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MacRumors reports today that Apple has once again kicked off festivities for its annual London iTunes festival. Not the festival itself, you understand, that doesn’t get going until September 1 (it’s been moved from its usual spot of July this year, maybe because of the Olympics in London) but an updated version of the annual free festival app has just appeared in the App Store, and the first acts to appear have already been announced, and pretty spectacular most of them are too, with the whole shindig kicking off with Usher on September 1, Emeli Sande on September 5, Jack White on September 8, Norah Jones on September 10 and One Direction on September 20. All gigs take place at London’s legendary Roundhouse in London, and all are free to enter, but you have to be lucky enough to win a ticket by applying either in-app or on one of the websites below. We certainly are lucky to have this amazing festival in the UK, and to get to see incredible acts for free in a great venue, but you don’t have to be in the UK to enter, as fans from Ireland, France, Germany and the Netherlands can also take part in the lottery. The app will also stream live videos of the shows, as will iTunes. It’s always worth entering, you have a great chance of being lucky, I remember one year I got to see N.E.R.D and Jay Sean!

iTunes Festival, let’s get it started! Click here to download the free app: App Store - iTunes Festival London 2012

Source: Apple's Annual iTunes Festival in London Moves to September - Mac Rumors
iTunes Festival 2012
iTunes Festival 2012

According to a report on Business Insider today, Steve Jobs had a dream of building an Apple car. This new information comes from Mickey Drexler, CEO of J.Crew and a member of Apple’s board of directors, who was speaking in a recent interview at Fast Company’s Innovation Uncensored conference. “Look at the car industry; it’s a tragedy in America. Who is designing the cars?” said Drexler in the interview. “Steve’s dream before he died was to design an iCar.”

Drexler went on to say that he thinks that if Jobs had managed to fulfill his dream before he died and Apple had gone on to launch an iCar, it would have been very successful, saying that “it would have been probably 50% of the market. He never did design it.” However, although Jobs unfortunately did not managed to achieve this particular dream before his untimely passing, Business Insider notes that some analysts are still predicting that Apple could play a big part in the auto industry if it chose to, by working closely with auto manufacturers to fully integrate its devices into their cars.

Source: Steve Jobs Wanted to build an icar - Business Insider
Via iMore

If you’re an iPhone customer considering jumping ship to Sprint, the Now Network’s upcoming promo just might be enough to influence your decision. A trusted source has shared with us that starting on May 18th Sprint will begin offering a minimum of $100 on any iPhone trade-ins towards an iPhone 4S. This offer is available to new and existing customers alike, but it does require a new line of service and a two-year commitment. So, if you’ve got an old iPhone 3G or 3GS collecting dust, and you’re ready to make a move, then you may want to give this offer a whirl, but be sure to act fast, as it is slated to end on June 30th.

5-16-12

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Security firm Symantec previously estimated that the authors of the Flashback malware that affected hundreds of thousands of Macs at its peak could have been generating up to $10,000 per day by hijacking users' ad clicks. Further analysis from the company suggests that the developers may have only earned $14,000 over the three weeks the malware was active.

From our analysis we have seen that, for a three-week period starting in April, the botnet displayed over 10 million ads on compromised computers but only a small percentage of users who were shown ads actually clicked them, with close to 400,000 ads being clicked. These numbers earned the attackers $14,000 in these three weeks, although it is worth mentioning that earning the money is only one part of the puzzle—actually collecting that money is another, often more difficult, job. Many PPC providers employ anti-fraud measures and affiliate-verification processes before paying. Fortunately, the attackers in this instance appear to have been unable to complete the necessary steps to be paid.

It is estimated the actual ad-clicking component of Flashback was only installed on about 10,000 of the more than 600,000 infected machines. In other words, utilizing less than 2% of the entire botnet the attackers were able to generate $14,000 in three weeks, meaning that if the attackers were able to use the entire botnet, they could potentially have earned millions of dollars a year.

Symantec notes that the malware developers displayed more than 10 million hijacked ads and could have delivered many more if the developers had been more successful in their attacks.

Some security specialists have said that the Mac OS is "really vulnerable" to further infections, though these claims should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt -- those security specialists make their living off vulnerabilities and it is in their best interest to promote awareness of them.

5-17-12

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The internet was sent into an uproar yesterday after Verizon CFO Fran Shammo revealed that the carrier would be effectively killing off grandfathered unlimited data plans as subscribers are transitioned to 4G LTE plans. The change will come alongside the introduced of shared data plans for families and businesses this summer. Once the new policy is in effect, you’ll lose grandfathered unlimited data on Verizon when upgrading to LTE or a new device.

In an attempt to calm its disgruntled customers, Verizon has issued another statement today that details more closely how unlimited data will die a slow death.

Customers will not be automatically moved to new shared data plans. If a 3G or 4G smartphone customer is on an unlimited plan now and they do not want to change their plan, they will not have to do so.

When we introduce our new shared data plans, Unlimited Data will no longer be available to customers when purchasing handsets at discounted pricing.

Customers who purchase phones at full retail price and are on an unlimited smartphone data plan will be able to keep that plan.

The same pricing and policies will be applied to all 3G and 4GLTE smartphones.

The main difference between what Verizon said yesterday and today is that grandfathered unlimited plans can be kept if you pay full price for your next phone upgrade. Buying a subsidized phone with a two-year contract will cause you to be kicked off your unlimited plan. The same goes for upgrading to LTE. Verizon notes that you can always keep your current phone and never be kicked off unlimited data. But then you wouldn’t be able to get the new iPhone later this year!

Here’s what Shammo said yesterday:

When asked how Verizon will drive customers to this new data share plan, Shammo said that LTE will be the anchor for the new plan and that as customers upgrade from 3G to LTE, they will have to be on a data share plan, allowing the company to sunset its unlimited 3G data plan. “A lot of our 3G base is on unlimited,” Shammo said. “When they migrate off 3G they will have to go to data share. That is beneficial to us.”

Expect AT&T to follow suit soon.

5-17-12

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