dominikhoffmann

There are several bugs I have been dealing with, which I hope get fixed every time there is a new release. But then they aren’t. I can’t imagine that a week of concentrating on bug fixes can really be enough.

macgui said:

I really want Apple to make a wallet version, not so much for recovering a stolen wallet but to help me find mine should I misplace or drop it.

There are at least of those, from third parties, which actually work with the Find My ecosystem. They are the Pebblebee Card, the Eufy Security’s SmartTrack Card and the Chipolo Card Spot.

This is why I recommend to my clients more advanced, professional routers, like the ones from Netgate, running pfSense software. Combined with VLANs and separate Wi-Fi access points that allow the configuration of multiple SSIDs, I set up my clients’ main LAN, a guest network and an IoT network. Unfortunately, I am not sure, whether having full access from the main LAN to the IoT subnet and none in the reverse direction is sufficient firewalling. I would like to see Apple provide concrete guidance.

Isolating IoT from the rest of your home network is a best practice and should be standard in this day and age. Apple, let’s be open about it, so that any router manufacturer can implement these best practices without requiring certification.

I prefer Waze for my day-to-day navigation, including for routine trips. The reason is that I know that the maps are up-to-date and the traffic and road-closure data is accurate. What allows Waze to accomplish that is that it obtains data from all Android users, not just those that use Waze, and community-edited maps. Apple has the first component of that from all of its iPhone users. What would help is allowing community members to edit and correct map details.

To give you a couple of examples:

1. I am not a Waze map editor myself. It’s a bit complicated—which keeps vandals away, too, I guess. A nearby road has a 30-day closure, because of roadway realignment, starting in two days. I reported this in the Waze map. An editor has already implemented this change and scheduled it, and two days from now, I can expect Waze to send me on a detour (not necessarily the officially suggested one). After 30 days this road closure will automatically disappear, unless someone reports that the construction project finished early, or—let’s hope not—took longer.
2. A while back, Waze advised me to make a left turn across a median that was not interrupted at that point. I reported that, and a community editor implemented that change. Community editors are eager to help make even minor edits like that, which improve overall map accuracy.

With Apple’s loyal following, I would think that an army of willing editors could easily be found who conscientiously would make edits. This could propel Apple Maps ahead and would likely help especially in markets outside of the U.S., on which Apple places a lower priority (case in point: today’s news that Apple Pay is rolling out in Morocco, nine years after its inception).

Coordinates:

33.793948° N, 112.499651° W

I am a conservative and a enthusiastic Trump supporter. However, weakening encryption is such a bad idea. I am also a pro-lifer who has been an activist with over the past differing levels of involvement. I shudder to think of a time, when today’s Antifa comes to power and then exploits weakened encryption to “enforce the law” against someone like me who engages in legitimate activities, civil disobedience or similar.

Do not think that the Obama administration would not have wanted to have that kind of power, too. It was that administration that approved applications for 501(c)4 status of political organizations on a purely partisan basis (remember Lois Lerner?). Do you have any doubts that they would not have taken the next step, if weak encryption had enabled it and their political opponents had seen it fit to use it? What about a future administration that might see itself following in the ideological footsteps of the Obama administration?

Just like the Second Amendment, strong encryption protects the citizen or associations of citizens from a despotic government. Although we don’t have the right to privacy enshrined in the constitution, it seems to me that it is a natural right, or as the Declaration of Independence puts it, an inalienable right. None of our founding documents purport to provide a complete enumeration of such natural rights. As a matter of fact, the Tenth Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Likewise, I am certain that it would have been the understanding of the Founding Fathers that there are unenumerated rights. Otherwise there would have never been a constitution without the Bill of Rights, which was passed and ratified two years later.

I am one of those touch typists. It was usually quite a slowdown to look down on my keyboard and to try to figure out what UI elements were presented. I thought it was very beautiful but useless. Haven’t missed it at all since upgrading my 2017 MacBook Pro with a 2021 MacBook Pro.

Let’s not forget that Signal’s security has had doubt cast on it, too:

Android users were unable to securely communicate with iMessage users and were relegated to using decades-old, unencrypted SMS technology.

So not true. Those senators and members of Congress and their staffers would surely know that Android and iOS users can safely communicate with one another using Signal or even WhatsApp. 

rob53 said:

If the chip doesn't include all operational capabilities then it should be considered defective and either disposed of or sold for no more than half its fully functional cost. If someone tells me a fully functional A18 SoC only costs $100 why does the rest of the iPhone cost so much? Dropping the cost of the binned SoC in half to $50 is chump change. Apple needs to justify its cost based on materials especially since the iPhone is no longer a unique device. Most of the iPhone is either the same as the previous version, very close, or was easy (not expensive) to upgrade. Someone is reaping the benefits of every new Apple device.

That’s not how product pricing works. The price of a product is based on what the market will bear. That’s in light of the cost of a viable competitor product, information about the distribution in the population of various levels of disposable income, etc. If that determination allows for a sufficiently high profit margin, the price is set that way. If the components’ piece prices come down in the course of the product life cycle, the savings will be passed on to the consumer only, if the product’s seller finds that it will help the overall bottom line.