Re: Worthless tokens
Onecoin owner? I'm so sorry for your loss.
124 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Aug 2009
I consider TransferWise to be part of Britain's retail banking sector, and haven't encountered significant hoops or eye-watering fees when transferring money overseas for many moons now. Innovation is alive and well, you just have to see beyond your legacy bank and it's bundled current account services if you want to find it.
It was over a year ago that WhatsApp announced (to a flurry of publicity) that they were implementing end-to-end encryption, albeit only for Android to Android conversations. They still haven't rolled it out to iOS or other platforms, so their current effort is entirely half arsed.
Telegram's encryption might be homebrewed, but at least it is available across platforms (unlike WhatsApp), and they've spoken loudly of a prize if anyone can break it and that prize remains unclaimed.
Is there a hardware method which device manufacturers could look to build in to future devices which would render requests such as these entirely redundant, as there would be nothing the vendor could do from a software side to bypass a lost password?
I know this was a 5C which lacks the secure enclave of Apple's Touch ID devices. My reading around seems to suggest the FBI request would be materially different if it had been a more recent device (specifically there would have been a need to flash the software on the secure enclave in addition to the wider iOS), but that such a request would not be beyond the capabilities of Apple.
Yup. My girlfriend has a iPhone 5S on contract from O2 which stopped charging on Monday. She took it to O2 who said they'd need to post it off for repairs and she might get it back in a week. She took it to the Apple shop in Covent Garden and they gave her a new one on the spot.
The phone was supplied by O2 and was over 12 months old. O2 couldn't have given less of a shit and were happy to leave her high and dry. Apple demonstrated a considerably higher regard for her custom.
Apple Pay:
1- Phone out pocket
2 - Phone against card reader
3 - Phone back into pocket
Contactless card:
1 - Wallet out of pocket
2 - Contactless card out of wallet
3 - Contactless card against card reader
4 - Contactless card back into wallet
5 - Wallet back into pocket
So I make that a 40% reduction in terms of the number of steps needed to pay, and a slight bump in security too. What's not to like?
And before someone suggests leaving my intended payment card in my wallet and holding my wallet to the reader, I am not the only person with more than one card in my wallet.
I agree with much of what you say... I have the same generation iPad that you do and it serves it's purpose brilliantly as a casual sofa surfing device, a Netflix viewer for my girlfriend when she is getting ready in the morning and a very occasional gaming device. A few games stutter slightly, but it's the smallest of niggles, and I do quite frequently momentarily wish it had Touch ID when I absent mindedly leave my finger on the home button waiting for it to unlock like my iPhone. I hand off to my mid-2010 MacBook Pro when I need a proper home computer which is maybe a couple of times a week, a device which increasingly shows it's age but continues to serve it's purpose. Both are devices I fully expect to upgrade, but both only on a 5/6 yearly basis unless technical failure happens first or unexpected incredible technical innovation occurs.
My iPhone though, perhaps due to it being used much more than either of these devices and the limited life of lithium ion batteries being more obvious on a device that is outside the home far more frequently, has always been one a 1/2 yearly upgrade cycle and I imagine this will continue. I don't know how typical a customer I am, but I would hazard a guess there are many of me about.
I've recently purchased a phone with TouchID and whilst it quite obviously isn't panacea from a security perspective, I think it's a fantastic feature. It works quickly and reliably. I've gone from a 4 digit pass code on a 5 minute time-out to my phone now requiring my fingerprint for every unlock, with a much longer pass code needed if my fingerprint isn't available for any reason. More security for less inconvenience. I'd go as far as saying it's my favourite feature on the phone.
I can remember very clearly sending my first ever SMS. It was sent in December 1998 from Cheltenham on a BT Cellnet PAYG phone to my dad's Saudi Arabian mobile. I had only been messing about with the phone's menu and exploring what I could do. I had no real idea what I was sending and no expectation of is actually working. I was amazed when, ten minutes later, I received a reply from my dad who was baffled by the fact he'd had a message pop up on his phone from me.
Fast forward a couple of years and I remember switching my mobile phone to a MVNO called Genie, later BT Genie. They were the first network to offer 'unlimited' SMS messages and I was hooked, getting through up to 2000 messages a month in my teens.
I hardly ever send an SMS these days as most of my text messages are delivered over either WhatsApp or iMessage. But SMS's remain often the only affordable way to use my phone when roaming, and it is a piece of technology that had a huge bearing on my teen life.
Two thoughts. 1) Morality is irrelevent unless you are a signed up member of a cult, sorry, religion, where there is a book in which 'someone' has codified morals. 2) Much of the coverage I've seen, and indeed this article, talk about the tax rate against revenue. I may not be a tax advisor, but I am quite certain tax is charged on profits, not revenues.
You can use VoIP apps fine, as in the US. However VoLTE relates to how the phone handles calls with the inbuilt phone dialler, e.g. the type of calls which show up on your phone bill and which can be billed for (depending on your tariff).
A quick Google suggests AT&T doesn't have a VoLTE service and won't until some stage in 2013.
So EE "argued that the lack of 4G was damaging the UK economy and fast deployment was essential for the country". What they really meant was "we want a minimum 12 month monopoly to damage competition, and fast deployment is great but only if it is limited to us". They could just sell the spectrum to Three and compete, except they are obviously scared of competition.
Seriously, where is the EU or the CC when you need them?
Yes that's right, it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that an update in the next few months would fit with an annual update.
Here's something else that might interest you... the Samsung Galaxy S4 will probably be announced in 10 months.