blah64

mike1 said:

Would be curious to see results for the same survey in two years. This is how it will go with some people...

1. I would never allow the delivery person to enter my home.
2. Oh crap, the new TV I need for the Super Bowl is coming on Friday and it's supposed to rain. Plus I don't want that big box sitting on my porch until we get home from work.
3. I already have one of those smart lock thingies, maybe I'll try that Amazon Key service. Just this one time.
4. That went well, I'll have them put the groceries in the house too. Don't want them to sit outside in the heat all day.
5. Have you tried Amazon Key? It's really convenient.

Yes, this is exactly how it goes.  But you forgot the next steps:

6. Amazon: Oh, you want it left outside?  Sure, that'll be an extra $5.00
7. Amazon: Sorry, due to theft mitigation costs, we require the ability to go inside your house.

Think this is impossible?  It wasn't that long ago that people were (rightfully) aghast that anyone would let commercial companies read through their emails and create behavioral profiles based on the content.  And yet most people just shrug their shoulders if you mention it now.

Seriously? "The old-fashioned Touch ID"?

 Why use such loaded language? It's not old-fashioned, it's just different. Works better with masks, allows use under a table without being a distraction to others, and various other advantages. Sure, faceID also has advantages, but those 2 words are just oddly biased and completely unnecessary.

Read the sentence with other options, like "traditional", i.e.

    The traditional Touch ID sensor is still in use below the display.

 Or better yet, and more professional, no biased words at all, i.e.

The Touch ID sensor is still in use below the display.

cropr said:

ireland said:

Apple should acquire DDG and give them unlimited funds to execute on their mission. Their CEO has the best response I’ve ever seen on Quora. And then when an iPhone user updates their phone and opens Safari a splash screen should give users a choice of search engines to select from, putting DDG in a very prominent position, where Apple can claim the annonmous ad income and remove Google from their defecto position. Unlike Facebook and Google, Duck-Duck doesn’t build profiles on individuals—their software is purposefully designed not to.

DDG is really targeted for US related content. So if Apple were to acquire the DDG and make it the default search engine the rest of the world have a clearly degraded experience.

DDG isn't the only search game in town.  People who are interested in using a privacy-oriented search engine should also consider StartPage.

StartPage has a couple advantages:
1) It's operated out of Europe, giving it freedom from U.S. government requests for data.
2) They run a proxy system that allows you to click on links and have the pages load through their proxy, so not only are your searches anonymous, but you can actually click through and see the pages of interest anonymously.

This second feature doesn't work well on sites that require javascript to load the basic page info, but if you're interested in anonymity, it's a great feature that does work on many sites.

I also use DDG for other things.  I prefer their image searches and weather, for example.  But 100% google-free (and facebook and other tracking companies -free) for many years now.

nunzy said:

 Ban India!

AI: Can we just ban this account?

I'm not sure nunzy has ever written a post that contributed in any way to the conversation.  They're all inane crap that appear to serve no purpose other than to increase a post count.  They don't (usually) cross the line into inflammatory or rule-breaking posts, but they're just one-liners with no thought put into them.  Over and over and over and over.  It almost makes me wonder if nunzy is a bot.

Note that I wouldn't normally quote a garbage post, but in this case I actually do want others who have blocked this account to see the crap that's still coming in daily.  Blocking only works if you're signed in, and I'm very rarely signed into this account, but I read AI almost every day.

tundraboy said:

With face masks going out of style, the impetus to revive Touch ID has diminished.

elijahg said:

Seems pretty cool, especially cinematic mode, macro and extra battery life. However, IMO the wide angle lens has very little utility vs telephoto. I can't remember the last time I wanted a wider angle view but I regularly zoom in. You can usually step back, but you frequently can't get nearer to something. Anecdotally I regularly see people zooming in, and they just step back if they can't fit everything in the frame.

You can't just step back to get wider scenery shots (pano is cool, but definitely not the same), and it sounds like you've never taken group photos indoors, like at home.  It's kind of strange that you say this, because I've personally witnessed the struggle to squeeze people together literally hundreds of times over the years.  I suspect most people have experienced this.  The wide angle lens also allows you to get more spur of the moment shots where you don't have time to compose and get people to pose, it's just situational.  You can crop later, but you can't add viewing angle later.

Telephoto obviously has great utility as well, but the farther you zoom the more you need to worry about things like stability and light with a tiny camera.  The wide angle just simply works, and also adds great utility.

not_anton said:

Absolutely godsent to all the cyclists, now we can enjoy music riding along the highway or downtown.

gatorguy said:

I'm curious if we permit this by the ISP's when we contract for service? Is it buried somewhere in the TOS? FWIW I don't recall ever seeing one but can't swear I didn't receive it and toss it aside. Any have a copy from their internet service provider? IIRC we had the same issue with our cell service providers who were doing the same thing.

In fact I do.  Comcast’s surveillance policy privacy policy is 14 pages long, so I’ll just cull a few items of interest.

Information We Collect:

- various mundane stuff like billing/payment info
- device IDs and network addresses of equipment
  [presumably IPs and MAC addresses, which can be associated with other WiFi networks you connect with]
- voice commands
- video and audio recordings
* network traffic data
- …video activity data, as well as internet or online information such as web addresses and other activity data…

The video activity data includes, for example, which channels, programs, and advertisements are viewed and for how long…  
[ so they are paying attention if you change channels when advertisements are playing, and which ones ]
…and use of devices like remote controls and tablets…


Location Information
(they collect by various means)


Information Provided by Third Parties
- basic stuff like info from credit reporting agencies
- landlord information
- demographic information (gender, age, census records, etc.)
* location data
* interest data (sports, travel and other recreational activities, shopping preferences…)
* purchase data (public records, loyalty programs, etc.)

We may combine the data we collect from third parties with information in our business records, including information about your use of The Services.  [and more about combining data]


Use of Information
- provide and improve services [etc]
- deliver relevant advertising
- to create measurement and analytics reports
- Sometimes we use information that personally identifies you [and sometimes not]
- lots of mundane uses…
- marketing and advertising

[ bunches of stuff about how they analyze what you watch to completion, how they determine which movies to recommend to individual customers, etc

To Create Analytics and Measurement Reports
We and service providers who work on our behalf [etc, get this data]
[use to determine advertisers’ effectiveness]
We also use these reports to work with academic or research groups, and for other uses that help us develop and fund improvements in services and infrastructure [in other words, anything they want]

Sharing & Disclosures [this is a huge section, just culling a bit]
Service Providers
Comcast Family of Businesses
  they share everything here, of course, and this includes NBCUniversal-branded companies.
…we may disclose your name and address to non-governmental entities, such as charities or businesses, so long as such disclosure does not reveal, directly or indirectly, the extent of your use of the Services or the nature of any transaction you make over our cable system.  [this leaves a ton of wiggle room ; this is one of the few things that a customer can opt out of ]

Other Third Parties
- callerID
- E911
* We may publish and distribute, or cause to be published and distributed, telephone directories in print, on the internet and on disks.  …include subscriber names, addresses, and telephone numbers, without restriction to their use. <—
- …also to directory assistance services
* Once our subscribers names, addresses, and telephone numbers appear in telephone directories or directory assistance, they may be sorted, packaged, repackaged, and made available again in different formats by anyone.  [!!]

I’m tired of typing, but I’m sure you have the feel already.  If you use Comcast, they’re using your viewing data and a whole lot more.

StrangeDays said:

elijahg said:

At $499 vs $329 for the bigger iPad, I don't really see what the point of this is, aside from some barely noticeable CPU speed bumps vs the bigger one. Since you probably own an iPhone anyway, you could just get an iPhone 12/13 Plus for $200 more when you next upgrade, saving ~$200 (or $350 if you need cellular), have just one device rather than two, and you're not that far off iPad mini display size. The only major disadvantage is no pencil on iPhone.

Here's the thing -- it's not about you. Some people prefer a smaller tablet. Not a phone, but a tablet. I enjoyed a mini for many years and preferred it over larger sizes.

Absolutely.  100%.  

I have my own use cases, and I prefer an iPad mini for a lot of things, but it's not about my own use cases either.  It's nice to have options.

gatorguy said:

jeffythequick said:

chasm said:

While I am trying to applaud continued research in wearables and enterprise tools, the fundamental problems with Google Glass remain:
1. Big and presumably weighty battery in the back on one side -- not balanced.
2. Aesthetically unbalanced as well.
3. Google camera recording you at all times.

I'm pretty sure that doctor does not start his exams by saying "by the way, these glasses have a video camera in them that is recording you and sending that information to Google," so … I can only speak for myself, but Google's privacy policies (or lack thereof) and medical exams are a gigantic nope for me, and in general I will need to be asked to opt-in and give explicit permission (which will never happen) before looking at or speaking to anyone wearing Google Glasses.

Exactly...  Most companies I know and have worked at don't really want everything that they own being sent to the mother ship, and that's a huge NFW for corporations that value their data and their intellectual property.

When I had a business and installed servers, and was talking about backup plans (they had RAID 1 and 5 arrays in them), they said, "I'm not worried, the failure systems you have are good enough!" to which I said, "OK, what if someone breaks in and steals your server?  Do you want all of that data gone?  Your insurance will cover the hardware, but how valuable is your data?"

No one, from Intel to IBM to anybody that works with Defense will let these things on their property while they call home as part of their firmware.  Google makes Huawei look like pikers in this regard.

Of course companies don't want everything they own turned over to some other company for their own uses. You're introducing a false dilemma since Google Glass Enterprise doesn't do that, obviously. Proof? They're used in medical offices and hospitals. Did you watch the video the AI article linked?