My dislike of the Apple brand is well-known and documented, and recently, I came across a story that made me hate them even more.
It seems like Apple are now locking out older devices and devices running older versions of their OS. This obviously then forces them to buy the newer, greater model and spend more money in their stores, forcing customers to remain locked into their ecosystem.
Heck, I still have an ASUS TF101 running Android Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.4) and it still runs. Sure, a lot of apps refuse to install, but the basic stuff I need the device for works, and that's all I need.
Not often I quote from a publication from Ireland, but this was quite an intriguing read. Someone who went from Windows to Mac to Linux (Mint)
Linux is everywhere – and will free your computer from corporate clutches
It was 2002, I was up against a deadline and a bullying software bubble popped up in Windows every few minutes. Unless I paid to upgrade my virus scanner – now! – terrible things would happen.
We’ve all had that right?
In a moment of clarity I realised that the virus scanner – and its developer’s aggressive business model – was more of a pest than any virus I’d encountered. Microsoft’s operating system was full of this kind of nonsense, so, ignoring snorts of derision from tech friends, I switched to the Apple universe.
It was a great choice: a system that just worked, designed by a team that clearly put a lot of thought into stability and usability. Eventually the iPhone came along, and I was sucked in farther, marvelling at the simple elegance of life on Planet Apple and giving little thought to the consequences.
Then the dream developed cracks. My MacBook is 10 years old and technically fine, particularly since I replaced my knackered old hard drive with a fast new solid-state drive. So why the hourly demands to update my Apple operating system, an insistence that reminded of the Windows virus scanner of old?
Apple is no different to Microsoft it seems.
I don’t want to upgrade. My machine isn’t up to it, and I’m just fine as I am. But, like Microsoft, Apple has ways of making you upgrade. Why? Because, as a listed company, it has quarterly sales targets to meet. And users of older MacBooks like me are fair game.
I looked at the price of a replacement MacBook but laughed at the idea of a midrange laptop giving me small change from €1,200. Two years after I de-Googled my life(iti.ms/2ASlrdY) I began my Apple prison break.
He eventually went for Linux Mint, which for a casual user is fine. I use Fedora and Ubuntu (and a really old version of Ubuntu since my workplace VPN doesn’t seem to work properly with anything above Ubuntu 14 - their way of forcing me onto either a Windows or Mac machine)
My opinion of Apple and its practices has never been high. But this is just stupid.
Type in “1+2+3=” in an iOS 11 device’s calculator app, and you get 6 (correctly), but type it in quickly (as demonstrated in this video) and you get 24.
Sure, it’ll no doubt get patched soon and Apple will twist the incident to prove how fast they can push out updates compared to Android. But the point remains - how did such a bug make it past testing? And what OTHER, similarly stupid bugs that have yet to be detected, also make it past testing. And what if one of those bugs was in something fundamental? Something that breaks the functionality of the device? Something like the 1/1/1970 bug that would brick the device, or even the infamous “effective power” bug that would annoying reboot someone’s phone. Or even the famous crashsafari site that was only meant to crash safari but managed to crash the device too (originally, anyway).
It won’t boot ISOs unless you hdiutil it, which is an Apple propriety tool, or the ISO has been EFI enabled already, and since it’s not open source, I can’t even do that beforehand.
The Macbook won’t work with a known good HDMI cable (which I use with a Desktop PC), unless it’s Apple branded - which Apple being Apple, isn’t the least bit surprising…
I’ve tripped over their power supply more than once, and putting it at the plug end make it bulky and ugly.
My first course of action with regards to the setup? Trash MacOS and install Ubuntu. Of course, Apple make things endlessly difficult – I had to hdiutil the Ubuntu ISO to make it bootable, then install Ubuntu. After which, the Macbook wouldn’t boot.
I found out I had to fiddle with the efibootmgr tool to change the boot order, and it works fine now. But then I had to figure out how to right-click on a no-button mouse touchpad. The hack is found on the Debian site (look at the mouseeemu post at the bottom). So now I have a clickable touchpad, with right-click being “ctrl+click”
This was going to happen at some point, wasn't it?
When someone switches to a new phone, they have a reasonable expectation that all the network functionality that worked on their old device—things like messages and phone calls—will continue to work on their new device. Unfortunately for some iOS users who switched to Android devices, Apple’s iMessage blocked them from receiving any more messages from iOS users. The Cupertino company will be heading to federal court over the issue.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh decided that Apple will have to face former iPhone owner Adrienne Moore, who’s seeking judgement in a class-action lawsuit against Apple for interfering with her Verizon service after switching to an Android phone. Moore claims that Apple failed to reveal iOS 5 could interrupt the delivery of messages from other iOS users if she switched to a non-Apple device. Numerous people on Apple’s support forums share similar woes.
A Californian woman has filed a class action against Apple after switching to an Android phone and finding that text messages sent by friends with iPhones didn't reach her.
Some software bugs are infinitely subtle and complicated. Others are comprehensible almost at a glance to anyone who dabbled in BASIC as a kid. The iOS 7 bug is in the latter group.
Did you see it? This function is called when a iPhone connects to an encrypted site over SSL: it’s meant to verify that the encryption key is being vouched for — digitally signed — by the operator of the website.
But notice the two “goto fail” lines, one after the other. The first one belongs there. The second is a typo. That extra, duplicative line diverts the program’s execution, like a bypass stent, right past a critical authentication check. The part where the digital signature is actually checked is dead code, never reached.
Behind iPhone’s Critical Security Bug, a Single Bad ‘Goto’ | Threat Level | Wired.com.
On Friday, Apple quietly released iOS 7.0.6, explaining in a brief release note that it fixed a bug in which "an attacker with a privileged network position may capture or modify data in sessions protected by SSL/TLS." That's the understated version. Another way to put it? Update your iPhoneright now.
In October, the tech industry's biggest companies petitioned congress to reform the US Government's surveillance policies. Now, the firms are taking their pleas global. Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Yahoo and AOL (Engadget's parent company) have banded together to ask the world's governments to reassess its intelligence practices. This time, however, the firms are presenting more than a strongly worded letter - they've laid out five core reform principals, detailed both on an official website and in full-page ads in national publications.
The breakdown is fairly straightforward; the group asks that government’s authority be imposed with “sensible limitations on their ability to compel service providers to disclose user data,” and that they give more consideration to the link between privacy and trust required by technology providers and their users. The group is also demanding increased oversight, accountability and transparency, outlining a system that allows companies to publish the nature and frequency of user information requests and attached to a “clear legal framework” with “strong checks and balances.” Governments outside of the US are encouraged to work together too, to create a “robust, principled and transparent framework” to guide requests for data across jurisdictions. The group of tech giants also wants these changes to respect the flow of information, and ensure that service providers are able to build infrastructure on a global scale, without needing to store data inside the country for the sake of national government inquiries.
“Unchecked, undisclosed government surveillance inhibits the free flow of information.” Twitter CEO Dick Costolo writes on the movement’s website. “The principles we advance today would reform the current system to appropriately balance the needs of security and privacy while safeguarding the essential human right of free expression.”
An open letter to Washington underlines the campaign, noting that “the balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual.” The companies pledge to keep user data secure with encryption technology and by fighting unreasonable government requests, but change needs to start from within. “Reports about government surveillance have shown there is a real need for greater disclosure and new limits on how governments collect information.” Mark Zuckerberg stated. “The US government should take this opportunity to lead this reform effort and make things right.” Indeed, the letter asks that Congress do just that: “take lead and make reforms” that would bring the proposed changes to fruition.
While the firms openly acknowledge the government’s need to take certain actions for the public good, it clearly states that the current laws governing surveillance are no good, and may even be hurting future adoption of new technologies. Microsoft’s Brad Smith puts it best, “People won’t use technology they don’t trust. Governments have put this trust at risk, and governments need to help restore it."
