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.
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:
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),
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cameras
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.
Night Mode
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.
Other features
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.
Recommendation
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.
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.
