Social Privacy: Guy Who Leaked Nude Pics of Celebrities Is Now Public Enemy No. One

According to the Los Angeles Times, the FBI has joined the hunt for the culprit or culprits who leaked nude pictures of mostly female celebrities.  I didn't say actors because I have no idea who a couple of the names I read are.  Maybe they were sports figure.

Anyway, if this could happen to them, it could happen to anyone - opening us up to potential blackmailing or other sorts of crime.  At best, just embarrassment.  This is a kind of sexual predation. Privacy is a big deal to me and I think we need to keep any eye out on this.

If companies are not being careful about our cloud privacy and security, a large scale and very public case like this should.  So, let me go back a bit and explain in a couple of sentences what happened in case you like myself was away from the Web or television for this Labor Day weekend in the US.

Apparently, someone hacked into an online photo account, with iCloud being named as the source of these pictures (there was talk that some of the pics were taken on Android and Blackberry phones), of a celebrity or others and leaked them online.

I watch movies that I like and there are few actors or actresses that I really know by name.  So, I don't know who some of the victims are but their names are familiar.  Also, I don't want to name sites that some of these pictures were uploaded to.  This is a despicable act and I hope these guys are found and put away forever.

No iWatch Leaks - Why? And Not Much 5.5" iPhone Either

So far, we've seen tons of leaks regarding for the next iPhone.  Plenty.  They're mostly for the supposedly 4.7" iPhone 6.  And come to think of it, there has not been a lot of information on the 5.5" iPhone either.

So, why is that?

This is a wild guess but I think I might know why.

Both the 5.5" iPhone and the iWatch are going to be premium devices out of the gate.  So, what? Well, first let's go over what an $500 or more iWatch or $800-$1000 5.5" iPhone means.

• The two high-end iOS devices will be limited to some countries.  Not many countries are going to be able to afford a large influx of these devices.  It'll eventually expand but on a slow rollout schedule.
• Because of the price entry, markets like the US, Canada, some EU markets, and only the elite and status conscious in China and Hong Kong are will to shell out money for it.
• There has been talk that the sapphire covers Apple plan on using for the next generation iOS devices will be limited in quantity.  If this is true, Apple will limit its use to the iWatch and high-end devices. Tim Cook has referenced in the past about the glass quality of phablets that were on the market.  

Taking into accounts all of the above, I gonna throw this out there.  It's possible (highly improbably) that Apple means to manufacture high-end iOS devices where demand will be limited in quantity in the US.  If my bored Labor Day weekend guess is true, it would certainly explain virtually no leaks on the 5.5" iPhone and zero-leaks on the iWatch.  

After all, until Apple unveiled the Mac Pro, there was nothing about its form factor, specs, and what plans Apple has for it.  And Apple was only able to keep things under wrap because Apple controlled almost ever aspects of the manufacturing.

The same could be said about the 5.5" iPhone and the iWatch if this is what Apple has planned.  And furthermore, manufacturing and assembling high-end and higher cost devices like a sapphire-covered iOS devices would mitigate the potential higher cost of manufacturing in the US and the higher margin would be able to absorb any associated costs of US manufacturing.   

And last I heard, "Made In the USA" still has a greater value than "Made In China".  Plus, it would be more in line with Tim Cook's long-term plan of being some Apple manufacturing back to the United States.

And with a closer to home manufacturing base, Apple has greater control over possible leaks and can more quickly move to close them.  Hence, no leaks on the 5.5" iPhone and iWatch.

Techcrunch Is Wrong About Apple's Past Copying When Talking About Xiaomi

Techcrunch's post regarding Xiaomi's blatant copying of Apple and casually throwing in Apple's copy of Xerox's GUI and mouse is very much erroneous and trying to equate Apple's past with Xiaomi is just wrong.

First, I would like to acknowledge that Apple did in fact copy Xerox. It's a very well known historic fact. However, it was Apple that used that concept and brought it to the consumer market at a time when the GUI was still sitting in a PARC lab.  There was no Xerox version of the Mac in 1984 or at any other time before that.

If anything, Microsoft's copying of Mac OS is closer to what Xiaomi is currently doing in copying what Apple does, what its products feel like, and the UI experience.

And the "one more thing" slide that Xiaomi even used on its product launch event (which Steve Jobs is famously known for), Apple has never gone as far as to place competitor logos on its website and claiming as its own.  Just as TC's post mentioned in Xiaomi's own product page.

Bottom-line here is that it was a different era back in the early 1980s.  And Apple did not copy something on the market and blatantly ripped it off.  That's the big difference here between what Apple did and what Xiaomi is doing now.

Xiaomi is just shamelessly photocopying all things Apple.

Xiaomi Highlights China's Problem And Reputation As Second Rate Tech World

Source:  9to5Mac.

Here is yet another example of Chinese consumer tech companies demonstrating their inability to innovate and using government shields to copy Western companies like Apple.  Here is its Miui 6 skin that runs on top of its own Android variant (san Google apps) where it copied the look and feel of Apple's iOS.

What's worse as it has been reported previously by various media outlets is that it even copied the look and feel of the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S.

However, don't look for Apple to do anything about this in China anyway.  It's unlikely Chinese courts under Beijing's control will issue favorable rulings to foreign companies.  If anything, should Xiaomi become a threat outside of China, look for Apple legal to go to bat once more.

However, this is just one example of how Chinese companies are unable to innovate all on their own.  For one thing, the OS Xiaomi and other phone/tablet makers are using are Google's Android.  That in and of itself highlights just how the Chinese will be followers in tech for decades to come.

On top of that, the development of UI experience that is so essential to a user's experience is virtually nonexistent beyond being copiers.

At the same time, the premium on high-end Chinese consumer tech is very low as it simply only copies what many Western companies spend billions to develop.  This is something that many governments from Washington to EU capitals fail to address time and time again with world economic forums out of fear of making Beijing angry.  However, it does show that if Chinese brands has to compete on the global market with established brands like Apple, it fails miserably.

What's worse is the plethora of consumer orient issues that are not addressed with Chinese tech, security concerns like spying by the Chinese (Washington is right to be wary of Chinese tech being used in government), and other legal issues.

Mobile Companies That Might Last The Decade

In the mobile market, a quarter can be a life time let alone a year.  So, why am I talking about the rest of the decade?  Frankly, a quarterly misstep or two could be enough for a company to start sliding but with all the corporate cash companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft have, any decline could be stave off for years.

Sure that could also mean that companies have a better chance to survive any downturn or misstep and maybe innovate its way out of corporate death much like Apple did.  However, there are a couple of companies that I think are not going to disappear within the year but could very likely be gone by 2020.

I'm talking about Blackberry and Yahoo.  Blackberry and Yahoo has 2.68 and 2.78 billions of cash on hand.  Blackberry has been bleeding money while Yahoo has managed to eek out some profit.  However, each of these two companies have critical decisions to make.

The decisions each of their respective CEOs make will determine whether they can innovate or reinvent their ways out of the bottom of the mobile market and come up stronger and continue to stay relevant.

Blackberries are not selling well even as Blackberry 10 has garnered raved reviews.  The company has a perception issue and attempting to match the iPhone and the hundreds of Android phone models just won't cut it.  Furthermore, Blackberry lack the ecosystem that Apple has, which is the same issue that plagues Microsoft's Windows Phone devices.

So far, Blackberry CEO John Chen has failed to make the hard calls.  Chen was brought in to cut costs and slow the bleeding just enough to make Blackberry attractive enough to be a takeover target and has even failed miserably at that task.  There was a glimmer of hope that perhaps the Blackberry Messenger could be the key to the company's turn around when Facebook bought Whatsapp, a popular iOS/Android messaging app, for $19 billion.  However, any hope there quickly fizzled as more attractive alternatives to BBM were already on the market.

As for Yahoo, Marissa Mayer brought a lot of hope and optimism when she took over as CEO back in the middle 2012.  I think it's still early.  However, the changes Mayer made seemed more like patchwork than actually swing for the fences.  A series of acquisitions like Tumblr, while made for interesting talk around the blogger water cooler, still has not demonstrated that it'll be better than past Yahoo acquisitions by former CEOs like Geocities or Broadcast.com.  Yahoo! Launchcast is interesting and this could be where Yahoo can become a viable niche player in original video content.

Still, it'll just be a niche in a submarket.  Hardly anything to write home about.

So, Blackberry and Yahoo are facing a lot of head winds.  They'll both be fine over the next year or two but as their competitors continue to forth, they could both be squeeze out of existence.

Apple Can (Should) Surprise With iPhone Release Without iOS 8

The market, by that I mean the financial as well as mobile, is used to Cupertino release new iPhones along with a new version of iOS to go along with it.  However, I think for the sake of market disruption, I would love to see Apple release a new iPhone even without a new iOS in the fall, say, this summer.  That would really kick things up for its fans and really screw things up for its competitors. 

Has this happened before?  Sure, the iPad. 

What if there are new features that are specific to the new iPhone hardware?  Well, then Apple simply (okay, I know it's not simply but the talented hard working Apple employees sure make it appear that way) update apps and release codes for this new iPhone.

As it is now, it's the hardware that catches up to the software.  Beta versions of iOS are released in the June to coincide with Apple's World Wide Developer Conference.  Then new iPhones are released later in the fall that support new features.  Take the iPhone 5S.  When iOS 7 beta was released at the WWDC last year, there no mention of TouchID and yet when the 5S was released in October, the codes to support fingerprint magically appeared.

Not wanting to get into current rumors regarding iPhone 6 and possible (though highly improbable) release dates, Apple can move up a bigger screen iPhone 6 this summer with a special version of iOS 7 specific to it and then wait for iOS 8 to catch up to the hardware for once. 

When Apple moved from the 3.5" screen to the 4" screen, apps continued to work flawlessly as 3.5" screen apps with black bands on the sides until developers updated their apps to take advantage of the added pixels.  The same can happen with 5" or 5.5" iPhone 6 screens.

Can it happen?  Nah.  This is a "wishful thinking" post on my part. 

Apple's New Camera Hire: You Get 8MP So Make Every Pixel Count

I'm always been a bit jealous of the camera capability of the high-end Lumia devices running Windows Phone from Nokia.  I want those features.  I mean the camera on the 1020 is just crazy.  Sure, the iPhone 5S camera rocks but there are still new tricks the next iPhone can pick up.

It's why Apple hired away from Nokia its top camera expert, Ari Partinen.  With Nokia having sold its mobile division to Microsoft, it was a perfect tiemf or Mr. Partinen to move to sunny California.  And he's exactly the type of new blood that Apple can use. 

Imagine what he can bring.  Just looking at Nokia's Lumia 1020 page, I want it all.  Lossless zoom.  Better pics in poorly lit environments.  Better flash.  Truer colors. 

Of course, he'll have to really be creative and innovate in ways that he was not familiar with or expected to at Nokia.  There is the design element that the new Apple hire will have to deal with.  He won't have the option of making the camera stick out the way they are on the Lumia devices. 

Plus, he won't have 40MP to work with.  In fact, he'll have a lot less to work with, along the line of 8MP or maybe just a tad more.  So, he'll have to find ways to improve the iPhone's camera abilities and bring new features beyond megapixels.

So, dude, make every pixel count!