Jason Koebler writes via 404 Media: An independent repair shop in Germany has invented a tool that can break through anti-repair locks Apple has put on a specific sensor on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. The Nerd.Tool.1 was invented by Stephan Steins of Dortmund's Notebook Nerds repair shop. It is specifically designed to allow independent repair shops to replace the display angle sensor on broken MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops. This was formerly a replacement that only Apple could do because the replacement part had to be "calibrated" with the specific device, which only Apple could do, until now. This sensor detects when the laptop lid is closed, and turns the screen and fan off, and puts the laptop to sleep. If it's broken, the laptop's screen will remain on even when the lid is closed, which drains the battery, can keep the fans running, and generally shorten the life of the computer.

The Nerd.Tool.1 recalibrates replacement sensors, allowing repair techs to replace them without any fuss. "We are calibrating new sensors nearly the same way Apple does," Steins told me. "They can do it via their T2 [security chip] or their M1/M2 chips. We are using the nerd.tool.1 for this task. The sensor holds all the data. It is not serialized or paired to the logic board so we are just calibrating it." "We broke Apple's lock," independent repair advocate and repair pro Louis Rossmann explained in a YouTube video demoing the Nerd.Tool.1. "To whoever it is at Apple who decided to not make this available to technicians, 'Fuck you, we win,'" Rossman said.

"We are selling the nerd.tool.1 to be able to spend time in developing other solutions," added Steins. "We will do our best to get nerd.tool.2 to fix other issues which repair shops are facing. The response has been awesome! The community is very kind, which shows how painful these missing tools are for many independent repair shops."

On Tuesday, Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max featuring USB-C ports, titanium bodies, and Action Buttons. They're also the first smartphones to support the open-source smart home protocol Thread. The Verge's Jennifer Pattison Tuohy explains how Apple might deploy this wireless connectivity protocol in its ecosystem: The obvious use for Thread in the iPhone is as a Thread border router for the slew of new Apple Home and Matter-enabled Thread smart home devices from companies like Eve, Nanoleaf, and Belkin WeMo. This would mean you wouldn't have to have a HomePod Mini, Apple TV 4K, or other Thread border router to use Thread smart home gadgets with your iPhone. ... [Jonathan Hui, VP of technology at the Thread Group and a software engineer at Google] says that Thread connectivity in a smartphone will allow it to communicate directly with a Thread device. "Compared to existing smartphones without Thread, a smartphone with Thread can communicate directly with a Thread device, without relying on a separate Thread border router or any other communication technology," he said.

Another possibility with direct control is some type of trigger or presence detection. Your Thread devices could know you're home as soon as you walk into the house and respond appropriately. However, presence detection -- something the smart home sorely needs -- would be easier to do with the UWB chips already in most iPhones and HomePods (and is already being done to some extent). As an IP-based mesh protocol, Thread could be a more reliable way to connect multiple such devices to your phone while also having multiple "parent" devices within the same home (such as your iPad, MacBook, or other family member's iPhones). Its IP characteristic makes it easier to maintain a persistent data connection directly to the device, says Moneta. Additionally, Thread being mesh means your device doesn't have to be in range of the controller (iPhone/iPad etc.), as it would with Bluetooth. This could apply to Apple accessories such as the Apple Watch and third-party devices that use Bluetooth, like camera accessories and medical devices. Of course, all of those would need a Thread radio in, too, so that's not going to happen anytime soon. [...]

A popular theory in my X (formerly Twitter) feed after the Apple event was that Thread is in the iPhone 15 Pro line more or less as a freebie. It's plausible that the Wi-Fi / Bluetooth chip Apple is using in its highest-end phones comes as a sort of three-for-one: you pay for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and you get your Thread for free! Given that Apple itself doesn't seem to have a clear idea or any concrete examples of what the Thread capabilities will add (beyond a vague "opening up future opportunities for Home app integrations" statement in the iPhone 15 press release), this does seem to be the most likely reason -- for now. Although, Apple rarely does anything without some purpose in mind.

Apple is developing a low-cost MacBook series to compete with Chromebook models in the education sector that could be launched as early as the second half of 2024, claims a new report out of Taiwan. From a report: According to DigiTimes' industry sources, Apple will likely launch the new product line to differentiate it from the company's existing MacBook Air and Pro lines. The outer appearance will still use a metal casing but will be made of "different materials" and the cost of the mechanical components will be lower, claims the report. The launch timeframe for the alleged new MacBook series appears to be based on a lack of related activity at major Apple suppliers like Quanta Computer and Foxconn, making a launch in the first half of next year unlikely.

Apple is preparing to launch its first M3 Apple Silicon Macs in October, according to Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. 9to5Mac reports: Following the usually new iPhone launch event in September, where we are expecting the iPhone 15 and Apple Watch Series 9 and new Apple Watch Ultra, Apple is reportedly lining up new Macs for an October debut. Likely models include a new M3 iMac, M3 13-inch MacBook Air, and M3 MacBook Pro. For the M3 chip, we are expecting similar core counts to the M2 but with enhanced performance and efficiency thanks to the move to a new 3-nanometer silicon fabrication process.

It may seem weird for the first M3 Macs so soon after the M2 cycle wrapped up â" with products like the M2 Ultra Mac Studio and 15-inch MacBook Air only debuting last month â" but there has been much speculation that the latter parts of the M2 lineup were delayed due to supply chain issues. And while an M3 MacBook Air may be ready to go in October, M3 updates for products like MacBook Pro and Mac Studio are further out. Gurman does not specifically say Apple will hold an October event, or whether new Macs would arrive via press release. The decision on whether to hold a formal event has probably not yet been finalized, but you can imagine Apple would want to hold an event for a significant new Mac launch.

The new Nubia RedMagic 8S Pro+ features support for up to 24GB of RAM -- the same amount of RAM found in a 13-inch top-spec M2 MacBook Pro. Ars Technica reports: The base model of the RedMagic 8S Pro+ starts with 16GB of RAM, but GSMArena has pictures and details of the upgraded 24GB SKU, which is the most amount of memory ever in an Android phone. Because we're all about big numbers, it also comes with 1TB of storage. This suped-up 24GB version of the phone appears to be a China-exclusive, with the price at CNY 7,499 (about $1,034), which is a lot for a phone in China. Other specs include a new "Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2" variant, which appears to be the same higher-clocked version that Samsung gets for the S23. This runs at 3.36 GHz as opposed to the normal 3.2 GHz. There's a 6.8-inch, 120 Hz 2480x1116 OLED display and a 5000 mAh battery with a blazing-fast 165 W charging that can fully charge in 14 minutes. The display has an under-screen front camera, because selfies would just get in the way of gaming.

The design is interesting -- it's just all right angles without a single smoothed-over edge on the entire phone. The sides are flat, the back is flat, and the corners are super tall, with almost no corner radius at all. In landscape mode, there are touch-sensitive shoulder buttons along the top edge for additional gaming controls, but it does not look comfortable to have to wrap your fingers around those hard corners. Just picture the smooth curves of an SNES controller compared to this thing -- even the example image does not look very comfortable. For color options, it comes in black, silver, or a clear back panel with a faux-mechanical design under it, just like a Nothing Phone. That little rainbow circle on the back is a spinning, 20,000 RPM blower fan that pushes heat out the side, so you'll presumably be gaming with cool temps for a long time. The phone is up for pre-order today in China and ships on July 11.

Apple today announced that its self-service repair program will be expanding to the iPhone 14 lineup, 13-inch MacBook Air with the M2 chip, and 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips starting June 21. From a report: First launched in April 2022, Apple's program provides customers with access to parts, manuals, and tools to repair select devices. Apple says the program is designed for anyone with "experience repairing electronic devices," but says the "vast majority" of customers are better off visiting an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider. Apple also announced that customers can now complete the post-repair System Configuration process by placing the device into Diagnostics Mode and following the on-screen prompts. Users no longer need to contact the program's support team to complete this step, which verifies that the parts are genuine and working properly.

Apple has unveiled a new 15-inch MacBook Air at its 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference. The new model is 11.5mm thick, which Apple says makes it the world's thinnest 15-inch laptop. From a report: It has two USB-C Thunderbolt ports, a MagSafe charging connector, and a headphone jack. Its 15.3-inch screen has 500 nits of brightness, a 1080p webcam, and gets a quoted 18 hours of battery life. It'll come with Apple's M2 chip.

The new model starts at $1,299 and will be available next week. Meanwhile, Apple is updating the price on its smaller model. The 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 now starts at $1,099. The new laptop represents a midrange release for Apple, which previously had a fairly large price gap between its 13-inch MacBook offerings and larger premium-priced models. The 15-inch Air will likely serve an audience that wants a large screen but doesn't need the extra computing power (and cost) of 14-inch and 16-inch Pro models.

Apple is testing a pair of new high-end Macs and their accompanying processors ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference next week, suggesting that it's nearing the release of professional-focused desktop computers. From a report: The company is planning two new Mac models -- labeled internally as Mac 14,13 and Mac 14,14 -- that run the M2 Max processor announced in January and a yet-to-be-unveiled M2 Ultra chip. That second processor would replace the M1 Ultra model currently featured in the Mac Studio, a high-end desktop announced in March 2022. [...]

The first desktop computer in testing is running an M2 Max processor with eight high-performance cores -- components for the most demanding tasks -- as well as four efficiency cores and 30 graphics cores. Those are the same specifications featured in the MacBook Pro with the M2 Max. This particular machine also includes 96 gigabytes of memory and is running macOS 13.4, the version of the Mac operating system that was just released earlier this month. The second machine in testing has what is labeled as an M2 Ultra chip, which the company hasn't yet announced. That component, which sports 24 processing cores, doubles the performance of the M2 Max model. The chip includes 16 high-performance cores and eight efficiency cores, as well as 60 graphics cores. The company is testing it in configurations with 64 gigabytes, 128 gigabytes and 192 gigabytes of memory.

A U.S. judge has approved Apple's $50 million class-action settlement resolving consumer claims over certain defective MacBook keyboards, in a ruling that spurned challenges to the deal. From a report: U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, federal court in his ruling called the settlement "fair, adequate and reasonable." Eleven consumers from New York, Florida, California, Michigan and several other states were the lead plaintiffs in the national class action alleging consumer protection and warranty claims. The lawsuit accused Apple of failing to provide sufficient repairs or troubleshooting help for certain MacBook "butterfly" keyboards made between 2015 and 2019.

India is unveiling a 170 billion-rupee ($2.1 billion) financial incentive plan to draw makers of laptops, tablets and other hardware to the South Asian nation as companies look to diversify supply chains beyond China. From a report: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is capitalizing on the early success of Apple's local assembly operations -- which have helped the US company produce about 7% of its global iPhone output -- to pitch the country as a viable global manufacturing hub. New Delhi wants to bring more tech production to India after China's trade war with the US and its strict Covid policies prompted companies to weigh other options. Apple has yet to begin making iPads or MacBook laptops in India, but fresh incentives could push the Cupertino, California-based company to consider such moves. Other manufacturers who could take advantage of the new measures include Dell, HP and Asustek Computer.

Engadget writes: Apple is testing an M3 chipset with a 12-core processor and 18-core GPU, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman reports a source sent him App Store developer logs that show the chip running on an unannounced MacBook Pro with macOS 14. He speculates the M3 variant Apple is testing is the base-level M3 Pro the company plans to release sometime next year...

[T]he M3 Pro reportedly features 50 percent more CPU cores than its first-generation predecessor.
From Gurman's original article: I'm sure you're wondering: How can Apple possibly fit that many cores on a chip? The answer is the 3-nanometer manufacturing process, which the company will be switching to with its M3 line. That approach allows for higher-density chips, meaning a designer can fit more cores into an already small processor.

According to Windows Latest, Microsoft is working on new ARM chips to compete against Apple Silicon. "I have also spotted some job listings that suggest the company is building its own Silicon-based ARM chips for client devices" writes Mayank Parmar. "Additionally, I understand that Microsoft is optimizing Windows 12 for Silicon-ARM architecture." From the report: These developments coincide with the upcoming launch of Windows 12, which has a special version optimized for silicon and designed to leverage AI capabilities. The job listings (most of them have now been taken down) describe positions related to custom silicon accelerators, System on Chips (SoCs), and high-performance, high-bandwidth designs. This suggests that Microsoft is building its own ARM-based chips, aiming to compete with Apple's M chips lineup in terms of performance and efficiency.

In addition to the company's long-rumored mixed reality headset, Apple is expected to launch new MacBooks, as well as a "major" update to the Apple Watch's watchOS software at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. All told, WWDC 2023 could end up being one of Apple's "biggest product launch events ever," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The Verge reports: Let's start with the Macs. Gurman doesn't explicitly say which macOS-powered computers Apple could announce in June, but lists around half a dozen devices it currently plans to release this year or early 2024. There's an all new 15-inch MacBook Air, an updated 13-inch MacBook Air, and new 13-inch and "high-end" MacBook Pros. Meanwhile on the Mac side Apple still needs to replace its last Intel-powered device, the Mac Pro, with an Apple Silicon model, and it also reportedly has plans to refresh its all-in-one 24-inch iMac.

Bloomberg's report notes that "at least some of the new laptops" will make an appearance. The bad news is that none are likely to run Apple's next-generation M3 chips, and will instead ship with M2-era processors. Apple apparently also has a couple of new Mac Studio computers in development, but Bloomberg is less clear on when they could launch.

Over on the software side, which is WWDC's traditional focus, watchOS will reportedly receive a "major" update that includes a revamped interface. Otherwise, we could be in for a relatively quiet show on the operating system front as iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS are not expected to receive major updates this year. Gurman does say that work to allow sideloading on iOS to comply with upcoming EU legislation is ongoing.

Further adding to the excitement of the upcoming Linux 6.4 merge window is the mainline kernel seeing the Device Tree (DT) additions for Apple's current M2 devices including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini systems. From a report: The upstream kernel still has more work to go around the M1/M2 support compared to the downstream state with Asahi Linux, but at least now with this DT support will provide some basic level of upstream kernel support for the Apple M2. Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin today sent in the Apple SoC DT updates targeting the Linux 6.4 cycle for queuing into the SoC tree ahead of the merge window opening around the end of the month. The main addition with this pull request is adding the Apple M2 Device Tree series.

Replacing their main machine, long-time Slashdot reader shanen had a sobering thought. "Considering how many years it's lasted and adding that number to my own age, I wouldn't want to bet on who will outlast which." And this prompted a look back at all the computers used over a lifetime: I've purchased at least 15 personal computers over the decades. Might be more like 20 and couldn't even count how many company computers I've used for various classes and work. Then there were the computer labs filled with my students.
But this ultimately led them to two questions for Slashdot's readers:

(1) What was the brand of your longest-lived PC?
(2) What is the brand of your latest PC and how long do you expect it to last?

Some answers have already been posted on the original submission.

• I think the longest-lasting computer that I used on a daily basis as my main device was a Lenovo ThinkPad R500. I bought it in 2010 and used it until 2019. It still worked when I retired it, but it was getting a bit slow.

• The longest lived was a PDP11/34A. Made in the late 70s or early 80s, it was still running when I sold it in 2005. Did a couple of component-level repairs, and I reckon there's every chance that it still runs today. Not sure if it counts as "personal" though. I have a polycarbonate Macbook from 2007 still going strong, so I guess that makes the answer "Apple".

There's also an interesting story about a long-running server from days gone. But what's your own answer to the question? Share your own stories in the comments.

What was the brand of your longest-lived PC — and how long do you expect your current PC to last?

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Framework has delivered on the promise of its original 13-inch laptop. Three product generations in, the company has made a respectable competitor for the Dell XPS 13 or MacBook Air that can be repaired, modified, and upgraded, and owners of the original laptop can easily give themselves a significant performance boost by upgrading to the new 13th-generation Intel or AMD Ryzen-based boards the company announced today. Framework is now looking to build on that track record with an all-new Framework Laptop 16. It's a larger-screened model that can fit more powerful processors, dedicated GPUs, and a range of different keyboard modules, all with the same commitment to repairability and upgradeability seen in the original Framework Laptop (now retroactively dubbed the Framework Laptop 13).

Framework isn't discussing many details yet; preorders won't open until "this spring," and shipments won't begin until "late 2023." Today, the company provided a preview of the laptop's features, along with developer documentation to encourage the creation of new Input Modules -- components that allow for keyboard customization much like the current Expansion Card system allows for port customization.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Friday, a software developer named Georgi Gerganov created a tool called "llama.cpp" that can run Meta's new GPT-3-class AI large language model, LLaMA, locally on a Mac laptop. Soon thereafter, people worked out how to run LLaMA on Windows as well. Then someone showed it running on a Pixel 6 phone, and next came a Raspberry Pi (albeit running very slowly). If this keeps up, we may be looking at a pocket-sized ChatGPT competitor before we know it. [...]

Typically, running GPT-3 requires several datacenter-class A100 GPUs (also, the weights for GPT-3 are not public), but LLaMA made waves because it could run on a single beefy consumer GPU. And now, with optimizations that reduce the model size using a technique called quantization, LLaMA can run on an M1 Mac or a lesser Nvidia consumer GPU. After obtaining the LLaMA weights ourselves, we followed [independent AI researcher Simon Willison's] instructions and got the 7B parameter version running on an M1 Macbook Air, and it runs at a reasonable rate of speed. You call it as a script on the command line with a prompt, and LLaMA does its best to complete it in a reasonable way.

There's still the question of how much the quantization affects the quality of the output. In our tests, LLaMA 7B trimmed down to 4-bit quantization was very impressive for running on a MacBook Air -- but still not on par with what you might expect from ChatGPT. It's entirely possible that better prompting techniques might generate better results. Also, optimizations and fine-tunings come quickly when everyone has their hands on the code and the weights -- even though LLaMA is still saddled with some fairly restrictive terms of use. The release of Alpaca today by Stanford proves that fine tuning (additional training with a specific goal in mind) can improve performance, and it's still early days after LLaMA's release. A step-by-step instruction guide for running LLaMA on a Mac can be found here (Warning: it's fairly technical).

According to a report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is readying a new batch of Macs to launch "between late spring and summer." This includes a 15-inch MacBook Air and a new 24-inch iMac. From the report: Apple's next iMac desktop is at an advanced stage of development called engineering validation testing, or EVT, and the company is conducting production tests of the machine. The next iMac will continue to come in the same 24-inch screen size as the current model, which was announced in April 2021. The versions being tested also come in the same colors as the current iMac, a palette that includes blue, silver, pink and orange.

The new iMacs will, of course, be more powerful -- with a new M-series chip to replace the M1. There also will be some behind-the-scenes changes. The computer will see some of its internal components relocated and redesigned, and the manufacturing process for attaching the iMac's stand is different. While development of the new iMacs -- codenamed J433 and J434 -- has reached a late stage, it's not expected to go into mass production for at least three months. That means it won't ship until the second half of the year at the earliest. Still, this is a great development for anyone disappointed that Apple's all-in-one desktop hasn't been updated in nearly two years.

Aside from the iMac, Apple is scheduled to launch about three new Macs between late spring and summer, I'm told. Those three models are likely to be the first 15-inch MacBook Air (codenamed J515), the first Mac Pro with homegrown Apple chips (J180) and an update to the 13-inch MacBook Air (J513). The big remaining question is which processors these new Macs will run on. We already know the Mac Pro will include the M2 Ultra, which will provide up to 24 CPU cores, 76 graphics cores and the ability to top out the machine with at least 192 gigabytes of memory. We also know that Apple has developed the next iMac on the same timeline as the M3 chip, so I'd expect it to be one of the company's first M3-based machines.

After widely rolling out an Energy Saver mode, Google has made four optimizations to Chrome for Mac that allows the browser to match the battery life you get when using Safari. 9to5Google reports: Google conducted testing on a MacBook Pro (13", M2, 2022 with 8 GB RAM running macOS Ventura 13.2.1) with Chrome 110.0.5481.100 in February of 2023. It showed that you can "browse for 17 hours or watch YouTube for 18 hours." For comparison, Apple touts up to 17 hours of wireless web browsing, and up to 20 hours Apple TV app movie playback. Meanwhile, Google uses this open-source benchmarking suite to run tests, and says that users will also "see performance gains on older models." Four changes from waking the CPU less often to tuning memory compression are specifically credited:

- Eliminating unnecessary redraws: "We navigated on real-world sites with a bot and identified Document Object Model (DOM) change patterns that don't affect pixels on the screen. We modified Chrome to detect those early and bypass the unnecessary style, layout, paint, raster and gpu steps. We implemented similar optimizations for changes to the Chrome UI."
- Fine tuning iframes: "...we fine-tuned the garbage collection and memory compression heuristics for recently created iframes. This results in less energy consumed to reduce short-term memory usage (without impact on long-term memory usage)."
- Tweaking timers: "...Javascript timers still drive a large proportion of a Web page's power consumption. As a result, we tweaked the way they fire in Chrome to let the CPU wake up less often. Similarly, we identified opportunities to cancel internal timers when they're no longer needed, reducing the number of times that the CPU is woken up."
- Streamlining data structures: "We identified data structures in which there were frequent accesses with the same key and optimized their access pattern."

At the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event today, Samsung announced the Galaxy Book3 Ultra, a 16-inch workstation laptop with a 120Hz OLED screen, an H-Series Core i7 or Core i9, and an RTX 4050 or 4070 GPU. "Samsung makes a number of Galaxy Book models, but this is the first one of the past few years that has really targeted the deep-pocketed professional user -- that is, the core audience for Apple's high-powered and wildly expensive MacBook Pro 16," reports The Verge. "It'll start at $2,399.99 ($100 cheaper than the base MacBook Pro 16), with a release date still to be announced." From the report: Like its siblings in the Galaxy Book3 line, a big draw of this workstation will be its screen. It's got a 2880 x 1800 120Hz 16:10 OLED display (a welcome change from the 16:9 panels that adorned last year's Galaxy Book2) rated for 400 nits of brightness [...]. Elsewhere, using the device felt pretty similar to using any number of other Samsung Galaxy Books, with a satisfyingly clicky keyboard, a smooth finish, a high-quality build, and a compact chassis. The Ultra is 0.65 inches thick and 3.9 pounds, which is slightly thinner and close to a pound lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro that Apple just released [...].

I was able to use a number of Samsung's continuity features, including Second Screen (which allows you to easily use a Galaxy Tab as a second monitor) and Quick Share (which allows you to quickly transfer images and other files between Samsung devices). For Samsung enthusiasts, those seem like handy features that aren't too much of a hassle to set up. The one feature I had issues with was the touchpad -- it registered some of my two-finger clicks as one-finger clicks and wasn't quite picking up all of my scrolls. The units in Samsung's demo area were preproduction devices, so I hope this is a kink Samsung can iron out before the final release.

Unfortunately, we don't yet know how it will stack up when it comes to battery life. The M2 generation of MacBooks is very strong on that front -- and given that the Galaxy Book3 Ultra is running a high-resolution screen, a power-hungry H-series processor, and a very power-hungry RTX GPU, I'm a little bit nervous about that. If Samsung can pull off a device that lasts nearly as long as Apple's do, given those factors, hats off to them. Further reading:
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Is a Minor Update To a Spec Monster
Samsung, Google and Qualcomm Team Up To Build a New Mixed-Reality Platform