[VIDEO] Follow the headline link for a guided walkthrough with pics, or the video embedded in the main Loop post (< 5 min) to see all that’s new in watchOS 7.
Business
Apple cancels some Arcade games in strategy shift to keep subscribers
Bloomberg:
On calls in mid-April, an Apple Arcade creative producer told some developers that their upcoming games didn’t have the level of “engagement” Apple is seeking, the people said. Apple is increasingly interested in titles that will keep users hooked, so subscribers stay beyond the free trial of the service, according to the people.
And:
On the calls with developers in April, the Apple Arcade representative cited a specific example of the type of game the company wants: Grindstone, an engaging puzzle-action game by Capybara Games that has many levels.
And, from Apple:
“Apple Arcade has redefined what a gaming service can be, putting unlimited play at the fingertips of subscribers and their families across all their Apple devices,” Apple said in a statement. “We are proud to have launched the first-ever mobile game subscription service that now features more than 120 games, many of which are award-winning and widely celebrated for their artistry and gameplay. The vision has always been to grow and evolve the Apple Arcade catalog, and we can’t wait for our users to try the games developers are working on now.”
This seems a sound business strategy. For Apple Arcade to work, it needs the revenue from users who pay to stay beyond their free trial. And games that pull users in are going to be the winners here, both for their studios and for Apple.
Apple not dominant in any market, plenty of rivals, senior executive says
Foo Yun Chee, Reuters:
“We compete with a wide variety of companies, Google, Samsung, Huawei HWT.UL, Vivo, LG 066570.KS, Lenovo 0992.HK and many more,” Daniel Matray, head of Apple’s App Store and Apple Media Services, told a Forum Europe online event.
“In fact, Apple does not have a dominant position in any market, and we face strong competition in every category, in tablets, wearables, desktop and notebook computers, maps, music, payments, messaging, and more,” he said.
And:
Matray defended Apple’s App Store, saying the same rules apply to all developers, large and small, with 85% of apps not required to pay a 30% fee to the company which is only valid for those which use its in-app payment service.
Not sure what else one could expect Matray to say. Making the talking points to defend against the EU antitrust investigations into the App Store and Apple Pay.
iOS 14 beta: Top 250+ features
[VIDEO] This is some magnificent work by 9to5Mac’s Jeff Benjamin (video embedded in the main Loop post).
Put your feet up, grab a snack, this one is long. But it’s really well done, and the music is excellent. Nice job, Jeff.
Safari can now stream 4K HDR and Dolby Vision content on Netflix with macOS Big Sur
Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac:
Netflix has been offering 4K content for a long time, but Mac users have never been able to watch them due to hardware limitations, since the platform relies on the HEVC codec.
And:
With macOS Big Sur, which is currently available as a beta developer, Mac users can finally watch movies and TV shows on Netflix in 4K resolution. It also works with Dolby Vision and HDR10, which delivers more brilliant and vivid colors.
Unfortunately, according to Apple, the 4K High Dynamic Range stream requires a Mac introduced in 2018 or later.
The absence of 4K in Safari was a tiny sore point. Glad to see this evolution happening.
Making music in Excel
[VIDEO] Ridiculous. And fun. [Via Kottke]
Video embedded in main Loop post.
Apple, Big Sur, and the rise of Neumorphism
From last week, InputMag with an interesting take on the move from skeuomorphism to flat design, followed by macOS Big Sur’s push into a new kind of design, dubbed neumorphism.
Take the discussion flying around Twitter about Big Sur’s icons with a grain of salt. This is a new design wave, and the rules are still being written, broken, and rewritten.
Some design elements break reality (shadows that are just wrong or that fight other shadows with inconsistent lighting patterns). Will Apple work on lining all those shadows up? Will they let icons be art, give designers a free hand?
I’ve always felt that the design pendulum swung too far to the flat side, offering fewer clues to users (Is the switch on or off? Hard to tell.) I’m looking forward to seeing what designers do with neumorphism, but hoping for a consistently lit, nuanced touch.
Google’s plan to pay the news industry
Google blog:
Today, we are announcing a licensing program to pay publishers for high-quality content for a new news experience launching later this year. This program will help participating publishers monetize their content through an enhanced storytelling experience that lets people go deeper into more complex stories, stay informed and be exposed to a world of different issues and interests. We will start with publishers in a number of countries around the globe, with more to come soon.
With the news of The New York Times bowing out of Apple News+, this feels like Google easing in. Question is, will Google’s model be even somewhat lucrative for news organizations?
As is, news and journalism has been crushed by the race to the bottom that torpedoed the value of factual reporting and allowed the rise of fairy tale journalism.
Where available, Google will also offer to pay for free access for users to read paywalled articles on a publisher’s site. This will let paywalled publishers grow their audiences and open an opportunity for people to read content they might not ordinarily see.
Here’s hoping this is a turn in the right direction.
Arm-based Macs: Here’s what’s happening to Boot Camp
Samuel Axon, Ars Technica:
When Apple announced its plans to transition the Mac to its own, ARM-based silicon and away from the x86 architecture used in Intel Macs, the company listed a plethora of tools for making sure as many applications survive the shift as possible. But while it’s helpful that Apple is providing developer tools for adapting Intel Mac apps and virtualization tools for running the apps that won’t make the move right away, there’s one scenario Apple didn’t talk about at all during its keynote: running Windows natively on a Mac.
And:
While virtualization via tools like Parallels or VMWare are usually sufficient for running most Windows apps under macOS, there are some edge cases when the Boot Camp approach is the only option. One of the most common: running Windows PC games, which tend to run more optimally under Windows than they do under macOS, no matter how well done the ports are.
And there’s the rub. Boot Camp allows Windows to run natively, currently as an Intel-targeted OS running natively on Intel platform.
But:
We’ve learned that Boot Camp will not work on Apple silicon-based Macs. This will surely be a surprise to almost no one, of course. You can’t expect to just run a game natively out of the box on a totally different architecture.
Yup. Boot Camp itself doesn’t allow an Intel-compiled OS to run natively on Arm. So will Microsoft allow a version of Windows to be built, targeted specifically at Apple’s Mac/Arm architecture?
Does Apple want Windows on the Mac? Is that an important part of the next generation of Macs?
What’s new in the Apple Music app for iOS 14
A detailed walkthrough on the new features the iOS 14 Music app brings to the table.
Public beta coming in July, with a likely release in September.
WWDC Day 3 recap
Serenity Caldwell continues to bring it. Great work.
As much as I miss the camaraderie, I am really enjoying this year’s experience. My hope is that all the changes Apple is bringing, especially the new production elements, will continue next year.
Android Authority marvels at iPhone 6s getting iOS 14 update
C. Scott Brown, AndroidAuthority:
At this point, saying Android has a serious problem when it comes to phones receiving reliable Android upgrades is getting old. We’ve written about it a lot — even I, specifically, have written about it a lot. You’ve told us your thoughts. We all get it. Even with all that, though, the latest announcement of iOS 14 really sends the message home.
We do talk about this a lot. By its very nature, the Android market is fragmented. Extremely so.
Meanwhile, the flagship Android device from 2015 was the Samsung Galaxy S6. The most recent official version of Android that phone received was Android 7 Nougat, which dropped in 2016. Of course, it was well into 2017 before the Galaxy S6 actually got it. Since then: nothing.
I’ve seen this same message in a number of places, staunch Android supporters grumphing about their older phones reaching the practical end of Android update rollouts. And they are not wrong.
Come join us. You are more than welcome.
Apple TV+: Official Little Voice trailer
[VIDEO] I’m intrigued by this show. Sara Bareilles is a terrific musician and songwriter, and J.J. Abrams has a great body of work behind him. But this trailer (embedded in the main Loop post) provides the first look at the show itself, a glimpse of the characters that inhabit Little Voice.
Check it out.
iOS 14 sends a notification when your Apple Watch is fully charged
This is a nice to have feature, but especially useful here:
The new charged notification is a useful feature for the Apple Watch’s Sleep app, which lets users wear the Apple Watch at night for sleep tracking purposes.
The Apple Watch can’t be charged while it’s worn at night, of course, so after waking up, it will need to be placed on the charger if the battery is getting low.
Wake up, throw your Apple Watch on the charge, do your morning Loop posts (OK, maybe you do you), then, when you get the notification, grab your watch and go.
I Just Go Into Jiggle Mode (A WWDC 20 song)
[VIDEO] Yeah, just watch. I love this a lot. Video embedded in main Loop post.
Rene Ritchie: Apple dumps Intel — Explained!
[VIDEO] This is an excellent explainer, soup to nuts, about Apple’s move from Intel to ARM (video embedded in main Loop post). Per usual for Rene, this is packed with detail, but is ultimately rewarding.
Absolutely worth your time. One question remains for me: Does Apple need a Windows story anymore?
You can listen to the music of WWDC
Apple:
It wouldn’t be WWDC without a little music. Bring Khalid and The Killers into your living room and create your very own musical conference experience with the WWDC20 playlist collection, now available on Apple Music. The opening WWDC20 playlist features great artists like Glass Animals and Alicia Keys, and includes Aurora from this year’s opening video.
In addition, Apple Music is celebrating the powerful connection the development community has to music with a new “Music to Code to” series, which features several multi-hour playlists featuring different musical styles and genres.
If you are on an iOS device, follow this link to get to the official WWDC music playlist page.
Interestingly, if you follow the link on a Mac, you’ll get to an XML dump, but no musical joy.
iOS 14 beta: It’s complicated…finally
[VIDEO] The Verge’s Dieter Bohn takes the iOS 14 beta through its paces. Pretty watchable, and he covers a lot of ground, with sections on widgets, jiggle mode, editing app pages, app libraries, and much more.
Good way to learn about the iOS 14 interface. Video embedded in main Loop post.
Apple updates AirPods Pro firmware to version 2D27
To check your firmware version number:
- Pop your AidPods out of the case and connect them to your iPhone
- Go to Settings > General > About
- Scroll down and tap on your AirPods Pro, which will appear only when connected
I was on 2D15 this morning, firmware update to 2D27 happened pretty immediately once I was connected. Your mileage may vary.
Senate Republicans introduce “Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act”, which would change privacy as we know it
First things first, take a minute to read this official Senate Judiciary Committee explainer. It’s actually not that long and pretty readable.
At its heart:
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and U.S. Senators Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) today introduced the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act, a bill to bolster national security interests and better protect communities across the country by ending the use of “warrant-proof” encrypted technology by terrorists and other bad actors to conceal illicit behavior.
Now go read John Gruber’s headline-linked take. At its heart:
This is breathtaking. At least they’re being somewhat clear here: they’re proposing outlawing all end-to-end encryption. Encryption that is “warrant-proof” is everything-proof — there are no decryption keys in the middle. Encryption that can be undone at the behest of a lawful warrant can also be undone by anyone with access to the keys.
The way I read it, this would require device manufacturers (like Apple) to build in some mechanism to allow them to (as the result of a warrant) break encryption. This is no small thing. This would break Apple’s privacy foundation.
Keep your eyes on this one.
Apple video: Everything you need to know about WWDC 2020, day one
[VIDEO] First things first, that’s Serenity Caldwell doing the voiceover on that video (embedded in main Loop post). Great to hear her in her new role at Apple.
As to the video itself, it’s fantastic. To me, it’s like a 15 second, quick cut, high energy iPhone commercial, stretched out to almost 2 minutes. And every bit as enjoyable.
Rene Ritchie: iOS 14 — Details & Secrets (WWDC 2020)
[VIDEO] Rene doing what he does best: Talk through a bunch of detail, this time on iOS 14. Lots and lots of detail, worth watching all the way through.
One bit that struck me, albeit more for the macOS implications than what it does for iOS. Rene raises the issue of Safari changing codes, from H.265 to AV1. Question is, will I be able to finally see 4K YouTube videos in macOS Safari? Seems likely.
Anyway, lots to process in the video embedded in the main Loop post. Good stuff.
Wired: Apple’s Intel breakup will reshape Macs—and beyond
Brian Barrett, Wired:
Apple outlined several failsafes to ensure as few bumps along that road as possible. It will ship Rosetta 2, an emulator that will let ARM-based Macs run Intel software from any lagging developers. It will allow for virtualization of Linux, although Apple has been mum as to whether Macs will continue to be able to load Windows through Boot Camp or virtualization software. Most intriguingly—and unexpectedly—iPhone and iPad apps will be able to run natively on a Mac.
And, on the Roseta 2 emulator:
“It translates the apps when you install them so they can launch immediately and be instantly responsive,” said Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi during Monday’s keynote. “Rosetta 2 can also can also translate code on the fly when needed, like web browsing. It even handles the most complex pro apps and their plug-ins.”
And:
There’s also a question of at what point certain apps, in particular those that aren’t actively maintained, simply stop working on ARM-based Macs.
Terrific article. I’ve been watching developers download and install macOS 11 Big Sur (yes, it’s macOS 11), then jump through the hoops to build ARM versions of their existing apps. Without the actual Mac mini Developer Transition Kit in hand, hard to know if the ported apps actually work, but (grain of salt) assuming the ports do work on ARM hardware, this looks like a reasonably pain free port for mainstream apps.
I’ve got an app in the hopper, waiting to try for myself.
Isaac Asimov’s Foundation coming to Apple TV+
[VIDEO] Apple:
Today at WWDC20, Apple surprised audiences with a first look at “Foundation,” the highly anticipated Apple Original drama series based on the internationally revered and award-winning Isaac Asimov novel series of the same name.
In the teaser trailer, showrunner and executive producer David S. Goyer unveils a glimpse into the making of the epic saga, which chronicles a band of exiles on their monumental journey to save humanity and rebuild civilization amid the fall of the Galactic Empire.
For folks new to Isaac Asimov’s all-time great science fiction series, spend a bit of time on the Foundation Wikipedia page.
This Apple TV+ series has vaulted to the top of my can’t wait list.
The teaser trailer is embedded in the main Loop post. Enjoy.
Jason Snell: Thoughts on WWDC 2020 Day One
Lots of interesting comments, but this one struck me:
People who rely on running Windows apps on their Macs, however, will not find a comforting story. Apple made a point of highlighting virtualization features that are built into macOS Big Sur running on Apple Silicon, but these seem to be for virtualizing operating systems built for Apple’s processors, not for emulating an operating system built for a different processor. I would imagine that, eventually, there will be a way to run Windows on ARM Macs–but it may take a while and it may be a slow, frustrating experience when it does arrive.
The fact that Apple demoed Linux running on an ARM Mac, and showed off Office apps but not Windows, was certainly noticeable. I’d love to know if there’s a plan in place to install Windows on an ARM Mac, or if that’s a dead path.
Apple’s olive branch to HEY
HEY blog, this morning (hours before the WWDC keynote), a post from Basecamp CEO Jason Fried:
Late Friday night, on June 19th, Apple’s App Store Review Board surprised us by approving the pending bug fixes to the HEY iOS app that were held up all last week.
The note from Apple:
Hello Jason,
We’ve seen David’s tweets and look forward to working with you on a path forward.
This update has been approved.
Sincerely,
App Review Board
The tweets in question were from @dhh in response to last week’s response from Phil Schiller.
For HEY and for Apple, this seems the best possible outcome, especially given the proximity to the WWDC keynote.
And the letter ends on the best possible note:
And Phil, we set aside an amazing @hey.com address for you. Free for life, our gift to you. Lemme know.
Obviously, this addresses one specific bump in the road. The question remains, will Apple hold fast, or will we see any App Store policy changes this week?
How to watch the WWDC keynote
As of this post, Apple’s web site is still up. In past years, this has typically meant no new hardware for immediate ordering. We shall see.
The keynote begins at 10a PT, 1p ET.
If you’ve got an Apple TV, watch in the Apple TV app (if you fire up the Apple Events app, you should get redirected). The event should pop up as we get closer to go time.
If you’re watching in browser, jump to Apple’s official Apple Events web site to watch there.
And checkout Michael Potuck’s 9to5Mac post for even more options.
After 15 years, Apple prepares to break up with Intel
New York Times:
Apple has been working for years on designing chips to replace the Intel microprocessors used in Mac computers, according to five people with knowledge of the effort.
Oddly specific number. But no matter.
Apple’s move is an indication of the growing power of the biggest tech companies to expand their abilities and reduce their dependence on major partners that have provided them with services for years — even as smaller competitors and the global economy struggle because of the coronavirus pandemic.
And that’s really the core of this story.
Facebook, for example, is investing billions of dollars into one of Indonesia’s fastest-growing apps, a telecom giant in India and an undersea fiber-optic cable around Africa. Amazon has built out its own fleet of cargo planes and delivery trucks. And Google and Apple continue to buy upstarts to expand their empires.
Logical for Apple to want to own the full stack. If it was financially prudent to make all their supply-chain elements themselves, and do all the manufacturing in house, even mine all the materials they use, why wouldn’t they?
But as corporate behemoths grow, the mom and pops of the world fall by the wayside. Interesting read.
One advantage of the App Store that’s gone
Brent Simmons:
The best part of the App Store, years ago, from this developer’s point of view, was that it was easy to charge money for an app. No need to set up a system — just choose the price, and Apple takes care of everything. So easy!
Ah, the good old days. Before the race to the bottom.
But these days, in almost all cases, you’d be ill-advised to charge up front for your app. You need a trial version and in-app purchasing (IAP) and maybe a subscription.
Here’s the thing: this is a massive pain in the ass to implement, test, and support — Apple does not make it easy.
It is harder and harder to make a living building apps. Apple expects a lot from their developers. And if an ARM-based Mac shows up, that’s yet another wrinkle in an already complicated model.
Will Apple talk about the App Store this week, beyond touting numbers? Will we see a “We hear you, and here’s what we’re doing about it” moment?
Tim Cook on WWDC eve: “I’m full of secrets and it’s hard not to overflow right now”
[VIDEO] Tim Cook, on CBS Sunday Morning yesterday:
I’m full of secrets and it’s hard not to overflow right now. But I’ve been trained well.”
This is a big moment. Connecting with developers amid rising tensions, and with huge (rumored) ARM-based Mac news to share. And if that latter news is true, Apple is about to ask developers to shoulder some potentially heavy burdens, that of rebuilding their apps to support a brand new architecture.
While porting your app to support ARM might be as simple as checking a check box and rebuilding, that view seems optimistic. More likely, this change will require more testing hardware purchases, and more time spent porting, tweaking, and testing. More time preparing and sending out beta versions to a limited universe of folks with the right hardware.
Watch the interview, embedded in the main Loop post. Keep in mind, this was yesterday. Tim and company read the blogs, he knows the lay of the land.
It’ll be an interesting afternoon, and an interesting week.