San Bernardino + more news

1 minutes estimated reading time

San Bernardino Shooters’ Phones Had ‘Built-In Encryption,’ Just Like Every Phone | Motherboard – all of this smacks of the WMD report in Iraq. The FBI are trying to use the tragedy of San Bernardino to get mass-access. This would be unwise. It sets a precedent and even a technology framework for other countries to demand access – like Saudi Arabia or China… It means US products wouldn’t be trusted abroad. The US government has a international trust deficit due to disclosures from ECHELON to Wikileaks. More cryptography posts here.

Settlement in suit over ‘Happy Birthday’ copyright | The Japan Times – So basically Warner Chappell had been asserting rights that it didn’t have to make $2 million a year… And kept going until they were taken to court

How Chinese manufacturers are adjusting to the new normal | HKEJ Insight – move from OEM to ODM – taking over design. It makes sense for Chinese manufacturers to want to do this. They can simplify manufacturing, reduce the bill of materials and over time build their own brands. Though brand building is probably the hardest aspect of this for them

Alibaba buys the South China Morning Post: Full Q&A with executive vice chairman Joseph Tsai | South China Morning Post – The newspaper, the broadsheet, is iconic. And there are still a lot of subscribers. Lots of people still want to touch and feel that paper in their hands. What we hope to do is to build on that and add more digital subscriptions and digital distribution. – artefacts still matter, though the South China Morning Post isn’t a social signifier or tool in the way that the FT  or The Economist is

China’s Hippest Smartphone Maker Warns Shakeout Will Get Worse – Bloomberg Business – its like watching 15 years in the PC industry in time lapse as the smartphone industry has got commoditised and grown so fast at the same time

An introduction to the trippy, far-out world of quantum computers

Panetone de Oreo — The Sandwich Cookie Hijacks the Traditional Christmas Treat – Video – Creativity Online – new product usage occasion – baking desserts