Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

support.apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 405 posts

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#311

Post by krastanov »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #250
krastanov wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you got this backwards. The 5th amendment means that the state can not force you to share information you have in your head, e.g. you can not be forced to give a password. But the state can force you to give a physical key, harware token, or a biometric read.

Can they force you to give up the post-it on which you wrote down your password? If yes, are there any real limits to how much pressure they can apply before they give up? If no, what's stopping them from giving you a pencil and a stack of post-its, and letting you know they'll keep applying pressure until you produce a post-it with the password on it, which they " know " you have " somewhere "? Point being, I feel t…

Depends. If you have the resources to hire a lawyer, then what you describe is governmental overreach borderline on torture that will lead to the government paying out to you when you sue them and plenty of government employees being reprimanded or fired. If you do not have these resources and end up before unscrupulous law enforcement, you might very well have your rights abused until a journalist or the ACLU or some other equivalent decides to fight for you.

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#312

Post by sounds »

pulse7 wrote: post #176

Please, just add a physical switch to disconnect the microphone and camera and even battery! Why the hell do we need special chips to do this? Every chip can be hacked... internet hackers can't turn on physical switches...

I appreciate the request because I tend to agree, though I wouldn't say "every chip can be hacked," but rather I would point to Apple's wavering commitment to privacy (with their recent tracking debacle [1] and previous privacy "mistakes" [2]).

Please, Apple, instead of engineering a better kill switch which requires me to trust you, just install an actual kill switch that I can see for myself does what I want.

[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2022/11/14/apple-class-action-user... or https://9to5mac.com/2023/01/09/apple-privacy-tracking-lawsui...

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/09/23/iphone-...

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#313

Post by DrThunder »

datagram wrote: post #273
rpledge wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apples clamshell mode support is super confusing IMHO. This is once thing Windows does better at least by default. Perhaps Macs can be configured to what I expect but I personally have struggled with getting it to work in a way that satisfies me.

I feel the opposite way. Trying to get Windows laptops to keep outputting to an external display with the lid closed has always been a hassle for me.

You just go into the power plan and select the dropdown to "nothing" for what to do "when the lid is closed".

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#314

Post by dheera »

ademup wrote: post #163
dheera wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how are we supposed to trust Apple that this is in fact what's happening? With a Framework laptop I have a hardware physical switch and I can actually open it up and see the PCB trace and verify that it disconnects the microphone.

I would really like to know why this comment was down voted. It is a perfectly valid question with a rational explanation. Indeed, I was surprised to have needed to scroll down so far to find it, as it was the very first question that popped into my head as well.

A lot of my comments get downvoted these days. Sometimes the mods even side with the downvoters and ask me to stop. If they ban me, oh well, their loss.

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#315

Post by crimsontech »

highwaylights wrote: post #266
cj wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is I like Apple Watch unlocking. But not randomly when I’m downstairs cooking dinner!

I don’t really trust it. The sports bands (which I find most comfortable) are especially vulnerable to being “scooped” off the wrist with two fingers in a single motion without interrupting the presence detection.

It won’t unlock the MacBook if the watch is taken off your wrist though, the watch will lock.

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#316

Post by taneq »

georgelyon wrote: post #145
dvirsky wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has to be the most annoying thing in MacOS. My laptop, soundly sleeping in my backpack, takes over my bluetooth headphones all the time.

I've long desired form my AirPods to operate in a "play any sound from any of my devices" mode. This seems like a no-brainer and such phantom connections would as a result have no user-visible impact and you could do things like listen to music coming from your phone while hearing sounds from your MacBook.

Such an obvious feature… you would think! Apparently it’s not that easy, though, because nobody seems able to do it.

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#317

Post by taneq »

mgkimsal wrote: post #232
freemanofthewan wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This "why" has been growing since Steve passed. I have been an Apple user for 20+ years. The experience has been slowly going downhill for the last 5 years. I think they survived on Steve's vision for the first couple of years after his passing. The brains behind Apple are still there, clearly, M1, M2... the vision is missing. The why's you mention seem to be those unpolished pieces Steve would never have allowed the…

This is why I (and many others) I think still have some fond memories of Snow Leopard, marketed as 'bug fix' release. That feels like the last time there was a united push to polish up existing stuff without throwing in 'new' things.

This is one of those lessons that we as a software dev community seem unable to absorb. Polish is universally better received than flaky new features, and the releases we view most fondly are the ones that are fast and reliable, and yet we never seem capable of holding off on the new features to fix existing pain points.

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#318

Post by crimsontech »

kaba0 wrote: post #254
krastanov wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you got this backwards. The 5th amendment means that the state can not force you to share information you have in your head, e.g. you can not be forced to give a password. But the state can force you to give a physical key, harware token, or a biometric read.

Oh yeah, for some reason my brain reversed the logic, thanks! :D Though certain EU courts can “make you give up” your password, as far as I know. Nonetheless, security is only good when it is used — widely-used biometrics with a potentially stronger password (due to not having to enter it all the times) is statistically safer for the population over everyone having “password1” as a secret. Especially with a good fall…

They can’t …prove… you know a key to decrypt data, but in the UK you can be charged under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

“RIPA regulates the manner in which certain public bodies may conduct surveillance and access a person's electronic communications. The Act:

enables certain public bodies to demand that an ISP provide access to a customer's communications in secret;

enables mass surveillance of communications in transit;

enables certain public bodies to demand ISPs fit equipment to facilitate surveillance;

enables certain public bodies to demand that someone hand over keys to protected information;

allows certain public bodies to monitor people's Internet activities;

prevents the existence of interception warrants and any data collected with them from being revealed in court.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_Investigatory_...

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#319

Post by garblegarble »

highwaylights wrote: post #266
cj wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is I like Apple Watch unlocking. But not randomly when I’m downstairs cooking dinner!

I don’t really trust it. The sports bands (which I find most comfortable) are especially vulnerable to being “scooped” off the wrist with two fingers in a single motion without interrupting the presence detection.

Do you have any more info on that? I've been able to find videos of people taking the sports band off, but it didn't look like any of the techniques were attempting to avoid interrupting the wrist presence detection

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#320

Post by somehnguy »

crimsontech wrote: post #315
highwaylights wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t really trust it. The sports bands (which I find most comfortable) are especially vulnerable to being “scooped” off the wrist with two fingers in a single motion without interrupting the presence detection.

It won’t unlock the MacBook if the watch is taken off your wrist though, the watch will lock.

They said without triggering the presence detection, so presumably the watch would not lock in that case.
Post reply on HN