MacRumors

Apple has decided it won't bid on the digital rights to stream the NFL's "Thursday Night Football" package next season, according to Re/code.

The streaming rights to the NFL's Thursday evening games could have helped set the Apple TV apart from competing streaming boxes, but Apple reportedly felt the package "isn't enough to pull that off."

Amazon, Facebook, Verizon, and Yahoo remain candidates in the bidding war to stream the Thursday evening games online, the report claims.

Yahoo could be a frontrunner to secure the digital rights, after paying an estimated $15 million to exclusively live stream a 2015 regular season game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars at London's Wembley Stadium.

The NFL currently offers a live streaming service called Game Pass, but the app does not include "Thursday Night Football," and its selection of games is limited compared to rival platforms MLB At Bat, NBA League Pass, and NHL GameCenter.

In February, the NFL announced that "Thursday Night Football" will air on CBS, NBC, and NFL Network in 2016 and 2017. CBS and NFL Network will televise the first half of the schedule, with NBC and NFL Network televising the second half.

The iPhone at the center of the ongoing encryption dispute between Apple and the FBI may contain a "dormant cyber pathogen", according to the San Bernardino county District Attorney.

The curious claim appears in an amicus brief filed by Michael Ramos with a California court on Thursday. In the document, Ramos speculates that the iPhone used by terror suspect Syed Rizwan Farook "may contain evidence that can only be found on the seized phone that it was used as a weapon to introduce a lying dormant cyber pathogen that endangers San Bernardino's infrastructure."

The apparent threat is cited as a violation of California Penal Code Section §502, covering protections against tampering, interference, damage and unauthorized access to computer systems. The reference suggests Ramos believes that some sort of malware may be contained on the iPhone, but offers no justification for the claim, nor the odd nature of its wording.

"It sounds like he's making up these terms as he goes," said iPhone forensics expert Jonathan Zdziarski, speaking to Ars Technica about the filing. "We've never used these terms in computer science." Zdziarski believes that the amicus is simply designed to mislead the courts and manipulate a decision in the FBI's favor. "It offers no evidence whatsoever that the device has, or even might have, malware on it. It offers no evidence that their network was ever compromised."

The claim in the court filing is the first time that a law enforcement agency has alluded to what may be contained on the iPhone at the center of the federal investigation. It also runs counter to the FBI's main dispute with Apple that it requires assistance from the company precisely in order to ascertain its content.

Separately, a number of amicus briefs were filed on Thursday in support of Apple's stance in the dispute. The full list of submitted documents have been catalogued on Apple's website. Additionally, five families of San Bernardino victims have filed in support of the FBI.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Sixteen technology companies today teamed up to officially support Apple in its ongoing encryption dispute with the FBI, a copy of which has been shared by Apple. Twitter, Airbnb, eBay, LinkedIn, Square, Atlassian, Automattic, Cloudflare, GitHub, Kickstarter, Mapbox, Meetup, Reddit, Squarespace, Twilio, and Wickr filed an amicus brief [PDF] backing Apple's assertion that the FBI's use of the All Writs Act to force Apple to help the government unlock the iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook is both unprecedented and dangerous.

The government's demand here, at its core, is unbound by any legal limits. It would set a dangerous precedent, in which the government could sidestep established legal procedures authorized by thorough, nuanced statutes to obtain users' data in ways not contemplated by lawmakers."

The filing, which urges the court to vacate the government's motion to compel Apple to unlock the phone, argues that handling user data in a "safe, secure, and transparent manner" that protects privacy is of the "utmost importance" to protect consumers from hackers and other wrongdoers, while also recognizing the government's "important work" in law enforcement and national security. It says the companies oppose forced backdoors, but will continue to comply with "proper and reasonable" requests for data.

Dozens of technology companies, industry trade groups, and encryption experts have been submitting documents to support Apple, all catalogued on Apple's website. AT&T, Intel, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed separate amicus briefs this morning, as did the Consumer Technology Association in partnership with the Business Software Alliance [PDF], a group that includes Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, IBM, and Autodesk.

Other amicus briefs have come from Access Now and the Wickr Foundation, ACT/The App Association, the American Civil Liberties Union, and a group of cryptography experts including Jonathan Zdziarski.

More amicus briefs are expected to be filed throughout the day, including one from a consortium that includes Google, Nest Labs, Facebook, WhatsApp, Evernote, Snapchat, and Mozilla.

All "Friend of the court" or amicus briefs supporting Apple are due by Thursday evening to give Sheri Pym, the judge presiding over the case, time to read through them before a court hearing. Apple is set to face off against the FBI in court on Tuesday, March 22.

Update: As expected, another consortium of technology companies that includes Google, Amazon, Box, Cisco, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nest, Pinterest, Slack, Snapchat, Whatsapp, and Yahoo has submitted an amicus brief in support of Apple.

Additional amicus briefs have been filed by the Center for Democracy & Technology, The Media Institute, Privacy International and Human Rights Watch, a group of 32 law professors, and a consortium including AVG Technologies, Data Foundry, Golden Frog, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, the Internet Association, and the Internet Infrastructure Coalition.

Five families of San Bernardino victims have filed in support of the FBI.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

During a recent Xbox press event, ShackNews had an opportunity to speak with Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey and asked him whether the company plans to implement Mac support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

In response to the question, Luckey said Oculus Rift support for the Mac was "up to Apple," and that the company needed to "prioritize higher-end GPUs." If Apple builds a machine that can handle the hardware, Oculus VR would "love to support Mac."

That is up to Apple and if they ever release a good computer we will do it. It just boils down to the fact that Apple doesn't prioritize high-end GPUs. You can a buy $6,000 Mac Pro with the top of the line AMD FirePro D700s and it still doesn't match our recommended spec. If they prioritize higher-end GPUs like they used to for awhile back in the day I think we'd love to support Mac.

Right now there's just not a single machine out there that supports it so even if we can support it on the software side there's just no audience of people that can run the vast majority of software out there.

The Oculus Rift, which is available for pre-order, will begin shipping out later this month to PC users. While Mac support was planned early on, work on a Mac version was halted once it became clear Mac machines would not have the graphics capabilities to power the headset.

As Luckey mentions, the Oculus Rift requires a computer with a powerful GPU. Oculus VR's recommended specs for the Rift include an NVIDIA GTX 970, AMD 290, or equivalent, because the Oculus Rift needs to render approximately 400 million shaded pixels per second. Mac machines, even the high-end ones, don't have the graphics power to handle that kind of system load.

On the raw rendering costs: a traditional 1080p game at 60Hz requires 124 million shaded pixels per second. In contrast, the Rift runs at 2160x1200 at 90Hz split over dual displays, consuming 233 million pixels per second. At the default eye-target scale, the Rift's rendering requirements go much higher: around 400 million shaded pixels per second. This means that by raw rendering costs alone, a VR game will require approximately 3x the GPU power of 1080p rendering.

With interest in virtual reality devices like the Oculus Rift picking up, Apple will need to focus more heavily on the graphics capabilities with Macs if it hopes to keep up with PC makers and avoid disappointing customers who want to use the latest technology and gaming peripherals. Rumors suggest Apple is even developing its own virtual reality headset, so there's a good chance the company is already well aware of the need for improved GPUs and working towards improvements.

Construction on Apple's second campus in Cupertino, California continues to progress as its completion date looms, and this month, further work has been done on the main ring-shaped building that spans 2.8 million square feet. Structural framing is nearing completion, and construction workers are preparing the solar panels that will be installed on the roof. More glass window panels have gone up, along with window canopies in some spots.

The large, curved sheets of glass that surround the building are designed to let employees look out over the campus, which will be covered in greenery. Apple is planning to include 80 percent green space on the campus, with a central garden, orchards, and several outdoor dining areas.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said the large mound of dirt in the center of the campus will not be removed, instead going towards landscaping that will support more than 7,000 trees. "Hard to know which is more beautiful, the building or that pile of dirt," he said.

The roof of the underground auditorium, where Apple will host events, is now in place, and work on a 100,000 square foot fitness center is underway. Solar panels are being added to the second of two parking garages, which will provide parking for more than 10,000 employees. Underground tunnels are in place for access to underground parking and other campus areas.

Construction on the campus is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2016, and Cook believes Apple will begin occupying the building at the beginning of 2017.

Last week, we saw some conflicting designs for what the upcoming 4-inch iPhone 5se or SE might look like, based on information obtained from case manufacturers. With less than three weeks to go before the device's introduction, we're now seeing the first actual "iPhone SE" cases surface online, although it's clear these companies have yet to nail down just what the phone will look like.

As revealed in images obtained by MacRumors, distributors offering "iPhone 5se" cases for bulk purchase are carrying cases of both rumored designs, which include one very similar to the iPhone 5 or 5s design with the power button on the top and another more like the iPhone 6 design with rounded edges and the power button on the side.

Early case leaks have historically been fairly accurate indicators of new iPhone designs, though there have been a few notable exceptions. With two distinct case designs still floating around this close to the iPhone SE's launch, it's clear there is still confusion over just what Apple intends to release.

Yesterday, we published our own take on one way to reconcile the conflicting rumors, combining a curved-edge front glass panel that has been a consistent feature of iPhone 5se/SE rumors with a metal chassis that has a bit of the iPhone 5s design aesthetic including glass antenna windows at the top and bottom of the device's back.

Apple today created an official Twitter support account to provide customers with tips, tricks, and customer service regarding the company's product and services. One of the account's first tweets shares step-by-step instructions on how to turn lists into checklists in the stock Notes app on iPhone.

Many large companies provide customer service on Twitter in 140 characters or less, and it appears that Apple will directly respond to customer tweets as well. The account is currently set to accept Direct Messages, although Apple may choose to disable that option akin to some of its other Twitter accounts.

Apple continues to lack an official company presence on the popular microblogging service, although it does have some Twitter accounts for specific products and services like the App Store, Apple Music, iTunes, and Beats 1. Tim Cook, Phil Schiller, Eddy Cue, and many other executives also have personal accounts.

Follow the account on Twitter at @AppleSupport. You can also follow MacRumors at @MacRumors.

Apple is reportedly aiming to push up the debut of the OLED iPhone to 2017, reports Nikkei (via AppleInsider). The move would see Apple make the switch to OLED a year earlier than previously estimated.

In December, Apple contacted LG and Samsung about the potential to ramp up OLED production in time for the 2017 iPhone. However, the OLED technology would likely be limited to a higher-end iPhone like the 7 Plus or the rumored iPhone Pro due to possible supply constraints.

Apple, who is reportedly close to a deal with Samsung for flexible OLEDs, has been interested in using curved OLED displays in future iPhones, but Nikkei notes that Apple's accelerated development may leave those plans temporarily stalled. Apple is apparently looking to quickly switch to OLED displays to juice iPhone sales, which analysts expect to stall.

In November, Nikkei reported that Apple expected to switch to OLED displays in 2018. Apple supplier Japan Display is planning for mass production of OLED displays for iPhones beginning in early 2018. Samsung and LG, however, are expected to provide the bulk of the OLED panel production, with Samsung planning to ramp up OLED production to 45,000 panels per month this year. The ever-reliable KGI Securities Ming-Chi Kuo reported in November that Apple was unlikely to fully adopt OLED displays until 2019.

Apple's ongoing fight with the FBI over whether the company can be compelled to help the government unlock the iPhone 5c used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook has brought the full range of Apple's privacy policies into the spotlight.

The details surrounding the case have made it clear that while Apple is unable to access information on iOS devices, the same is not true of iCloud backups. Apple can decrypt an iCloud backup and provide the information to authorities when ordered to do so via a warrant, as it did in the San Bernardino case.

In a piece posted on The Verge entitled "The iCloud Loophole," Walt Mossberg takes a look at Apple's iCloud backups and explains the reason why iCloud data can't be made as secure as data stored solely on an iPhone or iPad.

Apple is able to decrypt "most" of the data included in an iCloud backup, and an Apple official told Mossberg that's because the company views privacy and security issues differently between physical devices that can be lost and iCloud. With iCloud, it needs to be accessible by Apple so it can be used for restoring data.

However, in the case of iCloud, while security must also be strong, Apple says it must leave itself the ability to help the user restore their data, since that's a key purpose of the service. This difference also helps dictate Apple's response to law enforcement requests. The company's position is that it will provide whatever relevant information it has to government agencies with proper, legal requests. However, it says, it doesn't have the information needed to open a passcode-protected iPhone, so it has nothing to give. In the case of iCloud backups, however, it can access the information, so it can comply.

iCloud backups contain iMessages and texts, content purchase history, photos and videos, device settings, app data, voicemail password, and health data. Backups don't include information that's easily downloadable, such as emails from servers or apps, and while iCloud backup does encompass iCloud keychain, Wi-Fi passwords, and passwords for third-party services, that information is encrypted in a way that makes it inaccessible to Apple.

Mossberg suggests customers who don't want to upload data to Apple via an iCloud backup make local encrypted backups through iTunes using a Mac or PC, and he points out that other cloud storage services, like Dropbox, are no more secure.

Mossberg's full exploration of iCloud is available over at The Verge and is well worth reading for anyone interested in the security of data stored in the cloud.