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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?

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Thanks for reading.