The Apple and the Mouse.

This… intrigues me: “A few weeks before Bob Iger sat down for that CNBC interview in which he said Disney’s linear TV networks, like ABC and FX, “may not be core” to the company’s business, a veteran Hollywood executive mused to The Hollywood Reporter on the possibility of a deal that would rock the industry: Apple buying Disney. It’s an idea that keeps being discussed, even though many top executives have scoffed at it and many still do. Apple doesn’t want to buy a studio, they say, and there’s no way the feds would allow a huge deal like that to go through.”

Continue reading The Apple and the Mouse.

Apple to bring out cheaper iPhone line.

Bestill my beating heart.

Apple is reportedly ready to return to the low-cost phone market after an absence of four years. The company plans to begin production on a cheaper iPhone in February, with an official unveiling coming as early as March, sources tell Bloomberg.

The handset — believed to be comparable in size to the 4.7-inch iPhone 8 from 2017 — would be Apple’s first low-cost smartphone since 2016’s $399 iPhone SE.

Continue reading Apple to bring out cheaper iPhone line.

Apple’s zero-day exploits now worth less than Android’s.

This does not appear to be good news for Apple.

For the first time ever, the security exploit broker Zerodium is paying a higher price for zero-day attacks that target Android than it pays for comparable attacks targeting iOS.

…the move was prompted by a glut of working iOS exploit chains that has coincided with the growing difficulty of finding comparable exploits for versions 8 and 9 of Android. 

Not a computer dude, but this more or less says to me that… no, wait, really: I’m not a computer dude. My opinion is probably useless. I think that what I read here is that Apple isn’t doing enough counter-hacking work, but I might be wrong. Or simply more and more biased against Apple. Certainly my next phone won’t be an iPhone.

Apple to finally put a stake in iTunes.

Via Facebook comes this sudden, yet inevitable betrayal:

iTunes has been the way Apple users listen to music, watch movies and TV shows, hear podcasts, and manage their devices for almost two decades. This year, Apple is finally ready to move into a new era. The company is launching a trio of new apps for the Mac – Music, TV, and Podcasts – to replace iTunes. That matches Apple’s media app strategy on iPhones and iPads. Without iTunes, customers can manage their Apple gadgets through the Music app. 

Continue reading Apple to finally put a stake in iTunes.

Apple stymies right-to-repair bills in CA, Ontario.

I didn’t know too much about this, because after my flirtation with the iPad back in the day I went back to using PCs and whanot. But apparently Apple is playing the lobbyist game in California and Ontario, where bills that would permit third-party repairs of brand name electronics were up. And the reason Apple gave? Hold on, you’ll love it:

According to Motherboard, Apple, along with lobbyists from tech trade organization CompTIA, reportedly told legislators that owners trying to fix their own iPhones could hurt themselves in the process if they damaged the lithium-ion battery.

Continue reading Apple stymies right-to-repair bills in CA, Ontario.

Apple’s billion-dollar face ID system fornicates the canine?

As in, that’s what this guy is suing Apple for after a wrongful arrest:

[Ousmane Bah] was still a high-school student when he received a summons from a court in Boston accusing him of stealing $1,200 worth of Apple products — in particular Apple Pencils — from an Apple Store in Boston.

According to the suit, Bah had never been to Boston and was attending his senior prom in Manhattan on the day authorities said the theft took place.

Via Fark Geek.

Bah was later charged with a bunch of similar charges in multiple states (all of which have been thrown out, except for one in New Jersey). The suit relies in large part to a NYPD detective’s statement that Apple’s facial-recognition algorithms have wrongly learned to associate Bah with whoever the actual shoplifter. And, to be fair to Apple: they’re claiming that they don’t use this technology in their stores. Which means one of three things likely happened here:

Continue reading Apple’s billion-dollar face ID system fornicates the canine?

Apple thinking of taking another gaming bite.

This is kind of sad:

Apple is planning a subscription service for games, according to five people familiar with the matter.

The service would function like Netflix for games, allowing users who pay a subscription fee to access a bundled list of titles. Apple ($AAPL) began privately discussing a subscription service with game developers in the second half of 2018, said the people, all of whom requested anonymity to discuss unannounced plans.

Continue reading Apple thinking of taking another gaming bite.

Apple to take a stab at Asimov’s Foundation trilogy.

Good luck with that: “In a competitive situation, Apple has nabbed a TV series adaptation of Foundation, the seminal Isaac Asimov science fiction novel trilogy. The project, from Skydance Television, has been put in development for straight-to-series consideration” (Via @danwallace70).  They’ve been trying to make something out of that IP for decades, and nobody’s every figured out how to make it gel.  Then again, Apple can afford to throw money at the problem in ways that most production companies can’t. Continue reading Apple to take a stab at Asimov’s Foundation trilogy.