Peter Hosey (Mastodon):
I wish we had a maps app like Apple Maps or Google Maps that let you order up a travel itinerary using public transit between two points, and explicitly pick the transit routes involved. Or, ideally, multiple sets of routes, for comparison.
[…]
Sometimes all the app’s recommendations are reasonable, but sometimes there’s one or more options that might be preferable—and I don’t know how preferable if the app isn’t showing me when the next 49 arrives, so I can compare to the 7 minutes for a 14R or 9 minutes (including a short walk) for BART.
[…]
This is one instance of a general problem, which is products having only algorithmic solutions to the user’s needs, with no opportunity for the user to contribute to the solution.
The algorithmic-only model admits only one remedy: Improve the algorithm. But because no algorithm will ever be perfect, you’ll be playing this game of whac-a-mole forever.
Previously:
Apple Maps Design Google Maps iOS iOS 18 Mac macOS 15 Sequoia Maps Web
Malcolm Owen (Reddit, 2):
However, it seems that in a small number of cases, USB-C connections on the M4 Mac mini are problematic.
Various Internet posts uncovered by AppleInsider reveal that users are undergoing similar problems. They generally consist of hardware connected using USB-C suddenly disconnecting and becoming unusable, or not connecting in the first place.
[…]
The issue has also appeared on the Apple Support Forum. One November 23 post explained that the front USB-C ports worked fine, but the rear ports wouldn’t work reliably with connected devices, effectively making the rear ports useless.
[…]
Elsewhere, the same problem appeared on the MacResource forum, with a user reporting a similar issue. They discovered that the Apple Extended Keyboard didn’t work around the back when plugged in via an adapter, but a Logitech mouse plugged in directly worked.
Previously:
Mac Mac mini macOS 15 Sequoia USB USB-C
Aryan Gulati et al. (PDF, via Hacker News):
As large language models (LLMs) continue to advance, many existing benchmarks designed to evaluate their reasoning capabilities are becoming saturated. Therefore, we present the Putnam-AXIOM Original benchmark consisting of 236 mathematical problems from the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, along with detailed step-by-step solutions. To preserve the Putnam-AXIOM benchmark’s validity and mitigate potential data contamination, we created the Putnam-AXIOM Variation benchmark with functional variations of 52 problems. By programmatically altering problem elements like variables and constants, we can generate unlimited novel, equally challenging problems not found online. We see that almost all models have significantly lower accuracy in the variations than the original problems. Our results reveal that OpenAI’s o1-preview, the best performing model, achieves merely 41.95% accuracy on the Putnam-AXIOM Original but experiences around a 30% reduction in accuracy on the variations’ dataset when compared to corresponding original problems.
So it didn’t “understand” the original problems as well as had been thought.
Previously:
Artificial Intelligence ChatGPT Math OpenAI
Howard Oakley:
In the latest release of Sequoia, the traditional method of updating XProtect is no longer used. If softwareupdate were to download and install an update, then it will only end up in the traditional location, and xprotect update can’t use that to update the new location.
In normal use, this means that the user can’t update XProtect until that new version is made available from iCloud. This ensures that the only versions provided to Macs running 15.2 and later are those intended to be used in Sequoia, but it also means that any delay in providing those via iCloud will leave Macs without the latest update.
Apple has modified the xprotect command to provide one let-out, though: use
sudo xprotect update --prerelease
and it “will attempt to use a prerelease update, if available.”
Ric Ford:
Also confusing is that Apple never shows these updates in System Preferences > Software Update nor on the Apple Security Releases webpage (although they should be listed after installation in System Report > Software > Installations if you can locate that report on your Mac).
Howard Oakley:
Apple provides so many services for different parts of macOS that it’s hard to keep track of them. If you want to see a short summary, this article lists all service connections for enterprise network administrators, although it doesn’t detail which services use which servers, for example referring to “macOS updates” in many entries.
Many of you seem surprised to learn that Sequoia’s new XProtect updates come from iCloud, although Apple has been using iCloud for similar purposes for at least the last five years.
Previously:
iCloud Mac macOS 15 Sequoia Malware Software Update
