Apple

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Apple's Privacy Stance Means it Does Not Get a Pass on FaceTime Security Bug

Charlotte Henry ·

It was revealed Monday that Group FaceTime has a major bug. It allows a caller to hear the person they are ringing before the recipient has picked up the phone. As Ben Lovejoy points out on 9to5Mac, Apple, and Tim Cook, in particular, have taken a very strong stance on privacy in recent months. The company even put a big privacy advert on the side of a Marriott in Las Vegas during CES. It has received a lot of praise for its approach to privacy. However, that does not mean they cannot be held to account when a security flaw like this is exposed. In fact, arguably we should expect more from a company that puts such importance on privacy.

This particular FaceTime bug occurs only when someone does something completely illogical and unexpected: adds themselves to a call they initiated. I appreciate this would have been a tricky scenario to anticipate and include in testing. But when you are Apple, a company which has talked of little other than privacy over the past few months, then you don’t get a pass on this.

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Here's Why iPhone Assembly Doesn't Happen Here

Andrew Orr ·

Apple relies on China for a huge part of its manufacturing needs. But why can’t the company bring it back to the United States? Custom screws.

The challenges in Texas illustrate problems that Apple would face if it tried to move a significant amount of manufacturing out of China. Apple has found that no country — and certainly not the United States — can match China’s combination of scale, skills, infrastructure and cost.

Manufacturing and cheap labor are the reasons why Apple and other companies go to China. The GOP can talk about bringing jobs like that back, but it’s not an easy problem to solve.

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Apple Outspent by Rivals in Record Year of Tech Lobbying

Charlotte Henry ·

Tech firms spent a record amount lobbying the U.S. Government in 2018. Re/Code reported that Apple spent $6.6 million, slightly down from $7.2 million the year before. Although significant, Apple’s outlay was lower than that of the other major tech firms. For example, Google spent $21 million, while Amazon spent $14.2 million, and Facebook spent $12.6 million. Microsoft too outspent Apple, spending $9.5 million. In total, the firms invested $48 million in lobbying in 2018, up 13% from the year before.

Lobbying growth among the tech giants — especially companies that leverage user data for advertising revenue — comes as they are falling under increased government scrutiny. Facebook in particular faces a record Federal Trade Commission fine over apparent violations of data privacy practices in the Cambridge Analytica scandal that was revealed last year.

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Apple and Valencell Settled their Patent Dispute

Charlotte Henry ·

Biometric firm Valencell and Apple have settled a long-running patent dispute. MacRumors confirmed that that the lawsuit was settled in September 2018. Valencell provides the optical heart rate monitoring and biometric sensors in a number of devices. It claimed Apple solicited information about its technology on the pretense of a potential licensing agreement in the run-up to launching the Apple Watch.

The biometric company also accused Apple of deciding it was more financially beneficial to risk infringing on Valencell’s patents than to license them, claiming that the practice was “consistent with the statement by Apple CEO Steve Jobs that Apple has ‘always been shameless about stealing great ideas.'” Valencell had requested a preliminary and permanent injunction preventing future acts of infringement, as well as damages and an ongoing royalty rate for licensing purposes should a permanent injunction not be granted.

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New 'Shot on iPhone XS' Film Set for Chinese New Year Release

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple looks set to release a new “Shot on iPhone XS” film in the near future. 9to5Mac picked up on Chinese reports which indicated that the new clip will be will be released to coincide with Chinese New Year. Those reports suggested that the latest iPhone XS short will be officially announced on January 25th. Apple released a “Shot on iPhone XS” film back in September 2018. It showed off the camera’s slow motion, time-lapse, and 4K capabilities.

A post on Chinese social network QQ.com shares what appears to be teaser materials for the film. Text invites you to click on text to reveal the protagonist of the film, and doing so reveals a man with a taped-up bucket … Other text asks whose story will be told, and how the secret will be kept, revealing further images of the man on the back of a motorcycle and a closer shot of the bucket.

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Chinese Think-Tank Blasts Apple's Taiwan and Hong Kong References

Charlotte Henry ·

A Chinese think-tank criticized Apple, Amazon and a number of other firms for the way they reference Taiwan and Hong Kong, Reuters reported. Tawain is considered a wayward-province by China. Hong Kong was returned to China by the British in 1997 and is a semi-autonomous region. Apple is amongst a number of firms that refers to both Hong Kong and Tawain as separate from mainland China, something the Chinese government has been trying to crack down on recently.

China last year ramped up pressure on foreign companies including Marriott International and Qantas for referring to Taiwan and Hong Kong as separate from China in drop down menus or other material. The report was co-written by [Chinese Academy of Social Sciences] CASS and the Internet Development Research Institution of Peking University. An official at the Internet Development Research Institution told Reuters that it had not yet been published to the public and declined to provide a copy.

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Questions for Apple in 2019

Andrew Orr ·

Since 2015 Above Avalon has published a list of questions for Apple, across hardware, software, services, and “big picture.” Here are the questions for Apple in 2019.

January is a great time to embrace the unknown rather than come up with Apple predictions for the next 12 months. Accordingly, this is my fifth installment of Apple questions as a new year kicks off.

It’s a big, detailed list and lays out things we wonder and things rumors have suggested.

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Apple's Services Future. It's Going to Be Different.

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple’s growing services business, and its increasing openness to having its software on other people’s hardware, is one of the most fascinating stories in tech at the moment. Tech blogger turned venture capitalist M.G. Siegler has written an excellent summary of the situation on Medium. As he says, the future for the company “is going to be… different.”

Incidentally, it was a pod that really started to change the equation. The iPod. In order to reach a wider audience with that device, Apple had to do something that was seemingly against Steve Jobs’ DNA: make software for Windows. (Ice water! In Hell!) And the slope ultimately proved slippery, albeit in a slow way. Eventually, we got (and then lost) Safari for Windows. And in the more recent era, Apple Music for Android. And Alexa.

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Here's an Apple Infographic of Product Made So Far

Andrew Orr ·

The folks at TitleMax shared a cool Apple infographic that lists every (or most) Apple product made so far.

We’ve created this innovative look back at all Apple products to list off each incredible marvel by year, from super-successful, like the company-saving iPod, to the duds like the Apple Bandai Pippin. In our Apple timeline, you can see how much the company changed and how a few pivotal moments have revolutionized the entire technological world.

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Apple Researching Connected Clothing

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple is researching connected clothing that could link to your iPhone and other devices, according to a new patent. AppleInsider reported that the patent, filed Thursday, was titled “Fabric with Electrical Components.” It seems likely that any product that did emerge from this work would focus on health monitoring. On Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook again emphasized how important he considers the company’s work in this field. He told CNBC that it is Apple’s “most-important contribution to mankind.”

A patent application from Apple published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday titled “Fabric with Embedded Electrical Components” attempts to work around the problem by describing how fabric-based items could be created, with the fabric itself being the connectivity method. The core of the idea resides with the fabric, in that it is woven together with conductive and insulating yarns. The conductive yarns reside in the inner layers of the weave, while the insulating yarns on the outside prevent any undue contact with the conductive versions.

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TV's Role in Apple's Services Strategy

Charlotte Henry ·

The announcement yesterday that Samsung TVs will get a new iTunes Movies and TV Shows apps is a big deal. As is the news that Samsung, VIZIO, Sony, and LG are going to integrate AirPlay 2 into their TV offerings. I made that case on TMO Daily Observations on Monday. Pete Kafka at Re/Code has a really incisive piece of analysis looking at the fallout of the Samsung announcement. He lays out how Apple is moving into becoming a services company, or at least how it is making its services business more important, and how TV is part of this strategy.

The obvious and accurate takeaway is that Apple has conceded that Apple TV, the device that was supposed to help it own the living room, isn’t succeeding — it trails Roku, Google and Amazon in streaming market share — and that Apple needs to be on more devices if it is going to sell more services — which is its plan to combat slumping iPhone sales.

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Apple's Public Billboard at CES: 'What Happens on Your iPhone, Stays on Your iPhone'

Bryan Chaffin ·

I heart this so much. There aren’t enough emojis in the world to describe how much I love Apple’s giant message to CES: “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.” It’s on a massive outdoor sign hanging on the side of a ::checks notes:: Marriott…wait, is Apple trolling Marriott, too? Fitting, if so. Whatever, the target is ostensibly Google, Facebook, Amazon, Android, and the myriad of companies whose customers are the product. And that message is being delivered to CES in Las Vegas, a show Apple doesn’t bother to attend. Chris Velazco of Engadget tweeted the first image I could find (below), and Mashable‘s Adam Rosenberg pitched it as, “Apple spent money to publicly troll everyone else’s privacy issues at CES.” Again with the feels, Apple. Thanks for brightening my day.