myopiarocks
About
- Username
- myopiarocks
- Joined
- Visits
- 17
- Last Active
- Roles
- member
- Points
- 111
- Badges
- 0
- Posts
- 92
Reactions
-
Why the Mac's migration to Apple Silicon is bigger than ARM
It's a different world from 2006, when it was most important to run windows natively b/c there weren't many mac apps. Now there will be more useful "mac" apps than there ever have been.... ever.... thanks to iOS (and iPad OS). And the largest user base.... ever... thanks to iPhone and iPad owners. So just because your software is windows-only now, the question to ask is, "do they have iOS developers making iOS or iPad OS versions, now?" Because if they do you will have a native mac version.After 15 years with Intel, every company that was going to make an x86 mac version, does, and the vast majority of these will port their stuff. Many other companies are still windows only, but there are companies with windows and iOS (but not x86 mac) products - they have iOS developers, already. So Apple's business decision is betting that these "windows and iOS" companies will assign their existing teams to expand their iOS products into the full mac feature set. For example, Autodesk Revit doesn't work on a mac, so engineering and architecture firms have to use windows, but there is an iOS (iPad OS) version for field use. (Revit is the big-boy-pants evolution of autocad, btw)...and don't forget that Microsoft isn't oblivious to reality, anymore, and is seeing these same intel performance issues. The ARM version of windows sucks right now, but they have 2-5 years to improve it so that it runs great natively/virtually on a mac. Microsoft is more than happy to sell you a windows OS license for your apple silicon - they don't care about Intel they just care about selling their own stuff. I'd also expect ARM windows to imitate "rosetta," so that the ARM windows can run x86 windows. Performance hit, but even non-apple ARM is looking pretty good vs Intel nowadays, and there is no indication that Intel has a new architectural path forward so Microsoft will need to start thinking about this same switch (they just can't do it as nimbly as Apple due to existing code & customer base).
-
US politicians pressure AT&T to cut ties with China's Huawei in 5G development
There are two issues:
1) Many of the underlying communication systems rely on dual-use technology, and so regulated under the EAR (US export control list from a non-military wing of the feds). Huawei (and ZTE, and others) contracts with the PLA for same types of communication technologies. So a US firm working together with Huawei could aid a foreign military power and violate the EAR. AT&T doesn't want to do that, and congressional folks are implicitly threatening this (this is the pressure they're applying to AT&T).
2) There have been strong concerns for close to two decades that many Chinese firms are funded (run?) indirectly by the PLA (People's Liberation Army). The PLA is very wealthy and powerful (duh) so not a huge stretch of the imagination given China's governing structure. There isn't direct [public] evidence making this connection but the scuttlebutt is that intelligence agencies from multiple countries strongly believe this to be the case. Insert "CIA guarantees there are WMD in Iraq" joke here.
If you're a US business you do not ever want to violate export controls, because people go to jail for doing that (google "export control jail" for a fun 45 minutes of reading) and there isn't the same kind of corporate immunity shielding employees for violating export controls like there are for other white-collar crimes. So the AT&T execs got a threatening call from congress and they knew to take it personally.
-
Should you wait for Apple Silicon to upgrade to a new Mac?
"Should you wait?" Yes, of course. Never buy the version 1.0 of anything Apple. Version 2.0 will be so much better. See, e.g., OSX 10 vs 10.1, the first ipod touch vs the 2nd generation ipod touch, the first iphone vs iphone 3g, first apple watch ("what is this?") vs 2nd gen, 1st ipad vs 2nd gen (people still use these for certain purposes)... the list goes on. It's going to be 2-3 more WWDCs before the Apple-Silicon version of MacOS starts doing things that x86 doesn't; the transition will be that long and support for x86 will be 3-4 years after that. So anything new that you buy now will be ~6-7 years old before Apple stops supporting it."Will you wait?" No. Of course not. And neither will I. It's Apple! Take my money.
-
Don't use FaceApp if you want to keep the rights to your photos
WARNING: Lawyer-generated post ahead!WARNING WARNING: This lawyer works extensively in IP licensing, so save yourself 30 seconds and just shut your eyes, now.WARNING WARNING WARNING: Never ever ever take legal advice from someone on the interweb.Yes, that's a very broad grant, in itself. But almost every line of that terrible document and connected Privacy Policy is full of things a lawyer would advise a client against agreeing to, and when attacking it a lawyer might skip the details and posit that it's against public policy (that might be the strongest argument, frankly). Especially regarding minors - the policy says that 13+ means that you are saying (by clicking) that you are 13+ and if under 18 a parent or legal guardian is approving when the minor clicks. I mean... that's just asinine to anyone who lives in an objective reality.So the author isn't wrong that this awful doc says that the end user grants this license to faceapp and everyone faceapp has ever said "hello" to (check out the unholy definition of "affiliate" in the privacy doc!). But just because the end user says faceapp "can" doesn't mean there aren't other regulatory or policy reasons stopping faceapp, facebook, facesmash, or smashmouth. Focusing on the grant of license isn't wrong, but really the entire doc needs a "plain english" laugh track (or drinking game: do a shot every time you feel violated).Oh, and notice that the user doesn't own the user generated filters; faceapp owns those: You own your original content, but not your "older" self.
-
Testing thermal throttling and performance in the 2018 i7 Mac mini
I got the i7 2018 mini and love it. My wife and I both use it when working from home and we have a 27" 4k and a 21" 1080p monitor. Nothing too graphics intensive.The fan almost never comes on. The only time I heard it was playing a movie for my kids while VMWare updated windows in the background. The fan noise is noticeable but not terrible: it's probably in the neighborhood of 45db when really going, about as loud as my supposedly-whisper-quiet dishwasher.Performance is great. I am curious about how much electricity the machine uses under different conditions; if it's hijacking my sonos setup to be airplay compatible and also letting me use it as a VPN for my other devices when I'm away I wonder if I'll be paying through the nose, or not. But no complaints: this is a great machine for the money and should last until Apple obsoletes intel-only macs in ~2024.
-
Apple shares free 'New York' font from original Macintosh for developer use
Wikipedia has an image of the original San Francisco font, and it was not the system default:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(decorative_typeface)I remember changing the MS Word 4 "normal" template to use San Francisco on school computers just to mess with the teachers. Those were the days....Yes, I'm old.
-
Sonos will provide legacy devices with software updates for 'as long as possible'
The problem is having speakers become obsolete. I have ~30 year old speakers that still sound great. They're "dumb" but they plug into a receiver.... my receiver is also ~30 years old. Early dolby digital and DTS 5.2 surround (yes, 5.2. The 90s were weird). I don't expect my old receiver to magically get Dolby Atmos. I don't expect my old speakers to stop looking early-90s-fugly.I do expect to be able to plug my iphone into the receiver's aux input, or connect an airport express digital out to the receiver's digital-in, and have it play sound and work with airplay, etc. Good speakers and receivers last a very long time by tech standards. The 1st flaw with Sonos is that their products don't plan for their eventual software obsolescence: there's no audio input plug on most of them, for example. A simple aux-input (heaven forbid sonos add banana plugs) would give these things an indefinite lifespan.Then there's the 2nd flaw with Sonos: their preference for marketing and sales over truth or even B- engineering: they say "Play:1 is too old for airplay2" and they offer a garbage work-around, while meanwhile their devices are uPNP and the solution requires nothing more than an existing computer or raspberryPI acting as a simple bridge. I have two play:1s and I use philippe44's free "airconnect" software (google it, it's on github and it's awesome) and PRESTO! the Play:1s work with airplay2. SONOS SHOULD BE SELLING A uPNP BRIDGE! ...but no, they'd rather keep it proprietary, tell you stuff's too old (factually, objectively, demonstrably, untrue), brick your speakers, and fill the landfills (seriously, do a deep-dive on sonos "recycling" if you disagree with where these things end up. They end up in the trash.).
-
Early reviews paint Apple's iPhone 8 & 8 Plus as good devices overshadowed by iPhone X
I have a 6 128gb, and here's why I'm waiting one more year (not that you care):
- T-Mobile's 700MHz spectrum not supported this year. Probably next year.
- Wireless charging supported, but I'll wait for Apple to release their version before jumping on-board: usually when apple enters a field they do something to slightly tweak the standards and their version works better in their own ecosystem (W1 for headphones, homepod for speakers, etc). Risk is that next year's phone foregoes a lightning port entirely (yikes).
- Can we not be stuck with lossy bluetooth audio? Why not wireless Airplay headphones? I'll suffer the princess leia headbuns look if that's what it takes.
- I'll let someone else show me how great face ID works before I adopt it, thanks. Looks great, but still a version 1.0. Touch ID was so much better on the 6 than on the 5s.
Bottom line: iOS11 reminds me of OSX 10.6: Lots of stuff like "Grand Central" and "Open CL" that are building for the future. Similarly, the iPhoneX reminds me of the first retina macbook pro (which I'm typing this on right now): lots of really great "I see where Apple is going with this, and I like it" but it took another model year for the hardware (and battery life!) to really catch up to what the graphics wanted to do. Tech is always better "next year" but there are certain sweet spots every 3-5 years where the software and hardware align and the gizmo shines. Based on what I see, I think next year will be that year for a lot of different Apple products.
-
Apple explored iPhones and iPads that dock inside larger devices like MacBooks
sirozha said:The point is to use the iPhone as the trackpad, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth clients, and the computer. Docking the iPhone would change the apps from the iOS mode to the macOS mode. Undocking the phone would change the apps back to the iOS mode.
You need at least 20 Gbps to be able to push video wirelessly, which is not possible with today’s technology.
Docked phone would become the foundation of the MacBook, and Apple would be able to justify a higher price of the phone because a phone and a relatively inexpensive dock would equal a MacBook.This is my idea of 3 years ago, of which I wrote extensively in several Apple centric forums. I should have patented it then.Agreed. Like many patents this might never happen, but I agree with you on the proposed premise and function. I think the image of a phone fitting neatly into the trackpad slot is a red herring (this'll work great so long as apple never changes the dimensions on their phones! ...um...). My guess is this patent is additional protection for a not-yet-released ipad [pro] dock. I think this because the processing power needed to approximate macbook speed is something we'd see first from the iPad. The clamshell shown would be keyboard, trackpad, additional battery, with the ipad as monitor. ...and maybe the shell has additional ports to support a 2nd monitor or whatever (like sidecar in reverse).
