Fun fact about the M4 iPad Pro: it’s the first device to support and use Apple's new Secure Indicator Light (SIL) mechanism. When using the microphone or camera, the corresponding indicator dot is effectively rendered in hardware (using the display), making it a lot less likely that any malware or user space app would be able to access those sensors without the user’s knowledge.
@_inside oh, that's good to know!
@_inside Is this enabled by the display controller in M4? (As in, does it operate at that level?)
@huw nope, it’s controlled by its own secure exclave (not to be confused with secure enclave (handles face id and various other things) or secure element (handles apple pay))
@_inside @stroughtonsmith wasn't macbook pro touchbar first one to have that too, physical indicator on the camera that is on when the camera is on, cannot be turned on by software separately ?
@takeitev The MacBook webcam light has been hard wired into the camera for a lot longer than that. I think it's been wired like that since ~2012 for MacBooks. It sounds like the M4 light is a little bit different in that it also activates for microphone use and might be powered by kernel software rather than wired-in-series like the traditional webcam light.
@danherbert The biggest difference is that the iPad's indicator light is not a separate LED—it's an image, displayed on-screen! I wonder how they went about implementing that
@Cykelero Possibly similar to how Android does it where the SoC has a secure sandbox for the kernel for rendering that takes priority over all less-secure (userspace) drawing instructions?
@_inside I remember they said that about the MacBook Pro 
@hboon That was different. Macs actually have a physical LED light for the camera. This uses areas of the display itself as the LED.
@_inside can they change the position of the dots if they want or are they now stuck with this design forever?
@_inside how does that work with orientation?
@siguza it just works™
@_inside I thought this was advertised on iPhone 14.
@_inside How exactly is the dot "rendered in hardware" on the display? If it's on the device's main screen, then what stops a 3rd party app from drawing colored dots in that area?
@_inside Where did you find the meaning of the SIL acronym? Or are you guessing?
@nicolas17 I can’t recall, but I’m pretty sure I read it somewhere in code.
@_inside SIL is also used to render the FaceID indicator, with a complicated animation state machine. I made a player for it 
https://data.nicolas17.xyz/sil-player.html?m
@nicolas17 Awesome work 
@nicolas17 @_inside fascinating! Do you happen to have a write up of the format?
@_inside do you mean the indicators are directly wired to cam/mic power lines? or otherwise what protects them against a kernel call primitive triggering exclave downcalls?