Charlesoft has updated it’s Mac archive utility Pacifist to 4.0.2 with Apple Silicon and Monterey Support

Charlesoft has updated it’s awesome Mac Archive app to version 4.0.1, it is a complete rewrite in Swift with Monterey and Apple Silicon Support.

It’s features include:

  • open a wide variety of file archives, including:
    • macOS .pkg package files,
    • .dmg disk images,
    • macOS asset catalogs,
    • Mac OS 9 Installer Tome files, and
    • .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, .xar, and .yaa archives,
  • examine and extract individual files and folders,
  • inspect install scripts and other package resources to make sure that a package is trustworthy before installing it,
  • analyze existing installations on your system, to help you determine who installed a particular file on your system,
  • view archive contents straight from the Finder via QuickLook,
  • view and extract files from archives via your choice of a slick GUI or an automation-friendly command-line interface, and even
  • inspect the contents of .zip files (and other supported types) over the Web without downloading the entire archive first.

I love that it lets you go into an installer and just extract what you want from it. This is such a powerful tool for $20.00 and I have owned various versions for years.

Chance Miller at 9to5Mac is reporting that TSMC will begin pilot production of 3nm chips in 4th Quarter 2022

Chance Miller is saying that TSMC begins pilot program of 3nm chips, could be used in 2023 iPhones and Macs.

This will be huge for Macs if it happens, because this means more efficiency for the same power wattage and more efficiency, and though it won’t be till 2023, it could be major for the new Pro Macs with smaller chips making less heat, since the likely multiples of the M1 Max and M1 Pro will certainly create more heat.

Jan Kaiser info on iPhone 13 Cinematic Mode

Now I saw this twitter thread thanks to Scott Simmons at ProVideoCoalition and this post.

And here is Jan Kaiser’s eskocz channel on YouTube.

Now you need to look at the thread and see more than just the first post.

Wow, I am blown away that the depth map is only 320×180, and only works so close up.

I was also wondering why the Pro didn’t use Lidar to enhance the depth map, but while it shows allot more depth than the cinematic mode, it is also fluttery and noisy, so I can see that it would cause some serious issues in a depth map.

And the true depth on the front camera would be useless for a depth map.

Between the 1080 30p and low resolution depth map I think I am OK with skipping the iPhone 13 and seeing what the 14 will offer. The technology is impressive, but I want to see future generations.

OWC Blog has it’s top 20 Monterey Tips

The Rocket Yard, the OWC Blog and Steve Sande has it’s top 20 tips for MacOS Montery. Worth a gander for sure.

I would love to upgrade to Monterey, but so far I have heard only that Adobe Video versions 2021 and 2022 work with it, and the head editor at the company I am working at is still working with 2019. I was actually surprised that 2019 still worked on Big Sur, but it d\id, but I only upgraded to Big Sur very recently.

And it is usually always safer to wait for the .1 released, though it sounds like Monterey is doing pretty well so far, with a few niggles because of it’s built in VPN that screws with some programs.

Allan Tépper at ProVideoCoalition on ProRes in iPhone 13 turns out to be Variable Frame Rate

Allen Tépper at PVC has this article on tests by Carolina Bonnelly that show that the ProRes shot by the iPhone 13 are in fact variable frame rate and not constant frame rate.

This is so disappointing as to really use this footage you will need to decompress it to a constant frame rate. especially disappointing since the footage already takes up much more space and need to re compress it to really use it properly to get it constant frame rate. And you will be losing a generation in compression (I know ProRes can handle it better than HEVC but still).

MacRumors on Intel Alder Lake Chips faster than M1 Max, but more power hungry

MacRumors is reporting on the first geekbench reports of the 12th Generation Alder Lake Core i8-12900K 16 core chips, which score 18500 on geekbench vs 12500 for the M1 Pro and M1 Max, though at a much higher power draw.

So about 1.5 times as fast, which means a high Intel would whip the Apple Silicon on Multi-Core performance, though I doubt it’s built in GPU would be faster, though a discrete GPU certainly would.