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It's official now.

Apple does not charge merchants anything for ApplePay, try doing research before posting lies.

https://support.apple.com/en-u...

- OS X's terminal is perfectly usable. Default shortcuts are funky, but you'll get used to them.
- macports is what you should be using. I like it more than the RPM I've been using since RedHat 2 (not RHEL 2, mind you).
- very good in macports, OS X comes with some older python version preinstalled, though
- Cmd-Tab, Cmd-C, Cmd-V, Cmd-X all work :)
- bettersnaptool handles all that, but of course you can arrange your windows whatever way you wish
- minor (n.n.x) version updates don't do that, major version updates (n.x) keep your installed packages usually working, but if you wish to do any package changes (updates etc.) it's best to reinstall macports, but it's very easy to do

I don't think it'll take you longer than 2 days to get used to it, as long as you read the basic keyboard shortcuts, OS X user guide, the user guide for the hardware you'll be using (e.g. iMac essentials, and google for stuff you don't know.

One more thing: to use the compiler, you need to install xcode, then from terminal run sudo gcc to accept the license. From that point on the command-line build environment is usable and you can then install macports, build your own code, etc.

- OS X's terminal is perfectly usable. Default shortcuts are funky, but you'll get used to them.
- macports is what you should be using. I like it more than the RPM I've been using since RedHat 2 (not RHEL 2, mind you).
- very good in macports, OS X comes with some older python version preinstalled, though
- Cmd-Tab, Cmd-C, Cmd-V, Cmd-X all work :)
- bettersnaptool handles all that, but of course you can arrange your windows whatever way you wish
- minor (n.n.x) version updates don't do that, major version updates (n.x) keep your installed packages usually working, but if you wish to do any package changes (updates etc.) it's best to reinstall macports, but it's very easy to do

I don't think it'll take you longer than 2 days to get used to it, as long as you read the basic keyboard shortcuts, OS X user guide, the user guide for the hardware you'll be using (e.g. iMac essentials, and google for stuff you don't know.

One more thing: to use the compiler, you need to install xcode, then from terminal run sudo gcc to accept the license. From that point on the command-line build environment is usable and you can then install macports, build your own code, etc.

Unless I'm mistaken, I'm pretty user that they have battery replacement program for the 12-inch macbook.

First, you turn off System Integrity Protection by following the directions on Apple's Configuring System Integrity Protection page.

Then, you replace it (or any other program you want, including /System/Library/Kernels/kernel).

Then, if you want, you turn System Integrity Protection back on.

They don't "slow down" when using the Apple apps

My experience was that it did slow down significantly with the Apple apps (specifically Safari and iTunes/Music) as soon as I installed iOS5 on it. The OS itself (scrolling through settings, homescreens, etc) was much slower and Im not the only one who had such issues.

version.

http://appldnld.apple.com/Quic...

I don't know how long this link will remain active, but it is for, what I believe to be, the most recent Windows version of
QuickTime.

It probably is the 32bit version and not 64bit, though. Expect this link to go dark soon.

I doubt anyone at /. will see this post though but I hope it helps someone.

I am a Linux proselytizer and I have to call bullshit on you. Apple is very good about fixing updates that bork devices, and they support devices for a very long time (although it'd be nice if they were more clear about which ones are EOL...).

Here you go

Regarding browser plug-ins, this article on Apple's website tells you how to remove QuickTime 7 for Windows. The article states,

Uninstalling QuickTime 7 also removes the legacy QuickTime 7 web plug-in, if present. Websites increasingly use the HTML5 web standard for a better video-playback experience across a wide range of browsers and devices, without additional software or plug-ins. Removing legacy browser plug-ins enhances the security of your PC.

Unfortunately, there IS a reason some people may not want to upgrade OS X: some older Macbook Pros have a hardware flaw in their GPUs, and later versions of OS X panic (i.e., crash) with these machines where the older versions don't. Then there are the poor souls who just can't bring themselves to retire their PPC-based models. I mean, c'mon - the Luxor Lamp iMacs still look pretty damn cool. Generally, OS X upgrades are very worthwhile, but some people with hardware that's 5+ years old but otherwise working fine are getting the pinch.

It's more to do with development.

You can't legally VM Mac OS. It just doesn't have compatible licensing.

From the El Capitan license agreement:

(iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software
within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control
that is already running the Apple Software, for purposes of: (a) software development; (b)
testing during software development; (c) using OS X Server; or (d) personal, noncommercial
use.

http://images.apple.com/legal/...

I never got why people like development on Mac.

Because of this:
https://developer.apple.com/li...

Yeah in Windows you have PowerShell, which is so awesome Microsoft is doing this:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/3...

https://www.google.com/search?q=ipad+won%27t+go+home

Wow!

Boy, you had to dig DEEP for that one!

However, Hater, your attempt is still laughable, for the following reasons:

1. This is OBVIOUSLY a person with an intermittent Home Button in HARDWARE, as referenced by the fact that using the even MORE dependent on SOFTWARE five-finger-pinch GESTURE seemed to FIX their issue.

2. Even though this Apple forum post is from FIVE YEARS AGO, there are ABSOLUTELY ZERO "ME TOO" POSTS IN THE THREAD, further underscoring that this was an extremely rare HARDWARE issue with THIS PARTICULAR IPAD.

But Haters just GOTTA Hate, I guess...

By the way, the iPad 2 that I am typing this on sees about 6 to 10 hours of usage, including MANY ?Home Button-Presses, EVERY SINGLE DAY since I got it several years ago, and I have YET to have the Home Button to even give an INKLING of intermittent behavior. I keep worrying that that may happen someday; but so far, it hasn't.

But in fact, there actually IS a fairly-rare issue with certain iPad Home Buttons becoming intermittent, But again, it ALWAYS appears to be a HARDWARE failure restricted to a particular iPad (despite some voodoo "fixes" reported by a few posters), and NOT the "App won't Suspend" SOFTWARE problem that was originally complained of by the OP.

You're factually wrong on so many counts that it's not even funny.

A) The cables you're comparing are different lengths. 1m for the "Apple" cable vs. 2m for the Amazon cable. No wonder it's cheaper.

B) That "Apple" cable is being sold by a third-party via Amazon. Apple doesn't sell a single one of their products directly via Amazon. Buyer beware.

C) To compare apples to Apples, an actual 2m Apple cables costs $29 ($19 for 1m), not the $7.50 you suggested it was.

D) If you want to whip out your Apple e-peen to see if it's bigger than mine, I'd wager good money I have you beat. Macs have continuously been my primary computers since the late '80s. A Mac Classic, Performa 400, PowerMac G3 300, Titanium PowerBook DVI, HiRes Aluminum PowerBook, 2008 Mac mini, 2011 Mac mini. My wife uses them, my parents use them, my siblings use them, and my wife's siblings and parents do too. Likewise for phones and tablets: iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, iPhone 5s, iPad 2, and iPad Air 2. I could list off Time Capsules, Airport base stations, and other accessories too, if you'd like.

I use Apple products on a daily basis and absolutely love them (we're planning to buy an iPhone SE this weekend, in fact, assuming they're in stock), but there's no (sane) way to deny that actual Apple dongles and cables are far more expensive than their generic counterparts. It's no different than the advice we'd give people about BTO RAM upgrades: do it yourself after buying from a third-party.

So, as someone whose love for Apple likely runs far deeper than yours: stop with the lies and misinformation, since it makes us all look like we have no clue what we're talking about.

Here you go: http://opensource.apple.com//r...

Sounds like the reality distortion field is strong with this one.

You said it brother!

Oh... wait... you didn't mean Apple's reality distortion field?
Cause 13 million iPhones, even if they were all bought straight up, not "upgraded", and if they were all 128GB models come out to $849 * 13000000 = $11.037 billion.

Last I checked, that's about 3 billion dollars less than 14 billion dollars mentioned in the summary.
And that's if everyone bought the priciest option available.
That's some distortion field to miss 3 billion dollars... probably more.

Take memory management, for example - it has garbage collection, [...]

No, it has not.

Swift uses Automatic Reference Counting (ARC).

Stop developing now until you read and understood that document.

You can't update the security enclave as it is flashed once and then it burns a circuit that makes it impossible to update again.

Source? It would be nice if it was true, but if it's true I'd expect to hear Apple trumpeting it from the roof tops. As far a I know, Apple have never said anything publicly. The reference document they publish on security says nothing about firmware upgrades for the Secure Enclave.

I would guess that the developers that came up with Universal Links didn't research the file name, otherwise they would have found Shared Web Credentials uses the same file name apple-app-site-association

I would guess that the developers that came up with Universal Links didn't research the file name, otherwise they would have found Shared Web Credentials uses the same file name apple-app-site-association

It was an iPhone 5c. It doesn't have the "secure enclave" that later models have, and is nowhere near as secure as these recent models, and by "recent", I mean anything that's a 5s or above.

See https://www.apple.com/business... for the gory details, or https://www.mikeash.com/pyblog... for a more readable version, but basically the secure enclave is designed to prevent brute-force attacks like the FBI wanted to use.

I'm reasonably certain that Apple's security team will have a larger remit on the next phone, to the extent that the secure enclave is invulnerable even to Apple (the above link speculates that it currently is not, and would therefore be vulnerable to a court warrant akin to the recent furore).

I have this for the iPad. It went along with an Atari controller. http://www.amazon.com/Atari-Ar... The games are here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/ap... It costs $10 to unlock all the games. It is a bit old now, but not as old as Atari :)

https://itunes.apple.com/us/ap...

There is of course an android equivalent.

I could see it as being something that's not only long-term fiscally advantageous but also something that enables them to push the envelope and thus give their products a lead. Part of the picture I have in my head means that they'd be selling the chips themselves instead of limiting them to their own devices. That sort of goes against business practices seen by Apple in the past but I guess it's possible, however unlikely. As a long-term strategy, it might be worthwhile.

I did mention one of the larger drawbacks in my earlier reply. It puts them at a place of a single point of failure - unless another company *also* has the tech and can spin up the fab style/tech quickly in case of a crisis. I'm thinking that's really antithetical to typical corporate behavior with regards to Apple.

But as I said before, fab lines are assininely-expensive, have to be continuously updated, and pretty-much have to be run 24/7/365 to make ends meet. Apple has wisely stayed out of that game, IMHO.

That said, if Apple made server hardware that was not a fashion accessory and had the longevity, durability, and build quality associated with the consumer lines then I'd absolutely consider purchasing it for my home use.

Apple has had many, many forays into the Server market throughout the years, including at least one home-grown variant of Unix, plus Dedicated (non-Mac) Server machines that ran IBM's AIX, and a short-lived Port of NEXTSTEP in 1999, branded as "OS X Server 1.0", and all of this long before the XServes. And I would hardly call any of them a "fashion accessory". That is a blatant slap-in-the-face to the hundreds of software and hardware engineers that worked long and hard to bring those very serious products to market.

I don't refresh nearly as often, as a home user, so it's okay for me to buy a server and expect to get five to seven years out of it. Quality isn't so valuable a metric (but is still a metric - just not as valuable) when you're going to refresh in 2-3 years already and have already factored in the MTBF with your purchase.

As a home user, that metric becomes more heavily weighted, at least it does in my choices, and I'd give Apple a serious consideration at that point. I'd SERIOUSLY want to be able to have some alternatives. I'd really rather a different operating system on the bare metal. It is BSD and is Unix-like so I could live with it but it is not my preferences. So long as it had a decent VNC server and I could get VMWare up and running then I'd almost certainly opt for it - if it were an option and I was in the market for one.

Well, Macs can run VMWare, and VNC is the built-in "Screen Sharing" feature of OS X, so...

Now the question remains: What do you really need from a home-server, and will you accept something that isn't in a 19" rackmount package as a "real server" (keeping in mind that HP and Dell sell many boxen they call "Servers" that are simply glorified tower designs).

I'm sure there's a VNC server application package that exists or could be converted easily enough. I want something better than SSH. RDP is nice but I prefer VNC. I'm not sure but I bet there's an RDP app for OS X so that's an option.

You can have all of that and more with OS X. Oh, and Apple has a spectacular Remote Admin package based on VNC, called "Apple Remote Desktop". It can also be used to admi

Have you, ever run an apple product. And blocked the transmission to the Internet? Except for a tablet, they usually take seconds to respond to your request, not milliseconds, seconds, what is the device doing? It's playing ET.

What are you trying to use? iTunes Store? App Store? Safari? Mail? Help? Spotlight with the "Suggestions" feature enabled? iCloud-"Sharing"?

That's about "it" for OS X when it comes to "Applications that depend to some extent on the Internet".

What you MAY be experiencing is also a Third-Party App (or apps) that want to phone-home. Many do. Apple has no control over those, of course. But you certainly can .

You can send in your iPad for a battery replacement, or just take it to an Apple Store if you have one nearby. At $99 it's still much cheaper than buying a new iPad: https://www.apple.com/support/...

I see people with iPhones and feel pity....That said, the products are really awesome.

I think your pity might be misplaced.

not having a single app running full-screen

Like iOS 9 split screen, you mean?

stylus... bigger sizes..

stylus...bigger sizes...

and make them capable of running Linux (OK, maybe that's asking too much).

Yes, it is. Nobody in their right mind would want this.

"Apple makes money on hardware and not on the sale of customer data."

iAd ... http://advertising.apple.com/
iBeacon ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
iTunes ...

All of these use user data to facilitate advertising or other revenue for Apple.

iAd is being discontinued.
With no new ads being accepted once current campaigns end it will be gone. The sales team has already been dismantled.

"Apple makes money on hardware and not on the sale of customer data."

iAd ... http://advertising.apple.com/
iBeacon ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
iTunes ...

All of these use user data to facilitate advertising or other revenue for Apple.

Revenue breakdown for Apple:
http://www.statista.com/statis...

So they make 80% of their revenue from hardware. iTunes exists because of the hardware. All of that other stuff like iAd/iBeacon is probably a rounding error.

Oh and:
http://www.engadget.com/2016/0...

Wi-Fi calling works on the iPhone 5s.

Not according to AT&T.

I was referring to the iOS 7 device, which they can easily unlock/break (see Section I), but declined to do so this time (the EDNY case).

The combination of iOS 8/9 with iPhone 6 and newer (HW security enclave) is designed to not be able to be broken by Apple, even if it wanted to.

That's not to say that nothing is breakable, ever; it's all about the level of effort required and whether or not one can bypass the crypto altogether.

Wi-Fi calling works on the iPhone 5s. So an upgrade just for Apple Pay?

The reason the 16GB configuration is so popular is because there's a lot of people who feel they have to have the iPhone even if they can't really afford the model they want. Paying the extra $100 for the next level up is simply too much for their budget.

It's not the apps that generally take up a lot of space, but rather things like pictures, videos, music, and other content. According to this page, the iPhone only has 11.8 GB free out of the box. By the time you subtract the space that the OS takes up, you really aren't left with much room for the rest of your stuff. My current phone only has 8 GB on board, with 4.8 Free. However, this is no problem because I can easily put in an SD card where I can install apps, as well as have it store all my pictures, music, and videos there. If iPhone just let people put an SD card in, then the 16GB configuration wouldn't be so bad.

So if they put the innards of whatever 6 or 6s in the SE without removing the NFC I am not going to get one. NFC and wallet and fingerprint reader are bad for security

The NFC chip in the iPhone is in passive mode ("listen only") until you authorize with your fingerprint. But don't believe me, you can verify this for yourself trivially by getting any NFC reader (and some Android phones can be configured as such) and polling for a response. Seriously, try it before you bash it ...

I mean, this is a really easy claim to verify empirically, why speculate?

How old are your iPods? The Plex iOS app "Requires iOS 8.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.", and iOS 8 support goes back quite a few devices.

For newer devices, I can personally vouch that Plex runs great on iPhone 5 and up, and like a dream on the new Apple TV.

The "master key" is what Apple is being asked to create. Apple even uses that phrase:
"it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks"

The word you are missing is "equivalent".

No, apparently you missed my quotes around "master key".

This entire discussion is about the passcode, not the encryption key. Oh, and the 5C doesn't work that way, too old a hardware generation.

Which Apple does not have either. Er what? The 5C completely works that way. What the 5C does not have is certain features like TouchID.>

No, from iOS Security Guide:
"For devices with an A7 or later A-series processor, the Secure Enclave coprocessor also utilizes a secure boot process that ensures its separate software is veri ed and signed by Apple ... Each Secure Enclave is provisioned during fabrication with its own UID (Unique ID) that is not accessible to other parts of the system and is not known to Apple. When the device starts up, an ephemeral key is created, entangled with its UID, and used to encrypt the Secure Enclave’s portion of the device’s memory space. Additionally, data that is saved to the le system by the Secure Enclave is encrypted with a key entangled with the UID and an anti-replay counter."
Apple's https://www.apple.com/business...

The 5C does not have Secure Enclave, it's processor is older than the A7:
"Chip
* A6 chip"
https://support.apple.com/kb/S...

The 5C is based on the 5, not the 5S. Only the 5S has Secure Enclave.

No, they are being asked to defeat an old lock.

The old lock has multiple protections on it. The order by the court it to replace the old lock with a new lock with fewer protections.

No, again you confuse the passcode with the encryption. The only thing standing between the phone automatically decrypting its data is the successful entry of a passcode, often only 4 digits. Apple is only being asked to let the FBI past the passcode. Data is only strongly protected by encryption when it is copied off of the device. While it is still on the device it is really only protected by the passcode entry delay and automatic wiping if there are too manny failed passcode attempts. Which is why the FBI wants only these removed.

The "master key" is what Apple is being asked to create. Apple even uses that phrase:
"it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks"

The word you are missing is "equivalent".

No, apparently you missed my quotes around "master key".

This entire discussion is about the passcode, not the encryption key. Oh, and the 5C doesn't work that way, too old a hardware generation.

Which Apple does not have either. Er what? The 5C completely works that way. What the 5C does not have is certain features like TouchID.>

No, from iOS Security Guide:
"For devices with an A7 or later A-series processor, the Secure Enclave coprocessor also utilizes a secure boot process that ensures its separate software is veri ed and signed by Apple ... Each Secure Enclave is provisioned during fabrication with its own UID (Unique ID) that is not accessible to other parts of the system and is not known to Apple. When the device starts up, an ephemeral key is created, entangled with its UID, and used to encrypt the Secure Enclave’s portion of the device’s memory space. Additionally, data that is saved to the le system by the Secure Enclave is encrypted with a key entangled with the UID and an anti-replay counter."
Apple's https://www.apple.com/business...

The 5C does not have Secure Enclave, it's processor is older than the A7:
"Chip
* A6 chip"
https://support.apple.com/kb/S...

The 5C is based on the 5, not the 5S. Only the 5S has Secure Enclave.

No, they are being asked to defeat an old lock.

The old lock has multiple protections on it. The order by the court it to replace the old lock with a new lock with fewer protections.

No, again you confuse the passcode with the encryption. The only thing standing between the phone automatically decrypting its data is the successful entry of a passcode, often only 4 digits. Apple is only being asked to let the FBI past the passcode. Data is only strongly protected by encryption when it is copied off of the device. While it is still on the device it is really only protected by the passcode entry delay and automatic wiping if there are too manny failed passcode attempts. Which is why the FBI wants only these removed.

The lock is part of the door. The door, and its lock, are Apple's software. Apple is being asked for a master key that doesn't care about the tenant's pin setting inside the tumbler of the lock, the user's passcode on the phone.

There is no master key and there never was.

The "master key" is what Apple is being asked to create. Apple even uses that phrase:
"it would be the equivalent of a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks"
http://www.apple.com/customer-...

Apple has set up its iOS so that it never knows what the keys that the user has set.

This entire discussion is about the passcode, not the encryption key. Oh, and the 5C doesn't work that way, too old a hardware generation.

What Apple is being asked to do is to create a new lock ...

No, they are being asked to defeat an old lock.

Plus, Apple is defending the morally reprehensible position of not letting device owners install whatever software they want whenever they want.

IBM didn't allow you to install whatever OS you wanted on their mainframes. Technically you could but it would void the warranty and IBM would never help you again. (This was the same position as HP, Digital, just about every other mainframe and mini-computer maker).

On top of that, iOS isn't fully open sourced, and Intellectual Property is Imaginary Property Anwyay, so forcing Apple to give up iOS to the world doesn't matter since it's worth nothing.

This factually, a lie. Intellect Property being imaginary property worth nothing means that all artists have nothing of worth. Their work is worth nothing according to you. Authors, songwriters, screenwriters: their work is meaningless.

Oh, wait, I'm sorry is this not the regular SJW thread but the special thread where all of those talking points are intentionally thrown out the window because Apple is doing something that is emotionally appealing to the mob?

No, it's because Apple is making sound legal arguments. Based on your comments this might be beyond your reasoning.

I don't remember the powered off bit so maybe I'm thinking of something else but the attacks against SIMs would seem to still be possible, e.g. the srlabs work. The IOS security guide (PDF link) states that it'll only load cryptographically signed baseband. However that only makes any difference at boot, once loaded then I'd guess it's still fair game if it can be exploited.

IMO the FBI could get into this phone if they wanted without Apple's help, there have been a few possible options published like de-soldering certain chips and copying them. They've just picked this particular case to kick off their argument against encryption on consumer devices, quite possibly as they think they can get the most public support in this instance.

The key is not in the source code. I suggest you read the Apple Security guide for an explanation of how the boot sequence and security actually works. https://www.apple.com/business...

They could, except the FBI screwed up and changed the cloud password for the phone (locking themselves out of it in an attempt to keep anyone else out of it) and while the County paid for the employer option of being able to reset the PIN on their owned phones, they never actually got around to installing it on their employee's phones. Now they want Apple to bail them out of their mistakes by creating a special version of their phone OS which drops all the PIN code brute force protection.

Actually, they not only paid for MDM, there's indication they actually used it(*) - and thus they should be able to unlock the phone without Apple's help.

(*) http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf...

My wife also had an iPhone issued by the County and she did not use it for any personal communication. San Bernardino is one of the largest Counties in the country. They can track the phone on GPS in case they needed to determine where people were

If that doesn't sound like MDM was active on the phone, what would? But hey, remember kids, this case isn't actually about the data on this phone anyway. It's just sounds important enough so the slippery slope water park ride can be opened.

Release the source code?

Damn... can't the FBI even use a web browser?

(I know, there's likely lots more to it, but damn... it's not like there's all that much hidden. I mean, you'd think the FBI were demanding source code to one of Microsoft's OS variants or something.)

You can start, but you won't get very far:
JavaScriptCore-7601.1.46.3
WTF-7601.1.46.3
WebCore-7601.1.46.10
WebKit-7601.1.46.9
WebKit2-7601.1.46.9
libiconv-44

You could compile most of a web browser.

Dear FBI,

You can ALREADY start downloading OS X & iOS source code from here:

http://opensource.apple.com/

The payment card industry needs to fix its crappy, insecure payment cards first before accusing businesses,

It's not entirely clear what you mean by "payment card industry". The "payment card industry" is everybody, including "businesses" and there's an awful lot of existing infrastructure all that has to keep working. It sounds like you are complaining about card schemes (Visa, MasterCard, Amex) but the Tokenisation stuff they've come up with via EMVco is pretty good, it's just there's an awful lot of infrastructure (including at "businesses") that needs to be updated to work with it. (Indeed EMV one time payment tokens appear to be one of the modes supported by ApplePay, so it's probable that people are doing such payments today, but probably only in cases where the cardholder's bank supports it, the merchant supports it in their app, and the merchant's payment gateway supports it, etc etc etc).

But saying the payment industry should do X "before" trying to improve security at businesses is ludicrous, security is about dealing with the real world and trying to make what is already there better, not doing nothing until some ideal solution becomes available.

Fine, I got it wrong, it is a lightning connector:

http://www.apple.com/iphone-6s...

As I am not a iPhone owner, I wasn't aware that they have a special name for the port on the phone. So sue me.

On the newest iPhones (A7 processor and newer), the Secure Enclave enforces the rules. This is a coprocessor chip with code baked in during manufacture and is implicitly trusted. It also has the AES-256 algorithm and key that protects the storage. The key is locked in the silicon with no way to extract it; the chip manufacturer doesn't keep it and Apple never has it. In order to access the encrypted storage, the request must pass through the SE. The class keys that are used are derived from the baked-in key and the passcode. 10 invalid passcode attempts and the chip will erase the encryption keys.

For a much better description, read this: https://www.apple.com/business... starting from page 10.

For the San Bernadino killers' iPhones, they have older iPhones where this is logic part of the iOS software. Therefore, a change to iOS is capable of altering the 10-strikes rule on their devices, and that's what the FBI is asking Apple to do. Had the murderers been using an iPhone 6 (or maybe even the iPhone 5S) not even Apple would be able to break them. The only options I see there might be physically dissecting the chip and somehow reading the bits from the flash storage in the chip. That's been done on the older, unsophisticated chips like those found in credit cards, but I've never heard of a researcher able to read data from the nanometer-scale chips in use in the Apple CPUs. Maybe the NSA has someone in house who could do that, but we civilians have no way of knowing what goes on in those labs.

You do realize that you can disable System Integrity Protection, the thing that stops you removing your kernel, C library and such?