I'm really surprised that they tried it in the first place. I'm sure governments want it (China would love to see your Winnie the Pooh meme stash), but Apple is pretty good at fighting the US government and should have felt 100% free to say "in the absence of a law that compels us to write software, which is unconstitutional btw, we're not doing it". They have done it many times, so it felt really out of character. There must have been some contract / favor they were going after, and the opportunity must have expired. (I'm sure some large department of the federal government has some shiny new Android phones today.)
It would be interesting to figure out the real story.
My favorite part of the whole saga is that leaked letter that said "the screeching voice of the minority" will kill the project. We did indeed, and I'm happy to screech again the next time the government wants a tool they can use to scan my phone without a search warrant.
It would be interesting to figure out the real story.
My favorite part of the whole saga is that leaked letter that said "the screeching voice of the minority" will kill the project. We did indeed, and I'm happy to screech again the next time the government wants a tool they can use to scan my phone without a search warrant.