mpantone

edr said:

Crappy Google OS that spies on every single action, and every single page, now "READY"! to spy on your older machines. No thanks. Those old machines still work perfectly well with their original OS as long as you're using an SSD and keep it clean or reinstall the original OS if necessary.

First of all, it's ChromeOS not GoogleOS.

None of the Macs listed above can run the latest version of macOS (Monterey). Remember that Apple only provides updates for the current macOS version as well as security patches for the two prior versions (currently Big Sur and Crapalina). When macOS Ventura is released this fall, Apple will discontinue security patches for Crapalina.

Let's use the MacBook (2010) as an example. It was released with OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3 and the last supported version was OS X 10.13 High Sierra which transitioned to unsupported status in November 2020. That means this particular Mac+OS combination is vulnerable to security issues that have been revealed since that time. 

Remember that this includes no updates to Safari. Web browsers are typically the most vulnerable end-user applications on a typical computer. Of course, one can mitigate these risks by switching to a different browser (Firefox or one of the Chromium-based browsers) and avoiding Safari use.

ChromeOSPlex presumably receives critical security updates periodically. Of course, one has the option of installing Linux (or possibly FreeBSD) on these systems.

No one is pointing a gun at the heads of the older Macs' owners and saying they need to switch to ChromeOS Plex. If you don't want to run ChromeOS Plex, you don't need to. However this is just an announcement that the option exists.

In the same way, you don't need to eat a hardboiled egg for lunch today. But it is an option.

caladanian said:

Apple has a strange understanding of “professionals”, apparently.

I've been an Apple customer for decades and as far as I can tell "professional" is a marketing moniker that mostly means "more expensive."

It's usually accompanied by slightly better performance. Is that enough to merit the "professional" branding?

It is for Apple. And perhaps more importantly their overall customer base has accepted Apple's usage of the term.

applesauce007 said:

Ok, let's see...  Apple has zero stores in Colombia.  Oh well...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Store

Those are bricks-and-mortar stores. You don't need a bricks-and-mortar location to do business.

Ever hear of Amazon.com? How many bricks-and-mortar stores do they have where you live? How about Roku? Or Sony? Or LG? Or Logitech?

How many retail stores does Nintendo have? Two: New York and Tel Aviv. Zero in Japan: not a single one.

Beats said:

It was important enough to announce at the keynote.

No, it wasn't to Apple senior management. This was a minor development.

There were probably a couple hundred new feature announcements that could have been included in the keynote. If it went 10-12 hours, they might have gotten to it.

That's why there were separate platform keynote presentations and why WWDC is a full week event with hundreds of hours of breakout sessions.

Sorry about that.

Beats said:

the downside is it’s useless. 

Yes, for now.

At least you got one thing right I'll give you that.

Somewhere on a whiteboard in Cupertino, there's a wishlist of desired features for the MacBook Air.

Senior management crosses out HDMI every time it shows up on that whiteboard.

Every. Single. Time.

And this probably follows years of MBA prototypes with HDMI ports getting thrown on the scrap heap after a new MacBook Air is launched.

It's worth pointing out that Thunderbolt has more functionality (data, video, power) than the legacy HDMI connector.

That said, I am happy that my ghetto Acer Swift 3 notebook has an HDMI port. (Yes, it also has Thunderbolt.)

  

It's important to remember that all products include compromises: features, cost, price, availability, etc. and are still subject to the laws of physics.

And no one can please everyone all the time.