bostonidealist - Slashdot User

Comment Possible reason: phishing (Score 1) 189

by bostonidealist on Friday August 11, 2017 @10:55AM (#54990957) Attached to: Safari Should Display Favicons in Its Tabs

Without taking sides on whether this justifies the design decision (there are many factors to consider), I have heard some point to phishing as a rationale for hiding the icon. If a phishing site had a convincing lock icon or copied a logo (e.g., Facebook's) as its favicon, some users could mistakenly believe the site had TLS or was associated with a different company. Hiding the icon and defaulting to the base URL helps users know that if they see a lock in the browser UI (not in the page), it's encrypted and encourages them to check the domain to ensure they're on the correct site.

Journal Journal: Apple Possibly Working On Fuel Cells?

Journal by bostonidealist on Wednesday February 11, 2015 @02:07PM

Earlier this week, Business Insider reported that it had received an unsolicited email from an Apple employee claiming that "Apple's latest project is too exciting to pass up... I think it will change the landscape and give Tesla a run for its money." Business Insider went on to speculate about Apple making cars or new dashboard integration for Apple devices. Instead, assuming this email was legitimate, I wonder if the employee was referring to Apple's work on integrating fuel cells into it

Journal Journal: Ensnared In Apple Extensions

Journal by bostonidealist on Wednesday February 11, 2015 @11:04AM

"Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"

The brush continued to move.

"Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"

Journal Journal: Apple HomePlug AV2 + HomeKit Combo Devices?

Journal by bostonidealist on Tuesday September 02, 2014 @10:17PM

Given that Apple is building a large structure outside of the Flint Center ahead of next week's event, perhaps they'll demo one or more devices that combine HomePlug AV2 (perhaps with some proprietary Apple wrapper protocol) and HomeKit home automation functionality. It would make sense that they'd want to showcase a "connected home" with simple devices that extended wired and wireless networks while letting users turn lights and other devices on an off wirelessly. The proliferation of wire

Journal Journal: iWatch/iTime Identity Sensor In Constant Contact With Wrist

Journal by bostonidealist on Tuesday August 05, 2014 @08:01AM

As a brief follow up to my earlier iWatch/iTime speculation, what if the "fingerprint" or identification sensor is not on the face of the watch, but on the back of the watch or inside of the band? There have been multiple reports of iPhone 5S users enrolling areas of skin on their arms and even their cats' paws with Touch ID successfully, as demonstrated here. Since Touch ID sensors can authorize patc

Journal Journal: 3D Is A Gimmick, Eye Tracking Is Not 1

Journal by bostonidealist on Wednesday June 18, 2014 @08:41AM

Ahead of Amazon's likely announcement of a smartphone, there's been a lot of attention paid to the possibility that the phone will feature 3D user interface elements. While almost all "3D" display technology available at the moment is gimmickry, the possibility that the device will feature accurate focus and gaze tracking has serious implications for interface design.

Comment New iMac (Score 1) 1

by bostonidealist on Wednesday May 28, 2014 @09:29PM (#47115751) Attached to: More Wild 2014 Apple Speculation

There are believable rumors that Apple may release an updated, lower-cost iMac. If they were to switch the iMac to ARM and lower the price, they might kill off the Mac mini.

Journal Journal: Simultaneous SSL Expirations?

Journal by bostonidealist on Tuesday May 27, 2014 @10:34AM

Over the past several days, Slashdot, T-Mobile, Oracle, and Apple have all had expired SSL certificates that have impacted services (several of these issues have since been fixed). Why are there so many synchronized, high-profile lapses? Is it just a coincidence, perhaps related to the Memorial Day holiday in the US, or is something going on? Was there some sale on certificates some time ago that caused all these companies to renew (and subsequently expire) their certs at the same time?

Journal Journal: More Wild 2014 Apple Speculation 1

Journal by bostonidealist on Monday May 26, 2014 @02:54PM

Ahead of WWDC 2014, here are some thoughts and speculation on Apple.

Devices

OS X Laptop Computer
11.88 Inch 2732x1536 264ppi display
ARM A8 CPU
FaceTime HD camera
802.11ac Wi-Fi networking
Bluetooth 4.0
Lightning Connector
15+ hour battery
64GB - $799
128GB - $899
256GB - $999
64GB + Cellular - $929
128GB + Cellular - $1,029
256GB + Cellular - $1,129

Journal Journal: OS X On ARM

Journal by bostonidealist on Wednesday April 23, 2014 @07:44AM

On Apple's January 2013 quarterly earnings call, CEO Tim Cook stated, regarding “somebody who buys an iPad mini or an iPad [as] their first Apple product, we had great experience through the years of knowing that when somebody buys their first Apple product, that a percentage of these people wind up buying another type of Apple product. And so, if you remember, what we had termed the halo effect for some time with the iPod with the Mac, we're very confident that that will happen and we

Comment Higher Amazon Prime Fees To Include Set Top Box? (Score 2) 104

by bostonidealist on Sunday February 23, 2014 @06:57PM (#46318911) Attached to: Amazon To Put Android In Set-top Box To Compete With Apple, Roku

There have been regular rumors that Amazon will be raising Prime subscription fees. It seems plausible that they would include the set top box for free with increased Prime fees to control PR and incentivize renewal. Amazon already treats other devices (e.g., Kindle) as loss-leaders.

Submission + - White House Responds to Net Neutrality Petition

Submitted by bostonidealist on Tuesday February 18, 2014 @07:05PM

bostonidealist writes: The White House has officially responded to a We The People petition created on January 15, 2014, which urged "...the President to direct the FCC to classify ISPs as 'common carriers'" after the D.C. U.S. Court of Appeals "struck down the Federal Communications Commission's open internet rules." The White House statement indicates that "absent net neutrality, the Internet could turn into a high-priced private toll road that would be inaccessible to the next generation of visionaries," but notes that "The FCC is an independent agency. Chairman Wheeler has publicly pledged to use the full authority granted by Congress to maintain a robust, free and open Internet — a principle that this White House vigorously supports."

Journal Journal: iWatch Speculation

Journal by bostonidealist on Wednesday February 12, 2014 @12:06AM

Here's what I'm thinking/guessing about Apple's iWatch:

The iWatch will be about health, identity, and mobile payment.

Design

Apple's recent design language suggests a circular form that would take cues from traditional clock geometry. The Mac Pro, the fingerprint reader on the front of the iPhone 5S, and the circular cutouts on the back of the iPhone 5C case all anticipate a rounded watch face.

Comment Loyalty Programs (Score 3, Insightful) 166

by bostonidealist on Saturday August 17, 2013 @09:29AM (#44593205) Attached to: The Next Frontier of Consumer Exploitation By Corporations

Brick and mortar stores are legally barred from overtly providing different pricing for customers based on age or gender. They can't have a price tag on an item that reads:

Women Over 35 - $32.99
Women 35 And Under - $29.99
Men 38 And Over - $28.99
Men Under 38 - $26.99

However, common loyalty programs at stores profile customers by age, gender, purchasing habits, and all sorts of other demographic criteria and selectively issue coupons and promotions that have the same result (e.g., a drug store might print out a coupon for a male customer for lady's perfume to incentivize a purchase before Mother's Day, but wouldn't issue such a coupon to female customer who is inherently more likely to buy the product).

Comment Re:Extremely speculative and logically unlikely (Score 1) 2

by bostonidealist on Monday June 10, 2013 @08:41AM (#43960057) Attached to: Putting The Pieces Together - Apple WWDC 2013

Thanks for your comment. I certainly agree with your points #1 and #2. However, the opportunity to capture 30% of Adobe's, Microsoft's, Avid's, and others' Mac revenue constitutes a large, not a little, gain.

Just looking at Adobe, it's likely that Apple could make $300 million a year if they could tax all Adobe's Mac sales (admittedly, that wouldn't happen for quite some time). That's a significant chunk of the $1.7 billion Apple is currently on track to make off of App sales in a year, and that's just from taxing one company.

Also, Macs are still a profitable market that's not going away anytime soon. Apple may be making way more money off of iOS than OS X, but they still enjoy great margins and profits from the Macs. Apple's calculation will be that they can make OS X even more profitable if they make it more like iOS.

Finally, the other pieces of the ecosystem, such as roaming user accounts between Macs and iOS devices, are big features that they want to implement. Apple has already forced Mac App Store applications to be sandboxed, while also restricting certain APIs to App Store-distributed applications. They're already on the road to Mac lock-down, it's just a question of how fast they'll get there.

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