Jordan Golson

CNET has obtained a 'sensitive' U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency document that says it is impossible for law enforcement agencies to eavesdrop on iMessage conversations, even with a court order, because of Apple's "secure end-to-end encryption". The memo appears to be aimed at informing DEA agents that while they may have the appropriate subpoena to get SMS messages, they may not be getting all...

Google announced today that the company is forking the WebKit rendering engine to create its own web rendering engine called 'Blink'. Google had been the using Apple-initiated WebKit project to power its Chrome web browser. Future versions, however, will now be based on this new system. Google is now free to make changes to its rendering engine with less complexity and bureaucracy than when ...

Sonnet has announced a new Thunderbolt dock that combines USB 3.0, SATA and eSATA, FireWire 800, audio input and output, and Gigabit Ethernet ports, a DVD or Blu-ray reader/burner, as well as a 2.5" or 3.5" 6 Gb/s SATA drive bay.The dock is available for pre-order for $400 with a DVD drive and $450 with a Blu-ray drive. Additional choices are available with hard drives built-in.Back in...

Stephane Richard, CEO of France Telecom, said in an interview with Bloomberg that customer behavior is changing and price-conscious consumers are driving demand for lower priced smartphones, threatening sales of comparatively expensive phones like the iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S line.The shift has been especially severe in Europe, where more customers are keeping the same phone when they...

Walmart is offering 16GB Wi-Fi iPad Mini models for $299 across the U.S. (via DealNews)This is the lowest price seen for a brand new iPad Mini and is the same price Apple asks for the refurbished unit. It requires in-store pickup, but customers can reserve one from the website and pick it up...

Apple yesterday updated its investor relations page to note that it will announce its earnings for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2013 on Tuesday, April 23. The earnings release typically occurs just after 4:30 PM Eastern Time following the close of regular stock trading, and the conference call is scheduled to follow at 5:00 PM Eastern / 2:00 PM Pacific.MacRumors will...

Our sister-site TouchArcade has published a roundup of upcoming games announced or previewed in the past couple weeks at PAX East and the Game Developers Conference.There are dozens of promising games on the horizon, including Blizzard's Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Gun Media's Breach and Clear, and the iPad remake of Leisure Suit Larry. TouchArcade looks at a number of these games, and...

AT&T said today that it will begin supporting the iPhone 5's wideband audio -- or 'HD Voice' -- feature later this year, reports All Things D.The technology provides for significantly better call quality, when the network and both devices support it. T-Mobile said it will be supporting it at launch on the iPhone 5, with AT&T the second U.S. carrier promising to support HD Voice.Speaking on...

Apple today issued the first beta of OS X 10.8.4 to AppleSeed members, just over two weeks after OS X 10.8.3 was released. The 10.8.4 beta is build 12E27, while 10.8.3 was build 12D78.Apple is asking users to focus on Wi-Fi, Graphics Drivers and Safari, though no specific issues were...

San Francisco district attorney George Gascón told the SF Examiner (via AppleInsider) that an Apple representative told him the next two generations of iPhones have already been developed and that Steve Jobs was involved in their development, saying "they preceded Tim Cook".After Jobs passed away, it was reported that Apple had four years of product plans in the pipeline that Jobs had...

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that users cannot legally resell songs they have purchased on iTunes, reports All Things D. The case in question is a lawsuit between Capitol Records and music startup ReDigi, which wants to create a marketplace for owners of digital music to sell their libraries. ReDigi argued that 'first-sale doctrine' should apply to digital purchases in addition to...

Negotiations between Apple and record companies regarding Apple's rumored 'iRadio' music service are progressing, The Verge reports as one tidbit in a larger article about the music industry in general.The last report about Apple's streaming music service came earlier in March when Apple was reported to be offering half the royalty rate that Pandora pays for a similar product.Much has been...

Pocketgamer reports that Apple spoke with a number of developers at the Game Developers Conference this week about providing game support for a new, official iOS game controller. Apple was rumored to have a physical game controller in the works for the iPhone last year, but nothing has yet seen the light of day. Two iCade Game Controller Products Of course, there's no official word yet, but Apple ...

Apple today rolled out a new advertising theme for the iPad on its website, highlighting a number of reasons why people love their iPads. The campaign follows on a similar one for the iPhone that launched a couple of weeks ago.The 'Why iPad' pages mention positive J.D. Power rankings for the device, percentages of companies and school districts using the iPad, the 300,000 apps available for...

Apple has updated its 'Find My Friends' location notification app. The small update makes it slightly more streamlined to search for and set location-based notifications.The Next Web has more information about what has changed specifically:The new interface for setting up those alerts has been tweaked to let you set the exact distance threshold from a location. This lets you fine-tune the...

Callet World is suing case-maker Hex over that company's Solo Wallet iPhone case and credit card holder. Callet alleges Hex's case is a direct copy of a case design that Callet holds a design patent for.Left: Hex Solo Wallet for iPhone 5, Right: Callet for iPhone 4 Callet has sued both Hex and Apple in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for violating a design patent of...

Former Apple employee Tim Holmes recently discovered a set of photographs taken on an Apple QuickTake camera -- one of the first digital cameras made -- from the night Steve Jobs returned to Apple after it purchased NeXT. Holmes notes in the description that the colors are incorrect in the photos because of the poor quality of digital cameras in 1996, and that Jobs' jacket was actually black,...

Apple has expanded its postings for Maps Ground Truth jobs to the rest of the world, after initially hiring for similar positions only in Australia. 'Ground Truth' refers to information collected on location versus data collected remotely, such as satellite imagery.The jobs, for 'Maps Ground Truth Manager' positions, have been posted for the U.S., The Americas, Western Europe, Japan, Asia...

PopCap has confirmed that Plants Vs. Zombies 2 will be arriving this summer. The original is one of the biggest hits for the company, which was purchased by EA for $650 million in cash plus $650 million more in stock and potential earn-outs back in 2011.PopCap didn't release any information about the sequel, but has launched another PvZ title for Facebook called Plants vs. Zombies Adventures:U...

In the middle of 2012, it was reported that Apple was looking at investing up to $1 billion over 10 years to build a new data center and other facilities near Reno, Nevada. Today, AppleInsider reports that Apple's first small data center project in Reno appears ready to go online.The initial Reno facility is surround by black lamp posts outfitted with cameras, and is staffed with security...