Recorded in front of a live audience at The California Theatre in San Jose, John Gruber is joined by Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi to discuss the news from WWDC: new Mac hardware, the new iPad Pro, Mac OS 10.13 “High Sierra”, iOS 11, the upcoming HomePod, and more.
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Listening to HomePod
While at WWDC this week I had a chance to listen to Apple’s new HomePod and compare it to some of the competing products on the market. The results were somewhat surprising.
How to homer
I can identify with this quest. 40lbs ago, I could dunk a basketball; not Jordan-like but I had some hops. I used to be able to throw a perfect spiral 60 yards downfield. Not accurately but with some distance. And I’ve scored my fair share of hockey goals. But I’ve never held a bat in a major league ballpark and “gone yard”. Definitely a bucket list item but, after reading this article and realizing the work it took this guy, I may have to scratch it off as impossible.
Apple’s new iMac Pro costs $5000, but is it overpriced?
“Things are worth what people will pay” may be true but, in this case, it looks like what Apple is charging for the new iMac Pro is actually in line with what you can reasonably expect a powerful system like this to cost.
Take a lap in the world’s most dangerous race
The people who race the Isle of Man TT are certifiably insane.
Apple announces the WWDC 2017 Apple Design Award winners
As usual, this page will cost me a small fortune.
James Dempsey and the Breakpoints show tonight at WWDC
Join the women@wwdc and James Dempsey and the Breakpoints for an evening of mingling and music to benefit App Camp For Girls!
I’ll be there tonight with my guitar to help support James and App Camp for Girls. There’s still time to grab a ticket!
TV review: Apple’s ‘Planet of the Apps’
I haven’t seen it yet (I’ll watch it eventually but I’m in no rush) but this is the exact review from a “real” TV critic I would have expected on the show.
Apple can afford to mess with annoying, snoopy ads
Apple is in a unique position because of their stance on privacy and their business model.
12-year-old singing ventriloquist gets golden buzzer on “America’s Got Talent”
This is pretty incredible.
Do household printers leave an invisible tracking code on all your printed documents?
I thought everyone knew about this. I remember hearing about it in the late 1990s as color printers were becoming more common in offices. We were told not to try and photocopy money – it wouldn’t work and we’d be tracked.
Be careful celebrating Google’s new ad blocker
I was automatically and understandably skeptical about the stories that Google would create an ad blocker for the Chrome web browser. As expected, this benefits Google the most and might actually hurt many users.
How to opt out of Twitter’s new privacy settings
It’s typically sleazy for Twitter to have the pop up give the impression that nothing will change.
Snake Venom is officially the world’s strongest beer
D’Marge:
Coming at you from Scotland’s Brewmeister, Snake Venom boasts a warning label and a whopping 67.5% ABV.
Nobody show this to Jim. Every bottle comes with a bright yellow hang-tag warning label. It should come with a lock and a designated EMT. Yeesh.
Michelle Obama talks entrepreneurship, social issues, more at WWDC
AppleInsider has some video but I hope Apple posts an “official” version soon for us to watch.
Thoughts on WWDC
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicked off on Monday in San Jose, California, the first time it’s been in the city since 2002. Not only did Apple have the pressure of putting on the conference in San Jose, they also had to deliver great updates for developers and consumers. They delivered on all counts. […]
The second coming of iPad
I’m very impressed with the new iPad and even more so with the next version of iOS. The combination is going to be enough to get me to (finally) retire my old iPad and buy the newest one.
Apple halves cost of 2TB iCloud plan to $9.99 a month
Any cost savings is good. This makes it much easier to recommend iCloud storage to my photography students.
Why Apple is struggling to become an artificial-intelligence powerhouse
I don’t I’d agree with the “struggling” part of the story but it’s still an interesting look at Apple’s AI efforts.
The Apple exec who stole the show at WWDC explains why she will now be the face of Uber
This is a big deal and a loss for Apple but if that’s Uber’s goal, they have zero chance of achieving it with or without her.
Apple adds advanced editing features to Photos app in macOS High Sierra
I’m still not giving up Lightroom for Apple’s Photos app but it’s great to see the added features in the native app.
The new App Store
Apple today unveiled the all-new App Store, designed from the ground up to make discovering apps and games easier than ever before. The beautifully redesigned App Store is packed with original stories and editorial, updated daily in a new Today tab, as well as new Games and Apps tabs. Compelling stories, in-depth interviews, helpful tips and collections of must-have apps and games will showcase Apple’s unique perspective and aim to inform, help and inspire customers every day. App Store customers have now downloaded more than 180 billion apps and Apple has paid out over $70 billion to developers since the store launched in 2008, making it the most vibrant software marketplace in the world.
Two things I like with this update. First, games have their own tab so those of us that don’t game won’t have to scroll through them all the time. Second, the Today page may just help discovery.
iMac Pro
Apple today gave a sneak peek of iMac Pro, an entirely new workstation-class product line designed for pro users with the most demanding workflows. The all-new iMac Pro, with its gorgeous 27-inch Retina 5K display, up to 18-core Xeon processors and up to 22 Teraflops of graphics computation, is the most powerful Mac ever made. Featuring a stunning new space gray enclosure, iMac Pro packs incredible performance for advanced graphics editing, virtual reality content creation and real-time 3D rendering. iMac Pro is scheduled to ship in December starting at $4,999 (US).
It’s pretty safe to say Apple is serious about the Mac.
iOS 11
Apple today previewed iOS 11, a major update to the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, bringing new experiences and hundreds of features to iPhone and iPad this fall. iOS 11 is the biggest software release ever for iPad, with powerful multitasking features, the Files app and more ways to use Apple Pencil. Augmented reality is coming to hundreds of millions of iOS devices with a new platform for developers to build apps that let users place virtual content on top of real-world scenes. CoreML gives developers on-device machine learning capabilities so they can easily make apps that will predict, learn and become more intelligent. Additional features include the ability to pay friends using Apple Pay, Do Not Disturb while driving to help users stay more focused on the road, even more intelligence and a new voice for Siri and new professional capabilities to Photos and Camera. iOS 11 is available as a developer preview today and will be a free software update for iPhone and iPad this fall.
There is a lot to love about iOS 11, much of it centered around the iPad.
Apple unveils the 10.5-inch iPad Pro
Apple today introduced an all-new 10.5-inch iPad Pro and a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro, featuring the world’s most advanced display with ProMotion technology and incredible performance with the new A10X Fusion chip. The new 10.5-inch model reduces the borders by nearly 40 percent to fit into an incredibly compact package that still weighs just one pound. Combined with powerful new iPad features in iOS 11 coming this fall, like the all-new Files app, customizable Dock, improved multitasking and deeper integration of Apple Pencil, iPad Pro gives users the ability to be even more productive and creative.
The 9.7-inch is my favorite because of the screen technologies, but I do use the larger one sometimes just because of the size. It’ll be interesting for me to try the 10.5-inch and see if that’s the perfect combination of both.
Apple introduces HomePod
Apple today announced HomePod, a breakthrough wireless speaker for the home that delivers amazing audio quality and uses spatial awareness to sense its location in a room and automatically adjust the audio. Designed to work with an Apple Music subscription for access to over 40 million songs, HomePod provides deep knowledge of personal music preferences and tastes and helps users discover new music.
My first thought was the iPod HiFi speaker, but this is so much more. I’m looking forward to trying this out.
The Greatest, at rest
As sad as it is, this is a wonderfully written piece about Ali. I was lucky enough to meet him years ago during an Apple Masters presentation at Macworld Expo. I had tears ion my eyes when I met him and those tears returned reading this article.
Alex Honnold has become the first climber to free solo Yosemite’s 3,000-foot El Capitan wall
I’ve been an admirer of this guy for years, even if what he does utterly terrifies me. This is an incredible feat. I don’t know I could run 3,000ft on flat ground in under four hours.
The immortal life of John Tesh’s NBA anthem “Roundball Rock”
When I saw the headline, I had no idea what it was about. I’ve never associated Tesh with anything in the NBA.
Waze Carpool expands throughout California
Beginning June 6, users of the Waze Carpool app will be able to find rides from Waze drivers already going their way – and vice versa – throughout the state, expanding on a service only available to date in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sadly, my first thought was to be careful of who you drive with. However, it is an interesting experiment.