Apple Shuffles Hardware Execs To Make Room For a Mysterious 'New Project' (engadget.com) 50
Dan Riccio has served as senior VP of engineering overseeing all of Apple's hardware since 2012, but now he's stepping back from that role. A press release revealed he's focusing on a mysterious "new project" at Apple and will still report directly to CEO Tim Cook. Engadget reports: Exactly what that new project is remains unclear, although recent rumors have pointed to Apple's plans for augmented and virtual reality or building an electric car. Of course, maybe it's a differently color iPhone or an even-more-expensive pair of noise-cancelling headphones. Riccio previously lead the iPad team before taking over as senior VP, and oversaw projects all the way up to the recently-launched AirPods Max.
Replacing Riccio on Apple's executive team is John Ternus, who has been the VP of hardware engineering since 2013, and is noted as a key figure in Apple's rollout of its new M1 CPUs. Meanwhile, Riccio will still hold the title of vice president of engineering and "play an instrumental role in shaping the future of Apple's products."
Replacing Riccio on Apple's executive team is John Ternus, who has been the VP of hardware engineering since 2013, and is noted as a key figure in Apple's rollout of its new M1 CPUs. Meanwhile, Riccio will still hold the title of vice president of engineering and "play an instrumental role in shaping the future of Apple's products."
Re:It'll be another macbook (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple has been making their own GPUs for awhile. There is an integrated GPU in the M1 and the next generation (M2?) is likely to see a big improvement.
But I doubt a new GPU is the "big project". Apple's laptop sales are only about $9 billion annually, which is peanuts compared to their phones and tablets.
My bet is on the car. If the rumors about their new battery tech are true, it could be a game-changer.
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Possibly, though I've continually read so many different articles on 'next gen battery tech coming in [the future]'.
The battery tech improves constantly, there's just a delay between laboratory to production line, and because of the constant nature there's no single large nevolution, but rather steady pace consisting of a series small revolutions, which each would be major if they were alone.
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In li-ion cells alone, capacity per cell has multiplied several times since they were first introduced to the market. At the same time, price per cell has halved even more often.
Re: It'll be another macbook (Score:1)
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If they switch to MagSafe, I'd guess it'd be something that works with USB-C. I have my old MagSafe and MagSafe2 Macs powered from modern USB-C PD laptop power supplies using Chinese adapter cables and they work perfectly fine.
OMG OMG OMG (Score:1)
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America worshipping CEOS again (Score:1)
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Sometimes i wonder why they bother to hire real engineers, its obvious the execs do everything
That is because the execs understand why Apple is successful:
Design matters more than engineering.
Beauty matters more than value.
Jobs mattered more than Wozniak.
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Apple is little more than a Supreme brand slapped on comparable hardware.
That's a Supreme-ly 2019 take. M1 Macbooks run Windows faster in emulation than than it runs natively on Wintel thin-n-light notebooks.
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Sometimes i wonder why they bother to hire real engineers, its obvious the execs do everything
That is because the execs understand why Apple is successful:
Design matters more than engineering.
Beauty matters more than value.
Jobs mattered more than Wozniak.
Even though so many of us live in a world where cheap is king, there is room for nice stuff. I've been dealing with some of the folks like this recently.
After buying computers that were horribly underpowered for the purpose - but they were an awesome deal - I'm overseeing purchasing new ones. Different group, same damn thing. I'm fighting with the people on the committee because they want to buy - you got it - the best bargain out there. One even wants to buy refurbs to save even more money. I'm going t
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The argument that the poster would be making is that Apple is 'nice' in the way a designer brand is 'nice'. A solid enough product, but when it comes to substance, not really better than much more economical competitors.
To use a very rough car analogy, a well equipped Toyota Camry can be every bit as substantially nice as a BMW 3-series, but BMW commands a much higher price due to it being a prestige brand. This is a pretty shallow difference that the poster would claim is akin to Apple vs. competition.
Now
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The argument that the poster would be making is that Apple is 'nice' in the way a designer brand is 'nice'. A solid enough product, but when it comes to substance, not really better than much more economical competitors.
There is an issue though. Define "nice". Having used Windows and Macs since there were such machines, and maintaining/fixing both for people, my definition of "nice" is functional uptime as close to 100 percent as possible. And I can say that unless my experience is a one off, MacOS beats the crap out of Windows. Even the issues with Big Sur I have had are unique, and daily occurrences in Windows world. At least I can tell people to not update until a couple things get ironed out. With Windows updates, it's
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So most of my desktop experience is Linux (partly because I prefer *nix style, partly because I like the option to examine source code, and partly because I just prefer the specific abilities of certain window managers that I can't get under other desktop platforms).
That said, I have occasionally used Mac and I have a Windows system that I have to deal with. At least with respect to Windows 10 v. MacOS, I don't really see a lot of meaningful difference for those that won't open up terminal or run X applicat
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Jobs mattered more than Wozniak.
Without Jobs, Wozniak would have been an unknown home tinkerer.
Without Wozniak, Jobs would have been elsewhere looking for his first big thing. Who knows if he would have found it. Does the person make the opportunity, or does the opportunity make the person? Maybe Jobs would have found history-changing technology without Wozniak, but it's also possible that he would be yet another nameless genius businessman who never found their initial killer product.
inside info (Score:3, Funny)
I'm an engineering manager at Apple. It's augmented reality. Glasses, displays, and short-wave projection onto glass. In-house demos so far are blowing our minds. It's like something out of sci-fi movies. Makes Star Wars stuff look like ancient tech. For fun we've been playing with different ui schemes, we've been especially entertained with a sort of "Predator" (the movie) mode.
Interfaces are interchangeable and sync with nearby devices. It implements the contract tracing radio communication. Mr. Riccio has already been involved with slimming down battery, and reducing heat. We've internally named the chip MX, as we're working with the successor to M1, but with multi-core integrated gpu. Got to hand it to the team already, this is going to be huge!
The master plan is to eventually integrate this into a larger machine learning system and map out the world... parks, offices, homes, not just streets (Tesla). There are also social uses for this tech as well. Integration with social media and incorporating consumer emersion there. For instance, the glasses will be able to assist with detecting and removing objectionable content, such as apps that don't meet our criteria, anything that may distract our customers from the prescribed narratives, their choice of software, or ideas we disagree with. It will also filter fake news... such as this post. This is fake. Complete nonsense. Rubbish.
fire up the rumor mill! (Score:2)
But in sad reality, this is going to be bigger that project Ginger - they couldn't get the self-driving car to work, 2-dimensional streets were too cluttered. So they're taking the easy way out and just going to make it fly.
The iVibrate (Score:3)
Apple recognises the need for sexual pleasure in the time of lockdowns and introduces a gender-neutral pleasuring device, the iVibrate, or internally referred to as Apple Banana. It is designed to be used by men and women equally. The device integrates IoT technology, responds to voice input and provides pleasure talk in a range of selectable voices of prominent speakers. So can one choose between Kevin Hart, Tawny Newsome, Jim Parsons or Kristen Schaal, but it also features a voice synthesizer, which can t
Lion all over again (Score:1)
Mac OS 10.5 sucked horribly because all the talent had been drained for the mystery project that became IOS.. Just watch what doesn't get updated or fails next version for an idea of what's in the works..
Apple(R) Shuffles(TM) is a web page. (Score:1)
You enter the hardware requirements for your next company-bought laptop, and it randomly picks one of Apple's overpriced baubles, complete with a random justification for the gross waste of money.
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a) mice with more than one button are hardly a limitation, but the OS is.
b) moat Apple users in "design" use trackpads. Perhaps you want to check how "multi touch" works in relation t a mouse?
c) Mac users who use mice, use either an Apple one: a mouse with "trackpad" or a standard usb mouse with multiple buttons, just like anyone els
d) you are simply an Apple users hating idiot.
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You Fucking Retard.
Oh, I'm sorry, I meant to mock you, and instead I just presented my sincere assessment. Oops.
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You did not mock anyone, you simply sincerely believe that web designers and on top of that apple users are idiots.
The only Mac I ever had with only one button was 1992, my Mac SE. So go figure.
"Mysterious New Project" (Score:5, Funny)
The Headphone Jack.
How Retro. How Courageous. Even Hipper than soldering DIMMs to the motherboard!
How about (Score:2)
I can get this level of malfunction on my Windows machines, thankyverymuch!
Been using it for about 15 days, and I'm going to have to gather up the files I've done since then, and roll the OS back to something useable with time machine
Maybe they will finally release an Apple ///GS? (Score:3)
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Apple iEye! (Score:2)
Expect limited availability, I hear the first batches are reserved for pirates and other patch-clad sailors.
For obvious reasons.
apple car with all parts and service locked down (Score:2)
apple car with all parts and service locked down.
So you better buy the apple care car deluxe with hail covage or we may just force you to buy an refurbished car at 75% OF full price when you need service.
The iCar *must* be self driving... (Score:2)
...because the ultra-polished glass steering wheel will be too slippery to turn.
I bet I know what it is (Score:1)
Apple Toilet Paper (Score:2)
Could be something to wipe your ass with that costs $1000 per asswipe.