MacRumors:

Given all of the changes introduced in the Apple Pencil 2, it only works with the new 11 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models and it is not compatible with older iPad Pros or the sixth-generation iPad.

Likewise, the current Apple Pencil will not work with the new iPad Pro models and is limited to older iPad Pro models and the sixth-generation iPad.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who watched today’s video and no, this is not Apple being “greedy”.

Apple:

From the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House. Here’s what we announced.

Being in New York seems to have given the event an extra special energy.

Apple today gave Mac mini a massive increase in performance. Now with quad- and 6-core processors, up to 64GB of faster memory and blazing fast all-flash storage, the new Mac mini delivers an insane five times faster performance, making it the most powerful Mac mini ever made. And with Thunderbolt 3 ports, the Apple T2 Security Chip and a 10Gb Ethernet option, the new Mac mini is a faster and more capable desktop that can do so much more.

Mac mini is a funny machine. I’m not surprised they released a new version, but then again, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they hadn’t. I think this is definitely a great upgrade though.

Apple today introduced an all-new MacBook Air, bringing a stunning 13-inch Retina display, Touch ID, the latest processors and an even more portable design to the world’s most loved notebook. Delivering the all-day battery life it’s known for, the new MacBook Air is available in three gorgeous finishes — gold, space gray and silver. The most affordable Retina-display Mac ever also includes an Apple-designed keyboard, a spacious Force Touch trackpad, faster SSDs, wide stereo sound, the Apple T2 Security Chip and Thunderbolt 3, making the new MacBook Air the perfect notebook to take with you everywhere you go.

I had several MacBook Airs over the years and loved the portability. If there was one thing missing, it was power and advanced technology, but not anymore.

Apple today introduced the new iPad Pro with all-screen design and next-generation performance, marking the biggest change to iPad ever. The all-new design pushes 11-inch and 12.9-inch Liquid Retina displays to the edges of iPad Pro and integrates Face ID to securely unlock iPad with just a glance. The A12X Bionic chip with next-generation Neural Engine in iPad Pro outperforms most PC laptops and offers a new USB-C connector, Gigabit-class LTE, and up to 1TB of storage to enable powerful new mobile workflows.

It is absolutely stunning how powerful these new iPad Pros are. We expected Face ID, but adding USB-C and the A12X Bionic really make these new devices something incredible.

The iPhone XR, famously, does not have a telephoto lens. David Smith worked out a way to see how often he’s used the telephoto in the past, with his iPhone X:

I’m trying out the XR, but was curious how much I’ll actually miss the telephoto lens.

I realized I can check using a smart album in Photos on the Mac. For me the telephoto was used in only 16% of my iPhone X photos. pic.twitter.com/N3YRjp4cFL

— David Smith (@_DavidSmith) October 29, 2018

In a nutshell, he jumped into Mac Photos and created a smart album based purely on focal length, which eliminated all but images taken with the telephoto lens. Very smart.

This is a fantastic look at how smartphone cameras capture and handle depth in photos. This is a fascinating read all the way around.

It’s from the Halide blog, and does get into how the Halide camera app expands on the iPhone XR’s “humans only” portrait mode. But there’s lots of interesting tidbits here.

One in particular stood out for me:

It seems the iPhone XR has two advantages over the iPhone XS: it can capture wider angle depth photos, and because the wide-angle lens collects more light, the photos will come out better in low light and have less noise.

Remember how we said the XR’s Portrait mode is only available on human portraits? When it comes to faces, you never want to photograph a person up close with a wide angle lens, as it distorts the face in an unflattering way.

That means you really have to take portraits on the iPhone XR from medium shot (waist-up). If you want a close-up headshot, kind of like the iPhone XS, you’ll have to crop, which means you’ll lose a lot of resolution. A wide angle lens isn’t always a plus.

Jump to the blog post, check out the images, especially those that compare the iPhone XR and XS side by side. Be sure to read the captions.

Sometimes, the iPhone XR will take nicer-looking Portrait photos than any other iPhone, including the XS and XS Max.

But most of the time, the XS will probably produce a better result.

Short term, the XR is going to give you better results in low light, because of the wider aperture, which lets in more light. But over time, I believe machine learning is going to conquer that physical limitation, and we’ll see new generations of iPhone cameras that produce unbelievable low light images.

This morning’s Apple event starts 3 hours earlier than most, since it takes place on the east coast, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (I love their URL, bam.org).

You can watch the event on your Apple device, either via the Apple Special Events web page or on the Apple Events app on your Apple TV.

Speaking of the Apple Special Events web page: Each time you reload the page, you’ll get a different version of the event invite artwork. What does it all mean? Guess we’ll find out soon.

Apple:

iOS 12.1 will be available Tuesday, October 30, bringing Group FaceTime and more than 70 new emoji to iPhone and iPad. FaceTime changed the way people communicate and share important moments, and now with Group FaceTime, it’s easy to chat with more people than ever before — from 2 to 32 people. iOS 12.1 also brings Depth Control in real-time preview and Dual SIM support to iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR customers.

Here’s a link to the new emoji sets.

I do love the new emoji. They are beautifully rendered, no doubt. But I do wish Apple would take the “Add to Favorites” model used on the Mac’s Character Viewer to allow me to mark specific favorite emoji to make them easier to find. The more emoji we add, the harder an individual emoji is to find.

There is a Frequently Used section on my iOS emoji keyboard, but emoji fall off that view as others are used. And the ever-changing view of the Frequently Used emoji makes it hard to develop any sort of muscle memory.

Love this. Jump to the page, type in a sequence of words or letters, and the site will generate a mnemonic to help you remember the words.

Type in the planet names, or the guitar string open notes (E A D G B E), anything you like. Fun!

[H/T @bobtiki]

Lots of discussion of the camera in this Daring Fireball review rollup. Specifically, the absence of the telephoto lens on the iPhone XR.

As you read this (and, if you are considering the XR, you should), think about how you use your current iPhone camera. If you have an iPhone with a telephoto lens, do you ever use it? When you bring up your camera, do you ever tap the 1x (the 1x turns into a 2x) to switch cameras? Note that in low light, you’ll likely get digital zoom, not the telephoto, but wanted to set the stage for reading the Daring Fireball piece.

Seems to me, this is an overlooked part of the camera interface. If you live your life in the wide angle lens, you won’t miss the telephoto if you move to the iPhone XR.

Another interesting bit from the rollup was something I alluded to in this post from earlier this morning. From this Rene Ritchie iPhone XR review for iMore:

Less fine is the sudden loss of Z-axis asymmetry thanks to the shoved down Lightning port on iPhone XR.

Rene is referring to the image embedded in the post showing the Lightning port not being aligned with the screws. It’s “shoved down” to make room for the LCD display. And as John Gruber points out, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. No big deal, but interesting, at least to the design nerd in me.

Guilherme Rambo, 9to5Mac:

One of the new features of Apple Watch Series 4 is the ability to take an Electrocardiogram of the user’s heart through a series of new sensors on the back of the device and on the revised digital crown. Since this feature requires regulatory approval by health authorities, Apple Watch ECG will roll out to users in the United States first, where Apple was able to get clearance from the FDA.

But if you are outside of the United States?

This limitation is not enforced by hardware, and if you buy an Apple Watch Series 4 in any country, it includes the new sensors. Looking at code within iOS related to the ECG feature, we’ve been able to confirm that its limitation to the US will be based on the software region of the user’s devices (iPhone and Apple Watch).

Read the article for the key to changing your region and for the distinction between region and language. Very interesting.

Beyond all the usual teardown detail, there are two things of note worth a look in the iFixit article:

• In Step 6, you’ll see a modular SIM card reader, much easier to replace and not requiring a logic board swap. Small thing, but interesting.

• Much more interesting to me, take a look at the image in Step 3. There are two major differences between the iPhone XS, on the top, and the iPhone XR, on the bottom. One difference is obvious: The XR has no antenna band. But can you spot the other difference? It’s quite subtle.

Rather than spoil it here, I’ll post about it in a few minutes, when I get to the Daring Fireball iPhone XR review roundup.

Tedium:

We all know the story—some guy was working in a lab, late one night, when he begins to see several movie monsters doing a fancy dance. Sung with a perfect Boris Karloff impression by the one and only Bobby “Boris” Pickett, “The Monster Mash” really did become the hit of the land. Since its debut in 1962, the seriously goofy novelty song has been a perennial hit, scaring its way onto the airwaves and into the hearts of generation after generation. There’s more to the song and its singer than one might expect. Just in time for Halloween, today’s tedium does the Mash; the Monster Mash.

As awful as it is, as much as it may make you want to pull your own ears off, “The Monster Mash” is the quintessential Halloween song.

Vlad Savov, The Verge:

Night Sight is the next evolution of Google’s computational photography, combining machine learning, clever algorithms, and up to four seconds of exposure to generate shockingly good low-light images.

Wow. Just wow. Take a minute to look at these images.

Reddit:

I imagine and wish Apple could implement a software download that allowed my old series zero to be handed down to my child with things like fitness and calendars still available. Maybe not even calendars.

I know the watch currently requires a phone but perhaps that could be tied to the “parent” device? Would anyone else be interested in this? How could it work?

I think there’s a germ of a great idea here. Maybe a dumbed down version of watchOS that let an older Apple Watch continue to serve and be a first-class citizen, able to communicate with the current version of iOS, but with a much smaller feature set. Still useful, an entry level device for kids, keeping old Apple Watches out of the waste stream.

Jon Markman, TheStreet:

The culprit is cost. The industry is riddled with bait-and-switch plans that start low and steadily ratchet higher in price with hidden fees. The experience is complicated by poor customer service.

Apple plans to offer a service similar to Amazon’s Channels. The idea is users can select the channels they want and pay a monthly fee. The company will bundle content from the likes of HBO, Showtime, AMC, CBS and others, plus throw in its shows as they come on stream.

It will be completely transparent, and backed by Apple customer service.

To me, this is the core of Apple’s advantage and potential to disrupt the cable TV business model. If Apple could offer internet service, cable would be toast. The lack of competition in that space, and the absolute dependency on cable for internet service is what makes this complicated.

Terrific analysis by Ben Lovejoy, 9to5Mac. Apple’s motivations aside, I think music curation is a tough problem to solve.

My musical tastes are all over the place. People who know me very well, musicians who share much of my musical tastes, have a difficult time making recommendations for me. It’s just not easy to figure out what music will press that button for someone.

That said, I’d like to see more experimental interfaces that make it possible for me to wander my musical tree on the fly. I’d like to play some music that I love, then have an interactive training session, via Siri, purely dedicated to exploring “more like this” kind of music, where I can do more than just love or hate the presented choices. Something more conversational that allows me to express specifics of what I enjoy or dislike.

For example, I love soulful music that contains technical artistry (e.g., great singing, complex harmonies, or technical guitar, piano skill, etc.) If you and I were listening to music together, I could point all these things out. But if all I get is “love” or “don’t love”, it becomes much harder to convey the subtlety of my personal tastes.

All this said, I think this ability is coming. With advancements in processing complexity and machine learning, I believe a new window to modeling musical tastes is opening. I have no doubt that someone, somewhere will crack this problem.

Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider:

Most smartphone users will have experienced issues when using their devices with wet hands or in the rain, with residual water on fingers sometimes causing the display to incorrectly detect or fail to sense touches or swipes.

And:

According to two patent applications published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday, both titled “Finger tracking in wet environment,” Apple suggests the use of filtering to determine whether a detected touch is intended by the user or not. This occurs before the device performs “computationally-intensive touch processing,” with the aim of reducing processing time and power usage, as well as the byproduct of improved usage in wet weather.

As Apple increases the power of their processors, devices gain more of an ability to analyze all parts of the user experience. Computational photography and machine learning are starting points, but real time “touch processing” is another. Can’t wait to see what other features lurk in the iPhone’s future.

Andrew O’Hara, Apple Insider:

When The Ohio State University partnered with Apple to provide 65 thousand iPads over the next five years to its entire campus, it meant more than just giving each student a cool piece of tech. The deal marked a profound shift in university’s investment in technology, one that would have far-reaching implications.

And:

Starting with lower-level general education classes, OSU is looking to launch their own digital bookstore for much cheaper textbooks. In the chemistry class OSU trialed the digital initiative, students paid $20 for the digital copy of the course materials, rather than $250 for the physical copy.

This cost savings alone makes the iPad rollout a huge win. But the school has seen improvement in grades and a higher overall student engagement. This experiment was a huge success, and a big win for Apple in education.

Kirkville:

Nuance has announced that the company has discontinued Dragon Professional Individual for Mac. This was the most recent name of the company’s speech recognition software for macOS.

Following the acquisition of MacSpeech in 2010, Nuance created Dragon Dictate, a Mac version of their popular Windows speech recognition software. As a long-time user of this type of software, I’ve followed its progress over the years, as it improved greatly, then was ignored since last year’s update for macOS Yosemite. The software was very good, but the company was always plagued by poor support, expensive upgrades, and a general disdain for the Mac platform.

I knew the folks at MacSpeech and, while they tried to make a go of it as an independent company, they just didn’t have the resources to develop it much further when Nuance came calling. I spoke to MacSpeech about it then and they admitted it was just going to be a matter of time before Nuance killed this product. But it had a good run.

New York Times:

Apple has waded into the messy world of news with a service that is read regularly by roughly 90 million people. But while Google, Facebook and Twitter have come under intense scrutiny for their disproportionate — and sometimes harmful — influence over the spread of information, Apple has so far avoided controversy. One big reason is that while its Silicon Valley peers rely on machines and algorithms to pick headlines, Apple uses humans like Ms. Kern.

The former journalist has quietly become one of the most powerful figures in English-language media. The stories she and her deputies select for Apple News regularly receive more than a million visits each.

Curation, human or otherwise, is great if you agree with the methods or algorithms of the curator. It can be dangerous otherwise.

When was a word first used in print? You may be surprised! Enter a date below to see the words first recorded on that year.

Okay, this was fun.