Weekly digest - 2019.46

Weekly digest - 2019.46

16-inch MacBook Pro

It's finally here, and it is a beast! The brand new 16-inch MacBook Pro has been released.  Here is what's new:

2.6GHz 6-Core model:

  • 16-inch display (3072x1920px) 226 ppi,
  • New Magic Keyboard with a refined scissor mechanism,
  • Physical Esc key is back,
  • CPU:
    • 2.6GHz 6-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz or
    • 2.4GHz 8-core Intel Core i9 processor with Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz
  • GPU:
    • AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory or
    • AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory,
  • 16GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory, configurable up to 64GB,
  • 512GB SSD storage, configurable up to 8TB,
  • New 6-speaker sound system,
  • New thermal architecture.

2.3GHz 8-Core model:

  • 16-inch display (3072x1920px) 226 ppi,
  • New Magic Keyboard with a refined scissor mechanism,
  • Physical Esc key is back,
  • CPU:
    • 2.3GHz 8-core Intel Core i9 processor with Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz or
    • 2.4GHz 8-core Intel Core i9 processor with Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz
  • GPU:
    • AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory or
    • AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory,
  • 16GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory, configurable up to 64GB,
  • 1TB SSD storage, configurable up to 8TB,
  • New 6-speaker sound system,
  • New thermal architecture.

All of this in almost unchanged form factor. The new MacBook Pro is ~2%  bigger, 0.5mm thicker and 170g heavier than 15-inch model,  but Apple managed to put bigger -  100Wh - battery which should allow for 11h of work.

All of this for the same price as for old 15-inch model. The base 2.6GHz 6-Core model starts at $2399. For the 2.3GHz 8-Core model  we have to pay $2799.

Disney+ launched

Disney+ launched in USA, Canada and Netherlands. On the first day new platform surpassed 10 million subscribes. This number is not surprising as Disney+ has massive portfolio of movies and TV shows, including very popular Marvel and Start Wars franchises.

Disney+ will be available in UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain on March 31st. There are rumors that Poland will be included in this group as well,  for about $8/month, which is similar to Netflix's monthly subscription.  

Image credits: Apple

Weekly digest - 2019.44

Weekly digest - 2019.44

AirPods Pro

Apple has officially announced the noice cancelling AirPods.  Here is quick specification:

  • All new design
  • Powered by H1 chip,
  • Active Noise Cancellation,
  • Transparency mode which allows to hear the surroundings,
  • Customizable fit and seal with silicon tips in 3 sizes,
  • The Ear Tip Fit Test allows to check whether we use the best tip for our ear,
  • Sweat and water resistant,
  • Smaller charging  case which can be charged either wirelessly (Qi charging) or using Lightning cable,
  • Up to 4.5 hours of listening time,
  • Up to 5 hours with Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode,
  • Up to 3.5 hours of talk time,
  • In total, about 24 hours of battery life with charging case.

AirPods Pro will be available from October 30th, starting at $249.

iOS 13.2

Together with AirPods Pro, Apple has released iOS 13.2. Here is what's new:

  • Support for AirPods Pro,
  • 70 new & updated emojis,
  • iPhone 11 and 11 Pro gets new camera feature - Deep Fusion, which improvs indoor photos and photos taken in medium lighting,
  • New privacy option that allows to share Siri and dictation recordings with Apple,
  • Siri can now read received message when using AirPods or PowerBeats Pro,
  • App can be deleted right from context menu after long pressing the app's icon,
  • HomeKit allows to watch and store video streams from security cameras.

Newest iOS is also a source of information about newAir products:

16' MacBook Pro saga continues

Last week, we were anticipating imminent release of the new 16-inch MacBook Pro. This week report from Ming-Chi Kuo keep us in check.  According to him, the new model will be release in mid 2020.

I still think new MacBook Pro will be released together with Mac Pro, which will come this fall. Beside that, new information about the laptop has been found in macOS 10.15 Beta and it looks like the laptop is ready for production. Unless Apple is waiting for parts, like new Intel processors 🤨

Apple TV+

On November 1st, Apple launched their TV streaming service - Apple TV+. It costs $5 per month, but if you recently bought an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV or Mac you will get 1 year subscription for free.

Fortunately for me, I'm in this group and I signed up for this 1 year promotion 😬 Unfortunately, Apple TV+ is lacking content. At the moment, we can only watch couple episodes from 7 series in total. We will see how Apple is going to keep customers on their platform, but so far, in terms of content, it doesn't look good. Especially if we compare it to Disney+.

Google buys Fitbit

Google has just announced that it's buying Fitbit for $2.1 billion.  The deal is similar to the accusation of Nest and Fitbit will become one of the companies under Alphabet umbrella.

I'm wondering whether Fitbit will stay in the market of smart-bands or they will try to compete with Apple with smartwatches. Right now, Apple is dominating this market, so it will be good to see some strong competition. Such competition might not be good for Apple or Google, but it definitely would be good for end customers.

Star Wars news

Last week we got The Rise of Skywalker trailer, this week we got trailer for The Mandalorian. Beside good news there are also the bad one. Because of tight schedule (at least officially), Game of Thrones showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, are no longer working on new Star Wars trilogy. This is a bummer, new trilogy was rumored to be set during the Old Republic times. But not all is lost. Maybe involvement of Kevin Feige in Star Wars franchise is reaction to GoT showrunners' departure.

Beside all of that, the Jedi: Fallen Order is coming in couple of weeks, and EA has already released the launch trailer.

Image credits: Apple

Weekly digest - 2019.43

Weekly digest - 2019.43

MacBook Pro 16' imminent release?

According to DigiTimes new 16-inch MacBook Pro could be released by the end of October. At the moment, there is no information about any Apple's event, so people are speculating whether Apple is going to just release new laptop model together with Mac Pro.

It looks like the rumors about imminent release might be true. In the latest beta of the macOS 10.15.1, people found images of the 16-inch MacBook. New model looks to be slightly bigger than 15-inch predecessor, and has noticeably smaller screen bezel.

Image credits: MacGeneration

Weekly digest - 2019.41

Weekly digest - 2019.41

More PlayStation 5 details

Wired published an article that shares more information about next-gen console. Here is the short summary:

  • It has been officially confirmed that next console will be named PlayStation 5,
  • It will be available for holidays 2020,
  • CPU will be based on AMD’s Ryzen line and a GPU based on Navi family,
  • It has been confirmed that ray-tracing support will be hardware based
  • There will be no HDD only SSD,
  • There will be 4K Blu-ray player,
  • PS5 will use 100-GB optical disks,
  • New data structure mechanism will allow gamers to install only single-player or multiplayer campaign instead of installing the whole game,
  • There will be new system that will allow to check what players can do in games and quickly join in,
  • New controller will be called DualShock 5,
  • New controller will have "adaptive triggers" that offer varying levels of resistance, which can be adjusted to game we play,
  • The force-feedback system is now based on haptic engines instead of rumble motors,
  • Next-gen controller uses a USB Type-C connector for charging.

Apple's Sleep app confirmed in a leak

The App Store screenshots for the Alarms app for Apple Watch include text that mentions the rumored Sleep app. This is another confirmation that Apple is working on it. The Sleep app supposed to come with iOS 13, but was removed before iOS 13 beta was released.

If we take in consideration that battery life in Apple Watch Series 5 is worse than in previous model, it looks like that for the Sleep tracking we will have to wait till next year. If Apple won't be able to improve battery life software-wise, then we won't see it until new version of Apple Watch is released.

Image credits: LetsGoDigital

Weekly digest - 2019.38

Weekly digest - 2019.38

Apple started shipping iPhone 11 & Apple Watch Series 5

Reviewers started getting their hands on newest versions of iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and Apple Watch.  Long story short, if you want an iPhone, then buy iPhone 11, the Pro version is for photo enthusiast, or people who prefer smaller, OLED screen.

The always-on display in Apple Watch Series 5 is a good step forward, but if you own Series 4 you are good for another year.

By the way, now we have confirmation that all new iPhones have at least 4GB of memory. There are reports that the Pro versions have additional 2GB of RAM dedicated to the camera.

iOS 13.(1)

Together with new iPhones, Apple released iOS 13. Federico Viticci wrote excellent review of new operating systems. Overall iOS 13 is a good step forward, but is has many bugs and issues, which might force Apple to release iOS 13.1 earlier than usual. If the rumors are true, iOS 13 will be the shortest living version of iOS ever.

Pixel 4 event

On October 15th, Google is going to host an event related with launch of Pixel 4. To be honest, I don't know why Google even bother to do this. It's not like we already know almost everything.

Image credits: Timothy Eberly