Thursday, December 20, 2018

Windows 10 To Get ‘Sandbox’: An In-built Windows Virtual Machine To Safely Test Untrusted Apps


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Apple Music Subscription Now Live On Amazon Echo Smart Speakers As Alexa Skill


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Apple Shares Revamped Transparency Report Website With Easier-to-Parse Data

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Apple today released its latest transparency report, outlining government data requests that it received from January to June 2018.

Apple's latest report has been shared on a totally overhauled transparency website that also features past reports in a more visually digestible format, making it much easier to go through the data.


Apple's previous reports were delivered via PDF and could be difficult to parse, but the new site features a country-by-country breakdown with further details split into different request categories.

A provided slider lets you scroll through each country, while a date range dropdown lets you select either the most recent report or past reports. Collapsible categories offer up at a glance information on data like total device requests, emergency requests, requests for account deletion, FISA requests, and more.

Apple is now providing data on national security requests in bands of 500 instead of 250, in an effort to standardize its reporting with other tech companies, according to TechCrunch. FISA content is being broken down further into categories like photos, emails, contacts, and device backups.

PDFs of Apple's transparency reports continue to be available for those who prefer that format, and Apple has made CSV files available for download for those who want an even deeper look into the data.

Based on Apple's latest report, device data requests are on the rise around the world. Apple received a total of 32,342 requests covering 163,823 devices, providing data for 25,829 of the requests, an 80 percent data delivery rate.

In the United States, Apple received 4,570 requests for device data and responded to 3,697, providing data for a total of 81 percent of requests. Apple also received requests for financial identifiers, accounts, and emergencies, with the company's response rate listed in the chart below.


Germany made the most requests of Apple due to stolen device investigations, which is explained in a new "Matters of Note" section at the bottom of each category breakdown. Account requests were up in China and the United States, for example, due to a fraud investigations.

Apple received between 0 and 499 national security orders impacting between 1,000 and 1,499 accounts. Apple did not reveal any national security letters with lifted gag orders, which are reported on a six-month delay.

The full details of Apple's latest transparency report can be found on the company's transparency website.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.


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Apple's $1,199 Blackmagic eGPU Pro Now Available for Purchase, Delivers Mid-January

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Apple's new Blackmagic eGPU Pro, first introduced alongside the Mac mini and MacBook Air in late October, can now be purchased from the online Apple Store.

Orders placed today for the $1,199 new eGPU are set to be delivered from January 15 to January 23. It's not known how much stock Apple has available, so those delivery times could slip after the first orders are placed.


The Blackmagic eGPU Pro features a Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics processor with 8GB HBM2 memory, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, four USB 3 ports, an HDMI 2.0 port, a DisplayPort 1.4 port, and 85W of power delivery, enough to power the 15-inch MacBook Pro.

Like the prior non-Pro Blackmagic eGPU, the new version features an all-in-one aluminum enclosure. All of Apple's Thunderbolt 3-enabled Macs, including the Mac mini, the MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro, work with the Blackmagic eGPU Pro.

When the eGPU was announced, Apple originally said it would be released in late November, but Apple later updated the product page to note that it wouldn't be released until December. Apple hit the December deadline, but deliveries won't begin until 2019.


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Chrome Canary Testing “Close All Tabs” With Chrome Home UI


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Chrome OS 72 bringing Google Assistant to more Chromebooks: Here’s how it looks


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Apple Releases Updated Version of iOS 12.1.2 for iPhone

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Apple this morning released an updated version of iOS 12.1.2 that features a new "16C104" build number, up from the "16C101" build number used for Monday's release.

We don't know why Apple has released a new version of iOS 12.1.2, but the updated build is likely meant for those who have not yet updated to the new software. It could contain small bug fixes or tweaks that are not significant enough to require a full release.


iOS 12.1.2 is available only on the iPhone, and it can be downloaded over-the-air in the Settings app. To access the update, go to Settings > General > Software Update. If you've already updated to iOS 12.1.2 earlier this week, you probably won't see the newer version.

iOS 12.1.2 was an update that Apple rushed out with a few bug fixes and some important software changes in China meant to deal with patent infringement issues.

On December 10, a Chinese court issued a preliminary sales ban on the iPhone 6s through the iPhone X in China after deciding that Apple had infringed on two patents related to resizing photos for use with wallpaper and closing apps.

The iOS 12.1.2 update in China changed the behavior of iPhones, introducing a new shrink-style animation when force closing apps and a new share sheet for setting contact and wallpaper images.


This particular part of the iOS 12.1.2 update only affected users in China and has not changed the behavior of iPhones in other locations. With the tweak, Apple has said it is in compliance with the Chinese court's ruling and has continued to sell older iPhones, despite objections from Qualcomm.

Beyond the change to iPhone behavior in China, the iOS 12.1.2 update also fixed a cellular connectivity issue in Turkey and addressed some eSIM activation issues.

Related Roundup: iOS 12

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