Apple

CUPERTINO, CA—Apple has officially announced a release date for iOS 8, the latest version of the operating system that powers iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. The new software launches on September 17, and as we've written before it will be available on the iPhone 4S, 5, 5C, and 5S; the iPad 2, both Retina iPads, the iPad Air, and both iPad minis; the fifth-generation iPod touch; and all revisions of the third-generation Apple TV.

While iOS 7 was all about a complete, comprehensive visual refresh, iOS 8 focuses more on the underlying components of the operating system. The most important of these are the new Extensions, which will allow third-party applications to do many things they couldn't do before. Third-party applications can now provide widgets for your notification center, share data with other applications, and even edit photos and other documents inline without leaving the application you're working in.

iOS has long had a reputation for being more locked down and inflexible than Android, its biggest competitor in the mobile space, but Extensions help to remove many of those barriers. For example, one type of Extension allows for third-party software keyboards, something Android has allowed for a long time. There are still restrictions on what these Extensions can do and how they behave, but it should enable more useful apps and a more customizable user experience.

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CUPERTINO, CA—As expected, Apple has just updated its iPhone lineup with brand-new handsets. While last year's 5C and 5S were both variants of 2012's iPhone 5, the new phones feature a redesigned chassis made to hold their larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens. The new enclosures are thinner, too, with the iPhone 6 measuring 6.9 mm and the Plus coming in at 7.1 mm—both thinner than the iPhone 5S's 7.6 mm.

This is just the second time that Apple has changed the size of the iPhone's screen since the original model was introduced back in 2007, and it's the first time Apple has changed the width of its screens—the 4-inch iPhone 5 design just made the previous 3.5-inch displays taller. The new phones are better-suited to compete against ever-increasing screen sizes from Android phone OEMs like Samsung, HTC, LG, and Motorola. According to Apple slides revealed during the Apple vs. Samsung case, Apple is aware that most of the growth in high-end smartphone sales is coming from large-screened phones.

CN.dart.call("xrailTop", {sz:"300x250", kws:["top"], collapse: true});The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 has a resolution of 1334×750 (326 PPI) and the iPhone 6 Plus is 1920×1080 (401 PPI), They won't be as sharp as displays in many premium Android phones, some of which have 2560×1440 display panels, but as we've seen, those panels can be a big drain on the battery.

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Amazon has at long last released a version of its video player for Android devices, according to a report Tuesday from The Next Web. The app release negates some of the video advantage that used to be reserved for Amazon-branded Android products like the Kindle Fire, but it rounds out the list of platforms where Amazon can appear.

Amazon has always been a persnickety service about where and how its videos will play. Users can stream to a PC desktop but not always in HD, and they can pin videos for offline viewing but only on Kindle products. Amazon video apps have been available for iOS devices for some time, but Android was always left out.

At first, Android users had to use a workaround to get the app from Amazon's Appstore that involved enabling the right permissions. But as of a couple hours later, the app was available directly through the Google play store for users in the US, UK, and Germany. This brings video purchases and rentals as well as Amazon Prime Instant Video streaming to devices including the Nexus 7, one of the Kindle Fire's competitor devices.

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2014-09-09T12:00:00-05:00

Apple has had a very quiet 2014. Aside from its announcements at WWDC, it hasn't made any major product introductions, and even WWDC was mostly previews of things that would be released in the fall.

That's all set to change tomorrow morning, when Apple takes the stage at the Flint Center for the Performing Arts in its hometown of Cupertino, CA. We'll be publishing a longer post about what to expect soon, but the short list includes at least one new, larger iPhone, the public release date for iOS 8, and the announcement of a brand-new wearable that will be the first all-new product line of the Tim Cook epoch.

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A variant of the infamous banking trojan Zeus has gone beyond targeting financial accounts, instead striving to collect another type of sensitive business data: customer information.

The variant, known as Dyre, is a banking trojan that first came to light in June when security companies warned that the Zeus knockoff found a way to bypass Web encryption, known as secure sockets layer (SSL). At the time, it targeted some of the largest global banks, such as Bank of America, Citibank, Natwest, RBS, and Ulsterbank. A recent version of Dyre, however, has begun targeting Salesforce, a popular cloud service for storing customer information, according to analyses.

Other cloud services could just as easily be targeted, according to security firm Adallom.

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Newgrounds

Publisher Electronic Arts is working to fix an overzealous filtering system that is preventing players of The Sims 4 from sharing characters with names that include gay references, the company told Kotaku.

As it currently stands, The Sims 4 doesn't prevent players from naming their virtual Sims however they want. But if a Sim's name includes a word like "gay," "queer," "homosexual," or even "straight," the game will pop up a warning that the character can not be posted in the online Gallery section, as shown in this video from a German player.

EA is aware of the issue and working to fix it. "The Sims has a long history of supporting stories that players want to tell, irrespective of gender preference," an EA representative told Kotaku. "The Gallery uses an automated filtering program that filters out certain words, including some of the ones you mentioned below. We are aware of [it and] have been working on a fix, which will be out soon."

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Hey that's not 320 mAh. iFixit/Ron Amadeo

iFixit has gotten ahold of the Moto 360 and applied the usual spudgers and heat packs to rip open the little round smartwatch. There weren't too many surprises (everything is round!) except for the battery: it's smaller than advertised.

In iFixit's pictures, the 360's battery is only labeled as 300 mAh, 20 mAh less than advertised. The 300 mAh battery has only 75 percent of the capacity of the 400 mAh battery found in the LG G Watch, and together with the OMAP 3 processor, it's not a great combination for all-day battery life. We've asked Motorola for a comment about the smaller battery in iFixit's 360, but the company hasn't gotten back to us yet. We'll update this post if we hear anything. The company's response is below.

As for the rest of the device, the round LCD looks pretty much the same as it does on the outside, and even the main PCB is round. iFixit managed to nail the processor down to an OMAP3630, which as we suspected is built on a 45nm process.

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D. enigmata on the right, with the three larger samples on the left representing D. discoides. PLoS one

Over the past few years, studies of genomes have confused what we thought we knew about the origin of animal life. Instead of the simple sponges being the earliest branch off the animal tree, a group of relatively complex organisms, the ctenophores, seem to be the earliest branch. That finding has some serious implications, as it suggests that a nervous system evolved twice.

Now, some more traditional biology may upset the family tree even further. Old samples taken from the seabed near Tasmania contain examples of two different species that may belong to a phylum entirely unknown to us—one that split off near the base of the animal tree. The strange creatures also have features that suggest they may be related to remains from the Ediacaran, a period in which the first animal life appears in the fossil record.

The samples actually date from a research cruise taken nearly 30 years ago, where a "sled" was dragged along the ocean floor and samples returned to the surface. The new species weren't recognized as interesting when they were first found, so they were left mixed in with the rest of the collection, which was fixed with formaldehyde and then dumped in 80 percent ethanol. The samples suffered a bit of further abuse when one of the authors wanted to refresh the alcohol and was given 100 percent ethanol instead. (The paper actually notes, "Unfortunately absolute alcohol was provided without comment instead of the requested 80 percent ethanol.")

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The new Moto X is a worthy successor to the original. Andrew Cunningham

CN.dart.call("xrailTop", {sz:"300x250", kws:["top"], collapse: true});At the end of last year's Moto X review, we concluded that it wasn't a perfect phone. Still, we wanted to see where Motorola would be in a year, and, about 13 months later, it's safe to say it's been a busy year for the company.

For starters, Motorola has made an aggressive play for the midrange, low-end, and emerging smartphone markets in the form of the Moto G and the Moto E. Both phones make compromises to hit their sub-$200-unlocked prices, but they largely identify the most important smartphone stuff and give you enough to get by. The original Moto X launched at a $579 unlocked ($199 on-contract) price point that was frankly too much to pay for what it offered, but it dropped to a more suitable $399 by the beginning of the year. The phone has spent most of its time since hovering between $300 and $400, give or take a sale.

Things have been no less lively on the business side. The US-based phone factory that factored so prominently into early Moto X advertising is being shuttered. The division has continued to lose money for Google, but its sales are finally on an uptick, and reviews of each Moto phone have typically been positive. Most importantly, Google is selling Motorola to Lenovo, a company that isn't doing so badly in the smartphone market itself (the deal isn't actually scheduled to close until some time next year, but Motorola has already quietly stripped "a Google company" from its branding on everything from its homepage to its phones' boot screens).

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Last week was a full one for Motorola. The company invited a group of technology journalists to its newly opened offices in Chicago's historic Merchandise Mart for a first look at its new Moto 360 smartwatch, as well as its updated Moto X and Moto G smartphones. Much like our trip to HP's Houston campus in June, the visit to Motorola's multi-floor laboratory and design workshop provided the perfect opportunity to snap a ton of interesting pictures.

The preview event was held on September 4, the day before the Moto 360 went on sale. We were first ushered through several hours of carefully choreographed presentations showing off the capabilities and design heritage of the Moto 360; this was followed by more of the same type of presentations about the Moto G and the Moto X. After about four hours, Managing Editor Eric Bangeman and I skipped away from lunch with our review hardware to get started with our initial write-ups.

We were somewhat limited with where we could take pictures—not at all unusual in a functioning office with people trying to work—but below are a few dozen images showing a bit of what we saw during the reveals.

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On Monday, Home Depot confirmed that thieves compromised the payment systems in its stores in the US and Canada and stole credit and debit card data.

The theft likely began in April and used unspecified malware, but it may not have compromised the PINs used to secure debit cards, the company said in a statement. The home supply retailer has not yet determined how many cards were breached, but the thieves had as many as six months in the company's systems. Comparatively, the malware-enabled theft of card data from retail giant Target resulted in the compromise of 40 million credit and debit card accounts and occurred in just over three weeks, albeit during the peak shopping season.

Home Depot's Chairman and CEO Frank Blake apologized to customers on Monday.

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Front Porch ad.

A Northern California company that bills itself as the "worldwide leader in Wi-Fi monetization" is the vendor behind Comcast's and other US cable companies' promotional advertising campaign performed through JavaScript injection, Comcast said Monday.

Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas confirmed the vendor's name, Front Porch of Sonora, hours after Ars reported that Comcast recently started serving Comcast ads to devices connected to one of its 3.5 million publicly accessible Wi-Fi hotspots across the US. We wrote that Comcast's decision to inject data into the net raises security concerns and cuts to the heart of the ongoing net neutrality debate.

As it turns out, Front Porch also does business with Cox, Time Warner, Bright House, and Cablevision in the US, Front Porch CTO Carlos Vazquez said in a telephone interview.

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The new Moto G is mostly just a larger version of the original, and that's fine. Andrew Cunningham

CN.dart.call("xrailTop", {sz:"300x250", kws:["top"], collapse: true});We were big fans of the first Moto G, mostly because it was a budget smartphone that didn't look or act like your typical budget smartphone. Many phones you can buy for around $200 unlocked are still either cheap, underpowered handsets that can never hope to see updates or any additional support from the company you bought them from, or they're near-end-of-life flagships from years gone by.

Decent, current "midrange" phones from the likes of Samsung, Apple, or HTC can still cost $400 or more without a contract, tying many buyers to two-year agreements with major carriers that subsidize the up-front price but eventually end up charging you more than the phone would have cost in the first place. So a $179 unlocked smartphone that has (so far) gotten prompt updates and features reasonably high-quality hardware was a breath of fresh air. Even nine months past its launch, the original Moto G doesn't have a lot of competition.

Motorola has had quite a bit of success with these low-cost phones, though, so the company isn't resting on its laurels. The second-generation Moto G (called simply the "Moto G" in most advertising materials, though with a "2nd generation" tag on the box, Motorola's site, and the phone's About panel) is already here. What's different? What stays the same? And, more importantly, is this still the best Android phone that $179 can buy?

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Months after Comcast upgraded its subscribers' Netflix performance, AT&T and Verizon have finally followed suit.

The average Netflix stream on Verizon FiOS hit 2.41Mbps in August, up from 1.61Mbps in July, Netflix said today in its monthly speed test update. AT&T's U-verse service offered average Netflix performance of 2.61Mbps in August, up from 1.44Mbps in July.

Netflix recommends 5Mbps for high-definition quality, but there is a lot of lower quality Netflix content that requires less throughput. The boost in the averages indicates that customers are getting high-quality streams more often.

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Paramount Pictures / Aurich Lawson

Today eBay subsidiary Braintree, which provides a platform for companies like Uber and Airbnb to accept payments, confirmed that it would be partnering with Bitcoin payment processor Coinbase to let users pay for things in Bitcoin from a Coinbase wallet. The news is big for Bitcoin supporters who have been looking to large retailers and service providers to give the virtual currency mass-market appeal.

Braintree, which was purchased by eBay subsidiary PayPal last year for $800 million, builds the software that a handful of big companies use to offer online and mobile payments to customers. In a blog post, CEO Bill Ready said that “in the coming months” Braintree's customers would be able to “add bitcoin to their existing payment methods and provide an elegant, adaptive user interface for consumers to pay in bitcoin with their Coinbase wallet.”

It's unclear which, if any, merchants have decided to incorporate Bitcoin into their accepted payment methods with Braintree. Still, the development shows that PayPal is thinking about bringing alternative forms of payment into its fold. “This is PayPal making a move to embrace Bitcoin,” Ready told TechCrunch today.

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Recently, we covered a bill that was introduced in Ohio to deemphasize teaching the scientific process and open the door for people to object to scientific instruction on political grounds. While under consideration, the text of the bill has been modified considerably. Gone is the language about politics, and in its place is a provision that uses language promoted by a think tank that supports intelligent design.

(The Cleveland Plain Dealer is hosting a change log prepared by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.)

First, the good news: initially, the bill would prohibit "political or religious interpretation of scientific facts in favor of another" while directing teachers to "focus on academic and scientific knowledge rather than scientific processes." The problem there is that many people consider subjects like climate change and evolution to be little more than political indoctrination. In addition, knowing how science operates can be far more important and engaging than simply memorizing a list of what it's discovered.

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An area of crustal spreading, similar to a mid-ocean ridge, is at the center of this image. If the crust spreads there, it must compress elsewhere. NASA/JPL

The Solar System is ancient. Many of the bodies in it show their age with impacts that date back to the violent early days of the Late Heavy Bombardment and craters embedded in craters. Earth is different in that plate tectonics and other geological processes constantly remake its surface. But even the Earth looks pretty old compared to Jupiter's moon Europa. Based on the number of impacts present, Europa looks to be less than 100 million years old.

A variety of evidence indicates that Europa's dynamic surface comes from the fact that the moon has a thin crust of ice above a large sub-surface ocean. Geysers and other features also suggest that the moon is geologically active. But the precise mechanism that drive the surface remodeling have remained uncertain. Now, two researchers are proposing that the mechanism is the same as it is on Earth: plate tectonics.

The proposal is put forth by the University of Idaho's Simon Kattenhorn and Johns Hopkins' Louise Prockter, and it was released by Nature Geoscience yesterday. The authors note the clear evidence of remodeling and point out that we've already identified a source of new ice reaching the surface: some features on the moon's surface appear to be sites of spreading, analogous to a mid-ocean ridge. But assuming the moon hasn't been growing larger, there must be some process that removes old ice from the surface.

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Despite widespread support, a bill that would put limits on widespread surveillance is unlikely to get a vote before the elections—or even after them.

According to National Journal, the USA Freedom Act, which would essentially stop the government's bulk collection of telephone call data, is flailing. The bill is struggling despite the fact that it won a stunning new supporter last week: Director of Intelligence James Clapper, one of the top defenders of the surveillance programs.

A Senate staffer told NJ that it was "extremely unlikely" the bill would be considered in September. It was originally introduced in July by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and it has co-sponsors ranging from liberal senators like Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) to Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

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MSN—known to millions as "the site that Internet Explorer insists on going to after a fresh install"—is getting a new look as part of a broader rebranding effort.

The venerable portal site is Internet Explorer's default homepage and boasts millions of visitors. Its new, stylish makeover brings back memories of iGoogle and so many other portal-type sites before it. The different news sections can be personalized to favor your interests, and there's also integration with Outlook.com, Facebook, and Twitter.

The site aggregates news from a wide range of sources spanning wire services, online publications, and local news outlets. The news partnerships will vary on a country-by-country basis: in the US, partners include The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. The Guardian and Telegraph are those chosen in the UK.

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Activision's MMO-styled shooter Destiny is the kind of release that would usually see a wave of launch-day reviews when it hits stores and download services on all major consoles tomorrow, especially given the interest over whether the Halo creators at Bungie have any life left in them after parting ways with Microsoft four years ago.

That interest won't be met with much critical reaction tomorrow, however. Bungie has decided to let reviewers wait to experience the game with the public this time around.

"Typically, games receive their report cards before they become available to the public," Bungie community manager David "DeeJ" Dague wrote at the company's official blog on Friday, before adding that Destiny is not "a typical shooter." After listing some of the in-game activities that could be accomplished by a group of two-to-four players (a standard group size for a review), Dague described those activities as merely "a foundation for so much more."

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