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Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

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361–370 of 405 posts

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#361

On the topic of closing and opening your MacBook, has anyone else had an issue where with an M1 any time they open it from sleep the cursor moves at like 20hz until you close it and open it again? It’s been driving me mad and I can’t find anything about it online.

I had an issue that drove me mad where if the battery went to 0% (and macOS went into hibernate), I would then plug it back in and the mouse cursor would be quite... jittery. Almost to the point of unusable at the worst of it. macOS 13.1? appears to have solved this problem. Better late than never.

I had an infuriating variant of this across two M1 machines where they'd kernel panic while trying to hibernate at 0% battery.

And even plugging in a charger before it actually died wouldn't save it: It'd try to turn stay on but the pending hibernation would kick in and it'd die.

The "fix" for me was to turn off deep sleep. Technically now they'll drain more during sleep, but that's preferrable than being broken during sleep.

The whole experience was disappointingly Linux though. Having to read through the Console to figure out it was a kernel panic and not a power issue, having to read through Darwin sources to track down where exactly in the hibernation it was failing, not the kind of stuff I expect to deal with from Apple hardware.

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#362
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similarly, whenever I'm working at my kitchen table I always "lose" my mouse as if there's another monitor connected. I realized a couple weeks later MacOS display continuity (or "sidecar"?) was connecting to my Mac Mini located directly upstairs using it as a 2nd monitor while I'm downstairs. My apple watch also regularly unlocks my Mac Mini when I'm downstairs (Mac Mini in a bedroom upstairs). All of these features…

Your watch really shouldn’t be able to do that. The pairing uses p2p latency as a way to determine if you are actually close enough to your Mac to want to unlock it. I’ve used it for years now with a variety of watches and Macs and I’ve always had to be right next to the computer with a fairly clear line of sight between them. Even putting my watch on the other side of my body is normally enough to make it tell me th…

To play devil's advocate, it would very easy to create custom rooms in which a detainee is held in a room against a paper wall (with their locked device on the other side of the paper wall). The orientation of their seating arrangement could be such that it always places the detainees watch closest to the device.

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#363
post #67

They have this feature but closing the lid on a MacBook or even putting it to sleep allows Bluetooth devices to stay connected. Heck, a MacBook even while in sleep mode will connect to Bluetooth devices. As far as I can see, this requires a third-party app to fix. Can an application still use the microphone on a Bluetooth device that’s connected?

This has to be the most annoying thing in MacOS. My laptop, soundly sleeping in my backpack, takes over my bluetooth headphones all the time.

Such a big thread of people complaining that their bluetooth headphones connect to the wrong device or not at all and how you could use third-party software to (maybe) fix it.

And then there's me who still uses headphones with cables. I plug the cable into the device, it plays from this device, never fails. I also never need to charge my headphone. I still don't understand why anyone would voluntarily replace cables with wireless when it's such a worse use experience.

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#364
post #96
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has to be the most annoying thing in MacOS. My laptop, soundly sleeping in my backpack, takes over my bluetooth headphones all the time.

Similarly, whenever I'm working at my kitchen table I always "lose" my mouse as if there's another monitor connected. I realized a couple weeks later MacOS display continuity (or "sidecar"?) was connecting to my Mac Mini located directly upstairs using it as a 2nd monitor while I'm downstairs. My apple watch also regularly unlocks my Mac Mini when I'm downstairs (Mac Mini in a bedroom upstairs). All of these features…

How do you know it’s unlocked upstairs when you are downstairs?

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#365
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has to be the most annoying thing in MacOS. My laptop, soundly sleeping in my backpack, takes over my bluetooth headphones all the time.

Such a big thread of people complaining that their bluetooth headphones connect to the wrong device or not at all and how you could use third-party software to (maybe) fix it. And then there's me who still uses headphones with cables. I plug the cable into the device, it plays from this device, never fails. I also never need to charge my headphone. I still don't understand why anyone would voluntarily replace cables…

Bluetooth is terrible (unreliable, slow to connect, extreme latency, bad sound quality), but wireless is great. Currently they are one and the same mediocre user experience, so I’m hoping UWB or something else can fix these problems sometime soon?

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#366
post #2

I was recently trying to figure out whether the microphone is usable when using my notebook in clamshell-mode. Turns out Apple added a privacy/safety feature to all Apple silicon-based Mac notebooks and Intel-based Mac notebooks with the Apple T2 Security Chip. It will hardware disconnect the microphone when the lid is closed, based on the lid sensors. Pretty cool safety feature!! Even though I'm sad I can't use my m…

Lid sensors? Why didn’t they just have a hinge that the wiring ran through that disconnects at a certain angle…

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your watch really shouldn’t be able to do that. The pairing uses p2p latency as a way to determine if you are actually close enough to your Mac to want to unlock it. I’ve used it for years now with a variety of watches and Macs and I’ve always had to be right next to the computer with a fairly clear line of sight between them. Even putting my watch on the other side of my body is normally enough to make it tell me th…

To play devil's advocate, it would very easy to create custom rooms in which a detainee is held in a room against a paper wall (with their locked device on the other side of the paper wall). The orientation of their seating arrangement could be such that it always places the detainees watch closest to the device.

I wonder if the algorithms are tuned for different cultures' wall materials

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#368
post #67

They have this feature but closing the lid on a MacBook or even putting it to sleep allows Bluetooth devices to stay connected. Heck, a MacBook even while in sleep mode will connect to Bluetooth devices. As far as I can see, this requires a third-party app to fix. Can an application still use the microphone on a Bluetooth device that’s connected?

This has to be the most annoying thing in MacOS. My laptop, soundly sleeping in my backpack, takes over my bluetooth headphones all the time.

Most annoying thing is actually how bad bluetooth driver is. On multiple macbooks I had (2011-2022) the bluetooth will just not connect to things, randomly disconnect from them, unresponsive devices when thy are connected (also not responding to disconnect), problems connecting any keyboard but Apple™ Magic Keyboard, and of course, aggressive takeover of every device with a strong competition towards othre macbooks and iphone devices.

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#369
post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It adds an extra switch to the design which complicates it, and it leads to situations where the mic isn’t on but the user doesn’t know why. This could be solved with a simple dialog box telling the use to check the switch. > What Apple came up with works perfect as it adds some privacy while affecting the user in no way. Far from perfect. Anything except physical disconnect switches can be overridden with software…

if there is a button in software, it can be hacked _in software_ this is in hardware and cannot be tampered with. apple also doesn't make backdoors, haven't you heard of what happened with the FBI?

You misread, I was replying to him saying "This is also combined with permission dialogs for mic access and an indicator light showing the mic is in use."

Re: Hardware microphone disconnect (2021)

#370
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feds is not an attack vector that concerns me. My coworkers or kids changing my wallpaper or getting access to my kit is.

I guess you don't travel alot...

I do. Only for leisure. And I take a Pixel 6A running LineageOS when I do which has nothing sensitive on it.

That's really mostly so that I don't lose my iPhone which I actually care about.

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