Exclusive: Apple iPhone 7 renders appear

We received exclusive Apple iPhone 7 renders from a reputable source in the case-making business. The renders you see below are based on actual 3D technical drawings of the upcoming iPhone 7. However, colors and materials are not official but made up.

Since the renders are based on technical drawings of the device, the buttons, camera placement and all functional elements are in their correct locations. The color scheme and actual materials might differ slightly, but knowing Apple's style these are also likely correct.

Interestingly, Apple has decided to alter the cutouts for the antennas on the back. As far as the camera on the back, it's going to have a bump.

It also seems that the iPhone 7 is going to rock two grilles at the bottom. The iPhone 5s used to have those and one was simply used for the mic, but Apple dropped them for the iPhone 6 and 6s. Bringing them back might signal stereo speakers, or at least we can hope. The 3.5mm jack is missing, though.

We're eagerly awaiting to see if the iPhone 7 Plus is going to really pack a dual-camera setup, as rumored earlier. The Apple iPhone 7 could be waterproof and it might sport a touch home button, but we don't have a way of confirming this just yet.


The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are due to be outed at Apple's annual event in the Fall.

Apple TV : Luxurious streaming TV at your voice's beck and call

The new 4th-generation Apple TV is a huge overhaul over the previous model, but is it worth spending nearly twice as much for one?

Apple announced the new Apple TV 4th-generation model back in September during its iPhone 6s event and then released the device about a month-and-a-half later. It was a long time coming 

since the company didn’t even touch the Apple TV since 2012, and the slim aluminum Apple TV remote remained unchanged for even longer.

It’s no surprise that Apple overhauled its new Apple TV by adding a bevy of new features, including Siri capabilities, gaming support, the ability to download third-party apps, an all-new Apple TV remote, and more.

The new Apple TV is undoubtedly an upgrade over the older model, but a big question I kept asking myself is whether or not the $149 price tag was worth it for what I would use it for. Obviously, it depends what you’ll use it for, but considering that you can get a previous-generation Apple TV for as low as $59 for basic streaming capabilities, why would you pay $149 for the newer box?

I hope to answer these questions and give you an overview of what your money will buy you if you decide to get a new Apple TV, and whether or not it would be worth the purchase.

It looks pretty boring on the outside, but that’s completely okay. It doesn’t need to look fancy, as it will just sit on your home entertainment shelf and won’t be the center of attention at all. That’s the way the Apple TV has always been, and other set-top boxes are the same way.

On the backside, there are less ports than the previous model, but you still have the essentials: HDMI and ethernet, which are really all you need. The only other half-important port that’s missing this time around is optical audio, but it’s unlikely that too many people miss that on the new Apple TV.

Again, though, the exterior doesn’t mean much, so let’s take a deeper look into the new Apple TV and see what it can deliver.

Gaming

I’ll say this right now: the new Apple TV can replace your Xbox or PlayStation, but only if you’re a very casual gamer.

There are a lot of games to choose from, including a handful of games that have been available on the iPhone and iPad for years, like Crossy Road and Jetpack Joyride, which are two games that are available on the Apple TV as well.

There are also some exclusive Apple TV games, like Beat Sports, which is essentially the Apple TV’s version of Wii Sports, and you use the Apple TV remote as a motion controller, swinging your tennis racket to hit the ball back to your opponent.

You can even get pretty serious with Apple TV gaming if you want, thanks to games like Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5, both of which are pretty graphic intensive. You can also use third-party gamepads with the Apple TV, like the SteelSeries Nimbus, giving you the closest experience to a dedicated gaming console without actually going there.

Personally, gaming on the Apple TV has made it easier to play “mobile” games with other people. Both my wife and I love playing Jetpack Joyride, and while it’s still a one-player game on the Apple TV, it’s more fun to watch the other person play it on the big screen without having to lean over their shoulder to watch them play on their iPhone.

I don’t do a lot of gaming on my PS4 in the first place, so the new Apple TV might have been the final nail in the coffin.

Remote

The new Apple TV remote is perhaps the biggest upgrade/change over the previous generation. Beforehand, Apple didn’t even touch the remote since 2009, so it was definitely ready for an upgrade, and all of the new features on the new model certainly needed something better to control it with.

Enter the new Apple TV remote, which comes with a built-in trackpad, motion sensors, a Siri button, and dedicated volume buttons that you can use to adjust your TV volume without using the TV’s own remote.

The new remote is still a rather slim piece of machinery, but it’s certainly thicker this time around, sporting an aluminum underbody with a shiny plastic top on the bottom, and a matte finish at the top where the trackpad is. In between are the buttons, which are laid out rather nicely.

The trackpad is something that takes getting used to, and it’s the main form of navigation to get around menus and such. The trackpad uses acceleration, which means the faster you swipe on the trackpad, the faster the user interface scrolls through items, and the slower you scroll, the slower the interface scrolls through items. It makes sense, obviously, but it takes getting used to exactly just how fast it scrolls when you apply a certain amount of swiping force.

The build quality of the remote isn’t as great as I expected from looking at pictures. It’s super lightweight and just feels cheap when holding it. Plus, the buttons have that cheap, plastic-y sound when you press them down. It’s certainly not worth spending $80 for a replacement remote, so make sure you don’t lose it or break it.

The Bottom Line

In the end, the new Apple TV is most definitely a huge upgrade over the previous Apple TV model by far, and if money isn’t a huge concern for you, you should absolutely upgrade to it.

However, depending on your usage, you might actually be better off with a previous-generation model. If you’re only a casual streaming user who uses Netflix and not much else, then the third-generation Apple TV is probably the way to go, since you can buy one for nearly a third of the cost.

The $150 price tag is certainly a hard pill to swallow, and it makes the new Apple TV one of the most expensive streaming boxes on the market, but its capabilities know no bounds, and it’s a worthy purchase if you’ll use all of its features, even if $150 is hard to stomach.

Evidence of ancient tsunamis on Mars

Scientists think they see evidence of two huge tsunamis having once swept across the surface of Mars.

They point to satellite data suggesting a major redistribution of sediments over a large region at the edge of the Red Planet's northern lowlands.

The US-led team argues that asteroid or comet strikes into an ocean of water could have triggered the giant waves.

Such events could only have occurred more than three billion years ago when the planet was wetter and warmer.

Today, Mars is dry and very cold, and any impact would merely dig out a dusty hole.

But researchers have long speculated that the low, flat terrain in Mars' northern hemisphere could have hosted an ocean if the climate conditions were just right.

The nagging doubt with this theory has been the absence of an identifiable shoreline - something the new study could now help explain.

Left: A colour-coded digital elevation model of the study area showing the two proposed shoreline levels of an early Mars ocean that existed approximately 3.4 billion years ago. Right: Areas covered by the documented tsunami events extending from these shorelines.

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If tsunamis regularly inundated the "land", dumping sediments and scouring new flow channels, they could over time have disguised what otherwise would have been an obvious "coast".

"Clearly, it's one of the implications of this work: to have tsunamis, you must have an ocean," said Alexis Palmero Rodriguez from the Planetary Science Institute in Tuscon, Arizona.

"So, we think this is going to remove a lot of the uncertainty that surrounds the ocean hypothesis. Features that have in the past been interpreted as relating to an ocean have been controversial; they can be explained by several, alternative processes. But the features we are describing - such as up-slope flows including large boulders - can only be explained in terms of tsunami waves," he told BBC News.

Dr Rodriguez and colleagues' tsunami findings appeared on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. Their work centres on two connected regions of Mars, known as Chryse Planitia and Arabia Terra.

The team claims that the sediments observed by satellite betray the action of two ancient mega-tsunamis.

The older event is perhaps easier to understand in an Earth context, where energetic waves can pick up sediments, including massive boulders, and dump them at a higher elevation. The water, as it turns back to run downhill, then cuts new channels - such as the ones identified on Mars by Dr Rodriguez's group.

But the scientists go on to describe the traces of a second, younger event. This is calculated to have occurred a few million years later, when the climate had cooled significantly. In this instance, the tsunami wave likely froze as it propagated across the land surface. This is suggested by the observation of "lobes" of sediment without the backwash channels.

On Earth, the frozen floes capping a sea or a lake can sometimes be pushed ashore by a storm surge. It is an unusual phenomenon but would be analogous to what is being suggested - albeit on a much larger scale - for Mars.

The team has estimated the energetics of the impacts and their ensuing tsunamis, based on the scale of the sediment distributions.

The craters that were produced were probably about 30km across, they say. The waves could have been 50m in height, or even 120m at some locations.

The areas affected by the tsunamis cover some 800,000 sq km for the older event and 1,000,000 sq km for the younger one.

"On Earth, the K-T boundary impact (that wiped out the dinosaurs) produced an enormous tsunami wave that hit the continental United States, equivalent to the area we see flooded in our study region on Mars," Dr Rodriguez added.

Wet Red Planet?

Having lost some currency, the idea of an ocean on Mars is gaining popularity again.

Investigations by Nasa's Curiosity rover at Gale Crater have revealed that the deep bowl likely contained persistent lakes in the past.

Such water, it is argued, could only have been maintained if there was a robust hydrological system on Mars, cycling moisture between a large sea somewhere on the planet, its atmosphere and its land surface.

A view (right) of a boulder-rich surface (yellow bars are 10m) deposited by the older tsunami, and then eroded (left) by channels produced as the tsunami water returned to the ocean elevation level

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"[The] large expanse of currently documented tsunami inundation is but a portion of what occurred along the margin of the Martian northern plains-filling ocean," said co-author Kenneth Tanaka of the US Geological Survey.

"Tsunami-related features along other parts of the ocean margin, and potentially other smaller former bodies of water, remain to be identified, mapped and studied in detail."

Peter Grindrod from University College London was not involved in the study. He commented: "The idea of a northern ocean on Mars has been floating around for decades. But the evidence hasn't been able to push this idea forward as the consensus view.

"However, this possible evidence of tsunami deposits is interesting and, along with other recent studies of widespread deltas, could perhaps mark the beginning of a reinvigoration of the ocean hypothesis."

The lobe deposits from the younger event would be an excellent location for future exploration by surface robots or astronauts, the team believes. They are relatively undisturbed and so probably retain important information about the nature of the ocean, and possibly even some bio-signatures if the body of water happened to support life.

France DGSE: Spy service sets school code-breaking challenge

France's external intelligence service, the DGSE, has sponsored a school competition to find the nation's most talented young code-breakers.

It is the first time the DGSE has got involved in such a project in schools.

The first round drew in 18,000 pupils, and just 38 competed in the final on Wednesday, won by a Parisian team.

A DGSE spokesman said the aim was to spread awareness about intelligence work. Security is a major concern after last year's jihadist attacks in Paris.

DGSE stands for Directorate-General for External Security. It has 6,200 staff - 63% of them civilians - and an annual budget of about €750m (£575m; $839m).

Part of the intelligence service's work involves spying on Islamist groups. In November jihadist bombings and shootings in Paris, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, killed 130 people.

In January 2015 jihadists in Paris killed 17 people in attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a policewoman and a Jewish supermarket.

Two associations of mathematicians - France-IOI and Animath - organised the cryptography tests for school pupils.

The competition was called Alkindi, after a celebrated 9th-Century Muslim Arab mathematician and philosopher, Abu Yusuf Yaqub Ibn Ishaq al-Kindi.

There were four rounds of tests on the internet, of increasing difficulty. The final was held at the Army Museum in Paris and the prizes included smart phones and computers.

The DGSE's role was to provide some help and funding for it, its spokesman told the BBC.

"It was a way for us to spread awareness about the DGSE's technical skills," he said.

"The aim wasn't to recruit youngsters but rather to inform, especially those pupils interested in maths, so that they can see the sort of work that the DGSE does."

'Culture of intelligence'

It was also "a way for us to spread a culture of intelligence in France", he said, arguing that it was "a contribution to developing citizenship". The official declined to be named.

But, in a separate statement, the intelligence service said it was also "seeking to remind people that the DGSE is trying to recruit young people skilled in information technology and maths and that it offers many professional opportunities in those areas".

It is the French equivalent of the UK's MI6 and the American CIA.

Nearly all the French regional education authorities got involved in the competition.

The organisers said boys and girls competed in almost equal numbers. Schools in the Paris region, Lille, Nantes and French overseas lycees (high schools) were the biggest participants.

In recent years British spy agency GCHQ has also set cryptographic challenges for the general public on the internet. One involved a Christmas card brainteaser. Other tests involved cyber security battles, which GCHQ said could attract new recruits to the spy service.

Google patents 'sticky car' to reduce crash injuries

Google has patented a sticky coating for driverless cars that could reduce damage done to pedestrians in the event of a collision.

People struck by the vehicle would become glued to its bonnet, rather than being thrown off and further injured.

One transport safety professor said the concept could reduce injuries sustained in a pedestrian collision.

Google did not say whether it intended to implement the idea in its driverless vehicles.

"It does have some merit to it," said Andrew Morris, Professor of Human Factors in Transport Safety at Loughborough University.

"When pedestrian accidents happen, often the person is thrown up onto the bonnet and there may be injuries from that contact, but sometimes there are not.

"But when a driver brakes in a collision, a totally natural reaction, the pedestrian is thrown onto the ground and you can get injuries from that contact."

Google's patent explained that the adhesive layer would be hidden under a protective coating, to ensure it did not gather debris during journeys.

"Upon the initial impact between the colliding object and the vehicle, the coating is broken, exposing the adhesive layer," the patent document said.

Google has been testing driverless cars since 2009, and the company says its vehicles have driven more than a million miles autonomously.

While there have been some minor collisions along the way, the most serious involving a bus, the company's monthly reports suggest a majority of incidents are the fault of human drivers in other vehicles.

Prof Morris said it remained to be seen whether the idea would work in practice.

"Whether they could realistically make a car that has the right material in it and works reliably, we can't categorically say that," he told the BBC.

Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: "As well as developing new technology that prevents pedestrians from being hit in the first place, it's also crucial to develop ways of reducing the severity of injuries suffered if a pedestrian is knocked over."

"This idea is a fascinating example of just how far vehicle technology is changing," he told the BBC.

"It will obviously need to be developed and tested to ensure that it works reliably and doesn't cause any unintended consequences."

Nick Reed, academy director at the Transport Research Lab (TRL), agreed that the idea made sense in principle.

"The idea behind Google's patent is not new - others, including TRL, have discussed and presented on the idea of 'capturing' pedestrians after they are impacted," he told the BBC.

"In 1974, following initial research into the future of car safety technology by British Leyland, five prototypes were developed. This featured a spring-loaded pedestrian-catching cage which was activated in the event of an impact and raised to prevent the accident victim from sliding down or being thrown forward.

"The use of a sticky layer could be part of a number of methods used to help manage dynamic movements of pedestrians as a result of a collision."

Archive of historic BT 'email' hack preserved

An archive detailing a historic hack and its fallout has been handed over to the National Museum of Computing.

Previously, the cache of documents, press cuttings and letters had been kept by Robert Schifreen, who hacked BT's Prestel system in 1984.

He and Steve Gold took control of Prestel and penetrated the email inbox belonging to the Duke of Edinburgh.

The legal case around the hack helped define computer misuse laws in the UK and around the world.

Full access

The archive contains detailed information about how the hack was carried out and the two-year legal wrangle it began.

Robert Schifreen said the whole saga had begun by accident.

"I was testing a modem and was typing in random numbers to see if they worked or not," Mr Schifreen told the BBC. "And one of them did."

The number gave access to Prestel - a basic, text-based computer system developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s that gave people an early taste of online information services.

Customers dialled up and browsed thousands of pages that held information about everything from stocks and shares to weather forecasts and news headlines. In 1983, it was expanded to include a crude form of email.

Purely by accident, Mr Schifreen had stumbled across a live Prestel account that had the number 2222222222 and a password of 1234.

Even better, it was not a customer account.

"It was only supposed to be for Prestel staff," he said.

A quick scan of the pages available via this account revealed a phone number for a test mainframe used by administrators maintaining the service.

"I tried that on and off for a good few months," said Mr Schifreen. "One day, after months of trying, I dialled up this test computer, and it showed a page saying, 'This is the system manager password'."

"I logged in with it, and it said, 'Welcome to Prestel. You are now system manager'."

Initially, this gave Mr Schifreen and Mr Gold access to only the test system. However, the Prestel system administrators had made another security blunder.

"The golden rule they broke was that in this test computer they used live data," Mr Schifreen said.

"They used live passwords on that test machine."

Those live passwords let the pair get access to the working system.

The hack was aided by the fact that the two men were dialling up after 18:00, when phone calls got a lot cheaper.

This had proved useful, Mr Schifreen said, because by then the Prestel security team had gone home for the day.

As a responsible hacker, Mr Schifreen was open about his findings and informed Prestel owner BT about his high-level access and his ability to change any page on Prestel.

Initially, BT dismissed his claim that he could edit any page and brushed him off.

"I changed [the main login page] and then called them back and said, 'Now tell me it cannot be done,'" he said. "They got straight on the phone to Scotland Yard."

But there was just one problem with calling in the cyber-cops - at the time there, was no law under which the men could prosecuted.

"There were no specific laws," said John Austen, former head of the Scotland Yard computer crime unit, who arrested Mr Schifreen and Mr Gold.

"But that was not just in the UK. There were no laws anywhere in the world other than prosecutions undertaken by the FBI into wire fraud."

"I'd never arrested computer hackers before then," he said.

Initially, the pair were charged with offences under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act as this was the law that seemed to capture the essence of what they had done in reusing the internal passwords.

The charges stuck, and the two hackers were found guilty.

They appealed, and the conviction was overturned.

The prosecution sought to get this decision undone, which led to the case being referred to the House of Lords.

But the Lords upheld the original appeal, and the two men were acquitted in 1986.

At the time, Lord Justice Lane said it had been inappropriate to use the forgery law to prosecute the two hackers.

"The police were quite happy that I was acquitted as it demonstrated the need for a computer hacking act of some sort," Mr Schifreen said.

"The Computer Misuse Act of 1990 resulted."

Google fights French 'right to be forgotten' order

Google has appealed to France's highest court after the country's data watchdog ordered it to delete some of its search results globally.

In 2015, the Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) said Google should respect French "right to be forgotten" rulings worldwide.

But Google said the ruling could lead to abuse by "less open and democratic" countries.

The company is now appealing against a 100,000-euro (£76,000) CNIL fine.

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What is the 'right to be forgotten'?

The "right to be forgotten" refers to a landmark ruling passed by the European Union's Court of Justice (ECJ) in May 2014.

It gives people the right to have results linked to their name removed from search websites, if they "appear to be inadequate" or "irrelevant".

Google says results can end up removed "even when those links point to truthful and lawfully published information like newspaper articles or official government websites".

Companies offering services to European citizens must comply with the ruling, even if their websites are not hosted in Europe.

Google said it had reviewed almost 1.5 million requests, of which about 40% resulted in the removal of a search result.

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What has Google been ordered to do?

Google has previously said it does remove results when a valid "right to be forgotten" request is made.

However, it currently does not remove the affected search results from all versions of its website worldwide.

People using Google in Europe cannot find the deleted results using any version of the search engine - but people outside Europe can see the affected search results when they use a non-European version of the website such as google.com.

The CNIL wants Google to remove the affected search results globally.

It has pointed out it is relatively simple for Europeans to access international versions of Google and find the deleted results.

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Why has Google refused?

Google has argued that a French authority such as the CNIL should not "impose measures outside of the nation's borders".

"For hundreds of years, it has been an accepted rule of law that one country should not have the right to impose its rules on the citizens of other countries," said Kent Walker, the company's general counsel.

In an open letter published in French newspaper Le Monde, Google said it had already received requests from countries to block content worldwide that was illegal locally.

"If French law applies globally, how long will it be until other countries - perhaps less open and democratic - start demanding that their laws regulating information likewise have global reach?" it said.

"This order could lead to a global race to the bottom, harming access to information that is perfectly lawful to view in one's own country.

"This is not just a hypothetical concern. We have received demands from governments to remove content globally on various grounds.

"We have resisted, even if that has sometimes led to the blocking of our services."

According to AFP, Google expects the Council of State, France's highest court, will take at least a year to review its appeal.

"We look forward to the court's review of this case," said Mr Walker.

Veteran CBS News journalist Morley Safer dies

Morley Safer, who retired from CBS News just days ago, has died at age 84 after a 61-year career in journalism.

CBS News, which announced his retirement last week, confirmed his death on Thursday but did not give a specific cause.

The Canadian-American was a correspondent on the programme 60 Minutes for 46 years, joining in 1970.

The programme recently ran a tribute for him and said he had the longest-ever run on US prime-time television.

He was known for claiming "there is no such thing as the common man", and if there were, "there would be no need for journalists".

During his career, he reported on a broad range of topics, including war, cyberspace, social injustices and art.

Jeff Fager, executive producer for 60 Minutes, tweeted that Safer was a "masterful storyteller, an inspiration to many of us and a wonderful friend" who "never carried himself as if he was important - he was a reporter".

His first report, the AP news agency notes, was about training US Sky Marshals, and his last was a profile of Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.

He had been dealing with "health issues" and cut down on his time with the programme before his retirement.

As the first Saigon bureau chief for CBS News, his reporting helped shape public attitudes on the Vietnam War.

Words are more important than visuals when it comes to storytelling, he said.

"I really don't like being on television. I find it intimidating," he said, but that he had grown accustomed to it and "the money's very good."

Journalists and writers took to Twitter to express their sadness at the news of his death and their admiration of his work over his long career in broadcasting.

Google Doubles Down on Artificial Intelligence With Home and Allo

 

Alphabet's Google Inc unveiled its answer to Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant along with new messaging and virtual reality products at its annual I/O developer conference on Wednesday, doubling down on artificial intelligence and machine learning as the keys to its future.

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai introduced Google Assistant, a virtual personal assistant, along with the tabletop speaker appliance Google Home.

He also unveiled Allo, a new messaging service that will compete with Facebook's WhatsApp and Messenger products and feature a chatbot powered by the Google Assistant. Allo, like WhatsApp, will also have end-to-end encryption when it is rolled out this summer.

Amazon's Echo, a surprise hit that has other tech giants racing to match it, uses a virtual assistant called Alexa, a cloud-based system that controls the Echo speaker and responds to voice-controlled commands by users.

Like Alexa, Google Assistant can search the Internet and adjust your schedule. However, Pichai said Google Assistant can use images and other information to provide more intuitive results.

"You can be in front of this structure in Chicago and ask Google who designed this and it will understand in this context that the name of that designer is Anish Kapoor," said Pichai, pointing towards a photo of Chicago's Cloud Gate sculpture.

For Google Home, the Google Assistant merges with Chromecast and smart home devices to control televisions, thermostats and other products. Google did not offer a specific release date or pricing for Google Home, saying only that it will be available later this year.

Virtual reality
Google's other big announcement at Wednesday's event, held at an outdoor amphitheatre near Google's headquarters, was a virtual reality platform called Daydream designed to work with theAndroid mobile operating system.

Daydream addresses latency and other issues affecting playback on smartphones, according to Clay Bavor, Google's vice president of virtual reality.

Bavor also announced a virtual reality headset powered by a smooth, two-button controller with orientation sensors that help determine positioning in virtual environments. Facebook is also making a big push in virtual reality with its Oculus headset, and Apple has indicated its interest in VR technology as well.

Bavor also said the division has "rebuilt YouTube from the ground up" to feature improved audio to support virtual reality screening.

Google offered no timetable on the VR headset, but said Daydream-ready phones would likely hit the market by autumn.

© Thomson Reuters 2016