All Apple AirPods and Mac accessories could feature USB-C by 2024

Apple will more widely adopt USB-C across its product portfolio over the next few years, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says he expects the company to transition all of its wireless earbuds, incl…

Hitting the Books: Steve Jobs’ iPhone obsession led to Apple’s silicon revolution

The fates of Apple and Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSCM have grown inextricably intertwined since the advent of the iPhone. As each subsequent generation of iPhone hurtled past the technological capabilities of its predecessor, the processors that powered them grew increasingly complex and specialized — to the point that, today, TSCM has become the only chip fab on the planet with the requisite tools and know-how to actually build them. In his new book, Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, economic historian Chris Miller examines the rise of processor production as an economically crucial commodity, the national security implications those global supply chains might pose to America.

Chip War Cover
Simon & Schuster

Excerpted from Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller. Reprinted with permission from Scribner. Copyright 2022.


Apple Silicon

The greatest beneficiary of the rise of foundries like TSMC was a company that most people don’t even realize designs chips: Apple. The company Steve Jobs built has always specialized in hardware, however, so it’s no surprise that Apple’s desire to perfect its devices includes controlling the silicon inside. Since his earliest days at Apple, Steve Jobs had thought deeply about the relationship between software and hardware. In 1980, when his hair nearly reached his shoulders and his mustache covered his upper lip, Jobs gave a lecture that asked, “What is software?” 

“The only thing I can think of,” he answered, “is software is something that is changing too rapidly, or you don’t exactly know what you want yet, or you didn’t have time to get it into hardware.” 

Jobs didn’t have time to get all his ideas into the hardware of the first-generation iPhone, which used Apple’s own iOS operating system but outsourced design and production of its chips to Samsung. The revolutionary new phone had many other chips, too: an Intel memory chip, an audio processor designed by Wolfson, a modem to connect with the cell network produced by Germany’s Infineon, a Bluetooth chip designed by CSR, and a signal amplifier from Skyworks, among others. All were designed by other companies.

As Jobs introduced new versions of the iPhone, he began etching his vision for the smartphone into Apple’s own silicon chips. A year after launching the iPhone, Apple bought a small Silicon Valley chip design firm called PA Semi that had expertise in energy-efficient processing. Soon Apple began hiring some of the industry’s best chip designers. Two years later, the company announced it had designed its own application processor, the A4, which it used in the new iPad and the iPhone 4. Designing chips as complex as the processors that run smartphones is expensive, which is why most low- and midrange smartphone companies buy off-the-shelf chips from companies like Qualcomm. However, Apple has invested heavily in R&D and chip design facilities in Bavaria and Israel as well as Silicon Valley, where engineers design its newest chips. Now Apple not only designs the main processors for most of its devices but also ancillary chips that run accessories like AirPods. This investment in specialized silicon explains why Apple’s products work so smoothly. Within four years of the iPhone’s launch, Apple was making over 60 percent of all the world’s profits from smartphone sales, crushing rivals like Nokia and BlackBerry and leaving East Asian smartphone makers to compete in the low-margin market for cheap phones. 

Like Qualcomm and the other chip firms that powered the mobile revolution, even though Apple designs ever more silicon, it doesn’t build any of these chips. Apple is well known for outsourcing assembly of its phones, tablets, and other devices to several hundred thousand assembly line workers in China, who are responsible for screwing and gluing tiny pieces together. China’s ecosystem of assembly facilities is the world’s best place to build electronic devices. Taiwanese companies, like Foxconn and Wistron, that run these facilities for Apple in China are uniquely capable of churning out phones, PCs, and other electronic. Though the electronics assembly facilities in Chinese cities like Dongguan and Zhengzhou are the world’s most efficient, however, they aren’t irreplaceable. The world still has several hundred million subsistence farmers who’d happily fasten components into an iPhone for a dollar an hour. Foxconn assembles most of its Apple products in China, but it builds some in Vietnam and India, too. 

Unlike assembly line workers, the chips inside smartphones are very difficult to replace. As transistors have shrunk, they’ve become ever harder to fabricate. The number of semiconductor companies that can build leading-edge chips has dwindled. By 2010, at the time Apple launched its first chip, there were just a handful of cutting-edge foundries: Taiwan’s TSMC, South Korea’s Samsung, and — perhaps — GlobalFoundries, depending on whether it could succeed in winning market share. Intel, still the world’s leader at shrinking transistors, remained focused on building its own chips for PCs and servers rather than processors for other companies’ phones. Chinese foundries like SMIC were trying to catch up but remained years behind. 

Because of this, the smartphone supply chain looks very different from the one associated with PCs. Smartphones and PCs are both assembled largely in China with high-value components mostly designed in the U.S., Europe, Japan, or Korea. For PCs, most processors come from Intel and are produced at one of the company’s fabs in the U.S., Ireland, or Israel. Smartphones are different. They’re stuffed full of chips, not only the main processor (which Apple designs itself), but modem and radio-frequency chips for connecting with cellular networks, chips for WiFi and Bluetooth connections, an image sensor for the camera, at least two memory chips, chips that sense motion (so your phone knows when you turn it horizontal), as well as semiconductors that manage the battery, the audio, and wireless charging. These chips make up most of the bill of materials needed to build a smartphone. 

As semiconductor fabrication capacity migrated to Taiwan and South Korea, so too did the ability to produce many of these chips. Application processors, the electronic brain inside each smartphone, are mostly produced in Taiwan and South Korea before being sent to China for final assembly inside a phone’s plastic case and glass screen. Apple’s iPhone processors are fabricated exclusively in Taiwan. Today, no company besides TSMC has the skill or the production capacity to build the chips Apple needs. So the text etched onto the back of each iPhone — “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China”—is highly misleading. The iPhone’s most irreplaceable components are indeed designed in California and assembled in China. But they can only be made in Taiwan.

EA starts rolling out a new PC app to replace Origin

It has been two years since EA announced it was working on a replacement for its Origin PC client, and it’s now starting to roll out the new app to Windows users. The publisher claims that the EA app, which has just concluded its open beta phase, is its fastest and lightest PC client to date.

EA is promising a streamlined design and suggests navigation will be easier. It seems the app has improved social features as well, since you’ll be able to connect your EA account to platforms including Steam, Xbox and PlayStation — which could come in handy for games with cross-play support, such as Apex Legends and FIFA 23. You’ll have a custom EA ID that should make it easy for your pals to recognize you.

The publisher says that it will soon invite Origin users to switch over to the new app. As you might imagine, all your stuff will be present, including your games, save data and friends list. It’s worth noting that the new client will only be available on Windows PC for now. If you’re a macOS user, you’ll continue to use the Origin for Mac app for the foreseeable future. However, EA noted that it will have more to share on that front in the coming months.

Chromecast with Google TV HD review: Super simple 1080p streaming

Google’s latest streaming dongle is so similar to the previous one that when I first opened it up, I experienced a little deja vu. The new Chromecast with Google TV still has a puckish oval design, it comes packaged with an identical remote and even the OS powering everything is (largely) unchanged. The only major difference (at least on the outside) is updated packaging that features a label that says “HD.” So instead of supporting 4K displays, this new more affordable Chromecast is aimed squarely at people looking to stream shows and movies on 1080p screens. And from where I’m sitting, that’s just fine, because while it’s limited to HD content, this thing delivers essentially the same great watching experience that we loved on the original.

The basics

I’m not going to bore you with the typical design section, because the Chromecast with Google TV (HD) is incredibly straightforward and almost a carbon copy of its predecessor. There’s the Chromecast itself which plugs directly into your TV via HDMI, a separate remote with a built-in mic and Google Assistant button for voice controls and a power adapter with a USB cable that you can use in case your TV can’t supply enough juice using only HDMI.

The Chromecast with Google TV's UI is almost entirely unchanged as well featuring a straightforward layout with a number of important tabs for various content across the top.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Setup is incredibly straightforward too. Thanks to an update in Android 12 for TV (which comes pre-installed), there’s a new sign-on process that works by using your phone to scan a QR code in the Google Home app. This cuts out the tedium of having to enter your credentials, connect to WiFi and so on. Though, if you’d like to do things manually, that’s still an option too.

Once the Chromecast is up and running, you can log into your favorite streaming apps as normal and then dive into some of the more advanced settings like HDMI CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) which allows the Chromecast to do stuff like automatically turn on when you fire up your TV. You can also use Google’s controller pairing setting to program the Chromecast’s remote to mirror important functions like adjusting the volume or switching inputs. That means if you’re like me and you have a relatively simple setup, you might even be able to stash your TV’s remote in a drawer and rely completely on the Chromecast, which is a great way to cut down on clutter.

The streaming experience

The Chromecast with Google TV's remote is very compact and features a side-mounted volume rocker similar to a smartphone.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget

When it comes to finding something to watch, things couldn’t be simpler. There’s a dedicated row across that top that makes it easy to find shows, movies, apps and purchased content, along with a Live tab that works with a handful of streaming TV services (YouTube TV, Pluto TV, Sling TV, Philo), so you can jump into currently airing program straight from the main home screen.

Naturally, as this model is focused on 1080p content, you won’t get support for 4K videos. But even with the HD model’s relatively lightweight specs (just 1.5GB of RAM with an Amlogic S805X2 chip), performance felt very similar to what you get on the original Chromecast with Google TV. Upon startup, there’s often a bit of lag as the dongle loads the OS and pulls down art for content recommendations. And if you pay attention, you might also notice some small hitches when you switch between apps or settings really quickly. But generally, things are smooth, especially during playback, which is when it really matters.

The other notable feature you won’t get on this new cheaper Chromecast is support for Dolby Vision. That said, this omission doesn’t feel like a huge deal as a lot of 1080p TVs (particularly older ones) can’t handle that anyway. At least there’s still support for HDR10.

Other new additions in Android 12 for TV

As the first device to feature Android 12 for TV pre-installed, the new Chromecast includes a number of handy quality-of-life improvements that will eventually make their way to other Google TV devices. These include the ability to adjust the text scaling (from 85 percent up to 130 percent), options for matching your content’s framerate (which is set to auto by default) and some additional surround sound controls. And just like Android 12 on phones, you’ll also get a little pop-up when the Chromecast activates its mic, so there’s no confusion about when it’s listening to you.

Wrap-up

The Chromecast with Google TV HD comes with an included remote, the dongle itself and a USB cable and adapter for power.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget

With the Chromecast with Google TV (HD), it’s clear the company didn’t try to do too much. And that’s totally OK, because the original blueprint works fine. It’s just tailored for 1080p screens here. You get the same great UI, a nifty compact remote that covers all the basics, and more than good enough performance — all for just $30. So if you’ve got an aging set or secondary display that could benefit from a modern streaming TV OS (and haven’t already invested in another streaming platforms), the Chromecast with Google TV (HD) is the watch buddy you need.

Amazon’s Kindle Paperwhite drops to $100, plus the rest of the week’s best tech deals

Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale is coming next week and we’ve already started to see a number of preview deals pop up. Devices like the Echo Show 5, Fire TV Stick 4K Max and Kindle Paperwhite have been discounted ahead of the event, and we expect to s…

What to expect from Microsoft’s Surface event on October 12th

Microsoft is holding its customary fall Surface event on October 12th, and this year’s presentation may be more jam-packed than most. Rumors have swirled of not just new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop models, but a long-overdue Surface Studio refresh and even a mini desktop. But how likely are those to pan out? We’ll give you an idea of what to expect.

Surface Pro 9

Microsoft Surface Pro 8
Dana Wollman/Engadget

It almost wouldn’t be a Microsoft hardware event without a new tablet, and the Surface Pro 9 could be one of the more important updates to the lineup in recent memory. Windows Centralsources claim the new model will merge the ARM-based Surface Pro X into the regular Pro family. If so, you’ll have your choice of processor architectures without having to switch form factors — a first for the Pro series.

You might get a significant speed boost, whichever chip sits inside. Those same sources believe Intel-based Surface Pro 9 models will use 12th-generation Core i5 and i7 U-series processors (considerably faster than the Pro 8’s 11th-gen parts), while ARM versions will reportedly come with the SQ3, a custom variant of the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3. Microsoft may stick with the maximum 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage from before, although cellular models will apparently support 5G.

Just don’t expect much to change on the outside. Sources say the Surface Pro 9 will largely resemble its predecessor, complete with a 13-inch 120Hz display, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a front 5-megapixel camera, a rear 10MP cam and support for the Slim Pen 2. This may be an iterative design, but we liked the Pro 8 last year. It’s just a question of whether or not the pricing is reasonable. WinFutureclaims Europeans may pay the equivalent of $1,300 for a Core i5 version with 256GB of storage, but that might not reflect American pricing.

Surface Laptop 5

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

Microsoft hasn’t touched the Surface Laptop since spring 2021, so it’s due for a refresh. Thankfully, one appears to be in the pipeline. Both Windows Central and WinFuture insiders claim a Surface Laptop 5 is in the works with some modest but meaningful improvements.

The 13.5- and 15-inch portables would ship with 12th-gen Core i5 and i7 processors that would represent tangible upgrades over earlier chips. However, the most notable change may be what you don’t get — WinFuture says there won’t be any AMD Ryzen-powered variants of the Surface Laptop 5. The machine may offer Thunderbolt 4 support for the first time, though.

Like its tablet counterpart, the Surface Laptop 5’s design might be virtually unchanged. Leakers don’t anticipate cosmetic updates apart from a possible sage green color option borrowed from the Laptop Go 2. That won’t be a problem if you like Microsoft’s minimalist aesthetics, but it may be disappointing if you wanted an eye-catching notebook like the XPS 13 Plus or MacBook Air M2 — especially considering the rumored $1,200 asking price in Europe.

Surface Studio 3

Microsoft Surface Studio 2
Devindra Hardawar/Engadget

To say Microsoft has neglected the Surface Studio would be an understatement. The most recent version of the all-in-one desktop was released in 2018, and its specifications are woefully behind the times. Windows Central recently offered some hope, though, as it hears a Surface Studio 3 is finally on the way.

The new PC will supposedly use the familiar (but still clever) chassis from the first two Studios, including its signature tilting, stylus-friendly 28-inch display. Microsoft will instead focus on the internals, upgrading to an 11th-gen Core i7 CPU (sorry, no 12th-gen here) with Thunderbolt 4 ports. There may be an improved webcam, too, along with Dolby Vision HDR visuals and Dolby Atmos audio.

You might have to deal with some conspicuous omissions. The Surface Studio 3 may ditch the SD card slot, and there could be just one configuration with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. As with its ancestors, the revised computer could be aimed squarely at creative pros who want a pen-friendly display and are willing to pay for the privilege. There’s no leaked pricing as of this writing, but with specs like those it’s certain to be expensive.

Wildcards: A mini PC and Surface accessories

Microsoft Project Volterra desktop
Microsoft

These events sometimes include leftfield introductions (who would have predicted the Surface Laptop Studio?), but you may need to tone down your expectations this year. The biggest treat may be the release of the previously-teased Project Volterra, a compact desktop aimed at developers building ARM-native Windows apps with AI features. So, it won’t be the Surface equivalent to the Mac mini, then.

Accessories may be the only other highlights. Windows Central’s Zac Bowden recently shared images of what he says are updated Surface Keyboard and Surface Pen models that could come with the Surface Studio 3 in addition to selling separately. A Surface Mouse revision may be available, too. Bowden further suggested that you could see a “premium” speaker as well as a Teams-oriented remote, but there’s little else known about them.

We wouldn’t count on other Surface computers or mobile devices. There haven’t been murmurs of a Surface Duo 3 phone, and Microsoft put the Surface Neo on ice in 2020. It’s also hard to imagine a Surface Go revision, for that matter. Barring surprises, this event appears focused on core Surface devices and not much else.