Hardware

Chinese regulators may block Nvidia’s $40b Arm buyout

Written by

Global Times:

US semiconductor maker Nvidia said it will acquire UK-based computer chip designer Arm Holdings from SoftBank Group in a transaction worth $40 billion, a deal that could put the Chinese semiconductor industry at the risk of US control, Chinese analysts said.

The acquisition is likely to encounter roadblocks from China’s regulators, they added.

And:

“As part of Nvidia, Arm will continue to operate its open-licensing model while maintaining the global customer neutrality that has been foundational to its success,” the US firm said in a statement.

However, the “neutrality” is in serious doubt as Arm will become part of a US firm, which means the Trump administration could contain China’s growing chipset industry from the design side, following its crackdown on Huawei, Ma Jihua, a veteran telecom industry analyst, told the Global Times on Monday.

“The acquisition will affect the development path of China’s chipset industry as most of its products are based on Arm architecture,” said Ma.

Interesting.

Microsoft’s intriguing new Surface Duo, available for preorder today

Written by

[VIDEO] Microsoft’s Windows blog:

Today, as we look ahead to the next wave of mobile productivity and creativity, we see that same opportunity to create something new with Surface Duo – not to reinvent the phone, but to inspire people to rethink how they want to use the device in their pocket.

I’m intrigued. I like the form factor, though it is about 20% wider than the iPhone 11 Pro Max, so it stretches the concept of a pocketable device. The Surface Duo is 93.3mm wide (3.67″) and the iPhone 11 Pro Max is 77.8mm wide (3.06″)

Not sure why, but this design appeals to me much more than the Samsung Galaxy Fold, feels more stable somehow, the design somehow sleeker.

To see this for yourself, check out the video embedded in the main Loop post. Will Apple follow one of these paths to create an iPhone/iPad hybrid? If so, will it be a true foldable? A hinged device like the new Surface Duo? Or something entirely new?

Rene Ritchie makes sense of the iPhone 12 5G mess

Written by

[VIDEO] This is a pretty solid walkthrough of how 5G will come to iPhone users (video embedded in main Loop post). Especially useful is the explainer on the differences between FR2 (the super high speed branch of 5G) and FR1 (the flavor that will roll out to the vast majority of users, those not in spitting distance of the 5G towers).

Lots of lingo, but worth your time. 5G is coming.

Qualcomm announces Quick Charge 5, charge Android phone from 0 to 50% in 5 minutes

Written by

Qualcomm:

The world’s first commercially viable fast charging platform to support more than 100W charging power in a smartphone, Quick Charge 5 is engineered to allow users to charge devices from 0 to 50 percent battery power in just five minutes – representing the fastest mobile phone charging capabilities available.

Compare this to Apple’s fast charge:

Use fast charge with certain iPhone or iPad models. You can recharge your iPhone up to 50 percent battery in around 30 minutes.

That’s a big leap on Qualcomm’s part. Also interesting is that Quick Charge 5 runs cooler as well.

Coming to commercial devices in 2020Q3.

Fender’s parallel universe version of the Maverick Dorado

Written by

[VIDEO] Fender:

Originally released in 1969, the Maverick (or the “Custom”) was a wildly unique six-string guitar crafted from leftover 12-string necks, bodies and pickups. 51 years later, the Parallel Universe Maverick Dorado steps up the swagger of its predecessor with a pair of Tim Shaw-designed Filter’Tron-style humbucking pickups, a Bigsby vibrato and dark ebony fingerboard.

I love the idea of the parallel universe series, updates of old school guitars. Video embedded in main Loop post. [H/T @cyclonus]

Intel’s Lyle Warnke walks through the new Thunderbolt 4 features

Written by

[VIDEO] Follow the headline link for all the details, watch the video (embedded in the main Loop post) for more of a guided tour.

To me, these highlights stick out:

  • Thunderbolt 4 implemented as a USB-C port (no change there)
  • Daisy chain up to 4 Thunderbolt 4 devices
  • Video: Support for two 4K displays or one 8K display.
  • Data: PCIe at 32 Gbps for storage speeds up to 3,000 MBps.

And this from Apple:

“Over a decade ago, Apple partnered with Intel to design and develop Thunderbolt, and today our customers enjoy the speed and flexibility it brings to every Mac. We remain committed to the future of Thunderbolt and will support it in Macs with Apple silicon.”

Good stuff.

AirPods versus AirPods Pro: Apple’s earbuds go head-to-head

Written by

Adam Engst, TidBITS:

When it comes to general usage, I haven’t noticed any real difference between the AirPods and the AirPods Pro.

In an attempt to qualify that better, I connected both to my Mac and played my go-to test music—the “Brothers in Arms” album by Dire Straits from Apple Music—through one and then the other. Even with the same song and switching back and forth, I couldn’t really pick a winner.

I’d have to agree with this. As far as audio subtlety goes, they both sound very good, though a pair of top over-ear headphones wins that battle. But convenience reigns. The best earbuds are the ones you have with you, and that you can easily slip into your pocket.

Back to the review:

The noise cancellation in the AirPods Pro, on the other hand, can be near magical. The first time I used them, I was vacuuming the house. They were a revelation. The noise cancellation dampened the vacuum noise so significantly that I can’t imagine vacuuming without them again.

And there’s the value. Again, you can get better noise cancellation, but AirPods Pro noise cancellation is very good, and fit in your pocket.

The AirPods Pro also have shorter stems, which means I can just fit them inside the earmuffs that I wear when mowing the lawn.

I wear a knit cap (I’ve long shaved my head, and the knit cap keeps my head warm) and I find that, especially with the shorter stems, the cap keeps my AirPods Pro in place and, if I pull the cap over my ears, makes the noise cancellation even better.

I love my AirPods Pro, consider them worth every penny and then some.

Arm-based Macs: Here’s what’s happening to Boot Camp

Written by

Samuel Axon, Ars Technica:

When Apple announced its plans to transition the Mac to its own, ARM-based silicon and away from the x86 architecture used in Intel Macs, the company listed a plethora of tools for making sure as many applications survive the shift as possible. But while it’s helpful that Apple is providing developer tools for adapting Intel Mac apps and virtualization tools for running the apps that won’t make the move right away, there’s one scenario Apple didn’t talk about at all during its keynote: running Windows natively on a Mac.

And:

While virtualization via tools like Parallels or VMWare are usually sufficient for running most Windows apps under macOS, there are some edge cases when the Boot Camp approach is the only option. One of the most common: running Windows PC games, which tend to run more optimally under Windows than they do under macOS, no matter how well done the ports are.

And there’s the rub. Boot Camp allows Windows to run natively, currently as an Intel-targeted OS running natively on Intel platform.

But:

We’ve learned that Boot Camp will not work on Apple silicon-based Macs. This will surely be a surprise to almost no one, of course. You can’t expect to just run a game natively out of the box on a totally different architecture.

Yup. Boot Camp itself doesn’t allow an Intel-compiled OS to run natively on Arm. So will Microsoft allow a version of Windows to be built, targeted specifically at Apple’s Mac/Arm architecture?

Does Apple want Windows on the Mac? Is that an important part of the next generation of Macs?

Rene Ritchie: Apple dumps Intel — Explained!

Written by

[VIDEO] This is an excellent explainer, soup to nuts, about Apple’s move from Intel to ARM (video embedded in main Loop post). Per usual for Rene, this is packed with detail, but is ultimately rewarding.

Absolutely worth your time. One question remains for me: Does Apple need a Windows story anymore?

Wired: Apple’s Intel breakup will reshape Macs—and beyond

Written by

Brian Barrett, Wired:

Apple outlined several failsafes to ensure as few bumps along that road as possible. It will ship Rosetta 2, an emulator that will let ARM-based Macs run Intel software from any lagging developers. It will allow for virtualization of Linux, although Apple has been mum as to whether Macs will continue to be able to load Windows through Boot Camp or virtualization software. Most intriguingly—and unexpectedly—iPhone and iPad apps will be able to run natively on a Mac.

And, on the Roseta 2 emulator:

“It translates the apps when you install them so they can launch immediately and be instantly responsive,” said Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi during Monday’s keynote. “Rosetta 2 can also can also translate code on the fly when needed, like web browsing. It even handles the most complex pro apps and their plug-ins.”

And:

There’s also a question of at what point certain apps, in particular those that aren’t actively maintained, simply stop working on ARM-based Macs.

Terrific article. I’ve been watching developers download and install macOS 11 Big Sur (yes, it’s macOS 11), then jump through the hoops to build ARM versions of their existing apps. Without the actual Mac mini Developer Transition Kit in hand, hard to know if the ported apps actually work, but (grain of salt) assuming the ports do work on ARM hardware, this looks like a reasonably pain free port for mainstream apps.

I’ve got an app in the hopper, waiting to try for myself.

Tim Cook on WWDC eve: “I’m full of secrets and it’s hard not to overflow right now”

Written by

[VIDEO] Tim Cook, on CBS Sunday Morning yesterday:

I’m full of secrets and it’s hard not to overflow right now. But I’ve been trained well.”

This is a big moment. Connecting with developers amid rising tensions, and with huge (rumored) ARM-based Mac news to share. And if that latter news is true, Apple is about to ask developers to shoulder some potentially heavy burdens, that of rebuilding their apps to support a brand new architecture.

While porting your app to support ARM might be as simple as checking a check box and rebuilding, that view seems optimistic. More likely, this change will require more testing hardware purchases, and more time spent porting, tweaking, and testing. More time preparing and sending out beta versions to a limited universe of folks with the right hardware.

Watch the interview, embedded in the main Loop post. Keep in mind, this was yesterday. Tim and company read the blogs, he knows the lay of the land.

It’ll be an interesting afternoon, and an interesting week.

A historic “no” from Intel to Apple, then a “no” back from Apple

Written by

Over the weekend, Daniel Eran Dilger, writing for AppleInsider, shared a post titled, Apple’s shift to ARM Mac from Intel at WWDC will define a decade of computing.

The whole thing is worth reading, but this bit captured a historic sequence, one that I’m sure Intel regrets:

The first was the iPhone, which Apple initially wanted to power with an Intel-built XScale chip. Intel’s chief executive at the time, Paul Otellini, initially said no to Apple, fearing that its phone project wouldn’t be successful enough to justify Intel’s investment.

That turned out to be wildly mistaken. Within just a couple of years, Apple’s success with the iPhone was so obvious that Intel itself desperately wanted to work with Apple on future mobile products, particularly its upcoming tablet. Intel expected Apple to select its upcoming x86 Silverthorne mobile chip, later renamed as Atom.

But this time Apple said “no” to Intel, and instead initiated the development of a project to build a new customized ARM “System on a Chip” that could power both its upcoming iPad and subsequently iPhone 4. The project was delivered in 2010 as A4.

This definitely goes down in my book as one of the biggest missed bets in tech history.

Osborning the Mac

Written by

Jean-Louis Gassée:

From a PR perspective, the transition to ARM looks like a delicate balancing exercise. If Apple announces the move six months before the first ARM-based machines are scheduled to emerge, how will that effect current Mac sales?

A new Mac always raises this question, especially with a new Mac that is more than a speed bump. And more so if Apple releases a Mac that moves from Intel to ARM.

Jean-Louis brings up the fabled story of Adam Osborne, who brought the world the first commercially successful portable computer, but whose company crashed and burned.

In 1983, the polymath entrepreneur managed to kill sales of his creation by promising that its successors, the Osborn Executive and the Osborne Vixen, would be even better, Just You Wait! The pitch was so persuasive that customers did indeed wait. Sales collapsed and so did Osborne’s business.

Some say this is more fable than truth. From the Osborne Wikipedia page:

according to some new sources the real reason for Osborne Computer’s bankruptcy was management errors and insufficient cash flow.

Given how long a lead time Apple is said to be offering from announcement to release, it seems this will not be any more of a concern than previous experiences. Apple is a master of the product pipeline.

On a related note, an imagined hardware Developer Transition Kit (via DF), based on the ARM 12Z and housed in a headless device (Apple TV or Mac mini enclosure). This makes eminent sense to me. Pure speculation, but still.

Speculation aside, a key takeaway is the idea that a first ARM Mac need not replace the entire Mac product line. It might be a laptop. Or it might be a Mac mini. Or it might not even be.

How to connect external storage to iPad & iPhone

Written by

OSXDaily:

This article is going to demonstrate how to use and connect external storage drives to iPhone or iPad, including external hard disks, USB flash drives, SD cards, and other common storage formats. You’ll then have direct access to the files on those storage mediums, right from iOS or iPadOS.

Good writeup. Worth bookmarking and passing along.

Finding an Apple IIe just sitting out with the trash

Written by

Charlie Harrington:

Not one block away from our house did I spot something: a yellowed plastic box amid a pile of trash. No. It couldn’t be. I stopped, and went back to the trash.

It was an Apple IIe. With its CRT monitor. And a dual floppy drive.

Just. SITTING. THERE.

This is a pretty fun read. I have to say, if I came across an Apple II, just sitting in someone’s trash, I would definitely grab it, if only for nostalgia’s sake.

How about you?

TSMC announces intention to build and operate an advanced semiconductor fab in the United States

Written by

This is not a rumor. It’s a press release from TSMC itself.

TSMC today announced its intention to build and operate an advanced semiconductor fab in the United States with the mutual understanding and commitment to support from the U.S. federal government and the State of Arizona.

As a reminder, TSMC is a chip fabricator with a long relationship with Apple, starting with the the A5 SoC back in 2011, and is said to be the chip fabricator behind the rumored ARM-based Mac (that last bit is a rumor).

Construction is planned to start in 2021 with production targeted to begin in 2024.

Can’t help but think about the fabled Foxconn plant in Wisconsin.

Some iPad Pro users complaining that the Magic Keyboard causes excessive battery drain

Written by

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

A number of users are now airing their frustrations about battery life issues. A slice of Magic Keyboard owners are noticing that their iPad’s battery drops quickly when using the keyboard with the backlight enabled, and some reports indicate battery drain problems arise even when the iPad is idle and not in use.

I’ve seen a good number of people complain about this on Twitter. Hopefully, this is fixable with a software/firmware patch.

The amazing lever mechanism at the heart of the iPad Pro Magic Keyboard trackpad

Written by

iFixit updated their iPad Pro Magic Keyboard teardown with a look underneath the trackpad.

Take a minute, follow the headline link, scroll about halfway down the page to that GIF showing the innards of the trackpad, with a finger pressing the switch to show how it works.

What looks like multiple buttons in the X-ray is actually just one button and a simple, elegant lever system. The single button is at the center of the trackpad, where the mechanism is rigid. When you apply pressure near the center, whether top, middle, or bottom-center, you are directly pressing the button. Press near the top, bottom, or one of the corners, however, and the lever system comes into play, forcing the contact plate in the center upward to make a click happen.

To quote Phil Schiller, Can’t innovate anymore my ass!

All the gear that goes into capturing Google Street Views

Written by

This article popped up on Hacker News this morning, though it is dated December 20th. Glad it did. Fascinating read, with lots of photos of the various gear used to create Street View models.

I’d love a similar detailed look at Apple’s mapping gear.

How to mirror your Apple TV to your Mac

Written by

Josh Centers, TidBITS:

A reader recently emailed me to ask how to mirror an Apple TV on a Mac. There are two main reasons you might want to do this: to capture screenshots or video for documentation, or so you can give a remote presentation that involves the Apple TV.

Interesting that the only requirement with the current model is that both your Apple TV and your Mac be on the same WiFi network.

Apple updates 13-inch MacBook Pro with Magic Keyboard, double the storage, and faster performance

Written by

Apple:

Apple today updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the new Magic Keyboard for the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook and doubled the storage across all standard configurations, delivering even more value to the most popular MacBook Pro. The new lineup also offers 10th-generation processors for up to 80 percent faster graphics performance1 and makes 16GB of faster 3733MHz memory standard on select configurations. With powerful quad-core processors, the brilliant 13-inch Retina display, Touch Bar and Touch ID, immersive stereo speakers, all-day battery life, and the power of macOS, all in an incredibly portable design, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is available to order today, starting at $1,299, and $1,199 for education.

The base model:

1.4GHz quad‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz, with 128MB of eDRAM

And the top of the line:

Configurable to 2.3GHz quad‑core 10th‑generation Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.1GHz, with 8MB shared L3 cache

Note the range from 8th-gen i5 to the 10th-gen i7.

Storage goes from 256GB all the way up to 4TB. Memory goes from 8GB up to 32GB.

Be aware that the lower end models have 2 Thunderbolt 3 (USB‑C) ports, the high end models have 4 such ports.

The base model supports:

  • one external 5K display with 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors, or
  • up to two external 4K displays with 4096-by-2304 resolution at 60Hz at millions of colors.

The high end model supports:

  • one external 6K display with 6016-by-3384 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors, or
  • one external 5K display with 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors, or
  • up to two external 4K displays with 4096-by-2304 resolution at 60Hz at millions of colors

The iPhone SE battery drain test

Written by

[VIDEO] This might not be a fair test, since the iPhone SE enters with, by far, the smallest battery capacity of the bunch.

The SE weighs in at 1821 mAh, while the next smallest is the iPhone 11 Pro, at 3046 mAh.

Still, if you’re considering an SE, good to have a sense of the battery capacity. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Here are the parts you can swap between the new iPhone SE and iPhone 8

Written by

iFixit, from the comparison teardowns of the iPhone SE and iPhone 8:

iPhone SE’s cameras, SIM tray, Taptic Engine, and display assembly (including the microphone and proximity sensor) are all swappable with iPhone 8 parts.

And:

That screen should be cheaper to replace than any new iPhone we’ve seen in years. However, as with any modern iPhone screen swap, you will lose True Tone unless you have access to a screen programmer.

And:

Home buttons are still not interchangeable—you’ll need to hold on to your original home button in the event of a repair, substitute an aftermarket home button with no Touch ID, or else pay Apple whatever they ask to fix it for you.

And:

Although the battery looks identical, the battery’s logic board connector differs from the one in the 8, so they don’t fit together. The SE will connect to an iPhone 11 battery, which uses the same connector—but it won’t turn on. And, sadly, this seemingly throwback phone has some very modern Apple roadblocks inside. You can’t even swap one genuine iPhone SE 2020 battery for another without triggering a “not a genuine Apple battery” service warning.

Barriers to self-repair. But at the same time, keyed parts to keep repairs from going wrong. Interesting article.

AnandTech digs into the details of the new iPhone SE

Written by

I found this useful: AnandTech built a side-by-side chart comparing the specs of the iPhone SE vs all the iPhones 11.

One spec, Battery Life, shown as ?? in the AnandTech chart, is listed on China Telecom’s web site as 1,821 mAh, the same as the iPhone 8.

Also, iPhone SE RAM is said to be 3GB, compared to the 2GB of the iPhone 8. Via the same source.

Rare prototype of the first Apple Watch

Written by

Motherboard:

Giulio Zompetti, a 27-year-old from Northern Italy, told Motherboard that he purchased half a dozen early prototypes of Apple Watch recently, and is planning to fix them and sell them for thousands of dollars. Zompetti declined to say where exactly he purchased the devices from, but said they come from e-waste facilities. The prototypes he obtained are all broken, but key components are still intact, making it possible to repair them, he said.

Lots of pictures in the linked article.

An iPhone you can use underwater, and one that uses your face to guide rotation

Written by

William Gallagher, AppleInsider:

It may seem as if the iPhone, iPad, and even Mac, have not changed their user interface in years, but in truth Apple is continually revising its software. Apple is also increasingly good at hardware surviving underwater, plus it continues to look into actually making devices remain usable when submerged.

These issues are revisited in two new patents, one of which will concern anyone who’s truly wanted to operate an iOS device underwater. And the other uses technology to solve a small but recurring annoyance.

I would absolutely love the ability to use my iPhone camera under water (without a special case). There are issues with waterproofing the phone itself, but beyond that is the complexity of interacting with a phone within the physics of water. Complicated problem.

Then there’s using your face to orient your device:

All iPads have always automatically rotated their screen so that you can hold them in landscape or portrait, and such that you can hold them any way up. However, every iPad user has also had the experience of having to physically rotate the device in order to get it to check again after it’s turned the wrong way.

Happens to me every single time I fire up my iPad. Every time. I’d love to see this problem solved.

Great read.

New iPad adds in hardware microphone disconnect

Written by

Apple Platform Security document:

All Mac portables with the Apple T2 Security Chip feature a hardware disconnect that ensures the microphone is disabled whenever the lid is closed. On the 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air computers with the T2 chip, and on the 15-inch MacBook Pro portables from 2019 or later, this disconnect is implemented in hardware alone. The disconnect prevents any software—even with root or kernel privileges in macOS, and even the software on the T2 chip—from engaging the microphone when the lid is closed. (The camera is not disconnected in hardware, because its field of view is completely obstructed with the lid closed.)

That’s the Mac side. On the iPad:

iPad models beginning in 2020 also feature the hardware microphone disconnect. When an MFI compliant case (including those sold by Apple) is attached to the iPad and closed, the microphone is disconnected in hardware, preventing microphone audio data being made available to any software—even with root or kernel privileges in iPadOS or in case the firmware is compromised.

The culture of camera and mic access on the Mac and iPad are very different. On my Mac, when the camera is in use, I see a light. And, as the note states, when the lid is closed, the camera is blocked.

Hardware disconnect does prevent the mic from working when the iPad case is closed. But what if I use my iPad without a case? And what about the camera without a case? There’s no hardware disconnect to rely on. Instead, Apple requires apps to ask for permission to access the camera and microphone.

Seemingly foolproof, but no.

A flashy look at the new iPad Pro

Written by

[VIDEO] A detailed look at the new iPad Pro in action (video embedded in main Loop post). I love the open of this video. Such great production values. Like butter.

The whole thing is worth watching, but one part I found particularly interesting popped up at about 2:50, where a 4K .mov file is exported to 1080p on both the new iPad Pro and the 2018 model. Amazing results. To me, this shows a splitting point from the old to the new models.

iFixit iPad Pro 2020 teardown, a solid look at those LiDAR dots

Written by

[VIDEO] Two things to watch for in this iFixit teardown of the new iPad Pro, embedded in the main Loop post:

  • Replacing the battery is impossibly difficult for a mere mortal
  • Those LiDAR dots are pretty huge

That latter point is not a complaint, just an observation. Jump to about 1:43 and see for yourself.

Compared to the fine mesh of Face ID, LiDAR dots are much larger, with a much wider spread. Makes sense. Face ID is intended for a detailed map of your face, up close, while LiDAR is intended to map, say, the walls of a room, or an arrangement of objects on a table.