Slashdot Mirror

Animojis from the iPhone X or AR Emojis from the S9 may not be your thing, but they are absolutely driving interest in the flagship phones from both companies.

Are they though? Apple and Samsung obfuscate their sales figures but there's a fair bit of evidence that new generations of high end phones have disappointing sales figures and people are either keeping their old phone or buying a budget one.

The majority of people download zero apps per month.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/08...

And of the ones who do how many need a 2.8Ghz Snapdragon 845 SoC? The apps I use would run fine on a much slower CPU than that.

It's like with PCs. An old high end or new budget device is good enough for most people. And people bitch about the features that are being removed from new end devices.

I'm one of those that downloads around 0 apps per month (last time I got a phone, I didn't install any new apps, just carried over the ones from my new phone).

However, with every OS and app update, my phone seems to get slower and slower, I want to stay on top of security updates, so ignoring updates is not really a solution.

I realize that this is right where Google wants me to be -- to keep me trapped in the upgrade cycle but my 2.5 year old Nexus 5X is starting to feel unusable at times and I'll likely update it by the end of the year when I see what phones Google comes out with. I don't know if the bottleneck is memory or CPU, but any phone I move too will be better in both.

I'll probably stick with a Google phone though, I like Samsung's hardware, but not their Android customizations, if they sold a pure Android version, I'd get an S9 tomorrow.

Animojis from the iPhone X or AR Emojis from the S9 may not be your thing, but they are absolutely driving interest in the flagship phones from both companies.

Are they though? Apple and Samsung obfuscate their sales figures but there's a fair bit of evidence that new generations of high end phones have disappointing sales figures and people are either keeping their old phone or buying a budget one.

The majority of people download zero apps per month.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/08...

And of the ones who do how many need a 2.8Ghz Snapdragon 845 SoC? The apps I use would run fine on a much slower CPU than that.

It's like with PCs. An old high end or new budget device is good enough for most people. And people bitch about the features that are being removed from new end devices.

Not sure which idiot modded you as 'troll' but they should probably read up on previous Mattel explorations in this space.
https://techcrunch.com/2014/11... (link nicked from a page linked by another post)

Maybe he was trying to go for a Funny mod based on a story that ran sometime back about Thiel being a customer of a company that does transfusions for people using blood from young people based on some supposed health benefits of doing so that were observed when doing this in mice.

The story got a lot of traction and got repeated in the tech press and well known blogs, but after some tech journalists looked into it, it turned out to be bogus. However, it's one of those things that seems to have stuck around probably because it's both interesting as well as silly.

Another problem is sites that send SMS for every login attempt even for users who have a TOTP app set up as a second factor. This policy, adopted by Twitter among others, hurts users who choose TOTP because the user A. carries a tablet but not a cell phone, B. lives in North America and carries a cell phone on a pay-as-you-go plan (which costs less per month than an unlimited plan) and therefore pays for each incoming text message, or C. wants to reduce exposure to the vulnerabilities of SMS: exploiting known SS7 protocol security problems or social engineering the user's cellular carrier into issuing a replacement. But some companies that offer 2FA appear to just not care.

The following approach approach fixes cases A and B:

1. Enter username
2. Enter password
3. A form with a field for a number from a TOTP app and a button "Send a text message instead"

Google used to require SMS for 2FA but now appears to allow authentication using an Android device logged into Google Play Services.

4. Talk to me about my investments.

So-called robo-advisors are already doing that in a limited way.

5. Diagnose my illness (without a doctor as the interface)

Again this is already happening.

6. Teach my kids.

It's already happening.

9. Rescue someone.

Well, for what it is worth Facebook apparently has an AI suicide prevention program. Rescuing someone does not necessarily require a physical act: mental problems are something that an AI might be able to help with.

Now it is certainly true that AI's roles in these areas are somewhat limited at the moment and there are somethings which it is hard to image AI being able to do within the foreseeable future. However, AI does not need to "do everything" to replace many jobs. If AI working in conjunction with a doctor lets that doctor diagnose 200 patients a day by identifying and dealing with the simple cases that reduces the need for doctors. Similarly if AI TA's let a professor teach 1,000 students effectively that reduces the need for teaching staff etc.

This is the way technology works: jobs change to do the work that technology cannot do with the result that a single human can do far more. Robots on assembly lines have not completely replaced all human workers but the work that humans on assembly lines do has changed to cover jobs that robots are not good at and to oversee the robots to fix things when they go wrong. In this way a handful of humans can run an assembly line that used to require a small army. This is not a bad thing: it lets us be far more productive with our time. However, care does need to be taken to ensure that it is possible for people to adapt to the changing jobs market and that things do not change so fast that it causes too much disruption for society to cope with.

Handled correctly changes like this give us more leisure time and a higher standard of living. Handled badly they can lead to civil unrest and worse.

Far too many apps on the AppStore which utilise trackers of all sorts, most famous being Google analytics and other Google adware tools, but more so other companies that use advanced forms of fingerprinting such as playing sound / detecting sound outside the human listening wavelength as well as watching movement of fingers across the screen.

But seeing as Android and Windows 10 are now the most dominant OS globally, most sheep obviously don't care about their privacy (or they're clueless of it).

Windows 10 was just trying (and failing) to catch up to Mac in collect user data.. They are still far behind since they have trouble getting people to use their app-store, where macsheep are more pliable

Far too many apps on the AppStore which utilise trackers of all sorts, most famous being Google analytics and other Google adware tools, but more so other companies that use advanced forms of fingerprinting such as playing sound / detecting sound outside the human listening wavelength as well as watching movement of fingers across the screen.

But seeing as Android and Windows 10 are now the most dominant OS globally, most sheep obviously don't care about their privacy (or they're clueless of it).

According to Samsung Electronics and related industries on the 29th, Samsung Electronics completed the process development of semiconductor ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) for bit coin mining last year, and started mass production from January.

Two main sources for the story are people who either "worked at the Gigafactory in recent months"... Past tense...

But more than a month later, in mid-December, Tesla was still making its Model 3 batteries partly by hand, according to current engineers and ex-Tesla employees who worked at the Gigafactory in recent months.

...aaaaand a guy with a huge "shorting" investment, standing to win millions from perceived losses by Tesla.

Stanphyl Capital's Mark B. Spiegel, who has a significant short position in the company, told CNBC:
"While I've no doubt that Tesla will eventually work out its Model 3 production problems, the base model will cost Tesla at least mid-$40,000s to build.
The company will never deliver more than a token few for less than the current $49,000 lowest-cost offering.
Sales will hugely disappoint relative to expectations of over 400,000 a year.
And even at those higher prices Tesla will never come anywhere close to its promised [profitability]."

Also, article is reeeeeaaalyyyy trying to paint a picture of doom and gloom.
It takes a line from a Tesla engineer about how workers were "slapping bandoliers together as fast as they possibly could" back in December - and presents it as a doom&gloom subtitle:
'Slapping bandoliers together'

Hell, it even manages to paint higher test standards as bad, by omission of the fact that test standards are higher than expected not simply "[not] the same kind".

The two engineers also said that Tesla doesn't do the same kind of "stress tests" of its Model 3 batteries which would be expected of other electronics or carmakers.

And then there's that thing where I can't seem to find a single article by that author, about Tesla, which isn't a story about how VERY DOUBLEPLUS BAD Tesla really is.

Feds to investigate Tesla crash driver blamed on Autopilot
Tesla factory workers have filed a lawsuit claiming widespread racism, unsafe conditions
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/01/elon-musk-tesla-fired-700-people.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/17/tesla-firings-former-and-current-employees-allege-layoffs.htmlTesla employees detail how they were fired, claim dismissals were not performance related
Tesla employees detail how and why they were fired
Tesla cites performance reviews as it fires SolarCity employees, though workers say reviews never took place
Tesla fires hundreds of employees while trying to ramp up vehicle production

German report calls Tesla's Autopilot a "hazard"
Senate committee calls out Elon Musk, wants answers on Tesla Autopilot
Tesla under investigation for possible breach of securities law, WSJ reports
What the NTSB know

Two main sources for the story are people who either "worked at the Gigafactory in recent months"... Past tense...

But more than a month later, in mid-December, Tesla was still making its Model 3 batteries partly by hand, according to current engineers and ex-Tesla employees who worked at the Gigafactory in recent months.

...aaaaand a guy with a huge "shorting" investment, standing to win millions from perceived losses by Tesla.

Stanphyl Capital's Mark B. Spiegel, who has a significant short position in the company, told CNBC:
"While I've no doubt that Tesla will eventually work out its Model 3 production problems, the base model will cost Tesla at least mid-$40,000s to build.
The company will never deliver more than a token few for less than the current $49,000 lowest-cost offering.
Sales will hugely disappoint relative to expectations of over 400,000 a year.
And even at those higher prices Tesla will never come anywhere close to its promised [profitability]."

Also, article is reeeeeaaalyyyy trying to paint a picture of doom and gloom.
It takes a line from a Tesla engineer about how workers were "slapping bandoliers together as fast as they possibly could" back in December - and presents it as a doom&gloom subtitle:
'Slapping bandoliers together'

Hell, it even manages to paint higher test standards as bad, by omission of the fact that test standards are higher than expected not simply "[not] the same kind".

The two engineers also said that Tesla doesn't do the same kind of "stress tests" of its Model 3 batteries which would be expected of other electronics or carmakers.

And then there's that thing where I can't seem to find a single article by that author, about Tesla, which isn't a story about how VERY DOUBLEPLUS BAD Tesla really is.

Feds to investigate Tesla crash driver blamed on Autopilot
Tesla factory workers have filed a lawsuit claiming widespread racism, unsafe conditions
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/01/elon-musk-tesla-fired-700-people.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/17/tesla-firings-former-and-current-employees-allege-layoffs.htmlTesla employees detail how they were fired, claim dismissals were not performance related
Tesla employees detail how and why they were fired
Tesla cites performance reviews as it fires SolarCity employees, though workers say reviews never took place
Tesla fires hundreds of employees while trying to ramp up vehicle production

German report calls Tesla's Autopilot a "hazard"
Senate committee calls out Elon Musk, wants answers on Tesla Autopilot
Tesla under investigation for possible breach of securities law, WSJ reports
What the NTSB know

Two main sources for the story are people who either "worked at the Gigafactory in recent months"... Past tense...

But more than a month later, in mid-December, Tesla was still making its Model 3 batteries partly by hand, according to current engineers and ex-Tesla employees who worked at the Gigafactory in recent months.

...aaaaand a guy with a huge "shorting" investment, standing to win millions from perceived losses by Tesla.

Stanphyl Capital's Mark B. Spiegel, who has a significant short position in the company, told CNBC:
"While I've no doubt that Tesla will eventually work out its Model 3 production problems, the base model will cost Tesla at least mid-$40,000s to build.
The company will never deliver more than a token few for less than the current $49,000 lowest-cost offering.
Sales will hugely disappoint relative to expectations of over 400,000 a year.
And even at those higher prices Tesla will never come anywhere close to its promised [profitability]."

Also, article is reeeeeaaalyyyy trying to paint a picture of doom and gloom.
It takes a line from a Tesla engineer about how workers were "slapping bandoliers together as fast as they possibly could" back in December - and presents it as a doom&gloom subtitle:
'Slapping bandoliers together'

Hell, it even manages to paint higher test standards as bad, by omission of the fact that test standards are higher than expected not simply "[not] the same kind".

The two engineers also said that Tesla doesn't do the same kind of "stress tests" of its Model 3 batteries which would be expected of other electronics or carmakers.

And then there's that thing where I can't seem to find a single article by that author, about Tesla, which isn't a story about how VERY DOUBLEPLUS BAD Tesla really is.

Feds to investigate Tesla crash driver blamed on Autopilot
Tesla factory workers have filed a lawsuit claiming widespread racism, unsafe conditions
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/01/elon-musk-tesla-fired-700-people.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/17/tesla-firings-former-and-current-employees-allege-layoffs.htmlTesla employees detail how they were fired, claim dismissals were not performance related
Tesla employees detail how and why they were fired
Tesla cites performance reviews as it fires SolarCity employees, though workers say reviews never took place
Tesla fires hundreds of employees while trying to ramp up vehicle production

German report calls Tesla's Autopilot a "hazard"
Senate committee calls out Elon Musk, wants answers on Tesla Autopilot
Tesla under investigation for possible breach of securities law, WSJ reports
What the NTSB know

Two main sources for the story are people who either "worked at the Gigafactory in recent months"... Past tense...

But more than a month later, in mid-December, Tesla was still making its Model 3 batteries partly by hand, according to current engineers and ex-Tesla employees who worked at the Gigafactory in recent months.

...aaaaand a guy with a huge "shorting" investment, standing to win millions from perceived losses by Tesla.

Stanphyl Capital's Mark B. Spiegel, who has a significant short position in the company, told CNBC:
"While I've no doubt that Tesla will eventually work out its Model 3 production problems, the base model will cost Tesla at least mid-$40,000s to build.
The company will never deliver more than a token few for less than the current $49,000 lowest-cost offering.
Sales will hugely disappoint relative to expectations of over 400,000 a year.
And even at those higher prices Tesla will never come anywhere close to its promised [profitability]."

Also, article is reeeeeaaalyyyy trying to paint a picture of doom and gloom.
It takes a line from a Tesla engineer about how workers were "slapping bandoliers together as fast as they possibly could" back in December - and presents it as a doom&gloom subtitle:
'Slapping bandoliers together'

Hell, it even manages to paint higher test standards as bad, by omission of the fact that test standards are higher than expected not simply "[not] the same kind".

The two engineers also said that Tesla doesn't do the same kind of "stress tests" of its Model 3 batteries which would be expected of other electronics or carmakers.

And then there's that thing where I can't seem to find a single article by that author, about Tesla, which isn't a story about how VERY DOUBLEPLUS BAD Tesla really is.

Feds to investigate Tesla crash driver blamed on Autopilot
Tesla factory workers have filed a lawsuit claiming widespread racism, unsafe conditions
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/01/elon-musk-tesla-fired-700-people.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/17/tesla-firings-former-and-current-employees-allege-layoffs.htmlTesla employees detail how they were fired, claim dismissals were not performance related
Tesla employees detail how and why they were fired
Tesla cites performance reviews as it fires SolarCity employees, though workers say reviews never took place
Tesla fires hundreds of employees while trying to ramp up vehicle production

German report calls Tesla's Autopilot a "hazard"
Senate committee calls out Elon Musk, wants answers on Tesla Autopilot
Tesla under investigation for possible breach of securities law, WSJ reports
What the NTSB know

From the link posted by the troll above:

Facebook has said less than £1 was spent on Russian adverts designed to disrupt the Brexit vote, downplaying claims that meddling from the Kremlin helped swing last yearâ(TM)s referendum.

The US internet giant responded to an investigation from the Electoral Commission by saying the Internet Research Agency, a shadowy organisation with links to the Russian government, spent just $0.97 (73p) in Britain during the two months of the EU referendum campaign.

However, its claims were instantly disputed by a senior MP.

Damian Collins, the chair of the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee, accused Facebook of failing to probe the true extent of Russian meddling.

And surprise-surprise... They are going back to see if they've maybe, perhaps, possibly, missed some - once they are called out about it.

Just like how Facebook's could not have influenced the outcome of the election in November 2016.
But by April of 2017 "disinformation campaign during the election" WAS there but it was "statistically very small".
Then in September it turns out it they sold $150.000 worth of ads to Russians for some "3000 ads" connected to some 470 accounts, aimed at promoting discord on issues such as "gun rights, immigration, LGBT rights and race".
Or was that "80,000 pieces of content [which] may have been viewed by a total of 126 million people", as was revealed by late October 2017.

How those numbers keep growing... it's as almost as if Zuckerberg and Co. are lying through their teeth to cover their asses - then rolling over when pressed about it.

Meanwhile, in the land of Brexit...

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh identified 419 accounts operating from the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) attempting to influence UK politics out of 2,752 accounts suspended by Twitter in the US.

From the link posted by the troll above:

Facebook has said less than £1 was spent on Russian adverts designed to disrupt the Brexit vote, downplaying claims that meddling from the Kremlin helped swing last yearâ(TM)s referendum.

The US internet giant responded to an investigation from the Electoral Commission by saying the Internet Research Agency, a shadowy organisation with links to the Russian government, spent just $0.97 (73p) in Britain during the two months of the EU referendum campaign.

However, its claims were instantly disputed by a senior MP.

Damian Collins, the chair of the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee, accused Facebook of failing to probe the true extent of Russian meddling.

And surprise-surprise... They are going back to see if they've maybe, perhaps, possibly, missed some - once they are called out about it.

Just like how Facebook's could not have influenced the outcome of the election in November 2016.
But by April of 2017 "disinformation campaign during the election" WAS there but it was "statistically very small".
Then in September it turns out it they sold $150.000 worth of ads to Russians for some "3000 ads" connected to some 470 accounts, aimed at promoting discord on issues such as "gun rights, immigration, LGBT rights and race".
Or was that "80,000 pieces of content [which] may have been viewed by a total of 126 million people", as was revealed by late October 2017.

How those numbers keep growing... it's as almost as if Zuckerberg and Co. are lying through their teeth to cover their asses - then rolling over when pressed about it.

Meanwhile, in the land of Brexit...

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh identified 419 accounts operating from the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) attempting to influence UK politics out of 2,752 accounts suspended by Twitter in the US.

From the link posted by the troll above:

Facebook has said less than £1 was spent on Russian adverts designed to disrupt the Brexit vote, downplaying claims that meddling from the Kremlin helped swing last yearâ(TM)s referendum.

The US internet giant responded to an investigation from the Electoral Commission by saying the Internet Research Agency, a shadowy organisation with links to the Russian government, spent just $0.97 (73p) in Britain during the two months of the EU referendum campaign.

However, its claims were instantly disputed by a senior MP.

Damian Collins, the chair of the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee, accused Facebook of failing to probe the true extent of Russian meddling.

And surprise-surprise... They are going back to see if they've maybe, perhaps, possibly, missed some - once they are called out about it.

Just like how Facebook's could not have influenced the outcome of the election in November 2016.
But by April of 2017 "disinformation campaign during the election" WAS there but it was "statistically very small".
Then in September it turns out it they sold $150.000 worth of ads to Russians for some "3000 ads" connected to some 470 accounts, aimed at promoting discord on issues such as "gun rights, immigration, LGBT rights and race".
Or was that "80,000 pieces of content [which] may have been viewed by a total of 126 million people", as was revealed by late October 2017.

How those numbers keep growing... it's as almost as if Zuckerberg and Co. are lying through their teeth to cover their asses - then rolling over when pressed about it.

Meanwhile, in the land of Brexit...

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh identified 419 accounts operating from the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) attempting to influence UK politics out of 2,752 accounts suspended by Twitter in the US.

From the link posted by the troll above:

Facebook has said less than £1 was spent on Russian adverts designed to disrupt the Brexit vote, downplaying claims that meddling from the Kremlin helped swing last yearâ(TM)s referendum.

The US internet giant responded to an investigation from the Electoral Commission by saying the Internet Research Agency, a shadowy organisation with links to the Russian government, spent just $0.97 (73p) in Britain during the two months of the EU referendum campaign.

However, its claims were instantly disputed by a senior MP.

Damian Collins, the chair of the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee, accused Facebook of failing to probe the true extent of Russian meddling.

And surprise-surprise... They are going back to see if they've maybe, perhaps, possibly, missed some - once they are called out about it.

Just like how Facebook's could not have influenced the outcome of the election in November 2016.
But by April of 2017 "disinformation campaign during the election" WAS there but it was "statistically very small".
Then in September it turns out it they sold $150.000 worth of ads to Russians for some "3000 ads" connected to some 470 accounts, aimed at promoting discord on issues such as "gun rights, immigration, LGBT rights and race".
Or was that "80,000 pieces of content [which] may have been viewed by a total of 126 million people", as was revealed by late October 2017.

How those numbers keep growing... it's as almost as if Zuckerberg and Co. are lying through their teeth to cover their asses - then rolling over when pressed about it.

Meanwhile, in the land of Brexit...

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh identified 419 accounts operating from the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) attempting to influence UK politics out of 2,752 accounts suspended by Twitter in the US.

Unless you think that general-purpose computing systems are going away (I don't)

Some people in favor of making computing safer for non-technical users by curating all publicly available software more thoroughly want the general-purpose computer to go away, with the exception of software development companies and software engineering departments of accredited postsecondary schools. See "Lockdown" by Cory Doctorow, "Civil War" by Cory Doctorow, and "On The War On General Purpose Computing" by Jon Evans.

After reading the article, summary and the non-hidden comments, I noticed that Microsoft was only mentioned once. It was mentioned in the article, only in passing reference to reforms surrounding litigation.

This is ridiculous. Microsoft, Intellectual Ventures, and their trolls have been a tax to innovation for decades.

1
2
3

In addition, they use their global footprint to avoid taxes on multiple continents.

a
b
c
d
e

How can the summary and so many comments utterly fail to mention this?

Exactly. A lack of products to sell and make a profit means a diminishing market share.

Not only did you misunderstand the OP's comment (he was saying that a lack of CES presence doesn't necessarily correlate to how well a company fares in the market, which is true for a number of companies, not just Apple), but the reasons you chose to bash Apple with aren't even factual. There are plenty of perfectly valid and legitimate complaints to levy at Apple (e.g. lack of upgradeability, lack of repairability, costs outweigh benefits for many users, etc.), but you managed to pick ones that aren't even true.

For instance, contrary to your suggestion that they have a lack of products to sell (which seems to be a prevailing sentiment in the nerd crowd since some of their recent updates were underwhelming to us), the fact is that all of their major products save one (the Mac mini) received an update/refresh or price cut within the last year and the iPhone line received its biggest update since its launch a decade ago. While many of those changes don't appeal to us, they do appeal to everyday consumers (i.e. their target audience).

And contrary to your inference that this has led to a lack of profits, their profits appear likely to have been higher in 2017 than in any previous year in their history as a company. Likewise with their revenue.

And contrary to your suggestion that this has resulted in diminishing market share, Mac unit sales grew during a global downturn in the PC market, resulting in Mac marketshare growing from 5th to 4th globally for the year, putting them behind HP, Lenovo, and Dell. And for its part, iOS market share seems to have basically reached a point of equilibrium with Android, though it saw some unexpected growth in the US and most other markets prior the launch of their latest phones (I wouldn't put much stock in blips like that, though it is somewhat interesting).

All of which is to say, Apple hasn't had a physical presence at CES for as long as I can remember, and while they enjoyed an outsized influence at it over the last decade or so due to a combination of factors (e.g. prior to Apple leaving it, MacWorld Expo's news sometimes overshadowed CES; the gold rush years of the App Store led to knock-on influence at CES; etc.), it's unsurprising that their influence would return to normal levels once those effects faded, now that these markets are mature. Of course, that may also point towards a future where Apple no longer commands the outsized profits and revenues that they command now, so your suggestions may very well prove true in the not-too-distant future.

The main problem is getting your friends to switch.

1) Threema $
https://techcrunch.com/2014/02...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
2) Chatsecure thru Orbot
3) Riot.im
4) Wire
5) Telegram
6) Signal
7) Textsecure
8) Wickr
9) Jitsi Meet
10) Stride

I was willing to buy like 10-20 licenses of Threema, but Google Play does not allow "app gifts"...
Other methods will depend on geographical location (Google gift cards depend on the country address of each account) or require bit more technical knowledge (directly from Threema website).

Just my 2 cents

Isn't their a replay attack disclosed now, I would hope WPA3 has something to mitigate that.

My understanding is that only non standard behavior on clients can protect against the replay attack.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/10...

You got a warning about six months ago. SoundCloud is on borrowed time. Rip your favourite tracks now!

Links about Trump

Trump's lies:

In 298 days, President Trump has made 1,628 false and misleading claims (Nov. 13, 2017, Washington Post)

In a 30-minute interview, President Trump made 24 false or misleading claims. (Dec. 29, 2017, Washington Post)

President Trump's Lies, the Definitive List (Dec. 14, 2017, The New York Times)

10 Falsehoods From Trump's Interview With The Times (Dec. 29, 2017, New York Times)

Trump takes credit for zero aviation deaths worldwide. (Jan. 2, 2018, Trump's Twitter account)
Replies:
"I'm gonna take credit for puppies being cute..."
"Guess who's responsible for designing the cute kangaroo pouches that keep little Joeys safe? That right, it was Me. ME. ME!"
"That's a job well done, thank you, but don't forget I gave dolphins their blowholes! Without me, they would've drowned!"

Sexual abuse:

The 19 Women Who Accused President Trump of Sexual Misconduct (Dec. 7, 2017, The Atlantic.com)

Mental instability:

Incoherent, authoritarian, uninformed: Trump's New York Times interview is a scary read. (Dec. 30, CNBC) Quotes:
"President Donald Trump tells a string of falsehoods in his recent New York Times interview that make it difficult to tell whether he is lying or delusional."
"Trump appears to suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect, which holds that the least competent people often believe they are the most competent."
"Trump's comments are, by turns, incoherent, incorrect, conspiratorial, delusional, self-aggrandizing, and underinformed."

Lawyers 'Telling Trump What He Wants To Hear' So He Won't Fire Mueller (Dec. 31, 2017, Huffingtonpost.com) Quote:
"The president of the United States, in their view, is out of control a good deal of the time..." People who work for Trump have to adjust to his instability.

8 of the Sleaziest Things Donald Trump Has Said (June 16, 2015, 2 1/2 years ago, RollingStone.com)

Choosing weak people to be leaders:

Trump's FCC Chairman pick Ajit Pai heralds a weaker, meeker Commission (Jan. 23, 2017, TechCrunch.com, almost one year ago)
Ajit Pai's FCC is still editing the net neutrality repeal order (Jan 2, 2018, ArsTechnica.com)

Trump picks ghost hunter to be federal judge (Nov. 15 2017, BBC News) Quote:
"The appointment of Brett Talley, 36, for a lifetime post as an Alabama federal judge is raising eyebrows because he has never tried a case."

Profiting personally:

Trump has now spen

Links about Trump

Trump's lies:

In 298 days, President Trump has made 1,628 false and misleading claims (Nov. 13, 2017, Washington Post)

In a 30-minute interview, President Trump made 24 false or misleading claims. (Dec. 29, 2017, Washington Post)

President Trump's Lies, the Definitive List (Dec. 14, 2017, The New York Times)

10 Falsehoods From Trump's Interview With The Times (Dec. 29, 2017, New York Times)

Trump takes credit for zero aviation deaths worldwide. (Jan. 2, 2018, Trump's Twitter account)
Replies:
"I'm gonna take credit for puppies being cute..."
"Guess who's responsible for designing the cute kangaroo pouches that keep little Joeys safe? That right, it was Me. ME. ME!"
"That's a job well done, thank you, but don't forget I gave dolphins their blowholes! Without me, they would've drowned!"

Sexual abuse:

The 19 Women Who Accused President Trump of Sexual Misconduct (Dec. 7, 2017, The Atlantic.com)

Mental instability:

Incoherent, authoritarian, uninformed: Trump's New York Times interview is a scary read. (Dec. 30, CNBC) Quotes:
"President Donald Trump tells a string of falsehoods in his recent New York Times interview that make it difficult to tell whether he is lying or delusional."
"Trump appears to suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect, which holds that the least competent people often believe they are the most competent."
"Trump's comments are, by turns, incoherent, incorrect, conspiratorial, delusional, self-aggrandizing, and underinformed."

Lawyers 'Telling Trump What He Wants To Hear' So He Won't Fire Mueller (Dec. 31, 2017, Huffingtonpost.com) Quote:
"The president of the United States, in their view, is out of control a good deal of the time..." People who work for Trump have to adjust to his instability.

8 of the Sleaziest Things Donald Trump Has Said (June 16, 2015, 2 1/2 years ago, RollingStone.com)

Choosing weak people to be leaders:

Trump's FCC Chairman pick Ajit Pai heralds a weaker, meeker Commission (Jan. 23, 2017, TechCrunch.com, almost one year ago)
Ajit Pai's FCC is still editing the net neutrality repeal order (Jan 2, 2018, ArsTechnica.com)

Trump picks ghost hunter to be federal judge (Nov. 15 2017, BBC News) Quote:
"The appointment of Brett Talley, 36, for a lifetime post as an Alabama federal judge is raising eyebrows because he has never tried a case."

Profiting personally:

Trump has now spe

I switched recently from Plex which I had been using forever to Kodi. With the right skin Kodi looks fantastic. The problem is it's not a client/server model like Plex is. You just run Kodi on a client and point it at files somewhere. So you can't do transcoding from the server to the client. And with plex the client can also be a web browser. Chorus2, the kodi web client, is pretty poor and the browser streaming is barely functional and in my experience is dependent on the browser support and media type because there's no transcoding.

But the UI is nice, it's highly configurable and using the shared mysql/maria database you can share your watch status and library between devices (I'm using NVIDIA Shields).

Overall Plex offers a far simpler experience and supports transcoding which opens up some options (streaming to small/mobile devices via the internet) but Plex has gotten pretty shady requiring accounts, almost changing their policy until user backlash and it's not open source. So the whole thing just rubs me the wrong way. I'm willing to put in a little extra elbow grease to get Kodi working well to not support Plex because it works well enough for my use case, which is a couple front ends attached to TVs streaming content from a NAS.

It's only growing, not growing fast enough... welcome to the new fail. Also iWatch sales are actually up 50% YoY. The convenience of not fishing the phone out of your pocket was always going to be slim. Not everyone wants any watch on their wrist, much less tech bling. Oh and the iWatch 3 comes in a cellular version you can use without the phone, at the cost of battery life. The whole article reads like "they'll never be able to put a useful computer in a watch form factor". Well that's what they said about PCs. And laptops. And phones. I'm not sure saying it about watches is a good bet...

Oh, so they're "hiding" them are they, so, when in 02/17 Apple said that maximum power draws were causing shutdowns and that they were using power management to avoid them, that was their way of "hiding" this.

Now what to do about older out of spec batteries? Apple's patch avoids spontaneous shutdowns.

Again, this is not normal for smart phones, its happening to a handful of manufacturers including Apple who should step up and accept responsibility. Apple is not accepting responsibility, they're fucking over users

And AGAIN, I never said that out of spec batteries are "normal", but as anyone with a brain realizes, they DO occur more and more as the battery ages. And AGAIN, if you have an out of spec battery within warranty period, Apple ALREADY replaces the battery for free.

Tell us, do you also go whining to your gas station complaining that they "should" give you free gas because you've used up what you bought? To your grocer for free milk? Toothpaste? Toilet paper?

Again, straw man argument. If those companies start selling you a defective product then yes they should replace it,

Naaah, this is you going to your grocer whining that the new chocolate milk recipe you bought 4 months ago has gone bad, that he only came out with the new recipe to hide your ability to determine that it had gone bad and that you deserve to get all the free milk you want. In fact it you never even bought any of that brand's milk you're just arguing that everyone deserves free milk -- because milk goes bad.

You throttle EVERYTHING. Signups from an IP. Logins from an IP.

Good luck with that if you have a substantial number of legitimate users in countries with an insufficient allocation of IPv4 addresses. The IP address of a carrier-grade network address translation (CGNAT) appliance may represent a thousand subscribers or more. Consider what happened 11 years ago when a Wikipedia administrator inadvertently blocked editing from the entirety of Qatar.

I also have to wonder if this was partly in response to the battery issues they had with the 6-series (or 6s, i forget) where they'd get unexpected shutdowns and battery capacity under ~40% was a complete crapshoot. I had one and regularly saw the phone power off at 20% battery...or go from 30 to 5 and then power off and back to 40% when powered back on.

My guess is iffy battery performance messed up their capacity algorithms when it couldn't handle minor spikes in power due to CPU...so they basically just cut out the spikes in CPU to avoid further need of replacing batteries. And from there...it becomes a logical step to apply this to any device which might have anything similar happen. A slower phone is easier to accept than one which powers off somewhat randomly after all.

I'd put my money on them being linked. It was a business decision to help limit battery replacement...and a "good idea" spread it to all devices.

If anyone would bother to read, they would already KNOW that Apple has already explained that this is in response to the 6/6s "premature shutdown" issue.

Apple explained that, as LiOn batteries age, and as the charge level depletes, they become less capable of being able to deliver energy SURGES when processing/graphics demands them. This is a fact of physics, and nothing Apple (or anyone) can really control. So, in iPhones, this was causing the power-management hardware/software to essentially "panic" and shut down the phone before the gross-charge-level was showing a low-batt. situation.

So, Apple decided to, under those circumstances, "spread-out" the current-spikes, by temporarily rearranging some low-level timing in the OS. The actual goal of this software update was to EXTEND the useful life of the phone's batteries, NOT to "make an old device slower to boost sales of a replacement".

Apple contends (and probably rightly), that you would most likely NOT see these brief slowdowns under normal use; but that benchmark testing reveals them, due to the exceptionally-high-and long-term-demands those types of tests place on the system.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12...

tl;dr

Nothing to see here, take off your tinfoil hat and move along.

1. Fuck god. It has a lot to answer for and it is staying quiet.
2. Your service is shutting down. https://techcrunch.com/2017/12...
This is why the cloud is a bad idea. A company can just decide to stop the service. You're lucky you get a year to download everything.
Then get a 256GB for $60. Or use SyncThing.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12...
There goes your streaming. Local FTW.

NOT the same problem hater, that was a bad batch of batteries. Besides which, Apple has already stated that they have since added the fix to the 7 and will be adding it to further models as they attain an age in which it is useful to have it.

Here's the URL that you didn't read the last time I gave it. You won't read/understand it any more than the last time I gave it.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12...

And again you cannot explain why every other phones with aging batteries display the same problem.

Yeah, because Samsung has done __SO__ much better than Apple with their batteries. Remind me who it was that claimed to have fixed a major problem twice before recalling all of their most recent high-end phones because they were spontaneously combusting?

Given that _ALL_ phones with LI-ION batteries have the same issues with ageing, oh ignorant one, why are you attempting to only blame Apple?

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12...

Aaaand ___AGAIN___, it's NOT a design flaw or QC issues or limited to iPhone 6 phones, _every_ phone that lasts long enough exhibits the same "design flaw".

https://techcrunch.com/2017/12...

Apple's statement included: Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components. Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.

As the stories of non-iPhones that display _the_exact_same_bug_ (spontaneous shutdowns that are cured with a new battery or avoided by intelligent platform management as in iOS) are legion, you're being willfully obtuse.

If you think you have some claim to knowing better than Apple how aging in Lithium-Ion batteries affects platform stability, post it.

No. It is VERY HARD to see how this could go wrong.

You might want to look at your example again.

Your example is music writers can "compose and create music recordings (and put on YouTube) even though he cannot play any of the instruments", but what if youtubers can now click one button and the computer can compose and create music recordings even though he cannot play any instruments at all?

See what I did there? This is what we are doing with machine learning (the media calls them AI).

Imagine one day, no one will ever create/upload a video for youtube, instead the youtubers simply click one button to generate a video. So "solo movie creators", "writers" would no long exist, just algorithms and meat potatoes left.

That, the concept of taking out everyone and it's effect, is very wrong, at least for the existing system. Unfortunately, it is already happening. But real assure, regular robots and simple computer generators will take over before any real AI is completed.

Whether it's "good for humanity" however is a different question, as you could still prove that it is good for humanity even when it is wrong.

Google took didn't fix it until after it was made public. Neither did Apple. And if you have an Android device you need to wait for the vendor to release it.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/10...

I just posted the following to all of the comment sections of each of the creators I was supporting. Maybe I'll be back but I want to send Patreon.com a strong message by cancelling everything.

I just got a note from Patreon.com about the new fee changes. I'm so sorry that you are going to get hurt by this. I have sent a note to Patreon.com that I won't be able to justify paying so much for all of my large number of $1 pledges, where they will tack on a 37.9% charge for each pledge, so I'm going to cancel all of my pledges right after posting this note. I'll be back if they move the $0.35 fee to be per-credit-card-charge, but per-pledge is just a money-grab.

Maybe in the future I will pick one creator at random to give them all of my money rather than spread it around in small amounts like I currently do, but if I don't cancel things, Patreon won't see that I am seriously pissed. I'll keep "following" your patreon page.

Here is some coverage of the announcement - https://www.engadget.com/2017/... and https://techcrunch.com/2017/12... and https://www.pretty-terrible.co...

I will use the following line as my reason for cancelling my pledge:

The changed fee structure makes many small donations too expensive, so I am cancelling everything. Patreon.com's greed and/or stupidity has pissed me off.

Why? When has an airline ever prevented you from carrying your phone or tablet on-board?

Well, I can think of one increasingly oppressive country that went that route.
US authorities ban electronics larger than a phone from flights from 13 countries

It's just a matter of time before they start imposing the requirement on everyone.

I would love to see you trying to educate an Afghan elder in some isolated mountain village about how to use his brand new MasterCard. Should be good for weeks of entertainment!

A MasterCard would be stupid yes, but not a mobile SMS pay system used to pay government employees as well as rural transactions, such as a tribal elder would use.

Question: How does rolling back Net Neutrality make us less "at the mercy of ever stronger Google?" Wouldn't repealing Net Neutrality (which ensures that all parties pay for their on-ramp/off ramp, with no special charges for prioritization) allow Google could then establish contractual agreements with network providers to guarantee that their traffic receive priority over all else, guaranteeing that Google would have the most established "fast lane" available. Wouldn't it also allow Google to contract with the network providers to disallow traffic from other providers?

The Net Neutrality argument goes:
    1) Many LISPs want to become content providers at best, and content redistributors at least, adding this service as a revenue stream.
    2) Because LISPs have control over 100% of the data flowing through their network, it is possible for the LISPs to prioritize content, for which they receive additional revenue, over content from other services.
    3) Local Internet Service Providers (LISPs) are equivalent to local monopolies, as most consumers may pick from 1 (maybe 2) providers for non-wireless service.

Because LISPs are equivalent to a local monopoly, they should be regulated like other local monopolies, i.e. Utilities. The closest Utility match is the telephone carrier (and in fact many LISPs are legacy telephone carriers). Thus they should be regulated like Telephone Carriers to eliminate monopoly power.

Ajit Pai's primary argument is that Net Neutrality is like “1930s-style regulation" (See: TechCrunch). That same regulation busted Banking and Rail Road monopolies and the US economy is arguably healthier for it.

Without Net Neutrality we are at best replacing strong Google/Facebook/Netflix/Amazon/Apple with strong Comcast/Verizon/AT&T/Charter/Cox.

Neither Michael Orielly or Ajit Pai are "Obama appointed chairman".

https://www.fcc.gov/about/lead...

Michael Oâ(TM)Rielly was nominated for a seat on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama on August 1, 2013 and was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on October 29, 2013. He was sworn into office on November 4, 2013. On January 29, 2015, he was sworn into office for a new term, following his re-nomination by the President and confirmation by the United States Senate.

But but... That was changed! They are lying! Ok. Let's try :

https://techcrunch.com/2014/12...

Want something to wash down that crow there buddy ? ^_^

And, surprise surprise, it is not that simple.

Young Smith had been talking with Apple CEO Tim Cook about the next phase of her career and life since about a year ago, according to a source. Over the last few months, Apple has been searching for a successor to replace Young Smith. It’s not quite clear, however, when exactly Young Smith decided she would leave Apple. But based on that timeline, it seems as though Young Smith made up her mind before those comments in Bogotá, Colombia for which she later apologized.

Source

EA just announced they are temporarily disabling micro transactions...until after xmas.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11...

Consumer Reports pulls Microsoft Surface recommendation, citing high breakage rates

No, but the whole "I'm going to influence politics but might flee to New Zealand" really rubs me the wrong way.

If you're a billionaire wanting to run a libertarian experiment with the united states, well first that's idiotic to do it at a national level given how awful the Kansas experiment is going. But if you choose to do it anyway, you fucking stay for the consequences, at least as much as a billionaire would suffer any real consequences. You don't give yourself and a few friends a lifeboat across the ocean for if things go wrong for the millions of the rest of us.

Thiel seems to have realized Trump was a mistake after the shocker that the president wasn't socially progressive. Did Thiel apologize for speaking for Trump or donating money? Has Thiel been pushing anyone in the GOP to start challenging Trump? Recent events have proven the only thing worse than billionaire elites directing politics is the horde of voters directing themselves and a president willing to go wherever they lead him.

Its been interesting to read that apparently some of the limits reddit instituted last time (amid much controversy and gnashing of teeth) were in reducing hate speech.

The take-home to me is that groups online should define and enforce their standards; doing so will determine what sort of people participate and whether the site is a "cess pool". Seems obvious now.

Apple has already denied it: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10...

Just so we're clear, the "crime" you're accusing Hillary Clinton of is having a private email server and playing fast-and-loose with the rules about what's non-government business (allowed on a private server) vs. government business (not allowed on a private server). This is bad and should not be encouraged. But making a big deal about Hillary Clinton doing it is absurd when everyone does it (including multiple people in the current administration) and getting investigated for it is unheard of. Oh, wait, Bush (the second one) did, and also got a slap on the wrist, just like Hillary Clinton. Clearly those rules are not interpreted strictly by anyone not trying to come up with an excuse for an investigation.

Out of curiosity, what are you quoting in your comment? This text didn't appear in TFA or the summary.

Techcrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2017/10...