It’s been a while since an iPhone launch genuinely felt like an event, since each new model is only marginally more polished than its predecessor. Not so, says the rumor mill for the iPhone 14, promised to be a ground-up redesign with major changes and new features. The headline tweaks include vastly improved cameras, a punch-hole to replace the notch and an always-on display. But if there’s a sting in this particular tail, it’s the rumor that Apple will save all of these goodies for the Pro model, stiffing the iPhone 14 with last year’s A15 chip.
– Daniel Cooper
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It’s going back indoors for more repairs and testing.
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NASA’s new Space Launch System has suffered yet another high-profile setback as a fuel leak blocked a planned test launch for Artemis 1. The agency conceded it wasn’t possible to launch before the window closes on September 6th. It’s likely the next attempt to get this thing into the air will be in October, but with a planned SpaceX launch due on October 3rd, SLS’ test firing will have to wait until October 17th at the very earliest.
It put private data on a public register.
The Internal Revenue Service has admitted it exposed the details of 120,000 US taxpayers through its website. The issue centered around the filing of Form 990-T, which deals with unrelated income from a variety of sources. Both private individuals and non-profit organizations are required to complete the document, but only the latter is meant to be publicly available. Sadly, a coding error meant 120,000 individual records, which included income data, was on the public register for some time. Affected individuals will be hearing from the IRS in the next few weeks, but the body has already said social security numbers were not shared.
Advertising IDs have, once again, been used as a way to track individuals.
For years, civil rights groups have warned that law enforcement agencies could co-opt the advertising industry’s sophisticated surveillance tools. Fog Reveal, a system police bodies have used to pinpoint people’s locations, is the realization of these dire warnings. The low-cost tool harnesses Advertising ID, a unique identifier smartphones have to help target relevant ads based on a user’s location and browsing history. Of more concern is the data does not require a warrant and can track a person’s movements for up to three years.
Machines you can count on.
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Isn’t it wonderful you no longer have to choose between a beefy gaming PC or an overpriced, underpowered laptop as your dorm room daily driver? These days, you can get great performance on low-cost hardware, solving your price vs. power dilemmas once and for all. If you’re still on the hunt for a machine to get you through college, you should give our expert guide a once-over.
It’s a big moment.
We’ve always understood that while the iPhone is popular and successful, the sheer volume of Android alternatives means it would never become the majority phone platform in the US. Turns out, the received wisdom might be wrong. Analytics firm Counterpoint Research found iPhones now make up the majority of the US smartphone market. Android still remains the worldwide champ, with more than 70 percent of the global share, but it’s a dramatic shift in the US, and a trend analysts believe could be repeated in many more countries over time.
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