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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: January 17th, 2022

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  • I can think of plenty of reasons, e.g. NSA, or any US institution interested in intelligence gathering, paying for it.

    I can though, at the same time, imagine that Apple itself would still NOT want to do it, neither in software or hardware, because once discovered (not when) their economical value would crater.

    The market value of Apple is totally different from alternatives, e.g. Chinese companies, as you mention, but also Microsoft or Google. Yes, they ALL sell vertical integration of software and hardware BUT everybody expects Google or Meta to “steal” your data. Most people expect Chinese companies to do the same. Most people understand that Microsoft do it because it’s profitable so they follow their footstep.

    Everybody who knows this is buying Apple for the prestige AND because they are “different”. Namely you are “hip” by buying from them because they are NOT Google subsidizing hardware for privacy, Xioami or anything Android because it’s the same but “cheap” or Microsoft because it’s what one uses at work.

    So… if tomorrow Apple is not “cool” anymore, that’s actually a very big deal for the bottom line IMHO.

    They might be tempted to do so, regardless of how genuine the “culture” of the corporation is, but even if one were to care solely for money, their image is deeply intertwine now with the notion that at least if you buy some fancy Apple device they’ll work and nothing with leak.

    That’s why economical, not technical, bet on how I have a hard time imagining a hardware backdoor.




  • I wouldn’t build anything significant on the RPi Zero and instead would try to build elsewhere, namely on a more powerful machine with the same architecture, or cross-build as others suggested.

    That being said, what’s interesting IMHO with container image building is that you can rely on layers. So… my advice would be to find the existing image supported by your architecture then rely on it to layer on top of it. This way you only build on the RPi what is truly not available elsewhere.


  • doubt Apple is doing anything beyond the software level.

    Why though? They are designing the most complex part of the computer, the M* chip, so they definitely have the technical and production capability to do whatever they want with the hardware. I’m not saying they do though but they could if they wanted to. That being said however they do it, they would still have to transmit whatever data being captured with interroperable means, i.e over the Internet (being over BT relayed to another device, WiFi, Ethernet, etc) which then in turn could be spotted with any network traffic analysis tool. A single instance of this would bring their entire goodwill and thus probably business to the ground though.

    So… I’m not saying one has any reason to worry but also claiming they don’t do anything beyond software is strange to me.



  • Mine, we’re one in it, me ;)

    Interesting, thanks for sharing the use cases and clarifying your choices.

    I do also have a standing desk with a relatively large screen on a monitor arm. I also have a walking pad under the standing desk. The goal being to ergonomically have as much freedom as possible while still being efficient.

    I did try the XReal months ago but I don’t think I tried the Pro.

    Otherwise I worked with pretty much everything (Google Glass, HoloLens, Vision Pro, Quest (all models), Lynx XR1, Monocle/Frames, my own DIY ones, etc) but my main focus is WebXR and 6DoF, so not really replacing a screen. I do understand it is useful, and sometimes as I travel I use the Quest 3 or Vision Pro to work in there but that’s typically a temporary measure. My professional perspective is that 6DoF with hand tracking and accessories (6DoF pens, BT keyboard, etc) is the most novel way to interact with information hence why I build open-source WebXR prototypes on that topic.