iPod

Apple introduces all new iPad Air with A14 Bionic

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Apple:

Apple today introduced an all-new iPad Air — the most powerful, versatile, and colorful iPad Air ever. Now available in five gorgeous finishes, iPad Air features an all-screen design with a larger 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display, camera and audio upgrades, a new integrated Touch ID sensor in the top button, and the powerful A14 Bionic for a massive boost in performance, making this by far the most powerful and capable iPad Air ever made. The new iPad Air will be available starting next month.

First off, this one’s a screamer, performance-wise. The fastest chip Apple has put into any device. Presumably, this same chip will power the iPhone 12 and, maybe, the new Arm-based Mac. This is no small thing.

And that Touch ID sensor seems a huge move. Just imagine if Apple added that sensor to the iPhone 12. Best of both worlds, especially when you are wearing a mask. That’s pure speculation on my part, not even likely, but I think it’d be a great solution.

iOS 13 iPhone connected to iPod? WILL IT WORK?

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[VIDEO] Another in the series. Per usual, video embedded in main Loop post. Very interesting.

No external power used, so the iPhone is charging the iPod. And this only works if the iPod is formatted as Fat32, not HFS+.

Lots of fascinating little details. Nice.

All about the Logitech Crayon

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From Logitech’s official Crayon specs page:

Using the same technology found in Apple Pencil®, Logitech Crayon delivers sub-pixel precision, lightning fast responsiveness, and dynamic tilt to bring new dimensions to learning.

Not quite the same as Apple Pencil. No pressure sensitivity. But it also sells for $49 versus the Apple Pencil’s $89 (since Crayon is only sold through Education market, makes sense to compare to Apple Pencil education price). For students, I suspect the Logitech Crayon will be just fine.

iPad has palm rejection technology that ignores any touch that doesn’t come from Logitech Crayon, so students can stop worrying about their hands and just focus on the task at hand.

And:

A flat shape prevents Logitech Crayon from rolling off desks or getting lost.

Hmm. I wonder why Apple doesn’t consider this.

Logitech Crayon has almost 8 hours of writing time between charges — enough for a full school day. Additionally, a fast charging option provides 30 minutes of battery in 90 seconds.

Lots of good stuff here. One important thing to note: The Crayon does not use Bluetooth. Its wireless frequency is specific to the iPad announced yesterday. Just as Apple Pencil will not work with an iPhone, Crayon will not work with other iPads.

All told, this seems a great solution for the education space. And the way I read this, looks like Crayon is only available through the Apple Education channel.

The iPod turns 15: a visual history of Apple’s mobile music icon

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The iPod turned 15 yesterday. The Verge takes you on a visual tour of all of them, from the FireWire port, rotating click wheel first version through the so-called sixth generation with the A8 chip and 8MP iSight camera you can still buy today.

The history of the iPod nano

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Stephen Hackett did a lovely job pulling together this history of the iPod nano for 512 Pixels.

The new iPod nano and shuffle don’t play nice with Apple Music

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Serenity Caldwell, writing for iMore:

When you try to sync offline Apple Music tracks to a nano or shuffle, you’re met with this rather disappointing message: “Apple Music songs cannot be copied to an iPod.” You’ll have to rely on your purchased music for those devices, instead.

Apple class action suit falls apart

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BBC:

Lawyers for Apple have raised a last-minute challenge saying new evidence suggested that the two women named as plaintiffs may not have purchased iPod models covered by the lawsuit.

Apple heads to trial over billion dollar iTunes antitrust claims

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Reuters:

Opening statements are scheduled to begin on Tuesday in an Oakland, California, federal court in the long-running class action, brought by a group of individuals and businesses who purchased iPods between 2006 and 2009. They say a 2006 iTunes update dictated that iTunes music could only be played on iPods, unfairly blocking competing device makers.

How to quickly put your apps in alphabetical order

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My iPhone is a bit of a mess. My front page contains the apps I use the most, but the rest of my pages are in a random order that slightly resembles the order in which I purchased the apps, shuffled in my attempts to move apps to my front page. Sound familiar?

The linked article talks you through the relatively simple process of sorting all your apps in alphabetical order. This might not work for all people, but it does make it much easier to home in on an app when you have 9 pages of apps.

Read the full post for an exception and solution.

Apple releases security patch via iOS 7.0.6

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This is a security patch for an SSL verification bug. There are three different patches, one for iPhone 4, iPod touch (5th gen) and iPad 2 and later, one for Apple TV, and one for earlier devices. Links in the post.

Tim Cook’s WSJ interview

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I really enjoyed Tim’s interview. What I took from the interview is that Apple still cares about the things it always cared about: Design, building great products, and being the best. I’m glad to see that hasn’t changed. Here are a couple of points I picked out:

There will be new categories and we’re working on some great stuff. We’re not ready to talk about it. We’re really working on some really great stuff. I think no one reasonable would say they’re not a new category.

That seems like a warning that some analysts might consider the new products as being in an existing product category. If that’s the case, I have to think Apple would innovate that existing category similar to what it did with the iPod and iPhone.

We’re still spending an enormous amount on really great talent and people on the Macs of the future.

That’s great to hear. iPad is an amazing product, but not everyone is ready to make that jump yet.

But what we’re not going to do is we’re not going to make junk. We’re not going to put Apple’s brand on something someone else designed.

This is key for Apple. They aren’t worried about throwing out as many products as they can into the market, but rather making the best products and releasing them when they are ready.

The making of Apple’s 1.24.14 film

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This is a behind the scenes video that tells the story of the making of Apple’s beautiful film, a film celebrating 30 years of Macintosh and 30 years of people doing amazing things with Apple technology.

Apple’s awesome old iPod ads

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Great post on TUAW featuring background on a series of ads that ran on Apple’s web site back when the iPod was still new and the iTunes Music Store first opened its doors.

My favorite is below. I don’t remember any of these and I bought an iPod on day one. Very cool!

The real story behind tablet market share reporting

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This is some incredible compelling analysis. I would urge anyone interested in the methodology behind PC/tablet/phone market share “reporting” (and I do use that term loosely) to read this top-to-bottom.

Things start off with a bit of history.

Following a routine that began in the 1990s, Gartner and IDC spent the 2000s noting that Apple’s Mac market share was virtually irrelevant, afloat in an ocean of PC sales without giving much regard to the fact that Apple enjoyed very high share in some market segments (such as education and graphic design) and essentially none in others (such as enterprise sales, kiosks and cash registers).

Then came the iPod, then the iPhone, then the iPad, with Mac sales rising as the Mac-iOS ecosystem evolved and expanded.

And that’s when this article really gets interesting. In a nutshell, a case is made that IDC, Gartner, and Strategy Analytics (the big three) set out to torpedo Apple’s perceived market share.

There’s little mystery of who shot down the iPad’s market share or what weapon they’re using: all three major market research firms rapidly fire off headline bullets clearly aimed at wounding the perception of Apple’s tablet. One can, generally, only speculate about why this is occurring.

However, Strategy Analytics has offered some unusual transparency regarding its motive for carving out a very specific market and then stuffing the pie chart with “tier two” volume to the point where the world’s best selling tablet is crushed down into an embarrassing statistical sliver of shrinking “share.”

Read the article. Fantastic.

The argument for an iPod Pro

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Kirk McElhearn brings up some interesting points in his thoughts for Apple to bring an iPod Pro to market.

How to wipe your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

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Getting ready to sell or give away your iOS device? Bookmark this page. The instructions are simple enough, but handy to have this page around when the time comes.

Pono Music project

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Neil Young has long been working on an alternative to CDs and digitally encoded music formats. His Pono Music project is an attempt to significantly raise the bar on music fidelity.

The key difference between Pono and industry leaders such as iTunes or Spotify is Young’s focus on audio fidelity. An avowed enemy of the CD, Young now wants to “save listeners” from the MP3. “The simplest way to describe what we’ve accomplished is that we’ve liberated the music of the artist from the digital file and restored it to its original artistic quality – as it was in the studio,” Young wrote. “Hearing Pono for the first time is like that first blast of daylight when you leave a movie theatre on a sun-filled day.”

Perhaps he is tilting at windmills, but he is persistent and getting a fair amount of attention, especially from professional musicians. Time will tell.

Apple announces USB Power Adapter Takeback Program

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Apple on Monday announced its USB Power Adapter Takeback Program, a program that will allow customers to return third-party adapters they feel are faulty. Apple is offering those customers a special price on obtaining a new Apple adapter. […]

All the apps have been written

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I want to take a time machine back to when I was 20 and Gibbs-slap myself… hard.

A great story from Kevin Hoctor about writing software and a wonderful bit of advice for writing an app.

Apple sells 100 million iPod touch units

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In addition to launching a new model of its iPod touch on Thursday, Apple told me this morning that it has sold more than 100 million units of the iPod touch since its introduction.

Tech gear and saving money on energy

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Jeff Bertolucci for The Saturday Evening Post:

Beware. Your tech gear is costing you money while you sleep. Sure, the stuff looks innocent enough: cable box, HDTV, computer monitor, and sundry other electronic gadgets that consume power even when in “sleep” mode. While their energy-sucking ways may seem harmless, they cost you big bucks over time.

It all adds up.