Mac

Mac

Did Apple Hoard M1 Max processors for use in the new Mac Studio?

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Mac Studio
Mac Studio

Apple announced the new Mac Studio less than two weeks ago, at their Peek Porfance event on March 8th, 2022. The new Mac is powered by either an M1 Max or the new M1 Ultra processor — which is essentially two M1 Max processors stuck together. Preorders began the same day and people have already started receiving their new Macs.

Now, here’s the thing. I ordered a new 16″ MacBook Pro with an M1 Max back on February 12th to replace my aging 2016 15″ MacBook Pro. I’m still waiting. The estimated delivery date is April 13-20, two months+ after I ordered it. My wife ordered her new MacBook Pro on the same day (replacing a 2012 model) and she received hers a couple of weeks ago. The big difference — hers is an M1 Pro (not Max).

So, this has left me wondering, did Apple hoard M1 Max processors so that they would have them available for the forthcoming announcement of the new Studio?

Shottr: An Awesome Mac Screenshot Utility!

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Shottr Mac Screenshot App

Shottr is quite possibly the best screenshot software for the Mac I’ve ever used! I can’t say enough about how much I like this app. It’s obviously built by people who care about quality.

From the website:

“Shottr is a small, fast, human-sized screenshot app built for those who care about pixels. It was crafted with Swift, optimized for M1, and is completely free at the moment.”

Scrolling screenshots, rulers, text recognition (OCR), and a color picker are just a few of its many features. You can even vote on what features they add next directly on the homepage. Go grab a copy while it’s still free. I have it, but I’m totally willing to pay for this kind of high-quality and extremely useful software. If the Shottr folks happen to come across this post, please don’t follow the trend of making it a subscription. Single purchase, family licensing, paid upgrades are all fine — I just can’t take another subscription.

You can find more videos on Twitter.

Sparrow: A simplified Mac email app. It looks cool, but IMAP support is still lacking.

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Sparrow - Mac Email App

Today I gave Sparrow a try. It’s a simplified Mac email app that recently gained support for imap email accounts. Prior to version 1.1 it was strictly for use with Google’s gmail (which I don’t use).

I was curious about the idea of using a much more streamlined email client. Currently I use Apple’s Mail, and although I have no real complaints about Mail, I’m always looking for ways to simplify my day. I wasn’t sure if I would like Sparrow, but that’s the beauty of imap – if I decided I didn’t like it, I could seamlessly go back to Mail without worrying about losing anything or having to migrate from one app to another since all the mail lives on the server and syncs to any app I use.

Unfortunately, Sparrow’s imap implementation has one big problem that made going back and forth a little more painful than it should be. When I set up my email address in Sparrow it didn’t recognize my existing imap folders for Sent, Drafts, Junk, and Trash, so it proceeded to create it’s own versions of these folders. That kind of sucked, but the real oversight from the developers of Sparrow is not building in any way to manually map it’s folders to your existing folders. The result is I now have two sets of folders – one being used by Sparrow, and the other being used by Apple Mail. Both sets actually show up in both apps, so messages aren’t getting lost, but it adds a layer of complexity that doesn’t need to exist.

Supposedly the next version of Sparrow will add the ability to map existing folders, but in my opinion the imap support should have never gone live without this basic functionality. I won’t be trying it again until they fix this.

Although my testing was cut short due to Sparrow’s lack of proper imap support, there was one (negative) thing that jumped out at me right away. If you select a message and hit the delete key, the message isn’t moved into the trash, it’s moved to a folder called, archive. Presumably this behavior is due Sparrow’s roots as a gmail-only app, because gmail archives deleted messages, but I found this behavior just plain wrong.

To me, an Archive is a safe place you use to store items you’re no longer actively accessing, but you need to keep for possible future use. The Trash on the other hand is a place you put things that you no longer want to keep. By these definitions, it makes absolutely no sense to hit the delete key to move items to a “safe place”. As the name implies – delete means throw away. I can’t think of any other software where hitting the delete key actually saves something instead of deleting it. To make things worse, Sparrow also has an Archive button – clicking it also moves items into the archive folder, so essentially archiving and deleting do the same thing. If you truly want to delete something you have to hit Command-Delete. I find this behavior very confusing and I hope they correct this soon.

My last gripe is actually directed at the developers themselves. They kind of make it a little difficult to have conversations with them as they’ve somewhat closed themselves off. Their blog is powered by Tumblr, so that means no comments. Their suppor site is hard to find, as they don’t even provide a link to it on the Sparrow site. I personally find this annoying.

One Big Problem with Apple’s ‘Thunderbolt’

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Macbook Pro with Cinema Display Cable

If you haven’t already heard, Apple updated its entire line of Macbook Pros this morning. Like usual, the new models have updated processors, graphics cards, etc… But the biggest new feature is the addition of a new port called, Thunderbolt.

From Apple:
“…Ultrafast and ultraflexible, the Thunderbolt pipeline is more than 12 times faster than FireWire 800 and up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0, and it offers unprecedented expansion capabilities. It changes what you can do on a notebook.”

Sounds great, right? But, there’s one important thing to know – the new port isn’t an additional port, it replaces the existing Mini DisplayPort. You might be asking, how can this be?

From Apple:
“The Thunderbolt port will give you plug-and-play performance with a whole new world of Thunderbolt peripherals, as well as with the Apple LED Cinema Display and other Mini DisplayPort peripherals. You can daisy-chain as many as six devices, including your display.”

OK, that answers that. But, there’s just one BIG problem with this setup – the cable! Apple Cinema Displays have a wonderful 3-pronged cable that carries power, video signal, and usb (to power the usb ports on the back of the display). If you use the cable the way it’s intended, there’s no way to plug anything else into that port.

Currently, the only way to use your display and an additional device at the same time, is to physically position that device within a few inches of the Thunderbolt port on the computer and divert the (short) video cable to that other device – then run a cable from the secondary device to the computer. Am I the only one who thinks that’s just plain stupid?

At some point (soon) Apple will probably come out with new displays that either have Thunderbolt ports on the back, or have a reworked cable, but until then, this implementation isn’t very practical.

I’m all for reducing the number of ports / cables required for a given system, but I’m not sure how well it works to include your display in a daisy chain. It requires you to either have additional ports on the back of the display (so it can be first in the chain), or have your display at the end of the chain – which seems impractical for most workflows. Realistically, a good chain should have your most-used device at the front, and the least used device at the back. Of course, another option would be to use a hub, but now you need an additional piece of hardware, which to some degree works against the whole idea of reducing.

Important! Safari RSS Security Risk

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If you use a Mac, it’s very important that you read this, even if you don’t use Safari.

Republished from Brian Mastenbrook:

Disclosure of information vulnerability in Safari
Posted on Sun, 11 Jan 2009
Last edited Tue, 13 Jan 2009

I have discovered that Apple’s Safari browser is vulnerable to an attack that allows a malicious web site to read files on a user’s hard drive without user intervention. This can be used to gain access to sensitive information stored on the user’s computer, such as emails, passwords, or cookies that could be used to gain access to the user’s accounts on some web sites. The vulnerability has been acknowledged by Apple.

All users of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard who have not changed their feed reader application preference from the system default are affected, regardless of whether they use any RSS feeds or use a different web browser (such as Firefox). Users of previous versions of Mac OS X are not affected.

Users of Safari on Windows are also affected. Users who have Safari for Windows installed but do not use it for browsing are not affected.

The details of this vulnerability have not been made public to the best of my knowledge, but secrecy is no guarantee against a sufficiently motivated attacker. Because this vulnerability could be exploited by a phishing site in a way that would not cause affected users to suspect their information had been stolen, users of Mac OS X Leopard should protect themselves until a fix is issued by Apple by choosing a default feed reader other than Safari, such as Mail. To select a different feed reader:

  1. Open Safari and select Preferences… from the Safari menu.
  2. Choose the RSS tab from the top of the Preferences window.
  3. Click on the Default RSS reader pop-up and select an application other than Safari.

The only workaround available for users of Safari on Windows is to use a different web browser.

Apple has not made information available on when a fix for this issue will be released. Users with questions or concerns should contact Apple as I have no additional information about this vulnerability which can be shared at this time.

Save 20% on “Things” before January 15th

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Things Todo manager 1.0

You can save 20% on Culture Code’s excellent task manager, Things, by using the coupon code, “thingspresale20” before January 15th, 2009.

I was using OmniFocus, but after a demo at Macworld I decided to make the switch to Things. I don’t have time to write a full review right now, but I wanted to mention the coupon code, incase there’s anyone out there who was about to buy it.

17″ Macbook Pro – Glossy vs. Matte

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Macbook Pro - Glossy vs Matte

When Apple first announced that they were moving all of their displays to glossy, I was, in a word, horrified. I’ve always preferred the matte displays and I didn’t like this move at all.

When Apple announced the new 17″ Macbook Pro at Macworld 2009, they said we would actually still have the choice on this model to go with glossy (default) or matte finish (now called “anti-glare”). I jumped for joy because I buy the 17″ model anyway, so this meant I could keep using the matte display.

While I was at Macworld I had a chance to view both screens side-by-side, and even though I’ve always preferred matte, I’m not so sure I like it on the new model. The picture above doesn’t really do either justice, but I can tell you that in person, the glossy looked so much better. It actually wasn’t so much that the glossy looked good, but rather the matte looked bad. At first I thought the brightness on the matte model was turned way down, but it wasn’t. The new matte display is just dim, and rather flat. Even though Apple offers the 17″ model in matte, I may be forced to go with glossy.

One caveat to this is, the Apple guy on the show floor said these were “pre-production” models. They could actually change when they start to ship at the end of January. I’ll hold my final review until I see them in the Apple store.

On a related note, Macworld has an article about a company that will physically swap a matte display for the glossy one in 15″ models.

Why we can’t replace the battery in the new 17″ Macbook Pro, and can we still get to the hard drive?

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17 inch Macbook Pro

One of the great things about the new 15″ unibody Macbook Pro is the ease at which you can get to the battery, RAM, and hard drive. You simply flip a latch on the underside of the computer and a panel opens up giving you access to everything. In previous generations, the hard drive was not considered a user-replaceable part, and was a pain in the ass to access (for those who dared).

As I mentioned in the last post, the battery on the new 17″ model is not considered user-replacebale, so that left me wondering how easy it was to get to the RAM and hard drive, because the panel on the bottom doesn’t exist on the 17″ model.

I don’t yet have a definitive answer, but it looks like you can get to the RAM and hard drive relatively easily by simply taking out the screws on the bottom of the machine, and removing the whole bottom case.

Apple has posted a video about the new battery in the 17″ model, and why it isn’t user-replacable. It basically comes down to space. You can make the battery bigger if you don’t have to worry about the average user being able to take it out. In that video, they show the bottom of the machine with the cover off, and it appears as though the hard drive would be easily accessible. I hope that’s the case, because Apple just doesn’t offer large enough options on hard drives in their notebooks, at least not for me.

For those interested, it has also been confirmed by Gizmodo that the battery can be replaced at any Apple Store for $179. That’s a bit steep, but supposedly the new batteries last 5 years, so the average user may never have to get a new one.

UPDATE (1/08/2009): I’ve confirmed with Apple that the hard drive (and RAM) are considered user-replacable. You simply remove the screws on the bottom, like I thought.

Apple’s 2009 Macworld Announcements

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17 inch Macbook Pro

If you haven’t already read this at a hundred other Mac sites, here’s what Apple announced today at Macworld:

17″ Aluminum Unibody Macbook Pro
Starting at $2799, the new 17″ Macbook pro will ship in late January. The good news is this thing can take up to 8GB of RAM. The bad news is, rumors were true… the battery is no longer a user-replacable part. That just sucks. Although, Apple is saying that this new and improved battery will last 8 hours on a single charge and can be recharged 1000 times (5 times the industry standard). Apple is also saying this new model is the slimmest and lightest 17″ notebook available.

It should also be noted that while the 17″ version uses the same Glossy display now used in its 15″ cousin, Apple is offering a $50 upgrade to an “antiglare display”. I thought they use to call this “matte”, so I’m not sure if this is the same option as previous models. Also, the new native resolution is 1920×1200, up from 1680×1050. In the previous 17″ model, it was a $100 upgrade to the higher resolution display. When I was shopping for my current 17″ Macbook Pro, I actually thought 1920 was a little too much for 17 inches.

You can read all the specs on Apple’s site.

iLife ’09
iPhoto now has face-recognition and geotagging built-in. It can also link with Facebook and Flickr. It actually looks pretty cool. Too bad I’m not really using iPhoto anymore. I’ve started moving everything into Adobe Lightroom.

iMovie has several new features bringing it back a little closer to iMovie ’06, instead of the radically different iMovie ’08.

There’s new versions of Garage Band, iWeb and iDVD as well. iLife ’09 will ship at the end of January. Read all about it on Apple’s site.

iWork ’09
I like iWork, but there’s nothing terrible exciting to talk about… seems like mostly basic improvements and refinements. iWork ’09 ships today.

iWork.com
Apple is starting iWork.com. Currently in beta, this will be a site for sharing and collaboration. It’s free while in beta, but Apple will charge for it in its final release.

DRM Free Music, Price Changes, and Purchase via 3G
Apple is moving away from $0.99 songs. Instead, there will now be a tiered structure of $0.69, $0.99, and $1.29 per song. Starting today they will offer 8 million songs as DRM free. The entire catalogue will be DRM free by the end of the quarter. You can also now buy music on you iPhone over the 3G or Edge networks, instead of wi-fi only.

My Thoughts
I didn’t think there was going to be any huge announcements today, but I am a little disappointed at what was announced. There were a few things that I would have bet money on:

  • New Mac Mini
  • New Apple TV
  • iPhone 2.3 software update (with ToDos!)
  • 32GB iPhone and 64GB iPod Touch

Oh well, I guess we’ll have things to look forward to in 2009. I’ll be heading over to the Expo after Lunch. I’ll write about any must-haves that I find.