TECHNOLOGY: Add your COVID vaccination … but should you? (IMHO NO!)

Saturday, February 5, 2022

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4034897/posts

You can add your COVID vaccination certificate to the Apple Wallet… but should you?
TNW ^ | 2/2 | Callum Booth
Posted on 2/2/2022, 5:01:47 PM by nickcarraway

*** begin quote ***

Spoiler: Yeah, why not?

The modern world hurts my brain. Let’s take the news that Apple enables users to store their COVID vaccination certificates in the Wallet and Health apps as an example.

When I first heard about it, I was pumped. Flashing my QR code to enter a restaurant or grab a coffee would be far simpler if it sat in my Apple Wallet. Friends, the time I’d save!

But, of course, the world had something to say about that.

We talked to 4 successful entrepreneurs This is what they wish they knew before getting started

While putting my digital certificate of vaccination in an easy-to-access place is cool… is it safe? And because I can do it, does that mean I should?

Something that seemed simple on the surface is actually a minefield. I wanted some clarity on this issue.

*** and ***

COVID vaccine certificates in the Apple Wallet app: not a huge concern To put it bluntly: there are no obvious dangers of moving your vaccine certificate to the Apple Wallet. This does come with a large caveat though, as this is only true if you tightly control what apps can access your data.

In this way, vaccination certificates differ from digital IDs. The majority of the former are digital by nature, while the most common forms of identification (driver’s licenses and passports) are paper-based. Digitizing them opens a huge and wriggling can of worms — while the vaccine pass system could actually benefit from being incorporated into the Apple Wallet.

So, there you have it! A little bit of respite before the modern world messes with our heads again.

*** end quote ***

It’s just too easy for the Gooferment make this the digital version of “show me your papers”!

It’s a BIG “NO” for me.

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TECHNOLOGY: APPLE and GOOGLE with suck at tagging photos

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

I like to phot everything that passes through my hands.  ID cards, letters, people, etc. etc.

From time to time I need to find the “needle in a haystack”.  Unfortunately, I can’t “tag” photos to indicate what they are and why they’d be important.

Argh!

I have to create “albums” and “folders” and what not that some developer thinks is “kool”.

Argh!

Why not tags like Twitter and Facebook?  Why reinvent the wheel?  Like labels in Gmail but not in photos.

Argh!

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TECHNOLOGY: Apple frustrates the “right to repair”

Monday, November 8, 2021

https://www.reviewgeek.com/102499/apple-prevents-iphone-13-screen-repairs-in-what-ifixit-calls-an-unprecedented-lockdown/\

Apple’s Attempt to Prevent iPhone 13 Repairs Hurts Customers and Professionals
ANDREW HEINZMAN NOV 5, 2021, 3:26 PM EDT 

*** begin quote ***

When our friends at iFixit did their first iPhone 13 teardown, they called the device “a new low” for repairability. Apple took unprecedented steps to prevent “unauthorized” iPhone 13 repairs—particularly screen replacements, which (by design) break the phone’s Face ID functionality.

Screen replacements are by far the most common phone repair procedure. They’re also fairly cheap and easy to perform, so as you can imagine, they’re the bread and butter of small repair shops. But unless Apple gives you permission to perform an iPhone 13 screen or battery swap, you will end up with broken features or a non-working phone.

And I’m not exaggerating when I say that you need Apple’s “permission” to repair the iPhone 13. Its components are serialized—meaning that parts like the display and Face ID camera can identify each other using unique serial numbers. To make one of these serialized components work with a donor part, an authorized Apple technician needs to sync each part with Apple’s cloud network and request approval from the corporation.

*** end quote ***

It seems apparent that Apple wants to control its “customers” like sheep to be shorn.

As much as I am a little L libertarian, we are stuck with the current system until “We, The Sheeple” stand up and say “NO!”.

‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’ I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: [screaming at the top of his lungs] “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” — the character Howard Beale played by Peter Finch in the movie Network (1976)

So, I hope the anti-monopoly folks take notice of this.

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HARDWARE: Apple spits in the face of “right to repair”!

Friday, October 1, 2021

https://www.reviewgeek.com/98982/ifixit-calls-the-iphone-13-a-new-low-for-repairability/

iFixit Calls the iPhone 13 “a New Low” for Repairability
ANDREW HEINZMAN @andrew_andrew__
SEP 27, 2021, 5:48 PM EDT | 1 min read

*** begin quote ***

As Right to Repair legislation garners support from both sides of the political aisle, Apple is doubling down on its anti-consumer practices. A now-complete teardown from iFixit shows that the iPhone 13 reaches “a new low” for repairability, as it’s effectively impossible to repair at home without losing key features like Face ID.

*** end quote ***

Way to lock in the consumer.

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TECHNOLOGY: Podcast will disappear behind paywalls

Friday, May 21, 2021

https://theconversation.com/apple-threatens-to-upend-podcastings-free-open-architecture-160318

The Conversation – Articles (US)

Apple threatens to upend podcasting’s free, open architecture
by John Sullivan, Professor of Media and Communication, Muhlenberg College

*** begin quote ***

A medium that exploded due to the lack of institutional gatekeepers is now seeing big tech companies act like traditional media networks, signing popular hosts and shows to exclusive contracts. Of course, other publishers like Slate and Stitcher have offered subscriptions to their shows via their own websites and mobile apps. But the m

uch larger audience share of Apple Podcasts and Spotify has much greater potential to move the podcast ecosystem in the direction of premium paid content.

This presents a potential long-term threat to the free, open architecture of podcasting, though projects like The Podcast Index are aiming to preserve the medium as platform-agnostic.

One thing is for certain: Apple and Spotify have given us a glimpse of a podcasting future where the walled gardens of platform-exclusive, premium content become the norm.

*** end quote ***

The Podcast Index are aiming to preserve the medium as platform-agnostic.

Guess that’s all that can save us from paywalls and the Apple Tax?

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TECHNOLOGY: Dropping Google and returning to the “less evil” empire of Apple

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

2020-Nov-11 1257

Ok, I admit that my attempt to move from Apple to Google was a complete and utter failure.

Google:

  • By killing Google Cloud Print, it made my printer “obsolete” with no alternative. (Was the final straw!)
  • Google docs and sheets are no where near as good as Microsoft Office.
  • Google’s “end of life”-ing chromebooks is inexplicable.
  • Google’s 4a offering was “unsubscribable”. (A tech giant should be able to do that!)
  • Google has no support comparable to Apple’s.
  • Google Fi’s beem a disappointment compared to Altice Mobile.

Apple

  • Has a remarkable consistency in their infrastructure.
  • While killing iTunes Apple Music, iWeb, and a parade of obsolescence, it has been as disruptive as Google’s “end of life”-ing chromebooks.

I’ll continue to watch the field, but it’s no sense wasting anymore time.

I’ll still recomend chromebooks with the caveats about printing and “end of life”-ing.

Argh!

(My apologies for the bad advice!)

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CHROMEBOOK: “Planned Obsolescence” or “End Of Life”

Friday, June 8, 2018

One of my beloved Chromebooks — ET101 Samsung — updated the Chrome OS and popped up an “End Of Life” message.

What?

It’s EOL when it dies.

Is this part of Google’s attempt to follow in Apple’s “planned obsolesce” “architecture”?

Personally, if the Chromebook is supposed to be the “toaster” appliance of the computer age, then it should old go “end of life” when it goes to chromebook heaven.  I have toasters that lasted until the lady of the house decided the exterior could no longer be clean enough.  Not my problem, but an example of “Western Electric” telephone handset engineering.  Capable of operating after a flood or a nuke.

I am very upset.

And as if to rub my nose it (i.e., EOL), google helpfully offers me a selection of upgrades.

ARGH cubed!

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5819169/Apple-hits-claims-designs-iPhones-fail-force-consumers-buy-new-one.

‘Planned obsolescence is the craziest thinking in the world’: Apple hits back at claims it designs iPhones to fail so consumers have to buy a new one

  • VP of marketing Greg Joswiak refuted that Apple uses ‘planned obsolescence’
  • In an interview with noted Apple blogger John Gruber, he called those claims ‘about the craziest thinking in the world’ saying the firm wouldn’t do that
  • Joswiak said Apple paid special attention to older devices with iOs 12 update
  • Comments come as Apple gave customers discounts for battery throttling
  • Apple has been charging £25 ($29) for replacements since December

By AARON BROWN and ANNIE PALMER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 19:07 EDT, 7 June 2018 | UPDATED: 19:18 EDT, 7 June 2018

* * * * *

Yeah, right.  I believe that!

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TECHNOLOGY: iPhones slow down after a year

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/12/20/16803190/iphone-slowdown-is-needed-but-also-a-problem

iPhones start slowing down after a year of use, and that’s way too soon
By Jacob Kastrenakes  Dec 20, 2017, 5:15pm EST

*** begin quote ***

But the big conspiracy has been that Apple intentionally slows down your phone every time a new one comes out, a subtle way of encouraging you to buy it. And now we know that it’s true on some level, even if you take Apple’s word and see this as about preservation and not a sales tactic, since the software update that comes out alongside every phone seems to be what introduces the throttling. Here’s how Apple puts it in its statement describing what’s going on: “Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices.”

*** end quote ***

And, this — planned obsolesence — why I am leaving the Apple family for Android and Chromebook.

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TECHNOLOGY: Driverless anything will dramatically disrupt the economy

Saturday, February 13, 2016

http://observer.com/2016/02/why-driverless-cars-will-screech-to-a-halt/

OPINION
Why Driverless Cars Will Screech to a Halt
The liability and regulatory issues involved in letting a 3000 pound death machine steer itself with no human at the controls remain huge
By Steven Hill • 02/09/16 8:42am

*** begin quote ***

Elon Musk’s Tesla recently became the latest big shot company to enter the self-driving car sweepstakes. Mr. Musk recently announced the hiring of software architecture veteran Jim Keller, who previously had played key roles at Apple and AMD, to lead its Autopilot Engineering team. Tesla’s move follows the recently announced partnership between General Motors and Lyft, in which the automaker is investing $500 million in the ridesharing company as part of a joint venture to develop self-driving cars.

*** end quote ***

I wouldn’t mind having a “driverless car”. 

I don’t think it will happen in my lifetime.

It will hugely disrupt the economy. Hard to imagine all the impacts.

Great for the senior citizens who should no longer be driving.

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Elon Musk’s Tesla recently became the latest big shot company to enter the self-driving car sweepstakes. Mr. Musk recently announced the hiring of software architecture veteran Jim Keller, who previously had played key roles at Apple and AMD, to lead its Autopilot Engineering team. Tesla’s move follows the recently announced partnership between General Motors and Lyft, in which the automaker is investing $500 million in the ridesharing company as part of a joint venture to develop self-driving cars.

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SORTWARE: IOS8 HEALTH is lame

Monday, September 29, 2014

The IOS8 upgrade carries a “HEALTH” app to the first screen.

(Even if I didn’t want it. At least “TIPS” went on the last page.)

It’s OBVIOUSLY a placeholder.

The select an emergency contact feature doesn’t work. 

And it does NOT have a provenance, versioning, or linkage to other “health” data sources.

Not Apple’s best work.

# – # – # – # – #   

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