Category Archives: Infinite Loop

apple, Apple TV, Comcast, Infinite Loop

Report: Apple’s efforts to build a live-TV service have stalled

A report from Bloomberg today said that Apple is struggling to come to common ground with CBS, Fox, and Comcast-owned NBC in negotiations to offer a live TV streaming service much like Dish’s Sling TV.

The rumored service would be targeted at cord cutters, hosting a handful of live channels bundled together for about $30 to $40 a month. Back in March, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple’s service would include networks like ABC, CBS, Fox, and various subsidiary channels like ESPN and FX. Apple has been pushing hard to develop a news and entertainment ecosystem to keep its users locked into its product line—earlier this year Apple announced a music streaming service and a curated news platform.

Although a September launch date—which would have coincided with the start of the new TV season—had originally been rumored for the service, Bloomberg‘s sources now say that live-TV streaming won’t hit the market until 2016. Besides the stalemate Apple has reached with CBS, Fox, and NBC, Bloomberg says that Apple decided to put a live-TV service on the back burner because it “doesn’t have the computer network capacity in place to ensure a good viewing experience.” Network capacity is a big deal for live-streaming—in Sling TV’s early days it struggled with the crush of customers demanding March Madness games.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Gear & Gadgets, Infinite Loop, OS X, yosemite

Apple releases OS X 10.10.5 to squash Mail, Photos, and QuickTime bugs

Apple has just released OS X 10.10.5, the fifth (and likely last) major update to OS X Yosemite. It can be downloaded now through the Update tab in the Mac App Store, or you can look for standalone installers to hit Apple’s download page later in the day.

The update contains a fix for a bug that gives attackers unfettered root privileges, a feat that makes it easier to surreptitiously infect Macs with rootkits and other types of persistent malware. Shortly after the vulnerability was publicly disclosed, adware distributors started exploiting it in the wild so they could install potentially unwanted applications without requiring end users to enter system passwords.

The list of specific feature fixes is short: it improves Mail’s “compatibility with certain e-mail servers,” fixes a problem with GoPro camera imports into the Photos app, and a problem that kept Windows Media files from playing in QuickTime. The update also fixes an extensive list of security problems in Apache, Bluetooth, CloudKit, the OS kernel, and a handful of other apps and services—all of that information is available here.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments