The Verge:

Here at The Verge, we’ve decided to collect the most important Ive videos over the years, tied to pivotal Apple product launches. And just for good fun, we’ve ranked them using aluminium ingots, of course. So take a trip down memory lane with Ive and see how his style has evolved over the years.

I loved some of these videos.

Somewhat lost in the news of Jony Ive’s imminent departure comes news of a new addition to the executive team.

From Apple’s press release:

Apple today announced that Sabih Khan, a 24-year Apple veteran, has been named to the company’s executive team as senior vice president of Operations. Khan has played an important role in delivering each of Apple’s innovative products to market since the late 1990s, leading key product operations and supply chain functions. He continues to report to Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer.

In his new role, Khan will be in charge of Apple’s global supply chain, ensuring product quality and overseeing planning, procurement, manufacturing, logistics and product fulfillment functions, as well as Apple’s supplier responsibility programs that protect and educate workers at production facilities around the world.

Congratulations, Sabih.

Scroll all the way to the end of the linked piece to read the letter in full.

If you connect to Apple in any way, this news has to hit hard. The Apple blogs and Twitter feeds were filled to bursting last night when the news broke.

Personally, this feels like a friendly but still quite painful divorce or, as John Gruber put it:

My gut sense for years has been that Ive without Jobs has been like McCartney without Lennon. Or Lennon without McCartney — take whichever analogical pairing you prefer. My point here is only that the fruit of their collaborations were, seemingly magically, far greater than the sums of the duos’ talents and tastes.

This is the last vestige of a magical period at Apple, when Steve Jobs and Jony Ive changed the world, cycle after cycle.

From Apple’s press release:

Apple today announced that Sir Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, will depart the company as an employee later this year to form an independent design company which will count Apple among its primary clients. While he pursues personal projects, Ive in his new company will continue to work closely and on a range of projects with Apple.

Jony’s new company, said to be called LoveFrom and in partnership with long time collaborator Marc Newson, will launch next year.

Design team leaders Evans Hankey, vice president of Industrial Design, and Alan Dye, vice president of Human Interface Design, will report to Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. Both Dye and Hankey have played key leadership roles on Apple’s design team for many years. Williams has led the development of Apple Watch since its inception and will spend more of his time working with the design team in their studio.

Jony Ive’s status on Apple’s official leadership page remains unchanged. Makes sense, since Ive won’t be leaving until the end of the year.

Gruber’s Lennon and McCartney comment really resonates. In Steve Jobs’ second time with Apple, his iMac/iPod/iPhone/iPad period, Jobs and Ive felt like equals, partners, reporting to each other, sharing an incredible vision. Together.

Wrap-up from Gruber’s piece (if you only read one piece on Jony Ive leaving, that’s the one):

I don’t worry that Apple is in trouble because Jony Ive is leaving; I worry that Apple is in trouble because he’s not being replaced.

My Apple world feels a bit ripped apart this morning.

Financial Times:

Jony Ive is leaving Apple after more than two decades in which his iconic designs for the Mac, iPod and iPhone turned one of Silicon Valley’s faded giants into the world’s most valuable company and defined a generation of consumer products. 

Sir Jonathan is setting up his own new venture, a creative business called LoveFrom, with Apple as its first client. The transition will begin later this year, with LoveFrom launching fully in 2020.

This is VERY bad news.

Apple is making some positive changes in Apple Music. There are still a few little problems that crop up for me, but overall the service is doing very well.

On days when everything runs smoothly, taking public transit is one of the best ways to get around town. Not only is it cost-effective and efficient, but it also lets you stay hands free so you can sit back, relax and maybe even read a few chapters of your favorite book. But unexpected delays or overcrowded vehicles can quickly turn your ride from enjoyable to stressful. Starting today, Google Maps is rolling out two new features to help you better plan for your transit ride and stay more comfortable along the way.

I can certainly see how these would be useful features for those that rely on public transportation.

Sidecar, a new feature in Apple’s iOS and macOS operating systems, allows you to use your iPad as a second display with your Mac. It’s a great addition to the ecosystem and if you have the betas installed you can try it out. Bryan Wolfe gives you a rundown and how to get it setup.

This is a great list. Well organized, easy to scan through. Nice job by Macworld’s Jason Cross.

The Verge:

Apple is bringing Xbox and PlayStation 4 controller support to the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV this fall. It’s a big change from the select MFi Bluetooth controllers that were supported before, and it means you can now easily connect any PS4 or Xbox One controller to your device to play games on the go.

Big fan of this move by Apple.

I’ve been trying out an Xbox One S controller (with Bluetooth support) on my iPad Pro running the new public beta, and I’m convinced this is a big step toward using an iPad as a portable game console.

A step, because you are still depending on the console. Read the article for all the details on playing console games on your iPad, with the controller connected via Bluetooth.

All good. But makes me wonder, will Apple ship Apple Arcade games compatible with the PS4 and Xbox One controllers? If so, I think that would help make Apple a very important player in this space. Grab your iPad and favorite controller and play, with consoles or without.

Patently Apple:

Korean news sites are reporting today that Samsung Electronics is preparing to launch a text messaging service that can be used on the new Galaxy Note 10, PCs and laptops during the Galaxy Note 10 event early in August. The feature is noted in the reports as being similar to Apple’s iMessage.

To enable users to use text messaging services across different devices, Samsung will join forces with Microsoft to integrate their phone mirroring service Your Phone into the upcoming Galaxy Note 10, according to business newspaper the Korean Economic Daily.

OK, so far so good. But:

The app, which was first launched in March as a beta service, enables multiple cross-device experience by mirroring what appears on the smartphone screen to PCs with Bluetooth connectivity.

Wait, what? This is both confusing and seems a poor substitute for cloud syncing so all devices get all info. This strikes me as a hack.

Am I misunderstanding the description? Or is this a limitation driven by the Samsung/Android/Microsoft architecture?

Hollywood Reporter:

NBCUniversal — the parent company of producers Universal TV — won an auction for the library after outbidding Netflix in a $100 million-per-year pact.

And:

Disney, meanwhile, has made clear that it doesn’t plan to stay in business with Netflix given its own streaming ambitions. Now that the company has majority control of Hulu, that platform is likely to benefit from the pullback of Disney-owned ABC’s programming from Netflix.

If you are into the biz side of TV streaming, this is a fascinating read. Lots of detail.

My takeaway: The breakup of content bundles is going to create a lot of options for consumers, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. If you want Star Trek, you’ll need to pony up for CBS All Access. Want The Office? You’ll need to get the service from NBC (if and when they ship one), or the service they ultimately license to. Add in Netflix, HBO, Disney, etc., and things are going to get expensive.

This is the universe Apple is walking into. They’ll start at zero, with no library to woo viewers away from all the other content-heavy services. But they have the advantage of a passionate user base, already ensconced in the ecosystem, likely to give Apple’s TV+ a try. And they have deep pockets, which will let Apple ride out the early, lean times.

Gonna be interesting.

MacRumors:

ARM’s lead CPU and system architect Mike Filippo joined Apple last month, based out of the Austin, Texas area, according to his LinkedIn profile. Filippo led the development of several chips at ARM between 2009 and 2019, including the Cortex-A76, Cortex-A72, Cortex-A57, and upcoming 7nm+ and 5nm chips.

Filippo also served as Intel’s lead CPU and system architect between 2004 and 2009, and he was a chip designer at AMD between 1996 and 2004, so he brings a wealth of chipmaking experience with him to Apple.

Look for more news like this as Apple tries to snap up even more talent for its ARM-based Mac efforts.

For anyone who wants to create a Mac Pro graphic, here’s a detailed walkthrough of how to get the holes just right. Some nerdy reverse engineering.

This is an excellent, easy to absorb first look at macOS Catalina by Jeff Benjamin.

Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:

According to a new report from the San Francisco Chronicle, Apple has hired a “handful” of hardware and software engineers from self-driving car startup Drive.ai – which is planning to close its doors later this week.

Interesting read, including a confirmation from Apple (via Axios).

So very curious. What’s Apple up to here? Wondering if there’s a specific product in the pipeline, or perhaps still a broader R&D effort sussing out the space, exploring various business models.

I think about news sites and great election tools, like interactive maps that show voting trends, real time meters that show likelihood of candidates (sometimes famously incorrectly), and the like. Interesting to see Apple News getting into this business.

Here’s a link to the candidate guide. This is some good work. I found it easy to navigate, with lots of detail on each candidate.

This little rabbit hole is an incredible labor of love from Sam Henri Gold. When I asked Sam how he pulled this all together:

I began the archive after the Every Apple Video Youtube channel went down in March(?) 2017, been updating it since. I’ve been sourcing from YouTube (both Apple’s own and other small personal channels ppl uploaded Apple vids to) as well as FTP servers and clips internet friends donated. I’m always looking for more donations!

Have anything to donate to the cause? You can reach Sam on Twitter.

Sit back, grab a hot beverage, and dig in. This is long, so consider skipping section-to-section to find specific topics of interest, to avoid getting overwhelmed.

Great work by AppleInsider’s Daniel Eran Dilger.

Scott Stein, CNET, walks through the big picture of the iPadOS public beta. Well balanced, pointing out the features that work well as well as the ones that fall short, all wrapped in a “it’s a beta, so have patience, this will likely change” sensibility.

Easy read, informative.

Good set of instructions from Chance Miller, 9to5Mac. At this point, my advice would be to limit yourself to a spare device, one that does not depend on a specific app running perfectly. Or at least make sure the apps you need are said to run well on the beta.

And, obviously, make a backup before you dive in.

John Voorhees, MacStories:

The message from WWDC was clear: SwiftUI is the future, a unified approach to UI development designed to simplify the process of targeting multiple hardware platforms. It’s a bold, sprawling goal that will take years to refine, even if it’s eagerly adopted by developers.

And:

However, SwiftUI also raises an interesting question: what does it mean for Catalyst? If SwiftUI is the future and spans every hardware platform, why bother bringing iPad apps to the Mac with Catalyst in the first place? It’s a fair question, but the answer is readily apparent from the very different goals of the two technologies.

For non-developers, think of Catalyst (previously called Marzipan) as a development kit to make it easier for developers to port their iOS apps to macOS. But think of SwiftUI as more of a starting point to lay out apps that will run on all your Apple platforms.

John does an excellent job digging into the value of both Catalyst and SwiftUI, explaining each one’s place in the Apple universe. Both are important.

If I had to boil this all down to a single talking point, I’d say that Catalyst is the hero we need now, letting developers bring their iOS apps to the Mac, refreshing and enriching the Mac experience while we wait for SwiftUI to evolve and mature and for SwiftUI apps to become the norm on all platforms.

In a way, this model is similar to the early days of Mac OS X, when Carbon made it possible for classic Mac apps to run on OS X while we waited for developers to build and ship modern OS X apps.

A great read.