Weekly News Roundup #3
Another week another keynote so it seems, So here is what i feel is important and some comments.
TVOS Update
Usability updates really here and only on the 4k. Surprisingly though they added support for Xbox and Playstation controllers for when you want to play games on your low power 4k media player.
Watch OS
Watch faces i have been using my current face for a while and i don't see the new ones they showed changing my selection. Audiobooks, Voice Memos and calculator have been added as native Apps. They have also added the option for stand alone watch apps and Store(with the ability to install directly from the phone), From using my watch I don't see a store on the watch being that easy to use.
More useful for people that use their watch for fitness they have included a fitness trends so you can track how your activities are trending. They have added a noise level warning to the watch to warn you if there are any audio hazards and how long you should be around them.
IOS 13
Some performance increases across the board here from software tuning. Most important for people who dislike the light, DARK MODE finally! No longer will I be blinded by the os in the dark! Swiping has now been introduced to the IOS Keyboard… I will have to re-learn how to do this. Notes, Reminders, Safari, Maps and mail have had usability refreshes.
Privacy is being further addressed, location is being given finer control, Sign in with apple ( i like this it basically allows you to anonymise the data you are giving apps).
Photos now allows you to edit video and can filter out all those screen pics you have taken because you didn't want to take a note.
Air-pods can now announce messages and share music and other audio with other ios devices.
Lastly Siri has had her integration and usability increased.
Ipad OS
Ipad has now had its operating system split off from IOS and is becoming more productive and laptop like in doing so, though this will be based more on gestures than on keyboard and mouse use so there will be a big learning curve.
Mac
The New Mac Pro…… Ill be honest, From the front it looks like a cheese grater. Though thankfully it's now rectangular.
Specs
Intel Xeon 28 core
6 channel memory up to 1.5TB
8 PCIE slots 4 double high 4 ½ high
You are able to swap in your own graphics card however it will not take advantage of the second pcie slot and power connector so you will ruin your wireless inside (oh no). So realistically you are tied again for apple to continue supporting this device with up to date graphics cards. Not a great track record if you consider the last mac pro. However this comes with Vega 2….. With 2 of them coming on a card …… and 2 of them possible in a system that's a lot of gpu compute available..
There is also an ASIC for video editing allowing 4x 8K video streams in prores.
1.4KW power supply,
You can see why this is needed with 4 vegas possible in this machine.
Return of the Mac Pro screen with this new machine with all the specs i could imagine a video or photo editor could want. £4999 (you must really need this because you could buy quite a powerful pc for this price)
Starting model of the Mac Pro 8C16t 16gb memory and a Radeon 580x starting at £5999 .Wow that's expensive but OSX creators pay for the software experience not just the hardware I know a photo editor that will love this…… if he can take out a mortgage to buy one.
OSX
Itunes has been killed off as expected. Split into Music, Podcasts and TV with usability tweaks throughout. If you sync your i-device with your computer this is now done through finder.
The ipad can now be commandeered by the mac to become a second screen, and if your ipad supports the pencil it will become like a wacom tablet.
Find my now works when your device is offline by sending out a low power bluetooth beacon that other i devices can pick up on and re-transmit anonymously. And if your device is stolen you can lock it permanently if it contains a t2 chip in such a way that you cannot even reinstall the os until its unlocked by you.
Tuesday
Pull up your SoCs: Samsung smartphones to get AMD Radeon graphics
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/04/samsung_phones_to_get_amd_radeon_graphics/
This is more good news for AMD both in terms of a buisness win and for consumers of the eventual navi prosessors. Let me clarify the second statement, for a long time now to get significant performance out of AMD’s GCN architechture you needed to throw alot of power at it. The fact that their new RDNA architechture seems suitable for mobile is very positive as wasting power in mobile is a big no no. This means there should be some meaningful performance boost on the PC graphics card side of the buisness.
The downside to this annoncement is the fact that samsung use 2 types of chips their own Exynos which will have this new graphics tech. However the other chips are made by Qualcomm which they wont be able to strap their fancy new graphics IP to. Furthering this is the fact in some reigeions you cant get the Exynos prosessor, This is a shame as it would be nice to be given an option. Unfortuneatly i believe samsung has to sell x ammount of Qualcomm product as part of their agreement so we may be stuck in this situation for a while.
Wednesday
Bad news from science land: Fast-charging li-ion batteries may be quick to top up, but they're also quick to die
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/05/liion_battery_scan_charging/
I have held this belief for a long time that fast charging was not good for lithium batteries based on the fact that a smartphone battery is will lose a lot of its capacity in 3-4 years being fast-charged daily. And the only way to really restore the batteries will be to break them down to their constituent parts and completely re-make them. This article shows that the breakdown is far more complex than anyone believed. Now while i believe the future for e-cars is hydrogen fuel cells. Now while the hydrogen can be stored and yes is flammable if the container is breached its no different than if you breach a battery, if the pressure vessel is designed correctly its likely to last a lot longer than a battery. And filling the container does not affect the longevity of the pressure vessel (also only takes 2 mins).
Unfortunately the technology to make small fuel cells in phones is impossible right now we will have to rely on these for our small electronics for the time being and hope recycling can clean up the mess made.
Thursday
HPE's Spaceborne supercomputer returns to terra firma after 615 days on the ISS
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/06/hpe_spaceborne_supercomputer_returns_to_earth/
This is fantastic news, I didn't think non hardened hardware would last in space let alone last 600 days. This could mean big things for space as some of the hardware in space (i'm thinking New Horizons) is running on a chip that is very similar to the main processor on the PS1. This experiment could mean that we can get more sophisticated hardware to run in space, At the far reaches of space downlink speeds are very slow if we had some more powerful hardware we could compress the data further quicker and get it back to earth quicker.
Friday
Google Stadia games, price and release date revealed
I am somewhat conflicted on this, The plus is that it allows people who can't afford a console or a PC can experience bigger experiences than mobile gaming can offer, However what im concirned about is the quality.
Now while its all well and good saying 1080p and 4k and while most people associate the bigger number with better it's the bitrate that actually makes 4k look so good. When i saw the speed needed for 4K at 35mb/s this raised a big red flag, For an Ultra HD blu-ray you can have a bitrate of around 100mb/s. That means you are losing at least ½ your quality if not more by playing games this way. Now I would have less issue if this was a “Netflix” of games as you would be paying your subscription for access to all the games, However from what i have read it's more of an PS4 plus kind of arrangement where you do get a free game or 2 per month but for others you need to pay a “discounted” price. Now if that is still anywhere near full price it won't be worth it as your going to be missing out on the full quality of the game you paid for.
A good idea to help make Stadia work is that that the controller connects directly to the internet reducing latency by skipping the step of having to connect to your display device first. A downside of this is the ridiculous cost of this controller at £60 and the fact that it will not work with anything else.
Lastly there is also the little issue of google’s track record of discontinuing services, If this proves to be unprofitable it's highly likely that this service will be stopped. Meaning that any games that you have purchased are gone and your fancy £60 controller is essentially now junk.
So my opinion is that if you want to play pc games but don't own a powerful enough PC then yes get this service, However do not pick up the controller or actually buy games and you should be fine if / when Google shuts this down.