Lukáš Gondek A more powerful A8 processor for the new iPhone, already the fourth Apple Store in Switzerland, robotic production in Foxconn factories and also a prediction about the expansion of CarPlay, this is what the 28th Apple Week of this year writes about...
A new Apple Store opened in Basel, Switzerland (8/7)
Apple Stores in Geneva, Zurich and Wallisellen have now been joined by a fourth Swiss branch, namely in Basel. The new Apple Store, which has three floors and covers an area of 900 square meters, opened for Swiss customers on Saturday morning. Apple has placed its newest store in a part of the city called Freie Strasse, a shopping area famous for expensive shops and restaurants. The store, which has been under construction for several months, has started taking bookings for Genius Bar appointments and bookings for various workshops. Now Apple has started preparing for the August opening of the new Apple Store in Edinburgh, Scotland, where it has already put up several colorful posters promoting the upcoming grand opening.
Source: MacRumors, 9to5Mac
Key Apple Maps engineer leaves to work for Uber (8/7)
Evidence that Apple has been struggling with its Maps development team recently is another key engineer leaving the company. Chris Blumenberg, who worked at Apple for 14 years, decided to end his working relationship with the California company and left to work for Uber, the developers behind the app that connects users with taxi transport providers. Blumenberg originally worked on the Safari browser for OS X and later for iOS. In 2006, he built the first version of Maps for iOS in a few weeks for Steve Jobs to use when introducing the first iPhone in 2007. Apple's problems with the team behind the development of Maps were also shown by the last WWDC conference, when the company failed to update Maps in time and present it together with the new iOS 8 operating system.
Source: MacRumors
"Foxbots" will help on the lines in Foxconn's factories (8/7)
Last weekend, it was confirmed that Foxconn will be bringing several robots, which it has started calling "Foxbots", into production. Apple should become the first customer whose products will help Foxbots to manufacture. According to local newspapers, the robots will perform less demanding tasks such as tightening screws or positioning components for polishing. Important work tasks such as quality control will still remain with Foxconn employees. Foxconn plans to put 10 of these robots into production. One robot should cost the company about $000. Foxconn has also hired 25 new employees in recent weeks in preparation for production of the new iPhone 000.
Source: MacRumors
By 2019, CarPlay could appear in more than 24 million cars (10/7)
Already five years after CarPlay became available, this system should expand to more than 24 million cars. Apple could achieve this not only thanks to the popularity of the iPhone, but also thanks to contracts with now 29 car companies. Another important factor is that none of the mobile companies have yet become dominant in the field of in-car systems. According to analysts, the launch of CarPlay started a wave of new car app development, a trend that was helped by Google's introduction of Android Auto a few days ago.
Source: AppleInsider
TSMC is said to have finally started supplying Apple with new processors (July 10)
According to The Wall Street Journal, TSMC already started supplying Apple with processors for new iOS devices during the second quarter of this year. Until now, Apple has sourced its own Ax processors from Samsung, but last year it reached an agreement with another supplier, TSMC, so it will no longer be so dependent on Samsung. TSMC, in turn, will receive a large financial injection from Apple. The company could invest this money in more intensive research and production of new types of chips.
Source: MacRumors
The A8 processor should remain dual-core with a clock speed of up to 2 GHz (11/7)
The new iPhone 6 will most likely come with a larger display and at the same time should also get a more powerful processor. The model labeled A8 could be clocked up to 2 GHz, according to Chinese media. The current A7 processor is clocked at 1,3 GHz in the iPhone 5S and iPad mini with Retina, and at 1,4 GHz in the iPad Air. The two cores and 64-bit architecture should remain unchanged, however the manufacturing process will change from 28nm to just 20nm. Competitors are already deploying some quad-core processors, but Apple is expected to stick with the proven dual-core, if only because it develops and optimizes the chips itself.
Source: MacRumors
A week in a nutshell
Google Maps disappeared from the last place in the Apple ecosystem this week, when the company she switched to her own maps in the Find My iPhone web service. Last week Apple did too employed interesting workers, who were involved in the development of Nike's FuelBand in the past, most likely for work on the iWatch. The Northern California company also revamped its environmental responsibility page and updated data on its impact on the environment.
App Store celebrated his sixth birthday, as a bad gift for Apple but for the Internet alleged iPhone 6 front panel designs leaked, which would confirm the assumptions that Apple is planning to increase the display to almost five inches.
