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Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

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Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#971
post #906

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot more moving parts to go wrong.

I'd rather take that risk than have some dumbass notch blocking the screen.

I'd rather not have something so needless as an edge to edge screen, and thus not worry about the notch at all. I really don't see the value proposition of an edge-to-edge screen being that significant.

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#972
post #906

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather take that risk than have some dumbass notch blocking the screen.

I'd rather not have something so needless as an edge to edge screen, and thus not worry about the notch at all. I really don't see the value proposition of an edge-to-edge screen being that significant.

That's fine if the value proposition is not right for you, and that's why we have such a breadth of phones available today. One person's aesthetic preferences are not always the only way to do things. I think the only thing we should all be able to agree upon is that rounded screen edges make it extremely difficult to design a good phone case which protects from all angles.

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#973
post #779

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also claim that if you add a (MFI-compliant) case to the iPad, and close it, that this similarly disconnects the microphone. The simplest mechanism to do this sounds complicated enough that it reduces my confidence in the mechanism. The point of half the comments in this thread is that a hardware interlock mechanism needs to be dead simple. This sounds like a step in the wrong direction.

How could a complicated mechanism compared to no mechanism be a step in the wrong direction?

The whole point of this thread is that Apple is telling us to not rely on dead simple devices (camera covers, tape, etc.), and instead to trust their internal mechanism that they claim can't be beat. If people take them at face value, but the mechanism is in fact complex enough to admit an exploitable vulnerability, that's a net loss of security, and is a step in the wrong direction.

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#974

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"If you manage to find a vulnerability in this system, I don't think I even mind, " Taking a quick photo doesn't illuminate the LED for long enough for a human to reliably notice. "because you've also broken physics " Or merely recognized the role of the human element. A shame, Apple was once good at this.

Newer Macs will also require the light to come on for a lot least a few seconds when the camera activates.

Who enforces that requirement?

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#975
post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some one wrote a paper about indicators can be compromised by turning on and off the cam rapidly

Pulse width modulation -- what can't it do!

not familiar with circuitry. Just clarifying, you're saying that can enforce the indicator to be on long enough to be noticed?

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#976
post #850

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ”the light doesn't prevent the camera from turning on, it merely notifies you that the camera is on.” No, but the OS prevents the camera from turning on without permission from the user. (There have been bugs/compromises to this in the past, but at the browser level - you still had to give camera permission to the browser) Besides, if you’ve got some compromised or surreptitious software on your MacBook trying to s…

Without worrying about malware, several times I've clicked on some Skype like program while trying to make a voice call only to find it trying to transmit ugly video of me.

Valid point. I have to admit I'm a bit "video call vain" as well. I like to make sure my hair doesn't look too crazy and my room doesn't look too messy before getting on zoom/skype/etc. But one thing the last few months has taught me is that many of my friends/colleagues/family really don't care about these things!

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#977
post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you maintain physical possession of your machine, point 3 is moot, at least on Macs.

... and of everything you will ever plug into the USB port on your machine, including cables.

How is any of that going to rewire the hard line electrical path?

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#978

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather not have something so needless as an edge to edge screen, and thus not worry about the notch at all. I really don't see the value proposition of an edge-to-edge screen being that significant.

That's fine if the value proposition is not right for you, and that's why we have such a breadth of phones available today. One person's aesthetic preferences are not always the only way to do things. I think the only thing we should all be able to agree upon is that rounded screen edges make it extremely difficult to design a good phone case which protects from all angles.

> and that's why we have such a breadth of phones available today

We really don't. Apple came up with the notch, everyone copies it and obsesses about edge-to-edge display, managing to implement it to very varying degrees of success.

> I think the only thing we should all be able to agree upon is that rounded screen edges make it extremely difficult to design a good phone case which protects from all angles.

I forget which phone I had with a display that went to the vertical edges, which were curved slightly. Damn thing was almost impossible to hold without it thinking I was trying to actually touch the screen on the edge. The best case I could find stopped that from happening, with a slight trade-off that I couldn't touch anything right on the edge of the screen (very rarely ever needed that)

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#979
post #942

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sound very insecure.

Yes I'm more insecure about my qualifications than my appearance. You people sound insecure about your appearance.

What? Why are you saying this? What does this have to do with anything? Are you just tying to be right or something? Are you trying to win an argument? Like why do you even care about my own sense of embarrassment? Why should I care if you personally don’t feel embarrassed in situations where I might? What are you trying to proof? Who are you trying to be?

Re: Don't close your MacBook with a cover over the camera

#980
post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Netherlands we don’t really close curtains at night. I also have no camera cover.

Don’t you have bright lights outside? Do you like being woken at the crack of dawn?

Only close them in the bedroom but nowhere else really
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