Linked List: April 16, 2019

Tuesday, 16 April 2019

Intel to Exit 5G Smartphone Modem Business 

Intel news release:

Intel Corporation today announced its intention to exit the 5G smartphone modem business and complete an assessment of the opportunities for 4G and 5G modems in PCs, internet of things devices and other data-centric devices. Intel will also continue to invest in its 5G network infrastructure business.

This is, to say the least, rather shocking. It seems extraordinarily unlikely to be a coincidence that the announcement came the same day Apple and Qualcomm settled their lawsuit. A big factor in the high-stakes nature of the Apple-Qualcomm fight is that Apple’s reliance on Intel for 5G modems was looking like a serious problem. So my question is: did Apple settle with Qualcomm because Intel warned them they were getting out of the 5G modem business, leaving Apple with no other option? Or did Intel get out of the 5G modem business because Apple settled with Qualcomm?

My initial guess is it’s the former: Intel decided to get out of this market, and Apple got squeezed.

Ben Bajarin:

Now don’t be surprised if Apple buys some of, or all of, Intel’s modem business IP.

I predicted this years ago so fingers crossed my crystal ball was clear :)

That would fit with the Cook Doctrine of “owning and controlling the primary technologies behind the products [Apple] makes”.

Leakapalooza 

Guilherme Rambo, writing at 9to5Mac, has a veritable mountain of leaks regarding iOS 13 and MacOS 10.15. A few that caught my eye:

Another thing many iOS users complain about is the lack of a standard undo system, which on the iPhone and iPad currently requires physically shaking the device.

With iOS 13, Apple is introducing a new standard undo gesture for text input on the iPad. The gesture starts as a three-finger tap on the keyboard area, sliding left and right allows the user to undo and redo actions interactively.

This is interesting, and I’ve been on Apple’s case about Undo on iOS for a long time. But for text input, there’s already a standard interface on iPad — the little Undo and Redo buttons at the top left of the keyboard. A three-finger gesture doesn’t seem like an improvement.

Font management is getting a major upgrade on iOS 13. It will not be necessary to install a profile to get new fonts into the system anymore. Instead there will be a new font management panel in Settings. A new standard font picker component will be available for developers and the system will notify the user when they open a document that has missing fonts.

A true “finally” for this one. I know none of this is “easy”, and that fonts in particular are tricky security-wise, because they’re software. But man, it’s a little crazy that iPad has been around for nine years and Apple is only getting to “easy font installation” now. I’m tempted to make a Font/DA Mover joke.

Qualcomm and Apple Agree to Drop All Litigation 

Apple Newsroom:

Qualcomm and Apple today announced an agreement to dismiss all litigation between the two companies worldwide. The settlement includes a payment from Apple to Qualcomm. The companies also have reached a six-year license agreement, effective as of April 1, 2019, including a two-year option to extend, and a multiyear chipset supply agreement.

“The settlement includes a payment from Apple to Qualcomm” is my favorite sentence so far this week.

Here’s more from The New York Times:

The provisions of the deal announced on Tuesday suggest at least a partial victory for Qualcomm’s patent-driven business model, which has also attracted harsh scrutiny from regulators like the Federal Trade Commission in a separate case awaiting a federal judge’s ruling. Qualcomm’s shares, which have been hurt by the two-year dispute with Apple, jumped 23 percent on word of the settlement.

In agreeing to settle the case, Apple tacitly acknowledged it was able to live with Qualcomm’s business model — assuming the price of Qualcomm’s royalties is more to Apple’s liking. The parties disclosed no financial details, but a slide they distributed Tuesday said the deal “reflects value and strength of Qualcomm’s intellectual property.”