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Tell HN: MacOS turns off the fans when Siri is listening

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61–70 of 80 posts

Re: Tell HN: MacOS turns off the fans when Siri is listening

#61
post #37
post #11

It's been around for a while already. The dictation feature in OS X 10.10 already knows that trick. The thought of the little thinks is what still makes me stick with OS X.

> The thought of the little [things] is what still makes me stick with OS X. This rubs me the wrong way because it's a vicious (positive, I guess) cycle. You keep buying iPhones, they stockpile billions in cash, and they can "think of the little things" (which is really just "How can we make OS X more like iOS and less suitable for power users?"). It's sad... but I can't imagine anyone taking the time to hack this to…

You have to understand, Apple's strategy is and has always been to make extraordinary products without shouting about it. Sure, they do advertise and run conferences, but they never bold these little details. This explains why caring about products is something all Apple employees do without thinking about monetizing it. It's true what they say: Steve Jobs' DNA still runs through Apple.

Microsoft also has billions of cash, but never have they done such a thing. They even had more time and money than Apple in the 90s.

Re: Tell HN: MacOS turns off the fans when Siri is listening

#62
post #60

Never used a Mac but this seems more like a workaround for the noise filtering problem.

Yes agreed, it really sounds like a workaround. They improve the detection rate by reducing the noise floor. I find it interesting that they took the time to implement it, it must have cost a considerable amount of work that they could have put into filter algorithms instead. Fan noise sounds like an artifact that is easy to filter, but I'm probably wrong.

Re: Tell HN: MacOS turns off the fans when Siri is listening

#63
post #58

It's kinda stupid - instead of intelligently filtering the noise (it knows the acoustics, the RPM of the fan, etc).

Since when were simple solutions considered stupid? If filtering audio (which will probably only work the CPU, and thus the fan, more) is smarter than stopping a fan, I must be as dumb as bricks.

Re: Tell HN: MacOS turns off the fans when Siri is listening

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can it really be called "lock-in" when it's an effect of changes which to many people make the product more desirable for its own sake? Microsoft in the 90s wasn't really known for such behavior, to say the very least.

The alternate, Aldous Huxley version of lock-in, instead of the George Orwell version of lock-in.

Do you think it's possible that such comparisons grow dull with overuse?

Re: Tell HN: MacOS turns off the fans when Siri is listening

#65
post #4

And only if you're using the internal microphone. I was trying to test this and couldn't reproduce it until I realized I was using headphones with a mic. Unplugged the headphones, activated Siri and the fan instantly turned off.

I wonder how they prevent their CPUs from burning up when they do this and there happens to be some kind of heavy load in the background... Is someone up for a free warranty Macbook replacement? ;)

The intel CPUs have pretty good thermal management. I suspect what will happen is the CPU will just start throttling itself to cool down if you kept making the OS spin down the fans.

Even back in the P4 days there were videos of people ripping Heat sinks off intel chips while running and the system throttling down and speeding back up as the heat sink is replaced.

Re: Tell HN: MacOS turns off the fans when Siri is listening

#66
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's about the money, it's more of a matter of capability and simply "caring". Regarding the latter: it seems that Apple has managed to build an organization where everyone knows that details matter and everyone identifies with their work. Here's a wonderful example: two SMS, one from google and one from Deutsche Bank (who, at the time, probably had enough money to care about details) https://twitter.co…

Is the point of 2FA to show you have possession of another device, or access to another device? While I'm in the same boat and appreciate seeing the code above the fold, for really secure things I'd prefer the Deutsche Bank example.

They leave that choice to the user since you can disable the content of sms appearing on the lock screen. Not that I think that it's a good idea to leave security decisions like that to users

Re: Tell HN: MacOS turns off the fans when Siri is listening

#67
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's about the money, it's more of a matter of capability and simply "caring". Regarding the latter: it seems that Apple has managed to build an organization where everyone knows that details matter and everyone identifies with their work. Here's a wonderful example: two SMS, one from google and one from Deutsche Bank (who, at the time, probably had enough money to care about details) https://twitter.co…

Is the point of 2FA to show you have possession of another device, or access to another device? While I'm in the same boat and appreciate seeing the code above the fold, for really secure things I'd prefer the Deutsche Bank example.

I noticed that since I have iMessage synced to my Macbook, if I ever lost my laptop and someone tried to hack my accounts, they would get the 2FA access code on the laptop they stole.

Re: Tell HN: MacOS turns off the fans when Siri is listening

#68
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My fan rarely turns on, and it is barely audible. It seems the tolerance is far beyond leg-scalding for my MBP, though it only gets to that point when recompiling a bunch of version specific libraries in a sandbox for over 10 minutes.

My work paid for the 2.8 ghz upgrade on my macbook pro 15". When doing video chat in chrome it scales up one of the cores to max and heats up quickly making the fans run at max after 10-15 min. My older macbook pro 15" with the stock CPU doesn't get as hot and the fans run much less on that one.

Google Hangouts is an awful resource hog.

Re: Tell HN: MacOS turns off the fans when Siri is listening

#69
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My fan rarely turns on, and it is barely audible. It seems the tolerance is far beyond leg-scalding for my MBP, though it only gets to that point when recompiling a bunch of version specific libraries in a sandbox for over 10 minutes.

My work paid for the 2.8 ghz upgrade on my macbook pro 15". When doing video chat in chrome it scales up one of the cores to max and heats up quickly making the fans run at max after 10-15 min. My older macbook pro 15" with the stock CPU doesn't get as hot and the fans run much less on that one.

FWIW, I (ironically?) have a lot more success running Hangouts on Safari than I do Chrome, on both a 2013 11" Air and a 13" i7 MBP.

Re: Tell HN: MacOS turns off the fans when Siri is listening

#70
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the point of 2FA to show you have possession of another device, or access to another device? While I'm in the same boat and appreciate seeing the code above the fold, for really secure things I'd prefer the Deutsche Bank example.

I noticed that since I have iMessage synced to my Macbook, if I ever lost my laptop and someone tried to hack my accounts, they would get the 2FA access code on the laptop they stole.

Those codes come across as actual SMS messages to the associated phone number. It appears on your laptop only when the phone is near enough to it that the "continuity" feature is engaged. You should be safe from this threat as long as the laptop isn't lost very nearby.
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