Month: June 2018

Enlarge / A customer inspects the 2013 iPhone at the Wangfujing flagship store in Beijing. (credit: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Apple is trying to make it harder for developers to abuse users' information collected through apps. According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple updated its App Store Review Guidelines last week with more detailed rules on what developers can do with users' Contacts address book information. Now, developers cannot make databases using address book information collected from iPhone users, nor can they share or sell such databases to third parties.

"Do not use information from Contacts, Photos, or other APIs that access user data to build a contact database for your own use or for sale/distribution to third parties, and don’t collect information about which other apps are installed on a user’s device for the purposes of analytics or advertising/marketing," states the updated guidelines. Those found in violation of the new rules could be banned from the App Store.

Users must already opt in to sharing Contacts information with app developers, but now Apple has placed more restrictions on what developers can do with that information after they obtain it. Once permission is given, though, users can't pull back data funneled to a developer. However, there are controls in an iPhone's settings to revoke permission for a particular app to access Contacts information—that way the developers can't get any additional information from your address book.

Enlarge / A customer inspects the 2013 iPhone at the Wangfujing flagship store in Beijing. (credit: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Apple is trying to make it harder for developers to abuse users' information collected through apps. According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple updated its App Store Review Guidelines last week with more detailed rules on what developers can do with users' Contacts address book information. Now, developers cannot make databases using address book information collected from iPhone users, nor can they share or sell such databases to third parties.

"Do not use information from Contacts, Photos, or other APIs that access user data to build a contact database for your own use or for sale/distribution to third parties, and don’t collect information about which other apps are installed on a user’s device for the purposes of analytics or advertising/marketing," states the updated guidelines. Those found in violation of the new rules could be banned from the App Store.

Users must already opt in to sharing Contacts information with app developers, but now Apple has placed more restrictions on what developers can do with that information after they obtain it. Once permission is given, though, users can't pull back data funneled to a developer. However, there are controls in an iPhone's settings to revoke permission for a particular app to access Contacts information—that way the developers can't get any additional information from your address book.

Enlarge (credit: Gal Vallerius)

A Frenchman who was arrested in August 2017 after arriving in the United States to attend a beard competition in Austin, Texas has now admitted to being "OxyMonster," a well-known drug vendor on the Dream Market underground online marketplace.

Gal Vallerius pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to launder money. He admitted while at first he was a vendor of Oxycodone and Ritalin, he later was hired by Dream Market to serve as an Administrator and Senior Moderator.

Investigators began honing in on Vallerius when they analyzed the "tip jar" that OxyMonster advertised on Dream Market. According to the criminal complaint, "15 of 17 outgoing transactions from the 'OxyMonster' tip jar went to multiple wallets controlled by French national Gal VALLERIUS on Localbitcoins.com."

Enlarge (credit: Gal Vallerius)

A Frenchman who was arrested in August 2017 after arriving in the United States to attend a beard competition in Austin, Texas has now admitted to being "OxyMonster," a well-known drug vendor on the Dream Market underground online marketplace.

Gal Vallerius pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to launder money. He admitted while at first he was a vendor of Oxycodone and Ritalin, he later was hired by Dream Market to serve as an Administrator and Senior Moderator.

Investigators began honing in on Vallerius when they analyzed the "tip jar" that OxyMonster advertised on Dream Market. According to the criminal complaint, "15 of 17 outgoing transactions from the 'OxyMonster' tip jar went to multiple wallets controlled by French national Gal VALLERIUS on Localbitcoins.com."

Enlarge / A view of the Pilsworth Liquid Air Energy Storage system (credit: Highview Power)

A first-of-its-kind energy-storage system has been added to the grid in the UK. The 5MW / 15MWh system stores energy in an unusual way: it uses excess electricity to cool ambient air down to -196°C (-320°F), where the gases in the air become liquid. That liquid is stored in an insulated, low-pressure container.

When there's a need for more electricity on the grid, the liquid is pumped back to high pressure where it becomes gaseous again and warmed up via a heat exchanger. The hot gas can then be used to drive a turbine and produce electricity.

The system is called Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES, for short), and if you thinking it sounds remarkably like Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), you're right. LAES takes filtered ambient air and stores it so it can be used to create electricity later, just like CAES. But LAES liquifies the air rather than compressing it, which creates an advantage in storage. Compressed-air storage usually requires a massive underground cavern, but LAES just needs some low-pressure storage tanks, so it's more adaptable to areas that don't have the right geology.