Intel Launches New Skylake Chips Appropriate for 15-Inch Retina MacBook Pro
As noted by AnandTech, Intel this week quietly released an updated processor price list which includes several new Skylake chips that could be used in an updated 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro.
The direct upgrade path for the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro would use the following quad-core chip options: a 2.6 GHz Core i7-6770HQ, a 2.7 GHz Core i7-6870HQ, and a 2.8 GHz Core i7-6970HQ, all coming in at the same price points as the Haswell variants currently used in the MacBook Pro.
Perhaps a more intriguing but less likely scenario involves a series of new mobile Xeon E3 chips. These chips could offer even better CPU, graphics, and memory performance, although pricing becomes an issue with the highest-performing chip in the family.
As for the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, Intel announced chips appropriate for those machines back in September, although it suggested the chips would not actually be launching until early 2016. Those chips have been included on Intel’s price lists for several months, but have been slow to show up in the wild. A claimed benchmark for a 13-inch MacBook Pro running one of these chips last week appears to have been a fake.
Most of Apple’s Mac lineup is in need of updates, as Intel’s Skylake delays have hampered Apple’s ability to launch refreshed models. But with the Skylake logjam finally starting to break, Apple appears set to update its entire notebook lineup over the next several months. Opportunities for major product introductions could come at Apple’s rumored March media event or at WWDC likely scheduled for mid-June, although smaller updates could come at any time via press release.
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Apple Gets Development Approval for 4.15 Million Square Foot Campus in San Jose
The San Jose city council has approved a development agreement for Apple that will give the company fifteen years to build “a maximum of 4.15 million square feet of space” within an 86 acre piece of land in north San Jose (via Silicon Valley Business Journal). Apple is still ironing out plans on exactly what it wants to do with the massive site, according to Kristina Raspe, senior director of real estate and development for the company.
“The opportunity to purchase this site came very quickly to Apple,” Raspe said, in response to a question from councilman Donald Rocha about the site’s ultimate use. “It was something we jumped on without a firm plan. We’re still studying the site to determine the best use for us. At this point, it looks like it will be office and R&D.”
As Raspe pointed out, the San Jose campus will most likely be the focus of a headquarters for R&D and more company offices. Before today’s agreement, the 4.15 million square feet of space was slowly purchased or leased by Apple over the past year. This week’s development approval by the San Jose city council groups all of the company’s previous acquisitions into one large project for the company to move forward with.
San Jose mayor Sam Liccardo called the agreement “a long time coming” during the council meeting, given Apple’s long-awaited entry into the Silicon Valley city. As pointed out by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, if solely built up as office space the new campus could house 16,000 employees for the company. When completed, it will be larger than the existing Infinite Loop campus, as well as the “Campus 2” location currently under construction in Cupertino.
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Google Shifts Chrome for iOS to Apple’s WKWebView, Reducing Crashes by 70%
Google today introduced a few stability and performance improvements into its Chrome for iOS app, mainly centering around the company’s switch from in-process rendering with UIWebView to out-of-process rendering thanks to WKWebView. Tests by Google proved the new update reduces the app’s crash rate by 70 percent, letting users pick up where they left off on a page from any device without a crash causing issues.
The biggest change is in stability: with WKWebView’s out-of-process rendering, when the web view crashes or runs out of memory, it won’t bring down all of Chrome with it. As a result, Chrome crashes 70% less with WKWebView. Even when counting the “Aw, Snap!” page shown when the renderer crashes, there’s still a big improvement.
Outside of stability, WKWebView brings many other benefits. Web compatibility is improved with support for features like IndexedDB, bringing the HTML5test score for Chrome on iOS from 391 up to 409. Switching to background tabs will cause pages to reload 25% less often. JavaScript speed on benchmarks such as Octane is an order of magnitude faster, and scrolling is smoother and more responsive.
For the web, Google also created a new extension called “Data Saver,” that will allow Chrome users the ability to manage data usage while outside of their home Wi-Fi. Similar in function to the extension available for Android devices, Data Saver reduces the data needed to access the web with the help of the company’s “compression technology.” The extension lets users see exactly how much data they saved and highlight which websites are using the most while out of the house.
Google said that the iOS Chrome update will begin rolling out starting today, and all users have to do is check for the update in the App Store [Direct Link] if they don’t feel like waiting for an automatic update.
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T-Mobile’s BOGO promotion is one of its biggest sales ever
Are you looking for a new smartphone? Could someone else on your plan use an upgrade? If so, T-Mobile is going to save you a ton of money. For a limited time you can walk into a T-Mobile store and pick up a flagship phone from LG, Samsung, or Apple for half off.
Here are the details. You must purchase one phone at a full price, and the second phone must be from the same manufacturer. For example, if you want to pick up a Samsung Galaxy Note 5, your second phone must be a Samsung phone and equal or less value. Pretty simple, right? In that scenario, you can get a Samsung Galaxy S6 for about $12 a month, and over 24 months that’s a $290 savings. If you want to grab two LG V10’s, your second phone will only be $12.50 a month and save you $300 off the purchase price.
This deal is NOT limited to just new customers. Current customers are eligible for the deal, and even though you can trade in your phone for a discount, you don’t have to. T-Mobile doesn’t give the best value for phone trades so you can easily sell it for more on sites like Swappa. Depending on what type of phone you currently have, you could sell it and end up making enough to pay off your phone you just got for half price.
Click here for the top 10 Android phones on T-Mobile
T-Mobile says they’re offering this sale because up to 70% of people don’t upgrade when they can due to price or upgrade restrictions. This leaves many teenagers with hand-me-down phones. Their motivations may not be all that altruistic, but this is a great deal to get your kids a phone. For a family of four, walking in and getting the entire family phones means you’re going to end up with four phones for the price of three. You can’t beat free.
The deal starts today, January 27, and T-Mobile hasn’t stated when it will end. Both family and business accounts on T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plans qualify for the promotion, and you can get up to six half-priced phones. The available models are the Apple iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, Note 5 and the LG G4 and V10. You can read here why we here at AndroidGuys think the V10 is one of the best phones of 2015.
Source: T-Mobile
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ExxonMobil to Support Apple Pay at Gas Pump in Speedpass+ App
Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed during the company’s first quarter earnings conference call that ExxonMobil will be rolling out Apple Pay support in its Speedpass+ app to conveniently pay at the pump with your iPhone.
Speedpass+ is currently supported at ExxonMobil gas stations in Salt Lake City, Houston, Charlottesville, Philadelphia and Nashville. The app supports all major credit cards and select debit cards, and it can also link with your personal checking account.
Most ExxonMobil gas stations across the U.S. are also equipped with Speedpass technology at the pump for RFID payments, and it is possible that Apple Pay support with an iPhone or Apple Watch could be introduced in the future.
Petro-Canada gas pump with NFC payment terminal for Visa and MasterCard
Last year, rival gas station Chevron launched an Apple Pay pilot program in the Bay Area that allows customers to pay for their gasoline directly at the pump by tapping their iPhone, or an Apple Watch paired with an iPhone 5 or newer.
ExxonMobil also operates gas stations in multiple countries outside the U.S. under its Esso brand, including Australia, Canada, Singapore, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and many are equipped with NFC readers that are compatible with contactless payment solutions such as Apple Pay, MasterCard PayPass and Visa payWave.
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T-Mobile Offering ‘Buy One, Get One 50% Off’ on iPhone 6 or Later
T-Mobile has announced a new BOGO promotion that offers qualifying Simple Choice customers half off all iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models, or any iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with the purchase of another iPhone of equal or greater value. The savings are applied instantly at the point of sale.
Eligible devices can be purchased for full retail price, or through T-Mobile’s Jump financing program, and smartphone trade-in is required. T-Mobile continues to offer up to $650 towards a balance owing or to pay off early termination fees to new customers that switch to the carrier.
The limited time offer is available in the U.S. at T-Mobile stores nationwide starting today, while supplies last, and also applies to Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note5 lineup and LG’s G4 and V10 smartphones. The promotion can also be requested over the phone by calling 1-800-TMOBILE.
Simple Choice customers with approved credit are eligible to purchase up to 12 devices, meaning 6 devices at half off. T-Mobile@Work customers can also take advantage of the offer. The promotion does not allow customers to mix and match iPhones and Android-based smartphones.
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Apple’s Safari browser is broken
iOS and OS X users around the world are experiencing serious issues with Apple’s Safari. Many are reporting that typing into the browser’s search box crashes the browser instantly. The issue was highlighted by developer Steve Troughton-Smith, who worked out it has something to do with Apple’s search suggestions feature. It seems likely a server somewhere is down and that’s ruining things for people. Problems have been reported over three continents, and we’ve confirmed the bug ourselves.
Merely tapping the address bar on iOS 9.x crashes Safari right now
— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) January 27, 2016
Although Apple has yet to solve the issue, there is a simple fix: head to the relevant menu and turn off “Safari Suggestions.” In iOS, that’s within the main Settings page under Safari. In OS X, open the app, head to Preferences, and then to the Search tab. If that sounds like too much work, you could always just install another browser like Chrome.
There’s no word on when Apple will fix things — the company hasn’t acknowledged there’s a problem yet. We’ve reached out for more information on the bug and will update you once we hear back.
Update 9:50AM ET: Still no word from Apple, but it appears the crashing is fixed for some people that were previously affected. Hopefully everything will be in working order soon.
Source: Steve Troughton-Smith
iPhone 7 Plus Likely to Have Dual-Lens Camera Based on LinX Technology
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has issued a research note obtained by MacRumors that predicts two 5.5-inch versions of the “iPhone 7 Plus” are in development, one with a single iSight rear-facing camera and another boasting a dual-camera design.
The rumored iPhone 7 Plus model with a dual-lens camera system would take advantage of imaging algorithms that Apple acquired through its purchase of Israeli camera technology company LinX Imaging last year.
iPhone 7 mockup with dual-lens camera system (Image: Computer Bild)
LinX technology offers several improvements the iPhone 7 Plus could benefit from, including multiple sensors for a smaller size, possibly eliminating the need for a protruding camera lens. The lenses would also have better sensitivity to light and greatly improved image quality in low light.
Specifically, Kuo cites the LinX Imaging algorithm for its unique ability to achieve high-end dual-camera applications such as optical zoom simulation while sidestepping the traditional bottlenecks associated with compact camera module (CCM) assembly.
To that end, Kuo expects a 2-3x optical zoom function to feature in Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus. However, owing to supply chain constraints on dual-camera modules, the KGI analyst expects the larger handset to come in single-camera and dual-camera versions.
Apple is well known for headlining improvements to the camera technology in its iPhones and showcasing their photography capabilities as a market-leading feature.
Even so, major improvements to camera technology have typically come in “S” release years, therefore it remains to be seen whether Apple chooses to include such improvements in this or the next generation of its flagship devices.
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Twitter Close to Hiring Former Apple PR Director Natalie Kerris
Apple’s longtime public relations executive Natalie Kerris, who retired last April after 14 years at the company, is the leading candidate for Twitter’s head of communications, according to Re/code.
Kerris initially sought to succeed longtime Apple PR head Katie Cotton, who retired in 2014, but fellow Apple PR veteran Steve Dowling was named as Cotton’s permanent successor last April.
Kerris previously said that her decision to retire and “enjoy life” came after spending two weeks with her family in Italy, but it appears she may put those plans on hold in joining Twitter.
Instead, she has recently spent a lot of time talking to top Twitter execs and is the leading candidate for the job. If hired, Kerris will report to general counsel Vijaya Gadde and not, interestingly, to newly named CMO Leslie Berland. Gadde conducted the search, which has been taking place for months.
Kerris was Senior Director of Worldwide Corporate Communications at Apple, where she served in public relations and communications roles since 2001. Kerris worked closely with the late Steve Jobs and oversaw the launch of the iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air and, more recently, Apple Pay and Apple Watch.
Kerris would replace Gabriel Stricker, who left Twitter to lead Google Fiber communications.
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Samsung may launch its own phone upgrade program
If Apple and Samsung were humans rather than multi-billion dollar multinational corporations, the best way to describe them would probably be “frenemies.” Time and again one looks to the other for inspiration, money, or as a source of parts, and today’s no different. The latest? Reuters reports (sourcing Korea’s Electronic Times) that the Korean tech giant is going to launch a phone upgrade program like Cupertino did last fall with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Basically, you’ll be able to upgrade every year so long as you’re on a contract.
The publication says that it could happen as early as March when the Galaxy S7 launches on home soil and could possibly allow folks to upgrade their devices annually in other countries in time. Until then, we’ll just have to pass the days figuring out what other tech companies round out the pack of mean girls here and if butter is in fact a carb or not.
[Image credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images]
Via: Reuters
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