Apple privacy report details government queries
Apple says that the "vast majority" of the requests for information that it gets from law enforcement are queries related to lost or stolen devices.On Tuesday, Apple released a "Report on Government Information Request" (PDF) to inform its customers about how their personal information is handled and to provide assurances that it does as much as it can to protect their privacy. The report covers the period between January 1 and June 30, 2013."These types of requests frequently arise when our customers ask the police to assist them with a lost or stolen iPhone, or when law enforcement has recovered a shipment of stolen devices," Apple said in the report.By contrast, Apple said, only a "small fraction" of the requests are in pursuit of personal information related to an iTunes, iCloud, or Game Center account. But it is those sorts of account information requests that have stirred up the greatest anxiety and the fiercest opposition within the tech sector and in the body politic at large. Related postsWant really secure Gmail? Try GPG encryptionReally secure your GmailDoes the Fourth Amendment cover 'the cloud'?Microsoft cuts Bing IP address storage to 6 monthsPrivacy is over. Here comes sociality.Apple's report comes after nearly half a year of dramatic revelations about widespread online surveillance conducted by the US National Security Agency and other government bodies, initiated by leaked documents made public by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Given that backdrop, Apple sought to offer reassurances about how it attempts to safeguard the personal information of its iPad, iPhone, Mac, and other customers."Our business does not depend on collecting personal data," Apple said in its report. "We have no interest in amassing personal information about our customers. We protect personal conversations by providing end-to-end encryption over iMessage and FaceTime. We do not store location data, Maps searches, or Siri requests in any identifiable form."Device information requests, Apple said, never include requests related to national security matters.Apple -- and other tech companies -- face limits on coming clean about government information requests. The US government imposes restrictions on what those companies can say about national security letters they've received. Apple and other companies including Google and Microsoft have been pushing to have such gag orders eased and arguing for greater transparency on the NSA's surveillance operations.Apple said that it has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which expanded the ability of the NSA and the FBI to collect information on individuals, and that if it did, it would likely challenge such an order. Transparency reports on government information requests have become a regular thing for the giants of the Internet realm, with annual or semiannual updates now coming from the likes of Twitter, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook.Details from Apple's reportApple said in its report Tuesday that, in disclosing data related to account information requests, it was compelled by the US government to combine national security orders with more run-of-the-mill law enforcement requests. The information sought ranged from an individual's name or address, to -- less frequently -- photos or e-mail. Said Apple: The most common account requests involve robberies and other crimes or requests from law enforcement officers searching for missing persons or children, finding a kidnapping victim, or hoping to prevent a suicide. Responding to an account request usually involves providing information about an account holder's iTunes or iCloud account, such as a name and an address. In very rare cases, we are asked to provide stored photos or email. We consider these requests very carefully and only provide account content in extremely limited circumstances.As for device information requests, Apple said that these may be seeking the customer contact information providedto register a device with Apple or the date that the device first used Apple services.The US was far and away the country that hit Apple with the greatest number of account information requests, somewhere in a range between 1,000 and 2,000 requests. (Apple said that the US government would allow it to report "only a consolidated range in increments of 1000.") Apple was not able to effectively disclose the percentage of account requests in which some data or content was disclosed.The next highest number of account information requests was from the United Kingdom (127), with "some data" disclosed in 37 percent of those cases and content disclosed in 1 case.The US also accounted for the greatest number of requests for device information, at 3,542, and Apple provided some data in 88 percent of those cases. The second highest was Germany, at 2,156, with some data provided 86 percent of the time.Last update 2:36 p.m. PT: Provided additional background and more details from Apple's report.
Make custom iPhone ringtones, alerts with GarageBand
Make custom iPhone ringtones, alerts with GarageBand
To start, open GarageBand. Once it's open, select iPhone Ringtone > Loops. Then click on Choose. (You can also access the Loops category by going to New Project > Loops.)You can name your project whatever you like. Identifying whether it's a ringtone or alert tone in the title will come in handy in the future, so it's a good idea to get into the habit now. For demonstration purposes, we will name this project "My Favorite Ringtone." Don't worry about setting a Tempo, Signature, bpm, or Key.Click on Create after you have named your project.Jason Cipriani/CNETNext you will be presented with a screen similar to the one above. Here you will need to change a few items before you get started. Click on the note icon along the bottom of the screen and select Time.Make Cycle Region active by clicking on the double arrow icon along the bottom of the screen.Switch to the Media Browser by clicking on the icon located on the far right along the bottom of the screen. Jason Cipriani/CNETYou should then see a yellow bar across the top of the screen. That is your Cycle Region. On the right-hand side, once you select iTunes from the drop-down menu, you will see your entire iTunes music library. Find the song you want to use to make a ringtone and drag and drop it into the area labeled "Drag Apple Loops here."Jason Cipriani/CNETYou can adjust the position of the song by dragging it left or right. For simplicity make sure it is all the way to left, matching the start of the song with the 0:00 time marker above. The Cycle Region, which will set the length of your ringtone, can be adjusted by moving your mouse to either end of the bar. When you see your mouse pointer turn into an arrow pointing in opposite directions, drag the bar to the desired time length. The time is measured directly above the Cycle Region bar.A ringtone cannot be any longer than 40 seconds; however in our own unscientific testing, roughly only the first 20 seconds of the ringtone is all that is heard. Make sure the meat of your ringtone is within that first 20 seconds. To listen to the section you currently have included in the Cycle Region, press the Space Bar on your computer. Pressing it again will stop the playback of the selection.Jason Cipriani/CNETAs you can see, we have moved the bar to a portion of the song we like, as well as extended the time from 5 seconds to 12 seconds. Jason Cipriani/CNETOnce you are satisfied with your selection, click on Share in the Menu Bar at the top of your screen. The second option should be Send Ringtone to iTunes. Click on that. Let GarageBand do its magic. When it's finished, open up iTunes and select the Ringtone category. Jason Cipriani/CNETWhen viewing the Ringtones category, you will see all the ringtones you have either previously paid for or made yourself. Next you will need to sync the tones to your iOS device. Once you have done that, go into Settings > Sounds on your iPhone to set your new tone. The best part about these instructions is that they are the exact same instructions you would use to create alert tones. iOS 5 will allow users to set custom alerts for e-mail, SMS, and the like. Alert tones appear to have a 30-second maximum length, but that is a bit extreme. Try and keep your alert tones short and sweet. We can promise you that after reading through this guide you'll be making your own ringtones in a matter of minutes.
To start, open GarageBand. Once it's open, select iPhone Ringtone > Loops. Then click on Choose. (You can also access the Loops category by going to New Project > Loops.)You can name your project whatever you like. Identifying whether it's a ringtone or alert tone in the title will come in handy in the future, so it's a good idea to get into the habit now. For demonstration purposes, we will name this project "My Favorite Ringtone." Don't worry about setting a Tempo, Signature, bpm, or Key.Click on Create after you have named your project.Jason Cipriani/CNETNext you will be presented with a screen similar to the one above. Here you will need to change a few items before you get started. Click on the note icon along the bottom of the screen and select Time.Make Cycle Region active by clicking on the double arrow icon along the bottom of the screen.Switch to the Media Browser by clicking on the icon located on the far right along the bottom of the screen. Jason Cipriani/CNETYou should then see a yellow bar across the top of the screen. That is your Cycle Region. On the right-hand side, once you select iTunes from the drop-down menu, you will see your entire iTunes music library. Find the song you want to use to make a ringtone and drag and drop it into the area labeled "Drag Apple Loops here."Jason Cipriani/CNETYou can adjust the position of the song by dragging it left or right. For simplicity make sure it is all the way to left, matching the start of the song with the 0:00 time marker above. The Cycle Region, which will set the length of your ringtone, can be adjusted by moving your mouse to either end of the bar. When you see your mouse pointer turn into an arrow pointing in opposite directions, drag the bar to the desired time length. The time is measured directly above the Cycle Region bar.A ringtone cannot be any longer than 40 seconds; however in our own unscientific testing, roughly only the first 20 seconds of the ringtone is all that is heard. Make sure the meat of your ringtone is within that first 20 seconds. To listen to the section you currently have included in the Cycle Region, press the Space Bar on your computer. Pressing it again will stop the playback of the selection.Jason Cipriani/CNETAs you can see, we have moved the bar to a portion of the song we like, as well as extended the time from 5 seconds to 12 seconds. Jason Cipriani/CNETOnce you are satisfied with your selection, click on Share in the Menu Bar at the top of your screen. The second option should be Send Ringtone to iTunes. Click on that. Let GarageBand do its magic. When it's finished, open up iTunes and select the Ringtone category. Jason Cipriani/CNETWhen viewing the Ringtones category, you will see all the ringtones you have either previously paid for or made yourself. Next you will need to sync the tones to your iOS device. Once you have done that, go into Settings > Sounds on your iPhone to set your new tone. The best part about these instructions is that they are the exact same instructions you would use to create alert tones. iOS 5 will allow users to set custom alerts for e-mail, SMS, and the like. Alert tones appear to have a 30-second maximum length, but that is a bit extreme. Try and keep your alert tones short and sweet. We can promise you that after reading through this guide you'll be making your own ringtones in a matter of minutes.
Apple's iOS 6 does not have a virtual limit on apps
Apple's iOS 6 does not have a virtual limit on apps
There is no such limit in place to keep users of Apple's next major iOS release from installing 500 or more applications without ill effects on system performance, says a person familiar with the latest beta of the software.Instead, the reported "virtual limit" on the number of applications users can install on Apple's next iOS before it becomes unusable may have been an isolated incident.That information -- which CNET cannot test yet because iOS 6 is currently available only to developers who have signed a non-disclosure agreement -- contradicts a report from Mid Atlantic Consulting. Yesterday, the company made the claim that users who installed more than 500 apps on their iOS device running iOS 6 will experience severe slowdowns, as well as random rebooting. That report further claimed that those with 1,000 apps installed would not even be able to get their devices to start, adding that Apple had confirmed the issue as a bug, and was working on a fix. The author of the original report says the testing of the pre-release version of the software took place on four different iOS devices, including an iPhone and iPad, and that the problem occured on all of those devices as the number of installed apps went past 500. Apple declined to comment on the report.How many applications users can have installed is of significance given the growth of built-in system storage, as well as the library of content available on mobile application stores. In Apple's case, there are now more than 650,000 apps on its App Store, according to the company's most recently-released figures. Apple, for its part, makes no claims about how many applications users can have installed on any given iOS device. With 11 home screen pages and the use of folders, users can theoretically have up to 2,160 applications installed and viewable. The software is also set up to let users install additional applications beyond what they can see on the home screen, then launch them from the built-in search feature. Apple historically hasn't provided details on how many applications the average user has installed. However, dividing the number of iOS devices sold (365 million) by the number of reported application downloads (25 billion), that's around 68 apps per user. Of course that figure does not take into account iOS devices that are not in use anymore, or the fact that users may own several iOS devices under the same iTunes account. iOS 6 is currently in its third developer beta, with a release expected to coincide with the company's next iPhone in the fall. Apple went through seven beta versions of iOS 5, which went out to users last October. Updated at 1:44 p.m. PT with additional detail about the testing.
There is no such limit in place to keep users of Apple's next major iOS release from installing 500 or more applications without ill effects on system performance, says a person familiar with the latest beta of the software.Instead, the reported "virtual limit" on the number of applications users can install on Apple's next iOS before it becomes unusable may have been an isolated incident.That information -- which CNET cannot test yet because iOS 6 is currently available only to developers who have signed a non-disclosure agreement -- contradicts a report from Mid Atlantic Consulting. Yesterday, the company made the claim that users who installed more than 500 apps on their iOS device running iOS 6 will experience severe slowdowns, as well as random rebooting. That report further claimed that those with 1,000 apps installed would not even be able to get their devices to start, adding that Apple had confirmed the issue as a bug, and was working on a fix. The author of the original report says the testing of the pre-release version of the software took place on four different iOS devices, including an iPhone and iPad, and that the problem occured on all of those devices as the number of installed apps went past 500. Apple declined to comment on the report.How many applications users can have installed is of significance given the growth of built-in system storage, as well as the library of content available on mobile application stores. In Apple's case, there are now more than 650,000 apps on its App Store, according to the company's most recently-released figures. Apple, for its part, makes no claims about how many applications users can have installed on any given iOS device. With 11 home screen pages and the use of folders, users can theoretically have up to 2,160 applications installed and viewable. The software is also set up to let users install additional applications beyond what they can see on the home screen, then launch them from the built-in search feature. Apple historically hasn't provided details on how many applications the average user has installed. However, dividing the number of iOS devices sold (365 million) by the number of reported application downloads (25 billion), that's around 68 apps per user. Of course that figure does not take into account iOS devices that are not in use anymore, or the fact that users may own several iOS devices under the same iTunes account. iOS 6 is currently in its third developer beta, with a release expected to coincide with the company's next iPhone in the fall. Apple went through seven beta versions of iOS 5, which went out to users last October. Updated at 1:44 p.m. PT with additional detail about the testing.
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