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AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

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Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#321
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.

I legitimately don't understand how this has been spun into some sort of pro-censorship move. Leaving your phone open to getting AirDrop-ed by anyone in the vicinity just seems like a terrible idea in general, but especially in China. Apple is helping the authoritarian dictatorship by checks notes not having your phone advertise to everyone nearby that it can receive files from anyone? The ability for dissidents to a…

I agree with all of your points. To me this seems like correcting an oversight in Apple’s original implementation vs Apple taking away a ‘feature’.

I’ve gotten AirDrop spam here in America and welcome this change.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you are only allowed to install software on it that Apple says you are allowed to This isn't accurate. macOS' default security settings (System > Security & Privacy) have "Allow apps downloaded from:" set to "App Store" by default. Selecting "App Store and identified developers" allows you to install anything from the App store, or anything that's been code signed. If you want to execute unsigned code, you can disa…

I am not intimately familiar with the Apple ecosystem. This still reads like all or nothing. All as in "App Store and identified developers", or user can turn off "System Integrity Protection" completely. Turning off SIP eliminates any protection. Is that what it means to disable SIP?

SIP is a collection of protection features. You can disable bits and pieces, or all of it.

Disabling SIP is generally a bad idea, but there are times when it can be useful, e.g. modifying stock applications like Dock.app.

You don't need to disable SIP to run unsigned code. If a binary is unsigned all you need to do is hold a key down while clicking the program. macOS will show a warning popup and let you continue. This isn't super user friends, but then again the majority of Apple's customers are not going to (or want to) run untrusted code, and if you do want to run untrusted code it is not that big of an inconvenience.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don’t believe this is in response to protest then how do you explain it being rushed out ONLY IN CHINA?

When you work on software available globally, it's very normal to deploy or roll out features region-by-region. This seems par for the course.

Right, and usually you roll out first to a smaller region, perhaps in a place where you have customers you don't care about as much for some reason. I don't think China is that region.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#324
post #228
post #213

Time for a new operating system (if we didn't already hit that mark with the 2013 NSA leaks). Apple, Google, Samsung, Huawei: they all exist at the pleasure of the state. Please ignore their glitzy PR-laden presentations about protecting people's privacy and upholding human rights. They will sell you out in a second if it's convenient. On the mobile side of things, we need, at the barest minimum: - a web based OS wit…

Does this not all exist already in the form of Pinephone and Firefox OS?

FFOS was discontinued in 2015. Pinephone is an option however.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#325
post #228
post #213

Time for a new operating system (if we didn't already hit that mark with the 2013 NSA leaks). Apple, Google, Samsung, Huawei: they all exist at the pleasure of the state. Please ignore their glitzy PR-laden presentations about protecting people's privacy and upholding human rights. They will sell you out in a second if it's convenient. On the mobile side of things, we need, at the barest minimum: - a web based OS wit…

Does this not all exist already in the form of Pinephone and Firefox OS?

One could argue that Firefox OS does not exist at all.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#326
post #65
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> suicide nets I assume this is about Foxconn. Does that mean you'll be boycotting other companies that also work with them, like Amazon, Dell, Google, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Vizio, Acer, Lenovo, Nintendo, and Sony? I'm genuinely asking. It's a tough pill to swallow to learn all our tech stuff we all enjoy is built on the backs of poor people on the other side of the planet.

The raw materials have a pretty bad track record as well.

As they do for every tech supplier, Apple is just the very large and easy target to pin it all on. Your Lenovo, Dell or Samsung products are no cleaner.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#327
post #9

I don’t ever want to hear again how Apple is some champion of privacy and ethics. I’ve lost count of how many scandals have come out of their relationship with China from the suicide nets to the repeated investigations showing their supply chain was riddled with slave labor that they would later campaign against protections that would prevent it. Now this. They are fucked as a company, I can’t get out of their ecosys…

> suicide nets

Like the ones installed all over Europe and the US?

Netherlands for example also does suicide nets, here's one in a small town city hall https://www.tubantia.nl/almelo/anti-zelfmoordnetten-geplaats...

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#328
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.

The timing of the change seems quite conspicuous [1], and it's also weird that Apple would introduce this in China first and only roll it out to the rest of the world next year. The same article mentions that Apple blocks the Taiwanese flag emoji in China, for which it's hard to come up with an explanation other than bowing to censorship. 1: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/11/netizen-voices-apple-r...

Apple certainly tailors the emojis available to the local political climate.

They don't, for instance, have the flag of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, instead using the flag of the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#329
post #159

* Apple is not a green company * Apple is not a free speech advocate * Apple builds their products with unethical labor

Apple is about money, nothing else. Look at their quarterly reports, they are not a byproduct of a higher ethics or anything

But, hey, at least they removed the phone charger and there's no plastic inside their product's boxes.

Re: AirDrop is now limited to 10 minutes

#330
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> suicide nets I assume this is about Foxconn. Does that mean you'll be boycotting other companies that also work with them, like Amazon, Dell, Google, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Vizio, Acer, Lenovo, Nintendo, and Sony? I'm genuinely asking. It's a tough pill to swallow to learn all our tech stuff we all enjoy is built on the backs of poor people on the other side of the planet.

I remember reading some reports that actually looked at suicide rate based on the number of people working there and didn't find it that elevated compared to the average. Fact is, anytime you have a big concentration of people in a small place you will have some suicides just by virtue of statistics, so I'm not sure if there's really a much higher number of suicides or if the few that did happen were sensationalised…

Suicides or no, I watched a documentary about how the women who work at chipmaking companies, due to the chemicals involved, all developed serious health problems with their hormones and reproductive system.
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