Yesterday evening Apple released OS X 10.9.5 to the general public, the fifth major update for OS X Mavericks. As usual, the update comes with a handful of fixes for user-facing features as well as a small pile of security updates. Many of these security patches are also available for OS X 10.7.5 and 10.8.5 in separate updates.

Like OS X 10.9.4, the update focuses on smaller problems that affect a subset of Macs. The new features include Safari 7.0.6, improved "reliability for VPN connections that use USB smart cards for authentication," and better reliability for connecting to file servers that use the SMB protocol. For businesses using OS X, the update fixes a problem that could keep system admins from "performing some administrative tasks successfully" on larger groups of Macs, and it also speeds up authentication "when roaming on 802.1x networks which use EAP-TLS."

Among the security updates are fixes for Bluetooth, CoreGraphics generally and the Intel graphics driver specifically, and OS X's version of OpenSSL among many others. The latter problems were fixed by updating from OpenSSL version 0.9.8y to 0.9.8za.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

A little over four years ago, before I joined Ars Technica (and while I was working as a freelance writer), I started a Google Group called "Game Journalism Professionals." As I stated in an introductory post at the time, the group was intended as "a semi-private way to connect and talk" with colleagues based well outside my home base of Pittsburgh and whom I saw in person only a few times a year.

Yesterday, that group came under fire for being a secret clearinghouse where "elite" journalists discuss how best to collude on covering the video game industry to "shape industry-wide attitudes to events." In reality, the group was and is simply a place for business competitors (and journalists are definitely competitive!) to discuss issues of common professional interest.

Unfortunately, in the wake of initial attacks on game developer Zoe Quinn, I wrote one message to the group in which I said several things that I soon came to regret. In private conversation, we've all had the experience of throwing out ideas, only to realize after further thought that they weren't appropriate or productive—and life moves on. The bad ideas are forgotten. Thanks to the Internet, though, such conversations can now be archived and then dredged up for display to the public weeks or months later.

Read 14 remaining paragraphs | Comments

iCloud Drive is now available on Windows, but not OS X. Andrew Cunningham

Apple officially released iCloud Drive yesterday as part of the iOS 8 update, but it came with a caveat: turning it on disables the "old" way of iCloud syncing, but OS X doesn't yet support iCloud Drive and won't until OS X Yosemite is released later this fall. If you use iCloud to sync application data between your phone, tablet, and desktop, this means you'll need to keep living with the more limited version of iCloud until Yosemite is out (or roll the dice and give the Public Beta a try).

If you're a Windows user with an iPhone, though, you can go ahead and pull the trigger on that iCloud Drive update now. Apple today released an updated version of the iCloud for Windows application that adds full support for iCloud Drive. Install the program and sign in, and iCloud Drive will appear in your user profile folder and your Favorites menu in Windows Explorer, much like Microsoft's own OneDrive cloud storage service. This is the first opportunity that Windows users will have to view and directly manipulate iCloud data, not counting the more limited capabilities of the iCloud.com Web apps, and it's a nice new addition for people who like iOS but don't care to use Macs.

Otherwise, iCloud for Windows continues to be more limited than iCloud on either iOS or OS X. It can sync with your Photo Stream and sync Safari bookmarks with either Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome, and if you have Outlook 2007 or later installed it will also offer to sync your iCloud mail, calendars, contacts, and reminders. However, it can't use iCloud Keychain to sync passwords, nor does it provide any kind of "Find My Device" functionality as it does in both iOS and OS X. You can't sync Notes data directly either, though that feature is accessible via iCloud.com.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Left: The Note 3, Right: The Note 4. Ron Amadeo

Phablets are all the rage these days, and the originator of this market segment, the Galaxy Note Series, has a fresh update coming out soon. If you're interested in picking up the Galaxy Note 4, Samsung and friends will be happy to officially take your money starting tomorrow. Pre-orders for the Galaxy Note 4 start September 19, and delivery will come about a month after when the Note 4 releases on October 17.

If you need a quick refresher on the specs, the Note 4 is packing a 5.7-inch, 2560×1440 AMOLED display, 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a 16MP camera, and a 3220 mAh battery.

The Note 4 will be available just about everywhere in the US. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and US Cellular have all signed up to sell it, and you can find it in Best Buy, Amazon, Costco, RadioShack, Sam’s Club, Target, and Walmart. Samsung says pricing and availability will vary by store, but it can't vary that much.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Johan’s awesome overview of the Haswell-EP ecosystem showed that the server processor line from Intel is firmly in the track for DDR4 memory along with the associated benefits of lower power consumption, higher absolute frequencies and higher capacity modules. At that point, we all assumed that all Haswell-EP Xeons using the LGA2011-3 socket were DDR4 only, requiring each new CPU to be used with the newer generation modules. However thanks to ASRock’s server team, ASRock Rack, it would seem that there will be some Xeons for sale from Intel with both DDR3 and DDR4 support.

Caught by Patrick at ServeTheHome, ASRock Rack had released their motherboard line without much of a fuss. There is nothing strange about that in itself; however the following four models were the subject of interest:

A quick email to our contacts at ASRock provided the solution: Intel is going to launch several SKUs with a dual DDR3/DDR4 controller. These processors are available in eight, ten and twelve core flavors, ranging from 85W to 120W:

QVL CPUs for ASRock Rack EPC612D8T   E5-2629 v3 E5-2649 v3 E5-2669 v3 Cores / Threads 8 / 16 10 / 20 12 / 24 Base Frequency (GHz) 2.4 2.3 2.3 L3 Cache (MB) 20 25 30 TDP (W) 85 105 120

At the current time there is no release date or pricing for these DDR3 Haswell-EP processors, however it would seem that ASRock Rack is shipping these motherboards to distributors already, meaning that Intel cannot be far behind. It does offer a server team the ability to reuse the expensive DDR3 memory they already have, especially given the DDR4 premium, although the processor counts are limited.

CPU-World suggested that these processors have dual memory controllers, and we recieved confirmation that this is true. This could suggest that all Xeons have dual memory controllers but with DDR3 disabled. Note that these motherboards would reject a DDR4-only CPU as a result of their layout. It does potentially pave the way for combination DDR3/DDR4 based LGA2011-3 motherboards in the future. We have also been told that the minimum order quantity for these CPUs might be higher than average, and thus server admins will have to contact their Intel distribution network for exact numbers. This might put a halt on smaller configurations keeping their DDR3.

Source: ServeTheHome, ASRock Rack

Additional (9/25): We have been asked to make clear that these CPUs will not be on general sale for end-users. Only those companies with large minimum-order-quantities will be able to obtain the CPUs, and as a result these motherboards might find their way into complete servers only, rather than be up for sale individually. These are off-roadmap processors, not intended for general release.

Tim Cook unveils iOS 8 at WWDC 2014. Megan Geuss

Apple has updated its privacy policy as part of the rollout of iOS 8, announcing that devices with the latest version of the operating system installed can no longer be accessed by the company itself.

Previously, as we reported in May 2014, if law enforcement came to Apple with a seized device and a valid warrant, it was able to access a substantial portion of the data already on an iPad or iPhone. But under the latest version of iOS, even that will be impossible.

"On devices running iOS 8, your personal data such as photos, messages (including attachments), email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, notes, and reminders is placed under the protection of your passcode," the company wrote on its website Wednesday evening. "Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data. So it's not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8."

Read 20 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Andrew Cunningham

The old Apple TV setup screen. Note the glassy button and its blue glow.

27 more images in gallery

.related-stories { display: none !important; }

CN.dart.call("xrailTop", {sz:"300x250", kws:["top"], collapse: true});The Apple TV's interface is only vaguely similar to the one on your iPhone or iPad, but inside the set-top box is the same hardware and software that runs the rest of the iDevices. Alongside iOS 8, Apple today introduced "Apple TV Software version 7.0," a fancy name for "the Apple TV's version of iOS 8."

The Apple TV's software was never as skeuomorphic and texture-soaked as iOS 6 was on the iPhone and iPad, but the old interface still used thicker fonts and glassy buttons. The new update tweaks the design to bring it in line with iOS 7, iOS 8, and the upcoming OS X Yosemite. Helvetica Neue Light is everywhere, and glassy buttons and faint blue glows are replaced by flat black-and-white buttons.

The new design is what you'll notice first, but the Apple TV picks up a few other iOS 8-related features, too. The box supports Family Sharing, the feature that lets family members with different Apple IDs share purchases with one another. There's a new Beats Music channel, which ties in to the streaming service Apple picked up when it bought Beats earlier this year. And AirPlay now works with other iDevices, even if they're not on the same Wi-Fi network—now, devices can form an ad-hoc wireless network and stream that way. We recommend using the Apple TV's built-in security features to keep strange iPhones from finding and streaming to your Apple TV without your consent.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Microsoft has unveiled a revamp of its developer program today, ending the annual fees to have apps published in the Windows and Windows Phone stores, in favor of a single up-front payment. Individuals can pay about $19 and companies about $99 to gain perpetual access to both storefronts.

The company is also promoting a new reward scheme for developers. Registered devs are divided into three categories, Explorer, Expert, and Master. The Explorer category, open to all, offers design and architecture guidance for developers. Developers can upgrade to the other categories by having successful apps; the more downloads and revenue apps receive, the better the status that's earned. Expert level gives improved ad terms, and Master level adds marketing support and early access to future SDKs.

The new scheme is clearly a nice gesture toward one developer demographic: the hobbyist. While $19 a year was never going to break the bank, scrapping the annual fee partially addresses one of the more paradoxical aspects of the platform: if Microsoft is so desperate for apps, why does it charge people to publish them? From a pure cost of entry perspective, this change clearly makes Windows and Windows Phone somewhat more attractive than they were before, and substantially more attractive than iOS.

Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

A Fire Keyboard + Fire HDX 8.9 + origami case. Casey Johnston

Amazon announced a slate of new Kindle products late Wednesday, including two new e-readers, a handful of new tablets, and a new version of its Android-based Fire operating system. Among the products are the new, ultra-thin Kindle Voyage e-reader and a new version of the 8.9-inch Fire HDX tablet, which now has an optional keyboard reminiscent of the Microsoft Surface.

A couple of new e-readers...

The Kindle Voyage is designed to be Amazon's new high-end Kindle model at 7.6 millimeters thick with a magnesium metal back. The Voyage has a 300ppi Paperwhite display that is 39 percent brighter than the previous model. The screen is front-lit and adaptive, so not only can it adjust to the ambient light in the room, Amazon says it will also perform a gradual adjustment over the course of 30 minutes to compensate for the adjustment of readers' eyes to the display in that environment.

The Voyage also slightly revamps the controls: instead of the page-turning buttons used in older Kindles, the Voyage has pressure-sensitive pads with haptic feedback on either side of the screen that are meant to be quieter. The screen in the Voyage is a single piece of glass flush with the bezel that is micro-etched to minimize reflections and mimic the feeling of paper, according to Amazon.

Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Goodwill Industries was one of three companies affected by an attack on a retail managed service provider that went undetected for over 18 months. Dwight Burdette

In July, it was revealed that Goodwill Industries had suffered from a credit card data breach that affected the charitable retailer’s stores in at least 21 states. The Goodwill breach seemed by many to be just the latest case of criminals taking advantage of the weak underbelly of retailers—their point-of-sale systems. But now, as it turns out, the Goodwill breach was just part of a much larger attack on an outside managed service provider that affected at least two other companies. And many more may have been affected without their knowledge.

Security reporter Brian Krebs first broke the news on the Goodwill breach in July and traced the breach back to C&K Systems, a reseller of retail software systems from NCR, Retail Pro, and other retail software and systems providers. Goodwill had outsourced much of the operation of its retail systems, including its point-of-sale (POS) systems, to C&K through a managed service contract.

In a statement published on Monday, C&K Systems admitted that they had suffered a breach of point-of-sale systems tied to their “Hosted Managed Services Environment.” The company determined with the assistance of outside forensic investigators that the breach began sometime in early 2013. “The unauthorized access affected our Hosted Management Services Platform intermittently between February 10, 2013 and August 14, 2014.”

Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Suspects in the brutal beating of two gay men were caught on CCTV, and social media stepped in to connect the dots.

Last Thursday night, a gay couple was brutally beaten by a group of two men and six women who were “visibly intoxicated.” NBC Philadelphia reports, “Witnesses say someone in the group asked, 'Is this your f****** boyfriend?' When one of the victims told them yes, the group allegedly attacked them, punching and kicking them in the face, head and chest.” One of the attackers grabbed a victim's bag and fled. At least one of the victims was taken to the hospital for fractures to his face and had to have his jaw wired shut.

Generally after an attack of this kind, the investigation can draw out indefinitely. The Philadelphia Police Department said it was looking for as many as 12 people in relation to the attack.

But today Philadelphia's ABC News syndicate reported that some of the suspects are expected to surrender to police in the near future.

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Free Press

Contrary to what AT&T and Verizon would have you believe, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler today said 4Mbps is too slow to be considered broadband and that Internet service providers who accept government subsidies should offer at least 10Mbps.

Last week, we reported on AT&T and Verizon urging the FCC to abandon a proposal that would redefine broadband download speeds from 4Mbps to 10Mbps. If the standard is raised, ISPs that accept government subsidies to build networks in hard-to-reach rural areas would have to provide the higher speed. AT&T and Verizon argued that 4Mbps is good enough, but Wheeler said otherwise today at a hearing in front of the US House Committee on Small Business.

US Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) pointed to communities with little or no access to high-speed broadband, saying if the minimum speed isn’t high enough, “rural constituents in my district will be left on the wrong side of the digital divide.”

Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

HealthKit may record a lot of data, but until third party apps can access it, it will sit lazily on a figurative couch. Andrew Cunningham On Wednesday morning, apps designed to connect to the new iOS HealthKit framework were set to launch alongside the brand new iOS 8, but those apps, hungry for your data about calories and fitness progress, apparently hadn't laced their jogging shoes. Shortly after the new version of iOS launched, developers learned that their HealthKit-ready apps and updates had been pulled from the App Store.

A few developers, including the creator of Carrot Fit, soon reported receiving calls and e-mails from Apple confirming that "HealthKit... isn't ready to launch," and later in the day, Apple publicly confirmed that HealthKit support would have to wait until a bug was fixed.

"We discovered a bug that prevents us from making HealthKit apps available on iOS 8 today," an Apple spokesperson told Ars in a statement. "We're working quickly to have the bug fixed in a software update and have HealthKit apps available by the end of the month."

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

While opinions have been mixed on Destiny, Bungie's first post-Halo video game, most impressions and reviews of the game thus far—including our own—have at least praised its online stability. That's no small feat for an always-online game, especially in its first week, but error reports are beginning to accumulate from Destiny players across all four of the game's consoles.

There's a reason for that: Bungie launched its "shared world shooter" without much of a customer support structure in place. Eight days after launch, users who haven't been able to connect—including one of Ars Technica's own contributors, who still can't get online with an Xbox 360 copy of the game—have exhausted all of the suggestions listed at help.bungie.net. At that point, those users are directed to visit Bungie's forums, "staffed by community mentors who are here to help you."

The end result is a funneling of complaints to a forum whose topics are broken down not by official categories but by hashtags. With nothing in the way of a trackable "ticket" system or a customer service hotline, users are stuck with a "#help" page that is currently dominated by topic titles like "I've Given Up on Destiny and Got My Refund; Here's Why Maybe You Should Too" and "Bungie Please Give Us Info."

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Flickr user Bukowsky18

People who are watching their weight will often opt for a diet soda, reasoning that the fewer calories, the better. But the availability of drinks and foods made with artificial sweeteners like saccharin, sucralose, and aspartame hasn't seemed to help much with our booming obesity levels. Now, some researchers might have identified a reason for this: the sweeteners leave their users with elevated blood glucose levels. But they don't seem to act directly on human metabolism. Instead, the effects come through alterations in the bacterial populations that live inside us.

The paper that describes this work, which was performed by a large collaboration of researchers from Israel, is being released by Nature today. The researchers note that epidemiological studies about the effects of artificial sweeteners have produced mixed results; some show a benefit, while others indicate that they're associated with weight gain and diabetes risk. Given that human populations haven't given us a clear answer, the researchers turned to mice, where they could do a carefully controlled study.

They started taking a group of genetically matched mice and spiking their drinking water with either sucrose or a commercial prep of an artificial sweetener (either saccharin, sucralose, or aspartame). After five weeks, they checked the blood glucose levels of these animals. Eleven weeks later, the groups that were given the artificial sweeteners all had elevated blood glucose levels compared to those that received sucrose. This is typically a sign of metabolic problems, most often caused by insulin losing its effectiveness. It can be a precursor to type 2 diabetes.

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

A senior IT employee with the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has been arrested for grabbing the firm's confidential client information and using it to trade stocks.

FBI agents arrested 41-year-old Dimitry Braverman at his San Mateo, California, home on Tuesday morning, according to a report in the New York Law Journal. He was released on a $500,000 bond secured by $100,000 cash.

That same day, the SEC filed a civil suit against Braverman. He's accused of loading up on stock and stock options over a three-year period for companies involved in eight pending transactions. After the transactions, he sold the stock or used his options, reaping about $297,000 in profits.

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

The Tower Records store in Shibuya, Japan. Wikipedia

After the United States, Japan is the second largest music market in the world. And while the country is usually seen as an early adopter of new technology, digital music sales haven't taken off. In total, 85 percent of music in Japan is purchased on a flat, plastic circle called a "compact disc" or "CD."

The New York Times takes a look at Japan's music situation, which surprisingly trails the rest of the world in the move to online distribution. Japan's online music sales are actually going down—online sales have gone from almost $1 billion in 2009 to just $400 million last year.

Japan has proven a tough nut to crack for the music industry's move to online, with the chairman of the Universal Music Group saying “Japan is utterly totally unique." Part of the reason CD sales are still going strong is Japanese culture's love of collecting things. There's also a general "protectionist business climate" within the Japanese music industry, which is suspicious of digital sales. (Where have we heard that before?)

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Sony's Xperia Z. Andrew Cunningham

This fiscal year, Sony announced that it lost over $1.2 billion. According to revised forecasting, the company is on pace to lose nearly double that figure by the end of the following fiscal year, largely due to lackluster sales of its mobile phones.

According to a new document released by the Japanese corporate giant on Wednesday, the company will lose $2.1 billion during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015.

During the 2013 fiscal year, Sony managed to profit $435 million, its first profit in years. Overall, the company has missed profits in six of the last seven years. If the upcoming $2.1 billion in net losses prediction proves to be correct, Sony will have sustained over $12 billion in losses in eight years.

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

iOS 8 has been released to the public. Andrew Cunningham

As promised at the iPhone 6 unveiling last week, Apple has just released iOS 8 to current iDevice users with compatible hardware. The software arrives two days ahead of the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and it's available either as an over-the-air update or through iTunes. The update should be available for the iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, and 5S; all iPads except the first-generation model; the fifth-generation iPod Touch; and both revisions of the third-generation Apple TV.

You can read pretty much everything there is to know about iOS 8 in our main review, but suffice it to say this is a big update. The headlining features include the new extensions, Continuity features that make your iDevices work more seamlessly with one another, improvements to many core applications, Family Sharing accounts that allow you to share purchases between different Apple IDs at no extra cost, and more.

Our tests indicate that the update didn't have adverse effects on battery life, and, for almost all current iOS users, it's a no-brainer. However, if you're using older devices with an Apple A5 chip—the iPhone 4S, iPad 2, non-Retina iPad Mini, and the iPod Touch—you may want to read our posts about those specific devices to decide whether the added features outweigh performance problems we ran into. You'll still probably want to update, but we wouldn't blame you if you wanted to wait for some performance-enhancing updates from Apple.

Read on Ars Technica | Comments

Graphene, a sheet of carbon one atom thick, has properties that are distinct from other forms of carbon—even graphite, which is just a bulk collection of graphene sheets. That's prompted researchers to look into other forms of what are called two-dimensional materials (at an atom thick, the third dimension isn't counted). And now, they've started experimenting with one-dimensional materials, which are essentially a line of single atoms.

Unfortunately, single atoms aren't especially cooperative about getting in line. Even stable crystals, like those formed by a salt, stay together in part because there are multiple interaction partners for each atom that stabilize the structure. Putting atoms in a line gets rid of most of these interactions, leaving the remaining ones unstable.

But researchers have figured out a way around this problem: they've managed to pack a line of atoms inside a carbon nanotube. Having chosen cesium iodide for their work, they simply had to pick a diameter that was larger than the atoms (over 3.4 Angstroms) but smaller than you'd need to put two atoms side-by-side (less than 8 Angstroms). They chose double-walled carbon nanotubes and loaded them with CsI simply by vaporizing the chemical under pressure.

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments