mnbob1

levi said:

pigybank said:

No offense, and I'm not at all a Trump supporter, but if that is who the American people choose, then that is who they choose. This is especially frightening if people within the government themselves are looking to interfere in the electoral process. Why don't Tim and these big tech companies plot to help a candidate they support win instead?

Party leaders, special interests and large donors looking to influence an election- this only happens every election cycle. Nothing illegal about it. The fact that this is new to some voters is more concerning. This is why some support campaign finance reform. Money equals speech, and those with the most, have the most say.

Tim Cook and Apple Corporation are not interested in supporting a Republican candidate. Mr. Cook was there to discuss the issues of security and encryption and probably trying to gain some Republican allies in that fight. The headline is misleading and makes it sound like Mr. Cook organized this or something. The original Huffington Post title was "At Secretive Meeting, Tech CEOs And Top Republicans Commiserate, Plot to Stop Trump" with a subheading of "Karl Rove shared focus group findings that give hope to the GOP establishment". The article notes only that he attended and that he had a major disagreement with Sen. Tom Cotton who is a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. We should all remember that to be on a House or Senate committee requires no previous experience and assignments come from longevity and cronyism. (a good example would be Michele Bachman serving on the house intelligence committee). Cotton will never leave an opportunity for publicity, good or bad, behind and often creates the situation by spouting off without any knowledge of a particular subject.

J. Edgar Hoover established the precedent of being above all laws and rights. Congress and other elected officials looked the other way because Hoover had dirt on all of them whether true or created for the destruction of their political careers. He also had dirt on SCOTUS justices, staffers in all levels of government as well as family. He kept these in private files in his home and they somehow came up missing and probably destroyed after his death. The conspiracy theorists feel that there is a possibility that his connections allowed him to arrange for the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK. All of which were a thorn in his side, especially RFK while he was Attorney General in JFK's administration. Hoover led the FBI and it's predecessor, Bureau of Investigation for 48 years. After his death congress passed a resolution to limit the term of the Director of the FBI to 10 years in order to avoid another renegade director.

When the so-called "Patriot Act" was passed after 9/11 it has allowed the bounds of the the FBI and the entire Justice Department to run wild and be secretive. This situation with Apple is a new first in that the director is using the public and social media in order to besmirch Apple's reputation and use it to require tech companies to compromise their device encryption for their use with the guise of being able to hunt terrorists more effectively. I wonder how many Federal judges they had to approach in order to get this order. Or perhaps they have some dirt on Judge Pym.

The far reaching implications not only violate the privacy of American citizens but leaders of other countries are watching this closely. If the FBI is successful there is no limit to what could happen to the people of countries like China, Russia, most of the Middle East and Africa, India, etc.

The interesting thing is that Congress has tried to amend the Telecommunications Act of 1934 to require better security of smartphones by manufacturers and carriers by implementing a "remote kill switch" in order to decrease smartphone thefts. Apple complied starting with iOS 7 and implemented the extra security to create a timer and an option to erase the contents of an iPhone for too many failed login attempts on the actual device since the remote find and erase function would only work if the iPhone owner activated it before the thief had already modified the phones unique identifier (the amendment only requires the "remote kill switch" function). Interestingly this is the functionality that the FBI is trying to circumvent.

From an article by Gerry Smith, technology writer at the Huffington Post. Dated 6/19/2014

"The kill switch is working.

That was the message Thursday from law enforcement officials who said new statistics show iPhone thefts have declined since Apple introduced a stronger anti-theft feature in September. They said criminals are responding by targeting people who carry other smartphones that don't have a similar feature to disable them if stolen.

In New York City, robberies involving Apple products fell 19 percent during the first five months of this year compared with the same period the year before, officials said. Meanwhile, violent robberies targeting people with Samsung smartphones, many of which do not have a kill switch, increased more than 40 percent in the city during that same period.

In San Francisco, iPhone robberies fell 38 percent during the six months after Apple released its new anti-theft feature, compared to the six months before its release, officials said. Robberies of Samsung devices increased 12 percent during that time, they said. In the corresponding period of time in London, iPhone robberies declined by 24 percent while Samsung thefts increased by 3 percent.

The new statistics were released by the Secure Our Smartphones Initiative, a coalition of mayors, attorneys general, district attorneys and high-level police officials. While the statistics may prove that Apple's kill switch is deterring thieves, smartphone thefts can fluctuate for other reasons. San Francisco police have found that iPhone thefts tend to rise in the summer, perhaps because more people are spending time outdoors with their devices.

Apple introduced its anti-theft feature, Activation Lock, last fall as part of the latest iPhone operating system, iOS7. It shuts down the phone when a thief attempts to turn off the Find My iPhone program that locates missing devices. Consumers must still turn on the feature, and police have expressed concern that many iPhone owners won't do it."

RealDonaldJTrump said:

The FBI can do what it wants. It is above the U.S. Constitution and knows how to circumvent it by using The Writs Act. Very clever and now Apple will be the FBI's technical support by proxy. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are next. Open your back doors or I'll brute force my way in.

J. Edgar Hoover established the precedent of being above all laws and rights. Congress and other elected officials looked the other way because Hoover had dirt on all of them whether true or created for the destruction of their political careers. He also had dirt on SCOTUS justices, staffers in all levels of government as well as family. He kept these in private files in his home and they somehow came up missing and probably destroyed after his death. The conspiracy theorists feel that there is a possibility that his connections allowed him to arrange for the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK. All of which were a thorn in his side, especially RFK while he was Attorney General in JFK's administration. Hoover led the FBI and it's predecessor, Bureau of Investigation for 48 years. After his death congress passed a resolution to limit the term of the Director of the FBI to 10 years in order to avoid another renegade director.

michaeloftroy said:

Is no one else thinking the timing of this 'leak' is very convenient given Apple's current predicament with the FBI?

I think you are delusional. What does this have to do with the FBI situation? You need to go into politics so you can align yourself with the other Washington elected congressmen and presidential candidates in thinking Apple is turning a tragedy into a marketing campaign. 

Competition is always a great thing. I'm glad that the Samsung and LG phones have improved their phones with newer technology for many functions of their flagship phones. The cameras in particular are very impressive. By having this kind of competition it raises the bar for Apple to keep innovating the iPhone lineup. It also happens in the reverse, Apple innovates and the competition in return must improve. All the competition, Apple, Samsung and LG as well as other high end phones, keep improving because they are competing for customers at the high end of the market. Competition is a good thing.

I am an iPhone user and have been since the iPhone 3g. I like the iOS interface. I have had Android tablets and personally don't care for how it's laid out and had to deal with bloatware that can't be removed. Others like Android and Google continues to improve the underlying layers.

One problem that Samsung and LG have is they are not making as much profit from their phones where Apple continues to lead in that area. The computer and smartphone company graveyard is full of those that made decisions to sacrifice profit in return for increased market share. However Samsung and LG are huge corporate conglomerates with different divisions. Some divisions are extremely profitable and some not so much. The corporations as a whole can absorb all of the divisions and it will allow each one to function. Several Samsung divisions make a huge amount of money from Apple by manufacturing processors and displays for the iPhone, Apple Watch and iPads. Unfortunately for Samsung Apple continues to move toward other companies for those components however it won't affect the smartphone division.

The most important thing is choice from competitors. Without it the technology wouldn't be where it's at today.