Slashdot Mirror

Here are a some non-paywalled links:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-encryption-idUSKCN0VW0BM
http://www.macrumors.com/2016/02/23/doj-vs-apple-12-court-orders

If the new owners of Slashdot really want to improve this site (and I have seen no evidence that they do), a good first step would be stop linking to stories that are paywalled, or that prohibit adblockers. There are always plenty of alternatives.

All right, I'm partially wrong. iOS 9.2.1 is from Jan 2016, but Apple pushed a new build of 9.2.1 on 18 Feb 2016 to fix the Error 53 issue. The /. headline says 9.2.1 came out today, which is why I was confused.

Also, to get the new build of 9.2.1, you apparently need to download it through iTunes, not over your iDevice's Wi-Fi connection.

Apple's response, by way of MacRumors:

An Apple spokeswoman commented on the issue, referring to protective security features intended to prevent "malicious" third-party components from potentially compromising a user's iPhone as the main reason for the "error 53" message.

We protect fingerprint data using a secure enclave, which is uniquely paired to the touch ID sensor. When iPhone is serviced by an authorised Apple service provider or Apple retail store for changes that affect the touch ID sensor, the pairing is re-validated. This check ensures the device and the iOS features related to touch ID remain secure. Without this unique pairing, a malicious touch ID sensor could be substituted, thereby gaining access to the secure enclave. When iOS detects that the pairing fails, touch ID, including Apple Pay, is disabled so the device remains secure.”

She adds: “When an iPhone is serviced by an unauthorized repair provider, faulty screens or other invalid components that affect the touch ID sensor could cause the check to fail if the pairing cannot be validated. With a subsequent update or restore, additional security checks result in an ‘error 53’ being displayed If a customer encounters an unrecoverable error 53, we recommend contacting Apple support.

Don't mean to reply to my own Post; but apparently El Capitan can run on a 2006/2007 Mac Pro with all features, too!

No, it was actually a special coating Apple would put on top of the glossy screen. It proved to be a very bad idea! This is why they stopped doing that...

Actually they're about a year and a half ahead of you apparently: http://www.macrumors.com/2015/11/05/apple-patents-touch-id-panic-mode/

I won't buy an AppleTV because I need a device that supports Plex.

Plex just happens to be one of the Apps available at Launch of the new Apple TV.

Even Slashdot noticed. Where were you?

Oh, and because it could fall under 5th amendment right to not incriminate yourself.

Unless you use the fingerprint lock... which courts have ruled isn't protected by the 5th.

My bad, I should have provided the original source for the linked images. Since you're clearly unfamiliar, here you go, including explanations of the three distinct features and which models support them.

They don't argue with you, because they are tired of hearing it, and want to still be friends.

There's a vast space between not arguing and confirming. They don't "not argue", they confirm. We've had a number of discussions pondering the reasons and yes, the iOS guy has started a couple of those.

Sure, Apple could maintain two complete versions of Siri,

Really? The dedicated hardware is an ASIC implementation of the software voice decoder. It doesn't change, so the software needn't change, either. There's nothing to maintain, there; the API is set in stone the moment it's burned to a chip. Google has no problem implementing a software keystore for devices with NFC but no hardware keystore, while utilizing the hardware keystore where one exists, for Google Wallet and other supported payment systems on Android. It can't possibly be that hard.

but I would bet that wouldn't be a small thing to just have lying around dormant in most Devices; so they made a decision to drop the software version.

Or simply left out of the ROM for devices with the necessary hardware. The interface would simply be a module; plug in the software decoder for devices lacking the hardware, plug in the driver in devices that have the hardware. It's actually really simple and I do it all the time when developing for mixed platforms; do you have any experience in the field?

App-Sidebarring (sorry, don't know what you mean)

This. And, for comparison, splitscreening and Picture-in-picture (which is also supported on the IPA). Picture-in-picture is, for all intents and purposes, running two applications in the foreground with multiple GraphPorts; one application being the one you are actively using, the other being the video player, which has its own GraphPort which actually overlaps the "main" one, a more technically taxing feat than having two next to each other. And both GraphPorts are able to accept input (you do get video controls when using Picture-in-Picture), so that's not the technical challenge they couldn't overcome on the IPA, either. The sidebar (apparently it's called "Slide Over") screenshot clearly demonstrates the use of multiple GraphPorts, as well; in fact, the menus that can slide from the top and bottom of the screen demonstrate this, and those are supported on literally every iPad model, and have been since at least iOS 4 (which is ran on the first iOS device I used and, thus, as far back as I can confirm).

And what about the additional RAM requirements? Does the IPA have enough for full split-screening, and having two active Apps at one time?

Considering that iOS doesn't drop backgrounded apps from RAM, it just pauses their execution, I'm going to say yes. Especially given that Android has been able to support multiple simultaneous applications since the days when 256MB was high-end. If the IPA can't manage that in 1GB, perhaps Apple's engineering team isn't as great as we all want to believe.

Bottom line, it's either incompetence or planned-obsolescence. My friends at Apple prefer to think it is not incompetence, and so do I.

They don't argue with you, because they are tired of hearing it, and want to still be friends.

There's a vast space between not arguing and confirming. They don't "not argue", they confirm. We've had a number of discussions pondering the reasons and yes, the iOS guy has started a couple of those.

Sure, Apple could maintain two complete versions of Siri,

Really? The dedicated hardware is an ASIC implementation of the software voice decoder. It doesn't change, so the software needn't change, either. There's nothing to maintain, there; the API is set in stone the moment it's burned to a chip. Google has no problem implementing a software keystore for devices with NFC but no hardware keystore, while utilizing the hardware keystore where one exists, for Google Wallet and other supported payment systems on Android. It can't possibly be that hard.

but I would bet that wouldn't be a small thing to just have lying around dormant in most Devices; so they made a decision to drop the software version.

Or simply left out of the ROM for devices with the necessary hardware. The interface would simply be a module; plug in the software decoder for devices lacking the hardware, plug in the driver in devices that have the hardware. It's actually really simple and I do it all the time when developing for mixed platforms; do you have any experience in the field?

App-Sidebarring (sorry, don't know what you mean)

This. And, for comparison, splitscreening and Picture-in-picture (which is also supported on the IPA). Picture-in-picture is, for all intents and purposes, running two applications in the foreground with multiple GraphPorts; one application being the one you are actively using, the other being the video player, which has its own GraphPort which actually overlaps the "main" one, a more technically taxing feat than having two next to each other. And both GraphPorts are able to accept input (you do get video controls when using Picture-in-Picture), so that's not the technical challenge they couldn't overcome on the IPA, either. The sidebar (apparently it's called "Slide Over") screenshot clearly demonstrates the use of multiple GraphPorts, as well; in fact, the menus that can slide from the top and bottom of the screen demonstrate this, and those are supported on literally every iPad model, and have been since at least iOS 4 (which is ran on the first iOS device I used and, thus, as far back as I can confirm).

And what about the additional RAM requirements? Does the IPA have enough for full split-screening, and having two active Apps at one time?

Considering that iOS doesn't drop backgrounded apps from RAM, it just pauses their execution, I'm going to say yes. Especially given that Android has been able to support multiple simultaneous applications since the days when 256MB was high-end. If the IPA can't manage that in 1GB, perhaps Apple's engineering team isn't as great as we all want to believe.

Bottom line, it's either incompetence or planned-obsolescence. My friends at Apple prefer to think it is not incompetence, and so do I.

They don't argue with you, because they are tired of hearing it, and want to still be friends.

There's a vast space between not arguing and confirming. They don't "not argue", they confirm. We've had a number of discussions pondering the reasons and yes, the iOS guy has started a couple of those.

Sure, Apple could maintain two complete versions of Siri,

Really? The dedicated hardware is an ASIC implementation of the software voice decoder. It doesn't change, so the software needn't change, either. There's nothing to maintain, there; the API is set in stone the moment it's burned to a chip. Google has no problem implementing a software keystore for devices with NFC but no hardware keystore, while utilizing the hardware keystore where one exists, for Google Wallet and other supported payment systems on Android. It can't possibly be that hard.

but I would bet that wouldn't be a small thing to just have lying around dormant in most Devices; so they made a decision to drop the software version.

Or simply left out of the ROM for devices with the necessary hardware. The interface would simply be a module; plug in the software decoder for devices lacking the hardware, plug in the driver in devices that have the hardware. It's actually really simple and I do it all the time when developing for mixed platforms; do you have any experience in the field?

App-Sidebarring (sorry, don't know what you mean)

This. And, for comparison, splitscreening and Picture-in-picture (which is also supported on the IPA). Picture-in-picture is, for all intents and purposes, running two applications in the foreground with multiple GraphPorts; one application being the one you are actively using, the other being the video player, which has its own GraphPort which actually overlaps the "main" one, a more technically taxing feat than having two next to each other. And both GraphPorts are able to accept input (you do get video controls when using Picture-in-Picture), so that's not the technical challenge they couldn't overcome on the IPA, either. The sidebar (apparently it's called "Slide Over") screenshot clearly demonstrates the use of multiple GraphPorts, as well; in fact, the menus that can slide from the top and bottom of the screen demonstrate this, and those are supported on literally every iPad model, and have been since at least iOS 4 (which is ran on the first iOS device I used and, thus, as far back as I can confirm).

And what about the additional RAM requirements? Does the IPA have enough for full split-screening, and having two active Apps at one time?

Considering that iOS doesn't drop backgrounded apps from RAM, it just pauses their execution, I'm going to say yes. Especially given that Android has been able to support multiple simultaneous applications since the days when 256MB was high-end. If the IPA can't manage that in 1GB, perhaps Apple's engineering team isn't as great as we all want to believe.

Bottom line, it's either incompetence or planned-obsolescence. My friends at Apple prefer to think it is not incompetence, and so do I.

And now Apple itself has issued a comment over the reports, saying that their own testing and analytics indicate that there's a difference of only 2-3% in real-world usage between the two, which is well within their level of manufacturing tolerance. To quote:

Certain manufactured lab tests which run the processors with a continuous heavy workload until the battery depletes are not representative of real-world usage, since they spend an unrealistic amount of time at the highest CPU performance state. It's a misleading way to measure real-world battery life. Our testing and customer data show the actual battery life of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, even taking into account variable component differences, vary within just 2-3% of each other.

Which is to say, this is about as much of a non-story as can be, given that the original source was a redditor, the sample size was 1, and subsequent tests have been unable to reproduce the extreme difference reported in the original anecdote.

But hey, never forget Batterygate 2015.

As more data is coming to light, it's sounding like the differences are smaller than first estimated and were likely exaggerated as a result of synthetic benchmarks not accurately modeling real-world performance. Specifically, while it does sound like TSMC's chips are performing far better than Samsung's in the synthetic benchmarks (e.g. Geekbench's battery tests), MacRumors has some followup on the topic, indicating that in the real world tests that are ongoing, the results so far appear to be much closer between the two models.

It sounds like the synthetic benchmarks may be slamming a part of the processor that TSMC has optimized better than Samsung, but that in real-world performance, that part is used far less frequently than in the synthetic benchmark, meaning that the results from the synthetic benchmark may not accurately model real-world performance.

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/...

As suspected from early results yesterday, the takeaway from Morrison and Evans' videos today seems to be that while intense cases like synthetic Geekbench tests designed to push devices to their limits can reveal significant differences in battery life between devices using the two chips, real-world impacts are much smaller and are likely to be unnoticeable to many users.

If this continues, I wouldn't do real work on [windows] ever again.

So this time didn't do it for you? There has to be another time? Given Win7+'s mod to auto install fixes deemed by MS to be critical, I think that time was at least years ago. Even IBM jumped ship.

I ask because multiple sources confirm, split-view multitasking only works on iPad Air 2 and newer.

If it's working on your iPad Air 1, you must have one of those rare ones that lacks a mute slider; e.g. an Air 2.

I ask because multiple sources confirm, split-view multitasking only works on iPad Air 2 and newer.

If it's working on your iPad Air 1, you must have one of those rare ones that lacks a mute slider; e.g. an Air 2.

To be honest, I'd trust a car from Apple more than I'd trust one from GM.

I'm not a real big GM fan, to me all their greatest hits were long long ago, but I don't think I trust Apple very much either. Shall I compare their car to the handwriting recognition of the Newton? Or perhaps to the assorted Macs which can only be opened with offensive tools? The cracking cube, the leaking G5s, the B&W G3 DMA data corruption problem... OK, I know nobody cares about that one any more. Let's see, the iBook GPU solder failures. That pissed off a lot of people. There's been more than a few failures, these are just the ones I can remember readily.

However, I'm still wondering where these Apple car rumours are coming from. It seems way out there, imho. ... Why would they build a car? A professional camera or something is far more likely imho.

Because Apple has been hiring automotive experts. Whatever they're up to, it is car-related. It might just be long-term research, though. Nobody ought to get all excited about an Apple car at this point, unless they know something more than just who Apple has been hiring lately.

The new iPad is announced Wednesday.

A core that is changeable by an outside entity at that entity's will is not what I'd call stable and certainly not one I control. Currently, that's exactly what all flavors of Win10 have in common. I can't think of a single thing I'd use it for, much like I have no use for XBox games because I don't own an xbox, I'll have no use for Windows software as I won't own a windows box. Being personally MS free for the last 5 years has left me with no desire to dive back into that mess for any reason. Linux, OSX and BSD have served any need I have. Corporations aren't as tied to MS as they may think they are, if they'd just stop to think about it for a few minutes. IBM appears to be wholesale dumping MS. I wonder if it's a coincidence that the announcement came right before the revelations of Win10s forced update mechanism. There's also the Lenovo stupid pet tricks with BIOS etc.

You mean something like this?

Just fyi there was a time when apple did not allow apps to use the camera flash as a flashlight. They said it was a inappropriate use of hardware. Years ago now but some of us still remember. http://www.engadget.com/2010/0...

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/...

I really cannot imagine why they would want to get back into the business.

There are only two companies making substantial profits in cell phones (Apple and Samsung with Apple making by far the largest profit. Samsung makes pretty much all the profit in Android with nobody else really even being a player. Nokia would bring nothing to the table that I can see to change that equation. Their brand is nothing special today. They would be just another me-too Android phone with nothing uniquely valuable to offer. Basically they are hoping some suck.., err... partner will license their brand in the (probably vain) hope that it would set them apart. This is a near zero risk strategy to Nokia but it has a near zero chance of succeeding.

It's like picking up an old cigarette that is almost used up and trying to get a few puffs out of it before it goes out forever.

you just imagined that people had problems with their iPhones when they drove into a tunnel because you thought that using iTunes would do that.

I suppose all these Apple Music users are just making it up.

You need to get treatment, boy. Seriously.

There is no substance in anything you say because you avoid the real conversation:

Apple is happy to take from the open source community Apple is not so happy to share with or even acknowledge the community of developers that OSX owes its existence to. Case in point, I can run posix apps on OSX, but can I run iTunes on FreeBSD - I somehow doubt it.

You have no answer. Those who are skilled enough, created something good that Apple built products on and the best you have to offer is snyde sarcasm and disdain.

There is little credibility in anything you have to say. Seriously.

"Ok, and with annual sales revenue of 180 Billion (with a B) or thereabouts, $450 Million amounts to the change you'd find under the couch cushions."

That is 1/4% If you routinely find 1/4% of your annual household revenue in your couch not doing very well.

Even for a household making a modest 30,000$/year; that would be like finding $75 in the couch. Hell, I make several times that per year, and I'd still consider finding $75 in the couch a pretty good day.

Now... http://www.macrumors.com/2014/...

According that Apple only had net revenue of $42.1 billion. So that's like our 30k household finding $320 in the couch. A rather nice day I'm sure.

And of that Apple only profited 8.5 billion...so more like the equivalent of finding $1588 in the couch. Come now, that's not couch money anymore... that's getting into hidden mattress money!!

why oh why do we still let an enemy oppressor flag still fly in this country? What are we celebrating by doing so?

Free speech. I firmly stand against any local, state, or federal government entities flying the Confederate flag, for exactly the reasons you provided, but I will defend an individual's right to do so, even if I vehemently disagree with their reasons for doing so.

That said, we're starting to take things into the realm of ridiculousness here. Apple is removing apps with the Confederate flag. Great. Except that they're removing a number of Civil War games that correctly used the Confederate flag to represent the Confederacy. What next? Force HBO to stop offering Band of Brothers through HBO Now on the Apple TV because it features a swastika? Remove the Dukes of Hazzard from iTunes because they have a Confederate flag painted on the roof of the car?

At the end of the day, the flag is merely a symbol, and symbols are only as powerful as we let them be. The meaning behind that flag has changed over the years, and has meant different things to different people. We need to recognize that fact, otherwise we'll swing the pendulum too far in the other direction and end up cutting in on civil liberties.

3rd party drive TRIM support could be publicly available in OSX El Capitan

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/...

"This tool force-enables TRIM for all relevant attached devices, even though they have not been validated for data integrity while using that functionality. By using this tool to enable TRIM, you agree that Apple is not liable for any consequences that may result, including but not limited to data loss or corruption."

Update as of today! el capitan (10.11) might offer TRIM support with a disclaimer of dataloss and not to hold Apple accountable for it. Linky below!

http://forums.macrumors.com/th...

this is why keyboards like textblade, with touch sensitive keys that actually don't send an input signal until you push down will be important for vr.

with that kind of keyboard, you can have a u.i. representation of the keyboard (e.g. like if you look down) and you can tell where your fingers are by glows that correspond to what keys you're touching... but the touch doesn't mean that you are entering any text yet. it's just to orient yourself on the keyboard. then you push down on the key as normal and send commands or whatever.

Or you could have little bumps on the F and J keys to orient yourself to the keyboard. Like almost every keyboard manufactured for the last 10 years.

Textblade appears cool and all (I reserve final judgement until they actually ship anything), but I fail to see how that solves the problem of typing in a VR environment any better than a standard keyboard.

Actually I fail to see how it's a problem at all. I just closed my eyes, put my hands by my side, then reached out and started typing to type this sentence. There was a bit of adjustment while I found the F and J keys, but only a half second or so. Of course, I can touch type, but are there really that many people who both need to look at the keyboard to type and are geeky enough to want a VR device?

PS
WTF is with Textblades website?!? I get the device is intended for tablets/phones/etc, so it's kind of cute, but that is the most most godawful annoying layout to try and navigate and get info from. Really bad idea for a new tech trying to attract buyers.

I gave up and just googled for the macrumors article instead.

Sanitize a language people use for actual communication?

Yeah, not so much. It's bad coding because of a lack of sanitizing.

It can't run because your Mac Pro only has a 32-bit EFI. This is not an excuse for Apple for not making it work; I'm just noting the actual technical reasoning.

http://www.everymac.com/system...

However, the simple workaround (if you have a Yosemite-compatible video card) that doesn't involve a Hackintosh-level install is to use a modified boot.efi file that thunks EFI64 calls from the 64-bit OS X kernel to the EFI32 firmware of your Pro. Look at the first post of this thread

http://forums.macrumors.com/sh...

and navigate to the section quoted below.

Another simplified installation approach is to use a second Yosemite-supported Mac and install Yosemite to the 2006/2007 Mac Pro's drive. This may be done either by attaching the 2006/2007 Mac Pro's drive as an external drive by placing the 2006/2007 Mac Pro in target disk mode or otherwise mounting the 2006/2007 Mac Pro's drive to a Yosemite-supported Mac. Then, after installation, copy Pike's EFI32 boot.efi to that drive's /usr/standalone/i386 and /System/Library/CoreServices/ directories overwriting the stock Apple EFI64 boot.efi and repair permissions. That drive should now be bootable on a 2006/2007 Mac Pro

I'm typing this from my Mac Pro 1,1 (with an ATI Radeon HD 4870). I used a different Mac (recent Mac Mini) to install Yosemite to a drive, copied the updated boot.efi file, installed the drive into my Pro, and I've been good to go ever since.

Wait for Apple to sue them like they sued these guys.

Very possible, given that Apple has already patented a flexible battery that looks like a watch strap.

iPad Continues to Lead Declining Tablet Market in First Quarter
http://www.macrumors.com/2015/...

The point is not that Apple is leading, but that the market is shriking. This might be a way for Apple to ship more iPads.

Maybe it's more they're limiting how many they make in order to make it seem like they're selling more. It's not like they've ever done that before, or anything, right?

No mostly (or ever) they haven't done that before. That would be stupidly expensive for almost no benefit. The numbers will be out in July. Apple is going to want April-June sales to be high not low when they release numbers.

As for hatred, I don't think your comments sounded like you are hating Apple. I just don't think you understand the product line and how Apple is evolving it. Like I said above look at how the Air evolved 2008-2011 that's the pattern they likely follow. The need to get the weight down to make the advantages of OSX for battery life clear, they need to get retina and they need to not lose the $800 price point on the low end. They can't do all those things at once so they have forking lines.

What you're seeing now is the last of Steve's momentum

I don't see that. What I've seen from Apple for the last 6 years or so has been a shift towards massive innovations in manufacturing and logistics and a move away from a focus on "insanely great" software. Manufacturing and logistics is Tim Cook's baby. The 2015 MacBook may not be your or my cup of tea, but I can unquestionably say its the most complex laptop to manufacture on the market today bar none. I can't really think of much that's even close to that level of complexity. The Microsoft Surface 1, and the Chrome Books are about the only product I can think of that's pushing the envelope in manufacturing even close to the degree Apple is.

As far as being useful. In a world in which PC sales have been slipping for 6 years they have grown their sales. The results on marketshare are pretty good. http://cdn.macrumors.com/artic... That graph is the unit numbers. The ASP gap has been growing till it is approaching almost 3x what it is for PCs, and of course in terms of margin Apple has consistently pulled 85-92% of the margin from PCs sales for many years running.

They aren't failing to be useful they are exceptionally useful to end users. That doesn't mean they fit everyone.

You wouldn't say Apple has as strong or a stronger hold on the music and mobile phone markets?

No. I wouldn't. The market share numbers are in some cases nearly an order of magnitude different. Suggesting Apple has a comparable hold on their markets has no basis whatsoever in reality.

Google's search market share: roughly 90%

Apple's global smartphone market share: roughly 10% to 20% (it varies based on iPhone launch dates)

Apple's music market share: roughly 30% for retail sales and 10% for streaming

I wish I could find more recent numbers for music sales, since I suspect the iTunes share of the overall music sales market is much lower now, what with streaming services knocking the legs out from digital downloads. It's also worth pointing out that, as one of the earlier links shows, Android makes up roughly 75-80% of the global smartphone market, so if you want to suggest that Apple has a monopolistic hold over the phone market, what does that say about Google, given that their share is roughly 4x greater?

OS X does not support NVME, so no, there are no NVME drives being supplied to Apple. And finally these NVME drives are just entering production and are not available in either the OEM or Retail channels yet.

The new MacBook supports NVMe on OS 10.10.3, so support is rapidly coming...

You understand that the release of the latest iPhone generations produced the highest rate switchers away from Android and over to the iPhone, right?

I don't mind the debate - I've had an iPhone since the 3GS but was and am seriously looking at switching away for various reasons. The debate should be based on fact though, and the facts are that Apple doesn't have a dearth of people moving off other platforms and over to its own.

I am pretty miffed to read this. Nothing like paying a load of cash for a shiny new laptop only to find out a couple months later that you'd have been way better off waiting.

Apple stuff is fairly predictable. Unlike everyone else, Apple generally releases on a set schedule the same time every year. Enough so that there are many "buyers guide" for Apple products.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.c...

If you're ever contemplating an Apple purchase, check that out first. Anything beyond midlife is a caution - if you can wait, then wait. Anything marked as "Don't Buy" is basically meaning it's going to come out in the next 3 months.

What is why you check the Mac Buying Guide to see if a new release is imminent so you don't end up with buyer's remorse:

http://buyersguide.macrumors.c...

Future proofing doesn't exist in tech. EVERYTHING eventually becomes obsolete. :-(

--
PHP: A language designed by a noob for boobs

You bought a Haswell-based MBP knowing full well that Broadwell had been released and would work its way into the MBP line shortly.

You also ignored the fact that Apple has been updating the Retina MacBook Pros like clockwork.

If you're miffed, be miffed at yourself. Nobody hid this from you.

Now, if I was Motorola or Samsung? Yea, I'd be worried.

Yeah, because the Samsung smartwatch has literally rocked the world. Seems to have dropped off the radar after it's initial hype, which was mainly about how they beat Apple to the punch. Now days, no one gives a shit about the samsung smart watch. And Motorola? They don't even matter anymore. And speaking of Timex. Compared side by side, that Samsung looks more like the cheap ass Timex as far as "smart watches" go. http://www.amazon.com/gp/produ... http://cdn.macrumors.com/artic...

Negative, windows phone market share is shrinking:

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/...

If you read the link you will see their sales are growing, just not at the same rate that the market is expanding whereas Blackberry sales are declining.

Negative, windows phone market share is shrinking:

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/...

How on Earth can Apple tie your account activity to a credit card without ever having that credit card number to generate that token?

And, if at ANY point in this chain Apple has your credit card number ... why would I trust they (or any other corporation) aren't retaining that.

I don't see how any of this one-time token stuff can be generated without first having your credit card information.

There's either a missing step there in which they certainly do have it ... or there is voodoo magic by which they can attach your account information to you without knowing anything.

Well, they have your credit card number, for a few seconds during setup.

Here's what happens:

You get your phone, and you snap a photo of your credit card. Your phone recognizes the card and number, and forwards that information to Apple Corporate HQ. Apple then uses that information to determine which bank to talk to (because all banks have different ways to implement this step, and why Apple Pay only works with certain banks). Apple forwards that information to the bank. Apple also forwards some hardware information hash to the bank.

Your bank then calls you (or verifies you in some way) to ensure that you're actually registering your card (the bank looks up the information - Apple doesn't have that information after all). If it's approved, the bank sends Apple a token. The token is a virtual credit card where the last 4 digits are identical to the real credit card. That token is what is stored on your device, and the credit card information promptly forgotten as it's no longer necessary.

When you use Apple Pay, you select the card, and then use the fingerprint reader. When the iPhone talks to the payment system, it passes on the token and a hash representing your hardware ID. The payment system sees the token, and passes it onto the bank who verifies the hardware ID against their own database. If it matches, then they lookup the token against their database to find which account to charge.

The credit card is used during initial setup only - after that you're passing around tokens which are unique identifiers for your card, phone, account by the bank. The bank issues the token and generates the mapping of tokens to cardholder accounts.

If your number is stolen, then attempts to use it will fail because the hardware ID is invalid, and the bank sends you a NEW token to replace your old one.

If you lose your phone, you can wipe your phone's secure element which erases keys to access your card information.

Apple Pay is a fancy term for the EMV payment standard - there's no magic in it, and it's just implementing what the payment industry says is how they want to do it. It's why it "just works" in a lot of stores because the standard was done a while ago and implemented.

http://www.macrumors.com/round...

A more detailed analysis is
http://www.tuaw.com/2014/10/02...

(Read it quick because AOL is killing TUAW)

Correction: I get close to 50% better battery life. When searching for "mac linux battery duration" the first linksays: "The only two things I *really* loved in OSX were:
* longer battery life
* very fast and efficient suspend/resume".

The second link says: "720p - Mac OS X ...
Result on 720p playback: +1h57 or +42% battery life."

The third link says: "To date the best estimated battery life value I have seen under Linux is 5 hours (I have not run an actual timed test yet) as compared to 7.5 in Mac OS"

Just one web search, three results all saying the same thing I have tested & seen for myself. OS X is much better than Linux. Shut yer trap linux bigot.

Or it could just be an automatic response of the system. If a person files for a refund enough times, that person may automatically be banned by the system. After all, this is how other systems handle similar issues.

These latest CPUs do not appear to improve CPU performance at all. They talk about GPU improvements, reduced energy consumption, and improved video encoding. If they did not bother mentioning CPU performance then you can be assured that it is minimal if any.

What they do talk about is price - $426 for 1000 units of the i7-5557U. With prices like that there will be a market for AMD CPUs. But it is a shame that AMD is not faster. With Intel the only game in town CPU prices will skyrocket. Even now, Intel appears to be competing more with themselves then AMD. Hard to warrant a computer upgrade these days.

There are plenty of Macbook Air users who are technically literate and care about such questions

He didn't say there weren't. He said it doesn't matter if they care. Because no matter how much they care, if apple doesn't adopt these and they need a new macbook... then they will buy either the slower one apple is selling or the slightly faster one for a silly markup.

And so forth... do you want a Cherry Trail mac? Maybe you do... so what?

Maybe Apple will make one, or maybe they'll just sit on their thumbs for another rake in the profit of selling a 2 year old product for the same price as the day it was announced and then go with whatever the next chipset is next year for the next refresh.

If your tech savvy and want to buy mac...
http://buyersguide.macrumors.c...

This is pretty much the site to go to. Buy something recently refreshed. Don't buy something that hasn't been recently refreshed. If you want a mini and you like the specs buy it now. Its not going to get any better any time soon.

If you want an air? Wait if you can, and buy whatever it is they refresh it with when they refresh it.

That's the point... it doesn't matter what you -want- in a product. Either it has it or it doesn't. All you can really control is whether or not you can wait for the next refresh or not... and sometimes you can't even control that.

I like Mac hardware in terms of overal build quality. I loathe it in terms of selection.

I've been a Mac user for 20+ years now and an iPhone user since 2007. Quite frankly, the hardware and software has never been better from my own experience. Go do a Google search and you'll quickly find that every new software release Apple has put out is "the worst ever." Same goes for hardware. Every time Apple has had a keynote, there have been torrents of negative reactions about how they're losing their way and going downhill. "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." Remember that?

• MobileMe (2008): outages for days at a time, push services not working, and a formal apology. Keep in mind, people were paying for this service.
• iPhone 4 and "antenna-gate"
• Mac OS X 10.2.8, which killed networking entirely for a lot of users and was quickly pulled (this was 10 years before iOS 8.0.1)
• The Snow Leopard bug that wiped all your user data.
• iPhone power adapter prongs breaking off (2008)
• The hockey puck mouse

Those are just a few. The point is, over all Apple's QA is improved dramatically. The problem is that the iPhone is far more popular than anything else Apple has ever made. It's not that the software has gone downhill; it's that there is far more scrutiny on it -- particularly in the media. "It just works" is truer today than it ever has been.