We got around to opening up the 40 mm model and noticed a significantly different battery. This one has a snazzy new metal casing, as well as 10% more battery capacity than the Series 4 40 mm model. We’re going to spend some time researching and trying to figure it out. If nothing else, it seems to provide a tougher outer shell that is more resistant to pry damage. We doubt that’s its primary purpose, but we’re rummaging through patent filings for clues.
Always amazed at how much tech can fit in such a tiny enclosure. Even more so with AirPods.
Apple’s iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max will offer up a new warning if a repair technician ever uses a non-genuine Apple display when repairing a broken device.
“Unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple display” will show up in the General > About section of the Settings app if a repair shop uses an unverified display component.
Good to be aware of this if you:
do your own repair,
get your screen replaced by a 3rd party shop or service,
buy a used iPhone
Per that last, if you do buy a used iPhone, that’s the first thing I’d check.
Sitting between two national parks in Kenya, the Chyulu Hills are home to large populations of elephants and other wildlife. The area is also the site of Apple’s latest donation, as the tech company looks for new solutions to climate change that can be replicated at scale.
And:
“By restoring tens of thousands of hectares in the Chyulu Hills, we can remove carbon from the air, protect a critical wildlife corridor for elephants, and support the livelihoods of the Maasai people,” says Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environmental, social, and policy initiatives, who formerly served as head of the EPA.
Love this. And props to Lisa Jackson for her work guiding Apple down this path.
The tvOS 13 update for Apple TV set-top boxes rolled out yesterday, and now Apple has started rolling out the new ‘under the sea’ screensavers produced in coordination with the BBC.
There are ten new underwater ‘Aerial’ screensavers offering a beautiful look at corals, shoals of fish, and generally stunning imagery of sea life. There are ten new underwater videos, showing many different species, coral reefs and more. All the videos are available in 4K on the Apple TV 4K.
Mayo has made all the screensavers available for viewing on his website.
I’ve been on a skateboard exactly two times in my life and both times I eventually fell off and almost busted my head open so I’m never going to try these tricks but it is interesting to watch them in slow motion with Hawk’s expert commentary.
With its rigid beat and dry, monotone vocals, the song sounds like a synth-pop hit you would have heard in a dance club in the Eighties. (Or at least on an Eighties Spotify station.) Close your eyes and you can imagine a music video: awkwardly lip-synching musicians, exploding lightbulbs, foggy streets. It’s familiar. But the name of the artist or band doesn’t come to mind.
That’s because, right now, no one knows anything about it: who wrote it, who sang it, or even when it came out. And for about a dozen years, a dedicated gaggle of music obsessives from around the world has been searching for any information about these three minutes of music. Throughout this quest, which intensified this summer, thousands of man-hours have been devoted to unearthing anything at all about what these zealous investigators are calling “the most mysterious song on the Internet.”
It’s that time of year when artists the world over take up their pens, pencils, brushes, and digital styluses and participate in Inktober. Started by illustrator and animator Jake Parker in 2014, Inktober encourages people to draw 31 drawings in 31 days, one for each day in October.
Digital drawing apps like Linea Sketch for the iPad make participating in Inktober easy and fun and this year we’re taking it a step further. We’ve created a set of free downloadable templates that you can easily import into Linea Sketch.
Linea’s Inktober templates are completely free, easy to set up, and should quickly get you on your way to joining in on the inking fun.
There are all kinds of these “30-day challenges” – photography, writing, even mustaches. If you have someone who loves to draw, this might be of interest to them. My 13-year-old loves drawing and I’m going to see if I can get him interested in this. I can’t draw worth a damn but I want to buy a new iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil 2 for him just so he can use the Linea Sketch app.
On January 9th, 2007, Steve Jobs took to the Macworld stage and showed off the iPhone to the world.
The linked article is the Reddit page reacting to that reveal. It’s an amazing slice of history. There’s this Engadget review, worth reading all by itself, but then, best of all, are the comments below the Reddit post.
Disney CEO Bob Iger was a guest on Mad Money. It’s a long segment, well worth the watch, but towards the beginning, Iger digs into his friendship with Steve Jobs.
There’s one moment in particular, where Bob talks about the pending purchase of Pixar, when Steve takes him for a walk, puts his arm around him, and tells him his cancer has returned. It’s poignant, and telling, an anecdote about integrity. Watch it.
Go back in time to that original iPad rollout, then watch the video embedded below. Think about how far the iPad operating system and user experience has come.
The new seventh-generation iPad starts shipping on Wednesday, September 25 and will arrive in stores beginning later this week. Starting at just $329, the new iPad brings more screen area and support for the full-sized Smart Keyboard, as well as a new iPad experience with iPadOS. The upgrade packs even more value into the most popular and affordable iPad, featuring a stunning 10.2-inch Retina display and the latest innovations including Apple Pencil support, the fast A10 Fusion chip, advanced cameras and sensors, unmatched portability and connectivity, ease of use and great all-day battery life.
Note this footnote attached to that Apple Pencil mention:
The first-generation Apple Pencil sold separately.
Just in case you were thinking this iPad worked with the newer Apple Pencil.
> As it turns out, Apple is fronting development costs. This makes the relationship closer to a traditional publisher/developer deal. And Apple stepping in means these weird, interesting, oddball mobile games that might not have had a chance anywhere else have been given a platform that has the potential to house almost half of the world’s mobile market.
And:
> We’ve surmised that a game like Simogo’s Sayonara Wild Hearts, which will simultaneously launch on Apple Arcade and Nintendo Switch on September 19, may be considered an exclusive for mobile devices. Based on what we’ve learned about Arcade’s exclusivity, other games such as the bingo for money games fall into total exclusivity (they may only ever exist on Apple Arcade) and subscription exclusivity (where the game may also be included in other subscription services).
And:
> The submission process for Apple Arcade isn’t relegated to someone scouting for the shiniest new game. In fact, there have been a few developers that Apple’s worked with for Arcade that came to them with nothing more than a concept and some wireframes. Fortunately, there are sites like 벳무브 코드 that can knock anyone’s socks off.
This is a fantastic article (note that it came out last week, but I came across it last night). If you have any interest in the business side of Apple Arcade, do take a look.
Interesting article, but I’d suggest that Apple might be pursuing a less complex keyboard mechanism with the goal of making it more reliable. And with a side benefit of a thinner mechanism and a thinner computer.
An upcoming software update will fix an issue that impacts third-party keyboard apps. This issue applies only if you’ve installed third-party keyboards on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Third-party keyboard extensions in iOS can be designed to run entirely standalone, without access to external services, or they can request “full access” to provide additional features through network access. Apple has discovered a bug in iOS 13 and iPadOS that can result in keyboard extensions being granted full access even if you haven’t approved this access.
Avid is aware of the reboot issue affecting Apple Mac Pro devices running some Avid products, which arose late yesterday. This issue is top priority for our engineering and support teams, who have been working diligently to determine and resolve the root cause. As we learn more, we will immediately publish information—directly to our customers and via our community forums and social media platforms—in order to resolve this issue for all affected customers and prevent any further issues.
More as we hear it.
UPDATE: Avid shared a video with us this evening, with the latest updates on the situation.
UPDATE 2: Avid sent us this update this morning:
Today, Avid is confirming that the root cause for a reboot issue encountered by some of our customers has been identified and is unrelated to Avid and its creative tools. Google confirmed that a Chrome update “may have shipped with a bug that damages the file system on macOS machines.” Google has paused its release and provided instructions for affected users.
Avid is also pleased to share that it has received no reports of data loss by affected customers. From the beginning when this issue was made known to Avid, our teams actively worked with customers, Apple and partners to identify solutions and communicate them to customers. At this time, most affected Avid customers have recovered from this issue by reinstalling their macOS. Avid received no reports of incidents from customers running on non-Mac operating systems. To reiterate, this was not an Avid issue, as was reported in some early media coverage.
We recently discovered that a Chrome update may have shipped with a bug that damages the file system on macOS machines with System Integrity Protection (SIP) disabled, including machines that do not support SIP. We’ve paused the release while we finalize a new update that addresses the problem.
If you have not taken steps to disable System Integrity Protection and your computer is on OS X 10.9 or later, this issue cannot affect you.
Last week, Apple debuted its new iPhone 11 devices, all three of which feature an ultra-wide camera module. This marks the first time Apple has put an ultra-wide camera in an iOS device and with the new camera comes all-new capabilities and shooting modes.
Not all of the cameras are made equal though. In addition to not having optical image stabilization, it’s been revealed the ultra-wide camera unit on all three models isn’t yet capable of capturing Raw image data or manual focus, unlike the wide-angle camera (and telephoto camera on the iPhone 11 Pro models).
Optical image stabilization isn’t really needed on an ultra-wide lens and the lack of RAW support probably won’t affect many users. Apple might be able to fix the problem, which is assumed to be due to distortion present in the uncorrected ultra-wide images, with a software update at some point in the future.
The hook is dead simple. You’re tasked with creating paths through a sea of different colored enemies. The longer the path, the more bonuses that appear. The catch: you can only connect to enemies of the same color. However, string together enough enemies and a crystal drops, crystals that allow you to swap colors and go even further.
The act of tracing your fingers across a few enemies, then tracing back as your mind notices a better way through—that tiny, tactile joy reminded me of the early days of iPhone games. There is no reason Grindstone couldn’t be played and enjoyed on a controller, or with a mouse and keyboard, but it feels like a game that was conceived with the finger in mind.
I’ve played several of the initial Apple Arcade games but none have captured my interest as much as Grindstone has. Unfortunately, I’m stuck on Level 16 and can’t get any further. But it was fun while it lasted.
Film and TV editors across Los Angeles were sweating Monday evening as their workstations were refusing to reboot, resulting in speculations about a possible computer virus attack. Social media reports suggested that the issue was widespread among users of Mac Pro computers running older versions of Apple’s operating system as well as AVID’s Media Composer software.
This is astonishing. Not just one or two Mac Pros, but a bunch of them, all refusing to reboot.
Some analysis by affected users seemed to suggest that the outage may not have been caused by a virus, but by a recent software update that may have corrupted some data, with some suggesting a OS X reinstall that keeps the existing data to restart the machine. Either way, it’s a good idea for anyone running AVID software on a Mac to back up all data right away.
Note that these are the trash can Mac Pros, not a secret rollout of the not yet released Mac Pros announced at WWDC.
Play Pass is a new subscription service that gives you access to more than 350 apps and games that are completely unlocked—all free of ads, in-app purchases and upfront payments. Play Pass offers a high-quality, curated collection of titles from Stardew Valley to AccuWeather, with new apps and games added every month.
This feels like Google recognizing Apple’s move into services and the Apple Arcade model. It’s apps and games, not just games.
But it’s not new content. And the titles (like Monument Valley, for example) are not unique to Android or the Google Play Pass.
Is this worth $4.99 a month? Could be, if you find enough useful content. But don’t think of this as an Apple Arcade competitor. I’ve been playing a lot of Apple Arcade games, and I’ve yet to find a weak one in the bunch. And you won’t find a single Apple Arcade title on Android.
Not sure how long Apple can keep this up, but they’ve now dropped their 4th Apple Arcade trailer in as many days. This one is for Shinsekai into the Depths. It does not disappoint.
Conviction and the convicted. Stories to believe in. Apple TV+.
Descend into the world of true-crime podcasts. New evidence compels podcaster Poppy Parnell (Octavia Spenser) to reopen the murder case that made her a media sensation. Aaron Paul stars as the man she may have wrongfully put behind bars.
Servant:
A calming feeling and a chill. Stories to believe in. Apple TV+.
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.
As part of its commitment to US economic growth, Apple today confirmed that its newly redesigned Mac Pro will be manufactured in Austin, Texas.
The new Mac Pro will include components designed, developed and manufactured by more than a dozen American companies for distribution to US customers. Manufacturers and suppliers across Arizona, Maine, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Vermont, including Intersil and ON Semiconductor, are providing advanced technology. The US manufacturing of Mac Pro is made possible following a federal product exclusion Apple is receiving for certain necessary components. The value of American-made components in the new Mac Pro is 2.5 times greater than in Apple’s previous generation Mac Pro.
No word though on a release date for Apple’s big iron.
This story flew around the internet over the weekend. The original story was told on this Facebook page, but the headline linked page has the Facebook elements embedded, along with an interview with Bob Burdett, the man whose Dad’s life was saved.
Lots of pictures, and, most importantly, on that possible bilateral charging board (so your phone can act as a Qi charger for other phones):
Apple did post a new support document today, stating that iPhone 11 Pro contains new hardware for monitoring and managing battery performance. So maybe that’s all this is, and it just looks suspiciously like bilateral charging hardware.
Winfrey’s first book selection is “The Water Dancer” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, available for pre-order now on Apple Books in both ebook and audiobook formats, and debuting tomorrow.
And:
Winfrey will interview Coates for the first installment of her new exclusive Apple TV+ series, “Oprah’s Book Club,” premiering November 1. A new episode will be available every two months.
Rene Ritchie compares all the Night modes. But even more importantly, Rene demonstrates each Night mode, from your side of the camera, and explains how the technology works, in terms I can understand.
