The Context Machine

BlackBerry CEO John Chen had some seemingly irrational things to say about Apple’s stance on encryption, and Bryan and Jeff break it down. They also take a deeper look into black boxes and self-driving cars with a focus on regulating these devices and surveillance worries. Just to keep things light, they dive into Twitter harassment and social media censorship.

In this episode of The Apple Context Machine, Bryan and Jeff talk about HomeKit, sparked by Jeff’s triumph over something that shouldn’t have been hard to begin with. They also talk about Jeff’s initial foray into Pokémon GO, and look at the Post-PC Era (or lack thereof) in light of Scrivener coming to iOS.

Jeff Gamet has been playing with iOS 10 on his iPad mini 4, and he can’t wait to get it on his iPhone. Why? It starts with the Lockscreen. Bryan and Jeff also talk about regulations in South Korea that might require smartphone makers to allow all preinstalled apps to be deleted by the user. They bookend the show having some fun with Fibonacci numbers.

In this episode of The Apple Context Machine, Bryan and Jeff discuss new regulations in China that could make Apple part of that country’s surveillance and censorship apparatus. They also talk about Google’s plans to make its own Android devices, and Amazon offering a discount on two Android phones that display Amazon ads on the lock screen. Bryan somehow manages to ties that into an epic rant about Angry Birds 2.

Bryan and Jeff delve into some of the things they've learned about iOS 10, macOS Sierra, and watchOS 3.0. Spoiler, it's all looking really good. They also talk about Differential Privacy and explain (loosely) how it works, what it means, and why it's important.

Apple CEO Tim Cook put his money where is mouth is and brought significant diversity to the WWDC stage this week, including four powerful women. Bryan and Jeff think it was cool. They also dig into watchOS 3, Swift Playgrounds, and ask if Steve Jobs would have opened up Siri, Maps, iMessage, and Phone to third party developers.

Bryan Chaffin is joined by John Kheit to talk about the state of music at Apple, including iTunes, rumored changes to iTunes, and where they'd like to see it go. They also discuss the value of music downloads and who is driving the push towards streaming services (Bryan says it's consumers and John screams something about getting the kids off his lawn).

Bryan and Jeff are joined by John Kheit, TMO's Devil's Advocate, for an in-depth look at ways to improve AI and machine learning while maintaining user privacy. There are some interesting technologies out there, including Apple's own VocalIQ, fully homomorphic encryption, and the less formally named "learn and purge."

In this special episode of The Apple Context Machine, Bryan and Jeff talk with Todd Weaver, founder and CEO of Purism. His company is dedicated to protecting the privacy and security of its customers, and they discuss the importance of privacy, surveillance capitalism, and where he thinks Apple falls short on the topic.

Apple has been putting time, effort, and resources into learning how to be a Chinese company and learning how to be an Indian company. Bryan and Jeff discuss those efforts and why it's important. They also talk about an essay from a record executive claiming that iTunes downloads are already being phased out. Plus, Apple has been hiring engineers with experience in wireless charging.