I think that Haswell was old tech the moment it was introduced in the MBA. I was severely underwhelmed by the performance increase over the 2012 MBA. An rMBP is supposed to be a "pro" computer and the Haswell chips just do not offer any significant improvements over the last generation CPUs. Yes, battery life is very important but IMO the potential buyers for the rMBP are looking for fast processors, high-end GPUs, as much RAM as possible and larger SSDs.
Perhaps Apple recognizes this and is waiting for the right components to be put together for this purpose.
There haven't really been any big performance leaps since Sandy Bridge really.
And in the desktop segment the Sandy Bridge CPU's are in some ways better then the Ivy Bridge and Haswell ones. Because they clocked VERY well compared to Ivy Bridge and Haswell.
How ever Haswell is faster then Ivy Bridge per clock. But that is kind of getting offset by the fact that Intel have lowered the clocks on CPU's since Ivy Bridge. So basically the Haswell version of a Ivy bridge CPU have better performance per clock, but also lower clock speed, so the performance gain per clock get pretty much evened out.
No. No no no no no!
The obvious problem with dislocating the Touch-ID device from the computer is exposing the validation mechanism to man-in-the-middle (or maybe device-in-the-middle) attacks. If the path between the fingerprint and its validation has external wires, you can count on the fact that those wires will be hacked. You can never eliminate that threat, but you can do a pretty darn good job minimizing it -- by having the Touch ID device firmly installed. Right. On. The. Computer.
If you think it's unreasonable, you need to say why. 😕
A standard means of doing protection on all my computers makes huge sense. AAPL can control that experience by having the authentication work the same way in Safari on both platforms. Also, iOS developers using the inevitable Touch ID APIs will have a perfect way to emulate that validation when developing on Mac computers.
You fail to understand my two points:
1. A universal way of performing validation via Touch ID the same way on all my computers makes huge sense. A side-benefit is allowing developers a way to emulate Touch ID validation during their dev cycle.
2. If you're going to choose the first platform for Mac deployment, the Mac Pro makes big sense:
2a: As you note, volume of computers is low. You are only going to have a small impact on the available number of Touch ID devices.
2b: Mac Pro manufacture is happening in the US. It's far easier for AAPL to coordinate the deployment and work with the manufacturing lines while maintaining secrecy.
Again, if you think this is unreasonable, you need to explain your reasoning for that conjecture. 🙂
I honestly think having a fingerprint reader on the Mac Pro is totally stupid. At least if its located on the computer it self.
And i don't ever think it have been done. Fingerprint scanners on computers have existed for many years., and I've never even heard of any scanners located on a stationary computer.
I think Apple would be seriously ridiculed if they put one on the Mac Pro. Cos there would be such a small number of people that would use it.
Sure a lot of people will probably have their Mac Pro's on their desks. But not all will have them in arms reach. And then people just wont use it.
Even before Authentec where bought by Apple, and a lot of laptops had readers. Even then most people didn't bother using them. (I did use it a lot on my Vaio.) So for people to even think of using them at all they need to be extremely easy to use. So easy that you almost don't notice it.
And Apple have made only Apple store and unlocking of the phone available when using then fingerprint reader.
And phones have vastly different ways then computers of getting used.
Your phone you pick up from you pocket many times a day. And that way its very convenient to have a scanner so you don't have to use a pass key.
But a computer. You normally sit by for longer periods. You don't need to unlock them as often as you have to with phones.
How ever if Apple made key-chain accessible by a fingerprint reader. It would be very nice for a computer.
But i would be EXTREMELY SURPRISED if they put one ON the Mac Pro it self.
I would go so far that i would gladly take a bet of just 1.10 of the money i bet, that the Mac Pro would not have a fingerprint scanner located on its chassi.
The damaged factory produces 2Gbit DRAM chips. If I recall correctly, the MBPs use 4Gbit DRAM chips.
The article seems a bit sensationalist to me. I don't expect the bump in DRAM prices to last long or be severe.
That report is greatly exaggerated. The fire was on one of the ventilation units on the roof. There where a lot of thick smoke but the fire was very contained. And most importantly it did not contaminate the clean rooms.
If it had contaminated the clean rooms there would have been really bad for production and shut down the productions for long.
