Apple Rises to Become World’s Fourth-Largest PC Maker With Around 20M Macs Sold Last Year

Apple rose to become the world’s fourth-largest PC maker in 2017, as Mac sales increased to nearly 20 million during the year, according to the latest estimates shared by research firms IDC and Gartner.

The roughly 19.6 million total is based on Apple’s reported Mac sales of 13.9 million units in the first three calendar quarters of the year, while IDC and Gartner estimate Apple sold another 5.4 million to 5.7 million Macs in the fourth quarter.

Apple officially reported sales of 18.5 million Macs in 2016, so the company is looking at year-over-year growth of around four to six percent based on the IDC and Gartner data. Apple sold over 20 million Macs in both 2014 and 2015, however, so 2017 was likely not a record-breaking year for the Mac.

Apple leapfrogged either Asus or Acer depending on which dataset you look at, as IDC and Gartner have slightly different estimates. Both research firms have Apple trailing behind HP, Lenovo, and Dell, which shipped an estimated 58.8 million, 54.8 million, and 41.8 million PCs respectively last year per IDC.

Apple’s growth in 2017 is impressive given Gartner claims it was the sixth consecutive year of declining PC shipments. The year saw Apple refresh its MacBook Pro and iMac lineups with Kaby Lake processors, give the base MacBook Air a slight speed boost, and launch an all-new iMac Pro.

We’ll know exactly how many Macs were sold in 2017 when Apple reports its next earnings results on February 1, but if these estimates prove to be accurate, it was a financially successful year for the Mac.

Related Roundups: iMac, Mac Pro, Mac mini, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, MacBookTags: IDC, GartnerBuyer’s Guide: iMac (Neutral), Mac Pro (Caution), Mac Mini (Don’t Buy), MacBook Air (Neutral), MacBook Pro (Caution), MacBook (Neutral)
Discuss this article in our forums

Sennheiser packed its Ambeo 3D audio tech in a soundbar

Sennheiser has been touting the merits of its Ambeo 3D audio for a few years now at CES, but in 2018, the company plans to make that spacial soundscape more accessible. The first speaker product to feature the tech will be the Ambeo 3D Soundbar and the company is showing it off here in Vegas. Sennheiser has been working on 3D audio since 2010, when it was recording classical performances in 9.1 surround sound. Until now, you needed a 9.1 speaker setup to really appreciate that level of detail, but later this year, all you’ll need is a soundbar.

The device Sennheiser is showing off at CES this year is a prototype, but the company says the audio is final. The Ambeo 3D Soundbar packs 13 speakers total with nine across the front, two angled out from the sides and two angled on the top. While there will be a subwoofer option, you really don’t need it because the soundbar has a low-end range of 30Hz — and it’s pretty damn impressive coming from a device like this. Usually you need a separate sub to complement a soundbar for a solid dose of bass. In terms of connectivity, the company says the device will have a trio of HDMI inputs, one HDMI output and inputs for both analog and optical. It’s also fully wireless with Bluetooth and WiFi, and there will be voice control onboard. The prototype was also quite large, especially when compared to other soundbars, thanks to its 4-inch speakers. Chances are the final version will be pretty large as well. Not a deal breaker, but it’s certainly something to consider.

Of course, not everyone has access to 3D audio recordings, but that won’t be a huge issue for a few reasons. One of those is that the soundbar is compatible with Dolby Atmos, so there’s a library of compatible content you can tap into there. Sennheiser says it will also upscale, or as the company calls it, “upmix,” non-3D audio to sound better on the speaker. As you might expect, it won’t sound as good as a recording captured in true 9.1, but it beats having to re-buy your music collection. The company says it is working with music labels on content and other audio companies are enlisting its help for 3D audio capture at live sporting events and more. You can also opt to use the Ambeo soundbar in normal stereo mode as well, in which case you won’t have to worry about any tweaks. I didn’t get a demo of that mode though, so I can’t speak to whether or not it’s equally as stunning.

Sennheiser’s Ambeo 3D microphone

During a 15-minute demo, I heard audio samples ranging from a Mad Max clip to a performance from Imogen Heap captured in true 9.1. I’m not going to mince words here: To say this thing is impressive is an understatement. I’ve heard Ambeo recordings before, so I know the level of detail and clarity they offer, but to put all of that inside a soundbar is a feat. This piece of gear takes spatial audio like Dolby Atmos to a whole other level, and it’s miles above what Sony and others offer as part of their home theater lineup. I have a Sonos Playbar and sub in my living room, and this Sennheiser speaker blows that out of the water, too.

Perhaps the most impressive audio sample during the demo came from a German Bundesliga soccer match. During the clip, you could hear the roar of the crowd change as the players moved from end to end. It very much sounded like I was sitting inside Niedersachsenstadion watching Hanover 96 in person. The music stuff is great, but as a sports fan, this might be more exciting. Of course, the effectiveness relies on a 3D audio capture, but Sennheiser says a number of broadcasters have already started doing so. And thanks to MPEG-H support, you can focus in on the home-supporters section, decrease the volume of the commentary or apply other tweaks to the audio stream to enhance the viewing experience.

During that same demo, Sennheiser switched back and forth between the Ambeo soundbar and a true 9.1 setup. While you could notice the difference, there wasn’t a huge change when flipping from one to the other. Again, it’s another piece of engineering skill on display when a massive surround sound setup is packed in a single speaker and the difference isn’t night and day. The company says the unit on display here isn’t the final design, but it has the audio dialed in. And that’s great news considering how impressive what I heard was.

As is the case with a lot of things announced at CES, Sennheiser isn’t talking price or availability yet. However, it did tell me that this isn’t some far-in-the-future concept; it plans to bring the device to market this year. The company shied away from divulging a ballpark price tag, it did say that you can expect to pay more than you would for a soundbar from the like of Sony or LG. That’s not a huge surprise based on the audio prowess on display here. Sennheiser caters to audiophiles and everyday users alike with its range of headphone options, so let’s hope it appeals to both with the price tag on this soundbar.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

GM plans to release cars with no steering wheel in 2019

If the Department of Transportation grants GM’s latest Safety Petition, the automaker will be able to deploy its no-steering-wheel, pedal-less autonomous car next year. GM has not only revealed what its level 4 self-driving vehicle will look like — in a video you can watch after the break — but also announced that it filed a Safety Petition to be able to deploy its completely driverless version of Chevy Bolt called Cruise AV in 2019. The company describes it as “the first production-ready vehicle built from the start to operate safely on its own, with no driver, steering wheel, pedals or manual controls.”

As you can see above, Cruise AV is much different from the self-driving Chevy Bolts GM is testing in California. It has no controls whatsoever, not even buttons you can push — it 100 percent treats you as a passenger, no matter where you sit. The car can even open and shut doors on its own. Now, autonomous cars like this don’t meet the Federal Motor Vehicle’s safety standards. Automakers could apply for exemption, but the government can only exempt 2,500 vehicles every year. GM President Dan Ammann told The Verge that the company is not seeking for an exemption, though — instead, it wants to “meet that standard in a different kind of way.”

He explained:

“What we can do is put the equivalent of the passenger side airbag on that side as well. So its to meet the standards but meet them in a way that’s different than what’s exactly prescribed, and that’s what the petition seeks to get approval for.”

A number of automakers and transportation companies banded together last year to call for a change to those rules. “Without changes to these regulations,” GM VP Michael Abelson told a subcommittee that time, “it may be years before the promise of today’s technology can be realized and thousands of preventable deaths… will happen.”

Automakers will have to see those changes come to light if they want their fully autonomous cars to hit the road. GM might beat them to the punch, but rival companies like Ford, Mercedes and Waymo all plan to release cars with no steering wheels of their own.

Via: TechCrunch, The Verge, Reuters

Source: GM

Europe enters race to build world-class supercomputers

Supercomputers are a crucial research tool for medicine, aviation, robots and weapons, but there are only three dominant players: The US, Japan and China. Europe has had enough of that situation, however, and announced plans to spend up to $1.2 billion to develop its own technology. The aim is to develop its own exascale machines (that can do a billion billion calculations per second) by 2022-23. “It is a tough race and today the EU is lagging behind,” said EC comissioner Andrus Ansip.

To give you an idea of how far behind, China has the world’s fastest supercomputer, the Sunway TaihuLight, with 93 petaflops (93 million billion floating point operations per second) of computing power. The nation is also working on the Tianhe-3 (below), the world’s first exascale machine with over ten times the power of TaihuLight, and expects to have that up and running by 2020.

Other top ten machines are located in Japan, US and everywhere but Europe (other than Switzerland, which is not part of the EU but an “associated country.”) The only large European player is Atos SE, which built the Bull Sequana shown above. The machine, 55th in global supercomputer rankings, is the first phase of a 25-petaflop computer that will be used by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission.

The Sunway TaihuLight Supercomputer (Li Xiang/Xinhua via AP)

Right now, weather, space and other government agencies in Europe, along with private Euro companies like Daimler, Airbus and GlaxoSmithKline must rent supercomputing time on US or Japanese machines. That poses a risk that sensitive personal information, trade secrets and other data could leak or be stolen. If a dispute or crisis happens, Europe could also lose access to those machines.

Buying and developing supercomputing technology is crazy expensive, with exascale machines expected to cost up to a half billion dollars. To buy and develop them, Europe will spend $486 million itself, with the balance of the $1.2 billion coming from member states. It plans to first acquire machines that can compete with current top supercomputers, then develop its own exascale machines by 2023.

UK researchers have contributed expertise to the supercomputer project, but with Brexit, it’s not clear if it will sign on in the future. “Brexit has thrown a lot of uncertainty around the UK’s participation and it is really unfortunate and causing delay and confusion,” University of Bristol’s Simon McIntosh-Smith told Bloomberg.

Via: Bloomberg

Source: EU

Dolby knows what you’re watching based on your breath

If you thought it was creepy that technology lets networks know what you’re watching, you’d better sit down. It turns out that Poppy Crum, chief scientist at Dolby Labs, has been researching how our bodies and emotions react to what we see and hear. Don’t panic, though. All that information is being used to understand how to make us feel more when we watch a Hollywood epic. “In the cinema, we can measure exhalants […] and be able to tell what movie they’re watching, just by the chemical signature,” Crum told Engadget on stage at CES. And you thought clearing your browser history was enough to cover your tracks.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

Apple Promotes Subscription-Based Apps With Free Trials in the App Store

Apple has opened a new section of the iOS App Store that promotes subscription-based apps offering free trials (via 9to5Mac).

Called “Try it for Free”, the subcategory appears in the Apps tab and is currently home to just four apps, including USA Today, 1Password, Panna: Video Recipes & Classes, and Lake: Coloring Books. Tapping “Free Trial” next to one of the apps takes the user to a screen showcasing the subscription offer (if the app hasn’t been previously downloaded), which details how long the trial runs, the recurring cost after the trial ends, and how to download the app.

All of the apps in the subcategory have offered free trials for some time, suggesting Apple is renewing efforts to push subscription-based apps by encouraging users to try them out for a time before committing to recurring payments.

Subscription-based apps tend to divide the user community, but adoption of the model has increased over the last six months. Apple began incentivizing developers to sell their apps for a recurring fee instead of a one-time cost when it made changes to its App Store subscription policies in 2016. Usually, Apple takes 30 percent of app revenue, but developers who are able to maintain a subscription with a customer longer than a year see Apple’s cut drop down to 15 percent.

Late last year, Apple also started letting developers offer discounted introductory pricing and time-limited free trials on auto-renewable app subscriptions, based on the idea that subscriptions provide a higher likelihood of an engaged audience.

Tags: App Store, App Store promotion
Discuss this article in our forums

Samsung talks PC strategy and its vision for a connected world at CES

This week, Samsung showed off everything from new laptops to a massive microLED wall to a chattier kind of refrigerator. The message couldn’t be any clearer: Samsung would like nothing more than to be the center of your digital world. To dig deeper into this week’s big news, we invited Shoneel Kolhatkar, Samsung’s senior director for product marketing to our CES stage for some wide-ranging conversation. We touch on Samsung’s new Notebook 9 Pen, the growing role of wearables and (most important) how Samsung plans to weave its products into together in a single intelligent ecosystem.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

Intel pledges transparency after Spectre, Meltdown vulnerability

The last week or so has seen a lot of activity around Meltdown and Spectre, two CPU flaws in modern chips from the likes of AMD and Intel. Apple, Microsoft and Google have provided interim fixes for their respective hardware, but it will take much more than simple patches (that can cause more harm than good) to truly eradicate the issue. Just a few hours after Intel revealed that there may be more slowdowns from its Meltdown processor fix, the company’s CEO Brian Krzanich has written an open letter to further detail the steps Intel is taking to deal with the issues.

Krzanich promises that by January 15th, 90 percent of Intel CPUs made in the last five years will be updated, with the remaining 10 percent patched by the end of the month. The company will then start working on updates for older chips “as prioritized by (its) customers.”

The Intel CEO also notes that the impact of Meltdown and Spectre patches on performance can vary widely, but that Intel will provide progress reports on the patches its working on. “To accelerate the security of the entire industry, we commit to publicly identify significant security vulnerabilities following rules of responsible disclosure and, further, we commit to working with the industry to share hardware innovations that will accelerate industry-level progress in dealing with side-channel attacks,” wrote Krzanich in his statement. He also committed to help fund academic and independent research into possible security issues in the future.

Via: The Verge

Source: Intel

The Moto Z’s keyboard mod feels like an imperfect blast from the past

Motorola’s first great Android phone had a physical keyboard, and when I stuck Livermorium’s keyboard Moto Mod onto a Moto Z2 Play, waves of nostalgia started washing over me. After I started using the keyboard, though, I suddenly remembered why the smartphone world had moved on from these designs. You’ll be able to pick up one of these Mods for $99 before the winter ends, but it’s going to be a hard sell for anyone who didn’t grow up pounding out texts on actual buttons.

To be clear, the version Livermorium and Lenovo showed off in Vegas isn’t the final version that customers will be able to buy. That’s a very good thing, too. The sliding mechanism in the model I played with didn’t feel all that smooth, and because the combined package is top-heavy, you’re liable to push the phone right off the weak magnets connecting it to the keyboard. And while the buttons are nice and clicky, they don’t offer a particularly satisfying level of key travel. And if you’re the sort who’d like to use a Moto Z as a very, very tiny laptop, you can — just be aware that it’ll tip over unless you get the hinge positioned just right.

The keyboard does have some nice flourishes, though. When closed, the Mod covers the camera entirely. Once you slide it open, however, the camera is revealed, and you can snap some photos by mashing the enter key. A bright-blue LED confirms that the keyboard is connected and drawing power, and next to that is a caps-lock light. A caps-lock light! There are discrete buttons for the question mark and the single quote, too, which actually made me slightly giddy upon discovery.

Livermorium deserves the benefit of the doubt — it may well fix most of the issues I mentioned above before the final units start reaching its Indiegogo backers. For me, the keyboard’s biggest drawback is more fundamental: There’s a limit to how fast you can type on a keyboard this wide with two thumbs. That’s why I was more than happy to give up my OG Droid in 2010, and it wasn’t long before the rest of the industry moved on too from these designs, too. Still, who knows? BlackBerry is also bullish on the idea of physical keyboards, so maybe Livermorium is making something more valuable than we realize.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.

You can’t talk about accessibility without talking about diversity

Over the past few years, we’ve been seeing more and more products at CES meant to assist the elderly and disabled. In fact, last year was the first year we added an accessibility category to the official Best of CES awards — and the finalists in that category were indeed some of our favorite things we saw at the show. This year was no exception, with four finalists in the accessibility category, and a whole bunch of other products that we didn’t have room for on our shortlist.

When and how did accessibility tech come to be so prominent at the world’s biggest consumer tech show? And where is the technology headed from here? To help make sense of the bigger picture, I sat down with KR Liu, who was diagnosed with severe hearing loss at age three and later went on to head up sales and marketing with audio pioneer Doppler Labs. Most recently, she teamed up with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Grassley on the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017, which passed with almost unanimous bipartisan support.

In our all-too-brief talk, we delved into the technological advancements, of course, but also the social ones — the issue of accessibility tech ultimately isn’t just a question of what’s technically possible, but about diversity: Who is allowed in the drawing room? And for whom are we creating tech in the first place?

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2018.