Don't get me wrong, I support zero knowledge encryption where possible, but having access to the phone contents reportedly did allow investigators to make headway in France.
"A Policeman's job is only easy in a Police State" - Ramon Vargas, "A Touch of Evil"
And if the rest of the Slashdotters are honest, they would agree that, with laptops at least, most people don't bother with plugging them into a terrestrial ethernet connection; but use WiFi instead.
Strange definition of "honest" you have there. I use a MacBook Pro at work, and the only times I use wireless are on those rare occasions when I need to use it at a meeting. Most (but not all) of my similarly-equipped colleagues do the same. I don't really mind the Ethernet dongle, though.
Must have shitty WiFi at work, or you're all idiots.
that have 2 Thunderbolt 2 Ports (a total of FOUR TIMES the bandwidth of my single TB 1 Port), 2 USB 3.0 ports and a dedicated HDMI port?
OP here. The 2014 model is exactly the one I have and I'd happily trade one of those Thunderbolt 2 ports with all of its completely useless extra bandwidth and equally useless HDMI port (do people code on their TVs or something?) for a physical Ethernet port, something which I use every single day.
An HDMI port can easily become a DVI port; so there's that. And pretty much every Windows laptop in the past 4 years or more has had an HDMI port.
Ya know, people screamed to high heaven when the iMac threw away the floppy drive and the RS-422/232 ports. "How can it be a real computer without a floppy drive?" People wailed.
2 years later, and virtually no one had a floppy drive or a Serial Port, and you could hardly buy a serial ANYthing.
Years ago, Apple was the first company to not only put an Ethernet port on a laptop, but a SCSI port, too. But they have always been the bellwhether of change in the computing world.
So, mark my words: In less than 5 years, you will be hanging a dongle offa your USB-C port to get Terrestrial Ethernet, and using who-the-fuck-knows what kind of video adapter. Meanwhile, that TB2 port will still have adapters available for both, with bandwidth to spare.
No built-in network port on the latest laptops, even the supposedly professional grade MacBook Pro. If you tell me that most users don't need network ports, I and the rest of Slashdot will collectively laugh in your face. And, no, the add-on dongle does not count.
Really?
I can count on about 3 fingers the number of times I've plugged my MacBook Pro into a terrestrial Ethernet cable. And I don't even have 802.11 a/c.
So yes, for those 3 times, an Ethernet Dongle DOES "count".
And if the rest of the Slashdotters are honest, they would agree that, with laptops at least, most people don't bother with plugging them into a terrestrial ethernet connection; but use WiFi instead.
So, yeah, they will probably laugh in my face, simply because they will; but they will be doing it while typing on their WiFi-connected laptops.
So, tell my what has more expansion: A MacBook Pro like the 2013 model I have, that has 1 FW800 port, 1 Ethernet port, 1 Thunderbolt 1 Port (which is almost always dedicated to being a 2nd Monitor Port), and 2 USB 3.0 ports; or the newest MacBook Pros, that have 2 Thunderbolt 2 Ports (a total of FOUR TIMES the bandwidth of my single TB 1 Port), 2 USB 3.0 ports and a dedicated HDMI port?
Sorry, overall, I see that as a major step up in connectivity, despite the "loss" of the FW and Ethernet ports.
And besides, if something decides to torch my internal FW or Ethernet port, I get to replace a multi-hundred-dollar motherboard (probably), or at least require surgery to replace an internal interface board. If something torches an Thunderbolt Ethernet dongle, HOPEFULLY it will only require a quick and relatively inexpensive swap-out of the dongle.
Do I kind of like built-in ports? Sure. But I am intelligent enough to see the clear advantages of dongles, for providing actually MORE "future proofing" and a wider application-envelope, than with dedicated ports. Right now I would definitely trade both of my dedicated ports (which by the way, I thought I wanted!) for another Thunderbolt port.
Cook sounds very Blackberrian with this. If he thinks they can fight the entire industry movement, good luck.
Funny. Apple's PC sales are UP year-over-year, while the "entire (rest) of the industry" sales are down.
I think the "entire (rest) of the industry" needs to stop being such lemmings. It seems like Apple is the only company who has actually analyzed what the market wants. The rest are just trying to "out innovate" Apple. They couldn't come up with one single tablet that would unseat the iPad; so they said "I know, let's listen to what the Microsoft Rep that came in last quarter said about "The future of computing" " and build something based on MS' Reference Design."
What else explains something like half a dozen mfgs coming out with virtually the same device within the same 6 months?
Meanwhile, Apple chugs along, chuckling to itself, knowing that it had already experimented internally with exactly that type of device five years ago, and found out that none of their alpha-testers liked it.
That was a Jobs peccadillo. Everybody has them. People with strong personalities have them even more.
But Jobs is gone now, and Cook & Co. were smart enough to see that people were migrating away from the iPhone SPECIFICALLY due to the "phablet craze".
Now that they have the Pencil and the pseudo-pressure-sensitive display in a "laptop" size, I do think that you will eventually (within the next two MacBook refreshes) see Apple offer a touch-screen as at least an BTO Option on probably an MacBook Air; but I really doubt if Apple will do one of those "Surface Pro"/Yoga abominations.
The Apple Pencil makes a mouse oriented UI usable on an iPad like device, and I wouldn't be surprised if by the iPad Pro 2 it is reasonably trivial to make an OSX app that builds for iPad Pro with minimal UI tweaks.
Now I would say that that is a much more "Apple" way (Universal Apps) of doing this than creating a mashup device/OS.
Well, if you are of the opinion that Macs have gotten worse, then it may be hard for them to make the best Mac if they're losing to their own previous models.
But they're not, and the year-over-year benchmarks of performance, features and battery-life prove it.
With the current push by various tech companies to get girls and women into tech and coding, Apple have decided that people really want a device that you cannot do any serious coding on. So yeah, that works...
You're nuts.
Apple has 4 product lines that run OS X (MacBook(s), Mac Mini, iMac, Mac Pro). All of those can be used to write Code.
So, what they have REALLY done is decide that maybe people want more than one device, each particularly suited and suitable for their own set of tasks, and that other people only want/need ONE of those devices (but don't want/need a compromise device, which does neither as well as a dedicated device (which, lets face it, the Surface Pro is, and the Surface Book is even more so).
I'm pretty sure the Ipad & Iphone kernels are based if not the same as the OS/X one, and most of the surrounding programs & libraries taken from OS/X recompiled for ARM. All they need is a different GUI and specific drivers for the phone baseband hardware.
He didn't say that Apple COULDN'T do it. Of course they can, and for the reasons stated (and the fact that OS X is fairly platform-agnostic at its core), it would even be reasonably easy for them.
And don't think they haven't had somebody already messing-around, doing it on the side, like with the Intel version of OS X.
But I happen to agree with Cook. Not only would it be the ruination of the Mac as we know it, and OS X as we know it; but it would do nothing but cannabalize sales of the fairly-profitable and very successful MacBook Pro, and absolutely devastate sales of the very popular MacBook Air, in favor of something that would end up being too heavy to be a tablet, and too weak to be a reasonable laptop.
But now that they have that Stylus (^H^H^H^H^H Pencil) and large-enough touchscreen, I can forsee a touchscreen Air and maybe even a MacBook Pro happening in the next year or so. OS X won't change to be like Windows 8, but since they already have multitouch gesture-support built into OS X, again, it wouldn't be any difficulty at ALL for them to support a touchscreen AND a Trackpad on a MacBook in OS X.
And when was the last time Microsoft or your friendly Linux Distro, sent you such a Notification?
I didn't pay for Windows 10 and I didn't pay for any linux or BSD I've ever used so I don't really expect much in terms of proactive service.
Hey, dumbass: First off, why should the cost of the OS make a difference?
But more to the point: Apparently you don't realize that OS X is also FREE, and has been for the past three Major Releases.
.
Oh, and before you start bleating about how Macs are so expensive, blah, blah, that they should come with free OS Updates for life, blah, blah; realize that nowhere has Apple promised that, EVER.
Kind of amazing how quickly some technologies go from "WOW!" to mundane to fading into the background because they no longer are seen as anything revolutionary. We're living in what any previous generation would call a magical time, and we take it for granted that's the way it is.
I agree. But I wonder for how many generations that has been true.
"You kids today, with your Fire and your Wheels...";-)
Almost all toilets in North America have a plunger sitting right next to them. That shows forward thinking!
No, it shows the abomination that is most "Low Flush" toilets.
Seriously, the low-flush toilet at my work is so lame that you have to literally un-wad (or unroll) the "soiled" toilet paper and "feed it" down the hole like a party-streamer, or else it will instantly clog. And I'm not talking soccer-ball sized wads, neither; more like not even a baseball-size.
By contrast, my most-excellent (and relatively cheap) Niagara low-flow toilet only gets clogged about once a year or two, no matter how much paper I try to flush. And most of the time, a second flush with clear the clog with no plunging required.
But then, I did my research before I bought that toilet. $150, and it out-flushes pretty much every other toilet out there. I swear, you can flush a tennis ball. And it has the same 3 inch poop-chute as all the other 'Murican toilets.
I've always found the term "morbidly obese" to be funny. Sounds like the name of one of those Scandinavian death metal bands. Imagine four or five fat-assed guys jamming on a stage and the stage collapsing from the weight.
First Tim Cook announces that cash will soon become a thing of the past; then the next thing I hear is that they are going to do peer-to-peer payments. I get the feeling that this is some Steve Jobs type marketing at play to build a potential hype train.
People have been announcing two things for quite a long time:
The imminent End of the World
The imminent End of the Cash Transaction
Neither one is likely to occur anytime soon; but they both will occur.
I know, but I had a co-worker who insisted that he get a paper paycheck while the rest of us were getting our pay by direct deposit. He's more than a bit paranoid. Also, some people (like my landlord) want either a check or money. No new-fangled e-transfers.
At every employer in the U.S. I have been paid by since there was "Direct Deposit", I don't think any of them even offered a paper check option.
And so your landlord enjoys having to play "Race to the Bank Before it Closes" instead of just having Hir money basically instantly (or at most, overnight?), with no trip-to-the-bank?
I noticed something odd was going on when yesterday morning my OS wanted me to sign into the App Store to 'validate' a program I purchased recently.
Now I have to read about the cause on a news website instead of hearing directly from Apple (you know, the people who already have my email address along with those of all their customers).
More people would bitch about "being spammed" than would appreciate the notification, of that I am sure.
And when was the last time Microsoft or your friendly Linux Distro, sent you such a Notification?
Slashdot Mirror
Don't get me wrong, I support zero knowledge encryption where possible, but having access to the phone contents reportedly did allow investigators to make headway in France.
"A Policeman's job is only easy in a Police State" - Ramon Vargas, "A Touch of Evil"
Not sure what you call these type of apps.
Shitty.
This will follow the usual path of all MS "Initiatives".
IOW, it will be a "Big Thing" for about 3 years, and then be replaced with the next Big Thing.
And if the rest of the Slashdotters are honest, they would agree that, with laptops at least, most people don't bother with plugging them into a terrestrial ethernet connection; but use WiFi instead.
Strange definition of "honest" you have there. I use a MacBook Pro at work, and the only times I use wireless are on those rare occasions when I need to use it at a meeting. Most (but not all) of my similarly-equipped colleagues do the same. I don't really mind the Ethernet dongle, though.
Must have shitty WiFi at work, or you're all idiots.
that have 2 Thunderbolt 2 Ports (a total of FOUR TIMES the bandwidth of my single TB 1 Port), 2 USB 3.0 ports and a dedicated HDMI port?
OP here. The 2014 model is exactly the one I have and I'd happily trade one of those Thunderbolt 2 ports with all of its completely useless extra bandwidth and equally useless HDMI port (do people code on their TVs or something?) for a physical Ethernet port, something which I use every single day.
An HDMI port can easily become a DVI port; so there's that. And pretty much every Windows laptop in the past 4 years or more has had an HDMI port.
Ya know, people screamed to high heaven when the iMac threw away the floppy drive and the RS-422/232 ports. "How can it be a real computer without a floppy drive?" People wailed.
2 years later, and virtually no one had a floppy drive or a Serial Port, and you could hardly buy a serial ANYthing.
Years ago, Apple was the first company to not only put an Ethernet port on a laptop, but a SCSI port, too. But they have always been the bellwhether of change in the computing world.
So, mark my words: In less than 5 years, you will be hanging a dongle offa your USB-C port to get Terrestrial Ethernet, and using who-the-fuck-knows what kind of video adapter. Meanwhile, that TB2 port will still have adapters available for both, with bandwidth to spare.
Such as every time you buy a router,
Not if it's an Airport Router...
No built-in network port on the latest laptops, even the supposedly professional grade MacBook Pro. If you tell me that most users don't need network ports, I and the rest of Slashdot will collectively laugh in your face. And, no, the add-on dongle does not count.
Really?
I can count on about 3 fingers the number of times I've plugged my MacBook Pro into a terrestrial Ethernet cable. And I don't even have 802.11 a/c.
So yes, for those 3 times, an Ethernet Dongle DOES "count".
And if the rest of the Slashdotters are honest, they would agree that, with laptops at least, most people don't bother with plugging them into a terrestrial ethernet connection; but use WiFi instead.
So, yeah, they will probably laugh in my face, simply because they will; but they will be doing it while typing on their WiFi-connected laptops.
So, tell my what has more expansion: A MacBook Pro like the 2013 model I have, that has 1 FW800 port, 1 Ethernet port, 1 Thunderbolt 1 Port (which is almost always dedicated to being a 2nd Monitor Port), and 2 USB 3.0 ports; or the newest MacBook Pros, that have 2 Thunderbolt 2 Ports (a total of FOUR TIMES the bandwidth of my single TB 1 Port), 2 USB 3.0 ports and a dedicated HDMI port?
Sorry, overall, I see that as a major step up in connectivity, despite the "loss" of the FW and Ethernet ports.
And besides, if something decides to torch my internal FW or Ethernet port, I get to replace a multi-hundred-dollar motherboard (probably), or at least require surgery to replace an internal interface board. If something torches an Thunderbolt Ethernet dongle, HOPEFULLY it will only require a quick and relatively inexpensive swap-out of the dongle.
Do I kind of like built-in ports? Sure. But I am intelligent enough to see the clear advantages of dongles, for providing actually MORE "future proofing" and a wider application-envelope, than with dedicated ports. Right now I would definitely trade both of my dedicated ports (which by the way, I thought I wanted!) for another Thunderbolt port.
Cook sounds very Blackberrian with this. If he thinks they can fight the entire industry movement, good luck.
Funny. Apple's PC sales are UP year-over-year, while the "entire (rest) of the industry" sales are down.
I think the "entire (rest) of the industry" needs to stop being such lemmings. It seems like Apple is the only company who has actually analyzed what the market wants. The rest are just trying to "out innovate" Apple. They couldn't come up with one single tablet that would unseat the iPad; so they said "I know, let's listen to what the Microsoft Rep that came in last quarter said about "The future of computing" " and build something based on MS' Reference Design."
What else explains something like half a dozen mfgs coming out with virtually the same device within the same 6 months?
Meanwhile, Apple chugs along, chuckling to itself, knowing that it had already experimented internally with exactly that type of device five years ago, and found out that none of their alpha-testers liked it.
We will never make a larger phone.
That was a Jobs peccadillo. Everybody has them. People with strong personalities have them even more.
But Jobs is gone now, and Cook & Co. were smart enough to see that people were migrating away from the iPhone SPECIFICALLY due to the "phablet craze".
Now that they have the Pencil and the pseudo-pressure-sensitive display in a "laptop" size, I do think that you will eventually (within the next two MacBook refreshes) see Apple offer a touch-screen as at least an BTO Option on probably an MacBook Air; but I really doubt if Apple will do one of those "Surface Pro"/Yoga abominations.
The Apple Pencil makes a mouse oriented UI usable on an iPad like device, and I wouldn't be surprised if by the iPad Pro 2 it is reasonably trivial to make an OSX app that builds for iPad Pro with minimal UI tweaks.
Now I would say that that is a much more "Apple" way (Universal Apps) of doing this than creating a mashup device/OS.
Well, if you are of the opinion that Macs have gotten worse, then it may be hard for them to make the best Mac if they're losing to their own previous models.
But they're not, and the year-over-year benchmarks of performance, features and battery-life prove it.
With the current push by various tech companies to get girls and women into tech and coding, Apple have decided that people really want a device that you cannot do any serious coding on. So yeah, that works...
You're nuts.
Apple has 4 product lines that run OS X (MacBook(s), Mac Mini, iMac, Mac Pro). All of those can be used to write Code.
So, what they have REALLY done is decide that maybe people want more than one device, each particularly suited and suitable for their own set of tasks, and that other people only want/need ONE of those devices (but don't want/need a compromise device, which does neither as well as a dedicated device (which, lets face it, the Surface Pro is, and the Surface Book is even more so).
As tablets are filling that need for more and more of the average consumer, PC sales are dying.
Maybe for the rest of the industry; but not for Apple.
I'm pretty sure the Ipad & Iphone kernels are based if not the same as the OS/X one, and most of the surrounding programs & libraries taken from OS/X recompiled for ARM. All they need is a different GUI and specific drivers for the phone baseband hardware.
He didn't say that Apple COULDN'T do it. Of course they can, and for the reasons stated (and the fact that OS X is fairly platform-agnostic at its core), it would even be reasonably easy for them.
And don't think they haven't had somebody already messing-around, doing it on the side, like with the Intel version of OS X.
But I happen to agree with Cook. Not only would it be the ruination of the Mac as we know it, and OS X as we know it; but it would do nothing but cannabalize sales of the fairly-profitable and very successful MacBook Pro, and absolutely devastate sales of the very popular MacBook Air, in favor of something that would end up being too heavy to be a tablet, and too weak to be a reasonable laptop.
But now that they have that Stylus (^H^H^H^H^H Pencil) and large-enough touchscreen, I can forsee a touchscreen Air and maybe even a MacBook Pro happening in the next year or so. OS X won't change to be like Windows 8, but since they already have multitouch gesture-support built into OS X, again, it wouldn't be any difficulty at ALL for them to support a touchscreen AND a Trackpad on a MacBook in OS X.
And when was the last time Microsoft or your friendly Linux Distro, sent you such a Notification?
I didn't pay for Windows 10 and I didn't pay for any linux or BSD I've ever used so I don't really expect much in terms of proactive service.
Hey, dumbass: First off, why should the cost of the OS make a difference?
But more to the point: Apparently you don't realize that OS X is also FREE, and has been for the past three Major Releases.
. Oh, and before you start bleating about how Macs are so expensive, blah, blah, that they should come with free OS Updates for life, blah, blah; realize that nowhere has Apple promised that, EVER.
Stupid fuck.
Kind of amazing how quickly some technologies go from "WOW!" to mundane to fading into the background because they no longer are seen as anything revolutionary. We're living in what any previous generation would call a magical time, and we take it for granted that's the way it is.
I agree. But I wonder for how many generations that has been true.
;-)
"You kids today, with your Fire and your Wheels..."
Almost all toilets in North America have a plunger sitting right next to them. That shows forward thinking!
No, it shows the abomination that is most "Low Flush" toilets.
Seriously, the low-flush toilet at my work is so lame that you have to literally un-wad (or unroll) the "soiled" toilet paper and "feed it" down the hole like a party-streamer, or else it will instantly clog. And I'm not talking soccer-ball sized wads, neither; more like not even a baseball-size.
By contrast, my most-excellent (and relatively cheap) Niagara low-flow toilet only gets clogged about once a year or two, no matter how much paper I try to flush. And most of the time, a second flush with clear the clog with no plunging required.
But then, I did my research before I bought that toilet. $150, and it out-flushes pretty much every other toilet out there. I swear, you can flush a tennis ball. And it has the same 3 inch poop-chute as all the other 'Murican toilets.
I've always found the term "morbidly obese" to be funny. Sounds like the name of one of those Scandinavian death metal bands. Imagine four or five fat-assed guys jamming on a stage and the stage collapsing from the weight.
You mean like THIS?
there's no reason to use apple products
...and even less reason to listen to Anonymous Cowards.
First Tim Cook announces that cash will soon become a thing of the past; then the next thing I hear is that they are going to do peer-to-peer payments. I get the feeling that this is some Steve Jobs type marketing at play to build a potential hype train.
People have been announcing two things for quite a long time:
The imminent End of the World
The imminent End of the Cash Transaction
Neither one is likely to occur anytime soon; but they both will occur.
I suppose Apple will think they can get away with taking 30% of each transfer.
Why? They don't do that for ApplePay transactions.
Get over your Hater self.
You can deposit a paper check now by just taking a picture of it. No need to run to the bank :-)
Yeah, I always forget about that; because, other than paying some taxes last year, I haven't written (or received) a paper check in years.
I know, but I had a co-worker who insisted that he get a paper paycheck while the rest of us were getting our pay by direct deposit. He's more than a bit paranoid. Also, some people (like my landlord) want either a check or money. No new-fangled e-transfers.
At every employer in the U.S. I have been paid by since there was "Direct Deposit", I don't think any of them even offered a paper check option.
;-)
And so your landlord enjoys having to play "Race to the Bank Before it Closes" instead of just having Hir money basically instantly (or at most, overnight?), with no trip-to-the-bank?
Humans are SO silly...
paying your dealer
That was EXACTLY my first thought...
I noticed something odd was going on when yesterday morning my OS wanted me to sign into the App Store to 'validate' a program I purchased recently.
Now I have to read about the cause on a news website instead of hearing directly from Apple (you know, the people who already have my email address along with those of all their customers).
More people would bitch about "being spammed" than would appreciate the notification, of that I am sure.
And when was the last time Microsoft or your friendly Linux Distro, sent you such a Notification?