| Cult of Mac

Apple, Pixar, Nvidia and more form alliance to ‘standardize the 3D ecosystem’

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Apple, Pixar, NVIDIA and more form alliance to ‘standardize the 3D ecosystem’ and back the Universal Scene Description standard
The Alliance for OpenUSD will promote the standardization, development, evolution, and growth of Pixar’s Universal Scene Description technology.
Photo: AOUSD

The newly announced Alliance for OpenUSD is a collection of industry heavyweights — including Apple — putting their influence behind Pixar’s Universal Scene Description technology.

The stated goal of the AOUSD is “to standardize the 3D ecosystem.”

Nvidia scraps $66 billion plan to acquire mobile chip designer Arm

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FTC moves to block Nvidia's acquisition of Arm
Regulators didn't like the idea of Nvidia and Arm merging together.
Image: Arm/Nvidia/Cult of Mac

Nvidia on Monday backed out of a deal to acquire mobile chip designer Arm for $66 billion, according to reports. It would have been the largest ever sale in the semiconductor industry, but regulators including the FTC weren’t keen on it.

SoftBank, the Japanese company that currently owns Arm, still expects to sell it by the end of the year through an initial public offering.

Samsung gives mobile gamers a big reason to ditch iPhone and iPad

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Samsung Exynos 2200 with ray tracing
The Exynos 2200 is the world's first mobile SoC with ray tracing.
Image: Samsung

Samsung this week announced its newest Exynos chipset for smartphones and tablets, and it comes with a major graphics improvement that could just persuade mobile gamers to swap iPhone and iPad for Galaxy devices.

The Exynos 2200 is the world’s first mobile system-on-a-chip (SoC) with an AMD RDNA 2 GPU that supports ray tracing. It could enable major visual improvements in upcoming Android games — if developers take advantage of it.

Fortnite returns to iPhone and iPad, thanks to Nvidia

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Fortnite iOS 14
Who needs the App Store?
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Fortnite is returning to iPhone and iPad — but you won’t find it in the App Store. Starting next week, the hit battle royale game will be available to stream through Nvidia’s GeForce now, complete with brand-new touch controls.

Players will initially have to sign up to join the closed beta, which requires an active GeForce Now membership, designed to help Nvidia test server capacity and performance. But Fortnite eventually will roll out to all GeForce Now subscribers.

The move is somewhat of a kick in the teeth for Apple, which has been determined to block Fortnite on its own platforms since it booted Epic Games, the game’s creator, from the App Store for breaking the rules.

Experts say Apple is missing out on the cloud gaming boom

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Nvidia-GeForce-Now-MacBook-Pro
Cloud gaming is taking off in a big way, and Apple isn't part of it.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Apple is missing out on another major revenue stream by ignoring cloud gaming services, according to market experts.

While rivals like Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft are reaping the rewards of a gaming industry boom that’s only expected to get bigger, Apple is leaving money on the table. But there is a simple way it could enjoy a piece of the pie.

FTC wants to put a stop to Nvidia’s $40 billion acquisition of Arm

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FTC moves to block Nvidia's acquisition of Arm
The move would "distort Arm's incentives," the FTC said.
Image: Arm/Nvidia/Cult of Mac

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit to block Nvidia from acquiring Arm. It believes the move would “distort Arm’s incentives in chip markets” and allow the combined firm to “unfairly undermine Nvidia’s rivals.”

Nvidia is already one of the largest chip companies in the world, while Arm’s technology is licensed to some of the biggest and most powerful brands, including Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm.

Apple TV+ premieres on Nvidia Shield

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Apple TV+ now available through Nvidia Shield too
The already lengthy list of devices that can play Apple TV+ now includes Nvidia Shield media players.
Photo: Nvidia

Add Nvidia Shield to the lengthy list of smart TVs and streaming boxes that can play Apple TV+. A version of the free app for the Android-powered media player debuted Tuesday.

Apple M1 chip outperforms AMD, Nvidia graphics in new benchmarks

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Apple M1 chip
Gaming is about to get a lot better on Mac.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s new M1 chipset has been blowing away rival Intel chips in CPU performance benchmarks, and it doesn’t stop there. It turns out Apple Silicon can give many graphics cards a run for their money, too.

New tests reveal the M1 easily outperforms the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and AMD Radeon RX 560 in graphics benchmarks. It could make gaming on a Mac better than ever.