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M1 Mac mini vs. Mac Pro: a Surprising Outcome

Jeff Butts ·

Tech video blogger Max Tech decided to test how well the 2020 M1 Mac mini could stand up against a 2019 Mac Pro. The results are astounding, considering the Mac Pro costs $15,000 compared to the $899 Mac mini. While the Mac mini is beat out on most benchmarks, it held its ground in real-world tests. In fact, the Mac mini outperforms the Mac Pro in compiling Xcode projects. It’s also faster at HEVC video stabilization. When viewing and processing Canon R5 10-bit video footage, the M1 Mac mini blows away the Mac Pro. It’s also slightly more responsive in Lightroom Classic despite having to run the app through Rosetta. The Mac Pro does beat the M1 mini in many Final Cut Pro tasks, but it has much higher memory specs. In the end, Max Tech says, “For most video editors, the M1 is just fine in Lightroom.”

Update for Menu Bar Organizer ‘Bartender’ Supports MacBook Pro Notch
Cool Stuff Found

Update for Menu Bar Organizer 'Bartender' Supports MacBook Pro Notch

Andrew Orr ·

Bartender 4.1.12 has been released as a test build and it adds support for the notch on the 2021 MacBook Pro. “If you are using a MacBook Pro Notch, I recommend you use the Bartender Bar, as this removes the limit of the notch on the number of menu bar items you can have, you could also use Small menu bar item spacing to gain more room. You can update to the latest Test Build by clicking the button below, or from Bartender Prefercnes > Advanced, Check to Update your Test Builds then click the Check for Updates button.”

‘NordPass’ Update Brings Improved Autofill for Passwords
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'NordPass' Update Brings Improved Autofill for Passwords

Andrew Orr ·

The latest NordPass update introduces improvements to one of its key features — autofill. Its form-detecting algorithm recently became more efficient. Before the update, developers had to manually improve the form-detecting algorithm. Now, it is based on machine learning technology.

The part of the autofill algorithm responsible for detecting the type of form now operates with vastly improved performance compared to its previous static iteration. The algorithm is now trained using artificial neural networks to be as accurate as possible. According to NordPass developers, the current accuracy of the algorithm is 99.6%.

‘Grammarly’ for iOS Adds Editor and Safari Extension
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'Grammarly' for iOS Adds Editor and Safari Extension

Andrew Orr ·

The Grammarly app was recently updated to bring the editor to iPhone and iPad. Here are the new additions: Provides comprehensive writing feedback on long-form documents, along with personal statistics and milestones to help people improve along the way. Grammarly Editor is also compatible with hardware keyboards.  Grammarly’s Safari extension: Brings the best of Grammarly to any mobile web application. Grammarly Keyboard: Access Grammarly’s leading writing suggestions in any mobile application.

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Phlebotomy Training Specialists Exposes Student Data in Breach

Andrew Orr ·

Led by Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, vpnMentor’s research team discovered a data breach from Phlebotomy Training Specialists.

Unfortunately, the company was storing the complete records of 10,000s of students nationwide on a single, open cloud account. In this case, Phlebotomy Training Specialists was using an Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3 bucket to store data it collected from students, staff members, and people applying to its courses. S3 buckets are an increasingly popular enterprise cloud storage solution. However, users must set up their security protocols manually to protect the data stored therein.

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Facebook Moves to Cancel its Facial Recognition System

Andrew Orr ·

Facebook announced it will cancel its facial recognition system responsible for cataloging its billion-strong user base.

Our technology will no longer automatically recognize if people’s faces appear in Memories, photos or videos. People will no longer be able to turn on face recognition for suggested tagging or see a suggested tag with their name in photos and videos they may appear in. We’ll still encourage people to tag posts manually, to help you and your friends know who is in a photo or video. This change will also impact Automatic Alt Text (AAT), a technology used to create image descriptions for people who are blind or visually impaired. AAT currently identifies people in about 4% of photos.

The above quote is probably the only useful part of the self-congratulatory update.