As expected Tim Cook appeared with President Biden this week at an event in Arizona to announce TSMCs second plant and continued investment in making chips in the US
TSMCs original plan was a single plant manufacturing 4nm wafers set to be in production by 2024. The original investment was $12B. They announced the plans to expand with a second 3nm capable site to open in 2026 expanding their total investment to $40 billion
Cook also confirmed that Apple would be a customer for the new facility and they would provide “Made in the USA” Apple Silicon.
Estimates are that Apple would purchase up to a third of the facilities chips
One point of confusion is exactly which chips the site will supply for Apple.
Apple already purchases A-Series and M-Series processors from TSMC today, in 2022, using 4nm and is expected to start using TSMCs 3nm chips in 2023
Technically Apple calls their Mac processors Apple Silicon, but one could assume at this point A-Series processors also qualify for that branding.
The US facilities, while a great milestone in the diversification of the supply chain, are expected to have much lower capacity than other TSMC sites. Producing just about 600000 wafers a year when both factories are online (in 2022 TSMC will produce an estimated 12 million wafers). So the US facilities will account for likely less than 5 percent of total global production.
Best guess at this point is the facility could provide Apple Silicon for older models Apple still keeps in their line up. Or maybe for Home Products like Home Pods and Apple TV.
The site “The Elec” is reporting that Apple is working with an unknown South Korean component supplier on a 20.25-inch foldable OLED display
The assumption is it could be for a future notebook or tablet, but they seem to be leaning toward a MacBook Pro
They believe Apple could launch such a product in 2026 or 2027 (really?!!!)
They also think Apple wants to replace the iPad mini with a 10-inch foldable product, but don’t think Apple will do a foldable iPhone.
Apple Self Repair goes global
Originally launched in the US in April
Apple has expanded their Apple Self Service Repair program to eight more countries.
Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK
The program makes Apple parts, repair manuals, and tools available to customer who want to do self repairs of their devices.
The Hom e Pod mini has also expanded to Sweden, Norway, Finland, and South Africa
Apple Music Sing
Apple announced a new feature coming to Apple Music’s Lyrics
Sing will let you adjust the vocals on tracks when viewing the lyrics in Apple Music, so you can sing along to your favorite tunes Karaoke style
Seems like it’s coming in iOS 16.2 which is currently in beta testing
Apple Music Sing feature will be available on all compatible iPhones and iPads as well as the new Apple TV 4K
iPhone 11 and newer models
iPad Pro 12.9-inch (Fifth-generation and later), iPad Pro 11-inch (Third-generation and later), iPad Air (Fourth-generation and later), iPad (Ninth-generation and later), iPad mini (Sixth-generation)
2022 Apple TV 4K
Apple expanding iCloud end-to-end encryption to more of it’s services with Advanced Data Protection
Now will protect Device Backups, Messages Backups, iCloud Drive, Notes, Photos, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Wallet Passes
Once released the only services not covered by end-to-end encryption are iCloud Mail, Contacts, and Calendar.
And this is because these services need to be able to interoperate with “global email, contacts, and calendar systems.”
Apple says it will roll out the feature globally in early 2023
Apple also announced they will not move forward with their original plans to add CSAM detection to iCloud Photos.
“We have further decided to not move forward with our previously proposed CSAM detection tool for iCloud Photos. Children can be protected without companies combing through personal data, and we will continue working with governments, child advocates, and other companies to help protect young people, preserve their right to privacy, and make the internet a safer place for children and for us all.”
Apple also made pricing for apps and subscriptions on the App Store more flexible for developers
Added additional price points an more increments for pricing
Can go as low as $0.29 USD or as high as $10,000
Highest price points have to be approved by Apple
Overall there will be 700 new price point options.
Dev can also now choose to price their apps for their local currency and allow current rates of exchange and markets adjust the pricing for other stores (they can also still price each store manually if they wish)
Currently the new pricing is available for subscription based apps, but will expand to all apps in the Spring of 2023
Apple Car get scaled back
Bloomberg is reporting that Apple’s rumored car will no longer be fully self driving and the launch is delayed until 2026
This according to Mark Gurman
They have apparently decided that FSD is not “feasible” at this time and the car will have guided driving features on the highway, but not be fully autonomous.
It will have a lot of Apple tech, including an Apple processors with AI functionality and all the lidar, radar, and cameras you’d expect on a high end electric vehicle of the future.
But it will have a traditional steering wheel and pedals
Sounds like autonomous freeway driving may be possible, but it will alert you as you near your destination and you need to regain control to take on the city streets.
The report also claims Apple will be looking to debut with a price point under USD $100K
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
When apps sunset
Received an email from James
“I’m having difficulties with pdfpen on my mac, iPad, and phone and wondering if it is a viable product after being sold to nitro. I’m getting the impression that smile just dumped it, and that the acquiring company is not supporting in the form of upgrades and technical support.”
This unfortunately is something we see happen with a lot of beloved apps and products over time.
I want to discuss the reasons why developers or companies might do this and our feelings about it
It’s almost always a business decision and most of the time I think done in good faith.
It’s easy to feel slighted or abandoned when the new owners don’t live up to the same expectations or standards.
Drobo is a great example of this as well.
I don’t know anything specifically about Nitro as a company. I get the feeling they are pushing PDFPen more for the enterprise market and less concerned with the consumer.
Dan mentions he’ll be away for the holidays and want to know if he can set-up his lights and Home Pods to trigger randomly while he’s away.
As far as I know there is not a simple way to do it “randomly”
You might be able to set something up with Shortcuts, but it’s probably be fairly involved
I think the easier method would be to place groups of lights and devices into scenes and then use different automations set up on different days and times to trigger the different groupings.
In the Home App you can easily add a scene and select a set of lights and home pods to trigger. Give that a name and then create another set.
Then you can add automations that trigger different scenes at different days and times.
You could have some come on a sunset and others at specific times and days.
For HomePods I think you can just have them “resume” or “pause” the current music so you’ll need to set that up in advance.
Another option would be to just remotely / manually trigger things.
Assumes you have an Apple TV or Home Pod in the house serving as a Home Hub
