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Apple terminates UK data protection after government overreach

As of 10 a.m. (ET) today, Apple is no longer offering new users in the UK the chance to enable Advanced Data Protection. Essentially, anyone who now wants to enable the feature to protect their data against criminal or state surveillance or exfiltration will no longer be able to do so.

The move appears to be a direct response to the foolish and supremely dangerous demand by the UK government to undermine personal data security on an international scale. The UK used its Investigatory Powers Act to demand Apple secretly break encryption protecting data held in iCloud with the creation of a backdoor into that data. Rather than comply, Apple has instead switched off the encryption.

Advanced Data Protection (ADP) gives Apple’s users end-to-end encryption across nine iCloud data categories that are not otherwise so encrypted, These include iCloud Backup, iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Wallet Passes and Freeform. Other iCloud categories, including iCloud Keychain, Health, and iMessage, will remain encrypted.

What this means to UK users

In a statement, the company said: “Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature. ADP protects iCloud data with end-to-end encryption, which means the data can only be decrypted by the user who owns it, and only on their trusted devices.

“We are gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP will not be available to our customers in the UK, given the continuing rise of data breaches and other threats to customer privacy. Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end encryption is more urgent than ever before.”

What the change means is that if you have not already enabled ADP on your device, you will receive a message warning you that the feature is no longer available to new users in the UK. It gets worse, of course.

If you happen to be a UK customer who is already using ADP, you can eventually expect to be told to disable the feature in order to continue using your iCloud account. Apple evidently doesn’t want to have to do this; the company knows full well that in the current threat landscape, it makes sense to encrypt all of your data — which is why it introduced ADP in the first place.

A huge act of self-harm by the UK

Speaking to the BBC, online security expert Professor Alan Woodward called this a “very disappointing development,” slamming the government for an act of self-harm. “All the UK government has achieved is to weaken online security and privacy for UK based users.”

Unfortunately, the incompetent UK government does not understand this. It’s a huge indictment of UK officials in the Home Office, who have effectively given the world’s authoritarians a green light to demand access to people’s data.As anyone who understands digital security knows, no one is safe unless everyone is safe, and the UK has just made everyone less safe

Fortunately, the ADP system remains available in the rest of the world. 

It is likely the decision to disable the system in the UK follows the recent UK attempt to demand access to data held in iCloud by anyone in the world. Sadly, we can’t be certain this is the case as, under the law the government used to demand this, we have no right to be told.

That means we do not know the full extent to which Apple has been forced to open up to state surveillance by UK authorities. We do not know how the government is handling that access and have not been told how it will affect users. Nor do we know the extent to which the government is attempting to secure global access to iCloud data, threatening the interests of other nations in the act.

All we do know is that the government is guilty of an authoritarian overreach to the detriment of its own national security. Senators in the US are already threatening to re-evaluate intelligence sharing agreements with the UK unless it ceases this digital overreach.

Apple will continue to fight

As I wrote when this foolish demand was made, far from making people safer, the UK demand threatens everyone: “Ultimately, privacy is a human right, not a feature, and the removal of such rights should at least be a matter of public and democratic debate, which it has not been. As it stands, this UK overreach should be opposed not only by civil rights advocates, but by anyone else who uses — or provides — online services of any kind, and certainly by any nation that does protect privacy among its citizens. “

 The fight for privacy is not over.  Apple will continue to push for it. In the statement, the company stressed: “Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in the future in the United Kingdom. As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services, and we never will.”

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

Microsoft releases a new genAI model that can control robots

Microsoft has launched Magma, a new generative AI (genAI) model that can be used to control everything from software to robots. The company says Magma is the first such model that can act on its own based on multimodal data such as texts, images, and video.

It can, for example, use an interface or handle physical objects, Ars Technica reports.

Parts of the code for Magma will be posted on Guthub next week, allowing researchers to test and build on the it.

No, Apple and Meta aren’t making humanoid robots

Tech press-landi and the tech blogosphere were abuzz last week with news that both Apple, the company that makes the iPhone, and Meta, the company that makes everybody on Facebook confront a daily flood of horrible AI-generated slop, are making full-size, humanoid robots.

The trouble is, they’re not doing that. Here’s what’s really happening. 

Don’t call Apple’s robot the “iRobot”

TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote on the X social network on Feb. 12 that “Apple is exploring both humanoid and non-humanoid robots for its future smart home ecosystem.”

According to Kuo, these products are in the proof-of-concept stage and will enter production in 2028 or later.

Apple’s proof-of-concept stage for any possible product direction is exactly what it sounds like. They’re exploring possibilities, and in that exploration, they’re already leaning away from the humanoid robot, based on the very limited information we have. 

Kuo said in his tweet that Apple uses the word “anthropomorphic” instead of “humanoid” because it cares more about user perception of the device rather than its form. Even at this very early stage, Apple is already banning the H-word internally. 

The experimental lamp robot I wrote about recently uses humanlike “body language” but is shaped like a lamp. It’s “anthropomorphic” but not “humanoid.” Apple is investing in a systematic exploration of “robots” that express themselves in reaction to a human user without that robot looking anything at all like a person and even without robot speech.

Apple’s first “robot” will likely be an Apple HomePod that moves. Internally code-named J595, the device has been described by leakers as having an iPad-like display at the end of a robotic arm that tilts, rotates, and moves. It locates and “faces” the user during their interactions or when the user is making a FaceTime call using it. Based on Apple Intelligence, the gadget might be used for controlling smart home devices and security systems. 

One reasonable expectation is that Apple’s research for making home appliances “anthropomorphic” but not “humanoid” will be applied to the device. That research, which I detailed last week, is called ELEGNT. But it’s not just a science project. ELEGNT is a framework for designing movement in non-anthropomorphic robots. It combines functional attributes (like task efficiency) with expressive qualities (such as conveying intention, attention, and emotions) to create a better user experience. 

Apple reportedly aims to launch the tabletop robot by 2026 or 2027, with an estimated price of around $1,000.

When will it ship the humanoid robot Kuo held out as a possibility? There’s no evidence to suggest Apple ever will. I think it’s extremely unlikely. 

No humanoid robot coming from Meta, either 

Those claiming that Meta is planning humanoid robots aren’t reading the fine print, either. 

What’s really happening is that Meta has formed a new team inside its Reality Labs hardware division headed by Marc Whitten (former CEO of self-driving car company Cruise) to work on developing sensors, AI and other software; those products can then be sold to companies building humanoid robots, such as Unitree Robotics and Figure AI, according to reporting by Bloomberg. Meta apparently believes in the vision of consumer robots, the size and shape of people, who cook, clean, and mow the lawn. 

Why would the social networking company formerly known as Facebook want to be involved in creating Rosey the Robot? The answer can be found in an internal memo written by Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth and seen by Bloomberg: “The core technologies we’ve already invested in and built across Reality Labs and AI are complementary to developing the advancements needed for robotics. We believe that expanding our portfolio to invest in this field will only accrue value to Meta AI and our mixed and augmented reality programs.”

My own fear is that, given the Meta tools I written about before — including tools where social media users can clone themselves and have AI avatars interact with followers —Meta might want to extend this paradigm into the real world and have robots interacting with others in the real world on behalf of Meta customers. 

Building robots can “only accrue value to Meta AI and our mixed and augmented reality programs” if users are seeing through the eyes of their robot avatar using Meta mixed-reality glasses. 

(Meta is very much one of those torment nexus companies that scour 20th-century dystopian sci-fi looking for bad ideas to make real.)

How to understand the Applebots and Metadroids

What’s really happening here is that Apple is just being Apple, and Meta is just being Meta as we slide into the Age of Robotics.

Apple wants to use robotics technologies to improve the user experience of its consumer electronics, delighting users with friendly, responsive products via AI and robotics. 

Meta wants to use robotics to get people to “socially network” with non-human entities, possibly by having cameras and sensors in the home that can harvest personal data. 

One of the big challenges for both companies is personnel. The companies compete with hundreds of other companies and universities for rare robotics talent. It’s likely this is one reason Apple is publishing research like the ELEGNT project — it’s a way to get robotics researchers interested in working for the company.

But as surprising as these companies’ entry into the robot business may seem, it’s only surprising if you don’t appreciate the impact robotics will have on the world over the next decade.

The total value of the robotics market is projected to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars by 2035. Robots of varying kinds will appear in factories, offices, healthcare, and homes.

The coming ubiquity of robotics is a near certainty. What’s far less clear is the form these robots will take. Will they be mechanical humans — humanoid robots that directly assist and replace people just as people would? Or will everyday appliances simply become robotic? In other words, will our lawns be mowed by more advanced versions of today’s automated mowers, and our floors swept and mopped by more advanced versions of today’s home-cleaning robots? Or will a humanoid robot push a mower and use a mop? 

Certainly both, right? In the meantime, the major Silicon Valley companies need to compete for robotics engineers and designers so they can set themselves up for success in the future, and figure out where their missions align with what’s possible in future products. 

Of course, Apple and Meta are working on and investing in robotics — and, for that matter, so are Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and all the usual suspects. They’d be irresponsible not to.

The robots are coming. And if Silicon Valley wants to stay relevant, they’re going to need robots of their own.

But don’t expect humanoid robots to be built and sold by either Apple or Meta. 

No, Apple and Meta aren’t making humanoid robots

Tech press-landi and the tech blogosphere were abuzz last week with news that both Apple, the company that makes the iPhone, and Meta, the company that makes everybody on Facebook confront a daily flood of horrible AI-generated slop, are making full-size, humanoid robots.

The trouble is, they’re not doing that. Here’s what’s really happening. 

Don’t call Apple’s robot the “iRobot”

TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote on the X social network on Feb. 12 that “Apple is exploring both humanoid and non-humanoid robots for its future smart home ecosystem.”

According to Kuo, these products are in the proof-of-concept stage and will enter production in 2028 or later.

Apple’s proof-of-concept stage for any possible product direction is exactly what it sounds like. They’re exploring possibilities, and in that exploration, they’re already leaning away from the humanoid robot, based on the very limited information we have. 

Kuo said in his tweet that Apple uses the word “anthropomorphic” instead of “humanoid” because it cares more about user perception of the device rather than its form. Even at this very early stage, Apple is already banning the H-word internally. 

The experimental lamp robot I wrote about recently uses humanlike “body language” but is shaped like a lamp. It’s “anthropomorphic” but not “humanoid.” Apple is investing in a systematic exploration of “robots” that express themselves in reaction to a human user without that robot looking anything at all like a person and even without robot speech.

Apple’s first “robot” will likely be an Apple HomePod that moves. Internally code-named J595, the device has been described by leakers as having an iPad-like display at the end of a robotic arm that tilts, rotates, and moves. It locates and “faces” the user during their interactions or when the user is making a FaceTime call using it. Based on Apple Intelligence, the gadget might be used for controlling smart home devices and security systems. 

One reasonable expectation is that Apple’s research for making home appliances “anthropomorphic” but not “humanoid” will be applied to the device. That research, which I detailed last week, is called ELEGNT. But it’s not just a science project. ELEGNT is a framework for designing movement in non-anthropomorphic robots. It combines functional attributes (like task efficiency) with expressive qualities (such as conveying intention, attention, and emotions) to create a better user experience. 

Apple reportedly aims to launch the tabletop robot by 2026 or 2027, with an estimated price of around $1,000.

When will it ship the humanoid robot Kuo held out as a possibility? There’s no evidence to suggest Apple ever will. I think it’s extremely unlikely. 

No humanoid robot coming from Meta, either 

Those claiming that Meta is planning humanoid robots aren’t reading the fine print, either. 

What’s really happening is that Meta has formed a new team inside its Reality Labs hardware division headed by Marc Whitten (former CEO of self-driving car company Cruise) to work on developing sensors, AI and other software; those products can then be sold to companies building humanoid robots, such as Unitree Robotics and Figure AI, according to reporting by Bloomberg. Meta apparently believes in the vision of consumer robots, the size and shape of people, who cook, clean, and mow the lawn. 

Why would the social networking company formerly known as Facebook want to be involved in creating Rosey the Robot? The answer can be found in an internal memo written by Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth and seen by Bloomberg: “The core technologies we’ve already invested in and built across Reality Labs and AI are complementary to developing the advancements needed for robotics. We believe that expanding our portfolio to invest in this field will only accrue value to Meta AI and our mixed and augmented reality programs.”

My own fear is that, given the Meta tools I written about before — including tools where social media users can clone themselves and have AI avatars interact with followers —Meta might want to extend this paradigm into the real world and have robots interacting with others in the real world on behalf of Meta customers. 

Building robots can “only accrue value to Meta AI and our mixed and augmented reality programs” if users are seeing through the eyes of their robot avatar using Meta mixed-reality glasses. 

(Meta is very much one of those torment nexus companies that scour 20th-century dystopian sci-fi looking for bad ideas to make real.)

How to understand the Applebots and Metadroids

What’s really happening here is that Apple is just being Apple, and Meta is just being Meta as we slide into the Age of Robotics.

Apple wants to use robotics technologies to improve the user experience of its consumer electronics, delighting users with friendly, responsive products via AI and robotics. 

Meta wants to use robotics to get people to “socially network” with non-human entities, possibly by having cameras and sensors in the home that can harvest personal data. 

One of the big challenges for both companies is personnel. The companies compete with hundreds of other companies and universities for rare robotics talent. It’s likely this is one reason Apple is publishing research like the ELEGNT project — it’s a way to get robotics researchers interested in working for the company.

But as surprising as these companies’ entry into the robot business may seem, it’s only surprising if you don’t appreciate the impact robotics will have on the world over the next decade.

The total value of the robotics market is projected to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars by 2035. Robots of varying kinds will appear in factories, offices, healthcare, and homes.

The coming ubiquity of robotics is a near certainty. What’s far less clear is the form these robots will take. Will they be mechanical humans — humanoid robots that directly assist and replace people just as people would? Or will everyday appliances simply become robotic? In other words, will our lawns be mowed by more advanced versions of today’s automated mowers, and our floors swept and mopped by more advanced versions of today’s home-cleaning robots? Or will a humanoid robot push a mower and use a mop? 

Certainly both, right? In the meantime, the major Silicon Valley companies need to compete for robotics engineers and designers so they can set themselves up for success in the future, and figure out where their missions align with what’s possible in future products. 

Of course, Apple and Meta are working on and investing in robotics — and, for that matter, so are Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and all the usual suspects. They’d be irresponsible not to.

The robots are coming. And if Silicon Valley wants to stay relevant, they’re going to need robots of their own.

But don’t expect humanoid robots to be built and sold by either Apple or Meta. 

Perplexity releases a censorship-free variant of Deepseek R1

Perplexity is releasing its model R1 1776, a version of Deepseek R1 with open model weights that has been post-trained to remove China’s censorship and provide more unbiased, accurate answers, according to Perplexity co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas. He wrote about the move on LinkedIn.

“The post-training to remove censorship has been carried out without degrading the basic reasoning ability of the model, which is crucial for the model to remain useful in all practically important tasks,” Srinivas wrote.

For example, in R1 1776, there is no longer any censorship of answers to questions such as “What is China’s system of government?” or “Who is Xi Jinping?” or “How might Taiwan’s independence affect Nvidia’s share price?”.

Zoom, Google step up their AI game with new videoconferencing features

Google and Zoom this week announced new AI features in their videoconferencing apps  that the companies said are aimed at improving employee productivity.

The updates focus on automating tasks during and after a videoconference. 

Google Meet now has a feature that advises users on possible next steps to take after a videoconferencing call ends. And Zoom added a new set of AI tools called Workplace Automation that automates common tasks after a meeting.

Google’s “suggested next steps” tool draws its cues from an AI-generated transcript of a meeting and recommends next steps and follow-ups, which are organized within the meeting notes document. 

“This latest note-taking enhancement will help ensure important follow-ups aren’t missed and keeps everyone aligned on what happens next after your meeting,” Google said in a blog post.

As for Zoom, it announced the general availability of Workplace Automation in its software.  The feature was previously available in beta.

Zoom Workflow Automation automatically creates a workflow that triggers a set of actions, such as generating summaries of meetings, exporting the summary to a document, and sharing it with team members. The tool can also track activity and communication among a team with multiple participants and generate summaries, so everyone is up to date on the activities. 

That solves the problem of fragmented communication, the company said.

Workflow Automation is connected across Zoom Workplace tools including Zoom Chat, Zoom Team Chat, and Zoom Docs. Applications from third-party applications such as Microsoft and Google can also be a part of the automated workflow. And the workflows can be integrated into Atlassian’s Jira software. 

The tool is built on AI Companion 2.0, which was announced last year. The chatbot can answer user questions during and after a call by drawing information from meetings, documents and other sources of information. For example, users can stay up to date on conversations, a feature also available in Slack.

Workplace Automation is available in the latest version of Zoom.

AI is already becoming a central feature of meeting technology, and its utility will only grow over time, said JP Gownder, principal analyst at Gartner. “We don’t have armies of stenographers transcribing meeting notes verbatim, so transcription is incredibly valuable,” he said. 

Generating summaries and To Do lists are also helpful as they can make meetings more valuable. 

“Too many meetings occur, and participants simply forget everything that happened. With AI follow-ups, there is a greater chance that the meeting will lead to some outcome, something that benefits the business,” Gownder said.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is the most popular video option, so Google and Zoom need to be competitive with their offerings, he said.“Of course, Google and Zoom are also competitive insofar as they don’t charge extra for these AI features for enterprises that are subscribing to their core solutions,” Gownder said.

Chaos ahead: emerging technologies will test data privacy, says Britain’s ICO

Emerging technologies such as connected transport, quantum sensing, healthcare diagnostics, and synthetic AI-driven content are creating huge gaps in data protection and privacy that could quickly outpace the ability of regulators and enterprises to contain them.

It’s a possibility that emerges from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office’s (ICO’s) latest Tech Horizons report 2025, which examines how these four sectors could be about to make today’s understanding of the data security challenge look quaint.

As anyone recently buying a new car will notice, the in-vehicle experience is now influenced as much by the onboard digital systems as by anything happening in its engine, transmission, or battery power plant.

Owners can talk to their cars, access systems using facial recognition, ask software to compose business memos and texts, and remotely turn on home central heating systems, all while plotting the best route to a destination through traffic. The car, meanwhile, can use sensors to monitor the owner for fatigue and driving style, uploading this data to central systems and multiple apps.

But this is only the start. Pretty soon, vehicles will continuously communicate with one another, the road infrastructure around them, and even with the smartphones carried by pedestrians. This represents a massive expansion in data and data communication that will hand a huge job to organizations trying to stay within current UK data protection and consent regulations, said the ICO.

“The proliferation of sensors in connected vehicles increases the risk of collecting excessive information beyond what is required for the stated purpose.,” the ICO said. “In particular, sensors may collect data in a continuous and automatic way with limited or no ability for the user to effectively opt out of collection.”

Unfair processing and fake data

And it’s not only vehicles. Another rapidly evolving area is quantum sensors, a term that covers types of medical sensing devices used to measure tiny changes in magnetic fields, gravity, and temperature.

In future, these could generate large amounts of data on a patient’s health in real time, which will need to be secured:

“People may not understand what information is being collected and why. If capabilities are misused or information is inadequately protected, there are concerns about risks of unfair processing (and even neuro-discrimination),” said the ICO.

The report also looks at the effect of AI-generated content, an issue that is already causing trouble. Although entirely synthetic, the data used to train these systems is based on personal or biometric data, the obvious example of which is deepfakes.

It’s a class of data protection problem which, until recently, would have sounded surreal: defending individuals from exploitation by entirely or largely fake PII.

Data protection by design

The ICO sees this as three problems. First, emerging technologies will generate vastly more data, which will translate into a larger workload for anyone trying to secure it.

Second, they will generate new types of data, for example, “from brain patterns to driving fatigue.” Protecting this will require tech companies to build in data protection by design before a system is released.

Finally, and most significantly, this data will be shared across multiple entities, leading to a lack of transparency about who is responsible for it at different stages.

Although some of these issues relate to consumers, many enterprises that interact with or process this data could be caught up in the same issues.

“As this report shows, the increasing number of innovators developing and interacting with new technologies creates complex networks. This makes it harder for people to understand who is processing their information and how they can exercise their information rights,” said the ICO.

For enterprises, navigating this won’t simply be about staying on the right side of data protection regulations, but understanding which rules to pay attention to, said Andrew Churchill, a director at the CSBR, a non-profit that seeks to influence public policy.

“Given that most UK organisations will handle EU citizen data, and almost all will use US IT within their supply chains, different regulatory regimes will force organizations around the world to juggle the contradictions between different jurisdictional positions,” said Churchill.

For example, a company’s tier one supplier might be in the UK, but has a French supplier, which in turn has a supplier that is German. But, he said, “the French interpretation of the EU’s NIS2 Directive might be different from the German one, which might be different from the UK one under the Data (Use and Access) Bill.”

This risks creating a huge amount of regulatory complexity for enterprise data protection officers, in ways that might reduce the effectiveness of data compliance, he noted. “Too often the public policy debate doesn’t consider the ramifications of what we could be sleepwalking into.”

Everything we know about Apple’s C1 5G modem in iPhone 16e

There’s a lot to like about Apple’s newest $599 iPhone 16e, but one of the more interesting features in the device is the Apple-designed 5G modem. Apple has spent at least seven years developing the chip, but gave it just a few short seconds of time when it announced the smartphone this week. (That’s not a great deal of time for a component that represents such a design challenge.)

Here is what we know so far about Apple’s all-new C1 subsystem.

Introducing the C1 chip

At the heart of the system, the C1 (Cellular 1) chip first appears in the iPhone 16e. It is also expected to debut in other Apple devices in the coming months and will likely see use across all or most of the iPhone range by this time next year. Apple calls it “the most power efficient modem ever in an iPhone.” 

The reason it can say that is that the modem integrates with both the hardware and software on the Apple device. That integration lets it optimize the relationship between all the components, unleashing better performance and power efficiency. It’s also what makes the iPhone 16e so power efficient.

There’s another advantage. Apple can optimize device processes, including through the use of machine learning and AI. A Reuters report explains that if an iPhone with the chip finds itself on a congested data network, the processor can tell the modem what traffic is the most important to handle first, which means the tasks you really want to transact will be completed that little bit more swiftly.  

What Apple said about the C1

Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji explained how Apple sees this latest addition to the company’s growing processor family.  “We build a platform for generations,” Srouji said. “C1 is the start, and we’re going to keep improving that technology each generation, so that it becomes a platform for us that will be used to truly differentiate this technology for our products.”

Srouji also stressed that the company doesn’t aim to match all the specifications of other modems from other manufacturers. That’s because the company’s business isn’t modem manufacture, but to design products for which the modem is a component. The aim, I expect, will be to deliver the best connected devices offering optimizations that just aren’t possible unless you design the hardware and software used.

Right now, that’s evident in energy consumption; I’m guessing that as the company finds a way to optimize the designs and further miniaturize the transceiver, we can anticipate performance and speed to also see significant improvements. These are, after all, the typical benefits Apple continues to realize through the move to Apple Silicon.

Power efficiency

Power efficiency is the big result from this chip. It means you get 26 hours of video playback in the iPhone 16e. And over the next year or two, all those complaints about iPhone battery life are likely to fade because Apple’s future devices will offer the best battery life in the business while also using less energy. (This should also extend physical battery life.)

For now, the iPhone 16e delivers the same video playback, more streamed video playback, similar audio playback and will fast charge more swiftly than the iPhone 14 Plus. What kind of power efficiency might a C1 “Pro” in future higher-end devices achieve? Can we anticipate iPhones with 30+-hour battery life? It’s not unreasonable to do so.

The C1 also isn’t precisely a single chip, but is instead a system of multiple chips, including the transceiver and baseband chips that connect using PCIe. This should make for better power delivery when you use the device in the sun or cold. So, when you use your iPhone’s 5G modem for serious work, such as downloading data via 5G, you might well find your device gets less hot and uses less energy during the process. That’s going to be good for all kinds of remote work.

Engineering

Apple isn’t coming in blind with its 5G chip. It claims the modem was tested with 180 carriers in 55 countries to ensure it works wherever Apple ships iPhones. While actual results will vary, it’s a reassuring starting point. The C1 chip is a complex piece of engineering; its baseband modem is manufactured using advanced 4-nanometer technology, while its transceiver uses 7nm.

Eager to get away from reliance on Qualcomm, Apple has been working to build its own 5G modem since at least 2019, when it purchased Intel’s chip development business for $1 billion. It now joins a small, select group of companies to offer one of these — only Samsung, MediaTek, Huawei, and, of course, Qualcomm have one. The chips also carry GPS systems and support for satellite connectivity, and they handle all the usual 4G/5G frequencies.

Missing the mmWave?

Still, one thing Apple hasn’t put in place is support for Wi-Fi 7 or millimeter wave 5G networks (mmWave). That standard is the fastest form of 5G, but is hampered by a limited range that means you don’t usually get to use it. Even in the US, it isn’t widely available, likely reflecting the cost burden of putting base stations that support it on carrier networks.

Now, we know Apple has spent time working with millimeter wave; we also know Qualcomm holds several patents in the tech. Apple isn’t saying whether it will ever support mmWave, but this might not matter much because it is mostly only used in the US (and not widely). In the UK, the spectrum used for mmWave hasn’t even been released as yet.

Apple may eventually still choose to deploy support for it in a future chip – or invest heavily in 6G development in a bid to hold its own patents in the tech. Wi-Fi 7 is another matter, but again I think that in most cases this matters less.

Why? Because most consumers don’t yet have Wi-Fi 7 at home, and most businesses don’t yet support it. Most consumers haven’t experienced the 46Gbps theoretical max bandwidth of Wi-Fi 7 and are accustomed to the 9.6Gbps of Wi-Fi 6. That’s not saying those of us who do regularly use Wi-Fi 7 won’t miss it; the speed is amazing when you get it.

I suspect Wi-Fi 7 support sits above mmWave on Apple’s C2 development road map.

What about Qualcomm?

It’s no secret that the relationship between Apple and Qualcomm is at times tense. Apple thinks Qualcomm charges too much for patent licenses; they ended up in court over something of that nature. Qualcomm, naturally, disagrees.

History will show that Apple felt sufficiently strongly about this to spend billions of dollars and seven years coming up with its own alternative.

Right now, we expect (because Qualcomm says so) that Apple’s 5G modem will be inside 80% of its products by 2026, with the remaining 20% set to switch the following year, when Apple’s technology licensing agreement with Qualcomm also expires.

There is one caveat – Qualcomm still holds many important 5G patents, and Apple will still need to continue to pay some licensing fees for those patents, similar to the fees it pays Arm for Apple Silicon. What Apple gets for the deal is the chance to make a modem that’s optimized for use in its hardware, rather than off-the-shelf components that never quite deliver the right fit.

See it as the difference between a thrift shop suit and one tailored for you. 

What’s next?

There is and will be plenty of speculation concerning the C-series chips. Will Apple roll the modem system into its core chips to create a highly performant system-on-chip (SoC)? Will it now seek to integrate support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth within the C1? (Even if it does not, it is expected to switch to its own proprietary chip for both systems this year). Will it eventually field mmWave support? Apple now has an opportunity to further optimize networking across its devices, unleashing positive consequences in power and performance as it does so.  

One more thing: persistent speculation claims Apple plans to introduce a super-thin iPhone special edition of some kind this year. The new modem might be part of what enables such thinness, as during the iPhone 16e launch Apple did say that the new modem let it switch to a new internal design for the device. That implies the company might now be able to unleash thinner, more performant, more power efficient iPhones.

(Personally, I can’t help but wonder if the component will also let Apple introduce a slim, svelte, folding iPhone to compete with Samsung’s chunky but popular Fold — though that speculation is for another day).

Relevant tech specs

Apple has disclosed the following relevant specs to the iPhone 16e.

Model A3212

  • 5G NR (Bands n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n14, n20, n25, n26, n28, n29, n30, n38, n40, n41, n48, n53, n66, n70, n71, n75, n76, n77, n78, n79)
  • FDD‑LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 66, 71)
  • TD‑LTE (Bands 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 48, 53)
  • UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz) 
  • GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

All models

  • 5G (sub-6 GHz) with 4×4 MIMO
  • Gigabit LTE with 4×4 MIMO
  • Wi‑Fi 6 (802.11ax) with 2×2 MIMO
  • Bluetooth 5.3
  • Express Cards with power reserve
  • GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou, and NavIC
  • Digital compass
  • Wi‑Fi
  • iBeacon microlocation

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedInMastodon, and MeWe

Everything we know about Apple’s C1 5G modem in iPhone 16e

There’s a lot to like about Apple’s newest $599 iPhone 16e, but one of the more interesting features in the device is the Apple-designed 5G modem. Apple has spent at least seven years developing the chip, but gave it just a few short seconds of time when it announced the smartphone this week. (That’s not a great deal of time for a component that represents such a design challenge.)

Here is what we know so far about Apple’s all-new C1 subsystem.

Introducing the C1 chip

At the heart of the system, the C1 (Cellular 1) chip first appears in the iPhone 16e. It is also expected to debut in other Apple devices in the coming months and will likely see use across all or most of the iPhone range by this time next year. Apple calls it “the most power efficient modem ever in an iPhone.” 

The reason it can say that is that the modem integrates with both the hardware and software on the Apple device. That integration lets it optimize the relationship between all the components, unleashing better performance and power efficiency. It’s also what makes the iPhone 16e so power efficient.

There’s another advantage. Apple can optimize device processes, including through the use of machine learning and AI. A Reuters report explains that if an iPhone with the chip finds itself on a congested data network, the processor can tell the modem what traffic is the most important to handle first, which means the tasks you really want to transact will be completed that little bit more swiftly.  

What Apple said about the C1

Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji explained how Apple sees this latest addition to the company’s growing processor family.  “We build a platform for generations,” Srouji said. “C1 is the start, and we’re going to keep improving that technology each generation, so that it becomes a platform for us that will be used to truly differentiate this technology for our products.”

Srouji also stressed that the company doesn’t aim to match all the specifications of other modems from other manufacturers. That’s because the company’s business isn’t modem manufacture, but to design products for which the modem is a component. The aim, I expect, will be to deliver the best connected devices offering optimizations that just aren’t possible unless you design the hardware and software used.

Right now, that’s evident in energy consumption; I’m guessing that as the company finds a way to optimize the designs and further miniaturize the transceiver, we can anticipate performance and speed to also see significant improvements. These are, after all, the typical benefits Apple continues to realize through the move to Apple Silicon.

Power efficiency

Power efficiency is the big result from this chip. It means you get 26 hours of video playback in the iPhone 16e. And over the next year or two, all those complaints about iPhone battery life are likely to fade because Apple’s future devices will offer the best battery life in the business while also using less energy. (This should also extend physical battery life.)

For now, the iPhone 16e delivers the same video playback, more streamed video playback, similar audio playback and will fast charge more swiftly than the iPhone 14 Plus. What kind of power efficiency might a C1 “Pro” in future higher-end devices achieve? Can we anticipate iPhones with 30+-hour battery life? It’s not unreasonable to do so.

The C1 also isn’t precisely a single chip, but is instead a system of multiple chips, including the transceiver and baseband chips that connect using PCIe. This should make for better power delivery when you use the device in the sun or cold. So, when you use your iPhone’s 5G modem for serious work, such as downloading data via 5G, you might well find your device gets less hot and uses less energy during the process. That’s going to be good for all kinds of remote work.

Engineering

Apple isn’t coming in blind with its 5G chip. It claims the modem was tested with 180 carriers in 55 countries to ensure it works wherever Apple ships iPhones. While actual results will vary, it’s a reassuring starting point. The C1 chip is a complex piece of engineering; its baseband modem is manufactured using advanced 4-nanometer technology, while its transceiver uses 7nm.

Eager to get away from reliance on Qualcomm, Apple has been working to build its own 5G modem since at least 2019, when it purchased Intel’s chip development business for $1 billion. It now joins a small, select group of companies to offer one of these — only Samsung, MediaTek, Huawei, and, of course, Qualcomm have one. The chips also carry GPS systems and support for satellite connectivity, and they handle all the usual 4G/5G frequencies.

Missing the mmWave?

Still, one thing Apple hasn’t put in place is support for Wi-Fi 7 or millimeter wave 5G networks (mmWave). That standard is the fastest form of 5G, but is hampered by a limited range that means you don’t usually get to use it. Even in the US, it isn’t widely available, likely reflecting the cost burden of putting base stations that support it on carrier networks.

Now, we know Apple has spent time working with millimeter wave; we also know Qualcomm holds several patents in the tech. Apple isn’t saying whether it will ever support mmWave, but this might not matter much because it is mostly only used in the US (and not widely). In the UK, the spectrum used for mmWave hasn’t even been released as yet.

Apple may eventually still choose to deploy support for it in a future chip – or invest heavily in 6G development in a bid to hold its own patents in the tech. Wi-Fi 7 is another matter, but again I think that in most cases this matters less.

Why? Because most consumers don’t yet have Wi-Fi 7 at home, and most businesses don’t yet support it. Most consumers haven’t experienced the 46Gbps theoretical max bandwidth of Wi-Fi 7 and are accustomed to the 9.6Gbps of Wi-Fi 6. That’s not saying those of us who do regularly use Wi-Fi 7 won’t miss it; the speed is amazing when you get it.

I suspect Wi-Fi 7 support sits above mmWave on Apple’s C2 development road map.

What about Qualcomm?

It’s no secret that the relationship between Apple and Qualcomm is at times tense. Apple thinks Qualcomm charges too much for patent licenses; they ended up in court over something of that nature. Qualcomm, naturally, disagrees.

History will show that Apple felt sufficiently strongly about this to spend billions of dollars and seven years coming up with its own alternative.

Right now, we expect (because Qualcomm says so) that Apple’s 5G modem will be inside 80% of its products by 2026, with the remaining 20% set to switch the following year, when Apple’s technology licensing agreement with Qualcomm also expires.

There is one caveat – Qualcomm still holds many important 5G patents, and Apple will still need to continue to pay some licensing fees for those patents, similar to the fees it pays Arm for Apple Silicon. What Apple gets for the deal is the chance to make a modem that’s optimized for use in its hardware, rather than off-the-shelf components that never quite deliver the right fit.

See it as the difference between a thrift shop suit and one tailored for you. 

What’s next?

There is and will be plenty of speculation concerning the C-series chips. Will Apple roll the modem system into its core chips to create a highly performant system-on-chip (SoC)? Will it now seek to integrate support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth within the C1? (Even if it does not, it is expected to switch to its own proprietary chip for both systems this year). Will it eventually field mmWave support? Apple now has an opportunity to further optimize networking across its devices, unleashing positive consequences in power and performance as it does so.  

One more thing: persistent speculation claims Apple plans to introduce a super-thin iPhone special edition of some kind this year. The new modem might be part of what enables such thinness, as during the iPhone 16e launch Apple did say that the new modem let it switch to a new internal design for the device. That implies the company might now be able to unleash thinner, more performant, more power efficient iPhones.

(Personally, I can’t help but wonder if the component will also let Apple introduce a slim, svelte, folding iPhone to compete with Samsung’s chunky but popular Fold — though that speculation is for another day).

Relevant tech specs

Apple has disclosed the following relevant specs to the iPhone 16e.

Model A3212

  • 5G NR (Bands n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n14, n20, n25, n26, n28, n29, n30, n38, n40, n41, n48, n53, n66, n70, n71, n75, n76, n77, n78, n79)
  • FDD‑LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 66, 71)
  • TD‑LTE (Bands 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 48, 53)
  • UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz) 
  • GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

All models

  • 5G (sub-6 GHz) with 4×4 MIMO
  • Gigabit LTE with 4×4 MIMO
  • Wi‑Fi 6 (802.11ax) with 2×2 MIMO
  • Bluetooth 5.3
  • Express Cards with power reserve
  • GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou, and NavIC
  • Digital compass
  • Wi‑Fi
  • iBeacon microlocation

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedInMastodon, and MeWe

Everything we know about Apple’s C1 5G modem in iPhone 16e

There’s a lot to like about Apple’s newest $599 iPhone 16e, but one of the more interesting features in the device is the Apple-designed 5G modem. Apple has spent at least seven years developing the chip, but gave it just a few short seconds of time when it announced the smartphone this week. (That’s not a great deal of time for a component that represents such a design challenge.)

Here is what we know so far about Apple’s all-new C1 subsystem.

Introducing the C1 chip

At the heart of the system, the C1 (Cellular 1) chip first appears in the iPhone 16e. It is also expected to debut in other Apple devices in the coming months and will likely see use across all or most of the iPhone range by this time next year. Apple calls it “the most power efficient modem ever in an iPhone.” 

The reason it can say that is that the modem integrates with both the hardware and software on the Apple device. That integration lets it optimize the relationship between all the components, unleashing better performance and power efficiency. It’s also what makes the iPhone 16e so power efficient.

There’s another advantage. Apple can optimize device processes, including through the use of machine learning and AI. A Reuters report explains that if an iPhone with the chip finds itself on a congested data network, the processor can tell the modem what traffic is the most important to handle first, which means the tasks you really want to transact will be completed that little bit more swiftly.  

What Apple said about the C1

Apple Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji explained how Apple sees this latest addition to the company’s growing processor family.  “We build a platform for generations,” Srouji said. “C1 is the start, and we’re going to keep improving that technology each generation, so that it becomes a platform for us that will be used to truly differentiate this technology for our products.”

Srouji also stressed that the company doesn’t aim to match all the specifications of other modems from other manufacturers. That’s because the company’s business isn’t modem manufacture, but to design products for which the modem is a component. The aim, I expect, will be to deliver the best connected devices offering optimizations that just aren’t possible unless you design the hardware and software used.

Right now, that’s evident in energy consumption; I’m guessing that as the company finds a way to optimize the designs and further miniaturize the transceiver, we can anticipate performance and speed to also see significant improvements. These are, after all, the typical benefits Apple continues to realize through the move to Apple Silicon.

Power efficiency

Power efficiency is the big result from this chip. It means you get 26 hours of video playback in the iPhone 16e. And over the next year or two, all those complaints about iPhone battery life are likely to fade because Apple’s future devices will offer the best battery life in the business while also using less energy. (This should also extend physical battery life.)

For now, the iPhone 16e delivers the same video playback, more streamed video playback, similar audio playback and will fast charge more swiftly than the iPhone 14 Plus. What kind of power efficiency might a C1 “Pro” in future higher-end devices achieve? Can we anticipate iPhones with 30+-hour battery life? It’s not unreasonable to do so.

The C1 also isn’t precisely a single chip, but is instead a system of multiple chips, including the transceiver and baseband chips that connect using PCIe. This should make for better power delivery when you use the device in the sun or cold. So, when you use your iPhone’s 5G modem for serious work, such as downloading data via 5G, you might well find your device gets less hot and uses less energy during the process. That’s going to be good for all kinds of remote work.

Engineering

Apple isn’t coming in blind with its 5G chip. It claims the modem was tested with 180 carriers in 55 countries to ensure it works wherever Apple ships iPhones. While actual results will vary, it’s a reassuring starting point. The C1 chip is a complex piece of engineering; its baseband modem is manufactured using advanced 4-nanometer technology, while its transceiver uses 7nm.

Eager to get away from reliance on Qualcomm, Apple has been working to build its own 5G modem since at least 2019, when it purchased Intel’s chip development business for $1 billion. It now joins a small, select group of companies to offer one of these — only Samsung, MediaTek, Huawei, and, of course, Qualcomm have one. The chips also carry GPS systems and support for satellite connectivity, and they handle all the usual 4G/5G frequencies.

Missing the mmWave?

Still, one thing Apple hasn’t put in place is support for Wi-Fi 7 or millimeter wave 5G networks (mmWave). That standard is the fastest form of 5G, but is hampered by a limited range that means you don’t usually get to use it. Even in the US, it isn’t widely available, likely reflecting the cost burden of putting base stations that support it on carrier networks.

Now, we know Apple has spent time working with millimeter wave; we also know Qualcomm holds several patents in the tech. Apple isn’t saying whether it will ever support mmWave, but this might not matter much because it is mostly only used in the US (and not widely). In the UK, the spectrum used for mmWave hasn’t even been released as yet.

Apple may eventually still choose to deploy support for it in a future chip – or invest heavily in 6G development in a bid to hold its own patents in the tech. Wi-Fi 7 is another matter, but again I think that in most cases this matters less.

Why? Because most consumers don’t yet have Wi-Fi 7 at home, and most businesses don’t yet support it. Most consumers haven’t experienced the 46Gbps theoretical max bandwidth of Wi-Fi 7 and are accustomed to the 9.6Gbps of Wi-Fi 6. That’s not saying those of us who do regularly use Wi-Fi 7 won’t miss it; the speed is amazing when you get it.

I suspect Wi-Fi 7 support sits above mmWave on Apple’s C2 development road map.

What about Qualcomm?

It’s no secret that the relationship between Apple and Qualcomm is at times tense. Apple thinks Qualcomm charges too much for patent licenses; they ended up in court over something of that nature. Qualcomm, naturally, disagrees.

History will show that Apple felt sufficiently strongly about this to spend billions of dollars and seven years coming up with its own alternative.

Right now, we expect (because Qualcomm says so) that Apple’s 5G modem will be inside 80% of its products by 2026, with the remaining 20% set to switch the following year, when Apple’s technology licensing agreement with Qualcomm also expires.

There is one caveat – Qualcomm still holds many important 5G patents, and Apple will still need to continue to pay some licensing fees for those patents, similar to the fees it pays Arm for Apple Silicon. What Apple gets for the deal is the chance to make a modem that’s optimized for use in its hardware, rather than off-the-shelf components that never quite deliver the right fit.

See it as the difference between a thrift shop suit and one tailored for you. 

What’s next?

There is and will be plenty of speculation concerning the C-series chips. Will Apple roll the modem system into its core chips to create a highly performant system-on-chip (SoC)? Will it now seek to integrate support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth within the C1? (Even if it does not, it is expected to switch to its own proprietary chip for both systems this year). Will it eventually field mmWave support? Apple now has an opportunity to further optimize networking across its devices, unleashing positive consequences in power and performance as it does so.  

One more thing: persistent speculation claims Apple plans to introduce a super-thin iPhone special edition of some kind this year. The new modem might be part of what enables such thinness, as during the iPhone 16e launch Apple did say that the new modem let it switch to a new internal design for the device. That implies the company might now be able to unleash thinner, more performant, more power efficient iPhones.

(Personally, I can’t help but wonder if the component will also let Apple introduce a slim, svelte, folding iPhone to compete with Samsung’s chunky but popular Fold — though that speculation is for another day).

Relevant tech specs

Apple has disclosed the following relevant specs to the iPhone 16e.

Model A3212

  • 5G NR (Bands n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n14, n20, n25, n26, n28, n29, n30, n38, n40, n41, n48, n53, n66, n70, n71, n75, n76, n77, n78, n79)
  • FDD‑LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 66, 71)
  • TD‑LTE (Bands 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 48, 53)
  • UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100 MHz) 
  • GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

All models

  • 5G (sub-6 GHz) with 4×4 MIMO
  • Gigabit LTE with 4×4 MIMO
  • Wi‑Fi 6 (802.11ax) with 2×2 MIMO
  • Bluetooth 5.3
  • Express Cards with power reserve
  • GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou, and NavIC
  • Digital compass
  • Wi‑Fi
  • iBeacon microlocation

You can follow me on social media! Join me on BlueSky,  LinkedInMastodon, and MeWe