Articles about Mac

ARM is the future of computing -- there's a reason Microsoft keeps trying to switch Windows to the new architecture. Unfortunately, Windows on ARM has not been a success, as consumers have largely rejected Microsoft's attempts. I have a Surface RT tablet that I keep in a drawer which serves as a constant reminder of what could have been.

Apple is in the midst of this switch with Mac, but it looks to have a huge success on its hands. Why? Because the iPhone-maker developed its own chips rather than just work with partners. More importantly, Apple has a very precise plan on transitioning, and consumers seem to be on board.

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Apple's Mac Pro (2019) desktop computer is beautiful, elegant, powerful... and very expensive. For the Apple faithful, overpaying for hardware is par for the course. After all, if you love macOS, you don't really have much of a choice beyond building a Hackintosh. But even some of the biggest Mac fans balked at the $700 asking price for the Apple Mac Pro Wheels Kit -- a set of four wheels to make the desktop more portable in an office setting. Seriously, folks, the company charges $175 per wheel!

Thankfully, popular Apple-focused third-party seller OWC has decided to roll out (pun intended) a more affordable set of wheels. Called "Rover Pro," it is currently just $199. That is only $50 per wheel, which is much more reasonable. Best of all, unlike the Apple Mac Pro Wheels Kit which requires a special flexible screwdriver (that you must buy separately), OWC's offering utilizes a toolless design.

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Developer Felix Rieseberg won our hearts and minds a couple of years ago, when he released Windows 95 as an Electron app that you could run in Windows, macOS and Linux. He even updated it a year ago to make it faster and bundled playable versions of gaming classics such as Doom and Wolfenstein3D alongside the OS.

Now he’s back with an installable version of Mac OS 8 that you can run on any modern computer, and he’s included a number of Mac apps and games with it, including Photoshop 3, Premiere 4, Illustrator 5.5, Oregon Trail, and Duke Nukem 3D.

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We are in the middle of a pandemic, and lots of us are working from home these days. It is because of technological advances, such as the computer and internet, that so many can work remotely. Let us not forget the mighty webcam which allows our coworkers, friends, and family members to video chat with us. Hell, even doctors are seeing patients using video chat nowadays.

You know who else loves webcams? Hackers! Yes, it is possible for nefarious people to hack into your computer and access your webcam. Any hardware connected to the net can be hacked. And no, you cannot trust an activity light -- hackers can turn them off too. Look, no one wants to be watched by a stranger -- especially when naked or in some other embarrassing situation. Thankfully, something as simple as placing a piece of tape or a privacy shutter (such as this) over the webcam can thwart the bad guys in this regard (the microphone is another story). Unfortunately for those that own Apple laptops, the company is warning users against covering their webcam.

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Today at WWDC 2020, Apple confirmed the rumors -- the company is ditching Intel processors for future Mac computers. While there are technically still some future Intel-powered Macs in the pipeline, Apple intends to eventually switch to its own in-house chips exclusively. The company expects it will take two years for the transition to complete. The last time Mac made such a switch, it was PowerPC to Intel.

Obviously, these ARM-based chips will not be able to run current versions of macOS, so Apple has also announced the next version of the OS that will be compatible. Called "Big Sur," this upcoming version of macOS will also be able to run legacy third-party x86_64 programs through its Rosetta compatibility layer. All Apple programs will be designed for the ARM chips directly.

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Some people love Windows, while others prefer Mac. There are even some wacky folks (such as yours truly) that enjoy using Linux. Hey, you should use whatever makes you happy. Believe it or not, macOS is quite good -- it is a joy to use and absolutely beautiful. Of course, the big problem with Apple computers -- other than their notoriously unreliable keyboards, lately -- is they are wildly expensive. And so, consumers that desire owning a Mac are often unable to realize that dream. True, there is the affordable Mac mini, but it hasn't received a meaningful update since 2018. The base model mini is woefully under-powered too.

Well, Apple has finally done something right with the MacBook line. You see, the company has released the all-new MacBook Air (2020) and it seems to be rather impressive. Long gone is the much-maligned butterfly keyboard, as this new Mac uses traditional scissor switches for the keys -- the same as the 16-inch MacBook Pro. In other words, the keyboard should prove to be more reliable and durable. Best of all, the price starts at a mere $999 ($899 with an education discount -- wink, wink), making it the new "Everyman's Mac." That price gets you an impossibly thin laptop with an enormous trackpad, T2 Security Chip, Touch ID, Thunderbolt 3, more storage capacity (NVMe SSD starting at 256GB), speedy 3733MHz LPDDR4X RAM, and of course, Apple's legendary Retina display.

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Want to know a secret? I have never cleaned my iPhone or iPad. Gross, right? Even more nauseating, I often use them both while sitting on the toilet! Hey, don't blame me for this behavior -- Apple caused it. For the longest time (years), the company never suggested using disinfectant wipes on its products. At the Apple store, I had countless "geniuses" tell me that alcohol would ruin the displays. And so, I just lived with the germs.

With the Coronavirus (COVID-19) dominating the news, however, people are starting to take stock in their hygiene practices. Suddenly, as we all wash our hands more frequently and douse ourselves in Purell, germ-ridden devices become a much more important topic. Thankfully, starting today, Apple has finally given us the green light to use disinfectant wipes to clean the Coronavirus (COVID-19) off the iPhone, iPad, and Mac computers.

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It's generally been accepted that Mac systems are much safer than Windows, but that could be starting to change as a new report shows Mac threats are growing faster than their Windows counterparts for the first time ever.

Malwarebytes latest annual State of Malware report shows an average of 11 threats per Mac endpoint in 2019 -- nearly double the average of 5.8 threats per endpoint on Windows. Overall Mac threats increased by more than 400 percent, year-on-year.

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Mozilla has released Firefox 72.0 for desktop, along with Firefox for Android 68.4 and Firefox ESR 68.4.0.

Mac and Linux users gain the picture-in-picture video feature introduced for Windows in Firefox 71. Fingerprinting scripts are now blocked as standard with this new release, while intrusive pop-up notifications from websites have been confined to the Address Bar to prevent disruption when browsing.

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Earlier in the week, Variety reported about a mysterious problem with Macs in Hollywood. As the issues -- which prevented systems from rebooting -- affected television and film editors in LA, it was initially thought that the Avid Media Composer software was at fault.

But in fact, it was Google that was to blame. A buggy update for the company's Chrome browser caused issues for a number of Mac users whose systems met certain conditions. Google has published details of a workaround for those hit by the problem which saw the Chrome update damaging the macOS file system.

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Microsoft continues with the development of Edge, and a new leak gives Mac users a chance to see what the company is doing with the web browser for their preferred operating system.

Renowned leaker WalkingCat has provided a download link to an unreleased beta version of the Mac build of Microsoft Edge. As it's a beta that hasn't been released to official channels, there are possible stability issues, but it serves as a chance to try out the latest Chromium-base version of Edge for Mac.

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Having released a silent update last week to protect Zoom users from webcam hijacking, Apple has now pushed out a second security patch that is silently installed in the background.

This second patch addresses issues with the RingCentral and Zhumu videoconferencing tools. These apps suffered from a very similar vulnerability, putting users at risk, so Apple has stepped in once again to neutralize the problem.

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Time to dig out the tape and cover up your webcam. The Mac version of the video conferencing tool Zoom has been found to have a flaw that enables a website to switch on your webcam without permission, and without notification.

Despite having been discovered and reported to Zoom by a security researcher three months ago, the vulnerability is yet to be patched. In fact, Zoom disagrees that there is a security issue, although it does say that users will be granted greater control over videos in an update due for release later this month.

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Some Mac users -- who, thanks to Boot Camp, are running Windows 10 on their Apple machine -- are encountering a problem upgrading to Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903).

A compatibility issue with the Mac HAL Driver (machaldriver.sys) is blocking the installation. The problem remains more than two months after the May 2019 Update was released, and Microsoft is still working away on a solution.

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The next time you have a problem with your Apple product -- be it an iMac, MacBook, iPhone or iPad -- you could take it to Best Buy for repair rather than an Apple store.

The new repair options are thanks to Apple's expansion of its authorized service network. There are almost 1,000 Best Buy stores with over 7,600 newly Apple-certified Geek Squad technicians ready to help you out.

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