atonaldenim

netrox said:

Requires WiFi? No thanks. WiFi consumes a hundred times more power and it makes no sense to waste so much energy when Thread is up to a thousand times more power efficient. ... That's why I only get Thread devices from Eve and hope to see more competition for Thread-enabled devices. 

For what it's worth, I've been using Meross HomeKit smart plugs over wifi for 2 years and have found them very reliable. For example my refrigerator is powered through a Meross plug, buried behind the fridge, surrounded by a cabinet, and it's never failed to respond to commands. I have it on a daily routine in the Home app to temporarily turn off the fridge for silence at bedtime, and turn it back on a couple hours later. (I live in a studio apartment and I'm sensitive to noise.) I was nervous at first that a failure would cause all my food to spoil, but it's never happened once.

My setup is an Apple TV 4K on ethernet as the HomeKit hub, 2.4G and 5G wifi networks with the same SSID name, 425 ft2 studio apartment in a 14-story building of about 250 units.

What Thread smart plugs are available if someone didn't want a wifi plug?

please lord make this true! long have I dreamed of this…

About the article, I always disable the Safari setting 'Open "safe" files after downloading' - I am shocked that Apple would have any default setting that allowed random things downloaded from the internet to be automatically opened! File downloads can easily happen without the user realizing. I don't know if that would mitigate this particular vulnerability, but I would definitely recommend that everyone disable that Safari option.

Paul_B said:

This application called Console provides everything the Operating System is rendering - Their is no privacy - How many times do I have to post the same comment?

Command-Space type Console.

 Hi Paul, the Console is a normal part of every operating system, it's a place where you can see your computer's "inner monologue" shall we say, the countless little status updates that all the background processes are generating behind the scenes. No need to worry about this, it's not a secret and it's not a security risk. Here's some articles about the Console that will hopefully put your mind at ease.  

https://support.apple.com/guide/console/welcome/mac
https://macpaw.com/how-to/use-mac-console-app

Hey Wesley, it's great to hear you are somewhat a fan of this case, and keyboard cases for iPad Mini in general. Would you be interested in doing more reviews of iPad Mini keyboard cases in the future? I'd love to see more coverage of this topic. If you look at the reviews for the Brydge 7.9 keyboard (one of the best keyboard cases for the previous gen iPad Mini) it's full of people begging for a new version. I think there are a number of people interested in this type of product, and like I said really nobody else out there is covering this beat.

That's interesting to hear that some Brydge iPad keyboard cases are able to work in wired mode. As a product reviewer I'm sure you have a lot more familiarity with Brydge's product line than I do! The only recent iPads I've owned are iPad Minis, and the Brydge 7.9 keyboard is the only Brydge product I've owned personally. Out of curiosity I just cruised through the Brydge user manuals page and I only found that the "Brydge Pro" product line user manuals mention a wired mode. All the other Brydge manuals only mentioned a wireless mode. Does that reflect your experience, or do other Brydge iPad keyboard cases offer wired modes too? I know my Brydge 7.9 definitely does not have a wired mode, I just checked it to be sure.

Wired mode mentioned:
Brydge Pro 12.9 For iPad Pro
Brydge Pro 11 For iPad Pro
Brydge Pro For iPad Air

No wired mode mentioned:
Brydge 12.9 Pro+
Brydge 11.0 Pro+
Brydge 12.9 MAX+ for iPad Pro
Brydge 11.0 MAX+ for iPad Pro
Brydge Air MAX+
Brydge 10.2 MAX+
Brydge 10.2
Brydge 9.7
Brydge 7.9

When I was originally shopping for my first iPad Mini keyboard I was interested in a wired mode option, as I thought it would be best for typing sensitive things like passwords. But I didn't find any good options out there, and I realized for sensitive typing I could always just type on the screen. And the ergonomics of plugging in an iPad keyboard case with a cable dangling off the side don't really seem appealing either.

Sounds like we both agree that reviews should target the average user, I guess we just have different ideas of what the average user would want. When you say "most others would probably buy Apple's classic Magic Keyboard" I suppose you mean the desktop bluetooth keyboard, not the Magic Keyboard with trackpad for iPad, since that doesn't exist for the iPad Mini? 

I would have to disagree that someone looking for an iPad Mini-sized laptop-style keyboard case with trackpad would buy a standalone keyboard with no trackpad that doesn't attach to the iPad Mini. That would be a logical choice for a professional writer, but I think the average person looking for a tiny keyboard case doesn't plan to do much writing on it. The laptop-style form factor and the built-in touchpad are the key features I'm looking for, and a detached desktop bluetooth keyboard offers neither of those things, it's just in a completely different product category.

For me the appeal of having an iPad Mini in a laptop-like form factor that can sit on your lap, with a trackpad to enjoy iPadOS's new cursor support, is for the kind of casual lean-back reading / video watching / content consumption usage that I think most people with the iPad Mini would be doing, as opposed to larger iPads that are better suited for more serious work and content creation. Heck I own a 15" Macbook Pro with a pretty good keyboard and I don't do a lot of writing on that, either. Being in the shape of a laptop doesn't necessarily mean its going to be used for extensive typing. Yes occasionally typing the URL of a new website, or the name of a video to watch, or logging in to a site, or perhaps dashing off a short email or note, those are useful things for having a physical keyboard in the package too. But the obvious size limitations of a laptop-style iPad Mini case mean that most people shopping for this type of product are going to have reasonably low expectations for the keyboard's quality compared to a normal sized keyboard.

Thanks for the replies and I suppose we should both get back to work! I appreciate you spelling out your ratings criteria and I suppose it's perhaps refreshing to see a more rigorous rating scale in today's world where 5 stars is often assumed to be the starting point. If you have interest in reviewing other keyboard + trackpad cases for the iPad Mini I would definitely be interested to see them, and I think a good number of other people would too!