Why Samsung Fell.

Tech Opinions:

What differentiates Samsung?

Hardware? Please. Xiaomi and others are taking a page out of the Samsung playbook by copying Samsung’s designs and making hardware that is more than good enough.

Software? Please. They’re all running the same Android operating system.

TouchWiz? Please. Stop before I die laughing!

What can Samsuck bring to the table now that there are cheaper phones in the market and Apple has bigger screens? Those where the only “advantages” they had and now they’re gone. They commoditized the market, have no differentiation since all others run Android and Tizen is a non starter. They have pinched themselves into a corner. Good riddance to bad rubbish. HTC and Motorola make better phones and deserve the market and money more than the copiers at Samesuck.

Susan G. Komen Partners With Fracking Firm, Despite Possible Cancer Links

This is like the Heart Association partnering with Wendy’s on a Pink Baconator.
Huffington Post

Surprise: Mac iWorm Spreads through Pirated Apps

The Mac Observer:

When news of Mac.BackDoor.iWorm for the Mac hit the Web last week, the way the  malware threat spread was still something of a mystery, but that’s been uncovered now, too: pirated software. Like so many other malware threats, attackers are using the promise of free software as a trojan horse to trick victims trying to save a buck into installing the iWorm payload.

There you go, to my question yesterday, good old pirating of software. Don’t steal, don’t get your computer all messed up.

Apple Pay: An in-depth look at what’s behind the secure payment system

TUAW

Apple Pay is an exceedingly secure mobile payment platform. In fact, it may very well be the safest way to make any type of credit card payment. To understand why, below is a general overview of how the system works behinds the scenes. Note that this article is meant to paint the Apple Pay process in broad strokes, as a good portion of the nitty-gritty technical details aren’t yet publicly known and, due to security considerations, may never be fully disclosed.

Read the review and explanation by Yoni Heisler at TUAW. Apple Pay sounds like the solution the industry has been looking for, let’s see if it is.

Apple Updates Malware Definitions to Protect Against iWorm.

MacRumors:

In an effort to address the threat, Apple has now updated its “Xprotect” anti-malware system to recognize two different variants of the iWorm malware and prevent them from being installed on users’ machines.

I still haven’t seen an explanation about how it gets into your computer in the first place, but you can check if you’re infected by doing this:

To see if you are infected, go into the Finder and Select Go > Go to Folder…. When the Go to folder sheet appears, enter this folder name:

/Library/Application Support/JavaW

Now click the Go button. If the Finder tells you the folder can’t be found, you should be OK. If the folder is found, you are likely infected and should consider some anti-virus software or a trip to the Apple Store.

Via Loop Insight

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 delivers poor graphics performance vs. Apple iPhone 6 Plus

Apple Insider:

Samsung’s own even-higher resolution Note 4 (or equally high resolution Galaxy S5 flagship) both turn in benchmarks far lower than Apple’s new 6 Plus—and less than half that of last year’s iPhone 5s. In terms of fps, the latest benchmarks show that Samsung’s new Exynos-powered Note 4 drops down to 10.5 fps—almost half that of iPhone 6 Plus— in the same test.

More doesn’t mean better.

Fanboy vs Fanboy

I’m tired of the Fanboy wars, just done with it. As I get older, I realise how stupid some of the things I used to do really are. One of those things was being a Fanboy. First I liked Windows and thought that those people using iPods were stupid. Then I moved to Linux (Ubuntu) and thought Windows was a piece of shit. Then I moved to the Mac, became a Macnatico (a fanatic of some kind) and thought everyone else was crazy for not using Apple products. So stupid and immature.

I now have finally come to understand that there is no one true platform or device to rule them all. This is not Lord of the Rings, this is real life. The iPhone is great at fluidity, design, app ecosystem, security, etc. Android is great at choice, customisation, price point, range of available devices and form factors, etc. They all have strengths and weakness that stem from their design philosophy. Windows is very good for doing the kind of work I do the most, and so even though I use a Mac, it has Office.

I write this because in the past few weeks since the new iPhones came out, the vitriol and stupidity from colleagues, family members, friends, and complete strangers has been almost unbearable. I told someone close to me about #BendGate (stupid Gate everything is so old) that I wasn’t a hurt Fanboy because of the stuff being said, it was the blown out proportions of the situation and lack of professionalism from the media that bothered me. Mainstream media knows about the Fanboy wars and uses it to fuel ratings, truth or accuracy is the least of their concerns. If you try to correct their crap, you’re a hurt Fanboy and must be ridiculed.

Unless you buy me the device and pay for the monthly fee that goes with it, I couldn’t care less about what you think of it. I never tell anyone what to buy unless they ask for my opinion and for the life of me can’t understand why seeing that people buy Apple stuff constitutes such a life threatening offense to someone else. If you like Android so much that you feel supremely superior to someone else that it gives you the divine right to scold and ridicule another person for buying an iPhone, you are a Fanboy too. Just a different kind of Fanboy, but a Fanboy nonetheless.

I don’t like Android. I don’t. I don’t like the look and feel of the interface, the lack of security in some aspects, and the fact that most apps look like they were designed by a not very bright, high school aged programmer. That being said, I don’t go around telling people off for buying one. I do like to throw jabs sometimes at Samsung, but that’s just fun retaliation for the ad campaign they love so much where they treat Apple customers like doofuses. And I do from time to time point out the lack of security and updates from the Android side, which is true and unless they do something about it I will keep on doing.

I’ve come to appreciate that there is no right tool to do everything. No smartphone can completely replace a tablet for some things. No tablet can completely replace the laptop for some things. There is a tool for every job, a platform that suits your preferences best, and it’s your money.

Stop the stupid fighting and appreciate the fact that we live in a time of so much useful technology and diversity. Used to be that one company usually had a monopoly of the tools for the job and that is no longer the case. Choose what works for you and stop waisting time and energy on this pitiful crap. Then again this is the internet, and some Fanboy will take issue with this and say I’m stupid and the circle of crap will go on.

One can dream.

When software and hardware work well together.

Apple says it every time, you get a better experience from getting software and hardware that are developed together. This video is not scientific, but the results are pretty obvious and seem to coincide with benchmark numbers I’ve seen. Even with supposedly bigger and better specs, quad core chips, lots of RAM, etc, the iPhone smokes the competition. Numbers aren’t everything, sometimes more is not necessarily better.

Video by Phone Buff

Consumer Reports test results find iPhone 6 and 6 Plus not as bendy as believed

Consumer Reports

All the phones we tested showed themselves to be pretty tough. The iPhone 6 Plus, the more robust of the new iPhones in our testing, started to deform when we reached 90 pounds of force, and came apart with 110 pounds of force. With those numbers, it slightly outperformed the HTC One (which is largely regarded as a sturdy, solid phone), as well as the smaller iPhone 6, yet underperformed some other smart phones.

Yes, aluminum bends under the weight of your fat ass, because physics. Now shut the fuck up, buy whatever phone you want with your money. Nobody else cares what expensive piece of crap you take selfies and out of focus photos with.

Where did your iOS 8 Camera Roll go?

iDownloadBlog:

So, where did your Camera Roll go and is there anything sensible to be done about it?

Just to clear up any confusion, all your on-device photos are safe and sound and didn’t go anywhere after upgrading to iOS 8— they’re simply spread out in different locations.

The article explains and gives solutions to this. I don’t get why Apple did this, it was fine the way it was.