I’m so beyond thrilled and excited to tell you that you can right now, today, go and watch my very first Nebula Original and see me talking with a bunch of my creator friends like MKBHD, iJustine, John Gruber, Brian Tong, Jacklyn Dallas, Georgia Dow, and more, about the impact Apple’s iPhone has had on this industry and our lives.
Including, for just a few minutes out of this exclusive techu-mentary, which single iPhone, if we all had to choose, was our very favorite.
AirTags — what are they, where are they, when will we get them, but much, much more importantly, how will they work… I mean, exactly, crucially, critically, when it comes to protecting our security and privacy?
Picture it. It’s March or maybe September, whenever Apple thinks enough of us are going out into the world again. You unbox your brand-new AirTags. Simple, elegant, little quarter-sized disks that you can use to put pretty much anything on Apple’s FindMy network. The same network that currently powers Find My iPhone, Find my Mac, and more.
Your iPhone immediately detects them, and you see the pairing interface slide right on up. Animated as always. Just like AirPods. Tap to connect and done.
But what you don’t see, not at all, is that at that very moment, your iPhone generates an elliptic curve P-224 private key pair as well as a symmetric key and stores both in your iCloud Keychain. That’s Apple’s built-in security system, the same one used for accounts and passwords. Then, iCloud syncs it to all your other Apple devices over secure CloudKit. The same way health data and other sensitive information gets synced.
And this is exactly the kind of tech I explain on this channel all the time, so if you’re into it, hit that subscribe button and bell and let’s make this community grow.
Then… then… you put your new AirTag into a keychain case, sold separately, because of course it is, attach it to your house keys, and then just go about living your 2021 life. You know, the second Matrix sequel of years.
Then, maybe in a few days or a week, you double mask up and make a zombie apocalypse-style supply run to the local Quicky Mart, the post office, maybe Big Belly Burgers for some take out, before heading home again, only to discover you’ve lost your house keys.
But, instead of cursing, retracing all your steps, wasting the rest of the day as penance for your folly, you simply fire up the FindMy app on your iPhone, swipe past devices and Friends, land on the AirTags page, see exactly where you left your keys, and go get them.
And that works because, your AirTags have been been broadcasting on Bluetooth Low Energy. Just stealthily, silently, pinging away. Yes, one ping only, at least at a time. They’re not just tags, they’re FindMy Beacons. Pinging away.
And that ping is based on your symmetric key which, because of P-224, is 28 bites, and fits ever so nicely inside the 32-bite packet limit for Bluetooth 5.0.
And because it’s Bluetooth, it doesn’t matter that the AirTag isn’t on Wi-Fi or a cellular network. It’s doesn’t need to get onto the world wide internet. It’s just raising its electromagnetic hand locally. Hyper locally. Within Bluetooth range.
So, wait, if it isn’t on the ‘net, how will you find it? I’ll get to that in a roasting hot minute.
But because it’s Low Energy, it’s also going to have minimal impact on battery life. Which is good. Because a dead AirTag would be much harder to find.
And, even though your AirTag is pinging away like the Red October, it’s being really clever and stealthy about it.
It’s taking your symmetric key and, every 15 minutes, using it to generate a second key based interwoven with the time interval. Then, it derives a third, public key and uses that to un-linkably diversify the actual data in the ping it’s so busy broadcasting out.
To ridiculously over simplify it, it’s like taking the letters of your name, adding all the letters that spell out the time, shaking them all together, then wrapping them up in a new rando lock-box every 15 minutes, and throwing the box into a lake filled with other boxes that are also changing, seemingly at random, every 15 minutes.
You know your name and you have the key to the box and can find it, but good luck to anyone else trying to break in and use it to find you.
And yes, there are still potential security concerns here, and I’ll get to them, but, effectively, this also means that once the world stops ending and we’re all out and about all the time again, shopping malls won’t be able to use the AirTags to log you as you go from store to store, not for longer than 15 minutes, and no one can use it to track your location for anything longer than that either. Not in any place where there’s any density of Bluetooth activity.
But, because most places do have Bluetooth activity, and plenty of it, that’s how the actual FindMy part.. finds.
When someone else, anyone else, with an Apple device comes within Bluetooth range of the AirTag attached to your house keys or whatever, and they’ve also opted-in to the Find My network, they become what’s called a finder.
Then their device, let’s say it’s an iPhone, will pick up the ping, the public key being broadcast by your AirTags, and let Apple know they’ve been found. The process is encrypted and the data is hashed into a lookup index using SHA256 and relayed to Apple using an Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme.
So, Apple ends up having your public key and the location where it was broadcast stored for that lookup table.
Now, your identity remains private because the public key doesn’t contain anything about it. It’s just a pseudo-random blob of data. So, the finder has no way of knowing who you are just because they came within range of your AirTag or house keys.
And because this is all happening behind the scenes, the finder doesn’t even know they’re relaying any information to Apple or maybe even that your house keys are there. Not unless they stumble on them completely separately from the Find My system.
Second, if you’re the finder, you don’t have to worry about your privacy either. The location data comes from your iPhone using typical location services — Wi-Fi router mapping, cellular triangulation, assisted GPS, but nothing aside from the location is sent. Nothing that says you’re the one at that location. Nothing to ID you at all. It’s not that you could literally be anyone. You’re no one. As far as the data is concerned, you don’t exist. No one was ever there.
Also, because Bluetooth LE, and things like network coalescence, which basically just means Find My waits to relay the data until the processor and modem are waking up anyway, like to check for messages, there’s very little impact on the finder’s iPhone battery life either. Even if it’s constantly, passively, picking up pings. Just like it would be from AirPods, Apple Watch, AirDrop, or other accessories or features anyway.
And, the Find My network is opt-in. Which means no one has to be a finder and relay AirTags data if they don’t want to. Though the more people that do opt-in literally the better for everyone.
The relay is encrypted from the finder’s device to Apple, so even if somebody bothered to try and eavesdrop on it, all they’d get is that pseudo-random blob. And, since Apple doesn’t have your private key, only your devices do, Apple can’t tell what’s in the blob either. Not that it’s for your device, not what time, and not where. All Apple can do is store the reports as they come in.
But, once you realize you’re missing your keys and you go into the FindMy app to… find them… your iPhone will pull that AirTag’s information from iCloud Keychain and start going back and computing all the 15-minute interval public keys and lookup indexes its generated, and ask Apple’s servers for any matching reports.
If there are any, Apple will send them down, again as encrypted blobs between their servers and your iPhone so no one can listen in, and then your iPhone will decrypt them and show you where your AirTag has been, and when.
So, yeah, about those potential security concerns.
Because some people are legit going to worry that AirTags will be abused by bad actors. That someone with malicious intent could just drop one into your car or gym bag and use it to track you.
But, honestly, very similar products that offer almost exactly the same base functionality, like Tile, have been on the market for years already, never mind the cell phones and full-on James Bond spy kit that we’ve seen in every cheesy TV and movie plot for even longer. But, yeah, once it gets an Apple logo on it, it’s open season in headlines.
Beyond any valid concerns Apple will need to address, and any clickbait I’ll be more than happy to address, you know, the way I do…
You’ll just see the AirTag on your house keys show up in Find My the way your iPhone or iPad or other Apple kit has for years now and, hopefully, you’ll be able to go right back out and pick them up. No frantic calls to families or locksmiths, not with all… this going on as well.
And we know all this because that’s how FindMy has been working since the new network launched back in September of 2019. But thanks to some leaks, including Apple’s own in the various betas, there could also be a super easy, really a new convenience way to track down your tags to the exact inch as well.
Basically, the FindMy app would turn into an augmented reality view finder for you, and you’d be able to just hold it up and scan around for your house keys, and the U1 ultra low band spatial positioning chip in the AirTags, the same as the one in the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12, would light up the exact location for you on the screen. Even if that location was under a car or in a bush or otherwise out of plain sight.
Apple announced the HomePod mini back in October. I’ve been using it ever since, and right now I’ve got Mikah Sargent on the line so we can re-review all about it, three months later.
The M1 Mac mini. The only desktop Apple Silicon, at least for now. Ultra low power. Entry level. But with performance that beats Intel and rivals AMD’s latest and greatest. Just… with… no new design. At least not yet. Starting at $699.
I’ve been reviewing it since it first came out, and I’m going to tell you whether or not you should get it now… or wait for the M1X or M2 Mac mini that’s rumored to be coming later the year or sometime next.
Design
First, my usual advice. Always wait as long as you can to buy, then buy when you really need to and enjoy the hell out of whatever it is you buy — with zero regrets — because there’ll always be something new and next.
Especially when it comes to Mac mini updates, because Apple has a spotty track record with them to say the least. You can lay a large portion of the blame for that on Intel’s roadmap, which was and is just the worst.
But with the in-house M1 chipset, Apple’s put the entry-level back into the mini Mac. No change in casing — they wanted to keep things simple to start, and silver again, but this round really was all about the Apple Silicon.
Now, M1 doesn’t take up nearly as much room as the old Intel chips did, so the Mac mini is just all shades of empty inside. So, could Apple make an M1X version that fills it up with more of… everything? A new space gray Mac mini Pro, so to speak? Or could Apple — would Apple — make an M2 version that’s even smaller, like Apple TV smaller?
Either way, if the current design is cool with you, then you can go ahead and get the M1 Mac mini now.
But if you want something fresh and new, or just… more, you’ll have to wait for whatever, whenever Apple does with the mini next.
Display (Support)
The M1 Mac mini was a huge upgrade in terms of processors but also a step… diagonally sideways and kinda back in terms of display support? Instead of up to three 4K displays or one 5K and one 4K, like ye old Intel Mac minis of yore, the M1 version supports only one 6K and one 4K. Albeit that 6K is the Pro Display XDR. That’s just the trade-off, the limit for M1 at the moment.
So if that’s fine for you — and it probably is for the vast majority of you — than go ahead and get the M1 Mac mini now.
But if only three screens or more will do it for you, then wait and see what the higher-end Mac mini will do.
And, since the stats say many people don’t even go with multiple displays, let me know how you’re feeling about this one in the comments below.
Compute
The M1 Mac mini rocks… the M1. Apple’s first generation custom Mac silicon. It’s based on the same IP and architecture as the A14 Bionic in the iPhone 12, just with more performance and more graphics cores. And those performance cores are among the best performing cores in any computer, anywhere. Especially with the Mac mini’s thermals, which lets all those cores run at max… basically forever. It’s not magic, it’s just really good design, and it means even the the entry level model is still a beast.
A theoretical M1X Mac mini — or whatever Apple calls the beefed up version of the current generation chipset, the one expected to debut with the next MacBook Pro updates — and I’ve got a whole video up on that, link in the description — well, it would keep the same single core speed, which again is already excellent, but add even more performance and graphics cores for even better multicore action.
A theoretically M2 Mac mini, would probably be based on A15 architecture and IP, what we’d expect to see in the iPhone 13 next fall, and get the same kind of year-over-year increase to single core speeds we’ve seen from the A-series over the last few years.
So, if M1 is already everything you need, go ahead and get the Mac mini now and enjoy.
If you need more multicore, wait on a M1X. If you need more from every core, wait on an M2. Even if it may take another year or more.
Capacity
One of the things that sets Apple Silicon apart in the desktop world is unified memory. A giant pool of 8GB or 16GB slapped right on the chipset and shared between the CPU, GPU, neural engine, and image signal processor. Combined with everything from memory compression to ultra-fast swap it really lets the 8GB or 16GB be all they can be. But 8GB and 16GB is all the M1 Mac mini currently offers. There are precisely zero options for 32GB or 64GB right now, not unless you stick with Intel.
The M1X, though, is rumored to support even more memory, those same 32GB and 64GB options that the old Intel models currently enjoy.
There are even reports of a new mini Mac Pro, something like the old G4 Cube, and if that interests you, I’ll link to it in the description as well.
But, if up to 8GB or 16GB is already more than enough for you, then the M1 Mac mini will be more than enough.
And if you really need more, like 32 to 64GB more, then you’ll really need to wait on the M1X or M2.
Ports
As much the M1 Mac mini was an improvement over Intel, it was also a major regression in one aspect — a critical aspect for some. Ports.
Both have two USB-A ports, one HDMI 2.0 port, and a gigabit ethernet port. But where the space gray Intel Mac mini had an option for 10 gigabit ethernet, the M1 does not. If you want 10 gigabit ethernet on it, you’ll need to get a thunderbolt dongle. And that brings us to potentially the bigger problem — biggest problem even — where the Intel Mac mini had 4, count ‘em 4 USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 ports, the M1 Mac mini only has two.
They’re USB-4 ports and since the thunderbolt controllers are on the SoC, they’re as blazing fast as they can be, but there are still only two of them. For anything more, you’ll have to break them out into hubs.
So, if two USB 4 Thunderbolt 3 Ports and gigabit ethernet are enough for you, or living that hub and dongle life isn’t a show stopper, go ahead and get the M1 Mac mini.
But if more on-board ports are life, are critical, are absolutely something you need, then you’ll need to wait on the M1X or M2.
Wireless
M1 brought Wi-Fi 6 to the Mac, which… is better than Wi-Fi 5.
There are rumors the M2 might bring Wi-Fi 6E, which adds 6GHz and makes it actually really better.
So, if that’s also something you need, you’ll also need to wait on the M2 and see.
Pricing
The silver M1 Mac mini starts at $699, ever-so-slightly less with an education discount, which makes it, currently, the most affordable Mac. Even if it’s not yet back down to that magical $599 price of eld. The space gray Intel Mac mini starts at $1099, which is a lot more bucks for an arguable amount of bang.
A theoretical M2 Mac mini with otherwise the same specs could end up being the same price for those same specs. Apple often holds the line generation and generation, sometimes even through redesigns. There’s just not telling when that’s coming.
A theoretical M1X Mac mini, with more cores, more ports, and space gray back on board… well, I’d expect that spec-out also to be priced out, by several or many more hundreds of bucks. In other words, sooner, but more expensive.
So, if money and especially time matters, you want the M1 Mac mini, available now.
If you don’t mind waiting, the M2 could give you slightly more for your money, even if you lose out on using an M1 between now and then.
If money is no object the M1X could give you even more Mac in the mini. If and when it comes out.
And while you’re waiting, check out this playlist, where I take a closer look at the M1 Macs and preview the M2 MacBook Airs coming next. Just click on the playlist and I’ll see you next video.
Tech giant Xiaomi just click-baited the whole entire internet — again! — this time with their latest, greatest render-ware… ever — true wireless charging. No cables. No pads. No nothing. Just ubiquitous, ambient power, constantly beamed into all of our devices.
But here’s the billion dollar, take all my money now, question — is it real… or just real fake?
Our phones used to need a cable just to make a call. Ask your grandparents. Then they went cordless. We used to have to plug in to use the internet. Ask your parents. Then we got Wi-Fi and cellular. Not too long ago, we needed a power adapter to charge. Now we have inductive pads, like MagSafe. And, soon, maybe… one day… eventually…. truly wireless charging. Power just… beamed straight through the air.
A lot of companies have been working on this for a long time.
Rumor had it Apple was considering short-range truly wireless charging for the iPhone X. A base-station like the old AirPort Extreme or HomePod, but instead of Wi-Fi or computational audio, it would just… radiate power. You’d leave it on your desk or bedside table or kitchen island, put your iPhone down somewhere in its vicinity, and it would just… charge. You could prioritize which of several devices you wanted to charge first, and to how much, before it would start shifting the power around.
But what Xiaomi is teasing — and let’s be 100% crystal clear, teasing is all it is right now, just a complete tech thirst trap — what Xiaomi is teasing is a huge escalation over short distance truly wireless charging. It’s room filling. Now, if you’re thinking there’s just gotta be a whole host of problems with that, you’re doing the kind of thinking that’s right. And more on that in a charging hot minute.
But what the concept renders show is a base station the size of a… of a beer fridge, with dozens of antennas, beam forming mmWave-like high band frequency transmissions at our phones and similar devices, locked on to a U1 or similar spatial positioning beacon, so as we walk around using them, texting, gaming, browsing, watching my YouTube videos the second they drop because you’re a super hero who hit that subscribe button and bell, and I appreciate you!
Instead of the battery level draining down… it’s charging up.
Which is just… the beautiful dream. Like, sci-fi level cool. The way every gadget works in every movie, never running out of power, not unless and until it becomes critical to the plot.
Now, there are problems with all of this, of course. Beyond simply that it’s not at all a real product yet, just a bunch of medium effort computer graphics. And even when and if it starts to ship, it’s going to be way less science fiction and way more science fact — way less JARVIS and way more Siri — for generations at least.
And even though all of these radio waves have been around us humans for a long time already, and the chances of them being dangerous — like setting our cats or crotches on fire — are about the same as the chances of them giving us super powers, like Wanda or Captain Marvel style super powers, are just wicked low. Not that that’ll be of any comfort to the cable news and Facebook fed conspiracy prone who don’t believe in the pandemic but somehow at the same time believe 5G caused the pandemic… that they don’t believe in.
But fundamental problems like how many base stations will you need per house, per room even? Xiaomi says they can charge through obstacles… but mmWave is currently blocked, like utterly and completely blocked by… leaves… even rain. So, are they planning on ricocheting beams off multiple base stations or objects like they’re filled with tiny Dude Perfects or something?
What kind of heat will they generate in the device? What kind of power draw will the base stations require? How fast will the technology mature? Never mind the devices, how often will we need to upgrade the base stations, and what will that cost? To buy? To lease? More than a $20 USB-C wall adapter, wanna bet? Let me know what you think in the comments.
Also, Xiaomi is talking about providing 5 watts of power… when and if this concept ever materializes into a reality. That’s what the rinky-dinky OG iPhone charger provided, the one everyone complained about being too rinky-dinky for years. It’s why companies like Xiaomi started putting their chargers on Hulk serum, even breaking compatibility for proprietary plugs, and breaking their batteries up into multiple cells so they could charge them in parallel. Basically, putting speed ahead of every other concern, even overall battery capacity and long term battery health.
Well, every concern but convenience. Because, at the same time we were complaining about wired charging speeds, we were also complaining about the lack of inductive chargers that were… yes, way less speedy.
AC plug on the back end, coils in a pad on a front end that transfer power to the coils in our phones in other end, only nowhere nearly as efficiently. Starting us all the way back down at 5 watts. Only to jump that back up with even more power hungry proprietary chargers to pump out even more speed, and heat.
Now, one day, truly wireless, for the ultimate in convenience but – just the opposite of that in terms of efficiency. Starting, say it with me, right back at the bottom with 5 watts.
But don’t let me reality punch you in your Tony Stark spot, because I’m also ludicrously excited about all of this.
Even beyond the rumors back in 2017, this is clearly where Apple has been headed for years. For years. First with inductive charging in the iPhone 8, and the ill-fated attempt at an AirPower charging pad, the one hindered and ultimately canceled by Apple’s desire to let you charge any device, including the non-standard Apple Watch, in any arbitrary place on the pad.
But they’ve been pressing on with other versions, introducing MagSafe with the iPhone 12, and now they’re rumored to be considering at least one portless model for the Phone 13. I just did a whole video on that, link in the description.
And that’ll start by leaning on MagSafe, sure, but the endgame just has to be a true AirPower system, no Mag or Safe needed. For the iPhone, which pretty much everyone is fine dropping down on or even better, near, a power source every so often to top it up, but for the Apple Watch, which most people want to just keep charged for much longer, and especially for future products like Apple Glasses, which will have the tiniest of batteries but also our least amount of tolerance for having to take them off and charge them.
Now, remember, the grand dream with inductive charging was going to be Qi embedded in every table at every restaurant and coffee shop, in bus, train, plane, and ride-share. Just… everywhere. Ubiquitous power for everyone. And, even 2020, the AirPower of years aside, that’s still not even come close, not close, to materializing.
So, while this Xiaomi render is just a render, if we look out over the next 100 years, providing we don’t conspiracy theory ourselves into extinction, if we look out over the next 100 years? Certainly. 50 years? Almost certainly. 25 years? I bet. 10 years. I think so. 5 years? Maybe?
But at some point in the near-ish future, I think it’s safe to say our power cords will go the way our telephone cables did, our internet cables, our audio cables, and we’ll just have mostly efficient, highly convenient truly wireless charging in our homes and offices and schools and malls, and then, just… everywhere.
With Xiaomi and probably Samsung, even Google, prototyping it, experimenting with it right out in the open, and Apple doing what Apple does, especially after what happened with the original AirPower — keeping it a secret project prototyped and experimented with strictly internally, until they’re ready to announce a commercialized, mainstream version that’s ready to ship that fall, with the next iPhone. And Apple Glasses.
$111.4 billion. Yeah. Apple, the company that every market manipulator and pocketed click baiter loves to cast as doomed, so very legion of doomed, perpetually, flailing, failing, and sure to go under… just any product now… regardless of how those products are actually performing — just posted their Holiday quarter results and even now — in the midst of peak 2020-21, the Cyberpunk on last gen consoles of years, they crushed…
And you won’t believe how hard.
iPhone
The iPhone was up 17%. Apple sold 65.6 billion dollars of them. Now, it’s important to remember that the iPhone shipped later than usual last fall, so instead of the initial surge being in the previous quarter, all of it was in this quarter. Just all the surge.
Same with all the new M1 Macs, but more on those in a scorching hot minute.
Prices on the base models were up, due to more expensive components like OLED and 5G modems, but the mix was also high, which means the people who bought into the iPhone 12 almost immediately, often bought into the more expensive models like the 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max.
Which, to me, just highlights how people keep insisting on reading the market wrong. Like I said in my launch-day review — it’s not that everyone is looking and saying, I can save a couple hundred bucks by not going Pro. It’s that they’re increasingly looking and saying, I can spend a couple hundred bucks and get the Pro.
It’s not that everyone wants the lowest dollar price. Increasingly, more people want what they feel is the best value priced package per dollar. And that includes not only what it can do, but how long it will last doing it. How long they get updates, even how high the resale prices sustain. And yeah, still the cachet.
Which is why, I think, switchers were up as well, meaning more people coming to the iPhone from Android, and upgraders were way up, meaning way more people going from an older iPhone to an iPhone 12.
Tim Cook was also still bullish because, despite there now being over a billion iPhones in our pockets, y’all, globally there are still more people without iPhones than with. And he’s is looking at them. Looking at you maybe. And thinks he can still get way more of the market, especially in places like India.
And what’s especially fascinating here is that Apple built themselves into an iPhone company. But then they used the iPhone to build up everything else. So, when the iPhone isn’t as strong, everything else picks up the slack. But when everything is strong, they force multiply each other.
Services
Services were up 24%, to 15.8 billion dollars. Driven by record performances in App Store, Music, and Cloud, among others. When you include everything the App Store gets a cut of, Apple hit 620 million paid subscribers this quarter. Which… given how many of us are spending our time in lockdown, just makes the kind of sense that does.
In addition to the 1 billion iPhones, Apple has almost 1.7 billion devices total in active use, and that’s just a huge and still growing base to build services on. Like I said, a platform to build another platform or several on.
It’s also why, even though Apple’s margins haven’t really changed much since the Steve Jobs era, they’re at the high end right now. First, the mix towards the higher end products I just mentioned, but also more people getting in on more Apple services. My guess is Apple’s hardware margins continue to get driven down by Apple continuing to invest in more expensive components, but services margins just more than make up for that — allowing Apple to continue to make those hardware investments without eating into ancillary product profits or simply running on empty like some other companies do.
Apple retail hit also records, which given how many stores had to be closed or massively constrained is beyond impressive. Much of the business there shifted to online, but the logistical genius of Diedre O’Brien and crew in staying multiple steps ahead and handling everything from pick ups to support is… or will be… the stuff of legends. Even AppleCare was up during all… this. Which is amazing.
iPad
The iPad was up a whopping 41%, to 8.4 billion dollars, driven by the ongoing work-and-school-from-home reality so many have been facing for so long now. Also, the new iPad Air and entry-level iPad updates were compelling. And, like I said, while I think a lot of people who cover Apple still fail to realize the difference between cost and value, consumers are continuing to understand that better and better.
But what’s really remarkable is that around half the people buying iPads were first time iPad buyers as well, despite the tablet market essentially continuing to be an iPad market. And I think that goes back to work-from-home, but also to how badly most competitors continue to execute on tablets, especially in terms of software and ecosystem integration.
Apple Watch and AirPods
Apple frustratingly lumps Watch, AirPods, HomePods, and an all the extras into the same category so competitors can’t easily see how well any one of them is doing at any given time. But, taken together, they were up 30%, to 13 billion dollars.
A ludicrous 75% of Apple Watch customers were first time Watch buyers. I say ludicrous, because like the iPad, the Apple Watch essentially owns its market. But, that market is like the opposite of the phone market right now. Not that many people have smart watches, and so it’s just wide open, with tons of room to run. Especially with products like the lower priced but feature packed Apple Watch SE coming into the mix. And I wonder if Apple’s going to double-down-as-in-price-down on that this year to get even more people into the Watch, and then services like Fitness+.
AirPods continued to sell well, as did HomePod mini at launch, and while everyone was concerned about Lisa Jackson getting safely off the roof at Apple Park — she did! — I’m still concerned about Bob Borchers and team escaping that bottled house of Kandor in the Theater lobby. Hit intercom if you need help, Bob!
Mac
The Mac was up 21%, to 8.7 billion dollars, which doesn’t take a Mentat to figure had a lot to do with the release of M1, Apple’s first custom silicon for the MacBook Air, entry-level MacBook Pro, and new base model silver Mac mini.
Around half the people buying Macs were first-time Mac buyers, and since Apple still has only a tiny, tiny share of the PC market, there’s just tons and tons of room for more growth there as well. Especially as the next set of Apple Silicon Macs start coming out, the higher end Pros and iMacs, and over the next few generations of all of them.
In other words, legacy PC users, Apple thinks the combinations of industry leading performance, experience, and battery life are going to prove just way, way, way too compelling for you to ignore.
Apple doesn’t get gaming. That’s what every lazy pundit with a platform laments. But Apple absolutely gets gaming. To the tune of billions and billions of dollars in App Store revenue each quarter. They just get that… Candy Crush just crushes… and casual gaming currently offers the biggest return in the business.
But what if that was about to change? What if Apple is finally, finally getting ready to just rock with hard core gaming the way they did TV streaming back in ought 19? Well… then…
Ok, so, we’ve all heard the rumors about the next-generation Apple TV. That there’s been an A12X or A12Z — the current Pad Pro chip — version just sitting on the back burner for over a year already. An incremental update that’ll better composite HDR video and better support upcoming Apple Arcade games, and… not much else.
But also, that there just might be another, even more advanced next-generation Apple TV waiting in the wings. On whose heart beats with an A14X — something closer akin to brand new Mac M1 chip — or an even more powerful system-on-a-chip. One that comes packaged with an Apple-designed game controller. And one that may also just come with full-on triple-A game studio support. Maybe even some game studios acquired by Apple. Just gobbled up like the other consoles have been doing.
And I know, I know, fanfic. I feel that so much right now, but just freaking stay with me for a minute.
We’ve also all heard the rumors about Apple’s upcoming VR headset. Now, Apple — supposedly — already flirted with VR gaming a few years ago. Prepping a prototype under the auspices of Dan Riccio, then head of hardware. Even going so far as to get Valve and Steam involved — the company that famously powers the HTC Vive and their own Index VR systems. They were working on a headset that connected wirelessly to an external compute engine. A box. But Jony Ive, who was still chief design officer back then, said nope. Hard British nope. Not a box. Not on my watch. Just nope. So, the plan was scrapped and the whole Valve and Steam thing… fizzled out along with it.
But just this week came word that Dan Riccio was leaving the top hardware spot to focus on a new, special project at Apple. This just days after reports that Apple was focusing on a new, improved VR headset that was just a headset. No box. Not at all. Coming as soon as next year. High end, expensive, with an onboard chipset that might just be more powerful than the M-Series Apple’s just transplanted into the Mac lineup. And that it’ll be built around the content pillars of communication, entertainment, an — you better believe — gaming.
So, two sets of rumors. A hardcore Apple TV and a breakthrough VR headset. Two sets of plans. A hardcore Apple TV and a breakthrough VR headset. Am I getting to you yet?
What if these aren’t two entirely separate rumors or plans? What if they’re just parts of the same secret master plan. The plan, by Apple, to win hardcore gaming?
Or, you know, to just finally show up and start playing.
We get the first hints of it later this year with the new Apple TV. It’s the first device. The primer. The developer platform. Similar to how Apple has been using iPhones and iPads for AR. A new Apple TV meant to kickoff a new, higher-end Apple Arcade service. With a new focus on triple A gaming to go with it. To round out Arcade and make the Apple One bundle just that much more valuable.
Then, of course, it also comes to the iPhone, the iPad, and the Mac. Because we’ve got this new unified silicon architecture that can finally run the stuffing out of this.. stuff… across all of Apple’s platforms.
And then, sometime next year, we get the VR headset, just the most extra, ultimate, premium, first-in-class way to experience triple A-as-in-Apple Arcade. As well as TV+ and FaceTime theater, or whatever rounds-out the minimal delightful product spec.
And then that’s it, we’re second star on the right, straight ahead to the bolder, brighter, better future of Apple gaming for everyone.
But, yeah, like I said. I know. I know. There are… just so many problems. So many issues that’ll put all this expectational debt I’ve been accruing just straight into karma receivership.
First, Apple has shown not a Pippen of interest in hard core gaming thus far. Sure, there are hard core gamers at every level within Apple, including the highest levels, but none of that has manifested or materialized in terms of actual focus on the platform, especially, historically, hysterically, the Mac.
Second, even with something more powerful than the current M-series chipsets, Apple hasn’t done anything even close to approaching the kind of graphical power we’re seeing from AMD in the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X, much less from Big Navi and Nvidia’s Ampere on the PC. Now, M1 pulls… what, up to 15 watts, and those hellicarrier graphics cards, over 300 watts, so there’s just tons and tons of room for Apple to amp up the core count and voltage. But until we see it, there’s absolutely no reason to believe it.
Third, Apple had the opportunity last year to erase just a huge portion of the gaming gap on their platforms almost overnight… simply by embracing the streaming services from Microsoft, Google, Sony, Amazon, and others. You know, the way they padded out the value of both the Apple TV and the TV app with the streaming services from Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Amazon, and others.
Never once demanding those video streaming services list and rate all their titles separately in iTunes or forcing them go stream through Safari. Like…. For some unfathomable-to-me reason they’re currently forcing the game streaming services to do.
Apparently not realizing or simply not caring that a gaming device with only Apple Arcade and the App Store would be about as valuable to customers as an Apple TV with only TV+ iTunes.
But, if Apple shows that interest, and has hardware that’s, never mind Playstation or Xbox level but just powerful enough, at least with gen 1, and they get over whatever mind killer they currently have about game streaming, they can do what Apple typically does in these situations — position both the next Apple TV and VR headset as the absolute best, most elegant, most secure and privacy-centric way to enjoy all of these myriad game streaming experiences. From Apple. From everyone.
If Apple is thinking anywhere even nearly along these lines, if they’re serious at all about expanding devices and services into these general gaming directions, then this could be a way for them to do it. A secret master plan to do it To take on high end gaming.
The iPhone 12. Mini. Pro. Max. All of them. All new retro chic design, OLED across the line, Dolby Vision, LiDAR, MagSafe, and, of course, 5G. Starting at $729. For the mini.
I’ve been reviewing them all since they first came out, and I’m here to tell you whether you should get one now… or wait for the iPhone 12s… or iPhone 13… or whatever Apple calls the next iPhone this fall.
Design
The iPhone 12 kept the front and back look of the iPhone 11 but brought back the flattened sides of the iPhone 4 and 5. The result is something that looks way cooler but isn’t really as comfortable to hold. With black, white, red, green, and blue on the standard and silver, graphite, gold, and blue on the Pro. And, yeah, there’s still a notch, right up on top. Which I no longer even really notice any more but some people still treat like a splinter in the eye.
The iPhone 13 will keep the same design, though there’ll almost certainly be some variation in the colors. It’ll also reportedly keep the notch, though not quite as wide.
So, if you like the iPhone 12 design, especially the colors, go ahead and grab one now.
But, if you’re hoping to get yellow or orange back, or some other color entirely, like purple, and especially if you want just a tiny bit less notch on top, wait and see what the iPhone 13 has to offer.
Display
The iPhone 12 displays are… just… better than they’ve ever been. OLED and HDR on all of them, so you get high contrast, deep blacks, and bright whites… on all of them. They look just… absolutely terrific. And now with ceramic shield… well, they still scratch, alas… but they’re much less likely to crack.
But, they’re still locked at 60 frames-per-second. No high refresh rate, no adaptive refresh. That’s only rumored to be coming with ProMotion on the next-generation iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max later this fall. I’ve done a video explaining exactly how that’ll work for the iPhone, link in the description.
So, if you don’t care about that, or don’t even know what it is, then get the iPhone 12 now and enjoy.
But, if you’re all… no 120… hurts… Just wait for iPhone 13 Pro.
Cameras
The iPhone 12 got better cameras across the board, but the iPhone 12 Pro got ProRaw and LiDAR for low light autofocus and night mode portraits, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max got an even bigger sensor, longer telephoto, and in-body image stabilization. Also, Deep fusion and Night Mode, across all cameras, likewise Dolby Vision for HDR video. I prefer the smaller iPhone Pro, and kinda all shades of adore the mini, but for me, the cameras on the iPhone 12 Pro Max made it the must-have.
So, if you’re cool using the Max or just cool with the regular cameras, you’ll be cool with the iPhone 12.
If you aren’t willing to go Max but still want maximum cameras, rumor has it the iPhone 13 may have LiDAR and the better sensors just across the line.
5G
The iPhone 12 series are the first iPhones with 5G, integrating Qualcomm’s X55 modem, which supports both frequency range 1, or low and mid band, and frequency range 2, or high band, aka mmWave. Only… 5G itself isn’t well supported.. .at least not yet. I have FR1 for a few blocks where I live, and get about double LTE speeds, but many people don’t have any 5G… or worse — 5G so bad they’re switching back to LTE. That modem is also not very efficient, so it drags the iPhone battery life down, even with Apple’s Smart Data feature trying its best to balance things out.
The iPhone 13 should integrate Qualcomm’s X60 modem, which is smaller and more efficient, allowing for more battery but also placing less pressure on the power system in the first place. Fingers crossed.
So, if 5G isn’t in your area or just isn’t high on your list, or on your list at all, you can get an iPhone 12 and be perfectly happy.
But, if you need 5G and need it to be as battery efficient as possible, there’ll be more 5G in the future and better 5G radios to go with it. Including, maybe, getting WiFi 6E on there as well.
Biometrics
The iPhone 12 has Face ID, same as the iPhone 11. Like, almost exactly the same. Despite supporting unlock on every orientation on the iPad since 2018, it’s still portrait-only on the iPhone. It does keep getting faster and smarter, but in the age of masks, when you’re out and about, it’s just nowhere nearly as convenient as it used to be.
The iPhone 13 is reportedly going to be getting a new version of Touch ID. Not in the power button like the new iPad Air, but under the display. And not instead of Face ID, but in addition to it. As in, the best of both biometric worlds.
So, if Face ID is still fine for you, it’s totally fine to pick up an iPhone 12 right now.
But if you need you some Touch ID back, you’re going to need to wait for the iPhone 13 at the earliest.
Lightning
The iPhone 12 still has the Lightning port. The same one Apple introduced back in 2012, almost three years before USB-C became a reality. And despite literally all the nerds asking them to switch to USB-C, like they’ve done on the Mac and are continuing to do on the iPad, Apple’s steadfastly, stubbornly even, stuck to Lightning on the iPhone.
But there are reports that maybe one model of iPhone 13 will finally delete the Lightning port. Not for USB-C, no. That’d be too well received. But delete it just to watch it die. Like the headphone jack. And just stick with the recently introduced MagSafe connector or a Smart Connector hybrid instead.
So, since the iPhone 12 currently has both Lightning and MagSafe, there’s no reason to wait on that front.
But if you’re at all nervous about Apple talking away your hard line, you may not even want to wait on the iPhone 13 anyway.
And for more on the iPhone, click the playlist above. I’ve got in-depth reviews of the iPhone 12 and a complete breakdown of what to expect with the iPhone 13. Just click the playlist and I’ll see you in the next video.
Dan Riccio, Apple’s longtime head of hardware is out — but not really. He’s going on to run a new and so far secret project. And John Ternus, the rising star of the engineering division is all in, like at the executive team level.
It’s yet another huge shakeup at the very top of Apple’s leadership chain, something that once seemed eternal but really has been changing and growing almost every year for over a decade now.
But what about this, what does this specific change really mean for the future of Apple hardware like the iPhone, iPad, and upcoming M-series Macs? Well…
The M1 MacBook Air. The first Apple Silicon Mac, with near MacBook Pro level performance, almost double — double — iPad Air battery life. With no fan… but also no redesign. Starting at $999.
It’s Apple’s most popular Mac, I’ve been reviewing it since it first came out, and I’m going to tell you whether or not you should get it now… or wait for the M2 Air redesign that’s rumored to be coming next.
Design
The M1 MacBook Air got a new heart… but not a new body. More on that incredibly impressive new heart in a hot minute, but it has the same design as the previous Intel MacBook Air. Going back to 2018. And that’s ok. That’s fine. It gave Apple a known thermal envelop to target and it absolutely kept the price down. More on that in a sizzling minute too. And it’s still small, still thin, still light. Just the easiest Mac to cary from work to school or the kitchen to the couch. And still that famous Star Destroyer wedge shape that launched a thousand ultrabooks. And I love it. It’s just not new.
But, new is what’s rumored to be coming with the next generation MacBook Air, likely some time in late 2021 or early 2022. Even smaller, even lighter, maybe as small and light as the now-discontinued 12-inch MacBook nothing. Just once again pushing the envelop — the manila envelop — on ultra portability.
So, if you don’t care about the design, and the current level of small and light is.. just… more than small and light enough, get the M1 Air.
But if you’ve been yearning for something as small and as light as the old 12-inch MacBook, then… wait on the M2.
Display
The M1 MacBook Air did get a boost in the display department. It was already Retina, which means high enough resolution you can’t really see individual pixels, just… clean crisp images and text. Also, TrueTone, so whites never look too yellow or too blue, just proper paper white. But now it’s also P3 wide color gamut, which means reds look richer and greens more vibrant. It can’t get quite as bright as the MacBook Pro, only about 80%, but I’ve found it more than enough in most situations, for most things.
The M2 MacBook Air is rumored to be keeping the same 13.3-inch display, but shrinking the bezels, so there’s less casing around the content. And while there are rumors the MacBook Pro might shift from LCD to mini LED for deeper blacks, higher contrast, and HDR, it’ll probably take even longer for that tech to filter down to the MacBook Air. Like M3 or M4 longer.
So, on display alone there’s no point waiting. If you want a MacBook Air, get it when you need it.
Compute
The M1 MacBook Air has… the M1. The first generation of Apple silicon, based on the same IP and architecture as the A14 Bionic in the iPhone 12. I’ve got a whole explainer up on it so check the link in the description. It’s an ultra-low-power system on a chip, but it’s got just about the best single-core performance in the business. Also, iPad level responsiveness, where everything just feels… utterly instant. No exaggeration, it’s the biggest boost in the history of the Mac. And that you can get it in something as small as the Air — and fanless, which means silent… is just remarkable. It runs native apps better than ever before and lolligager intel apps — especially the ones that lean hard on graphics — surprisingly well. The 18 hours of battery life are mind blowing, but the simple quality of life is game-changing.
M2… will be M2. The second generation of Apple silicon, almost certainly based on the same IP and architecture as the A15 in the iPhone 13 later this year. And that means we’ll probably get similar to the same kind of improvements in speed that we’ve seen over the last few iPhones. In other words, significant but probably not earth shattering, not at this point. Likewise, once Apple nails battery life for a device, they typically hold the line on it and use future efficiency gains to add extra features. So, I’d expect them to keep the same spec, just perform even better with it.
So, if you want the best mobile processor on the market right now, you’ll get all that and more with the M1 MacBook Air.
But, there will always be a next generation, so the longer you wait, the even better you’ll get.
Capacity
One of the coolest parts of the M1 MacBook Air is the unified memory. Just a big pool of 8GB or 16GB slapped right on the chipset and shared between the CPU, GPU, neural engine, and image signal processor. Combined with everything from memory compression to ultra-fast swap — I mean 8GB is still 8GB, but it’s the very best 8GB it can be. Same for 16GB. Especially when it comes to graphics, because embedded graphics is usually far, far more RAM constrained. And bottlenecked. But those are the only options on the Air… and on M1. 8GB or 16GB.
And… M2 probably won’t change that much. At least not for the Air. Same with storage. If you really need more, you’ll really need to wait on the higher end MacBook Pros, which currently go as high as 32 to 64GB and 4 to 8TB..
But, if it’s the MacBook Air you’re after, and the current capacities are enough, you can get the M1 today.
Ports
Back in 2015, Apple started going all-in on USB-C. But it took until 2018 for that to hit the MacBook Air. Since then, we’ve had two USB-C / Thunderbolt 3 ports on our the left. And two is good… even if they’re both, yeah… hey Cap, on your left. Which kind of defeats the whole purpose of being able to charge or connect to either one. Especially now, since Apple has put the Thunderbolt controllers right on the M1, and made them as fast as they possibly can be.
But rumor has it Apple might be bringing back MagSafe, the ancestral MacBook charging system, which snaps on magnetically when you want power and snaps off just as easily anytime anyone trips over the cord. There’s also an off-chance Apple will bring Thunderbolt 4 to the party at some point as well.
So, if you’re all about USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 is plenty fast enough, then the M1 MacBook Air is all you need.
But if you’re willing to wait, MagSafe and maybe TB4, could be yours on the M2.
I’m torn on this one, so let me know what you think in the comments.
Wireless
M1 brought Wi-Fi 6 to the Mac, which… is better than Wi-Fi 5.
There are rumors the M2 might bring Wi-Fi 6E, which adds 6GHz and makes it actually really better. Also maybe, just maybe cellular with 5G. Though that’s still a huge maybe, given how much work there’d need to be on the hardware antennas and software networking efficiency. Also, price. Which is coming right up. Because there’s a reason the cellular iPad costs so much more. A reason spelled Qualcomm.
Personally, I’m more than fine tethering, but if you really want cellular, you may really want to wait. Even if it’s a good long while.
Biometrics
The M1 MacBook Air has Touch ID. That’s Apple’s fingerprint identity scanner. Same as the previous couple of Intel models. Those were based on the Secure Enclave in the T2 co-processor, which was A10 Fusion generation, like the iPhone 7. This is built into the M1, which is A14 generation, like the current iPad Air. And it works great for everything from unlocking to Apple Pay to approving admin escalation. Just way, way faster than typing in a password.
But there’s an off-chance a next generation version, an M2 or M3, will take advantage of the neural engines and offer full-on Face ID instead. Maybe even as well. That’s Apple’s facial geometry identity scanner. It gives you everything Touch ID does, but just by looking at you. No touch needed. And hey, who knows, maybe even with a better webcam built in. Finally. If that’s high on your list as well, drop a like below.
So, if you prefer the idea of Touch ID, then no need to wait. Get the M1 MacBook Air as soon as you need it.
But, if you prefer the idea of Face ID, then you may want to hold out a while and see.
Pricing
The M1 MacBook Air starts at $999, even less with an education discount, which has always been just the minimum magical price for the Air. And sure, $999 still isn’t cheap, but given the performance, the battery life, and the longevity you get from the build quality, it’s a just ton of value. Which is why it’s just the most popular Mac.
An M2 MacBook Pro, though, sounds like it’s not going to replace the M1 so much as slide in on top of it as an even higher performance, more premium option. You know, bigger on the inside. Smaller on the outside? Just a more powerful Air in an even more portable package… for an even higher price.
So, if money matters and you want an entry level MacBook Air, you’ll want the M1, available now.
But if money’s no object and you’re just lusting after a higher-end Air, you’ll have to wait on the M2.
And while you’re waiting, check out this playlist, where I take a closer look at the M1 Macs and preview the M2 MacBook Airs coming next. Just click on the playlist and I’ll see you next video.
