Eric_WVGG

Posting this from my new iPad Mini 6. The iPad Mini has been my favorite Apple product ever since it debuted, and this model is everything I hoped for, yet I feel a little conflicted.

the “Liquid Retina display” (dumb marketing name)… “gorgeous”? Have you even seen an OLED? I am praying that this is the last LED product I ever buy. The glare is hateful. I understand that OLED is expensive and we are experiencing all kinds of weird supply chain problems due to COVID, but no, this screen is merely adequate.

I constantly find myself tapping in my pass-number instead of using TouchID. I understand why they didn’t put tap-to-wake on pre-FaceID models now, it is truly disorienting.

and now the one thing that is making me legitimately angry: the screen is 744px wide. Web sites and apps are built to detect 768px (the older model width) as the starting point for tablets. Now, instead of tablet size, everything is showing up as stretched phone view. It’s infuriating, tablets are much closer visually to laptops than phones. Apple absolutely should have made this device a quarter inch wider just to maintain compatibility with ALL THE SOFTWARE IN THE WORLD.

I really like this thing. It is making me very angry. 

I wonder if any of the new faces will be good, for a change.

the Intel Mac mini is gonna be around for years

Apple always had one or two quietly hidden, deeply obsolete models that just tucker around for years due to niche needs. like the 21” iMac that still has a hard drive, a 2014 pedigree computer, only discontinued like last year? 

Apple will need to have one token machine available for developers who have a difficult time transitioning to ARM — like, five or more years — and people who use quirky, special needs software (lots of musicians in this bucket). The Mini is the cheapest computer that ticks these boxes. 

chadbag said:

Honest question:   What does something like 1password offer me above what I get for free with the keychain IF I don’t care about cross platform (meaning outside of Apple) use?  I don’t care about android or windows. 

I’m happily just using KeyChain which covers me on macOS, iOS, iPad, etc. 

1. the UI for iCloud Keychain (Keychain Access on the Mac, and some dippy little section in Settings on iOS) is pretty awful.
2. 1Password lets you have multiple keychains (or "vaults" in their parlance). Every time I take a contract with a startup, among the first things they do is send me a corporate vault containing all the logins I'll need and where I can store my own.
3. that multiple vault thing goes for family access as well. You and a spouse can have shared and separate keychains, selectively share with kids, etc.
4. 1Password allows you to store secure documents. I have things like a photo of my vaccine card, my state ID, various personal notes kept there. (Keychain Access will let you store secure documents, but only text, not photos)
5. the big one — MFA logins. If you're using SMS codes sent to your cellphone, you're a stone-cold chump. Highly insecure. There are some 3rd party apps like Google Authenticator and Authy*, they're very poorly made; 1Password's built-in MFA rocks.
6. password breaches — 1Password keeps an eye on haveibeenpwned.com password leaks and lets you know when a stored password has been exposed.

Despite all these, I'd probably swap to iCloud Keychain if they just did MFA. However, I think Apple is just hoping MFA goes away in favor of Login with Apple (it never will) or something something FaceID/TouchID (possible).


* irony: I dumped Authy for MFA in favor of 1Password because Authy is another dogshit Electron app.

p-dog said:

I removed the speaker from the AirTag I hid on my bicycle

why?