Boing Boing 

VHS Camcorder app makes iPhone video look like 1980s tape

Record the world through a 1980s lens with Rarevision's VHS Camcorder app, currently available for iOS with Android coming soon. Don't forget to please be kind, rewind.

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FBI's crypto backdoor plans require them to win the war on general purpose computing


The FBI wants backdoors in all your crypto, and UK Prime Minister David Cameron made backdoors an election promise, but as Stanford lawyer/computer scientist Jonathan Mayer writes, there's no way to effectively backdoor modern platforms without abolishing the whole idea of computers as we know them, replacing them with an imaginary and totalitarian computing ecosystem that does not exist and probably never will.

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Brute-force iPhone password guesser can bypass Apple's 10-guess lockout

The IP Box costs less than £200 and can guess all possible four-digit passwords in 111 hours.

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Excellent animated alphabet by the creator of Windosill

Windosill is one of my favorite online puzzle games. It's quiet and wonderfully strange and comes with no instructions.

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iPhone thefts plummet thanks to remote kill switch

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Apple added an Activation Lock feature to iOS in late 2013. Since that time, theft of the phones have dropped significantly.

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iOS keyboard promises 100 words per minute

MacRumors takes a look at the Nintype keyboard for iOS ($4.99). Its psychedelic distortion interface is like something from a science fiction movie.

iOS's first major malware challenge

Glenn Fleishman reports on a hack in the wild that may trick users into installing malicious apps. But don't panic! Though potent, the malware has significant real-world limitations.Read the rest

Mobile malware infections race through Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution


The protesters are dependent on mobile apps to coordinate their huge, seemingly unstoppable uprising, and someone -- maybe the Politburo, maybe a contractor -- has released virulent Ios and Android malware into their cohort, and the pathogens are blazing through their electronic ecosystem.

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Back doors in Apple's mobile platform for law enforcement, bosses, spies (possibly)

Jonathan Zdziarski's HOPE X talk, Identifying Backdoors, Attack Points, and Surveillance Mechanisms in iOS Devices, suggests that hundreds of millions of Iphone and Ipad devices ship from Apple with intentional back-doors that can be exploited by law enforcement, identity thieves, spies, and employers.

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Apple adds privacy-protecting MAC spoofing (when Aaron Swartz did it, it was evidence of criminality)

Apple has announced that it will spoof the MAC addresses emitted by its wireless devices as an anti-tracking measure, a change that, while welcome, is "an umbrella in a hurricane" according to a good technical explainer by the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Jeremy Gillula and Seth Schoen.

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Hitman GO for iOS - a 3D boardgame

[Video Link] The graphics for Hitman GO are beautiful. I have not played it yet. Can someone who has please review it in the comments? Is it worth $5, plus all the in-app purchases required to move to the next chapters?
Hitman GO is a turn-based puzzle game where you will strategically navigate fixed spaces on a grid to avoid enemies, infiltrate well-guarded locations and take out your target on beautifully rendered diorama-style set pieces.
Hitman GO

In-car iOS and Android partners line up

CarPlay is the new name of Apple's in-car cut of iOS, and the launch partners will be Mercedes, Volvo and Ferrari. Google's rival system, announced at CES, is to launch in vehicles by Honda, Audi, Hyundai and GM. Your personal futuriness can now be measured by whether your choice of phone influences your brand of car, or vice-versa. [Guardian]

Audio game app for blind people

Bob Smolenski says: "I've released a new audio game app for blind and visually impaired. Open Field Echo Sounder uses GPS on your iPhone or Android. Walk to the center of an open field and six virtual targets will be arranged around you. Echo locate them using headphones to determine direction. Sighted folks can play it also ;)"

Open Field Echo Sounder: $2 on iOS and Google Play

Crowfunded prize for first open jailbreak of Ios 7


Elizabeth Stark writes, "We're pleased to announce the Device Freedom Prize: a crowdfunded reward for the first developer(s) who release an open source iOS 7 jailbreak. Providing users the ability to control their devices is crucial in an age where we're increasingly dependent on our mobile phones. An open source jailbreak provides users the capability to install what they want on their own devices, the ability to audit the code they're using to do so, and enables disabled users to more easily use their devices."

"We've assembled a judging panel of awesome folks that care a lot about these issues, including Boing Boing's own Cory Doctorow; Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit; Biella Coleman, Professor and Author of Coding Freedom, and Chris Maury, Accessibility Advocate. Contribute to the prize to help make an open source iOS jailbreak a reality."

Is iOS7 jailbroken yet? (Thanks, Elizabeth!)

Apps for Kids 46: Nimble Quest


Apps for Kids is sponsored by HuluPlus. HuluPlus lets you binge on thousands of hit shows – anytime, anywhere on your TV, PC, smart phone or tablet. Click here to support Apps for Kids and get an extended free trial of Hulu Plus.

Apps for Kids is Boing Boing's podcast about cool smartphone apps for kids and parents. My co-host is my 10-year-old daughter, Jane.

In this episode, we review Nimble Quest. It's $2.99 in the iTunes store and free in Google Play.

Our Minecraft contest deadline has been extended to October 11 at noon PT! email us a screenshot or YouTube link of your Minecraft creation and we'll pick a winner to join us on an upcoming episode of Apps for Kids!

If you're an app developer and would like to have Jane and me try one of your apps for possible review, email a redeem code to appsforkids@boingboing.net.

Jane and I love to get your emails with questions about game, gear, and tech. What's your question?

Listen to past episodes of Apps for Kids here.

To get a weekly email to notify you when a new episode of Apps for Kids is up, sign up here.

APPS FOR KIDS: RSS | iTunes | Download this episode | Stitcher

Iphone fingerprint hacker on the limits of biometrics for security

Jan "Starbug" Krissler, the Chaos Computer Club researcher who broke the fingerprint reader security on the new Iphone, had given a long interview to Zeit Online explaining his process and his thoughts on biometrics in general. The CCC's Alex Antener was good enough to translate the interview for us; I've included some of the most interesting bits after the jump.

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More details, new video showing Iphone fingerprint reader pwned by Chaos Computer Club


Starbug, the Chaos Computer Club hacker who broke the fingerprint biometric security on the Iphone, has given an interview [German] to CT Magazine detailing the hack, and released a new video showing how he did it.

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