李開復：看中國網民對斯諾登事件的反應

Kai Fu Lee
CEO at Innovation Works

If you think Prism has made a mess in the US, you should see the reaction in China:

1. The overall tone was very clear – microbloggers were angry about the perceived hypocrisy, they were sympathetic to Snowden, and they were disillusioned about the US as a democratic role model.

2. Many microbloggers showed concern for the Chinese First Lady, who was photographed to be using an iPhone during her visit to the US. The microbloggers asked “Would the US government access her private data through Apple’s iCloud?”

3. Hardliners gained an upper hand, and pushed to question: Whatever happened to protecting human rights? How can you trust this hypocrite? Does this demonstrate that the system of democracy, “checks and balances”, “due process” and “rule of law” has failed?

4. Quite a few netizens called Snowden a hero. Netizens eagerly discussed and admired how he gave up a $200,000 salary and a beautiful girlfriend. They even gossiped about his modeling career and his good looks.

5. 81% of the microbloggers supported China to offer Snowden asylum, and only 3% supported extraditing him back to the US.

June 18, 2013

蘋果對顧客私隱的承諾

Apple’s Commitment to Customer Privacy

Two weeks ago, when technology companies were accused of indiscriminately sharing customer data with government agencies, Apple issued a clear response: We first heard of the government’s “Prism” program when news organizations asked us about it on June 6. We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer content must get a court order.

Like several other companies, we have asked the U.S. government for permission to report how many requests we receive related to national security and how we handle them. We have been authorized to share some of that data, and we are providing it here in the interest of transparency.

From December 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013, Apple received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data. Between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters. The most common form of request comes from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide.

Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it.

Apple has always placed a priority on protecting our customers’ personal data, and we don’t collect or maintain a mountain of personal details about our customers in the first place. There are certain categories of information which we do not provide to law enforcement or any other group because we choose not to retain it.

For example, conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data. Similarly, we do not store data related to customers’ location, Map searches or Siri requests in any identifiable form.

We will continue to work hard to strike the right balance between fulfilling our legal responsibilities and protecting our customers’ privacy as they expect and deserve.

其他重要內容

June 18, 2013

“I wear glasses because I have to. I don’t know a lot of people who wear them because they don’t have to,” he said. “I think the wrist is interesting. The wrist is natural.”

Apple is widely considered to be developing a “smartwatch,” with analysts speculating that it could have a 1.5- to 2-inch display, with technology similar to the iPod Nano, on sale in 2014.

He also acknowledged the company’s stock price, which has fallen 21 percent over the past year. “It’s been frustrating for investors and all of us,” Cook said. “What we have to do is focus on products.”

Tim Cook: 手腕裝置更加自然

May 30, 2013

自從Steve Jobs離世，蘋果增長速度放慢，是不爭的事實。與此同時，作為蘋果的緊密拍檔，鴻海的首季收入亦下跌19﹪，純利下跌2.9﹪。

關於鴻海的對策，WSJ做了一個有趣的報導，結論是鴻海亦跟Google和Amazon等互聯網企業一樣，以不同的角度去進軍內容業務，以下是部分有關內容：

Samsung Electronics Co.’s strong mobile sales haven’t benefited Hon Hai because Apple’s closest rival doesn’t outsource to the Taiwanese company.

Besides Apple, Hon Hai also assembles PCs for Hewlett-Packard Co., PlayStations for Sony Corp. and mobile phones for Nokia Corp.

The company has already made some headway with clients in China. It is assembling large liquid-crystal-display TVs for Chinese Internet-TV operator LeTV.com, smartphones for Huawei Technologies Co., and smartphones and TVs for U.S. TV maker Vizio, said people familiar with the projects. It also plans to manufacture a six-inch smartphone for Chinese TV station Hunan TV, which will come loaded with exclusive TV content.

Hon Hai’s ultimate aim is to be able to supply content for all of the devices it assembles, executives familiar with the company’s strategy said. The company is hiring software engineers for its research and development center in southern Taiwan, who will focus on developing mobile applications, cloud-computing technology for servers and applications for smartwatch devices. Company executives declined to disclose the amount of investments being made in software and content.

蘋果走下坡，鴻海也進軍內容？

May 28, 2013

每年的WWDC，都是果迷朝聖的其中一個大日子。

去年2012，WWDC門票在2小時內售清，2011年是12小時，2010年用了8天的時間。

來到今年2013，竟然在2分鐘內售清！

為什麼？有人大手掃貨嗎？

重要內容

WWDC 門票兩分鐘售清！

April 26, 2013

Bernard Marr

Best-selling business author and enterprise performance expert

Rumour has it that later this year Apple will launch a wrist watch that will not only tell you the time but will allow you to monitor yourself and control other devices. The watch will understand where you are, what you have eaten, how many calories you have burnt, how well you have slept etc.

The reason I believe the iWatch (or the smart watch idea in general) will change the world is because it will allow all of us to collect and analyse data on both a personal and global level. Take health as an example. These intelligent wrist watches will permit monitoring of an individual’s heart rate, calorie intake, activity levels, quality of sleep and more.

重要內容

Bernard Marr：為什麼蘋果 iWatch 將再次改變世界？

April 26, 2013

Amazon would move into closer competition with Apple Inc. (AAPL), which sells its own set-top box called Apple TV. The device would also compete with products from Roku Inc. and Boxee Inc., as well as gaming consoles from Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp. that deliver video programming.

The project is being run by Malachy Moynihan, a former vice president at Cisco Systems Inc. who worked on the networking giant’s various consumer video initiatives. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Moynihan spent nine years at Apple.

“It would certainly make some sense,” said Jason Krikorian, a general partner at venture-capital firm DCM, and the former co-founder of Sling Media, who does not have knowledge of Amazon’s plans. “They have a ton of content, an existing billing relationship with millions of users.”

重要內容

Amazon 計劃推出電視機頂盒

April 25, 2013

Tim Cook

CEO, Apple

“The potential of exciting new product categories, we’ve got a lot more surprises in the works, our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software, and services that we can’t wait to introduce in the fall and into 2014. We continue to be very confident in our future product plans.”

“Really great stuff coming in the fall and across all of 2014.”

重要文章

Tim Cook：今年秋天，會有刺激的新產品種類和更多驚喜

April 24, 2013