Samsung is going to announce some new Folding Phones and Watches on Wednesday. I’ll have more about that tomorrow, but for now, here are a few of the stories I’ve found interesting over the past week.
RCMP Admits To Using Surveillance Technology On Canadian Cell Phones
I will begin by saying I won’t do this the full justice it deserves in a paragraph or two. This week the RCMP admitted to a House of Commons Committee that it has been using tools to break encryption in criminal investigations since 2002, and continues to do so to this day.
The RCMP says that these tools are only used with the approval of a judge, and are targeted, time limited, and only used in extremely specific circumstances. The RCMP has said it has used technology to spy on cell phones 32 times since 2027. Considering the sheer volume of criminal investigations undertaken by police in this country every year, 32 is a very small number.
This is igniting a debate over breaking encryption, which has been a tug of war between law enforcement and the general public for years. Police say they need these tools to keep ahead of criminals that use them, while privacy advocates say it risks intruding on innocent people. Certain governments around the world want companies build tools into their services specifically for law enforcement to break into encryption, but if those tools are built in, anyone can figure out a way to beat the encryption, making that encryption useless.
This is an issue with valid arguments on both sides, and no easy answer. The web page you are currently reading is encrypted. Encryption has become standard on the internet not just for privacy reasons, but to help keep bad actors from intercepting the traffic and putting malware, spyware, and viruses into the web page. Encryption is used in communication, both by the average person, and military. If we break encryption for the average person, what happens to military communication?
I’m glad I’m not the one who has to make the policy decisions here.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-spyware-privacy-commissioner-1.6544839
https://globalnews.ca/news/9044296/rcmp-cellphone-hacking-privacy/
https://globalnews.ca/news/9047721/former-privacy-watchdog-surprised-rcmp-spyware-program/
Telus Wants to Start Charging Credit Card Processing Fee
In the continuing quest to squeeze every last cent from the consumer, Telus has put an application into the CRTC to begin charging a 1.5% processing fee on all bills paid via credit card. Apparently Telus doesn’t make quite enough money, so they need to squeeze a few more dollars from their customers.
If the CRTC approves this request, expect Bell and Rogers to follow suit shortly.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2022/08/09/telus-crtc-request-credit-card-processing-fee/
Twitter Thinks Its Subscription Service Is Worth $6.50 Per Month
Twitter Blue was already a bit of a tough sell. The subscription service, previously priced at $3.50/month in Canada, has a small number of features like the ability to undo a tweet that basically only means it’ll delay sending it for about 10 seconds. Other features include the ability to read twitter threads in one long string, ad free articles from certain participating outlets, and the ability to change the Twitter app icon. There are a couple other features but they’re even more inconsequential. It doesn’t remove ads from Twitter, and ads no real important functionality.
And now, the price has nearly doubled. Twitter Blue now costs $6.50/month in Canada. That works out ot $78/year for a service that, frankly, has nothing worth paying for. I get enough value out of Twitter that if a subscription service was actually compelling, I’d spend the money. But Twitter Blue in its current state is frankly insulting to the user base.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/28/23283166/twitter-blue-subscription-price-hike-4-99
Samsung Continues To Support Android Features Better Than Google Does
This is a relatively small thing, but does show a trend with Google. A couple years ago Google introduce Camera2 and CameraX API’s for Android. Camera2 and CameraX allow 3rd party apps to have full access to all the features of a phone’s camera hardware. Without Camera2 and CameraX, apps like Instagram and Snapchat can’t use all the camera’s functions, and as a result images captured directly from those apps will not be as good as images taken from the built in camera app.
While Camera2 and CameraX are available to phone manufacturers, it is not a requirement for them to be implemented on phones. Samsung’s recent flagship phones all support Camera2 and CameraX, while Google’s Pixel 6, 6 Pro, and the new 6a…. do not support Camera2 and CameraX. Despite Google building Camera2 and CameraX, the company chooses not to support it in their own phones.
Like I said, it doesn’t seem like much, but between this, and other factors like Samsung actually providing longer support for its phones than Google does, and suddenly Google is firmly in second place in supporting Android on its own devices…. Even though Google is the company that makes Android.
Google Sues Sonos Because Google Hates Its Customers
Google keeps losing lawsuits against Sonos, and instead of simply paying Sonos to license technology, it has removed functionality from its products like the Nest Audio speakers. And Sonos does not support Android as well as it supports iOS, with the experience of using a Sonos Speaker significantly better for Apple users. It is a spat that has been going on for years and only harms the consumer.
Now Google, after losing several court cases, has sued Sonos over Sonos’ voice assistant it is building into its speakers, claiming that the company violated Google Patents.
I like Sonos equipment. I would buy more of it if Sonos and Google could just figure this out.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/08/google-hits-back-at-sonos-with-voice-command-patent-lawsuit/