Apple

Jean-Louis Gassée on iOS to macOS porting, and some possible motivation

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Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note, starts things off by talking through the Marzipan rumors and then Craig Federighi’s famous “No.” slide, followed by the details of the Marzipan announcement.

All good, but what I really liked was when Jean-Louis turned to the numbers:

By some measure, there are approximately 2.1M iOS apps in Apple’s App Store. By contrast, macOS apps number in the low thousands — a slightly misleading measure since some Mac apps are available independent of the regulated App Store. But with that caveat, iOS apps certainly outnumber macOS apps by at least an order of magnitude — a ratio that parallels the macOS vs iOS revenue and unit numbers.

He follows that with a slide that lists revenues for the 2017 Xmas quarter, AKA, 3Q2017:

  • iOS revenue: $68 billion
  • Mac revenue: $6.9 billion
  • iOS units sold: 90.4 million
  • Mac units sold: 5.1 million

And this conclusion:

The iOS-macOS UIKit bridge will pump new blood into the (relatively) anemic Mac app world. The arrangement will benefit everyone: iOS developers will find new customers on the Mac, customers who pay multiples of $10 vs single digits for iOS apps; Mac users will be given a wider choice of apps; and Apple gets a livelier macOS store.

Well said, Jean-Louis. Per usual.

macOS Mojave: A Roundup of All the Little Things

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John Vorhees, MacStories:

Now that people have had a chance to dig deeper into macOS Mojave, a number of smaller features have been discovered that didn’t get mentioned during the keynote on Monday and weren’t included in our initial overview of the updated OS that will be released in the fall. Here are a few of our favorite discoveries.

This is a short read, interesting all the way. My favorite nugget:

What Apple didn’t explain when it updated the Mac App Store is that macOS updates have been moved from the Mac App Store to System Preferences.

To me, this is a step towards iOS. Can’t help but wonder if we’ll see a unified core framework for the basic App Store and software updating functionality. Looking forward to playing with Marzipan.

A walk through the new macOS Mojave Mac App store

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Nice job by Bryan M. Wolfe, iDownloadBlog. I came away from this thinking the core, recently rewritten iOS App Store code was repurposed for macOS Mojave. Made me wonder if the iOS to macOS Marzipan framework was at all involved here.

And, no matter, the results are excellent. Take a look.

Apple’s official macOS Mojave preview page vs the iOS 12 preview page

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Yesterday we shared Apple’s gorgeous new iOS 12 preview page.

Today we’re posting a few Mojave specific posts, so seems right to start off with Apple’s official Mojave preview page.

I wonder if the two pages were built by two different teams. As you scroll through both pages, do you notice a difference between them? Here’s why I ask.

To me, the main difference is animation. As you make your way through the iOS 12 preview page, the images all come alive (they are short videos). Though there is some animation on the Mojave page, it’s doesn’t have the same liveliness. To see this for yourself, scroll down to the FaceTime section of each page.

Another difference? The iOS 12 images are all on a white background, the Mojave images are on a dark background (no doubt to showcase dark mode).

No complaints here. Both are graphically stunning. But I do think the iOS 12 page is more effective, does a better job of drawing you in. Just my 2 cents.

Viso: Hands free control of your Mac, all through facial gestures

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[VIDEO] Viso uses your iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera and ARKit to allow you to use your face to control your Mac. To truly appreciate this, watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. Amazing work. Love the accessibility possibilities.

Apple’s Memoji are gender neutral — Here’s why that matters

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Madeline Buxton, Refinery29:

In February, Samsung revealed AR Emoji, a clever (and slightly creepy-looking) way to create interactive avatars that speak onscreen as you speak IRL. Yesterday, Apple revealed their version of the interactive emoji, called Memoji (i.e. Animoji, but make it human).

Besides looking cute, rather than creepy, Memoji have another major plus over their direct competitor: They don’t require users to pick a gender. In fact, the entire creation process is gender neutral — there is no mention of male or female anywhere onscreen. This is an emoji set anyone can relate to, no matter how they identify, what their hair looks like, or even how many piercings they have.

Yet another reason Memoji are head and shoulders better than Samsung’s AR Emoji (which I just find creepy, way the wrong side of the uncanny valley).

As I’ve said before, I believe Memoji will help Apple sell a ton more Face ID devices.

How to recover space from an iOS update

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This TidBITS post is a good read. Even if you already know how to do this, good to walk through the interface to see what’s changed since the last time you dug into this.

Amazon’s new Fire TV Cube: Hands free control of your TV setup

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From the Fire TV Cube product page:

  • Fire TV Cube is the first hands-free streaming media player with Alexa, delivering an all-in-one entertainment experience. From across the room, just ask Alexa to turn on the TV, dim the lights, and play what you want to watch.

  • With far-field voice recognition, eight microphones, and beamforming technology, Fire TV Cube hears you from any direction. Enjoy hands-free voice control—search, play, pause, fast forward, and more. Plus, control your TV, sound bar, cable or satellite box, receiver, and more with just your voice.

  • Do more with Alexa. Fire TV Cube has a built-in speaker that lets you check the weather, listen to the news, control compatible smart home devices, and more—even with the TV off. Fire TV Cube is always getting smarter with new Alexa skills and voice functionality.

  • Experience true-to-life picture quality and sound with access to vivid 4K Ultra HD up to 60 fps, HDR, and the audio clarity of Dolby Atmos.

This seems like a major move into the living room for Amazon, and a much more direct threat to Apple TV and, more subtly, an attack on HomePod.

To get a sense of this, try to use your Apple TV with just your voice. No remote allowed, not even to turn it on. Though there are workarounds, including configurations where you can use your HomePod to turn on your Apple TV, most people will get nowhere with this challenge. And that’s the point.

HomePod is designed with Apple Music in mind, with a secondary nod to Siri. The Fire TV Cube, starting at $119.99, brings a full-fledged Alexa to the living room, designed specifically to control your TV, a direct replacement for your Apple TV.

Though you don’t get the deep access to the Apple ecosystem, you do get access to Alexa (and the growing list of 3rd party Alexa skills), and you can control the whole thing with your voice, no remote needed.

Looking forward to seeing the next generation of Apple TV. Will Apple somehow use HomePod as a bridge to bring this hands-free capability to Apple TV? Not sure that’d be enough, since my HomePod lives far from my TV. I’m hoping for built-in far-field mics in the Apple TV itself.

Your phone is listening and it’s not paranoia

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Sam Nichols, Vice:

A couple years ago, something strange happened. A friend and I were sitting at a bar, iPhones in pockets, discussing our recent trips in Japan and how we’d like to go back. The very next day, we both received pop-up ads on Facebook about cheap return flights to Tokyo. It seemed like just a spooky coincidence, but then everyone seems to have a story about their smartphone listening to them. So is this just paranoia, or are our smartphones actually listening?

I have heard so many examples like this. It seems impossible that all these anecdotes are mere coincidences. I’ve been just waiting for someone to take the time and run some (relatively) controlled experiments to prove or disprove this theory.

I am still not convinced one way or the other. I’d still love to see a rigorous experiment that really nails down all the variables. But a fascinating read.

[H/T Storm Garelli]

Why you should probably wait to install iOS 12 and the other betas

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Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:

With WWDC every year comes new beta versions of all of Apple’s operating systems. This year, we got iOS 12, macOS 10.14 Mojave, watchOS 5, and tvOS 12. All are currently available to developers and are meant for testing purposes. After all, they are betas and are buggy.

With beta releases come a handful of issues. Devices typically run warmer than expected and suffer from shortened battery life, as Apple typically doesn’t really optimize performance until later betas.

And:

Furthermore, you’ll likely run into app compatibility issues across all of the latest betas. The purpose of the beta period, again, is for developers to test their applications and services on the latest versions of macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS. This means apps aren’t optimized and might not run properly on the beta.

That last is the biggest bugaboo for me. I can live with occasional crashes or quirky behavior, and the current slate of betas seem exceptionally stable. But for certain apps, compatibility is critical. If I move to a beta and a key app just doesn’t work, I’ve wasted a lot of time since I’d be forced to restore from a backup to get back to where I was before I took the leap.

If you are considering a backup, check out this Mojave compatibility Reddit thread. Be sure to read the comments, lots more issues revealed there.

If you depend on a 3rd party device, like a specialized trackball with programmable buttons, say, do a bit of research to see if the device still works in the beta.

I am more likely to take the leap with my phone, since that does seem stable enough with all my key apps. With Mojave, I’ve still got a bit more research to do, since I use so many specialized apps.

Obviously, make sure you have solid, reliable backups. For your iPhone, make sure you do an archived backup, which will ensure that your backup will not be overwritten by a backup of the beta, just in case you have to restore your phone back to 11.4.

And finally, keep in mind that embracing a beta is a choice. If you make it, don’t complain about things not working right. That’s the world you are entering. Stuff will break. But it will (in the vast majority of cases) get fixed, and performance will no doubt get much better as debug builds are replaced by performance builds. Report the bugs you encounter so the folks doing the heavy lifting can follow up.

100 new iOS 12 features/changes

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[VIDEO] Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac, does a fantastic job digging through iOS 12 to show off what’s new. If you have to pick one video to wrap your head around iOS 12’s new chewy goodness, this is the best one I’ve yet come across. As usual, the video is embedded in the main Loop post.

One standout from the video occurs very near the beginning, when Jeff runs a GeekBench benchmark test on two identical phones, one running iOS 11.4 and another running the first beta of iOS 12. iOS 12 shows some clear speed improvements.

I’ve been watching a number of videos testing this delta from iOS 11.4 to iOS 12 and most of the performance improvements Apple promised show up in all of them in one form or another. One video, dedicated exclusively to the iPhone 5S, clearly shows Apple has paid attention to older devices, making sure those speedups carry a good way back in the product line.

What will the Mac be like in 2020?

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Jason Snell, Macworld:

Start by considering exactly what Federighi said on stage at WWDC: “We love the Mac, and we love macOS because it’s explicitly created to the unique ergonomics of Mac hardware, like the ergonomics of the keyboard and trackpad, the flexibility in displays and storage, and because of the power it exposes, it makes the Mac able to accomplish almost anything.”

And:

I’m not sure I can entirely conceive of iOS never having a tool like the Terminal—if only because it feels inevitable that app development will one day be possible on iOS—but I can accept that the wild-west feel of macOS, where you can arbitrarily install, compile, and write software, is unlikely to ever be reflected on iOS.

And:

Apple itself sells a keyboard for the iPad Pro, and even allows users to move their fingers like they’re using a trackpad when editing text. The iPhone and iMac Pro are about as far as two devices can get from one another, but the MacBook and the iPad Pro are not.

To me, there’s still a huge chasm between any Mac and any iOS device. The Mac was built to serve a cursor, a specific location on the screen that has a focus. There are windows that you can drag around, a file system designed for rapid file/folder moves and copies, searches and sorts.

On the flip side, iOS devices are built for the dynamic nature of touch. All areas of the screen are equal citizens when it comes to touch. There’s no nudging things to the side without specifically reaching for them. No arrow keys to move a text cursor back and forth, or move an object from side to side.

Though I do see Jason’s point, the differences between a MacBook and a keyboard enabled iPad Pro are less than that of the iPhone and iMac Pro, to me they are still worlds apart.

All that said, Jason’t article is a terrific read, worth your time, thoughtful as always. I look forward to next year’s WWDC when we see a truly informed Marzipan, when Apple delivers a framework specifically designed to bridge the macOS iOS chasm.

Hands-on with macOS 10.14 Mojave

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[VIDEO] Very nice walkthrough (video embedded in the main Loop post) of the major new macOS Mojave features from Dan, MacRumors.

My favorite? By far, the Finder’s new Gallery view and improvements to QuickLook.

iOS 12 lets Siri control the play of music apps like Spotify

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Lucas Matney, TechCrunch:

Music-streaming companies like Spotify will soon be able to let users utilize Siri controls to play music through their apps thanks to Apple’s newly-announced Siri Shortcuts feature in iOS 12.

At a WWDC developer session, the company detailed a new “Play Media” intent it was introducing to developers with Siri Shortcuts that will let users summon audio and video media from third-party apps. The integrations would operate much less seamlessly than controls for Apple Music through Siri, but you would theoretically be able to direct Siri on the iPhone or HomePod to a designated playlist or artist on a service like Spotify, functionality that was previously not possible.

Not clear if this will carry over to allow you to ask HomePod Siri to play a specific Spotify track, but seems likely to me.

Apple accused of copying new Shortcuts logo, hit with $200,000 demand letter

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The Sun:

The largely unknown company claims to have issued a cease and desist letter to Apple, asking the company to stop “infringing on our intellectual property” with the Shortcuts logo.

And:

A Shift spokesperson said: “It’s mind-blowing that Apple, the firm with the biggest cash pile in history, the firm that is so design oriented, had to copy our logo.”

First things first, follow the link and look at the two logos side-by-side. Judge for yourself.

I do see a strong resemblance, can’t imagine a universe where someone at Apple copied the logo. Cash grab? Fair demand?

John Gruber’s live Talk Show interview with Apple’s Greg Joswiak and Mike Rockwell

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NOTE: This is a new version of the video. The improvements are gorgeous and obvious. Worth watching again.

Greg Joswiak is Apple’s VP for iOS, iPad, and iPhone Product Marketing. Mike Rockwell comes from Dolby Labs and, before that Avid, and worked on ProTools for DigiDesign. Mike made his way over to AR and now runs AR for Apple.

The entire interview (embedded in the main Loop post) is typical Gruber goodness. Fascinating conversation from beginning to end. Enjoy.

AirPods to get Live Listen feature in iOS 12

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Steven Aquino, TechCrunch:

Apple has one hardware-specific feature planned that wasn’t announced at Monday’s WWDC keynote. In iOS 12, users will be able to use Live Listen, a special feature previously reserved for hearing aids certified through Apple’s Made for iPhone hearing aid program, with their AirPods.

After enabling the feature in the iPhone’s settings, users will be able to use their phones effectively as a directional mic. This means you can have AirPods in at a noisy restaurant with your iPhone on the table, for example, and the voice of whomever is speaking will be routed to your AirPods.

This is absolutely brilliant, a wonderful feature especially useful for folks with limited hearing.

As Steven notes at the end of his piece:

Still, it’s critical to note AirPods with Live Listen is not a full replacement for a hearing aid. It’s obviously best to speak with your audiologist to determine the best solution for your ears.

This is no replacement for a hearing aid, but a useful tool to have.

Some folks have noted a dark potential, that of using your phone to eavesdrop on a conversation remotely. Just as a webcam uses a light to let you know it is live, I wonder if Apple might light up the iPhone screen in a certain way to let folks know the audio is being shared remotely.

Tech addiction and the paradox of Apple’s “Screen Time” tools

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First things first, note the image at the top of the article, captioned “A phone-absorbed attendee at WWDC”. Hey, that poster-child for phone-absorption looks familiar.

But I digress.

Wired:

Apple—like much of Silicon Valley—wants to cure the disease it’s caused. The next version of iOS will be armed with a “comprehensive set of built-in features” to limit distractions and recalibrate priorities on the iPhone.

And:

There’s also a dashboard for usage insights, called Screen Time, which sends a weekly breakdown of how you spend your time on the iPhone. A built-in App Timer can set limits on certain apps, reminding you to move on after 30 minutes or an hour.

So far, so good. But:

Moments later, Apple executives demonstrated Memoji, a new personalized emoji feature that involves staring at the screen and animating a digital character with your facial features. Another demo featured Julz Arney, who works on Apple’s fitness technologies, biking while breathlessly scrolling through productivity apps on her Apple Watch, changing dinner reservations, texting friends, browsing the web, checking notifications about her infant baby, and struggling to close the fitness rings on the watch’s face.

The cognitive dissonance was striking. Apple says it wants you to have a healthier relationship with your phone, and it’ll even give you the tools to do it. But for every feature it showed to wrangle notifications or curb app use, it added more to keep you staring at your screen.

I’m wrestling with this one. I do see the point, that Apple is filling the bucket while emptying it, giving us more things to distract us while giving us tools to manage those distractions. Ultimately, I appreciate both things. I appreciate the tools to set limits, like better Do Not Disturb and Screen Time.

But I also appreciate the new distractions, the ARKit games, the face tracking Memoji, all of it. I see these distractions as part of the fabric of life, the texture that helps keep things interesting. But there are also elements that keep me from doing things that matter to me, that tug the strings of anxiety, seed misunderstanding.

I do think there is an addictive element to tech and social media, and tools like Screen Time and and improved Do Not Disturb are a step in the right direction.

Free trials come to the App Store

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From the App Store Review Guidelines:

Non-subscription apps may offer a free time-based trial period before presenting a full unlock option by setting up a Non-Consumable IAP item at Price Tier 0 that follows the naming convention: “14-day Trial.” Prior to the start of the trial, your app must clearly identify its duration, the content or services that will no longer be accessible when the trial ends, and any downstream charges the user would need to pay for full functionality.

And:

Auto-renewing subscription apps may offer a free trial period to customers by providing the relevant information set forth in App Store Connect. Apps that attempt to trick users into purchasing a subscription under false pretenses or engage in bait-and-switch practices will be removed from the App Store and you may be removed from the Apple Developer Program.

Nice to see free trials extend beyond subscriptions (subscription model already had this ability). I believe this applies to both iOS and Mac App Stores.

Tim Cook fires back at Facebook: “We’ve never been in the data business”

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Yesterday, we ran a post featuring a New York Times takedown of Facebook and a direct response to the Times piece by Facebook.

From that post:

Facebook has reached data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 device makers — including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung — over the last decade, starting before Facebook apps were widely available on smartphones, company officials said.

In this NPR interview, Tim Cook fires back:

“We’ve never been in the data business,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told NPR on Monday, responding to a report that Facebook struck agreements giving Apple and other device makers access to Facebook users’ personal information.

And:

“The things mentioned in the Times article about relationship statuses and all these kinds of stuff, this is so foreign to us, and not data that we have ever received at all or requested — zero”

And:

“What we did was we integrated the ability to share in the operating system, make it simple to share a photo and that sort of thing,” Cook added. “So it’s a convenience for the user. We weren’t in the data business. We’ve never been in the data business.”

Smart response, as the New York Times article definitely gave the feeling that Apple was somehow in cahoots with Facebook, sharing user data.

Apple Watch watchOS 5, Pride bands, Walkie-Talkie, and a lot more

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Apple announced lots of exciting new features for the coming watchOS 5 (available this Fall).

I have to say, I was delighted by Walkie Talkie, the watch to watch communication mechanism. It appeals to the kid in me. Brought back memories of camping out and late night whispered walkie-talkie conversations, as well as road trips where we used walkie-talkies to communicate between cars. If you’ve never experienced walkie-talkies, this is not the same as making a phone call. It’s more instantaneous and, to me, more fun.

I also love the progress Apple made on the Siri watch face:

Using machine learning, the updated Siri watch face on Apple Watch is an even better personal assistant. It now offers more predictive and proactive shortcuts throughout the day based on routines, locations and information such as heart rate after a workout, commute time with Maps at the appropriate time of day or sports scores for a favorite team. The Siri watch face will also show actionable content from favorite third-party apps such as Nike+ Run Club, Glow Baby and Mobike.

The ability to create your own Siri Shortcuts and tie them to a complication on your Apple Watch is no small thing. Not exactly sure how Automator, and then Workflow, fits in to Shortcuts, but I’m guessing this is a rebranding and that Shortcuts is the new name for all of this automation. Please ping me if you know the backstory/details.

As to the Apple Watch Pride band, check out the video embedded in this tweet (tap the tweet to see it):

https://www.twitter.com/Apple/status/1003705953416605696

So much richness in this keynote.

Apple introduces macOS Mojave and an all new Mac App Store

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Read all about it in Apple’s official Mojave press release.

The new Mac App Store is a wonderful redesign, a thoughtful follow-on to the completely redesigned iOS App Store.

Mojave Dark Mode really pops, as does the new Dark Mode version of Xcode. All of this design progress, combined with the announcement of a process for quickly porting iOS apps to the Mac expected for developer release at next year’s WWDC, really makes me hopeful for a rebirth of the Mac.

I look forward to Apple getting out in front of the butterfly keyboard issue, and to the official release of a new generation of MacBooks and MacBooks Pro. Oh yeah, and how about some hints on the functional approach and timing of that new Mac Pro.

Apple announces the Apple Design Award winners

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Apple:

This year’s award winners include developers from across the globe, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, India, Netherlands, Turkey and the US.

Congratulations to all the winners. Make sure you tap those side arrows in each category as to see all the winners.

Apple opens Health Records API to developers

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Apple:

Today Apple delivered a Health Records API for developers and researchers to create an ecosystem of apps that use health record data to better manage medications, nutrition plans, diagnosed diseases and more. The Health Records feature allows patients of more than 500 hospitals and clinics to access medical information from various institutions organized into one view on their iPhone. For the first time, consumers will be able to share medical records from multiple hospitals with their favorite trusted apps, helping them improve their overall health.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Title II, “requires the establishment of national standards for electronic health care transactions and national identifiers for providers, health insurance plans, and employers”. The goal is to make it easy for you to access all your health care records, for you to be in control. As is, it doesn’t feel that way to me. I couldn’t tell you how to access my health care records without contacting my doctor.

To me, this API is an incredibly important step towards that goal. Imagine having your records in your control, always accessible, sharable with any doctor you visit.

Add to that the emergence of a new sector of healthcare apps that help you manage your health care, and help minimize the chance of mistakes with your meds because of, say, a prescription conflict.

Apple’s official photo highlights from yesterday’s keynote

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These are Apple’s hand-picked highlight photos. Two stand out for me.

First, there’s Kelsey Peterson showing off her Memoji skills. I think Memoji are well done, capture that certain Apple design something that will sell a lot of iPhone X’s and then help sell the next wave of Face ID-enabled devices.

Second, there’s LEGO’s director of innovation, Martin Sanders, walking through Lego AR City. I thought this was a powerful demonstration of the possibilities of ARKit 2, showing how a real-world product like Lego can be tightly linked to the virtual world of AR, with the potential for product sales on both sides. Buy the Lego set, then buy addons in the virtual world to greatly enhance the experience.