What bothered me most was that the article reported: "Apple's AirPort series of routers is immune to this particular attack,
however, updates may not be available for that much longer."
OK, I get it. Apple has to drop products that are no longer viable for some reason (and there may be dozens of reasons). But dropping support is an entirely different matter: There are many thousands of these routers out there being used. Just because Apple is longer selling new ones does not mean that the existing ones do not require support.
Sorry, not everything is disposable.
Take any Apple product that does not end in -phone or -pad and, if you have to worry about that product losing support next week makes that product a disposable one. That's ok for $9.95 stuff but not for $99.95 and up....
I'm not sure Apple's silence on a rumor is "telling" as you suggest. Apple is historically and notoriously tight-lipped. Their silence on this rumor is no difference than silence on a thousand other rumors over the years. That silence in and of itself is not telling of anything.
Apple as a corporation's silence isn't the telling part. The void from our regular sources to either say "nope, bogus" or "yeah, dead on" is the telling silence part that I was referring to.
I'm confident enough in what we've got to say that there is no stand-alone Airport Base Station division at Apple any more. What that portends for the future of wireless base stations at Apple is not quite clear.
I would say that if the regular sources can't say either "nope" or "yeah" would indicate that the jury would still be out on the fate of the product line or division and the plans are being kept at a higher strategic level.
For example, perhaps the division has simply has been moved to the new Chinese research center.
"The centre will open later this year, bringing together our engineering and operations teams in China as we develop advanced technologies and services for our products, both for our customers in China and around the world," Apple said in a statement.
I wouldn't want to relocate to China so current engineers that also wouldn't want to relocate being reassigned to other projects internally would make sense and is not an indicator that the division itself is gone. Routers are not mission critical for Apple so that's one of the product lines I would think would be logical to move engineering and ops to China.
Unlike Microsoft that moved mobile development to India and completely missed the smartphone boat...
Therefore, it comes as little surprise that sources, for whom AppleInsider holds the utmost respect, are now pointing towards the mini's impending demise. For it's according to those people that the miniature Mac will soon follow in the wake of its similarly-proportioned counterparts of years past: the PowerBook 2400, the PowerMac G4 Cube, and, most recently, the 12-inch PowerBook. Whether Apple will squeeze another revision from the mini, and how long it plans to allow existing models to linger, are both unclear. But as the extended Memorial Day break dawns upon us, the point being driven should be clear:
Ladies and gentlemen, AppleInsider believes in all sincerity that the Mac mini is dead.
One would have thought that AI writers would have learned not to be defensive about folks doubting that their inside sources and proclamations of the imminent demise of an Apple product would face skepticism given that nearly 10 years later another product AI claimed was dead, while currently somewhat neglected, is still being sold.
A little humility would go a long way in reducing the amount of crow that must be consumed if it turns out your sources are wrong.
You're using a cherry-picked 2007 article as an example of AI being wrong? I think there's exactly one staffer here now, who was here then. That said, we're wrong sometimes, and regardless of you saying it adds more fuel to the fire, I stand by my work, and will continue to do so.
While this is a different issue, and I'm not addressing it to you specifically, nht, if you want more coverage on things, including follow-up on things we researched four months ago, and 500 articles ago per staffer, then don't use an ad-blocker.
And, back on focus and topic, we're all arguing about background text in an article that covers severe security problems with a different company's entire router line, that has probably sold more in a year, than Apple's Airport has in 5.
If I have to eat crow about this publicly, I will happily do so, for personal reasons I've already spelled out. I will also continue to remain relatively silent about the 90-95% of stuff we get utterly right from our inside sources, and the vast array of stuff we pass on because it smells bad.
If you wish to continue this discussion in PM, I will be happy to do so.
I'm closing this thread. We appreciate and welcome feedback, but it has dominated the thread in an unfortunate way. I think we have said all we're going to say on the matter. I left most posts intact because I think Mike has provided some valuable insight into our process.
That said, I'm not going to just let people heckle our editorial staff. If you want to continue the discussion, please do not hesitate to send either me or Mike a PM.
Comments
"Apple's AirPort series of routers is immune to this particular attack, however, updates may not be available for that much longer."
OK, I get it. Apple has to drop products that are no longer viable for some reason (and there may be dozens of reasons). But dropping support is an entirely different matter: There are many thousands of these routers out there being used. Just because Apple is longer selling new ones does not mean that the existing ones do not require support.
Sorry, not everything is disposable.
Take any Apple product that does not end in -phone or -pad and, if you have to worry about that product losing support next week makes that product a disposable one. That's ok for $9.95 stuff but not for $99.95 and up....
For example, perhaps the division has simply has been moved to the new Chinese research center.
"The centre will open later this year, bringing together our engineering and operations teams in China as we develop advanced technologies and services for our products, both for our customers in China and around the world," Apple said in a statement.
I wouldn't want to relocate to China so current engineers that also wouldn't want to relocate being reassigned to other projects internally would make sense and is not an indicator that the division itself is gone. Routers are not mission critical for Apple so that's one of the product lines I would think would be logical to move engineering and ops to China.
Unlike Microsoft that moved mobile development to India and completely missed the smartphone boat...
That said, I'm not going to just let people heckle our editorial staff. If you want to continue the discussion, please do not hesitate to send either me or Mike a PM.