Mark Gurman is one of the OG Apple reporters, surfacing info on coming products, detailing subtle changes to the Apple ecosystem, in hardware, software, and policy.
Mark cut his teeth at 9to5Mac, then made his way to Bloomberg, where he regularly reports today.
And now he’s put out a newsletter, called “Power On”. It is excellent and worth your consideration. The headline link will take you to the inaugural edition. Here’s a link if you decide to subscribe.
Ben Evans, AmericaSpace:
In the early hours of 30 June 1971, the Soviet Union prepared to welcome its three latest cosmonaut heroes back to Earth after a record-breaking mission. Not only had the Soyuz 11 team—Georgi Dobrovolski, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev—spent more than 23 days in orbit, but they had also successfully occupied the world’s first true space station. It was a fitting response to the U.S. achievement of placing a man on the Moon. As the commander of one of the recovery helicopters spotted the parachute of Soyuz 11’s descent module, it was a glorious sight. The helicopters touched down and the would-be rescuers made their way cheerfully to the spacecraft, still superheated and charred from re-entry.
They could not have anticipated the horror that they would find inside.
A rarely told addition to the pantheon of space tragedies.
Michael Simon, Macworld:
Despite few negatives and a 4-star score in this review, I wouldn’t actually recommend the 12.9-inch iPad Pro to anyone who wasn’t already dead set on buying one. The screen is nice but not noticeably better than last year’s. The chip is fast but not noticeably faster than last year’s. The front camera is improved but not noticea—OK, the front camera is a lot better. But that’s not really a reason to spend a thousand-plus dollars to upgrade.
Read the review. If you ignore the headline and the conclusion (quoted above), it makes a great case for how phenomenal the new iPad really is. There’s the FaceTime camera and Center Stage. The incredible speed boost. The display upgrade. There’s a lot to love here, especially if you make use of apps that place a demand on the iPad processor.
But, to be fair, like most Apple hardware that has evolved over time (iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple TV), if you own the previous model, the leap in performance might not justify the expense of moving up by a single model. That’s just life in the ecosystem.
Zoe Schiffer, The Verge:
[A month ago] Tim Cook sent out an email telling employees the company was rolling out a new work model that would require them to return to in-office work on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays starting in the fall.
Then:
In the wake of that announcement, Apple employees wrote a letter saying some employees had been forced to quit because of the policy, and asking Cook to change his stance.
And, now:
Apple isn’t backing down from its hybrid work model that will require most employees to return to the office three days a week starting in early September. Fully remote positions will be extremely limited.
Apple’s response:
“We believe that in-person collaboration is essential to our culture and our future,” said Deirdre O’Brien, senior vice president of retail and people, in a video recording viewed by The Verge. “If we take a moment to reflect on our unbelievable product launches this past year, the products and the launch execution were built upon the base of years of work that we did when we were all together in-person.”
A solid test case for remote work and the tension between wanting to work at Apple and taking a job elsewhere to be able to work at home.
Did the pandemic make a foundational change to the way we think about where we do our jobs? Or was this a blip, with a slow slide back to the old ways?
Both of these were really worth watching. Amazing just how much detail was packed into the iOS 15 beta.
[H/T to @MHNDHQ for that second video]
On the off chance you didn’t know you could download Apple TV+ content, here’s a walkthrough on the process.
J. Glenn Künzler, Sonny Dickson blog:
Earlier this week, news broke of a strange networking issue that can permanently disable all WiFi activity on iOS devices. It’s currently known to affect iOS 14 only, and can cause quite a mess. The news was originally revealed by reverse engineer Carl Schou (via BleepingComputer (story sourced via MacTrast), and while there was originally very little information revealed about the issue or how it functions, we decided to put our research hats on and see what we could discover.
This all started with this tweet:
https://twitter.com/vm_call/status/1405937492642123782
Don’t try this at home. But a fascinating bug.
If you find this interesting, follow the headline link to watch J. Glenn Künzler try his hand to work through what’s going on.
In the list of additions (courtesy of José Adorno for 9to5Mac):
Here are links to installers for macOS Monterey, and for macOS Big Sur.
I’ve been playing with the Safari Technology Preview on top of my macOS Big Sur install. So far, so good. I’m editing these words in that preview. Note that the Preview is a separate app with its own icon, so you won’t be replacing your existing Safari install.
This is another in a long line of Apple Stores that do the original venue justice with a thoughtful, careful, and gorgeous restoration. In the name of commerce, yes, but done with all due respect.
The linked article is filled with gems. Start by scrolling through the pictures. The first two really tell the tale, showing the outside and the inside. But don’t miss that gallery in the middle of the post, leading off with a great side-by-side showing the original theater, in black and white, contrasted perfectly with the new Apple Store.
And, finally, take the time to watch the short embedded video showing off the theater and the restoration.
Another Apple Store for my bucket list.
This is a great explainer on how Apple Private Relay works and, just as importantly, what it will and will not do.
If the whole 9 minutes is more than you have to spend, jump to 3:10 in and watch from there, a real sweet spot in the explanation, where Rene lays out some differences between Apple Private Relay and a VPN. Great stuff.
Juli Clover, MacRumors:
Our FaceTime guide outlines everything that’s new in the FaceTime app in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, and many of these features are also in macOS Monterey and can even be used in tvOS 15. We’ve also included detailed how tos and tutorials so you can dive right into FaceTime after upgrading.
Another useful post, one that yields fruit with just a scan. I appreciate posts like this with a narrow scope, simpler slices through the river of new features introduced in the WWDC keynote.
Josh Centers, TidBITS:
We’re all eagerly awaiting iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12 Monterey, and watchOS 8, but will they run on the devices you have now? Apple continues to do an excellent job of supporting old devices, but many iPhone and iPad features will require at least an A12 Bionic chip. On the Mac side, some of the new features require an M1 processor.
Dig into the lists, see if your current hardware will support the features that interest you.
For example, here’s a list of features that require an A12 Bionic or later processor:
This is what I’d call “feature coaxing”, the addition of new features coaxing you to upgrade your hardware. Apple has this down to a science.
Great, useful, post.
Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac:
The iPhone 13 name would be off-putting to some 18% of iPhone and iPad users, who would describe themselves as triskaidekaphobic – that is, having a fear of the number 13.
The preferred alternative name would be iPhone (2021).
Famously, most tall buildings have no 13th floor. Because triskaidekaphobia, a superstitious fear of the number 13. There’s even a “thirteenth floor” Wikipedia page.
Will Apple push on with the name iPhone 13, despite the widespread (at least in the US) superstition? As Mike Glass points out, Apple didn’t have this issue with iOS 13, so my bet is on iPhone 13 and business as usual.
Josef Adalian, Vulture:
Earlier this week, Apple quietly confirmed it was changing the terms of its free trial. On its website, the company is now telling consumers that as of July 1, buying a new Apple device will only entitle them to three months of TV+ gratis, rather than a whole year.
This came up last week, I stumbled on it last night while making my way through another rabbit hole of reading. But the point is, Apple has announced an official policy change, giving you 3 free months of Apple TV+ when you buy a new Apple device, as opposed to the free year we’ve had up to this point.
To see this for yourself, jump to Apple’s Apple TV+ page, scroll all the way to the bottom, and check out footnote 1:
Eligible devices activated July 1, 2021 or later will qualify for offers of 3 months free Apple TV+. Eligible devices activated on June 30, 2021 or earlier will qualify for offers of 12 months free Apple TV+. $4.99/month after free trial.
As Josef says, Apple TV+ is about to take off the training wheels. Perfectly put.
After just 18 months or so in existence, TV+ currently offers more than 55 scripted, unscripted, and kids shows. And based on the regular press releases it sends out, it will be home to a couple dozen more big projects, including some big movies, by the end of 2022. Five or ten years ago, that sort of output would have given TV+ one of the biggest slates in television. As one top agent told me a few weeks ago as I was doing research for another story, “They have all the money in the world, and they spend it to make good stuff. They’re fulfilling their side of the bargain.”
In my mind, Apple TV+ is an amazing business success story. As season 2 starts rolling out, perfect time to take off those training wheels, see how the audience reacts with the smaller incentive.
Sami Fathi, MacRumors:
Despite previous attempts to put the situation at rest, some iCloud users continue to experience spam calendar invitations, causing their calendars to be filled with random events.
And:
Victims are targeted in various ways. The most common method is by receiving a normal iCloud calendar invitation through their calendar app.
Interacting with the invitation, including declining, accepting, or choosing “Maybe,” lets the spammer know that the email is valid, so it can continue to be targeted.
Other users are targeted through web pop-ups on potentially malicious or adult websites.
If you find yourself subscribed to a spam calendar event, check out the video below, which Apple Support posted a few weeks ago. Also, check out this Apple support document, which basically says the same thing as the video.
The Peabody Award winner announcements are rolling out today and Ted Lasso was just named one of the winners. Watch below as Will Ferrell strolls through his backyard (such a 2021 moment) to make the announcement, offer his congratulations to Apple and the Ted Lasso team.
Don’t miss the Ted Lasso scene that follows, followed by Jason Sudeikis accepting the award. Nice.
Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider, on optimizing your Mac storage space:
Is it worth keeping a collection of 500 photos from that trip to Paris a decade ago when you only look at one or two? Do you need gigabytes of videos of your cat?
While there are many ways to cut down the collection, you may want to take a few minutes to look at Apple’s built-in options for managing data stored on your Mac, under what Apple refers to as the Optimized Storage menu.
If you’ve not spent time with macOS Optimize Storage (Apple menu, About this Mac…, Storage tab, Manage… button, then click Optimize), take a few minutes to go through Malcolm’s walkthrough. There are a lot of options here, worth understanding the tree of possibilities.
Tim Hardwick, MacRumors, points out the new, enriched Info pane in the iOS and iPadOS Photos app.
This new version of the Info pane is a huge improvement, makes a photo’s EXIF data much easier to access, and also allows you to change things like a photo’s date and time, and add a location to your photo.
Huge improvement.
This is not simply a “here’s what’s new” video. This is more of a “here’s what’s fixed and incredibly useful”. Well presented, only 8 minutes long, and worth watching.
Ted Lasso has become the unexpected flagpole for Apple TV+, rising above all the other shows on pure likability. Can Season 2 carry the banner for another season?
Watch the trailer below, then mark your calendar for July 23rd when Season 2 officially begins.
You know doubt remember that historic, original 1984 Macintosh commercial. If not, you can watch it here.
With that as fuel for your memory, take a look at the video below, where designer Thibaut Crepelle pulled together an amazing, high res reimagining of an ad for that very first Macintosh.
From Rene’s description:
Apple’s Kevin Lynch, VP of Technology, and Deidre Caldbeck, Product Marketing, chat with us about their histories with Apple Watch and Health, new features like ID cards and keys, how they decide on new features, how they made Assistive Touch for Watch, bringing Mobility to iPhone, the visual representation and security of Health information, security vs sharing, and the future of Apple Health!
This was a fun video to watch. Fascinating to hear Kevin talk about his onboarding to the Apple Watch product, basically, the day he arrived at Apple. This is Rene at his best, a terrific interview.
Went down a rabbit hole, came across this video. A screen capture of Steve’s welcome message, in his own voice. When NeXT was his hope for the future. Fascinating.
The proposed legislation was originally reported by Bloomberg this way (original article quoted by Nick Heer):
Apple Inc. would be prohibited from pre-installing its own apps on Apple devices under antitrust reform legislation introduced last week, said Democratic Representative David Cicilline, who is leading a push to pass new regulations for U.S. technology companies.
After some back and forth with the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Representative David Cicilline, the Bloomberg article was changed to:
Cicilline told reporters Wednesday that a proposal prohibiting tech platforms from giving an advantage to their own products over those of competitors would mean Apple must let consumers decide which apps to use or remove.
That’s certainly a very different read.
So what does the proposed bill actually say? Here’s a link to a photo of the relevant language. Go ahead read it, it’s not long. But in my reading, it is vague and it is not hard to come up with some pretty significant implications. Like the originally take above, where Apple is banned from pre-installing its own apps (see Benedict Evans’ take).
At the very least, it’d be worth cleaning up the bill’s language to make the intent clear, remove any ambiguity. Then the premise can be debated on its intended merits. But a reminder, the phone part of your iPhone is an app from Apple. Gonna force Apple to make that removable?
Brian Heater, TechCrunch:
There have been plenty of pop-ups over the years, but tomorrow Google’s first store opens in NYC’s Chelsea neighborhood. The brick and mortar model finds the company joining peers like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and even Amazon, all of whom have a retail presence in Manhattan, including several just around the corner from Google’s new digs.
The new space, which opens tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. local time, fills 5,000 square feet of selling space in Google’s big, pricey West Side real estate investment. The retail location was previously occupied by a Post Office and Starbucks, which vacated the premises once their leases expired under their new corporate landlord.
The new space opened at 10a ET this morning. It’s a block from the Apple Store. 5,000 square feet of prime Chelsea real estate.
Watch the video below for a teaser from Google. Follow the headline link, scroll down for a photo gallery. Definitely going to check this place out.
Samuel Axon, Ars Technica:
Apple has been under a mountain of scrutiny lately from legislators, developers, judges, and users. Amidst all that, CEO Tim Cook sat with publication Brut. to discuss Apple’s strategy and policies. The short but wide-ranging interview offered some insight into where Apple plans to go in the future.
Tim Cook:
You can think of a world where privacy is not important, and the surveillance economy takes over and it becomes a world where everyone is worried that somebody else is watching them, and so they begin to do less, they begin to think less, and nobody wants to live in a world where that freedom of expression narrows.
And:
The current DMA language that is being discussed would force sideloading on the iPhone.
That would destroy the security of the iPhone and a lot of the privacy initiatives that we’ve built into the App Store, where we have privacy nutrition labels and App Tracking Transparency… these things would not exist anymore.
DMA refers to the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act.
Read the Ads Technica article for more detail/callouts, watch the video below for Tim’s actual interview.
This was a fascinating nugget from a deep dive into the very early reviews of the very first iPhone. The world has changed so very much since the iPhone release. This review brought back waves of nostalgia, back when it was not clear if the iPhone would catch on.
Olivia Carville, Bloomberg:
That team is made up of about 100 agents in Dublin, Montreal, Singapore, and other cities. Some have emergency-services or military backgrounds. Team members have the autonomy to spend whatever it takes to make a victim feel supported, including paying for flights, accommodation, food, counseling, health costs, and sexually transmitted disease testing for rape survivors. A former agent who was at Airbnb for five years describes the approach as shooting “the money cannon.” The team has relocated guests to hotel rooms at 10 times the cost of their booking, paid for round-the-world vacations, and even signed checks for dog-counseling sessions.
And:
Former agents recall cases where they had to counsel guests hiding in wardrobes or running from secluded cabins after being assaulted by hosts. Sometimes the guests were the perpetrators, as with an incident when one was found in bed, naked, with his host’s 7-year-old daughter.
And:
The work can be so stressful that agents have access to cool-down rooms with dimmed lighting to create a soothing atmosphere for answering harrowing calls. And it can take a heavy toll.
Holy crap! This was a harrowing read.
Juli Clover, MacRumors:
With macOS Monterey, Apple has introduced expanded AirPlay 2 support, so you can AirPlay content from an iPhone, iPad, or even another Mac to your main Mac. We thought we’d do a quick demo of this handy new feature in our latest YouTube video.
The video is embedded below. Still thinking about use cases here. Throw some video from my iPhone onto my Mac? Whole house audio (mentioned toward the end of the video)? Note the mention of AirPlay’ed video being compressed to a lower quality.
Kirk McElhearn:
I’ve written about high-resolution music plenty over the years, and it’s clear that, for the vast majority of listeners, it’s just marketing and won’t make a difference.
But Apple has added music formats that can’t even be played back on Macs, without changing a hidden setting. Here’s why.
If you are interested in Lossless on your Mac, this is a must read, especially if you are new to the Audio Midi Setup application (you’ll find it in Applications/Utilities).