Month: August 2022

Apple announced its M2 processor at its 2022 WWDC event, claiming the new silicon can eke out 18% greater performance compared to the M1 chip in current Macs.

Like the M1, the M2 is based on a 5-nanometre process. It has more than 20 billion transistors (25% more than M1), an 8-core CPU, and up to a 10-core GPU.

What does that actually equal in real life? Well, Apple claims the M2’s CPU and GPU are 18% and 35% faster respectively over M1.

The new silicon also boasts of a 40% faster 16-core neural engine capable of nearly 16 trillion operations per second. It also will be able to support 100GB/s memory bandwidth.

For people using the computers it should result in better performance for those CPU-heavy applications used in music production, video rendering, 3D modelling, and similar. Of course Apple said performance trounces Windows computers, boasting of twice the performance of a 10-core PC laptop at the same power level.

Similarly, Apple said the GPU in the M2 can run 2.3x faster than “the latest PC laptop chip” and “matches its peak performance at the same power level”.

This taunting is usual but the M1 was so good that we won’t be surprised if this proves to be true.

New hardware

This M2 update comes after the M1 was launched in November 2020. Since then, Apple has added the M1 Pro, M1 Max, and M1 Ultra to the line-up. M2 will be able to support up to 24GB of LPDDR5 memory, leaving the door open for possible similar beefed-up iterations for desktop Macs soon.

The M2 will debut in the newly announced MacBook Air that takes its design cues from the latest MacBook Pro, losing the wedge shape but gaining a deep blue colour option and larger display. These laptops will sell running macOS Ventura, the latest version of Apple’s Macintosh operating system.

Given the clear and huge performance and battery life gains the M1 gave over the Intel MacBooks that came before it, we’ll have to wait and see if the new M2 will feel like such a leap forward.

It’s adding in a higher bandwidth video decoder that can support 8K H.264 and HVEC video, and will better run Apple’s ProRes video engine.

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Apple focused heavily on iOS 16 at its annual developer conference in June 2022. Among the headline features are a redesigned, highly customisable lock screen, with less intrusive notifications, improvements to Focus and more.

But while Apple spent a significant amount of time talking about iOS 16, it didn’t mention many of the smaller changes, some of which are well worth knowing about.

So without further ado, here are the best features we’ve spotted that we think you’ll love when you update to iOS 16 later this year. For more on the big software update, take a look at the latest iOS 16 news.

1. The Fitness app is available for all
   iOS 16 marks the first time that iPhone users who don’t own an Apple Watch will be able to fully use the Fitness app, with access to the same three-ring system that tracks calories, standing hours and exercise. Instead of getting that data from a Watch, it’ll use the iPhone’s built-in sensors.

Of course, it won’t be quite as accurate, and you won’t see advanced metrics like heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, but it’s a nice app that’ll let you keep an eye on your general fitness goals over time.

1. Privacy Access History
   While the iPhone and iPad can let you know when your mic, camera and location are being accessed by apps, it’s only handy if you catch the icon while it’s in use, with no way to look at what has been accessing tech recently – until iOS 16, that is.

A new privacy access history feature will give you a list of all the apps that have recently accessed your camera, microphone and location data, and it’ll be accessible by tapping the icon in the control centre when it appears.

Goodbye secret location-tracking apps!

1. Locked Photo albums
   Whether you want to protect photos of sensitive documents or you’ve got a lot of, ahem, spicy selfies, iOS 16 will let you lock down those images so no-one else can see them.

As the name suggests, locked photo albums allow you to password protect specific albums within the Photos app to keep them away from prying eyes.

1. Haptic keyboard support
   While a relatively small new feature, iOS 16 will add subtle haptic feedback when typing on the keyboard, providing a more tactile experience when composing tweets and sending texts – though it can be disabled if you’re not a fan.

If it sounds familiar, it should be; it’s a feature that has been available on Android for years, and it’s great to see it finally make the jump to the iPhone.

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Search around online and you’ll find the general advice is that you don’t need antivirus on your iPhone or iPad. And while the reasons for that advice are sound, the real answer is a bit more nuanced than an outright no.

Apple has designed iOS – and iPadOS – in such a way that it is very difficult for malware, including viruses, to penetrate its defences. This is a good thing, but remember that modern antivirus software does far more than detecting and blocking viruses.

In fact, calling it ‘antivirus software’ does it a disservice as the threats go way beyond viruses these days. The latest security software protects your device – and you – from a much wider range of dangers.

The people who create viruses are in a constant battle with the companies that make the operating systems (such as iOS and iPadOS), and have realised that it it’s far easier to trick the user into handing over their password and payment details than trying to make some malware that will achieve the same result.

After all, the criminals are after your identity and your money: that’s the end game.

So, this means that running an ‘antivirus’ app on your iPhone and iPad can be a very good idea indeed as it can protect your from yourself!

Here are some of the things that security apps can do – even on Apple devices:

• Warn you of potentially fake websites that might try to steal sensitive information
• Warn you of dangerous links in messages and emails
• Manage your passwords for you so you can have a strong, unique password for every website (and not use the same one for all accounts)
• Increase your privacy online by using a VPN
• Protect your identity by giving you early warning if any of your personal info is found on the dark web
• Protect your photos and videos so only you can access them

So while they won’t protect your iPhone or iPad from viruses (because they don’t need to), they are far from pointless and you should certainly consider installing one of them.

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Chipset company MediaTek has unveiled its latest flagship smartphone silicon: the Dimensity 9000+.

In case the name doesn’t give it away, this is positioned as an upgrade to the Dimensity 9000 flagship the company launched last November. Like that chip, this is high-end hardware intended for premium phones only.

This isn’t a true successor – expect that to arrive some time towards the end of the year – but a half-step upgrade, with enhancements made to the same base 4nm hardware.

The key change is an upgrade to the CPU’s Cortex-X2 prime core, which runs at 3.2GHz in the 9000 Pro – up from 3.05GHz in the regular 9000 – though the remaining seven CPU cores are unchanged from the previous iteration, resulting in an overall performance improvement of around 5%.

The GPU has had an upgrade too. The 9000+ still uses a Mali-G710 chip, but MediaTek says it’s made tweaks to deliver a 10% boost in graphics performance.

Those might not sound like dramatic gains, but they’re enough to bring the 9000+ right in line with rival Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, itself announced almost exactly a month ago. That chip also upgraded to a 3.2GHz clock speed on its prime CPU core, and boasts 10% GPU gains along with some power efficiency improvements.

As always, the big question is which phones will be powered by the Dimensity 9000+. While Qualcomm has already announced the 8+ Gen 1 will appear in phones from Asus, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and more, MediaTek usually waits a few weeks to announce OEM partners, so there are no phones or manufacturers confirmed so far – though the company has confirmed the first handsets should arrive in Q3 2022, aka July-September.

Despite excellent performance results in benchmarks, the Dimensity 9000 has suffered from surprisingly limited uptake so far. It can only be found in the Honor 70 Pro+, the Redmi K50 Pro, and the Vivo X80, along with special Dimensity editions of the Vivo X80 Pro and Oppo Find X5 Pro. Few of those have launched outside of China however, and none so far in Europe or the US.

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AMD is on a roll. The US chipmaker continues to eat into Intel’s CPU market share, hitting a record 25% by the end of 2021.

This progress has been driven by the strong performance of its Ryzen processors, which took a big leap forward with the Ryzen 5000 Series. 2022’s Ryzen 6000 Series only includes laptop CPUs, but AMD has already confirmed that its successor – the Ryzen 7000 Series – will also feature desktop processors.

But in this article, we’re looking even further ahead. The Ryzen 8000 Series might be well over a year away, but that hasn’t stopped AMD revealing some key details. Here’s everything we know so far.

AMD Ryzen 8000 Series release date
It’s not clear exactly when the Ryzen 8000 Series will officially launch, but we can take some clues from other AMD launches. The company has already confirmed that the upcoming Ryzen 7000 Series will debut in the ‘second half of 2022’, but mobile CPUs aren’t expected until CES in January 2023.

Indeed, the Ryzen 5000 Series was announced in October 2020 before laptop chips were added in January 2021.

A similar schedule is likely for the Ryzen 8000 Series. That would suggest an initial release of late 2023 – potentially October – then mobile processors at CES in January 2024. But as is often the case, AMD is likely to continue releasing new Ryzen 8000 Series chips in the the subsequent few months and even years.

Remember, AMD hasn’t confirmed any of this yet. We know the company is working on the Ryzen 8000 Series behind the scenes, but no release window has been revealed.

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