The “trash can” 2013 Mac Pro addressed only a fraction of the needs solved by the previous “cheese grater” towers, aged quickly without critical upgrade paths, and suffered from high GPU-failure rates from its cooling solution — all because its design prioritized size and appearance over performance and versatility in the one Mac model that should never make that tradeoff.
Over the next few years, it became clear that the Mac Pro was an embarrassing, outdated flop that Apple seemed to have little intention of ever updating, leaving its customers feeling unheard and abandoned. I think Apple learned a small lesson from it, but they learned a much bigger one a few years later.
And:
By the end of 2016, in addition to the generally buggy, neglected state macOS seemed to be perpetually stuck in, Apple had replaced its entire “pro” Mac lineup with controversial, limiting products that seemed optimized to flex Apple’s industrial-design muscles rather than actually addressing their customers’ needs.
This paints a bleak picture, one of an Apple out of touch with their Mac base, and even more so with their vast community of developers.
But:
Then, in April 2017, out of nowhere, Apple held a Mac Pro roundtable discussion with the press to announce that they were in the early stages of completely redesigning the Mac Pro.
Nice writeup by Marco. It is hard to find the right balance between listening to the experts you’ve hired to drive your company forward, but doing that without losing touch with the community that buys your products.
James Dempsey (of Breakpoints fame) captured this video of the impressive sign that covered the outside wall of the convention center, home to last week’s WWDC.
I got some half-decent video of the animating #WWDC 2019 sign just before it was turned off and taken down. I captured the entire 3 min animation sequence, but Twitter tops off at 2 min, 20 sec. Still, quite a display! pic.twitter.com/tnz1mn5FFB
The whole screenshot/markup process seems a huge step up.
There’s been some discussion about the differences between iOS and iPadOS and whether they are indeed two different OSes. I would ignore all that, just think of iPadOS as the name of the OS that runs on every iPad.
If you have a Series 2 or later Apple Watch and want to take it into the pool with you, you’ll want to put your Apple Watch into water mode (a feature that’s been around for years, but one that easily escapes notice).
If this doesn’t mean anything to you, take a minute to watch this short Instagram video. It’ll show you what to do.
A quick look, courtesy of iDownloadBlog, at sharing your iPhone audio with multiple AirPods. I’m really excited about this feature, hoping it makes its way to tvOS, if it hasn’t already.
The advent of the compact disc in the early 1980s meant that recorded music went from being analogue to digital. But CD music files were vast – a single CD came in at about 700MB.
And:
In 1993, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany came up with a way of shrinking audio files by a factor of 10 or more, so that a three-minute music track could be reduced to 3MB without much perceptible loss in quality. They called their new standard MP3.
And:
In 1999, a teenage geek named Shawn Fanning created a neat software system that enabled internet users who had MP3 tracks on their PCs not only to find others with similar assets but also to exchange these tracks with one another. Fanning called his file-sharing system Napster, released it on the internet and in the process changed the world.
Nice little look back at the market forces that made the music industry ripe for disruption. Enter Steve Jobs and Apple. And iTunes of course.
John Gruber and Matt Drance joined me again this year to discuss WWDC and all of the announcements from the conference. From coding to the Mac Pro, we give our thoughts on what we saw at WWDC.
Brought to you by:
iMazing: iMazing is the Swiss Army Knife of iPhone management. It’s a desktop app for macOS or Windows which lets you take control of your iOS data. Listeners of the Dalrymple Report enjoy a 30% discount at imazing.com/dalrymple
iPadOS let’s you delete apps from the update list, before or after an update is completed. This has been on the wishlist for years. pic.twitter.com/G7WMFjDauN
Just as it has in past years, Apple this year held a celebratory Bash event at WWDC. The event features a live musical performance, and this year WWDC 2019 attendees are being treated to a Bash performance from popular band Weezer.
I checked all the pics and video but I couldn’t find Dave Mark or Jim Dalrymple in any of them.
Here it is! Your chance to go back to the ’90s. Right on the heels of the 30th anniversary of the first folding phone, the team at FrontierBundles.com wants you to use a flip phone. For one whole week. With no cheating.
That’s right. We’re looking for one brave soul to willingly give up their smartphone for a full seven days in favor of a flip phone. The madness! We know. That’s why we want to see what happens. How did you sleep? Were you more or less productive? How long did things take? Did it feel like you went back in time?
You tell us, and we’ll pay you $1,000 and give you a handy-dandy survival kit to keep you going.
A week? Is that all? I can do that without breaking a sweat.
This is an old article, appearing on the 10-year anniversary of the iTunes Music Store, but given the big changes Apple has announced for macOS Catalina, including a complete iTunes revamp, seemed appropriate.
A great read. Here’s a taste:
In its first week, iTunes sold one million downloads and soon became not only the top online music retailer but, displacing Walmart and Best Buy, the top music retailer. In a way, the service hastened the revolution that record executives feared the most – it shifted the business from expensive, high-revenue CDs to cheap, low-revenue singles. But there was no choice. There would always be online music thieves, but most consumers simply needed an easy, legal way to download songs. This was how fans would buy music in the future, whether the record industry liked it or not.
Jobs had incredible vision. Not sure anyone else could have pulled this off.
After you get done looking through Apple’s official iOS 13 features page, watch the 9to5Mac video below, as Jeff Benjamin shows the new iOS off, feature by feature.
Equal parts entertaining and enlightening, Gruber outdid himself in this year’s Talk Show live from WWDC. Put your feet up, grab a tall beverage, and settle in for some fun, wrapped in great production values. Really well done.
To truly get a sense of how massive an update iOS 13 is, spend a few minutes digging through this page.
A few highlights:
Hide My Email Not sure you want to share your email address with a particular app? You’re in control. You can choose to share or hide your email address. You can also choose to have Apple create a unique email address for you that forwards to your real address.
And (in Maps):
Junction View helps drivers eliminate wrong turns and directional misses by lining them up in the correct lane before they need to turn or enter an elevated road.
And:
Explore where you’re going before you get there with an immersive 3D experience that gives you a 360-degree view of a place. And enjoy smooth and seamless transitions as you navigate your way around.
> Starting this fall in the US, Walmart customers in select cities can choose to have their groceries delivered directly into their refrigerators when away from home. The InHome service will use Walmart vehicles and its own workers equipped with proprietary wearable cameras. Using undisclosed “smart entry technology,” Walmart employees will be able to enter homes to make deliveries, while customers will be able to control access and watch the deliveries remotely.
This raises so many questions for me. Would you allow someone you don’t know to enter your home to put groceries in your refrigerator? This is one step beyond Amazon’s front door access that let’s them stick a package just inside your house.
On the practical side, having a well-functioning refrigerator is crucial for maintaining the integrity of those delivered groceries. It’s essential for homeowners to ensure that their appliances are not only energy-efficient but also reliable, which often involves professional help for installation and maintenance.
This is where experts like plumbers perth come into play. As our homes become more integrated with smart technology, the plumbing needs to support modern appliances effectively. A refrigerator that connects to your home system requires not just proper installation but ongoing maintenance to avoid leaks or malfunctions that could spoil food or disrupt delivery services.
By investing in reliable plumbing solutions, homeowners can enjoy the benefits of innovations like Walmart’s InHome service, ensuring that their appliances function smoothly while maintaining peace of mind about their home’s security.
And what about the footage of the interior of your home that is captured and put on the internet? How is this footage secured? Who can see it? It is available for you to see on the net, so the potential is there for other lurkers to see it as well.
Wondering if my kids will someday see this all as normal.
We are gathered here today to say goodbye to our friend iTunes, who went to the great trash can in the sky on Monday.
It was a gentle, dignified passing. ITunes was surrounded by family and friends at Apple’s annual developer conference when Apple executives announced that it would be dismantled, and its features would be split among three apps: Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple TV.
It’s been fascinating to watch the reaction to Apple “killing” iTunes.
When Apple executive Craig Federighi described a new location-tracking feature for Apple devices at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference keynote on Monday, it sounded—to the sufficiently paranoid, at least—like both a physical security innovation and a potential privacy disaster. But while security experts immediately wondered whether Find My would also offer a new opportunity to track unwitting users, Apple says it built the feature on a unique encryption system carefully designed to prevent exactly that sort of tracking—even by Apple itself.
The solution to that paradox, it turns out, is a trick that requires you to own at least two Apple devices. Each one emits a constantly changing key that nearby Apple devices use to encrypt and upload your geolocation data, such that only the other Apple device you own possesses the key to decrypt those locations.
When I first heard of this, my first thought was, “How the heck are they going to pull it off?” Looks like they did.
Netflix has produced a handful of sports documentaries that are every bit as compelling as the best 30 for 30s, most notably the Oscar-winning Icarus, which exposed Russia’s widespread doping scandal, and Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press, which chronicles Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media and the chilling effects it could have on journalism.
Many of these are fascinating documentaries in their own right, whether or not you’re a fan of sports.
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is arguably the most important event the company holds all year. WWDC is where developers find out the direction the company is taking with its technologies, which, in turn, allows them to make the apps that we use every day.
Apple met expectations and criticism head-on at this years WWDC keynote. First, with the Mac Pro, and then with the operating systems that we use for all of our devices.
All of the developers and pro users that I’ve spoken with this week agree with me: The Mac Pro exceeded all expectations. After Apple boxed themselves into a corner with the last Mac Pro, they needed to come out swinging with this model, and they did.
There has been a lot of talk about the price of the new machines and display, but you have to understand that the customers Apple is targeting with the Mac Pro are movie studios, science, music studios, photography, and other very high-end users.
This computer isn’t a prosumer machine like the “trash can” Mac Pro was—the is a true pro workstation. Apple needed to appeal to their pro users, and that’s precisely what they did.
There is no doubt that Apple showed off some cool features during the keynote. iOS allows you to use effects on videos, Dark Mode, Sign-in with Apple, Maps, Siri, and so many other things to give us a better experience on the iPhone.
iPadOS gets its own operating system, which says to me that Apple is going to start giving us features optimized for that device. This is going to be a massive thing for iPad users because they will have an experience that falls between a mobile and desktop device.
macOS and Apple Watch also got significant updates. iTunes has been replaced with three separate apps—thank you, Apple. Sidecar allows you to use your iPad as a second Mac display, and integration with the Apple Watch and the Mac is improving.
There is so much more Apple has done with all of these operating systems, and they have done it without sacrificing our privacy. The company understands how important privacy is—they have made it a central focus of everything they do at the company. Even if we don’t know how important privacy is, Apple does, and they are taking the lead in making sure we are all safe.
While Apple’s demos during the keynote are great customer-facing examples of what the new operating systems can do, it’s what we didn’t see that is the most important at WWDC.
These are the new APIs that Apple released to developers, allowing them to make better apps. If you want to know if WWDC is a success or not, you speak to the developers and see if they are happy.
I have spoken to a lot of longtime developers, and many new developers this week to gauge the reaction of what’s going on behind-the-scenes at WWDC. The response has been overwhelmingly positive for what Apple has introduced publicly and what they are saying and doing in the talks and labs during the conference.
Developers have a lot to do in the next few weeks figuring out what new apps they can make or improvements they can make to existing apps. Either way, it’s a good thing for users.
If developers are happy, consumers are going to be pleased because we are going to get some great apps in the coming months.
The circular building housing Apple’s headquarters in Silicon Valley is so big, it’s nearly a mile in circumference. So it’s hard to fathom that it is not actually attached to the ground.
The spaceship, as the building is often called, is a mammoth example of a technology that reduces earthquake shaking by as much as 80 percent.
The building is one of a relatively small number in the United States that use so-called base-isolation technology.
It looks like under the Apple spaceship campus is almost as interesting as what’s above ground.
For the “Canuckophile” (not my coinage but a term I happily own), the NFB’s Screening Room is one of the supreme pleasures of the internet. Since 1939, the NFB has facilitated the telling of Canada’s story in its people’s own words and images. Three-thousand films, from documentaries to narrative features to experimental shorts, are available to stream free of charge, even for Americans.
There is, of course, a simpler reason for binging the NFB: The films are very good.
What if the space race had never ended? Watch an official first look at For All Mankind, an Apple Original drama series coming this Fall to Apple TV+.
And:
For All Mankind is created by Emmy® Award winner Ronald D. Moore (Outlander, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica), Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi. Told through the lives of NASA astronauts, engineers and their families, For All Mankind presents an aspirational world where NASA and the space program remained a priority and a focal point of our hopes and dreams.
Ronald D. Moore created the excellent reboot of Battlestar Galactica. High hopes for this one. Looking forward to seeing more official trailers as they emerge.
Note the branding at the beginning of the trailer: “An Apple Original”. Wonder if this will be the open for all the series. Also wonder if Apple will create a signature sound, similar to what you hear when you start a Netflix show.
We posted a raft of Apple releases yesterday. One item that might have gotten lost in the shuffle, but that I believe has incredible importance, is this, from Apple’s tvOS 13 press release:
tvOS 13 adds support for the best and most popular game controllers in the world, Xbox One S and PlayStation DualShock 4, making it even easier for gamers to take advantage of Apple Arcade and other great games on the App Store.
And this tied footnote:
tvOS 13 supports the Xbox Wireless Controller with Bluetooth.
In order for Apple to climb into the tier of a first class gaming machine, they need first class game controllers, like the PlayStation DualShock 4 and Xbox One S. Such a smart move leveraging these two controllers, controllers most gamers are already familiar with, controllers that benefit from generations of refinement.
This announcement, combined with the release of the new iPod touch (a relatively inexpensive entree device for Apple Arcade), show a real vision to expand Apple’s gaming presence beyond the casual gamer.
Looking forward to seeing Apple Arcade’s official rollout later this year.
Two app developers on Tuesday sued Apple Inc over its App Store practices, making claims similar to those in a lawsuit brought by consumers that the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed to proceed.
And:
California-based app developer Donald R. Cameron and Illinois Pure Sweat Basketball alleged in federal court in San Jose, California that Apple engaged in anticompetitive conduct by only allowing the downloading of iPhone apps through Apple’s official App Store.
And:
California-based app developer Donald R. Cameron and Illinois Pure Sweat Basketball alleged in federal court in San Jose, California that Apple engaged in anticompetitive conduct by only allowing the downloading of iPhone apps through Apple’s official App Store.
Apple’s take:
The company has said it enforces its App Store rules evenhandedly, regardless of whether it competes with app makers, and that many competitors, such as Microsoft Corp’s email apps, thrive on the App Store.
Apple has also emphasized that free apps that do not use its billing system are hosted and distributed at no cost to developers beyond a $99 fee to be part of its developer program.
This lawsuit is testing the waters. It is specific to the iOS App Store (you can distribute your own apps on the Mac). Obviously, if successful, this would force Apple to change the App Store model in some way.
Wondering if Apple created a sandboxed side environment for unapproved apps, an environment that is walled off from all the approved apps and the core of iOS, if that would pass muster with the courts.
Apple recognizes apps created for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS that “reflect excellence in design and innovation.” We’ll be posting the video of this year’s awards ceremony soon.
All but one of the winners is exclusive to iOS and great to see one of my faves, Pixelmator Photo, pick up an award.
Increasingly, Apple is turning its privacy stance into highly visible parts of its products.
One major WWDC debutante, an iOS 13 and MacOS Catalina feature called “Sign in with Apple,” might be the company’s most tangible act of privacy protection yet. It’s not a productivity, communications, or entertainment app with data privacy is an added-on guarantee. Its whole purpose is to help users preserve their own privacy as they move around the web. In that sense, Sign in with Apple may be the very first privacy product from Apple.
This might be one of the best new features Apple announced today. I never sign in to apps or sites using my Facebook or Google logins but lots of people do, giving up user data in the process.
It feels like we’ve waited a long time for the new Mac Pro, and in fact, we have. However, in typical Apple fashion they blew away expectations with the new Mac Pro and Apple Pro Display XDR.
I had a chance to see the Mac Pro in action after the keynote in a music studio setting and it was incredible. I saw a Pro Tools and Logic setup, both running hundreds of tracks, with plug-ins running, while playing video, and everything worked seamlessly.
Mac Pro isn’t just an upgraded pro machine, it is completely redone to maximize performance in every aspect of the computer. As Phil Schiller said, it has “extreme performance.”
“We designed Mac Pro for users who require a modular system with extreme performance, expansion and configurability. With its powerful Xeon processors, massive memory capacity, groundbreaking GPU architecture, PCIe expansion, Afterburner accelerator card and jaw-dropping design, the new Mac Pro is a monster that will enable pros to do their life’s best work,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
If you’re like me, you noticed the similarity with the “cheese grater” Mac Pro of years ago, and for good reason. Both machines are similar in the exterior look, and why not, that was a pro machine that worked.
Mac Pro features Xeon processors up to 28 cores and 12 DIMM slots, allowing for up to 1.5TB of memory.
This type of power allows projects that normally took multiple machines to power to be done on one Mac Pro. The music projects I mentioned earlier were done on multiple machines until the new Mac Pro, when they were consolidated into one project, running on one machine.
As if the introduction of the Radeon Pro Vega II wasn’t enough, Apple also introduced the Radeon Pro Vega II Duo, and the Mac Pro will allow you to run two of them.
With the addition of Apple’s Afterburner accelerator card, the Mac Pro can decode up to 6.3 billion pixels per second. This setup will virtually eliminate proxy workflows, allowing editors to use native formats directly from the camera.
I expected a lot from the new Mac Pro and even I was blown away with what Apple came up with in the Mac Pro.
First, it will learn the musical tastes of each user, recognizing their voice. This means that each person in the home can make requests like ‘Play some music’ or ‘Play my favorites’ and HomePod will automatically play appropriate music.
Second, the voice recognition extends to personal requests. HomePod is also finally getting music handoff from the iPhone.
I imagine these are welcome new features for you lucky HomePod users.
