Interesting article from Apple, with details on how to watch 4K HDR content, presented in a clear, easy to understand format.
Pass this along to the folks in your life who might be interested, but would be intimidated by a more technical explanation.
Tim Hardwick, MacRumors, does a nice job breaking down this paywalled Wall Street Journal article.
Apple products are visible in an average of 32 camera shots in each episode of “The Morning Show,” and an Apple logo is visible in roughly one-third of those shots.
And:
In one four-second scene in episode one of the flagship Apple TV+ series, nine Apple products are shown as two characters walk and talk through a newsroom.
Fascinating. The definition of synergy. Apple TV+’s worlds (with the exception, at least to this point, of SEE) serve as ads for Apple products, paint a world where Apple products are part of every person’s day to do. Until I read the WSJ article, I hadn’t even noticed. Subliminal.
Fantastic article on Disney+, on Bob Iger, and on the technology Disney has created to get their media to market.
As I’ve said numerous times, I see three obvious leaders in the coming media wars: Apple (deep war chest, deep commitment), Netflix (huge existing lead, deep brand), and Disney (incredible back catalog, shrewd technology investments).
Of the major new Apple TV+ releases, I saved SEE for last. I wanted the context of the other shows, a sense of the quality level, the production values, before I dove into the world of SEE.
SEE is incredibly immersive. No Apple product placement, no stressors of modern life. Watch the featurette below to get a sense of how this world, supposedly built by a people who have gone blind, was created. Very interesting.
Anyone know why the title is all caps? “SEE”, vs. “See”?
Variety:
Dramas “See,” “For All Mankind,” “Dickinson” and “The Morning Show” have been greenlit for sophomore seasons. “Morning Show,” led by Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, already had a two-season order and is already at work on its next season of 10 episodes.
And:
Sources close to Apple say the service to date has drawn millions of users who are spending on average more than an hour on the Apple TV Plus platform. It’s unclear how many of those are paying subscribers rather than those taking advantage of the service’s seven-day free trial. A knowledgeable source said Apple insiders were impressed by the volume of activity on the platform, which spiked by triple digits this past weekend after the fanfare for the Nov. 1 debut.
Good to have good numbers, but I don’t think bad numbers would stop Apple from renewing these shows, green lighting new projects. It is going to take time to build a catalog with any kind of heft, and time to build up any sort of paid subscriber base.
My two cents? Apple is doing an exceptional job here. The shows I’ve watched so far (including the four that just got renewed) rise to the level of what I’d expect to see on Netflix or HBO.
Bloomberg:
Adobe Inc. debuted its most important mobile application ever this week when it finally released Photoshop for Apple Inc.’s iPad. But with key capabilities missing, many within the company’s vast fan base have panned the application, prompting the app’s overseer to publicly defend his product.
Scott Belsky, chief product officer of Adobe’s Creative Cloud division, tweeted about the “painful” early reviews for a product his team has worked on for years. Right now in Apple’s App Store, Photoshop for iPad has a user review rating of 2.3 out of 5 stars.
Belsky said on Twitter, “we didn’t do a good enough job distinguishing between “real” (the actual real codebase, so any PSDs can be managed with any # of layers and ppl can use between iPad and desktop) and “full” (every feature that’s on the desktop version on day 1). messaging of strategy always tough.”
I have zero sympathy for him. “Messaging” on this was easy. You guys blew it. Adobe did a poor job of managing expectations from the beginning. Suck it up, take your lumps, do better.
There will always be bugs. But the level of bugginess does seem to be rising to new heights.
Let’s start off with this recent Daring Fireball post, iOS 13.2 is overzealously killing apps in the background (and yields joy if you are a fan of the DF hidden URL game):
This bug where apps are getting killed soon after they’re backgrounded is driving me nuts. Start a YouTube video in Safari, switch to another app, go back to Safari — and the video loads from scratch and starts from the beginning.
There are many similar examples. Supposedly, this issue was quashed in a new beta, but it was surprising to see it make its way into the wild.
Next, take a look at this post from Kirk McElhearn, detailing problems opening iCloud files.
Another widespread issue is the frustration of trying to get HomePod to recognize a second person’s voice. For me, the issue manifested itself when my wife asked HomePod Siri to add an item to the shopping list, something she’s done on a regular basis since HomePod first entered our house a long time ago. But now, all she got was:
Who is this?
And that took us down a wild road of trying to figure out how to get HomePod Siri to recognize her as a person. Now, you might put this off to pilot error, but this problem is pretty widespread. I’ve spent a ton of time trying to solve this problem for my setup, and also helping others fix it for their setup. There’s no shortage of people who can’t get this to work and now have loved ones shut out from the HomePod.
I suspect that the issue at the core of this HomePod problem is a poorly chosen setting, or lack of the proper update. To me, if iOS 13.2 is required for this to work, Siri should say as much, instead of simply saying the unhelpful, “Who is this?” The complexity of the Home app setup is daunting, well beyond the capabilities of a newbie to work through. And there are a lot of settings that have to be “just so” in order for this to work.
I’m not trying to pick on Apple’s developers here. But something does seem amiss. Some say the issue is too much pressure to deliver on too short a timeline. I have no idea. But as a user, I am frustrated.
I love these “data race” videos, where a bar chart is animated over time. Lock in your guesses as to the current top selling artist, ranked by album sales.
[H/T Storm Garelli]
Glenn Fleishman, Macworld:
Apple took system protection to the next level in macOS 10.15 Catalina by splitting your normal boot volume into two pieces. It appears like a single volume on the Desktop, but it’s really two: one is labeled with the volume’s name, while the other has “- Data” appended to it.
Great explainer on the new boot volume setup, with a side mention of that “Relocated Items” folder alias you’ll likely see on your desktop when you install Catalina.
This is a charming take on the Airpods Pro. Truly written from the heart.
Fast Company:
Apple is introducing a policy that will give new parents a four-week grace period after returning from leave. During that time, they will continue to be paid like full-time employees but will have the flexibility to work part-time and set their own hours with their manager’s oversight.
And:
These benefits extend to Apple’s retail workers, as well, who account for nearly half of the company’s employees.
That last bit is especially interesting. Cool that retail workers get this benefit, interesting that they account for almost half of Apple’s employees.
MacStories:
Privacy and everything it entails is not easy to explain. Under the hood, it’s driven by complex mathematics and code. However, in practice, app privacy starts with how apps are designed. Some are designed to collect information about you, and others aren’t.
With Apple’s update to its privacy page today, the company has created a site that explains how privacy drives the design of its apps in clear, concise language. However, for anyone who wants to understand the nitty-gritty details, Apple has also published white papers and linked to other materials that provide a closer look at the issues that the main page addresses.
Privacy is hugely important but “annoying” and “boring” for many average users. Apple does a great job of trying to lead people to learn and understand what the company is doing to protect users.
Apple TV:
Doubt what you believe. From M. Night Shyamalan, Servant follows a Philadelphia couple in mourning after an unspeakable tragedy creates a rift in their marriage and opens the door for a mysterious force to enter their home.
I’m pretty gunshy about Shyamalan movies but will watch this on Apple TV+.
I absolutely love the sequence of WILL IT WORK videos, connecting various devices to an iPhone. But this one takes the cake. Connecting an original old-school Macintosh keyboard and mouse to an iPhone? Ridiculous. No way.
But watch.
Apple:
Apple and the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today announced that veterans across the nation and surrounding territories1 now have access to the Health Records feature in the Health app on iPhone. The VA gradually launched Health Records to select patients this summer, and now veterans who are iOS users and receive their care through the Veterans Health Administration can see a fuller, more comprehensive picture of their health that includes information from multiple providers.
And:
The VA is the largest medical system in the United States, providing service to more than 9 million veterans across 1,243 facilities, including hospitals and clinics. Today, the VA joins Johns Hopkins, University of California San Diego, Quest Diagnostics, Allscripts and 400 other health care provider organizations, laboratory networks and electronic health records vendors who all support Health Records on iPhone.
Fantastic accomplishment. Here’s hoping this is a step toward unifying an extremely fragmented health records system. Certainly great news for the VA.
One of the things John Gruber and I discussed on my visit to The Talk Show last week was the concept of an Apple version of Amazon Prime. Pay one price, get a bunch of services in a bundle.
For Amazon, Prime includes free shipping, music, and Prime Video. What might an Apple Prime include?
This Reddit post asked if $2000 a year would be worth the price, if you got:
An interesting proposition. One tweak I’d make to that model is to allow for different hardware levels. Price it to allow for a new base model iPhone 11, MacBook Air, and Apple Watch, for example. Then, you’d pay up to move to a Pro subscription, which would allow an iPhone Pro, MacBook Pro, perhaps a ceramic Apple Watch.
Difficult to price, difficult for a consumer to value properly. At the very least, I’d price it monthly, rather than yearly as Amazon does.
And more likely a reality, how about a yearly “all the services” bundle, which would include:
Priced aggressively, that would bring subscriber numbers up for all Apple services, and also provide a predictable revenue stream. It also has the advantage of getting people to try out services they might not pay for otherwise.
Personally, I’d sign up for the services bundle right now.
Apple:
Seventeen-year-old Pakistani American teenager Hala (Geraldine Viswanathan) struggles to balance desire with her familial, cultural and religious obligations. As she comes into her own, she grapples with a secret that threatens to unravel her family. Written and directed by Minhal Baig and executive produced by Jada Pinkett Smith, ”Hala” was an official selection of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.
The film looks beautifully shot, the trailer lays out the framework of a coming of age story, cultural conflict. The key will be in the resolution. This hits Apple TV+ on December 6th. Will watch.
ELLE Decor:
On a recent visit to New York City to be the keynote speaker at a gala for Ceres, a nonprofit focused on sustainability, Cook sat down with a small group of journalists, including ELLE Decor editors, to discuss his ambitious agenda for transforming Apple into a global leader in renewable energy and climate-friendly practices.
Here are our top 10 takeaways from the conversation.
Good read, combines well with Apple’s $2.5 billion commitment to combat California’s housing crisis and, ironically, arrives as the US formally exits the Paris climate agreement.
[H/T Dman]
Dustin Curtis:
Apple TV is a hardware device.
Apple TV is an app on Apple TV that curates content you can buy from Apple and also content you can stream through other installed apps (but not all apps, and there is no way to tell which ones).
Apple TV is an app on iOS/iPadOS devices that operates similarly to Apple TV on Apple TV. Apple TV on iOS/iPadOS syncs playback and watch history with Apple TV on Apple TV, but only if the iOS/iPadOS device has the same apps installed as the Apple TV – and not all apps are available on all platforms. Apple TV is also an app on macOS, but it does not show content that can only be streamed from external apps on an Apple TV or iOS/iPadOS device.
This stuff is confusing enough without this kind of crap. How can the average, non-techy user figure this out?
UBC:
Scientists at the University of British Columbia are getting a rare glimpse into the underwater behaviour of northern and southern resident killer whales off the B.C. coast, with the help of aerial drones.
The unique footage, filmed in collaboration with the Hakai Institute, will help researchers determine if endangered southern residents are getting enough of their preferred prey, Chinook salmon, to meet their nutritional needs. The insights will inform conservation and recovery efforts for the population that has dwindled to under 75 individuals.
These orcas live in my “neighbourhood.” I’m so lucky to live in a place where sightings are a regular occurrence. This drone footage gives even greater insight into their activities.
Long op-ed from Benjamin Mayo on 9to5Mac. Lots of solid points. One in particular that struck me:
It’s also frustrating that the “Library” is not really a library. The Library only includes iTunes content. I want to be able to build a personal library of content regardless of how I paid for it. TV+ shows should be able to be saved to the library to find later, or any Apple TV Channels content for that matter.
If Apple wants the TV app to be the universal go-to place for watching TV, they need to create a universal watch/wish list that you can edit. I’d love a master TV list that would let me add shows I want to watch, even if they are shows from Netflix, Disney+, HBO, etc.
If Apple wants the TV app to be universal, they need to support their competition. If that’s not the goal, fine, at least add all the features that Netflix offers for managing content.
Apple updated their support article for AirPods Pro water resistance.
Ars Technica:
Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are vulnerable to attacks that use lasers to inject inaudible—and sometimes invisible—commands into the devices and surreptitiously cause them to unlock doors, visit websites, and locate, unlock, and start vehicles, researchers report in a research paper published on Monday. Dubbed Light Commands, the attack works against Facebook Portal and a variety of phones.
The article is fascinating, no doubt. But I had to laugh at the idea of shining a laser at Siri. She’s both immortal and invincible.
Kidding aside, the exploitable tech here is the MEMS mic. Interesting read, not a thing to worry about, at least for most mortals.
I had a truly terrible experience trying to drop Adobe Creative Cloud. I ended up paying a monthly fee all the way through my yearly anniversary, then making a phone call to cancel in a specific window to prevent my subscription from rolling over.
I love Illustrator, miss it more than all the other Adobe apps. Hoping Adobe has changed their cancellation policy, and that Illustrator for iPad ships with a full feature set, offers a standalone subscription like Photoshop’s $9.99 a month.
Rasmus Larsen:
Apple TV+ has the highest streaming quality we’ve seen for 4K so far. It’s higher than most iTunes movies. Over the weekend, I took the first batch of measurements.
Lots of little nuggets here. If you are digging into Apple TV+, worth your time to watch in 4K. Interesting to watch a service unfold in which every single show is at least 4K.
QZ:
The US and UK governments have tried to help consumers make better decisions about warranties. The US Federal Trade Commission advises people to consider the likelihood of product failure and cost of repairs, for example.
Among all electronics, an extended warranty cost 24% of the product’s price on average. And customers bought warranties between 20% and 40% of the time.
There are very few situations where I’d recommend an extended warranty – I have one on my motorcycle because I’m mechanically incompetent – and am very happy to have my warranties doubled buy buying on a credit card.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I not wake up black this morning? Because I’m pretty sure I did. Yup…still black.” It may be my own personal biases coming through but with this storyline and this cast, this may be the one thing on Apple TV+ that makes me really want to sign up.
There’s a lot of interesting detail in this video. For one: I always thought noise cancelation was mathematically perfect, but some sounds are harder to cancel than others.
And the point about foam being a better solution for sealing off noise than the tips Apple created. Not sure I buy that Apple over-engineered their solution when cheap foam would have been better. I’m interested in an audio engineers take on this.
Take a look, well presented.
[H/T Loek van der Helm]
One of the more puzzling aspects of Apple TV+ is the occasional, fleeting appearance of the picture-in-picture icon, whenever you touch (but not press) the Apple TV remote.
To see this yourself, fire up your Apple TV, then switch over to the TV app and launch one of the Apple TV+ shows (the first few episodes are free, require no signup). As a show is playing, touch the touchpad on the Apple TV remote. A PiP icon will appear. See if you can figure out how to turn on picture-in-picture mode.
Turns out, this is a tvOS 13 feature, specific to the TV app, and not specific to Apple TV+. If you tend to use individual apps like Netflix or Hulu, rather than the TV app, you might never have encountered the PiP icon. But since Apple TV+ lives in the TV app, you’ll definitely encounter the PiP icon once you move to Apple TV+.
As to the specifics of using PiP in tvOS 13, TidBITS posted an article when tvOS 13 dropped last month that lays it all out.
The key is to swipe up when you see the icon, then click the touchpad to bring PiP to life. Read the article for all the mechanics of swapping PiP window positions, swapping video between full screen and PiP, all worth knowing.
Here’s a link to Adobe Photoshop on the iOS App Store.
And here’s a link to a MacStories writeup by John Voorhees, with a bit of background and hands on.
Seems clear to me that the public expects a full version of Photoshop, and will be disappointed by the limited functionality here, no matter how terrific a job Adobe’s developers did. Adobe lost control of the message early on. The MacStories piece does a great job laying all this out.