You’ll find the new setting under Settings > FaceTime in the section AUTOMATIC PROMINENCE.
I’ve been doing a lot of Skype, Zoom, and FaceTime calls in coronavirus time. With more than two people on a call, the various approaches, and their flaws, become obvious.
I get the value of automatic prominence/face zooming. But it gets distracting, especially when you have many people on a call and several people are speaking at once. The tools to moderate large discussions are rudimentary, so the autocratic “mute all” seems to be the best play.
For me, no solution rises to the top. No one has really figured out the ideal solution, but hopefully the providers are learning from this experience and the next wave will be better.
Follow hitmaking, Grammy-nominated songwriter and music producer Oak Felder as he creates a new song. Along the way, he speaks about music production, creating his own unique sound, working with the world’s top artists, and what it means for young artists to have access to powerful technology.
Felder is impressive. He’s six foot, five inches, 400 pounds, with a mohawk. He’s charming, articulate, and full of passion.
I get that this is a marketing piece for Apple, but I was drawn in by Oak Felder, his charisma and his obvious talent.
In conjunction with this, Apple and Google representatives say that they are also releasing the first seeds of the exposure notification API to public health authority developers. The goal, the companies say, is to collect feedback from those developers on how to improve the API ahead of its release in mid-May.
Here’s the setting that enables exposure notification:
The first phase of the system will let health agencies build apps that allow a person who tests positive for Covid-19 to input their diagnosis. The system will then use Bluetooth technology to learn who the person has come into contact with and then notify those people of a possible exposure.
And:
A second phase of the project, to be released in the coming months, will have deeper integration with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems to rely less on apps. Still, the first version of the program will require a software update for iPhones and a download from the Google Play store for Android phones.
Long term play. In the beginning, it’s all about creating a foundation, a system for privacy-respecting data collection. Deep iOS/Android OS integration will raise usage levels enough to make the data collected truly useful.
Maybe this won’t help so much in the short term, but when the second wave hits, this might be a game saver.
It’s finally here. Nearly two years after discontinuing the 4-inch iPhone SE, Apple has introduced a new iPhone SE with a highly competitive $399 starting price tag.
Like its predecessor, this release puts Apple’s latest processor inside the chassis of the company’s heretofore cheapest phone, giving buyers who want a powerful, future-proof handset an option for quite a bit less than the $1,000 cost that has become common for flagship phones.
Those who aren’t married to the idea of a 4-inch smartphone will find a lot to like about the SE, though. It doesn’t have an OLED screen or the latest multi-camera system, but given the price, it still might be the best iPhone for most people.
When I first saw the announcement of the iPhone SE, I thought it was a very good phone at a very good price and Apple will sell a metric buttload of them. Now that the reviews are in, there should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that this is a grand slam home run (God I miss baseball) for the company.
Apple has officially inked a deal to settle a class action lawsuit in California that accused it of intentionally breaking FaceTime on older iPhone devices. According to Law360, Apple has reached an $18 million deal in the case.
Through the settlement, 90% of the class action members will receive compensation, either through the mail or electronically. 3.6 million devices are said to have been affected by the update, and each class member will receive an estimated $3. The case was scheduled for trial this month.
“The class is defined as all California owners of non-jailbroken Apple iPhone 4 or 4S devices with iOS 6 or earlier operating systems,” according to the report. 30% of the settlement fund will go to the class counsel, while the two original named plaintiffs will each get $7,500.
Millions spent. Millions owed. Millions to lawyers. Some of us will get $3. The plaintiffs get $7,500 each. Justice is “served.”
Once you scroll to the very end of Jeff Bezos’ fortune in developer Matt Korostoff’s new “1 Pixel Wealth” visualization, the message “No single human needs or deserves this much wealth” appears onscreen.
You may disagree with Korostoff’s judgement on that point, but you might also find yourself more inclined to agree as you massage your wrist, undoubtedly a bit sore after so much scrolling.
The interactive starts with one pixel equaling a thousand dollars, and escalates rapidly from there.
Throughout your journey through Bezos’ fortune, Korostoff overlays comparisons to more familiar amounts of money — say, the median lifetime earnings of an American.
The amount of money Bezos has access to is quite literally incomprehensible to many of us. What he is doing (or not doing) with it is often equally incomprehensible.
I’ve spent a week using Apple’s new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, much longer than I thought I would before writing this review. The simple truth is that it changed my thoughts on using the iPad Pro so dramatically, I questioned my initial enthusiasm.
After a week, I’m confident that feelings are reliable, and my conclusion on day one remains: The Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro changes everything. Meanwhile, for people who are searching for other hardcore options, a popular gaming keyboard and mouse may be ideal.
Let’s face it, performance has never been a problem for the iPad, no matter how many generations you go back, the iPad has been a powerful device. The new iPad Pro, with the A12Z Bionic chip, is more powerful than most PC laptops on the market today. Augmented Reality, 4K video editing, 3D design are nothing for the iPad Pro—it’s what the device was built to do. Add in the Apple Pencil, and you have a tablet that can serve every pro graphics user and their needs, as well.
So, if power and performance weren’t the issues, what was it that held people back from using the iPad more? Like most of my reviews, this is a question I answered by pulling from my personal experiences.
I use my iPad quite a bit, but it’s usually at the end of the day when I’m researching a story, returning emails, or some other task that typically doesn’t require the apps that I use on my Mac. I put my MacBook Pro 16-inch down and pick up my iPad for the final bit of work I have to do. It’s easy and relaxing. But why didn’t I use the iPad more throughout the day? It certainly has the potential to do everything I need and much more, but still, I defaulted to the Mac.
After using the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, I believe the answer is simply familiarity. I can move around my Mac so quickly that it made sense for me to do all of my work on the machine I felt most comfortable with. At first, I thought this had everything to do with the macOS vs. iOS, but the more I used the Magic Keyboard, the more I realized it had everything to do with my hands. The ability to navigate around a device using a keyboard and trackpad was more critical than I ever gave it credit for, until now.
I’ve used Apple’s Smart Keyboard for iPad since they were first released—I didn’t like them. I could never figure out why the keys were so small and odd on the keyboard and mentioned that in my past reviews. The keyboard was something, but not enough to change the way I use the iPad for my daily tasks.
This admission is especially hard because I’ve changed my opinion completely: I laughed and scoffed at the thought of having a trackpad on the iPad keyboard. I said it on my podcast with Dave Mark on several occasions and never backed down from my thoughts that the trackpad on the iPad was the screen. I maintained that all Apple needed was a keyboard that more closely resembled a MacBook keyboard.
I was wrong.
From the minute I plugged in the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, I was enthralled with the trackpad. It allowed me to do things on the iPad in a way that felt more comfortable for me. I was faster navigating than I have ever been on an iPad before. I was having fun trying out all of the things I could do with the trackpad. Simple things like entering the multitasking window positioning the cursor in a document I was writing—I was like a little kid trying out a new toy.
It’s with the trackpad in particular that I forget the golden rule: never underestimate how clever Apple can be when implementing a feature. It’s a trackpad, what could Apple possibly do to make it work any different on an iPad? A lot.
First, it’s not a mouse on the screen, but a small grey circle. It’s easy to see and follow as you move it across the screen. When you hover over an app, it changes size alerting you to where the pointer is on the screen. If you hover over text, it changes shape to allow you to put the cursor in place or easily select some text. When you hover over an interface element, it changes to highlight that entire element. When it’s not in use, it simply fades away.
Brilliant.
After I finished playing, it was time to get down to work and see how the iPad Pro performed using my new Magic Keyboard. There are a few things that were important to me beyond my new found love for the trackpad, and if they didn’t work, the iPad wouldn’t fit into my workflow.
The first of these is that it must fit in with the way I want to use my iPad. Most times, I’m outside, sitting in a chair, with my feet up and the iPad on my lap. The iPad needs to be sturdy enough on the floating keyboard so it doesn’t move around when I type or use the trackpad. Through all of my use, the screen didn’t move once—it barely even shook when I was typing. Adjust the screen to a comfortable angle, and you’re all set for as long as you need.
Speaking of adjusting the screen—that’s a thing too. When I’m not sitting on my comfy chair, I’m usually at a table. As you can imagine, the viewing angle of the iPad screen will change. With its floating design, the iPad screen moves seamlessly as you change the viewing angle to fit your most comfortable position. This was strange because the screen is so sturdy on the keyboard that I expected more resistance when I tried to move it, but it was very smooth.
Of course, one of the most important things for me was how efficient and comfortable it was when I started typing. Let’s be honest, the Magic Keyboard can be the coolest thing on the planet but if you’re not efficient using it, then it’s not going to work. Because the Magic Keyboard is full-size, you get the feeling of typing on a computer—it’s smooth, familiar, and comfortable, allowing you to get on with the work at hand. The keyboard uses a scissor mechanism with 1mm of key travel, the same as a MacBook keyboard.
The hinge on the Magic Keyboard also contains a pass-through charger, giving you the option to charge the iPad using the USB-C connection on the iPad itself, on the right-hand side, or the keyboard charger on the left-hand side. This may seem like a small thing unless you’ve had the charging cable running over your lap when you’re working or worse, running behind the iPad, and you try to get up.
There is one other element that I need to mention: Face ID. For some reason I always had trouble getting Face ID to work properly with the old Smart Keyboard, but that is fixed now. The angle of the screen using the Magic Keyboard allows Face ID to work nearly every time I pick up my iPad. That’s not only efficient, it also does away with a lot of frustration I had every time I wanted to use my iPad.
It truly feels like Apple thought of everything with the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. I tried everything I could think of to break the keyboard in my workflow, but it held up and surpassed every challenge I came up with. I will still use my Mac, of course, but I won’t think twice about using my iPad Pro even more during my daily routine. In fact, if I were going away on a trip today, I would only take my iPad Pro—normally, I would have a MacBook and an iPad.
The Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro doesn’t just change the way I feel about keyboards; it fundamentally changes the way I see the iPad. That’s why this accessory is so important—this is one of the best accessories Apple has ever released for any product. I would say second only to the AirPods Pro for the way it changes my view on an existing product.
I am not exaggerating when I say, the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro changes everything.
Technology that connects us while we’re apart helps keep us safe and productive. Over the past few months, we’ve seen the power of video meetings bring us together—whether we’re working with teammates, talking to healthcare professionals, sharing with loved ones, or learning from home.
Today, we’re making Google Meet, our premium video conferencing product, free for everyone, with availability rolling out over the coming weeks. We’ve invested years in making Meet a secure and reliable video conferencing solution that’s trusted by schools, governments and enterprises around the world, and in recent months we’ve accelerated the release of top-requested features to make it even more helpful. Starting in early May, anyone with an email address can sign up for Meet and enjoy many of the same features available to our business and education users, such as simple scheduling and screen sharing, real-time captions, and layouts that adapt to your preference, including an expanded tiled view.
Facebook and Google are desperately trying to move into the space dominated over the past few weeks by Zoom. Problem is, Facebook and Google are no more trustworthy than Zoom is.
Millions of Americans own an Apple Watch, which commands roughly a 50 percent share of the smartwatch market. Among its many features, the Apple Watch can take your pulse. It also contains hardware to measure your blood-oxygen levels, and it has been doing so since the watch was released—but the hardware is not operable by the watch’s wearer, who thus cannot obtain the results. Under current FDA regulation, the function is disabled.
The article argues against federal regulation, and FDA overreach. That aside, what’s really interesting to me is the COVID-19 tie-in.
We are just beginning to recognize that Covid pneumonia initially causes a form of oxygen deprivation we call “silent hypoxia” — “silent” because of its insidious, hard-to-detect nature.
And:
When Covid pneumonia first strikes, patients don’t feel short of breath, even as their oxygen levels fall. And by the time they do, they have alarmingly low oxygen levels and moderate-to-severe pneumonia (as seen on chest X-rays). Normal oxygen saturation for most persons at sea level is 94 to 100 percent; Covid pneumonia patients I saw had oxygen saturations as low as 50 percent.
And this is exactly what the Apple Watch’s built-in (but disabled) plethysmograph could prevent. If it doesn’t work, then no argument here. But if it works and the FDA’s testing would push off approval until, say, next year, this might be a time for an emergency exception. Lives are at stake.
A recent patent filing offers a window into future forays by Apple into automotive design. Apple is exploring artificial intelligence systems that will enable future motorists to enjoy windows that continuously change characteristics as they drive.
Titled “Systems with adjustable windows,” U.S. Patent No. 10,625,580 envisions glass components that control light, reflection and heat conductance based on both user preference and sensory input.
I’ve always envisioned auto glass moving to edge-to-edge displays, combining see-through, heads up data displays for the driver, if there is one, and computer driven displays (that are transparent to the driver) with news, entertainment, etc., for the passengers. All of which are, as the article indicates, built to filter out the elements, as needed.
Will we ever see the fruits of Apple’s automotive efforts? Who knows.
Cellebrite is pitching the same capability to help authorities learn who a coronavirus sufferer may have infected. When someone tests positive, authorities can siphon up the patient’s location data and contacts, making it easy to “quarantine the right people,” according to a Cellebrite email pitch to the Delhi police force this month.
Just iPhone their data and contacts. You’ll get permission first, right?
This would usually be done with consent, the email said. But in legally justified cases, such as when a patient violates a law against public gatherings, police could use the tools to break into a confiscated device, Cellebrite advised.
And:
“We do not need the phone passcode to collect the data”
As hinted earlier, Apple has started displaying COVID-19 testing sites in Maps. People in all 50 states and Puerto Rico can use Apple’s default navigation app to quickly find a place to get checked, whether it’s a hospital, urgent care clinic, pharmacy or dedicated testing site. The facilities also fall under a new “COVID-19 Testing” search category that’s prioritized alongside other essentials like groceries and healthcare.
To see this yourself, fire up Maps, tap in the search field, then scroll down past Recent Searches to the section labeled Search Nearby. COVID-19 Testing should be first on that list. Tap it, then testing centers near you should appear on the map.
Each location is marked with an icon:
Hospitals are marked with a “+”
Clinics and others are marked with a “*”
Military locations are marked with a stethoscope icon
Or that appears to be the scheme. I’ve found exceptions, so it’s possible there’s more to it than that. If you know the specifics, ping me, I’ll update the post.
One of the most ambitious projects in Apple history launched in less than a month, and was driven by just a handful of employees.
In mid-March, with Covid-19 spreading to almost every country in the world, a small team at Apple started brainstorming how they could help. They knew that smartphones would be key to the global coronavirus response, particularly as countries started relaxing their shelter-in-place orders. To prepare for that, governments and private companies were building so-called “contact tracing” apps to monitor citizens’ movements and determine whether they might have come into contact with someone infected with the virus.
Within a few weeks, the Apple project — code-named “Bubble” — had dozens of employees working on it with executive-level support from two sponsors: Craig Federighi, a senior vice president of software engineering, and Jeff Williams, the company’s chief operating officer and de-facto head of healthcare. By the end of the month, Google had officially come on board, and about a week later, the companies’ two CEOs Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai met virtually to give their final vote of approval to the project.
Good to see these frenemies cooperating on such an important issue.
I love Rogue Amoeba and have used their audio software for years on my Mac. Their new app, SoundSource, gives you powerful control over all the audio on your Mac, right from your menu bar:
Per-Application Volume Control
Change the volume of any app relative to others, and play individual apps to different audio devices. Mute your browser, or send music to one set of speakers and everything else to another.
Improve Sound Quality
Use Magic Boost and Volume Overdrive to hear your audio even in loud environments. The built-in equalizer can sweeten the sound, and more advanced users will love the ability to apply Audio Units to any audio.
Fast Device Access
All the settings your Mac’s audio devices are just a click away. Adjust input and output levels, tweak the balance, and even switch sample rates, right from your menu bar.
One More Thing…
If you have a DisplayPort or HDMI device that fails to offer volume adjustment, SoundSource can help there too. It gives those devices a proper volume slider, and the Super Volume Keys feature makes your keyboard volume controls work as well. Neat!
Check out SoundSource today, with a free trial! Rogue Amoeba has extended their April sale – through May 15th, Loop readers can save 20% with coupon code LOOPSS.
Here are the original trailers for the classic Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, “A Fist Full Of Dollars,” “A Few Dollars More,” and “The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.” Ennio Morricone’s music score is just as good today.
I wasn’t old enough to see these in theaters but I have seen all of them. I’m a little afraid to go back and watch them as an adult for fear of ruining the memories of watching them with my mom when I was younger.
Haptic Touch is that little pop you feel when you press-and-hold on newer (iPhone XR and later) iPhones. This issue is specific to the iPhone SE lock screen when you press-and-hold a notification.
A niche feature, but a pain if it’s something you’ve come to depend on. Worth knowing.
The UK’s coronavirus contact-tracing app is set to use a different model to the one proposed by Apple and Google, despite concerns raised about privacy and performance.
And:
The NHS says it has a way to make the software work “sufficiently well” on iPhones without users having to keep it active and on-screen.
And:
It has opted for a “centralised model” to achieve this – meaning that the matching process, which works out which phones to send alerts to – happens on a computer server.
This contrasts with Apple and Google’s “decentralised” approach – where the matches take place on users’ handsets.
Rene Ritchie and iJustine make their livings using Final Cut Pro on the Mac. In this video, they discuss the rumored emergence of Final Cut Pro for iPad. Lots of detail, smart questions.
Two things that stand out for me are the issues of RAM and storage space/management. How will iPad support resource hungry projects that take advantage of the much large RAM/storage of a specced out MacBook Pro or Mac Pro?
It’s all speculation, so take with a grain of salt, but this is a good case study if you are considering an iPad as a Mac replacement.
We Are One: A Global Film Festival is being produced and organized by New York’s Tribeca Enterprises. The YouTube-hosted event will feature programming from 20 top film festivals including the Cannes Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and Venice Film Festival.
Great idea. Can’t wait. The festival will benefit COVID-19 charities, and will run from May 29-June 7.
Deirdre O’Brien, vice president of retail and people, made the disclosure in a weekly video update, according to retail employees familiar with the matter. She didn’t specify which stores or regions, but said “we are continuing to analyze this health situation in every location, and I do expect we will reopen up many more stores in May.”
Tantalizing, but wish there was more detail. Is this a slow regional spread from the Seoul Apple Store that opened earlier this month? Will we see Apple Stores open in the US? UK? EU? Standalone stores first, mall locations last?
This iPhone goes where no iPhone has gone before with “Single Image Monocular Depth Estimation.” In English, this is the first iPhone that can generate a portrait effect using nothing but a single, 2D image.
The new iPhone SE doesn’t have focus pixels, or any other starting point for depth. It generates depth entirely through machine learning.
So the next question is whether Machine Learning will ever get to the point that we don’t need multi-camera devices?
Another great article from the folks at Halide. Well written, well explained.
HBO Max, the forthcoming streaming service from AT&T Inc.-owned WarnerMedia, will be available on Apple Inc. devices when it launches on May 27, the company said on Monday.
Customers will be able to access HBO Max on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, as well as the Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD. Customers with second- and third-generation Apple TV models will be able to stream HBO Max content from their iPhone or iPad to their TV with AirPlay.
HBO Max will enter a crowded streaming landscape dominated by Netflix Inc, Walt Disney Co-owned Disney+, and Amazon.com Inc’s Prime Video. It will include 10,000 hours of content from WarnerMedia brands and libraries such as Warner Bros, New Line Cinema and Cartoon Network.
Great news for those of you who can access the service.
Is there such a thing as too much Star Wars? Clearly, somebody out there doesn’t think so, because they’ve completed the insane experiment of split screening all nine episodes of the Skywalker Saga together, so that they all play simultaneously. Is it impressive? Absolutely. Is it strangely mesmerizing? Totally. Can you understand a single word? Not at all.
The video, which is clearly part of an experiment to drive people with ADD completely ’round the bend, was completed by Lucas Hammer on YouTube. It’s an impressive feat that needs to be seen to be believed, so check it out.
If you’re a serious Star Wars junkie then there’s actually a lot of potentially interesting information to glean by watching all nine movies side by side.
It really is weirdly compelling and I’m not even a huge Star Wars fan.
Imran Chaudhri spent over 20 years at Apple and helped create the company’s hero products like iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Now on the fifth anniversary of Apple’s highly successful wearable, Chaudhri has shared some neat details on the history of what went into creating the Apple Watch‘s faces and features.
Nice collection of tweets from Chaudrhi, worth scrolling through.
Amazing to think back to that first Apple Watch, entering a crowded, clunky, smart watch market, tiny in comparison to the gigantic mechanical watch market. Oh how things have changed.
iFixit, from the comparison teardowns of the iPhone SE and iPhone 8:
iPhone SE’s cameras, SIM tray, Taptic Engine, and display assembly (including the microphone and proximity sensor) are all swappable with iPhone 8 parts.
And:
That screen should be cheaper to replace than any new iPhone we’ve seen in years. However, as with any modern iPhone screen swap, you will lose True Tone unless you have access to a screen programmer.
And:
Home buttons are still not interchangeable—you’ll need to hold on to your original home button in the event of a repair, substitute an aftermarket home button with no Touch ID, or else pay Apple whatever they ask to fix it for you.
And:
Although the battery looks identical, the battery’s logic board connector differs from the one in the 8, so they don’t fit together. The SE will connect to an iPhone 11 battery, which uses the same connector—but it won’t turn on. And, sadly, this seemingly throwback phone has some very modern Apple roadblocks inside. You can’t even swap one genuine iPhone SE 2020 battery for another without triggering a “not a genuine Apple battery” service warning.
Barriers to self-repair. But at the same time, keyed parts to keep repairs from going wrong. Interesting article.
In Europe, most countries have chosen short-range Bluetooth “handshakes” between mobile devices as the best way of registering a potential contact, even though it does not provide location data.
But they have disagreed about whether to log such contacts on individual devices or on a central server – which would be more directly useful to existing contact tracing teams that work phones and knock on doors to warn those who may be at risk.
Apple and Google are now referring to “contact tracing” as “exposure notification,” which the companies believe better describes the functionality of their upcoming API. The system is intended to notify a person of potential exposure, augmenting broader contact tracing efforts that public health authorities are undertaking.
See also the embedded Exposure Notification FAQ from the Apple/Google team. Can’t help but wonder if the name change from contact tracing to exposure notification was an attempt to ease EU concerns about privacy.
