How the M1’s asymmetric cores can run background tasks more efficiently, or deliver high performance, according to Quality of Service. | Continue reading
Has the Profiles pane recently appeared in System Preferences? Here’s why – a minor glitch in the App Store update. | Continue reading
Included in the macOS updates this week was Safari version 14.1 for Mojave and Catalina (this was also included within Big Sur 11.3 update). Apple has pulled those Safari updates today, apparently … | Continue reading
M1 Macs may be as fast as greased lightning, but how good is their numerical accuracy? Can it match that of Intel processors? | Continue reading
First there were inodes, aliases, and links. Finder aliases already use the volfs file system, but Apple wants us to switch to its opaque Bookmarks | Continue reading
An important feature for many iOS users, this has now appeared in macOS, despite not apparently being exposed to the user. Here’s what I know. | Continue reading
macOS 11.2, 11.2.1 and 11.2.2 have come in quick succession. What do they tell us about how difficult it is to update Big Sur’s sealed System volume? Is this the way to go? | Continue reading
Fast compact external SSDs are prone to thermal throttling. This is demonstrated during tests writing 96 files, when transfer rates fell from 2 GB/s to around 700 MB/s. | Continue reading
Apple has revealed the hidden Fallback Recovery OS mode available on M1 Macs. How to enter and use it, and why it’s another big plus. | Continue reading
Making an external bootable SSD for an M1 Mac has proved tricky. Has this changed in macOS 11.2? If you’ve already got 11.1 running on one, how do you update it to 11.2? | Continue reading
Not only has Apple not provided standalone updaters for macOS 11.2, or for Mojave and Catalina Security Updates 2021-001, but it has removed the Big Sur 11.1 installer. It’s just like iOS now… | Continue reading
Something wrong with the Finder or an app, and you want to trash its preferences? Don’t: macOS will defeat you. Here’s how to do that so it works. | Continue reading
Detailed account of disk, volume and folder layouts on Big Sur’s boot disks, complete with roadmaps which are downloadable as PDFs. | Continue reading
Improved tests, statistical analysis, and interface, together with a 21 page Help book detailing its range of tests in 5,000 words. Ready to use for real. | Continue reading
Processors haven’t just increased in speed and packed more transistors into a smaller space. Features such as the Neural Engine in the M1 show Apple is moving in a different direction. | Continue reading
Using 140 files of sizes 10 KB – 2 GB, the M1 read files significantly faster than a T2 Mac, but the latter wrote files slightly quicker. Highest read rate on the M1 was 10.8 GB/s, which seem… | Continue reading
Disk Utility in Big Sur can turn a 1 TB external disk into 4.5 TB or more of imaginary containers. Sadly it’s just a bug, and here’s how to work around it. | Continue reading
If you’ve been unable to create a bootable external disk to use with your M1 Mac, this explains what you need and its limitations and quirks. | Continue reading
Apple released macOS Big Sur 11.1 on 14 December. Although yesterday it finally posted standalone installers for the two concomitant security updates to Catalina and Mojave, no standalone updaters … | Continue reading
When does an M1 Mac validate its Sealed System Volume? Who designed its display interface? How soon does Find My Mac launch? So many answers found in the log. | Continue reading
It’s enough to make you and Edvard Munch scream: every QuickLook thumbnail and preview has rounded corners. They scream out the arrogance of the designer. | Continue reading
How can you tell whether your Mac’s shiny new Sealed System Volume is properly sealed? You could easily be misled into thinking it isn’t. | Continue reading
Why does it take 2 years to realise that macOS has been checking signing certificate validity online? | Continue reading
Will stripping executable code for an unwanted platform stop an app from working? What savings are to be gained? | Continue reading
If you were to strip unwanted code from a Universal App, would it still pass Big Sur’s strict security checks? | Continue reading
How macOS checks executable code before it’s loaded and run, in macOS 10.15 and 11.0. Covering integrity checks using hashes, and validity of the signing certificate, on Intel and ARM. | Continue reading
Although most were worried about Apple’s failure to deliver upgrades to Big Sur, the most serious problem left many users unable to launch any apps. | Continue reading
How your Mac’s security and privacy systems can cause duplicate copies of files to be written to your backups. | Continue reading
In an M1 Mac, all its main components are tightly integrated and interdependent. To achieve performance with versatility, they come ready-built, not kits. | Continue reading
So convenient to use – edit them in the Comments: section of Finder’s Get Info dialog. But as reliable as loose scraps of paper, and as easily lost. | Continue reading
Some articles to read before you try upgrading to Big Sur, or ordering a new Apple Silicon Mac. Insights and tips. | Continue reading
A complete guide to the structure and layout of APFS startup disks from High Sierra to Big Sur (Intel), together with tear-out PDF charts. | Continue reading
Provision of maintenance procedures and tools is at the heart of software engineering, but not in macOS. | Continue reading
Coming now to Apple Silicon Macs: all ARM-native executable code is required to be signed. Full details of this important change. | Continue reading
macOS Catalina is the first version of macOS which boots not from a single volume, but from two: a read-only System volume named by default Macintosh HD, and a writeable Data volume with the defaul… | Continue reading
Can face masks cause breathing problems? Why isn’t there good research into cloth face masks? And much more. | Continue reading
Even the ‘successful’ contact tracing apps have fallen well below expectations, and incapable of discovering their effectiveness. | Continue reading
macOS 11.0 will identify itself differently according to the SDK used, and an environment variable does the same for scripts. | Continue reading
They’re responsible for determining Gatekeeper’s checks, contain Finder information, and much more. With a new free tool too. | Continue reading
If you have scripts or code which check which version of macOS is running, be careful with Big Sur. Is it 11.0 or 10.16? | Continue reading
Some files rely on these to work properly. What happens when you share such a file using your iCloud account? The answer isn’t simple, but here are full details. | Continue reading
APFS adds 6 volume roles, including one which supports Time Machine backups. And per-file encryption is coming. | Continue reading
How to set the total size, and band size, for your sparse bundles, with calculation of the critical band size. | Continue reading
Free video surveillance software allowing capture, analysis, recording and monitoring of any CCTV or security cameras. Using IP and web cameras, you can design a system as large or as small as you need with our free video surveillance software. | Continue reading
There’s no shortage of entries, but are they the ones you need, and do they contain the information that’s important? How to change that. | Continue reading
Without addressing shortcomings in tools and maturity of macOS, 10.16 has flawed foundations, and is likely to fall flat. | Continue reading
Apple is proud of high adoption rates of its OS upgrades. But 10.15 and 10.16 inevitably prevent many from using them. It’s time for Apple to understand that, and make 10.16 a macOS release w… | Continue reading
Remember MacKeeper? Would it surprise you to hear that it has now been notarized? Let me tell you a little about its notorious past. | Continue reading