Macworld August 2022

After months—if not years—of fevered theorizing over Apple’s chip roadmap for the Mac, this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference at last gave us a tantalizing peek at the successor to the blockbuster M1, released a little over a year and a half ago. We learned a bit more about the M2 this week when the first round of reviews landed (see page 46). The 13-inch MacBook Pro is identical to the M1 model on the outside, but the inside is completely different, thanks to Apple’s latest chip. Benchmarks show a nice speed boost of around 20 percent, a significant jump in graphics performance, and a very good improvement over the already speedy M1. But, far more excitingly, now that we’ve got a second data point to work with, we can start to extrapolate…

Apple has revealed that its new 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter (now on sale), can automatically adjust its power output depending on what types of devices are connected. A new support document explains that when devices are connected to both of the charger’s USB-C ports, the (relatively modest) 35W output is split “based on their power requirements.” What that means in practice is that MacBooks, iPhones and iPads are prioritized over Apple Watches and AirPods. If you connect both a MacBook and an iPad, for example, the wattage is split evenly: Each device gets up to 17.5W. But pairing one of these high-priority devices with an Apple Watch or an AirPods case means a split of 27.5W/7.5W. Note that the all-important “up to” prefix attaches to all of these figures; your…

While Apple’s M1 processors have helped the Mac reach new performance heights, a few reports have exposed potential security issues with the celebrated system on a chip. The latest such report comes from MIT CSAIL, where researchers have found a way to defeat what is called “the last line of security” on the M1 SoC. MIT CSAIL found that the M1 implementation of pointer authentication can be overcome with a hardware attack that the researchers developed. Pointer authentication is a security feature that helps protect the CPU against an attacker that has gained memory access. Pointers store memory addresses, and pointer authentication code (PAC) checks for unexpected pointer changes caused by an attack. In its research, MIT CSAIL created “PACMAN,” an attack that can find the correct value to successfully pass…

Some people look at the notch at the top of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with disgust and see it as a distraction to an overall elegant design. Others don’t even notice it. And some, like developer Ian Keen, are inspired by it. Keen recently tweeted about his latest project: a macOS “AirDrop helper” that activates the Mac-to-Apple device file transfer feature by dragging files to the notch, which lights up, and then the AirDrop window appears. Keen has a demo of it on Twitter. Keen is also working on a notch-less variant of the helper app for people who are buying an M2 MacBook Pro or have an older Mac. It works similarly, but the highlighted area isn’t as obvious. As someone who uses AirDrop a lot, I can’t wait…

It pains me to admit this, but I’ve covered Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference for more than a quarter of a century. I’ve seen it go from a sleepy conference in San Jose to an electrically charged event in San Francisco to a can’t-get-a-ticket event back in San Jose. And, like everyone else, I participated in WWDC remotely for the past two years via session videos posted on Apple’s developer site. The lesson here is that WWDC is nothing if not changeable. Apple changes with the times, and so does its relationship with outside developers. But having spent a day on the Apple Park campus as a part of the company’s reimagined WWDC this year, I can say this: I don’t think we’re ever returning to the old WWDC, and I think…

Logitech makes pretty good keyboards. They’re a staple of our best keyboard lists, whether it’s for Mac or iPad, because outside of Apple’s own keyboards Logitech’s are the safest bet. You’re almost always going to get something well built with good key action and useful software features. It seems odd, then, with mechanical keyboards becoming all the rage among enthusiasts and working from home exploding in recent years, that Logitech’s mechanical keyboards have only been available in its gaming-focused G series. With the MX Mechanical, the company finally rectifies that. Available in a tenkeyless Mini ($149) and full-size ($169) variants, it combines the craftsmanship of the company’s mechanical gaming keyboards with its excellent productivity features and software. It all comes in a more professional design that would be welcome in any office—home…