Apple M4 SoC analysis - AMD, Intel and Qualcomm currently don't stand a chance

[Randy chan]

Despite the tough competition from AMD, Intel and Qualcomm, Apple continues to be the best in the processor chips while raising the performance bar. In addition, Apple is a in-house closed ecosystem which ensures better compatibility than their competition.

[edhun]

Just quick question- is security issue sorted (potential unauthorized access to encrypted data) or we still pretending it does not exist? I believe it would be worth to mention something about it in review.

[Hotz]

Just quick question- is security issue sorted (potential unauthorized access to encrypted data) or we still pretending it does not exist? I believe it would be worth to mention something about it in review.

According to a comment on the german subforum the issue was fixed yesterday with an bugfix update.

[edhun]

That is quite interesting. This security issue was described as uncatchable, with possible "workaround" leading to drop in performance in range of 30-40%. I haven't heard nothing official from Apple yet, possibly because simply it didn't happen. If it did, Apple would be very laud about it. People on the forums may write many things they believe in; it does not mean it is a true.

[Hotz]

sorry @ edhun:

I've mixed up your question with something else: I thought you were talking about the recent issue of allegedly deleted photos reappearing on iPhones again (which is an issue on 2nd hand devices). And only that issue was fixed yesterday.

But you probably meant another issue with "unauthorized access to encrypted data". I do not know any details about that, sorry. That issue might still exist.

[Neenyah]

But you probably meant another issue with "unauthorized access to encrypted data". I do not know any details about that, sorry. That issue might still exist.

This: researchers find unfixable bug in apple computers (Low Level Learning @ YT) ?

Nothing official from Apple, they are aware about it since December 2023 but no update was pushed (or it was but everyone ignores it which I find unlikely). M4 is supposed to have no problem of that kind, time will tell.

[edhun]

Here is the top policy regarding apple: "people will not even notice". This is shocking that on Apple's forum people talking about "missing photos" but they are not aware of very serious problems. It may take even 1h to hack the macbook (time window required between 1-10h). We heard a lot about issues with Asus service in America recently, however I believe that the most basic right of customers around the world is to know if the system they buy is safe, and if not- what they should be aware of. Having full information, customers may make decision to buy the product or not.

[Sharki Mano]

They can put a Supercomputer in a Mac, I won't even thouch it with a 10 foot. Unless they replace the awful brain-dead "Finder" with a real File Explorer.  I had a better Finder in my Commodore64 40 years ago. Look at Win10 File Explorer if you need an inspiration

[RobertJasiek]

They can put a Supercomputer in a Mac, I won't even thouch it with a 10 foot. Unless they replace the awful brain-dead "Finder" with a real File Explorer.  I had a better Finder in my Commodore64 40 years ago. Look at Win10 File Explorer if you need an inspiration

I have only had experience with i(Pad)OS, whose Files app is useless for local file management. (In a restrictive manner, Files works for very slow SMB file transfer between iDevice and Windows PC though.) I do not know MacOS and Finder but have had hopes that, many years later than Apple's promise, Finder would eventually become available on the iPad and must be much better than Files. However, you describe Finder as very bad and functionally inferior to the Windows File Explorer (not to mention Windows command line recursive batch processing). Please explain why Finder is very bad and inhowfar its functionality is limited compared to the Windows File Explorer!

[JeffMac]

The amount of butthurt here is so hilarious.

Apple produces high performance systems because they have full control over hardware and software to work together at their best while MS and Intel have to work with customer demands for legacy support which slows down their progress.
 
Apple Silicon is based on ARM (RISC) which is already way ahead of x86 with plenty of room.

Also, TSMC has been very consistent with delivering faster chips every generation which Intel could not do. 

[JeffMac]

They can put a Supercomputer in a Mac, I won't even thouch it with a 10 foot. Unless they replace the awful brain-dead "Finder" with a real File Explorer.  I had a better Finder in my Commodore64 40 years ago. Look at Win10 File Explorer if you need an inspiration

This is just hilarious how you make it a big deal. Literally never had issues with Finder. Windows Explorer sucked.

And what makes you think you need a complicated "file manager?"

We are doing most of the work on documents/images/videos, not managing files.


 

[RobertJasiek]

what makes you think you need a complicated "file manager?"

Complication itself is not a virtue but availability of all needed actions is essential. GUI file managers tend to omit advanced batch processing only found in command line interfaces. Apart from that, powerful GUI file managers are still outdone for particular classes of actions, such as advanced renaming of many files and folders. If we also ignore this, reasonably powerful GUI file managers must offer every standard action at least on one to all objects in a folder. For this purpose, the Windows file explorer is reasonable as long as one does not need simultaneous views on multiple folders for actions between them; some other file managers do that kind of actions better. If a file manager offers less actions than the Windows file explorer, it is a failure for my usage. And no, the Windows file explorer is not complicated for standard tasks. It only becomes complicated for access to advanced changes of access rights of files and folders because NTFS security is complicated.

We are doing most of the work on documents/images/videos, not managing files.

Maybe, but I belong to those for whom managing files is as important as working on file contents. Given my, say, million of files, I need file management that works as well on hundreds of thousands at a time as on one single file. Work on contents and file management are almost alternating tasks. Neither makes much sense without the other. So it is immaterial that one spends 99% of time on contents and only 1% on file management. That is, if the file management is good and powerful enough having to spend only so little time. If file managers are inefficient, a much greater part of one's time might have to be wasted on file management. E.g., for a file action on Windows I might need 1 second while for the same file action to be split in many actions I sometimes need half an hour and in extreme cases months. I do not know about Mac's Finder but hope its usage is closer to Windows than i(Pad)OS.

[RobertJasiek]

while for the same file action to be split in many actions I sometimes need half an hour and in extreme cases months

I forgot to write: "on iPadOS".