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À partir d’avant-hierArs Technica

macOS Sonoma 14.4.1 released to fix the stuff that the 14.4 update broke

An M3 MacBook Air running macOS Sonoma.

Enlarge / An M3 MacBook Air running macOS Sonoma. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Apple has just released version 14.4.1 for macOS Sonoma, a small-but-significant patch that claims to fix several issues with third-party software and accessories that cropped up in the 14.4 update. The 14.4.1 release also includes a pair of security fixes.

Apple’s release notes highlight fixes for three major problems:

  • USB hubs connected to external displays may not be recognized
  • Copy protected Audio Unit plug-ins designed for professional music apps may not open or pass validation
  • Apps that include Java may quit unexpectedly

Users and companies began noticing problems shortly after the macOS 14.4 update was released earlier this month. Reports of broken USB hubs cropped up on Reddit, the Apple Support Communities forums, and elsewhere within the first couple of days, and issues with Java and iLok audio software DRM devices were reported later on. Some users also reported broken printer drivers and deleted file revisions in iCloud Drive, though Apple's release notes don't mention those problems.

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USB hubs, printers, Java, and more seemingly broken by macOS 14.4 update

USB hubs, printers, Java, and more seemingly broken by macOS 14.4 update

Enlarge

A couple of weeks ago, Apple released macOS Sonoma 14.4 with the usual list of bug fixes, security patches, and a couple of minor new features. Since then, users and companies have been complaining of a long list of incompatibilities, mostly concerning broken external accessories like USB hubs and printers but also extending to software like Java.

MacRumors has a good rundown of the list of issues, which has been steadily getting longer as people have run into more problems. It started with reports of malfunctioning USB hubs, sourced from users on Reddit, the Apple Support Communities forums, and elsewhere—USB hubs built into various displays stopped functioning for Mac users after the 14.4 update.

Other issues surfaced in the days after people started reporting problems with their USB hubs, including some instances of broken printer drivers, unexpected app crashes for some Java users, and problems launching apps that rely on the PACE anti-piracy software (and iLok hardware dongles) to authenticate.

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New iPads may be coming soon, but they won’t change the awkward spot the iPad is in

Apple's $329 9th-gen iPad is over 2 years old and the last model to use Lightning or the old Apple Pencil.

Enlarge / Apple's $329 9th-gen iPad is over 2 years old and the last model to use Lightning or the old Apple Pencil. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

After leaving the iPad lineup untouched for the entirety of 2023, Apple is reportedly preparing to overhaul all of its tablets within the next few weeks, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. We should see major iPad Pro and iPad Air refreshes "around the end of March or in April," says Gurman, along with a special build of iOS 17.4 that adds support for the new hardware.

We'll talk about the specifics of these iPad rumors momentarily, but reading about them got me thinking about what it would take to make me consider an upgrade for either of the iPads currently rolling around my house—a third-generation iPad Air that is currently used mostly for watching Octonauts and assembling Super Mario Lego sets, and a fifth-generation M1 Air that I use mostly for reading and browsing.

At least for me, the answer isn't "new hardware." After a brief stint a few years ago using the iPad as a focused writing device, I've mostly relegated it to tablet-y content consumption, leaving behind the cottage industry of enthusiasts who keep trying to come up with workarounds to make the iPad into a Mac. To replace an iPad at this point, I would either need one of them to break or for Apple to dramatically change what the high-end iPads are capable of.

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Sixty Four is a beautiful system design toy that reveals something rather dark

Your author is eight hours in and only recognizes roughly 50 percent of the objects and resources in this provided screenshot. It gets deeper—and weirder.

Enlarge / Your author is eight hours in and only recognizes roughly 50 percent of the objects and resources in this provided screenshot. It gets deeper—and weirder. (credit: Playsaurus)

There haven't been many times in my life where I've wondered if this feeling I have is something that oil barons must have felt at the height of their Gilded Age powers.

But Sixty Four got me there. I'm still not sure I've ever played a $6 game that had me so fully engaged while also deeply disquieted about the nature of humanity.

Sixty Four (Windows and Mac, on Steam) has been running for more than seven hours on my computers. "Running" isn't quite right, though. Early on in Sixty Four, you're actively clicking, upgrading, and figuring out what's going on. As the game goes on, and you figure out some virtuous loops, you can technically leave it running in the background while you do other things, checking in occasionally to fuel a machine or start a conversion. I write "technically" because while the game is capable of working in the background, indifferent to the human need to build, refine, and expand, you very well may not be.

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visionOS 1.1 tries to make Personas less unsettling, plus other Apple OS updates

A blurry, ghostly Persona in visionOS 1.0. They should at least look less bad in visionOS 1.1.

Enlarge / A blurry, ghostly Persona in visionOS 1.0. They should at least look less bad in visionOS 1.1. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Apple has released a long list of medium-sized software updates for most of its devices today. The macOS Sonoma 14.4, watchOS 10.4, tvOS 17.4, and visionOS 1.1 updates are all available now, and most of them add at least one or two major features as they fix multiple bugs and patch security vulnerabilities.

The visionOS 1.1 release is the first major update for Apple's newest operating system, and as our coverage of the headset has demonstrated, there's still plenty of low-hanging fruit to fix. Most notably for people who are trying to use the headset for work meetings, Apple says that there have been multiple changes to the look of Personas, the 3D avatars that show up in your place when you're video chatting with the Vision Pro on your face. The update improves "hair and makeup appearance," "neck and mouth representation," and "rendering of the eyes," and while it's clear that it's an improvement over the 1.0 release of Personas, the core uncanniness still seems to be intact. The Persona feature is still labeled as a beta.

Apple has also made tweaks to the appearance and functionality of the headset's virtual keyboard, improved the Virtual Display feature's Mac connectivity, and added a handful of mobile device management features for IT administrators.

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Linux market share passes 4% for first time; macOS dominance declines

Gentoo Penguins (Pygoscelis papua) climbing snowy hill

Enlarge (credit: Getty)

Linux reached 4.03 percent of global market share in February, according to data from research firm Statcounter. That takes Linux past the 3 percent milestone it reached in June 2023. While we’re still far from the Year of the Linux Desktop, interest in Linux has somewhat grown lately.

Statcounter says it gets its desktop operating system (OS) usage stats from tracking code installed on over 1.5 million global websites generating over 5 billion monthly page views. The only adjustments the firm says it makes to this data are around removing bot activity and adjusting for Google Chrome prerendering. Note that when Statcounter analyzes desktop OSes, it also includes laptop computers, and Statcounter says it may revise its data within 45 days of publication.

  • Global desktop OS adoption, per Statcounter. [credit: Statcounter ]

As spotted by Linuxiac, Linux’s reported desktop market share was higher than ever in February. If you count ChromeOS as a Linux OS, then market share totaled 6.34 percent in February, although that number is actually smaller than what Statcounter reported in June: 2 percent.

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iOS 17.3 adds multiple features originally planned for iOS 17

An iPhone sits on a wood table

Enlarge / The iPhone 15 Pro. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Apple yesterday released iOS and iPadOS 17.3 as well as watchOS 10.3, tvOS 17.3, and macOS Sonoma 14.3 for all supported devices.

iOS 17.3 primarily adds collaborative playlists in Apple Music, and what Apple calls "Stolen Device Protection." Collaborative playlists have been on a bit of a journey; they were promised as part of iOS 17, then added in the beta of iOS 17.2, but removed before that update went live. Now they're finally reaching all users.

When enabled, Stolen Device Protection requires Face ID or Touch ID authentication "with no passcode fallback" for some sensitive actions on the phone.

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First wave of AAA iPhone games sees a big new release—and a notable delay

The trailer for Resident Evil 4 on iOS

Apple's AAA gaming ambitions for the iPhone 15 Pro saw both a release and a delay this week.

When Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 Pro and touted its AAA gaming capabilities in September, the company named three upcoming games as showcases: the Resident Evil 4 remake, Death Stranding, and Assassin's Creed Mirage. All would arrive to iOS and all would require an iPhone 15 Pro to play.

Resident Evil 4 launched on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS today. And a few days ago, publisher 505 Games announced in a post to X that Death Stranding—which was expected to launch this month—has been delayed to "a new release date in early 2024" because it "needs a little more time."

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Apple releases iOS 17.2 and macOS 14.2, delays two features to 2024

The iPhone 15 Pro Max with three cameras

Enlarge / The iPhone 15 Pro Max. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Today, Apple pushed out the public releases of iOS 17.2, iPadOS 17.2, macOS Sonoma 14.2, watchOS 10.2, and tvOS 17.2.

iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2's flagship feature is the new Journal app, which Apple teased when it first introduced iOS 17 earlier. The app mimics several existing popular journaling apps in the App Store from third-party developers but leverages data from your Photos, workouts, and other Apple apps to make journaling suggestions.

Other features include the ability to tap a "catch-up arrow" to scroll to the first missed message in a conversation in Messages, the ability to take spatial video photos for later viewing on Vision Pro, and several tweaks and additions to the Weather app.

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Steam drops macOS Mojave support, effectively ending life for many 32-bit games

macOS Mojave's wallpaper.

Enlarge / macOS Mojave's wallpaper. (credit: Apple)

Valve Software's Steam gaming marketplace and app will drop support for macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and 10.14 (Mojave), according to a support page post. The change will go into effect on February 15, 2024.

What will happen exactly? Valve writes:

After that date, existing Steam Client installations on these operating systems will no longer receive updates of any kind including security updates. Steam Support will be unable to offer users technical support for issues related to the old operating systems, and Steam will be unable to guarantee continued functionality of Steam on the unsupported operating system versions.

macOS 10.14 (dubbed Mojave by Apple) shipped more than five years ago, and time has a way of marching on, so this might not seem that momentous at first glance. But there's a reason it's particularly noteworthy: This change means the end of support for the last versions of macOS that could run 32-bit games.

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What to do if your new M3 Mac shows up with an old, non-updatable macOS version

The default desktop wallpaper for macOS 13 Ventura.

Enlarge / The default desktop wallpaper for macOS 13 Ventura. (credit: Apple)

Update 11/8/2023: Apple has released a macOS 14.1.1 update for Sonoma that will install on the new M3-series Macs. It's still a separate build number from the one that runs on most Macs, but it should at least allow upgrades for anyone with a brand-new Mac that comes with an old version of macOS Ventura installed.

Original story: Apple’s new M3 Macs are starting to land on doorsteps today, and at least a few people are facing an odd problem: Their Macs are showing up with an old, outdated build of last year’s macOS 13.5 Ventura on them, and checking for updates isn’t giving them the opportunity to update to either the current version of Ventura (13.6) or the recently released macOS Sonoma (14.1).

Affected users have posted complaints on X, formerly Twitter, and places like the MacRumors forums. The unreleased build of Ventura appears to be build 22G80, whereas the officially released version from July 2023 is build 22G74. So far, the issue only seems to affect the basic M3 versions of the MacBook Pro and iMac and not the M3 Pro or M3 Max versions, suggesting that the M3 Macs were ready to go a few months before the more powerful versions.

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Apple introduces new M3 chip lineup, starting with the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max

Apple is introducing three M3 performance tiers at the same time.

Enlarge / Apple is introducing three M3 performance tiers at the same time. (credit: Apple)

NEW YORK—None of the new Macs that Apple is announcing at its "Scary Fast" product event today look very different from the ones they're replacing on the outside, but the inside is another story. This is the first batch of Macs to include Apple's next-generation M3-series chips, and unlike past years, Apple is introducing multiple M3 performance tiers all at the same time.

The M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max all share the same underlying CPU and GPU architectures, the same ones used in the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro chip. Also like the A17 Pro, all M3 chips are manufactured using a new 3 nm process from Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC). Let's dive into everything we know about the M3 family's capabilities, plus the differences between each performance tier.

Meet the Apple M3 family

  • Apple prioritized comparisons to the M1 generation, which is more likely to be relevant for upgraders. But in context with the M2 numbers, M3 looks like a typical year-over-year upgrade. [credit: Apple ]

Apple says that the performance cores in any given M3 processor can run up to 30 percent faster than the M1's performance cores, and that the efficiency cores are up to 50 percent faster. Most of Apple's direct performance comparisons were to the M1 generation, which is useful insofar as M2 Mac owners aren't likely to want to spring for M3, but it has the added marketing benefit of making the performance increases sound larger than they are.

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Apple’s cheaper 14-inch MacBook Pro is killing the old 13-inch version

Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro, gone but not forgotten.

Enlarge / Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro, gone but not forgotten. (credit: Apple)

NEW YORK—Apple refreshed its MacBook Pro lineup earlier today, and there was one surprise that the rumor mill hadn't anticipated: a new base model of the 14-inch MacBook Pro with a plain-old M3 chip in it, starting at $1,599. That new 14-inch MacBook Pro is totally replacing the old 13-inch MacBook Pro in Apple's lineup.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro still used the same basic design that Apple had been using since 2016, when Apple redesigned the MacBook Pros to make them thinner and lighter and to replace all of their ports with Thunderbolt. The 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros backtracked on several of those design decisions, but the 13-inch model stayed as it was, complete with the regular notchless display and the Touch Bar.

This effectively means that the MacBook Pro is getting a price increase from $1,299 to $1,599. But the $1,599 Pro includes many features that were never included in the 13-inch Pro, including the larger high-refresh-rate ProMotion display, the contrast-boosting and bloom-reducing mini LED screen technology, the MagSafe connector, the 1080p camera, and the return of the HDMI port. Apple also now sells a 15-inch MacBook Air at that $1,299 starting point, giving people another option in between the mainstream 13-inch Air and the Pro lineup.

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Apple overhauls MacBook Pro lineup with M3 chips and a new entry-level option

  • Apple leans into its event's spooky vibes with the new space black version of the MacBook Pro. [credit: Apple ]

NEW YORK—As expected, Apple has launched a newly refreshed lineup of 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros at its "Scary Fast" product event this evening, replacing not just the last-generation versions of those laptops but also the old 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The company is accomplishing that last goal by introducing a less-expensive $1,599 version of the 14-inch MacBook Pro that uses a regular M3 chip instead of the M3 Pro or M3 Max.

Apple MacBook Pro 14inch and 16inch with M3

(Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.)

It isn't as fast, it starts with a skimpy 8GB of RAM of storage, it has one fewer Thunderbolt port (for a total of two), and it only supports a single external display. But at $1,599, the M3 MacBook Pro is $400 cheaper than the M2 Pro/M3 Pro version of the laptop, and it still uses the larger high-refresh-rate ProMotion display, the contrast-boosting and bloom-reducing mini LED screen technology, the MagSafe connector, the 1080p camera, 512GB of storage in the base model, the speaker system, and a full-size HDMI port. Apple also quotes "up to 22 hours of battery life" for the M3 version, compared to "up to 18" for the M3 Pro and Max version.

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Apple’s M3 iMac still starts at $1,299, still doesn’t replace the 27-inch model

  • The new iMac comes in the same seven colors as the old one. [credit: Apple ]

NEW YORK—The new MacBook Pros are the biggest news from Apple's October Mac event, but one other model got a long-overdue refresh, too—the 24-inch iMac, most recently refreshed with an Apple M1 processor in June 2021.

(Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.)

The new iMac is available for order today, and the first ones will arrive on November 7. The base model, which includes an M3 with an 8-core GPU, 256GB of storage, two Thunderbolt ports, a non-Touch ID keyboard, and 8GB of RAM, starts at $1,299. An upgraded version with a 10-core GPU, a power brick-mounted gigabit Ethernet port, two additional USB-C ports, and a Touch ID keyboard starts at $1,499. Those prices are $1,249 and $1,399, respectively, for education users.

The most important upgrade—and really the only one of note—is an upgrade to the new M3 chip. Because it was the only Mac to totally skip the M2, the new iMac hops forward two generations at once. Apple says that the M3's four high-performance CPU cores are up to 30 percent faster than those in the M1, and that its four high-efficiency CPU cores are as much as 50 percent faster. Apple says that the 10-core GPU in the M3 is up to 2.5 times faster than the M1, and that its 16-core Neural Engine is up to 60 percent faster.

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Apple releases iOS 16.7.2 and iOS 15.8 security updates to patch old hardware

iPhones running iOS 15.

Enlarge / iPhones running iOS 15. (credit: Apple)

Apple is releasing a slew of updates for its latest operating systems today, including iOS and iPadOS 17.1, macOS Sonoma 14.1, watchOS 10.1, and others. The company is also releasing security updates for a few previous-generation operating systems, so that people who aren't ready to upgrade (and older devices that can't upgrade) will still be protected from new exploits.

Those updates include iOS and iPadOS 16.7.2 and 15.8, macOS Ventura 13.6.1, macOS Monterey 12.7.1, and the Safari 17.1 update for both of those macOS versions. At least for now, the iOS and iPadOS 16 updates cover older iPhones and iPads that can't run iOS 17 and newer devices whose owners simply don't want to install iOS 17 yet. Apple will eventually stop supporting newer hardware with iOS 16 security updates, but for now, the grace period is still in effect.

This is the first security update that Apple has delivered for iOS 15 since mid-September, suggesting that the company plans to keep supporting 2021's iOS release with continued security updates for at least a while longer. The iOS 15.8 update will only run on phones and tablets that can't install iOS 16 or 17, including the iPhone 6S, the iPhone 7, the original iPhone SE, the iPad Air 2, and the last iPod Touch.

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iOS 17.1, macOS 14.1, and other Apple updates arrive with a few new tricks

iPhone in Standby mode

Enlarge / Apple's iOS 17.1 release includes updates to the Settings for StandBy on the iPhone. (credit: Apple/Ars Technica)

A plethora of point-one updates have arrived for Apple devices, adding a few features and some useful bug fixes to iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Apple Watches, and Apple TVs and HomePods. It also addresses French regulators' concerns that the iPhone 12 produced too much electromagnetic radiation in certain conditions.

The biggest new features among the software refreshes are on the Apple Watch and HomePods. If you're a frequent user of AirDrop, however, and find yourself throwing huge files to people, iOS 17.1 adds a new "Use Cellular Data" option. If both the sender and recipient have iCloud accounts, an AirDrop transfer can continue over a cellular connection if your phone leaves Wi-Fi or Bluetooth range or drops the connection. MacRumors shows the changes and settings involved.

Elsewhere in iOS 17.1, StandBy gets new display options, including display-off timers. No Journal app has arrived yet. One new thing that has arrived is a patch to the iPhone 12's radio operation to accommodate, as Apple put it, "the protocol used by French regulators." France's National Frequency Agency (ANFR) found that the iPhone 12 exceeded a "limbs" limit of radiation, for when the phone is in a pocket or purse or otherwise against the body, and called for Apple to stop selling the device and potentially recall it. Apple, noting that the device was "certified by multiple international bodies," still agreed to address the issue in iOS 17.1.

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Hackers can force iOS and macOS browsers to divulge passwords and much more

Par : Dan Goodin
Hackers can force iOS and macOS browsers to divulge passwords and much more

Enlarge (credit: Kim et al.)

Researchers have devised an attack that forces Apple’s Safari browser to divulge passwords, Gmail message content, and other secrets by exploiting a side channel vulnerability in the A- and M-series CPUs running modern iOS and macOS devices.

iLeakage, as the academic researchers have named the attack, is practical and requires minimal resources to carry out. It does, however, require extensive reverse-engineering of Apple hardware and significant expertise in exploiting a class of vulnerability known as a side channel, which leaks secrets based on clues left in electromagnetic emanations, data caches, or other manifestations of a targeted system. The side channel in this case is speculative execution, a performance enhancement feature found in modern CPUs that has formed the basis of a wide corpus of attacks in recent years. The nearly endless stream of exploit variants has left chip makers—primarily Intel and, to a lesser extent, AMD—scrambling to devise mitigations.

Exploiting WebKit on Apple silicon

The researchers implement iLeakage as a website. When visited by a vulnerable macOS or iOS device, the website uses JavaScript to surreptitiously open a separate website of the attacker’s choice and recover site content rendered in a pop-up window. The researchers have successfully leveraged iLeakage to recover YouTube viewing history, the content of a Gmail inbox—when a target is logged in—and a password as it’s being autofilled by a credential manager. Once visited, the iLeakage site requires about five minutes to profile the target machine and, on average, roughly another 30 seconds to extract a 512-bit secret, such as a 64-character string.

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Rebuilt Microsoft Teams app promises twice the speed and half the RAM usage

The reformulated Microsoft Teams app.

Enlarge / The reformulated Microsoft Teams app. (credit: Microsoft)

If you or your employer uses Microsoft Teams for communication, good news: Microsoft is releasing a fully rewritten version today for Windows PCs and Macs that promises to run faster while using fewer system resources.

A preview of this app was originally released for Windows in March, but the final release covers all types of Teams instances, re-adds support for features like breakout rooms and third-party app support, and supports macOS.

The new Teams app is notable for improved performance and reduced disk space usage, especially when running on Windows PCs. Microsoft says that the reformulated version of Teams is "up to two times faster while using 50 percent less memory" on Windows systems. That sound you hear is old and underspecced work PCs in offices around the world breathing a sigh of relief.

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OpenCore Legacy Patcher project brings macOS Sonoma support to 16-year-old Macs

Unsupported Mac models like this 2017 iMac can install macOS Sonoma using the OpenCore Legacy Patcher project.

Enlarge / Unsupported Mac models like this 2017 iMac can install macOS Sonoma using the OpenCore Legacy Patcher project. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

When Apple decides to end update support for your Mac, you can either try to install another OS or you can trick macOS into installing on your hardware anyway. That's the entire point of the OpenCore Legacy Patcher, a community-driven project that supports old Macs by combining some repurposed Hackintosh projects with older system files extracted from past macOS versions.

Yesterday, the OCLP team announced version 1.0.0 of the software, the first to formally support the recently released macOS 14 Sonoma. Although Sonoma officially supports Macs released mostly in 2018 or later, the OCLP project will allow Sonoma to install on Macs that go back to models released in 2007 and 2008, enabling them to keep up with at least some of the new features and security patches baked into the latest release.

But OCLP supports some Macs better than others, and generally, the older your Mac is, the more problems you will have.

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