HARDWARE

Off the old Block

Apple’s had many-a public breakup with chipmakers: Motorola, IBM, and, most recently, Intel. But as of yesterday, the company is—as Emma Watson would say—happily “self-partnered.” 

For the first time ever, Apple has unveiled its own chip for Mac computers. 

Chip in: the M1 

Apple’s virtual event yesterday had everything: Apple Silicon, new details on its Big Sur operating system, and three new Macs. The star of the show was M1, the Arm-based chip that will power those machines. 

Apple’s not new to chipmaking; its silicon design team has been at it for 10+ years. But those chips were designed for the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and other platforms—never Mac computers. 

The tl;dr for M1: high performance + low power usage. Before, a Mac needed multiple different chips—e.g., one as the processor, one for security, one for memory—to work efficiently. Now, Apple says, all those tasks are combined into a single chip. More on the specs: a 16-core neural engine that can perform 11 trillion operations per second. 

With the M1, Apple is continuing to champion one of the next big things in semiconductor manufacturing: teeny-tiny transistors. Just last month, Apple’s A14 chip—used in its 5G smartphone suite—became the world’s first chip built using 5-nanometer transistors. 

• Apple’s latest ex, Intel, is still struggling to shrink transistors down to 7 nanometers. 

The flip side 

Transitioning to in-house chips—figuratively, since Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) is manufacturing them—is a strategic, long-term move. But the short term could bring issues and frustrations for app developers and consumers alike. 

• Although Apple’s “hero apps” will likely work perfectly, others could break or have compatibility issues. Plus, developers will have to “support disparate apps” for the Intel and Arm versions, opines Dan Newman, principal analyst at Futurum Research, in MarketWatch. 

Looking ahead: Microsoft has spent a decade working to make its software run with comparable chips—and it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. Apple could mirror that trajectory...or turn it on its head. 

VC

Vision Fun(d): Never a Dull Day

C-suite shake-ups, investment write-downs, slide deck sorcery: It all went down at SoftBank this week and has been par for the course all year. But by and large, the tech mega-investor is clawing back.  

SoftBank recorded a $6.1 billion Q3 profit, the company said Monday. The Vision Fund is above-water: Its active investments, which cost $75 billion, are worth $76.4 billion. Though SoftBank had trouble recruiting third-party investors for its $10 billion Vision Fund 2, it’s still making deals…

A few examples

The first needs no introduction. SoftBank is in talks to offload Boston Dynamics to Hyundai, Bloomberg reported Monday. The robo-dog maker could fetch a price as high as $1 billion. 

• Keep in mind SoftBank has also agreed to sell Arm to Nvidia...

Expanding cap tables: Nuro announced $500 million in new funding from growth-stage investors, including SoftBank. The self-driving delivery startup is now valued at $5 billion. Last year, SoftBank’s Vision Fund backed Nuro with $940 million at a $2.7 billion valuation. 

New bets: Vision Fund 2 made its first big micromobility splash yesterday, leading a $250 million investment in Berlin-based Tier Mobility.

SPONSORED BY REV

Did You Catch That?

It’s an all-too-common occurrence on Zoom calls these days, which is to say, all day, every day.

“Wait, what exactly did they say?”

The frustration is not lost on anybody—unless you’re an incredible lip-reader. So the caption masterminds at Rev came up with a solution to eliminate issues with attention, comprehension, and accessibility.

Rev Live Captions automatically add real-time captions to Zoom meetings and webinars, sparing you and your viewers from needing to schedule follow-up meetings to understand what was actually said in the first meeting.

Oh, you can read lips, you say? Well coincidentally, Rev has a challenge for you.

If you can guess what their probably-not-a-doctor spokesperson, Dr. Rev, is saying in this here clip, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win up to $500 in Amazon gift cards, or one of ten (10) $25 Starbucks gift cards.

We read you loud and clear, Rev.

Take the challenge right here.

R&D

Top 10

Scientific American and the World Economic Forum tallied up the top ten emerging technologies to watch in 2020. Instant click from us. Each winner is summarized and italicized below. 

Relevant right now: Virtual patients could expedite vaccine trials. Digital medicine refers to a growing ecosystem of apps, AI, and wearables that enhance diagnostics and decentralize healthcare. 

Heavy-duty: Low-carbon cement and sun-powered chemistry could help decarbonize emissions-intensive industries. Green hydrogen and electric aviation may do the same with heavy-duty transportation sectors. 

• Given the energy density limits of today’s batteries, consider us skeptical on the last one. 

Smol: Microneedles, which don’t require costly equipment or cumbersome training, could be used for painless injections and blood testing. On an even smaller scale, using whole genome synthesis, labs can print genetic material. Software advancements are expanding the range of what’s “printable” and “editable.”

Very emerging tech-y: Spatial computing leverages mixed reality and real-world sensors. And not so-real-yet quantum sensors could let autonomous cars “see” around corners. 

BITS & BYTES

Stat: During the first 10 months of 2020, Pokémon Go generated more than $1 billion in revenue, marking its best sales year yet. 

Quote: “This is not like some crazy, newfangled science fiction invention….This is something that reminds me of a place that I’ve been and I’ve used many times, that I would feel comfortable putting grandma in and sending her on a visit somewhere.” —Sara Luchian of Virgin Hyperloop talked about the company’s first human passenger test with The Verge. 

Read: VentureBeat dove into how AI election predictions measured up against pollsters. 

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Walmart and Cruise will launch a self-driving delivery service in Arizona next year. 
• Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s top competition cop, filed antitrust charges against Amazon for collecting data from third-party retailers on its marketplace. 
• Zoom settled with the FTC for deceptive encryption marketing practices. 
• Say hello to Uber Reserve, a new feature that lets riders book up to 30 days in advance.  
• The Boring Company is staffing up in Austin, TX, leading to speculation that Ryan’s homebase could be the site of its next underground tunnel project. 
• GM is hiring 3,000 new employees, primarily developers, to support its pivot to EVs.
• Lebanon’s central bank is launching a digital currency next year. 

TRIVIA

The new Xbox Series X and Series S launched yesterday. Xbox Live also had an outage, which is unfortunate timing, but we won’t talk about that. This week’s trivia focuses on the history of the Xbox product line.  

Take the quiz here.

TECH THINGAMABOBS

For AI soundscapes: What if the Windows 95 startup sound continued...into an entire song? Someone used OpenAI Jukebox to find out, generating a two-minute piece based off of Brian Eno’s original composition. 

For the uncanny valley: Disney Research wants to create human-robot interactions that “demonstrate...the illusion of life” by making robots’ gaze more lifelike, according to an October paper. Watch a demo of the “eye contact” here. 

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Emerging Tech Brew stories from the past few editions: 

• Healthcare AI’s data problem 
• Bitcoin passes $15,000
• Retail robots: a tale of two automata