LA Times:

Amid the tense standoff between the FBI and Apple, protests are planned across the nation Tuesday supporting the tech giant’s refusal to unlock the San Bernardino gunman’s iPhone.

The protest is being organized by a group called Fight for the Future, which has organized demonstrations on tech issues in the past.

According to the group, protests will take place in San Francisco, Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters, Los Angeles and FBI headquarters in Washington, among other places. The group said backers will carry banners saying “FBI: Don’t Break Our Phones” and “Secure Phones Save Lives.”

From the Fight for the Future press release:

Concerned iPhone users and digital security supporters will gather at Apple stores in more than 30 cities this coming Tuesday, February 23rd, exactly one week after a court order that attempts to force Apple to write software that would undermine the safety and security of millions of people.

That’s today. If you are of a mind, here’s a map of all the existing rallies and some advice on starting your own.

Lots of headlines this morning saying that Bill Gates backs FBI iPhone hack request. The source of this particular headline is the Financial Times, with Bill Gates quotes like:

“This is a specific case where the government is asking for access to information. They are not asking for some general thing, they are asking for a particular case,” Mr Gates told the Financial Times. “It is no different than [the question of] should anybody ever have been able to tell the phone company to get information, should anybody be able to get at bank records. Let’s say the bank had tied a ribbon round the disk drive and said, ‘Don’t make me cut this ribbon because you’ll make me cut it many times’.”

And:

“I hope that we have that debate so that the safeguards are built and so people do not opt — and this will be country by country — [to say] it is better that the government does not have access to any information,” he said.

These quotes were embedded in a Bill Gates backs FBI iPhone hack request headline, and that spawned a sea of stories.

But.

Bill Gates, dismayed by those headlines, responded in this Bloomberg interview:

Q: Were you blindsided a bit? I came in this morning and saw headlines saying, “Bill Gates back FBI”.

Bill Gates: Yeah, I was disappointed, because that doesn’t state my view on this.

And:

Q: What specifically should be done in this case?

Bill Gates: Well, the courts are going to decide this, and I think that Apple said that whatever the final court decision is, they’ll abide by it. In the meantime, that gives us this opportunity to get the discussion, and these issues will be decided in Congress.

If anything, I think these interviews (read the Financial Times piece and watch the Bloomberg interview, I’ve quoted representative snippets) both show that Bill Gates is still new to this, that he has not had the chance to think this all the way through. These quotes feel like someone thinking about an issue out loud, not at all like someone with a strong opinion.

But Bill Gates backs FBI iPhone hack request? Please. That does both Bill Gates and Apple a terrible disservice.

Priceonomics:

The Panama Canal, the largest construction project in history, which had literally moved mountains to link the world’s oceans, had become too small. An increasing number of container ships, tankers, battleships, and even cruise ships no longer fit through the canal. Their hulls were too wide.

The canal’s administrators and Panamanian politicians responded with a $5.25 billion plan to expand the canal. Analysts still debate how the expansion will affect world trade. But if the global flurry of construction and speculation is any indication, the expansion seems to have succeeded in placing Panama back in the center of global trade.

The engineering of the Panama Canal would be remarkable if it occurred today. But it was an even more incredible construction project when it originally opened in 1914. I hadn’t realized it was in danger of becoming irrelevant due to the massive size of today’s cruise and container ships.

FX Guide:

Director Tim Miller’s first feature, the Fox film Deadpool, hasn’t just raised the bar for subversive, fourth-wall-breaking comic book movies, it also pushes the art in terms of visual effects. From completely synthetic environments for the freeway chase, to a fully CG dialogue-delivering metallic character in Colossus, to a unique approach to Deadpool’s facial animation and an unforgettable frozen moment opening title sequence, the film showcases a raft of impressive tech.

We talk to Miller, overall visual effects supervisor Jonathan Rothbart and VFX vendors Digital Domain, Atomic Fiction, Blur Studio, Weta Digital, Rodeo FX, Luma Pictures and Image Engine about just some of these key scenes.

I saw this movie over the weekend and it deserves all the accolades it’s receiving. Fun, funny, visually gorgeous. It was shot here in Vancouver and even though I recognized several of the locations, this article showed me just how much CGI they had done. The technical aspects of these films always amazes me, especially when they are so good, you don’t notice them while you’re watching the movie.

Fortune:

In an interview on Feb. 12 at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., CEO Tim Cook spoke expansively about the state of Apple, Fortune’s most admired company for nine consecutive years. He talked about how Apple behaves in a down cycle, how the company’s once-sacrosanct only-in-Cupertino mind-set is evolving, and the importance of services to Apple’s product mix. Without acknowledging its existence,

Cook also shed possibly contradictory light on Apple’s widely rumored efforts to build an iCar: He suggested that Apple ultimately may decide not to make a car at all, yet he implied that if it did, it could utilize contract manufacturers to do so, just as it does with computers and phones.

The quote everyone is pointing to in this story is Cook saying, “Yeah, I’m probably not going to do that” with regards to talking about Apple’s much-rumored car project. Cook reiterates the point the company has been making for years – they explore all kinds of technologies and possible products. That doesn’t necessarily mean they will bring them to market.

It must be killing the guys at Fortune that they didn’t do this interview after the Apple vs FBI story broke.

It’s time for another exciting Mighty Deal Exclusive! This super mega bundle from Tom Chalky includes 57 hand-drawn fonts, 230 textures and brushes, and hundreds of extra design elements! If you were lucky enough to snag Tom Chalky’s mega bundle in early 2015, you know how fabulous these design assets can be. You also can take advantage of this year’s Mighty Deal as it contains all new pieces!

I’ve never met her, but she sounds like an amazing woman.

For your enjoyment, a new episode of my podcast, with special guest Jim Dalrymple. Topics include the Apple/FBI legal showdown, the debate over Apple software quality, and more.

I had a great time chatting with John.

In a nutshell, T-Mobile has long offered a 200 megabyte per month free plan for the iPad. I’ve got an iPad Mini that’s been using this plan from the start and I’ve never paid a penny for it. 200 Meg is not much, but if all you do is email and browsing, good to have. And 200 Meg for free is a pretty solid deal.

Read the article to get a sense of how to get this setup for your cellular iPad.

Apple, Alphabet, and Amazon, numbers one two and three.

Reuters:

Some victims of the San Bernardino attack will file a legal brief in support of the U.S. government’s attempt to force Apple Inc to unlock the encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the shooters, a lawyer representing the victims said on Sunday.

Stephen Larson, a former federal judge who is now in private practice, told Reuters that the victims he represents have an interest in the information which goes beyond the Justice Department’s criminal investigation.

And:

Larson said he was contacted a week ago by the Justice Department and local prosecutors about representing the victims, prior to the dispute becoming public. He said he will file an amicus brief in court by early March.

This sounds like the Justice Department brought in the attorney, as opposed to the victims hiring him and him responding to the Justice Department. Two very different things.

And then there’s this:

Her son was killed in the San Bernardino, Calif., massacre — but Carole Adams agrees with Apple that personal privacy trumps the feds’ demands for new software to break into iPhones, including the phone of her son’s killer.

Complicated.

You can read the entire text of the letter here. From the end:

Our country has always been strongest when we come together. We feel the best way forward would be for the government to withdraw its demands under the All Writs Act and, as some in Congress have proposed, form a commission or other panel of experts on intelligence, technology and civil liberties to discuss the implications for law enforcement, national security, privacy and personal freedoms. Apple would gladly participate in such an effort.

People trust Apple to keep their data safe, and that data is an increasingly important part of everyone’s lives. You do an incredible job protecting them with the features we design into our products. Thank you.

Amazing to watch the CEO of one of the largest companies in the world take such a strong stance based on personal beliefs.

Here’s a link to Apple’s original Message to Our Customers.

This FAQ provides more detail on Apple’s position. It is really well written and clearly lays out Apple’s issues with doing what the government asks.

Here’s just a taste, well worth reading the whole thing:

The government asked a court to order Apple to create a unique version of iOS that would bypass security protections on the iPhone Lock screen. It would also add a completely new capability so that passcode tries could be entered electronically.

This has two important and dangerous implications:

First, the government would have us write an entirely new operating system for their use. They are asking Apple to remove security features and add a new ability to the operating system to attack iPhone encryption, allowing a passcode to be input electronically. This would make it easier to unlock an iPhone by “brute force,” trying thousands or millions of combinations with the speed of a modern computer.

There are many ways to build a backdoor. Creating a version of iOS that makes a specific iPhone easier to crack is one way. But, as this cartoon suggests, creating a toolchain that would allow that weakened version of iOS to be injected into any modern iPhone is a much more frightening backdoor. Breaking into a single iPhone is a privacy issue. Forcing Apple to create an iPhone-cracker is a security issue. Both count.

Second, the order would set a legal precedent that would expand the powers of the government and we simply don’t know where that would lead us. Should the government be allowed to order us to create other capabilities for surveillance purposes, such as recording conversations or location tracking? This would set a very dangerous precedent.

Amen. This needs to be reasoned through. We can’t make this decision based on politics.

In response to the question: Has Apple unlocked iPhones for law enforcement in the past?

No.

We regularly receive law enforcement requests for information about our customers and their Apple devices. In fact, we have a dedicated team that responds to these requests 24/7. We also provide guidelines on our website for law enforcement agencies so they know exactly what we are able to access and what legal authority we need to see before we can help them.

For devices running the iPhone operating systems prior to iOS 8 and under a lawful court order, we have extracted data from an iPhone.

And on how Apple has helped the FBI:

We have done everything that’s both within our power and within the law to help in this case. As we’ve said, we have no sympathy for terrorists.

We provided all the information about the phone that we possessed. We also proactively offered advice on obtaining additional information. Even since the government’s order was issued, we are providing further suggestions after learning new information from the Justice Department’s filings.

One of the strongest suggestions we offered was that they pair the phone to a previously joined network, which would allow them to back up the phone and get the data they are now asking for. Unfortunately, we learned that while the attacker’s iPhone was in FBI custody the Apple ID password associated with the phone was changed. Changing this password meant the phone could no longer access iCloud services.

As the government has confirmed, we’ve handed over all the data we have, including a backup of the iPhone in question. But now they have asked us for information we simply do not have.

These are interesting times.

An image is worth a thousand words.

Anti-virus pioneer, Cyber Party presidential candidate, and sometime fugitive John McAfee made a public offer to crack the San Bernardino iPhone for the FBI:

Cyberscience is not just something you can learn. It is an innate talent. The Juilliard School of Music cannot create a Mozart. A Mozart or a Bach, much like our modern hacking community, is genetically created. A room full of Stanford computer science graduates cannot compete with a true hacker without even a high-school education.

So here is my offer to the FBI. I will, free of charge, decrypt the information on the San Bernardino phone, with my team. We will primarily use social engineering, and it will take us three weeks. If you accept my offer, then you will not need to ask Apple to place a back door in its product, which will be the beginning of the end of America.

If you doubt my credentials, Google “cybersecurity legend” and see whose name is the only name that appears in the first 10 results out of more than a quarter of a million.

As of this writing, McAfee’s offer was not accepted.

White House Petitions:

We petition the Obama administration to halt efforts that compel Apple and other device makers to create a “backdoor” for the Government to access citizens data.

The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of its customers. The FBI, is demanding that Apple build a “backdoor” to bypass digital locks protecting consumer information on Apple’s popular iPhones.

We the undersigned, oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.

I’m usually skeptical of these kinds of petitions (and there’s no doubt the administration will ignore these efforts) but it’s still one of many things you can do, including contacting your elected representatives, to voice your thoughts on this issue. I’m actually surprised there doesn’t seem to be a petition from the other point of view, supporting the FBI’s efforts.

Mashable:

Apple’s big fight with the Federal Bureau of Investigation could have been avoided if one government employee had kept his hands off the phone.

According to a senior Apple executive, the company has been working with the federal government since early January to try to provide a way to access the San Bernardino county-issued iPhone connected with Syed Farook, the gunman in the massacre.

The problem, according to Apple, is that the company was called too late.

That’s because the phone was apparently erased of any chance to access its data only an hour after the device came into government custody. An unnamed person in the San Bernardino County government — likely an information technology employee — reset the Apple ID associated with the iPhone 5C in an attempt to access the data.

This comedy of errors would be funny if the stakes weren’t so high.

Wired:

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT filed a motion this morning asking a federal court to compel Apple to comply with a magistrate’s order that it help the FBI hack into an iPhone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooter suspects.

A federal magistrate initially gave Apple five business days to respond to her order, released on Tuesday, but the Justice Department decided not to wait for Apple’s response, noting in its motion today that Apple CEO Tim Cook had already indicated in a public statement posted to Apple’s web site Tuesday that his company would not comply.

“The government does not seek to deny Apple its right to be heard, and expects these issues to be fully briefed before the Court; however, the urgency of this investigation requires this motion now that Apple has made its intention not to comply patently clear,” the Justice Department wrote in its 35-page motion.

And:

Shortly after news of the new motion broke, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump reportedly called on the public to boycott Apple until it gives in to the government’s request.

Here’s Trump’s tweet:

Boycott all Apple products until such time as Apple gives cellphone info to authorities regarding radical Islamic terrorist couple from Cal

The pressure is ratcheting up on both sides.

Vox:

NASCAR is ridiculous. At the Daytona 500 in Florida this weekend, 40 souped-up cars will chase each other around a 2.5-mile track at speeds approaching 200 mph. They’ll do this for 200 laps, for a total distance of 500 miles.

But this is what’s truly crazy: For much of the race, the cars will be just inches apart from one another.

This amps up the drama of the sport. But the drivers do it for another reason: It helps them go faster.

Here’s why.

NASCAR gets a lot of flack (arguably justified) for simply being “roundy round” and not requiring much in the way of skill to go left for 500 miles but at least for tracks like Daytona, the abilities of the drivers are incredible considering the speeds they are traveling and the proximity of the cars.

Rich Mogull:

Don’t be distracted by the technical details. The model of phone, the method of encryption, the detailed description of the specific attack technique, and even the feasibility are all irrelevant.

Don’t be distracted by the legal wrangling. By the timing, the courts, or the laws in question. Nor by politicians, proposed legislation, Snowden, or speeches at think tanks or universities.

Don’t be distracted by who is involved. Apple, the FBI, dead terrorists, or common drug dealers. Everything, all of it, boils down to a single question.

Do we have a right to security?

This isn’t the government vs. some technology companies. It’s the government vs. your right to fundamental security in the digital age.

Rich expands on the points he brought up on my show this past Wednesday and, as usual, asks good questions. Keep in mind, there is no “right to privacy” embedded in the US Constitution so it is what we make of it. We can be secure from governmental intrusion or not. As Rich says, there is no middle ground.

The New York Times:

Law enforcement agencies have a legitimate need for evidence, which is all the more pressing in terrorism cases. But the Constitution and the nation’s laws limit how investigators and prosecutors can collect evidence. In a 1977 case involving the New York Telephone Company, the Supreme Court said the government could not compel a third party that is not involved in a crime to assist law enforcement if doing so would place “unreasonable burdens” on it. Judge Pym’s order requiring Apple to create software to subvert the security features of an iPhone places just such a burden on the company.

Interesting opinion piece by the Times. This story has a long way to go before it gets resolved and everyone is lining up and taking sides.

The Atlantic:

The winning entries of the 59th annual World Press Photo Contest have just been announced. The 2016 Photo of the Year is a haunting nighttime image of refugees climbing through razor wire over the the Hungarian-Serbian border, taken by photographer Warren Richardson. This year, according to organizers, 82,951 photos were submitted for judging, made by 5,775 photographers from 128 different countries.

This contest is different from others in that they are all “press photos”. By their nature, they aren’t allowed to be edited in any significant​ way. It makes them even more raw and immediate.

My thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop this week.

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Billings Pro 2.2 also offers the ability to view all invoices, estimates, projects and clients, sorting options for clients and invoices, and adds support for Apple Watch OS2. Learn more about Billings Pro 2.2 for iPhone and iPad and read what freelancers and small businesses are loving about Billings Pro.

Georgia, writing for iMore:

With iOS 9.3 Apple is introducing a new feature called Night Shift. As the name implies, it shifts the color spectrum of your iPhone or iPad display at night. So, why is that important?

And:

We do most of our healing when we sleep. It’s when our bodies repair themselves and our minds process the information we accumulated during the day. Lack of sleep can have an extremely adverse affect on our mental and physical health. It can interfere with our brain’s ability to form memories efficiently and even reduce our immunity to disease.

That’s where Night Shift comes in. When you enable Blue Light Reduction in the Display & Brightness settings, it moves the color spectrum from cooler (blue) towards warmer (yellow).

Really interesting.

CBS, San Francisco:

Residents in a Sunnyvale neighborhood say a secretive Apple facility is changing the face of their neighborhood, for the worse.

“At three in the morning, they have deliveries. It’s very dark, very secretive. We don’t know what’s going on, but almost every night there is noise that wakes the dogs up,” Joann Porter said.

Click the headline link, watch the video to get a sense of the facility and the security. No fun living in a quiet neighborhood that suddenly becomes noisy at 3 in the morning.

Are there noise ordinances? Are people overreacting? Either way, seems like bad PR, a problem Apple should address.

Victoria Ho, writing for Mashable:

A huge rush of people signed up for Apple Pay on Thursday when the payment service debuted in China, resulting in system errors for users.

It seems the sheer number of users was too much for Apple’s backend system to handle. According to reports, many people were unable to sign up or link their cards to their Apple Pay accounts.

Sounds like Apple may have underestimated demand for Apple Pay in China. Short term a problem. Longer term, a nice problem to have.

UPDATE: This from Ben Lovejoy’s post for 9to5mac:

Update: Apple has since informed us that the comment by a local representative was not an official statement and has been mistranslated from the Chinese by Caixan. The correct information is that the ability to add cards was being made available on a rolling basis throughout the day.

Sounds like this is managed demand, not unanticipated on Apple’s part.

TechCrunch refutes a rumor that was flying around the interwebs yesterday, fueling a lot of arguments against Apple’s position.

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. is getting more time to argue against a court order that would force it to break into the iPhone of a shooter in a terrorist attack in California, a standoff that pits the company’s push to protect customers’ privacy against the U.S. government’s efforts to fight crime.

The company’s response in court will be due Feb. 26 instead of Tuesday, said two people familiar with the timeline, who asked not to be identified because the matter wasn’t public. The federal magistrate who on Feb. 16 granted the Justice Department’s request for an order forcing Apple to help the FBI had given the company five business days to oppose her order.

Week from today.

Nicholas Weaver, for Lawfare:

The same logic behind what the FBI seeks could just as easily apply to a mandate forcing Microsoft, Google, Apple, and others to push malicious code to a device through automatic updates.

And:

Perhaps the greatest innovation in computer security in the past 15 years are automatic updates. It is automatic updates that protect the overall ecosystem, and anything which makes automatic updates untrustworthy would prove a boon to attackers.

Trust is a core issue here. We trust Apple with our data. Apple’s stance on privacy shows they get this and value our trust. If Apple caves here, the trust is broken, with far reaching implications. Imagine a scenario where you weren’t sure what entity was on the other side of that automatic update.