paulry

According to this lot, we in Britain's last penal colony should give ourselves a big pat on the back!

paulry

Yep. It's only a piece of the puzzle needed to manage the CCP virus.

paulry

But maybe he's a long lost relative?

old.sparkles

My understanding is that the app does not work on apple phones.

For the app to work, it needs to poll on bluetooth, and to do this on an iphone, the phone needs to be unlocked with the app running.

Pollyana

Thats my understanding too

Beoz

You still run an iPhone? That's old school.

Beoz

Like the Nigerian Price nephew of mine who keeps sending the messages about the fortune I am about to inherit?

paulry

This is Australia, its iPhone central here.

The app works with iOS 10

old.sparkles

My grandson has an ipad and we use facetime still at the moment

old.sparkles

Are you sure - apple says bluetooth wont poll if phone is locked?

Pollyana

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-...ional/12208924

More than 4 million people have downloaded the COVIDSafe app, but the information it collects is not yet available to state and territory health officials.The ABC has confirmed that if a person tests positive to coronavirus today, the information on their app will not be passed on to contact tracers, because states and territories are still working out how the system will operate.

"The rules on privacy are being finalised, along with final IT testing," a Department of Health spokesman said.

Diabetes Australia has received reports from a number of people who said they experienced connection problems with their continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) apps after downloading COVIDSafe.

A spokesman for Health Minister Greg Hunt said the matter was being examined by the Department of Health and the Digital Transformation Agency.

Diabetes Australia has recommended people temporarily uninstall COVIDSafe if they are concerned.

paulry

This. Also ensure the app is running on your phone:

Beoz

Both Apple and Google are making some changes to make sure these types of apps are running at their optimal levels. Other countries are coming on board too.

old.sparkles

Yes you can install the app, and it will run on an iphone, but bluetooth only works if the phone is unlocked.

My son has an ipad and if both are unlocked then you can detect the other device, otherwise nothing shows up.

So the only way COVIDSafe will work is if you are walking around using your phone. And then you still have the return 15 results from same device in 15 mins at 1.5m or less, and one or other tests positive for COVID 19 and releases the results.

Given that I go almost nowhere, and if I do then I don't walk around with my phone unlocked, I see no point in the app. Given the limitations, it seems rushed. Given the low numbers in most states, it seems unnecessary. But that's just me

GarryP

The additions that google and apple are adding are for their own, privacy protecting, approach. It won't change the aussie government's app, or how it will not be running.

Yeah, particularly the way apple works there's not really multitasking and background tasks. Even google clamped down because those background tasks were eating battery life. Upshot is one of the reasons those in the know were saying not to touch this app - if its not in at the OS level, its not going to be any use because its a total pain in the arse to get the info (I'd looked into this before for another purpose).

It's also why I said that using location history was a much better bet - it's already built in and working, even if most people don't realise the reality. Exporting the time and locations from that and allowing apps on the personal phone to correlate with the location history of the individual would be more useful and immediately practical.

Still, it's all pretty academic now, providing the governments don't stuff up. You are more likely to find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow as find someone with the disease, that you have been 1.5m of, for 15mins.