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The Beats Studio 3 Wireless — A-COLD-WALL Limited Edition headphones come with a price tag of $349.95 (roughly Rs. 25,900). Apple has introduced limited-edition Beats Studio 3 wireless headphones that are designed in partnership with the fashion brand A-COLD-WALL owned by British designer Samuel Ross. Called Beats Studio 3 Wireless — A-COLD-WALL Limited Edition, the headphones feature a slate colour palette that features a “speckled cement” application covering both build and ear cushions. Apart from the fresh design, the new Beats Studio 3 are identical to the existing headphones that Apple first launched back in September 2017. The headphones come with Beats' proprietary Pure Active Noise Cancelling (Pure ANC) technology and are powered by the Apple W1 chip. Beats Studio 3 Wireless — A-COLD-WALL Limited Edition price, availability The Beats Studio 3 Wireless — A-COLD-WALL Limited Edition come with a price tag of $349.95 (roughly Rs. 25,900). The headphones are initially limited to Apple's online store in the US, with a “coming soon” tag. Details about the global pricing and availability of the new Beats Studio 3 headphones are yet to be revealed. The listing for the new Beats Studio 3 headphones was initially spotted by Macotakara. In 2017, the Beats Studio 3 Wireless launched at the same price of $349.95 and came in Blue, Matte Black, Porcelain Rose, Red, Shadow Gray, and White shades. Beats Studio 3 Wireless — A-COLD-WALL Limited Edition specifications The Beats Studio 3 Wireless — A-COLD-WALL Limited Edition feature a slate colour palette with a “speckled cement” application to deliver a distinct design. The headphones also carry an ACW bracket logo and onyx stroke on each side. Further, the inner band of the limited-edition Beats Studio 3 come in a clay colour. Ads by Apple has wrapped the new headphones in a packaging made of wood fibre. This is claimed to be either recycled or sourced from responsibly managed forests. The exterior box and debossed band are also claimed to be made using recycled fibre content. In terms of hardware, the Beats Studio 3 Wireless — A-COLD-WALL Limited Edition are the same as the regular Beats Studio 3 headphones. They'll include the Pure ANC technology that is claimed to actively block external noise and use real-time audio calibration to preserve clarity, range, and emotion. There are also soft, over-ear cushions that help reduce ambient noise. Under the hood, the new Beats Studio 3 headphones include the Apple W1 chip to enable seamless setup and switching between Apple device users. The chip also includes Class 1 Bluetooth (Bluetooth v4.0) connectivity. The new Beats Studio 3 headphones are claimed to deliver up to 22 hours of music playback on a single charge. The battery can be extended to up to 40 hours by turning off the Pure ANC feature. There is also a Fast Fuel technology that helps deliver faster charging support — three hours of playback time in just 10 minutes of charge. Apple has bundled the Beats Studio 3 Wireless — A-COLD-WALL Limited Edition with a 3.5mm RemoteTalk cable, USB-A to USB Micro-B charging cable, and a carrying case. The headphones weigh 260 grams.

Some manufacturing facilities will keep operating. China is the world's largest consumer of energy, as well as the largest emitter of carbon dioxide. In a purported bid to limit energy carrier price surges and reduce its emissions, the Chinese government has temporarily shut down power to several major manufacturing hubs. The country also intends to temporarily suspend industrial electricity supply on a scheduled basis going forward. Such crackdowns will inevitably affect the global electronics supply chain as well as companies like Apple, Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and Tesla. But some companies will be more severely affected than others. Want to Cut Emissions? Cut the Power Supply! Last week, China's President Xi Jinping said at the UN General Assembly that the country would not build a single new coal-fueled power plant going forward, would increase reliance on other energy sources, and would be carbon neutral by 2060. But as of 2019, around 64%-65% of the electricity in China came from coal, and prices of that industrial-era energy source are surging these days. To control CO2 emissions, the government of China demanded that Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong provinces (where many high-tech producers are located) cut their total energy consumption. Since it's impossible to implement new energy-saving technologies or install new energy-efficient equipment quickly, local governments in several provinces plan to cut the electricity supply to industrial customers and malls for several days each month, according to a Nikkei report. While such draconian measures will inevitably reduce average emissions of carbon dioxide gas in China, they will also temporarily reduce the consumption of commodities like coal, oil, and natural gas, which might affect their prices and should also help energy producers to procure commodities at lower prices, stabilizing their business. Since China produces such a large amount of the world's consumer technology, such restrictions will have a global effect on the already strained electronics and semiconductor industries. But different companies will deal with the effects of these restrictions differently. Some to Halt Production Advertisement Numerous Taiwanese-outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) providers serving companies like Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm have production facilities in China. Recently, these firms received notices from local authorities ordering them to stop production at their facilities in Jiangsu for several days in late September. Given the fact that OSAT companies receive wafers from customers and cannot move them quickly, halting of a facility either means a delay of shipments or implementing night shifts after the supply of electricity is resumed. Chang Wah Technology, a chip-packaging material supplier that works with ASE Technology, Infineon, and NXP, reportedly confirmed in a stock-exchange filing that the authorities demanded that it halt production from September 26 through the end of the month. Eson Precision Engineering, which supplies mechanical parts for Apple and Tesla, also said that it was ordered to halt production from September 26 to September 30, but it will attempt to meet the demands of its customers by asking workers to work at night shifts. "Kunshan City on September 26 to September 30 to stop the use of electricity for industrial production, so the company cooperates with the halt production," the statement by Eson "To temporarily maintain operations with inventory during the halt production period, production is expected to be arranged during weekend or the National Day Holiday to satisfy customer shipment demand." Unimicron Technology, a major maker of printed circuit boards (PCBs), will also halt its production facilities in Jiangsu province, but will increase output from facilities elsewhere to meet demands. Others Won't Stop But not all manufacturers in the aforementioned regions will have to temporarily shut down production. The restraints will not be applied to manufacturers with a continuous production cycle that cannot be halted, including manufacturers of semiconductors, reports DigiTimes. Therefore, TSMC and UMC fabs will continue operations, reports Reuters. Furthermore, enterprises paying more taxes or smaller firms engaged in advanced, specialty, and state-of-the-art technology segments will not be affected by power outages, according to DigiTimes, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter. Foxconn, the world's largest electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider, did shut down its production facilities in Longhua, Guanlan, Taiyuan, and Zhengzhou as of early Monday, according to Nikkei. Foxconn is Apple's No. 1 production partner, making iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and a myriad of other products. Pegatron, another major iPhone assembler, told Nikkei on Sunday night that its production facilities operated as usual. Meanwhile, the company has diesel power generators ready, and if authorities order it to halt local operations due to power constraints, it can use them. In fact, while most of China's makers of electronics have uninstalled diesel generators from their production facilities in recent years, some still have them. For those companies, production can likely still continue, albeit at considerably higher costs during outages. Summary China in general is not among the world's most polluted countries (yet some of its cities are among the most polluted ones), yet it emits more CO2 than any other country in the world and its emissions will continue to rise till 2030. Yet, the country is trying to control emissions and energy consumption by its companies, which is why it is implementing rather draconian measures and cuts power consumption to industrial consumers in some provinces. The measures could also help to temporarily lower spot prices of coal, oil, and gas, but such an effect will be mitigated by traders and will hardly have any long-lasting impact on prices of energy carriers eventually. But will these measures work and reduce CO2 emissions and/or energy consumption? Or have a significant impact on the electronics industry? Since major manufacturers of electronics have manufacturing facilities in regions that are not affected by power outages, they can temporarily increase output at facilities elsewhere to meet the demand for their products. Those companies that cannot do so, will introduce nightshifts to meet production goals and compensate for lost revenue. There are also companies that have diesel power generators and can work even when they cannot get energy from the power grid. Finally, there are chipmakers that cannot temporarily halt their production and will keep operating. In general, commercial companies are going to adapt to restrictions and will find ways to meet their shipments goals, which means that their emissions and energy consumption will stay the same. Of course, the outages will temporarily have negative effects on the already stressed electronics supply chain, but it will be mitigated. A byproduct of a temporary production halt could be China's leverage in its trade war with the USA, but since Chinese companies will adjust their operations to meet requirements, the new policy will hardly do anything significant on this front.

Apple leaks likely details about redesigned MacBook Pro laptops. Apple has likely accidentally revealed screen resolutions for its upcoming MacBook Pro notebooks in a beta version of its forthcoming macOS Monterey operating system. If this information is correct, the new 14 and 16-inch display MacBook Pros will have higher resolutions than any current Apple monitors, but perhaps more importantly, they will feature a different aspect ratio. Apple's macOS Monterey beta 7 lists two retina displays featuring resolutions currently not supported by any of Apple's retina monitors, which potentially means that these resolutions will be featured in the upcoming MacBook Pros expected to be released in October or November, reports MacRumors. Assuming that the OS does not list resolutions set to be supported in the distant future, the new MacBook Pro 14 will offer a native resolution of 3024 × 1964, whereas the next-generation MacBook Pro 16 will feature a 3456 × 2234 native resolution. Both LCDs will offer a pixel density of 257 pixels per inch (PPI), up from 227 PPI in case of today's MacBook Pros. While it is good to see that Apple is probably releasing MacBook Pros with higher native resolutions (keep in mind that Apple ships laptops with their resolutions scaled down by default to make everything look bigger and smoother), the more important takeaway here is the possibility that next-generation MacBook Pros will feature a 14:9 (1.56:1) aspect ratio, which is a huge departure from today's 16:9. This new possible aspect ratio implies two things. First, if true, the new MacBook Pros will have to feature a design that's vastly different from all of Apple's laptops released in recent years. This is backed up by rumors from July that we would see redesigned MacBook Pros in Q3 of this year. Second, these new laptops might require Apple to use a new backlighting technology, which is perhaps why Apple reportedly opted for LCD panels with Mini LED backlighting in those July rumors. A 14:9 aspect ratio is very close to the 3:2 (1.5:1) aspect ratio that multiple productivity laptop displays today have begun to prefer. Such an aspect ratio shows more data vertically, which is great for coding, reading, and writing, but may not be ideal for multitasking across different windows. Perhaps addressing that imbalance is the reason Apple's reportedly opting for a slightly wider 14:9 aspect ratio. But at the same time, both 14:9 and 3:2 aspect ratio displays are not ideal for watching content shot for 16:9 screens (think TV content), since they produce noticeable black bars. Also, those who like to watch movies filmed for the cinema (in aspect ratios like 2.35:1 or 2.39:1) will see even larger black bars on these displays. At the very least, usage of LCDs with Mini LED backlighting should mitigate the black bar issue a bit by allowing the picture to be bright but turning off the backlighting on the black bars. There could be some silver lining for viewing content, though. Those who have access to content made in IMAX format (1.43:1) will probably find it more enjoyable on 14:9 and 3:2 monitors. Apple does not comment on unreleased products, so we do not know whether the upcoming MacBook Pro laptops will indeed feature displays with a 14:9 aspect ratio and Mini LED backlighting. Yet, if the rumors are correct, the wait will be over in several weeks' time.