AllYouCanTech

Apple Unveils Second Limited-Edition iPhone Accessory Centered on Accessibility Within a Month

**Apple Unveils the Hikawa Phone Grip & Stand: Honoring Accessibility**

Apple has recently launched the Hikawa Phone Grip & Stand, a novel accessory that marks the 40th anniversary of accessibility within the company. Created by Los Angeles-based artist and industrial designer Bailey Hikawa, this groundbreaking product seeks to improve the user experience for individuals with a range of accessibility requirements.

### Two Color Variants for Users with Diverse Accessibility Needs

The Hikawa Phone Grip & Stand is compatible with MagSafe and serves a dual function: it acts as both a grip and a stand, enabling users to position their iPhones in vertical or horizontal layouts. The design emphasizes user-friendliness, featuring a shape that accommodates various hand positions and a soft-touch texture due to its premium silicone material. The accessory is simple to attach and detach, making it accessible for those with limited dexterity or individuals who may find it challenging to manipulate their iPhones manually.

Bailey Hikawa stressed the role of user insights in the design phase, commenting, “The grip was crafted through an extensive interview process to support different ways of holding the iPhone while minimizing the effort required to keep it stable.” This focus on user-centered design illustrates Apple’s continuous commitment to accessibility.

### Apple’s Dedication to Accessibility

The launch of the Hikawa Phone Grip & Stand corresponds with Apple’s larger initiatives to improve accessibility across its product lineup. Earlier this year, the company introduced several new functionalities aimed at enhancing accessibility for iPhone users, including Accessibility Nutrition Labels on the App Store, Accessibility Reader, Braille Access, Live Captions compatible with the Apple Watch, and a Magnifier for Mac that uses the iPhone’s camera.

Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s head of accessibility, underscored the importance of the new accessory in an interview with *Elle Decor*, stating, “It was a no-brainer to evaluate: what are the types of MagSafe accessories that can genuinely benefit our communities, as well? This is one of many accessories available that addresses specific challenges for certain individuals.”

### Pricing and Availability

The Hikawa Phone Grip & Stand is priced at $69.95 and comes in two color options: Chartreuse and a unique recycled colorway called Crater, which is exclusively available through Apple’s Online Store in the U.S.

In conclusion, the Hikawa Phone Grip & Stand signifies a substantial advancement in Apple’s commitment to accessibility, offering a practical solution for users with varied needs while honoring the company’s long-held dedication to inclusivity.

“Pluribus Reaches Historic Launch as the Most Successful Drama Series on Apple TV”

**Apple TV’s “Pluribus” Breaks New Viewership Milestones**

Apple TV has recently revealed that its latest drama series, “Pluribus,” has achieved extraordinary success, marking the most successful debut for a new drama series in the platform’s history. This achievement surpasses the viewership record previously set by “Severance” season two earlier this year. As reported by Deadline, the show, which is the brainchild of Vince Gilligan, has entranced audiences worldwide, setting a new benchmark for the largest global launch of a drama series on the streaming service.

“Pluribus” has garnered substantial acclaim across several nations, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Germany, Mexico, India, and France. The series consists of nine episodes in its inaugural season, with new episodes released every Friday. The fourth episode is scheduled to debut soon, keeping viewers hooked on the evolving storyline.

While Apple has not revealed exact viewership figures for “Pluribus,” it has confirmed that the series has established a new record for the platform. Third-party viewership statistics from Nielsen are anticipated in the upcoming weeks, offering additional insights into the show’s success.

The first season of “Pluribus” is set to wrap up with its finale on December 26. In a strategic decision, Apple has already announced a second season, having secured a two-season agreement when it acquired the rights to the series in 2022 amidst intense competition.

The triumph of “Pluribus” complements a strong year for Apple TV, which started with the notable success of “Severance” season two and now culminates with another sci-fi sensation. Furthermore, the platform is expected to draw even more viewers with the imminent release of “F1: The Movie,” slated to commence streaming on December 12.

Looking toward 2026, Apple TV aims to boost subscriber engagement by incorporating Formula 1 and Major League Soccer into its base subscription. The service is currently priced at $12.99 per month and is also available as part of the Apple One bundle, which provides additional benefits to subscribers.

As Apple TV continues to broaden its content offerings and attract new audiences, “Pluribus” exemplifies the platform’s expanding impact in the competitive streaming arena.

Apple Showcases Performance Enhancements of the M5 Compared to the M4 in Executing Local LLMs

### Apple’s M5 Chip: A Significant Advancement in Local LLM Functionality

A recent entry on Apple’s Machine Learning Research blog emphasizes noteworthy enhancements in the M5 Apple silicon compared to its predecessor, the M4, especially in executing local large language models (LLMs). This article examines the breakthroughs and their implications.

#### A Bit of Background

A couple of years back, Apple launched the Machine Learning eXchange (MLX) framework, tailored for efficient and versatile machine learning on Apple silicon. MLX serves as an open-source framework that empowers developers to create and deploy machine learning models natively on Apple silicon Macs, utilizing familiar APIs and methods from the AI ecosystem.

MLX stands out for its support of neural network training and inference, incorporating functionalities for both text and image generation. It utilizes Apple silicon’s unified memory architecture, enabling operations to execute on either the CPU or GPU without requiring memory transfers. The API is crafted for ease of use, closely mirroring NumPy, and encompasses higher-level neural network libraries and optimizers, along with resources for automatic differentiation and graph optimization.

A key component within MLX is MLX LM, which aids in text generation and the fine-tuning of language models on Apple silicon devices. This component permits users to download and execute models from Hugging Face locally and supports quantization, a technique that minimizes memory consumption for extensive models, improving inference speed.

#### M5 Compared to M4

In the blog post, Apple showcases the performance improvements of the M5 chip, particularly owing to its new GPU Neural Accelerators that offer dedicated matrix-multiplication operations vital for numerous machine learning tasks. Apple assessed the time necessary for various open models to generate the first token after a prompt was given on both M4 and M5 MacBook Pro models utilizing MLX LM.

The assessment included models such as Qwen 1.7B and 8B, along with quantized variations of these models. The findings revealed that the M5 chip delivers a performance enhancement of 19-27% relative to the M4, credited to its augmented memory bandwidth (120GB/s for the M4 compared to 153GB/s for the M5).

Generating the first token is compute-bound, whereas generating subsequent tokens is memory-bound, which is why Apple also evaluated the generation speed for an additional 128 tokens. Overall, the M5 exhibited a significant performance improvement in both contexts.

#### Performance Statistics

Apple’s results uncovered that the M5 chip not only expedited the time to first token generation but also considerably hastened the generation of additional tokens. In image generation, the M5 surpassed the M4 by more than 3.8 times, demonstrating its potential across a range of machine learning applications.

The architecture of the M5 enables the MacBook Pro with 24GB of RAM to effectively manage models up to 8B in BF16 precision or a 30B Mixture of Experts (MoE) model in 4-bit quantized format, keeping the inference workload below 18GB.

#### Final Thoughts

The advancements in the M5 chip signify a substantial leap in local LLM performance, establishing it as an attractive option for developers and researchers engaged in machine learning on Apple silicon. For additional information, readers can check out Apple’s complete blog post and learn more about the MLX framework.

Liberty Media CEO Affirms Continued Talks Between Apple and F1 for Broadened Partnership Possibilities

**Liberty Media and Apple: A New Chapter for Formula 1 Streaming**

During a recent segment on CNBC’s “Money Movers,” Liberty Media CEO Derek Chang shed light on the freshly inked agreement between Liberty Media and Apple, which grants Apple the exclusive U.S. streaming rights for Formula 1 (F1) over the next five years. This arrangement signifies a major transformation in the media environment, especially concerning the consumption of sports content.

### The Evolving Media Environment

Chang stressed the swift advancement of media consumption, illustrating how technology has altered the way fans connect with sports. He noted, “The entire media landscape… has simply evolved over time due to what technology has allowed.” This transformation indicates that watching F1 is no longer limited to a conventional broadcast timeframe; rather, it embraces an “always on, always present” approach.

Apple’s technological prowess is anticipated to enrich the overall F1 experience, potentially enhancing brand visibility and fan interaction with the sport. Chang is confident that this collaboration will not only refine the content but also uplift the viewer’s experience.

### Future Opportunities for Global Streaming Rights

When asked about the potential for Apple to broaden its streaming rights on a global scale, Chang alluded to ongoing negotiations. He commented, “I believe Apple will be quite proactive… we see it as a robust partnership that might unfold in other regions.” While details remain confidential, the prospect for expanded cooperation suggests an invigorating future for F1 enthusiasts across the globe.

### Celebrating Achievements with “F1 The Movie”

Alongside the announcement of the streaming rights, Chang hailed the success of “F1 The Movie,” which has set records at the box office. The film, starring Brad Pitt, has struck a chord with viewers and is scheduled to debut for streaming on Apple TV on December 12. This further underscores the connection between F1 and Apple, as both organizations strive to broaden their influence and reach.

### Conclusion

The collaboration between Liberty Media and Apple represents a pivotal moment for Formula 1, using technology to bolster viewer engagement and experience. As the media landscape continues to transform, this partnership may lead to innovative methods of sports broadcasting, potentially redefining how fans engage with their beloved sports in the future.