Apple Explains Its Approach to Device Longevity

We Apple users tend to believe that our devices usually last longer—both physically and functionally—than Windows PCs and Android smartphones. For instance, Apple’s current operating systems work on nearly all Macs, iPhones, and iPads introduced in 2018 and later, albeit with some feature loss on the oldest devices. In a white paper entitled “Longevity, by Design,” Apple has now outlined how it works to increase product longevity through design and manufacturing, ongoing software support, and access to repair services. The white paper may be partially aimed at dissuading elected officials from passing Right to Repair legislation that could force unwanted design changes, but it still offers an illuminating look at how the company balances environmental impact, protecting customer privacy and safety, and enabling repair transparency. It’s worth a read if you’re interested in why Apple makes the design decisions it does.

(Featured image based on an original by Apple)


Social Media: Apple has published a white paper that offers an illuminating look at how the company works to increase device longevity while balancing environmental impact, protecting customer privacy and safety, and enabling transparency in repair.

Similar Posts

  • Back up for the Holidays

    The Holidays are here and I am sure many of your are busy making memories, thinking about others and capturing as many picture-perfect moments that you can. While you’re busy bustling around, are you taking the time to think about these memories? What would happen if you couldn’t go back and look up those moments? Perhaps now is the time to think about a gift for yourself and taking the time to ensure that all of the perfect moments you are capturing on video and in pictures are being safely stored on your computer.

    I know we talk about this all the time, but it’s surprising how many of us out there keep putting this important step of backing up to the side! The Holidays are the time with some of the best memories, and so many of us are capturing once in a lifetime moments. The last thing anyone wants is to have something happen to those photos. There are so many options for backing up your computer and your important files it can be a little overwhelming. There is iCloud, cloud-based storage solutions from countless companies, traditional external hard drives for back up and more! My preferred backup solutions are a combination of cloud backup and physical hard drives. It might seem a little redundant, but better to be safe than sorry when it comes to important documents and memories.

    For me, iCloud and an external hard drive are my preferred options for backing up. I use my iCloud account to keep my daily life in order, contacts and calendars most importantly. I also use iCloud for storing some of my most important memories and files, select baby photos of my kids and some important documents. The kind of things that should the worst case happen and I lost my computer or drives due to theft or fire I still have copies in the cloud. My preference for my backups is using Time Machine and my “**Seagate**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/85305/seagate-backup-plus-slim-portable-drive-usb-3-0-2tb-blue hard drives. I keep a different drive for each of my computers and perform fairly regular backups, I am not perfect, so sometimes they are not as regular as I would like. But utilizing these drives allows me to ensure that I have entire backups of my files and data readily available. Before I started to use iCloud I would also have back ups drives of my Time Machine back up, yes, I was and am that paranoid about loosing photos of my kids. I still have a small 20gb drive that contains my oldest daughter’s first year of photos, even though I know all the photos are on my computer and backed up I still won’t delete that drive.

    In the last year we have seen a rise in alternative cloud storage and mobile storage solutions. Many companies like “*Seagate*”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=Seagate and “*LaCie*”:http://www.smalldog.com/category/?mmfg%5B0%5D=LaCie have portable drives that allow users to access information wirelessly while on the go. This is a great solution for families with large media libraries for movies. The “**Lacie Fuel**”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/85520/lacie-fuel-wireless-battery-powered-mobile-hd-wifi-usb-3-0-1tb is great for just this. Have a long road trip? Load up the drive and the family can access the files from their iPhones or iPads quickly and easily without taking up storage on their devices. Another and perhaps more practical solution is the “**Seagate Personal Cloud**”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag900002041/mac-the-halls-save-20-on-seagate-personal-cloud-home-media-storage-3tb. This drive allows you to back up everything on your computer and access it from anywhere! No need to carry that back up drive along with you, and with tons of storage options little worry about not having enough space. So this holiday season remember, backing up is just as important as capturing those memories.

  • Backups: Trust but Verify

    It’s easy to assume your backup app—whether it’s Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, Backblaze, Retrospect, or something else—is quietly doing its job. But…

  • Medgar Evers

    Medgar Evers (1925-1963) was an African-American civil rights activist whose murder drew national attention. Born in Mississippi, he served in World War II before going to work for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). After applying to the segregated University of Mississippi Law School in 1954, he became the NAACP field secretary in Mississippi.

    As early as 1955, Evers activism made him the most visible civil rights leader in the state of Mississippi. As a result, he and his family were subjected to numerous threats and violent actions over the years, including a firebombing of their house in May 1963. At 12:40 a.m. on June 12, 1963, Evers was shot in the back in the driveway of his home in Jackson. He died less than a hour later at a nearby hospital. The accused killer Byron De La Beckwith initially escaped conviction.

    In December 1990, Beckwith was again indicted for the murder of Medgar Evers. After a number of appeals, the Mississippi Supreme Court finally ruled in favor of a third trial in April 1993. Ten months later, testimony began before a racially mixed jury of eight blacks and four whites. In February 1994, nearly 31 years after Evers’ death, Beckwith was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

  • Keyboard Shortcuts

    I got my start in using computers with CPM operating system and keyboard shortcuts were present there. I used them all the time so they come as second nature to me. But as I go out and talk with customers and help them with their Macs, I am surprised by the number of people that do not know that most of the things you can do with your mouse by clicking on a menu item can be done faster with keyboard shortcuts.

    The first thing to learn about shortcuts are the symbols that are used to show these keys.

    Command ⌘
    Shift ⇧
    Option ⌥
    Control ⌃
    Caps Lock ⇪
    Fn

    These work for your Mac Keyboard but if you are using a keyboard made for a Windows machine you need to substitute the Windows logo for the Command key and the Alt key for the option key. When you look at a menu in almost any application you will find the common commands for all these symbols next to them to indicate the keyboard shortcut. Here are some common ones:

    Command-X **Cut** Remove the selected item
    Command-C **Copy** the selected item
    Command-V **Paste** the contents
    Command-Z **Undo** the previous command
    Command-A **Select all** items
    Command-F **Find** open a Find window
    Command-G **Find Again** Find the next occurrence of the item previously found
    Command-H **Hide** the windows of the front app.
    Command-M **Minimize** the front window to the dock
    Command-M **New** Open a new document or window
    Command-P **Print** the current document

    Command-Space bar **Spotlight** show or hide the spotlight search field
    Command-Tab **Switch apps** switch to the next most recently used app
    Command-shift-3 **Screenshot** take a screenshot of the entire screen

    As you can see, there are endless keyboard shortcuts to use, and these are only a small fraction of what you can do with “**keyboard shortcuts.**”:https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 So the next time you find yourself wondering what you can do if your mouse suddenly stops working or if your just looking for a more efficient way to do something, keyboard shortcuts might just be what your looking for!

  • It is definitely feeling like spring here in Key West as the flowers are blooming and we wake up each morning to the birds singing (okay and the roosters crowing, too). I get the morning snow (or lack thereof) report from Emily every day and spring hadn’t quite arrived up in Georgia when I was there, either.

    Grace and I are heading up to the 75th Annual Daytona Bike Week for a couple days and then hitting a Cirque du Soleil show in Miami on the way back. Somewhere in there I will be writing Kibbles, perhaps on my iPad mini 4.

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes Team,

    _Don, Emily & Hadley_