Tim Cook Says

Although Apple's initial response to a recent release of stolen celebrity photos stated that its iCloud and Find My iPhone systems had not been breached, now CEO Tim Cook is talking about how to beef up its security. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Cook said that several changes are coming very soon, with email and push notifications to alert users any time someone tries to change their iCloud password, restore data to a new device or add a new device to an account. When the notifications pop up, users can respond by changing their password or alerting Apple to a possible breach. Those changes are due in two weeks, however Cook reaffirmed that criminals gained access to victim's accounts by using phishing scams to get their IDs and passwords, or answering their security questions. In response, Apple is also going to start pushing two-factor authentication harder (which currently does not cover access to iCloud from a mobile device, but will after the release of iOS 8), and Cook said its aim will be to increase "awareness" of hackers, and using security measures like strong passwords -- we'll see if there are any other security changes revealed during next week's new iPhone event.
Source: Wall Street Journal

Microsoft's Lumia 830 offers PureView imaging at a lower cost

by Brad Molen

Microsoft Devices, formerly known as Nokia's phone division, is no slouch when it comes to its device lineup. Lately, it's been focused on refining the top and bottom of its Lumia Windows Phone lineup, but the phone maker came to IFA in Berlin with a couple of devices to freshen up the middle of the pack. The company's strategy: Bring the PureView brand, which has typically been associated with Nokia's premium phones, to a more affordable price point on the Lumia 830. In fact, Microsoft bills the 830 as "the affordable flagship." The device looks very similar to the Lumia 930 in that it comes with the aluminum frame and polycarbonate back. While it uses the PureView name, the rear camera's 10MP resolution isn't quite as good as the 930 or 1020, but it's understandable given the lower price point. Still, the device will come with plenty of extra software enhancements to improve the experience.

Nokia Lumia 830 hands-on

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The device will ship with the Lumia Denim update, which is Microsoft Device's specially packaged version of Windows Phone 8.1.1 (Update 1). That refresh comes with a new version of Lumia Camera, which comes with faster shot-to-shot and pocket-to-picture times and several other enhancements to the imaging experience.
One interesting feature in the new Lumia Camera is the ability to take two pictures: One with flash and one without. When editing the final image, it offers a slider that lets you change the flash effect up in the picture. In other words, if the flash was too bright, but the image is too dark without the flash, you can now tweak the end result to somewhere in between.

As for the hard specs, the 830 comes with a 5-inch 720p display, Gorilla Glass 3, slightly curved (2.25D) glass, a 2,200mAh battery and a 1.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400. At first glance, it's hard to discern the 830 from the 930, largely due to the aluminum sides. However, it's actually quite a bit thinner than its bigger brother, at 8.5mm, and the PureView camera module mimics the circular black one on the Lumia 1020. It also comes with a removable polycarbonate back. Even though it's a thinner device, it's still just as easy to hold and looks sleeker than the 930.
Fortunately, the 830 retains the hardware shutter key prevalent on the other PureView devices. It's on the lower-right side of the phone, which on this particular device sits right where my pinky finger rests. This makes the holding experience slightly awkward, but I imagine it'll be easy to get used to altering my grip a bit after enough time using the device.
The 830 will come in green, orange, gray and white and start shipping globally this month at 330 euro.

Tags: hands-on, ifa2014, lumia, lumia830, microsoft, mobilepostcross, nokia