Apple Opposes Court Order for Backdoor to iPhone; Superman Memory Crystal for Long Term Digital Storage

Apple CEO Tim Cook has posted a letter to customers online, stating Apple’s opposition to creating backdoor software to iPhones. The demand for the back door was issued by a federal magistrate yesterday, to get the FBI access to the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5c. Cook points out that such software doesn’t exist, and were Apple to create it, it would act as a master key, making every iPhone owner’s private info available…not only to law enforcement and governments, but to hackers and thieves. It’s important to note that iPhones with Touch ID have the Secure Enclave…a separate, walled off processor, and even Apple can’t create a way around its protections at this point. We’ll be watching…as will Apple customers, other manufacturers, governments and no doubt thieves around the world…to see how this unfolds.

Scientists at the University of Southhampton have demoed new tech nicknamed the Superman memory crystal at a conference in San Francisco. Mashable.com says it uses lasers and nanostructures to record enormous amounts of data onto tiny glass discs. Back in 2013, they were able to load 300 KB of text on a disc. With advancements, they can now store 360 TB on a disc. The most amazing thing is the lifespan…they estimate data on the discs will survive 13.8 billion years at room temperature! The next step is designing a way to write the data without very expensive lasers. It does take a polarizer and optical microscope to read it, too.