Apple TV+’s “Dr. Brain”: First episode available now

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Apple TV+ is on a sci-fi roll, with new shows like Foundation and Invasion, older shows See and For All Mankind, all worth checking out.

To me, Dr. Brain is a worthy addition to this list. It’s full of twists and turns, a fun watch all the way through. I watched it subbed (Korean audio, English subtitled), but it is available dubbed (English language dubbing), if you find processing the subtitles takes your attention away from the action.

Either way, if you do check out Dr. Brain, commit to watching the first two episodes. The first one (available now) sets up the basic mechanics of the story, gives you a sense of the important elements, then episode 2 starts you on the roller coaster ride.

Though the spine of the story is classic sci-fi, there’s a heavy dose of mystery. Personally, I love the show.

Apple’s M1 Pro, M1 Max chips are the culmination of a vision hatched in 2008

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Sanjiv Sathiah, NotebookCheck:

A lot has rightly been written about the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips found in Apple’s new MacBook Pro models. However, while the spotlight is rightly on them now, their origins date back to a decision made in 2008 under the leadership of Apple co-founder, the late Steve Jobs and his team, which included Tony Fadell.

Solid read, capped off by this tweet.

Apple TV+ releases “Swan Song” trailer. That’s a heckuva cast.

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Before you watch the trailer below, consider the cast.

  • Mahershala Ali: Oscars for Moonlight and Green Book
  • Naomie Harris: Oscar nomination for Moonlight, and played Miss Moneypenny in Skyfall
  • Glen Close: Oscar nominations for The World According to Garp and The Big Chill
  • Awkwafina: Well, she’s Awkwafina.

I get it, Oscars and Oscar nods aren’t the basis for judging a movie. But this is a great cast, make me hopeful for this latest addition to Apple TV+’s sci-fi push.

Review: Apple’s polishing cloth is the new gold standard for device cleaning

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Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac:

When the “Unleashed” Apple event wrapped up a few weeks ago, the first thing I did was run over to the Apple store to see if any new unannounced accessories had been added. Sure enough, a handful of new ones were. But only one of them stood out: the polishing cloth. It’s taken the world by storm, so much so in fact that it’s backordered up to nearly 12 weeks. Luckily, I was able to get my hands on one and I’ve been using it rigorously over the past week.

If this is satire, it is absolutely pitch perfect. No matter, Polishing Cloth has somehow become beloved and deserving of this detailed review.

Apple Support: How to use Find My on Apple Watch

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You’ve no doubt launched the Find My app on your iPhone, but have you ever jumped through the Find My hoops on your Apple Watch? Watch the video below for the how-to. Good to know how this works.

Netflix rolls out games, thumbs nose at Apple

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Netflix blog:

Starting today, members everywhere can play five mobile games: Stranger Things: 1984 (BonusXP), Stranger Things 3: The Game (BonusXP), Shooting Hoops (Frosty Pop), Card Blast (Amuzo & Rogue Games), and Teeter Up (Frosty Pop). Whether you’re craving a casual game you can start from scratch or an immersive experience that lets you dig deeper into your favorite stories, we want to begin to build a library of games that offers something for everyone.

For everyone? Great, let’s go!

All you need is a Netflix subscription — there’s no ads, no additional fees and no in-app purchases. (Don’t let the demogorgon tell you otherwise).

Perfect. I’ve got a Netflix subscription. How do I play?

Our mobile games are currently available on Android devices when you log into your Netflix profile.

Um. OK. So not everyone then.

And I searched the entire release, not a single mention of Apple, iPhone, or iOS. Feh.

Facebook shutting down face recognition, deleting facial data for more than 1 billion people

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Facebook blog:

We’re shutting down the Face Recognition system on Facebook. People who’ve opted in will no longer be automatically recognized in photos and videos and we will delete more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates.

and:

This change will also impact Automatic Alt Text (AAT), which creates image descriptions for blind and visually-impaired people. After this change, AAT descriptions will no longer include the names of people recognized in photos but will function normally otherwise.

As to why, Facebook says:

We need to weigh the positive use cases for facial recognition against growing societal concerns, especially as regulators have yet to provide clear rules.

On that last, consider this from The New York Times coverage:

When the Federal Trade Commission fined Facebook a record $5 billion to settle privacy complaints in 2019, the facial recognition software was among the concerns.

And:

Last year, the company also agreed to pay $650 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in Illinois that accused Facebook of violating a state law that requires residents’ consent to use their biometric information, including their “face geometry.”

So, yeah, that’s got to be part of the calculus.

How to stream Bluetooth audio to HomePod mini

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Another fun little video from “Will it Work?”

If you like playing around with tech, this is a straightforward project that will let you make use of an old iOS device (an old, unused iPhone or iPad, perhaps) to act as a bridge to get any line-in source to your HomePod or HomePod mini.

Beats Fit Pro vs AirPods Pro

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From the linked Chris Welch Verge review:

The Fit Pros are a wonderfully designed pair of earbuds that integrate the best of Apple tech. They’ve got active noise cancellation that’s on par with the AirPods Pro. The same spatial audio with dynamic head tracking. The same Adaptive EQ. They even have the brand-new skin detect sensor that only just debuted in the third-generation AirPods.

And:

The Fit Pros come in a case that’s basically a miniaturized version of the Powerbeats Pro case. Just as with those, there’s no wireless charging — a very frustrating omission at this price — but the case at least uses USB-C instead of Lightning.

And:

Beats says it designed the wing tips for “every ear imaginable,” but ears are all different, and there will always be exceptions. That said, I let several people try the Fit Pros and even those with small ears could find a way to make the wing tip work for them and said it resulted in a more steady overall fit. They passed the gym test and didn’t come even slightly loose during high intensity runs.

And:

for the first time, you can remap a long press to adjust volume instead of toggling noise cancellation or summoning Siri. This can be done right in the iOS settings menu and is something that the AirPods Pro can’t do, nor can the Beats Studio Buds. I like having the option, even if I ended up sticking with the defaults. Bring that remapping capability to your other earbuds, Apple.

As to the sound:

Beats has outfitted its latest earbuds with 9.5mm drivers, and they produce very satisfying sound quality that I’d rank above the AirPods Pro. This isn’t the bloated bass Beats of old: the company shed that reputation quite a long time ago.

So my question here is, wireless charging aside, did Beats Fit Pro just dethrone the AirPods Pro? Chris’ take is enough for me to want to take them for a spin. Feels like the bar has definitely been raised. Will the AirPods team respond with a new generation?

Check out the video below, at about 3:10 in, to get a sense of how these fit in your ears. There’s a bit of a twisting motion required to get the “wings” in place.

Side note: The AirPods Pro are on sale on Amazon for $189.99. So that’s the price I’d use to compare with the $199.99 price of the Beats Fit Pro.

First look at new HomePod mini colors in the wild

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From Apple’s official press release:

Customers in Canada, Mexico, and the US will be able to order HomePod mini beginning at 7 a.m. PDT on Monday, November 1. Customers in China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan will be able to order HomePod mini beginning at 6 p.m. PDT on Monday, November 1.

And:

HomePod mini will be available in Australia, Austria, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the UK later this month.

Check out the video below to see the new colors, in hand. Unless you care for unboxing, skip ahead to about 3:15 in. If you have one of the new yellow, orange, or blue iMacs (but NOT the purple, red, or green), you can be matchers.

I agree with Brian Tong here. I’d love to see Apple complete the set here.

Some older Macs reportedly bricked after installing macOS Monterey

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Sami Fathi, MacRumors:

macOS Monterey, released last week as the latest version of macOS, is bricking older Mac computers, rendering them unusable and unable to even turn on, according to a number of reports from users across social media and online forums.

And:

If this sounds oddly familiar, it may be because last year, with the launch of macOS Big Sur, similar reports surfaced about that update bricking older MacBook Pro models.

No answers here, but plenty of tweets from owners of newly bricked Macs. If you’ve got an older Mac and are considering upgrading to Monterey, definitely read through the post, maybe wait until macOS 12.1 drops.

Apple’s Holiday Return Policy

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Apple:

Items purchased at the Apple Online Store that are received between November 1, 2021 and December 25, 2021, may be returned through January 8, 2022. Please note that all other terms and conditions provided in the Apple Online Store Sales and Refunds Policy are still applicable with respect to such items purchased. All purchases made after December 25, 2021 are subject to the Standard Return Policy.

Keep that January 8th date in mind.

Joanna Stern: 2021 MacBook Pro review

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Follow the headline link for Joanna Stern’s enthusiastic take on the new MacBook Pros. But watch the video below for Joanna’s real-life battery testing.

At about 3:54 in, Joanna tries to duplicate Apple’s battery claims for the new devices. Worth watching to get a sense of what you can expect if you buy one of the new MacBook Pros.

The 2019 Mac Pro vs the 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max

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First things first, to be really clear, this is the Mac Pro (NOT an Intel MacBook Pro). Just making sure you get the drift of the comparison.

Follow the link, scroll through the benchmarks, then check out this link for a bunch more benchmarks comparing the same two machines.

Bottom line, the benchmarks showed the M1 Max was pretty close to the 2019 Mac Pro, beating it in some tests, losing in others, but pretty much neck-and-neck overall.

To me, this is incredible, really shows the giant leap Apple made with the M1 Max. Obviously, the Mac Pro brings expandability to the table that a laptop just can’t match. Wonder when we’ll see an Apple Silicon-powered Mac Pro. That’ll be something.

The power of Left Behind

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Reddit:

I was hesitant on updating because I enjoyed my phone being jailbroken but last night I figured I would for the FaceTime updates, but it was the Find My AirPods feature that I really got a benefit out of. I arrive at the airport to head home and come to find out I left my AirPods in the car of my Uber driver, after getting a “Find My” notification.

Presumably, this refers to a “separation alert”, also known as a left behind notification.

I call him up and he brings them back to me. It even tracked him every so often along the way. I didn’t even know that was in the update but it just saved my wallet

I’ve gotten a few of these, especially when I left my AirPods at home on a charger. Some people find the alerts annoying, I like the reminder that they exist.

Here’s Apple’s official separation alert support document, telling you how to turn the alerts off and on, and how to set up a Trusted Location if you want to be able to leave your item somewhere without being notified.

All the default macOS wallpapers

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Follow the headline link, start scrolling for a walk through all the different default macOS wallpapers, going all the way back to Mac OS X Tiger, which dropped back in 2005.

See something you like, click the download link. Enjoy.

Apple adds new “notch avoiding” setting on the new MacBook Pro

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Some apps, especially those with a lot of menus and custom menus have run into problems with the notch on the new MacBook Pro. Here’s a Twitter thread with a few examples (sound on).

If you do run into this issue, Apple offers an app-specific fix:

You can adjust an app’s settings so that it uses the whole display or uses only the area below the camera housing.

Follow the headline link for details but, in a nutshell, Apple added a “Scale to fit below built-in camera” checkbox to the app’s Get Info window. Check it, and the app will run with the menu bar below the notch.

Good to know.

macOS Monterey: How to make your Mac user profile an animated Memoji

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Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:

In macOS Monterey, you can use an animated Memoji as your Mac user profile instead of a standard static image. Of course you could always use a still photo of yourself to welcome you at startup and on the Lock Screen, but where’s the fun in that?

And, once you’ve made the change:

Next time you login to your Mac, you’ll see your animated Memoji avatar there to welcome you. And if you get your login password wrong a few times, just watch the expression on their face go from mildly irritated to thoroughly irate.

I followed Tim’s instructions, made the change, can confirm the various “wrong password” interactions. Fun!

iFixit: New MacBook Pro design means far easier battery swaps

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iFixit:

Normally we get to the battery last because, well, they suck to remove. But as we peer into the guts, we notice something we haven’t seen in a long time in a MacBook Pro, three words that make our hair stand on end: battery pull tabs.

Even better, it appears the battery isn’t trapped under the logic board. That could mean battery swaps without removing all the brains first—a procedure we’ve been dreaming about for a while.

And:

The four outer battery cells have easily-noticeable pull tabs, which are the typical thin white strips we know and love from the iPhone and MacBook Air. But wait, we don’t see any pull tabs on the middle cells. Are we screwed—or, worse, glued?

Not entirely! We removed the trackpad and, lo and behold, there are cut-outs to access the pull tabs that hold the middle battery cells in place.

And:

We’ve still got a long way to go with disassembly, but this new MacBook Pro has, at the very least, the first reasonably DIY-friendly battery replacement procedure since 2012.

Great news! I’m looking forward to the detailed teardown.

Apple strikes huge Apple TV deal with Comcast

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Variety:

Comcast struck a deal with Apple that will bring the Apple TV app, which includes access to the Apple TV Plus subscription service, to the cable giant’s Xfinity X1, Flex, XClass TV and Sky Glass platforms, CEO Brian Roberts announced on the company’s Q3 earnings call.

That’s already big news, with the Apple TV app coming to Comcast set top boxes, much in the way the Apple TV app is available on Roku devices, but with a far more massive reach. This feels like a mighty domino, with the potential to bring Apple TV (and Apple TV+) to other major cable providers. A tipping point for cord cutters, as well.

But there’s more:

In turn, under the pact, Comcast’s Stream app will be launching on Apple TV set-top boxes, Roberts said. A Comcast rep said the Apple TV app would launch on Comcast video platforms in “the coming months” but didn’t have specific dates.

This is great news for Comcast subscribers who own Apple TVs. Interesting news for the Apple TV device itself. More and more TVs are being sold with the Apple TV app built right in. This feels like it will shrink the demand for actual Apple TV boxes.

Apple Music launches on PS5

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PlayStation blog:

PS5 offers seamless integration with the Apple Music streaming service with background music and music video playback, so players can listen before, during, or after their gameplay session.

How’s it work?

PS5 users can either start the Apple Music app before hopping into a game, or during gameplay by pressing the PS button on the DualSense wireless controller to access the Control Center and select the Music Function card.

And:

From there, Apple Music subscribers can find recommendations that match the game they are currently playing, or choose from a playlist in their library or other Apple Music-curated playlists for gaming.

This is far more integration than I was expecting when I first heard about this. What about Xbox?

From Digital Music News:

You can listen to Spotify, SoundCloud, and Pandora on Xbox using an official app – but not Apple Music. However, that’s not to say you can’t enjoy the service using your Xbox Series X console. A third-party application called “AirServer” hooks into AirPlay and allows Apple Music content to be remotely cast to an Xbox device from an iPhone or iPad.

The PlayStation Apple Music integration is head and shoulders better.

Apple Support: How to use Slide Over on your iPad

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Another great video from the Apple Support video team. This is so clearly presented, does a great job explaining both the value of Slide Over and the mechanics.

I wish there was a set of videos like this built right into iPad, like the mini-videos that appear on your Mac in System Preferences > Trackpad, as you scroll over the various gestures.

Apple’s MacBook Pro is a GPU-shaped warning to Nvidia and AMD

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Tom Warren, The Verge:

Apple hit Intel hard with its first M1 chips, offering a rare step-change improvement in performance with its 2020 MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. Less than a year later, it’s already starting to compete with the best GPUs from AMD and Nvidia as well. The new MacBook Pros with M1 Pro and M1 Max offer a first glimpse at how well Apple’s M1 chips can scale to provide raw performance that rivals the discrete graphics cards we typically find inside Windows-powered laptops.

This walkthrough highlights the incredible performance gains made by Apple’s M1 series, especially where the GPU is concerned.

At the core of the review is AnandTech’s Apple’s M1 Pro, M1 Max SoCs Investigated: New Performance and Efficiency Heights. Jumping to the GPU analysis page:

Traditional OEMs have been fine with a small(ish) CPU and then adding a discrete GPU as necessary. It’s cost and performance effective: you only need to add as big of a dGPU as the customer needs performance, and even laptop-grade dGPUs can offer very high performance. But like any other engineering decision, it’s a trade-off: discrete GPUs result in multiple display adapters, require their own VRAM, and come with a power/cooling cost.

And that’s where Apple’s gains are coming from: The new M1 series, by being incredibly space efficient, runs much more coolly than a traditional discrete GPU laptop can, and consumes far less power.

The gains here are obvious, especially when Apple’s pro apps, or third party apps specifically built for the M1, are involved. As to PC gaming, Apple is still not there. Scroll through the AnandTech post for benchmarks to get a sense of this. But my gut (I’m no expert) tells me that if game developers make it their mission to develop with the M1 Max in mind, that could change.

One last bit from the AnandTech post:

Overall, it’s clear that Apple’s ongoing experience with GPUs has paid off with the development of their A-series chips, and now their M1 family of SoCs. Apple has been able to scale up the small and efficient M1 into a far more powerful configuration; Apple built SoCs with 2x/4x the GPU hardware of the original M1, and that’s almost exactly what they’re getting out of the M1 Pro and M1 Max, respectively. Put succinctly, the new M1 SoCs prove that Apple can build the kind of big and powerful GPUs that they need for their high-end machines. AMD and NVIDIA need not apply.

A comprehensive guide to 250+ of Apple Music’s new Mood and Activity playlists

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Last week, Apple announced the new Apple Music Voice Plan, designed exclusively for Siri, priced at $4.99 a month.

From the press release:

Apple Music is also adding hundreds of new mood and activity playlists created by Apple Music’s editorial experts that are fully optimized just for voice. Subscribers can ask Siri to “Play the dinner party playlist,” “Play something chill,” or even “Play more like this” for a truly personalized music experience. These new playlists are available to every subscriber of any Apple Music plan — and make using Apple Music, together with Siri, even better.

This raised the question, where are these playlists?

John Voorhees, in the headline linked MacStories post:

The playlists have begun showing up on Apple Music, so last night, Federico and I began searching the streaming service to see what’s new. What we found was over 250 playlists each designed to fit a mood or activity that use animated cover art with simple line drawings to set them apart from Apple’s other playlist. Although they were announced as Siri playlists during the event on Monday, anyone with an Apple Music subscription can view and play the new playlists in the Music app like any other playlist in the service’s collection.

Follow the link, scroll down, tap on any of the playlist links to start them playing in Apple Music.

Alternatively, you can launch any of the playlists via Siri (especially useful if you are a Voice Plan subscriber), like so:

“Hey Siri, play the Feeling Good playlist”

Nice work by the MacStories team.

How to AirPlay from iPhone or iPad to Mac with macOS Monterey

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Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac:

Apple has finally released macOS Monterey to the public. The update comes with several new features, including Focus mode for notifications, SharePlay, Live Text, and more. Another new feature is the ability to AirPlay from an iPhone or iPad to a Mac without having to install any third-party apps, so read on as we detail how to use this feature.

If you’ve ever used AirPlay, you can probably figure this out by yourself, but nice to know this exists, and nice to have the walkthrough handy.

I gave AirPlay from iPhone to M1 MacBook Air a try and it was flawless and easy.

Springboard: Documentary about the “first real smartphone”

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The Verge:

A decade before Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, a tiny team of renegades imagined and tried to build the modern smartphone. Nearly forgotten by history, a little startup called Handspring tried to make the future before it was ready. In Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone, The Verge’s Dieter Bohn talks to the visionaries at Handspring and dives into their early successes and eventual failures.

This documentary grabbed me. I remember the heady days of the Apple Newton, followed by Palm and PalmPilot. Handspring was founded by the Palm founders, with the goal of building a better mousetrap. That road ultimately yielded what is billed as the “first real smartphone”. See the trailer below.

The documentary is about 30 minutes long and (to me) worth the watch. To watch it on Apple TV, go the the Apple TV App Store and search for “Verge”. Download the app, launch it, and watch the documentary.

Apple Support: How to use Shortcuts on Mac

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This is a great intro to Shortcuts on the Mac. Don’t miss adding a shortcut to your menu bar.

More great work from the Apple Support video team.

Rene Ritchie: M1 Max MacBook Pro review

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As usual, Rene dives deep and opens the floodgates with lots of interesting/helpful detail.

At the very least, jump to 2:18 and process that chart comparing rendering and battery performance between the two latest Intel-based MacBooks, the 13″ M1 MacBook Pro from last year, and a New M1 Max MacBook Pro. Those numbers tell a simply incredible story.

macOS 12 Monterey: The Ars Technica review

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Scroll down that linked first page to the Table of Contents to get a sense of where to focus on this massive Monterey review. So much to process, but it’s all linked on separate pages, so it’s easy to navigate.

Also, here’s a link to Apple’s official macOS Monterey landing page, which is also worth your time, an easy, beautifully drawn quick trip through Monterey’s new shiny.

Intel CEO: My job is to win Apple back

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Brian Sozzi, Yahoo Finance:

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger says the ball is in the chip giant’s court to win back lost business from the Mac making Apple.

“My job is to win them [Apple] back and to deliver products that are better than they can do themselves. We also want to win them over to more of our foundry offerings over time. And that just makes sense, right? Everybody wants to have multiple suppliers. And if we have the best process technology in the industry, of course, they’ll come our way,” Gelsinger said at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit.

Not sure how to react to this statement. Is Gelsinger unaware of the brutally dumb anti-Apple campaign in high gear? Here’s a link to this high profile page on your web site, Pat.

Don’t miss that Apple-bashing video right towards the top. Way to win friends, there. Yeesh.