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A daily dose of today's top tech news, in brief.
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You need to hear this.
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Apple announces plan to sell iPhone owners replacement batteries
After a few weeks of slowed down iPhones, angry customers, and the obligatory lawsuits, Apple issued an apology and lowered the price of iPhone replacement batteries from $79 to $29. This week, an internal Apple memo revealed by a French blogger made it clear that this offer is valid to all iPhone owners, even those whose current batteries pass a Genius Bar Diagnostic test.
"Apple has since independently confirmed to MacRumors that it will agree to replace an eligible battery for a $29 fee, regardless of whether an official diagnostic test shows that it is still able to retain less than 80 percent of its original capacity. The concession appears to have been made to mollify the anger of customers stoked by headlines suggesting that Apple artificially slows down older iPhones to drive customers to upgrade to newer models," reported MacRumors.com.
" Anecdotal reports also suggest that customers who paid $79 to have their battery replaced before the new pricing came into effect on Saturday, December 30, will receive a refund from Apple upon request. Please let us know of your own experiences in the comments below."
Cryptovirology, ransomware, and face-hugging aliens: What you need to know
ACM came out with an intriguing look at the history, purpose, and ramifications of cryptovirology by one of its creators. Or at least one of the first academics to tackle the problem of how cryptography can be used to create malicious software. It was first published in July, but it's worth a look if you missed it.
"Cryptovirology was born out of scientific curiosity of what the future may hold for software attacks that merge cryptographic technology with malware. It started at Columbia University as a natural by-product of an unnatural union: a former hacker placed in a room with a cryptographer, both given ample time with which to contemplate the dystopia of tomorrow. Collectively, given our backgrounds, we had amassed a body of highly unconventional scientific problems that hackers face when infiltrating computer systems as well as the foundational cryptography with which to solve those problems."
There really are face-hugging aliens involved, so check it out.
IP addresses leading to wrongful arrests: It could be you
It looks like dependence on IP addresses is also leading to a huge problem: Wrongful arrests of innocent folks.
Burton explains that while "errors and more general problems form a very small percentage of the total activity I inspect," he is "concerned by the increasing number of errors that occur when public authorities try to resolve IP addresses" and that errors are "far more common than is acceptable."
As you may have already concluded, this story takes place in England, but as we all know, "It's a Small World" isn't just a ride at Disneyland. Information technology blurs borders, so this is a development we should all keep an eye on. And maybe start keeping bail money in your sock.
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But there's more going on in the world than that.
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Peter Thiel's Founders Fund bets on BitCoin
Founders Fund, the venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, has amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in the cryptocurrency BitCoin. The firm began investing in BitCoin in mid-2017 and has since seen an explosive return on investment.
"Relatively few mainstream investors have bought large sums of bitcoin, scared off by concerns about cybersecurity and liquidity, as well as more mundane fears of investment losses. Even some of those who do own it are cautious about speaking too publicly, lest they draw the attention of hackers."
What could go wrong?
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And you can't not know this.
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Being a keyboard warrior used to actually be pretty hard
Every generation thinks that things were better back in their day. And for the most part, they're right. But it can't be denied that our keyboard game has improved by leaps and bounds since the personal computer was introduced in the 1970s.
Scroll through this list of a dozen images and descriptions of keyboards from back in the day to better appreciate how good we currently have it. There is an image of 1975's IMSAI 800, a microcomputer that predates most personal computers by a few years, that uses switches instead of a keyboard. Try pulling a Control/Alt/Delete with that setup, please.
Atari, Tandi, and the other big names fighting for the right to one day be bumped off by Microsoft and Apple got really creative when it came to developing the original PCs. But not so much when it came to the keyboards. The keyboards not only often seemed like an afterthought, it would have taken several minutes and incredible finger dexterity to type "afterthought" on many of them.
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