6 ms·
Physical switch could be made INSIDE the laptop and would be automatically pressed by the lid itself - when the lid is closed. No sensors needed. No chip needed
by pulse7 8y ago
Physical switch could be made INSIDE the laptop and would be automatically pressed by the lid itself - when the lid is closed. No sensors needed. No chip needed. When lid is closed - mic is disconnected. When opened - mic is connected... User does not need to do anything else then closing the lid...
- modzu 8y agotoo easy to fix if it breaks
- alphabettsy 8y agoA switch is more likely to break than a sensor and there’s already one for closed lid.
- modzu 8y agotheres just no lolz round here
- ridgeguy 8y agoPhysical switch could be done with a very small magnet behind the lid surface and an opposed micro-reed switch (or other magnetically actuated on/off device) buried behind the body surface. No surface penetrations, no exposed moving parts (reed relays are hermetically sealed).
- djrogers 8y agoAnd a magnetic switch is far too easily defeated
- jws 8y agoMy parent’s table pads do precisely that. After a particularly baffling family tech support call I drove over. Their kitchen table pads magnetically lock to stay nicely aligned, and also either put a laptop to sleep, or keep it awake when closed depending how you place them.
- bdamm 8y agoHow? The point is to prevent invisible eavesdropping not prevent some spook on the table from hacking you.
- brirec 8y agoReed switches are pretty damned huge when working at the scale of a laptop. Not to mention it would make the case of the computer microphonic — bump it hard enough and that’ll be transmitted through the reed relay.
- ridgeguy 8y agoYeah, I agree. Reed switches might even resonate with music played through laptop speakers. This needs a no-moving-parts magnetic sensor.
- dom96 8y agoThere are people out there that hook up their laptop to an external display and then use it with the lid closed. Wouldn't be surprised if some of them want to use the mic with that configuration as well.
- nvahalik 8y agoIn my experience, it doesn't work very well with the lid-closed... therefore I (like many of my colleagues) tend to use external mics, too.
- Johnny555 8y agoThen they are out of luck with this new T4 security chip cutoff, Apple says that it cuts off the mic when the laptop is closed, and there's no way even the kernel can override it: “This disconnect is implemented in hardware alone, and therefore prevents any software, even with root or kernel privileges in macOS, and even the software on the T2 chip, from engaging the microphone when the lid is closed,” said the support guide. So in this respect, there's no difference between the T2 chip cutoff and a physical switch... except that there could still be a backdoor in the T2 chip cutoff that Apple hasn't admitted to.
- rbanffy 8y agoIt's a shame. It's a damn fine third or fourth screen (I'm writing this on it).
- wild_preference 8y agoI dock because I only like one screen. My workflow is already optimized for my laptop screen (I'm on it 60% of the time). So my ideal setup is one massive screen when I have the choice. I could credentialize in multimonitor usage (I have before), but now I'm getting used to something that's incompatible with portability.