iPhones Cost Less Than $30 To Make?
Eric Mack writes on cNet News:
Recent Foxconn revelations hint at higher costs than previous estimates that are still staggeringly low by Western standards. An unprecedented peek behind the curtain of Foxconn’s factories in China may have revealed new hints to how much it actually costs to make each iPhone.
ABC’s “Nightline” was recently given access to the factory floor, and the resulting reporting has provided some new insights into exactly how iPhones are built, a part of the gadget’s gestation process that’s typically been a very closely guarded trade secret.
Horace Dediu, blogger, analyst, and former business development manager for Nokia, tried to parse some of the clues and came to some interesting conclusions …
The Evils Of A World Filled With Touchscreens
All signs point to our heading towards a future in which we will exist surrounded by software-enabled touchscreens. Why this could be a grave mistake, via Slate:
What touchscreens lack is something called affordance — an object’s built-in ability to tell you how it works. A doorknob affords turning. The button on a car stereo affords pushing. A touchscreen affords nothing. It relies on software for any affordance, which in turn relies on total immersion for the user.
What we want, apparently, is to surround ourselves with touchscreens of varying size—tiny ones in our pockets, medium-size models for our laps and dashboards, and massive versions for our walls. We want tomorrow’s vintage shops to be lined with identical, blank, anonymous slabs. We want things to be vessels for software, and nothing more. Immersion is a fantastic quality while flicking virtual birds at digital pigs in your smartphone. Immersion at 80 mph is…
The Glaring Omissions Of iPhone’s Siri
Apple’s new iPhone 4S has made waves for its voice-commanded virtual assistant, personified as “Siri”. However, users have noticed that Siri seems to have a blackout concerning certain topics — is Apple pandering to the Christian Right? Via Amadi Talks:
The recent illustrations of Siri, the iPhone 4S voice-recognition based assistant, failing to provide information to users about abortion, birth control, help after rape and help with domestic violence has gotten a lot of notice.
Siri can answer a lot of health related questions perfectly well, why shouldn’t we expect it to be able to answer reproductive health related queries too? Why treat reproductive health as a walled-off garden that the general public can’t or shouldn’t be exposed to?
DARPA Tech Invades iPhones Now with Siri
Tim Stevens on Endgadget said this was happening back in ‘09. For all those who rushed out to get the new iPhone, if you are using Siri, you are giving a hell lot of personal info to Apple:
Microsoft’s little Clippy, the uppity paperclip who just wanted to help, never got a lick of respect in the ten years he graced the Office suite.
He’s long-since gone, but his legacy lives on through a DARPA project called CALO: the Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes. It’s intended for use to streamline tedious activities by military personnel, like scheduling meetings and prioritizing e-mails, but there are a few non-com spin-offs intended as well, like an iPhone app called Siri due to hit the App Store sometime this year. Siri will have more of a consumer angle, helping to find product reviews and make reservations, but we’re hoping a taste of its military upbringing shines through.
Jew Or Not Jew?
Still available in the good ole USofA … Jessica Ravitz and Saskya Vandoorne report on a bizarre iPhone app for CNN:
“Jew or not Jew?”: That is just part of the question.
An iPhone app bearing this name has been yanked from Apple’s App Store in France amid threats of a lawsuit and demands for its removal.
The app, still available elsewhere, pulls together a database of thousands of famous Jews – including movie stars, musicians, Nobel Prize winners and more – and offers insights into their backgrounds. Jewish mother? Jewish father? A convert? For $1.99 in the United States, app owners can know.
In an iTunes store description, it says: “Hey, did you know that Bob Dylan is Jewish? Of course I did! But was Marilyn Monroe really Jewish? And what about Harrison Ford? How many times have we had this conversation without being able to know for sure? You can now find…
Turn Your iPhone Into A Human Hand
Commentators often complain the technology has depersonalized how we communicate with others, reducing our opportunities for rich, face-to-face, tactile interaction. Now there’s an iPhone case that simulates the old days, by turning your phone into a reassuring, fleshy hand firmly gripping yours all day. Preorder now from Japan’s Strapya World:
Some hand may vary in size and shape since each hand is made individually.
If you are feeling really lonely, this case may reach out to you and give you company.
Fireflies: iPhone Movement Across Europe
Created by Crowdflow, a visualization of the movement of 880 iPhones across Europe during the month of April, 2011, made from the phones’ location data. In the dystopian future, a thousand video feeds like this one will flicker across a wall of screens in Big Brother’s central surveillance facility:
LulzSec Hack Revealed Cops’ Least Favorite iPhone Apps
[Site editor's note: Even though, they seemingly have called it quits, an intriguing swan song ... ] Andy Greenberg writes in Forbes:
… I noted a new suite of police-policing apps including OpenWatch and Cop Recorder, which turn your phone into a “reverse surveillance camera” for secretly recording run-ins with authority figures. Now it appears that police are well aware of those programs and others that complicate law enforcement, and at least some cops are none too happy about them.
That’s one of the revelations … by the hacker group LulzSec, which dumped a cache of files that it stole from the Arizona Police Department, calling Arizona a “racial profiling anti-immigrant police state.” A pair of documents among the hundreds leaked show concerns about how smartphones are being used for everything from recording interactions with police to evading speed traps.
One document labelled “Law Enforcement Sensitive” lists the following apps, and warns officers…
New Apple Technology Stops iPhones From Filming Live Events
F@ck you, Apple (had to get that out of my system). Fox News reports:
CUPERTINO, Calif. — Fans at concerts and sports games may soon be stopped from using their iPhones to film the action —as a result of new technology being considered by Apple, The Times of London reported Thursday.
The California company has plans to build a system that will sense when a person is trying to film a live event using a cell phone and automatically switch off their camera.
A patent application filed by Apple, and obtained by the Times, reveals how the software would work. If a person were to hold up their iPhone, the device would trigger the attention of infra-red sensors installed at the venue. These sensors would then instruct the iPhone to disable its camera.
Apple declined to comment.
Department of Justice Asks for More Data from Apple and Other Smartphones
Today the United States Department of Justice took an alarming stance on the subject of data collection during a Senate hearing on mobile privacy. Rather than chastise Apple, Google, and other smart phone manufacturers over their data collection practices, the DOJ felt it was a better idea to encourage MORE data collection. Kashmir Hill writes on Forbes:
During a Congressional hearing today about how much privacy you deserve when it comes to your smartphone, senators made clear that they were uncomfortable with the sensitive location and personal data that iPhone and Android phones are collecting and to whom that data gets passed along.
During one panel, the senators grilled Google and Apple. During another, they had representatives from the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission give the government perspective on data collection via mobile devices. While Jessica Rich of the FTC hinted that her organization would be investigating Apple soon,…
Apple’s Chinese Workers Treated ‘Inhumanely, Like Machines’ — Some Sign ‘Anti-Suicide’ Pledge
Wondering how that Apple “magic” happens at that “unbelievable” price? Gethin Chamberlain writes in the Guardian:
An investigation into the conditions of Chinese workers has revealed the shocking human cost of producing the must-have Apple iPhones and iPads that are now ubiquitous in the west.
The research, carried out by two NGOs, has revealed disturbing allegations of excessive working hours and draconian workplace rules at two major plants in southern China. It has also uncovered an “anti-suicide” pledge that workers at the two plants have been urged to sign, after a series of employee deaths last year.
The investigation gives a detailed picture of life for the 500,000 workers at the Shenzhen and Chengdu factories owned by Foxconn, which produces millions of Apple products each year. The report accuses Foxconn of treating workers “inhumanely, like machines”.
Among the allegations made by workers interviewed by the NGOs — the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations…
The iPhone Tracks Your Location Without Your Consent
Charles Arthur writes in the Guardian:
Security researchers have discovered that Apple’s iPhone keeps track of where you go – and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner’s computer when the two are synchronised.
The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner’s movements using a simple program.
For some phones, there could be almost a year’s worth of data stored, as the recording of data seems to have started with Apple’s iOS 4 update to the phone’s operating system, released in June 2010.
“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you’ve been,” said Pete Warden, one…
The Chemtrails App For Your iPhone
Zen Gardner writes about how he finds chemtrails with his iPhone at Before Its News:
Wanna know when the chemtrails are coming? Check your phone and look at the forecast.
Yes, the “weatherman” is in on it, folks, and they know the spray days. All to make it look “natural”.
See for yourself
I checked my phone for the weather while walking under a clear blue sky in San Diego this morning. Sure enough, that nasty filmy cloud was over the sun on my iphone weather app.
Probably gonna be chemtrails today. It may turn out to be a real weather system coming in but let’s see what happens. It’s been clear a while and the chemtrails are overdue. They may also be laying low somewhat with the increased radioactivity from Japan, especially in the upper atmosphere.
We’ve had nice clear skies for partial days with the rains and wind clearing the air. We may have more…
iPhone App To ‘Cure’ Homosexuality
No longer want to be gay in the 21st century? There’s an app for that. While it’s hard to believe that anyone would buy this to be used seriously, it’s encouraging to see how many people were so quick to demand it’s removal. Over 90,000 people have already signed a petition against it. The Atlantic reports:
Gay rights activists are outaged — and rightfully so. More than 90,000 people have signed a petition hosted on Change.org demanding that Apple remove an application from the iTunes Store that promises to deliver “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ.”
Developed by Exodus International, an Orlando, Florida-based Christian organization, the application claims to be “a useful resource for men, women, parents, students, and ministry leaders.” But Truth Wins Out, a nonprofit organization that defends the LGBT community against anti-gay misinformation campaigns, finds the app offensive at best. “Exodus’ message is hateful and bigoted,” the petition…
Hacking Times Square Video Screens With An iPhone (Video)
Pretty tame what he pulled here:
Catholic Church Approves iPhone Confessions
Original Photo: Jean-Pol Grandmont
You can now reach God via your iPhone. BBC News reports:
The Catholic Church has approved an iPhone app that helps guide worshippers through confession.
The Confession program has gone on sale through iTunes for £1.19 ($1.99).
Described as “the perfect aid for every penitent”, it offers users tips and guidelines to help them with the sacrament.
Now senior church officials in both the UK and US have given it their seal of approval, in what is thought to be a first.
The app takes users through the sacrament – in which Catholics admit their wrongdoings – and allows them to keep track of their sins.
It also allows them to examine their conscience based on personalised factors such as age, sex and marital status – but it is not intended to replace traditional confession entirely.
[Continues BBC News]
Prize-Winning Director Shoots New Film On iPhone
Photo: Park Chan-wook at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (known for award-winning movies such as Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) shoots his latest film on his Apple iPhone 4s. Could this be the beginning to a new shift in film? Or just a quick gimic supported by Apple? Via Reuters:
Prize-winning South Korean director Park Chan-wook’s latest film, “Night Fishing,” has created a buzz in his native country — it was filmed using 10 Apple iPhone 4s, three of which he himself controlled.
Park, who won the Cannes Grand Prix in 2004 for “Oldboy,” also directed the 30-minute tale about a fisherman and a female shaman with his brother, Chan-kyong, and said the circumstances of its shooting gave making the film an unusual flavour.
“Movies that I directed before were meticulously planned ahead and shot just as pictured. Compared to that, shooting this film felt free, and everyone had an…
Apple Removes WikiLeaks App From App Store
Looks like Apple has joined the club of not wanting to touch WikiLeaks with a ten-foot pole. Alexia Tsotsis writes on TechCrunch:
Looks like an unofficial iPhone and iPad app that let you view WikiLeaks site content and follow the WikiLeaks Twitter account on the go has been removed from the App app store earlier today. The app used to be available here (here’s the Google cache).
From the WikiLeaks App’s description: “The Wikileaks app gives instant access to the world’s most documented leakage of top secret memos and other confidential government documents.”
Basically the paid app was selling WikiLeaks content (available for free) for $1.99. Its entry into the app store on December 17th was actually surprising, as Apple is usually quite strict and somewhat vague about its app approval standards. WikiLeaks and founder Julian Assange are quite controversial, to put it lightly but I’m not sure if the app directly violated anything in Apple’s TOS.
In the…
Will Apple End Sexting As We Know It?
In more sad news for the youth of today, Apple has been awarded a patent for technology that alters text messages to remove objectionable content, i.e., an anti-sexting device. Our friends at TechCrunch report:
Today the US Patent and Trademark Office approved a patent Apple filed in 2008, which, get this, prevents users from sending or receiving “objectionable” text messages. The patent’s official title? “Text-based communication control for personal communication device.”
Ladies and gentlemen this means that Jobs and company have just sealed the deal on a solution to the number one fear of parents across America, kids sending “unauthorized texts.” As it looks like whatever algorithm or control the system is comprised of will basically censor the transmission of R-rated content on iPhones, is this the first sign of the end of “Sexting” as we know it?
Yes and no, as those interesting in “Sexting” will probably find some clever workaround to express…
