CloudTalkin

hexclock said:

omasou said:

Wish the cord used a USB-C interface to connect to the battery. Then third-party batteries or multiple Apple batteries could be use.

Or perhaps that's the point, maybe the battery has to meet certain specs?

Either way seems strange to have a fixed cord length...yeah it may reach my pocket but can I put it on the desk? Actually, the more I think about it this would be a good use case for the magsafe charging connector on the battery side.

I wonder if they thought that using MagSafe or a usb-c connection might make the unit prone to too many unwanted disconnects, since the cord could easily be snagged on something if the user was moving around. Or maybe placing a magnetic coil right where your brain is located wasn’t a good idea. 

We stick electromagnets in our ears every time we put in AirPods or any other buds.  The cord can be snagged now and with a permanently connected cable, the chances are greater the cord or the batter can be damaged.  As it stands now, if the cord or the battery battery get damgaged the entire unit has to be replaced.  Since this is pre-release hardware, I'm hoping the final product will have a USB-C connection allowing 3rd party power. It would also make it better for replacing potentially damaged cords or batteries.

AppleZulu said:

I’m sitting here with an iPhone with the iTunes Store app. I just searched up some relatively obscure items (e.g. local music from over a decade ago, so probably not searched by anyone else recently), and they came up instantly. I don’t understand the commentary in the article here suggesting the iTunes Store is slow, difficult to find or non-functional. As far as I can tell, it’s all still right there. 

Do you have the same ease on a Mac?  The article is describing difficulties with the iTunes Store on a computer, not a phone. Different scenario.

danox said:

Let’s get this out of the way there is no such thing as a wireless charger right now today, one day, you will be able to carry around your iPhone or some other device set it on the table, take it with you on the trip do nothing and it will charge as if by magic that’s wireless, that day is not here yet. It will be available to the public in 50 years or 100 years and the people in the future will look back and laugh.

And that Tesla charger looks as bad as the dashboard in a Tesla, or the Ribbons UI in Windows, don’t waste any money trying to design a smart phone, Elon.

Well you're wrong, so let's get that out of the way.  The commonly accepted, and understood, meaning of wireless charging is charging the device without being directly connected to the charging brick via cable.  Even if we don't employ the commonly accepted understanding, you'd still be wrong.  Wireless charging as we know it today is still distance charging; albeit short distance called near-field charging. It's the reason phones can be wirelessly charged while in cases.  It's also a part of the Qi standard.  A cursory search of the interwebs will provide you with the max distances devices can be from the charging surface and still receive a charge.  Mid-field and far-field charging are in less practical stages of commercial development.  Still, the point remains. We have wireless charging already.

rob53 said:

Article talks about national security investigations. It doesn’t mention normal court requests using legal warrants. How many of the aforementioned percentages are for NS investigations? We all know the FBI has spied on US citizens since before it was the FBI. How many NSA and CIA (plus agencies we don’t know of) have contributed to these unconstitutional requests and demands? It would be nice if our government trusted us but trust starts with its citizens and foreign guests. Until people stop lying and act honestly we unfortunately need to investigate the criminals. 

Don’t commit a crime if you can’t handle the time (or have enough money to buy your way out of jail).

Each company's transparency report detail the answers to the questions you're asking.  I linked them above for the truly curious.

DAalseth said:

gatorguy said:

"...According to new research by VPN provider SurfShark, the US government makes the most requests for user data from Big Tech companies than any other jurisdiction in the world. The company analyzed data requests to Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft by “government agencies of 177 countries between 2013 and 2021.”

The US came in first with 2,451,077 account requests, more than four times the number of Germany, the number two country on the list. In fact, the US made more requests than all of Europe, including the UK, which collectively came in under 2 million."

"The report also sheds light on which companies comply the most versus which ones push back against requests. For all of its privacy-oriented marketing — “what happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone” — Apple complies with data requests more than any other company, handing it over 82% of the time.

In contrast, Meta complies 72% of the time, and Google does 71% of the time. Microsoft, on the other hand, pushes back the most among Big Tech companies, only handing data over 68% of the time."

82% of what? Do they have 1/10 the requests? The percentage doesn’t tell you anything until you know how many requests that were made to each organization. 82% out of 100 requests is not a big deal if meta and Google each get a million. 

Also your source is SurfShark. They have a vested interest in making the numbers look as bad as they can in order to get more subscribers. Better to wait for numbers from some group that isn’t going to profit from them. 

Apple complying with over 80% of government requests has been a known fact for years.  It's been a known fact because Apple themselves publishes it twice a year in their Transparency Report.  So does everyone else.  Tons of companies publish their privacy reports.  Again, it's nothing new.  Apple has been publishing this information for nearly a decade... and yes, they comply with the vast majority of the requests.  Pretty much just like every other mega-corp.  

https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/us.html

https://transparencyreport.google.com/?hl=en

https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacy-report-april2022

https://transparency.fb.com/data/