I was around the last time the USA got rid of daylight-savings time, in 1973-1975. It was total hell. Children went to school in pitch darkness and bitter cold, and people drove to work in the dark. I can't imagine who would want this again. You get rid of a one-hour change for a much worse difficulty every day for months on end.
These days, many more working people travel regularly than in 1973, when jet travel was so unreachable for the common man that rich people were called the "jet set". Most working people today deal with much worse than a one-hour change on a regular basis.
Technically, that was actually year-round Daylight Saving Time, i.e., elimination of standard time, not elimination of DST. But the first link suggests that's also what is proposed here (they technically don't hate DST, just the change--and so-called "standard time," in which we actually now spend less time of the year in than DST--is usually the one people object to). This would indeed make the morning sunrise later with respect to the clock, an issue in winter for many regions of the US, the argument usually being that children would go to school in the dark in the morning (I'm not sure the "going to work" argument would hold up since where I live, it's already dark after work during standard time by late November, so it's either one or the other).
Is it too much to ask for Slashdot to not plagiarize the exact headline from the MacRumors article they linked to? It's one thing if it's a concise, objective headline and two people may have independently arrived at similar wording, but the original headline is highly editorialized and Slashdot's plagiarism is glaringly obvious.
It's well known that gays will lie about their HIV status. As such, all who are HIV-positive should be on a list which can be accessed by anyone.
And BTW how do you even deal with people who have no idea they are HIV positive and have never been tested?
A bigger problem than the anonymous coward you quoted seems to be aware of. Someone who doesn't know they are HIV+ you cannot be treated. Most people who are are aware of their HIV+ status and treated eventually become undetectable, and the consensus is that undetectable is effectively untransmittable (see: "people who take ART daily as prescribed and achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner").
The risk is much greater from someone who says they're "negative" but only because they've never been tested. As bad of an idea as the poster's "list" would be anyway, it has no chance of helping here, where the greater danger lies.
The real problem is that security fixes are not well communicated...
Exactly! Most updates have replaced detailed release notes with ambiguous comments as such. "Fixed various bugs" "Fixes some other minor issues" [...]
Even worse, so many apps now (on mobile devices especially) have dumbed their release notes down to something that isn't even release notes. You 've seen them--things like: "We're making things better in every release. Make sure you have automatic updates turned on!" without even the slightest hint of something resembling the summary of a changelog (which, at least, "fixed various bugs" might be).
I don't want an Amazon device that's capable of listening to me, thanks. That's why we have ye olde fire stick with the non-microphone remote.
Please tell me what battery technology they are using when a pair of what appear to be typical AAA alkalines are capable of powering an always-on microphone and sending all your data to Amazon for the year or so Fire TV remote batteries tend to last.
Even if you don't trust Amazon, the remote doesn't do anything on its own--it has to go through the Fire device to get a network connection. If that's off, then...
Generally speaking, dictionaries define words as they are used. They do not prescribe how words "should" be used. The dictionary only says that because that is historically how the words were used. If the meaning of the words as people use them changes, most dictionaries will, too. That being said, with rare exception, most dictionaries document meaning as used in "standard" usage, with is how many would say that language "should" be used, but there are a variety of non-standard usages (and the standard itself is more or less arbitrary). As these become more popular, most dictionaries at least include usage notes for these--and after enough generations, some of these even become the standard.
But the dictionary just documents the rules. It doesn't make them.:)
It's more correct to say that the Let's Encrypt root certificate is now a trusted root certificate in the certificate store of all major browsers.
Yeah, I'm guessing whoever wrote the summary mis-paraphrased the press release on Let's Encrypt's website, which says that it is now "trusted by all major root programs" (i.e., those by Mozilla, Microsoft, Apple, etc., where it is decided which root certificates are distributed with their products). It could almost be a slip of the "tongue" since "root certificate" is a much more common phrase, but then they kept saying it...
with [...] the exception of Apple, as I've yet to see one of theirs overlap other sockets on a power strip of any country, unless the strip itself has been very poorly designed.
Funny enough, the Apple MacBook-style charger was one pictured as problematic in the article, in this case due to low clearance if you were plugging it in, prongs-up, in an outlet very close to the floor. This was an odd example (as were a couple other pictures in the article: they were all duplex receptacles and plugging it into the other one would have helped in nearly every case), since the plug is not polarized (at least in the US) and there's no reason they couldn't have plugged it in the other direction, "upside-down" if you will.
Get a small mono laser printer for the occasional job at home. I'm not sure why the submitter seems to have forgotten that these exist--the "drying out" problem is unique to inkjets. There are several lasers under $100 USD (e.g., the Brother HL-L2300D) and even the starter toner will probably last years if you print so infrequently. (Though I'd probably opt for an MFD myself so I can get a scanner, too--comes in handy.)
Then, if you do want to print photos or fancy color, etc., use a service. Maybe even test a B&W draft at home first now that you can. This is what I did before I bought a color laser printer (again not too expensive, though if I printed more often the toner would probably get me).
Returns where there isn't a problem with the item and you want to return it because you don't like it, no longer need it, ordered by mistake, etc.? Returns that are Amazon's/the seller's fault are comped, but other returns (most of which are allowed, subject to the item's/category's return policy) are not.
Did you have concerns about lightening and grounding your antenna?
I don't know where you live, but I'm pretty sure the NEC in the US requires grounding both the antenna mast and the antenna itself, the latter usually done via a coax grouding block and both preferably (and I think it on some form ultimately must be) grounded to the house's service panel grounding. Not an electrician, so please don't take this as advice--but do know that yes, an outdoor antenna should, indeed, be grounded.
Yeah, third-party battery sellers (and most are third-party) on Amazon are a crapshoot and I don't trust them to be what they say anymore. Even if you're lucky to get something branded correctly, it's unlikely to be packaged correctly (e.g., pictured with a box but shipped in a bag and who knows who old). Battery Junction and other specialty stores have become my go-to shopping destinations for these, and they're usually cheaper unless your order is extremely small (Battery Junction does charge shipping). I have a lot of ZigBee sensors that use CR2 batteries but gave up on Amazon after a few sellers gave me CR123A cells instead.
I do buy AmazonBasics batteries on occasion. There's a reviewer, "NLee the Engineer" who's done extensive testing on their rechargeable ones (and a few other brands) and it's often the case that they're repackaged, previous-generation Eneloops or similar, which is good enough for me. The AmazonBasics alkaines are nice to have sometimes too, but I don't use many of those and it's often effectively cheaper to just throw in a couple alkalines from another store while I'm at it buying other batteries from them.
Not only is Paint.NET better than Microsoft Paint, I think it is better than the entry level paint alternatives on linux and MacOS.
macOS doesn't even come with a built-in Paint alternative. Paint.NET is better in that it can do more, but it takes longer to load than Paint (which is more or less instant) and sometimes provides too much functionality when all you're trying to do is, for example, crop an image--Paint makes that very simple.
While that may be happening, I've also noticed Siri getting worse at some things. I use Siri a lot to create reminders since it's easier than typing it in and choosing a location, time, or other trigger for an alert. She's gotten better with things like 'Siri, add a reminder at 9 PM today to 'do laundry tomorrow morning,'" which she used to schedule for "tomorrow morning" even if I asked it separately: "Add a reminder at 9 PM today" / "OK, tell me what for" / "To do laundry tomorrow morning." Now she'll often fail to create reminders at all: "Hey Siri, add a reminder today at 9 PM to do laundry" / "I'm sorry, you don't have any reminders for "do laundry" today at 9 PM." Yeah, no kidding--that's why I asked you to make one.
How controllable is Chrome by group policy? It's good to be able to lock regular users out of the settings and developer tools but grant certain access to those that need it.
Very. There are Administrative Templates available from Google and you can use them to create GPOs that either set computer/user policies (not changeable by user) or default user preferences (changeable). I've used the former to prevent installation of extensions and whatnot and the latter to configure homepages. Disabling developer mode is another thing you can do. I'm not sure if there's an item to disable user access to Settings (maybe you could blacklist chrome://settings?), but I think a better option for most cases would be to enable GPO items that will configure as policies specific settings you don't want the users to change.
Nope. It's just a bad summary. TFA deals with "U.S. residential electricity consumption per capita 1990-2015," so if they mean "households," it's on a collective basis rather than per household.
However, I find it hard to believe that lighting alone is responsible for this (though I might be biased since I've long used CFLs, was an early adopter of LEDs, and would not even consider incandescents for general use). Could it also be more energy-efficient computer processors (and more laptops, tablet, etc. usage as opposed to desktops)? I don't doubt that lighting contributes to this, and I guess LEDs might matter if a lot of people are switching from incandescents, but a lot of people are already using CFLs and LEDs aren't that much more efficient. One commenter in the article notes that this could also be people intentionally trying to consume less energy due to rising rates, especially since the data don't show just wealthy areas (where appliances and the like are more likely to be replaced with newer, more efficient versions) leading the trend.
One mini-display port in the laptop? Really? This thing ought to be able to drive two external monitors right out of the box (as most good laptops do), yet it only has one port for display?
Simplicity my ass.
I'm not a fan of the Surface myself, but you're wrong: you can hook up multiple monitors to the Surface, even with one Mini Display Port. You need to look up "Display Port chaining" before you continue spreading incorrect information.
Will people who depend on a 32 bit plug-in be able to use it seamlessly with the 64 bit Chrome? That may not be the case.
Like what? Chrome stopped supporting NPAPI plugs (e.g., Java applets) a year and a half ago. They have a "built-in" Flash player, as well, and those are probably the most popular plugins. Basically, anything you need that is still a 32-bit plugin probably already stopped working.
Windows 10 S is the walled-garden edition, so this is not surprising (but still a silly move from MS). I predict Windows 10 S will fail for the same reason that Windows RT failed: The inability to run "legacy" (desktop) Windows programs.
Actually, you can distribute "legacy" apps (Win32 or non-Universal.NET apps, for example) through the Windows Store and, thus, presumably run them on Windows 10 S. With Windows RT, you really couldn't because both the processor and (I'd assume) most of the OS were not compatible. But of course, the key here is that the "legacy" app developer would have to repackage the app for distribution in the Store, and it will be sandboxed like Univeral/Store apps are. I doubt this would for for any kind of app. Maybe someone will develop a sort of "jailbreak" for 10 S, but if I were in this situation I'd just upgrade to Pro--or not buy this in the first place.
They charge you for owning a router that connects to it?
No. The summary says, "Verizon will charge you a $10 per month router charge unless you pay $150 for the Verizon router." So, you can pay $10/month to "rent" it indefinitely, or you can pay $150 to buy it once. This setup is pretty common for cable and DSL providers in my area and presumably througout the US, though the option to buy your own is usually not as clearly advertised (especially for cable, in my experience), probably so they can keep making money off you long after you've paid off what an outright purchase would have cost. Not sure how other fiber-optic providers work (we don't have much where I live for residential customers), but the fact that Verizon is doing this for theirs doesn't surprise me, nor does it seem particularly sketchy given that it seems to be the norm.
But wouldn't that mean if you had a Mac that came with all this stuff and for whatever reason added a second user to it, you'd have to buy it all for the new user?
No, Mac App Store does system-wide installs, but the purchase and download are tied to one specific Apple ID. If that Apple ID is in use on a specific computer and there is another user on the computer tied to a different Apple ID, they can still use the app.
Or that if you went through a breakup and let your ex keep the iTunes account (I did), you'd have to buy all the stuff you got for free?
Yes, given that the purchase is tied to a specific Apple ID (e.g., iTunes account). I have, however, seen reports (or at least one; not sure if it was here or another forum) lately of people getting prompted if they would like to transfer the iWork/iLife suite licenses to another user, but I'm not sure what the conditions are under which it prompts. In any case, now that seems irrelevant.
I still don't get it. What else would you run these apps on if not a Mac or iOS device? (To me, they've always been free so...what changed?)
You don't have to purchase a NEW iOS or Mac to get these apps anymore.
That's what's different. Of course, given that Apple has had this thing going on for years now, I'd be surprised if there was someone that wasn't already eligible for them. You'd have to be toting around a really old iPhone (probably around the 3GS era) or a really old Mac (over 10 years old) to not qualify.
Please try your arithmetic again. Apple announced the previous change in 2013, as stated in the summary. Specifically, that was October of 2013, but the iPhone 5s was released in September. Thus, early adopters could have a device that was only recently discontinued and still fully supported by the latest version of iOS that is ineligible. Additionally, since Apple did, indeed, manufacture iMacs in 2013, there is no need to go back to 2007 in order to find a Mac that would not have been eligible for this, either.
Slashdot Mirror
I was around the last time the USA got rid of daylight-savings time, in 1973-1975. It was total hell. Children went to school in pitch darkness and bitter cold, and people drove to work in the dark. I can't imagine who would want this again. You get rid of a one-hour change for a much worse difficulty every day for months on end.
These days, many more working people travel regularly than in 1973, when jet travel was so unreachable for the common man that rich people were called the "jet set". Most working people today deal with much worse than a one-hour change on a regular basis.
Technically, that was actually year-round Daylight Saving Time, i.e., elimination of standard time, not elimination of DST. But the first link suggests that's also what is proposed here (they technically don't hate DST, just the change--and so-called "standard time," in which we actually now spend less time of the year in than DST--is usually the one people object to). This would indeed make the morning sunrise later with respect to the clock, an issue in winter for many regions of the US, the argument usually being that children would go to school in the dark in the morning (I'm not sure the "going to work" argument would hold up since where I live, it's already dark after work during standard time by late November, so it's either one or the other).
Is it too much to ask for Slashdot to not plagiarize the exact headline from the MacRumors article they linked to? It's one thing if it's a concise, objective headline and two people may have independently arrived at similar wording, but the original headline is highly editorialized and Slashdot's plagiarism is glaringly obvious.
It's well known that gays will lie about their HIV status. As such, all who are HIV-positive should be on a list which can be accessed by anyone.
And BTW how do you even deal with people who have no idea they are HIV positive and have never been tested?
A bigger problem than the anonymous coward you quoted seems to be aware of. Someone who doesn't know they are HIV+ you cannot be treated. Most people who are are aware of their HIV+ status and treated eventually become undetectable, and the consensus is that undetectable is effectively untransmittable (see: "people who take ART daily as prescribed and achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner").
The risk is much greater from someone who says they're "negative" but only because they've never been tested. As bad of an idea as the poster's "list" would be anyway, it has no chance of helping here, where the greater danger lies.
The real problem is that security fixes are not well communicated...
Exactly! Most updates have replaced detailed release notes with ambiguous comments as such.
"Fixed various bugs"
"Fixes some other minor issues" [...]
Even worse, so many apps now (on mobile devices especially) have dumbed their release notes down to something that isn't even release notes. You 've seen them--things like: "We're making things better in every release. Make sure you have automatic updates turned on!" without even the slightest hint of something resembling the summary of a changelog (which, at least, "fixed various bugs" might be).
You trust Amazon? That's cute.
I don't want an Amazon device that's capable of listening to me, thanks. That's why we have ye olde fire stick with the non-microphone remote.
Please tell me what battery technology they are using when a pair of what appear to be typical AAA alkalines are capable of powering an always-on microphone and sending all your data to Amazon for the year or so Fire TV remote batteries tend to last.
Even if you don't trust Amazon, the remote doesn't do anything on its own--it has to go through the Fire device to get a network connection. If that's off, then...
Generally speaking, dictionaries define words as they are used. They do not prescribe how words "should" be used. The dictionary only says that because that is historically how the words were used. If the meaning of the words as people use them changes, most dictionaries will, too. That being said, with rare exception, most dictionaries document meaning as used in "standard" usage, with is how many would say that language "should" be used, but there are a variety of non-standard usages (and the standard itself is more or less arbitrary). As these become more popular, most dictionaries at least include usage notes for these--and after enough generations, some of these even become the standard.
But the dictionary just documents the rules. It doesn't make them. :)
It's more correct to say that the Let's Encrypt root certificate is now a trusted root certificate in the certificate store of all major browsers.
Yeah, I'm guessing whoever wrote the summary mis-paraphrased the press release on Let's Encrypt's website, which says that it is now "trusted by all major root programs" (i.e., those by Mozilla, Microsoft, Apple, etc., where it is decided which root certificates are distributed with their products). It could almost be a slip of the "tongue" since "root certificate" is a much more common phrase, but then they kept saying it...
with [...] the exception of Apple, as I've yet to see one of theirs overlap other sockets on a power strip of any country, unless the strip itself has been very poorly designed.
Funny enough, the Apple MacBook-style charger was one pictured as problematic in the article, in this case due to low clearance if you were plugging it in, prongs-up, in an outlet very close to the floor. This was an odd example (as were a couple other pictures in the article: they were all duplex receptacles and plugging it into the other one would have helped in nearly every case), since the plug is not polarized (at least in the US) and there's no reason they couldn't have plugged it in the other direction, "upside-down" if you will.
Get a small mono laser printer for the occasional job at home. I'm not sure why the submitter seems to have forgotten that these exist--the "drying out" problem is unique to inkjets. There are several lasers under $100 USD (e.g., the Brother HL-L2300D) and even the starter toner will probably last years if you print so infrequently. (Though I'd probably opt for an MFD myself so I can get a scanner, too--comes in handy.)
Then, if you do want to print photos or fancy color, etc., use a service. Maybe even test a B&W draft at home first now that you can. This is what I did before I bought a color laser printer (again not too expensive, though if I printed more often the toner would probably get me).
You must be new here. They obviously mean "Seamonkey" (for those who remember "Netscape Communicator").
I think that's the joke. ;-) (Party like it's 2002.)
Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1200/
What returns are not free?
Returns where there isn't a problem with the item and you want to return it because you don't like it, no longer need it, ordered by mistake, etc.? Returns that are Amazon's/the seller's fault are comped, but other returns (most of which are allowed, subject to the item's/category's return policy) are not.
Did you have concerns about lightening and grounding your antenna?
I don't know where you live, but I'm pretty sure the NEC in the US requires grounding both the antenna mast and the antenna itself, the latter usually done via a coax grouding block and both preferably (and I think it on some form ultimately must be) grounded to the house's service panel grounding. Not an electrician, so please don't take this as advice--but do know that yes, an outdoor antenna should, indeed, be grounded.
Yeah, third-party battery sellers (and most are third-party) on Amazon are a crapshoot and I don't trust them to be what they say anymore. Even if you're lucky to get something branded correctly, it's unlikely to be packaged correctly (e.g., pictured with a box but shipped in a bag and who knows who old). Battery Junction and other specialty stores have become my go-to shopping destinations for these, and they're usually cheaper unless your order is extremely small (Battery Junction does charge shipping). I have a lot of ZigBee sensors that use CR2 batteries but gave up on Amazon after a few sellers gave me CR123A cells instead.
I do buy AmazonBasics batteries on occasion. There's a reviewer, "NLee the Engineer" who's done extensive testing on their rechargeable ones (and a few other brands) and it's often the case that they're repackaged, previous-generation Eneloops or similar, which is good enough for me. The AmazonBasics alkaines are nice to have sometimes too, but I don't use many of those and it's often effectively cheaper to just throw in a couple alkalines from another store while I'm at it buying other batteries from them.
Not only is Paint.NET better than Microsoft Paint, I think it is better than the entry level paint alternatives on linux and MacOS.
macOS doesn't even come with a built-in Paint alternative. Paint.NET is better in that it can do more, but it takes longer to load than Paint (which is more or less instant) and sometimes provides too much functionality when all you're trying to do is, for example, crop an image--Paint makes that very simple.
While that may be happening, I've also noticed Siri getting worse at some things. I use Siri a lot to create reminders since it's easier than typing it in and choosing a location, time, or other trigger for an alert. She's gotten better with things like 'Siri, add a reminder at 9 PM today to 'do laundry tomorrow morning,'" which she used to schedule for "tomorrow morning" even if I asked it separately: "Add a reminder at 9 PM today" / "OK, tell me what for" / "To do laundry tomorrow morning." Now she'll often fail to create reminders at all: "Hey Siri, add a reminder today at 9 PM to do laundry" / "I'm sorry, you don't have any reminders for "do laundry" today at 9 PM." Yeah, no kidding--that's why I asked you to make one.
How controllable is Chrome by group policy? It's good to be able to lock regular users out of the settings and developer tools but grant certain access to those that need it.
Very. There are Administrative Templates available from Google and you can use them to create GPOs that either set computer/user policies (not changeable by user) or default user preferences (changeable). I've used the former to prevent installation of extensions and whatnot and the latter to configure homepages. Disabling developer mode is another thing you can do. I'm not sure if there's an item to disable user access to Settings (maybe you could blacklist chrome://settings?), but I think a better option for most cases would be to enable GPO items that will configure as policies specific settings you don't want the users to change.
The number of people in an average household has decreased. It's not surprising that fewer individuals use less electricity.
Nope. It's just a bad summary. TFA deals with "U.S. residential electricity consumption per capita 1990-2015," so if they mean "households," it's on a collective basis rather than per household.
However, I find it hard to believe that lighting alone is responsible for this (though I might be biased since I've long used CFLs, was an early adopter of LEDs, and would not even consider incandescents for general use). Could it also be more energy-efficient computer processors (and more laptops, tablet, etc. usage as opposed to desktops)? I don't doubt that lighting contributes to this, and I guess LEDs might matter if a lot of people are switching from incandescents, but a lot of people are already using CFLs and LEDs aren't that much more efficient. One commenter in the article notes that this could also be people intentionally trying to consume less energy due to rising rates, especially since the data don't show just wealthy areas (where appliances and the like are more likely to be replaced with newer, more efficient versions) leading the trend.
I said one display port, not that the Surface couldn't support two monitors (like most any other good machine these days).
You said it should be able to support more than one display out of the box, implying it doesn't, but my apologies if I inferred too much.
If you want more, you have to buy a splitter or chain. In any case a dongle that costs extra and increases travel weight.
No, I'm still not sure you understand Display Port chaining. There are no "dongles" involved."
One mini-display port in the laptop? Really? This thing ought to be able to drive two external monitors right out of the box (as most good laptops do), yet it only has one port for display?
Simplicity my ass.
I'm not a fan of the Surface myself, but you're wrong: you can hook up multiple monitors to the Surface, even with one Mini Display Port. You need to look up "Display Port chaining" before you continue spreading incorrect information.
Will people who depend on a 32 bit plug-in be able to use it seamlessly with the 64 bit Chrome? That may not be the case.
Like what? Chrome stopped supporting NPAPI plugs (e.g., Java applets) a year and a half ago. They have a "built-in" Flash player, as well, and those are probably the most popular plugins. Basically, anything you need that is still a 32-bit plugin probably already stopped working.
Windows 10 S is the walled-garden edition, so this is not surprising (but still a silly move from MS). I predict Windows 10 S will fail for the same reason that Windows RT failed: The inability to run "legacy" (desktop) Windows programs.
Actually, you can distribute "legacy" apps (Win32 or non-Universal .NET apps, for example) through the Windows Store and, thus, presumably run them on Windows 10 S. With Windows RT, you really couldn't because both the processor and (I'd assume) most of the OS were not compatible. But of course, the key here is that the "legacy" app developer would have to repackage the app for distribution in the Store, and it will be sandboxed like Univeral/Store apps are. I doubt this would for for any kind of app. Maybe someone will develop a sort of "jailbreak" for 10 S, but if I were in this situation I'd just upgrade to Pro--or not buy this in the first place.
They charge you for owning a router that connects to it?
No. The summary says, "Verizon will charge you a $10 per month router charge unless you pay $150 for the Verizon router." So, you can pay $10/month to "rent" it indefinitely, or you can pay $150 to buy it once. This setup is pretty common for cable and DSL providers in my area and presumably througout the US, though the option to buy your own is usually not as clearly advertised (especially for cable, in my experience), probably so they can keep making money off you long after you've paid off what an outright purchase would have cost. Not sure how other fiber-optic providers work (we don't have much where I live for residential customers), but the fact that Verizon is doing this for theirs doesn't surprise me, nor does it seem particularly sketchy given that it seems to be the norm.
But wouldn't that mean if you had a Mac that came with all this stuff and for whatever reason added a second user to it, you'd have to buy it all for the new user?
No, Mac App Store does system-wide installs, but the purchase and download are tied to one specific Apple ID. If that Apple ID is in use on a specific computer and there is another user on the computer tied to a different Apple ID, they can still use the app.
Or that if you went through a breakup and let your ex keep the iTunes account (I did), you'd have to buy all the stuff you got for free?
Yes, given that the purchase is tied to a specific Apple ID (e.g., iTunes account). I have, however, seen reports (or at least one; not sure if it was here or another forum) lately of people getting prompted if they would like to transfer the iWork/iLife suite licenses to another user, but I'm not sure what the conditions are under which it prompts. In any case, now that seems irrelevant.
You don't have to purchase a NEW iOS or Mac to get these apps anymore.
That's what's different. Of course, given that Apple has had this thing going on for years now, I'd be surprised if there was someone that wasn't already eligible for them. You'd have to be toting around a really old iPhone (probably around the 3GS era) or a really old Mac (over 10 years old) to not qualify.
Please try your arithmetic again. Apple announced the previous change in 2013, as stated in the summary. Specifically, that was October of 2013, but the iPhone 5s was released in September. Thus, early adopters could have a device that was only recently discontinued and still fully supported by the latest version of iOS that is ineligible. Additionally, since Apple did, indeed, manufacture iMacs in 2013, there is no need to go back to 2007 in order to find a Mac that would not have been eligible for this, either.