heinzel

elijahg said:

Actually... Most wear to lithium batteries is in the topping charge (80%+). Preventing the battery exceeding 80% does genuinely increase battery lifetime quite significantly. If a user doesn't discharge their battery to <20% by the end of the day, there is no point in charging it to 100% and causing more wear. Better to use the lower 0-80% than the upper 20-100%. This is why Apple limits the charge to 80% as much as possible at night, which is a relatively small proportion of time, but the battery improvement is enough that they deem it worth it.

I hope this comes to older iPhones too.

Yep, keeping the battery from fully charging increases both service life and overall energy delivered (from https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries). This data is from charging at constant 20°C temperature; the increased battery temperature when charging phones likely further exacerbates capacity loss, especially when rapid charging with high current.

mfryd said:

There are both advantages and disadvantages to parts pairing.

"Security" also includes physical security.  Locking a phone to a particular Apple ID, and parts pairing both reduce the value of a stolen iPhone.

If an iPhone is locked to a particular Apple ID, it has less value as it can't be used by anyone else.  That means the value in a stolen iPhone is in "parting" it out.  However, if the parts are locked to a particular serial number, they have less value as it can't be used to repair a different phone.

If Apple can reduce the value of a stolen iPhone, then I am safer, as it is less likely that I will get hurt by someone trying to steal my iPhone.

The real question is whether the good done by parts pairing outweighs the bad done by parts pairing.   

One solution is software.   Right now, Apple only allows the pairing of a replacement part if it was purchased from Apple.  They could change this policy.  Instead they could allow pairing of any part, unless that part was already associated with an iPhone that was locked to an Apple ID (or reported as stolen).  That would keep the advantage that the parts to a stolen phone have little value.  Yet it would allow the owner of a broken phone to sell the parts for others to use.   It also allows Apple to continue to restrict replacement parts to genuine Apple parts.

While it seems that a third part screen would not be a security risk, we used to think the same thing about third part USB or FireWire devices.  However clever people have figured out how to hack into computers using these sorts of devices.

I think this is a terrific idea, basically putting software infrastructure in place to allow the user to choose whether to use an Apple-keyed part or a third-party part. It would be part of the registration process for new phones. It also would have to allow phones to be marked for sale or use (if already owned by the person using the parts from a device to repair another device), to keep the parts’ validation chain intact. Finally, devices could drop out of the system when they are no longer supported, and then their parts could be used to repair other devices or be repaired by previously registered parts from other devices without restrictions.

The only drawback that I can see (other than it being a costly process to implement, based on how many software and hardware engineers would need to work on this) is that from the outside this at first seems way more restrictive than what people think is the current status quo, and that it’s difficult to broadcast the details of why to implement a complicated system like this to the public/lawmakers. But then, such was setting up the App Store, and ultimately most people agree that it’s a good idea to track software provenance instead of just installing whatever.

markbriton said:

I’m just jumping in to show some love for the Touch Bar! I totally understand why it’s not for everyone, but I was really pleased to see it survive. I’m someone who hardly ever used function keys in the first place, so the Touch Bar is a nice little feature for me that I use occasionally, certainly more than I ever used that row of keys before. I wish developers would show it a bit more love, but now that it seems banished to the 13” MBP only, I fear it’s days are numbered. Personally I think it should be an option on all the MBPs, I’d happily pay a little extra for it, but it sounds like I might be the only one!

I agree. The Touch Bar may not have many uses but it has saved me countless hours by allowing me to scroll through pre-content video ads. That alone has made it extremely useful.

Holy moly, that's five times what Intel plans to spend in on manufacturing! It won't be easy for Intel to compete with that type of manufacturing capacity to draw in business. Plus, I wonder how much capacity they can even sell to others if they'll need to use some of their new fab capacity to manufacture their own chips, which still drive the majority of computers on the market.

Worth noticing that superior hardware (yet without app support) is available for much less, e.g. currently $1600 for a 1 kWh battery, 750 W motor, 9-speed shifter: https://www.juicedbikes.com/products/crosscurrentx?variant=39461568577600 (disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the manufacturer, but I have owned one of these for the past 5 years, it's been awesome for commuting).