Posts by Penguintopia

Feds dig up law from 1789 to demand Apple, Google decrypt smartphones, slabs

Re: "necessary or appropriate"

Actually, if you read the order:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1372280-apple-oakland.html

it's fairly clear that Apple is being ordered to assist the government in the execution of a warrant. So the government did go through the correct procedures. As a third party with the potential to provide assistance in execution of the warrant, Apple is an appropriate target for the write. But note well that Apple's cooperation is limited to any potential capability that they have of a) extracting the encrypted data and providing a copy of the encrypted data to the government or b) bypassing the lock code. If Apple doesn't have the ability to do (b), they can do (a) and then the government may attempt a brute-force attack on that data.

I don't see problem here. And the "All Writs Act" is a good reason for Apple to implement one-way encryption that can only be undone by the users passphrase OR brute force.

Re: "necessary or appropriate"

Correct. It was intended to prevent some sharp lawyer from making a claim that some specific writ wasn't authorized by Congress and thus having his client avoid prosecution on a technicality.

I, for one, would like to welcome our Android overlord

Profits? Most of those go to Apple and Samsung....

...the rest of the 'droid makers are losing their collective shirts! RIM, Nokia, Sony and Motorola all had serious operating losses. HTC made a tiny profit, but is way down from last year.

A lot of those phones are low-end, where Apple doesn't compete. Yes, that helps Android spread, but it doesn't help the companies making handsets at a loss, nor does it do much to help app developers make money.

Bottom line, market share isn't the only way to measure this, and it's inexact. There are lots of premium brands that have small market share but huge profit. Ask Dell how the commodity hardware business has worked out since Michael Dell said Apple should be closed down. Or IBM or HP in the same markets.

In the long run, the real fight is about content. Amazon has the chance to run away with this. Amazon is hardware agnostic (unlike Apple). It sells it's own devices, but it allows its content across a wide range of platforms. At best, Google is in third place with regard to content.

Apple's HTML5 bet against Android extermination

Re: True enough.

Funny, my daughter's 3GS is fully upgraded and runs just fine. No problem with phone calls, texting or the apps she uses. Same was true for my boys' phones before they very recently went with upgrades. What's your flatmate done to his iPhone to mess it up?

Tim Cook rejects Apple's old business model of suing everyone

Huh? Fraud? Oh, the '4G' claim. But alas, 4G includes (among many others) at least one protocol supported by the iPhone in Australia. The Ausies may not like it, but the official 4G standard includes HSPA+. Blame the ITU, not Apple. Apple are correct on this one.

As for 'Chinese patents and rulings' Proview Taiwan AND Proview China both signed off on the deal. Proview is trolling for money. And they are supported by at least some corrupt Chinese government officials. Wonder what they would say if Apple chose to move their build to Brazil and tell Foxcon goodbye. I suspect the Chinese government might have a slightly different opinion.