Lit Apple Mac, iPhone, iPad User Group

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All Four Major Wireless Carriers Hit With Lawsuits Over Sharing, Selling Location Data


If you're upset about Facebook's privacy scandals, you should be equally concerned about the wireless industry's ongoing location data scandals. Not only were the major carriers caught selling your location data to any nitwit with a checkbook, they were even found to be selling your E-911 location data, which provides even more granular detail about your data than GPS provides. This data was then found to have been widely abused from everybody from law enforcement to randos pretending to be law enforcement.

Throughout all this, the Ajit Pai FCC has done absolutely nothing to seriously police the problem. Meaning that while carriers have promised to stop collecting and selling this data, nobody has bothered to force carriers to actually confirm this. Given telecom's history when it comes to consumer privacy, somebody might just want to double check their math (and ask what happened to all that data already collected and sold over the last decade).

Compounding carrier problems, all four major wireless carriers last week were hit with a class action lawsuit (correctly) noting the carriers had violated Section 222 of the Federal Communications Act by selling consumer proprietary network information (CPNI) data:

"Through its negligent and deliberate acts, including inexplicable failures to follow its own Privacy Policy, T-Mobile permitted access to Plaintiffs and Class Members’ CPI and CPNI,” the complaint against T-Mobile reads, referring to “confidential proprietary information” and “customer proprietary network information,” the latter of which includes location data."

Click to expand...

It's likely that the sale of 911 data is where carriers are in the most hot water, since that's their most obvious infraction of the law. It's of course worth pointing out that wireless carriers (and fixed-line ISPs, frankly) have been hoovering up and selling location, clickstream, and a vast ocean of other user data for decades with very few (any?) Congressional lawmakers much caring about it. It's another example of how Facebook's cavalier treatment of user data (and government apathy toward meaningful solutions) isn't just some errant exception -- it's the norm.

Back in 2016, the previous FCC uncharacteristically tried to impose some pretty basic rules that would have gone a long way in preventing these location data scandals by requiring that carriers be more transparent about what data is collected and who it's sold to. It also required consumers opt in to more sensitive (read: financial, location) data. But telecom lobbyists quickly convinced Congress to obliterate those rules in 2017 using the Congressional Review Act before they could even take effect.

Two years later finds the sector swimming in scandal, and everybody has a dumb look on their faces utterly perplexed as to how we got to this point.
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sultrysandy said:

Two years later finds the sector swimming in scandal, and everybody has a dumb look on their faces utterly perplexed as to how we got to this point.

Click to expand...

I'm a meh on this. Thing is, you can't run a cell network without tracking the phones. if they buried a disclosure on page 34 of the T&C still no one would read it. That being said, turn your phone off when you go see your mistress.

astuffedshirt_perv said:

sultrysandy said:

Two years later finds the sector swimming in scandal, and everybody has a dumb look on their faces utterly perplexed as to how we got to this point.
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Click to expand...

I'm a meh on this. Thing is, you can't run a cell network without tracking the phones. if they buried a disclosure on page 34 of the T&C still no one would read it. That being said, turn your phone off when you go see your mistress.

Click to expand...

I agree, cell phone carriers need to know where a customer is located in order to route the call.

However, when I subscribe, it’s paying for the service. Not for them to sell my personal info I provide for billing, along with any information collected from spying on my activities.

I think most people are not aware who's tracking them, how much they're being tracked, and the sort of the large amounts of detailed data that are out there about them. And the "industrial" amounts of personal data hoarded tech companies.

From cell phone carriers, cable companies, Internet Service Providers, and those letting you use their WI-fi, such as Starbucks. Hell, even the Postal Service sells addresses.



If you're interested, watch this news story video

Privacy policies: what are we really agreeing to?

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Apple summoning media to WWDC 2019 keynote with unicorn emoji invites


Apple has started to send out invitations to members of the media to attend the keynote address of WWDC 2019, an event that typically has Apple providing a first look at operating system updates and features it will be releasing later in the year.







Apple will be holding its Worldwide Developer Conference from June 3 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, with the keynote address being the main highlight of the entire conference for many observers. Due to its importance, Apple also invites select members of the media to attend and see what the iPhone producer is announcing up close.

Invitations to the media started to arrive on Wednesday, 12 days before the start of the conference. The invitation specifically advises the person is "invited to the keynote address at our annual Worldwide Developers Conference."

The media invites follow a similar design as those who applied for the ticket lottery in March, featuring an Animoji head with items exploding out from above, drawn in a neon light style. Whereas previous header images featured the robot, skull, alien, and monkey, the latest version uses the unicorn, again with the item-explosion motif.

Current speculation tentatively has Apple considering a reveal of the Mac Pro and an expansion of its "Project Marzipan" to make it easier to develop apps across iOS and macOS.

For iOS 13, it is thought to include new Health features alongside an updated Screen Time, iMessage alterations, and new Apple Books, and possibly a "Dark Mode." Speculation for macOS 10.15 includes a culling of QuickTime 7 and QuickTime plugins, Carbon, and Ink, and the end of 32-bit application support, as well as the introduction of Siri Shortcuts and standalone Music, Podcasts, and TV apps.
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How to free up space on an iPad that's running out of storage, in 4 different ways





If your iPad is running out of storage, there are several ways you could free up significant space on it.

• When your iPad is running low on space, it might run more slowly. You might also encounter problems like the inability to install new apps.
  
  
• You can free up space on an iPad by deleting unwanted or unused apps and their data in the Settings app.
  
  
• You can also reclaim space by deleting unwanted music files, clearing the browser cache, and removing old email messages.

Even though the latest iPad models come with a generous amount of storage space, upgrading to higher capacities can be quite expensive.

If you have an iPad with a more modest amount of room for apps and data — or if you've simply filled yours to the brim regardless — there are a variety of ways you can reclaim space on your tablet.

Here's what may help.



See how much storage space your iPad has available



The iPad Storage page is where you should go to see how your iPad’s storage space is being used, and what to delete to free space.



How much space do you actually have? Your first stop should be to see how much room you need to make.

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Tap "General," and then tap "iPad Storage."

3. After a few moments, your iPad will display a visual representation of how much space you have left, and which apps are using the most memory. This gives you a quick and easy way to see what apps you can delete to make the biggest difference to your storage situation.



Delete the apps and data that can save you the most room



You can see how much space each app takes up as well as how much data it’s storing. Delete both, or keep just the data.


Under the graph of your iPad's storage space, you'll see a list of every app on the device, listed in order from largest — taking up the most space — to smallest.

The numbers displayed for each app include both the app itself and any data files the app is using. For example, the Music app might be near the top of the list, because while the app itself is lightweight, the music files it stores tend to take up a relatively large amount of space. You might also see your video apps near the top, because videos are large.

For details on any app, tap it. On the app's details page, you can see how much space it's taking up and have the option to delete the app and all of its data, or just delete the app and leave the data behind.

• Tap "Delete App" to remove everything — app and data. This recovers the most space possible, and is good if you need to reclaim a lot of space in a hurry. Unfortunately, you will lose your data in the process, though.
  
• Tap "Offload App" to delete the app from the iPad, but leave the data behind. If you later reinstall the app, the data will still be on the iPad and you can carry on as if nothing happened. This is a good option to choose if you only need to reclaim some space temporarily and plan to reinstall the app later — and the app is large but the data doesn't take up a lot of room. You won't see much benefit from offloading a music or video app and leaving the files on the iPad.

Delete unwanted music from your iPad



If you have a lot of music files on your iPad, deleting some or all of them can save you a lot of space.

1. Open the Settings app.
   
   
2. Tap "General," and then tap "iPad Storage."
   
   
3. Find the Music app in the list and tap it.

You have a few options:

• Delete an entire artist. Swipe left on any artists that you want to remove and tap "Delete."
  
  
• Delete specific albums or songs. Tap an artist to see a list of all of that artist's albums. Swipe left and tap "Delete," or tap on an album to delete specific songs in the same way.
  
  
• Delete everything. Swipe "All Songs" to the left and then tap "Delete."

Clear your iPad’s Safari’s cache



When you clear the cache of your web browser, remember that you'll be automatically logged out of any webpages that you were using.


Safari's browser cache could be taking up a lot of space on your iPad; all those temporary internet files add up over time. If choose to clear the cache, you will get some storage space back, but you'll also be logged out of any websites you are signed into, and all your cookies will be deleted — so using Safari could be like using a new computer.


Delete old emails from your iPad



There's a simple trick that will allow you to delete all the email on your iPad at once.


You might also be able to save some space on your iPad by deleting some email. Emails usually don't take up a lot of space, though if you have mail with large attachments or embedded photos, that can net you a fair bit of space.
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Apple announces new iPod touch for $199

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Apple is keeping the iPod alive with a new model

• Apple announces a new iPod touch.
  
  
• The new iPod starts at $199 with 32GB of storage and will be in stores this week. Customers can order it now.
  
  
• It has the same processor as the iPhone 7 and is the first iPod update since 2015.

Apple announced a new iPod Touch, replacing the previous model that was introduced in 2015.

The new iPod touch starts at $199 and includes Apple’s A10 Fusion processor, the same chip used in Apple’s older iPhone 7 that launched in 2016. That means it’s not as powerful as Apple’s latest iPhones, but there are still some upgrades over the last iPod touch.

It includes support for augmented reality apps, for example, which also work on the latest iPads and iPhones and allow people to place digital objects on top of the real world. It will also support all of Apple’s new services, including Apple News+, Apple Arcade and Apple TV+, which launch later this fall, and Apple TV Channels. It also supports Group FaceTime, which allows up to 32 people to video chat at the same time.

Apple’s hardware sales have plateaued, so the company is relying more on services to spur its business. People don’t seem to be buying iPods anymore, but the $200 price point may appeal to people who want to give their kids a device that can access Apple’s content without paying for a phone data plan. It’s cheaper than Apple’s entry-level iPad, which starts at $329.

The $199 iPod touch will ship with 32GB of storage, which isn’t a whole lot if you download movies, music and apps. Apple will also sell a $299 model with 128GB of storage and a $399 model with 256GB of storage. It comes in gray, white, gold, blue, red or pink.

Apple is taking orders for the new iPod touch Tuesday and the device will be in stores later this week.
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One of the first-ever Apple computers just sold for almost $500,000





Steve Jobs, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., right, speaks in front of a file photograph of himself and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak during the launch of the Apple iPad tablet at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010.



In 1976, you would have paid several hundred dollars for a brand-new Apple-1 computer, the first line of personal computers designed and hand-built by Apple founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. But if you have an Apple-1 computer today, chances are it’s worth quite a bit more.

Just ask auction house Christie’s, which recently auctioned off a 1976 Apple-1 for nearly half-a-million dollars in London. The computer, which is still in working condition, sold at auction for just over $470,000 to an anonymous buyer, according to Christie’s.





A 1976 Apple-1 computer, with manuals, microprocessor, memory chips, and television screen that came with the computer in the auction.
(see my note at bottom)



Because the original Apple-1 computers were not sold with a case, the one auctioned by Christie’s comes in a leather briefcase mounted by a previous owner, the auction house says. The computer also includes a built-in keyboard and it comes with an original operation manual for the Apple-1, as well as a user manual for writing the computer programming language, BASIC.





An Apple-1 computer, enclosed in a leather briefcase, that was sold at auction by Christie’s in 2019.



Launched in July 1976, the Apple-1 was the first desktop computer released by Apple in the same year the company was founded out of Jobs’ parents’ garage. Wozniak hand-built all 200 of the Apple-1 computers the company made, which sold for $666.66 apiece (Wozniak reportedly had a preference for repeating digits).





Rare Apple-1 housed in a briefcase with the keyboard lifted to show the mainboard



In 1977, Apple released an updated version of its desktop computer, the Apple-II, discontinuing the Apple-1 after only manufacturing a couple of hundred of the computers. (And, later, many of those 200 computers are believed to have been destroyed.) The Apple-II would go on to become the first commercially successful personal computer on the market, selling between five and six million computers over more than a decade.

But, because of the small number of Apple-1′s in existence, the computers are rarely found on the open market, especially in working condition, and that makes them pretty valuable to anyone looking for a piece of tech history. There are 15 Apple-1′s in public collections, including museums like the Smithsonian Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., according to Christie’s.

In 2013, Christie’s sold an early Apple-1 signed by Wozniak at auction for $387,750, while other Apple-1 sales have fetched even more. In 2014, the Henry Ford Museum paid $905,000 for one Apple-1, while the co-founders of cosmetics firm Glamglow paid $815,000 for a rare Apple-1 prototype built by Jobs and Wozniak in 2016.

The Apple-1 sold by Christie’s this past week was previously owned by a computer enthusiast named Rick Conte, who bought it in 1977 to learn BASIC and later donated it to the Maine Personal Computer Museum in 2009. From that point on, the computer was sold to various private owners before landing at Christie’s for auction, the auction house says.









Sandy note

I don't know why there's a Motorola 6800 brochure in the second photo as the Apple I, along with it's successor Apple II series of computers, used MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor.






If you click on the link, look at the white ceramic IC in location A7, 6502 Microprocessor is printed on the PCB, and MOS MCS6502 on the chip.
These processors could not run 6800 software.

2,880px × 1,920px

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What Apple announced yesterday: iOS 13, macOS, Mac Pro and more

• Apple announced new versions of its software for iPhones, iPads and Macs at its annual software developers event Monday.
  
  
• It also announced a new Mac Pro, it’s most powerful computer ever. It costs $6,000.
  
  
• Apple also gave developers a new way to migrate their iPad apps to a Mac, which will give it more opportunities to sell apps through its Mac App Store.

Apple kicked off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday where it unveiled its new software for Mac, iPhone and iPad as well as a new $6,000 Mac Pro.

WWDC is when Apple typically pulls back the curtains on where its software is heading. The company has announced a new version of its iOS at WWDC every year since 2009. At Monday’s event it unveiled version 13, which comes with a new dark mode and updated apps.

Apple also announced its new macOS that will make iOS apps available to 100 million Mac users. The announcement fits into Apple’s new focus on selling services to existing device users as the smartphone market has slowed down.

Beyond that, Apple TV and the Apple Watch also have new software updates.

All of the software updates announced Monday will be immediately available for developers. Everyone else will receive them for free in the fall.

Here’s everything Apple announced Monday:


Mac

Apple announced a new Mac Pro at Monday’s event, which it said is its most powerful ever. The new system offers robust features for professionals dealing with large files like videos. Apple built a new card called Afterburner that can process 6 billion pixels per second to achieve more efficient video editing. The Mac Pro has 1.5 terabytes of system memory and a 1.4 kW power supply. The Mac Pro will start at $5,999 and be available this fall.

Apple also introduced a new 32-inch display called the Pro Display XDR. It has what Apple calls extreme dynamic range, which produces more accurate colors. The Pro Display XDR will start at $4,999 and also be available in the fall. It does not include the stand, which costs another $999.

Apple introduced its new macOS Catalina.

The big news: iTunes is no more. Instead, Apple is splitting iTunes into three separate apps: Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV. Users no longer need iTunes to sync their phones to a computer.

With a new feature called Sidecar, users can make their iPad into a second display for their Mac. The new Voice Control for both iOS and macOS lets users control their devices with their voices using the latest Siri voice recognition technology. It’s a feature designed for people with disabilities.

Apple is expanding Find My iPhone through an app called Find My that will also be available for the Mac. Even when the Mac is offline or sleeping, it will send off a Bluetooth signal that can be detected, so users can locate their devices. Apple’s new Activation Lock makes it so that a thief would not be able to access a stolen Mac.

Apple is making it easier to create apps that work on macOS and iOS with Project Catalyst, which will be available to developers in the new macOS on Monday. The update means developers can easily bring their iPhone and iPad over to the Mac. It also gives Apple the opportunity to sell even more apps on the 100 million Macs being used today.


iPad

Apple made some of its biggest changes to the iPad’s software on Monday. It now runs a new operating system called iPad OS, which is based on iOS for iPhones. It features several new features that make the iPad act more like a traditional desktop computer.

iPad OS will make it easier to multitask. Users can switch between apps more smoothly or even view two windows next to each other. That means an iPad user can put two documents or notes side by side.

Typing and scrolling is designed to be easier to use as well. The keyboard can be shrunken down to make it easier to type with one hand on the screen.

The new system will make it easier to share files through new folder sharing through iCloud drive. Users can also plug a thumb drive, SD card reader or digital camera directly into the iPad to upload files, videos or photos.

Safari on iPad will serve viewers the desktop version of apps, rather than the mobile version to make for a smoother browsing experience. The browser will get new keyboard shortcuts and a download manager.


iOS

Apple unveiled its latest version of its iPhone operating system, iOS 13. With the new system, unlocking with FaceID will be 30% faster. App launch speed will be up to twice as fast on the new system.


The operating system got a big redesign with the introduction of dark mode, which gives system menus and apps a dark background. The keyboard will allow users to swipe across letters to type, rather than need to tap individual letters.

ed new features to some of its popular iOS apps built into the iPhone. Safari will let users more easily change text size, Mail will now support rich fonts and Notes will have a gallery view. The Reminders app got the biggest rewrite, adding options to easily add photos and locations with a quick type bar. If a user tags a person in a reminder, they will get a notification about it next time they enter a message with that person.

Apple has been working to revamp its Maps with more granularity and a street view mode similar to the one in Google Maps. It expects to roll out the new version of the app to the entire U.S. by the end of 2019.

On the privacy front, Apple announced a new “Sign in with Apple” feature that gives users greater control over the data they share with apps. Developers will be able to include the sign-in for their apps as an alternative to a sign-in option with Facebook or Google, which Apple criticized on stage for gathering too much personal data about users.

With Sign in with Apple, if an app asks a user to share their email address, the user can choose to share their real address or have Apple share an automatically generated address that forwards to their actual account. Apple also announced HomeKit Secure Video, which will analyze home security footage in the home before encrypting it and sending it to the cloud to provide better privacy.

Siri is getting some new updates as well, including a more natural voice. Siri can announce messages through Apple’s messaging app or a third-party messaging app. It will also work with third-party apps like Pandora and Waze on CarPlay.

Apple is making it smoother to transition audio experiences between devices, so that users can transfer music or podcasts playing through their Airpods to their HomePod once they get home. Users can also share audio with friends through their devices.


Watch

Apple is bringing more apps to the watch, including voice memos, audiobooks and the calculator.

The new WatchOS makes the watch more independent from the iPhone. Users will be able to update their watch software on the device directly, rather than through the iPhone. The OS will support independent apps that don’t require a companion app on the iPhone. It will also let users search the full App Store from the watch directly and live stream audio.

Apple is also expanding its health features on the new watch operating system. It will give users more insights into their “activity trends” over longer periods of time. It also adds an app that will alert users when they are being exposed to dangerously loud noise levels.

The company announced a new cycle tracking app for tracking fertility and menstrual cycles. The app will be available both on the watch and to nonwatch users on the iPhone through the Health app.


TV

Apple is redesigning its TV homepage and letting different profiles have their own “up next” lists. Apple’s TV operating system will support Xbox and PlayStation controllers to for playing video games.
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I use an old 2009 macbook to read Literotica. I liked the feature of Safari that when I hit reader view it will load all the pages of a multi part story into one nice readable page. The other day it stopped working. Did Lit change something? Just me? My much more recent iPad also won't load multiple pages.

astuffedshirt_perv said:

I use an old 2009 macbook to read Literotica. I liked the feature of Safari that when I hit reader view it will load all the pages of a multi part story into one nice readable page. The other day it stopped working. Did Lit change something? Just me? My much more recent iPad also won't load multiple pages.

Click to expand...

Happened to notice in Lit Tech Support a new Safari reader view thread with the same problem.


I'll also post this offer in the other thread:

Checked my resources if there have been any recent updates or someone else also having this problem to little (or no) avail. Seems it may be a Lit issue.

If you, and anyone else experiencing this problem, want post versions of macOS, iOS, or iPadOS, and Safari you're running, along with any other pertinent information. I"ll consolidate into a single PM for Manu. Not saying he'll reply as he's quite elusive, but a single PM instead of many hopefully he'll help.


Sandy

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Also have multiple interesting privacy articles published, but been waiting more than six months for this.



Apple's $5,999 modular Mac Pro now available to order

You could spend $52,199 before you even add a screen


Read a lot today and tried to geek this down.







Apple's newest desktop computer, the Mac Pro, is available now. It starts at $5,999 but if you want to fully upgrade it, you'll spend $52,199.

And that's before you even get a screen.

It costs an additional $7,000 to upgrade the standard processor to the most-power 28-core option, which is required for the $15,000 1.5 TB memory upgrade. You'll spend $10,800 upgrading the graphics, another $1,400 for 4 TB of storage (an 8 TB option is coming soon, so expect to pay even more) and $2,000 for an Apple Afterburner card.

That puts you at $52,199, but you can spend another $400 on wheels instead of feet at the bottom so you can move it around. You can also spend another $150 for the Magic Trackpad 2 and Magic Trackpad if you don't want to use the included mouse.

If you want the fancy 32-inch Retina 5K Pro Display XDR screen that Apple sells for the Mac Pro, expect to pay another $4,999, and that's before the optional $999 Pro stand. (And you'll need the stand unless you want to prop up your new $5,000 monitor against a wall or something.)

If all this sounds insane, don't worry. The Mac Pro isn't a computer for regular users. Instead, it's meant for video, audio and photography professionals who want as much power as possible from an Apple computer. Think Pixar animators, not casual web browsers and emailers. If you're in that market, you can buy the Mac Pro now with delivery as soon as next week.


And that’s before optional Pre-Installed Software
$299.99 Final Cut Pro X
$199.99 Logic Pro X


Apple released its iMac Pro around this same time two years ago, but while that all-in-one solution satisfied some users, others have been asking for a traditional tower desktop. The Mac Pro is Apple's attempt to answer six years of complaints about the 2013 Mac Pro. The 2013 version was not customizable as users wanted and an architecture that did not pan out.



sure as hell not going to even jokingly ask my boss, so perhaps on


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U.S. Senators Threaten Apple and Facebook With Encryption Regulation and backdoors

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U.S. Senators Threaten Apple and Facebook With Encryption Regulation and backdoors if tech companies won’t do it themselves



Lawmakers on Tuesday threatened to pass litigation that would force technology companies to provide court-ordered access to encrypted devices and messages unless the businesses can come up with a solution.

“You’re going to find a way to do this or we’re going to do this for you,” Lindsey Graham, R-SC, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told representatives from Apple and Facebook, during their testimony.

The company representatives were joined by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and Matt Tait, a cybersecurity fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, to discuss encryption and lawful access. Tech companies and government agencies are at odds over how to handle encryption in a world where criminals, like the rest of us, are spending more time on their smartphones and other gadgets.

Law enforcement officials argue that encryption keeps them from accessing criminals’ devices, even under a court order or after death, and prevents them from detecting internet-based crimes like sharing images of child exploitation. For tech companies, the focus remains protecting user privacy, and they say that creating a key or “backdoor” into the devices or messages makes the system vulnerable to malicious actors.

Tait testified that while technology companies have the capability to develop an improved encryption system, they don’t have the incentives. With respect to device encryption, which is how Apple prevents access to phones without a correct passcode or fingerprint, Tait said any system that allows for lawful access would instantly be attacked. But if Congress required companies to provide access under court order, companies like Google and Apple would be forced to build a compliant solution “in the most secure way possible.”

Facebook faces a different issue because it doesn’t make the devices that are used to send messages over its services. Facebook is working on integrating its three messaging products and encrypting them from end to end, a plan that’s raised alarm from the highest ranks of the law enforcement community.


Attorney General William Barr asked CEO Mark Zuckerberg in October to hold off on the encryption plans until officials could ensure it would not hurt public safety. Facebook responded to that letter in a message dated Monday, saying they don’t plan to weaken encryption to allow for law enforcement access in the name of public safety.

The encryption debate between government and industry has been ongoing since 2015, in the wake of the mass shooting in San Bernadino, California. Apple fought the FBI on its request to help it unlock the shooter’s phone, and CEO Tim Cook called the order “dangerous,” arguing that it could set a precedent for future government overreach or company surveillance.

In that case, the Justice Department ultimately said it was able to access the phone’s data on its own. But Vance said that outcome is as likely as tossing a coin.

Since Apple released iOS 8 in 2014 with greater security features that made it harder for law enforcement to access technology, Vance said his office has received a growing percentage of locked Apple devices in criminal investigations. He said his office is able to unlock about half of those with the help of third-party vendors, but warned that the work can be “cost-prohibitive.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, said at Tuesday’s hearing that by preventing law enforcement from accessing devices, companies are creating a “safe harbor” for criminals.

“That is why on a bipartisan basis you’re hearing us say we’ve slapped your hand enough and you all have got to get your act together or we will gladly get your act together for you,” Blackburn said.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, echoed that sentiment, telling the executives that, “I think you’d rather find the solution than have Congress do it for you.”




The possibility for backdoors to be abused by politicians and authority figures.
Aside from hackers having potential access to a weak spot in encryption, the creation of backdoors could lead to law enforcement or government requests that reach further than fighting crime, and possibly into the realm of surveillance of its citizens.



U.S. senators threaten Facebook, Apple with encryption regulation - Reuters
December 10, 2019 / 12:36 PM
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sultrysandy said:

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U.S. Senators Threaten Apple and Facebook With Encryption Regulation and backdoors if tech companies won’t do it themselves



Lawmakers on Tuesday threatened to pass litigation that would force technology companies to provide court-ordered access to encrypted devices and messages unless the businesses can come up with a solution.

“You’re going to find a way to do this or we’re going to do this for you,” Lindsey Graham, R-SC, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told representatives from Apple and Facebook, during their testimony.

The company representatives were joined by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and Matt Tait, a cybersecurity fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, to discuss encryption and lawful access. Tech companies and government agencies are at odds over how to handle encryption in a world where criminals, like the rest of us, are spending more time on their smartphones and other gadgets.

Law enforcement officials argue that encryption keeps them from accessing criminals’ devices, even under a court order or after death, and prevents them from detecting internet-based crimes like sharing images of child exploitation. For tech companies, the focus remains protecting user privacy, and they say that creating a key or “backdoor” into the devices or messages makes the system vulnerable to malicious actors.

Tait testified that while technology companies have the capability to develop an improved encryption system, they don’t have the incentives. With respect to device encryption, which is how Apple prevents access to phones without a correct passcode or fingerprint, Tait said any system that allows for lawful access would instantly be attacked. But if Congress required companies to provide access under court order, companies like Google and Apple would be forced to build a compliant solution “in the most secure way possible.”

Facebook faces a different issue because it doesn’t make the devices that are used to send messages over its services. Facebook is working on integrating its three messaging products and encrypting them from end to end, a plan that’s raised alarm from the highest ranks of the law enforcement community.


Attorney General William Barr asked CEO Mark Zuckerberg in October to hold off on the encryption plans until officials could ensure it would not hurt public safety. Facebook responded to that letter in a message dated Monday, saying they don’t plan to weaken encryption to allow for law enforcement access in the name of public safety.

The encryption debate between government and industry has been ongoing since 2015, in the wake of the mass shooting in San Bernadino, California. Apple fought the FBI on its request to help it unlock the shooter’s phone, and CEO Tim Cook called the order “dangerous,” arguing that it could set a precedent for future government overreach or company surveillance.

In that case, the Justice Department ultimately said it was able to access the phone’s data on its own. But Vance said that outcome is as likely as tossing a coin.

Since Apple released iOS 8 in 2014 with greater security features that made it harder for law enforcement to access technology, Vance said his office has received a growing percentage of locked Apple devices in criminal investigations. He said his office is able to unlock about half of those with the help of third-party vendors, but warned that the work can be “cost-prohibitive.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, said at Tuesday’s hearing that by preventing law enforcement from accessing devices, companies are creating a “safe harbor” for criminals.

“That is why on a bipartisan basis you’re hearing us say we’ve slapped your hand enough and you all have got to get your act together or we will gladly get your act together for you,” Blackburn said.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, echoed that sentiment, telling the executives that, “I think you’d rather find the solution than have Congress do it for you.”




The possibility for backdoors to be abused by politicians and authority figures.
Aside from hackers having potential access to a weak spot in encryption, the creation of backdoors could lead to law enforcement or government requests that reach further than fighting crime, and possibly into the realm of surveillance of its citizens.



U.S. senators threaten Facebook, Apple with encryption regulation - Reuters
December 10, 2019 / 12:36 PM
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Click to expand...

Fuck Lindsey Graham, R-SC and the horse his back sliding two faced self rode in on.

sultrysandy said:

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Also have multiple interesting privacy articles published, but been waiting more than six months for this.



Apple's $5,999 modular Mac Pro now available to order

You could spend $52,199 before you even add a screen


Read a lot today and tried to geek this down.

Apple's newest desktop computer, the Mac Pro, is available now. It starts at $5,999 but if you want to fully upgrade it, you'll spend $52,199.

And that's before you even get a screen.

It costs an additional $7,000 to upgrade the standard processor to the most-power 28-core option, which is required for the $15,000 1.5 TB memory upgrade. You'll spend $10,800 upgrading the graphics, another $1,400 for 4 TB of storage (an 8 TB option is coming soon, so expect to pay even more) and $2,000 for an Apple Afterburner card.

That puts you at $52,199, but you can spend another $400 on wheels instead of feet at the bottom so you can move it around. You can also spend another $150 for the Magic Trackpad 2 and Magic Trackpad if you don't want to use the included mouse.

If you want the fancy 32-inch Retina 5K Pro Display XDR screen that Apple sells for the Mac Pro, expect to pay another $4,999, and that's before the optional $999 Pro stand. (And you'll need the stand unless you want to prop up your new $5,000 monitor against a wall or something.)

If all this sounds insane, don't worry. The Mac Pro isn't a computer for regular users. Instead, it's meant for video, audio and photography professionals who want as much power as possible from an Apple computer. Think Pixar animators, not casual web browsers and emailers. If you're in that market, you can buy the Mac Pro now with delivery as soon as next week.


And that’s before optional Pre-Installed Software
$299.99 Final Cut Pro X
$199.99 Logic Pro X


Apple released its iMac Pro around this same time two years ago, but while that all-in-one solution satisfied some users, others have been asking for a traditional tower desktop. The Mac Pro is Apple's attempt to answer six years of complaints about the 2013 Mac Pro. The 2013 version was not customizable as users wanted and an architecture that did not pan out.



sure as hell not going to even jokingly ask my boss, so perhaps on

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Click to expand...

Lets put one on everyone’s Christmas list unless you have the cold hard cash to pay the price they want for them.

sultrysandy said:

Lawmakers on Tuesday threatened to pass litigation that would force technology companies to provide court-ordered access to encrypted devices and messages unless the businesses can come up with a solution.

“You’re going to find a way to do this or we’re going to do this for you,” Lindsey Graham, R-SC, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told representatives from Apple and Facebook, during their testimony.

Click to expand...

I'd call Graham ignorant, but by now he undoubtedly knows why this is dangerous bullshit and just just doesn't care. Actual terrorists will go on using secure encryption and steganography, and backdoors will be useless against them. Meanwhile this compromises everybody else's security.

For tech companies, the focus remains protecting user privacy, and they say that creating a key or “backdoor” into the devices or messages makes the system vulnerable to malicious actors.

Click to expand...

I wish they wouldn't use the "tech companies say" framing. This is simple, straightforward FACT. It really isn't controversial except to people who have a vested interest in pretending not to understand the obvious.

Tait testified that while technology companies have the capability to develop an improved encryption system, they don’t have the incentives. With respect to device encryption, which is how Apple prevents access to phones without a correct passcode or fingerprint, Tait said any system that allows for lawful access would instantly be attacked. But if Congress required companies to provide access under court order, companies like Google and Apple would be forced to build a compliant solution “in the most secure way possible.”

Click to expand...

...which is still not secure.

The encryption debate between government and industry has been ongoing since 2015, in the wake of the mass shooting in San Bernadino, California.

Click to expand...

It's been going on MUCH longer than that. Since at least 1993. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip

sultrysandy said:

The encryption debate between government and industry has been ongoing since 2015, in the wake of the mass shooting in San Bernadino, California. Apple fought the FBI on its request to help it unlock the shooter’s phone, and CEO Tim Cook called the order “dangerous,” arguing that it could set a precedent for future government overreach or company surveillance.


The possibility for backdoors to be abused by politicians and authority figures.
Aside from hackers having potential access to a weak spot in encryption, the creation of backdoors could lead to law enforcement or government requests that reach further than fighting crime, and possibly into the realm of surveillance of its citizens.

Click to expand...

When reading about the senators, I wrote this, thought for a couple days, then decided not to post. But now as a couple have chimed in, will do so now.



At the municipal, county, state, and federal levels you can imagine how this will be abused.

Smartphones and video web hosting web sites are not the friends of some law enforcement. Police have been recorded by another bystander(s) destroying smartphones recording their malfeasance.

Complaints have been filed how police have confiscated security cameras that may have recorded them. They’ve also wanted cases dismissed for recording them without their knowledge as an invasion of their privacy. Oh the irony. What's good to press charges against people but not keep them responsible for their actions. Gee, imagine authority figured that are hypocrites; reminds me of politicians.


They’ve been caught disabling audio on dashboard cameras. Many do not like dashboard or body cameras as it holds them accountable.

It’s not uncommon for judges to toss out evidence obtained by law enforcement using search warrants, but not for the law enforcement official or even the reason they were issued.


But they won't misuse or abuse access to people's devices using back doors.



What I said doesn’t include how Stingrays are abused eavesdropping in cellphone frequency spectrum.

Apple's Safari ad tracking prevention tech 'stunningly effective,' says industry exec

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Apple's attempts to shield Safari users on iOS and Mac from privacy-infringing ad tracking technology has been "stunningly effective," according to ad executives, some of whom say features like Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) have severely impacted income.







According to ad industry insiders, Apple's privacy-minded features have resulted in a 60% decrease in pricing for targeted Safari ads, reports The Information. At the same time, ad prices on Google's Chrome browser have risen, according to the report.

That is not to say users of Apple's first-party web browser are less valuable. Indeed, the opposite holds true; the eyes of Safari users are among the most desired because Apple devotees— iPhone owners in particular — on average have deeper pockets than users of other platforms and are thus more attractive to advertisers.

As a result of Apple's moves, which began in earnest with the advent of machine learning-powered, unwanted cookie-busting ITP in 2017, advertisers looking to employ cookies as a means to sneak a peek at Safari user habits are being shut down.

"The allure of a Safari user in an auction has plummeted," Rubicon Project CEO Michael Barrett told the publication. "There's no easy ability to ID a user."

Without insight into browsing patterns, Safari users become a low yield target for ad purveyors. And that is by design. With little incentive to invest in ad-serving cookies on Safari, with the security issues that process invites, advertisers are forced to either change tactics or move on to another platform.

According to ad selling software company Nativo, approximately 9% of iPhone-based Safari users on allow web entities to track their browsing habits. That figure grows to 13% on Mac. By contrast, some 79% of Chrome users allow ad tracking on mobile.

Some believe advertisers need to think outside the box when it comes to tapping the rich Apple vein. Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, told The Information that thanks to Apple's privacy-focused endeavors, alternative targeting methods like contextual advertising are gaining traction. Marketers can, for example, effectively direct users to relatable ads based on the type of articles they read.

Ad firms loath to transition away from cookies are feeling the pinch. Following the release of ITP, Criteo, which controls 15 percent of the browser-based market, said it lost $25 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to the report. In early 2018, the firm said it expected to slash annual revenues by a fifth due in large part to ITP.

Apple has proactively restricted user tracking on the web for years with initial efforts like the Limit Ad Tracking feature in iOS 6. More recently, and with a solid foundation in ITP, the company has further curtailed the use of cookies in Safari and WebKit.

For its part, the company says ITP and successor technologies are designed to enhance consumer privacy, not destroy the online advertising business.
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Apple's iPhone created industries and changed the world this decade

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A place where emicons or a couple of words are commonly a post, this is long and I'm splitting it in half. Not that any of my previous posts are short.






The iPhone decade: How Apple’s phone created industries and changed the world





Apple CEO Tim Cook.



It’s possible to look at the last 10 years as the iPhone decade — when smartphones went mainstream, created billion-dollar corporations, rearranged existing industries and changed the world.

The iPhone was first released in 2007, but at the dawn of the decade it was still a relatively niche product, confined to one wireless carrier and targeted at the early technology adopter. Now it’s a much bigger deal — in the first calendar quarter of 2010, Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones. In the first quarter of 2018, Apple sold 47 million iPhones.

Apple sold at least 1.4 billion iPhones during the decade, according to its official sales figures, and probably closer to 1.6 billion after this year’s estimates are added. Apple says over 900 million iPhones are in active use.

Apple’s iPhone unit sales are dwarfed by Google’s Android operating system, which has shipped billions of devices as well. But as revealed in Apple’s knock-down legal battles with Samsung — perhaps the highest-profile tech litigation of the decade — Google and its Android partners took a fair amount of inspiration from Apple’s iPhone.

The iPhone has also propelled Apple. In the last 10 years, Apple has gone from a large computer company with a profitable side business in MP3 players to a $1 trillion megacorp with operations around the globe and 137,000 full-time employees.







″Unquestionably, it’s the most impactful consumer tech product over the past decade,” Loup Ventures founder and longtime Apple analyst Gene Munster said.


Replace everything in your pocket




Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California on Monday, June 4, 2018.



The iPhone became intertwined in our lives because it replaced so many other devices.

Instead of a personal communicator with your calendar and notes, people use their iPhone. They don’t have an alarm clock anymore. It replaced in-car GPS devices. MP3 players. Flashlights!

“Fifteen years ago, we used the wireless phone to make a call. Today, we use it for everything else. It’s the remote control for our lives,” wireless analyst Jeff Kagan said.

Perhaps the best example of the iPhone’s transformational power is what it did to the camera. Some 109 million pocket cameras were sold in 2010, according to data from the Camera & Imaging Products Association. But in 2018, the last year for which full data is available, only 9 million cameras with built-in lenses were sold.

“Some products been absorbed, some have been completely removed from the marketplace, and that’s part of a free and open marketplace,” said Thomas Cooke, a professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.

The iPhone has also created arguably as many new industries as it destroyed.

Ride-hailing companies Lyft and Uber are collectively worth more than $60 billion, and they exist only thanks to the always-on GPS location and high-speed wireless connections that became common with the iPhone.

“You can go through every feature of the phone and think of billion-dollar companies that have been created around them. It impacts almost every facet of our lives,” Munster said.

“The camera and Instagram. Location does anything from maps, like Waze, to advertising on Google Maps, to food delivery like Grubhub. NFC has enabled mobile banking, which is going to change the banking industry. Content consumption is video consumption now. YouTube wouldn’t be YouTube now without the iPhone,” he said.





A woman tries out a new Apple 11 Pro during an Apple product launch event at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California on September 10, 2019.



The iPhone and its Apple-controlled App Store also became a massive business and gave app developers an easy way to sell to a global audience. In January, Apple said developers on its App Store platform had made $120 billion since it launched in 2008, with over $30 billion in 2018 alone.


A massive supply chain


Although the core idea of the iPhone did not change during the decade, the device itself became significantly more powerful.

At the start of the decade, the most powerful iPhone was the iPhone 3G, the second version of the device, featuring a slow Samsung CPU with one core running at 412 MHz. The iPhone 11 Pro, the latest major revision to the iPhone, comes equipped with an Apple-designed chip with a max speed of 2.65GHz in six cores. Modern iPhone performance rivals laptops, according to some tests.

The same level of improvement happened to the display as well. A top-of-the-line iPhone in 2010 had a 3.5-inch screen with 153,000 pixels. The newest iPhones can come equipped with a 6.5-inch screen with over 2.6 million pixels.

“Now that we’re on iPhone 11, if we went back and used the iPhone 1 or 2, it would be like going back to the Model T,” Kagan said.

The downside is that iPhones also become more expensive, at least upfront. The iPhone 3G cost only $199 for the entry-level model, partially subsidized by a two-year AT&T contract. Apple’s Pro iPhones now start at $999, and the wireless contract is sold separately.





Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller speaks on-stage during a product launch event at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California on September 10, 2019.



Apple’s ability to deliver a new model every year with significantly improved capabilities was underpinned by a vast and sophisticated supply chain that culminated in massive assembly facilities in China run by Apple’s primary manufacturing partner, Foxconn. In 2017, Apple said it created and supported 4.8 million jobs in China.

The parts that went into the iPhone and other smartphones — tiny cameras, dense batteries, high-quality touch screens — were cloned and eventually became common, enabling a generation of entrepreneurs to make new kinds of hardware products, such as drones, scooters and smart home products.



Next - Tim Cook’s era, and A victim of its own success
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Apologize for late second half of this post. Scrambling preparing for next week's posts and shoring up for a potential problem.




Tim Cook’s era

When the decade started, Apple was led by founder Steve Jobs. On Aug. 24, 2011, two months before Jobs’ death, Tim Cook took over as CEO, and he’s been in charge ever since.

Under Cook, Apple has sold sold billions of iPhones and raked in hundreds of billions of profit. At one point, it registered what was at the time the most profitable quarter for a publicly traded company ever.

For much of the decade, Apple was the most valuable publicly traded company, only recently losing that crown briefly to longtime tech rival Microsoft and more recently, Saudi Aramco.





Apple CEO Tim Cook takes a selfie with an attendee during a special event on September 10, 2019 in the Steve Jobs Theater on Apple’s Cupertino, California campus.



For years, Apple grew a giant stash of cash and marketable securities on the back of its iPhone sales, but in 2018, after tax reform, it indicated it planned to distribute the majority of that wealth to its shareholders in the form of buybacks and dividends.

Those buybacks helped the stock price grow over 900% on a split-adjusted basis. A million dollars invested in Apple on Jan 1, 2010, would be worth over $9.13 million last Friday, after a 7-1 stock split in 2014.

Along the way, Apple has crossed a few big landmarks. It joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2015, a symbol that Apple is a blue-chip stock and an industry standard-bearer. It got an endorsement from famously tech-shy investor Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway now owns over 5% of Apple.

In 2018, Apple became the first publicly traded company to cross a $1 trillion market capitalization. “Financial returns are simply the result of Apple’s innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values,” Cook told Apple employees in a memo marking the occasion.

It also opened a literal landmark in 2017: Apple Park, a giant corporate campus in its hometown of Cupertino, California, that cost an estimated $5 billion to build and now serves as the company’s headquarters.







Apple also launched three major new product lines: the iPad, Apple Watch and AirPods. All have sold well. None has changed the world like the iPhone.


A victim of its own success

Apple enters the next decade as a juggernaut with several massively profitable products. But it increasingly faces challenges related to its size and success.

Recently, the House Judiciary Committee requested documents from Apple, along with Amazon, Facebook and Google, as part of an antitrust probe as the mood in Washington turns more skeptical of Big Tech. In recent months, Cook has had to answer questions from international press whether Apple is a monopoly, mainly based around its control of its App Store platform.

“No reasonable person would ever call Apple a monopolist,” Cook said in October.

There are also increasing concerns from activists and consumer advocates about the environmental cost of selling new hardware devices to hundreds of millions of people, who upgrade every few years. In recent years, Apple has introduced new recycling programs and initiatives to reduce the waste going to landfills.

Others, including former head Apple designer Jony Ive, have expressed fears that iPhones may be too good — and people can’t put them down. In response, Apple introduced a Screen Time feature to help people wean their addiction to the little glowing screen.

“One turning point is when Apple introduced the Screen Time feature, and CEO Tim Cook said he was using his phone too much,” said Kaiwei Tang, co-founder of Light, a company that makes an iPhone alternative focused on limiting over-usage.

“People are starting to see some of those metrics. It’s basic math, spending five hours a day on your phone, what else you might be able to do with that time?” he continued.

But the biggest challenge might simply be that the iPhone was a once-in-a-generation product that cannot grow as briskly as it did over the last 10 years, when hundreds of millions of people got an iPhone for the first time.

Unit sales for iPhones peaked in 2015 at 231 million. Since then, they have been largely flat. In 2019, Apple said it no longer planned to report unit sales, suggesting that total revenue and other metrics were sufficient information for investors.







Instead, Apple has focused investor attention on the hardware unit it calls “wearables,” which includes the Apple Watch and AirPods, and its services division, which sells content subscriptions such as Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade. But the iPhone still accounted for 54% of Apple’s 2019 sales.

Whether the 2020s will be as kind to Apple as the last 10 years were will depend on if online services and computers people wear can change our lives as much as the iPhone did.

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Apple offering week of App Store freebies for the holidays

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Starting Christmas Eve, Apple will be giving away a series of surprises for customers of the App Store, in what appears to be a reworking of its long-canceled "12 Days of Gifts" promotion.



Appearing within the App Store's Today section, a story titled "A New Surprise Awaits..." tells users of a promotion that will start on December 24 and run until December 29. Customers are told to look for "unwrapped presents" within the App Store's Today, Games, and Apps tabs each day of the week-long offer.

"From December 24 to 29, you'll find a new surprise every day on the App Store," the notice reads. "Come back daily to discover which treat we have waiting for you!"

Apple doesn't say what kind of gifts customers can expect to receive by taking part in the promotion, but given it operates within the App Store, it is likely to be free or discounted apps. As the offers are replaced each day, it is probable customers will have only a 24-hour window to claim their free or discounted items.

It is unclear what markets will be able to take advantage of the offer. At the time of publication, the notice has appeared in the United States' version of the storefront, but not in the United Kingdom.

At face value, it seems like the event will be similar to another Apple regularly held in its online stores in previous years: The "12 Days of Christmas" or "12 Days of Gifts" promotion.

Originally launched in 2008 and ran for six years before ending in 2014, the 12 Days of Gifts offer gave users in a number of countries free apps, music, e-books, and other content every day for 12 days. The new version very much appears to be a is a revival of that offer, albeit lasting for a shorter timeframe.
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Apple iPhone tips and tricks

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Getting more out of your new iPhone

If you got a new iPhone for the holidays, you might not know about some of the things it can do. Apple’s iOS 13 software, which ships on iPhones and is available for older models, has lots of new features.






If you got a new iPhone for the holidays, you’ve probably already gone through some of the initial setup and configured things like Face ID. But, there’s a whole lot more you can do with your new iPhone, thanks to the latest iOS 13 update that rolled out in September.

Since iOS 13 works all the way back to the iPhone 6S, most of these will work on old iPhones, too. So even if you didn’t get the newest iPhone 11 Pro Max during the holidays, you can still take advantage of almost everything in this guide.



Send unknown callers to voicemail

You can fight spam by automatically sending unknown numbers right to voicemail. You just want to make sure you have numbers for important places, like your doctor’s office or child’s school, saved to your address book so that you don’t miss them. Once you have, just do this to send all unknown numbers to voicemail:

• Open Settings on your iPhone.
  
  
• Tap Phone.
  
  
• Scroll down to “Silence Unknown Callers.”
  
  
• Toggle the button to on.

Play Spotify with Siri

Siri can finally control third-party music apps. That means you can ask her to play your favorite songs and she’ll play right from other services, like Spotify, instead of just through Apple Music. To use Spotify, do this:

• Make sure you have the latest version of Spotify installed.
  
  
• Ask Siri to play music on Spotify, with a command like “Siri, play Led Zeppelin on Spotify.”
  
  
• Siri will ask you if it can access your Spotify data.
  
  
• Say Yes.

Each time you ask Siri to play a song, artist or album, just make sure to tack “on Spotify” at the end. Now she’ll play directly from Spotify.



Take wide-angle pictures

The new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro/iPhone 11 Pro Max have a wide-angle lens. This lets you take really wide pictures that fit more into the scene. It’s a fun feature, especially for landscapes or when you’re trying to include a lot of people into one photo. To use it:

• Open the camera.
  
  
• Find where it says 1x next to the shutter button, and choose .5
  
  
• You’ll see the camera swap to a wide-angle lens.
  
  
• Take your picture.

Turn on Dark Mode

Dark mode is a new feature that launched in September. It makes things easier on your eyes at night, since there’s less white blaring at your face, and can also help save battery life on iPhones with AMOLED screens, like the iPhone X and XS series, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. It also makes things look cooler.

• Swipe down from the top-right of your iPhone’s display (or up on an iPhone that has a home button.) This opens the Control Center menu.
  
  
• Tap and hold the screen brightness toggle.
  
  
• Tap the “Dark Mode” toggle on the bottom left.

You can also schedule dark mode to turn on automatically at certain times:

• Open Settings.
  
  
• Choose Display & Brightness.
  
  
• Under Appearance, select Light or Dark mode.
  
  
• Toggle “Automatic” to on.
  
  
• Choose a custom schedule or set Dark Mode to turn on automatically at sunset and off at sunrise.
  
  
• Swipe on the keyboard

Swipe on the keyboard


This is one of those tips that’s pretty hidden unless you just start using it. The keyboard on iPhones now gives you two options: you can tap to type like normal or you can swipe from each letter to letter to form a word. Android users and third-party iPhone keyboards have had this forever, but now it’s built right into the default keyboard on the iPhone. I still prefer tap-typing, but lots of people I know prefer swiping. So, give it a try. Swipe from letter to letter on your keyboard and it’ll recognize the word you’re building and type it out for you.



Use a PS4 or Xbox controller with games


Apple finally added support for Xbox and PS4 Bluetooth controllers to iPhones. That means you can use the controller you might already have at home to play games on your iPhone without any need for plugging in wires or buying a special controller. Here’s how to set it up:

• Put your Xbox controller into pairing mode by turning it on and then holding the pairing button on the back until the front light begins flashing quickly.
  
  
• Or put your PS4 remote into pairing mode by holding the Playstation button and the share button for about three seconds.
  
  
• Open Settings on your iPhone
  
  
• Choose Bluetooth and turn it on.
  
  
• Select your controller from the list of Bluetooth devices ready for pairing.
  
  
• Wait until it says the controller is connected.
  
  
• Launch a game with controller support. Many are listed here, and some new ones are in Apple Arcade.

Optimize your charging so your battery ages better


Apple has a setting that you can enable to make sure your iPhone’s battery lasts as long as possible. It’s called “optimized battery charging” and it helps you battery age slower by charging it a bit differently. Here’s how the feature is explained on an iPhone: “To reduce battery aging, iPhone learns from your daily charging routine so it can wait to finish charging past 80% until you need to use it.”

To turn it on, do this:

• Open Settings.
  
  
• Choose Battery.
  
  
• Tap Battery Health.
  
  
• Toggle “Optimized Battery Charging.” to the on position.

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How Facebook and Big Tech gained DC scrutiny in the 2010s

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This isn't about Apple, but rather Big Tech and DC. Also broke this in half and will post the second part Tuesday,



How Cambridge Analytica and the Trump campaign changed Big Tech forever


As the 2010s come to a close, lawmakers and regulators have their eyes fixed on the tech industry following a series of scandals that drew their privacy and competition policies into question. But earlier in the decade, the tech industry had a relatively close relationship with D.C. officials. Going into the 2020s, lawmakers are considering new laws and reforms to regulate digital privacy and mergers.





(L-R) Amazon’s chief Jeff Bezos, Larry Page of Alphabet, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Vice President-elect Mike Pence and President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower December 14, 2016.


Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had made it about an hour into his two-day marathon testimony in front of Congress before the M-word came up.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was the first to float the term as lawmakers began their grilling at the April 2018 hearing. The senators wanted to know how the data from 87 million Facebook profiles was able to be harvested and sold to a political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, without users’ consent.

“You don’t think you have a monopoly?” Graham asked Zuckerberg.

Pausing and tripping slightly over his response, Zuckerberg said, “Doesn’t feel like that to me,” to a chorus of stilted laughter.

A year and a half later, Graham’s suggestion is no longer being laughed off. Facebook now faces antitrust investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, the House Judiciary Committee and a coalition of attorneys general from 47 states and U.S. territories. The Department of Justice has said it’s conducting a broad review of the tech industry. And lawmakers are regularly introducing legislation aimed at tamping down tech companies’ wide-reaching power and influence.

As the 2010s draw to a close, the relationship between Washington and Silicon Valley appears fraught. It’s a far cry from the relatively cozy alliance they fostered at the beginning of the decade, when the aftershock of the antitrust case against Microsoft had mostly waned and lawmakers and the public alike still seemed in awe of tech’s promise of advancement.

The 2010s could have been the decade that Washington embraced the tech industry. But a series of scandals has frayed the trust tech executives built up with lawmakers and regulators early on. This is the story of how the 2010s became the decade D.C. turned on Big Tech.


Close ties

Barack Obama threw his trust into technology in 2008, and it helped deliver him the presidency.

The young senator’s campaign seemed novel at the time for its savvy use of social media to build a following. Once in office, Obama made good on his promise to appoint the first chief technology officer to the White House to leverage industry advancements and modernize U.S. infrastructure and services.

Over at the FTC, agency leaders decided it was time to bring on an expert who could advise on issues intersecting technology and policy, and they hired their first chief technologist in 2010.

While there was some skepticism by government regulators over the tech industry, they still mostly let companies like Facebook and Google run their course. In 2011, the FTC settled charges that Google used deceptive practices and violated privacy promises in launching its social network, Google Buzz, forcing it to submit to regular audits for 20 years.





President Barack Obama (3R) and Vice President Joe Biden meet with executives from leading technology companies, including Apple, Twitter, and Google in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on December 17, 2013 in Washington, DC.



About a year later, the FTC also settled with Facebook for allegedly misleading users about how their data would be shared publicly and with third parties. The company agreed to new stipulations, and the same month, the FTC cleared Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, a money-losing company with just 13 full-time employees. As of last year, Instagram was worth an estimated $100 billion-plus, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.

By all accounts, Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012 was even more digital than his first. The staff built on the previous successes, scaling up the campaign’s analytics team and hiring former tech employees to work on technical aspects of the campaign. The team relied heavily on Amazon Web Services to build a variety of tools, Ars Technica reported shortly after the election.

The Obama administration continued to hire tech alums in the White House. A 2016 report from The Intercept revealed 55 cases where Google employees moved into jobs in the federal government under Obama. The report also found that Google and its affiliates had at least 427 White House meetings during Obama’s presidency, based on data from The Intercept and the Campaign for Accountability.

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Turning tides

By the middle of the decade, some latent concerns about the tech industry were starting to bubble up. The White House was beginning to take steps to promote competition across the economy, and the administration’s Council of Economic Advisers wrote that workers and consumers would stand to gain from such a push.

In April 2016, Obama issued an executive order calling on federal agencies and departments to assess and suggest specific actions to reinvigorate competition across all sectors. Alongside the order, the CEA released an issue brief suggesting, “Regulators may want to consider whether this ‘big data’ is a critical resource, without which new entrants might have a difficult time marketing to or otherwise attracting customers.”

The report signaled concerns about competition in tech markets but stopped short of a full-throttled endorsement of antitrust action. The CEA wrote that “more work is needed to understand how policies that promote competition should be applied in the digital economy and other technologically dynamic sectors.”

Within some government agencies, however, doubts about the tech industry had already started to creep in.

The DOJ, for example, sued to block a proposed $39 billion merger between AT&T and T-Mobile, claiming the combination would be harmful to consumers and unnecessary to build out AT&T’s wireless network. The companies ultimately gave up the plan in September 2011, putting AT&T on the hook for $4 billion in cash and spectrum rights due to T-Mobile parent company Deutsche Telekom.

“AT&T trying to buy T-Mobile was an effort to say, ‘Wait a minute, have we reached the limit of acquisitions within wireless?’” said a former senior antitrust official, who asked not to be named to protect the official’s current employer. The deal would have combined the second and fourth-largest telecommunication carriers in the U.S.

The FTC later opened an investigation into Google to understand if it used anticompetitive practices to fuel its search engine. It closed the case in a unanimous vote in 2013 with minor concessions from Google, but an inadvertently released copy of staff’s recommendations to the commissioners revealed underlying concerns.

The FTC staff had recommended pursuing a case against Google, The Wall Street Journal reported after the recommendation was accidentally disclosed in an open records request from the outlet. While it’s not uncommon for commissioners to vote against staff recommendations, the report fueled Google’s critics, who still point to it as a sign they are onto something.

In 2016, law enforcement started to realize tech companies wouldn’t always help their cause. Apple refused to assist the FBI in unlocking the iPhone of a mass shooter in the San Bernardino, California, attack that left 14 people dead. Apple CEO Tim Cook called a court order requesting Apple’s help “chilling” and warned of putting the security of all iPhone users in danger if the company wrote a “master key” to break the encryption. The FBI was ultimately able to crack into the iPhone without Apple’s help.


Eventually, two major flashpoints seemed to convince lawmakers and regulators that they could — and in some cases, should — do something about Big Tech.

The first mainly rippled through circles of academics and antitrust professionals. Lina Khan, then a law student at Yale, published an article in the Yale Law Review called “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox” in January 2017. The article called into question traditional interpretations of antitrust law that often measure the so-called consumer welfare standard based on price. That standard is not adequate to measure harm by a tech company like Amazon, Khan argued, since the firm’s structure has allowed it to keep prices low while circumventing antitrust enforcement.

The article didn’t spark immediate consensus, but it did light up conversation.

“It was a good piece at the right time,” said Harry First, a law professor at New York University. “You walk around you see you’re in a nice middle class neighborhood and the stores are all going out of business and you know that you’re using Amazon a lot. … These are very visibly big companies, it is not like an oil company or a steel company that you don’t see it. These are consumer-facing businesses that are part of your everyday life.”

The second flashpoint went far beyond academic circles. In March 2018, The Guardian and The New York Times broke the story of how Cambridge Analytica obtained Facebook data without users’ consent and used it to aid Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign in 2016.

The story prompted outrage at a time when Americans were particularly divided in the wake of Trump’s election and concerned about Russian interference through social media platforms. The most important response, according to Jen King, director of consumer privacy at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, came from lawmakers.

“I think Cambridge Analytica was pivotal a little bit less because of the public impact and a little bit more because of the effect on Congress,” King said. “Cambridge Analytica, because of its potential effect on the election, I think, is what motivated a lot of congressional actors to go, ‘Oh crap, this is a serious issue.’”


The 2020s: The decade of reining in tech

If the 2010s were the Wild West for tech, the 2020s are likely to be the decade of rules.

While it’s still unknown how any of the various investigations into Big Tech will end, Congress and state lawmakers across the country are keen on reining in the industry’s power.

“I think to some degree it’s going to depend on whether something comes out of these investigations,” First said of how the next decade will shake out. “It may be that some of the attention will move seriously to Congress to make changes in antitrust laws. Some disillusionment could be in store if either cases are not brought or they’re brought and lost [in court].”

Lawmakers are already beginning to question how various laws, and the lack thereof, have allowed tech companies to grow so rapidly and dodge legal obstacles. Congress and federal regulators are asking how data can amass power at a tech company. They’re asking how much that data is worth, who owns that value and what it should take for a user to pick up and move their data elsewhere.

Lawmakers are starting to seem sympathetic to the FTC’s pleas for more funding and enforcement powers. Two new Senate proposals for a federal privacy law would grant the FTC resources and authority to enforce that law.

Congressional leaders are also rethinking a law that has long-protected tech platforms from liability for their users’ content. One has suggested tying the legal shield to audits that evaluate if their processes are “politically neutral.”

Even if no enforcement actions are taken against the Big Tech firms this time, that could fuel lawmakers to take up proposals to amend the antitrust laws themselves. Given the bipartisan concern over the tech industry, it’s not difficult to imagine that laws governing mergers could be reined in, the former senior antitrust official said.

“That’s the area where I think there is the greatest prospect for there to be any sort of change,” the official said.

Already, there are some proposals on the table. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., ranking member of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee and presidential contender, introduced the Merger Enforcement Improvement Act in 2017 to give federal regulators more tools and resources to enforce merger laws.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is also seeking the presidency, is drafting a broad bill co-authored by House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I. According to a draft viewed by CNBC, the bill would apply sweeping guidelines to a range of large companies over how they price their products and treat competitors.

There’s still one major unknown that could sway the course of the next decade.

“The elephant in the room,” said Stanford Law professor Doug Melamed, “is the 2020 election.”

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ear in Review: Everything Apple Introduced in 2019

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2019 was a significant year for Apple, bringing new an updated three iPhone lineup, AirPods Pro with noise cancellation, the long-awaited 16-inch MacBook Pro, and the modular high-end Mac Pro for Apple's professional user base.

There were also a ton of new services, including Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Arcade, and the Apple Card.







10.5-inch iPad Air (March)

Apple added a new iPad to its lineup in March, debuting the iPad Air. At 10.5 inches and with a $499 price tag, the iPad Air is designed to offer a middle-tier option that's between the expensive 11-inch iPad Pro and the affordable 10.2-inch seventh-generation iPad.





The iPad Air offers up a True Tone display and a design that's similar to the now-discontinued 10.5-inch iPad Pro, plus there's an A12 Bionic chip, Apple Pencil support, and a Smart Connector that allows it to work with Apple's Smart Keyboard.

The iPad Air's specs are identical to the iPad mini 5, but it has a much bigger body.



iPad mini 5 (March)

Apple in March introduced the first update to its iPad mini line in several years, launching the iPad mini 5 with True Tone support, a faster A12 Bionic chip, and, for the first time, Apple Pencil support.





The iPad mini is functionally identical to the iPad Air, but in Apple's smaller 7.9-inch tablet form factor. Pricing on the iPad mini starts at $399, making it more expensive than the seventh-generation iPad but more affordable than the iPad Air.



4K and 5K iMacs (March)

Apple refreshed its 4K and 5K iMacs in March with new processors and graphics options that make the new machines "freaking powerful," but there were no other design or display updates.





The iMacs are still using the same design that was introduced in 2012, but Apple's newest iMacs are its most powerful. The iMac Pro didn't get a 2019 refresh and hasn't been updated since it launched in 2017.



AirPods 2 (March)

Apple unveiled second-generation AirPods in March, adding an updated H1 chip with connectivity improvements and faster device swapping, plus "Hey Siri" support.






AirPods 2 come with an optional Wireless Charging Case that allows the AirPods to be charged using a Qi-based wireless charger. You can get the AirPods without the charging case for $159, or with the charging case for $199.

Aside from the chip updates and the new charging case, the AirPods 2 are identical to the AirPods 1 with the same five-hour battery life.



Apple News+ (March)

Apple made a major push into subscription services in 2019, and the first subscription to launch was Apple News+.

Apple News+ is priced at $9.99 per month in the U.S. and gives users access to hundreds of magazines and several paywalled news sites like The Wall Street Journal. Apple offered a free 30-day Apple News+ trial, but reports suggest the service just isn't popular with users and hasn't seen much growth since launch.






Powerbeats Pro (May)

Two months after introducing AirPods 2, Apple debuted the Powerbeats Pro under its Beats brand, offering up wire-free headphones that are aimed at fitness enthusiasts.

The Powerbeats Pro have an in-ear design with silicone tips and a wraparound wing that's designed to keep them in place even during vigorous activity. Priced at $250, the Powerbeats Pro are superior to AirPods in many ways, offering longer battery life and a more comfortable fit for some people due to the silicone ear tips.





Powerbeats Pro have the same H1 chip that's in the AirPods, which means they have all the same capabilities like fast device swapping, easy setup, and "Hey Siri" support. Powerbeats Pro are larger than AirPods, though, and the case doesn't support wireless charging.



13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro (May/July)

Apple staggered its MacBook Pro refreshes in 2019, overhauling the higher-end 13 and 15-inch models in May and then refreshing the entry-level model in July 2019. There was also another MacBook Pro refresh in October, but we'll get to that a bit later.





The MacBook Pro models gained new 8th and 9th-generation chips and updated graphics, along with butterfly keyboards said to be more durable. The most significant change was the addition of a Touch Bar across the entire lineup, adding the functionality to even the entry-level model.
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