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I thought it was us Brits who were supposed to see the black cloud around every silver lining!

There is a world-wide malware threat to WiFi routers so the FBI puts out a warning and some easily understood, easily actioned advice to US citizens. Isn't that their job? Isn't that a good thing?

If you follow the Symantec link in the article, you'll find that the FBI's advice is effective; not 100% effective but nonetheless helpful. Part of the issue here is that people never changed their routers' passwords, with that audience the FBI needed to keep it simple. The bigger fix involves firmware updates and basic security hygiene and the FBI notice goes on to describe this; it may be simple to the audience here but not so much to the world at large.

Hopefully they'll go on to fix some more bugs now! When I went to install the update, I noticed that all the info across the top of the home screen (eg time, battery, network etc) had disappeared (and not for the first time). The cameras also struggle in difficult lighting situations that my iPhone Xs took in its stride. Disappointing.

iPhone 15 Pro 256GB

retrogusto said:

A few years ago I wrote to Apple to ask for something similar for laptops. I mostly buy laptops, but 99% of the time I use them at home plugged in, and on occasion I use them elsewhere, but almost never far from an outlet. So I basically always use them plugged in, and like to just leave them plugged in rather than unplugging them every time I turn them off, ... Maybe someday…

This, at least, you can have. As I sit here with my MBP, it's plugged in and its battery is charged to 80% and the battery menu says "Charging on hold (rarely used on battery)" because I have been travelling only with my iPad lately. Perhaps someone did listen.

On Ventura (at least) look for it in System Settings > Battery > Battery Health and the 'I' in a circle.

When comparing audio systems, it is essential to equalise the sound levels of the systems. At all reasonable levels, a louder playback will gain a quality advantage; this is down to the extra detail revealed by boosting the volume of the quieter parts. This is a common problem when trying to compare sound quality, be it of different systems or different versions (eg remastered CD vs original CD - it may not be a coincidence that remasters are usually louder than their predecessors).

While they were playing at a lower level, the HomePods were disadvantaged (I think the story acknowledges that but it's a bit subtle in saying so).

Well this is a turn up for the books! I had given up hope.

I am one of the hold-outs still using the 'old' Pages. There are two big reasons for that and one is the ability to link text boxes so that text flows between them...and it's just been reinstated and, at a quick look, it seems like it works. Well done Apple.

The other reason I'm a hold-out has not, sadly, been addressed. Pages 6.2 continues not to be able to cope with double-page spreads for which, IMHO, two related features are essential. The first is the need for reflected margins on alternate pages, so the binding edge of the page can have a wider margin than the edge you actually turn. The second is the need for a double page (facing page) view, so the designer can understand the two page combination that the reader will see when the 'book' is open. These are arguably only needed for documents that will end up as hard-copy but that remains quite important in many workflows.

Still, I am encouraged by the text box linking and the new shapes are useful too so it remains great news.

I must be missing something:
One is an apple, one is a pear
One has a stalk, one doesn't,
One has a bite out of it, the other doesn't
One has a leaf above it, the other has a leaf beside it

We have a saying in the UK that you can't compare apples and pears (or indeed oranges)...

I found the TouchBar almost useless and don't mourn its demise. Please don't try to give me a full touch-screen display on my MacBook: I'm not yet past all the things that Apple used to say about having to stretch over the keyboard to get to the display and am much happier with 1/2 hands on the keyboard (with 1 sometimes on trackpad or mouse).

And I hate finger marks on my display!

dewme said:
Today, a lot of software development organizations follow a continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD or simply CD) model which, in theory, means that every build or every daily build is in a releasable state. In other words, if they had to ship the daily build, it would be good to go and fully tested. That's the goal, but I'm not sure Apple or very many software development organizations hit that goal perfectly. Getting closer to the goal still represents a significant improvement.

It can also have the opposite effect if new requirements/features continue to be drip-fed into the proposed release. That means there is a continuous supply of new, hence immature and buggy, components.

Could we please stop these irrelevant rambling political pieces from this author. 

There seems to be a technology story in there somewhere, between technology companies and the mayor of London, but dragging in a random selection of 'UK is doomed' political stories is not useful and does not belong here.


And the "ballet box" - are we dragging in the arts too? /s

Luis.A.Masanti said:

quote: “But, it still has support pages on AirPort routers too, and those are as dead as a doornail.”

Maybe… the reason why AirPort routers have pages is… because it was an Apple's product.

Yes, I retired my AirPort Extreme 'tower' because I was concerned that it was becoming unsupported, it was working fine. It's good that the documentation is still available but I worry that it might not receive security updates in future.

A new Apple router would be very welcome.