LexGray

I do not think I have owned a single device where the headphone jack was the first item to have issues or fail. Even unused debris would trigger switches changing sound sources. I am happy to be done with wired headphones being yanked off my head.

I would not necessarily trust that. Had an army coworker who regularly beat information out with rubber hoses where he was stationed. Sort of the evil version of don’t ask don’t tell.

Worked that way from FaceID introduction. Apple never cared enough. If you share your phone it is on you that the phone accepts the face who you share it with after you enter a pin. It really should have a new face button under the pin.

Passkey lock in appears to be a temporary issue. One of the WWDC announcements was that the FIDO alliance worked out a way to securely port passkeys between platforms. I expect Google to adopt import and export before year end.

I believe the issue Google is attempting to solve is frustration when a single web page spams multiple permissions requests. (Location, camera, microphone, advertiser tracking, notifications, privacy policy agreements, terms of service, etc…). The benefit to Google is better fingerprinting when a single sheet allows all at once.

Edit: perhaps they will sneak in a Google automatic login as a permission to smooth user interactions.

I like it a lot. More rarely used elements are now out of the way and muscle memory works well for the remaining buttons.

I think the UI is far more fun and usable than I remember Vista being.

On the flip side it makes a company seem sparklingly inept when they use VOIP as a method to filter valid users. I haven’t done business with companies like Netflix or Uber because I don’t feel like paying AT&T a cut for identity verification. There are plenty of other methods like digital licenses which are both more secure and with better privacy protections.

I think Apple took a step in this direction when they started forcing you to navigate to Security & Privacy to enable the modal the first time when launching an untrusted app.

They could probably add an opt-out step two for consumer level use where that step is also required for all root permissions requests. I would add a fast blink of the webcam light to prove trusted modal is open.

Currently it is incredibly clunky (they should put a notification at the top of the settings like for software updates), but you have some indication what app is triggering it and the dialogue could be hidden until it is time to review updates. Showing all entitlements and privacy settings should also be required any time a root password is requested with changes being noted as unusual, including changes in developer accounts.

Passkey does seem like it should include functionality to encrypt and sign all email and SMS automatically. A missed opportunity.

If the Tensor security chip works on the Google side the same as Apple there is dedicated hardware specific to detecting the trigger phrases. No sound is processed at a software level until that security chip requests further processing at which point it shows the fake LED. The LED itself is added to the graphics layer in a way that cannot be hidden or obscured.

It is always a question of trust, but after more than a decade of phones they are pretty determined to earn trust. I have not seen any trustworthy reports of a secret always on microphone. Just the occasional recording made after a misheard trigger word or button which is an issue being further secured year by year.

Amazon on the other hand…

I am not fine with war time propaganda. I want to know what the government is choosing to do and why.

I am not against war and even the occasional puff piece about how sexy the latest military tech is sexy is fine. It still is necessary in this day and age to stomp those that strip others of human rights and lives, yet I cannot think of any military action since Vietnam I have felt comfortable that I have not been outright lied to about underlying causes, methods used, and the after affects.

My full adult life it has seemed the government is convinced it is the Illuminati with a mandate to gaslight the public. That bad decisions don’t matter and no one is responsible seems like a horrible status quo when lives, the environment, and our tax dollars are at stake.

9/11 turned wartime propaganda into an excuse to strip freedoms that certain parties have been lusting after and no promises were kept about timelines for them being returned. When trust is abused to that extent the government should lose any rights to do so again.

Everything in tech is unfair. Music teachers replaced by apps and videos. Audio engineers replaced by apps. Albums manufacturing and music stores replaced by digital downloads. Custom instruments replaced by digital soundboards. Trained vocalists replaced by auto-tune. AI is just the final blip of squeezing humans out of music.

I asked by eye doctor why there was so much mucus around my eyes and after she dumped in a little dye she noted my eyes were almost like sandpaper from not blinking enough.

This seems like something that could have a technical solution beyond just putting liquid in your eyes. I am wary as liquids are sometimes contaminated with bacteria or other substances. Perhaps screens or headbands that trigger blink reactions.

If every book, video, and painting is ripped off and shared for free why would any sane person pay? Of course the feds are going to act to defend the big budget spectacles which distract us from the corrupt clown show that is our world.

The release cycles seem to lead to an annual reshuffling of teams to meet deadlines causing quality issues for anything that is not an advertised feature.

Some of this could be resolved by open sourcing their less important apps like Files, Notes or Home which barely ever get touched, yet are full of quirks and bugs. Those apps should be public examples of good SwiftUI coding.

I would say Google Voice is fine. I ported my POTS number to a burner cell and from there to Google Voice (some technical reason for that runaround) and other than having to dump in $10 once to kick it back into function when it hiccuped it has been a free and useful app for years.

Do authors not have agents any more? If an agent is that bad at negotiating residuals why even have them.

I imagine cross country purchase transfer would be a nightmare to implement or the purchases would be multi-region to start with. My ideal world would be if region locks were just banned, but instead each country/media outlet is just adding restrictions to what citizens can access.

Owned purchases may have some sort of import fee to account for lost tax revenue to make sure not purchased in country with lower tax then transferred which may be very complex to calculate.

Media/music especially is often edited/licensed for a specific country and only offered in a specific language per country. I’d prefer if Apple owned up to being a premier media outlet by providing every cut, sub and dub offered in every country for a single purchase in any country, but I am sure it saves Apple a few pennies on network transport and translator fees to restrict the options. If they could get a music contract allowing for original songs any director used originally that would be cake. Just imagine learning a languages by watching the original cut of your favorite movies in other languages. If Eddy Cue wanted to leave a memorable legacy it would be remove as many region restrictions as possible creating a class of global citizens.

I once wondered if it would be more environmentally friendly to bore straight down into a mountain and then build a mile high building on the peak to create a giant rail gun. Then shoot raw materials into orbit where the actual manufacture takes place. Sadly there is too much atmosphere no matter how much I want a cannon to the moon.

Isn’t China building a large modern sea fleet and increasing military pressure on many of our allies? I would not call that threat illusionary. Also their economic policies are very predatory where they support other countries in exchange for things which cannot be taken back. Why invade when you can just take what you need.

The orange man is completely ineffectual on both fronts. Will not spend the money on the military and too inept to make a deal that doesn’t cost in the long run.

Now that their direction has done a 180 it is pretty much telling everyone with seniority to just quit.

This may stumble on a solution to the problem. London combines government and financial centers. Axe parliament and 10 Downing Street and rebuild government infrastructure from scratch in some inland port where it can drag influence north.

Sacramento may not be exciting, but it is self-sustaining with fairly high property costs and a huge commuter population. I think one of the things that makes California successful is the government is in a boring city with few distractions.

- Typically third party apps require admin passwords to update when in the applications folder which is a pain for non admin users. - Sometimes it is nice to put apps in a users applications folder so other users do not have access (do not have other users games cluttering launchpad). - Sometimes you just want to put your utilities in the utilities folder.

Exactly the type of apps people would sideload. Little things that somehow violate App Store rules abusing APIs, lying about app capability, just being ethically dubious.

Use flash to create seizures, nudity people realtime, hack your ex, damage the device, cheat at games, spam your enemies, etc.

There is an infinite use case for tiny malicious apps finding malicious or gullible users and with side loading there are going to be stores created to appear very legitimate when their intentions are actually illegal.

I think the EU has very noble intentions while completely failing to understand that society is a wreck and a lot of money is made through extortion and fraud. Their apparent fix is to make the OS developers still responsible for what is installed while taking away funding for it. I am guessing the end game is more taxes and government intrusion on private devices to fix the problems they are purposely creating.

I would also call the news plus, sports, and audio tabs in the News app advertising as they cannot be disabled. Likewise it defaults to the Apple TV+ tab in the TV app on launch and adds Apple TV+ spam to the Home tab even with no subscription. The Stocks app has News+ spam starting this year. App Store is full of unrelated “promoted” apps. Accidentally hitting the “play” button on a computer prompts for Music subscription.

If Apple had any self respect at all these would be one time per year at best prompts or something which could be disabled with a subscription. I would no longer recommend Apple as the go to for respecting their customers.

Attempted disassembly of the center of disease control which led to less Covid lead time.

Attempted disassembly of EPA and FDA in attempts to raise employment in exchange for consumer safety.

Sale of federal lands that were preserves for future generations.

Picking a Supreme Court based on politics rather than law.

Preferring Totalitarian regimes when it came to diplomacy and snubbing our allies.

Trying to use the FBI as his personal attack dogs.

At least off the top of my head. Last term his goal was to undo a hundred years of progress as a constitutional progress.

This term? I have no clue what his goals are. I just hope he lives because the VP Vance appears to support that project 2025.

I would guess that technology has already caught up with that. Tie it all to a phone app to track abuse and give a city services only data plan to anyone who asks. Give it a basic three strikes where the driver logs complaints or you need a remedial how to properly use city services class.

Given the license tracking already going on for bridge tolls the infrastructure may already be there.

I think lease actually applies as the fixed period of supported ownership is until they take the servers down or they drop support which could happen before you even unwrap.

I think they should also remove “buy“ from any software requiring external servers.

I seem to recall the original issue with supporting Blu-ray is that Sony required a root-kit to verify playback authorization and was monitoring everything for pirated content. There were some expensive playback software licensing issues too. It is one reason even consoles were hesitant to adopt it.

The issue is many stores use dark patterns and you may not catch on until too late. - Subscriptions impossible to cancel - Silent auto-renewal - Silent price changes - Hidden Fees - Sales of purchase history - Apps released under known brand that are off brand knock offs. - Apps bundled with added cruft (think those download.com installers that installed toolbars and whatnot). - Pirate versions of Teams through off brand store causing licensing audits

A lot of dumber app vendors will just drain the suckers dry and rebrand and if Microsoft pulled their apps from the App Store some unfortunate souls would click the first Google hit and get sucked into the scam.