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Throbbing Hive with John Moe: Apple vs. FBI and 'Damn Daniel'

  Play Now [6:23]

by John Moe

February 23, 2016

apple daniel
Apple CEO Tim Cook and "Daniel"
Richard Drew/AP via NPR, @josholzz

Every Tuesday at 7:30 a.m., John Moe stops into the Morning Show to share the latest news in technology.

This week, John Moe stopped by The Current's Morning Show to talk to Jade and Sean McPherson about what's actually going on with Apple and the FBI, and "Damn, Daniel" which has 230,000 retweets on Twitter.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook is criticizing the FBI's court order to access the mobile phone of San Bernardino killer Syed Farook, saying this level of access is unprecedented. The FBI says Apple's unwillingness to provide the information is hindering the investigation. See the breakdown of what is being asked for and why Apple is refusing to comply from the BBC.

"What it involves is basically turning off the function on a smart phone where if you put in the wrong access code too many times it freezes up or delays the unlocking of it or ultimately can erase the phone to stop someone else from getting it," John says. "It's really coming down to the attempts at getting in there."

The FBI wants to try all the numbers without getting locked out. John says the arguments are interesting from both the Apple and FBI sides, because they are essentially the same - "this is the safer thing to do". It's a conversation about privacy and precedent, and John says it's far from over.

Elsewhere in the Hive lies "Damn Daniel", a video compilation featuring different outfits of a kid named Daniel filmed by his friend Josh, always set to the same soundtrack of "Damn, Daniel!". Why is it funny? Perhaps it's the smile on Daniel's face, clearly bashful about the videos but proud to be "at it again with his white Vans".

John Moe co-hosts the podcast Conversation Parade (with Open Mike Eagle) on the Infinite Guest network, and is an author of a number of books, including The Deleted Emails of Hilary Clinton: A Parody and Dear Luke, We Need To Talk, Darth: And Other Pop Culture Correspondences.