The DRAM shortage has certainly forced a myriad of companies to contemplate their uncertain future, but Apple doesn’t appear to be on this list. Earlier, we reported that the iPhone maker was facing a supply chain migraine of epic proportions, where TSMC was sitting on a whopping $1 billion worth of A20 Pro supply because of inadequate DRAM supply. Fortunately for Apple, an analyst believes these claims are nothing but hot air and that Apple’s and TSMC’s tightly integrated and efficient operations are being severely underestimated. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple has planned its 2nm chipset production schedule at least three months in advance, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/tsmc-apple-a20-pro-dram-shortage-1-billion-refuted/

As the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max face a possible price hike, Apple has reportedly faced yet another setback amid the DRAM crisis: the cancellation of its highly ambitious iPhone 20 release. According to analysts, the next-generation device couldn’t be mass-produced in higher quantities without introducing production defects. Achieving such a complicated design would be accompanied by a massive price increase, especially considering the iPhone 20’s low yields Research firm Jefferies states below that the cancellation of the iPhone 20 means Apple won’t have a high-margin product to provide it with a sufficient financial cushion as memory costs […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/all-glass-bezel-less-iphone-20-canceled-mass-production-yield-issues/

Apple’s Liquid Glass UI could be the next aesthetic change to copy, particularly that transparency slider, but Microsoft doesn’t wish to adopt this approach. According to an executive, Windows 11 won’t offer additional options for users to tweak the appearance of the operating system with customization tools, and provides his reasoning for that. Fortunately, he hasn’t denied that such a release won’t happen. Third-party tools are available to enable customization on Windows 11, which could be why Microsoft doesn’t want to bring the transparency slider The software giant’s Partner Director of Design, Mark Rogers, was pinged by Emrah on X […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/windows-11-no-liquid-glass-transparency-slider/

Companies such as Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron have chosen to prioritize AI customers because they can place mammoth-sized DRAM orders, pushing Apple into a corner as it strategizes how to overcome this supply chain headache. While CXMT was previously reported to be a beacon of hope, the Chinese memory maker is facing a string of problems, suggesting that even as Apple tests the manufacturer’s DRAM in its products, the deal may not progress further. Even if Apple receives the Trump Administration’s blessing to procure CXMT’s DRAM shipments, the Chinese firm needs to solve its production problems Testing CXMT DRAM […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/cxmt-apple-dram-capacity-testing-limits/

As AI customers race away with DRAM orders to fuel the ongoing crisis, customers and companies alike would adopt smarter ways to preserve existing computers and hardware so that they would be put to better use instead of landing in an e-waste pile. However, a former employee claims that a technology company he worked for isn’t following any of these procedures and is destroying highly capable MacBook Pro models equipped with 48GB of unified memory. More than 100 M4 MacBook Pro models with a large unified RAM count are being destroyed, when donating is a better option Getting rid of […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/ex-employee-reveals-company-destroying-48gb-ram-macbooks-amid-ram-crisis/

Prior to NVIDIA’s official announcement of the RTX Spark, the chip named N1X showcased some disappointing single-core and multi-core scores on Geekbench 6, failing to beat Apple’s older-generation M3 Max. Fortunately, a fresh leak shows some improvements from the ARM-based silicon, as it’s managed to narrow the multi-core performance gap with Apple’s 14-core M4 Max. Two RTX Spark laptops tested running Geekbench 7 were operating at the “Balanced” power profile, with the 18-core version slightly slower than the 20-core one Two machines with 64GB of unified memory have been spotted on the Geekbench 7 database, with one of the models, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/nvidia-rtx-spark-20-core-cpu-geekbench-7-m4-max-benchmark/

Newly filed court exhibits show OpenAI’s legal strategy in Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit: argue that Apple’s own security and offboarding practices — including allowing an Apple manager to access a former engineer’s iCloud account after he left the company —undermine its claims that the allegedly stolen information was properly protected.

A bug in how Apple implements its Private Relay feature, which in theory masks users’ IP addresses from the sites they visit, can reveal users’ real IP addresses.

With Google's frontier AI models again reported to have fallen behind their competitors, as evidenced by the recurring launch delays for Gemini 3.5 Pro, which has supposedly fallen short of Google's internal goals, there were increasing rumblings of a widespread upheaval over at Google. Now, just a few days after Google released the Gemini 3.6 Flash to middling reviews, the architect of Google's AI strategy over the past 15 years or so, Jeff Dean, is leaving to build an AGI-focused enterprise, while the incumbent CEO of DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, is stepping down from his apex role. Google's AI-focused division, DeepMind, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/googles-frontier-ai-ambitions-gutted-as-deepminds-ceo-steps-down-its-chief-ai-scientist-leaves-and-its-coding-hopes-now-rest-on-a-1-5-billion-deal-with-a-startup/

Chinese memory manufacturer CXMT has refused Apple's demand for a price cut in negotiations, says a report from the Korean press. Apple has widely been reported to be interested in procuring its chips from CXMT and has purportedly lobbied the US government for the permission to purchase the products for its gadgets sold outside the country. However, the report from the Korean publication Digital Daily outlines that demand from Huawei, Xiaomi and others has placed CXMT in a stronger position to negotiate with the world's largest consumer electronics firm. CXMT's Domestic Customers Provide It Leverage In Negotiations With Apple According […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/cxmt-says-no-thank-you-to-apples-demand-for-a-price-cut-as-huawei-and-xiaomi-hand-it-rare-leverage-report/

Apple says its trade secrets investigation into OpenAI has widened. In a new court filing, Apple claims additional former staff may have retained or accessed confidential information.

When Apple filed a damning lawsuit against OpenAI a few weeks back for supposedly stealing secrets related to a slew of upcoming consumer-oriented AI devices, we were led to believe that the maker of iPhones had a rock-solid case against OpenAI, replete with the proverbial smoking gun. OpenAI's scathing response to Apple's lawsuit, however, has just demolished that fallacy, painting a picture of utter incompetence within Apple's labyrinthine halls instead. OpenAI says Apple invented a conversation with its general counsel and approached one of the principle defendants only to ask for his help in accessing more information Back in July, […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/openai-paints-a-picture-of-utter-incompetence-at-apple-shows-apple-lawyers-emailed-the-wrong-person-after-confusing-two-asian-last-names/

Apple has appealed a new legal demand by the U.K. government, which critics say could threaten the privacy rights of users all over the world.

Apple’s long-awaited AI overhaul finally makes Siri the assistant it was always supposed to be. Yet it arrives at a moment when simply being a capable AI assistant no longer feels revolutionary.

The global memory chip shortage appears to be affecting the availability of Apple’s most popular Mac.

Apple's brand-new leasing program, dubbed Apple Upgrade, goes big on the idea that most consumers won't mind shelling out a tiny amount on a per-day basis just to use a new Apple device, negating the deleterious impact of the ongoing memory 'chipflation' in the process. Mark Gurman: "Instead of asking customers to justify spending more than $1,000 on a phone or laptop, it’s asking whether they can afford roughly a dollar a day" As we reported recently, Apple has just launched Apple Upgrade, a new device leasing program for "iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac, and iPad available on the Apple Store […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/the-apple-upgrade-leasing-program-bets-that-consumers-wont-blink-at-1-per-day-for-a-brand-new-iphone-or-mac/

The rising DRAM costs are what ultimately forced Apple to increase the prices of its Macs, but the positive aspect was that various models were still available to purchase. Unfortunately, the Cupertino giant’s worst nightmare has come to pass because the MacBook Air is reportedly in severe shortage, and while Apple attempts to tackle this problem, it’s focusing on selling as many base 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro units as it can to make sufficient room for the M6 model. Due to the shortage, various M5 MacBook Air configurations won’t be available until September Assuming the MacBook Neo didn’t materialize, the MacBook Air […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/apple-14-inch-macbook-pro-m6-refresh-macbook-air-shortage/

The pairing of the XPS 13 and Intel’s Wildcat Lake enabled Dell to introduce an affordable MacBook Neo competitor, allowing the company to undercut Apple’s offering with a $699 notebook. At least, that’s what U.S. consumers have to pay. Unfortunately, the same treatment isn’t available for South Korean consumers, who have to pay more than double, and that too for the base model. This indicates that Dell’s distribution simply doesn’t allow it to maintain similar prices across various regions, unlike Apple. The base Dell XPS 13 in South Korea is 71 percent more expensive than the MacBook Neo, ruining its attractive price-to-performance position […]

Read full article at https://wccftech.com/dell-xps-13-south-korea-price-double-us-msrp-macbook-neo/

Original Windows Task Manager developer Dave W. Plummer has revealed a new macOS port of the classic system utility. Currently in beta, the Mac version, named Task Manager OG (TMOG), aims to offer an alternative to Apple's native Activity Monitor.

Plummer (via Tom's Hardware) shared details and screenshots of the project on social media, asserting that macOS's Activity Monitor isn't that good when explaining his motivation for porting the tool. He noted that the original Windows Task Manager launched as an 80KB utility under his development. In contrast, this new Mac iteration is written in Swift and contains no original or post-Windows XP code.

Addressing potential concerns surrounding Microsoft code ownership, Plummer confirmed that Microsoft graciously sent him the XP Task Manager source code with permission to demo and share it. However, the macOS version is built entirely from scratch.

He intended to release the utility for free on the Mac App Store during its beta phase, but ended up launching it via direct download from the project's website. The reason is that Apple's sandbox requirements make it impossible for the application to access the functions it needs. Moreover, Apple states that no app should be able to terminate other applications.

Plummer also added that it will eventually release a Windows version of TMOG, and a Pro version may also come in the future.

KitGuru says: Do you have a macOS system? Will you be trying out Plummer's Task Manager for Mac?

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