On January 9th, 2007, Steve Jobs took to the Macworld stage and showed off the iPhone to the world.

The linked article is the Reddit page reacting to that reveal. It’s an amazing slice of history. There’s this Engadget review, worth reading all by itself, but then, best of all, are the comments below the Reddit post.

Enjoy.

Apple:

The new seventh-generation iPad starts shipping on Wednesday, September 25 and will arrive in stores beginning later this week. Starting at just $329, the new iPad brings more screen area and support for the full-sized Smart Keyboard, as well as a new iPad experience with iPadOS. The upgrade packs even more value into the most popular and affordable iPad, featuring a stunning 10.2-inch Retina display and the latest innovations including Apple Pencil support, the fast A10 Fusion chip, advanced cameras and sensors, unmatched portability and connectivity, ease of use and great all-day battery life.

Note this footnote attached to that Apple Pencil mention:

The first-generation Apple Pencil sold separately.

Just in case you were thinking this iPad worked with the newer Apple Pencil.

Amanda Farough, GameDaily:

> As it turns out, Apple is fronting development costs. This makes the relationship closer to a traditional publisher/developer deal. And Apple stepping in means these weird, interesting, oddball mobile games that might not have had a chance anywhere else have been given a platform that has the potential to house almost half of the world’s mobile market.

And:

> We’ve surmised that a game like Simogo’s Sayonara Wild Hearts, which will simultaneously launch on Apple Arcade and Nintendo Switch on September 19, may be considered an exclusive for mobile devices. Based on what we’ve learned about Arcade’s exclusivity, other games such as the bingo for money games fall into total exclusivity (they may only ever exist on Apple Arcade) and subscription exclusivity (where the game may also be included in other subscription services).

And:

> The submission process for Apple Arcade isn’t relegated to someone scouting for the shiniest new game. In fact, there have been a few developers that Apple’s worked with for Arcade that came to them with nothing more than a concept and some wireframes. Fortunately, there are sites like 벳무브 코드 that can knock anyone’s socks off.

This is a fantastic article (note that it came out last week, but I came across it last night). If you have any interest in the business side of Apple Arcade, do take a look.

Interesting article, but I’d suggest that Apple might be pursuing a less complex keyboard mechanism with the goal of making it more reliable. And with a side benefit of a thinner mechanism and a thinner computer.

Apple:

An upcoming software update will fix an issue that impacts third-party keyboard apps. This issue applies only if you’ve installed third-party keyboards on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

Third-party keyboard extensions in iOS can be designed to run entirely standalone, without access to external services, or they can request “full access” to provide additional features through network access. Apple has discovered a bug in iOS 13 and iPadOS that can result in keyboard extensions being granted full access even if you haven’t approved this access.

Ooops…

DPreview:

Last week, Apple debuted its new iPhone 11 devices, all three of which feature an ultra-wide camera module. This marks the first time Apple has put an ultra-wide camera in an iOS device and with the new camera comes all-new capabilities and shooting modes.

Not all of the cameras are made equal though. In addition to not having optical image stabilization, it’s been revealed the ultra-wide camera unit on all three models isn’t yet capable of capturing Raw image data or manual focus, unlike the wide-angle camera (and telephoto camera on the iPhone 11 Pro models).

Optical image stabilization isn’t really needed on an ultra-wide lens and the lack of RAW support probably won’t affect many users. Apple might be able to fix the problem, which is assumed to be due to distortion present in the uncorrected ultra-wide images, with a software update at some point in the future.

Vice:

Grindstone is f’ing awesome.

The hook is dead simple. You’re tasked with creating paths through a sea of different colored enemies. The longer the path, the more bonuses that appear. The catch: you can only connect to enemies of the same color. However, string together enough enemies and a crystal drops, crystals that allow you to swap colors and go even further.

The act of tracing your fingers across a few enemies, then tracing back as your mind notices a better way through—that tiny, tactile joy reminded me of the early days of iPhone games. There is no reason Grindstone couldn’t be played and enjoyed on a controller, or with a mouse and keyboard, but it feels like a game that was conceived with the finger in mind.

I’ve played several of the initial Apple Arcade games but none have captured my interest as much as Grindstone has. Unfortunately, I’m stuck on Level 16 and can’t get any further. But it was fun while it lasted.

This one is still unfolding, but wow.

Variety:

Film and TV editors across Los Angeles were sweating Monday evening as their workstations were refusing to reboot, resulting in speculations about a possible computer virus attack. Social media reports suggested that the issue was widespread among users of Mac Pro computers running older versions of Apple’s operating system as well as AVID’s Media Composer software.

This is astonishing. Not just one or two Mac Pros, but a bunch of them, all refusing to reboot.

Some analysis by affected users seemed to suggest that the outage may not have been caused by a virus, but by a recent software update that may have corrupted some data, with some suggesting a OS X reinstall that keeps the existing data to restart the machine. Either way, it’s a good idea for anyone running AVID software on a Mac to back up all data right away.

Note that these are the trash can Mac Pros, not a secret rollout of the not yet released Mac Pros announced at WWDC.

Check out the framed art behind the AirPods display. Zoom in on the music notation. Those notes? They’re all AirPods.

And the Easter egg? The music is from Apple’s Here’s to the Crazy Ones campaign.

Nice find by Rene Ritchie.

Google:

Play Pass is a new subscription service that gives you access to more than 350 apps and games that are completely unlocked—all free of ads, in-app purchases and upfront payments. Play Pass offers a high-quality, curated collection of titles from Stardew Valley to AccuWeather, with new apps and games added every month.

This feels like Google recognizing Apple’s move into services and the Apple Arcade model. It’s apps and games, not just games.

But it’s not new content. And the titles (like Monument Valley, for example) are not unique to Android or the Google Play Pass.

Is this worth $4.99 a month? Could be, if you find enough useful content. But don’t think of this as an Apple Arcade competitor. I’ve been playing a lot of Apple Arcade games, and I’ve yet to find a weak one in the bunch. And you won’t find a single Apple Arcade title on Android.

Apple:

As part of its commitment to US economic growth, Apple today confirmed that its newly redesigned Mac Pro will be manufactured in Austin, Texas.

The new Mac Pro will include components designed, developed and manufactured by more than a dozen American companies for distribution to US customers. Manufacturers and suppliers across Arizona, Maine, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Vermont, including Intersil and ON Semiconductor, are providing advanced technology. The US manufacturing of Mac Pro is made possible following a federal product exclusion Apple is receiving for certain necessary components. The value of American-made components in the new Mac Pro is 2.5 times greater than in Apple’s previous generation Mac Pro.

No word though on a release date for Apple’s big iron.

This story flew around the internet over the weekend. The original story was told on this Facebook page, but the headline linked page has the Facebook elements embedded, along with an interview with Bob Burdett, the man whose Dad’s life was saved.

Another win for Apple Watch and fall detection.

Lots of pictures, and, most importantly, on that possible bilateral charging board (so your phone can act as a Qi charger for other phones):

Apple did post a new support document today, stating that iPhone 11 Pro contains new hardware for monitoring and managing battery performance. So maybe that’s all this is, and it just looks suspiciously like bilateral charging hardware.

Apple:

Winfrey’s first book selection is “The Water Dancer” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, available for pre-order now on Apple Books in both ebook and audiobook formats, and debuting tomorrow.

And:

Winfrey will interview Coates for the first installment of her new exclusive Apple TV+ series, “Oprah’s Book Club,” premiering November 1. A new episode will be available every two months.

Interested in reading along with Oprah? Here’s a link to “The Water Dancer” preorder page.

Over the weekend, got into a Twitter discussion on iOS 13 and the improvements it brought to CarPlay. Thought I’d share two posts that lay out the details of what’s changed.

If you have CarPlay or are considering a new car purchase and want to learn more, here are two articles to make your way through:

• Dan Moren, SixColors, 13 Features of iOS 13: CarPlay improvements.

• Zac Hall, 9to5Mac, from back in June, Previewing CarPlay in iOS 13: Light mode, new and improved apps, more.

Patently Apple:

Although the invention could apply to a wide range of future products such protective covers, advanced versions of Apple’s Smart Keyboard, clothing, furniture, wearable electronic devices, and other items using fabric, the focus for this invention is a future smart fabric Apple Watch band.

And:

According to Apple’s invention, a fabric-based item may include fabric formed from intertwined strands of material with embedded circuitry.

And:

The circuitry in the fabric-based item may gather input from a user and from the user’s surroundings. The circuitry may supply visual output, audio output, tactile output, and/or other output.

And:

In the I/O segment of system 8 may include Sensors such as temperature sensors, pressure sensors, force sensors, gas sensors (e.g., carbon monoxide sensors), particulate sensors, moisture sensors, light sensors, magnetic sensors, capacitive sensors (e.g., sensors for touch or proximity measurements), gesture sensors, image sensors, proximity sensors, touch sensors, button sensors (e.g., switches coupled to movable button members or button regions),

This is a fascinating, far reaching patent.

LA Times:

The iPhone and its App Store changed gaming. And not always for the better. Yet now with Apple Arcade, a game subscription service launching this week, Apple wants to tweak and elevate the conversation surrounding games.

A long overdue course correction that attempts to attract attention away from free-to-play diversions, Apple Arcade succeeds where the game industry has failed. Apple’s iTunes recognized a weakness of the mainstream music industry, namely a fear to collectively embrace digital music. Now Apple Arcade acknowledges what’s long been one of the game industry’s most stubborn, less becoming traits: a lack of willingness to take a risk and put its best and most adventurous content forward.

I don’t know if Apple Arcade will “kill free-to-play” gaming as some have predicted but it is a shot across the bow to those developers who use that model to make money.

CNET:

What will it take to crack the glass on the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro? That’s the question I’m asking myself after putting these phones through eight different drop tests, each time onto hard concrete. Try as I might, the glass on these phones just wouldn’t crack. But that doesn’t mean the phones were damage-free.

I take all these tests with very large grains of salt because everyone’s “Oh crap! I dropped my phone!” situation is different but they can still be interesting. I will admit it’s painful to watch so many brand new phones get destroyed. I wih I had that kind of money.

Hodinkee:

Because last year’s Apple Watch Series 4 was such a massive leap forward, consensus before last week’s event was that this year’s release would be much more minor. In hindsight that feels foolish and the Apple Watch Series 5 is yet another big jump in fit, finish, and overall experience.

I’ve spent a week with the Apple Watch Series 5 Edition in the new titanium case, and it’s given me an awful lot to think about.

Hodinkee is a site that reviews very high-end watches. Predictably, they really like the latest version. Thanks to John Kordyback for the link.

Jalopnik:

You’ve seen the annual “Top Safety Pick” car ads and the crash-test videos, with cars slammed into objects as their own debris pours down around them like a snowstorm. Perhaps the latter even convinced you not to buy a car you so desperately wanted.

But that’s just a small part of determining which vehicles on the market are safe and which fall short—a long, messy process full of bulk vehicle purchases, bulk trips to the salvage yard, and automakers’ attempts to go back and fix what they didn’t get right the first time.

I find this kind of stuff fascinating. There’s some really interesting details into how the major organizations perform their testing.