Too bad your phone doesn't have a privacy feature like this! The advertisers are always listening.
iPhones show an orange light when the microphone is on, and a green dot for the front camera.
Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)
351–360 of 405 posts
Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. Its like companies are allergic to phisical switches.
There is a physical switch. It's the lid. It's not even a soft switch, the article clearly specifies that it's done in non-reprogrammable hardware logic, which is immune to tampering even by Apple who has bootloader signing keys.
That's a pretty poorly designed switch, if your intention is to turn off the microphone while otherwise using the system.
It's better than not having any way to disconnect the microphone, but strictly inferior to any system where you can toggle the desired state at any time.
Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
The microphone is located inside the left speaker grille anyways, so it would be terribly muffled in clamshell mode anyways. Note this is in contrast to previous models where the microphone had a tiny hole on the left edge (next to USB-C ports) and it could be used in clamshell mode. Which at first I thought felt like a downgrade... but the reality is that your laptop isn't usually in a good position for mic pickup w…
The 2015 pro model i have is an absolute nightmare for the fan as the mic was picking up the noise of the fan and so the CPU was working overtime to cancel the noise leading to cascading fan and heat noise. Ended up just disabling it completely permanently. Was a particularly bad design i think.
I recently got an M2 Macbook Pro to replace my 2017 Macbook Pro (with that awful keyboard and the touch bar), and my biggest take away is that I'm glad Jony Ive left. The new one is less "elegant", but it approaches and in some case exceeds "functional". It's crazy the number he did on the hardware designs at the end.
Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)
#354Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is actually meant to keep the connection to a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse when using the computer in clamshell mode.
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.
The rule is that it must be powered, have a keyboard connected, and have an external display plugged in. It is very confusing especially since everything cuts out if your power source turns off, but this does allow some monitors to provide power+USB+one display over a single C cord to enable clamshell mode.
Kind of unrelated but it sucks that Macs don't do multiple displays over a single cable because Apple refuses to support it in their GPU via the built-in MST hub (that otherwise is put to use for driving the Pro Display XDR).
Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)
#355They have this feature but closing the lid on a MacBook or even putting it to sleep allows Bluetooth devices to stay connected. Heck, a MacBook even while in sleep mode will connect to Bluetooth devices. As far as I can see, this requires a third-party app to fix. Can an application still use the microphone on a Bluetooth device that’s connected?
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.
You can go into the Bluetooth settings panel and tell it not to automatically connect to that device.
Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
FYI the feds can legally compel you to use biometric scanning to open your device, but cannot compel you to give up passcodes. Last I heard
Feds is not an attack vector that concerns me. My coworkers or kids changing my wallpaper or getting access to my kit is.
I guess you don't travel alot...
Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Ummm” aside, this is not at all obvious. I have an iPad from before I had kids. When setting it up, I was asked to enter my Apple ID, so I did. Then came kids and a new use for this iPad, and a second iPad, which obviously needed the same apps, and a third. No, it never occurred to me to set up appleids specifically for toddlers. It did eventually prompt me to set up a new “iPads” appleid when I switched from androi…
"Umm aside" not-aside, I'm sorry for triggering you. it's too late for me to edit my comment and take that out but I would if I could. So this may not be obvious to you, but what's obvious to someone isn't necessarily obvious to other people, and vice versa. In any case, I can see why creating a separate account if you only have toddlers seems too onerous. Don't worry though, they'll become teenagers who want (and de…
I'm in agreement that Apple does not know how ipads are actually used in many families. There is nothing personal or private on our shared ipads, either, and it makes no sense to tightly bind each physical device to a single person's appleid. They are basically roaming web browsers and game screens. Nobody reads their email on them, for example. And this doesn't even get into the question of whether a small child should need to remember usernames and passwords and consent to EULAs. The devices should have settings which respect that while some individual's appleid (e.g. mine) is ultimately responsible for the device, that in no way reflects who the typical user of the device is or what they should have access to in the corresponding apple account. A checkbox during setup that says "this is a shared device that should not have access to my personal data" would be perfectly fine.
Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
That creates a worse product for the user. It adds an extra switch to the design which complicates it, and it leads to situations where the mic isn’t on but the user doesn’t know why. What Apple came up with works perfect as it adds some privacy while affecting the user in no way. This is also combined with permission dialogs for mic access and an indicator light showing the mic is in use.
> It adds an extra switch to the design which complicates it, and it leads to situations where the mic isn’t on but the user doesn’t know why. This could be solved with a simple dialog box telling the use to check the switch. > What Apple came up with works perfect as it adds some privacy while affecting the user in no way. Far from perfect. Anything except physical disconnect switches can be overridden with software…
if there is a button in software, it can be hacked _in software_
this is in hardware and cannot be tampered with. apple also doesn't make backdoors, haven't you heard of what happened with the FBI?
Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
you, the user, should expect it to work without any tweaks or workarounds I think that, for any reasonable definition of "it just works", it would clearly refer to essential functionality and not the extremely long tail of niche tweaks that at least one user out of millions might want to perform. For example on Apple devices I've often wanted a feature that would let me skip PIN/FaceID authentication when connected t…
> I think that, for any reasonable definition of "it just works", it would clearly refer to essential functionality Really? I always heard it as something more like "we've thought of everything, all the details, and you don't have to fiddle with our products like with Windows." I think essential functionality is always implied, with any product, but with Apple, it seemed like their promise was for a higher level of u…
it seemed like their promise was for a higher
level of user experience than that.
Whether this is your cup of tea or your worst nightmare, I don't think this is particularly controversial!
Additionally, I think it's also uncontroversial that they're able to pursue/achieve a higher level of polish specifically thanks to the fact that they choose not to pursue the infinitely long tail of hardware combinations and software configurability. After all, as engineers we know that N possible feature toggles and knobs quickly can quickly approach 2^N or even N! combinations that need to be thought about and tested.
In short, I think it's sort of baffling to think that the omission of some pet niche feature equates to a piece of software "not working."
In contrast, if that omission makes you think the software stinks or simply isn't for you, that would make total sense to me.
Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
Overwhelmingly, it does "just work" as Apple intended. However, it's often quite opinionated. So Apple's intended functionality may or may not jive with your preferences. This is neither a defense nor criticism of Apple, and it's not a defense or criticism of your preferences either. I will point out that anecdotally, I don't hear too many people wanting their mouse's scrolling to work in the opposite direction as th…
> Overwhelmingly, it does "just work" as Apple intended. that's a creative re-wording of "you're holding it the wrong way." Not all Apple fans have been on board with the slow morph from general purpose computer to walled-garden console -- although admittedly that audience is probably mostly gone, anyway.
The "if you hold your iPhone 4 in a particularly contrived way, reception suffers" thing was a total farce.
Apparently you had to use your iPhone 4 without a case and press a finger horizontally over the antenna line. I wasn't even able to trigger it in that pathological way. It was about as realistic as complaining your laptop doesn't work while being roasted in a microwave oven.
There are countless reasons to dislike Apple, including many factual reasons and of course personal taste. Not the biggest fan myself.
But when I see that iPhone 4 antenna issue mentioned, I know there's a particular sort of sentiment behind it.