j2fusion

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j2fusion
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  • Facebook blocks news sites, charities, government pages in Australia

    j2fusionj2fusion
    macmojo said:

    I’m Australian and we have a right wing government here, many of whose members are big Trump fans with the usual science-deriding, climate change denying, anti-minority etc.. positions.

    The primary news organisation in Australia that backs them is News Corp (of your American Fox News infamy). Here in Australia, they’re losing money hand over fist and Murdoch has long complained about Google & FB eating up "his" ad revenue. The government is concerned that their major backer’s future is clouded so decided to implement this law as a wealth transfer from FB & Google to News (and other major outlets that also happen to be friendly to the government such as Nine/Fairfax and Seven West Media.).

    Its basically extortion, FB & Google have no choice but to link to the News sites and pay the news sites for the privilege. The amount to be determined by a government appointed arbitrator. The news companies were claiming billions for their "costs", not the value they actually provide. They're demanding the right to post the articles on FB and that FB MUST PAY THEM for the privilege! As much as I hate FB, no business can operate under these conditions. In fact, they'd be insane to.

    The news organisations here are so arrogant and entitled that they’re outraged at FB and demanding it reinstate them!

    Also, no one knows more about internet traffic than FB and Google. Their ad tracking networks are all pervasive and they track even when you’re not logged into them or even a member! Can’t wait for iOS 14.5 to stop that, but this means that they know exactly the kind of traffic flows that occur and are able to predict what will happen from this action.

    To cut a long story short, FB knows that this will not materially affect them here in Australia, but it will affect the news organisations.

    This is exactly how it works here in the US.  For example, our cable providers have to pay the local stations to carry them.  That's why, every once in a while, the cable provider  will ask for more money than the local station (usually owned by a big conglomerate) will pay and the provider will will drop the station until they come to terms.  I can see both sides of the issue as one side sees the delivery service (Facebook, Cable Providers) as making money on their content while the other side sees it as their delivery service allows the content provider (local stations) to reach a much wider audience. It does appear that some of these tech companies (I'm looking at you Facebook) seem to have an incredible amount of power. 

    Disclaimer: I am no fan of Facebook and use it only when necessary and would live an alternative.
    watto_cobra

  • Google's reluctance to add privacy labels to Gmail, other apps might put users at risk [u]...

    j2fusionj2fusion
    Isn’t changing the server side security warning like putting black tape over your lit check engine light?  Meanwhile, we have the North Dakota Senate is considering requiring apps to be loaded from any App Store.  Do you think other App Stores would be as concerned about privacy?
    watto_cobra

  • Lawsuit claims Face ID, other iPhone camera features infringe on patents

    j2fusionj2fusion
    It drives me crazy that years after a device is introduced someone files a patent infringement suit. I there should be a time limit to file a suit. When was the iPhone X introduced?  You mean to tell me Dr. Pryor didn’t know it was infringed or it took all this time, even with negotiations, to file the suit?  Are companies supposed to look over their shoulder for twenty years?
    watto_cobra

  • Epic Games takes Apple dispute to Australian market regulator

    j2fusionj2fusion
    darkvader said:
    sdw2001 said:
    As much as I am deeply concerned about the power of Big Tech (the recent actions of FB, Twitter, AWS, Google  and Apple stand out), I continue to think Epic doesn’t have a leg to stand on here.  The developer clearly and intentionally violated the terms of service to make a point. As the article stated, they baited Apple into taking the action they did.  I don’t see how they are going to make a credible argument that Apple’s system has “driven up prices.“  Apple does not have a monopoly on smart phones. They are a major market player and they have their own system. If you want to use their system, you’re going to play by their rules.  They will claim, with quite a bit of credibility, that their system protects users, overall quality, and has led to a massive number of relatively low cost apps.  Is the developer actually going to argue that they have a *right* to have their software installed on Apple’s product? Like it’s some kind of public service or common carrier?  That argument has a lot more merit for the social media companies, and we’re not even there yet with them.  I continue to believe this is going nowhere for Epic.  

    Apple absolutely has a monopoly in a major segment of the market. 

    And it's not Apple's iPhone, it's MY iPhone.  All Apple needs to do is add a preference to allow installing apps from any source of my choosing.  They can put whatever dire warning on it that they'd like, they just don't have the right to keep me from flipping that switch.

    Epic are doing this for their own greedy reasons, but they are still heroes for doing it.
    And if Apple added that switch and you completely screwed up your phone and had your identity stolen because you installed malware from a shady App Store, would you expect Apple to fix it? Would you sue Apple because they are responsible for YOUR phone’s functioning and didn’t  stop malware from the other store?  Apple has every reason to run the store the way they do and if you don’t like it, go with another operating system. 
    JinTechDogpersonwatto_cobra

  • macOS Big Sur 11.2 now available with Bluetooth fixes for M1 Macs

    j2fusionj2fusion
    Just went to install the update on my M1 Mac Mini and during the update, the video went to snow with a clicking audio. Waited about 5 minutes and nothing changed so I forced a power off. Restarted the Mac and the install seemed to continue and completed.  It now shows 11.2 but I’m not sure I trust an update that had to be hard halted.  Might just reinstall the operating system from scratch. I’d be curious to see if anyone else had this issue. 
    watto_cobra