vvswarup

holyone said:

chaicka said:

Germany was one of the countries which started an encryption race a decade or longer ago. German firms were using 4096-bit encryption even for firms' WAN traffic that goes across borders.

What a reversal change in direction now

You know the problem isn't that governments are calling for access to encryption right now, the problem is when a massive heatwranching terror event happens at some point in the future and in the descending panic,rage and unfathomed emotional distress people are manipulated into an irrational dessision that will not be very easy to reverse.

I think tech companies like Apple should actively be seeking a global legislative resolution that will finalize the issue now and forevermore and insure that no matter what happens in the future no matter what horrors await that declarations made now can never be reversed or abandoned.

Bad decisions are easy to make when under duress

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act

Most governments are elected. If that's the case and governments are able to get away with manipulating people into making irrational decisions, that's the people's fault for being uninformed. There is no way Apple can seek some kind of a global legislative solution that can never be reversed or abandoned. As long as enough people say, "I have nothing to hide," we run the risk of being manipulated into handing over our rights. 

In the wake of the FBI's attempt to get Apple build what would have been tantamount to a backdoor, I saw comment after comment on news stories calling Apple a supporter of terrorism. I saw comment after comment calling for Tim Cook to be jailed for every crime ranging from contempt of court to obstruction of justice and even all they way up to treason. If American citizens don't know their own Constitution enough for it to be obvious that Tim Cook committed no crimes by having Apple appeal the court order, least of all treason, then it should come as no surprise that the government has time and time again gotten away with manipulating the populace into making irrational decisions in the wake of terror attacks.

The good news is that in the recent news stories coming out regarding the encryption fight, there are fewer comments in support of the government's position. This is an encouraging sign. It's a sign that the populace realizes the encryption has far more uses than keeping the government out of our information, which is an important function. 

peteo said:

godofbiscuits said:

Does anyone have solid, common, ongoing uses for VR? It gives good demo, but unlike voice UX or even AR, VR seems to be about a decade too soon.

Yes games. With room scale and motion controls there's no going back to flat games for me. Also there are allot of great experiences that you only would run maybe 2-3 times. which is fine. Its like going to another country, most you only visit once or twice in a life time.

100% worth it for me, but to get to main stream price needs to come down. Playstation VR price is getting close.. 

Sure, games are definitely an application of VR but in order to provide a good gaming experience, the phone needs to have good internals. I don't think low-end Android devices are going to cut it. You have manufacturers trying to make a profit in a price-conscious market. There's little motivation for manufacturers operating in this kind of a market to use high-quality components needed to provide a good gaming experience. 

Google's business model is based on driving people towards Google services in order to generate ad revenue. It makes no difference to Google if a user owns a low-end or high-end Android phone as long as they're using Google's services. If that's the case, what incentive does Google have to make high-end devices a priority in order to drive the use of a VR feature?

brakken said:

rogifan_new said:

And yet my Twitter feed is full of tech writers and Apple bloggers talking about how great I/O was and how Apple really has to bring it at WWDC. The last ATP podcast was all doom and gloom, and Marco even has a post up now comparing Apple to Blackberry. https://marco.org/2016/05/21/avoiding-blackberrys-fate

I wish there was some place we could get decent Apple reporting that wasn't either D&G silly panic or everything's great Apple's the best they make all the $$$ blah blah blah. If these AI pieces are meant to reassure I don't think they do. If everything was peaches and cream there would be no need to write these pieces in the first place.

And this is what I really appreciate about Dan's perspective - he analyses I/O in an historical context, while Twits are in-the-moment reactions to new/shiny. Goog really is looking flaky and desperate - where are the initiatives announced last year, even? By looking at repeating situations - announce wow, announce new wow, never mention old wow, silently delete old wow, announce new wow - ms and now goog are building a smoke-screen of bs that never results in a new product or service. Even Facebook has done better than them! 

I'm really disappointed that few, if any, people - bloggers or otherwise - connect the dots of past behaviours to adjust future expectations. Goog has consistently failed, despite changing management, to develop any initiatives brought over the past ten years that have gained any tractionl apart from gmail and maps on the consumer end. On the business end, it has certainly improved upon its invasive anti-security and anti-privacy initiatives. This does not bode well.

I totally hear you. It seems that people do indeed have a short memory. How many times has Google announced a product years away from being in the hands of a customer to great fanfare, only to all but kill the project and mention it only in passing after the initial announcement? I've lost count-Google TV and Google Glass are just a few examples. What's it going to take for people to change their expectations of any Google announcement? 

The author does make use of hyperbole and exaggeration but he raises some important points. The media has said for years that Apple's business model was finished because people weren't going to shell out big bucks every year for new iPhone that has just a bigger screen, better camera and thinner design and Apple needed to start catering to the low-end market or else it would slide into obscurity. It is certainly valid to question why anyone would be willing to pay extra money for VR functionality if they weren't even willing to shell out money for a high-end smartphone. 

sog35 said:

rob53 said:

It might be early but Apple might as well put its critical marbles on the table in the beginning. Since user data is something lots of companies want to have because it can be worth more money in both the short and long term than the actual product they're selling, Apple needs to be up front and demand that user's data is not subject to compromise and certainly not for sale. I want, no I DEMAND, that Apple protect all my data and not let anyone else have access to it. I don't want ads showing up on my auto informational screen, I only want information about the operation of my car and, if my iPhone is plugged in via CarPlay, what I choose to see and access via my iPhone. I just saw an ad for a small car that touted it has the most electronics of anything in its size. I don't want a lot of unnecessary electronics in my car, I want it to run well and not have issues every time there's a stinking computer problem. Keep it simple, make it economical and green to run, and have almost no maintenance. That's my ideal car.

Agree with this.

Car maintenance is such a pain in the azz.  Belts, hoses, hot oils running, literal exposions in the engine, ect.  Its a miracle that car companies have figured out how to make ICE run 100,000+ miles.  With an electric car there is no oil changes, brakes last 2x longer, no belts, exhaust systems, muffllers, ect.  

Theoretically an electric car should only be in the shop once a year to rotate the tires. And I bet there is a way to make rotating the tires a thing of the past also with software. No more waiting at the shop for the tech to figure out why your car won't start. With electric cars the car itself will tell you whats wrong. 

Sorry to disappoint you but your pie in the sky is just that-a pie in the sky. A car has moving parts, whether it's electric or gas-powered. There's still a drive shaft, transmission, tires, brakes, etc. I don't know where you're getting this idea that brakes last 2x longer just because a car is an electric car. With moving parts comes wear and tear. That's just the way it is. You can make things last longer but you won't be able to make them last forever. For example, drive over a road filled with potholes and you're going to ruin your wheel alignment. There's a trip to the mechanic. 

I cannot imagine how software is going to "make rotating tires a thing of the past." People rotate their tires because after driving for a certain number of miles, the tires wear out. Instead of buying four brand-new tires, people get new tires for the wheels that are part of the drivetrain and move the worn out tires to the other two tires, e.g. if the car is front-wheel drive, people buy new tires for the two front wheels and move the worn out tires to the back. Rotating tires is due to mechanical wear and tear. There's no getting around that, unless one eliminates friction somehow. 

From the very beginning when Apple implemented strong encryption, Comey has been upset. For years, the government got away with things of questionable legality. All that changed with Snowden. Comey and other people in the government were livid that they couldn't hide behind secrecy in the name of national security to cover up their actions. They would actually have to start showing some proof. Meanwhile, tech companies started locking up their systems and throwing away the keys. 

Comey tried to appeal to emotion. He used the buzzwords-rapists, child pornographers, terrorists, murderers. Then came San Bernardino. Comey thought he had the perfect case. He thought he could use the media to sling mud at Apple, hoping Apple would capitulate for fear of alienating the public and its customer base. We don't know what happened but evidently, the public wasn't overwhelmingly on the FBI's side. For whatever reason, the FBI withdrew the case. 

The government has seen limited success in the courts so far. It seems that Comey has turned to Congress only after all of his other options are exhausted. If any of this other tactics had worked, he definitely wouldn't be calling for a legislative solution.