PShimi
About
- Username
- PShimi
- Joined
- Visits
- 11
- Last Active
- Roles
- member
- Points
- 110
- Badges
- 0
- Posts
- 38
Reactions
-
Apple joins tech companies in trying to halt WeChat ban
GeorgeBMac said:PShimi said:The Chinese government reads EVERYTHING that goes through WeChat. Nothing is too big or too small for them to use against people and suppress them. In China, if you complain about the police taking people's motorbikes (in a WeChat group), an hour to two later they will be knocking at your door - stick you in a steel frame chair (with your hands cuffed to the chair) and interrogate you. They won't beat you, but they will threaten to get your family involved if you don't co-operate, say you were wrong, and tell them how much you love the police.
Let's be clear, the Chinese police is a direct arm of the CCP. The information comes from Tencent, the Chinese firm that developed WeChat (oh, and they copied What's App and a few other apps to do that - then after WeChat was ready, the Chinese government banned What's App in China - just in case you didn't know that - look it up).
All kinds of sensitive information is shared on WeChat across the world - it doesn't have to be the plans or the data to a secret new something or other - but if it is a password to something (people are that dumb) or information indicating that someone (let's call them 'the bate') is friends with someone high up in a company the CCP wish to target, it gives them a way in to someone or something they want to target.
Example: An American firm is owned by a Chinese firm, the 'president' of this 'American' firm introduces him/herself to the bate (the reason for the '' is that the firm is not really American, and the president of the firm is no more than a puppet). After a month or two of exchanging pleasantries, they say that they want to invest in such and such a company (the target). The bate says 'oh I am friends with someone in that company, let me introduce you'. This 'president' is then introduced as 'a friend' of the bate, and as the president of an American company. Long story story short, the target ends up accepting a massive investment from the 'American' company without realising that the company is in fact owned and controlled by the Chinese government - because the person making the deal was a friend of a friend they trusted them. Later on, the Chinese government starts twisting the arms of people in this company via the 'American' company to do what they want them to do. It won't be clear to them that they are being manipulated by a foreign power either.
This scenario is my own writing - I didn't read about this example somewhere. It is simply an example of how soft power works and how the Chinese government creeps in. It is a very simplistic example, but I think you get the idea.
Using this kind of soft power, they then start leaning on their next targets using what they currently have under their thumb.
In real life, there are examples of this soft power at work - just in case you have the notion that this 'soft power' is not a serious threat to a country's democracy. The Canadian broadcaster CBC (Canada's version of the British BBC) is under the thumb of the CCP. It is not overt, but every now and then something happens that makes this pretty clear. Example - a Chinese news paper in Canada written by Chinese people in English (and not owned by the CCP, and who are not under the thumb of the CCP) was delivered en mass to Canadian's doors even to people that didn't subscribe to it. The paper had articles about what the Chinese government had been doing (such as hiding the existence of covid19 when they knew about it at least as early as Nov 2019).
So what does the CBC do? They did a news program interviewing 'outraged' Canadians who were scared of the 'false information' and said how 'racist' the news paper was (a Chinese news paper written by Chinese people about China is apparently racist? Just you wait, this happens a lot - whenever someone does something outside of China that exposes the CCP - it will immediately be labeled as racist - even if it is not racist at all and is an actual fact of something that happened.)
Another example is the raising of the Chinese flag at an Australian police station. An authoritarian regime's flag being raised on a democratic country's soil (look it up). How do you think that happened? Soft power.
WeChat helps them to do this because they can collect information about people (not just meta data, but people's conversations), and they use it.
OK, so why is Apple supporting this?
In China WeChat is one of the main payment systems, along with AliPay.
The US government is saying that not only should WeChat be banned in the US, but that US companies should not use WeChat (is this correct?) I am not sure if this extends to the use of WeChat on iPhones in China to pay for Apps on the App Store (is this how payment of Apps works in China - people use WeChat to pay?)
Could this be why Apple is against this? I am asking this because I don't know, but I have to think there must be a monetary reason why Apple wants to support the CCP.
I'm going to ask the question that may (or may not) be on everyone's minds: Is the CCP pressuring Apple that if they do not support WeChat, the CCP will retaliate against Apple in some way, shape or form?
Because - Apple is all about PRIVACY... right? They drone on and on about it - but we know for a fact that WeChat is NOT about PRIVACY. So how could Apple possibly support this? It does not make any sense.
As for people trying to say that the US should not ban WeChat because they (the US) do bad things too (so we should keep letting China do bad things) - are you serious? I think that's a poor argument. In fact, I think it is disgusting. It's like saying a guy is raping women every week, but it's OK because this other guy is doing the same thing. No one would stand for that, but somehow it's OK to let China do that?
People need to realise that China doesn't only target the US (as in the Canada example above) but many other countries. Australia is in deep trouble with China (in order to understand how WeChat can be used, and Apple's position in all this, we need to understand what China is doing around the world, and how WeChat is part of that):
When Australia wanted to look into the origins of covid19 - to understand how it spread, and how to stop that kind of thing happening again (this is how science works, and it is perfectly logical and reasonable to do this) the Chinese government tried to stop them, and claimed they were being racist (this information is freely available, I suggest you read about it if you haven't already).
Why would they try to stop someone doing scientific study on a virus that has caused hundreds of thousands of lost lives? Understanding the history of a virus, knowing how it has evolved up till now, helps us understand how it may change in the future. This is standard scientific practice. [EDIT: They did this because they want to claim that the virus did not originate in China, and therefore is not China's responsibility. Scientific data on the virus' origins can pin point when and where it emerged, and the CCP do not want this.]
They told Australia that if it persisted, China would stop importing Australian wine and other things in retaliation. A Chinese news paper (owned and run by the CCP) called Australia 'gum stuck on China's shoe that needs to be scraped off with a stone' or words to that effect (again, look it up). And this comment is interesting in the light of the fact that China owns vital infrastructure, including Port Darwin, and an airport in Australia. They also have a Chinese CCP member in Australia's government (the member of parliament admitted to this, but claimed they did not work for the CCP anymore - which is highly doubtful).
They are constantly pushing other countries around - using land and property they own, but also information they have gleaned from WeChat, which is merely one of many tools used by the Chinese government.
Why would Apple want to support this?
As an aside (if this part is deemed too political please inform me and I will edit it out - but I do think people need to understand this):
Covid19 was renamed from the Wuhan virus by the WHO under pressure of the CCP. Why would they do this? Well, not long after China's own CDC (their own experts) said the virus originated in Wuhan, China, the CCP started saying the virus came from Italy (and they also tried saying Japan). It didn't go down well with the Chinese people they tested this story on. This was then morphed into it being from the USA - which apparently did go down well, because (you US citizens know this right?) your nation is being painted as releasing the Wuhan virus (sorry, Covid19) into China to the Chinese people.
I.e. This is not a Chinese problem, and therefore not the problem of the CCP - so in the Chinese people's eyes, the CCP did nothing wrong after all, and it is all America's fault.
And, by calling the virus Covid19 rather than the Wuhan virus (which is the point I am making here), it's clearly 'not from China' and the CCP has 'no culpability for hiding knowledge of the virus and allowing it to spread'. Of course, they do have knowledge that flights internal to China were banned to stop the spread (because they banned them), but international flights were encouraged (because they encouraged them) and yes, this is FACT not some nonsense tin foil conspiracy nut theory. It is absolute fact, and absolutely unforgivable. But no one seems to care.
A Chinese reporter in the USA called Simone Gao did an amazing documentary on this titled 'Coverup of the Century' (you can find it on Youtube). If you have any doubt that WeChat should be banned after seeing this very well researched documentary then there truly is no hope (a common comment on this documentary is that it is what unbiased, free press journalism, is supposed to be). I have to agree.
At the end of the day, Apple is leaving a seriously bad taste in my mouth.
I have never ever thought to use the phase "Steve would not do this" but I think I would be absolutely correct in saying "Steve would not do this". What is Tim Cook doing to Apple, and via Apple to the USA on behalf of (it seems, I have no proof, but having thought about what I have written above) the CCP.
Edited to clarify why China is blocking Australia - see [EDIT] above.Some actual evidence would be nice. All the Trumpers have is conspiracy theories used to distract from their own corruption and mismanagement..... So far, their evidence consists of: "We say China is bad. Therefor everything they do is bad. Even if it isn't."Every corrupt autocracy needs an enemy to distract from their own corruption. And, in this case, in their politicized zeal, they transitioned from supposedly protecting American business and jobs to destroying them.
Sure.
The below contains links that @GeorgeBMac has requested in support of what I wrote in a previous post. Most (but not all) of them do not talk about WeChat which is really what this thread is supposed to be about, but they do support my comments about what China has been doing, and in that vein, how Apple supporting the CCP over WeChat does not make any sense.
If you are busy and do not have time to look through all the below material, I would HIGHLY suggest you watch this - directly mentions WeChat various times:
Simone Gao documentary, 1 hour long, viewed over 2 million times - discusses how China hid the virus and lied about human to human transmission, including monitoring people via WeChat and using it as a tool of suppression:
Very interesting video that covers various topics but focuses on Canada's CBC extremely worrying pro CCP anti democratic news stories calling Chinese journalists racist against China when they were talking about the Chinese Government (i.e. it would be like saying someone was racist for saying the Nazis were bad - when the Nazis are not a race - a government is NOT a race) and attempts to conflate the CCP with the Chinese people which is again helping the CCP:
How China is gobbling up millions of acres of land, vital infrastructure and companies in Australia
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7725675/How-China-owns-Australia-buying-infrastructure-land-water.html
How China's CCP has taken control of Port Darwin in Australia for 99 years, a very important and strategic port:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-12/why-did-northern-territory-sell-darwin-port-to-china-what-risk/10755720
Google search: australia gum on shoe china
About 3,850,000 results
Suggest this article first:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/29/chewing-gum-stuck-on-the-sole-of-our-shoes-the-china-australia-war-of-words-timeline
Google: Australia threatened by China virus
China's government attempting to use economic coercion to stop Australia looking into virus further. This is in support of the comments I made about how the CCP is trying to remove the link between the CCP and the Virus:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8264031/Chinese-ambassador-threatens-destroy-Australias-economy-coronavirus-probe.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-australia-china/australia-rejects-chinese-economic-coercion-threat-amid-planned-coronavirus-probe-idUSKCN2290Z6
Connected with the above story:
'You will feel more pain': China's chilling new threat to devastate Australia's economy if it supports America in a 'new Cold War' (mentions the above stories)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8353231/China-warns-Australia-feel-pain-economic-punishment.html
March earlier this year (well before the US was in the throws of Covid19): China Will Do Anything to Deflect Coronavirus Blame - points to Italy as the starting point of Covid19:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/30/beijing-coronavirus-response-see-what-sticks-propaganda-blame-ccp-xi-jinping/
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3903271
As you can see, the information is out there. You do not need to look very far to find it. It is not as if you have to join some secret club, have a special handshake, and follow some mumbo jumbo.
Using WeChat for business communication is a serious danger not only for businesses but freedom in general. Ignoring this threat is like walking on a bed of snakes and pretending that none of them will bite you.
On to @GeorgeBMac later comments on Trump:
I said nothing about Trump. I find it strange how people often attempt to inject something about Trump when talking about China's CCP. I don't live in the US. I am not American. I do not really follow American politics. China affects the ENTIRE WORLD. How can you not understand that? This is NOT about Trump.
That said, your comment about protecting American businesses - well China is constantly draining information from around the world and using it to it's own ends. IP theft is a thing, it is ABSOLUTELY real.
China's Harbin Z 20 is a virtual clone of America's Black Hawk.
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-tested-black-hawk-copy-z20-helicopter-on-advanced-destroyer-2019-7?r=US&IR=T
South China morning post called "China’s Z-20 Black Hawk lookalike"
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3033088/chinas-z-20-black-hawk-lookalike-and-flying-saucer-concept
A bunch of fighter jets that are near copies:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/g23303922/china-copycat-air-force/
The point is - these are copied from the militaries of the world - who are 'well protected' and yet the CCP still manages to steal their data. Compared to this, stealing information from businesses is child's play, and WeChat makes this even easier.
So again, what is Apple doing!? It makes NO sense.
-
How to pick the best monitor for studying and working from home
If you have a laptop but no keyboard or mouse, the very first thing you should do is get a keyboard and mouse, and move your laptop a little further away from you to reduce neck strain.
The next thing to do is elevate your laptop. Do this on the cheap with a stack of books, or buy a foldable laptop stand. I would highly recommend the Nexstand laptop stand. You can elevate your laptop to various heights, and get the top of your laptop screen just below your eyeline so that your posture and neck are straight. Nexstand stand is cheap, light, compact and portable.
As regards to monitors, if you are only temporarily going to use a monitor at home, a cheap monitor might be OK, but I personally would (and did) prefer something that I can get good life out of. Acer, Asus and even LG are all pretty questionable. Most Acer monitors at work (all cheap 23.x inch) have broken over the years. Asus seems to be pot luck in terms of getting a good unit or not (just read Amazon reviews). having said that, we have around 6 Asus 24" Proart and they have worked fine (not 4K).
If you want to get something decent, but on a budget, you cannot go wrong with Dell. Dell as a company is not the first company that comes to mind when it comes to quality, but without doubt their monitors are pretty good. As for size, if you already have a 15 or 16 inch monitor, a 23 inch isn't going to help that much more. I would highly recommend a 27 incher. Further, it's 2020 already, so go 4K - you won't regret it - and you can run the monitor in HiDPI (or retina mode if you will).
If you have an older Mac Book Pro - be sure to check it supports 4K. The 15 inch Mac Pro late 2013 with dedicated graphics will work - mini display port to Display Port cable is needed (HDMI does not support 4K @60p prior to HDMI ver.2) - I was using this set up with an Eizo EV3237 a 32 inch 4K monitor from 2015 that cost around $2000. Excellent monitor, no problems over thousands of hours of use. The newer version is EV3285 has USB Type C input and costs around the same, but has a lower colour gamut for some reason.
I have an older NEC graphics monitor from 2008 that still works. An LG 27 inch that cost around $600 but has uniformity and colour issues - used as an emergency monitor, and another LG (exactly the same model bought a month later) that is broken - scrambled screen. LG's more expensive monitors tend to be better tuned and tested, but I feel that other brands like NEC / Eizo that do in fact use LG panels have much better driver electronics, and tend to get the better monitor batches from LG. Eizo certainly really go to town to profiling and testing their monitors (which is the reason they cost more). A 5 year guarantee is pretty good.
For home I ended up getting an Eizo ColorEdge CS2740 - a new model that came out early this year. It's a 27 inch 4K professional graphics monitor, USB Type C - comes with a USB C to USB C cable, and charges my laptop (2018 15 inch mac book pro). This monitor is colour accurate, the uniformity of the screen is the best I have ever seen. 16 bit LUT 10 bit panel. It is also, quite unusually, software upgradeable (with additional colour tables, I forget the details, but it's the sort of thing you would do for colour grading and that video work). While my work monitor is 32 inch, it felt just a little big. I find 4K on the new 27 inch (at 3008x1692) in HiDPI mode perfect.
Sorry if this ended up looking like an Eizo endorsement. If you are strapped for cash, do get a Dell, they're pretty good (in the office we have 10x 27 inch 2K and 1x 27 inch 4K which have all been perfect). -
Apple's A12Z Bionic chip could be a re-binned A12X
-
Apple's A12Z Bionic chip could be a re-binned A12X
A12X is TSMC's N7 process (fact)
A12Z is TSMC's N7P process (educated guess)
N7P is 10% more efficient for power use.
The 2020 iPad Pro has a smaller battery, an SoC at the same frequency, yet an additional GPU core turned on - but can run longer at top frequencies (Apple said so) and has the same run time (Apple said so).
This means it must be a newer process, not just better binning.
N7P process is already used for the A13 chip - it's not some special delux process.
The A14X is likely to be N5 for example.
As for RAM - it is not part of the SoC Eriamjh.
-
2020 iPad Pro models feature 6GB of RAM, U1 chip across the board
I too am wondering about this. Despite the time between updates of the iPad Pro - I had expected the update in Sept/Oct this year.
Could it be that Apple rushed out an update now for all those who suddenly have to work from home? Maybe (but unlikely).
It is suspect that the keyboard will not be ready till May though. As if they were not originally planning to release it that early.
Thoughts of the iPad3 come to mind. I remember the iPad 2 came out, and it felt like an improved though warmed over iPad 1. I knew the retina display would be coming, so gave it a pass. Eventually it did - in the form of the ipad 3 - with it's massive back and larger battery. It was the iPad everyone had been waiting for. Six months later, along came the iPad 4 - thinner, lighter, faster.
I would not be surprised if a new version of the iPad pro comes out later this year with a better CPU.
On another topic - how do you all feel about the price? iPad Pro 12.9 + 512GB upgrade + wifi/cell + keyboard + pencil = ¥220,000 (about $2060).
MacBook Air 2020 + i7 1.2Ghz 10th Gen + 512GB + 16GB = ¥170,000 (about $1600)
Interestingly, Mac Book Pro 13 2019 i7 1.7GHz 8th gen + 512GB + 16GB = ¥230,000 (about $2150)
I remember when the iPad was significantly cheaper than a laptop. It's no longer the case (for iPad Pro).
It makes it a difficult proposition to sink that much money into a machine that has the limitations of the iPad (and believe me, I do want one - I've been waiting for this update to buy the 12.9 model).
The Air config above is likely exactly the same in terms of overall performance to the Mac Book Pro. The Air is not really 'lighter' (something like 80 grams) it is not really smaller (the volume is about the same); the screen is almost as good as the pro, the keyboard is better than the pro (I'm sure a Pro update is in the works), better battery life, though you lose the touchbar. I wonder if $550 is really worth the difference to most people?
(For those that wonder about the CPU difference):
The Air i7 1.2GHz option is likely the i7-10510Y (though the turbo boost speed 4.5 single core, 3.2 all cores does not match Apple's 3.8 spec - it's not clear what Apple's spec really means - single core, or all cores, or two cores?)
The Pro i7 1.7Ghz option is likely the i7-8557U (passmark 10470)
Can't find any benchmarks on the i7-10510Y even though it came out in Aug 2019... odd. The memory bus speed of the Air i7 1.2GHz is lower than the pros, but the generation is 10 vs 8, so the overall performance is likely not too different that it would make any meaningful difference in day to day use (I have no stats to back this up, because I can't find any, it's just a hunch).