Apple Updates the 13-Inch MacBook Pro
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| Apple Updates the 13-Inch MacBook Pro | |
| Number | 1117 |
| Broadcast Date | MAY 4, 2020 |
| Episode Length | 5:04 |
| Hosts | Rich Stroffolino |
Apple updates the MacBook Pro with the new Magic Keyboard, Jeff Bezos called to testify to US House Judiciary Committee over whether Amazon lied to congress about using third-party data, and HiSilicon overtakes Samsung for smartphone processor shipments in China.
Headlines
- Apple updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which now includes the Magic Keyboard. Pricing starts at $1299 and includes a quad core 8th gen Intel i5, 256GB of storage, 8GB of RAM, a TouchBar with a physical escape key, a 500nits display that supports the P3 color gamut, and 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports. 10th gen Intel processors and faster LPDDR4X memory are available on models with 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports. With the update, Apple no longer sells devices with butterfly keyboard switches.
- The US House Judiciary Committee called Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to testify whether Amazon’s associate general counsel Nate Sutton lied to Congress when he claimed Amazon did not use third party seller data to develop its own products. The Wall Street Journal reported April 24 that Amazon employees had used such data for such purposes. Amazon released a statement last week saying it does not believe the claims made in The Wall Street Journal article.
- In a regulatory filing, Uber disclosed its Uber Eats service is pulling out of markets in the Czech Republic, Egypt, Honduras, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay and Ukraine by June 4th, as well as transferring service in the United Arab Emirates to it's subsidiary Careem in the coming weeks. An Uber spokesperson said this is part of Uber's previously announced strategy to only operate Uber Eats in markets where it can hold first or second place in marketshare.
- Uber confirmed a new policy to require drivers and riders in certain countries to wear face masks. As part of the policy, Uber is developing a system to detect if drivers are wearing masks before they are allowed to get online and accept trips. Uber said it is working to get masks to drivers who need them as soon as possible, as part of a commitment to buy tens of millions of face masks last month.
- Nvidia Chief Scientist Bill Dally released an open-source ventilator hardware design called OP-Vent. The ventilator can be made with off-the-shelf parts that cost less than $400. It uses a solenoid valve to control air flow and a flow meter for precision delivery. The design has yet to be cleared by the US FDA and Dally is seeking manufacturing partners to make it at scale.
- In a stock market filing, Telefonica confirmed it is in talks with Liberty Global about a possible merger of their respective UK assets, O2 and Virgin Media, with a proposed 6 million cable customers and 37.8 million mobile subscribers combined. Liberty Global also owns a 10% stake in the UK's ITV, although it is unclear if that would be part of the merger.
- The Chinese research firm CINNO reports that in Q1, the Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon surpassed Qualcomm for the most smartphone processors shipped in China for the first time. HiSilicon shipped 22.21 million processors in the quarter with effectively flat growth on the year, compared with overall smartphone processor shipments in China down 44.5% on the year. According to CINNO, over 90% of Huawei phones shipped used HiSilicon processors in the quarter.
- According to a biannual report from the China Internet Network Information Center, China now has 904 million internet users, up 9% since the end of 2018. Mobile internet users account for 99.3%. 496 million people don't have internet access as of March 2020, of which 60% live in rural areas. The report also saw the impact of COVID-19, with online education platforms increasing users 82% since June 2019. Other impacts include food delivery app users decreased 2%, travel booking app users were down 9%, and ride hailing users were down 7% since the end of 2018. The report also showed 560 million live streamers in the country.
- Catalin Cimpanu at ZDNet reports that in the past 12 months, more than 1,000 documents mentioning ransomware as a credible and potential future risk for their operations, have been filed by companies to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. This includes 743 filed in 2020, compared to the 749 documents filed with the SEC listing ransomware in all of 2018. In February 2018, the SEC published formal guidance asking companies to improve disclosure of cyber-security risks, specifically referencing ransomware. According to a report by the ransomware incident response company Coveware, ransomware ransoms in Q1 2020 average $110,000, up from $10,000 a year ago.
- Valve announced it is ending support for SteamVR on macOS. Mac users can still use SteamVR in Steam by opting into the beta branch in settings, which will still provide access to legacy software, although will not receive further updates. Valve says the move was made to allow the company to focus development on Windows and Linux.
Links
| Preceded by: "Week in Review for the Week of 4/27/20" |
Apple Updates the 13-Inch MacBook Pro |
Followed by: "Apple to host virtual WWDC on June 22" |