iphone

[vansmack]

don't get me wrong, i'm not a fan of this setup for $500+.  i agree that at that price, consumers could do much better for themselves.

Engadget likey the Atrix 4g, no likely the peripherals:

We wanted to love this dock, but at the price Motorola is asking and for the small amount of utility it actually provides, it seems clear to us that your money would be better spent on a tablet or decent netbook.

[sweetcell]

adobe capitulates to apple, flash holes to be filled on i-devices soon

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/03/14/adobe.flash.war/index.html

[vansmack]

adobe capitulates to apple, flash holes to be filled on i-devices soon

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/03/14/adobe.flash.war/index.html

I don't read it quite that way.  Flash was never going to beat out HTML5 as the next standard when Apple, Google and MS all adopted it in the desktop and mobile platforms, so Adobe is smart to give it's developers an easy conversion tool.  Their hope is that developers will still use Adobe tools to create content regardless of output format - that's how they made their money anyway.

Adobe was fine giving the finger to the iPhone as it loses market share (I heartily disagree with the authors contention that "Apple's iPhone holds the most interactivity- and video-hungry portion of the smartphone market" as all stats seem to indicate that Android has surpassed iOS in both market share and internet traffic), but Adobe can't be sitting on its hands while the iPad takes a huge early lead in the tablet market.

If you want to develop for the tablet, you'd be smart to adopt HTML5, and Apple isn't the only one saying that.

[vansmack]

I feel like I should have a contest for the boardie with the best map or craziest location:

iSpy Conspiracy: Your iPhone Is Secretly Tracking Everywhere You?ve Been, All The Time

[sweetcell]

holy crap that's scary.   

<dork alert> the article mentions that location is taken every second.  if one makes the estimate that timestamp + longitude + latitude = 24 bytes, that amounts to~720 MB of data per year.  where is that being stored?  might be lower if the device doesn't store repeated data while the device is at rest.

[Frank Gallagher]

iPhone is how you communicate with SATAN!!!

[vansmack]

<dork alert> the article mentions that location is taken every second.  if one makes the estimate that timestamp + longitude + latitude = 24 bytes, that amounts to~720 MB of data per year.  where is that being stored?  might be lower if the device doesn't store repeated data while the device is at rest.

I think you may have over read that statement.  It says the timestamp is accurate to the second, but that doesn't mean that they take it every second.

Shit's going to start getting serious if it's discovered that Apple gets that file via iTunes or OTA.

[godsshoeshine]

iPhone is how you communicate with SATAN!!!

i use mine to communicate with smackie

[vansmack]

iPhone is how you communicate with SATAN!!!

i use mine to communicate with smackie

Same difference?

[sweetcell]

iPhone is how you communicate with SATAN!!!

i use mine to communicate with smackie

potayto, potahto.

[sweetcell]

the cell-enabled ipad also keeps a log of its location data and is backup on the user's computer. 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/20/iphone-tracking-prompts-privacy-fears
http://www.bgr.com/2011/04/20/apple-recording-storing-gps-position-of-iphone-3g-ipad-users-video/

[Jaguar]

This is old news. Well, relatively speaking. As old as the ipad and almost as old as the iPhone. It's not just Apple products either doing way too much tracking and snooping. Generally, it's all 'smart' phones. This all came in during the Clinton administration when he signed some kind of paperwork to install the clipper chip into any and everything technological. It's Big Brother's backdoor into your private life.

In other intrusive, anti 4th amendment and unconstitutional news:
Mich. Cops Can Now Steal Your Cell Phone Data ? ?Without the Owner Knowing?

Also, Google keeps all of your searches for, I think, up to 6 months. Just heard something this week that Yahoo just changed their policy on searches. If I remember correctly, they had been saving them for 30 days but have since upped it to 90 days.

There's much, much more and it's all creepy as hell!

*Before any of you try tearing this apart because of the sites themselves, I know nothing about any of them other than Newsmax. I was just very familiar with the dirt and only did a quick search and linked up something quick and easy. You can do your own in-depth research if you choose. Oh, and every administration has been deep in shit involved in these things. It just took them all this time to get it where it is today. As I said, all old news but sadly, finally a reality.

[Herr Professor Doktor Doom]

Look at it this way -- nothing in life is free.   Google wouldn't provide the amazing functionality of its search and gmail and all the rest without getting something in return, right?     And surely it hasn't come out of nowhere to be a bigger force than Microsoft just by selling lots of little ads?     One of the founders of Google is quoted as saying "we know how you think."    It's entirely in their interest to make billions off that ability, and ridiculous to assume they wouldn't.    And it's also in everyone's power to choose whether to avail themselves of Google's conveniences, or not.

And cell phones have been miniature tracking devices since they were invented in the 80s.   The only thing that's new about this is the precision is greatly enhanced (down to GPS coordinates instead of cell towers), and the fact that the file is stored on *your* phone.     But if a telco wanted to find you they've always been able to.

So, bloggers are going to vent indignantly and righteously about this.   But the basic fact is nothing new -- privacy for the most part is given up voluntarily, and if you really care about it, you've got to live off the grid.   

[vansmack]

Yes and no.  Two things that are being overlooked here.

(1) Google is opt in for location services on their phones.  If you choose not to, I'm sure you install a dozen apps that probably do the same thing without you realizing it, but at least it's opt in.

(2) The tracking file on the iPhone/iPad is stored on the phone and locally on your computer when backing up to iTunes.  Why is this a big deal?  Because it's no longer anonymous.  When my service provider and google collect this information (and I've always assumed they did when I opted in to their services) they have my data and it's collected and probably tied back to some master file that's created about me.  Fine.  And I have a tremendous amount of faith, rightly or wrongly, in them protecting that file.

But what's happened now is this:  Apple, for no reason at all (according to them), has created this file that is now subpoenable by a court of law.  It's just a matter of time before  some divorce lawyer or some employer or some share holder etc. asks for that file.  And yes I'm going to say no, but it's going to cost me a bundle to defend against that subpoena request because it's a file creating a record that might be of interest to the court or the case against me. 

And that's the best case scenario. I'm sure the Tiger Woods phenomenon is about to start with some suspicious spouse locating that file on a hard drive on their own and putting together a juicy story to take to a divorce lawyer.  No subpoena needed now...

If you ask Google for that file, they are going to spend a boatload to defend against getting access to that file.  And they will probably win.

As strange as this may sound, I wish Apple had (1) asked for an opt in and (2) kept that file themselves with no local record.

[sweetcell]

herr doktor,

although telcos have been collecting similar info, it took a court order to access it.  in other words, for the mere mortal, that information was unaccessible and purely theoretical.  now if someone steals your phone or gets access to your home computer, they can get all this data.  not so theoretical all of a sudden.

i think the main reason for all this indignation is that it was a surprise.  researchers accidentally discovered this, apple obviously didn't mean for this to be widely known.  people feel duped.  i have no idea how consumers would have reacted if this functionality was made known from the outset, i suspect they would have protested... pointing to the fact that maybe this isn't such a good idea.

conspiracy theorists have put forth the idea that apple did this at the request of The Government.  personally, i think apple did this because they could.  they're in the data business.  google has made a mint by "collecting information first, find use for it later".  speaking of google, they got in trouble a while back for exactly this: a stink was raised over the google maps vans that collected information about wireless networks as they mapped and photographed streets.   t'was the same thing: they were sucking in all the data they could collect, figuring that some day they'll figure out how to use it (read: monetize it).