For years there have been rumors of Apple working on a secret electric car project codenamed Titan, and now it seems to be very real and coming way sooner than expected. To say the least I’m really excited for this because on this channel I love talking about Tesla products and Apple products so the Apple car is something I cannot wait to experience and share with you but first let’s talk about the breaking news surrounding this and what we know so far about the Apple car.
The first reports of Apple’s plans for their own car date back to 2008 with Steve Jobs. But after Jobs passed away it seemed to have been put aside for bigger priorities. But in 2015 Apple supposedly had a large number of employees working on Project Titan and were even offering incentives for Tesla employees to join Apple. Some people never thought Apple would make their own car, but it does make sense because over the past decade Apple has put itself in a position to dominate the mobile market, and what is more mobile than a car? Especially a self-driving car. Well, a bird, a scooter, shut up. In 2017, Tim Cook said Apple was focusing on autonomous systems but not necessarily leading to an actual Apple car. This seems like the most logical theory because if you didn’t know by now, for a non-automotive company, producing a car is hard. Scaling the production of a car is very hard. Scaling the production of an all-electric car with batteries is nearly impossible. It took Tesla years and years and were on the brink of bankruptcy a couple of different times. What Tesla did is something that is not easily replicated. But if there’s any company who can make a decent attempt, it’s Apple. In 2018, Apple registered 27 self-driving vehicles in California and a year later, they acquired an autonomous vehicle startup called Drive.ai.
When it comes to the most powerful companies in the world, Apple is near the top of that list. As of September 2020 Apple is the second most valuable company according to their market capitalization, and they are loaded with cash – especially after selling $550 headphones. Even with what many people call “overpriced” products, Apple still seems to dominate the mass market when it comes to phones and tablets and now they’ve made a huge statement in the tech world with their first ever in-house system on a chip called the M1 which has made a lot of believers out of people who doubted Apple’s price for performance. Apple has also proven that they are experts at vertical integration meaning they control a lot of the hardware and software themselves which results in higher margins and more refined products. They make a ton of money by selling a wide variety of products AND services.
However, another tech company has been making its way onto Apple’s heels in terms of market domination, and that company is of course, Blackberry. Ok no it’s actually Tesla. This week Tesla was the biggest company ever to join the S&P 500. Tesla shares have also surged 70% since the news was announced in November, skyrocketing the company’s market value to over $620 billion. Tesla is currently the sixth-largest publicly listed firm in the US by that measure, and similar to Apple, Tesla is focused on vertical integration by trying to master the art of an in-house supply chain. Tesla has integrated many production steps from battery production to electric motor production and full self-driving software. In simple terms, vertical integration brings part of the production process in-house instead of outsourcing.
Apple wants to do the exact same thing and is already doing it for certain products. But they want to do it for an electric car too. Not sure if you could tell by now but Apple seems like the type of company that wants to be the best at whatever they’re doing. They want to beat Tesla at their own game. The question is can they do it? And if they can do it, when will it happen? Last week a report claimed that Apple is working with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company on a self-driving chip technology, and both companies have plans for a factory to produce “Apple Car” chips in the US. And this week there was a leaked report from an unnamed director at a major Taiwanese manufacturer claiming that Apple is ahead of schedule on their electric car and expects to release the Apple Car in September 2021. Well, that’s certainly news. According to a supply chain Apple recently pushed forward stocking requirements to certain Taiwanese auto parts factories, and the secret prototype has already been tested on the roads in California. The Taiwan-based media outlet also added that the “Apple Car model is similar to Tesla,” but didn’t explain what that exactly means.
That report seems a bit unbelievable because that timeline is way sooner than everyone expected, especially since Apple has never publicly confirmed a car. But just yesterday a more reputable report from two people working closely on this effort said that Apple has progressed enough that it now aims to build a mass market passenger vehicle and is moving forward with self-driving technology with a target of 2024. The Apple Car will also feature its own breakthrough battery technology that could radically reduce the cost of batteries and increase the vehicle’s range, according to a third person who has seen Apple’s battery design.
This kind of battery technology breakthrough may sound familiar if you saw Tesla’s Battery Day in September where they announced their upcoming 4680 tab-less cells which will result in much more affordable, longer lasting, and faster charging electric vehicle batteries. Tesla’s new battery production is set to be in full motion by 2022 so Apple will need to prove themselves in that area when the Apple Car is released. According to a source, Apple plans to use a unique “monocell” design that bulks up the individual cells in the battery and frees up space inside the pack by eliminating pouches and modules that hold battery materials. This design means that more active material can be packed inside the battery, giving the car a potentially longer range. Apple is also examining a chemistry for the battery called LFP, or lithium iron phosphate, which is inherently less likely to overheat and is thus safer than other types of lithium-ion batteries.
It’s still unknown how Apple will produce an actual car, but many expect the company to rely on a manufacturing partner to help build vehicles. And there is still a chance that Apple doesn’t produce their own car but instead just focuses on creating an autonomous driving system that would be licensed to cars made by other manufacturers. For the self driving aspect, Apple has partners for certain elements, including LIDAR sensors. LIDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging, and it’s a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure distances that would give self-driving cars a 3D view of the road. The Apple car might even feature multiple LIDAR sensors for scanning different distances, with some of the sensors derived from Apple’s own in-house LIDAR units that are already in the iPhone 12 Pro and iPad Pro.
All of this is very exciting news, but what can we realistically expect from an Apple car? Well, as with Tesla’s history we all know producing mass market electric vehicles at a profit takes a long time and a lot of hard work. As with many of their existing products, Apple may try to price their electric car at a higher price point possibly in the luxury price range so they can shoot for a low volume, high price similar to the original Tesla Roadster or Model S. For the Apple car to actually come out in 2021 would be nearly impossible in my opinion unless Apple partners with another automative company to produce the cars. It may even make sense for Apple to try to partner with Lucid Motors who has already announced the most premium luxurious electric vehicle coming in 2021. Lucid’s specifications and high quality craftsmanship seem to be on par with what Apple offers with their products. However, I’m not sure that will happen given the short time frame and the fact that I think Lucid wouldn’t want to take the back seat (no pun intended) to Apple as Lucid seems pretty set on being a leader themselves in the luxury EV space.
I think it’s more likely that Apple does indeed wait until 2024 to release the Apple Car, and here’s why: By then it won’t be unreasonable to expect a more fully fledged self driving car. And I think Apple is focused heavily on the self driving aspect of the car. The more simplified the car production process can be, the easier Apple can get the car to production scale. And what better way to simplify it than if the car is built to be self driving in the first place. But in 2024 the biggest elephant in the room will be Tesla. By that time Tesla should have the best battery technology in any electric vehicle with costs down, production ramped, and range maximized. Not only that, Tesla is years ahead of Apple at being a successful electric vehicle company. Tesla will also have a much more affordable electric vehicle on the market by then: the $25,000 Tesla model that they announced at Battery Day. So it’s expected that Tesla will have the major upper hand by then so it would behoove Apple to get their car done sooner rather than later, and hopefully they can beat the $25,000 Tesla to the market.
But when the Apple car does come and even if it is priced in the luxury category, which I think it will be, it will undoubtedly be an absolute game changer. We’re talking about possibly the world’s most valuable company with deep pockets producing and selling a self driving electric vehicle in the next few years. Apple has shown that they have some of the best engineers in the world especially with the recent success of their M1 chip, and they have one huge advantage over Tesla: advertising. Apple not only knows how to market and sell, but they actually spend a large amount of money on advertising while Tesla does not. This doesn’t mean Tesla won’t change that by the time Apple car comes out, but either way I think this is a win win for everyone. Apple would be doing a disservice by NOT producing an electric self driving vehicle. It’s a step forward to a greener and safer world which I think massive companies like Apple should focus more on anyway. They will no doubt make the Apple car an attractive, high quality product with progressive technology and probably the best software in a car. And with all the millions of people who are already in the Apple ecosystem and especially the kids who grew up entirely on Apple products, an Apple car would honestly be a top choice for them. The possibilities with this car are endless: Apple has a huge App Store, it has people paying subscriptions, and what if you could get Apple Care instead of insurance for the Apple car? That would be cool right? Also Apple could instantly add a Car app into the next iOS release so that millions of people overnight get it on their phone. And if you’re concerned about the charging infrastructure, Elon this week already said that the Tesla Supercharger network is open to other EVs. Who knows? Maybe Apple will take Tesla up on that offer and be compatible with Tesla Superchargers. Let’s just hope Apple doesn’t design the charging for the car like they did for the Magic Mouse. I think this will lead to many more people interested in, but more importantly, adopting electric vehicles which after all is what Tesla’s mission is.
What do you think of the Apple Car? Let me know in the comments below. I am really excited to see what Apple comes up with, and I will definitely be reviewing it on this channel so hit subscribe if you want to see that in the future. My name is Andy. Thank you for watching, and I’ll talk to you in the next one.
Apple just announced the biggest update ever for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. In this video I’ll explain how Apple’s new M1 chip has changed the MacBook lineup, and I’ll go over some key differences between the MacBook Air and the Pro so you can decide which one is best for you to buy in late 2020 going into 2021.
Apple’s new M1 chip consolidates what used to be many different components such as a processor, I/O, and memory into a single chip. By doing this Apple claims major improvements in performance, efficiency, and security.
The 13” MacBook Air and 13” MacBook Pro share some key similarities such as 13.3” Retina display, up to 16GB of memory, up to 2TB of SSD storage, a 720p HD webcam, and both have just two USB-C ports but most importantly they both have the same brand new Apple M1 chip. So what are the main differences?
Price:
MacBook Air has always been and still is cheaper than the MacBook Pro. The Air starts at $999 while the Pro starts at $1299. But the base Air only has a 7-core GPU for graphics which is one core fewer than the MacBook Pro. However, you can choose the $1249 variant of the Air which has that extra GPU core to match the Pro at 8-cores but by choosing that variant of the Air it also doubles the SSD storage to 512GB. That means there’s only a $50 difference between the cheapest 8-core MacBook Air and the cheapest MacBook Pro but with another difference being the Pro having half the SSD storage space at 256GB.
Touch Bar & Brightness:
Both the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro have Touch ID so you can use your fingerprint for things like logging onto your Mac and using Apple Pay. However, only the Pro has the Touch Bar which replaces all the top keys with a dynamic touch-sensitive bar that changes based on what app you currently have open which is cool and all, but the Touch Bar is a feature that you absolutely do not need so if you’re considering buying a Pro just for that, you may want to get an Air instead. Also, MacBook Pro has a brighter screen with 500 nits of brightness compared to the Air’s 400 nits of brightness which is something to consider if you use your laptop outside during the day a lot.
Size & Sound:
Now this next difference is very negligible, but it’s interesting to point out because when you think of the Air you think of it being the smallest and lightest MacBook which is still kind of true. But the MacBook Air at its thickest point is actually 0.02 inches thicker than the MacBook Pro. They’re also the same exact width and length, but the Pro is actually only 0.2 pounds heavier than the Air so when it comes to size don’t automatically assume the Air is extremely lighter and thinner than the Pro. They are closer in size and weight than you may think. Also, the Pro comes with better speakers featuring high dynamic range and a better studio quality microphone array compared to the Air so if you are wanting to improve your video chats with better speakers and microphone you may want the Pro.
Battery:
The second biggest difference is the battery. The MacBook Air used to be known for having the longest battery life of all the MacBooks, but not anymore. The MacBook Pro has a larger battery than the Air, about 8Wh more. And the Pro has two more hours of battery life compared to the Air. Apple claims you can get up to 20 hours of video playback on the Pro compared to 18 hours on the Air. The new MacBook Pro also has the longest battery life ever in a Mac so if you’re all about a long lasting battery then you should definitely get the Pro.
Fan:
That brings us to the biggest difference between the new MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro: a fan. The MacBook Air is completely fan-less so this means the Air will be nearly silent and hardly make any noise. If you want an extremely quiet laptop get the Air. However, since the Air lacks the fan that the Pro has, the Pro has a definitive advantage in performance even they both use the same M1 chip. Today’s processors can almost always run faster if given proper cooling. In a fan-less body (like the MacBook Air) the CPU will need to throttle down some so even though the Air and Pro have the same processor, the fan in the MacBook Pro lets it run at peak performance for longer. This gives the performance nod to the MacBook Pro. If you want to run high intensity apps for long periods of time, the MacBook Pro should be able to excel at those tasks compared to the Air.
Affinity Photo is a photo editing app for Mac and does almost everything that Photoshop can do. Great for minor editing & retouching images all the way to creating full-blown multi-layered compositions.
Alfred is the ultimate productivity app for your Mac with things like hotkeys, keywords, text expansion, and more. With it you can quickly search your Mac and the web, and perform other custom actions.
Amphetamine is one of my most used Mac apps. It keeps your Mac awake (and optionally the display) through a simple on/off button, or automatically through custom triggers.
Backblaze is an important Mac app. For $5/month on their annual plan you get unlimited cloud backup of all your files. It backs up all your Mac’s data along with any connected external drives.
BeFocused is based on the Pomodoro technique and uses a timer to break down work into intervals, separated by short breaks. You can create tasks, configure breaks, and track your progress.
CheatSheet is a free app that lets you quickly view the keyboard shortcuts of the active app you have opened.
CleanMyMacX is all-in-one optimization tool for your Mac to clean it of junk files and keep it running fast. It has an intuitive interface that does a wide variety of tasks including cleaning & optimizing your Mac with one click and keeping your Mac free from malware.
DropBox provides free cloud storage that syncs with all your devices and is accessible from the web. The folder on your Mac that stays synced with the cloud automatically.
Evernote is a virtual notebook that syncs to the cloud and is accessible from nearly any device so you can save, access, and organize all of your most important ideas and thoughts.
Flume is an Instagram app for your Mac. It lets you upload photos & videos to your Instagram directly from your Mac.
Helium is a free app that lets you keep a floating browser on top of all your open windows at all times. It allows you to simultaneously see your content and your work.
IINA is a free open source modern media player for macOS. It’s designed with the look and feel of the latest macOS versions while integrating the latest features.
LastPass is my favorite free password manager. It creates & remembers strong unique passwords and is secure with strong encryption.
Pocket lets you save any web page for future reference and access it at anytime on any device. It lets you tag & organize all of the web pages you save so you can quickly find and sort through them.
Rectangle is a free open source app that lets you move and resize windows in macOS using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas.
ToDoist is an intuitive to-do app that lets you quickly capture & organize tasks. You can use it to remember deadlines with reminders and due dates, build lasting habits with recurring due dates, and more.
Screens 4 lets you remotely access your Mac from anywhere and control it from the comfort of wherever you are. It is fast, secure, and reliable and a must-have if you travel frequently or need to access your Mac from anywhere.
SmartConverter is a free Mac video converter. It’s easy to use and is fast. Smart Converter can handle hundreds of file types and converts them so they play on your favorite devices.
Unarchiver can unarchive (or unzip) many different kinds of archive files such as Zip, RAR, 7-zip, Tar, and Gzip. It’s a useful utility app for your Mac.
Unclutter is a Mac productivity app that’s 3 tools in 1: File Storage to keep your Desktop clean from temporary files, Notes to write down something quickly, and a Clipboard manager to track what you copy & paste.
So you’re interested in buying an Apple laptop. Congratulations, a laptop is a big purchase so it’s very important to choose the right one. In this video I’ll explain which MacBook model is best for you in 2020.
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