MacRumors

CIO reports on an Interop keynote presentation yesterday by PayPal chief information security officer Michael Barrett in which he discussed the future of account security and suggested that passwords and PINs will soon be a thing of the past. Barrett currently serves as president of the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) Alliance that is seeking alternatives to these traditional security methods.

The FIDO Alliance protocol allows users a choice of authentication method while shifting control to providers who can make authentication user-transparent and limit the risk of fraud. Essentially, FIDO combines hardware, software and Internet services. A FIDO user will use a FIDO Authenticator or token that they've chosen or that's incorporated in their device; it could be a built-in fingerprint scanner, a USB memory drive with a password, a voice reader or something else.

In an age where increasing numbers of online accounts lead to insecure reuse of passwords and phishing scams have resulted in a number of high-profile incidents involving compromised accounts, FIDO looks to take advantage of the increasing ubiquity of electronic devices to enable more personal and direct authentication tools.

Barrett noted that FIDO-enabled devices will begin appearing in the market this year, and hinted that he is looking to Apple and other smartphone manufacturers to lead the charge.

"It's widely rumored that a large technology provider in Cupertino, Calif., will come out with a phone later this year that has a fingerprint reader on it," he said. "There is going to be a fingerprint enabled phone on the market later this year. Not just one, multiple."

Apple has been rumored to be pushing to adopt fingerprint sensor technology in its devices since its acquisition of leading fingerprint security firm AuthenTec last year.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a relatively strong track record regarding Apple's product plans, has repeatedly stated that he believes this year's iPhone 5S will include a fingerprint sensor as a differentiating feature to help attract new and upgrade customers.

In an interview with CNN Money, Microsoft chief financial officer Tami Reller said that Microsoft has talked to Apple about creating an iTunes app for Windows 8, but that users shouldn't expect it to arrive anytime soon.

"You shouldn't expect an iTunes app on Windows 8 any time soon," said Tami Reller, chief financial officer of Microsoft's Windows division. "ITunes is in high demand. The welcome mat has been laid out. It's not for lack of trying."

Currently, iTunes 11 is available for Windows 8's "Desktop" mode, which is a traditional PC interface within Windows 8 that works well with a keyboard and mouse. Microsoft, however, wants Apple to create an iTunes app for what was once known as its "Metro" interface, which features flat, colorful blocks optimized for touchscreen devices.

CNN Money notes that Windows tablet users are likely the ones who are requesting an iTunes app for the operating system, as well as users looking through Microsoft's app store within Windows 8. However, the report also note that Apple is unlikely to fulfill Microsoft's request because "there's no reason for Apple to help make the Surface a better product."

A fourteen-year-old has discovered that the tiny magnets inside the iPad can inadvertently shut off implanted defibrillators if the device is left on the chest, such as might happen if the user falls asleep with the iPad lying on them.

Apple builds magnets into every iPad it sells for use with its Smart Cover accessory.

Gianna Chien made the discovery as part of a science fair project that didn't win first place, but she will be presenting her findings to 8,000 doctors at a meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society in Denver, reports Bloomberg.

The research offers a valuable warning for people with implanted defibrillators, which deliver an electric shock to restart a stopped heart, said John Day, head of heart-rhythm services at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, and chairman of the panel that reviews scientific papers to be presented at the Denver meeting.

If a person falls asleep with the iPad2 on the chest, the magnets in the cover can “accidentally turn off” the heart device, said Chien, a high school freshman in Stockton, California, whose father is a doctor. “I definitely think people should be aware. That’s why I’m presenting the study.”

As a safety measure, implanted defibrillators can be turned off by magnets. The magnets in the iPad are too small to affect implanted defibrillators in normal use but can affect them if held close enough to the chest.

Chien's study found that 30 percent of patients with defibrillators who put iPads on their chest were affected by the device. Most defibrillators will turn back on once the magnet is removed, but some must be reactivated manually causing a potentially life-threatening situation.

Apple is still in negotiations with Sony and Warner over its iRadio streaming music service, reports the Financial Times. Apple had offered roughly 6 cents per 100 tracks streamed, but later reportedly raised this to 12.5 cents per 100 tracks -- similar to the rate paid by Pandora.

Although the company has reached an agreement with Universal Music, the largest record label, the FT claims other labels are still looking for better terms. Apple is reportedly working hard at reaching a deal and wishes to launch the 'iRadio' service at some point this summer, perhaps at WWDC in June.

Some music industry executives argue that cash-rich Apple should pay a higher rate than Pandora, which had 70m "active listeners" in April, because of its broader ambitions for iRadio. These include using data it already has from hundreds of millions of iTunes users to predict the selection of tracks they will enjoy, and a plan to allow listeners to purchase songs seamlessly via the iTunes store.

The people familiar with the terms said that Apple was offering labels three tranches of revenue: a royalty per track streamed, a share of iRadio’s advertising revenue and a guaranteed minimum sum over the course of the contract that would provide a safety net in case the number of plays or amount of advertising sold disappoints.

The FT notes that Apple is intentionally not launching an on-demand service like Spotify in order to avoid cannibalizing purchases from its iTunes Music Store. Instead, the iRadio service will allow customers to discover new music and likely direct listeners to the iTunes Store to buy music they enjoy.

Amazon is developing a number of new hardware products to complement its Kindle line, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Amazon hopes to release the devices, which are being developed at an Amazon lab in Sunnyvale, California, in the coming months, but the WSJ is quick to note that some or all of them may be killed at the last minute for a variety of reasons.

One of the devices is a high-end smartphone featuring a screen that allows for 3-D images without glasses, these people said. Using retina-tracking technology, images on the smartphone would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles, they said. Users may be able to navigate through content using just their eyes, two of the people said.

Amazon is also reportedly working on an audio-only streaming music player, perhaps an iPod-like device with 3G and Wi-Fi built in for streaming music from Amazon's servers.

This device could make sense given the company's moves to beef up its digital music efforts. In recent months, Amazon has given customers free digital copies of all CDs ever purchased on Amazon.com and introduced a new "scan and match" service similar to iTunes Match.

Last month, it was reported that Amazon was developing a set-top box to stream video over the Internet via its Amazon Prime and Instant video services.

Apple today increased its promotion for the upcoming milestone of 50 billion downloads from the App Store, an event the company is marking with a contest in which the person who downloads the 50 billionth app will receives a $10,000 iTunes Store gift card while the next 50 downloaders will receive $500 gift cards each.

The milestone is now being promoted as the main feature on Apple's front page, with an animated counter being accompanied by a rotating series of iPad mini app photos with associated facts to put the "50 billion" number in perspective:

- "With 50 billion steps, you could walk around the earth more than 800 times." [Solar Walk]

- "With 50 billion bricks, you could build 12 Great Walls of China." [ProCamera HD]

- "Counting to 50 billion would take you 1600 years." [Intro to Math, by Montessorium]

Apple announced the contest one week ago, and the counter stood at slightly over 49.2 billion downloads at the time. With the counter now registering a little over 49.6 billion downloads, it should take just under another week to reach the milestone.

(Thanks, Ben!)

As noted by AppleInsider, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today published three Apple patent applications related to the company's Lightning connector introduced on its iOS devices late last year.

The first application describes the hardware itself, while two nearly identical applications outline the adaptive technology used to assign pin functions. The only difference between the latter two applications appears to relate to one describing implementation on an electronic device while the other addresses its use on an accessory.

The present invention generally relates to connectors for connecting two devices. Specifically, certain embodiments of the present invention relate to reversible connectors with configurable contacts. [...]

Embodiments of the present invention provide techniques for dynamically configuring contacts of a host-side connector that is associated with a host system. In one embodiment of the present invention, a contact in the host-side connector is capable of being assigned one of several functions. The function to be assigned to the contact (and other contacts in the connector) may depend on the accessory coupled to the host system and the signals provided/used by the accessory. For example, when an audio only accessory is coupled to the host system, at least one of the contacts on the host-side connector can be configured to carry audio data.

As part of the hardware-focused patent, Apple shares several examples of implementations for the Lightning connector, including the Lightning Digital AV adapter, Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader, and even an as yet unreleased Lightning dock of similar design to the company's iPad dock for the first-generation iPad with its 30-pin connector standard.

Apple's three patent applications published today were filed in November and December of last year, but are continuations of similar applications filed on September 7, 2012, five days before the company officially announced the standard as part of the iPhone 5 introduction. The patent applications can, however, be traced back even further to several provisional patent applications filed by Apple in November 2011.

Aio Wireless, a new prepaid cellular brand from AT&T, today announced that it has launched operations in Houston, Orlando, and Tampa, with additional cities coming over the next year. The brand offers customers access to increasingly popular prepaid cellular services alongside popular devices including the iPhone.

"We talked with no-annual-contract customers and created our service around what they want. They want simple, easy plan choices with unlimited offers; first-class service at affordable prices; great devices; nationwide voice and data coverage; and no annual contracts. Today's wireless customers don't want to compromise," said Jennifer Van Buskirk , president of Aio Wireless. "We are set up to win over value-conscious customers who are increasingly moving towards smartphones and mobile broadband."

Aio offers two no-contract plans for smartphone customers, with the carrier's "Aio Smart" plan priced at $55/month offering unlimited talk, text, and data, with a 2 GB soft cap on high-speed data. An "Aio Pro" tier priced at $70/month increases the data soft cap to 7 GB. Aio offers the iPhone 5, 4S, and 4, with devices carrying full unsubsidized prices that see the iPhone 5 start at $650.

As noted by GigaOM, Aio mentions in its press release that the carrier offers "4G download speeds of up to 4Mbs per second", indicating that LTE is not currently supported with high-speed data limited to HSPA+ networks.

Just a day after reporting that its consumer electronics revenue would drop more than expected in the second quarter, perhaps due to weakening iPad mini demand, Apple manufacturing partner Pegatron has announced that it will boost its workforce by 40% in the second half of the year. The significant increase is fueling ongoing rumors of a lower-cost iPhone, as the firm has been reported to be handling production of the device.

Pegatron's Chief Financial Officer Charles Lin told Reuters on Thursday that 60 percent of the company's 2013 revenue would come from the second half.

He declined to comment whether the cheaper iPhone was among the new products to be made in the second half.

Pegatron is a longtime manufacturing partner for Apple, currently handling the iPhone 4S and iPad mini, although the majority of Apple's iOS device assembly is handled by the larger Foxconn. Pegatron currently employs 100,000 workers in its facilities, with yesterday's report indicating that the iPhone 4S and iPad mini each account for more than half of Pegatron's revenue for its communications and consumer electronics divisions respectively.