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

Faking trafic jam on Google Maps

Google Maps monitors traffic data using various sources, including phones with location services turned on.  Sam Wecker tricked Google Maps and created virtual traffic jam by walking through empty streets of Berlin with 99 second-hand phones loaded on a small wagon.

Google is aware of this flaw and, in response to 9to5Google, stated that they liked the idea, and hope that it will somehow improve the service.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip leaked

A video showing upcoming Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip has been shared on Twitter. Phone itself looks more like a traditional flip phone that folds up into a compact device. There is not much information about this phone, but here is what we know so far based on the leaks:

• It will have 6.1- inch foldable main screen,
• Smaller screen on the back for clock & notifications,
• Front facing camera built into the main screen,
• Double camera system on the back.

The Galaxy Z Flip is expected to be revealed at Samsung's Unpacked event on February 11.

GeForce Now finally released

Nvidia's game streaming service -  GeForce Now - left the beta and is finally available for everyone. At the moment, players can choose one of two tiers:

Free

• Play session is limited to 1 hour,
• Raytracing is disabled.

Founders

• Costs $4.99 a month,
• Unlimited play time,
• Priority access to servers,
• Raytracing is available.

GeForce Now allows to play already purchased games from Steam, Uplay, and Epic Store. The list of compatible games is impressive.

At the moment, the client is available for Windows, macOS i Android, but Nvidia also plans to release the PWA version.

Microsoft forgot to renew a certificate, again

Microsoft Teams went down for nearly three hours after Microsoft forgot to renew a critical security certificate. Teams users couldn't sign into the service because the app was failing to establish an HTTPS connection to Microsoft’s servers.

This is not Microsoft's first incident with expired certificate. In 2013,  Microsoft Azure was not available for couple of hours.

AMD Powered macs?

New beta of macOS 10.15.4 Catalina continues to reference the AMD processors. Those references could mean one of couple of things:

• Apple is just playing with AMD's hardware and there is nothing more to the story,
• AMD's CPU and GPU will power rumored gaming computer,
• Apple is going to replace Intel's chips with AMD ones in future iMacs and MacBooks.

Dope Links

• Introducing Swift Crypto
• Creating a macOS App - SwiftUI Tutorials by Apple
• SwiftUI for Mac - Part 1,  Part 2, Part 3  & Extras
• Using UIKit views in SwiftUI
• SwiftUI basic Shape operations
• How to integrate Vue and Asp.Net Core 3.1 app using VS Code
• Improved accessible routing in Vue.js
• UVue - Server Side Rendering (SSR) for VueJS
• Microsoft Announces Playwright Alternative to Puppeteer
• 2020 Java Technology Report
• Why Discord is switching from Go to Rust
• Diagrams: A Brand New Diagram Editor for Mac
• Setting Up Your Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming
• One year ago I shared my highest resolution picture of our moon. Last night I created an improved version, combining 140,000 pictures
• On 21 January a fireball meteor crashed to Earth causing a cascade of bright light to trail through the sky
  

Image credits: Google Maps

Interesting links

• Upcoming Browser Behavior Changes: What Developers Need to Know
• CSS position explained
• Print to CSS
• Case Study: lynnandtonic.com 2019 refresh
• Large-scale Vuex application structures
• How to Boost Vue.js Performance
• Animating Vue with GreenSock
• Faster way to download and install Xcode
• Combine and SwiftUI views
• UIKit, SwiftUI, LiveView, How to use Live Preview in UIKit!
• Hacking SwiftUI for Unit Testing and Runtime Inspection
• Modern Networking in Swift 5 with URLSession, Combine and Codable
• Ink - A fast and flexible Markdown parser written in Swift
• Comparing Backend Frameworks written in Java, Swift and Go
• Deconstructing a git commit
• Remote work benefits I never considered
• The Making of STAR WARS Jedi: Fallen Order - Documentary
• I Created the Tesla Cyber Truck in 1 Minute
• Aston Martin Red Bull Racing's Zero Gravity Pit Stop - Movie & Making of

Image credits: Pro Church Media