Apple reported to drop Intel as chipmaker as early as 2020 to use its own silicon

Two giants: Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Intel CEO Paul Otellini join forces in 2005 to bring Intel chips to the Mac ecosystemBy Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Apple and its Mac computers have long been held back by the features and availability of Intel chipsets which are being used in MacBooks as well as iMacs. Apple has found great success with custom silicon, even acquiring various processor chipmakers like Intrinsity and Passif to help development of their A series processors used in iPhones and iPads, news from Bloomberg Technology hints that Apple will shift from Intel to its own chips in laptops and desktops by 2020.

The news, which affected Intel shares and caused a sudden drop by 9.2 per cent, even if Apple only makes up 5 per cent of Intel's processor business. Apple and Intel got into an exclusive partnership in 2005 when IBM's PowerPC processors were hitting a threshold in performance. It took Apple a year to make the transition and it never looked back, until now.

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Intel tipped to be looking for a partner for its AR glasses unit

Google Glass

Intel, like a lot of the other big tech companies including Apple, Google, and Amazon, are working on their own versions of augmented reality glasses or those specs that project content straight to the user’s retina—which is similar to Google Glass. But it looks like Intel doesn’t want to work on this alone. The company is rumoured to be selling a majority stake of its AR glasses division, which is valued at US$350 million. The company is supposedly looking for multiple backers to invest in the project. They’re looking particularly for those “who can contribute to the business with strong sales channels, industry or design expertise, rather than financial backers.”

Intel is already working on these smart glasses that can be paired with smartphones via Bluetooth. They’re said to be working with Taiwan’s Quanta Computer Inc. to bring the product to life and “the technology is known internally as Superlite, but the business to be sold will likely be called Vaunt,” at least based on the report from Bloomberg. The product could be sold on the market as soon as this year but no word on the specific date or price. Intel is supposedly more concerned about showing off the technology to potential customers rather than selling actual units in big numbers. Some of the potential clients include the aforementioned companies already working on their own smart glasses.

Source: BGR

Microsoft releases new Spectre patch that disables ‘fix’ from Intel

With Intel’s fix for Spectre variant 2 only making matters worse, Microsoft had to release an out-of-band patch to disable what the chip maker has done. This patch is for Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 users. It’s said to stop the rebooting issues caused by Intel’s fix. If you’re experiencing these issues, you’ll need to download the update as it doesn’t automatically install yet.

Source: Engadget

CES 2018: Chinese startup Ryze Tech uses DJI & Intel technology for US$99 drone

Drones are getting cheaper but not fast enough. Drone maker DJI’s cheapest model is the US$499 Spark. So if newbie drone operators want to play around with one, it’s going hurt the wallet a bit, especially if you end up damaging the machine. That’s where the likes of this new drone from Ryze Tech could help newbies, especially the younger crowd, to get used to flying one of these machines. The Tello is a US$99 drone that comes in at just 80 grams but it features a camera that can record 360-degree video and stream live footage to a tablet or to an unspecified number of third-party virtual reality headsets. It has a 13-minute flight time and can take 5-megapixel photos.

The Tello comes with a number of nifty features you might have seen on other more expensive drones, including automatic takeoff and landing as well as hover in places more consistently or respond to hand gestures. The Tello is able to do this with the help of Intel’s vision processing chip Movidius Myriad 2 VPU and DJI’s flight stabilization tech. Having these technologies will help the younger audience Ryze Tech wants to target not think too much about flying but focusing on capturing videos or programming flight patterns with the help of simple coding tool Scratch. The Tello is expected to launch in March, whether it’ll make its way here is something we can’t say.

Source: The Verge