Apple’s Arm-based Macs will be able to run software for iPads and iPhones, including the game Monument Valley.
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET
Apple is overhauling its Mac computers with its own Arm chips, close cousins to those it designs for its own iPhones and iPads. Moving away from the Intel processors it’s used for the last 14 years is a historic change that disrupts software makers but that could appeal to customers who need better battery life.
“The Mac is transitioning to our own Apple silicon,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said Monday at Apple’s WWDC conference. The first Arm-based Macs will arrive later this year, though developers can order Arm-based Macs this week to get started on building software.
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Apple is now signaling that it’s got the expertise to challenge Intel in the PC segment, where chips generally consume more electrical power but offer more computing power. It’s betting that the likely advantages of Arm chips — lower power consumption, lower costs and greater control over product plans — will outweigh the disruptions.
“The first thing this will do is give the Mac a whole new level of performance,” said Johny Srouji, senior vice president of hardware technologies. Apple Mac chips also employ mobile device hardware for better power management, graphics, artificial intelligence and secure enclave hardware security hardware.
Apple demonstrated several important apps already adapted for the new chips, taking pains to show the horsepower of its Arm-based Macs. It demonstrated Final Cut Pro playing three simultaneous 4K video streams, Lightroom scrolling and synchronizing edits across a large catalog, and Photoshop being used to edit a large image with complicated edits. Other demos featured Affinity Photo and Cinema 4D.
With a new version of its Rosetta emulation tool, software written for Intel-based Macs will run on the new Arm-based machines. There, Apple demonstrated the Tomb Raider game running at 1080p screen resolution. Apple will support Intel-based Macs for years, the company said.
It’s still not clear exactly how fast Arm-based Macs will be, which products will arrive first, how much they’ll cost, and how good their battery life will be, though. “I am very disappointed Apple didn’t provide a lot of technical details to give confidence to users and developers in the Arm-based processor Mac experience,” said Moor Insights and Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead.
Later at WWDC, Apple said it’ll have a variety of Arm chips for different size Macs, spanning from more efficient models for compact Macs to beefier, hotter chips that consume more electricity in bigger Macs.
The transition to Arm-based Macs will take up to two years, which could cast a shadow on some products.
“We do wonder whether this could prompt consumers to delay their purchases of existing Intel-based Macs in the next 24 months, on the fear that they’d be buying an orphaned product,” Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a research note Tuesday.
Apple’s first Mac Arm chip: A12Z
The chips, which Apple broadly called Apple Silicon, is designed by Apple but will be brawnier than the A-series chips in iPads and iPhones. Apple’s special developer Macs will use the A12Z processor in newer iPad Pro, but Apple said aspects of that Mac Mini-like machine won’t match the Macs that consumers will buy.
The switch to Intel chips, rumored for nearly a decade, emerged at the online version of WWDC. The conference ordinarily draws thousands of programmers learning about the latest changes to writing programs for Macs, iPhones and iPads, but went virtual this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many of those programmers interested in WWDC now will need to wrestle with the challenge of re-creating their software for Arm Macs.
Computer processors are some of the most complicated products on the planet, with billions of electronic components carefully arranged to balance performance and power consumption. Apple’s A series processors, used in all its mobile devices and members of the Arm chip family, have consistently outpaced rival Arm designs used in Android phones.
Passing those lower prices on to consumers could help Apple compete better against Windows machines, particularly among cost-sensitive buyers like students.
“I think Apple should lower its prices, but I don’t think it will,” Moorhead wrote ahead of Apple’s announcement.
The switch will hurt Intel’s revenue and reputation, but it said in a statement it believes it can still deliver technology that will “redefine computing.”
“We believe Intel-powered PCs — like those based on our forthcoming Tiger Lake mobile platform — provide global customers the best experience in the areas they value most, as well as the most open platform for developers, both today and into the future,” Intel said.
Apple’s third Mac chip transition
Apple has changed Mac chip families before, first from Motorola 68000 family processors to PowerPC chips in 1994 and then to Intel chips in 2006. Each time, it eased the transition with emulation software to enable programs built for the earlier chip design run on the new Macs, though at a significant cost in performance.
One aspect of the transition will be easier on Mac customers this time around: much of the software we use runs in a web browser. Web developers building sites like Google.com or web apps like Facebook.com don’t generally need to know or care what processor a computer is running.
So if you use Google’s Gmail for email and Microsoft’s Outlook 365’s online word processor, Arm-based Macs will be less of a disruption.
Re-creating Mac software
Programmers will have varying degrees of difficulty rebuilding their software for Arm-based Macs while continuing to support Intel-based Macs that will still be used for years.
Developers firmly in the Apple camp, using its Xcode programming tools and its Swift programming language, will have the easiest time with Arm Macs. And programmers tweaking their iPad apps into MacOS versions using Apple’s Catalyst approach also should have an easy time.
Apple’s Arm chips will inherit abilities built into Apple’s A-series chips for iPhones and iPads.
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET
“The vast majority of developers can get their apps up and running in just days,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering.
But many programs, particularly those like Adobe Photoshop that are developed to run on Windows, too, often use other tools and languages. Web browsers, for example, are usually written in the C++ language. There, more work will be required. So while Apple’s Safari browser will be available from day one on Arm-based Macs, other versions could take longer to arrive.
Some developers are excited. “This will mean greater innovation and better performance, not just from a speed perspective but also battery life,” said Jayson Lane, developer of the Quick Draft note-taking app. He acknowledges that developers of heavy-duty software for jobs like sound, photo and video editing will have a harder time moving to Arm. But for simpler apps like his, “the Arm transition will be surprisingly easy … perhaps even as easy as clicking a checkbox.”
Software sometimes is carefully optimized to run as fast as possible on a particular chip design, but programmers have had time to adapt software development tools like Clang, supported by both Apple and Google, to Arm designs, said 451 Research analyst James Sanders.
“Improvements to Arm support in the Clang compiler over the past two years should mitigate optimization challenges,” he said.
Low-level software called drivers that let a computing device communicate with components like network chips and accessories like printers also will need to be rewritten for the new Macs. That could mean support gaps for third-party hardware, and older products may never work with the new Macs.
Arm chips getting faster
Some are worried that Mac Arm chips won’t be fast enough to make emulation useful. One worrisome example is a line of Windows laptops that use Qualcomm’s Arm chips. “It works super well in terms of functionality, but the performance for apps that you need/want like Chrome, Photoshop, or Acrobat Reader make it a non-usable solution,”Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft’s former Windows leader and now a partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, said in a blog post ahead of the transition.
Apple will offer developers a transition kit to get started bringing their software to Arm-based Macs.
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET
Apple touting its new Rosetta emulation software indicates confidence its Arm Macs have enough performance to handle emulation fine, though. “It’s awesome what Rosetta can do with existing games,” said Andreas Wendker, Apple’s vice president for tools and frameworks engineering.
Intel has struggled in recent years to improve its chips’ performance while Apple has steadily advanced its A series of chips — a hundredfold improvement since it began the line, Apple said Monday. The chips’ core performance attribute, the speed of a single thread of computing instructions, has increased each year. And Apple has added new circuitry to speed up graphics and artificial intelligence software, too.
A UK company called Arm licenses designs to companies like Qualcomm but also licenses its’ chip instruction set — the collection of commands software can use to control it — to companies like Apple that design their own. That leaves room for companies to build more powerful processors than are used in most phones if they’re willing to pay for physically larger chips and accept designs that consume more power.
The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.
The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.
However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”
Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.
“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.
At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.
A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”
Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.
Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.
Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.
Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.
While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.
Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.
The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.
— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.
