Macworld July 2019

Apple announced recently that the MacBook Pro is getting a speed boost. The company revealed that the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is now available with eight-generation Intel processors, while the 15-inch MacBook Pro now sports ninth-generation CPUs, including the first 8-core Mac laptop. Apple also said that the 2019 MacBook Pro features changes to the butterfly keyboard mechanism that should help prevent the problems that users have experienced in previous MacBook models. The new models are also included in Apple’s Keyboard Service Program, which means that the company will repair the keyboard for free up to four years after purchase. Apple is offering the new MacBook Pro models at the same price points as those released in July 2018. 15-INCH MACBOOK PRO The $2,799 15-inch MacBook Pro could be…

According to Apple, a vast majority of users of recent MacBooks are happy with the butterfly-switch keyboard, which was introduced in 2015. But it’s not difficult to find users who are not happy. So Apple is offering a solution. Along with its recent announcement of new MacBook Pros (see page 7), Apple announced that the company will now fix any problems with the MacBook keyboard at no cost to the owner. This offer is only available for the following laptops: > 12-inch Retina MacBook (2015 to 2017) > MacBook Air (2018) > 13-inch MacBook Pro (2016 to 2019) > 15-inch MacBook Pro (2016 to 2019) Also, to reduce the inconvenience to the user, Apple said that it has shortened the time it takes to implement repairs to the keyboard. Apple…

In May, Apple refreshed its MacBook Pro lineup (see page 7), boosting performance with the latest Intel processors but making no other significant changes. Except one: There’s now another revision of the infamous “butterfly” keyboard mechanism, using new materials in a bid to further improve reliability. To go along with this new design, Apple extended the keyboard repair and replacement program to include virtually any Mac laptop with the butterfly keyboard (including the new ones), offering free repair for up to four years. What exactly is new? The reliable tinkerers at iFixit have torn apart the newly-revised 2019 MacBook Pro. While the rest of the laptop is almost identical to previous models (earning it a horrible repairability score of 1), there are a few noticeable difference in the keyboard mechanism. The…

Apple may end up making Macs with processors of its own design, but that’s not expected to happen soon. And if it does happen, it probably will take several years before the entire Mac lineup has transitioned to Apple-designed chips. In the meantime, it’s safest to assume that the Macs of the next couple years will primarily use Intel processors. So any time we can get a look at Intel’s road map, we’re getting a peak at the heart of the Mac. During a recent investor presentation, Intel extended its public road map through 2020 and gave an update on future products and manufacturing processes. Here’s what that means for the Mac. Ice Lake processors use Intel’s brand-new Sunny Cove CPU architecture, which should deliver the first real boost in single-thread…

Trunkspace Hosting is an interesting company. It offers virtual private server (VPS) and website hosting, music bots for the Discord chat service, and even game servers for titles such as Minecraft, CS:GO, and Team Fortress 2. The company also has its own VPN service dubbed PrivateVPN—not to be confused with PrivateVPN.com. It’s a very straightforward and simple service that promises not to track your actions online, and delivers connectivity options for 48 different countries. SECURITY, SOFTWARE, SERVERS, AND SPEED Trunkspace says it does not log any of your information at all when connected to its service. And according to its updated Privacy Policy, “IP addresses, connection timestamps, disconnect timestamps, bandwidth usage, and DNS requests are not at all logged. We achieve (and guarantee) this by having all log data output…

Your hard-disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs) “know” quite a bit about how well they’re functioning. Nearly all modern drives of both kinds have internal diagnostics and track other information about usage and wear. But it can be hard to surface that without Terminal commands, and tough to interpret the context, especially for SSDs. DriveDx from Binary Fruit puts a friendly face on complicated data, and can offer critical information about the state of your drives before a failure. With a database of drive information that the company has compiled, it offers insight that would take far longer to assemble for anyone but a technical expert. The app reads S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) information that a drive’s internal operating system records. This can include read and write errors,…