Macworld October 2023

Now that the transition to Apple silicon is in full swing, we’re seeing some regularity with the Mac release cycle. The MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini made the switch from Intel chips to the M1 in November 2020, followed by M2 upgrades in January 2023. The Mac Studio was introduced with the M1 Max/Ultra, and then a year later the M2 upgrades came. We also got the M2 Ultra Mac Pro and an M2 Pro Mac mini, but since those releases are relatively recent, there’s still time left in their cycle before we’ll see updates. But there’s a huge gap in Apple’s Mac cycle, and it involves the most iconic computer of them all: the iMac. The M1 iMac was introduced on April 20, 2021, and that was…

As a person who loves the Mac, it’s sometimes hard for me to see Apple yank the platform around. Some years it gets attention heaped on it, while others it plays second fiddle to the iPhone and iPad (even though those platforms depend on the Mac for their third-party app development). That’s why it’s been so great to watch the pivot to Apple silicon because the Mac we all depend on for our work is getting the hardware it needs to excel. But there’s an elephant in the room. The Mac has fallen short consistently when it comes to gaming, and even though Apple’s making moves to improve things, we’ve been down this road before. Sure, the M1 and M2 have decent graphics performance, but the best games Apple can…

While Apple has long been one of the loudest opponents of the Right to Repair movement, it has seemingly softened its stance over the past several months. And now it’s completely changed its position and offered its full endorsement to California’s version of the legislation. As first reported by TechCrunch, Apple has sent a letter to a California State Senator Susan Eggman backing the bill and urging its passage. Apple’s support likely paves the way for the state to pass the legislation, as it has unanimous support in the California Senate. I’ve been working on the #RightToRepair in California for the past six years and I’m so appreciative that @Apple has stepped up to support this important consumer and environmental protection policy. This is an historic day for the movement!—Senator…

Remember those serious Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws from about five years ago? Well, Intel’s in hot water again with another serious vulnerability that affects years worth of processors. Known as “Downfall,” the vulnerability exploits a flaw in the AVX vector extensions of every Intel CPU from the Skylake generation onward until we get to the more recent 12th-gen Alder Lake processors. Macs with these processors started appearing in late 2015 with the 21.5-inch iMac, and just about every Intel-based Mac—desktop or laptop—since that time is on the list of affected processors. Apple switched to its own chips in 2020 rather than using the newer 12th- and 13th-gen Intel processors (though those aren’t affected by the flaw anyway). WHAT IS DOWNFALL? Researcher Daniel Moghimi, who discovered the flaw, created a microsite…

Adobe Photoshop is for image editing as Microsoft Office is for the office: absolutely dominant, and in a professional environment, you can’t get around having it. However, if you aren’t using Photoshop and the Creative Suite—or Creative Cloud, as it is now called—for professional reasons (and even if you are), the package has become very unattractive since the introduction of the subscription model more than a decade ago. If you only want to edit a few photos every now and then, you probably won’t think that a monthly subscription for around $9.99 is worth it—because most of the time it is not. A cheap and affordable alternative to Photoshop is Affinity Photo, which was released in its second major version in late 2022. Here you get an unlimited license for an extensive…

Laptop docking stations are a great tool for adding multiple USB, video, and networking ports to your MacBook, and this dock from Satechi goes a step further by including an SSD enclosure so you can add affordable fast storage without having to attach a separate hard drive. As its name suggests, the Satechi Dual Dock Stand also identifies as a laptop stand. It certainly raises the MacBook that rests on it to a more agreeable angle for typing, but it isn’t a stand that will raise your MacBook to a more ergonomic height. However, if you are using the MacBook’s keyboard rather than an external one, it’s more comfortable than leaving the laptop flat on the desk. SPECS AND FEATURES The Satechi Dual Dock Stand features nine ports and an…