68 thousand subscribers. 34 million views. 370 videos. All since launching this channel back in 2018. And I couldn’t have done any of it without you. All of you. Which is why I’m both terrified and excited as hell to tell you… This… is my very last Vector. Ok, hear me out: A few weeks ago, well before what’s happening now started happening, I made the decision to leave iMore, the website I’ve been working at for over a decade, and Future PLC, the company that owns it and the Vector channel, and go indie. Yeah, indie. Not to Apple or Google or Twitter or Microsoft, or any of the other major media outlets either. Just indie. Just me. I deeply, truly appreciate what each and every one of you has done for Vector over the last couple of years. You took it from nothing and made it a smart, considerate, vibrant community and in what feels like no time flat. Even if this many videos also feels like basically forever. Now, the Vector channel is staying here with Future. And they have some amazing YouTubers on staff, people I’ve worked with and learned a ton from, like Alex Dobie and Hayato Huseman on Android Central, Daniel Rubino on Windows Central, Kevin Michaluk on CrackBerry, and the inimitable Michael Fisher on The Mr. Mobile. They’re going to keep producing amazing content and I can’t wait to see more of it. I also want to thank everyone at Future Mobile Tech, for helping me do what it is I love so much to do — work my ass off to bring you the very best Apple and related tech coverage on the ‘Net, each day, every day, pretty much all day. And I’ll still be doing just that. Just different. So, if you’ve enjoyed these videos and our conversation as much as I have, and want to keep them going, you’ll still be able to find me @reneritchie on Twitter, Instagram, and starting later this week, /reneritchie right here on YouTube as well. Thank you for watching, time for what's next!
Google Podcasts has just arrived on iOS and I sat down with the founder and head of product, Zack Reneau-Wedeen from Google, to find out all about it, and chat all about podcasts in general.
Yeah, grab an extra beverage or several!
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Back in 2018, Apple didn’t just do what they’ve usually done with new iPads — make them thinner, lighter, and faster. Well, yes, of course they did, but they also did something more. They made them modern, with smaller bezels, Face ID, and a new, magnetic, capacitive Apple Pencil.
Like with the iPhone X, it was a once-in-a-decade revolution. So, now, some 18 months later, we’re back to evolution — a wider processor, a second, wider camera, an intriguing new LiDAR scanner, and, coming this May, a full-on new laptop mode thanks to a new, scissor-switch and trackpad powered Magic Keyboard.
So, how far has it come in 2020?
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The MacBook Air, Apple’s most popular Mac, is fully, finally back.
And I don’t say that lightly. In October of 2018, Apple brought the Air out of hibernation and gave it a modern makeover. Mostly.It got the updated design, high density, Retina display, and USB-C interface that made the 12-inch MacBook, its once-and-former-successor, so compelling.
But, it also inherited the butterfly keyboard, which was meant to be thinner and more stable, but ultimately proved to be divisive and unreliable.
It got Intel’s coreM low-power chipset, which was fine for casual and ultra-mobile workflows, but wasn’t up as robust as the former Air’s Core I.
And, it was more expensive. Not than the 12-inch or the initial prices of the previous Airs, but than the low, low price the immediately previous Air had dropped to over the years.
Now, some 18 months later, Apple is aiming to fix all of that with an even more modern update. Again, mostly.
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Apple has cried HAVOK and let slip the devices of March. That includes new MacBooks Air, new iPads Pro, a bumped up Mac mini, and new spring colors for Apple Watch bands and iPhone cases.
Pretty much everything that was made new back at the October 2018 event has been updated now, today.
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So… what exactly are the new Powerbeats 4 and what do they mean in the age of Powerbeats Pro?
Let's take a look!
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So, here’s what seems to have happened: An internal build of iOS 14, which previous reports have pegged as “Azul”, the Spanish or Portuguese word for “blue”, got leaked.
Now, this has happened before. Sometimes they were accidentally left and found on the public web, sometimes someone didn’t get what they want or were upset with someone in their reporting chain, so they had a little tantrum and leaked it, and sometimes someone just wants to see the world, and their team’s work, burn.
Regardless, these aren’t betas. Those typically come on keynote day in June. These are internal development builds and are made for internal, developer-fused hardware, and require an internal restore process to run.
So, when these builds do leak, you need someone who not only understands code, but code diving and reverse engineering to go through the binary and see what clues can be found in icons, text strings, class names, and more.
I am not one of those people. I’m the opposite of one of those people. So, if I described any of that wrong, just let me know in the comments.
But, that’s basically what just happened with iOS 14 and so we’ve seen an avalanche of blog posts describing what the more tech savvy bloggers have found.
Now, it’s important to remember that, depending on how old the build is, some of the features they found might have been deferred and some might not have been added in yet. As I’ve said before, there’s many a slip twixt a list and a ship. So, if come the June keynote, what we get is different than what was leaked, don’t blame Apple. You chose to read the early draft script and that’s never the same as the final film.
Cool? Cool. Let’s get into it.
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GDC, the game developer’s conference, is canceled. Facebook’s F8 conference is canceled. Geneva Auto Show, canceled. South-by-south west, canceled. Several U.S. states have declared emergencies. Italy is on lockdown. Santa Clara County, Silicon Valley, has effectively issued a short-term ban on events.
Now, Apple doesn’t typically pre-announce anything. Not products. Not events. But, that Apple will hold a worldwide developers conference — WWDC — the first week of June each year, every year, was one of the safest bets in tech today. Until today.
So, if COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, prevents Apple’s from holding it’s annual macOS, iOS, tvOS, watchOS, and now iPadOS, event, what could the company possibly do instead?
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Rumor has it, Apple will be releasing not three new iPhones like last year, not even four new iPhones, but a whopping 5 new iPhones in 2020. Sure, it’s nothing compared to the 879 new phones Samsung will likely release this year, but for Apple, it’s a lot. Like… a lot a lot.
So, why?
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Apple has tentatively agreed to settle the iPhone BatteryGate class-action lawsuit in the U.S. to the tune of $500 million dollars. This follows a €25 million fine last month.
So, how did this all go so wrong for Apple… and why?
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Late last year, after a bunch of petulant pundit hot takes about how the iPhone 11 would be doomed, so very doomed because it didn’t have 5G, I did my best to calmly, rationally explain why those first-generation modems were too hot and power hungry, the networks so few and far between, and the capacity nowhere nearly at mainstream iPhone scale yet.
And… the iPhone 11 somehow managed to not only survive without a lick of 5G, but thrive. As in a best-selling. So, yeah, told you so, whatever.
But now, this year, the next-generation modems are slightly better, the networks are slightly bigger, and even though 5G is still a mess, rumor has it Apple will be going all-in come the fall.
But what does that really mean?
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Speculation about Apple transitioning some or all of its Mac computer lineup from Intel to Arm is running hot and heavy again following an off-hand rumor by supply chain exfiltrator extraordinaire, Kuo Ming-Chi earlier this week.
I’ve already done a whole video on how Steve Jobs’ famous keynote announcing the previous PowerPC to Intel transition could be replayed almost note by note for an Intel to ARM transition. Hit subscribe to see all of it. So, now I want to touch on what happens next: The transition itself.
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The Samsung Galaxy Flip is the original iPhone of foldables. That’s what some people have been saying and… ah… I mean I get it. Well, first, no, it totally isn’t. But I get it. I get the allure of of flipping phones. I’ve done umpteen videos about them. Hit subscribe and you can see all of them.
They’re new. They're fun. They’re different. At least so far, because there are only a few of them out right now. In a few years, I expect there won’t just be many but generations of many, so they won’t be so new or so different anymore, but they’ll still be fun, and they’ll still be welcome by people who want a big screen that isn’t so big in their pocket or bag.
But the concept itself is still super intriguing to me. The iPhone of flip phones. To get to that, to be that — the iPhone Flip — what exactly would it take?
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Seven years ago or so, when Apple first started working on the HomePod, they just wanted to make a great sounding speaker that you could drop anywhere in a room and that would sound great no matter where you dropped it or where you were standing to listen to it.
They were investing heavily into building up their audio engineering team and delving deeply into the concepts around computational audio. Hardware and software tightly integrated together. Apple’s forte. So what could possibly go wrong?
Well, in the time it took Apple to bring the HomePod to market, the market had changed. Amazon had shipped the Echo with Alexa, Google had begun replicating them, and, it turns out, Apple had brought a premium speaker to a commodity assistant market.
There have been a couple of software updates since, but nothing that set fire to the HomePod like the early, heady days of the iPhone, iPad, Watch, probably even Apple TV.
So, what can Apple do now? How can the HomePod be fixed?
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Earlier this month, 9to5Mac found code in the iOS 13.4 beta for a CarKey API, or application programming interface. CarKey seems to be a system that will allow your iPhone or Apple Watch to lock, unlock, even start your car… if your car has NFC and the manufacturer partners with Apple to make it all just work.
And… it sounds great. Terrific even. But it also still sounds so limited compared to the Apple Watch future I’ve been dreaming about for over half a decade.
Why? Let's get into it!
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Why Apple is DOOMED. Finally. Again*.
*Earlier this week, Apple released and investor update on quarterly guidance for Q2, 2020. In other words, the revenue and other financial projections they’d given last quarter to set expectations for this quarter.
Apple is getting out ahead here, one of the first first major American companies to do so. They won’t be the last.
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Samsung has just announced the new Galaxy S20 Ultra and it's got a few features I'd just love Apple to steal for the iPhone 12.
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A year ago, I made a video about how foldable devices were the future. Or at least a big part of it. After all, the history of human technology was the history of foldables. From books to wallets, we humans just love to fold everything, including our clothes and our food.
I even mocked up folding iPhone concepts in Photoshop that look a lot like what the Modern Moto Razr and just-announced Samsung Flip turned out to look like.
And, now, because those phones are coming out, people are wondering out loud — Where is Apple's iPhone Flip?
So, where is it?
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Back at WWDC 2016, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook brought Cheryl Thomas, Vice President of Software Engineering Operations, up on stage to introduce Swift Playgrounds for iPad. An educational development environment that made real programing using a real programming language — over half a million apps now built with it in the App Store and counting — accessible and approachable to beginners of all ages who interested in learning the fundamentals of code or becoming coders. To make those next million apps.
Since then, over 2.8 million people have downloaded, and over 5000 schools have deployed Swift Playground for iPad. And now, this week, for its second act, Apple is releasing Swift Playgrounds for the Mac.
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I’ve done a bunch of videos now saying why I think the Apple Watch is the most important device Apple has ever made, the most important consumer electronics device ever made, and basically the gadget of the last damn decade. Because it saves lives by design.
A lot of the credit for that goes to watchOS — the software that drives the watch hardware. It’s what’s given us those life saving features like heart rate notifications, fall detection, and the ECG app.
And, while the current watchOS 6 bits are, of course, the best ones yet, there’s still a lot more I’d live to see with watchOS 7.
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Samsung has just announced its new flagship phone for this spring — or phones, rather — the Galaxy S20, S20+, and the all new, all ultra premium, Galaxy S20 ultra.
And, to talk all about them, I’ve got one of the smartest people in the industry on the line, managing editor of Android Central on the line, Daniel Bader.
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BlackBerry, the real Canadian atoms and bits BlackBerry, died years ago. This week, the Chinese bits and American atoms that briefly reanimated it finally gave up the ghost as well.
As a Canadian, I was heartbroken then and still am now. Instead of a wake, instead of pouring one out, though, I want to take this opportunity to look back at what happened to the once industry leader, the titan, and more importantly — why.
Apple found unprecedented mainstream success with the iPod. 1000 songs in our pockets was just the beginning. But Steve Jobs never made the mistake of confusing Apple’s products for its business. And he knew the iPod was just a product.
The iPod was the smash hit of its time, to be sure, but time is relentless. Something was coming for it. Something that was more than just a product. A convergence. The phone combined with the mobile internet and, yes, with the MP3 player. An existential threat.
So, Jobs turned Apple towards the iPhone. And, at that moment, that very moment, BlackBerry was ended. We just didn’t know it yet.
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In 2016 we got the truly wireless EarPods-like AirPods. In 2017… make that 2018… we got the room-filling HomePod. In 2019, 2nd generation AirPods and, right at the end of the year, the in-ear AirPods Pro.
Now, rumor has it, we may just be getting truly wireless over-the-ear headphones from Apple. StudioPods or AirPods Studio Pro, or whatever Apple ends up calling them..
So, could they be… and why?
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Apple doesn’t always hold March events. But when it does… 2015 brought us ResearchKit, the 12-inch MacBook, and the launch of the Apple Watch. 2016 was CareKit, the iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro 2018 was an updated entry-level iPad, Everyone Can Code, and a series Education-centric announcements. 2019 was Apple News+, Apple Card, Apple Arcade, and Apple TV+, with new iPads Air and mini, and AirPods 2 moved into separate announcements to keep it all about the services.
This year, given all the concerns and closures in China surrounding the coronavirus, even if Apple originally wanted to hold a March event in 2020, it may not be able to.
But, if Apple does and there are no significant delays, if Apple holds either in one big event or a series of smaller releases, just what may Apple have in store for us this spring?
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Since this week marked the 10 year anniversary of the iPad, it brought up a lot of praise and a lot of criticism from a lot of people, and the multi-window multitasking interactions were chief among them.
So, what can be done about them?
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The iPhone 11 is going to be so boring. So iterative. A real yawner. A let down. You don’t need it. Totally. Completely. Must skip. Facepalm emoji dash thumbnail.
That was not an uncommon narrative last year when iPhone 11 rumors started making the rounds. Hell, even once it was announced.
Now, just four months later, Apple has released its first quarter, 2020 financial results and, well…
OK Doomers.
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Back in September, Apple invited FiLMiC up on the big iPhone 11 event stage to show off something pretty damn incredible: multi-cam video capture.
It wasn’t quite ready to ship back then. But it is now.
I got to spend an hour or so talking to Filmic and watching their demos, and a couple days shooting with DoubleTake on my own.
And here are my first impressions!
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10-years ago, on January 27, 2010, Steve Jobs announced a third category of device in the middle, something that’s between a laptop and a smartphone.
Something that had to be better as browsing, email, photos, video, music, gaming, and eBooks. Something that had to be… the iPad.
And this is its history and secret origin.
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It’s 2020 and I still can’t watch 4K YouTube on almost any of my Apple stuff.
I can watch 4K almost everything else, from iTunes to Netflix to Disney+ to Vimeo, just not YouTube. And I can watch 4K YouTube on almost everything else, from Roku to Amazon to ChromeCast, just not my Apple stuff.
So, why, and more importantly, when’s it all just going to be fixed?
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Reuters detonated a huge controversy in the Apple and security spaces yesterday with this headline — Apple dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained - sources.
So, let's dive into it.
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Is Apple evil?
Yes. Of course. 100%.
But in a far more dangerous way than the cliched, cartoonish, contorted new Evil List article in Slate suggests.
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Late last year, I upgraded the main camera I use for filming these videos to the Canon C200. A cinema camera, which means one built specifically for shooting video. Not a still camera that also shoots video.
There were a bunch of reasons for this, which I can get into in another video if you’re interested, but the biggest for me was the ability to run XLR mics straight into the camera instead of having to use intermediary interfaces and recorders, and the ability to get a picture that looks pretty close to an Arri system but for like one tenth the price.
At first, I just stuck with my usual workflow. I’m a big believer in first learn walk, then learn fly. So, I recorded standard MP4 to an SD card, color corrected it, and that was pretty much it.
But, one of the best things about the C200 is that it can shoot in RAW. Which, just like RAW in photography, captures a ton more information so you not only get a better quality recording, you preserve a ton more options for color correction and grading.
So, I talked to a ton of experts, I watched a ton of videos, and got ready to make the switch and start recording RAW to CFast cards.
But, a lot of the workflows I’d heard and found involved Adobe Premiere or, even more frequently, DaVinci Resolve and I… I just don’t like either of their interfaces. I use, like and really wanted to stay inside Final Cut Pro X.
So, I adapted, I tested, I tweaked, I iterated, and I shared a lot of work in progress on Twitter and Insta, where a lot of you were kind of enough to give me feedback. And also ask a lot of questions about the workflow I was putting together.
Questions I couldn’t really answer until I had something I felt was at least a little consistent. Until now.
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This time last year we had new, incredibly powerful iPad Pro hardware, but what we didn’t have was the iOS software to truly unlock all of its potential.
iOS 12 had been, in large part, a performance and stability release, and I loved that. Loved it so much I’m going to repeat the need to repeat it every year basically ad nauseam Infinitum until it happens.
But, we were missing things. Especially things that would let the iPad be the iPad. I’d been asking for an iPadOS for like 5 years. Something that would keep the iOS underpinnings but let the experience be as unique, the way the watch and TV had been treated basically since launch.
And… just when I’d all but given up hope, Apple gave it to us. iPadOS. Along with many of the features many of us had been asking for since Steve Jobs had first sat down with it in that big comfy chair.
Most of the features… but not all of them, and not all the way.
Just the other day I made a video about the return to focus on reliability and performance enhancements, and a few new features I’d love to see in iOS 14 for the iPhone.
Now, I’m going to roll right into the iPad.
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Recently, there have been a few more spoilers around Apple’s next less expensive iPhone. What’s previously been referred to as the iPhone SE 2 or, more recently, the iPhone 9.
And… even though I’ve already done a whole video explaining what I think it’ll be and why, there still seems to be some confusion out there around both of those things.
So, I’m going to try again… but different. Instead of rehashing the rumors, I’m going to go through what I think the actual announcements will be. And, hopefully, that’ll cut down on the expectational debt and make things just a little clearer.
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This time last year, we were coming off one of the biggest performance and stability releases in Apple’s history with iOS 12. It was so stable and performant, the betas felt better than some previous shipping versions.
But, hardware like the iPhone XS and especially the iPad Pro made it clear Apple needed to amp up the functionally and fill in many of the still-missing features.
Enter iOS 13 and its offshoot, iPadOS 13, which brought a ton of exactly that functionality and those feature fills. But it came at the price of stability, resulting in a beta worse than some internal builds and a release that wasn’t even a fully baked beta.
So, rather than do my usual wish list for iOS 14, I’m going to do exactly what I’ve asked Apple to do — make iOS 12 the new normal. Split focus between paying down the technical debt and adding a restrained amount of new features.
That means I’m going to be just as restrained in my pull list, and request only those new features and functions that I think will make a real difference this year… but without too much disruption.
And I’m going to start with the iPhone.
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Law enforcement agencies across the globe make requests for data from Apple and other tech companies all the time. So “all the time”, there are processes in place to handle them. They are… routine.
But, every once in awhile, specific cases still show up in the papers. They’re the most sensational, horrible, heart-breaking, flag-waving cases, and the papers lap them up, few questions asked, and the people who then read the stories get all riled up.
Which is, I think, is the entire point of getting those stories into the papers to begin with.
And we're starting to see it again now.
Apple already fought the FBI over encryption and back doors once, a few years ago. The FBI folded. But are they gearing up to go after encryption again?
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Last year, I asked for three main things when it came to iPhone 11 photography: An ultra-wide camera, a Night Mode, and Portrait Video. And, yeah, to fix the weird skin tones and textures in Smart HDR.
We didn’t get Portrait Video but 3 out of 4 wasn’t just not bad, it was enough to convince all the doomsayers, boreds now, and must-skippers out there that the iPhone 11 and its cameras were far closer to must have.
You know, something anyone watching this channel had known long before they were even announced.
But time and expectations are relentless, and while it sounds like what we’re getting this year with the iPhone 12 will be the time-of-flight sensor and augmented reality camera — basically True Depth on the back — I’ve been hearing about and looking forward to seeing for a few years now, there are still lots of other things Apple could do to improve and round out iPhone photographer, even if it’s in years to come.
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We’re not even a week into 2020 and Samsung has not only announced a couple of new phones already, but an event to announce even more new phones.
And… its worth taking a look at, both from a Samsung and an Apple point of view.
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CES — formerly known as the consumer electronics show — is kicking off this week in Las Vegas. On display and behind closed doors will be everything every manufacturer and store thinks we’re going to want to buy come the big holiday shopping season at the end of the year.
iMore, Windows Central, Android Central, Cord Cutters, MrMobile — all my colleagues are there covering it right now, so keep it locked to all their links-in-the-description for the best, worst, and just plain weirdest of the show.
Last year, I did a while video on what I thought was going to be the coolest new HomeKit… kit of the year. But, some of the stuff I was most looking forward to still seems MIA. So, rather than rinse and repeat that this year, especially in light of some recent announcements, I figured I should step back and take a bigger, more pictured look at where HomeKit is and where I think it needs to be in 2020.
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2019 is over. Everything that would ship did ship. And now it’s time to let the past die. Kill it if you have to. It's the only way for all of us to get what comes next.
Wait, no, that sounds so nihilistic. And I’m, like, so totally optimistic about what this year could bring.
So, let’s go over it all.
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When Steve Jobs announced the original iPhone in 2007, the first big leap forward, it was made possible by the confluence of several rapidly emerging technologies — capacitive multitouch, ubiquitous mobile data networks, and miniaturized computing.
All of these technologies existed prior to the iPhone but they’d never been brought together before in anything as polished or approachable as the iPhone.
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Back in October of 2018, Apple introduced a totally new, totally redesigned iPad Pro. It deleted a lot of the bezels, making the 12.9-inch model smaller and letting the 10.5-inch model expand to 11-inches.
They lost the headphone jack, which sucked, but also swapped out Lightning for USB-C, which was terrific. And they topped it all off with the monstrous A12X processor, which pretty much made any machine with an Intel Core M just break down and cry.
But, that was then, this is now. Apple went all of 2019 without an iPad Pro update. So, what does that leave — and what does that mean — for 2020?
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Both Apple and Disney announced new streaming video services this year and they couldn’t have been more different.
Apple promised a few old favorites, like Peanuts and Oprah, but mostly all-new originals with huge names like Jennifer Aniston and Jason Mamoa attached, budgets the would take us into the future and, through alternate timelines, the moon again, and with some astronomical, aspirations attached, because there was absolutely no catalog content to fall back on.
Disney was all about the franchises, including new Star Wars and Marvel shows, and returns to High School musicals, but also less-expected originals like Imagineers and Jeff Goldblum, and with a back catalog that conservatively includes, when you add in Disney proper, Pixar, Muppets, Fox, and National Geographic, about 85% of all of our childhoods.
Now, both of them have launched and are just finishing up the first 8-episode seasons of their first originals and, no spoilers, but it’s enough to figure out where they are and where they’re likely going.
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Over the last 18-months we’ve gotten new iPads Pro, new iPhones Pro, and new Apple Watches with always-on displays. By any metric, this is Apple’s best lineup of product ever.
But, as slam dunk as some of these products are — they’re still not all the products. Even now, at the end of the decade, there are still some pretty big gaps across the iPhone, iPad, iPod — yeah, I said it — HomePod, Apple Watch, and Apple TV lineups.
So, since I covered the missing Macs in one of last week’s videos, I’m going to strap on my destiny prognostication engine, Escaflowne style, and cover all the missing iOS and iOS-offshoot devices in this video.
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The Apple Watch is different. There’s no Air version or Pro version. No mini and no Max. Not really. You don’t spec one based on storage size or memory size, number of cameras or cores. There are simply two display sizes, small and large, and a variety of different materials, from aluminum to ceramic, steel to titanium. And, if an Apple Watch Series 5 is just too much for you, there’s an Apple Watch Series 3 to get you started.
So, you choose your size, you choose your material, and then you’re off and pairing with your bands. Right? Well, yeah, but there’s still a lot to unpack even in those simple sounding choices.
So, whether you’re still waiting to pick up your first or next Apple Watch, or you’ve just gotten a new one and you’re wondering if you should exchange it for a different model, let’s just break it all down.
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I’ve been using the 16-inch MacBook Pro since Apple announced them roughly one month ago this week. In that time, I’ve also significantly updated how I make these videos. Not only have I re-arranged that wall behind me so I have more room to store all the gear I’ve gone back to, but I’ve upgraded the lighting as well, so it’s more balanced and flexible.
I switched from the Panasonic GH-5 to the Canon C200 a while ago and I’ve recently started shooting in c-long, which provides slightly more dynamic range but requires color grading to go from flat to phat. Even flirting with RAW lite, which has all the dynamic range but requires far more in terms of resources to process.
That’s where the 16-inch MacBook Pro comes in. Yeah, not the new Mac Pro. I looked. I longed. I FOMO YOLO’d. But, in the cold hard light of workloads and budgets, I ended up sticking with the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
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I’ve been using the Apple Watch Series 5 since just after Apple introduced it back in September of this year. In that time, I’ve used it awake and asleep, at home and while traveling, for movie tickets and boarding passes, to track physical activity and hydration, to control my home and stay in touch with the people I love, and to demonstrate its safety features probably more often than I should.
And, I’ve come to a few conclusions in that time.
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Apple’s really been bringing the fire over the last couple of years. A lot of products that had fallen off the radar, or simply fallen off, have been brought back. Some with swagger. Some, with a vengeance.
We got a new big iPhone with Max, and updated MacBook Air, Mac mini, iPad Air, iPad mini — basically, all the airs and minis — and, most recently, a new MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and Pro Display. Yeah, all the Pros too.
But, big and badass as some of these products are — they’re not all the products. Even now, at the end of the decade, there are still some gaps in Apple’s lineup. Some holes. Some products just plain missing in action.
So, since I’m me, I figure I’m going to list them all out all video like and let you know which, if any, I think we might actually have a chance of seeing in the next year or few. Starting with the Mac.
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The decade in Apple, including new products from the iPad to Apple Watch, AirPods to HomePod, iPad Pro to iPhone Pro, 2013 Mac Pro to 2019 Mac Pro, controversies surrounding antennas, bends, slowdowns, butterfly switches, China, achievements in accessibility, educations, environment, and privacy, the rise of services from iCloud to Apple Music, Arcade, and TV+, from Steve Jobs to Jon Ive to Tim Cook, always with Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue, and the continued evolution of iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and now iPadOS.
This is Apple from 2010 to 2019... in as close to just 10 minutes as I could edit it.
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Rene shares his favorite tech videos of 2019. For the full list of links and to view the excerpts, visit the YouTube version of Vector at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5whzXcf7tvY
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I’ve been using the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max day in, day out, since just after Apple introduced them roughly three months ago this week.
That includes about a month comparing and contrasting them side-by-side to Google’s Pixel 4, which I covered in a previous video series.
In that time, I’ve shot the hell out of them, including a ton of b-roll for this channel. I’ve crushed the batteries through multiple international trips and Pokemon Go events. I’ve dropped them in my pockets with keys and other phones and just plain dropped them. Including into the river.
And here’s how they’ve held up.
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Did you ever think Apple was deleting the Lightning port just so they could make the iPhone Lucky Number 13 thinner? Like, opposite of THICCC thinner? Like a credit card? Like 2D?
I’m kidding. I swear. But…
Earlier this week, supply-chain exfiltrator extraordinaire Kuo Ming-Chi dropped another spoiler bomb and I had so many questions about it I made yesterday’s video.
Well, it turns out, you had even more questions, especially about the rumor that Apple would be deleting the Lightning port on the Pro-level iPhones comes 2021.
So, follow up time.
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*If noted supply-chain exfiltrator extraordinaire Kuo Ming-Chi of TF International Securities is to be believed.
Yes, Kuo dropped another spoiler bomb this week, this time concerning the five — yes, five — new iPhones he is expecting from Apple in 2020. Including 4 versions of the iPhone 12 and, this time, all OLED. And... maybe not all Lightning in 2021...
It lines up, in part, with similar supply-chain exfiltrations earlier in the week from Samik Chatterjee of JPMorgan, who also suggested Apple might start splitting its release schedule between spring and the traditional fall and…
I have so many questions.
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Over the last few weeks and months, if not years, Apple has come under fire for how they’re handling China and Hong Kong, U.S. President Donald Trump, and Russia and Crimea.
Some have accused Apple and Tim Cook of betraying their principles for greed and abandoning customers who placed their trust not just in Apple’s products but their ethics and values.
Others have praised the company and their CEO for doing their fiduciary duty, following the laws of the all the various lands, and preserving important markets and shareholder value.
Still others have seen it as Apple, caught in their own expansion, trying to navigate an impossible balance between political turmoil, corporate interests, and social and customer responsibility.
Now, that fire is becoming an inferno. How close can Apple play it without being frozen out… or burned?
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Just over a year ago, Apple announced the all new iPad Pro. Gone was the Home button and Touch ID, and the Lightning port. Thanos-snapped were half the bezels. In their place was a TrueDepth camera and Face ID, and a USB-C Port. All wrapped up in a modern, retro design.
It was controversial at first because all that A12X power and Liquid Retina grace just felt so underserved by the iOS 12 feature set it shipped with.
That was 2018. This is 2019. And, while the atoms have gone without an upgrade the bits have finally started coming into their own with iPadOS, an offshoot of iOS 13.
We’ve even seen some discounts, a hundred or a couple bucks off the top, as we head into the holidays.
So, have we gone from super high priced to slightly more affordable? More importantly, have we gone from bleeding-edge hardware limited by software to outdated hardware made functional at longest last? Or, have we finally found the perfect balance, at least until the next update?
Let’s figure it out.
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When Steve Jobs first unveiled the iPad, you only had one 9.7-inch model to choose from. Over the years, though, Apple expanded the lineup to include the ultra-portable 7.9-inch iPad mini and the ultra-productive 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
Now, the 9.7 is finally, truly gone, and in its place we have five different sizes stretched across five different price points — Entry-level 10.2-inch iPad 7, mid-range 7.9-inch iPad mini 5 and 10.5-inch iPad Air 3, and high-end 11.-inch and 12.9-inch iPads Pro. And, of course, all the color, storage, and cellular options for each.
And… it can seem like a lot. I get it. I totally get it. But it doesn’t have to be. Keep watching and we’ll quickly, simply hone things down to the perfect first-time or upgrade iPad for you.
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I’ve been using the 16-inch MacBook Pro day in, day out, as my main computational machine, since just before Apple announced it. I’ve done all the emails and messages, surfed all the websites, watched all the TV, written tens of thousands of words, and edited 7 or so YouTube videos comprising about an hour of a-roll and just a ton of b-roll.
In other words, I’ve hammered on it. And here’s how it’s held up.
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When I first got sent the 'Why Are Apple Products So Expensive' video, before I even hit play, I guessed that the entirety of it was going to come down to Bill of Materials + Apple Tax x Sheep = PROFIT!
I hoped for more. A deep dive into Apple margins over time and how they compared to the rest of the industry. A breakdown of price vs. value, where the up-front dollars were measured out over the total cost of ownership. And of how exactly Apple was providing the kind of value people were willing to pay premium prices for again and again..
But, yeah, all I got was Bill of Materials + Apple Tax x Sheep = PROFIT exclamation mark, exclamation mark, number 1.
Which is… just such a tired, trite, old, lazy, rehashed, cliched take on why Apple’s products are legitimately more expensive than others.
So, let’s do that now.
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The iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max Smart Battery Cases are here! Obviously, they change up the camera bump cutout, but they also add a new, dedicated, hardware camera button to launch the camera app and take photos and QuickVideo.
So, how does it work? Here's an overview of the technology and a look at whats new!
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I’m not a minimalist. I try not to buy too many things but I often buy the wrong version of a thing once or twice before finding the right one. And that… piles up.
But it does mean that, come Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or the Long Turkey Weekend, or just what I call it now — November — I have a pretty good, tried and tested idea, about what I want to give and get going into the holidays.
And then I just have to stick to my list, look for the best the prices possible. And hit the buy button.
For the best prices possible part, I keep it locked to my friends and colleagues over at Thrifter.com. I work with them every day, so I get to see first hand just how hard they work, especially this time of year. Like round-the-clock hard. And no, this isn’t a paid endorsement. It’s… awe. So, I’m just going to link up all their 24/7 roundups in the description. You’re welcome.
As to the list, well, it’s Apple-heavy as you might expect. And here it is.
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I’ve been using Google’s Pixel 4 phone for almost a month now. I mean, really using it. With my SIM card in it and everything. Taking photos. Making calls. Playing Pokemon Go. Yes, still.
And, you know, this isn’t my first Google phone. I had the Nexus One, the Nexus 4, and the Pixels 1 and 2.
I usually get the XL but since I’ve switched back to the smaller iPhone, I decided to go with the smaller Pixel as well.
Now, up front, I consider Google to be the most important company in the world. I love Apple’s products and their overall philosophy currently best aligns with mine. I think Amazon is transformative in the best and worst ways. Facebook is… a disaster that still brings the world together like nothing else. But, Google, literally, is trying to build the Star Trek computer. The future of humanity. And there is no amount of scrutiny that’s enough, no slack cut that’s not detrimental to what that future will be for all of us. Ethically and technologically.
Apple makes phones. Phones that are increasingly tied to entertainment services, sure. But Google’s phones are services. The atoms themselves are spectacularly unimpressive without the algorithms that bring them to life… and harvest unprecedented amounts of personal, private data while doing it. All in service of financing and building that Star Trek computer.
So, if I seem the tough on Google and their products like the Pixel. It’s because I have to be. We all have to be.
So, with all of that understood, here is my Pixel 4 review... one month later.
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Go to https://standard.tv/vector to get your pins, stickers, and shirts in time for the holidays!
I’m going to skip the tips everyone already knows, like turning off Siri and Notification Center on the Lock screen. I’m also going to remind you that privacy comes at the cost of convenience, so these aren’t things most people should do most of the time. Just when you’re dealing with data that’s particularly sensitive or you think you’re being specifically targeted
Cool? Cool.
Stop Send as SMS iMessage is end-to-end encrypted. Text messages are not. So, if you want to prevent a private iMessage from unintentionally going out as an insecure text message channel, where your carriers and anyone who exploits them can read it, go to Settings - Messages - and turn off Send as SMS.
Break iCloud Backup For most people, losing their precious message and photo memories is a bigger risk and worse outcome than someone hacking them or having them subject to government seizure. That’s why iCloud backup is fail safe, not fail secure. But, if you absolute can’t risk anyone else ever seeing their contents, go to Settings - Apple ID - iCloud, and turn off messages, photos, and any other backups you want to prevent. If that content is important to you, though, make sure you back it up manually, locally to your computer instead.
Lock Down Local Getting things off the cloud prevents your information being taken from a second, remote location. To prevent it being taken from your device, any time you think you’re at risk, squeeze the power and either volume button to put your phone in lock down, and make sure you’ve gone into Settings - Passcode - and turn on Erase Data after 10 failed passcode attempts. Again, just make sure you have a backup of anything truly important to you.
Duck Duck Go Google pays Firefox and Apple to be the default search engine and it’s legit the best search engine. But if you want a privacy-centric search engine, go to Settings - Safari - Search Engine and switch it to Duck Duck Go.
Limit Ad Tracking This won’t stop you seeing ads online but it will stop those ads targeting you specifically. If you value privacy over relevancy, go to Settings - Privacy - Advertising and toggle Limit Ad Tracking
Reset Ad Identifier A while back, Apple banned advertisers from using your device ID to track you and gave them a non-device bound, non-permeant Ad Identifier instead. You can’t turn it off, but while you’re in Settings - Privacy - Advertising, you can reset it as often as you like.
Kill Significant Locations When your iPhone tells you to leave now for home or work or wherever to make it in time, it’s because it’s learned where and when you typically over time. It’s end-to-end encrypted and Apple can’t read it, but if you hate even the idea of it and are willing to give up the convenience, go to Settings - Privacy - Location Services - System Services - Significant Location and shut it down.
Slow Your Snaps Live Photos actually record a few seconds of video and audio. iPhone 11’s Capture outside of frame can reveal what’s just outside your photo. Using your photos as a screen saver on Apple TV can slide show your private snaps to your family and friends in a very public way. If you have any concerns can turn off Live Photos with the tap of an icon, Capture outside of Frame with a toggle, and just leave your screen savers on default.
Get rid of Google and Facebook Yeah, this one is hard, but there’s no point locking down your privacy only to turn around and let Google and Facebook suck up all your data. Uninstalling the apps, logging out on the web, using something like 1Blocker to prevent social widget trackers from loading or Guardian VPN to prevent social SDKs from firing within other apps, and, yeah, avoiding location-based gaming are all options to consider.
Set a Reminder Apple’s offering more and more privacy-centric options, like giving apps location permission once, or allowing photo access once, but it’s still easy to set and forget permissions. So, tell Siri to remind you to check permissions once a month, once a week even, and then go through your iPhone, Twitter, Facebook, Google — all permissions, and turn off anything you no longer want or need.
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I’m still working on my MacBook Pro review. I’ll get that to you all just as fast as possible. Because Apple got so much right with this 16-inch model though, I think, it’s worth going back to see what went wrong with the previous generation of 15-inch. What realities and decisions went into getting us to where we are now.
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Last year, the MacBook lineup was far more complicated, the differences far more nuanced, and the choice… far more difficult.
Now, Apple has updated, cleaned up, and improved almost everything and the result is the cleanest lineup in half a decade. Maybe more. So…
Now, simple as that is, there are some important things, and a bunch of options, you should know about each of those systems before you decide to make any of them your own.
So, let’s break them all down.
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It’s here. The new 16-inch MacBook Pro. No, I’m not messing with you. It’s not a dream. You didn’t wake up in an alternate reality. It’s really here. Bigger screen. All-new keyboard. 8 TB storage and 64 GB memory options. Here. Here. Here. Really. I swear. And I jumped on a plane, got it, and am about to go all hands on with it for you. Right. Now.
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Go to the Future Tech Awards to vote for your favorites: https://www.theftas.com
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The power of the Apple ecosystem. You hear so much about it. How, once you get in, it makes it oh just so easy to stay in. Once you get one product, like an iPhone, it makes it oh just so easy to get more, like an Apple Watch, iPad, or Mac.
But what does it really mean and how does it really work? I mean, not just in nebulous terms, but specifically?
If I were to boil it down to one set of technologies it would be this...
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The original version of this #Pixel4 vs. #iPhone11 video camera showdown had a couple small errors and was missing some visual explanations I really wanted to include. It was also totally buried by the YouTube algorithm. Maybe it was and is a bad video. Maybe the algorithm was having problems at the time. Who knows? Either way, I've updated the video, included some new b-roll that better explains and shows off the differences, and in the grand tradition of George Lucas, I'm re-uploading it as a Special Edition and an experiment.
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I’ve been using Apple’s new AirPods Pro for about a week now. I’ve gotten to talk with the product team, worn them on a plane, in coffee shops, out walking about. I’ve got a pretty good idea about the 10 audio cores in each ear, fit and feel, the comfort and controls, the isolation and the transparency.
But, to help me out with the sound, I’ve once again gotten Lory Gil, managing editor of iMore and a literal rock star on the line.
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Apple started the year in privacy off with a colossal flex — Giant billboards across from January's CES show in Vegas saying what happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone. It was privacy by design. Privacy as a civil right.
That was quickly followed by a bug that could allow eavesdropping through FaceTime calls, an impressive array of new privacy protections including Sign in with Apple, HomeKit secure video and routers, increased tracking protection, private federated learning, and an anonymized new Find My network.
Then, a scandal involving Siri and letting humans, contractors even, listen to and grade customer voice recordings for quality assurance. An industry-wide practice-become-scandal, yes, but one unexpected and unacceptable given Apple's position on privacy, both moral and marketing.
Up, down, up, down. What was left was to make it right. And, Apple's doing that in two ways: A) With the release a week ago of new, fully disclosed opt-in grading process for Siri last week as part of iOS 13.2 and, B) the unveiling of a new, detailed privacy website including four new privacy-centric white papers.
So, let’s break it all down.
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Google is buying Fitbit, which previously bought Pebble, and if my Twitter feed is any indication, not everyone is happy about it.
Small, beloved hardware companies that are struggling to survive on their own being gobbled up by the big tech titans is almost becoming a cliche. But it’s also affecting a lot of customers. Namely, us. So, let’s break it down.
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Samsung’s original sin was… not being very original.
Now, wait. Just wait. This one has a Sixth Sense ending. So, hear me out!
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iPhone revenue was down 9% from the same quarter last year, but everything else was up to such a degree total revenue actually still grew by 1.8%.
Big biz pubs seem unable to print the word iPhone anymore without some weird glitch in their auto-correct system changing it to declining iPhone, lackluster iPhone, flagging iPhone, weak iPhone, stalling iPhone, faltering iPhone, slumping iPhone, slowing iPhone, waning iPhone, sputtering iPhone, down-turning iPhone, business damaging iPhone, woes threatening iPhone, troubled iPhone… And that’s just over the last six months of their thesaurus subscription.
Why is that? And what's really going on with Apple's iPhone business?
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Apple’s got some brand new AirPods. AirPods Pro to be specific. And, I’m not just going to give you all the details, and tell you how they compare to the regular AirPods and the PowerBeats Pro, but I’m going to unbox them and go hands-on. Right now.
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Go to https:teamtrees.org and help #TeamTrees plant 20 million trees!
In 2011, just months before he died, Steve Jobs appeared before the Cupertino City Council to pitch Apple Campus 2.
The land had once been an apricot orchard and, while Jobs had plans for a spaceship-shaped office building the likes of which this world had never seen before, he also had plans to bring back at least some of that orchard.
To make the new campus decidedly Apple but also to make it… a park.
That means they needed trees, some native and fully grown, others more diverse, to better withstand the changing climate, the hotter summers, the cooler winters.
It took half a decade to get everything in place but, by 2016, Apple had their park. Apple Park. And over 8000 new trees in and around it.
Now, MrBeast and the largest YouTube collaboration is history are trying to plant just a few more. 20 million more, to put a ridiculously large number on it.
It’s the #TeamTrees project and, to help do this channel’s part, I’m putting the iPhone 11 up against the Pixel 4 in a camera-to-camera video shootout, right in the middle of all these trees.
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When Apple introduced the 6th generation, 9.7-inch iPad with Apple Pencil support starting at $329, many of us called it the best deal in tech.
Now, Apple has introduced the 7th generation, 10.2-inch iPad with Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard support, still starting at $329, the obvious question became — is it now an even better deal?
So, is it?
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I fully realize how ridiculous any recommendation my dumb blogger, podcaster, and YouTuber can sound. But, I’m going to make two anyway. And, hey, if I’m going to run at a wall, I’m damn well going to leave a cartoon shaped hole through it when I do.
So, here we go!
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Back in 2017, Apple introduced Face ID on the iPhone X. It was the first real biometric facial geometry identification scanner. It couldn’t do multiple registrations like Touch ID, but what it did, it did even better — including and especially making authentication feel almost transparent.
Now, Google has just released Face Unlock on the Pixel 4. The basic biometric facial geometry identification system is pretty much identical to Face ID. It adds some extra hardware and software for extra convenience, though, but some of that is region dependent and it’s also missing a key aspect of operational security. At least for now.
So, which one is better and why? Let’s find out.
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First we got PowerBeats Pro, a more robust take on Apple’s second generation AirPods with the same H1 headphone chip but in the PowerBeats in-and-around the ear design.
Now we have Beats Solo Pro. That the not-in-ear, not over-the-ear, but on-the-ear Beats design, likewise Pro’d up with an H1 headphone chip and quite a bit more.
So, how are they?
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I’ve been using the Apple Watch Series 5 since just after its introduction back in September I posted my initial review, complete with all the little technical details of how all the new stuff worked, just over a week later, after traveling back from Cupertino and reviewing three new iPhones as well along the way. It was a whirlwind.
Now, I’ve gotten in a couple more trips, but also a lot of regular life. Just day in, day out, using the Series 5 as I’ve used every Apple Watch going back to the first.
I’ve also switched from the space gray aluminum review unit to my own, personal, brushed titanium. So, how has the first held up and the titanium… just… what’s up?
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Made by Google 2019 has come and gone. And, legit, it was a complete cluster of an event. So much great technology given so much short shift. The products and technology that did manage to somehow sneak out on stage were so good, that it almost makes up for the obvious lack of planning and organization that went into the event, and the extreme disrespect shown the audience, both live and streaming. Almost. But, I’ll complain later. Right now, I want to focus on the positive. That cool tech and what I very much think Apple can learn from it.
Pixel 4 vs. iPhone 11 — FIGHT!
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Rumors of a new iPhone SE have been… confused to say the least. I think that’s because the iPhone SE itself confused some people.
Over the course of the last 2 years, we’ve heard rumors from the Taiwan trades that Apple was targeting 2018 for the next SE-like device. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.
Supposed leaks from case-makers suggested everything from another internal update to the existing SE, to an iPhone X-style design, notch and all.
Then, from financial analyst reports, that this never announced iPhone was never going to be announced. That it had died on the product vine.
Now, supply-chain exfiltrator extraordinaire, Kuo Ming-Chi is back, back again, with a new report, tell your friends, that a next generation iPhone SE is primed for the first quarter of 2020.
And, that’s causing some continued confusion. So, let’s see if we can’t clear that all up.
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A month ago today, Apple announced the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, and all the camera features that come with them, from the improved wide angle to the new ultra wide, from Dark Mode to the currently-in-beta Deep Fusion.
Now, before the event even happened, I posted a series of videos on this channel explaining, and I mean exactly, why I thought people were missing what was going on with the iPhone camera system, and underestimating what the iPhone 11 camera was going to deliver. But that was based only on analysis.
Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to test the cameras themselves, in Cupertino, in New York, a couple times, and right here in Montreal. I’ve put all of them through all of their paces. Against other iPhones and other phones.
So, did Apple deliver on the photo capture and, more importantly to my own interests, was I right?
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I’ve already done the deep technical dive on macOS Catalina (10.15). You can find 11 thousand words and a full hour of video on that linked below. What I want to do here, now, is talk about the implementation and the experience.
Not how it works, which is chock full of really smart, really cool technology, but how well it works for the humans at the other end of the machine.
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I’ve said it innumerable times already: The history of human technology is the history of foldables. From books to wallets, flip phones to laptops. We just love taking big, wide things and folding them smaller if thicker to carry around.
Eventually, we’ll go that way with at least some modern, mobile devices as well. Eventually.
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So, you want to switch from Android to iPhone but you have some concerns. Some stress points. Some… things that are just slowing you down or holding you back.
There are a lot of totally valid reasons someone may want to make that change. Yes, still, today. And, also some legit reasons you may decide not to make the change at all.
You’re the one living your life and paying your bills, so ultimately you’re the one that needs to be and deserves to be happy with your decision. Even if you need a little help getting there.
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You all know by now that Apple doesn’t always host an event in October. Thanks to the iPhone, the September event is lock, but October…. it’s much more like a… likely.
Some years, it’s brand new Macs and iPads for everyone. Others… press releases just dropped at the dawn.
But, this year… this year… it feels like Tim Cook and company might just put sneaker to keynote stage one more time.
And… announce what exactly?
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Checkm8 is a bootrom-level security exploit that can be used against every iPhone from the 4S to the X.
It was announced late last week by axi0mX and ever since we’ve seen everything from fear, uncertainty, and doubt, to supremely good reporting on what it is, what it isn’t, and most importantly, what it means for all of us.
So, let’s try to sort it all out.
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Earlier this month, the 2019 Apple Watch Series 5 debuted with its new, always-on display, starting at $399 for the regular model and $499 for the cellular version.
In my review, link in the description, I called it the world’s best health and fitness tracker and motivator, connected communications and emergency contact band, and wearable computer platform — and now simply the best watch period.
At the same time, though, the 2017 Apple Watch Series 3 was also re-introduced, and at the lowest entry-level price ever — $199 for the regular model and $299 for the cellular.
Sure, it’s a low enough price that some original and Series 1 Apple Watch owners might be tempted to upgrade when they otherwise wouldn’t.
But, it’s also a low enough price where I think a lot of people — the vast majority of people — who still haven’t tried out an Apple Watch might decide to take the plunge for the first time. Especially during the holiday sales and gift-giving season.
So, the question becomes — is it worth it?
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The iPhone 8, the end of the original design era, at the end of 2019. If you’d bought one when it launched two years ago and were asking me if you were still good to keep going with it today, and for another year or two, I’d say sure.
With Apple’s typical build quality, the headroom designed into its A11 Bionic chipset, and the constant software updates it’s both gotten and will keep getting for some time to come, I’d say absolutely.
But buying an iPhone 8 new, now, and in the age of iPhone 11? But starting at $449?
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The iPhone 11 has launched. It’s here. And while I was at the launch at Apple’s brand new, redesigned, reimagined, 2.0 version of the 5th Ave. Store, I started thinking about, if I was there… if I was lined up, if I was looking over all the choices… not just one iPhone and only one iPhone any more, but a range of choices and options and colors… which would I get? And, maybe even more importantly, a day from now, a week from now, if I’d kept my old iPhone for as long as I could, and I needed or just wanted a new one, if I was just walking into any store, or even shopping online, which iPhone would I want for the next year or several?
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Apple wasn’t first to computationally enhanced low light photography, just like they weren’t first to multiple cameras or depth effects, or even phones at all.
But, now that they're all-in, they're doing it in typical Apple style: Night Mode on the iPhone 11 doesn’t do everything. You can’t force it on manually. You can’t use it with the focus-pixel-free ultra wide angle. But what you can do, you can do well. With good detail recovery, texture preservation, and tone mapping.
In a really opinionated, maybe even controversial way.
And that’s the point. This is as much art as science. Do you drain color in the dark like the human eye or do you boost it? Do you turn night into day or shine a light in the dark? In the end, some aspects are objectively better on some camera phones. Others... are far more subjective.
To figure it all out, I collab’ed up with my friends Michael Fisher, The Mr. Mobile, and Hayato Houseman from Android Central.
And we shot the sensors off the Google Pixel 3, Samsung Galaxy S10+, Huawei P30 Pro, and the brand-new iPhone 11 Pro.
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Apple Watch Series 5 takes the world's best health and fitness tracker and motivator, connected communications and emergency contact band, and wearable computer platform, and brings it all back full circle — into just what might be the world's best watch.
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Once upon a time, the iPhone was the best camera you had with you. Now, Apple flat out wants to make it the best camera, period. What they can’t do physically with enormous lenses and sensors, they’re doing computationally with ridiculously optimized silicon and machine learning. And not just by taking the iPhone to 11, but by truly making it pro: The iPhone 11 Pro.
Everything that’s already packed into the 6.1-inch iPhone 11 is here as well, but escalated significantly: 5.8- and 6.5-inch higher-density, higher contrast, higher brightness, and extreme dynamic range OLED displays; a triple imaging system with ultra wide-angle, wide-angle, and telephoto cameras; 4x4 MIMO LTE; a full 4 meters of water resistance; up to 512 GB of storage; textured finishes that look more like metal than glass; and battery life that’s boosted by a jaw-dropping 4 and 5 hours respectively.
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With the added ultra wide camera and Night Mode, improved selfies, industry-leading A13 Bionic chipset, Gigabit LTE and Wi-Fi 6, and iOS 13 operating system, all starting at $699 — less if you have a trade-in — iPhone 11 is the most compelling iPhone Apple has ever made.
It’s so close in capabilities to the iPhone 11 Pro that only display, camera, and radio nerds may really notice any day-to-day differences. And, for exactly those nerds, I’ll also be posting a much deeper, more detailed review of the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max, so be sure to check that out.
For this review, I want to focus on what makes the iPhone 11 the new iPhone for everyone. Everyone who has an iPhone 6 or earlier and is looking for a new phone to keep getting the latest updates. Who has an iPhone 6s or iPhone 7, and is thinking it’s time to trade in and move up.
Who might even have an iPhone 8 and is finally ready to give up the Home button, or an iPhone X, and wants a dual camera system that’s just a little brighter and wider, or maybe even a return to LCD.
Ultimately, it’s about figuring out what’s right for you, or for you and your family. And that’s what this review is here to help answer.
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Last week, I got to go hands-on with a score of Apple Arcade launch titles and chat with almost a dozen developers about their collective goals, experiences, and dreams for the platform.
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Breaking: Apple's new iPhone 11 doesn't have 5G. Not low-band. Not sub-6, not millimeter wave. not nothing. And that's got some pundits super salty.
But why though?
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It’s here, Apple Watch Series 5 — was there ever really any doubt?
Always-on display, W3 chip with international emergency calling, S5 SiP with compass, Apple Watch Studio, titanium and ceramic finishes, Black Hermes, new bands, and more!
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So, the successor to last year’s breakout best-selling iPhone XR is… the iPhone 11. And I like this so much better. The iPhone — the normal iPhone, just the iPhone, not the Plus, not the anything else — has often hovered around the $649 price point. Even when the iPhone X launched, the same year, the also then brand new iPhone 8 kept the just the iPhone price at $699.
Last year, the just the iPhone somehow ended up being the XS, starting at $999, with the XR slotted underneath at $749. And it made some people super salty, and fueled this weird backlash narrative, that obviously didn’t stop the XR from being a best seller but might have had a chilling effect going forward.
This fixes that. $699 for the iPhone 11. Not the 11 R. Just the new normal.
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Phone has gone Pro — iPhone 11 Pro more specifically! — and I went hands-on with it to bring you back a first look and first impressions.
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Android 10 — alas, no more desert names need apply, has begun rolling out, starting first with Google’s own Pixel phones. iOS 13 should be rolling out in about two weeks, just before Apple launches its next batch of iPhones.
And as much as they’re completely different operating systems from different companies with different philosophies behind them, they’re doing some similar things this time around.
To talk about all of that, I’ve got Android Central’s managing editor, Daniel Bader on the line.
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I know some people are doom and gloom cynical, and all pre-bored about the iPhone 11 and all, and I’ve already done a whole video about why I think they’re wrong and how the new camera features alone have me pretty excited. But, there’s another reason I’m kinda hyped as well.
Apple’s got a whole new Find My app shipping with iOS 13 and macOS Catalina. And, rumor has it, a whole new Find My accessory to go with it, maybe as soon as Apple’s iPhone 11 Event this coming Tuesday in Cupertino, California.
And here's why that may just be AirPod-level exciting...
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iPhone prices — hell, flagship phone prices in general — have never been higher. At the same time, the carrier subsidies that used to cover up the costs have gone away and so the amped up prices are all amped up in our faces.
Still, I know some people online — not just YouTubers and bloggers — who each year, every year, still always get the new iPhone. Now, I have to do that for my job, but I was curious why and how they did it. So, I asked.
Why was easy. They always wanted the latest and the greatest. How was a lot more interesting: They’d mastered the art of selling their previous iPhone right before the next one was was announced and using the money they got to greatly — greatly — reduce the cost of upgrading.
And you can too!
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When does a team dedicated to ferreting out bugs, exploits, and vulnerabilities turn into its own form of malware attack?
For Google’s Project Zero, the answer just may have been this week.
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Disney just held their annual D23 event, jam-packed with new programming and information about their upcoming Disney+ streaming service and Apple has released more trailers for the shows set to debut on their upcoming TV+ streaming service.
But… one of these things is not like the other. So, what does it all mean for Disney, for Apple, and for us? Let’s figure it out.
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Apple is expanding repair support for out-of-warranty iPhones beyond AppleCare, beyond Apple Stores, beyond even Apple Authorized Service Providers.
Right now, today, they’re launching a brand new program for Independent Repair Providers and here’s what it covers.
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We’ve had a ton of leaks, a ton of spoilers, a bunch of renders on twitter and grafs in business pubs. But Apple hasn’t announced the iPhone 11 yet. Tim Cook hasn’t shown it off on stage. Phil Schiller hasn’t gone over all its feature slides.
Oh yeah, It’s that time of year again. Apple’s annual iPhone event is only a couple of weeks away and we already have some people tripping all over themselves to tell you how boring and must-skippable it’s just gotta to be.
And, while I’m going to focus on Apple and the upcoming iPhone 11 Pro for this, please feel free to extrapolate it out to the just-announced Galaxy Note 10 and still pending Google Pixel 4 as well.
Now, I’m going to break this down into two parts — the phones and the market.
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What's the absolute best iPhone of all time? With the iPhone 11 on the horizon, I wanted to find out. So, I asked all of you. And you voted by the thousands.
Here is your ultimate pick, and your complete iPhone rankings from worst to best — and best to worst!
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Apple has partnered with Goldman Sachs and Mastercard to roll out the Apple Card to iPhone owners in the U.S. It’s been available to Apple employees to test out for a few months, invitation-only to customers for a few weeks, and has now gone wide for everyone.
So, should you get it?
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Wait, no, don’t hard quit the podcast! Don’t you do it! Yes, it’s enterprise. I know. But, just hold on a hot damn second. These new features for iOS 13, iPadOS, and macOS Catalina in enterprise are cool. Mostly because I kinda love what they just might be hinting at for the future of all of Apple’s operating systems… and for all of us.
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The music plays. The Apple logo dances something clever across the big screen. Then, the lights go down. Tim Cook takes the stage. Good morning. Good morning. And the September 2019 event is on.
But… what’s on, exactly?
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Apple Watch Series 5. There’s been so little news about it this year, some people have started wondering out loud if there’d even be a new Apple Watch this year. But, well..
Series 4 was such a leap forward, the speculation is going, that Series 5 could take a year off and just kind of coast. You know, maybe price drop it and use that as a way to lower the entry point and put pressure on competitors instead.
And you know, maybe. But… it just doesn’t click for me.
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Mac Pro. MacBook Pro. iPad Pro. iMac Pro. Powerbeats Pro… iPhone Pro?
There’s a rumor going around that Apple might just call one or more of this fall’s iPhones… the iPhone Pro. Or maybe the iPhone 11 Pro. It’s unclear.
Also unclear: What, beyond just adding the label, Apple could do to make the iPhone really, truly worthy of the name ‘Pro’. That is, if the name ‘Pro” even means anything any more.
Curious, I asked all of you on Twitter what you thought… and wow did you respond.
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Apple sent me a statement on the whole iPhone battery locking controversy and the FAA has added some thirsty, thirsty MacBook Pro battery coverage to the mix.
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Broader bounties. Million-dollar payouts. Beta bonuses. Info-Sec-Fuzed iPhones. And more.
Apple’s Head of Security Engineering and Architecture, Ivan Krstić, has just dropped some bombshell announcements at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas and we’re going to talk about them.
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The Galaxy Note 10 is here. I spoke all about it with Daniel Bader from Android Central, so be sure to check that video out if you haven’t already.
Now, I want to talk about the feature from the Note 10 I’d love to see Apple bring to the iPhone 11… or iPhone 12 if they’re already locked and loaded for September.
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Yeah, I’m just gonna lean right into Bettridge’s Law with this video title. Right on in.
So, the story is this:
A couple of days ago, Justin from TheArtofRepair YouTube channel discovered that, all of a sudden, swapping out the battery on an iPhone resulted in the newish battery health monitoring system turning off and popping up:
"Important battery message: Unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple battery. Health information not available for this battery"
Since then, we’ve seen headlines like Vice’s “Apple Is Locking Batteries to Specific iPhones, a Nightmare for DIY Repair” and, of course, iFixit’s “Apple Is Locking iPhone Batteries to Discourage Repair” and just a ton more like them.
Now, I’m going to push back kinda hard on using the term “locking” for any of this. Not because I’m an evil Apple apologist or defender, even though I can feel some of you just itching… itching to start typing that in the comments right now already.
But because I think it’s just dumb and let’s Apple off the hook far too easily.
Let me explain...
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It’s Samsung’s big Galaxy Note 10 day today and so I’ve got Daniel Bader, Managing Editor of Android Central, on the line with me to tell us all about it.
Who is the Galaxy Note 10 for? Does it still cater to power users and nerds, even without a headphone jack? How does the camera compare to Huawei? How do the features compare to $500 and under phones? How will the Galaxy Note 10 hold up to the upcoming Apple iPhone 11 and Google Pixel 4? And do you even need to think about 5G now?
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Despite the usual doom and gloom reporting that we got leading up to Apple’s Q3 2019 financial results — or stock manipulation depending on your point of view — the company managed to largely beat expectations.
But not escape the doom and gloom. Not entirely.
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It's a Kuo Ming-Chi-a-palooza! iPhone 13 rumors, already, yeah, yikes. The possible return of Touch ID-like fingerprint authentication if not Touch ID itself. iPhone 12 and time of flight sensors for the ultimate augmented reality thrill ride. And iPhone 11, the potential tariffs it might well face, and how Apple may have to deal with them.
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Apple and Google suspend manual voice reviews and Samsung suspends the headphone jack on Galaxy Note 10
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I was going to try and cram in Apple earnings analysis today but I think I’ll save it for tomorrow after all the headlines and hindsights hot takes have had time to cool down. Instead, let’s talk about Google’s big Pixel 4 leak-nouncement. Yeah, another one. Basically, it’s Face ID. But is it a cutting edge reinvention or just a lame retread?
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Another huge milestone for us and what we’re all building here together — This channel just hit 20 million views.
Almost 250 videos and 122 thousand subscribers since we started, it’s humbling to think this little idea for an optimistic, deeply researched, steak-over-sizzle, facts-over-flex, punching up and never down conversation about technology and culture we started just over a year ago has found an audience as smart and savvy and frankly as magnificent as all of you.
I know we’re not huge yet by YouTube standards, but I’m truly grateful for all of you, and I really appreciate each and every one of you for hitting that subscribe button, Superman smashing that bell gizmo so you actually get notified when new videos drop, and sharing your favorites with your friends so they can join us and we can keep all of this going and growing.
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Humans listen to segments of our voices captured by Siri, Google, and Alexa to help train the natural language engines. It's always been done this way but it's never gotten much attention. Not until Bloomberg reported on it all back in April, focusing on Alexa. But the VRT NWS piece on Google and now The Guardian’s piece on Siri have really caught fire. Especially the latter.
Maybe because, unlike the others, it front-loaded the part about sex, crime, medicine, and business. Or maybe just because it came out after Apple started putting big privacy billboards up in Las Vegas, Toronto, and Hamburg.
So, while some say Apple is being held to a higher or different standard here, it’s not by anyone other than Apple themselves.
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It’s Friday and once again I’m taking three stories from around the web that are important but that either wouldn’t fill a full video or I just plain missed out on covering during the week.
I’m planning on doing these more often going forward too, so if you have stories you want to see covered next week, just drop them in the comments or hit me up on Twitter. Then hit subscribe and dropkick that little bell dingus so you don’t miss them when they land.
On deck for today are some privacy promising iOS migration updates, Facebook’s $5 billion fine, iPhone 11 photography, and the return of the Galaxy Fold.
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There have been rumors of Apple working on their own cellular modems for years. Those are the radios that phones and other gear use to connect to carrier networks like AT&T, Verizon, Rogers, Vodafone, and all the rest.
They’re mainly LTE right now but 5G is on the horizon and they’re already speccing out 6G beyond that. So, it’s a critical part of the hardware we all use every day and Apple likes to control all of those parts.
The rumors picked up recently when Apple settled with Qualcomm, the biggest modem maker in the game, and Intel, who’d been providing Apple with modems during the spat, announced they’d be getting out of the business now that the other two had made up.
But that left Intel’s modem portfolio up for grabs. And, much like Apple once bought PA Semi, licensed ARM’s IP, and began making custom A-Series chipsets for iPhones and iPads, the rumor here is that Apple will buy that modem business, license Qualcomm IP, and begin making custom modems as well.
To help me sort the facts from the wishful thinking, I’ve got Ben Bajarin on the line. Principle at Creative Strategies and founder of TechPinions.
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Back in September for 2018 — and wow but does that already seem like a technology lifetime ago! — Apple’s chief operating officer and head of Watch and Health products — took to the stage at the companies annual September event to announce Apple Watch Series 4 and its bold new edge-to-edge display.
But he also announced something else: Irregular heartbeat notifications and, for the first time ever in a direct-to-consumer device, the ability to take an electrocardiogram. In a watch. On your freaking wrist.
It shipped in the U.S. on December 6. It shipped in much of the E.U. and in Hong Kong on March 27. And today, it’s shipping in Canada.
But, as always, there’s a lot more to this story.
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There’s a feeling among some people in the tech community that the next iPhone looks too much like the last iPhone, which looked pretty much exactly like the iPhone before that.
Apple’s design has become stale, they say. Iterative. Boring.
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Our long, browser nightmare is over. Google web apps like GSuite now work as expected in Safari. So do Square Space and Wordpress. It’s a modern mobile miracle. But it’s also more than that: A download manager, a ton of keyboard shortcuts with modifiers, the ability to save and open tab sets, per site settings, text size controls, the whole WebKiit and caboodle.
Apple is calling it Desktop Class Safari for iPad. The full-on web finally optimized for iPad or the iPad finally fully optimized for the web. And it’s coming with iPadOS this fall and, a fair amount of it, with iOS 13 for iPhone as well.
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So you want to buy a new MacBook, maybe for school, maybe for work, maybe to create something that lets you change how and why you work. Whatever. You need it, you want it… but you’re just not sure which new MacBook to get. At least not yet.
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With iPadOS — and, yes, an iPhone and even an iPod touch running iOS 13 — you can finally access external files, not just photos, not just videos, but honest-to-unix external documents, assets, and anything else, just by plugging in a USB drive, stick, even SD or Compact Flash card. You can even open photos and video directly in editing apps and access SMB shares right in the Files app.
With some caveats, limitations, and, of course, adapters. Hey, this is still iOS we’re talking about here.
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The 12-inch MacBook is dead. So is the quote unquote “MacBook Escape”. In place of the MacBook is now just the MacBook Air, newly updated with a True Tone display. In place of the Escape is Touch Bars, Touch ID, and T2 chips all the way down.
But does that make things simpler or even more complicated?
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A week ago, the Wall Street Journal published an article that alleged a high level of disfunction in Apple’s design department, from Tim Cook’s relationship with Jony Ive, to how Jony Ive ran — or didn’t run — the design organization, and how all of that led to Jony’s departure.
The following evening, Tim Cook emailed CNBC to call the story absurd, distorted, and not recognizable as the company it claimed to describe.
And, ever since, we’ve seen so many tea quotes, hot takes, sides taken, and…
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JONY IVE TRILOGY:
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Kuo Ming-Chi, supply chain exfiltrator extraordinaire, in a report issued earlier today. Text via MacRumors:
"There have been successful developments in the new scissor keyboard. The new keyboard could improve the typing experience by offering longer key travel and durability by adopting glass fiber to reinforce the keys' structure."
This, allegedly, for a 2019 MacBook Air update.
If you’re not up on your keyboard nomenclature, then scissor switches are the fairly standard mechanisms Apple used to use across their laptop lineups. At least prior to 2015 when they introduced their own, invented-at-Apple butterfly switches to the newly redesigned 12-inch MacBook, and then in 2016 with the new MacBook Pro and 2018 with the new MacBook Air.
I will explain. No, no, there is too much. Phil Schiller will sum up.
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I’ve been meaning to do a video about Apple’s Lightning port for a while now. The story is super interesting but other stuff kept coming up. Then, just this morning, I watched a video Tech Insider put up and… Yeah.
Now, I’m fully behind Apple moving to USB-C on the iPhone. I would have loved for it to have happened with the iPhone X, even recognizing that’s super easy to say as someone not responsible for, you know, actually running the product.
But, I also think the video left out a lot of what really should have been put in.
So, let's do that now!
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There have been a lot of... questionable takes surrounding the news of Jony Ive leaving Apple, what caused it, how it happened, and what it means for Apple's design culture going forward.
Rather than perpetuate another one of my own, I decided to find someone super smart and super talented who was actually there. Who worked on prototyping and design at Apple going back to the days of Steve Jobs and the original iPhone, and who understands how and why the design culture works the way it does.
Then, set up an interview even if that person is away on her vacation in France, so she can share her experience and insight. Now, Skype did not cooperate at all, so apologies for the bad video but what she has to say is so terrific I simply have to share it with you no matter what. Thanks for your understanding.
Now, without any further ado, here's May-Li Khoe.
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John Gruber of Daring Fireball and The Talk Show joins me to follow up on Jony Ive leaving Apple, starting LoveFrom with Marc Newson, being hired by Apple, Evans Hankey and Alan Dye reporting into Jeff Williams, Sabih Khan becoming SVP of Operations, the future of Tim Cook, Jony's involvement over the last few years, Jony's hardware vs. software chops, and what may happen in the near future with Apple design.
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Cupertino, California — Apple today announced that Sir Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer, will depart the company as an employee later this year to form an independent design company which will count Apple among its primary clients. While he pursues personal projects, Ive in his new company will continue to work closely and on a range of projects with Apple.
Wow, I mean. On one hand, I’m devastated. As someone who started out in the business as a designer, Jony Ive and his relationship with Apple was just everything I looked up to and aspired to be.
On the other hand, though, as someone no longer in design, Jony Ive set free but still connected to Apple is something I really, deeply feel.
But, sorry, first. I wasn’t going to do this video today. I was going to wait and think on it a bit, and do a deeper, more forward looking video tomorrow. But then, you guessed it, the Internet happened.
Hot takes began raining down like meteors in a Michael Bay movie. And, as expected a lot of them were just terrible. Like terrible set in comic sans terrible.
That's why I ultimately decided to split my video in two. To get something short out today and the focus on something deeper for tomorrow.
So, here goes part 1
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I’ve been wanting to do a video about what my dream iPhone would be for a while now. You know, if I got to be or work with Jony or Phil Schiller, or Joz for a cycle and do everything I’ve always wanted to do with and for the iPhone.
Now, I’ve done videos before about this and that hardware feature I’d like to see Apple grab from other manufacturers and bring over to the iPhone, and MKBHD just did a video on what his dream phone in general would be cobbled together from all the different manufacturers.
But, for this, I kinda want to do the opposite. Instead of looking out or going out, I want to turn in. I want to try to come up with what I think would be the ultimate expression of the iPhone by Apple.
And hey, if you like the idea and want to see me try and do the same with Samsung’s Galaxy, Google’s Pixel, Huawei’s P-series, or any other phone, let me know in the comments.
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macOS Catalina is bringing with it a feature set that edges on the audacious.
Catalyst aims to let the vast catalog of iPad apps move more easily to the Mac, while SwiftUI teases a future where developers can build them that way to begin with.
iTunes, venerable and beyond bloated, is being shattered into new Music, Podcast, and TV apps, with updated Books and even Finger functionality to round them out.
There’s a new, more salient Photos app, Mail that’s more zen, Notes that are easier to find, QuickTime for pros, all new, all powerful Reminders and a far more omniscient Find My app, plus Screen Time comes to Mac to help you balance it all.
Sidecar lets you use your iPad as an external display to mirror or extend your desktop. Or, grab an Apple Pencil and use it with tablet-enabled Mac apps in a way that just might make any of the smaller Wacoms weep.
Security and Privacy are getting an even more vigilant Gatekeeper, a read-only system volume, extensions and drivers ripped out of kernel space, and Sign in with Apple.
And Accessibility is showing all of that up not just with better VoiceOver, color filters, and new zooms, but with full-on, Bene Gesserit-level Voice Control.
Here's not just what it all does but how it all works!
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Apple’s got a new Mac Pro and it’s almost everything everyone who loves the Mac Pro wanted. It’s got a bunch of PCIe slots for expansion, all wrapped up in a mini tower case that can grate cheese in more dimensions than ever.
If you want to, you can kick it up to 28 Xeon Cascade Lake cores and 1.5 Terabytes of memory. That is, if you work for ILM or Pixar or Skywalker Audio because just going out to buy those cores from Intel will cost you 7 and a half to 10K, and just getting that RAM from… anyone will cost you another 20K.
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Google is killing off its Pixel line of homespun tablet hardware. Now, just to be 100% crystal clear, Google is still going to be making Pixel Phones and Pixel Laptops, Home Max and Chromecast Ultra, Nest Thermostats and Nest Cams.
But the Pixel Slate — That has to die. But, why?
Russell Holly from Android Central joins me to figure it all out!
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Yes, this is utterly, completely, totally, add any three words that all mean the same thing, ridiculous. iPhone 11 is still 3 months away and not only are we already getting iPhone 12 rumors, we’ve been getting them basically forever already.
So, let's break them down!
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Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has just announced Libra, his attempt to revolutionize not just payments, but money itself, on a global scale, and Calibra, Facebook’s wallet app for Libra.
But what is Libra more exactly and why, after the terrible, scandalous, privacy violating, trust rending, not good very bad year if not decade Facebook’s had, why would anyone in their right mind, or Mark Zuckerberg, think for a smoking hot minute we’d trust them with our money?
Tantalizingly — or appallingly, you be the judge — Zuckerberg thinks he has an answer.
Hit subscribe and poke that bell gizmo so YouTube will have to actually tell you about new videos when they come out, and then let’s break it all down.
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When I first reviewed the iPad Pro last November, I focused on the seriously amped up hardware design. I figured the iOS 12 software story hadn’t changed so there was no point revisiting it. Many of you all, of course, allowed yourselves to retort. And you were right. So, two weeks later, I redid my review, went over why I felt the iPad Pro was less a laptop replacement and more a laptop alternative, and then went through a few of the ways I was hoping Apple would improve the software in the future to take better advantage of all the new hardware.
Well, that future is now. Ish. iOS 13 and iPadOS — yes, the iPad still runs iOS 13 just with the beginnings of some iPadOS differentiation — offer some major enhancements to the iPads capabilities.
I’m not going to review it or re-re-review it now. All the new software is still all up in beta, so it wouldn’t just be premature, it would be downright silly. Everything from performance to stability to implementations can and will change. This fall, once Apple ships all the new bits though, game on.
Instead, What I am going to do in this video is go down my list from that previous video, everything I said I needed to make the iPad Pro in specific but any modern iPad in general my main machine, and see, at least in theory, how far we’ve come.
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Siri and Apple’s voice and assistive technologies in general are getting some major love in iOS 13, including a synthetic yet more natural sound, new intents so developers can add Siri support to Maps apps like Waze and audio apps like Overcast, Audible, and Spotify, and even full-on Voice Control so you can navigate your iPhone, iPad, or Mac with basically the Will and the Word.
And, of course, Shortcuts is becoming a built-in app and is adding support for a bunch of new functionality, not the least of which is the ability to accept conversation input. Yup, now if you tell Shortcuts to order you a pizza, it can ask you which of the last four pizza orders you want to repeat.
To dig deep into how it all works, I asked Matthew Cassinelli to join. He was actually on the Workflow team when Apple bought the app, had written the documentation and filled the gallery, but left just as Apple was transitioning it into Shortcuts. Why? So he could help evangelize the technology from the outside. And that’s just exactly what he’s doing here today.
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Apple has announced their plans for watchOS 6, and here’s 5… no, let’s make that an even 6, things you need to know about it!
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One of the big questions following the announcement of the new TV app and it’s availability on smart TVs and streaming boxes was — what place did that leave for Apple TV 4K, which could now come off as expensive at best and superfluous at worst.
And Apple, with Tim Cook doing the presentation, started to make that case at WWDC. It’s about the experience, dammit. And that experience is driven by tvOS.
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Back in early 2015 I asked Apple and the world a question: “What if the iPad ran iPadOS?” At the time, iPad may not have been quote-unquote just a big iPod touch, but it wasn’t much more than an iPod touch gone IMAX.
Then, slowly, every couple of years, it started getting exclusive features like Side-by-Side apps and Picture-in-Picture video. Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard. Multi-window Drag-and-Drop and workspaces. But, only every couple of years.
Because the iPad didn’t have its own OS like the Mac, the Watch, or even the TV, Apple wasn’t forced to show off new features every year at WWDC. So, some years, under the crunch of iPhone or just general features, they didn’t.
Now, Apple has finally made one of my longer standing dreams into reality. iPadOS. And not just because it’s neat or right or just for the iPad, which has long had its won experience, to have its own, named iOS variant the way most other major products do, but because of the demands that come with it having its own, named variant.
From now on, whether it’s just a little like tvOS or a lot like iOS — which, ironically, was originally called iPhone OS — every year, Apple is going to have to have something to say about the iPad at WWDC.
And here's why that changes everything!
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In this second audio special from WWDC, Rene speaks with Bud Tribble. Tribble is a long-time Apple employee, a member of the original Macintosh design team, and currently Vice President of Software Technology. They discuss the new 'Sign in with Apple' feature along with other measures the company takes to protect user privacy.
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In this audio special from WWDC, Rene speaks with Sarah Herrlinger, Director, Global Accessibility Policy & initiatives at Apple about new software features that help make computing accessible for everyone.
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We’ve just gotten our first sneak peek at the all-new Mac Pro and Pro Display and I’m going to go through their top 5 highlights.
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Apple isn’t killing iTunes on Monday. Tim Cook isn’t coming to your house and deleting all the music and movies you’ve bought and downloaded over the years. There will be no Thanos snap live on stage. No decimation around the world. None of that is true or real in any true or real way.
So, why are there so many headlines saying iTunes is ending and the age of digital downloads is over? Because, apparently, writers can’t read, fact checkers can’t check facts, and editors are too busy baiting clicks and not busy enough thinking about the needless stress and anxiety they’re causing the audience that relies on their reporting.
Like every viral maelstrom, though, there’s a calm set of facts right in the center. What are they? Let’s break it down right now.
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It’s that time of year again. Apple’s WWDC 2019 keynote kicks off on Monday, June 3, at 10 Pacific, 1pm Eastern, and I’m going to be there to bring you back all the action, not just for the morning but for the whole day and the entire week. Because the keynote is really only the beginning.
To do that, though, I need gear. I need tech. I need… so much stuff. And, I need to pack it all up to take it with me. But, here’s the thing: I’m going to do it a bit differently this year.
Instead of taking a big camera bag and my big cameras with me — I’m trying out the Peek right now and I’m still using the GH-5 to shoot all this — I’m going to keep things ultra light and ultra mobile. Basically, my every day carry optimized for going away. But what exactly does that mean and how exactly does that work?
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About 3 months ago, just before Apple’s March 2019 event, I put together a list of YouTubers, bloggers, podcasters, journalists, and analysts who were worth following for their takes on the show. I did it because, after having been a blogger and podcaster, and now trying this whole YouTube thing, I realized most of us don’t know each other well if at all, and I wanted to try and change that.
Now, just a week away from Apple’s 30th annual World Wide Developer Conference, WWDC 2019, I’m updating and expanding the list. Now, a lot of names are the same, everyone from iJustine to MKBHD, John Gruber to Lory Gil, Christina Warren to Jason Snell, Joanna Stern to Matthew Panzarino, Neil Cybart to Carolina Milanesi. They’re all going to knock it out the Apple Park. But, instead of repeating them all here, I’m just going to link to that first video in the description, and highlight a few specific to WWDC so you can get your baseline follow on.
Then, because this is Apple’s big software event, I’m going to add a few new sections and a bunch of new names, including some of the more public facing Apple folks, as well as the developers, designers, and members of the industry and media that always provide me with extra insight at and around WWDC.
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I’ve been wanting to do a video about Google’s Pixel phones for a while now. Ever since the company announced kinda lackluster sales for the premium Pixel 3 but then turned right around and launched the much more budget friendly Pixel 3a.
Then, Jon Rettinger posted his video, provocatively titled “No One Cares About Pixel”, and it's great. You should watch it. Link in the description. But that also got me thinking, Drax-Style, not so much about what is the Pixel but why is the Pixel? What does its existence do for Google and for us? And, if we’re seeing that change with the 3a or with the 4, what does that mean?
To help me figure it all out, I asked on the man who literally got me started in this business, and, yeah, that aside, one of the smartest people I know. Executive Editor of The Verge and host of the Processor on YouTube, Dieter Bohn.
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Apple has just announced a refreshed iPod touch that offers updated internals and support for several of its best new features. This time around, the iPod touch features Apple's A10 Fusion chip, internal storage of up to 256GB, and can now participate in Group FaceTime calls and more. The updated models are available starting today, and prices start at just $199 for the 32GB model and go up to $399 for the 256GB option. It's available in six different color options, including space gray, white, gold, blue, pink and (PRODUCT)RED.
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For years, Apple made some of the best — and most expensive — displays in the business. Not only did they have great design and terrific panels, they had those Apple logos right up front for people who wanted that look and that experience beyond an iMac — for their Mac Pros to MacBook Pros as well. We got generations of Cinema Displays, LED Displays… Thunderbolt Displays
But then, just a few years ago, Apple went and stopped making them. From hero to zero, something to nothing in one Thanos snap flat. There were rumors — there are always rumors — of a 4K display that Apple was working on but never shipped. But for an agonizingly long period of time, measured in pro-user angst years, Apple just didn’t offer anything for anyone who didn’t want an all-in one.
Until now. Or, well, soon at least. It’s complicated.
So MKBHD, Marques Brownlee was kind enough to share with us what he wants to see, and then I break it all down.
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The music fades. The lights go down. A video plays. Developers. Apps. Apple. The community. We’re all together again. And when the lights come back up, Tim Cook is walking onto the stage.
“Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. And welcome to Apple’s 30th annual WWDC!”
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The original iPod touch launched just a few months after the original iPhone, way back in September of 2007. And for a few years, while the iPod touch never quite matched the feature set of the iPhone, it at least received updates of its own, up to and including the 4th generation in 2010 which, finally, you know, got a camera not just on the front but on the back as well.
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Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order on Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain. It’s long and I’ll link it and everything else relevant in the description, but the gist is he thinks foreign adversaries are creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in network infrastructure and that doing business with them augments the security risk, potentially catastrophically, so doing that kind of business is being prohibited.
It’s general and broad in language but is widely believed to be very specific in intent: To prevent the deployment of Huawei networking infrastructure in the U.S., including and especially the current 5G rollout.
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Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order on Securing the Information and Communications Technology and Services Supply Chain. It’s long and I’ll link it and everything else relevant in the description, but the gist is he thinks foreign adversaries are creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in network infrastructure and that doing business with them augments the security risk, potentially catastrophically, so doing that kind of business is being prohibited. It’s general and broad in language but is widely believed to be very specific in intent: To prevent the deployment of Huawei networking infrastructure in the U.S., including and especially the current 5G rollout.
Apple just right now announcing some new MacBook Pros for 2019. I had the chance to chat with them briefly about the updates and, while I’m still waiting on all the exact details, there are a couple big things worth covering right now. (And, of course, I’ll link to all those details in the description.)
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Rumor has it Apple just may be introducing their own, Tile-like tags later this year. Ones that we’ll be able to use to locate things like our keys, wallets, and bags, as easily as we find our friends and devices today. In the exact same, soon-to-be-unified app, as a matter of fact.
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You know the iPhone XR? The one biz pubs like the Wall Street Journal insisted on calling “struggling” but then turned out to be best-sellers for reasons obvious to pretty much everyone else on the planet? Yeah, that one. Well, big surprise, it looks like Apple’s less expensive, more colorful iPhone will be getting a sequel. iPhone 11R? iPhone XR2? We won’t know for sure until Tim Cook or Phil Schiller announces it this September on the big, annual iPhone event stage.
But, we’re already getting a bunch of rumors, enough to sort of squint and tilt our heads, and get a fuzzy picture of what’ll be coming our way this fall.
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“When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind, I don’t consider the bloody ROI.”
That’s one of my favorite Tim Cook quotes ever, because it’s fiery and passionate and filled with righteous indignation. It’s not a side of Apple’s CEO we see almost ever. He’s typically the definition of cool and collected. But, when he feels that our core human rights under assault, be it security, privacy, or accessibility, that Tim Cook comes out.
And yes, Tim Cook’s Apple believes accessibility is a human right.
For people who have low or no vision, low or no hearing, low or no interactivity, primarily and absolutely. But also for people who’ve been injured and temporarily can’t use their dominant hand, are trying to watch Brooklyn 99 and the kids… or parents, just won’t stop talking, children who are trying to learn their first language or anyone trying to learn new languages, people who have just had surgery and you can’t move around a lot, or, like me right now, are suffering with what I can only assume are flood exacerbated allergies or infections that’s led me not to be able to see my phone or laptop properly at times, even drive, or do these videos.
Even for people who just want their device to be the way they want it. Bigger, smaller, brighter, darker, calmer, clearer, louder, lower, whatever. Because accessibility is also for everyone. Not just every day but any day you, me, anyone needs it.
And because today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day, I had the opportunity to chat with Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s Director Global Accessibility Policy & Initiatives, about not just how important accessibility is to the company in theory, and not just how they implement it across their increasingly wide range of products and services, and for a diverse user base that represents a significant percentage of the world’s population, but how and why the evangelize it so that it becomes part of the conversation, of the table stakes, for everyone.
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Apple has a whole new TV app coming today and I managed to get a sneak preview of it up and running on Apple TV, iPad, Samsung TV, and over AirPlay 2 to some other TVs, and get a feel for not just how but, how well, it all works.
Yeah, sure, TV+ has all the glitz and glamor and Aniston and Oprah, Spielberg and Momoa, but that’s not coming until September.
What’s coming today, or at least starting today, is the new TV app proper that’s meant to not only contain it, but serve as a new age digital hub, collecting together everything else you want to watch all in one place so you never have to go hunting and pecking for content ever again.
Well, almost everything and almost never....
Let's jump into it.
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I’ve already done a video on all the iPhone 11 rumors that have been floating around since… well, roughly 42 nanoseconds after the iPhone XS was introduced. But this year, perhaps more than any other, the iPhone 11 rumors just keep coming and almost all of them focus on the new camera system coming with it.
And it makes total sense. The iPhone XS has a good camera and a terrific video camera, but since it was announced Google has released the Pixel 3 with Night Vision, Samsung has put out the Galaxy S10 with a three camera system, and Huawei has escalated with a periscope lens and time of flight system.
Competition is fierce.
So, how is Apple planning to retaliate?
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Like I said on Michael Fisher’s channel last week, when I first reviewed the new MacBook Pro back at the end of 2016, I called it the love/hate future of laptops. Love, because we finally had a new design, terrific wide-gamut displays, Touch ID, and super fast, super forward-thinking USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Hate, because unlike the previous version with its function row and scissor switch keyboard, the new Touch Bar and butterfly and dome keyboard proved to be incredibly divisive. And that’s just not tenable when you want or need to use macOS and Final Cut Pro X and there’s only one vendor to choose from.
But, there are rumors of a new MacBook Pro coming our way. One that, like the iPhone X, shrinks the bezels to expand the screen size — in this case, up to 16-inches. And one that maybe, just maybe, ditches the butterfly and dome keyboard and full-height arrow keys for something with more click, an actual ESC, and an inverted T.
Now, I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. I don’t want to create any expectational debt. The rumors have been few and very far between. We could end up with a spec bump again and membrane 2.0. Or with nothing. But maybe, just maybe, the same Apple that released the iMac Pro, finally updated the Mac mini, and hired a full-on Pro Workflows team to really pound on their bits and atoms before the public ever gets exposed to them… Maybe, just maybe that Apple has gotten its Mac mojo back.
So, because the rumors are so sparse but the tension in the community is kinda high, I’m going to do something different in this video. Usually, I’m a big believer in not stating solutions I think I want but rather problems I have because there could be better solutions for those problems that I’ve just never thought of.
This time, though, I’m going to lay things out. And loud. Not just from a customer wishlist perspective, because we customers want it all. Bigger battery but lighter. More tech but lower price. No matter how contradictory that might be. No, I want to think about it from an actual product point of view — what could the people in charge of the MacBook Pro do to really meet the needs of the vast majority of MacBook Pro customers?
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Powerbeats Pro in black are available for order now and shipping this month. The other colors — yes, unlike AirPods, they also come in navy blue, moss green, and ivory white, though sadly not Product red, at least not yet — will be available later this summer.
They cost $250, which is $90 more than AirPods, or $50 more than AirPods with the inductive charging case.
That can cause some sticker shock, especially if you’re used to making your purchase decisions strictly based on audio quality.
With Powerbeats Pro, though, like AirPods, what you’re really paying for is the tiny tech squeezed inside. The H1 chip, the sensors, and everything else that lets them pair easily and power on quick and long.
So, are they worth it? It's going to take me a week or so to put together a full review, especially for battery life and sound and call quality, but if you want to buy now, now, now and you're trying to decide, here's what I can tell you after just 24 hours ears-on.
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I started working on a watchOS 6 video a couple of weeks ago but, absent any real rumors, it was as more of a wishlist or, like some of my other early-days videos, a list of missing features I think would help round out a product.
Then, Mark Gurman happened. And now we have proper spoilers to contend with as well. But, since the rumors don’t completely overlap my wishlist, I’m going to combine them, Voltron-style, with what I was already working on, and cover both what’s coming and what still needs to come.
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It’s Friday and once again I’m taking three stories from around the web that are important but that either wouldn’t fill a full video or I just plain missed out on covering during the week.
It’s code-named the Wrap, because Capstone was taken, and if you have stories you want to see covered next week, just drop them in the comments or hit me up on Twitter. Then hit subscribe and dropkick that little bell dingus so you don’t miss them when they land.
On deck for today are Facebook’s F8 conference, Apple and right to repair, and Q2 2019.
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I learn a lot of Linus Tech Tips. His opinions are often very different than my own but he’s incredibly knowledgable and passionate and, whether I ultimately end up agreeing with him or not, the process forces me to evaluate, re-evaluate, and learn. And that’s absolutely the case with one of his latest videos: Macs are Slower Than PCs video. And Why.
So, is that true or is that just his point of view?
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Just when you think it’s safe to hit pub on your iOS 13 breakdown, that Gui Rambo from 9to5Mac goes and spills another full set of spoilers. This one is a little different, though. A little nerdier. A little geekier. A little more from the developer side than the user side, though we can still suss a lot of great user stuff from it.
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Yes, Apple still cares about the Mac. It’s the kind of care you have for your older kid who’s graduated college and gotten a job and settled down, and doesn’t demand the same kind of attention as your younger kid, whose basically Taylor Swift and touring, and oh my god, everything is so much and so crazy you can’t take your eyes off for a second. But it’s care. Steady, check in once a week over FaceTime and visit a few times a year on holidays care.
And, part of that care manifests itself every year at WWDC, Apple’s world wide developer conference, when the new version of macOS gets announced, the new feature set gets introduced, and the first beta gets pushed out to developers.
What does that all mean for macOS 10.15 in 2019? Let's take a look!
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Apple cracks down on apps that fight iPhone addiction.
That’s not the Onion. That’s not Saturday Night Live. That’s an actual headline from the New York Times, the Gray Lady, the paper of record.
The Times could also, easily, have used a different headline:
Apple finally removes child-targeting spyware from the App Store.
I don’t know if it would have baited any fewer clicks, but I do know the Times just shouldn’t be in that business either way. It should, not to get all Aaron Sorkin for a moment, be the business of informing its readers, of speaking truth to stupid.
Now, I hate the term fake news. I hate it. It’s a political construct and not an informational one. What this is… is just lazy, sensationalism, and the best and only way to deal with it isn’t to label it or dismiss it, because that’s just as lazy and actually irresponsible, but to fact check it, to hold it up to scrutiny and see how well it holds up.
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Over 100 thousand subscribers. Over 15 million views. Close to 200 videos. Of Vector. But wait… what is Vector? It’s a question I’ve gotten a few times about this channel specifically and about my work in general. What’s the intention behind it, the mission, the goal? What exactly am I trying to do here and how exactly am I doing it? Totally fair question, especially in today’s day and age where the internet, social media, blogs, podcasts, and YouTube have not only given everyone a voice and a face, but has also made it much harder to distinguish signal from noise. So, before we go forward, let’s take a quick look back.
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Back in March, Apple released their second generation AirPods with the H1 chip, voice activated Siri built-in, longer talk time, and an optional inductive charging case.
They made an already great product better, but it’s also fair to say they took longer to come out than some people expected and they still lacked features some people had been hoping for.
So, as is always the case, the exact minute after we get something new, all our attention turns to what’s next.
In this case, AirPods 3.
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It used to be that some kinds of natural disasters were seasonal. Snow melting in the spring. Hurricane’s picking up in the summer. Some of that hasn’t changed. Some has. The point being, you’re better off preparing in advance, when everything is calm and safe and you have plenty of time. Don’t put it off because things can get chaotic fast. Do them asap.
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I’ve been using the iPhone XS since Apple introduced it back in September of 2018, some seven months ago. Here's how the Max version, the camera, and the durability have held up over that time.
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Every year, just after the latest major version of iOS goes public, something else happens deep inside Apple: In addition to any features that simply couldn't be completed in time, or had to be pushed back for any reason, along with all the new features marketing thinks are essential to keep selling iPhones and iPads, and all the features engineers are pitching as transformative or just plain awesome get put in a big pile. And then they're sorted through, prioritized, approved, and rejected, until it starts to take shape: The next major version of iOS.
And, this year, that's all going to culminate on June 3, at WWDC 2019, with the debut of iOS 13.
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Right now. Right this very minute, there are only a dozen or several Samsung Galaxy Folds in the wild, and all of them in the hands of reviewers. Of that very small number, four of them have already failed. Or, at least, the screens have.
Two of the Galaxy Folds, the ones in the possession of Marques Brownlee of MKBHD fame and Mark Gurman of Bloomberg were apparently the result of, or may simply have been compounded by, removing a polymer protective film that shouldn’t have been removed.
The other two, one from Dieter Bohn of the Verge and another from Steve Kovach of CNBC, just seem too have just failed.
So, what's happening?
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Picture this: Opening arguments for Apple vs. Qualcomm are underway in the Southern District of San Diego. US District Court Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel first disallows, then reverses and allows live tweeting. So we all get to read along. Allegations are made of double-dipping, of Coke wanting to get paid for Pepsi. Of KFC and its secret recipe. Of chicken and potatoes. No, seriously. It got weird and fast.
Then, right there, out of nowhere, the inconceivable happens.
They settle. Everything.
Here's what happened...
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Ok. Here’s the thing. I’m a little late. It’s closer to 7 months now than 6, but after reviewing the aluminum at launch, checking out the gold steel and Nike+ a couple of weeks in, and following up with the Hermès some 2 months after, I got delayed slightly by some new iPads, AirPods, and, yeah, services.
But, I’ve been able to use the extra time to collect extra information, and from people beyond my own personal use cases and, frankly, the typical tech-sphere considerations.
I’ve also got to use the latest watchOS update, which adds ECG to Hong Kong and 19 countries across Europe, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Also, and more applicable to me, some new watch face variations for Nike and Hermes, and AirPods 2 support, which makes a great pairing even better. Like, I don’t know dark chocolate and crunchy peanut butter?
There are also new watch bands for the spring. This year’s collection includes new sport loops, new sport bands, new Hermès straps, new almost everything.
Let's take a look at all of that!
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Back in 2010 you could get any iPad you wanted, provided you wanted the only 9.7-inch iPad Apple made… But, over the years, Apple has expanded the lineup to include the 7.9-inch iPad mini and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Just recently, they’ve even added a 10.5-inch iPad Air and 11-inch Pro.
So, now, the iPad is spread across 5 different models and price points, and that’s not even counting options like cellular or storage or even finish that make up all the different SKU. That’s industry slang for stock keeping unit, but whatever. My point is, you have a lot of options now and it can seem complicated, maybe even overwhelming if you’re looking to upgrade or buy-in for the first time.
But it’s actually really simple to hone down on the one and only iPad that’s perfect for you.
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"Apple is misleading customers about data recovery. They’re lying! They ban accounts. It really pisses people off!"
That’s the focus and fallout of a CBC report about a couple from Newfoundland who were trying to save their vacation photos from a water damaged iPhone.
I’ve been asked about the report over and over again since it aired and it’s taken me a little while to sort through it all. And that’s only because the report itself is so… unsorted — it’s an incredibly important story but it’s not told incredibly well.
So, let's dive into it!
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Bueller? Bueller?
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I’m reading Vlad Savov’s piece on the Verge about how the iPhone camera used to be a selling point but is now a settling point.
I like Vlad’s writing a lot. Mostly because his point of view is often so different than my own. It forces me to think, to challenge my own preconceptions. And, regardless of whether I end up agreeing or disagreeing, to learn through the process.
With apologies to Alan Moore and thanks to Vlad, this is that process.
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I've been using AirPods (2nd Generation) since just after Apple's March event. In that time, I've flown across the continent, driven for hours, listened to podcasts, recorded podcasts, edited videos — including this one! — made calls, and tested them out on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.
So, how did they perform?
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You know the one about AirPods 2 not having iPhone-style water-resistance, Apple Pencil 2-style soft touch texture, Bose-style noise cancelation, or fitting those outside the 80% curve of Apple’s earbuds?
Well, Apple’s Beats by Dre subsidiary is aiming to scratch a few of those remaining items, or pain points, off the list with the all-new, just announced PowerBeats Pro, which look to bring a little variety to the truly wireless game.
But do they beat Apple's own AirPods 2? Let's break it all down...
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Huawei’s got hot new 2019 P30 and P30 Pros on the market, yeah fresh from Paris and overflowing with Eifel Tower selfies and croissant shots, and I’m dying to put them head-to-head, or phone-to-phone rather against Apple’s 2018 iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, but Huawei isn’t sending me any review units any time soon, so what am I going to do?
Why, call in the pros who have the phones again, that’s what. And that means, once again, Daniel Bader, managing editor of Android Central.
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I’m live in Cupertino California fresh out of Apple’s Show Time media event at the Steve Jobs theater — scratch that, I was live in Cupertino but it’s taken me a bit longer than I hoped to get to this video, but I’ve also managed to learn a bit more than I did immediately following the event, including chatting with Apple about its just-announced video game service. So, I’m hitting pause, hitting restart, and playing this one over all over again.
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Apple has canceled AirPower. That’s not an April Fool’s joke. It’s not a typo. It’s not a glitch in the matrix. AirPower is dead, and here’s the statement Apple sent me about it on behalf senior Vice President of hardware engineering, Dan Riccio:
“After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project. We apologize to those customers who were looking forward to this launch. We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward.”
Now, I’ve already made an AirPower video that covers the history of the product from announcement to late last year, and I’ll link it in the description, so I’m not going to rehash all of that here and now.
But, there are so many questions, so many hot takes, so many rushed uploads and pubs, and so much misinformation and misunderstanding circulating out there, I felt like I had to try, at the very least, to help all of you who support this channel understand what happened and why. At least as much as it’s possible for anyone outside the AirPower and executive teams at Apple to really do that. So…
Let's do that.
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The last time Apple introduced a new iPad Air was 2014. Since then, there have been iPad Pros with more premium features and price tags, and even a resurrected original Air with the lowest entry-level price ever. But as the Pros got more expensive and the base model less, there’s been nothing but a widening gulf in-between those two extremes. Until now.
So, with the 2019 iPad Air 3 and the almost identically specced iPad mini 5, Apple hasn’t just launched new iPads — they’ve added a new midrange tier to the lineup, something with many of the Pro features but without the pro price.
I spent some time chatting with Apple about the new iPad Air 3 in New York City last week and picked one up one for review while in Cupertino for the Show Time event.
But, I wanted to do a wider, more complete, more in-context review for the Air as well.
So, I took it up, up, and away into the air. Literally.
I scored an upgrade on my flight home, headed to the airport, jumped into one of the wacky s-shaped pod seats, and got to work finding out what this new 10.5-inch Air is really all about.
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Austin Mann isn’t just one of the best photographers in the business he also happens to be one of the best iPhone photographers. Every year when Apple puts out a new iPhone, Austin takes it somewhere jaw-dropping to test out the camera, like Iceland or the Sahara, and then he posts a review of everything he likes and, yeah, doesn’t like about the new sensor, chipset, and software. And when he’s not doing that, he’s traveling around the world shooting famous places, famous faces, and capturing awe inspiring moments from pretty much anywhere and everywhere.
I had a chance to meet up with him when he was in Montreal a couple of months back and had so much fun chatting I asked him if he’d come back so we could chat with all of you as well.
And he was gracious enough to say yes.
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You can call them AirPods 1 S. You can call them AirPods 1.5. You can even call them half-a-year late for, well, not dinner, don’t be obvious, but for a second anniversary, iPhone-timed release. And that’s fine. That’s fair. I’m not going to argue what they aren’t for you. That’s entirely up to you. But I am going to tell you what they are and what they mean to me. That way, if you’re trying to decide whether or not you should pull the trigger on them now, now, now, you’ll have all the information you need to do just exactly that.
These are the AirPods (Generation 2), and this is a quick unboxing and first look!
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I’m live at Apple’s March Event — Show Time — at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, where we’ve just gotten the very first details about Apple’s new video service, Apple TV+. You know, the one they’ve been working on for a couple years, spent billions on getting A-list talent signed up for, and may not be as quantity as Netflix or Amazon but could just be shooting for even higher quality.
So, what is it, when is it coming, and what do the shows actually look like?
Just. Hit. Play.
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Apple is positioning Apple Card as a credit card by a company that doesn’t just want to get you hooked to the interest needle and drain you… not dry… but to the edge of a very long, very draining life.
To that end, it’s partnering not with any long-established, long horrible bank, but with a new bank, that admittedly has a pretty horrible history all its own, but is kinda like Cingular was when the iPhone first launched — just desperate enough to let Apple do pretty much whatever Apple wants to do.
It's virtual. It's titanium (!), it's rewarding, it's helpful, it's U.S. only, and it's still a credit card... with all the convenience and grotesque usury that comes with that business.
Here's what you need to know.
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Apple’s March 25 event is just around the corner and that means there’ll not only be a lot to cover but a lot of people covering it.
And... it’s weird. I’ve blogged and done podcasts for a long time, and YouTube much more recently. And even when you’re just talking about one company, like Apple, the analysts and journalists don’t always know the podcasters or bloggers, or vice versa, and the people on YouTube don’t always know the people off, and also vice versa.
It’s almost like we all exist in the same space but vibrate at different dimensional frequencies. And the intersection of people who read Daring Fireball, watch MKBHD, listen to Connected, and follow Above Avalon is way, way smaller than it should be.
So, let’s fix that. These are all the Apple analysts, journalists, bloggers, podcasters, YouTubers, and more that you need to follow in 2019.
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Apple created iPad, then iPad mini. Then Apple destroyed iPad and created iPad Air, only to destroy iPad Air and create iPad Pro. Twice. Thrice. Fice? Whatever. Now, Apple has recreated iPad and, finally, iPad mini and iPad Air as well.
So, what we have now, for the first time, is a fairly complete lineup of iPads, from entry-level to mid-range to top end. And that’s thanks, in large part, to the new iPad mini 5 and iPad Air 3.
I got to spend some time with Apple chatting about both in New York City, and while I only managed to abscond with the new mini, the new Air is almost identical. Since I spent the better part of a year with the old 10.5-inch as my primary iPad, and I realize a lot of you want all the information possible to make the best buying decision possible, I’m going to offer up some preliminary thoughts on it as well. In other words, twice the video bang for your view.
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macOS is old. Like NeXTStep old. Steve Jobs introduced it in 2001 and, updated it years until 2004, then every two years until 2012, and now, every year again, ever since. Presumably this year as well, with macOS 10.15… I don’t know… what’s the Mojave High Sierra or El Cap? Joshua Tree?
Whatever. As operating systems go, it’s beyond mature but it’s not entirely modern. Where Microsoft failed at mobile and was forced to bring Windows into the present, and Google never had a traditional operating system to split focus with Android… though they’ve managed to do that with ChromeOS all on their own.
Apple, though, is trying to drag both forward, struggling to make iOS more functional while making macOS more mainstream.
And, big surprise, I have some ideas on how Apple could do just that. Take macOS to the next level.
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Apple’s just announced new iMacs for 2019. Well, newly updated iMacs.
Up front, they’re spec bumped versions of the previous models. Beyond that, though, I got to spend some time with Apple in New York looking at the specific updates and hearing all about the modern iMac in general. And, yeah — turns out there’s just a little bit more to the story.
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What’s next? iPhone is doomed. What’s next? Peak iPad. What’s Next? Been 5 years since Apple Watch. What’s next? AirPods, seriously? What. The Fuck. Is Next.
Yeah, it’s super annoying. Especially as the things that transform us move from being strictly atoms to the sublime combination of atoms and the bits on and packetized between them.
But there is something undeniably, irresistibly tangible about the products, the toys, the nows. The phones, the tablets, the watches, the earphones, and, yeah, the latest rumored what’s next.
Apple glasses. Apple googles. Apple specs or shades. Apple vision. Apple frames. Apple AR. For your face.
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It’s Friday, and that means I’m taking three stories that are important but that either wouldn’t fill a full video or I just dropped the ball on and didn’t manage to fit in during the week. It’s code-named The Wrap, because Smart YouTube Mafia was taken, and if you have stories you want to see covered next week or any week thereafter, just drop them in the comments or hit me up on Twitter. On deck for today are Apple Events galore, Facebook’s terrible very worst week, and Tesla’s new Model Y.
"Spotify has filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission (EC), the regulatory body responsible for keeping competition fair and nondiscriminatory.
That’s how Daniel EK, billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of Spotify, announcement his company’s action against Apple on March 14, 2019.
So why is this happening and what's going on?
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(Apologies for the audio, had some issues on my end. Fixed for next time!)
"It’s time to break up Amazon, Google, and Facebook"
That’s how U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren began her explosive big tech takedown proposal on Medium on March 8.
"Twenty-five years ago, Facebook, Google, and Amazon didn’t exist. Now they are among the most valuable and well-known companies in the world. It’s a great story — but also one that highlights why the government must break up monopolies and promote competitive markets."
Needless to say, it got a whole lot of attention, especially in the tech press. Since then, Warren, who has a long history of consumer advocacy, has expanded and elaborated on who she’s targeting and what she means, especially when it comes to Apple and the App Store.
Including in an interview that went live just last night, with my guest today, Editor-in-Chief of the Verge, Nilay Patel.
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There’s a new Mac Pro coming, hopefully as soon as this year. We could see a preview of it as soon as WWDC 2019 in June.
But, a preview of… what exactly? That Apple has even been talking about it before any kind of official introduction is unprecedented, but hints aside, we still have no idea what it will be.
We do, however, know what we want it to be.
So, let’s take a look at both. What Apple has said. And what pro users want.
And, to help me out, I got a couple of the best pros in the business:
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On deck for today we’ve got Apple’s AR Glasses… wait, no, I think I’ll save those for a full video next week. Let me know in the comments if you want that ASAP.
OK, so, rewind, we’ve got Facebook again, because of course we’ve got Facebook again, as well as significant step forward for right to repair, and, yeah, both Tim Apple and my giant head showing up in the darnedest places.
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Huawei is suing the U.S. government. Huawei, which makes everything from phones, like the just-announced Mate X, yeah the one that stole some of Samsung’s folding thunder, to the communications equipment that connects all phones, including the upcoming 5G networks, Huawei is claiming the United States is unfairly — unconstitutionally, even — keeping them out of the country, out of deals with major telcos like AT&T and Verizon, and out of the hands of consumers.
The U.S. government claims Huawei’s close ties to the Chinese government make it a threat to national security and the privacy of American citizens. In other words, that Huawei equipment from handsets to infrastructure, will be used to spy on Americans, Canadians, Brits, and pretty much everyone else. And is pressuring other governments to keep them out as well. Huawei claims not. And Huawei is calling foul.
So, are Americans being kept safe or are they simply being denied the best gear at the best price or maybe just cheaper gear for a cheaper price?
Carolina Milanesi, consumer tech analyst at Creative Strategies and one of the brightest and most insightful people in the industry, joins me to figure it all out.
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*Because reverse psychology totally works, right?
Apple makes a ton of stuff. Compared to when Steve Jobs returned and drew that grid with notebooks and desktops, consumer and professional, and, yeah, of course, some accessories and ancillaries, Apple now makes a ton of stuff.
Never mind Mac or even iPod. RIP. Almost. There’s Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and HomePod, and all the cases and cables and dongles and software and services that tie them all together. And then there’s the new Mac Pro and Pro Display on their way.
So. Much. Stuff. So much, Apple recently exited the AirPort router business because it was too much.
But…
Yeah…
Here’s the thing:
Part of me kinda wishes they’d make just a few more.
A revolutionary television with computational audio. A secure home mesh hub. A video and entertainment system. Are you getting it yet?
Yeah, sorry, Steve. So sorry. But I had to...
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First, it was a new product category that fit somewhere between iPhone and MacBook. That despite, of course, a decade of Tablet PC that had come before it. Then, it was the intersection of technology and the liberal arts. Most recently, it was the clearest expression of Apple’s vision for the future of computing… Even as Apple continued introducing new Macs. but what’s a computer, right?
It’s the iPad, and rumor has it we’re about to get a new, slightly bigger, and overall improved entry-level model again this spring.
But what does that mean, exactly?
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I’m doing something fresh on Fridays. Picking up three stories that are important but either wouldn’t fill an entire video on their own, or I simply dropped the ball on and didn’t manage to fit in during the week.
It’s code-named The Wrap, because Space Bear was all used up, and if you have stories you want to see covered next week or any week thereafter, just drop them in the comments or hit me up on Twitter.
On deck for today we’ve got EFF calling for iCloud Backup Encryption, some really cool new Siri Shortcuts support, and not FaceTime but Duo for the web.
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Marzipan is the code name for Apple’s multi-year project to bring UIKit apps to the macOS. In other words, apps made in the newfangled iPad way, rather than the traditional AppKit way for the Mac.
We saw the awkward early stages last year at WWDC 2018 with the release of Apple’s first iPad app ports, News, Home, Voice Recorder, and Stocks for macOS. And while they’re not good, or consistent, or inspiring, or good, at least not yet. They’re most definitely there.
Apple said stage two begins this year, at WWDC 2019, when developers get their chance to creating and porting UKit apps to the Mac. Sure, that includes huge players like Netflix and Twitter, and more feature-complete versions of Apple’s own apps like Photos and Messages, it could also include iOS apps that previously made no economic sense to redo for the Mac, like Drafts and Overcast.
Most recently, Mark Gurman rumored for Bloomberg that future stages also include a way to bring iPhone apps — the ones without existing iPad interfaces — over as well, and, eventually, a unified App Store and universal binaries across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple’s existing adjunct platforms, like Watch, TV, and maybe even CarPlay.
But it’s a long road from here to there, and I’m not a developer, so I reached out to one of the smartest, most industries, most keyed-in developers I know to help me suss all this out.
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Samsung has shown off the Galaxy Fold. Hawaii the Mate X. Oppo... another Mate X? That Xiami tease. LG… whatever the hell this is. And, never mind the Royole FlexPai. Just, flashy thing me already.
It’s foldapalooza 2019, but is any of it any good — and which of it the best?
With thanks to MrMobile, Michael Fisher, and Alex Dobie of Android Central.
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It’s disappointing if no longer surprising that Facebook and Google siphoning off your most private, personal data isn’t expressly illegal everywhere.
Data theft is still theft and this type of stuff happens so frequently, even with policies, even with fines, that the only way to stop it seems to be by making sure it’s criminal. That if you fail to disclose what data you’re taking and who you’re sharing it with, you’ll face charges. You’ll go to jail.
That the penalty will be so severe that if a founder, CEO, or developer even dreams of violating it, they’ll wake up screaming to delete the code.
And until that happens, the platform owners, Apple, and Microsoft, and yes, even and especially Google, needs to hold every app and every developer accountable.
Require them to disclose, as part of the store page, what data is collected and who it is shared with. In place that’s as easy to see as the price, the compatibility, and the parental guidance.
Then do deeper inspection to detect what, if any, information is being sent to the developer and any quote-unquote analytics they may be using, and if it doesn’t match the disclosure, reject their ass… I mean apps, over and over again, or if willfully and intentionally deceptive, remove their apps and delete their accounts.
And if any developer is the least bit concerned that would have a chilling effect on downloads or a deleterious affect on their business, then they shouldn’t be doing it.
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I’m trying something new on Fridays. Picking up three stories that are important but either wouldn’t fill an entire video all its own, or I just dropped the ball on and didn’t manage to fit in.
I’m code-naming it The Wrap, because everyone loves code names and Yukon was already taken, and if you have stories you want to see covered next week or any week thereafter, just drop them in the comments or hit me up on Twitter.
On deck for today we’ve got Apple reportedly getting into the credit card game, right to repair beyond the wall, and Samsung’s Galaxy Fold.
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Whenever a new phone comes out, I do two things: Chew gum and figure out which of its features I’d love Apple to implement in the iPhone. No, not really. What I do is figure out which features I’d love to see Apple implement, and then figure out how Apple could take them even further.
So, with the announcement of Samsung’s Galaxy S10, there’s a whole new list to get to. And I’m fresh out of gum. Fresh out.
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Pop quiz hot takers: You gotta put Samsung’s new 2019 Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus head-to-head, phono-a-phono with Apple’s 2018 iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, but Samsung didn’t give you any early access to the hardware. So what do you do? What. Do. You. Do?
You call in the pros who have the phones, that’s what. And for this Galaxy, that’s Daniel Bader, managing editor of Android Central.
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Kuo Ming-Chi, financial analyst and supply chain exfiltrator extraordinaire — that is to say, the one person who’s somehow been most able to pry information out of all the companies assembling all the components and products for Apple — got a ton of attention again this week when he sent his clients a note covering what he expects to see in 2019. And, of course, that quickly echoed across the internet in ways both predictable and, in many cases, confounding.
So, what did he cover and what does it mean?
Spoiler alert. We’re going in.
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Starting February 27, 2019, Apple is going to require developers to enable two-factor authentication — 2FA — on existing developer accounts.
That's left a lot of developers scrambling to get themselves set up in time. Because… Connect wants unique IDs for every service. That means, even if you don’t have or work for a company, it’s quite possible you may have an iTunes and App Store account, iCloud account, developer account, Apple Books account, Apple Podcast account. And if you do work or contract for a company or several, maybe more than one of some of those. Hell, I do.
Lest you think this video is all only for developers, if you have a significant other, child, parent, business partner, or anyone that would benefit from multiple people having 2FA codes, this can be for you as well.
So, how are you going to get the 2FA codes for all the other accounts?
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I can imagine, certainly not today or tomorrow, but one day, AirPods that contain a W5 or some other alphanumeric chipset, that slip into your ears and, through a combination of gestures and Siri — or better yet, SiriOS — can stream music, podcasts, and audio books straight from the clouds and into your ears.
And, the day or a few days after that, when they can not only send and read all your messages and mail, add all your reminders and appointments, but stream full-on audio augmented reality as well for everything from turn-by-turn mapping directions to interactive fitness workouts.
So, yeah, first like iPods. Then like JARVIS. Like HER.
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AirPods (2019) Preview
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Apple is planning a special event for the week of March 25, 2019, reportedly for their new subscription news and video services. The pubs will be there. The stars will be there. Less certain: iPads, AirPods, and any other hardware.
So, what does that means and what all else could we see?
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Confession: I’ve been saying for years that Apple would never make iMessage for Android because it would hurt the overall value of iPhone and, for the last decade, iPhone is where the vast majority of Apple’s money has come from.
But, with the saturationing — the phone business hitting maturity — and Apple increasingly turning towards its ecosystem — additional products like Apple Watch and AirPods yes, but also and especially services like Apple Pay and the upcoming Apple television shows — that could all change.
Apple has long been offering Apple Music on Android, and has recently announced iTunes for Samsung televisions. Yeah. Samsung. iTunes. Stop the record and rewind that. As well as AirPlay and HomeKit for LG, Vizio, and Sony.
So, could cross-platform iMessage finally start making the kind of sense that does?
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Amazon is buying eero. And, if my Twitter feed is any indication, a lot of you are hella mad about it.
Here's why, how it all goes back to Apple, and whether or not AirPort should consider not just a comeback, but become a full suite of Apple Home products.
Yeah, it's like that.
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When news broke that Angela Ahrendts was leaving Apple, things got hectic. There’d been almost no advanced word and so it caught almost everyone by surprise. And then it caught fire.
What followed was a fascinating — and somewhat grotesque — glimpse into our collective psyche as the internet stumbled all over itself to rush out its hottest of takes about Ahrendts leaving — many absurd, reflective, projective, and in general little to do with Ahrendts and a lot to do with our own damage and frustrations.
So, what’s really going on?
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Look. I know new iPhones are still like 8 months away. You know that I know that. But it’s not about me and it’s not about you. It’s about the rumors. Apparently, nobody bothered to tell the damn rumors. So, here we are, more than half a year out, and we’re already talking not about the new iPhones but the next ones.
So, let’s just agree that this is both a little silly and a lot awesome, and kick right into it.
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Rene gets together with AR/VR expert, Russell Holly, to talk about the current state of augmented reality and the possibilities for the future.
Recorded live in Florida at MoNaCon2019 — Mobile Nation's internal company gathering.
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Costs. Subsidies. Exchange rates. Margins. Ultimately, none of that matters. Even if iPhone price increases were in line with inflation and the increases in quality and diversity of components and new features, and we factored out exchange, and we didn’t give a damn about margins, it wouldn’t matter.
Pricing is physiological more than mathematical. In the market, perception really is reality.
And the perception among many is that iPhone prices have gotten too high.
Tim Cook addressed exactly that during Apple's Q1 2019 conference call this week.
So, what are he and Apple going to do about it?
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A serious bug has been discovered in FaceTime’s new Group Calling feature that can be exploited to allow instant access to your microphone and, potentially, your front-facing camera.
I asked Apple about the bug and they provided me with the following statement.
"We're aware of this issue and we have identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week."
So, what the hell is happening and what can you do about it in the meantime?
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There were rumors for years that Apple was working on a phone but Purple, the iPhone project, never really leaked. There were rumors for years that Apple was working on a watch but Gizmo, the Apple Watch project, never really leaked.
At least nothing even close to Titan, which many people have assumed is the Apple Car project but is kind of something much bigger, exactly what Apple and Tim Cook have called it: an autonomous technologies project.
That we keep getting reports on the inner workings of a special projects group within Apple is surprising. That Apple commented on it is startling. We’ll get to that in a hot minute but, first, what is Project Titan really? And why does it seem to be changing year after year?
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iPad mini has the shortest turn around of any iOS device ever, at least up until that time. Apple went from not making one to scheduling one to ship on a dime.
Luckily, the software teams discovered that the existing 9.7-inch iPad interface, shrunk down to 7.9-inches, with the density increasing from the iPad’s 132 ppi to the iPhone’s 163 ppi — remember, these were the days before Retina — kept it completely usable.
That wasn’t the result of any careful, multi-year planning to re-use existing screen fabs or save on UI work, it was simply the karma of solid, practical past choices creating opportunities for smart, efficient future choices.
Combined with the next-generation, size-bezel-slimmed design language Jony Ive and the ID team had been working on, and the new Lightning port the platform technologies team had been developing, for the full-sized iPad, and the teams once again managed to do the impossible — turn around and ship the iPad mini in record time.
And, in 2012, it enjoyed a good amount of success, especially back in the days before big and bigger screen iPhones, Plus and now Max models that might as well be tiny tablets in their own rights. It pushed down iPad ASP — the average selling prices financial analysts often cite when commenting on market health in lieu of any deep product knowledge. But some customers really loved it.
In 2013, it went retina with iPad mini 2, in 2014, it got Touch ID with iPad mini 3, and in 2015 it finally got the laminated display and A8 processor… of the previous year’s iPad Air 2. But without the benefit of any keynote time, other than a pricing slide.
Because iPad Pro had come, with a 12.9-inch display, Apple Pencil, and an average selling price that would make Wall Street beam a little again. At least for a while.
And, since then, nothing. Nothing and more nothing. Until now.
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I’ve gone over Facebook’s year of scandals, Google and Amazon’s struggles with ethics and abuses, and Apple’s calls for privacy regulations.
That last one has caused some pushback. What about Apple and Google Search? What about Apple and China? What about Apple and cross platform services? What about Apple and App Store app abuses? What about… you get the idea.
And that’s fine. That’s great. That’s exactly what I want. I said from the beginning that all of this, all the videos I’ve done on privacy and security, were meant to be parts of the conversation.
So, let’s converse.
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Twelve years Steve Jobs announced a wide-screen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet device. But it wasn't three products. It was one product. Yeah, we got it, Steve. It was the iPhone.
And here's how it came to be.
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The new Smart Battery cases are here. I repeat, the new Smart Battery Cases are here! This is not a drill. The new Smart Battery Cases for iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max — and yes, you can even use it on iPhone X! — are here!
So, let's take a look!
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"In 2019, it’s time to stand up for the right to privacy—yours, mine, all of ours. Consumers shouldn’t have to tolerate another year of companies irresponsibly amassing huge user profiles, data breaches that seem out of control and the vanishing ability to control our own digital lives.
"This problem is solvable—it isn’t too big, too challenging or too late. Innovation, breakthrough ideas and great features can go hand in hand with user privacy—and they must. Realizing technology’s potential depends on it."
That’s how Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, begins his essay on privacy, just right now published in Time Magazine.
"A California judge has ruled that American cops can’t force people to unlock a mobile phone with their face or finger. The ruling goes further to protect people’s private lives from government searches than any before and is being hailed as a potentially landmark decision."
That’s how Thomas Brewster, begins his coverage in an article just days ago in Forbes.
The need for both regulations and rights. It’s exactly the conversation I wanted to help kickstart in the RIGHT TO REMAIN PRIVATE video I posted last weekend. In the age of ubiquitous data harvesting, it’s one of the most important conversations all of us, here on this channel and out in the world, have to have.
I didn’t intend to follow that video up so closely with another. But I don’t every time get what I want.
And, in this case, it’s for a couple of damn good reasons.
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iOS is no longer the simple, mainstream operating system Steve Jobs first showed off in January of 2007 with the original iPhone.
But, it’s also not yet the sophisticated, pro-centric operating system geeks have been lusting for since Steve Jobs first showed it off again in January of 2010 on the original iPad.
Some want to keep iOS simple and accessible, like an appliance. Others want to turn it into the Mac.
Both are wrong. And myopic. There’s a third path, one that lets iOS continue with its mainstream mission but also take it to the next level in a way that brings everyone forward.
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I’m going to use this video to propose something so controversial I’m not even sure I fully agree with it, at least not yet. This is complex, nuanced, life, death, and the future of our society stuff, and the absolute last thing I’m going to do is take any of it lightly.
Instead, I’m going to take several things that happened this week, break them down, and then suggest how we as a people can move forward.
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If you like Apple products or you’re simply a proper tech head who delights in everything cool and novel, then the minute that big ball drops on New Year, you start thinking about just which products exactly Apple is getting ready to drop in the New Year. Some things was can all but take for granted — new operating systems at WWDC in June, new iPhones in September. Other things, like new Macs and iPads, and events in March and October… well… those are always just a little less certain.
2018 was a huge year for Apple where almost everything got update, almost. But it was also a huge challenge, with some updates delayed and some products just MIA.
So, what does Apple have coming in 2019? The best indicator of future behavior is past behavior, so let's look at the patterns and see what they show us.
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Here’s a question: Will Samsung phones get AirPlay 2 now as well?
About a month ago I got to go to New York and preview a bunch of HomeKit accessories scheduled to be announced at CES 2019.
Since CES 2019 is just kicking off, and not all of the embargoes have dropped, I'll add updates to a sticky comment as they come in.
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Here’s a question: Will Samsung phones get AirPlay 2 now as well?
Now, all of this may come as a bit of a surprise. But it shouldn’t really. Apple is getting ready to ramp up its original TV content. The video version of Apple Music. And Apple Music has always been available on Android and has recently been made available on Amazon Echo as well.
Which, yeah, was another head scratcher if not full on pea-soup spitting spinner as well.
But, in light of the saturationing, which is what I’m gonna keep calling the maturing of the smartphone market, Apple isn’t just about making the iPhone more and more valuable through more and more exclusive content any more. It’s about getting value from that content beyond iPhone exclusivity.
That’s always included Apple Music and now it looks like it’s going to include Apple video as well, and, who knows, maybe Apple’s new Texture-based Magazine and News service at some point.
Could it include iMessage and FaceTime? Hit play and let's talk it all through!
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Apple brought an expensive speaker to a commodity assistant war. That was pretty much the narrative around HomePod in 2018. It nailed the computational audio model and AirPlay 2, when that part finally arrived, but a lot of people were too busy throwing cheap, ok-enough sounding, but super smart Amazon or Google boxes into damn near every room in their house to notice.
But now Apple has John Giannandrea, Google’s former head of Machine Intelligence and Search, on their executive team, and things could finally — huge emphasis on the could and finally — be getting much better for Siri.
What could all that mean for HomePod 2? And what about HomePod mini, HomeBar, and HomePad?
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Apple has done something almost unprecedented: In a letter to investors, CEO Tim Cook announced Apple is revising its guidance for Q1 2019, lowering revenue projections from the previously stated 89 to 93 billion, down to 84 billion.
That’s an 8% difference, which translates into 5-9 billion dollars. Billion with a b.
Yeah. F*g ouch.
So, what's going on?
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“Great artists steal”. The fuller phrase is “good artists copy, great artists steal”. It's one of the most commonly used — and misunderstood — Steve Jobs quotes in tech.
I'll link the etymology below, but the gist is this: Copying by itself, just taking someone else’s work and using it as your own, is lazy and limited. But stealing something, making it yours, and most importantly — making it new and different and better — now that’s art, and that benefits everyone.
So, in that sprit, as we head into 2019, I want to offer a list of 9 things I think the artists at Apple would do well to steal. Things that would make iPhone not just more competitive but better.
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As I’m shooting this we’re just over 125 videos, 73 thousand subs, and 9 million views in the 10 months since this channel went live, and while I know that’s still tiny by some YouTube standards, it’s a lot for me, and it means a lot to me, and so I want to close out 2018 by reviewing everything we've accomplished together, thanking all of you for all of your support through all of this.
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In 2016, Apple deleted the 3.5mm headphone jack. Those jerks. But Apple also introduced AirPods. Making them magnificent jerks.
Essentially EarPods with the cords cut off and the stems and buds crammed full of sensors and custom silicon, they looked goofy, they cost more than what you found in dollar stores, and they took longer than expected to hit the market.
But when they finally did, and people got a taste of the freedom that came from no longer having strings to hold them down, we went from the usual self-proclaimed techsperts poking fun at them to to AirPods being heralded as one of the best products to come from Apple in years.
That was 2016 though. What can we expect from AirPods in 2019?
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Every year, to end the year, I put together lists of what I think Apple did best and worst for the last 12 months. I’ve already posted the list of the worst so, now, I’m going to spend a got minute focusing on the positive. What Apple did right and how I’d like to see Apple keep building on it for next year. Not because I’m a fanboy or apologist or any other dismissive term those who have tribal fury but lack the articulation to form any factual, cohesive arguments to the contrary, but because if you don’t recognize the good along with the bad, the jobs well done amongst those still left to be done, them you fail to promote the direction you want to see continue and focus you want to see carried on. So, what made this year’s list?
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First, Guilherme Rambo found an icon in the watchOS beta. Then, he found an image. Now, Apple Premium Reseller Accessory Merchandising Guidelines and another image.
We could be about to see the second coming of the Smart Battery Case. A modern Smart Battery Case for iPhone X-series phones. And it could be coming soon.
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Every year, to end the year, I put together lists of what I think Apple did best and worst for the last 12 months. I’ll have the best list up in a couple of days but, for now, I’m going to spend a cold minute focusing on the negative: What Apple got wrong and how I’d like to see it fix things for next year.
Not because I’m a jerk or a hater or everything else I get called every time I do this, but because every up has its down, every success hides some failure, and there’s no company or product that is really so great it can’t possibly get any better.
So, what made this year’s list?
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Voice-first advocate Brian Roemmele returns for a chat with Rene Ritchie about the current status of Siri at Apple, and its place among other voice assistants. In January of this year, he told Rene the company's reluctance to let the Siri feature become the SiriOS platform is holding them back. As of December 2018, let's see where things stand now.
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When Apple introduced the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, the original iPhone SE had to die.
But there have been rumors Apple was making a new, entry-level iPhone SE for first-time buyers and emerging markets, something that was essentially an updated iPhone SE with slightly better specs but the same low, low price. Then, rumors that Apple was making a new, modern iPhone SE with and edge-to-edge display, camera notch and all, for people who want a fancy new iPhone but not one even as big as the XS. Now, nothing.
What's going on?
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Google gets a lot of attention and even affection for giving away free services in exchange for our personal, private data. Apple doesn’t want any of that. When you buy something from Apple, just like stickers and cables come in the box, hundreds of millions of dollars of educational programing and probably billions in free apps and services, everything you need to start exploring code and photography and video and music and much, much, more also comes invisibly in that box.
If you think Apple products are two expensive, this is where some of that money goes, so you should absolutely go, get in on all the free classes and training, and take that money back. Even if you’ve never bought an Apple product you can still take all of it, all for free.
It’s not just one of Apple’s biggest products, it’s one of the least know and least taken advantage of, especially when it comes to things like Field Trips for schools and Apple Camp for kids, so make sure you let your friends know, let your schools know, let everyone know. Pick some classes, get some people together, and go, go go.
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The old Steve Jobs product grid is gone. The old grid is dead. But I’d argue there’s a new, almost as simple grid that’s taken its place and can help you whittle down to your ideal MacBook pretty quick.
With the new Air and old, the low end and high end 12-inch, and the 13-inch no Touch Bar to 15-inch Vega MacBook Pro, with lots of room to fuss with exact processor, memory, and storage options in between, there's a lot of choice in Apple's current notebook lineup.
Which is why grids only ever really took us so far. So, let’s try something better...
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Gramps may not beta, but he does return to Vector for a Holiday chat with Rene! They talk about the Microsoft Edge transition to Chromium, and taking the blame (and earning praise) for decisions at Apple. They also discuss Marvel shows getting canceled by Netflix and the content siloing of video streaming services. Plus, the pros and cons of hardware vs. software transcoding, and a ton more!
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iPhone XR has been out for just over a month, and I’ve been using it, sometimes side by side with an iPhone XS, often times on its own, and for the last few days side by side with an iPhone 6s. Why a 6s? Because I wanted to get a sense not just of how cool the new colors are, though they are, or whether the display and camera system were dealbreakers compared to the iPhone XS, which really depends on the individual, but how much of a difference the upgrade will make to a real person in the real world.
And a lot of people considering the XR, people who don’t get a new phone to review every couple days, weeks, or months, have been using the same phone for a couple or few years already. That’s the 6s. Maybe the 6, SE, or 7. But mostly the 6s. And, if that’s you or someone you’re close to, I want to take my head out of the tech bubble for a minute and put myself in your shoes.
Maybe you’re ready to upgrade and you’re considering giving up the familiarity of the Home button — you know, the one only tech hot takers ever thought that was boring — and try out the full screen future. But you’re wondering if the $750 up front or the few bucks extra on your carrier plan is worth it for the iPhone XR. Whether it will provide value to you or yours beyond the price.
Just over a month later, that’s what we’re going to answer.
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James Cuda, is the creator of Procreate along with being the co-founder and CEO of its development studio, Savage Interactive. It's an astonishing tool that allows artists to sketch, paint, and create richly detailed illustrations. It's a killer app of iPad — one that soundly disproves the notion of tablets as "consumption devices" and "not for real work".
James joins Rene to discuss the immense power and potential of the latest iPad Pro models, and to examine the ways artists today make use of Procreate.
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I’ve been wearing an Apple Watch Series 4 with watchOS 5 for just over 10 weeks now, including a couple weeks with the aluminum, gold steel, Nike+, and now, for the last month, Hermès.
So, over 2 months later and almost 4 years in, which new features have flourished for me and which ones have failed? Has it been worth the upgrade or would an older Apple Watch still be just fine?
Hit play and let's re-review this!
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AirPower was announced alongside the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and iPhone X at Apple’s September event… in 2017. It was a preview, not a release, and Apple said it would only be available in 2018. Since then, the iPhone X has come and gone and another September event along with it. Now it’s November 2018 — late November — and AirPower is still nowhere to be found.
Apple has launched products in December before. AirPods, of course, in 2016, and the Smart Battery Case for iPhone 6s in 2015. But it’s certainly not the norm. HomePod, which was announced at WWDC in June of 2017 as coming later that year, then delayed early February 2018 after AirPlay 2 proved more challenging to nail down than initially expected.
If a December launch isn’t in the cards for AirPower, and the lack of noise leading up to the last month of the year makes that seem increasingly likely, than early next year, be it February or March is the next likely window.
So, what's going on?
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It’s 2018. Why don’t we have multitouch screen Macs?
The company line is that it’s not ergonomic — that having to reach up and across to touch the screen of a Mac to get things done is inefficient and that trying to make the Mac interface work for mouse and for fingers would require too many compromises.
But adding multitouch to the Mac doesn’t remove the existing keyboard or mouse controls any more than making the Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro removed the taps and swipes.
So, for real, why isn’t Apple making any multitouch Macs?
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Just this last week where, following the launch of the iPad Pro, even basic typing tricks like trackpad mode and cursor movement spread through Twitter with viral shock and delight. Years old, many people still simply didn’t know.
Well, let’s fix that now.
I’m not going to go over basics like the magnifier and copy and paste, which I think are pretty well known to most of you by now. But, if you’re not familiar with them, just drop me a line in the comments and I’ll happily help you out.
What I am going to do is go over some of the lesser known, harder to find keyboard tips and tricks that can help you take your typing to the next level.
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Toronto-based concept art and storyboard artist Rob McCallum has been using iPad Pro for all of his work since 2015. And his body of work is extraordinarily impressive, with a resumé that includes: Pacific Rim, RoboCop, Total Recall, It, Suicide Squad, and most recently, Star Trek: Discovery.
Armed with the new 2018 model and his go to drawing app of choice, Procreate, he shares his experiences in being able to push the creativity and complexity of his work even further than before.
He and Rene talk about workflows, personal work vs. client work, and abandoning his drafting table and blue pencils.
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I’ve been thinking about an Apple TV streaming stick for the last couple years but now it looks like the next couple of years could make it a reality.
Currently, Apple’s only answer to television is a starting at $179 box that runs apps and plays up to 4K HDR. But what if there was something else? Something smaller that, instead of sitting beside any tv, could plug right into the back. Something that gave you all the power of Apple’s TV app, but could go with you in a pocket… or maybe was already in your pocket or bag?
What if there was a tiny Apple TV dongle? An AirPlay Express?
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These are the actual gifts I’m giving this year. And I can’t think of a higher personal recommendation than that.
You can’t escape holiday gift giving — and receiving — at least entirely. So, when I shop for others and myself, I try really hard to only buy only a few, well made things. Things that give value. Things that will last.
It can make Black Friday — or Blackvember Fest as I called it in my video last week — trickier to navigate. Like HALO jumping into a brand new massively online shooter on launch day, deals and temptation exploding all around you. Even as you’re desperately trying to respawn and respawn and just let me spawn, you damn deals!
If you have a strategy and a list, though, you really can win. I went over the strategy last time. Now I’m going to share my list.
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I received a lot of great feedback on my iPad Pro (2018) review and I appreciate it. But, I also got some criticism and I think it was valid and fair. I didn’t have as many negatives on my list as some other reviewers because I reviewed the new hardware and most of the negatives deemed directed at the not so new software. Also, I didn’t address the iPad Pros ability to replace a laptop, which is something almost every other review focused on extensively.
So, after spending two weeks now with Apple’s third generation iPad Pro, I decided to make this re-review all about what I missed last time: iPad Pro as laptop replacement and the iPad Pro software story.
In other words, what I got wrong — and what I still think many other reviews got wrong.
Yeah, it's like that.
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Rumors have been percolating for years already about a third great Apple silicon transition, this time to ARM. By many accounts, Apple has had MacBooks on ARM, running both iOS and macOS since, well, there was any ARM to run them on.
As Apple’s chipset prowess has grown and Intel’s fortunes have faltered, the buzz has gotten louder. Not around an iOS clamshell or desktop box, mind you, interesting as both those products might be. But proper macOS running on proper Apple silicon.
And since the iPad Pro shipped with the Apple A12X, a desktop-as-in-i7-class processor, the buzz has become deafening.
But is it signal or is it just more noise?
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Apple is releasing Final Cut Pro X 10.4.4, Motion 5.4.2, and Compressor 4.42. So, what's new?
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So here's the thing. We weren't able to publish audio versions of our hands-on videos that were made following Apple's event on October 30, 2018. These three videos about the 2018 versions of iPad Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini represent Rene's initial impressions of the devices.
Full reviews have since been published — but in the interest of making the Vector audio podcast a complete chronicle of happenings in the Apple-verse, we present them now. Enjoy!
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You can save $100 on a HomePod. And 20% on iTunes Cards. And get $300 back on an iPhone. And...
Now, it’s no secret Apple gear is priced at a premium. And that can make it expensive to get what you want, especially everything you want. But, the Black Friday and Holiday Sales can give you a very real break.
So, if you’ve been looking to get a new iPhone or Mac or Home automation, to save some cash on games or movies or a new subscription, now’s the time to do it, and all you and I need to know are the best ways to do it.
For that I got Dan DeSilva on the line. Full disclosure, Dan works for Thrifter, my personal go-to-deals-site, which is owned by the same company that owns iMore, Android Central, and Windows Central, which host the transcripts of this show and my other editorial work. But he’s also simply the best discount hound in the business, and his ready to share his top tips.
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Maybe Apple always intended to update the Mac mini but got distracted by more urgent projects? Maybe Apple was waiting to do something... different with the mini, but it was taking too long? Or maybe Apple never meant to update the mini at all but changed its mind after seeing just how much its customers missed the littlest Mac?
I don’t know. But I do know this: After four long, fallow years, Apple has finally updated the Mac mini.
So, is this the Mac mini we’ve all been waiting for? Yes and no. It’s not a bold new take of the original switcher or re-imagining of the desktop for the post-Intel world.
It’s not even really entry level any more, based on the price, except compared to every other Mac.
It may be a placeholder, it could be a resurrection, but it could also be pragmatic. Most Macs sold are notebooks not desktops, and most desktops sold are iMacs not Mac mini’s.
So, where does that leave us?
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“Just slap a Retina display in the MacBook Air and ship it!” is what a lot of people have been clamoring for Apple to do for a long, long time.
This isn't that.
On one extreme, you have the 12-inch MacBook for those who want ultimate portability and are willing to pay a premium for it. On the other extreme, the MacBook Pro for those who want ultimate power and are likely willing to pay for it. In the middle, the broad middle, you have the new Air for those who want a balance of portability and power and don’t want to pay as much of a premium.
That it’s confusing is the result of legacy branding and SKUs. In a perfect world, the 12-inch would be the Air and this would be the new MacBook, and everyone would understand naked is the baseline and modifiers are the two extremes.
But given how popular the Air brand is, and how it’s come to be associated with entry-level, Apple is stuck with things the way they are. At least for now.
So, where does that leave the new MacBook Air?
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Hear that? That was the sound of Apple snapping its fingers and killing half the bezels in its product universe. iPhone went first. Then Apple Watch. Then MacBook Air. Now, iPad Pro. (Somewhere out there, iMac is whispering, “I don’t feel so go…”)
Edge-to-curved-edge Liquid Retina display in 12.5- or 11-inches, Face ID and True Depth Camera, A12X Bionic notebook-crushing processor, new Apple Pencil, and new Smart Keyboard Folio — this is the new iPad Pro.
But is it any good?
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Tom Boger is Sr. Director of Mac Product Marketing at Apple. He's worked on projects including the original iMac. Earlier this week, he took to the Apple keynote stage to introduce the new Mac mini. The following day he sat down with me to talk about that new Mac mini as well as the new MacBook Air and Apple's complete current line-up of Macs: What the design goals are, how to choose the right Mac for you, and how Apple sees the Mac now and into the future.
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The invitations have gone out — 370 odd unique invitations, actually, as it seems like Apple has sent custom art out to everyone invited. In a myriad of styles, from abstract to pop — and the event date is set: October 30, 2018, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House.
So, what does art and music have to do with iPads and Macs?
New iPads Pro, maybe a new iPad mini, new Mac mini, new entry-level MacBook Air replacement, maybe new AirPods and... AirPower.
It's all coming our way in just a couple days at Apple's 'There's more in the making' event at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House.
And here's you last minute rumor rundown and analysis!
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iPhone XR starts at $749. That's $250 less than XS and $350 less than XS Max. And one of the biggest reasons for the difference is the 326ppi LCD display instead of the 458ppi OLED..
So, is that worth the $250 or $350 — or more, depending on the storage — price tag difference?
The bottom line for me is this: Once you dive deep into display nerdery, things like “1080p in 2018” just sound utterly uninformed. It’s a factor, sure, but it’s not even close to the top of the list of what makes for a first class display experience in 2018.
Don’t just take my word on that either, take a bunch of words.
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iPhone XR starts at $749. That's $250 less than XS and $350 less than XS Max. And one of the biggest reasons for the difference is the camera system.
The front-facing TrueDepth camera is the same but the back facing camera on iPhone XS and XS Max is a dual system with one wide angle and one telephoto. XR only has the wide angle.
So, does that worth the $250 or $350 — or more, depending on the storage — price tag difference?
I asked professional photographer and YouTuber Tyler Stalman to help me figure it out!
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If you want a next-as-in-X-generation iPhone but you don't want to pay a thousand or more bucks for it, you want an XR.
iPhone XR — never mind what the R means, it's just a new letter for Apple, one before S, "racing" if you're into cars, "reflex" if you're into cameras, cool-sounding either way. It's everything you need in a next-as-in-X-generation iPhone, minus some bells and whistles... and the higher price tag.
LCD instead of OLED display. Single instead of dual camera system. Haptic touch instead of 3D Touch. LTE Advanced and 2x2 MIMO instead of Gigabit and 4x4. Aluminum instead of steel bands. Back glass that's stronger than iPhone X but not quite as strong as iPhone XS.
It does come in a range of fancy new finishes though: black, white, blue, yellow, coral orange, and Product (RED). And at that lower price — $250 lower — starting at $749.
It does have the new edge-to-curved-edge design language, Face ID and the True Depth camera up front, the latest 12 megapixel, Smart HDR camera on the back, the industry-leading A12 Bionic chipset inside, wide stereo speakers on both ends, and dual SIM card support if one carrier and one number just isn't enough.
So, what are you getting with iPhone XR and what are you giving up? I've spent the last week with a black iPhone XR, and here's what I've found.
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Apple's last event of the year is set for October 30, 2018, in Brooklyn New York, and one of the biggest — er, smallest! — rumors is the return of the Mac mini!
The Mac mini was the original switcher machine. It was announced back in 2005 as a small, inexpensive way for you to swap out a Windows PC for a Mac. But now the switchers have switched and the Mac mini appeals more to pros who want to rack mount it in server rooms or hook it up to media centers or production pipelines.
So, what does Apple have in store for its original entry-level Mac?
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I wasn't going to post a show today. I've been traveling — three cities in three days — and I'm under the weather, and I'm working on a big video for tomorrow, but then I saw Linus... And it looked like he needed help to better understand and enjoy his iPhone XS. Since helping people understand and enjoy their technology, primarily Apple technology, is literally what I do, I dove in and tried to provide the absolute best answers, and sometimes sympathy, I could to his questions and concerns.
Drones are good. Drones are great. Drones are fantastic. But they have one huge problem:
Humans. Humans that crash their drones so goddam always. Especially on YouTube.
Now, if only there was a way around that. A way to get all the good, great, and fantastic without having to worry about humans getting in the way.
Well, now there is. And all you need is a Skydio R1, an Apple Watch, and a dream.
The Skydio R1 , which the company refers to as a self-driving camera, isn’t new. It’s been available since February. What’s new is the Apple Watch app that lets you guide it from your wrist.
I said guide rather than control because the whole point of the Skydio R1 is to let the AI — the artificial intelligence — do the flying. You don’t tell it to go up or down, left or right, pitch or yaw, you just tell it to lead, follow, orbit, boomerang, and the like, and the AI figures out the details.
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If you want to, you can legitimately turn the iPhone into one of the best Google phones in the world. Especially if your definition of “best” includes a heavy focus on privacy and security.
Android is all about choice and, because of that, not using Android has to be a valid choice as well. Not for everyone, of course, but for those of you who were either so disappointed in the latest Pixels or so concerned with Google’s current direction that you want to explore a change.
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Shortcuts is the most important addition to iOS since Extensibility in 8. With it, you can not only set up convenient voice commands to perform any action, you can create actions that are combined into powerful workflows without sacrificing any of that convenience.
Thanks to a bunch of product launches — and some controversies — I haven't had as much time to deep dive into Shortcuts as I'd like so, for this video, I asked some friends to help me out!
They have some great tips on how we can get started with Shortcuts and some favorite and super useful Shortcuts of their own to share.
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The minute we saw iPhone X kick bezels and home buttons to the curb, iPad was put on notice. It had a year, maybe more or maybe less, before Apple’s new “modern” design language came looking for it.
Now, based on all the rumors to date, modern has come, modern has found it, and a lot more has come with it.
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There’s a whole new Apple Watch Series 4, and that means a whole new Apple Watch Nike+ Series 4.
So, is it worth running to?
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Google has just announced the brand new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL and here are 3 features I'd love Apple to steal from Google for the next iPhone!
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In 10 years of covering Apple, I've never seen anything like this.
Bloomberg Businessweek has dropped a bombshell: Chinese intelligence — agents of the People’s Liberation Army — forced factories in China to add tiny spy chips to server boards being manufactured for industry-leading Super Micro, to be sold to industry giants like Apple and Amazon. Their boards and servers literally provide the hearts and minds for many of the world’s data centers, large and small. And, the report says, they’ve been hacked at the hardware level.
I’m an optimist. I like to believe Bloomberg would fact-check the hell out of all of this before printing world one. That they would have it cold. But I also like to believe no public company would risk refuting it this strong if they weren’t dead sure it was wrong.
The various accounts can’t be reconciled. There are no multiple truths here. Someone got it wrong under circumstances where getting it wrong is catastrophic.
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Apple doesn’t always host October events. But, when Apple wants to show off new designs and highlight new technology — when it wants to go into the holidays with an extra bang — it’s with an October event.
So, assuming there is an October Event, and not just a PR drop or bevy of briefings, what could we see?
If past is prolog, new iPads Pro and bunch of new Macs.
Let's take a look!
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Spoiler Alert: Apple isn’t applying a beauty filter to your iPhone XS selfies. I’ve covered this in both my initial review and my 3-weeks-later review, but that particularly bad bit of intel just keeps making the rounds, so I wanted to do proper video and a real explainer to lay it to rest once and for all.
BeautyGate or #SmoothSelfieGate began as most quote-unquote gates do: A combination of people with legitimate questions and concerns and those who are super eager to amplify anything they can in order to get attention, even and especially if it does nothing to answer those questions or address those concerns. Add internet and… wildfire. But, if you dig into why people are concerned and you go beyond those who’s sole intent is to sensationalize, you get to something truly fascinating:
The ongoing evolution for camera system to computational photography system.
Here's what's really, actually, truly, technically happening!
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I’ve been using an iPhone XS going on 3 weeks now. Ever since just after the Apple Event at the Steve Jobs Theater. In that time I used to as my main driver. For communication, photography, videography, travel, reading, listening, watching, writing… pretty much everything I do everyday.
For the first week, that was all on the 5.8-inch iPhone XS proper. For the last two weeks, I’ve been alternating between the XS and the 6.5-inch XS Max. It’s a big phone. But, wow, is it a big phone.
So, now that I’ve had some more real-life, quality time with both phones, I’m resisting my review and taking a second look.
Here we go!
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I’ve now been wearing and using Apple Watch Series 4 for about 2 weeks, since just after the September 12 event at the Steve Jobs theater. I did my initial, deep dive review after a week of fairly frenzied testing. I’m revisiting it now after a second week of somewhat more typical usage — travel, transactions, tracking workouts and tasks, keeping up to speed with my life and staying connected.
Let’s take a second look!
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People are complaining about the new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max cellular and Wi-Fi radios. Some are getting fewer bars in less places. Others aren't getting on their 5GHz networks.
So, what's going on?
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Apple recently updated iTunes and some of the language contained in the new policy, revolving around a Trust Score generated by the data on your iPhone or iPad, sent a part of the internet into sensationalize-first, ask questions later mode. You know, like normal.
So, what exactly is going on here?
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So, there’s been some confusion over the last few days about iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR specs.
Part of that is Apple’s fault because, unlike screen density and storage capacity, they don’t list RAM and battery capacity. And part of it is the fault of broken-internet, which, like broken telephone, passes along information often without context or clarity, resulting in it getting warped and distorted in a way that’s significantly less than helpful.
Let's clear that up.
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iPhone XS isn't an all-new iPhone. It's a new iPhone X. So, what does that mean?
I don't think Apple intends iPhone X owners to rush out and upgrade to iPhone XS, industry insiders, tech enthusiasts, and those on yearly programs, will of course do just that. Rather, I think Apple intends these new models to appeal to those who didn't yet make the leap to an all-new iPhone. Those who always avoid rev. A boards, or who stuck with Android or with the Home button, or who were simply waiting on a bigger screen.
And, I think for them, iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max are exactly the new phones they've been waiting for.
(Unless they want to wait for iPhone XR...?)
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Apple Watch is the most important product Apple has ever made and Series 4 is the most important Apple Watch to date.
Is Apple Watch Series 4 perfect? No, of course not. It's still missing core features like always-on time, sleep tracking, and a way for me to make a damn Super-Man Photo face with enough complications to actually be useful. It also starts at $399 — or $499 if you want it with cellular networking — which is still a good chunk of change for what for most people remains a tertiary computing device at best.
But, is Apple Watch Series good enough that you should seriously consider upgrading or getting in on this whole wrist computer thing for the first time? That's the question that matters, and the one I've spent the last week with a 44mm space gray model figuring out.
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Starting today, Apple is swapping out the old, hardware based iPhone screen calibration system for an all-new software system.
"Beginning September 17, 3D Touch Calibration Fixtures will no longer be required to complete display repairs for iPhone 6S and later. We have optimized the calibration process using software. This means we can now calibrate a repaired iPhone by simply connecting the device to [redacted] running our calibration and diagnostics, without the need to run it through a separate fixture. This change will create a more flexible workspace in many repair rooms. Most importantly it will save time for you and our customers."
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Apple has just announced the iPhone XR, which offers much of the same user experience of the iPhone X, but with some notable departures. The phone is larger than the iPhone X, with a 6.1-inch LCD display. It retains the TrueDepth camera that first launched on the 2017 iPhone X, and says goodbye to the Home button.
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Apple Watch Series 4 is here and I went hands-on with the new aluminum, stainless steel — including gold finish! — Nike+ and Hermès!
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Hands-on first impressions of the brand new iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max!
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Apple's iPhone Xs Event is tomorrow, September 12, 2018. But what are we absolutely, definitively going to see? And what are we... not?
What are the new iPhones going to be called? What are the last minute features they'll be including... and missing? Any new features coming to Apple Watch? Will AirPower finally be released? And will new iPad Pros and MacBooks be announced as well, or will we be waiting until October? All that and more and the clock ticks down to the big event!
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Security, like privacy, is always at war with convenience. You want to be able to get to all of your stuff, all the time, as quickly and easily as possible, but you don’t want anyone else to get to any of it, at all ever.
If you have a real or philosophical need to lock your tech down stronger, better, smarter, longer…. If you think your phone is the closest thing to a digital brain, extra-cranial storage, and cybernetics that currently exist and should be afforded the same rights against self-incrimination that biological memory enjoys, or if you have medical, legal, clergical, or journalistic information on it that can simply never fall into any unauthorized hands, then I’ve got some tips for you.
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With Apple Watch Series 4, that big, black ring around the bezel will finally be filled and the display will go edge-to-edge, iPhone X style.
But that simply scratches the surface of Apple's next-generation watch. There'll be a new System-in-Package (SIP) too, sure. Maybe some new radio tech. Potentially better sensors. But will Apple Watch go round? Will it go Android the way iPod went Windows? And what about the band situation?
Watch is Apple's most important device — and here's where it may just be going next!
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Ken Kocienda is former Principal Engineer of iPhone software at Apple. For over fifteen years, he was deeply involved with development of the user interfaces for Safari, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and many others.
His book, Creative Selection, is a historical, technical, and philosophical insider look at what makes Apple... Apple.
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5G is being touted as the latest wireless technology to revolutionize the world. But that's what they said about 'fake' 4G and even 'real' LTE...
So, to find out what's really going on with millimeter waves, small cells, massive MIMO, beam-forming, and full duplex, when we can realistically expect 'real' 5G and not just LTE add-ons, how long deployment will take by carriers, and what the next-generation services might look like, I got Daniel Bader, executive editor of Android Central, on the line, and... well... hit play!
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If you’re being given free drinks, it’s because somebody wants you drunk. Wait, what?
A week or so ago, a paper was published outlining just how much — and how frequently — Google collects our personal data through devices running Android and Chrome.
It was written by Douglas C. Schmidt, Professor of Computer Science at Vanderbilt University, who my colleague, Jerry Hildenbrand of Android Central said is, and I quote, “very well-versed in Android”
Here's what it says... and what it means for all of us.
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What concerns you more, a drive failing or the contents of that drive getting out? If someone broke into your house, are the physical items and files they could steal more valuable and sensitive than what's on your computer? If someone got a hold of your backups, is what they'd find there relationship or career ending?
These are the questions you need to ask yourself before deciding on whether or not to encrypt your backups. Fail safe vs. fail secure.
I used to just assume you should encrypt, especially in today's climate, and especially after talking to information security people.
But, after talking to backup and information technology people, I discovered there's a lot more to it than I imagined. And, I think you will too.
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A big and bigger OLED flagship with AR camera, and a new mid-range with LCD and Apple-chromatic colors. These are rumored to be the 2018 iPhones.
What will the next iPhone be called? When will it be announced? When will it ship? What features will it have? What features will it be missing? There have been SO MANY RUMORS — the time has come to sort them all out.
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There are rumors of a new, entry-level MacBook coming this fall. But what does that mean? A modernized MacBook Air? A larger 14-inch MacBook? A discounted 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar... or something entirely new?
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Privacy today is like security just before Windows XP. No one was talking about it and then everyone was talking about it.
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You've got questions, I've got answers!
Special thanks to Georgia Dow for the question reads! http://www.anxiety-videos.com
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What to expect from Apple's September 2018 iPhone, iPad, and Mac Special Event!
Every September, all the attention in the tech world tractor-beams into the Bay Area of California for Apple’s annual iPhone event. That means, unless Apple decides to mic drop, peace out, and retire to spend more time with its money, — which, to be 100% crystal clear isn’t happening — we’re only a few weeks out from this year’s big show.
So, here's what I think we'll see from iPhone, iPad, and Mac this year!
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"Is Apple Really Your Privacy Hero: The world’s most valuable company is seen as a champion for your data. It should be doing more."
Facebook is crashing, Google is back in hot water, but who does Bloomberg think we need to worry about? Who do we — I mean they — desperately need to get into as attention-grabbing headline as possible?
If you guess Apple, you're right. So, what is Apple doing wrong and do you need to worry about it?
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Software developer Leah Culver talks about her passion for program languages and co-founding Breaker — A podcast listening app that's focused on discovery and social sharing tools.
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You have questions, I have answers!
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Today’s show all about what iPhone X Plus could learn from Galaxy Note 9.
Yeah, you read that right. Apple has made the iPhone Plus line its own with features like multi-column layouts in landscape mode. But that was then, this is now, and there are features Samsung has thrown against the wall and... had them stick hard enough I'd love to see them in the next big iPhone.
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Buh-bye Facebook. Buh-bye Snapchat. Buh-by Pokémon Go…
What, I’m not supposed to force quit a bunch of apps, I’m just supposed to let the system manage all that? Well, yes and no.
Whether you’re not getting the battery life you should or you just want to get MAXIMUM EFFORT out of your phone, people are super curious about what to do. And there’s just so much information and misinformation out there. Some is true, some is false, and some depends entirely on context.
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Apple Podcasts, one of the largest and most popular podcast directory service on the planet, has de-listed four out of five of Alex Jones’s Infowars shows — not just specific episodes but the entire shows — for violating the terms of service against hate speech.
Why did Apple — and fast followers Google, Facebook, and Spotify — hit the delete key? Does it have anything to do with content policies, freedom of speech, censorship, companies vs. governments, or are these companies so big and powerful they're indistinguishable from governments?
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You have questions, I have answers!
To send in your questions for the next show, #askrene to @reneritchie on Twitter or Instagram.
Special thanks to Georgia Dow for the question reads! (http://www.anxiety-videos.com)
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On Tuesday, Apple announced its best June quarter ever, with services revenue of $9.55 billion — up 31% year over year. And a large part of that is App Store revenue.
On Wednesday, Apple announced an end to its App Store affiliate program, which paid a small commission for links that resulted in the purchase of an app.
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There’s a new book coming out called Creative Selection about how Apple makes insanely great products. Now, this isn’t a promo. Ken’s not a sponsor. I got a review copy of the book early and I’ve read it twice already. It’s just that damn good. The first part deals with how Apple made the Safari web browser and WebKit from KHTML. And how the singular focus was — fast. Nothing. No code. No feature. Could be checked in if it slowed Safari down one bit. Zero regression, that was their holy Fremen war.
And it got me thinking just how fast you make Safari on iPhone and iPad today. Not just in terms of raw speed but convenience as well. And since I’ve been getting a bunch of requests for more tips videos as well, sharing made the kind of sense that does.
So, a few basics to start off with and make sure everyone, new and ninja, are up to speed, then some iOS 12 Shortcuts magic to bring us home.
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Apple just finished its Q3 2018 financial results call and, while much of it is pro forma, there's always at least a few interesting things that slip in. This quarter was no exception.
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Basically, that the next iPad Pro, which is expected to ship this fall, will delete the headphone jack and move the smart keyboard to a vertical orientation. Sorry, I’m laughing because it hurts.
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Liat and Gilad are partners in life, and in the creation of 24me — an astonishingly feature-rich personal assistant app for iOS and Android. They speak with Rene about how being so busy served as inspiration for the app, building their own business, and much more.
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May-Li Khoe and Bridger Maxwell have a shared past on Apple's development team. Now they've teamed up to make Scribble — a gorgeous whiteboard app for iOS. They share an incredible amount of insight into prototyping and building tools that empower users to create more than they thought possible.
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https://scribbletogether.com/
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard
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The 2018 15" MacBook Pro offers a configure-to-order option with a 6-core Intel Core i9 processor. It's a pricey upgrade from the 6-core i7 that comes standard, and early reports show that Apple's thermal design may not be able to fully leverage the performance increase. Ian Cutress of AnandTech is here to explain the difference between various nodes and how it can be difficult to quantify the result using simple benchmarks.
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Ashraf Eassa is a technology specialist for The Motley Fool and an expert in semiconductor chip technology. He dives deep into the Intel roadmap and how it presents challenges (as well as opportunities) for Apple and other companies.
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The new MacBooks Pro are here and I’m super excited about them, especially the new 15-inch model (which I promised to not even jokingly refer to as an iMacBook Pro!) I got to spend a couple of hours talking to real pro photographers, scientists, video editors, music producers, and developers who have been living on these new machines for a week or couple already. I got to see live demos, and hear all about if and how the new hardware had changed or improved their very demanding, very high profile workflows. Here’s what I learned!
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10 years ago today, Apple launched the App Store, and it’s not hyperbole to say, since then, nothing has been the same.
Not for apps, which went from being scarce, niche products to part of popular culture like movies and music. And not for app development, which went from being something only a relatively few people did to something available and accessible to almost everyone.
But, there's been a lot of urban myth and misunderstandings about the origin and goals of the App Store, about how it got from where it was to where it is today, and about where it's going next.
So, let's fix that!
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Apple is hitting restart in Maps, starting this week in the California Bay Area. The new Maps will be better detailed, more accurate, more relevant, and eventually more feature rich. At least that's the promise...
The data for the new Apple Maps is being collected in three primary ways:
From high-resolution satellite imaging, from specially outfitted Apple Maps vans that have been driving international roadways for years already, and from the billion odd iPhones that all of us carry every day as we drive, ride, and walk our way through the world.
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macOS Mojave has just gone into public beta. This is my preview, where I go over all the new features, how they're holding up, and how they fit into the bigger picture.
There's a new Dark Mode, new dynamic desktop and stacks to keep it neat and tidy, a new Gallery Mode in finder with actions built into it and Quick View. FaceTime Group calls. There's a new Mac App Store and one of the biggest developments in the history of the Mac: UIKit (iOS Apps) on Mac. Yeah. All that and more!
It's all part of a multi-year project intent on taking the decades-old UNIX and NextStep foundations and making them new and relevant again for modern, increasingly mobile and mainstream customers, while not leaving the creatives and pros behind.
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iOS 12 has just gone into public beta. This is a preview. But since it's my preview, we're going to do it my style: By going deep into not just what Apple's latest mobile operating system does — but how it does and what it means for you.
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In a couple years, not having a Siri Shortcuts -enabled app will be like not having an API for your web service or an app in the App Store.
Get in early, get in big, or get left out. Voice-first advocate Brian Roemmele returns to discuss the future and potential of a true digital assistant.
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Gauss Surgical Founder and CEO, Siddarth Satish, talks about Triton Sponge — his company's incredible iPad app that is revolutionizing blood loss monitoring in obstetrics and operating room environments.
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Apple's upcoming iOS 12 and macOS Mojave offer a 'sneak peak' at a universal framework API, with a fully realized implementation for developers coming 2019. Gui Rambo and Marc Edwards share their perspective on the potential benefits of this API.
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Former Workflow app employee, Matthew Cassinelli, worked in marketing for the company until it was acquired by Apple. After assisting in the transition, he chose to venture out on his own. As a workflow (lower case "w") expert, he envisions many possibilities for Siri Shortcuts in iOS 12.
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NextDoor is a developer conference that ran concurrently, and literally next door, to WWDC 2018 in San Jose, California. Serenity Caldwell and Rene Ritchie were invited to speak to attendees about the most significant advancements in iOS, WatchOS, and macOS.
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Finally!
That’s what I found myself almost yelling out — over and over again during WWDC 2018. It was one of those years where it felt like Apple worked its way down my wishlist, crossing things off one after the other.
It was the biggest finally fest since... I don’t know... iOS 4? But beyond the finally, there was a lot that happened that I think will either make lives better today or prove critical tomorrow. Here's what... and why!
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Rene Ritchie and Serenity Caldwell speak with the creators of Agenda — a WWDC 2018 Apple Design Award winning note taking app for Mac. They discuss Agenda as well as this year's major announcements from a developer and end user perspective.
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Brian Hall, former CVP of Surface and devices at Microsoft, talks about creating the Surface devices and their position within the market.
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Designer, photographer, and software developer, Ben McCarthy, talks about the inspiration behind the new version of his camera app: Obscura 2.
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Former Apple SW Engineering Director, Bethany Bongiorno, talks about managing teams, the importance of empathy, and having the flexibility to adapt your communication style for different situations.
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Industry analyst Carolina Milanesi shares her thoughts on what she'd like to see most at WWDC, including an emphasis of quality over quantity.
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Indie developer Adam Bell talks about his roots in the Jailbreak community, being "discovered" by a big company, and advancements in the frameworks available for app creation.
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Ultimate friend of the show, Don Melton, stops by talk about getting old, keyboard woes, software innovation, recent films and TV, and his desire for fast hardware to support his video transcoding habits.
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Industry Analyst Ben Bajarin shares his thoughts on what Apple should announce from a software perspective at WWDC in June.
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You may know John August from movies such as Go and Big Fish. You may know him from his podcast, Script Notes. Today, John joins the show to talk about his other life — that of software developer. Highland 2 is his company’s latest app. It was, basically, Markdown for screen writing. Now it’s markdown for many kinds of writing. And here’s why John made it and how he uses it.
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https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/05/apple-brings-everyone-can-code-to-schools-serving-blind-and-deaf-students/
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-announces-xbox-adaptive-controller
https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/05/11/duplex-skepticism
https://www.axios.com/google-ai-demo-questions-9a57afad-9854-41da-b6e2-5e55b619283e.html
http://twitter.com/johnaugust
https://quoteunquoteapps.com
http://johnaugust.com
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Myriam Joire has been covering mobile phones for more than fifteen years — she has seen, used, and reviewed all the flagship smartphones. Companies like Huawei, Samsung, and Apple are pushing the boundaries of "computational photography", often with multi-lens camera systems.
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Apple Watch is more important that iPhone, Apple is helping make aluminum green, and voice-first advocate Brian Roemmele returns to the show to discuss all the Google Assistant news coming out of Google IO, including and especially Google Duplex and what it means for the future of human interaction.
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Why Apple Watch is more important than iPhone
Google Duplex Demo from Google IO 2018 - YouTube
Google Duplex: An AI System for Accomplishing Real-World Tasks Over the Phone
Fixing 'Siri Sucks' in 5 Painful Steps
Brian Roemmele
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The keynote at Google I/O 2018 was a fascinating look at what's to come in AI and mobile computing. Olloclip inventor Patrick O'Neill shares his origin story as an entrepreneur and his lifelong love of photography.
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Twitter may have exposed passwords, Gassée thinks Apple pundits have lot their fragile minds, and Russell Holly is having a blast with Oculus Go.
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Above Avalon founder, Neil Cybart, is one of the most accurate analysts covering Apple. He looks at the company's performance in Q2 2018 and what the future may bring.
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WhatsApp CEO is done with Facebook. Scuttlebutt on Apple’s new, cross-platform UI project. Sascha Segan joins the show to talk about the proposed Spring and T-Mobile merger. And your questions on MacBook Pro recalls, Sirius XM buyouts, and multi-user FaceID.
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An all-star cast of developers discuss the pros and cons of utilizing a subscription model for apps on iOS and Mac. On the program are: Greg Pierce (Drafts), Dave Teare (1Password), and James Thomson (PCalc).
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Apple has just cancelled it's AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, and AirPort Time Capsule line of Wi-Fi routers.
"We're discontinuing the Apple AirPort base station products. They will be available through Apple.com, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers while supplies last."
That's the statement Apple gave me but, as you might expect, there's a lot more to this story.
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Apple's new Everyone Can Create curriculum is not just more of the same. It goes beyond just selling cheap products into the education. It may not be a viable solution for all schools, but it's a unique and important step.
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Andy Ihnatko, Rene Ritchie, and Georgia Dow talk about how moving to a new home is pretty much the same as preparing for the zombie apocalypse.
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Neil deGrasses Tyson on his first Mac, cybernetics, and how AI will domesticate us through food, shelter, and sex. Wait... what?!
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oftware developer Chris Lacy is the creator of Action Launcher for Android. He offers great insight into what can make home screens more helpful to users.
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Samsung's Exynos 9810 chipset is fast. Really fast. Depending on where you live, it's the chip used in the Galaxy S9. Here's the thing — It's also highly inefficient compared to its counterpart, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845. Primate Labs founder and purveyor of Geekbench, John Poole, shares his expertise regarding why the Exynos is a step in the right direction, but still needs more optimization to balance performance vs. battery life.
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Administration of Mac-based professional environments is evolving. It's time to look at the strengths and weaknesses of what's available, and the right tools for the job.
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Apple is now powered by 100% renewable energy, worldwide, and nine more Apple suppliers have also committed to 100% clean production. Product RED comes to iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. Will Apple move to three cameras in 2019?
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A trio of topics — Media, like medicine, should strive to help rather than harm. An Apple as serious about AI as it is about silicon could be a powerful force for the future of computing. Apple's new Mac Pro will arrive sometime in 2019 and has created a special team specifically tasked with design and development of the company's pro products.
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When done wrong, higher performance hurts power efficiency. When done right, power efficiency enables higher performance.
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iPad 2018 (6th gen) is the linear successor of last year's iPad 2017 (5th gen). It takes what was the best value in tablets, adds the Apple A10 Fusion chipset, faster LTE (if you go with the LTE model), a more coppery gold finish (if you go with the gold model), and support for the Apple Pencil, all while keeping the price the same. And that makes iPad 6 almost exactly half an iPad Pro — for almost exactly half the price.
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'Let's take a field trip' was one of Apple's freshest events in years — even if there's a lot of schoolwork left to be done.
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Therapist Georgia Dow gives tips on how to be more aware of manipulation that takes place on the web and in social media — and how to avoid it.
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What is CLOUD Act, what does it mean for Apple and Apple's customers, and how does it affect your data and your right to privacy both in the U.S. and around the world?
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Apple’s education-focused event is just around the corner on March 27th. Industry analyst Carolina Milanesi identifies three areas that would help Apple grow marketshare in education: hardware pricing, improved productivity/collaboration suite, and better classroom management tools.
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The only way to win the social game is not to play. Facebook has been caught allowing the personal data of fifty million users — 50,000,000 — get siphoned off by political data company Cambrige Analytica and hiding it until it knew the story would come out in the press. Here’s what you can do about it.
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Education IT expert Bradley Chambers feels that Apple needs to do more than just offer less expensive iPads and Macs to education customers. Not all of the challenges are Apple’s fault, but it is their problem.
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Brian Roemmele believes the next undiscovered continent for voice-first computing is the ability to carry on complete dialogues between device and user. Looking beyond the recent soap opera, Siri is full of potential. But Apple needs to take it in the right direction.
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HomePod shipped a month ago. How’s it holding up? Dave Mark from The Loop shares his experience with the device.
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Apple just bought Texture, the all-you-can-read magazine app. But what does that mean for current Texture users (including on Android) and for Apple News? In the age of fake news, extremist click-bait, bots, and bubbles, will anyone really care about trusted sources and sustainable publishing? And how much does Apple really care, given neither News nor Texture are available in more than half-a-handful of countries?
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It’s not all roses in the walled garden, especially for independent developers. But there is hope.
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The ability to create native apps for iPhone was the turning point that changed the industry — and the entire world.
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SiriOS is the platform of the future but how does Apple get there?
From today's criticism to tomorrow's Siri operating system, Apple is best positioned make AI deeply personal, deeply integrated, incredibly consistent, fully mesh networked, and — eventually — into a full-fledged platform for the future.
With excerpts from Carolina Milanesi, Lia Napolitano, Brian Roemelle, and Ben Bajarin.
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Take two of the world’s best designers — Brad Ellis and Clarko — give them three of the world’s most popular weather apps, and this is what you get.
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Rumor has it, Apple will be holding a March Event again this year. Industry analyst Ben Bejarin returns to the show to discuss what we might see and when, from iPads, to iPhones, to Macs, and more.
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Next week, Apple will begin moving Chinese iCloud accounts to Chinese servers owned by a Chinese company.
It's Chinese law. But it's also hugely controversial, especially among those who consider it a betrayal of Apple's longstanding devotion to security and privacy. So, what's going on?
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Confession: After the Life and Death of Twitter episode, the recorders kept rolling and all the big brains shared their thoughts on the rumored "Marzipan" iOS and macOS cross-development platform. Christina Warren of Microsoft joins to add context to everyone's hopes, dreams... and fears.
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Twitter for Mac is dead. Starved to death, really. John Gruber of Daring Fireball and some surprise guests chat about how it all got started, what went wrong, and where we go from here.
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iPhone photography took a huge leap forward when iOS gained the ability to shoot in RAW. Sebastiaan de With, the designer of the iPhone camera app, Halide, explains how to shoot in RAW and make it look great.
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Rings around the HomePod. Crashing all the messaging apps. Another week, another set of problems. Are things worse now than ever before or has the volume simply grown with the product line? The greatest challenge Apple has ever faced is scale — and here’s how the company needs to solve for it.
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Many of you may know Clayton Morris from his time as a technology reporter and anchor for Fox News. He retired from television at age 40 to focus on helping people build passive income through real estate investing. Rene speaks with Clayton about the iPad as his first choice computing device, and how he is transitioning from high-end broadcast production to creating his own YouTube channel.
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Apple is under pressure from activist groups to improve Parental Controls and combat screen addiction. But what's real, what's sensationalism, and what's an abdication of personal responsibility? Therapist, educator, and mother Georgia Dow joins me to explain!
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Rene is joined by analyst and former Apple employee, Michael Gartenberg, to talk about Apple, AI, and HomePod in the early months of 2018.
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Turns out, our listeners have a lot of questions about HomePod. Rene is here to answer them!
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Apple's new smart speaker, HomePod, was designed to be the simplest and best way to listen to Apple Music and AirPlay, and control HomeKit in your house.
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Rene speculates on the likelihood of Apple bringing iMessage to Android. He also answers some recent listener questions.
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They say perception is reality. It’s also highly subjective.
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Rene talks about rumors and outright lies that are spread to manipulate stock valuation of Apple and other companies. He also discusses Apple’s plans to prioritize performance and reliability improvements over new features in 2018.
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HomePod. It isn’t an Amazon Echo or Google Home competitor. It was never intended to be. Where AirPods were designed to be the best way to take music and audio with you, HomePod was designed to be the best way to enjoy it where you live. One yin. One yang. All that, and your questions answered.
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A timeless classic from the original Vector archives: Former Apple Evangelist, Matt Drance, talks to Rene about the role of Product Marketing at Apple and how different it is from most other tech companies.
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HomePod. It isn’t an Amazon Echo or Google Home competitor. It was never intended to be. Where AirPods were designed to be the best way to take music and audio with you, HomePod was designed to be the best way to enjoy it where you live. One yin. One yang. All that, and your questions answered.
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Rene speaks with a licensed psychologist about Apple Watch and what motivates people to achieve their goals.
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While Rene gets settled into his new crib, here’s another classic from the Debug archive. Rene and Guy English speak with former Apple employee, Nitin Ganatra, about the transition from iPhone’s success to the birth of iPad.
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Apple is one of the most successful and profitable companies in the history of companies. Rene dissects and elaborates on an excellent analysis by Asymco’s Horace Dediu.
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As Apple invests heavily in creating original video content, Rene ruminates on the broad lineup of programming that has been announced.
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In this classic from the original Vector archives, Rene talks with Kevin Michaluk about the glory days and eventual decline of BlackBerry.
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Rene looks back at the introduction of MacBook Air 10 years ago and discusses the shift it caused in the industry towards lighter, thinner, more portable computers.
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Don Melton, father of Safari and WebKit, speaks with Rene about recent hardware security flaws and software bugs. He also answers listener questions about video transcoding tools and techniques.
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For Brian Roemmele, the future is undeniably voice-first. He sees Apple as best positioned to take advantage of the revolution-in-progress but for one thing — the company's reluctance to let the Siri feature become the SiriOS platform.
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While Rene is away moving, we journey back into the Debug vaults for one of the all-time classic episodes. Before there was iPhone it was the Purple Experience Project. Nitin Ganatra was there from the beginning. And here’s how it happened.
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Apple is rumored to be planning unified development of iOS and Mac apps to create a single user experience. Rene is joined by developer Guilherme Rambo to discuss some of the possibilities.
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Eleven years ago today Steve Jobs announced a wide-screen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet device. But it wasn't three products. It was one product. And we got it, Steve. We got iPhone.
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Moving. Jury duty. These things get in the way of new shows. So, a classic! From the Debug archives: Back before they joined Apple, the Workflow team sat down to chat… with a surprise guest.
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Intel now claims to be "immune" to Meltdown and Spectre. Meanwhile, Apple has patched Meltdown. Ish. And is working on Spectre. Here's the update you need to listen to.
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Meltdown "melts security boundaries which are normally enforced by the hardware". Spectre exploits how "speculative execution" is handled in almost all modern CPU. This is what you need to know
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Rene provides a wish list of what “could be” for Apple hardware releases in 2018.
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Rene speaks with FanWagon founder, Dexter Talbert, about hardware considerations in the Mac ecosystem for software development, including GPU performance, eGPU support, and the yet-to-be-unveiled next-gen Mac Pro.
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Apple has provided additional technical information and rationale for intentional CPU throttling based on battery health and thermal performance. The issue is far from over, but Rene provides a mid-mortem analysis.
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Apple has problems. Every company does. These are the ones Rene considers most critical to the company's long-term success — the ones they need to start aggressively addressing in 2018.
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Daniel Bader, managing editor of Android Central, went to Hawaii to learn all about Qualcomm’s next generation Snapdragon platform and 5G wireless technology.
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2017 was a strong year for Apple, but not without some significant bumps. Michael and Rene look back at the good, the bad, the ugly, and the insanely great.
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Dieter Bohn, Brad Ellis, and Christina Warren join Rene to discuss what’s wrong with iOS notifications, what’s right about them, and what they’d like to see in the future.
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044: Ferrite Recording Studio with Canis and Jason Snell
Who said you can’t edit podcasts on iOS? Ferrite Recording Studio developer Canis and power user Jason discuss the app’s origins, iOS limitations, workflows, tips and tricks, and what might be coming next.
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043: Bonus: Star Wars: The Last Jedi
It’s a Christmas special! Guy English, Matt Drance, Don Melton, and Lia Napolitano chat about the characters, themes, music, effects, and impact of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
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MKBHD has been using the new iMac Pro for two weeks and put it through his demanding 8K workflow. Here are his thoughts.
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041: iPhone battery life vs. performance roundtable
Apple is sacrificing performance on old, cold iPhone batteries to prevent unexpected shutdowns. The company has been doing it for almost a year but this week it’s making headlines. Geekbench’s John Poole, analyst Ben Bajarin, former analyst Carl Howe, and electrical engineer and Android editor Jerry Hildenbrand discuss what’s happening, why, and what it all means.
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Gui Rambo makes iOS apps, both for a company and for himself. He also reverse engineers iOS frameworks. (Maybe you saw his Animoji Studio?) Here’s how he got started and how he works.
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039: Apple Glasses with Neil Cybart
Former sell-side analyst Neil Cybart dives deep into Apple’s augmented reality efforts, including ARKit, and how Apple Glasses could be the next big thing.
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At launch, many people didn’t give Apple’s iPhone 8 atomic-level redesign the consideration it deserved. Three months later, Rene takes another look.
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Rene speaks with MarsEdit developer, Daniel Jalkut, and John Gruber of Daring Fireball about the history and release of MarsEdit 4, blogging tools, the Mac App Store, and more.
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Xeon W. Radeon Pro Vega. T5, Space gray. It's Apple's new iMac Pro and here are some first impressions.
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035: Ambient Computing, with Ben Bajarin
Previously, on Vector: There is no home assistant market. Industry analyst Ben Bajarin: Allow me to retort. So he did. And then he hung around to chat about differential privacy vs. making assistants more personal.
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Everyone starts somewhere. Even us. From first podcast to how Vector gets made, podcaster and editor extraordinaire Jim Metzendorf takes us behind the scenes.
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Drafts is developed by Greg Pierce and used the hell out of by Merlin Mann. They sit down together to talk direction, workflows, and what's coming next.
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Pacific Rim. IT. Luke Cage. Star Trek: Discovery. Some of the greatest action sequences in modern TV and movies have been storyboarded by Rob McCallum… on an iPad Pro.
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Michelle Hessel, James Thomson, and Russell Holy talk augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality, ARKit, ARKCore, and the future of the technology.
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Modern media companies have been “pivoting to video” but not all of them have been successful. Christina Warren, formerly of Mashable and Gizmodo, discusses why. Also: Facebook Messenger for kids. Seriously.
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iOS 11 allows your passcode to reset your iTunes Backup and even Apple ID passwords. Some call it a horror story. It’s really a balancing act.
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Phone vs. DSLR. A few years ago that would have sounded ridiculous. Then came computational photography. Now, Analyst Carolina Milanesi shares how the pros feel about their camera phones.
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Melton and Drance hung around and English joined them, and since most of them hadn't seen Blade Runner 2049 yet, the conversation turned to Thor: Ragnarok. Happy weekend.
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On December 02, 2017, iOS 11 started crashing. It involved the time system, local notifications, and springboard. Here's what happened and how to fix it.
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Michael Gartenberg talks with Rene about Apple and the tech landscape in fall 2017.
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Apple has apologized for and fixed the root vulnerability in macOS High Sierra. But why do bugs ship and how can Apple prevent this from happening again? With former Apple engineering manager and current Tumult Hype developer Jonathan Deutsch.
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AirPods were billed as the future of wireless headphones. Announced in September of 2016, shipped in December of 2016, and scarcely available until well into 2017, this is how well AirPods have lived up to their hype — one year later.
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A critical flaw has been discovered in macOS High Sierra that lets an attacker log in as 'root' by leaving the password field blank and trying multiple times in a row. Listen to this and “fix" it right now.
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There was a day before iPhone was introduced. And a day after. Matt Drance was there for both — and he had to evangelize it.
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Some love it. Some hate its living breath. It's the new MacBook Pro and it's the most divisive MacBook Pro ever.
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Lock screen complications would give iOS greater convenience and privacy. Ambient, persistent biometrics would give iPhone all but invisible security.
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HomePod is going to miss the holidays. But how can Apple be late to a market that doesn't really exist yet? With Jan Dawson.
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Don Melton, former director of WebKit and Safari, talks 4K and HDR, and how Apple plans new versions of iOS.
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Dan DeSilva on how he got into deals, into blogging, brought them both together, helped create Thrifter, and how to survive Black Friday.
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iPad has grown significantly in performance and functionality, but it’s time to challenge our perception of what a computer is.
Links: * Apple's new iPad Pro spot asks 'what's a computer?'
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Apple missed a deadline that will cost them the Holiday shopping season, but it’s better to get it right.
Links: * HomePod: This is Apple's Siri Speaker
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Increasing security and speed to usability with Matt Davey and Michael Fey of AgileBits.
Transcript: 1Password 7: The Interview
Guests & Links * Michael Fey: Twitter * Matt Davey: Twitter * 1Password: Twitter, Website
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Sebastiaan de With, Linda Dong, Marc Edwards, and Brad Ellis talk “horns”, aspect ratio, safe area, color space, OLED, HDR, and more!
Links * Sebastiaan de With: Twitter, Webite, Halide * Linda Dong: Twitter, Lyft * Marc Edwards: Twitter, Website, Bjango apps * Brad Ellis: Twitter, Website
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iPhone X may be the best damn product Apple’s ever made, but these five fixes would make it even better.
Links * Five ways Apple could improve iPhone X usability
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Apple’s new Clips app and Portrait Backgrounds — called Scenes — gives a look at computational videography today.
Links * Star Wars and 'Scenes' Portrait Backgrounds come to Clips 2.0
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Apple Watch is getting close to surpassing iPod at its peak. AirPods are augmented audio reality now. And Apple Glass could be the next small thing.
Links * It's long past time to admit Apple Watch is a huge success * Apple Glass
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Person-to-person Apple Pay is going to make transaction easier and iMessage even more valuable. And that seems to have really pissed off Walmart.
Links * Person-to-Person Apple Pay is about to make iMessage even more valuable * Walmart threatens to mislead consumers about U.S. mobile payments
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iPhone X shipped without a night mode or a battery case. It needs both.
Links * I'd still love a dark theme in iOS 12 * Why I'd love a Smart Battery Case for iPhone X
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Face ID feels almost effortless. But it has several major limitations you need to know about.
Links * Face ID: Why you shouldn't be worried about iPhone X unlock * The limitations of Face ID: What you need to know * No, siblings aren't 'fooling' Face ID — they're training it
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Apple might call its new TV box 4K, but it’s HDR that makes the real difference.
Links * Apple TV 4K review
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Twitter had so many questions about iPhone X. Here are the answers.
Links * iPhone X AMA thread
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iPhone X is the best damn product Apple has ever made. But it’s not perfect.
Links * iPhone X review
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