Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth's Weekly Web Wrap-up

I've been using an early version of iOS 9, Apple's next big software update coming to iPhones and iPads, for about a day now.

Apple's new iPhone update is making the home screen obsolete for me.

That's because the new Siri Suggestions screen in iOS 9 has almost everything I need.

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ios-9-features-beta-siri-2015-7



Apple Rolls Out Revamped iPods (Yes, iPods)

The revamped iPod Touch comes with a new 4-inch Retina display, an A8 chip for improved graphics and gaming (the same one in your iPhone 6), and an M8 motion coprocessor for activity and fitness tracking.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248449

https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/07/15Apple-Introduces-The-Best-iPod-touch-Yet.html



iPod Touch performance preview: 500% better CPU, 900% faster graphics

Smartphones and tablets have stopped changing all that much from year to year, which makes it easy to take for granted just how far they've come in such a relatively short time. One year of updates doesn't do much to impress anymore, but take three or four years of updates all at once and you'll have something to be impressed by.

Such is the case with the sixth-generation iPod Touch.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/07/ipod-touch-performance-preview-500-better-cpu-900-better-graphics/



Comparison:
Apple iPod touch (6th generation) vs. iPod touch (5th generation)

http://www.gizmag.com/ipod-touch-6g-vs-5g/38521/



Apple’s new iPod nano and iPod shuffle won’t work with Apple Music — here’s why

According to Apple blog 9to5Mac, Apple is disallowing Apple Music from its cheaper iPods to prevent piracy. 

However, Apple Music will work on the new iPod Touch, which starts at $199 for 16GB of storage.

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ipod-nano-shuffle-wont-work-with-apple-music-2015-7

http://9to5mac.com/2015/07/17/ipod-nano-shuffle-apple-music-piracy/



8 Apple Watch Apps That Help You Run Your Business

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/248314



The Only Apple Watch Apps You Actually Need

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/apple-watch-apps-actually-need/



Apple Watch, Not Dead Yet

Last week, one research firm that seemingly burst onto the tech scene just to track the Apple Watch reported that online sales had plunged 90 percent since the device’s introduction in April. The report, by Slice Intelligence, was widely credited by the technology and mainstream press as the definitive sign that the Apple Watch is a dud.

A closer look at the data and a few phone calls tell a different story.

Slice’s methodology has its limits. It does not track in-store purchases or global retail sales.

To find another way to gauge the popularity of the Apple Watch, we consulted several veteran technology analysts with contacts in Apple’s manufacturing supply chain who claimed Slice’s data does not represent the whole market, and does not correspond to what they’re hearing from supplier sources.

http://recode.net/2015/07/14/apple-watch-not-dead-yet/



What One Company Learned When They Gave Apple Watches to the Entire Staff

http://www.fastcompany.com/3048615/the-future-of-work/what-one-company-learned-when-they-gave-apple-watches-to-the-entire-staff



Buyer's Guide: Discounts on iMac, iPad Air 2, Apple Accessories, BioShock Infinite Bundle and More

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/07/17/buyers-guide-deals-july-17-2015/



How to clear out a ton of space on your iPhone superfast

http://www.businessinsider.com/clear-out-iphone-storage-space-2015-6



Apple Scarfs Up Nearly All the Smartphone Profits

Ninety-two percent of worldwide profits from smartphones go to Apple, according to press reports citing data released by Cannacord Genuity.

Samsung is a distant second with 15 percent of the profits.

Apple's profit numbers are even more astonishing, considering that it commands just 20 percent of the sales in the market.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/82268.html



More Americans are getting their daily news fix from Facebook and Twitter

http://www.macworld.com/article/2948579/apps/report-more-americans-are-getting-their-daily-news-fix-from-facebook-and-twitter.html



43 free online courses you can take this summer to advance your career

http://www.businessinsider.com/free-online-summer-courses-that-will-advance-your-career-2015-7



Leaked Google Data Makes Company More Transparent Than It Wants To Be

Data related to Google’s “Right to be forgotten” (RTBF) removal requests was just torn from the source code of its very own transparency report.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/14/leaked-google-data-makes-company-more-transparent-than-it-wants-to-be/#.dtmyne:wKGo



Google accidentally reveals data on 'right to be forgotten’ requests

Data shows 95% of Google privacy requests are from citizens out to protect personal and private information – not criminals, politicians and public figures.

The Guardian has discovered new data hidden in source code on Google’s own transparency report that indicates the scale and flavour of the types of requests being dealt with by Google – information it has always refused to make public. The data covers more than three-quarters of all requests to date.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/14/google-accidentally-reveals-right-to-be-forgotten-requests



Google's data leak reveals flaws in making it judge and jury over our rights

The so-called right to be forgotten debate has, until now, been almost entirely uninformed by data.

new data revealed today by the Guardian categorically rebuts assertions that only unsavoury types benefit from rights concerning how we are represented on web searches.

The vast majority of successful delisting requests concern information that Google has itself categorised as “private or personal information”. Only a tiny proportion of requests concern serious crime, political data, or public figures - and even those are more likely to come from victims, rather than perpetrators.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/14/googles-data-leak-right-to-be-forgotten



Firefox will now block Flash by default — and the war against Adobe's least-loved product suddenly looks very real

"Following Adobe's advisory for two critical vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player 18.0.0.204 [the latest version of Flash] and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux, we have disabled Flash by default in Firefox to protect our users from active exploits which are distributing malware," Mozilla director of product management Chad Weiner told Business Insider.

http://www.businessinsider.com/mozilla-blocks-insecure-adobe-flash-firefox-2015-7



You don't have to be a villain to say Adobe's Flash must die
Flash's time has been over for years, but inertia has kept flawed technology alive and exploitable. It's time to kill it off.

Facebook’s chief security officer publicly called on Adobe on July 12 to set an end-of-life date for Flash so that browser makers could disable it permanently all at once. Mozilla’s Firefox chief concurred.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2948131/software-web/you-dont-have-to-be-a-villain-to-say-flash-must-die.html



A look inside the secretive business of cybercrime, where hackers make more than $80,000 a month

Much like the fine-tuned systems of mafias and gangs that act almost identically to businesses, hackers have also created their own extremely intricate systems — and the scale of their operations is astounding.

Lots of specific hacking businesses.

http://www.businessinsider.com/we-found-out-how-much-money-hackers-actually-make-2015-7



Authorities dismantle hacker forum but root of problem remains

Authorities across 20 countries took down a computer hacking forum called Darkode, dismantling a criminal Internet hub used to buy, sell and trade hacking tools, and was considered “one of the gravest threats to the integrity of data on computers in the United States and around the world,” a U.S. attorney said.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/authorities-dismantle-hacker-forum-but-root-of-problem-remains-2015-07-15



The Hacking Team fallout continues, as the head of intelligence for Cyprus steps down

Last week the Italian surveillance company Hacking Team was hacked, and most of its internal documents were leaked. The leak included long list of countries and private organizations Hacking Team has worked with.

The fallout from the Hacking Team breach is just beginning. And now the first major government official has stepped down due to debacle.  Andras Pentaras, the head of Cyprus intelligence service, has stepped down because of the breach.

http://www.businessinsider.com/cyprus-intelligence-service-head-andreas-pentaras-steps-down-after-hacking-team-revelations-2015-7



Electronic Frontier Foundation celebrates 25 years of defending online privacy

http://www.csoonline.com/article/2949096/security-leadership/electronic-frontier-foundation-celebrates-25-years-of-defending-online-privacy.html