The decision taken by the US and UK governments to ban laptops and tablets from hand baggage on some flights was in part prompted by a plot to use a fake iPad as a bomb, reports the Guardian.

The ban – affecting flights to and from a number of predominantly Middle Eastern and North African countries – came into effect over the weekend. The US Department of Homeland Security had previously said it was the result of terrorists seeking ‘innovative methods’ to attack planes, and it has now been revealed that the iPad plot was one of these …

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British Home Secretary Amber Rudd – in charge of police policy in the UK – has told the BBC that Apple ‘cannot get away with’ apps that offer unbreakable encryption following last week’s terrorist attack in London.

Rudd was speaking after it was revealed that Khalid Masood accessed WhatsApp two minutes before ploughing through pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing three of them, before fatally stabbing a police officer guarding the Houses of Parliament.

She described end-to-end encrypted messaging as used by WhatsApp and Apple’s Messages app as ‘completely unacceptable’ …

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Although the iPhone 8 (and iPhone 7s counterparts) are not expected until the fall, Apple suppliers have to ramp production months in advance to secure the millions of parts necessary for the launch. Economic Daily News is today reporting that TSMC will begin mass production of the Apple A11 SoC, which will power the 2017 iPhones, in April.

The chip inside the iPhone 7 is the Apple A10 Fusion, which includes two high-power cores and two lower-power cores. The design of the A11 chip is unknown but the report says it is fabricated using a 10 nanometer process ..

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Elektron is well known for its innovative hardware instruments like Octatrack, Analog Rtym/Keys and more. But today we are looking at the new Analog Heat Stereo Processing unit. The company has brought much of its forward-thinking sensibilities to an otherwise non-remarkable product category here: outboard analog effects. These and similar effects units are commonly used for adding subtle warmth to vocal tracks or entire mixes, to viscous levels of distortion and more. It’s equipped with 8 distortion circuits, a filter, and what can only be described as a sort of magical integration with Logic Pro X and other major DAWs. It uses the company’s phenomenal Overbridge technology to work the same way a typical virtual plug-in does. more…

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T-Mobile appears to now be including complimentary AppleCare services similar to what’s offered with AppleCare+ as part of its Jump upgrade program. The new support hasn’t been announced yet, but an update to the company’s webpage was spotted showing that the two premium Jump plans are now listed as including AppleCare services (via njtechreviews).

The Apple Care services are now offered to customers at no additional cost on the two $12/month Jump plans that include T-mobile’s own Premium Device Protection services:

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EduTech is a 9to5Mac weekly series that focuses on technology’s application in education, lower and higher level, both for productivity and enjoyment. If you have suggestions for topics or specific questions you’d like to see answered, feel free to let me know. Catch up on past installments here. 

One of the more daunting tasks leading up to college is thinking of how to best pay for it and how to get the best deal possible. Some students are lucky and qualify for scholarships from the university their attending, while others are forced to look elsewhere for scholarship money.

Either way, scholarships can be a huge help when it comes to bearing the burden of a college education. In this week’s EduTech, we’re going to take a look at the best iOS apps for tracking scholarships…

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Last week, it was reported that Drake’s latest project was streamed 89.9 million times in its first 24 hours of availability on Apple Music, a number that bested Spotify by nearly 30 million despite Spotify’s larger user base.

Now, Apple Music executives Jimmy Iovine, Robert Kondrk, and Zane Lowe have sat down with The Verge to offer up more details on Apple’s work with Drake, as well as Beats 1 as a whole.

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This is the place to catch up on the week’s biggest product announcements for music making on your Mac and iOS device, including hardware, apps, synths, Logic/GarageBand instruments and so much more. This week we get another glimpse of Elektron’s new Digitakt drum computer, Output’s interesting new Analog String instrument, a huge release day discount on Korg Gadget for Mac, a completely free modular-virtual synth, and much more… more…

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This week, Apple officially unveiled the PRODUCT(RED) iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. While the device looks pretty slick on the surface, many people have argued that Apple should have made the front of the device black, as opposed to white.

We’ve already shared one concept image that imagines a (RED) iPhone with a black front, but now YouTuber Danny Winget has taken it a step further and actually transformed the device…

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Last year, a Beijing court ruled that the iPhone 6 infringed on design patents of a competing Chinese phone and ordered that Apple halt sales of the device. Apple quickly appealed the decision, allowing the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to stay on the market.

Now, a separate Beijing court has overturned the original ruling…

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