iOS developer Steven Troughton-Smith has discovered references to iPhone X that are linked directly to the D22 codename with a bezel-less display. It’s the strongest indicator we have so far that Apple is planning the special naming to mark 10 years of the iPhone.
Someone within Apple leaked the list of URLs to 9to5Mac and MacRumors. I’m nearly certain this wasn’t a mistake, but rather a deliberate act.
Zello is used almost exactly like a walkie talkie, except it relies on wifi and cell service, so it can support big groups of people in dispersed locations. When Harvey caused widespread devastation in and around Houston, volunteers leaned on Zello to coordinate search and rescue efforts. And people in the path of Irma seem to believe they can put the app to similar uses in this storm too.
As I was listening, I quickly figured out that there were a few moderators on the app that were in charge and very experienced in using this method of communication during emergencies. One in particular, Brittney, was giving directions, taking rescue requests, and prioritizing calls and rescues. At one point, she said something that made me realize she's a nurse, so I immediately understood why she was so effective in this situation.
A couple of other women (who were working from other parts of the country, not Houston) who had been taking calls from victims and logging in the information came on the line around 12:30 and said they had to sign off so they could get to bed. They asked if there was anyone who could work through the night to keep taking rescue requests and log them.
I sat up and turned on my light. I timidly pushed the "talk" button and said, "I can."
Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Relief says Apple has donated $5 million toward ongoing Hurricane Harvey relief efforts in Texas, as well as programs benefitting what is expected to be massive damage from Hurricane Irma.
As individuals, we have similarly accepted the omnipresence of the big tech companies as a fait accompli. We’ve enjoyed their free products and next-day delivery with only a nagging sense that we may be surrendering something important. Such blitheness can no longer be sustained. Privacy won’t survive the present trajectory of technology — and with the sense of being perpetually watched, humans will behave more cautiously, less subversively. Our ideas about the competitive marketplace are at risk. With a decreasing prospect of toppling the giants, entrepreneurs won’t bother to risk starting new firms, a primary source of jobs and innovation. And the proliferation of falsehoods and conspiracies through social media, the dissipation of our common basis for fact, is creating conditions ripe for authoritarianism. Over time, the long merger of man and machine has worked out pretty well for man. But we’re drifting into a new era, when that merger threatens the individual. We’re drifting toward monopoly, conformism, their machines. Perhaps it’s time we steer our course.
I could be working away on the PC when a text came in on the iPhone’s iMessage app, which can only be accessed on Apple devices. Instead of picking up my iPhone and typing — slowly — with my thumbs, I could tap the “2” hotkey and reply without moving my fingers from the keyboard.
So I sought out to find the root cause of this and started to sift through the single source of truth for Javascript — The Javascript Spec.
And boy did I go down a rabbit hole!
If I want to catch a leaker, I'll first create a whole bunch of URLs, each of which consist of, I don't know, a different combination of random alpha-numeric characters. And I'll just put a fake copy of iOS 11 at each of these URLs, each of which contains, for example, some iPhone names that has already been rejected.
Next, I'll pass out each of these URL to a potential leaker. Then, sit back. Relax. And see which fake iOS 11 copy gets downloaded.
Which is my long-winded way of saying that I will not be surprised if the name revealed on Tuesday is not iPhone X.
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Thanks for reading.