[LINK] Of Walled Gardens and Their Dangers

[Frank O'Connor]

Thanks Rick,

Little Snitch, Huh?

An aptly named little puppy. I'll give it a look.

Yeah ... the problem with major OS developers and hardware producers is that more often than not they get to the point where it all becomes marketing and PR and not enough attention is paid to the technology development  and adding to the user value thingie. Nowadays it's acceptable to reduce user value and get them to pay for what they used to get for free.

Mmmmm ... Apple's been going that way for the last couple of years ... they've really stagnated. Oh, they whack faster CPU's and more mega hardware in their boxen, big and small ... but there hasn't been anything game changing from them since the iPhone kicked off the smart phone 'revolution' and put paid to Nokia and Blackberry. Android has sort of followed where Apple led, but the 'next big thing' doesn't look like coming from Cupertino. The iPad was nice, but really it was only the latest in a long line of PDA's that had failed to hit, that Apple made work by emulating how their hugely successful iPhone worked ... in many ways it's simply a big iPhone. (Same with the Android tablets ... simply bigger Android phones.)

Wearable computing? An iWatch? Can't see that as a Great Leap Forward - especially for someone with my old rheumy eyes. Whacking more functionality into an iPhone or iPad ... for the most part that can be done rather simply with apps. Apple entering the Google Glass space? .... Gotta admit that has some attraction ... and it could lead to non-screen based models of computer/device interaction. It would need some serious I/O and user interaction and interface development though ... the current mouse and keyboard probably wouldn't cut it.

I don't know ... at the moment I don't see much in Apple's future, and they seem to be stumbling about a bit with some of the stuff they are developing (e.g. Maps and iBooks ... mainly as defensive measures to head off rivals ... like Google, Amazon etc) that end up reducing user value and experience. Who knows ... soon they may have to compete on price!

Just my 2 cents worth.
---

On 1 Nov 2013, at 10:25 pm, Rick Welykochy <rick at vitendo.ca> wrote:

> Frank O'Connor wrote:
> 
>> Same with Apple Maverick and the iCloud ... not a lot of mention of it until after you had installed.
> 
> I've installed Little Snitch, a super configurable TCP/IP firewall
> that informs me of every outgoing connection every application is
> attempting to make. Once it is trained, it runs quietly in the background.
> 
> With Little Snitch I've stopped heaps of suspicious looking attempts
> by Apple and others to phone home.
> 
> Thanks for the advice on iCloud ... I will keep a keen eye out for it
> and banish it from my systems when it is caught in the act. That is,
> once I install Mavericks.
> 
> I can see a time coming soon that I will banish Apple and head back to
> The Land of Linux. I banished Microsoft last century and have never
> looked back.
> 
> 
> cheers
> rickw
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> ------------------------------------
> Rick Welykochy || Vitendo Consulting
> 
> All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second,
> it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
>     -- Arthur Schopenhauer
>