Yes, the Big Apple Fall Media Event was confirmed for September 9th, and we’re all expecting the fancy 4th generation Apple TV, the iPhone 6s, iOS 9 — and who knows, maybe even the iPad Maxi. Hardware aside, Hollywood trade mag Variety is reporting this week that Apple is looking into doing its own original programming, just like Amazon and Netflix. Apple, of course, is Not Commenting. The company did comment on — and even put out a press release — about another meeting it had this week, this one with networking giant Cisco to optimize networks for iOS users.
If you’ve jailbroken your iPhone and are running Cydia, listen up: Researchers have discovered malware called KeyRaider that has snagged more 225,000 Apple ID user names and passwords. The malware is getting out there though a third-party repository.
And if you’re got an iPhone but want to skip the Apple Watch in favor of a Android Wear device, you can now pair an Android-powered smartwatch or fitness tracker with an iPhone 5 later, thanks to the Android Wear app for iOS that arrived this week. Also in the department of smartwatches, Samsung announced its latest models, the Gear G2 and the Gear G2 Classic, at a Berlin trade show this week.
Those with Amazon Fire Tablets HD and HDX can now stream video content from the Dish Network’s Sling TV service. A free trial period is available for new customers and Sling TV is already available on the Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Nexus Player set-top boxes, the Xbox One, IOS and Android tablets and computers running Windows and Mac OS X. Also in Amazon Land, Prime Instant Video users with Android and iOS devices can now download selected titles for offline viewing. Very handy for planes, trains and automobiles — or anyplace without Wi-Fi.
PayPal is making it easier for friends who lend and borrow money to get squared away. With its new PayPal.Me service, the peer-to-peer payments platform lets users set up their own personalized URL that can be shared with others to request money.
Nintendo also has new stuff on the way for gamers on the go. The company is releasing smaller version of the Nintendo 3DS handheld console for those with more petite paws to play with.
Google’s tussle with the European Union continues, and could expand now to a number of civil lawsuits over antitrust allegations. The E.U. has had an investigation into Google for the past four years, trying to discern if the company was favoring its own services in search results. If Google is found guilty there, the ruling can be used as evidence in civil cases from other companies. A Google lawyer
posted a statement online last week that argues against the European Commission’s Statement of Objections with the headline 
“Improving quality isn’t anti-competitive.” In other Google news, the company changed its logo this week.
Facebook, which probably already knows a lot about you anyway, is getting into the virtual personal assistant game. Last week, the company announced its new M software, which hopes to muscle into Cortana and Siri’s territory. Facebook’s Instagram also got an update this week to add threaded messages and the ability to send photos from your feed as a direct message.
Speaking of virtual personalities, the hacked and sacked Ashley Madison trysting website has been accused of creating fake female profiles and powering them by chatbots to up boost the impression than that the site had more female users than it actually did. According the Guardian of London, a former employee sued the site in 2013 saying in a complaint that the site had required the creation of so many fake profiles, she had sustained repetitive stress injuries. Spokespeople for Ashley Madison have said that despite the epic data security fail and public resignation of its CEO, “hundreds of thousands” of new users signed up for the site, including 87, 596 (allegedly real) women and everything.
And finally, up in space, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft isn’t basking around doing nothing after its slam-dunk flyby of Pluto in July. NASA scientists are directing the probe toward a 30-mile wide object in the Kuiper Belt called 2014 MU69. While NASA doesn’t quite have everything in place yet for this bonus trip, it does have to do a little prep work ahead of time. New Horizons needs to fire up its steering engines in October to get situated for the flyby, which would actually take place in January of 2019. Start planning your 2014 MU69 flyby parties now!
