For the gadget minded who own an iPad 2 or the new iPad, you may prefer to use a normal type of keyboard rather than the onscreen keyboard for better feel when typing.
Logitech recently released a lightweight keyboard which doubles as an iPad cover and attaches itself to the iPad magnetically, in a similar way to Apple's "Smart Covers".
Telstra Corp Ltd has reportedly begun trials of new mobile technology that is being billed as capable of providing download speeds as much as nine times faster than the coalition's national broadband network (NBN) plan would deliver, according to The Australian Financial Review.
Labor's NBN plan offered customers up to 100 megabits per second, while the coalition is pushing a plan that would guarantee speeds of 50 mbps by 2019.
Telstra plans involve using a technology called “carrier aggregation” aimed at delivering peak mobile download speeds of up to 450 mbps, according to a Telstra strategy briefing cited by the AFR.
Telstra's current 4G wireless network delivers download speeds of up to 40 mbps.
During the federal election campaign, the coalition argued that the prospect of super-fast mobile technology did not threaten to undermine the NBN, but rather bolstered their plan for a cheaper network because the rise of mobile technology reduced the need for a large-scale network.
Steve Jobs, one of the fathers of the personal computing era and the founder of Apple, died 5th October 2011 at the age of 56. Although he will be remembered for ushering in fundamental changes in the way people interact with technology, he has also been known for his ability to turn a phrase – and a knack for taking complicated ideas and making them easy to understand. Below, a compendium of some of the best Steve Jobs quotes.
On Technology
“It takes these very simple-minded instructions—‘Go fetch a number, add it to this number, put the result there, perceive if it’s greater than this other number’––but executes them at a rate of, let’s say, 1,000,000 per second. At 1,000,000 per second, the results appear to be magic.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]
***
“I think it’s brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I’ve ever seen is called television — but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.” [Rolling Stone, Dec. 3, 2003]
On Design
“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn’t what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it’s all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.
“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.
“Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have. [Wired, February 1996]
***
“Look at the design of a lot of consumer products — they’re really complicated surfaces. We tried to make something much more holistic and simple. When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don’t put in the time or energy to get there. We believe that customers are smart, and want objects which are well thought through.” [MSNBC and Newsweek interview, Oct. 14, 2006]
On His Products
“I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard on something, but working on Macintosh was the neatest experience of my life. Almost everyone who worked on it will say that. None of us wanted to release it at the end. It was as though we knew that once it was out of our hands, it wouldn’t be ours anymore. When we finally presented it at the shareholders’ meeting, everyone in the auditorium gave it a five-minute ovation. What was incredible to me was that I could see the Mac team in the first few rows. It was as though none of us could believe we’d actually finished it. Everyone started crying.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]
***
“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.” [On Mac OS X, Fortune, Jan. 24, 2000]
***
“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. … One is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate it’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world.” [Announcement of the iPhone, Jan. 9, 2007]
On Business
“You know, my main reaction to this money thing is that it’s humorous, all the attention to it, because it’s hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that’s happened to me.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]
***
“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” [The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993]
***
Q: There’s a lot of symbolism to your return. Is that going to be enough to reinvigorate the company with a sense of magic?
“You’re missing it. This is not a one-man show. What’s reinvigorating this company is two things: One, there’s a lot of really talented people in this company who listened to the world tell them they were losers for a couple of years, and some of them were on the verge of starting to believe it themselves. But they’re not losers. What they didn’t have was a good set of coaches, a good plan. A good senior management team. But they have that now.” [BusinessWeek, May 25, 1998]
***
“The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are starting companies; it’s that too many people aren’t sticking with it. That’s somewhat understandable, because there are many moments that are filled with despair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations. That’s when you find out who you are and what your values are.
“So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.” [Fortune, Jan. 24, 2000]
***
“The system is that there is no system. That doesn’t mean we don’t have process. Apple is a very disciplined company, and we have great processes. But that’s not what it’s about. Process makes you more efficient.
“But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we’ve been thinking about a problem. It’s ad hoc meetings of six people called by someone who thinks he has figured out the coolest new thing ever and who wants to know what other people think of his idea.
“And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important. [BusinessWeek, Oct. 12, 2004]
On His Competitors
Playboy: Are you saying that the people who made PCjr don’t have that kind of pride in the product?
“If they did, they wouldn’t have made the PCjr.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]
***
“The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.”
“I am saddened, not by Microsoft’s success — I have no problem with their success. They’ve earned their success, for the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products.” [Triumph of the Nerds, 1996]
***
“I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.” [On Bill Gates, The New York Times, Jan. 12, 1997]
On Predicting the Future
“The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people––as remarkable as the telephone.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]
***
The desktop metaphor was invented because one, you were a stand-alone device, and two, you had to manage your own storage. That’s a very big thing in a desktop world. And that may go away. You may not have to manage your own storage. You may not store much before too long. [Wired, February 1996]
On Life
“When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.” [Wired, February 1996]
***
“I’m an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honorable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what’s happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don’t seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.” [Wired, February 1996]
***
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
***
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
***
“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
***
“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.” [NBC Nightly News, May 2006]
***
And One More Thing
“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
What is an iPad – why would you want one?
An iPad is basically a portable computer that is capable of sending emails, accessing the internet and running a range of applications such as Street Directories, Woolworths, Kobo electronic book reader and thousands more.
The beauty of an iPad is that it weighs only 600 grams and operates through touching the screen, which means that you don’t have to be a computer programmer to operate one.
There are essentially two types of iPad, the first is 3G and the other is Wifi. The 3G version simply means that the iPad is capable of connecting to the internet by itself, and the user would simply purchase a 3G data plan from a provider such as Telstra. The Wifi version means that the user can connect to the internet using a Wireless Internet Network either in their house, or many companies provide free wireless networks such as McDonalds.
iPad 2 has been around for approximately 12 months now and is superseded by the latest iPad which is simply called “ïPad”. The main differences are that the latest iPad has a higher definition screen, front and back camera’s that are of better quality than the iPad 2 together with a faster internal processor.
iPad 2’s are still on the market and have been discounted in price. For more information about the iPad refer to the following link. http://www.computerdepot.com.au (ask for Mark Cunningham - he is very knowledgable and helpful)
What could you use it for?
NBN faces irrelevance in cities as competitors build faster, cheaper alternatives
Allan Asher, Australian National University
Malcolm Turnbull is now connected to the National Broadband Network (NBN) at his Point Piper home on a 100 megabits per second (Mbps) plan, it was revealed in Senate Estimates yesterday. But only because his department intervened to avoid delays affecting other customers.
And while the Prime Minister might be happy with his NBN connection, that’s not the case for the 2.5 million customers waiting on a connection through their pay TV or cable service who have been left in limbo.
Lauded in the 2009 Commonwealth Budget as the single largest nation building infrastructure project in Australian history, the NBN is at risk of becoming an expensive white elephant in our cities. Years of political interference, poor technology decisions and a monopoly business attitude have damaged the brand.
Rather than meeting its objective of connecting 90% of homes and workplaces with broadband speeds of up to 100 Mbps, the NBN is looking more like a giant sponge. It soaks up public infrastructure dollars and returns high prices, long delays, unacceptably slow data speeds and service standards that are now the subject of an ACCC investigation.
As a result, a growing number of competitors are bypassing the NBN by undercutting prices and beating performance standards.
Read more: The ACCC investigation into the NBN will be useful. But it's too little, too late
The latest challenge to the NBN came after South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill denounced the “very poor NBN outcome” and last week announced A$35 million in funding for an Adelaide fibre network alternative if he is reelected in March 2018.
The plan was warmly welcomed by Mighty Kingdom, an app and games developer who told the ABC, “I don’t have what I need to get me to the rest of the world.”
This follows news announced last year that Adelaide City Council is working with TPG to deliver an NBN-alternative broadband service to local businesses. The service promises fibre internet up to 100 times faster than the NBN, at lower prices, and with no installation costs for city businesses or organisations.
Lord Mayor Martin Haese said:
This technology will be a game changer for the city of Adelaide. It will be a boom for local businesses and other organisations, but will also attract business from interstate and across the globe.
Read more: The NBN: how a national infrastructure dream fell short
Meanwhile two aggressive startups in the Melbourne market are hoping to take a serious bite from NBN’s lunch.
Lightening Broadband is connecting homes and businesses using microwave links capable of delivering both 100 Mbps download and upload speeds. That’s better than the comparable NBN Tier 100, which offers 90 Mbps download and 30 Mbps upload speeds.
The company is constructing microwave transmitters on tall buildings, connected to the telco’s core network using microwave links. Customers within a two-kilometre radius share a microwave transmitter, requiring a dish on their roof.
Another telco start-up, DGtek is offering its customers a full fibre alternative service.
Upon its launch in 2016, DGtek’s founder David Klizhov said:
“Ideally the NBN would have worked if it was fibre to the home, but it’s taken quite a lot of time and we thought that we could have a go at the Australian market using technology that’s been implemented already overseas.”
DGtek uses Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON) and runs it directly into tightly packed homes with the dense population of inner Melbourne. As a sweetener, DGtek offers free internet service to government organisations – such as schools and hospitals – in areas they service.
New entrant competition is not the only threat to NBN Co. Optus and Telstra are both launching 5G services in 2019. This represents a quantum leap in wireless technology that could win away millions of current and potential NBN customers.
While Vodafone CEO Inaki Berroeta has said that 5G is unlikely to replace the NBN in Australian homes, Optus Managing Director of Networks Dennis Wong recently told BIT Magazine:
Everyone has heard of concepts like self-driving cars, smart homes, AI and virtual reality, however their full potential will require a fast and reliable network to deliver. Seeing 5G data speeds through our trial that are up to 15 times faster than current technologies allows us to show the potential of this transformative technology to support a new eco-system of connected devices in the home, the office, the paddock and in the wider community.
Read more: 5G will be a convenient but expensive alternative to the NBN
5G is not the only technological game changer facing the NBN. iiNet in Canberra has launched its Very-high-bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL2) as its own superfast network.
According to iiNet, it is made up of fibre and copper and provides a faster connection than ADSL and most NBN plans. The network is independent from Telstra and differs to NBN in that iiNet’s VDSL2 network uses its own copper lines.
The huge capital requirements of rolling out telecoms infrastructure has always acted to deter more competition in the Australian market. But following a regulatory decision of the ACCC in 2017, smaller entrants can now enjoy cost-based access to some of the largest networks – including Telstra, TPG and Opticom – allowing them to better compete both with the big telcos, and with the NBN.
By providing access to superfast broadband access service (SBAS) and the local bitstream access service (LBAS), new entrants will be able to sell NBN-like fixed line superfast broadband wholesale.
So where to for the NBN?
Yesterday the government released a working paper forecasting that demand for bandwidth will double for households with high internet usage over the next decade. The report also suggests that the NBN is equipped to meet those needs.
However, cost, technology and customer service problems continue to threaten the commercial success of the NBN. Without a radical rethink, it is doomed to fail its initial mission.
Allan Asher, Visitor, Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) & Chair of Foundation for Effective Markets and Governance, Australian National University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
The question is how quickly they become mainstream
(written by Magellan Financial Group)
Milton Keynes is a UK town about 75 kilometres to the northwest of London where many streets are reserved for pedestrians and bicycles. That made it a suitable place to test driverless cars, one of the great possibilities tied to the rise of artificial intelligence.
In what was declared a successful experiment, ‘pods’ with radar, lidar (that uses pulses of light to measure distance) and cameras feeding data into a central computer drove two passengers through the town during testing in 2016. The robocar travelled along the digitally pre-mapped two-kilometre route from the railway station to the town centre at a maximum speed of 15 kilometres an hour.1
The testing is part of a three-year government-funded program begun in 2015 run by the UKAutodrive consortium of businesses, governments and academics. The trials seek to overcome the technical, safety, legal, insurance and social challenges of using driverless or automated vehicles in cities.2
Such testing is happening the world over as driverless driving represents one of the most-touted aspects of artificial intelligence. Almost every developed country including Australia is hosting pilot studies on automated vehicles. The big technology companies such as Alphabet, Apple and Uber and the largest car companies including Ford, Honda, Tesla and Volvo are investing billions of dollars into driverless technology. US-based CB Insights tallies that 44 companies3 are developing autonomous technology and many of them are road-testing prototypes. The US research company estimates that global investment just in auto-tech start-ups topped US$1 billion in 20164 and reached US$1.6 billion in the first six months of 2017, more than double that of a year earlier.5 Those investing hope to profit from a leap in transportation as significant as the bound from horses to cars was a century ago.
The promise of driverless cars, delivery bots and self-propelled buses and trucks is safer, faster, cheaper and more comfortable travel, especially for the disabled, the elderly and those who never learnt to drive. Robocars are poised to revolutionise travel within cities by promoting car sharing (what’s called transport as a service). Driverless proponents push the safety aspects the most because human error causes most of the world’s 1.25 million road deaths a year.6
The technological advances in automated driving are as impressive as any of the artificial-intelligence revolution. The breakthrough to fully autonomous cars has been made, cars are including more autonomous features, robocars that require human backup are for sale, self-driving taxis (with a safety driver) have picked up passengers and automated driving with no safety driver on public roads has occurred.7 Boston Consulting Group this year forecast that by 2030 a quarter of all miles driven in the US could be done in shared, self-driving (and electric) vehicles, and by that year more than 4.7 million autonomous vehicles will have displaced five million conventional cars.8 Research firm IHS Automotive predicts the take- up of driverless cars to accelerate from 2030, such that 21 million robo-vehicles will be sold annually by 2035.9 (In 2016, for context, about 92 million vehicles were sold worldwide.10)
But driverless cars are a while away from meeting the expectations of their biggest advocates such as Elon Musk who said this year that by 2019 the technology would allow people to sleep while being driven11 The largest obstacles to the mass uptake of driverless cars may prove to be challenges away from the technology. These issues include safety, legal and insurance liabilities, cybersecurity risks and making roads suitable. Above all this sits the unanswerable question of whether or not the public will feel safe being propelled at great speed by software. Enough people will surely be willing. Driverless vehicles are coming in some form – the technological advances so far, the amount of money being invested and the greater commercial viability of the technology will ensure a driverless world of some description.
To download the complete article - click on the link below.
Marc C-Scott, Victoria University
How Australians watch cricket on screens in the future could depend on what happens with the Nine Network’s current discussions with Cricket Australia over the 2018-23 media rights. 
UBS media analyst Eric Choi said the current deal costs Nine about A$100 million a year but generates only A$60 million to A$70 million in gross revenue.
Choi said the network should either ask for access to more content at no additional cost, or step away from its long association with cricket.
The ramifications of Nine’s decision could be broad, impacting not only its potential revenue and viewers, but also participation rates among Aussies playing grassroots cricket.
The current media rights deal for cricket includes the Nine Network and Network Ten. Nine has the rights to international tests, one-day internationals and T20 international games played in Australia, whereas Ten has the rights to the Big Bash League (BBL).
The BBL has become a crucial cricketing brand, continuing to gain high ratings and listed in Australia’s Top 20 engaging programs for 2016.
The league also has excellent crowd attendance, having recently ranked 9th in the world’s top-attended sports leagues.
Based on the BBL’s success and the increases seen in the new media rights for the Australian Football League (AFL) and National Rugby League (NRL), Cricket Australia will want to see an increase in the bidding for its rights.
This is particularly relevant if Cricket Australia still relies as heavily on these rights as in 2012, when it said the rights accounted for 60%-80% of the total annual income.
But can the media rights continue to increase with the current unstable media landscape?
According to Arnhem Investment Management, the era of advertising-supported premium sport on Australian television is “drawing to a close”.
The free-to-air (FTA) broadcasters are also currently requesting that the government reduce license fees and reconsider plans to further restrict gambling ads during the broadcast of sports.
Ten has said it expects its revenue to be “above the 1.2% increase” it outlined in February this year. Yet it will still need to undertake a “significant focus” on a corporate cost-cutting program and profitability as a priority.
With FTA broadcasters under financial pressures, any increase in new rights will require new stakeholders.
Foxtel currently shows international cricket matches played overseas, but does not have local coverage rights. If it could gain local cricket rights, this would further strengthen Foxtel’s sports offering of AFL, NRL, A-league, V8 Supercars, and many international sports.
Australia’s anti-siphoning regulation could prevent Foxtel completely dominating the cricket media rights. But this list is expected to be trimmed further by the government this year, furthering opening up the sports media battleground for pay television in future rights deals.
Digital rights will also be a major consideration with the new cricket media rights. While most would be looking at Telstra and Optus, there have been new players in this area who may also wish to place a bid.
Currently Cricket Australia has the Cricket Australia Live app which allows users to pay a subscription (A$30 per year or A$5.99 a day) to gain access to live streaming of games, but the new rights could also see this change.
Optus may continue its affiliation with cricket. It recently become the official mobile media partner of Cricket Australia, and principal sponsor of the Melbourne Stars Big Bash League team. Customers can access cricket content via the Optus Sports app, which also includes Optus’ recently acquired English Premier League.
Twitter has had success with broadcasting the US National Football League (NFL) and the Melbourne cup last year. This year it signed a two-year deal with the US National Lacrosse League. Twitter may consider its interest in a global sport like cricket.
Amazon, which recently launched its Prime Video service in Australia, could also be a contender. This year Amazon won the rights for NFL Thursday night matches. It paid US$50 million for ten games, five times the price paid by Twitter last year. Amazon may look at the cricket as another potential global sport to add to its catalogue.
Another consideration is if Nine or Ten were to obtain the digital rights and use the free and subscription approach that the Seven Network used as part of their Rio Games coverage last year.
Can you “slice and dice” too much? This is a question being asked in the US by CBS chief executive Les Moonves with regard to the NFL.
Adding another stakeholder to cricket will impact the viewers’ experience. This year the new AFL media rights created some frustration linked with the way the rights had been negotiated, particularly the digital rights.
Telstra, the digital rights holder, is restricted by its agreement to limit live match videos to a 7-inch screen size. Highlights and replays are available in full-screen size 12 hours after the match ends. (Foxtel, meanwhile, can stream the games full-screen.)
This change has outraged some fans who paid the A$89 subscription fee for the AFL Live app. Because of the screen size restrictions, Telstra users with a large phone or tablet have a large amount of black space on their screen.
Some Australians are being creative in working around the restrictions.
The media rights for sport can be looked at far more broadly than solely the coverage of the game itself.
In the United Kingdom there has been ongoing debate associated with cricket’s coverage. Since the sport moved to pay-TV, there has been a decline in participation levels, which many argued is primarily due to the game no longer being broadcast free to air.
Reports of a Sport England Active People survey show a 32% drop in participation levels in people aged over 16 since coverage of cricket moved to satellite and cable TV.
There are now steps being taken to introduce a new Twenty20 tournament in the UK, built around the success of the Indian Premier League and Australia’s BBL, which had some games live broadcast in the UK during the last season.
This is an interesting case study for Cricket Australia, which only last year announced cricket as “No 1 as the current top participation sport in Australia”.
Any changes to the rights that impact the percentage of Australians with access to the coverage, could also see a decline in participation based on the UK experience.
Marc C-Scott, Lecturer in Screen Media, Victoria University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
APPLE has been forced to issue a global update of its mobile operating system after an established private cyberarms dealer found a way to hack every iPhone in the world.
The hackers from NSO Group developed a sophisticated piece of malware that exploited three previously unknown vulnerabilities in Apple’s iOS.
After learning of the hack, Apple developed a patch with its latest iOS update, which it is advising people to download immediately.
“We were made aware of this vulnerability and immediately fixed it with iOS 9.3.5. We advise all of our customers to always download the latest version of iOS to protect themselves against potential security exploits,” a spokesman told AP.
New joint reports from Citizen Lab and mobile security company Lookout said this was a world first for an attack of this kind in the wild.
Lookout vice president of research Mike Murray said the hack was essentially a remote jailbreak — the process of removing software restrictions imposed by iOS.
“We realised that we were looking at something that no one had ever seen in the wild before,” he toldMotherboard.
“Literally a click on a link to jailbreak an iPhone in one step. [It is] one of the most sophisticated pieces of cyberespionage software we’ve ever seen.”
Mr Murray said the malware, codenamed Pegasus, gave attackers full control of the smartphone.
“It basically steals all the information on your phone, it intercepts every call, it intercepts every text message, it steals all the emails, the contacts, the FaceTime calls,” he said.
“It also basically backdoors every communications mechanism you have on the phone,”
“It steals all the information in the Gmail app, all the Facebook messages, all the Facebook information, your Facebook contacts, everything from Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat, Telegram — you name it.”
Since being established in 2010, NSO has become notorious for selling its sophisticated malware to governments.
However, the group largely works in stealth, operating without any web presence other than a LinkedIn profile, which says the company has been 201 and 500 employees.
Citizen Lab researcher Bill Marczak said breaking down the malicious program was compared to “defusing a bomb”.
“It is amazing the level they’ve gone through to avoid detection,” he said. “They have a hair-trigger self-destruct.”
Mr Murray said this is the first time anyone had ever been able to document tools used by NSO.
“This is the first time any security researchers, as far as any of us are aware, have ever gotten a copy of NSO Group’s spyware and been able to reverse engineer it,” he toldWired.
“They are a really sophisticated threat actor and the software they have reflects that. They are incredibly committed to stealth.”
The threat was initially found after human rights activist from the United Arab Emirates, Ahmed Mansoor, received a text message offering “new secrets about torture of Emiratis in state prisons” with a link from an unknown number.
Having previously fallen victim to government hackers using commercial spyware products, Mr Mansoor flagged the message with Citizen Lab.
“As a human rights defender in a country that considers such a thing as a threat, an enemy or traitor, I have to be more careful than the average person,” he toldWired.
“Such content was enough to trigger all the red flags with me,”
While NSO Group won’t be able to use this particular attack anymore on updated iPhones, it’s likely another won’t be far behind.
To update your iPhone go to Settings>General>Software Update.
Apple has determined that, in very rare cases, the two prong Apple AC wall plug adapters designed for use in Continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Argentina and Brazil may break and create a risk of electrical shock if touched. These wall plug adapters shipped from 2003 to 2015 with Mac and certain iOS devices, and were also included in the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit.
Customer safety is always Apple's top priority, and we have voluntarily decided to exchange affected wall plug adapters with a new, redesigned adapter, free of charge. We encourage customers to exchange any affected parts using the process below.
Note: Other wall plug adapters, including those designed for Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States and Apple USB power adapters are not affected by this program.
Compare your adapter to the images below. An affected wall plug adapter has 4 or 5 characters or no characters on the inside slot where it attaches to an Apple power adapter. Redesigned adapters have a 3-letter regional code in the slot (EUR, KOR, AUS, ARG or BRA).
| Affected | Redesigned |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Round thin pins, slightly slanted inward |
Round thick pins | Flat angled blades | Round thin pins |
| Continental Europe | Korea | Australia New Zealand Argentina |
Brazil |
Note: The countries and regions listed are some examples of supported locations for that adapter. Adapters may be used in additional countries.
Please choose one of the following options below. We will need to verify your Mac, iPad, iPhone or iPod serial number as part of the exchange process so please find your serial number in advance. Finding your device serial number is easy.
GEM Capital has replaced our affected AC adapters through our friends at the Computer Depot (Unley Road, Unley) Ph 8357 7111 http://www.computerdepot.com.au
Mark Cunningham from the Computer Depot is happy to exchange Apple AC Adapters without the need to provide serial nunbers - and while you are there check out the latest technology that is available (both Apple and Microsoft).
This program does not affect your statutory or warranty rights.
If you believe you have paid for a replacement due to this issue, regarding a refund.
Learn more about using Apple power adapters, cables, and duckheads with Apple products.
Australian small businesses should double check suspicious emails because they may contain destructive ransomware, The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has warned.
The warning follows the ACCC’s latest Targeting Scams Report that found almost $1 million was lost to ransomware attacks last year. My Business reports ransomware is a malware variant that restricts access to an infected computer system unless money is paid to the scammer to remove the infection.
ACCC deputy chair Michael Schaper said the watchdog received over 2,500 ransomware complaints last year, with over $970,000 reported lost by small businesses. Some individual businesses reported losing over $10,000 to the scams.
The ransomware infected most systems by email. Victims reported opening an email which claimed to be from a reputable source like FedEx or Australia Post.
“Ransomware can see your business losing all of its business and financial records, which may be catastrophic,” Schaper said.
“Many small businesses and consumers have reported that their computer has been frozen, with a pop-up alert that claims to be from the Australian Federal Police stating the computer has been locked because they have visited an illegal website or breached various laws.”
“Scams like this often succeed because they look like messages from a government agency or reliable large corporation. It’s important that small businesses are aware that government agencies will not send these demands and they’re dealing with a scammer.”
SCAMwatch offers business owners the following tips to guard against ransomeware:
Sourced from an interesting article in "The Economist" recently, here is a chart showing global growth rates of varying technology over the past 15 years including internet as well as smart phones.
Clearly the highest growth, and the largest coverage of users within the world is in the mobile/smart phone sector.
The following chart shows the growth of mobile phone sales in China for the 5 year period until 2013. It is estimated that over 500 million smart phones were sold in China and India in 2014.
The message is clear in the charts that mobile phones and mobile internet is here to stay and is changing the way in which consumers behave around the world.
What does this mean for business and investors though?
We briefly pose some questions that are worth considering.
1. For businesses that you run or invest in ..... is the business a beneficiary or threatened with the move to mobile internet? For example, any business owner with a website should ensure that their website is mobile friendly as Google have recently announced a change to their Google search that will favour those with mobile friendly websites.
For investors, are the companies you invest in embracing mobile technology and offering services to their customers through it, or are they likely to be canabilised by it?
2. Who are likely to be beneficiaries from this change (other than the obvious handset makers such as Apple)? For example social media companies in China and India etc
3. Is your current investment strategy capturing this amazing growth?
Clients of GEM Capital have enjoyed good returns in the last few years, partly due to their exposure to global technology companies who are benefitting from the technological change that is underway.
These days, nearly everyone travels with electronic devices like mobile phones, tablets, e-book readers, laptops, digital cameras and portable music players. New aviation security measures have been announced this month, July 2014, regarding travelling with these devices in your carry-on baggage. These new rules currently relate to flights to, from or via the United Kingdom or United States of America.
Be aware of the new rules regarding your smartphone at airports
Next time you pass through airport security, you could be asked to turn on any electronic or battery-powered device to prove its functionality. If your device doesn’t turn on, you risk having the item confiscated or, worse still, you may not be allowed onto your flight. With this in mind, it’s more important than ever to make sure your electronic devices are fully charged before you leave home and don’t run your battery flat while in transit or onboard the aircraft.
While at this stage only flights involving the US and UK are likely to be affected, it’s important to be aware of these new rules regardless of where you are travelling. Keep your electronic devices in your carry-on baggage and ensure they have enough charge to be turned on if you are asked to do so. It’s a good idea to keep your chargers and international power adaptors in your cabin baggage as well.
These security changes are being implemented as part of regular aviation safety reviews put forward by government agencies. Authorities are always looking for ways to ensure the public travel experiences are safe and enjoyable.
While these changes are currently for flights to, from or via the United States and the United Kingdom, authorities worldwide are assessing other destinations. At present, Australia’s safety level remains unchanged.
Currently, flights to, from and via the United States and United Kingdom will be impacted by these heightened security measures, including stopovers through Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Specific routes have not been announced to maintain security, but any airline or destination may be subject to these new security restrictions.
Domestic flights within Australia are not affected at this stage, but there is the potential for these changes to be rolled out to a wider range of destinations, so every traveller should be aware of these new rules regardless of their airline or destination.
For Australian travellers, the main airlines that will be impacted by these new rules include Qantas, Virgin Australia, Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways, British Airways, Delta, United Airlines and all other carriers that fly to, from and via the UK and US.
Keep these extra security procedures in mind when factoring in your travel time, as they may potentially lead to longer queues or delays, especially at major airports such as London Heathrow where these new rules will be focused.
If you cannot prove your device functions as normal, there is a strong chance you will not be allowed to fly, your item will be confiscated and/or you will undergo additional screening. Keep your chargers and power adaptors on hand to avoid this happening.
While most airports and airline lounges have power outlets to charge your devices, they can be limited. Don’t rely on the ability to charge your device at the airport.
Another part of these new security measures is requiring travellers to take any items that use lithium batteries in their carry-on baggage. If you pack items such as laptops or cameras in your checked baggage, you may be called to security at the airport and asked to remove the device, turn it on to prove its validity, and keep it with you in the cabin once you have proved it works as normal.
The new security rules relate to all electronic devices (especially those using lithium batteries, as well as mains-powered devices), including mobile phones, laptops, tablets, e-book readers, digital cameras and portable music players.
Yes, you should be able to use your devices onboard the aircraft as you normally would. Remember to switch phones to ‘flight mode’ and follow the guidelines for use of electronic devices as explained by the cabin crew.
Most new electronic devices have enough pre-charge on them to be switched on straight away, so you should be able to prove their functionality. However, the item and its packaging may still require further examination at security checkpoints.
At this stage, it is uncertain whether these increased security restrictions will stay in place or if they will only exist temporarily.