Samsung will be the beneficiary of last week's announcement that PortalPlayer's media chip will not be used in upcoming flash-based iPods.
PortalPlayer's media chip has been used in Apple's iPod from the beginning, but PortalPlayer's stock dropped on the news that Apple had decided to pass on their upcoming PP5021 media processor chip.
While PortalPlayer's current chip will continue to be used in current iPods, eeTimes reports that Samsung has been working with Apple on a "PortalPlayer killer" 32-bit chip based on ARM technology. This new chip has been chosen for use in future flash-based iPods.
I knew PortalPlayer would take a dive, said Jon Kang, senior vice president for the technical marketing group at Samsung Semiconductor Inc. (San Jose, Calif.), the U.S. chip arm of South Koreas Samsung (Seoul). I knew that we would win this design."
Few details are provided on the benefits of the switch. Samsung, however, is also the supplier of much of the NAND flash memory provided in the recent Flash-based iPods.
Based on these component reports, there has been speculation that the flash iPods will see a revision later this year.
Tuesday September 15, 2026 1:43 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple today announced a new subscription initiative that turns paid iCloud+ subscriptions into a broader services bundle in more than 100 countries.
In select countries, Apple says every paid iCloud+ plan, including the cheapest 50GB tier, now includes Apple TV and Apple Arcade "at no additional cost," while family sharing extends the storage, TV and Arcade access to up to five people....
Monday September 14, 2026 10:48 pm PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple released iOS 27 this week, and despite the company's focus this year on refining its flagship operating system and nixing bugs, there are still many additional features to explore, not least of which is Apple's new context-aware Siri, re-tooled for the generative AI era.
Which iPhones Support Every iOS 27 Feature?
This year's major iPhone software update isn't all about AI, though,...
Monday September 14, 2026 9:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Update — 10 a.m. Pacific Time: Apple has released iOS 27.
During its iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo event last week, Apple announced that iOS 27 will be released widely on Monday, September 14.
iOS 27 should be available around 10 a.m. Pacific Time / 1 p.m. Eastern Time today via the Settings app, under General → Software Update.
Below, we have highlighted eight new features and...
