Month: June 2019

Today, Apple is pushing out a new update to iOS, its software for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch—but this update is targeted at fixing an issue on just one device: the iPhone 8 Plus.

iOS 12.3.2 doesn’t seem to do anything else worth remarking upon. Apple’s notes simply say:

iOS 12.3.2 resolves an issue that could cause Camera to capture Portrait mode photos without depth effect on some iPhone 8 Plus devices.

Updates don’t get much more minor than this. Apple typically releases updates that contain new features for macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS simultaneously. But sometimes the company updates only one operating system at a time when deploying a targeted bug fix, as is the case here. If you don’t have an iPhone 8 Plus, this update isn’t for you.

Portrait Mode is Apple’s camera feature that uses machine-learning-based techniques and the dual cameras on some iPhone models to analyze photos and create a depth-of-field effect. It’s related to Portrait Lighting, which only works on the iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR. Portrait Lighting lets you change the lighting, depth of field, or other features via various presets after the photo has been taken. We’ve been consistently unimpressed by it in our reviews—it fails to address glasses frames, it leaves strange artifacts around frizzy hair, and so on. Machine-learning-based features like this are still not perfect.

Apple last updated iOS with iOS 12.3.1, which hit supported devices two weeks ago. That update fixed a bug related to VoLTE calls, addressed a problem that allowed unknown senders’ messages to appear even if you have enabled “Filter Unknown Senders,” and fixed an issue that prevented some users from reporting junk texts. Apple last released a major update with new features just shy of a month ago: iOS 12.3 added a completely overhauled TV app, implemented AirPlay for new devices like Samsung TVs, and fixed numerous bugs.

Remember how Samsung said it would narrow down its plans to relaunch the Galaxy Fold sometime in mid-May? Well, it’s been a month — and now those rumors of an extended delay appear to be coming true. A spokesperson has reiterated to CNET that a new release date is still due sometime in “the coming weeks,” suggesting that you might not get a new release date until July or later. Given that the phone was originally supposed to be in customer’s hands in late April, would-be buyers might just face a delay of three months or more.

Not that Samsung necessarily wants to rush. The original version was inherently fragile, with a screen layer that was all too tempting to peel off and gaps that made it easy for debris to damage the foldable display. If Samsung is going to sell the Fold, it has to reassure buyers that their $1,980 wonder phone isn’t going to break because of a wayward crumb, and that means ensuring a high level of fault tolerance. Those extra weeks could prove worthwhile if they prevent additional headaches.

The continuing Fold delays aren’t likely to hit Samsung’s bottom line. Unlike the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, the Fold isn’t a high-volume device. However, there is a matter of prestige here. Samsung wants to prove that it can make foldable display technology a practical reality, and it can’t do that until there’s finally a device in someone’s pocket.

Apple introduced two pricy and powerful pieces of pro-targeted hardware at its developer conference last month: the modular desktop tower Mac Pro, and the creative-focused Pro Display XDR. Although Apple said the devices would come this fall when discussing them during its keynote stage last week, the industry giant didn’t get any more specific than that. But an apparent mistake in the Apple Store may have narrowed down the date.

Earlier today, MacRumors and 9to5Mac discovered that, when you clicked on the option to “Notify Me” of availability for the products, they were presented with text that said “coming in September.” This was while other parts of the website all said “coming in the fall.” Since the news broke, Apple quietly changed the copy in the “notify me” panel to also say “coming in the fall.”

September would make sense as a narrower launch window. Apple often holds an event focused on the iPhone and Apple Watch around that time each year, so the company could announce final public availability of the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR there.

For background, the Mac Pro is a desktop tower that borrows elements of the classic “cheese grater” design from Mac towers of yore—though the design also has a heat-management function. It offers a sort of half-measure for those who wanted a PC-style upgradeable desktop: you can replace many key components, but you’ll likely have to buy many of them from Apple or its partners directly. The Mac Pro offers up to 1.5TB of up to 2933MHz and up to a 28-core Intel Xeon CPU.

GPU options range from the fast-but-comparatively-modest AMD Radeon Pro 580X to the beefy, workstation-class AMD Radeon Pro Vega II—or even two of the latter. There are up to eight PCIe expansion slots. This monster starts at a whopping $5,999, ensuring it will live on pro video-editing bays and on 3D animators’ desks but not many other places.

Also niche is the Pro Display XDR, which addresses a market that has a lot of computer monitors focused on response time but not image quality. Priced at $4,999 and up (with a $999 stand), the Pro Display XDR is intended for use by a narrow set of professionals, such as those who do post-production color grading and HDR on film and TV content. Despite consumer demands, Apple did not launch a consumer display at the event last week.

When you’re talking flagship smartphones, devices like the iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S series typically garner most, if not all, of the attention. Over the past few years, though, Google has made impressive strides with its Pixel line. Especially with the launch of Night Sight mode a few months back, the PIxel 3 quickly catapulted itself into the upper echelon of the smartphone market.

For as compelling as the Pixel 3 is, Google is seemingly prepared to take things to the next level with the launch of its next-gen Pixel. And with the release date now less than 6 months away, we’ve started to see a steady stream of Pixel 4 leaks emerge over the past few weeks.

Hardware aside, the design of the Pixel 4 is particularly intriguing given a bevy of rumors that we may see a brand new form factor. The latest renders to hit the web (via Pricebaba) depict a nearly edgeless display, as evidenced below.

What’s particularly interesting here is the camera bump on the rear side of the device, a design that is quite similar to many of the iPhone 11 leaks we’ve seen so far.

“According to OnLeaks,” the report notes, “we can expect at least two cameras inside the square bump, if not three. Google’s Pixel phones are known for their camera prowess, and this will be the first time Google is using multiple camera lenses at the rear.”

As far as other Pixel 4 specs are concerned, Slashleaks notes that Google’s next-gen smartphone will not include front-firing speakers or a physical fingerprint scanner. There are also rumblings that the Pixel 4 will boast 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, at a minimum.

It’s worth noting that some of the other Pixel 4 leaks we’ve seen feature an entirely different design, which is to say that this rumor, like others, should be taken with a requisite grain of salt. As a point of interest, some of the previous Pixel 4 renders — which are ostensibly based on accurate supply chain rumors — look like this:

We have been teased with AMD’s next generation processor products for over a year. The new chiplet design has been heralded as a significant breakthrough in driving performance and scalability, especially as it becomes increasingly difficult to create large silicon with high frequencies on smaller and smaller process nodes. AMD is expected to deploy its chiplet paradigm across its processor line, through Ryzen and EPYC, with those chiplets each having eight next-generation Zen 2 cores. Today AMD went into more detail about the Zen 2 core, providing justification for the +15% clock-for-clock performance increase over the previous generation that the company presented at Computex last week.
AMD’s Zen 2 Product Portfolio
The current products that AMD has announced that have Zen 2 cores include the Ryzen 3rd Generation consumer CPUs, known as the Ryzen 3000 family, and AMD’s next generation enterprise EPYC processor, known as Rome. As of today, AMD has announced explicit details of six consumer Ryzen 3000 processors, including core counts, frequencies, memory support, and power. Details about the server processor, aside from some peak values, are expected in due course over the next few months.
The Zen 2 design paradigm, compared to the first generation of Zen, has changed significantly. The new platform and core implementation is designed around small 8-core chiplets built on TSMC’s 7nm manufacturing process, and measure around 74-80 square millimeters. On these chiplets are two groups of four-cores arranged in a ‘core complex’, or CCX, which contains those four cores and a set of L3 cache – the L3 cache is doubled for Zen 2 over Zen 1.
Each full CPU, regardless of how many chiplets it has, is paired with a central IO die through Infinity Fabric links. The IO die acts as the central hub for all off-chip communications, as it houses all the PCIe lanes for the processor, as well as memory channels, and Infinity Fabric links to other chiplets or other CPUs. The IO die for the EPYC Rome processors is built on TSMC’s 14nm process, however the consumer processor IO dies (which are smaller and contain fewer features) are built on the Global Foundries 12nm process.
The consumer processors, known as ‘Matisse’ or Ryzen 3rd Gen or Ryzen 3000-series, will be offered with up to two chiplets for sixteen cores. AMD is launching six versions of Matisse on July 7th, from six cores to sixteen cores. The six and eight-core processors have one chiplet, while above this the parts will have two chiplets, but in all cases the IO die is the same. This means that every Zen 2 based Ryzen 3000 processor will have access to 24 PCIe 4.0 lanes and dual channel memory. Based on the announcements today, the prices will range from $199 for the Ryzen 5 3600, up to $700+ for the sixteen core (we’re waiting on final confirmation of this price).
The EPYC Rome processors, built on these Zen 2 chiplets, will have up to eight of them, enabling a platform that can support up to 64 cores. As with the consumer processors, no chiplet can communicate directly with each other – each chiplet will only connect directly to the central IO die. That IO die houses links for eight memory channels, and up to 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity.
AMD’s Roadmap
Before diving into the new product line, it is worth recapping where we currently sit in AMD’s planned roadmap.
In previous roadmaps, showcasing AMD’s movement from Zen to Zen 2 and Zen 3, the company has explained that this multi-year structure will showcase Zen in 2017, Zen 2 in 2019, and Zen 3 by 2021. The cadence isn’t exactly a year, as it has depended on AMD’s design and manufacturing abilities, as well as agreements with its partners in the foundries and the current market forces.
AMD has stated that its plan for Zen 2 was to always launch on 7nm, which ended up being TSMC’s 7nm (Global Foundries wasn’t going to be ready in time for 7nm, and ultimately pulled the plug). The next generation Zen 3 is expected to align with an updated 7nm process, and at this point AMD has not made any comment about a potential ‘Zen 2+’ design in the works, although at this point we do not expect to see one.
Beyond Zen 3, AMD has already stated that Zen 4 and Zen 5 are currently in various levels of their respective design stages, although the company has not committed to particular time frames or process node technologies. AMD has stated in the past that the paradigms of these platforms and processor designs are being set 3-5 years in advance, and the company states it has to make big bets every generation to ensure it can remain competitive.
For a small insight into Zen 4, in an interview with Forrest Norrod, SVP of AMD’s Enterprise, Embedded, and Semi-Custom group, at Computex, he exclusively revealed to AnandTech the code name of AMD’s Zen 4 EPYC processor: Genoa.
Forrest explained that the Zen 5 code name follows a similar pattern, but would not comment on the time frame for the Zen 4 product. Given that the Zen 3 design is expected mid-2020, that would put a Zen 4 product for late 2021/early 2022, if AMD follows its cadence. How this will play into AMD’s consumer roadmap plans is unclear at this point, and will depend on how AMD approaches its chiplet paradigm and any future adjustments to its packaging technology in order to enable further performance improvements.