Apple has announced an additional 1 billion euros investment in German engineering over the next six years as part of its Silicon Design Center expansion in central Munich.
Apple says the investment will go towards the design and construction of a "state-of-the-art research facility" at Seidlstrasse, where Apple's R&D teams can "come together in new ways, enhancing collaboration and innovation."
"Our R&D teams in Munich are critical to our efforts to develop products delivering greater performance, efficiency, and power savings," said Johny Srouji, Apple's senior vice president of Hardware Technologies. "The expansion of our European Silicon Design Center will enable an even closer collaboration between our more than 2,000 engineers in Bavaria working on breakthrough innovations, including custom silicon designs, power management chips, and future wireless technologies."
In addition to Apple's new Seidlstrasse facility, teams will occupy several additional R&D spaces at Denisstrasse and Marsstrasse as part of the Silicon Design Center expansion. The three new sites are located across the street from Apple's recently opened R&D facility at Karlstrasse. Together with engineering sites at Arnulfstrasse and Hackerbrücke, the new facilities form Apple's European Silicon Design Center, centrally located in Munich’s Maxvorstadt neighbourhood.
Apple says it has spent over 18 billion euros with more than 800 German companies, supporting job creation, community development, and workforce opportunities throughout the country over the past five years.
Saturday February 8, 2025 3:51 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
The end of an 18-year era is on the horizon for the iPhone.
Apple reportedly plans to announce a new iPhone SE as soon as next week, and the device is expected to feature a full-screen design with Face ID, instead of a Touch ID home button. That means Apple will no longer sell any new iPhone models with a home button, for the first time since the original iPhone launched.
The home button...
Monday February 10, 2025 3:05 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Oppo has confirmed a February 20 global launch for its Find N5, which the company claims is the world's thinnest device in the foldable phone category. The phone is expected to be re-branded as the OnePlus Open 2 in the US.
The Chinese vendor has been teasing the device in the last few weeks, touting its waterproofing and nearly invisible display crease, and highlighting its thinness by compa...
Monday February 10, 2025 10:56 am PST by Juli Clover
There continue to be signs of a new MacBook Air with an M4 chip, indicating that we could see the machine launch in the not too distant future. A private account on X today shared the identifiers that the MacBook Air will use, and those identifiers correspond to the M4 chip.
According to the source, both the 13-inch MacBook Air and the 15-inch MacBook Air will be equipped with Apple's...
Wednesday February 12, 2025 6:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
As the wait continues for Apple's long-rumored, fourth-generation iPhone SE, French electronics retailer Boulanger has prematurely published a product listing for a "new" model of the iPhone SE. The placeholder page says the device is "coming soon," but it offers no further information, and the price shown is obviously not real.
The listing was spotted by a reader of the French technology...
Monday February 10, 2025 10:04 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released watchOS 11.3.1, a minor update to the operating system that runs on the Apple Watch. watchOS 11.3.1 is compatible with the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the Apple Watch SE 2.
watchOS 11.3.1 can be downloaded by opening up the Apple Watch app and going to General > Software Update. To install the new software, the Apple Watch needs to...
Monday February 10, 2025 10:11 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.3.1, a minor update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that came out last September. macOS 15.3.1 comes a few weeks after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3.
Mac users can download the macOS Sequoia update through the Software Update section of System Settings. Apple has also released macOS 13.7.4 and macOS 14.7.4 for those who are...
Monday February 10, 2025 7:42 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's long-awaited Powerbeats Pro 2 are finally expected to be announced this Tuesday. Ahead of time, one lucky Walmart customer was able to get their hands on the earbuds early, according to a since-deleted Reddit post over the weekend.
A leaked image of the Powerbeats Pro 2 in Electric Orange
"My local Walmart had them in the cage," the Reddit user explained. "I asked if I can buy them...
Monday February 10, 2025 10:09 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1, minor updates for the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating systems that came out last September. iOS 18.3.1 comes two weeks after Apple released iOS 18.3.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Apple has also released iPadOS 17.7.5 for those still running...
Sunday February 9, 2025 3:53 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today increased its estimated trade-in values for select Mac models in the United States, with the full changes outlined below.
Apple says the extra trade-in credit for select Macs is available with the purchase of an eligible new Apple device through April 2.
The trade-in values increased by between $10 and $50.
Model
New Value
Old Value
MacBook Pro
Up to $925
...
Why the focus on Germany for this r&d — does anyone know?
Because its ****ing Germany?! Where else would you put R&D in Europe if you seek high precision and quality?
Greetings from Germany - not very high tech when it comes to civil services, but very high tech when it comes to Science, Research etc. - especially Munich area
Secretly, Tim Cook and Johny Srouji want an excuse to travel to Germany to sample Bavarian Beer on a regular basis and have a decent serving of roasted pork knuckle while they're there.
Why the focus on Germany for this r&d — does anyone know?
Because no one knows and does silicon r&d better than Germans. Read a bit about German innovations and abilities in the technical and even medical fields.
Or the U.K. (arguably being more involved in semiconductor design, and the home of Arm).
Switzerland is certainly a qualified competence in this topic, however I think due to knowledge already being in Munich due to Siemens, Apple has decided to favor it over Switzerland.
UK - hah I would not trust. Very volatile, Scientist from the EU leaving, degraded economy, isolation through Brexit, many internal issues - I guess not a good place to invest a billion in a future technology, when the current time is uncertain.