mainyehc

macxpress said:

mainyehc said:

macxpress said:

This doesn't mean you HAVE to take it to an Apple Retail store to get repaired. There are still 3rd party Apple Certified Service Centers you can take it to as well. You just can't take it to Bob's Computers and have your 2018 MacBook Pro repaired...which I don't know why in the hell you'd do that anyways. They cannot get genuine Apple parts, or just Apple parts in general so its little or no benefit to you anyways. 

So you're lumping in experts like Louis Rossmann (whose workshop, admittedly, does give off a bit of “Bob's Computers” vibe, but it's anything but) with shady, back-alley repair shops that may rip you off or install god knows what on your machine.

You see, I totally get why some clients may wish to only use Apple or AASPs as service providers; there is indeed a security benefit to be had. What I take issue with is the fact that you are actively defending Apple's right to pretty much force people to use their channels and potentially leave them out in the dust by refusing them further repairs or, worse even, bricking their machines remotely. I surely hope Apple doesn't even attempt that kind of stunt, as they'd be faced with a lawsuit in no time.

In any case, I believe sanity will prevail. They could've gone after the Hackintosh crowd, too, and they didn't, and it's been what, 11 years now since the switch to Intel? Arguably, having completely unsecured, hacked-together computers running macOS (and always a few versions behind, no less) connected to the internet in the first place is more of a security liability than having Macs without a T2 chip, or SIP enabled, or what you have it.

The "Hackintosh" crowd is so few and far between its not even worth Apple's time and effort to even begin to care about it and the people doing that know the risk. Its not your mom or grandma is doing that thinking it's the same exact thing as a Mac coming directly from Apple, or its certified channels. Your entire argument is incredibly invalid because of this alone.

I don't see Apple backing down at all on this and if you think cooler heads will prevail on this and customers will win you have another thing coming. If you want to tinker, build a Hackintosh or your own PC. This isn't the customer base Apple cares about. 

You see, this is where you’re wrong. Tinkerers are, more often than not, influencers. Even though I’m puny by comparison, I’m still in the same boat, philosophy- and credibility-wise, as a Linus from LTT, or a Quinn from SnazzyLabs. It’s no accident my nickname is “João [my first name] dos [Portuguese for “of the”] Macs”; I’ve switched to the Mac in 2003, I worked for two years, in 2011 and 2012, at my Uni as the Mac computer room monitor and I repaired and/or upgraded several dozens of Macs, not to mention that I also gave all kinds of software technical assistance. In a nutshell, I’m a bit of a local influencer, or evangelist of sorts. Should Apple lose me, they potentially stand to lose around 300 Mac customers as well (and I singled out the Mac because I’d still be recommending iOS devices; phones, by their very mobile, sensor-laden, data-filled and always-connected nature, are devices on which I’d never compromise on my privacy and security).

I absolutely commend their efforts in increasing security; it’s just their fascist – yes, you read that correctly; it’s fascist and user-hostile, even if most users don’t care and may be better served with Apple doing their repairs – way of going about it, and their sheer hypocrisy when it comes to environmental sustainability, that I can’t stand. Shouldn’t they allow the tinkerers to deactivate in some way those protections, they will deserve all the flak and loss of revenue that will ensue. You people seem to forget that hubris and over-charging their customer base almost did them in back in the ’90s… While they’d still have their iPhone cash cow, what if some other manufacturer/OS developer (like, say, Microsoft) saw the light and challenged them at their privacy-minded monopoly? I know Windows Phone is dead, but I don’t thing we’ve seen the last of Microsoft in that space, and if they came up with an Android/Windows hybrid beast that was as trustworthy as an iPhone, I could go as far as outright leaving Apple completely (I’m not holding my breath, though; I know the chances of that happening are currently nil).

And yes, I will absolutely trade some peace of mind and a lot of my time (I’d have to be disabling crap like Cortana, for instance) for increased freedom, if it comes to that. Apple has already been pushing our budgets to their limits, and this (remotely bricking repairs without recourse) would be the last straw.

For now, because I really like macOS that much, I’m seriously considering buying the same, now outdated, T2-less 2017 5K iMac that Quinn from SnazzyLabs bought and upgraded (though I’d only be performing said upgrades in two years’ time, so as not to void my EU-mandated warranty). Yes, I don’t care for the rumoured brand-spanking-new graphics pipeline or a 10% faster processor (hasn’t Intel been stagnating a bit as of late?), or even the added on-the-fly encryption performance the T2 brings. In 8-10 years’ time, when that machine inevitably craps out or is left out in the dust by Apple (or even sooner, if the rumoured transition to A-series chips comes to pass), if they keep going down this path, I may very well be gone for good (as maintaining a Hackintosh is probably less safe and more of a daily hassle than just running Windows on the same hardware and being done with it).

macxpress said:

This doesn't mean you HAVE to take it to an Apple Retail store to get repaired. There are still 3rd party Apple Certified Service Centers you can take it to as well. You just can't take it to Bob's Computers and have your 2018 MacBook Pro repaired...which I don't know why in the hell you'd do that anyways. They cannot get genuine Apple parts, or just Apple parts in general so its little or no benefit to you anyways. 

So you're lumping in experts like Louis Rossmann (whose workshop, admittedly, does give off a bit of “Bob's Computers” vibe, but it's anything but) with shady, back-alley repair shops that may rip you off or install god knows what on your machine.

You see, I totally get why some clients may wish to only use Apple or AASPs as service providers; there is indeed a security benefit to be had. What I take issue with is the fact that you are actively defending Apple's right to pretty much force people to use their channels and potentially leave them out in the dust by refusing them further repairs or, worse even, bricking their machines remotely. I surely hope Apple doesn't even attempt that kind of stunt, as they'd be faced with a lawsuit in no time.

In any case, I believe sanity will prevail. They could've gone after the Hackintosh crowd, too, and they didn't, and it's been what, 11 years now since the switch to Intel? Arguably, having completely unsecured, hacked-together computers running macOS (and always a few versions behind, no less) connected to the internet in the first place is more of a security liability than having Macs without a T2 chip, or SIP enabled, or what you have it.

avon b7 said:

I hope they are simply prototypes. They are pretty ugly and the colours are not very 2018 (much less 2019). 

Gradients are the 'in thing' this year. This year was also the year of the notch (as far as trends go) but we are seeing the first truly full screen phones appearing already so my bet is on a flood of full screen phones during 2019.

The Oppo Find X was released here a couple of days ago and as far as design, colours and finish go, it shines.

I'll have the chance to use one in person next week but I really think the look of the phone is a big win for the company.

https://www.oppo.com/en/smartphone-find_x

Are you high on something? The last time Apple did anything even remotely close to gradients in hardware was with the Flower Power and Blue Dalmatian G3 iMacs… in early 2001. For the record, they were widely mocked for them (what's that thing called again…? Ahhh… courage! ), in a vicious way I've never seen other companies or products being mocked (save perhaps for the fugly-ass FIAT Multipla, or the infamous poop-brown first-gen Microsoft Zune), and I don't even think they were especially ugly, they were just… too niche and over the top for a company trying both to be taken seriously again and to streamline their production line and distribution channel (in any case, such a finish treatment would make no sense today, especially on a phone; that sort of thing is now easily achieved with a case at the low end, or with a mod at the high end, à la Feld&Volk). And those weren't even the last colourful plastic-era Macs before the strikingly different (and, arguably, in the very same design language we carry in our pockets and backpacks to this day) iMac G4 (or its allegedly prototype-turned-product, the eMac) was released, as the late 2001 iMac G3 models already featured way more subdued colours which pointed in that direction.

Apple doesn't follow trends, they either set them or just ignore them altogether, with very few exceptions (the only one I can think of is screen sizes on phones, but seeing how we're talking about looks and materials that doesn't seem very relevant to the discussion). The only thing they follow is a very strict design language with which they play in some very restrained ways (as in, alternating between more subdued and more saturated colours, maybe in lock-step with major *fashion* trends, not the random crap thrown at the wall to see if it sticks by most el-cheapo knock-off consumer electronics manufacturers); if you don't get this very basic fact about Apple, please refrain from commenting on their business (and just because you personally wish for something to happen, it doesn't mean it ever will; welcome to the real world!  ). As long as Ive, Ahrendts (remember, she's the former Burberry CEO, and Apple most certainly makes use of more than just her retail expertise) et al. remain at the company *and* the design language doesn't change radically (and judging by their massive sales, including in a market as fashion-conscious as wearables, I don't see any reason why it would), you won't see gradients on an Apple product casing, ever.

If anything, those gradients are a sad attempt at differentiation *from* Apple's lineup… If the designers at those companies were smart, they would copy Apple's general design *philosophy* and use pure, unpainted (or nearly so; anodization and that dark coating they give to stainless steel products seem to hold up pretty well) materials which age beautifully (except maybe they could use alternative ones for differentiation, duh; and, indeed, that's what Microsoft seems to be attempting, but the only reason I believe they failed is the fact that they are trying to out-Apple Apple by copying their worst mistakes as well, like gluing everything together instead of using screws), instead of the plastic/“prettyfied” crap they put out year after year. You know, I buy Apple products mainly for the OSes and for privacy reasons, but even if that wasn't the case, I'd still be buying them for their looks, because almost everything else on the market screams over/under-designed.

As for the UI, that's a whole 'nother story, but even going by that and considering they might use them at some point again in the future, gradients are already waaay out and “sooo 2013”.

dewme said:

This initiative was well intentioned but doomed from the start. The worst possible thing the EU could do would be to establish a mandate for a universal charger with a common physical connector. I hate consumer waste as much as anyone but this is an area where evolutionary principles need to be allowed to do their thing to converge on a natural, market driven solution to the problem. Once you drive a stake in the ground with a mandate you are forever married to a solution that's frozen in time. Take a look at the main power connectors used outside of North America if you want to see the hideous result of a poorly selected "standard." The power cord connectors used in Europe are only huge, ugly, and clumsy, but the ones in UK and Singapore take the hideousness to unprecedented levels. How anyone could have desired such wonky abominations for everyday use is beyond me, but it probably seemed like a good idea at the time. The longer we can put it off and allow innovators to cull the bad attempts from the good ones, the better off we'll be. The Apple modular power bricks used for the iPad and MacBook are a step in the right direction and buy us more time to deal with the current state of wonkiness.

dewme, with all due respect, you are an idiot and don’t know a thing about electrical engineering, design and safety.

Any person well-versed in the matter will readily tell you that the safest mains plugs in the world are the ones used on the UK: they are extremely compact – especially considering they must have a bloody fuse in them – and have a protective shroud on the live and neutral prongs, which means you can never touch the metal parts while they are live, and the ground/earth prong is longer than the other two, which means that any appliance will be grounded before getting current, and due to the plug’s triangular shape it’s also the only one which can engage the protection flap mechanism, meaning you can’t connect any other kind of plug to that outlet (you can, if you really must go that route, stab the earth connection with some pointy object and stick an Europlug in the outlet, but then you’re veering off into Darwin Award territory). Oh, and to top it off, the outlets must have switches on them… What a concept!

The only known (and widely mocked) design defect those have is the fact that they are back-heavy, and will lie flat on the ground with those three sharp, beveled metal prongs facing right up. Suffice to say, a UK plug is probably one of the worst things in the world (even moreso than a LEGO brick and a bit behind broken glass, a weever or a jellyfish) you can step on, but I’d still gladly do so every now and then over being fried to death any day of the week.

Schuko (the European heavy-duty standard) is a close, less over-engineered standard (but still moreso than most): there’s no protection flap shenanigans going on (I mean, there are, but they are tension-based plastic flaps – instead of the inviolable sliding flaps of the UK plug – which can be overcome if you exert enough force) but, since the outlets are deeply recessed and the earth/ground connections extend all the way to the plug’s edges, your device is also grounded before even getting current and you never get to touch live prongs either; also, quite like their UK brethren, those things are virtually indestructible (I mean it, I’ve never seen a broken Schuko plug, outlet or power strip in my entire life) and they stay put very firmly. Europlugs (the smaller, non-grounded variant) aren’t as resistant, but they are compatible with Schuko outlets and many other standards around the world (such as the Swiss, Swedish and Brazilian outlets), so they have that going for them.

As for your stupid, flimsy American plugs, the only thing they have going for them is their compactness, and maybe working in Japan and parts of China. Which comes obviously at a dangerous cost: those things are obviously *under-engineered*, and wouldn’t pass muster in any safety-driven society (and you people still wonder why the EC has to pass directives to regulate the kind of crap you, the Chinese et al. export to our countries, sheesh… I’m just flabbergasted as to how the Japanese, all with their focus on safety and whatnot, adopted them in the first place and never got rid of them, but I guess that’s what two nuclear bombs and years of occupation do to you). Aren’t those thin, flat prongs bendy as hell (to the point that sometimes they don’t exert enough friction in the outlet, thus leading you people to bend them inwards on purpose so they stay engaged)? What about the clearance between both connections, which is probably the narrowest in the world? And what about the ability to physically touch or short the prongs while live if they aren’t pushed all the way in? Guess what, none of those issues exist on the two standards I’ve mentioned, and some of them are even absent from other less-than-optimal designs (angled flat prong arrangements – like the Aussie/Kiwi/Fijian one –, as well as thicker and/or round-section prongs
– as those found in Brazil, Switzerland, Italy or Scandinavia –, even when they don’t feature any kind of shrouding or flap mechanisms, are inherently safer than your parallel thin blade design, I’m afraid).

You see, when you’re dealing with 110–240V AC, especially on high-consumption devices, “elegance” and compactness should be the least of your concerns. Safety should be your #1 priority… And if anyone fudged on their standardization efforts, it was the ANSI/IEEE/the relevant federal agency (I have no idea which, nor do I care) by going with such a dumbfoundingly stupid, fragile and unsafe design.

I will readily agree that the EC’s position on chargers is also stupid and especially outdated, since from the moment those charging cables became removable (and, guess what, Apple was the absolute trailblazer on that front, with the OG scrollwheel iPod in 2001 and, later on – but still much earlier than any of their competitors –, with the USB-C MacBook in 2015), this whole connector standardization hysteria was rendered moot anyway. But please leave the British Standard and Schuko plugs out of this, you’re only making a fool out of yourself.

I can’t believe I’m the first one to point this out: in the appearance panel, you finally get a plethora of accent colour choices other than the classic Aqua and Graphite, just like in Mac OS 8-9.

This level of customization was unthinkable in the post-candy-coloured Mac era, and it still feels surprising, as you only get, at most, a choice of four muted casing colors and just on the MacBook line. I’m guessing they realized that those vibrant accent colours would pair well (better than either Aqua and Graphite, as a matter of fact) with the new, full-on dark mode.

Anyway, let’s take a moment to appreciate the fact that having two radically different modes with several variations amounts, basically, to a simplified and official Shapeshifter of sorts. Apple just Sherlocked those guys, only with a bit of a delay because clamping down on system tampering was a priority.

I’m ecstatic about this, but it also means 10 times more work to create updated ByteController skins. Oh well.

P.S.: I only tested this functionality on a 2012 cMBP I just bought (and which, alas, I will try to return to the seller as the Optical Bay craps out with SATA III drives… but not before trying out Mojave and my old, unsupported Wacom tablet), so… can anyone do so on a new MacBook Pro and tell us whether the accent colour is changed accordingly on the Touch Bar as well?