Apple

Jon Alper’s detailed take on the new Mac Pro

Written by

Jon Alper:

Minimizing the compromises while maximizing flexibility is a the core design theme of this Mac. It’s a profoundly different direction from the 2013 Mac Pro in all the best an most unexpected ways. Arguably, even if you never buy one, it’s an expensive (for Apple to make, not just for customers to buy) message from Apple practically shouting: ‘’We’re committed to the Mac, we’re listening to our customers and we understand some of them need something wholly unlike an iMac let alone a laptop.”

And:

It’s not a sports car. This is realization of the 2010 Steve Jobs’ quote: “When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them. And this is going to make some people uneasy” .This truck is a thundering, earth mover of a truck.

This is an epic read, full of insight and detail. Even if you have no intention of ever buying a Mac Pro, if you’re an Apple follower, I think you’ll enjoy this read. Well done, Jon.

[H/T AAPL Tree]

Apple Watch can display Apple ID verification codes starting in watchOS 6

Written by

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors, writing about Jeremy Horwitz’ tweet:

Starting in watchOS 6, the Apple Watch has become a trusted device for Apple ID authentication purposes.

And:

When you or someone else signs in to your Apple ID on a new device or browser, the Apple Watch will automatically alert you, complete with an approximate location of the person. If the sign-in attempt is allowed, a six-digit verification code will then appear to be entered on the new device or browser.

Apple, firing on all cylinders.

iOS 13 Apple Maps: Share your live route ETA with a friend

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Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

In iOS 13, integrated into the Apple Maps app on your iPhone, you can you share your journey status with personal contacts in a feature called Share ETA.

The recipient receives the address of your destination and your expected arrival time. What’s really cool about this feature is that the estimated time of arrival (ETA) will update automatically, so you can see if they hit traffic or otherwise get delayed.

Love this.

Locations of media files in macOS Catalina

Written by

Kirk McElhearn:

With macOS 10.15 Catalina, and the splitting of iTunes into three apps (Music, Podcasts, and Apple TV), media files will be handled a bit differently. Here’s where the various files will be located.

It’s a beta, so this info could change.

Mythic Quest, an Apple TV+ trailer

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[VIDEO] Watch the trailer embedded in the main Loop post, then read on.

This was revealed at E3, in a spot typically reserved for games, not TV shows. The star, front and center, was Rob McElhenney, best known for his role in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. And that voice? That’s the great F Murray Abraham, perhaps best known for playing Salieri in the movie Amadeus.

This is a trailer for a new Apple TV+ show, Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. From the Wikipedia page:

The series is set in “a video game development studio and will explore the intricacies of the human condition through hilarious and innovative ways.”

On my short list. Please, please, please be good.

Apple Arcade is poised to become a major force in mainstream gaming

Written by

Leif Johnson, Macworld:

Almost out of nowhere, Apple is poised to be a major force in mainstream gaming. It’s doing it in its own Apple way, too—not by chasing down the graphics-intensive blockbusters so popular on devices like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 (or even the PC), but instead by positioning its upcoming Apple Arcade service as a hub for remarkable and tightly focused games that often get mentioned in discussions of whether games are art.

And:

It’s partly funding some of the games in Apple Arcade. It officially announced Project Catalyst, which will allow the same apps to work across the iPhone, the iPad, the Mac, and possibly Apple TV. It’s lifted most of the restrictions that kept games out of Apple’s walled garden for years, most notably by announcing support for wireless Xbox One controllers and Sony’s Dual Shock 4 for the PlayStation 4.

This is not simply about Apple Arcade. Sure, Apple Arcade is an important pillar in Apple’s modern gaming strategy, but the idea of running a game on my Mac, handing it off to my big screen Apple TV, then grabbing my iPad or iPhone to continue playing on the road is a second major pillar. And doing it all using top notch pro controllers like the Sony Dual Shock 4? That’s another big deal.

It would not surprise me to learn about Apple negotiating behind the scenes with major gaming franchises to bring a new generation of console level games, beyond Apple Arcade’s “art house” games, to the new Catalyst-fueled Apple platforms. This could be a new golden age for Apple and gaming.

What Apple knows about you

Written by

Ina Fried, Axios:

Apple pitches itself as the most privacy-minded of the big tech companies, and indeed it goes to great lengths to collect less data than its rivals. Nonetheless, the iPhone maker will still know plenty about you if you use many of its services: In particular, Apple knows your billing information and all the digital and physical goods you have bought from it, including music, movie and app purchases.

But:

Apple uses a number of techniques to either minimize how much data it has or encrypt it so that Apple doesn’t have access to iMessages and similar personal communications.

And:

Apple is able to do this, in part, because it makes its money from selling hardware, and increasingly from selling services, rather than through advertising. (It does have some advertising business, and it also gets billions of dollars per year from Google in exchange for being Apple’s default search provider.)

This is the setup. The article itself digs into how Apple does all this and the specifics, for a number of Apple services, on what Apple knows and how they protect your privacy.

If you care about the issue of privacy, take the time to visit Apple’s official privacy site, and read the various article’s Ina has linked at the bottom of her article, to the specifics of what Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. know about you.

Apple is listening

Written by

Marco Arment:

The “trash can” 2013 Mac Pro addressed only a fraction of the needs solved by the previous “cheese grater” towers, aged quickly without critical upgrade paths, and suffered from high GPU-failure rates from its cooling solution — all because its design prioritized size and appearance over performance and versatility in the one Mac model that should never make that tradeoff.

Over the next few years, it became clear that the Mac Pro was an embarrassing, outdated flop that Apple seemed to have little intention of ever updating, leaving its customers feeling unheard and abandoned. I think Apple learned a small lesson from it, but they learned a much bigger one a few years later.

And:

By the end of 2016, in addition to the generally buggy, neglected state macOS seemed to be perpetually stuck in, Apple had replaced its entire “pro” Mac lineup with controversial, limiting products that seemed optimized to flex Apple’s industrial-design muscles rather than actually addressing their customers’ needs.

This paints a bleak picture, one of an Apple out of touch with their Mac base, and even more so with their vast community of developers.

But:

Then, in April 2017, out of nowhere, Apple held a Mac Pro roundtable discussion with the press to announce that they were in the early stages of completely redesigning the Mac Pro.

Nice writeup by Marco. It is hard to find the right balance between listening to the experts you’ve hired to drive your company forward, but doing that without losing touch with the community that buys your products.

The glow-in-the-dark animation on the entrance to WWDC

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James Dempsey (of Breakpoints fame) captured this video of the impressive sign that covered the outside wall of the convention center, home to last week’s WWDC.

https://twitter.com/jamesdempsey/status/1137588958991245312

Take a look. Apple has really upped their signage game.

Pairing multiple AirPods to your iPhone with iOS 13

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[VIDEO] A quick look, courtesy of iDownloadBlog, at sharing your iPhone audio with multiple AirPods. The video is embedded in the main Loop post. I’m really excited about this feature, hoping it makes its way to tvOS, if it hasn’t already.

Farewell then, iTunes, and thanks for saving the music industry from itself

Written by

John Naughton, The Guardian:

The advent of the compact disc in the early 1980s meant that recorded music went from being analogue to digital. But CD music files were vast – a single CD came in at about 700MB.

And:

In 1993, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany came up with a way of shrinking audio files by a factor of 10 or more, so that a three-minute music track could be reduced to 3MB without much perceptible loss in quality. They called their new standard MP3.

And:

In 1999, a teenage geek named Shawn Fanning created a neat software system that enabled internet users who had MP3 tracks on their PCs not only to find others with similar assets but also to exchange these tracks with one another. Fanning called his file-sharing system Napster, released it on the internet and in the process changed the world.

Nice little look back at the market forces that made the music industry ripe for disruption. Enter Steve Jobs and Apple. And iTunes of course.

A look back at how Steve Jobs turned the music industry upside down

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This is an old article, appearing on the 10-year anniversary of the iTunes Music Store, but given the big changes Apple has announced for macOS Catalina, including a complete iTunes revamp, seemed appropriate.

A great read. Here’s a taste:

In its first week, iTunes sold one million downloads and soon became not only the top online music retailer but, displacing Walmart and Best Buy, the top music retailer. In a way, the service hastened the revolution that record executives feared the most – it shifted the business from expensive, high-revenue CDs to cheap, low-revenue singles. But there was no choice. There would always be online music thieves, but most consumers simply needed an easy, legal way to download songs. This was how fans would buy music in the future, whether the record industry liked it or not.

Jobs had incredible vision. Not sure anyone else could have pulled this off.

Jeff Benjamin, hands on with 200+ iOS 13 features

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[VIDEO] After you get done looking through Apple’s official iOS 13 features page, watch the 9to5Mac video (embedded in the main Loop post), as Jeff Benjamin shows the new iOS off, feature by feature.

Apple’s official iOS 13 features page

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To truly get a sense of how massive an update iOS 13 is, spend a few minutes digging through this page.

A few highlights:

Hide My Email Not sure you want to share your email address with a particular app? You’re in control. You can choose to share or hide your email address. You can also choose to have Apple create a unique email address for you that forwards to your real address.

And (in Maps):

Junction View helps drivers eliminate wrong turns and directional misses by lining them up in the correct lane before they need to turn or enter an elevated road.

And:

Explore where you’re going before you get there with an immersive 3D experience that gives you a 360-degree view of a place. And enjoy smooth and seamless transitions as you navigate your way around.

Not to mention the addition of traffic lights and stop signs.

And the all new Reminders design, and the new anti-aging battery technology, and, and, and. The list goes on and on. This is one amazing update.

The official trailer for Apple’s original series, “For All Mankind”

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[VIDEO] The video is embedded in the main Loop post. From the trailer description:

What if the space race had never ended? Watch an official first look at For All Mankind, an Apple Original drama series coming this Fall to Apple TV+.

And:

For All Mankind is created by Emmy® Award winner Ronald D. Moore (Outlander, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica), Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi. Told through the lives of NASA astronauts, engineers and their families, For All Mankind presents an aspirational world where NASA and the space program remained a priority and a focal point of our hopes and dreams.

Ronald D. Moore created the excellent reboot of Battlestar Galactica. High hopes for this one. Looking forward to seeing more official trailers as they emerge.

Note the branding at the beginning of the trailer: “An Apple Original”. Wonder if this will be the open for all the series. Also wonder if Apple will create a signature sound, similar to what you hear when you start a Netflix show.

Apple TV adding support for Xbox and PlayStation game controllers

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We posted a raft of Apple releases yesterday. One item that might have gotten lost in the shuffle, but that I believe has incredible importance, is this, from Apple’s tvOS 13 press release:

tvOS 13 adds support for the best and most popular game controllers in the world, Xbox One S and PlayStation DualShock 4, making it even easier for gamers to take advantage of Apple Arcade and other great games on the App Store.

And this tied footnote:

tvOS 13 supports the Xbox Wireless Controller with Bluetooth.

In order for Apple to climb into the tier of a first class gaming machine, they need first class game controllers, like the PlayStation DualShock 4 and Xbox One S. Such a smart move leveraging these two controllers, controllers most gamers are already familiar with, controllers that benefit from generations of refinement.

This announcement, combined with the release of the new iPod touch (a relatively inexpensive entree device for Apple Arcade), show a real vision to expand Apple’s gaming presence beyond the casual gamer.

Looking forward to seeing Apple Arcade’s official rollout later this year.

Developers sue Apple over App Store practices

Written by

Reuters:

Two app developers on Tuesday sued Apple Inc over its App Store practices, making claims similar to those in a lawsuit brought by consumers that the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed to proceed.

And:

California-based app developer Donald R. Cameron and Illinois Pure Sweat Basketball alleged in federal court in San Jose, California that Apple engaged in anticompetitive conduct by only allowing the downloading of iPhone apps through Apple’s official App Store.

And:

California-based app developer Donald R. Cameron and Illinois Pure Sweat Basketball alleged in federal court in San Jose, California that Apple engaged in anticompetitive conduct by only allowing the downloading of iPhone apps through Apple’s official App Store.

Apple’s take:

The company has said it enforces its App Store rules evenhandedly, regardless of whether it competes with app makers, and that many competitors, such as Microsoft Corp’s email apps, thrive on the App Store.

Apple has also emphasized that free apps that do not use its billing system are hosted and distributed at no cost to developers beyond a $99 fee to be part of its developer program.

This lawsuit is testing the waters. It is specific to the iOS App Store (you can distribute your own apps on the Mac). Obviously, if successful, this would force Apple to change the App Store model in some way.

Wondering if Apple created a sandboxed side environment for unapproved apps, an environment that is walled off from all the approved apps and the core of iOS, if that would pass muster with the courts.

Cardiogram judging most exciting WWDC keynote moments by monitoring Apple Watch heart rates

Written by

Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider:

Cardiogram will be allowing its users to start recording their heart rate on the Apple Watch continuously before the WWDC keynote begins, one which uses the Apple Watch’s heart rate sensor. The data is shared minute-by-minute with the company, which is then compiled with data provided by other users.

During the event, a dedicated live heart rate chart will update to show what the current heart rate of participants taking part in the monitoring scheme is, and what the group rate was in previous minutes. In theory, the heart rate will be highest shortly after major new announcements.

This is a pretty fascinating idea, borrowing a page from political polling rooms that track people’s reactions to a speech with buttons they press, in real time, when they strongly agree with a particular sentiment.

I can only imagine these two worlds colliding.

Apple increases iPhone cellular download limit from 150 MB to 200 MB

Written by

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

The file size limit prevents iOS users from accidentally downloading a big game on LTE and blowing through their carrier’s data cap. However, the cellular limit is often mocked as a stupid feature as Apple offers no opportunity to override the limit and force the download to succeed.

It is also silly because the cellular limit is enforced non-discriminately, which means even iPhone users with unlimited data plans are still barred from downloading apps and games over 200 MB.

The alert would be better implemented as a warning, informing the user that they are about to download a large file but including a ‘Continue Download’ button to allow the download to complete. Even users with capped data plans may need a big app in a pinch from time to time.

Perfectly put, completely agree.

Add to this the places where cellular is fast enough and so readily available, that WiFi is just not part of the mix. There should be a setting to turn this limitation off. It’s an artifact.

And at the same time, Apple, bump that 5GB cloud base storage to something actually usable.

Marzipan: A chance to revitalize the Mac app ecosystem

Written by

John Vorhees, MacStories:

There does seem to be friction holding iOS developers back from making the leap to the Mac. Part of it is that developing for the Mac is just different enough from iOS that it makes adapting an iOS app to the Mac harder than many developers would prefer. Combined with the smaller Mac market, that friction seems to be enough to keep many iOS developers off the Mac.

It’s into this environment that Apple announced Marzipan, its effort to make it easier to build apps for both the Mac and iOS.

And:

Web services are a bigger part of the productivity app market than ever before, and few seem interested in building traditional Mac apps. Exacerbating the problem is the rather thin competition in some app categories and limited migration of iOS apps to the Mac. Instead of letting third parties with little stake in the Mac’s success control the direction of the Mac experience through a patchwork of inferior apps, I’m eager to see a solution from Apple that leverages the strength of iOS.

Of all the technologies to dig into at WWDC, Marzipan seems the most important for the future of the Mac, and the topic I’m most interested in watching unfold.

As Craig Hockenberry explains in his post The Future of Interaction, Marzipan is a big win for developers, helping them support multiple platforms with a much smaller baseline of code to maintain.

If you’re an iMessage developer, you have to think about a product that works on iOS, macOS, and watchOS. You get a pass on tvOS, but that’s small consolation. The same situation exists in various combinations for all of Apple’s major apps: Music, Calendar, Reminders, Notes, Mail, etc.

It’s likely that all of these apps share a common data model, probably supported by an internal framework that can be shared amongst platforms. That leaves the views and the controllers as an area where code can’t be shared.

And:

With this insight, it’s easy to see Marzipan as a way towards views that share code. A UIView can be used on your TV, on your desktop, on your wrist, and in your pocket. That’s a big win for developer productivity.

And a big win for developer productivity is a big win for users and, in the end, for Apple.

WWDC by Sundell

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Interested in WWDC bu not able to make it out to San Jose for the big happenings? John Sundell has your back.

WWDC by Sundell is a clean, snappy web site that promises to closely follow the conference. And that coverage has already started. Check it out.

[Via DF]

My MacBook Pro exploded and burst into flames

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This is a dramatic headline, but read the Reddit post. There’s an embedded video that appears to be taken soon after the fire went out, smoke still pouring out and what appears to be char marks on the floor.

Is this real? Seems like it. Hard to say for sure. But lithium-ion batteries can fail, and can explode, under the right circumstances.

One interesting nugget:

I went inside and was able to remove the computer to the porch using gloves (it was scalding hot). Below is a short video taken when I re-entered the house a few minutes after the explosion. After it cooled for an hour or so, I took it to the local Apple store in a rage. They understood the severity of the situation but said nothing could be done until it spent 24 hours in a fire-proof safe and that they’d call me with a plan/update.

Is there a fire-proof safe in every Apple Store? I remember reading about safes in Apple Stores when the gold Edition Apple Watch first came out. I wonder if this was a use case when they added a safe to the Apple Store designs.

Bottom line, I do see value in being careful with lithium-ion batteries. Recycle them. And do get them checked out if you notice bulging in your Mac.

How Apple protects potential California-themed future macOS names

Written by

Eric Slivka, MacRumors:

Following Apple’s shift to California-themed names for its Mac operating systems with OS X Mavericks back in 2013, Apple appeared to take steps to protect a number of other California-related names by filing for trademarks under a series of shell companies intended to mask the true identity of the applicant.

And:

All told, we identified 19 trademarks that were applied for under six different companies that all appeared to be Apple shell companies. Several of these names, including Yosemite, Sierra, and Mojave, have been used by Apple, while others have yet to be put to use.

And:

Of the original 19 names that were included in the trademark applications, all but four of them have been either used by Apple or abandoned, with the remaining live applications being Mammoth, Monterey, Rincon, and Skyline.

This is some terrific detective work.

Of the four names, I like Mammoth and Monterey. Mammoth Mountain is a popular ski area (one of my favorite places to ski, back in the day) and Monterey is a city, county, and bay and, most importantly, home to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

My money’s on Monterey, for purely sentimental reasons. Though I’d throw in a wild card vote for this list of the top 10 tallest California peaks.

NH man bitten by rabid bat hiding in iPad case

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[VIDEO] Not exactly sure what it is about this video (embedded in the main Loop post), but something just clicked. Maybe it was how cool this guy was about the whole thing, or that old school, weatherbeaten iPad case. Or just the fact that a BAT WAS IN THE IPAD CASE!

On the market for the new iPod touch

Written by

Andrew O’Hara, AppleInsider, digs through the potential market for the new iPod touch. The biggest bit of this that clicked for me:

Apple also touts the upcoming Apple Arcade which will allow access to several exclusive games for a monthly fee. The new iPod touch is a very clear, inexpensive delivery device for that service.

This seems a solid strategy: Release a relatively low cost device, ready made for parents with kids and a long road trip ahead. A subscription to Apple Arcade is a perfect complement to the new iPod touch.

Inside the Apple team that decides which apps get on iPhones

Written by

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg, in an interview with Phillip Shoemaker, who ran app reviews from 2009 to 2016:

App reviewers worked in small conference rooms with Macs, iPhones, and iPads to test applications. Reviewers would come in each morning, pick 30 to 100 apps from a web tool, and download them devices for testing. It was a job that required long hours, Shoemaker recalled. Apple has hired more reviewers since then, and the work spaces in California are more open and collaborative now.

No small thanks go to Phil Schiller for retooling the system, radically improving the approval cycle.

Apple made sure that Shoemaker’s review team treated all third-party developers equally, even if they were giant technology companies supplying important apps for iPhones and iPads. “I was calling out Facebook all the time” on Twitter, he said. “Even though they were one of these privileged developers, they had some of the worst code at the time.”

Ouch.

Here’s a link to the interview, an episode of the Decrypted podcast.