Check out the framed art behind the AirPods display. Zoom in on the music notation. Those notes? They’re all AirPods.
And the Easter egg? The music is from Apple’s Here’s to the Crazy Ones campaign.
Nice find by Rene Ritchie.
This battery test includes all the iPhones 11, and selections from previous generations, back to the iPhone 8 Plus.
Start off by jumping to 1:32 in, to see all the phones labeled with name and battery capacity. Then jump to 8:37 for the first victim.
Scientific? Rigorous? No, but scientific enough for me to find this worth watching.
Google:
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.
Truth Be Told:
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.
Apple:
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.
Another win for Apple Watch and fall detection.
Apple Arcade really lives up to the hype. Especially if you add a controller into the mix.
Three new game trailers. They look great, but this is just a drop in the bucket.
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.
Apple:
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.
Interested in reading along with Oprah? Here’s a link to “The Water Dancer” preorder page.
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.
Over the weekend, got into a Twitter discussion on iOS 13 and the improvements it brought to CarPlay. Thought I’d share two posts that lay out the details of what’s changed.
If you have CarPlay or are considering a new car purchase and want to learn more, here are two articles to make your way through:
Dan Moren, SixColors, 13 Features of iOS 13: CarPlay improvements.
Zac Hall, 9to5Mac, from back in June, Previewing CarPlay in iOS 13: Light mode, new and improved apps, more.
Patently Apple:
Although the invention could apply to a wide range of future products such protective covers, advanced versions of Apple’s Smart Keyboard, clothing, furniture, wearable electronic devices, and other items using fabric, the focus for this invention is a future smart fabric Apple Watch band.
And:
According to Apple’s invention, a fabric-based item may include fabric formed from intertwined strands of material with embedded circuitry.
And:
The circuitry in the fabric-based item may gather input from a user and from the user’s surroundings. The circuitry may supply visual output, audio output, tactile output, and/or other output.
And:
In the I/O segment of system 8 may include Sensors such as temperature sensors, pressure sensors, force sensors, gas sensors (e.g., carbon monoxide sensors), particulate sensors, moisture sensors, light sensors, magnetic sensors, capacitive sensors (e.g., sensors for touch or proximity measurements), gesture sensors, image sensors, proximity sensors, touch sensors, button sensors (e.g., switches coupled to movable button members or button regions),
This is a fascinating, far reaching patent.
LA Times:
The iPhone and its App Store changed gaming. And not always for the better. Yet now with Apple Arcade, a game subscription service launching this week, Apple wants to tweak and elevate the conversation surrounding games.
A long overdue course correction that attempts to attract attention away from free-to-play diversions, Apple Arcade succeeds where the game industry has failed. Apple’s iTunes recognized a weakness of the mainstream music industry, namely a fear to collectively embrace digital music. Now Apple Arcade acknowledges what’s long been one of the game industry’s most stubborn, less becoming traits: a lack of willingness to take a risk and put its best and most adventurous content forward.
I don’t know if Apple Arcade will “kill free-to-play” gaming as some have predicted but it is a shot across the bow to those developers who use that model to make money.
CNET:
What will it take to crack the glass on the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro? That’s the question I’m asking myself after putting these phones through eight different drop tests, each time onto hard concrete. Try as I might, the glass on these phones just wouldn’t crack. But that doesn’t mean the phones were damage-free.
I take all these tests with very large grains of salt because everyone’s “Oh crap! I dropped my phone!” situation is different but they can still be interesting. I will admit it’s painful to watch so many brand new phones get destroyed. I wih I had that kind of money.
Hodinkee:
Because last year’s Apple Watch Series 4 was such a massive leap forward, consensus before last week’s event was that this year’s release would be much more minor. In hindsight that feels foolish and the Apple Watch Series 5 is yet another big jump in fit, finish, and overall experience.
I’ve spent a week with the Apple Watch Series 5 Edition in the new titanium case, and it’s given me an awful lot to think about.
Hodinkee is a site that reviews very high-end watches. Predictably, they really like the latest version. Thanks to John Kordyback for the link.
Jalopnik:
You’ve seen the annual “Top Safety Pick” car ads and the crash-test videos, with cars slammed into objects as their own debris pours down around them like a snowstorm. Perhaps the latter even convinced you not to buy a car you so desperately wanted.
But that’s just a small part of determining which vehicles on the market are safe and which fall short—a long, messy process full of bulk vehicle purchases, bulk trips to the salvage yard, and automakers’ attempts to go back and fix what they didn’t get right the first time.
I find this kind of stuff fascinating. There’s some really interesting details into how the major organizations perform their testing.
Apple:
Photographer Justin Bettman creates elaborate and detailed scenes in unexpected locations. Check out the process behind the production as Justin creates a bigger picture using the triple-camera system of iPhone 11 Pro.
This is not much of a “behind the scenes” look but it does show the iPhone 11 Pro can and will be used by professional photographers and videographers.
I remember writing iPhone reviews back in the day I was working with Poli Pay Casinos with the focus usually on whether the device was powerful enough to get through our daily routines. We are so far past that point now; it’s not even a consideration for me anymore. However, there are a lot of other things to look at in the new iPhone 11, Pro, and Pro Max.
Perhaps the most stunning feature of the new iPhones is the camera system—I will get to that in just a minute—but for me, the A13 Bionic chip stole the show. It is, after all, the heart of the iPhone that drives everything we use on the device.
As I was taking notes during the keynote, I realized how much work Apple put into the chip design. It’s not just about making a more powerful chip; it was about making a more efficient chip.
The chip gives us raw power, but also increased battery life, faster machine learning, and a faster GPU. In fact, in the two performance cores alone, the A13 is 20 percent faster and uses 30 percent less power than the A12.
The efficiency of the chip gives the iPhone 11 Pro four more hours, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max five more hours of battery life than their predecessors. For a lot of users, that’s another half day of usage.
Taking about the chip is not the sexy part of the iPhone, but it is something to keep in mind as we look at all the other features of the iPhones. The chips are something we tend to take for granted, but when you see the amount of work Apple is putting into the technology behind the scene, you get an idea of the commitment the company has in producing the device.
Let’s jump right into the cameras. Besides the chip design, the camera system on the new iPhones is the thing that impressed me the most.
I am not the most exceptional photographer in the world by any stretch of the imagination. I may not even be good at taking pictures, but with the iPhones 11, Apple has given me the cameras that will allow me to become a much better photographer.
The Pro and Pro Max have a three-camera system: Telephoto, Wide, and Ultra Wide. You have seen plenty of photos by now featuring the differences between the three cameras. There is no doubt they are incredible shots, but when I look at reviewing a device like this, I try to look at how an average person, like me, might use them.
Can an average user take advantage of a three-camera system? Yes.
Think about when you usually take a picture. Many times it will be with family or friends, perhaps having dinner at a restaurant. Have you ever tried taking a picture of the entire table and kept backing up until you’re on top of the table behind you? I have.
Have you ever told people to squish in a bit more so they could all fit in the picture? Happens all the time.
Now imagine just tapping a button on the iPhone and camera changes to Ultra Wide and everything fits instantly. That’s the way this system works.
Yes, pros and high-end amateurs are going to take some spectacular pictures using these cameras, but there are plenty of uses for them that the average users can take advantage of too.
It seems strange to me that my overall favorite feature on the new iPhone has to do with the camera, but it does. It’s a new feature called Night Mode.
As you would expect, Night Mode is optimized for taking photos in low-light conditions. To say I was stunned by the quality of the feature would be the understatement of the year.
Here’s how Night Mode works. When you hold your iPhone up to take a picture, the system automatically recognizes that there isn’t enough light for the photo. Night Mode activates automatically, and a little notification comes on the top of your screen indicating how many seconds you will need to hold still after you tap the shutter button to take the picture. Mine has always been 3 seconds so far.
When you press the shutter button, the camera takes multiple shots and fuses them to make one photo.
It’s important to note that once you tap the shutter button, you have to remain still for the amount of time Night Mode requires—there’s a countdown displayed on the iPhone. This delay gives the camera the time needed to take all of the required images.
Typically, taking shots at night results in poor images. There is a lot of noise in the pictures, and they are grainy. I usually end up throwing most of them away.
I bring this up because even using Night Mode, the image you see on the display as you’re taking the picture looks pretty bad. Don’t worry, the actual photo will look great. I almost stopped taking the photo because it didn’t look good on the iPhone display, but luckily I didn’t.
Here is an example of a Night Mode picture taken in my backyard at night. Nothing else was done to either photo.
I think the photo speaks for itself.
If you take pictures on your iPhone, this feature alone is worth the upgrade.
One more note. I’ve seen some people say that Night Mode isn’t worth it—you can use the flash on the camera and get similar pictures. That is absolutely wrong. It is the farthest thing from the truth that someone could possibly say.
I love Face ID and the security it provides for my iPhone. Apple said it improved the angles that Face ID could be used on the new iPhone, but I do not really see it.
From my use, I have to put the iPhone where I always did to make Face ID work consistently and adequately. Perhaps I’m trying to hard to get different angles, but I do not see much of a difference.
Spatial audio is a new feature that is built specifically for Dolby 5.1 and 7.1 content. Using the new system, the sound feels like it’s moving around when watching movies and other content.
It doesn’t work for typical music content, but there is good news on that front too. I’m not quite sure if it’s new speakers or an algorithm, but the music sounds much better through the iPhone than ever before.
I know it sounds strange to play music through an iPhone, but I do it all the time. I listen to podcasts and play music all day long, and all through my iPhone.
I find it very convenient to do it that way, even when I’m on my Mac. When I take a break, go for a walk, or go for a drive, I pick up my iPhone and keep listening. Strange, but it’s a habit now.
The main difference between the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max is the size of the display. All other technologies are the same, so your decision is going to come down to the dimensions of the iPhone you want to carry around.
The iPhone 11 has a few differences from the Pro models. It has an LCD instead of the OLED display in the Pro; it doesn’t have an option for 512GB storage; and it only has two cameras (the Wide Angle and Ultra Wide Angle).
A friend of mine came over last night and saw all three models. He’s going to buy two for his family next week, and he asked me the hardest question: “Which one will you buy?”
I stuttered and stammered and ran through all of the features and the fact they all have Night Mode and A13, and everything else. He finally said, “You don’t know, do you?”
He’s probably right, but I did settle on iPhone 11 Pro Max because of the larger size for my eyes and the camera system.
The point is, there is no wrong answer in choosing an iPhone 11. All three models are generously equipped with features, power, and efficiency.
Pick the model that best suits your needs and be happy you have the fastest smartphone in the world.
Imgur:
Our own little oasis about 20 minutes outside of downtown Portland. 30ft in diameter. 730 sq ft w/ an additional 200 sq ft loft. The exterior structure is a kit that we built (most yurts in the US are manufactured by about 10 different “yurt companies”). Interior was completely custom.
Check this project out. My wife has always wanted a Yurt in our backyard but I thought it was silly. Looking at this beautiful design makes me think it’s less of a silly idea – but we’re still not doing it.
Digg:
Seven minutes of high-octane mayhem.
Both the cop and the bad guy are incredible riders.
The Verge:
Apple’s new iOS 13 update adds a new privacy measure that requires apps to get your consent in order to use your device’s Bluetooth. After installing the latest version of iOS, trust me when I say you’ll be surprised by the number of apps asking for Bluetooth permission the next time you open them. Some might seem very strange (like Dunkin’ Donuts in my case), but others probably won’t make you think twice about giving the thumbs-up.
The reason Apple implemented this is because Bluetooth has enabled companies to sneakily track your location over Bluetooth by using beacons in stores, shopping malls, and even on popular city streets if they’re placed within range of a place you’d walk by.
I’m very glad Apple is shining a light on this sleazy practice.
I’ve been using the new iPhones for a few days, so Dave and I took some time to talk about some of the new features.
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You know what I’m going to do this weekend? Yup, I’m going to hide myself away and immerse myself in some high quality games. Seeya!
Jeff Benjamin clearly and calmly offers a guided tour through the main changes that come with iOS 13. Very easy to follow, full of detail.
Federico Viticci, MacStories:
It was only natural (and well-deserved) for the iPad to begin advancing in a parallel direction to iOS – informed and inspired by it, but also capable of growing on its own and tackling problems that an iPhone doesn’t have to solve.
From this standpoint, there are two sides to iOS 13: on one hand, an underlying tide that raises all platforms, featuring a distillation of themes Apple comes back to on an annual basis; on the other, a fork in the road, opening a new path for the iPad’s next decade. And against this backdrop, a single question looms large:
Can Apple balance both?
This is a remarkable read, just chock full of detail on every aspect of iOS and iPadOS 13. As you make your way through it, tap the table of contents icon in the upper right corner (looks like a 2×2 grid of squares) to get a sense of the overall structure, and to jump to a particular chapter that interests you.
This is incredible work.
This will be the first show I dig into when Apple TV+ drops on November 1.
Jason Snell has been working on an update to his book, Take Control of Photos (update coming soon), and pulled together this overview of the iOS 13 Photos app.
Not a long read, definitely worth your time if this is your first experience with the updated Photos app.
Reddit:
I am running both iOS 13 beta (it gets publicly released in a few hours) and Spotify beta. iOS 13 is required, as well as the latest version of Spotify from the iOS App Store for this to work.
Here’s a link to an image, showing this at work.
If you use the Spotify app on iOS 13, give it a try.
Ars Technica:
Apple has begun pushing iOS 13 and watchOS 6 to supported iPhones and Apple Watches. Both updates bring substantial changes—especially iOS 13—and mark the beginning of a new annual update cycle.
While it may take some time, most users should see iOS 13 become available in the Settings apps on their iPhones or iPod touches by the end of the day today. The watchOS update will pop up in the Watch app on iPhones that are connected to an Apple Watch.
iPadOS, macOS, and tvOS releases are still on the way, though.
Take this free advice for what it’s worth: DO NOT install iOS 13 today on any devices you NEED to be stable and not buggy. Just wait until next Tuesday for iOS 13.1.