throwaway851

/usr/bin/sandbox-exec is still on macOS Monterey. It's not pretty, but you should still be able to roll your own sandbox rules and run any arbitrary app with it:

https://mybyways.com/blog/creating-a-macos-sandbox-to-run-ko...

I’m not surprised that if you use accessories that aren’t vetted to work with a particular system, that the system may get damaged over time in a way that isn’t an intentional “self destructing” design. At the time that I’m writing this, the HN title is an editorialized “iPhone 5 through 8 and some iPads self-destruct w non-MFi cables and chargers” when the ifixit link says “How [do] I test the Tristar?”

If you take your car to a mechanic and get repairs with generic third party parts and the car isn’t as efficient or reliable as the same model car that was taken to the dealer mechanic doing repairs with parts officially approved by the car maker, would you be surprised?

Back in 2013, a woman in China was electrocuted because a poorly designed generic charger was letting dangerous current through to the phone while it was being used:

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/apple-starts-power-adapter...

If you were Apple and wanted to guarantee a minimum level of quality and safety, doesn’t the MFi program make sense? I’ve never thought of MFi certification as a ploy to charge more just because they can. Such a program lets you buy (MFi certified) Anker lightning cables for a lot less than a similar cable made by Apple.

If there were multiple stores, chances are that the app developer would choose the least restrictive App Store. So maybe Apple’s App Store rejects an app because it’s doing something sneaky, but some other App Store isn’t as rigorous and publishes the app. If you’ve ever been in the situation where you’re the IT person for your extended family, don’t be surprised when your grandmother tells you that she needs help with some weird problem with her phone and you track down that it’s some app that she got from an alternate App Store. That sort of situation is not a good user experience and isn’t good for the Apple ecosystem. The walled garden is a feature, not a bug. If you want a different experience with more choices, there’s Android - seriously.

Neil Cybart wrote this in a July 6th newsletter: “Billions of people use Android smartphones. However, the press views Android as so inferior to iOS that it’s not a viable alternative for Apple users. That ends up saying more about the competition failing than Apple users suffering from Apple possessing too much power and success.” I had a hard time believing that when I read it, but maybe it’s true.

Macs from model year 2006-2015 expose both S/PDIF digital audio and regular analog audio on the same single 3.5mm audio port. Newer Macs (model year 2016 and up) only have analog audio.

You’ll want to make sure your audio cable uses TRRS:

https://components101.com/connectors/35mm-audio-jack

For what it's worth, when the original Rosetta (PowerPC to Intel) was released, it wasn't faster to run emulated/translated PowerPC apps on the first generation Intel Mac, but a few Intel Mac generations later, it was. There was a reason why Apple decided to migrate off of PowerPC. :-)

See also this post about Rosetta performance from someone who ported Google Earth: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23686924

For Linux and Docker, you might want to check out:

Transparently running binaries from any architecture in Linux with QEMU and binfmt_misc

https://ownyourbits.com/2018/06/13/transparently-running-bin...

Docker Engine on Intel Linux runs Arm Containers

https://blog.hypriot.com/post/docker-intel-runs-arm-containe...

While it describes running ARM linux binaries on an Intel machine, it should be possible to do the opposite.

If you want to know how it works, you can find the API spec here:

Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing

https://www.apple.com/covid19/contacttracing/

Yes, but would a typical user know or care if the app they downloaded from a web site was sandboxed and would otherwise have been approved by the App Store if it was submitted there? And if not, how could someone like John Gruber make that claim of safety on anything other than iPhone and iPad? Taking the Zoom example on a parent thread above, look at what happens when you’re installing a Zoom client on the Mac without the strict enforcements of the iOS App Store: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22736608

Another way to look at it is that Apple is making it harder to run the system in an insecure fashion. You may not agree with that decision, but I certainly appreciate how Apple is looking out for the safety and security of the user.

Tangent: as much as some developers hate that the only way to distribute apps for the iPhone is through the App Store, as a user I consider that walled garden of apps to be a real security benefit. When John Gruber says “If you must use Zoom or simply want to use it, I highly recommend using it on your iPad and iPhone only. The iOS version is sandboxed and reviewed by the App Store.” There’s a reason why he can say things like that and it’s because Apple draws a hard line in the sand that not everyone will be happy with.

If you read the Apple support page linked from that article, Apple doesn’t claim that you’ll lose internet access without reliable GPS. The article author seems confused.