Apple

If you’re keeping score at home, add San Bernardino’s police chief as the latest to take sides in the ongoing battle between Apple and the FBI. Jarrod Burguan, the local police chief, joined NPR to share his views on the current FBI and Apple privacy battle. In the interview, Burguan admits that there is “a good chance that there is nothing of any value on the phone”, but believes there is the possibility that “maybe there was some information on there that would lead to a larger plot or larger network.”

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TechCrunch spotted an interesting security hire by Apple: the developer behind Edward Snowden’s recommended secure chat app is joining Apple as an intern.

Frederic Jacobs, a Switzerland-based developer who worked to develop secure messaging app Signal […] announced today that he is joining the Cupertino-based company this summer to work in its CoreOS security team. 

As the site notes, Signal passed every security test when put through its paces by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and you can’t really get a better endorsement than the fact that Snowden trusts it.

Apple is also ramping up its incredibly strong language in arguing its position against the FBI …

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Following Apple’s filling earlier today in which it formally responded to the FBI’s court request to access date on a locked iPhone, the Wall Street Journal now reports that Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter all plan to file court motions supporting Apple’s stance.

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There’s a new development in the ongoing back-and-forth between Apple and the Department of Justice. Apple’s top lawyer, Bruce Sewell, will testify on encryption next week before a congressional hearing. The upcoming hearing will take place on Tuesday, March 1st, just five days from today.

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Update: The WSJ reports that the deal is not yet certain. Sharp may come with some potential financial risks, which Foxconn is evaluating before it actually signs the deal.

Foxconn Technology Group said Thursday it is delaying the signing of a definitive takeover agreement with Sharp Corp. due to new details that the Japanese electronics maker disclosed a day earlier.

Foxconn didn’t elaborate in its statement, but people familiar with the matter said that the Taiwanese iPhone assembler is putting the Sharp deal on hold after reviewing the Japanese firm’s future financial risk. The people said Foxconn received a list of about ¥350 billion yen worth of “contingent liabilities” from Sharp on Wednesday.

Contingent liabilities are costs that a company might face in the future, based on the outcome of lawsuits, accounting changes, supply contracts or other uncertainties.

Last month it was reported that Apple manufacturer Foxconn had bid $5.3 billion to acquire Japanese display maker Sharp, who has faced numerous financial and manufacturing difficulties over recent years. Now, Japanese news outlet Nikkei Asian Review reports that Sharp has accepted an offer from Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn, for $6.2 billion.

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This week Zac, Chance, Jeff, and Greg talk about updates for iPad Pro, Apple TV, and the controversy surrounding Apple’s situation with the FBI. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/248751763″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]

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Apple CEO Tim Cook has today sat down with ABC’s David Muir to talk about the company’s battle with the FBI. Last week, a California court requested that Apple unlock an iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen in December. Cook replied to the request with a letter on Apple’s homepage, saying that Apple did not want to create the tool that would be required to unlock the device. In his interview with Muir, Cook elaborated on the company’s decision…

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Original Story from our sister-site Electrek

Elon Musk, CEO of both electric automaker Tesla and rocket manufacturer SpaceX, splits his time between his two companies, which he also co-founded and financed with most of his early fortune from Paypal. Now Electrek has learned through sources that Musk will not be the only executive dividing his time between Tesla and SpaceX since the CEO hired Apple’s alloy expert Charles Kuehmann to lead materials engineering at both companies.

Kuehmann is now Vice-President of Materials Engineering at Tesla and SpaceX, where he is responsible for delivering materials innovations, something he is very familiar with after over two decades spent in materials science.
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According to a report from the Associated Press, Apple plans to file legal papers in which it will argue that its fight with the FBI of decrypting an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen should be settled by Congress. This report follows Apple CEO Tim Cook’s letter to employees in which he stated that the government should withdraw its demands because they are invalid under the All Writs Act from 1789.

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In a blog post, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak detailed that he has recently met with Apple executives Jeff Williams and Lisa Jackson at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino. In addition to Apple, Razak also met with Tesla. The Prime Minister described the meeting with Apple on his blog, explaining that they discussed ideas such as research and development and education.

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When Apple released the first beta of iOS 9.3, iPad Pro users quickly discovered that the update essentially crippled the Apple Pencil’s functionality with the device. Since its release, the Apple Pencil had been able to be used to navigate throughout iOS, in addition to the oft-touted drawing capabilities. The 9.3 betas, however, removed the accessory’s ability to be used to navigate iOS. Apple has confirmed to The Verge, though, that the capability will return in the next beta.

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IDC is out today with its latest data on the wearable market — both smartwatches and more basic activity trackers— and within we get a look at Apple Watch sales for the fourth quarter of 2015.

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Update: Bill Gates has told Bloomberg that he was “disappointed” by the ways his views were presented, and he does not back the FBI’s side of this particular case, and that the matter should be decided by the courts.

Apple is locked in a battle with the FBI over whether or not it should create a tool to access data on a locked iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen, but as some have expected, that’s only one of many cases in which Apple is involved. The Wall Street Journal reports this evening that the Department of Justice is seeking data from at least 12 other iPhones in criminal cases.

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As Apple looks to continue to expand the content available on the new fourth-gen Apple TV, Variety reports that the company has hired a former Viacom publication relations representative to handle content relations for the Apple TV.

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Obtained via Buzzfeed, Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent a memo this morning to employees reaffirming its position against the government in the Apple/FBI iPhone backdoor case. He thanks Apple employees and feedback from customers for their public support and says that whilst Apple has no sympathy for terrorists, the data security of hundreds of millions of law-abiding citizens is threatened by the government order.

Apple wants the government to withdraw its demands justified by the All Writs Act and encourages an open discussion between law enforcement, technology and privacy experts on privacy issues. In addition, Apple has posted an expanded question and answers page as a followup to Tim Cook’s original open letter to better inform the public of the situation.

In the memo, Cook openly notes that it does not feel right to be fighting against the government when defending constitutional liberties and freedoms.

Apple is a uniquely American company. It does not feel right to be on the opposite side of the government in a case centering on the freedoms and liberties that government is meant to protect.

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The FBI has released a press statement explaining its motivation for resetting the iCloud password in the San Bernardino iPhone backdoor/unlock case. It seems like a screw-up, which prevented Apple from extracting data from the phone via iCloud. However, the FBI says that the county did it, in collaboration with FBI, in order to gain access to the suspect’s iCloud account. It says it was able to successfully retrieve iCloud backups up to October 19th. However, the reason it wants Apple to create a backdoor into the locked iPhone is because it believes there is more data on the phone relevant to the case yet to be uncovered.

For unknown reasons, the iPhone did not backup anything to iCloud after 19th October. It is possible Syed Farook disabled the feature or the iPhone simply did not return to a known WiFi network whilst being plugged in. It is not known if a later iCloud backup would have yielded more information …

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