Steven Levy:

The Feds originally argued that their Apple motion is a one-time demand for this one phone, by this one really, really bad person. But it turns out that other prosecutors have their own encrypted phones with potential evidence in a variety of other cases. So think of this demand as a bespoke Clipper Chip, created by private-sector engineers who must produce it against their will. By demanding that Apple change its operating system to get access to a single iPhone — and then another, and another, and another — we are in the thick of Crypto Wars Redux.

Or as Diffie told me last week, at a small lunch celebrating the honor he shared with his collaborator, “This is the future we’re fighting about.”

Again.

We’re fighting the wars again because, like most rights and freedoms, they have to be constantly protected from those who would want to restrict them.

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Wired:

At first, Fan Hui thought the move was rather odd. But then he saw its beauty.

“It’s not a human move. I’ve never seen a human play this move,” he says. “So beautiful.” It’s a word he keeps repeating. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful.

The move in question was the 37th in the second game of the historic Go match between Lee Sedol, one of the world’s top players, and AlphaGo, an artificially intelligent computing system built by researchers at Google. Inside the towering Four Seasons hotel in downtown Seoul, the game was approaching the end of its first hour when AlphaGo instructed its human assistant to place a black stone in a largely open area on the right-hand side of the 19-by-19 grid that defines this ancient game. And just about everyone was shocked.

I’ve been reading these stories and their different angles with fascination. There’s the “Game of Go” stories (a game I tried to learn in college but literally could never figure out), the AI story angles and the “Man vs Machine” stories.

Techinsider:

Speaking at the South By Southwest conference in Austin Friday, Obama gave his view in general terms about where he stands on phone encryption and the right to privacy since he can’t comment on the Apple/FBI case specifically. But his stance can easily be applied to the FBI’s demand that Apple create a new version of iOS to unlock the iPhone that belonged to one of the suspected shooters in the San Bernardino killings.

In short, Obama thinks tech companies should create a way for law enforcement agencies to access locked devices, assuming they have probable cause for such access.

Well, at least now we know that the government’s stance comes from the top.

CBC:

Tonight, we want our Canadians friends to feel at home. So this is not a dinner, it’s supper. We thought of serving up some poutine. I was going to bring a two-four. And then we’d finish off the night with a double-double. But I had to draw the line at getting milk out of a bag — this, we Americans do not understand. We do, however, have a little Canadian whisky. That, we do understand.

The text of the toasts given by President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau are actually quite funny.

Ten One Design:

Blockhead snaps on to your existing Apple charger, allowing it to sit flat against the wall. Now it can fit in more places than ever. Blockhead directs your cord downward along the wall at a more natural angle. It looks great and protects against cord stress. By turning your adapter sideways, Blockhead brings its center of mass closer to the wall. This means less tension on the plug and a lot less falling out.

I’ve always been a fan of Ten One Design’s aesthetic and functionality. I think this is a brilliant idea and one I’d (sadly) expect Apple to “borrow” soon. The only downside is I wish the Blockhead’s prongs folded inside itself, similar to some of Apple’s chargers. That would make it perfect.

Petapixel:

This week, Flickr announced that they are taking away one of the key “free” functions: the ability to auto upload photos from your computer directly to Flickr. Now you need to sign up for a “pro” account for access to the same function.

Now, we don’t have much to complain about: they still give you a free terabyte of “free” storage, and the new interface is slick. But when I heard the news, it made me realize: do not trust or put all your eggs in these “free” online services.

Why?

First of all, any of these companies have the power (and right) to change any of their terms and conditions at any time. If tomorrow Yahoo announced that they are shutting down Flickr, there is nothing we can do about it.

I highly recommend Flickr to all my photography students but, as the article says, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. And, if you are looking for a Flickr batch uploader without having to pay for a Flickr Pro account, I’ve used F-Stop for years.

The New York Times:

The state dinner, the first for a Canadian prime minister in nearly two decades and most likely one of President Obama’s last, had the air of a belated family reunion between two countries sharing the world’s longest international border, not to mention professional sports, celebrities, cuisine and culture. Many of the luminaries in attendance had ties to Canada and offered praise for its young leader.

Mr. Trudeau, for his part, thanked Mr. Obama for his leadership in addressing climate change. The prime minister offered a tribute to the Obamas’ daughters, who attended their first state dinner, and joked about the president’s graying hair, saying he hoped his own would “come in at a slower rate.”

The relationship between Canada and the US may be one of the most important in the world and it’s crucial the two countries work together on many things. That starts at the top and it’s good to see that it seems Trudeau and Obama have a close personal relationship.

But that was a cheap shot about the Stanely Cup, Obama.

Forbes:

A recent survey of senior women tech executives revealed 60% have been on the receiving end of unwanted sexual advances in the workplace. Of these women, 65% reported having received such advances from a superior.

72% of women respondents working at Apple reported being treated fairly. Coming second and third on the list: Google and Microsoft, with 59% and 58% respectively.

Apple may top the list but they and so many other companies have a long way to go in order for women to feel like they are being treated fairly across of the board.

Technewsworld:

There are more reasons for using an ad blocker than faster page loading, noted Ben Williams, communications and operations manager for Eyeo, maker of AdBlock Plus.

“People use ad blockers because they are concerned about their privacy and their security,” he told TechNewsWorld.

“There are lots of reasons for using ad blockers, but the message to the online ad industry is you need to do something better,” said Williams. “If ads didn’t take so much time to load, if they weren’t so intrusive, if they were more upfront about the tracking that’s going on, then maybe people wouldn’t feel the need to download an ad blocker on every device that they have.”

This is obviously a market share grab that will likely only be moderately successful but it’s another battle line in the war between users and advertisers. Most of us don’t mind advertising in general. But most of us hate the direction the advertising industry has chosen with pop-ups, auto-playing commercials and slow page load times.

Nice take on March Madness where you pick your favorite smartphone. The first round is the iPhone vs the Acer Liquid Jade 2 (whatever that is).

With Apple’s source code, the FBI could, in theory, create its own version of iOS with the security features stripped out. Stamped with Apple’s electronic signature, the Bureau’s versions of iOS could pass for the real thing.

This has to make you think twice. It just has to.

Thanks to Igloo Software for sponsoring The Loop this week.

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Try it yourself or send your IT guy to investigate Igloo, an intranet you’ll actually like.

The tone of the brief reads like an indictment. We’ve all heard director Comey and Attorney General Lynch thank Apple for its consistent help in working with law enforcement. Director Comey’s own statement…that there are no demons here? We certainly wouldn’t conclude it from this brief. In 30 years of practice, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a legal brief that was more intended to smear the other side with false accusations and innuendo, and less intended to focus on the real merits of the case. For the first time ever, we see an allegation that Apple has deliberately made changes to block law enforcement requests for access. This should be deeply offensive to everyone that reads it. An unsupported, unsubstantiated effort to vilify Apple rather than confront the issues in the case.

To do this in a brief before a magistrate judge just shows the desperation that the Department of Justice now feels. We would never respond in kind. But imagine Apple asking a court whether the FBI could be trusted because, there is this real question about whether J. Edgar Hoover ordered the assassination of Kennedy. See ConspiracyTheory.com as our supporting evidence. We add security features to protect our customers from hackers and criminals. And the FBI should be helping to support us in this because it keeps everyone safe. To suggest otherwise is demeaning. It cheapens the debate and it tries the mask the real and serious issues. I can only conclude that the DoJ is so desperate at this point that it has thrown all decorum to the winds.

Look, we know there are great people in the DoJ and the FBI. We work shoulder to shoulder with them all the time. That’s why this cheap shot brief surprises us so much. We help when we’re asked to. We’re honest about what we can and can’t do. Let’s at least treat one another with respect and get this case before the American people in a responsible way. We are going to court to exercise our legal rights. Everyone should beware, because it seems like disagreeing with the Department of Justice means you must be evil and anti-American. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I wasn’t on the call, so I can’t really comment on the tone… other than the obvious.

Apple has said the government’s request would create a “back door” to phones that could be abused by criminals and governments, and that Congress hasn’t given the Justice Department legal authority to make such a demand.

In the court filing on Thursday, federal prosecutors said Apple’s stance was “corrosive” of institutions best able to safeguard “our liberty and our rights.” The government also said Apple “deliberately raised technological barriers” to prevent the execution of a warrant.

I’m assuming the government means that Apple increased security on its devices and they don’t mean they raised technological barriers, as in, brought up arguments in court. I don’t see any proof that Apple “deliberately raised technological barriers” just to prevent the government from getting into this phone or any other phone. Apple has been steadily increasing the security of its devices for many years, and will most likely continue to do so with future versions of its devices and operating systems. As they should.

500px:

We walked along the jetty looking down at a large school of fish just beneath the jetty. We noticed a number of reef sharks patrolling the area near the jetty and as we watched the reef sharks slowly moved into the school of fish, with the fish retreating away from the immediate area around the shark.

It was amazing to watch the continuous parting of the school of fish as each shark moved through the mass of fish. I took a number of photos from different angles over about 20 minutes, but opted for this one as my favorite.

I saw this really cool picture last year and wondered about the story behind it. The lesson of the shot is, “Always carry your best camera”.

Former Google CEO and current Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt was in South Korea for a press event this week, where he was spotted taking pictures of the event using an Apple iPhone instead of a Google Android handset.

That is one bizarre man.

Apple events at its Cupertino headquarters are my favorite. The venue is intimate and you feel like you’re part of the event. The company will have a live stream that you can watch on March 21.

From the ACLU blog, referring to an image of the iPhone 5c internals (found on this page):

> The large chip on the front marked A6 is the processor — a custom chip designed by Apple specifically for its devices. It contains the CPU, BootROM, RAM, crypto engines, Apple’s public signing key (used to verify software updates), and the UID key (see our previous blog post). > > The largest chip on the back (outlined in red above) is the NAND flash, where all the data is stored, including both the encrypted filesystem and the Effaceable Storage. > > The FBI can simply remove this chip from the circuit board (“desolder” it), connect it to a device capable of reading and writing NAND flash, and copy all of its data. It can then replace the chip, and start testing passcodes. If it turns out that the auto-erase feature is on, and the Effaceable Storage gets erased, they can remove the chip, copy the original information back in, and replace it. If they plan to do this many times, they can attach a “test socket” to the circuit board that makes it easy and fast to do this kind of chip swapping.

Seems to me, if this is true, either the FBI is not aware of this possibility, they are aware but not technically able to pursue this process, or they are aware of the technique and are pursuing Apple for political reasons.

Also seems to me that there might be more to it than this blog post implies. It seems logical that iOS would refuse to allow any more login attempts once auto-erase is enabled. However, while reading this guide, I realized that this still wouldn’t prevent the FBI from pursuing their own attempts to access the NAND flash memory.

Interesting.

Niel Cybart, writing for Above Avalon:

The best way to understand why Apple is releasing a new 4-inch iPhone in 2016 is to look at the changing iPhone user base. Apple is now selling iPhones to an installed base of more than 550 million users with a multitude of wants, needs, and desires regarding their smartphones. Apple is making a bet that it is time to expand iPhone development to three different screen sizes in order to appeal to the 20% of the user base that prefer single-handed iPhone usage over larger screen options. Releasing a new 4-inch iPhone would be an admission by Apple that the only way to maintain a vibrant iPhone upgrade cycle is to expand the iPhone line.

Terrific analysis. Be sure to look at the iOS vs Android price pyramid graphic to understand the holes in the existing iPhone market coverage:

By targeting the premium segment of the market, Apple spent years developing a loyal iPhone base of hundreds of millions of users willing to spend an above average amount of money and time on their iPhones. This trend stood in stark contrast to the vast majority of smartphone sales taking place at the low-end of the market where consumers used their phones very differently.

Apple has long eschewed that lower end of the market. Will a 4-inch phone be inexpensive enough to help Apple expand to the lower levels of that pyramid?

Leave your iPhone behind when you leave a restaurant? This Apple Watch app will let you know you left it behind and help you locate it. Smart idea. Review by Jonny Evans for Computerworld.

Lauren Goode, writing for The Verge:

ExxonMobil today said it would start accepting Apple Pay as a form of payment at around 6,000 ExxonMobil gas stations around the U.S, something that Apple CEO Tim Cook had said was coming during the company’s first quarter earnings call.

However, these Apple Pay payments won’t be tap-to-pay, unlike the experience at almost every other point-of-sale system that works with Apple Pay. In this case, Apple Pay will be integrated into Exxon’s existing Speedpass+ app, which is free to download and uses your geolocation to pull up local pumps. A customer can drive up to the pump, enter the pump number within the Speedpass+ app, and use his or her thumbprint to authorize payment through Apple Pay.

Interesting that you can’t just wave your phone or Apple Watch at the pump to enable payment. Anyone know why?

Update: Reader Erick Erickson pointed me to this Fast Company article, which explains:

Instead of telling gas stations to replace or upgrade pumps—which would have involved $30,000-$40,000 of expenses and major disruption to operations—ExxonMobil is piggybacking on two years’ worth of work it’s already invested in its Speedpass+ app, which has been undergoing testing in five markets. Adding support for Apple Pay to the iPhone app, which also directly supports a variety of cards, was the easy part. All the stations have to do is install a software update on their payment system.

Still, not the same transparent process of simply holding up your Apple Watch to pay.

Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance was one of the witnesses who testified before the House Judiciary Committee last week (you can read details of that hearing here), taking the side of the FBI.

Yesterday, Vance went on TV (you can watch the interview here) to lay out his case on Fox News’ Mornings with Maria. Vance does a solid job laying out his argument and is well worth watching. Keep these two thoughts in mind, though:

• If Apple built in the backdoor that Vance is seeking, hackers would no doubt get at your data without having to seek a court order.
• Once the bad guys realize that their iPhone communications are vulnerable, they’ll adopt any of the myriad of alternative encryption mechanisms available to them as open source tools. Which means we’ll have given away our privacy for no gain.

Good to absorb both sides of this battle, keep clear why Apple’s position is both correct and vital. Note also that Vance says that he thinks the answer lies with Congress, but that he is pursuing a path through the courts.

Before you continue, take a sec to watch this very short video, which shows a close up view of the MacBook Pro’s gently pulsing sleep light.

OK, now here’s Alex Taylor, from this Quora post:

I recall listening to a rare lecture by Jony Ive in London back in the late 1990s where he explained that, when you were trying to sleep, the old sleep LEDs of laptops would blink on and off harshly, lighting up your entire bedroom each time which made it harder for some people to get to sleep and irritated people.

They therefore set out to create a more relaxing light which was not so aggressive and seemed more anthropomorphic.

As simple as this may sound, it meant going to the expense of creating a new controller chip which could drive the LED and change its brightness when the main CPU was shut down, all without harming battery life.

Most previous sleep LEDs were just driven directly from the system chipset and could only switch on or off.

Apple carried out research into breathing rates during sleep and used that figure to derive a model for how the light should behave to create the most relaxing atmosphere and make the product seem more human than robot.

Such a tiny thing. The incredible attention to detail and craft is a hallmark of Apple products.

[Via the terrific Mac Kung Fu]

Kif Leswing, writing for Business Insider:

In a Spanish-language interview broadcast on Univision on Wednesday, Cue defended Apple’s refusal to cooperate with a court order asking it to help the FBI extract data from an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.

And:

“When they can get us to create a new system to do new things, where will it stop?” Cue said.

“For example, one day [the FBI] may want us to open your phone’s camera, microphone. Those are things we can’t do now. But if they can force us to do that, I think that’s very bad,” Cue said, according to a translation provided by Apple.

And:

“What they want is to give them a key to the back door of your house, and we don’t have the key. Since we don’t have the key, they want us to change the lock,” Cue said.

And:

“For example, when we made Apple Pay, we did not want to have the number of the credit card, because if you keep it, and if someone steals it, they can use it anywhere. When you use Apple Pay, instead of using that number, we use a new number every time you buy something,” Cue said.

Want to hear this for yourself? The interview is in Spanish (Cue’s parents emigrated from Cuba, he grew up speaking it at home) and a bit of the video is embedded below.

Bitter Southerner:

Among the most prized objects owned by Southern families are the cast-iron skillets passed down from generation to generation. The ones in your kitchen probably came from Lodge Manufacturing Co., in the tiny Tennessee town of South Pittsburg. Most of us know well the memories contained in those old skillets, but we know very little about the integrity of the people who make them. A visit to the Lodge foundry certainly has lessons to teach us about the South and its culture. But more importantly, Lodge also exemplifies something remarkably rare in today’s business world: a family-run company that has built a booming, global business without selling out its hometown.

I used to live in the general area and I wish I had know about Lodge Manufacturing back then. It sounds like a fascinating place and company. I now own a couple of their cast iron skillets and love using them.

I use Siri a lot on my Apple TV, but there’s some things here that I didn’t know.

The ad is embedded below.

The tag line is, “I can’t do that on my Mac”. Granted, I am an Apple person, with clear bias. But, that said, this ad feels more like something you’d see from a marginalized product that adds a feature purely for the ability to make that claim. The ad doesn’t fill me with wonder, doesn’t even come close to having an emotional core. There’s no whimsy.

If Microsoft is going to take on the MacBook or the iPad Pro (which would have been a fairer comparison for this particular use case), they are going to have to dive deep within themselves to get in touch with the elements that make their product truly special. That’s where Apple’s best ads start.