How A Bug Hunter Forced Apple to Completely Remove A Newly Launched Feature

Recently Apple released a new Feature for iPhone and iPad users, but it was so buggy that the company had no option other than rolling back the feature completely.

In November, Apple introduced a new App Store feature, dubbed "Notify" button — a bright orange button that users can click if they want to be alerted via iCloud Mail when any game or app becomes available on the App Store.

Russia Wants Apple to Unlock iPhone belonging to Killer of Russian Ambassador

You might have also seen a viral video of the assassination of the Russian ambassador to Turkey that quickly spread through the Internet worldwide.

Russian Ambassador Andrei Karlov was shot dead by an off-duty police officer in Ankara on December 19 when the ambassador was giving a speech at an art gallery. The shooter managed to pretend himself as his official bodyguard and later shot to

iPhone Secretly Sends Your Call History to Apple Even If iCloud Backups are Turned Off

In the fight against encryption, Apple has positioned itself as a staunch defender of its user privacy by refusing the federal officials to provide encryption backdoors into its products, as well as implementing better encryption for its products.

However, a new report from a security firm suggests Apple's online syncing service iCloud secretly stores logs of its users' private information

EU to hand Apple hefty Irish tax bill

EU Orders AAPL.O to Pay Hefty Tax Bill

Recently, Apple-AAPL.Ohad been orderedby the European Commission antitrust regulators to pay up 13 billion euros around $14.5 billion, by way of taxes together with interest to the Irish government after ruling that a special scheme to route profits through Ireland had been illegal state aid. It is said that Commissioner Margrethe Vestager would be holding news conference on antitrust case towards noon (1000 GMT) in Brussels.

In spite of the subject of the case not provided, she was expected to feature her verdict on why a deal which had stimulated the U.S. tech giant to route vast profits through Ireland had broken EU state aid laws apart from government giving some firms unfair advantages.The decision is probably to annoy Washington who hadblamed Brussels of disturbance against the corporate success stories of U.S.

Ireland had been accused by the European Commission in 2014 of evading international tax rules by permitting Apple to house profits amounting to tens of billions of dollars from tax collectors for maintaining jobs. The accusation had been rejected by Apple as well as Ireland and both have stated that they would be appealing any contrary decision.

Decision – Reverse Engineered

The source had mentioned that the Commission would recommend a figure in back taxes, expecting it to be collected though it would be the decision of the Irish authorities to calculate precisely what are maintained. An excess bill of 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) would have been more far more than the 30 million euros each the EU had earlier ordered the Dutch authorities to pull through, for their tax deals, from U.S. coffee chain Starbucks and Luxembourg from Fiat Chrysler.

 It is said that both the companies have appealed those decisions. In 2014, when it had opened the Apple investigation, the Commission had informed the Irish government that the tax decisions agreed in 1991 and 2007 with the iPhone maker amounted to state aid and could have broken the EU laws.

The Commissioner had mentioned that the decisions were reverse engineered to make sure that Apple had the nominal Irish bill. The minutes of meetings between the representatives of Apple as well as the Irish tax officials had indicated that the tax treatment of the company had been inspired by employment considerations.

EU Executive’s Tax Investigations – Departed from International Taxation Standards

Apple tends to hire 5,500 workers or about a quarter of European based staff in the Irish city of Cork where it seems to be the largest private sector employer stating that it paid 12.5% rate of Ireland on all the income which it tends to generate in the country.

The low corporate tax rate of Ireland which had been a cornerstone of economic policy for 20 years, had drawn investors from most of the important multinational companies, where the staff accounts for nearly one in 10 workers in Ireland. Dublin had been urged by some opposition Irish lawmakers to accumulate whatever tax the Commission tends to order.

 However, the foremost opposition party Fianna Fail, supporting the minority administration relies on passing laws stated that it would assist an appeal depending on the reassurances it had been provided by the government so far. Last week the U.S. Treasury Department had published a white paper which stated that the EU executive’s tax investigations had departed from the international taxations standards and could have been an enormousinfluence on the companies in U.S. The Commission had stated that it tends to treat all companies likewise.

Blackhat Firm Offers $500,000 for Zero-day iOS Exploit; Double Than Apple’s Highest Bounty

Last week, Apple finally announced a bug bounty program for researchers and white hat hackers to find and get paid for reporting details of zero-day vulnerabilities in its software and devices.

The company offers the biggest payout of $200,000, which is 10 times the maximum reward that Google offers and double the highest bounty paid by Microsoft.

But now Apple is going to face competition

Apple to launch its own reality TV show

Apple Launching its Reality TV Show

Apple is in the development of launching its own reality TV show – Planet of the Apps and a casting call for the event had been put out recently for developers in the age of 18 and above who would be interested in making smartphone apps for the Apple setting. Apple had made an announcement earlier in the year that it intends launching it first original TV series and now the world seems to know a little more regarding what it would look like.

The show is said to be co-produced by a newly shaped company owned by Ben Silverman, a reality TV guru. Apple had partnered with Propagate, a new production company developed by the guy behind `The Biggest Loser’ together with Howard T Owen who had worked on MasterChef Junior with Musician Will.i.am also on board for the said project.

Mr Silverman had informed that the original program would follow on `how apps are developed and created and incubated’. The pair had drawn their vision for the show, in a report that had been published by tech blog 9to5Mac. It stated that `Planet of the Apps will give app creators the chance to break through and share their ideas with the world. This is an exciting format which taps into what is driving culture today. We can’t wait to see the ground-breaking ideas accepted for the show, grow into viable businesses’.

Pursing an Original Content Division

The ascension of Netflix together with the fragmented market of content providers laid by internet based services has been on the rise in companies interested in producing their own original content. When Apple had stated earlier in the year that it intended creating the TV show, the software and service boss of the company, Eddy Cue had mentioned that Apple was not moving wholesale in the production of innovative content.

 He had informed the New York Times in March that this does not mean that they would go into a huge amount of movie production or TV production or anything like that. But last year, rumours have been doing the rounds that Apple has been discovering the notion of pursuing an original content division and had been in talks with various leading television companies regarding launching an internet-based TV service.

Planet of the App – Accepting Online Applications

There is a possibility that the achievement of the forthcoming show would regulate the extent of the potential venture into original content of Apple. Casting call for the show `Planet of the App’ would be accepting online applications till August 26 together with filming set to take place somewhere next year. As per the show’s website, contestants would be receiving `hand-on guidance from some of the most influential experts in the tech community, featured placement on the App store.

The winners probably will get mentorship from tech and entertainment experts and those who would be chosen for the final round would get an opportunity to meet with top-tier VCs investing around $10m over the course of the season. The show is said to be shot in Los Angeles and is planned to be released in 2017.

Apple Patents Technology to remotely disable your iPhone Camera at Concerts

Here's something you'll not like at all:

Apple has been awarded a patent for technology that would prevent you from snapping pictures and shooting videos with your iPhone or iPad at places or events, like concerts or museums, where it might be prohibited or inappropriate.

The patent, granted on Tuesday by the United States Patents and Trademark Office, is highly technical.

Apple Gets Patent for Wrap Around iPhone Screen

Apple’s Patent for 360-Degree Screen

Apple has been granted a patent recently for a 360 degree screen which would be putting a display on all sides of the iPhone, front/back and slide. The back of the iPhone of Apple would now become a thing of the past due to a wraparound display screen. The application states that `the wraparound display considerably tends to increase the available display area which can be utilised for display of icons, data, video, images and such’. The application of Apple states that the360-degree screen would enable customers to play video games or watch videos which could be played on both ends of the phone.

Moreover it would also display a still photo which could appear in a continuous circle around the iPhone. All the switches which are presently found towards the side of the iPhone would be computer-generated instead of physical buttons as per the patent application. The switches namely the volume control can be extended in size. Details pertaining to the actual plans in incorporating this feature into an upcoming version of an iPhone have not been disclosed in the patent application. Often patent have been approved for inventions which are not brought to the market by the patent holder for motives like the cost of new device or issues in getting it to function in the real world.

One of Multiple Continuations of Original Filing

Apple was seen last month getting inventive with screen settlement in its patent filings with some wild as well as wacky iPad setups. In April of last year and just published, a new patent filed describes a system of building a `portable electronic device with a wraparound display’ which seems silly as well as amazing in alike measure. Though the `new’ is a relative term in patents and Apple had first filed this concept way back in 2011, it was granted in 2014.

This is said to be one of multiple `continuations’ of the original filing. From the contents of the patent, it seems that Apple is not patenting any definite screen technology but instead a manufacturing process which tends to stick a flexible OLED display beneath a seamless piece of glass which wraps all the way around the device. The glass could be opaque in some areas in order to conceal any unsightly seams in the display.

Removable End Cap

Since OLED displays tend to lit up per pixel, any sections of the screen which are hidden by the opaque glass would not be wasting power. There is no example of where a rear facing camera could be on a device, in the drawings, probably under the glass in the back. However one of the possibilities could be of a `removable end cap’ which could be swapped for other modules.

 There are various examples of phone with secondary display towards the back and apparently the clear analog here seems to be Samsung’s Galaxy Edge phone that wrap the screen over the sides. The traditional disclaimer here states that Apple patents plenty of stuff which eventually ends up in a product.

China Orders Apple to Monitor App Store Users and Track their Identities

China has long been known for its strict censorship which makes it difficult for foreign technology companies to do business in the world’s most populous country of over 1.35 billion people.

Now, the new law issued by the Chinese government will expand its strict Internet monitoring efforts into mobile apps, targeting operators including Apple. However, Google currently doesn’t operate its

Apple announces Encryption-focused New File System for macOS Sierra

Apple announced one huge change at WWDC 2016: The company is replacing the HFS+ file system on MacOS, iOS, tvOS and WatchOS with a new file system.

The company has introduced its brand new file system called The Apple File System — or APFS for short — for iOS, OS X, tvOS, and WatchOS, making security its centerpiece.

"The Apple File System (APFS) is the next-generation file system designed