5 ms·
Apple will switch to randomized serial numbers in early 2021
- Jaxkr 6y agoWhy? And why only Macs and not iPhones? Is this currently a major privacy issue?
- throwaway2048 6y agoLikely to prevent gleaning of production amounts from serial numbers.
- rasz 6y agoIts a business issue.
- Nextgrid 6y agoI wonder if it’s to prevent “Hackintosh” machines from connecting to Apple services? Services such as iCloud and iMessage require the machine to have a valid serial, and given the format of them is well-known it’s easy to make a valid serial.
- mofosyne 6y agoAssuming base 32 and we have 8char initially. That gives us around 32^8 = 1.099e12 of serial numbers. Might be enough for a while.
- ziml77 6y agoIs the number still serial if it's random?
- ksec 6y agoStill not seen any convincing argument as to why this is a good thing.
- david-cako 6y agoMaybe a randomized serial number will allow Apple to sell you a product made in America or Europe without you needing to know the difference. Maybe it also grants Apple greater liberties when negotiating with existing suppliers. What was the story with Fountain (FC) and Fremont (F) anyway? https://beetstech.com/blog/decode-meaning-behind-apple-serial-number https://beetstech.com/blog/decode-meaning-behind-apple-seria... https://9to5mac.com/2013/01/25/apple-lists-quanta-computer-in-freemont-california-as-final-assembler-for-macs/ https://9to5mac.com/2013/01/25/apple-lists-quanta-computer-i...