pdbreske

From Mashable: "Bkav researchers said that making 3D model is very simple," the blog post noted. "A person can be secretly taken photos of in just a few seconds when entering a room containing a pre-setup system of cameras located at different angles. Then, the photos will be processed by algorithms to make a 3D object."

So, to unlock an iPhone X using this hack, you need to do one of two things: 1) Steal a phone and then capture a bunch of photos of the owner without his/her knowledge, print a mask using stone dust and some kind of infrared printer, all within 48 hours (or less) to get under the phone's biometric time limit, or 2) do all of that stuff BEFORE you steal the phone so the mask will be ready when you have the phone in your custody.

Oh yeah. You iPhone X owners should be petrified with concern.

And for those users who do not know or care about how their phones actually work (i.e. the vast majority of users), the software update will lead to some phones randomly shutting down without warning and yet another class-action lawsuit against Apple for "intentionally putting out a software update that degrades the iPhone's reliability." Fuc*ing lawyers.

Is there any indication Apple won't certify certain factories because those factories' worker policies aren't up to the standards that Apple would like to set for all the world's workers? In other words, will companies fail this certification process of they abuse workers' rights? If this is the case, I would fully expect the union representatives and workers' rights activists to applaud Apple for their work in this area, as well as immediately and without reservation recommend that all American consumers buy nothing but Apple products. Bahahahaaa! Who am I kidding? When it comes to activism, most people vote with their wallets, and they vote mostly in favor of cheap prices and immediate availability. I just hope HomeKit is able to weather this inconvenience.

Isn't this better than having the government dictate what we should do? Isn't this how a free market economy is supposed to work? Why does everyone insist that the government step in and "fix" everything when government can't ever seem to get anything right to begin with? If combatting climate change is a good business decision, then businesses will step up and do what needs to be done, not because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes them (or saves them) money. If this is a bad business decision, then no amount of government regulation will persuade businesses to change their ways because the regulations will always have some unforeseen loophole that will be exploited by unscrupulous companies. And if you think Apple is above that kind of response, witness their avoidance of paying US taxes by keeping billions of dollars overseas. Many people would say this isn't fair, but it's a good business decision on Apple's part. Tim Cook et al. believe that following the provisions of the Paris accord is good for the bottom line, either through goodwill or increased sales/decreased costs. If the CEOs of these companies truly thought that their companies would go out of business by doing this, they wouldn't do it. It's that simple.

So what if it is a monopoly? Monopolies aren't illegal. Anti-competitive practices are illegal. If you start a company selling a widget that no one else makes, you have a monopoly. Unless you force retailers to sell ONLY your widgets by threatening to withhold them if they sell a new widget made by someone else, your monopoly is completely legal. This is what got Microsoft into trouble when they told Windows hardware manufacturers that they could only sell computers with Windows installed if they also refused to install any other web browsers. The government found this was anti-competitive and fined Microsoft heavily for it. Apple is the only company that sells macOS-equipped computers. They build and sell all the hardware and operating system software. While they may have a monopoly on macOS computers, they aren't forcing BestBuy et al to sell exclusively Apple hardware at the expense of other operating systems. If Apple told Walmart to stop selling Android tablets or face losing access to iPads, that would anti-competitive and illegal.

Added one of these to my new iMac order today. I like my current wireless keyboard, but have wanted Apple to add a numeric keypad to the Bluetooth KBs for a while.

While flashy and well executed, the biggest takeaway for me was the lack of spontaneity. Seeing these people up close, as opposed to seeing them on a stage, means we get to read their eyes and emotions (or lack thereof) much closer, plus we can clearly see them reading from a teleprompter. When they are presenting on a stage, the prompters are down in front, not next to the camera, so their occasional glances down seem more natural than watching their eyes scanning every written word. 

Also, watching this event really drove home the reality of the pandemic. Instead of being new and fresh, it just made me sad to know that the coronavirus has changed (maybe forever) the way we interact as a group. Instead of taking my mind off the pandemic, it focused my attention on the way we do things as a result of it. 

This was less a "short film" and more of a demo reel for a college student who wants to show his skills with only a phone. And it was difficult to watch on a 27" iMac with the massive black bars on the left and right sides of the monitor.

Remember when content was just starting to deliver in 16:9 aspect ratio and we all had to put up with "letterboxed" videos until we could all afford widescreen TVs? Well, now we're going in the opposite direction and we'll get to absorb 9:16 content on 16:9 monitors until we are all forced to "upgrade" the hardware to screens that will swivel between horizontal and vertical modes. 

This is utterly ridiculous when you consider that virtually every real-life setting is horizontally biased. Human beings are able to interact with their world pretty much only in two directions, so offering a video clip that eliminates everything to the left and right of the subject also removes nearly every other clue I could use to tell me what's going on and where it's happening. Shooting an entire movie like this one isn't a director being brave and forging new directions in filmmaking; it's only someone seeing if they can make a compelling film while overcoming the very real limitations of a vertical aspect ratio. He was able to make a film, yes, but whether it was actually enjoyable is another story. 

I'm not backing either of the two major parties (and haven't for years), but this probably isn't a smart business move for Apple. Suppose Trump wins. What does Tim Cook think Trump will do when he has the power of the White House behind him? Not good.

Also, I find it interesting that Apple presumably plans to still support the Democrats, noting Hillary's backing of the Iraq war and opposition to gay marriage (she only supports gay "unions"). Plus every other thing wrong with her.

Why take sides at all? What's the end game? It's this kind of political garbage that makes people jump ship and stop buying products they've used for years.