Celebgate iCloud phisher pleads guilty to accessing 30+ celebrity accounts, faces 5 years

One of the men behind the ‘Celebgate‘ phishing attack has pleaded guilty to accessing more than 300 iCloud and Gmail accounts, including ‘at least 30’ belonging to celebrities. The plea was announced by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of California.

Edward Majerczyk, 28, who resides in Chicago and Orland Park, Illinois, was named in a criminal information filed today in United States District Court in Los Angeles. Majerczyk has signed a plea agreement in which he agrees to plead guilty to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, specifically, one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information.

Another of the Celebgate offenders, Ryan Collins, also took a plea back in March in return for a recommended sentence of 18 months …

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Filed under: Apple

How-To: create a macOS Sierra USB install drive [Video]

If you want the ability to perform a fresh and clean install of macOS Sierra, then you should consider creating a macOS Sierra USB install disk. Not only will this walkthrough work for the macOS Sierra Developer Preview, but it will also work for the public beta and future final releases. In the following video tutorial, we’ll show you how.

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Filed under: Apple

Opinion: Unpacking Apple, Beats Music and a possible Tidal acquisition

Yesterday the WSJ reported that sources indicate Apple is in ongoing exploratory talks to buy Jay Z’s Tidal music subscription business while carefully noting sources say talks may not lead to a deal. While Apple reportedly talking to Jay Z’s Tidal does not equal Apple actually buying Tidal (yet), the idea of Apple buying Tidal anytime soon and within two years of spending $3 billion on Beats in part to build its Apple Music streaming service comes as a surprise to many — not unlike the Beats episode…

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Filed under: Apple

How-To: Show the size of folders in the Finder on Mac [Video]

The Finder’s list view is my favorite way to view the folders and files within the macOS Finder, because it provides a wealth of information via columns that can be sorted on.

One thing that you won’t find when using the Finder’s default list view is the cumulative size of the Folders contained within. But there’s an easy way to view the sizes of Folders directly within the Finder; watch our video tutorial to see how. more…

Filed under: Apple

Apple issues heated response to Spotify’s ‘anticompetitive’ accusation letter

If Apple versus FBI was the big story to start the year, then it looks like Apple versus Spotify will be the hot battle of the summer. Yesterday a letter surfaced in which Spotify accused Apple of being anticompetitive with its App Store policies and holding back a Spotify update in order to benefit Apple Music. This letter is likely what prompted Senator Elizabeth Warren’s negative remarks about Apple earlier this week.

Now Apple is pushing back and without mincing words. Apple’s top lawyer Bruce Sewell has issued a three-page response to Spotify (via Buzzfeed) in which he accuses Spotify of “resorting to rumors and half-truths about our service.”

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Filed under: Apple