Media

macOS Big Sur: 85+ Top Features/Changes!

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[VIDEO] Jeff Benjamin, 9to5Mac, returns with another massive video (embedded in the main Loop post), this time focusing on the changes from macOS Catalina and the first beta of Big Sur.

Settle in, grab a snack, enjoy.

iPadOS 14, Apple Pencil, and Scribble in action

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[VIDEO] I’ve been playing with Apple Pencil and Scribble since the first iPadOS 14 beta dropped. One thing I’d love to find is an exhaustive list of Scribble gestures.

The video (embedded in the main Loop post), from iDownloadBlog is an excellent starting point. But I’m convinced there are more gestures than this.

At the very least, there are subtleties, like double-tap and triple-tap (to select a word and paragraph), as well as machine learning elements at work to detect addresses, phone numbers, etc. that we’ve always seen in typed text.

I find Scribble fun and fascinating. If you’ve got a non-critical iPad and an Apple Pencil (even first gen), consider diving in to the public beta when it drops, purely to play with this amazing tech.

Apple’s amazing privacy animations

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Follow the headline link, then drink in that subtle padlock animation on the load page. Reload the page if you missed it.

Now start scrolling. Every panel has its own detailed animation. Amazing how much effort Apple put into this page. Curious what tool they used.

iOS 14 beta: Top 250+ features

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[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.

Apple TV+: Official Little Voice trailer

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[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 beta: It’s complicated…finally

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[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.

Rene Ritchie: iOS 14 — Details & Secrets (WWDC 2020)

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[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.

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation coming to Apple TV+

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[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.

Tim Cook on WWDC eve: “I’m full of secrets and it’s hard not to overflow right now”

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[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.

Rene Ritchie: What the Mac needs next (and a brief history of macOS nicknames)

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[VIDEO] Rene shares his thoughts on what he’d like to see from Apple where macOS is concerned. Worth watching. Video embedded in the main Loop post.

But to me, the even more worth watching part is the Lion’s share of the open (pun intended), where Rene riffs about all those Apple OS nicknames. A great history lesson, with some OS names you might not have been aware of.

THE HOOD INTERNET presents 1989

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[VIDEO] This is a fun, ongoing project. 50 songs from every year, mashed up into a single song/video (video embedded in main Loop post).

I keep waiting to see when the aspect ratio will change from old-school 4:3 to a more modern 16:9 or the like.

Enjoy.

Teaser trailer for Apple TV+ Little Voice

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[VIDEO] From the description of the trailer (video embedded in main Loop post):

A love letter to the diverse musicality of New York starring Brittany O’Grady, Sean Teale, Colton Ryan, Shalini Bathina, Kevin Valdez, Phillip Johnson Richardson and Chuck Cooper, “Little Voice” follows Bess King, a uniquely talented performer struggling to fulfill her dreams while navigating rejection, love, and complicated family issues. Featuring original music by Grammy and Tony Award nominee, Sara Bareilles, this is a story about finding your authentic voice—and the courage to use it.

This is mostly a taste of Sara Bareilles performing, with cut together visuals of characters from the upcoming show. No sense of the characters, who they are, what drives the show plot. The barest of teasers. For a show that premieres in just a few weeks, seems like we’d see more of the actual content by now.

The show premieres July 10th. Hoping it’s worth the wait.

HBO branding gets just a bit less confusing as HBO Now becomes HBO and HBO Go gets shelved (mostly)

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Dade Hayes, Deadline:

Looking to streamline its offerings after critics have said they are complicated and difficult to navigate, even for existing customers, the company has also rebranded stand-alone service HBO Now to just HBO. The shift is expected to happen over the next few months.

HBO Go, which launched in 2010, will be removed from primary distribution platforms on July 31 but some online access will continue for a few weeks after that. The unplugging of Go is only in the U.S. Internationally, it will continue to operate, at least for now.

I still can’t wrap my head around the thinking on the HBO streaming plans. HBO, HBO Go, HBO Now, and HBO Max. All of which overlap pretty significantly, and whose names give no real indication of where the overlap ends.

A few good reads (and one video) on Apple and ARM-based Macs

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[VIDEO] A few articles I found enlightening, with food-for-thought on what issues are important to consider in the potential (likely?) Mac move from Intel to ARM:

  • John Gruber takes apart Mark Gurman’s article (the Bloomberg piece that started off this wave), adding in his own thoughts on the question of emulation (see the Rosetta video at the end of this post), Book Camp and virtualization, and the impact this move might have on current Mac sales.

  • Next up is this TidBITS article from former long-time Apple Engineer David Shayer. A good backgrounder to read. Again, the question of a potential emulator rears its head. Will Windows emulation fall by the wayside in this new wave of Macs?

  • Last write-up is this piece from The Verge’s Dieter Bohn, What Windows can teach the Mac about the switch to ARM processors. Lots of detail on potential paths here. Will Windows emulation survive such a transition?

And, finally, here’s Steve Jobs (video embedded in main Loop post), at WWDC 2005, announcing the Rosetta emulator, which translated PowerPC instructions to Intel x86 as the app was running. This was a critical step to moving the PowerPC universe to Intel. Jump to about 38:22 in for the start of that part of the video.

The 2020 voice assistant battle

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[VIDEO] This side-by-side, pitting Google against Siri, Alex, and Bixby, was interesting to watch (Video embedded in main Loop post).

The question set was limited, so it’s not really a definitive look. It’d be interesting to see an open source effort to create an extensive, defining set of questions to pose, one that could be passed along to the assistant team at any company with a voice assistant in the works.

If I was creating such a question set, I’d definitely push the boundaries, go for fully interactive conversations, with call-backs to previous questions, and questions that require the ability to plumb the depths of apps.

For example, how about questions that explore email and browsing habits, pull up orders from recent purchases, test the ability of the assistant to recall recent messaging conversations.

The tests could show how much “understanding” is going on, but also provide insight into privacy boundaries as well.

Just a thought.

[VIDEO] Amazing what people working together can do

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[VIDEO] Neighbors wanted to move a shed from one persons property to another. Watch how they accomplish this. An allegory appropriate for the times. Together trumps separate. Video embedded in main Loop post.

First look at the Apple News+ Audio beta

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[VIDEO] This is a beta, so no guarantee this will ever rollout in a public iOS release, take with a grain of salt.

That said, I find this fascinating, a doubling down on Apple News+. If Apple brings in actors to read stories, that’s certainly going to limit the scalability of audio (versus using Siri, or an automated text to speech process), but it will add a level of emotion and precision to the audio.

If I was a publisher, having Apple customize my content at no cost to me (assuming that’s the case) would make participating in Apple News+ more attractive.

Interesting experiment. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Apple engineer Jordyn Castor, who has been blind since birth, talks coding and accessibility

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[VIDEO] Great video (via Daring Fireball), very cool indeed. It takes place at the California School for the Blind, highlights Apple Engineer Jordyn Castor as she talks about writing code, making it easier for others to write code using Apple Playgrounds and other tools. This is about empowerment. Wonderful. Video embedded in main Loop post.

HBO Max now available on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, turns out you might already have a subscription

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Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

The HBO Max application is now available for Apple users with apps for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV: get the app here. HBO Max replaces HBO Now, so if you have the Now app already installed, it will transform into Max the next time the App Store updates your apps. HBO Max is a US-only service.

And:

Alongside everything you expect from HBO, Max content includes the full catalog of sitcom Friends, Looney Tunes, Studio Ghibli, Adult Swim shows, and a documentary on sexual assault accusations against Russel Simmons.

It’s getting crowded out there, so many streaming services to consider.

As to HBO Max, it’s possible you already have access. Check out this article from Yahoo, which details all the side deals that might bring HBO Max to you for free.

For example, I got an email from AT&T telling me my unlimited mobile plan gives me free, day one access to HBO Max. There are lots of other similar deals in place, as HBO Max battles for mindshare.

Apple shares trailer for new Apple TV+ show, “Dear…”

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[VIDEO] Apple:

From Emmy-winning filmmaker R.J. Cutler, Dear… profiles game-changing icons and the people whose lives they’ve inspired.

10 icons, 10 episodes, all dropping June 5th.

Watch the trailer (embedded in the main Loop post) to get a sense of this.

Scott Forstall tells story about Steve Jobs, Microsoft, and a dead fish

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[VIDEO] Scott Forstall, via Zoom, tells audience at Code Break about meeting Steve Jobs for the first time. The video is embedded in the main Loop post. Very entertaining. His part of the interview starts at about 31:51. Scott starts by talking about a formative childhood experience. The Steve Jobs bit starts at about 35:54.

Forstall is best known as the software lead for both iPhone and iPad. Here’s a link to his Wikipedia page, which is an interesting read on its own.

iJustine upgrading her Mac Pro with RAM, SSD, wheels

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[VIDEO] I found this fascinating to watch from beginning to end. I love fixing stuff, digging inside any sort of machine. This scratched an itch with an experience I can only dream about. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Tom Hanks WWII film ‘Greyhound’ will premiere on Apple TV +

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[VIDEO] Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline:

In a real shocker, the WWII naval drama Greyhound that Tom Hanks wrote and stars in has abruptly changed course and will berth at Apple. Originally on the Sony Pictures theatrical calendar for Father’s Day weekend, the film instead will become the biggest feature film commitment made by Apple to premiere on Apple TV+. It is the latest in a growing indication that Apple is making its move, and becoming as aggressive as any streamer or studio in auctions for the acquisition of films and TV projects.

This is no small thing. This is right in Tom Hanks’ sweet spot, historical drama (think Apollo 13, From the Earth to the Moon, Saving Private Ryan). And circumstances plopped this right in Apple’s lap. A big win for Apple.

As to the movie:

He’ll play George Krause, a career officer finally given command of a Navy destroyer, Greyhound, during the Battle of the Atlantic, which took place in the earliest months of America’s alliance with England and the Free Forces. Along with the enemy, Krause fights his self-doubts and personal demons to prove he belongs.

Trailer embedded in main Loop post.

I can’t get next to you

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[VIDEO] If you read the title and instantly thought of The Temptations, then this is definitely for you, a lip-sync tour de force.

And if the title means nothing more to you than social distancing in the time of coronavirus, that’s just fine, dig in anyway.

Great song, great performance. Video embedded in the main Loop post.