Chipmaker TSMC recently disclosed that it had been hit a computer virus last Friday due to a misoperation during a software installation process for a new tool. The semiconductor company, which manufactures processors for the iPhone, says that it has already recovered 80% of its affected equipment. While the company says it should be fully recovered by August 6, the shutdowns are expected to delay shipments and incur additional costs. Source: ZDNet
Apple recently announced that it has recently fixed a bug that causes the iPhone to crash whenever the word “Taiwan” or the Taiwanese flag was mentioned or displayed in any app. Discovered by researcher Patrick Wardle, the bug was fixed in a security update released last Monday, after the release of iOS 11.4.1. Wardle said the devices would crash due to a memory error in how the operating system processes and removes certain emojis when the regional settings are incorrect. In doing so, it would return a “null” value, which caused the crash. Source: ZDNet
Japan’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) says Apple’s Japan unit has breach antitrust laws by forcing NTT Docomo Inc., KDDI Corp., and SoftBank Group Corp. to offer subsidiaries and sell discounted iPhones. The FTC said that the move restricted competition and could have prevented the carriers from offering lower monthly charges. The Japan watchdog began looking into Apple’s sales practices in 2016, but did not punish Apple when the company agreed to revise its contracts with the carriers. It was said that to make up for the losses, Apple locked consumers into lucrative two- and four-year contracts. Source: Reuters
President Donald Trump had reportedly assured Apple CEO Tim Cook that iPhones assembled in China will not be affected by tariffs his administration will be imposing on several categories of electronic goods. Sources have said that Cook went to the White House last month to warn the US president of the adverse effects the administration’s trade policies may have on Apple and the US technology sector. However, it was not specified when Trump made the promise to Cook, and both Apple and the White House have yet to issue their comments on the matter. Source: Reuters
Earlier this week, a report issued by the Office of the Inspector General said that the FBI had been to quick to threaten Apple with a lawsuit instead of exploring other options when it sought to compel the phone maker to unlock the iPhone used in the 2015 San Bernardino attack. The FBI said that Apple refused to cooperate with their investigation and thus resorted to take legal action, which the Bureau did not pursue when a third-party came forward with a working solution to unlock the phone. However, the OIG inquiry found that the FBI did not exhaust all […]
It was recently brought up that camera makers are still taking their time in implementing encryption on their devices. It has already been a year since a group composed of photojournalists and film makers had sent a letter urging manufacturers to add the feature to their cameras, but the call remain unheeded. According to the Freedom of the Press Foundation, there is a strong need for encryption to protect the user’s work from threats such as authorities, terrorists and criminals who wish to search or even tamper with their devices. The letter also pointed out that the lack of encryption […]
Bloomberg reported last Tuesday that Apple is set to be investigated by the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission as to whether the company had violated securities laws after admitting to slowing down older iPhones to prolong battery life. Around 50 proposed class action suits have already been filed against the phone maker by users who said that the update had significantly degraded the performance of their iPhones, making them think that their devices were already at the end of their life cycle. The consumers have also asked judges to issue orders that would prevent Apple […]
Complaints about Apple’s performance throttling of older iPhones continue to roll in, with the latest coming from South Korea and Italy. Reuters reported that a South Korean consumer group called Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty had filed a lawsuit against the phonemaker, while Italy’s antitrust body formally launched a probe into the performance capping of manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung. The watchdog said that the manufacturers may intentionally be curbing the performance of the devices to encourage consumers to upgrade to the newer versions. French authorities say that they will be investigating these actions to see if it constitutes […]
A security flaw affecting Apple Macs and iPhones was recently discovered by software developer Abraham Masri who posted it on GitHub last Tuesday. The bug, called “chaiOS” causes devices to crash or restart. The chaiOS “text bomb” can be activated simply by sending a link to the device, even without having the user click on it. The bug can also crash the Safari browser and cause slowdowns on a Mac. However, renowned security expert Graham Cluley said that chaiOS is not a major security threat, but rather more of an annoyance to Apple users. Cluley added that it was not […]
Apple recently confirmed that Meltdown and Spectre, the two chip-level security vulnerabilities, also affect all Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Patches for the Meltdown bug has already been released, but it may take a few days before a fix for Spectre is released. However, Apple owners were assured in a blog post that there were no known exploits that can affect customer in the meantime. As the vulnerabilities affect almost any device that use an Intel or ARM processors, Google, Microsoft, and other companies have already released their respective fixes. A security researcher also published a list of online antivirus products. […]
