Daily Tech News 9 April 2026

• Apple MacBooks slow down after 49 days due to a MacOS time bomb. (Notebook Check)
  
  Not just MacBooks. Anything running MacOS:

  This bug means that after exactly 49 days, 17 hours, 2 minutes and 47.296 seconds from the moment a Mac is switched on, network connections are no longer terminated correctly. This initially leads to an increase in CPU utilization, because after some time hundreds or even thousands of connections are managed that should actually have been terminated. As soon as the available ports, usually 16,384 in number, are used up, no more new connections can be established.

  49 days, 17 hours, 2 minutes, and 47.296 seconds?
  
  That number might ring a bell for the 29 year olds in the audience, because the same bug caused Windows 95 and 98 to crash outright when they were running for just shy of 50 days: It's a 32-bit unsigned integer counting milliseconds.
  
  Of course Windows 95 and 98 had the saving grace that they would usually crash for some other reason well before that time ran out.

• Amazon is ending support for older Kindles. (The Verge)
  
  Where by "older" when mean 2012 and earlier.
  
  The devices will continue to work, but you won't be able to load new content onto them from the Amazon store.
  
  
  
• Iran is demanding payment in Bitcoin or iTunes gift cards for ships that want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. (CoinDesk)
  
  Do not redeem!
  
  
  
• The CIA used long-range quantum magnetometry to find the lost airman during the rescue mission in Iran. (NYPost)
  
  Cool story, bro.
  
  
  
• Apple's MacBook Neo is made using defective A18 chips that would otherwise be discarded. Problem: It's selling so well that Apple is running out of defective chips. (MacRumors)
  
  The solution in these cases is to use working chips, so it's not likely that the Neo is going to disappear.
  
  
  
• AMD's Ryzen 9950X3D2 has a price tag: $899. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Expensive, but it is a workstation chip, not a gaming chip. And it's cheaper than the RAM you'll want to attach to it.
  
  
  
• Continuous glucose monitoring made me continuously crazy. (The Verge)
  
  No, dear, you were always crazy.
  
  
  
• The 2026 Moto G Stylus has a Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 processor, 8GB of memory, a 6.7" 2712x1220 120Hz OLED display, and a stylus. (Liliputing)
  
  $499.
  
  The stylus includes touch sensitivity and tilt detection and lasts for 4 hours of writing or 100 hours on standby. A bit of an advance over my Palm Tungsten T3.
  
  
  
• The Oppo Pad Mini has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor, an 8.8" 2880x1920 144Hz OLED display, and up to 16GB of RAM. (Notebook Check)
  
  And weighs in at a svelte 279 grams. Svelte for a tablet of that size, anyway. It would be on the chonky side for a phone.

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:30 AM

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