I don’t closely follow news on PC component manufacturer, especially not on PSU. I do recall, back when I could confidentially call myself an enthusiast, there were several brands called out for being unreliable. Now, this is where the stories often get even more juicer — when a manufacturer is not directly selling its products in the region.
From Op-ed
The Sale of Intel Mac Pro Pt. 2: Regional Support
I thought to expand on the whole regional support issue I had mentioned in the prior post. If you are here for the “regional support” only, the only relevant info from the previous op-ed is that it was one of the reasons why I ended up selling my machine. Warranty and importation in South Korea are tad bit weird in my opinion.
The Sale of Intel Mac Pro
This is merely a beginning of my long journey into transition out of Intel Macs. I first started looking into how other Intel Mac owners are faring in South Korea, as the region is quite unusual when it comes to trade-ins, and I wanted to see what my options were with my old Mac Pro. It was odder than I expected as most trade-in businesses were interested in Apple laptops, the ARM laptops, and hardly had any experience handling a Mac that is fully fledged desktop, let alone x86 machines, or all-in-one like iMacs.
AI Translation Poisoning Search Results
If you have been plagued by the recent YouTube’s AI dubbing, video title and description, that’s the kind of problems that is happening across all Google platform. I am talking about the Google Search results. And believe me when I say it, when I google something in Korean, I expect it to pick up Korean articles, posts, and threads so that it may be useful in the particular context.
Asset Flips, AI Slops, and Exit 8-likes
Even before AI slops became a known issue for wider internet, I believe the gamers saw it firsthand how a new tool, in the name of asset libraries, can be easily abused. These days, most developers use a game engine such as Unity, and with it, they use purchasable assets that would have been needed at least AAA game budgets to create. To reiterate my take on the asset flips and AI slops as a whole: it’s not an issue if it’s used to pursue one’s creative goal.
Retiring Last Intel Mac
Apple has already announced macOS 26 Tahoe will be the last major update for Intel Macs. The announcement roughly translates to Intel Macs will have one more year of software support until 2027, and with the release of macOS 27, x86 Macs will be no more. Not that it will decommission itself; but I’m already seeing the impact of Apple Silicon on the ecosystem as a whole, as more apps, even the universal ones, are simply too demanding.
Exit 8-Likes and Optimizations in Lores
The Exit 8 has opened the new subgenre of horror games, which I would dub as Exit 8-like. These new indie horror games share the same gameplay principle: a. the player is in a looping environment, b. if there is an anomaly (e.g. jump scares, out of place objects, etc.), act according to the game’s manual, c. the anomalies are often unsettling changes to otherwise normal, day-to-day environment. One could argue this is a take on Papers, Please but with horror and 3D graphics. And I’m inclined to agree with the sentiment; 3D assets are easily available on the store…
VMware Fusion Still Not Ready for Apple Silicon
Back in November 2024, VMware Fusion became free for personal use. It was a big shocker at the time, especially when the end days of Intel Macs didn’t seem to be dated yet. VMware on x86 machines had been a competitive product against Parallels, both paid solutions to running Windows on Macs, until 4 years passed since the first Apple Silicon device launch in 2020. I won’t pretend to know what motivated Broadcom, VMware’s parent company, to be so generous; but for a product that hasn’t seen official support of new Apple hardware for 4 years, I can see how…
Is Desktop the Only Way to Game on PC?
I was in the process of researching and investigating for an op-ed I was preparing for, — FYI, still far away to start writing a draft — and I was hit with a problem much sooner than I thought. Gamers were using “game” as a term quite colloquially. The serious games, as they put it, didn’t have serious definitions. Many often called hyperrealistic AAA titles were serious games, and some called any games with competitive multiplayer with esports league attached to it.
Apple One Needs Proper Single-User Plan
If you are subscribing to Apple Music on Apple ecosystem, at one point you must have considered subscribing to Apple One instead. The bundled subscription plan does have its merits. For one, the supposed “individual” plan already includes all the popular Apple Music and Apple TV+ with the 50GB iCloud storage. Apple Arcade is like a third wheel, even though I play Slay the Spire through the platform. Then, there’s the “family” plan, with up to 6 participants through family sharing and 200GB iCloud storage. Did you spot the issue? The key is the price tag.
Coway IoCare+ Migration Horror Spiel
I currently use two types of Coway products, number of air purifiers and a water purifier. Neither of them particularly need to have IoT features, but recently Coway decided to sprinkle the smarts onto their new products. It does have its advantages. For instance, Coway water purifiers with built-in ice makers traditionally had light sensor to only make ice during day time. With IoT, Coway’s IoCare app can actually trigger when the ice maker function will kick in. There are still buttons on the appliances, so the app is technically secondary.
Apple Pay Makes Landing in South Korea
I had written the introduction for this op-ed in 2012, and the op-ed was in making since. It began with Apple’s stance on NFC, whether the NFC on smartphones will become the next de facto standard, especially against chip-and-pin and contactless. And not so surprisingly, with Apple Pay introduced only in the United States in 2014, and increasingly more number of countries adopting EMV, the answer was self-evident. Users prefer the convenience and safety of Apple Pay or Google Pay for Android, if not the contactless from their plastic cards.
Goodbye Intel Macs and Mac Pros
Apple is finally shutting down all Intel support for macOS in coming 2026. macOS Tahoe, or 26, will be the last version to support x86 Macs as know it. Given the timing, it means within a year or so, most users would also need to switch over to Apple Silicon unless they have specific reason to stay with an Intel machine that is no longer receiving software updates. It would also mark the end of Hackintosh endeavor as we know it.
Display over USB-C is a Nightmare
Apple had taken a step back its USB-C only doctrine with reverting back to MagSafe for power, 3.5mm headphone jack for audio, HDMI for display, and embedded SD card reader for SD cards. These were the some of the ports and features most professionals wanted out in the field without carrying an additional item. It is more true than ever when Apple Silicon Macs don’t need a charger with its full-day battery life. If so, what became of USB-C? Why so suddenly Macs became divergent on USB-C?
Apple to Streamline Its OS Naming in 2025
It’s that time of the year for Apple’s product announcement: WWDC. We already know the California-based company will announce new OS with some witty jokes, but we’ve already seen two major issues with annual release cycle: one. the supposed major update is no longer significant enough, and two. the aside from macOS, all of the iOS and its variants have inconsistent numberings.