I think it’s incredibly important to backup your photos onto some form of removable media, tuck it away somewhere safe. This is in addition to your Time Machine or cloud backup.
Personally, I periodically backup all my photos to a single removable drive and store the drive in a safe deposit box.
All that said, this is a terrific article, with detail on prepping for backup, locating all relevant files, importing/moving as needed, and more. Worth reading and passing along.
Here ya go:
https://twitter.com/davehamilton/status/960271158213009409
I asked Siri what she thought about Google Max and Amazon Echo and got a lot of generic responses. Interesting that Google created such a specific, tailored response to HomePod.
Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:
The Financial Times today highlighted a limited number of reports from users experiencing delays with incoming phone calls on the iPhone X. Apple later confirmed to MacRumors that it is “looking into these reports.”
And:
The report, which links to a few discussions on the Apple Support Communities, notes that hundreds of customers have complained that the iPhone X’s display experiences delays in turning on for up to 10 seconds during incoming phone calls, preventing these users from tapping the Accept or Decline buttons.
Sounds like a very small pool of people have this issue, but it also sounds like this has been around a while (here’s a Reddit comment on this from two months ago) and is still not solved.
While HomePod is still available for delivery this Friday, supply for in-store pickup is disappearing.
I logged in to the Apple Store HomePod page to check stock this morning and found this message on every zip code I checked:
I checked both Space Gray and White. Add to that this post by Benjamin Mayo for 9to5Mac, who notes that shipping estimates have slipped to February 13th in the UK. This is the first sign we’ve seen of tightening HomePod supply.
[Video] Beautifully filmed, commemorating Carnaval. Embedded in main Loop post.
Jason Cross, Macworld:
Wireless charging isn’t always a great substitute for plugging in, but it’s a very convenient way to keep your phone topped off through most of the day. A wireless charger on your desk means no more plugging and unplugging throughout the day and a full charge when you head home from work. A wireless charger next to your bed makes it easy to grab and go in the morning, or just pick up your phone to “check one thing” without fussing with the lightning cable.
We’ve tested a big heap of wireless chargers, and these are some of our favorites.
Be sure to check out the second page, which talks about competing standards (iPhones only support Qi), 5W vs. 7.5W performance, and more.
Of course, you can wait for Apple’s announced AirPower charger. All we know about the ship date is “2018”.
Apple’s results in glorious chart form. Terrific resource.
If I had to pick two charts on which to focus, check out the very first one, “Apple Q1 2018 revenue by category”, and the second from the last chart, “Services revenue (4-quarter moving average)”.
One key to Apple’s continued success is diversity. The growth of that Services pie-wedge in the first chart helps reduce Apple’s dependence on iPhone sales. And that beautiful growth curve in the Services revenue chart shows that Apple is steadily moving in the right direction.
First things first, big thanks to Jason Snell and his mighty typing fingers for this transcript. A service to the community.
Way too much in the transcript to unpack it all, but here are just a few highlights:
Apple’s active installed base reached 1.3 billion devices in January, and is at an all-time high for all of our major products. One point three billion devices represents an astonishing 30 percent growth in just two years.
And:
What makes this even more remarkable is that the quarter we’re reporting today was 13 weeks long, while the year-ago quarter was 14 weeks.
Meaning, we did what we did in one less week than last year. No small thing.
The number of paid subscriptions across our services offerings passed 240 million by the end of the December quarter. That’s an increase of 30 million in the last 90 days alone, which is the largest quarterly growth ever.
And:
Apple Pay has reached an important milestone in the U.S. As a result of 50 percent year over year growth in merchant adoption, it’s now accepted at more than half of all American retail locations, which includes more than two-thirds of the country’s top 100 retailers.
And:
It was our best quarter ever for the Apple Watch. With over 50 percent growth in revenue and units for the fourth quarter in a row, and strong double-digit growth in every geographic segment. Sales of Apple Watch Series 3 models were also more than twice the volume of Series 2 a year ago.
Most popular smartwatch in the world. The early reports on HomePod remind me of the early take on Apple Watch. Lots of naysaying but, for Apple Watch, time did tell.
It was the third consecutive quarter of growth for iPad revenue, thanks to the strength of both iPad and iPad Pro.
And, finally, when asked if he considered the impact offering free or discounted battery replacements would have on iPhone purchases, Tim said:
On the battery, Toni, we did not consider it in any way, shape, or form what it would do to upgrade rates. We did it because we thought it was the right thing to do for our customers. And sitting here today, I don’t know what effect it will have. And again, it was not in our thought process of deciding to do what we’ve done.
Good call, excellent results.
Peter Cao, 9to5Mac:
Less than a day after the announcement, YouTube TV is now available on Apple’s tvOS platform. The cable-cutter streaming TV service starts at $35/month, with no contracts, and allows users to stream TV from their iPhone and now, Apple TV.
I love the way YouTube TV shared the news:
https://twitter.com/YouTubeTV/status/959195619507122177
Another solid option for cord cutters.
Strategy Analytics:
According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments tumbled 9 percent annually to reach 400 million units in Q4 2017. It was the biggest annual fall in smartphone history. Apple captured first place with 19% global marketshare, nudging Samsung into second position. Xiaomi continued its relentless rise, almost doubling smartphone shipments from a year ago.
In a nutshell, smartphone shipments fell 9 percent year-over-year, Samsung fell with it, Apple held reasonably steady in shipments despite the industry as a whole shrinking, and Apple gained considerable global marketshare.
Here’s the report, see for yourself.
Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:
Apple today updated its HomePod tech specs page with a new Audio Sources section that lists all of the ways in which the speaker can stream audio, setting the record straight on some conflicting information.
Here’s the list, from Apple’s HomePod tech specs page:
A week from tomorrow!
UPDATE: The question came up about Bluetooth being in the wireless section, but not listed as an audio source. I asked about it on Twitter, the response was, Bluetooth too compressed for the quality HomePod requires. So Bluetooth is used for pairing, but not music transfer.
Michael Steeber, 9to5Mac:
Following the news that Apple had refocused their plans for iOS 12 around stability and performance over new features, many were quick to liken the move to a “Snow Leopard release” of iOS. In recent years, the phrase has reached mythological status in the Apple community, a catch-all referring to stable software and “the good ol’ days” of the Mac.
But how did this perception develop? Was Mac OS X Snow Leopard really the gold standard of software releases, an undefeated champion in the halls of computing history?
This is a fascinating look at the history of Apple and software reliability. It pairs well with the Axios story Apple delays iOS features to focus on reliability, performance and Michael Tsai’s response.
Michael Tsai:
I think the real difference is that, with more time between major releases, there was less churn, and there was time for things to settle down before the next major release upended everything again. The last few versions of each cycle got to be really good, and you could stick with them until the next version settled down. Some people stayed with 10.6.8 for multiple whole cycles. (There was also less pressure to update then.) Last fall, if Sierra was buggy for you, the choice was between sticking with a release you weren’t happy with or rolling the dice on High Sierra, which included significant fixes but also introduced new problems of its own.
Nothing is ever rock solid. But there are certainly many shades of grey between rock solid and terribly buggy. And Apple’s reputation is critical to their continued success. Apple cannot allow their brand to tarnish (or at least to become synonymous with terribly buggy). That’d be the ball game.
The tension here, as it usually is, is the balance between past sales and future projections.
Now on to the race to $1 trillion. This is all about market capitalization, or market cap, for short. Market cap is a company’s share price times the number of shares outstanding. Here’s an Investopedia article on the concept.
As of this writing, Apple’s market cap is $860B. That’s based on a price to earning ratio of 18.25. That P/E ratio is on the high end of middling, certainly a reasonable number.
Amazon’s market cap is $696B, with a P/E ratio of 364.98. Yes, you read that correctly. In effect, Apple’s stock is grounded in actual results, while Amazon’s stock is more of a flier, based on growth and the thinking that Amazon is going to eat the world.
And Alphabet? Hot on Apple’s tail with a market cap of $811B and a P/E of 39.09. Right in the middle.
Who will get to $1 trillion first? Might happen this year.
Want to check these numbers for yourself? Go to Google and type “Apple’s market cap” or just “AAPL” and Google will show the relevant details.
Sound & Vision is an audio, video consumer products magazine. They had the chance to sit down with Phil Schiller to talk HomePod.
A few tidbits:
We think we can create a new kind of music experience in the home that sounds incredible, and is fun to interact with. That’s what’s driving us with HomePod. And it can also be the hub for your smart home. Voice technologies like Siri are also gaining in popularity with Siri responding to over 2 billion requests each week. This helps us understand how people actually interact with their devices, what they ask, and helps us create a product for the home that makes sense.
The HomePod as hub. That’s as advertised.
Siri, over 2 billion requests each week. That’s a lot of data, and a lot of network traffic. Apple has made a point to design their machine learning architecture to work on device, with zero network connectivity required. It will be interesting to see if Siri evolves in that same direction.
It’s about creating an experience that moves with you throughout the day — so the experience you have at home, is replicated in the car with CarPlay, at work with iPad and Mac, and when you’re out for a run with Watch and iPhone. You can listen to the same music, control your home accessories or ask Siri to do something for you, wherever you are.
This brings to mind Rene Ritchie’s HomePod wish list (posted yesterday). One of Rene’s wishes was for a Unified mesh Siri.
From that writeup:
Right now, there’s a different Siri for different devices, all with different capabilities. Siri on Apple TV is far more limited than iPhone or iPad, but has deep media knowledge and can even handle multi-language queries where, for example, a French speaker asks for a movie with an English title. Siri on Mac can interact with files and persist results but, frustratingly, can’t control HomeKit.
This is a definitely challenge for Apple. To me, a required next step in Siri’s evolution.
More from Phil:
Using advanced software and the A8 chip, HomePod intelligently beams center vocals and direct energy away from the wall while reflecting the ambient reverb and back-up vocals against the wall for dispersion into the room. The end result is a wide soundstage with a feeling of spaciousness and depth.
And:
Every time you move HomePod, it uses the built-in accelerometer to detect a change in its location and continues to make sure the music sounds great and is consistent, wherever it’s placed.
And:
HomePod uses advanced machine learning techniques including deep neural networks (DNNs) optimized for the hardware to detect “Hey Siri” in challenging environments. The detection of “Hey Siri” happens on the device, so nothing is being sent to Apple until that trigger is detected and the Siri waveform lights up. At that time, the request is sent to Apple using an anonymous Siri ID, and of course that communication is all encrypted. We’re able to do this because we designed audio technology, advanced software, and Siri to work together as one system.
Lots of great stuff here. You can see how much Phil loves what he does, how passionate he is about HomePod. Can’t wait for next Friday!
Guilherme Rambo, 9to5Mac:
HomePod runs a special version of iOS, which means it gets new updates alongside iOS. The latest software publicly available for it is iOS 11.2.5, which will likely be the version installed on HomePods delivered on February 9th.
Software updates for HomePod will be managed through the Home app. The app will alert users when a new software update is available and will show an interface similar to the one used for iOS updates. Users will have the option to enable automatic updates, although it’s unclear how those will be managed. Updates can be installed on a single HomePod, all HomePods in the home or to specific stereo pairs (stereo pairing will not be available on HomePods running different software versions).
Interesting to me that there are a number of different update models at work here, all of them involving a satellite piece of Apple gear. Apple TV tends to update directly on device, Apple Watch has its own directly paired iOS device hosted Watch app, and now HomePod, which is part of the Home mini-ecosystem.
Seems to me like an opportunity for Apple to simplify their interface, make it a bit easier for beginners to master.
[VIDEO] Harry McCracken, FastCompany:
On the evening of January 26, 1983, as a technology-smitten Boston University freshman, I attended the monthly meeting of the Boston Computer Society, which included a demo of Apple’s brand-new Lisa system. Though I know that I came away enormously impressed, I don’t exactly recall the event like it was yesterday. Actually, just one element was permanently etched onto my brain cells: the moment when the Lisa’s bitmapped, proportional, user-selectable typefaces flashed on screen. It was a mind-bender given that other PCs–like my beloved Atari 400–were capable only of displaying a single fixed-width font of no elegance whatsoever.
And:
What I didn’t realize until I watched the video is that seeing the meeting all over again wasn’t just an act of personal nostalgia. Between them, the IIe and Lisa, and the way Apple explained them to us BCS members, are full of lessons that remain resonant in the era of the iPhone.
First, read Harry’s article, it’s terrific. Then check the video of the meeting itself, embedded in the main Loop post. It’s a charming time capsule capture of a real moment in time.
It’s all in the model number. Note that this has been true for many, many years and applies to Macs and, I believe, iPads too.
That said, this is one of those arcane bits of trivia that bears repeating.
Shira Ovide, Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. is revamping its digital bookstore in another attempt to take on Amazon’s dominance. I can’t help thinking: What if?
This is a reference to this article, about Apple remaking the iBooks Store and the iBooks app, simplifying both and making book reading a better experience.
More from Shira:
The missed opportunity was for Apple’s business partners, particularly newspaper and magazine companies, which Apple persuaded to turn themselves inside out to take advantage of the iPad. It turned out that Apple was leading those partners to a dead end.
This is a bit of a curmudgeonly statement, but there is truth at its core. A number of publishers went all in on the iPad, with visions of a simple path from print to digital, with subscriptions intact.
The eighth anniversary of the iPad’s introduction was on Saturday. Allow me to take you on a trip back to that time. Steve Jobs set off on a sales pitch to media companies that he hoped would make the new tablet computer more useful. Jobs was a true believer that the iPad would be an amazing opportunity for books, newspapers and magazines to reimagine their products, capture readers and patch up their ailing business models.
All-in-all, a fascinating read.
[VIDEO] As a reminder, the Calculator app hit a bit of a stumble back in October.
The issue was that the keypress animation for one key took long enough to complete that the follow-on keypress was missed. Apple fixed the problem by eliminating the animation.
The video (embedded in the main Loop post) shows the fix, with the animation back in place.
Counterpoint Research:
According to the latest research from Counterpoint’s Market Pulse program, the US market sold-through 51.2m smartphones during the holiday season quarter of 2017. Apple sell-through during this period was a record 22.39 million smartphones. Apple was able to grow their sell-through market share from 37% to 44%. This is the highest ever market share for Apple in its home market.
Commenting on Apple’s growth story here, Research Director Jeff Fieldhack stated, “Apple shipped a record 22 million iPhones for the first time ever in a quarter in USA and is note-able and impressive feat because the Q4 promotional season was not nearly as aggressive as previous years. In addition, upgrade rates are slightly lower year-over-year as smartphone subscribers are holding onto phones longer. Apple was able to grow their sell through 20% in a market that only grew 2% compared to last year. This means Apple has been successful to take share away from Samsung in the premium.”
Note that this article is referencing the 4th calendar quarter and not Apple’s 4th fiscal quarter (which ended September 30th).
During Q4 2017, all the three new iPhones were strong sellers—the three were the top three selling phones in the US market. However, since its launch on November 3rd, the iPhone X outsold the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus by a 2:1 margin . What this means is the super-premium segment (above $800) has grown from almost 0% in previous years to 25% share of the total smartphones sold in USA during Q4 2017, which speaks volumes for the potential of USA market and the US consumers’ buying power.”
It’ll be really interesting to compare these results to those one quarter from now. Will the iPhone X peel even further away from the iPhone 8/Plus, sales-wise?
Some terrific food for thought. Just to whet your appetite, here’s the list:
There are some great ideas here, some obvious, some not so obvious. The thing I love about most of these is the fact that Apple can implement them with an update (sorry HomePod mini).
Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:
Steve Jobs long believed Apple should own the technologies inside its products rather than rely on mashups of components from other chip makers, including Samsung, Intel and Imagination Technologies. In 2008, the company made a small but significant step in that direction by acquiring boutique chip maker P.A. Semi. Two years later, Jobs unveiled the iPad. The world focused on the tablet’s giant touchscreen, book-reading prowess and creativity apps. But the most ground-breaking technology was hidden away inside: the A4, Apple’s first processor designed in-house.
And:
Apple’s push into the complicated and pricey chips business makes sense so long as the company is selling 300 million devices a year.
An interesting read. Lots of solid reasons for Apple to roll their own chips. Cost savings, for sure, but there’s also self-reliance. They can control chip production and act quickly if and when a flaw/vulnerability is discovered.
But most importantly:
So far, only two Mac lines include custom Apple processors: the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and the iMac Pro. Apple is working on at least three updated Mac models with custom co-processors for release as soon as this year, including updated laptops and a new desktop, according to a person familiar with the plan.
Well, that’s pretty big news. And a logical next step, if true.
Will we see a Mac Pro this year based on Apple silicon? How about a MacBook Pro? Can’t wait.
Bloomberg:
Songwriters will get a larger cut of revenue from streaming services after a court handed technology companies a big defeat.
The Copyright Royalty Board ruled that songwriters will get at least a 15.1 percent share of streaming revenues over the next five years, from a previous 10.5 percent. That’s the largest rate increase in CRB history, according to a statement from the National Music Publishers’ Association.
The decision is a major victory for songwriters, who have long complained they are insufficiently [compensated] by on-demand music services like Spotify and YouTube. Streaming services account for the largest share of music industry sales in the U.S., while global streaming sales jumped 60 percent in 2016, according to the IFPI.
Obviously, a big deal for artists. Question is, will this force a change to the pricing of Apple Music and other services?
IndieWire, on Soderbergh’s upcoming movie, Unsane:
Taking a page from Sean Baker’s “Tangerine,” Soderbergh shot the whole movie on an iPhone. While Baker has said he used a phone instead of traditional cameras due to budgetary constraints, Soderbergh said he was so impressed with the quality of iPhone cinematography that he would likely continue to use phones to shoot his movies going forward.
And:
“I think this is the future,” he said. “Anybody going to see this movie who has no idea of the backstory to the production will have no idea this was shot on the phone. That’s not part of the conceit.”
The filmmaker has experimented with digital cinematography for years, going back to 2002’s “Full Frontal,” but found that the iPhone offered unparalleled quality. “People forget, this is a 4k capture,” said Soderbergh, who was long a passionate advocate for the high-end RED cameras. “I’ve seen it 40 feet tall. It looks like velvet. This is a gamechanger to me.”
Soderbergh doesn’t need to scrimp and save on his movies. He’s had enough big box office success (Erin Brockovich, Oceans 11/12/13) that he can do pretty much as he pleases. The fact that he can get what he wants from iPhone says a lot.
It kind of blows my mind to think that a director of some renowned would choose to film using his phone. How far we’ve come.
Reddit user WinterCharm, an audio engineer who got an hour to play with a HomePod:
Fucking hell this thing is TINY. It’s really surprising to see it in person. Hefting it is odd, too. The fabric is soft but firm. It was also lighter than I was expecting. It’s also very pretty. Aside from the single cord coming out the back, there is no idication that it has a particular side/front. It’s built to blend into whatever space it’s in, rather than stand out.
And:
Having heard it side by side with The Sonos Play One and Google Home Max, A single HomePod is already much better than both in terms of sound quality.
And:
The first impression was the neutrality of the speaker. The HomePods are tuned for an as-true-to-recording sound. When the song calls for it, there is bass. When the song turns to crystal clear highs, they are reproduced faithfully. What really was interesting is the instrument separation in the room. At about 45% volume, the HomePod FILLED the room I was in with some great sound. When you walked away from it, the sound gets quieter, but not as quickly as you’d expect. All the details were still there, just softer. there was no feeling of walking out of the sweet spot that you get with a normal speaker. And that’s when it hit me… Apple really has done it.
Looking forward to technical reviews once people get their own HomePods and can spend some real quality time, along with access to their home environments.
Read the rest of the Reddit thread. If you can avoid the comparison trap, consider HomePod on its own, strictly as an Apple Music audio machine. Apple has really achieved something special here.
This is a great thread on the birth of iPad from Bethany Bongiorno, a former software engineering director at Apple. A real moment in time.
https://twitter.com/bella_bongiorno/status/957378194927054848
Tap the tweet to read the entire thread.
[VIDEO] Saw these spots (embedded in the main Loop post) over the weekend, timely marketing push coinciding with Apple Music’s big presence during last night’s Grammys.
I loved both of these ads, though that second one hit me twice. First, I love the Animoji, animation, and music combination. But I also love that this is Childish Gambino, who is really actor Donald Glover.
Good stuff.
Every wave of Apple new thing brings a wave of skepticism. Last week, we posted one specific example, “No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.”, which focused on a single, canonical iPod review.
In response to that post, Loop reader João Gomes, sent me a link to this MacRumors forum page, a rabbit hole filled with claim chowder (has John Gruber trademarked that phrase yet?)
So, so good.
From App Annie’s quarterly analysis of the iOS App Store and Google Play revenues.
Chart 1 shows app downloads for each store, in billions:
As you can see, Google Play has about 2-1/2 times the number of downloads as the iOS App Store.
Now let’s look at revenue:
The conclusion from this chart? Customers for the iOS App Store spend almost twice as much as Google Play customers.
That’s a pretty big swing.
Lance Ulanoff:
If it were only a question of quality, Apple’s HomePod, which, after a months-long delay finally ships on February 9, should be an unqualified success. Its audio quality is excellent, especially considering its size. Seven months ago, I sat is a small room and heard Apple’s 7-inch smart speaker play music for the first time. It sounded good, but the demonstration was short and lacking a key component of the smart speaker’s feature set: Siri integration.
Recently, though, I heard Apple’s HomePod again in a variety of scenarios and spaces. It sounded even better, especially when compared to larger Google Home Max and the aurally excellent Sonos One, the HomePod’s separation of sounds and fidelity to original instrumentation is astonishing.
This listening experience also added the smarts, or utility, that was missing back in June. Apple’s HomePod is, finally, a functioning Siri smart speaker.
You had me at astonishing.
I’m very curious about the sound quality, and how HomePod achieves such high fidelity, given the amount of compression in most music. Everything I’ve heard so far matches Lance’s description of his experience.