[VIDEO] Kick back and watch. A great way to sight see Tokyo, get a sense of iPhone 11 Pro video. Video embedded in main Loop post.
Want to watch this in 4K? Switch to Chrome. As to why you can’t watch YouTube in 4K in Safari, here’s an explainer from 9to5Mac (H/T @Ugo_AAPL).
Hollywood Reporter:
The ad-supported, direct-to-consumer platform will be called Peacock and launch in April 2020 with a lineup of more than 15,000 hours of content, including exclusive library titles like Parks and Recreation and originals including reboots of Battlestar Galactica, Saved by the Bell and Punky Brewster. Peacock will take center stage during NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics in 2020 when the entire NBCUniversal fold will get behind the platform with a massive marketing push promoting the service, with originals set to launch after the Games.
Ad supported. This like the Hulu model, with two pricing tiers, one with ads, and a premium version ad-free?
Peacock will be the exclusive streaming home for both The Office and Parks, with other library titles set to debut at launch on the service eventually becoming exclusive to the platform. Those titles — nearly all of which are from studio counterparts Universal TV and UCP — include 30 Rock, Bates Motel, Battlestar Galactica, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Cheers, Chrisley Knows Best, Covert Affairs, Downton Abbey, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Friday Night Lights, House, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, King of Queens, Married … With Children, Monk, Parenthood, Psych, Royal Pains, Saturday Night Live, Superstore, The Real Housewives, Top Chef and Will & Grace.
That’s a huge back catalog, with lots of movies as well. Going to be interesting to watch Apple TV+ build a service from scratch. Definitely a long game. I expect some consolidation over time, as the limits of consumer pocketbooks are reached.
Apple Arcade went live yesterday, at least for people running the iOS 13 beta.
I’ve been playing on both my iPhone XR and my iPad. The experience is phenomenal. There’s an overwhelming number of games, more than I can possibly digest in even a few days. And a steady stream of more games to follow.
Jump to the main Loop post for thoughts on Apple Arcade, along with a great video from Rene Ritchie.
[VIDEO] Follow the headline link for the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max review. But watch the video embedded in the main Loop post for the visuals.
I especially appreciate Nilay Patel’s voiceover explanation of Smart HDR and the mention of Deep Fusion, a software update for low light that is said to be coming later this year.
All-in-all, a terrific video to watch if you are interested in the iPhone 11 Pro camera.
And don’t miss the pictures Matthew Panzarino took on his trip to Disney World with the iPhone 11 Pro, especially that Night mode pic of Winnie the Pooh, inside a dark ride, with no flash.
Follow the headline link, tap iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro, then pick a color. Tap the side arrows to step through the gallery for that model/color combination.
Next, tap the Compare models button to get to the compare page. Tap the tabs at the top to compare specs.
I found this useful. But check out the URL. “experience.apple”. I’ve not seen that one before.
Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:
Digital compasses like the one inside the new Apple Watch Series 5 and iPhone 3GS and later rely on a magnetoresistive permalloy sensor called a magnetometer to detect levels of magnetism.
And:
Apple warns that bands with magnetic clasps may cause interference with the built-in compass.
It’s an edge case, but if you prefer Apple Watch bands with magnetic clasps (such as Leather Loop, Milanese Loop, and Modern Buckle), be aware they might mess with the compass.
Solid move, Tim. The discount applies to:
Looks like the discount is across the board. Check this tweet, and this one.
[VIDEO] Pretty cool. The camera updates are so compelling to me, both for photography and videos. And that Boba Fett Midnight Green color. Video embedded in main Loop post.
If you are interested in Apple’s new Apple Watch Series 5, here’s a bit of fun.
Follow the headline link, scroll through all the eye candy, until you get to a section labeled Apple Watch Studio.
Tap that pride-outlined button labeled “Create your style”. This is the latest and greatest take on stepping through the cases and bands (don’t miss the Side view button) to get a sense of all the styles and colors, to home in on your custom Apple Watch.
Next up, open the link on your iPhone, scroll down again, this time stopping at the section labeled “See Apple Watch Series 5 in AR”. Go ahead and tap the “View in AR” button.
You can drag the virtual Apple Watch to a new location, and walk around to get a better view. If you’ve got long enough arms, you can even get the Apple Watch onto your arm and take a screenshot.
Have not yet figured out a way to change the model. Ping me if you figure that one out.
Apple, keeping the whimsy alive.
Jessica Dolcourt, CNET:
One day, 5G will become the new standard for data speeds, but for now, growth is slow and the coverage sporadic and limited. While Samsung says it already sold 2 million 5G phones, roadblocks litter the way between early adoption and mass use.
5G isn’t even close to ready for prime time. The current rollouts require you to be physically near (within feet) of a transceiver to get the top speeds. Move away from the transceiver and your speed drops significantly. And, obviously, if you live in the suburbs or beyond, it’ll be years before those transceivers make it out to your neck of the woods.
As Apple has shown time and again, they are patient, waiting until they can deliver a superior experience before they release a new product. 5G is just not there yet.
Apple has time. And they’ve got plenty of work to do, both in absorbing Intel’s modem business (which they acquired in July) and in incorporating that technology into a carrier-agnostic 5G modem that won’t overheat in the hot summer sun.
Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:
At its event last week, Apple previewed a new version of Filmic Pro running on the iPhone 11 Pro. It was a compelling demo with the app able to record from multiple cameras simultaneously, like recording the front and back camera together.
If you haven’t seen this demo, take a minute to watch that part of last week’s Apple event. The demo starts at about 1:27:06. It’s short.
What really struck me, and the subject of Benjamin’s post, is the ability of Filmic Pro to record both the front facing camera and the selfie camera at the same time. A very specific use-case, true, but if you have that need, this is a big deal. And, I suspect, there are movie makers who will add this to their bag of tricks and we’ll start to see the double-camera effect make its way into indie features.
The multi-cam recording relies on new API introduced in iOS 13. At the WWDC session on the subject, Apple stressed that this required significant reworking of the hardware pipeline of their devices, but that the necessary changes have been made in the iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and the new iPad Pro models.
If you have one of those existing models, take a read through the linked article.
[VIDEO] Well done. Video embedded in main Loop post.
Reddit:
I live about 15 minutes away and once I was home, I slid open the plastic seal, lift the box and immediately had a moment of shock. I’ve purchased many iPhones before so am quite familiar with Apple’s packaging and what not. There was a phone in the box that resembled the size and shape of an actual XS Max and had a decent weight to it. However, I immediately noticed something was wrong.
Grain of salt here. Personally, I’ve never bought an iPhone from an Apple Store and not opened it at the Apple Store.
That said, it could be true. If so, a pretty shocking experience.
Stephen Hall, 9to5Google:
It’s a sad reality, but if Apple made the Watch compatible with Android, it would be bar-none the best smartwatch for Android phones. It already is the fastest, most useful, and most technically impressive wearable you can buy.
And:
As it is, Android users are limited to Samsung’s Tizen-running watches (arguably the best Apple Watch alternatives) and the countless Wear OS options from Fossil Group, Mobvoi, and others.
It’d be interesting if Apple could find a way to integrate Apple Watch with Android just enough to whet the Android user’s appetites, just enough to get them to give an iPhone a try.
[VIDEO] I love the new camera systems that ship with the iPhone 11 and iPhone Pro series. The most impressive thing to me is the seamless transition as you switch between cameras, both in still model and when shooting video.
Incredibly impressive engineering work. Video embedded in the main Loop post.
Jason Snell:
Something strange happened at Apple’s iPhone 11 event on Tuesday: the Apple Watch stole the show.
And:
Before the Apple Watch first came out, I spent a couple of years wearing the Pebble, a proto-smartwatch. When people asked me how it was to use, I always responded by saying, “it tells the time.” Yes, that was me poking fun at the tiny feature set of the Pebble, but it was also highlighting what is fundamentally the most important part of a watch — displaying the current time on its face.
And:
Thanks to some clever redesigned display technology and a bunch of other upgrades, the Apple Watch Series 5 will show the current time on its face, no jiggling required.
I do get Jason’s point, and the always-on display is a welcome add-on, no doubt. But star of the show? For me, it was the camera.
Grain of salt, but from a reasonably reliable source:
https://twitter.com/sonnydickson/status/1172352571807191040
This is the number one thing I will look for in the forthcoming iFixit teardown. Second is the battery size, as compared to the last generation models.
Juli Clover, MacRumors:
Apple today announced a new billing grace period for subscriptions, which will let subscribers who experience unsuccessful auto-renewals continue to use an app’s paid content while Apple attempts to collect payment.
This will be a useful feature for developers as customers who do not immediately update their billing when a subscription fee becomes due can currently lose access to premium features right away.
Excellent move.
Heh. Nice collage.
Funny, but I actually love the look of the new camera bump. Might be purely anticipation of the updated camera functionality.
There’s been a lot of discussion about Apple being late to the 5G game. I get it, 5G is incredibly fast compared to both LTE and even your home WiFi. And Samsung has it now.
But.
From the headline linked PC Mag article:
On a hot Las Vegas morning, my two Galaxy S10 5G phones kept overheating and dropping to 4G. This behavior is happening with all of the millimeter-wave, first-generation, Qualcomm X50-based phones when temperatures hit or exceed 85 degrees. We saw it with T-Mobile in New York, with Verizon in Providence, and now with AT&T in Las Vegas. It’s happened on Samsung and LG phones, with Samsung, Ericsson, and Nokia network hardware.
AT&T and T-Mobile both said they’ll have phones with Qualcomm’s second-generation 5G modem, the X55, later this year. This persistent overheating behavior just makes me more confident in recommending that consumers wait to buy a 5G phone.
If you’re interested in 5G, read the entire article. But one takeaway is that 5G and the rollout of the equipment that makes 5G possible is just not ready for prime time. It’s not nearly in enough places, and the first generation modems are prone to overheating.
Apple has long had a strategy of entering a market only when they could deliver brilliant performance. If Apple rolled out a 5G phone now, they’d have to raise the cost of their phones, and deliver a less than stellar experience to their customers. Lose-lose.
Will 5G be ready for Apple by September 2020? Only one way to tell. Watch next years keynote.
Scroll down. There’s Jony, with a bit of scruff, and a few other folks you might recognize.
I’m surprised no one has built a Tumblr dedicated to closeups of well known people at various Apple events.
Follow the headline link, hit play to get the video loaded. Hit pause again if you’d like.
Notice the tiny vertical lines in the scrub bar. Each one marks one of the key announcements in the video. Hover over a line to see a bit of text appear with details of that announcement.
Here’s a pic showing this.
Brian Roemmele:
“Hey Siri, we lost Spot the dog, do you know where he is?”
Siri:”Spot is located 87 feet forward and down 2 feet from the height of the iPhone. Please hold up your phone and follow the Balloon to Spot’s location”
It’s all about spatial awareness.
The “U” in the U1 chip relates to the Ultra-Wide Band Radio Technology (UWB) [1] technology it uses. UWB can be used for many application and use cases. One use case that will become very large for Apple as they move to AR/MR technology and Apple Glasses is to be able to track spacial relationships of objects. One way to do this is using lasers and IR systems, and Apple is already doing this to some degree with FaceID and Animoji. The other way to do this is via the radio spectrum.
Lots of detail here on a chip that is an important addition to Apple’s custom chip arsenal.
Interesting explainer. Note that the Series 4 Apple Watch also has an LTPO display.
Glad to see the 3% Daily Cash list growing for Apple Card.
As this list grows, it’d be nice to have some signal that a merchant I’m about to pay is part of the 3% club. That will definitely get me to use my Apple Card, instead of my default card that offers better benefits, at least for me.
My rule of thumb:
And it’s that last category that has me reach for my default credit card. 3% is compelling to me. As the list grows, I might be tempted to promote my Apple Card to the top spot in my Wallet.
We posted the video yesterday, but turns out there’s a secret message embedded in six frames, at about 1:24 in the video.
Follow the headline link to the video, pause, then drag the slider to about 1:23 in. Now press period (“.”) to advance one frame at a time until the Easter egg comes into view. Have patience, might take a good number of frames to get there, but it’s there, I swear.
Whimsy!
You’ll find all the details in the original Reddit post.
[VIDEO] Marques Brownlee offers up a terrific overview of the iPhone 11 Pro, all from the hands-on area of yesterday’s Apple event. The video is embedded in the main Loop post.
Most of the video is tightly focused, so check out this video from Rajiv Makhni, which gives a much broader view of the chaos (or at least the aftermath).
This according to the SpeedSmart Speed Test app. Grain of salt, but if true, that’s a pretty big speed increase.
Reminds me of the huge battery gains in the iPhone 11 Pro, all without a major increase in the battery size. This all due to efficiency gains in the A13 bionic chip?
The original list pulled together on Reddit (follow the headline link) included a monthly payment for an iPhone 11 Pro Max. I do like the premise, but my list is all about services, and what you’d see if you went all in.
That’s a total of $39.95 a month, or $44.95 if you’ve got the Apple Music family plan.
Ping me if I’ve missed anything.
Some nice shots of the hands-on area towards the end.