Is there any other hardware running when the lid is closed?
There is. For example you can leave your phone plugged in and it will continue charging on a macbook, even with the lid down and machine turned off.
Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
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Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#32Or they could do, you know, a simple $0.10 on-off slide switch.
The number of people want this is ridiculously small, plus quite ugly.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#33Is there any other hardware running when the lid is closed?
RAM must continue to be powered. Your network card as well, for remote wake up on network activity. Bluetooth can also be configured similarly. On older computers with HDDs, it is also configurable whether those HDDs are turned off when the lid is closed.
Of course this is just assuming you keep the default of closing the lid => computer goes to sleep. It is possible for some Macs to keep running while the lid is closed, so basically only the display is not powered. It is also possible for some Macs since Mavericks to actually have most of the kernel running to perform background tasks, called Power Nap.
Closed-display mode: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201834
Power Nap: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204032
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#34Is there any other hardware running when the lid is closed?
Yes, lots. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204032
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who controls the switch? You need an entire secure system distinct from the untrusted CPU - or a manual switch on the side. The latter goes against everything Apple believes in design wise.
I'm suggesting the lid could control the switch, physically, as in when you close it the mic's circuit is broken.
But that would mean you can’t use the built-in microphone when actively using the computer in clamshell mode.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#36> The chip comes with a hardware microphone disconnect feature that physically cuts the device’s microphone from the rest of the hardware whenever the lid is closed Why do you need a chip for this? Can't you just break the circuit with a regular dumb physical switch? Or is this a much more complex problem than it first appears?
Because a physical switch would actually provide security. /s Any bug or future exploit negates this feature. I have the feeling this was just done because it was possible and then the marketing team found out about it and decided to make a big deal out of it.
So someone from Apple engineering built the T2 chip on a whim, never communicated it to senior management and then marketing accidentally stumbled upon it and then decided to suddenly promote it.
Words don't describe how delusional this is.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm suggesting the lid could control the switch, physically, as in when you close it the mic's circuit is broken.
But that would mean you can’t use the built-in microphone when actively using the computer in clamshell mode.
Is this not true with the current implementation, as well?
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#38What about when the gov. is the hacker ?
Why would this change anything? Presumably there would be an easier way to listen to you if this was the case.
Re: Apple's T2 chip will prevent hackers from eavesdropping on your microphone
#39This only protects when the lid is closed, but many people leave the lid open on their desk. I would love to see a light come on if the camera or microphone is receiving power, and then only turn on power to these devices when a program requests it.
> I would love to see a light come on if the camera or microphone is receiving power, and then only turn on power to these devices when a program requests it. Isn't the microphone a simple passive device no different than a voice coil in a magnetic field? I don't think it's that simple, since it won't be powered. My understanding is that there's often a reconfigurable circuit in the sound chip which determines where…
There's at least a pre amp and a d/a converter that the mic needs to have powered up and running before any of it's signal can be used by the rest of the computer.