mpschaefer
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Apple highlights Apple Pencil support in new 9.7-inch iPad ads
Hmmm, well I have the Apple Pencil and while I still haven't worked it into my routine and process flow as much as I would have liked it's a mater of small steps. Notes Plus has been good fro bridging the Hand-writing to Text for myself but there are plenty of options. It's a few steps more than my old Apple Newton but the core result is still the same, I can write up my noes and have them convert to text and then review and correct them later.
While it would have been nice for Apple to provide a Keyboard / Case combination which better catered for the Apple Pencil, if the current purchasing pattern is that fewer people buy an Apple Pencil than don't then we'd have a bunch of people complaining about their case being fouled by a Apple Pencil holder they aren't using.
There are a number of inexpensive options from the old Elastic Pocket which goes on the Keyboard Case (this is what I used previously myself and it worked great), to the iPad Rear Case which has an Apple Pencil holder built-in (this is my current approach). Heck, you could even resort to using the Microsoft Surface Pen Holder (which is a glorified piece of self-adhesive Velcro) if need be.
I think it's great than they have lowered the entry requirements for using the Apple Pencil and that this is likely a first step on a bigger path.
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Questionable slide leak hints Apple abandoned rear-mounted Touch ID on 'iPhone 8'
To quote Roger Murtaugh - "That's pretty f***ing thin." Given a "Mesa" is defined as "an isolated flat-topped hill with steep sides, found in landscapes with horizontal strata." How do we know they aren't just talking about changes to the Lens / Flash Assembly / Bump, that seems to stick out a bit like a "Mesa" on the current phones.
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Apple sends top executives to lobby Australian government over proposed encryption laws
This is Australia, we have no Bill of Rights (https://www.humanrights.gov.au/how-are-human-rights-protected-australian-law) the government is pretty much free to do what they like until called out or the next election (when they would likely get tossed for whatever they have / have not been up to).lkrupp said:Being a devil’s advocate I see most techies are vehemently opposed to any kind of cooperation between tech companies and the government regarding encryption. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are regularly trotted out. So let me ask a loaded question. If a terrorist attack occurred in your town and family and friends were killed who would you blame for not knowing about it or doing something to stop it? Would you blame the government? Why? It would also seem you are willing to accept the fact that more of us could be killed at any point because authorities are blind to what is being planned. The price of freedom from government snooping is sudden and arbitrary death?
Really, I would just like to know who you will blame for the next attack. The same government you despise?
As somewhat of a 'techie', I'm not opposed to Tech Companies assisting lawful investigations using suitable means. I'm opposed to deliberate weakening of security in a vain attempt to increase their ability to 'snoop'.
Let's take iMessage as an example. Right now, you can converse on that platform and the messages are encrypted. Now, let's assume that we get to the point where the public and private keys have to be stored by Apple and provided under a legal request so that intercepted and encrypted messages can be accessed by investigators.
How does that change things for the regular person? Well, it doesn't unless you begin conversing with someone the government is watching and then your keys may be sought and your messages accessed.
How does a terrorist react? I'd expect that they would simply pre-encrypt anything before sending it meaning that while the law can now access iMessages they still will not be able to read the actual content they are interested in.
So, I fail to see how we managed to achieve anything by allowing this. Worse still, given the various governments lack of ability to keep stuff secret and away from hackers and the like mean that this action is more likely going to end with the only regular preson's data being inspected and made available.
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Australian government to ask for voluntary access to encrypted Apple data
Ah yes, the 14th July 2017will be remembered as the day you realised Australian Politicians are so stupid that they believe that they can make something true just by saying it is.
Actual Quote from our Prime Minister:"The laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia." -- Malcolm Turnbull
I cannot face palm enough over this.....
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Debunking retail rumors, Apple says its stores are equipped to repair new MacBook Pros
What's your particular use-case?zoetmb said:I would believe that they have the appropriate diagnostic tools, but repairs? Considering that a lot of components in the new MBPs are soldered or glued down, are they really able to do local repairs? I would doubt that. Do they even have the capability of replacing a battery? Watch the iFixIt videos - it's a nightmare. IIRC, they couldn't take the machine apart without breaking something.
(I had a recent debate with a photography tech writer over this. He actually preferred machines in which the user can't change the battery, storage and memory because he said those were failure points. But I hate the fact that Apple has taken this out of our control. I think the design of my late-2008 MBP with the door that revealed an accessible hard drive and battery and removing a few screws to get to the memory chips was a far superior design and I refuse to believe that Apple could not accomplish this again if they really wanted to.) That late-2008 MBP just died on me and I bought the new MBP, but it's left a very bad taste in my mouth: Apple was always expensive, but I never felt like the company was ripping us off. Leaving out the power adapter extension cord and not putting a few USB adapters (or a coupon for a few) in the box feels like Apple has been taken over by accountants. And $1200 to upgrade from a 512MB to 2TB SSD? ($1400 from 256MB). Combine that with the non-upgradability of the machine and Apple turning into a sloth when it comes to meaningful new products and upgrades and I really don't have very good feelings about Apple anymore.
When I bought my first MacBook Pro (in 2009), my major decision point was getting the most powerful CPU and an appropriate level of RAM and HDD space. Back then (as you mention) you could upgrade the RAM and HDD so it was less critical to make a final call on these items at the time of purchase.
By the time I upgraded it in 2012, the RAM was no longer using a slot and had to be decided at the time or purchase. This led to my usual advice to colleagues and friends as whatever is non-upgradeable you Top-Out. So, I bought with the 16GB RAM limit in mind.
Now, I simply add the SSD to that same decision path. What do I need on the machine to make it workable. I carry my work data on an external drive to reduce the impact of a laptop failure on my work (I used to use Dell for my Work Laptops but they failed so often it became embarrassing to show up to a customer with a dead laptop).
My personal data sits on a RAID Array (and a portable one when I travel) so in my use-case this works out as my SSD requirements being around 1TB (OS, Apps, VMs and some In-Flight Data Storage). I wouldn't see that requirement increasing over the life of the machine as it's been pretty much the same for the last 5 years.
So, I'm less concerned about the non-upgradeability of the device and more concerned about how it fits into my Use-Case.
