In response to the hubbub surrounding the iPhone's unwanted tendency to transcribe your every move and remember it for years, Apple today issued a curious statement--mostly a blanket denial of wrongdoing, though that's undermined a bit by Apple's promising to issue a software update that'll solve the issue. Apple claims the data logging is a crowdsourcing effort to improve location services, and that both the excessively long memory for location data and the problem of logging even when location services are turned off are bugs that will be fixed. All in all, a totally Apple response: Sometimes wrong, but never uncertain.
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


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Liars, :p, how could you possibly say that you weren't up to anything bad while tracking everyone's movement. Oh well.
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Money is the root of all evil, money is also what makes the world go round. Therefore the rotation of the earth is evil and we should stop it from spinning.
We didn't do it.. but we'll update and turn it off.
translation
Crap you found out... uh, wasn't me *Shrug* (quick shut it off)
I honestly don't see what the big deal is. EVERYONE that uses a cell phone had to think at some point "How does it know", it knows because you agreed to let it know when you signed the contract and agreed to the EULA. For the iPhone EULA it was section 4b. If you didn't read it then why in the #3|| did you agree to it, oh wait I know because it was an iPhone and its cool/latest piece of must have tech
Anonymous logging of users to make your experience faster and smoother doesn't sound evil. If they are collecting data about me and linkning it to me that is lame, but to tell traffic patterns and help my apps work faster, I'm cool with that.
If google doesn't follow suit with it's Android there will be a huge back lash against Google!
Except for paranoid people, I don't think the issue is tracking so much as it is leaving tracking information in an easily accessible place for people to use nefariously. Google tracks every search you've ever done and some have complained, but it's retained on their own private--and presumably secure--servers. If Apple had been smart enough to do the same thing this probably wouldn't have become news. In fact, you can bet their software update will now keep the information on Apple's servers, away from prying eyes and hackers.
People fail to read critically. The tracking feature is provided so callers can locate each other. The fact that someone can track you does not prove that Apple is tracking users and using that information. I can be tracked by the signature of my computer. Every device has a user number. How can you use navigation software without a starting point? All phones can be tracked so some extent. This issue is blown out of proportion by Apple haters, you know, those humpbacked jealous, cheap and grouchy ones who won't spend the money to buy good products. They can be found under bridges, peeking out to try and get a signal.
The iphone 4s is indistinguishable from its predecessor. For the most part, that's fine with me. Having lived through the thin phone craze started by the Motorola Razr, I'm not aching for a slimmer device. Granted, the 4S can feel bulky at times, but I continue to enjoy its solid feel in the hand (something that's not always there with skinny phones). I don't have any problems with the handset's general aesthetics, either. A thinner phone may be prettier, but it's what's inside that really counts. I also can live without some of the rumored "iPhone 5" features, like a wider Home button and a curved profile. The Home button has never plagued me, after all, and I'd prefer to rest the phone flat on a table and tap away. The glass back continues to concern me a bit, particularly after seeing a handful of iPhone 4s fall to their doom. That shouldn't be an issue if you have a case, of course. But speaking of which, some iPhone 4 cases will not fit on the iPhone 4S because Apple moved the ambient light sensor. So if you're looking to dress your 4S, make sure the case fits perfectly before buying. And if you need suggestions, Executive Editor David Carnoy has a few. My real design gripe is that the iPhone's display is beginning to look rather small when compared with some of the Android competition. Keep in mind that the iPhone's screen has remained at 3.5 inches since the first edition appeared in 2007. At that time, it was plenty big, but as smartphone screens have crept above the 4-inch mark, I now consider 3.5 inches the bare minimum size for a high-end device. Absolutely, the Retina Display remains stunningly beautiful (as do many Super AMOLED screens), but its size isn't always practical for in-car and hands-free use. Even worse, it can get rather tiring watching a full-length film with the iPhone perched on your airline seat tray table. How much bigger would I want? Nothing too big--the 4.5-inch displays on some Android models are a bit ridiculous--but something in the range of 3.75 inches or 4 inches would be a Goldilocks just right. I'll leave that up to the next iteration of the phone. The iphone 4S inherits all the standard iPhone features from the preceding models, including the calendar, voice memos, weather and stock apps, the various clock features, Google Maps, the compass, text messaging and e-mail, and the Notes app. The iPod player is there as well; the 4S splits your music and video libraries into two separate icons. In another change, the 4S also offers an upgrade to Bluetooth 4.0. Though still a growing technology, Bluetooth 4.0 uses less power and will enable the iPhone to talk to small battery-operated devices like Nike+ sensors and fitness machines at the gym. For more on Bluetooth 4.0, check out this deeper dive from Nicole Lee. The feature that Apple is touting most is the new voice assistant called Siri. It doesn't completely replace the current Voice Control feature--that's still there if you want it--but it certainly does a whole lot more. Basically, Siri both follows commands and answers your requests for information. For example, you can check the weather, ask for a contact's address, set up a reminder, get directions, and ask for obscure trivia. You speak to a robotic female voice (you can't change her identity) and access the feature by holding down the Home button (just as you do to access Voice Control). It uses both your location and a Google search to find a response, so you will need to have a Wi-Fi or cellular connection. The feature is in beta mode and supports English, French, and German. More languages will come later.
When Apple announced the new Siri software for the iphone 4s it was easy to just dismiss it as another company trying to get on board with the voice recognition gimmick we've seen companies trying to make work for years. But there are a couple of things to remember here: firstly, this is Apple, a brand that will always make something seem cool and work pretty well. And secondly, it's not a technology that it's had to develop fully in house, with the company buying voice recognition development app-maker Siri. We've played with some pretty advanced voice recognition software on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S2, so we've also taken a look to see how the same command is registered on both phones. Long pressing the home button will result in the Siri voic icon popping up - or alternatively, you can set the iPhone 4S to activate the service when you hold the phone up to your ear in standby mode, so you don't look as ridiculous when talking to your handset. From there, you've got quite a range of things you can achieve with speech alone, be it sending a message, playing a song (or even a playlist), setting the alarm, creating a reminder... we were very impressed with the range of options on offer. And the system is quick too - where with many other phones you have to open up the voice recognition function (often in a long winded way) and then wait for the beep to speak, Siri opens up in around a couple of seconds from anywhere in the phone. The voice recognition is pretty darn good too - we were straight away impressed with how many phrases it managed to get right on the first go, including some pretty obscure bits and pieces of speech. You do have to pronounce your words a little more clinically than you might do normally, but even garbled speech comes through pretty well. To put a number on it: we went through the list of functions Siri offers, and found that around one in three or four attempts went awry, which is miles better than the one in two we encounter on most other phones. However, before we get into the comparison, we should say this about Siri in the UK - the full range of services aren't available, and that's a real shame. This means you can't ask where the nearest McDonald's or petrol station is, a feature that's been talked up in the US. We do have high hopes that the same features will eventually be enabled in the UK, as it's just a matter of licensing the information and incorporating it into the system, but it will be annoying for a number of users to see that Siri comes back with 'I cannot do that' time and time again for cool functionality. But what it does do well is work out the context of what you're saying, something that most other voice recognition software fails to do. So if you say 'Tell Andy his hair looks amazing today' it will work out that you'll want to tell him by message, rather than asking what method you'd prefer to speak to him. Messaging isn't as straightforward as we'd like though, as using the 'Send message' command to a person in your address book will result in you being asked whether you'd like to do it using the phone number or email address - and there's no way to set a personalized choice.