For mobile gaming news this week, Apple Arcade has revealed a wealth of updates to their mobile titles with three new title announcements, and mobile darling Genshin Impact is finally heading to Xbox.

Mobile gaming has had yet another busy week in August, with Gamescom ONL 2024 launching a wealth of news on the gaming landscape for fans to dive into. Probably the most surprising is Genshin Impact has received a release date of November 2024 for Xbox. However, no release has been announced yet for the mobile Nintendo Switch despite HoYoverse announcing it for Switch way back in January 2020.

Aside from that, Apple Arcade has upped its offerings with three new titles launching in September 2024, which were announced this week, and a boatload of updates for its existing titles.

This Week in Mobile Gaming For August 24

Apple Arcade has Announced Three New Titles For Mobile!

• Monster Train+ by Good Shepherd Entertainment – Good Shepherd Entertainment is bringing their lightning-in-a-bottle title to Apple Arcade from Steam, making it a true mobile gaming experience. Players must defend the burning pyre from the celestial forces of heaven as monsters would. This title functions as a roguelite deck-building game and introduces a new strategic layer with three vertical playing fields to defend. The ‘plus’ version for Apple Arcade also includes The Last Divinity DLC, adding a new clan and challenges to the fray.
• NFL Retro Bowl ’25 by New Star Games – Retro Bowl is coming back to mobile gaming, and it’s exclusive to Apple Arcade in NFL Retro Bowl ’25. The newly revamped title brings full NFL licensing to the title, allowing NFL fans to utilize their favourite athletes in the game, just like Madden 25‘s Franchise Mode, Retro Bowl allows NFL fans to create their own dynasty by choosing their favourite official NFL teams and taking them the distance.
• The last new game announced for Apple Arcade is Puzzle Sculpt by Schell Games, an Apple Vision Pro and Apple Arcade exclusive that brings coziness to an already cozy space of a living room. Players can look around and solve puzzles while completely relaxed in this new title. There are many puzzles to solve and challenges to overcome with an ever-increasing difficulty that ramps with the player’s skill.

Other Mobile Gaming Updates Coming to Apple Arcade

• Vampire Survivors+ Introduces a new stage called Room 1665, doubling as a Challenge stage made of 16 rooms that will challenge players to fight the floors as a crucible. This update also adds two new character skins — ‘Unbinded Imelda’ and ‘Retired Poe’ — with new Darkanas modifiers. 
• TMNT Splintered Fate now lets players pair four controllers to enjoy four-player couch co-op on the same device. With new cross-platform support, four-player online co-op can now happen on any platform.
• Temple Run: Legends introduces customization with new unlockable Outfits and a new Outfit System. Outfits also grant wearers buffs during specific runs, proving that the sneakers matter when foot racing.
• SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit adds the conclusion of the latest Tales of the Deep called Inner Machinations of the Thoughtless Mind.
• Simon’s Cat – Story Time lets players try out the new Summer Search Party event to earn daily rewards for finding beach balls in the gardens. 
• Fruit Ninja Classic+ blasts off a Jetpack Joyride 2-themed in-game event, where players can earn the Jetpack Blade and Moon Tombs Dojo from joyride, but in Fruit Ninja Classic+.
• A Slight Chance of Sawblades+ celebrates International Dog Day (August 26) with an all-new canine character and dog-themed background. 
• Disney Coloring World+ lets players join the Muppets in a new colouring pack.

Mobile Gaming news hasn’t wrapped just yet. Disney Dreamlight Valley Arcade Edition also brings the new free and paid expansion to mobile devices this week, capping off A Rift in Time (and Jaffar’s time as the big bad). With that, though, mobile gaming news ends this week. Fans looking for all of the additions and where to check them out can visit the official Apple Arcade website.

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The iPhone 16 launch event should be just around the corner, and the internet is eagerly waiting for Apple to drop some official details. Yesterday, the hype hit a new level when a supposed leaked invite for Apple’s September event made the rounds online. The tech world, naturally, went into a frenzy. But as it turns out, the invite was a complete hoax.

The invite was initially shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Majin Bu, a leaker who has recently been in the spotlight for various Apple-related leaks. The image of the invite looked quite convincing, featuring an Apple logo in a bronze hue that matches the rumored new colorway for the iPhone 16 Pro models. The tagline, “Ready. Set. Capture.,” had everyone thinking it was a clever nod to the rumored Capture button that might be coming to all iPhones this year.

However, another X/Twitter user, @lorevfx, revealed today that they had created the “leaked” invite in under ten minutes using Figma and an AI-generated texture. They admitted to sending it to Majin Bu out of boredom and shared a timelapse video showcasing the image’s creation. They also shared the entire chat, which convinced Majin Bu that the leak was the real deal.

Thankfully, this was all in good fun, but it’s a good reminder that not everything we see online is what it seems — especially when it comes to leaks. While some leaks may be genuine, the ease with which sophisticated fakes can be created makes it increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction. Not to mention, such incidents could have severe consequences if they involve financial scams or phishing attempts.

As we await more reliable details about Apple’s upcoming event, the most credible information we have so far is that the event might take place on September 10, based on educated guesses by industry insiders. Alongside the iPhone 16 series, there’s also talk of Apple launching a few new AirPods models this year. But as always, when it comes to leaks, it’s wise to take them with a pinch of salt — or maybe a whole shaker’s worth.

The iPhone 15 arrived late last year. If you haven’t picked it up yet it will set you back quite a chunk of change, depending on the model and storage size. Is there a way to get a free iPhone 15? Actually yes. There is a catch, though.

Where can you get a free iPhone 15?

So back to that catch we mentioned. No one is going to give you a free iPhone for nothing. The only way to get it is through your carrier and there might be a few hoops to jump. Also, be aware you’ll typically see these ‘free phones’ in the form of credit discounts over a long period of months. If you cancel your plan or change up phones sooner than expected, you may end up owing back some money.

Below we take a quick look at the carriers and retailers currently offering an iPhone 15 for free when you sign up.

Verizon

Verizon is actually offering a few iPhone 15 deals. First, if you trade in an eligible iPhone you can get up to $830 offer. That’s not enough to cover an iPhone Pro model, but it’s enough to cover the base iPhone 15 and almost completely cover the Plus as well.

There’s another deal that doesn’t require a trade-in, but you do need to add a new line. Both new and existing accounts are eligible, but this really only works for existing customers if you are planning to add a new family member. This deal will give you $830 off. This price is enough to cover the base iPhone 15 Pro, but you’ll still likely have to shell out a few hundred for the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

T-Mobile

T-Mobile is also offering quite a few free iPhone 15 deals. The best deal gives new customers four lines and four iPhone 15 units for just $25 a month per line. Don’t need four lines? You can also get just one iPhone 15 via 24 monthly credits if you add a new line and port a new number over to the Go5G Next plan.

AT&T

AT&T no longer offers the latest iPhone for free but you can get it for as little as $4 a month by trading in an eligible phone and signing up for one of its unlimited plans. You’ll get up to $830 with qualifying trades. Your phone didn’t make the cut? Some older models will qualify for smaller discounts as well, such as the older iPhone X series.

Boost Infinite

Boost Infinite is also offering a free iPhone 15 deal, specifically the Pro model. All you need to do is sign up for the Boost Infinity Access Plan. No trade-in is necessary. This makes Boost’s offer the best iPhone deal, though not everyone will be willing to make a switch to a whole new carrier to take advantage. Nonetheless, this is a heck of an offer.

FAQ

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We’re likely just a few weeks away from Apple’s next media event. On September 10, the Cupertino firm is expected to reveal the iPhone 16 lineup, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 3. That may not be all, however. During the same keynote, the iPhone maker could also debut three new AirPods models, including the highly anticipated AirPods 4.

According to the latest Bloomberg Power On newsletter, Apple is still on track to release two AirPods 4 variants this fall. The entry-level edition will likely replace the AirPods 2 as an affordable option, while the higher-end model could be the AirPods 3’s substitute. It’s currently unclear if the cheaper version will be dubbed AirPods SE, AirPods 4 Lite, or something completely different.

In terms of functionality, the higher-end AirPods 4 model is expected to feature active noise cancelation, which is currently exclusive to the Pro and Max editions. Otherwise, both AirPods 4 variants will likely drop the Lightning port and adopt USB-C for charging.

Speaking of USB-C, the AirPods Max 2 could also make an appearance during the same event. Though, beyond switching to the universal charging port and generic enhancements, the premium headphones are expected to remain largely the same.

Otherwise, those anticipating the AirPods Pro 3 will likely have to wait till next year, as we’re only expecting the AirPods Max 2 and two AirPods 4 variants this time around.

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Update, August 19, 2024 (12:10 AM ET): According to a new leak from Majin Bu on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), this gold/bronze-like color is likely to be called Desert Titanium. The color is said to be dark gold, similar to the older purple color on the iPhone 14 Pro, offering a deep and relatively discreet color to the iPhone 16 Pro lineup.

Desert Titanium will be joined by White Titanium, Black Titanium, and Natural Titanium.

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Original article, August 16, 2024 (07:21 AM ET): With the Pixel 9 launch done and dusted, all our attention is now towards what Apple will do for the iPhone 16. The company hasn’t made any announcements or even teased the iPhone 16’s existence, but a launch is widely expected in September 2024. We’ve started seeing dummy unit leaks of the device, and today, we’re getting our first look at the gold-like bronze color of the iPhone 16 Pro.

Leaker Sonny Dickson has shared dummy units for the iPhone 16 Pro (likely looking like the bigger Max lineup instead of the smaller Pro). These dummy units align with what we have seen in his previous leaks, but this set has a new color variant.

We had already seen the white, black, and Natural Titanium colors for the iPhone 16 Pro Max, so the bronze-gold color is the only surprise here. The bronze/gold here is a bit too dark and ventures into a mix of dark yellow-orange, almost sandy brown, similar to the saddle tan color we associate with leather (but this would be glass here).

These are dummy units, as you can see from the identical camera openings and the lack of a rectangular opening for the tetra prism periscope camera. Still, the shape, dimensions, and colors should be close to what we could potentially see in the final retail units that ship to customers.

Apple has been rumored to replace the Blue Titanium color of the iPhone 15 Pro with a “rose” or “rose gold” color for the titanium build of the iPhone 16 Pro. This new color is said to have a bronze hue, and we can see the dummy unit aligning closer to the rumored shade. There’s a chance that the color shifts depending on how light reflects off the back of the device, so you could get different hues depending on the angle of light.

For a refresher, here’s what the regular iPhone 16 could look like, according to Sonny’s previous dummy unit leak.

What are your thoughts on the new bronze gold color for the iPhone 16 Pro, as leaked above? Would you buy a bronze-gold iPhone? Let us know in the comments below!

Whether you’re working on an essay, doing research for a paper or just need some downtime streaming your favorite show - a good laptop is a sensible investment for every college student. The best laptop for college doesn’t have to push the envelope with the latest graphics card and processor, nor does it have to cost an arm and a leg. Sure, the best laptops come in all shapes and sizes and range in price, but college students don’t need a power-hungry machine to support their needs. The best laptop for college is ideally thin and lightweight, and provides enough battery to last all day without having to be tethered to the wall. No matter what you’re studying, we’ve researched and tested a range of laptops for you to consider as you decide which is the best laptop for college for you.

What to consider in your next laptop for college

It’s important to consider your major and what you need your laptop to do before deciding on the best laptop for college. For example, if you’re a liberal arts major and will mostly be writing or making presentations, you don’t need an expensive system with a discrete graphics card. Alternatively, if you’re a film major who might need to render videos on a regular basis, having a beefy PC can significantly reduce the time it takes to finish a project. You’ll also want to take a look at any guidelines provided by your college or your specific program, as you may need required software or apps that only run on a specific OS.

Some other things to consider are if you want a more portable 13 or 14-inch machine that’s easier to carry around, or if you prefer something with a larger screen. On top of that, if you are doing tasks like photo or video editing, you’ll probably want to go for a system with a high-resolution display (1440p or 4K), so it's easier to see details. As for other specs, ideally you’ll want 16GB of RAM (though you can go down to 8GB on a Chromebook) and at least 512GB or 1TB of storage. Most newer laptops now come with SSD storage, too, which means you can store and transfer data much faster.

Finally, while your budget ultimately will determine how powerful of a laptop you can get, well-equipped ultraportables will generally cost between $1,000 and $1,400, with prices going up from there for systems with discrete GPUs. Budget Windows laptops and Chromebooks can be affordable alternatives though, with many going for just $500 to $700. But again, remember to check your school’s requirements because it’s not worth saving a few bucks only to find out that your notebook can’t run the app you need for all your homework.

See Also:

• Best Laptops for 2024

• Best Gaming Laptops

• Best 2-in-1 Laptops for 2024

• Best Chromebooks

• Best Cheap Windows Laptops for 2024

A word on Microsoft’s new Copilot+ PCs

We have really enjoyed using the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop 7. They’re fast, quiet and support a huge range of both native Arm apps and traditional x86 software. However, there are a few major productivity apps that still have not been updated to work on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips used in the recent wave of Copilot+ PCs. Some of the most notable ones are Adobe’s Illustrator and InDesign (which won’t be available until sometime in July), and After Effects and Premier Pro, which aren’t expected to arrive until later in 2024. And given the number of college students who may need a PC to edit videos, draw or create layouts with these apps, that makes it difficult to give them whole-hearted recommendations in this guide right now. However, if you’re sure the apps you need for your course or major are supported, it may be worth giving these new Copilot+ PCs a closer look.

The best laptops for college students

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-laptops-for-students-130054631.html?src=rss

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© Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

Strategy Analytics has published its yearly report detailing global smartphone application processor market share in 2014. The total market had sales of about $21 billion with robust growth of 21%. The report shows that Qualcomm continued to lead the market in terms of revenue share with 52%, followed by Apple with 18% and MediaTek with 14%. The Apple number most likely reflects an estimate because Apple does not sell its chips to third parties. In fourth and fifth place were Speadtrum and Samsung LSI. The report mentions that HiSilicon, Intel and MediaTek had bigger growth than Qualcomm in 2014.

Qualcomm's strength based on Snapdragon 800 series wins in higher-tier phones

According to the report, Qualcomm's leadership was largely based on design wins for its Snapdragon 801 and Snapdragon 805 SoCs in the higher-tier market. Examples of this include the Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G3. However, as I have previously reported Samsung has increased its use of in-house application processors starting from the second half of 2014, culminating in the exclusive use of Exynos 7420 in the Galaxy S6 in 2015, putting pressure on Qualcomm.

Baseband share in 2014

Strategy Analytics has also published a report with details about baseband (modem) market share in smartphones. According to the report, LTE (4G) basebands accounted for 50% of cellular baseband share in 2014, and the figure is likely to increase significantly in 2015. Qualcomm led in LTE basebands, but HiSilicon, Intel, Marvell, MediaTek and Samsung also increased LTE baseband shipments.

In terms of revenues in the overall baseband market, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Speadtrum, Marvell and Intel had the top positions in 2104. Qualcomm had 66% revenue share, followed by MediaTek with 17% and Speadtrum with 5% sare. Given the product lines of the respective companies in 2014, Qualcomm's revenues are based on both integrated SoC and separate modems, while Intel's sales were mostly separate modem chips, while the other players mostly shipped a mix of integrated SoCs and modem chips.

Comparison with 2013

Comparing with the reports that Strategy Analytics issued for 2013, Qualcomm saws it baseband revenue share remain relatively stable at 66% compared to 64% in 2013. MediaTek saw its AP market share increase from 10% in 2013 to 14% in 2014, and its baseband share increased.

Tablet processor market in 2014

According to another report issued by Strategy Analytics, the market for tablet processors grew 18% in 2014 to $4.2 billion. The top-five revenue share positions were occupied by Apple, Intel, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung LSI. Apple led with 27% share (which must be an estimate), followed by Intel with 17% and Qualcomm with 16% share.

Notable is the absence among the top five of traditional leaders in the Chinese white-box market such as Rockchip and Allwinner. This most likely reflects in increase in brand name tablet shipments at the expense of the white-box tablet market, the low selling prices of white-box tablet processor and the encroachment of MediaTek and Intel into that segment.

Source: Strategy Analytics (Smartphone AP market share), Strategy Analytics (cellular baseband market share), Strategy Analytics (Tablet processor market share)

TSMC will receive majority of Apple A9 business

According to reports, TSMC will receive the majority of Apple A9 SoC orders, which includes the A9 for next-generation iPhones and A9X for iPads. According to sources quoted by EE Times, Apple had originally planned to give Samsung a majority of the Apple A9 orders, but has recently shifted orders to TSMC, most likely using a 16 nm FinFET process.

Because ramping up production of a similar chip from a second source with different foundry technology is challenging and complicated, I believe it is likely that A9 production will be overwhelmingly (and perhaps exclusively) concentrated at TSMC. A parallel can be drawn with various reports from last year, which for a long time continued to echo incorrect projections that Samsung would serve a significant portion of the production of Apple's A8 generation SoCs, which has not turned out not to be the case.

In the mean time, TSMC's revenues continue to be a relatively high level despite Q1usually being seasonally down, with strong demand for 20 nm production, most likely reflecting continuing demand from Apple, which is offsetting weakness from Qualcomm for leading-edge processes. There have been rumours about an upcoming iPhone 6S and a lower cost iPhone 6C model which may involve substantial unit volumes. Apple's iPhone unit shipments have also been boosted by strong demand in China.

Low yield at Samsung and Exynos ramp contribute to TSMC orders

According to a source quoting sources in South Korea, TSMC's yield rate for its 16 nm FinFET process is better than that of Samsung's 14 nm process. Moreover, Samsung is seeing strong upcoming demand for it flagship Galaxy S6 smartphone, which uses the Exynos 7420 SoC produced on its 14 nm FinFET process, and most likely needs all capacity it can get to ramp up production of this SoC. Samsung also increasingly uses Exynos 7420 and other internally-developed SoCs for other product lines, such as other smartphone models as well as tablets.

Qualcomm said to have limited-time exclusive use of TSMC's 16FF+ technology

According a report by EETimes from a semiconductor industry conference in January, Qualcomm is likely to have locked up exclusive use of TSMC's 16FF+ process technology for about six months. The article appears to quote sources affiliated with Qualcomm that state that Qualcomm feels competitors such as MediaTek took advantage of previous-generation process technology (28HPM) that Qualcomm helped develop at TSMC, without having made the development investment that Qualcomm made.

However, this policy would be contrary to the principles based on which TSMC has operated for a long time, although the initial ramp of 20 nm at TSMC last year also seemed to be locked-up by another company (Apple). Its seems corporate pressure from these giant companies, backed by billions of dollars of cash, is forcing TSMC into these kinds of commitments.

The article mentions that the later access to 16FF+ won't affect MediaTek's mainstream products serving the mid-range to entry-level segments, because 28 nm technologies will continue to be used for such products in the market.

Leaked power consumption graphs suggest increased power efficiency

Power consumption graphs of current and upcoming high-end Qualcomm SoCs running a 3D game at high detail settings suggest power consumption and heat production of Qualcomm's unannounced Snapdragon 815 processor will be considerably lower than that of the Snapdragon 801 and Snapdragon 810, with Snapdragon 810 showing particularly unfavourable characteristics, as confirmed by widespread reports and reviews of Snapdragon 810-based devices.

Snapdragon 815 is unannounced and few details are known about it, with some reports suggesting the use of a next-generation Krait CPU core. Use of ARM Cortex-A72 processor cores appears to be not unlikely, since this core seems to be close to actual production. Most likely, the decreased heat production, which is likely to be associated with lower power consumption, is made possible by the use of the next-generation 16 nm FinFET process at TSMC.

Similar improvements in power consumption were observed for Snapdragon 620, which uses Cortex-A72 cores, when compared to the mid-range Snapdragon 615 SoC, which is reported to also have heating issues. Snapdragon 620, which has been announced, is also likely to have significantly higher CPU performance than Snapdragon 615 due to the use of Cortex-A72 cores, versus Cortex-A53 for Snapdragon 615, while also likely being produced on a much more efficient process (possibly  TSMC's 16FF+), since Snapdragon 615 is manufactured on a low-efficiency 28LP process.

Sources: EE Times (ISS 2015 conference report), EE Times (Apple A9 orders article), STJS Gadgets Portal (Snapdragon heat production graphs)

Updated 25 March 2015 (Add comments about 20 nm Apple production at TSMC).

Both Qualcomm and MediaTek recently reported financial results for the fourth quarter of Q4 2014 and made projections for future periods. Both companies are seeing challenges that are already affecting their revenues and market share now or later in 2015.

Qualcomm lowers forecast for 2015 due to weakness at major customer

In their financial report for Q4 2014, Qualcomm lowered their outlook for 2015, citing as one of the reasons reduced demand from a major customer as that customer has not selected the Snapdragon 810 processor for an upcoming flagship product. This is widely believed to refer to Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S6. In fact the trend of increasing use of in-house Exynos processors already started last year, as models such as Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy S5 Mini and Galaxy Note 4 already saw increasing use of Samsung's own Exynos processors, including modem technology in some cases.

Qualcomm also mentions a share shift among major OEMs that will result in relatively more modem chips as opposed to SoCs (clearly referring to Apple, which only uses Qualcom's modem chips), as well as heightened competition in China. Recently, Qualcomm also recently announced a resolution of the anti-trust investigation by authorities in China, which amounts to a reduction in the patent royalty rate it charges to customers in China.

Qualcomm's total market share currently still strong

At the moment, Qualcomm's market share for smartphone SoCs is still strong as shown by unit shipments and revenues for Q4 2014 and Qualcomm's estimates for Q1 2015, although its product mix has shifted to lower-end products. In comparison to competitor MediaTek, Qualcomm is doing much better in terms of maintaining or growing unit shipments (with Qualcomm in fact seeing a 14% increase in unit shipments in Q4 2014), suggesting that Qualcomm is taking market share from MediaTek as products such as Snapdragon 410 and the new Snapdragon 210 take over large parts of the low-end cost-sensitive market (especially in China) where MediaTek's 3G solutions where previously dominant.

MediaTek losing market share despite successful new products

Meanwhile, although MediaTek has seen widespread adoption of its new MT6752 and MT6732 SoCs with integrated LTE modem for the cost-sensitive mid-range market, the company saw lower unit shipments in Q4 2014 and predicts a 10 to 18% revenue decline for Q1 2015, suggesting its smartphone SoC shipments are under pressure. Given the fact that the new 4G chips have higher selling prices than existing 3G chips, the revenue decline probably reflects a relatively dramatic decline in shipments of existing 3G solutions, with resulting loss of total market share, although price reductions may also play a role. MediaTek has been affected especially by the late introduction of integrated 4G solutions and the lack of a low-end 4G solution and to a lesser extend the delayed introduction of the high-end MT6795.

Captive mobile SoC use becoming more important

Within the total smartphone SoC market (and also in the tablet maket), captive supply (whereby a smartphone manufacturer uses its own SoCs in its smartphone models) is becoming more important, which affects the market opportunity for companies such as Qualcomm and MediaTek. I already mentioned Samsung's increasing use of Exynos processors, which has a significant impact as Samsung is one of the two largest smartphone manufacturers. A major Chinese manufacturr, Huawei, is also increasingly using SoCs from its own HiSilicon division, also extending to lower end models. Apple's gains in market share also has an effect (especially on the high-end market) since it uses proprietary SoCs.

In the tablet market, the low-end and Chinese white-box market is seeing a sharp reduction in shipments in Q1 2015, with market share shifting to brand names (where captive solutions are more important, such as at Samsung) as total shipments are estimated to decline dramatically. This greatly affects traditional players in the tablet SoC market such as Rockchip, Allwinner and MediaTek. Intel's strategy of subsidizing tablet SoCs has also had an impact. According to DigiTimes, the total tablet market will decline 30% sequentially in Q1 2015, with estimates of a decline of 12% for the whole year 2015.


Sources: DigiTimes (tablet market article), DigiTimes (MediaTek results), Qualcomm, MediaTek

RetroArch is now available on the Apple App Store. It is currently available for iPhone, iPad and tvOS. A macOS version on the Apple App Store is planned but no ETA. A new RetroArch version is also coming out soon.

Apple is updating its business terms in the EU to allow developers to link to external payment systems or promote offers form other platforms that do not use the built-in iOS payment system.

But these options will only be available to developers who agree to the updated terms, and Apple will still be taking a cut of each purchase.

In a post on its developer support website, Apple explains that it will claim a 5% 'initial acquisition fee' on any digital goods and services purchased during the first year after an initial install. This is for new users only and will not apply to customers already using the app before the new link out options come into play.

Read more

The MNT Pocket Reform is a modular, open source mini-laptop that went up for pre-order last year through a crowdfunding campaign and began shipping this summer. Thanks to its modular design, the system was always made with customization in mind: the brains of the system are on a removable system-on-a-module (SoM) with a processor, memory, […]

The post Lilbits: Apple’s first consumer robot, Qualcomm’s first smartphone chip with Oryon CPU cores, and MNT Pocket Reform (modular mini-laptop) appeared first on Liliputing.

The original Apple II computer went on sale in 1977, but enthusiasts are still finding new ways to use the classic computers. Case in point: the A2FPGA is a new peripheral card for Apple II computers that not only lets you hook up any member of the Apple II family to a modern display with […]

The post Open source A2FPGA module brings audio, 480p video, and HDMI output to the Apple II appeared first on Liliputing.

Apple by mohl uspořádat svou akci 10. září, aby oznámil novou řadu iPhone 16 a nové Apple Watch Series 10.

Apple obvykle pořádá svou akci v první polovině září a vzhledem k minulým trendům mohou být zprávy pravdivé. Fáma také sdílela obrázek pozvánky na událost s podtitulem „Připravit. Pozor. Zachytit.“ slogan, který by mohl ukazovat na nové tlačítko Capture.

Podle Majin Bu zdroje obeznámené se záležitostí naznačovaly, že by Apple mohl 10. září uspořádat svou velkou událost iPhone 16. Zdroj zprávy požádal o zachování anonymity a tipér také sdílel, že neexistuje způsob, jak ověřit, zda novinky mají nějakou váhu. Nicméně údajné datum události je pravděpodobné, vzhledem k tomu, jak se shoduje s daty minulých událostí společnosti.

Apple na své akci oznámí nové modely iPhone 16 a iPhone 16 Pro, které budou mít výrazné designové změny a nové funkce. Společnost by také mohla debutovat vyhrazené funkce Apple Intelligence pro tuto řadu, které budou k dispozici později v tomto roce, možná v říjnu. Další podrobnosti si můžete prohlédnout v pozvánce na akci níže, ale berte to s rezervou, protože neexistuje žádné potvrzení ze strany společnosti.

Kromě iPhonu 16 by událost Apple mohla hostit také Apple Watch Series 10 a nové AirPods, o kterých se nedávno říkalo, že dorazí ve dvou variantách. Pozvánka také uvádí čas konání akce, která je naplánována na 10:00 v divadle Steva Jobse v Apple Parku . Jakmile budou k dispozici další informace, podělíme se o další podrobnosti o představení iPhone 16.

Prozatím si nezapomeňte všimnout, že Apple v této fázi nesdílel oficiální pozvánku, ale mohla by brzy dorazit. Apple obvykle rozesílá pozvánky na události týden před akcí, což znamená, že pokud se akce koná 10. září, pozvánky by měly dorazit v prvním týdnu příštího měsíce, případně 3. září. Myslíte si, že Apple uspořádá akci v údajné datum? Dejte nám vědět do komentářů.

Článek Událost Apple iPhone 16 by se mohla konat 10. září. s podtitulem: “Ready. Set. Capture” se nejdříve objevil na MOBILE PRESS.

Článek Událost Apple iPhone 16 by se mohla konat 10. září. s podtitulem: “Ready. Set. Capture” se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.

Společnost Apple uvede modely iPhone 16 na trh za necelý měsíc a tentokrát se dočkáme docela šikovných vylepšení pro standardní modely a modely „Pro“. Na modely iPhone příštího roku se vyplatí počkat, ale ani nadcházející řada se nestydí za vylepšení a upgrady, které zlepší váš uživatelský zážitek.

Co se týče designu, modely iPhone 16 a iPhone 16 Pro dostanou solidní vylepšení s novými tlačítky Action a Capture Button pro specifické funkce.

Standardní modely iPhone 16 letos dostanou nový design s vertikálním uspořádáním fotoaparátu na zadní straně, což docela připomíná iPhone X, protože Apple běží do kruhů, aby představil nový design. Osvěžení je však vítané, protože se jistě objeví několik rozdílů, přičemž jedním z důležitých je velikost modulu fotoaparátu. Kromě toho jsou zařízení údajně vybavena tlačítkem Action Button podobně jako modely iPhone 15 Pro se všemi připojenými zvonky a píšťalkami.

Pokud jde o modely „Pro“, Apple údajně zvětšil velikost displeje zařízení, což také znamená, že zařízení budou o něco větší než současné verze. Menší iPhone 16 Pro bude vybaven 6,3palcovým displejem, zatímco větší „Pro Max“ bude mít 6,9palcový displej, a my jsme pro, vzhledem k tomu, že se zmenší i rámečky. Již dříve bylo oznámeno, že modely iPhone 16 Pro budou uvedeny na trh s nejtenčími rámečky na smartphonu.

Dalším významným doplňkem je nové tlačítko Capture Button, které bude k dispozici na všech čtyřech modelech iPhonu 16 a bude určeno k ovládání funkcí zařízení pro pořizování videí. Stejné tlačítko by však k sobě mělo mít připojeno více funkcí v oddělení fotoaparátu, díky čemuž by se iPhone 16 mohl mnohem více přiblížit digitální zrcadlovce. Pokud nejste obeznámeni, jedná se o funkce, které by mohlo tlačítko Capture v řadě iPhone 16 vykonávat.

• Lehkým stisknutím tlačítka Capture (Snímání) spustíte automatické zaostření při pořizování videa nebo fotografie.
• Pevným stisknutím pořídíte fotografii nebo spustíte nahrávání videa.
• Přejetím doleva a doprava přiblížíte fotografii nebo video.
• Další gesta pro přepínání mezi režimy fotoaparátu.

Jak si můžete všimnout, tlačítko Capture na modelech iPhone 16 bude napodobovat funkci tlačítka spouště na digitálních zrcadlovkách a pravděpodobně bude více podporovat gesta. Abychom byli spravedliví, možnost automatického nastavení zaostření lehkým stisknutím tlačítka je docela zajímavá a mohla by otevřít nové dveře pro příkazy. Navíc vzhledem k tomu, že společnost vede odvětví k novým funkcím, viděli bychom, že konkurence přidá své vlastní variace k lepšímu.

Domníváme se, že uživatelé nebudou mít možnost přizpůsobovat funkce tlačítka Capture a mapovat je na něco jiného, pokud to nevyhovuje jejich potřebám. Je to proto, že iPhone již má pro tuto úlohu vyhrazené akční tlačítko, které se nachází na stejném místě jako přepínač ztlumení. Co se týče umístění tlačítka Capture, minulé rendery ukázaly, že tlačítko bude umístěno v jedné rovině s rámem iPhonu a pod bočním tlačítkem nebo tlačítkem napájení. Potenciálně se bude jednat o výřez v titanovém a hliníkovém šasi řady.

Vzhledem k tomu, že tlačítko Capture je kapacitní, je zde prostor i pro ovládání gesty a my jsme pro. Mark Gurman již dříve uvedl, že existuje možnost, že nové tlačítko Capture Button bude k dispozici výhradně na vlajkových modelech vyšší třídy, což společnosti Apple umožní zachovat rozdíly mezi standardními a „Pro“ modely.

Již dříve bylo také oznámeno, že tlačítka letošní řady iPhonů budou polovodičová, ale dlouho jsme neslyšeli podrobnosti na toto téma. Potenciálně by společnost mohla letos nabídnout polovodičové řešení pro modely „Pro“. Pokud o tom nevíte, bylo oznámeno, že Apple bude mít ve svém mixu podlouhlá tlačítka hlasitosti, která nebudou mechanická, ale integrovaná se speciálním haptickým enginem pro zpětnou vazbu. Ještě se uvidí, zda společnost s letošní řadou iPhone 16 tlačítka vylepší.

Co očekáváte od letošní řady iPhone 16? Myslíte si, že Apple letos nabídne polovodičové řešení? Dejte nám vědět v komentářích.

Článek Všechny modely iPhonu 16 dostanou nová tlačítka, tady je, jak to zlepší uživatelský zážitek se nejdříve objevil na MOBILE PRESS.

Článek Všechny modely iPhonu 16 dostanou nová tlačítka, tady je, jak to zlepší uživatelský zážitek se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.

Toto řešení vám umožní používat Apple Intelligence v zemích mimo Spojené státy

Apple oznámil a uvolnil Apple Intelligence vývojářům na své akci WWDC a služba celkově zaznamenala docela dobrou odezvu. Platforma se netočí kolem jediného jazykového modelu, ale funguje na několika z nich, velkých i malých, spolupracujících na různých frontách iOS. Například integrace ChatGPT je k dispozici se Siri a ne se zbytkem operačního systému, což ukazuje, že společnost používá multimodální přístup. Zpočátku by Apple Intelligence byla k dispozici pouze ve Spojených státech, ale pokud máte zájem, existuje řešení, které vám umožní používat službu v jiných zemích.

Při uvedení na trh mohou Apple Intelligence používat pouze iPhone 15 Pro a iPhone 15 Pro Max a vedle toho bude moci tuto službu využívat také řada iPhone 16. Máte možnost používat Apple Intelligence v jiných zemích mimo Spojené státy pomocí jednoduchého řešení. Jediné, co musíte udělat, je změnit nastavení polohy nebo oblasti na vašem iPhonu nebo iPadu a můžete začít. Pokud si nejste jisti, jak na to, připravili jsme podrobné pokyny, které vám umožní používat Apple Intelligence v jiných zemích.

Než budete pokračovat, existuje několik předpokladů, které musíte splnit. První věc, kterou musíte udělat, je nainstalovat nejnovější beta verzi iOS 18.1, která nese funkce Apple Intelligence. Upozorňujeme, že pokud používáte beta verzi iOS 18, nebudete moci službu používat. Jakmile spustíte nejnovější beta verzi iOS 18.1, pečlivě dodržujte níže uvedené pokyny.

Krok 1 : Spusťte na svém iPhone aplikaci Nastavení a přejděte na Obecné > Jazyk a oblast.

Krok 2 : Klepněte na Přidat jazyk a vyberte Angličtinu (USA) .

Krok 3 : Nyní klepněte na Region a vyberte Spojené státy . (Změna nebude mít žádný dopad na regiony nebo nákupy v Apple Storu.)

Krok 4 : Vraťte se do Nastavení a přejděte na Apple Intelligence & Siri .

Krok 5 : Klepněte na Jazyk a vyberte Angličtinu (USA) .

Krok 6 : Jakmile to uděláte, klepněte na Připojit se k Applr Intelligence Waitlist .

Krok 7 : Na aktivaci Apple Intelligence budete muset chvíli počkat. Po chvíli se zpráva změní na Turn On Apple Intelligence .

To je vše, co musíte udělat, abyste povolili Apple Intelligence na vašem iPhone, pokud máte bydliště mimo Spojené státy. Tento proces je poměrně jednoduchý a v podstatě říká serverům Apple, že iPhone, který používáte, se nachází v USA. Budete si moci užívat všechny nejnovější funkce Apple Intelligence, které Apple přidal v první beta verzi iOS 18.1. Později, v následujících beta verzích, společnost přidá další funkce pro testování, než bude oficiálně představena široké veřejnosti.

Článek Chcete si vyzkoušet Apple Intelligence, ale nemůžete protože nežijete v USA? Poradíme jak na to! se nejdříve objevil na MOBILE PRESS.

Článek Chcete si vyzkoušet Apple Intelligence, ale nemůžete protože nežijete v USA? Poradíme jak na to! se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.

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iOS 18 beta 5 is now available to enrolled developers, featuring a new Distraction Control option in Safari. Through this fresh addition, users can hide static web elements, such as cookie popups, newsletter banners, and more. While you can technically use Distraction Control on iOS to block web ads, there’s a major limitation barring it from becoming a practical solution.

When hitting the new Hide Distracting Items button in Safari, an alert reads: “Hiding distracting items will not permanently remove ads and other content that update frequently.” This highlights that the feature isn’t designed to block ads on websites. Instead, it’s meant for static banners that don’t continuously refresh.

It’s easy to forget how big a leap Apple made when it moved away from Intel chips. The new Apple silicon has helped make the latest and best MacBooks, such as the 15-inch MacBook Air, beat the competition with ease, at least if you’re looking for simple speed, an all-rounder, or a creative workstation (Mac gaming still can’t beat the competition, of course).

But now we’re on the second generation of Apple silicon for Mac, Apple is finally extending its reach a bit. We have an M2 Pro and M2 Ultra chip to give the Mac Studio even more power and bring the Mac Pro into the silicon lineup once and for all.

Perhaps most excitingly, however, we also have a brand new product in the lineup: a 15-inch MacBook Air. It’s the 2022 Air, but bigger, and fills a gap among MacBooks that people have wanted for years – a large Mac that doesn’t break the bank. And it does it simply, with a well-rounded package that actually offers great value by Apple standards.

MORE FROM GEAR NUKE: Best MacBooks, WWDC 2023, Save big on MacBooks

A MacBook can be a big investment, and the best MacBook for you isn’t necessarily the one with the highest price tag. MacBook laptops are known for their style, their power and their easy-to-use interface, and this makes them popular with creatives, students and those who have already bought into the Apple ecosystem. One of the great things about getting a MacBook if you’re already an Apple user, is you can expect a seamless experience across iOS, iPadOS and MacOS. 

The MacBook range currently has five models to choose from, almost all of which are considered among the best laptops on the active market. Apple runs all their Macs on proprietary silicon chips, which integrate the CPU, GPU and unified memory (RAM) into one customisable chip. This makes all MacBooks fast, battery efficient and quiet, and who doesn’t want that in a laptop?

One thing to note is that you can’t upgrade the memory and storage on a Mac after purchase. Once you’ve found the right MacBook model, using our handy buying guide, it’s worth buying the biggest specification you can afford. More memory means a faster connection between the CPU, and more storage means you won’t get stuck with no space for apps, photos and documents. 

Confused? Don’t worry. At Gear Nuke, we’re all about making tech simple to understand, so that you get the best bang for your buck. We don’t want you to end up with a rotten Apple (sorry). 

MORE FROM GEAR NUKE: Best MacBooks, WWDC 2023, Save big on MacBooks

 Looking for an updated list? You'll find the latest Best Gaming Laptops on PCGamesN.

What are the best laptops you can buy in 2023? Well, it's not the easiest question to answer because it will always come down to what your own needs are and the budget that you have to spend.

Fear not, as we at Gear Nuke are here to help you break through the jargon and find the best laptop that will suit your situation perfectly, even if you're on a tight budget. We've assessed a number of laptops and picked out the best based on a number of criteria.

Battery life, display, RAM, processing power, we've considered it all and more with the aim of finding the best laptop just for you. Need something for your college work, gaming, or video editing or do you just need it to run Netflix? We've got you covered.

MORE FROM GEAR NUKE: Best MacBooks, WWDC 2023, Save big on MacBooks

What is the best laptop you can buy for under $1000? It’s completely normal to set yourself a budget when buying a new laptop but you might be wondering whether or not you’ve set the right target. There might be a temptation to look at much older laptops from recent years because their price will have dropped, but there is plenty of updated technology on the market for a reasonable price. 

A lot of this decision will come down to what you need from the product because, let’s face it, you are not going to get a complete premium hardware package when restricting your budget… or are you? Prepare to be very surprised at what laptops you can get for your money in 2023 and let us here at Gear Nuke guide you in the right direction toward the best laptops possible.

MORE FROM GEAR NUKE: Best MacBooks, WWDC 2023, Save big on MacBooks

In the vibrant world of technology, the new iPad lineup stands out as a beacon […]

This Sword of Convallaria reroll guide will detail the process behind re-rolling and what units you should be aiming for before settling on your main account. This tactic, gacha style game requires the best starting units possible if you want to remain competitive so rerolling could be key for your long-term prospects. Sword of Convallaria has had a notable release despite mixed reviews on Steam.

Read More: Sword of Convallaria Codes Guide

Note: The content in this article is accurate as of the time of writing and does not account for any future updates to the game

Sword of Convallaria Reroll Walkthrough

How to Reroll

The reroll system for Sword of Convallaria only works on the mobile version so they’ll have to be done there and then bind to PC. The process is likely to be familiar to regular gacha players.

You can make guest accounts to play a new file, with each new account finish the tutorial and collect as many rewards and currency as possible. Then go through the freebies and guaranteed banners that you get with a fresh account and your opening currency.

If you don’t like the outcome of the pulls, start a new game on a fresh guest account and delete the previous one before repeating the steps until you get a pull that you like.

This isn’t too bad as the tutorial is short although you may get tired of replaying some parts of the level as you attempt to get the best roll. Once you’re happy with the pull then bind that account and play it as your main.

Who to Reroll For

There are a few specific units that are desirable and will make your account competitive for the long-term. If you can then get all three but even getting any two of Beryl, Gloria, and Inana will have you set up for success.

Read More: Gym Simulator 24 Achievements Guide

That is all for this Sword of Reroll Convallaria guide. Did we omit anything? Is there any other Sword of Convallaria content you’d like to see? Be sure to chime in and let us know.

Read More: Ogu and The Secret Forest Achievements Guide

Check out the rest of our tips & guides to find our other builds and tips for games across all genres including NBA 2K, MLB: The Show, Smalland: Survive the Wilds, indie titles, steam hits, Demonologist, and a lot more.

Stay tuned to Last Word on Gaming for all the latest gaming news and reviews You can always count on LWOG to be on top of the major news in the gaming world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the world of video games.

The post Sword of Convallaria Reroll Guide appeared first on Last Word On Gaming.

Developers who have created games for Apple Arcade are "unhappy", according to a new report.

Mobilegamer.biz asserts that studios have reported issues with getting timely responses from the Apple Arcade team, poor tech support, and problems with discoverability.

One indie developer alleged that they had to wait up to six months to get paid, "which almost put them out of business".

Read more

Developing games for Apple platforms has been described as "like an abusive relationship", due to a lack of support or strategy.

In a new report, MobileGamer.biz has spoken to a number of anonymous developers making games for the Apple Arcade mobile platform and the Vision Pro VR headset.

Sources describe a whole litany of issues, suggesting Apple simply "does not understand gamers" or the industry.

Read more

Here at Android Authority, we’re all about Google and Android, but we know Apple products are great, too. We also know Apple devices don’t tend to come cheap, so if you’ve been looking to make some additions to your repertoire, today might be the best day to do so. There are currently a bunch of Apple deals, many of which bring the prices close to Amazon Prime Day levels. Let’s go over some of our favorite offerings!

• Get the Apple MacBook Air M3 for $850 ($249 off)
• Get the Apple MacBook Pro M3 for $1,399 ($200 off)
• Get the Apple iPad mini 6th generation for $380 ($120 off)
• Get the Apple iPad 9th generation for $250 ($79 off)
• Get the Apple iPad 10th Generation for $300 ($49 off)
• Get the Apple Watch SE 2nd generation for $189 ($60 off)
• Get the Apple Watch Series 9 for $299 ($100 off)
• Get the Apple Watch Ultra 2 for $700 ($99 off)
• Get the Apple AirPods 3rd generation for $140 ($29 off)
• Get the Apple AirPods Max for $400 ($149 off)
• Get the Apple AirTag 4-pack for $80 ($19 off)

The MacBook Air M3 is obviously the best deal, discounting you a whole $249. It’s also a great device, and we usually mention it’s one of the best laptops for most people. It’s super thin, gorgeously designed, and plenty powerful. Some people even use it for light 4K video editing. All mentioned iPads are great, too, so look into those if you’re looking for a tablet. Also, you get plenty of choices in terms of Apple smartwatches and headphones, ranging from the most affordable to the most expensive, all with pretty lovely discounts. Even AirTags are on sale!

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Apple has been offering SE variants of its iconic smartwatch for years, catering to those with limited budgets and needs. Despite technically being the budget option, though, the current SE model starts at $249. That’s significantly more expensive than some of the affordable Wear OS rivals. To potentially cut its price, the Apple Watch SE 3 may retire the more costly aluminum build and opt for a cheaper plastic one.

According to Bloomberg Power On’s subscriber edition, the upcoming Apple Watch SE could replace the aluminum chassis with a rigid plastic one. This could help Apple drop its price and offer more distinct finishes. The newsletter reads:

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Apple Intelligence is arguably iOS 18’s most significant highlight, baking native AI features into the OS. While the technology likely won’t debut publicly until October, the company has already given iOS 18.1 beta testers an early look. One of its perks is AI summaries in the Mail app. Through this handy Apple Intelligence feature, users can save time, determine emails’ importance at a glance, get locked out of their accounts, and possibly lose considerable sums of money.

Yes, you’ve read that right. Apple Intelligence, indeed, can’t differentiate between phishing and legitimate emails. According to multiple Reddit users, the AI-powered filter in the Mail app is marking scam emails as a priority. This suggests that the technology categorizes emails based only on their texts, disregarding the senders’ addresses and other relevant signals.

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In recent years, smartphone hardware upgrades have been incremental — for the most part, at least. This has pushed some manufacturers to develop exclusive software features for their latest products, enticing customers to upgrade more frequently. The iPhone’s case is no different. Apple Intelligence is only supported on the iPhone 15 Pro and newer models, which will likely make it an iPhone 16 key selling point. Though, given that the highly anticipated AI features have been delayed till October, will Apple still launch the iPhone 16 in September? Here’s what the rumors indicate.

According to Bloomberg, Apple will stick to its tradition and launch the iPhone 16 in September. Since the company typically introduces its flagship smartphones on a Tuesday towards the middle of the month, the publication suggests that the announcement could take place on September 10. The report states:

Apple Mail has long been the ugly duckling of email clients. While the app technically works, it’s pretty barebones in terms of functionality. Despite the latest iOS 18 beta not addressing all of its shortcomings, it does make using the client more desirable on iPhone 15 Pro models. With iOS 18.1, the iPhone maker has baked Apple Intelligence into the Mail app, enabling AI summaries, priority detection, and more. Some of these features have also made it to the Messages app, such as the newly-added smart replies. Sure, Apple Mail still has a long way to go, but boy, do these AI enhancements make my everyday life easier and give Google’s Gmail a run for its money.

It all starts before you even launch the app

What I love about Apple Intelligence on iOS 18.1 beta 1 is that it works from the moment you receive an email or text. The technology analyzes the notifications’ content to display summaries on the lock screen. So, instead of previewing the first two lines of an email, the notification now shows a handier, AI-generated summary of the entire message. We’ve gone from “Hi, I hope this email finds you well” to “The sender is inquiring about your availability tomorrow” in the notification center. It’s pretty neat if you ask me.

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We’ve heard rumors for a while now that Apple could be working on a foldable iPhone and a foldable iMac/iPad hybrid. Now, it sounds like both devices might launch in 2026.

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The iPhone 15 series all offer the same 12MP selfie camera, but it seems like Apple could change things up with the iPhone 17 line in 2025.

MacRumors obtained a research note from Apple analyst Jeff Pu, and the analyst asserts that all four iPhone 17 models will pack a 24MP selfie camera. This camera is said to offer six plastic lens elements.

There’s no word on other details (e.g. sensor size, pixel size), but this could be a handy upgrade. Many phones offer selfie cameras with a wide field of view (ideal for group selfies), but also let you crop in for more conventional selfies. So a higher resolution selfie camera could make for more detailed cropped selfies.

A higher resolution selfie camera could also potentially make for improved low-light snaps via pixel binning. Although a pixel-binned 24MP shot is equivalent to an 8MP snap.

This wouldn’t be the highest resolution selfie camera in the smartphone space, as we’ve previously seen phones with 32MP, 40MP, and even 50MP selfie cameras. Samsung, in particular, offered a 40MP selfie camera on its Ultra phones. But the Galaxy S24 Ultra has since reverted to a 12MP lens. So we’re curious to see what’s the megapixel sweet spot for selfie cameras.

Strategy Analytics has published its yearly report detailing global smartphone application processor market share in 2014. The total market had sales of about $21 billion with robust growth of 21%. The report shows that Qualcomm continued to lead the market in terms of revenue share with 52%, followed by Apple with 18% and MediaTek with 14%. The Apple number most likely reflects an estimate because Apple does not sell its chips to third parties. In fourth and fifth place were Speadtrum and Samsung LSI. The report mentions that HiSilicon, Intel and MediaTek had bigger growth than Qualcomm in 2014.

Qualcomm's strength based on Snapdragon 800 series wins in higher-tier phones

According to the report, Qualcomm's leadership was largely based on design wins for its Snapdragon 801 and Snapdragon 805 SoCs in the higher-tier market. Examples of this include the Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G3. However, as I have previously reported Samsung has increased its use of in-house application processors starting from the second half of 2014, culminating in the exclusive use of Exynos 7420 in the Galaxy S6 in 2015, putting pressure on Qualcomm.

Baseband share in 2014

Strategy Analytics has also published a report with details about baseband (modem) market share in smartphones. According to the report, LTE (4G) basebands accounted for 50% of cellular baseband share in 2014, and the figure is likely to increase significantly in 2015. Qualcomm led in LTE basebands, but HiSilicon, Intel, Marvell, MediaTek and Samsung also increased LTE baseband shipments.

In terms of revenues in the overall baseband market, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Speadtrum, Marvell and Intel had the top positions in 2104. Qualcomm had 66% revenue share, followed by MediaTek with 17% and Speadtrum with 5% sare. Given the product lines of the respective companies in 2014, Qualcomm's revenues are based on both integrated SoC and separate modems, while Intel's sales were mostly separate modem chips, while the other players mostly shipped a mix of integrated SoCs and modem chips.

Comparison with 2013

Comparing with the reports that Strategy Analytics issued for 2013, Qualcomm saws it baseband revenue share remain relatively stable at 66% compared to 64% in 2013. MediaTek saw its AP market share increase from 10% in 2013 to 14% in 2014, and its baseband share increased.

Tablet processor market in 2014

According to another report issued by Strategy Analytics, the market for tablet processors grew 18% in 2014 to $4.2 billion. The top-five revenue share positions were occupied by Apple, Intel, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung LSI. Apple led with 27% share (which must be an estimate), followed by Intel with 17% and Qualcomm with 16% share.

Notable is the absence among the top five of traditional leaders in the Chinese white-box market such as Rockchip and Allwinner. This most likely reflects in increase in brand name tablet shipments at the expense of the white-box tablet market, the low selling prices of white-box tablet processor and the encroachment of MediaTek and Intel into that segment.

Source: Strategy Analytics (Smartphone AP market share), Strategy Analytics (cellular baseband market share), Strategy Analytics (Tablet processor market share)

TSMC will receive majority of Apple A9 business

According to reports, TSMC will receive the majority of Apple A9 SoC orders, which includes the A9 for next-generation iPhones and A9X for iPads. According to sources quoted by EE Times, Apple had originally planned to give Samsung a majority of the Apple A9 orders, but has recently shifted orders to TSMC, most likely using a 16 nm FinFET process.

Because ramping up production of a similar chip from a second source with different foundry technology is challenging and complicated, I believe it is likely that A9 production will be overwhelmingly (and perhaps exclusively) concentrated at TSMC. A parallel can be drawn with various reports from last year, which for a long time continued to echo incorrect projections that Samsung would serve a significant portion of the production of Apple's A8 generation SoCs, which has not turned out not to be the case.

In the mean time, TSMC's revenues continue to be a relatively high level despite Q1usually being seasonally down, with strong demand for 20 nm production, most likely reflecting continuing demand from Apple, which is offsetting weakness from Qualcomm for leading-edge processes. There have been rumours about an upcoming iPhone 6S and a lower cost iPhone 6C model which may involve substantial unit volumes. Apple's iPhone unit shipments have also been boosted by strong demand in China.

Low yield at Samsung and Exynos ramp contribute to TSMC orders

According to a source quoting sources in South Korea, TSMC's yield rate for its 16 nm FinFET process is better than that of Samsung's 14 nm process. Moreover, Samsung is seeing strong upcoming demand for it flagship Galaxy S6 smartphone, which uses the Exynos 7420 SoC produced on its 14 nm FinFET process, and most likely needs all capacity it can get to ramp up production of this SoC. Samsung also increasingly uses Exynos 7420 and other internally-developed SoCs for other product lines, such as other smartphone models as well as tablets.

Qualcomm said to have limited-time exclusive use of TSMC's 16FF+ technology

According a report by EETimes from a semiconductor industry conference in January, Qualcomm is likely to have locked up exclusive use of TSMC's 16FF+ process technology for about six months. The article appears to quote sources affiliated with Qualcomm that state that Qualcomm feels competitors such as MediaTek took advantage of previous-generation process technology (28HPM) that Qualcomm helped develop at TSMC, without having made the development investment that Qualcomm made.

However, this policy would be contrary to the principles based on which TSMC has operated for a long time, although the initial ramp of 20 nm at TSMC last year also seemed to be locked-up by another company (Apple). Its seems corporate pressure from these giant companies, backed by billions of dollars of cash, is forcing TSMC into these kinds of commitments.

The article mentions that the later access to 16FF+ won't affect MediaTek's mainstream products serving the mid-range to entry-level segments, because 28 nm technologies will continue to be used for such products in the market.

Leaked power consumption graphs suggest increased power efficiency

Power consumption graphs of current and upcoming high-end Qualcomm SoCs running a 3D game at high detail settings suggest power consumption and heat production of Qualcomm's unannounced Snapdragon 815 processor will be considerably lower than that of the Snapdragon 801 and Snapdragon 810, with Snapdragon 810 showing particularly unfavourable characteristics, as confirmed by widespread reports and reviews of Snapdragon 810-based devices.

Snapdragon 815 is unannounced and few details are known about it, with some reports suggesting the use of a next-generation Krait CPU core. Use of ARM Cortex-A72 processor cores appears to be not unlikely, since this core seems to be close to actual production. Most likely, the decreased heat production, which is likely to be associated with lower power consumption, is made possible by the use of the next-generation 16 nm FinFET process at TSMC.

Similar improvements in power consumption were observed for Snapdragon 620, which uses Cortex-A72 cores, when compared to the mid-range Snapdragon 615 SoC, which is reported to also have heating issues. Snapdragon 620, which has been announced, is also likely to have significantly higher CPU performance than Snapdragon 615 due to the use of Cortex-A72 cores, versus Cortex-A53 for Snapdragon 615, while also likely being produced on a much more efficient process (possibly  TSMC's 16FF+), since Snapdragon 615 is manufactured on a low-efficiency 28LP process.

Sources: EE Times (ISS 2015 conference report), EE Times (Apple A9 orders article), STJS Gadgets Portal (Snapdragon heat production graphs)

Updated 25 March 2015 (Add comments about 20 nm Apple production at TSMC).

Both Qualcomm and MediaTek recently reported financial results for the fourth quarter of Q4 2014 and made projections for future periods. Both companies are seeing challenges that are already affecting their revenues and market share now or later in 2015.

Qualcomm lowers forecast for 2015 due to weakness at major customer

In their financial report for Q4 2014, Qualcomm lowered their outlook for 2015, citing as one of the reasons reduced demand from a major customer as that customer has not selected the Snapdragon 810 processor for an upcoming flagship product. This is widely believed to refer to Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S6. In fact the trend of increasing use of in-house Exynos processors already started last year, as models such as Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy S5 Mini and Galaxy Note 4 already saw increasing use of Samsung's own Exynos processors, including modem technology in some cases.

Qualcomm also mentions a share shift among major OEMs that will result in relatively more modem chips as opposed to SoCs (clearly referring to Apple, which only uses Qualcom's modem chips), as well as heightened competition in China. Recently, Qualcomm also recently announced a resolution of the anti-trust investigation by authorities in China, which amounts to a reduction in the patent royalty rate it charges to customers in China.

Qualcomm's total market share currently still strong

At the moment, Qualcomm's market share for smartphone SoCs is still strong as shown by unit shipments and revenues for Q4 2014 and Qualcomm's estimates for Q1 2015, although its product mix has shifted to lower-end products. In comparison to competitor MediaTek, Qualcomm is doing much better in terms of maintaining or growing unit shipments (with Qualcomm in fact seeing a 14% increase in unit shipments in Q4 2014), suggesting that Qualcomm is taking market share from MediaTek as products such as Snapdragon 410 and the new Snapdragon 210 take over large parts of the low-end cost-sensitive market (especially in China) where MediaTek's 3G solutions where previously dominant.

MediaTek losing market share despite successful new products

Meanwhile, although MediaTek has seen widespread adoption of its new MT6752 and MT6732 SoCs with integrated LTE modem for the cost-sensitive mid-range market, the company saw lower unit shipments in Q4 2014 and predicts a 10 to 18% revenue decline for Q1 2015, suggesting its smartphone SoC shipments are under pressure. Given the fact that the new 4G chips have higher selling prices than existing 3G chips, the revenue decline probably reflects a relatively dramatic decline in shipments of existing 3G solutions, with resulting loss of total market share, although price reductions may also play a role. MediaTek has been affected especially by the late introduction of integrated 4G solutions and the lack of a low-end 4G solution and to a lesser extend the delayed introduction of the high-end MT6795.

Captive mobile SoC use becoming more important

Within the total smartphone SoC market (and also in the tablet maket), captive supply (whereby a smartphone manufacturer uses its own SoCs in its smartphone models) is becoming more important, which affects the market opportunity for companies such as Qualcomm and MediaTek. I already mentioned Samsung's increasing use of Exynos processors, which has a significant impact as Samsung is one of the two largest smartphone manufacturers. A major Chinese manufacturr, Huawei, is also increasingly using SoCs from its own HiSilicon division, also extending to lower end models. Apple's gains in market share also has an effect (especially on the high-end market) since it uses proprietary SoCs.

In the tablet market, the low-end and Chinese white-box market is seeing a sharp reduction in shipments in Q1 2015, with market share shifting to brand names (where captive solutions are more important, such as at Samsung) as total shipments are estimated to decline dramatically. This greatly affects traditional players in the tablet SoC market such as Rockchip, Allwinner and MediaTek. Intel's strategy of subsidizing tablet SoCs has also had an impact. According to DigiTimes, the total tablet market will decline 30% sequentially in Q1 2015, with estimates of a decline of 12% for the whole year 2015.


Sources: DigiTimes (tablet market article), DigiTimes (MediaTek results), Qualcomm, MediaTek

RetroArch is now available on the Apple App Store. It is currently available for iPhone, iPad and tvOS. A macOS version on the Apple App Store is planned but no ETA. A new RetroArch version is also coming out soon.

Developing games for Apple platforms has been described as "like an abusive relationship", due to a lack of support or strategy.

In a new report, MobileGamer.biz has spoken to a number of anonymous developers making games for the Apple Arcade mobile platform and the Vision Pro VR headset.

Sources describe a whole litany of issues, suggesting Apple simply "does not understand gamers" or the industry.

Read more

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We’ve heard rumors for a while now that Apple could be working on a foldable iPhone and a foldable iMac/iPad hybrid. Now, it sounds like both devices might launch in 2026.

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The iPhone 15 series all offer the same 12MP selfie camera, but it seems like Apple could change things up with the iPhone 17 line in 2025.

MacRumors obtained a research note from Apple analyst Jeff Pu, and the analyst asserts that all four iPhone 17 models will pack a 24MP selfie camera. This camera is said to offer six plastic lens elements.

There’s no word on other details (e.g. sensor size, pixel size), but this could be a handy upgrade. Many phones offer selfie cameras with a wide field of view (ideal for group selfies), but also let you crop in for more conventional selfies. So a higher resolution selfie camera could make for more detailed cropped selfies.

A higher resolution selfie camera could also potentially make for improved low-light snaps via pixel binning. Although a pixel-binned 24MP shot is equivalent to an 8MP snap.

This wouldn’t be the highest resolution selfie camera in the smartphone space, as we’ve previously seen phones with 32MP, 40MP, and even 50MP selfie cameras. Samsung, in particular, offered a 40MP selfie camera on its Ultra phones. But the Galaxy S24 Ultra has since reverted to a 12MP lens. So we’re curious to see what’s the megapixel sweet spot for selfie cameras.

Update: August 1, 2024 (3:10 PM ET): We have updated our iPhone 16 series rumor hub with a new leak about possible color options across the iPhone 16 lineup and information regarding Apple’s preventative overheating measures for the iPhone 16.

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Apple’s iPhone 15 series came out in September 2023. Now that the hype for those has died down, we’re moving on to the 2024 models — and there are already plenty of iPhone 16 rumors and leaks going around.

Apple made some significant changes to the 2023 iPhone lineup, including the addition of USB-C, the mute-switch-replacing Action Button, Titanium bodies instead of Stainless Steel on the Pro iPhones, Dynamic Island on the non-Pro iPhones, a periscope camera for the Pro Max model, and more. If you’ve been following Apple long enough, you’d know that most of these new features from the iPhone 15 series would most certainly be coming to iPhone 16 models. Additionally, what’s exclusive to the 2023 Pros would likely trickle down to the non-Pro variants this year. Keeping all that in mind, here’s what you can expect from the iPhone 16 lineup in 2024.

Will there be an iPhone 16 series?

There’s no doubt Apple will launch new iPhones in 2024. The iPhone is not only the company’s best-selling product, but the cornerstone of everything it does. You can’t depend on a lot in this world, but a yearly iPhone upgrade is something we can expect almost as much as we can expect the rising of the sun.

A better question might be: will these new iPhones be called the iPhone 16 series? This is not nearly as assured, although we are pretty confident that’s what will happen. It’s been a long time since Apple didn’t use a new number for its yearly iPhone upgrade. In fact, the last time there was an “S” series iPhone was the iPhone XS and XS Max in 2018, nearly six years ago. Since then, it’s been a brand new number every year, so we’re pretty confident there will be an iPhone 16 release this year.

What is the most likely iPhone 16 series release date?

• Apple iPhone 13: September 14, 2021
• Apple iPhone 14: September 7, 2022
• Apple iPhone 15: September 12, 2023

Apple has been launching new iPhones in September since the iPhone 5. Barring the iPhone SE models, September is Apple’s preferred month for flagship announcements. It was only during the pandemic that Apple went off course and launched the iPhone 12 series in October. But if all goes as planned and there are no last-minute manufacturing hitches, the iPhone 16 series should arrive like clockwork in September 2024. It’s too early for even leaked details about a specific iPhone 16 release date, but we’ll update this article as and when we hear anything about it.

What rumored specs and features could the iPhone 16 series have?

Apple doesn’t reinvent the iPhone every year, but it almost always launches significant changes. Here are the things we expect to see later this year with the iPhone 16 series.

Design, display, and buttons

Apple made several notable design changes on the iPhone 15 series, and we expect the company to refine these going forward. We think Apple’s newly launched Action Button will make its way to the non-Pro iPhone 16 models this year. As we said earlier, bringing Pro features to base iPhone models is a practice Apple has followed for years. The Dynamic Island on the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus (previously reserved only for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max) is a prime example of that. So, if you prefer the classic mute switch over the new Action Button, know that it will most likely disappear for good after the iPhone 16 lineup goes official.

Apple could equip the iPhone 16 series with yet another new button.

If one new button wasn’t enough, rumor has it that Apple will equip the iPhone 16 series with yet another button. According to a MacRumors report and frequent Apple leaker Mark Gurman, Apple internally refers to this new button as the “Capture Button.” It is expected to appear on the right side of the device, and Gurman says it could be used to shoot images and record videos. The Information says that the button will be a physical button that will be sensitive to both pressure and touch. The report mentions that lightly pressing the button will allow you to focus, while a firmer press will capture an image or start recording. It is said that you will also be able to swipe left or right on the button to zoom in or out.

All-in-all, it looks like the iPhone 16 series may come with as many as five buttons, including the power button, two volume buttons, the Action Button, and the new Capture Button. The button is said to be in testing across all four models within the iPhone 16 series, so it’s possible this will not be a Pro-only feature.

For the designs of the base iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, we expect Apple to stick to the same screen sizes as last year. Display analyst Ross Young also suggests that Apple is only expected to bring high refresh rate screens to base iPhones in 2025. That means we might be stuck with 60Hz displays on the cheaper iPhones in 2024, which is profoundly disappointing, especially when you consider you can get a budget Android phone with a 90Hz display for less than $400 these days.

The overall footprint of the new 2024 iPhones could also be larger than ever

As for the Pro models, they could be larger than ever. Gurman and Young concur that Apple plans to increase the size of its two iPhone 16 Pro models by “a couple of tenths of an inch diagonally.” The new displays are expected to measure 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches for the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, respectively, making the Pro Max the largest iPhone ever. However, the Pro Max name might not stick around. According to 9to5Mac, the top-of-the-line iPhone could adopt the “Ultra” branding in 2024, which we heard in 2023, too — so take that rumor with a grain of salt.

Speaking of the displays, the iPhone 16 Pro models are expected to get Samsung Display’s new M14 OLED panels, ET News reports (h/t: Phandroid). As a result, they should be brighter than ever, last longer, and could be more energy efficient.

A rumor from Ice Universe (via MacRumors) suggests that the bezels on the iPhone 16 Pro will be even thinner than the bezels on the Galaxy S24 Ultra. If true, this would mean that the bezels will be narrower than 1.52mm. To accomplish this, it is rumored that Apple will rely on Border Reduction Structure (BRS) technology. A newer rumor suggests the iPhone 16 Pro Max (or Ultra) might also have crazy-thin bezels — so small it will be almost like they’re not even there. Ice Universe, the source for this leak, says the iPhone 16 Pro Max might end up being “the world’s closest smartphone to a borderless sci-fi form factor.”

We have also seen a few dummy units around, giving us a fair idea of what the lineup will look like. Leaker MajinBu reshared comparison pics of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro as against the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro, and the size difference on the Pro iPhone is very apparent year-on-year.

Sonny Dickson also shared dummy units of the entire iPhone 16 series, corroborating the difference in screen sizes, the vertically placed cameras, the Action button, and the Capture button on all four phones.

Dickson later shared better-quality dummy units of the series, which you can see at the top of this section. Those dummy units show off the redesigned camera modules on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, as well as just how large the Pro Max (or Ultra) is.

If you’re wondering about the colors coming to the series, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shared that he believes most of the existing colors will be brought over from the iPhone 15. However, he claims that the iPhone 15 Pro’s “Blue Titanium” could be replaced by a rose color on the iPhone 16 Pro models, and the iPhone 16 could drop yellow in favor of white.

Sonny Dickson‘s latest leaks show us what the color options on the iPhone 16 might look like. The images showcase a new set of iPhone 16 and 16 Pro dummy units, which appear more refined than previous ones Dickson has shared, indicating that they might closely resemble the final product.

Among the colors shown for the non-Pro iPhone 16, there’s a rich green and an appealing blue alongside Apple’s staple pink/rose gold option. Even the traditional black and white colors look more saturated this time around, reminding us of the iPhone X.

As for the colors on the Pro iPhones this year, we can see the return of a white and a natural titanium color variant. What’s new this year is the deep black option, which could be a stark departure from the subtler hues that Apple’s Pro iPhones generally go for. Interestingly, Disckson’s leak only shows three colorways for the iPhone 16 Pro phones, but we can expect the fourth color to be a variation of the Gold/Rose Gold/Purple colorways that we’ve seen in the past.

It’s worth remembering that these dummy units might not perfectly represent the final finish, but they give a good idea of the color palette we can expect.

iPhone 16 series camera specs

There are a number of rumors already swirling around about iPhone 16 camera specs. Apple introduced a new tetraprism zoom lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max in 2023, which, according to Apple analyst and trusted informer Ming-Chi Kuo, could come to both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. However, The Information claims the tetraprism zoom lens could also appear in the cheaper models.

Meanwhile, Haitong International Securities analyst Jeff Pu claims that Apple will add a 48MP ultrawide shooter to the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. Ming-Chi Kuo also reiterates this with more details, noting that the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max could jump to a 48MP 1/2.6-inch sensor with 0.7µm pixel size and 6P lens assembly for its rear ultrawide camera. The output would be 12MP, so with pixel binning, the effective pixel size would be 1.4µm. If true, this would be a significant resolution upgrade compared to the 12MP ultrawide sensor currently used on iPhone models with a 1µm pixel size.

Further supporting the possibility of an ultrawide upgrade to 48MP is a rumor from Weibo tipster OvO Baby Sauce OvO. In addition to an improvement to the ultrawide, the tipster also says the Pro Max’s main camera will be based on an advanced custom 48MP Sony IMX903 sensor.

Other expected specs and features

Based on Apple’s behavior in the past two years, we expected that the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus would get the A17 Pro chip Apple is now using in the iPhone 15 Pro phones, while the iPhone 16 Pro lineup could see a brand new A18 chip.

However, Jeff Pu (via MacRumors) has suggested Apple might change up its strategy this year. He claims that all four new iPhone 16 series phones might be equipped with A18 series chips. Pu also expects the chips to be manufactured by TSMC on its second-generation 3nm process instead of the first-generation 3nm process used on the A17 Pro chip.

More recently, code discovered in Apple’s backend by MacRumors seems to confirm that all four iPhone 16 models will feature the new A18 family chips. The code uses internal model numbers to refer to the new iPhones, and this time they all start with “iPhone17,” indicating a unified chip generation across the lineup.

That being said, there could still be a difference in the processors that the non-Pro and Pro iPhones 16 models get. Even within the same generation, the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus could get the A18 chip, while the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max could come equipped with an A18 Pro chip with better or more GPU cores.

We’re inclined to think all iPhone 16 models could get new chips because iOS 18 is expected to lean heavily into Apple Intelligence features. Many of these features will work on-device, which will require powerful specialized chips called neural processing units (NPUs). The A17 Pro already has an NPU, but we think Apple would want all iPhone 16 models to have something better to make them powerful AI machines.

Elsewhere, the battery capacity of at least the base iPhone 16 is expected to increase. Thanks to leaked images of the iPhone 16 battery, we can see its capacity is about 200mAh more than the iPhone 15. Also, we see that the battery is encased in metal, which could help cut down on overheating problems users faced with the iPhone 15 series:

Meanwhile, the storage tiers of the iPhone 16 series could remain the same as the iPhone 15 series, but there may be some shuffling in RAM. Pu suggests that the base iPhone 16 could finally get 8GB of RAM, compared to the base iPhone 15’s 6GB of RAM. The iPhone 15 Pro models already have 8GB of RAM, so Apple would probably stick with the same for the iPhone 16 Pro models.

The base iPhone 16 could also make the jump to Wi-Fi 6E, finally.

The iPhone 16 Pro, instead, could get an upgrade to the Qualcomm Snapdragon X75 modem, as Pu notes. The base iPhone 16 could retain the Qualcomm Snapdragon X70 modem, which is present on iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models.

We also expect Apple to infuse generative AI into its products in 2024. The company is reportedly integrating AI features in iOS 18 in partnership with OpenAI (owners of ChatGPT). While that deal is essentially done, there have also been rumors of Apple working with Google to bring Gemini features to iPhones, too. Given that the Pixel 8 and Galaxy S24 series all heavily focus on AI smarts, it’s pretty much a given that Apple will need to respond in the iPhone 16 series, but we don’t know yet what that will look like.

When the iPhone 15 series launched, it was initially plagued with overheating issues. Apparently, Apple has learned its lesson as The Information reports the company is adding a larger graphite sheet inside the chassis to prevent the issue from reoccurring.

What might the iPhone 16 series’ price be?

• iPhone 15: Starts at $799
• iPhone 15 Plus: Starts at $899
• iPhone 15 Pro: Starts at $999
• iPhone 15 Pro Max: Starts at $1,199

In 2023, Apple increased the price of its Pro Max model by $100. You could buy the base 128GB iPhone 14 Pro Max for $1,099 in 2022, but the iPhone 15 Pro Max underwent big changes and starts at $1,199 for a 256GB model. We expect Apple to stick to the new $1,199 price and higher base storage for the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

As for the rest of the lineup, it’s tough to say if Apple will keep prices unchanged or increase them. We aren’t hearing about huge upgrades just yet, so the iPhone 16 series could also end up starting at $799. We’ll be better positioned to predict prices later this year. For now, though, it’s probably a safe bet to assume pricing will remain unchanged. You can be assured that Apple will not lower any prices.

Should you wait for the iPhone 16 series?

If you’re looking to pick up a new flagship iPhone right now, you don’t need to wait until September. The current iPhone 15 lineup has plenty to offer and will not be dramatically outdated when the iPhone 16 series launches. There are also some terrific Android alternatives out there, should you be interested in switching teams.

You can buy the iPhone 15 (), iPhone 15 Plus (), iPhone 15 Pro (), or iPhone 15 Pro Max () depending on your budget and what you need. You may also find good deals on the new iPhones at major carriers like T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, or you could pick up the phones for free with some carriers.

If you are interested in making the jump to Android, there are also plenty of great options. The Google Pixel 8 () would be a great Android alternative to the iPhone 15, and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus () or OnePlus 12 () will deliver a lot more than an iPhone 15 Plus. If you want an iPhone Pro model, the Pixel 8 Pro () or Galaxy S24 Ultra () will really impress you.

I’m in a love-hate relationship with Grammarly. So, when Apple Intelligence was previewed at WWDC24, I hoped the native, OS-level Writing Tools would replace my current third-party solution. Fast forward to earlier this week, Apple finally granted beta testers access to some of its upcoming AI features. Naturally, I rushed to put them to the test, and I’ve now come to some relevant conclusions. While Apple Intelligence’s Writing Tools shine in some ways, Grammarly will remain installed on my MacBook Air for the time being.

Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly: Availability

Apple Intelligence is available on iPhone 15 Pro models, along with M-powered iPads and Macs. To access the new Writing Tools feature, you must install the first beta of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS Sequoia 15.1, then get past Apple Intelligence’s waitlist. The wait wasn’t long for me, and once the artificial smarts became active on my device, I could use Writing Tools with any selectable text across the system for free — even when I’m offline.

Conversely, Grammarly is a cross-platform service available on most operating systems as a standalone app and browser extension. While the basic spelling and grammar checks are free, some more advanced features, like writing tone adjustments, require a monthly subscription. Notably, Grammarly is a cloud-based software that processes your data using the company’s servers and doesn’t work without an internet connection.

I tried Apple Intelligence’s Writing Tools on my iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and the feature works similarly across all devices. So, while I’ll be documenting my experience using it on my primary work machine, a MacBook Air M2, you can expect to encounter the same strengths and weaknesses on iPhones and iPads.

Apple’s Writing Tools: First impressions

In typical Apple fashion, the Writing Tools feature lives in a sleek menu that users can access when selecting text. The user interface is minimalistic, modern-looking, and unintrusive. Through Writing Tools, AI can proofread, rewrite, summarize, create key points, generate a table or list, and adjust the text’s tone to become friendly, professional, or concise. Beyond smart replies in the Mail and Messages apps, Apple Intelligence’s Writing Tools, unlike Grammarly, can’t generate text from scratch based on user prompts.

Once Apple Intelligence performs the requested action, the revised text will appear in a floating bubble. You can then copy the entire result, have it replace the original text, or select parts of it. While it’s generally intuitive to operate, I found it challenging to spot the changes it has applied due to the lack of visual cues in Safari. Some apps like Notes and Messages highlight the applied edits, so Safari could potentially follow suit in a future OS beta.

For reference, Grammarly proactively scans the text and highlights errors, which you can individually address or ignore. Apple Intelligence goes for an all-or-none approach, designed to replace all your (selected) text instead of letting you go through the mistakes or suggested tweaks separately.

Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly: My personal use case

How useful a software is to you will primarily depend on your workflow and expectations. In my case, I only rely on Grammarly to fix typos, detect potential language errors, and rephrase some awkwardly worded sentences in my articles. I don’t really care about tone monitoring or adjustments, as my writing style differs depending on the article’s theme. I prefer maintaining my own freestyle tone, which I believe makes my work more personal and unique.

I attempted to utilize Apple Intelligence’s rewriting feature to rectify some awkwardly phrased sentences. In contrast to Grammarly, the tone of the rewritten text generally appeared too robotic and evidently AI-generated, in my opinion. I could discern that a human had not authored the sentences. Furthermore, Grammarly automatically identifies lengthy sentences and proposes smoother transitions, eliminating the requirement for manual selection and correction. To illustrate Apple Intelligence’s rewriting capabilities, the paragraph you are currently reading was processed using this feature. No human or Grammarly edits were made subsequently.

So, as you may have noticed, the paragraph above sounds too unnatural. It may be grammatical and understandable, but it’s clearly not humanmade. Consequently, Apple Intelligence still can’t replace Grammarly for rephrasing bloated sentences and suggesting smoother flows in my articles.

Apple's suggestions are an all-or-nothing affair, and having to proofread Apple's proofread version defeats this tool's entire purpose.

As for fixing typos and language errors, I’d be okay without proactive text scanning if Apple would at least highlight the changes its AI has made when typing in Safari. These text tools are far from perfect, and I’ll never unquestioningly accept their submissions. Having to proofread Apple’s proofread version of my article defeats the entire purpose of the assistant. Visual indicators would spare me the need to reread the whole text by letting me review the individual tweaks only and apply them where needed — just like Grammarly works.

So, until then, I’m unfortunately stuck with Grammarly, as I type my articles directly in WordPress.

Other Writing Tools options

While I only need Writing Tools for proofreading and rewriting certain sentences in my articles, this Apple Intelligence offering features other handy options. For example, you can summarize any text on the web or have the AI list its key points. Similarly, it can neatly arrange the text in a table or as a list, which can make analyzing data easier. Otherwise, beyond neutrally rephrasing your text, Writing Tools can make the tone more friendly, professional, or concise, and I’ll include samples below.

Friendly:

Here’s a friendly tone sample from Apple Intelligence. I haven’t used this mode much because it doesn’t quite match my job or work style. But it can be useful when you’re texting people and you’re worried your tone might come across as too serious.

Professional:

Currently, we are adopting the professional tone sample provided by Apple Intelligence. Similarly, I have not extensively utilized this mode, as I generally possess the ability to maintain a professional tone when necessary, such as when communicating with colleagues. Otherwise, I tend to adopt an informal tone in everyday matters, as life is too short to take everything excessively seriously.

Concise:

Lastly, Apple Intelligence’s concise tone sample doesn’t fit my workflow, so I haven’t used it. Grammarly also supports a similar text tone feature, but I haven’t used it either. They’re useful, but not for me.

Apple Intelligence’s respective tone modifiers generated the three short paragraphs above, and I made no edits afterward. I personally think they sound more natural than the robotic rewriting option I previewed earlier in this article. The friendly sample is pretty casual, the professional one sounds corporatesque enough, and the concise version successfully trimmed the fluff I had included in my original paragraph without losing the meaning.

Apple Intelligence has some potential

While the highlights and rephrased sentences push me to stick to Grammarly for now, Apple Intelligence’s Writing Tools may change that with future updates. I dislike how persistent Grammarly can be, suggesting the same edits over and over after I dismiss them for not matching my style. While it’s certainly effective, it feels too intrusive, stubborn, and a bit in the way.

On the other hand, Apple’s Writing Tools menu is less flashy and distracting, as it only pops up when summoned by the user. More importantly, though, it continues to work even if you’re not connected to the internet. However, until Apple implements the visual indicators mentioned above in Safari, using Writing Tools to proofread my work isn’t feasible.

Fortunately, we’re still testing the very first beta of the software, and the tech overlord will likely make many improvements before the stable release debuts to the public in October. Will Apple save me from my toxic relationship with Grammarly by this fall? Stay tuned.

Just as smartphone hardware and processing power reached maturity, tech giants have found a new way to sell you an upgrade: AI. Even Apple has jumped on the bandwagon as it gears up to launch a revamped Siri and Apple Intelligence via an iOS 18 update later in 2024. Google, meanwhile, has pushed Android brands to adopt its Gemini family of language models for everything from image editing to translation since last year. But while Apple Intelligence and Google Gemini may look similar on paper, the two couldn’t be more different in reality.

Even though Apple tends to take a more conservative approach when adopting new technologies, its AI push has been swift and comprehensive. With that in mind, let’s break down how Apple Intelligence differs vs Google Gemini and why it matters.

Apple Intelligence vs Google Gemini: Overview

The biggest difference between Apple Intelligence and Gemini is that Apple Intelligence is not anchored to any single app or function. Instead, it refers to a wide variety of features available across the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. In other words, Apple has made AI as invisible as possible — you may not even realize its presence outside of certain obvious instances like Siri.

On the other hand, Gemini started its life as a chatbot to compete with the likes of ChatGPT and has gone on to replace the Google Assistant. Even though Gemini’s capabilities extend beyond chat, features like text summarization and translation can vary depending on your smartphone of choice. For example, Samsung’s Galaxy AI offers a different set of AI features than those found on Google Pixel devices, even though both companies use (and advertise) Gemini Nano.

Gemini's feature set differs from one device to another, while Apple Intelligence is standard.

While introducing Apple Intelligence, the Cupertino giant also made a big deal about its commitment to privacy. Cloud-based AI tasks will be performed strictly on Apple’s servers on the company’s own hardware. More importantly, human-AI interactions will not be visible to anyone besides the user, not even to Apple.

However, the platform isn’t entirely closed off either; Apple has announced a ChatGPT integration for complex Siri queries. Rumors also indicated that the company may offer responses from Gemini as an alternative to ChatGPT. This willingness to include third-party integrations marks a significant shift for Apple, which traditionally prefers to keep its ecosystem tightly controlled. However, it offers Apple a way to offload blame if the AI model responds with unsafe or misleading information.

Are Apple Intelligence and Gemini free?

Yes, both Apple Intelligence and Gemini are free to use. However, Google offers an optional paid tier called Gemini Advanced that unlocks higher quality responses, thanks to a larger language model. While Apple doesn’t directly charge for its AI features, you can link a ChatGPT Plus account to access paid features like access to the latest GPT-4o model.

Apple Intelligence vs Google Gemini: Features compared

Both Apple Intelligence and Gemini power a slew of AI features, but they differ slightly in terms of their implementation and availability. Here’s a quick rundown:

1. Assistant: Using the power of large language models, Apple’s Siri and Google’s Gemini can both act as capable digital assistants and answer any question under the sun. Based on Apple’s demos, the new Siri has a clear advantage as it can coordinate actions across apps. For example, you can ask it to send photos from a specific location to your contact without opening either the Photos or Messages app. Gemini cannot perform this kind of functionality yet.
2. Screen context and personalization: Apple Intelligence can access information on your screen before responding. It can also access texts, reminders, and other data across Apple apps in the background. With Gemini, you have to manually tap “Add this screen” each time to let the AI read it.
3. Photo editing: Google uses Imagen 2 instead of Gemini for image-related tasks but it’s still surprisingly capable — Magic Editor in Google Photos can remove objects, replace the sky, and more. Samsung also uses the same model for its Photo Edit feature. Apple Intelligence adds an object cleanup tool to the Photos app but it does not offer as many AI editing options as Magic Editor.
4. AI image generator: Apple’s Image Playground is a new app that creates AI-generated images and emoji, either based on your contacts or custom descriptions. These can be easily dropped into chat apps. Gemini can generate images too, but only via typed prompts.
5. Mail and productivity: While you can find Gemini in many Google apps these days, the majority of features are unfortunately locked behind Gemini Advanced. Help Me Write in Gmail and Google Docs, for example, won’t appear without the subscription. Apple’s Mail app, on the other hand, will summarize your emails using an on-device model. A feature called Smart Reply will also generate a reply on your behalf after asking relevant questions based on the incoming email.
6. Writing tools: Apple leads in this area as you can select any piece of text across the operating system and perform AI language tasks like proofreading, summarization, and paraphrasing. Galaxy AI offers similar tools via Samsung Keyboard’s Gemini Nano integration but you won’t find it on every Android phone. In fact, it’s even missing on Google’s Pixel devices and Gboard.

Apple Intelligence and Gemini: Supported devices and availability

Since many Apple Intelligence features utilize an on-device large language model, we knew that Apple would only bring it to relatively modern devices. However, the company has gone further than many expected and locked the entire suite to the iPhone 15 Pro series. That’s right — the regular iPhone 15 series (and earlier models) will not support Apple Intelligence, even the parts that rely entirely on the cloud.

Google, meanwhile, has done a commendable job of bringing Gemini to as many Android devices as possible. The chatbot is available on every single Android smartphone, for instance, and even features powered by the on-device Gemini Nano model is available on more devices like the Pixel 8a.

Apple Intelligence won't be available to the vast majority of users for the foreseeable future.

Over on the computing side, Apple is more generous as it will deliver AI features to all macOS devices dating back to the M1 chip from 2020. Meanwhile, Google offers limited Gemini features in ChromeOS and you can only use it on newer Chromebook Plus machines. That said, the Gemini chatbot is accessible via a web browser on any computer.

Availability is another sore spot for Apple Intelligence. It will not launch in the UK, European Union, and China. You will also need to set your device to the “US English” locale. While these restrictions may be relaxed at some point, Gemini is far ahead of the curve as it supports all major languages and regions.

Apple Intelligence vs Google Gemini: Privacy

Adding AI to anything is risky — the technology is prone to hallucinating and generating misleading information that could ruin a brand’s reputation. Just ask Google; the company faced backlash over its AI Overviews feature in search and has since walked it back. Another risk is data privacy — nobody wants to share sensitive data only to have it leaked or used to train future AI.

Apple has countered this problem by using a model small enough to power many AI features entirely on-device. It also employs a strategy called Private Cloud Compute, which works as follows:

When a user makes a request, Apple Intelligence analyzes whether it can be processed on device. If it needs greater computational capacity, it can draw on Private Cloud Compute, which will send only the data that is relevant to the task to be processed on Apple silicon servers. When requests are routed to Private Cloud Compute, data is not stored or made accessible to Apple, and is only used to fulfill the user’s requests.

Gemini, meanwhile, also comes in multiple variations. The smallest language model, Gemini Nano, runs on your device even and is the most private option. We have a list of every Gemini Nano-powered feature on Pixel devices, and Galaxy AI has a similar feature set too.

For more complex tasks, however, you will need to use Google’s cloud-based Gemini models. And unsurprisingly, the search giant’s privacy policies aren’t as user-friendly — Gemini interactions are not only stored on Google’s servers, but they are also used to train and improve future language models. In other words, it’s the complete opposite of what Apple offers and you may want to avoid sharing sensitive information with Google’s chatbot. You can opt out of AI model training on Gemini but that comes at the cost of losing access to chat history and Extensions that allow the chatbot to access data from Gmail and other Google apps.

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Overall, both AI platforms trade blows in terms of features, at least on paper. However, Apple Intelligence’s deep OS-level integration makes it far more useful day-to-day than Gemini. The only downside is that you will need the latest iPhone — and the Pro model at that. Google and Samsung may not offer the same depth, but they have done a remarkable job of bringing AI to older or less expensive devices.

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The iPhone 16 launch has us excited, and leaks have revealed plenty of upgrades that make it meaningful for people to upgrade. Yesterday, we got our first look at the possible iPhone 16 colors, and we are all in for the more saturated look of the lineup. Today, we get our first look at the possible colors for the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and we finally have a black color that actually looks black so far!

Leaker Sonny Dickson has now shared dummy units for the iPhone 16 Pro Max. These dummy units align with what we have seen in his previous dummy unit leaks, but this set of dummy units seems more polished and ready for release, indicating that this could be the final design that Apple settles on. And yes, stating the obvious to get it out of the way: the iPhone 16 Pro Max in these renders looks like an iPhone.

In the above image, we can see three colors for the presumably Titanium-built iPhone 16 Pro Max. The white color looks as gorgeous as ever, and I am surprised to see that there is an actual deep black color for the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Apple frequently lands on the gray spectrum for Pro iPhones instead of a deep black, so I am pretty excited about a deep black color this time. There’s also the Natural Titanium color for fans who prefer a more neutral tone but don’t want to be too boring.

Curiously, the leaked image from Sonny only shows three colors for the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Apple usually releases four colors at launch, so we are missing one. There are rumors of a “Rose” color for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, but we don’t see it in this leak.

Also, since these are dummy units, you can ignore the apparent size of the camera module within the camera lenses — we’re likely going to see the tetraprism periscope zoom lens on the actual phone, but that won’t be present and visible in dummy units. Dummy units are shared with case and accessory manufacturers to help them with the dimensions of the actual phone.

It’s not apparent immediately, but past leaks (including one from Sonny, seen below) have suggested that the iPhone 16 Pro Max could aim for an enormous 6.9-inch display. This would easily make it one of the biggest iPhones available so far.

Keep in mind that these are still leaks, so you should take them with a pinch of salt. We’ll have to wait for Apple to release the iPhone 16 Pro lineup to see what it actually looks like, and that’s still more than a month away. Stay tuned!

Section 4.7 of Apple's new guidelines for the App Store allow retro game console and PC emulator apps to offer game downloads. Finally! Developers must otherwise continue to use in-app purchases for digital goods and services, filter objectionable content, block abusive users, and obtain user consent for data sharing. — Read the rest

The post Apple to allow retro game console and PC emulator apps to download games appeared first on Boing Boing.

Once you’ve set up your new iPhone, it’s time to make the most of it with the best iPhone accessories. It’s exciting to choose a new case or wireless charger, and personalize your smartphone with a cute PopSocket to really show off your style. There are probably a bunch of iPhone accessories you didn’t even know you needed, like a kickstand so you can watch YouTube or TikTok videos while getting ready in the morning, or an AirTag so you can use your new iPhone 15 Pro Max to keep track of all your belongings. With an extensive range of iPhone accessories to choose from, we’ve whittled down the best accessories that are worth investing in. If you’re not quite done accessorizing your Apple devices, you can also check out our recommendations for the best Apple Watch accessories.

Best iPhone accessories

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-iphone-accessories-140022449.html?src=rss

© Engadget

Strategy Analytics has published its yearly report detailing global smartphone application processor market share in 2014. The total market had sales of about $21 billion with robust growth of 21%. The report shows that Qualcomm continued to lead the market in terms of revenue share with 52%, followed by Apple with 18% and MediaTek with 14%. The Apple number most likely reflects an estimate because Apple does not sell its chips to third parties. In fourth and fifth place were Speadtrum and Samsung LSI. The report mentions that HiSilicon, Intel and MediaTek had bigger growth than Qualcomm in 2014.

Qualcomm's strength based on Snapdragon 800 series wins in higher-tier phones

According to the report, Qualcomm's leadership was largely based on design wins for its Snapdragon 801 and Snapdragon 805 SoCs in the higher-tier market. Examples of this include the Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G3. However, as I have previously reported Samsung has increased its use of in-house application processors starting from the second half of 2014, culminating in the exclusive use of Exynos 7420 in the Galaxy S6 in 2015, putting pressure on Qualcomm.

Baseband share in 2014

Strategy Analytics has also published a report with details about baseband (modem) market share in smartphones. According to the report, LTE (4G) basebands accounted for 50% of cellular baseband share in 2014, and the figure is likely to increase significantly in 2015. Qualcomm led in LTE basebands, but HiSilicon, Intel, Marvell, MediaTek and Samsung also increased LTE baseband shipments.

In terms of revenues in the overall baseband market, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Speadtrum, Marvell and Intel had the top positions in 2104. Qualcomm had 66% revenue share, followed by MediaTek with 17% and Speadtrum with 5% sare. Given the product lines of the respective companies in 2014, Qualcomm's revenues are based on both integrated SoC and separate modems, while Intel's sales were mostly separate modem chips, while the other players mostly shipped a mix of integrated SoCs and modem chips.

Comparison with 2013

Comparing with the reports that Strategy Analytics issued for 2013, Qualcomm saws it baseband revenue share remain relatively stable at 66% compared to 64% in 2013. MediaTek saw its AP market share increase from 10% in 2013 to 14% in 2014, and its baseband share increased.

Tablet processor market in 2014

According to another report issued by Strategy Analytics, the market for tablet processors grew 18% in 2014 to $4.2 billion. The top-five revenue share positions were occupied by Apple, Intel, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung LSI. Apple led with 27% share (which must be an estimate), followed by Intel with 17% and Qualcomm with 16% share.

Notable is the absence among the top five of traditional leaders in the Chinese white-box market such as Rockchip and Allwinner. This most likely reflects in increase in brand name tablet shipments at the expense of the white-box tablet market, the low selling prices of white-box tablet processor and the encroachment of MediaTek and Intel into that segment.

Source: Strategy Analytics (Smartphone AP market share), Strategy Analytics (cellular baseband market share), Strategy Analytics (Tablet processor market share)

TSMC will receive majority of Apple A9 business

According to reports, TSMC will receive the majority of Apple A9 SoC orders, which includes the A9 for next-generation iPhones and A9X for iPads. According to sources quoted by EE Times, Apple had originally planned to give Samsung a majority of the Apple A9 orders, but has recently shifted orders to TSMC, most likely using a 16 nm FinFET process.

Because ramping up production of a similar chip from a second source with different foundry technology is challenging and complicated, I believe it is likely that A9 production will be overwhelmingly (and perhaps exclusively) concentrated at TSMC. A parallel can be drawn with various reports from last year, which for a long time continued to echo incorrect projections that Samsung would serve a significant portion of the production of Apple's A8 generation SoCs, which has not turned out not to be the case.

In the mean time, TSMC's revenues continue to be a relatively high level despite Q1usually being seasonally down, with strong demand for 20 nm production, most likely reflecting continuing demand from Apple, which is offsetting weakness from Qualcomm for leading-edge processes. There have been rumours about an upcoming iPhone 6S and a lower cost iPhone 6C model which may involve substantial unit volumes. Apple's iPhone unit shipments have also been boosted by strong demand in China.

Low yield at Samsung and Exynos ramp contribute to TSMC orders

According to a source quoting sources in South Korea, TSMC's yield rate for its 16 nm FinFET process is better than that of Samsung's 14 nm process. Moreover, Samsung is seeing strong upcoming demand for it flagship Galaxy S6 smartphone, which uses the Exynos 7420 SoC produced on its 14 nm FinFET process, and most likely needs all capacity it can get to ramp up production of this SoC. Samsung also increasingly uses Exynos 7420 and other internally-developed SoCs for other product lines, such as other smartphone models as well as tablets.

Qualcomm said to have limited-time exclusive use of TSMC's 16FF+ technology

According a report by EETimes from a semiconductor industry conference in January, Qualcomm is likely to have locked up exclusive use of TSMC's 16FF+ process technology for about six months. The article appears to quote sources affiliated with Qualcomm that state that Qualcomm feels competitors such as MediaTek took advantage of previous-generation process technology (28HPM) that Qualcomm helped develop at TSMC, without having made the development investment that Qualcomm made.

However, this policy would be contrary to the principles based on which TSMC has operated for a long time, although the initial ramp of 20 nm at TSMC last year also seemed to be locked-up by another company (Apple). Its seems corporate pressure from these giant companies, backed by billions of dollars of cash, is forcing TSMC into these kinds of commitments.

The article mentions that the later access to 16FF+ won't affect MediaTek's mainstream products serving the mid-range to entry-level segments, because 28 nm technologies will continue to be used for such products in the market.

Leaked power consumption graphs suggest increased power efficiency

Power consumption graphs of current and upcoming high-end Qualcomm SoCs running a 3D game at high detail settings suggest power consumption and heat production of Qualcomm's unannounced Snapdragon 815 processor will be considerably lower than that of the Snapdragon 801 and Snapdragon 810, with Snapdragon 810 showing particularly unfavourable characteristics, as confirmed by widespread reports and reviews of Snapdragon 810-based devices.

Snapdragon 815 is unannounced and few details are known about it, with some reports suggesting the use of a next-generation Krait CPU core. Use of ARM Cortex-A72 processor cores appears to be not unlikely, since this core seems to be close to actual production. Most likely, the decreased heat production, which is likely to be associated with lower power consumption, is made possible by the use of the next-generation 16 nm FinFET process at TSMC.

Similar improvements in power consumption were observed for Snapdragon 620, which uses Cortex-A72 cores, when compared to the mid-range Snapdragon 615 SoC, which is reported to also have heating issues. Snapdragon 620, which has been announced, is also likely to have significantly higher CPU performance than Snapdragon 615 due to the use of Cortex-A72 cores, versus Cortex-A53 for Snapdragon 615, while also likely being produced on a much more efficient process (possibly  TSMC's 16FF+), since Snapdragon 615 is manufactured on a low-efficiency 28LP process.

Sources: EE Times (ISS 2015 conference report), EE Times (Apple A9 orders article), STJS Gadgets Portal (Snapdragon heat production graphs)

Updated 25 March 2015 (Add comments about 20 nm Apple production at TSMC).

Both Qualcomm and MediaTek recently reported financial results for the fourth quarter of Q4 2014 and made projections for future periods. Both companies are seeing challenges that are already affecting their revenues and market share now or later in 2015.

Qualcomm lowers forecast for 2015 due to weakness at major customer

In their financial report for Q4 2014, Qualcomm lowered their outlook for 2015, citing as one of the reasons reduced demand from a major customer as that customer has not selected the Snapdragon 810 processor for an upcoming flagship product. This is widely believed to refer to Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S6. In fact the trend of increasing use of in-house Exynos processors already started last year, as models such as Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy S5 Mini and Galaxy Note 4 already saw increasing use of Samsung's own Exynos processors, including modem technology in some cases.

Qualcomm also mentions a share shift among major OEMs that will result in relatively more modem chips as opposed to SoCs (clearly referring to Apple, which only uses Qualcom's modem chips), as well as heightened competition in China. Recently, Qualcomm also recently announced a resolution of the anti-trust investigation by authorities in China, which amounts to a reduction in the patent royalty rate it charges to customers in China.

Qualcomm's total market share currently still strong

At the moment, Qualcomm's market share for smartphone SoCs is still strong as shown by unit shipments and revenues for Q4 2014 and Qualcomm's estimates for Q1 2015, although its product mix has shifted to lower-end products. In comparison to competitor MediaTek, Qualcomm is doing much better in terms of maintaining or growing unit shipments (with Qualcomm in fact seeing a 14% increase in unit shipments in Q4 2014), suggesting that Qualcomm is taking market share from MediaTek as products such as Snapdragon 410 and the new Snapdragon 210 take over large parts of the low-end cost-sensitive market (especially in China) where MediaTek's 3G solutions where previously dominant.

MediaTek losing market share despite successful new products

Meanwhile, although MediaTek has seen widespread adoption of its new MT6752 and MT6732 SoCs with integrated LTE modem for the cost-sensitive mid-range market, the company saw lower unit shipments in Q4 2014 and predicts a 10 to 18% revenue decline for Q1 2015, suggesting its smartphone SoC shipments are under pressure. Given the fact that the new 4G chips have higher selling prices than existing 3G chips, the revenue decline probably reflects a relatively dramatic decline in shipments of existing 3G solutions, with resulting loss of total market share, although price reductions may also play a role. MediaTek has been affected especially by the late introduction of integrated 4G solutions and the lack of a low-end 4G solution and to a lesser extend the delayed introduction of the high-end MT6795.

Captive mobile SoC use becoming more important

Within the total smartphone SoC market (and also in the tablet maket), captive supply (whereby a smartphone manufacturer uses its own SoCs in its smartphone models) is becoming more important, which affects the market opportunity for companies such as Qualcomm and MediaTek. I already mentioned Samsung's increasing use of Exynos processors, which has a significant impact as Samsung is one of the two largest smartphone manufacturers. A major Chinese manufacturr, Huawei, is also increasingly using SoCs from its own HiSilicon division, also extending to lower end models. Apple's gains in market share also has an effect (especially on the high-end market) since it uses proprietary SoCs.

In the tablet market, the low-end and Chinese white-box market is seeing a sharp reduction in shipments in Q1 2015, with market share shifting to brand names (where captive solutions are more important, such as at Samsung) as total shipments are estimated to decline dramatically. This greatly affects traditional players in the tablet SoC market such as Rockchip, Allwinner and MediaTek. Intel's strategy of subsidizing tablet SoCs has also had an impact. According to DigiTimes, the total tablet market will decline 30% sequentially in Q1 2015, with estimates of a decline of 12% for the whole year 2015.


Sources: DigiTimes (tablet market article), DigiTimes (MediaTek results), Qualcomm, MediaTek

Last month, Samsung unveiled its new foldable phones, smartwatches, and wireless earbuds. After the announcement, several people started mocking Samsung and accused it of copying Apple's design language with the Galaxy Buds 3 and the Galaxy Watch Ultra, which reportedly made Samsung's chief angry at the mobile division for plagiarism.

Samsung chief Lee reportedly got angry and stepped in after accusations of copying Apple's design

According to a report from AjuNews (via @lafaiel), Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee ordered the company's mobile division, Samsung MX, to reexamine its plans. Lee's strict orders reportedly came after people accused Samsung of copying Apple's design language for the Galaxy Buds 3, Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, and the Galaxy Watch Ultra. They look like Apple's AirPods, AirPods Pro, and Apple Watch Ultra, respectively.

Apparently, actions have been taken against some people in the smartphone division, including Samsung MX leader (TM Roh). An insider reportedly claimed that tensions are rising inside Samsung MX after this move. He said, “The chairman (Lee) himself stepped in after the controversy over Apple's design plagiarism and quality issues surrounding the Buds 3 series and Galaxy Watch 7 released last month. The internal atmosphere is currently very bad.”

At the media briefing held at Samsung Store Hongdae in South Korea, reporters constantly talked about Samsung's new devices looking exactly the same as Apple's.

The Galaxy Buds 3 and the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro now have stems, similar to AirPods and several other wireless earbuds in the market. Their pinch and swipe gestures are also similar to AirPods. The boxy and chunky design and orange theme of the Galaxy Watch Ultra also look similar to the Apple Watch Ultra. Long-time Samsung fans have been disappointed with Samsung for dropping its own design language in favor of Apple's.

To make things worse, Samsung also faced quality control issues with the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. Some people received units with uneven gaps and fragile ear tips that are prone to tearing. Jay Y. Lee, who generally has a calm demeanor, reportedly shouted and gave strict orders to the Samsung MX division.

The post Samsung chief angry at mobile division for copying Apple’s design appeared first on SamMobile.

Being able to connect your phone to your desktop PC or modern laptop to field messages or even make calls can be a huge boon to productivity, and there are plenty of ways of going about it. While iMessage works seamlessly across Macs and iPhones, getting iOS messages on Windows has been a bit trickier in the past. Fortunately, with apps like Microsoft's Phone Link and Intel Unison, it is easily doable with just a few steps involved in the setup process. You can also use third-party messenger apps like Telegram, Signal, or WhatsApp.