BlackBerry to discontinue app store on December 31, 2019

Signifying an end of an era and the complete dissolution of the BlackBerry app ecosystem, the BlackBerry app store will close its doors for good on December 31, 2019. This means no access to apps or updates of apps for BB10 devices which, at this point, are only being marginally supported. Even the BlackBerry PRIV is no longer supported (no more updates) which means it can expect to die a slow excruciating update-less death. This is BlackBerry the company washing its hands completely from their mobile devices, which at this point, are just a burden to support.

Now, BlackBerry Mobile, a subsidiary of TCL, is the company that's released the KEYOne and the Motion smartphones and they will continue to create and support those devices. They have nothing to do with the PRIV or earlier handsets but are offering a possible trade-in program to help users transition to newer devices. It's a sad reality but one that has been coming for years for true BlackBerry fans. Many of who have had to sideload Android apps just to try and get by.

Source: Engadget

Apple's most powerful desktop, the iMac Pro is available today starting at $6,299

The iMac Pro, which is the most powerful Mac ever made  designed around the needs of professionals in the areas of photography, graphics, music and video production, is now available.

iMac Pro takes the familiarity and simplicity of Apple's iconic iMac yet imbues it with next generation technologies including Xeon processors with up to 18-cores, generating 22 Teraflops of graphics performance mated to a 27-inch 5K Retina Display ideal for splicing and dicing 4K and 8K video, the creation of immersive AR and VR content plus significant speed increases for multi-core and multi-threading processes. iMac Pro is available in Canada starting at $6,299 and is available for purchase online.

“iMac Pro combines the incredible design of the iMac with the most powerful workstation architecture we’ve ever built,” said John Ternus, Apple’s vice president of Hardware Engineering.

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Uber admits that 815,000 Canadians are affected by the data breach

Uber has admitted that more than 815,000 of their Canadian customers have had their data compromised by the data breach which Uber is accused of having tried to cover up.

Customer information that was exposed in the data breach includes the names, email addresses and mobile phone numbers of customers. It is not known if credit card orother payment information. The data breach saw the theft of information from some 57 million Uber accounts globally in October 2016. Uber reportedly paid off the hackers $100,000 to delete the data and keep the breach hidden from the public.

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Apple iMac Pro to go on sale December 14 for US $4,999

iMac Pro photo by gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple has announced that its first 'pro' desktop in years, the iMac Pro, will be going on sale on December 14. Starting at US $4,999 for an 8-core model that features 32GB of RAM. This is the most powerful Mac all-in-one to come to market and is the stopgap product aimed to sate the desire for a more powerful-VR-capable Mac until a proper redesigned Mac Pro comes sometime next year.

I see this Mac Pro as an ideal device for graphics designers, video editors and photography pros who want a powerful Mac today and who are okay with the limitations of a non-upgradeable and hyper integrated enclosure.

Source: Engadget