Mac Headlines
May 17th, 2012 by Jordan Golson
Several years ago, Comcast began
instituting bandwidth caps of 250GB per month on its residential customers. In 2008, this was plenty for most customers, but with the advent of streaming video services like Netflix, Hulu, WatchESPN and others, some users have been concerned about whether the 250GB cap was sufficient for their needs.
Today, Comcast has announced it is
revamping its cap system, instituting larger caps with the ability for customers to purchase additional gigabytes in blocks.
The first new approach will offer multi-tier usage allowances that incrementally increase usage allotments for each tier of high-speed data service from the current threshold. Thus, we'd start with a 300 GB usage allotment for our Internet Essentials, Economy, and Performance Tiers, and then we would have increasing data allotments for each successive tier of high speed data service (e.g., Blast and Extreme). The very few customers who use more data at each tier can buy additional gigabytes in increments/blocks (e.g., $10 for 50 GB).
The second new approach will increase our data usage thresholds for all tiers to 300 GB per month and also offer additional gigabytes in increments/blocks (e.g., $10 per 50 GB).
In both approaches, we'll be increasing the initial data usage threshold for our customers from today's 250 GB per month to at least 300 GB per month.
In its blog post, Comcast
notes that it is continuing to "consider other ways to ensure that all of our customers are treated fairly and have a consistent and superior experience while using our residential high speed Internet service in the way in which it is intended."
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May 17th, 2012 by Eric Slivka
The North Carolina Utilities Commission today
officially approved (PDF) Apple's proposal to construct a 20-megawatt solar farm across the street from its data center in Maiden, North Carolina.
The Public Staff presented this matter to the Commission at its Regular Staff Conference on May 14, 2012. The Public Staff recommended that the Commission approve the application and issue a certificate of public convenience and necessity for construction of a 20 MW solar photovoltaic electric generating facility to be located at 6028 Startown Road, Maiden, North Carolina.
After careful consideration, the Commission finds good cause to approve the application and issue the attached certificate of public convenience and necessity for the proposed 20 MW solar photovoltaic electric generating facility.
Previous filings with federal regulators have indicated that Apple plans to have the solar farm installed by November 1, with operation to begin by December 21.
Apple
signaled its intentions to build a data center at the site last October, moving to clear and grade the land as it sought approval for the project. The company
publicly unveiled its plans back in February, noting that the facility will be the largest user-owned solar array in the United States. A separate 5-megawatt fuel cell facility is also under development at the site and is proceeding through a parallel regulatory approval process.
The official proposal was filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission on February 15, and was subjected to staff review of the plans, a public notice and comment period, and input from the State Clearinghouse on environmental and other issues. With that information in hand, the Commission offered its official approval this past Monday and finalized the certificate issuance today.
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May 17th, 2012 by Eric Slivka
Exploring an observation initially made by iOS hacker
@planetbeing,
Shoutpedia notes that Apple has mysteriously begun censoring the word "jailbreak" in the U.S. iTunes Store. While not all mentions of the word are affected, the vast majority of them across all content types are currently being censored to "j*******k".
Apple has long objected to the jailbreaking process, which opens up iOS devices for installation of apps from non-Apple approved sources and other system tweaks. But it is unclear what the company is trying to achieve with its iTunes Store censoring, which affects such content as Thin Lizzy's song and album of that name and an episode of the The Roy Rogers Show from the early 1950s.
The censoring appears to only affect the U.S. iTunes Store at the present time, but it has been in effect for over eight hours now.
Update: The censoring appears to be inadvertent. Searches for 'jailbreak' on the Apple Store now return results without any asterisks.
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May 17th, 2012 by Eric Slivka
Earlier this month, we
noted that Apple had filed a claim with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) seeking to gain ownership of the iPhone5.com domain, which had hosted a small independent discussion forum for the past year and a half.
The Next Web now reports that the case has been terminated, indicating that the dispute has been resolved without WIPO having had to render a decision. The domain is now under the control of brand protection firm Corporation Service Company, presumably on Apple's behalf, and simply displays a blank page.
Apple's move to take possession of the iPhone5.com domain naturally fuels speculation that it will use the name for its next-generation iPhone, although that is not necessarily the case. Given the popularity of the name within discussions of the future iPhone, Apple may simply be protecting its iPhone trademarks while also seeking to control content at what is likely to be a popular destination for those searching for information on the company's products.
For those curious about iPhone6.com, the domain has changed hands several times, having first been registered in 2007 by an individual in Dubai who later transferred it to an owner in South Korea. But since mid-2010, ownership information for the domain has been kept private and there is currently no site associated with the address.
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May 17th, 2012 by Jordan Golson
Time Warner Cable and Viacom have settled their
legal entanglements regarding Time Warner's streaming of Viacom video content on its
iPad app, according to the
New York Times.
The breakthrough comes as a result of a settlement between Time Warner Cable and Viacom, which owns cable channels like Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV and others. For months there had been a heated dispute over whether the cable company should have access to Viacom programs through its TWCable TV app.
On Wednesday, Viacom said that the companies had agreed "to resolve their pending litigations" and that "all of Viacom’s programming will now be available to Time Warner Cable subscribers for in-home viewing via Internet protocol-enabled devices such as iPads."
The companies have been
fighting over streaming rights for more than a year. Time Warner argued that its existing agreements give it the right to provide video streams on any screen, rather than just the television. Viacom said the app was "unlicensed distribution of Viacom's programming." Viacom still has a
pending lawsuit with Cablevision over its Optimum live TV app.
Viacom's programming will roll out on the Time Warner Cable app over the next few weeks.
Time Warner's app,
TWC TV, is
available free on the App Store for its cable customers. [
Direct Link]
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May 17th, 2012 by Jordan Golson
Security firm Symantec
previously estimated that the authors of the Flashback malware that affected hundreds of thousands of Macs at its peak could have been generating up to $10,000 per day by hijacking users' ad clicks.
Further analysis from the company suggests that the developers may have only earned $14,000 over the three weeks the malware was active.
From our analysis we have seen that, for a three-week period starting in April, the botnet displayed over 10 million ads on compromised computers but only a small percentage of users who were shown ads actually clicked them, with close to 400,000 ads being clicked. These numbers earned the attackers $14,000 in these three weeks, although it is worth mentioning that earning the money is only one part of the puzzle—actually collecting that money is another, often more difficult, job. Many PPC providers employ anti-fraud measures and affiliate-verification processes before paying. Fortunately, the attackers in this instance appear to have been unable to complete the necessary steps to be paid.
It is estimated the actual ad-clicking component of Flashback was only installed on about 10,000 of the more than 600,000 infected machines. In other words, utilizing less than 2% of the entire botnet the attackers were able to generate $14,000 in three weeks, meaning that if the attackers were able to use the entire botnet, they could potentially have earned millions of dollars a year.
Symantec notes that the malware developers displayed more than 10 million hijacked ads and could have delivered many more if the developers had been more successful in their attacks.
Some security specialists have said that the Mac OS is
"really vulnerable" to further infections, though these claims should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt -- those security specialists make their living off vulnerabilities and it is in their best interest to promote awareness of them.
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May 16th, 2012 by Eric Slivka
Apple today pushed out another update to its OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion developer preview program, moving to build 12A206j. The update comes on top of build 12A193i, which was
released on May 1.
Apple notes that "MacBookPro3,1", which corresponds to mid and late 2007 machines, is not compatible with the new build, but that issue will be rectified in a later build.
No other details on improvements in the latest build are available yet, but it certainly appears that Apple is making some of its final tweaks for developers leading up to its Worldwide Developers Conference less than four weeks away. Apple is expected to provide extensive previews of OS X Mountain Lion at the conference, with a public launch scheduled for "late summer".
The new Mountain Lion build is still a bit short of the 12A211 build
spotted in a Geekbench entry for an apparently unreleased MacBook Pro earlier this week. While that entry could have been faked, the data does match closely with what is known about upcoming Ivy Bridge MacBook Pro models, and Primate Labs
believes the entry to be legitimate.
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May 16th, 2012 by Eric Slivka
With Apple's MacBook Pro line now widely rumored to be gaining ultra high-resolution "Retina" or "HiDPI" displays at next month's Worldwide Developers Conference,
CNET reports that such panels are already available in the supply chain and that they carry price premiums of up to $100 over their non-Retina counterparts. But what remains to be seen is whether that price difference will be passed along to consumers or if Apple will find ways to cut costs in other areas in order to maintain its existing price points.
DisplaySearch Senior Analyst Richard Shim says that super high-resolution 13.3-inch and 15.4-inch panels that Apple would be a prime candidate to use are already available from suppliers.
"We're seeing it at 15.4 (inches)," Shim said in an interview yesterday. "You can get it."
According to Shim, a Retina 15.4-inch display at 2880x1800 resolution for a density of 220 pixels per inch (ppi) currently costs approximately $160, a $92 increase over Apple's estimated cost of $68 for the current display in the 15-inch MacBook Pro. In the smaller 13-inch MacBook Pro, a Retina display at 2560x1600 costs $134, a $65 premium over the display used in the current model.
Unaddressed is the 17-inch MacBook Pro, which would require a display of 3840x2400 and undoubtedly carry an even higher price premium over the current display. It is unclear, however, whether the 17-inch MacBook Pro will be receiving the same upgrades as the rest of the family at WWDC, as most rumors so far have pointed to only 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models being in production. In addition, Apple has been
rumored to be following the pattern of its transition to the unibody MacBook Pro design in moving the 17-inch model to the new form factor several months after its smaller siblings.
Shim notes that with these Retina resolution displays available in the supply chain, Apple is the most likely customer for the screens, although he has been unable to confirm what company or companies are purchasing them for use in their computers.
Also unclear is how Apple will handle the cost increase associated with the Retina displays. While some cost savings will be achievable by the removal of the optical drive, Apple will almost certainly see increased costs for storage as the MacBook Pro reportedly moves from traditional hard drives to solid-state drives. While such drives are used in the lower-priced MacBook Air models, higher-end users expected to be drawn to the MacBook Pro will likely demand higher-capacity drives at significantly greater costs. Consequently, it will be interesting to see how Apple ends up pricing the redesigned MacBook Pro given all the changes involved.
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May 16th, 2012 by Jordan Golson
U.S. cellular carrier Verizon is planning to move its customers who still have unlimited data plans for their smartphones to its new
family data-share plans as customers switch to LTE data plans.
The iPhone was
initially offered with unlimited data plans when it launched on Verizon early last year, but the carrier soon
dropped the unlimited option in favor of data plans with allocations of data.
Fierce Wireless has the details, quoting Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo at a JP Morgan conference:
As these 3G unlimited data plan customers migrate to 4G LTE, they will have to purchase the company's data-share plan (which Verizon plans to launch in mid-summer) and move off the $30 per month unlimited data plan. "Everyone will be on data share," Shammo said.
Verizon currently throttles its unlimited data users only when a particular cell tower is overloaded, whereas competitor AT&T slows its unlimited users after they
use 3GB of data in a month. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson
recently noted that his one regret about bringing the iPhone to AT&T was offering unlimited data.
Sprint, the number three carrier in the country -- and the only carrier to still offer unlimited data packages for the iPhone -- has said it will
continue to offer unlimited data plans for the iPhone, even if the next iPhone includes LTE, as is expected.
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May 16th, 2012 by Eric Slivka
Digitimes' poor track record has been
thrust into the spotlight in recent days, but that hasn't stopped one of the Taiwanese news site's reports from having a major effect on stock prices for Samsung and Hynix. The
report from earlier this week claims that Apple has placed "huge" orders for DRAM chips with Elpida, soaking up half of the capacity at the firm's main plant in Hiroshima, Japan.
1 GB of Elpida DRAM in third-generation iPad (Source: iFixit)
As
noted by Reuters, the rumor has had a significant effect on fellow DRAM manufacturers Samsung and Hynix, with Samsung losing $10 billion in market value today in a 6% stock decline. The smaller Hynix was down nearly 9%
"It looks like Apple doesn't want to see Samsung and hynix dominate the chip market. Apple wants to maintain its bargaining power by keeping Elpida running," said Choi Do-yeon, an analyst at LIG Investment & Securities.
Elpida filed for bankruptcy in late February, and Micron has emerged as a likely acquirer for the company. The combined Micron-Elpida would be a strong competitor in the DRAM market, sparking concerns for others in the competitive industry.
DRAM, the volatile memory used to hold active applications and other data for use while a device is in operation, is a commodity in the consumer electronics market, with Apple routinely sourcing from multiple suppliers and shifting orders to achieve the best pricing.
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