gatorguy

mike1 said:

In my case, the one thing that has always been my highest priority is color accuracy, including skin tones. This is where I have felt that iPhones always shined and it received the highest score in this category.

While Apple has long been excellent with overall color, traditionally iPhone photo processing algorithms have not properly rendered accurate skin tones unless the subject was a Caucasian. Other cameras, one example being the Pixels, have been doing noticeably better the past few years. Did that change with the series 16? I hadn't seen that particular test yet. 

ihatescreennames said:

spheric said:

Hedware said:

Apple should have been paying tax on the earnings it made in each individual nation instead of making its non-US earnings disappear into a tax haven. Apple can say all it likes about paying tax according to local tax laws, but it did its best to hide earnings in each country by using basically a post box in Ireland. 

They were using a construct specifically codified into Irish law to encourage multinational megacorps to build international headquarters there. 

They did exactly what the law suggested they should do. 

That law, of course, has long been changed, since it was found to unfairly advantage the Irish economy over the rest of Europe — which is why gains made in this way need to be paid back. 

QED. 

Seems odd. If I’m reading this correctly, Ireland set up a law that encouraged large companies to build headquarters there and pay a lower tax on earnings. At a later date the law was deemed unfair to counties that aren’t Ireland so now any tax breaks Ireland gave out need to be undone and the companies need to pay up. 

How is that different than being told, “Hey, we know you have been driving at this higher rate of speed through this area but now we feel that the posted limit is wrong and we lowered it so now you need to pay fines on what we feel the speed limit should have been all along”?

This was not about the tax rate available to every other Irish company. Yes that would be fair. This tax case had to do with a unique and undisclosed long-term corporate tax arrangement made with Apple's 2 subsidiaries, a deal NOT available to any other Irish company. Had the offer been open to anyone the lawsuit may never have happened. 

rob53 said:

"Apple could solve these issues by using security and other proprietary "add-ons" in iMessage the way others like WhatsApp, Signal, and Google do." Why should Apple add add-ons to Messages when Messages works just fine? Messages isn't the problem, Google garbage is the problem. It will constantly be loaded with security issues because Google doesn't really care about security, it only cares about grabbing personal information and selling it to the highest bidder. Everyone knows this is Google's business model and it will never change.

Google's E2EE-on top RCS is just as secure and private as Apple's own E2EE iMessage. Google cannot access those messages, nor can anyone else, carriers and governments included. It's the version of RCS Apple has chosen for cross-platform messages, the most basic version the Chinese will accept (2.4), that leads to the security issues.
That will get fixed when GSMA finishes adoption of Google's work with the Message Layer Security (MLS) protocol into the RCS standard, removing any reason for Apple to delay integration, except for Apple business reasons which may include China. Google has added their support for MLS-encrypted RCS on the Android side. 

Ok, interesting....

The GSMA, responsible for the RCS Universal Profile, has announced Google is working with them to bring E2EE to iPhone owners too. 

The governing GSMA body is saying the “next major milestone is for the RCS Universal Profile to add important user protections such as interoperable end-to-end encryption.” 

Quote: “This will be the first deployment of standardized, interoperable messaging encryption between different computing platforms, addressing significant technical challenges such as key federation and cryptographically-enforced group membership. Additionally, users will benefit from stronger protections from scam, fraud, and other security threats.”

— GSMA

Google added that it’s “working with the broader ecosystem to bring cross-platform E2EE to RCS chats as soon as possible.” The Google Messages app on Android today offers its own E2E encryption for RCS1:1 and group conversations that does not extend to iPhone chats.

“We’re proud to have offered end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in Google Messages with RCS since 2020. We believe that E2EE is a critical component of secure messaging, and we have been working with the broader ecosystem to bring cross-platform E2EE to RCS chats as soon as possible. Google is committed to providing a secure and private messaging experience for users, and we remain dedicated to making E2EE standard for all RCS users regardless of the platform.”

Good move Google, MLS with secure and private messaging cross-platform. It might help explain why Apple seems to have put so little effort in their RCS support. Enough to appease the Chinese, but not much further than that. 

Apple has now asked that the lawsuit be dropped, and immediately. They worry that by continuing they risk exposing Apple secrets, which would cause more harm to them than anything they have to fear from NSO. 

EDIT: AppleInsider now has their own story up here:
https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/237595/apple-files-to-stop-nso-group-lawsuit-over-fears-of-data-leaks#latest