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RIP, John Young⇢
Late last week, American astronaut and all-around badass John Young passed away at the age of 87.
Young’s 42-year career at NASA is unique; he flew two Gemini missions, served as the command module pilot on Apollo 10 then walked on the moon as part of Apollo 16.
In 1973, he was named Chief of the Space Shuttle Branch of the Astronaut Office and was then promoted to Chief of the Astronaut Office a year later.
Development of Transmit for iOS Ended⇢
Cabel Sasser at Panic, announcing that their FTP client for iOS is coming to an end:
Transmit iOS made about $35k in revenue in the last year, representing a minuscule fraction of our overall 2017 app revenue. That’s not enough to cover even a half-time developer working on the app. And the app needs full-time work — we’d love to be adding all of the new protocols we added in Transmit 5, as well as some dream features, but the low revenue would render that effort a guaranteed money-loser. Also, paid upgrades are still a matter of great debate and discomfort in the iOS universe, so the normally logical idea of a paid “Transmit 2 for iOS” would be unlikely to help. Finally, the new Files app in iOS 10 overlaps a lot of file-management functionality Transmit provides, and feels like a more natural place for that functionality. It all leads to one hecka murky situation.
Mac Power Users #412: Stephen Hackett Returns⇢
I joined Katie and David on this week’s episode of Mac Power Users to catch up on my work at Relay FM and here on 512 Pixels. I walked through my studio setup and talk a little bit about my decision to purchase a 2017 iMac instead of the iMac Pro.
Since the time we recorded this episode, I decided that the 2017 iMac didn’t work for me due to its tendency to spin up its single fan under even moderate workload. I’m going to be writing more about it this week1 but I returned it and picked up a base model iMac Pro. It’s very pretty and very powerful and I love it already. More soon on those points.
Apple Addresses Meltdown and Spectre⇢
Security researchers have recently uncovered security issues known by two names, Meltdown and Spectre. These issues apply to all modern processors and affect nearly all computing devices and operating systems. All Mac systems and iOS devices are affected, but there are no known exploits impacting customers at this time. Since exploiting many of these issues requires a malicious app to be loaded on your Mac or iOS device, we recommend downloading software only from trusted sources such as the App Store. Apple has already released mitigations in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2 to help defend against Meltdown. Apple Watch is not affected by Meltdown. In the coming days we plan to release mitigations in Safari to help defend against Spectre. We continue to develop and test further mitigations for these issues and will release them in upcoming updates of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.
The Case of the Unattached AppleCare
I recently bought a new computer, and picked up AppleCare+ for it. The process of covering the serial number with the warranty is known as “attachment.” The vast majority of the time, this process is seamless and fast, but I’ve been around the block a few times, so today, I ran my computer’s serial number through Apple’s “Check Coverage” tool to double-check that everything was in order.
Everything was not in order:
On the iMac Pro’s T2 Chip⇢
I’ve spent the last week with Apple’s new iMac Pro, and in most ways it’s just a faster Mac. It’s the first pro Mac desktop in over three years and the fastest Mac yet made, granted, but still entirely familiar. And yet in many ways—some noticeable, some entirely invisible—this new Mac is completely different from all past Mac models.
The iMac Pro may be an outlier today, but in the future we’ll probably look back on it as the start of a new era for the Mac, all because of the Apple-built T2 chip it carries inside. Here’s how the T2 makes this iMac Pro unlike all other Macs.
Liftoff #63: It Looks Like a Soup Can⇢
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy has been erected at 39-A, while NASA moves forward with its New Frontiers finalists. Then, Apollo flight hardware and the mighty Saturn V.
My thanks to our sponsor this week:
- Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code LIFTOFF at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
High Sierra Patched for Intel Memory Access Flaw⇢
A serious design flaw and security vulnerability discovered in Intel CPUs has reportedly already been partially addressed by Apple in the recent macOS 10.13.2 update, which was released to the public on December 6.
It looks like 10.13.2 mostly implemented a fix, with more tweaking coming in 10.13.3.
Query #21: Taking a Hike⇢
This week on Query, my tech Q&A show with Serenity Caldwell:
Apple has launched a battery replacement program for a bunch of iPhones, and Logan is going hiking with an iPhone.
Ungeniused #41: Y2K⇢
It was feared that the year 2000 would arrive with worldwide calamity as the computers in our homes to the systems running our nation’s power grid and nuclear power plants ground to a halt. Thankfully, that didn’t happen, thanks to the work of software engineers… or luck. Maybe both.
My thanks to our sponsor:
- Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code UNGENIUSED at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
Kbase Article of the Week: iMac Pro Memory Specifications⇢
If you have a new iMac Pro on your desk, this article may be handy:
The memory in iMac Pro (2017) isn’t user-accessible. If the memory in your iMac Pro needs to be replaced, contact an Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Provider. If you’d like to upgrade the memory in your iMac Pro, an Apple Authorized Service Provider can help. Before you schedule an appointment, confirm that the specific store or service provider that you contact offers memory upgrade services.