Rogue01

MplsP said:

I’m not thrilled to hear this but in the end it probably won’t affect me. I prefer to have a bootable external copy of MacOS as an emergency backup incase of a hard drive failure but the solid state drives they use are quite reliable and I can’t think of the last time I’ve had one fail or even heard of one failing. 

If you have your hard drive encrypted what’s the security advantage of preventing an external boot drive?

What about macOS getting corrupted and unable to boot?  It is not about drive reliability, it is more about software suddenly failing and your Mac unable to boot.  The external drive was always a lifesaver for booting your Mac and being able to recover anything from the internal drive that might not have been backed up yet.  But Apple figures that people can hopefully boot to recovery mode and reinstall macOS.  More challenging with a managed Mac in Enterprise and a macOS update fails and renders a Mac unable to boot.

To answer your question, if you have the drive encrypted with FileVault 2 and you boot from an external disk, the internal drive will prompt for the Mac password to unlock the disk.  Also, starting with the T2 security chip in Macs, you have to boot into Recovery Mode and change the security settings to allow the Mac to boot from an external disk.  It is disabled by default.

hmlongco said:

Calvinator said:

When you run out of ideas, you make up a solution for a non-problem and pass it off as the reason to upgrade way more often than necessary.

Tim Cook's obsession with thinness and pretty new colors for existing products is embarrassing. 

Steve Jobs would never, and I mean never, allow Apple's user experience to get so out of control.

I'd submit that Apple knows their customer base better than you do. They've done more research than you have. And that they know their customers like colors. If anything, they've often been chastised for having too few.

And as to Steve, I really, really, really, really, really wish people would stop channeling the ghost of someone they don't know and have never met in an attempt to bolster their own weak arguments. I guess they do that when they run out of ideas.

You remember, do you not, when Steve came back to Apple and induced the iMac? In colors?????????

And then later on introduced dozens upon dozens of iPods... in colors?????????

Or when Apple reintroduced the iMac line? in colors?????????

And the embarrassment called the iMac 24" has the MOST pages on the Apple Refurb Store for the highest number of customer returns.  No one asked for thin products.  Remember the 2016-2018 thin MacBooks with the worst keyboards ever designed?  Once Ive was gone, Apple was able to fix that problem.  You think Apple knows their customer base?  Really?  They introduce a $3,500 headset that no one ever wanted.  And Apple wonders why no one is buying it, and tries to make up sad excuses by now calling it an 'early adopter product'.  Nope.  No one wants AR/VR.  No one.  No one asked for a thinner iPad.  It is embarrassing that the iPad is 12 years old, yet it still only has 10 hours of battery life, yet MacBooks now claim up to 24 hours?  Apple's research must be a hole in the ground because they have been making products the last few years that no one wants (Vision Pro, HomePod, HomePod mini, AirPod Max, badly colored iMacs with small displays).

Apple already prototyped this back in 2007 with a MacBook Pro and nixed the idea.  Everyone already has a phone with Hotspot so they don't need to waste money on extra hardware and an extra data plan costing more money when the phone can already do it for the price of one data plan.  The cellular radio will also be another 'feature' to drain the MacBook battery and increase the cost of the laptop, for a feature that would rarely be used.  The WiFi iPad outsells the Cellular version by leaps and bounds because it is less expensive and people can use their phone's hotspot or a public WiFi, just like they already do with existing MacBooks.

Since Apple appears to be moving back to socketed storage, likely to reduce their repair costs - since soldered parts means replacing the entire motherboard, they really need to dump that secure enclave encryption of the SSD so consumers can go back to upgrading their own storage, and it would be great if they would do the same with the memory too.  It is highway robbery with their insanely excessive mark ups for memory and SSD.  Sorry, but 256GB and 512GB is useless storage.  The Macs should be 1TB standard and not charge $2400 for 8TB storage when you can get an 8TB NVMe PCIe4 stick for about $650.

Apple threw a fit and refused to replace the swollen battery and top cover in my 2015 MacBook Pro because I installed an OWC 2TB SSD.  I had to reinstall the 1TB Apple SSD for them to do the battery replacement, or they were going to charge me $1200 for the 1TB SSD.  I told them, since when did upgrading storage prevent them from replacing an item that was completely unrelated.  They refused to budge so I reinstalled the 1TB SSD.  Then I reinstalled the 2TB SSD when I got the Mac back.  They never used to be like that with the Power Macs when you can self install 4 hard drives.

The iMac 27" 2020 has slotted SSDs, when it is the 4TB and 8TB model.  The 8TB model uses two 4TB SSDs.  However, due to the T2 Security Chip, the SSDs are encrypted to the board so you cannot replace or upgrade them on your own.  Same concept with Apple Silicon.

Even if the slotted SSD in the new mini was upgradable by Apple, they would still stiff you a full $2400 for 8TB, just like they rip people off with the Mac Pro SSD upgrade options.  It is just a way for Apple to rip people off with SSD upgrades, and memory upgrades too.  It really is disgusting that Apple does this.  An 8TB NVMe PCIe4 SSD is about $650, but Apple charges $2400.

Nice that it is slotted so there is a repair option by Apple without having to replace the entire motherboard when the components are all soldered down.