August 2013 Notable features: Calendar is now location, travel time, weather aware and adds local weather and Meeting Notice travel time directly to calendar events. Safari is All meetings, except for the December, will be at the much faster and comes with some handy sidebar Grande Prairie Library at 3479 W 183rd St., Hazel improvements to Bookmarks, Reading Lists and Crest. The December meeting will be held at the Shared Links. A new dedicated Maps application Homewood Public Library. features bookmarks, real-time traf!c and one-click send to iOS. A surprising omission is full Siri Meetings are held at the Flossmoor Station Brew support. Pub on the second Tuesday of the month at 7:30 PM. iOS 7

Walter Palmer, Editor The most anticipated software announcement was iOS 7, the next major release of the OS that powers the iPhone and iPad. New features include Control Center, iTunes Radio, AirDrop and major updates $95 billion (editorial) to Noti!cation Center, Multitasking, Siri, Camera, Photos and Safari. Like Mavericks, iOS got the "at Companies have been suing Apple right and left, treatment, but even more dramatically. The entire countries are reviewing how much Apple pays in OS has a more subdued and subtle look and feel taxes. My advice is that they make large donations and all of the Apple icons are simpler and cleaner. to charity or they will loose more then the any donation to charity to all kinds of people. Notable features: Control Center provides a slide up tray with quick access to AirPort, Bluetooth, brightness, music, AirDrop, AirPlay and a welcome World Wide Developer’s Conference 2013 built-in "ashlight. Noti!cations, Multitasking and the Camera app are greatly improved, but the show stealer is iTunes Radio, which is free ad-supported By Jason D. O'Grady for The Apple Core Internet radio. The kicker is that iRadio is ad-free June 11, 2013 for iTunes Match subscribers (which costs $25 per year) -- a nice surprise. OS X Mavericks MacBook Air Apple ran out of cat names so it switched naming conventions to California landmarks for its major On the hardware front, Apple used WWDC to operating system releases and OS X "Mavericks" is announce refreshed MacBook Air notebooks based the !rst. The newest version of the Mac desktop on Intel's latest Haswell processors, 802.11ac Wi-Fi operating system is due in the fall and focuses on and PCIe-based "ash storage that is up to 45 better battery life and responsiveness. It boasts over percent faster than the previous generation 200 new features including a tabbed Finder, (Note: (approaching 800 Mbps in early benchmarks). The Your editor has used TotalFinder, which patches best feature in the new MBAs is all-day battery life. the Finder to provide tabs, for some time and and The new 13-inch MacBook Air gets up to 12 hours tabbed a Finder is great!) Tags and much improved of battery life and the 11-inch MacBook Air delivers multiple-monitor support. As expected, Mavericks up to 9 hours of battery life. The 11-inch models is decidedly "atter in design as evidenced by the featuring double the storage and 13-inch models updated Calendar app which has ditched the leather starting at a new lower price of $1,099. and paper metaphor for a more simple and clean design. Mac Pro 32GB and 64GB models. At just $229, it’s cheaper Billed as a "sneak peek into the future of the Pro than its 32GB and 64GB counterparts by $70 and desktop" the new Mac Pro is just one-eighth of the $170, respectively. volume of the previous Mac Pro (9.9 inches tall, 6.6 inches in diameter). The new Apple tower (or PRISIM should I say cylinder?) features a new uni!ed thermal core, with three logic boards mounted on a triangular-shaped heat sink with a fan at the top. By now, I am sure that everybody on Earth has Hardware-wise the new Mac Pro features a new- heard about PRISIM and the US Government’s generation Intel Xeon E5 chipset with up to 12 ‘review’ of telephone and computer traf!c. It turns cores of processing power, 2.5x faster dual out that during the Civil War telegraph traf!c was workstation AMD FirePro GPUs (4096 stream routed to the government and France has a similar processors, 384-bit memory buses, 528 GBps total program. Since I !rst wrote this it has been reveled bandwidth) and 2.5x faster "ash storage (PCIe that other governments do something like this - controller, 1.25 GBps reads, 1.0 GBps writes). including the Lincoln Administration, which had all telegraph traf!c routed through the Federal It also features 2x faster ECC memory (1866MHz Government. That was during wartime. Aren’t we DDR3, four-channel controller, 60 GBps in a war? Well, yes, but it looks to go on for the next bandwidth) and 4K video support (multiple hundred years or so. streams, supported on every port, three simultaneous displays). The new Mac Pro comes As I frequently point out, the Bill of Right was no with a ton of ports on the backplane, including six sooner rati!ed than the government started trying Thunderbolt 2 ports being driven by three to think of ways around it. “Everybody does it” and controllers (20 Gbps throughput, 6 devices per port, “It’s been done for a long time” don’t really make backwards compatible), four USB 3 ports, two your editor feel any better about it. Gigabit Ethernet, and a HDMI 1.4 port.

Apple said that the next-generation Mac Pro is Frankly, I am more concerned about unauthorized, coming "later this year" and that it's designed and free-lance snooping by government employees than assembled in the United States. I am about policy-driven ‘inspection’. It’s going to come out if it is done of!cially, but the free-lance Less Expensive iPod Touch inspection is too wonderful an opportunity for blackmail to pass up. Combine that with third-shift Apple Unveils iSight-Less 16GB Fifth-Gen iPod boredom and watch out. touch, Now Available For $229 At bottom, the problem comes from the fact that we by Aldrin Calimlim (edited) want crime and other nastiness stopped before it happens. If anybody knows about a way to tell what people are GOING to do before they do it Ever so quietly, Apple has just discontinued selling without snooping, please share it with others. the fourth-generation iPod touch from its online Ironically, just before this story broke a survey was store. Instead, it is now selling a new version of the released stating that people were willing to give up current generation of its popular portable media some privacy in return for greater security. Well, we player. have one, let’s see if we get the other.

The new version is a !fth-generation iPod touch that comes with just 16GB of onboard storage. Of course, this is half of what the previous lowest- capacity !fth-generation iPod touch holds.

More notably, the new device model comes without an iSight rear camera, which is found on both the Apple Smart Watch According to the report, Apple has also been acquiring smaller !rms which specialize in Apple Hiring ‘Aggressively’ For iWatch, Aiming technologies related to the smart watch, and is For Late 2014 Launch aiming to launch the product in late 2014, rather than 2013, as previous analysis has indeed by Joe White, AppAdvice indicated.

For some time, the company is said to have had 100 or more designers working on the product, which is rumored to be a wristwatch capable of performing some of the tasks currently reserved for Apple’s line of iDevices. From what we understand, a touch- optimized display and curved battery could also be in the cards.

Furthermore, Apple has recently been on something of an “iWatch” trademark spree in countries spanning the globe. Trademark applications in Russia, Jamaica, Japan,Mexico, Taiwan, and (Speculative picture) Turkey have so far been uncovered, though Apple could have trouble securing the name in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Apple is said to be “aggressively” hiring new employees for its anticipated smart watch, in a move which suggests that the Cupertino, Calif. It seems that an iWatch is indeed in the works. company is now seeking additional expertise to Though whether it’ll arrive before many are able to assist in the development of the so-called “iWatch.” get their hands on a Pebble smart watch, either online or in person at Best Buy, remains to be seen.

The news comes from the Financial Times:

The company has begun hiring aggressively for the project in recent weeks, say people familiar with Apple’s plans for the wearable device, a move that shows it has stepped up development but which raises questions over the ability of its own engineers to develop wearable technology.

As Apple moves from iPods, and into an entirely new category of product, it is looking beyond its existing staff in Cupertino for the talent required to build it an indication that the endeavour involves hard engineering problems that they’ve not been able to solve, according to one source. Pebble Smart Watch. This is what is being talked about. (Think about it - if someone works for Apple, whether as an employee of an acquired company or a direct hire, they become one of Apple’s own engineers.) Why a smart watch? iWatch’s novelty emerges as Apple taps sensor and !tness experts 8:00 AM It would mean that I would not have to dig my by Mark Gurman phone out from under a coat (during the winter) when I had an iOS noti!cation. Even if it meant that I could say “Give me a second while I get my phone” that would be useful. I need a backlit watch with alarms and don’t have one. It has been mentioned that medical apps might be possible - pulse, if nothing else. Temp and Blood Pressure, probably not.

The Pebble is priced at $150, which for the features I want, is not excessive. One can spend several times that for a watch at WalMart. Of course, I am planning on it lasting seven or eight years before replacement is needed. Apple’s , Bob Mans!eld, Kevin Lynch Finally, the kicker for us “Apple Hipsters” - it is rumored to have software that will monitor pulse, Apple has begun assembling a team of hardware blood pressure (?), and blood sugar (?). When one is and software engineering, medical sensor, as young as mots of the member of SSMUG these manufacturing, and !tness experts, indicating the things are important. company is moving forward with a project to build a !tness-oriented, sensor-laden wearable computer, according to our sources. (see below for more)

Over the past half-decade-or-so, Apple has ++++++++++++++++++ experimented with and shelved numerous wearable computer designs. Internal prototypes have Apple is reportedly moving from buying from other included designs that could clip onto different pieces companies or subcontracting manufacture of their of clothing (like an iPod shuf"e/nano) in addition to devices to doing it in-house. Why not? They have devices that could wrap around a wrist. $95 billion in the bank. Cook, also a Nike Director, is known to wear the !tness-focused Fuel Band. The executive has praised the product. “I think Nike did a really great job with this,” he said at AllThingsD’s D11 conference. “The [wearables] that do more than one thing… aren’t great,” he added. As a company that prides itself on complete, integrated experiences, the smart watch market is one that Apple likely believes it could dominate by way of iPhone and iPad-like innovation. report and a story by the Financial Times pro!ling Apple’s iWatch hiring efforts have pointed to a late-2014 release.

Reportedly leading the project with Mans!eld are Apple VP Kevin Lynch and senior hardware director James Foster. According to our sources, Lynch’s side of the team is focused on overall software vision, and Foster’s group is developing the technologies and mechanics that will shape the features of the device. While Lynch and Foster run two different groups that are part of the bigger project, sources say that the groups are closely knit.

Other Apple teams, such as ’s Hardware Engineering group, ’s Industrial Design Apple’s Senior Vice President of Technologies Bob team, and ’s software developers, Mans!eld, who is said to be key to the development are likely collaborating closely to develop the user- of Apple wearables, has been seen walking around facing hardware and software. Apple’s campus with a Fuel Band. Mans!eld was scheduled to depart Apple in mid-2012, but he returned to work on unspeci!ed “future products” under Cook until formally booting up the new Technologies division last fall. Mans!eld, a report from last year said, worked on health appliances during this period.

MacBook Air batteries (via iFixit)

Jawbone Up For this group, Apple has rounded up battery power experts from other divisions inside the company. For instance, Apple has relocated top Apple marketing chief and his team, engineers from Mac projects to focus on power sources say, have also been examining new wearable ef!ciency. Apple’s MacBook Air is known for being products including the Jawbone Up. Apple a thin and light laptop that also manages power Marketing is tasked with setting product direction well. The same people that worked on battery and capabilities, but it is also in charge of analyzing components for that computer will bring their the current marketplace. expertise to the development of Apple’s wearable device. Reports are currently split as to when Apple will debut such a wrist device. Earlier this year, Additionally, a source says that Apple has tapped Bloomberg reported that Apple is seeking to debut former iPhone engineers for the project. the future-product late in 2013, but a recent analyst Speci!cally, Apple sought members of the original During a phone call, the former CTO told us that iPhone team that worked on the assembly and the company broke down because the glucose-level- miniaturization of internal components. analysis technology was facing issues surrounding the consistency of data readings. When the company dissolved, Apple moved aggressively to hire several C8 MediSensors directors and engineers, including designers and scientists that specialize in machine learning (a form of arti!cial intelligence that focuses on interpreting forms of data), Hofmeiste said.

Verizon con!rms Edge 6-month phone upgrade program Motorola Atrix Fingerprint Sensor (via 9:27 AM DigitalTrends) by Ben Lovejoy

Sources say that people from Apple’s Authentec acquisition are also involved with the “iWatch” project. While much of the former Authentec team is focused on developing !ngerprint solutions for devices like the iPhone (perhaps even the next model), some team members are working on sensors for the iWatch. In addition to physical sensors that could be placed on top of device hardware, sources say that Apple has been toying with solutions that could embed a !ngerprint reader into a high- resolution Multi-Touch display.

AccuVein specializes in portable device sensors to The leaked plan we reported on has been con!rmed: map out veins in the body via a non-invasive Verizon is joining the ‘hang onto your early fashion. The video above from the company adopters by letting them upgrade handsets every six explains the technology. iWatch engineers with months’ club, closely following T-Mobile’s experience in these sensors could give Apple lead. AtD explained how it works: excellent perspective into how its wearable devices could be used in the medical world. With Verizon Edge, you pay the full retail price of a phone, along with a month-to-month service plan. Apple has also hired several experts in the !eld of The cost of the handset is divided into 24 monthly non-invasive blood monitoring sensors from C8 installments, and the !rst payment is due at the MediSensors. This !rm is a company that became point of sale. defunct in February of this year, according to its former CTO Rudy Hofmeister (who departed the If, after six months, you decide you want to upgrade company in late 2012). your phone, you can do so, as long as you’ve paid 50 percent of the unsubsidized price, and the phone The company’s technology provides a non-invasive is still in working condition. Once you trade in your way to measure substances in the human body such device, all !nal payments are waived, you choose as glucose levels. The technology, as described in another handset of your liking, and start all over the above video, could be ideal for patients again. monitoring diabetes. Verizon Edge is only available to those on one of DOJ proposes settlement in Apple ebook price !xing Verizon’s Share Everything plans, starting at $40 case: end current agreements, link to other stores per month. The company has not yet updated its 9 to 5 Mac August 2, 2013 site with full details, just an email sign-up to !nd by Jordan Kahn out more.

Women interviewed by police for shopping online After reaching settlements with just about every for a pressure cooker. publisher involved in the long-running Apple/ Amazon e-book price !xing case, The United States Department of Justice today published its proposal Michele Catalano, and her husband, Todd Pinnell, to end the case with Apple after !nding the received a visit from Suffolk County, New Jersey company guilty of conspiring to !x ebook prices police after his employer reported that searches for during trial earlier this month: “pressure cooker” and “backpack” were made on a company owned computer. I am guessing that the computer, while company owned, was located in “The court found that Apple’s illegal conduct their home. His then employer, Speco (?), reported deprived consumers of the bene!ts of e-book price the matter to the police. competition and forced them to pay substantially higher prices,” said Bill Baer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Your editor has some below-the-surface questions. Antitrust Division. “Under the department’s It is clear that Speco (?) was monitoring the use of proposed order, Apple’s illegal conduct will cease their equipment. That is their right. and Apple and its senior executives will be prevented from conspiring to thwart competition in However, were they thinking that he is such a rat the future.” that he was going to bomb them? Were they afraid they might have done something that might cause a Among the key points in the proposal: normally reasonable person to want to bomb them? Was it a grudge on the part of someone in IT? -Apple must terminate its agreements with the 5 publishers involved I have had very little contact with the East Coast, but I have had some. My wife and I were driving our son to his !rst post-college job in Hartford, CT. -Must “refrain for !ve years from entering new e- There was a terrorism alert out at the time, book distribution contracts which would restrain requiring all trucks to be searched and he was Apple from competing on price.” driving a U-Haul box truck. Being from Illinois, he is a bit of a scof"aw and was pulled over and -Must not “serve as a conduit of information inspected. No ticket, but the point is that they are among the conspiring publishers or from retaliating more serious about terrorism on the east coast than against publishers for refusing to sell e-books on here. However, the blank check given government agency terms” agencies after 911 seems to be expiring. 3-D printers, model airplane sized drones (Pizza delivery via drone is being tested by Dominos in Great -Must not enter contracts for music, movies, TV, or Britain). etc. Traf!c laws will be observed much games, that will increase prices for competing better once self-driving cars hit the road but then retailers !ne revenue will plummet. -Must allow other e-book retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble to provide links from their e-book apps to their e-bookstores for two years (on iPhone and iPad)

-Must “appoint an external monitor to ensure that changes. The 31 page document is summarized Apple’s internal antitrust compliance policies are quite well by the initial introduction: suf!cient to catch anticompetitive activities before they result in harm to consumers” Plaintiffs’ proposed injunction is a draconian and punitive intrusion into Apple’s business, wildly out One of the most notable requests in the proposal of proportion to any adjudicated wrongdoing or would require Apple to allow Amazon and other potential harm. Plaintiffs propose a sweeping and book publishers to link directly to their ebook unprecedented injunction as a tool to empower the stores from within their mobile apps on iOS devices. Government to regulate Apple’s businesses and The DOJ says it would allow “consumers who potentially affect Apple’s business relationships purchase and read e-books on their iPads and with thousands of partners across several markets. iPhones easily to compare Apple’s prices with those Plaintiffs’ overreaching proposal would establish a of its competitors.” vague new compliance regime—applicable only to Apple—with intrusive oversight lasting for ten years, going far beyond the legal issues in this case, The settlement proposal comes following the DOJ’s injuring competition and consumers, and violating trial against Apple last month, which resulted in the basic principles of fairness and due process. The courts !nding Apple guilty of conspiring with other resulting cost of this relief—not only in dollars but publishers to raise e-book prices. also lost opportunities for American businesses and consumers—would be vast. Apple is the last defendant in the case, as the !ve publishers initially involved – Hachette Book Editor: Group (USA), HarperCollins Publishers L.L.C., Holtzbrinck, Macmillan, Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and Simon & Schuster Inc – had settled with Wow - “lost opportunities for consumers” - to do the courts previously. The publishers agreed to what? Pay Apple high(er) prices? I suspect that if terminate agreements with Apple that would limit Apple was required to compete that other ebook price competition and “allow for retail price companies would not be happy about being competition in renegotiated e-book distribution undersold and would lower prices to match. I am agreements.” sure that is the DoJ’s strategy - attack the big dog and thereby force the others into the same mold without having to supervise all companies (aka A report earlier this month from GigaOM estimated ‘Amazon’ and ‘B&N’). I suspect that most, but not that Apple could have to pay up to $500 million in all, members of SSMUG are not looking for ways consumer damages based on what the !ve to enrich the IT business. My stake ends with the publishers have paid through state and class action money I pay out. I see zero return direct or indirect, cases, but there was no !nancial related settlements so I am just a consumer. included in DOJ’s remedy proposal today. We heard that a trial against Apple for damages would soon follow the court’s ruling, and today the DOJ notes that the courts will hold a hearing on remedies on Aug. 9.

Apple calls DOJ ebooks remedy proposal ‘draconian and punitive’ 9 to 5 Mac August 3, 2013 by Scott Buscemi

Following the Department of Justice’s proposed settlements for the iBooks court case, Apple has submitted a response to the court that clearly shows the company is in no way interested in the suggested The End

(In More Than One Way)

(Don’t Expect this Every Quarter)

Japanese toilet users vulnerable to Bluetooth bidet assaults Wired August 3, 2013 by Aaron Souppouris

High-tech Japanese toilets are vulnerable to attack from their manufacturer's own Android app. As The Atlantic reports, a security advisory from researchers at Trustwave says all Inax Satis Bluetooth toilets have the same Bluetooth PIN ("0000") hardcoded, allowing anyone with the My Satis Android app to control any toilet within range.

What can you do with the app? Apart from activating the "ush and checking in on the detailed defecation records stored by the commode, you can also activate the toilet's bidet and drying functions, summoning a jet of water or hot air from below. Trustwave has attempted to inform Inax of the "aw three times since its discovery in June, and is only now making the vulnerability public.