Filed under: Consumer electronics

Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.

 

FBI investigating AT&T security hole on iPad

Associated Press | The FBI says it is investigating a data breach at AT&T that exposed
the e-mail addresses of more than 114,000 owners of the Apple iPad,
including government officials. The agency said on Thursday that it is
looking into “the potential cyber threat” from the breach.

AT&T Inc. said it has no comment. The Dallas-based phone company
acknowledged Wednesday that it had exposed the e-mail addresses through
a Web site, and had closed the breach.

Get the full story »

AT&T security hole exposes iPad users’ e-mails

Associated Press | AT&T Inc. on Wednesday acknowledged a
security weak spot that exposed the e-mail addresses of apparently more
than 100,000 users of Apple Inc.’s iPad, a breach that could make those
people vulnerable to precision-targeted hacking attacks. The
vulnerability affected only iPad users who signed up for AT&T’s
“3G” wireless Internet service.

It involved an insecure way that AT&T’s website would prompt iPad
users when they tried to log into their AT&T accounts through the
devices. The site would supply users’ e-mail addresses, to make log-ins
easier, based on unique codes contained in the SIM cards inside their
iPads. SIM cards are used to tell cell phone networks which subscriber
is trying to use the service.

Get the full story »

Slimmer, crisper Apple iPhone 4 out June 24

iphone44.jpg
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces the new iPhone 4 as he delivers the opening keynote address at the 2010 Apple World Wide Developers conference June 7, 2010 in San Francisco. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Associated Press | The next iPhone comes out June 24 and will
have a higher-resolution screen, longer battery life and thinner design.

CEO
Steve Jobs opened Apple Inc.’s annual conference for software
developers Monday by revealing the iPhone 4, which will cost $199 or
$299 in the U.S. with a two-year AT&T contract, depending on the
capacity. The iPhone 3GS, which debuted last year, will still be
available, for $99.

The iPhone 4 is about three-eighths of an inch thick; the previous
iPhone was nearly half an inch. It is getting a camera on the front that
could be used for videoconferencing, in addition to a five-megapixel
camera and a flash on the back.

See also
1pixel.jpg
• Apple’s 3rd founder walked away for $800

1pixel.jpgiPhone v. Android: Who’s buying what?

Photos: Earlier versions of the iPhone

Get the full story »

New details leak on Motorola’s Droid Xtreme

From PC Mag | Goodbye Shadow, hello Xtreme. New images and details have surfaced of Motorola’s Droid Shadow phone — now branded the Droid Xtreme — which was previously alleged to have been lost in a Verizon gym last week.

Get the full story: pcmag.com.

Sprint to launch Evo 4G phone today

ct-biz-phone-mobile-web.jpgBy Wailin Wong |
Mobile streaming video fanatics, take note: The first phone in the U.S.
to run on a fourth-generation network launches today.

Sprint, the only carrier in the U.S. with its 4G network up and running
for consumers, is expected to launch the Evo 4G on today. The phone is
manufactured by Taiwanese company HTC and uses Google’s Android
operating system.

Sprint launched its 4G network in Chicago in November and the city is
one of roughly 30 markets with the technology, which is designed to
deliver residential broadband-like speeds even when consumers are on the
go. The 4G network is also meant to be stronger and more reliable than
3G, allowing for data-intensive activities such as streaming
high-definition video and online gaming with sophisticated graphics.

Get the full story »

New Apple iPhone 4.0 expected Monday

Reuters | Apple Inc’s next-generation iPhone, which CEO Steve Jobs is widely expected to unveil Monday, will have to really set new standards in multimedia content and function to wow Wall Street and consumers.

Competition from a host of well-received smartphones based on Google Inc’s Android operating system is also growing, pressuring Apple to raise the bar even higher. The “iPhone 4.0 will keep them ahead of the game. Is it as easy as last year to stay ahead? No. I think Android has made huge progress,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

Get the full story »

Kindles to be sold at Target

kindle.jpgAmazon shareholders play with Kindles after the company’s annual meeting. (AP Photo)

Reuters | Target Corp affirmed Wednesday it would begin selling
Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle e-reader in all its stores starting on Sunday,
making it the first brick-and-mortar retailer to carry the top-selling
reading device.

Get the full story »

Steve Jobs: iPad idea came before iPhone

ipad-jobs.jpgAssociated Press | Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs shared a secret
with his audience at a technology conference outside Los Angeles
Tuesday: The idea for the iPad came before the iPhone.

The idea to ditch the keyboard for what Jobs calls a multi-touch
display came about in the early 2000s, although the company was working
on a telephone at the time, he said. That’s when a prototype was
brought to him that used the device’s now-famous scrolling mechanism.

“I thought, ‘My God we can build a phone out of this,”‘ Jobs said at
The Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference in Rancho
Palos Verdes.

Get the full story »

Do you know how fast your broadband is?

Reuters | Four of five U.S. broadband users are unaware of the
speed of their connections, the Federal Communications Commission said
Tuesday.

A similar survey conducted by Abt/SRBI and Princeton Survey Research
Associates International from April 19 to May 2 also found that one in
six American mobile phone users have been shocked by surprise fees and
charges in their monthly bills.

Get the full story »

Reports: Motorola plans Android tablet computer

From Information Week | Comments by Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha at an investor conference suggest the company may release this year an Android-based tablet computer 7- to 10-inches in diameter that would be a companion to a TV.

Get the full story: informationweek.com

‘It’s magic:’ Huge demand for iPad in Europe, Asia

iPad-Web-Two.jpgCustomers try out Apple’s new iPad in a shop in Barcelona on May 28, 2010. (AFP/Getty Images)

Associated Press | Technophiles mobbed Apple Stores in Europe and Asia on Friday in a quest to snatch up the hottest gadget of the moment — the iPad.

Long lines snaked down streets in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Tokyo as eager buyers vied to wield their credit cards. Screams and cheers rose from the crowd in central London as students, professionals and self-proclaimed computer geeks clutched boxes containing the slim black device.

“If I was a music fan, it would be like the launch of a Lady GaGa album in the U.S.,” said comedian Stephen Fry, known in Britain as a champion Tweeter.

Get the full story »

Apple unseats Microsoft as largest tech company

Reuters | Apple Inc. shot past Microsoft Corp. as the world’s
biggest tech company as measured by market value on Wednesday, the
latest milestone in the resurgence of the maker of the iPhone, which
nearly went out of business in the 1990s.

Apple’s shares rose 1 percent on Nasdaq on Wednesday, pushing its market
value up to $225.1 billion and ahead of Microsoft’s $222.7 billion,
according to Reuters data. Apple shares were up 1 percent above $247 in
late afternoon trading. Microsoft shares were down 2.2 percent to
$25.50.

Get the full story »

Chinese maker of iPods apologies for suicides

Associated Press | The head of Foxconn bowed deeply several times and apologized Wednesday
for a spate of suicides at the factory that makes Apple iPods and
iPhones, promising the electronics giant will try to stop more deaths. But the usually media-shy executive, Foxconn Technology Group Chairman
Terry Gou, cautioned there was only so much his company could do.

Get the full story: Chinese maker of iPods apologies for suicides.

AT&T restores most U-verse Voice service

By Wailin Wong | AT&T said it has largely resolved an outage for subscribers of its U-verse Voice services. “Service has been restored for most U-verse Voice customers impacted by an earlier equipment issue,” AT&T spokeswoman Amy Grundman said in an e-mailed statement. “We continue work to restore service for a small number of customers still impacted.”

The company did not say how many customers were affected or how widespread the service disruption was, but online users of AT&T’s U-verse forums were reporting that the outage was nationwide. Subscribers to U-verse broadband Internet and television service did not appear to experience disruptions.

Google teams with Sony, Intel on ’smart’ Web TV

googletv.jpgSony CEO Howard Stringer, left, and Intel CEO Paul Otellini smile during a Google TV announcement at the Google conference in San Francisco today. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Associated Press | Google Inc. believes it has come up with the technology to unite Web
surfing with channel surfing on televisions. To reach the long-elusive
goal, Google has joined forces with Sony Corp., Intel Corp. and
Logitech International. The companies unveiled their much-anticipated
plan for a “smart” TV on Thursday.

The TVs are expected to go on sale in the fall in Best Buy stores.
Pricing won’t be announced until later in the year. Sales of the TVs
will be limited to the U.S. this year before expanding into other
countries.

Get the full story »