Apple

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.

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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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It’s kind of an “open-secret” in the auto and tech industries that Apple is developing an electric vehicle codenamed “Project Titan”, yet for the most part, the Cupertino-based company has been able to keep details under wraps.

In helping keep any development secret, Apple is believed to be using a shell company called Sixty Eight Research based in Sunnyvale, California. Neighbors have recently been reporting heavy security presence and a lot of noise around the location. 
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In case you missed Apple’s fight with the FBI this week, the launch of Apple in China, or any of the other big Apple stories we’ve covered, below we’ve rounded up this week’s top stories and recommended reading to get you up to date over the weekend. Enjoy. 
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The Apple vs FBI encryption clash continues to ramp up, with the Department of Justice filing a motion today to force Apple to comply with the FBI’s request and make custom iPhone firmware that would let the FBI brute-force into an iPhone related to the San Bernardino attacks, via CNBC.

Although tech giants are generally taking Apple’s side on the matter, with the iPhone backdoor seen as a ‘dangerous precedent’, this is the first time the DoJ has entered the conversation and it is clearly not on Apple’s side.

Via the New York Times, the Justice Department claimed Apple’s refusal to cooperate was driven by marketing concerns and its public branding.

It said that Apple’s refusal to help unlock the phone for the F.B.I. “appears to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy,” rather than a legal rationale.

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According to a new report from Strategy Analytics, the sales of smartwatches in the fourth quarter of 2015 outpaced sales of Swiss watches for the first time. The company claims that during the holiday quarter, a total of 8.1 million smartwatches were shipped, while 7.9 million Swiss watches were shipped.

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Following Apple’s refusal to unlock an iPhone 5c used by one of the San Bernardino gunmen, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, a Republican out of North Carolina, plans to propose a new bill that would impose criminal penalties on companies that don’t comply with those types of orders. Citing people familiar with the matter, the report says that Burr’s plan isn’t finalized yet and that it’s unclear how many other lawmakers support the idea.

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