Linked List: January 12, 2015

Monday, 12 January 2015

WhatsApp Passes SMS in Messages Per Day ★

Benedict Evans:

Noted this week: WhatsApp reported that it now has 700m MAUs sending 30bn messages a day. For comparison, the global SMS system sees about 20bn messages a day.

Big numbers to be sure, but a year ago Tim Cook claimed Apple was then handling 40 billion ~~iMessages~~ notifications and “15 to 20 million FaceTime calls” per day (note those B’s and M’s — it’s terribly easy to conflate millions and billions in English). Those numbers must be bigger by now. Here’s hoping that it comes up again on Apple’s next quarterly analyst call.

Update: “40 billion” was the daily number for all push notifications, not iMessage texts. Cook was only as specific as “several billion” for the number of those that are iMessage texts.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron Proposes Banning End-to-End Encryption ★

Andrew Griffin, reporting for The Independent:

David Cameron could block WhatsApp and Snapchat if he wins the next election, as part of his plans for new surveillance powers announced in the wake of the shootings in Paris.

The Prime Minister said today that he would stop the use of methods of communication that cannot be read by the security services even if they have a warrant. But that could include popular chat and social apps that encrypt their data, such as WhatsApp.

Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime also encrypt their data, and could fall under the ban along with other encrypted chat apps like Telegram.

This is a dreadful, oppressive, ignorant idea. There is no magic way to have encryption that only “good guys” can intercept. As for the fear that is driving this, I offer the words of Benjamin Franklin: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

UIKit Engineer Jordan Breeding Dies of Cancer ★

Lots of love and good thoughts for him on Twitter today. My condolences to his family and his many friends. I didn’t know him, but I sure wish I had. So many good people clearly loved him.

Consider a donation to the American Cancer Society in his name. I’m donating now.

Update: I’m collecting today’s tweets here.