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The Reset-to-the-Technology-Curve Edition Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Apple Execs On M2 Chips, Winning Gamers And When To Buy A Mac, by Matthew Panzarino, TechCrunch

The M1 whacked a big old reset button on those restrictions, putting portable back into the power computing lexicon. And with M2, Millet says, Apple did not want to milk a few percentage points of gains out of each generation in perpetuity.

“The M2 family was really now about maintaining that leadership position by pushing, again, to the limits of technology. We don’t leave things on the table,” says Millet. “We don’t take a 20% bump and figure out how to spread it over three years…figure out how to eke out incremental gains. We take it all in one year; we just hit it really hard. That’s not what happens in the rest of the industry or historically.”

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“As a silicon person, I know that technology moves fast and I don’t want to wait around. I certainly want to push hard, as you can imagine,” says Millet. “We want to get the technology into the hands of our system team as soon as possible, in the hands of our customer as soon as possible. We don’t want to leave them wondering…do they not care about us? A new phone shipped last year. Why didn’t the Mac get the love?”

“We want to reset to the technology curve and then we want to live on it. We don’t want the Mac to stray too far away from it.”

Can The Second Generation Apple HomePod Save The Smart Speaker?, by Robert Leedham, GQ

If what was missing from the HomePod in 2018 was Apple's secret sauce of surprise and delight, where stuff just works straight out of the box, then that situation is on the way to being remedied. Partly through the HomePod’s own efforts, and partly because everyone else in the smart home arena has decided to get along at last. It’s an awkward coming-of-age story, for sure, but the payoff should be worth it.

Why I Ditched My Smart TV's Standard Operating System And Started Using Apple TV 4K Instead, by Alan Martin, Livingetc

In other words, you’re paying for the product in full, and your valuable data isn’t being used to subsidize the hardware sold at a loss. That’s reassuring if you’re suspicious of adverts following you around the web.

Stuff

Apple Rolling Out Apple TV And HomePod Software Updates With Bug Fixes, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

Apple has not published in-depth release notes for tvOS 16.3.1 or HomePod software version 16.3.1. Instead, the company says: “Software version 16.3.1 includes general performance and stability improvements.”

'ReplyCube' Is A New Apple Mail Extension For Quickly Handling Reusable Responses, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

The app aims to speed up email management by letting you create reusable messages, commonly referred to as “canned” messages, then access those messages right from the compose window in the Mail app.

Carrot Weather Gets Refreshed Map Styles, State And Province Labels, More, by Michael Potuck, 9to5Mac

Carrot Weather has received its latest update today with updated map style sheets, US state and Canadian province labels, lots of bug fixes, and more.

'Dockhunt’ Site Lets You Share Your macOS Dock And Discover Apps, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

A new website has popped up that’s focused on sharing your macOS dock and getting inspiration from others. Called Dockhunt, it’s basically a social network, but for showing off the apps that you keep in your Mac’s dock. The goal is to help you discover new apps and also “see who else has docked the apps you use.”

Notes

Apple To Hold In-person 'AI Summit' Event For Employees At Steve Jobs Theater, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

For those unfamiliar, the AI summit is an annual event described as a “WWDC for AI,” but only for Apple employees. This time, however, the event will be quite similar to those before 2020. That’s because Apple will be holding live, in-person presentations in the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park.

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But the fact that Apple will finally hold an event at the Steve Jobs Theater, which is the company’s main auditorium, makes us wonder if traditional media events will also make a comeback this year.

Restart Your iPhone Or iPad Using Siri, by Adam Engst, TidBITS

In iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, Apple has made restarting significantly easier by bestowing Siri with that capability. Just invoke Siri by holding down the side button or Home button, and then say, “Reboot.” Siri also understands “Restart this device,” “Restart my iPhone,” and so on, although using “Restart” on its own tends to cause whatever audio was playing previously to start again. You can also restart your device hands-free with “Hey Siri, reboot,” but your command could be picked up by multiple devices within range, which might not be desirable.

Hunting For A Dead Mouse: AirPlay Receiver To The Rescue, by Adam Engst, TidBITS

The next time you need to see around corners and into dark spaces, consider the combination of an iPhone and Mac connected through AirPlay.

Bottom of the Page

Now that Apple seemed to be at a great place hardware-wise across all the computers, I sure hope Apple doesn't screw up the computerization of iPads and tabletization of MacBooks.

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Thanks for reading.