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iPhone Crushed for Science

Charlotte Henry ·

LONDON – For most people, having their iPhone crushed is the ultimate nightmare. Not for scientists at the University of Plymouth, Cult of Mac reported. The UK university put an iPhone into a high-powered blender to discover what chemical elements a handset is made up of. There’s a video too, if does cause you too much pain to watch.

The video does a good job of breaking down the precise quantities of elements which go into a smartphone. Where it gets particularly interesting, however, is looking at this figure in the context of the 1.4 billion mobile phones produced each year, Among other astonishing figures, that includes 52 tons of gold, 131 tons of silver, and a mind-boggling 10.2 kilotons of chromium. Unfortunately, a large number of these handsets are made using conflict minerals from various parts of the world.

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Poor People Need Privacy As Much as Everyone Else

Andrew Orr ·

Elizabeth Brico writes how privacy might be turning into a luxury, and how poor people can’t afford the legal costs if their identity is stolen because of all the data breaches.

For her part, Gilman argued that many times, names and addresses can be enough to commit the types of identity fraud she has helped her low-income clients battle. “It can cost time and money to clean up the effects of identity theft because low income people are already living on the economic margins, any loss of funds can be catastrophic,” she said. “You have less privacy as a poor person,” Muentz added. “Privacy is becoming a luxury.”

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Apple Suppliers Reportedly Gearing up For Next Generation of iPads and AirPods

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple’s suppliers in Tawain are preparing to produce new iPads and AirPods. DigitTimes reported that Flexium Interconnect and Zhen Ding Technology are getting ready to mass produce the next generation of the devices. Those sources said that the new iPads and AirPods will also be unveiled art Apple’s March 25th event. It is though expected  that even will largely focus on services,

Flexible PCB firms Flexium Interconnect and Zhen Ding Technology are gearing up for mass production for Apple’s next-generation iPad devices, while Compeq Manufacturing and Unitech PCB supply rigid-flex boards for the forthcoming AirPods, according to industry sources….Both Zhen Ding and Flexium may see their shipments for Apple’s upcoming iPad models offset a slowdown in shipments for the iPhones in the first half of 2019, the sources noted. Meanwhile, the availability of Apple’s long-awaited AirPods 2 is seen as a boost to revenues at both Compeq and Unitech during the six-month period, the sources continued.

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Was the Facebook Outage Linked to This Criminal Investigation?

Andrew Orr ·

Conspiracy theory time. Yesterday Facebook suffered its biggest outage in its entire history. Other affiliated services like Instagram and WhatsApp were also affected. Facebook is also under a federal criminal investigation over its data sharing practices. Do you think the outage had anything to do with law enforcement seizing some of the company’s servers?

“We are cooperating with investigators and take those probes seriously,” a Facebook spokesman said in a statement. “We’ve provided public testimony, answered questions and pledged that we will continue to do so.”

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Apple's TV Streaming Service Faces Tough Competition: Disney+

John Martellaro ·

Media Play News writes:

Disney’s pending subscription streaming video service is projected to generate wide consumer appeal – if it is priced right, according to new data from The Diffusion Group.

When asked about the likelihood they would sign up for “a Netflix-like service” that included movies from Disney, National Geographic, Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm (Star Wars); Disney TV shows for children; and original content, 43% of survey respondents said they were likely to sign up, while 27% very likely to subscribe.

Can Apple equal that?