MyAppleMenu

Archive for October 2021

The Include-You Edition Sunday, October 31, 2021

Give Me My Hot Pink iPhone Already, by Louryn Strampeg, Wired

I know it’s the height of privilege to complain about the way a $1,000 phone looks. But it's not just about the color. It's about being tired of choosing between blush, petal, or some other sort-of-pink. It’s about trying to blend into a world that was never meant to include you in the first place.

Stuff

I Used The Apple Watch 7 For Cycling, Weight Training And More — Here’s How Well It Works, by Kate Kozuch, Tom's Guide

For fitness enthusiasts, a fitness tracker with longer battery life or more dedicated workout functions might be preferred. Otherwise, the Apple Watch 7 is an all-in-one smartwatch with ample exercise features.

Apple Discontinues Intel-Based 21.5-Inch iMac, by Sami Fathi, MacRumors

Apple has quietly discontinued the Intel-based 21.5-inch iMac, which had remained available as a low-end configuration suitable for educational institutions. This leaves customers with the 24-inch and 27-inch ‌iMac‌ models to choose from.

We Tried Playing PC Games On An M1 Max MacBook Pro — It Was A Disaster, by Tony Polanco, Tom's Guide

But until things change with game optimization (and publisher relationships), current and future MacBooks will not have the gaming experiences found on other devices and platforms. As far as using Parallels to play PC games on Mac is concerned, you’re free to give it a try. But based on our tests, don’t expect a smooth ride.

Moneydance 2022.1, by Agen Schmitz, TidBITS

It introduces the subscription-based Moneydance+ service for downloading and syncing your transactions, thus providing access to more banks than Moneydance has previously supported.

Cyberduck 8.0, by Agen Schmitz, TidBITS

The release introduces a Profiles preference tab that lets you install additional connection profiles, simplifying connections to various hosting and cloud storage service providers.

Notes

Global Chip Shortage ‘Is Far From Over’ As Wait Times Get Longer, by Stephanie Yang and Jiyoung Sohn, Wall Street Journal

The global semiconductor shortage is worsening, with wait times lengthening, buyers hoarding products and the potential end looking less likely to materialize by next year. Demand didn’t moderate as expected. Supply routes got clogged. Unpredictable production hiccups slammed factories already running at full capacity.

What’s left is widespread confusion for manufacturers and buyers alike. Some buyers trying to place new orders are getting delivery dates in 2024, said Ian Walker, operations director at electronic-components distributor Princeps Electronics Ltd., which helps companies find chips.

Bottom of the Page

Now that we have settled on the design of tabs on Safari, maybe Apple can tackle re-designing the Dock next?

(Happy Halloween!)

:-)

~

Thanks for reading.

The Listening-to-Customers Edition Saturday, October 30, 2021

MacBook Pro 2021 Review: Nearly Perfect Back-to-the-Future Laptops, by Joanna Stern, Wall Street Journal

“We’re constantly listening to our customers and with this new lineup of MacBook Pros we decided to make some changes as we do a lot on the Mac,” Tom Boger, Apple’s Vice President of Mac and iPad Product Marketing, told me.

Run that through the executive-to-English translator and it comes out pretty clear: We were wrong.

But the backtracking is only part of what makes these new $1,999-and-up laptops such a pleasure to use: It’s Apple’s move from Intel chips to its very own M1 Pro and M1 Max that wowed me in my last two weeks of testing.

Apple MacBook Pro 14 And 16 Review: Return To Form, by Nilay Patel and Monica Chin, The Verge

Let’s start simply: the new MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are incredible — the fastest laptops we’ve ever tested in some tasks, with some of the longest battery life we’ve ever seen. Apple’s big bet on moving away from Intel CPUs and AMD GPUs in favor of its own Apple Silicon chips is paying off in meaningful ways, and if you can afford one of these machines, you will be very happy with them. They’re great.

That said, the new MacBook Pros are not without their quirks, and the Mac software ecosystem is still catching up to Apple Silicon in general and Apple’s pro hardware GPU ideas in particular. So things aren’t quite as simple as our first impression of the MacBook Air with an M1 chip last year — depending on your needs and the tools you use, the Mac software ecosystem might not let you actually get the most out of these machines for a while yet.

Smooth 120Hz Scrolling Not Currently Supported By Many Mac Apps, Including Safari, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

Through testing on the new MacBook Pro, Catalyst apps generally run at 120Hz as you would expect, as they appear to inherit the iOS behaviors directly. Full-screen games and Metal apps can also render at the full 120Hz. The problem is day-to-day standard Mac apps mostly do not.

On Health

Apple Watch Study Provides An Unprecedented Look At The Health Status Of A Diverse Patient Population, by Kelly Malcom, Michigan Medicine

Researchers in the health and wellness space have typically relied on people to report their personal health data, like activity levels, heart rate or blood pressure, during brief snapshots in time.

Wearable health devices, such as the popular Apple Watch, have changed the game, surfacing meaningful data that can paint a more complete picture of daily life and resulting health and disease for clinicians.

Stuff

Apple Fifth Avenue Now Offering Same-day In-store AirPods Engraving, by Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac

Apple is offering engraving in the Fifth Avenue store for the second generation AirPods, the new third generation AirPods, and the AirPods Pro. According to a specialist in the store, the process takes about 20 minutes.

Apple’s Most Back-Ordered New Product Is Not What You Expect, by Daisuke Wakabayashi, New York Times

An Apple official said in an interview, based on the condition that The New York Times not quote or identify her, that the company was not surprised by the demand for the Polishing Cloth. The official said the cloth was very effective and had been designed to be special, including a custom light gray color. Apple said the cloth was made of a nonwoven microfiber but declined to elaborate.

Apple's Mail App Is Actually Useful Now: 10 Things To Try, by Lance Whitney, PC Magazine

Now, iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 bring new privacy features to better protect your mail account. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of Apple Mail on your mobile device.

Notes

Apple Objects To Links To Outside Payments Ahead Of Epic Games Hearing, by Stephen Nellis, Reuters

Apple on Friday for the first time signaled that its strongest objections are to the requirements to allow buttons and links that provide a "mechanism" for outside payments. The filing provided the first suggestion that Apple objects less strongly to allowing developers to provide information about other ways to pay.

Apple Now Calls Itself A Gaming Company Fighting With Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, by Mike Peterson, AppleInsider

In a regulatory filing on Friday, the company said its products compete as gaming platform against traditional game companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Previously, Apple said it only competed with Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows.

Apple Chip Shortage Will End, But U.S.-China Supply Chain 'Train Wreck' Is Coming, by Eric Rosenbaum, CNBC

The semiconductor chip shortage is old news, but when the second-largest public company in the history of the U.S. stock market says it just left $6 billion in potential sales on the table as a result of limited chip supply — as Apple just did — it reinforces why the U.S. economy needs to rethink how it sources its semiconducting technology so that doesn't happen again.

Bottom of the Page

After many days on Big Sur, I've managed to train Spotlight to understand that when I type "te", I meant "terminal". I only want "Microsoft Teams" when I type "tea".

And right after I upgraded to Monterey, Spotlight immediately forgot all these, and gave me "Microsoft Teams" when I type "te".

~

Thanks for reading.

The Universal-Shortcuts Edition Friday, October 29, 2021

Building Cross-platform Shortcuts, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

While you might have rightfully assumed that not everything that works in Shortcuts on the Mac will work in Shortcuts on iOS—AppleScripts, shell scripts, and the like simply don’t exist on that platform—it might surprise you to learn that the reverse is also true. The Mac’s version of the Share menu is not nearly as sophisticated as the one on iOS, and the Share menu is a major launching point for iOS shortcuts. Safari’s automation interface is, similarly, not nearly as friendly on the Mac as on iOS.

But will that stop us? No! This week I’ve converted several of my shortcuts to “universal” versions that run on both macOS and iOS. Here are some tips and tricks that I’ve learned along the way.

How macOS Is More Reliable, And Doesn’t Need Reinstalling, by Howard Oakley, The Eclectic Light Company

If your Mac, running Big Sur or Monterey with Secure Boot enabled, boots normally, then its System volume is in perfect condition. Whatever might be wrong with it, re-installing the System volume isn’t likely to fix it.

At the end of a macOS update or install, if your Mac boots normally with Secure Boot enabled, then its System volume is in perfect condition. If the install fails, your best course is to enter Recovery mode and there re-install macOS. If that’s successful, you can have confidence in the integrity of the installed System again.

Dear Apple: Why Can't iCloud's Backup And Restore Be More Like, Well, Google's?, by Jason Perlow, ZDNet

Most of your software and services just plain work -- most of the time. But lately, iCloud restore has not been a great experience.

Revenue Still Up

Apple Sales Miss Expectations, Tim Cook Says Supply Issues Cost Company $6 Billion, by Kif Leswing, CNBC

Apple revenue fell short of Wall Street expectations in its fiscal fourth quarter on Thursday, which Apple CEO Tim Cook attributed to larger-than-expected supply constraints on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

[...]

However, Apple’s overall revenue was still up 29% and each of its product categories grew on an annual basis.

Why Apple’s Record Quarter Has Everyone Worried, by Jason Snell, Macworld

How does a company that’s reporting record earnings and repeatedly citing “robust” demand for its products put a chill into the hearts of Wall Street types? It’s the story of the season, and it has to do with kinks in the worldwide supply chain, which severely affected Apple in the just-finished quarter and threaten to do worse in the holiday quarter.

This Is Tim: Transcript Of Apple’s Fourth-quarter Call With Analysts, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

We are incredibly proud of the product lineup we have going into the holiday season and we are encouraged by the customer response we’ve seen. And while we cannot know exactly which path the pandemic will take the world down in the months to come, we feel quite confident that this new year will be driven by the values that guide us and by the innovation that defines us.

Stuff

2021 MacBook Pro Features Display Reference Modes And Fine-tune Calibration Settings, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

Apple’s advanced Pro Display XDR comes with multiple reference mode options, which allow users to change specific display color settings to fit their workflow. Since the 2021 MacBook Pro features a Liquid Retina XDR display with similar specs to Apple’s $5000 display, the company has made the same reference modes available for its new laptops.

SpamSieve 2.9 Review: Snag And Tag Spam Before It Hits Your Mac's Inbox, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

SpamSieve is a one-trick pony and it performs its Bayesian trick exceptionally well. We will never be free of spam, and this decades-old method built out with simplicity in the app remains an important line of defense.

Camo Teams Up With Snap To Bring Augmented Reality To Video Meetings, by Bradley Chambers, 9to5Mac

Camo, the popular app that allows you to use your iPhone as a Mac webcam, has released a new update that integrates the Snap API to add augmented reality to your video meetings.

Bottom of the Page

Stay safe, and thanks for visiting.

The Overcoming-Disparities Edition Thursday, October 28, 2021

Google, Snap And Dozens Of Tech Companies Coordinate New Diversity Push, by Naomi Nix and Amy Yee, Bloomberg

The Catalyze Tech coalition, which was announced Thursday, aims to hold its members accountable for improving the representation and experience of women, people of color, first-generation college graduates and the LGBTQ community in the tech industry. Thirty-one companies and a group of nonprofits and researchers signed on to a 116-page report outlining their commitments to overcoming disparities in the tech sector.

[...]

The coalition was convened by a working group of experts -- including representatives at Snap, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Aspen Institute and the National Center for Women & Information Technology -- that spent more than a year studying strategies that make companies more equitable places to work. Other participants include Etsy Inc., Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn, Apple Inc., Salesforce.com Inc., Spotify Technology SA and Uber Technologies Inc.

Apple Launches Ten New Initiatives To Help Communities Around The World, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

In its goal to become 100% carbon-neutral by 2030, Apple announced today that it has more than doubled the number of suppliers committed to using only clean energy over the last year. In total, 175 Apple suppliers will transition to using renewable energy, and the company and its suppliers will bring online more than nine gigawatts of clean power around the world.

Not only that, but the company is adding 10 new projects to its “Power for Impact” initiative to bring clean energy solutions to communities around the world.

Insanely Efficient

MacBook Pro M1 Max For Photographers, by Austin Mann

In summary, the most impressive performance from new MacBook Pro M1 Max wasn't just speed (it was about twice as fast) but it was insanely efficient in how it managed both its power and heat which matters as much or more than pure speed.

First Tests: Are The Apple M1 Pro And M1 Max Good For Gaming?, by Tom Brant, PC Magazine

Ultimately, the state of Mac gaming simply inches along with the introduction of M1 Max and M1 Pro, as good as the chips are. The hardware appears to be ready, but a critical mass of games that can take advantage of it simply doesn’t exist. On the other hand, if your preferred relaxation method at the end of a long day of content creation is revisiting classics like 2016's Hitman, your new MacBook Pro will happily oblige.

Stuff

Apple Releases Safari 15.1 With Classic Tab Design For macOS Big Sur And Catalina, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

Earlier this week, Apple reverted the design of the Safari tabs to a more traditional look with the official release of macOS Monterey. Now the company is making this update also available to Mac users running macOS Big Sur and Catalina with Safari 15.1.

Apple Music Is Now Available On PlayStation 5, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

Apple and Sony today announced that the Apple Music app is now available on PlayStation 5 consoles, joining the likes of Spotify as an official music service on the PlayStation system.

Apple Music is fully integrated into the PS5 with support for background music listening whilst gaming, 4K music videos, and access to the full Apple Music catalog.

The New AirPods Are Exactly The Wireless Earbuds That I Wanted Apple To Make, by Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac

The AirPods third generation fit way better than AirPods Pro and they are still more comfortable than the second generation AirPods.

Apple Now Lets You Review Messages, Phone, Photos, And Safari On The App Store, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

About a month ago, Apple began letting users review some built-in apps via App Store review. Now, just after the release of iOS 15.1, the company is opening up Messages, Phone, Photos, and Safari to user’s scrutiny.

Notes

Spotify 'Internal' Metrics Suggest It Has Surpassed Apple Podcasts In US Listenership, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

After seeing a few reports earlier this year that Spotify was closing in on Apple Podcasts’ listenership, new data allegedly shows that Spotify has eclipsed Apple when it comes to US podcast listeners. If true, it looks like the shift may have happened as early as Q2 this year.

Bottom of the Page

Current read: Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr
Current watch: Downton Abbey
Current re-watch: Big Bang Theory
Current emotion: Sad, with a tint of anxiousness.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Single-Amorphous Edition Wednesday, October 27, 2021

macOS Monterey Review: Seeking Harmony, But A Work In Progress, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

Despite all the worry among Mac users the past few years that Apple might be attempting to collapse Mac, iPhone, and iPad into a single amorphous product, macOS Monterey still feels unreservedly like a Mac. While Apple wants its platforms to share features, it also recognizes that each serves a different (albeit overlapping) audience.

Shortcuts For Mac: 27 Of Our Favorite Third-Party Integrations, by John Voorhees, MacStories

To get you started, I’ve rounded up some of the most interesting Shortcuts integrations I’ve found so far. Some of these will be familiar if you’ve used these apps’ counterparts on the iPhone or iPad, but many are brand new to any platform, while others are Mac-exclusive.

M1 Pro Vs. M1 Max: Why The Fastest MacBook Ever Might Be Overkill, by Jason Snell, Macworld

If you know your work involves diabolical multi-threaded CPU-taxing software, be sure you get the 10-core model. If you know you need GPU or ProRes power, or enormous amounts of memory bandwidth–and if you don’t know, you probably don’t!–then the M1 Max is a better choice.

Hundreds of Glances

How The Larger-screen Apple Watch Is Leading To New Ideas, by Scott Stein, CNET

"It isn't about the 30 minutes you're spending looking at your phone and social media, or the hour on your Mac working on a document," says Ng. "The power of Apple Watch is in those hundreds of glances a day that might give you information that you need right at that moment." Ng sees the larger screen as mainly being about being able to "consume that information faster and easier."

Stuff

Apple Releases iOS 14.8.1 And iPadOS 14.8.1 With Security Updates, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

According to Apple’s security support document, the update addresses a number of vulnerabilities with Sidecar, WebKit, Voice Control, the Status Bar, and more.

Apple News Expands Local News Coverage To Three New Cities In The US, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

Apple says Apple News editors will highlight “coverage of topics that are important to local communities, from restaurant openings and real estate trends to big policy decisions.”

Best Pedometer Apps For iPhone, by Jack Martin, Florida News Times

Using a pedometer app can be a great idea to boost your walking exercise. This way you can easily see how active you really are, you can visualize your progress in time, set and adjust goals depending on your fitness level and find the necessary motivation to stick to your routine.

6 Best Cocktail Apps For Beginners And Home Bartenders, by Advanced Mixology

Enjoying mixed drinks at the bar is fun, but making your cocktails at home is priceless!

But you do not have to be a professional bartender to make delicious cocktails at home.

Native Union Celebrates iPod 20th Anniversary With iPod Socks-inspired AirPod Beanies, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

Inspired by the classic iPod Socks, the new AirPods Beanies work with all AirPods cases (and more) and come in a colorful 4-pack.

Pikmin Bloom Hands-on: A Cute App That Tries To Make Walking A Little More Magical, by Andrew Webster, The Verge

There’s something strangely satisfying about leaving a trail of colorful flowers in your wake as you explore a neighborhood. It’s also one of the main hooks of Pikmin Bloom, the next release from the creator of Pokémon Go, and another app designed to get you moving in the real world.

Bottom of the Page

Either the pro products are getting more pro (read: more expensive), or the non-pro products are getting so much better these days, that I don't see myself buying a pro device from Apple anytime in the near future.

The only exception, perhaps, is the AirPods Pro. But given the strange times we are in, and, more importantly, the lack of going-out, I am not using my AirPods Pro that often anyway. (I used it mainly for outdoor listening, where I need to block out the train noise so that I can focus on my audioboks.)

~

Thanks for reading.

The Unabashedly-Pro Edition Tuesday, October 26, 2021

14-inch MacBook Pro Review: A Mac Pro In Your Backpack, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

The new MacBook Pro brings power previously only available to a high-end Mac Pro to the form of a laptop. Its ports give it versatility. Its display offers extended dynamic range and high frame rates, all in a clamshell you can close and stuff in your backpack.

It’s not cheap. No, it’s not. But that’s okay. In fact, even that fact follows from one of the most important lessons Apple has learned in the last five years: The MacBook Pro is a tool for professional users, and it needs to be built with their needs in mind.

The 2021 14-Inch MacBook Pro, by John Gruber, Daring Fireball

The differences between a MacBook Pro and MacBook Air should not be subtle. Let the truck be a truck, true to its purpose. Let the MacBook Pro be unabashedly pro.

14-inch MacBook Pro (M1 Pro) Review: Life Just Keeps Getting Better For Mac Users, by Roman Loyola, Macworld

Since I’m so used to the iPhone notch, adjusting to the MacBook Pro’s notch was not an issue. I barely noticed it while using the laptop every day, and it doesn’t infringe on the workspace below, so nothing is really lost. However, overcrowded menu bars and lengthy menu items are going to be a big issue for a lot of users.

Apple's M1 Pro, M1 Max SoCs Investigated: New Performance And Efficiency Heights, by Andrei Frumusanu, AnandTech

The M1 was a very straightforward jump from a mobile platform to a laptop/desktop platform, but it was undeniably a chip that was oriented towards much lower power devices, with thermal limits. The M1 impressed in single-threaded performance, but still clearly lagged behind the competition in overall performance.

The M1 Pro and M1 Max change the narrative completely – these designs feel like truly SoCs that have been made with power users in mind, with Apple increasing the performance metrics in all vectors. We expected large performance jumps, but we didn’t expect the some of the monstrous increases that the new chips are able to achieve.

AirPods

Apple AirPods (Third-gen) Review: New Design, Same Appeal, by Chris Welch, The Verge

Apple says it conducted a ton of user research when designing the third-generation AirPods, involving thousands of ear scans, heat maps, and so on. And at least in my case, something about the new shape definitely works better. They’re staying put so well that I no longer feel the same anxiety about them tumbling onto the ground and down a sewer grate.

Are The Apple Third Generation Air Pods Worth It?, by Ali Finney, Well+Good

Couple that with the new ergonomic design which mimics the natural curvature of the ear, and a shortening of the stem, and you're basically set up for success while exercising.

Apple’s New AirPods Are Pandemic-Proof, by Katie Notopoulos, BuzzFeed News

Apple, as it always does, has packed a bunch of new advancements into its entry-level earbuds, but the most important is the simplest: They're less apt to get pulled out when you put on or take off your face mask.

Apple AirPods (2021) Review, by B. Steele, Engadget

I don’t want to mince words here: the new AirPods sound so much better than the previous two versions. Like almost night and day better. Apple didn’t make any significant changes to sound quality from the first model to the 2019 version. But for gen three, Apple paired a custom driver with a high-dynamic-range amplifier to improve the audio chops. The company says that the duo work together to produce “rich consistent bass” and “crisp, clean” highs. From the moment I fired up the first song, this was all immediately evident. I don’t think I’ve ever audibly said “woah” with the first note from a guitar on any review unit, but given how average older AirPods sound, it was involuntary this time.

AirPods 3 Features First Water-Resistant AirPods Charging Case, by Hartley Charlton, MacRumors

Apple promoted the sweat and water-resistance of the third-generation AirPods with the device’s announcement last week, but the IPX4 rating applies to both the earbuds and the charging case.

OS Updates

macOS Monterey: The MacStories Review, by John Voorhees, MacStories

Monterey’s focus is all about system apps, a topic near and dear to me. With the technical building blocks in place and a refined design out of the way, Monterey is one of the most tangible, user-facing payoffs of the past three years of transition. More than ever before, Apple is advancing system apps across all of its platforms at the same time. Finally, everything is everywhere.

However, as much as it pleases me to see the groundwork laid in years past pay dividends in the form of new features being rolled out simultaneously on all platforms, Monterey’s payoff isn’t an unqualified success. Every OS release has its rough spots, but this year, Shortcuts is especially rough. As optimistic and excited as I remain for Shortcuts to be the future of automation on the Mac, it’s too frustrating to use at launch. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed any upside using Shortcuts on my Mac, and it has improved over the course of the beta period, but it still gets in my way more often than it should.

Some Monterey Features Of Note, by David Sparks, MacSparky

Today marks the release of the latest iteration of macOS, Monterey. The usual disclaimers apply. If you have production software on your Mac that you use to pay for your shoes, you should seriously check all of that out before installing this update. That said, I’ve been running the beta for months, and it’s been largely stable (except for Shortcuts, explained further below). Once you get it installed, there are several features that I found delightful through the beta.

Apple Releases iOS And iPadOS 15.1 With SharePlay, Safari For iPad Fixes, Shortcuts Improvements, And More, by Federico Viticci, MacStories

Alongside macOS Monterey, Apple today released iOS and iPadOS 15.1 – the first major updates to the operating systems introduced last month. Don’t expect a large collection of changes from this release, though: 15.1 mostly focuses on enabling SharePlay (which was announced at WWDC, then postponed to a later release a few months ago), rolling Safari back to a reasonable design, and bringing a few tweaks for the Camera app and spatial audio.

Apple Fitness+ Users Can Now Work Out With Friends And Family Using SharePlay, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Using SharePlay, Apple Fitness+ users can work out with friends and family members over FaceTime. Apple says that this is a good way to help people “stay motivated and accountable on their fitness journey.”

Here Are Some Of The Best SharePlay Apps For iOS 15.1 And iPadOS 15.1, by Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac

Apple offers their own apps for SharePlay like TV and Fitness, but there are a plethora of third-party apps with SharePlay support available to download right now.

Lossless Audio And Dolby Atmos Support Come To HomePod With 15.1 Software Update, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Lossless Audio is available on both the ‌HomePod‌ and ‌HomePod mini‌, while Spatial Audio is available on the larger-sized and now-discontinued ‌HomePod‌.

Stuff

Apple Releases macOS Big Sur 11.6.1 With Security Fixes, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

According to Apple’s release notes, the update “improves the security of macOS” and is recommended for all users.

You're Not Making The Most Of Your iPhone Camera, by Khamosh Pathak, LifeHacker

While you might be familiar enough with the basics, like switching to portrait mode or shooting a panorama, we’ll walk through some of the other options you might not be taking advantage of.

Pixelmator Pro Adds Full Support For macOS Monterey, Featuring 28 Shortcuts Actions, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

This version brings full support for macOS Monterey, including a library of Shortcuts actions, and takes full advantage of the power of the latest M1 Pro and M1 Max chips in the new MacBook Pros.

Ulysses Adds Shortcuts And Quick Notes Integration With macOS Monterey Release, More, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

The app features a streamlined toolset that covers the entire writing process, and it’s also clean and simple to use across all platforms.

Anker Debuts New MagGo MagSafe Accessory Collection For iPhone 13, by Blair Altland, 9to5Toys

The most exciting of these new debuts in my opinion falls to the Anker MagGo Battery Stand, which arrives as the next iteration of the brand’s popular MagSafe power bank that’s already on the market. [...] Where it mixes things up is the actual design, delivering a foldout stand that can prop up your iPhone 13 while charging.

Develop

Applications Open For Next Apple Entrepreneur Camp, by AppleInsider

Part of Apple's $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, the Apple Entrepreneur Camp supports developers, business owners and founders as they build the next generation of apps.

Notes

I Was Hacked. The Spyware Used Against Me Makes Us All Vulnerable., by Ben Hubbard, New York Times

Now, I limit the information I keep on my phone. I store sensitive contacts offline. I encourage people to use Signal, an encrypted messaging app, so that if a hacker makes it in, there won’t be much to find.

Bottom of the Page

My ears are fine with the new AirPods 3. To me, they are as comfortable as the previous AirPods. I don't need to stock up on AirPods 2. :-)

~

Thanks for reading.

The More-Room Edition Monday, October 25, 2021

Apple Says Notch Is A 'Smart Way' To Give Users More Space For Content On New MacBook Pros, by Sami Fathi, MacRumors

Addressing the company’s decision, Shruti Haldea, a manager for the Mac Product Line and one of the presenters of last week’s Apple event, said during an interview on the Same Brain podcast that the notch offers a “smart” solution to the Mac as it provides users more room for their content.

iPad & Apple Pencil Artist's Review: A Decent Wacom Alternative For Digital Production, by Brian Patterson, AppleInsider

I enjoy the freedom the iPad and Apple Pencil gives me. I can sit on my patio on nice days and sketch with no issues or take the show on the road when travel and conventions return.

This was the goal for me anyway: To have a great way to enter meetings or attend conventions without an entire Pelican case of equipment to set up. I have that now.

The Apple Watch Series 7's Faces Still Don't Do It For Me, And The Problem Is The Hands, by Matthew Bolton, T3

This is a fundamental flaw if you're trying to design great watches, because the hands aren't just some boring practical aspect you can just slap on at the end. Designing a beautiful watch means means making every part match in tone and style, and the hands are vital for that – even if you still plan to keep things minimalist.

Stuff

Apple's Latest MacBooks Pro Will Be Backordered Until At Least December, by Jennimai Nguyen, Mashable

Whether it's low supply or simply extra high demand — or perhaps some combination of the two, with other factors like worldwide shipping hiccups getting in the way — the latest MacBooks will be hard to come by for at least some time.

Apple TV+ To Launch In Korea On November 4 And Debut Korean Drama 'Dr. Brain', by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

To celebrate its digital service’s availability in the country, Apple will premiere its first Korean original series, “Dr. Brain,” on the same day. “Dr. Brain” is a Korean-language show based on the popular Korean webtoon of the same name.

Notes

The Magic Of Bad Photos, by Pamela Paul, The Atlantic

It’s rare to see a bad photo today. If, by chance, a bad photo is taken and cannot be filtered, edited, or otherwise enhanced into something visually acceptable, it is swiftly deleted. Why hold on to anything less than perfect? Why, when with a cost-free click you can disappear it from your digital life, lest it ever inadvertently make its way onto someone else’s social feed, where it might be screengrabbed for eternity.

It wasn’t always like this.

Algorithms Were Supposed To Be The Future For Finding New Movies And Music. But Now We've Realized They'll Never Replace Your Cool Friend's Recommendation., by Drew Austin, Business Insider

Unlike other tedious tasks that artificial intelligence promised to automate, choosing our own music was actually fun, something we felt no need to outsource. And yet, it seemed inevitable that listeners would outsource it anyway, regardless of how much they enjoyed the process. Maybe the recommendations would eventually get so good that we'd even welcome the transition.

But Spotify, along with Netflix and many other digital products that provide personalized media recommendations, failed to realize what my friend already knew: Cool recommendations come from cool people. These algorithmic efforts to discern the precise nuances of users' individual preferences, by iteratively feeding their in-app behavior back to them, reflect a belief that personal taste is a product of nature rather than nurture. In other words, from this algorithmic perspective, our taste is intrinsic and immutable rather than an ever-changing result of our ongoing interactions with our environment.

Bottom of the Page

So, the next MacBook Air will come with a notch, too, right? And so will the next iMac, the next Apple monitor, and the next iPhone SE, I presume.

What will not come with a notch? Apple Watches will not, because I don't think Apple will ever place a camera on your wrist. (How creepy is that!)

And then, there's iPod Touch.

:-)

~

Thanks for reading.

The Transfer-Surroundings Edition Sunday, October 24, 2021

Hands-on: Portal Is An Immersive Spatial Audio App For Focus, Sleep, Or Escape, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

Portal aims to help you focus on a task, sleep better, or simply “escape” using the Spatial Audio technology and a pair of your favorite AirPods. It combines immersive sounds, visuals, and smart lighting to virtually transform existing surroundings and help you relax.

Apple's iPod Came Out Two Decades Ago And Changed How We Listen To Music. Where Are We Headed Now?, by Stuart James, The Conversation

The experience of listening to music will become increasingly immersive with time, and we’ll only find more ways to seamlessly integrate it into our lives.

Bottom of the Page

I've tried hard to really like SimCity, over the years. But there's one part of the game that prevented me from really liking it: the money-and-resource management. All I want to do is just play the fun part: design-and-build.

Which is why I (almost) purchased Townscaper immediately, and I've been having fun on my iPad since.

I really hope the developer doesn't have ambitions to make this to be yet another SimCity-like thing.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Beyond-Physics Edition Saturday, October 23, 2021

A Look Inside Apple's Silicon Playbook, by Steven Levy, Wired

“When you're a merchant vendor, a company that delivers off-the-shelf components or silicon to many customers, you have to figure what is the least common denominator—what is it that everyone needs across many years?” [Johny Srouji] says. “We work as one team—the silicon, the hardware, the software, the industrial design, and other teams—to enable a certain vision. When you translate that to silicon, that gives us a very unique opportunity and freedom because now you're designing something that is not only truly unique, but optimized for a certain product.” In the case of the MacBook Pro, he says, he sat with leaders like Ternus and Craig Federighi several years ago and envisioned what users would be able to get their hands on in 2021. It would all spring from the silicon. “We sit together, and say, ‘Okay, is it gated by physics? Or is it something we can go beyond?’ And then, if it's not gated by physics and it's a matter of time, we go figure out how to build it.”

A Comprehensive Guide To 250+ Of Apple Music’s New Mood And Activity Playlists, by John Voorhees, MacStories

Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s co-head of Artist Relations and radio host, explained that the company’s team of music experts had created hundreds of playlists for moods and activities. Ask Siri to play a playlist for your dinner party, to help you relax, or for hiking and Lowe said Siri will start a playlist that fits the moment.

[...]

You won’t find a directory of the new mood and activity playlists in the Music app, and there’s no filter that can be applied to see the entire collection, so we’ve complied a massive link list of all the playlists we have been able to find so far, organized into categories.

Apple Safari Browser Might Become The New Internet Explorer, by Scott Gilbertson, The Register

If Apple were less opaque and faster in its development process it could participate more in the debate over new APIs. If the company truly has concerns about the privacy implications of APIs, then it should voice them. Push back against Google, and provide a real alternative to Chrome. It wouldn't be easy, but it might be the only hope we have.

iPod Spirit

The iPod Was No Sure Thing, But Steve Jobs Insisted: 'We're Building This', by Roger Cheng, CNET

At the end of March 2001, he presented them to Steve Jobs. Apple veteran Stan Ng had worked with Fadell to prepare a stack of papers for the presentation — this was before the days of slideshows — and prepared him for both Jobs and his reputation for an explosive temper. "Those stories were ingrained in my brain, burned into my brain, so I'm going in nervous," Fadell said.

Jobs immediately took the stack of papers, riffled through the pages and quickly tossed them aside. "Here's what I want to do," Fadell recalled Jobs saying, hijacking the conversation and forcing them to dive right in.

Why Are Gen Z Collecting 20-year-old iPods?, by James FitzGerald, Dazed

As Yuuiko sees it: “with an iPod, your music is in your hand. Not in some abstract cloud, kept and controlled by a robot you pay.” Many in the community want to keep their audio-playing functions separate from their phones, saying they prefer to relax and disconnect from the world while listening to their tunes.

The iPod Is Still Here, It's Just Evolved, by Scott Stein, CNET

Twenty years after the first iPod debuted, it's hard to even find whether iPods exist anymore on Apple's website. They do, technically: one iPod Touch remains. But really, iPods are kind of everywhere now. In 2021, Apple has atomized the iPod and spread its spirit around into everything else.

On App Stores

Apple Updates Its App Store Guidelines To Permit Developers To Contact Customers About Other Payment Methods, by Sarah Perez, TechCrunch

Apple today introduced a new set of App Store Guidelines that include three key changes. One of the changes is the result of a previously announced settlement agreement with a class of U.S. app developers. It clarifies that developers are allowed to communicate with their customers about other payment methods available outside their app. Related to this, another new guideline explains that apps may request customer information like name and email, but the request must be optional for the user and shouldn’t prevent them from using the app.

The third guideline is unrelated to legal action, and simply details how developers can use a new App Store feature, called in-app events, which rolls out next week.

Will Apple Be The Last US Tech Giant Left In China?, by James Clayton, BBC

Apple's presence in the country now feels almost like a hangover from another era. Big Tech simply doesn't have much of a presence in China any more.

The question now is how much regulation, how much compliance - and how much censorship - is too much?

Stuff

Apple Celebrates Opening Of Apple Bagdat Caddesi, Istanbul, by William Gallagher, AppleInsider

Apple has marked the opening of its newest store in Istanbul with photographs of its first customers — and the 130 staff who between them speak 14 languages.

Apple Card 6% Daily Cash Listings For Apple Purchases Were In Error, But Apple Is Honoring Them, by Eric Slivka, MacRumors

Apple has confirmed that this was indeed an error, but the company is going to honor the offer for users who did manage to make a purchase and see the 6% listing.

Data Doctors: Smartphone Astrophotography Tips, by Ken Colburn, WTOP

While serious astrophotography requires a pile of expensive DSLR camera equipment, you can actually get decent images from your smartphone with a little work.

A couple of keys to capturing the night sky are focusing and keeping the phone still, as the shutter will need to be open for an extended period of time.

Remember Cursive? Yeah, Neither Do We. But There’s An App For That., by Jamey Tucker, Hawaii News Now

Writey looks like one of the workbooks from elementary school with each section showing the capital and lowercase letters of the entire alphabet. While it also has practice sheets for the Roman Alphabet and Print Writing, the Cursive Writing section is most helpful.

Satechi Launches USB-C Hybrid Multiport Adapter With Hidden SSD Slot, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

Coming with a compact design, the USB-C Hybrid Multiport Adapter features an integrated SSD slot to work as external storage alongside the extra I/O.

Bored With Your iPhone Wallpaper? We Found The 5 Best Sites With Free Options, by Shelby Brown, CNET

If you're bored of your iPhone's stock images, here are five places to find some new backgrounds -- and how to change them in the first place.

Bottom of the Page

About three-quarter into the film Tenet, I stopped trying to understand what is going on. I knew I can always catch up on the plot details on Wikipedia later on.

~

I had the best alone-time with iPods. Podcasts. Audiobooks. Games. (Or rather, game. I've only played the Brick game on iPods.) And, yes, movies. On a teeny-tiny iPod nano screen.

(Don't tell Mr Christopher Nolan I've watched his film Tenet not in a movie theatre, not on my big-screen television, but on my little iPad. Well, at least it was not an iPhone.... or an iPod nano.)

~

Thanks for reading.

The Just-Like-Movies Edition Friday, October 22, 2021

Apple Promotes iPhone 13 Pro Cameras With New 'Experiments VI: Movie Magic' Video, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

Apple commissioned an experiment with photographer Dong Hoon Jun and visual artist James Thorton for a sci-fi short. The video called “Movie Magic” shows that with the iPhone 13 Pro, users can shoot “practical special effects that look just like the movies.”

Tim Cook Hails Power Of Education As Apple Marks Europe Code Week, by Martyn Landi, Irish Examiner

Apple boss Tim Cook has stressed the importance of education being “the great equaliser” in society, as he marked Europe Code Week by meeting teachers from across the UK and Ireland.

[...]

The tech giant has a catalogue of teaching tools available around digital skills and coding and is using Europe Code Week to encourage teachers to take part in its Inclusive App Design activity with their students, a lesson where they are tasked with turning an idea to boost inclusion and accessibility into an app.

Apple’s Device Shortages Threaten Record-Setting Holiday Season, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

Having to wait for an Apple product is nothing new, with the annual release of the iPhone and other hot products bringing long lines and order backlogs. But this year the delays are spread more widely. And that threatens to undercut what could be Apple’s biggest sales quarter in its history.

Stuff

Cut Down On Junk Mail With iCloud+’s Hide My Email, by Josh Centers, TidBITS

Suppose you share one of those alternative addresses and start receiving unwanted messages from which you can’t easily remove yourself by clicking an Unsubscribe link at the bottom. In that case, you can deactivate or delete the address and never be bothered again. Hide My Email also ties in with the Sign in with Apple feature, so you can view and manage the anonymous email addresses it generates.

Apple Confirms New MacBook Pro Models Have Only Slower UHS-II SD Card Slots, by Mike Peterson, AppleInsider

Apple's new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are equipped with a midline SD card slot supporting the UHS-II standard, rather than the substantially faster USH-III, the company has confirmed.

Default Folder X Review: Indispensable Utility Provides Mac's Missing Folder Navigation Tools, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

With Default Folder installed, all your open and save dialogs have a highly configurable overlay that lets you click icons to one side or use keyboard shortcuts to get quickly to the folder location you want to be in.

Elgato’s App That Turns iPhones Into Webcams Gets AR Snap Lens Support, by Jon Porter, The Verge

EpocCam, the app from streaming brand Elgato that lets you repurpose your iPhone as a webcam for your PC or Mac, has been updated with native support for Snap Lenses augmented reality filters, Elgato’s parent company Corsair has announced.

Develop

Apple Says In-app Events On The App Store Will Officially Launch Next Week, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

One of the iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 features announced at WWDC 2021 was support for discovering in-app events directly through the App Store. Apple has announced today that in-app events will officially go live in the App Store on October 27, and developers can schedule them now via App Store Connect.

Notes

The Truth About “Smartphone Pinkie”, by Shannon Palus, Slate

The claim is this: If you stick your pinkie out to form a little ledge for your iPhone, you’re damaging your hand and wrist.

[...]

As Slate’s science and health editor, I wanted to know, for the sake of my colleagues, myself, and probably millions if not billions of people worldwide: Is this true?

Basically, no.

Bottom of the Page

I wish Apple would release the new macOS on a Thursday, so that I can immediately install on a Friday, and then spend Saturday and Sunday to fix up anything that is going wrong on my Mac.

But then again, will there be some poor Apple engineers who have to be on standby over the weekend, to get ready to pull the update if anything goes wrong?

Okay, it's not that important that I get to install and play with the new OS that fast.

:-)

~

Thanks for reading.

The A-Little-Too-Much Edition Thursday, October 21, 2021

Apple Is Fully Prepared For AirPods Launch Demand For The First Time, by William Gallagher, AppleInsider

At the "Unleashed" event, Apple said it would be taking preorders immediately, and that the AirPods 3 would be arriving "next week." It wasn't more precise than that, but at time of writing, all preorders are consistently showing that they will arrive on October 26.

Device Software Updates Now Appear In Software Update Too, by Adam Engst, TidBITS

In what seems to be an effort to reduce the confusion level—that MobileDeviceUpdater dialog has to have caused innumerable support calls from people worried about malware—Apple is now offering the update via Software Update. No longer do you have to wait until you plug in an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to get the Device Support Update (as we now know it’s called).

Apple’s Product Design Has Improved Since Jony Ive Left, by Alex Webb, Bloomberg

There was a sense that, without the moderating influence of the late Steve Jobs, perhaps Ive started to prioritize aesthetics a little too much. Since he stepped down as chief designer at the end of 2019, Apple seems to have reemphasized function. From the iPhone to Apple TV to the Macbook, gone are the days of “The user be damned, we think this looks cool.”

Stuff

How To Talk To The World Through Free Translation Apps, by J. D. Biersdorfer, New York Times

Need to have a conversation in a language you don’t know, make sense of a printed sign or quickly translate a message? With Google and Apple revving their machine-learning engines in their Google Translate and Apple’s Translate apps, there’s a whole new world of communication possibilities right in your pocket.

Twelve South HoverBar Duo Review: Ultra-flexible iPad Stand, by Karen S Freeman, iMore

If flexibility is what you need, this is the stand for you. With both a desk base and a shelf clamp, plus an endless number of angles you can use, this stand holds your iPad or other devices any which way.

New Twelve South PowerPic Mod Lets You Customize Your Wireless Charge, by Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider

This 10W wireless charger can hold a picture behind a pane of acrylic, allowing you to customize it to your liking.

Build Your Own Town With Townscaper For iPhone, iPad, And M1 Macs, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

With no goal and no gameplay, Townscaper lets you build quaint island towns with curvy streets. It’s possible to build small hamlets, soaring cathedrals, canal networks, or sky cities on stilts block by block.

Develop

Apple Announces 100+ Tech Talks For Developers, by John Voorhees, MacStories

Apple announced today that it will be conducting over 100 live sessions and 1,500 hours of one-on-one office hours over the next eight weeks for developers.

Notes

The Technopolar Moment, by Ian Bremmer, Foreign Affairs

States have been the primary actors in global affairs for nearly 400 years. That is starting to change, as a handful of large technology companies rival them for geopolitical influence. The aftermath of the January 6 riot serves as the latest proof that Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter are no longer merely large companies; they have taken control of aspects of society, the economy, and national security that were long the exclusive preserve of the state. The same goes for Chinese technology companies, such as Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent. Nonstate actors are increasingly shaping geopolitics, with technology companies in the lead. And although Europe wants to play, its companies do not have the size or geopolitical influence to compete with their American and Chinese counterparts.

[...]

It is time to start thinking of the biggest technology companies as similar to states. These companies exercise a form of sovereignty over a rapidly expanding realm that extends beyond the reach of regulators: digital space. They bring resources to geopolitical competition but face constraints on their power to act. They maintain foreign relations and answer to constituencies, including shareholders, employees, users, and advertisers.

Apple Will Force Unvaccinated Office Workers To Get Tested Daily, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

Apple Inc. will begin to force unvaccinated corporate employees to test for Covid-19 each time they want to enter an office, a move that tightens its virus protocols while still stopping short of a vaccine mandate. [...] Apple retail store employees, meanwhile, will have slightly different rules. Unvaccinated staff will be asked to test twice per week instead of each day they come to work. Vaccinated workers will also need to take a rapid test each week.

Bottom of the Page

The great thing about audiobooks -- at least for me -- is the ease of finding time to listen: on the train, on the bus, on walks. There are many great long novels that I'll probably be unable to finish if not for audiobooks. Here are some of my recommendations of long books that I've enjoyed through the many years of audiobooks listening.

The Stand, by Stephen King
A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
11.22.63, by Stephen King
Blackout / All Clear, by Connie Willis.

For the past 18 months, I've had mostly extremely short commutes between my breakfast table to my computer desk. I'm not complaining, but I've noticed I've been reading shorter books as a result. The longest books that I've read recently is probably Barack Obama's memoir. I'm not complaining. But I do think I need to schedule more long walks around the neighborhood for myself.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Head-Scratching Edition Wednesday, October 20, 2021

The Announcements Missing In Action From Apple’s MacBook Pro Event, by Dan Moren, Six Colors

But even though what Apple did announce seemed to strike a chord with its audience, the event left a few head-scratching questions about what Apple chose not to do. It seemed like there were a few opportunities that the company decided not to move on—but, as always, there’s probably a rationale at work, even if it’s not immediately obvious.

Apple Botched The MacBook Pro Notch, by Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge

And somehow, Apple — notch pros at this point — managed to utterly botch the notch. Because the new MacBook Pros completely missed out on the most important part of the notch: adding Face ID.

Stuff

Apple Developer App Updated With Picture-in-picture, Accessibility Improvements, More, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Today’s update brings the app to version 9.3, and it includes accessibility improvements, sorting improvements, and system-wide picture-in-picture support.

Mapper Safari Extension Automatically Redirects Google Maps Links To Apple Maps, by Federico Viticci, MacStories

No more copying and pasting addresses, no more manual typing the same address in Apple’s Maps app: once the extension is installed, every time you tap a link to a place in Google search, it’ll load in Apple’s Maps app for iPhone and iPad instead.

Yoink Brings Background Clipboard Monitoring To iOS And iPadOS 15 Via Picture In Picture Workaround, by Federico Viticci, MacStories

Yoink uses Apple’s Picture in Picture technology to remain active even if you close the app, monitor what you copy, and save it into the main Yoink app. Best of all, it does so with controls embedded in the Picture in Picture video overlay that even let you customize how Yoink checks for the contents of the clipboard.

5 iOS Apps On Apple Store To Help You Look After Your Mental Health, by Puteri Yasmin Suraya, Augustman

After months of sluggishness brought on by lockdown upon lockdown, it’s always good to check in with yourself on how you’re doing. From taking a moment to unwind to practising your breathing and meditation, Apple has a range of apps that’s best suited to every method of improving yourself mentally.

Ambient Sound App Portal Adds Support For Spatial Audio And Head Tracking Using AirPods, by Brent Dirks, AppAdvice

Adding the feature to Portal helps bring the audio to new heights as you virtually travel around the world to experience unique places like a Hawaii beach, snow in the Scottish Highlands, a thunderstorm in the Amazon rainforest, and many more.

Bottom of the Page

Since 2004, I've been getting new headphones from Apple. I didn't do a tally, but I will not be surprised if it averaged out to be at least one new pair every year. Some of these came bundled with iPods and iPhones, while the rest were replacement purchases when the headphones eventually broke.

Which is to say: I've placed an order for the new AirPods, thus fulfilling my purchase for the year of 2021.

~

Thanks for reading.

The With-a-Notch Edition Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Apple Announces New 14-inch And 16-inch MacBook Pro: New Design, Display Notch, M1 Pro Chip, HDMI, MagSafe, More, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

The new MacBook Pro features the ‘M1 Pro’ chip, with 8 high-performance cores and 2 high-efficiency cores, a 16-core GPU and 32 GB RAM. There’s also an ‘M1 Max’ chip, which doubles RAM and GPU again. [...]

The design of the MacBook Pro has also been completely redesigned, now featuring thinner bezels albeit with a notch housing the webcam. The mini-LED display has more pixels, supports high contrast and 1600 nits of peak brightness, and also runs at 120Hz with ProMotion technology. The MacBook Pro now also features a HDMI port, SD card reader, and MagSafe for magnetic charging.

Exile From Dongletown, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

If Mac laptops come in eras, one just ended.

It started in 2016 with the release of MacBook Pro models featuring butterfly keyboards, the Touch Bar, and a minimal selection of USB-C ports. It ended on Monday with the announcement of new MacBook Pro models that roll back most of the major changes introduced in 2016, putting the MacBook Pro in a new state of grace that recalls the middle of the last decade.

Apple Finally Listened To The Pros, by Sean Hollister, The Verge

13-inch model aside, Apple’s no longer just trying to sell pros a faster Air. It took five years to turn this ship around, but Apple is clearly listening to the pros. It built these computers for them.

Apple Selling New $49 MagSafe Cable And $99 140W Power Adapter For 16-Inch MacBook Pro, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

There’s a 140W USB-C power adapter, which is Apple’s most expensive power adapter to date at $99. There’s also a $49 USB-C to MagSafe 3 cable for charging the MacBook Pro.

macOS 12 Monterey, iOS 15.1, iPadOS 15.1, watchOS 8.1, And tvOS 15.1 Arriving Next Week, by Josh Centers, TidBITS

The marquee feature shared between Monterey, iOS 15.1, and iPadOS 15.1 is SharePlay, Apple’s delayed option for watching movies or listening to music with others over FaceTime. SharePlay also provides built-in screen sharing in FaceTime.

Safari 15 Watch: Old Tabs Edition, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

It’s official: As of the latest macOS Monterey beta—version 12.0.1, which makes me wonder if they’ve locked version 12.0 on the new MacBook Pro models and everyone else will jump straight to 12.0.1—Safari tabs have been reverted to their original “tab” appearance, instead of being a bunch of floating lozenges.

Apple Says Universal Control Coming To macOS Monterey Later This Fall, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

In an update to the macOS Monterey features page on its website, Apple has indicated that the Universal Control feature previewed at WWDC 2021 will be available later this fall, which likely means it will be enabled in a future software update.

Apple Updates Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro For M1 Pro, M1 Max Chips, by Mike Peterson, AppleInsider

Apple on Monday announced updates to Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro that will allow both apps to take full advantage of the company's new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

iMovie For Mac Optimized For New MacBook Pro And Editing Cinematic Mode Videos Shot On iPhone 13, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

On macOS Monterey, the new version of iMovie can also be used to edit Cinematic mode videos recorded with an iPhone 13.

New AirPods and a New Plan

Apple’s Third-generation AirPods Arrive Next Week With A New Design, Spatial Audio, by Samuel Axon and Jeff Dunn, Ars Technica

The new third-generation model features a slightly revamped design that veers closer to the higher-end AirPods Pro, with shorter stems and a similar touch-based "force sensor" control scheme built-in. Their charging case takes after the shorter and wider design of the Pro model well.

Third-Generation AirPods Require iOS 13, Drop Support For Older iPhones, iPads, And iPods, by Sami Fathi, MacRumors

The new third-generation AirPods drop support for older iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch models previously supported by the second-generation AirPods.

Apple Introduces New Apple Music Plan, Siri Features, And HomePod Mini Colors, by Alex Guyot, MacStories

Coming in at a mere $5/month, the Apple Music Voice Plan is now the lowest-cost way to gain access to Apple’s music streaming service.

Stuff

Apple.com Revamped With New Dedicated AirPods, TV & Home, And Services Tabs, by Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac

Following the special event, Apple has updated the navigation on apple.com with several new dedicated tabs. There are now dedicated tabs for AirPods, TV & Home, Apple services, and Accessories.

Listen To The Sick Mac Sound Effect Song That Apple Opened Its Keynote With, by Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge

Apple kicked off its MacBook Pro keynote a little differently today: with a sweet remix of classic Apple sound effects from the past 45 years of the company’s history, created by artist A. G. Cook — using Apple’s Pro Display XDR, MacBook Pro, and Logic Pro, of course.

Apple Introduces New Polishing Cloth For All Devices, Sold Separately For $19, by Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac

Apple has added a new first party polishing cloth to the Apple Store. The new polishing cloth is a soft white with an embossed Apple logo.

Apple Watch Series 7 No Icon Issue Fixed By Apple, by Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider

Apple's solution appears to be a triggering of an automatic redownload of affected apps from the App Store to devices.

Apps We Love: Affirmations, by Mike Schmitz, The Sweet Setup

Affirmations is a simple app with a singular purpose — to provide compliments and reminders to help make self-care a little easier.

My Wow Memories Is A Photo Sharing App That Lets You Easily Turn Pictures Into Movies, by AppAdvice

My Wow Memories is a gallery app that lets you create events for your pictures and videos, effortlessly produce highlight movies, and share content with your friends.

Develop

Developers Can Choose To Take Advantage Of The Notch Area On New MacBook Pro, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

Apps can run in a “compatibility mode” with a black bar at the top of the screen, which means that the notch will be invisible. If developers want, they can use new APIs to position content on the left and right sides of the notch.

Bottom of the Page

If you subscribe to Apple Music's new Voice Plan via Siri, will you have to listen to Siri to read you the terms and conditions?

:-)

~

Thanks for reading.

The Wave-of-Enthusiasm Edition Monday, October 18, 2021

The New Resurgence In Tablet Art, by Gina Fairley, Arts Hub

Over a decade ago, iconic British artist David Hockney first started using a tablet (an iPad) in 2009 to create digital artworks. And we’re not talking just some colour graphics on a screen. We’re talking artworks that have been exhibited in some of the world’s top museums from Tate in London, the Centre de Pompidou in Paris, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Gallery of Australia.

[...]

However, it would seem that a next wave of enthusiasm for the digital medium has rolled across our screens with the pandemic, and a fresh take up of Procreate – an app that touts it is ‘made for artists’.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger Hopes To Win Back Apple By Outcompeting It, by Mike Murphy, MarketWatch

Intel Corp. Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger still hopes to win back Apple Inc. as a customer, but says Intel will have to outcompete the tech giant to do so.

[...]

“Apple decided they could do a better chip themselves than we could,” he said. “And, you know, they did a pretty good job. So what I have to do is create a better chip than they can do themselves. I would hope to win back this piece of their business, as well as many other pieces of business, over time.”

Bottom of the Page

I'm going to get a good night sleep before I decide whether to buy a new pair of AirPods.

~

Who am I kidding? I can no longer sleep through the night, and I'll probably be checking out Apple's home page in the middle of the night, and then I'm going to sleepy throughout the next day.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Universal-Deployment Edition Sunday, October 17, 2021

Apple’s Plan To Scan Images Will Allow Governments Into Smartphones, by John Naughton, The Guardian

The drive behind the CSS lobbying is that the scanning software be installed on all smartphones rather than installed covertly on the devices of suspects or by court order on those of ex-offenders. Such universal deployment would threaten the security of law-abiding citizens as well as lawbreakers. And even though CSS still allows end-to-end encryption, this is moot if the message has already been scanned for targeted content before it was dispatched. Similarly, while Apple’s implementation of the technology simply scans for images, it doesn’t take much to imagine political regimes scanning text for names, memes, political views and so on.

Woman Realizes AirTag Has Been Tracking Her For Hours — But Police Say They Can’t Do Anything Until Stalker Shows Up, by Alice Kelly, Your Tango

Apple appears to misunderstand how exactly stalking happens and who is doing it.

In three out of four cases, stalkers are someone familiar to a victim. And most commonly, they are a current or former partner.

Many people live with their stalker or have to see them regularly, especially if they share children with them.

Apple’s Privacy Changes Create Windfall For Its Own Advertising Business, by Patrick McGee, Financial Times

Apple’s advertising business has more than tripled its market share in the six months after it introduced privacy changes to iPhones that obstructed rivals, including Facebook, from targeting ads at consumers.

Bottom of the Page

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay hungry.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Lightning-Rod Edition Saturday, October 16, 2021

A Year Later, Apple’s MagSafe Continues To Underwhelm, by Sean Hollister, The Verge

The entire time we’ve been waiting for Apple to show us what MagSafe is truly capable of, it’s been keeping the rest of the world from getting out ahead — using its MFi program and artificial charging restrictions built into the iPhone.

Combining the Qi wireless charging standard with non-patentable magnets, MagSafe should have been a lightning rod to customization and modularity. So far, Apple has insulated itself — and us — from the possibilities.

MagSafe Duo Charger Doesn't Support Apple Watch Series 7 Fast Charging, by Mike Peterson, AppleInsider

The $129 MagSafe Duo Charger, released alongside the iPhone 12, can charge an Apple Watch and an iPhone simultaneously. However, it won't support the new fast charging feature introduced on the 2021 Apple Watch Series 7 models.

The Case Of The Missing iPad Pro: Find My For The Win, by Adam Engst, TidBITS

In a situation that may be familiar to many TidBITS readers, I’ve recently found myself providing technical assistance to an elderly neighbor—call her Beverly. I suspect that she’s in her 80s, and while she claims otherwise, everything I’ve observed suggests that she’s plenty sharp mentally. What she’s not, however, is expert in the use of her Apple devices: an iPhone 12, a 12-inch iPad Pro, and an Apple Watch Series 6. And she does lose things—on my second visit a few weeks ago, I helped her order a new sport loop-style Apple Watch band so she would be less likely to take the watch off and forget where she’d put it. At the time, I didn’t realize this might be a trend.

Notes

Apple Just Fired A Leader Of The #AppleToo Movement, by Zoe Schiffer, The Verge

Apple has fired Janneke Parrish, a leader of the #AppleToo movement, amid a broad crackdown on leaks and worker organizing. Parrish, a program manager on Apple Maps, was terminated for deleting files off of her work devices during an internal investigation — an action Apple categorized as “non-compliance,” according to people familiar with the situation. The files included apps like Robinhood, Pokémon GO, and Google Drive.

China Crackdown On Apple Store Hits Holy Book Apps, Audible, by Matt O'Brien, AP

Amazon’s audiobook service Audible and phone apps for reading the holy books of Islam and Christianity have disappeared from the Apple store in mainland China, the latest examples of the impact of the country’s tightened rules for internet firms.

Bottom of the Page

I wish there is a MagSafe wallet (for my iPhone 12 mini) that can do cards and cash. And thin and light.

Too much to ask?

~

Thanks for reading.

The Blank-Holes Edition Friday, October 15, 2021

Some Third-party App Icons Are Missing On Apple Watch Series 7, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

Customers are noticing that the icons for some third-party apps are missing, leaving blank holes on the honeycomb grid home screen. PCalc developer James Thomson has noticed that his app is one of those affected, perhaps linked to the fact that he issued an app update embedding Apple Watch Series 7 specific assets.

Cybersecurity Experts Sound Alarm On Apple And E.U. Phone Scanning Plans, by Kellen Browning, New York Times

“It’s allowing scanning of a personal private device without any probable cause for anything illegitimate being done,” added another member of the group, Susan Landau, a professor of cybersecurity and policy at Tufts University. “It’s extraordinarily dangerous. It’s dangerous for business, national security, for public safety and for privacy.”

Apple Vandalized My Icon In The Latest Betas, by Jeff Johnson

Safari has vandalized my toolbar icon. Safari engineers spray-painted it blue.

On App Stores

S.Korea Targets Apple Over New App Store Regulation, by Joyce Lee, Reuters

The law went into effect last month but Apple had told the South Korean government that it was already complying and did not need to change its app store policy, a Korea Communications Commission (KCC) official in charge of the matter told Reuters.

"This goes against the purpose of the amended law," the official said, requesting anonymity as the KCC was still in talks with Apple on compliance.

Apple Takes Down Koran App In China, by James Clayton, BBC

Apple has taken down one of the world's most popular Koran apps in China, after a request from officials, the company has confirmed to the BBC.

[...]

Apple declined to comment, but directed the BBC to its Human Rights Policy, which states: "We're required to comply with local laws, and at times there are complex issues about which we may disagree with governments."

Stuff

Apple Watch Series 7 Fast Charging Requires 5W Or Greater USB-C PD Adapter, by Eric Slivka, MacRumors

In a new support document published today just as the first Apple Watch Series 7 orders have started arriving, Apple reveals that any of its USB-C power adapters rated at 18 watts or higher will support fast charging on the new watch. In addition, third-party USB-C adapters rated at 5 watts or higher will allow for fast charging as long as they support the USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) protocol.

CoconutBattery Review: Be Informed On The Health Of Your Mac, iPhone, And iPad Batteries, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

coconutBattery provides an excellent baseline of battery information and a historical accounting that may let you anticipate a fading battery while still under warranty—or to decide if you want to keep eking out its lifetime before paying to have it replaced.

Siri On Ecobee SmartThermostat Review: Apple's Smart Assistant Invades Your Home, by Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider

In some ways, it is akin to getting an additional HomePod mini without needing to devote counter space or money towards it. If you have your Ecobee SmartThermostat in your living room or kitchen, this is huge because you don't need to find a place to plug in and place your smart speaker. It's mounted to your wall.

'Book Track' Manager Gets Refreshed Interface, New Widgets, More, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

The main screen of the app has been completely redesigned to make it cleaner and more functional, while also offering more details about the user’s library. On iPadOS and macOS, Book Track now features a three-column layout that takes advantage of the larger screens to show more content.

Monument Valley 2 Adds New Chapter Four Years After Original Launch, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

This update brings “four intimate scenes” that the developer hopes will inspire people to sign the Play4Forests petition “and declare our shared interest in forest conservation.”

Trakt Client Popcorn Movies Gets A Big iOS 15 Update With New Features, by Oliver Haslam, iMore

Popcorn Movies is an app that taps into Trakt for top-notch movie tracking and information gathering. Now, it's better than ever thanks to a new Liked Lists feature that makes it easier to manage liked movies from within the app while discovering new trending and popular movies at the same time.

WhatsApp's End-to-End Encrypted Chat Backups Feature Now Rolling Out, by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

WhatsApp end-to-end encrypted backups are now rolling out for iPhone users, Facebook has announced. Until now, WhatsApp let users back up their chat history to ‌‌iCloud‌‌, but the messages and media contained in the backups weren’t protected by WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption while in ‌‌Apple’s cloud servers‌.

Develop

Apple Joins Blender's Development Fund To Support 3D Graphics Tool, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Alongside a contribution to the Development Fund, Apple will provide engineering expertise and additional resources to Blender and its broader development community to help support Blender artists and developers, according to the announcement.

Notes

Apple Hires New HomePod Software Head As It Takes On Amazon Echo, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

The iPhone maker is enlisting Afrooz Family to lead the work, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Family worked at Apple from 2012 to 2016 before leaving to co-found audio startup Syng with former Apple industrial designer Christopher Stringer. Family left the startup earlier this year after helping develop the company’s product, the Cell Alpha.

Bottom of the Page

HomePods are still not available in many parts of the world, including the country of Singapore where I live, where many people do speak English (Hi Siri!) and where many people do listen to American pop music.

(Neither is Siri Remote available in Singapore.)

~

Thanks for reading.

The Best-Smartwatch Edition Thursday, October 14, 2021

Apple Watch Series 7 Review: Time And Time Again, by Dieter Bohn, The Verge

There’s no reason that we should have an expectation of major year-on-year updates for the Apple Watch. These smaller iterations might not be what we’ve been hoping for — a big redesign with much more battery — but that doesn’t make the Series 7 bad on its own merits.

It’s a great watch — again, the best smartwatch. If it’s time for you to replace your watch (or buy your first one), you’ll love it. If it’s not time to replace your watch, it’s not time to replace your watch.

Apple Watch Series 7, by John Gruber, Daring Fireball

My first few days wearing the Series 7, my gut reaction was less that the watch itself had grown too large, but rather that the Utility watch dial had grown too large. Now, one week in, I’ve grown used to it. I needed time to adjust. Everything is bigger on the Series 7 watch faces, including the complications.

The Apple Watch Series 7 Officially Ditches The Hidden Diagnostic Port, by Chaim Gartenberg, The Verge

The Apple Watch’s diagnostic port has been a mysterious part of the wearable lineup since its first model, but the new Series 7 officially ditches the six-pin port entirely.

On Security

Alleged Bluetooth Exploit Can Remotely Wipe Nearby iPhones, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

The exploit is hands-off from the perspective of the user, such that they even suggest that riding a bike through a city surreptitiously wiping iPhones is a legitimate possibility. Based on the screenshot of the email with Apple security, the issue has been addressed in iOS 15.1.

Stuff

Apple Extends Repair Program For AirPods Pro With Crackling Sound Issues, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

Apple last year launched a repair program for its AirPods Pro wireless earbuds, as some units had been affected by a problem causing “crackling or static sounds.” The company has now extended the AirPods Pro repair program with an additional year of coverage.

Luna Display 5.0 Turns An iPad Into A Second Screen For A Windows PC, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

That means Mac users who have a Luna Display can also now use it with PCs, connecting a secondary ‌iPad‌ to a PC to serve as an extra display.

Notes

Tim Cook Visits LGBTQ+ Resource Center And Meets With Developers In Utah, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

On Wednesday, Cook announced support for the Encircle project, which is a resource center aimed at supporting youth in the LGBTQ+ community.

Tim Cook Pledges Donation To Support Communities In China Floods , by William Gallagher, AppleInsider

As he has with multiple emergencies and natural disasters, Tim Cook has promised that Apple will donate money to assist communities recover from the severe flooding in northern China.

Thieves Abused Apple's Enterprise App Programs To Steal $1.4 Million In Crypto, by Mike Wuerthele, AppleInsider

After gaining the trust of the victim through the dating apps, scammers start discussing cryptocurrency investments. They are then directed to a website that looks like the Apple App Store, and then told to download a Mobile Device Management profile, giving control of a number of features, and the ability to use signed apps made by the fraudsters.

Bottom of the Page

iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch. Apple managed to improve on all these devices every year that Apple can (and do) claim that the newest version is the best version they've made.

Which made the many missteps Apple had made for the Mac all the more disappointing.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Printed-Page Edition Wednesday, October 13, 2021

“Unleashed”: Apple’s Next, Probably Mac-focused Event Happens October 18, by Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica

We expect the October event to be devoted largely to the Mac lineup—namely, long-rumored Apple Silicon refreshes to the MacBook Pro lineup, possibly with a faster Mac mini or a larger-screened iMac thrown in. The 16-inch MacBook Pro in particular is long overdue for a refresh—Apple added some new GPU options in mid-2020, but the laptop's other specs haven't been touched since late 2019.

Apple Says iOS Is Safer Than Android Because Sideloading Apps Isn't Allowed, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

In response to the European Commission’s proposed Digital Markets Act, which could force sideloading of apps on the iPhone in Europe, Apple has shared an in-depth document highlighting the security and privacy risks of sideloading. Sideloading refers to installing apps outside of the App Store, such as from a website or a third-party app store.

[...]

Apple added that even users who don’t wish to sideload and prefer to download apps only from the App Store would be harmed if sideloading were required, as some users may have no choice other than sideloading an app they need for work, school, or other essential reasons. In addition, Apple said criminals may trick users into sideloading apps by mimicking the appearance of the App Store or by advertising free or exclusive features.

Move Over, Word: The New Race To Reinvent Document Editing, by Jared Newman, Fast Company

It took several decades, but the newest document editors have finally stopped copying Microsoft Word.

Modern editors such as Notion and Coda don’t mimic the printed page. Rather, using them feels more like browsing the web. Their writing spaces flow freely without page breaks, and they can branch into subpages that link among themselves. Those pages are also interactive by nature, with checkboxes, charts, Trello-like kanban boards, and tie-ins to outside data sources.

Stuff

Apple Support App Adds Express Replacement, Improved AirPods, And Apple Watch Integration, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

It allows you to get a replacement for your broken or damaged iPhone before sending in your original device. This lets you to skip a visit to the Apple Store and it ensures that you are not without a phone.

1Password's New Feature Lets You Safely Share Passwords Using Just A Link, by M. Moon, Engadget

Password sharing in the workplace and at home is a common practice, but doing so securely can be tricky. 1Password aims to address that with its new feature that gives you a way to share log-in credentials in a secure way even with people who don't have an account with the service.

TextExpander For macOS Gets Even More Powerful With New Update, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

This version brings enhanced Snippet Suggestions, which makes it even easier to notice and create Snippets from frequently typed words and phrases.

Take Your Screenshots Up A Notch Using 'Apple Frames,' Now With Support For iPhone 13 And More, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

This week, Viticci has debuted Apple Frames 2.0, a new version of the popular shortcut that has been completely rewritten to be faster and lighter, and add support for the latest iPhone 13, 24-inch iMac, and more.

Ecobee’s Smart Thermostat Now Supports Siri Voice Control, by J. Fingas, Engadget

You'll need a HomePod mini to serve as a hub, but you'll otherwise get to talk to Ecobee's device like you would your iPhone or Apple Watch — helpful if you want to set the temperature without reaching for another device first.

Hyper Unveils New 'Dual 4K HDMI' Dongles For Using Multiple External Displays With M1 Macs, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

The HyperDrive Dual 4K HDMI dongles can take one USB-C port on your M1 MacBook Pro or MacBook Air and power two external 4K displays.

ZMI PowerPack No. 20 Review: Compact External Battery Can Charge A MacBook, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

It has almost the perfect minimalism of an Apple product, with the fewest possible buttons, display elements, and ports to provide a powerful product that makes no compromises—even on charging the right price.

Bottom of the Page

I am not preparing to buy any new computers from Apple in the near future, so I don't really have a wishlist on what are the Macs Apple will announce next week. But it will be great if Apple announces the new Mac Pro, thus completing the transition journey, and Apple can start focusing on other new Macs, maybe. (Besides, there will be weeks of great stuff from John Siracusa in the ATP podcast I can look forward to.)

I want a Mac that is as portable and low-cost as an iPad. I do think the guts of the current iPad is more than enough to power a Mac with many of the regular apps. Maybe Apple will work on this once all the Pro Macs are ready.

On the other hand, Apple may not.

~

I do want to see how the new AirPods look like. I hope they will be as comfortable as today's AirPods.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Ex-Nihilo Edition Tuesday, October 12, 2021

iOS 15.0.2, iPadOS 15.0.2, And watchOS 8.0.1 Fix Bugs, Major Security Flaw, by Josh Centers, TidBITS

iOS 15.0.2 and iPadOS 15.0.2 have one security fix for a bug that could cause memory corruption and allow arbitrary code execution with kernel privileges. Security Editor Rich Mogull tells us this is a zero-day that has already been exploited in the wild, so we recommend updating immediately.

When Will Offices Open?, by Cal Newport, New Yorker

The new reopening dates that companies like Apple are setting are clearly meant to be provisional, but their announcements do not provide additional details about what specific metrics they’re monitoring and what numbers they would need to see for the new opening plans to stick. An e-mail from Sundar Pichai, the C.E.O. of Google, simply read, “We will enable countries and locations to make determinations on when to end voluntary work-from-home based on local conditions.”

Given the stakes, in terms of both health and logistics, employees deserve to know more about what goals employers are trying to achieve with their office-closure policies and what metrics they are using to guide their thinking. Right now, too many workers are waiting around for executives to pronounce ex nihilo, like the groundhog seeking its shadow, whether offices are safe or need to stay closed for another six weeks. Even the apparent generosity of being given thirty days’ notice of a return to the office is insufficient if, for example, you moved closer to family during the pandemic and now must decide when to move back, or if the end of remote flexibility requires you to arrange after-school care.

Stuff

Experience Your Music In New Ways With Mixtapes, by Brent Dirks, AppAdvice

One of the best features os the ability to create multiple queues of music. That allows you to create a queues for a specific album or playlist. You can switch between them to listen easily and your spot will always be saved.

Notes

Apple Promotes Third Turkey Store In Istanbul With Giant Artwork, by Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider

Apple is preparing to open a new store in Turkey, with the Bagdat Street outlet in the middle of Istanbul promoted by a giant mural covering the front of the store.

16-inch MacBook Pro Unavailable Or Delayed At Many Apple Stores, by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac

While there’s no one who would be happier than me to see the launch of the 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon, there is an alternative explanation for the lack of immediate availability: supply chain issues.

Apple Pulls Ad Tracking Blocker From China App Store Under False Pretense, by Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider

Apple has killed ad tracker-blocking app 1Blocker in the China App Store saying that it is an unlicensed VPN — but it does not offer VPN services.

Bottom of the Page

I like the color blue. If money is no object, I will get the blue Apple Watch.

Also, at least to my wife, I am also known to be seriously lacking in the fashion color-coordination department.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Family-iPod Edition Monday, October 11, 2021

Apple Highlights iPhone 13's New Ultra Wide Lens With Beautiful #ShotOniPhone Images, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

With the pictures, Apple highlights the benefits of Smart HDR 4, a bigger aperture as well as the 120° field of view that adds more content to one shot.

Apple Drops New Safari Bookmark End-to-end Encryption, by William Gallagher, AppleInsider

In early October 2021, Apple's support documentation was updated to show that Safari bookmarks had been updated to have the same end-to-end encryption as, for example, Apple Card transactions, and even Memoji. Now, however, the same documentation has removed this, and bookmarks are again listed as encrypted only "in transit & on server."

How A Playlist Keeps My Family Connected To My Late Father, by Amy Paturel, Wired

On a recent grocery run, my son, Jack, asked me to play Neil Diamond's "Beautiful Noise." Most 7-year-olds ask for a Disney or Minecraft soundtrack. Not Jack. From the time he was 3 years old, Jack was crooning Neil Diamond hits.

It didn't happen by design. Diamond's songs were just among the 1,500-plus tracks on our family iPod. But I quickly discovered that Jack's love of Neil Diamond could become the thread that tied him to my late father, who died when Jack was 4.

Stuff

How To Use Notify When Left Behind With Your AirTag, by Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider

In effect, you're alerted when you're leaving the AirTag behind, or if the AirTag is being moved away from you in a theft. This reduces the time it takes for you to be aware that something's wrong, and therefore to act.

5 iOS Apps Available On Apple Store To Help Look After Your Mental Health, by Puteri Yasmin Suraya, Lifestyle Asia

After months of sluggishness brought on by lockdown upon lockdown, it’s always good to check in with yourself on how you’re doing. From taking a moment to unwind to practising your breathing and meditation, Apple has a range of apps that’s best suited to every method of improving yourself mentally.

Notes

The Growing Pains Of Apple’s Subscription Addiction, by Lucas Matney, TechCrunch

For a blanket disclaimer, I will say that Apple gets criticized so much over seemingly petty things because they generally have done a pretty solid job streamlining positive consumer experiences with their devices, and consumers have also grown accustomed to seeing other companies let these little things snowball into misplaced incentives that slowly erode a product. That’s why seeing a couple more promotional push notifications than normal or a seemingly misplaced ad or a few too many introductory offers when sparking up a new devices raises some red flags.

Intimate Data: Are You Signing Away Your Privacy By Tracking Your Steps, Sleep And Food?, by Simon Usborne, Irish Times

I, meanwhile, will continue to wait for the new Apple Watch, with all its promise as a virtual nurse, and then decide if I really need it. How will I balance the convenience and potential benefits to my health and insurance premiums of a smartwatch against the instincts of a burgeoning industry of data gluttons in big tech and advertising? Do I really need digital confirmation of a bad night’s sleep or a lazy day?

Bottom of the Page

I used to take long walks alone when I was younger... without iPods nor iPhones, without earphones in my ears. How did I do that?

~

Thanks for reading.

The Used-More Edition Sunday, October 10, 2021

watchOS 8 Just Made My Apple Watch The Ultimate Smart Home Controller, by Kate Kozuch, Tom's Guide

Among other useful updates like a much-improved messages experience and an added Find My Devices app, watchOS 8 introduces a redesigned HomeKit app. And in the few weeks since the full software went live, I've used HomeKit more than ever before.

iPadOS 15 Finally Makes Multitasking Discoverable, by Adam Engst, TidBITS

I’m thoroughly pleased by Apple’s changes to multitasking. Most notably, you no longer have to remember arcane gestures!

[...]

Although I remain skeptical of center windows, and I doubt I’ll ever be a serious enough user of iPad multitasking to use the App Switcher heavily to manage Split View combinations, the new Multitasking menu and shelf are extremely welcome additions to the iPad experience.

Tim Cook Isn’t Wrong: Leakers Don’t Belong At Apple, by Jason Aten, Inc

Look, I say that as someone who benefits both personally and professionally when people on the inside share information about the company they work for. But, two things can be true at once. Journalists can publish information they receive when it's newsworthy and relevant, and companies are right to fire the people who leak that information.

As controversial as that sounds, I think it's really kind of simple.

Bottom of the Page

Today, suddently, I realized I haven't gone for long walks for many months already. Perhaps because I've lost my appentite to get out of the house. I think it's time to remedy that.

(No, this is not an excuse that I am preparing to convince myself I need to get me an Apple Watch.)

~

Thanks for reading.

The Stop-the-Fall Edition Saturday, October 9, 2021

'It's A Big Deal' Apple Discusses Life-changing New Health Features Found On Your iPhone, by David Snelling, Express

Apple makes no secret of the fact that it wants its iPhone to be much more than just a way to browse the web, send text messages, and make the odd voice call. Easily one of the biggest new frontiers for this device, that millions of us have in our pockets, is health. As part of iOS 15, which launched across the globe last month, Apple introduced a swathe of features, including ways to share your health data with family, track trends in your overall wellbeing, and even see how steady you are on your feet via something called Walking Steadiness.

These updates can all now be found in the Health app, but it's Walking Steadiness that could prove to be the most life-changing. While Apple has offered "Fall Detection" for some time on its Apple Watch smartwatches – alerting loved ones when you take a tumble and don't immediately move to stand up – Apple wants to take things a step further by trying to stop the fall in the first place.

On App Stores

Apple Files Appeal In Epic Games Case, Potentially Delaying App Store Changes For Years, by Kif Leswing, CNBC

Apple filed a notice of appeal in the Epic Games case and is asking for a stay on the injunction that lets developers add in-app links to payment websites, according to company representatives and documents filed on Friday.

If Apple wins the stay, which will be decided by a judge in November, a rule change potentially allowing developers to circumvent App Store fees of 15% to 30% may not take effect until appeals in the case have finished, a process that could take years.

Apple Rejects Developers Horoscope App, Says App Store Has Enough, by Stephen Warwick, iMore

Apple has rejected a horoscope app from a developer because it says the App Store simply has too many of them.

Apple Watch

Apple Removes The Apple Watch Series 6 From Its Official Lineup, by Jay Peters, The Verge

The Apple Watch Series 7 is finally available to preorder, nearly a month after Apple announced the new smartwatch. But the launch of the Series 7 also brings the removal of the Series 6 from the company’s official Apple Watch lineup.

The Apple Watch Is Like A Nag On Your Wrist — And It Needs To Stop, by Lisa Schmeiser, Tom's Guide

It's nice that the Fitness app tries to nudge its users -- sometimes. But why should it be the only one to decide what counts as a goal? Give Apple Watch users the option to set goals, whether it's paring a minute off their average running pace, swimming 365 kilometers in a calendar year or doing 6 hours of yoga per week.

Bottom of the Page

There are some rule changes here in Singapore for the strange times, again. I'm trying my very best not to hope, not to worry, not to guess what will the next day / month / year be, and not to care.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Rules-Abiding Edition Friday, October 8, 2021

Apple Watch Series 7 Now Available To Pre-order, First Shipments Arrive Next Week, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

After being announced in September alongside the iPhone 13, the Apple Watch Series 7 is now available to pre-order. The Apple Watch Series 7 is available in 41mm and 45mm sizes across three different materials, and the first orders are set to arrive next Friday.

Developers Are Building Ways To Skirt Apple's Cut Of In-app Purchases In Preparation For New Rules, by Kif Leswing, CNBC

Developers are building new software for apps that lets companies bill customers without paying Apple, which takes up to 30% of app sales.

[...]

Developers are preparing several options since it's unclear what they'll have to do to abide by Apple's new rules. Apple hasn't shared details of its plans to comply with the judge's order, which takes effect on Dec. 7.

Apple's First US Developer Academy Is Now Open In Detroit, by AppleInsider

Launched in partnership with Michigan State University, the Detroit Apple Developer Academy invites 100 students from different backgrounds to receive 10 months of app development and entrepreneurial training, Apple says. Illustrating the diversity of the inaugural class, the company notes that participants are aged 18 to 60.

Stuff

Adobe Photoshop And Premiere Elements 2022 Get New AI Features, Guided Edits, More, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

Adobe announced today its new Photoshop Elements 2022 and Premiere Elements 2022. These releases offer new AI-powered features for users to get more creative with photos and videos.

Bartender 4 Review: It's Like Adding A Second macOS Menu Bar, by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld

If you’re ever in an app and its splayed-wide menus hide a menu you need or are merely frustrated with a profusion of icons that reminds you of satellite TV dishes covering the top of an apartment building, clear the clutter just the way you want it with Bartender.

Hyper Launches New 6-in-1 Media Hub For iPad Pro, iPad Air, And iPad Mini, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

The new 6-in-1 USB-C Media Hub for iPad is touted as the “world’s first form-fitting hub” for iPad users with six different ports and media shortcut keys. The accessory is designed for iPads with USB-C ports, which includes the iPad Air, iPad Pro, and iPad mini.

Avid Sibelius For iPad/iOS Review, by MasicRadar

The notation package makes light work of producing pro scores, extracting parts or even providing a compositional sketchbook for professionals or students.

Develop

App Store Connect Updated With New Transaction Metrics In App Analytics, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

Apple today announced a minor update to App Store Connect, which now features new transaction metrics in App Analytics — a platform that lets developers measure the sales performance of their apps available on the App Store.

Notes

Apple Plans Big Office Expansion In Los Angeles Area As It Adds Employees, by Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times

In a sign that competition among streaming entertainment providers will stay heated in the years ahead, Apple announced Friday that it will roughly double its office presence in the Culver City area where Apple TV+ is based.

Apple Appoints New Treasurer In Wave Of Executive Promotions, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

Apple Inc. named Michael Shapiro as its new corporate treasurer, enlisting a veteran member of its treasury team and the company’s Braeburn Capital cash-management arm following the recent retirement of Gary Wipfler, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move is a part of a wave of promotions at Apple, which also elevated key software, marketing and chip executives, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the changes haven’t been announced.

China Power Outages Spur New Wave Of Supply Chain Shifts, by Cheng Ting-Fang and Lauly Li, Nikkei Asia

Widespread power outages in China are reigniting a push by tech manufacturers to shift production away from Asia's biggest economy, with suppliers to Apple, Amazon and others scrambling to keep production on track ahead of the busy holiday season.

Bottom of the Page

Can there be a low-cost screen-less Apple Watch shuffle? Instead of shuffling between playlist, shuffle between apps?

~

This past month, I've made coffee by pouring water into a cup of coffee powder before boiling the water. I've walked into my bedroom and forgot why I walked into my bedroom. I'm getting older, I guess.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Voice-Isolating Edition Thursday, October 7, 2021

AirPods Pro Can Help You Hear Conversations Better After Recent Firmware Update, by Ian Carlos Campbell, The Verge

Conversation Boost is included as a Custom Transparency Mode in Apple’s headphone accommodations. When the feature is enabled, the beam-forming microphones on the AirPods Pro attempt to isolate voices above any background noise and other conversations. There’s also access to sliders to modify the amplification, transparency, and tone of what you hear.

Apple Confirms New 'Report A Problem' Option Rolling Out On The App Store To Fight Scam Apps, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Earlier this week, App Store users and developers noticed that Apple had quietly started rolling out a new “Report a Problem” link to app listings. Now, Apple has officially confirmed that this feature is available for users in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States — with plans to “expand to other regions over time.”

Coming Soon?

Apple Plan For Cars Uses IPhone To Control A/C, Seats, Radio, by Mark Gurman, Bloomberg

The company is working on technology that would access functions like the climate-control system, speedometer, radio and seats, according to people with knowledge of the effort. The initiative, known as “IronHeart” internally, is still in its early stages and would require the cooperation of automakers.

Stuff

Apple Shares 'Celebrating Steve' Video On Its Official YouTube Channel, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

Apple celebrated the tenth anniversary of Steve Jobs’ passing on Tuesday with a special version of its website homepage dedicated to the company’s co-founder. Along with a letter signed by Jobs’ family, Apple also shared a video called “Celebrating Steve,” which is now available on the company’s official YouTube channel.

Apple Advertises Apple Music, Apple Arcade In iOS Settings App, by Mikey Campbell, AppleInsider

Apple device users who purchased a new iPhone 13, or who recently upgraded to the latest iOS 15 release, are seeing static Settings menu options advertising for first-party services Apple Music and Apple Arcade.

I Shot An Entire Photowalk Episode With iPhone 13's "Cinematic Mode," And I'm Impressed, by Jefferson Graham, DIY Photography

For my money, I’d give Cinematic Mode a B+ at launch. It worked more often than it didn’t.

Halide 2.5 Adds New Macro Mode, by John Voorhees, MacStories

Halide 2.5 is out, and it includes a brand new Macro Mode. Macro photography is an exclusive feature of the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. Still, Halide has managed to make its Macro Mode available on the iPhone 8 and newer models thanks to some cool machine learning tricks.

Develop

Apple Is Making It Easier To Delete Accounts Attached To Third-party Apps, by Ian Carlos Campbell, The Verge

Apple will require developers that offer a way to create accounts in their apps to also offer a way to delete them, starting with app submissions on January 31st, 2022, the company shared Wednesday.

Bottom of the Page

I find it uncomfortable to talk with the AirPods Pro in my ears. I don't think I will be using this new Conversation Boost feature anytime soon.

I do hope that the next version of the regular AirPods will still be as comfortable to wear as the current AirPods (for me), but with some of the features of the AirPods Pro of today. I'm not sure if this wishlist violates any law of physics though.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Serve-Humanity Edition Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Tim Cook: “Mental Health Is A Crisis”, by Charlotte Owen, Bustle

I’ve always thought that technology should serve humanity and not the other way around. And I always worried about people using technology too much. And so, we came out with Screen Time to try to give people a true reading of the amount of time they’re really spending on their devices because generally it’s a lot more than they say.

But that’s just one element. It’s also what you’re doing [on them]. I’ve often worried about the endless scrolling, the surrounding yourself with negativity and so forth. And so elevating a company like Shine and getting people to go check it out — that’s a great use of our technologies because that does serve humanity. Their whole company is based on this. And it’s how we look at the world. We want people to do things with their devices, like the photography exhibit that we both enjoyed, or connecting with family and friends with FaceTime. Not endless, mindless scrolling.

Stuff

Apple Launches New 'Everyone Can Code Early Learners' Guide For Elementary School Students, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

Everyone Can Code Early Learners guide is extending its coding curriculum resources from kindergarten to college. Educators can also try Apple’s new one-hour Inclusive App Design activity to introduce students to the world of coding and app development.

New AirPods Pro And AirPods Max Firmware Adds Updated Find My Integration, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

With the update, ‌AirPods Pro‌ and ‌AirPods Max‌ are able to take advantage of the ‌Find My‌ network, allowing them to be located through connections with the Apple devices owned by other people.

Apple Adjusting Balances For Missed Cash Back On iPhone 13 Preorders, by Mike Peterson, AppleInsider

Apple appears to be automatically issuing Apple Card "balance adjustments" to make up for the missed 3% Daily Cash that some iPhone 13 pre-order customers missed out on.

Leatherbound Is A Beautifully Designed And Free Way To Keep Track Of Your Books, by Brent Dirks, AppAdvice

The app offers complete management of all the books you are reading, want to read, and have already read.

ActiveTab: A Simple Extension To Tell Which Safari 15 Tab Is Active, by John Voorhees, MacStories

To make it easier to distinguish the active tab, ActiveTab draws a line underneath it along the top of the tab’s web content.

Notes

Insiders In Apple's Healthcare Organization Say Its Leaders Suppress Concerns And Mislead Executives, by Blake Dodge, Business Insider

People at Apple Health said that they saw colleagues face retribution for disagreeing with superiors and that concerns have been expressed on more than one occasion about the way health data is used to develop products. The situation has gotten so serious that some employees have lodged complaints with Apple's most senior executives, including Cook and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, who oversees the health effort.

Fred Sainz, a senior director of corporate communications for Apple, said in a statement that the company was still in the "early innings of our work in health technology" and that many of the assertions in this story "are based on incomplete, outdated, and inaccurate information."

Apple Pay Fees Vex Credit-Card Issuers, by AnnaMaria Andriotis, Wall Street Journal

Some banks are pushing back, nudging card network Visa Inc. V 0.62% to change the way it processes certain Apple Pay transactions, according to some of the people. The change would trim the fees that banks pay to Apple.

[...]

Currently, banks pay Apple a fee when their cardholders use Apple Pay. Under the planned new process, the fees wouldn’t apply on automatic recurring payments such as gym memberships and streaming services.

Bottom of the Page

I sure hope Apple One will include some sort of mental health app soon. It doesn't even have to come from Apple. Just partner with a third party.

Of course, given the scrutiny on Apple nowadays, I wonder if Apple can just partner with one particular company to include their services into Apple One without drawing the ire from other third-party companies.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Singular-and-Beautiful Edition Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Apple Watch Series 7 Orders Begin October 8th And Will Be Available Beginning October 15th, by John Voorhees, MacStories

When Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 7 last month, it didn’t give a date when orders and availability would begin. Today, the company issued a press release announcing that orders will begin this Friday, October 8th, with deliveries and in-store availability beginning the following Friday, October 15th.

The Apple A15 SoC Performance Review: Faster & More Efficient, by Andrei Frumusanu, AnandTech

In our extensive testing, we’re elated to see that it was actually mostly an efficiency focus this year, with the new performance cores showcasing adequate performance improvements, while at the same time reducing power consumption, as well as significantly improving energy efficiency.

Simplicity, Truth and Purity

Apple Commemorates Tenth Anniversary Of Steve Jobs Passing With Homepage Takeover, by Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac

Apple is today commemorating the tenth anniversary of Steve Jobs’ passing with a special homepage takeover on Apple.com. Full bleed imagery of Jobs fills the page and there is a special film that relives some of Jobs’ most memorable quotes.

Jony Ive On What He Misses Most About Steve Jobs, by Jony Ive, Wall Street Journal

Perhaps it is a comment on the daily roar of opinion and the ugly rush to judge, but now, above all else, I miss his singular and beautiful clarity. Beyond his ideas and vision, I miss his insight that brought order to chaos.

It has nothing to do with his legendary ability to communicate but everything to do with his obsession with simplicity, truth and purity.

A Decade Later, Steve Jobs Is Still Paving Apple's Path To Success, by Jason Snell, Macworld

Just as Apple’s modern corporate culture really owes itself to what Jobs established when he returned to the company in the 1990s, Cook himself was chosen by Jobs as his successor. I think it’s fair to say that Jobs probably saw the trajectory Apple was on and trusted Cook to navigate the company through that growth while also continuing to focus on developing new products and iterating on existing ones.

So while Cook deserves credit for steering Apple through these waters, Jobs is rightfully viewed as the person who set it all up. The enormous success of Apple in the decade since Jobs died only adds to his legacy.

Remembering Steve Jobs, 10 Years After His Death, by Steven Levy, Wired

In the last paragraph of the obituary I never wanted to write, I said, “The full legacy of Steve Jobs will not be sorted out for a very long time.” I think we’re still sorting it out. There will never be a leader, innovator or personality quite like him. And we’re still living in his world.

Stuff

Apple Celebrates Siri's 10th Birthday With New Jokes And Responses, by José Adorno, 9to5Mac

Ten years ago today, Apple announced its brand-new personal assistant Siri. At the time, it was able to show you the weather, add an appointment to the calendar, and more. Now, you can celebrate Siri’s birthday by saying “Happy Birthday” to the personal assistant.

Apple Adding Its AA Battery Charger And Third-Generation Apple TV To Vintage Products List, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Apple today informed Apple Authorized Service Providers that it will be adding the third-generation Apple TV and its AA battery charger to its vintage products list on October 31, according to a memo obtained by MacRumors.

Filmic Pro Updated With Support For ProRes Video Capture On iPhone 13 Pro And iPhone 13 Pro Max, by Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac

Included in the update is support for ProRes Proxy, ProRes LT, ProRes 422, and ProRes 422 HQ. Each flavor of ProRes features a higher bitrate, allowing users to make the tradeoff between quality and storage space.

Bottom of the Page

Here's wishing you continue to lay dots that you will one day connect in the future.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Problem-Reporting Edition Monday, October 4, 2021

Apple Finally Lets You Report App Store Scams, by Sean Hollister, The Verge

But now, it seems like every free app with in-app-purchases appears to offer the “Report a Problem” option. I checked a handful of apps I’ve never paid for (but could have) and they all displayed the button. You’ll still get kicked out to a website where you’ll need to sign in, but overall this seems like a step forward.

iPhone Used To Capture Stunning Photo, Videos From 360 Miles Above Earth, by Oliver Haslam, iMore

We've seen iPhones used in some amazing ways over the years, but new tweets shared by SpaceX Inspiration4's Jared Isaacman include a photo and some videos that were taken more than 360 miles above Earth — and they're stunning.

Why This Doctor Uses The iPhone 13 Pro To Photograph Patients' Eyes, by Jaron Schneider, PetaPixel

“I used to use a Nikon D800 with a 105mm f/2.8 macro lens,” he says. “I would take pictures of the patient’s eye using that camera and then I would have to take the card out, upload it, and put it into my computer records. There were lots of friction points.”

He explains that as the years progressed, he noticed that he was able to use a different method that would reduce that friction and make it easier for him to do his job.

Stuff

Apple Makes iCloud Safari Bookmarks End-To-End Encrypted, by Sami Fathi, MacRumors

Apple has toggled end-to-end encryption for Safari bookmarks in iCloud, further expanding the type of user data that the company fully encrypts, offering the highest level of privacy and data protection.

Audible Way Finder App Offers A Guiding Hand, by Mark McCord, Microsoft

RightHear is a new way-finding technology developed by a local startup that helps people with orientation challenges navigate inside buildings. Through networked beacons, app users who are blind or low vision, or with dyslexia or agoraphobia, can be fed audio pointers and details about specific locations with the environment. More than 100,000 people globally use the app in 2,000 locations, including shopping malls, municipal buildings, restaurants and even Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. It’s also being piloted at Microsoft’s campuses in Tel Aviv and Herzliya.

Notes

Apple Has A Tablet Problem And It Starts With The iPad Air, by Dan Moren, Macworld

Apple can, of course, update its products on whatever schedule works best for it, but by having new iPad models come out a couple of times a year, it means that the line-up is always uneven somewhere.

Hey Siri, What Happened?, by James Vincent, The Verge

Siri [...] surprised us all when it launched in 2011, but has since burned out that goodwill. Apple needs to re-focus on the basics rather than push into a future that doesn’t yet exist. It needs to start listening.

Why Apple’s Siri Is An Excellent Voice Control For The Smart Home, by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, The Verge

To be helpful, voice control in the smart home just has to be easier and less obtrusive than pulling out a phone and opening an app, and more convenient than walking over to flip a switch. It’s a challenge and one that Apple is the closest to conquering — in my home at least.

Bottom of the Page

I use my iPhone mostly for audio entertainment -- listening to podcasts, audiobooks, radio, and music. I use my iPad mostly for visual entertainment -- Netflix, Apple TV+, Sudoku, crosswords. And I use my Mac mostly for work stuff -- day job and weekend hobbies.

And this is reflected in relative sizes of the three different screens.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Full-Fledged Edition Sunday, October 3, 2021

Using Extensions In Safari In iOS 15 And iPadOS 15, by Josh Centers, TidBITS

With iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, the iPhone and iPad are one step closer to matching the capabilities of full-fledged computers. Safari now supports third-party extensions on those platforms, just as it does on the Mac. Safari in iOS and iPadOS has supported content blockers for a few years, but now developers can create other extensions with more capabilities.

Why Hasn’t Apple Axed The iPhone Mini And iPad Mini?, by Craig Grannell, Wired

Ultimately, then, there isn’t one reason Apple hasn’t axed its minis, but several — beyond the obvious that Apple doesn’t care what others think it should do and does what it believes is best, making devices it believes have worth. Response to the minis also suggests people retain misconceptions about how Apple operates. This isn’t a company out to axe a product if it’s not immediately very profitable, but one that understands an ecosystem has many moving parts that co-exist. The reasoning behind product survival is multifaceted — especially for the minis.

Stuff

Apple Ends iPhone 8 Logic Board Repair Program That Started In 2018, by Sami Fathi, MacRumors

Apple today ended a program that offered customers with possibly defective iPhone 8 models with a free repair for their logic board, which in some cases caused the device to restart and become unresponsive.

Nomad Magnetic Base Station Mini Review: Magnets Align For The Fastest Charge, by Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider

Qi is great, but if you are even slightly off-center, your charging speed can deteriorate significantly. Just by adding this magnet, you will always get the best speeds possible for your device.

Notes

Apple Doesn’t Make Videogames. But It’s The Hottest Player In Gaming., by Tim Higgins, Wall Street Journal

Apple raked in more profits from games than Xbox maker Microsoft Corp. , gaming giants Nintendo Co. and Activision Blizzard Inc. and PlayStation maker Sony Corp. —combined—in its fiscal year 2019, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of figures released as part of the company’s recent antitrust trial.

[...]

The risk for Apple is that its role as the gatekeeper between the gaming world and its more than 1 billion iPhone users as well as the fee it collects as the middleman could be disrupted—whether by legislation, court order or regulatory action.

Bottom of the Page

If you are buying a new iPhone, but do not really want any of the color choices, will you wait maybe half-a-year more for the purple iPhone of 2022?

~

Thanks for reading.

The Flamboyant-Cosmetic Edition Saturday, October 2, 2021

The Tragedy Of Safari 15 For Mac’s ‘Tabs’, by John Gruber, Daring Fireball

From a usability perspective, every single thing about Safari 15’s tabs is a regression. Everything. It’s a tab design that can only please users who do not use tabs heavily; whereas the old tab design scaled gracefully from “I only open a few tabs at a time” all the way to “I have hundreds of tabs open across multiple windows”. That’s a disgrace. The Safari team literally invented the standard for how tabs work on MacOS. The tabs that are now available in the Finder, Terminal, and optionally in all document-based Mac apps are derived from the design and implementation of Safari’s tabs. Now, Apple has thrown away Safari’s tab design — a tab design that was not just best-of-platform, but arguably best-in-the-whole-damn-world — and replaced it with a design that is both inferior in the abstract, and utterly inconsistent with the standard tabs across the rest of MacOS.

The skin-deep “looks cool, ship it” nature of Safari 15’s tab design is like a fictional UI from a movie or TV show, like Westworld’s foldable tablets or Tony Stark’s systems from Iron Man, where looking cool is the entirety of the design spec. Something designed not by UI designers but by graphic designers, with no thought whatsoever to the affordances, consistencies, and visual hierarchies essential to actual usability. Just what looks cool. This new tab design shows a complete disregard for the familiarity users have with Safari’s existing tab design. Apple never has been and should not be a company that avoids change at all cost. But proper change — change that breaks users’ habits and expectations — is only justifiable when it’s an improvement. Change for change’s sake alone is masturbatory. That with Safari 15 it actually makes usability worse, solely for flamboyant cosmetic reasons, is downright perverse.

Try, by Paul Kafasis, One Foot Tsunami

Of course, I realized that things would only get more ridiculous as October neared, because my calories burned would be ever farther off the necessary pace.

Stuff

iOS 15.0.1 And iPadOS 15.0.1 Fix Unlock With Apple Watch And “Storage Almost Full” Bugs, by Josh Centers, TidBITS

If you’re running iOS 15 or iPadOS 15 and have experienced these bugs, you should update right away.

Review: Apple’s Updated MagSafe Wallet Is Visually Identical But Hides Wonderful New Features, by Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac

With the current implementation, if your wallet is stolen it’s likely never getting back to you. The new MagSafe wallet’s Find My features are designed for when you lose or forget it, not when someone steals it.

Mimestream: A Native Mac App With Proper Gmail Support, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

If you’re like me—a Gmail user who wants a real Mac app, and ideally one that’s a better fit to Gmail than Apple Mail—I strongly recommend that you try Mimestream.

Notes

America’s Biggest Companies Love The Paris Agreement. They’re Not Acting Like It., by Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic

Today, many of those same companies—including Apple, Amazon, Walmart, Nike, Target, and dozens of others—are funding efforts to kill the Democratic reconciliation bill, which contains significant climate provisions that would allow the U.S. to meet its Paris Agreement goals.

This campaign is a quieter one. The companies are financing it through their membership fees in pro-business trade groups such as the Business Roundtable, a coalition of CEOs that lobbies for corporate-friendly policy.

Bottom of the Page

It's Saturday. Time for me to update all my devices to the latest operating systems.

~

Thanks for reading.

The Different-Ambitions Edition Friday, October 1, 2021

State Of The Streamer: Apple TV+ Is Charting A Unique Path Through The Streaming Wars, by Brandon Katz, Observer

Yet different streaming services have different ambitions and raw subscriber counts are not the only metric of success and failure in the streaming wars. So before we go slapping labels on Apple TV+ all willy nilly (people still say that, right?), let’s first explore Apple’s greater goals, strategies and future outlook.

Apple Issues Mac 'Device Support Update' For Restoring iOS, iPadOS Devices, by William Gallagher, AppleInsider

Apple's Software Update, in the Mac's System Preferences, is now showing a new option alongside the familiar macOS Big Sur updates. Called "Device Support Update," it appears to be an additional fix for problems with devices being updated via Macs.

Stuff

Many iPhone 13 Owners Unable To Get Find My Working On New MagSafe Wallet, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

The new MagSafe Wallet is designed to be easier to find should it slip off of an iPhone or fall out of a pocket, but some new ‌MagSafe‌ Wallet owners are unable to get ‌Find My‌ to connect.

Apple Continues Its Clever 'Box In A Box' Trick For Selling The iPhone 13 With EarPods In France, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

This allows Apple to use the same iPhone 13 box and packing process for all iPhones, and then include the EarPods separately to streamline shipping and operations.

Pixelmator Improves Super Resolution Algorithms For Pixelmator Pro And Pixelmator Photo, by Amber Neely, AppleInsider

The Pixelmator team has rolled out improvements to their Super Resolution feature, providing better results, faster, when making images larger.

Pok Pok Playroom iOS App Gets Major Boost With New Additions To Its ‘Busy Board’ For Kids, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

The wonderful kids’ app Pok Pok Playroom has got its latest update today with a big Busy Board expansion. This toy is great for open-ended play that builds memory, spatial awareness, creative thinking, understanding cause and effect, and much more.

Notes

Apple’s Fortress Of Secrecy Is Crumbling From The Inside, by Zoe Schiffer, The Verge

To some employees, the bargain of working at Apple is to endure the hierarchical, secretive nature of the company. But to the workers who are pushing back, the question they’re asking is: does it really have to be this way?

Bottom of the Page

My definition of my success has changed over time -- probably just like many of us. It is probably a bit fortunate for me, in that I have never equate success with money. Thankfully. I suspect if one equates success with money, that life will probably come with a lot of regrets later on, especially if the live was not that successful.

However, lately, I even started to think not of success, but sustainability. This is something new for me, and I hope I have some... er.... success in figuring out what I want.

~

Thanks for reading.