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The Filmmaking-Legitimacy Edition Wednesday, November 8, 2023

What Does And Doesn’t Matter About Apple Shooting Their October Event On iPhone 15 Pro Max, by Stu Maschwitz, Prolost

It may be hard to imagine that a slightly different bit of signal processing when recording a video file from a tiny sensor can make the difference between consumer birthday-cam and professional viability, bit that is exactly the power of log. Apple Log has catapulted the iPhone into filmmaking legitimacy.

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Should you look at the giant lights in Apple’s video and feel dejected that your own productions will never afford this level of illumination? I say no, because a) you’re probably not lighting up the whole side of an architectural marvel, and b) you’re probably not designing your production around one of the world’s highest-paid CEOs.

What To Do If Your New M3 Mac Shows Up With An Old, Non-updatable macOS Version, by Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica

In time, Apple will incorporate the files needed to support the new Macs into the main version of macOS so that it will once again support all available Macs. This usually happens in the next major point release, like 14.2 or 14.3. But in the short term, this creates a situation where the current macOS Sonoma installer that you would grab through the App Store or Software Update on an existing Mac can't be installed on a newly released Mac.

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If you have one of the affected Macs and Software Update isn’t offering you the macOS 14.1 update, a MacRumors forum user has posted a direct link to the file on Apple’s software update servers. Downloading and running it will put a Sonoma installer in your Applications folder, at which point you should be able to run that app to install the update manually.

Use ‘Find My’ Phone Apps. But Don’t Trust Them., by Shira Ovide, Washington Post

The bottom line: You shouldn’t entirely trust location identifying technology.

There’s a contradiction in our faith in technology: We know that technology makes mistakes, but we can also be overconfident that it gives the right answer.

Bug Fixes and Improvements

Apple Releases iOS 17.1.1 For iPhone With Fixes For Snow Glitch And Wireless Charging , by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

The software update includes fixes for wireless charging and the Weather lock screen widget.

Apple Releases WatchOS 10.1.1 With Fix For Apple Watch Battery Drain Bug, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Today's update addresses an issue that is causing some Apple Watch models to drain battery more quickly than expected.

Apple Updates HomePod With Fix For Siri, by Zac Hall, 9to5Mac

All HomePod hardware can update to version 17.1.1 to resolve an issue with failed Siri requests.

Apple Releases New Firmware For Beats Fit Pro And Powerbeats Pro, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple does not provide details on what's included in firmware updates for the Beats Fit Pro and ‌Powerbeats Pro‌, so we don't know what improvements or bug fixes the firmware offers.

All The Memories

Apple Has A Memory Problem And We're All Paying For It, by Jason Cross, Macworld

Is it a problem to sell a Mac with 8GB in 2023-2024? No. Is it a problem to sell a MacBook Pro for $1,600 with only 8GB of RAM? Oh god, yes. If 8GB will be a bottleneck for many today, imagine the performance of that non-upgradeable laptop in a few years’ time.

8GB RAM On M3 MacBook Pro 'Analogous To 16GB' On PCs, Claims Apple, by Tim Hardwick, MacRumors

"Comparing our memory to other system's memory actually isn't equivalent, because of the fact that we have such an efficient use of memory, and we use memory compression, and we have a unified memory architecture."

"Actually, 8GB on an M3 MacBook Pro is probably analogous to 16GB on other systems. We just happen to be able to use it much more efficiently."

Stuff

New iMac Supports High-Impedance Headphones, by Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

The built-in 3.5mm headphone jack on the left side of the new iMac features impedance detection and adaptive voltage output, and the computer now has a built-in digital-to-analog converter with support for sample rates of up to 96 kHz, allowing for users to listen to high-fidelity, full-resolution audio with supported headphones.

Instapaper Updated To Include New Features: Note Search And Article Notes, by Sovan Mandal, Good E-Reader

Instapaper announced the launch of a new integrated Note Search feature that will let you dive into the depths of your highlights and notes easily.

These Motion Sensors Finally Made My Home Feel ‘Smart’, by Simon Hill, Wired

If you’re ready to wade into smart home automation, I can heartily recommend the Eve Motion Sensor, provided you have a Thread Border Router and compatible devices. It’s versatile and easy to set up, but more importantly, it works reliably to trigger automations instantly every time.

Develop

Apple Invites Developers To Labs, Workshops And Vision Pro Sessions Held In November, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

Apple today informed developers about a number of new developer activities that are taking place in November, including App Store activities, additional Vision Pro labs, technology consultations, and more.

Notes

Google And Prominent Telecom Groups Call On Brussels To Act Over Apple’s iMessage, by Javier Espinoza, Financial Times

In a letter sent to the commission and seen by the Financial Times, the signatories, which include a Google senior vice-president and the chief executives of Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and Orange, claimed Apple’s service meets the qualitative thresholds of the act. It therefore should be captured by the rules to “benefit European consumers and businesses”, they wrote.

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However, as part of the EU probe, the iPhone maker has argued that iMessage should not be captured by the new rules because users do not pay directly for its use and its devices can be used without the messaging app, according to documents released by the commission.

US Consumer Watchdog Proposes Rules For Big Tech Payments, Digital Wallets, by Douglas Gillison and Hannah Lang, Reuters

The top U.S. consumer financial watchdog on Tuesday proposed to regulate tech giants' digital payments and smartphone wallet services, saying they rival traditional payment methods in scale and scope but lack consumer safeguards.

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If finalized, the proposal would cover about 17 companies that together send more than 13 billion payments annually, according to a CFPB official. The agency declined to name the other platforms that would be covered beyond GooglePay, ApplePay, PayPal and CashApp.

Why It Is Time For A Single QR Code For All The Payments In The World, by Andy Mukherjee, Bloomberg

The reason why Singapore is still determined to fine-tune QR code-based payment is not its meager 3% share in digital-wallet transactions, but its 72% compounded annual growth over the past five years. This rapid expansion is being driven by tiny enterprises that began to go digital during the pandemic. Considering that 19% of the city’s of point-of-sale transactions last year were in cash, the government’s Hawkers Go Digital program still has a long way to go. Enabling food carts and street vendors to get the maximum possible share of tourist dollars (or yen, or yuan, or rupees) ought to be a worthy goal for greater financial inclusion in any economy, developed or developing.

Bottom of the Page

I just realized in my entire working life, I've never written programming code to sync data between devices. Between clients and server, yes, but not between multiple devices.

Maybe that's why I am rather stuck in my hobby project.

Maybe I really should read some codes over at Github or something.

~

Thanks for reading.