Macs with Apple Silicon

Apple held the One more thing event that focused on new Apple Silicon for Macs.

Apple introduced a brand new M1 chip, which combines couple of  chips and controllers under one single housing:

• 5‑nanometer process,
• 16 billion transistors,
• 8-core CPU with 4 high‑performance cores and 4 high‑efficiency cores,
• Integrated  8-core GPU,
• Integrated 16-core neural engine built-in,
• Integrated and shared memory including DRAM and cache.

According to Apple, new CPU is up to 3.5x faster on the same power usage. And the GPU is twice as fast. Looking at early benchmarks, those claims might be true.

The new chip would be nothing without new hardware that uses it, so Apple announced 3 new Mac:

Mac mini

• Apple M1 chip (8-core CPU,  8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine),
• 8 or 16GB of RAM,
• 256GB, 512GB ,  1TB or 2TB of storage,
• WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5,
• Price starting at $699.

MacBook Air

• 13.3-inch Retina Display (2560 x 1600px)
• Apple M1 chip (8-core CPU, 7 or 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine),
• 8 or 16GB of RAM,
• 256GB, 512GB ,  1TB or 2TB of storage,
• 2 USB 4/Thunderbolt ports,
• WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5,
• Up to 18 hours of battery life,
• Price starting at $999.

MacBook Pro 13

• 13.3-inch Retina Display (2560 x 1600px)
• Apple M1 chip (8-core CPU,  8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine),
• 8 or 16GB of RAM,
• 256GB, 512GB ,  1TB or 2TB of storage,
• 2 USB 4/Thunderbolt ports,
• WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5,
• Up to 20 hours of battery life,
• Price starting at $1299.

macOS Big Sur released

Apple has also released the newest version of the mac operating system. I've been using it since Beta and it's rather stable, but the launch itself was far from perfect.

Xbox Series X launch

Microsoft has finally launched the next-gen console. The launch itself was rather smooth, but there were some vaping accidents 😅 Now, when the console is here, it's time for some next-gen games to be released.

Dope links

• Building a concurrency-proof token refresh flow in Combine
• On Apple's Piss-Poor Documentation
• On Apple's SwiftUI Header File Documentation
• Case Study : Virtual Studio for Twitch LiveStream
  

Image credits: Apple

November Apple Event

Apple announced their November event, which will focus on ARM based Macs. According to latest rumors, we should see a new MacBook Air as well as 13 and 16 inch MacBook Pros. Although ARM powered MacBook Air is no brainer, the release of the Pro models would be a bold move from Apple. It would mean that first generation of new processors is  (at least) as powerful as current generation of Intel ones.

Dope links

• XCFrameworks — New Format for Packaging Frameworks in iOS
• The lang attribute: browsers telling lies, telling sweet little lies
• Mediator Pattern in ASP.NET Core Applications
• Understanding Jetpack Compose - Part 1 & Part 2
• grep.app - Search across a half million git repos
• Soccer match ruined when AI-controlled camera mistakes ref’s bald head for ball

Image credits: Łukasz Łada

Mandalorian Season 2

It's finally here. Mando is on a quest of uniting the Child with its kind. And  if rumors are true, he will meet interesting characters along the way.  First episode started very strong. If the rest of the episodes are on the same level,  we will have superb season ahead of us. This is the way.

SpaceX 100 successful launches

SpaceX reached 100 successful launches with latest Starlink mission. It all started in September 2008 with  flight of a Falcon 1 booster.  Twelve years later, SpaceX has a fleet of reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, that not only sent cargo into space, but also humans.

If everything will go according to SpaceX's plans, then we might see 200th launch within next 3 years.

Dope links

• How to build macOS apps using only the Swift Package Manager?
• Swift Concurrency Roadmap
• BBC Boing Ball
• 2.5 GPx picture of the Orion constellation

Image credits: Lucasfilm

Dope links

• How iOS Apps Adapt to the various iPhone 12 Screen Sizes
• Formatting Notes and Gotchas
• XcodeGen — Collaboration Made Easy
• Most Swift Folks Are Wrong about XCTestCase tearDown…
• Gardening Your Twitter - Followers & Timeline
• Xbox Series X Fridge
  

Image credits: Tim Mossholder

Apple Event

Apple held their second fall event. And this is what has been announced:

iPhone 12 mini:

• 5.4-inch OLED display (2340 x 1080 px)
• A14 Bionic Chip
• 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB of Storage
• 5G support
• Dual 12MP rear camera system:
  • Ultra Wide: ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view
  • Wide: ƒ/1.6 aperture
• Black, white, red, blue, and green
• Starting at $699

6.1-inch iPhone 12:

• 6.1-inch OLED display (2532 x 1170 px)
• A14 Bionic Chip
• 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB of Storage
• 5G support
• Dual 12MP rear camera system:
  • Ultra Wide: ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view
  • Wide: ƒ/1.6 aperture
• Black, white, red, blue, and green
• Starting at $799

iPhone 12 Pro:

• 6.1-inch OLED display (2532 x 1170 px)
• A14 Bionic Chip
• 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB of Storage
• 5G support
• Tripple 12MP rear camera system:
  • Ultra Wide: ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view
  • Wide: ƒ/1.6 aperture
  • Telephoto: ƒ/2.0 aperture
• Gold, silver, graphite, and blue
• Starting at $999

iPhone 12 Pro Max:

• 6.7-inch OLED display (2778 x 1284 px)
• A14 Bionic Chip
• 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB of Storage
• 5G support
• Tripple 12MP rear camera system:
  • Ultra Wide: ƒ/2.4 aperture and 120° field of view
  • Wide: ƒ/1.6 aperture
  • Telephoto: ƒ/2.2 aperture
• Gold, silver, graphite, and blue
• Starting at $1,099

HomePod mini

Apple also announced a small version of HomePod, called HomePod mini.

It will be available in 2 colors, white and space gray, for $99.

Dope links

• Crash Reporting with MetricKit - Part 1 & Part 2
• No, Microsoft is not rebasing Windows to Linux
  

Image credits: Source