life & style // no. 16 theotherpress.ca

There is just one more thing?

» Recent Apple announcement the quickest of all time

Illustration by Sonam Kaloti

Jerrison Oracion Senior Columnist

his fall, Apple surprisingly produced more announcements than usual—

the total number of announcements being three! Out of all the news that the major tech companies aired during the coronavirus pandemic, Apple had the best ones because of their cinematics and seamless quality. They announced new products that set new standards in technology and initiatives to reduce the number of carbon emissions in the air.

When I looked through Twitter and found out that Apple scheduled another announcement almost a month after they announced the iPhone 12, I was thinking that they were going to broadcast a major new product, possibly the Apple TV which will be their smart TV. When I watched the announcement on November 10 in their headquarters and was still pre-taped, it is the quickest announcement that they did.

It began with Tim Cook talking about how high-quality content can be made at home with their products using Billie Eilish as an example and her brother, Finneas O'Connell, who is also her producer, made an appearance at the end of the announcement. Half of the announcement involved an explanation of the new chip that will installed in their computer products made with Apple Silicon with the Apple-designed M1 chip. It replaces the Intel processor that was in the previous models of the iMac and is like the chip that is in the iPhone and the iPad.

The interesting thing about the M1 chip is that they put various parts of the

computer, including the processor and the graphics card, all in one. This allows the iMac to be faster, use less power, increase battery life, and improve graphics to make them sharper. The chip is very powerful and is the fastest processor in computer products.

Essentially, the iMac is faster, and you can get more things done faster and make content sharper. After that, Craig Federighi talked about how the Mi chip will improve the performance of the next version of macOS with macOS Big Sur which is available now. While the explanation of the Mi chip is mind-blowing, Federighi’s explanation of the MacBook is like watching a porno.

Then, they announced the next versions of almost all their computer products with new versions of the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro, and the Mac Mini. There are not a lot of new things in these products, and they are pretty much just faster and have improved cooling systems. Although, the Mac Mini is now cheaper at $699.

The announcement ended with various people using the new MacBook with the new chip and it showed that when you use it, you are playing with it instead of working in it. On average, an Apple announcement usually has a running time of two hours. Because the announcement was pre-taped, it caused the running time to be 46 minutes, which is the quickest announcement that they've ever done.

Maybe the reason why it had such a short length was that they wanted to show how fast the Mi chip is. While a major new product was not announced, Apple set the standard for computers yet again.

Opting for positives in times of crisis

» Thoughts affect actions and actions affect behaviours

Morgan Hannah Life & Style Editor

I: 2020 and the way we do things has now changed, likely for a long time coming. Covid-19 has breathed a sense

of fear into each one of our days and nights. Of course, that sounds a bit more dramatic than is necessary—each of us experiences this pandemic in our own way but experience it we all do. I, admittedly, didn't handle the situation too well in the beginning when news channels and social media laid out the details, having had many of my plans fall through and many uncertainties creep in, but with time, we have learned that life must go on and so it is better and easier to live our lives with a more positive outlook than with negativity and a taxing frown.

Decades of research shows that positivity is a potent health tonic, with studies showing that a brighter outlook on life leads to improved mental and physical health, as well as more opportunities tapping us on the shoulder. Additionally, opting for positivity has the benefit of a swifter recovery from prolonged stress and

traumatic events.

On that note, Covid-1g in a weird way could be considered a gift... you know, if many people weren't dying and getting sick. Maybe this is a time where we all need to sit back and think on our lives, maybe it’s time to consider what changes are due to make the most of our lives. In fact, there’s a meme going around that states: “Kinda feels like the Earth just sent us all to our rooms to think about what we've done.’

If we bounce back to positive thinking, the Earth might be benefitting from all of us spending a bit more time indoors these days. And we might be benefitting from it, too—more family time, more one-on- one with our pets, and more keeping in touch via Zoom calls to our relatives and friends. Covid-1g has forced us to decide what is important to us and what can we not live without, it has given us time to focus on our hobbies and true passions rather than just working on autopilot. At least, it’s given me that time. Sure, there’s the financial stress that an uncertain future and work layoffs brings about, but there’s also time off from the hustle and bustle of life as we knew it. And I don’t know

about you, but I choose to use this time to focus more on my writing and my family,

I choose to think as positivity as I can because it’s simply easier to do so.