Category Archives: FBI

Apple, Episodes, FBI

Episode 36 – Explaining the All Writs Act, AT&T’s New Video Offerings

Our News Roundup covers three topics, triggered by two news stories each:

  • Yahoo – stories about Verizon being the most likely buyer for the core business, and indications that Yahoo may have to further write down the Tumblr asset
  • Live video – Twitter is focusing heavily on live in general and live video specifically in 2016, while there are also signs Facebook is getting increasingly serious about this space
  • Mobile payments – there are reports MasterCard will expand Apple Pay into several new markets this year, and Google is trialling a new “Hands Free” payment technology in the Bay Area.

Our Question of the Week is: “What’s the broader significance of the Orenstein court order?” and refers to the decision this week from a New York District Court in a case involving Apple and the FBI, which has some similarities to the San Bernardino case. Aaron draws on his legal background to dissect the decision and its legal basis, and talks us through the logic and the implications for the California case.

Our final topic is AT&T’s announcement of several new video offerings that it will launch later this year under the DirecTV brand, all of which are app-based rather than satellite or cable-based. We discuss the attractions of these new offers along with some of the shortcomings, and the reasons why AT&T felt the need to pre-announce them seven months or more before they’ll be available. We wrap up the episode with our Weekly Pick, which is another movie recommendation from Jan.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Apple, Beta program, Episodes, FBI, Fitbit, Huawei, iPad Pro, MWC, Privacy, Samsung, Smartphones, Xiaomi

Episode 35 – State of the Smartphone Market, more Apple/FBI

This week, our News Roundup covers Apple’s response to beta users’ feedback on iPad Pro Pencil navigation support in iOS 9.3, smartphone announcements from Mobile World Congress, and Fitbit’s earnings. Our Question of the Week is “What’s the state of the global smartphone market?”, which Jan addresses. We talk about whether the smartphone market is growing, and where, which players are growing (and which aren’t), we talk about the fact that iOS/Android and Apple/Google are no longer the most interesting competitive dynamics, and offer some predictions for the future. Our final topic is a sequel to last week’s discussion about Apple and the FBI, given all the new information that’s emerged since our earlier discussion. We wrap up with our Weekly Pick, as usual, which this week is a website recommendation from Aaron.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

  • The Verge story on Pencil navigation in iOS 9.3 and future versions
  • The Verge’s coverage of Mobile World Congress announcements
  • Jan’s live tweeting of Fitbit earnings, as a Storify story
  • Related to Apple / FBI:
  • Aaron’s Weekly Pick, Serious Eats, a cooking blog/website.

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.

Apple, Episodes, FBI, Uncategorized

Episode 34 – Apple’s Cash and Borrowing, Apple and the FBI

A quick note for listeners: unfortunately, on this week’s episode, Jan’s microphone suffered some sort of glitch and started introducing an annoying clicking sound which gets worse as the episode goes on. It only appears when Jan is talking, so it doesn’t affect Aaron’s side of the audio, but you may find it irritating to listen to. Unfortunately, it’s on the master recording of Jan’s audio, and so it can’t be removed. Our apologies for the audio issues, and hopefully we’ll be back to normal next week!

This week’s episode begins as usual with our news roundup, in which we cover the launch of Apple Pay in China, Indian regulators’ shutting down of Facebook’s Free Basics program in that country, and John Gruber’s interview last week with Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi of Apple. Our Question of the Week concerns Apple’s borrowing to finance its share repurchase and other cash return programs. We discuss the logic of this activity, why Apple does it, and Aaron even offers a guesstimate of how much Apple saves by borrowing rather than repatriating cash. Our other major topic today is the court order the FBI obtained this week which requires Apple to assist in unlocking an iPhone used in the San Bernardino shootings in December last year, and Apple’s response to it. Lastly, our Weekly Pick is a movie recommendation from Jan.

As usual, you’ll find some links to related content as well as other ways to listen to the podcast beneath the embedded Soundcloud player below.

We invite listeners to submit questions for subsequent weeks in the comments below, on Twitter (@jandawson, @aaronmiller), or via email (jan at jackdawresearch dot com). We also have a dedicated Podcast Twitter handle at @BDPcast.

As ever, you can also find the podcast on iTunes, in the Overcast app, or your own favorite podcast app. Here is the RSS feed for the podcast if you want to add it manually to your app of choice.

Show notes:

Here are some useful links relating to this week’s episode:

Please leave us a comment or get in touch via Twitter to give us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. Also, we’d love it if you would leave a review of the podcast on iTunes.