folk fountain

I full on support the USB C connection, BUT, someone needs to figure out a way identify what a cable is capable of doing after you take it out of it's package. Simply standardizing the connection is only half the battle. The USB C plug poking out of the side of my MacBook has "Anker" printed on one side and nothing printed on the other. I only use it for power and I know it can handle what I need. What else can it do? I don't know. Maybe they could have printed the specifications on the other side. I expect the casual user has no idea the wide variation of capabilities of a cable with a USB C connection on both ends. But, OK, let's standardize on it.

The firmware update 1935144040 is for the hub, not the bulbs, and mine updated 1/23/2020. It's already rolled out for those using automatic updates. The Check Point site says, "It should be noted that more recent hardware generations of Hue lightbulbs do not have the exploited vulnerability." but they don't say how to know which bulb is which, at least not yet, or what percentage of Hue bulbs are vulnerable in the first place. Everyone seems to be reporting this slightly differently which is frustrating.

There is a web app so I don't really see a moral question here. I think Apple's stance can be justified because the web app is available. The questions of how the regime behaves don't really have to be dealt with since there is no change in availability of the info. And besides, they deleted the app from the store, brought it back, and deleted it from the store again. It's not removed from your phone. They gave everyone who hadn't downloaded it another chance to get it. At this point anyone who wants it has it.

But the behavior of the Chinese government is very troubling. It goes from petty in their reaction to a tweet from the GM of the Houston Rockets, to grind house horror with how they treat ethnic minorities or anyone that is outside what they deem correct. To not acknowledge it is to be complicit. And once you acknowledge it you can't claim ignorance. How a corporation acts in China does matter. A corporation like Apple can do a lot bring about positive change but in doing so are they assisting a government that shows blatant disregard for human rights? A lot of you guys seem to know the answer, I think it's a difficult call. If you remove yourself from doing business in China you remove your voice from the discourse. 

In the United States corporations have been able to change laws in states by taking a stand. Without getting into if that is OK or not OK, or if the laws that were changed were OK or not OK, the fact is that corporations have pressured states to change laws. Can corporations do that in China? Man, I just don't know. 

mjtomlin said:

Pretty silly that Apple is included here. Especially since this about the practices of handling user data. It's understandable that they want to know how Apple handles the data, but Apple's been pretty vocal about security and privacy, and have taken many measures to combat misuse of it.

This is about being a monopoly, not privacy. This is where it is fortunate that Apple is not the biggest player in any market. Android is bigger than iOS, Windows is bigger than MacOS, Spotify is bigger than Apple Music, a half dozen players will be bigger than AppleTV+, CDs sell better than songs from the iTunes store, Amazon sells more eBooks, there is no competitor for the App store. The question will be if they leverage their position in an anticompetitive way. It will also be a question of whether or not keeping the Apple ecosystem closed is anticompetitive.

MisterKit said:

StrangeDays said:

MisterKit said:

Referring to the 3.5mm jack as a headphone jack is a misunderstanding. The 3.5mm jack is a two channel analog audio output. Headphones are just one specific example for how that 3.5mm jack can be used.

There are too many examples to list as to how this elimination will affect users. Here’s one that would affect me regularly. You’re having a music rehearsal. You pull up some Apple Music, You Tube videos, whatever, as a group is working out a song. The audio MUST be fed into a sound system for this to be useful. Okay. So I buy a USB-C to two channel analog audio output adapter and guess what! My iPad is running low on charge! Oops. Better have a dock so I can charge and have a two channel analog audio output at the same time.

Hopefully I am making a point. The 3.5mm two channel analog audio output cannot be worked around like a floppy or optical drive could be.

Guess what! What if there are no power outlets near your rehearsal space. Oops. 

My point is we can all invent scenarios to defeat any other scenario. 

Yes indeed, but they are not equal in the practicality of a solution.

Although you have a partial point, you are creating a problem that you should have solved if it is something you rely on. You paid a grand for an iPad and then you didn't outfit it for your use. That's a little bit on you. As a musician, how many cables and connectors do you already carry? Presumably you already have adapters to go from 3.5mm jack to 1/4" and splitters and mono jacks and stereo jacks and all that. I hope you don't want a 1/4" jack on your iPad so that you can plug directly into an amp with an included Apple cable. Odds are you are already using an adapter to go from the 3.5mm jack to 1/4" unless you are plugging into a boombox. Besides, one of your bandmates probably has a bluetooth speaker if you don't.