Author: Rene Ritchie

There’s a new kind of spyware going around called Xssar that’s reportedly targeting protestors in Hong Kong. The spyware — which appears to have ties to Android malware discovered last week — is installed via a Debian package and requires a victim’s iPhone or iPad to be jailbroken. Breaking the root jail of iOS can provide for functionality beyond what Apple currently ships, but also strips away Apple’s built-in iOS security. The same way jailbroken software can be loaded, malicious software can be loaded. So what’s going on with Xssar and how can you protect yourself?

Reuters has a quasi-report up that mislabels Xssar as a virus, doesn’t link back to its source, and neglects to mention that only jailbroken iOS devices seem to be vulnerable, but does provide the following overview:

The malicious software, known as Xsser, is capable of stealing text messages, photos, call logs, passwords and other data from Apple mobile devices, researchers with Lacoon Mobile Security said on Tuesday. They uncovered the spyware while investigating similar malware for Google Inc’s Android operating system last week that also targeted Hong Kong protesters. Anonymous attackers spread the Android spyware via WhatsApp, sending malicious links to download the program, according to Lacoon.

Lacoon itself is more thorough:

Lacoon hasn’t uncovered information regarding the method or vector of attack. The iOS device needs to be jailbroken in order to be infected. Then with Cydia installed, the repository would be need to be added and then the package could be installed. All that’s known is that both the iOS and Android attacks share a CnC server. The package itself is a debian .deb package. The package installs an iOS ‘launchd’ service to make sure the app starts after booting and in addition starts it up immediately.

If you think you’re at risk from Xssar, until more is known about how it is being spread, removing your jailbreak by upgrading or restoring to an official version of iOS is the best way to protect yourself.

Nick Arnott contributed to this article.

• How to update or restore iOS using Software Update
• How to update or restore iOS using iTunes

The iPhone Photography Awards celebrate excellence in iPhoneography — the best shots taken with the best camera we all have with us. The 2014 winning photographs have been announced, and they include amazing work from Julio Lucas of Florida, Jose Luis Barcia Fernandez of Madrid, and Jill Missner of Connecticut. The winner, Lucas, said of his work:

I enjoy taken photos with my iPhone due its portability and ease of use while on the move. iPhone’s naturally tend to saturate colors in the captured image. Which depending on the enviromental lighting, the saturation of colors normally allows for a bold beautiful image. I generally try to stay away from using filters in my iPhone pictures. I want my photos to take on a more traditional form and grant the capture moment to tell the story rather then a manipulation of the moment by use of to many filters.

Categories included animals, architecture, children, flowers, food, landscape, lifestyle, nature, news and events, panorama, seasons, still life, sunset, travel, trees, and more. Entrants came from Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States. So, huge scope, huge participation, and huge results.

And it’s not just because the winning photos all look beautiful and inspiring — they absolutely do — but that they weren’t taken with full frames or huge glass or mountains of film. They were taken with the iPhone and the apps we have in our pocket. With technology that’s readily and easily available to all of us.

The winners all have fantastic eyes for light and composition, and terrific senses of timing and space, for certain. But unlike generations past, we have access to the very same equipment they do, and we enjoy the same potential they’ve so successfully realized.

Check out all the photos and let me know your favorites. Then check out our photography tips, go take some of your own photos and share them with us!

Source: IPPAWARDS

High bit rate — kilobit per second — and HD audio — 24bit vs. 16bit — are getting a lot of attention lately, whether it’s because streaming services are offering more or less kbps or upcoming devices are promising higher fidelity sound or Apple is rumored to be adding those features to iOS 8 and the iPhone 6. The truth is, as far as it’s been explained to me and I’m able to understand it, is that higher bit-rate and higher bit audio is more about marketing than it is about music. Yes, the quality of the mastering matters incredibly, as does the quality of the transcoding, but for most audio, with most modern codecs, we’re well past the levels where things become transparent to the listener. Why is that?

Here’s the introduction to the best, most understandable explanation I’ve found. It’s by Chris “Monty” Montgomery, the creator of the Ogg format and the Vorbis codec. And as a good friend of mine said, “he knows his shit.” From xiph.org:

Articles last month revealed that musician Neil Young and Apple’s Steve Jobs discussed offering digital music downloads of ‘uncompromised studio quality’. Much of the press and user commentary was particularly enthusiastic about the prospect of uncompressed 24 bit 192kHz downloads. 24/192 featured prominently in my own conversations with Mr. Young’s group several months ago.

Unfortunately, there is no point to distributing music in 24-bit/192kHz format. Its playback fidelity is slightly inferior to 16/44.1 or 16/48, and it takes up 6 times the space.

There are a few real problems with the audio quality and ‘experience’ of digitally distributed music today. 24/192 solves none of them. While everyone fixates on 24/192 as a magic bullet, we’re not going to see any actual improvement.

Read the rest of Montgomery’s lengthy, detailed article to see why he would rather see resources being spent on things like better quality headphones (and I’ll add speakers), overcoming the technical hurdles to real, efficient surround sound, lossless formats to eliminate the risk of bad encoding and generation loss, and high-quality masters.

Again, the remastering of the original audio that’s being done in advance of the push to higher bit-rate and higher bit-depth audio will no doubt result in fantastic versions of the music we know and love. It’s just that those new remasters would sound every bit as good to humans in existing bit-rates and bit-depths.

When that’s taken into consideration, the primary advantage of going to higher bit rates and 24bit becomes clear — marketing escalation. If one music service can say they offer higher kbps streams, even if they’re higher beyond the point where it makes any difference, they look more impressive. If a device says it supports 24-bit rather than 16-bit audio, even if all it does it take up more storage space on that device.

We’ll no doubt see many more products and rumors that hawk higher quality audio as a selling point, and we may even see Apple bullet point them on a Keynote deck so they stay competitive in the perception-is-reality space. But when the time comes to pick a streaming service or a device, don’t fall victim to the bit-race. Pick the ones that offers the best mastered versions of the most music you love most in the way that sounds best to you.

Are you interested in higher bit rate or 24-bit audio? If so, what makes it compelling to you?

Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel star in the upcoming movie Sex Tape about a couple who use their iPad to record themselves in the throws of passion only to discover that iCloud has synced the video to all the iPads they’ve given away as Christmas gifts. Hilarity, as you might imagine, is supposed to ensue, and even Siri can’t escape the resulting shenanigans unscathed.

Yeah, the very non-iOS-like video uploaded interface is painful to see but, Hollywood. While the premise might sound far-fetched, but we’ve heard a few stories here at iMore about how cloud sync has ended up putting private material in very public hands, so let this serve as a cautionary comedy for all — if you don’t want to see it online, don’t put it in digital form. Heck, don’t put it in any form. That’s what mind palaces are for!

Official synopsis and Red Band trailer below. (Red Band means adult language and partial nudity, so NSFW and parental guidance warnings in full effect!)

A married couple wake up to discover that the sex tape they made the evening before has gone missing, leading to a frantic search for its whereabouts.

Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, Peanuts, Doonsbury, The Far Side — these were the works that helped inform much of my childhood and adult life. What they managed to capture in few panels and words resonated as deeply as books and speeches and song. They said funny things, important things, silly things, true things. They made me think and they made me feel. They were art in every sense of the word, and commentary and escapism. They’ve continued to be all that and more as print has faded and the web has provided an even larger, even more accessible platform. And Stripped, the incredible documentary by Dave Kellett and Frederick Schroeder that covers that transition, has collected the pioneers of the industry, of all generations, together for an unprecedented set of interviews, and a peek inside how and why it matters so much to so many of us. Check out the blurb below for all the details, then go grab it — and gift it if the mood strikes you! — on iTunes. It really deserves our support.

• $14.99 – Download now

STRIPPED is a love-letter to comic strips. It brings together the world’s best cartoonists to talk about the art form they love, and what happens to it as newspapers die. Over 90 interviews were conducted, including the first-ever audio interview withBill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes), as well as Jim Davis (Garfield), Cathy Guisewite(Cathy), Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey), Mike & Jerry (Penny Arcade), Matt Inman (The Oatmeal), Jeff Keane (The Family Circus), Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics), Lynn Johnston (FBOFW), Zach Weiner (SMBC), Scott Kurtz (PvP), Scott McCloud(Understanding Comics), Richard Thompson (Cul de Sac), Jeph Jacques(Questionable Content), Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine), Bill Amend (Foxtrot), Kate Beaton (Hark! A Vagrant) and more. STRIPPED sits down with these creators to talk about how cartooning works, why it’s so loved, and how they’re navigating this dicey period between print and digital options…when neither path works perfectly.

Google has officially announced Android Wear, their new wearable-focused software platform and — no surprise here — they’re starting with the smartwatch. It’s a trendy product category, fueled in no small part by rumors of an impending iWatch from Apple and all sorts of gadgets and bands from tech and fitness giants both. Phil Nickinson writing from Android Central:

Much like Google Now on a smartwatch, Android Wear is designed to focus on timely information, delivered when it’s most relevant — Google’s announcement media mentions social updates, chat updates and notifications from shopping and news apps, for instance.

Naturally the “OK Google” keyword can also activate voice input, just as it does in the Google Now Launcher, allowing you to get answers to spoken questions, or perform other commends like sending text messages or setting alarms. That means voice commands from Android Wear devices can also link back to your phone and, for example start music or movie playback.

A couple of manufacturers have already announced their support for the platform as well. Motorola is fielding the Moto 360 this summer. Adam Zeis:

The Moto 360 features a simple, classic design but thanks to Android Wear, it will also give you notifications and let you perform voice commands. From the looks of it here it’s not screaming “smartwatch”, but going with a much more elegant look on the outside

LG, the G Watch, also coming this summer. Alex Dobie:

[G Watch], teased briefly in today’s announcement post, sports an angular design with a reflective black chassis. LG’s announcement mentions many of the features which were highlighted in in Google’s Android Wear demo reel. So you’re looking at a wearable that can respond to voice commands through the “OK Google” hotword, as well as presenting relevant info in a similar way to Google Now on a phone.

While I don’t have anything specific to go on, from the outside none of these look much how I’d imagine an iWatch would look. However, the idea of Google Now cards on a watch is compelling. (I’d go so far as to say they were designed to make this inevitable). Check out our sibling sites, Android Central and Smartwatch Fans for ongoing coverage and let me know — is this the type of wearable you want from Apple?

• Android Wear on Android Central
• Android Wear on Smartwatch Fans