[VIDEO] Follow the headline link to the iFixit teardown page for the Google Pixel 3a. Lots of step-by-step images and details. This is one of the most easy to take apart phones on the market but, that said, it is still an incredibly complex puzzle to put back together.
Take a look if your inner nerd runs that way.
And, if video is more your thing, embedded in the main Loop post is the teardown of the Pixel 3a XL.
Patently Apple:
The invention allows the system to extend to a future Apple Pencil for iPhone and through to other accessories that could be charged by a host device. Perhaps the AirPods case sitting on an iDevice.
Imagine an Apple Pencil that can charge on both an iPad and iPhone, and that can be used on both devices. Maybe the Apple Watch could ride on that train as well?
This more complex than AirPower? Maybe not, if this is just a single Qi-coil per device.
Apple:
Apple today announced a voluntary recall of AC wall plug adapters designed for use primarily in Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom. In very rare cases, affected Apple three-prong wall plug adapters may break and create a risk of electrical shock if touched. These wall plug adapters shipped with Mac and certain iOS devices between 2003 and 2010 and were also included in the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit. Apple is aware of six incidents worldwide.
The recall does not affect any Apple USB power adapters.
Follow the link, check the picture. If you’ve got one, trade it in.
Took six incidents to prompt this public recall. Oddly specific. Can’t help but wonder what the rules are for such a thing. And where does the MacBook keyboard issue fit into that scheme?
Apple:
Apple today announced a major expansion of its recycling programs, quadrupling the number of locations US customers can send their iPhone to be disassembled by Daisy, its recycling robot. Daisy will disassemble and recycle select used iPhones returned to Best Buy stores throughout the US and KPN retailers in the Netherlands. Customers can also turn in their eligible devices to be recycled at any Apple Store or through apple.com as part of the Apple Trade In program.
And:
To further its research on recycling, Apple today also announced the opening of its Material Recovery Lab dedicated to discovering future recycling processes. The new 9,000-square-foot facility in Austin, Texas, will look for innovative solutions involving robotics and machine learning to improve on traditional methods like targeted disassembly, sorting and shredding.
Follow the headline link and check out the pics. Even better, jump to this CNET article, which shows a pic of Apple’s first recycling robot, Liam, and then some detailed images of Daisy at work.
Cool beans.
Reuters:
Apple Inc has held talks with at least four companies as possible suppliers for next-generation lidar sensors in self-driving cars, evaluating the companies’ technology while also still working on its own lidar unit, three people familiar with the discussions said.
And:
Current lidar systems, including units from Velodyne Inc mounted on Apple’s fleet of self-driving test vehicles, use laser light pulses to render precise images of the environment around the car. But the systems can cost $100,000 and use mechanical parts to sweep the laser scanners across the road.
And:
What is clear from Apple’s interest in cheaper lidar systems is that it wants to control the “perception stack” of sensors, computers and software to drive an autonomous vehicle, regardless of who makes the vehicle, another person familiar with the talks said.
The idea of Apple focusing on that so-called “perception stack”, the core element of any autonomous vehicle, clicks for me.
Bloomberg:
Apple needs chips that will connect the iPhone to the new, fifth-generation wireless networks being introduced now or risk falling behind its rivals. The company had bet on Intel Corp., but recently decided its would-be 5G supplier wasn’t up to the task.
And:
That led Apple back to Qualcomm — and spurred a sudden end to a long-running court fight over patents, component costs and royalties for one of the most critical parts of an iPhone.
This is a well written walkthrough of the sequence. A short read, worth your time.
My absolutely favorite line:
Apple’s decision to cut a deal with Qualcomm was an indictment of Intel’s modem efforts.
Yup.
BBC News:
The Thames Valley and Hampshire forces are rolling out the technology to show when motorists are using their phones.
But…
A sign will flash at the driver telling them to stop using their mobile – but the detectors cannot tell if it is a driver or passenger using the phone.
I totally get the value in stopping behind the wheel phone use. But not being able to distinguish between a driver and a passenger using their phones will create a lot of false positives which will keep this solution from accomplishing its goal.
Patently Apple:
This week the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to new protective coatings being added to Apple devices in the future that will prevent damage to housing structures, transparent members associated with optical component windows and displays, and other device structures.
And:
The protective coatings may include a binder material such as polymer (sometimes referred to as a matrix or polymer matrix) and may include particles embedded within the binder. The particles may have high hardness to enhance the durability of the protective coatings.
Better living through chemistry.
DigiTimes:
TSMC has announced delivery of the complete version of its 5nm design infrastructure within the Open Innovation Platform (OIP). This full release enables 5nm systems-on-chip (SoC) designs in next-generation advanced mobile and high-performance computing (HPC) applications, targeting high-growth 5G and artificial intelligence markets.
To give you a sense of how much of Apple’s current product line is built on the current 7nm process, here’s the opening paragraph from the Apple A12 Bionic Wikipedia page:
The Apple A12 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. It first appeared in the iPhone XS, XS Max, XR, and 2019 versions of the iPad Air and iPad Mini. It has two high-performance cores which are claimed to be 15% faster and 40% more energy-efficient than the Apple A11 and four high-efficiency cores which are claimed to use 50% less power than the energy-efficient cores in the A11.
Apple’s A12 Bionic chip was built by TSMC using a 7nm process. A move to 5nm means more transistors on each chip. Way more.
Patently Apple:
Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple relating to a smart charging system for a portable electronic device. The smart charging system includes a magnetized connector and a charging component that can be configured to dynamically attract and repel the connector to and from the portable electronic device.
“Dynamically attract and repel”. That’s very interesting.
And, of course, you had me at MagSafe.
I’ve spoken with a few people who’ve had the issue. One comment:
https://twitter.com/donmcallister/status/1113439274098208768
Hopefully, this is a software issue introduced by the latest iOS update.
Not a fan of Apple not acknowledging hardware issues. Once an issue surfaces more than a few times in forums, that should be enough for Apple to address it in some way. I get that there’s a liability issue for Apple, that taking responsibility can affect the outcome of future lawsuits. But if a user brings in their iPad Pro with a stuttering issue, and a link to the linked MacRumors article, shouldn’t that be enough for:
As is, many hoops were jumped through.
If you were holding out hope that AirPower would ship, that ship has now sailed, and without AirPower.
So what to do? Here are a few links to well-thought-of Qi chargers and best-of lists:
9to5Mac: Now that AirPower is dead, here are some of the best wireless charger alternatives
GearBrain: AirPower alternatives
Apple’s online store sells a single Qi charger: Belkin BOOST↑UP Wireless Charging Dock for iPhone + Apple Watch
WireCutter: The Best Qi Wireless Charger for iPhone and Android Phones
The price of these Qi chargers ranges from $13 up to $160. Part of this cost disparity is the number of devices handled, support for fast charging, support for Apple Watch charging and, of course, design.
Personally, I don’t care about Apple Watch support, since my Apple Watch never needs a top-off during the day, so dropping it on the Apple charger at night is all I need. That simplifies the equation greatly. Can you make do with a single device charger? Alternate between your iPhone and AirPods?
Also personally, I do not want a light on my charger, especially if it will live in my bedroom. And if I have to have a light, make it subtle.
Another design alternative to consider is flat-on-the-table vs angled.
Take a look through the links above to get a sense of what the reviewers find useful, develop a sense of what features are important to you, then hit the net and look for best bang for your buck.
Apple:
“After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project. We apologize to those customers who were looking forward to this launch. We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward,” said Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in an emailed statement today.
Read all the details in the headline linked Matthew Panzarino TechCrunch article.
Been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a long time now. Glad Apple made the call.
Been looking forward to this one.
We start our examination with these curious markings on the boxes. We’re seeing multiple references to something called “AirPower” … ?
Darth: “The snark is strong with this one.”
We have some real gripes with the AirPods’ design priorities, but there’s no denying the engineering talent that goes into them. Peer into this X-ray and you can pick out batteries, microphones, antennas, speaker drivers, circuit boards—all in something that fits in your ear.
Amen.
This was an interesting read. But incredibly entertaining, too.
[VIDEO] From Reddit, a GIF (embedded in the main Loop post) used Apple product page images to show off the new hinge design on the AirPods wireless charging case.
From the post:
As rumored the wireless version has a new hinge, because the old one apparently interfered with the wireless charging coil.
Mine should be here in two days. Will confirm when I get it.
I very rarely do product mentions, but this one just captivated me.
The Casper Glow light is designed to sit on a charging pad on your nightstand next to you in bed. Here’s what it does:
Flip it over to turn it on and start a timer that slowly warms the color temperature and dims slowly as you fall asleep.
Spinning it on a flat surface adjusts the brightness. And, if you have two, you can sync them so you spin one to adjust the brightness for both.
If you pick it up and carry it (say, for a late night trip to the loo or to check on the baby), give it a shake and it will slightly raise the light level.
There’s more to it, but you get the idea. This is a clever product. Clever enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if it came from Apple.
But it actually comes from Casper, the company known for selling mattresses directly to consumers.
If this captures your interest at all, check the linked article. There are a ton of images and animated GIFs that show off all these features and more, plus there’s an iFixit worthy teardown of the innards.
Here’s a link to the Casper Glow Light product page.
Send me one, Casper, and I’ll take it for a spin.
Gizmodo:
In a keynote at Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today Google announced a new service, Stadia, that will allow gamers to play the biggest games on any Android or Chrome-based device (including any device with a Chrome browser).
And:
Google’s Stadia service works on any device that supports the Chromecast protocol, which means iOS, Android, Chrome OS, macOS, Windows, and even the Chromecast dongle. They all speak to one of Google’s 7,500 data center nodes (which span the globe) and recognize your specific account, allowing you to move from one device to the other without a bunch of messy handoffs between systems, because the actual game is running at the data center.
This is no small thing. First we had cartridges and disks, physical media, that meant you had to wait for a game to ship to you, then connect and install. Then we had downloadable content, which made things faster, catered to the impulse buyer who wanted their games right now.
But Stadia is a whole different spin on this model. Your games run on Google’s servers. Startup is pretty much instantaneous, with Google controlling everything.
A few obvious concerns: You’ll be running games under Google’s auspices, using a Google account. And then there’s latency and bandwidth.
But there have been two big problems with this: Latency, which might make games needing finesse, like shooter and fighting games, unplayable, and internet throughput. Streaming a game eats up a lot of data and even the Google Stream beta required about 25Mbps in order to stream anything remotely playable and attractive. Google has not yet disclosed the speed requirements for Stadia.
One solution it’s presented for handling latency is a new controller that connects directly to Google’s servers instead of to the device you’re playing on. That should, theoretically, reduce the amount of input lag.
All this is still a big bag of unknowns, an announcement and not a shipping product. But that controller looks real enough and Stadia does seem like it will see the light of day.
One thing I loved, was that old school gamer Easter egg on the underside of the controller.
Patently Apple:
Apple notes in a patent application published today by the U.S. Patent Office that when it comes to authentication using facial recognition, there are potential cases where a user attempting to be authenticated (authorized) by a device cannot be distinguished from another user with closely related facial features.
Twins fool Face ID. Been a thing since the beginning.
Apple’s invention states that “Subepidermal imaging of a face of a user attempting to unlock a device may be used to enhance a facial recognition authentication process”
Subepidermal means below the skin. Interesting.
Subepidermal images of the user may be used to assess subepidermal features such as blood vessels (e.g., veins) when the device is attempting to authenticate the user. The subepidermal features may be compared to templates of subepidermal features for an authorized (e.g., enrolled) user of the device.
Sounds like Apple is offering an extra layer of facial verification for folks with twins or other doppelgängers.
And this last bit, which I found most fascinating:
For example, illuminator 105A and/or illuminator 105B may include an array of light sources such as, but not limited to, VCSELs (vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers). A first set of light sources in the array may provide illumination at a wavelength for unlock attempt images while a second set of light sources may provide illumination at a wavelength for subepidermal images. The different sets of light sources may be turned on/off separately to allow a specific illumination (e.g., a specific wavelength of illumination) to be provided.
You had me at [Holds up fingers, makes air-quotes] lasers. Cool beans.
[VIDEO] This video is about two years old, but fascinating nonetheless. It’s embedded in the main Loop post.
Scotty Allen has a wonderful YouTube channel called Strange Parts that explores the back alley parts markets in places like Shenzhen, China, scrounging together the pieces to create, in this case, a working iPhone 6s.
This is not about creating a phone of your own. Rather, it’s a look at a remarkable parts market. Jump to about 4:03 and check out all those iPhone backs.
I’d wager that the parts market is even more varied and vibrant today. Kind of makes me want to hackintosh my own iPhone. Or, at least, replace the back with something unique and custom.
Follow the headline link and scroll down about halfway to that animated GIF showing a piece of glass, folded over and being repeatedly squished and released. To me, that is the future of foldables.
That is super-thin glass, 75µm thin. That’s ballpark the thickness of a human hair. And that curve gets down to a 5mm radius.
Fold it over and over again, and there’s no crease. Plastics crease when folded, glass like this doesn’t.
My instinct is that Apple will hold out for glass like this if and when they ever release any sort of foldable iPhone. Details are all in the article.
MacRumors:
iPhones with aftermarket batteries installed by third-party repair shops are now eligible for service at Genius Bars and Apple Authorized Service Providers, according to an internal Apple document obtained by MacRumors from three reliable sources.
And:
The updated guidelines went into effect Thursday and should apply worldwide. Apple will still decline service for iPhones with third-party logic boards, enclosures, microphones, Lightning connectors, headphone jacks, volume and sleep/wake buttons, TrueDepth sensor arrays, and certain other components.
Good news and a small step towards right to repair.
iFixit:
In 2018, a number of MacBook Pro users—with models from 2016 onwards—discovered a serious design flaw that causes the screen to fail after repeated opening and closing of the laptop over the course of a few years. The ensuing scandal was, of course, dubbed flexgate, after the flex display cables causing the problem. Despite Apple’s refusal to acknowledge the issue, though, their latest MacBook Pros have a longer cable that may be attempting to make up for previous shortcomings.
The display cable is said to fail from too much opening and closing of the MacBook Pro hinge, past the 90-degree point. Since the display cable is soldered onto the board, when it fails, the entire display must be replaced, at a cost of $700.
My question is, if someone’s MacBook Pro fails after the warranty expires, and after the bonus Apple Care time, will Apple cover the failure? This is the crux of the issue.
PCWorld:
Meet USB4, which promises to simply the USB naming scheme and integrate the high-bandwidth Thunderbolt 3 specification. Just a week after the upcoming USB 3.2 specification’s branding scheme threatened to confuse PC buyers, the next USB spec is trying to resolve it all.
And:
From a technical standpoint, USB4 is good news, promising to take the small jumble of USB specifications, form factors, and branding and consolidate them into something more understandable for a general audience.
And this, from the USB4 announcement itself:
With over 50 companies actively participating in the final stages of review of the draft specification, the USB4 specification is on track to be published around the middle of 2019. Coincident with the release of the USB4 specification, the release of an updated USB Type-C Specification will be made to comprehend USB4 bus discovery, configuration and performance requirements.
This feels like the USB Promotor Group is really trying to wrap their hands around the spec, corral the confusion. What I’d really love to see is a labeling scheme that takes all the guesswork out of “will this cable work with this port?” kinds of issues.
Apple is clearly working on solving one of the knottiest of problems with foldable phones, that of hinge wrinkle. When you have a screen that crosses the fold of the phone, the screen can show wear, like you might see on the spine of a well worn paperback book, or if you folded and unfolded a piece of paper.
From Patently Apple:
A new patent application from Apple published by the U.S. Patent Office shows that Apple is working on a method to keep the fold area warm as a cold display could cause problems when folding.
Specifically, Apple notes that a folding device may have a hinge that allows the device to be flexed about a bend axis. A display may span the bend axis. To facilitate bending about the bend axis without damage when the display is cold, a portion of the display that overlaps the bend axis may be selectively heated.
Interesting solution. I do think the hinge wrinkle problem is a must solve for Apple. If I unfold my phone, a wrinkle, however slight, in the middle of the display, will kill the illusion of a single unbroken screen.
The USB 3.2 rebranding has caused a lot of confusion. Here’s some language from the source, which hopefully will clarify what’s what here.
From the official USB 3.2 language usage guidelines:
When referring to a product that is based on and compliant with the USB 3.2 specification, it is critical for manufacturers to clearly identify the performance capabilities of that device separately from other product benefits and/or physical characteristics.
This gives us:
And:
SuperSpeed Plus, Enhanced SuperSpeed and SuperSpeed+ are defined in the USB specifications however these terms are not intended to be used in product names, messaging, packaging or any other consumer-facing content.
In a nutshell, think of USB 3.2 as SuperSpeed USB, with three flavors, Gen 1, Gen 2, and Gen 2×2, supporting 5, 10, and 20 Gbps respectively. And the 2×2 refers to Gen 2 over two 10 Gbps wires, for a total of 20 Gbps.
Lisa Eadicicco, Business Insider:
In a note published on February 20, the firm called Samsung’s newly introduced $1,980 Galaxy Fold “the main potential challenge” for Apple in the ultra-high-end smartphone market. “In terms of competition for Apple we see the Fold as the main potential challenge in the ultra high-end with a compelling form factor that only Samsung’s foldable OLED technology can deliver in our opinion,” the note said.
And:
“We see this as challenging for Apple who could find themselves with no access to the critical flexible OLED technology for which we believe Samsung has at least a two year lead over other display competitors.”
But:
Although Samsung demonstrated the device on stage, it did not allow media attendees to try the Fold after the event, which Goldman also flagged as a cause for concern.
The issue here: Samsung controls the supply of foldable OLED displays. A two year lead is formidable.
Nick Heer, from this post:
During the unveiling, Samsung emphasized the Fold’s versatility in being able to transform from an ordinary smartphone into a tablet just by opening it up. But this device — and others like it — are bad phones, and worse tablets. Every shot of the closed phone looks like it’s begging to be unfolded; its display looks narrow, uncomfortable, and cramped. It seems far better in its tablet-like configuration, but it is at best a diet version of a tablet.
Though Samsung does have a significant and protected lead, the product niche is nowhere near established. If Apple sees foldables in their future, they’re no doubt working on building the technology with another vendor, and/or working on the mechanics of building a foldable OLED display themselves.
Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge:
Verizon finally offered some details about its 5G launch this morning: it plans to deploy the next-gen wireless technology in 30 cities by the end of 2019. The carrier didn’t say which cities those would be, how thoroughly 5G would be deployed throughout those cities, or when exactly the launch would begin, but Verizon did say that each launch would include some deployment of super fast millimeter wave radios.
We are at the very early stages here. The 5G rollout will take time. There’s a lot of infrastructure to build.
5G is not like existing cell service, served by giant cell towers, each built to serve a large geographic area. 5G cells are the size of a city block. Obviously, that requires many more boxes. Add in the fact that 5G signals have difficulty penetrating thick walls and you can see that 5G will require antennae everywhere there is coverage.
On the other side of the equation, there’s the complete lack of 5G phones. They are coming, with the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G just announced and, I’m sure, other phones in the works.
Side note: 5G has a data transfer rate up to about 20Gbps. That’s not as fast as fast WiFi, but compared to the cellular we have now, that’s blazingly fast. And, perhaps, fast enough to be a threat, and an alternative, to cable.
UPDATE: According to Loop reader jimothyGator, the 5G transfer rate will actually be faster than the fastest WiFi. Check the comments. A real threat to cable.
Charger tech is changing, moving from silicon to gallium nitride. And that means smaller/lighter form factors and, eventually, more power for less money.
The Verge takes a look at the first generation. Wondering when Apple will make the switch.
[VIDEO] This display is crazy wide. So wide that my first reaction was, it’s just too wide to be useful.
But.
Watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. You can fit a ton of information on the screen (as expected), and you can even run two different computers, each taking up half the display.
As of this post, the price is $1250. Seems a good deal for an ultra wide 5K monitor, though it only runs at 60Hz, so not sure it’d be good for gaming.
Be sure to watch the very end to see this monitor running in portrait mode.
iFixit:
The issue is fairly simple: the current generation of MacBook Pro laptops (2016–present) uses flexible ribbon cables to connect the display to a display controller board beneath the Touch Bar. These cables wrap over the board, where they’re secured by a pair of spring-loaded covers—and they’re subjected to the stress of bending with every opening and closure of the laptop. Within a seemingly short time, those cables are starting to fatigue and tear. The backlight cable is generally the first to go, producing the infamous “stage light” symptoms, and eventually giving out entirely when the laptop is opened more than about 40°.
And:
Apple opted for thin, fragile flex cables as opposed to the beefier wire cables used in previous designs that could be routed through the hinge instead of wrapped around it, helping mitigate the stress of repeated openings and closings. But the bigger problem is that, in an apparent effort to make the display as thin as possible, Apple designed the cables as part of the display, so they cannot be replaced. This means that when (not if) those cables start to fail, the entire display unit needs to be replaced, as opposed to one or two little cables—effectively turning a $6 problem into a $600 disaster.
Take the article with a grain of salt. This isn’t necessarily doom for the MacBook Pro, or even that big a deal.
But, if you do experience “stage light” symptoms, this design issue is important to be aware of. If you do run into this problem, I would definitely go into your Apple Store discussion armed with a bookmark of this article.