Apple CEO Tim Cook Speaks on Importance of Privacy, Encryption at Champions of Freedom Event
Apple CEO Tim Cook was honored at the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s Champions of Freedom event in Washington yesterday, where he took the opportunity to give a speech covering Apple’s stance on privacy, the importance of guarding customer information, and the company’s views on encryption.
TechCrunch has shared details on both the event and Cook’s speech, calling him “characteristically passionate” about the topics he spoke on.
“Like many of you, we at Apple reject the idea that our customers should have to make tradeoffs between privacy and security,” Cook opened. “We can, and we must provide both in equal measure. We believe that people have a fundamental right to privacy. The American people demands it, the constitution demands it, morality demands it.”
Cook highlighted Apple’s commitment to customer privacy while also lambasting other Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook for collecting customer data. “They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it,” Cook said. “We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.”
Image via TechCrunch
As he has done multiple times in past privacy-centric speeches, Cook reiterated Apple’s position as a company that gets its money from selling products and services, not the personal data of its companies. He also made a subtle jab at Google’s new Photos app, which offers free, unlimited photo storage.
“We believe the customer should be in control of their own information. You might like these so-called free services, but we don’t think they’re worth having your email, your search history and now even your family photos data mined and sold off for god knows what advertising purpose. And we think some day, customers will see this for what it is.”
On encryption, Cook said he believes it’s “incredibly dangerous” that some government agencies advocate for unfettered access to consumer data and devices, an issue that’s come to light following encryption changes that Apple introduced with iOS 8. As of iOS 8, Apple no longer stores device encryption keys, making it impossible for the company to bypass a passcode and provide consumer data at the government’s request.
According to Cook, weakening encryption with a “master key” for the government has a “chilling effect on our First Amendment rights and undermines our country’s founding principles.” He says Apple will continue moving forward with encryption and will focus on building products “that keep people’s information safe.”
More of what Cook had to say during yesterday’s speech can be found over at TechCrunch. The Verge has also shared details on the speech.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
SoundHound aims to take on Google Now with its new personal voice assistant
You’re probably familiar with SoundHound, the popular music recognition service that’s been available on Android, iOS and Windows Phone for a few years now. But it seems as though the company wants you to recognize its name for something a little different, because today SoundHound debuted a new personal voice assistant that aims to take on Google Now, Siri and Cortana at the same time. The new application is called Hound, and it’s currently available as an invite-only beta app.
Read more: Google Now on Tap demo at Google I/O 2015
Much like Google’s voice assistant that’s baked in to Android, activating SoundHound’s new app can be done by using the phrase “Okay, Hound”. As you can see from the video above, Hound has the ability to listen and respond to casually-phrased sentences, and deliver information in a card-based layout that will help you get your correct answer. Like we’ve seen in other voice assistants, Hound can give you information on the weather, directions, local searches, news, photos, web searches and of course, the power of the SoundHound app built right in.
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What makes Hound stand out, though, is its ability to respond to casual phrases and sentences. For example, when you say “What’s the weather like in Napa this weekend?”, Hound will pull up the weather forecast for Napa. When you follow up that question with “Show me Italian restaurants there that are open past 9pm”, Hound will understand that you’re still talking about Napa, and bring up the correct answer for you. This is the type of advanced voice recognition technology that Google unveiled a few years back, and it’s now interesting to see it make its way to yet another application.
To use the new service, you’ll need to head to this website to request an invitation, then follow the Google Play Store link below to download the app.
This news comes just days after Google announced that Android M will bring a new feature called Google Now on Tap. This will allow you to access the power of Google Now from within any application, bringing you relevant information without the need to exit your current app and open another one. Microsoft also just recently announced that it will soon bring its Cortana personal voice assistant to Android.
Do you think this could be a viable replacement for Google Now? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
T-Mobile extends Never Settle for Verizon campaign though late June
Originally set to end on May 31, the trial program now runs through June 27
T-Mobile has extended the window for its Never Settle for Verizon campaign for at least a few more weeks. The program allows for Verizon customers to try out T-Mobile’s service for a period of two weeks without any long term commitments.
Initially the promotion was set to expire on May 31 however it has now been pushed back to June 27. In fact, judging by the fine print, it appears the deadline was extended halfway trough May.
Verizon subscribers interested in testing T-Mobile’s network can port their phone number for the trial period. At the end of the window the customer has the option to port-out their number back to Verizon or stay with T-Mobile.
The Un-carrier, at that point will pay off any early termination fees and/or remaining equipment payments. The customer will be directed to turn in the Verizon phone and buy a new one from T-Mobile, pairing it with a Simple Choice plan.
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Truecaller for Android now allows international blocking
As of today, the Truecaller caller ID app allows users to block specific series of numbers, regions, or even entire countries.
The company believes this will be a counter to “One Ring Scams,” a phishing trap that call centers commonly use.
Here’s a list of some of Truecaller’s other features:
- The spammer list is updated every day in order to protect users better
- Silencing unwanted calls
- Spammer reporting: this can be done from the call log or after calls
- An updated UI of the ‘Block’ section
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SoundHound takes on Siri and Google with new voice search app
While SoundHound hasn’t seen the tune-searching success as Shazam, the company behind it is taking a similar stance as the competition. Like Shazam’s recent addition of product queries, SoundHound is looking to tackle more than songs too, and it’ll do so with a new app called Hound. It’s more like Siri or Google Now (taking some design cues from the latter), handling searches for weather, directions, hotels, stocks and much more. And yes, the know-how from SoundHound is baked in as well, so you won’t have to wield two apps just in case you need to identify a track by humming.
There’s a voice search option that not only allows you to get specific (see above), but it’ll let you add a secondary set of criteria once you browse the initial results. All you have to do is say “OK Hound” and speak your search info — I wonder where they got that idea. Hound also handles spoken requests by allowing you to speak naturally, as it boasts “Speech-to-Meaning” abilities that recognizes language and not just words. Hound is currently in beta on Android with an iOS version set to join soon.
Senate passes USA Freedom Act, Sen. McConnell is not amused
For the first time since the 9/11 attacks, both houses of Congress have agreed to limit the government’s domestic surveillance powers. Earlier today, the Senate voted 67 to 32 and passed the USA Freedom Act, echoing the House’s vote in May. The bill is designed to counter the Patriot Act’s controversial section 215 — the bit that enabled the NSA to collect phone records en masse, request “roving wiretaps” and seize business files — just one day after the provision officially expired.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) had been lobbying hard to maintain the Patriot Act, even after the House passed the Freedom Act with broad bipartisan support. He then had to endure fellow Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) filibustering a reauthorization vote last week to ensure that the Patriot Act would expire before it could be reauthorized. What’s more, the Senate today also voted down McConnell’s three amendments for the Freedom Act. These provisions would have all but gutted the new legislation. They’d have required companies to inform the government six months heads-up if they want to keep call data for less than the requisite 18 months, delaying the Freedom Act’s implementation by six months and granting the secretive FISA courts full control over its own proceedings.
The USA Freedom Act says that the FISA court can’t sign off on a general warrant like that: the govt has to ask for *specific* information.
– Danny O’B (@mala) June 2, 2015
It should be noted however, that the passage of the Freedom Act will temporarily restart the Patriot’s phone data collection apparatus that expired on Sunday for at least six months while the NSA wraps up the program.
The EFF and ACLU both have hailed the decision as a partial victory for privacy. Per an ACLU statement:
The passage of the USA Freedom Act is a milestone. This is the most important surveillance reform bill since 1978, and its passage is an indication that Americans are no longer willing to give the intelligence agencies a blank check. It’s a testament to the significance of the Snowden disclosures and also to the hard work of many principled legislators on both sides of the aisle. Still, no one should mistake this bill for comprehensive reform. The bill leaves many of the government’s most intrusive and overbroad surveillance powers untouched, and it makes only very modest adjustments to disclosure and transparency requirements.
The USA Freedom Act bill now goes to the White House for President Obama’s signature. He has been rumbling for the past few weeks about the need to extend the Patriot Act. However he’s already said he would and it’s hard to imagine that he’d risk going against such a widely supported bill and potentially face an embarrassing veto override vote heading into his final year in office. So, for now at least, American’s phone records appear to be safer from the Feds’ prying eyes.
[Image Credit: Getty Images]
Filed under: Internet
Source: US Senate
BlackBerry Messenger for Android gets Material Design makeover
BlackBerry has updated their Messenger application for Android with several new features, the most notable of which is a full Material Design facelift. The app sticks to Google’s design guidelines and works and looks just like you’d expect a Google-made app to.
The new design isn’t the only thing that’s been introduced with this update, though. BBM also includes a handful of new features, including changes to private chats that make things a little more discrete (and automatically delete private chats after they’ve ended), new message editing tools, and a quick way to share updates right to your BBM feed.
The mobile messenger space is extremely competitive, so BlackBerry has to keep their Messenger updated enough to take on the likes of Hangouts, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, among other apps. This is definitely a good step, assuming you still know anyone that uses BBM.
source: BlackBerry
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SoundHound reveals a Powerful Assistant App-Hound
We all know SoundHound as a song identification service but today they announced the project called “Hound” on which they have been working for nearly a decade . Hound is voice-controlled assistant just like Google-Now but much more powerful than the latter.
Hound takes speed and accuracy to a whole new level by combining speech recognition and language understanding. This Speech-to-Meaning capability makes Hound the new way to search and do things faster without typing.
The app interface is fairly Material design which will attract users. Hound can do all the basic stuff that other personal-assistant can do like set alarm and reminder,navigate to particular direction. Along with this, it can be used for finding hotel that matches your detailed criteria and checking the stock market.
Hound is currently available in Beta and requires an invite to try out the app. In my opinion Hound is the hybrid of Google-Now and Siri. Considering that SoundHound is almost perfect in matching lyrics with the song, this is a good time for the company to try is hand in voice-recognition.
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Samsung Galaxy S6 Plus to launch in next few weeks, report indicates
Samsung will introduce a Galaxy S6 Plus smartphone in the coming weeks, according to oft-reliable blog SamMobile. The device, which is alleged to feature a 5.4-inch or 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display, should also feature the dual-curved edges like those found in the Galaxy S6 Edge.
Specifications are purported to include a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor and 32GB internal storage. As for the cameras, we are told to look for a 16-megapixel rear shooter and 5-megapixel front-facing unit.
It is not yet clear where the Galaxy S6 Plus might be offered or whether it will be available in all traditional markets. Also unknown is what sort of price point we could be looking at.
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Google is developing A.I. to count the calories in your food photos
I am from a family of foodies, and I also have many foodie friends. We just love food and we love to take pictures of food to share with those who share the same passion. A major downside for loving food is consuming too many calories, which is a major problem in the U.S. We have access to thousands and thousands of ingredients and most of us have no idea how many calories are in each ingredient. A single tablespoon of peanut butter can contain up to 200 calories! Not only is it difficult to try to memorize ingredients and their calorie content, it is also extremely difficult to judge serving size as there is no standard to adhere to. Trying to count calories is extremely difficult and also extremely inaccurate.
10 years ago if you wanted to keep track of your calories, you kept it in a food diary and then you would have to go and look up how many calories were in each item that you consumed. Fast forward to today and we have apps where we can input our intake and the app will have the appropriate caloric info, but again this is based on an individual’s ability to assess serving size. It’s an improvement but it is not an exact science by any means.
In comes Google to save the day. Google has been working on developing artificial intelligence, and it has been a relatively secret program until now. According to Popular Science, their latest A.I. involves counting calories in food photos. At the Rework Deep Learning Summit in Boston, Google revealed that they are developing a project called Im2Calories. This project involves lots of math and algorithms that can analyze caloric content in food photos. Fortunately you will not need a high-end camera to make this work, and standard resolution photo qualifies to be analyzed.
The true genius behind this project is that it should get better with use, and that process is called “deep-learning”. Rather than have programmers input information into the project, A.I. should take over and should improve on its own. Google has yet to reveal when this technology will be available, but during the presentation it was shown to estimate calories on pancakes, eggs, and bacon, which is a very common American breakfast. I would like to see health insurance companies invest in this technology as well, in hopes to help us make better decisions about our food choices.
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