Thursday, February 21, 2019

Intel Expecting Apple to Transition to Custom ARM-Based Chips Starting in 2020

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Apple is planning to ditch Intel and transition to Mac chips starting in 2020, based on multiple rumors we've heard in the past from Bloomberg. Axios today confirmed Bloomberg's reporting and said that multiple sources have suggested Apple will transition to custom ARM-based chips next year.

According to Axios, developers and Intel officials are expecting Apple to begin using ARM-based chips in 2020.


The move to ARM-based chips is said to be part of Apple's effort to make Macs, iPhones, and iPads work together and run the same apps. Bloomberg earlier this week said that by 2021, Apple wants developers to be able to create one app that will work on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

Apple's transition to a single app for all devices has already begun. Last year, Apple ported several of its iOS apps, such as Voice Memos, Stocks, and Home, to macOS. This year, Apple plans to let developers transition iPad apps to macOS, and in 2020, that will include iPhone apps. In 2021, then, developers will be able to make just one app that users can download on any of Apple's platforms.

This transition will greatly increase the number of Mac apps available, and it will cut down on the amount of work developers have to put in to create a Mac app. It will also better unify Apple's operating systems across all of its devices.

There have been rumors about Apple transitioning to ARM-based Macs for years now, and they have ramped up given the many Intel chip delays that have resulted in subsequent delays for Mac products. With its own ARM-based chips, Apple will not be tied to Intel's chip release cycles.

Apple already makes its own A-series chips for the iPhone and the iPad, and there are also custom Apple chips in recent Macs -- the T2. The T2 chip, in the iMac Pro and 2018 MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini models, integrates several components including the system management controller, image signal processor, SSD controller, and a Secure Enclave with a hardware-based encryption engine. It powers the Touch Bar in the MacBook Pro and the Touch ID feature in the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

Apple is a major Intel customer, responsible for approximately five percent of Intel's annual revenue, so the transition to ARM-based chips will be a major blow for Intel, but a win for customers in the long run. Apple's modern A-series chips for iPhone and iPad are already more powerful than many Intel chips on the market.

Tag: Intel

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How to install Android widgets on a Chromebook


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Deals: Monoprice Discounts Thunderbolt Cables by Up To 35%, Amazon's Magic Trackpad 2 Sale, and More

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Well-known cable and accessory maker Monoprice today introduced a new sale on Thunderbolt cables, with discounts reaching as much as 35 percent off of original prices during the limited-time event. The retailer offers Thunderbolt cables of various speeds, wattage, and length, affecting the price of each.

The cheapest cable in the sale starts at $13.99, down from $19.99 for the 20 Gbps, 60W, 1.0 meter cable, and prices increase from there. Check out more Thunderbolt cables on sale below and head to Monoprice for the full list (including Thunderbolt 3 and Thunderbolt 2 cables):

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Thunderbolt 3 Cables


Magic Trackpad 2


Additionally, Amazon today has marked down Apple's Magic Trackpad 2 (Silver) to $99.00, $30 off from its original retail price of $129.00. This is the lowest the Magic Trackpad 2 has ever been on Amazon, and is the current best price online for a new version of the device among the major retailers.

10.5-inch iPad Pro (2017)


Amazon also has a few sales on the previous generation 10.5-inch iPad Pro, marked down by as much as $200. These iPad Pro models launched in mid 2017, include a 10.5-inch Retina Display with ProMotion, an A10X Fusion chip, Touch ID, and a 10 hour battery life.

Anker Discount Codes


Lastly, Anker has introduced a new set of discount codes as February comes to a close, with savings on portable battery packs, USB-C cables, Bluetooth headphones, and more. You can find the expiration dates for each code below, and remember that to see the discounts you'll have to enter the relevant code during the checkout process on Amazon.


Head to our full Deals Roundup for more information on this week's sales.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals

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iOS 12.2 and Safari 12.1 for macOS Include Updated Intelligent Tracking Prevention Feature

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Safari in the iOS 12.2 beta and Safari 12.1 for macOS High Sierra and Mojave includes an updated version of Intelligent Tracking Prevention, according to details shared on Apple's WebKit blog.

ITP 2.1, as Apple is calling it, caps client-side cookie storage to seven days. After this time period, cookies expire. As outlined by Apple, this offers improvements in privacy, security, and performance. From Apple's WebKit blog:
- Cross-site trackers have started using first-party sites' own cookie jars for the purpose of persistent tracking. The first-party storage space is especially troublesome for privacy since all tracker scripts in the first-party context can read and write each other's data. Say social.example writes a user tracking ID as a news.example first-party cookie. Now analytics.example, adnetwork.example, and video.example can leverage or cross pollinate that user tracking ID through their scripts on news.example.

- Cookies available in document.cookie can be stolen by speculative execution attacks on memory. Therefore, they should not carry sensitive information such as credentials.

- Cookies available in document.cookie can be stolen by cross-site scripting attacks. Again, therefore, they should not carry sensitive information such as credentials.

- The proliferation of cookies slows down page and resource loads since cookies are added to every applicable HTTP request. Additionally, many cookies have high entropy values which means they cannot be compressed efficiently. We come across sites with kilobytes of cookies sent in every resource request.

- There is a size limit on outgoing cookie headers for performance reasons, and websites risk hitting this limit when cross-site trackers add first-party cookies. We've investigated reports of news site subscribers getting spuriously logged out, and found that trackers were adding so many cookies that the news site's legitimate login cookie got pushed out.
The cookie storage limits will not log users out as long as websites are using the appropriate authentication cookies because it only affects cookies created through document.cookie.

ITP 2.1 also allows for just a single set of cookies per site rather than multiples, and third party tools with cross-site tracking capabilities need to use the Storage Access API to get cookie access.

Apple says this change simplifies cookie behavior for developers, lowers the memory footprint of Safari, and makes Intelligent Tracking Prevention compatible with more platforms.

A verified partitioned cache for cutting down on cache abuse for tracking purposes is also included, and as we covered earlier this month, support for Do Not Track has been disabled.

Apple says that it is removing Do Not Track because most websites never paid any attention to it since it was opt-in and could be ignored.
The DNT project recently ended without the publication of a standard, in part "because there has not been sufficient deployment of these extensions (as defined) to justify further advancement." Given the lack of deployment of DNT and Safari's on by default privacy protections such as ITP, Safari removed support for DNT so that users are not presented with a misleading and ineffective privacy control that, if anything, only offered additional browser fingerprinting entropy.
Additional details on the Intelligent Tracking Prevention updates being introduced are available via Apple's full WebKit blog post.

Tag: Safari

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German Report Says 'Apple Car' Could Arrive in Form of Electric Van

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The so-called "Apple Car" may not be a car after all, but rather an electric van, according to German site Manager Magazin.

Apple Maps vehicle

The report, loosely translated below, claims Apple's industrial design group has designed prototypes of the van with black and silver finishes:
After that, the Apple Car could come in the form of an electric van. Apple's engineers have designed specimens with black and silver paint, designed in the typical industrial design of the iPhone group. Apple also researches on its own batteries, electric motors, special seats and interior components.
Apple may release a vehicle between 2023 and 2025, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Apple already uses a fleet of LiDAR-equipped vans to collect mapping data, as part of its efforts to improve Apple Maps.

Via: Reuters

Related Roundup: Apple Car

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Deals Spotlight: Buy or Upgrade to Parallels Desktop 14 and Get 10 Mac Apps for Free

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Parallels this week debuted a new promo bundle for both new and current users, offering a chance to buy or upgrade to Parallels Desktop 14, and then get ten other Mac apps for free. New owners can purchase Parallels Desktop 14 for $79.99, and existing users can upgrade to the new software for $49.99 (both prices represent Home & Student use).

With these purchases you'll gain access to the following ten Mac apps for free (note that some of the apps are one-year subscriptions and not lifetime licenses):
  • 1Password Families ($60 value) - Securely store you and your family's most needed passwords.

  • Pocket Premium ($45 value) - Save articles to read later with a permanent archive, unlimited storage, and no ads.

  • Painter Essentials 6 ($50 value) - Create blank canvas and photo art creations using realistic art tools.

  • Acronis True Image 2019 Cyber Protection Premium ($100 value) - Securely backup your personal information with 1TB of cloud storage.

  • PDF Expert 2.4 ($80 value) - Modify text, change images, create hyperlinks in PDF documents, and more.

  • WinZip Mac 6.5 Pro ($50 value) - Zip and unzip large files instantly with simple drag-and-drop controls.

  • Parallels Toolbox ($20 value) - A toolbox of useful features like password protecting files, file copying to iPhone, screen recordings, and more.

  • Parallels Access ($20 value) - Access all of your Mac's apps and files from your iPhone.

  • TrackOFF ($60 value) - Protect your data from invasive online tracking.

  • Cylance Smart Antivirus ($69 value) - Detects and prevents malware attacks on your Mac.
Parallels Desktop 14 itself is software that allows users to switch between Mac and Windows without needing to restart their computer. This allows for easy sharing of files and folders between Mac and Windows applications, seamless access to Windows apps on Mac, and more.

The Parallels promo bundle will be live for the next week, expiring on the evening of Thursday, February 28. If you're interested, head to the Parallels website to check out more information about each app in the bundle, and place your order before the end of the month.

For more information on this week's sales, head to our full Deals Roundup.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Parallels. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals

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