FileMakerFeller

darkvader said:

danox said:

Don’t worry, they’ll have to do the same thing in India and Vietnam too. And probably for almost everything else they make in China or anywhere else, a lot of those etching and markings/codes that Apple puts on all of their devices that are manufactured overseas are probably there for many of the same reasons, they’re not just there to make Lou Rossmann cry iFixit.

Louis Rossmann does not care AT ALL about barcodes.  What he (and I, and you should) care about is the ability to repair devices.  There is NO EXCUSE for screens not to be swappable between iPhones and functionality to be broken.  Apple intentionally breaking compatibility should be criminal conduct.  If there's a legitimate reason that calibration is necessary (there isn't, but if there was) then the tool to do the calibration should be made available to the public or somebody at Apple should go to jail.

There's no excuse for Apple's bad behavior.

I respectfully disagree. If Apple wants to track individual parts to minimise the "chop shop" activities then by necessity any repairs need to be logged with Apple. The "authorised repair centre" model gives Apple more control over the data capture and minimises the number of events that are not tracked. Returning the faulty parts also gives Apple the opportunity to analyse them and potentially make changes to their design and manufacturing to reduce problems in the future.

All of Apple's efforts to reduce the benefit to thieves have so far been quite successful, and the benefits accrue to all device purchasers. The drawbacks, however, accrue to individuals who are restricted from repairing their own devices or experimenting with modifications.

It's really hard from the outside to determine whether or not the global benefit outweighs the localised costs. We don't see the reduction in thefts other than by anecdotal reports, nor do we see the impact on device longevity, nor the effect of non-genuine parts on device performance. Apple has a lot of those numbers but chooses not to share them. It's easier to track the costs of repair and replacement, and therefore we naturally give those numbers more prominence. But it might be worth remembering that there are trade-offs being made and we don't have all the information required to make a solid judgement.

lowededwookie said:

I hope they bring this to New Zealand. We use a similar banking style to UK so hopefully next round.

I doubt it though, there’s still little support from banks for ApplePay, especially those whose cards are issued by Westpac.

Yeah, the only one of the Australian banks that was relatively quick to accept ApplePay was ANZ. The others had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the system, and collectively all of them have taken legal action to try and force Apple to open up the NFC facility on iPhones.

fastasleep said:

danox said:

fastasleep said:

nizzard said:

I'll be happy with Epic finally goes out of business. 

I wouldn't be. Unreal Engine is pretty essential.

Which is why Apple can’t sit on the sidelines when it comes to game engines, the evolution of what Unreal Engine has become, can’t be ignored by Apple any longer, it’s too important going into their computing future and I don’t think dependence on a third party company is going to work long-term.

The recent flake out of Unity also adds to the fire now that Apple is starting to add Ray Tracing cores to their hardware, and into future to even smaller devices, they need more control the 15 pro with its A17 processor (heat), and what’s coming up with the Apple Vision Pro, the tolerances, wattage/heat/battery are just too important. if programs like Instagram are causing trouble what do you think gonna happen with a game engine? I’m sure Apple is talking about it, with Epic/Unity in their face in recent times.

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US.  Just take a look around. It’s too important…. In the future.

In what way is Apple dependent on Unreal Engine?

What "flake out of Unity"?

Not sure what you mean by Instagram causing trouble or what that has anything to do with game engines. Developers actively work to optimize their software for new hardware, often in tandem with Apple. This is no different for Unity and Epic.

Not sure what you're talking about, once again.

Instagram is purportedly one of the key offenders of iPhones running hot (this forum comment).
Unity has recently backed down from a proposed licensing fee change that really annoyed their developers. There's another AI article covering why it's a problem for Apple.

Back in the 1980s and 90s, university IT departments charged actual money for processor time on the mainframes and Computer Science students had to spend that money to get their coding assignments done - an extra incentive to make sure you didn't write an infinite loop or inefficient code, to be sure. But there were still problems that took a reasonable amount of processing even with the best algorithms available, and that could cost a student $5 or more - the price of a pretty good meal at the time. Some enterprising souls took it upon themselves to write their solutions in PostScript and send that code to the communal LaserWriter in the computer lab, which cost $1 per page - expensive, but a fixed cost - and would tie up the printer for sometimes more than half an hour, leading to general consternation amongst the gathered students who simply wanted to print a plain text document, and to the lab administrators who noticed a drop in revenue. Eventually the powers that be twigged to what was going on and mandated use of the mainframes for assignments, but I always got a chuckle out of the story.

I admired the inventiveness that led to the exploit of building a virtual machine inside an EPS image using the PostScript capabilities of the format as well, but the nefarious uses to which that was put just can't be allowed.

So I'm sad to see the end of such a useful technology, but the time has come to replace it with the newer, more robust options that have been subsequently developed.

deh2k said:

Can we still print to Postscript printers with macOS Sonoma?

I'm guessing yes - the printer itself has the PS interpreter onboard so macOS can just transmit the file to the printer.