Rumors have swirled about potential VR or AR hardware from Apple for years now. But today, The Information has published perhaps the most extensive account of what the company is working on, and it paints an ambitious picture. Engadget: According to a source with direct knowledge of the device, Apple's mixed-reality headset will contain more than a dozen cameras for tracking movement and showing real-world video to the person wearing it. It is also said to include two 8K displays, giving it an effective resolution that would far outstrip anything currently on the market. [...] The Information believes that the device is in the later stages of development and could ship as soon as 2022. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Apple's first headset isn't targeted at a wide audience -- its price point is rumored to come in around $3,000. Given the hardware specs quoted in today's report, that's not unreasonable, but it's clear that this is less a device for consumers and more a competitor to Microsoft's $3,500 Hololens 2. That headset is focused on business customers more than something the average consumer would use.

Apple is investing 4 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in Kia Motors in a collaboration to build an electric car. From a report: This is according to a report by Korean outlet DongA Ilbo, which claims a deal may get inked on February 17. According to the report, the plan is to launch the Apple Car in 2024, with an initial target of producing 100,000 cars per year. This can later be expanded to 400,000 units, the report claims. Apple's funds will be used to build exclusive facilities for the production and development of Apple Car.

The report follows a January report that Apple is talking to Hyundai about Apple Car production, which Hyundai has readily confirmed. The company noted, however, that the discussion was "at its early stage" and that "nothing has been decided." However, Hyundai later revised the statement, only confirming that it's been talking to partners about building an autonomous electric vehicle.

Facebook is testing a notification that notifies Apple iOS users about ways the tech giant uses their data to target personalized ads to them. Axios reports: The test is happening in light of upcoming changes to Apple's privacy settings that will make it harder for Facebook and others to collect data on Apple users for ad targeting. Facebook warned investors last week that changes to Apple's "Identifier for Advertisers" (IDFA) user tracking feature will likely impact its business. The feature asks Apple iOS users to opt-in to having their data collected, instead of asking them to opt-out. Developers forecast that only around 10-30% of users will actually opt-in to having their data collected, making it much harder for advertisers to target potential Apple customers without as much access to their data.

Details: In an updated blog post, Facebook says it will be showing their prompt "to ensure stability for the businesses and people who use our services." The prompt, which provides information about how Facebook uses personalized ads, will be shown to users globally on Facebook and Instagram. In the post, Facebook says that if users accept the prompts for Facebook and Instagram, the ads you see on those apps won't change. "If you decline, you will still see ads, but they will be less relevant to you." The tech giant notes that Apple has said that providing education about its new privacy changes is allowed.

According to CEO Tim Cook, there are now more than 1 billion iPhones being used by customers around the world. The new milestone comes as the company earned over $100 billion in a single quarter for the first time in the company's history. 9to5Mac reports: Cook shared the new milestone in an earnings-focused interview with Reuters. The new metric is part of an overall increase of active devices around the world, reaching 1.65 billion compared to 1.5 billion this time last year: "Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook told Reuters in an interview that the company now has an active installed base of 1.65 billion devices, compared with 1.5 billion devices a year ago. Cook also said Apple now has an installed base of more than 1 billion iPhones, an increase over the 900 million the company most recently disclosed in 2019."

In the interview, he cites Apple's growth opportunity in China as a source of the company's success: "'We had two of the top three selling smartphones in urban China,' Cook told Reuters in an interview, adding that many of the company's other products and services also sold well. Cook said that Apple gained iPhone sales in China both from customers switching from rival Android devices as well as existing customers upgrading devices, but said 'upgraders in particular set an all-time record in China.'"

wiredmikey shares a report from SecurityWeek.com: Apple has quietly added several anti-exploit mitigations into iOS in what appears to be a specific response to zero-click iMessage attacks observed in the wild. The new mitigations were discovered by Samuel Grob, a Google Project Zero security researcher, [with the first big addition being] a new, tightly sandboxed "BlastDoor" service that is now responsible for the parsing of untrusted data in iMessages.

With iOS 14, Grob discovered that Apple shipped a significant refactoring of iMessage processing, and made all four parts of an attack much harder to succeed. Apple added logic into iOS 14 to specifically detect [shared cache region] attacks and new techniques to limit an attacker's ability to retry exploits or brute force Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR). "Overall, these changes are probably very close to the best that could've been done given the need for backwards compatibility, and they should have a significant impact on the security of iMessage and the platform as a whole," the Google researcher added.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook on Thursday criticized polarization and misinformation on social media, intensifying a conflict between the iPhone maker and Facebook. From a report: In remarks delivered at the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference, Cook critiqued apps that he argued collect too much personal information and prioritize "conspiracy theories and violent incitement simply because of their high rates of engagement." "At a moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says all engagement is good engagement -- the longer the better -- and all with the goal of collecting as much data as possible," Cook said.

He did not name Facebook, but the two companies have been in a high-profile dispute. Apple is preparing to implement privacy notifications that many in the digital advertising industry believe will cause some users to decline to allow the use of ad-targeting tools. Facebook has accused Apple of anticompetitive conduct because Apple has a growing catalog of paid apps and its own digital advertising business. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday said Apple has "every incentive to use their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work." Cook on Thursday criticized social media practices that he said undermine public trust in vaccines and encourage users to join extremist groups.

A long-simmering public dispute between Facebook and Apple has neared a boiling point. The Information: With the aid of outside legal counsel, Facebook for months has been preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple that would allege the iPhone-maker abused its power in the smartphone market by forcing app developers to abide by App Store rules that Apple's own apps don't have to follow, according to two people with direct knowledge of Facebook's efforts. The legal preparations by Facebook signal that the feud between the companies could further escalate, though ultimately Facebook may decide not to file a suit. Its executives are facing internal resistance from some employees over its public campaign against Apple, a fight that recently has centered on a change to iPhone software that will make it harder for Facebook and its advertisers to track people across apps.

Now Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is attempting to build a broad legal case arguing that Apple's rules for app developers -- which force them to use Apple's in-app payment service, for instance -- make it harder to compete against Apple in areas such as gaming, messaging and shopping. While Facebook could seek monetary damages in a lawsuit, the more meaningful outcome for the company and every other app developer would be material changes to Apple's iPhone restrictions. A similar antitrust case against Apple filed last fall by game maker Epic also seeks changes to Apple's business model rather than monetary damages. Facebook has considered inviting other companies to participate in its prospective lawsuit against Apple, said three people with knowledge of the talks.

Apple yesterday released a new version of iCloud for Windows 10, and based on multiple reports and the update's release notes, it appears Apple is introducing an iCloud Passwords extension designed for Chrome, which will allow "iCloud" Keychain passwords to be used on Windows machines. MacRumors reports: As noted by The 8-Bit and a few other sources, the update adds support for an "iCloud" Passwords Chrome extension." After installing version 12 of "iCloud" for Windows, there's a new "Passwords" section in the app with an "iCloud" Keychain logo. When attempting to use the feature, though, the "iCloud" app prompts users to download a Chrome extension, but the extension is broken and clicking to install leads to a broken web page.

This is likely a bug that will be addressed in the near future, and it sounds like when it is functional, Windows users will be able to access their "iCloud" Keychain passwords on their Windows machines through the Chrome browser. It's not clear if Apple will offer this extension for Mac machines in the future as well, and it appears to be limited to Windows at this time.

Apple has prioritized user privacy over targeted advertising, and Google is spelling out today what that means for itself as well as game and app developers. From a report: Apple is advocating its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy, which will require developers to ask for permission when they use personal data from other companies' apps and websites for advertising purposes, even if they already have user consent. It will ask users to opt-in if they will allow advertisers to use their data via the Identifier for Advertisers, or IDFA. Many tests show that many users won't allow it, and that means they won't be so easily tracked for advertising purposes. This change could have a huge impact on the mobile advertising ecosystem, as it could make it harder to target users efficiently with advertising.

Eric Seufert, a user acquisition expert, said on Monday that he believes that Facebook could suffer a 7% revenue hit -- a loss of tens of billions of dollars over time -- as a result of the IDFA changes, and it's no secret that Facebook isn't happy about the impact on itself as well as small businesses. At our Driving Game Growth event on Tuesday, Facebook leaders pointed to the IDFA changes as creating uncertainty for mobile games in 2021. Google, which could also be impacted by the policy change, has stayed out of the fray -- until today. "Today we're sharing how Google is helping our community prepare, as we know that developers and advertisers in the iOS ecosystem are still figuring out how to adapt," said Christophe Combette, group product manager for Google Ads in a blog post.

Microsoft has a habit of reigniting the Mac vs. PC conflict for its Surface ads, and this time it's going after Apple's Touch Bar. In a new TV commercial, aired during Sunday night's NFL championship games, Microsoft pits Apple's MacBook Pro against the company's Surface Pro 7. It's a chance for Microsoft to mock Apple's Touch Bar in a TV commercial for the first time. From a report: "Mac gave me this little bar, but why can't they just give me a whole touchscreen?" asks a boy comparing the two laptops. That's something that some MacBook Pro users have been calling for, or just the removal of the Touch Bar altogether. Apple is now reportedly planning a redesign for the MacBook Pro later this year, with the Touch Bar rumored to be replaced by physical function keys. Elsewhere in the ad, Microsoft tries to position the Surface Pro 7 as a gaming device. "It is a much better gaming device," claims the ad, which is an unusual way to frame Microsoft's popular Surface device.

In Apple and Epic's ongoing court battle over App Store fees, one of the key sticking points has been Apple's insistence on maintaining a 30 percent cut as a cornerstone of the storefront. But newly revealed Apple executive emails from the case show that the App Store rules that Apple flouts as essential to the fairness of the app economy were carefully negotiated into existence over time in a way that ensured Apple wasn't "leaving money on the table." From a report: The emails date back to a 2011 discussion, which included Apple software and services leader Eddy Cue, around how Apple would handle subscription video applications on the Apple TV -- an important conversation, given the rise in popularity of streaming services. And while the discussion doesn't offer much insight on Apple's existing 30 percent fee for the App Store, it does reveal how malleable those rules were when it came to maximizing profit. The company examined a variety of options, including a 40 percent one-time cut, a 30 percent one-time cut, a 30 percent ongoing fee, or more individualized deals with services like the NBA and MLB.

Spurred by big demand for top-of-the-line iPhones, the average selling price in the U.S. hit $873 last quarter, up from $809 a year ago, according to a report from Chicago-based Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. From a report: Apple still makes a huge chunk of its revenue and profits from iPhone sales, though services are an increasing source of both as well. "For the full quarter, the new iPhone 12 models, and in particular the most expensive ones, garnered a significant share of sales," said CIRP partner and co-founder Josh Lowitz.

Dan Riccio has served as senior VP of engineering overseeing all of Apple's hardware since 2012, but now he's stepping back from that role. A press release revealed he's focusing on a mysterious "new project" at Apple and will still report directly to CEO Tim Cook. Engadget reports: Exactly what that new project is remains unclear, although recent rumors have pointed to Apple's plans for augmented and virtual reality or building an electric car. Of course, maybe it's a differently color iPhone or an even-more-expensive pair of noise-cancelling headphones. Riccio previously lead the iPad team before taking over as senior VP, and oversaw projects all the way up to the recently-launched AirPods Max.

Replacing Riccio on Apple's executive team is John Ternus, who has been the VP of hardware engineering since 2013, and is noted as a key figure in Apple's rollout of its new M1 CPUs. Meanwhile, Riccio will still hold the title of vice president of engineering and "play an instrumental role in shaping the future of Apple's products."

According to Korea's ETNews, Apple is expected to feature blood glucose monitoring via an optical sensor in the Apple Watch Series 7. MacRumors reports: The report, which mainly focuses on the blood glucose capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, explains that Apple is intending to bring blood glucose monitoring to the upcoming Apple Watch Series 7 using a non-invasive optical sensor. Measuring blood glucose levels, also known as blood sugar levels, is vital to managing conditions such as diabetes. Normally, measuring blood glucose requires testing a drop of blood in a blood sugar meter or using an implanted continuous glucose monitor (CGM). The ability to observe any major increases or decreases in blood glucose may raise awareness of a potential health condition or simply help to improve a user's diet.

Apple is said to have secured patents around blood glucose monitoring, and the company is now purportedly "focusing on securing reliability and stability prior to commercialization of the technology." The Apple-designed optical sensor is believed to be a skin-top continuous monitoring solution that does not require an implant. [...] The Apple Watch Series 7 is expected to arrive later this year, but there have been few rumors around what the new models may feature. While there have been reports of microLED displays and solid-state buttons with haptic feedback for the Apple Watch, these are not directly expected for the Apple Watch Series 7.

A third class action lawsuit has been filed in Europe against Apple seeking compensation -- for what Italy's Altroconsumo consumer protection agency dubs "planned obsolescence" of a number of iPhone 6 models. From a report: The action relates to performance throttling Apple applied several years ago to affected iPhones when the health of the device's battery had deteriorated -- doing so without clearly informing users. It later apologized. The class action suit in Italy is seeking $72.8 million in compensation -- based on at least $72.8 in average compensation per iPhone owner. Affected devices named in the suit are the iPhone 6, 6S, 6 Plus and 6S Plus, per a press release put out by the umbrella consumer organization, Euroconsumers, which counts Altroconsumo a a member. The suit is the third to be filed in the region over the issue -- following suits filed in Belgium and Spain last month. A fourth -- in Portugal -- is slated to be filed shortly.

Long-time Slashdot reader SonicSpike shares a recent Wired.com article that purports to reveal "how law enforcement gets around your smartphone's encryption." Lawmakers and law enforcement agencies around the world, including in the United States, have increasingly called for backdoors in the encryption schemes that protect your data, arguing that national security is at stake. But new research indicates governments already have methods and tools that, for better or worse, let them access locked smartphones thanks to weaknesses in the security schemes of Android and iOS.

Cryptographers at Johns Hopkins University used publicly available documentation from Apple and Google as well as their own analysis to assess the robustness of Android and iOS encryption. They also studied more than a decade's worth of reports about which of these mobile security features law enforcement and criminals have previously bypassed, or can currently, using special hacking tools...

once you unlock your device the first time after reboot, lots of encryption keys start getting stored in quick access memory, even while the phone is locked. At this point an attacker could find and exploit certain types of security vulnerabilities in iOS to grab encryption keys that are accessible in memory and decrypt big chunks of data from the phone. Based on available reports about smartphone access tools, like those from the Israeli law enforcement contractor Cellebrite and US-based forensic access firm Grayshift, the researchers realized that this is how almost all smartphone access tools likely work right now. It's true that you need a specific type of operating system vulnerability to grab the keys — and both Apple and Google patch as many of those flaws as possible — but if you can find it, the keys are available, too...

Forensic tools exploiting the right vulnerability can grab even more decryption keys, and ultimately access even more data, on an Android phone.
The article notes the researchers shared their findings with the Android and iOS teams — who both pointed out the attacks require physical access to the target device (and that they're always patching vulnerabilities).

According to Bloomberg, Apple is working on a thinner and lighter version of the MacBook Air, the company's mass-market laptop. From the report: The new computer is planned to be released during the second half of this year at the earliest or in 2022. It will include Apple's MagSafe charging technology and a next-generation version of the company's in-house Mac processors. Apple has discussed making the laptop smaller by shrinking the border around the screen, which will remain 13-inches. The current model weighs 2.8 pounds and is just over half an inch at its thickest point.

The company considered building a larger version of the MacBook Air with a 15-inch screen, but Apple isn't moving forward with this for the next generation, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment. The new model will have a pair of USB 4 ports for connecting external devices. The new laptop is destined to be a higher-end version of the current MacBook Air, which is expected to remain in the company's lineup as an entry-level offering. Apple last updated the product in November with its own M1 Mac chip, replacing a processor from Intel Corp. Last Friday, Bloomberg reported on Apple's upgraded MacBook Pro laptops that are expected to be released later this year. They too will feature MagSafe charging, but unlike the MacBook Air, Apple's planning to bring back an SD card slot so users can insert memory cards from digital cameras. The Touch Bar is also going.

Beeper is a forthcoming app from the founder of Pebble that claims to be a hub for all your messaging services, including support for iMessage on Android. Gizmodo reports: Instead of managing half a dozen apps for keeping in touch with friends, family, and co-workers, Beeper allows you to funnel everything to one interface. According to its website, the app supports 14 external messaging platforms as well as its own Beeper network. But the company's claim that it brings iMessage to Android, Windows, or Linux devices could be a killer feature for anyone who's suffered through the embarrassment of the green bubble.

Apple likes to keep its in-house products exclusive to its own hardware, so this claim is a bit surprising, but Beeper says it's figured out a workaround. On its website, it explains: "Beeper has two ways of enabling Android, Windows and Linux users to use iMessage: we send each user a Jailbroken iPhone with the Beeper app installed which bridges to iMessage, or if they have a Mac that is always connected to the internet, they can install the Beeper Mac app which acts as a bridge. This is not a joke, it really works!"

Okay, the part about using an always-connected Mac as a bridge is not unprecedented, but the idea of sending users jailbroken upcycled iPhones is a little bonkers. Eric Migicovsky, founder of the Pebble smartwatch company and partner at Beeper, took to Twitter to insist that the jailbreak plan is legit and that he currently has 50 iPhone 4s ready for the task. In an update, Migicovsky tells Gizmodo that "Beeper encrypts all messages on the client before they reach our servers. We cannot decrypt any message contents."

The services compatible with Beeper include: Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Android Messages (SMS), Telegram, Twitter, Slack, Hangouts, Instagram, Skype, IRC, Matrix, Discord, Signal, and Beeper network.

As of December 8, Apple has been requiring developers to provide privacy label information to their apps, outlining the data that each app collects from users when it is installed. Many app developers have included the labels, but there's one notable outlier -- Google. schwit1 shares a report from MacRumors: Google has not updated its major apps like Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome, and YouTube since December 7 or before, and most Google apps have to date have not been updated with the Privacy Label feature. The Google Translate, Google Authenticator, Motion Stills, Google Play Movies, and Google Classroom apps do include privacy labels even though they have not been updated recently, but Google's search app, Google Maps, Chrome, Waze, YouTube, Google Drive, Google Photos, Google Home, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Assistant, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Google Slides, Google One, Google Earth, YouTube Music, Hangouts, Google Tasks, Google Meet, Google Pay, PhotoScan, Google Voice, Google News, Gboard, Google Podcasts, and more do not display the information.

On January 5, Google told TechCrunch that the data would be added to its iOS apps "this week or the next week," but both this week and the next week have come and gone with no update. It has now been well over a month since Google last updated its apps. "To lightly paraphrase former Google CEO Eric Schmidt: If your data harvesting is something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place," adds schwit1.

One of the biggest trends coming out of this year's CES wasn't something people will necessarily notice at first glance unless they look closely. From a report: After enduring years of cramped, "widescreen" laptop displays, it looks like we're finally starting to say goodbye to the 16:9 aspect ratio. [...] The aspect ratios you'll typically see on laptops are 16:9, 3:2, 16:10 (which, for whatever reason, is called 16:10 rather than 8:5), and (occasionally) 4:3. 16:9 is the most common option and also the one with the lowest amount of vertical space relative to its horizontal space. [...] But this CES showed that 16:10 and 3:2 displays are inching closer to the mainstream. These are some of the biggest laptops announced at the show that are offering non-16:9 display options:

HP Elite Folio (1920 x 1280, 3:2)
Dell Latitude 9420 2-in-1 (2560 x 1600, 16:10)
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 2 (2560 x 1600, 16:10)
Lenovo Legion 7 and Legion 5 Pro (2560 x 1600, 16:10)
LG Gram 17 and Gram 16 (2650 x 1600, 16:10)
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro (2560 x 1600, 16:10)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga (2256 x 1504, 3:2)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 and X1 Yoga Gen 6 (up to 3840 x 2400, 16:10)
Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Detachable (1920 x 1280, 3:2)
Asus ROG Flow X13 (up to 3840 x 2400, 16:10)


That doesnâ(TM)t mean there are no 16:9 displays left â" plenty of laptops still use it, and probably will for the foreseeable future. And some of these devices, like the LG Grams, were 16:10 already. But it's significant that a large number of the flagships we'll be seeing in the first half of 2021 will be either 16:10 or 3:2. In fact, when you include MSI's 16:10 Summit E13 Flip and Razer's 16:10 Razer Book 13 (both of which were announced prior to CES), I can't think of a mainstream consumer laptop company that isn't now selling a non-16:9 flagship-level machine. It's clear that companies across the board are moving toward laptops with taller aspect ratios, and I fully expect to see more of them in the years to come.