Everything Apple Announced, From New Macs to New Chips

WE THOUGHT WE were done with the virtual visits to Cupertino, California, after a pair of glitzy launch events in September and October, where a new Apple Watch, a new iPad, a new HomePod, and four new iPhones were all unveiled.

But Apple had one more stash of shiny baubles to unbox. On Tuesday, the company held its third media event of the fall, this time trotting out a newly designed PC processor, showing off three new Macs with the custom chip, and giving some more details about macOS 11 Big Sur, the next version of Apple’s desktop operating system. Here are the highlights from Tuesday’s presentation.

Apple Silicon Is Here

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Earlier this year, Apple announced that it would be transitioning away from Intel processors in its computers and would instead start putting its own chips into Macs. During Tuesday’s event, the first chip for Macs was unveiled. Apple calls this new chip the M1, and the company’s presentation trumpeted a host of performance and power efficiency gains in the new design.

Ubisoft Removes a Controversial Voice in Watch Dogs: Legion

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HELLO, AND WELCOME once again to Replay, WIRED's twice-monthly column about everything happening in the world of video games. Welp, it's been a heck of a November so far, hasn't it? Compared to ::gestures broadly in all directions:: everything else going on in the world, things have been fairly quiet on the gaming front over the past couple of weeks. But there's still plenty to catch up on. Here's everything you need to know.

Apparently, the PlayStation 5 Could Have Been Even Bigger

The PlayStation 5, which is due out for an official release on November 12, is big. It's very big. Like, it's bigger than my 12-pound cat. The PlayStation 5 is bigger than the largest laptop I have ever owned. The PlayStation 5 is bigger than some toddlers. And it could have been even bigger, according to designer Yujin Morasawa, who talked recently about the console to The Washington Post.

"It's kind of funny that engineering actually told me it's too big," the Sony designer said. "So, I actually had to shrink it down a little bit from the first drawing."
How much is a "little bit" here? What kind of battle station did we miss out on? And what sort of destruction would it have wrought?


WhatsApp Using Up Your Phone Storage? Here’s How to Fix It

WHATSAPP IS THE most popular end-to-end encrypted messaging app in the world. But while other people can’t snoop on what you’re saying, that doesn’t mean other WhatsApp data isn’t being processed.

By far the biggest data-hogging element of WhatsApp is the pile of photos, videos, and gifs that can quickly clog up your phone’s storage. As well as filling your phone’s memory, photos that save to your camera roll can be a privacy nightmare. If you’re scrolling through pics with friends or family, nobody wants that to be punctuated with something inappropriate that arrived through WhatsApp.

WhatsApp automatically downloads new photos and videos that are sent to you. These are stored on your phone, but can also be saved to your camera roll. An updated version of WhatsApp now gives you more control over what media is stored on your phone.


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