Ethereum mining has been a crazy ride over the years. In recent times, it has become very popular due to a huge surge in Ethereum prices, following those of the main coin currently present on the market - Bitcoin. However, Ethereum miners use a customized PC stocked with many graphics cards to mine the Ethereum coin. Any other alternative is not viable and graphics cards have a high hash rate of the KECCAK-256 hashing algorithm. But have you ever wondered could you mine Ethereum on your shiny new Apple M1-equipped Mac? Our guess is no, however, there are still some people making experiments with the new Apple M1 processor and testing its capabilities.

Software engineer Yifan Gu, working for Zensors, has found a way to use Apple's M1 GPU to mine Ethereum. Mr. Gu has ported Ethminer utility to Apple's macOS for Apple Silicon and has managed to get GPU mining the coins. While technically it was possible, the results were rather poor. The integrated GPU has managed to get only 2 MH/s of mining power, which is rather low compared to alternatives (desktop GPUs). Being possible doesn't mean it is a good idea. The software will consume all of the GPU power and it will limit your work with the GPU, so it isn't exactly a profitable solution.

Apple MacBook Pro 2017 models are susceptible to a similar display flaw as the "Stage Light" or "Flexgate" issue found in the 2016 models. Our mid-2017 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, which features a 13-inch LED-backlit LCD Retina Display, is exhibiting similar symptoms to the 2016 models, which forced Apple to run a "Display Backlight Service Program" fixing the flaw for free. Unfortunately, the program does not cover 2017 (or later) models. The "Stage Light" flaw, observed in the 2016 model, can be described as a dark horizontal band that appears along the bottom edge of the display with individual LEDs casting a light similar in shape to those of theater stages.

The 2017 MacBook Pro model appears to routinely start failing on the bottom edge of the screen with a soft gray bar appearing. This flaw appears thin on a cold-booted device, and spreads over time with use, as the device heats up. It dissipates as you power the MacBook down or close the lid for a while. The band distorts all content in the region of the display that it affects, including the macOS Dock, and vertically-scrolling content such as web-pages or text documents, and can be particularly bad for content creators working on tasks that are sensitive to display quality, such as Photoshop. Apparently, a small PCB located near the base of the display panel, which handles connectivity of the display with the mainboard, heats up over time, causing the LED backlit film to distort or the display controller PCB to malfunction.

Apple today announced AirPods Max, innovative wireless headphones that bring the magic of AirPods to an over-ear design with high-fidelity sound. AirPods Max combine a custom acoustic design, H1 chips, and advanced software to power computational audio for a breakthrough listening experience with Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency mode, and spatial audio. AirPods Max come in five gorgeous colors, including space gray, silver, sky blue, green, and pink, and are available to order starting today, with availability beginning Tuesday, December 15.

"AirPods are the most popular headphones in the world, beloved for their effortless setup, incredible sound quality, and iconic design. With AirPods Max, we are bringing that magical AirPods experience to a stunning over-ear design with high-fidelity audio," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The custom acoustic design, combined with powerful H1 chips, and advanced software enable AirPods Max to use computational audio to wirelessly deliver the ultimate personal listening experience."

OWC, the premier zero-emissions Mac and PC technology company, and a respected provider of Memory, External Drives, SSDs, Mac & PC docking solutions, and performance upgrade kits, announced Mac compatibility and certification of its new OWC Thunderbolt Hub. Previously certified for Thunderbolt 4 PCs, the OWC Thunderbolt Hub is now available for new M1 Macs and all Thunderbolt 3 equipped Macs once upgraded to the new Apple MacOS 11 "Big Sur". The OWC Thunderbolt Hub will give both Mac and PC users the additional Thunderbolt ports they've always wanted.

The OWC Thunderbolt Hub offers the new Thunderbolt hubbing technology. You can now have four Thunderbolt ports, plus one USB port on your new Apple M1 Mac, Apple "Intel" Mac with Thunderbolt 3, or any Thunderbolt 4 PC with this compact hub. You can connect and charge any device with a USB-C or USB-A connector. Support up to two 4K displays or a single 5K/6K/8K display. Add high-performance storage, including NVMe solutions, and generally make your workflow work for you by adding A/V mixers, phone or tablet, even desktop accessories like a keyboard or mouse—all through a single Thunderbolt port. Accessories with past, present, or future USB or Thunderbolt interfaces connect to the OWC Thunderbolt Hub.

Maxon ported the its latest Cinebench R23 benchmark to the macOS "Big Sur" Apple M1 platform, and the performance results are groundbreaking. An Apple M1-powered MacBook Pro allegedly scored 1498 points in the single-core Cinebench R23 test, beating the 1382 points of the Core i7-1165G7 reference score as tested by Maxon. These scores were posted to Twitter by an M1 MacBook Pro owner who goes by "@mnloona48_" The M1 chip was clocked at 3.10 GHz for the test. The i7-1165G7 uses Intel's latest "Willow Cove" CPU cores. In the same test, the M1 scores 7508 points in the multi-core test. If these numbers hold up, we can begin to see why Apple chose to dump Intel's x86 machine architecture in favor of its own Arm-powered custom silicon, as the performance on offer holds up against the highest IPC mobile processors in the market.

On a momentous day for the Mac, Apple today introduced a new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini powered by the revolutionary M1, the first in a family of chips designed by Apple specifically for the Mac. By far the most powerful chip Apple has ever made, M1 transforms the Mac experience. With its industry-leading performance per watt, together with macOS Big Sur, M1 delivers up to 3.5x faster CPU, up to 6x faster GPU, up to 15x faster machine learning (ML) capabilities, and battery life up to 2x longer than before. And with M1 and Big Sur, users get access to the biggest collection of apps ever for Mac. With amazing performance and remarkable new features, the new lineup of M1-powered Macs are an incredible value, and all are available to order today.

"The introduction of three new Macs featuring Apple's breakthrough M1 chip represents a bold change that was years in the making, and marks a truly historic day for the Mac and for Apple," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "M1 is by far the most powerful chip we've ever created, and combined with Big Sur, delivers mind-blowing performance, extraordinary battery life, and access to more software and apps than ever before. We can't wait for our customers to experience this new generation of Mac, and we have no doubt it will help them continue to change the world."

Sonnet Technologies today announced the Fusion Dual U.2 SSD PCIe Card, the latest product in the company's line of high-performance storage cards that enable the installation of SSDs into a computer's or Thunderbolt expansion system's PCIe card slot. The Fusion card supports two U.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 3 SSDs, which share the same form factor as 2.5-inch SATA drives but deliver up to seven times the performance of the fastest SATA SSDs available.

The Fusion Dual U.2 SSD PCIe Card enables users to install two enterprise-class U.2 SSDs (sold separately) into a full-length PCIe card slot, mounting and connecting the SSDs with no cables, adapters, or mounting trays required. For users who need to add storage to their computer setup and require ultra-high-speed data transfer speeds for a smooth workflow—such as video editors working with 6K and greater resolution footage—U.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 3 SSDs are ideal. Mainstream U.2 SSDs are currently available in capacities up to 16 TB and support data transfers at up to 3,500 MB/s. With two SSDs installed on the Sonnet card and configured as a RAID 0 set, sustained data transfers up to 6,250 MB/s are possible.

CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, today announced the launch of its first-ever Thunderbolt 3 dock, the CORSAIR TBT100. Combining iconic industrial design, aluminium construction, intuitive operation, and smart power delivery, the TBT100 puts the power of Thunderbolt 3 within reach, with a huge array of ports and connections that make it the heart of your workstation setup.

The TBT100 fits right in with any working environment thanks to its stylish aluminium housing and slim profile. Its small size belies the massive 40 Gbps bandwidth and power delivery of Thunderbolt 3, enabling the TBT100 to connect a full range of devices, all at once. Equipped with two high-speed USB Type-C 10 Gbps ports and two USB 5 Gbps ports to transfer both data and power to your USB devices, the TBT100 can connect up to four USB devices at full power. For dual-monitor setups, the TBT100 includes two HDMI 2.0 ports, able to drive two displays at up to 4K 60Hz in vibrant HDR, as well as a combination 3.5 mm in/out jack for your audio. A gigabit Ethernet port connects to your local network at blazing-fast speeds, while a built-in UHS-II SD card reader provides convenient access to portable storage. There's even a Kensington Security Slot to keep envious colleagues from borrowing your dock.

Today Logitech announced its new MX Anywhere 3 and MX Anywhere 3 for Mac Wireless Compact Mice, low-profile mice designed for advanced creators, developers and anyone who seeks performance, portability and comfort anywhere they need to work. The mouse is built to track on virtually any surface, including glass, as you move it with you to varied work spaces around the home or office. Featuring the next-generation MagSpeed wheel, MX Anywhere 3 quietly scrolls up to 1,000 lines per second and auto-shifts between ratchet and hyperfast mode, giving you the highest precision in a compact mouse.

"MX Anywhere 3, the latest addition to the premium MX family of products, is purpose-built for creating, making and doing at the speed of thought so you can master whatever you need," said Delphine Donne-Crock, general manager of creativity and productivity at Logitech. "Designed to enhance your workflow anytime and anywhere you need to be productive, MX Anywhere 3 is comfortable and fits well for smaller hand sizes."

In the past few years, Google has been paying Apple billions of dollars just for the company to keep Google as the default search engine in every aspect of the company's products. Starting from iOS up to macOS, they included Google as the default search engine. However, the deal between two companies might be coming to an end. In July this year, a UK Competition and Markets Authority took a shot at a deal claiming that the companies imposed a barrier on any market competition in the search engine space. Constant pressure from regulators and the fact that Apple doesn't want to be reliant on any company is possibly giving Apple ideas to launch its own search engine.

Recent changes in the spotlight search on iOS 14 and iPad OS 14 beta is making the software bypass Google search engine completely. As shown below (search and direct results), the company implemented a feature that makes the spotlight search go directly to search results instead of going to Google. The Applebot web crawler has seen some changes so it now renders pages in a similar way Google does and not just filter HTML. The web crawler also is updated to rank web pages just like it is made for a search engine. All of this is supposed to give Apple enough material so it can build something similar to a search engine. It is believed that the search engine wouldn't look like any classical one, but rather be embedded in Apple products and serve as a personalized search hub.

ZSA Technology Labs, the makers of the excellent ErgoDox EZ Shine and the Planck EZ today introduced their latest ergonomic keyboard titled The Moonlander Mark 1. The company claims this is a result of over three years of R&D, incorporating feedback from customers and the general keyboard community as a whole on what they wanted from the ErgoDox EZ and other such split, ergonomic keyboards. The Moonlander Mark 1 boasts features including a thumb cluster that can be positioned to better suit your hand size/shape, tilting and tenting of the two keyboard halves for better ergonomics, a wrist rest (on each half) that automatically angles with tilting/tenting, hot-swappable switches with Cherry MX and Kailh BOX switches to choose from out of the box, and enhanced portability with the ability to fold the wrist rest (wing) and just plug in the left half via Type-C connectivity to use as a game/macro-pad.

The Moonlander Mark 1 continues the design scheme of the ErgoDox EZ and Planck EZ in having columnar keys, is available in black or white colors, and with ten switch options at checkout. Fully open source firmware is available here as well, for both programming the keys and layers of functions and also the RGB LEDs for backlighting of every single key. There is a first-party configurator available as well, with Windows, macOS, and Linus support without any special drivers needed. The keyboard also has status LEDs on board and, as the name is befitting here, uses audio buzzers to beep out status feedback if desired. The wings and thumb clusters are optional, and come in the package that also includes a carry case. Going for a significant $365 from the dedicated product page (shipping included), the company also offers a no-questions-asked 2-year warranty to help sweeten the deal.

Today Logitech announced the Logitech MX Master 3 for Mac and Logitech MX Keys for Mac, updates to the premium performance Master Series now optimized for Mac and Apple advanced users. The most popular Logitech performance mouse and keyboard, available in Space Gray, have been tuned to best complement the Apple ecosystem and help millions of advanced digital creators working on Macs and iPads. Logitech also announced Logitech K380 for Mac Multi-Device Bluetooth Keyboard with a layout specific for macOS, iOS and iPadOS.

"We want to empower creative Mac users to reach their full potential with our industry-leading mouse and keyboards that enhance every workspace," said Delphine Donne-Crock, general manager of creativity and productivity at Logitech. "Our newest additions to the Master Series and multi-device Bluetooth keyboard lineup have been re-imagined for advanced content creators who need the best tools for their craft and value Apple aesthetics, alongside increased productivity and performance. With MX Master 3 and MX Keys for Mac, as well as K380 for Mac, we wanted to provide the best possible experience on Mac and iPad."

Apple today previewed macOS Big Sur, the latest version of the world's most advanced desktop operating system. macOS Big Sur introduces a beautiful redesign that is entirely new yet instantly familiar. Safari is packed with new features, including a customizable start page, elegantly designed and more powerful tabs, quick and easy translation, and a new Privacy Report. The updated Messages app lets Mac users send and receive more personal and expressive messages, and easily keep track of and interact within group messages. Maps also offers an all-new experience with immersive features for exploring and navigating the world.

"macOS Big Sur is a major update that advances the legendary combination of the power of UNIX with the ease of use of the Mac, and delivers our biggest update to design in more than a decade," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "With its modern and clean look, huge improvements to key apps including Safari, Messages, and Maps, and new privacy features, we think everyone is going to love the breakthrough experience that macOS Big Sur offers."

In a historic day for the Mac, Apple today announced it will transition the Mac to its world-class custom silicon to deliver industry-leading performance and powerful new technologies. Developers can now get started updating their apps to take advantage of the advanced capabilities of Apple silicon in the Mac. This transition will also establish a common architecture across all Apple products, making it far easier for developers to write and optimize their apps for the entire ecosystem.

Apple today also introduced macOS Big Sur, the next major release of macOS, which delivers its biggest update in more than a decade and includes technologies that will ensure a smooth and seamless transition to Apple silicon. Developers can easily convert their existing apps to run on Apple silicon, taking advantage of its powerful technologies and performance. And for the first time, developers can make their iOS and iPadOS apps available on the Mac without any modifications.

Mozilla, the maker of popular web-browser Firefox, has announced that it is now offering virtual private network (VPN) services. Available for right now as a beta product, the company is promising that it will soon release the software as a fully-fledged application. Firefox Private Network's Mozilla VPN is designed to help users gain more control and safety over their internet traffic while offering protection for a whole device. if you wish to try it out, you would need to join a waitlist. There you can get the VPN app while it is still in beta for iOS, Android, Windows, and Chromebook devices. Support for macOS and Linux is coming soon. The service costs $4.99 a month, while if you own a Firefox browser, you can get it free of charge as an extension.

Intel CPUs have been rather notorious for system bugs recently. Starting from 2018's Spectre and Meltdown which used speculative execution to exploit systems, the string of new vulnerabilities just continued to this day. Recently we had CrossTalk exploit which represents a threat to cloud providers, where one user could compromise another just by using the same CPU from which the virtual instances are powered. These types of exploits are even more dangerous than ones that require local access, as that is already dangerous by itself. A lot of these issues are said to be ironed out by Intel's new microarchitecture designs like Ice Lake, Tiger Lake, and future revisions.

However, it seems like Intel is encountering some problems with even the latest Ice Lake CPUs when it comes to system bugs. JetBrains, a Czech provider of software development tools has a Java programming language development environment called IntelliJ integrated development environment. It was recently reported that on MacBook Air 2020 and Microsoft Surface Pro models equipped with 10th generation Intel Ice Lake CPUs, IntelliJ IDE causes system restart or a complete OS crash. In the report, the CPU ran in a Linux VM that isolates itself from MacOS so the macOS XNU kernel is not to blame. In the report thread, another user running Windows on Microsoft Surface Pro experienced the crash as well.

Apple today announced it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference virtually, beginning June 22, in the Apple Developer app and on the Apple Developer website for free for all developers. The company also announced the Swift Student Challenge, an opportunity for student developers to showcase their love of coding by creating their own Swift playground. Now in its 31st year, WWDC20 will be an opportunity for millions of creative and innovative developers around the world to get early access to the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, and to learn from Apple engineers as they work to build app experiences that enrich the lives of Apple customers around the globe.

"WWDC20 will be our biggest yet, bringing together our global developer community of more than 23 million in an unprecedented way for a week in June to learn about the future of Apple platforms," said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "We can't wait to meet online in June with the global developer community and share with them all of the new tools we've been working on to help them create even more incredible apps and services. We look forward to sharing more details about WWDC20 with everyone as we get closer to this exciting event."

Apple today updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the new Magic Keyboard for the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook and doubled the storage across all standard configurations, delivering even more value to the most popular MacBook Pro. The new lineup also offers 10th-generation processors for up to 80 percent faster graphics performance and makes 16 GB of faster 3733 MHz memory standard on select configurations. With powerful quad-core processors, the brilliant 13-inch Retina display, Touch Bar and Touch ID, immersive stereo speakers, all-day battery life, and the power of macOS, all in an incredibly portable design, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is available to order today, starting at $1,299, and $1,199 for education.

"Whether you're a college student, a developer, or a creative pro, the 13-inch MacBook Pro delivers powerful performance, a stunning Retina display, and all-day battery life in our most portable pro notebook. Today we're adding the new Magic Keyboard, doubling the standard storage, and boosting performance, making the 13-inch MacBook Pro an even better value for our customers," said Tom Boger, Apple's senior director of Mac and iPad Product Marketing. "With these updates, our entire notebook lineup features the Magic Keyboard for the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook, offers twice the standard storage than before, and delivers even more performance."

Valve has announced that SteamVR will drop support for the macOS platform so that development teams can focus on Windows and Linux support. SteamVR users running macOS who wish to continue using SteamVR will need to opt-in for legacy macOS builds from the "Beta" tab under SteamVR properties. This measure will probably stop functioning relatively quickly as new hardware and software changes appear. This move doesn't come as much of a surprise as the macOS platform isn't known for its VR activity, in the long-term macOS users will have to migrate to an alternate operating system or dual boot if they wish to continue accessing SteamVR.

Apple today updated MacBook Air, the world's most loved notebook, with faster performance, the new Magic Keyboard, twice the storage and a new lower price of $999, and $899 for education. The new MacBook Air delivers up to two times faster CPU performance and up to 80 percent faster graphics performance, letting customers breeze through daily activities and play more games. Now starting with 256 GB of storage, MacBook Air allows customers to store even more movies, photos and files. With its brilliant 13-inch Retina display for vivid images and sharp text, Touch ID for easy login and secure online purchases, spacious trackpad, and all-day battery life combined with the power of macOS Catalina, it's the best MacBook Air ever made.

"From students and consumers buying their first computer to customers looking to upgrade, everyone loves the Mac, and they especially love MacBook Air. Today we're giving it a huge update, with two times faster performance, the new Magic Keyboard, double the storage, a new lower price of $999 and an even lower price of $899 for education," said Tom Boger, Apple's senior director of Mac and iPad Product Marketing. "With its stunning, thin and light design, brilliant Retina display, all-day battery life and the power and ease-of-use of macOS, MacBook Air is the world's best consumer notebook."

Apple today announced it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Now in its 31st year, WWDC 2020 will take on an entirely new online format packed with content for consumers, press and developers alike. The online event will be an opportunity for millions of creative and innovative developers to get early access to the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS, and engage with Apple engineers as they work to build app experiences that enrich the lives of Apple customers around the globe.

"We are delivering WWDC 2020 this June in an innovative way to millions of developers around the world, bringing the entire developer community together with a new experience," said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The current health situation has required that we create a new WWDC 2020 format that delivers a full program with an online keynote and sessions, offering a great learning experience for our entire developer community, all around the world. We will be sharing all of the details in the weeks ahead."

A little over a year ago, we announced our intention to rebuild Microsoft Edge on the Chromium open source project with the goals of delivering better compatibility for everyone, less fragmentation for web developers, and a partnership with the Chromium community to improve the Chromium engine itself. At Ignite, we unveiled our new vision for the web and search, our colorful new icon, and how Microsoft Edge + Bing are the browser and search engine for business — and we are thrilled by the growing excitement we've heard from all of you who've tried it out and sent feedback!

From this incredible momentum, today I'm pleased to announce the new Microsoft Edge is now available to download on all supported versions of Windows and macOS in more than 90 languages. Microsoft Edge is also available on iOS and Android, providing a true cross-platform experience. The new Microsoft Edge provides world class performance with more privacy, more productivity and more value while you browse. Our new browser also comes with our Privacy Promise and we can't wait for you to try new features like tracking prevention, which is on by default, and provides three levels of control while you browse.

CORSAIR, a world leader in PC gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, today announced that its industry-leading CORSAIR iCUE software is now available for macOS, unlocking the full potential of CORSAIR mice, keyboards, headsets, and more for Mac users. Available as a free download, iCUE enables users to completely personalize their peripherals - increasing productivity, customizing aesthetics, improving gaming performance, and more.

iCUE for macOS features support for CORSAIR RGB keyboards, mice, headsets, and accessories when used on Mac, such as the award-winning K70 RGB MK.2 mechanical keyboard and the iconic M65 RGB ELITE optical gaming mouse. CORSAIR iCUE for macOS also supports all currently shipping CORSAIR headsets, including the newly released VIRTUOSO RGB Wireless, as well as accessories such as the MM800 RGB POLARIS RGB mouse pad and ST100 RGB premium headset stand.

Razer , the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, announced today the latest external graphics enclosure (eGPU), the Razer Core X Chroma. The Razer Core X Chroma expands its features to now include a 700W power supply, USB and Gigabit Ethernet ports, and Razer Chroma lighting.

Designed to work with a wide array of Thunderbolt 3 Windows laptops and MacBooks, the Razer Core eGPU line will give mobile warriors the ability to tap into the massive graphics processing power of a desktop gaming machine with minimal hassle. This allows users to play the most demanding games and create world-class content at blazing speeds. The Razer Core X Chroma now includes a 700W power supply, USB and Gigabit Ethernet ports, and Razer Chroma lighting to meet the needs of the most hardcore gamers and creators.

QNAP Systems, Inc. (QNAP) today launched the TR-002, a 2-bay hardware RAID expansion enclosure that can be utilized as a NAS storage expansion solution, and also as hardware RAID storage for Windows/macOS/Linux computers and NAS. The TR-002 connects to a PC/NAS via USB 3.1 Gen.2 Type-C and provides a dependable storage solution for various user requirements.

The TR-002 supports individual, JBOD and RAID 0/1 storage configurations. QNAP NAS users can use the TR-002 with their NAS to set RAID parameters and create a storage pool by using the "Storage and Snapshots" app within QTS. Alternatively, the TR-002 can be used as an external storage device for the NAS. Windows, macOS and Linux users with limited storage upgrade options can also use the TR-002 as an expansion unit, and a dedicated QNAP External RAID Manager utility (for Windows and macOS) can help them view disk health, change RAID configurations, check logs, and update the firmware of the TR-002.