The MacBook’s built-in iSight camera and microphone are awfully convenient for Skype phone calls and iChat video conferencing, but a more sinister potential use came to light this week with the allegation that a suburban Philadelphia school district used iSight cameras to spy on students at home. The FBI has launched an investigation to determine whether federal laws were broken.
The investigation follows a lawsuit filed in the U.S. Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleging that the Lower Merion school district misused the MacBooks’ Webcams, based on an incident where a vice principal accused a student, Blake Robbins, of illicit drug use in his home. His parents asked for evidence, to which the vice principal responded that they had pictures from Robbins’s Webcam.
How exactly did the school district get access to students’ Webcams? Well, Lower Merion installed security software on the Macs it issued to 2300 students, but never disclosed the possibility that they could be remotely monitored for audio and video input—which could be illegal under federal and state laws governing topics like wiretaps and computer-instrusion.
An analysis of how MacBooks could be used this way was posted by a security researcher writing under the (presumed) pseudonym of Stryde Hax. According to Hax, Lower Merion used LANRev software (recently rebranded Absolute Manage) to implement both the system lockdown and remote access on the MacBooks. LANRev includes camera, screenshot, and IP location tracking in its monitoring as an antitheft tool.
Lower Merion spokesman Doug Young claimed that this antitheft tracking was used 42 times when laptops were reported stolen, and led to the recovery of 28 of them. He said the policy of using Webcam shots only for devices reported stolen was never broken, but he couldn’t comment specifically on the Robbins case.
That contradicts anecdotal evidence compiled by Hax, who searched message boards used by Lower Merion high school students, and found many reports of iSight cameras powering up, as indicated by a brief flicker of the LED light next to the camera. Some students even put tape over their iSight cameras to prevent them from operating, but most were assured by the district that the light was a “common MacBook glitch.” The LANRev software apparently disabled the cameras for all other uses; students were unable to use PhotoBooth or video chat, so apparently most of them believed that the camera did not work at all.
The stock Mac OS X system does not allow the camera to be accessed remotely. The LANRev software, however, hacks the system to make this possible. While your iSight camera can be activated remotely if you allow SSH access or Screen Sharing in your Sharing system preferences, in most cases you’ll see activity on screen when this occurs. In all cases, the LED light indicates when the iSight is turned on; however, there is no equivalent indicator for the audio microphone.
If the MacBooks were used—or even could have been used—as remote spying devices, the implications, ranging from privacy issues to possible child pornography, are disturbing. In addition to the FBI investigation, Lower Merion will presumably decide on its own whether community standards were broken as well.
Earlier this morning Apple’s site went down to update their store. Looks like they released a shiny new version of Aperture for us!
Projects, Faces and Places – Now, Aperture has more tools for organizing your photos. Projects are similar to Events in iPhoto. Faces uses face detection and recognition just like iPhoto to identify specific people across your photo library. And with Places, Aperture now supports GPS data just like iPhoto. The Press Release cites support for “GPS enabled cameras, tracking devices or your iPhone photos.” It will be interesting to see the support available for tracking devices.
Brushes – Aperture 3 comes with 15 Quick Brushes to apply effects efficiently to your photos. It can even detect edges to increase your precision when painting effects onto your image.
Exporting – Aperture can now easily export your photos to Facebook or Flicker. It can also export slideshows as HD videos with many options. These can even be exported directly to iTunes so you can share your work with others on an iPhone, iPod touch or soon an iPad.
Other features – Aperture 3 now runs in 64 bit for machines running Snow Leopard with a Core 2 Duo processor. There are also a ton more features that make importing, editing, exporting, backing up and pretty much everything better and/or easier.
I’ve only listed a few new features here, but there are over 200 new features present in Aperture 3. It’s available today for $199 or as an upgrade from a previous version of Aperture for $99. A 30 day trial is available on Apple’s site.
Specifically, publishers are in talks with ScrollMotion, the company behind, among other things, the very well-done Iceburg Reader for iPhone, to develop text-prep and other study guides for the iPad. McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt K-12, Pearson Education and the Washington Post Co.’s Kaplan Inc. are named in the article.
John Lema, chief executive of ScrollMotion, called the iPad’s introduction “…the beginning of handheld education.”
Of course, the iPad’s reception and performance in the education market is unknown, and the device faces competition from inexpensive netbooks, systems fully entrenched in an existing system, or networks and budgets that don’t allow for new purchases.
Still, we imagine the average college student being able to purchase textbooks with an iPad, and carry only that device across campus. Plus, publishers would be able to dodge the resale of used books by campus bookstores — which doesn’t generate any money for them. Finally, we can imagine an app that allows professors to push notations or assignments to students’ iPads or even individual books.
There has been a lot of hate going on recently about the new device announced by Apple called the ‘iPad’. The purpose of this device is supposed to be the device “in between the computer and the iphone”. And in my perspective that’s exactly what it is.
Let’s start this off by talking about all the good things about this device. First off, it provides 3G service, which enables you to use the internet almost anywhere you go. This would be perfect for people (like me) who want to use the internet without carrying around a whole computer. Second, its SKINNY! This device may not be able to fit in your pocket, but with a .5″ thin design, it can fit in the smallest places in your backpack. This also means that you can hold it with ease, considering its .5 pounds light. This device also supports a bunch of cool accessories that make it a lot better than it already is. As of now, these includes a full sized keyboard with dock and a 30-pin to SD card adapter to use for importing photos and documents.
The bad things or cons about the device consist of the following. There are no USB ports, so this means no printers, cameras, or other additional hardware that you can use on a computer. Another thing is that it doesn’t have a camera. This is a big issue for a lot of problem for a lot of people, but will almost defiantly be an addition in the future generations. (We HAVE found that there is a slot on the inside of the iPad that fits an MacBook camera. More details about that here.)
So in conclusion, this is NOT intended to be a computer, or a mobile device. It is in between and this looks to me like an amazing advice. Disagree with everything I just said? Talk about it in the comments!
Many predicted announcements were missing from today’s Apple event, reflection shows. Verizon was not announced as a tablet partner, or even as a new American iPhone carrier. Both the iPad and the iPhone will be AT&T exclusives in the US.
The current list of major iBooks publishers omits McGraw-Hill, which is well-known for its educational textbooks. The reason for McGraw-Hill’s absence is unknown, but it could be retaliation for an accidental reveal by the company’s CEO on Tuesday night.
While hands-on testing has shown that the iPad indeed runs iPhone 3.2 firmware, Apple has also mentioned nothing about whether the firmware will soon be available for the iPhone itself, or the iPod touch. iPhone 4.0 appears to be a long-term proposition, though given the history of the OS it is likely to be announced in March, the same timeframe for the iPad launch.
An issue with the Magic Mouse and Apple’s aluminum Bluetooth keyboard came about early this month. Users were reporting that the mouse was draining the keyboard’s batteries at an alarming rate. Now, Apple has released a fix.
Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.1 “Improves battery performance of the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard when used in combination with other bluetooth devices (eg. Magic Mouse, some bluetooth headsets) and addresses an issue with the 2007 aluminum Apple Keyboard and the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard where a key may repeat unexpectedly while typing.” You’ll find full installation details here.
I own both the keyboard and mouse, So I will update right now and see how it goes.
It was just a couple of weeks ago that we warned you that there were a bunch of phony Apple emails being sent to
MobileMe subscribers designed to trick them into giving up their credit card info.
Now, Apple has published a couple of Knowledge Base articles designed to help you if you get some mail that might not really be from Apple.
The first posting helps you to renew your account, update your credit card information, and to deal with messages MobileMe may send you about your storage limits.
It also has an additional older specific link to help you identify fraudulent emails that look like they are from Apple but aren’t. For whatever reason, crooks love to prey on MobileMe users, and there have been issues with fake renewals and credit card phishing schemes for a couple of years now.
If you have any doubts, check the Apple articles, and report any problems to Apple. A credit card is a terrible thing to waste, or lose.
The University of Oregon’s Center for Student Athletes, who not only get some sweet MacBook Pros to use courtesy of Apple and Nike, but have each one laser engraved with the school’s symbolic O.
The engraving isn’t just aesthetic; it’s useful, too. In addition to the school branding, each laptop has a specific number engraved on the bottom of it, which helps prevent theft and helps the school track down wayward laptops. Cult of Mac has a great little interview with the engraver, with some fun insider info about how this is all done (he’s even engraved fingernails, which sounds a little gross).
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave the keynote address to the Nashville Technology Council.
After the speeches were done, Steve did a meet-and-greet with TNU Students to answer brief questions, sign autographs and so on. One student asked for Steve’s autograph — on a MacBook Pro.
Steve handled the awkward moment well, writing “Need a new one? Steve Ballmer” smack-dab over the laptop’s logo.
You can see close up photos of the signature here.
Earlier this morning Apple’s site went down to update their store. Looks like they released a shiny new version of 
