dempson

Soli said:

elijahg said:

Soli said:

Which MBP models have non-identical ports of the same port interface? I don't see any. All MBP models are either all USB 3.0 or all USB 3.0/TB. I see no "these two ports are USB 3.0-only and these other two ports include support for TB3" setup.

http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/10/29/two-of-four-thunderbolt-3-ports-in-new-13-macbook-pro-with-touch-bar-have-reduced-speeds

Informative. I stand corrected, but doesn't that still mean there's only one controller for TB instead of 2, as I believe is in the 15" MBP?

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar has two TB3 controllers (same as the 15-inch), but its processor doesn't have enough PCIe lanes, so the TB3 controller associated with the left ports only has two PCIe lanes instead of four. This halves the maximum PCIe bandwidth to the TB3 ports on the left side.

This only matters if connecting something like a high speed storage device where you need maximum TB3 bandwidth (up to 40 Gbps). Even with the speed limit the ports can still match TB2 (20 Gbps). No impact if using those ports for USB 3.1 gen 2, power or display output.

Apple basically chose to allocate more PCIe bandwidth to the faster SSD rather than getting maximum throughput for TB3 on all ports.

The 13-inch model without the Touch Bar only has two TB3/USB-C ports, and has a single TB3 controller which has enough PCIe lanes to operate at full speed.

The USB-IF document referenced by the article is only the cable specification. The USB Power Delivery 3.1 specification was published yesterday and goes into more detail on the mechanisms.

In brief (from a quick read): a new extended power range is used for >100W to 240W. It supports fixed voltage supplies able to operate at 28V, 36V or 48V as well as adjustable voltage supplies up to those limits. In all cases, maximum current is 5A so the higher fixed voltage options go up to 140W, 180W and 240W respectively. There is an additional negotiation phase (between source, sink and cable) before stepping up from standard to extended power range.

The iOS 10.3 updates for 32-bit devices (iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPad 4) have also been pulled from distribution via Software Update, but when I checked a few hours ago those devices were still able to install iOS 10.3 via iTunes.

This looks like a temporary withdrawal of iOS 10.3 for a bug fix specific to 32-bit devices, rather than discontinuing support for those devices. The 10.3.2 developer beta is missing those images because the bug was discovered before the beta was released, the bug also affects that build, and Apple chose to exclude 32-bit devices from the first beta to avoid wasting everyone's time with pointless bug reports.

I expect the notably skipped iOS 10.3.1 will be released soon as a bug fix, will be available via Software Update for 32-bit devices, and the next 10.3.2 developer beta will include images for 32-bit devices.

Edit: Apple could also release an updated 10.3 for the affected devices, holding back 10.3.1 for something else, such as an as-yet-unannounced product.

The listed models have one feature in common: all have a Skylake or newer processor.

Skylake adds hardware encode/decode support for HEVC, so this might just be a case of the Sidecar feature being implemented with HEVC rather than H.264 to reduce bandwidth requirements or allow a higher frame rate. Older Mac models would have to do HEVC encode in software, so enabling the workaround might impose a significant CPU performance load when the display is rapidly changing.

If I'm right, this could impose a similar requirement on the receiving iPad: basic HEVC hardware decode is a feature of the A9 and later processors, so A8 models that can run iOS 13 (iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4) may be unable to act as a sidecar receiver as they would have to decode the video stream in software.

There was a similar cutoff with the introduction of AirPlay video support: it required a Sandy Bridge or later processor to get H.264 hardware encode support. Third party software (AirParrot) implemented that feature on older Macs by doing the H.264 encode in software, but it caused a fair amount of CPU overhead.

AppleInsider said:

Apple has also confirmed macOS Mojave will be the last version of the operating system to support 32-bit apps "without compromises." 

No they didn't. The slide at 20:20 into Platforms State of the Union said "High Sierra will be the last macOS release to support 32-bit apps without compromises".

The next slide said "Mojave is the last macOS release to support 32-bit apps".

"Without compromises" is in reference to High Sierra, exactly what Apple was saying last year. Mojave will run 32-bit applications, but with compromises. Apple has not said exactly what those compromises are.

The version after Mojave (presumably 10.15, due to be released in late 2019) will not run 32-bit applications at all.

More points of suspicion: "MacBookPro14,3" is the model identifier of the existing mid 2017 15-inch model. I doubt a new model with DDR4 memory and a newer CPU architecture would have the same model identifier. If it is using DDR4 it must be desktop memory, since the Core i7-8750H doesn't support LPDDR4. That suggests a new motherboard and structural changes to cope with more heat produced by the memory. The motherboard identifier is identical to other MacBookPro14,3 listings on Geekbench (apart from a "1.0" suffix instead of "MacBookPro14,3").

nguyenhm16 said:
According to everymac, 2015 iMacs use 5th (21.5") or 6th (27") gen CPUs, which do have Quick Sync:

The first version of Quick Sync was introduced in Sandy Bridge (2nd gen Core i3/i5/i7), initially supporting H.264, so some variant of Quick Sync exists in almost all 2011-2012 Macs (apart from the 2012 Mac Pro) and all 2013 and later Macs.

Later processor generations improved Quick Sync and added more video formats. 5th gen (Broadwell) added some VP8 support. 6th gen (Skylake) added 8-bit HEVC encode/decode. The 2015 21.5-inch iMac (5th gen) is excluded from the list of supported models, but the 2015 27-inch iMac (6th gen) is included so Quick Sync in Broadwell does not suffice, implying 8-bit HEVC encode/decode is the required feature.

teaearlegreyhot said:

So am I correct in understanding that this 10.3.1 will be the final iOS for the iPhone 5?  
Is there any reason to update from 10.2.1 for those of use still happily using a new-ish iPhone 5?

10.3.1 will not be the final iOS for the iPhone 5. AppleInsider is jumping to the wrong conclusion (or continuing to beat a dead horse on their earlier wrong conclusion).

In my opinion, the only reason the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPad 4 were missing in the first 10.3.2 beta is that it had the same bug that Apple discovered shortly after 10.3 was released, which resulted in Apple pulling 10.3 from being distributed via Software Update to the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPad 4 (all the models with 32-bit processors). The 10.3.2 beta came out the same day as 10.3, and Apple didn't include images for models with a known bug.

When the second 10.3.2 beta is released (early next week or sooner), it will include the fixes from 10.3.1, therefore I expect it will include images for the iPhone 5, iPhone 5c and iPad 4.

As for reasons for updating from 10.2.1 to 10.3.1 on an iPhone 5: have a look at the big list of security fixes in 10.3 and another in 10.3.1. Apart from security, there are a fair number of new/improved features and bug fixes in 10.3, as well as other bug fixes Apple hasn't specified. One new feature I find particularly useful (for any model) is "New Settings unified view for your Apple ID account information, settings and devices".

AppleInsider said:

The Bank of New Zealand on Tuesday local time activated Apple Pay integration for customers living in New Zealand, making it the second major financial institution to provide support for Apple's service in the region. 

"region"? I think you will find that New Zealand is a country.

Interestingly, BNZ is offering Apple Pay even though it is owned by National Australia Bank, which is one of the three big banks in Australia which are doing everything they can not to support Apple Pay and promote their own system instead.

regmikewall said:

The issue disabled iCloud is not fixed, I updated to 10.3.1 and my iCloud setting is no longer visible, it was visible yesterday when I was using 10.2.1.  Hopefully 10.3.2 will fix it.... anyone else still have this issue.  I am using a iPAD Pro 9.7

Are you looking in the right place? In iOS 10.3 (and later), iCloud settings have moved to the top of the Settings app, with the introduction of a new major section which has your name and picture, and a subtitle of "Apple ID, iCloud, iTunes & App Store".