iPhone 5S: Thieves chop off phone-owners' fingertips to access fingerprint-reading handsets

Apple's new model includes Touch ID, which allows users to unlock their handsets with their fingerprints

Thieves have mutilated victims to gain access to phones equipped with a fingerprint reader, an expert has warned. Yesterday, Apple launched its iPhone 5S, which includes the Touch ID feature, an integrated sensor on the device's home button that reads your fingerprint in order to unlock your phone.

Marc Rogers said the sensors can provide a convenient way to unlock gadgets while also boosting security. But they have led criminals to commit increasingly brutal robberies and even chop off phone-owners' fingertips, the chief researcher at mobile security firm Lookout claimed.

Fraudsters have also succeeded in lifting and duplicating prints with technology that “is only going to improve with time”, he added. Read more >>

Consumer Comfort Plummets Most Since Feb 2008

Having staggered along the bottom, mired in misery and reality, for over 3 years, the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index finally signaled depression-fatigue in January of this year and started to break out - albeit to historically still low levels.

This was then heralded in self-fulfilling style as an indication that everything was good again in the world, money would come off the sidelines, consumers would buy more iPads and American cars, and all would be well in the world.

Well the sad reality is that the last 3 weeks - as stocks have begun to lag, economic data has begun to reflect an un-warmed winter reality, and Europe's conflagration reignites - have seen the largest collapse in consumer comfort in over 3 years and has fallen to 3-month lows. Digging into the detail is even more worrisome as in the last 3 weeks the comfort with personal finances has fallen by the most ever and back to six-month lows. More...

How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes

Apple, the world’s most profitable technology company, doesn’t design iPhones here. It doesn’t run AppleCare customer service from this city. And it doesn’t manufacture MacBooks or iPads anywhere nearby.

Yet, with a handful of employees in a small office here in Reno, Apple has done something central to its corporate strategy: it has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states.

Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains. More...