That proves the exact opposite. That's how we know, without any doubt, Apple has complete access to the backups: they handed them over to the FBI without complaint.

However, they were stale, as the phone hadn't been backed up for a while, and the FBI wanted them to unlock the phone so that they could get the more recent data. That's where Apple refused to help the FBI.

In the end, the FBI didn't need Apple's help, they were able to root the phone due to one of the many zero days in iOS.

Which is why it will be complete shit.

People seem to forget this is pretty much the entire reason behind Apple's "privacy!" marketing. Their phones don't protect your privacy: by default, everything is backed up to iCloud along with the key to decrypt it. They hand that over to any law enforcement agency that asks. Pretty much every official Apple app is opt-out when it comes to privacy, the default is that it sends all your data to Apple.

But when people point out that iOS voice recognition is terrible, or that Siri is constantly getting worse, or that these new AI models are useless, their excuse will be that they couldn't train them or use as large a model to "protect user privacy."

Never mind that they're already spying by default.

For content creators? Sure. They're going to get screwed.

But for viewers? Pretty much anything that anyone can do that isn't watch YouTube is competition. It doesn't have to be streaming video. It could be games. If enough people decide it's more worth their time than YouTube, it could be watching grass grow or paint dry. It doesn't really matter.

Exactly. If YouTube makes the viewing experience miserable enough, people aren't going to decide "I'll subscribe to YouTube!" they're going to decide "screw this, I'll do something else."

It's one thing if there's arguably a value add for a service, like better quality or earlier access or something. But YouTube Premium's "value add" is basically "we'll stop intentionally poking you with a stick." That's not a good way to get people to pay, that's a good way to get people to do something else, and there's a LOT of "something else" people can do besides watch videos on YouTube.

I suppose the fact that this story has been up for an hour with only three comments answers that question.

But really, does anybody care? The PS5 basically didn't exist for the first three years it was out. It's only been readily available for the past year, and even then, pretty much everything released on it (including Sony stuff) is also getting released on PC. The PS5 might as well already be dead.

Plus, Nintendo's new console is also expected out next year. The Switch has proven that a dedicated portable gaming console that supports docking with a TV works. Why would I want to get a large, expensive box I can only use with a TV? Especially when Nintendo is almost certainly going to be coming out with a cheaper console that, while expected to be far less powerful, will play a far greater assortment of exclusive titles?

Sony's going to have to provide a pretty compelling reason to bother with a new, even more expensive PS5. A better framerate or higher resolution graphics isn't it. The Switch has proven that pretty conclusively.

Oh, I know the answer to this: no.

Ah, there, that's the real thing. The open secret is that the NSA has largely outsourced mass surveillance. There's no need for the government to spy on everyone if private industry already does, just make sure private industry pumps all that data to the NSA. Overriding potentially stronger state laws is the real goal here.

The other thing a "privacy law" would likely be used for is to attack foreign apps, like TikTok, in an attempt to ensure that the US continues having access to the data they gather. Or "protect the data of American citizens from foreigners" as they'll surely claim.

The one thing we can be certain of any "bipartisan law" is that the people being screwed are the American people.

It's this. It's kind of hilarious, really, I've watched the PS5 go from a thing you couldn't get in stores because they were never in stock to a thing stores aren't stocking because no one wants one. Sony has screwed the thing up to the point that Sony themselves have started releasing games on PC.

But the PSVR2 was always kind of a weird product. It costs as much as the console itself (I think, it looks like buying both would be $1100 total), making it more expensive than the Quest 3 ($500), while being tethered to a physical device. It doesn't support the original PSVR games, but yet has a library that consists mostly of PSVR games ported over to it. And given the above, with gamers having mostly given up on the PS5, it's clear that isn't going to change.

And that's the trick they use. An iCloud backup tends to be under 5GB (barely), which is enough to fill the free tier. But it means you can't use iCloud for literally anything else, and it also doesn't include things like photos that are what people really want to back up.

Anything that's "stored on iCloud" is not in the phone backup. That includes photos, documents, game saves, and all sorts of information that people really want to keep backed up. It's also what prevents you from using any other cloud service: that data can't be saved to any other cloud storage site. Only iCloud. The data that isn't in the backup is what most users really want backed up: their photos, their messages, their contact list, their documents. Which means that, yes, the OP's wife almost certainly does need an expensive iCloud tier, because the "backup size" is only a tiny fraction of the real amount of data stored in iCloud.

Apple preventing Spotify from advertising their lower prices is just part of the way Apple attempts to push you over to Apple Music. I seem to recall a recent story about how Apple essentially forces you to buy iCloud storage space. Well, they also bundle that with Apple Music. Oh, you're out of space on iCloud? (You will be, since Apple has never increased the available space since launch, just added new and more expensive tiers.) Well, for a small monthly fee, you can get enough space to back up your phone and Apple Music.

Oh, you don't want to pay for iCloud? Well, I'll just constantly remind you that you're out of iCloud storage space until you relent just to shut up the messages.

That in addition to things always launching in Apple Music without any way to change it. Connect your iPhone to a Bluetooth speaker and Apple Music will launch. Press the "play" button on said speaker (or Bluetooth keyboard or the like) and Apple Music will launch. Connect to a car, and Apple Music will launch. Doesn't matter if you're doing something else at the time, even if it's using Apple's own Podcast app, iOS will always launch Apple Music and interrupt it.

Apple is an illegal monopoly and should be treated as such. They're also a trillion dollar company. A $2 billion fine is nothing. It needs to be much, much higher.

I've said this before, but I get the strong impression that the "Vision Pro" is intended as a tech demo, making it so that Apple already has apps and technology ready, so that when phones can emit holograms, Apple already has the technology ready to go. The only problem being that the 3D solid holograms that Vision Pro is clearly designed to emulate are physically impossible so the tech it's waiting on will never arrive.

This would explain why the Vision Pro "isn't" a VR headset and why Apple is so keen on insisting it's a "spatial computer." It would explain why the interface is based on hand gestures and not a controller. It would explain the dumb pass-through eye screen on the outside.

The Vision Pro isn't intended to be what it is, it's intended to work as a dev kit for something that will never come.

I find the concern about ad blockers and how people hate ads to be kind of hilarious given that people actively seek out advertising, such as these ads shown during the Super Bowl. I don't get it, I'm not going to watch any of those linked commercials, nor do I really care about any of the companies or products involved.

But the idea that people "hate advertising" is clearly false, because people routinely actively seek it out. The Super Bowl is as much about watching the ads as it is watching the players receive traumatic brain injuries.

What people hate are intrusive ads or ads that interrupt what they're doing or ads that are otherwise low quality, such as the surge in crappy AI generated ads I've seen on places where ads are unavoidable. But people don't mind advertising, at least when it's entertaining and not thrown in the middle of something else they were doing.

And go literally one link below that to data model and you'll discover that the core discover mechanism uses IPLD, which is a distributed hash map implemented over IPFS.

Web3 covers more than just blockchain and cryptocurrency. It also covers things like the distributed identity that they use and IPFS. The CEO of Bluesky comes straight from a cryptocurrency company due to her experience with Web3 technologies. The whole mechanism for linking a DID to a backend is Web3.

Just because they don't use a blockchain doesn't mean they aren't leveraging other Web3 technologies.

The code was literally created by a team at Twitter before being spun off into its own company. It was started at Twitter by people who worked for Twitter.

Which is what, exactly? If you have an open source protocol which anyone can implement meaning you don't have control of the client, what revenue streams are available to you? Bluesky at its core is a traditional client/server app which a whole lot of Web3 stuff designed to allow you to "switch providers" meaning that they have to pay for server and storage costs, but can't reasonably use ads to pay for it. Are they going to ask for handouts?

It uses IPFS. Somehow. I don't really understand, just that it stores your "ID" via some Web 3 stuff but other than that is a traditional client/server model where everything is on Bluesky's servers. The "federated" part is mostly theoretical at this point as they haven't opened to federation yet.

If a quasi-open source federated microblogging platform sounds familiar - you're right, this is just Mastodon with some Web 3 glued to it. Previously the only thing that made it "special" was the invite requirement meaning most people can't use it.

With that dropped, there's now no reason to use it. It's just Mastodon with the same problems Mastodon has, but, you know, originally created by Twitter devs. And with some Web 3 stuff bolted on to try and pretend it's "distributed." It's incredibly unclear what tying your "ID" to "Web 3" provides and why it's any better than ActivityPub.

Ironically, the only way to really see if their "you can take your account with you to a new service" claim works would be for Bluesky to collapse, and given that their monetization model is -- selling domains, I guess? -- it seems like we won't have to wait too long once the venture capital dries up for that.

Now compare that raw image to the final picture that gets generated. It won't look anything alike. The biggest difference is likely the lens correction designed to adjust for the distortion caused by the lens itself. Then you have the various filters designed to map that raw sensor data to color data, which can be tweaked to adjust the white point and the overall contrast and brightness of the scene.

The final photo will be based on the raw sensor data, but it won't be the raw sensor data. What most people would call the "picture" a DSLR takes isn't what the sensor sees. It's the sensor data that's been sent through a whole lot of post processing to produce a final image, not entirely unlike what a phone does.

Supposedly, it will. This is based on reading a statement by Nintendo about how they view it as necessary for their existing online account system to run on any successor platform. Take that as you will, it's certainly not proof.

But traditionally, Nintendo consoles have been backwards compatible with the previous generation. The Switch was the first that wasn't since the GameCube. Prior to the Switch, the GBA, DS, 3DS, Wii, and Wii U all had some form of backwards compatibility with earlier consoles. The Switch is already using an ARM64 chip, and it seems quite likely that any Switch 2 will continue using an ARM64-based chip.

All of which means it's highly likely the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible, because as you point out, it will greatly slow adoption if it isn't.

Loyalty points. Starbucks has some sort of loyalty program where you earn points (which they call "stars" - get it?) which you can redeem for free coffee. But you can only get those points by paying via a gift card you've linked to an account. A lot of places the have some sort of pre-paid balance offer those sort of rewards, to encourage people not to pay in cash.

It's also worth mentioning that you can zero out a Starbucks gift card, I've done it plenty of times. You just have to pay at the register, rather than via the app. The cashier can 0 out the balance on the card, and then you pay whatever's remaining on your order. (And on that note, please stop buying gift cards. There's nothing more annoying than receiving a "gift" of having to spend at least $25 at Starbucks.)