Ever since that explanation for A7's physics score in 3DMark turned up (I think I read it first in the comments section of Anandtech's iPhone 5s or iPad Air review), I've tried to determine if real cross platform games using Bullet physics show any relative weakness in iOS performance. While I do believe, as I mentioned when this was last discussed months ago, that the test highlights an actual characteristic of the Cyclone architecture that's not a particular strength, and although it's challenging to distinguish its impact when looking at overall performance in a cross platform comparison, I've never been able to identify a real world performance impact.
As others have pointed out, accounting for the specifics of the target hardware is precisely what a software developer does, so you of course might not expect to see much of a real world impact.
The Air 2 is close to 2.5x the Air as advertised in a whole bunch of GFXBench tests and sub-tests, interestingly: Manhattan, T-Rex, ALU, Alpha Blending, and surprisingly fill. That fill rate result suggests that an iOS device is finally achieving somewhat higher effectiveness in the 3.0 version of GFXBench's fill rate sub-test like they used to achieve in the 2.7 version, among other fill improving factors like having more TMUs and a higher clock. Still, though, between the possible TMU count with the required clock rate needed and what was assumed about the configuration of announced PowerVR cores, explaining the Air 2's fill result is challenging.
Getting back to the discussion about Apple Pay and whether the 5s would truly be prevented from third-party app payments, Ars Technica's explanation matches what ltcommander.data speculated:
As others have pointed out, accounting for the specifics of the target hardware is precisely what a software developer does, so you of course might not expect to see much of a real world impact.
The Air 2 is close to 2.5x the Air as advertised in a whole bunch of GFXBench tests and sub-tests, interestingly: Manhattan, T-Rex, ALU, Alpha Blending, and surprisingly fill. That fill rate result suggests that an iOS device is finally achieving somewhat higher effectiveness in the 3.0 version of GFXBench's fill rate sub-test like they used to achieve in the 2.7 version, among other fill improving factors like having more TMUs and a higher clock. Still, though, between the possible TMU count with the required clock rate needed and what was assumed about the configuration of announced PowerVR cores, explaining the Air 2's fill result is challenging.
Getting back to the discussion about Apple Pay and whether the 5s would truly be prevented from third-party app payments, Ars Technica's explanation matches what ltcommander.data speculated:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2014/10/ios-8-1-mini-review-testing-apple-pay-sms-forwarding-and-more/The second piece of hardware is what Apple calls the "Secure Element," a dedicated chip in supported devices. This is what's responsible for storing and protecting your credit card data—it can apparently be paired with any of Apple's SoCs, which is why the iPad Mini 3 can use Apple Pay in apps while the iPhone 5S can't. If you have those two things, the Apple Pay button can be used in apps that support it.