Review TechRadar: Phone and communications news 09-21-2013

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iPhone 5S Touch ID tech is no joke, says comedian-turned-politician Sep 21st 2013, 09:55, by Chris Smith The new Touch ID fingerprint sensor within the iPhone 5S handset has come under fire from a prominent U.S. politician, who has expressed concern the data could be used to 'impersonate a person for life.' Senator Al Franken, a former comedian who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, wants assurances from Apple regarding how the prints will be safeguarded. In an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the representative for Minnesota pointed out that passwords can be changed infinitely, but once thieves get hold of our prints, it's the end of the road. He wrote: "Passwords are secret and dynamic; fingerprints are public and permanent. If you don't tell anyone your password, no one will know what it is. If someone hacks your password, you can change it -- as many times as you want. You can't change your fingerprints. You have only ten of them. And you leave them on everything you touch; they are definitely not a secret. What's more, a password doesn't uniquely identify its owner -- a fingerprint does. Let me put it this way: if hackers get a hold of your thumbprint, they could use it to identify and impersonate you for the rest of your life." Can it be extracted? Apple has assured that the fingerprint data will never leave the iPhone 5S and will never be stored on the company's servers or uploaded to iCloud. Third party developers have also been shut-out from using the tech at this stage. However, despite conceding that Apple has probably implemented this tech responsibly, Franken wants to know whether its possible to extract the fingerprint data from the device itself. In one of a number of questions within the letter he asked: "Is it possible to extract and obtain fingerprint data from an iPhone? If so, can this be done remotely, or with physical access to the device?" Is Touch ID genuinely useful? Or is it a passing gimmick? Breaking up is hard to do: Samsung is behind iPhone 5S A7 chip Sep 20th 2013, 23:31, by Michelle Fitzsimmons When Apple announced the iPhone 5S 10 days ago, it revealed a more powerful next-gen processor was ticking along for the ride. The 64-bit ARM A7 was a widely expected edition to the Apple SoC line-up, and some thought Apple might finally turn to a chipmaker other than arch-rival Samsung to produce the silicon in its new flagship. Alas, Apple apparently couldn't cut the cord, as research firm Chipworks confirmed through "early analysis" that the chip is the product of Samsung's fabrication Foundry. Through some microscopic dissection, the Chipworks crew came to the conclusion the A7 is built using the same 28-nm HKMG process as Samsung's Exynos 5410 CPU, the processor found inside the octa-core version of the Galaxy S4. Blood is thicker than water, we suppose. Made a break with M7 Apple is stuck relying on Samsung for its mobile CPUs it would seem, though perhaps by the time the iPhone 6 lands the company will have made a clean break. There is, however, one third-party chip claim Apple can stake with the 5S. Chipworks identified the M7 co-processor, which collects and processes accelerometer, gyroscope and compass data, as an NXP Semiconductors product. Read our iPhone 5S review, and check out the iPhone 5C review right after. Updated: BlackBerry to pull back from consumer market, warns of huge loss and layoffs Sep 20th 2013, 20:46, by Michelle Fitzsimmons BlackBerry released its preliminary second quarter financial results today, and as jargon-y as that sounds, the company dropped some major bombshells. We'll start with the news that affects consumers directly: BlackBerry has decided to chop its future smartphone portfolio from six devices to four. Cost saving measures are to be expected, but there's more. The phone maker will now focus on making "enterprise and prosumer-centric targeted devices," producing for that space two high-end devices and two entry-level devices. All-touch and QWERTY models are in the offing, but the days of BlackBerry ardently plying phones to consumers are over. "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," CEO Thorsten Heins said in a BlackBerry press release. "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." Additionally, following this week's announcement of the BlackBerry Z30, BlackBerry wants to re-tier its predecessor, the disappointing Z10, making it available to "a broader, entry-level audience." BlackBerry reiterated a special committee continues to explore strategic alternatives for the company's future, which it has stated include an all-out sale. Money pit Of course, BlackBerry wouldn't just up and decide to shift its attention to the enterprise and prosumer space. It would have to be losing bucket-loads of money. Well, it is. According to the company's preliminary calculations, it expects a net operating loss of approx. $950 million to $995 million for the second quarter. A huge portion of that - $930 million to $960 million - is a primarily non-cash, pre-tax inventory charge "resulting from the increasingly competitive business environment impacting BlackBerry smartphone volumes." That's the nice way of saying the Z10 didn't sell, and now BlackBerry is sitting on a mountain of unsold BlackBerry 10 handsets. A $72 million restructuring charge is also in there as well. Cutting even deeper to the quick, BlackBerry's restructuring will result in the lay off of approx. 4,500 employees, or about 40% of its workforce. As for whatever positives there are, BlackBerry expects to pull in second quarter revenue of approx. $1.6 billion and sales of 3.7 million smartphones. Sadly, only It plans to chop its operating expenditures by about 50% by the end of the first 2015 fiscal quarter. Whether there's still a BlackBerry to report on in Q1 2015, well, that's a whole other story. The company is due to discuss final Q2 2014 financials on Sept. 27. BlackBerry is still releasing BBM for Android and iOS though. Apple reportedly pushing for increase in gold iPhone 5S production Sep 20th 2013, 17:45, by Michelle Fitzsimmons If you shrugged off sleep, kept your track-pad finger hovering over order options at the online Apple Store, or camped out/paid someone to stand in front of a physical store overnight, you're helping the new iPhones get off to a rousing start. "Demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and we are currently sold out or have limited supply of certain iPhone 5S models in some stores," an Apple representative told AllThingsD. But you really have to look no further than the long lines and extended shipping dates to know that. The gold iPhone 5S looks of particular interest to consumers, and Apple is reportedly preparing to give them more of what they want. All that glitters According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has tugged on suppliers' ears to up production of the new gold iPhone. Apple apparently wants production to jump up another third based on the strong demand it's seeing for the champagne-colored handset. AllThingsD noted in a separate report that Apple's manufacturing partners have been asked to "significantly" increase gold iPhone 5S production. The Journal's report focused on Hong Kong demand, but in the U.S., the gold iPhone's ship time has been pushed to October on all four carriers and in all storage configurations. The white and space gray models, meanwhile, are able to ship within seven to 10 business days from any carrier in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB options. Supplies of the iPhone 5C, meanwhile, appears to be holding steady, and will get to U.S. customers in one to three business days. Read our review of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C to see if the phones are worth the wait. Android KitKat release date revealed by Nestle Sep 20th 2013, 15:00, by John McCann It looks like Nestle Germany has let the chocolate out the wrapper after it appeared to confirm that Android KitKat would be launched in October this year. Replying to a user on its German KitKat Facebook wall, the translated message reads: "Hi Tim, Android 4.4 KIT KAT is available in October". There have been rumours circulating that Google is planning an event on October 14, at which the search giant is expected to announce details on the next iteration of its mobile platform. Nexus 5? We could see KitKat arrive alongside the new Nexus 5, which is also be touted for the event and it could be the flagship smartphone for Android 4.4. If Android KitKat does arrive in October you can expect Google's Nexus devices to be first in line for the free software upgrade, including the new Nexus 7, Nexus 4 and Nexus 10. Of course Nestle might just be messing with us - could it instead be referring to the launch of a KitKat in the shape of an Android? We'll wait and see... Android 4.4 KitKat: what you need to know

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