shamino

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shamino
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  • HDMI 2.2 arrives with 16K video and 96Gbps bandwidth support

    shaminoshamino
    This resolution is pointless for home theater use.  But we may see it in actual movie theaters.  Right now, theater projectors go up to 8K, which (to my eyes, anyway) is good enough.  But maybe not for people sitting in the front row of a large theater room.

    But for those vertical-market applications, we'll probably see the equipment manufacturers shipping custom cables with the equipment, maybe contracting it out to one of the big-name cable manufacturers.  The odds of seeing such a cable in your local Best Buy is going to be very low, because (IMO, anyway), there is going to be no actual need for consumer equipment to use that data rate.

    At least until someone decides they want to put a 25G Ethernet channel on the same cable with a video signal.  :smiley: 
    williamlondonrezwits

  • How to use Apple Software Restore to clone your Mac's drive

    shaminoshamino
    A few things:

    1. You write that "most third-party clone software also won't work. Or at least they won't work when trying to create a bootable clone of a macOS system volume."  That is very misleading.  The two most popular disk-clone tools (SuperDuper! and Carbon Copy Cloner) can both clone a system volume.  And they do it using Apple's ASR utility!  Just like you're describing here.

    2. ASR is not completely reliable.  Which is why neither SD nor CCC advertise bootable backups as a fully-supported capability.  They will run ASR, but there's no guarantee that the result will be bootable.  Which will also be the case if you manually run ASR.

    3. The only reliable way to make a bootable backup is to back up the data volume.  Then download a macOS installer and make a bootable flash drive from it.  Then boot that flash drive and use its Recovery/installer to install macOS over your data backup.

    All that having been said, the article is still really useful as documentation for how to do this by hand, for those who don't want to buy SD or CCC or who for other reasons need to manually make a clone.

    dewmeappleinsideruser

  • New Mac mini has a slotted & removable SSD -- but don't expect upgrades

    shaminoshamino
    Whoa!  I just read this incredible bit of great news:


    The new 2024 Mac mini still has soldered-in RAM, as is the new norm with the Unified Memory architecture, but the SSD can be swapped out, and we have successfully upgraded a 256GB drive to a 512GB with no issues using the Apple Configurator tool. We also successfully swapped like-for-like 256GB drives between two base models.

    Hold up: this is a big deal! The bigger Mac Studio also had physically modular storage, but no form of replacement or upgrade software solution. Back in 2022, we weren’t able to make the transplant work. Several combinations of drives in the Mac Studio’s two available SSD slots resulted in a non-booting computer, and running Apple Configurator didn’t make a difference. So we breathed a sigh of slightly-surprised relief when this swap went off without a hitch.
    If iFixit was able to swap modules between two M4 minis, that strongly implies that my third concern (no ability to test an aftermarket module prior to installation and no way to refurbish a returned module) is not a concern for this computer.
    mattinozwatto_cobra

  • New Mac mini has a slotted & removable SSD -- but don't expect upgrades

    shaminoshamino
    YP101 said:
    I don't think user upgradeable for storage anyway. This was same for Mac Studio.
    Apple coded each storage for specific unit so user can't upgrade. Unless Apple change the way.
    Except that, as the hacker community discovered, if you use new (that is, never-been-written) flash chips, you can use Apple's Configurator 2 utility to initialize them and install macOS.  This will set up the cryptographic pairing.  You can't wipe used flash modules (e.g. to move storage from one Mac to another), but it does means that upgrades are possible.

    So far, we've just seen some people making bare circuit boards and you need the microsoldering skills necessary to attach new flash chips to those boards, but I think it's just a matter of time before someone starts selling boards with chips pre-installed.  So even if end-user upgrades won't be practical, I think we will soon see independent repair shops that can do it.
    Alex1NAlex_VForumPostwatto_cobra

  • Apple presses on with headset that's an iPhone on your face

    shaminoshamino
    Yep.  I built a Google Cardboard (this model no longer sold, but I paid $6 for it in 2021) device for my iPhone.  It works great (as great as you can expect for $6) and is conceptually not very different from this patent application.

    Yes, the Apple patent is more than just a mounting bracket and lens system, but ultimately, it's just holding a phone in front of your face in order to provide a VR interface.  The rest is just window dressing.
    williamlondonwatto_cobra