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| June 16, 2020 |
| The next computer war |
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Plus: A must-try photo app, Apple's gadget payment plans, and Echo device deals
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It's been hard to escape the feeling lately that we're on the cusp of a major change in personal computing.
Last week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple will reveal its own MacBook processors on June 22, using the same architecture that powers the company's iPhones and iPads. The result could be laptops that are faster, lighter, more battery efficient, and cheaper to produce. Apple-designed chips could also help MacBooks gain more iOS feature, such as augmented reality apps and FaceID facial recognition, ultimately creating more unity between the two platforms.
A day after Gurman's report, Intel not-so-coincidentally announced its own big leap forward. A new breed of processor, codenamed "Lakefield," are essentially a cross between the Core processors that appear in most laptops and the low-powered Atom processors that typically wind up in cheap Chromebooks and Windows tablets. The idea is to provide PC power when you need it, and battery efficiency when you don't, especially for ultrathin laptops, tablets, and hybrids. (Samsung's svelte Galaxy Book S laptop and Lenovo's foldable display ThinkPad will be first in line to use the new chip.)
While these two bits of news aren't directly related, the subtext certainly is: Apple, fed up over the limitations of Intel processors, is finally taking matters into its own hands. And Intel, facing something of an existential crisis, is taking the unprecedented step of merging its mainstream and low-power processors into one uber-chip.
Neither move is without risk.
Rumors of Apple abandoning Intel and designing MacBook chips in-house has been around for almost a decade now, but the theoretical downsides have never changed: Apple will have to convince developers to make their software work with the new architecture—not an easy task with more than 100 million Intel-powered Macs already in use today. If they don't get on board, Apple's new Macs could have serious software compatibility issues.
Yes, Apple's been through this before when it switched from PowerPC to Intel processors in 2005, but the transition will be harder now that Macs are more popular. Even just communicating the differences between Intel- and Apple-powered Macs to customers will be a much bigger undertaking. (The Verge's Dieter Bohn has a great piece on Microsoft's similar struggles, as it has tried and failed to establish Windows on ARM-based mobile processors.)
The payoff, however, could be enormous. Apple has boasted for years about how its iPad Pro is more powerful than most laptops despite being considerably thinner and lighter. Imagine the kind of laptops Apple could make by bringing its own chips to the Mac.
As for Intel, we've been hearing some variant of "this is the chip that will finally work well on tablets" pretty much since the iPad arrived. But those chips always end up feeling underpowered, and few people want to give up real PC performance when buying any kind of Windows machine. As a result, tablets like the Surface Pro 7 have to be thicker, heavier, and less battery-efficient than anything Apple offers on the tablet front. (This has all been fine for Intel, which profits more from its mainstream Core processors and never had much incentive to invest in more lightweight chips.)
Maybe it'll be different this time. Lakefield's "3D stacking" technology is something Intel hasn't used before, and more than ever, the company's core processor business is under assault. The iPad is increasingly viable as a laptop alternative—especially with its newfound mouse and trackpad support— and as Apple shifts to its own MacBook ships, Intel stands to lose one of its biggest laptop customers. (Meanwhile, Intel is also under siege from longtime rival AMD, which is suddenly making excellent laptop chips.) It feels like intel is finally incentivized to get lightweight computing chips right.
What does all this mean for you? In the near term, probably not much. Even if Apple announces its own Mac processors next week, they may not show up in actual MacBooks for a while. Products based on Intel's Lakefield will come sooner—Samsung's Intel-powered Galaxy Book S is shipping next month—but they'll be expensive at the outset and no one's yet reviewed them to see how performance and battery life hold up.
But in the next year or so, Intel and Apple will be competing in ways they never did before, and the personal computer as we know it is going to transform. I'm excited to see how.
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| Need to know |
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Apple Card's gadget installments: If you have an iPhone with Apple Card, you can now use it to buy other Apple gadgets with monthly payments and zero interest. Apple's offering six-month payment plans for cheaper devices such as AirPods Pro ($41.50 per month) and 12-month plans for pricier products such as the 16-inch MacBook Pro ($199.91). A 24-month financing option for iPhones has also been available since December, though most wireless carriers have their own phone installment plans already.
The main caveat here is that many Apple products frequently go on sale for a lot less than list price. It's not uncommon to see the entry-level iPad selling for $80 to $100 off (including right now), MacBooks selling for $100 to $200 off, and AirPods discounted by $30 or more. Financing might be easier, but it won't be cheaper, even with no interest.
Android's next big update: Android 11 is now in beta, so you can install it on eligible Pixel phones (that is, the Pixel 2 or newer) through an over-the-air update. It's a surprisingly robust update, with a lot of new ideas that could change how you interact with your phone:
- Texting apps get a dedicated "Conversations" space at the top of the notification list, ensuring that you don't miss any messages.
- You can turn ongoing text conversations into "bubbles" that float on top of whatever you're doing, so you can tap the bubble to expand or collapse the messaging window, even on top of other apps.
- Holding the phone's power button can bring up a control panel for smart home devices, such as light bulbs, door locks, robot vacuums, and so on.
- Navigating your phone entirely by voice will get a lot easier.
- To boost privacy, you'll be able to give "only once" permission to apps that want to access your location, camera, microphone, and Android will cut off permissions for apps you haven't used in a few months.
Major Android updates usually arrive in late summer, though most phone makers other than Google and OnePlus take much longer as they try to put their own spin on Google's features. Pixel users with a high tolerance for bugs can opt into the beta here.
Archive.org e-book update: It was fun while it lasted, but the Internet Archive is closing its National Emergency Library today, two weeks ahead of schedule. As I wrote last week, the program offered nearly 1.4 million e-books for free, with no restrictions on how many people could check out a single scanned copy at the same time. The idea was to provide a temporary source of reading material during the coronavirus pandemic, with libraries closed and unable to loan their physical books.
Major book publishers sued the Internet Archive over the e-book scheme earlier this month. If they prevail and seek damages, they could destroy a major source of digital artifacts. The early shutdown appears to be an olive branch of sorts, but for now it's unclear how publishers will respond.
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| Tip of the moment |
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A must-try photo app: Adobe's free Photoshop Camera app is out now for the iPhone and certain Android phones, and it's a bit like using Photoshop on autopilot. With just a few taps, you can apply some wild visual effects to any photo, including Warhol- or Lichtenstein-style pop art (here's an example), impressionistic brush strokes, or superimposed blue skies.
The best Photoshop Camera effects are subtler, though. A food filter, for instance, that makes your prettiest meals pop, while a portrait filter can blur backgrounds, smooth faces, and simulate different room lightings even after you've taken the shot. You can also download additional filters for free. (I recommend the "Glam" and "Studio Light" filters in particular.)
What makes Photoshop Camera stand out from other photo-filtering apps is its use of AI to recognize image content. This allows the app to separate subjects from backgrounds and apply different amounts of lighting and visual effects to each element. I also like that the app isn't tied to any particular social network, so you can easily save photos to your camera roll and share them wherever you like.
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| Now try this |
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Fast Markdown editing: I promise that new notetaking apps won't be an every-week thing here on Advisorator, but the writer in me can't resist mentioning Collected Notes. It's yet another minimalist writing tool, but one that supports Markdown formatting so you can add headings, hyperlinks, bullet points, and more with a bit of simple syntax, as seen below. (If you're unfamiliar with Markdown and why it's useful, my explainer for Fast Company from a couple years back should help.)
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Collected Notes has been around on the web for a while, but now it's on iOS as well, and it scratches a very particular itch for me: While plenty of other iOS Markdown editors exist, most of them rely on Apple's iCloud storage service to sync and aren't really Windows- or Chromebook-friendly as a result. With Collected Notes, I can write story drafts on my iPad, access them through the website on my desktop, then copy the Markdown code into my beloved Typora for further editing. Collected Notes also works as a lightweight blogging tool, so it could be a nifty way to write in public as well.
Free Mac fonts: Speaking of writing, John Gruber brings word of some nice fonts you can easily add to MacOS for free. Just open the Font Book app that's built into MacOS, then select "All Fonts" in the left sidebar menu. Click on any of the grayed-out fonts and select "Download" to install them. I'm not a font nerd, but I trust Gruber's judgment when he says they're "truly excellent." (He's also, incidentally, the creator of Markdown, which I mentioned above.)
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| Around the web |
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| Spend wisely |
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Amazon is currently running a sale on various Echo speakers and smart displays.
Most notably, the Echo Studio is down to $170 from its regular price of $230. Unlike most Echo devices, this one is seldom on sale, and I've only seen it at this price once before, back in late February. The Studio is Amazon's highest-quality Alexa-enabled speaker, and if you have a Fire TV 4K, Fire TV Cube, or third-gen Fire TV, it can pair wirelessly and double as a TV speaker. It also works as a smart home hub for light bulbs and other Zigbee-enabled devices, and it includes a free Philips Hue bulb for good measure.
Also enticing: The third-gen Echo Dot with a built-in digital clock for $35. That's $25 off the regular price and matches pricing from last holiday season. If you're not skittish about bringing Alexa voice control into the bedroom, being able to play music, listen to the news, or ask about the weather from your bed is pretty nice.
Some other deals this morning:
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| Thanks for your support! |
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Thanks reading another one of my occasional forays into news analysis. I hope the perspective on the future of computing was useful, but if not, feel free to give me an earful via email. You can also hop into the Advisorator chat room in Slack to engage in a lively debate or ask me your most pressing tech questions. Either way, I'm always happy to hear from you.
Until next week,
Jared
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