Yearly Archives: 2015

The Guardian:

Apple’s chief executive has sharply criticised surveillance powers proposed by the British government, warning that allowing spies a backdoor route into citizens’ communications could have “very dire consequences”.

“You can just look around and see all the data breaches that are going on. These things are becoming more frequent,” Cook told the Daily Telegraph. “They can not only result in privacy breaches but also security issues. We believe very strongly in end-to-end encryption and no back doors. We don’t think people want us to read their messages. We don’t feel we have the right to read their emails.

“Any back door is a back door for everyone. Everybody wants to crack down on terrorists. Everybody wants to be secure. The question is how. Opening a back door can have very dire consequences.”

The proposed UK law would require ISPs and phone companies to keep records that would track every website visited for a year. The authorities would not need a warrant to access the data.

Fast Company:

At Fast Company’s Innovation Festival in New York, Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s senior vice president for retail and online stores, discussed the customer experience beyond selling products, uniting Apple’s online and offline stores, and her experience as one of the top executives at the world’s most valuable company.

I love these talks Apple execs give that allow us a little bit of insight into their thinking. And maybe these kinds of events can put to rest the meme that Ahrendts isn’t “involved” or “public” enough.

Apple:

There’s a great big universe in the new iPad Pro. It’s the largest iPad ever and takes your creativity and productivity to an epic scale.

Apple’s new ad for the iPad Pro. Damn that thing looks huge.

• 3D Multishape technology
• Fanless air-cooled design
• Single universal zipper port
• Organic HD Twill outer shell
• Go 10 years without a battery charge
• Compatible with large variety of third-party cases
• Unlocked, contract-free
• Preinstalled w/ SleepOS
• Three sizes: 32, 64 or 128 Gigahull capacity

Upgrade Today →

BGR:

Once Tesla rolled out its new Autopilot software a few weeks ago, it wasn’t long before we started seeing videos of Model S owners engaging in some downright foolish and dangerous behavior.

Say what you will about the guy shaving in the Model S while zooming down the Autobahn, at least he had the good sense to stay in the driver’s seat.

This is idiotic – not only on the part of the driver but also on the part of Tesla. It’s completely irresponsible to put this software out in the wild without proper controls in place.

Macworld:

You may not need to read this column for yourself, but read it nonetheless and help those with less wariness take better heed: Don’t download software for OS X from anywhere but the developer’s own website or Apple. Period.

But the experience last week of a user noticing that a download of Skype from MacUpdate was wrapped in an installer that contained adware and trialware reminds me to run the flag up the pole again to remind folks who weren’t aware—and to ask all of you who understand the issue to help your friends, colleagues, and family avoid these risks.

We old-timers remember the days of lots of sites to download software. Sadly, those days are long gone. Tell your friends and family about this article and warn them about downloading software from any place other than the Mac App Store or the developer’s own web site.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. persuaded a judge to throw out a lawsuit by employees of the company’s retail stores in California seeking back pay for time spent in “demoralizing” security searches when they left work for the day.

The ruling by a San Francisco federal judge Saturday releases the company from having to compensate as many 12,400 former and current employees from 52 stores throughout the state a few dollars a day for time spent over a six-year period having their bags and Apple devices searched at meal breaks and after their shifts.

I’m sure this is very disappointing to the workers. Having worked in this kind of environment, it is not a fun thing to have to do, especially during a rush. You can waste a lot of time waiting for a security droid to check bags. But the writing was on the wall last year when the Supreme Court ruled against Amazon employees in a similar case.

Cool Material:

Here we are, some 83 years later, and the Zippo brand continues to thrive. Why? Well, there are a number of reasons—a determined founder, some clever ad placements, war—but one that shouldn’t be overlooked is collectibility, which is something Zippo has catered to—both knowingly and unknowingly—since its earliest days.

My father(s) all had Zippos and as a kid, it was a treat to be allowed to light their cigarettes (it was a different time) with one of them. They were Canadian sailors and had Zippos that were custom made with the name and image of their ships on them. I haven’t used a Zippo in a dozen years but I can still hear the click of it opening and closing in my head.

The question here is, is Facebook protecting its users from spam, or are they taking action to prevent a potential competitor from gaining a foothold?

Thanks to Carbon Copy Cloner for sponsoring The Loop this week. What’s your plan when your Mac’s hard drive dies? Plan ahead and get back to work in minutes with a Carbon Copy Cloner bootable backup. CCC—the app that saves your bacon.

Jim’s Note: I’ve used this app for many years. I trust and love it.