Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#191

Post by jesseendahl » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:21 AM UTC

dabockster wrote: post #74

Can the T2 chip be accessed via a publicly accessible API? Or would some reverse engineering be required? Since the third party check is software based, it's theoretically possible to write a piece of software that could either overwrite the flag on the T2 chip or man-in-the-middle spoof the return value to relevant applications. EDIT: I'm also curious to find out whether it's the OS or EFI that's performing the chec…

FWIW, Windows does care about the T2 chip:

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3290415/apple-mac/the-...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208330

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#192

Post by stevesimmons » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:21 AM UTC

eksemplar wrote: post #175

tokyodude wrote: post #146

I'm actually a little disappointed in Apple's service considering the cost of their hardware and the cost of AppleCare. Back in the 80s and 90s many companies excellent service was you'd call customer support, they'd express ship you a replacement for free and you'd send back the broken item. They would take your credit card number just in case you didn't send the broken item back but otherwise it was on their dime.…

Are MacBooks really that expensive? The MacBook Pro retina with 516ssd is a lot cheaper than the Microsoft surface book and around similar to the XSP, but the XSP is much lower quality.

Dell XPS laptops have user-upgradable RAM and SSDs.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#193

Post by atemerev » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:22 AM UTC

superflyguy wrote: post #174

When you buy Apple stuff aren't you accepting that you're someone who pays way over the odds for it but that it's the price you pay for the lifestyle choice or something? I mean, I don't get it, as I always try and get the best bang for my buck so Apple stuff, being almost an order of magnitude more expensive doesn't stand a chance but if you can justify throwing money at a phone or laptop can't you just throw a bit…

It is not a “lifestyle choice”, it was, until recently, the only source of decent developer-oriented hardware with UNIX-like OS, where everything works out of the box. Now there are other options, but they are just as expensive. Good hardware costs money.

Now though they are becoming less and less developer-friendly. I already replaced my desktop — it used to be Mac Pro, now it is a custom Linux box. There are not that many alternatives to Macbooks, but if Apple will continue this kind of politics, I’ll change my laptop as well. And price has nothing to do with that.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#194

Post by colordrops » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:22 AM UTC

gumby wrote: post #178

You know they also sell machines without the secure enclave bonded to the substrate. If you don't want that feature you can buy one of their other machines -- or someone else's. I can find plenty of reasons to dump on Apple, but I do believe their commitment to customer privacy is pretty strong (even before considering that they are a large corporation). And I say that even though I don't believe, say, their commitme…

Their whole "privacy" campaign recently is precisely to drum up business. Everyone is parroting how Apple is so focused on privacy when they forget that they work closely with the FBI. Remember the whole thing about iMessage keeping encryption keys stored on apple servers? iPhones have a mics, a camera, and access to all your personal data. Calling apple strong on privacy is like calling lions strong on vegetarianism.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#195

Post by growt » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:22 AM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #145

sianns wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Most countries outside of North Americs don't have a single apple store" lol. Rinse out your brain.

There are 195 countries in the world, 23 in North America. There are 24 countries with Apple stores, 2 in North America. So, there are 172 countries not in North America, 22 of which have at least one Apple Store. So, “most countries outside of North America don't have a single Apple Store” is true, though it's even more true that most countries in North America don't have a single Apple store.

How are there 23 countries in North America?

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#196

Post by garmaine » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:23 AM UTC

I have a new MacBook Pro and I love it, but I also bricked it on the first day, doing nothing more than the standard security precaution of not trusting the installed software. I rebooted into recovery, wiped the drive, and hit install... and whelp, it turned out Apple didn’t provide compatible net boot recovery images until weeks after launch. Had to do a store return and live with the uncertainty of what I was running.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#197

Post by Arqu » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:23 AM UTC

I am literally waiting for the Pixelbook 2 to replace my MacBook Pro (Touchbar) as it's been rotting away with failing speakers and keyboard getting progressively worse over time. This is my 3rd with a decade long history of using the devices. However, repairs are just too inaccessible. I don't have the luxury to wait a month for a third party authorized repair shop to do its magic so I can continue working. My best experience was with the 2011 model which I upgraded myself. Everything after was just a worse experience.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#198

Post by fouc » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:24 AM UTC

Lenovo thinkpads have a security chip also.

These so-called security chips give me mixed feelings.

They might improve the security of the average consumer, but they also create more barriers for anyone that wants to tinker with their setup.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#199

Post by flukus » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:24 AM UTC

jen729w wrote: post #91

Jmcdd wrote: post #6

This is a shame and another setback for Macbooks / Macs. I'd agree with "planned obselescense" over security being the motive as the article pointed out. This will also not hurt Apple in the slightest, only their consumers who are blinded by their unwavering loyalty to the brand. Sent from my iPhone

I’m not “blinded by [my] unwavering loyalty to the brand” but the suggestion that this sort of thing is going to send me over to Windows or Linux is ridiculous. I’m a normal guy who works in IT and does pretty much everything with my MBP. Work (Citrix, email, Office), play (Logic, Lightroom), development (Sublime, Chrome, the Terminal) ... I mean come on. For my “loyalty” to be considered “unwavering” there would hav…

For someone not blinded by unwavering loyalty you sure do love being locked in to a single vendor.

> Don’t tell me that I can get this all with Linux and a Dell. You know I can’t.

That's a feature, in every category of electronoic life I have multiple companies competing to provide me with nearly everything I want.

> For my “loyalty” to be considered “unwavering” there would have to be a legitimate alternative that does just what Apple does, but lets me repair my own [incredibly powerful, thin, built-like-a-slab-of-rock, trivial to keep up-to-date] laptop. That laptop would have to seamlessly sync my phone and watch, there would have to be superb Bluetooth in-ear wireless headphones available for this ecosystem ... it goes on and on.

That whole paragraph sounds like an ad.

Re: Apple's Proprietary Software Locks Kill Independent Repair on New MacBook Pros

#200

Post by busterarm » Fri, Oct 05, 2018, 6:24 AM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #165

jen729w wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not “blinded by [my] unwavering loyalty to the brand” but the suggestion that this sort of thing is going to send me over to Windows or Linux is ridiculous. I’m a normal guy who works in IT and does pretty much everything with my MBP. Work (Citrix, email, Office), play (Logic, Lightroom), development (Sublime, Chrome, the Terminal) ... I mean come on. For my “loyalty” to be considered “unwavering” there would hav…

I'm mostly in the same boat as you, but I've had consistently poor experiences with MBPs and the MacOS ecosystem in general since roughly 2013. At the beginning of this year I was in the market for a new personal laptop -- even though I got to keep a top end new MBP from my last job, I couldn't consider it reliable (and it hasn't been) so I got a ThinkPad X270. It ended up being a fantastic decision and I've never be…

In case anyone asks: XMonad