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Apple Announces a Mac Event On October 27, Says 'Hello Again'

Apple announced on Wednesday that it will be holding an event on October 27. The tagline of the invite is, "hello again." This suggests that the rumors are true and that the company will indeed announce a fleet of new Mac products. The original Mac was introduced with the word "hello" in 1984. People have waited for years now for Apple to refresh its Macbooks -- some of the products in Mac line haven't received an update in 1000 days. Many expert even said earlier that Apple should stop selling the old MacBooks. The new MacBooks are expected to ship with Intel Skylake processor and a contextual keyboard. Not long ago, the company was also exploring the idea of a MacBook without a 3.5mm audio jack.

14 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Prediction by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have no idea what they will really release, but I'm pretty sure many Slashdot posters (who would never buy Apple hardware anyway) will hate whatever they change, and I'll have to explain to them all what Apple is thinking... sigh.

    Thus is the internet.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re: Prediction by Type44Q · · Score: 2

      Easy: they weren't.

    2. Re:Prediction by Pax681 · · Score: 2

      Frankly if I could run OS X reliably on a Dell XPS 15 it would be "hello again" Dell.

      http://www.osx86project.org/ fill yer boots as it CAN be done

    3. Re:Prediction by LWATCDR · · Score: 3, Informative

      As a macbook pro user let me say that I will probably not like what Apple shows.
      1. I want an m.2 slot for SSDs. They are getting bigger and cheaper and I want the option to upgrade my SSD as they improve.
      2. I want memory slots just like my MacBook Pro has. I want the option of adding ram to my notebook like I did with with my MacBook Pro.
      3. I want more than one USB ports. A Pro should also have Thunderbolt ports.
      4. Keep the audio jack. You do not need to drop it.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  2. SubjectIsSubject by p0p0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hello,
    and,
    Goodbye.

  3. Pretty Dang Exciting by tsqr · · Score: 4, Funny

    They're thinking about dropping the headphone jack. Maybe the new MacBook will be waterproof.

    1. Re:Pretty Dang Exciting by cfalcon · · Score: 2

      Right, because the only use of an Macbook pro is someone serious about audio work.

      If you're using your Mac for office style work, you might need a headphone jack to listen to or create a presentation, or participate in a meeting. If you're programming on it, you might just be listening to music on it too with your itunes, or just streaming from something else. You might be doing video editing and need the audio out for some other reason. Sure, you COULD do this with some wireless shit, but that's ultimately more drama- and of course, you can do this with wireless shit NOW, no need to subtract a jack for it.

      Also, a MacBook Pro that someone uses for their work, may also be used for recreational things from time to time, or even nightly.

      If they remove the headphone jack, it's solely for market lock-in reasons. Same as on the iPhone.

  4. Re:Nervous by fred6666 · · Score: 2

    They are pretty close already. They do not have any real desktop with room for hard drives and video cards. Even the overpriced Mac "Pro" has limited expandability and is unsuitable for most professionals.

  5. Re: mac os now locked down to IOS levels and by OzPeter · · Score: 2

    True, it's not quite to iOS levels. But you still can't run code that isn't "blessed" by Cupertino and you can't turn that off: macOS removed the ability to disable Gatekeeper.

    So this is a lie? Is that you Donald?

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    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
  6. Re: mac os now locked down to IOS levels and by OzPeter · · Score: 2

    Yes, just boot into Recovery Mode using the DVD the ... oh wait, modern Macs don't have a DVD drive and even if they did, macOS isn't available except via download. So you can't boot of media, there is no media. So no recovery mode, so no disabling rootless.

    FFS if you are going troll at least do something imaginative. Booting to Recovery Mode takes a single key press during the boot process.

    --
    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
  7. Re: mac os now locked down to IOS levels and by ilsaloving · · Score: 3, Informative

    I haven't yet installed MacOS Sierra, but given the number of stories I've read, it's clear that the people who are most in need of gatekeeper are the ones who are too stupid to be trusted with disabling it. A perfect example are those idiot chinese coders that downloaded pirated copies of xcode, which resulted in every app they wrote having malicious code injected.

    Gatekeeper is a tremendously valuable tool because it's a solid front line of defense against malicious apps, and IMO anyone who disables it is a moron.

    It's trivially easy to bypass gatekeeper on a case-by-case basis. All you do is right-click on your desired app and choose "open". It will ask you to verify whether you really want to do that, and voila, it opens. If you open an app and the OS says that it's unsigned, that's a big honking red flag, and it means you need to scrutinise the source of your application.

  8. Re:mac os now locked down to IOS levels and by ilsaloving · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Either you don't use a Mac, or your skill level is so low that you are exactly the kind of person for whom this change is designed. There is virtually no reason why you *should* disable Gatekeeper because it provides critical front-line security to protect you from malicious apps.

    If you want to grant an exception to an individual app, that is still possible. If you want to disable gatekeeper entirely, you can still do that too, although you'd be begging to be exploited by malicious software if you did.

    And, oh look! I found this on my very first google search.
    https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/g...

    Clearly you couldn't even be bothered to make the attempt to get more info before invoking the power of your pie hole.

  9. Re:Nervous by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Mac mini has been neglected for years, as has the mac pro. Their all-in-one approach is a non-starter for me, and the mini is non-expandable and badly underpowered. If they came out with an acceptable mini-tower not marked up by 3x that I could stick a few drives in and still upgrade the memory and video card in I would be game. Frankly I am done with Windows, and I am not a fan of Linux. Now would be a strategic time for them to take advantage of Windows 10 discontent, but I am sure they won't. I barely ever turn on my home PC anymore anyway. The dream is gone, as are the developers.

    They are neglected for a few reasons.

    First, the Mini and the Mac Pro are the worst selling machines in the lineup, even when they were brand new. If it wasn't for a hard core group of people who buy practically every model of them, Apple would've dropped both years ago.

    Second, both are subject to Intel - because they are the worst selling machines, Apple is not going to invest a lot of design time to accomodate various sockets. The current Mac Mini has a dual core i7 purely because that's the only processor Intel makes that is pin-compatible with the i5s. Apple will not redesign the Mini logic board just for a custom configuration - the ROI is very bad. So Apple is limited to whatever chips Intel has that span the range and share a single socket.

  10. Re: mac os now locked down to IOS levels and by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Informative

    True, it's not quite to iOS levels. But you still can't run code that isn't "blessed" by Cupertino and you can't turn that off: macOS removed the ability to disable Gatekeeper. And recent versions of OS X/macOS are "rootless" meaning the user (who clearly is no longer the owner) can't even change "system files" as root. Also no way to turn this off.

    You can run code that isn't blessed by Cupertino. In fact, Gatekeeper defaults to signed and Mac App Store apps. Signed apps are apps that a developer makes that have been signed by a key generated by Apple. Apple doesn't get a chance to review those apps - the developer writes it, signs it, and releases it. Apple has revoked a few keys before, because they were used to spread malware (because even developers can't be bothered to secure their keys, so those keys got stolen).

    And it's possible to bypass gatekeeper quite easily. First off, it only affects "unsafe" distribution methods, like software downloads from the Internet. So if you install an app from say, a CD, it works just fine (since these will be older, they will be unsigned). And code that the compiler produces is also trusted, presumably you've verified that yourself. Another way is it relies on extended attributes, so clearing those also bypasses it.

    Or you can give an unsigned app permission to run permanantly, requiring little more than a few extra seconds to press the Ctrl key and clicking Open.

    For file protection, you can disable it easily enough, though it requires a trip through the recovery mode console Even Wikipedia has the basic command you need to disable it.

    Honestly, the options are there to take full control of the machine, if you want to. For the vast, vast majority of users, including power users, leaving it at the defaults is just fine.