Cool Stuff Found

Inside Look at MacStadium's Mac Mini Server Farm

Andrew Orr ·

Remember at Apple’s keynote where we saw that a company had created a Mac mini server farm? That was MacStadium, and YouTuber Snazzy Labs visited the place. Besides Mac Minis, the company also has racks of the 2013 Mac Pro, and MacStadium recently added some iMac Pros. Since there aren’t a lot of companies doing this, MacStadium had to build custom server racks to house the minis. The company uses VM software in order to avoid needing expensive internal storage. The Mac Pros have had their internal storage removed entirely, and the minis boot off of the Mac Pros to create a giant external storage enclosure. The video is a fascinating glimpse into MacStadium, which is a company that provides the server farm as an “infrastructure-as-a-service.”

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Smartphone Makers Face Challenges with Global Shipments Down 6%

Charlotte Henry ·

Global shipment of smartphones tumbled in the third fiscal quarter of 2018, IDC’s Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows. The firm says 355.2 million units were shipped in total during the quarter, a year-on-year decline of 6%. This fall was in large part down to Samsung, whose sales in the quarter dropped 13.4% from the same time last year. Huawei beat Apple for sales this quarter, but researchers said that the holiday period could see Apple return to the top of the pile. IDC believes there could be growth in the smartphone market in 2019. Manufacturers will certainly hope so—Q3 2018 was the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines.

Apple’s newest iPhones helped push third quarter shipments to 46.9 million units, up 0.5% from the 46.7 million units last year. Apple once again launched three new devices at its Fall event, as the new 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max and 5.8-inch iPhone XS were joined by the more affordable iPhone XR in the Apple line-up. The new XS Max and XS continue off the success from last year’s iPhone X but bring a new screen size option with more power and increased performance to the table. And Apple has once again improved the camera, upped the storage, and added a new faster processor via the A12 Bionic chip, which is the first 7-nanometer chip for Apple. Older iPhones, such as the 6S, 7, and 8, all received price cuts late in the quarter, which will balance the iPhone portfolio across all price tiers for the holiday quarter. The older SE and iPhone X from last year have been dropped from the Apple line-up. The fourth quarter will include shipments for the vastly popular iPhone XR, which have not been counted in IDC’s Q3 figures.

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iPad Pro Finally a Capable Computer for Everyday Consumers

Andrew Orr ·

Jesus Diaz writes how he replaced his MacBook Pro with a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and hasn’t looked back since.

I’m able to do everything I used to do with my MacBook on my 12.9-inch iPad Pro…If you are thinking that an iPad with a keyboard is a laptop, you are wrong. The iPad is better than a laptop. Better than any other computer I’ve used before. And I’ve been looking for the perfect computer for a long time.

I’d love to get my hands on the new 11-inch iPad Pro, and my plan will be the same. I only ever use my MacBook Pro for writing and web browsing, and an iPad would be the perfect replacement for me.

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Private Messages from 81,000 Hacked Facebook Accounts for Sale

Charlotte Henry ·

The BBC Russian Service has learned that at least 81,000 Facebook accounts have been compromised. Private messages have been published online and the perpetrators are trying to sell account login details. Facebook insists that its security has not been comprised and that it was likely the data had been obtained via malicious web browser extensions. The full details of the hack and the BBC’s investigation shed light into how our data is traded online.

The BBC understands many of the users whose details have been compromised are based in Ukraine and Russia. However, some are from the UK, US, Brazil and elsewhere.

The hackers offered to sell access for 10 cents (8p) per account. However, their advert has since been taken offline.

“We have contacted browser-makers to ensure that known malicious extensions are no longer available to download in their stores,” said Facebook executive Guy Rosen.

“We have also contacted law enforcement and have worked with local authorities to remove the website that displayed information from Facebook accounts.”