Apple appears to have dismissed almost 200 staff members from its Project Titan self-driving vehicle department.

Per a new filing with the California Employment Development Department, the majority of the affected positions were engineering roles. The layoffs include 38 engineering program managers, 33 hardware engineers, 31 product design engineers, and 22 software engineers.

This puts the number at 190 self-driving car employees in both Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, California. The layoffs will officially take effect on April 16th, according to the filing.

It’s unknown as to exactly what’s happening with this staff, albeit Apple has indicated that “some groups” were being moved to projects in other parts of Apple.

Earlier this month, data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles shed light on Apple’s self-driving car testing. According to that data, Apple logged 79,745 miles of testing in California from November 31st, 2017 to December 1st, 2018. According to disengagement data, Apple logged 871.65 disengagements per 1,000 miles, making for an average of 1.1 miles per disengagement.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via 9to5Mac and the San Francisco Chronicle

And this is why you don’t plug random devices into the USB-C ports on your Mac.

A group of researchers over at Light Blue Touchpaper have detailed a vulnerability through the Thunderbolt interface with USB-C ports. The attack, if executed correctly, can give hackers full access to data that “should never leave the machine.

On a positive note, Apple products seem better at guarding against the vulnerability the its competitors.

USB-C Ports, through which the Thunderbolt interface connects with a computer, “offer very privileged, low-level, direct memory access (DMA),” the researchers explained. This means that peripherals connected by Thunderbolt have much more privilege than a standard USB device. The researchers found the operating systems, had “very weak” defences against “malicious DNA-enabled peripheral devices.” The Thunderbolt device could access all network traffic, as well on occasion being able to access keystrokes and framebuffer data.

The report cites that the best protection against this attack is an Input-Output Memory Management Unit (IOMMU), which could theoretically only give devices access to the the memory they need to complete their task. The problem was the operating systems investigated did not “use the IOMMU effectively”.

“MacOS is the only OS we studied that uses the IOMMU out of the box,” the researchers said. Meanwhile Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 Home and Pro had not support for the IOMMU at all.

Still, in additional tests, researchers using a fake network card to access an operating system were able “to start arbitrary programs as the system administrator” on macOS. They added that while Apple had fixed the specific vulnerability that they found with macOS 10.12.4 in 2016 “the more general scope of such attacks remain relevant”. The researchers concluded that “such attacks are very plausible in practice.”

As useful as USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 are, the combination of power, video, and peripheral device DMA can create the presence of malicious charging stations or displays that function correctly but simultaneously take control of connected machines.

The researchers have coined the vulnerability “Thunderclap” and stated that they have been working with notebook vendors since 2016 to address the issues. However, the researchers repeated their calls for the vendors to improve operating system security. They added the usual advice that people should not attach unfamiliar USB-C devices to their laptops.

In short, be careful out there and try not to attach strange devices to your USB-C ports.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via The Mac Observer and Light Blue Touchpaper

Per the mucho-well-connected Mark Gurman over at Bloomberg, Apple is apparently testing out a sleep tracking feature for the Apple Watch.

The anonymous sources say that that Apple has been testing the feature for several months around the company’s Cupertino, California headquarters. If the testing goes well, Apple could add the feature to “a future version of its smartwatch” in 2020.

While it may be annoying that Apple’s competitors such as Fitbit have had sleep tracking in their products for some time, it’s thought that Apple’s take on this feature could be markedly more accurate or full-featured than other products.

It’s also thought that the delay might be due to battery life. While the Apple Watch currently runs all day in normal use, it’s debatable as to whether the battery can also last all night as well, especially after heavy outdoor tracking or music playback. In these cases, multi-day battery life might be necessary and thus require a next-gen Apple Watch battery to help make sleep tracking possible.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via Macworld and Bloomberg

If you’re looking for Xbox Live goodness on your Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms, it’s en route.

A Game Developers Conference session description entitled “Xbox Live: Growing & Engaging Your Gaming Community Across iOS, Android, Switch, Xbox, and PC” and is led by members of the Xbox team. It promises a first look at a new “cross-platform XDK” that will “enable game developers to connect players between iOS, Android, and Switch in addition to Xbox and any game in the Microsoft Store on Windows PCs.”

This, in turn, could expand the potential audience for Xbox Live from 400 million gaming devices to over 2 billion devices, by Microsoft’s count. The Xbox Live service currently has 68 million active players, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft has slowly opened its platform, and in 2016, the company officially opened up the Xbox One to allow for gameplay with players on other platforms, eventually pressuring Sony to reluctantly do the same.

The SDK being described for the conference session seems to go a step further, allowing Nintendo Switch and mobile gamers access all the “social, communication, and multiplayer interaction” features of Xbox Live.

Microsoft’s apparent Xbox Live move follows a similar announcement from Epic Games, which in December said it would begin sharing the cross-platform online services used in Fortnite with developers free of charge. Now that cross-platform gameplay and services are all but expected in the gaming world, the gold rush is on to be the company that controls the social and networking infrastructure behind those games.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via Ars Technica

It appears that the U.S. branch of T-Mobile is delaying its 600 MHz 5G network launch until the second half of 2019, while development on the other bands is still due for the first half of this year. The delay is due to the lack of compatible devices according the the wireless carrier’s Chief Technology Officer in a Monday interview.

The hope was originally that phone makers would already be in a position to ship devices with 600-megahertz band support, Neville Ray explained in an interview with CNet. One of the first 5G phones, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, relies on higher-frequency bands that mostly limit it to AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.

T-Mobile is currently focusing on creating a 5G network on the lower band, given that the millimeter wave technology used by AT&T and Verizon has faster speeds, its range is short. T-Mobile has a small number of millimeter wave towers.

“You can’t go to a U.S. consumer and charge them a big premium and it works on three street corners,” Ray commented.

It’s also thought that rival carrier, Sprint, will also skip millimeter wave technology when it deploys its 5G network in May. The bandwidth is expected to hit speeds as high as 430 megabits per second. Sprint CEO Michel Combes said that if a merger with T-Mobile goes through, Sprint will be able to deploy 5G faster and with wider coverage. That deal faces opposition from parties concerned about shrinking competition in the U.S. telecoms industry.

Apple is thought to be holding back from 5G technology for now, as a 5G iPhone or iPad isn’t expected until 2020. While Apple has its own reasons for this, other causes for the delay include ongoing legal battles with Qualcomm, slow modem development at Intel, and the fact that general 5G coverage is expected to still be in its nascent stages when this fall’s iPhones are released.

Via AppleInsider and CNET

If your computer workload devours MicroSD cards, you’re going to like this.

Western Digital, Samsung, and Micro have announced that 1TB SD cards will be available at the Mobile World Congress event.

The units can record with 90MB/S write speeds with up to 160MB/s read speeds. Western Digital has stated that the card can transfer data at twice the speed of standard UHS-1 MicroSD units. This, combined with a meaty terabyte of storage, make it perfect as an expansion unit to any device.

The cards will also launch in a 512GB capacity.

The 1TB SanDisk Extreme UHS-I microSDXC card will launch in April. Pre-orders are available now for about $450, or $200 for the 512GB version.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via

and Digital Trends

It looks like Apple could switch from Intel to ARM processors for its Macs by 2020.

In an interview with Axios, the chipmaker privately stated that ARM-based Macs could hit the market by 2020.

Apple has shifted to new chip architectures twice now. In 1994 Apple switched from the Motorola 68000 series to PowerPC. Then, in 2005 it moved to x86 Intel processors. When the iPhone was introduced in 2007 it had an Apple-designed ARM chip. Recent iterations of the chip, like the A12X, are powerful enough to edge close to laptops.

Rumors of ARM-based Macs have been around for years. This also comes at a time when Intel has been lagging in chip manufacturing, having gone from a 14 nanometer process to a 10 nanometer process. Apple, in turn, has been able to ramp up the creation of its own custom designs, such as the T1 and T2 security chips.

Should it switch to ARM chips, Apple would have that much more control over its production, manufacturing, Mac roadmaps, and product development. In addition, Apple’s ARM chips are also more power efficient, which could help preserve Mac battery life that much better.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via The Mac Observer and Axios

Some updates are critical, especially if the issue at hand seems to be blowing out assorted MacBook Pro speakers.

Late last week, Adobe released an update for its Premiere Pro editing software with the hope that it resolves an audio issue that led to some users with blown-out notebook speakers.

The issue, reported here, affected some MacBook Pro users, wherein the software suddenly caused loud, distorted audio to play through their MacBook Pro speakers, resulting in permanent damage. In many cases, the issue arose when users were editing the audio settings of video clips. 

Adobe initially advised at least one customer to try disabling the MacBook Pro’s microphone in Premiere Pro by selecting No Input under Preferences > Audio Hardware > Default Input, although the issue persisted for some users. 

On February 19, Adobe informed users of its community support forum that the company was “aware of the issue” and “was working on a solution that will help users mitigate risk.” This issue has now apparently been resolved in a version 13.0.3 update pushed to Premiere Pro users via the Creative Cloud app.

The fix is described as follows:

Fixed issues with Premiere Pro that reduce noise interaction and help minimize possible impact.

While Adobe is urging all users to update their software, there’s still no word on how affected users might be recompensed following damage to their Macs. 

In some cases, the bill can run into the several hundred dollar range in that users have to replace the entire top case assembly. This, in turn, consists of the speakers, keyboard, trackpad, and battery.

Neither Apple or Adobe have commented on the issue at present.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via MacRumors

Verizon’s 5G is underway.

The company on Thursday stated that it’s working on deploying 5G networks, in one form or another, to 30 U.S. cities by the end of 2019. This serves as a hint that 5G technology won’t appear in iPhone handsets until 2020.

“It’s just gonna be a total different experience in speed and throughput than you have ever seen before,” CEO Hans Vestberg said during an investor meeting.

Verizon is said to be planning to deploy millimeter wave radios, promising to deliver true standards-based 5G, as opposed to “5G E,” which is considered a variant of 4G networking.

Verizon didn’t identify cities by name, nor did it specify any kind of coverage metric in regards to what constitutes a deployment. While it’s likely to target major urban areas whenever possible, that could be limited by deployment complexity.

It’s also thought that the first elements of Verizon’s 5G network should be up by mid-2019. Verizon has partnered with Samsung as the exclusive launch partner for the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G handset.

AT&T and T-Mobile are also said to be working on 5G deployments, albeit neither is expected to make much progress by the end of 2019 given the lack of 5G-ready devices on the market.

Apple is thought to be waiting until 2020 to ship 5G-capable iPhones, which are thought to include an Intel 5G chip.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via AppleInsider and The Verge

If you’re a fan of external GPU architectures, you’ll like this.

On Thursday, Apple made a small change to its eGPU support document, noting official support for the Sonnet Radeon RX 560 eGFX Breakaway. This marks the first RX 560 eGPU to be officially supported.

During the beta testing period of macOS 10.13.4, Apple said the AMD RX 560 was supported for macOS eGPUs. Once the public release was made available last March, however, Apple revised its supported list to omit the RX 560.

The change marks the return of official support for the RX 560 alongside the all-in-one Sonnet Radeon RX 560 eGFX Breakaway Puck. Users have noted some lucking using the RX 560 in the past, Apple finally citing official support with this change.

Apple has listed support for the three “all-in-one” eGPU products as follows:

• Blackmagic eGPU and Blackmagic eGPU Pro
• Sonnet Radeon RX 570 eGFX Breakaway Puck
• Sonnet Radeon RX 560 eGFX Breakaway Puck

The Sonnet Radeon RX 560 is available through Amazon for $399.

Unfortunately, there are some stipulations where monitor support is concerned. Apple says users of third-party displays attached to the eGPU will experience issues playing HDCP-protected content:

Playback of HDCP-protected content from iTunes and some streaming services is not supported on displays attached to Radeon 560-based eGPUs. You can play this content on the built-in display on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac.

Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

Via 9to5Mac and Apple