Weekly New/Digital Media homework Week 23

WEEK 23

1. Apple’s FBI battle is just the beginning of a reality check for the tech sector

• The development matters because the change made to the account – a reset of Farook’s iCloud password – made it impossible to see if there was another way to get access to data on the shooter’s iPhone without taking Apple to court.
• The San Bernardino County government on Friday night said the FBI told its staffto tamper with the Apple account of Syed Farook, who with his wife, Tashfeen Malik, carried out the December shooting in which 14 people were killed.
•  Apple’s row with the FBI over access to a locked iPhone that belonged to the employer of one of the San Bernardino killers is just the latest example of technology businesses discovering that nothing they now do is without consequences
• Apple has been excoriated by presidential candidates, and backed into the tightest of corners by the FBI: the moral case for refusing to hack into a terrorist’s phone is hard to make – particularly in the US over an Isis-inspired attack during an election year.
• Late on 20 February the FBI said that it “worked with” county officials to reset the iCloud password, as discovery of the locked phone was “a logical next step was to obtain access to iCloud backups for the phone in order to obtain evidence related to the investigation in the days following the attack,” according to the statement from an FBI spokesman.

2. Facebook sets up 'social VR' team to explore virtual reality beyond games

• Mark Zuckerberg surprises Samsung Mobile World Congress event to reveal that ‘people have already watched more than a million hours of video in Gear VR’
• Facebook has created a “social VR” team to explore virtual-reality technology’s potential beyond games, as it prepares for the consumer launch of its Oculus Rift VR headset.
• “People have already watched more than a million hours of video in Gear VR,”explained a blog post from Facebook following the event. “Already, millions of people watch 360 videos on Facebook every day. More than 20,000 have been uploaded, with hundreds more added daily.”
• Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed the plans in a surprise appearance at Samsung’s Mobile World Congress press conference, while talking up the popularity of 360-degree videos on Facebook, and on Samsung’s Gear VR headset – which uses technology from Oculus.