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512 Pixels

512 Pixels is a blog covering Apple, computer history, design, and other fine nerdery, written by Stephen Hackett.

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Memphis Chamber of Commerce Claims No New Gas...

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/08

As I wrote about earlier this week, xAI has broken ground on a second data center on Tulane Road here in Memphis that will require an unbelievable amount of electricity. Today, the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce sent an email saying: xAI is demobilizing turbines in Shelby County and has no plans to site any […]

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Memphis Behind Other Cities in Data Center Legislation

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/08

Dyana Bagby, writing in 2024 for Georgia Public Broadcasting, the PBS/NPR affiliate in Atlanta: The Atlanta City Council voted Tuesday, Sept. 3, to ban data centers along and near the Atlanta BeltLine and within a half-mile of MARTA stations. The new legislation aims to preserve new residential and mixed-use developments, trails and green space along the 22-mile BeltLine […]

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Connected 551: Boost Your Truck Parts

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/07

This week on the podcast, I answer questions about my new two-phone lifestyle, Myke wonders what Eddy Cue knows that he doesn’t, and then we discuss the Motorola ROCKR and last week’s injunction against Apple over its App Store policies.

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‘It Smells Like Gas Outside’

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/07

Ariel Wittenberg for Politico, writing about xAI’s use of gas turbines to power its supercomputer in Memphis: Just three miles away is Boxtown, a secluded neighborhood that officially became part of the city of Memphis in 1968, the year that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel downtown. While the […]

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Second xAI Datacenter Could Take Enough Energy to...

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/06

After linking to that New Yorker article about xAI using gas turbines to help power its first supercomputer here in Memphis, I opened my RSS client to see this article by The Daily Memphian’s Samuel Hardiman who writes: Memphis Light, Gas and Water said Monday, May 5, that artificial intelligence company xAI’s second Memphis datacenter […]

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On the Dynamic Island’s Future

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/06

Nick Heer, writing about rumors that the 2027 iPhone will feature a “truly edge-to-edge display:” I know the Dynamic Island was a clever way of transforming a necessary hardware compromise into a signature feature, albeit an imperfect one. This is a fun visual design problem to have: a hardware improvement to the iPhone will, in […]

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‘There Were No Responses to Questions’

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/06

I’ve been paying close attention to the on-going saga of xAI’s Memphis-based supercomputer, and how the company seems to be misleading both the public and our local officials on how much pollution it is causing. The story is now gaining national attention. Bill McKibben at The New Yorker (Apple News+ link) writes: Memphis was, indeed, […]

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SpaceX Pushed ‘Sniper Theory’ After 2016 Explosion

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/05

On September 1, 2016, a SpaceX Falcon 9 exploded while on the launchpad, leading the loss of an Israeli communications satellite: In the weeks after the failure, it was reported that some at SpaceX (including Elon Musk) thought the accident could have been caused by a sniper firing at the rocket from the roof of […]

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Sponsor: Simple Scan: Paper to PDF to Anywhere!

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/05

Do you love the Apple Notes document scanner, but would you like more flexibility in sending the scans to email, messages, files, or other apps? Then Simple Scan is for you. Simple Scan is the quick, easy way to scan paper documents to optimized, searchable PDF documents (or images) and send them almost anywhere. Features […]

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Mac Power Users #795: Our iPad Usage

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/04

This week on MPU: With rumors — and complaints — swirling about the state of the iPad and iPadOS, David and Stephen take some time to talk about their usage of the platform and share where they think Apple should take its tablet next. On the ad-free, longer version for members, we talk about the new […]

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More on Those New App Review Guidelines

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/02

John Gruber: This does not mean apps can now use alternative payment processing in-app. It doesn’t even mean apps are no longer required to offer Apple’s IAP in-app for purchases and subscriptions. All it means is that apps (in the US for now, but Apple really ought to make this worldwide, but I suspect Tim […]

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Apple Updates App Review Guidelines

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/02

After yesterday’s injunction, Apple has updated its U.S. App Review Guidelines concerning buttons and links to external payment providers. Here are the key changes: 3.1.1: Apps on the United States storefront are not prohibited from including buttons, external links, or other calls to action when allowing users to browse NFT collections owned by others. 3.1.1(a): […]

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NASA Swapped RS-25 on Next SLS

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/01

NASA’s new moon rocket uses a lot of components from the shuttle program, including the venerable RS-25 engine. Three were mounted to the shuttle itself, and the core stage of the SLS is powered by four of them. The next rocket — slated to take astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen […]

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Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers Hands Down Epic Ruling...

512 Pixels ·

2025/05/01

Earlier this evening, an 80-page document was released by the U.S. District Court in California, hitting Apple hard for its anti-competitive strategies concerning the App Store. The Verge’s Jay Peter’s has a great breakdown, but the gist of the ruling is that Apple can no longer charge commission on purchases made outside of the App […]

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Connected 550: Baby Jason Snell From 1886

512 Pixels ·

2025/04/30

This week on the show: Myke is learning, Federico saw a rumor, Stephen comes clean, and Apple launched a weird webpage.

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Rumors Suggest the iPhone 17 Air’s USB-C Port Will Be...

512 Pixels ·

2025/04/30

Rumors continue to point toward Apple having a thin phone in this fall’s lineup. I am fascinated by this, and think it could be my next iPhone, even if it comes with compromises. Tim Hardwick reports on one such trade-off: Achieving this level of thinness is unlikely to come without compromise. Dummy models shared by AppleTrack suggest […]

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Sponsor: Magic Lasso Adblock: YouTube Ad Blocker for...

512 Pixels ·

2025/04/28

Do you want to block all YouTube ads in Safari on your iPhone, iPad and Mac? Then download Magic Lasso Adblock – the ad blocker designed for you. As an efficient, high performance and native Safari ad blocker, Magic Lasso blocks all intrusive ads, trackers and annoyances – delivering a faster, cleaner and more secure […]

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Mac Power Users 794: Back to the Mac, with Chris Lawley

512 Pixels ·

2025/04/27

YouTuber and podcaster Chris Lawley joined me and Sparks on this episode of MPU to tell us about how the Mac has replaced the iPad as his primary computer.

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Slots of the Past: PDS

512 Pixels ·

2025/04/25

I just sent the April edition of System Extension, the newsletter for 512 Pixels members. I’m currently writing a series of articles for members outlining the history of internal expansion ports that have shipped in Macs over the years. This month, the Processor Direct Slot was up: If you want to become a member and […]

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University of Memphis Professor Weighs in on Possible...

512 Pixels ·

2025/04/25

Samuel Hardiman, at The Daily Memphian, writing about the on-going concern here in Memphis over xAI’s use of gas turbines to help power its AI supercomputer: Chunrong Jia, a professor in the U of M’s division of epidemiology, biostatistics and environmental health, modeled the impact of what xAI’s turbines would have on air quality in […]

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