While there wasn't a huge amount of tech news over the weekend aside from an Evernote security scare, we've managed to dig up a heaping handful of tidbits for you, including a look at Apple's Lighting Digital AV Adapter and future Campus 2 headquarters, as well as missing store credit for CinemaNow customers and more. Won't you join us for a quick Monday morning catch-up?
Evernote Scare Prompts Password Reset
If you tried to log into Evernote over the weekend and were asked to reset your password, you're not alone. The company announced Saturday that its Operations & Security team had "discovered and blocked suspicious activity" that appeared to be "a coordinated attempt" to access secure portions of the service. While no evidence was found to suggest that any Evernote content or payment information was accessed, user information wasn't quite as unmolested, prompting the company to issue a service-wide password reset for all users. A blog post details the issue, along with suggestions for improving your own security settings.
Surprises Found Inside Apple's Lightning Digital AV Adapter
To most of us, a Lightning adapter is just another widget for connecting peripherals to our iOS gear, but when it comes to Apple's Lightning Digital AV Adapter, the folks over at Panic decided to dig a little deeper. Like the surprise at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box, the Panic engineers discovered that Apple's Lightning-based video output appears to max out at 1600 x 900 -- despite the previous Dock Connector AV Adapter going all the way up to 1920 x 1080, better known as 1080p HD. After cracking the adapter open like a clam, the Panic team found what appears to be an ARM-based SoC CPU capable of handling AirPlay-style MPEG streaming. While the adapter's video output may be limited, the $50 widget appears to be a tiny computer in its own right, although it's unclear what future use Apple may have for it.
Shipping Times Improve for U.S., Canadian iMac Buyers
MacRumors reported Saturday that ship times on the base model 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac models appears to have finally improved as the calendar flipped from February to March. For customers in the United States and Canada, the desktop Macs now show a one to three business day "available to ship" time, a first for the big-screen model since its release in November. If you need to custom configure an iMac, you should expect to wait, however -- making any changes from the base configuration extends the ship time from one to three days to two to three weeks.
Preview of Apple's Future Campus 2 Site
AppleInsider posted a first look at Apple's forthcoming construction site for "Campus 2," better known as the so-called "spaceship" headquarters the company plans to start building soon in Cupertino, roughly a mile east of the existing 1 Infinite Loop headquarters. Once completed, 12,000 workers will be relocated to the new site after spreading employees over more than 57 buildings around the city in recent years. The existing Campus 2 site has several buildings Apple has made use of, while others appear to have remained abandoned from their former HP days. CEO Tim Cook noted that the campus currently features 2.8 million square feet of office space, but 80 percent of the land is all parking lot -- a number Apple hopes to reduce to 20 percent after building its circular, four-story building, which will include both underground parking as well as dedicated parking structures to accommodate vehicles. We'll all have to wait a bit to see it, however: Employees likely won't be moving in to Campus 2 until 2016.
Best Buy-Owned CinemaNow Wipes Out Customer Store Credits
It's been a rough week for CinemaNow, the digital movie and TV service owned by Best Buy. Customers using the company's beta Disc to Digital service found they were unable to convert their DVDs because the Rovi-powered software kept asking them to link to UltraViolet (UV), the technology that connects digital media purchases made across different services in one "locker." The problem was that these customers were indeed linked to UV, an issue that took the company several days to sort out. No sooner was that problem addressed than customers started noticing on Friday night that any available CinemaNow store credit was entirely wiped out, with a zero balance remaining. Judging from forum posts to Blu-ray.com, VUDU.com and other message boards, customers were initially told the problem would be fixed within 24 hours, but as of Monday morning, the store credit remains missing, and the company remains largely silent on what's going on.
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