Apple:

Apple today announced an acceleration of its US investments, with plans to make new contributions of more than $430 billion and add 20,000 new jobs across the country over the next five years.

And:

As part of its investments and expansion, Apple plans to invest over $1 billion in North Carolina and will begin construction on a new campus and engineering hub in the Research Triangle area. The investment will create at least 3,000 new jobs in machine learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering, and other cutting-edge fields.

Wonder what they’ll call it. Apple Park east? No matter, this is huge news for North Carolina. Wonder if it will have a political impact on the state, long term.

The official full list of nominees in each category, with the winner marked.

I actually enjoyed the show last night, think I actually preferred this more intimate version, thought it was less hokey, felt more inclusive than in past years.

And they definitely shook things up with Glenn Close showing off some moves, switching the big three order around with Best Picture before Best Actors.

Apple:

An immersive, deep-dive rich with archival footage and interviews, “1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything,” will show how the musical icons of the time were influenced by the changing tides of history; and, in turn, how they used their music to inspire hope, change and the culture around them. The docuseries will examine the most iconic artists and songs that we still listen to 50 years later, including The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Lou Reed and more.

Definitely looking forward to this one. Premieres on Apple TV+ on May 21 (three weeks from Friday).

This is a great post, chock filled with links to things that stuck out to Federico Viticci as notable, all relating to Tuesday’s Apple Event.

My favorite is the Ted Lasso Easter egg, right at the bottom.

And (H/T Keith Kolmos), David Smith made the secret shortbread recipe!

Philip Michaels, Tom’s Guide:

Right now, Tile tops our choice for key finders. But AirTag takes a very different approach from what other trackers have offered before. This AirTag vs. Tile comparison offers a closer look at how Tile has come to dominate the key-finding business, and how Apple figures to change things up.

This is a great side-by-side comparison, really lays out the Tile ecosystem and, to me, makes it clear why Apple’s AirTag is the better solution.

Key to this is Apple’s U1 ultra-wideband chip, which Tile does not have. And, as Kif Leswing points out in this post, Apple also brings a billion iPhones to the game. The combination of ultra-wideband and the ability to enroll in Apple’s “Find My” service makes the choice of AirTag a no-brainer.

Is Apple’s size and market dominance an unfair advantage? Hard to say. But it certainly is an advantage, much as the advantage a large movie studio has over smaller independent studios when it comes to making a special effects laden blockbuster.

Disney:

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) and Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) today announced a multi-year content licensing agreement for U.S. streaming and TV rights to Sony Pictures’ new theatrical releases across Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution’s vast portfolio of platforms including its streaming services Disney+ and Hulu, as well as linear entertainment networks including ABC, Disney Channels, Freeform, FX and National Geographic.

And:

The deal also grants rights to a significant number of SPE’s iconic library titles, ranging from the “Jumanji” and “Hotel Transylvania” franchises to Sony Pictures’ Universe of Marvel Characters films, including Spider-Man.

We should see Spider-Man arriving on Disney+ starting in June. Right now, a search for Spider-Man on Disney+ yields a raft of animated titles, not including Into the Spider-Verse.

Makes me wonder about Apple TV+ and the lack of a superhero franchise. Will this sort of programming make its way to Apple TV+? Will they license this sort of content from elsewhere? Expensive to make, hard to make well. But tentpole product if they can pull it off.

If you find an AirTag or a lost item with an AirTag attached:

• Tap and hold the top of your iPhone or NFC-capable smartphone to the white side of the AirTag.

• Tap the notification that appears. This opens a website that provides information about the AirTag, including its serial number.

• If the owner marked it as lost, you might see a message with information about how to contact the owner.* You can contact the owner to let them know that you found their AirTag.

If you see an “AirTag Found Moving With You” message:

• Tap the message.

• Tap Continue. If you need help finding the AirTag, tap Play Sound.

• If the AirTag is attached to an item you’re borrowing, you can tap Pause Safety Alerts to turn off “AirTag Detected” notifications for one day. If you’re borrowing an AirTag from a member of your Family Sharing group, you can turn off Safety Alerts for one day or indefinitely.

• You can tap Learn About This AirTag to see its serial number if the owner marked it as lost.

• To disable the AirTag and stop sharing your location, tap Instructions to Disable AirTag and follow the onscreen steps. If you feel your safety is at risk, contact your local law enforcement who can work with Apple. You might need to provide the AirTag or its serial number.

If AirTags is in your future, take the time to read the support document. Lots of important info there.

Apple:

Apple today unveiled the premiere date and teaser trailer for the highly anticipated second season of comedy sensation “Ted Lasso,” which will make its global debut on Friday, July 23, 2021 on Apple TV+.

Have to backdate from July 23 so I can rewatch season 1 just in time for the premiere of season 2.

As to the trailer, here ya go…

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

Alongside the redesigned iMac, Apple introduced a new Magic Keyboard with Touch ID for fingerprint authentication, which is useful for quickly logging into macOS or confirming an Apple Pay purchase online.

And:

As first noted by Rene Ritchie and confirmed by MacRumors, the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID is fully compatible with all M1 Macs, including the new iMac, 13-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini. If used with Intel-based Macs or other Bluetooth devices, the Magic Keyboard will still function with the exception of Touch ID.

Here’s that Rene Ritchie tweet.

I do all my Loop posts using the previous gen Magic Keyboard. I love the feel of the keys, don’t really mind the squished together arrow keys, the price you pay for a compact, portable keyboard.

Telling that Apple stuck with Lightning for charging and initial setup. Feels to me an indicator that Lightning isn’t going away anytime soon.

If you’ve never used a modern Magic Keyboard, one of its charms is how ridiculously easy it is to pair. Just connect its lightning port to your computer, make sure it’s turned on (the previous gen have a tiny slider switch in the back, green means it’s on) and that’s it. A notification pops up to let you know it’s connected. No need to plug it in again until it runs out of juice.

Kartikay Mehrotra, Bloomberg:

As Apple Inc. was revealing its newest line of iPads and flashy new iMacs on Tuesday, one of its primary suppliers was enduring a ransomware attack from a Russian operator claiming to have stolen blueprints of the U.S. company’s latest products.

Then, about an email exchange with the hackers:

REvil then delivered on its promise to publish data it believes to be Apple’s proprietary blueprints for new devices. The images include specific component serial numbers, sizes and capacities detailing the many working parts inside of an Apple laptop.

A pretty significant security lapse. If those images became public, I wonder how significant the harm would be. A leg up for competitors trying to copy Apple designs? Or more of an annoyance, since the products have been announced, and will ship soon, available to be taken apart and examined firsthand?

Starting in May, listeners in more than 170 countries and regions can sign up for premium subscriptions that include a variety of benefits curated by creators, such as ad-free listening, access to additional content, and early or exclusive access to new series. Listeners will be able to enjoy premium subscriptions from independent voices and premier studios, including Tenderfoot TV, Pushkin Industries, Radiotopia from PRX, and QCODE, to leading media and entertainment brands, including NPR, the Los Angeles Times, The Athletic, Sony Music Entertainment, and many more.

I also like some of the new features coming in an iOS update.

With iOS 14.5, listeners can access a redesigned Apple Podcasts app featuring an enhanced Search tab that provides quick access to Top Charts and categories. Apple Podcasts also features beautiful new pages for every show and episode to make it easier to follow, listen, and share. The new Smart Play button helps listeners automatically start episodic shows from the latest episode and serialized shows from the beginning of each series. Listeners can also now save individual episodes, which are downloaded for offline playback, making it easy to bookmark podcasts to listen to later from Library.

Apple today announced Apple Card Family, an innovative new way for people to share their Apple Card, track purchases, manage spending, and build credit together with their Family Sharing group. Available in the US in May, Apple Card Family allows two people to co-own an Apple Card, and share and merge their credit lines while building credit together equally. Apple Card Family also enables parents to share Apple Card with their children, while offering optional spending limits and controls to help teach smart and safe financial habits. Apple Card Family is designed to help the Family Sharing group achieve a healthier financial life by making it easy to track spending, all on iPhone and with a single monthly bill.

Financial health and building credit is so important for everyone. I have a feeling there are a lot of people that will take advantage of this for themselves and their children.

Apple today introduced AirTag, a small and elegantly designed accessory that helps keep track of and find the items that matter most with Apple’s Find My app. Whether attached to a handbag, keys, backpack, or other items, AirTag taps into the vast, global Find My network1 and can help locate a lost item, all while keeping location data private and anonymous with end-to-end encryption. AirTag can be purchased in one and four packs for just $29 and $99, respectively, and will be available beginning Friday, April 30.

AirTag is probably the worst kept secret at Apple over the last year or so, but it’s still great to see it hit the market. It’s interesting to note that AirTag uses a replaceable battery instead of being rechargeable. Apple says the battery should last over a year with everyday use.

Each AirTag is equipped with the Apple-designed U1 chip using Ultra Wideband technology, enabling Precision Finding for iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 users. This advanced technology can more accurately determine the distance and direction to a lost AirTag when it is in range. As a user moves, Precision Finding fuses input from the camera, ARKit, accelerometer, and gyroscope, and then will guide them to AirTag using a combination of sound, haptics, and visual feedback.

I love Precision Finding. I’ve misplaced my iPhone before and using sound to find is helpful, but nowhere near as accurate and quick as what this will be.

AirTag is designed from the ground up to keep location data private and secure. No location data or location history is physically stored inside AirTag. Communication with the Find My network is end-to-end encrypted so that only the owner of a device has access to its location data, and no one, including Apple, knows the identity or location of any device that helped find it.

AirTag is also designed with a set of proactive features that discourage unwanted tracking, an industry first. Bluetooth signal identifiers transmitted by AirTag rotate frequently to prevent unwanted location tracking. iOS devices can also detect an AirTag that isn’t with its owner, and notify the user if an unknown AirTag is seen to be traveling with them from place to place over time. And even if users don’t have an iOS device, an AirTag separated from its owner for an extended period of time will play a sound when moved to draw attention to it.

Privacy and security. That’s Apple.

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro features a new Liquid Retina XDR display that brings extreme dynamic range to iPad Pro, offering a stunning visual experience with more true-to-life details to the most demanding HDR workflows.

The iPad Pro was already the fastest device of its kind, but now it has the most efficient and powerful computer chip available, the M1, powering it. On top of that, Apple added an XDR display giving pros a level of portable power we could have only dreamed about a few short years ago.

I love this one line in Apple’s documentation.

iPad Pro now includes support for Thunderbolt.

This is huge for users.

Support for Thunderbolt and USB 4 makes the USB-C port on iPad Pro the fastest, most versatile port ever on an iPad, with 4x more bandwidth for wired connections than the previous iPad Pro — up to 40Gbps. Thunderbolt supports 10Gbps Ethernet and opens up a massive ecosystem of high-performance accessories, like faster external storage and even higher resolution external displays, including the Pro Display XDR at full 6K resolution…

I also love Center Stage. The fact that you can move around and the camera will move with you, keeping you in the center of the frame is really cool. I can’t wait to try this out on the new iPad.

The TrueDepth camera system on iPad Pro features an all-new 12MP Ultra Wide front camera designed specifically for iPad, enabling Center Stage, a new experience for video calls. Center Stage uses the much larger field of view on the new front camera and the machine learning capabilities of M1 to recognize and keep users centered in the frame. As users move around, Center Stage automatically pans to keep them in the shot. When others join in, the camera detects them too, and smoothly zooms out to fit everyone into the view and make sure they are part of the conversation.

Pricing and availability:

The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $799 (US) for the Wi-Fi model and $999 (US) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model, and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,099 (US) for the Wi-Fi model and $1,299 (US) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model

There is so much to love about this new iMac.

Apple today introduced an all-new iMac featuring a much more compact and remarkably thin design, enabled by the M1 chip.

The new iMac also includes a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, studio-quality mics, and a six-speaker sound system — the best camera and audio ever in a Mac. Also, Touch ID comes to iMac for the first time, making it easier than ever to securely log in, make purchases with Apple Pay, or switch user profiles with the touch of a finger.

The FaceTime HD camera is especially important these days, but having studio-quality mics and sound system just takes it over the top. Touch ID is one of those features you don’t know you’ve been missing on the Mac until you try to do something that requires it—we’re so used to having Face ID or Touch ID on our iOS devices that it’s so obvious when it’s not there.

A few other notes about iMac:

• Up to 85 percent faster CPU performance, so users can export their favorite video project in iMovie faster than ever, easily work with massive 100-megapixel photos in Lightroom, and compile new apps in Xcode in a fraction of the time.

• Up to 2x faster GPU performance for certain apps like Affinity Photo and Photoshop, and up to 50 percent faster than the most powerful discrete graphics in the fastest 21.5-inch iMac, allowing users to render edits in real time or add complex filters to their photos in a snap.

• The ability to edit up to five streams of 4K footage, or one stream of 8K footage, without dropping a frame in Final Cut Pro.

• Up to 3x faster machine learning in apps that leverage the 16-core Neural Engine in M1.

Availability and pricing:

iMac with 7-core GPU starts at $1,299 (US) and $1,249 (US) for education, and is available in green, pink, blue, and silver. It features an 8-core CPU, 8GB of unified memory, 256GB SSD, two Thunderbolt ports, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Mouse.

iMac with 8-core GPU starts at $1,499 (US) and $1,399 (US) for education, and is available in green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. It features an 8-core CPU, 8GB of unified memory, 256GB SSD, two Thunderbolt ports, two additional USB 3 ports, Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, Magic Mouse, and Ethernet.

Apple:

Apple today announced the next generation of Apple TV 4K, delivering high frame rate HDR with Dolby Vision and connecting customers to their favorite content with the highest quality. At the heart of the new Apple TV 4K is the A12 Bionic chip that provides a significant boost in graphics performance, video decoding, and audio processing. And with an all-new design, the Siri Remote makes it even easier to watch shows and movies on Apple TV with intuitive navigation controls. Together with tvOS — the most powerful TV operating system — Apple TV 4K works seamlessly with Apple devices and services to magically transform the living room in ways that everyone in the family will love.

And:

With A12 Bionic, Apple TV 4K now supports high frame rate HDR (High Dynamic Range) and Dolby Vision video, enabling fast-moving action at 60 frames per second (fps) to play more smoothly and appear more lifelike than ever before. Apple is working with leading video providers around the world, including FOX Sports, NBCUniversal, Paramount+, Red Bull TV, and Canal+, as they begin to stream in high frame rate HDR. And with high frame rate support in AirPlay, videos shot on iPhone 12 Pro can be displayed in full 60-fps Dolby Vision on the new Apple TV 4K.

And:

Apple TV uses the light sensor in iPhone to compare the color balance to the industry-standard specifications used by cinematographers worldwide. Using this data, Apple TV automatically tailors its video output to deliver much more accurate colors and improved contrast — without customers ever having to adjust their television settings.

This last bit is amazing. You place your iPhone, face forward, up against your TV, and the Apple TV uses your iPhone camera to build a profile it uses to adjust its display to get the optimum image from your TV. Remarkable bit of engineering.

The all-new Siri Remote features an innovative clickpad control that offers five-way navigation for better accuracy, and is also touch-enabled for the fast directional swipes Apple TV users love. The outer ring of the clickpad supports an intuitive circular gesture that turns it into a jog control — perfect for finding a scene in a movie or show. And with its one-piece aluminum design, the new Siri Remote fits more comfortably in a user’s hand.

The new remote is gorgeous. And it adds in power and mute buttons. And it is now easy to tell top from bottom, front from back, even in the dark. Apple delivered a ton of stuff today, but the new Siri Remote might be my favorite bit of all.

A few notes:

• New Apple TV 4K starts at $179
• New Apple TV HD starts at $149
• Order April 30th, available second half of May
• Replacement Siri Remote is $59, compatible with the previous-generation Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD.

Apple makes it so easy to watch. Click the headline link to watch on device, or the Apple TV app on your Apple TV.

Here’s my take on what we might see today.

Per usual the Apple Store is down, with the traditional “Be right back. We’re making updates to the Apple Store. Check back soon.” message.

What other company can demand such worldwide attention for a product announcement?

OSXDaily:

If you’re unable to resolve any issue that you’re facing with an Apple device or service, you can always get in touch with an Apple Support agent for further assistance. Moreover, you can do this right from your iPhone or iPad.

Nice walkthrough to pass along to folks new to Apple.

Can’t speak to the safety of this site, but it is definitely a rabbit hole of fascinating content.

• Follow the headline link
• Tap the hamburger menu in the upper right corner
• Pick a country, then scroll through a huge set of channels/shows
• Once you find one you like, tap the play button.

It’s a bit hit or miss, listen for audio to know you’ve picked a channel that is currently on air. One locked in, close the options window and start watching.

Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS:

Thirty million US households just received another option for affordable, high-speed home broadband. T-Mobile Home Internet covers that many households, 10 million of which are in rural areas. The company promises an average of 100 Mbps in most areas via its 5G network. Service should average no less than 50 Mbps for any household, including those that are currently only within reach of T-Mobile’s 4G LTE towers.

And:

T-Mobile Home Internet costs $60 per month for unlimited use, with no long-term commitment. There’s also no separate fee for the necessary hardware, which is designed for self-installation.

More and more options popping up for cutting the cable. This is a great read, lots of detail.

The advantage of sticking with cable is bundle pricing. But with so much content available, enough content to fill your days is becoming cheaper and cheaper. If you’ve got Netflix and Apple TV+, you’ve already got a pretty good amount to watch. Add in Disney+ and some over the air local channels and it’s an embarrassment of riches.

There’s a lot to love about software I’ve been using for more than 20 years and now BBEdit, the power tool for text, is ready for Big Sur and M1-powered Macs!

Feels like I am stuck on an old-school Macintosh theme with this morning’s posts, but it’s purely coincidental.

This one uses an emulator to run classic MacOS on an iPad Pro. It looks amazing.

More gorgeous work, this time by Stephen Hackett, sharing the various tones made by old school Macs when they were unable to boot. Don’t miss the Power Mac 6100 car crash.

This is gorgeous work. Follow the headline link, click on each of the pictures below the main image to step through the gallery. That floppy disk is simply amazing.