Ric Ford:

It’s now clear that a new Mac, purchased directly from Apple, can fail completely and suddenly without any warning after running fine for a few weeks. Apple’s proprietary storage design means that a Mac failure is now also a storage failure that will prevent you from accessing any of your files in any way.

[…]

I don’t know what Apple’s policies are regarding access by Apple and any repair/recycling partners to your files, but an Apple Store will ask you to enter your Apple ID password (used for FileVault recovery keys, activation/erase unlock, and Find My) into another computer.

[…]

It’s now also clear from painful experience that Apple may hold a failed Mac and its storage hostage in an obtuse repair process for more than three weeks, even if it’s under warranty and less than 30 days old.

[…]

I discovered when Apple finally returned the failed Mac after repair that its replacement motherboard was used, not new, showing unexpected and heavy SSD wear, even though all the files were gone and the drive was initialized with a newer macOS than it had been running, an unwanted and problematic update that is almost impossible to revert.

Alan Forkosh:

In passing, Ric noted issues with the scheme of getting a loaner (I.e., purchasing a replacement and then returning it for a full refund when your repair/replacement is done). He notes that Apple Stores stock base configurations but often do not stock units in a custom configuration to duplicate the damaged unit. Another issue is that the return deadline (usually 14 days) may be shorter than the time it takes to process the damaged unit.

trilo:

For decades our company has relied on clones for (what is essentially) instant recovery from catastrophic failure of disks. We’d simply boot from the clone and be working again in moments. We could move to a new machine, boot from the clone then clone back to the internal drive without the unreliable and agricultural Migration Assistant.

I’m starting to believe Ric has a very valid point. Don’t buy anything non-standard from Apple and keep data storage on the internal drive to a minimum so it can’t be ‘locked away’ by Apple.

To think you can be without a new machine for several weeks - with a real chance of complete data loss - is totally unacceptable.

Neil Laubenthal:

The issue is that you must have the internal drive recognizable and bootable and that the machine won’t boot with a corrupted/failed internal drive. I don’t know if that is an Apple decision or a physical/logical part of the security model. Making a bootable clone is as you say possible…and I personally wouldn’t mind if it was sealed and signed and only updatable if it was the current boot volume…Ric’s problem was that he may have had an up to date external boot volume with an associated data volume that had a current clone…but the machine itself is DOA with a bad internal drive. If that was a deliberate choice by Apple…bad idea IMO unless there’s something I don’t know/understand about the security model.

Previously:

• A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Permissions Requests
• Apple’s Blue Ocean
• Which Devices Should You Boot Your M1 Mac From?
• Inside Apple’s CSAT Solutions Repair Depot
• The Role of Bootable Duplicates in a Modern Backup Strategy
• MacBook Pro Diary: A Third Failure
• Where to Get Apple Products Repaired
• AppleCare Support Is Broken
• Apple Refuses to Repair iMac Pro
• An Apple Support Experience

EGO has launched a new cordless ride-on battery-powered electric mini-bike, model MB1505-2.

The new EGO Power+ mini bike is powered by 2 of their cordless outdoor power tool batteries.

It can reach a top speed of 28 MPH and has a max range of 18 miles on a single battery charge with 2x 7.5Ah batteries.

There’s a full suspension in the front and rear, and stopping power is accomplished with dual hydraulic disc brakes.

EGO says that the off-road tires have an aggressive tread that “invite you to embark on any adventure.”

• 3 driving modes – ECO, normal, sport
• Reverse mode
• Parental controls
• Digital display for speed, acceleration, range
• Dual hydraulic brakes
• 28 MPH top speed
• 18 miles max range

The mini dirt bike kit comes with 2x EGO 56V 7.5Ah ARC Lithium batteries.

Price: TBA

Discussion

Ryobi launched an 18V battery-powered RC truck a few years ago.

Two holiday seasons ago, Kobalt launched a 40V Max battery-powered Power Wheels-type kids ride-on truck.

Last year, Craftsman launched a V20 battery-powered Power Wheels-style ride-on ATV.

The new EGO POWER+ Mini Bike takes things to an entirely new level.

Related Posts:

Field Test: EGO 56V Powerload Brushless String Trimmer with Carbon Fiber Shaft New EGO Cordless Floodlight The New Milwaukee Packout Vacuum is Made in the USA!

Bloonface:

A lot of that influx has not stuck around. Everyone is very aware at this point that active user numbers have dropped off a cliff.

[…]

These are people and organisations who were engaged with Mastodon and fediverse to the point of investing real time and resources into it, but simply dropped out without a trace some time between November 2022 and now. I know multiple people who tried it and then gave up, due to lack of engagement with what they were posting, lack of people to follow, inability to deal with the platform’s technical foibles, or worse because they found the experience actively unpleasant. Something has gone badly wrong.

[…]

As it exists at the moment, Mastodon functions essentially as Twitter did in about 2008. In some ways, that’s nice. The userbase is calmer, the DiscourseTM does not get spun up as easily.

[…]

So what does Mastodon bring to the table in addition to Twitter, that might justify someone deciding to take the plunge and move to it? There are a few unique things about the platform, but they generally fall into the broad category of “things users don’t care about”. Chief among these is decentralisation.

Via John Gruber:

I would like to see Mastodon thrive. But the platform’s ideological zealotry is obviously holding it back and seemingly isn’t going to change. That’s why I’m much more optimistic about Bluesky’s long-term prospects.

The Mac and iOS developer community has largely moved over to Mastodon. But most others have not, and there’s enough happening on Twitter (both with developer content and questions about my apps) that I still feel the need to check it. This isn’t so easy without a client app. For now, I’m using Fluid to make an app for each account. I need this because Twitter’s e-mail notifications have never worked for me, and the Web site doesn’t show all the mentions if you aren’t logged in.

Mastodon works OK, but I haven’t found much to like about it other than that it’s not Twitter. Maybe there’s less drama, but that hadn’t been a problem with my feed. Overall, I would say that almost everything about the Mastodon user experience is worse. Search is just terrible in comparison with Twitter. The best parts are that it works with RSS (like old Twitter) and that, although pages require JavaScript, they do load completely and so can be easily saved and searched offline.

Previously:

• Safari 17 Web Apps
• Ivory for Mac
• Post-Twitter Diaspora Options
• The Growth of Mastodon
• Civilized Discourse Construction Kit

Fred Lambert, writing for Electrek:

CharIn, the association behind the CCS EV charging standard, has issued a response to the Tesla and Ford partnership on the NACS charging standard. [...] Last month, Ford announced that it will integrate NACS, Tesla’s charge connector that it open-sourced last year in an attempt to make it the North American charging standard, into its future electric vehicles.

Obviously, CharIn is trying to defend itself and survive here, but I don’t think it is necessarily fighting fair.

When it comes to the charge connector itself, there’s no doubt that they lost the battle. It is almost comical how bad the design of the CCS connector is compared to Tesla’s.

The CCS charger is big fat and ugly, and has reliability problems. Tesla’s NACS charger is smaller, more reliable, and more elegant. The CCS charger is the EV equivalent of pre-USB-C USB ports. NACS is like Lightning. Rivian and GM are now on board with NACS too.

The best way to get a good standard port is to let proprietary designs fight it out in the market, and let the winner become the de facto standard.

Christina Warren (Mastodon):

BlackBerry Messenger, better known as BBM to its millions of once-devoted fans, was arguably the original “killer app” of the smartphone age and it set the standard for the way we have communicated via text on our phones for nearly 20 years and defined the blueprint for mobile messaging services as we know them.

[…]

The brilliance of BBM was that it combined two existing quick messaging paradigms, instant messengers a la AIM and Yahoo Messenger and SMS. But unlike SMS, which U.S. wireless carriers were charging between five and ten cents a message for, BBM was free, included within the data plan that every BlackBerry user paid for either through their carrier or through an enterprise server agreement with their employer. Whereas a normal wireless user might send a few hundred SMS messages in a month, depending on their wireless plans allowance, BlackBerry users would frequently send and receive hundreds of messages a day.

[…]

Beyond just “D” and “R” designations, every BlackBerry had a blinking red light that indicated a new BBM message (or email) had arrived to your phone, putting the “crack” in “Crackberry.” Before BBM, the idea of being “always on” was a concept that was reserved for only the most hardcore of computer users; those constantly tethered to a desktop or laptop. After BBM, it was a way of life.

[…]

Instead of using a phone number or username/email as your unique identifier, BlackBerry users were issued a unique eight-digit alphanumeric PIN instead. Each PIN was unique to its physical device, which made the process of switching devices sometimes fraught and necessitated the need for PIN exchanges, and for some users of a certain age, your PIN was your identity.

Joe Rossignol (Hacker News):

It was rumored in February that Apple may be planning to limit charging speeds and other functionality of USB-C cables that are not certified under its “Made for iPhone” program. Like the Lightning port on existing iPhones, a small chip inside the USB-C port on iPhone 15 models would confirm the authenticity of the USB-C cable connected.

“I believe Apple will optimize the fast charging performance of MFi-certified chargers for the iPhone 15,” Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in March.

[…]

In response to this rumor, European Commissioner Thierry Breton has sent Apple a letter warning the company that limiting the functionality of USB-C cables would not be permitted and would prevent iPhones from being sold in the EU when the law goes into effect, according to German newspaper Die Zeit.

Previously:

• EU Passes Law to Switch iPhone to USB-C