After missing last Thursday, there is much to talk about. Here are just a few of the stories I’ve found interesting over the last few days, from the Rogers/Shaw deal, to Apple products, to new product announcements, to potential product shortages due to covid.
Rogers Looks to Sell Freedom Mobile to Complete Shaw Purchase
Consider me slightly surprised by this one. Rogers is so interested in buying Shaw’s Cable Internet and TV business that it is willing and trying to find a 3rd party to purchase Freedom Mobile. The Government of Canada has indicated that it will not allow the deal to proceed if Shaw’s wireless business is included, so Rogers is trying to find a buyer for it.
While buying Shaw’s wireline Internet and TV business would make Rogers the only truly national Internet and TV provider in Canada, I’m still a bit surprised that the company is willing to go through the deal without the wireless business. That seemed like the important part of the business going forward.
ARM to Layoff 1,000 Employees After Failed Sale
Softbank, the owner of ARM has said it will lay off about 1,000 workers, or 15% of ARM’s workforce. This comes after the deal for Nvidia to buy ARM was blocked by several governments. ARM designs the processor architecture that are in almost every device that isn’t a Windows computer, so this could have an effect on ARM products in the future.
Shenzen Lockdown Could Make Product Shortages Even Worse
The government in China has locked down Shenzen after a reported 60 covid cases in the city of 17 million people. While the reported numbers from the government are not to be trusted, the lockdown itself means that several large facilities that manufacture products are shut down. As of this writing there is no word on how long the shutdown will last, but any product made there will not be produced in the short term. Many large companies produce products in that area, from car parts to headphones to iPhones to laptops. This shutdown could have a large short term impact on certain product categories.
https://www.androidpolice.com/shenzhen-lockdown-global-electronics-supply/
Apple news, not Apple News
A quick few points on a few things Apple related:
The iPhone SE (2022) has reviewed as expected. A fast phone in a 5 year old body. It remains the cheapest iPhone, and the only option for a “new” iPhone under $600. Apple could do so much better.
iOS 15.4 has been released. The biggest feature is that FaceID should now work while wearing a mask. Perfect timing. Other small features include the ability to factory reset an Apple Watch that has become unresponsive and displaying a red exclamation mark. Previously Apple Watches with that issue had to be sent back to Apple.
iPad OS 15.4 and MacOS 12.3 have brought Universal Control to Macs and iPads. Announced last June, and eventually delayed, Universal control allows users to control an iPad wirelessly, using a keyboard and mouse connected to a Mac, dragging and dropping files between devices, and more.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/15/22978387/apple-watch-8-5-update-recovery-mode-iphone-restore
https://www.theverge.com/22975531/apple-iphone-se-2022-review-price-specs-screen-battery
AMD Announces New Products
AMD is out with several new products. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a new high end processor for desktop computers. It features new 3D cache technology, which allows more denstly packed cache on the processor, improving performance. This is likely a “test” release ahead of this technology becoming more common in AMD’s next generation of processors.
AMD also finally announced more affordable Ryzen 5000 series processors. Supply contstraints had meant that the entry level versions of products did not make it to market last year, and we finally have cheaper Ryzen processors. The cheapest versions are based on 2019’s Zen 2 technolgoy, but are still updated versions of said products, and will find their way into entry level systems going forward.
Microsoft Touts Cloud Gaming Improvements on Apple Devices
With Apple not allowing a dedicated app for Xbox Cloud Gaming on its App Store for iPads and iPhones, Microsoft has been forced to deliver the service through the web on those devices. While it worked, there were noticeable issues, including more instances of laggy performance, and less integration with the system. The company says that it has been working on the web version of Xbox Cloud Gaming, and that it is 33% faster now than it was at launch. While I’m sure that’s true, it remains unacceptable that Apple blocks Microsoft (and Google) from the App store for game streaming services.
Microsoft Says the Ads Users Saw in Windows 11 Were Totally a Mistake And Aren’t Something They’re Planning to do at all Even Through They’ve Already Done it in the Past.
Microsoft has been putting ads in Windows for years. Ads in operating systems are bad, and companies that do that should feel bad.
So, a few users on Windows insider builds spotted an ad in File Explorer. Microsoft was quick to say that it wasn’t something they meant for the public to see, and quickly pulled the ads. But that ignores the point that the capability is clearly there for Microsoft to place more ads in Windows in more intrusive locations. No one will be happy about that, and all it will do is cheapen the Windows brand. Hopefully the backlash is enough for Microsoft to reconsider.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/15/22979251/microsoft-file-explorer-ads-windows-11-testing
Twitter Abandons Tabbed Timeline Test
Speaking of “company abandons bad idea after predicable backlash”
Twitter had been testing a new home screen interface that allowed users to have different tabs in the interface, one for the algorithmic timeline, one for chronological timeline, and other tabs for custom lists. The problem with this interface was that after allowing users to switch back to the chronological timeline several years ago, there was no way to make that the default in this test. This made the algorithmic timeline the default, and there was enough negative feedback among those testing the new interface that Twitter has abandoned the idea entirely. Long live reverse chronological.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2022/03/15/twitter-abandons-tabbed-timeline-after-user-complaints/
Microsoft Launches DirectStorage for PC
One of the big features of the Xbox Series X and S consoles was a a new technology called DirectStorage. This system gave the graphics processor direct access to storage, instead of the CPU needing to talk to the storage and then pass the data to the graphics processor. This has had a huge improvement on game load times on these consoles. Now that technology will be available to Windows 10 and 11 PC’s. There are no games that currently support DirectStorage on PC, as this release is final version of the technology. Developers can now take the documentation and update their games to support the tech.