(Season 4) Episode 6 – Breaking Your Promises, Apple Style

We interrupt your regularly-scheduled gaming-arc to bring you BREAKING NEWS: Apple– no wait hold on- we complain about Apple a lot, but (this time especially) we have a point. Apple’s been touting itself as the best choice for privacy for.. quite a while. They’ve even been vocal about rejecting a government backdoor! …So are they really buckling?


Apple’s Privacy Friendly Past:

Reuters, 21 January 2020, “Exclusive: Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained – sources

Apple On-Device Scanning (NeuralHash):

Hash Collision:

Opinions:

Electronic Frontier Foundation, 7 January 2015, “Sorry iPhone Users: Apple’s Dev Agreement Means No EFF Mobile App for iOS

EFF Petition, “Tell Apple: Don’t Scan Our Phones”


Website: https://techthoughts.gay
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Opening Music: Dark Synthwave by MOKKA

(Season 2) Episode 3 – Apple’s (Not-So) Greatest Hits

The mouse, touchscreen smartphone, and the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack; these are all things that Apple has pushed the tech industry towards. Did Apple create all of those things? No (with the exception of the headphone jack)- but they have made these things staples of the platforms they are used on. But, why do they get the credit? And, furthermore, why does it matter?


EPISODE NOTES/MISTAKES: The Xerox 8010 Star was the first computer with a two-button mouse, whereas the Xerox Alto from 1973 was the first computer with any kind of mouse. The Apple Lisa mouse was, in fact, based on the Alto’s.

This episode was recorded prior to the iPhone 12 announcement, with the ~$40 magsafe wireless charger. Still overpriced.


Sources:

The 2007 released Blackberry Curve 8300:

Touchscreen Phones before the iPhone:

Xerox 8010 Star & Alto:

iPhone Woes (glue, headphone jack, notch, in that order):

iPhone 7’s Plastic Spacer & Strange Parts:


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Instagram: https://instagram.com/techthoughtspodcast/

Opening Music: Another World by BETTOGH

(Season 2) Episode 2 – Apple Shillicon

Apple recently announced Apple Silicon, their overall transition to the ARM architecture. If you’re suddenly terrified of the idea of Macs running around with ARMS (and generally worried about the future of traditional computers), you’re probably not alone! But what does an announcement like this mean for the future of computing? Is this a good thing, or is it just another attempt by Apple to secure a monopoly? (Spoiler: Likely the latter, or at least a mix of both)


EPISODE NOTES/MISTAKES: We referenced that Linus Tech Tips had used a thermal pad to fix the Macbook Air’s cooling. They instead milled the plate to screw in more tightly, accomplishing the same end result (more mounting pressure).

ARM is not only more power efficient due to being a RISC architecture; generally, it’s also expected to be in sleep mode more often than x86 chips, and is often on a smaller nanometer process than x86, meaning it is a physically smaller chip. Decreasing the size of a processor increases efficiency, but is often difficult.

We neglected to mention that Windows on ARM has x86 emulation, allowing for usage of 32-bit Windows applications to run on it, recently they have also added 64-bit support.


Sources:

Apple moving to Apple Silicon:

Apple’s architecture swap from PowerPC to Intel (x86):


Website: https://techthoughts.gay
Instagram: https://instagram.com/techthoughtspodcast/

Opening Music: Another World by BETTOGH