Technology - Google News

Apple execs talk new MacBook Pro, end of the Touch Bar, and offer advice to Google in new interview - 9to5Mac

Posted: 22 Oct 2021 07:01 AM PDT

With the Apple Silicon transition in full swing following this week's announcement of new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, Apple executives say there is still a lot more to look forward to. In a new interview with Wired, Apple's Johnny Srouji, John Ternus, and Greg Joswiak talked in-depth about the new MacBook Pros, what the company learned from the 2016 MacBook Pro refresh, and more.

Srouji, who serves as Apple's senior hardware technology VP, explained that there are many benefits to Apple designing its own silicon versus using off-the-shelf components.

"When you're a merchant vendor, a company that delivers off-the-shelf components or silicon to many customers, you have to figure what is the least common denominator—what is it that everyone needs across many years?" he says. "We work as one team—the silicon, the hardware, the software, the industrial design, and other teams—to enable a certain vision. When you translate that to silicon, that gives us a very unique opportunity and freedom because now you're designing something that is not only truly unique, but optimized for a certain product."

Srouji went on to explain that the biggest question Apple has to answer when coming up with new chip technology is if its goals are "gated by physics."

In the case of the MacBook Pro, he says, he sat with leaders like Ternus and Craig Federighi several years ago and envisioned what users would be able to get their hands on in 2021. It would all spring from the silicon. "We sit together, and say, 'Okay, is it gated by physics? Or is it something we can go beyond?' And then, if it's not gated by physics and it's a matter of time, we go figure out how to build it."

Ternus, Apple's senior hardware engineering VP, offered some additional detail on the roadmap of these new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models:

"Traditionally, you've got one team at one company designing a chip, and they have their own set of priorities and optimizations. And then the product team and another company has to take that chip and make it work in their design. With these MacBook Pros, we started all the way at the beginning—the chip was being designed right when the system was being thought through. For instance, power delivery is important and challenging with these high-performance parts. By working together [early on], the team was able to come up with a solution. And the system team was actually able to influence the shape, aspect ratio, and orientation of the SOC so that it can best nest into the rest of the system components."

As for the the fate of the Touch Bar, which was removed from the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, Joswiak says that there's "no doubt that our Pro customers love that full-size, tactile feel of those function keys, and so that's the decision we made." He adds that Apple feels "great" about this decision and that it still sells an entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar.

Finally, Wired asks Ternus, Srouji, and Joswiak about Google's recent announcement of its custom Tensor chip being used in the Pixel 6.

"Is this a case of 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?'" I ask the Apple team.

"You took my line!" says Joswiak. "Clearly, they think we're doing something right."

"If you were to give Google or some other company friendly advice on their silicon journey, what would it be?" I ask.

"Oh, I don't know," says Joz. "Buy a Mac."

The full piece at Wired is well worth a read and can be found here.

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

Adblock test (Why?)

iPod success story was down to Steve Jobs keeping his word, says Tony Fadell - 9to5Mac

Posted: 22 Oct 2021 07:12 AM PDT

The iPod success story was far from assured, even after it was launched, says Tony Fadell, the man dubbed "father of the iPod."

Early sales were nothing to write home about, and Fadell felt it would take three generations before the product line would take off, so he asked Apple cofounder Steve Jobs to make a promise…

The CNET interview starts with some familiar ground. Fadell was trying to get his own mp3 player off the ground in his startup, Fuse Systems. It wasn't going well, and when Apple asked him to consult for them, his primary motivation was earning enough money to keep his company going.

Seven weeks later, when he was called in to present his proposals to Steve Jobs, the Apple cofounder wasn't greatly interested in the papers – he wanted to see the models. Fadell followed the advice he'd been given by Apple marketing guru Stan Ng.

When presenting the models, Fadell did as Ng coached, showing off the worst model first, then the second and, finally, his favorite as the last option. Jobs seized on it immediately.

"Steve picked it up and he's like, 'We're building this and you're now going to join us to build it,' and I was like, 'Whoa whoa,'" Fadell said.

The reason for his hesitation was that Apple was a loss-making company whose Mac sales were declining. There was no reason then to think that Apple would fare any better than Fuse had. But Steve persuaded him by making a promise – one that turned out to be critical to the success of the iPod.

Fadell asked Apple's visionary leader if he was willing to go the distance with the iPod, not just investing in this first unit, but to commit to a family of products. Fadell had been through enough scenarios in which a company cancels the first product nine months in because it didn't want to invest in the next one. In Fadell's mind, it took three generations to get the ball rolling.

"A lot of people stop midway through the journey, and I wanted to make sure we weren't going to do that," he said.

Jobs told Fadell he was going to throw marketing dollars at the iPod, pulling resources from its core Mac business. And even though sales of the original iPod and the follow-up version didn't light any fires, Jobs followed through.

"He held up his side of the business, and the rest is history," he said.

Fadell said that he keeps his old iPod as a kind of time capsule, still with the music loaded onto it at the time.

"It's a window of time of my music library, and so you leave it that way," he said. "You kind of jack in and you're like, 'I'm just right back to early 2000s music.' It's kind of like a really great mixtape."

He separately told Bloomberg that he does think Apple will move into a new product category – though he wouldn't predict what that might be – but that this isn't the only way to innovate. There's plenty of scope for improving existing products, and creating new accessories for them.

"You'll see a lot more accessories like Air Pods and things of that nature," he said. There's also plenty of room to enhance Apple's existing product lines, Fadell added. "Just because you want to see a new hardware platform or a new thing — that's not the only place you innovate," he said. "You innovate in all kinds of software and services."

If you want to know more about the iPod development process, Fadell answered questions on Twitter a couple of years ago.

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news: