At a time when the models of traditional social networks are being questioned, it’s more important than ever to experiment with alternatives. Arbtr is a proposed social network that limits users to sharing a single thing at any given time, encouraging “ruthless self-editing” and avoiding “nasty things” like endless feeds filled with trivial garbage.

It’s seeking funds on Kickstarter and could use a buck or two. I plan to.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Why would I give money to maybe join a social network eventually that might not have any of my friends on it on it? That is, if it ever even exists?” Great question.

The answer is: how else do you think we’re going to replace Facebook? Someone with a smart, different idea has to come along and we have to support them. If we won’t spare the cost of a cup of coffee for a purpose like that, then we deserve the social networks we’ve got. (And if I’m honest, I’ve had very similar ideas over the last few years and I’m eager to see how they might play out in reality.)

The fundamental feature is, of course, the single-sharing thing. You can only show off one item at a time, and when you post a new one, the old one (and any discussion, likes, etc) will be deleted. There will be options to keep logs of these things, and maybe premium features to access them (or perhaps metrics), but the basic proposal is, I think, quite sound — at the very least, worth trying.

If you’re sharing less, as Arbtr insists you will, then presumably you’ll put more love behind those things you do share. Wouldn’t that be nice?

We’re in this mess because we bought wholesale the idea that the more you share, the more connected you are. Now that we’ve found that isn’t the case – and in fact we were in effect being fattened for a perpetual slaughter — I don’t see why we shouldn’t try something else.

Will it be Arbtr? I don’t know. Probably not, but we’ve got a lot to gain by giving ideas like this a shot.

At last, a use for that industrial knitting machine you bought at a yard sale! Carnegie Mellon researchers have created a method that generates knitting patterns for arbitrary 3D shapes, opening the possibility of “on-demand knitting.” Think 3D printing, but softer.

The idea is actually quite compelling for those of us who are picky about their knitwear. How often have we picked up a knit cap, glove, or scarf only to find it too long, too short, too tight, too loose, etc?

If you fed your sartorial requirements (a 3D mesh) into this system from James McCann and students at CMU’s Textiles Lab, it could quickly spit out a pattern that a knitting machine could follow easily yet is perfectly suited for your purposes.

This has to be done carefully — the machines aren’t the same as human knitters, obviously, and a poorly configured pattern might lead to yarn breaking or jamming the machine. But it’s a lot better than having to build that pattern purl by purl.

With a little more work, “Knitting machines could become as easy to use as 3D printers,” McCann said in a CMU news release.

Of course, it’s unlikely you’ll have one of your own. But maker spaces and designer ateliers (I believe that’s the term) will be more likely to if it’s this easy to create new and perfectly sized garments with them.

McCann and his team will be presenting their research at SIGGRAPH this summer.

Funerals have begun for the 17 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces as thousands marched near Gaza’s border with Israel to mark the 42nd anniversary of Land Day. 

Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip held the funeral for 30-year-old Sari Abu Odeh late on Friday.

He was shot dead earlier in the day after Israeli forces fired live ammunition at protesters and used tear gas to push them back from a heavily fortified fence as they began a planned six-week demonstration demanding the right of return for refugees.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 1,400 others were wounded at the demonstration which commemorated Land Day, which stems from March 30, 1976, when six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces during protests against the Israeli government’s decision to expropriate massive tracts of Palestinian-owned land.

Mohammed Najjar, 25, was shot in the stomach during a clash east of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, while Mahmoud Muammar, 38, and Mohammed Abu Omar, 22, were both shot dead in Rafah.

Among the other victims were Ahmed Odeh, 19, Jihad Freneh, 33, Mahmoud Saadi Rahmi, 33, Abdelfattah Abdelnabi, 19, Ibrahim Abu Shaar, 20, Abdelqader al-Hawajiri, Hamdan Abu Amsheh, Jihad Abu Jamous, Bader al-Sabbagh and Naji Abu Hjair, whose ages remain unknown.

Earlier on Friday, Omar Waheed Abu Samour, a farmer from Gaza, was also killed by Israeli artillery fire while standing in his land near Khan Younis, just hours before the demonstrations.

Funerals for the rest of those killed are set to take place throughout the day on Saturday. 

In honour of those killed, the Palestinian Authority declared Saturday a day of “national mourning”.

“Schools, universities, as well as all government institutions, across the country will be off on Saturday, as per President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to declare a day of national mourning for the souls of the martyrs,” a statement issued on Friday said. 

Adalah, a legal centre for Palestinian rights in Israel, condemned the Israeli army’s use of force, calling it a “brutal violation” of international law.

“Live gunfire on unarmed civilians constitutes a brutal violation of the international legal obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants,” the group said in a statement.

It also said that it would launch an investigation to “demand that those found responsible for the killings be brought to justice”.

Yara Mahamid, a student from Gaza told Al Jazeera, that Israeli aggression wouldn’t deter Palestinians from protesting.

“We came to commemorate Land Day because we have to confront the [Israeli] state.

“We came out to remember our martyrs and to reclaim ownership of our land. We will resist until our last breath. We shouldn’t negotiate anymore. We shouldn’t give up our rights,” she said.

This year’s Land Day comes on the heels of months of anger over US President Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem.

It is widely expected the US will be transferring its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in the run-up to the Nakba, “day of catastrophe”, on May 15, when Israel was officially declared a state and more than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes.

International reaction

At Kuwait’s request, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting late on Friday, but failed to agree on a joint statement.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an “independent and transparent investigation” and reaffirmed “the readiness” of the world body to revitalise peace efforts.

However, Mansour al-Otaibi, Kuwait’s Ambassador to the UN, issued a statement criticising the Security Council’s for failing to take action against Israel.

“People in occupied Palestine are disappointed that the Security Council met, but did not take action yet to stop this massacre and to hold those responsible to account.”

The Jordanian government also issued a statement laying responsibility on Israel for the deaths of the Palestinian protesters.

Mohammad al-Momani, spokesperson for the Jordanian government, said: “As an occupying power, Israel bears responsibility for what happened in Gaza today, as a result of the Israeli violation of the Palestinian right to protest peacefully and the use of excessive force against them”.

The Turkish and Qatari governments released similar statements, condemning Israel’s use of force.

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies and author of the book, Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, told Al Jazeera that there needed to be more than just condemnation of Israel’s actions.

“Friday was only the first day of what is anticipated to be a six-week non-violent protest. Camps and tents had been set-up, playing fields for children had been erected, but days earlier, the Israelis decided to send 100 snipers there and who were prepared to use force against anyone who approaches the fence.

“Given the size of the Gaza Strip, and that the fence encircles all of it, the notion of approaching it, just means living inside Gaza,” she said.

“So asking for a strong statement from the US and others isn’t enough. And issuing strong statements simply doesn’t go far enough.”

A Russian man accused of hacking LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Formspring in 2012 and possibly compromising personal details of over 100 million users, has pleaded not guilty in a U.S. federal court after being extradited from the Czech Republic.

Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich Nikulin, 30, of Moscow was arrested in Prague on October 5, 2016, by Interpol agents working in collaboration with the FBI, but he was recently extradited to the United States from the Czech Republic on Thursday for his first appearance in federal court.

Nikulin’s arrest started an extradition battle between the United States and Russia, where he faces significantly lesser criminal charges of stealing $3,450 via Webmoney in 2009. But the Czech Republic ruled in favor of the United States.

In the U.S., Nikulin is facing:

• 3 counts of computer intrusion
• 2 counts of intentional transmission of information, code, or command causing damage to a protected computer
• 2 counts of aggravated identity theft
• 1 count of trafficking in unauthorized access devices
• 1 count of conspiracy

According to the maximum penalties for each count, Nikulin faces a maximum of 32 years in prison and a massive fine of more than $1 Million.

The U.S. Justice Department accused Nikulin of allegedly hacking into computers belonging to three American social media firms, including LinkedIn, the online cloud storage platform Dropbox and now-defunct social-networking firm Formspring.

Nikulin reportedly gained access to LinkedIn’s network between March 3 and March 4, 2012, Dropbox between May 14 and July 25, 2012, and Formspring between June 13 and June 29, 2012.

The hacker allegedly stole accounts of more than 117 Million LinkedIn users and more than 68 Million Dropbox users. Authorities also say that after stealing data from the three companies, Nikulin worked with unnamed co-conspirators to sell the stolen data.

Besides hacking into the three social media firms, the Justice Department also accused Nikulin of allegedly gaining access to credentials belonging to LinkedIn and Formspring employees, which helped him carry out the computer hacks.

Nikulin appeared in Federal District Court in San Francisco on Friday and pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, the New York times reported.

“This is deeply troubling behavior once again emanating from Russia,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a statement. “We will not tolerate criminal cyber-attacks and will make it a priority to investigate and prosecute these crimes, regardless of the country where they originate.”

Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley scheduled Nikulin’s next court appearance for status on April 2, 2018, and scheduled a detention hearing for April 4, 2018.

Dozens of high-tech phone smugglers have been apprehended by Chinese police, who twigged to the scheme to send refurbished iPhones into the country from Hong Kong via drone — but not the way you might think.

China’s Legal Daily reported the news (and Reuters noted shortly after) following a police press conference; it’s apparently the first cross-border drone-based smuggling case, so likely of considerable interest.

Although the methods used by the smugglers aren’t described, a picture emerges from the details. Critically, in addition to the drones themselves, which look like DJI models with dark coverings, police collected some long wires — more than 600 feet long.

Small packages of 10 or so phones were sent one at a time, and it only took “seconds” to get them over the border. That pretty much rules out flying the drone up and over the border repeatedly — leaving aside that landing a drone in pitch darkness on the other side of a border fence (or across a body of water) would be difficult to do once or twice, let alone dozens of times, the method is also inefficient and risky.

But really, the phones only need to clear the border obstacle. So here’s what you do:

Send the drone over once with all cable attached. Confederates on the other side attach the cable to a fixed point, say 10 or 15 feet off the ground. Drone flies back unraveling the cable, and lands some distance onto the Hong Kong side. Smugglers attach a package of 10 phones to the cable with a carabiner, and the drone flies straight up. When the cable reaches a certain tension, the package slides down the cable, clearing the fence. The drone descends, and you repeat.

I’ve created a highly professional diagram to illustrate this technique (feel free to reuse):

It’s not 100 percent to scale. The far side might have to be high enough that the cable doesn’t rest on the fence, if there is one, or not to drag in the water if that’s the case. Not sure about that part.

Anyway, it’s quite smart. You get horizontal transport basically for free, and the drone only has to do what it does best: go straight up. Two wires were found, and the police said up to 15,000 phones might be sent across in a night. Assuming 10 phones per trip, and say 20 seconds per flight, that works out to 1,800 phones per hour per drone, which sounds about right. Probably this kind of thing is underway at more than a few places around the world.

Japan Display is planning to raise $517 million through third-party share allocations and asset sales so it will have the funds to supply LCD screens for new iPhones, reports Nikkei.

Last year, Japan Display lost business because of Apple’s shift to OLED, so the company sought partnerships to begin producing OLED displays, but with Apple planning to continue to use LCDs for some devices, Japan Display is in need of working capital to purchase inventory and to begin production on the LCDs Apple now needs.

Rumors have suggested Apple is planning on introducing two OLED iPhones (5.8 and 6.5 inches) and one 6.1-inch LCD iPhone next year, with the LCD device to be positioned as a low-cost option alongside the two more expensive OLED devices.

With Japan Display again planning to invest in LCDs, it could be in trouble in the future should Apple opt to abandon LCD technology for OLED technology entirely, says Nikkei.

Expecting the U.S. tech company to keep shifting toward OLEDs, the supplier began exploring capital partnerships to obtain the massive funds necessary to invest in producing the advanced tech.

However, the iPhone X has proven a flop, and Apple appears to be sticking with LCDs for some models due out this fall, leaving Japan Display in need of working capital to secure inventory and production capacity to supply those screens.

Previous rumors have suggested Apple is interested in Japan Display’s Full Active LCDs, which are said to match or exceed some of the advantages of OLED at a lower cost.

Full Active panels have a smaller bezel around the screen than traditional LCDs and they have enough flex that they can be used in curved or angled designs.

All three of Apple’s rumored 2018 iPhones are expected to adopt full-screen designs with minimal bezels, much like the iPhone X. The Home button will be eliminated in each, with Apple adopting Face ID across its 2018 iPhone lineup.

A company called Clipisode is today launching a new service that’s essentially a “talk show in a box,” as founder Brian Alvey describes it. Similar to how Anchor now allows anyone to build a professional podcast using simple mobile and web tools, Clipisode does this for video content. With Clipisode, you can record a video that can be shared across any platform – social media, the web, text messages – and collect video responses that can then be integrated into the “show” and overlaid with professional graphics.

The video responses feature is something more akin to a video voicemail-based call-in feature.

Here’s how it works. The content creator will first use Clipisode to record their video, and receive the link to share the video across social media, the web, or privately through email, text messaging, etc. When the viewer or guest clicks the link, they can respond to the question the show’s “host” posed.

For example, a reporter could ask for viewers’ thoughts on an issue or a creator could ask their fans what they want to see next.

How the video creator wants to use this functionality is really up to them, and specific to the type of video show they’re making.

To give you an idea, during a pre-launch period, the app has been tested by AXS TV to promote their upcoming Top Ten Revealed series by asking music industry experts “Who Is Your All-time Favorite Guitarist?”

BBC Scotland asked their Twitter followers who they want to see hired as the new manager for the Scotland national football team.

A full-time Twitch gamer, Chris Melberger asked his subscribers what device they watch Twitch on.

The content creator can then receive all the video responses to these questions privately, choose which ones they want to include in their finished show, and drag those responses into the order they want. The creator can respond back to the clips, too, or just add another clip at the end of their video. Uploading pre-recorded clips from services like Dropbox or even your phone is supported as well.

Plus, content creators can use Clipisode to overlay professional-looking animations and graphics on top of the final video with the responses and replies. This makes it seem more like something made with help from a video editing team, not an app on your phone.

Because Clipisode invitations are web links, they don’t require the recipients to download an app.

“[People] don’t want to download an app for a one-time video reply,” explains Alvey. “But with this, people can reply.” And, he adds, what makes Clipisode interesting from a technical perspective, is that the web links users click to reply can work in any app in a way that feels seamless to the end user.

“That’s our biggest trick – making this work in other people’s apps, so there’s no new social network to join and nothing to download,” he says.

The app is free currently, but the plan is to generate revenue by later selling subscription access to the authoring suite where users can create the animated overlays and branding components that give the video the professional look-and-feel.

In an online CMS, creators can author, test and deploy animated themes that run on top of their videos.

The final video product can be shared back to social media, or downloaded as a video file to be published on video-sharing sites, social media, or as a video podcast.

Clipisode has been in development for some time, Alvey says. The company originally raised less than a million from investors including Mike Jones and Mark Cuban for a different product the founder describes as a Patreon competitor, before pivoting to Clipisode. Investors funded the new product with less than half a million.

The app itself took a couple of years to complete, something that Alvey says has to do with the animation studio it includes and the small team. (It’s just him and technical co-founder Max Schmeling.)

Clipisode is a free download on iOS and Android.

When you’ve got leverage, don’t be afraid to use it. That’s been Google’s modus operandi in the news and publishing world over the last year or so as it has pushed its AMP platform, funding various news-related ventures that may put it ahead, and nourished its personalized Chrome tabs on mobile. The latter, as Nieman Labs notes, grew 2,100 percent in 2017.

You may have noticed, since Chrome is a popular mobile browser and this setting is on by default, but the “Articles for You” appear automatically in every new tab, showing you a bunch of articles the company things you’d like. And it’s gone from driving 15 million article views to a staggering 341 million over the last year.

In late 2016, when Google announced the product, I described it as “polluting” the otherwise useful new tab page. I also don’t like the idea of being served news when I’m not actively looking for it — I understand that when I visit Google News (and I do) that my browser history (among other things) is being scoured to determine what categories and stories I’ll see. I also understand that everything I do on the site, as on every Google site, is being entered into its great data engine in order to improve its profile of me.

Like I said, when I visit a Google site, I expect that. But a browser is supposed to be a tool, not a private platform, and the idea that every tab I open is another data point and another opportunity for Google to foist its algorithms on me is rankling.

It has unsavory forebears. Remember Internet Explorer 6, which came with MSN.com as the default homepage? That incredible positioning drove so much traffic that for years after (and indeed, today) it drove disgusting amounts of traffic to anything it featured. But that traffic was tainted: you knew that firehose was in great part clicks from senior citizens who thought MSN was the entire internet.

Of course the generated pages for individual users aren’t the concentrated fire of a link on a major portal, but they are subject to Google approval and, of course, the requisite ranking bonus for AMP content. Can’t forget that!

But wherever you see the news first, that’s your news provider. And you can’t get much earlier than “as soon as you open a new tab.” That’s pretty much the ultimate positioning advantage.

Just how this amazing growth occurred is unclear. If there’s been any word of mouth, I missed it. “Have you tried scrolling down? The news is just right there!” It seems unlikely. My guess would be that the feature has been steadily rolling out in new regions, opting in new users who occasionally scroll down and see these stories.

And unlike many other news distribution platforms, there isn’t much for publishers or sites like this one to learn about it. How are stories qualified for inclusion? Is there overlap with Google News stuff? What’s shown if people aren’t signed in? I’ve asked Google for further info.

Do you, like me, dislike the idea that every time you open a tab — not just when you use its services — Google uses it as an opportunity to monetize you, however indirectly? Fortunately, and I may say consistent with Google’s user-friendliness in this type of thing, you can turn it off quite easily — on iOS, anyway.

Open the menu at the top right of any tab and hit settings. There should be a “Suggested articles” toggle — disable that and you’re done. While you’re at it, you might just head into Privacy and disable search and site suggestions and usage data.

On Android? You’ll have to dig into the app’s flags and toggle the hidden setting there. Not as user-friendly.

Griffin has a new wireless charging accessory available for purchase as of today, the Griffin PowerBlock Wireless Charging Pad.

Designed for the iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and Android devices that support wireless charging, the PowerBlock Wireless Charging Pad offers up to 15W of charging power. Griffin says Qi-enabled devices will charge faster with the PowerBlock than with a standard 5W wireless charger.

While the PowerBlock supports up to 15W, the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus support a maximum of 7.5W of charging power. Griffin says the PowerBlock supports Samsung fast wireless charging, but it does not specifically mention faster 7.5W wireless charging on the iPhone. We’ve reached out to Griffin for clarification and will update this post when we hear back.

Like most wireless chargers, the PowerBlock is a simple square-shaped puck with a Qi-based wireless charging coil inside. It features a felt top to keep your iPhone in place while it’s charging and looks stylish when it’s not in use. LEDs on the device let you know when your iPhone is charging and when it’s done.

At $60 the Griffin PowerBlock is comparable in price to options from Belkin and Mophie, but more expensive than other wireless charging options from companies like Anker and Ravpower.

We took a look at dozens of wireless chargers in our wireless charging guide, which is well worth checking out to see all of the available options.

Though the normal price of the PowerBlock Wireless Charging Pad is $59.99, customers can save 15 percent through April 2 by using the promo code WIRELESS when checking out.

We’ve got additional deals on other wireless charging pads available in our Deals roundup.

A funny thing happened the last couple of times I was briefed on a Huawei flagship product: news was breaking about some major roadblock for the company’s U.S. distribution plans. First it was AT&T backing out in the midst of CES and then it was Best Buy’s decision to drop the company just ahead of the big P20 launch (though a rep for the company told me the States were never part of its plans for that handset). 

It’s been one thing after another as the Chinese hardware maker has worked to establish a meaningful presence here in the States. In spite of all of this fallout from government pushback, however, the company insists that it’s not going anywhere.

In an email to CNET, the company’s consumer CEO reaffirmed that commitment. “We are committed to the U.S. market and to earning the trust of U.S. consumers by staying focused on delivering world-class products and innovation,” Yu writes. “We would never compromise that trust.”

The sentiment echoes statements Yu made on-stage at CES in the wake of the AT&T deal implosion — albeit much more measured this time around. Most of Yu’s followup reinforced his earlier assertions that, in spite of multiple warning from various US security departments, this whole thing is blow entirely out of proportion.

“The security risk concerns are based on groundless suspicions and are quite frankly unfair,” Yu adds. ”We welcome an open and transparent discussion if it is based on facts.”

Even if the company’s intentions are as stated, Huawei’s got an epic uphill climb if it’s going to make any sort of dent in the world’s third-largest mobile market. The company’s carrier play is non-existent in a country where most phones are purchased through telecoms. And abandonment by the biggest big box store in the States was insult to injury.

And if the company does manage to reverse those trends, it will still be a hard sell for U.S. consumers after several warnings from the country’s defense departments. 

At least 15 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,400 others wounded by Israeli forces as thousands marched near Gaza’s border with Israel in a major demonstration marking the 42nd anniversary of Land Day. 

Mohammed Najjar, 25, was shot in the stomach in a clash east of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, while Mahmoud Muammar, 38, and Mohammed Abu Omar, 22, were both shot dead in Rafah, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement on Friday. 

The other 11 victims were identified as Ahmed Odeh, 19, Jihad Freneh, 33, Mahmoud Saadi Rahmi, 33, Abdelfattah Abdelnabi, 22, Ibrahim Abu Shaar, 20, Abdelqader al-Hawajiri, Sari Abu Odeh, Hamdan Abu Amsheh, Jihad Abu Jamous, Bader al-Sabbagh and Naji Abu Hjair, whose ages remain unknown. 

Earlier on Friday, Omar Waheed Abu Samour, a farmer from Gaza, was also killed by Israeli artillery fire while standing in his land near Khan Younis, just hours before the demonstrations. 

There has been no confirmation from the Israeli army of the attack that killed Samour. 

More than 1,400 others were also wounded after Israeli forces fired live ammunition at protesters and used tear gas to push them back from a heavily fortified fence, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. 

According to the ministry, the majority were injured in live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas inhalation. 

Protesters in Gaza gathered in five different spots along the border, originally positioned about 700 metres away from the fence. 

Adalah, a legal centre for Palestinian rights in Israel, condemned the Israeli forces’ use of force, calling it a violation of international law. 

“Live gunfire on unarmed civilians constitutes a brutal violation of the international legal obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants,” the group said in a statement.

It also said that it would launch an investigation to “demand that those found responsible for the killings be brought to justice”. 

Land Day

Friday’s demonstration commemorates Land Day, which marks the day – March 30, 1976 – when six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed by Israeli forces during protests against the Israeli government’s decision to expropriate massive tracts of Palestinian land.

According to Israeli media, Israel’s army deployed more than 100 snipers on the other side of the border with permission to fire. 

The march was called for by all political factions and several Palestinian civil society organisations in the besieged enclave.

Protesters said the main message of the march was to call for the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

Some 70 percent of Gaza’s two million population are descendants of Palestinians who were driven from their homes in the territories taken over by Israel during the 1948 war, known to Arabs as the Nakba. 

Speaking to the protesters, Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said: “The Palestinian people have proved time after time that they can take the initiative and do great things. This march is the beginning of the return to all of Palestine.”

Friday’s protest also kicked off a six-week sit-in demonstration along the border leading up to the commemoration of the Nakba on May 15.

It is expected that the United States will be transferring its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem around the same time, following President Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017. 

SteelSeries has two new Arctis Pro gaming headsets out, and they pack a lot of tech and versatility into a comfortable, visually attractive package. The SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless and Arctis Pro + GameDAC are both incredibly capable headsets that deliver terrific sound, and depending on your system needs, should probably be your first choice when looking for new gaming audio gear.

The Arctis Pro Wireless is, true to its name, wire-free, but also promises lossless 2.4GHz transmission to ensure lag-free audio, too – a must for competitive gaming. The combination of the wireless functionality, the long-wearing comfort of the suspension system headband and the included transmitter base that can hold and charge a swappable battery as well as display all key information on an OLED readout makes this a standout choice.

There are some limitations, however – compatibility is limited to either PS4 or PC for this one, for instance. The wired Arctis Pro (without GameDAC) is compatible with the Xbox One, but both the wireless version and the version that connected to the wired DAC will only work with either Sony’s latest consoles or with a Windows or Mac-based gaming PC.

I’m a bit saddened by that since I’m a big fan of PUBG on Xbox, and also lately of Sea of Thieves, but I also do regularly play PS4 and PC games, and the Arctis Pro Wireless is my weapon of choice now when using either, either for multiplayer or single player games. The wearability and sound quality (which includes DTS X 7.1 surround on PC) is so good that I’ll often opt to use them in place of my actual 5.1 physical surround system, even when I don’t need to chat with anyone.

Other options, like the Turtle Beach Elite Pro Tournament Headset, offer different advantages including more easily accessible fine-tune control over soundscape, balance of chat and game audio and other features, but the SteelSeries offers a less complicated out-of-box experience, and better all-day wearability thanks to taking cues from athletic wear for its materials and design.

The GameDAC option additionally has Hi-Res Audio certificate, which is good if you’re looking to stream FLAC files or high-res audio from services like Tidal. The DAC itself also makes all audio sound better overall, and gives you more equalization options from the physical controller.

The main thing to consider with the Arctis Pro + DAC ($249.99) and the Arctis Pro Wireless ($329.99) is the cost. They’re both quite expensive relative to the overall SteelSeries lineup and those of competitors, too. But in this case, cost really is reflective of quality – channel separation and surround virtualization is excellent on these headsets, and the mic sounds great to other players I talked to as well. Plus, the Pro Wireless can connect to both Bluetooth and the 2.4GHz transmitter simultaneously, so you can use it with your phone as well as your console, and the retractable mic keeps things looking fairly stylish, too.

A group of criminals in China were caught smuggling 500 million yuan ($79.8 million) worth of refurbished iPhones from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, using drones connected via cables to transport the smartphones. Reported by the Legal Daily (via Reuters), customs officers in Shenzhen caught the group and ceased its illegal actions, arresting 26 total suspects in the process. Photo by Liu Youzhi/Southern Metropolis Daily via Reuters

The group was using drones to fly two 660-foot cables between Hong Kong and the mainland as a method of transporting the iPhones. They typically operated after midnight and into the morning hours, and “only needed seconds” to transport small bags that held 10 iPhones or more using the cable-connected drones. In one night, they could reach a quota of as many as 15,000 iPhones transported.

According to a news conference held by the customs officers, this marks “the first case found in China that drones were being used in cross-border smuggling crimes.”

Shenzhen customs was quoted by the Legal Daily as saying it would closely monitor new types of smuggling with high-tech devices and enhance their capability with technical equipment, including drones and high-resolution monitors, to detect smuggling activity.

Drone regulations are said to be “an important task” for Chinese officials, with the government publishing a series of strict rules in 2017 after drones were found to be interfering with aircraft flight paths. Civilian drone owners are now required to register any drone “up to a certain weight” using their real names.

While using drones might be new, the act of individuals attempting to smuggle iPhones out of Hong Kong has certainly been around for years. In early 2015, a man tried to smuggle 94 iPhones into mainland China by strapping them onto his body and under his clothes. Smuggling operations pop up frequently because of higher import taxes, which cause the iPhones to be more expensive in the mainland than they are in Hong Kong.

The latest update to macOS provides support for external graphics card. Apple announced this would hit the OS last June at WWDC and now it’s finally here. The update allows Mac users to increase the graphical processing power through an external graphics card connected through Thunderbolt 3.

Perviously users had to buy an eGPU dev kit from Apple or employ unofficial means to enable external graphics cards, which meant Apple wouldn’t bail them out if something happened. The additional horsepower isn’t needed for general use, but the added graphics cards supercharge Macs for VR, rendering and gaming. Only a handful of eGPUs are compatible with macOS so choose carefully before adding one to your rig.

The feature comes from the High Sierra 10.13.4 Combo Update which also adds Business Chat in Messages, a new iTunes and a super handy feature to Safari in which users can jump to the right-most open tab by using Command+9.

Twitter this week updated its iOS and Android apps with a new feature called “Timestamps,” which the company said will make it easier to share brief moments from longer live videos.

Previously, Twitter users had to direct their followers to specific time codes in a live video so that people knew which moment they were referring to. The Timestamps update is a direct response to that, according to product lead for Periscope Mike Folgner.

Now, when users tap the share sheet extension on a live video, Twitter displays a playback track that they can scrub through to find the exact moment they want their followers to watch. Then they can tap the “new tweet” button, type in any commentary on the video clip, and press “tweet.” The clips can also be sent via direct message or copied and shared through a link.

So, we built Timestamps which lets anyone Tweet a live or replay video starting from the exact moment they want to discuss.

People have always used Twitter to talk about the things they experience. With Timestamps, now we can show rather than just tell everyone what’s happening.

People who see the tweet will be able to watch the specific moment shared within, and if the broadcast is still live they can skip forward in time by tapping “live.” Folgner said the feature is available across all live videos, “whether from a professional content publisher or someone broadcasting from their phone.”

🚀📣 Really excited to launch Timestamps, an easy way to point people to the part within a live video that matters most. pic.twitter.com/ECsyXH9Xzm

— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) March 29, 2018

Timestamps are available now on Twitter for iOS [Direct Link] and Android, Twitter.com, and Periscope.

Last week we explained how you can use a simple Terminal command to insert spaces in your macOS Dock and visibly group together app icons. In this article, we’re going to highlight another simple Terminal hack that turns the Dock into more of a straightforward app switcher by making it display only apps that are currently running on your Mac.

Seeing only active apps at the bottom of your desktop can be a refreshing change if your Dock has become cluttered with various app shortcuts over time, and you can always use Spotlight (key combination Command-Space to activate) or an alternative method to launch your Mac apps.

When following the simple steps below, just bear in mind that Terminal is a powerful app, so make sure you enter the commands properly, especially if you’re not familiar with it.

How to Show Only Active Apps in Your Dock

1. Launch the Terminal app found in Applications/Utilities. (To quickly open the Utilities folder in Finder, select Go -> Utilities from the menu bar, or use the key shortcut Shift-Command-U.)
   
2. At the Terminal prompt, type the following command and press Enter: defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool true; killall Dock
   
   
3. Your Dock will reboot in order to show only the currently running apps on your Mac in the order they were launched.
   
   

How to Revert the Dock Back to Its Original State

If you decide you don’t like this way of using the Dock, follow the steps below to return it to its usual behavior.

1. Launch the Terminal app again if it’s not already open.
   
2. At the Terminal prompt, type the following command and press Enter: defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool false; killall Dock
   
3. Your Dock will reboot and revert to showing both running and non-running apps.

If there’s a specific active app that you’d like to hide from the Dock for whatever reason, there are a couple of third-party utilities that might help. Dock Dodger is a free drag-and-drop tool that can hide certain apps from the Dock even when they’re running (once placed on the tool’s droplet, you have to restart the app in question to hide it, although our success rate varied depending on the app). If you’re willing to open your wallet, GhostTile is a more recent and reliable paid-for alternative with similar functionality.

Tim Cook took a break from criticizing Facebook on Tuesday to present the next step in Apple’s big education plans. But the CEO is back at it. Sitting down with MSNBC and Recode at a town hall event, Cook was once again asked about consumer privacy in the wake of fallout over Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica quagmire.

Cook interviews that while he believed self-regulation is best in the case of these tech giants, “I think we’re beyond that.” Asked what he would do, were he in Zuckerberg’s position, he added, simply, “I wouldn’t be in this situation.”

The executive has never shied away from criticizing Facebook, of course. In 2015, he indirectly criticized the approach of internet companies like Google and Facebook, stating “They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it. We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.”

Just this weekend, he echoed that statement, with a more direct jab at Facebook, following the Cambridge Analytica revelations, telling the audience at a conference in China, “The ability of anyone to know what you’ve been browsing about for years, who your contacts are, who their contacts are, things you like and dislike and every intimate detail of your life — from my own point of view it shouldn’t exist.”

Cook echoed those statements onstage this week, adding, “The truth is, we could make a ton of money if we monetized our customer — if our customer was our product. We’ve elected not to do that.”

The company reflected that sentiment in an updated privacy policy posted back in January, explaining that,

Apple believes privacy is a fundamental human right, so every Apple product is designed to:

• Use on-device processing wherever possible
• Limit the collection and use of data
• Provide transparency and control over your information
• Build on a strong foundation of security

SpaceX has a green light from the FCC to launch a network of thousands of satellites blanketing the globe with broadband. And you won’t have too long to wait — on a cosmic scale, anyway. Part of the agreement is that SpaceX launch half of its proposed 4,425 satellites within six years.

The approval of SpaceX’s application was not seriously in doubt after last month’s memo from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who was excited at the prospect of the first U.S.-based company being authorized to launch a constellation like this.

“I have asked my colleagues to join me in supporting this application and moving to unleash the power of satellite constellations to provide high-speed Internet to rural Americans,” he wrote at the time. He really is pushing that “digital divide” thing.

The proposed service, which may be called Starlink, was opposed by several existing satellite internet providers like OneWeb and Spire. They’re rightly concerned that another operator in space — especially one that wants to launch thousands of satellites — will crowd both spectrum and orbit.

OneWeb, for example, said that SpaceX satellites shouldn’t be allowed to be deployed within 125 kilometers of altitude of its own. You do want to avoid interference, but really, it’s too much to ask for a 150-mile buffer zone around your gear.

One objection that did carry water, however, was the request for an extensive orbital debris mitigation plan.

The unprecedented number of satellites proposed by SpaceX and the other [non-geostationary orbit fixed-satellite service] systems in this processing round will necessitate a further assessment of the appropriate reliability standards of these spacecraft, as well as the reliability of these systems’ methods for deorbiting the spacecraft.

So SpaceX will have to provide more studies on this by the time it finalizes its designs and starts launching.

And that will have to be fairly soon. To move things along, the FCC requires SpaceX to get underway in a hurry or else, presumably, it will have to be reauthorized:

SpaceX must launch 50 percent of the maximum number of proposed space stations, place them in the assigned orbits, and operate them in accordance with the station authorization no later than March 29, 2024.

Commissioner Rosenworcel, in a separate statement, also called for a general revisiting of regulations around commercial space.

“This rush to develop new space opportunities requires new rules,” she writes. “Despite the revolutionary activity in our atmosphere, the regulatory frameworks we rely on to shape these efforts are dated. Across the board, we need to prepare for the proliferation of satellites in our higher altitudes. In short, we have work to do.”

Apple today released an updated version of iTunes, iTunes 12.7.4, which introduces a new music video experience for Apple Music. A music video section lets users discover new and popular music videos in the Browse section of Apple Music, and there’s an option to create Apple Music playlists for videos.

Apple’s full release notes for iTunes 12.7.4 are below:

iTunes now includes a new music video experience for Apple Music. Find what’s new and popular in Music Videos within Browse, and play videos back-to-back with music video playlists.

Today’s iTunes update can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free using the Software Update function.

iTunes 12.7.4 follows iTunes 12.7.3, a January update that introduced support for HomePod. iTunes 12.7, released last September, was the last major update to iTunes, eliminating the built-in App Store to focus solely on music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks.

A racial slur GIF slipped into GIPHY’s sticker library earlier this month, prompting Instagram and Snapchat to drop their GIPHY integrations. Now Instagram is reactivating after GIPHY confirmed its reviewed its GIF library four times and will preemptively review any new GIFs it adds. Snapchat said it had nothing to share right now about whether it’s going to reactivate GIPHY.

“We’ve been in close contact with GIPHY throughout this process and we’re confident that they have put measures in place to ensure that Instagram users have a good experience” an Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch. GIPHY told TechCrunch in a statement that “To anyone who was affected: we’re sorry. We take full responsibility for this recent event and under no circumstances does
GIPHY condone or support this kind of content . . . We have also finished a full investigation into our content moderations systems and processes and have made specific changes to our process to ensure soemthing like this does not happen again.”

We first reported Instagram was building a GIPHY integration back in January before it launched a week later, with Snapchat adding a similar feature in February. But it wasn’t long before things went wrong. First spotted by a user in the U.K. around March 8th, the GIF included a racial slur. We’ve shared a censored version of the image below, but warning, it still includes graphic content that may be offensive to some users.

When asked, Snapchat told TechCrunch ““We have removed GIPHY from our application until we can be assured that this will never happen again.” Instagram wasn’t aware that the racist GIF was available in its GIPHY integration until informed by TechCrunch, leading to a shut down of the feature within an hour. An Instagram spokesperson told TechCrunch “This type of content has no place on Instagram.” After 12 hours of silence, GIPHY responded the next morning, telling us “After investigation of the incident, this sticker was available due to a bug in our content moderation filters specifically affecting GIF stickers.”

The fiasco highlights the risks of major platforms working with third-party developers to brings outside and crowdsourced content into their apps. Snapchat historically resisted working with established developers, but recently has struck more partnerships particularly around augmented reality lenses and marketing service providers. While it’s an easy way to provide more entertainment and creative expression tools, developer integrations also force companies to rely on the quality and safety of things they don’t fully control. As Instagram and Snapchat race for users around the world, they’ll have to weigh the risks and rewards of letting developers into their gardens.

GIPHY’s full statement is below.

CHANGES TO GIPHY’S STICKER MODERATION
Before we get into the details, we wanted to take a moment and sincerely apologize for the
deeply offensive sticker discovered by a user on March 8, 2018. To anyone who was affected:
we’re sorry. We take full responsibility for this recent event and under no circumstances does
GIPHY condone or support this kind of content.
The content was immediately removed and after investigation a bug was found in our content
moderation filters affecting stickers. This bug was immediately fixed and all stickers were re-
moderated.
We have also finished a full investigation into our content moderation systems and processes
and have made specific changes to our process to ensure something like this does not happen
again.

THE CHANGES
After fixing the bug in our content moderation filters and confirming that the sticker was
successfully detected, we re-moderated our entire sticker library 4x.
We have also added another level of GIPHY moderation before each sticker is approved into
the library. This is now a permanent addition to our moderation process.
We hope this will ensure that GIPHY stickers will always be fun and safe no matter where you
see them.

THE FUTURE AND BEYOND
GIFs and Stickers are supposed to make the Internet a better, more entertaining place.
GIPHY is committed to making sure that’s always the case. As GIPHY continues to grow, we’re
going to continue looking for ways to improve our user experience. Please let us know how we
can help at: support@giphy.com.
Team Giphy.

 

Apple just released an iOS update for your iPhone and iPad. 11.3 introduces a ton of bug fixes but also a bunch of new features. If you forgot about Animjois, today is your lucky day as Apple is adding four new Animojis — a dragon, a bear, a lion and a skull.

But that’s not all. Apple already shared a preview of iOS 11.3 a couple of months ago. There’s a big ARKit update to ARKit 1.5. It can recognize more objects and surfaces.

And iOS 11.3 is also the battery update we’ve all been waiting for. There’s some new info in the settings about the status of your battery. It tells you the overall capacity and if it’s time to change your battery.

You can also choose to disable Apple’s controversial decision to throttle performance with old batteries. Apple says it’s a beta feature for now.

Apple is also introducing a new feature in the Health app. You can now centralize all your health records in the app. It’s only limited to a handful of clinics for now.

Apple is adding customer support conversations to Messages. You can initiate a conversation with a business to order something, book a table and more. Discover, Hilton, Lowe’s and Wells Fargo are already on board. Health Records and Business Chats are only available in the U.S. as a beta for now.

You’ll also see a new privacy icon across the operating system. A new website to export all your data is coming in May as well. Apple needs to add those features to comply with GDPR.

Finally, Apple Music is getting a new video clips section, the App Store Updates tab now shows you the size of each update and more tiny little things. And if you care about security, it’s always a good thing to update to the latest version of iOS. Unfortunately, iOS 11.3 still doesn’t include iMessage in iCloud.

Back up your iPhone or iPad to iCloud or your computer using iTunes before updating. You can then head over to the Settings app, then ‘General’, then ‘Software Update’. macOS, watchOS and tvOS updates are also available today.

Google Play Audiobooks is getting a major update today that adds a number of new features to the service that were sorely missing when it launched earlier this year. None of these are groundbreaking, but they’ll help Google reach feature parity with some of its competitors while injecting a bit of its proprietary smarts into the process, too.

Maybe the most useful new feature in today’s release is Smart Resume. Instead of picking up in the middle of a sentence or even word when your audiobook playback gets interrupted (maybe by Google Maps giving you directions or a friendly passerby who is asking for directions while you are clearly listening to an audiobook). Depending on the length of the interruption, this new feature will smartly rewind to the beginning of the word or sentence to help you stay in the flow.

Also new in this update are the ability to set bookmarks so you can easily go back to your favorite part of a book and the ability to speed up the audio — or slow it down so you can really savor your favorite passage in Ulysses. Both of these features were definitely missing in the first release.

If you’re a regular Google Assistant user and are already making use of the recently launched Routines feature, you’ll be happy to hear that you can now choose to continue your audiobooks when you wake up or start your commute.

And if you have family that’s spread around the world, you’ll be happy to hear that support for Google’s Family Library, which allows you to share Google Play purchases like apps, games, movies, e-books and audiobooks, is now rolling out in 13 new countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Chile, Mexico, Japan (audiobooks only) and South Africa.

All of these new features are now available on iOS and Android.

 

Anguished relatives of at least 68 people killed in a riot and fire in the cells of a police station jail in the Venezuelan city of Valencia have gathered outside to demand explanations. 

A fire reportedly broke out at the detention centre after inmate began setting mattresses alight in an attempted jailbreak early on Wednesday morning, local news media reported.

Many reportedly died due to asphyxia and burns.

The public prosecutor put the number of people who died at 68, including two women who were visiting the police station in Valencia, a town in Carabobo state located 160km west of the capital, Caracas.

After the fire, many relatives positioned themselves outside the facility. The situation reportedly turned violent, and police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. 

“I don’t know if my son is dead or alive,” said Aida Parra, a mother of an inmate. 

“They won’t give me any time updates or information.”

Poor conditions

At least 33,000 inmates in Venezuela are held in temporary police cells for lack of space in prisons in appalling conditions, said Al Jazeera’s Alessandro Rampietti, reporting from neighbouring Colombia.

He added that human rights advocates have long denounced the deteriorating conditions inmates face in Venezuelan prisons. 

“Half of the prisons approximately are actually in the hands of the inmates,” said Phil Gunson, senior analyst at International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera

“They’re run by prison gangs, and it’s the prison bosses who actually determine whether people can be transferred there or not,” he added.

“And as you imagine, with something like 300 percent overcrowding in police cells, people sleeping standing up in some cases, lack of food, medical attention, heat – people are truly desperate.”

The government of Carabobo said it had designated four prosecutors to begin reviewing exactly what happened – three at a regional level and one at state level.

Jesus Santander, secretary-general of Carabobo, confirmed that a police officer was shot following the fire.

Speaking on behalf of the local government, Santander also wished to “extend our solidarity to all of the families”.

A press statement released by the Carabobo government said that a “multidisciplinary team” has been dispensed to support family members “with the funeral services and the burial of the deceased inmates”.

Meltdown CPU vulnerability was bad, and Microsoft somehow made the flaw even worse on its Windows 7, allowing any unprivileged, user-level application to read content from and even write data to the operating system’s kernel memory.

For those unaware, Spectre and Meltdown were security flaws disclosed by researchers earlier this year in processors from Intel, ARM, and AMD, leaving nearly every PC, server, and mobile phone on the planet vulnerable to data theft.

Shortly after the researchers disclosed the Spectre and Meltdown exploits, software vendors, including Microsoft, started releasing patches for their systems running a vulnerable version of processors.

However, an independent Swedish security researcher Ulf Frisk found that Microsoft’s security fixes to Windows 7 PCs for the Meltdown flaw—which could allow attackers to read kernel memory at a speed of 120 KBps—is now allowing attackers to read the same kernel memory at a speed of Gbps, making the issue even worse on Windows 7 PCs and Server 2008 R2 boxes.

Frisk is the same researcher who previously discovered a way to steal the password from virtually any Mac laptop in just 30 sec by exploiting flaws in Apple’s FileVault disk encryption system, allowing attackers to unlock any Mac system and even decrypt files on its hard drive.

The discovery is the latest issue surrounding Meltdown and Spectre patches that were sometimes found incomplete and sometimes broken, making problems such as spontaneous reboots and other ‘unpredictable’ system behavior on affected PCs.

According to Frisk, the problem with MS’ early Meltdown fixes occurs due to a single bit (that controls the permission to access kernel memory) accidentally being flipped from supervisor-only to any-user in a virtual-to-physical-memory translator called PLM4, allowing any user-mode application to access the kernel page tables.

The PML4 is the base of the 4-level in-memory page table hierarchy that Intel’s CPU Memory Management Unit (MMU) uses to translate the virtual memory addresses of a process into physical memory addresses in RAM.

The correctly set bit normally ensures the kernel has exclusive access to these tables.

“The User/Supervisor permission bit was set to User in the PML4 self-referencing entry. This made the page tables available to user mode code in every process. The page tables should normally only be accessible by the kernel itself,” Frisk explains in his blog post.

To prove his claim, Frisk also provided a detailed breakdown and a proof-of-concept exploit. The issue only affects 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, and not Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 PCs, as they still require attackers to have physical access to a targeted system.

Buggy Patch Allows to Read Gigabytes of Data In a Second

Also since the PML4 page table has been located at a fixed memory address in Windows 7, “no fancy exploits” are needed to exploit the Meltdown vulnerability.

“Windows 7 already did the hard work of mapping in the required memory into every running process,” Frisk said. “Exploitation was just a matter of read and write to already mapped in-process virtual memory. No fancy APIs or syscalls required – just standard read and write!”

Once read/write access has been gained to the page tables, it would be “trivially easy” to gain access to the entire physical memory, “unless it is additionally protected by Extended Page Tables (EPTs) used for Virtualization,” Frisk said.

All attackers have to do is to write their own Page Table Entries (PTEs) into the page tables in order to access arbitrary physical memory.

Frisk said he has not been able to link the new vulnerability to anything on the public list of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures. He also invited researchers to test the flaw using an exploit kit he released on GitHub.

The issue with the Microsoft’s Meltdown patch has been fixed by the company in its March Patch Tuesday, so all admins and users of Windows 7 and Windows 2008R2 are strongly recommended to update their systems as soon as possible.

Alongside iOS 11.3, watchOS 4.3, and tvOS 11.3, Apple today released a new 11.3 software update designed for the HomePod.

This marks the first software update that’s been released for the HomePod since it became available for purchase in February.

The new HomePod software will be installed automatically on the HomePod after you update to iOS 11.3, but you can also manually update and check your software version by following the instructions in our HomePod software how to.

It’s not clear what new features are included in the HomePod software just yet, but we are waiting on both AirPlay 2 and a feature to allow two HomePods to be paired together for stereo sound. Apple’s release notes don’t divulge any details about what might be included, suggesting these features have not been implemented.

According to the release notes, the update “includes general improvements for stability and quality.”

Since ARKit debuted within iOS 11 on September 19 last year, iPhone and iPad owners worldwide have downloaded and installed more than 13 million ARKit-only apps. The data comes from Sensor Tower, which broke down the most popular categories of augmented reality apps fueled by ARKit, the top 10 free and paid apps, highest grossing apps, and more.

Games remain the dominant category for ARKit-only apps — or those apps built “expressly using” Apple’s framework — having grown from representing 35 percent of downloads one month after iOS 11’s launch, to 47 percent today. The second place category, Utilities, decreased from 19 percent last October to 15 percent in March. Rounding out the top six were Entertainment, Lifestyle, Photo & Video, and Education.

Charts via Sensor Tower

Sensor Tower pointed out that for the games-specific charts, the top spots of all three sections (free, paid, grossing) were “still occupied by many of the same titles that found success several months ago,” suggesting not much variation in ARKit-only gaming on the App Store. On the other hand, when the researchers looked at non-game apps they saw multiple newcomers rising on the charts, like LEGO AR Studio — “a testament to the popularity of kid-focused AR content on the App Store thus far.”

From what we’ve seen in our latest analysis, ARKit-only apps only continue to grow in terms of installs and the number of experiences available to users. This isn’t including the numerous ARKit-compatible apps that have added some degree of AR functionality in the past six months and have pushed the number of AR apps on the App Store well beyond 2,000 to date.

There’s clearly substantial room for growth in terms of user base and revenue, but also ambition when it comes to this burgeoning category, and the apps above have built a solid foundation for what’s to come, especially as the capabilities of ARKit evolve and expand with future versions of iOS.

Popular free game “AR Dragon” retained the top spot as the most-downloaded free ARKit-only app and game during the framework’s first six months of availability. Other augmented reality apps that remain popular on the App Store include IKEA Place (#2 free apps), AR MeasureKit (#5 free apps/#5 top grossing), and CamToPlan Pro (#1 paid apps). For both paid and grossing categories, ARKit app downloads are leaning “predominantly” to the Utilities category.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has described augmented reality as “profound” in the past, claiming that Apple is in a “unique position” to lead when it comes to the technology. He thinks that AR will become “as key as having a website” for brands, and sees ARKit as the start of something much bigger: “This is very much like in 2008 when we fired the gun in the App Store. That’s what it feels like to me and I think it will just get bigger from here.”

A severe programming bug has been found in APFS file system for macOS High Sierra operating system that exposes passwords of encrypted external drives in plain text.

Introduced two years ago, APFS (Apple File System) is an optimized file system for flash and SSD-based storage solutions running MacOS, iOS, tvOS or WatchOS, and promises strong encryption and better performance.

Discovered by forensic analyst Sarah Edwards, the bug leaves encryption password for a newly created APFS volume (e.g., encrypting USB drive using Disk Utility) in the unified logs in plaintext, as well as while encrypting previously created but unencrypted volumes.

“Why is this a big deal? Well, passwords stored in plaintext can be discovered by anyone with unauthorized access to your machine, and malware can collect log files as well and send them off to someone with malicious intent,” Edwards said.

The password for an encrypted APFS volume can easily be retrieved by running following simple ‘newfs_apfs’ command in the terminal:

log stream –info –predicate ‘eventMessage contains “newfs_”‘

However, this bug is not as stupid as the previously disclosed root password bug wherein the password hint section was exposing the actual password in the plain text.

Though the exact reason of the programming error is not clear, the researcher believes “it was likely a result of other APFS encryption related bugs (or at least somehow related to it), so perhaps Apple felt it didn’t need to provide the additional details.”

It should be noted that you would not find the password in the plaintext when converting a non-APFS drive to APFS and then encrypting the drive.

Edwards tested and found the bug affects only macOS 10.13 and 10.13.1, while later versions of macOS High Sierra (including the latest one) have somehow reportedly fixed this loophole.

For more technical details of this bug, you can head on to the original blog post by Edwards.

This issue is the third APFS bug in past six months affecting Apple’s latest macOS High Sierra version.

The operating system has seen a number of security issues since its release—from giving away root access to anyone without a password to revealing passwords in plaintext from the password hint feature.