xenobioticants

To be honest, the situation across the pond is flummoxing to Europeans.. ISPs here are only service providers and nothing more. They're seen as a pipe to the internet and that's it. They often do offer 3-in-1 packages (television, phone and internet) but thats because they evolved from telephone or cable providers to ISPs and/or the copper/cable provides the signal space anyway, why not offer it. I have cable and pay €49 for 40Mbit/4Mbit. Its €59 for 150/15 and €77 for 300/30, and all these packages include TV. TV-less is the same speeds but €40, €50 and €58. And you get what you pay for, I consistently hit 33+/4+ on speedtest.net. Copper prices and speeds are a bit worse: €48 for 20/2 and €63 for 60/6 (although that does include Spotify), both packages with TV and telephone (can't get a separate TV+Internet deal). Speeds are a bit more janky since it depends on how many people are active on the block line, but still generally pretty close to what's advertised.

One of the biggest beefs I have with how Americans deal with the NSA is that they're cool with them spying on EU citizens. As long as its not domestic, you guys are cool with it. Its as if when you are not an American, you have no right to basic human rights like privacy according to Americans. Add to that they even did stuff like tap Merkels' phone.. spying on your allies is a serious faux-pas and wtf all rolled into one.

So you'd rather have it be that no one has access to these free educational lectures/videos than that a small minority (<20%) can't use them? That's pretty much the perfect example of cutting of your nose to spite your face.

If these laws go through, Harvard and MIT should just set up a small subsidiary in another country and upload the videos through those. Problem solved.

Which Google has made exactly zero progress towards. Google Now has access to a lot more data and is a lot more useful than Siri, but if you curse at Siri for doing something wrong, she (it? they should really gender AI's.. helps with bonding) says she was only trying to help. Ask her if she watches GoT.. she gives you a quip about Lannisters. If I ask her what track is playing, she says 'let me have a listen'. Google Now just gives a beep and displays a bouncy colored wave. I can ask Siri 'do I need to wear a jacket tommorow' and it'll give me the forecast. Google just displays a search result with that particular sentence.

Also, you're not fighting for the/your privacy of today- you're fighting for tomorrow's privacy. Facebook is scummy with your data, but Google (who knows hell of a lot more about you) is pretty nice with your data. The problems start when they won't be. Google knows what you buy, what's on your mind, which apps you open during the day and when, which people you have contact with and how often and when, they have your e-mail, they have your location and your usual routes, where you work and live. They also have aggregate data about stuff like traffic flow, festivals, businesses, etc. etc.

Now imagine them selling this data to the highest bidders. Insurance will know if you sport or not, if you eat healthy, if you smoke, etc.. Other companies will spring up that buy data to check if you were really sick for work, or just slacking (and businesses then buy this service for a price). Advertisers would sell their kids, mother and grandmother's soul for access to this kind of data. You think impulse-buy-optimization of supermarkets is bad? oh boy..

So yeah, fight the good fight, even if its a bit of a hassle, and slightly more expensive. You can actually find a good balance between privacy and usability. I use Protonmail for my mail, Apple Maps for my mapping needs (Google Maps as backup, sparingly), DuckDuckGo for search, Lastpass for passwords and iOS (Android is mined HARD by Google) + OS X as my OSes. Linux is even better, but you're constantly tweaking or fixing small things.

To pile on: all of you guys reside in the US. Google Maps its data is much more up to date compared to Apple Maps in most of the world. Navigating in SE-Asia with Gmaps is a breeze. Apple Maps constantly sent me to places, only to have the current address owner (and Google Maps) tell me that the business I was searching for moved. Same in Europe. Doesn't hurt that Google Maps has public transit integrated pretty much around the globe. Apple Maps currently only has that in 10 cities.. screw that noise.

Yeah didn't mean to sound that abrasive.. damn booze.

It is a nice feature indeed

It uses a combination of Bluetooth (if you're near/connected to your car's stereo), motion sensor and GPS.

If you started moving at 70KM/h nowhere near a train or bus station, and then suddenly stopped moving at that speed and shortly after started moving at 5KM/h, you've clearly just got out of your car. Use bluetooth for extra verification if possible. When certain, get location (or load location) from GPS and mark spot. Tadaa, no fancy learning model needed.

I am sorry for the broken formatting of the scenario part but Hacker News its editing refuses to save my changes. Peace y'all!

'it really is a giant among giants.'

You're confused. That would be Alphabet, not Apple. To put it in perspective for you, Google has:

~90% of the search market (https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-...)

~90% of the smartphone market (https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/18/gartner-androids-smartphon...)

~50% of the online advertisement market (http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Google-Still-Dominates-Worl...)

Hell, Google's staff meets with/at the White House more than once a week! (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3554953/Google-staff...)

I can think you can see the point I'm making: yes, Apple has a big pile of cash, a fat amount of profit and high stock value. However, Alphabet its influence and reach is far, far beyond that of Apple. Its just not as flashy & visible.

Don't agree? Let's imagine(!) two scenarios.

Scenario 1 - the US Government somehow figures out a way to force Apple to pay all its evaded taxes. Apple doesn't agree, and to make a point how important they are, killswitch everything. Results:

10% of the developed world can't use their phone anymore 10% of the developed world can't use their computer anymore An even smaller subset can't access their e-mail

Scenario 2 - the US Government somehow figures out a way to force Google to pay all its evaded taxes. Google doesn't agree, and to make a point how important they are, killswitch everything. Results:

90% of the developed world can't use their phone anymore 90%+ (Android owners + Gmail, Gcal etc. users) of the developed world can't access their e-mail, calendars, contacts etc. anymore ??% (decently high) of companies/universities can't access their e-mail, calendars etc., because Google Apps is down ??% has trouble navigating because Google Maps goes down (Other maps are still inaccurate and incomplete outside of the US) ??% of companies experience issues by Google Maps+API being down (Uber springs to mind)

Advertising also stops working and paying out (can be switched easily though, so not as critical)

Besides that, Alphabet is also involved in a number of moonshot projects. (Level 4) Self-driving cars. immortality research, AI research, LTE balloons, etc. etc.

The funny part is that I'm typing this on a 13" Retina MBP, with a iPhone 5S in my pocket. I'm by no means a Google fanboy. I love Apple's vertical integration, the amount of synergy and seamlessness their devices have, and that they're championing individual privacy. Also doesn't hurt that compared to Linux, OS X is a godsend to dev on.

I've done enough inebriated rambling so I'm gonna shut up now..

Still gave KAT owner's IP address and all his .icloud e-mails to the FBI without any resistance. WTF?