Both Apple and Amazon Are Quietly Building Networks That Know the Location of Everything (wired.co.uk) 32
Wired reports on both Sidewalk, Amazon's new low-bandwidth long-range wireless networking protocol, and Apple's new position- and distance-measuring U1 chip (mentioned in a recent keynote).
Apple's U1 chip -- which allows precise, indoor positional tracking via the latest iPhones and will power, at the very least, directional AirDrop file-sharing -- popped up on screen but was never even mentioned. The interest-piquing phrase "GPS at the scale of your living room" was saved for the online iPhone product pages rather than the bombast of the Steve Jobs Theater... Both Amazon and Apple have the hardware scale to build up the base of access points needed to create a useful network before reaching out to, most likely, iOS developers in Apple's case, and hardware makers already on board with Alexa in Amazon's case. For Amazon, in fact, that work has already begun as Sidewalk originally came out of the Ring team's ambition to extend its connected security devices out into gardens. "Ring lighting was the first time we ran into it as a company, because we wanted to extend out onto the sidewalk," says Daniel Rausch, VP of smart home at Amazon (which owns Ring).
The smart outoor Ring lights are already out. Products like the Smart Floodlight and Pathlight list a "wireless connection to the Ring Bridge" in the tech specs but eagle-eyed Ring owners had already started to figure out what band Amazon was playing with for this connection, before the Sidewalk announcement. "They've been using an internal version of the protocol on the freely available and unlicensed 900MHz part of the spectrum already," explains Rausch. "What we realised was 'woah, we can actually do something special'. We can make a version of this protocol which is secure and have this unbelievably ubiquitous coverage if we bring it all together, neighbours and neighbours and neighbours...." An innocent smart dog tracker like Ring Fetch fits perfectly into this model of Amazon-networked communities sharing video, alerts and location tracking.
The smart outoor Ring lights are already out. Products like the Smart Floodlight and Pathlight list a "wireless connection to the Ring Bridge" in the tech specs but eagle-eyed Ring owners had already started to figure out what band Amazon was playing with for this connection, before the Sidewalk announcement. "They've been using an internal version of the protocol on the freely available and unlicensed 900MHz part of the spectrum already," explains Rausch. "What we realised was 'woah, we can actually do something special'. We can make a version of this protocol which is secure and have this unbelievably ubiquitous coverage if we bring it all together, neighbours and neighbours and neighbours...." An innocent smart dog tracker like Ring Fetch fits perfectly into this model of Amazon-networked communities sharing video, alerts and location tracking.
So, (Score:3, Insightful)
Who's selling a product to protect me from being stalked everywhere I go?
Ubiquitous coverage shouldn't be a goal. 1984 was not a manual.
Re: (Score:2)
"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"
Customer inquiry (Score:2)
So, will I still be able to get the U1 chip optionally installed in my right hand or forehead? For, you know, the typical Apple fashion cachet?
Theist or atheist, you have to find the implementation of "track everything, all the time" technology by a company named "Apple" to have a certain anachronistic irony.
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If anyone wants to find you by locating the phone In your pocket, this new tech offers no advantage over the Find My Phone tracking that has existed for years. It’s Bluetooth. Big Brother would have to be within thirty feet of you for this to be advantageous in finding you.
What Apple seems to be headed for with this is you being able to use your phone to zero in on small objects you have applied special-purpose stickers to, like your keys or your TV remote. A third-party system called Tiles exists for
Don't buy an iPhone or a Amazon device then (Score:1)
Another reason to never buy an iThing then. I suspect the wannabe one percenters will carry on though. They already pay the, ever rising, "gullibility tax" so we can see how smart they are!
Amazon already have ny home address. I don't think they sell many phones and this may help keep it that way.
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Another reason to never buy an iThing then. I suspect the wannabe one percenters will carry on though. They already pay the, ever rising, "gullibility tax" so we can see how smart they are!
Amazon already have ny home address. I don't think they sell many phones and this may help keep it that way.
Did you get that talking point from your Amazon Kindle or your Google Android phone? If it's the latter it would behoove you to remember that Google already has networks that know the location of everything, Amazon and Apple merely aspire to catch up with Google. You pay the "gullibility tax" every time you run a Google search, use G-mail, watch a YouTube clip or load a web page containing Google ads and marvel at how generous Google is to provide all this stuff for free.
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Did you get that talking point from your Amazon Kindle or your Google Android phone?
No
What could go wrong? (Score:1)
Building (Mesh) Networks (Score:1)
With the speak of internet providers becoming more cable-like (and cable-operators controlling the internet, zero-rating their own services and about to start charging extra for anything extra), perhaps these businesses are preparing mesh-networks across the cities.
Add the newer security (HTTP2 / HTTPS everywhere, DNS over HTTPS), and there's some security if one device is cracked and made malicious.
All they really need to do is put access point functionality into the ring doorbells and hook up to the alrea
I don’t like either companies’ approac (Score:5, Insightful)
But there are significant differences, and I worry more about Amazon’s approach of selling fear.
I was listening to “This Week in Tech” recently, and Leo Laporte was extolling the awesomeness of Ring potentially providing an ID of everyone who comes to his door. He seems to be oblivious to the obvious issues related to data sharing and what is almost certainly going to be part of this - shared shadow profiles.
Let’s say I’m one of Leo’s friends (I’m not, but anyway...). First time I come to his door, Ring catalogs a photo of my face. Leo attaches my name to it so that, in the future, Ring can tell him “Hey, 93 Escort Wagon is here” - probably without my knowledge or consent, but we’ll ignore that because I’m his friend and I’m at his house. But Ring is almost certainly intending to store that identification on its servers and then almost certainly going to make that ID available to other Ring owners (as well as the police and probably other agencies). I don’t like that sort of tracking on principle... but that could go from being a philosophical issue to a potential safety issue for some people.
Why Do You Think They Built Ring At All? (Score:3)
No Thank You. (Score:3)
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"Has anyone run a global IQ test recently? "
Last I saw, the average score is still 100.
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That is because IQ tests are constantly corrected for the average population. A better idea is to compare tests or exams about the same subject from now and twenty years ago.
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woosh
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Aaargh I missed it! Drat. Thanks for the whoosh :).
Here's a novel use for ultra-accurate tracking... (Score:2)
Re: Here's a novel use for ultra-accurate tracking (Score:1)
Re: Here's a novel use for ultra-accurate tracking (Score:2)
Self driving cars is the big one. I have long said you need two layers of safety for you them, One Road Dual Observers (ORDO). Layer 1 is the situational awareness from your cars self driving system, layer two comes from cm accurate positional awareness, via transponder which knows precise dimension of car, and feeds into road network which also has cameras. Both your car (controlled by industry) and this network ( controlled by government/DOT, ideally union workers with Republican oversight) have the power
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What is Republican oversight?
Apple's approach is relative location (Score:4, Insightful)
I think t's unfair to call what Apple is doing "knowing your location", when knowing you are exactly 84 CM from a phone is a fact outside of absolute location.
Similarly with Bluetooth beacons, you can know with great accuracy when you are in range of a specific beacon but that too is relative unless someone has gone to the trouble of mapping its location.
The U1 stuff will be really nice to be able to more accurately share information in a crowded space with a lot of phones, both people could easily have location tracking disabled and it will still work just fine.
Start buying (Score:1)
That don't phone an ad company all day, everyday.
Stop buying from ad brands.
Goo (Score:2)
Not Google though, no siree!
Useful outside of smartphones (Score:2)
Amazon-networked communities (Score:2)
Oh, you mean "The Borg"
Another part of Amazon's grand plan to take over the world. Join one of these any you will have 'sold your soul to the company store'.
Sorry, I'll pass on that.
Ignorance is bliss (Score:3)
The location of 'Everything'? (Score:1)