Category: News

Around two weeks ago, hackers identifying themselves with names like “Oleg Pliss” started holding iOS devices and even Mac computers hostage in exchange for payment — but now they’ve been caught in their Russian homeland.

The Sydney Morning Herald today reported that two Russian hackers aged 17 and 23 have been detained in a bizarre case involving digital ransom against unsuspecting Mac and iOS device owners.

The incidents, which were primarily targeted at Apple users in Australia, appeared to use some kind of loophole in the Find My iPhone software that allowed them to remotely lock the afflicted user’s devices until such time a ransom was paid via PayPal or other method.

According to the Russian Interior Ministry, a 23-year-old man known only as “Ivan” confessed to the crime along with an unnamed 17-year-old accomplice after being caught on closed-circuit television withdrawing the ransom money from an ATM machine.

Described as “madly keen on computers and hacking,” neither Ivan nor his cohort had any formal training or employment experience, but were simply “looking for easy ways to make money.”

Although Apple initially blamed the issue on recycled passwords, the report noted that Apple IDs were being stolen as part of a phishing scheme, and in some cases involved unauthorized access to email or social networks.

The alleged hackers then requested payments of $50 or $100 to unlock the devices, although users protected with passcodes could simply change the iCloud password and avoid the whole scheme.

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

Zen Studios is famous for bringing such pinball titles to iOS as Star Wars Pinball. The company makes fun, fantastic, virtual pinball machines to keep you going for days. Telltale Games is famous for launching a new genre of point-and-click adventure games like The Walking Dead: The Game that put players in the position of […]

For a few months now, we’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about Apple coming out with a rumored Healthbook app. Originally, it was assumed that this was to be part of the rumored iWatch that we still haven’t seen the light of. However, Apple put one of those rumors to rest at this year’s […]

This Father’s Day, get dad something he really needs. No, he doesn’t need another socket wrench set. Those things don’t exactly go bad. He also doesn’t need another travel coffee mug with a clever saying on it. There is a reason you haven’t seen that old one around lately. This year, give the gift that […]

[This is an advertorial. Maclife gets a portion of each unit sold.]The Lightning charger for iOS devices was a welcome change when it was introduced back in 2012, but it always take some time to fully adjust to something new. If you’re looking for a da…

It’s been a week since Apple unloaded many of its plans for iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, but very little was actually said about one of Cupertino’s more controversial software efforts — and there may be a good reason for that.

TechCrunch reported Sunday that internal strife within Apple’s engineering teams may have contributed to the absence of any real news about new Maps features at the WWDC 2014 keynote last Monday.

Aside from vector maps in China, one unnamed Apple insider claims “there were multiple improvements that didn’t make it into iOS 8,” including a wide range of features outlined earlier this year by 9to5Mac.

In addition to “more reliable” data, public transit directions, and additional points of interest, those improvements were also said to include labels that made it easier to find highways, airports, and parks as well. So what happened?

“Many developers left the company, no map improvements planned for iOS 8 release were finished in time,” one tipster elaborated. “Mostly it was failure of project managers and engineering project managers, tasks were very badly planned, developers had to switch multiple times from project to project.”

“I would say that planning, project management and internal politics issues were a much more significant contributor to the failure to complete projects than developers leaving the group,” a second source added.

Whatever might be taking place behind the scenes, Apple still has the remainder of the summer to potentially get its act together — especially given the company’s penchant for leaving a few last surprises for the big iPhone unveil this fall.

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

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Rogers Wireless, a Canadian carrier, has announced that it will be supporting iOS 8’s new Wi-Fi calling feature when it debuts. Wi-Fi calling within iOS 8 will skirt the issue of roaming fees while a Canadian user is in the US or overseas, much like ov…

Apple introduced some major improvements to the Photos app in iOS 8 with the new iCloud Library and number of new editing tools.
The Photos app in iOS 8 also includes two new options namely ‘Recently Added’ and ‘Recently Deleted’ under Albums.
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Apple seeded iOS 8 beta immediately after the WWDC Keynote yesterday.
Ideally, beta versions can be installed on iOS devices whose UDIDs are registered in the iOS Dev Center.
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Apple unveiled iOS 8 at the WWDC Keynote yesterday, where it showcased some of the major new features such as Interactive Notifications, QuickType, Family Sharing etc.
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