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If macOS High Sierra shows your password instead of the password hint

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Re: If macOS High Sierra shows your password instead of the password hint

#61
post #45

Apple needs some internal competition, iOS and macOS should never have been merged into one team. macOS needs a leader that doesn't believe desktop computing got superseded by mobile.

I whole heartedly agree. I would like at least one desktop platform vendor to not start with the defeatist mindset that Web / Mobile won. Desktop is where I do most of my productive work, the basic way I do my work (programming / research) has not improved in a long time. There is tremendous room for innovation on the desktop.

Re: If macOS High Sierra shows your password instead of the password hint

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their software quality really has become atrocious. Just try recovering your iCloud password from the web. It takes (literally) weeks to do so.

This is a blatant lie.

The first sentence isn't.

Re: If macOS High Sierra shows your password instead of the password hint

#63
post #51

Apple is really going downhill, in every field. I have a MacBook Pro, and the keys no longer work reliably. I also barely get 2 hours of battery life. High Sierra keeps restarting by itself. They removed the jack, and all ports from laptops. They placed the charger for their wireless mouse under the mouse so you can't use it while charging, and the list goes on and on--particularly with software. It's just not premiu…

All the laptops ship with a headphone jack so not sure what you are talking about.

Likely they were talking about the iPhone 7, which does not come with a laptop jack.

Re: If macOS High Sierra shows your password instead of the password hint

#64

Apple is really going downhill, in every field. I have a MacBook Pro, and the keys no longer work reliably. I also barely get 2 hours of battery life. High Sierra keeps restarting by itself. They removed the jack, and all ports from laptops. They placed the charger for their wireless mouse under the mouse so you can't use it while charging, and the list goes on and on--particularly with software. It's just not premiu…

> I have a MacBook Pro, and the keys no longer work reliably.

I have the 12" MacBook and the keyboard is absolutely miserable. I seriously got warned by the Apple Store when I bought it that if I got any dust on the keyboard at all that the keys would get stuck, which is totally unrealistic. It turned out to be true, which has meant I mostly just don't use a laptop anymore, as the keyboard is just so unpleasant. I have had it on my todo list to move all of my data back to my now-repaired 11" MacBook Air (which had a totally reasonable keyboard), but that entire task is just so depressing. A few days ago I was talking to someone I know who loves their 12" MacBook and how they find the keyboard just fine... and then he seriously told me that some incredibly large percentage of the time his O key doesn't work and I'm just sitting there totally dumbfounded wondering how he could even use such a machine.

Re: If macOS High Sierra shows your password instead of the password hint

#65
post #51

Apple is really going downhill, in every field. I have a MacBook Pro, and the keys no longer work reliably. I also barely get 2 hours of battery life. High Sierra keeps restarting by itself. They removed the jack, and all ports from laptops. They placed the charger for their wireless mouse under the mouse so you can't use it while charging, and the list goes on and on--particularly with software. It's just not premiu…

All the laptops ship with a headphone jack so not sure what you are talking about.

The comma is important. They removed the headphone jack (from their phone), and all of the significant ports from their laptops.

Re: If macOS High Sierra shows your password instead of the password hint

#66

Apple is really going downhill, in every field. I have a MacBook Pro, and the keys no longer work reliably. I also barely get 2 hours of battery life. High Sierra keeps restarting by itself. They removed the jack, and all ports from laptops. They placed the charger for their wireless mouse under the mouse so you can't use it while charging, and the list goes on and on--particularly with software. It's just not premiu…

> I have a MacBook Pro, and the keys no longer work reliably. I also barely get 2 hours of battery life.

How old is your Macbook Pro? Mine is 4 years and I still get 7-8 hours of charge even though I have been using the Battery almost everyday.

Re: If macOS High Sierra shows your password instead of the password hint

#67
post #8

"Erase the affected volume" is really the best solution they could come up with?

I think encryption uses a generated key to encrypt most of the disk, and stores that key encrypted with the user password on the disk. That makes changing the password fast; they only need to re-encrypt the encrypted key with the new password, and write it out. Problem is that an attacker who knows the old password may already have decrypted the generated key, so they can decrypt the encrypted data from the raw data, even after the password was changed.

Erasing generates a new key for the data. I think it could be done without reformatting, but they still would have to read each block, decrypt with the old key, encrypt with the new, and write back the result. Testing the recovery procedure for that (how do you know where to restart that after it crashed?) would be a challenge, though.

Re: If macOS High Sierra shows your password instead of the password hint

#68

Apple is really going downhill, in every field. I have a MacBook Pro, and the keys no longer work reliably. I also barely get 2 hours of battery life. High Sierra keeps restarting by itself. They removed the jack, and all ports from laptops. They placed the charger for their wireless mouse under the mouse so you can't use it while charging, and the list goes on and on--particularly with software. It's just not premiu…

This High Sierra bug is bizarre and disturbing. But Apple would have to commit an act of outright betrayal (such as lying about FaceID off-device storage) before I would consider going back to Android. Not because I think there is concerted malice by the Android overseers (partly because that kind of control doesn't really exist as it does with Apple), but because the potential for negligent design to cause damage seems so much greater. And from the perspective of a long-time iOS user, it seems that Samsung has a potentially strong hold on the Android ecosystem. And I trust their security and design chops far less than I do Apple's.

That said, I could see myself sharing your same disillusionment if I have to upgrade from my 4.5 year old Macbook Pro. I don't think I've ever had a laptop for more than 3 years, and I was happy to have an even shorter cycle when it came to Apple computers. I helped a good friend purchase a new MBP, and the most I can say is that I'm happier that she's on the MBP than on the old Dell laptop that she reverted from Windows 7/10 to XP. But I'm willing to wait another year or 2 for a improved model.

Re: If macOS High Sierra shows your password instead of the password hint

#70

Apple is really going downhill, in every field. I have a MacBook Pro, and the keys no longer work reliably. I also barely get 2 hours of battery life. High Sierra keeps restarting by itself. They removed the jack, and all ports from laptops. They placed the charger for their wireless mouse under the mouse so you can't use it while charging, and the list goes on and on--particularly with software. It's just not premiu…

> They placed the charger for their wireless mouse under the mouse so you can't use it while charging, and the list goes on and on--particularly with software. Ouch, who let the intern design that one?... Kidding, but really did they not QA test this and how did nobody at QA not say this was a terrible idea? I'll stick to my wireless trackball..

It's pretty terrible UX, but I can see how they came to the idea. If the mouse lasts all day, then surely the user will just charge it when they are done. However, this is a hard thing to train people to do. For people with a desk that step away at the end of the day, such as leaving the office) it is a bit easier to build the habit. However, if you are a user who uses the computer on and off all day, or doesn't have a permanent desk, it might be hard to remember to flip the mouse over and plug it in at the end of the night. Particularly if it's in your backpack. I don't personally use a mouse with a laptop, but I know plenty of people who do.

The mouse also just looks weird when flipped over to charge, and you can't really try to even charge it while it's in a backpack if you wanted to, due to the 90deg angle it makes when plugged in.

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