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ACLU Asks Court to Reveal Details About Breaking Encryption

Andrew Orr ·

In a case earlier this year, the government tried to make Facebook help wiretap certain Messenger voice calls. It was rejected, but the legal arguments the government made for breaking encryption remain under seal. The ACLU wants the details made public.

The case involves the executive branch’s attempt to force a private corporation to break the encryption and other security mechanisms on a product relied upon by the public to have private conversations. The government is not just seeking information held by a third party; rather, it appears to be attempting to get this Court to force a communications platform to redesign its product to thwart efforts to secure communications between users.

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How Developers Run App Store Scams and Game the System

Andrew Orr ·

David Barnard takes a close look at App Store scams and manipulation going on. It sounds like it’s easy to game the system.

Apple can and does dramatically shape the App Store economy. Similar to how governments shape economies through tax law and other policies, Apple shapes the App Store economy through App Review policies, App Store implementation details, editorial decisions, the App Store search algorithm, and in so many other subtle (and not so subtle) ways.

There are shady practices going on in the App Store, and Apple should do more to crack down on developers who abuse it.

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What Comes After Wearables? Hearables

John Martellaro ·

“Gartner, Inc. forecasts that worldwide shipments of wearable devices will reach 225 million in 2019, an increase of 25.8 percent from 2018. End-user spending on wearable devices is forecast to reach $42 billion in 2019. Of that, $16.2 billion will be on smartwatches.” Most of that will likely be earned by Apple as its Apple Watch emerges as a very strong health and fitness monitor.

But what comes next? Gartner prognosticates. “However, Gartner predicts that by 2022, ear-worn devices (“hearables”) shipments will take over as the top wearables segment with 158 million units shipped compared with 115 million smartwatch shipments in 2022.” This kind of makes sense as, more and more, we’ll be chatting with smarter, more intuitive AIs.  The link has a table of sales predictions for the out years.

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Qualcomm CEO Says Apple Dispute Close to Settling

Charlotte Henry ·

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf told CNBC on Wednesday that his firm and Apple are “on the doorstep” of settling their ongoing dispute. He told Mad Money host Jim Cramer that they “do talk as companies.” He reiterated that he believes a resolution is likely in the last part of 2018 or early 2019. Apple has accused Qualcomm of taking an unfair cut of each iPhone. Meanwhile, Qualcomm has accused of Apple of stealing and bartering its trade secrets. Mr. Mollenkopf also discussed 5G rollout in the interview. He predicted that the 5G rollout will start in spring 2019.

“We’ve always talked about — I’ve been very consistent — that … the second half of this year and into next year is when we’re really on the doorstep of finding a resolution and we don’t see anything different than that,” the CEO said.