I still own a MBA from 2011 in its original state (0 repair).

Does that mean we'll need to manually transition to the new services ? Are you planning a bridge or something ?

What about the cost of transcoding everything a second time ?

https://d3js.org/

1) Get physical access to the phone and be able to unlock it.

2) Manually disable the Android setting so that non verified apps can be installed (the setting is enabled by default on almost every Google Android phone to protect users). By doing so a clear message warns the user that the phone will become vulnerable to attackers.

3) Install an obscure apk on the phone (side load or via link) outside of the Play Store.

I would call this just installing an app that is designed to track you. Such an app is trivial to code.

When you decide to set your OS free to make it possible to install anything then obviously you can install anything on it, including a spyware.

It makes no sense to compare this to iOS because iOS doesn't allow 2) (walled garden). Android leaves it up to you and thus provides more "freedom" to users. Freedom comes with additional risks. The equivalent is jailbreaking on iOS (unofficial).

I like to compare this with someone being locked in a room. This person is obviously less likely to die from a car accident than a free one. But does that mean you want to live locked in a room ?

But my question is about desktop app, is it true that any app could contain malware ? Even popular apps like Transmission have been infected, how about those that are not popular and the antivirus doesnt know about ?

Xcode was hacked not so long ago. The malware could remain invisible even to the creators of the app. Although it's less likely to remain unnoticed with open source projects due to the visible nature of it.

On desktop, Mac OS and Windows now provides official stores where apps are verified and signed.

On Android I remember Google added an app scanner in order to detect infected apps even when the security setting is disabled. On windows there is defender.

At the end of the day it's all about trust. Be very careful regarding where you download the software from.

We use Let’s Encrypt for the SSL certificates for both the marketing website and in.vc. Eventually, we’ll migrate our other SSL certificates to Let’s Encrypt. It’s free and easy. "

Cheers!

My major concern about the touch bar is that it really makes things worse. I second the author opinion.

I use Spotify a lot. Before, on my MBA, I could change the volume or hit play/pause with one key tap, straightforward and easy.

Now I have to hit the tiny expand arrow to display these keys and then hit play/pause etc.

It could get even worse because Spotify added their own touch bar buttons when you use the mac native app. But the dynamic display is different depending on whether the app is the front or in the background. When in the background it becomes a shortcut you have to click to make a different set of keys appear. You get lost very easily, plus it becomes redundant with Apple native play/pause keys... So I'm always confused when I just want to hit pause/play.

From the settings, if I'd like to fall back to the always on standard set of function keys then I lose the dynamic app keys. Which is weird. The OS should be clever enough to expand the function keys when nothing else is available instead of a black unused zone and a tiny shortcut zone on the right.

The esc key (as mentioned in the article) is really hard to reach most of the times because you have to quit the current display (cross) before it becomes available. Why not keep it always on the left ?

It feels like the touch bar hasn't been thought through very much. It needs some more work... The good news is that it's mostly software improvements so let's hope Apple / App developers can fix that quickly.

This effectively makes the touch bar a useless feature, but at least I can customize the button mapping and always know the buttons will be where I expect them to be.

/System/Library/CoreServices/ControlStrip.app/Contents/MacOS/TouchBarAgent

You can also remove the Siri icon and add a Play/Stop icon to the default icons on the right. Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Customise Control Strip. You can then move your cursor down off the screen onto the Touchbar, drag Siri out of the way, then drag a Play/Stop icon down into the Control Strip.

Then it will always be there even if the control strip is contracted rather than expanded.

I don't like the Touch Bar, but I've grown to hate it less. However it does register unintentional presses regularly. And no, I'm not "using it wrong".

I concur with this. iTunes has on several occasions simply begun playing without me even touching the keyboard.

After a few weeks with the new MacBook the Touchbar is really the only thing I vehemently dislike about it. I especially dislike that it wants to display the Siri icon despite Siri being disabled on the machine.

Now I just accidently pause or mute my music instead.

Like this, maybe? http://www.imore.com/how-customize-control-strip-touch-bar-m...

If these are truly unintentional touches, as in, you were not touching the bar at all and it registered a key press, then you probably have a hardware issue. I just replaced a machine that would self press the touch bar on the right side when putting any sort of pressure (like resting your palms) to the right of the track pad.

Maybe they should have come up with a way of requiring a press to active buttons on the touchbar.

It got so frustrating that I gave up and added loads of whitespace to the far right side of the bar. It looks weird having a big chunk of empty space there, but it has dramatically reduced my accidental activations.

At this point though, almost two months in, I'm just apathetic towards the bar. I tried to get used to the 'app contexts' but it felt too forced for me. So now it's just a function bar with a bad UX. I rebound Caps to escape and got used to it because the touch escape, even with the extended hitbox, feels extremely unpleasant to use.

I'm hoping someone figures out a way to run an app that takes over the bar even when not in focus. I'd quite like, for example, to have a mini version of iStat Menus on it, the currently playing track, or some other cute widget.

I know the above is not how Apple intend the touch bar to be used (as a second screen), but I'd sure find it more useful than what it does now!

I have to make compromises if I want the play/pause control then I'll loose the brightness or volume because the shortcuts are limited to 4 max even if the touch bar is mostly unused black space on the left most of the time.

You can't customize the app buttons unless it allows you to which is not the case with Spotify.

1/ display the same touch bar UI when the app is in the front or background otherwise it's confusing.

2/ keep the spotify controls visible when using chrome for example (chrome doesn't have any touch bar controls yet). Right now I have to click the newly added spotify shortcut all the time. Maybe a way to decide which app should be displayed when the space is unused would help (in the OS settings).

I like the song play progress bar, it would be even better with the current and next artist/song names and covers.

https://www.boastr.net/second-touchbar-alpha-available/

I haven't played with it yet, but it looks like as long as the thing you want to do has a hotkey you can use this to make touchbar button to do it whenever you are in that particular app.

I stopped using AV softwares a long time ago for the following reasons:

- It slows down your device (memory, cpu, disk access, etc.).

- It annoys you a lot more than it stops or solves any security concern. I've yet to hear from someone telling me their AV software saved them from an actual real virus... If this ever happens it's probably a damn advanced attack that even the AV software doesn't know about.

- It's extremely hard to remove, especially when pre-installed as a bloatware on a PC. Sometimes it's also installed as an extension of other software (browser, etc.).

- It usually takes wrong decisions (false positive) that lead to broken web pages, legitimate software that stops working, etc. And unfortunately the "standard" user has no way to figure out it's due to the AV. I can't count the number of times I had to work with my customers on figuring out what was making my website or software not run (or even not to install) on their machine. One time I had to write to an AV editor in order for my browser extension to be whitelisted. Never got any answer...

AV softwares can be easily replaced with common sense and a set of very simple rules.

- Have a hardware/software firewall that blocks everything expect what's required (allowing only web when initiated from the machine is enough in 99% of the cases). Every major OS now comes pre-configured with a software firewall which removes 90% of the threats.

- Use a strong email service or software (gmail, etc.). This way you reduce the likelihood that a virus, spam, or fishing email passes through.

- Don't open email attachments coming from unknown or non trusted senders. Even when the sender seems legitimate, double check that the email makes sense (not an unusual behavior), pay close attention to URLs, written language and words. Don't click links without knowing where it goes (domain name, https, etc.). Email remains the most simple way to install a virus or a trojan on someone's computer so be very very attentive when acting upon an email. If you use an email provider (like gmail), report the spam or phishing attack very quickly so that 1/it can be stopped quickly for others and 2/it teaches the Machine learning to do better next time.

15 years I've been applying these rules and I never got any virus without using any AV software. My devices run like a charm (PC or Mac).

While I'm a big defender of freedom and open source, I can easily understand and forgive proprietary OS providers choices with regard to the AV editors.

But anti-virus isn't the solution either. This happens with anti-virus eating half their CPU. I don't really know a sensible way to let my parents have a windows laptop these days. They use an iPad now, and that's the end of it.

I certainly agree with your top and bottom sentence there. AV software is basically an industry which shouldn't exist (or at least shouldn't be anywhere near as well-known and lucrative as it is). The reason it has existed, is because Microsoft have in been poor on security in general. I think more specifically we can say that earlier versions of windows took an approach of being way too permissive with things like file permissions. It seems to me they've been gradually phasing in more sensible limits ever since, and if they're also phasing out 3rd party AV software, I can see that might be a sensible rationalisation too.

Might be. I'm not 100% sure because, while they are improving general security, the other challenge microsoft has always faced is that hackers target windows first because it's most popular. Previously hackers had a mish-mash of several different AV softwares to stay ahead of. By making every windows machine a highly regularised defender-running target, this might make life easier for hackers.

I replaced the Graphical User Interface with a lighter one though to maintain decent performances.

How do you install OS X on this machine ? Any tutorial you can recommend ?