS mass-deployment configuration and management tool, Configurator, to version 1.3. The free app works with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, and now offers "significantly improved" reliability, scalability and performance, the ability to cancel scheduled or even in-progress operations, and more. There is a new status view that includes time estimates and error information with recovery suggestions, and administrators can now install apps on devices configured to not allow users to install apps.
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