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The first reviews of Apple’s newest Mac mini have officially been published, ahead of orders arriving to customers starting tomorrow. The reviews offer our first look at the performance of the Mac mini with M2 and M2 Pro chips inside, detailing how that performance stacks up against the previous-generation Mac mini, the Mac Studio, and much more.
Writing for The Verge, Chris Welch refers to the new Mac mini as the “Mac Studio junior,” saying that “Apple’s littlest Mac has never been more appealing.” According to The Verge, the machine’s biggest downsides are the lack of front-facing ports and the lack of an SD card slot.
If you’ve been waiting for the in-betweener Mac that’s more capable than the iMac and less exorbitant than the Mac Studio, look no further. The new Mac Mini is still small and not the type of computer that calls attention to itself on your desk, but it’s never been more mighty.
Dan Moren, writing at Six Colors, also has praise for the versatility of the new Mac mini, saying you can shape it into “whatever you want it to be.” The M2 Pro Mac mini, Moren says, “ably fills the mid-level gap in Apple’s desktop range.”
As the benchmarks bear out, the M2 Pro ends up exactly where you’d expect it to fall: in the same neighborhood as the M2 and M2 Max for single-core operation (because the cores are pretty much the same) and about 68 percent faster than the M2 on multi-core tasks, largely by virtue of having an additional four performance cores.
Graphics performance was likewise predictable: the M2 Pro blew the vanilla M2 out of the water, thanks to having more than twice as many GPU cores, but can’t match up to the 38 cores of the M2 Max (or, for that matter, the 32-core M1 Max). In short, while it’s a very capable machine for graphics work, if that’s your bread and butter, it may be worth the investment to look at a more powerful machine—or wait until Apple likely takes the wraps off an M2 Ultra.
For TechCrunch, Matt Burns says that the new Mac mini has been a “joy to use” and has “conquered benchmarks and put up with Chrome’s never-ending quest for system memory.”
With the M2 and M2, the Mac Mini sits among the most powerful computers Apple offers at any price point. And let’s remember one of the Mac Mini’s main selling points: it’s mini. The Mac Mini is a tiny package that offers a lot of flexibility. Bundle it with one of Apple’s Studio Displays for a great iMac alternative, or use it with an inexpensive monitor for a low-cost workstation. As always, the Mac Mini is a value proposition, and it’s never looked better than it does now with the M2 and M2 Pro.
ArsTechnica’s Andrew Cunningham says that the “M2 Pro looks fine next to modern CPUs from Intel and AMD, but it’s not setting records.” But where Apple Silicon continues to shine is its efficiency in comparison to Intel and AMD processors:
But where AMD and Intel opt to maximize performance, Apple prioritizes power efficiency. Our Handbrake video encoding test provides a decent way to show how much power a CPU will consume when performing any intensive test for an extended period. The M2 Pro might encode our test video a bit slower than either of those x86 processors, but it also uses around half as much energy to finish the job.
As measured by macOS’ built-in power metrics command-line tool, the M2 Pro’s average power usage when fully loaded is around 36 W, whereas the Core i5 can use between 65 and 150 W and the Ryzen 7 between 90 and 136 W.
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Lead image via Justin Tse
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Apple Mac Studio Teardown: Huge M1 Ultra Chip And Upgradable Storage
Apple Mac Studio teardown: huge M1 Ultra chip and upgradable storage
Apple’s latest is impressive under the hood.
Apple has strolled out their latest chip, the Apple M1 Ultra out to users with the brand-new Mac Studio. While they initially compared the graphics horsepower to that of an RTX 3090, these claims were unfounded. Now, we’ve got our first glimpses of the chip itself, and how big it actually is in comparison to other desktop-class chips, thanks to YouTuber Max Tech, who has disassembled the product to try and see if they can get into Apple’s case, which at first glance, looks like it can’t be pried open. But, all you need to do is leave it up to the Tech Community to find a way.
The Mac Studio itself, revealed at their Peek Performance event is incredibly powerful for the physical footprint it leaves behind, and the actual M1 Ultra SoC, which is essentially two M1 MAX chips fused together. This gives the M1 Ultra twice the amount of theoretical performance, and can only be attained right now in the Mac Studio itself, which retails for a cool $3,999 if you want the brand-new chip. This power-efficient system has some quirks under the hood though, and for professionals wanting outlook at a long-term look at the system, you might want to check out exactly what is going on under the hood of this attractive-looking, small-form-factor desktop machine aimed at content creators and professionals.
Mac Studio teardown
Source: Max Tech
To get into the Apple Mac Studio, you’ll first need to get yourself a spudger and prise the bottom ring off, from there, you’ll need security bits to get into the internal chassis, where you’ll then be able to access the internals of the system itself. It’s likely that doing this will void the warranty in your country, so be sure to know what you’re doing here, especially if you’ve never taken apart consumer electronics before.
Once open, you’ll see exposed antennae that allow for wireless communication, in addition to the speakers. The top portion of the device is a PSU, and you’ll need to remove this part of the system if you’re wanting to gain access to the rest of the system. Removing the PSU is incredibly dangerous, so don’t try that at home, kids. After you manage to get the PSU out you’ll then be able to access the back of the mainboard, with heat pipes and stickers shielding your view of the VRMs and SoC itself.
Curiously, there is an M.2 slot for storage left empty, and you can use the alternative port for extra storage, though you will need a drive that is compatible with the Mac Studio, which remains to be tested for later. From there, it’s an intense disassembly process to get to the rest of the system. We’re not sure why you’d want to venture this deep unless you were doing some significant repair work on the system itself to repair the fans or clean the heatsink.
M1 Ultra chip is almost 3x larger than a Ryzen CPU
Afer removal of the backplate of the mainboard, you’ll be able to see the gigantic M1 Ultra chip, which is one of the biggest (in size) consumer chips we’ve ever seen. However, rather unusually you’ll find that the thermal compound applied on the chip only goes across its centre, due to the thermal solution that Apple has devised, it’ll be incredibly interesting if someone’s going to manage to stuff one of these chips with a desktop PC cooling solution in a skunkworks-style build. It’s almost three times larger than your average Ryzen chip, which is incredibly impressive.
Apple Mac Studio SSD may be user-replaceable
The Apple Mac Studio has an empty NVMe slot on the board, though it’s questionable if the port might actually have room for another SSD, and whether or not that SSD will be user-replaceable, too. But, all signs point to the port allowing you to expand your storage. Until then, confirmation of whether or not this is actually possible will rest with the Mac modding community, who will surely be all-over the Mac Studio, especially because the only way to get an M1 Ultra is in the Mac Studio at the time of writing.
Where else might we see the M1 Ultra?
Due to the size of the chip, we’re pretty positive that we’re not going to be seeing this SoC in a portable machine any time soon, it’ll be incredibly difficult to design around this. But, it may spark hope for those looking for a 27-inch iMac refresh, as that’d be the perfect kind of machine that will be able to handle the size of the chip, thermals, and more for this gargantuan mammoth of an ARM-based workhorse that also promises to be more power-efficient than rival chips on the market, which may threaten any x86 manufacturers who might be wanting to flex their power muscles, as the M1 Ultra brings the core count, speed and versatility, while not being shackled to the older architecture which may not be the way forward for mass-market computing.
This is the endgame for Apple, and its plans to completely disrupt the entire home-computing industry and should put rival chip manufacturers on notice. Should they also move over to ARM? Windows on ARM is currently not a fantastic user experience, so the tried-and-true industry stalwarts might want to wait, or develop their own ARM chips in tandem with Microsoft ensuring that the experience is good over on the OS.
This might be the last M1 variant that we see, as you have to expect that Apple is preparing the next generation of their self-developed silicon. It’s going to be an interesting ride to see whether or not the rest of the industry will respond in kind to this kind of disruption. It’s not a case of if other companies will respond, but when.
Apple Executives Explain Why Mac Studio Is The Closest Thing To The Mythical Xmac
Apple executives explain why the new Mac Studio (and the Studio Display, to some extent) may actually fulfill the dream of a modular and powerful yet affordable desktop computer that many professional users have been waiting for for decades.
Matthew Panzarino sits down with Apple execs
TechCrunch editor-in-chief Matthew Panzarino interviewed three senior Apple executives about the role these new products have in the company’s lineup and why the Mac Studio and the Studio Display bridge the gap between the flagship 27-inch iMac (now discontinued) and the overpriced Mac Pro workstation.
Oh, Studio Display is just a scaled-up Mac miniTom Boger, Apple’s Vice President of Mac and iPad Product Marketing:
We look very much at Mac studio for what it is, a completely new Mac product line. Which is rare. We don’t add product lines to the Mac very often. Our philosophy was not at all to take a Mac mini and scale it up, it was ‘we know we’re working on this M1 chip and we want to bring it to those users who want performance and conductivity and a modular system. And let’s allow it to live right on people’s desks so it’s within easy reach. And that’s what we delivered.
And what about all that performance?
It’s the fastest Mac ever, periodThe Mac Studio configured with the M1 Ultra chip is faster than a maxed-out configuration of the company’s flagship Mac Pro desktop, it’s the fastest Mac ever.
Xander Soren, Apple’s Director of Product Marketing for Pro Apps::
We’re talking about how many screens you can have of 8K, or that you can do a Dolby Atmos mix in 96k audio, and the performance meter is hitting thirty percent. And the other very consistent thing we’re seeing is that you don’t need a super-expensive facility and long-term rent. We’re seeing incredible productions being done from a desk or the corner of a desk, and it’s pretty inspiring.
Why the Mac Studio has USB-A portsContrary to popular belief that Apple is a company that doesn’t do any market research, Boger said that Apple’s own research showed that there was still a legacy need for USB-A ports:
We’re trying to give our users that dynamic range of choice. So when deciding on the array of ports and how many and all of that it’s really just talking to lots of customers, serving our customers and seeing how many devices they’re using.
Aaaaand?
And the USB-A ports is about the fact that people still have some legacy devices they can only connect there and there’s some software that still requires software keys.
Apple actually giving people what they wantOn a bunch of ports, most on the back but some on the front as well:
We’ve got I/O right on the front and even if you need to get to the back, you just spin it around. It’s relatively light. It’s very small. It fits under most displays at 3.7 inches high. We’re really giving users something they’ve never had before. They’ve always had to trade off. If I wanted a smaller form factor computer, I had to trade off performance. And what we wanted to do was give people something where you don’t have to do that.
Read the full interview at TechCrunch.
Does the Mac Studio fulfill the xMac dream?For decades, pro users wanted a mid-range tower Mac that wasn’t overkill such as the high-priced Mac Pro or impractical like the underpowered iMac all-in-one.
Jason Snell, writing at The Verge (a must-read, for sure!):
Back in the ‘90s and early 2000s, being a Mac nerd meant using a Power Mac. The arrival of the original iMac in 1998 was greeted with enthusiasm by Mac nerds because it meant that Steve Jobs might be able to restore Apple to greatness after it foundered in the mid-’90s—but none of them would ever stoop to using one themselves.
When Jobs returned to Apple, he presided over a dramatic and necessary simplification of the product line. The desktop Power Mac, a go-to model for power users, vanished in 1998. The choices dwindled to the underpowered iMac (and later, the Mac mini) on one end, and the increasingly expensive Power Mac/Mac Pro tower on the other.
In between, at least for Mac power users, was a desert. And rising out of the desert was a glorious mirage: a mythical mid-range Mac minitower like the Power Macs of old. This legendary creature was known as the xMac.
If you’re on Team xMac, you’ve no doubt been yearning to lay your hands on a modular desktop Mac that wasn’t a scaled-up Mac mini. And many folks would say that Apple in 2023 finally fulfilled our collective dream of a portable, powerful and actually affordable Mac desktop with the new Mac Studio + Studio Display combo.
Or did it?
How To Control Your Mac With Hand Claps
Are there times or situations when you find it hard to control your Mac? Wouldn’t it be easier if you could control your Mac, such as opening iTunes, just by clapping your hands? Well luckily you can with iClapper.
iClapper is a semi-free Mac app that recognizes your hand clapping commands by analysing the sound input of your Mac’s microphone. As the website states, you can assign any action to a certain number of recognized claps, as well as to a combination of claps. The app is free, but there is also a Pro version that supports custom Applescripts.
Let’s see how it all works.
Getting Started1. Download iClapper from the Mac App Store and open it up on your computer.
2. You’ll be able to watch a short introductory video and go through a quick calibration process, which involves a series of single claps that you’ll have to do – so make sure you’re in a quiet room/location.
3. Once you’re done with the calibration, you’ll be able to add presets and rules under the Actions tab in Preferences.
Actions1. The Preferences window should already be open on your computer, if not you can select it from iClapper’s menu bar icon. Under the Actions tab in Preferences, you can create various presets and you can use different rules for each one.
For instance, you can have a set of rules for at home and a different set of rules for when you’re at work.
2. As stated above, you can create a set of rules for each of your presets. Your rules will contain a command, action, and optional confirmation message.
4. For commands you can choose a certain number of claps or combinations of claps. If you choose a certain number of claps, you can choose how many claps to use (2 to 5).
If you choose combination then you can choose how many claps to have in your first set and how many to have in the second set (1 to 5 per set). You’ll need to put a noticeable break between each set of claps for iClapper to recognize it.
5. For actions, you can choose to have your Mac say something such as the time or date. You can also choose to run or play iTunes, check your email, or play/pause QuickTime. If you want even more actions, you’ll have to pay for them.
6. If you want a confirmation message to pop-up before an action is performed, you can enable it on a rule-by-rule basis. This is especially useful if you choose to have iClapper put your computer to sleep or shut it down.
You can purchase individual sets of actions for $0.99 each, or you can get all current and future available actions packs for just $3.99 (the better deal).
Other Features1. You can have iClapper notify you about clap recognition, performed actions, and confirmations; it even supports Growl if you’re still using it on your Mac. You can customize them under the Notifications tab in the Preferences window.
2. You can select the input device that you want iClapper to use. For instance, you may have a built-in microphone and external microphone on your Mac, but you want iClapper to listen for claps on the extrenal microphone. In this case, you can set iClapper to use the external microphone under the Input Device tab in the Preferences window.
3. From the iClapper menu bar icon, you can stop iClapper when you want it to stop listening for claps, and then start it again when you’re ready.
ConclusioniClapper is very easy to set up and use – anyone can clap their hands whether loudly or softly. iClapper works with all types of claps and you can even customize it based on the amount of sound that’s in the room where you’re using it.
iClapper
Charnita Fance
Charnita has been a Freelance Writer & Professional Blogger since 2008. As an early adopter she loves trying out new apps and services. As a Windows, Mac, Linux and iOS user, she has a great love for bleeding edge technology. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn.
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What Is Mdworker On Mac?
What Is mdworker On Mac?
Also Read: CleanMyMac VS OnyX : Which is a better Mac Cleaner?
What is mdworker & mds?Mdworker is a short form of metadata server worker which indexes your files to enhance the search process. While Mds stands for the server of metadata which manages indexes to provide fast search results. These processors are part of Spotlight, a search tool for Mac.
Why Do mds and mdworker Consume So Many resources?Note: The process could take hours, depending on your processor speed and hard drive. Well, Spotlight is not supposed to use excessive resources, especially when you are working on something that is CPU-intensive or consumes battery. However, it takes up all the resources needed, as and when your Mac is idle.
However, if these processes are taking a lot of time and are hogging CPU resources. then the index might be corrupted and you must rebuild Spotlight Index. For that, you can either follow the manual steps below or you can use third-party tools (mentioned one of the best tools in the second section)
Re-indexing Spotlight ManuallyTo do so, let’s follow the steps:
First, make sure that mds and mdworker are the culprits
1. Checking Activity Monitor
Go to Applications and launch Activity Monitor.
If mdworker and mds are at the top of the list, it means Spotlight has run into indexing problems.
Now, you can fix this by rebuilding Spotlight’s index.
2. Rebuilding Spotlight’s database in Terminal
Go to Application, launch Utilities, and go to Terminal.
Type “Return:sudo mdutil –E/” string.
This command will help in re-indexing the Mac.
3. Steps to take if mdworker quits
If throughout the process, you receive an error message that mdworker quit unexpectedly…it is happening because Spotlight tried to index more than its handling power.
To fix this, try to exclude external drives (if connected) and check if this helps.
Now, select Spotlight and then go to Privacy.
Now, drag external files from the Finder to the Privacy.
It will help to fix the slow processes of your Mac.
Re-Indexing Spotlight Via Third-Party Tool:
If you don’t want to get into the hassle of following these steps, you must use a third-party tool like CleanMyMacX
CleanMyMac X is an easy tool for fixing Spotlight and other issues related to indexing on your Mac. It is a famous Mac Maintenance software.
You can also download the free version to get hands-on with it.
To use CleanMyMac, follow the below-mentioned steps:
Launch the app.
Select Maintenance from the sidebar.
Now, select Reindex Spotlight.
This might take a couple of minutes to complete the maintenance process. but, trust me it is worth downloading.
Download CleanMyMac X
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ 1
It is completely dependent on your Mac file system and its indexing. Normally, it might take 15 minutes to 60 minutes.
FAQ 2
What will happen if I kill the mdworker?You should never think of killing the mdworker. Killing will affect the searchability and indexing of your Mac.
FAQ 3
I hope this blog helps you to understand mdworker Mac. Comment down your queries related to the mdworker process Mac. For more such tech content, follow Tweak Library on all social media platforms.
Thanks for reading!
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Aayushi Kapoor
Mac Wireless Problems? Guide To Troubleshooting Airport & Wireless Problems On Your Mac
Mac Wireless & Airport Connection Problem Troubleshooting: The Basics
Mac’s are amazingly reliable and have few problems, but it’s not incredibly unusual to run into problems connecting to a wireless network. If you’re having problems connecting your Mac wirelessly to an Airport or other WiFi router, check out this guide and try out these troubleshooting tips to fix your wireless internet connection.
* Turn Airport on & off – You can do this via the Airport menu bar or from the Network Preferences. This is the first thing you should try when troubleshooting Mac wireless problems.
* Reset your router – This is the second thing you should try doing. You can fix a surprising amount of wireless problems just by resetting the airport/router. All you need to do is turn the thing off for a few seconds and turn it back on.
* Reset your Cable/DSL modem – You’ll usually want to reset this in combination with your wireless router. Reset this first so the DHCP information will be pulled to the wireless router properly.
* Change Wireless Channels – sometimes your router’s wireless broadcast channel will interfere with a neighbors, be sure you have your router set to a unique channel. Even if it’s a weak signal there can still be interference.
* Make sure Wireless/Airport card software & firmware is up to date – This is usually done just by going to the Software Update menu, if there are any updates available for your Mac or Airport, install them.
Mac Wireless Troubleshooting: Intermediate* Change wireless security protocol – You shouldn’t be using WEP anyway for security reasons, but sometimes changing from WEP to WPA/WPA2 or WPA to WPA2 can resolve wireless connection difficulties.
* Make sure router firmware is up to date – Check your router manufacturers website for firmware updates, if there are any available, install them.
* Delete and recreate connection – Try deleting and recreating/reestablishing the wireless connection, sometimes a setting can be corrupted and this may fix it.
* Create a new Network Location – Similar to the above suggestion, try creating a new and different wireless network location to see if it resolves the connection problems.
* Change DHCP auto settings to manual – sometimes there is a problem with the DHCP server, and if you manually set an IP address on the network you can be fine. Remember to set the IP to a high number so it wouldn’t interfere with other DHCP machines. As long as you have the subnet mask, router, and DNS settings configured manually as well, this shouldn’t be a problem.
* Disable “Wireless G/N/B only” mode – Sometimes a setting is selected that only broadcasts your wireless signal in Wireless B, G, or N mode (depending on the routers abilities). If this is set, try disabling it.
dscacheutil -flushcache
Mac Wireless Connection Problem Troubleshooting: Advanced* Zap the PRAM – Reboot your Mac and hold Command+Option+P+R during restart until you hear another chime, let the Mac boot as usual.
* Delete Wireless Config files – Delete com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist and com.apple.internetconfig.plist files from ~/Library/Preferences and reboot
* Trash your home directories SystemConfiguration – Remove all files within ~/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ and then reboot your Mac.
* Reset your Mac’s System Management Controller (SMC) – For MacBook and MacBook Pro’s: Shutdown the MacBook/Pro, remove the battery, disconnect the power, hold the Power Key for 15 seconds. Replace the battery, reconnect power, and zap the PRAM and wait for 2 chimes before letting the keys go. Let boot as usual.
Many of these tips are from our fixing dropped wireless airport connection problems in Snow Leopard article.
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