Apple May Be Scrapping Its In-House 5G Modem Efforts

We’ve seen reports from as early as 2019 that Apple was working on making its own 5G modems, and that it will be part of its own SoC. It would also later be decided that long-term chipmaker for the fruit company, TSMC, would be handing the production side of things. The iPhone maker has added other items to its list of things it wants to make in-house, but it looks like the 5G modem may get removed instead.

A post on South Korean online platform Naver claims that Apple is “reorganising its continued investments in its own 5G modem development department”, and has been doing so over the past few years. The post goes on to say that the project appears to have failed, and is expected to be “completely eliminated”.

The post does appear dubious on its own, but the claim has been corroborated by industry leakster @Tech_Reve via their own sources. This does somewhat reinforces the claim that the 5G modem integration into Apple silicon as quite thoroughly fallen through.

That being said though, there are currently more elements pointing to the opposite of these recent claims. For one, Apple has already signed a pretty expensive deal with Broadcom to make 5G components. Then there’s the initial deal of buying out the entire smartphone modem business from Intel back in 201

At any rate, considering the nature of this new claim’s source, it should be taken with a massive pinch of salt. Apple is stuck using 5G hardware from Qualcomm for at least another two years, and quite a lot can change in the meantime. Speaking of which, it would take more reports from more reputable sources corroborating these claims for them to be more likely.

Tony Fernandes Says AirAsia Ready To Help With Vaccination Efforts

AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes said the company is looking forward to playing an “active role” in vaccination efforts. He also expressed optimism for the airline industry’s recovery after Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin today became the first person in the country to be vaccinated.

Fernandes said AirAsia’s logistics arm, Teleport, was ready to assist in any way, including by transporting vaccines from China and Russia when they’re available, and distributing them in countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and India.

He also offered the services of AirAsia pilots and cabin crew for the vaccination campaign, noting their first aid training and the fact that they haven’t been able to fly as much as before. “They can surely provide valuable help to the frontliners and this is what being unconventional is about,” he said.

Fernandes urged the public to embrace vaccination so that recovery is made possible for the tourism industry. He said the campaign provided the clearest, most tangible indication of when the pandemic will be brought under control and normalcy will return.

Eager to have AirAsia in the skies again, he foresees “an international air travel reset in the very near future” – thanks to global vaccination efforts, better education and testing, digital health passports, and other factors.

The AirAsia boss said that he intends to get vaccinated himself, and asked the public to trust scientists and experts, while rejecting misinformation about the vaccines.