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AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

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Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#241
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their ethics are terrible. You pay $1000 for a computer, and you are only allowed to install software on it that Apple says you are allowed to. You can only pay for software on their own store. Complete bullshit, and it makes me sad that so many here on HN and elsehwere, tech people who learned to program because their 8088 was completely open and free to let you actually create things and learn about computing, so m…

> tech people who learned to program because their 8088 was completely open and free to let you actually create things and learn about computing, so many of you will defend this terrible situation. There is nothing terrible about Apple making devices my 80+ year old mother can safely and easily use. I have a Mac, and I also have Linux machines. Nothing is stopping people learning about computers. Why would anyone spe…

> Nothing is stopping people learning about computers.

Hell, it's easier and cheaper than ever. You can run Linux in your browser on an iPad, just by visiting a URL. Or shell into various free-tier VMs, for... free. Maybe a one-time cost for an SSH/Mosh client if you're on iOS I suppose. Swift Playgrounds and a hundred other learn-to-code apps and sites exist. And that's if you're "stuck" with a locked-down device running iOS—you can pick up cheap but pretty damn powerful second-hand x86 computers with money earned from a shift or two at McDonalds and do whatever you want with them. Practically all libraries have lots of computers now (and see again that you can run Linux in a browser, or remote into VMs from the browser, if you're concerned about how locked-down a library computer might be). I routinely end up with free or nearly-free surprisingly good computers (even Apple ones!) without even trying.

Resources, including entire books, available for free and on demand—and almost any information relating to computers is free if you're willing to sail the high seas and hoist the Jolly Roger, which is exactly what learners did back in the "good old days", too (but we pirated software, not books, mainly because the books were rarely available in digital form and we had worse ways to read them than we do now, even if they had been available).

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s an overly reductive to prove a biased point. Typical users do not have the same motivations as programmers. The market for connected devices does not have to conform to your expectations. It’s really exhausting pointing out how your argument would effectively force others to produce what satisfies your sensibilities and to protect what you feel is sacrosanct. Programming is “just math”. I don’t need an 8088 to…

> Typical users do not have the same motivations as programmers. This is actually very untrue in my experience. I can't tell you how many "normal users" ask me whether there is an open source equivalent they can use so they don't have to pay for X, for example, and many have shown interest in doing what they can to optimize their setup and/or reduce their financial burden by getting smarter about how things are set u…

Oooh anecdata time; I can’t tell you how many times software engineers have just put libs in a dep file to avoid recreating the wheel.

Reusing existing software is not equivalent to expecting users who want share pics to learn from 8088 on up. In fact it’s quite the opposite; it’s good engineering to not waste time recreating the wheel.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#243
post #8

This seems to have been announced a couple of weeks ago, so we don't need to just trust the tweet: https://www.macworld.com/article/1377200/apple-to-limit-aird... Having it open to everyone for only a limited amount of time actually kind of seems like the right thing, but it's hard to come up with a legit explanation for why they rushed that change to China first.

You know what actually makes sense? Creating a setting that the user can change as they see fit.

Customization? On an Apple device? Are you out of your mind?

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#244
post #73

I have to admit that when you actually look at the details this is a rather perplexing change. Ditto for reading the comments here. Is Apple being Pro-CCP with this change? If you open airdrop to everyone, your device can be tracked and identified individually. When this setting is disabled, this becomes far harder. I'm of the opinion that this change is good and actually increases security across the board, includin…

Also, anyone who rides public transportation in a major metropolitan area has probably experienced perverts airdropping them pornography, and this would fix that issue.

Do you ride public transportation in a major metropolitan area? This is not a thing I've ever even heard of happening (I'm sure someone has done it) in the real world

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#245
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tech people who learned to program because their 8088 was completely open and free to let you actually create things and learn about computing, so many of you will defend this terrible situation. There is nothing terrible about Apple making devices my 80+ year old mother can safely and easily use. I have a Mac, and I also have Linux machines. Nothing is stopping people learning about computers. Why would anyone spe…

> Why would anyone spend $1000 on a computer from Apple if it’s not what they want? Because marketing. Then again, maybe the truth is that what people really want isn't the best tool for the job but the best-marketed tool for the job, and they spend their money accordingly.

Apple explicitly advertise that their computers are locked down. It’s part of their marketing. If people didn’t want it, this wouldn’t work.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#246
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tech people who learned to program because their 8088 was completely open and free to let you actually create things and learn about computing, so many of you will defend this terrible situation. There is nothing terrible about Apple making devices my 80+ year old mother can safely and easily use. I have a Mac, and I also have Linux machines. Nothing is stopping people learning about computers. Why would anyone spe…

>>There is nothing terrible about Apple making devices my 80+ year old mother can safely and easily use. I just don't understand this argument. Never did and I don't think I ever will. If apple allowed you to install custom apps, it would change NOTHING for your 80+ year old mother. Literally nothing. Her device would still be just as safe and secure as ever before.

At the same time, almost everyone in my family over the age of 60 who uses a non-Apple device has their devices completely sodden with crapware (and probably worse), to the point where they periodically have to taken them in to some sort of computer "repair" person to have them serviced (i.e., the garbage removed).

Some people apparently need help making judgment calls about what is and is not safe to install on their devices. I feel like Mac OS might strike the right balance here: you can install anything you want, but the OS throws up speedbumps if the app doesn't have the right signature, is not from the App Store, etc. These protections can be easily circumvented, but they send a signal that you should think twice about doing so if you don't really know what you're doing.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their ethics are terrible. You pay $1000 for a computer, and you are only allowed to install software on it that Apple says you are allowed to. You can only pay for software on their own store. Complete bullshit, and it makes me sad that so many here on HN and elsehwere, tech people who learned to program because their 8088 was completely open and free to let you actually create things and learn about computing, so m…

Quoted post unavailable.

[deleted]

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#248
post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true at all. What was happening is that the CPU was, at peak, pulling more power than an older battery was capable of delivering and it was causing a brownout. Their solution was to restrict CPU performance as battery condition deteriorated to ensure that your phone was always giving you the maximum level of performance available to you. Batteries are consumables and their performance degrades over time. T…

> Batteries are consumables and their performance degrades over time. I can accept that for removable batteries. But if you have to essentially dismantle the device to replace the battery, it's part of the device and should be treated as such: the battery being a consumable means the entire device is a consumable.

Well no, you can just get the battery replaced.

But that doesn't change anything - the point is, they could have just limited the CPU power draw to below the minimum threshold at all times so performance was constant, but low. That would in my opinion be strictly worse.

[edit] To be clear, I also want replaceable batteries but that conversation is totally orthogonal.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#249
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Do you personally know anyone who has been using the same iPhone for 8 years? I find that claim dubious.

A couple of people, its an oddity though.

For most people the hardware fails after 3 years lol

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

secure boot with keys outside your control, mandatory TPM chips, remote attestation, etc

Quoted post unavailable.

This is over simplifying matters. The technologies used to be optional, but in many cases is now mandatory to use an OS.

Windows 11 mandates a TPM, for example - Windows 10 did not and works fine on any system without. There has been a huge amount of discussion here and elsewhere about the Windows 11 mandatory security changes, which themselves are similar to the changes Apple have made to how their own systems boot over the years.

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