doggone

Apple needs to get onto of this very quickly.  If malicious code sneaks in via the developer without being noticed then it will be very bad publicity for Apple.

On the other hand it may reinforce Apple's assertion that a regulated App Store is the only way to ensure that virus and worms don't get into third party apps.

Thats why I will never had one of these things in my house.  They will have to get a lot more useful and secure before that happens (and it will have to be an Apple device.

hammeroftruth said:

SpamSandwich said:

avon b7 said:

SpamSandwich said:

Ciprol said:

Never forget that Trump at a previous face to face meeting with Xi of China, asked Xi's help in keeping him elected but Xi refused (see John Bolton's disclosure). These are now the payback against China. As a US commentator said, this is a classic mafia tactic. US's global reputation has just gone down another major tier.

Thanks for more Chinese propaganda. We have this thing sewn up. China’s influence over the US is being severed... one gigantic tentacle at a time.

But at the same time, with each tentacle, Trump shoots himself in the foot (often with an accompany tweet that reveals what's going on in his head). 

It's only a question of time before he shoots himself in the figurative head. He is also causing enormous friction with US allies.

Let's not forget the trade war isn't (and not by a long shot) a China trade war.

The US trade deficit is not only with China but with the world. The world knows that if he wangles something with China, focus will switch to other areas like the EU and that is why the EU is proactively taking action to protect itself from what the US is trying to do to China.

I’m perfectly OK with a full decoupling of the US from China.

That probably will never happen unless we can come up with the 1.1 trillion we owe them and then figure out what we will do about manufacturing. 

We screwed ourselves when we moved industrial manufacturing to China and they made an infrastructure that can make anything quickly, but has virtually no long term durability to keep costs low. 

Maybe if we spent more time working together to be less reliant on China instead of fighting each other, we would have started the framework of divesting from China.  Both parties thought moving to China was a good idea and nobody ever thought that a foreign country would buy up American t-bills, notes and bonds and weaponize them.

The real tragedy is the truth that our government both left and right can give 2 shits about our people who are barely holding on in this pandemic. They cannot come up with just a basic plan to help those who are on their last leg and are about to be starving and homeless. 

They just want your vote to keep their place in line to get their special interest money. That’s why you won’t see any help until we are almost near Election Day and they can spin it towards their advantage. 

If the US wants to compete with China on manufacturing, especially for electronics, then they need to create an educational structure that provides skilled engineers for the industry.  They also need to create the investment infrastructure to build factories that can be on the cutting edge of the competition.
Look at Apple, they stay ahead of the competition by constantly innovating and acquiring expertise where needed.  They outsource manufacturing only because there is no capability in the scale, cost and adaptability they need in the US.  The problem with US politicians is that they have only short term goals (to stay in office) and businesses are only concerned about making a fast buck.  Apple stand out because they had long term plans to build upon their earlier and well thought out successes.

There is so much potential with Apple Silicon.  Since the A12 is already on par with i7, the imagination goes wild if one considers Apple probably have been developing Mac specific processors for several years.  More power in a smaller footprint means plenty of headroom to increase power in high end units and increase portability in low end units.

GeorgeBMac said:

Good that HomeKit was added to Macs.

Now they need to enable Macs to become hubs.   Homekit is very sparse in hubs -- pretty much just repurposing other equipment.  An always on unit like an iMac or MacMini would be ideal, but MacBooks would make for a secondary choice since they can travel away from home and/or their batteries can die (the same limitations an iPad Hub has).

Actually an old Mac laptop would be the best unit for a hub.  I use an older MBP for my media server.  The good thing is if there is a power outage then the unit does not crash.  Of course, the wifi will go out unless it is also on battery backup.  We get outages quite often and protecting the equipment via a battery charger provides some level of protection.