This week 9to5Mac received a few emails from readers who ordered custom configurations of the 16-inch MacBook Pro in February. Their orders had been delayed previously but they got another update from Apple stating now their machines wouldn’t ship until late June or early July.
An Apple Music bug is perplexing some iPhone owners. According to various reports, the Apple Music iOS app is installing itself directly to the iPhone’s dock when downloaded, instead of to the phone’s home screen. It’s also kicking out other apps users had set up in their dock and taking their spot, which is not something apps would normally do. Some iPhone owners also found the bug was causing Apple Music to establish itself as the default music service for Siri requests, even if another service had previously been configured for this, like Spotify.
I did learn a lot about Cook and Ive in After Steve. But as this century of Big Tech barrels to its second quarter, we aren’t asking for soul from companies like Apple. We want quality, innovation, and trustworthiness. That’s a challenge for any company with billions of users. Even Mickle himself admitted to me that there was no way that Apple could have maintained its soul—whatever that is—at its current scale. “It had to shed the purity of its commitment as a consequence of the pressures it faces from Wall Street to continue to deliver growth,” he told me.
If we’re looking for soul, we can fire up some Macy Gray. Tim Cook hopes we do it on Apple Music.
In redesigning 1Password, AgileBits has made it feel lighter and more modern. It feels more like a modern Mac app than the old version did. I switched to 1Password 8 when I switched to using a Mac Studio as my primary Mac, so maybe it’s the Apple silicon (specifically the M1 Max) talking, but the app just feels fast. They even went to the trouble of adding a proper Preferences window rather than a fake preferences window that floats inside the existing app window.
If you find Live Text can’t keep up with your needs, TextSniper fills in nooks and crannies and expands beyond Live Text’s strong but basic intent.
The most core function of any code editor is syntax highlighting, and that is what Runestone is built for. The app currently supports highlighting for 28 different file formats, including those for many of the most popular coding languages such as JavaScript, Java, Python, Rust, and Swift. [...] In my testing, Runestone’s syntax highlighting has been unbelievably fast and reliable.
Changes and improvements include tracking for muscle fatigue and recovery, tags for routines, Family Sharing, personal records, and much more.
As we met leaders, what we found surprised us. While Apple was so clearly delineating secrecy as a fundamental value to the company, behind the scenes each of these leaders were highlighting the power of the one thing that made them successful: sharing. Priya Balasubramaniam in operations talked about it, emphasizing the need to share early with others. Angela Ahrendts in retail talked about it. Jony Ive’s industrial design team talked about it. Mattia Pascolini’s wireless design team also brought it to life. And Lynn Youngs, head of display, touch, and camera technology, shared this about how he applied sharing: “I come to the table with my ideas, and they come to the table with theirs. If we consider ideas ‘our kids,’ I have to care as much or more about ‘their kids’ as I do about mine for something magical to happen. And that’s real sharing. That’s innovation.”
Of course, not a single leader suggested going extreme in sharing, like Silicon Valley companies that spread product roadmaps to the public. That would spoil the surprise. But what we found was a level of openness in a famously closed system that involved far more sharing than anyone was talking about, and far more than new employees knew.
CNote is a women-led impact investment platform using technology to invest in diverse communities. Announced today, Apple is using the CNote platform to give back $25 million to underserved communities across the US. This is one of multiple efforts from the tech giant in tackling racial inequality throughout the country.
I've seen companies that have lost their souls. Apple ain't one of them.
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Thanks for reading.