Apple Nanny

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Oliver Peters] “Hopefully this never goes past a patent. If they implement this, it will be a good reason to swear off using their products.”

The pictures show a “close” button to these user set reminders. If you don’t want them, delete the reminder. Why would you swear off a product because you don’t want to follow up on your own reminders?

[Mark Suszko]

Seems like a very narrow and voluntary application, if you volunteer to be in one of their health studies, you already want to submit this data anyhow. If you’re not a participant in the health science kit apps, then this is never an issue.

The potential power of phone networks to enhance public safety is a huge draw. Consider an add-on module to phones, subsidized and voluntary, that has a gas detector, sensitive to a few major toxins. What would a city Emergency Services director not give, to be able to have a network of mobile sniffers scanning his or her city and reporting suspicious peak levels down to the city block level?

There are already less intrusive means to do something like this, done by monitoring anonymized chats and texts for keywords and cross-referencing them to geospacial location data. A system like that can give early warning of an epidemic by measuring bursts of chatter about illnesses, coughs, colds, etc.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Mark Suszko] “Seems like a very narrow and voluntary application,”

It seems to be be an add on to the existing Reminders application, but it lets you add a call to action in the form of shortcut to another app or process.

“Remind me to take a picture of grandma when I see her” and the Reminder will have a button to open the camera when you get to grandma’s house instead of just a pop up telling you to take a picture.

[Chris Northcross]

“Hopefully this never goes past a patent. If they implement this, it will be a good reason to swear off using their products.”

Could you elaborate on why it would be a good reason to swear off using their products Oliver?

Whether you believe that you can or you can’t, you’re absolutely right.

[Oliver Peters]

Here’s the actual filing:

https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.html&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=(apple.AS.+AND+20150326.PD.)&OS=an/apple+and+pd/3/26/2015&RS=(AN/apple+AND+PD/20150326)

The abstract explains it in a synopsis (emphasis mine):

“Techniques are disclosed for presenting notifications that can receive input data. The techniques include presenting a notification in response to occurrence of an event, wherein the notification is associated with a specified data type and a data source from which data is to be received, receiving input data of the specified data type from the data source, wherein the notification is presented until the input data is received, and storing the input data. The notification can block access to a user interface of at least one application until the input data is received. The data source can be a data entry component of a user interface that receives user input, or can be an application that provides data of the specified data type, and receiving input data can include requesting data of the specified data type from the application, and receiving the input data from the application via inter-process communication.”

I don’t see anything about voluntary as described in the filing, however, I really don’t think Apple will actually apply it in such a heavy-handed way as the patent description explains. So I’m not really that worried about it. If this is indeed applied in a voluntary or “opt in” method, that’s fine. No problem. Hopefully Apple is actually that smart. I prefer Apple to continue to make great products instead of deciding they should be social engineers.

I think health was merely used as an example for the purpose of filing the patent, however, I’m of the opinion that storing health data on your phone is a pretty ill-conceived and dangerous idea given the attraction this poses for hackers. Using it to lock you out of your device is a terrible idea.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Aindreas Gallagher]

there is something to the notion that inside the apple dojo, perfecting user experiences runs a little into perfecting user behaviour. There is a bit of the maestro problem there.

I never personally madly hankered after a bonkers timeline – but apple made a number of full on decisions about what a timeline should be, and how new editors should operate when preparing and executing an edit. I like the fact that they’ve stuck with it thus far insofar as they aren’t completely obsessed with aluminium force touch and terraced batteries, but in terms of an apple nanny, the X timeline is one of the most nanny-ish primary secondary auto linking thing ever made. It’s partly why a person might involuntarily spit the editing system out every time they go near it.

Apple deciding to intervene in health to better outcomes is kind of hard to argue with, but I do have a weird vision of them seeing users as shrubs to tend in their walled garden. The very rich and the corporate are really probably not like us?

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Oliver Peters]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “Apple deciding to intervene in health to better outcomes is kind of hard to argue with, but I do have a weird vision of them seeing users as shrubs to tend in their walled garden. The very rich and the corporate are really probably not like us?”

Congrats! You found the shift key!

So, sitting all day is bad for editors’ health. What if Apple decided there was a way to only operate FCP X while standing up? 😉

Or, if they really cared about our health (and not just control for its own sake) they would make iPhone data functions inoperable while in a moving vehicle. 😉

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Aindreas Gallagher]

[Oliver Peters] “So, sitting all day is bad for editors’ health. What if Apple decided there was a way to only operate FCP X while standing up? ;-)”

In that instance small electrical shocks delivered through the apple watch would be the best thing. then the magnetometer on the iphone could register you staggering to your feet and the mac, the iphone and the apple watch would all play a trumpet medley simultaneously. days of wonder really.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Oliver Peters]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “In that instance small electrical shocks delivered through the apple watch”

But only if you ponied up for the $17K Gold Edition. Oh wait, if you afford that you’d be a director or an agency producer!

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Oliver Peters] “The notification can block access to a user interface of at least one application until the input data is received. “

I read this as you either have to take the picture, or hit close. I do not understand this as saying you have to take the picture (or enter whatever data) and nothing else. The only thing I see here is a sensational headline on the article.