FBI

What to expect for the iPhone 5

Tuesday's tech news roundup has a case of iPhone anticipation jitters:

Can you stand the wait? It's almost time for a new iPhone. Apple will dish all the details Wednesday, but here's what we're expecting: larger screen, smaller dock connector, and 4G LTE speeds. It's questionable if Apple will even mention the rumored 7-inch iPad Mini. That announcement may be saved for next month to give iPhone all the glory.

Live blog: CNET's live coverage of Apple's event begins Wednesday

When iOS 6 is released, Apple will not include the standard YouTube app. … Read more

UDID leak source ID'd: BlueToad mobile firm says it was hacked

A small mobile publishing company said today that it was the source of the large number of unique Apple device IDs leaked to the Internet last week.

BlueToad said in a statement that it was the "victim of a criminal cyber attack, which resulted in the theft of Apple UDIDs from our systems." A UDID is a unique device identifier, which Apple has strongly encouraged developers to move away from for privacy reasons.

The disclosure from BlueToad, which is based in Orlando, Fla., adds more details to the timeline of how the UDIDs were obtained and where they … Read more

Privacy hawks fret as FBI upgrades biometrics capacities

Update: 5:27 PM PT The computer revolution arrived late at the FBI, which was still collecting and matching fingerprints in 1999 in much the same way that it did when the agency first began collecting the images in 1924. But that's been changing lately and privacy hawks are watching closely.

As the millennium neared, the agency finally traded in its manual system for one in which a database of fingerprints and associated criminal histories could be searched and updated. Now, the next step.

The FBI is going ahead with an advanced biometric identification service that it has been … Read more

Amazon sets fire to the tablet market

Amazon is heating up competition in the tablet sector with three new models of the Kindle Fire that are clearly aimed at wooing those who might buy a tablet from Apple.

The Amazon assault begins with a new $199, 7-inch model with an HD screen that doubles the built-in storage of the previous entry-level Kindle Fire to 16GB. Amazon has also doubled down on that product line with a larger, 8.9-inch model that has a 1,920-by-1,200 resolution, features 16GB of built-in storage, costs $299 and ships November 20. Topping out the line is a new 32GB model … Read more

Why the Apple, FBI and AntiSec UDID debacle won't go away

Hacktivist collective AntiSec kicked off the week by publishing one million anonymized Apple UDIDs (Unique Device Identifiers) including device types and associated usernames, saying it was part of a 12 million large database that they'd snagged off an FBI agent's computer.

Online, techies scrambled to see if their devices were in the database dump, and look for clues as to where the alleged larger collection might have come from.

The FBI waited until the end of the day to issue an uncharacteristic, slightly sophomoric Tweet calling AntiSec's allegation TOTALLY FALSE and an oddly worded … Read more

Nokia Lumia shows off new camera tricks

Wednesday's tech news roundup cures the colorful phone shakes:

Nokia revealed new Lumia smartphones running Windows Phone 8. The Lumia 920 comes in red and yellow and the camera has "floating lens" technology, meaning it helps stabilize shaky movements and allows the shutter to stay open longer for more light to enter. It also has photo editing tools that remove someone walking by your picture, or you can animate part of a still photo as a cinemagraph. (Check out these examples.) It also has a charging station, so it doesn't need cords. The JBL Power Up … Read more

Apple says it did not give FBI or 'any organization' device IDs

Apple says it doesn't know anything about a massive list of unique identifiers released on the Web earlier this week.

In a statement this morning, Apple said it did not furnish a list of Unique Device Identifiers (UDIDs) to the FBI or anyone else, and that the feature was soon to be removed.

"The FBI has not requested this information from Apple, nor have we provided it to the FBI or any organization," Apple said in a statement provided to AllThingsD. "Additionally, with iOS 6 we introduced a new set of APIs meant to replace the … Read more

FBI finds no evidence that AntiSec hacked its laptop

The FBI said today that it does not know anything about a laptop that hackers say they compromised and that led them to millions of Apple iOS device user details, of which 1 million have been released on the Web.

"The FBI is aware of published reports alleging that an FBI laptop was compromised and private data regarding Apple UDIDs was exposed," said an FBI spokesperson. "At this time there is no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised or that the FBI either sought or obtained this data." Before the statement was released the … Read more

AntiSec claims to have snatched 12M Apple device IDs from FBI

An online hacker group associated with Anonymous claims to have posted 1 million Apple Unique Device Identifiers (UDIDs) by breaching FBI security.

A UDID is the unique string of numbers that identifies each iOS device, formerly used by developers to track their app installations across Apple's user base.

In all, AntiSec claims to have obtained more than 12 million UDIDs, including user names, addresses, and notification tokens from a laptop used by an FBI agent. In a missive posted to Pastebin, the hacking group explains how it obtained the data from an FBI agent's laptop:

During the second … Read more