September 7, 2021

Apple announces event for September 14

Apple on Tuesday sent out notifications for the company’s next big event being held September 14 at 10:00 am. Dubbed “California streaming,” the event will be broadcast from the company’s Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, CA. You can watch the event on Apple.com.

There are no real clues as to be what will be announced, but September is the time for new iPhones, so it’s reasonable to assume we’ll be seeing the iPhone 13. There could be some other surprises too, but the iPhone is always the main attraction at this event.

The Singer-Songwriter EZX was recorded in a choice room, relatively small and transparent to ensure minimum ambient coloration. In total, it includes five full kits recorded with sticks as well as one configuration and several additional instruments sampled with brushes. To paint the broadest picture possible, each kit was handpicked for its contrasting qualities, character and tonal complexity. Seeking to deliver the most homogeneously composed kits, the selective process was scrutinized in extreme detail – from the matching of heads with tuning and cymbal sizes with drum timbres down to the delicacy of the drummer’s stroke.

This expansion pack is for EZdrummer 2 and Superior Drummer 3, and is tailored for acoustic pop, Americana, folk and similar genres. I have quite a few of the expansion packs from them and they are worth it.

September 3, 2021

The Dalrymple Report: Digital ID and Classical music

This week, Dave and I talk about Apple’s plans to allow people to put digital IDs into the Apple Wallet and what that means for users. We also talk about Apple’s acquisition of Primephonic, a Classical music streaming service, that will make Apple Music much better. Finally, we look at how Google is using quick phrases to invoke its digital assistant and if it could work for Siri.

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September 2, 2021

From yesterday’s Apple Newsroom post:

Driver’s licenses and state IDs in Wallet are only presented digitally through encrypted communication directly between the device and the identity reader, so users do not need to unlock, show, or hand over their device.

Gruber, after getting the chance to speak with Apple about the details:

The Wallet system Apple has designed for ID is very much like Apple Pay. When you pay with a physical credit card, you often hand your card to an employee. When you pay with Apple Pay, you never hand your phone to an employee. It wouldn’t even work, because no one else can authorize an Apple Pay transaction without your biometric authentication. This ID feature for Wallet is exactly like that: it doesn’t work without your biometric authentication, and your phone does not unlock when you use it.

And:

When using a Touch ID iPhone with Apple Wallet’s ID feature, you must register one and only one finger when you add your ID to your Wallet, and whenever you verify your ID in Wallet, you’ll need to use that same finger. Apple has never recommended allowing your spouse or partner to register one of their fingers on your iPhone, but many people do that. This feature is designed to ensure that the same person who enrolled their state ID in Wallet is the same person verifying it biometrically.

This makes so much sense.

Side note: If you do add multiple fingerprints to any of your Touch ID devices, be sure you label them (Dave’s right thumb, Sarah’s left index, etc.), else you’ll find yourself with a collection of unidentifiable Finger 1, Finger 2, etc. with no easy way to figure out whose fingers have access to your device.

Back to Gruber:

So if you’re just buying booze, say, and the clerk or server needs to check your age, they could prompt only to verify that you’re 21 or older, without even seeing your exact birthdate, let alone any other details from your ID. It is exceedingly more private than handing over a physical ID card, perhaps even more so than using Apple Pay compared to handing over a physical credit card.

Terrific post, read the whole thing, especially that first footnote. Some great advice here.

Will Apple make a discrete GPU for the Apple Silicon Mac Pro?

The danger in a simple question as headline is Betteridge’s law.

In this case, the headline is a fair question and the video embedded below an interesting exploration of the topic.

In a nutshell, while the M1 chip brought incredible performance to Apple’s laptops, the built-in GPU does not compete with desktop machines with high end external GPUs. Here’s a still frame from the video I posted this morning that gives you a sense of how big that performance difference is.

The Intel Mac Pro (as discussed in the video) is incredibly modular, let’s you plug in various high-end GPU cards for high-end performance. The M1 chip has a built-in GPU which inherently caps the graphics performance. So the headline question is a fair one.

If any of the above tweaks your interest, watch the video below.