10 Tech News Roundup #18

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Apple’s iMac Pro is a love letter to developers – The iMac Pro exists because it turns out that there is a lot of air underneath the aging Mac Pro and above the incredibly popular MacBook Pro. A single-digit percentage of Mac customers buy the Mac Pro and, in recent years, Apple had been seeing a major rise in “pro” customers of all shades purchasing iMacs because of their incredible screens, all-in-one form factor and overall ease of deployment. Techcrunch

Knightscope security robot gets fired from its San Francisco job – A five-foot tall, 400-pound robot with four surveillance cameras just got fired from its security job. Right before Christmas. Mashable

Edge Mobile Payments buys what’s left of Plastc in hopes that there’s still life left in smart cards – The death of Plastc back in April looked to many like the final nail in the smart card coffin. After all, the news came only a few months after the space’s other big player, Coin, called it quits. Of course, the loss of Coin wasn’t totally in vain — the company was ultimately purchased by Fitbit, which ultimately incorporated its mobile payment tech into the Ionic smartwatch. Techcrunch

Xage emerges from stealth with a blockchain-based IoT security solution – Getting the myriad of devices involved in the industrial internet of things provisioned and communicating with one another in a secure way will be one of the great technological challenges facing companies in the coming years. Xage (prounounced Zage) emerged from stealth today with a blockchain-based security solution that could help simplify this. Techcrunch

Whoops, iTunes won’t be available in the Microsoft Store this year, after all – Earlier this year at Microsoft’s Build conference, the company revealed it was working with Apple to get iTunes included in the Windows Store. The promise was that it would be available by the end of 2017, but now it looks like that won’t be happening. The Verge

That revamped Mac Pro is still in the works, Apple reminds us – In the very same breath as its iMac Pro availability press release was uttered, Apple slipped in a reminder to the world that an overhaul to its Mac Pro desktop is still in development. Oh, and that homemade professional display is in the works, too. Techradar

Apple patent filing reveals potential whispering Siri functionality – Ever wanted to use Siri in a crowded place — such as a subway, bus or supermarket — without the assistant blaring her response to everyone in the vicinity? If so, you might be in luck if a patent filed by Apple back in 2016 ever becomes a reality. Techspot

Intel tips off potential 960 GB and 1.5 TB Optane SSD 900Ps – I was pretty impressed with the performance of Intel’s Optane caching solution when I messed around with MSI’s Aegis 3 gaming desktop. Still, some folks aren’t going to be satisfied with a simple Optane accelerator. If you’re in that category, the Optane SSD 900P is your jam, and you have a choice between 280 GB or 480 GB models. What, that’s not enough storage? Hang on a bit, then, because an Intel document suggests that 960 GB and 1.5 TB models of the 3D Xpoint-equipped SSD could be on their way. Techreport

US regulators ‘broke the internet as we know it’, VPN providers say – The US FCC’s (Federal Communications Commission) decision on Thursday to repeal net neutrality rules has provoked an outcry among startups and NGOs, and also the wider public, both in the US and abroad. Techradar

A bombshell letter charges that Uber hacked into competitors’ networks and wiretapped people at a hotel – A security group within Uber hacked into competitors’ computer systems, stole data from rivals, and recorded the private conversations of competitors at a hotel, according to a letter made public Friday by the judge overseeing the company’s lawsuit with Google-spinoff company Waymo. Business Insider

10 Tech News Roundup #17

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Zero-day iOS HomeKit vulnerability allowed remote access to smart accessories including locks, fix rolling out – A HomeKit vulnerability in the current version of iOS 11.2 has been demonstrated to 9to5Mac that allows unauthorized control of accessories including smart locks and garage door openers. Our understanding is Apple has rolled out a server-side fix that now prevent unauthorized access from occurring while limiting some functionality, and an update to iOS 11.2 coming next week will restore that full functionality. 9to5Mac

Apple hires yet another veteran TV programming exec for its original content efforts – As part of its growing original content efforts, Apple has hired programming veteran Michelle Lee to join its worldwide video department, as reported by Variety. Lee has previously worked on popular shows for several major networks as a producing partner at Universal Television’s True Jack Productions… 9to5Mac

Nvidia’s $2,999 Titan V is a 110 teraflop GPU for AI processing – Nvidia cards are the de facto standard for running machine learning workloads and today, the company added yet another high-end compute-centric card to its line-up: the Titan V. This card, which is based on Nvidia’s Volta architecture, features 21.1 billion transistors on a 815 mm2 chip that can produce a full 110 teraflops of compute power. Techcrunch

Uber lands investment from Singapore’s largest taxi operator in blow to rival Grab – Uber has struck a major deal in Southeast Asia after ComfortDelGro, Singapore’s largest taxi operator, announced [PDF] it has agreed to buy a majority share of the ride-hailing giant’s Singapore-based car rental business. Techcrunch

Uber reportedly paid a 20-year-old man to keep silent about security breach – A 20-year-old man was responsible for the massive data breach at Uber last year, and the company paid him to destroy the data through its bug bounty program, reports Reuters. In November, Uber revealed it suffered from a cyberattack in October 2016 that exposed the private data of 57 million drivers and customers, which it then covered up. Uber allegedly paid hackers a $100,000 ransom to delete the data and not disclose what had happened to the media and public. The company didn’t say how the hacker was paid, or who he was. The Verge

Bitcoin value tops $16,000 and shows no signs of slowing down – Bitcoin’s track record is a lot like a manic-depressive illness, defined by extremely high peaks and incredibly deep valleys. Judging by its latest rally, the popular cryptocurrency’s volatility isn’t going to normalize anytime soon. Techspot

Intel Nervana processor goes beyond terabit bandwidth with refined architecture – Earlier this year, Intel showed off its research and development efforts to build the Intel Nervana Neural Network Processor. The newly designed chip will far surpass any general-purpose processors for machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. Best yet, it is a product that actually is going to make it to market. Techspot

AirPods will be even more ubiquitous in 2018, says report – Get ready to see even more of those distinctive AirPod stems sticking out of ears everywhere you go next year. Mashable

Windows 7 users are officially dropping like flies – For the first time in a long time, Windows 7 is now being run by less than half of PC users. Only 43.12% still use the eight-year-old operating system, reports TechRadar. Mashable

Every 2018 iPhone model could get a battery boost thanks to this new tech – Hands up who wants more battery life from their smartphone? The good news is that noted mobile analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, of KGI Securities fame, reckons that all three of the 2018 iPhones are going to get a boost in capacity across the board, thanks partly to a new L-shaped battery design. Techradar

10 Tech News Roundup #14

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Uber data breach includes UK users — but it’s still not clear how many – The UK’s digital minister has said the October 2016 data breach that Uber disclosed this week does affect UK users — though it’s still unclear how many are impacted at this stage. Techcrunch

In Israel, a blockchain and crypto hyper-cluster is just getting started – In recent times, it’s Eastern Europe and Russia which have become a hot-bed of crytpocurrency development. But on a recent trip to Tel Aviv, Israel, I took part in what might well turn out to be a historic lunch. Techcrunch

Microsoft confirms Surface Book 2’s power problem – Microsoft’s 15-inch Surface Book 2 laptop suffers from battery drain during heavy gaming or GPU usage, a problem The Verge first identified during our review of the device last week. While plugged into the supplied charger, the battery on the base of the device will drain during certain games if the power settings are set to max performance to fully utilize the power of the hardware. The Verge

Apple’s 2018 iPhones could have 62x faster internet speeds – Now that you’ve had plenty of time to come to grips with the iPhone X’s notch, let’s talk about next year’s iPhone. Yeah, seriously. Mashable

New paper from Apple research scientists dives deeper into work on autonomous systems – Tim Cook has publicly commented on Apple’s work in autonomous systems before, and a new research paper from two Apple research scientists dives deeper into the company’s efforts. The paper explains how Apple is using a combination of LiDAR with other technologies for 3D object detection that represents the future. 9to5mac

Millions of devices could be at risk from Intel Management Engine vulnerabilities – Intel has issued a security advisory over security flaws on its PC, server, and Internet-of-Things processors that make the platforms vulnerable to remote attacks. Mark Ermolov and Maxim Goryachy of Positive Technologies Research identified the issues, and will reveal full details of the Intel Management Engine flaws in a talk at the Black Hat Europe security conference on December 6. Techspot

Intel increases production of Coffee Lake while Ryzen gets cheaper – Following the release of a product change notification, Intel has revealed that it has retrofitted an assembly line for Coffee Lake. Until now, Intel has been producing Coffee Lake CPUs in Malaysia, but will soon be shipping 8th generation i5 and i7 processors from Chengdu, China. Techspot

iMac Pro may feature A10 Fusion coprocessor, always-on Siri voice control – Back at its annual WWDC event in June, Apple revealed that a new iMac Pro model would arrive this December. We were told that “the most powerful Mac” it’s ever built would come in 8-Core, 10-Core, and up to 18-Core Xeon CPU configurations, but it seems Apple left out another detail: the presence of an A10 Fusion coprocessor that may enable always-on Siri functionality. Techspot

Companies Turn Blind Eye to Open Source Security Risks – Many software developers and enterprise users have been lax or oblivious to the need to properly manage open source software, suggest survey results Flexera released Tuesday. Linux Insider

Apple’s HomePod speaker delayed until next year – If you were hoping to buy a HomePod for your honey this holiday season, you’ll have to come up with plan b. CNN