techconc

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techconc
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  • Intel CEO hopes to win back Apple with a 'better chip'

    While I do have respect for Gelsinger and think he's a much better leader than what Intel has had for years, I also have a couple of things to note:
    1. Apple didn't leave Intel simply because they were able to make a better chip.  Apple left Intel because Intel's chips have had serious bugs and problems and because Intel has demonstrated that they are unreliable in terms of delivering on their own roadmaps in any consistent manner. Several years of Intel's failures have led to this decision.
    2. Intel was never a great chip designer.  Intel used to maintain a competitive advantage by being on the most advanced manufacturing process.  This lead in manufacturing process masked deficiencies in their chip designs.  Now they've fallen behind the industry in manufacturing process, by a considerable margin, there is no benefit at all for Intel solutions besides maintaining legacy.
    3. Apple gains great synergy by moving all of their products to the same platform.  Less codebase, better optimizations, better for users, etc.
    4. Switching platforms is a big ask from the development community.  This is something you can do every 15 to 20 years or so.  Apple is already committed to moving to Apple Silicon.  Simply offering a more competitive chip isn't going to be enough to win Apple back anytime soon.  Intel would need to absolutely crush Apple's designs and do so for many consecutive years for this to even be a consideration.  Further, there is no indication Intel is even remotely capable of doing this.
    5. Intel's pathetic anti-Mac ad campaigns aren't helping them win Apple's business back either.
    For these reasons, Intel is just wishful thinking.  The industry is moving to ARM based solutions.  Right now, Apple has a major competitive advantage over Intel based devices and companies like Microsoft are well aware of it.  They're now scrambling to compete with ARM based solutions as well.  Qualcomm bought Nuvia because they know they need to offer PC class performance with ARM based solutions as well. 

    muthuk_vanalingamDBSyncdocno42qwerty52kurai_kageviclauyycwatto_cobrajony0
  • New MacBook Pros are coming Oct. 18 and the design remains a mystery

    rcfa said:
    Speak for yourselves! Form follows function, and as long as Apple doesn’t introduce new functionality, like a touch screen and pen input, or something like that, I absolutely WANT NO DESIGN CHANGE.

    The current design is nicely optimized, and minimalist. Any significant changes would just be tacky and ornamental in nature. 

    You’re not going to redesign an airfoil “because it looked like this for a few generations of airframes, it’s starting to look old” ߤ氟ﻦzwj;♂️

    There’s also nothing “controversial” about the Touch Bar, what was controversial was the lack of a physical escape key, something long since fixed.

    Why do people get messages to close apps? Are apps trying to wire down memory, or has Apple given up on virtual memory and paging with Apple Silicon, otherwise, even with significant slow downs due to swapping, one should never run out of memory unless also running out of disk/SSD-space 
    Take your own advice and speak for yourself.  Design is an iterative process and there is no design that can't be improved upon, especially with devices like laptops.  Yes, the existing design is great.  That doesn't mean it can't be better.  Everything mentioned in the rumors up to this point sounds great and like a legitimate improvement.  Try to keep an open mind going into Monday's event.
    curiousrun8rezwitsbala1234watto_cobra
  • Apple's A15 Bionic announcements undersells improvements over A14

    KITA said:
    I'd also note that the review didn't seem to touch upon the Neural Engine performance for AI, however, that's one area that Apple is rather behind on (just based off of raw numbers, ~50% the TOPS of the S888+).
    You had nice post until this part.  It seems you're a victim of Qualcomm marketing.  When comparing something like TOPS, you need to do an Apples to Apples comparison.  Qualcomm advertises TOPS for their chips as a COMBINATION of CPU + GPU + DSP.  Apple is only advertising the TOPS for their Neural Engine only.  Anandtech reviews of the SD865 and SD888 make note of this. 

    Example:  SD888+
    "32 TOPS AI
    (Total CPU+GPU+HVX+Tensor)"
    https://www.anandtech.com/show/16789/qualcomm-announces-snapdragon-888-plus-5g-speed-bin-at-3ghz

    Example: SD865
    "
    Qualcomm advertises 15 TOPS throughput for all computing blocks on the SoC and we estimate that the new Tensor cores roughly represent 10 TOPS out of that figure."
    http://https//www.anandtech.com/show/16789/qualcomm-announces-snapdragon-888-plus-5g-speed-bin-at-3ghz

    Finally, if you actually think Apple is behind with AI / ML performance, then you should take a look at actual benchmark scores which show just the opposite.  Geekbench now has a Geekbench ML test for example.  They show scores for CPU, GPU and NPU performance of the same test.  

    http://https//browser.geekbench.com/ml/v0/inference
    Hint: the A15 is ~ 70% faster for this type of work as compared to the SD888.
    muthuk_vanalingamthtwilliamlondonwatto_cobra
  • DxOMark says iPhone 13 Pro has a great camera with 'outstanding video'

    blastdoor said:
    I'm always a little surprised that Apple isn't more dominant on this ranking, given how Apple's custom silicon dominates in many areas. 

    I never use Android phones, so I don't have first hand experience. But I'm wondering if iPhones have an advantage in something not captured by this particular group's reviews? For example, is the iPhone faster at processing a photo once snapped? 
    What most people don't realize is that DxOMark is a "pay to win" source.  They offer consulting services to help "improve your score".  Apple obviously doesn't need or use their services, so they will not take the top spot.  It's that simple.  Even Android based sites rightly call this out.
    https://www.androidauthority.com/dxomark-ranking-troublesome-805633/
    muthuk_vanalingamwatto_cobrajony0
  • Apple dismisses iPad mini 'jelly scroll' issue as normal behavior

    gatorguy said:
    dewme said:
    I need to see a realtime video of this in action, not slow motion. I’d bet that if you filmed just about any screen in slow motion you’re going to see all kinds of subtle display artifacts related to the hardware, software, and nature of the displayed content.


    It doesn't look like something that would bother me, YMMV.  Now the potentially cramped UI might take some getting used to, but I'm not the target market for the Mini anyway. I prefer larger displays if I have physical interaction with one. That's not to say I don't find benefits with small (non-camera) display's in the kitchen for recipes or watching the news while cooking breakfast, or next to my desk for Youtube training video references. Those are static and controlled by voice. And relatively cheap. 

    Now a larger Air might be OK for my wife. 
    If that's the best example of a "realtime video in action" which demonstrates the problem, then there isn't a problem.  I've never noticed this on any of my LCD displays.  I don't see it on my 11" iPad Pro for example.  Even in this video, the only time you can see it is when you do super slow motion.  I was unable to see an issue when he scrolled in real time. 
    thtwilliamlondon