jdb8167

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jdb8167
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  • First Apple silicon Macs likely to be MacBook rebirth, iMac with custom GPU

    jdb8167jdb8167
    Apple has already stated for the record that they are going to use their own GPU. Why is this written as speculation?

    They have also stated that they are designing Mac specific SoCs. So no, it won’t be an A14X. Though it might use the same core design but the number of CPU and GPU cores are going to be Mac specific. 
    foregoneconclusionRayz2016mwhitecornchiptmaypatchythepiratemariowincospock1234firelockwatto_cobra

  • What the EU mandate for a common smartphone charger means

    jdb8167jdb8167
    lkrupp said:
    I guess one question to discuss is what makes Lightening better than USB-C. Does Lightening do something or provide something USB-C cannot?
    Lightning's connector itself is a bit more durable than the jacketed USB data and power connector, and easier to extract from a device if it shears off.

    USB-C can carry more data and power faster than Lightning can. How relevant this is to mobile varies, user to user.
    According to Apple's submission, the lightning jack in the phone is also smaller leaving more room for battery and other components. This might explain why they are willing to use USB-C on iPad Pros but not on iPhones.

    From their Copenhagen Economics submission:
    https://www.copenhageneconomics.com/dyn/resources/Publication/publicationPDF/3/523/1579701038/united-in-diversity_copenhagen-economics.pdf

    "For example, not only is the USB Type-C connector larger than the Lightning connector on the outside, thus restricting how slim devices can be, it also takes up more space inside the device which impacts the space left for other components, such as the size of the battery. Overall, the USB Type-C solution takes up 69 per cent more space of a device than the Lightning solution. This has a significant impact on the design, slimness and internal hardware capacity of the devices."
    mwhitepscooter63JWSCStrangeDayswatto_cobra

  • Apple silicon Mac documentation suggests third-party GPU support in danger

    jdb8167jdb8167
    In danger? It's gone completely. ARM Macs don't even have PCIe
    There are no ARM Macs yet. Apple has released a very limited Developer Transition Kit that is minimally useful by developers for testing their macOS software on the new Apple Silicon. It is impossible to reliably infer anything about upcoming Apple Silicon Macs based on the DTK. Apple has been very clear on this. The DTK does not represent new Apple hardware in any way. It is based on a CPU from the iPad Pro where the SoC was first released in 2018 with a minor adjustment to enable an additional GPU core in 2020.

    And point of fact, Apple SoCs have used PCIe to interface with NVMe flash since the iPhone 6s.
    fastasleepcommentzillakpomRayz2016dysamoriachiajony0watto_cobra

  • Virulent Windows 'XLoader' malware is now on macOS

    jdb8167jdb8167
    gatorguy said:
    lkrupp said:
    " and users can be tricked into giving it access to passwords, clipboard, and allowing it to take screenshots.

    So which users are being tricked into installing this malware? Only the stupid ones or every Mac user on the planet? Why can’t the U.S. Cyber Command shut down "particular servers belonging to the company behind XLoader”? Are hackers now referred to as ‘companies’? Will XLoader be listed on the NYSE next?

    I’m being sarcastic, of course, but we never , EVER, hear actual numbers from security researchers of how many are being compromised. Will AppleInsider be starting a web page for users to report, “Yeah, I got nailed by XLoader”?

    I get phone calls almost every day from the IRS telling me my SSA check has been canceled, the IRS telling me there’s a warrant out for my arrest, the U.S. Marshals’s office telling me I’m involved in criminal activity, and Amazon telling me there’s a $900 order on my account I need to verify. I just chuckle and hang up. Same goes for any email or text I get claiming I need to resolve some issue or lose money.

    Yes, when you reach a certain age the bad guys beat a path to your door trying to trick you into giving them money, data, or both.


    There's a LOT more detail on this in the report cited by the Appleinsider editor. Watch your blue highlight links. 
    https://research.checkpoint.com/2021/top-prevalent-malware-with-a-thousand-campaigns-migrates-to-macos/
    I missed where that article gives any actionable information. I did find this: "In the upcoming articles we share the technical details of the malware’s macOS version which reveal how XLoader operates under the hood..." I didn't find anything about how it propagates or how it gets around standard OS and browser protections. Others are claiming that it is being sent in email campaigns. This article implies it spreads via email but doesn't give any details except that the criminal that created this trojan didn't want it used that way. Pretty bizarre.

    Until details emerge I'm going to assume this is no more of a threat than the 100s of other trojans that people unwittingly install when they download porn or pirated software.
    ravnorodommacplusplusdysamoriawatto_cobrajony0

  • Apple requests return of Apple Silicon Developer Transition Kits, offers $200 toward purch...

    jdb8167jdb8167
    Everyone talking about how Apple was more generous to developers in the past are forgetting what it used to cost to be in the developer program. If I remember correctly it was $1200 (don’t hold me to that). That gave Apple a lot more leeway to be generous to developers. 

    Apple was under no obligation to give developers anything other than the DTK (edit: as a temporary rental) for the $500. It was stated very clearly in the agreement for the Universal Quick Start program. Any expectation of free hardware or anything else was always wishful thinking. 

    Edit: I looked up some old invoices and the price for the ADC Select program was $499 in 1999 and for the Premier program was $3499. I think you had to be in at least the Select program to be offered a Intel development kit.
    Fidonet127auxiotenthousandthings

  • How Apple dodged the flop of Android's headset VR

    jdb8167jdb8167
    hentaiboy said:
    Apple has had its flops...


    The Newton might not have been a flop if Apple had stayed the course. It was estimated that its development cost upwards of $1 billion in 1990’s dollars before it was canceled. To recoup the investment, Apple had intended to create a new independent company, Newton Inc. But when Steve Jobs came back he killed the planned spin out of Newton as a separate company. He probably did this because at the time Apple couldn’t really afford the $10-20 million they had promised to Newton, Inc. (I don’t remember the exact amount.) Once the spin out was canceled nearly 100% of the Newton team quit on the spot.

    The Newton had a significant number of orders for vertical applications that were never fulfilled once it was effectively killed. We will never know if it could have been successful if Apple hadn’t stopped its development. On the other hand, having stopped the Newton, Jobs laid the path for iOS and iPadOS. If the Newton OS had remained viable, perhaps that doesn’t happen and Apple would not be the same company today.
    rossb2Rayz2016caladanianjony0spock1234watto_cobra

  • Apple has stopped producing 512GB, 1TB SSD iMac 4K models, claim sources

    jdb8167jdb8167
    wizard69 said:
    elijahg said:
    It'll be interesting to see how well the M1 manages to push the 15 million pixels on the 5K iMacs, which some of the discrete GPUs struggle with. That's quite a few more than the ~3m on the 13" MBP. 

    It will be a problem for M1 but at a minimal I would expect an M1X.    Actually we could just ask a Mini owner with a 4K screen.   

    Personally I don't see Apple giving up on discreet GPU's this year.   What would be interesting is if they have a program with AMD to produce an optimized GPU for the high end machines.   In this case I could see AMD & Apple implementing AMD's fabric interface instead of PCI-Express.  


    The M1 Macs support up to 6K@60fps right now. I don't think it is going to be a problem. Having to support 2 5K monitors is something that the current M1 Macs can't do but a single display at 5K is not a problem.
    doozydozenseanjcgWerksn2itivguywatto_cobra

  • Samsung mocks Apple for removing power adapters from iPhone boxes

    jdb8167jdb8167
    cloudguy said:
    Xed said:
    Samsung, of course, has a long history of trolling Apple for moves that it eventually copies. 

    Every… fricken… time.

    "All truthpasses through three stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
    1. Not every time AT ALL. As I stated above, Samsung never adopted the notch, never adopted Force Touch and the vast majority of their phones still offer headphone jacks.
    Are you sure about that?
    XedrazorpitGG1watto_cobra

  • Apple releases macOS 10.15.3, iOS 13.3.1, iPadOS 13.3.1, tvOS 13.3.1, watchOS 6.1.2

    jdb8167jdb8167
    Had a problem with a MacOS update for the first time in a long time. Apparently this update wasn't compatible with my SoftRAID enabled OWC 4 Thunderbolt disk array.

    After the Mac continued the install after the first reboot, it just kept on rebooting. Sometimes updates will reboot a couple of times in a row so I didn't think much of it until I noticed that it was still rebooting a few minutes later. I pulled the Thunderbolt connection and then the update continued normally. After the install was completed, I had to reinstall the SoftRAID drivers and then I could plug in my RAID again and reboot normally.

    Update problems are so rare for me that I forgot what kind of heartbeat elevation can occur with an install problem.
    ca_mac_minirazorpitdysamoria

  • Spectre comes back from the dead to haunt Intel chips

    jdb8167jdb8167
    InspiredCode said:
    jdb8167 said:
    I know that Apple's Arm CPUs use micro-ops but I don't know anything about if or how they are cached. The caching of micro-ops is the source of this vulnerability. In general RISC CPUs have much simpler decoding so it is possible that micro-ops aren't cached at all or the cache structure is much simpler. Someone with more knowledge of Arm CPU Architecture should chime in.

    Edit: And apparently SMT (also known as hyper-threading) is involved. Since Apple's ARM SoC cores don't use SMT, it looks like they are safe from this.
    The memory model of ARM makes these types of attacks more difficult. Micro-ops are fixed length and shouldn’t require much caching unlike Intel/AMD. This is also one of the main reasons M1 has such amazing single threaded performance since it isn’t limited by the decoder. The x86 ISA should die already.
    I was reading as much of the white paper as I could understand without doing further research and my conclusion is that even if the M1 is using a micro-op cache, the authors are using the x86 ISA complexity as a way of detecting micro-op cache hits and misses. That complexity isn't there in the M1 or any Arm RISC system. I won't say this attack is impossible on Apple Silicon but as you say, it would be more difficult--probably much more difficult. Add in that 1 or their two attacks is via SMT, I think ASi is probably pretty safe from this.
    lolliverchia