Month: November 2020

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  Behold, the new Mac Mini. [credit: Apple ]

Apple's M1-filled announcement flurry on Tuesday included a serious surprise for Mac enthusiasts: a brand-new Mac Mini model, starting at $699. Orders begin today, with Mac Minis being available "next week."

The tiny new desktop model comes packed with an eight-core M1 chip, which Apple says will deliver three times the CPU performance compared to the prior quad-core base Mac Mini model. (How that compares to the last model's upgrade option to a 6-core processor remains to be seen.) Apple's representatives say it's one tenth the size of a comparable PC in its price range, while also running "five times faster" than the same PC in question. (What PC model or manufacturer are you talking about, Apple?)

All Mac Mini M1 models will include Wi-Fi 6, GigaBit Ethernet, an HDMI 2.0 jack, two USB Type-A ports, and two ports that double as Thunderbolt and USB Type-C 4.0 connections. You'll need the latter to max out the new Mac Mini's maximum resolution threshold of "up to two displays, including Apple’s Pro Display XDR in full 6K resolution." (Oh, and will you look at that: There's a 3.5mm headphone jack for your favorite desktop speakers.) The model's base $699 price includes 256GB of on-board SSD storage and 8GB of memory. That price jumps quite a bit when upgrading to 16GB of maximum memory (much smaller than last generation's 64GB memory maximum) or 2TB of maximum SSD storage: $1,699.

The new Macbook Air with M1 is a 13", completely fanless and silent design.

After 15 years shipping Mac computers with Intel processors, Apple has announced details about its first Mac to forgo Intel CPUs in favor of Apple-designed, ARM-based chips dubbed Apple Silicon. Apple announced that the first Apple Silicon Mac will be the 13", $999 Macbook Air with M1, a completely fanless and silent design.

The Apple M1 ARM CPU includes four high performance CPU cores, four low power / high efficiency CPU cores, and eight GPU cores with 128 Execution Units. (credit: Apple)

The new Macbook Air will feature the Apple M1 CPU, which is the latest in a line of higher-performance ARM CPUs introduced with the iPad Pro. M1 is a an 8-core CPU built on a 5nm process design, and features unified memory architecture, offering high-bandwidth low-latency memory access. Of its 8 cores, four are higher-performance aimed at demanding foreground tasks, and four are lower-power, higher-efficiency designed to complete less-demanding background tasks at a decreased power and thermal cost.

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Researchers have devised a new way to remotely steal cryptographic keys from Intel CPUs, even when the CPUs run software guard extensions, the in-silicon protection that’s supposed to create a trusted enclave that’s impervious to such attacks.

PLATYPUS, as the researchers are calling the attack, uses a novel vector to open one of the most basic side channels, a form of exploit that uses physical characteristics to infer secrets stored inside a piece of hardware. Whereas most power side channels require physical access so attackers can measure the consumption of electricity, PLATYPUS can do so remotely by abusing the Running Average Power Limit. Abbreviated as RAPL, this Intel interface lets users monitor and control the energy flowing through CPUs and memory.

Leaking keys and a whole lot more

An international team of researchers on Tuesday is disclosing a way to use RAPL to observe enough clues about the instructions and data flowing through a CPU to infer values that it loads. Using PLATYPUS, the researchers can leak crypto keys from SGX enclaves and the operating system, break the exploit mitigation known as Address Space Layout Randomization, and establish a covert channel for secretly exfiltrating data. Chips starting with Intel’s Sandy Bridge architecture are vulnerable.

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Today's Dealmaster is headlined by a new discount on the AirPods Pro, as Apple's true wireless earphones are currently down to $194 at Amazon and other retailers. Though we've seen a number of deals that have steadily dropped the AirPods Pro's price in recent months, today's discount marks the best price we've seen to date on new models. It's about $30 off the typical street price we've seen online as of late, $55 off Apple's MSRP, and $5 below the price we saw on Amazon Prime Day.

While the market for totally wireless noise-cancelling earbuds has expanded over the past few months, we still recommend the AirPods Pro for iPhone users in particular. Their battery life could be better, but they continue to be a comprehensive upgrade over the standard AirPods, with a more universal fit, superior sound, effective noise-cancellation, on-device controls, and a nifty ambient sound mode.

Reports have suggested that Apple could launch a new version of the AirPods Pro later next year, but for now, this is still a good price for a quality pair of high-end wireless headphones. If you have no interest in AirPods, though, we also have deals on the latest Assassin's Creed and Crash Bandicoot games, Xbox gift cards, a number of storage devices, and more. You can take a look at our full deals roundup below.