Spencer314

lordjohnwhorfin said:

How does this compare to what’s available in the PC world, whether Intel/AMD or the more comparable ARM based Snapdragon?

The M4 Max score is quite a bit ahead of Intel CPUs on both single and multi-core performance on Geek Bench 6. 

https://browser.geekbench.com/processor-benchmarks

I'm sure NVIDIA GPUs are still faster, but it's a bit more difficult comparing them since they don't really run the same benchmarks. It's also pretty hard to compare AI engines for the same reason. 

hammeroftruth said:

Apple's refusal to unlock the phones from the San Bernardino attack in 2015 was the first high-profile case. The FBI paid a large sum to Cellbrite to bypass Apple's security, but it's unclear if they found anything useful. This incident sparked a debate about whether there should be a backdoor into Apple's security, especially in light of concerns about government surveillance.

They didn't find anything of value, which is basically what Apple had expected based on the iCloud data that they did have. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple–FBI_encryption_dispute

Also, the FBI screwed up the ability to get the phone to do a final iCloud backup, which would have resulted in the most recent content of the phone being available to law enforcement without cracking the phone. 

So, now even the regular 16 Pro has the 5X camera and no 3X camera. So, the range from 48mm to 119mm can't be covered at a reasonable resolution. Why? Just to say there is a 5X zoom without mentioning that 3X and 4X are going to be crappy? That isn't an "upgrade". It is a serious downgrade. So dumb. 

nubus said:

Will the lack of parts pairing cause more devices to be stolen? Apple should have the right to block parts from stolen devices to protect us.

I would have thought this would be one of the points, but the article didn't mention it. If you can't salvage one phone for valuable parts for another, then the third party repair industry won't end up as as a laundry service for stolen phones. Also, parts like fingerprint readers would be more difficult to replace with unsecure backdoors if their security chips have to be matched up. 

It does sometimes feel like a lot of the pushbacks on Apple are almost harkening back to an earlier era when our devices weren't the center of our financial lives and so weren't critical to our personal and financial security. 

Perhaps we will eventually at least be able to pay extra for locked-down phones that we can provide to relatives (who will then replace their login passcodes with "1111" thus undoing our of our efforts to keep them comparatively safe). 

Please, Apple, don't make this change at the expense of a 3X or 4X camera. 5X is (mostly) a gimmick for bragging rights. It is sometimes useful, but 72mm is useful far more often, and that camera could use some improvements.