Yeah, I know, the headline is clickbaity. But I found the story fascinating and decided to share in spite of the headline.

I mean, start with this:

Josua Hutagalung was working on a coffin outside his house in the town of Kolang when the 2.1kg rock came hurtling through the tin veranda outside his living room.

Yes. A coffin. And 2.1 kg is 4.63 pounds, in case you were wondering.

And this:

The meteorite is carbonaceous chondrite, an extremely rare variety estimated to be 4.5 billion years old – and reportedly worth around £645 per gram.

Amazing!

If your iPhone purchases are driven by the camera, this is an excellent read. Sebastiaan lends his expertise here and shows the difference in the iPhone 12 Pro Max sensor, both in comparison to the older sensor, and in terms of what that bigger sensor means in practical terms.

In a nutshell:

Giving these sensor sites more room and making them larger makes them more sensitive to light. More light means more signal, less noise, and sharper results.

This point is backed up with images. As you scroll through, make sure you get all the way to the low light images as the sun starts setting. The lower the light, the more value the sensor brings to the table.

Nostalgia is a powerful force. Who knew that Snoopy and the Peanuts gang had such a strong following? When Apple TV+ gobbled up all the Peanuts specials, people without access were not happy. This had the potential to paint Apple as Grinch.

Making a deal to share the broadcast exclusivity with PBS was a great move on Apple’s part. A good look for Apple, and folks without Apple TV+ can still watch. Nice.

If you’re thinking about a new M1 Mac mini, definitely spend some time with Chris Welch’s review for The Verge.

Most importantly:

Getting up and running with the Mac mini can be a hassle. For initial setup, you need a wired keyboard and mouse; my Logitech ergonomic keyboard and MX Master 3, which both connect over Bluetooth, were useless. They work fine after setting up the machine, but just be aware so you don’t run into this initial headache like I did.

This is so important, I think Apple should put a note up on the order page so folks have time to grab these items if they need them.

UPDATE: Interestingly, it seems as if Apple’s wireless gear uses clever USB-protocol tricks so THEY work with the Mac mini setup. Not so for third party gear. Good to know.

Andrei Frumusanu, AnandTech:

During the launch event, one thing that was in Apple fashion typically missing from the presentation were actual details on the clock frequencies of the design, as well as its TDP which it can sustain at maximum performance.

Apple got a lot of press on the low detail on its M1 charts. To me, this turned out to be an amazing job of underpromising and overdelivering. Everywhere you look, people are amazed at the low heat, high performance, and great battery life of all three M1 Macs.

But if it’s details you want, AnandTech has them, at least for the M1 Mac mini.

One example:

We can confirm that in single-threaded workloads, Apple’s Firestorm cores now clock in at 3.2GHz, a 6.66% increase over the 3GHz frequency of the Apple A14. As long as there’s thermal headroom, this clock also applies to all-core loads, with in addition to 4x 3.2GHz performance cores also seeing 4x Thunder efficiency cores at 2064MHz, also quite a lot higher than 1823MHz on the A14.

If this floats your boat, there’s a lot more detail, well presented in graphs, in the linked article. But if you just want the bottom line:

The performance of the new M1 in this “maximum performance” design with a small fan is outstandingly good. The M1 undisputedly outperforms the core performance of everything Intel has to offer, and battles it with AMD’s new Zen3, winning some, losing some. And in the mobile space in particular, there doesn’t seem to be an equivalent in either ST or MT performance – at least within the same power budgets.

What’s really important for the general public and Apple’s success is the fact that the performance of the M1 doesn’t feel any different than if you were using a very high-end Intel or AMD CPU. Apple achieving this in-house with their own design is a paradigm shift, and in the future will allow them to achieve a certain level of software-hardware vertical integration that just hasn’t been seen before and isn’t achieved yet by anybody else.

Amazing achievement on Apple’s part.

Apple:

Apple today announced an industry-leading new developer program to accelerate innovation and help small businesses and independent developers propel their businesses forward with the next generation of groundbreaking apps on the App Store. The new App Store Small Business Program will benefit the vast majority of developers who sell digital goods and services on the store, providing them with a reduced commission on paid apps and in-app purchases. Developers can qualify for the program and a reduced, 15 percent commission if they earned up to $1 million in proceeds during the previous calendar year.

This is major news for indie developers. Game changing.

The way I read it, if Apple pays you up to $999,999, across all your apps, in a single year, you pay 15% commission instead of the current 30%. You’ve just moved from 70% to 85% take (21% increase). That’s huge.

Specifics on the program, which launches January 1st:

• Existing developers who made up to $1 million in 2020 for all of their apps, as well as developers new to the App Store, can qualify for the program and the reduced commission.

• If a participating developer surpasses the $1 million threshold, the standard commission rate will apply for the remainder of the year.

• If a developer’s business falls below the $1 million threshold in a future calendar year, they can requalify for the 15 percent commission the year after.

So what happens if you hit the magic $1 million threshold?

My understanding is that you’ll pay 15% on the first $1 million, then 30% on everything above that first $1 million.

Remember, this is across all apps, so if you have 10 apps, add all the revenue together to figure out where you are, commission-wise.

Great move on Apple’s part. Long time coming.

Today SuperMegaUltraGroovy announced a major update to Capo, the award-winning app for macOS and iOS that helps musicians learn to play songs by ear. This update introduces all-new Structure and Chords song views, and includes SuperMegaUltraGroovy’s latest 4th-generation chord detection technology.

“By adding new song views to Capo, we unlock new ways to interact with and learn songs,” says Chris Liscio, the company’s founder and primary developer. “The new song views in this release help you map out arrangements, and produce chord charts that you can play along with.”

I am a longtime user and big fan of Capo. If you need an app to help you learn songs on the guitar, look no further.

Thinking about ordering an M1 Mac? Got one on order?

Follow the headline link and check the status of a bunch of apps. The list shows whether they are:

• ✅: Intel and Apple Silicon compatible universal binary is available;
• 🆙: the Apple Silicon version is almost ready and should be released before the end of the year;
• 🔶: the Apple Silicon version is under development, but it will not be released immediately;
• 🛑: no Apple Silicon version known for the moment.

Good resource.

UPDATE: This list on the MacRumors Forum is worth scanning, more comprehensive [H/T Maxim].

Arnold Kim, MacRumors:

The benchmarks confirm that the new ‌MacBook Air‌ SSD is approximately twice as fast as the previous model with 2190 MB/s writes and 2675 MB/s reads.

As promised by Apple, here:

The M1 chip’s storage controller and latest flash technology deliver up to 2x faster SSD performance

Apple promised a lot with these M1 chips, but everything I’ve read shows they’ve delivered on those promises. This is a major step forward.

First up, from Malcolm Owen, AppleInsider:

A group of five Amazon employees has been arrested for allegedly stealing iPhones from a logistics center in Madrid, Spain, in an operation that is believed to have involved the theft of 500,000 euro ($592,000) in goods.

And:

It was determined a group of workers was slipping new iPhones like the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro into orders secretly, replacing the actually ordered contents of a package at the last moment. iPadizate reports it is believed the orders were placed by an accomplice.

Follow the headline link to read about this scam. Amazing they thought they’d get away with this.

Next up is this story from BBC News (H/T Nick Harvey):

Apple products worth £5m have been stolen from a lorry in a robbery on the M1 in which the driver and security guard were “tied up”.

Apple products stolen on the M1. Headline just writes itself.

I’ve checked this on my local Apple Stores and they do, indeed, have stock available for in-store pickup.

If you are thinking about a HomePod mini or two as a Christmas gift, consider going this route. Shipping dates, at least for me, are pushed out to just before or just after Christmas, a bit chancy for my tastes.

Speaking of M1 benchmarks, follow the headline link to check out the Rosetta benchmarks. The Rosetta translates Intel apps so they can run on the M1. Though the translation takes time, I believe once the translation is done, the app runs at native M1 speeds.

My question (posted here if you happen to know the details): Is the translation saved in the app bundle so it only needs to be performed the first time the app is run? Also, is the translation redone each time the app is updated? Is this redo automated, or triggered when the user runs the app?

The Independent:

The company’s representatives kept stressing that fact throughout the announcement of the M1 and the three new computers that have it inside: they love the Mac, and they love these Macs. Soon after that event finished, some of Apple’s most senior executives – marketing chief Greg ‘Joz’ Joswiak, software boss Craig Federighi, hardware engineering leader John Ternus – spoke with The Independent to explain exactly why.

And:

Usually, a major advance in computing performance might add 20 or 30 per cent faster processing speed – but the new computers multiply that number by 10, with numbers showing that the computers as much as three times more powerful generally and up to 11 times faster at some tasks.

Apple is getting a lot of pushback on their claims, but see for yourself. Here’s my rollup of the single and multi-core Geekbench scores. The single core benchmark hovers at around 1700 (higher number is more powerful). For comparison, the latest Intel MacBook Pro lands a single core benchmark at about 1100.

Multicore score for the 2020 Intel-i5-based MacBook Air lands at around 2500. The M1 multicore around 7000. Jump over to the Geekbench browser and see for yourself. Look at the VirtualApple scores to see emulation scores, check out the GPU scores, too. Don’t take Apple’s word for it.

Even when he got his hands on the new computers, Joz says he “couldn’t believe it”.

“We overshot,” says Federighi. “You have these projects where, sometimes you have a goal and you’re like, ‘well, we got close, that was fine’.

“This one, part of what has us all just bouncing off the walls here – just smiling – is that as we brought the pieces together, we’re like, ‘this is working better than we even thought it would’.

“We started getting back our battery life numbers, and we’re like, ‘You’re kidding. I thought we had people that knew how to estimate these things’.”

This is a fun read. Nice to really love your job.

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

Apple TV+ is Apple’s streaming service and priced at $4.99 per month in the US, or $49.99 per year. A lot of current subscribers are on promotional free trials. However, if you are currently paying for TV+ on a monthly or yearly basis, you should have received an email that Apple is refunding that amount as store credit.

I did get one of those emails. It told me I’d be getting a $4.99 credit through January that I can use on whatever I like. What I didn’t quite get from the email is the specifics on what I did to qualify for it.

More from Benjamin:

All free year trials of TV+ have been extended so they last until February 2021, giving people up to an extra 3 months free. So, to make it fair for people that are paying real money for the service, Apple is comping the paid subscriptions too. That means if you sign up for Apple TV+ over Christmas, and pay the $4.99 subscription fee, Apple will return that money to you as store credit. This will last until the February renewals.

Thanks, Benjamin. Makes sense.

BBEdit has been released on the Mac App Store with updates for Apple Silicon and macOS Big Sur. BBEdit is an HTML and text editor for macOS and one of the most versatile apps I’ve ever used. You can get it from the company’s Web site or the Mac App Store.

Fraser, Designer at Marketcircle:

“As Apple refined the design of macOS, we took the opportunity to modernize and revise Daylite to feel right at home on Big Sur. We hope that all the little details – refreshed icons, more readable fonts, clearer toolbar layout, beautiful dark mode – add up to a more delightful and productive experience for our customers.”

If you collaborate with projects, you probably already know about Daylite, but it is a fantastic app. Now, with support for Apple Silicon, it’s going to even faster.

macOS Big Sur, the latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is now available to Mac users as a free software update. Big Sur introduces a beautiful redesign and is packed with new enhancements for key apps including Safari, Messages, and Maps, as well as new privacy features. And Big Sur has been engineered, down to its core, to take full advantage of all the power of the M1 chip to make the macOS experience even better for the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini. The combination of Big Sur and M1 truly takes the Mac to a whole new level with incredible capabilities, efficiency, and more apps than ever before, while maintaining everything users love about macOS.

It’s here and it’s a big update. I’ve been using the developer versions on my MacBook Pro for months and really like it.

Apple:

The 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, will be Oprah Winfrey’s guest on a new episode of “The Oprah Conversation,” premiering globally on Apple TV+ on Tuesday, November 17 at 9 AM ET / 6 AM PT. The episode will be available to watch for free through Tuesday, December 1.

Will watch.

Microsoft:

The latest release of apps including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive can be installed on devices that are based on the Apple Silicon architecture. For the best experience, install the November 2020 release (build 16.43), or later. This release of Office includes the latest optimizations for macOS Big Sur, which is the first operating system to support Apple Silicon.

And:

As demonstrated at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June 2020, we’ve already started the process of moving Mac apps to universal binaries. In the future we will natively support both Apple Silicon and Intel chipsets within the same executable.

In a nutshell, the apps noted above will run in Rosetta 2 emulation or, as they get rebuilt for M1, as native apps. But the features won’t change. They’ll just speed up as they go native. At least, that’s the idea.

Howard Oakley:

One of the major new hardware features of Apple Silicon Macs, including those launched on 10 November, is that they use “unified memory”. This article looks briefly at what this means, its consequences, and where the M1 and its successors are taking hardware design.

And:

GPUs are now being used for a lot more than just driving the display, and their computing potential for specific types of numeric and other processing is in demand. So long as CPUs and GPUs continue to use their own local memory, simply moving data between their memory has become an unwanted overhead.

And:

In this new model, CPU cores and GPUs access the same memory. When data being processed by the CPU needs to be manipulated by the GPU, it stays where it is. That unified memory is as fast to access as dedicated GPU memory, and completely flexible. When you want to connect a high-resolution display, that’s not limited by the memory tied to the GPU, but by total memory available. Imagine the graphics capability of 64 or even 128 GB of unified memory.

And:

Apple’s first M1 Macs are its first convergence of these features: sophisticated SoCs which tightly integrate CPU cores and GPUs, fast access to unified memory, and tightly-integrated storage on an SSD. Together they offer unrivalled versatility, what Apple sees as relatively low-end systems which can turn their hand and speed to some of the most demanding tasks while remaining cool, consuming little power, and being relatively inexpensive to manufacture in volume.

A great read, helps explain some of the speed increases in the M1 chip, and why 16GB of M1 RAM is not the same as 16GB of Intel Mac RAM.