Google, the company with the shortest attention span in tech, has once again tired of tablets. According to Business Insider:
“For Google’s first-party hardware efforts, we’ll be focusing on Chrome OS laptops and will continue to support Pixel Slate.”
Translation: The Slate is a dead device walking.
I have no reason to trust Sundar Pichai when talking about Google’s sudden love of all things privacy, as detailed during this year’s Google I/O and a subsequent self-serving op-ed in the New York Times. Google may be better than Facebook by a wide margin, but using customer data will always be key to their business model. As such, they can never be as focused on user data privacy as Apple currently is.
Photo Source: New York Times
So Google has seen the light on privacy, or so they tell us. Sundar Pichai spent a LOT of very valuable stage time during the Google I/O Keynote trying to shift the narrative that they are only interested in Hoovering up as much user data as possible and convince us that they have turned over a new leaf. Was he successful?
In case you haven’t seen the news today, users started noticing that Netflix no longer offers AirPlay compatibility for Apple devices, such as the Apple TV. Later, the company confirmed that they removed this feature that has been a part of their app for the last five years because of a “technical limitation.” However, they were not forthcoming as to what that limitation was.
Photo Source: Apple via YouTube
A couple of days ago, Apple released a new Ad entitled Privacy on iPhone- Private Side, which takes a lighthearted approach to bragging about the company’s current all-in approach to user data privacy.
Apple doesn’t always respond immediately to situations where they are attacked or criticized. They don’t usually make pointed public responses, either. However, Tim Cook and company have made an exception in the case of Spotify, releasing a detailed and aggressively worded press release that not only answers each of their competitor’s complaints, but also takes shots for them for some of their own recent activities.
I like the fact that Apple has taken a pro-privacy stance in recent years. Considering how the rest of the big tech giants treat users and their data, it is a positive to have some type of check against that power. However, I don’t have any illusions about what Apple is doing. It is very simple. They don’t need to monetize our data, while their primary competitors do, so their stance on privacy has nothing to do with any altruism on their part. It is a position of convenience. A bat they can swing at the high, hanging privacy fastball that companies like Facebook and Google hang right over the plate for them.
DuckDuckGo has staked its reputation on being the privacy-centric search engine, putting it at the opposite end of the spectrum from Google and their appetite for all of your data. Up until recently, DDG had used a conglomeration of services, including OpenStreetMaps, for mapping and location information related to search queries. Now they have made the move to Apple Maps.
I make no bones about the fact that I’m an Apple fan, and have been for years. I don’t claim to be objective when talking about them, or about tech in general. However, I know enough to take a step back from time to time. There is a difference between being a fan of a company and their products, and being a shill.
Sure, I can stray too far over that line at times, as many tech bloggers do. It is easy to be a fanboy, at times. However, I understand one very important fact that keeps pulling me back where I need to be: There is nothing to be gained from blind love and devotion to Apple, because they don’t love me back.
The demise of the Apple’s AirPort WiFi Router has been like watching something fade away in slow motion. The AirPort line hasn’t been updated since 2013, which is an eternity in the tech world and Apple actually disbanded the team that worked on these products back in 2016. Based on those facts alone, I’m kind of surprised that Apple let the line linger this long.
While this a bit off the beaten path here at iPad Insight, a discussion about Google is still fitting anywhere technology is covered. Never mind the fact that Apple and Google are head-to-head rivals in many areas, but there are still many iOS users who take advantage of multiple Google services on their devices. Despite pulling back in some areas over time, I still use a few myself.