It's been one of those days. I started writing this post hours ago and never finished it....
As I am sure many of you have already heard, the FBI has managed to hack the cell phones of the San Bernadino terrorists 'all by itself' and has dropped the lawsuit it had filed against Apple, the manufacturer of the iPhone. But they didn't exactly do it all by themselves. They were helped by an Israeli startup called Cellebrite.
The Israeli mobile forensics firm Cellebrite helped the FBI hack into the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook, NBC reports, citing industry sources.
The
firm has been rumored to be behind the FBI’s newfound ability to access
the device, thanks to a previous and unconfirmed report from an Israeli
newspaper.
Neither Cellebrite nor the Department of Justice has confirmed the reports.
The
FBI has routinely contracted Cellebrite over the last five years. The
company, which publicly boasts of its ability to hack into Apple
devices, has received over $2 million in purchase orders from the agency
since 2012.
The Justice Department on Monday withdrew
its case against Apple, telling a federal court it was able to unlock
the device without the tech giant's help.
IDF releases new app to warn of 'security incidents'
The IDF's Home Front command has released a new app to warn of 'security incidents.' The app is available for Android and iPhones, is free, but is only visible in Israel.
The application, detailed in a call with
reporters Monday, was developed by a staff of some 15 people in the Home
Front Command, which oversees civilian preparedness. It was launched
this month on Android and Apple devices.
Called “Home Front Command,” the application aims to improve on
several civilian-developed counterparts that alert Israelis to the
warning sirens that blare ahead of incoming missiles. Those applications
gained popularity during the 2014 war in Gaza, but alert users to every
siren across the country.
The IDF’s alternative will track users based on their GPS location,
and alert them only to threats in their immediate area. It will cover a
range of emergencies — from earthquakes to terror attacks to incoming
rockets. In addition to warning users of the threat, the application
will provide instructions on how to respond. It will be available in
four languages — Hebrew, English, Arabic and Russian — though it will
not be available for download outside Israel.
In addition to the sirens spread throughout the country, the Home
Front Command sends text message warnings to Israelis’ phones and
broadcasts them on the TV and radio. Lt. Col. Shlomi Maman, the Home
Front Command’s alert branch commander, said the army wants to localize
warnings as much as possible — even by neighborhood — so as to avoid
needlessly worrying civilians.
“We view a warning that reaches a citizen who didn’t need to receive
it just like someone who needed to receive [a warning] and did not,”
Maman said in the briefing. “This project is to make it more selective.”
I wonder how Israelis will feel about the IDF knowing their location all times (theoretically). Hmmm.
Tel Aviv-based StoreDot's prototype battery and charger is currently
being tested with Samsung's Galaxy phones, but the startup's founder and
CEO Doron Myersdorf told AFP that a product compatible with all makes of smartphone should be on the market by 2016.
He said that at the core of the new technology was the use of peptides, compounds containing amino acids.
"We are modifying the surface of the electrodes with bio-organic
compounds, peptides, to increase the chemical reaction to produce extra
energy," he said.
Myersdorf added the breakthrough "allows us to avoid the most
annoying aspect of our smartphones, of which we are demanding more and
more, and to ensure that we have a charged telephone all day."
StoreDot has not received capital from global smartphone market
leaders Apple or Samsung but is getting backing from a Chinese
manufacturer, Myersdorf said, without naming the investor.
If you want to boycott Israel, you'd better give up your mobile device
If you have a mobile device, it's likely protected from viruses by a company called Red Bend Software. Red Bend protects 1.75 billion mobile devices around the world. And, you guessed it, they're an Israeli company.
Let's go to the videotape.
So it’s up to manufacturers, cellphone service
providers and app writers to help customers remain secure. One way to
do this is through preemptive operating system and software updates. The
company dozens of major service providers and manufacturers turn to for
that service is an Israeli one called Red Bend.
Established in 1999, Red Bend has become the
go to provider of FOTA (Firmware Over the Air) updates for phones and
devices made by manufacturers like Kyocera, LG Electronics, Motorola,
Sharp, Sony Ericsson and ZTE. Currently, Red Bend’s technology is used
by more than 80 mobile device manufacturers, mobile operators and
semiconductor vendors, and is present on more than 1.75 billion devices.
Using Red Bend’s technology, said company
product marketing director Roger Ordman, service providers and
manufacturers can keep their customers’ devices up to date with the
latest firmware. “As devices have become more sophisticated we have
expanded our offerings,” he told The Times of Israel in a recent
interview. “Now we also do application management, and mobile
virtualization. It’s more than just configuring software — it’s managing
the operating system on a device.”
That has become much more important in the era
of BYOD — Bring Your Own Device — in which employees use their own
devices to check company email and access documents on company servers.
This mixing of personal and business use on the same device could lead
to compromised security, said Ordman. “Devices are integrated in the
lives of people, both for work and personal use. People use the same
device for work, and to access Twitter and Facebook. People want to be
online anytime and anywhere.
“The problem arises when they use insecure
networks to access services,” Ordman said. “Hackers could use those
connections to get valuable information off the device, including
corporate data. It’s a big concern for corporations, and our BYOD
protection technology is able to solve this.”
The Prime Minister has apparently decided that the way to President Obama's heart is by licking his tuches. Netanyahu's office has developed a new Android application to allow Israelis to follow President Hussein Obama's visit to Israel. No, I'm not making this up. It's here.
Besides text updates,
the application will include visuals updates from Obama's visit, as well
as interfacing with social networks.
The application will
offer full details about each event Obama is scheduled to participate
in, as well as a real-time stream of video and still photographs from
Government Press Office's official photographers, news agencies and
amateur photographers shooting via mobile phones.
The application, launched in preparation
of Obama's visit, can be found by searching for the words "Prime
Minister's Office" and is currently available in English and Hebrew. The
Arabic version is expected soon.
With the conclusion of the visit, the application will not shut
down, rather continuing to serve users, but this time providing
information regarding the ongoing activities of the Prime Minister's
Office (PMO).
I am SO glad I don't own one of those fancy phones. Shameful!
iPhone 5 a big seller in Gaza despite costing 5 times what it costs in the US
In the US, you can buy a 16gb iPhone 5 for $199 (no, I'm not planning to get one - I'd probably be thrown out of my neighborhood back in Israel), but in 'impoverished' Gaza they go for $1,000 for that size... and they're going like hotcakes.
Apple's new iPhone 5 is selling well in the Gaza Strip despite
inflated prices, reaching Palestinians via smuggling tunnels even before
it comes to Israel.
The cutting-edge smartphone is being snapped up for almost double what
it costs in the United States, its price jacked up by middlemen on its
circuitous delivery route from Dubai via tunnels linking the blockaded
territory with Egypt.
The iPhone 5 will not be available until December from mobile operators
in tech-mad Israel, which along with Egypt maintains a partial blockade
of Gaza to prevent the entry of anything that could be used for
military purposes.
But the phones have been available for a couple of weeks in Gaza and
they were on display on Monday in three independent mobile stores in a
one-block radius in downtown Gaza City.
Prices ranged from NIS 4,500 for the 16-gigabyte model to NIS 5,700 for 64 gigabytes.
"I ordered 30 and I've sold 20 so far," said one dealer. "We can order
as many as we want. But most people are waiting for the price to go
down. They're pretty expensive."
Apple has no store or official dealership in Gaza.
The current exchange rate is NIS 3.81 to the dollar. And you thought they were starving, didn't you?
Information and Hasbara Minister Yuli Edelstein has called upon Apple Corporation to remove a new application for its iPhones called Third Intifadeh, which encourages violence against Jews.
Called “The Third Intifada,” the Arabic-language app features articles and stories by radical Arab members of Fatah and Hamas, as well as members of the Palestinian Authority. They discuss strategies to use in fighting IDF soldiers, and glorify acts of violence that have already taken place.
The app also features photos and images of Arab youths throwing stones and bombs at Israelis, and a collection of “intifada music” popular in the PA. In addition, it has a social media component, designed to allow activists to organize “flash mobs” on the go, gathering quickly at specific times and places to attack Israelis.
The app was developed by the same group that created the Facebook “Nakba Day fan page,” that was used in May to organize demonstrations and riots against Israeli police and soldiers. The page was taken down after mass complaints to Facebook.
Information and Hasbara Minister Yuli Edelstein called on Apple to withdraw the app from its online store. In a letter to Apple executives, including company director Steve Jobs, Edelstein wrote that after examining the app, “we can clearly point to this app as being anti-Israel and anti-Zionist. It clearly calls for an uprising against Israel. One of the app's objectives is to allow Palestinians to gather quickly for protests – some of them violent – that are planned."
“I believe that Apple, as a pioneering company, places the values of freedom of speech and creativity on a high level,” Edelstein continued. “At the same time, Apple is no doubt aware of the damage an app like this can cause. I ask you to please remove the app and restore your company to its preeminent place as a supplier of information and entertainment, and not to allow your good name to be used for incitement.”
Apple hasn't responded yet, but an examination of previous political controversies surrounding apps shows that Apple has removed a number that were considered offensive – including one that contained offensive drawings of golfer Tiger Woods, and another with political cartoons about which users complained.
If they don't remove it - and soon - we ought to start a boycott against Apple. This is outrageous.
We live in an era where everyone wants it all. Fancy cars, fancy travel, no work. One of the things that many people want is to be at the Kotel (Western Wall) - the last remnant of the Temple Mount - regularly. And now that dream is also being sold... as an iPhone application.
The new application allows users to watch the Western Wall Plaza live on their phones at anytime, take a virtual tour of the Western Wall tunnels, and send a note to the Kotel through the iPhone. The application even features a compass which is pointed towards Jerusalem, a particularly useful tool for worshippers.
The Western Wall rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, welcomed the initiative and said: “The Western Wall has been in the heart of every Jew in the world for 2,000 years. It is only natural that in the technological age there will be ways to express the love and devotion of the Jewish people to the Western Wall and to Jerusalem. We hope that the new application will strengthen the younger generation’s bond to the Kotel.”
The application is available in Hebrew, English, and Russian, and may be downloaded free of charge from the iTunes store.
Sorry folks, but watching it on your iPhone is a poor substitute for being here.
I understand that while I was away, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv ruled that one should not go to the Kotel on the Sabbath because of the 'Kotel cam.' This is only likely to make things worse for those who live here.
Sorry, but you can't live here and live abroad at the same time.
Video: Tha angry birds satire of the 'peace conference'
This is from the Israeli hit television show Eretz Nehederet (which is sometimes very politically incorrect), and it is going viral, with over 1.5 million views since Sunday. Allahpundit warns that if you own neither an iPhone nor a Droid you may not get it, and alas, I own neither (if someone wants to give me one as a Chanuka gift I'm all ears...). But I know enough current events here to get the idea. So....
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
