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School allegedly uses students’ laptop webcams for espionage, lawsuit ensues

Hold onto your butts, kids, we’ve got a doozy of a story. Let’s take this one slow: a class-action lawsuit has been filed in Pennsylvania accusing the Lower Merion school district of “unauthorized, inappropriate and indiscriminate remote activation” of webcams in laptops issued to students, without prior knowledge or consent. The tale begins when Assistant Principal Lindy Mastko of Harriton High School informed a student that he was “engaged in improper behavior in his home”; the suit alleges that when pressed for details, Mastko told both the boy and his father that the school district could remotely activate the webcam — a capability that is apparently being used.

The school district has yet to respond to the accusations, so at this point we’ve only got the plaintiff’s side of the story — for all we know this kid took a picture of himself and somehow accidentally uploaded it on the school network. Then again, some purported Lower Merion students just emailed Gizmodo and claimed that their MacBooks’ green webcam lights went on at random times, but they were told by IT support that it was just a technical glitch. Holy alleged invasion of privacy, Batman, this could get mighty interesting. PDF of the complaint available below.

Update: The Lower Merion School District superintendent Christopher McGinley has issued an official response on its website, acknowledging “a
security feature intended to track lost, stolen and missing laptops.” Going further, he says the district ”
has not used the tracking feature or web cam for any other purpose or in any other manner whatsoever” but that the matter is “under review.”

[Thanks, Yossi]

School allegedly uses students’ laptop webcams for espionage, lawsuit ensues originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Current MacBook Pro SKU given mark of death in Best Buy database?

We’ll admit to not being leading the field of study in Best Buy-ology, but here comes a new quiz for us care of a tipster who sent TUAW a screenshot of the inventory screen that shows what looks to be the current MacBook Pro SKU with status: deleted. What that means is no new orders can be made for that unit, at least for that particular store. Sign of impending MBP refresh? Intel certainly had us riled up last month with that Core i5-infused flier, but we won’t get fooled again. Don’t hold your breath for this one, but if more telltale signs start popping up, we’ll be sure let ya know.

Update: Giving credit where due; the image originates from the MacRumors forums.

Update II: Another tipster familiar with Best Buy’s systems wrote in and noted that “Deleted only means that the that particular store is having it pulled from their planogramed assortment.” Sorry to burst your bubble.

[Thanks, Jose R]

Current MacBook Pro SKU given mark of death in Best Buy database? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacBook Pro with Intel Core i5 processor revealed via Intel promo flier? (update: prize now Envy 15 instead)

Far be it for us to argue with order of operations, but an apparent Intel Retail Edge Program promotional email has revealed a contest where those who pass this month’s training can win one of two MacBook Pros with Intel Core i5 processors inside. Only catch is, that’s a model that doesn’t yet exist — whoops! Don’t know how long the company expects those winners to wait, but we’ve gone ahead and kept our calendars clear for the end of the month, just in case Apple feels the urge to send out any last-minute press conference invites.

Update: We’ve been sent a new flier from Intel that “corrects” the contest. The prize is now one of two Envy 15s with Core i5. Sure, we’ve joked about the physical similarities before, but did someone really mix the two up that egregiously? Only time will tell. Correction email reprinted after the break.

[Thanks, Mike!]

Continue reading MacBook Pro with Intel Core i5 processor revealed via Intel promo flier? (update: prize now Envy 15 instead)

MacBook Pro with Intel Core i5 processor revealed via Intel promo flier? (update: prize now Envy 15 instead) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacBook strips off its polycarbonate unibody shell for the expected teardown

That thumbs up means exactly what you think, and just like all the other new MacBook (Pro) models, that “non-removable” battery in the new polycarbonate unibody MacBook is more of a guideline than an actual set of rules. iFixit’s currently doing its traditional teardown process — so far, other than the battery and hard drive swapping places, the internal geography looks about like its predecessor. Letting your eyes venture into forbidden territories is just a mouse click away at the read link below.

Filed under: Laptops

MacBook strips off its polycarbonate unibody shell for the expected teardown originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple releases MacBook Pro firmware to silence those 7200 RPM HDDs

That new MacBook Pro’s 7200 RPM HDD singing you too many ballads lately? As promised, Apple today released a new firmware update to silence that troublemaker. If it doesn’t come up through automatic system update, you can obtain Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0 (catchy name, eh?) via the read link. Admit it, you’re gonna feel just a teensy bit lonelier once your laptop stops chirping so much.

Update: Apple today also released Bluetooth Firmware Update 2.0.1, which alongside various bug fixes improves compatibility with the company’s wireless mouse and keyboards on all machines with the Broadcom chipset — that includes all unibody laptops and any Mac released in 2009.

[Via TUAW]

Filed under: Laptops

Apple releases MacBook Pro firmware to silence those 7200 RPM HDDs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple ‘fesses up to 7200 RPM HDD issues, aims to dispatch a fix forthwith

MacBook Pro owners suffering from 7200 RPM noise pollution and performance issues, Apple has acknowledged your pain and wants you to know that it’s working hard to remedy the situation. According to CNET, the problem seems to be restricted to 500GB / 7200 RPM hard drives, with the likely culprit being code that’s somehow “causing the drive to sleep during use.” No word yet on a release date for the patch, but you’ll know as soon as we do. As you know, we’ll pretty much take any opportunity we can find to run a Lloyd Dobler Photoshop.

[Via Register Hardware]

Filed under: Laptops

Apple ‘fesses up to 7200 RPM HDD issues, aims to dispatch a fix forthwith originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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