Guess what?!? I’m fully vaxxed! I’m back home, and I’m on with Mark Starling, Seth, John, and the First News 570 crew. This week, Apple’s products get ransomed, a bunch of kids in the UK sue TikTok, Apple and Google testify in front of the Senate, and lots of new Apple products. You can listen to Mark and I point and laugh while talking about the wild and crazy technology world every Thursday morning, LIVE at 6:43am Eastern.
APPLE TARGET IN $50 MILLION RANSOMWARE ATTACK
It was bound to happen at some point, even if it was an indirect attack. On the same day of Apple’s Spring Loaded event, the Russian hacking group, REvil, aka Sodinokibi (pick a name) issued a ransom demand to Quanta, a Taiwanese company that manufactures Apple products. Yes, the hackers issued the ransom on the same day of Apple’s event and leaked schematics of the latest iMac to prove their booty was legit. Quanta admitted they were hacked and refused to pay up the $50 million. REvil has now gone directly to Apple and are giving them until May 1st to pay the $50 million or they’ll leak schematics and design documentation for the M1, the 2021 MacBook, and an unnamed upcoming MacBook update. I hope Apple doesn’t pay. If another corporation builds something on their designs Apple can site IP infringement to the other company. That purple iPhone looks hot!
CHILDREN SUE TIKTOK FOR USE OF THEIR DATA
I might be a tad bit dramatic here, but the former UK commissioner for Children’s Affairs, Anne Longefield, has sued TikTok for how it handles and processes children’s data. The legal claim was originally brought by an unnamed 12-year old child and has been filed on behalf of all children in the UK. If the kids win, each child in the UK could be entitled to billions of pounds. TikTok has been fined by the US Federal Trade Commission for how it handles data to the tune of $5.4 million and has also been fined by South Korea. Stay tuned, someone in the US is looking at this case and wondering if and when they’ll file a class action.
APPLE AND EL GOOG UNITE IN FIGHT AGAINST US SENATE
Apple and Google were on the hill yesterday defending their stranglehold on the fees app developers pay to have their applications listed in the stores. For those in the audience, Apple and Google charge app developers 30% on sales of apps and in-app purchases. But, let’s Uber off, and doesn’t charge a fee for physical products. (One of our apps used to sell physical products) A plethora of software companies including Tile, Spotify, and Match dragged themselves up Capitol Hill to complain. Match, the company that owns Tinder, paid Apple $500 million in App Store fees last year. Goodness gracious!
BONUS: LOTS OF COOL NEW STUFF ANNOUNCED AT APPLE’S SPRING LOADED
While REvil was having people proofread its ransom note before sending it to Apple, lovers of the fruit company logged onto their local Internet and tuned in to Apple’s Spring Loaded event. And, there was lots of cool stuff gawk at and drool over.
The new iMac is impossibly thin and looks like a big ole iPad Pro. The computer is only 11.5mm thin, that’s thinner than my laptop and is powered by Apple’s M1 processor. It also comes with a 1080p camera for FaceTime calls, and is seriously thin. I want one. Preorder on April 30th, and have it in mid-May.
There’s also a purple iPhone. I picked up the blue iPhone 12 last year, and I really like the device. It’s the same iPhone as last year, but it’s purple dammit! Preorder on April 30th, and have it in mid-May.
There’s also a new iPad Pro coming out. Again, powered by Apple’s M1 chip the new iPad Pro will be running a new version of iPadOS and at 32 cores on the chip is basically a laptop computer. The new iPad Pro also has a Thunderbolt port that is capable of delivering 40Gb per second. And…it uses USB-C, not a lightning port. But I’m sure somewhere in there they’re cables will be flimsy but cost $30. Preorder on April 30th, and have it in mid-May.
Lastly, Tile is pissed, a day before Tile testified before the US Senate, Apple announced something called an AirTag. AirTags are small BlueTooth devices you can attach to keys, wallets, and children to help you find things after you lose them. You can attach an AirTag to your keys and use the Find My app to locate it in the house. The AirTag even has a speaker that will ding if you can’t find your keys under all the laundry. You can preorder on April 23rd and have it on the 30th.