Chips

Anki, blessed by Apple, takes AI and robotics to consumers

When Apple turns over part of its oh-so-important Worldwide Developers Conference keynote address to an unknown startup, you can be sure Tim Cook and Co. think they're dealing with some very cool technology.

That was very much the case with Anki, which was handpicked for a coveted slot as the poster child for what unknown developers can do with iOS. During its time onstage, Anki showed off what at first appears to be a simple toy car racing game, but what in reality might be the most advanced intersection of consumer-grade artificial intelligence and robotics ever.… Read more

Give Apple a solid 'B' to 'B+' at WWDC 2013

If you were expecting a wow moment during the opening of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, odds are that the litany of incremental changes to its hardware and software disappointed. No big surprises. No "one last thing" sort of announcements were in the offing.

But this year's developers conference also occurs at an unusual time for Apple. The company that brought the world smartphones and tablets is in the unfamiliar position of fighting the perception that Samsung and others are winning the technology race. And when the opportunity came to give voice to that frustration … Read more

AMD nabs Apple graphics chip designer

Advanced Micro Devices will soon announce it has hired a former Apple graphics chip designer to bolster its engineering leadership bench as it turns itself around, CNET has learned.

Raja Koduri, who most recently served as director of graphics architecture for Apple, will be rejoining AMD four years after leaving that company, people familiar with the hire told CNET. He will be taking on a role in AMD's graphics business, though it wasn't immediately clear to CNET what his title would be. AMD is expected to make the announcement next week.

The move is the latest in a … Read more

The untold story behind Apple's $13,000 operating system

SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS, Calif. -- In the common retelling of Apple's history, it was Steve Jobs' and Steve Wozniak's second computer, the Apple II, that launched their fledgling company toward stratospheric growth and financial success. The machine's triumph as a single platform for business software, games, artistic tools -- and more -- set the stage for the later debut of the first Mac, and later OS X and iDevices.

What many forget -- or may not even know -- is that when the Apple II was introduced at the inaugural West Coast Computer Faire in April, 1977, it suffered from what, in retrospect, was a glaring shortcoming: It had no disk drive. … Read more

For an iWatch to kick butt, Apple must innovate in batteries

If Apple is hard at work on an "iWatch," it will have to overcome battery issues bedeviling existing smartwatch makers.

This new crop of wrist devices has a lot more in common with smartphones than your old Timex. They have increasingly large displays, and can ferry over notifications and other data, acting as a second screen of sorts for your smartphone. For many of the latest models, that extra utility is not without a compromise: You've got to plug it in at the end of the day.

Charging a smartphone every day can be an annoyance, but … Read more

NFC: Not just for mobile payments anymore

Move over, mobile payments. NFC is finding other ways to make itself useful.

In fact, paying for items with one's phone seems to be the least common use for the close-range connectivity technology right now, at least based on gadgets unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show. Rather, essentially all products using NFC shown at the recent confab employed the technology in one of two ways: To set up a sort of digital handshake between a mobile device and another gadget or as a way to share information between products with just a tap.

"NFC really simplifies things," … Read more

Samsung looks to diversify chip business amid Apple trouble

Samsung is already responding to Apple's seeming desire to reduce its reliance on its chief competitor for the production of mobile processors.

Stephen Woo, president of Samsung's Systems LSI division, which is charged with producing mobile processors, told Reuters in an interview published yesterday that his company is looking to "diversify our customer base." To do so, he said, Samsung has already added "some Chinese customers."

Woo admitted that the move is a response to Apple's waning reliance on Samsung for its chip-making needs. Apple pays Samsung about $8.8 billion for its … Read more

Apple nabs former TI engineers for chip push, report says

Reports suggest that Apple is in the hunt for former Texas Instruments engineers in Israel, in a bid to expand its operations in the country.

According to sources speaking to The Next Web, Apple has been hiring "dozens" of engineers after the chipmaker cut 250 jobs from one of its Israeli operations center.

Apple is ramping up its efforts to build research and development centers in Herzliya and Haifa, the report said.

TI this month announced a round of redundancies, in the region of 1,700 employees worldwide, as it aims to pull out of the consumer market … Read more

Intel inside the iPad? Maybe, if it builds iPhone chips, RBC says

RBC Capital Markets has a new twist to the frequent Apple-Intel relationship rumors, and this time, it could actually be good news for Intel.

According to RBC analyst Doug Freedman, Apple may be contemplating a new relationship where Intel would build Apple's self-designed ARM-based smartphone chips in exchange for Apple using Intel's X86 processors in certain new devices, like the next-generation iPad.

While it may seem illogical for Apple to use different processors in its mobile devices, that could be one way for it to secure enough capacity and use chips on the leading edge of technology. After … Read more