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Syrian Electronic Army hacks into Financial Times

Will Stabley — Sat, 18 May 2013 17:07:44 +0000

The Syrian Electronic Army has hacked into the Financial Times, refocusing its sabotage efforts on serious news outlets after having briefly – and perhaps mistakenly – hacking into satire site The Onion last week in a move which garnered the political protest group nothing but laughs,

Some had initially wondered if the move against The Onion had been an attempt at notoriety through comedy, as hacking a site to post phony news stories on it carries little purpose when the site in question posts nothing but phony news stories to begin with. Previously the Syrian Electronic Army had been focusing on serious news outlets like the Associated Press.

Now it seems the Syrian Electronic Army is back to attacking legitimate news outlets, as the Financial Times is a major UK news publication, the rough equivalent of America’s Wall Street Journal.

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Will Stabley

Will Stabley is the Founder and Senior Editor of Stabley Times.

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iCoverage: iPhone 5 and 4S jailbreak for iOS 6.1.3 and iOS 6.1.4

Jerry Miller — Sat, 18 May 2013 16:38:41 +0000

iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S jailbreak users looking for a solution for iOS 6.1.3 and iOS 6.1.4, both of which have been off limits to them since their respective releases earlier this year, are forever in search of a solution which gives them jailbroken access to both new updates. With the leading jailbreak teams both sitting things out until the arrival of iOS 7, some jailbreak users are desperate enough to try anything. Which leads us to iCoverage, the latest jailbreak team no one’s heard of to come out of nowhere and offer what it claims is the ideal jail real iPhone 5 and 4S solution.

Unfortunately, one look at iCoverage reveals it to be something other than what it represents itself to be. The claims of jailbreak iOS 6.1.3 and iOS 6.1.4 compatibility with the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S, which would require a major technical breakthrough, is glossed over as if it were no big deal. Then comes the kicker: the site wants $27 to download free tools. And a look at the shopping cart reveals this is the same jailbreak scam from last month, now being promoted under a different name.

Oh well, maybe next time. Scratch iCoverage off your radar, as its claims of iPhone 5 jailbreak on iOS 6.1.3 and 6.1.4 are bogus. But keep your eyes peeled nonetheless. After all, the team Evasi0n release came out of nowhere at first and it turned out to be legitimate – so you never know.

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Jerry Miller

Jerry Miller covers various topics for Stabley Times.

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iFile: iPhone Jailbreak iOS 6 Cydia app store tweak

Jerry Miller — Sat, 18 May 2013 13:04:00 +0000

iPhone jailbreak users depend on Cydia tweaks from the Cydia app store in order to craft their own geekier, flashier interface for navigating their iPhone than the one which came preinstalled on iOS 6 before they jailbroke it. A fundamental part of the jailbreaking experience comes in terms of file navigation, which is where iFile comes in. iFile allows you to navigate quickly through the hierarchy of the iOS file system without having to revert back to the home screen with each move, and includes the ability to view various multimedia files including HTML and PDF.

Check back again tomorrow for our iPhone jailbreak Cydia tweak of the day, or if you missed it, here’s our previous Cydia tweak.

As always, jailbreak at your own risk. It’s not suitable for non-hackers, and if it goes wrong, Apple will not offer you technical support or honor your warranty.

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Jerry Miller

Jerry Miller covers various topics for Stabley Times.

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AT&T offers free iPhone 5 with 4S trade-in, more value than T-Mobile

Jake Robison — Sat, 18 May 2013 12:05:30 +0000

AT&T is offering a free iPhone 5 to any new or upgrade-eligible customer who trades in their iPhone 4S, in a deal which is similar the one already offered by T-Mobile but provides about twice the trade in value. A used but still functioning iPhone 4S has an open market value of three hundred dollars or more on do it yourself auction sites, but when T-Mobile launched the iPhone 5 last month it offered a mere $99 reduction in price for new customers who traded in their iPhone 4S from their previous carrier. That was essentially a two hundred dollar loss in value for the customer. But the AT&T deal gives iPhone 5 customers essentially $199 for their old iPhone 4S, or about two-thirds of its open market value.

It’s still not what one would call a fair value deal. But for those hesitant to face the challenges and risks of placing their iPhone 4S for sale on a site like eBay, AT&T is at least offering you the majority of what it’s worth on an iPhone 5 trade in. The T-Mobile trade in deal feels like highway robbery in comparison.

The trend toward carrier-motivated iPhone 5 sales deals suggests Apple may be bringing out the next new iPhone sooner than later. Or it may simply mean that carriers have figured out how to turn an even bigger profit off of customers who aren’t aware of the true trade-in value of a a used iPhone 4S

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Jake Robison

Jake covers various topics for Stabley Times.

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Yahoo looks to acquire Tumblr – or is it the other way around?

Phil Moore — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:55:56 +0000

by Phil Moore

Yahoo! is in talks to acquire social network Tumblr, the vowel challenged site popular among teens which has long remained a mystery to those over the age of twenty-five. Tumblr’s younger audience may in turn be asking themselves just what Yahoo is, as it’s so long since the early internet pioneer was considered relevant that you have to be of a certain age to have ever used it, and even then, few can recall what they ever used it for. Yahoo was the most popular search engine before Google came along, the most popular email service before Gmail. Come to think of it Google pretty much stole Yahoo’s lunch, with Yahoo only just recently getting revenge by stealing away core Google exec Marissa Mayer to be its new CEO. After mostly just cutting off the dead branches and making minor acquisitions do far, Mayer is finally making her first major Yahoo play.

By acquiring Tumblr, Yahoo finally gives itself a reason to exist again, a new identity. But in the eyes of Tumblr users, that identity will simply be that of Tumblr. Yahoo has never been a relevant brand to them, and will simply be a corporate overlord no different than it Tumblr had been bought out by a venture capital firm. Whether users stick around will depend on how Yahoo handles things. In past years and under past management, Yahoo had a knack for acquiring an upstart website, chasing away all of its existing users, and then shutting it down almost by design. Even as Google was taking away Yahoo’s core businesses, Yahoo still believed it was at the center of the internet’s future and acquired sites like Flickr that it considered a threat to its plans for domination, just to get them out of the way. That strategy led to Yahoo’s demise just as surely as the fact that its major rivals had better offerings.

But this is a different era for Yahoo in which its new boss seems to understand there’s little left of its previous relevance. Yahoo acquiring Tumblr only makes sense if it’s for the purpose of becoming Tumblr in the eyes of those younger users who consider Tumblr to be the place they can be themselves while their Facebook-connected parents aren’t watching. Play it right, and Yahoo gets a jump on those younger users who don’t see Google or Facebook as being cool, and don’t even know what Yahoo is. Tumblr is Yahoo’s do-over with a new generation. Play it wrong and Yahoo blows a billion dollars it can’t afford to lose on an incoming generation of internet users it can’t afford to piss off.

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Phil Moore

Phil covers tech for Stabley Times.

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Google Glass raises security issues from lusty price to the red dot

Bill Cammack — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:14:13 +0000

by Bill Cammack

Google Glass will obviously be a smash hit, as soon as they start selling it to the public. Let’s think about a few security issues.

1) Price

Supposedly, Google Glass will be available for $1,500 USD.

This means that everybody that sees you will know you’re wearing $1,500 on your face.

I wear glasses. They don’t cost $1,500.

I also wear a gold chain. That doesn’t cost $1,500 either.

Just like the rash of iPhone-snatchings that occurred, prepare for the same thing to happen with a headset that costs twice as much as an iPhone.

2) Plausible Deniability

There is no red dot that indicates when Google Glass is recording something.

This means that anybody that you are looking at will be able to challenge you as far as whether you’re currently videotaping them or not, and you won’t be able to prove that you aren’t.

This also means that when you’re hanging out in social situations, people will be less likely to tell you anything they don’t want broadcast all over creation.

Prepare for altercations to occur, based on a 1st party requesting that a 2nd party take off and put away their Google Glass, and the 2nd party refusing.

3) Cloud Storage

According to google.com/glass/terms, “You acknowledge and agree that Google will determine and use your location, that photos and videos taken on your Device will be added to your Google+ Instant Upload album, and that your Device will display information sent to devices that are synced with it (such as text messages). Please refer to our Google Privacy Policy for more information on how Google collects, uses and shares the information we receive from you.”

Get ready for your uploaded video, audio, text, and location data to be utilized regardless of your intentions.

If there’s a way to record video and NOT sync to the Google Cloud, that’s a different issue.

If you get to choose what you upload to the internet, that’s fine, and like any other smartphone or video/still camera.

If not, you’re risking leaving yourself and everyone you’ve recorded vulnerable to sudden changes of ToS (Terms of Service), as well as potentially getting caught up in legal and/or criminal investigations you had no intention of participating in.

Do I intend to purchase Google Glass?.. Yes. Definitely… However, I’m clearly aware that the technology potentially presents as many new problems as it presents new opportunities.

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Bill Cammack

Learn more about Bill on his YouTube Channel

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Google Play Music vs Pandora: three key music streaming differences

Will Stabley — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:03:09 +0000

Google Play Music is the new streaming music competitor to Pandora, the longtime reigning king of the music subscription market. The two offerings are quite similar on paper, with customers listening to internet based music channels on their computer or mobile device. It’s a twenty first century take on FM radio but without the commercials, disk jockey talk, Clear Channel style repetition of the same twelve songs all day long, or the need to wait for a song to end before getting to the next one. But there are a few defining differences between Pandora and Google Play Music, and as the latter hasn’t launched yet, some of the details still have yet to be filled in. But three key differences between the two stand out.

Price: Pandora offers a free restricted version and a paid monthly version of its service, with the paying customers expected to subsidize the bandwidth and royalty losses racked up by the non-paying customers. Pandora keeps losing money with that model, so Google decided to skip the free version and only offer a ten dollar a month version with no restrictions.

Limitations: Because almost no one pays for Pandora, the default free experience that its users have grown accustomed to is one in which they can only skip a certain number of songs within a certain amount of time. As a result they’re forced to listen to songs they don’t like, or more often, simply turn it off for awhile. Because everyone who uses Google Play Music will have to pay for the unlimited version, they’ll get all the “skips” they want. But because almost no one was willing pay for Pandora, it’s not yet clear whether Google will find a large number of paying customers or not.

Music: Pandora slowly added more songs to its library as it went while working out licensing as it went. Its library is now massive, but not complete in the way in which, say, iTunes has nearly every major label song for sale that’s ever been recorded. Google just inked its streaming deals with all three major U.S. record labels as well as indie labels. We’ll have to wait until it launches to see if its music catalog is more comprehensive from day one than the catalog that Pandora has gradually stitched together over the past decade.

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Will Stabley

Will Stabley is the Founder and Senior Editor of Stabley Times.

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Star Trek Into Darkness opening night: Khan? Klingons? Beam me up…

Will Stabley — Sat, 18 May 2013 03:25:29 +0000

Star Trek Into Darkness opens tonight, and as Trekkies and movie fans alike line up to see the sequel that could just as accurately have been called Star Trek 2 or Star Trek 12, those in line are looking for answers. Is the villain played by Benedict Cumberbatch really Khan, or someone else? In this new alternative universe Star Trek era, will the Klingons show up for the first time? And will the new Captain Kirk played by Christopher Pine finally utter the Beam Me Up Scotty line that William Shatner never did? Here are just enough answers to satisfy your curiosity without ruining Into Darkness for you:

We’ll give you this one straight off. There are Klingons in Star Trek Into Darkness. They look more savage, fight like Jet Li, and we’re not going to tell you whether they’re the good guys or bad guys. Those who know Star Trek history are aware that in the original timeline the Klingons were too disorganized to be a formal enemy, but usually could be counted on to attack the Enterprise any time they considered it strategically advantageous. Kirk didn’t make peace with the Klingons until Star Trek 6. But we’re still learning the extent of the timeline disruptions in this new altered universe, so anything is possible. But you came here to find out about the Khan-ish villain.

To give away Cumberbatch’s true identity would be to ruin the movie experience one way or the other. But those who have seen the movie know his character is super intelligent, subversive, and deadly. Spending the movie trying to figure out whether he is in fact Khan, or merely Khan-esque, is half the fun of Star Trek Into Darkness. Enjoy.

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Will Stabley

Will Stabley is the Founder and Senior Editor of Stabley Times.

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July Apple Media Event odds: iPhone 6 40%, iPhone 5S 30%, iWatch 50%

Will Stabley — Sat, 18 May 2013 03:12:42 +0000

Could the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5S be a mere month away? And what about the mythical iWatch? Apple’s annual developer conference is a month away, and after Google’s big software showing at its own developer conference, expect Apple to do the same. But look for new Apple hardware instead at a separate media event, as Apple has taken to the custom of introducing its software at WWDC and little else. iOS 7 will debut there, and will need a few rounds of developer betas before it’s ready to ship on new iPhone and iPad hardware. So we’re looking at late July for the media event, and early August for the subsequent release date of the newly unveiled products. But what hardware precisely? Here’s our look at the odds the ambitious iPhone 6, the repetitive iPhone 5S, and the elusive iWatch debut at that July media event.

The iPhone 6 gets pegged at forty percent because Apple has heard the complaints of the last three iPhone models looking to physically similar, and knows that consumers too often tend to overlook new features and better specs if A) the design doesn’t change and B) the number at the end of the product name remains the same. So we expect Apple to jump straight to the iPhone 6 rather than release an iPhone 5S first. The 5S gets pegged at thirty percent for July, and the remaining thirty percent odds go to no new iPhone until the fall.

iWatch is a different story. Apple can’t announce the iPhone 6 too long before it’s ready, for fear of hurting iPhone 5 sales in the mean time. But iWatch is a different kind of product entirely, and it can safely be announced months before it’s ready in the name of building hype for its eventual release. We give it fifty-fifty odds of being unveiled at a July media event, because if it’s even close to ready then Apple has every motivation to show it off sooner than later – especially if the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 5S isn’t coming until the fall.

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Will Stabley

Will Stabley is the Founder and Senior Editor of Stabley Times.

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Google Glass app for Facebook lets you take pictures, comment verbally

Phil Moore — Sat, 18 May 2013 01:35:39 +0000

Google Glass was the focus of Google I/O day two, and the highlight of the keynote was the reveal of a Facebook app for the glasses which allows those wearing them to take pictures of what they see, post them to their Facebook account, and verbally comment on their own photos. The app marks the first bit of mainstream user functionality for Google Glass, which is still a year away from seeing a consumer level release, and whose focus up to this point had primarily been on the new nature of the product and the geeky antics of the few who had thus far received beta units.

The arrival of mainstream functionality for Glass, particularly from a rival tech company like Facebook, is a landmark in the early evolution in the Google Glass era. Pundits have thus far been split on the projected mainstream viability of the wearable computing product, while the public tries to figure out what to make the product. While Google has its own Google+ social network with built in Glass compatibility, most consumers have chosen to do their social networking on Facebook instead.

Google I/O focused on Google Glass during day two, after a day one keynote focused primarily on new software features for its Android and Maps product lines.

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Phil Moore

Phil covers tech for Stabley Times.

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