Daily Apple News: 5nm chip and 5G in iPhones, iOS apps secretly send data to Facebook, Cook honors Steve Jobs and more

We’re back again with exciting news from the world of Apple. Thanks for checking in to today’s daily dose of Apple news. Relax and read about how Apple intends to shrink die size for its iPhone in 2020 and how many iOS apps have been found to be secretly sending data to world’s largest social networking platform!

Apple’s A12 Bionic chip fueled a few of its flagship 2018 iPhones. Rumor has it that its A13 chip will also be based on the same 7nm manufacturing process as that of its A12 chip. Like the A12 chip, its A13 chip will also be supplied by TSMC. However, Apple’s 2020 iPhones will feature a chip based on a 5nm manufacturing process.

This news comes courtesy of DigiTimes. Well, there is definitely some truth in this report as TSMC has confirmed its investment plans of $25 billion in the production of 5nm chips for Apple in 2020.

Having a smaller die size will allow for a greater number of transistors to be present on the core. This will lead to lowered power consumption and in turn higher clock speeds. In simple terms, this translates to an overall performance increase.

Shrinking the die size will definitely give Apple an edge over its competitors. In fact, it’s precisely the reason which has kept its 2018 SoC, the A12 chip, far ahead of the competition in terms of raw performance.

It, however, seems like Apple won’t be adopting the 5G network any time soon. Unfortunately, Intel has confirmed that its 5G chipset will only go mainstream in 2020. This is quite a major setback as it will leave Apple vulnerable in 2019 to the competition in terms of 5G tech. If you didn’t already know, Samsung has launched a 5G variant of the Samsung Galaxy S10.

In addition to this, Nokia has teamed up with MediaTek to successfully complete 5G testing of its Helio M70 modem chip. Here’s what a recent Reuters report said:

Intel Corp executives said on Friday its 5G modem chips will not appear in mobile phones until 2020, raising the possibility its biggest customer, Apple Inc, will be more than a year behind rivals in delivering a device that uses the faster networks

Apple, for a very long time now, has always relied upon Intel for its iPhone modems. The company is quite limited when it comes to purchasing 5G technology since it hasn’t been on the best of terms with Qualcomm and the feud between both continue even till today.

It seems like the previous rumors suggesting that only Apple’s 2020 phone will support 5G appears to be true!

In other news, 24th February marks the 64th birthday of Steve Jobs. The former CEO and co-founder of Apple would have been 64 today if he were still alive. Born on 24th February 1955, Steve Jobs set out to establish what is recognized today as one of the greatest and most potent forces in the international smartphone market.

He almost single handedly brought the company out of treacherous waters in the period between 2000 and 2010. In loving memory of a remarkable man, Tim Cook, the present CEO of Apple took to Twitter to honor the co-founder.

Moving on, Apple continues to tout its flagship iPhones of 2018, the iPhone XR and XS as one of the most brilliant devices in terms of camera performance.

The company continues to do so by focusing on the portrait Mode and Depth Control features of both smartphones. Its latest ad campaign called Alejandro highlights the use of the Depth Control feature to erase someone from the background of any picture.

According to Apple:

Depth Control on iPhone XS and iPhone XR lets you adjust the depth of field before or after you shoot. So you can blur out whoever’s in the background, to get your portraits just right

The company claims that the feature works flawlessly in getting the image just right by blurring out a person from any portrait image. Feast your eyes on the interesting and captivating Alejandro ad!

https://youtu.be/xXqWckzS1aA

Moving the news ticker further, it seems like Facebook may be using large amounts of data on your iPhone without you even knowing it. Apparently, certain iOS apps have been sending enormous amounts of data to Facebook without the consent of its users. Supposedly, Facebook collects data from apps even if users log in to those apps without a Facebook login.

So, why are apps sharing data with the social media giant? Well, it’s no secret that Facebook makes use of an analytical tool to best know its target audience. Facebook is pulling data from apps without disclosing this to its users. While users can actually turn off Facebook’s targeted advertising what they cannot do is prevent the apps from sending data to Facebook servers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that at least 11 apps are out there that have been identified with this sort of behavior. 11 out of numerous tested apps have been found guilty of surreptitiously sending collected data to Facebook. Hopefully, a software update will soon fix this issue.

Last but not least, the COO of Apple, Jeff Williams explains to Elon University and in turn, the world, as to why its products actually cost as much as they do. In answering some of the questions posed by the students of Elon University, a question arose regarding Apple’s high costing and whether or not it had any plans of reducing its cost.

In reply, Jeff Williams explains as to why Apple products may appear to be more expensive than comparable products offered by its competitors. In not so many words, Jeff Williams concludes:

The stories that come out about the cost of our products [have been] the bane of my existence from the beginning of time, including our early days… Analysts don’t really understand the cost of what we do and how much care we put into making our products

Do you think that Apple products are overpriced or do you agree with the COO’s take on it? Let us know in the comments section! That’s all for today folks, but do tune in again tomorrow to get the latest scoop of Apple news!

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