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semidror

57 karma · joined January 24, 2024

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semidror··on Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?
It does. The latest officially supported Xcode version runnable on Sequoia is 26.3. See https://developer.apple.com/xcode/system-requirements/

But it is possible to run even the latest Xcode 26.6 by directly executing Xcode.app/Contents/MacOS/Xcode, and Xcode will run. This trick doesn't work with Xcode 27 anymore though. If you try that, you'll see a warning message that says something like "Xcode requires macOS 26 to run".

semidror··on Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?
Thanks, that's an interesting observation! When I double-clicked on the "Siri" process in Activity Monitor, I saw that it's an app called "Siri AI".

If the "Siri AI" app has replaced Spotlight, then I wonder if Apple keeps building "personal context" despite Siri and Apple Intelligence being disabled.

It for sure doesn't sound well to disable Siri and still see a "Siri" process.

semidror··on Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?
Yes, I did something similar: prior to disabling Siri, I set Siri's language to French and kept the system language set to English (UK), but the Siri AI.app ("Siri" process in Activity Monitor) just keeps running despite Siri being indicated as disabled in Settings.

If you are on macOS 27, could you please open Activity Monitor, search (filter) for "siri" and see if a process called "Siri" is still running?

semidror··on Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?
Thanks, I believe this is what the debloat script mentioned in my post does. I manually executed the `launchctl bootout` and `launchctl disable` commands on all Siri and AI-related services in the https://github.com/OleksandrKrupko/mac-os-debloat/blob/main/... script, but the "Siri" process ("Siri AI.app") still keeps running even after restarting.

The Siri AI.app is read-only, so I could not even remove it. But perhaps it would be possible to boot into Recovery, mount the system partition as rw and delete the Siri AI.app from the filesystem?

P.S. I did also disable mediaanalysisd and photoanalysisd, and those are NOT running. However, the Siri AI.app does keep running...

semidror··on Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?
Same here. Unfortunately, if you use Xcode to develop for iOS, then Apple basically forces you to install macOS 27 to be able to develop for the new iPhones. The iPhone 18 Pro requires Xcode 27, and Xcode 27 won't run on Sequoia.

If anyone knows how to make the iPhone 18 Pro work with Xcode 26 on Sequoia, and in turn with iOS 27, I (and I'm sure many other people) would be very happy to hear how!

semidror··on Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?
Instead of "Siri Classic", I selected the "Don’t Allow Siri" option, but it didn't help. The "Siri" (Siri AI.app) process keeps running regardless.
semidror··on iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max
IIRC, iPhones (and every other smartphone) records variable frame rate videos (VFR), whereas professional cameras can record constant frame rate videos (CFR).

I think that VFR videos need to be re-encoded into CFR videos in order to be able to work with all the footage shot by different devices. It sounds to me like with the Genlock feature, it could actually be possible to record CFR videos on an iPhone and also synchronize the iPhone with other devices so that both video and audio does not drift relative to other devices. But that's just my speculation as I couldn't find any details about the Genlock feature.

I would love to know how the team working on 28 years later handled synchronization of the multiple iPhones they were using to shoot some scenes of the movie and if they got a helping hand from Apple, which perhaps allowed them to use some internal APIs to access hidden features of the camera stack...

semidror··on iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max
With the introduction of ProRes RAW and Genlock, it seems like iPhones can finally be seriously considered for professional movie capture.
semidror··on The iPhone 15 Pro’s Depth Maps
Thanks!
semidror··on The iPhone 15 Pro’s Depth Maps
Would it be possible to point out more details about where Apple got the math wrong and which inaccurate approximations they use? I'm genuinely curious and want to learn more about it.
semidror··on Ask HN: Which monitors do you use?
I second Apple having great IPS monitors and iPad displays. I couldn't notice any IPS glow or backlight bleeding and/or dimming at the edges when using an iMac. I can't believe manufacturers like Dell, LG or Samsung can't (or don't want to?) replicate the quality.

Isn't the 5K resolution on a 27" monitor too small? Or do you use upscaling?

semidror··on Ask HN: Which monitors do you use?
I accept that the organic material contained in the pixels has limited lifespan and that the brightness of each pixel will eventually wear out. That's just the limitation of the technology.

But I'd like an OLED monitor to somehow mask/compensate for this degradation by e.g. adjusting the voltage/brightness of individual pixels according to their cumulative wear so that it's invisible to the user. That way, I would observe no signs of burn-in at, say, 30% brightness, but after years of cumulative usage, the monitor would get less and less bright (i.e. the wear would appear uniform).

What I'm primarily concerned about is temporary image retention; the outline of a white PDF document opened for hours being visible after switching to a dark IDE. I'm not sure if the 3rd gen QD-OLED or WOLED panels are resistant to such kind of image retention.