Here are a few of the stories I’ve found interesting over the past few days. I don’t have access to Twitter Notes, so I guess I’ll continue to use the wider Internet like an old person.
Read MoreTech News Roundup for June 16, 2022
Massive news in Sports media this week, with a technology company buying the media rights to a professional sports league. My Venn Diagram of technology news, Sports TV rights, and sports in general is a perfect circle, so while there are definitely other things worth talking about over the past couple days, the Apple deal with Major League Soccer will dominate today.
Read MoreWWDC Roundup for June 6, 2022
We back. So is Apple, kind of. Apple is holding its World Wide Developers Conference this week, and for the first time since 2019, that conference is in person. The keynote was held in front of a live audience, but was a pre-recorded video like others Apple has produced in the last two years.
There was some big news out of the WWDC keynote, so let’s dig in.
Read MoreTech News Roundup for April 26, 2022
Yes, I’m going to talk about Elon Musk buying Twitter. Like it or not that was the biggest story over the past few days. But there are other things too! Including the Google Play and Apple App Stores, new Sennheiser headphones, and drone delivery in Rwanda.
Read MoreTech News Roundup for March 22, 2022
Through all the news of the past several days, I’m not even mentioning the massive iCloud outage from earlier this week. Even still, we have news about Bill C-11, Freedom Mobile, a potentially massive data breach, and rockets, among other things. Here are some of the stories I found interesting.
Read MoreTech News Roundup for March 15, 2022
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.
Read MoreApple Event Roundup for March 8, 2022
Apple announced some new products today. The announcements were small by Apple standards, at least in the consumer space. Let’s go through them, in chronological order.
There will be another roundup of the non Apple news over the past few days. That will be a separate post.
Friday Night Baseball on Apple TV+
First up is a foray into sports broadcasting for Apple. Whenever the 2022 Major League Baseball season begins (thanks, lockout) Apple has secured the rights to a weekly doubleheader of games that will air exclusively on Apple TV+. The exclusivity means that games will not air on local television in the markets of the teams playing in the games, and that Apple TV+ will be the only way to watch those two games every week.
The service will launch in Canada, which means that there may be the occasional Friday night Toronto Blue Jays game that is only available on Apple TV+. You know… assuming there is a baseball season.
Green iPhone 13
The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro now come in Green. This concludes your iPhone 13 updates.
IPhone SE Gets Spec Bump and 5G
The iPhone SE, Apple’s least expensive new iPhone has received a minor update. The 2022 model of the iPhone SE includes the same A15 Bionic processor found in the iPhone 13, and the phone now features 5G support. The phone is otherwise completely unchanged, still featuring the same body and style as the iPhone 8.
Battery life was a concern on the 2020 iPhone SE, so it remains to be seen what the 2022 model with a more power hungry 5G radio will do.
The iPhone SE (2022) is up for pre-order now and will be available on March 18, starting at $580
IPad Air Gets Spec Bump, 5G, And Small Price Decrease
The iPad Air also saw an update. The 2022 iPad Air now features the Apple M1 Processor that is found in the MacBok Air, MacBook Pro 13, and iPad Pro. There is optional 5G support as well. That is the extent of the changes to the iPad Air, but the upgrade to the M1 Processor is an interesting dynamic. The iPad Air is now just as powerful and the more expensive iPad Pro, with the iPad Pro’s primary advantage being a better display and speakers.
The iPad Air has also received a small price cut in Canada. The 2020 iPad Air started at $780 for 64GB of storage, while the 2022 model starts at $750 for the same 64GB of storage. The iPad Air remains an expensive upgrade from the basic iPad, but is now a very compelling option when compared to the iPad Pro.
The iPad Air (2022) is up for pre-order now and is available on March 18, starting at $750.
Mac Studio Launches, brings new M1 Ultra Processor
There is a new member of the Mac family. The Mac Studio is a desktop workstation computer that looks like two or three Mac Mini’s stacked on top of each other. It has all the ports, which is a welcome departure for Apple, and is marketed at professional workflows needing powerful computers. This is not something you buy to read Twitter.
Powering the $2500 base model of the Mac Studio is the same M1 Max CPU found in the high end version of the 16” MacBook Pro launched in 2021. But the high end version of the Mac Studio features a new M1 Ultra processor.
What is the M1 Ultra? It is essentially two M1 Max processors stuck together to form one giant (literally) processor. The M1 Ultra uses a custom Apple built interconnect between the two M1 Max CPU’s to facilitate this, with Apple claiming speeds of up to 2.5 TB/s between the two M1 Max CPU’s. This system also allows the M1 Ultra to appear as one processor to software instead of two, which means that software does not need to be re-written to take advantage of the horsepower the new system provides. Apple provided its usual graphs saying the M1 Ultra is 3.8x better than this or that without providing any actual metrics, so we will wait for reviews. The M1 Ultra does look like a monster, and will be very capable. Again, this is not a consumer device, and will find its home among those developing the next Marvel movie, not the person reading Twitter.
The Mac Studio with the M1 Ultra starts at $4500 in Canada. Both the M1 Max and M1 Ultra models are available for pre-order now and ship on March 18th.
Studio Display is a Monitor From Apple Does Not Cost $5000
Apple finally announced a new monitor that, while still stupidly expensive, is not so absurdly expensive that we should all point and laugh at it.
The Studio Display is a 5k display that starts at $2000 in Canada. What makes this display interesting is the fact that it includes a webcam that features Apple’s face tracking technology to keep subjects in the center of the screen. That feature is powered by an Apple A13 processor, the same processor that was found in the iPhone 11. Yes, there is a monitor with the guts of an iPhone 11 inside.
Your $2000 includes a basic tilt stand or a VESA mount adapter. A stand that is allows you to ajust the height of the monitor is an additional $500.
The Studio Display is available for pre-order now and ships on March 18.
Tech News Roundup for February 8, 2021
Here are a few of the stories I’ve found interesting over the past few days, including why Spotify Needs Joe Rogan more than he needs Spotify.
Read MoreTech News Roundup for October 21, 2021
Here are a few of the tech stories I’ve found interesting over the last couple days, including Xbox storage that is almost as expensive as the Xbox, Google cutting Play Store fees, and Android Apps on Windows
Microsoft Begins Testing Android Apps on Windows
One of the biggest promised features of Windows 11 was the ability to run Android apps on the operating system. This, unfortunately, did not ship with Windows 11 at launch. But now Microsoft has started testing Android apps in the Windows Insiders Beta Channel.
As a reminder, Android apps on Windows will be delivered through the Amazon App Store, not the Google Play store, so that already really limits the usefulness of the functionality, but something is better than nothing. Android compatibility will be achieved through the “Windows Subsystem for Android” which essentially looks like an Android Virtual Machine running in Windows.
The first iteration of this looks extremely rough, and most people who are testing this say that it doesn’t work very well, but this is just testing. Hopefully the bugs and issues get ironed out.
Google is Cutting Play Store Fees to 15% on Subscriptions and Streaming Services
As Apple and Google continue to fight lawsuits over the alleged monopolies they have in their respective mobile platforms, they are both taking steps to try to appease the regulators. The most recent step is from Google, which says it will now reduce the cut it takes on subscription services on the Play Store from 30% to 15% on day one. Google had previously adjusted the Play Store to take a 30% cut for the first year of a subscription, then 15% after that. Now, it will be 15% from the start.
The company says that eligible providers of ebooks and music and video streaming services may also be able to reduce the cut Google takes to 10% if they meet certain criteria.
This won’t stop the lawsuits, but will be good for both consumers and companies.
The 2TB Xbox Storage Expansion Card Costs Almost as Much as an Xbox Series X
The Xbox Series and Playstation 5 consoles have extremely high end solid state drives for fast performance, and those drives are expensive. As a result, expanding storage on the consoles is very expensive. Last year Microsoft released a 1TB card that works with both the Xbox Series S and Series X at a price of $300. The Xbox Series S by itself is $380. Now, there are new options, a 512GB card and a 2TB card. The 512GB card costs $180 and the 2TB card clocks in at $520, while the Xbox Series X console is priced at $600. While these storage cards are expensive, the pricing is actually about in line with buying Solid State Drives of this type for a PC. These drives are just high end, and fast.
Google Making Changes to YouTube Music
Google is making some changes to its YouTube Music streaming service, affecting both the free and paid tiers. Essentially, Google is swapping two features between them. Now, the free tier of YouTube Music will allow for background playback. Apparently, users on the free tier could not close the app and keep music playing before now. However, free users of YouTube Music will lose access to watching music videos on the platform. Considering you can… you know.. just go to YouTube to watch those music videos, that doesn’t seem like much of a big deal at all, and actually having background playback is a much better deal, in my opinion. The free tier of YouTube Music is playlist based, and does not have unlimited skips, so there are still limits to the service.
The changes are being tested in Canada first, and take effect on November 3rd.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/10/21/google-youtube-music-canada-songs-only/
Microsoft Surface Duo 2 Reviews Hit
The reviews of the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 have hit and they are… not good. Most reviewers talk about how Microsoft made some parts of the phone better, like including passable cameras and having high end specs, but that those changes made other parts of the experience of using the device worse. And Microsoft’s track record of keeping the first Surface Duo updated with software support was spotty, to be polite.
The Surface Duo 2 is $1900 in Canada, which seems like quite a bit of money to ask for this product. I’m not sure who it is for.
Apple’s New Power Brick for the MacBook Pro is the first to support USB Power Delivery 3.1
Allow me to nerd out just a little bit. USB Power Delivery is very important to the technology industry, as it allows one standard plug to power almost anything, negating the need for proprietary barrel plugs, especially on laptops. USB Power delivery had been limited to 100 Watts of power, which was fine for smartphones, tablets, and general purpose laptops, but higher performance devices need more power than that. The spec is also scalable enough that you can safely plug in a device that may only need 5 watts of power into a 100 watt charger, and it will only draw the power it needs. It really is one charger to rule them all. Now, the USB PD 3.1 spec allows up to 240 Watts of power through the USB-C port, which should allow all but the most powerful of laptops to use USB-C for power. Apple is the first company that I know of that is adopting USB PD 3.1 in a product, with the 140 Watt Power Adapter for the new 16” MacBook Pro supporting the standard spec.
Annoyingly, the laptop itself only supports the full 140 Watt speeds through the magsafe port, with the USB-C ports only rated for 100 Watts. Apple gonna Apple. Regardless, it is exciting to see the new spec in a real product, and I bet we see a lot of high performance, high power laptops in 2022 powered by USB-C.
Apple Event Roundup for October 18, 2021
Apple released a new slew of products for the second time in a month. September was about the iPhone and iPad, today was about the Mac and Music. Let’s dive in.
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