November 12, 2020

Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage on June 1st, 2021 ∞

Written by

Dieter Bohn, The Verge:

After five years of offering unlimited free photo backups at “high quality,” Google Photos will start charging for storage once more than 15 gigs on the account have been used. The change will happen on June 1st, 2021, and it comes with other Google Drive policy changes like counting Google Workspace documents and spreadsheets against the same cap. Google is also introducing a new policy of deleting data from inactive accounts that haven’t been logged in to for at least two years.

And:

Google already counts “original quality” photo uploads against a storage cap in Google Photos. However, taking away unlimited backup for “high quality” photos and video (which are automatically compressed for more efficient storage) also takes away one of the service’s biggest selling points. It was the photo service where you just didn’t have to worry about how much storage you had.

This is certainly a major change to Google’s longstanding policy, but it does give you plenty of time to move your photos to other options if you don’t want to pony up for a monthly payment.

Apple only offers 5GB free before you start paying. Though Apple’s policy has never gone from offering free storage to charging you for same.

Review: HomePod mini

When HomePod mini was first introduced in October, I was excited about the possibilities. It was small, gave me access to Siri, multi-room audio, and, most importantly, I could play music anywhere in the house. My expectations for HomePod mini were high, and in the couple of weeks I’ve been using the two HomePod minis, it didn’t disappoint.

I usually don’t get into specs in my reviews, focusing instead on how the product works, and I will do that. First, it’s important to understand just how technologically advanced the HomePod mini is and what makes it work.

Everything you see with the HomePod mini was designed with a specific purpose—sound quality. Let’s start with the Apple-designed S5 chip.

The S5 is the heart of HomePod mini, allowing the device to use computational audio. This is important because HomePod mini is applying tuning algorithms to the audio at a rate of 180 times per second. It actually listens to the characteristics of the audio being played and adjusts the response accordingly. It adjusts loudness and dynamic range, and it can also predict the driver’s movement in real-time.

Apple also designed an acoustic waveguide for the HomePod mini, channeling audio down and out the device’s bottom. This helps create a consistent 360-degree experience.

Apple also designed the driver to deliver the best bass and high frequencies. Even the mesh covering the HomePod mini was designed for its acoustic properties.

As you can see, the technical aspects of the HomePod mini are incredibly important to how it works in your home. Now, let’s get to the fun stuff.

My Setup

Setting up the HomePod mini was very easy. Just open the Home app on your iPhone, hold it near the device, and answer a few simple questions. Everything you need, including accounts, settings, and Siri, is transferred to the mini, and you’re ready to go in a few minutes.

The most important thing for me with HomePod mini is music. I want it to be crisp and clear and loud when I need it—that’s actually most of the time.

I will admit that when I took it out of the box, I didn’t think it would meet my being “loud” expectations. It just seemed too small to pump out any meaningful sound, and cranking it up may cause some distortion in the audio.

Naturally, the first thing I did was turn the volume up to 100 percent playing Ozzy Osbourne. I actually smiled when the music started playing. It was loud and clear… and loud.

All of that technology I mentioned before was at work, and it sounded great.

I have two HomePods in the living room, but when I try to play music loud enough to hear it in the kitchen, it’s too loud everywhere else.

So, the first HomePod mini I set up was in the kitchen. I wanted to put one in that room for a couple of reasons. First, to play music and podcasts while I cook, and the second is to use Siri for timers and add items to my grocery list.

I don’t know how many times I’ve been cooking, ran out of an ingredient, and forgot to add it to my shopping list. Now, I tell Siri on the HomePod mini to add it and keep going. That may seem like a small thing to some of you, but it’s a big deal when you’re the one making the meals.

The second HomePod mini I setup was outside. I wouldn’t recommend doing this because it could get wet or destroyed outside. Fortunately, I live in California, and I have a covered gazebo, so the HomePod mini is very safe from the weather. Still, please don’t do it.

I spend a lot of my time outside. It’s where I work most days, so having a HomePod mini out there makes perfect sense. I often listen to podcasts or music while working, so what better way to do that than with the mini.

My fiancé and I often meet outside at the end of the day to chat and catch up. Now, I ask Siri on the mini to play some music, and we enjoy a little time together, relaxing and listening to a few songs.

When we’re allowed, I can imagine having a few people over and having a party in the backyard, all powered by HomePod mini. I can see a couple of you wondering if the mini’s volume could handle a party—I say, yes.

Multi-room audio and stereo pairs

One of my favorite aspects of using HomePods is multi-room audio. This feature allows you to play music in different rooms of your house and control it using Siri.

As I mentioned, I often sit outside, listening to podcasts or music during the day. If I’m going inside, I can tell Siri to move the audio from the Gazebo to the kitchen by saying, “Hey Siri, move this to the kitchen.”

Within a couple of seconds, the audio will stop in the Gazebo and pick up where it left off in the kitchen.

If I plan on being in both places, going in and outside, I can tell Siri to play it in both places. In the Gazebo, where the audio is play, I say, “Hey Siri, play this in the kitchen.” With that command, the music plays in both places.

I can also tell Siri to play the audio everywhere in my house by saying, “Hey Siri, play this everywhere.” Then the audio will play in the gazebo, kitchen, and the HomePods in my living room.

You can also stop playing in an individual room from where you are by naming the specific room. “Hey Siri, stop playing this in the kitchen.” The audio will continue to play on the rest of the HomePods.

Of course, you can also play separate music in each room if you want.

It’s a brilliant system for controlling how and where you want to listen to music.

HomePod minis can also be configured as a stereo pair. It’s effortless to do in the Home app once both speakers are setup. Just tap the “Create Stereo Pair…” Button and follow the instructions.

I love the sound of a stereo pair. You can’t setup a stereo pair of HomePod mini and the original HomePod, which makes sense. So if you want a pair, you’ll have to buy two of the same models of the product.

I opted to have a stereo pair of original HomePods in my living room and use the HomePod minis as individual speakers in other areas of the house.

Personal requests and Web searches

Personal requests give the HomePod mini access to your Reminders, Notes, Calendar, Messages, etc.

I have this feature turned on for all devices, so no matter where I am in the house, I can ask Siri to add something to my lists or ask about my upcoming appointments. Personal requests are executed on the device, so as long as my iPhone is on the same Wi-Fi network, HomePod mini can access the information.

You can also control which HomePod minis will be able to access your personal requests. For instance, you may only want the device in your office to respond to personal requests—you can turn this feature on and off in the HomePod mini settings from the Home app on your iPhone.

I didn’t have it on at first, but I find it much more convenient to access all of my information wherever I am in the house.

Web searches have become much smarter with the latest release of HomePod software. You can now search the Web for items and show the results on your iPhone if it is nearby.

In my testing, you have to be very specific about the phrase you use to do these searches, so please note the exact phrase before trying this.

“Hey Siri, search the Web for…”

You can search for images of hockey sticks, videos of how to cut a mango, or information on a band like Van Halen, but you have to start the phrase as I did above for it to work.

The results came from three different sources when I tried it. The videos came from YouTube, the images from Bing, and the information from Google.

It worked really well for me, and not getting the Siri response, “I’m not able to do that here,” is a welcome change.

Personal requests also extend to Maps. If you ask HomePod mini for information about a business nearby, for example, what time it closes, HomePod mini will give you the answer and also send a Siri suggestion to your iPhone for CarPlay. When you get in your car, directions to the business is in Maps and ready to go.

Allowing updated listening history

Update: I made a mistake in this section. I have posted a correction.

The HomePod mini can update your Apple Music listening history as you play music or podcasts on the device. If you allow this, it will affect the For You section of Apple Music, which I found can be good and bad.

I have my HomePods set to allow it to recognize anyone’s voice. This is the easiest way for people to come over and use the system to play music.

The downside is that whatever music they choose affects my account. If they play Smooth Jazz or another genre I don’t like, all of a sudden, Apple Music is recommending that type of music for me.

That’s exactly how it should work; I’m not arguing that, but I don’t want my recommendations affected by other people.

Of course, there is another side to that argument. If you don’t allow HomePod mini to update your history, you don’t get updated song plays, and for me, podcasts that I played were not marked as played on my iPhone.

This setting is clearly a personal choice, but I would rather it not update and be able to control my Apple Music recommendations.

You can turn this feature on per HomePod, but I decided to leave it off altogether.

Using your iPhone with HomePod mini

HomePod mini is designed to be used with Siri. It can control most things you want to do on the device, from playing to music to accessing your personal requests.

However, there are times when your iPhone can come in handy. Of course, you need your iPhone to change the HomePod mini settings, but you can also use it to play music.

Let’s say you are in the car listening to a great playlist. When you get home, you want to keep listening without restarting the playlist on your HomePod mini. You can transfer music to your mini when you get home.

There are a couple of easy ways to do this. First, you can walk up to the HomePod mini you want to play the music on and hold the iPhone close to it. A message will appear that it is transferring the music to the HomePod.

You can also use Siri on your iPhone and say, “Play this in the kitchen,” and the music will switch to the HomePod mini. Or you can use the AirPlay 2 control on your iPhone and choose the HomePod mini you want to play the music.

The reverse is also true. If you are listening to that same playlist on HomePod mini and are leaving to go for a drive, you can hold the iPhone near the mini, and the music will transfer playing to your iPhone.

There is one thing to note here. If you transfer music from your iPhone to your HomePod mini, it is still playing the music from your iPhone. In other words, the iPhone is using AirPlay 2 to play the music on HomePod, and the two will remain connected until you physically remove the connection.

Even if you ask Siri to play different music on your HomePod mini, it will still be connected to your iPhone. You need to use the AirPlay controls on the iPhone to separate the two devices.

Not a big deal but worth noting as you begin using the devices together.

Siri commands and multiple timers

With no screen, it’s obvious that HomePod mini is meant to be controlled using Siri. The HomePod mini does have controls on top of the device that allow you to play, pause, skip tracks and invoke Siri, but I found just using “Hey Siri” worked great on the HomePod mini.

I would recommend learning a few simple Siri commands to get you started and then add to those basic ones as you become more comfortable.

In addition to playing music, I also use Siri quite a bit for timers in the kitchen. When cooking, I often have several timers going simultaneously, but keeping track of them with HomePod mini is easy.

“Hey Siri, set a timer named carrots for 15 minutes.” “Hey Siri, set a timer named potatoes for 12 minutes.”

If you want to know how much time is left, say, “Hey Siri, how much time is left,” and Siri will tell you how much time remains on each timer.

When a timer is complete, Siri will tell you the timer’s name, so you know exactly where to go on the stove.

If you don’t name the first timer and try to start a second, Siri will suggest that you give it a name, so it is actively trying to help you.

Other useful commands I found was adding the current song to one of my Playlists.

“Hey Siri, add this song to my Mellow Rock Favs playlist.”

Adjust the volume.

“Hey Siri, turn it up.” “Hey Siri, turn it up, 5%.”

If you’re listening to a podcast and someone starts talking, you don’t need to stop playing; you can say:

“Hey Siri, pause.” “Hey Siri, continue,” and it will start playing where you left off.

Intercom

Intercom is one of those features that everyone is talking about. I gave it a try, but I didn’t use it a lot.

I have a small house, so when I tried Intercom and said:

“Hey Siri, intercom, can you bring me a Heineken?”

My fiancé poked her head out of the kitchen door and said, “no.” No real need for the intercom feature there.

While I didn’t use it much, I can see how useful intercom could be in a larger house. The feature will work on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, CarPlay, and AirPods, so you’re able to send intercom messages across devices and whether or not you’re physically in the house.

Conclusion

I love the HomePod mini. It’s useful in accessing my personal information like lists, notes, and calendars, and it allows me the flexibility to play music wherever I want.

The sound quality of the music is really good for such a small speaker—or any speaker. HomePod mini fits almost anywhere you want to put it, and it looks great.

I currently have the two HomePod minis, but I’m getting another one for the master bathroom. If I had a bigger house, I would get more and have one in every room. At $99, the HomePod mini is a fantastic bargain for what it provides.

November 11, 2020

Status of M1 native Parallels Desktop for Mac ∞

Written by

Parallels blog:

It is important to note that currently available versions of Parallels® Desktop for Mac cannot run virtual machines on Mac with Apple M1 chip. Good news: A new version of Parallels Desktop for Mac that can run on Mac with Apple M1 chip is already in active development.

If you care about running Windows emulation on your Mac, this is worth reading. Worth noting, also, that Parallels is actively seeking M1 Mac owners to try out their Parallels M1 technical preview.

Video from yesterday’s event: Behind the Mac — Greatness

Apple:

This film celebrates the brilliant minds making greatness behind the Mac — Kendrick Lamar, Gloria Steinem, Billie Eilish, RuPaul, Tarana Burke, Spike Lee, Stephen Colbert, Takashi Murakami, and Saul Perlmutter, whose participation honors SMASH.org http://smash.org/, which is developing the next generation of scientists by providing equal access to STEM for students of color.

That voiceover sounds an awful lot like Billie Eilish. She’s acknowledged above, but she’s in the video itself. Anyone know for sure?

Apple launches extended holiday return policy, returns accepted until January 8 in U.S. ∞

Written by

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Items purchased from the Apple Online Store that are received between November 10 and December 25, 2020 can be returned to Apple until January 8, 2021, offering holiday shoppers more than two weeks to make returns.

These dates are applicable for the U.S. store, but Apple also extends return periods in other countries as well.

That’s an amazingly generous return window. You can buy a new M1 Mac today and have almost two months to return it.

AnandTech on Apple’s M1 chip ∞

Written by

Andrei Frumusanu, AnandTech:

The new processor is called the Apple M1, the company’s first SoC designed with Macs in mind. With four large performance cores, four efficiency cores, and an 8-GPU core GPU, it features 16 billion transistors on a 5nm process node. Apple’s is starting a new SoC naming scheme for this new family of processors, but at least on paper it looks a lot like an A14X.

And:

Today, we’re going to be dissecting the new Apple M1 news, as well as doing a microarchitectural deep dive based on the already-released Apple A14 SoC.

There’s a lot to digest here, tons of detail, some of it picking apart the specifics that Apple shared yesterday, some of it extrapolating from what is known about the A14.

If you care about the hardware side of things, I think you’ll find this an interesting, dense read.

The biggest difference between the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro is a fan ∞

Written by

Sean Hollister, The Verge:

Apple’s new $999 and $1,299 laptops seem nearly identical if you look beyond the differently curved frames. They’ve got the same M1 processor, the same memory and storage options, the same ports, and very similar screens.

I’m not joking when I say: the biggest difference is a fan.

I actually prefer no fan, but there’s certainly value in a fan that lets a Mac run faster, longer:

A CPU’s thermal design power (TDP) in watts is a better predictor of performance than its gigahertz clock speed because some of the weakest laptop and phone chips can “boost” up to multiple gigahertz these days… until they heat up. In a small, fanless chassis, they have to throttle down quickly, but they can go for longer in a larger or better-cooled one.

Here’s a bullet list of the main differences between the M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro:

  • At $999, the MacBook Air comes with seven GPU cores instead of eight, because Apple is salvaging some weaker chips (a common process known as binning) by disabling one core.

  • But at $1,249, the MacBook Air has the same eight CPU cores and eight GPU cores as the $1,299 13-inch MacBook Pro. The 13-inch MacBook Pro has a slightly larger battery (58.2Wh vs. 49.9Wh) and quotes two additional hours of battery life compared to the MacBook Air.

  • The 13-inch MacBook Pro’s screen is slightly brighter at maximum (500 nits vs 400 nits).

  • The 13-inch MacBook Pro comes with the Touch Bar instead of physical function keys, though both have a Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

Good info. I went fanless.

New MacBook Air and MacBook Pro still have 720p camera, but Apple promises better quality from M1 ∞

Written by

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

During today’s event where Apple unveiled the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, there was a mention of a new image signal processor for the camera, which brings some improvements to camera quality.

And:

Apple did not, however, add new camera hardware to the two machines, and the technical specifications pages continue to list the same 720p camera used in prior-generation models.

And:

Apple says the M1 chip improves MacBook camera quality with better noise reduction, greater dynamic range, improved auto white balance, and ML-enhanced face detection

Apple leaning into machine learning to overcome hardware limitations. All you need to do is look at the newer generation iPhones to see this in practice. I’ve got a new MacBook Air on the way, looking forward to seeing this in a controlled environment, Intel MacBook Pro side-by-side with M1 MacBook Air.

November 10, 2020

Apple’s M1-powered MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini ∞

Written by

> MacBook Air is Apple’s most popular Mac and the world’s best-selling 13-inch notebook. With the M1 chip, MacBook Air speeds through everything from editing family photos to exporting videos for the web. The powerful 8-core CPU performs up to 3.5x faster than the previous generation. With up to an 8-core GPU, graphics are up to 5x faster, the biggest leap ever for MacBook Air, so immersive, graphics-intensive games run at significantly higher frame rates. ML workloads are up to 9x faster, so apps that use ML-based features like face recognition or object detection can do so in a fraction of the time. The M1 chip’s storage controller and latest flash technology deliver up to 2x faster SSD performance, so previewing massive images or importing large files is faster than ever. And in MacBook Air, M1 is faster than the chips in 98 percent of PC laptops sold in the past year.

Take a look at the performance information and then realize this is all in a MacBook Air. This laptop was once released as a travel companion to do simple tasks, now it’s a powerhouse of computing.

> The 13-inch MacBook Pro is Apple’s most popular pro notebook. Students use it to power through college, and pros use it to channel their creativity. With the M1 chip and Big Sur, the 13-inch MacBook Pro becomes even more powerful and even more pro. The 8-core CPU, when paired with the MacBook Pro’s active cooling system, is up to 2.8x faster than the previous generation, delivering game-changing performance when compiling code, transcoding video, editing high-resolution photos, and more. The 8-core GPU is up to 5x faster, allowing users to enjoy super smooth graphics performance whether they are designing a graphics-intensive game or a new product. And with M1, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is up to 3x faster than the best-selling Windows laptop in its class. ML is up to 11x faster, and for on-device ML tasks that use the Neural Engine, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is now the world’s fastest compact pro notebook. With up to 17 hours of wireless web browsing and up to a staggering 20 hours of video playback, MacBook Pro delivers up to twice the battery life of the previous generation and the longest battery life ever on a Mac.

Not only power, but the battery life is probably longer than most of us work on our computer during a normal day without having it plugged in at some point.

> Mac mini is Apple’s most versatile computer, and now with M1, it packs a staggering amount of performance and incredible new features in such a compact design. M1 brings an 8-core CPU with up to 3x faster performance than the previous generation, dramatically accelerating demanding workloads, from compiling a million lines of code to building enormous multitrack music projects. An 8-core GPU delivers up to a massive 6x increase in graphics performance, allowing Mac mini to tackle performance-intensive tasks like complex 3D renderings with ease. ML workloads also take a quantum leap forward with up to 15x faster performance over the previous generation. And when compared to the best-selling Windows desktop in its price range, the Mac mini is just one-tenth the size, yet delivers up to 5x faster performance.

I’ll admit, I never expected a Mac mini. However, at $699 it makes perfect sense to start the transition with a Mac mini.

Apple unleashes M1 ∞

Written by

Apple today announced M1, the most powerful chip it has ever created and the first chip designed specifically for the Mac. M1 is optimized for Mac systems in which small size and power efficiency are critically important. As a system on a chip (SoC), M1 combines numerous powerful technologies into a single chip, and features a unified memory architecture for dramatically improved performance and efficiency. M1 is the first personal computer chip built using cutting-edge 5-nanometer process technology and is packed with an astounding 16 billion transistors, the most Apple has ever put into a chip. It features the world’s fastest CPU core in low-power silicon, the world’s best CPU performance per watt, the world’s fastest integrated graphics in a personal computer, and breakthrough machine learning performance with the Apple Neural Engine. As a result, M1 delivers up to 3.5x faster CPU performance, up to 6x faster GPU performance, and up to 15x faster machine learning, all while enabling battery life up to 2x longer than previous-generation Macs. With its profound increase in performance and efficiency, M1 delivers the biggest leap ever for the Mac.

This is so much better than I expected. The M1 puts the Mac in a class of its own in CPU, GPU, battery, and every other aspect of computing.

Two takes worth reading on the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera

First things first, there’s Austin Mann’s comprehensive review. Read the detailed comments, check out the images and videos. There’s a lot to process.

Don’t miss the wish list and low light shooting tips at the end of Austin’s post. And, most importantly, don’t miss the decision tree at the very end, which lays out the questions you should ask yourself before you plunk down your hard earned cash for the upgrade.

Next up, there’s Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max review: The best smartphone camera you can get, by The Verge’s Nilay Patel.

While it’s expensive, it’s not that much more expensive than the smaller iPhone 12 Pro: it’s just $100 more at every storage level, starting at $1,099 with 128GB of storage and going up to $1,399 for 512GB of storage. For that money, you get a larger display, a bigger battery, and a very different camera system. I’ll just cut to the chase and say it’s absolutely worth it over the standard 12 Pro if you can deal with the size — but it’s a lot of size. And the camera is worth exploring in depth, because there’s a lot going on.

And that says it all. Bigger sensor, better camera, more battery, bigger display, at $100 and some not insignificant pocket size/weight.

As you make your way through these reviews, think about the types of photos you take. On my end, I take a lot of photos of moving things, like cats, birds, and people. If that’s you, make sure you read the reviews with that in mind, keep your eye peeled for those sorts of examples.

If you hew more toward nature photography, I would definitely dive deep into Austin Mann’s immersive review. And if you are exploring the difference between different high-end smartphone cameras, spend some time on the slide-over shots in Nilay’s review.

Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 12 mini “Pinch” ad

I kind of love this ad. Apple Marketing sure does know how to pick out the perfect music.

PetaPixel interview: Apple reveals iPhone camera design philosophy ∞

Written by

PetaPixel:

Since the Pro Max marks the first time in a while that Apple changed the size of its camera sensor, PetaPixel spoke to two Apple executives who outlined the company’s vision and design philosophy behind camera development.

In an interview with Apple’s Product Line Manager, iPhone Francesca Sweet and Vice President, Camera Software Engineering Jon McCormack, both made clear that the company thinks of camera development holistically: it’s not just the sensor and lenses, but also everything from Apple’s A14 Bionic chip, to the image signal processing, to the software behind its computational photography.

This is an interesting read, especially the discussion of the new, bigger sensor in the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Apple MagSafe Duo Charger Review: Useful, but expensive and underwhelming ∞

Written by

Matthew Panzarino, TechCrunch:

For context, you have to understand that this thing is $129 but feels like it should be $70. When you realize that it is a charger that doesn’t come with a power adapter, I would not be shocked if you mentally downgraded it to $40.

And (look at the pic of the hinge in the review):

The hinge and casing are coated in soft-touch rubber that is sort of press-molded on. While the hinge works fine, it is wobbly and immediately creases. The rubber is thick enough that it doesn’t give the impression that it will rip immediately or anything — but it’s not exactly confidence-inducing. This is an inexpensive hinge solution that you would expect to see from a price-conscious third-party accessory, not from Apple.

One of those takes where it’s all laid out in the headline.

Rene Ritchie digs into the iPhone 12 mini, starting with whether or not it’s a fit for you

If you are considering the iPhone 12 mini, this is absolutely worth your time. Rene does an excellent job, both verbally and visually, walking through the decision process, the things you should think about before you click the iPhone 12 mini buy button.

iOS apps running on Apple Silicon Macs ∞

Written by

Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac:

Since Apple Silicon Macs will have the same processors as iPhone and iPad, Apple will let users download and install iOS apps on these Macs even if the developer doesn’t offer a specific version of the app for macOS.

Key point is the idea that you might have a choice between an Intel-built app running in some form of emulation on an Apple Silicon Mac or an iOS app running natively.

Although by default all iOS apps are available on the Mac App Store for Apple Silicon, the company is allowing developers to opt their iOS apps out of the new unified store.

And there’s the rub. According to this post, not all iOS apps will be available on the new Macs.

If you were expecting to watch YouTube on your new Mac with a native app, you’re out of luck. Google has chosen not to offer most of its apps on the Apple Silicon platform, and this also includes Google Maps, Google Drive, and Gmail apps. On the other hand, the Netflix app for iOS is still on track to be available on new Macs, as well as the HBO Max app.

This is life on a new platform. But over time, older Mac apps will either fade away, or rebuild for the new hardware. Over time, you’ll have all native apps, one way or the other.

Same as it ever was.

November 9, 2020

This commercial reminds me of Apple Christmas ads

Just like classic Apple Christmas ads, this one tells a story and is filled with feeling.

Amazing fluid simulation ∞

Written by

The performance of this simulation is crazy good, runs on Macs and iOS devices (it uses WebGL).

Follow the headline link, click/tap and drag to start moving liquid around. Play with the settings. Fun.

Hands on video of Apple MagSafe Duo charger

Looks pretty cool. I like the foldability and the popup Apple Watch feature that makes it work with the Solo Loop band.

Apple’s iPhone 12 Studio, a lot of fun to play with ∞

Written by

Open the headline link on your iPhone or iPad (not your Mac) and start playing. This is a great way to get a sense of all the different colors and materials, cases and finishes.

Pick an iPhone, case, wallet, customize the colors, switch ’em up. Fun.

Sort of like Apple Watch Studio, but Apple Watch Studio works on the Mac. Wonder what’s different.

Apple freezes new business for Pegatron on China labor abuse ∞

Written by

Bloomberg:

Apple Inc. suspended new business with iPhone assembler Pegatron Corp. after discovering labor violations at a student workers’ program, taking strong action to clean up a Chinese-based production chain long accused of worker abuse.

And:

[Apple] said it discovered several weeks ago that the Taiwanese manufacturer misclassified student workers and allowed some to work nights and overtime in violation of Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct.

And:

“The individuals at Pegatron responsible for the violations went to extraordinary lengths to evade our oversight mechanisms.”

Pre-ordered HomePod mini delivery times slip into early December ∞

Written by

I just checked and, for me:

  • White HomePod mini shows delivery Nov 24-Dec 2
  • Space Gray HomePod mini shows delivery Dec 2-Dec 9

So if you want HomePod mini in time for Xmas, get on it.

November 6, 2020

The Dalrymple Report: New Macs and the Apple One bundle

Dave and I took some time to talk about Apple’s Mac event happening virtually next week from Cupertino. The new Macs will be the first with Apple Silicon. We also talked about the release of Apple One, the services bundle the company released last week.

Subscribe to this podcast

Linode: Get started on Linode today with a $100 in free credit for listeners of The Dalrymple Report. You can find all the details at linode.com/dalrymple.

November 5, 2020

Silk Road founder is in prison. His billion dollar bitcoin stash, dormant since 2013, just got nabbed by the feds ∞

Written by

Alex Horn, The Guardian:

A billion dollars worth of bitcoins linked to the shuttered darknet market Silk Road has changed hands for the first time in seven years, prompting renewed speculation about the fate of the illicit fortune.

Almost 70,000 bitcoins stored in the account which, like all bitcoin wallets, is visible to the public, had lain untouched since April 2013. The website was shut down by an FBI raid six months after they were deposited, and they have not moved since.

Late on Tuesday night, however, the full amount less a $12 (£9) transaction fee was transferred to a new bitcoin address, records show.

This is an amazing story. If you’ve never heard of Silk Road (the online marketplace), here’s a link to the Wikipedia page. It’s a riveting read.

Silk Road’s founder, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison. Did he somehow move this trove? Did someone figure out a way to hack into the bitcoin wallet and move the funds? This is a pretty great story.

If this intrigues you, you should check out the book American Kingpin. It tells the story of the creation and, ultimately, the shutdown of Silk Road and it is a real page turner.

UPDATE: From this Wired story, posted later in the day [H/T Cabel Sasser]:

Today the Justice Department finally revealed where a billion-dollar tranche of the Silk Road’s treasure ended up: stolen by a mysterious hacker, and now seized by the US Treasury.

The DOJ today filed a civil forfeiture complaint over 69,370 bitcoins—and other variants of the cryptocurrency—seized on November 3 from an unnamed person who court documents refer to only as Individual X. According to the IRS’s criminal investigation unit, Individual X successfully hacked the Silk Road sometime between May of 2012 and April of 2013, stealing that abundance of drug money from the dark web site’s bitcoin addresses before Ulbricht’s downfall in October of 2013. The IRS says it has finally tracked down the hacker who stole the Silk Road’s nearly 70,000 bitcoins—now worth more than $1 billion—and allowed law enforcement to take control of those funds.

Amazing!

Apple’s Francesca Sweet talks 5G with iJustine

This starts a little slow, but it slowly builds. Two interesting subtopics are the discussion of tethering being potential faster than Wi-Fi and 5G in the enterprise space.

I find it fascinating to think of tethering as a 5G Trojan horse, bringing 5G speeds to non-5G devices by tethering them to a 5G phone connected to mmWave.

What’s Behind MLB’s Fake Crowd Noise? Turns out it’s all iPads ∞

Written by

Emma Baccellieri, Sports Illustrated:

When MLB settled on its structure for coronavirus gameplay—in home stadiums but without fans—it knew it would need to provide a remedy for the unnatural quiet of empty ballparks.

The league found its answer in the form of 30 iPads, one for each team, loaded with various crowd reactions so that a little tapping and scrolling was all it took to play the proper noises. But an artificial crowd is as an art as much as it is a science. And it’s harder than it looks (or sounds).

The linked SI article is from back in September. I had no idea how this was done. And, frankly, I’m glad. It does take away a bit of the mystery.

But, that said, this is pretty cool. Wondering if other sports use the same approach. The NFL has famously adopted Microsoft Surface (that first season, cameras caught a lot of coaches using iPads, NFL clamped down). Wonder how they do it? Well here ya go. Don’t miss that Mac screenshot at about 1:34.

iOS/iPadOS 14.2 brings Shazam to Control Center ∞

Written by

Christian Zibreg, iDownloadMac:

Apple-owned Shazam is the most popular music-identification service in the world. Starting with iOS 14.2, your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch can identify music playing around you or in apps via Shazam-powered music recognition available from the Control Center.

In a nutshell, if you’ve got the iOS or iPadOS 14.2 beta installed:

  • Go to Settings > Control Center
  • Tap the green + to add Music Recognition to Included Controls

Do that, and you’ll see the Shazam icon in Control Center. Tap it, it’ll do its thing.

Me, I ask Siri:

“What song is this?”

Both seem to work equally well. I’m guessing they fire up the same exact bit of code. The Control Center approach is much more subtle if you’re in a room with others. Good to have both.

Apple’s coming Apple Silicon wave ∞

Written by

Nikkei Asia:

Apple is asking suppliers to produce 2.5 million MacBook laptops powered by its in-house designed CPU by early 2021 as the California tech giant looks to rapidly cut its reliance on Intel chips, sources have told Nikkei Asia.

These initial production orders for the first MacBooks to use the Apple Silicon central processing unit are equivalent to nearly 20% of total MacBook shipments for 2019, which came in at 12.6 million units, sources briefed on the matter said.

And:

Apple has said it intends to completely cut the use of Intel’s standard CPUs, which rivals HP, Dell, Lenovo and Asustek also use for their computers, in its MacBook lineup within two years.

First bit shows that Apple expects a big wave of orders for the coming Apple Silicon Macs. Makes sense. This is a big change, and the first time in many years that we expect a truly significant performance upgrade in a new generation of Macs.

My favorite Apple product rollouts are brand new product categories (like the original iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch), significant feature introductions (like Night mode or Face ID), or significant construction changes (a modular, snap together Mac, the move to aluminum cases, or the first flat sided iPhone).

One last category that excites me is the move to an entirely new processor family. This wave has occurred twice, with the move from the Motorola 68K to PowerPC back in 1994, then the move to Intel in 2006.

To me, the coming Mac adoption of Apple Silicon will bring the biggest impact of these waves, with the unification of the product lines to Apple’s own chip designs, along with the incredible performance increase with on-chip machine learning, making highly performant AI available throughout the product line.

Like 5G, this stuff is in its infancy. Looking forward to what Apple’s got in the pipeline.

November 4, 2020

iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7 let you use a private Wi-Fi address ∞

Written by

Apple:

To communicate with a Wi-Fi network, a device must identify itself to the network using a unique network address called a media access control (MAC) address. If the device always uses the same Wi-Fi MAC address across all networks, network operators and other network observers can more easily relate that address to the device’s network activity and location over time. This allows a kind of user tracking or profiling, and it applies to all devices on all Wi-Fi networks.

So if you always use your device’s actual MAC address at, say, your local Starbucks, it becomes easy to uniquely identify that device and track you.

As Android did last year, Apple has given you the ability to randomize your MAC address. Follow the headline link to learn more but here’s how to turn this on/off:

  • Go to Settings > WiFi
  • Tap your WiFi network
  • Look for the Private Address toggle

Private Address is likely already on. If it is and you never noticed, perfect!

Since a randomized address is seen as a new network device, this might cause you to see a “new network device” alert each time you get on your home network (if you are set up to monitor such things). Apple lets you customize a network to turn private addresses on or off to address that issue.

How to delete Significant Locations on iPhone & iPad ∞

Written by

OSXDaily:

Consider this feature to be Apple’s version of Google Maps Location History. Now, before you start worrying about your privacy, keep in mind that Apple doesn’t see or read this information, since all the data related to Significant Locations is encrypted. Plus, you have the option to remove these locations from your device and also turn this feature off, if you still have security concerns or you simply don’t want to share such information.

Significant Locations are enabled by default on iOS devices, but if you are reading this, you mighty want to turn it off and clear out that data. In this article, we’ll be discussing exactly how you can delete Significant Locations on both the iPhone and iPad.

Good to know you can delete your Significant Locations, but even if you don’t particularly care about that, worth following along just to explore this little-used branch of Settings.