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More Details on the Mac T2 Security Chip Jailbreak

Andrew Orr ·

Catalin Cimpanu shares more details of the T2 chip jailbreak I wrote about last week.

The attack requires combining two other exploits that were initially designed for jailbreaking iOS devices — namely Checkm8 and Blackbird. This works because of some shared hardware and software features between T2 chips and iPhones and their underlying hardware.

Unfortunately, since this is a hardware-related issue, all T2 chips are to be considered unpatchable. The only way users can deal with the aftermath of an attack is to reinstall BridgeOS, the operating system that runs on T2 chips.

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Best Selling Science Writer Steve Silberman - BGM Interview

John Martellaro · · Add Comment

Steve Silberman is an award-winning science writer, award-winning book author, public speaker, TED talk speaker, sometime record album producer, and a life-long Mac user. His writing on science, culture, and literature has been collected in a number of major anthologies including The Best American Science Writing of the Year and The Best Business Stories of the Year.

Early in his life, Steve fell in love with science fiction, especially the works of Ray Bradbury. Later, he studied under poet Allen Ginsberg and learned about both effective research and the power of language. We chatted about his early writing at Wired and The Well, and that led him to discover the deeper story of autism. The result was a major, influential article at Wired, then his important, award-winning book NeuroTribes .

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John McAfee Arrested for Tax Evasion

Andrew Orr ·

John McAfee, founder of the McAfee antivirus company, has been arrested in Spain, facing extradition to the U.S. over tax evasion and fraud.

The DOJ’s charges against McAfee are a bit dry but detail 10 counts against the entrepreneur. McAfee faced 5 counts of tax evasion, which each carry a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison, as well as 5 counts of “willful failure to file a tax return,” each carrying a maximum penalty of 1 year in prison.

And here I thought he was already in prison.

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Apple Could Have Multi-billion-dollar Payment Businesses

Charlotte Henry ·

Payment services like Apple Pay and Apple Card could be the company’s next multi-billion-dollar businesses as the fintech sector grows. That’s according to a note to investors from Cowen analyst Krish Sankar, seen by AppleInsider.

“While Apple has portrayed these digital services as complementary to its mobile hardware platforms, we believe future scaling out of these services globally coupled with increasing depth and sophistication of them could position Apple as an emerging contender in the fintech space,” Sankar writes. Within Apple’s fintech segment, the analyst expects Apple Pay to remain the cornerstone. The platform could see increasing acceptance at U.S. retailers, and Sankar predicts that the contactless payment service will be the largest revenue driver over the next few years, with an expected $800 million in growth annually. Sankar sees Apple Pay growing at an 18% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2023, and markets such as Asia and Europe could allow for even further expansion.

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The Features That Could be Missing From an iPhone 12 Mini

Charlotte Henry ·

There have been rumors that amongst the iPhone 12 lineup will be a ‘mini’. Macrumors looked at the compromises this might involve and the features that might be missing. Most significantly, this includes reduced battery life.

As the smallest device in the ‌iPhone 12‌ lineup, the ‌iPhone 12‌ mini is also expected to have the smallest battery. Certifications have suggested that the battery capacity of the ‌iPhone 12‌ mini is 2,227mAh. Apple’s current smallest flagship ‌iPhone‌, the 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro, has a battery capacity of 3,046mAh battery, making the ‌iPhone 12‌ mini’s capacity 819mAh smaller. Although the A14 Bionic processor and OLED display are likely to improve energy efficiency, the fundamental limits of battery size in the ‌iPhone 12‌ mini are likely to result in an overall smaller battery life.