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 September 14, 2020
Here are a few of the stories that caught my eye over the weekend…. When I wasn’t watching football.
Oracle Emerges as Tik Tok Partner As Trump Backs Political Supporter
On Sunday, Microsoft announced that it had lost out on its bid to buy Tik Tok’s US operations. The deal reportedly fell apart after it became clear that Tik Tok’s algorithm, the lynchpin of the deal, would not be included.
Shortly thereafter, news broke that Oracle would be selected as the “preferred tech partner” for Tik Tok in the United States. It does not appear that Oracle will own any part of Tik Tok, but rather than Tik Tok’s US data will be stored on servers operated by Oracle.
There is a lot here. In August, US President Donald Trump deemed Tik Tok such a security threat that it either had to be operated by a US company or he would not allow it to continue operating in the United States. This was because ByteDance, the operator of Tik Tok, is owned by a Chinese company. I could go further back in time and mention that the service that eventually became Tik Tok was actually developed in the US by a US company before it was purchased by ByteDance in a deal that was approved by the United States government, but we’ll leave that there.
After Trump signed an Executive Order that said ByteDance had to sell Tik Tok by September 15, and then another one that extended the deadline into November, Microsoft publicly stated it was in negotiations to purchase and operate Tik Tok. Several days later, it was widely reported that Oracle had emerged as another company interested in purchasing Tik Tok. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is a Trump supporter, and has donated large amounts of money to the President’s political campaigns. It was reported that Ellison called Trump directly to state his interest in buying TikTok. Since then, Trump has said to have preferred Oracle to Microsoft.
While there are no concrete details on exactly what “preferred tech partner” means, it appears that Oracle will not own Tik Tok, nor any of it’s data. It appears that Oracle will host the data for US based accounts on servers run by Oracle in the United States. Financial terms are not yet available, but it is likely to be significant.
So, 2 months ago Tik Tok was such a a national security risk to the United States it either needed to be shut down, or banned from operation. Now, it will allowed to continue operating, will still be owned by ByteDance, ByteDance will still control the algorithm, still have access to the data… but the company run by a big supporter of Donald Trump will get paid to store the data.
I’m sure this has nothing to do with Tik Tok users claiming all the tickets to President Trump’s rally in Tulsa causing the Arena to be half empty. Nothing at all.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/09/oracle-one-of-donald-trumps-favorite-companies-wins-tiktok-deal/
Apple’s New App Store Rules for Streaming Services Don’t Actually Allow Streaming Services
On Friday Apple updates its App Store guidelines in an attempt to placate companies like Microsoft and Google who have been prevented from offering their game streaming products in the iOS app store. Apple’s rules now do technically allow streaming services like Game Pass Streaming and Stadia, but it specifies that each game in the service must be individually submitted to the app store for approval.
That is obviously not something gaming companies will accept, and does nothing to solve this impasse. If Apple wants to review every game in a streaming service shouldn’t it also review every song on Spotify, or every movie on Netflix?
Bring on the anti-trust trials.
https://mashable.com/article/apple-app-store-game-streaming-services/
nVidia to Buy ARM Holdings
Late Sunday it was reported that nVidia will buy ARM Holdings from Softbank for $40 Billion US. nVidia is mostly known for its graphics cards, and this represents an interesting move for them. nVidia has a division that focuses on the datacenter, as some higher end and professional grade graphics processors are very adept compute platforms themselves, and as a result nVidia has been making inroads into data centers and super computing platforms using GPU Compute platforms.
ARM Holdings is the company responsible for designing the basic architecture of the ARM processors found in virtually every computing device that is not a desktop computer or laptop. ARM does not build any processors itself, but instead licenses the technology to other companies. Those companies, like Apple or Qualcomm may modify the designs for their own use, but basically every device runs some variant of a processor designed by ARM Holdings.
In recent years, ARM processors have made inroads into data center spaces, as ARM processors are much more power efficient than x86 processors from Intel and AMD. More power efficient means they run cooler, which requires less cooling in data centers, which means less power usage.
It is likely that nVidia’s angle here is to take ARM processors and design systems with ARM processors and nVidia GPU’s and sell those systems to data center providers.
Those worried about ARM processors in phones shouldn’t worry. The way ARM Holdings works basically prevents nVidia from taking those designs and keeping it to themselves. This should have no effect on ARM processors in our devices, and actually has the potential to help, with nVidia’s graphics expertise.
US Customs Seizes OnePlus Buds Headphones Claiming they are Counterfeit AirPods
The US Customs and Border Patrol has proudly shown off it seizing a shipment of what it calls counterfeit AirPods, claiming they violate Apple Trademarks. The shipment in question was a container of OnePlus Buds, a set of earbuds from OnePlus, a company that has been making Android devices and accessories for several years. While the basic design is similar to AirPods, there are dozens of other products available for sale that more closely resemble AirPods than these, with some that look like they use the actual mould of AirPods.
It should be made clear that Apple is not initiating this, and it has not taken any legal action against OnePlus for the design of the OnePlus Buds. This appears to be Customs and Border Patrol taking “initiative”
This shouldn’t matter, but with the current US administration, it is worth noting that OnePlus is a Chinese company, though it does have offices around the world.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/13/21435637/us-cbp-counterfeit-airpods-oneplus-buds-mixup
Google Announces “Made By Google” Event for September 30
Google’s next hardware event is coming on September 30. At the online only event Google is expected to unveil the Pixel 4a 5G, the Pixel 5, an updated Google Home Smart Speaker, a new Android TV dongle to replace the Chromecast Ultra, and possibly a Pixel 5s phone.
I’m personally interested in the smart speaker and the Android TV dongle. We wait for September 30.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2020/09/14/made-by-google-september-30-pixel-5/
Apple Announces Transition from Intel to ARM Processors
During the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote, Apple announced that beginning this fall, they will begin transitioning their Mac computers from Intel processors to Apple designed ARM Processors. This is easily the biggest change for apple since the release of the iPhone in 2007.
The Tale of the Processor
Talking processors can get into the weeds very quickly, so we’re going to try to keep this at a high level. Every electronic device has some kind of processor. On your laptop it probably has an Intel processor of some kind, you’ll hear commercials market it as “Intel 10th gen Core i5” or something similar. Intel or AMD processors running on an x86 architecture have been present in almost every Windows computer since the mid 1980’s. “x86” refers to the instruction set, or programming language, that the processor works on. Mac computers also run on Intel x86 processors, but they haven’t always. More on that in a bit. Devices like your phone run on processors with an ARM instruction set. If you have an Android phone, your phone likely has a processor marketed as a Snapdgragon processor, while Apple iPhones and iPads have what apple brands as an “A” series processor. The iPhone 11, for example, has an A13 processor. While ARM processors do the same thing as Intel processors, they do them differently, with different “instruction sets.” The operating systems, apps, and all underlying software must be written for the instruction set they are running on. An app written for Windows on an Intel processor won’t run on an iPhone with an ARM processor, and vice versa.
Apple and ARM
Apple has been making processors for iPhones and iPads for years, with the A series processor. ARM processors are a generic design, and companies like Apple or Qualcomm can take those designs and tailor them for their specific needs. Apple has been using their self designed A series processors since the A4 processor in 2010.
One of the key advantage of ARM processors over processors from Intel is efficiency. The phones and tablets that ARM processors run on are very low power devices, as battery life is the priority. But as the design of those ARM processors has matured, they have become more powerful, while keeping the power efficiency. During the keynote Apple kept touting their A series processors “performance per watt” metric as being superior to Intel. As Apple has developed the A series processors, they can, in synthetic tests, get equivalent performance to a laptop with an Intel processor, while consuming much less power.
Great, so The Switch Should be Easy
There are definite advantages to making the switch. Apple makes the A Series processors, they’re just as good as Intel processors, and consume less power, but it isn’t always that easy. As said earlier, apps aren’t able to run on different instruction sets natively, so this is a much more complicated process than just changing the processor in a Mac laptop. All of the software has to be re-written to work on an ARM processor, from MacOS itself to all of the apps we use every day. This is a big undertaking.
On the Road Again
Now, Apple has actually done this before, most recently in the mid 2000’s. from 1994 to 2005 every Mac ran on an IBM PowerPC processor. At the same WWDC conference in 2005 Steve Jobs announced that Apple would switch to Intel. The reasons provided were the same as what we heard today. Intel’s performance per watt was better, there was more battery life from Intel processors, etc. Steve Jobs laid out a roadmap of how it would work. Apple provided tools to developers to make their apps work on Intel processors. Developers could make what was called a Universal Binary, which was an app that would contain the instruction sets to be able to run on both PowerPC and Intel processors. This allowed developers to only have to write an app once, and they did not have to maintain two separate versions of apps, one for PowerPC, and one for Intel. Apple also announced a platform called Rosetta. This was something built into OS X that allowed apps made for PowerPC to work on Intel processors. This worked by creating a translation layer which told the Intel processor how to handle the PowerPC instruction set. Apps run in Rosetta were often slower and did not work quite as well, but it provided a vital compatibility layer for users who had apps that might not have been updated to work on Intel laptops. It wasn’t a perfect system, but at least it was something. Universal Binaries meant that users who bought a PowerPC laptop in early 2005 knew that they would be able to get support in apps for years, and users who bought an early Intel Mac in 2006 knew that most of the apps they use would run even if they weren’t updated yet.
Fast forward to 2020 and Apple took that playbook and has done essentially the same thing. The company announced the “Universal 2” program to allow developers to create apps that will run on both Intel Macs and A series Macs. Apple claims it will take developers just “a few days” to convert their app to a universal app. Apple also announced Rosetta 2, which will allow apps designed just for Intel macs to run on A series Macs. Apple promises that apps running through Rosetta 2 will be much faster and there will be fewer limitations. This, again, allows users who bought an Intel Mac today to know that they will be supported for years to come with Universal 2 Binary apps that work on both Intel and A series processors (very good for people who may have spend $30,000 on a Mac Pro in 2019). It also gives users who buy the first A series Macs peace of mind that almost any app they want to use will at least work, if not as well as an app designed for ARM.
The Advantages
There are several advantages to Apple making this change. First and foremost, it means that the processors that run Mac computers are designed by Apple instead of Intel. Because of this, Apple has even more control than they already do over the entire ecosystem. Just like on iPhones and iPads where the hardware and software are designed together, the same will happen on Macs. This will allow Apple to get even more out of the ARM processors in future Macs. Another benefit is that Apple isn’t beholden to Intel’s road map. Intel has faced challenges in the past 3-4 years on their technologies, and as a result their processors have not advanced as fast as many would want, Apple included. Apple will also be able to leverage their products all across the line. Apple’s strategy for iPhones and iPads has been to use the previous year’s high end A series processor in lower powered/cheaper products. The 10.2” iPad for example uses the A10 processor which originally debuted with the iPhone 7 in 2016. The A10 is far from the best A series processor in 2020, but Apple uses it as a low cost option in the cheaper iPad. A future Mac lineup could potentially include the expensive laptops getting a processor first like the MacBook Pro, with the MacBook Air getting the processor made the previous year.
Apple controlling the hardware and software could also lead to interesting changes to the hardware. Macs today are constrained by the power and heat limitations of Intel processors, and having more control over all aspects of the hardware could lead to interesting new designs for the computers themselves. Thinner and lighter isn’t always the key, but imagine a MacBook air with 18-24 hours of battery life instead of the 6 or so they get today. Imagine an iMac desktop that looks like a big iPad on a stand. New hardware designs are clearly coming with this change, and Apple’s control of all aspects should lead to some fun new looks for their lineup.
The Unknown Support Period
The one unknown question is the long term support for Macs running the A series processors. Apple has generally given their phones very good support, but that support has usually capped out around 5 years. The iPhone 6S from 2015 was a surprise inclusion in the list of supported devices for iOS 14, giving that phone 5 years of support. We do not, however, know how long Apple will support laptops with A series processors with updates. Apple has so far demonstrated about 8 years of update support on Intel Macs, and I would hope that the support for A series Macs to be at least the same. However, one complication could be the use of the older processors in those Macs. There are not a ton of data points on how Apple will support newer products with older processors in them. The iPad Air 2 with the Apple A8X processor. That device was released in 2014, and it is getting iPad OS 14, giving at least 6 years of software support. But that was a new processor at time of release. The 5th generation iPad was released in 2017 with the, at the time, 2 year old A9 processor. So while the device itself is only 3 years old, it’s processor is 5 years old. That iPad will be getting iPad OS 14, so it remains supported, but we do not know how long it will get support. Only time will tell there.
Now, a device not receiving software updates will not stop working, it will of course continue to work on whatever software it runs on, but when software updates end, devices lose access to new features, and risk not being able to access new apps and services. The longer the update period, the better, and for now, that will remain a question mark.
I Hear You Like Apps
One of the more interesting results of a Mac running on the same processor platform as iPhones and iPads is that any Mac with the A series processor will be able to run iPhone and iPad apps natively. This opens up literally hundreds of thousands of apps that could be run on Macs. Now, not all of these will be ideal. An app designed to run on a phone screen may not look great on a bit expansive Mac screen, but there is a large category of apps designed for iPads that could run very well on a Mac with an A series processor. This opens up some very interesting possibilities.
What Does This Mean For The User?
For the average user buying a Mac laptop right now, nothing. If you have a mac and it breaks today, You can feel ok that if you buy a Mac tomorrow, you’ll get years of support. If you want to wait and buy one of the first ARM Macs in the fall, almost every app you want to run will at least work, if not perfectly. No one should be afraid to buy a Mac today, or tomorrow, because of this change.
What does this mean for professionals?
For a true “professional” user, someone who uses their Mac for content creation, app development, video/photo editing, etc, it is a bit less clear. Considering Apple released the very powerful (and very expensive) Mac Pro in 2019 with Intel processors, there should be very long term support for the Intel Platform. But what we currently do not know is how well content creation workflows will work on early ARM Macs. If you only use Apple made apps, it will work fine, but if some relatively obscure 3rd party tool is vital to your workflow and you’re not sure if it will get updated to support the A series processors, buying an early ARM Mac might not be the safest idea. We also, frankly, don’t know how well the early ARM Macs will perform. Will the first ARM MacBook pro be as fast as the latest Intel MacBook Pro? We don’t know for sure. I think if you can wait to buy a Mac for production purposes, it is worth waiting.
How Long Will This Take?
Apple has announced they will begin shipping A series Macs in the fall of 2020. The company has said that it intends to continue to ship Intel Macs for at least two more years, meaning that from 2020 to 2022 Apple will sell both Intel and A Series based Macs. There are also new models of Intel Macs that the company has yet to release, so Apple is not abandoning the Intel Platform in the medium term. This offers choice for users, which is something Apple does not often do. But for professionals who really do need and want the Intel Platform, you have a few years to keep buying that hardware.
Overall, this is a very exciting time for Apple. The move from Intel to ARM is the biggest change for the PC industry since, well, Apple moved from Power PC to Intel. This will have a seismic shift in the industry that we won’t fully know the end results for for several years. I can’t wait to see what the first ARM Macs look like, and I’m actually excited for the future of the Mac platform for the first time in several years.
Tech News Roundup for June 22, 2020
Today is Apple’s WWDC Day, normal tech news will resume another day, but here is a quick summary of the big things Apple announced at WWDC, at least to me.
Read MoreTech News Roundup for June 10, 2020
After a light weekend there has been a lot of very interesting things the last few days, so much so that the Android 11 beta didn’t even make the cut today. Here are a few things that caught my interest in the first part of this week.
The Right Approach to Using Fitness Trackers
I wrote about Fitness tracking, and what I consider the right approach to using them after an article was published recently about how they can be inaccurate in many situations.
Telus Launches 1.5 Gigabit internet plan for some reason
Telus has announced a new internet plan for customers in western Canada called PureFibre 1.5 Gigabit Internet. As that would suggest, the speed on that plan is 1.5 Gigabit download. Interestingly, the upload speed is “only” 940 megabit, which makes this only PureFibre plan Telus offers that does not have symmetrical upload and download speeds.
This is almost certainly a response to Shaw’s recent announcement of a 1 gigabit internet plan from a few weeks ago, and a way for Telus to maintain their ability to claim the fastest home internet plans. I’m all for better internet, but a plan like this is very excessive and unnecessary for most people. Equipment that can actually take advantage of a speed over 1 gigabit is very expensive. Telus didn’t immediately make clear whether or not the advanced Wifi modem they offer even supports that kind of speed, though I would assme it does. However, based on other devices on the market, the modem can get 1.5 gigabit from the internet, but can’t actually send more than 1 gigabit to any individual device. We really are at a point where the technology isn’t capable of supporting the speeds.
I can’t really recommend anyone actually spend the $165/month Telus is charging for this plan. It is too much, and nothing can take advantage of it. It only exists for Telus to say they are faster than Shaw.
Bell will trial using AI to block spam calls
We all hate spam calls, so this is good news. Bell has received approval from the CRTC to conduct a 90 day trial for a system that will use artificial intelligence to monitor telecommunications traffic to “flag anomalies” in an attempt to stamp out spam calls. This is just a trial to see how well this method works, but every little bit helps.
Twitch flooded by copyright claims for old clips
Video streaming service Twitch has received a massive number of copyright takedown notices on older clips on the service. Twitch mostly serves as a livestreaming platform where videos are not stored long term, but users watching the stream can create “clips” of videos, usually 30 second snippets to capture something interesting/good/funny that happened in the video. Those clips do live on in channels. Over the past weekend, the service was flooded with a very large number of takedown notices from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) which is the governing body of the music industry in the US. The RIAA is the association that successfully sued services like Napster out of existence in the early 2000’s when music piracy was at its height. The organization has apparently now turned to Twitch.
There is a much longer conversation about copyright here, and most of this is around US law, which is another thing entirely, but this has become a big issue for Twitch creators overnight. These clips are not created by the Twitch streamer themselves, but rather people watching the video. This has the potential to get very messy very fast.
Reliable sources say Apple will announce a processor shift to ARM at WWDC
There will be a lot more to say about this once there are official details at WWDC in less than 2 weeks, but this is still a big story. Apple is apparently planning to announce the beginning of the transition to Apple designed ARM processors for its Mac computers, with the first products being released in 2021. Currently Mac computers all run Intel processors, like virtually every personal computer in the world. It still isn’t clear what this transition will look like, and whether or not every Mac will eventually run on an ARM processor or whether or not this will be for certain types of devices. I’ll have more to say on this once the details all hit.
The company that makes batteries for Tesla in China has spoiled details on the “Million Mile Battery”
Electric vehicles are the future, and one of the key components on making them cheaper and more sustainable than traditional gas vehicles is battery technology. Boiled down to the simplest terms, the batteries in electic vehicles are just advanced versions of batteries found in devices like phones and laptops, just obviously much larger. That means they are also subject to the battery wear we see on phones and laptops. This means that over time, the total capacity of the battery will decrease, which will reduce range in an electric vehicle. Tesla doesn’t specifically state the longevity of their batteries, but the Telsa Warranty in Canada states that the battery should hold 70% of its capacity after 8 years or 192,000km, whichever comes first. Tesla has invested billions of dollars into researching improvements in battery technology to improve the situation, and the “million mile battery” is something we’ve been hearing about for years. Tesla had been rumoured to hold a Battery Day event this spring to detail advances in the million mile battery, but that was apparently pushed back because of COVID-19. However the company that makes Telsa batteries for the Chinese market has released a lot of details on this million mile battery, stating that this battery could be warrantied for sixteen years or 1.24 million miles (almost exactly 2 million kilometers). This has the potential to mean the battery could last the entire lifetime of the vehicle, instead of potentially needing to be replaced.