Month: January 2019

Enlarge / From left to right: the iPhone 8, the iPhone XS, the iPhone XR, and the iPhone XS Max. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Bloomberg reporters Mark Gurman and Debby Wu, who have a track record of accurately reporting major Apple product features before they are announced, published a new report today describing features in 2020's iPhones and iPad Pros, as well as some new features expected in iOS 13 and new iPhones later this year. They also added to a growing number of reports that claim an updated base iPad and a long-awaited iPad mini follow-up are expected this spring.

Citing several people familiar with Apple's plans, Bloomberg wrote that Apple plans to add a rear-facing 3D camera to the iPhone and iPad Pro. The 3D camera will scan the environment and create 3D models of it in a similar way to how the front-facing TrueDepth camera on recent iPhones scans a user's face and tracks their expressions, but it would use a laser scanner instead of the dot-projection technology in current iPhones. This is because the dot-projection tech is not suitable to longer ranges; the new rear-facing 3D cameras would have a range of up to 15 feet.

The camera would add useful depth-sensing data to photos and make augmented reality applications more powerful and more accurate, which Apple has made a major priority internally and in its communications with app developers.

Enlarge / Computer Hacker (credit: ilkaydede / iStock / GettyImages)

On January 30, the US Department of Justice announced that it, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations were engaged in a campaign to "map and further disrupt" a botnet tied to North Korean intelligence activities detailed in an indictment unsealed last September. Search warrants obtained by the FBI and AFOSI allowed the agencies to essentially join the botnet, creating servers that mimicked the beacons of the malware.

"While the Joanap botnet was identified years ago and can be defeated with antivirus software," said United States Attorney Nick Hanna, "we identified numerous unprotected computers that hosted the malware underlying the botnet. The search warrants and court orders announced today as part of our efforts to eradicate this botnet are just one of the many tools we will use to prevent cybercriminals from using botnets to stage damaging computer intrusions.”

Joanap is a remote access tool (RAT) identified as part of "Hidden Cobra", the Department of Homeland Security designator for the North Korean hacking operation also known as the Lazarus Group. The same group has been tied to the WannaCry worm and the hacking of Sony Motion Pictures. Joanap's spread dates back to 2009, when it was distributed by Brambul, a Server Message Block (SMB) file-sharing protocol worm. Joanap and Brambul were recovered from computers of the victims of the campaigns listed in the indictment of Park Jin Hyok in September.

Enlarge / This picture taken on March 17, 2015, shows Tesla Model S vehicles parked outside a car dealership in Shanghai. (credit: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)

On Wednesday, Tesla released its fourth-quarter financial letter for 2018, and the results were pretty much as expected: the company is in the black for the second quarter in a row, albeit with a smaller profit than last quarter, despite record deliveries of vehicles. The company recorded revenues of more than $6 billion and costs of revenues at more than $5.7 billion. After operating costs, the company posted $210 million in net income, with $139 million of that attributable to shareholders.

The fourth quarter of 2018 was an important one for Tesla's automotive business, because it capped off a year of aggressive Model 3 production ramping just before the company's Federal Tax Credit was retired on January 1, 2019.

Tesla has had debt on a number of convertible bonds come due in recent months, and it's preparing for a massive, $920 million bill to come due March 1. But the car maker says that it can comfortably pay back these debts with its cash on hand. The company said it paid back a $210 million convertible bond in Q4 2018. In its shareholder letter (PDF), Tesla stated "We have sufficient cash on hand to comfortably settle in cash our convertible bond that will mature in March 2019."