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What Does Apple’s M1 Chip do Differently Than Other Chips?

Andrew Orr ·

In his latest blog post, Howard Oakley has examined the M1 chip to find out what features set it apart from other chips.

The M1 doesn’t integrate main memory, though, which is contained within the package. It’s also unusual in incorporating many coprocessors in addition to the GPU, which provide state-of-the-art facilities for features such as deep learning using neural networks.

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IBM’s AI-Powered Chip Can Help Detect Fraud

Andrew Orr ·

IBM revealed its new Telum processor at the Hot Chips semiconductor conference. It claims it can detect fraud in real time.

IBM says this could lead to “a potentially new era of prevention of fraud at scale.” Although credit card fraud is the most direct application, Telum’s onboard A.I. accelerator can handle other workloads as well. Using machine learning, it can conduct risk analysis, detect money laundering, and handle loan processing, among other things.

Quit Every Running App on Your Mac the Easy Way with Amico App’s Quit All
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Quit Every Running App on Your Mac the Easy Way with Amico App's Quit All

Jeff Gamet ·

Quitting all the open apps on your Mac involves a lot of Command-Q typing or building your own Automator action, or now just installing Quit All from Amico Apps. This cool app lets you quit every running app on your Mac from the menu bar with a mouse click, and you can view and quit hidden processes, too. You can also force quit frozen apps, or quit just the one or two apps you don’t need running. Quit All costs US$5 and is available for download at the Amico Apps website.

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Misconfigured Microsoft Power Apps Leaked 38 Million Database Records

Andrew Orr ·

Over a thousand web apps from Microsoft’s Power Apps platform have leaked 38 million records. This data includes COVID-19 contact tracing.

The data included a range of sensitive information, from people’s phone numbers and home addresses to social security numbers and COVID-19 vaccination status.

The incident affected major companies and organizations, including American Airlines, Ford, the transportation and logistics company J.B. Hunt, the Maryland Department of Health, the New York City Municipal Transportation Authority, and New York City public schools.

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USD Coin Will Be Backed By Pure Cash and US Treasury Bonds

Andrew Orr ·

As a stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC) is pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. The reserves of currency upholding this value will only be cash and bonds going forward.

Circle reserves expanded beyond cash and cash equivalents in May, 2021, and the company provided a more detailed breakdown of reserve composition in July, adding clarity and insight into the funds backing USDC. Mindful of community sentiment, our commitment to trust and transparency, and an evolving regulatory landscape, Circle, with the support of Centre and Coinbase, has announced that it will now hold the USDC reserve entirely in cash and short duration US Treasuries.

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Indie Publishing Platform ‘Substack’ to Accept Bitcoin Payments

Andrew Orr ·

Bitcoin payment processor OpenNode announced on Monday its integration with Substack, an online publishing platform. OpenNode will power both on-chain and Lightning Network Bitcoin payments.

Working together, OpenNode and Substack are starting by making instant, low cost payments available to a select group of crypto-focused publications. Readers will be able to use Bitcoin to pay for subscriptions to these select publications, and the publications will retain earnings in Bitcoin.