Today at WWDC, Apple announced the latest update to its desktop/laptop operating system, and it’s called macOS Sonoma. The update brings features introduced with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, including an upgraded Messages app and new predictive autocorrect functionality. But perhaps the biggest announcement relates to gaming.

Apple says that Apple Silicon made it possible to bring new gaming experiences to the Mac platform. With macOS Sonoma, there’s a new Game Mode that prioritizes CPU and GPU usage for your games to provide more consistent frame rates. The Bluetooth sampling rate has been doubled to help improve support for PlayStation and Xbox controllers. 

A new Gaming Porting Toolkit for developer is designed to help significantly reduce the amount of time required to port games from the PC to Mac. More specifically, a “simpler conversion process” is included for shaders and graphics code in the Metal API. 

To put this new gaming focus into perspective, Metal Gear Solid auteur Hideo Kojima announced on the stream that hs is bringing Death Stranding: Director’s Cut to macOS later this year. The developer is also actively working to bring future titles to macOS. 

Apple is focusing on infusing macOS Sonoma with tools to improve your productivity. Stage Manager has been given a makeover to improve upon its somewhat shaky start in previous macOS versions by making it easier and faster to move between apps (and windows). Video overlay allows you to add AR effects to video, like when sharing your screen. These features are available in all conferencing apps, like Zoom, Teams, etc. You can now share passwords and passkeys to a person or a group from your iCloud keychain. Apple says that this feature is end-to-end encrypted for security.

Safari gains a new Profiles feature that allows you to have different profiles with separate favorites, cookies and extensions (among other settings).

Widgets were previously only available in the Notification Center. Now, you can break them out and place them on your desktop where you wish. (In a way, it is reminiscent of OS X from the early 2000's). For example, you could have Weather and Stocks permanently set on your desktop at all times; they then fade slightly from view when you focus on a new app window. 

MacOS Sonoma arrives this fall, when it will leverage all of the hardware capabilities of the new 15-inch MacBook Air, M2 Ultra Mac Studio and M2 Ultra Mac Pro.

Whether you're looking to sell a MacBook, pass it off to a friend or family member or even recycle it, you'll want to reset your Mac. Doing so will remove any files, log you out of any accounts, clear out your apps and ensure that wherever your MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Mini, iMac or other macOS device doesn't have traces of your information.

The instructions below are primarily for macOS Ventura and later, but we'll list a few tweaks to how to do this on macOS Montere and some older Macs as well.

Just like if you're going to factory reset a Windows PC, back up your data first, whether it's through iCloud, Time Machine or non-Apple service. You don't want to lose anything when you reset your MacBook.

It may also be a good idea to sign out of iMessage, iCloud and other services, though you'll have the opportunity to do this soon. You may even want to unpair Bluetooth devices.

Here's how to reset your MacBook (or other macOS device):

Erase All Content and Settings

This is a step you can take on Macs running on Apple Silicon chips or Intel processors with Apple's T2 chip.It may be enough if you're handing the laptop down to family.

1. On macOS Ventura or later, go to the Apple menu (it's a small Apple logo) in the top-left corner of the screen and click "System Settings."

If you have System Settings in your dock, you can also get there that way.

2. Click "General" and choose "Transfer or Reset."

3. Click "Erase All Content and Settings."

On macOS Monterey, you can go to the Apple menu > System Preferences and then "Erase All Content and Settings" to get to the same place. On macOS versions older than Monterey, you'll have to go straight to reinstalling macOS (see below), but you may want to delete what you can by hand.

4. Enter your password and click "Unlock" in the erase assistant window. Depending on whether you've used Time Machine or not, you may be prompted to back up your Mac now.

5. Click "Continue" to sign out of your Apple ID, remove fingerprints from TouchID, unpair accessories, turn off location sharing and to remove your settings and data.

6. If prompted, enter your Apple ID password to sign out of iCloud and other Apple services.

7. Click "Erase All Content & Settings" to start the erasure process. This is irreversible, so be sure you're ready.

Your Mac will restart, and you'll see the Apple logo with a progress bar. It may restart  including making the startup chime. Your Mac will boot up in the recovery assistant.

8. Connect to a Wi-Fi network using the Wi-Fi icon in the top right corner of the screen, then click "Next." If you have an Ethernet adapter, you can also connect to the internet that way.

When this is done, your Mac will activate and restart.

At this point, you'll be able to set up your MacBook like new, as if you were turning it on for the first time. If you're ready to hand it down, sell it, or trade it in, you can just turn it off.

For most people, this will be enough. But if your Mac doesn't have the Erase All Content and Settings Option (particularly if it's not on macOS Monterey or newer, or is an older Intel Mac), you may have to resort to the nuclear option.

Erase Your MacBook, Reinstall macOS

To reset a MacBook without the "Erase All Content and Settings" option, you'll have to take more drastic steps. Since most Apple Silicon Macs can upgrade to Ventura or later, this is primarily for older Intel Macs without either Apple's processors or T2 security chips.

To erase your MacBook this way, you'll need to go into macOS Recovery and proceed from there. Here's how:

1. Turn on your Mac, and hold Command ⌘ and R until the Apple logo pops up. You may see a progress bar. If you do, it should pass quickly. (If you happen to be doing this on an Apple Silicon machine, instead hold the power button and choose "options" from the menu screen.)

2. Choose "Disk Utility" and click "Continue."

3. In the sidebar, select "Macintosh HD" (unless you've previously changed its name, in which case it will reflect that name).

4. Click "Erase" on the top of the window.

5. Name the volume "Macintosh HD" and choose the format "APFS" or "mac OS Extended (Journaled) — whichever the Disk Utility suggests.

6. Click "Erase Volume Group" (or "Erase" if that is not shown).  When the process is done, click "Done."

7. Enter your Apple ID if prompted to do so.

8. Quit Disk Utility, either through the top menu or by hitting Command ⌘ + Q.

Your MacBook is now erased. If you have other drives in your Mac that may need wiping, you can repeat this process.

You'll be back in macOS Recovery. Now, you need to reinstall macOS on your MacBook: 

9.  Click "Reinstall macOS" and then "Continue." Our image shows macOS Big Sur, but you may be using a different version.

The installer for the version of macOS you were already using will pop up.

10. Click "Continue." You'll have to follow the prompts like you would for any installation, including accepting the terms of service and selecting the drive to install the OS to (most MacBooks will only have the one.)

The installation may take awhile and include at least one reboot, if not more. The first boot up may take a bit longer than expected.

Your Mac will reboot, leaving you with a pristine MacBook (or desktop) with just the OS on it, ready to be set up as if it were the first time. Now it's suitable for a fresh start or a new owner. You can hold down the power button to shut it off, and you're ready to go.

If you're a current Amazon Drive customer, you might want to think about offloading your files from the cloud service sooner rather than later. Amazon just sent out an email informing customers that the service will be discontinued on December 31, 2023, giving you just over a year to get your affairs in order.

"Over the last 11 years, Amazon Drive has served as a secure cloud storage service for Amazon customers to back up their files," said Amazon in the email sent to current Amazon Drive customers. "On December 31, 2023, we will no longer support Amazon Drive to more fully focus our efforts on photos and video storage with Amazon Photos."

For those unfamiliar with Amazon Drive, it enables every Amazon customer to upload 5GB of files for free. In the case of Amazon Drive, customers can securely store photos, videos, and documents in the cloud. PC and Mac users can upload and download files to Amazon Drive using a web browser, while Android and iOS users can interface with the service using an app.

While 5GB of storage is provided for free, Amazon offers paid tiers starting at $1.99/month for 100GB on up to $11.99/month for 2TB of Amazon Drive storage. 

"We will continue to provide customers the ability to safely back up, share, and organize photos and videos with Amazon Photos," Amazon continued in its email. Amazon Photos is similar in concept to Amazon Drive, except that it only allows customers to upload photos and video. 

One perk of Amazon Photos is that customers with a Prime membership can access unlimited photo storage. On the other hand, Prime members are limited to just 5GB of free video storage. If you want to increase your Amazon Photos video storage with a Prime membership, additional storage starts at $1.99/month for 100GB.

With the impending demise of Amazon Drive, it's probably a good time to look at alternative cloud storage solutions for your documents like Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox, or iCloud Drive (if you're an Apple user).

Fortnite is making a return to the iPhone in the form of a limited-time, closed beta streamed over Nvidia GeForce Now. However, it's not a full return to form for the game, which Apple yanked from the App Store in August 2020 for using alternative payment services other than Apple's own.

This version of the game is designed for smartphones and other mobile devices, including touch controls. Beyond iOS, it will also be available in the GeForce Now Android app. Android owners previously had access to the desktop version of Fortnite over GeForce Now, but the mobile version was also axed from the Play Store in August 2020 for violating Google's policies. Android, however, allows side-loading apps, and some alternative stores allow Fortnite.

You need an Nvidia GeForce Now account to try the beta yourself, but it does not need to be a paid tier. You can go to this page to join the waitlist for entry, though Nvidia is warning that "invitations to join will be limited and admission to the beta is not guaranteed." Nvidia will allow groups of players into the beta over the coming weeks.

Nvidia said in a blog post that the Fortnite beta would be the first of many touch games on the service. "We're working with additional publishers to add more touch-enabled games to GeForce NOW," it reads. "And look forward to more publishers streaming full PC versions of their games to mobile devices with built-in touch support — reaching millions through the Android app and iOS Safari devices."

To stream games on iOS, Nvidia can't put its own app in the App Store. Nvidia, along with Google's Stadia, Amazon's Luna and Microsoft's xCloud, must stream games through the Safari web browser. Otherwise, Apple's guidelines state that to have a streaming game through the App store, each game has to be submitted individually for review. "Of course, there is always the open Internet and web browser apps to reach all users outside of the App Store," the guidelines read.

Epic Games fought with both Apple and Google over sharing its profits to host its game on their stores. There aren't any details on what Epic's deal with Nvidia may look like, but GeForce now is different from, say, Stadia in that it doesn't sell the games: it's simply renting hardware that can play it remotely.

Currently, GeForce Now is the only game streaming service where players can find Fortnite, and only in beta. It's unclear exactly how limited the beta is or when it will be available widely on GeForce Now for iOS and Android. But as someone who still has the last version of the Fortnite app before it was kicked off the App Store on his phone, it's a welcome idea. It's pretty empty in there otherwise.

There has  been lots of talk about the future of gaming being in the cloud, streaming from a service like Microsoft's xCloud streaming, Google Stadia or Nvidia's GeForce Now with servers around the world. But ahead of CES 2022, Alienware has a slightly different plan: streaming up to four games at once from a powerful computer in your home.

The idea of the concept is that multiple gamers live in a home, and that they will all want to stream games to whatever device they choose, whether it's a smart TV, tablet, laptop or a big gaming desktop. Rather than all trying to stream at once from the cloud and clogging up the internet bandwidth, they can stream games over Wi-Fi from a server in the home.

In Alienware's demo, this was a big Alienware-branded box. It's unclear if this is what a final product would look like. A company representative launched Cyberpunk 2077 and moved it between a smart TV, a laptop, and a PC with a monitor, and each time it picked up in the right spot. 

Soon after, another demonstrator launched Rocket League and played simultaneously. They ultimately both moved it to the same TV and played the two games in split screen side by side, though that made for two particularly small screens. The company said it has gotten to as many as four games streaming simultaneously in the lab. Notably, there was no discussion of performance promises, including resolution, frames per second or other measurements. Alienware didn't detail what components were powering the Concept box. But it’s clear for something like this that you’ll want one of the best gaming routers to make sure your home network is up for all this.

It's unclear if Concept Nyx has the ability to hook up to a display and run as a completely local client. 

The demo unit had an application that lets you pick from a library of games. It wasn't specified if those came from PC launchers, like Steam and the Epic Game Store.

As a concept, Alienware hasn't committed to a release date or even a final product for this device. In a release, parent company Dell's CTO for its client solutions group, Glen Robson, wrote that the company will "further develop Concept Nyx" and that it wants to "use each step forward to benefit future products."

A UFO Easter Egg

The demo also pointed towards a previous concept: the Concept UFO gaming handheld. The controllers that the demonstrators used with the smart TV were the same ones we saw when that concept was unveiled in January 2020. 

Additionally, throughout the space, there were some other very early controller concepts that showed different layouts. Alienware was silent about what they represent, exactly, and whether those were designs for upcoming controllers or perhaps something you could customize yourself.

Following its announcement during Gamescom earlier this year, Microsoft has finally begun to roll out Xbox Cloud Gaming for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles. The beta service will allow users to play titles from the Xbox Game Pass cloud library without directly downloading them. The feature will also seamlessly let users play any available game together, even if one friend doesn't own the title.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is available to anyone with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription that lives in one of the 25 regions Microsoft decided to launch first. According to Microsoft, the rollout will begin this month "to a subset of Xbox gamers and scale to all gamers in supported markets over the coming weeks." Brazil can expect support for the service "coming soon."

Xbox One users will experience specific next-generation titles only available for Xbox Series X|S through the service, such as Recompile, The Medium, and The Riftbreaker. In addition, Microsoft says Flight Simulator isn't available yet but will arrive on the cloud game library in early 2022.

Allowing older Xbox consoles access to next-generation titles only enforces Microsoft's aim of letting consumers experience its software via the cloud, no matter the limitations. Xbox Cloud Gaming, originally dubbed Project xCloud, was initially released in April as an invite-only beta for iOS and PC before Game Pass Ultimate subscribers gained access in June.

Microsoft has provided several innovative ways to play some of the latest titles without a current console. It appears the company isn't pressuring its users to upgrade hardware any time soon to play its exclusive games, and given the current climate of snagging products at retail, that's a good thing.

Valve's upcoming Steam Deck sees your entire Steam library in the palm of your hands. A dream come true for many gamers but there is a possibility, brought to light by Microsoft's Xbox head Phil Spencer, that Microsoft's xCloud may also be an option.

Microsoft's Own Xbox head Phil Spencer teased the news via a tweet, after a visit to Valve, and speaking to company luminaries Gabe Newell, Erik Johnson and Scott Lynch. In the tweet, Spencer talks of playing Halo and Age (of Empires) and then states that "xCloud works well" before congratulating the Steam Deck team. So has Spencer played those games on xCloud or Steam? For now this a mystery.

Microsoft's xCloud is a game stream service that offloads processing towards Microsoft's Xbox Series X server blades (the company finished the hardware upgrade from Xbox One S consoles back in July) - and then delivers it to your platform of choice. xCloud is currently available via the Xbox app on Android and PC, or via a browser solution - this browser solution was likely the one used to test the Steam Deck with, since it was designed to enable streaming to almost any device featuring a strong-enough internet connection.

While this isn't an official feature confirmation, the fact that xCloud has already been tested on the Steam Deck - and well enough at that, according to Phil Spencer - is a genie that can't be put back inside the proverbial bottle. Microsoft of course wants as many devices as possible to support their xCloud streaming, serving Microsoft's "Play Anywhere" vision - whilst at the same time enticing ever more users towards the Microsoft gaming ecosystem, whether via direct software purchases or via subscription of Microsoft's "Netflix of games" Game Pass Ultimate, which includes access to the xCloud service.

Microsoft has today announced that the company is finally pushing Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is in beta, to the Xbox app for Windows. More specifically, it is available for Xbox insiders.

Microsoft's xCloud project is a game streaming service powered by Xbox consoles in the company's data centers. Currently, over 100 games are supported if you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions.

Today's announcement allows Microsoft to finally give Xbox Insider program users the ability to run the xCloud gaming service on their Xbox App. Beforehand, PC players had to use the browser. The same games that Microsoft makes available on the browser will be available in the "cloud games" portion of the Xbox app.

Jason Beaumont, partner director of Xbox experiences, wrote that the Xbox app will provide some feature to differentiate it from the browser, "including
easy-to-access information on controller and network status, social features to stay connected with friends, and the ability to invite people – even those also playing on cloud without the game installed – to join you in a game."

The Xbox Cloud Gaming service allows gamers to stream more than 100 games. Whether you have an older machine, or the latest PC without a strong GPU, all you need is a compatible controller and internet connection to run the service.

In case you are not part of the Xbox Insider Program, you can check out this website to get information on how you can access the xCloud service on your device. In case you are not a part of the supported 22 countries listed on the website here, you would have to wait until Microsoft rolls out the service to your region as well.

Apple's WWDC event always feels like roulette when it comes to whether or not the company will announce any new devices or big software updates. For the past few weeks, rumors have been swirling that Apple might announce new MacBooks or the follow-up to its successful M1 chip today, but that didn't turn out to be the case. We did get news on the latest incarnation of MacOS, called Monterey, but the rest of today's stream was mostly spent on new iOS and iPadOS features (many of which are already present in Android).

Monterey, the latest version of MacOS, was today's biggest announcement outside of the mobile space, although it's not shaping up to be as major of an update as last year's Big Sur. It mostly focuses on bringing continuity across your MacBook and other Apple devices, including the ability to control an iMac, iPad and iPhone all with your MacBook's keyboard and touchpad (or vice versa, presumably). It'll also introduce new features that are coming to iOS and iPadOS to MacOS devices, but these are the most concrete details we know for now.

Apple did discuss that it's going to be moving away from Automator and towards interspersing manual task shortcuts throughout the OS. Sort of like Windows Tiles, these shortcuts will let you open different apps from panels, but they'll also take the form of buttons that show up in other programs and let you easily perform certain tasks. For instance, you might be able to make a gif straight from a photo editing program with a shortcut. It's unclear exactly how intrusive or useful these shortcuts will be, especially since Apple said Automator would still be supported.

Safari is also getting tab groups, similar to the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox, and will also add Chrome Sync-like features to allow you to browse more easily across your MacBook and your iPhone (which will also get a tab redesign).

Speaking of iPhones, iOS 15 is adding a bunch of new features to the device, mostly focused around sharing content. These include spatial audio that tries to cancel ambient noise around you on video calls, plus grid and portrait mode options for FaceTime. FaceTime is also getting links you can send to participants that they can click on to join future calls, much like Zoom or Google Meet.

What's more interesting are the new content-sharing features. Facetime will now let users watch content from a streaming app together, each having control of the play and pause functions for perfect, automatic syncing. This also applies to music, plus FaceTime will be adding screensharing support as well. While we don't normally cover phones, these functions are worth nothing as they will be coming to MacOS, too. 

Aside from these features, there was a lot of talk about privacy promises, more niche updates like changes to iCloud (iCloud+) and the health app, and sections covering Apple Watch and smart home devices. Plus, iOS will be introducing translation features and other quality-of-life changes that are similar to what's already on other platforms.

But if, like me, you were hoping for more substantial information on what's next for Apple Hardware, you're going to have to wait a little longer. Still, if you want to check out any of these OS changes, a limited developer beta starts today and a public beta starts next month.

It's no secret that Xbox has been pushing its cloud gaming service, Project xCloud, for the better half of 2020. The service gives gamers access to a vast selection of Xbox games, which are currently playable on the go via an Android device. Microsoft has announced via blog post that is now set to expand that offering to both iOS devices and the PC in 2021 and will be bundled with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Earlier in November 2020, Xbox had announced that Project xCloud would make its way over to iOS devices, the iPad and iPhone, and released a limited beta. I actually was able to give it a try, and while the interface was buggy, as most betas are, it was an enjoyable experience. It played games like a champ, assuming my internet connection was solid. I can see this making fans of iOS very happy when this gets released. 

There were concerns on how this would be made possible, as Apple has a tight grip on its ecosystem and what applications are hosted in the Apple Store. To get around this, Project xCloud on iOS will be playable via web browsers.

That's not the only place that Project xCloud is headed to, as Xbox is bringing it to the PC as well. It was leaked earlier in 2020 that the cloud gaming service would also arrive on the platform. However, nothing was officially confirmed until now. Microsoft joins other companies have launched their own cloud gaming services for the PC, including Shadow, GeForce Now, and PlayStation Now. 

We've already seen Project xCloud running on Windows, on an Arm-Powered Surface X Pro, thanks to Windows Central. While it was buggy, the folks over at Windows Central came away impressed with what Project xCloud was able to do. 

This is also great for those who want to play all these exciting and visually amazing games but don't have access to either an Xbox or PC capable of gaming. It's a great way for Xbox to expand its ecosystem, though something tells me that they're already aware of that. 

"Whatever screen you choose, we want to make it easy to continue your game and connect with your friends," said Microsoft in its blog post.

Xbox Cloud Gaming is currently available for Android devices, included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and is priced at $14.99 monthly, $44.99 for 3-months, or $89.99 for 6-months. If you're new to the service, you can snag 3 months of the service for just $1! 

Today, GeForce Now became the first publicly available cloud gaming service to officially support iOS devices, but there’s a catch - you’ll only be able to play through the Safari browser, rather than a dedicated app. That’s also the solution that Microsoft will be using for iOS support of its xCloud service sometime next year, and Google announced today that it’s planning a similar iOS web app expansion for Stadia in the coming weeks.

It’s currently in beta, but starting today, you can now access GeForce Now from the iPhone and iPad versions of the Safari browser. There is one limitation, though. For now, you’ll have to use one of the service's supported controllers, like the Xbox One controller or the mobile-first Razer Kishi, since "keyboard and mouse-only games aren't available." But Nvidia is otherwise promising full featured game streaming, barring potential beta issues. This includes RTX ray-tracing and Nvidia DLSS super-sampling.

This marks a first for cloud gaming on iOS. The App Store currently bans game streaming services like GeForce Now, xCloud and Stadia from the app store unless they submit every game on their platforms for app store review and subject them to Apple’s 30% app store commission. Customers would also have to download each game individually, even if they’re played off the cloud. Of course, not every company’s willing to jump through those hoops. 

“This remains a bad experience for customers,” Microsoft told The Verge earlier this September. “Gamers want to jump directly into a game from their curated catalog within one app just like they do with movies or songs, and not be forced to download over 100 apps to play individual games from the cloud.”

Nvidia’s solution isn’t exactly novel, but it is among the first to offer it to users. Amazon launched Luna, which is currently in early trials, with a web app as well. Earlier this October, Business Insider also reported that Microsoft told employees to expect xCloud to wind up on iOS via browser within 2021, and Google announced today that it’s also planning to bring Stadia to iOS as a web app in the “coming weeks.”

The elephant in the room here is Fortnite, which Apple pulled from iOS earlier this August after Epic introduced an in-app payment system that bypassed the typical App Store commission. Epic is now in a legal battle with Apple over the App Store that might change how games and services like GeForce Now release on iOS even further down the line, but for now, Nvidia’s workaround means the popular shooter will be coming back to iOS soon. And, unlike the rest of GeForce Now’s iOS-compatible catalog, you’ll be able to play it without a controller.

“Alongside the amazing team at Epic Games, we’re working to enable a touch-friendly version of Fortnite,” Nvidia said in its GeForce Now on Safari announcement post. “Members can look for the game on iOS Safari soon."

GeForce Now on Safari actually isn’t the first time Nvidia’s brought it’s cloud gaming solution to browsers, either. The service is also currently available on Chrome, though only if you’re using a Chromebook.

None of this is ideal, nor is hardware really the issue here so much as App Store rules. But with Nvidia saying that 10% of its user base currently plays on Chromebook, maybe it’s a sign that we can expect services like this to expand to even more devices and distribution methods in the near future. 

While Microsoft's Project xCloud game streaming platform is already available for Android devices, we've known that the company is also working on a Windows 10 version. What isn't know is when we can expect it to arrive, and this has been a question on the minds of PC gamers whose systems don't have enough power to play more demanding titles.

And while we still don't know when xCloud for the PC will be released, we can now at least see Project xCloud in action, thanks to Windows Central. Earlier today, the outlet released a short YouTube video that looks at Project xCloud running on Windows 10.

Interestingly, the video details xCloud running on a Microsoft Surface X Pro, which happens to be powered by an Arm processor, not a conventional x86 processor. When it comes to PC gaming, the market is dominated by x86, and the only way to play just about any PC game on the market with an Arm processor is to emulate x86. 

Seeing Project xCloud playing a game that wouldn't be possible with the Surface X Pro is amazing in its own right. This means that if Microsoft continues to use ARM in upcoming hardware, it will be a viable option for gaming for Project xCloud.

While I don't have access to Project xCloud for Windows, I did enjoy a lengthy hands-on with the mobile beta before it went public. I see that a lot of the features in the mobile version made it into the Windows version. 

This makes me believe that this is some cobbled version of Project xCloud. Especially towards the end of the video, where we see the touch screen controls. Granted, if you played on a Surface X Pro like Zac Bowden is doing in this video, then sure, touch screen controls are possible. I'd imagine that most PC gamers, even those with touch screens, would want to use a keyboard or a gamepad/controller. Now I'm curious to see if I can give this a spin and manage to do the same.

For everyone else who's waiting on Project xCloud for Windows, you can check it out now for mobile devices. Just keep in mind that the service requires a good internet and WiFi connection. If you're using an older router or access point in your home, it could interfere with the proper operation of Project xCloud.  

If you’ve been looking for a way to play demanding PC games without buying new hardware, Nvidia has your solution. After years in public beta, the company’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service is officially launching today with both free and paid tiers. GeForce Now has a huge leg up on more well-known competitors such as Google Stadia and Microsoft Project xCloud, because it supports hundreds of popular titles, including free-to-play games such as Fortnite, Apex Legends and Destiny 2.

GeForce Now has been in public beta since 2017, with more than 300,000 users allowed into the free program, which allows you to play games you already own (or buy for this purpose). As of today, any user on the Internet can register and take advantage of the free edition, which allows you to connect to the cloud service for up to an hour per session. If you sign up for the Founder’s membership, which costs $4.99 per month, you can play for up to six hours in a row and you’ll get priority access to the servers. The first three months of a Founder’s plan are free so there’s no reason right now to go with the free tier.

How it Works 

Having priority access to the GeForce Now servers really matters, because in my experience using the service in beta extensively in 2019, the cloud service often failed to connect or denied me entry because too many people were logged on at once. 

Founder members also have the ability to play games with RTX ray tracing turned on. GeForce Now currently supports a number of ray tracing titles including Metro Exodus and Wolftenstein Youngblood, though Battlefield V and Control were not in the database of available titles at press time.

Unlike Stadia, which only supports a handful of games, GeForce Now supports over 1,000 titles, with more being added all the time. The service doesn’t come with any games, but will run those you buy (or have bought) on Steam, Epic, Uplay or Battle.net — note that Origin, GoG, Microsoft Store and other launchers are not presently supported. Compare that to Stadia which has only about three dozen games right now.

Of the 1,000-plus titles, several hundred are "instant access," which means that they are always available to launch (and are up-to-date) on Nvidia's servers. The rest are single-session installs, which means that you need to have the system reinstall them every time you start a new session.

The minimum hardware requirements for GeForce Now are so low that you can run it on even the cheapest Windows computer. To run on a PC, you need any dual-core or better CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a GPU that can handle DirectX 11, which even low-end, integrated graphics processors support. You can also run the cloud gaming service on Macs that date back as far as 2009 or on Android devices. To play on your TV, you can use one of Nvidia’s own Android-powered Shield set-top boxes.

The one catch (which applies to all cloud streaming services) is that you need a stable Internet connection that’s at least 15 Mbps, which operates over either Wi-Fi 5 (aka 802.11ac) or higher wireless, or Ethernet. The service is unlikely to work well over 4G and you need to have really good Wi-Fi coverage.

How it Plays 

During 2019, I tested GeForce Now at my house over the course of several months in 2019, with a 75 Mbps Internet connection and an 802.11ac router. It often took a while to get a connection and often I would get messages saying I had a poor connection and the sharp images in games would blur. This weekend, I tested again briefly, using both a PC laptop and an Android tablet, and the image quality was solid, but some of my connection attempts failed and I had to re-try to get in.

I tried again at my office this week, connecting via 802.11ac to a line that had more than 140 Mbps up and down, but each time I connected, I had to wait a long time for a connection test and I got a warning message telling me that my connection was spotty, the same warning I was getting at home. I chose the option to Continue despite the warnings and, though games were playable, they were often blurry and laggy.

I fired up a game of Metro Exodus and the images kept blurring and sharpening. According to Fraps, frame rates ranged from 60 fps (when nothing was happening) down to a jerky 15 fps at times, but most often when I was walking around they were in the 30 to 40 fps range. 

The experience felt both jerky and blurry, but didn't get noticeably  worse when I turned on RTX . However, with the general darkness and bluriness, there was no way to see if ray tracing was working. Eventually, the game stopped and I got a message saying "The game stopped due to a spotty connection."

Having used the service on two different Internet connections (home and work) that otherwise achieve high speeds, I am concerned that the connection problems were not on my end but Nvidia's. I tested primarily with my Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (6th Gen), a Samsung tablet and, over the summer, with Nvidia's Shield TV. However, now that the product is out of beta, I'm going to keep trying it and use it on more devices and networks to see if my experience is representative or not.

With the new session length rules and prioritization system, hopefully it will be easier to get a good connection to GeForce Now. However, with just one hour of session time for free accounts, anyone who’s even remotely serious about gaming will want to get the Founder membership with its 6-hour limit. 

Nvidia says that there will be no waiting period for starting a new session so, if you’ve gotten through 6 hours and want to start again, you can connect again right away. To help you remember to save before you get kicked off, there will be on-screen warnings that start 40 minutes before you reach your session time limit.

Bottom Line

If you can get a strong connection and maintain it, GeForce Now is really impressive.  It allowed my son and I to play games ranging from Lego D.C. Villains to Metro Exodus on devices that should have no business playing any kind of game. My ThinkPad X1 Carbon is an ultrabook with integrated Intel graphics, but with GeForce Now, it can be a gaming rig. 

Lego Worlds doesn’t exist for Android, but my son was able to run the PC version of it on his low-end Samsung Tab A tablet, without a hitch. When using GeForce Now on a mobile device, you can either use an on-screen controller, or pair your device with a real Bluetooth  controller. It almost goes without saying, but we found that using an XBox One controller was preferable to using the on-screen one.

Of the current crop of cloud gaming services, GeForce Now seems like the most versatile, because of its broad device and software support.  Provided that Nvidia's Servers and your Internet connection get along, you can game on just about any device, allowing people who don’t have the latest discrete graphics to get high frame rates and even ray tracing. Even if you have a good gaming PC at home, GeForce Now could let you play your favorite titles on your phone or non-gaming laptop.

The New York Times reported that FBI General Counsel Dana Boente sent a letter to Apple asking the company to unlock the two encrypted iPhones of Second Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani of the Saudi Royal Air Force, who authorities believe  shot three sailors at Naval Air Station Pensacola in December 2019. 

This confrontation could turn into a new test case in which either Apple will have to unlock the devices or the FBI will have to retreat once again, as it did in two previous cases. In the San Bernardino case, the agency was forced to admit that it had other ways to unlock the devices, and the judge sided with Apple in a New York case.

The FBI has confirmed the existence of the new letter to Apple. The agency had checked internally and with other intelligence agencies to see if there was a way to unlock the device without Apple’s help, but the response came back negative, according to someone familiar with the investigation.

Apple’s previous argument against the FBI’s criticism was that it can give the FBI “all the data in its possession” (meaning any messages and files that were backed up to iCloud, or related services metadata, as those don’t use end-to-end encryption), but only the owner of the device can decrypt the local phone’s data. As Alshamrani is now dead, that most likely means that nobody will be able to unlock the data. 

The FBI now claims it doesn’t want an encryption backdoor (at least for now), but instead simply wants Apple to open the devices for the agency, according to the NYT report. However, Apple has also said the only way to unlock a device’s data is to put all iOS devices at risk by creating a compromised version of its operating system. 

The company recently renewed its pitch to protect user privacy to the best of its ability. The company has been working on end-to-end encrypted cloud backups for a couple of years now, too, but so far it has kept that technology unused. It’s not clear if that’s so it doesn’t draw more criticism from the U.S. or other governments. 

Attorney General William P. Barr recently attacked Facebook’s efforts to switch Facebook and Instagram chat services to WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption, so Apple may want to avoid similar attacks for now. So far, Facebook has ignored the government's threats, and is said to be moving ahead with its encryption plans.

It's open season on Apple products. As spotted by 9to5Mac, the company has opened up its bug bounty program to the public, and it's offering payouts of up to $1.5 million for severe vulnerabilities that can be exploited without user interaction.

The company's bug bounty program was previously invitation-only and the payouts were lower than they are now. Both decisions were criticized by the security community, as discouraging the responsible disclosure of serious vulnerabilities could prompt researchers to profit off their discoveries in far less benevolent ways. 

Selling exploits for Apple products could still be more lucrative than disclosing them via this program — there's always going to be a market for effective hacks targeting popular devices. But now it's easier for security researchers to don white hats instead of black ones. 

Apple's bug bounty program pays between $100,000 for low-priority vulnerabilities, such as "unauthorized access to iCloud account data on Apple Servers," and $1 million for "zero-click kernel code execution with persistence and kernel PAC bypass." Researchers are given a 50% bonus for issues with beta software releases.

In addition to the funds given to developers, Apple will donate the same amount to qualifying charities, which are listed at Benevity. More information about Apple's bug bounty program can be found on its dedicated website. It explains who's eligible for the program, what each payout tier is and how developers should submit reports.

It doesn't usually take long for people to report problems with Windows 10 updates. That doesn't mean all of the problems will be found right away, though, and Windows Latest reported yesterday that Windows 10 updates released on October 8 and October 15 have been causing more issues for their users than anyone thought.

We already knew about some problems with the KB4517389 update, which broke the Start menu and Edge web browser. 

But now several posts on the Microsoft community forum claim that installing the update leads to the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) because of a proxy driver used by OneDrive, iCloud and other cloud services. Uninstalling the applications those services rely on is said to resolve the issue, but that kind of defeats the purpose of these cloud-based storage offerings. People want their files to be available on every device they own; losing access to them on their PC because of a problem with a Windows 10 cumulative update isn't ideal.

An issue with KB4517389 affecting VBRUN300.DLL reportedly leads to apps coded in Visual Basic 3 to fail with the error message "unexpected error; quitting." That issue is less pressing, considering Microsoft released Visual Basic 3 in 1993. 

KB4517389 wasn't the only Windows 10 update experiencing problems. Windows Latest said the KB4520062 update released on October 15 has also broken Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). 

Microsoft at least recognized this problem in a support document related to the KB4520062 update.

"After installing this update, the Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) service might stop running and might fail to send reporting data. You might also receive a 0xc0000409 error in Event Viewer in MsSense.exe. [...] Note Microsoft Windows Defender Antivirus is not affected by this issue," it said. 

Microsoft is "working on a resolution." And said it thinks a solution will be available mid-November (although, there's no guarantee that next update won't break some other aspect of Windows.) 

In the meantime, Microsoft suggested "that "devices in an affected environment do not install this optional non-security update." 

Security firm Morphisec identified a zero-day bug in Apple’s Software Update utility that comes packaged with iTunes for Windows. The flaw allowed attackers to install ransomware on vulnerable machines.

Apple Programmers Make Coding Error

According to the researchers, the attackers used an "unquoted path" to install ransomware and remain undetected. An unquoted service path vulnerability is created when a service has an executable path with spaces and isn’t enclosed within quotes. This often happens when the developer forgets to enclose the file path within the quotation marks.

The attackers abused this flaw to create malicious child processes underneath trusted and digitally-signed parent processes. This allowed them to bypass antivirus protection because this sort of behavior isn’t generally regarded as unsafe by antivirus vendors due to all the potential false alarms it could otherwise create.

The unquoted path bug is not often seen in the wild, but it’s been found in other popular pieces of software, too, such as Intel’s graphics driver, ExpressVPN, and ForcePointVPN. The reason it doesn’t often happen is because programmers are usually well aware of it. However, the flaw somehow landed in one of Apple’s most used software libraries.

Apple also repeated one of Zoom’s recent mistakes, and that is to leave the update utility installed on users’ machines, even if the users uninstall the main software. The researchers found that although the iTunes software had been uninstalled on many machines years ago, the update utility remained, thus leaving users exposed to this sort of zero-day attack. 

Bug Exploited In The Wild To Install BitPaymer Ransomware

The bug isn’t just theoretical, as the Morphisec researchers found the attackers were using it to install the BitPaymer ransomware on the Windows machines of an unidentified automotive company as recently as this August. 

The exploit allowed attackers to execute a malicious file called "Program," which may have already existed on the automotive company’s network. The file didn’t use an .exe extension, which also allowed it to avoid antivirus scanners. 

Apple’s update utility was attempting to run from “Program Files,” but instead it ran the malicious "Program" file, because Apple didn’t enclose its software’s file path within quotation marks.

Morphisec notified Apple immediately about the bug in August. The company patched the flaw on Monday in both iTunes 12.10.1 for Windows and iCloud for Windows 7.14. Morphisec complained on its website that Apple has yet to patch other similar bugs that the security firm has already reported to Apple.

Microsoft hasn’t exactly been shy about its ambitions for Xbox-as-a-platform. The company made it clear that it wants Xbox games to be available on all kinds of devices, from consoles to smartphones, when it announced Project xCloud in October 2018. Now a Game Developers Conference (GDC) session listing has revealed that it wants Xbox Live to power multiplayer gaming across iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PC devices.

Saying that’s a significant expansion of Xbox Live would be an understatement. The platform is currently a one-stop-shop for multiplayer gaming on Xbox; it enables multiplayer in most games, offers leaderboards, and provides various social tools as well. It even has companion apps for smartphones and PCs. But it’s still primarily meant for Xbox consoles; the expansion outlined in the notes for this GDC session would change that.

Microsoft acknowledged that shift in the session listing when it said that “Xbox Live is about to get MUCH bigger” (emphasis theirs) by “expanding from 400M gaming devices and a reach to over 68M active players to over 2B devices.” Nearly half a billion devices isn’t anything to sneeze at, but quadrupling that number to reach 2 billion devices by supporting additional devices would make Xbox Live the most expansive platform around.

This follows increased emphasis on cross-play from game devs and console makers alike. (With the exception of Sony, which had to be all-but-forced to support cross-play in Fortnite after intense criticism throughout 2018, and whose PlayStation is notably absent from Xbox Live’s expansion.) Microsoft and Nintendo in particular have been pushing the idea that people should be able to play together no matter what console they use.

It makes sense, then, for Microsoft to make supporting cross-play easier on game developers by expanding Xbox Live. The platform has already been established, and even people who haven’t used it before should be able to quickly grok how it works. Those who have used it, meanwhile, will probably like having a unified platform across every device they own instead of having to use several near-but-not-quite-identical services.

There is one caveat that’s sure to disappoint PC gamers: Microsoft said the new Xbox Live SDK will “enable game developers to connect players between iOS, Android, and Switch in addition to Xbox and any game in the Microsoft Store on Windows PCs.” Restricting the platform to games purchased via the Microsoft Store is a bit of a letdown—there are simply too many other storefronts for people to exclusively use Microsoft’s. (Especially now that Epic’s in on the action.)

For anyone willing to accept that limitation—which likely includes many people who mostly play games on their phones or dedicated consoles—Xbox Live’s expansion will be something to watch out for. More information should be available when Microsoft makes its presentation at GDC 2019, which runs from March 18-22 in San Francisco, and when the new SDK debuts. There’s no doubt cross-play is the future; the question Microsoft has to answer is if the new Xbox Live SDK and Project xCloud will be the foundation upon which that future is built.

Code found in a Steam Beta update suggests that Valve and Microsoft are planning to improve cross-play between PCs and Xbox One consoles. The code refers to Xbox-related networking features, which could mean a future version of Steam will make it easier for devs to enable cross-play.

Valve hasn't officially acknowledged the code in question, but it wouldn't be surprising to learn that it's collaborating with Microsoft to help bridge the gap between PC and Xbox players. Microsoft has spent the last few years unifying the platforms by introducing Xbox Play Anywhere, making an Xbox Windows 10 app and revealing initiatives like Project xCloud that will allow people to stream Xbox titles regardless of what device they own.

It would make sense for the unification of these platforms to continue with additional cross-play support. But even though it sells games via the Microsoft Store on Windows 10, it's doubtful Microsoft could accomplish much on its own. Too many people use alternative marketplaces, from mainstays like Steam and GOG to newcomers like Discord and Epic Games, for Microsoft to make a meaningful change without some assistance.

That's where Valve comes in. Competitive game marketplaces have been targeting Steam for years, but most have simply managed to live alongside it, not replace it. Steam also offers features to make it easier for developers to include controller support in their games, offer multiplayer game modes or accomplish many other things besides. Valve's offering is as close as PC gaming comes to having a unified platform.

The game industry is trending towards cross-play. Microsoft and Nintendo have more fully embraced the concept when compared to Sony, which objected to letting PlayStation 4 owners play with people who own other consoles, at least until the backlash from its stance reached a fever pitch. But even Sony had previously committed to letting PS4 owners play with PC and mobile gamers. (No word yet on the Switch doing the same.)

We've reached out to Valve to see if the company might offer more information about the Steam Beta update and will update this story if it responds. And it's worth remembering this is an update to the beta version of Steam--this could be something the company tests but never actually releases to the public. With the way things are trending, however, enabling native cross-play between Steam and Xbox seems more than likely.

Add one more problem to the Windows 10 October 2018 Update pile. After issues with deleting data, now it seems the update also broke iCloud.

At least the Windows 10 October 2018 Update isn't compatible with Apple's cloud service right now. According to 9to5Mac, numerous people have reported problems with iCloud after updating to the latest version of Windows 10, and Microsoft has even blocked the update from rolling out to people who already have iCloud installed. (Just like it's not allowing folks with certain Trend Micro apps or AMD graphics cards to update their systems either.)

9to5Mac said that some people who already have iCloud installed on their systems have reported issues with "Photos syncing and other features." Microsoft said on its support page that the issue lies with Shared Albums, which allow iCloud users to privately send photos and videos to other people. It's not clear what the exact problem is, how it persisted even after the operating system update was delayed a month, or when it will be fixed.

People who attempt to install the latest version of iCloud (7.7.0.27) are reportedly shown an error message claiming the app "requires Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 (April 2018 Update) and earlier." This means that people attempting to install iCloud on a new system right after downloading the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, for example, won't be able to access the service without having to resort to a web browser.

Problems with iCloud probably aren't the end of the world for most Windows 10 users. But this is just the latest example of something with the Windows 10 October 2018 Update going wrong, and unless people are using Arm-powered laptops or raring to experience ray tracing for themselves, at this point it seems wiser not to install the update just yet. Maybe wait until the namesake year is wrong as well, just to be on the safe side.

Microsoft isn't content to let other companies bring gaming into the streaming era alone. The company introduced a successful "Netflix for games" with Xbox Game Pass, then revealed the upcoming Project xCloud service that promises to stream Xbox games to all kinds of devices. This week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that expanding Xbox Game Pass to Windows 10 will be a "big element" of Microsoft's plans for gaming.

Here's what Nadella said in an earnings call:

"Xbox has the key gaming community and the monetization capabilities. Whether it's first-party games or third-party games, we are best-in-class in that monetization and that's what's reflected in the results. ... So given that structural position, we are going to make sure that we keep increasing the strength of the community. You see that already with Minecraft going to all platforms and that increasing the intensity of the community, and you'll see us do more of that. Obviously, bringing Game Pass to even the PC is going to be a big element of that."

Xbox Game Pass debuted on June 1 as a way for Xbox One owners to play select current-gen titles, as well as backwards compatible Xbox 360 games, for $10 per month. The service doesn't offer access to every Xbox game from the last two generations of consoles, but it does boast more than 100 titles and regularly adds more. Compared to spending $60 on a new game--or having to dust off an Xbox 360--it's not a bad deal.

Bringing the service to Windows 10 would allow PC users to experience these games without having to make too great a financial commitment. Games made for consoles are often buggy on PC, and even though Microsoft has worked to prevent that from being the case for its platforms, there's no guarantee a game made for the Xbox 360 is going to run well on a modern system. Better to test it as a subscription than buy it outright.

Yet, it's not hard to imagine Xbox Game Pass stumbling as it comes to PC as well. Many of these games are available far cheaper via Steam, GOG and lesser-known marketplaces than they are on Xbox (PC gamers spend more on hardware but get to recoup some of the costs with cheaper games). Unless someone's curious about the entire Xbox Game Pass catalog, it's easier to pick up games on the cheap on PC than it is on Xbox.

But that will depend on what games are available, how Xbox Game Pass functions on PC, etc. In the meantime, as Microsoft works on Xbox Game Pass and Project xCloud, it's clear that Xbox has gone far beyond its console origins to become a core part of Microsoft's future.

Many people like being able to access their files no matter what device they're using. That's why services like Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud and OneDrive have become all but ubiquitous. It's also why companies like Western Digital offer connected drives like the My Cloud products, but in that particular case, a security flaw means the person who owns the drive isn't the only one who can access its contents.

Securify's Remco Vermeulen and Exploitee.rs independently found and disclosed a major authentication bypass flaw in My Cloud products in 2017. Vermeulen said he disclosed the problem to Western Digital last April but never received a response from the company. Exploitee.rs also said it contacted Western Digital about the problem last year and even publicly discussed it at Def Con 25, but its warnings also fell on deaf ears.

The flaw in question allows someone to gain administrator access to a My Cloud drive without a password. Vermeulen said that person could "run commands that would normally require admin privileges and gain complete control of the My Cloud device." He proved this on a My Cloud model WDBCTL0020HWT running firmware version 2.30.172 but said other models likely bear the same flaw because they use the same code.

Vermeulen and Exploitee.rs both developed proofs of concept demonstrating the flaw in action. It doesn't appear to be particularly difficult--Vermeulen's demo was presented in a GIF--and could probably be exploited by amateurs now that the flaw has been disclosed to the public. Western Digital hasn't developed a fix yet, either, but a year-and-a-half of silence left the researchers little choice but to go public.

We couldn't find public acknowledgement of this vulnerability from Western Digital on its website, blog, or Twitter account. The company has responded directly to some Twitter users, however, and linked to an unlisted blog post it quietly published on September 19. In it, the company said that My Cloud Home devices aren't affected and that it plans to address the vulnerability with a firmware update "within a few weeks."

Western Digital also seemed keen on downplaying its slow response to Vermeulen and Exploitee.rs' disclosures.

"Western Digital works continuously to improve the capability and security of our products, including with the security research community to address issues they may uncover. We encourage responsible disclosure by customers and researchers to ensure our customers are protected while we address valid vulnerabilities," it said in its blog post. 

My Cloud device owners are encouraged to enable automatic updates to make sure their devices aren't affected by this flaw as soon as possible.

This was the week seemingly every tech company--with the exception of Intel and Micron--decided to make friends. AMD, Nvidia, and numerous VR companies partnered up to introduce a new standard for USB Type-C to simplify the VR setup process. Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft revealed a new Data Transfer Project to help consumers move between various services. And, unfortunately, Apple decided to give control over the data of Chinese iCloud users over to the state-owned China Telecom.

Gearbox

Rumors about Nvidia's upcoming 11-series GPUs including a new connector meant specifically for VR cropped up over the last month or so. This week saw confirmation that, like many rumors, this scuttlebutt was partly correct. Nvidia, AMD, Oculus, Microsoft, and other companies banded together as the VirtualLink consortium to announce a new USB Type-C standard that would simplify the VR setup process. Presumably that means Nvidia's next GPUs will support this standard, meaning they'll improve VR support but will do so without some kind of proprietary connection.

Here are the other gear-related stories we covered this week:

XPoint Shakeup: Intel and Micron to Cease Joint Development of 3D XPoint Next YearDell Leaks New XPS 13 2-in-1, Amber Lake CPUs Samsung Develops Industry’s First 8Gb LPDDR5 DRAM ChipPerformance Preview: 13-inch MacBook Pro Benchmarks Are HereGigabyte Unveils Four B450 MotherboardsGigabyte Announces the Aorus P850W and P750W Power SuppliesCorsair Launches Carbide Spec-06 RGB CasesNZXT Teams Up With Seasonic for Semi-Digital E Series PSUsGorilla Glass 6 Is Ready for Your Device to Drop 15 TimesHow the New MacBook Pro Solves Apple's Keyboard ProblemSamsung's New Monitor Can't Decide If It's for Gaming or BusinessASRock, Asus, MSI Detail Z370 BIOS for 9000-Series Intel CPUs

Calling Insecurity

Tech companies have long struggled to enter China without having to bow to its government. Some are more willing to compromise than most, and now it seems that Apple's particularly eager to continue selling its products in the obscenely highly populated country. News broke this week that China Telecom, a state-owned wireless provider, will manage iCloud data. That doesn't bode well for the privacy of Chinese consumers.

Here are the other security and privacy stories we covered this week:

AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors to Gain Support for Hardened Biometrics SecurityBackdoors Keep Appearing In Cisco's RoutersRobocaller's Misconfigured AWS Cloud Storage Leaks U.S. Voter DataMicrosoft Will Pay up to $100,000 via 'Identity Bounty Program'Why You Should Make Venmo Payments PrivateInsecure Dahua DVRs Expose Passwords to IoT Search Engine

The Best Of The Rest

Earlier this month the U.S. government introduced $200 billion tariffs on Chinese products that fell into a large number of categories. (Including several types of helicopter.) Now we might know the first victims of these tariffs: wearable devices like the Apple Watch and smart speakers. That's because they are considered "data transmission machines," which is one of the 6,000 categories of product that can be hit by the tariffs.

Here are the other stories that rounded out our week:

EU Fines Google $5 Billion Over Illegal Android PracticesMicrosoft, Facebook and Friends Looking to Drive Data PortabilityWestern Digital Shutting Down Hard Drive FactoryNvidia Merging GeForce Now Service for Shield TV and Desktop PCs8BitDo DIY Kit Makes Retro Controllers WirelessMicrosoft and Walmart Tag Team Against Amazon

That’s everything we have from this week. Enjoy your weekend!

The iCloud data of over 130 million iPhone users is going to be stored by a division of the state-owned China Telecom company. Critics worry that this means the Chinese government will gain full control over all of the iCloud users’ data.

iCloud and China

Some countries, including China, have used the mass surveillance revelations revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013 to pass new laws that demanded foreign companies store the data of their citizens locally. This could be considered phase one of these governments' plan to have more direct control over their citizens' data.

In phase two, the Chinese government also unofficially pressured foreign companies to do “joint ventures” with local businesses. In Apple’s case, the company was also forced to store the encryption keys in China, this February. At the time, Apple said:

"China recently enacted laws requiring that cloud services offered to their citizens be operated by Chinese companies and that Chinese customers' data be stored in the country. While we advocated against iCloud being subject to these laws, we were ultimately unsuccessful.

Our choice was to offer iCloud under the new laws or discontinue offering the service. We elected to continue offering iCloud as we felt that discontinuing the service would result in a bad user experience and less data security and privacy for our Chinese customers."

Chinese iCloud Now Owned by Government

It seems that now, in phase 3, the Chinese government itself has taken direct control of Apple's iCloud data center, by taking the reins from Guizhou Cloud Big Data, the private Chinese cloud services company that stored Apple’s encryption keys from February to now.

The Tianyi division of the state-owned China Telecom will be storing pictures, iMessage texts, notes, and calendar data from iCloud. Even though iMessage texts are technically end-to-end encrypted, in reality they are automatically stored on iCloud along with everything else. Their encryption key is, too, which means whoever is in control of the iCloud servers can read them.

Apple is yet to allow users to individually disable the storing of iMessages. Users have to completely disable iCloud syncing, which is enabled by default, in order to ensure that their messages and other data isn’t stored on the iCloud servers.

Two years ago, Apple was also rumored to implement some kind of end-to-end encryption for the whole of iCloud, which wouldn’t have allowed the company itself or anyone that gains control of the servers to access users’ data. However, that feature has yet to appear.

TeenSafe, a company that offers phone monitoring services to parents, reportedly compromised the Apple IDs and passwords of tens of thousands of people. The data was accessible to anyone who found the Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers on which it was stored--no password required.

Parents use TeenSafe to keep an eye on their child's location, view their browsing history, access call logs, and read messages. None of this data appears to have been exposed by the improperly configured AWS server--TeenSafe instead exposed Apple IDs and passwords. Because monitored teens can't set up two-factor authentication, however, that means anyone could have accessed any information connected to their iCloud account.

TeenSafe also unwittingly exposed parents' email addresses, device names, and each device's unique identifiers. All of this information was stored in plain text on the affected server. Combine that with the lack of password protection and you end up with more than 10,000 people whose data could have been accessed by anyone who scanned AWS servers in search of unprotected information, which is exactly what happened here.

The improperly configured servers were discovered by UK security researcher Robert Wiggins and first reported by ZDNet. Of the affected servers, only one contained the Apple IDs and passwords, while the other appeared to contain test data. ZDNet said TeenSafe took both servers offline after it was contacted about the issue, and a spokesperson said the company has started to notify users who may have been affected by the data leak.

TeenSafe's customers--and the children they're monitoring--are lucky their Apple IDs were the only thing compromised. Tools like TeenSafe are used to gather as much private information as possible, and exposing the collected messages, call logs, browsing history, and other data could've been catastrophic. Revealing the monitored phone's location data could also have put unsuspecting teens at risk of physical violence.

None of that information appears to have been compromised by this leak. Still, problems like this highlight the dangers of using what amount to private surveillance tools on children. One could argue that parents shouldn't even have access to this information, especially if their children are in the late teens, and we suspect few would argue that putting someone's security at risk so you could undermine their privacy is a good trade-off.

Users’ deleted notes should completely disappear from Apple’s servers after 30 days. However, ElcomSoft, a Russian company developing computer and mobile forensic tools, discovered that the deleted notes could still be extracted from Apple’s servers after the 30 days had passed, even though they were no longer visible to the users.

Deletes Notes Extracted From iCloud Servers

Apple’s Notes app automatically stores users’ notes in the cloud, when iCloud is enabled. Users can delete their notes, and they will remain in the app’s “Recently Deleted” folder for another 30 days, as expected.

However, ElcomSoft discovered that Apple was not deleting the notes once that 30-day period was over, even if the files were no longer in the Recently Deleted folder. Therefore, users would assume that the notes were permanently deleted when they actually weren’t.

The company used its own Phone Breaker forensic app, which can extract sensitive information from a phone if the files are not well protected by the mobile platform. If a user’s credentials are used, the tool can also download whatever data is available in the user’s iCloud account, even if the data is not visible to the user anymore.

According to ElcomSoft, a user’s authentication token can also be extracted from the PC to bypass the iCloud authentication process, which sounds like another security design flaw Apple needs to fix.

The company demonstrated how out of the 334 notes extracted from a user’s (test) account, two were found in the Recently Deleted folder, but 47 notes were deleted more than 30 days earlier. These notes weren’t accessible to the user under any other means, but they were still there on Apple’s server.

Apple iCloud’s Privacy Issues

ElcomSoft’s recent discovery isn’t the only time Apple’s iCloud has had issues with previously deleted user data. Back in 2016, ElcomSoft discovered that users’ deleted photos were kept on Apple’s iCloud servers for years after the users had originally deleted them. After ElcomSoft’s public disclosure, Apple fixed the issue.

Earlier this year, ElcomSoft found another similar problem with iCloud: Deleted Safari browsing history also remained stored indefinitely on Apple’s servers. Users tend to delete their browsing history primarily for privacy reasons. Your browsing history can show your habits, what type of content you like to read, what videos you like to watch, your political affiliation, and so on. Few would like their browsing histories to be made public.

Last year, ElcomSoft also noticed that Apple was storing everyone’s call records on its servers by default, with no way to disable it. This is another privacy issue that Apple doesn’t seem willing to address, despite “taking privacy very seriously.”

This is a problem with Apple’s iMessage, too, which essentially nullifies whatever end-to-end encryption it may be using when iCloud is enabled. There’s no way to disable iMessage syncing alone. Therefore, if iCloud is enabled, your “end-to-end encrypted” messages will be stored on Apple’s servers, from which law enforcement or hackers can get them just like they could from any other chat application.

Apple could at least allow users to disable iMessage syncing when iCloud is enabled. The company should arguably have the syncing disabled by default, considering users expect them to be end-to-end encrypted and private.

ElcomSoft had previously suggested that Apple also reveals the following:

Provide full details what data do they store in the iCloudProvide information what data they reveal (well, MAY reveal) to law-enforcement, if different from the above. Yes, such document is already there on Apple’s web site, but now we know that it is not complete.Allow “opt-out” for all categories of data saved in the iCloud, and/or provide an ability to delete the particular category (anything from web history to the list of iTunes purchases). That is not only about the call logs only. We do know that Apple stores even more.

No Fix For Deleted Notes Yet

ElcomSoft said that Apple had fixed the previous deleted photos and browsing history issues, but it’s yet to fix this recent software flaw. However, the company wondered how many times this will keep happening to its iCloud service. The more it happens, the less users can trust that their files are actually deleted from Apple’s servers.

Open Whisper Systems announced that end-to-end encrypted video calls are now available for its Signal communications app on Android and iOS.

The organization started to beta test encrypted video calls in February. Now, less than a month later, the feature appears to be ready for prime time. Open Whisper Systems also said the update will improve Signal call quality, offer the option of using peer-to-peer connections to reduce call latency, and make it so iOS users can answer Signal calls right from their lock screens without having their contacts' identities synced to Apple's iCloud service.

By addressing two concerns, Open Whisper Systems was careful to note that these features shouldn't undermine the privacy of Signal users. One is that P2P connections might reveal IP addresses and therefore general locations, and the other is that letting Signal calls be answered from the iOS lock screen will be problematic. In both cases, Signal opted to balance privacy and convenience, while also giving users the option to customize the app's behavior.

Here's what the nonprofit said about P2P connections in its announcement:

By default, Signal will only attempt to establish a P2P connection if you are initiating the call or if you are receiving a call from someone in your contacts. If you are receiving a call from someone not in your address book, Signal will relay that call through the Signal service.Additionally, there is a setting which will relay all calls through the Signal service if enabled.

And what it said about supporting CallKit, the developer tool that allows communications apps to take advantage of the iPhone's lock screen:

To balance these concerns, CallKit is enabled by default, but Signal calls are displayed as being to/from "Signal user." This means that, by default, it's possible to answer Signal calls with one touch directly from the lock screen, but only "Signal user" will appear in the "recent calls" list (which is what could be synced to iCloud).It is easy to opt in to displaying the name/number of an incoming Signal call if having that information in the "recent calls" list is not an issue, or it is also possible to disable CallKit entirely if even having "Signal user" in the call log is not desirable.

These options are important, because Signal has a diverse audience. Some people use the service because they don't like the idea of anyone snooping on their conversations. Others use it because they need to protect anonymous sources, activists, and others who could face severe repercussions if their communications were spied upon. Sharing an IP address or sending limited information to iCloud could be fine for the former and disastrous for the latter.

It's similar to the addition of ephemeral messages to apps like Signal and Wire. The feature doesn't actually make the services much more secure--you could just screenshot messages before they disappear, for example--but it can help you feel more comfortable. (Disappearing messages also prevent someone with physical access to a device, like an overbearing parent or abusive partner, from scrolling through someone's history whenever they like.)

Signal is available from Google Play and the App Store. 

Before web browsers embraced private windows, clearing their history was something of a technological rite of passage. Embarrassing searches? Gone. Porn? Never heard of it. But now ElcomSoft has revealed that it's possible to retrieve deleted history from Apple's Safari browser from iCloud. Whoops.

The digital forensics company said browser history is stored in iCloud if people choose to sync their Safari tabs across multiple devices. (The browser is available on Mac, iPhone, and iPad.) "While researching this sync, we discovered that deleting a browsing history record makes that record disappear from synced devices," ElcomSoft CEO Vladimir Katalov explained in a blog post. "However, the record still remains available (but invisible) in iCloud."

Katalov said these hidden records can be stored on iCloud for up to a year. ElcomSoft was also able to "pull additional information about Safari history entries including the exact date and time each record was last visited and deleted." The company, which assists law enforcement with retrieving information from electronic devices, has updated its ElcomSoft Phone Breaker tool with the ability to grab all of this hidden information from iCloud.

Here's how Katalov said this could prove useful to law enforcement:

Forensic use of synced data is hard to underestimate. Unlike cloud backups that are created daily at best, iCloud sync works nearly in real-time. Being able to track suspect’s activities almost no delay can be invaluable for surveillance and investigations.Since deleting browsing history from iCloud is nearly impossible for the user, discovering illicit activities becomes much easier. Experts will be able to recover visits to extremist and other illicit Web sites even if the suspect deletes their browser history or wipes their iPhone.

The method did require access to someone's iOS device--setting up a new device wouldn't carry over "deleted" records--and access to someone's Apple ID. ElcomSoft does offer tools that help law enforcement extract authentication tokens from devices (thus removing the need to either know someone's login credentials or try to brute-force them) but the barriers to entry should make it difficult to exploit this problem on a large scale.

Katalov said that ElcomSoft informed the media about this problem before disclosing it to the public. After it did so, the company noticed a change:

Update: we have informed media about this issue in advance, and they reached Apple for comments. As far as we know, Apple has not responded, but started purging older history records. For what we know, they could be just moving them to other servers, making deleted records inaccessible from the outside; but we never know for sure. Either way, as of right now, for most iCloud accounts we can see history records for the last two weeks only (deleted records for those two weeks are still there though).Good move, Apple. Still, we would like to get an explanation.

If Apple has fixed this issue, people should be able to sync their Safari tabs without fear. Anyone worried about law enforcement digging through their browsing history, however, should probably turn off that feature. Which is worse: not having easy access to a few tabs, or a secret browser history?

According to MCX (Merchant Customer Exchange), the maker of the Apple Pay mobile wallet competitor CurrentC, email data of its beta testers was breached in the past 36 hours. This couldn't have been worse timing, considering some MCX members started banning all NFC payments in their stores to stop people from using Apple Pay, because they wanted them to use CurrentC exclusively (when it's launched next year).

This is the e-mail MCX has been sending to its users, according to TechCruch:

Thank you for your interest in CurrentC. You are receiving this message because you are either a participant in our pilot program or requested information about CurrentC. Within the last 36 hours, we learned that unauthorized third parties obtained the e-mail addresses of some of you. Based on investigations conducted by MCX security personnel, only these e-mail addresses were involved and no other information.In an abundance of caution, we wanted to make you aware of this incident and urge you not to open links or attachments from unknown third parties. Also know that neither CurrentC nor Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) will ever send you emails asking for your financial account, social security number or other personally identifiable information. So if you are ever asked for this information in an email, you can be confident it is not from us and you should not respond.MCX is continuing to investigate this situation and will provide updates as necessary. We take the security of your information extremely seriously, apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your support of CurrentC.

Unlike Apple, which keeps no user data -- even the credit card number is stored locally in Secure Element, while giving merchants only unique tokens when the purchase is made -- MCX intends to collect much more data from its users including e-mail, bank account numbers, location and more.

What Target, Staples and Home Depot breaches have shown us is that not only can most of these stores not be trusted to hold such valuable information about their customers, but even if the stores' "clouds" are as secure as they can be, the potential for extreme damage (such as having hundreds of millions of users' account data leaked) is too high to be an acceptable way of doing business.

The malicious hackers, be they individuals, organized groups, or rival states only need to hack these databases once to get that data. Even if the data is properly encrypted, that only helps as far as the users' passwords were strong and unique enough. Unfortunately, it's common knowledge by now that most people either use predictable passwords or passwords that are easy enough to bruteforce. Apple's own iCloud easily fell prey to the same type of attack earlier this year.

Apple Pay may not be completely impenetrable either (nothing really is), but so far it's using a rather solid security design that stores the credit card data locally in hardware, with very little exposure to the OS or anything else. Even if that system is breached, the potential to have hundreds of millions of credit cards leaked through it is much smaller. If there's a serious vulnerability, hackers can only attack or infect one phone at a time, minimizing the total damage of such a hack.

We should be demanding that more systems that involve collecting valuable data from us, whether it's credit card numbers, fingerprints or facial recognition data, should store this data locally and securely in hardware. That data should also not be accessed directly, but through "virtual layers" on top of it, such as the unique tokens Apple Pay generates for purchases. This way, if a breach happens, the attackers will only get access to worthless "virtual" data.

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Comparison Guide To Cloud Storage Providers

Over the past 20 years, ubiquitous document access has become increasingly critical as digital portfolios have grown to span family, financial, work and school activities. At the same time, concerns about maintaining data safety and security have also escalated. Early services like FTP and peer-to-peer sharing remain popular, but predominantly with more technical users.

Today’s cloud storage provides simple file sharing, but also extends personal workstation file space, integrates document editing, includes real-time backup and document workflow. These services are cheap, fast, easy to use and require very little up front or long-term end user investment. The most time-consuming tasks, notably large backup and restore, can be automated or occur behind the scenes. 

Editor’s Note: Use the questionnaire below to have our sister site, BuyerZone, provide you with information from a variety of vendors for free:

The leaders include pure-play vendors Box, Dropbox and Google, and the two-walled garden approaches from Apple and Microsoft. The latter fall into this category because they offer cloud storage as a byproduct of a more robust offering – Apple began with a device backup service, and Microsoft uses OneDrive as the foundation to Office 365.  While Google Drive evolved from Google Docs (and still provides rich document editing), it can be more easily evaluated on its pure storage merits.

Among the offerings there is parity in features, functionality, security and price, but we aim to show where they differ.

What am I getting out of it?

From a practical storage perspective, these services offer a token amount of free space, with upgrades ranging up to paid plans for unlimited storage. For services promoting unlimited storage, limitations occur around file sizes. For example, Box Enterprise caps files at 5GB, whereas Google Drive has a very generous 1TB maximum. Note that “free” is a relative term – to open a free iCloud account, users must have an Apple iOS or Mac OS device.

Google’s top tier of $3600/year for 30TB of anywhere storage is not a lot of money. Personal plans ranging from $100-300/year are extremely reasonable for people interested in backing up computers; sharing files with colleagues, family members and classmates; and using cloud storage to support a small business.

The open (pure-play) cloud storage services allow storing any type, style, and kind of file. All services use Web browser interfaces by default (to create, upload and view files), and all have varying degrees of viewers. Google allows users to preview over 20 file types, Box has a high-fidelity mobile engine and Microsoft allows users to open Office files in their native format without a subscription. These are not replacements for fit-for-purpose presentation tools or AutoCAD, but they suffice for most situations.

Browser drag-and-drop upload is handled so well that it is now an expected feature, and is surprising when not supported. Even Microsoft provides drag-and-drop and right-click support across browsers and platforms, although the real-time feedback lags others (see Dropbox real-time identification).

Desktop synchronization is a powerful feature for users backing up or extending their computers to the Cloud. In this area, Dropbox shines. Other services lag behind either due to business decisions (Box prefers people use the browser to keep real-time file control with administrators), background service system resource spikes or technical gaps.

More than a feature comparison, we looked at the services as three use cases. The first is personal storage, or extending one’s own file system to the cloud. The second is sharing, especially of moderately size to large documents. Sharing was looked at in both a one-to-one and group sharing, with people who had accounts on the service and those who did not.

Finally, the third use case was extensibility, API and SDK. For this, we explored services’ abilities to be a platform or infrastructure backbone to support a small business or gaming-in-the-cloud.

Oh, a note about performance testing. We recognize that readers would be interested in performance, so why didn't we test speed? In our findings, performance varied wildly based on a number of factors related to physical connection and service architecture. First, our primary testing facility was serviced by high-speed cable. As is the case with many cable Internet packages, ours had a 'boost' function which artificially inflates initial download performance, then slows remaining downloads. Second, services vary based on their sync mechanism. Dropbox (and backup service Mozy) perform block- or bit-level replication. This means that once files are initially sent to the Cloud, additional saves only synchronize what actually has changed. This is most apparent on modern-era Office documents, which utilize a standards-based XML data structure. Finally, Dropbox also employs LAN sync, which allows computers running on a physical LAN to sync files locally, rather than downloading updates from the Cloud. Two caveats: updates are still sent to the Cloud, and when installing Dropbox on a new computer (or if the index becomes corrupted), all files must be re-synchronized from the Cloud.

Box Cloud Storage - Pricing And Features Overview

Box is all business. The service has gained tremendous momentum over the past year, and is now at an estimated 25 million individual customers and 225,000 enterprise ones.

The Box browser user interface is well-organized, streamlined, intuitive and feature-rich, offering a wide variety of built-in and third-party capabilities. Box behaves like a full application running in a Web browser, including drag-and-drop uploads, right-clicks and top menus. The user interface feels more like a competitor to enterprise tools like Documentum, OpenText LiveLink, IBM FileNet P8 and Microsoft SharePoint than a direct peer to the other services we tested. However, it is a cloud service at its core, and Box offers its sleek functionality and powerful document review (workflow) and collaboration tools to all users.

While administrative controls, unlimited storage and capabilities like Salesforce.com CRM integration are reserved for paying customers, the power and flexibility of Box means that individuals can quickly open a personal account and purchase additional storage.

Box has the most powerful full-text search of all the services, and returns the best results. For instance, while Dropbox returned one result for a sample query that included unique terms split between file name and full-text search, Box returned 58 spot-on results. The instant-results drop-down is handy, and the full-text index rivals enterprise solutions.

On Box’s mobile apps, all file names are easy to see with its thin font, as compared to the other services, which often truncate file names. File sorting can be done in three ways (name, date or size) and the thin iOS 7-matching font allows for more file details than other services.

Both the full browser preview and mobile app viewers are feature-rich, with the most accurate file renditions, including high-quality fonts and correct PowerPoint slide forms. But this comes with a cost – we found that file sizes were large, and previews consumed far more bandwidth than other services. Since users cannot choose between a low- or high-quality image, quick-viewing PDFs is much quicker using other services, even over Wi-Fi. Box errs on the side of quality, which can cost time and money over mobile connections. To its credit, Box warns you when you attempt to preview files on mobile networks.

Collaboration and Synchronization

At its core, Box is a document collaboration service, and performs an excellent job at this task. Everything reasonable and intuitive is here, including the file lock status, colored “flags” on files indicating version numbers, metadata tags, access statistics and workflow task management.

Box is first a Web app and secondarily a synchronization-to-the-desktop service. For people looking to extend their file systems to the Cloud, Box folder synchronization can be set at the top level (like most other services) and – somewhat unique in online services – at each sub-folder. Synchronizing individual folders to a PC is controlled via the Web application, but cannot be tweaked by the operating system (OS) extension.

Sending links to shared folders is also straightforward, and can be accomplished through the browser, mobile app and aforementioned OS extension. There is a lot of power to sharing in Box: links can be open access or only apply to pre-determined collaborators, shared files can be restricted to view-only (not download) and they can be set to automatically expire. These three thoughtful settings are additional mechanisms for the security-conscious or absent-minded.

We noticed a small bug in testing – if you accidentally click on “share” in  the browser UI, it immediately sets a link (indicated by the chain link icon) before you actually complete the full action/decision by clicking OK. “Un-sharing” doesn’t take much time, but this can be a security issue for those who don’t realize it.

Integrations

Box has a very comprehensive API integration program, with more than 1000 integrations through more than 550 partners, including CRM, office applications, social collaboration, security and product/project management applications. However, it is important to note that access to the enterprise integrations requires the highest tier of Box pricing, Box Enterprise (or the custom-priced Box Elite). Box Business and Box Enterprise customers also get Active Directory and SSO integration to align with corporate accounts and policies. With a focus on enterprise application integration, Box APIs are designed to make the service a platform for large systems and less of a “developer playground” for small developers.

Two of the more interesting integrations are with Microsoft Office and Google Apps. These illustrate Box’s commitment to being a cloud storage provider and not an application vendor. It clearly separates them from those who try to do both.

Finally, Box has a Content API that exposes all of its key functions to organizations looking to build their own content management platform.

Pricing is slightly different from the other cloud storage vendors. Since Box is designed for the enterprise, caps are set based on individual file size rather than overall storage volume. This is reasonable since bandwidth and practicality dictate a natural glass ceiling. In the past, Box offered lifetime 50GB storage promotions, so there are a number of well-endowed personal accounts in the market. Box truly realizes the promise set forth by cloud storage and sharing.

Box Pricing

Dropbox Cloud Storage - Pricing And Features Overview

[Editor's Note: After we finished testing and this article was being finalized, Dropbox announced some changes to the service, especially around pricing, but also with new functionality. We detail some of those changes under the subheading "Update" at the end of this page.]

Dropbox was initially a “magic folder” targeted at consumers, but it is now embraced by more than 300 million users, including universities, healthcare systems and other corporations. Dropbox was a pioneer in extending local PC content to the cloud for file sharing. While it is expensive – especially compared to Google’s 2014 pricing – its bit-level replication, ability to recover deleted files and unlimited version control through Packrat make for an award-winning tool.

Memory footprint is also something Dropbox users should be aware of. In our testing on a mix of machines with 8-16GB of RAM, the Dropbox client consumed between 70 and 160MB (the second-largest behind Windows SVCHOST).

Once installed, adding files through the browser interface is as easy as dragging and dropping them. Creating folders is also very easy, as is sharing those folders with others. We found that full sharing can only be controlled at root-level directories. This makes for an often top-weighted directory structure.

Two unique benefits of Dropbox: the service is intelligent enough to identify when multiple Dropbox-synced computers are on a local network, and the ability to re-build the Dropbox file index based on files that are already located on the local disk. The former feature allows for fast localized sync of files without having to go to the Dropbox cloud. The second feature comes into play if you install Dropbox on a brand new PC. You can copy your entire Dropbox directory structure – and files – and Dropbox will automatically re-build the index without having to re-download files from the cloud. These two features save bandwidth and time, while recognizing all of the file and folder security and sharing controls previously set.

Because it is a consumer-oriented service at its core, Dropbox makes purchase, setup, download and initial file sync very easy. For casual users, the Web interface is simple yet feature-rich, and has some unique capabilities unavailable in other interfaces, like browsing file creation, deletion and update events. While Dropbox lacks true workflow, I used event viewing to see changes by other users in shared folders and as a means to perform multi-user version control.

Syncing files

Backing up, sharing and syncing files are the core uses of cloud storage service, and Dropbox does this well. All clients work consistently, and syncs are generally quick. Starting up Windows and Mac clients (upon resume-from-sleep or initial boot) can take between 15 seconds and five minutes, presumably while the client is loading the cache and comparing the file list with the cloud. Initial start-up and sync time has become slower over the past two years. With desktop client version 2.8.2, it was not unusual to see the first sync 5-10 minutes into a Windows session.

Dropbox has a unique feature called "selective sync," which let each of our environments inherit a different persona. The feature allows users to turn on or off top-level directories on a per-machine basis, which minimizes the storage footprint and file clutter across PCs. For those using Dropbox on multiple computers running on a network (small business or family household), Dropbox provides the option to sync locally instead of going back to the cloud. If the same file is saved by multiple PCs or users, Dropbox will append the computer name and “Conflicted Copy” to the file, rather than reconciling changes (Microsoft OneDrive does a much better job of multi-user editing).

What shouldn’t be missed is Dropbox’s incremental (block- or bit-level) replication. Instead of synchronizing entire files, Dropbox only needs to update the pieces of the files that are actually changed, greatly minimizing bandwidth and sync times. This is a very high-end document management feature now available to the masses. It also conserves bandwidth.

Version control is supplemented by Packrat, which is Dropbox’s name for maintaining revision history over an unlimited time horizon (30-day file history is standard). This feature has saved us a couple of times, but you can only review versions via a Web browser. Dropbox, in response to customer feedback, has updated Packrat’s Restore function to work like enterprise document management systems (the restored version becomes the newest iteration). This is very powerful. However, moving directories eliminates all version history of files within the folders. Moving folders back to the original location shows the version history including when files were “deleted” and “added.” Version history needs some work to become folder independent.

Dropbox ‘Ecosystem’

Any good software platform has a rich set of third-party participants, and Dropbox is no exception. Dropbox has two major categories of extensions: drop-ins and three categories of Dropbox APIs.

Drop-ins are a simple way to add the two most common Dropbox functions to existing apps via prebuilt code: Chooser (or "Choose From") and Saver ("Save To").  While simple in nature, it is powerful in execution, because apps that use lots of structured content (but would value from unstructured documents and images) can leverage the Dropbox infrastructure with very little coding and QA.

In the formal API category, Dropbox has long promoted its platform to developers, who can add the ability view, create or edit rich documents. One of my favorite examples is the Microsoft Office editor CloudOn. Since editing remotely-stored files requires strong security, the newer value-added API includes security/encryption software. There are also integration modules for multi-platform mobile apps and Dropbox storage for pure structured data. The final API type is designed for smaller developers who wish to save "game state" and those who value conflict resolution through advanced data and file locking rules.

With greater corporate interest comes the need for additional hooks into the service and a management console. The API set is rich, but lags Box on real-world adoption and internal promotion (Box has right-click send-to Docusign and Chatter out of the box, for example). Dropbox is currently promoting “over 300,000 apps on the Dropbox platform,” but it is difficult to discern what exactly an app is and the level of integration.

Security

Dropbox doesn’t have built-in encryption, but is quick to refer users and organizations to various options supported through the Dropbox developer network.

One note for security-conscious users: those who synchronize files with their PCs are inherently able to take content with them, and since Dropbox uses PC/Mac sync as a core selling point, you should be aware that in our testing we found that “unsharing” folders still left files in our Dropbox cache directory, or allowed us to recover deleted files that weren’t really permanently deleted. The solution is simple: don’t install the desktop client. But of course that removes a key benefit.

One additional security worry surfaced in recent months – hackers are spreading malware through public Dropbox links (dl.dropbox.com). This is a security hole Dropbox needs to fix quickly.

Summer 2014 Updates

Dropbox made some recent changes to the service to reflect customer requirements and to gain parity in a few key areas. The most obvious change is the "Pro" tier, which includes 1TB of storage for the same price as the previous 100GB tier of storage. However, there is a lot more to the Pro service, particularly around security. Dropbox now has Remote Wipe, a feature that will let you remove Dropbox files on a device that is lost or stolen. We did not have an opportunity to test this, but previously found that files removed from unshared folders lingered on PCs in the .dropbox.cache folder.

Second, Dropbox allows the expiration of shared links and specific view/edit permissions on shared folders. This feature already exists in other services like Box, so Dropbox is playing catch-up. Finally, Pro comes with extended version history of up to one year, replacing the need for Packrat for many users. Dropbox is not offering Packrat to new users, and is actively promoting the change in version history policy as of November 1, 2014.

Dropbox Pricing

Google Drive Cloud Storage - Pricing And Features Overview

Google’s Drive service is an extremely affordable cloud storage option, yet very powerful for collaboration and teamwork. The features around team review and collaboration have been enhanced and polished through increased file change notifications, "live" in-document highlights, and integration with Google Hangouts online meeting tool. Google really thought through the functionality that both consumers and business users need.

In its most simple form, Google allows users to make comments and share files as viewers, collaborators or co-owners. This is simple and fast, yet powerful. While other tools can also do this, Google does the collaboration better through its tight integration between storage and editing tools, and its focus on platform-independent browser-based apps. The apps and ecosystem also work on Chromium zero- or minimal-storage devices.

For word processing, spreadsheet and presentation documents, Google's full-featured and feature-rich Docs, Sheets, Forms and Drawing tools edge close to a "walled garden" approach. However, the document editing isn't required, nor is it forced on users as part of the value proposition.

File changes and updates are outlined when viewing files, including color highlights by user. The activity tab in the browser window shows all file changes and viewing activity within a folder, and lets you see detailed changes when individual files are selected. Unfortunately, we could not see detailed activity on older documents; many documents not edited prior to January 2014 did not have any logged activity in our Drive. 

As we tested Google Drive, the lines between the consumer-oriented Drive and Google Enterprise Apps appeared to be thinning. The late June 2014 announcement of Google Drive for Business further validated this. For $10 per month, Google offers auditing, reporting, retention rules and control over desktop client installation. The company  also addressed questions around security, specifically documents at rest and in transit, through security controlled via the enterprise administration console and mobile device management.

Google differentiates Drive around cross-platform usability. The iOS and Android apps are very polished, and have improved greatly over the past year. For example, fonts are slim and easy to read, and folders are now displayed on top of the file list, both of which make browsing Drive a much more logical task than with Dropbox, which mixes folders and files together in a list. However, Google removed the built-in editing capability from its Drive mobile app in early 2014, so users must now separately install Google apps to have native editing functionality on the go. 

Another interesting feature of Google Drive is its ability to convert Office documents to the native Google format within the Drive Web interface, and pull text from PDF documents and image files. The latter functionality acts as “lightweight OCR” and can save users time if they need the raw text out of otherwise read-only destination formats. This is optional, and can be controlled for corporate purposes through the admin console or via PDF creation rules (previously Google Docs allowed opening password-enabled PDF documents, but this was fixed).

The only perplexing piece of Google Drive is, surprisingly, its search functionality, especially compared to Box. First, the search results are sparse, the quick-results aren't instantaneous, and to engage a full-text search query, you have to take extra steps and go to the full list of results. Second, with search as Google’s core competence, the results screen pales in comparison to what we are accustomed from other Google products (for example, there aren’t highlights or explanations of where, within files, the full-text terms are found). 

Google has an incredibly powerful and open Drive SDK, including deep integration with Android app back-ends, and birthing many Drive-centric products like Teamlab Office (an excellent alternative to Microsoft Office). The Google API allows developers to write Drive applications in Java, Python, Javascript, .NET, Ruby, Go and Node.js. Getting started is as easy as setting up an account in Google’s Developer Console and attaching to a Drive-enabled Google account.

The Drive ecosystem and Google's open ethos has resulted in Chrome apps for Microsoft Office, Box and other products and services that arguably compete with Google on various products.

Google Drive Pricing

Apple iCloud Storage - Pricing And Features Overview

Apple's iCloud was originally developed as a backup mechanism for Apple devices and associated apps. It has come a long way in the past three years, but still shows the legacy of its core purpose.

For Apple computer and device users, iCloud is a no-brainer. It is seamless across all Apple devices, and the Windows client/plug-in extends contacts, calendar, tasks, bookmarks and photos to a vast majority of PC users. With Apple's new (2014) pricing model, iCloud is both attractive to end users and developers, the latter of whom get a nearly bottomless glass of storage - via CloudKit - for file assets, app development sandbox space and database storage.

The initial use of iCloud stands true today: it is an excellent backup system for iOS devices. The scheduled backup mechanism can help those who lose or damage an iOS device get back to their most recent state in a matter of minutes (only risking the loss of photos and videos).

Integration with MacOS has become tighter over the past few years. The Mac control panel is pre-installed on updated versions of Mountain Lion (10.8), and is fully integrated with Mavericks (10.9). Apple's Mail, Address Book and Calendar apps quickly download and sync data from iCloud, and mirror what is found on iOS devices and the iCloud Web interface.

Apple also makes a Windows iCloud control panel available for download. While iCloud integrates contacts, calendar and tasks with Microsoft Outlook, and bookmarks with Internet Explorer, the majority of Windows users install the control panel to view and sync photos taken by iOS devices. In my testing, I was a little frustrated with slow photo browsing and Windows Explorer crashes, demonstrating that Windows desktop integration is a work in progress.

While Apple is more expensive for traditional non-developer consumers than the pure-player Cloud storage vendors, Apple also provides the iWork applications – and excellent templates – for owners of devices that ship with iOS 7 (a $99 value).

The Web-based versions are still in "beta" according to Apple, but do not appear to be works-in-progress. The Web interfaces are clean, fast and easy to use, without being too cartoonish. Editing documents on iPhones and iPads has been improved dramatically in the past year. Document synchronization across Apple iDevices is seamless and fast.

The most challenging issue with iCloud is that it’s difficult to get documents out of the system. Since iCloud is designed as a walled garden for Apple content, sharing documents or collaborating with others – key features embraced by other services – require extra steps or just aren’t available. For example, link sharing requires collaborators to have an iCloud account. Downloaded presentations - even those in Microsoft PowerPoint format - have issues with fonts, objects and other formatting. This is not a “pure” cloud drive.

Based on the investment Apple is making, take a cautious look at iCloud if you have an Apple device foundation, but also want platform-independent, browser-based access to documents along with polished templates. The two greatest issues – high cost of plans and slow photo browsing – should improve. The “free” iWork applications are a boon to casual office users, as they are available across platforms and through a browser interface.

Apple iCloud Pricing

Microsoft OneDrive Cloud Storage - Pricing And Features

Microsoft rebranded SkyDrive as OneDrive earlier this year, and continues as a service primarily centered around Microsoft Office documents. While any file can be stored and shared in OneDrive, the greatest benefit is gained when saving, viewing and editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

The core file storage component has improved because you get a larger amount of storage at a much lower cost, making OneDrive competitive with the pure-play providers. As of the summer of 2014, Microsoft increased the quota for paying Office 365 users to 1TB each for up to five users. The free service increased from 7GB to 15GB.

The ultimate value proposition of OneDrive revolves around tight Microsoft Office file and application integration. While the first product to utilize OneDrive for its cloud back-end was OneNote (a cross-platform note-taking tool), the service provides storage for all Office and non-Office files, with varying levels of integration and viewing capabilities.

You can view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files within a browser or download them for local editing, including directly within Microsoft Office 2013 applications. This is similar to the way SharePoint, running on corporate networks, allows cloud-based open and save, embedded right within Office 2010 and Office 2013.

However, there are some caveats. The first is that in order to provide a seamless experience, usernames have to “sync” between the host computer and the OneDrive service. This is easy on Windows 8 and Office 2013, which have direct OneDrive logins, but less so on earlier platforms, notably Windows 7 and Office 2010, which lack the direct sign-in hooks. In my testing, opening a Word, PowerPoint or Excel document for editing on a local instance of Office 2010 resulted in the system thinking that I was a different user from the OneDrive user I was signed in as.

For those wishing to strictly use Office in a browser, simple file viewing also has its limitations; we could only view Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Support for Visio and Project documents is missing, resulting in an awkward “iTunes-like” permissions dialog box asking if the file opened properly or, if not, whether I wanted to purchase the tool.

Microsoft does provide a local computer sync app, just like the other file sharing services do, and it is conceptually very similar to the “Save to SharePoint site” feature in Office (2010+). For many users, this is an attractive means to save and retrieve documents, but from our experience with the earlier SharePoint integration, we found that it was difficult to remove old sites and/or strip the network save out completely. As noted above, Windows 8 and Office 2013 are superior in this regard, as they are directly tied into OneDrive accounts at the core, removing the need to download a separate sync app.

On the Mac OS X side, the Office programs are a generation behind, lacking the integration with OneDrive found on Windows. The only Mac Office application to use the new Office foundation platform is OneNote, which has been integrated with OneDrive (SkyDrive) for some time. Also as of this writing, Microsoft has not officially announced a date for the next version of Office Mac that aligns OneDrive sign-in with Office 2013 and Office 365 sign in.

While Microsoft provides a suite of applications and a large amount of storage, our primary beef with OneDrive is that it is not a differentiated service beyond the Office apps, and getting content into and out of the system is cumbersome compared to the cloud storage alternatives. While Windows 8.x integration is good, this addresses a small portion of the OS market (between 11% and 13% of OS shipments, according to The Next Web May 2014 research).

The greatest value in OneDrive comes from the premium service, including the most current version of Microsoft Office with automated Cloud-based backup. We just wish Microsoft took the next step to include Project and Visio to differentiate itself from the other players.

Microsoft OneDrive Pricing

Today Apple is making iOS 8 available for download for older devices that include the iPhone 5S, iPhone 5, iPhone 5C, iPhone 4S, iPad Air, iPad Mini 2013, iPad Mini 2012, iPad 4, iPad 3, iPad 2 and iPod Touch 5G. The new iOS 8 operating system brings significant improvements in many areas, and it also polishes up the redesign that was rushed into iOS 7 last year.

Some of the most important feature additions in iOS 8 include app extensions, continuity, Apple Pay, better iCloud security, health tracking and some smaller improvements to the camera, Safari browser, iMessage, FaceTime and more.

App extensions

For a long time, Apple has kept iOS apps separated and hasn't allowed them to interact with each other, other than in a very limited way. The new iOS 8 will let apps interact in different ways, and Apple is calling each type of interaction something different. There are action extensions, photo editing extensions, storage provider extensions, share extensions, today extensions (widgets) and custom keyboard extensions.

The reason Apple has so many "categories" of extensions instead of allowing apps to interact with each other in almost any way they want is because the company wants to maintain strict control over what given apps can do to other apps, most likely because it wants these interactions to be secure.

Continuity

Continuity is a broader term that covers three specific features: Handoff, which can sync data between the same app on different devices; the ability to answer phone calls on your Mac or iPad; and Instant Hotspot, which allows your other Apple devices to automatically share your iPhone's cellular data connection.

Apple Pay

Apple Pay is a service that allows iPhone users to pay for their purchases by tapping the TouchID button, which scans their fingerprint and then authorizes the payment. While only the NFC-equipped iPhone 6 can do this, iPhone 5S owners will also be able to use Apple Pay through an Apple Watch. This could eventually replace credit card swiping, if most stores adopt the system.

iCloud Security

At this point, everyone knows about the infamous "iCloud hacking," which refers to some celebrities getting their iCloud accounts hacked and private photos stolen. Apple has denied its security was to blame, but at the same time the company is introducing mandatory two-factor authentication for iCloud, essentially admitting its security could have been better. Apple will soon implement an alert system that will notify users when their data is restored from unrecognized devices, too.

Health Tracking

Apple is looking to make a big push in health with the new iOS 8 and Apple Watch. The Health app can track your steps if you're using iPhone 5S with the M7 co-processor, and it should also be able to measure distance and altitude on the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus thanks to their M8 co-processors. Through the HealthKit API, 3rd party developers can enable much more robust health tracking through iPhone accessories, so it remains to be seen what they can come up with.

Apple has added improvements to most areas of iOS 8, and it has also implemented many new APIs that can help developers do more with their apps. iOS 8 users should soon be able to test things that haven't been possible on their mobile devices so far. The update will be available Over The Air (OTA), but also through iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC. To get the OTA update on your iOS, go to Settings > General > Software Update, hit the Download button, and after it's downloaded, hit Install.

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We still don't know exactly how the hacking into the iCloud accounts of celebrities happened. One of the reasons for that is that the accounts may have been hacked in different ways, making it hard to pinpoint a single method. Some of the actresses may have had their iCloud passwords brute forced directly (which is what Apple claims) and others may have had their Dropbox password stolen, and then the hackers used those to either get the photos from Dropbox or log into the Cloud accounts. Others may have had weak security questions that were easily guessed and then used to get access to the accounts, and so on.

One scary method that seems to still be working, according to some hackers, is using forensics tools like the ones the police use all the time to hack into phones (with or without a warrant, although a recent Court ruling said the police need a warrant to do it).

This brings us to something authorities have supported for years: the idea that if you can only give back doors or vulnerabilities to the "good guys", then everything will be fine. But time and time again we learn that these very same vulnerabilities or back doors can and will be used by the "bad guys", too. If there's an open door in a house, that's "meant for the good guys", there's nothing stopping the bad guys from finding it and entering the house, too. It's the same with software.

One piece of software that's being sold by a Russian company to government agencies all over the world as a forensics tool is called the Elcomsoft Phone Password Breaker (EPPB). Forensics tools are typically used when the device is already in the possession of the people doing the data extraction, but EPPB seems to be able to extract all the data from an iOS device remotely by impersonating the device itself, as long as an interested party already has the user's iCloud credentials.

EPPB is not the only forensics tools out there that can obtain data from iOS devices. One from Oxygen, for example, promised to take advantage of the recently discovered "iOS back doors," just weeks after the flaws were revealed. The tool could obtain data such as SMS, pictures and videos, but also instant messages from other third-party apps.

If Apple is serious about the security of its users, it will need to close any loopholes in its software and operating systems. In order to do this, Apple will need to pay much closer attention to companies offering such forensics tools and try to make those tools obsolete as soon as possible, noting well the "features" they offer for cracking iOS devices. This way Apple can make sure another major hack of iCloud accounts or iOS devices is much less likely to happen in the future, but the same strategy can also stop many other, perhaps less popular, attacks against regular (that is, non-celebrity) individuals.

Devices or services can never be 100 percent secure, and it's true that often the user bears some fault for using weak security, but Apple can also be more proactive about protecting its users.

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Asus claimed a “world’s first” on Tuesday with the introduction of its RT-AC87 Wave 2 Wireless AC consumer networking router. This upcoming device will be capable of providing speeds of up to 1.73 Gbps on the 5 GHz band, the fastest we’ve seen yet since Wireless AC routers began springing up on store shelves last year.

The upcoming router will use Quantenna’s QSR1000 4x4 Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) chipset. There will also be four external antennas and Universal Beamforming, providing a wide range and focused network connectivity. Ideal for low-latency gaming and HD video streaming, the router will even form groups of multiple devices that can be served simultaneously, where different connections are assigned to different spatial streams, thereby speeding up connectivity -- but that's only if the devices support Wave 2 technology.

“MU-MIMO greatly increases the efficiency of the Wi-Fi network, mitigating potential bottlenecks as more devices are connected to the access point,” the press release stated. “Furthermore, the RT-AC87’s multiple antennas, coupled with its advanced Beamforming, reduce the transmission’s signal-to-noise ratio and improve the reliability of the Wi-Fi signal, providing a better overall wireless experience.”

This new router will have AiProtection with Trend Micro pre-installed, which will use real-time network monitoring to keep the network free from unwanted bugs and hackers. There will also be parental controls to keep the kids safe from questionable websites, an enhanced ASUSWRT user interface, and AiCloud 2.0, which allows users to share and stream files stored on the network, on attached external drives, or on Asus WebStorage.

Unfortunately, Asus didn’t provide a list of specifications although it’s probably a given that the router will provide a few Gigabit Ethernet ports and one or two USB ports. The device will be made available in North America “shortly” for $269.99.

Currently, one of the closest competitors is TRENDnet’s AC1900 dual-band router, the TEW-818DRU. This Wireless AC router is slower on the 5 GHz band, providing speeds up to 1300 Mbps, and 600 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band. The router provides five Gigabit ports, a USB 3.0 port and a USB 2.0 port, support for isolated guest networking, high power amplifiers, parental controls and more. This router is available now and retails for $232.99.

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Apple’s WWDC has been more software-focused over the last few years. For roughly half a decade, Apple used to use the event to show off the newest model of iPhone, which tended to soak up a lot of the WWDC press. Since the company shifted the iPhone refreshes to September, we’ve seen the focus return to iOS and OS X in recent years, which is arguably how it should be since it is a developer conference.

Today, Apple introduced us to the latest version of Mac OS X, the company’s desktop operation system. Codenamed Yosemite, this version brings with it a few key changes. The developer preview is already available and customers can join the OS X Beta Program to get a look at the new stuff (in exchange for providing Apple with feedback, obviously). Here’s what you can expect with OS X Yosemite:

First of all, Apple is giving Yosemite a fresh, new look with streamlined toolbars, translucent elements, cleaner, more consistent app icons, and an updated system font. While these cosmetic changes might not seem like much, the idea is that this new aesthetic will make the operating system clearer and more intuitive for users.

Notifications

Today view in the Notification Center that gives you access to Calendar, Weather, Stocks, Reminders, World Clock and updates from your social networks in one place. Apple says you’ll also be able to customize with widgets from the Mac App Store.

Cloud

iCloud Drive is an iCloud-based folder which is built into Finder and allows you to store any kind of file in iCloud. You drag and drop files into this new folder in Finder and they’ll be searchable via Spotlight. Not only that, but they’ll be accessible from Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Windows machines. 

Communication

Mail is getting a few new and interesting tweaks and Messages, SMS and MMS will see some upgrades. too. A new feature called Markup allows you to fill out forms and annotate images any PDFs from within the Mail app itself, and Mail Drop lets you send files (including images and video) up to 5 GB in size. Meanwhile, Messages will allow you to name message threads, add people to existing conversations, leave conversations that are no longer relevant and send audio via Soundbites. A new feature called Handoff will take you from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad and back again by making SMS and MMS messages appear on your iPhone as well as in Messages on your other Apple devices.

Developer Goodies

Apple hasn’t forgotten about developers. During today’s conference, the company introduced devs to SpriteKit, which will help with the incorporation of realistic motion, physics and lighting into games, and integrates with SceneKit for 3D casual gaming. StoryBoards for Yosemite and Xcode 6 both utilize View Controller APIs in AppKit to help with the production of apps that navigate between multiple views of data. Devs interested in Handoff for their own apps or creating a Today widget will be able to do so thanks to a new set of APIs.

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The Financial Times reports that Apple is offering $3.2 billion USD to acquire Beats Electronics LLC, the audio company founded in 2006 by hip-hop producer Dr. Dre and Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records chairman Jimmy Iovine. Sources claim that the deal is expected to be announced as early as next week, but they also caution that there are still some issues to iron out, and the deal could possibly fall apart.

According to the report, a finalized deal means that Apple will acquire Beats’ just-launched Beats Audio streaming music service, and the company’s audio equipment arm, which includes branded headphones and other audio products. The Beats management team will also report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. Apple already sells Beats audio products in its Apple stores.

Rumors of Apple jumping into the streaming subscription business have been around for years, but so far the company is only relying on the sales of its music sold through iTunes. Meanwhile competitors have sprouted up such as Spotify and even Google’s own All-Access on Google Play Music, showing that customers are willing to spend a monthly fee for an all-you-can-eat music buffet. The subscription service market raked in $1.1B in 2013, according to a recent report by the IFPI.

In September 2013, Apple launched iTunes Radio, an ad-supported service available to iTunes customers. Like Pandora, users can skip a limited numbers of tracks, create stations and purchase music from those stations in the iTunes Store. Apple also has an iTunes Match service, which for a monthly fee will match the customer’s non-ITunes library with high-quality audio files. These subscribers can get iTunes Radio without ads.

So far Apple has not launched an unlimited music subscription, which is why the deal with Beats Electronics seems more like a definite deal instead of unnamed sources blowing smoke. HTC originally purchased 50.1 percent of Beats back in August 2011, but sold half of that back to Beats in July 2012, and the other half in September 2013. Beats Audio was then launched in January 2014, a service that HTC originally wanted exclusively to rival other phone manufacturers.

If the talks is true and Apple acquires Beats Electronics, the company will have more control over the accessories it sells in the brick-and-mortar stores not to mention an already-established music subscription service. According to Apple executives, the Apple brand needs a revamp anyway.

Both Apple and Beats have declined to comment.

Thermaltake has announced a new accessory – the BlacX Urban WiFi docking station. This product, in short, is simply a hot-swap hard drive docking station with a built-in wireless adapter.

The docking station can be filled with either a 2.5" or 3.5" SATA-based drive, and is accessible through either a USB 3.0 interface or a WiFi network created by the docking station itself. This network can be protected with up to WPA2 wireless security.

In the Google Play Store, as well as the Apple App Store, you'll be able to download apps for mobile phones and tablets to access the device, allowing you to avoid having to transfer the data to your mobile device through a PC or Mac. The app can be found by looking for "TtCloud."

Thermaltake has not revealed information on availability or pricing.

Earlier this month, Asus launched what it deemed as the fastest router in the world, the RT-AC68U Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router. However, Linksys beat Asus to the punch just days prior with the launch of its Linksys Smart Wi-Fi AC1900 Router. Regardless of who arrived first, both provide impressive speeds, with up to 600 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and up to 1300 Mbps on the 5 GHz band.

Asus said its new Wireless AC router is a step up from the previous RT-AC66U model, featuring a new dual-core processor and USB 3.0 connectivity for next-generation high-performance storage. Broadcom TurboQAM technology increases Wireless N data rate to 600 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band, providing 33 percent faster performance than other solutions.

"With a 3x3 MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output) design with three external 'smart' antennas, the RT-AC68U gives solid and stable Wi-Fi performance with increased data rates over long distances," the company said. "Wireless coverage is further enhanced by ASUS AiRadar Tx beamforming technology that automatically shapes the signal to give a stronger connection for wireless clients."

In other words, instead of distributing a single sphere of wireless networking signal, the router can lock on to a connected device and create a finely-tuned "beam" of communication. This method ensures extended coverage, dynamic data speed increases, and enhanced stability. This connectivity feature is complimented by the ASUSWRT dashboard for easily controlling network applications and connected devices.

According to the specs, this router provides four Gigabit ports, one Gigabit WAN port, a USB 3.0 port and a USB 2.0 port. With the USB ports, users can share 3G/4G USB modems, printers and high-performance storage with a local network. ASUS AiCloud technology transforms USB-attached storage into a personal cloud server, for easy remote file access and media streaming from a laptop, smartphone and tablet, the company said.

"The RT-AC68U features a dual-core processor that eliminates the performance drops that plague other routers," the company said. "So even on the busiest home networks, HD video streaming is always smooth, the latency low for online gaming and VoIP calls, and file downloads are never interrupted. ASUSWRT firmware also provides a simple 30-second setup and sophisticated, yet simple to use, simple network management features with graphical traffic monitoring and per-service bandwidth limiting."

Naturally, to get the 1300 Mbps speeds on the router's 5 GHz band, you'll need a Wireless AC device or adapter (and even then you might not hit the limit). The new Asus router can now be pre-purchased on Amazon, NCIX and Newegg for $219 USD, with shipments expected to begin on October 9. That's slightly cheaper than the Linksys model, which sells for $249 USD.

Inventor Daniel Chin has begun selling the small box, which can turn any USB-based storage into a personal cloud device, for $100.

Funded with $262,000 back in January, CloudFTP creates its own ad-hoc wireless network and acts as a file server for Wi-Fi enabled products when connected to a USB mass storage device. According to Chin, up to three Wi-Fi clients can stream data from the device at the same time.

The hardware of the box includes a 2600 mAh battery that powers the device and a USB device for up to five hours when not connected to a power source. Data processing is handled by an ARM Core-A9 design, wireless connectivity is established via integrated 802.11b/g/n support. A small display on the front of the box displays the SSID as well as its network address.

CloudFTP can automatically connect to cloud storage services like iCloud, Dropbox, box.net and synchronize data.

Apple today confirmed that CEO Steve Jobs (along with a team of Apple executives) will be presenting its "next generation software" at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m.

At the keynote, Apple will show off Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple's upcoming cloud services offering.

This marks the first official confirmation from Apple on its cloud services and the new name. In late April, Apple reportedly purchased the iCloud.com domain and name from a Swedish storage company for $4.5 million. While the exact monetary sum remains a mystery, we now know that Apple did indeed purchase the trademark.