Smartphones

A senior US senator believes the fingerprint recognition technology featured in Apple's new iPhone 5S raises "substantial privacy questions".

Senator Al Franken, chairman of the influential Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, has written to Apple boss Tim Cook explaining his security concerns.

After stealing someone's thumbprint, hackers could "impersonate you for the rest of your life," he wrote.

Apple has yet to comment on the letter.

Mr Franken wants answers to a number of questions, such as:

• whether the fingerprint data stored locally on the mobile phone chip in encrypted form could ever be stolen and converted into digital or visual form that would be usable by hackers or fraudsters
• whether the iPhone 5S transmits any diagnostic information about the Touch ID system back to Apple or any third parties
• how well customer fingerprint data will be protected and kept private
• the exact legal status of such fingerprint data.

Mr Franken has asked Apple to answers his questions within a month of receiving his letter.

Meanwhile, hackers are gearing up to try to crack Apple's Touch ID technology.

The website istouchidhackedyet.com, set up by Nick DePetrillo and Robert Graham, lists a number of people offering rewards - including one for $10,000 from IO Capital, a venture capital company - "to the first person who can reliably and repeatedly break into an iPhone 5S by lifting prints (like from a beer mug)."

Other rewards include a bottle of wine and a book of erotica.

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Blackberry has announced it is planning to cut 4,500 jobs, or 40% of its worldwide workforce, in an attempt to staunch huge losses.

The smartphone maker said it anticipated a loss of as much as $995m (?621m) when it reports its second-quarter earnings next week.

Shares in the firm closed down 17% after briefly being halted following the announcement.

In August, the Canadian company said it was evaluating a possible sale.

In a statement on Friday, Blackberry's chief executive Thorstein Heins said: "We are implementing the difficult, but necessary operational changes announced today to address our position in a maturing and more competitive industry, and to drive the company toward profitability."

"Going forward, we plan to refocus our offering on our end-to-end solution of hardware, software and services for enterprises and the productive, professional end user."

The company said the losses were primarily attributable to disappointing sales of its new Z10 model smartphone.

Released in January to much fanfare after many delays, the phone has failed to enthuse consumers.

In June, Mr Heins said that the company had shipped only 2.7 million Z10 phones out of 6.8 million total. Many Blackberry users had instead opted to stick with earlier models.

"The company has sailed off a cliff," BGC technology analyst Colin Gillis told the BBC

"This is the quarter where Blackberry as you used to know it is no longer."

Mr Gillis said the job cuts and losses today could dampen the enthusiasm of potential buyers and might indicate the company could not find any interested parties.

This week, the company released a new version of its handset, the Z30, which was praised by observers but was nonetheless overshadowed by Apple's launch of its new smartphone products.

"It's not a bad phone," said Mr Gillis.

"I'm sure they'll sell at least one.

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From this weekend, users will no longer need to own a Blackberry device to access its BBM messaging service.

Blackberry has confirmed BBM will be available as a free download for Apple and Android devices but not for Windows phones.

The move comes as the Wall Street Journal reports that Blackberry will lay off 40% of its staff before 2014.

Widening the appeal of BBM could be a clever way for the company to reinvent itself, said experts.

"Blackberry is having a tough time, sales are down, it is losing market to Windows phones and it needs to do something to stop the rot. This is as good a move as any," said Chris Green, principal technology analyst at Davies Murphy Group Europe.

"Offering it across other platforms broadens the appeal of BBM," he added.

BBM will be available for Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean while iPhones running iOS 6 or iOS 7 can also download it. It will be available for Android from Saturday and for iOS from Sunday.

"With more than a billion Android, iOS and Blackberry smartphones in the market, and no dominant mobile messaging platform this is absolutely the right time to bring BBM to Android and iPhone customers," said Andrew Bocking, vice-president for BBM in a blogpost.

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Tarrant_sl said:

Step 1) Download Swift Key

Step 2) Use Swift Key

Step 3) ???

Step 4) Profit.

In short, Swift Key is what every Android Keyboard should be, it looks close to Samsungs stock board but is much better at knowing what you're typing.

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Ortega_sl said:

God I hate when shit becomes so popular it's cool to hate on it...

Side note as I'm really not sure how you can hate the new OS. It's the same shit with different icons/sounds. Also has some nice new perks like being able to swipe to go back on Safari and shit like that. The level of change isn't even close to the change from Win 7 to 8...

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Tarrant_sl said:

Hope it helps sir!

I was in teh same boat as you, when I got my S3 I loved everything about it but could not type on it to save my life. I came across Swift Key and it's been smooth sailing ever since.

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Frenzied Wombat_sl said:

The white background with the 2d "flat" buttons and the overall "antiseptic" feel looks just like Outlook 2013 (flat buttons, flat icons, white background, thin font, minimalist framing/bordering) or the server manager console in Windows Server 2012. I'd even say that the new look is closer to Windows Phone 8 than it is to iOS6. I actually like the new IOS7 graphics, but it undeniably drew some of its inspiration from the aforementioned products.

Slightly off topic, but more and more employees where I work have been going out and purchasing Windows Phone 8 devices and I've been quite surprised just how good it is. We have one VIP that has held onto his ancient Blackberry 9700 for 5 years with a death grip, rejecting every other device we've had him try (Iphone, Galaxy, Tab) and he actually loves his Lumia 1020. If your company runs Exchange server it even gets better, as MS obviously held onto some activesync technology just for themselves, as its the only device that has full Outlook level meeting/calendar support as well as support for information rights management decryption. Being able to listen to protected work voicemail right from your inbox is pure gold.

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