In a letter last Tuesday to Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Apple said it is working on an online portal for law enforcement officials to submit and track requests for data and obtain responses from the company. Apple also said it's "creating a dedicated team to help train law enforcement officials around the world in digital forensics," reports CNET. From the report: The letter, seen by CNET, addresses recommendations made in a report issued earlier this year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) regarding cybersecurity and the "digital evidence needs" of law enforcement agencies. Apple said in the letter that it's eager to adopt the report's recommendations, including making upgrades to its law enforcement training program. This includes developing an online training module for police that mirrors Apple's current in-person training, according to the letter and to details on the company's website.

"This will assist Apple in training a larger number of law enforcement agencies and officers globally, and ensure that our company's information and guidance can be updated to reflect the rapidly changing data landscape," the site says. Apple also reiterated in the letter that it's "committed to protecting the security and privacy of our users" and that company initiatives and "the work we do to assist investigations uphold this fundamental commitment."

hackingbear writes: President Trump acknowledged in a tweet that "Apple prices may increase because of the massive Tariffs we may be imposing on China," but suggested the issue was not with the tariffs themselves. "There is an easy solution where there would be ZERO tax, and indeed a tax incentive. Make your products in the United States instead of China. Start building new plants now," Trump wrote. The U.S. is threatening to impose 25% tariffs on all $500 billion worth of Chinese imports over issues such as intellectual property theft.

While Apple et al are still making their products in China, Trump didn't offer Apple a place to find the millions of laborers needed to make their products, given that the official unemployment rate is at a historic low of 3.9%. Manufacturers also need to compete in the labor market with garbage companies who need to find American laborers willing to recycle their own trash -- a job once imposed upon China as a condition to enter the World Trade Organization and enjoy advantageous tariff rates. China is gracefully giving back those jobs as the U.S. is complaining of unfair trades.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Apple, the world's most valuable company, said proposed U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of products imported from China will raise prices for some of its popular consumer goods such as the Apple Watch and AirPods headphones. The Mac mini desktop computer, Apple Pencil stylus accessory for iPads, various chargers and adapters and tooling equipment used to manufacturer and design some products in the U.S. will also be affected, the Cupertino, California-based company told the Office of U.S. Trade Representative in a letter dated Sept 5.

The company said the tariffs would "show up as a tax on U.S. consumers" and "increase the cost of Apple products that our customers have come to rely on in their daily lives." Beyond the core products, Apple said accessories like the HomePod speaker, some Beats speakers, AirPort and Time Capsule internet routers, the Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad, and leather cases for the iPhone, iPad, MacBook and Apple Pencil would be affected. It said some of the parts it relies on for product development, including processors and research equipment, would also be hit by the tariffs. On Friday, President Trump said he's prepared to impose tariffs on an additional $267 billion in Chinese imports, which would affect almost every category of consumer goods, according to analysts. He cites unfair trade practices as a reason for the tariffs.

An anonymous reader shares a report: When a group of security researchers reported a popular but allegedly dangerous Mac App Store utility to Apple, noting that it secretly sends "highly sensitive user information" to an "unscrupulous" developer, Apple's response for a full month was surprising: "crickets." But after a cluster of bad press today, Apple finally pulled Yongming Zhang's app Adware Doctor: Anti Malware &Ad from the store.

Three researchers, including former NSA staffer Patrick Wardle, Thomas Reed of Malwarebytes, and "privacy fighter" @privacyis1st, said in a blog post today that they reported Adware Doctor last month for sending a user's Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and App Store browsing histories alongside lists of the Mac's apps and running processes to a server in China. Despite receiving confirmation that Apple received the report, the $5 app remained in the App Store -- where it was ranked the number one paid app across all Mac utilities.

The Information (paywalled) reports: In 2012, Mr. Cue took on even more responsibility when Mr. Cook fired Scott Forstall, then a senior vice president of the iOS software powering iPhones. Mr. Forstall had overseen the launch of Apple Maps, which was panned due to misplaced landmarks, distorted satellite images and other problems. With Mr. Forstall gone, Mr. Cue took over Apple Maps and Siri, the intelligent assistant that launched as a major feature of the iPhone 4S the prior year. From the moment he gained responsibility for Siri, Mr. Cue seemed to lack much interest in it, according to people who worked on the project. When Siri team members presented Mr. Cue with technical data around the performance of the assistant -- an area of frequent criticism of the technology -- Mr. Cue appeared bored and seemed to fall asleep in at least two meetings, said a former Apple employee who was present.

[...] One obstacle for Mr. Cue, in his meetings with television executives, was that he didn't encounter the kind of desperation that made it possible for Apple to sign all the major record labels, then being ravaged by piracy, to iTunes. Cord-cutting -- people dumping their cable and satellite subscriptions -- had not yet emerged as a problem. "Apple kept wanting to use the same playbook, and it's not going to work in the video world," said a former Apple executive who worked on video. Around four years ago, Mr. Cue oversaw development of a version of Apple TV that could integrate with cable services, with the goal of replacing set-top boxes distributed by the likes of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, said a former Apple employee. The Apple TV box -- with a coaxial cable port for plugging into cable networks and software to handle the combination of live and on-demand video -- never launched due to disagreements with the potential cable partners. Apple engineers involved in the product were dispirited, said a former employee. A non-paywalled source.

According to research firm IDC, Apple sold 4.7 million Apple Watch units last quarter, capturing 17 percent of the global market. The only other company close on Apple's heels is Xiaomi, which "trailed Apple by two percentage points in market share and 500,000 unit shipments in the second quarter of the year," reports The Verge. From the report: Fitbit, Huawei, and Garmin are far behind, with IDC reporting that higher demand for more fully featured smartwatches is driving demand for Apple products and reducing the popularity of lower-cost fitness trackers. IDC stresses that this is a natural cycle for consumer electronics and that fitness-focused devices will still have a place in the market going forward. IDC says demand for its LTE-equipped Series 3 device largely drove Apple's wearable sales last quarter, and the device received a number of discounts at big-box retail stores that may have led to a surge in consumer purchases. Refurbished versions of the Apple Watch Series 3 also went up for sale on Apple's retail site starting in February.

Black Pixel, which acquired popular Mac RSS reader app NetNewsWire in 2011, announced this week that the brand name is returning to the founder Brent Simmons. From the announcement: Since acquiring NetNewsWire from Newsgator in 2011, we've invested a great deal in the continued development and support of the product suite including the addition of a free sync service. Unfortunately, the ongoing cost of support and feature development for these products require more dedicated resources than we are able to provide. With that in mind, today we are removing all versions of the app from sale. We'll continue to run the sync service for another 60 days, then take it offline at the end of October. Brent Simmons, who founded the app, shared what he plans to do with the brand name: [...] I want to thank them [Black Pixel] for a second thing: their incredible generosity in bringing it back to me. When I asked them about it, they told me they'd already been discussing it. There was never a need to convince them: they thought it was the right thing to do before I even said a word.

[...] You probably know that I've been working on a free and open source reader named Evergreen. Evergreen 1.0 will be renamed NetNewsWire 5.0 -- in other words, I've been working on NetNewsWire 5.0 all this time without knowing it! It will remain free and open source, and it will remain my side project. (By day I'm a Marketing Human at The Omni Group, and I love my job.) Black Pixel will stop selling their versions of the app, and will turn off the syncing system and end customer support -- all of which is detailed in their announcement. (Important note: I will not get any customer data from them, nor will I be doing support for Black Pixel's NetNewsWire.)

I want one thing: to make the very best versions of NetNewsWire ever made. And, along the way, I'd love to have your help. Nothing to Download Yet I don't actually have an app bearing the name NetNewsWire ready to download yet. I will have test versions ready soon, though. It's still going to be a while before the final version of 5.0 ships. The Mac community has been thrilled about the announcement. Daniel Jalkut, founder of blogging tool MarsEdit, said, "I appreciate Black Pixel's decision to return NetNewsWire to Brent Simmons. It was the right move strategically, but also very humanistic." Federico Viticci, a prolific blogger on Apple ecosystem, said, "Congrats Brent Simmons on bringing NetNewsWire home. The Mac can use a modern RSS reader that can stand the test of time." John Gruber, a columnist on Apple ecosystem, said, "Black Pixel did a great job taking over NetNewsWire, but times change, and companies change. Handing the NetNewsWire name back to Brent was a classy move, but completely unsurprising to me, knowing George and the other folks at Black Pixel."

Apple's self-driving car program has reported its first-ever accident, according to a filing to the state's DMV. No injuries were reported. AppleInsider reports: A test car was rear-ended by a Nissan Leaf while merging onto an expressway, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said on Twitter. The Apple vehicle suffered "moderate" damage. Details are still forthcoming, so it's unclear if the fault was with the Nissan driver, Apple's hardware and software, or some combination of the two. In an update, AppleInsider provided the following information: "The Apple vehicle, a Lexus SUV, was merging onto the Lawrence Expressway in California's Bay Area on Aug. 24, Gurman later wrote, citing a filing by Apple's Steve Kenner with the Department of Motor Vehicles. The Leaf was moving at just 15 miles per hour, but was also damaged."

Moments after Apple sent out invitations to its latest media event on September 12, 9to5Mac published a first look at Apple's 2018 iPhones and new Apple Watch Series 4. Apple is expected to unveil new 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch iPhones that will both be called iPhone XS. From the report: We also believe iPhone XS will come in a new gold color option not previously offered on the new design. Apple leaked its own gold version of the iPhone X through the FCC, but it has not been available to purchase. Other details are still to be determined, but we can report with certainty that iPhone XS will be the name, the OLED model will come in two sizes including a larger version, and each will be offered in gold for the first time. As for the Apple Watch, the biggest change is the all-new edge-to-edge display. From the report: Apple has been rumored to be working on ~15% bigger displays for both sizes of Apple Watch -- that rumor has been confirmed in the images we've discovered. As expected, Apple has achieved this by dramatically reducing the bezel size around the watch display. In addition to taking the display edge-to-edge, we're also looking at a brand new watch face capable of showing way more information than the current faces offered. The analog watch face shows a total of eight complications around the time and within the clock hands. Also seen in the image is a new hole between the side button and Digital Crown, likely an additional microphone, and compatibility with what appears to be current watch bands. Both the Digital Crown and side button appear modified from the current Apple Watch models as well.

Apple has officially sent out invitations to its latest media event, 'Gather round,' which will be held on September 12, 2018 -- a year to the day after the iPhone 8 and iPhone X were officially revealed. From a report: Following recent tradition, the event will start at 10:00 a.m. Pacific, and will be held in the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. The invite's theme is a pun on the circular shape of the Apple Park building, depicted with a golden tone. In addition to featuring finished versions of iOS 12 and watchOS 5, the event is expected to include the launch of three new iPhones -- possibly named the iPhone Xs (5.8-inch/6.5-inch) and iPhone Xc, reportedly including new gold-toned options -- as well as the new Apple Watch Series 4 with larger screens. A small software update to the Apple TV, tvOS 12, is also likely to arrive at the September event, as are Apple's long-awaited AirPower wireless charging pad and a wireless charging case for AirPods earphones.

At the recently concluded State of the Map conference in Milan, teams from Microsoft, Apple and Facebook presented their projects, describing how they are working with communities. From a report: The Microsoft Open Maps team has recently released open data on building footprints in the US. Microsoft was among the first to release satellite imagery for use by OpenStreetMap and the images are now integrated into the default editor. It also has a community of mappers directly contributing to OpenStreetMap in Australia. Apple has an internal volunteer programme that has around 5,000 staff contributing to Missing Maps, they've released building data for France and Denmark, and are engaged with data improvement projects around the world. Facebook is exploring how artificial intelligence-assisted tracing can help to improve the quality of OpenStreetMap data in Thailand.

DigitalGlobe has made its satellite imagery available under a licence that will allow it to be used by the OpenStreetMap community to improve their mapping efforts. Telenav launched OpenStreetCam to help collect openly-licensed street imagery and has now released open data and code to explore how machine learning can enable the images to be used to improve OpenStreetMap with stop signs and turn directions.

Next month, Apple plans to introduce three new phones in September -- an updated iPhone X, a bigger phone and a successor to the iPhone 8 with the iPhone X design, Bloomberg reports. The updated iPhone X could be considered as an "S upgrade" with a better system-on-a-chip and better cameras. The phone itself could look exactly the same as the iPhone X you can buy today. From the report: There'll be a new high-end iPhone, internally dubbed D33, with a display that measures about 6.5-inch diagonally, according to the people familiar with the matter. That would make it the largest iPhone by far and one of the biggest mainstream phones on the market. It will continue to have a glass back with stainless steel edges and dual cameras on the back. The big difference on the software side will be the ability to view content side-by-side in apps like Mail and Calendar. It will be Apple's second phone with a crisper organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, screen.

[...] Apple also plans an upgrade to the current iPhone X with a 5.8-inch OLED screen, which is internally dubbed D32, the people said. The main changes to the new OLED iPhones will be to processing speed and the camera, according to the people familiar with the devices. [...] Perhaps the most significant phone will be a new, cheaper device destined to replace the iPhone 8. Codenamed N84, it will look like the iPhone X, but include a larger near 6.1-inch screen, come in multiple colors, and sport aluminum edges instead of the iPhone X's stainless steel casing. It will also have a cheaper LCD screen instead of an OLED panel to keep costs down. The cheaper version's aluminum edges won't necessarily be the same color as the colored glass back, simplifying production, one person familiar with the matter said.

A North Korea-linked hacking group, dubbed Lazarus, deployed malware for macOS in an effort to infiltrate cryptocurrency exchanges. "In one of the attacks, which Kaspersky refers to as Operation AppleJeus, the group tricked an unsuspecting employee to download a trojanized cryptocurrency trading application that covertly downloaded and installed the Fallchill malware," reports SecurityWeek. Their malware was designed to target macOS in addition to Windows, marking the first time Lazarus has been observed using malware for Apple's OS, according to Kaspersky. The malware was reportedly pushed via an update. Slashdot reader asjk writes: The legitimate-looking application is called Celas Trade Pro and comes from Celas Limited. It's an all-in-one style cryptocurrency trading program which installs malicious code via an update. "... [the program] was seen running the Updater.exe module, which would collect system information and send it back to the server in the form of a GIF image," reports SecurityWeek. "Based on the server's response, the updater either keeps quiet or extracts a payload with base64 and decrypts it using RC4 with another hardcoded key to retrieve an executable file."

Slack developer Felix Rieseberg has made Windows 95 into an electron app that you can run on macOS, Windows, and Linux. The source code and app installers are available on GitHub. According to The Verge, "apps like Wordpad, phone dialer, MS Paint, and Minesweeper all run like you'd expect," but "Internet Explorer isn't fully functional as it simply refused to load pages." From the report: The app is only 129MB in size and you can download it over at Github for both macOS and Windows. Once it's running it surprisingly only takes up around 200MB of RAM, even when running all of the old Windows 95 system utilities, apps, and games. If you run into any issues with the app you can always reset the Windows 95 instance inside the app and start over again. Enjoy this quirky trip down memory lane.

According to CNBC, citing current and former Tesla employees and LinkedIn, Apple has hired scores of employees from Tesla since late 2017, including manufacturing, security and software engineers, as well as supply chain experts. The report mentions that they're hiring Tesla employees not just for the company's Project Titan self-driving car project, but for its other products too. From the report: In 2018 so far, LinkedIn data shows Apple has hired at least 46 people who worked at Tesla directly before joining the consumer electronics juggernaut. Eight of these were engineering interns. This year Apple has also hired former Tesla Autopilot, QA, Powertrain, mechanical design and firmware engineers, and several global supply chain managers. Some employees joined directly from Tesla, while others had been dismissed or laid off before joining Apple. Some ex-Tesla employees who joined Apple this year have not yet updated their public social media profiles with their new career info. That includes Apple's most noteworthy hire, Doug Field, Tesla's former Senior Vice President of Engineering. Tesla disputes CNBC's report, saying that voluntary attrition has decreased by one-third over the last twelve months, and that it has recently added talent from Apple and other companies. Regarding competition with Apple for talent, a Tesla spokesperson said, "We wish them well. Tesla is the hard path. We have 100 times less money than Apple, so of course they can afford to pay more. We are in extremely difficult battles against entrenched auto companies that make 100 times more cars than we did last year, so of course this is very hard work."

Netflix is testing a way for users to register and pay for the streaming service while bypassing Apple's app store and hefty commission fees. MarketWatch reports: Netflix is looking into a new sign-up approach where users in some countries are no longer able to register for streaming service. They are being redirected to the mobile web version of the app and asked to enter payment details with Netflix directly. The test is running in 33 countries, not including the U.S., through the month of September, according to TechCrunch. This comes just months after Netflix in May made billing through Google Pay unavailable to new customers, though current subscribers that pay via Google Play can continue to do so until they cancel their accounts.

Apple has removed Facebook's Onavo security app from the App Store because it violated the company's privacy rules. In a statement to CNBC, an Apple spokesperson said: "We work hard to protect user privacy and data security throughout the Apple ecosystem. With the latest update to our guidelines, we made it explicitly clear that apps should not collect information about which other apps are installed on a user's device for the purposes of analytics or advertising/marketing and must make it clear what user data will be collected and how it will be used." From the report: According to a Wall Street Journal story on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter, Apple officials told Facebook last week that Onavo violated the company's rules on data collection by developers, and suggested last Thursday that Facebook voluntarily remove the app. Facebook acquired Israel-based Onavo in 2013, snapping up the free security app that lets users access a virtual private network, or VPN, to browse the web and download apps with a greater degree of privacy. Facebook in the past has offered that service to users without clearly disclosing that its owns the app, and has collected data about what other types of apps those customers use. In June, Facebook told Congress that it does not use Onavo data "for Facebook product uses" or to collect information about individuals, but it has admitted to using Onavo to gather broad information about which apps are popular and how people are using them, which it uses to improve its own products.

A backlash against the app stores of Apple and Google is gaining steam, with a growing number of companies saying the tech giants are collecting too high a tax for connecting consumers to developers' wares. From a report: Netflix and video game makers Epic Games and Valve are among companies that have recently tried to bypass the app stores or complained about the cost of the tolls Apple and Google charge. Grumbling about app store economics isn't new. But the number of complaints, combined with new ways of reaching users, regulatory scrutiny and competitive pressure are threatening to undermine what have become digital goldmines for Apple and Google. "It feels like something bubbling up here," said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie. "The dollars are just getting so big. They just don't want to be paying Apple and Google billions." Apple and Google launched their app stores in 2008, and they soon grew into powerful marketplaces that matched the creations of millions of independent developers with billions of smartphone users. In exchange, the companies take up to 30 percent of the money consumers pay developers.

Google is planning to open a 14,000 square-foot retail store in Chicago's Fulton Market district, according to local media reports from Crain's Chicago Business and Chicago Tribune. While Google has opened pop-up stores in the past, this would be its first permanent location. Ad Age reports: In 2015, Google abandoned plans to open a store in New York City, after spending $6 million renovating the 131 Greene St. location, Crain's New York Business reported at the time. The Chicago store would give Google a bricks-and-mortar location to show off its expanding line of products, including Pixel phones, Daydream VR headsets, Nest products and more. The location Google is eyeing in Chicago is just a few blocks from Google's Midwest headquarters. The Fulton Market neighborhood, part of Chicago's West Loop, is formerly a meatpacking district. It has been transformed in recent years and is now home to some of Chicago's hottest restaurants. The report notes that there's still a future in brick-and-mortar locations, citing Amazon's interest in Whole Foods and the fact that retail stores have been a key part of Apple's strategy. Microsoft operates stores in 35 states.

Apple has pulled more than 25,000 illegal apps from its App Store in China after coming under fire from state media for not doing enough to filter out banned material. From a report: "Gambling apps are illegal and not allowed on the App Store in China," Apple said in a statement Monday. "We have already removed many apps and developers for trying to distribute illegal gambling apps on our App Store, and we are vigilant in our efforts to find these and stop them from being on the App Store." The removals were reported earlier by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday, which said 25,000 apps were pulled. Apple didn't confirm that number. It offers more than 1.8 million apps in China, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Removing 25,000 apps would amount to about 1.4% of that total.