MacRumors

Google today hosted its annual I/O conference designed for developers, where the company had several new announcements to share related to AI, Google Assistant, and machine learning.

Google announced the launch of its next-generation machine learning chip, the TPU 3.0, which is powering many AI improvements to Google products using machine learning techniques.

Gmail, for example, is gaining a new smart compose feature that will suggest full phrases for you as you type. Pressing the tab key will insert the suggested phrase, cutting down on the amount of typing that you need to do in Gmail.

In the next couple of months, Google Photos will get Suggested Actions, offering contextual functions for you to act on. For example, if you have a photo with a friend in it, Google Photos will suggest sending the photo to the friend. If a photo is underexposed, Google will suggest a fix that can be initiated with one tap. It can also do things like remove the background color from an image, or colorize a black and white photo.

Multiple improvements are coming to Google Assistant, Google's version of Siri. Google Assistant is gaining six new voices, including John Legend's Voice, and there have been improvements to the assistant's understanding of the social dynamics of conversations.

Continued conversations will be supported in the coming weeks, which means you won't need to say the Ok Google activation phrase for every request. Instead, you can say it once and then follow up a request with additional questions that Google Assistant will be able to understand.

As of today, Google Assistant will be able to respond to questions that include two requests at once, and later this year, parents will have the option of turning on a "Pretty Please" feature that's designed to teach children manners by offering positive reinforcement for polite conversations that include please and thank you.

Google has been working with companies like Starbucks, DoorDash, Domino's, and other restaurants for Google Assistant integration, and Google Assistant will also be added to Google Maps for navigation purposes this summer. Google also plans to roll out its visual assistant, which works hand in hand with Google Assistant to offer up information, on iOS and Android later this year.

Google also unveiled a new Google Duplex feature, which lets Google Assistant make actual phone calls to businesses to do things like schedule appointments and make reservations. In a demo on stage, for example, Google Assistant called a real salon and made an appointment in a natural-sounding conversation.

This feature is rolling out later in the year, but Google will add it on a small scale in the coming weeks. Google Assistant will be able to call businesses for holiday hours, using that information to update information in Google search for all users. Google has examples of Google Duplex conversations on its AI blog.

Google unveiled a revamped Google News app with personalized news suggestions, "Newscasts" that offer up news previews from multiple sources, a "Subscribe with Google" option that lets you access paid content from subscription news sites, and several other new features. It's rolling out on Android and iOS devices next week.

Other new features include Morse code support for the Gboard keyboard with text output and solutions for Accessibility purposes, an Android Dashboard for digital well-being that will let Android users know how much time they're spending on the phone and which apps they're using most, and warnings on YouTube that will tell users to take a break.

The iOS 11.4 update, currently being beta tested, includes a USB Restricted Mode that introduces a week-long expiration date on access to the Lightning port on your iOS devices if your phone hasn't been unlocked, which has implications for law enforcement tools like the GrayKey box.

USB Restricted Mode was outlined this morning by Elcomsoft after testing confirmed that the feature has indeed been enabled. In Elcomsoft's experience, after an iPhone or iPad has been updated to iOS 11.4, if it hasn't been unlocked or connected to a paired computer in the last 7 days using a passcode, the Lightning port is useless for data access and limited to charging.

At this point, it is still unclear whether the USB port is blocked if the device has not been unlocked with a passcode for 7 consecutive days; if the device has not been unlocked at all (password or biometrics); or if the device has not been unlocked or connected to a trusted USB device or computer.

In our test, we were able to confirm the USB lock after the device has been left idle for 7 days. During this period, we have not tried to unlock the device with Touch ID or connect it to a paired USB device. What we do know, however, is that after the 7 days the Lightning port is only good for charging.

With a time limit on the Lightning port, it seems law enforcement officials and bad actors who have physical access to a device will have one week from the time that it was last unlocked to attempt to access it through unlocking tools like the GrayKey, which uses the Lightning port to install software to crack the passcode of an iOS device.

USB Restricted Mode won't prevent tools like the GrayKey box from being used on an iPhone, but it does suggest that the passcode needs to be discovered within a matter of days, severely limiting the amount of time that law enforcement officials have to get into a device.

In developer documentation, Apple says the new mode is meant to bolster security on the iPhone and iPad: "To improve security, for a locked iOS device to communicate with USB accessories you must connect an accessory via Lightning connector to the device while unlocked - or enter your device passcode while connected - at least once a week."

Apple is pairing the new USB Restricted Mode with several other security features that have been introduced through iOS 11 updates. Early iOS 11 updates introduced expiration dates for local backup techniques used to access iOS devices, while iOS 11.3 introduced further limits, cutting down access to just one week.

USB Restricted Mode was actually first introduced in the iOS 11.3 beta, but it didn't make it into the iOS 11.3 release, so its presence in the iOS 11.4 beta does not guarantee that it will be included when iOS 11.4 launches to the public.

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Apple's upcoming 6.5-inch OLED iPhone, one of the three smartphones planned for 2018, will be about "the same size" as the iPhone 8 Plus, according to a "reliable supplier source" cited by Japanese blog Mac Otakara.

The site says the 6.5-inch device could be 0.2mm thicker than the iPhone 8 Plus due to the rear camera design, however, which will include a vertical dual-lens camera. The iPhone 8 Plus measures in at 7.5mm thick, while the iPhone X, which the new 6.5-inch iPhone will be modeled after, measures in at 7.7mm.

As for the next-generation 5.8-inch OLED device that will follow the iPhone X, Mac Otakara says it will use the same body as the current iPhone X, but it will feature a larger rear camera lens attributable to a bigger camera sensor.

Rumors have suggested that the third device Apple plans on introducing, a lower-cost iPhone with an LCD display, will measure in at 6.1 inches, but Mac Otakara believes it could instead be a bit smaller at six inches.

It will feature Face ID, but it may only have a single rear camera like the iPhone 8, compared to the dual-lens setup expected for Apple's two more expensive OLED devices. Former KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also said to expect a single rear camera.

In addition to predicting features for Apple's 2018 iPhones, Mac Otakara's report suggests that iOS 12, the software that will run on both the new devices and existing devices, will feature improvements to Face ID.

Face ID in iOS 12 will reportedly allow users to unlock a device when it is held at a horizontal angle, rather than limiting unlocking via Face ID to the vertical orientation. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says the horizontal Face ID support is designed for the upcoming iPad Pro models that are expected to incorporate Face ID and the TrueDepth Camera system. It's also likely that the horizontal support being added for the iPads will also work on iPhones.

More information on what to expect in iOS 12, which will be unveiled in just under a month, can be found in our iOS 12 roundup. Additional details on what to expect in the iPhones coming in 2018, likely in the September timeframe, can be found in our 2018 iPhones roundup.

One of Apple's biggest competitors in the laptop space is arguably Microsoft, with its line of portable, productivity-focused Surface Book machines. Microsoft in November released its newest product, the Surface Book 2, a 2-in-1 PC that has quite a few selling points to entice Apple customers.

In our latest YouTube video, we took a look at the 15-inch Surface Book 2 and compared it to the 2016 15-inch MacBook Pro across a number of categories including build quality and design, key features, and overall usage experience for someone in the Apple ecosystem.

The Surface Book 2 and the MacBook Pro are both well-built with attractive, eye-catching designs, but there are some major differences here. While the MacBook Pro is a traditional laptop with a display and attached keyboard, the Surface Book 2 is a 2-in-1 with a touch display that can be converted into a tablet.

Because of its 2-in-1 design, the Surface Book 2 has an unusual hinged design that lets the display be folded backwards or disconnected from the keyboard entirely for use in a tablet mode. The MacBook Pro, meanwhile, has no touch screen and it is a unibody machine.

Microsoft's Surface Book 2 has a wealth of ports that are missing from the MacBook Pro, which only offers 4 USB-C ports (albeit with Thunderbolt 3). The Surface Book 2 has an SD card slot, a USB-C port, and two USB-A ports, something that Apple users unhappy with the MacBook Pro port situation will appreciate.

The Surface Book 2 may have a 3240 x 2160 touch screen display, but it has some faults compared to the MacBook Pro's 2880 x 1800 display. It's nowhere near as bright, and it's also not quite as crisp. As for the trackpad, the MacBook Pro wins out because of its large trackpad equipped with haptic feedback and support for multiple gestures. Trackpad is one area where PC laptops often lag behind Apple, and the Surface Book 2 is no exception.

When it comes to the keyboard, the Surface Book 2 has a softer keyboard that's not quite as clicky and solid as the keyboard of the MacBook Pro, but as we well know, the keyboard redesign on the 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro models has been receiving a lot of attention lately for reliability issues and its seemingly frequent failures, so the Surface Book 2 may have the edge here.

The aforementioned 2-in-1 tablet option for the Surface Book 2 is something Apple just can't compete with. You can press a key on the Surface Book 2's keyboard and pull the display right out of the keyboard to use it as a standalone touch-based tablet with the Surface Pen and the Surface Dial, both of which are ideal for creative tasks.

There are no input devices like a Surface Pen available for the MacBook Pro, and the main feature that it can boast over the Surface Book 2 is the Touch Bar, something that arguably does not get as much use as a 2-in-1 design.

The Surface Book 2 has a lot of perks that aren't available on Apple's MacBook Pro, but choosing to adopt the machine over an Apple device is still going to be difficult for those enmeshed in the Apple ecosystem. There's a lot of integration between macOS and iOS, and features like Continuity, Handoff, and iCloud will be missed if you're used to Apple devices. Certain software, like Final Cut Pro, is also limited to Apple's machines.

So which one is better? As with a lot of devices that are similar in specs, it's tough to say. It largely comes down to preference - do you want to use macOS or Windows? Most people in the Apple ecosystem likely won't want to give up macOS/iOS perks for the Surface Book 2's feature set, but those who don't use a lot of crossover functionality won't miss macOS as much.

If you're not tied to a specific operating system and don't mind mixing devices across different platforms, Microsoft's Surface Book 2 is absolutely worth considering as a powerful, capable machine that offers functionality you can't get in a MacBook Pro.

Would you switch from an Apple machine to the Surface Book 2? Let us know in the comments.

Despite positive first quarter results for 2018, Intel faces continuing issues with its foundries, both with the oft-delayed 10nm, as well as its own modem production in 14nm. Intel revealed in the earnings conference call that volume 10nm manufacturing had been delayed to 2019, without specifying which part of the year.

The debut of Intel's 10nm process has been a particular sore spot, with the forthcoming Whiskey Lake set to be the fifth new architecture debut in the 14nm process. Prior to 14nm, Intel had maintained a two architecture, "tick-tock" strategy for its processors, where a new foundry node denoted a small architecture update over the previous processor as a "tick," and a more significant architectural evolution as a "tock" on a matured process.

We first reported on the demise of the tick-tock strategy in 2016. Things have only grown worse for Intel since then as 10nm has faced further delays. To put this delay in perspective, Intel's original roadmaps had 10nm technology debuting in 2015. There are several reasons for the delay, but Intel CEO Brian Krzanich explained that some features in Intel's 10nm process require up to five or six multi-pattern steps, whereas other competing foundries are known for up to four steps in 10nm or 7nm processes.

This development has consequences for Intel, its customers, and its competitors. First, Intel has lost the technology advantage it once held over the rest of the semiconductor industry. While you cannot compare the dimension in the node name directly across foundries, competitors such as TSMC, Samsung, and Global Foundries have largely reached parity with Intel's 10nm on 7nm processes, with transistor densities besting Intel's own at 10nm. Intel used the transistor density metric to combat the marketing furor that the node names created, but it seems to have lost those bragging rights as well.

More importantly, Intel's competitors are starting to enter volume manufacturing of competing 7nm nodes. While the technology leadership was only important to Intel before as an enabler for superior products, its relatively recent opening of fabs to outside customers has lost some of its luster as a result of these developments.

In the earnings call, Intel also acknowledged that it expects to cede marketshare to rival AMD, as its rival has enjoyed recent success thanks to the debut of new CPU architectures such as Zen that have begun to close the performance gap with Intel's own CPUs. AMD is expected to make significant gains in the server space thanks to recent developments, and after spinning off its own foundry into Global Foundries, has been using a mixture of the former in-house foundry and TSMC. AMD is expected to debut consumer products on the 7nm node in 2019.

The impact to Apple is fewer processor updates for its Mac product line with meager performance improvements between successive generations. Apple famously abandoned PowerPC for its stagnation and performance gap to Intel's x86 offerings, and now the situation seems poised to repeat itself with the persistent rumors that Apple could use its own processors for the Mac line of products.

Apple's iPhone and iPad products are affected as well, as the company's increasing reliance on Intel modems is held back by Intel's troubles in producing modems at volume on its own 14nm process.

Intel's modems, the product of its acquisition of Infineon, had been fabricated on TSMC's processes as had been originally designed until recently. The XMM 7560, Intel's gigabit class modem with CDMA support, will be fabricated on its own 14nm process and is widely expected to be featured in Apple's next mobile products.

Intel also has ambitions to enter the fray for RF and analog design wins, and recently disclosed details on its 22FFL process, a combination of the 22nm, 14nm, and 10nm product lines aimed at lower cost and power solutions, as well as analog and RF. However, notably absent from this disclosure is an announcement of any design wins.

Intel's RF transceivers, such as the SMARTi 7 RF transceiver that is paired with the XMM 7560 modem, would have been a prime candidate for a process such as this. The lack of such an announcement suggests it remains fabricated at a foundry with an established RF/analog process history -- most likely TSMC.

Finally, Intel may be facing another CPU vulnerability disclosure, with Anandtech reporting via c't magazine, that more vulnerabilities are currently being researched in the security community, and Intel has issued its own statement on data security seemingly in anticipation of this disclosure. The magnitude of the exploits appears to be on the scale of the original Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities, and Intel is already preparing patches for the newly identified exploits, according to c't.

These vulnerabilities are expected to affect ARM and AMD as well, as at least one of the original Spectre and Meltdown exploits did, but Intel arguably faces the most scrutiny given its high profile position of market leadership.

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 update to developers, one week after seeding the third beta and more than a month after releasing the macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 update.

The new macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 beta can be downloaded through Apple Developer Center or the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store with the proper profile installed.

macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 introduces support for Messages on iCloud, a feature that was previously present in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 betas before being pulled ahead of the release of the update. Messages on iCloud is also available in iOS 11.4.

The Messages on iCloud feature is designed to store your iMessages in iCloud for improved syncing. Right now, incoming iMessages are sent to all devices where you're signed into your Apple ID, but it's not true cloud-based syncing because your old messages don't show up on new devices nor does deleting a message remove it from all of your devices, both features enabled through Messages on iCloud.

Messages on iCloud also allows your older iMessages and attachments to be stored in iCloud rather than on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, saving valuable storage space.

The update also likely includes bug fixes and performance improvements for issues that weren't addressed in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, but as Apple does not provide detailed release notes for macOS High Sierra beta updates, we may not know exactly what's included until the new software is provided to the public.

No major outward-facing changes were found in the first three betas of macOS High Sierra 10.13.5, but we'll update this post should any new features be found in the fourth.

The previous update, macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, brought support for external graphics processors (eGPUs) along with Business Chat in Messages and several other bug fixes and smaller feature improvements.

Update: Apple has made a new version of macOS High Sierra 10.13.5 available to public beta testers.