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Neural networks can work really well on specific problem domains. The problem is: You have no idea what they are actually learning. The features that a network identifies within its layers are not really accessible to us. The problem lies, imho, in the total lack of domain knowledge. Since the network doesn't understand what the objects in those pictures are, they are doing a purely mechanical analysis of some (and who knows which) aspects of the pictures. They can learn some really weird things.

I think its premature to be calling these things 'Artificial Intelligence', because as you say there doesn't really seem to be a whole lot of intelligence in these systems at all. The way I explain it is by calling them 'Artificial Instinct' machines instead, because that's closer to how these things actually function. The networks build up a set of kneejerk reactions to stimuli which is why they seem to work well for things that humans can do without really thinking about it, like driving cars.

Once upon a time, I did my doctorate in machine learning. The machines were less powerful, but the algorithms? Basically the same as they are today. Sorry, the stuff most widely in use is still the same back-propagating neural networks. The machines are just faster, so the networks can be bigger. That's it.

Neural networks can work really well on specific problem domains. The problem is: You have no idea what they are actually learning. The features that a network identifies within its layers are not really accessible to us. The problem lies, imho, in the total lack of domain knowledge. Since the network doesn't understand what the objects in those pictures are, they are doing a purely mechanical analysis of some (and who knows which) aspects of the pictures. They can learn some really weird things.

In a well-trained network, the results mostly coincide with our expectations. In a completely isolated domain, like chess or go, a network can be trained sufficiently to perform quite well. However, in open domains, they are fragile: we have no idea when they will break. Look at the video of the turtle being identified as a rifle (in the link above). Why does the identification jump seemingly at random? When will a cat will suddenly be guacamole? When will a pedestrian crossing the road will suddenly be just a pile of leaves? We have no idea, none.

It is certainly true that selecting and managing training data is a very different task from classic programming. However, it doesn't really take much domain knowledge. In most domains, gathering training data is tedious, not difficult. The hard part comes in figuring out how to make the best use of that data to train and test a network - and that requires a deep understanding of how the neural networks work (and how they don't work). Plus, frankly, a huge pile of trial and error, because there aren't many rules on how to best structure a net for any particular task.

There has been numerous articles like this now. Apple has already explained that Face ID stores info about a persons face once a successful PIN code is entered to keep up with the users appearance over time. So whats most likely happened again is that the parents give their phones to their kids to try, the Face ID scan first fails and when the parents then put in the correct PIN code the phone stores information about the kids face together with the parents until eventually it learns to accept the kids face too. Read more here, https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

What about Joshua Topolsky's article, Apple is really bad at design (Sept. 29, 2017) is not correct, in your opinion? What other stories to which I linked are not correct? Topolsky's article in 2013 also seems reasonable to me: The design of iOS 7: simply confusing (June 10, 2013)

There are 2 issues: The underlying facts, and what people think. It is now easy to find articles that talk about Apple not managing well, about Apple being sloppy. Even if those articles are not grounded in reality, they have an effect on Apple's reputation. A socially-capable CEO who is knowledgeable about professional communication minimizes the problems that cause negative impressions. Steve Jobs did that.

As I said before, Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011, and was not managing long before that. Tim Cook officially became CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011. It seems that Apple's relationships with users have been insufficiently managed since Steve Jobs died.

I don't consider myself an expert. The only Apple products I own are an iMac 24 and an iPod Mini.

I'm amazed at the number of negative articles about Apple that I found on Slashdot that summarize many negative articles elsewhere.

It's a big disgrace to abandon flash instead of fixing its problems.

You'll have to take that up with Adobe. When the developer of Flash is abandoning Flash, why should anyone else support it?

Garmin engineer shot and killed in Kansas by man who allegedly yelled 'GET OUT OF MY COUNTRY'

There you go, it was made for you:
https://www.theverge.com/2015/...

dropping flash support

That's what everyone is doing, even Adobe themselves. Flash is dead. You are in the first stage of grief. Time to move on.

hus they don't ask Apple for help since that removes the ability to whine about it.

Not only didn't they ask for help, but Apple reached out to them immediately and they refused the help . Perhaps because they had been waiting for an opportunity to complain about encryption.

You see this failure mode in Samsung phones with an OLED display. And the iPhone X uses a Samsung display.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Seems like it is a bad vertical line driver looking at this.

https://us.community.samsung.c...

One of the vertical line drivers is stuck 'on'. So you get a line mostly in one of the primary colours - R, G or B. Or, less common, a combination of the two.

My S5 is still fine, but for some reason I've seen a few people with battered looking S7s and S8s with the vertical line. Not sure if the battering causes the failure or if some display panels just fail spontaneously.

Incidentally, there's an amusing bit of Apple overcharging for glass

https://www.theverge.com/circu...

The iPhone X went on sale today, and with it, Apple released some information about the phoneâ(TM)s repair pricing â" and like the phone itself, it gets expensive. If you donâ(TM)t have the extended warranty, a screen replacement will cost $279. Thatâ(TM)s more than twice the price of an iPhone 6 screen replacement ($129) and about 65 percent higher than a new iPhone 8 screen ($169). The pricing was first spotted by MacRumors.

If that sounds high, you should be careful not to damage an iPhone X in any other way: all other out-of-warranty repairs will cost $549. Again, thatâ(TM)s a lot more than what other recent iPhones cost to repair. iPhone 8 repairs cost $349 and 8 Plus repairs cost $399. That means if you crack the glass back of the iPhone X (or the iPhone 8), you might just want to live with it.

Appleâ(TM)s extended warranty, AppleCare+, often looks like a pricey upsell. But for iPhone X buyers, it seems like it might be a necessary safety net. Appleâ(TM)s warranty costs $199 for the iPhone X (up from $129 for the iPhone 8 and $149 for the 8 Plus); but while the warranty itself is more expensive, warranty service fees (which apply only when Apple is repairing something with âoeaccidental damageâ) donâ(TM)t go up at all. So an iPhone X can still get a $29 screen repair if itâ(TM)s under warranty, and it can still get a $99 repair for anything else under AppleCare+, too.

So it's $279 for a replacement display out of warranty. Or $29 with warranty. And the warranty costs $199. And all other repairs are a whopping $549.

So if you're the sort of person who cracks the display on your phone, you're going to be paying through the nose for it.

IHS reckons the display assembly is

http://www.businesswire.com/ne...

IHS Markit estimates the cost of the display module, which includes the cover glass, AMOLED panel and Force Touch sensor, at $110.

I.e. Apple make a fair bit of profit out of people dropping their phones. Arguably the reason Apple and Samsung have moved to glass front and back is that glass breaks and repairs are profitable. Also, especially in the Samsung case, it's hard to take the phone apart without damaging expensive bits if you look at the iFixit videos.

I reckon I could get a whole new, or at least 'pre-owned' S5 for less than $279 if I looked around a bit.

If you can wait a few months, and don't mind spending Apple Dollar$, how about using the new external GPU?
An added advantage could be - lock the GPU gadget in a closet, and give it out for good behavior.
Meanwhile, the Mac laptop itself can be used continuously for normal school purposes.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

At least this happened with the new Merlin Series 5 redesign, scheduled for flight next year.

Exactly. That's important-- this is the next generation engine, not the one currently flying.

Some alternate sources, some with more information:
https://www.space.com/38712-spacex-rocket-engine-test-explosion.html
https://www.geekwire.com/2017/next-generation-spacex-rocket-engine-goes-flames-texas-test/
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/an-experimental-spacex-rocket-engine-has-exploded-in-texas/
https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

At least this happened with the new Merlin Series 5 redesign, scheduled for flight next year.

Exactly. That's important-- this is the next generation engine, not the one currently flying.

Some alternate sources, some with more information:
https://www.space.com/38712-spacex-rocket-engine-test-explosion.html
https://www.geekwire.com/2017/next-generation-spacex-rocket-engine-goes-flames-texas-test/
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/an-experimental-spacex-rocket-engine-has-exploded-in-texas/
https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

This is the PhD gamble. You hope that you learn enough and live long enough for your cutting edge research to find a practical purpose.

Back in 2004 DARPA sponsored a 'small' project to drive cars autonomously. Lots of companies and schools threw warm bodies at the problem and for a few years it some of it was purely theoretical research.

Then it reached a tipping point that a profitable end was in sight.

Uber went in and cleaned out CMU's autonomous vehicle department.

I've been repeating this for quite a while now, but I dunno for what reason, people have apparently forgotten all about the case involving the Canadian Mounted Police, a master decryption key for all non-enterprise accounts, and extremely crappy response from your same very own John Chen who was also the CEO back at the time.

Let me refresh people's memories:
https://www.theverge.com/2016/...
https://news.vice.com/article/...
http://blogs.blackberry.com/20...
https://www.computerworld.com/...

If anyone was stupid enough to fall into the obvious and very false statement that the new Blackberry had better costumer protection in place in comparison to Apple or other Android brands, it's on you for not doing very basic research.
It's like getting surprized with a new round of scandals of Lenovo laptops having malware pre-loaded on their bios. There have been enough cases to know what the position of the company is. If you are still throwing your money at them, you are just reinforcing the behavior and proving to them that it's acceptable.
John Chen has said nothing there that he didn't already say in the past. While he is the CEO of the company, such behavior is to be expected. Anyone who cares about their own personal privacy and about having proper standards on costumer protection should've already let go of the brand by now.

FaceID uses an infrared blaster that projects a point cloud of over 30,000 infrared dots onto the surface (often a face) being scanned. If, for example, the infrared dots weren't of the expected intensity, sharpness, or spacing precision, I'd imagine performance of the 3D scan would be degraded. Presumably, SW might be able to correct for spacing precision, but not sharpness or intensity issues. This technology is essentially the same as the MS Kinect v1 device and was acquired by Apple when they purchased PrimeSense in 2013.

https://www.theverge.com/circu...

There is an opinion on the Verge about how everybody has dud products once in a while... but at this point in a product, when you're building your brand in a new area, can easily taint the reputation permanently and kill off the entire project.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

Here's a video review of the phone:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

The attachable wireless modules are unique, and it has a 360 degree camera option. It has a 5.7" screen and a smaller body than 5.5" screen Androids and iPhones. No bloatware isn't unique, but it's better than most Android phones. Interesting and functional materials.

Their home page highlights these differences:
https://www.essential.com/

More than the current features is the promise of seamless integration with other devices.
https://www.wired.com/story/in...

I'm not buying this iteration of this phone, but I hope enough people do to keep this company alive - it looks like it has a lot of promise.

Look again at the PDF you linked to, HDMI is listed on the second page, left hand column, first paragraph.

You'll also note that the document I linked to, as well as the one you linked to, are both from 2016, after Thunderbolt 3 co-opted the port. If you look at what was supported prior to that, the USB-C spec itself, you have USB, DP, and power distribution. HDMI Licensing did release a standard for HDMI over USB-C in 2016, as well, which is separate from the Thunderbolt 3 standard which already included HDMI over DisplayPort. It is also worth noting that the Thunderbolt 3 standard includes 8 DisplayPort lanes while the USB-C standard includes only 4.

The way HDMI works, using all four data lanes in the spec, makes me wonder if a USB-C port could support both Thunderbolt and HDMI at the same time like Thunderbolt and DisplayPort can share data lines.

Since USB-C itself provides only 4 DisplayPort lanes, HDMI uses them all, and the port cannot be in both USB and Thunderbolt mode simultaneously, I would posit that this is not possible. It may be possible to slip some USB data in with the HDMI stream if the resolution or framerate is reduced sufficiently; I honestly don't know enough about HDMI to know if it frees up some of those lanes when it doesn't need the bandwidth. That said, as Thunderbolt 3 provides 8 DisplayPort lanes, a USB-C port operating in Thunderbolt mode can provide display and data transfer simultaneously, even at 4K@60Hz. If you have Thunderbolt available, that's what you'd want to use.

It was my understanding that Apple supported HDMI on USB-C and the adapters they offer for HDMI are passive, but I may be mistaken.

There was no HDMI over USB-C spec until 2016 and the current MacBook models still have the same chipset as the 2015 models. Additionally, the USB-C port, when not operating in Thunderbolt 3 mode (which these models lack) can't pass video and USB at the same time, thus why Apple sells a USB-C to DisplayPort cable (which, in theory, should work with a passive DP->HDMI adapter, as well) and USB-C adapters which include a second USB-C port, a USB-A port, and either HDMI or VGA. If the adapters were simple passive circuits, the USB-C and USB-A ports on them would be nonfunctional while video was being passed.

Intel does license Thunderbolt to others, AMD included.

Since when? The article you linked to, published less than 6 months ago, states that "Intel hasn't made the specification available to other companies" and "Intel has unveiled plans to not only build the technology into its processors, but to open the spec through a non-exclusive, royalty-free license." I see no indication that either of those things has happened yet. That might be why AMD does not take advantage of it. In fact, this article, published by Intel the very same day as the one you linked to, states "ntel is announcing that it plans to drive large-scale mainstream adoption of Thunderbolt by integrating Thunderbolt 3 into future Intel CPUs and by releasing the Thunderbolt protocol specification to the industry next year." That pretty much confirms why AMD hasn't taken them up on the offer yet; and time will tell whether Intel will make good on their word.

I hope they will, but I've had business dealings with Intel before and, let's just say their word is only as good as the legally binding contract it's written on, and that article is not legally binding.

I'm not saying it's not a problem, only that it's not something I'm going to be terribly concerned about now that I know some more about the issues.

I'm not terribly concern

Google’s Home Mini needed a software patch to stop some of them from recording everything

World's most talented developers indeed.

They'll never beat Microsoft at this rate.

Oh, and law enforcement does not have "backdoor access", at least not the way that I would interpret the phrase.

But then there's this. So how, exactly, do you interpret the phrase? I know that's old news, but if they developed something new it's not as if they would tell us.

It appears that at that time the NSA was collecting data by tapping communications between Google data centers. Google responded by encrypting all of those links.

Oh, and law enforcement does not have "backdoor access", at least not the way that I would interpret the phrase.

But then there's this. So how, exactly, do you interpret the phrase? I know that's old news, but if they developed something new it's not as if they would tell us.

The 15" version reportedly starts at $2499, maybe if it's my company paying but not me. It makes my gaming PC - which in itself is a giant money sink - seem like a good investment. Unless you're actually making money with it, real money.

P.S. Could that be a reason for inconsistencies in battery life tests of the latest MBPs?

I expect it to happen if drone operators continue to do stupid stuff that interferes with aircraft. I'm sorry, but there are too many stupid people playing with drones to have forced this because they clearly can't regulate themselves. Imagine the outcry when people die because of some stupid drone operator hitting an aircraft at some critical point. They have already caused mid-air collisions and have interfered with emergency responders.

Here's a case that resulted in damage to the helicopter:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news...
Here's a possible hit with an A320:
https://www.theverge.com/2016/...
There have also been hundreds of close calls:
https://www.washingtonpost.com...

Interfering with firefighters:
http://wildfiretoday.com/2017/...
http://www.mercurynews.com/201...
http://www.npr.org/2015/07/23/...

They can't even control hitting other drones.

https://www.faa.gov/uas/faqs/

I've been carrying a $99 Kindle Paperwhite for ages without a case and it seems to be holding up fine.

This device seems very overpriced.

The Verge article says it's

https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

The new Oasis ships at the end of October and is replacing last yearâ(TM)s Oasis, leaving four Kindles total in Amazonâ(TM)s lineup: the original Kindle ($80), the Kindle Paperwhite ($120), Kindle Voyage ($200), and the Oasis, which starts at $250 for an 8GB model. Thatâ(TM)s double the base storage of previous Kindles, which Amazon says is to accommodate the storage of audio books. It also connects over both Wi-Fi and 4G LTE.

And Amazon say the 32GB model is $299

https://www.amazon.com/Staging...

Compared to the $119 Kindle Paperwhite that's a lot of cash.

Great. It's a shame the two are probably worlds apart in handling, fit and finish, reliability and comfort

Start reading reviews. Here, I'll help - some excerpts and links. Let me know which of these are some sort of Tesla shills:

Motor Trend:

What’s blanching, though, is the car’s ride and handling. If anybody was expecting a typical boring electric sedan here, nope. The ride is Alfa Giulia (maybe even Quadrifoglio)–firm, and quickly, I’m carving Stunt Road like a Sochi Olympics giant slalomer, micrometering my swipes at the apexes. I glance at Franz—this OK? “Go for it,” he nods. The Model 3 is so unexpected scalpel-like, I’m sputtering for adjectives. The steering ratio is quick, the effort is light (for me), but there’s enough light tremble against your fingers to hear the cornering negotiations between Stunt Road and these 235/40R19 tires (Continental ProContact RX m+s’s). And to mention body roll is to have already said too much about it. Sure, that battery is low, way down under the floor. But unlike the aluminum Model S, the Tesla Model 3 is composed of steel, too, and this car’s glass ceiling can’t be helping the center of gravity’s height. Nearly-nil body roll? Magic, I’m telling you. Magic. And this is the single-motor, rear-wheel-drive starting point. The already boggled mind boggles further at the mention of Dual Motor and Ludicrous.

Top Gear:

Gone are the Model S’s projecting doorhandles in favour of nicely crafted aluminium ones that project manually like those on an Aston when you poke one end. Open the door and slide in, and the interior is beautifully simple and uncluttered. The steering wheel features two buttons that adjust everything from the traditional (volume, radio frequency) to the more unique (door mirror adjustment and steering wheel positioning).
***
The car we drove was a Long Range model with all the options list ticked, including the Premium Upgrade Package, featuring leather seats (base models come with fabric), a wooden dash inlay panel that spans the width of the cockpit and the aforementioned glass roof that infuses the interior with a huge feeling of light and space. It’s all simple, elegant, uncluttered and nicely crafted. Before we set off, I jumped in the back and with the driver seat positioned for my 6ft frame, there was still plenty of room in the back for three adults.
***
Our short foray highlighted that the Model 3’s quoted 0–60mph time of 5.1 seconds in this Long Range spec might be underplaying its performance a bit: it’s rapid, and the acceleration is delivered with that lovely linearity and unwavering torque that EVs deliver. The overall feeling of peace and quiet is helped by the minimalist interior but by impressive sound deadening and insulation – the road noise is minimal.

The Verge:

I felt like I was driving in an Eames chair. That was my first impression as I climbed into the driver’s seat of the Tesla Model 3 at the Fremont Factory on Friday afternoon. It took a moment to orient myself — no gauges, no speedometer, no airplane cockpit cues. Instead, one continuous smooth line between myself and the road ahead, offset by natural, unfinished wood. The premium model of the Model 3 caught me off guard. After hearing so much hype about this car, I was surprised that my first reaction was a profound sense of delight. It wasn’t bland, nor sterile, nor cheap feeling. Here was something different. Here was an exercise in min

They pwned congress. Game over. Maybe a new name is in order. I nominate one of these: Comca$t, ComCaste, ComAssed, Comlast. Someone else can do better, I'm sure.

Communistcast.

When Microsoft tricked Windows 7 and Windows 8 users into installing Windows 10, Microsoft removed Windows Media Center, also: Microsoft kills off Windows Media Center.

More about Microsoft's abusive management: Microsoft's history is filled with abuse.

Stability is the least of your concerns:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

Samsung has never been any good at all at writing OSes; even their Android implementations are always fucked up.

Elements within Google itself think there should be a third - hence Fuchsia.

Android (*bought* by Google, not home grown) was essentially a quick-and-dirty rollout for time-to-market reasons, and there will certainly be benefits if some deep-pocketed sponsor can roll out something built from the ground up for mobile and not desktop requirements.

Although I guess the question is essentially asking if "Blackberry should die"?

The greatest "what might have been" I think of is Palm/WebOS. Whatever you may think of his shenanigans, Mark Hurd was absolutely right when he ran HP and made the move to buy Palm - that could have been the start of something new. HP may not have much mindshare now but I think a lot of people underestimate how many units it can put out into the market, and get adopted simply because they're pushing it.

Steve Jobs was absolutely right when he fended off all those people arguing (during the "beleaguered" days) that Apple should licence MacOS out (or even just give up and switch to Windows) - an operating system is a core *asset*. Without it you're just an indentured servant to "other people's technology", at the mercy of the true power.

Buying Palm was a bold move to attempt to break HP out of that rut but it got shafted before it got started. I think it could have been done. Instead HP was stuck trying to peddle Windows phones, and ended up getting shafted by MS yet again https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

I've read a lot of discussion of Teslas online, and I've repeatedly seen comments like "Well, I think the Tesla interiors are cheap. My BMWs and Mercedes are much nicer, let alone my Bentley. I sold the Tesla and bought a Jaguar."

In fairness to Tesla, I've also seen a lot of comments like "I have six cars, and since I got the Tesla I find I'm just not driving the others anymore. The Telsa is just so fun to drive." But the point is that the praise was always about how the Tesla is for driving, and not that the car is some kind of status symbol. I've never seen comments like "BMWs are passe, if you want to impress people drive a Tesla."

Of course these rich people are always talking about the most expensive Tesla models, like a Model S P100D. Those cars have acceleration like a million-dollar supercar.

P100D is the third-fastest car in the world

They pwned congress. Game over. Maybe a new name is in order. I nominate one of these: Comca$t, ComCaste, ComAssed, Comlast. Someone else can do better, I'm sure.

I think most people are well aware that Puerto Rico is in no position to pay for an island wide solar power. Consider that an island of 3.4 million people recently declared bankruptcy on $70 billion of debt. This was in the news and people are well aware just how destitute they are, therefore they realize just how absurd it is for the island to pay for solar power.

There is also the matter of looking at their power needs. The people their can't afford the cost of solar energy as they already pay higher electrical costs than 49 out of 50 states. They pay these costs when making far less money than people in the United States - and that's before the hurricane wiped out far too many jobs.

https://www.eia.gov/state/anal...

Their problem isn't their power plants, they are largely intact. Their problem is the power lines, lines that would still have to be rebuilt even if they did use solar.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

Even MIT has debunked the ludicrous idea of Puerto Rico rebuilding with solar. In short they need about 20 billion megawatt hours per year. Tesla's south Australia facility will produce 129 million megawatt hours. The two are an order of magnitude apart in scale.

https://www.technologyreview.c...

To quote MIT on the matter "And given estimates that restoring the grid could take up to six months (not including Teslaâ(TM)s involvement), one is left wondering if the cost, complexity, and longevity issues donâ(TM)t make the suggestions rather more bluster than substance."

To say that Tesla could or would actually build out something that would meet the needs of Puerto Rico is absurd for anyone other than Tesla to say.

Android has a history of allowing applications that insert ads on the lock screen and preventing the user from disabling them. Many devices, including my own Asus Transformer tablet, have preinstalled applications that can not be uninstalled or disabled. This type of user-hostile experience has been common on Android devices since the very beginning.

https://nikolamotor.com/one https://www.theverge.com/2017/... http://www.foxnews.com/auto/20...

You think it is bad here. On reddit the CEO edits the posts of users.

https://www.washingtonpost.com...

https://www.theverge.com/2016/...

And then you have an Out of Warranty, Obsolete Device, That is glued together.
But never fear you can get AppleCare+ for an additional $ 199.00 up from $ 129.00.
"You get the same two years of coverage for manufacturing defects or battery life issues (up from the one year that the phone comes with), and the same two incidents of accidental damage coverage."

AppleCare+ for the iPhone X will cost $199

But the true value is up to each individual. And they will make the choice about it making sense or not making sense.

He's no longer the head, but it's not his "former company"; he remained as chairman until 2014 and has been a technology adviser since then. He actually puts in more time at the company now than he did in the chairman years.

https://www.theverge.com/2014/...

think MS is targeting corporations with Skype with all the IM, screen sharing, blah blah blah features.

Except Microsoft announced this past week that Skype for Business is being replaced by Teams.

Ready, fire, aim!

Actually, you can play music from USB. Tunein appears to work here. And it's not accurate to say that it doesn't have "AM/FM hardware", only that it's not on the GUI at present.

Be careful about taking statements from someone who just got their car about what it can and can't do.

That said, you're right that these early adopters are basically taking part in a beta. The software stack still has features that aren't available yet. Then again, after listening to them, they couldn't be more thrilled to be taking part in a beta.

Bingo.

I'm very glad the Windows has a good way to run Linux programs. Why? Well, I don't want to waste an afternoon figuring out which three lines I need to write to handle something that any reasonable desktop OS would handle with no hassle.

By which time you've probably spent several weeks insecurely downloading Chromium to have a proper web browser, going through YouTube videos learning how to restore your desktop functionality, making sure to turn off the windows store so your kids don't auto-install some malware searching sites to try to find instructions to turn off the spyware features, probably managing to get some other drive by malware in the process. Installing antivirus software, then removing it when you find out that it had malware included.

But, cutting and pasting a three line script. That's really the time killer. Isn't it.

Now that wouldn't be so bad if they would not flat out refuse to repair your device.

I had a broken screen on my iPhone 5, which was otherwise just fine. I brought it in, the price would be about 150 euros which is a lot (you can easily get a replacement non-original screen for less than half the price) but I didn't want to risk getting an inferior screen, possibly even containing malware, so I went through the official channel. A bit later I got a call saying they had diagnosed my phone and found a problem with the battery as well. They "had to" repair that, too, and since it was going to be too expensive, I might as well get a replacement refurbished phone for more than 300 euros.

I insisted that my two year old battery was just fine (not quite lasting as long as when it was new, but sufficient for me) and only wanted a new screen, but no, they flat out refused. Apple only delivers devices in perfect working order with a three month warranty, so they could not just repair the screen, end of discussion.

I ended up getting a fake screen from some grubby repair shop after all. Works like a charm, by the way. And the battery still works just fine.

Obviously nothing is impossible. However you can't simply hold up a photo or even have a professional make one by hand. Perhaps you could use a scanner and 3-d print a mask, then carefully texture and paint it, but it is far far harder than lifting a fingerprint left anywhere and 3-d printing it.

Apple is bravely shooting itself in the foot with an ugly ass notch. The landscape looks like crap, and I think it's pretty ridiculous to expect programmers and designers to accommodate for a uniquely stupid design. If they want ears with Apple specific info in portrait mode, by all means do so, but do the developer world a favor and black that shit out in landscape apple. Steve Jobs probably would have throw the iPhone "ten" in the trash. https://www.theverge.com/2017/... https://twitter.com/JoeLimits/... https://twitter.com/vojtastavi... https://www.youtube.com/watch?... https://twitter.com/fet_compla...

Did they set it up specifically that way, or is there some algorithm that picked up on dreadful people chatting and try to sell to them?

Everybody remembers Tay, right? She started off a simple chatbot and wound up the grand wizard of the kkk by the end of the day.

If you create content by a purely random process, or else get content through user input (which is like random, only malicious and sick), you must filter out the objectionable material that is guaranteed to be there! Remember Tay, Microsoft's Nazi Teen Chat Bot?.

1. Your eyes have to be open for this to work. If a cop grabs your phone, close your eyes. If they try to get you to unlock it, open one eye, then the other, until it fails. If a cop grabs your phone, the first thing he'll do is look at it, thus triggering failure #1. It only takes 2 failures to trigger the passcode requirement. https://www.macrumors.com/2017...

2. As we are discussing right here in this very story, if it fails to unlock by face, IT THEN ASKS FOR A PASSCODE. And it WON'T OPEN AGAIN UNTIL THAT PASSCODE IS ENTERED. So you are just as secure as if you were already a passcode-only person.

This is actually MORE secure than the current thumbprint system, which can ABSOLUTELY be opened if you are restrained. There's no way to close your thumbprint when you're in handcuffs. As has been discussed elsewhere, you can not (in the U.S., generally, blah blah blah) be compelled to give your password but you can be compelled to put your thumb on a device.

3. Also, there's this: https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

Really, I do want to work there!

I'll be a bloody genius there -- hell, even I know enough to change the login combo to "admin/equfax" -- and they'll pay me well for such brilliant security insights.

Oh, but wait.

Now that people -- and even chat-bots -- are suing them blind over this mindless security breach, I'm thinking that maybe there won't be a company left when they're through.