3 ms·

So really this appears to be a replacement for the M1 MacBook Air that they were still selling at Walmart. But now more colorful and official. I’m pretty inte

by MBCook 8mo ago

So really this appears to be a replacement for the M1 MacBook Air that they were still selling at Walmart. But now more colorful and official. I’m pretty interested in benchmarks. We haven’t had a phone chip and a desktop chip running the same OS so we could compare them better with benchmarks since the original Apple Silicon dev kits. Also it’s $499 to start for students, which is impressive. But the base model has no Touch ID which seems terrible to me. Having that is such a huge improvement over having to type passwords constantly.

crazygringo 8mo ago
> But the base model has no Touch ID which seems terrible to me. But that's the point. If you're super price conscious and a student, it's only $499! Typing a password is not a big deal compared to $100 for some people. But if you want convenience, it's $599. Which helps subsidize the $499 price. Product differentiation like this is what enables the cheaper price to begin with.
jawns 8mo ago
I'd probably go for a $50 Yubikey over a $100 Touch ID upgrade.
- cromka 8mo ago
  Honestly, I don't see it. Are you gonna stay at home with yubikey plugged in? On your couch, in your bed, etc.? It's a matter of months, if not weeks, before you break it? And also need to remember to remove, because otherwise what's the point? Used to own Yubikey before fingerprint scanners were a thing. I don't see the appeal now, to be honest. I considered it now that I use Asahi on my M1 with no support for TouchID, but still just type in the password because I couldn't be bothered with Yubikey. Or I'm missing something?
  - cweagans 8mo ago
    You're missing that the Yubikey Nano exists. You just leave it in the port. You don't need to remove it - you have to physically touch it to activate it in the same way that you'd have to touch the Touch ID sensor.
    - cromka 8mo ago
      Same way? That thing isn't biometric, how is this protecting me in the same way? That's just ridiculous. Yubikey Nano is a "thing you have", TouchID is a "thing you are". I swear you must be trolling here.
      - cweagans 8mo ago
        Well, okay, you can select two specific words to fuel your apparent outrage if you'd like, but if you actually read the entire sentence, you'll see that there is some critical context that you're missing: "you have to physically touch it to activate it in the same way that you'd have to touch the Touch ID sensor." I did not claim that it was the same security scheme or that it's biometric or anything like that. I did claim that you have to physically touch it to activate it. Edit to add: re 'Yubikey Nano is a "thing you have", TouchID is a "thing you are".', I would argue that your finger is in fact a thing you have. The loss of a finger might change a little of who you are depending on the circumstances that led to you losing said finger, but these both fall into "thing you have" territory for me. I don't think it's wise to consider Touch ID much more than that, personally.
        ambivalence 8mo ago
        What the other person is trying to explain to you is that your Yubikey solution fails the following scenario: you leave your laptop at school. With TouchID, nobody can unlock it. With a Yubikey in the USB-C port, anyone could unlock it. That's why macOS Yubikey login integration requires you to type in a PIN on the lock screen. At which point it's no different from typing in a password. Not equivalent to TouchID at all.
        cromka 8mo ago
        Dude, "thing you have" and "thing you are" are things that are already defined in context of authorization and MFA. You can't "argue" that just because it fits your narrative. EOT here.

by MBCook 8mo ago

crazygringo 8mo ago

> But the base model has no Touch ID which seems terrible to me. But that's the point. If you're super price conscious and a student, it's only $499! Typing a password is not a big deal compared to $100 for some people. But if you want convenience, it's $599. Which helps subsidize the $499 price. Product differentiation like this is what enables the cheaper price to begin with.

jawns 8mo ago

I'd probably go for a $50 Yubikey over a $100 Touch ID upgrade.

cromka 8mo ago
Honestly, I don't see it. Are you gonna stay at home with yubikey plugged in? On your couch, in your bed, etc.? It's a matter of months, if not weeks, before you break it? And also need to remember to remove, because otherwise what's the point? Used to own Yubikey before fingerprint scanners were a thing. I don't see the appeal now, to be honest. I considered it now that I use Asahi on my M1 with no support for TouchID, but still just type in the password because I couldn't be bothered with Yubikey. Or I'm missing something?
- cweagans 8mo ago
  You're missing that the Yubikey Nano exists. You just leave it in the port. You don't need to remove it - you have to physically touch it to activate it in the same way that you'd have to touch the Touch ID sensor.
  - cromka 8mo ago
    Same way? That thing isn't biometric, how is this protecting me in the same way? That's just ridiculous. Yubikey Nano is a "thing you have", TouchID is a "thing you are". I swear you must be trolling here.
    - cweagans 8mo ago
      Well, okay, you can select two specific words to fuel your apparent outrage if you'd like, but if you actually read the entire sentence, you'll see that there is some critical context that you're missing: "you have to physically touch it to activate it in the same way that you'd have to touch the Touch ID sensor." I did not claim that it was the same security scheme or that it's biometric or anything like that. I did claim that you have to physically touch it to activate it. Edit to add: re 'Yubikey Nano is a "thing you have", TouchID is a "thing you are".', I would argue that your finger is in fact a thing you have. The loss of a finger might change a little of who you are depending on the circumstances that led to you losing said finger, but these both fall into "thing you have" territory for me. I don't think it's wise to consider Touch ID much more than that, personally.
      - ambivalence 8mo ago
        What the other person is trying to explain to you is that your Yubikey solution fails the following scenario: you leave your laptop at school. With TouchID, nobody can unlock it. With a Yubikey in the USB-C port, anyone could unlock it. That's why macOS Yubikey login integration requires you to type in a PIN on the lock screen. At which point it's no different from typing in a password. Not equivalent to TouchID at all.
      - cromka 8mo ago
        Dude, "thing you have" and "thing you are" are things that are already defined in context of authorization and MFA. You can't "argue" that just because it fits your narrative. EOT here.