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Apple’s App Store and iCloud are down for some

Jun02
by on June 2, 2015 at 4:14 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

Screen Shot 2015-06-02 at 16.53.16
The Apple App Store and iCloud appear to be down for many users at the moment. While the front page of the App Store appears to be fine, apps are failing to download or update. I tried to update my Snapchat app and download the Moleskine Timepage app and both times it failed. iCloud also appears to be having a bad day. It is blocking some users from signing in on Macs, iPhones, iPads and on iCloud.com. Apple’s own status page has yet to acknowledge the apparently widespread outage. Reports began showing on Twitter over an hour ago from the…

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The fastest-growing category of YouTube video blogs? Sneaker hauls

Jun02
by on June 2, 2015 at 3:50 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Google, Insider

youtube sneaker blogs
We all know what it’s like to be stuck in a YouTube loop – you know, that moment when you meant to watch one video, but end up watching the entire back catalog of content related to whatever it was you came to see in the first place. Today Google released some interesting tidbits about the most popular video content, so if you’re looking to be the next YouTube star, listen up. In its latest research, Google says searches for “how to” on YouTube have grown 70 percent year over year. More than 100 million hours of content in the category has been watched…

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Geeks rejoice! GameStop to buy ThinkGeek, pays Hot Topic an undisclosed termination fee

Jun02
by on June 2, 2015 at 3:09 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider

gamestop thinkgeek merger
Last week, news swirled that mall mecca for all-things-punk Hot Topic was looking to acquire ThinkGeek, the online retailer for all-things-geek. In a twist, gaming retailer GameStop has stepped in and says it will instead acquire ThinkGeek, paying Hot Topic off for its troubles. In a press release, GameStop says it will purchase Geeknet Inc., the parent company of ThinkGeek, for $20 a share (versus Hot Topic’s offer of $17.50 a share.) That gives the deal an “equity value of approximately $140 million, including $37 million of cash and cash equivalents as of March 31, 2015.” The suggestion that Hot Topic…

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Facebook will stop supporting SHA-1 certificate signatures this October

Jun02
by on June 2, 2015 at 2:40 pm
Posted In: Around the Web

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Facebook is going to ditch support for the SHA-1 cryptographic hash algorithm from 1 October, 2015. The social network made the announcement today stating: These changes are part of a broader shift in how browsers and web sites encrypt traffic to protect the contents of online communications. SHA-1 was one of the most widely used digest algorithms on the Web, but it was determined to be less secure than previously believed by a report from the CA/Browser Forum in 2011 on Baseline Requirements for SSL. The report stated its value had deprecated and recommended that Certificate Authorities move away from SHA-1…

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The first Apple HomeKit products are on sale now

Jun02
by on June 2, 2015 at 1:13 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, HomeKit, Products

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Apple announced HomeKit, its smart home solution, exactly a year ago and the first products are finally arriving. A pair of lighting kits from Lutron and a HomeKit-compatible hub for Insteon’s smart home system are available today, with a smart thermostat from Ecobee, a power outlet from iHome and a series of Elgato home sensors coming in July. In case the concept has slipped from your mind in the intervening 12 months, HomeKit lets companies build apps that can interact with any other hardware using the standard. Siri can also control those devices. However, you’ll need an Apple TV to help out if…

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