Displaying items by tag: Apple

The wonderful topic of “kill switches” in smart phones has arisen again with three major cities claiming a directly connection between iPhone theft and the addition of a kill switch into Apple devices. Now the news is pushing stories with titles claiming a 50% reduction in “smart phone” theft. These claims are simply not true. The first thing to note is that Apple is not the only company with a smart phone and the second is that there was already a reduction in theft of Apple device prior to the lunch of the iPhone 6. The demand and allure of the iPhone 5 line was not really enough to get a thief’s hear racing.

The concept of the fingerprint ID has been around for a long time and, for the most part, has been seen as a rather secure method of locking your things away. At least that is the way it is seen by the public. For most of the security crowd finger print ID as a security system have one major flaw in them, they are all little more than optical scanners. If you can fool the scanner, which does not do much more than compare one image to another, then you are in.

When Apple announced their new NFC payment system it seemed the press and analysts were in nirvana. You could not open up a news site without seeing a headline on how Apple pay was going to change your life. Most of these failed to acknowledge that mobile payments (even through NFC) have existed for decades and that Google Wallet was and still is accepted at a number of locations. They were convinced that Apple pay was the way to go and they (Apple) had the future in their hands.

In late 2013 Apple made the announcement that it was entering into a deal (some said exclusive) with GT Advanced Technologies. This company was going to revolutionize the next generation(s) of devices from Apple including the iPhone, iPad and more. The tech that was going to enable this revolutionary change was sapphire glass.

The Mac world had an unsettling wakeup call today as it found out what most people have known for years: Macs are no more secure than any other PC. This wakeup call is not the first of its kind and it is certainly not going to be the last, we just wonder if anyone will actually listen or if Apple PR will continue to claim Macs cannot get malware.

We have been trying to stay out of the conversation about the strength of the iPhone 6 and all that goes with it. However some recent items in that story have changed our minds. The most recent is the alleged response by Apple to Computer Bild’s coverage of the issue. According to Computer Bild, Apple is revoking their press credentials which will prevent them from attending any future Apple vents.

Apple is truly ramping up the PR machine and has even managed to get a few people in government to make some rather outrageous statements on the new phone and iOS 8. One of the new stories going around is about how the new iPhone and iOS8 are suddenly “NSA Proof” because they have added data encryption. The fallacy of this claim is almost beyond belief and shows once again that most in the technical press have absolutely no memory.

Although there is enough news about the new iPhones and iOS8 already we thought we would finally chime in since there are now around six separate stories about the new device from Apple. We are seeing everything from high cellular usage to the phones bending in someone’s pocket. Apple, to their credit actually rushed out a fix for many of these issues… sadly the fix appears to make things worse.

I sometimes think that there should be some sort of intelligence test before we allow people to use certain technologies. I know it is not the most “PC” thought to have, but after reading about how often people are duped with what are obviously scams, hoaxes or other, you really have to wonder about the people that are online. The latest hoax to snare people is aimed at a “hidden” feature in iOS8. This feature is supposed to allow you to wirelessly charge your iPhone using the Microwave and all you need to do it upgrade to iOS8.

If there is one thing I do not like it is the way that some members of the technical press show their bias. This morning, while I was trying to have a nice cup of coffee, I had to stomach several articles that seem to feel that NFC (near field communication) is now the wave of the future simply because it is rumored that Apple will have it in their next devices. This despite the fact that some of these same reporters claimed it was nothing when everyone else did it years ago.