News on the sidelines, October 27 - November 2

Support for the passkey on WhatsApp, moving the address bar to the bottom of the iPhone screen on Google Chrome, and a new update for AirTag tracking devices. The M3 Pro chip has a memory bandwidth of 25% less than the M1/M2 Pro chip, behind the scenes of filming Apple’s recent “Scary Fast” event with the iPhone 15 Pro Max, new buttons on the iPhone 16 and other exciting news on the sidelines…

iPhone 17 assembly in India

Apple plans to start manufacturing the iPhone 17 in India in the second half of 2025, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. This is the first time a new iPhone has been manufactured outside China, and this is because it is easier and less risky. For a few years, Apple has been manufacturing older iPhones in India to reduce its dependence on China. They even started making the iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 in India soon after their launch. But the first production of these models was in China.

In India, Apple works with companies such as Foxconn, Pegatron, and Tata to manufacture the iPhone. Foxconn does most of the work, assembling 75 to 80 percent of the iPhones, so much so that it has spent more than $500 million in India improving their factories.

Currently, about 12 to 14% of all iPhones sold worldwide are manufactured in India. This number is expected to rise to 20 or 25% by 2024. Making more iPhones in India not only helps Apple distance itself from China, but also brings it closer to the Indian government. In addition, more people in India want to buy Apple products.

Apple opened its first store in Mumbai in 2023, but has been selling its products online in India since 2020.

The new USB-C Apple Pencil is now available for purchase

Apple announced it last month, and it's on sale now for $79. Works with iPads that have a USB-C slot. It is a cheaper option compared to older Apple Pencil models. Among its features:

◉ It has a smooth surface and can be stuck to the side of the iPad.

◉ It has a USB-C charging port hidden under the cover. But unlike the older model, it cannot be charged magnetically by simply sticking it to the iPad.

◉ It does not contain features such as responding to how hard you press or recognizing clicks.

◉ It still has fast response and can sense tilt. It also has a “Hover Scrolling” feature for some iPad Pro models.

you may Buy Apple Pencil online In more than 30 countries, including the United States. If you order today, it will arrive by November 3rd.

The issue of slowing down the iPhone still exists

Apple is still facing a legal problem in the United Kingdom that began in 2017 due to slowing down old iPhones to prevent them from turning off suddenly due to the battery. A guy called Justin Guttman represents up to 25 million iPhone users in the UK who have been affected by this. He initially asked for £750 million, but the amount has now reached around £1.6 billion with interest.

Gutman's lawyers say Apple hid the battery problems and secretly installed a tool to slow down the iPhone. Apple disagreed and said the lawsuit had no real basis, claiming they only encountered battery issues in a few iPhone 6s models, and Apple replaced the batteries for them free of charge.

The court says Gutman's case can proceed, but there are some details that need to be clearer before it actually begins.

In 2020, Apple paid $500 million in the United States to settle a similar case, and lawsuits have been filed in this regard in other countries.

The first benchmark results for the M3 chip in new Macs

The Geekbench 6 testing site conducted a test of the new M3 chip. It stated that the M3 chip is about 20% faster than the older M2 chip. Here's a quick comparison:

M3 chip: It scored around 3000 points for single-core tests and 11700 for multi-core tests, making it about 20% faster than the older M2 chip.

M2 chip: The standard M2 chip has single-core and multi-core scores of around 2600 and 9700 respectively.

M1 chip: About 8315 points.

It's not certain whether these results are from the new 14-inch MacBook Pro or the iMac, but both devices use the M3 chip and should have similar performance.

Some additional details about the M3 chip:

◉ It has 8 main processing parts (cores) and can support up to 10 graphics parts (GPU cores).

◉ It can work with up to 24GB of memory.

◉ It's better for gaming because of new features that make games feel more realistic.

◉ It also contains a special part for artificial intelligence tasks, as it has a 16-core neural engine for artificial intelligence.

We're still waiting to see the results of more powerful versions of the M3 chip used in some MacBook Pros.

Bloomberg: The 2024 Apple Watch will provide blood pressure monitoring and sleep apnea detection

According to Bloomberg, the Apple Watch could come next year with a new design and will include new features, most notably blood pressure monitoring and detecting the possibility of sleep apnea based on sleep and breathing patterns. The blood pressure feature will initially tell users if their blood pressure is rising. However, it will not provide accurate measurements, but will advise users to see their doctor if there is something to worry about.

Apple promises to improve the blood pressure feature to give accurate numbers and diagnose related problems. It is also working on developing a device that monitors blood sugar using a special chip. This also will not give accurate sugar levels and is not expected to be available for another few years.

Additionally, AirPods will have a feature in 2024 that allows them to act like hearing aids and even perform hearing tests. This means that people are more likely to use AirPods instead of traditional hearing aids.

The iPhone 16 could come with an additional tactile button and mmWave antenna transmission

The iPhone 16 may have an additional button, says a reliable leaker called Instant Digital on Weibo. This new button could be called the “Capture Button,” but we don’t know its purpose yet. It will be below the power button and it will not be like a regular button but it is touch sensitive. Apple is also considering moving the mmWave antenna from the right side to the left side. The usual volume and power buttons will remain as they are. Some reports have already mentioned this additional button and some previous changes.

Apple's recent “Scary Fast” event was filmed with an iPhone 15 Pro Max

Apple filmed a video on YouTube explaining how the “Scary Fast” event was filmed, and that it filmed the entire event using an iPhone 15 Pro Max and the video was edited on a Mac with an M3 processor.

The team used multiple iPhone 15 Pro Max devices along with the Blackmagic Camera app and Tentacle Sync to coordinate. Connected via Bluetooth, Tentacle Sync helps sync time across all devices including Macs and preview monitors. Other equipment such as Beastgrip attachments, cranes, dollies and drones have also been used.

People involved in video production praised the iPhone 15 Pro Max's performance in low light, which is usually a challenge for regular cameras. Professionals who have worked on popular movies and shows were part of the production and were impressed by the quality of the footage. The video also highlighted the ease of shooting directly to external storage and the ability to access a wider range of colors in post-production.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 chip has only two Thunderbolt 3 ports

The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with the base M3 chipset has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, which is fewer than the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with the M3 Pro and M3 Max chipsets, which have three Thunderbolt 4 ports. This means that the base M3 MacBook Pro It can only connect to one display with up to 6K at 60Hz or one display with up to 4K at 120Hz via HDMI. In contrast, the M3 Pro can connect to two external displays with a resolution of up to 6K at 60Hz via Thunderbolt, and it can also support one external display with a resolution of up to 6K at 60Hz via Thunderbolt and one external display with a resolution of up to 4K at 144Hz. Through HDMI. The M3 Max is more powerful, supporting up to four external displays in different configurations. The M3 Pro and M3 Max also support HD displays via USB-C and HDMI. These new MacBook Pro models are available to order now and will be available in stores on November 7.

The M3 Pro chip has 25% less memory bandwidth than the M1/M2 Pro chip

The new M3 Pro chip in the latest 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro is built using 3nm technology and features a new GPU design, making it extremely fast and efficient. Apple claims it's up to 40% faster than the older 16-inch model with the M1 Pro chip. However, the M3 Pro chip has a memory bandwidth of 150 GB/s, which is 25% less than the 200 GB/s in the previous M1 Pro and M2 Pro chips.

Memory bandwidth refers to the speed of data transfer between the processor and memory. However, memory bandwidth is not the only factor in the performance of the chip, as it can be compensated by other improvements in the design or technology used in the chip. This is exactly what Apple did, most notably the use of technology. 3 nm.

The M3 Pro chip has a memory bandwidth of up to 400 GB/s, but the cheaper version has only 300 GB/s. The M3 Pro chip also has different core configurations compared to the M2 Pro. It has 6 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, while the M2 Pro has 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores. The M3 Pro's GPU has 18 cores, one core less than the M2 Pro.

The M3 chip's neural engine, which helps with tasks like machine learning, has 16 cores and can perform 18 trillion operations per second. This is less than the 35 billion operations per second of the A17 Pro neural engine used in the iPhone 15 Pro.

It is not yet clear how these changes will affect the performance of the new MacBook Pro models in real-world use.

Miscellaneous news

◉ Apple launched the fifth beta version of VisionOS for the Apple Vision Pro glasses. Only a limited number of developers are able to test the beta version, and it is not entirely clear what Apple adds in each update. Apple said the App Store will be coming to ‌visionOS‌ soon, and it looks like it may be in this fifth beta.

◉ Apple has launched a new update for AirTag tracking devices. It's been almost a year since the last update. The new update will not reach everyone at once. Today, 1% of users will get it. On November 7, 10% more users will get it. On November 14, another 25% will get the update. By November 28, everyone will have it. You can't force an AirTag to update. It updates on its own when it is near your iPhone. You can find out if your AirTag has been updated by checking the Find My app.

◉ Google Chrome users on the iPhone can now choose to move the address bar to the bottom of the iPhone screen, like the change Apple implemented in Safari last year. To move the address bar, long press on it and then choose the “Move address bar to bottom” option. Users can also go to the Settings menu and choose Address Bar to change its position.

◉ Just over seven years after its introduction, the Touch Bar has been discontinued entirely on all new MacBooks, marking the end of an era of hardware features that some users loved and others mocked. It's possible that the Touch Bar will return at some point in the future, especially if the 13-inch MacBook Pro is re-released as a less expensive model, but at this point there's no conclusive evidence to suggest that this will happen.

◉ The upcoming iOS 17.2 update fixes many of the Wi-Fi problems that some users have encountered since the release of iOS 17, as some users complained of slow Wi-Fi speeds and dropped connections, but it is unclear how widespread these problems are.

◉ The WhatsApp application on the iPhone is planning to add passkey support, according to the code discovered by software researcher @aaronp613 in the latest beta version of the application, as it will allow iPhone users to log in using their face, fingerprint, or device passcode. Passkeys are stored in iCloud Keychain. To use passkeys on iPhone, the device must be updated to iOS 16 or later.

◉ Apple stopped signing the iOS 17.0.3 update, which prevents iPhone users from going back to this version. However, Apple continues to sign iOS 17.0.2 for now.

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