Long-running speculation that Apple deliberately slows down older iPhones in software in order to supposedly push people into purchasing its latest models has been officially debunked and put to rest by Finnish computer benchmark developers Futuremark.
When Apple informed GPU component supplier Imagination Technology back in April that they would no longer be requiring their services, their shares dropped by nearly 50% by the following day. It has been a bit of a bitter separation, with Imagination saying that Apple would be unable to create their own GPU without violating their patents.
Many people are still waiting for the premium iPhone X to hit the market in November. But in the meantime, iPhone 8 shoppers have started to receive their brand spanking new phones.
Say hello to macOS High Sierra, Apple's newest operating system update for Macs. Whether you're on an iMac or one of the Touch Bar-outfitted MacBook Pro models, there is a lot to love in this latest release of Apple's desktop operating system.
Apple has hit hard at the accusations that its former mobile GPU supplier Imagination Technologies leveled at the Cupertino tech giant. According to the iPhone maker, Imagination's “unsubstantiated allegations” made recently in their annual report to investors are “inaccurate and misleading,” Bloomberg reported Friday.
Apple is adamant that Imagination had known for much longer that their business relationship was ending, explaining it started working with the British firm since the first iPhone was released in 2007 and stopped accepting new intellectual property from them in 2015.
An excerpt from the article:
By 2016, Apple said it told Imagination it was further diminishing the relationship by initiating a clause in its contact that allows Apple to pay a lower royalty rate for using a smaller amount of intellectual property.
By February of this year, Apple said it told Imagination it was ending the relationship altogether and would no longer be making any royalty payments as early as 2018.
Basically, Imagination'd known for two years of Apple's plans to drop its GPU blueprints.
The statement contradicts Imagination CEO Andrew Heath who told investors on a conference call this week that Apple had informed Imagination at the end of March “that they were certain” that iOS devices released in 2018 or early 2019 would no longer use Imagination's GPU designs.
He added that “we don’t accept Apple’s position” that it could build its own system and called Apple’s decision to stop making royalty payments to Imagination “unsubstantiated.”
Apple said in a statement to Bloomberg:
We began working with Imagination in 2007 and stopped accepting new IP from them in 2015. After lengthy discussions we advised them on February 9 that we expected to wind down our licensing agreement since we need unique and differentiating IP for our products. We valued our past relationship and wanted to give them as much notice as possible to adapt their future plans.
At the heart of the dispute: Apple's April 2017 decision to drop Imagination's proprietary GPU blueprints in favor of in-house designed GPUs for iPhones and iPads. The announcement shocked Imagination's investors and caused its stock to collapse more than sixty percent.
Imagination eventually put itself up for sale.
Apple, which owns a stake in Imagination, is unlikely to make an offer, according to Bloomberg.
Imagination has been arguing ever since that it would be impossible for the Cupertino firm to design its own mobile GPUs without infringing Imagination's proprietary technology.
The Cupertino firm is said to have already cut payments for licensed Imagination GPU designs from 30 cents to just 10 cents per iPhone. Analyst think Imagination will struggle to stay in business as an independent company without Apple as its key customer.
Fabless semiconductor maker Imagination Technologies has announced it's putting itself up for sale, either in chunks or as a larger whole, just two months after Apple said it didn't want to license its mobile GPU blueprints for iOS devices anymore.
The iPhone maker accounts for about half of Imagination's sales.
The UK-based company's share price immediately fell off a cliff as a result. Imagination lost 70 percent of its value following a dispute with Apple.
Reuters reported Thursday that Imagination's board of directors has “received interest from a number of parties”.
The company said in a statement:
Imagination Technologies announces that over the last few weeks it has received interest from a number of parties for a potential acquisition of the whole group.
The board of Imagination has therefore decided to initiate a formal sale process for the group and is engaged in preliminary discussions with potential bidders.
Analysts think potential bidders could include Intel, Qualcomm, Mediatek, CEVA and various Chinese firms. It's unclear it Apple itself could be interested.
Founded in 1985 and listed in 1994, Imagination had a market capitalization of 425 million pounds, or approximately $538 million, following today's news. By comparison, the company was valued at more than 2 billion pounds in April 2012, or more than $2.5 billion.
Two months ago, Imagination started seeking buyers for its Ensigma business and the MIPS division, which it bought for $100 million in 2013. The British GPU designer said it was offloading those businesses in order to focus on its new PowerVR Furian graphics architecture.
According to UBS, Imagination's non-Apple business was worth 81 million pounds in April 2017, or about $100 million. Apple, which owns an eight percent stake in Imagination, said in April it's been working on “a separate, independent graphics design in order to control its products.”
The Cupertino firm should stop using Imagination's GPU designs within 15 to 24 months.
Apple was rumored to acquire Imagination last year, but the talks fell apart. Apple has since poached Imagination's COO John Metcalfe along with a bunch of Imagination engineers.
Without any Apple royalty contributions, Imagination could become a loss-making company.
3D Touch is a fast and convenient way to access app shortcuts from the Home screen. On the other hand, because jailbreakers with older devices wanted in on the action, numerous 3D Touch simulation tweaks quickly made it to Cydia to allow non-supported devices to access these shortcuts.
Unfortunately, as slower devices gained support for simulated 3D Touch menus, some users found that the blur effect of the background and menus impacted device performance, and that’s why iOS developer Demy Kromhof released a new free jailbreak tweak called Smooth3D.
As Apple is winding down its supply deal with UK-based GPU designer Imagination Technologies over the next two years, a new report alleges that the Cupertino firm is about to slash payments to Imagination to just one-third of its current royalty rate.
Reuters cited UBS analysts as predicting that Imagination could very easily become a loss-making company by fiscal 2019 without any Apple royalty contributions. The British GPU designer may even have to axe jobs and consider other potential cost-cutting moves in order to weather the storm ahead.
Available on App Store free of charge, Primate Labs' refreshed Geekbench app now lets you measure the performance of mobile GPUs in iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac devices. Geekbench 4.1 brings a new Compute Benchmark to iOS and macOS. Written using Apple's new graphics API, Metal, it measures the performance of the GPU at executing common compute tasks such as image processing and computational photography.
In a bombshell press release issued Monday, UK chip designer Imagination Technologies said Apple told it that it would end a fruitful deal to use Imagination's blueprints for customized graphics cores in its own A-series chips powering iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch and Apple TV devices.
Apparently, the Cupertino company is now looking to create independent GPU designs that could be ready in about two year's time. Shares of Imagination immediately plunged over 70 percent to their lowest level since the financial crisis in 2009, wiping over $625 million off the company's market value.
An annoying graphics glitching issue that some owners of the new MacBook Pro are seeing should become a thing of the past when macOS 10.12.2 Sierra software update releases for public consumption, according to a purported email message from Apple's software boss Craig Federighi.
Portland-based MacRumors forum member Dennis reportedly received a reply from Federighi after asking Tim Cook via email about the reported glitches, which range from screen tearing and broken textures to brightly colored flickering and checkerboard patterns to issues with translucency, transparent graphics and other visual artifacts.
If you're a proud owner of a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, you may be wondering why macOS's System Profiler application identifies the GPU as Intel Iris Pro 580 integrated graphics vs. Intel HD Graphics 530, as advertised on Tech Specs webpage.
No, Apple did not accidentally put the wrong GPU in the new MacBook Pro—a company source explains that the problem stems from an error in the System Information database causing the app to misidentify the GPU.