Comments on: Apple Phones Home, Too

By: Jay Wollmann

Jay Wollmann — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:33:38 +0000

I’m a mac lover, but I don’t understand why mac lovers set apple apart from Microsoft like they could never do some of the shady things Microsoft does. This just isn’t true. They are out to make money just like Microsoft, they just happen to have a much better product and much smaller/ less complaining group of consumers. Apple consumers are generally easier to please than Microsoft consumers, because the product performs better. And we trust Apple, No one trusts Microsoft.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 03 May 2007 20:35:57 +0000

I HATE WIDGETS

By: semanticpool. » In Apple we trust …

semanticpool. » In Apple we trust … — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 06:45:21 +0000

[...] - i hope so. Just read about the helpful “see if the new Dashboard widget is the same that we have on our servers here at [...]

By: Phonehome | .get privacy

Phonehome | .get privacy — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 13:44:49 +0000

[...] Microsoft z.B. ist schon immer in Verdacht mit seinem Betriebssystem Daten heimzusenden, der Verdacht wird durch häufigen Funkverkehr oftmals erhärtet. Und just gab man auch eben diesen Umstand zu, zumindest beim bekannten Genuine Advantage, der Raubkopierer in den Wahnsinn treibt, aber auch ehrlichen Kunden so manche Träne entlockt. Da wird der Mac-Fan frohlocken, hat dieser doch eine Firma voller Revoluzzer die da eine bessere Welt möchten. Tja wäre da nicht der schon etwas länger zurückliegende Vorfall mit iTunes ministore und den einfach mal so übermittelten Daten. Man bereinigte den Fehler und weiter gings, mit heimfunkenden Widgets. [...]

By: Enrique

Enrique — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 08:45:06 +0000

This is where you can find how to turn off the dashboardadvisory:

http://pp.hillrippers.ch/blog/2006/07/04/Disable+the+dashboardadvisory-daemon/

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 14:36:27 +0000

Bill: And if the New York Times received a letter along the lines of your comment, I hope they’d receive something more substantial than a vague accusation of inaccuracy.

Tell me how I’ve been unethical here? Where is my factual error?

Blogging also has self-correcting mechanisms that the NY Times doesn’t have, with 105 responses here where everybody has had an ample opportunity to help clarify the content. So comparing the two falls apart pretty quickly, even if you’re not being vague and provocative.

By: Bill Paxton

Bill Paxton — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 06:57:54 +0000

Just an FYI, if the New York Times published this article online or in print they would be printing a clarification/retraction.

The blogsphere wants to have freedoms of the press, but doesnt want to abide by the same ethics standars it often seems.

By: Apple Phones Home, TooApple released Mac OS X 10.4.7 last -- Centplus Tech

Apple Phones Home, TooApple released Mac OS X 10.4.7 last -- Centplus Tech — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 06:00:15 +0000

[...] Apple Phones Home, TooApple released Mac OS X 10.4.7 last week, and ever since I installed it, I ve been noticing Apple s own modest home phoning behavior. In this case it s ostensibly to provide users with the opportunity to check whether the Dashboard … [...]

By: Eston

Eston — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 02:24:22 +0000

This is the reason why Little Snitch should be part of OS X by default — then again, if that were the case, Apple would probably hide these things from their own snitch app.

By: Harry

Harry — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:13:26 +0000

“Peter B. Says:
So yes, in the end, you have to choose to trust them or not by default. And then do detailed analysis to validate your assumptions. Just using the network should not be a shortcut to an assumption of evil.”

Rubbish. This is binary thinking at its dullest. “You’re either for us or against us”, eh?
Consumers asking for transparent disclosure (and easy control) of machine initiated communication which they are legally responsibile for is not some weirdo extremist assumtion of evil, it is a conservative, thoughtful, considered, balanced, ethical and reasonable expectation.

That said, it isn’t actually a very serious problem in this instance, but the principal is crucial. Please, Apple, stay better than Microsoft.