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NSA Publishes Threatening Letter Calling for Encryption Backdoors

Andrew Orr ·

Glenn S. Gerstell, general counsel for the National Security Agency (NSA) published a letter in the New York Times, writing about how a “digital revolution threatens to upend our entire national security infrastructure.” He thinks backdoors into encryption is one answer (of course he doesn’t use the word backdoor), as well as the agency collecting even more data from citizens. Read his letter by clicking the link below, then read this take by Nefarious Laboratories.

Make no mistake, this letter is a thinly-veiled threat to every major corporation around the globe: provide the U.S. government with access to all of your data or else, “there is another path, and it is the one taken by authoritarian regimes around the world”.

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iPhone Naming Conventions Are a Mess

John Martellaro ·

Ken Segall writes (Sep. 9) that it’s time to dump both the “i” in iPhone as well as the alphabet soup.

I think it’s amazingly cool that the i-thing happened, but everything has a beginning and an end. The trick is knowing when to end.

Smarts and forward-thinking always beats clinging to the past.

The truth is, Apple has already made the i-decision. It’s been years since a new i-product appeared. Apple Watch, Apple Music, Apple Pay, Apple Card—all would be i-things under the old rules.

Apple dropped the alphabet soup on Sep. 10 along with the bizarre “X” vs. “ten.” Will the “i” be next?

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Hotel Lobbyists Fight Airbnb by Undermining the Internet

Andrew Orr ·

Hotel lobbyists don’t like Airbnb and its competition, so they’re introducing a bill to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

And they’re not just focused on pushing this loophole for Airbnb. It appears they’re going all in on stripping Section 230 protections from any internet service hosting 3rd party content. As part of this, they recently released what can only be described as a push poll to mislead people about Airbnb, the laws around these issues, and Section 230. Each question in the poll is at best actively misleading and at worst, completely bullshit.

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This Fall, HomePod Will Have Ambient Sounds, Multi-User Mode

Andrew Orr ·

Apple didn’t mention the HomePod on stage yesterday, but Benjamin Mayo reports that a product refresh will appear later this fall.

A new forthcoming feature is called Ambient Sounds. This will allow users to easily play white noise sounds on their HomePods, including ocean waves, birdsong, rainstorms, and more. Right now, users are forced to AirPlay from another iOS device to easily play relaxing background audio on HomePod. Ambient Sounds will make this a first-party feature, fully integrated with Siri.

If Apple ever comes out with a cheaper HomePod, I’d probably buy one just for the ambient sounds.

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Apple Watch Series 5 Starts With 32GB of Storage

Andrew Orr ·

Amazingly, the Apple Watch Series 5 will start at 32GB of storage, doubling the Series 4 storage point of 16GB.

At 32GB of storage for both GPS and Cellular models, the Apple WatchSeries 5 offers double the storage of the previous Series 4 models. Apple may have increased the storage in the new device due to the Apple Watch App Store that’s available in watchOS 6, set to be released on September 19.

Now if only watchOS 6 had the Files app so I could store a copy of my data on it.

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iPhone 11 Gets Muted Response in Asia

Charlotte Henry ·

There was much fanfare around the launch of the iPhone 11 Tuesday. However, Reuters reported, that the new device did not receive su a warm welcome in Asia.

The iPhone 11, launched on Tuesday for $50 less than last year’s base XR model, was met with a limp response from social media users in Asian markets that are dominated by Huawei Technologies and Samsung Electronics. Despite the reduction, the iPhone 11, and even the higher-end models with more camera lenses, are set to come up short in Asia. “Apple’s new phones were no surprise at all. Only tangible change is having an additional camera on their premium model,” said Park Sung-soon, an analyst at Seoul-based Cape Investment & Securities.

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Libraries Work to Scan Public Domain Books

Andrew Orr ·

Right now, books published in the U.S. before 1924 are in the public domain. This means they are publicly owned and everyone can use and copy them. But there’s a loophole in copyright law which gives up to 75% of books published between 1923 and 1964 secret public domain status. It’s hard to figure out which ones they are, so a group of libraries, archivists, and volunteers are finding these public domain books, scanning them, and uploading them to the internet.

Richardson notes that much of that heavy lifting is being done by volunteers at organizations like Project Gutenberg, a nonprofit effort to digitize and archive cultural works. These volunteers are tasked with locating a copy of the book in question, scanning it, proofing it, then putting out HTML and plain-text editions.

Cool Stuff Found

Rewatch Apple iPhone 11 Special Event in a Flash

Charlotte Henry ·

There was a lot to take in during the Apple ‘By Innovation Only’ special event Tuesday. And it was nearly two hours long. You can rewatch the whole thing, but Apple also helpfully posted a video bringing together the best bits. It is a bit of an advert, of course, but I think it is quite effective. It shows how much Apple did actually pack in during the event.

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macOS Catalina Isn't Coming Until October

Andrew Orr ·

Apple updated its website today, noting that macOS Catalina won’t arrive until an unknown date in October. From TechCrunch:

After a summer of beta testing, Apple is about to release the next major version of macOS: macOS Catalina. But not so fast; the new version will arrive in October, according to Apple’s updated website. As always, this update will be available as a free download in the Mac App Store.

The software release dates are all over the place this year.