iPhone 13 Pro All Colors

Source: Pocketnow

iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger might need to “interoperate” with smaller platforms in the EU

The official news today begin with the EU and their latest bill to force big companies to work together. On Thursday, they published a new press release on their upcoming Digital Markets act, where they agreed that big tech companies will have to make their messaging apps such as WhatsApp, iMessage and Facebook Messenger "interoperable" with small-scale chat apps at the developers' request. Now, the law hasn't passed yet but it seems that the EU wants Apple and Facebook to open up their platforms to others, meaning soon you'd be able to iMessage someone by using an app like Signal on your Windows PC. The press release doesn’t state anything about them working together with each other, but it is a first step in breaking down the walled gardens for these services. A report from the Verge notes that this isn't impossible as Facebook has been working on have their messaging apps to work together seamlessly. Though obviously between their network, while Apple pitched a more open version of iMessage to carriers years ago but, that got dropped. Do you guys think this is a good idea? Because honestly, I think it's time.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus reportedly launching in May

Let's move on to Qualcomm and their next release as we’re slowly getting to the half of 2022. We have a new report from Yogesh Brar where he's claiming that Qualcomm is planning to launch a new flagship chipset in early May. Apparently this is expected to be the Plus variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 which would also carry the same model number and will be manufactured by TSMC and not Samsung. Yes it would still be based on a 4nm process but, they're switching on to TSMC due to their "more yield and stable chips" where Samsung has been criticized for delivering sub-par chipsets when compared to TSMC. In addition to that, Brar says that different Android OEMS have already got their hands on this chip and they're working with Qualcomm to tweak their upcoming handsets before the release in June. We also expect the Nothing Phone to be powered by this chip as well as the next generation of Samsung foldables like Ice Universe mentioned yesterday. Let's see what TSMC does with this new chip.. Cause we know Apple and MediaTek are doing pretty well with them.

Kuo: Apple 15-inch MacBook might not carry the Air branding after all

Let's switch gears on to Apple and that 15-inch MacBook Air we discussed yesterday. If you didn’t watch the episode, we talked about a new report from the DSSC claiming that Cupertino would launch a new 15-inch variant of the MacBook Air next year. Thing is, now we have some added details to this report. First off we got a new tweet from Ross Young claiming that this would actually be a 15.2-inch variant instead of just 15. But then we also have a new tweet from Ming Chi Kuo saying that this machine is something else entirely. He mentions that mass production for this device would start in the 4th quarter of next year if all goes to plan and that although a larger display generally consumes more power, the design goal is to use the same 30W power adaptor we get with the MacBook Air. The catch is that it might not be called MacBook Air after all… He didn't provide any other information on it but I really doubt this would be a new MacBook Pro, and notice that Ross Young wrote down MacBook slash Air in his tweet. Does that mean the MacBook is coming back with a larger variant? I hope so, because I would like to see that 12-inch variant with Apple Silicon, or hey, give me the 4 thunderbolt MacBook Pro and I'll be a happy guy too.

You’ll soon be able to lease an Apple device, check out Apple’s alleged Hardware Subscription plan

And finally, for the hottest news today, let's keep talking Cupertino but move on to the iPhone and drastic changes. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple is working on a subscription for hardware devices, that would let you lease products like iPhones, Macs and more. Kind of like the iPhone upgrade plan I think, but with a few tweaks. If this hardware subscription goes according to the current plan, you would be able to buy iPhones, iPads and more just like "paying a monthly app fee". The program is reportedly targeted towards customers that don't have the capital to fully buy their own Apple Device and it's being described as Apple's biggest push yet into automatically recurring sales". Allowing users to subscribe to hardware rather than just digital services. It would also differ from the iPhone Upgrade Program or carriers because, instead of spreading the device's value over 12 or 24 months, the monthly charge would depend specifically on which device the user chooses. And the subscription would be attached to your Apple account, with some talks even mentioning that this could be a part of the Apple One program though nothing is set in stone at the moment. Apparently this is geared to happen towards the end of this year or early next year, unless it ends up getting cancelled.