58 pointsby todsacerdoti5 hours ago7 comments
  • seductivebarry2 hours ago
    Way back in ~2008 I wrote the Newton Virus https://www.everita.com/how-the-newton-virus-was-made + https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh75j6OHhRc (sorry for the broken images, need to update that site). Between that and using a hidden API to take screenshots of each individual element on your desktop (from icons, to taskbar, to windows) the effect was pretty believable. One of the most fun (and frustrating) projects I ever worked on.
    • swiftcoderan hour ago
      Offtopic, but I have nostalgic feelings for the era of MacBook in the video
    • tmslnzan hour ago
      Troika! Hello from a friend in London :)
  • krackers3 hours ago
    >have a hard to find mems accelerometer managed by the sensor processing unit

    How did OP even know that an accelerometer exists in the first place?

    • rustyhancock2 hours ago
      The presence of the sensor is well documented as part of Apples Sudden Motion Sensor hard drive protection system.

      How to access it is undocumented.

      • future10se2 hours ago
        Aaackshually, the Sudden Motion Sensor was introduced on 2005 in the PowerBook G4, and continued through the intel MacBooks with hard drives.

        While officially undocumented, people figured out how to access it back then, with novel uses like smacking your MacBook to change spaces (virtual desktops) or swinging the Mac around to make lightsaber noises.

        - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uvQTTPr9Rw

        - https://osxdaily.com/2006/12/06/macsaber-turn-your-mac-into-...

        (I should know, I was in university back then and swung my Mac around like an idiot, lol.)

        On the first Retina MacBook Pro 15" in 2012, and moving forward with all MacBooks that were SSD-only, they removed the SMS as it was not needed.

        To my knowledge, this is the first time we're hearing that Apple Silicon machines have an accelerometer on the SoC, officially or otherwise. It's also certainly not branded or marketed as the SMS was. (https://support.apple.com/en-us/100871)

        Happy to be corrected on this!

      • nerdsniper2 hours ago
        Given that current drives don't have moving parts, what function is this serving today?
    • argsndan hour ago
      Apple has a motion sickness mitigation feature that displays dots on your screen that move based on physical motion, so it’s fairly well known that the accelerometer exists.
    • saagarjha2 hours ago
      > the sensor lives under AppleSPUHIDDevice in the iokit registry, on vendor usage page 0xFF00, usage 3. the driver is AppleSPUHIDDriver which is part of the sensor processing unit.
  • userbinator3 hours ago
    undocumented

    The one thought that comes to mind is this: "Your warranty claim was denied because we determined that the laptop was subjected to a sudden shock."

    • consp2 hours ago
      Back in the days this was to lock up the hard disk read/write head. Maybe a relic from those times instead?
      • userbinator2 hours ago
        Apple is not known for backwards-compatibility, and they were already using SSDs in their laptops long before switching to ARM.
    • sysguest3 hours ago
      idk you can just use simple liquid-container or sticker?

      maybe apple was preparing for "carrying-around laptop experience"?

      • XorNot2 hours ago
        That's an entirely different product build path compared to the electronics production line though.

        If a pick and place machine can drop it on and reflow it, that's what you want.

        • sysguest2 hours ago
          well it would be hardened when contact with air or something

          see "Shipping Damage Indicators"

    • altairprime3 hours ago
      Did it park the drive heads?
  • JSR_FDEDan hour ago
    If it can read your heartbeat from your wrists resting next to the trackpad, maybe it can use that as a user satisfaction signal for gratuitous UI changes.
    • pbhjpbhjan hour ago
      If it's sensitive enough to read a heart beat, then surely it can be used as a covert microphone?
      • rcxdude38 minutes ago
        Depends on the bandwidth.
      • rcxdude38 minutes ago
        depends on the bandwidth
  • ggm2 hours ago
    Could this be used as "shake your mac for highly random seed" bits?
    • c2240 minutes ago
      Probably not as random as you want it to be.
      • sysguest38 minutes ago
        well wouldn't it add up?

        someWhatRandom1 xor someWhatRandom2 xor notRandom3 xor ...

        should be more 'random' than just 'someWhatRandom1'

        • throawayonthe2 minutes ago
          i'm not sure it would necessarily be more random if you're mixing in a lower-entropy source which the accelerometer probably is
  • baybal23 hours ago
    [dead]