Let's Talk Podcasts

Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

The show starts with some quick followup on a few recently covered and long-running stories before diving into the regulatory and legal stories, a little HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The three main stories are conflict mineral complaints filed against Apple, the latest OS point-releases, and the continued rollout of Apple Intelligence. The show finishes with a rundown of a few other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in December.

You’ll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar – the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta136.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Apple's Indonesia iPhone 16 ban drama will probably end with $1 billion investment — appleinsider.com/…
Airlines actually started rolling out support for AirTags to help locate lost luggage in time for the holiday travel chaos: United Airlines and Air Canada first to offer official support for AirTag link sharing — appleinsider.com/…
Apple Vision Pro global rollout continues with Taiwan on December 17 — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Third episode of 'Adventure' immersive video series dives onto Apple Vision Pro — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Popular Science’s Innovation of the Year Award Goes to Apple Vision Pro — www.macobserver.com/…

Regulatory Rundown* EU regulators continued to focus in Apple in December:

+ EU Seeks Input on iOS and iPadOS Interoperability — www.macstories.net/… (part of DMA enforcement process)
+ EU could force Apple to open AirDrop and AirPlay to Android — www.cultofmac.com/… (also under the DMA)
+ Apple accuses Meta of abusing DMA interoperability requests to breach user privacy — www.reuters.com/… & appleinsider.com/… (Interestingly, Apple is asking the commission to implement the DMA so that interoperability respects another big EU law, the GDPR)

Regulatory scrutiny and enforcement may be slow and plodding, but it does cause real changes eventually:
- USB-C gets a bit more universal as the EU’s mandate goes into effect — arstechnica.com/…
  - Related: Apple ceases iPhone 14, third-gen iPhone SE sales in the EU — appleinsider.com/…
    - Norway gets world's first Apple Pay alternative for iPhone — appleinsider.com/… (thanks to EU regulations forcing Apple to open up access to the NFC chip)
    - The Delta emulator for iOS becomes the first app in the US Apple App Store to make use of the new External Purchase Link Entitlement, allowing users click on a link within the app to support the development of the app on Patreon — www.macstories.net/…

Legal Latest Apple agrees to $95M settlement to end privacy lawsuit over Siri recordings — appleinsider.com/… ($20 per-user-per-device, over incorrect 'hey Siri'* triggers and human review of random sample of Siri interactions)

+ **Related:** Just to prove some of these class action suits do sometimes get a little money into people's pockets: Users Report Receiving Checks from Peters v Apple Settlement — www.macobserver.com/… ($47.86 per user, part of $25M settlement for misleading users about in-app subscription sharing within an Apple Family)

Apple hit with $1.2Bn lawsuit after killing controversial CSAM-detecting tool — arstechnica.com/… (Class action by abuse survivors)
Brazil antitrust ruling against Apple overturned by Federal Justice — appleinsider.com/… (mandated 3rd-party App Store Payments)
The US 9th circuit court of appeals has rejected an appeal to overturn the dismissal of a class action case that claimed Apple was tricking users into having to upgrade to paid iCloud plans, most probably killing the case — appleinsider.com/… (The argument was that it's impossible to live on the 5GB base plan, so the free iCloud is a lie, unfortunately, many of the actual plaintiffs were successfully using the free plan, making the whole case look as dumb as I think it was )
The DOJ -v- Google anti-trust case over the company's search monopoly moved forward with Google filing a remedies proposal it doesn't believe it should implement simply to allow its appeal of the actual original ruling to proceed — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: In a court filing supporting Google Apple senior VP Eddie Cue has stated that Apple have no interest in making their own search engine — appleinsider.com/…
- Suggested Reading: Apple’s Year in Court: A Recap of 2024’s Most Notable Lawsuits — www.macobserver.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Apple Sued for Having Power to Spy on Employees’ Personal Lives — www.macobserver.com/…

+ CA state suit filed by Apple employees
+ Claim is that Apple effectively force staff to simultaneously:


    - Use personal devices for work
    - Use personal Apple IDs on those personal devices
    - Install monitoring software giving Apple control of those devices and visibility into the data on them

As of January 1st 2025, it's Official, after many years sterling service, Luca Maestri is no longer Apple's CFO, as Kevan Parekh officially assumed the role — www.macobserver.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights* Apple's look back at 2024 continued in December:

+ 'Hysterical' named **Apple Podcasts** top new show of 2024 — appleinsider.com/…
+ **Apple Books** celebrates 2024 with collections and Year in Review — appleinsider.com/…
+ Adobe Lightroom, Balatro+ honored in Apple's App Store Awards — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple PR)
+ Apple Reveals the Top App Store App and Game Downloads of 2024 — www.macstories.net/…  Apple PR

Apple Music Radio taps big talent for three new stations — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple PR)
Apple TV+:
- Apple TV+ kicks off 2025 with free streaming weekend — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple TV+ notches record 29 Children’s & Family Emmy nominations — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Health:
- New Year update to Apple Fitness+ adds Strava integration — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple PR)
- Apple To Expand AirPods Pro 2 Hearing Health Availability to UAE, UK + 7 More — www.macobserver.com/… (Cyprus, Czechia, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, and Spain)
- How Apple Watch will bring healther nights to Brazil with sleep apnea detection — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple continues to rapidly expand support for receiving payments on iPhones via Tap-to-Pay:
- iPhone Tap to Pay comes to the UAE — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Tap to Pay on iPhone comes to Chile and Egypt — appleinsider.com/…
- Puerto Rico joins U.S. states that let driver’s licenses go in Apple Wallet — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple Delays HomeKit Support for Robot Vacuums to 2025 — www.macobserver.com/…

Main Stories1. Apple accused of covering up war crimes by willfully using Congo conflict minerals — appleinsider.com/…

* A formalisation of a campaign that has been building for some months with criminal complaints filed in Belgium & France by the Democratic Republic of the Congo
* Accusations revolve around tin, tungsten & tantalum, known as *the three Ts*
* Apple uses certifications by the ITSCI to verify the minerals in its supply-chain are ethically source, and the suits allege that these certifications are meaningless, and that everyone knows that, including Apple
* This argument is supported by that fact that Apple is also a member of the RMI (Responsible Minerals Initiative), and the RMI have denounced the ITSCI certifications as fraudulent, yet Apple still relied on ITSCI certifications in its 2023 supply-chain report

Apple issued another round of important minor-version OS updates including significant improvements beyond the Apple Intelligence Rollout (next story):
- iOS 18.2 — www.cultofmac.com/…, www.macobserver.com/… & www.macstories.net/…
  - New centralised page for setting all default apps (Settings → Apps → Default Apps)
  - EU citizens now have the ability to delete more stock apps (Photos, Safari, Messages, Camera & App Store)
  - The promised AirTag location sharing
  - The rather marmite new email categorisation feature
  - Some asked-for improvements for the new Camera Control feature on iPhones 16 Pro
  - Daily Sudoku Puzzles in Apple News+
  - Layered Voice Memos on iPhones 16 Pro — appleinsider.com/…
    - Apple Shows Off Layered Recordings in Voice Memos with the Help of Michael Bublé and Carly Pearce — www.macstories.net/…
      - Snoopy screensavers arrive on Apple TV with tvOS 18.2 — appleinsider.com/…
      - New visionOS 2.2 brings widescreen Mac to Apple Vision Pro — appleinsider.com/…
    - Apple Intelligence continues to roll out — Apple PR
- New English language regional dialects released for Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa & the UK
- Initial limited rollout in EU (if you change your language to English UK )
- Apple exec launches Apple Intelligence in Australia — appleinsider.com/…
- New features for existing users — appleinsider.com/…
  - Image Playground (macOS & iOS) — appleinsider.com/…
  - Genmoji (macOS & iOS)
  - Magic wand tool in Apple Notes generates images based on existing note content (text and images)
  - Writing Tools enhancement: Re-write tool now accepts arbitary prompts instead of offering just three pre-defined style options
  - ChatGPT integration (iOS & macOS) — www.macobserver.com/…
    - Analysis: Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.2: A Deep Dive into Working with Siri and ChatGPT, Together — www.macstories.net/… + Visual Intelligence on iPhones 16 + Review: iOS 18.2/macOS 15.2 Review: Picture not so perfect? — sixcolors.com/…
      - Numbers, Pages, and Keynote gain Apple Intelligence smarts — appleinsider.com/…
      - Summaries prove to be a poor fit for news apps!
  - BBC cries foul over Apple Intelligence headline notification summarizations — appleinsider.com/…
  - Apple faces pressure to drop AI news summaries after false headline — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Users can already disable summaries on an app-by-app basis, but I think the only fix here is to allow News apps an OS-level opt-out, you can't have an LLM re-writing carefully constructed and fact-critical news headlines!
    - Related: Apple-Nvidia collaboration triples speed of AI model production — appleinsider.com/…
    - Related: Apple says it uses Amazon's custom AI chips — www.cnbc.com/…

Quick Stories* Beats launches Sunrise Pink and Twilight Blue cases for the iPhone 16 range — appleinsider.com/… * Apple sells limited-edition Year of the Snake AirPods 4 in China — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Takes Over iCloud Passwords Add-On for Firefox — tidbits.com/… (makes Apple Passwords just that little bit better a service) * Web version of Apple Maps adds Look Around street-view feature — www.cultofmac.com/… * Microsoft simplifies file transfers between iPhone and Windows PC — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple to report holiday quarter earnings on January 30, 2025 — appleinsider.com/…

LegendNote: When the textual description of a link is part of the link it is the title of the page being linked to, when the text describing a link is not part of the link it is a description written by Bart.

| Emoji | Meaning | | --- | --- | | A press release or official statement. | | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. | | flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. | | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. | | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. | | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that's likely to develop into something significant in the future. |

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart tries to explain the difference between a channel mixer for monochrome conversion, and the very similar looking selective colour adjustment, and to do so, he starts by describing the HSL representation of colour our photo editors use internally.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp135.mp3In LTP 131 I shared my recent adventures in monochrome photography, and one of the things I mentioned was the power of the Channel Mixer for making more creative conversions. This led to an interesting discussion with friend of the show and frequent guest Allison Sheridan about the difference between two almost identical looking controls but don't do the same thing at all, the channel mixer for monochrome conversions, and selective colour adjustments. The app Allison was trying to use had a set of sliders that looked like what I described in LTP 131, but they just didn't seem to be doing anything like what I described they would, what was going on? Allison was using the Photos app on a Mac, and it doesn't have a channel mixer, but it does have selective colour adjustments, and those controls look like a channel mixer.

Initially I struggled to explain the difference, and I didn't do very well, and then I confused things even more by trying to explain that you can actually emulate a less effective channel mixer with a selective colour adjustment, but that did the opposite of help! We switched focus to finding Allison a true channel mixer she could use without spending money on software that wasn't free or that she didn't already own, and got her up and running with Affinity Photo 2.

OK, so that solved Allison's most immediate problem, but it still left me feeling like unfulfilled — I'd tried to explain something I actually do understand, and utterly failed. It's been niggling away at me for the last few weeks, and just in time to record this show, the penny finally dropped, I was trying to explain what these sliders do without starting with how our photo editors model colour. We usually think computers model colours as Red, Green, and Blue values, so-called RGB, but that's literally only half of the story, it's how we store, transmit, and display images, but it's not how we edit them! When we load an image into an editor it gets transformed from an RGB representation into a more useful alternative representation, Hue, Saturation, and Lightness, or HSL. To understand both the channel mixer and it's close cousin the selective colour adjustment, we need to understand how both understand colour, in other words, we need to understand the HSL colour space.

What's the Problem with the RGB Colour Space?As we all probably learned in science class when our teachers explained how televisions work, you can create any colour of light by adding more or less red, green, and blue light together. This means we can represent the colour of any pixel in an image with three numbers — a red brightness, a green brightness, and a blue brightness.

In this representation the total value of a pixel’s red, green, and blue brightness values will determine the apparent brightness of the pixel, and the ratios between the three brightness values will determine the pixel’s colour.

A pixel that’s 100% blue, 50% green and 50% red has a total brightness of 60% (200 out of a possible 300), and so does a pixel with 50% blue, 100% green, and 50% red, and indeed one with 50% blue, 50% green, and 100% red. The difference between these three pixels will not be their brightness, but their colour.

RGB is an efficient representation for storage and transmission, and it's how the physical pixels in our displays work, but it's a terrible representation for editing because of it's coupling of brightness and colour. To change a pixel's colour without affecting it's brightness you have to change at least two RGB brightness values, and the same is true of you want to change a pixel's brightness without changing it's colour.

HSL to the Rescue!HSL exists because RGB is an inefficient way of representing pixels when the problem to be solved is editing rather than storing or physically displaying.

When you load an image for editing in an image editor each pixel's RGB values get translated into HSL values and the editor manipulates those values rather than the RGBs. It's when you save the file that the reverse transformation happens, and obviously, the graphics code that's used to render the image on screen is doing the same translation in real-time. The math to go between the two representations is trivial for a computer.

So, what is this HSL pixel representation? Each pixel still gets three numbers, but this time the numbers represent it's Hue, Saturation, and Lightness.

To understand a pixel's hue you need to imagine the rainbow as a line that runs from red on one end to violet on the other that you then close as a circle. When you do that you'll be surprised to find that it looks like a continuum. You probably thought there's be a clear break somewhere in the line, but there isn't, red and violet are actually as similar as red and orange! We can describe any colour by an angular position along this circle, and by convention we label red as being at zero degrees, with orange at thirty, yellow at sixty and so on.

The pixel's saturation is simply the intensity of its colour, with pure white being zero, light pastels being the low numbers, and the pure version of the colour in the rainbow being one.

The final value then is the pixel's lightness, this is simply how bright or dark it is, with black being zero and white being one.

Now, we can change colours without affecting brightness, and brightness without affecting colour. Changing the hue change the shade of the colour, and changing the saturation changes its intensity.

What's a Channel Mixer?Now that we know how our editors internally represent colour, let's re-visit the channel mixer which I mentioned in LTP 131 when describing my monochrome adventures.

This is a tool for converting colour images into black and white images with more artistic control than we get by simply desaturating them.

Just like our photo editors can represent a colour image in HSL, they can represent black at white images as simply brightness values, one for each pixel. What the channel mixer does is convert individual hue, saturation, and lightness values for each input pixel into just a single lightness value for each output pixel. For each pixel, three inputs get converted to one output.

The naïve approach is to simply ignore the colour information in the input image and just copy the lightness values across un-changed. This is what happens when you convert and image by simply sliding the saturation to zero.

What the channel mixer lets us do is group the pixels into multiple sets based on their hue, and apply a different adjust me to each set. We have 360 degrees of hue to work with, so what most editors do is divide that imaginary circle into eight 45 degree segments, giving you eight sliders which map to:

red
orange
yellow
green
aqua (a bluey greeney colour)
blue
purple
magenta (a pinkier purple)

In effect, every pixel gets connected to one of the eight sliders based on its original hue.

So what do the sliders do? They apply a gain to that pixel's lightness value, letting your darken or lighten the resulting output value by some amount. Note that you're not adding or subtracting a set amount of lightness from each affected pixel, but multiplying the input value by a given factor. This is why the sliders all start in the centre of the slider labeled, which corresponds to multiplying the input value by 1 to get the output value, in other words, leaving the pixels lightness un-changed.

When you slide the slider to the right you are multiplying by 1.x, so 1.1, then 1.2, then 1.3 etc., making the pixels controlled by that slider a little brighter, more brighter, a lot brighter, etc.. When you slide the slider the other way you're multiplying by 0.x, 0.9, then 0.8, then 0.7 etc., making the controlled pixels a little darker, more darker, a lot darker, etc..

This is very powerful, because a lot of colour photographs have large areas with a similar colour, like blue skies, green grass, and so on. The channel mixer lets us nudge each region in a different direction to give us much more control over the resulting monochrome image.

What's a Selective Colour Adjustment?Now that we understand the colour mixer, let's examine it's close cousin, the selective colour adjustment.

The fundamental difference here is that this time both the input and output images are in colour, so we don't have three values for each pixel becoming one value for each pixel, but three input values for each pixel being translated to three output values for each pixel.

Again, we're working HSL, so each pixel has an original hue, saturation, and lightness, and and output hue, saturation, and lightness.

We're presented with an extremely similar interface, because we're doing the same trick of grouping all pixels into one of 8 segments based on their hue, the difference is that we now have three sliders for each colour segment, a hue slider, a saturation slider, and a lightness slider.

We can use the hue slider in each segment to nudge the shade of each matching pixel clockwise or anti-clockwise around our colour circle. This lets us do things like make blue pixels a little pinker or greener, yellow pixels a little more orange or green, etc..

We can use the saturation slider to make the colour of each matching pixel a little more or less vibrant. Maybe we have a sunset where the sky has a lovely orange hue we want to emphasise, while the shadows have a blue hue we want to reduce, we can push the orange saturation up, and the blue saturation down, giving us the warm feel we want while simultaneously de-emphasising the cooler colours we don't.

Finally, we can use the lightness slider to brighten or dark the matching pixels.

What we're doing here is applying colour shifts in a fine-grained way rather than applying them to every pixel.

Emulating a Channel Mixer with a Selective Colour Adjustment + DesaturationSo, the final piece of the puzzle, can you get some of the power of the channel mixer in an editor that doesn't have one, but does have both a selective colour adjustment and a saturation slider?

Maybe. It depends entirely on the order in which the editor chooses to apply those two controls. If the editor does the desaturation first, then the selective colour adjustment has nothing to work with, but if the editor applies the selective colour first, then you can alter the different colour regions of the image separately before the colour information is thrown away.

So, the first caveat is obvious — if the ordering is wrong, you're SOL (straight out of luck, or similar ). There is also a second caveat — in my experience many editors only let you nudge the brightness for each colour segment a little bit, so you'll never get your blue skies to go as inky black as you could with a true channel mixer.

Final ThoughtsWhile my hook for this episode was disambiguating two confusingly similar sliders, the knowledge I'm most keen to share is actually an understanding of the HSL colour space. As a computer scientist and physicist I've been conditioned to think of colours in RGB for decades, which held back my understanding of powerful image editors like Photoshop and Lightroom for many years. It was the first time the HSL penny dropped that these tools finally started to make sense to me. The names of adjustments and sliders suddenly made a lot more sense, and their effects suddenly became a lot more intuitive to me.

Those of you from a fine arts background probably grey up with an HSL mindset from the very beginning, so you probably knew all this already. I hope you found the first-principles explanation useful thought. But my big hope is that my fellow STEM people have joined me in understanding colour in a new way.

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

The show starts with some quick followup on a few recently covered and long-running stories before diving into a big serving of regulatory stories, a handful legal story, just one piece of HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The three main stories are a new security feature that appeared unannounced in iOS 18.1, 3rd-party sharing for Find My, and some updates to Apple’s Pro apps. The show finishes with a rundown of a few other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in November.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta135.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

AirPods Pro 2 hearing tests and protection features come to France, though not the hearing aid functionality, at last not yet — appleinsider.com/…
Apple Intelligence developments:
- Developers can begin work on an app intent system that will make Siri smarter in 2025 — appleinsider.com/…
- A high-ranking Chinese Official has said foreign companies need to use Chinese LLMs unless they want to do through an extremely difficult approval process, the statement coincided with a trip to China by Tim Cook, reportedly lobby for approval of Apple Intelligence in the country — www.macobserver.com/…
- Related: Google Gemini Live takes on Siri via a standalone iOS app — appleinsider.com/…
- The Matter standard continues to evolve, V1.4 released — appleinsider.com/… (New devices types include home battery & EV-charging devices, heat pumps, water heaters, and in-wall controllers for lights, fans, etc.)
- Apple's RCS support gets a little better with emoji reactions from Android devices now being displayed just like those from iOS devices — www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple continues to diversity away from China and develop production in India:
- Tata to Acquire Majority Stake in Taiwanese Pegatron’s iPhone Plant in India — www.macobserver.com/…
- Foxconn India drops recruitment discrimination against married women — appleinsider.com/…

Regulatory Rundown* Apple's attempts to re-gain access to the Indonesian market for the iPhone 16 have not gone well:

+ Apple to increase Indonesia investment tenfold to appeal iPhone 16 ban — appleinsider.com/… ($10M → $100M)
+ Indonesia Rejects Apple’s $100M Investment Proposal Because Apple Invested 160x More in Vietnam — www.macobserver.com/… (per government minister)

India Rejects Apple’s Request to Suspend Antitrust Investigation Report — www.macobserver.com/… (Apple had previously succeeded in suspending the report over claims it leaked proprietary information)
The European Commission continues it's focus on Apple:
- Apple have released their first Digital Markets Act (DMA) Compliance Report that includes iPadOS, and the European Commission released a statement saying they are carefully evaluating it and emphasising the possible penalties if Apple are found wanting:
  - European regulators evaluate iPadOS changes for compliance with Digital Markets Act — appleinsider.com/…
  - The public version of Apple's report — www.apple.com/… (PDF)
    - Following an investigation by national authorities in Ireland, Belgium & Germany the Commission has notified Apple that the geo-blocking within Apple Media Services (App Store, Apple Arcade, Music, iTunes Store, Books and Podcasts) breach EU anti-geo-blocking laws — European Commission PR
  - The scope of Europe's law is internal to Europe, so I believe a lot of the analysis on American sites is misunderstanding what is being demanded — it is not about Apple allowing Europeans to watch American Netflix, but about Belgians being able to watch German Netflix, Irish people being able to download French apps, and so on. (Example of the kind of reporting I believe is wrong: EU's latest demand on Apple about geolocking is unforgivably naive — appleinsider.com/…)
    - Related: Apple suppliers are also in the cross-hairs: Corning faces antitrust actions for its Gorilla Glass dominance — arstechnica.com/…
    - EU drops four-year Apple audiobook probe after complaint is withdrawn — appleinsider.com/…
  - Apple's browser rules deemed anticompetitive, says UK competition body — appleinsider.com/…
  - The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have announced that they will start supervising large digital wallet providers, and Apple Pay is very likely to come under scrutiny — appleinsider.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
  - Brazilian Antitrust Regulator Orders Apple to Lift App Store Payment Restrictions — www.macobserver.com/…

Legal Latest A judge in an existing class action suite against Apple over the App Store has approved an expansion of the class to cover more customers over more years — www.macobserver.com/… * The well known consumer advocacy group Which!* is suing Apple for £3Bn over the alleged anti-competitive nature of iCloud — appleinsider.com/…

The argument is that "iOS has a monopoly" and that Apple has used that "dominance to gain an unfair advantage in related markets, like the cloud storage market." Specifically, Apple is accused of making it difficult to use alternative suppliers.

DOJ -v- Apple: Apple have presented their arguments that the entire case should be thrown out, we now await a judgement — appleinsider.com/… (the bar is very high for Apple here, so success seems unlikely)

Apple HR & Acquisition News Apple prompts Molly Anderson from Head of Industrial Design to VP of Industrial Design* — www.macobserver.com/…

+ The VP of Industrial Desk title was last held by Evan Hankey
+ Design had been reporting to COO Jeff Williams as an interim measure since Hankey left

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights* It's awards & rankings time!

+ Apple reveals 45 app and game finalists for the 2024 App Store Awards — Apple PR


    - A nice overview: Apple Announces 45 App Store Awards Finalists for 2024 — www.macstories.net/…
    - Apple shares the most popular podcasts of 2024 — Apple PR
+ Top Apple Podcast charts for 2024 show what everyone's been listening to — appleinsider.com/…  
* Per-country rankings


    - Billie Eilish is Apple Music’s Artist of the Year for 2024 — Apple PR

Apple Music Classical is now available in CarPlay — appleinsider.com/…
Have happier holidays with 15 new Apple Arcade games — www.cultofmac.com/… ( Apple PR)
Apple Pay:
- Apple Pay officially launches in Paraguay — appleinsider.com/…
- Tap-to-Pay for merchants (receiving payments) comes to New Zealand — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories1. iOS 18.1 brought a new security feature to iPhones: Inactivity Reboot — www.bleepingcomputer.com/…

* iOS devices that have been locked for longer than a few days now automatically reboot to put themselves into the more secure *before first unlock* mode.

Apple’s Find My enables users to share the location of lost items with third parties — Apple PR
- Find My's Share Item Location will help airlines find your luggage — appleinsider.com/… (including Air Canada, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Qantas, Virgin Atlantic, and even Aer Lingus )
- Apple updates it's Pro Apps
- Final Cut Pro 11 begins a new chapter for video editing on Mac — Apple PR
  - Final Cut Pro 11 Has Apple Intelligence’s Image Clean Up, But For Videos — www.macobserver.com/…
  - Apple Unveils Final Cut Pro 11 with AI Features and Spatial Video Editing — www.macobserver.com/…
    - Apple also updated Logic Pro, adding Quantec Room Simulation — appleinsider.com/…

Quick Stories Apple slashes MacBook Pro speaker repair costs — appleinsider.com/… * The campaign group Toxic-Free Future has released their 2024 Retailer Report Card*, and Apple tops the rankings — appleinsider.com/…

+ The report's aims:


> *"The 2024 Retailer Report Card grades the largest retailers in the U.S. and Canada on their actions to eliminate highly hazardous chemicals and plastics and replace them with safer solutions."*
> 
>
+ Apple was the only company to get an A grade with a score of 84%, the next closest retailers are Sephora & Walmart with 69% & 65%

Apple have extended their return periods again, from 8 November items can be returned until January 8th (usual policy is 2 weeks) — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Related: from November 29th to December 8th Apple Pay transactions in Apple's stores will support Product RED — www.cultofmac.com/… (to mark world AIDS day on 1 Dec)

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart explains why we can’t have a single unified opinion on ‘AI in photography’ — there are a whole spectrum of different AI-powered tools that interact with photography in different ways, and they all have their own subjective pros and cons.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp134.mp3A lot of discussions try to boil all of AI down to a single “good or bad” opinion, but that just doesn’t make any sense!

AI isn’t one thing, it doesn’t do one thing, and even when you confine yourself to just AI's intersection with photography, there are still a lot of different applications to consider. Each of those applications have their own pros and cons, and many of those are very subjective.

When it comes to AI’s effect on the art and craft of photography there’s a huge spectrum of opportunities and threats, and we’re all likely to rank them differently. I’d like to share my current thinking, not in the hope of convincing you to agree with me, but to set you thinking!

To help organise my thoughts I've broken AI in photography down into three topics:

Image classifiers — 'what's in this photo?'
Image editors — 'make this photo look better'
Image generators — 'make me a photorealistic image of …'

That second grouping, editors, is very broad, and so I've added my own sub-groupings. These are not any kind of formal terms, they're just my best attempt to put sensible labels on groups of features so I can talk about them in a coherent way:

Filters — one-button black-box changes
Image pipelines — under the hood image processing between the sensors and the 'original' image we see
Smart editors — tools that move sliders for us, so we can see what they're doing, and tweak it
Generative editors — tools that need to create some new content to 'fix' something in the original

With that structure in mind, let's get stuck in!

ClassifiersThe first time AI encountered photography was when facial recognition arrived in our photo management apps to help us automatically tag our friends and family.

To say the first classifiers were limited is putting it mildly — by itself the algorithms could only draw a box around everything they thought might be a face, and some of the false positives were hilarious! When it did successfully find some faces you could tell it who they were, and it would ask you to train it by showing more photos and asking whether or not it was the same person. Again, results were mixed, with siblings and other family members often getting confused with each other, often across genders, leading to some awkward moments in some families!

No one thought those early classifiers were in any way a cause for concern — a source of entertainment, sure, and eventually, a useful tool, maybe, but definitely not an existential crisis!

Like with all of AI, progress has of course continued, and as it did, that same technology developed a more sinister tone when Facebook rolled it out for all users, and enabled it by default (of course)! Facebook’s version was much smarter than those in Aperture or Lightroom because Facebook had the thing AI needs most — oceans of training data, and what’s more, it training data with built-in context! The people in your photos are most likely to be you, your friends, and your family, who are also most likely to be the people you follow. So Facebook's AI classifiers could quickly learn which names belonged to which faces without needing to ask the humans for nearly as much help as our desktops apps needed. If it sounds creepy, it was! In fact, it was so creepy even Facebook realised they’d crossed a line, and seeing the writing on the wall, chose to retire the feature before governments could write the laws to force them to.

The technology may have hit it’s moral nadir with Facebook, but it didn’t stop getting better, and now we have extremely intelligent classifiers built right into our default photo apps. When your iPhone offers to tell you what that blossom, bug, or building you snapped is, those are very smart classifiers offering you a helping hand. Even more impressively, we can now search our photos using every-day descriptions like “all my photos of orange flowers in Ireland in spring”!

After taking a brief detour into the dark side, I now find classifiers to be one of the most useful and under appreciated branches of AI.

It strikes me that if we’d all been great about tagging and describing all our images we’d get much less value from classifiers, but of course, despite our best efforts, I doubt any of us kept that up consistently!

Just to note that outside of photography classifiers are a major concern, especially their use for facial recognition. There are big problems with biases in the training data, and let’s not even begin to discuss the legal and ethical minefield of their use by law enforcement!

Image EditorsAfter helping us find people and things in our photos, and photos of specific people and things, the next use AI was put to was helpings us edit our images to get the best out of them.

This is such a slippery slope — where exactly the boundary is between editing and creating from whole cloth is impossible to really define. As I mentioned in the introduction, I've grouped all these editing tools under some headings of my own invention. These are not formal definitions, they're just my way of trying to bring some order to a big mess of features

FiltersIn my view of these things, the earliest and most primitive AI editing tools were black-box one-button tools designed to transform an image in some way. The user didn't get any kind of visibility into what the filter did, or control over how it did it. You just tapped the button and your photo changed. You could keep the change, or revert it, but that was the extent of your control!

The two earliest examples I remember were the original magic wand button in Apple Photos, and of course those infamous one-push Instagram filters.

Exactly what these filters did was a mystery to everyone, and whether or not they fit the definition of AI is debatable, some were just naive algorithms, but some probably relied on some kind of early AI technology. But that debate doesn't matter, because they were the start of the journey that eventually leads us to the most controversial editing features — the generative ones we'll get to shortly!

I never liked these tools because they were too crude. I rarely liked their result, and since I had no ability to tweak their behaviour, I just ignored them!

Image PipelinesIf you think filters are opaque black boxes, at least you choose to use them, there are actually even more opaque black boxes than filters and if you shoot with a smart phone, you are using them, and you have absolutely no choice not to!

All our camera phones perform masses of image processing on every photo we shoot before we even get your first glimpse of them, and a lot of that processing is now powered by AI.

The teeny tiny sensors and very flat lenses in our phone cameras are just big balls of compromises. The raw data coming out of the sensors is a mess! It’s noisy and distorted and would just look terrible if it were presented to us as-is, and yet, the photos we see from our modern high-end phones are just amazing! They have better dynamic range, colour accuracy, and low light performance that the last DSLR I bought. How is that possible?

Well, as I hinted at before, the answer is AI, lots and lots and lots of AI! What Apple have generally branded Machine Learning or ML is just a particular kind of AI.

The processing high end phone cameras now do is impressive and multi-staged, often combining data from multiple sensors captured through multiple lenses into a single image, and that data might even be augmented with depth data from a LiDAR sensor too. This chain has AI peppered through out, and you’ll often hear Apple refer to the whole thing as their imaging pipeline. Another jargon term you might hear is DSP, DISP, or ISP, these are all variants of the term Digital Image Signal Processor, and it just refers to a chip that processes image data.

The closest I can see to a dark side here is that we now have technology beyond the control of the photographer pre-processing our images. But that’s always been a weak argument to me, because even in the film days, photographers outsourced vast swaths of the chemistry to film producers, darkroom suppliers, and photo labs. Also, Apple and others are starting to give some control back to photographers by introducing new RAW formats that expose more of the data assembled by the imaging pipeline.

Smart Editors Turning back to AI editors controlled by the user, a big step forward from the filter-style one-button black boxes was the move to filters and presets that moved the sliders for you. Instead of providing you a fait accompli, they provide you a starting point from which you can make your own refinements.

Because all the AI has done is move the sliders, you're still in full control, and can tweak and fine-tune each aspect of the edit to your heart’s content. These AIs don’t quite show you what they're 'thinking' because you still have no idea why it makes sense to reduce the contrast or what ever, but at least you can see what the AI is doing. This is how the modern magic wand works on the iPhone. This change is what converted me from someone who never touched that button to someone who uses it as their starting point on just about every edit!

I really can't see a dark side to these more transparent editing tools.

Generative EditorsImage editing tools have of course continued to evolve, and their use of AI has continued to expand, and that includes aspects of editing that have always been controversial.

We may not worry about it now, but even blemish removal was initially controversial because you’re changing the content of the photo rather than just the way the content is displayed.

Initially photographers removed blemishes by stamping and cloning one part of the photo over another. You had to select the source, and then you stamped it over the blemish. There was no new data being created, and the photographer was completely in charge, but that soon changed.

The first automated tool I can remember is the relatively naive algorithms for removing red eye caused by the on-camera flashes our cheap point-and-shoot cameras all had. You simply clicked on the eye you wanted to fix, and the algorithm removed the unnatural red glint.

The next evolution was to automate blemish removal by using an algorithm of some kind to choose the cloning source you. There was still no new data being created, but the computer was deciding the source of the copies.

None of this ever concerned me in any way, but I can see why photo journalists had problems with even these naive tools.

Where things really took a turn into the grey was Adobe’s release of Generative Fill and Generative Expand last year. These tools allow photographers to replace parts of an image with AI generated content, and, to expand images beyond the edge of the shot frame, filling the empty space with generated content.

Google soon added similar and even more advanced tools into their high-end Pixel phones. Using just the default photos app on a modern Pixel phone anyone can remove a person from a photo, or even move them to another part of the image, and AI generates content to fill the gaps.

Just within the last month Apple has joined the generative fill party with the Photos Cleanup feature in Apple Intelligence.

Clearly, this kind of democratisation of photographic fakery has societal impacts! Personally, I never thought it was appropriate to just trust photos (see LTP 121: Truth in Photography?), but many, probably most, regular folks do, and they need to unlearn that instinct, fast! Hopefully before enough of us get manipulated into doing great damage to our societies!

Image GeneratorsFinally, we arrive at the extreme end of the spectrum — completely artificial photo-realistic images. They look like photographs, but the scenes they depict simply never existed. No photons of light bounced off anything, passed through any lens, or registered on any sensor to create these images. These are not photos, but they sure look like them!

It was image generating tools like DALL-E bursting onto the scene two years ago that triggered the societal debates we’re all living through now.

I’ve already shared my thoughts on those big questions in (many!) previous episodes, so I’m not going to repeat myself this time, but here's the list:

LTP 112: AI Part 1 — What is it? & LTP 113: AI Part 2 — Pros & Cons with Antonio Rosario
LTP 115: Is it Art? Is it Photography?
LTP 119: Rethinking AI Training
LTP 121: Truth in Photography?
LTP 130: AI, Taking Stock

Final ThoughtsSo, I hope you now understand why I don’t have one view on AI, and why I think it's a nonsense to even try!

I really like how classifiers have helped me get the most from my photo library. I really appreciate and admire our modern image pipelines, and I love smart editors that move the sliders for me but let me tweak and tune the results. I’m ambivalent about generative editing tools. I use generative fill from time to time, but not often, and I have no interest in moving people around in my shots. I appreciate the emerging art of images co-created by humans and generative AI. But, I really worry that society isn’t going to deal with the fact that we just can’t trust the reality of images when they’re removed from their context. A photo purporting to show something meaningful is meaningless by itself, it only gets value when it’s vouched for by a source that’s earned our trust! Societally, we need to move from trusting images to trusting sources, and I'm not seeing that happen. If anything, I'm seeing social media further separate images from their sources, stripping away all context, and leaving them open massive abuse. That's already true of genuine photos presented dishonestly, but it's even more true for generatively edited or created images. I think it's inevitable, at least in the short term, that people will choose to trust really toxic sources that will happily abuse AI's potentials in all kinds of ways

Like I say, I don’t have the answers, and I wasn’t trying advocate any. I just hope I’ve convinced you to think of AI as a great big ecosystem with many different tools, and not as some kind of single species. I hope you agree that you can’t have one opinion on all of AI, but that you need a spectrum of opinions.

View Details

Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

The show starts with some quick followup on a few recently covered and long-running stories before diving into a pair of regulatory stories, one legal story, quite a lot of HR & acquisition news, and some highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The four main stories are the refreshed iPad mini, the launch of Apple Intelligence, the new M4 Macs, and Apple’s Q4 2024 earnings. The show finishes with a rundown of a few other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in October.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta134.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

New AirPods Pro 2 firmware has been released enabling the promised hearing test and hearing aid features in some countries — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Apple shares a look inside it's advanced audio labs — www.cultofmac.com/… & Apple PR
- Review: What It's Like to Hear Better with AirPods Pro 2 — www.macstories.net/…
- Review: Taking the AirPods Pro hearing test — sixcolors.com/…
- The first, and probably most important, company adds support for Apple Wallet's new Enhanced Tickets feature in iOS 18: Ticketmaster — www.macobserver.com/…
- The slow rollout of the Vision Pro continues: Apple Vision Pro to launch in South Korea and UAE this November — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Related: Apple Releases Immersive Short Film Submerged and Announces Upcoming Immersive Content — www.macstories.net/…
- Related: Cisco brings Spatial Meetings to Apple Vision Pro with native Webex app — appleinsider.com/…
- China remains complicated for Apple:
- Tensions escalate as China arrests Foxconn staff at key Apple factory — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple's largest research lab outside the US opens in China — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple's growth in India continues: Apple Stores in Apple’s Fastest Growing Market to Get Triple Next Year — www.macobserver.com/… (3 new stores)

Regulatory Rundown* Apple Cannot Sell iPhone 16 in Indonesia As Investment Targets Missed by $15M — www.macobserver.com/…

+ **Related:** Indonesia bans sales of Google phones days after blocking Apple's iPhone 16 — www.reuters.com/…
+ **Related:** Indonesia requests Apple block Temu from the App Store — appleinsider.com/…

Apple and Goldman Sachs hit with $90 million penalty over Apple Card — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest Apple -v- Masimo*: Apple technically get a win as a jury finds that old Masimo watches violate Apple patents, award Apple the minimum possible in damages, $250 — appleinsider.com/…, www.macobserver.com/… & daringfireball.net/…

+ The jury also found that current Masimo watches do not violate Apple's patents
+ **Opinion:** this is a Pyrrhic victory, because Apple lost the actually important part of the case, the current devices. Had Masimo's current devices been found to violate Apple patents then Apple could have used that as leverage to resolve the import ban blocking blood oxygen features in US Apple Watches.

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Apple's global chief of procurement to retire after 24 years — appleinsider.com/… (Dan Rosckes) * Apple's former hardware chief and current Apple Vision Pro lead is retiring — appleinsider.com/… (Dan Riccio) * Chief People Officer leaves Apple after short 20 month tenure — appleinsider.com/… (Carol Surface, Deirdre O'Brien resuming her old responsibilities again)

+ **Related:** Apple's relationship with its American workers remains turbulent:


    - Maryland Apple Store staff file for union election — appleinsider.com/…
    - NLRB accuses Apple of illegally restricting workers' social media use — appleinsider.com/… (National Labour Relations Board)
    - Apple still suppresses employees discussing pay equity, says Labor Board — appleinsider.com/… (a second NLRB investigation this month!)
+ **Related:** Apple HR exodus continues with recruitment exec departure — appleinsider.com/… (VP Sjoerd Gehring)

Apple acquires brilliant image-editing app Pixelmator. What now? — www.cultofmac.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple TV+:*

+ Apple TV+ comes to Amazon Prime Video — sixcolors.com/…
+ Lionel Messi’s historic MLS Cup Playoffs debut to stream free on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV — Apple PR
+ **Related:** You can no longer subscribe to Disney+ and Hulu through Apple — www.cultofmac.com/… (to avoid the *Apple Tax*)

Apple Music: Bands can turn concert set lists into Apple Music playlists — appleinsider.com/…
Apple Pay: (the service turned 10 this month!)
- Apple Pay adds Klarna installments now, PayPal balances later — appleinsider.com/…
- Tap to Pay on iPhone expands to more European countries — Apple PR (receiving payments directly on iPhone)
  - This is about merchants recieving tap-to-pay payments using just an iPhone as the point-of-sale terminal, not about regular folks using Apple Pay to pay for things!
  - Austria, Czech Republic, Ireland, Romania, and Sweden
    - Related: Here’s Why Apple Pay Is Still Not Available in Apple’s Fastest-Growing Market: India — www.macobserver.com/… (TL;DR incompatible regulations & privacy concerns)
  - Apple Wallet: Iowa rolls out support for driver's licenses, IDs in Wallet app — appleinsider.com/…
  - Messages:
- Apple Business Connect extends to online firms, adds branding features — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple PR)
- Roadside Assistance via Satellite expands into the UK — appleinsider.com/… (with Green Flag as the partner)
- Related: Apple makes $1.1 billion commitment to expand satellite messaging — appleinsider.com/… (Apple is paying GlobeStar to expand it's satellite network, and taking a 20% stake in the company)
- Apple Car Key to unlock Volvo, Audi, Polestar vehicles soon — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories1. Apple refreshed the iPad Mini — Apple PR

* The New iPad Mini Is Here With iPhone 15 Pro’s Chip and Apple Intelligence — www.macobserver.com/…
* **Opinion:** The new iPad mini’s surprising not-new processor — sixcolors.com/…
* **Review & Opinion:** iPad mini Review: The Third Place — www.macstories.net/… (an interesting take — the device has an important niche)
* **Review:** Hands-on with the 2024 iPad mini: Spot the differences — arstechnica.com/…
* **Review:** iPad mini 7 review roundup: Better in small ways — www.cultofmac.com/…

Apple Intelligence Launches — Apple PR
- Lead-up: Tim Cook reapplies ‘not first, but best’ mantra to Apple Intelligence — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple Intelligence launched in US English
  - On iPhones & iPads with iOS 18.1 — appleinsider.com/…
  - On Macs with macOS Sequoia 15.1 — appleinsider.com/… ( surprise! also in EU!)
    - Apple has shared more of the launch road-map — appleinsider.com/… & www.macstories.net/…
  - After surprisingly getting Apple Intelligence on the Mac in the EU on launch day, the EU will get Apple Intelligence on iOS in April 2025
  - At launch Apple Intelligence is US-English only, but more variants of English are coming in December — Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa & UK
  - In April 2025 more languages will become available — Chinese, English variants for India & Singapore, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese
  - The follow features will be added in December:
    - Custom re-writing styles in writing tools
    - ChatGPT in writing tools
    - Image Playgrounds
    - Genmoji
    - Visual Intelligence (camera-initiated search)
      - Launched Features:
  - Basic new Siri (new animation, and memory between requests) — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - How to use Apple Intelligence writing tools — www.intego.com/…
  - Notification Summaries
  - Image Cleanup
  - Photo Search
  - Photo Memories
  - Suggested replies
  - Phone call transcriptions
  - The Reduce Interruptions focus mode
  - Siri Apple Product Knowledge
  - Type to Siri (without the old accessibility tools trick)
    - As promised, Apple are opening up Private Cloud Compute to security researchers — www.bleepingcomputer.com/…
    - Related: WSJ: Apple’s Craig Federighi Explains Apple Intelligence Delays, Siri’s Future and More — YouTube (Joanna Stern interview)
    - Opinion: Apple's Commitment to AI Is Clear, But Its Execution Is Uneven — www.macstories.net/…
    - Opinion & Review: Apple Intelligence .1 Review: A small start of something big? — sixcolors.com/…
    - Related: Apple's study proves that LLM-based AI models are flawed because they cannot reason — appleinsider.com/…
  - New Macs — no event, but a week of press releases & videos
- Watch Apple’s M4 Mac announcements in just 90 seconds — www.cultofmac.com/…
- The M4 family expands to include the M4 Pro & M4 Max — Apple PR
  - Apple’s M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max compared to past generations, and to each other — arstechnica.com/…
  - M4 Pro and Max benchmarks show M2 Ultra who’s boss — www.cultofmac.com/…
    - Apple updated the MacBook Airs to 16GB baseline RAM — sixcolors.com/…
    - Updated iMacs — Apple PR
  - Notable changes
    - M4 CPU
    - 16GB baseline RAM
    - Updated colours
    - Option for nano-textured glass + New 24-inch iMac adds M4 chip, nano-texture glass option — appleinsider.com/… + New M4 iMac delivers major speed boost — www.cultofmac.com/…
      - Updated MacBook Pros — Apple PR
  - Key changes:
    - M4, M4 Pro & M4 Max CPUs
    - 16GB baseline RAM
    - Brighter screen (600 → 1K nits)
    - Option for nano-textured glass
    - An extra Thunderbolt port (now has ports on both sides)
    - The M4 Max & Pro have Thunderbolt 5
    - Related: Apple released their first Thunderbolt 5 Cable — www.cultofmac.com/… ($159) + Apple refreshes MacBook Pro lineup with M4 chips, introduces the M4 Max — arstechnica.com/… + Apple introduces new MacBook Pros with M4 chips, brighter screen — sixcolors.com/…
      - All new MacMinis — Apple PR
  - Apple's Launch Video — YouYube
  - Key changes:
    - New smaller form factor
      - 3 thunderbolt 4 ports, and HDMI port, and Ethernet at the back
      - 2 USB-C ports and the audio jack at the front, but
      - The power button in on the bottom — appleinsider.com/…
      - Related: the internet explodes with hacks to 'fix' the problem — appleinsider.com/…
      - M4, & M4 Pro CPUs
      - 16GB baseline RAM - Smaller Mac mini Powered by M4 and M4 Pro Chips — tidbits.com/… - M4 Mac mini vs M2 Mac mini compared: Leaner and meaner — appleinsider.com/…
        
        Apple updates 'Magic' accessories to USB-C, included with M4 iMac — appleinsider.com/…
  - Related: the charge port remains on the bottom of the Magic Mouse, so that controversy rolls on — appleinsider.com/…
  - Apple’s Q4 2024 Earnings — Apple PR
- The numbers:
  - Quarterly revenue of $94.9 billion (up 6% YoY)
  - Quarterly diluted earnings per share of $0.97 (would have been $1.64, up 12% YoY were it not for last month’s EU judgement on Irish taxes)
    - Detailed Graphs to put it all in context — sixcolors.com/…
    - The call:
  - This is Tim, that was Luca: Apple’s Q4 results phone call, transcribed — sixcolors.com/…
  - Tim Cook bids farewell to Luca Maestri on his last earnings call — appleinsider.com/…
  - Tim Cook says users are updating to iOS 18.1 at twice the rate of iOS 17.1 — appleinsider.com/… (answer to question about how Apple Intelligence is doing)
  - Apple Reports All-Time High in Active Users Worldwide — www.macobserver.com/…
    - Apple beats Wall Street predictions with record-breaking iPhone sales revenue — appleinsider.com/…
    - Apple Sets Q4 2024 Revenue Record on Services and iPhone Growth — tidbits.com/…
    - Opinion: Apple's fourth quarter earnings were decent, but the holiday quarter will be vital — appleinsider.com/…

Quick Stories* iCloud.com updated with dark mode, customization options, and tweaked UI— appleinsider.com/… * AI effects and text captions are coming to Final Cut Pro — appleinsider.com/… * Apple’s Swift Student Challenge to open in February 2025 — Apple * Beats partners with Kim Kardashian on new Beats Pill colors — appleinsider.com/… * New iPhone 14 Plus service program offers free repair for camera problem — www.cultofmac.com/…

View Details

Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr * Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet – Flickr

This month Bart is joined by Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast podcast for a wide-ranging conversation revolving around photographing recent astronomical events in modern ways. We start with the observation that the cameras in our phones can now see in the dark better than we can, before moving on to a cool new take on the concept of a telescope that takes the technology powering our phone cameras to a whole other level, before finally circling back to some software tips to help figure out where in the night sky to point our phones to capture the things we can’t actually see!

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp133.mp3Show NotesFrom Allison* The Equinox 2 telescope ( $2,499 or €2,499) * Also AR (Augmented Reality) Astronomy app – free Stellarium for macOS, Windows, and Linux – recommended by Listener Bill on Episode #50 of the NosillaCast in 2006 (and later by Bart in Episode #367 in 2012)

+ Stellarium Web (live in-browser version)
+ Stellarium Mobile (Android & iPhone/iPad)
+ Used to measure angles between Venus, the comet, and Arturos – video by Nastronomy
+ Comet photo by Steve Sheridan www.podfeet.com/…

Unistellar Equinox 2 Telescope pictures – Steve and Allison. Every image captured sends 2 versions to the phone – one with a circle and info about what you've captured and one without. Included are different versions to illustrate this feature. Remember every photo is taken in the middle of Los Angeles, light pollution capitol of the world.
- Unistellar: Jupiter
- Unistellar: Half Moon
- Unistellar: Ring Nebula
- Unistellar: Sombrero Galaxy
- Unistellar: Sun Spots

From Bart* May Aurora Photos * October Aurora Photos * Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Photos * My preferred AR (Augmented Reality) astronomy app — Sky Tonight (for iPhone & iPad)

View Details

Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

The show starts with some quick followup on a few long-running stories covered in recent months before diving into some regulatory stories, a few legal stories, a little HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The three main stories are Apple’s “It’s Glow Time” event, the release of the latest OSes, and repairability. The show finishes with a rundown of a few other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in September.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta133.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Two important tax rulings for Apple:
- The final ruling from the EU's highest court is in – Apple do have to pay the €2.4Bn fine for their tax arrangements in Ireland which has been sitting in escrow since the original ruling in 2016 — www.bbc.com/…
- Cupertino wins a battle but loses the war over California's Apple tax ruling — appleinsider.com/… (The city gets to keep the taxes it's collected so far, but they were not actually OK, so they won't get to continue)
- The slow rollout of digital IDs continues: California becomes eighth state to support IDs in Wallet app — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple continues its work to diversify it's supply chain:
- iPhone 16s (but not 16 pros) will be assembled in Brazil — www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple Expands US Manufacturing with TSMC and Amkor in Arizona — www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple starts making iPhone 16 Pro in India — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple does hit a bump in the road though: Apple might rely on China for iPhone parts after fire destroys Indian factory — www.cultofmac.com/…

Regulatory Rundown After Epic, Microsoft Criticizes Apple’s App Store Policies — www.macobserver.com/… (in filing to Competition & Markets Authority* investigation into cloud gaming) * California governor vetoes major AI safety bill — www.cultofmac.com/… * EU To Work With Apple for 6 Months For iOS Interoperability — www.macobserver.com/… (This is one to watch, bureaucrats getting involved in low-down tech decisions often ends very badly) * Apple has complied with it's DMA requirements and made 3rd-party app stores available for iPadOS in the EU — www.macstories.net/…

+ **Related:** Setapp Mobile launches its EU app storefront in open beta — appleinsider.com/…
+ **Related:** Third-party Epic Games Store now available on iPad for EU users — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest Apple has filed to drop it's case against the grey-hat security company NSO Group (of Pegasus spyware infamy) because it fears discovery will do more to harm Apple users' security than a victory could — appleinsider.com/… * Apple beats patent troll, wins suit over Secure Enclave tech — appleinsider.com/… * Apple -v- Epic*:

+ Apple is denied a last-minute request for a delay in producing documents, and gets reprimanded by the judge — www.macobserver.com/…
+ Apple has filed a 32 page request that the case be dismissed, citing two new precedents it says undermine the original finding against Apple's anti-steering rules — appleinsider.com/… (the details are complicated!)

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Apple Oklahoma City union secures new contract with pay hikes, better working conditions — appleinsider.com/… * The National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) has filed a formal complaint against Apple — appleinsider.com/…

+ Apple is accused of forcing employees to sign illegal confidentiality, non-compete, and non-disclosure agreements
+ The complaint also alleges that Apple over-enforced social media and misconduct policies

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple Music:*

+ Apple Music Vibes with Five New Mood Stations — www.macstories.net/…(*Feel Good*, *Energy*, *Relax*, *Focus* & *Feeling Blue*)
+ Apple Music Classical adds thousands of booklets to album listings — appleinsider.com/… (goes to version 2.0)

Apple TV+:
- Apple awarded 8 Creative Arts Emmys (from 72 nominations) — appleinsider.com/…
  - Outstanding Contemporary Hairstyling: The Morning Show
  - Outstanding Contemporary Makeup (non-prosthetic): "The Morning Show
  - Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music: Palm Royale
  - Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series: Lessons in Chemistry
  - Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Limited Series: Masters of the Air
  - Outstanding Directing for a Documentary: Girls Slate
  - Outstanding Cinematography: Girls Slate
    - Apple's latest movie Wolfs with Brad Pitt & George Clooney becomes the most-watched move on Apple TV+ ever — appleinsider.com/…
  - Related unconfirmed report: After Failures, Apple To Do Most Movies With Budget Under $100M — www.macobserver.com/…
  - Apple continues to add games: Eight games join Apple Arcade, including Balatro+ and NBA 2K25 Arcade Edition — Apple PR
  - Apple Podcasts gets some updates:
- A new category and an editorial section named Series Essentials to highlight limited series podcasts — www.macobserver.com/…
- Support for translations in 8 more languages — appleinsider.com/… (Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Italian, Portuguese & Brazilian Portuguese)

Main Stories1. Apple’s It's Glow Time event

* Apple's September 2024 Glowtime Event: Replay Today's Keynote — www.macstories.net/…
* Watch Apple’s ‘It’s Glowtime’ event in just 90 seconds — www.cultofmac.com/…
* Apple's press releases about the event, in order:


    + Apple introduces **AirPods 4** and the world’s first all-in-one hearing health experience with **AirPods Pro 2** — Apple PR


        - FDA approves AirPods hearing aid functionality — sixcolors.com/…
        - Physical Button on AirPods Eliminated; Gets a New Pairing Process — www.macobserver.com/…
        - ‘We’ve got to make it happen’: How Apple designed AirPods 4 for effective ANC — www.engadget.com/…
        - **Related:** Apple changes up **AirPods Max** colors, swaps in USB-C — www.cultofmac.com/…
    + **Apple Watch Ultra 2** now available in black titanium — Apple PR


        - Apple Unveiled the Black Titanium Apple Watch Ultra 2 With Dual-Frequency GPS — www.macobserver.com/…
        - Apple actually released a lot of new bands: A complete guide to all of Apple's new bands for the Apple Watches — appleinsider.com/…
    + Introducing **Apple Watch Series 10** — Apple PR


        - Apple Watch S10 Can Detect Sleep Apnea but Not Blood Oxygen — www.macobserver.com/…
        - How Apple remade the Watch: “We're not afraid of the new at all” — www.gq-magazine.co.uk/…
        - **Review:** Apple Watch 10: The best gets gloriously better [Review] — www.cultofmac.com/…
    + **Apple Intelligence** comes to iPhone, iPad, and Mac starting next month — Apple PR


        - Apple introduces new Visual Intelligence lookup for iPhone 16 — www.cultofmac.com/…
        - Apple Intelligence Promises Better AI Privacy. Here’s How It Actually Works — www.wired.com/…
        - A good overview of where Apple Intelligence will and won't be launching — www.macobserver.com/…
        - Apple Intelligence to gain support for even more languages in 2025 — www.cultofmac.com/… — English (India), English (Singapore), German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese & Vietnamese


            * An interesting observation from John Gruber, while Europeans will get Apple Intelligence on the Mac, this does not mean it's coming to the iPhone or iPad — daringfireball.net/…
        - Apple's new OS public betas offer a glimpse of Apple Intelligence — appleinsider.com/… & 2nd Public Betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 Are Out — www.macobserver.com/…
        - Hands-on with the first 10 Apple Intelligence features — www.cultofmac.com/…
        - **Related:** Apple Sticks to Climate Goals; Google Wavers Due to AI Demands — www.macobserver.com/…
        - **Related:** Both Apple & Meta decline to join the EU's voluntary AI pact — appleinsider.com/…
        - **Related Analysis:** Nilay Patel's iPhone 16 Pro Review Addresses the Nilay-Patel-iest of Questions: What Is a Photo? — daringfireball.net/…
    + Apple introduces **iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus** — Apple PR
    + Apple debuts **iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max** — Apple PR


        - iPhone 16 Pro hands on: All the new titanium colors — appleinsider.com/…
        - iPhone 16 Pro Max beats all comers in battery life test — appleinsider.com/…
        - iPhone 16 Pro is Apple's most repairable model yet — appleinsider.com/…


            * **Related:** Apple have overhauled the thermal protection around the battery — www.macobserver.com/…
* Apple bring sleep Apnea detection to the new Apple watches, and to other recent models — appleinsider.com/… (Series 10, Series 9 & Ultra 2)


    + How Apple Watch sleep apnea detection works in watchOS 11 — appleinsider.com/…
    + Apple Watch's Sleep Apnea Detection Feature Now Available in More Than 150 Countries — www.macrumors.com/…
    + Apple Watch Sleep Apnea Detection Approved in Canada — www.macobserver.com/…
* Camera Control and the cameras in general get a lot of reaction, and were the most important announcement IMO


    + Overhaul of photographic styles as well as Camera Control — appleinsider.com/…
    + iPhone 16 Camera Control button — the ultimate guide — appleinsider.com/…
    + Apple's developer documentation for Camera Control — developer.apple.com/…
    + Users’ on ‘Camera Control’: a Disgrace, Gimmicky, & Hard to Press — www.macobserver.com/…
    + **Review:** The best iPhone 16 feature is a throwback to what Apple does best — www.macworld.com/… (Jason Snell)
    + **Review:** iPhone 16 Pro Camera Review: Kenya — www.austinmann.com/…
* Apple's September 2024 Media Event: All the Small Things — www.macstories.net/…
* Check out new iPhone 16 cases from Apple (and … Beats?!?) — www.cultofmac.com/… (no more FineWoven!)
* Apple's September 2024 Glowtime Event: By the Numbers — www.macstories.net/…
* **Fun Trivia:** All the gorgeous San Francisco locations in Apple’s ‘It’s Glowtime’ event — www.cultofmac.com/…
* **Combined Reviews & Analysis:**


    + iPhone 16 vs iPhone 16 Pro compared — Going Pro in 2024 — appleinsider.com/…
    + Compared: A18 vs A18 Pro — breaking down what's powering iPhone 16 — appleinsider.com/…


        - **Related:** iPhone 16 A18 processor isn't a 'binned' A18 Pro — appleinsider.com/…
    + Every iPhone 16 model got a battery boost — www.cultofmac.com/…
    + iPhone 16 and 16 Pro review: A worthy upgrade after three years — arstechnica.com
    + Jason Snell: Some notes from the iPhone 16 launch event — sixcolors.com/…
    + Om Malik My Thoughts About Apple’s iPhone 16 “Glowtime” Event — om.co/…
    + John GruberThe Things They Carried — daringfireball.net/…  
    & The iPhones 16 — daringfireball.net/…

Apple’s new OSes release (ordered by Apple Press Release)
- watchOS 11 is available today — Apple PR
  - review: watchOS 11: The MacStories Review — www.macstories.net/…
    - iOS 18 is available today, making iPhone more personal and capable than ever — Apple PR
  - Everything new in iOS 18 — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Apple enables direct Thread control for smart home devices with iOS 18 — appleinsider.com/…
  - Review: iOS and iPadOS 18: The MacStories Review — www.macstories.net/…
  - Review: iOS 18 review: Good, but better with Apple Intelligence — appleinsider.com/…
  - Review: iOS 18 Review: Your iPhone, your way — sixcolors.com/…
  - Review: Reviewing iOS 18 for power users: Control Center, iCloud, and more — arstechnica.com/…
    - macOS Sequoia is available today, bringing Apple Intelligence, updates to Safari, and more to Mac — Apple PR
  - Review: macOS Sequoia review: the first macOS with more potential than new features — appleinsider.com/…
  - Review: macOS Sequoia 15.0 review: The opening act — sixcolors.com/…
  - Review: macOS 15 Sequoia: The Ars Technica review — arstechnica.com/…
    - Apple Maps introduces new ways to explore the world — Apple PR
    - iPadOS 18 is now available, taking iPad to the next level with powerful new intelligence features and experiences designed for Apple Pencil — Apple PR
  - Review: iPadOS 18 Review (ish): Math notes, calculator, and weird tab bars — sixcolors.com/…
    - tvOS 18 (didn't even get a press release ) — appleinsider.com/…
    - visionOS 2 (also no PR!)
  - Review: visionOS 2: The MacStories Review — www.macstories.net/…
  - Related: Apple kicks off blitz of worldwide visionOS developer events — appleinsider.com/… (First event was in Cupertino, CA, more planned in Toronto, Tokyo, Shanghai, Soul, as well as some online events)
  - Related: YouTube gets Apple Vision Pro app Juno kicked from App Store — appleinsider.com/… (a popular 3rd-party YouTube app since there is no official one)
    - Note: RCS has arrived into Apple-land
  - Initial carrier support is patchy — arstechnica.com/… & appleinsider.com/…
  - GSMA Plans End-to-End Encryption for Cross-Platform RCS Messaging — thehackernews.com/…
    - Related: After 20 Odd Years, Apple ID Gets Replaced; Hello Apple Account — www.macobserver.com/…
    - Related: Apple has already released (badly needed!) bug fixes for the OSes — www.macobserver.com/… (iPadOS 18.0 had to be withdrawn for M4 iPad Pros because it stopped them booting!)
  - Repairability was the sleeper-story of September 2024
- Stolen iPhones Will Be Even More Useless From iOS 18 Onwards — www.macobserver.com/…
- How To Use Activation Lock for Parts on iOS 18 — www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple shares instructions for repairing the new iPhones 16 — appleinsider.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
- Related: iPhone 16 Models Now Use an Electrically-Released Adhesive — daringfireball.net/…

Quick Stories Apple launches new professional learning resources for teachers and expands global education grant program — Apple PR (for World Teachers' Day*) * Apple pre-announces PowerBeats Pro 2 in a 10 second teaser video on Instagram — appleinsider.com/… (Expected in early 2025) * Apple's spooky Q4 2024 earnings are on Halloween — appleinsider.com/…

View Details

Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart shares his thoughts on where he would like to see the cameras in our phones continue to the evolve over the next few years. The cameras in phones have come a long way in the last decade, so what pain points remain? What opportunities are there for improvement?

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp132.mp3Show NotesAs I prepare this show we’re anticipating an Apple iPhone announcement event, and it’s a given there will be camera improvements. That got me thinking, given how far phone cameras have come, where do I see room for still more improvement?

More Zoom — I’ve had in 5x optical zoom for nearly a year now, and it’s noticeably better than the 3X I had before, but there are still times I need more. There is a limit to what it will be comfortable to hand-hold, but we’re not there yet so there’s still headroom here.
Less Noise — because of Apple’s powerful image processing pipeline I don’t see noise directly, what I see is the cartoonish look you get when the pipeline has to work too hard to suppress it. I still find myself throwing out images shot in poorer light because they look terrible, especially zoomed in macros at 2x & 5x. Even the best image signal processing can only do so much, so better sensors is what we need.
Bigger Sensors — depth of field is determined by many factors (more in LTP 71), but an important one is the size of the sensor. Bigger sensors give shallower depths of fields at the same focal length and aperture. This is why professional photographers still love their full-frame sensors! The bigger the sensor the less you need to zoom in or open the aperture to get an optical shallow depth of field. When you look at the Exif data of iPhone photos you notice surprisingly small apertures are now the norm, but with the image processing to simulate shallow DOF the images still have really deep focal ranges. Faking shallow DOF with AI is hit-and-miss, and I’m not banking on it getting better. Computing it from phase data like Apple does on more recent phones works much better, but it’s still frustratingly limited in my experience. A bigger sensor would give you a shallower DOF optically, and, it would give the computation engine more to work with when simulating even shallower depths.
More Automatic Modes — if you think back to even point and shoot digital cameras the most basic way we could assert control was with simple modes like Landscape, Sport, Macro, Portrait & Night. Apple already gives us some modes, including obviously portrait & night, but I want more!
- An explicit Macro mode (not the existing automatic one which we can only disable when it feels like showing up, but never summon ourselves)
- Silhouette mode — tell the camera to stop trying desperately to brighten the shadows and let them go black!
- Sport mode — focus on the moving figure and keep the exposure low. Modern AI could really work magic here!
- Expert Mode — I’d love the built-in camera app to have a toggle to permanently enable some buttons that give me the kinds of controls I was used to when using my DSLR in semi-automatic modes.
- Metering modes — my single biggest ask is to be able to tell the camera what I want it to expose for. Right now the camera does the simplest thing, it tries to get the average exposure of the whole frame to be mathematically correct. This makes silhouettes really hard! Give me a control to flip from this default to center-weighted to spot, and show me the spot, and let me drag it around. I know you can sometimes get the iPhone built-in camera to weight the exposure a little by tapping on part of the scene, but it’s fiddly at best!
- Exposure compensation — on a related note, just some simple up/down toggles for the exposure in 1/3 EV would be great! Again, I know the built-in iPhone camera can adjust exposure if you tap, hold, and slide, but that’s beyond fiddly and into frustrating in my experience!
- Focus modes — another big ask from me would be some autofocus modes to let me tell the camera’s brain what I want it to focus on — the thing in the middle, the nearest thing, the thing that’s moving, and so on.
- Semi-automatic modes — let me tell the camera one thing on the exposure triangle, and leave the others to the camera. In other words, give me Aperture Priority & Exposure Priority!
- Better & More hardware buttons — one of the things Nikon really got right was how much you could do with very few buttons. Most of the time I used just three — the shutter button with it’s half and full press modes, the +/- roller to control the aperture or shutter speed (depending on the semi-automatic mode), and the exposure compensation button to shift the roller to controlling the exposure compensation. I'd like to see camera phones give me a similar level of control:
- A True Shutter Button — don't just bring the action button from the Apple Watch to the phone, make it a two-mode button with a half-press
- Plus/Minus Button(s) — the volume buttons could take on the role of Nikon's roller, and move the aperture or exposure when in a semi-automatic mode (assuming we get something like that of course!). It doesn't have to be a button though, maybe it could be a swipe gesture on the shutter button, or a single rocking button. I don't really care how the concept of more and less gets translated to hardware, just provide a way, and plum it into some useful functionality in the camera app, and let developers of 3rd-party camera apps use it too.
- A modifier button (maybe) — depending on how a plus/minus input gets added, I might also want a modifier button to act like the exposure compensation button on my Nikons and effectively let the plus/minus control have two modes. In a world where we get semi-automatic modes like Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority the obvious use would be exposure compensation.

View Details

Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This solo show starts with a quick followup from recent months before diving into just a few regulatory stories, one quick legal story, quite a bit of HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The four main stories are the impact of Google being judge an illegal search monopoly on Apple, Apple’s assault on Patreon, Apple’s continuing journey towards DMA compliance, and the continuing rollout of Apple Intelligence. The show finishes with a rundown of a few other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in August.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta132.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

The rise of the emulators continues: Classic PC game emulation is back on the iPhone with iDOS 3 release — arstechnica.com

Regulatory Rundown* Apple reportedly succeeds in getting the un-published anti-trust finding against it by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) thrown out on a technicality — appleinsider.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…(the final is reported as containing privileged and sensitive information, and Apple are also said to have other criticisms, chiefly that their 5% market share is too small for them to be a monopoly)

+ **Related:** India says Apple is the fastest-growing firm in the country over the last 50 years — appleinsider.com/…

UK drops App Store investigation, says it has better things to do — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest University of Wisconsin denied new trial in decade-long chip patent battle against Apple — appleinsider.com/… (this case may finally* be over )

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Apple is doing some substantial staff reorganisations:

+ Apple lays off about 100 services employees across Apple Books, News — appleinsider.com/…
+ Apple give 121 workers the choice to move to Austin Texas or lose their jobs as they close down their Data Operations Annotations team in San Diego — www.macobserver.com/…

Apple splits App Store team in two, introduces new leadership — arstechnica.com/…
- Current App Store Vice President Matt Fischer is leaving Apple
- Carson Oliver will lead the Apple App Store division
- Ann Thai will lead a new alternative app store team
- Effective from the start of 2025, Kevan Parekh will replace Luca Maestri as Apple's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) — appleinsider.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
- "Maestri will continue to lead the Corporate Services teams, including information systems and technology, information security, and real estate and development, reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook" — Apple PR
- Kevan Parekh joined Apple in 2013, and is Apple's current VP of Financial Planning & Analysis.
- A nice tribute to Maestri from Jason Snell: Bye, Luca (sort of) — sixcolors.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple TV+:*

+ Apple, Major League Baseball announce September “Friday Night Baseball” schedule — Apple PR
+ Apple has cut back the theatrical release for *Wolf* (an action comedy starring George Clooney & Brad Pitt) from thousands of cinemas across the US to just a limited 1-week run — www.macobserver.com/…


    - **Additional Unconfirmed Reporting:** Apple is scaling back their movie ambitions to just one or two big titles a year, and caping the budgets for other movies at $80M.

Apple Arcade: NFL Retro Bowl ’25, an exciting collaboration between the NFL and the hit App Store game, comes exclusively to Apple Arcade — Apple PR
Apple Music now lets you export playlists to YouTube Music — www.cultofmac.com/…
Apple Maps Look Around is coming to cities in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, China, Belarus, Turkey, Bulgaria, Mexico & Slovakia — appleinsider.com/…
Apple Podcasts Is Now Available as a Web App — www.macstories.net/…
Apple Wallet: Digital Drivers licenses & state IDs are coming to California & Hawaii — Apple PR & appleinsider.com/…
Apple Card: Apple offers all-time high $300 welcome bonus for new Apple Card signups — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Apple Card is still best in its customer satisfaction category for four straight years — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Cash: To comply with US financial regulations, users will need to complete identity verification to make transfers of $500 or more from October — www.macobserver.com/…

Main Stories1. The Judge in the DOJ Anti-trust case against Google has ruled that they have an illegal monopoly — appleinsider.com/…

* **Next steps:** Google will appeal this initial finding, but the case moves on to litigating the remedy
* Google’s Search Engine Deal with Apple Deemed a Monopoly — www.macobserver.com/…
* Apple VP: No Bing, even if Microsoft “give us the whole company” — www.macobserver.com/… (Eddy Cue testimony)
* **Expert Analysis:** All the possible ways to destroy Google’s monopoly in search — arstechnica.com
* **Analysis:** Google's Antitrust Loss, Why Apple Doesn't Just Build a Search Engine, and What Comes Next — www.macstories.net/… (it would be more difficult and expensive that many assume)
* **Opinion:** Existential thoughts about Apple’s reliance on Services revenue — sixcolors.com/… (Apple's definition of *services* does not line up with what users think of as services, and services **profit** is almost equal to all hardware profit)
* **Opinion:** Why Apple’s dodgy deal with Google should have ended years ago — www.cultofmac.com/… (The Google deal makes a mockery of Apple's privacy promises)

Apple force Patreon to completely change their payment structure in their iOS App (TL;DR, creators like me will lose 30% ) — Patreon PR
- Patreon have until November to switch app pledges of support made via the iOS app to Apple's billing system, requiring changes to the subscription types creators can offer (e.g. per-creation plans are impossible), and requiring a 30% cut on all subscriptions to Apple (yes, 30%, because in total, Patreon 'makes' more than a $1M)
- Patreon’s iOS App Will (Now) Be Forced to Use In-App Purchasing Instead of Its Safari-Based System — pxlnv.com/…
- Opinion: John Gruber's takes — daringfireball.net/… & daringfireball.net/…
  - "The whole notion of a platform like Patreon just doesn’t fit with the App Store’s model of taking a fee out of every single transaction for digital goods or services"
  - "This might epitomize the way Apple can be penny-wise but pound-foolish when it comes to the App Store … I refuse to believe it’s worth the further degradation of Apple’s brand …"
    - Opinion: The price of payments – by Hamish McKenzie — on.substack.com/… (Creator platforms should be a special category on the App Store)
  - Apple's journey to EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) compliance continues:
- Apple alters App Store linking rules and fee structure in EU — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Apps can provide links to alternative deals and payments outside the App Store mechanism, and Apple don’t get to enforce design limitations.
  - Users will get the power to disable Apple’s warning when using external payment providers
  - All developers, regardless of whether they opted for the standard developer agreement or the special EU one can use external links (within the EU)
  - Regardless the agreement the developer chose, there is always an Initial Acquisition Fee of 5% on sales made through a link within a year of installation.
  - All developers also pay a Store Services Fee, but the rate varies depending on the chosen developer agreement (remember, developers under the standard agreement don’t pay the Core Technology Fee, but developers under the EU agreement do):
    - Under the standard agreement the fee is 20%, reduced to 7% for members of the App Store Small Business Program, or a subscription renewal after the first year.
    - Under the EU agreement the fee is 10%, dropping to 5% in the same circumstances. + Spotify, Epic Games call Apple’s latest EU App Store changes ‘confusing’ — www.cultofmac.com/… + Analysis & Opinion: Apple Announces New Fee Structure and Updated Guidelines for Apps in the EU That Link Out to the Web for Purchases — daringfireball.net/… ("a convoluted mess of a compliance plan for a convoluted mess of a law")
      - iOS 18 will bring big changes to app defaults in the EU — www.macstories.net/… & www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Browser choice screen changes:
    - Links will now have icons and short App Store descriptions, and a link to the browser’s App Store page.
    - Install and download can be done from the choice screen with progress indicator.
    - The new browser will replace Safari in the Dock or on the Home Screen. + In iOS 18 EU users will be able to assign their own default apps for:
    - Dialling phone numbers
    - Adding Call spam filter
    - Sending messages
    - Navigating with maps
    - Managing passwords
    - Using alternative keyboards
    - Translating text + Just about every default app will become un-installable, the exceptions being Settings and Phone, that means EU users will be able to remove:
    - Apple’s App Store
    - The default Messages app
    - Apple’s Camera & Photos apps
    - Safari
      - The roll out of third-party app stores continues
  - Thanks to a commitment from Epic Games to cover the Core Technology Fee, the first 3rd-party store, Riley Testut's AltStore PAL becomes free — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Epic Games Store goes live for EU iPhone users — appleinsider.com/…
  - Opinion: Apple is still standing in the way of Epic’s app store — www.theverge.com/… (Apple's EU fee structure means Epic finds it very hard to attract other devs to their store)
    - Related: After Years of Legal Wrangling, Apple Now Allows Spotify to Show EU Users Pricing in App, and Inform Them They Can Sign Up on the Web — daringfireball.net/…
  - Spotify are not opting to use the new rules for external links, they’re opting for the new Music Streaming Services Entitlement Apple announced in response to the streaming music antitrust ruling earlier this year that has nothing to do with the DMA.
  - Spotify can add text, but not links.
    - Related: Having agreed to open access the NFC chip in iPhones for EU developers last month to settle an antitrust investigation that pre-dates the DMA, Apple has announced a similar program for developers in some other countries — Apple PR, appleinsider.com/…, www.macobserver.com/… & arstechnica.com
  - Starting in iOS 18.1, developers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S will be able to request access to a new NFC and SE entitlement (other counties will follow, but no timescale given).
  - The new entitlement will provide access to NFC & Secure Element API enabling secure and private use of NFC for contactless payments, car keys, public transit, corporate badges, student IDs, home keys, hotel keys, merchant loyalty and rewards cards, and event tickets (government IDs to will get support later).
  - Users can open the matching app to use NFC, and there will be an option to change the default app brought up by double-clicking the lock button.
  - Developers need to enter an additional commercial agreement with Apple and there will be associated fees (no details provided yet).
  - The work to roll out Apple Intelligence continues
- More Apple Intelligence betas are released:
  - Apple Intelligence Photo Clean Up shows up in iOS 18.1 beta — appleinsider.com/…
  - Users Outside the US Can Now Test Apple Intelligent, but EU Users Still Cant — www.macobserver.com/… (testers outside the US can now leave their region as-is, but still need to change their Siri language to EN-US to use Apple Intelligence)
    - Apple released an academic paper describing their foundation model, and the results of their tests of the model against leading competitors like GPT-4 & Llama: Apple Intelligence Foundation Language Models — arxiv.org/…
  - Apple's model is on a par with the competition for writing
  - Apple's model is ahead of the competition in terms of function calling, i.e. doing things based on user prompts
  - Apple's model is noticeably safer than the competition
  - Analysis & Opinion: Apple shows why it’s ahead in AI, not behind — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Related: Discovered Apple Intelligence prompts show Apple's attempt at preventing AI disaster — appleinsider.com/…
    - Reporting from WIRED finds that many major sites have updated their robots.txt file to block Apple Intelligence (and other AI scrapers) — www.wired.com/…
  - Including Facebook, Instagram, Craigslist, Tumblr, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Atlantic, Vox Media, the USA Today network, and Condé Nast (who own many media sites, including WIRED)

Quick Stories* Some environmental initiatives from Apple:

+ Apple to reclaim wetlands near its Iowa data center — appleinsider.com/…
+ Apple honors 108 years of the National Park Service with Apple Pay donations — appleinsider.com/…

Customers can now extend AppleCare+ up to 45 days after it expires — appleinsider.com/… (in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States)
New Beats firmware brings audio sharing to Beats Studio Pro — appleinsider.com/…
Apple collaborates with Kim Kardashian on limited-edition Beats Studio Pro — appleinsider.com/… (Three shades of apparently fashionable brown)
Apple Sports app piles on new features in time for football season — www.cultofmac.com/…
Apple announces “Glowtime” event on September 9 — sixcolors.com/…

View Details

Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart shares his new-found enthusiasm for shooting in monochrome, some thoughts on what makes a black and white photography different, and some tips for converting colour images to monochrome.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp131.mp3It’s not that I’ve never published monochrome shots, but they’ve been rare exceptions, and few if any were shot to be monochrome. Instead, they became monochrome to rescue them or as an afterthought while processing. That’s not to say I don’t really like the monochromes I’ve created, I do, or they’d never have left my phone, but they were basically happy accidents!

One of the things I’m most enjoying about being active on Glass is that I’ve discovered some photographers who have absolutely mastered photographic styles and techniques I haven’t. I’ve been following some photographers who primarily shoot monochrome and over the last few months they’ve been slowly nudging me towards really trying my hand at monochrome, not as an afterthought, but to envision shots as monochromes even before I press the shutter.

To reliably shoot great monochrome shots you really do need to shoot them with intention, so you need to think differently. I’m by no means a monochrome expert, quite the opposite, I’m a keen student. This. Means I’ve been thinking deeply about it, and I’m inspired by it, so I figured I’d share my thoughts in the hope of spreading my excitement and inspiration

Inspiring Photographer — Om MalikThe first primarily monochrome photographer I discovered on Glass was a re-discovery of a kind. Before he experienced a bit of a health crisis and re-prioritised some things in his life Om Malik was a regular tech commentator on some of the podcasts I listened to at the time, and I really liked his take on things. Finding him on Glass was unexpected, but very enjoyable. Om shoots mostly in monochrome or with such muted colours they shots almost feel monochrome despite their pastel colours. His work is much more minimalist than mine, and his focus is on expansive-feeling landscapes. Whether working in true monochrome or with minimalist colours he tends to balance his shots towards the white end of the scale so they feel very peaceful and often almost dream-like. His subjects are often surprisingly small in terms of the percentage of the frame they take up, and yet they still dominate because of the general minimalism of the shots. He also shoots and processes many of his sea-scapes in a very cool way so the sea and sky seem to merge together around the subject. He intentionally makes use of the kind of grey days with flat light most photographers dread to help achieve his distinct feel.

From his choice of subjects and conditions to his technical choices while shooting to his choices in digital darkroom it's clear Om is envisioning his unique monochrome look. I really enjoy and admire Om's work, but his style is completely different to what I want to shoot. But, the big lesson I took away was that in order to shoot great monochrome shots in any style, it can't be an afterthought, you need to be deliberate about it at literally every stage of the process.

Check out Om's work on Glass — glass.photo/…

Inspiring Photographer DevinSPXThe second monochrome photographer on Glass to really catch my eye is a Berlin photographer with the username @DevinSPX. His style could not be more different to Om's. Devin shoots mostly architecture, and his monochromes are loud and dramatic with deep inky blacks, strong whites, and above all, eye-catching shapes. In fact, it's the use of monochrome to emphasise shape over colours that really attracts me to Devin's work.

It takes a really good eye to be able to see a rich vibrant cityscape with an infinity of possible compositions and to see past the colours and spot the perfect sub-set that contains interesting shapes. I find it very hard to find eye-catching sub-sets of buildings that work on their own as great shots. I'm for ever being distracted by the whole, and missing the parts.

The combination of his amazing eye for shapes and his really bold and dramatic monochrome processing are what draw me into Devin's shots time after time. His choice of subject is completely different to mine, but I think his bold contrasty style is much closer to what I see in my minds eye when I'm thinking of my own monochrome shots.

Check out Devin's work on Glass — glass.photo/…

What Makes Monochrome Different?So, all this got me thinking — if I want to shoot intentional monochromes, not just monochrome rescues and happy accidents, how do I need to start thinking differently? What makes for a great monochrome shot, and how is that different to a colour shot?

Contrast & Key are Monochrome’s ‘Colour’With a colour shot you can choose to have it ‘pop’ with strong vibrant colours, or to feel gentle with soft pastel colours. When you’re shooting in monochrome your analogous artistic lever is contrast.

A very contrasty monochrome with lots of bright whites and inky blacks is a monochrome that ‘pops’ like a colour shot with lots of vibrant colour. A histogram will show a very broad peak not falling off until near both edges.

Similarly, a gentle monochrome will have much lower contrast, more of the pixels will be at a similar level of brightness to each other. On a histogram the peak will be much narrower.

A related choice you have is where you put the peak of your histogram — the neutral choice is to put the peak in the middle, with most of your pixels bing in the so-called mid-tones.

But, if you choose to have a narrower peak, why assume that peak should be in the middle? Why should most of your pixels be a middling grey, maybe you could slide the peak left towards the black end of the histogram, or you could slide it right towards the white end. We tend to call these ‘low key’ for histograms dominated by blacks, and ‘high key’ for histograms dominated by whites.

Choosing to move the peak of your histogram off-center is a bit like choosing to shift your colours off a neutral white balance — you can make an image feels softer, warmer, and more gentle by shifting your colours towards the red, or you can make your shots feel colder and harsher and more aggressive by shifting them toward the blue.

When you shift your histogram towards the white end, your shots feel softer, gentler, and perhaps even dreamy, and when you shift the histogram towards the black end you a more sultry ‘noir’ feel.

Shape & Texture are EmphasisedColour really catches our eyes, so when you have a scene with lots of different colours, that's what our eyes will notice. When you subtract the colour, other things get to shine.

Something I've really noticed is how larger-scale shapes, even those made up of multiple objects of different colours, or single multi-coloured objects draw the eye much more when the colour is subtracted. For example the shapes of shadows cast on multi-coloured surfaces stand out much more clearly in monochrome than in colour.

I find monochrome shots also work much better at emphasising textures. I think there are actually two reasons for this — firstly, when you remove the distraction of colour the texture will just stand out more, but, there can be more to it than that. The kind of edits that will emphasise textures are also likely to distort colours, making them look unreal, but when you're not showing those colours, that's rather irrelevant isn't it!

This is a nice transition to some things I've noticed when creating monochromes.

Useful 'Superpowers'As I'm creating more monochrome shots of my own I'm noticing that pleasing monochromes can often result from edits that would produce ugly colour shots, and from scenes that would be extremely difficult to capture well in colour.

You Can Edit with a Heavier Hand

When I'm working in colour I apply edits with a very gentle hand, because I'm not a fan of styles that look edited. Some people can make that work in colour, but it's just not my thing. I like my shots to look real, but just a little more polished than actual reality. But, when I'm editing in monochrome, I'm finding myself sliding the sliders a lot further, and getting very pleasing results as I do. Not having to worry about edits having a side-effect on colour turns out to be really liberating!

Mixed White-balance Doesn't Matter

Because I like my colours strong, a problem I run into a lot is mixed light making shots look unnatural. During the golden hour the natural white balance for the sun-lit parts of the scene is very different to that for the parts in shadow, so when you edit to make the sky look great, the shadows go way too blue, and when you edit to make the shadows look natural the sky loses its punch. To avoid this I simply minimise the mix by avoiding big shaded areas in my composition, and keeping their exposure low so their colour is naturally muted. If you measured it, it would be too blue, but because it's so close to black, we don't notice, so it's fine.

In monochrome that just doesn't matter, so loads more potential compositions open up!

You can Shoot Against the Light

In a similar vein, when you shoot colour shots against the light you either have to push things to a near silhouette, or, the shaded areas will look muddy and terrible. I'm finding that when I shoot those self same shots in monochrome, they can look great!

Some Thoughts on ConversionsIf you really want to get super serious about shooting monochrome you could of course get a dedicated camera that only captures brightness levels, and those have some advantages. For a start, each pixel can be a single pixel, rather than three pretending to be one, so your shots will simply be sharper, but that's not something most of us do. I for one shoot almost all my shots with my phone these days, so I'm always starting with a colour image, and ten converting it to monochrome when I process.

You might look at the need to do a conversion as a chore, but I see it as an opportunity. In a monochrome image, every pixel has just one value — its brightness, 0 is black, and some highest value is white, and all the greys are in between. A colours image effectively have three brightnesses for each pixel — a red brightness, a green brightness, and a blue brightness. When you do a monochrome conversion you need to merge each pixel's three brightnesses into one new value using some kind of algorithm.

The simplest way to do this is simply to average the three values. This is basically what happens when you do your conversion by simply sliding the saturation slider to zero. This can often work really, but you're effectively doing is choosing to have colour have no impact on your final image.

As weird as it may sound, you have another choice — you can proactively choose to let each pixel's pre-conversion colour influence its post-conversion brightness. You do this through a tool we refer to as the channel mixer. You won't find this tool in the built-in camera app on your iPhone (and probably not on any other phone either), but you will find it in many of the more advanced editors available on our phones. Personally, I use the mobile version of Lightroom which has a very advanced channel mixer.

The simplest channel mixer will give you three sliders that let you bias the effect each of the input colours has on the output brightness. With a straight conversion you take the three input brightnesses, average them, and that's the output brightness. With a channel mixer you multiply each input value by a given factor before you do the average, the position of the slider for each channel changes the factor for that channel. Effectively, you have a gain slider for each input value that takes effect before they get averaged. So you can, for example, brighten the grass and darken the sky by moving the sliders so the green brightness for each pixel gets doubled and the blue brightness halved before the average is taken.

With a three-channel slider it's easy to assert control over primary colours, but not over other colours, to emphasise those you would need to more two or even three sliders in a coordinated way, that's difficult. This is why more advanced channel mixers will give you more sliders. These sliders match to colours between the primary colours, and under the hood they are adjusting the three gain settings in tandem to deliver your desired result. Some editors get even more advanced by letting you pick any colour at all to adjust using an eye-dropper or a crosshairs tool, this gives you very fine-grained control over each colour's impact on your monochrome shot.

If you're wondering, the reason I use the mobile version of Lightroom is that it has 8 colour channel sliders and a cross-hairs tool!

Final ThoughtsI still have so much to learn, but by following monochrome photographers, studying their work carefully, and then trying my own hand at the craft, I'm making good progress adding another tool to my artistic toolbox, and more importantly, having lots of fun along the way! If you don't already shoot monochrome, I hope I've inspired you to have a go!

View Details

Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This unusual solo show starts with a few followups from last month before diving into just a few regulatory legal stories, one piece of HR news, and a few highlights (and a lowlight) from Apple’s services and original content. Because it’s the so-called ‘silly season’, there’s just one main story, Apple’s Q3 2024 earnings call. The show finishes with a rundown of a few other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in July.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta131.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Apple offers the first public betas of iOS 18 and the other fall operating systems — appleinsider.com/…
As expected, Apple's Back to School promo has rolled out to more countries beyond just the US: Apple’s Back to School Promo Comes to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East — www.macobserver.com/…
Apple Intelligence Developments:
- Apple iOS 18.1 Beta previews Apple Intelligence for the first time — www.bleepingcomputer.com/…
- Apple Will “Share the Results of AI Tests” With Public and Govt — www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple in talks with the EU and China for Apple Intelligence rollout — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Early reviews are trickling in, but it's too early in the beta process to draw any meaningful conclusions:
  - Hands on: Siri starts to get better thanks to Apple Intelligence — appleinsider.com/…
    - Apple Intelligence vs Grammarly — AI powered text tool showdown — appleinsider.com/…
    - Apple Vision Pro Developments:
- Apple Revamps Vision Pro Demos with Personalized Content and New Features — www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple Unveils New Shows for Apple Immersive Video — www.macobserver.com/…
- PC Gaming Emulators on iOS:
- Apple changed it's mind on UTM SE: Apple permits first PC emulator for iOS into the App Store — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple clarifies its stance on emulating PC games: PC emulators are now explicitly allowed on the iPhone and iPad — appleinsider.com/…
- Related:
- How to run Linux and Windows on iPhone and iPad — www.cultofmac.com/…
- How To Download and Install UTM on iPhone & iPad: 3 Methods — www.macobserver.com/…
- After some initial Hiccoughs, Epic Games returns to iOS in Europe:
- Apple green lights Epic Games Store in rapid reversal — appleinsider.com/… (not launched yet, but now coming soon)
- Fortnite heads for iPhone via Europe’s AltStore — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Related: The AltStore PAL Marketplace is adding Torrent Clients and Other Third-Party Apps. — www.macobserver.com/…
- Related: Vision Pro’s App Store gains support for alternative payment methods in EU — www.cultofmac.com/…

Regulatory Rundown* Apple settles EU probe by opening up its mobile payments system — arstechnica.com * India's antitrust regulator has decided that Apple abuses its market dominance — appleinsider.com/… (not clear what this will mean yet) * Spain launches antitrust investigation over Apple's App Store practices — appleinsider.com/…

+ **Related:** Apple Threatens Tencent and ByteDance with App Store Removal Over Payment Loopholes — www.macobserver.com/…

UK opens probe into risks of using Apple Wallet and rivals — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest DOJ -v- Apple: Apple defends business practices in motion to dismiss DOJ lawsuit — appleinsider.com/… * AliveCor -v- Apple:* AliveCor suffers another loss in Apple Watch ECG patent battle — appleinsider.com/… (US CBP finds Apple's re-designed ECG does not violate AliveCor patents) * Apple beats lawsuit over forcing developers to use its closed ecosystem — appleinsider.com/… (potential class action suit in CA tossed)

Apple HR & Acquisition News Former Apple hardware engineer joins Rivian — appleinsider.com/… (Jeff Alves, was Apple's Director of Hardware Engineering and was with Apple for 11 years, now Rivian's Senior Director of Battery Engineering*)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple TV+:*

+ Apple TV+ gifts PlayStation owners a three-month trial offer — appleinsider.com/…
+ Apple TV+ earns a whopping 72 Emmy nominations — www.cultofmac.com/…
+ Leagues Cup returns to MLS Season Pass on Apple TV on July 26 — www.apple.com/…
+ Apple and Major League Baseball announce August “Friday Night Baseball” schedule — www.apple.com/…
+ **Related:** Apple TV+ is Now 6th Biggest Streaming Service in the US — www.macobserver.com/…

Apple Arcade:
- Temple Run: Legends and 2 more exciting games race onto Apple Arcade — www.cultofmac.com/… ( Apple Press release)
- Related: an in-depth investigation of how developers are faring with Apple Arcade reveals a decidedly mixed bag — mobilegamer.biz/…
- From: "We were able to sign a good deal for our titles which covered our whole development budget" & "Whatever anyone else says, the advances were fantastic. They were off the charts compared to what we’re used to being paid. And you got royalties on top of that"
- To: a five-month payment back-log, "We can go weeks without hearing from Apple at all and their general response time to emails is three weeks, if they reply at all", "We’re supposed to be able to ask product, technical and commercial questions, but often half the Apple team won’t turn up and when they do they have no idea what’s going on and can’t answer our questions, either because they don’t have any knowledge on how to answer it, or are not able to share that info for confidentiality reasons", and even some describing working with Apple as like being in "an abusive relationship"
- Apple Maps on the web launches in beta — www.apple.com/…
- iPhone Emergency SOS via satellite feature expands to Japan — www.cultofmac.com/…

Main Story: Apple's Q3 2024 Earnings Call — www.apple.com/…* This is Tim: Complete Q3 2024 analyst call transcript — sixcolors.com/… * Sample of headline takes:

+ Apple reports record revenues despite stagnant iPhone sales — arstechnica.com
+ Apple results: Quarterly record, all-time high in Services — sixcolors.com/…
+ Apple's third quarter 2024 results show return to growth, with Wall Street beat — appleinsider.com/…
+ Strong iPad sales help return Apple to revenue growth — www.cultofmac.com/…

Excellent Analysis:
- How Apple's quietest quarter shouted back at Wall Street — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple’s Q3 2024 Record Revenues Surprise Tim Cook — tidbits.com/…
- Noteworthy Opinion: Existential thoughts about Apple’s reliance on Services revenue — sixcolors.com/…
- A Related Number from CIRP: Apple Users Are Holding Onto Their Devices for Longer Than Ever — www.macobserver.com/…

"The data reveals a big increase in the number of users keeping their iPhones, iPads, and Macs for more than two years. For iPhones, 71% of recent buyers had a previous phone older than two years, up from 63% in 2020. Similarly, 68% of new Mac owners had a previous computer older than two years, compared to 59% just four years ago."

Quick Stories* Minor Apple Hardware Releases:

+ Apple's Beats releases a re-vamped version of the iconic Beats Pill speaker — www.macrumors.com/…


    - **Related:** The new Beats Pill: exclusive interview with Apple’s Oliver Schusser — www.wallpaper.com/…
+ Beats Launches Solo 4 Headphones in a Limited “Minecraft” Edition — www.macobserver.com/…
+ HomePod mini ditches space gray in favor of new midnight color — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple Press Release)

This month's Apple OS updates bring dual external display support to the M3 MacBook — www.cultofmac.com/…
Apple Refreshes the Apple Store App, Brings New “Go Further” Tab — www.macobserver.com/…

View Details

Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart takes the opportunity to step back and look at the big picture when it comes to AI and photography. It’s been a year and a half since the Dall-E explosion, so how has, and how hasn’t the world changed? What’s ahead of us?

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp130.mp3It’s been a year and a half since I first broached the topic of AI on this show with a two-part episode with Antonio Rosario, starting with me leading an explanation of what AI is (LTP 112), and Antonio’s leading a discussion on what it means for our beloved art and craft (LTP 113). That was followed two months later by an episode dedicated to the question of whether generative images even are photography, and whether they are art (LTP 115). That was triggered by an artist rejecting a photography prize for an image created with the help of generative AI. We next broached the topic when I changed my mind on the ethics of training AI (LTP 119). That was followed a few months later by an episode pointing out that while AI makes it more obvious, you never actually could assume photos were ‘true’ (LTP 121). Finally, early this year I dedicated an episode to a technological solution for verifying the source of an image (LTP 125).

So, on the one hand, I’ve clearly not been ignoring AI in the twenty odd months since ChatGPT and Dall-E exploded into our zeitgeist, but I’ve not taken the time to step back and zoom out to look at the big picture since that very first double episode.

With the two-year anniversary of the generative AI breakthrough rapidly approaching, and with Apple throwing their hat into the ring with their Apple AI announcement last month, now seems like a good time to take stock.

The LegalitiesOn the one hand, it’s not surprising things are moving very very slowly on this front, but I’m still surprised by how little has actually been decided. So far the question of whether or not training is copyright infringement seems closest to being settled, but that’s not actually saying very much. No copyright claim has been upheld, but there hasn’t been a major case in front of a Supreme Court either, so all those lower court rulings could easily be overturned.

Even if copyright is settled but we don’t know it yet, that leaves lots more training-related questions unanswered. For example, just this week the copyright parts of a big case against Microsoft & OpenAI were thrown out, but the case is proceeding on the basis of claims of breach of contract and breach of open source licenses (Judge dismisses majority of GitHub Copilot copyright claims — www.developer-tech.com/…).

Another utterly open question is who’s responsible if AI is used to do some kind of harm — the person who did the prompting and used the results maliciously? The AI provider? Both?

All of those are generic questions, so let's zooming in on photorealistic AI-generated imagery. We have no idea how to handle deep fakes, let alone images designed to imitate an artist’s work. Do we have a right to our likeness? Are AI generated imitations counterfeits?

LegislationThere’s absolutely no sign of any kind of AI legislation in the US, and while Europe has managed to legislate the low-hanging fruit with the AI act, it doesn’t answer any of the big questions on the legalities of training, deep fakes, or imitations.

I think we need legislation to create a right to our likenesses, so deep fakes can be prosecuted. But that won't be easy because it will need to be carefully balanced with free speech rights, especially for satire.

We also need some kind of right to our brand so imitations of our art really are treated the same as fake Levis.

We probably have decades of difficult debates ahead of us as we grapple with these things!

Day-to-Day UseI don’t know about you, but very little has dramatically changed in my photographic life, just some small evolutions.

At this stage we’re probably all taking it for granted that classifiers have gotten good enough to be truly useful and let us do useful searches of our images. Personally, the big evolution for me is the built-in plant and landmark lookup in the photos app. I now completely depend on the AI to tell me what flower I just shot!

When it comes to AI image processing the biggest change for me has been that Apple’s image pipeline which automatically combines multiple images from multiple sensors and multiple exposures into the first image we ever see in the camera app has become so good I completely forget that’s all happening each time I fire the shutter. The days when I was sometimes tempted to turn it all off in settings are long gone. In fact, I’m not sure that’s even possible anymore!

The other big thing for me is the continued steady evolution of automatic edit modes. More and more auto buttons do a better and better job in more apps because Machine Learning (ML) keeps getting better and better.

In theory I love the idea of generative fill and generative remove, and I could use them every day via my Adobe subscription if I wanted to, but it turns out I rarely need to do that, so it’s just not changed much of anything for me.

Modern Android phones now do generative fill and remove on consumer phones, and Apple will be adding it to iPhones with Apple AI in the next year, so maybe the feared deep fake explosion is just around the corner, but no sign of it yet!

And then we come to full on generative AI. It’s just not floating my boat in any context. I’m a creative, so for me the journey is as important as the result. That means that cutting out the creative process to just barf out some low to medium quality fiction just does not interest to me in any way.

I photograph to capture the world, so why would I use AI to make mediocre images of a confabulated world? And when I write I use the act of writing to organise my thoughts and figure out what I want to say, so again, generative AI like chatGPT doesn't do anything for me.

Maybe the re-writing tools coming in Apple AI will prove helpful, but for now, the privacy problems with using chatGPT for that kind of work are too big for me, so I'm just not a generative AI user.

The Art & Career of PhotographyIt seems really clear that there has been no immediate Armageddon ending the professions over everyone making a living as a photographer or visual artist.

I’m sure a long slow-moving trend that will eventually add up to a huge change has begun, but it’s too early for me to see where it’s headed, or how long it will take.

Final ThoughtsI see two interesting trends — artists using Generative AI as just another tool in their toolkits, and utterly inexperienced users who would never have paid for imagery using generative AI to get from a blank page to something that’s a lot better than the nothing they had before, even if it is objectively mediocre at best.

I don’t think the reason there has been no apocalypse is that the tools are not powerful enough yet, I think it’s because they can’t provide two vital inputs that will always need to come from us humans — vision and imagination! Like I've said all along, an unprompted AI does nothing, and superficially good looking generic generic stuff doesn't stand up to scrutiny and will always be bland and valueless at best!

I think we’re going to get more and more useful tools to help us create, but as I see it, AI is no more going to replace photographers and artists than Photoshop did!

View Details

Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This jumbo solo show starts with a few followups from last month before diving into just a few regulatory legal stories, some HR news, and a few highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The five main stories are a big-picture overview of WWDC, a look at the software announcement from WWDC, the Apple Intelligence announcement at WWDC, the preliminary finding that Apple is in breach of the DMA, and Apple’s “Longevity by Design” initiative. The show finishes with a rundown of two other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in June.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta130.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Vision Pro developments:
- The broader rollout of Vision Pro has started — www.cultofmac.com/… ( but not Ireland )
  - Launched in China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore
  - Available for pre-order in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK
- Apps continue to arrive on Vision Pro:
  - Experience T20 World Cup on Apple Vision Pro with ICC’s New Immersive App — www.macobserver.com/…
  - There are now two ways to stream Steam VR games to Apple Vision Pro — appleinsider.com/… (ALVR & iVRy)
  - ‘Warped Kart Racers’ and ‘Cityscapes: Sim Builder’ Hit Apple Vision Pro as Spatial Titles — www.macobserver.com/…
The (disappointingly slow) rollout of AirPlay for hotels continues: iPhone and iPad Users Can Now AirPlay to Samsung Hotel TVs — www.macobserver.com/…
The contours of Apple’s tolerance of emulation on iOS become clearer:
- Open Source PC Emulator UTM Blocked by Apple for Notarization, Including Through EU Marketplaces — daringfireball.net/…
- Apple rejects PC emulators on the iOS App Store — arstechnica.com (iDos)
- Apple has drawn a fuzzy line about what counts as console emulation on iPhone — appleinsider.com/… (Apple: “PC is not a console”)

Notable Numbers Regulatory Rundown * Japan’s parliament has approved a law that will force third party App Stores on Apple & Google — appleinsider.com/… + Related: consoles are exempt — daringfireball.net/… * Apple fined in South Korea for collecting users’ data without their consent — appleinsider.com/… (Google also fined, and not clear what either has supposedly done wrong) * Four more states are jumping onto the DOJ’s antitrust suit against Apple — appleinsider.com/… * Recommended Read:* All of the active antitrust cases Apple is fighting around the world — appleinsider.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Female employees launch a new Class Action suit against Apple: + Proposed class action lawsuit accuses Apple of underpaying women — appleinsider.com/… + Apple punishes women for same behaviors that get men promoted, lawsuit says — arstechnica.com

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple Pay will be able to be used from any browser on any OS with the help of a QR code later this year — www.macobserver.com/… * Apple Pay Later is being discontinued (just 10 months old!), Apple’s new plan is to integrate with third-party providers — www.macobserver.com/… + Possibly for regulatory reasons — arstechnica.com/… * Apple Books now offers Reese’s Book Club audiobook recommendations — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple) * Seven new games launch on Apple Arcade, including Outlanders 2: Second Nature — Apple + Related: Apple Offering Popular Games for up to 75% Discount on Mac App Store — www.macobserver.com/… + Related: First iPhone game-streaming service brings 1,300 retro classics — www.cultofmac.com/… (Antstream)
Main Stories * WWDC — Big-Picture + Apple’s 2024 Design Award winners run the gamut of classic puzzle games to immersive experiences — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple) + Watch Apple’s WWDC24 keynote in just 90 seconds — www.cultofmac.com/… + WWDC24 Highlights — Apple + Strong focus on privacy across the board: Apple extends its privacy leadership with new updates across its platforms — Apple - Top 5 security and privacy features of macOS Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18 — www.intego.com/… - WWDC Session: What’s new in privacy — developer.apple.com/… - Better control over contact sharing — www.macobserver.com/… ( WWDC Session) - Automatic passkey upgrades + Continued focus on gaming: - New Game Mode will boost iPhone and iPad gaming performance — www.cultofmac.com/… - Developers Can Now Build Bigger Games and Apps for iOS 18 and tvOS 18 — www.macobserver.com/… - macOS 15 to Reduce Storage Requirements During App Installation — www.macobserver.com/… (used to need 2x which was a problem for big games) - macOS Sequoia brings version 2 of Apple’s Game Porting Toolkit — appleinsider.com/… - Related: * ‘Resident Evil 7: Biohazard’ coming to iPad, iPhone, and Mac — appleinsider.com/… * Assassin’s Creed Mirage Arrives on iOS and iPadOS, But You May Not Be Able to Play It — www.macobserver.com/… (requires quite beefy and recent devices) * ‘Zenless Zone Zero’ officially lands on iPhone & iPad on July 4 — appleinsider.com/… * Opinion: Why AAA games promoted by Apple flop in the App Store — appleinsider.com/… (Analysis by MobileGamer.biz suggests major titles don’t do well financially on Apple’s platforms) * WWDC — Software Upgrades + Services features — Apple - All the Changes in Maps: Curated Hikes, Offline Mapping, Custom Walking Routes, and More — www.macobserver.com/… - Apple Wallet — www.macobserver.com/… * Tap to Cash – transfer Apple Cash by tapping phones — www.cultofmac.com/… * Enhanced Event Tickets can show key information about the event with live updates - Apple TV+ gets Insights feature (like Amazon Prime’s X-Ray feature) on Apple TV Originals — www.macobserver.com/… - Apple ID will become Apple Account + Cross-Platform Apps & Features - The passwords feature in the settings app becomes a stand-alone app — www.macobserver.com/… * iOS 18 Passwords app can’t import passwords, but macOS can — appleinsider.com/… * Review: Apple Passwords App: Great for Passwords, But Not Your All-in-One Solution — www.macobserver.com/… - The Photos app gets a major re-design and some new features — appleinsider.com/… * The Photos app gets Clean Up, an on-device generative AI tool for removing unwanted elements in photos similar to Adobe’s Generative Fill — appleinsider.com/… - Safari’s Reader mode gets some tweaks across all the platforms — appleinsider.com/… - Messages gets some tweaks — www.cultofmac.com/… * Send Later: How to Schedule a Message in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia — www.macobserver.com/… * Emoji Tapback * How To Animate Text in Messages iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15 — www.macobserver.com/… * (iPhone-only) Messages via Satellite — appleinsider.com/… (no longer just for emergencies) - Reminders & Calendars are better integrated on all platforms — appleinsider.com/… - The Settings app gets another re-work — www.macobserver.com/… - iCloud files can be marked for permanent download on Mac, iOS & iPadOS — appleinsider.com/… - Training Load and screen customisations come to Workouts on watchOS & iOS + AirPods to Get Head Nod Controls, Improved Call Quality, and Spatial Audio in Gaming — www.macobserver.com/… ( Apple) + Apple Home — Apple - HomeKit * Guest access * Shareplay for HomePods * Robot vacuums in the Home app * Door locks with UWB chips will be able to be unlocked hands-free * It will be possible to manually specify which of capable devices will act as your home hub — appleinsider.com/… - Apple TV/TV OS * The 8 Best Features in tvOS 18 — www.macobserver.com/… * On-device Siri * Automatic subtitles on mute * Review: tvOS 18: The MacStories Overview — www.macstories.net/… + CarPlay — appleinsider.com/… - Apple CarPlay 2.0 Will Be Highly Customizable to Match Automakers’ Styles — www.macobserver.com/… - Related: Apple CarPlay to Soon Appear on Motorcycles — www.macobserver.com/… (Nepali EV startup Yatri Motorcycles) + VisionOS 2 — www.macstories.net/… ( Apple) - System-wide gestures - Better virtual Mac displays (equivalent to 2 4K displays) — arstechnica.com/… - Apple Releases Tools For Bringing iOS or iPadOS Games to visionOS — www.macobserver.com/… - Review: visionOS 2 offers small, but promising, steps forward — sixcolors.com/… + WatchOS 11 — www.macstories.net/… & appleinsider.com/… ( Apple) - Bento breakdown: what Apple wants you to know about watchOS 11 — appleinsider.com/… - Live Activities come to the watch — www.macobserver.com/… - Vitals app for better view of health info - Check In comes to the watch - Apple Watch gets automatic sleep tracking with watchOS 11 — www.cultofmac.com/… - Custom Ring Tones — www.macobserver.com/… - watchOS 11 will run on Apple Watch 6 and newer models — www.macobserver.com/… + iOS & iPadOS 18 - HomeScreen improvements – darkmode icons, tinted icons, and put icons anywhere in the grid — appleinsider.com/…, www.macobserver.com/… & www.macobserver.com/… - You can now lock any app so it requires a biometric unlock, and, you can even hide them — appleinsider.com/… - Control Centre gets a re-design to make it easier to drill down into more details by just swiping further — www.cultofmac.com/… - SharePlay is being expanded to support easy screen sharing with remote control — www.macobserver.com/… - The new AccessorySetupKit API will make it easier to pair devices (other vendors will be able to support the same kind of experience we now get with AirPods) — www.macobserver.com/… - The Files app can format external drives — www.cultofmac.com/… - These are all the devices compatible with iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 — arstechnica.com - Review: iOS and iPadOS 18: The MacStories Overview — www.macstories.net/… - iOS 18 only ( Apple) * Everything new in iOS 18 coming this fall — appleinsider.com/… * iOS 18 changes just about everything about lock screen controls — appleinsider.com/… (the tyranny of the flashlight and built-in camera is over!) * iPhone gets RCS for better texting with Androids — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple’s Journal app is getting new features in iOS 18, but it’s still not on iPad — appleinsider.com/… * How to use Vehicle Motion Cues in iOS 18 to reduce motion sickness — appleinsider.com/… * iPhone finally gains T9 dialing with iOS 18 — www.cultofmac.com/… * iOS 18 allows iPhone to display the time even with dead battery — www.cultofmac.com/… * iOS 18 dramatically accelerates iPhone 15 Pro Max neural processing — appleinsider.com/… * iOS 18 will run on iPhone XS and newer models — www.macobserver.com/… - iPadOS 18 only ( Apple) * The iPad finally gets a calculator, but not just any calculator – ML-powered Maths Notes — www.cultofmac.com/… & appleinsider.com/… * Smart Script – improves your hand writing in notes while still making it look like yours — www.cultofmac.com/… & www.macobserver.com/… * iPadOS 18 Will Run on iPad 7th Gen and Newer Models — www.macobserver.com/… * Review: iPadOS 18: A Disappointment in the Shadow of macOS? — www.macobserver.com/… + macOS 15 Sequoia — www.macstories.net/… ( Apple) - Bento breakdown: What’s new in macOS Sequoia — appleinsider.com/… - How To Use Window Tiling in macOS 15 Sequoia — www.macobserver.com/… - iPhone Mirroring (screen & notifications) - All of your presentations will get better in macOS Sequoia — appleinsider.com/… (Presenter Preview & Background Replacements from the menubar) - macOS 15 Gets a Headphone Functionality That Has Been on iPhones Since 2020 — www.macobserver.com/… (Headphone Accommodations, an accessibility feature for tuning audio frequency distributions) - Apple honors original icon designer Susan Kare in macOS Sequoia wallpaper — appleinsider.com/… - MacBook Air gets hosed, other models hold steady in macOS 15 as Intel support fades — arstechnica.com * WWDC — Apple unveils “Apple Intelligence” AI features for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS — arstechnica.com (Apple’s Press Release) + Platforms State of the Union explains Apple Intelligence and new OS features — www.cultofmac.com/… ( Watch on YouTube) + Fundamental Improvements to Siri — appleinsider.com/… & macobserver.com/… - WWDC session: Bring your app to Siri — developer.apple.com/… - Uses foundation models to better understand language — allows for interruptions, re-phrasings, and related queries - Uses an on-device Semantic Index to understand the context of the information on your phone — huge privacy advantage over using large LLMs - Builds on the existing App Intents framework to allow apps to expose their functionality to Siri ( WWDC Session) + System-wide writing assistance tools — www.macobserver.com/… - Rewrite, proofread & summarise - WWDC session: Get started with Writing Tools — developer.apple.com/… + Priority Notifications & Message Summaries — www.macobserver.com/… + Apple Intelligence brings live recording and transcription to the Phone app in iOS 18 — appleinsider.com/… + Safari surfaces web page highlights, summaries and video control — www.cultofmac.com/… + Image Playground and Genmoji bring AI images to iMessage and more — www.cultofmac.com/… - Apple’s Image Playground is a new system-wide AI-powered image generation tool — appleinsider.com/… - How Apple will label AI-generated images made with Image Playground — appleinsider.com/… - Genmoji will allow custom AI-created emojis in iOS 18, and might resurrect Memoji — appleinsider.com/… - How To Create Custom Emojis with Genmoji on iOS 18 — www.macobserver.com/… - WWDC Session: Bring expression to your app with Genmoji — developer.apple.com/… + Third-Party LLM Integrations (initially just ChatGPT) - ChatGPT Now Integrated Into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and Siri — www.macobserver.com/… - Report: Apple isn’t paying OpenAI for ChatGPT integration into OSes — arstechnica.com - Opinion: Apple and OpenAI currently have the most misunderstood partnership in tech — arstechnica.com + Copilot-like AI assistance in XCode — Apple + Privacy by-design - Most processing is on-device, then on Apple’s cloud built on Apple Silicon with hardware protections to ensure privacy, and only out to traditional LLMs when integrations are enabled, and specific permission is given each time, and even then, through an anonymising relay - Apple’s AI promise: “Your data is never stored or made accessible to Apple” — arstechnica.com - Apple Users’ AI Data Will Be Minimally Sent to Cloud, To Be Destroyed After Processing — www.macobserver.com/… - Apple’s detailed description of how Private Cloud Compute works — security.apple.com/… + Training does include the public web - Excluding your website from Apple’s AI crawler — sixcolors.com/… + The rollout will be slow and limited - Most of Apple Intelligence Features Won’t Arrive Until 2025 — www.macobserver.com/… - Apple Intelligence – what Macs, iPads, and iPhones are required — appleinsider.com/… - No, your Apple TV, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro aren’t getting Apple Intelligence — appleinsider.com/… + Apple’s Press Engagement: - Tim Cook: Privacy Sets Apple Intelligence Apart, Though It Could Still Hallucinate — www.macobserver.com/… - Tim Cook chats Apple Intelligence, Privacy, and More with Marques Brownlee — www.macobserver.com/… - The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2024 — daringfireball.net/… (with John Giannandrea, Craig Federighi & Greg Joswiak) + Related: - Apple Developer Academy gets new Artificial Intelligence curriculum — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple) - Apple researchers add 20 more open-source models to improve text and image AI — appleinsider.com/… + Opinion & Analysis: - Apple Intelligence Explained: The Cutting-Edge AI Technology Behind the Magic — www.maginative.com/… - Preparing for the era of orchestrated apps — sixcolors.com/… - John Gruber’s Analysis — daringfireball.net/… - Why you shouldn’t fear Apple Intelligence — www.cultofmac.com/… - Apple Intelligence & Private Cloud Compute are Apple’s answer to generative AI — appleinsider.com/… - Apple enters AI arms race with new Apple Intelligence feature — www.bleepingcomputer.com/… - Apple Intelligence is AI, done Apple’s way — www.cultofmac.com/… - Apple Intelligence: The MacStories Overview — www.macstories.net/… - OK, fine, here’s Apple Intelligence — sixcolors.com/… * Big Digital Markets Act (DMA) headaches for Apple + The EU Commission issues a preliminary ruling that Apple’s anti-steering rules are violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA) — sixcolors.com/… ( EU Commission) - Apple has the right to respond - The final decision will come in March 2025 - The DMA allows for fines of up to 10% of global revenue, so about $38Bn — www.macobserver.com/… - Analysis: John Gruber’s break-down of the commission’s statement — [daringfireball.net/…](https://daringfireball.net/linked/2024/06/24/ec-dings-apple + In the same statement the EU Commission also announced and investigation into the Core Technology Fee + Apple have said they will not be rolling out Apple Intelligence to the EU initially over fears it might be interpreted as not complying with DMA — appleinsider.com/… - Two other features will also not be available to EU users, at least initially – iPhone screen mirroring on the Mac & SharePlay screen sharing — arstechnica.com/… - Related: EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager made a comment in an interview that was critical, but the questioner didn’t understand the question from the audience and it was a short off-the-cuff comment, it’s being reported with more significance than it probably deserves by many — appleinsider.com/… * Apple’s ‘Longevity by Design’* initiative — PDF Download + Apple’s ‘longevity by design’ initiative is a balance between repairability & secure engineering — appleinsider.com/… + Repairing iPhones to Get Easier; Apple Opens Up to Third-Party Parts — www.macobserver.com/… - When a third-party part is used there will be a notification on next boot - The settings all will permanently show that a third-party part is in use - Battery stats (with a disclaimer) will be shown for third-party batteries - TrueTone will be enable-able on third-party displays, but results may vary + Apple’s iPhone & Mac self-service repair program is expanding to Europe — appleinsider.com/… ( Apple PR) - 32 countries, including the UK - Canada will follow in 2025 - Covers all 42 products currently covered in the US (iPhone, Mac & Studio Display) - Total coverage is now 33 countries and 24 languages + Better calibration for third-party components and easier sourcing of official repair parts — www.cultofmac.com/…
Quick Stories * Apple Back to School deals on Mac and iPad get you up to $150 gift card — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple’s new ‘Help Me Choose’ quiz helps users find the right Mac — appleinsider.com/… (I took the quiz and it recommend the Apple Studio I own )

| Emoji | Meaning | | --- | --- | | A press release or official statement. | | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. | | flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. | | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. | | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. | | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that’s likely to develop into something significant in the future. |

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart explains what the northern light are, how they work, how to see then, and how to photograph them. But most importantly, since we’re entering the peak of the 11 year cycle they follow, Bart gives some advice on preparing to make the most of any aurorae visible in your neck of the woods!

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Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp129.mp3We recently had a very dramatic display of the northern lights above much of Europe and North America, and that’s no accident — we’re entering prime aurora time! So, now seems the perfect time to dedicate and instalment to seeing and photographing these natural wonders.

One Marvel of Nature, Many NamesBefore we dive in to the meat of this instalment, just a note that what we could colloquially call the Northern Lights are technically Aurorae, or, if you prefer the modern pluralisation, Auroras.

Western culture obviously encountered aurorae in northern countries first, and Galileo of all people named them the Aurora Borealis, after the Roman goddess of the dawn and the Greek god of the north wind. When western culture discovered the same cool lights in the southern hemisphere, they were named Aurora Australis, after the Greek god of the south wind.

Having studied science in Europe a few decades ago I learned the irregular plurals for scientific words, so I say ‘one Aurora’ and ‘two Aurorae’. These days those archaic plurals are being replaced with regular plurals, so it’s just as correct to say ‘one Aurora’ and ‘two Auroras’, but my brain is still wired the old way, so I’m going to use Aurorae here.

Where do the Aurorae Come From?We now know that the key to understanding Aurorae is the sun, but it took us a while to figure that out.

We now know that the sun has an approximately 22 year cycle during which it’s north and south magnetic poles flip around, and then flip back. At the points in the cycle when the poles are relatively stable the surface of the sun tends to be quite a tranquil place, but as the poles are flipping, the surface really comes to life.

We discovered the solar cycle all the way back in the 1800s by counting so-called sunspots on the surface of the sun, and noticing that their prevalence ebbs and flows over 11 year cycles, and, that we see more aurorae when we see more sunspots. So, we discovered the correlation the centuries ago, but it took us quite a bit longer to figure out the mechanism.

Sunspots are ‘cooler’ parts of the sun’s surface — just 3 to 4½ thousand degrees Celsius instead of the usual six thousand (5½ to 8 thousand degrees Fahrenheit and instead of 11 thousand)! They’re caused by small-scale changes in the sun’s magnetic field. The sunspots themselves don’t really do anything, but those magnetic fields do! They can cause hot electrically charged gas from the sun’s surface to get flung into space, and when things are lined up just right, those charged particles are thrown our way.

Because the earth has a magnetic field, and because those particles are charged, they get intercepted by the earth’s magnetic field, and because of its shape, the particles slam into the atmosphere in a big oval around the north and south poles. Those ovals are usually quite small, covering the countries near the north and south poles, but if the sun throws something at us with enough energy the ovals can expand, sometimes reaching down to the Mediterranean and the southern United States.

When charged particles hit the atmosphere they excite the molecules in the atmosphere, bumping them into higher energy states. When that happens the molecules return to their ground state by emitting light, and the energy the molecule had to lose determines the colour of the light. This is actually how fluorescent lightbulbs work!

Aurorae are literally the sky acting as a light bulb!

What do they Look Like?At different levels of the atmosphere there are different molecules, so depending on how deep the charged particles from the sun penetrate into the atmosphere you’ll get different colours.

Up near the top of the atmosphere you have very diffuse atomic oxygen, so there’s not a lot of it, and it’s also not getting knocked around a lot, so what little there is gets excited enough to emit relatively dim red light.

A little lower in the atmosphere you still have atomic oxygen, but here it’s being jostled about a lot, so on average each atom tends to get less excited so most of them emit green rather than red light. This green is generally the easiest colour to see because even a relatively weak aurora will reach these altitudes, and since there are more molecules there they out-shine the much dimmer red glow from the very top of the atmosphere.

Staying with atomic oxygen, if the aurora is strong enough you might get a good mix red and green emissions even lower down in the atmosphere which can give you some pink or yellow hues, but this is much rarer.

When you move down lower into the atmosphere there’s very little atomic oxygen, but there’s lots nitrogen, and it comes in two forms — molecular nitrogen, and ionised molecular nitrogen. These molecules can emit light at quite a few different frequencies, and hence colours, but they’re constrained to the red and blue parts of the spectrum. The blue tends to dominate and sometimes it combines with the reds to give nice purples.

So, while we have four main colours — red, green, blue & purple, they’re all being made by just two elements — Nitrogen & Oxygen!

What’s more important to note is that different colours show up at different altitudes, so when you have tall features in an auroral display they show colour bands!

So we know what colours we can expect, but what about shapes? Aurorae can come in any shape really, but some shapes are more common, and, a single display is usually made up of a few different shapes combined.

A glow near the horizon — these are by far the most common, and often this is all you’ll see. An auroral glow can be easily confused with low cloud, but, the difference is that stars shine clearly through an auroral glow, but get blocked by clouds. Because they’re dim, our eyes won’t see their colour, but our cameras will!
When an aurora heats up a bit you’ll start to get patches of brighter aurora that look like glowing clouds. Again, you’ll see stars through them.
When things really get going, you’ll get tall arcs of aurora — these reach from low to the horizon right up into the sky, and because they cut through many layers of the atmosphere, they’ll change colour as they rise. If these arcs have folds in them they’re often described as ‘curtains’. These are the pretty ones that can slowly sway over and back as you watch.
Finally, when an aurora has been building for a while, you can get a corona that covers much of the sky and seems to radiate out from a point. You tend to see these later in the night. These can be easy to miss because the corona is usually high in the sky above your head!

Seeing and Photographing AuroraeNote: to save myself being duplicative, I’m going to word this segment from a northern hemisphere POV, but if you’re in the southern hemisphere the same applies, you just need to replace ‘north’ with ‘south’.

The key to maximising your chances of seeing and photographing an aurora is a clear northern horizon with as few obstructions and as little light pollution as possible.

During solar maximum it’s always worth checking your northern horizon when the skies happen to be clear. If you see what might be a low haze, check if you can see any stars through it, if you can, it’s an auroral glow! If you see an auroral glow it’s worth checking back every hour or so because aurorae often build as the night goes on.

After the glow, look for more defined ‘clouds’ a little higher above the northern horizon, if you see stars through those then you have some auroral patches. If you see any of those, definitely keep checking the sky every hour, because there’s a good chance you’ll see some arcs from time to time during the night. If you’re lucky enough to have a good display, remember to look up, especially after midnight, because there could be an auroral corona right over your head!

These days, we live in a world where the cameras on our phones can see aurorae better than our human eyes!

For a start, our eyes have two main light sensors — rods & cones. The rods are way more sensitive to light than the cones, but they don’t detect colour, so, in low light we tend to see the world as if someone turned the saturation slider right down!

Our digital cameras on the other hand have no such limitation, they see dim colours just fine! So, rather than trying to look for stars peeping through suspicious low clouds, just take out your phone and take a quick snapshot, if you see greens and reds, then that’s not a cloud!

Once you know there is an auroral display you can try do better than a snapshot. Regardless of whether you shoot DSLR or phone camera, the following advice applies:

Try get some sort of silhouette of the horizon into the shot — it will help give context and a sense of scale. It can be the tiniest strip right at the base of the shot.
Aurorae are big, grand phenomena, shoot as wide as you can to capture their grandeur!

If you’re shooting with a phone camera I’ll offer the following additional advice:

If your phone has a night mode, use it!
Expose as long as your camera will allow — on iPhones you can use the chevron icon to show the advanced settings, then you can click on the night mode icon and slide the slider all the way to the right
Stabilise yourself as much as possible.
1. If you have a tripod adaptor for your phone, use it!
2. If not, find a wall or fence at a comfortable height, rest your elbow on it, and spread them wide apart to create a kind of human tripod.
3. To shoot high in the sky without a tripod, find a low wall and lean your shoulder against it. It needs to be low enough not to obscure your shot, but high enough to reach your shoulder.

I’ll offer the following additoinal advice for shooting with a DSLR:

Use a tripod
Use the widest lens you have, and set it wide open at its lowest focal ratio
Focus on infinity
1. Ideally, buy lenses with an infinity marker on the barrel, set the focus mode to manual, dial in infinity, take a test shot to verify, and you’re good to go!
2. If your lens doesn’t have an infinity marker on the barrel, enable single-point autofocus mode, make sure the centre point is selected, then find something bright as far away from you as you can, put it right on that centre focus point, and and hope the camera can lock on. If it can, enable your focus lock and you’re good to go.
3. If all else fails, you’ll need to set the lens to manual focus, turn it all the way to the direction to focus further from you, then start taking test exposures and slowly inch the focus back. Infinity is usually quite close to maximum twist on the lens.
Expose for as long as you can get away with — check what works by exposing longer and longer, zooming in, and checking if the stars have become too much like potatoes for your tastes, if they have, back off a little and you’re good to go.
Manually set the white balance to daytime

When it comes to processing the shots, I tend to do the following on my iPhone:

Dial back the black point and the shadows to get the silhouetted horizon black and the bare sky dark
Increase the vibrancy to bring out the colours in the aurora
Increase the definition to get the stars to stand out better

PreparationAs we come into solar maximum it’s well worth finding a few good places as close to your home as possible where you have good northern horizons, and, where it’s safe to be after dark.

It’s also worth keeping an eye on the news for predicted aurorae, or for related terms like:

Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)
Solar Storm
Geomagnetic Storm

You might also want to keep an eye on some more scientific resources, or to install an app.

The least human-unfriendly website might be SpaceWeatherLive’s aurora forecast, and the most technically detailed is probably the the homepage of the US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center’s homepage.

In terms of apps, none of the ones I’ve found are great — they all seem to suffer from the by nerds for nerds poor UI effect I notice in many geekier tools. But, FWIW, the one I’m least cranky with is the iOS app My Aurora Forecast & Alerts — it does successfully. send me push notifuications when I need to keep an eye on the sky, even if I find the UI very clunky.

Understanding the Kp-index & G-scaleA lot of websites and apps will give you their predictions in terms of something called the Kp-index. This is a global, i.e. planetary, average of the K-index which is a measure of disturbances in the earth’s magnetic field that goes from zero to nine, with zero being no disturbances, and 9 meaning things are as disturbed as we’ve ever seen! Because the earth’s magnetic field is different from place to place, the definition doesn’t map specific magnetic field strengths to specific indexes, but instead maps a 3-hour maximum reading against what ever is normal for that observatory when there’s nothing going on. The math to go from local K-index readings to the Kp-index is even more horrific!

Finally, just to add a little more confusion to the mix, NOAA decided they needed a simple 5-point scale for issuing warnings to power companies and spacecraft operators. They named their scale the G-scale, for geomagnetic storm, and it maps directly to the Kp-index.

| Kp-index | G-scale | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | 0-3 | Quiet — no auroral activity | | 4 | Active — some aural activity on the usual oval | | 5 | G1 | Minor geomagnetic storm | | 6 | G2 | Moderate geomagnetic storm | | 7 | G3 | Strong geomagnetic storm | | 8 | G4 | Severe geomagnetic storm | | 9 | G5 | Extreme geomagnetic storm |

As best as I can figure out — if you live in latitudes where aurae are normal then you want to keep an eye on the sky when the Kp-reaches 4, and if you live further south, you’re not going to see anything until you get into the G-scale, and how high it has to get for you to see anything depends on how far you are from your pole.

Final ThoughtsI hope I’ve inspired you to make the effort to try capture any aurorae you can this solar maximum, and to give you one final nudge, I snapped these shots from a fence a few hundred yards from my front door using my iPhone and the human-tripod technique — www.flickr.com/….

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This solo show starts with some followups from last month before diving into just a few regulatory and legal stories, some HR and acquisitions news, and a few highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The three main stories are some impressive up-coming accessibility features, Apple’s “Let Loose” iPad event, and Microsoft’s new Copilot+ PCs. The show finishes with a rundown of a few other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in May.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta129.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Evidence in Epic Games’ complaint that Apple is not complying with the one small part of it’s US case against the company has revealed that just 0.1% of developers are choosing to use Apple’s new 3rd-party payment option in the US — www.macobserver.com/… (Also, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers seems sceptical about Apple’s motives, which might probe problematic as the case evolves)
The Vision Pro continues to make ripples:
- Marvel’s ‘What If…? – an Immersive Story’ coming to Apple Vision Pro on May 30 — appleinsider.com/…
  - Review: “What If?” shows off the Vision Pro’s strengths — sixcolors.com/…
- Three VR game staples have arrived on Apple Vision Pro — appleinsider.com/… (Job Simulator, its follow-up Vacation Simulator, and tabletop survival RPG Demeo)
- Apple Vision Pro earns prestigious Black Pencil design award — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple’s 2024 Design Awards have a new Spatial Computing category — appleinsider.com/…
The rise of the retro game emulators continues:
- Original PlayStation games come to iPhone with new Gamma emulator — appleinsider.com/…
- App Store emulator surge continues, this time for PlayStation Portable games — appleinsider.com/… (PPSSPP)
- This new app on the App Store emulates 38 different retro game platforms — appleinsider.com/… (RetroArch)
  - RetroArch emulator adds support for DOS games, and more — appleinsider.com/…
  - RetroArch has also been released for Apple TV — arstechnica.com/…
  - But it seems more powerful emulators won’t follow RetroArch onto Apple TV: Apple TV hardware storage limits will keep most emulators away — appleinsider.com/…

Regulatory Rundown The UK passes its version of the EU’s Digital Markets Act — www.engadget.com/… (broadly similar, but named the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, AKA DMCC) * Apple fires back at DOJ antitrust case, calls for immediate dismissal — appleinsider.com/… * Apple takes EU to court over $2 billion Apple Music fine — appleinsider.com/… * fallout from the Digital Markets Act (DMA) continues: + The Spotify-led trade group Digital Music Europe has written to the European Commission alleging that Apple is not complying with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) — appleinsider.com/… (somewhat ironically the group claims to be in favour of ‘light touch regulation’!) + First alternative to Apple Wallet is ready to launch in EU — appleinsider.com/… (UK firm Curve says it’s ready to go once Apple’s promised APIs arrive) + iOS 17.5 puts direct app distribution via the web live — appleinsider.com/… * Related:* Apple have released their latest App Store transparency report, touting the sheer volume of abuse they have stopped: App Store stopped over $7 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in four years — www.apple.com/…

Legal Latest* Apple gets another App Store antitrust win, this time in China — appleinsider.com/… (a single developer sued Apple & lost)

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Apple Retail in the US remains hostile to unions to the point of illegality: + US Labor Board rules Apple illegally interrogated retail staff in NYC — appleinsider.com/… + Maryland Apple Store employees to vote on strike, citing unmet demands — appleinsider.com/… (Towson Apple Store) - New video highlights ongoing struggles between Apple and union members — appleinsider.com/… + NJ Short Hills Apple Store votes down unionization effort — appleinsider.com/… * Head of Apple TV+ marketing Ricky Strauss is leaving — appleinsider.com/… (Only at Apple since January 2023, previously at Disney & Hulu) * Apple loses another designer who worked in Jony Ive’s core team — appleinsider.com/… (Duncan Kerr, with Apple since 1999. Likely simply aging out rather than some kind of problem, but notable that very few of the original Ive dream-team now remain) * Apple’s new diversity exec hails from Bank of America — appleinsider.com/… (Cynthia Bowman) * A notable job advert: Apple Seeks Android Engineers to Finally Bring Apple TV+ on Androids — www.macobserver.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple Announces New and Updated Apple Arcade Games Coming in May and June — www.macstories.net/… (including VisionPro games for the first time!) * Apple Music: + Apple Music Adds Shazam Radio Spins Charts and a New Industry Program — www.macstories.net/… (Playlist based on what the global top 200 radio stations are playing) + Apple Music 100 best albums countdown completes: 1 to 100 — www.cultofmac.com/… (Apple Press Release) * Apple Pay:* + Merchants in Japan can finally use Tap to Pay for iPhone — appleinsider.com/… + Canadian firms finally get Tap to Pay on iPhone — appleinsider.com/… + Apple Rolls out Support for Paris Transit Passes in Wallet Just in Time for the Olympics — www.macstories.net/… (Apple Press Release)

Main Stories1. Apple Marks Global Accessibility Awareness Day with a Preview of OS Features Coming Later This Year — www.macstories.net/… (Apple Press Release) * Eye Tracking to move focus without the need for extra hardware * Vocal Shortcuts * Music haptics * Vision pro live captioning (add subtitles to the real world!) * Apple Announces New Feature to Combat Motion Sickness on Moving Vehicles — www.macobserver.com/… 2. Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ Event * Apple’s May 2024 Let Loose Event: Replay Today’s Keynote — www.macstories.net/… * Watch Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ event in just 90 seconds — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple’s May 2024 Let Loose Event: By the Numbers — www.macstories.net/… (All the specs gathered together by John Voorhees) * New iPads + iPad Air gets a faster processor and a supersized 13-inch option — appleinsider.com/… (Apple Press Release) - Industrial design looks like previous generation iPad Pros - Apple’s new M2 iPad Air has a nine-core GPU, despite original claims to the contrary — appleinsider.com/… - iFixit’s Teardown Video Offers an Inside Peek at the New 13-Inch iPad Air — www.macobserver.com/… - Reviews: * 2024 iPad Air reviews roundup: Bigger, and probably ‘pro’ enough — www.cultofmac.com/… * M2 iPad Air review: The everything iPad — arstechnica.com * iPad Air hands on: A return to an affordable large-format iPad — appleinsider.com/… + Apple Announces New 11″ and 13″ iPad Pros — www.macstories.net/… (Apple Press Release) - New iPad Pro with beautiful OLED display and M4 chip is ‘thinnest Apple product ever’ — www.cultofmac.com/… - Apple Unveils M4 Chip, 1.5x Faster Than M2, 38 Trillion Operations per Second — www.macobserver.com/… (Apple Press release) - Apple’s new iPad Pro gets M4 power, advanced Tandem OLED screens — appleinsider.com/… - Refresh Rate on the New iPad Pros Can Go as Low as 10Hz — www.macobserver.com/… - First M4 iPad Pro benchmarks show 21% performance increase over M3 — www.cultofmac.com/… - Crazy-thin iPad Pro models hold up under early bend tests — www.cultofmac.com/… - M4 iPad Pro teardown finds easier-to-access battery, glimpses of Tandem OLED design — arstechnica.com - Confirmed: Redesign makes M4 iPad Pro incompatible with older cases, keyboards, styli — www.cultofmac.com/… & If you’re buying a new iPad Pro, your old magnetic stand won’t work — appleinsider.com/… - Reviews: * New iPad Pro review roundup: impressive performance held back by iPadOS — appleinsider.com/… * iPad Pro hands on: Luxury technology in an impossibly-thin package — appleinsider.com/… * M4 iPad Pro review: Well, now you’re just showing off — arstechnica.com * John Gruber — daringfireball.net/… + New iPads make it much easier to manage battery health — www.cultofmac.com/… (same features as newer iPhones have) + 2024 iPad Pro and iPad Air ditch the physical SIM slot for good — www.cultofmac.com/… + Apple makes breaking your new iPad’s screen a little less painful — appleinsider.com/… ($29 screen replacement with Apple Care+, down from $49) + Opinion: Does the iPad lineup make sense now? Yes and no — sixcolors.com/… + Related: - Apple drops the price of its 10th generation iPad to $349 — appleinsider.com/… (↓$100) - Apple kills $329 iPad with home button, Lightning port — arstechnica.com - Apple’s iPad upgrades march Lightning one step closer to death — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Pencil Pro adds ‘squeeze’ gesture, haptic feedback, Find My and more — www.cultofmac.com/… + This Apple Pencil Pro feature surprises and delights users — www.cultofmac.com/… (Tool shadow) + Apple Pencil Pro Packaging Arrives in Five Different Flavors — www.macobserver.com/… + Bummer! New iPads won’t work with old Apple Pencil. — www.cultofmac.com/… + Related & Useful: Which Apple Pencil works with my iPad? — www.intego.com/… (New Pencil Pro only works on new M2 iPad Airs & M4 iPad Pros) * New Keyboards + New Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro features a bigger glass trackpad with haptic feedback — www.cultofmac.com/… + New Apple aluminum Magic Keyboard introduces backlit keys & function bar — appleinsider.com/… * Not in Keynote: The Smart Folio also got redesigned to support a range of angles instead of a single angle — sixcolors.com/… * Final Cut Pro adds live multi-camera recording on iPad and AI on Mac — www.cultofmac.com/… (Apple Press Release) + Related: The ‘Let Loose’ event was the first to be edited on iPad using Final Cut Pro — appleinsider.com/… * Logic Pro updates bring powerful new tools for music-makers — www.cultofmac.com/… (Apple Press Release) + Mostly AI features + Cross-platform update for Mac & iPad * Apple’s plastic-free packaging means pack-in logo stickers are going away — arstechnica.com (stores will have some stickers on hand for customers who complain) 3. Microsoft launches first and third-party Arm-based laptops with dedicated AI processors branded Copilot+ PCs — blogs.microsoft.com/… * Recall feature stores screenshots of everything you do and uses those to train Copilot on everything you’ve been doing so you can ask it questions about your past actions (it’s a privacy nightmare!) * Microsoft Claims the New Surface Pro is Faster Than the 15” M3 MacBook Pro — www.macobserver.com/… * Related Opinion: + John Gruber’s initial take — daringfireball.net/… + Taking Aim at Apple’s Fanless MacBook Airs With Fans — daringfireball.net/… + Why Apple should steal Microsoft’s Flex keyboard design for iPad — www.cultofmac.com/…

Quick Stories Apple and Google deliver support for unwanted tracking alerts in iOS and Android — www.apple.com/… * Apple have launched their Pride 2024 line with just one new Solo Loop band and some wallpapers — www.apple.com/… * Reminder: WWDC is rapidly approaching, and the keynote will be at 10am Pacific on the 10th of June, with the Platforms State of the Union at 1pm — www.apple.com/… + 2024 ADA Finalists Announced — www.macstories.net/… + Related:* Dive into app & game development with new ‘Apple Pathways’ hub — appleinsider.com/…

| Emoji | Meaning | | --- | --- | | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. | | flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. | | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. | | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. | | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that’s likely to develop into something significant in the future. |

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr * Jill from the North Woods from A Better Life in Small Steps

In this interview show Bart has a conversation with fellow podcaster Jill from the North Woods about her new podcast Buzz Blossom & Squeak which is all about helping us become more connected to the nature all around us, and, in the process, take better photos of it!

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp128.mp3

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This solo show starts with some followups from last month before diving into just a few regulatory and legal stories, some HR and acquisitions news, and a few highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The three main stories are some nice changes to how Apple will facilitate repairs, the arrival of vintage game emulators on iOS, and Apple’s Q2 2024 earnings call. The show finishes with a rundown of some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in April.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta128.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

The buzz around Apple & AI continues:
- Apple’s Ferret-UI helps AI use your iPhone — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple releases eight small AI language models aimed at on-device use — arstechnica.com
- Apple has bought a French firm to help get AI processing on the iPhone — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple has poached dozens of Google AI experts for its Zurich lab — appleinsider.com/…
- The work to diversify Apple's supply chain continues:
- Apple Now Assembles 1 in 7 of iPhones in India, Numbers Only To Increase — www.macobserver.com/…
- TSMC will build third Arizona fab after winning $6.6B in CHIPS funding — arstechnica.com
- Tim Cook promises Indonesia that Apple will consider manufacturing there — appleinsider.com/…
- Tim Cook visits Singapore as Apple invests in a $250 million AI campus expansion — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple's complex relationship with China continues: Apple Forced to Pull WhatsApp and Threads from China App Store — www.macobserver.com/…

Regulatory Rundown* The Digital Markets Act (DMA) continues to drive Apple news:

+ Beta versions of iOS 17.5 include support for website-based app distribution in the EU, so we can now see how it works, developers are cranky at the amount of warnings screens users see, and one security researcher warns that it may inadvertently expose EU iOS users to cross-site tracking — appleinsider.com/…, www.macobserver.com/… & www.mysk.blog/…
+ The European Commission has ruled that because it is depended on by enough business users, iPadOS does fall under the DMA after all, giving Apple 6 months to comply, which Apple have confirmed they will do — www.macobserver.com/… & www.macstories.net/…
+ Apple announced their promised changes to the controversial *Core Technology Fee* (CTF) that applies to developers who opt for Apple's EU-only iOS app store terms — www.cultofmac.com/…


    - Zero-profit developers like hobbyists and charities are now completely exempted — it's not about the app, it's about the developer, and if you make money by putting ads in your apps you are definitely not zero-profit (this addresses the *'my kid made a great app that went viral and now I own Apple a small fortune'* problem)
    - Small developers (<€10M annual revenue) get an on-ramp to the CTF via a three-year exemption, and if they poke over the €10M mark within those three years, the CTF is called at €1M
+ Reporting by Reuters and others suggests the iOS browser choice screen mandated by the DMA may be having an effect, users seem to be choosing privacy-focused browsers, and Opera is reporting 63% growth — arstechnica.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
+ The first third-party app store in the EU goes live with the launch of Riley Testut's AltStore PAL — appleinsider.com/… & rileytestut.com/…

The European Central Bank has sent and open letter to the European Commission arguing that Apple's proposed changes to address anti-trust concerns are not sufficient to facilitate its plans for the Digital Euro — appleinsider.com/…
The EU's long-in-progress right to repair directive has finally passed, now each of the 27 member states must implement specific laws to implement it in their own nations — appleinsider.com/… (for the most part it looks like all Apple will have to do to comply is offer what they currently sell as AppleCare+ as their standard warranty within the EU)

Legal Latest Apple -v- Epic:* Apple have responded to the suit Epic filed last month alleging Apple is not complying with the anti-steering ruling Epic managed to win against it, they insist they are in full compliance with the court's order — appleinsider.com/… * “Batterygate” Strikes Again: Canadian Users Could Receive $150 From Apple — www.macobserver.com/… * The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal has denied Apple's request to have a class action suit on behalf of developers alleging Apple's app store fees are anticompetitive dismissed, so the case will proceed — appleinsider.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Unionisation Efforts Continue: New Jersey Apple Store files to unionize — appleinsider.com/… (to date, 5 stores in the US have filed to unionise, 2 have completed the process) * Apple bids farewell to Frank Casanova after pivotal 36-year tenure — appleinsider.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple TV+:*

+ Apple TV+ bags big British awards for Slow Horses and Silo — www.cultofmac.com/… (4 *BAFTA Television Craft Awards*, *Slow Horses* for editing & sound, and *Silo* for production design & original music)
+ **Related:** More than 60 IHG hotels in North America now have AirPlay-compatible TVs in-room — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories1. Apple expands its repair options — www.apple.com/…

* Apple will allow reuse of iPhone parts for repairs, with a notable catch — arstechnica.com


    + Starting with new iPhones *'this fall'*
    + Biometric sensors can be re-used
    + Calibration can happen on-device
    + No need to enter serial numbers when ordering replacement parts (other than main logic board)
    + The device's parts history screen will show users what parts have been replaced and what their provenance is
    + Parts from devices marked as stolen will be blocked from working by activation lock, so this change won't create a new opportunity for phone thieves
* Apple hardware chief John Ternus insists parts pairing is not evil — appleinsider.com/…

After last month's App Store rules change, emulators for vintage games consoles start arriving on iOS:
- Things get off to a rocky start with the very first emulator being a short-lived ad-riddled knockoff of Riley Testut's GBA4iOS — appleinsider.com/…
- Things don't go much better for the second emulator, this time the app is legitimate, but the developer gets cold feet and pulls their NES emulator 'out of fear', presumably about being sued by Nintendo — First NES emulator for iPhone approved by Apple but pulled by developer — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Third time would appear to be a charm, with Riley Testut's Delta emulator being the first to launch and stay launched — www.macstories.net/… (distribution in the EU is exclusively through the AltStore!)
  - Later in the month we learned Delta is coming to the iPad too — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Related: How to Load Your Game Boy Games Onto the iPhone to Play in the Delta Emulator — www.macstories.net/…
    - Provenance plans to bring Sony & Sega console emulation to the App Store — appleinsider.com/…
    - Any many more … Retro gold rush: these emulators are coming to the App Store soon — appleinsider.com/…
    - Related: Why a GameCube/Wii emulator may not be possible on the iOS App Store — arstechnica.com/… (App Store rules ban Just in-time Compilation, AKA JIT)
  - Apple's Q2 2024 Earnings Call — www.apple.com/…
- Investor Highlights:
  - Quarterly Revenue of $90.8Bn, down 4% YoY (Apple had guided that there would be a substantial revenue drop, so not a 'miss')
  - $23.6Bn quarterly profit
  - Quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.53
  - Dividend of $0.25, up 4%
  - $110Bn stock buy-back
    - Product Highlights:
  - iPad revenue of $5.6Bn down 17% YoY to lowest level in 4 years
  - iPhone revenue of $46Bn, down 10% YoY (as expected by analysts)
    - Related: iPhone sales drop 10% as Samsung steadies and Chinese rivals grow — appleinsider.com/… (world-wide Q1 2024 from IDC)
    - Related: Apple's iPhone skid in China continues, with another big hit to start 2024 — appleinsider.com/… & After Losing the Top Spot Internationally, iPhone Sales Drop by 1/5th in China, Worst Since COVID — www.macobserver.com/… (Counterpoint Research comparing Q1 2023 sales revenue in China to Q1 2024, down 19%)
    - Related: New iPhone activations hit a six-year low in the US — www.cultofmac.com/… (US carrier activations for Q1 from CIRP, down to 33% from 40% YaQ) + Wearables etc. revenue of $7.9Bn, down 10% YoY + Mac revenue of $7.5Bn, up 4% YoY + Services revenue of $23.9Bn, up 14% YoY
      - The usual excellent graphs from Jason Snell — sixcolors.com/…
      - Transcript of Tim Cook's comments — sixcolors.com/…
  - Apple Vision Pro a big hit in enterprise — appleinsider.com/… (over half of Fortune 500 companies have purchased some)
  - Apple CEO Tim Cook bullish on China, thinking long-term — appleinsider.com/…
  - Apple believes in ‘transformative power and promise of AI’ — www.cultofmac.com/…
    - Analysis:
  - Apple blows away Wall Street earnings estimates, even with weak China iPhone sales — appleinsider.com/…
  - Apple charms investors with record $110B stock buyback, dividend hike — appleinsider.com/…
  - Apple’s Q2 2024 earnings reveal a drop in iPhone, iPad sales — arstechnica.com

Quick Stories Apple's program for notifying victims of state-level attacks has expanded to include victims of grey-market spyware apps, or as Apple calls them 'mercenary spyware'*, and users in 92 countries have received such warnings from Apple — techcrunch.com/…

+ Beware: scammers have started to send fake versions of these notifications — www.intego.com/…

Apple has released three new sets of headphones under its Beats brand:
- Beats Solo 4 headphones review: Great audio quality and features — appleinsider.com/…
- New Beats Solo Buds offers budget-friendly audio in a tiny case — appleinsider.com/…
- Beats launches new Beats Fit Pro edition in collaboration with Alo Yoga — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Store’s ‘Shop with a Specialist over Video’ Now Available on iPhone — www.macobserver.com/… (was web-only feature, still US-only )
- Apple Watch is FDA's first-ever approved digital AFib history device — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple uses Earth Day to release it's latest environmental report and highlight some environmental progress — www.apple.com/… (PDF download)
- Apple ramps up investment in clean energy and water around the world — www.apple.com/… (now 18GW of clean electricity, up 3x since 2020, and 12Bn gallons fresh water saved last year)
- Apple cuts greenhouse gas emissions in half — www.apple.com/… (over 55% reduction since 2015)
- Apple Announces May 7th Let Loose Event — www.macstories.net/… (based on the art work, it seems obvious this is an iPad-centric event)

| Emoji | Meaning | | --- | --- | | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. | | flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. | | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. | | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. | | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that's likely to develop into something significant in the future. |

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart starts by sharing his practical advice for staying comfortable and keeping your gear safe in the kind of chaotic weather that typifies April in Europe, before trying to inspire everyone to get out there to capitalise on the photographic opportunities the weather brings.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp127.mp3Show Notes (by Bart)The temptation is to only shoot when the weather is clement, and to stay indoors when it’s unpleasant, or even unpredictable.

Here in Europe we’re deep into a time of year when the weather is so notoriously chaotic that we’re described by a cliché — ‘March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers’. Basically, in April the sun regains some power, and the air is still wet, so we often get days with sunny spells punctuated by very heavy, often even thundery, very localised showers. Those kinds of small-scale extremes make for a lot of drama in the sky, and lots of great photographic opportunities, assuming that is, you’re prepared to deal with the inclement interludes!

Depending on where you are in the world, dramatic weather may happen at different times, but I expect a lot of my thoughts and advice will still be useful.

Fail to Prepare, Prepare to … get CrankyThe very variability that opens up the opportunities that inspired this episode makes preparation essential. Getting wet is not just possible, it’s probable, and so are big swings in temperature, so you need to prepare both yourself and your gear to avoid discomfort and damage.

When it comes to keeping yourself comfortable, it helps to understand the most common meteorological cause of all that drama in the sky. It’s all about convection cells. There will be beautiful warm regions where air warmed by the sun is rising. Birds and hand glider pilots love these, and will circle in the up-draft for some free lift! But, between those rising cells there will be falling cells, and those are where you get wet and cold!

The descending cells are not capped with clear skies, but with angry looking dark grey clouds. Inside them cold wet air is falling fast, so you get very wet from heavy rain with big drops, and if the cell reaches high enough into the atmosphere, you’ll get pelted with big drops of ice, i.e heavy hail. The cell is pulling air from high up down fast, so the wind won’t just pick up as the rain approaches, it will feel noticeably cold.

When the column of descending air hits the ground it moves out in all directions, so no matter what way the clouds are being pushed about by high-altitude winds, on the ground, close to the rain, the wind always comes from the direction of the rain. This leads to a very useful tip:

If you notice the wind shift direction while it becomes noticeably colder, you’re probably about to get very wet very quickly!

So, what do you need to be prepared for?

Sun
Rain
Big swings in temperature
Cutting wind

Forget about Umbrellas

April showers make their own wind, so even when the average wind speed is low, the wind will pick up and become gusty just when you need your umbrella. Wind and umbrellas don’t mix, so forget about umbrellas!

Keep your Core Dry

So, you can’t depend on umbrellas to stay dry, what can you depend on? You absolutely need a breathable windproof waterproof jacket to keep your core dry, and to keep the icy gusty wind off your chest!

Spend the extra money for truly breathable jackets from experienced out door brands — if it’s not breathable you’ll get wet from the inside out instead of the outside in so you’ll get wet whether it rains or not!

Cold wind and sweaty cloths are a great recipe for feeling miserable and getting sick!

The Stuff that has Earned my Recommendation

When it comes to breathable waterproof clothing of all kinds, nothing I’ve owned holds a candle to the genuine Gore-Tex products from Gore themselves (gorewear.com/…).

In terms of traditional hiking shoes and boots my favourite brand by far is Merrell (merrell.com/…), they make high quality breathable waterproof boots with real Gore-Tex that last, and they’re good value to boot!

When full on hiking shoes and boots are overkill I love wearing waterproof trainers. I’ve had a lot of very poor experiences with big name brands, but after a lot of crankiness, I’ve found that the Terrex range from Adidas have worked really well for me — they look like pretty ordinary trainers, but with real Gore-Tex they’re both waterproof and breathable, and they’re comfy too! I’ve also had some really good experiences with waterproof trainers from Under Armour. The Under Armour waterproof trainers tend to be lighter than the Terrex ones, so I prefer them in summer.

Protect your Stuff

Obviously, if you’re shooting with a DSLR you’ll need to be sure your camera bag is waterproof, but even if you shoot with nothing more than your totally waterproof modern phone, you still need a waterproof backpack — where else do you keep your layers safe and dry when you’re not using them?

If you want to shoot a DSLR in the rain to include rain drops in your photos, it’s worth knowing you can buy little rain coats for your camera with a big hole in the back for your hands and to see the screen, and an elasticated hole in the front to fit snug around the front of your lens. If you use a big enough flare protector and don’t point too far up or down you can actually shoot in the rain safely.

The photographic OpportunitiesSo, what makes all that preparation worth it?

Storm Light

The most obvious opportunity from mixed weather with sun and heavy showers is so-called ‘storm light’ — this is what happens when you and your foreground are being lit by the sun, but the sky in front of you is really dark and dramatic. The foreground sun will add huge contrast with the dark clouds, so the darkness of the clouds feels magnified, and you get an amazing sense of drama.

Distant Downpours

When you get yourself onto a height where you have a sweeping panoramic view, you might catch one of those heavy showers in action in the distance. Sometimes these downpours are so heavy they look like clouds pouring themselves onto the landscape below.

Rainbows

When you are at the edge of the rain while the sun is low enough in the sky so the sun is shining on you while shining through(ish) raindrops in front of you, you should see a rainbow. I dedicated the entire previous episode to rainbows, so I’ll just remind you to keep an eye out for the main features:

The primary bow, and the fact that it’s darker around the outside and brighter inside
Some or all of a secondary bow, including the fact that the colours are reversed
Supernumerary arcs on the inside of the primary bow

Rain as a Subject

Finally, while it’s raining, if your camera is protected, why not use raindrops splashing in water or on a hard surface as a foreground for your shots, or maybe even as the main subject.

The lighter the rain, the closer you need to get to see the rain in the photos, but when the rain is heavy enough I find I can often get away with crouching under a bridge next to some water and zooming in and shooting along the water to get the raindrops a few meters in front to be visible enough to add foreground interest to shots.

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This solo show starts with some followups from last month before diving into just a few regulatory and legal stories, some HR and acquisitions news, and a few highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The three main stories are the Digital Markets Act (again), the US DOJ’s Anti-Trust case against Apple, and some VisionPro Developments. The show finishes with a rundown of some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in March.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta127.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Apple walks away empty handed at the Oscars — appleinsider.com/… (13 nominations, 10 for Killers of the Flower Moon & 3 for Napoleon)
More AI Developments:
- Apple acquires fundamental AI smarts by buying DarwinAI — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple AI research: ReALM is smaller, faster than GPT-4 when parsing contextual data — appleinsider.com/…
- Reuters are reporting that Apple has paid Shutterstock somewhere between $25M & $50M for access to millions of photos and videos for AI training — www.cultofmac.com/…

Regulatory Rundown* Oregon governor signs nation’s first right-to-repair bill that bans parts pairing — arstechnica.com/…

Legal Latest Apple -v- Epic:* Epic wants Apple held in contempt of court for not following through on removing anti-steering measures — appleinsider.com/…

+ Apple speaks out against Epic's contempt of court accusation — appleinsider.com/… (Apple insist they are in compliance and quoted their compliance statement to the court, and the original court ruling to support their POV)

With the US Epic-v-Apple case officially over, the case in Australia has been un-paused, and merged with Epic's case against Google in that country (and the court expects it to last months) — appleinsider.com/…
Masimo -v- Apple: Apple made their case to the US Court of Appeals requesting that the US International Trade Commission (ITS) ruling against it be overturned on two grounds (listed below), Masimo now get to submit a rebuttal before the court will rule — appleinsider.com/…
1. Because Masimo didn't actually have a product, just a CAD drawing, the ITC over-stepped their authority
2. The patents the ITC based their decision on are fundamentally flawed, and were updated by Masimo after the Apple Watch was released in an attempt to "ensnare" Apple's real product
3. Share Holders -v- Apple: Apple have agreed to settle a long-running shareholder lawsuit that claimed Tim Cook mislead investors in Apple's last earnings call in 2018, which led up to a very rare revision of expected revenue in January 2019 – the crux was Cook down-playing problems in the Chinese market in 2018 before blaming those problems for the revision in 2019. The settlement is reported to be $490M, which Apple Insider point out is less than 1 day's earnings (or $61M per word!) — appleinsider.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Apple lays off 600 employees, mostly from Apple Car project — appleinsider.com/… or Apple’s First Post-Pandemic Layoffs Affect Over 700 Workers — www.macobserver.com/… * The Browser Company poaches Apple Safari design team member — appleinsider.com/… (Charlie Deets, apparently one of Safari's two lead designers) * Apple's newest hire is another step towards ads in Apple TV+ — appleinsider.com/… (NBCUniversal ad exec Joseph Cady)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple Arcade's April additions include two with Apple Vision Pro support — appleinsider.com/… * Apple TV+ teams up with Lionel Messi for one-month free trial of MLS Season Pass — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Savings gets first ever interest rate cut — appleinsider.com/… * Stripe adds Apple Pay Later* as a default option for merchants — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories Probably related to main story 1 or 2 or both:* Apple amends its App Review Guidelines world-wide to allow Mini apps, mini games, streaming games, chatbots, plug-ins, and some game emulators — www.macstories.net/…

"Apps may offer certain software that is not embedded in the binary, specifically HTML5 mini apps and mini games, streaming games, chatbots, and plug-ins. Additionally, retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games"

+ There are a lot of restrictions on the games that can be offered by emulators, including a requirement that the full catalogue of all available games be published at a URL, and depending on interpretation, perhaps only the owners of the original games can offer them in emulation. Users running their own ROMs does not seem to fit the current guidelines — arstechnica.com/…

Apple and the European Commission continue their back-and-forth over the Digital Markets Act (DMA)
- Apple reversed their revocation of Epic Games' Swedish developer account — daringfireball.net/…
  - Following Apple's reversal, Epic announced it will be opening an EU store with a 12% revenue share with Epic — www.macobserver.com/…
    - Apple continues to loosen restrictions on its EU App Store — sixcolors.com/…
  - Single-vendor app stores will be permitted after all
  - The templates for external payment links are now optional
  - Large developers in good standing (2 years on the App Store & 1M downloads in previous year) will be permitted to distribute apps directly from their websites without any App Store (apps will still need notarisation, so not true side-loading)
    - The feature has appeared in the iOS 17.5 beta — appleinsider.com/…
      - The EU held a public 'workshop' where all parties could air their opinions on Apple's compliance, or lack there of, with the commission and Apple – Apple defended their position, but did admit something needs to be done about the possibility of a viral app bankrupting a small developer because of the Core Platform Fee — appleinsider.com/…
      - A few days after the workshop the EU officially launched violation investigations into Apple, Google & Meta: appleinsider.com/…, sixcolors.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
  - Full text of the complaints — ec.europa.eu/…
  - The Commissions Concerns Regarding Apple:
    - Is Apple's new European fee structure in compliance with the DMA?
    - Has Apple sufficiently loosened their anti-steering rules in Europe?
    - Is Apple's browser choice screen good enough?
    - Does Apple allow enough apps to be un-installed?
      - Related: Following the EC's massive €1.84Bn fine last month over anticompetitive practices in streaming music, Apple have added an entitlement to the App Store to allow Music streaming services in Europe to link out to their website for payments, and even to ask for email addresses to contact users directly (but as with similar payment processing opt-outs, Apple still expect a 27% cut of the revenue) — www.reuters.com/…
  - There are reports the EU are not happy that this change is sufficient, and are investigating, but there has been no official announcement (yet?) — appleinsider.com/…
  - The US DOJ joins the fray! — sues Apple for Anti-trust
- US DOJ attacks nearly every aspect of Apple's business in massive antitrust suit — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple CarPlay is anticompetitive, too, US lawsuit alleges — www.theverge.com/…
- Apple responds to DOJ antitrust lawsuit by refuting every claim — appleinsider.com/…
- The DOJ's 5 Headline Allegations:
  1. Apple does not allow Super Apps in the App Store
  2. Apple unfairly limits game-streaming services
  3. Apple unfairly denies 3rd-party messaging apps access to SMS
  4. Apple unfairly diminishes the functionality of non-Apple smart watches
  5. Apple unfairly limits digital wallets
    - The case has been brought under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890(!!!), which doesn't actually define what a monopoly is, but case law in different courts falls in a range mostly between 70% & 80% with one case saying it might be possible for there to be a monopoly from as low as 55% in some cases.
  6. Apple's current share of units in the US is about 64%, and it's world-wide unit share is about 23%
  7. The DOJ's case states Apple's market provenance not in unit sales as has been the case in all previous suits, but in revenue share, which puts Apple at 65%
  8. The DOJ go further than flipping to a novel measure, and invent a new market 'performance smartphones', and they say Apple has a 70% share of this market
    - Analysis: Understanding the DOJ's Antitrust Complaint Against Apple — www.macstories.net/…
    - Opinion:
  9. Gruber's critique of AG Garland's remarks regarding wallets (it shows the DOJ just do not understand how electronic payments work), and market share (they're seriously reaching) — daringfireball.net/…
  10. U.S. versus Apple: A first reaction — sixcolors.com/…
  11. Apple will crush the DoJ in court if Garland sticks with outdated arguments — appleinsider.com/…
  12. Why the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple is weak — www.cultofmac.com/…
  13. Some notable Apple Vision Pro/visionOS Developments
- VisionOS gets a nice update with Spatial Personas — sixcolors.com/…
  - In FaceTime users can now break out of their frames, and share a 3D space with each other
  - With SharePlay, participants can share a single 3D space with each other, and enjoy content, or, work on a shared document or thing
  - The personas also look a lot better than their did in version 1.0 of the feature
    - Other AR/VR platforms are coming on board with VisionOS
  - NVIDIA's shared VR environment technology is coming to Apple Vision Pro — appleinsider.com/…
  - Apple Vision Pro gains Niantic tech to open up more AR experiences — appleinsider.com/…
    - The Apple Vision Pro is on its way to China soon(ish)?
  - Tim Cook says China will get Apple Vision Pro later in 2024 — appleinsider.com/…
  - China’s Tencent throws its massive weight behind Vision Pro — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Related: there's still one hurdle in Apple's way though: Apple’s Vision Pro Trademark Headache in China Isn’t Going Anywhere — www.macobserver.com/… (Huawei own the Chinese trademark for 'Vision Pro', and they don't seem at all interested in giving it up, and Apple's application for a trademark on 'Apple Vision Pro' is still under review)

Quick Stories* Some nice updates to Apple's website:

+ Apple now has a good landing page to find manuals, specs, and downloads — appleinsider.com/…
+ New Apple Website Helps You Find out Why You Should Upgrade Your iPhone — www.macobserver.com/…

iWork 14 brings useful tweaks to Pages, Numbers and Keynote — www.cultofmac.com/…
Apple Quietly Adds 15W Qi2 Wireless Charging Support to iPhone 12 — www.macobserver.com/…
WWDC 2024 Scheduled for June 10–14 — tidbits.com/… (Apple's Press Release)
- New ‘Apple Developer’ YouTube Channel Debuts Ahead of WWDC 2024 — www.macobserver.com/…
- 350 Swift Student Challenge winners awarded AirPods Max, chance to attend WWDC — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Apple has a new Swift tutorials webpage for budding developers — appleinsider.com/…

| Emoji | Meaning | | --- | --- | | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. | | flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. | | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. | | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. | | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that's likely to develop into something significant in the future. |

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart explains how rainbows work, why that leads to some ‘bonus extras’ to keep an eye out for, and shares some advice on capturing these beautiful and ephemeral apparitions!

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp126.mp3Show Notes (by Bart)Depending on where you are in the world, your best chances to see rainbows will be at different times of the year, but here in Europe, we’re entering prime rainbow season as those infamous April Showers approach!

Those April shows are so predictable they’ve been captured in the folk aphorism ‘March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers’.

When to Watch out for RainbowsTo get rainbows you need a mix of sun and rain, so showery weather is ideal. Any time you’re in sun and there is rain falling in the exact opposite side of the sky to the sun, check for a rainbow!

Where do you check? Well, because of how they’re created (lots more on that in a moment), Rainbows are always the same size – 84º across the widest point, or about 8 times the width of your fist at arms length – and always entered on the point directly opposite the sun in the sky.

Depending on how much rain is falling over how wide a section of your field of view, you may only see a dim rainbow, or a section of one, but each time you feel the sun on your back while you’re looking at rain, get into the habit of checking for pieces of rainbow!

Also — because rainbows are centred on the point directly opposite the sun, mornings and evening are prime rainbow time, because when the sun is low, rainbows are tall, and when the sun is high in the sky, rainbows are short. In fact, if the run is very high, rainbows may be so short they’re invisible.

How Rainbows WorkAny time the sun is behind you, there’s a potential rainbow in front of you centred on the point directly opposite the sun and extending to a full circle. For some part of that potential rainbow to become real, you need raindrops between you and that part of the potential bow. Since rain can’t fall below the horizon, every part of the potential bow that lands on the ground is ruled out. That means that when the sun is high in the sky the potential bow will be small. In fact, if the sun is high enough, none of the potential bow will be above the horizon! But, when the sun is low the potential bow is big. In spring the sun is still low in the sky, and we get this mix of sun and rain, so it’s prime rainbow season!

BTW, If you’re wondering why rainbows are always the same size, it’s because the size is determined by the refractive index of water (how much it bends light), not the size of the drops!

What’s causing the rainbow is that some of the light from behind you is entering into rain drops in front of you, bouncing off the back of those raindrops, and then coming back to you. Each time light passes from one medium to another (air to water to air in this case), it bends a little, and each frequency, or colour, bends by a slightly different amount, so the light gets spread out. Because raindrops are round-ish, most of the light bounces off the surface of the drops and doesn’t enter it at all, but when the angle is right, some of it goes through, bounces off the back, and then makes its way back to your eye. Because the range of angles where that path of light is possible is small, the end result is a ring of colours with a radius of about 42º (angular width, with a full circle being 360º). When you do the math you find that red light is actually bent to form a circle with a radius of 42.5º, and the blue light it bent to form a circle with a radius of about 40.6º. Anyway, the end result is that you get about a 2º-wide band of colours that makes up a slice of an approximately 84º wide circle (twice the radius!).

What happens all the light that doesn’t line up just right to make it into the rainbow? On average, more of it gets reflected into the bow that out of the bow, so that leads to a really cool effect most people don’t notice until you draw their attention to it — the sky inside rainbows is noticeably brighter than the sky around the edges of rainbows!

I want to draw your attention to the fact that water, like glass, is mostly transparent. Each photo of light that hits the surface of a windows, or a raindrop, has some probability of bouncing off, and some probability of going through. This is why windows have faint reflections! We thing of water as transparent, because the probability of going through is higher than the probability of bouncing. For a photon of light to become part of a rainbow it needs to pass the first time, which is most probable, then it needs to bounce off the back, which is unlikely, then it needs to pass through the front again, which is probably, so it needs to do the most probable thing twice, and the less probable thing once to make it into the rainbow. Most light does not, that’s why rainbows are not as blinding as the sun!

Now — if you angle things just right, it’s possible for a photon of light to pass into the front of a raindrop, hit the back at a shallow enough angle that if it bounces, the angle of reflection will send towards a different part of the back of the drop, so it gets a second chance to bounce, and if it does, then it can come back the direction it came. Because these photons bounce twice, they don’t come out at that approximately 42º angle, the extra bounce shifts their paths a little, so they come out at an approximately 10º higher angle, i.e. spread between about 50º and 53º, so they make a second, outer rainbow with a diameter of about 100º. Also, the extra bounce literally mirrors everything, so now the red is on the inside and the blue on the outside!

The other thing you’ll notice is that if you can see it at all, this secondary bow is always much dimmer than the primary one, why? Because the photo has to win the bounce/pass lottery twice! It still needs to do the most probably thing, and pass through, twice, but it now also needs to do the less probable thing, and reflect, twice, which is just a lot less likely. So much less likely, that if there are not enough raindrops for the light to bounce through, there will be too few photos in the secondary bow for you to be able to see it at all.

Finally, when you’re lucky enough to get a nice rainbow, look carefully inside the primary bow — you might see fine little arcs of light. These are so-called supernumerary arcs, and they’re really cool from a physics point of view. The optics research published by Sir Isaac Newton perfectly explains the primary and secondary rainbows we see, as well as the difference in sky brightness between the inside and the outside, but if his understanding of optics were to be complete, then supernumerary arcs would be impossible! But we can see them, so, the proves there must be more physics beyond Newtonian Physics! The laws and equations Newton used are a good approximation of the real universe, but they’re missing some of the finer subtleties of reality!

It took another few hundred years to figure out what it is Newton didn’t know, but with the help of some quantum physics, those little arcs are now perfectly explained by the laws of physics as we understand them today. The physics of sub-atomic particles is usually pretty invisible to us, but each time you see those little arcs on the inside of a rainbow, realise that without a deep understanding of the physics of subatomic particles, we’d have no idea why they exist!

So, in summary, when you see a rainbow, try see how many of its features you can spot:

The Primary Bow
The difference in sky brightness inside and around the primary bow
The Secondary Bow
Supernumerary Arcs

Photographing RainbowsRainbows are wide! So, you either need to shoot with a wide angle lens, or, shoot a panorama of some kind.

When I shot with a DSLR, I needed my trusty 10-20mm ultra wide lens to do them justice. That meant that when I was out and about with just one lens, rather than with my full camera bag, I was often forced to resort to shooting multiple shots with the intention of stitching them together in photoshop. This was always fiddly, and I’m so happy my iPhone has liberated me from that chore! One word of advice I will give — if you want smooth stitched panos, overlap your shots a lot — I tried to always get ⅓ overlap at each boundary.

Now that I shoot with the iPhone I don’t need to worry about not having the right lens with me. The iPhone’s ultra-wide camera just about captures a full double rainbow, but only just, and with very little room to spare. When needs must it’s fine, but the compositions can feel a little cramped, and you end up with too little spare around the edge to do enough perspective correction to get any obvious verticals near the edges vertical again. If you’re shooting in nature that’s often fine, but if you have things like buildings, lamp posts or road signs at the edge of the scene they’ll look terrible!

This is why, when I have the time and the foreground is not too dynamic, I prefer to use the iPhones panoramic mode with the camera held vertically and the ultra-wide lens selected. That lets me paint the rainbow with lots of room on all sides, both for nicer compositions, and, to allow for enough perspective correction to get any verticals vertical.

The only other piece of advice I have while shooting is to flip your camera into raw mode — that goes for DSLRs as well as camera phones that have that capability. You really want to have as much data as possible to work with in post.

When it comes to post-processing, my advice is to start by making sure the white balance is accurate, then, ramp the colour right up, using the vibrancy and saturation sliders if your app has both, and to use a curves adjustment to pull the shadows down and the highlights up in a nice s-curve to help the rainbow ‘pop’. On the iPhone’s built-in editor there is no curves tool, so when I’m editing on the iPhone I start by letting the phone try its best with the auto button, then I assert my will by removing all darkening of highlights and brightening of shadows, adding in plenty of saturation and vibrance, and dealing in a healthy dose of definition. Finally, in some cases, just a little darkening around the edges with the vignette slider can work wonders!

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This marathon solo show starts with a lot followups, including Apple Vision Pro & DMA developments. Next we have some legal stories, just two HR stories, and a few highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The four main stories are a €1.8Bn fine from the European Commission, the end of Apple’s car project, Apple’s new Sports app, and a big encryption upgrade for iMessage. Finally, the show finishes with a rundown of some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in February including an M3 MacBook Air and updates to Apple’s Windows apps.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta126.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Vision Pro
- Apple released a detailed description of how visionOS protects users' privacy — appleinsider.com/… (PDF of Apple's Document)
- Some notably app developments:
  - Looks like YouTube will make an Apple Vision Pro app after all — appleinsider.com/…
  - Webex for Apple Vision Pro officially launches with Persona support — appleinsider.com/…
  - Roblox sees Apple Vision Pro as 'an interesting candidate' for expansion — appleinsider.com/…
    - Vision Pro Teardown Reveals Japan as Leading Parts Supplier — www.macobserver.com/…
  - The Digital Markets Act (DMA) is now in effect and we know a little more about Apple's (still cantankerous) compliance, which is now live — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple’s iMessage is not a “core platform” in EU, so it can stay walled off — arstechnica.com
- Apple released a document detailing the reasons behind their DMA compliance approach — appleinsider.com/… (PDF of Apple's Document)
- We now know what the browser selection screen looks like — www.theverge.com/…
- Apple sneakily got its way on Progressive Web Apps — initially they blocked them because the DMA required Apple to allow any browser engine, and that would make security impossible, everyone lost their minds, so Apple brought them back as Webkit only and everyone but Apple is claiming victory — arstechnica.com/…
- How iOS Is Determining Eligibility for Alternative App Marketplaces in the European Union — daringfireball.net/…
  - Third-party App Stores will only work for 30 days if you leave the EU — appleinsider.com/…
    - Apple updates rules surrounding EU DMA compliance to address developer concerns — appleinsider.com/…
  - No more €1M credit note
  - A one-time-only escape hatch from the new rules and their core platform fee if your app unexpectedly reaches 1M downloads
    - Apple have released their first compliance report: www.apple.com/…
  - It includes some future plans: Apple Wants to Make It “User-Friendly” to Switch From iPhone to Android — www.macobserver.com/… (by 'fall 2025' )
    - Setapp announces beta of iOS app store for the EU — appleinsider.com/…
    - After initially approving a developer account for Epic's Swedish subsidiary, and after Epic announcing an EU-only 3rd-party App Store, Apple killed the account
  - 'Fortnite' will return to the iPhone, but only in the EU — appleinsider.com/…
  - 'Verifiably untrustworthy' Epic Games iOS app store plans in EU killed by Apple — appleinsider.com/…
  - Apple's explanation — www.apple.com/…
  - EU tells Apple to justify its blocking of Epic Games — appleinsider.com/…
  - EU DMA architect says Apple seems to want to be fined for non-compliance — appleinsider.com/… (German MEP Andreas Schwab)
  - Apple relents, reinstates Epic Games developer account — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Opinion: John Gruber's takes: Before reversal — daringfireball.net/… & After Reversal — daringfireball.net/…
  - Following on from Tim Cook's teasing of big AI annoucements later in the year during last month's earnings call, there have been some more minor AI developments since:
- Together with researchers in the University of California, Apple have released an AI image editing model (image + prompt → new image) named MGIE for MLLM-Guided Image Editing — appleinsider.com/… & www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple has built a new generative AI tool for animating images — appleinsider.com/… ('Keyframer', image + prompt → video)
- Whipsmart: Apple buys 32 AI startups in 2023 — www.cultofmac.com/… (report by Statista)
- Apple joins Meta, Google, Facebook on new US government AI safety initiative — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest Battery Gate is not quite finished yet: Apple to pay $14.4M to settle Canadian 'Batterygate' lawsuit — appleinsider.com/… * A win for Apple Watch this month: Apple beats antitrust lawsuit from AliveCor — appleinsider.com/… (ruling by a District Judge, so could be appealed) * Apple -v- VirnetX is finally over as the US Supreme Court refuses to hear VirnetX's appear of the overturning of their original win against Apple — appleinsider.com/… (TL;DR, Apple won in the end) * Apple sues US Patent Office over augmented reality trademarks — appleinsider.com/… ('Reality Composer' & 'Reality Converter'*)

Apple HR & Acquisition News Another member of Jony Ive's core design team departs Apple after 32 years — appleinsider.com/… (Bart Andre) * Industrial unrest continues:* Hundreds strike at Apple supplier Flex's plant in India — appleinsider.com/… (pay, conditions, and union recognition)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple TV+*

+ Content:


    - Apple TV+ snags critically acclaimed Sundance film starring Lily Gladstone — appleinsider.com/… (*'Fancy Dance'*)
    - Watch 51 classic movies for free on Apple TV+ — appleinsider.com/…
    - “Friday Night Baseball” returns to Apple TV+ on March 29 — www.apple.com/…
+ Awards:


    - Apple TV+ 'Lessons in Chemistry' wins at DGA Awards — appleinsider.com/… (*Directors Guild of America*)
    - 'Killers of the Flower Moon' snags one SAG Award for Apple TV+ — appleinsider.com/… (*Screen Actors Guild* awarded *Best Actress* to Lily Gladstone)
+ **Related:** Netflix ends subscriptions for legacy in-app payment users — appleinsider.com/…

Apple Music
- Apple Music Replay Updated with Monthly Listening Statistics — www.macstories.net/…
- Apple Music Debuts Heavy Rotation, A New Daily Made For You Playlist — www.macstories.net/…
- ApplePay & Apple Card
- Apple Cash can now be used as a credit card — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple Pay Later loans now appear on your credit report — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple Card, Savings data now available in more third-party budget apps — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: PayPal brings Tap to Pay on iPhone support for its business users — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories1. The European Commission Fines Apple Over €1.8 Billion — www.macstories.net/…

* The root cause is Apple's *anti-steering* rules which prevented music services like Spotify from letting users know they could subscribe cheaper on their website than via in-app-purchase
* Apple blames Spotify for $1.95 billion fine over "abusive" App store rules — www.bleepingcomputer.com/… (Apple's full response)

After a decade of stops and starts, Apple kills its electric car project — arstechnica.com/…
- Opinion: How indecision and hubris killed the Apple car — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple Launches Free Sports App in the US, UK, and Canada — www.macstories.net/…
- Apple Sports: A free iPhone app to get you the score, fast — sixcolors.com/…
- Apple brings live scores to new Apple Sports app — appleinsider.com/…
- Hands on: Apple Sports brings a limited experience to tracking your favorite teams — appleinsider.com/…
- Opinion & Analysis: John Gruber's thoughts on Apple Sporst — daringfireball.net/…
- Apple have released PQ3, a major update to iMessage encryption to make it 'Quantum Safe' — security.apple.com/…
- Apple is hardening iMessage encryption now to protect it from a threat that doesn't exist yet — appleinsider.com/…

Quick Stories* Apple's Self Service Repair expanding to M3 Macs — appleinsider.com/… & Apple expands Self Service Repair for Mac, adds Diagnostics, and updates System Configuration — www.apple.com/… * Apple says the iPhone 15 battery is more durable than it originally thought — appleinsider.com/… * Apple update all their OSes:

+ visionOS 1.1 tries to make Personas less unsettling, plus other Apple OS updates — arstechnica.com
+ iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 Add Podcast Transcripts, Fix Zero-Day Vulnerabilities — tidbits.com/… (Apple's Press Release about Podcast Transcripts)
+ macOS Sonoma 14.4 now available with podcast captions and new emoji — appleinsider.com/…
+ Migration Assistant gets updated for macOS Sonoma — appleinsider.com/…

The MacBook Air gets updated: M3 Processor, Wifi 6E & support for two external displays — appleinsider.com/… & arstechnica.com/… (Apple's Press Release)
- Early benchmarks show M3 chip gives MacBook Air hefty performance boost — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Opinion: 2024 MacBook Air review roundup: Serious performance boost — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Related: Research from CIRP finds that 90% of Macs sold are now laptops — appleinsider.com/…
- Select iPhones, Apple Watches Have Slightly Higher Trade-in Values at Apple Now — www.macobserver.com/…
- The death of iTunes continues with a big update for Apple's Windows apps — www.macstories.net/…
- Updated version of iCloud for Windows
- Stand-alone Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple Devices apps get their first production releases (they had been marked as 'preview')
- Apple Releases New Spring Colors for iPhone Cases and Watch Bands — www.macstories.net/…
- No real news out of this year's annual shareholders meeting: Everything went Apple's way at the annual shareholders meeting — appleinsider.com/…

| Emoji | Meaning | | --- | --- | | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. | | flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. | | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. | | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. | | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that's likely to develop into something significant in the future. |

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart digs into how it’s possible to embed verifiable information about an image’s creation and the chain of edits that have been applied into the metadata along with the EXIF etc.. This work is further along than you might realise, and while the rise of AI is driving this work, it was needed long before AI and its usefulness extends beyond just thwarting deep fakes.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp125.mp3Show Notes (by Bart)Provenance is just a fancy term for the history of a thing — who made it, when, and what happened to it between then and now. For antiques provenance is about proving a chain of ownership from the creator all the way to the current owner. For legal evidence it’s about proving a chain of custody from collection to the court room, and for digital images it’s about building a chain of every edit from the moment the shutter fires to the moment you see an image on your screen. Who created it, when, where, and how, and for each edit from then to now, what was done, and by whom.

That’s a pretty big ask! Surprisingly though, we don’t need to invent any new fundamental technologies to do this, we just need to agree on some standards, and work is progressing nicely on that front too!

The reason the tech industry has gone from fix’n to make a plan to deal with photo provenance to actually getting a working system off the ground is of course AI, but really, we’ve always needed this, even before it was possible. Lies have been told with photographs for as long as there has been photography, and deceptive edits have simply always been a thing. Gardener didn’t need AI to create his propaganda shots with posed US civil war dead in the 1860s, and Stalin erased his enemies from history and photographs just fine without generative fill! I guess I shouldn’t let the irrelevance of the trigger lessen my relief that a much needed tool is finally being developed. So what if we’re doing a very clever thing for a rather silly reason, at least we’re finally doing it!

Anyway, in this episode I want to demystify the technology, and describe the emerging standards that are actually a lot more advanced than you may realise. Believe it or not, all the fundamental technological concepts have been in the padlocks on our browsers, and the chips in our phones for years!

The cryptographic FoundationIn terms of the cryptography underpinning all this, it all sits on top of just two fundamental concepts — asymmetric cryptography, and cryptographic digests AKA hashes.

Those two building blocks have been assembled into the so-called Public Key Infrastructure, or PKI, that underpins pretty much our entire digital economy, and much of our online security, including most notably that all important padlock in our browsers’ address bar!

Asymmetric Encryption and Public Key Cryptography

The first building blocks is a rather cool type of cryptography we invented in the 1970s.

Before the 1970s, all cryptography worked with one key — you take something you want to obscure, you create some kind of secret key, and then you use some math to scramble the content with the key so you can only un-scramble it with the same key later. We now call this ‘symmetric encryption’, because the same key is used to scramble and unscramble. We needed to create a name for this original approach because we invented something quite different. This new kind of encryption doesn’t use the same key to scramble and un-scramble, so we named it ‘asymmetric encryption’, and started referring to everything that had gone before as symmetric encryption.

With asymmetric encryption you start by using some cool math to create a key-pair. This pair of keys are a kind of mathematical mirror of each other such that anything you scramble with key 1 can only be unscrambled with key 2, and vice-versa. There’s nothing special about either key, the math works the same each way — the point is that you need the other key in the pair to unscramble what every you scramble with one of them.

If you arbitrarily pick one key and promise never to share it ever, you can freely share the other key without compromising you security. To help you remember which is which, don’t call them ‘key 1’ and ‘key 2’, call one your ‘private key’ and the other your ‘public key’. These kinds of key pairs can do some cool stuff, and we call that ‘public key cryptography’.

If you and me both have a key pair, and we exchanged public keys we can do some powerful things.

If I scramble everything I send you with your public key, and you use my public key to scramble everything you send me, then we can securely share secret information without ever needing to share a secret key like would have had to do to use symmetric encryption. We could do the entire exchange by post card, or even with sky writing, and no one listening in to every character we exchanged could read our messages! I could exchange my same public key with 500 people, and each of our conversations would remain private to just the two of us!

Why? Because when you use my public key to scramble messages, only I can unscramble them, and when I use your public key, only you can unscramble!

As well as our conversations being secret, we can also be sure we’re talking directly to each other. If your public key decrypts something, your private key must have encrypted it, so the message must be from you!

In computer science jargon we now have confidentiality and authenticity!

We’ve now nailed down the first of our two fundamental cryptographic building blocks — asymmetric encryption. Let’s move on to the next — ‘digests’.

Cryptographic Digests

A digest function is some math that takes input of any length, and spits out a fingerprint of a fixed length. Simple digests can be used for things like error detection, but to make a digest function useful cryptographically it needs to have two properties:

It must be easy to go from input to digest, but effectively impossible to go the other way
Small changes in input must translate to big changes to the fingerprint

We’ve figured out the math to do both of those things, so we can securely fingerprint data.

As well as being useful for the kind of cryptography we’re interested, digest functions are also used to protect passwords stored by websites, and in that context they’re usually referred to as ‘hashing functions’ or ‘hashes’, and to make passwords more difficult to crack those digest functions can accept a key-like second input known as a ‘salt’. So, if you heard of ‘salted hashes’, they’re the more complex cousins of the digest functions we’re talking about here.

Our digest functions just fingerprint data in such a way that you can’t start with a desired digest and then invent some content to produce it, or worse still, start with some forged data, and pad or tweak it to get it to digest to a specific fingerprint.

So, how are these digest functions useful to us?

Digital SignaturesIf the problem you’re trying to solve is not secretly sharing information, but publicly sharing something in such a way that others can verify it’s source, then you need to combine digests with public key cryptography to create digital signatures.

It’s actually a very simple process — you take the information you want to sign, you digest it to a fingerprint with a cryptographic digest function, and scramble that fingerprint with your private key. If you share both the information you need to be verifiable and the scrambled fingerprint, then anyone with your public key can prove to themselves that you shared the information, and, that it hasn’t changed since you ‘signed’ it. Or, to put it into computer science jargon, you have verifiable authenticity and integrity!

How does that work? If you get some information and a scrambled fingerprint that claims to be from me, you can prove that’s true by re-calculating the fingerprint yourself, then using my public key to unscramble the fingerprint I sent, and comparing the two. If they match, the information really is from me, and it really hasn’t been changed. Why? Because any change to the information would have changed the fingerprint you calculated, and only my private key could have scrambled the fingerprint if my public key can unscramble it!

In the real world we have standardised formats for storing scrambled digests and public keys, and we call those ‘Digital Signatures’. With file formats that separately embed the data and the information about that data (the metadata) in separate parts of the file, you can embed the digital signature right into the file, and you can even have it cover both the data and all the metadata that existed in the file before it was signed. For photography that means we can embed digital signatures right into our photos like we do EXIF data.

Certificates, Certificate Authorities, and the PKISo far I’ve been very vague about how, exactly, these public keys that are at the heart of everything are supposed to get shared so that you can be sure the key you have really is my public key! How can you know it’s not some imposter’s public key?

This is where ‘Digital Certificates’ come in.

You start with a standard file format that lets you combine a public key and some identity information into a single file, then you send that file to a third party that’s trusted by everyone, they verify the identity information, then they digitally sign the public key and the identity information. We call the file we send to this third party a ‘certificate signing request’, we call these third parties ‘certificate authorities’, and we call the digitally signed files they produce that link public keys to identities ‘digital certificates’.

To make all this work we need some kind of global set of standards, protocols, procedures and policies, and we need some way of policing all that. That’s what the so-called ‘Public Key Infrastructure’ (PKI) is.

The file formats for certificate signing requests, including the possible data fields and their meanings, and the resulting certificates are covered by a global standard known as X.509. , The public keys for the internet’s trusted certificate authorities are included in all our operating systems and act as a so-called ‘trust anchor’, allowing us to validate certificates, and hence, public keys all over the internet. There’s a global trade organisation that governs and polices these CAs, setting the rules and removing trust from those that break them.

As for the identities in digital certificates, those depend on the problem to be solved — the padlock in your browser is driven by X.509 certificates that connect internet domain names to public keys, digital signatures in email is driven by X.509 certs that connect email addresses to public keys, and you can get X.509 certificates that bind the names and addresses of people or organisations to public keys.

Protecting Private Keys and Secure EnclavesWe have one more building block to learn about before we can put all the pieces together into a system for cryptographically certifying the provenance of digital images — we need some way of protecting private keys when they’re in the physical world.

We need to be able to vouch for an image from the moment the shutter fires to moment it shows up on someone’s screen, so we need to digitally sign the RAW image right inside the camera, which means we need to have a precious private key with us at all times as we photograph. If anyone managed to steal that key, they could make it appear as if any image of their choice was shot with our camera. That would utterly undermine everything, so we need a reliable way of protecting they keys inside cameras.

This is where some nice hardware popularised by Apple’s smartphones comes to the rescue — hardware chips that create key pairs but have no mechanism for exporting the private keys. These tiny little chips have hardware for receiving commands to make key pairs, to output public keys, to receive data for scrambling, and to the data they scramble. But, they have no circuitry for exporting private keys. No amount of software hackery can get those keys out of those chips, there simply is no physical pathway for those bits to get out of those chips. The only way to do it would be to painstakingly etch away the surface of the chip to reveal the inner circuitry, then to use an electron microscope to try read the data against the chip’s will, and to do all that without accidentally corrupting the data. Not impossible, but so difficult it’s effectively impossible!

Apple call these chips ‘secure enclaves’, and others call them ‘trusted platform modules’, but they are what make it impossible for even the FBI to decrypt an iPhone without the password, and they are what camera manufacturers are now starting to embed into their cameras to protect the private keys they use to digitally sign raw photos as they’re read from the camera sensor.

A System for Digital ProvenanceSo, technologically, we don’t need anything new to get digital provenance — we can use digital signatures to connect data and metadata to public keys, digital certificates to connect public keys to people, organisations & companies, and trusted platform modules can protect private keys in cameras.

What’s needed is a standardised system to tie all these things together, and buy-in from the relevant parties.

The ball got rolling on this twice, once in an Adobe-led effort, and once in a BBC-led effort, and then they came together for form a unified effort they dubbed the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, or C2PA. The C2PA has a lot of members and covering a broad range of stakeholders, including:

Camera Manufacturers like Canon, Nikon, Leica & Sony (Leica already have cameras on the market that can digitally sign images)
Software companies like Adobe
Media organisations like the BBC & the New York Times
Cloud services providers like AWS, Microsoft & Google
Certificate authorities like DigiCert
Chip companies like Intel & ARM

The C2PA have developed an open standard they’ve dubbed Content Credentials for embedding provenance data into media files, and not just for photos, there’s support for video and audio files too!

Content Credentials are far enough along that you can actually start using them in the real world — Leica will sell you a camera that supports Content Credentials, any certificate authority will provide you with the needed digital certificates to assert your identity, Adobe’s photo editing tools support Content Credentials, and there’s an official validation site that will extract, validate, and visualise Content Credentials in media files at contentcredentials.org/verify. Ravnur and Microsoft have also partnered to build a full Software-as-a-Service video platform that organisations like local governments publish videos of official events with Content Credentials embedded in them. Nikon and Canon have also announced up-coming support for Content Credentials in their pro camera lines.

As well as the specification being public, there are also official open source implementations of the specification which developers can use to start embedding support for content credentials into their apps.

How do Content Credentials Work?

Content Credentials embed provenance information in media file metadata (like EXIF in photos) in a structure the spec dubs a Manifest. These manifests contain chains of claims and assertions that describe the creation of the media, and all the edits that get applied after that. The chain starts with assertions about how the media was first created and an ownership claim, and those two get digitally signed by the original creator or their organisation. From that point on, each time the image is edited in a Content Credentials capable app, an entry gets added to the manifest with fresh assertions and claims that are digitally signed by the person or organisation making the edits.

At each point in the chain the digital signature verifies the following:

The digest of the media itself at that point in its history (so you can tell if the version you are looking at corresponds to a specific point in the chain)
Some kind of preview of the current state of the media (for photos that’s a thumbnail)
A collection of assertions describing the changes that were made
An authorship claim, i.e. an identity
A digest of the previous manifest entry to establish a chained sequence (proves the order of changes and detects un-documented changes)

To illustrate this, let me describe a real-world scenario that could be happening right now this second — a New York Times photographer is in Ukraine shooting images of the war there with their Leica camera. As they shoot each image and its EXIF data is being digitally signed by the camera. They upload their images to their editor at NYT HQ and they add captions, a title, some keywords, and copyright information, they digitally sign all that with the New York Times’ private key to create the first entry in the Content Credentials manifest. The editor is in effect verifying that the camera and the photographer were working for them, and that they are vouching for the authenticity of the metadata. This does not prove the caption is true, it cryptographically proves the New Your Times say it’s true.

The image then goes to a picture editor because it’s going to be used in a story, so they open it in PhotoShop, adjust the levels, fine-tune the colour balance, and crop it. Photoshop builds a new entry for the manifest that includes assertions detailing each edit, a new digest of the image as it is after the edits are applied, a new thumbnail, and a claim of authorship of the edits, and digitally signs it again with the NYT’s private key.

The image is then published in a story, shared on social media, and someone wonders if it’s true. They download the image, check it with the Content Credentials Checker site, and can see where the image came from, and who is vouching for it.

Later that day, an un-scrupulous so-and-so also downloads the image, they doctor it to make it tell a different story, and upload it to social media. They did not use Content Credential-aware software, so the EXIF data with the Content Credential is still in the image, but the manifest has not been updated.

Another user sees the doctored image, they get suspicious, so they upload it to the verifier. They now see that the image has been tampered with, they see the original image details as the NTY editor shot the image and the NYT editor captioned it, they see that an NYT editor cropped and tweaked it, and they see thumbnails of the original image from the camera, and the image after the sanctioned edits by the NYT. They can see how the doctored version completely distorts the story, and they’re not fooled.

All that can happen today.

The only real pain point in the chain is the final end-user experience. Everything the NewYork Times need is in place and working, but the user facing stuff is really clunky today — are we really going to check images for Content Credentials?

Obviously what we need now is for the end-user apps where people encounter media to get native built-in Content Credential support, so they can badge media with embedded credentials, and let users explore those credentials visually from right within the app. The most important app categories I can think of are web browsers, social media apps, news apps, and video player apps. All the needed library code is available today from the C2PA’s Git repository, so there’s nothing stopping developers getting stuck in.

We do also have a bit of a chicken and an egg problem — not many media creators are embedding content credentials, so there’s no big demand for software support, so because the credentials are not easily visible in the apps people use day-in-day-out there’s not much pressure on media creators add them. Maybe one good thing to come out of the AI hype ATM will be a drive to add Content Credential support to news and social media apps

Final ThoughtsSomething to note is that this is not just about trust in media, this is also a way of proving ownership, so creators can prove authorship of their work. It’s also being used by Adobe to expressly mark AI generated images as being AI generated when they’re created using Adobe’s AI tools. So, in the future, there will be four kinds of images online:

Images with Content Credentials that are asserted as being human-created and real by their verified creators
Images with Content Credentials that are explicitly declared as being fully or partially AI-generated
Images that are known to have been corrupted/manipulated because their Content Credentials fail to validate
Image that we know nothing about because they don’t have any embedded Content Credentials

None of this prevents fraud, what it does is add transparency. If the manifest in the final image you’re viewing validates, then you know the history in that manifest is genuine. You then have to decide if you trust all the people and organisations listed in the manifest. The manifest can’t prove that the caption and other metadata are true, just that a specific person or organisation has provably claimed they are true. Ultimately, we, the humans, will always have to decide who has and who has not earned our trust. Content Credentials just make it possible to make those decisions armed with verifiable facts about the media we’re consuming.

Finally, yes, this is very much still a work in progress, but the foundations are well and truly laid, and there’s enough of the super structure built that early adopters can test the entire system from shutter to screen today, so if this momentum keeps going, there’s a good chance this will actually happen!

View Details

Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This marathon solo show starts with a few followups, some regulatory and legal news, some HR news, and the highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The four main stories are Apple’s Q1 2024 earnings, Apple’s Cantankerous Compliance in the US & EU, the Mac at 40, and the launch of the Vision Pro in the US. Finally, this epic show finishes with some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in January.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta125.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Apple extends 5G modem deal with Qualcomm until 2027 — www.cultofmac.com/…
Beeper Mini users find Macs banned from iMessage network — appleinsider.com/… & Apple is restoring Mac users that were banned after using Beeper on iPhone — appleinsider.com/…
Apple Savings Card interest rate jumps again — 5 Jan Apple Savings APY increases from 4.25% to 4.35% — appleinsider.com/… & 27 Jan Apple Card Savings interest rate shoots up again, now at 4.5% — www.cultofmac.com/…
Apple's import ban battle with MASIMO rumbled on with quiet a few twists and turns, but the important change is that the stay on the ban was lifted, so Apple were forced to remove the blood oxygen app from newly imported Series 9 & Ultra 2 Apple Watches to keep them on the market, and that will remain the case while the litigation continues — arstechnica.com/…
- Apple won't license Masimo's patents despite Apple Watch import ban — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Apple Watch blood oxygen detection used to save son's life at 14,000 feet — appleinsider.com/…

Regulatory Rundown* EU hits international big tech with new wave of user safety effort data requests — appleinsider.com/… (Questions regarding how the companies are safeguarding children, elections, and more. These questions are part of the on-going implementation of the Digital Services Act, DSA, not to be confused with the Digital Markets Act, DMA, discussed in detail in the main stories!)

Legal Latest* Apple finally settles iPhone 7 'loop disease' class action suit — appleinsider.com/… (iPhone 7 & iPhone 7 Plus with payouts of between $50 & $349)

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Children's programming takes a hit as Apple TV+ lays off eight staffers — appleinsider.com/… * Apple’s reorganization efforts within Siri team leading to layoffs — www.cultofmac.com/… (SanDiego office closing, staff can move to TX or take redundancy) * Apple finance executive departs to become CFO at Sonos — appleinsider.com/… (Saori Casey ) * 20-year veteran Apple VP of Engineering departs — www.cultofmac.com/… (VP of Engineering DJ Novotney ⚦ → Rivian) * Changes on Apple's Board:

+ Apple Board of Directors shuffle sees Al Gore & James Bell retire — appleinsider.com/…
+ Wanda Austin to join Apple’s board of directors — www.apple.com/…

Tim Cook's pay drops to $63 million for 2023 — appleinsider.com/… (Base salary un-changed at $3M, stock options reduced from previous year at Cook's own request)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple Fitness+ launches new workouts and meditation for 2024 — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Music enhances music parties with collaborative playlists — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Music Classical will soon expand into Japan, China, Korea, and more — appleinsider.com/… ( Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau & Taiwan) * AppleTV+*

+ Major League Soccer returns to MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app — www.apple.com/…
+ Awards season is in full swing again:


    - 'Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie' wins four Emmy Awards — appleinsider.com/… (including *'Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special'*)
    - Apple nabs four Creative Arts Emmys in first ceremony — appleinsider.com/… — 2x *Ted Lasso* (including Ed Sheeran), *Five Days at Memorial* & *Black Bird*)
    - 'Black Bird' scores Apple TV+ it's sole major Emmy award — appleinsider.com/… (Paul Walter Hauser for *Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie*)
    - 'Killers of the Flower Moon' lands single Golden Globe award for Apple — appleinsider.com/… (Lily Gladstone for *'Best Performance by a Female Actor — Motion Picture, Drama'*)
    - Apple TV+ falls flat at Critics Choice Awards — appleinsider.com/… (16 nominations, but just 1 win — *Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series* for Billy Crudup in *The Morning Show*)
    - 'Killers of the Flower Moon' takes Best Picture at AARP Movies for Grownups awards — appleinsider.com/… (*Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons*)
    - Apple scores record 13 Academy Award nominations, as culture-moving feature Killers of the Flower Moon lands 10 historic nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress for Lily Gladstone, and Best Director for Martin Scorsese — www.apple.com/… (10 for *Killers of the Flower Moon* & 3 for *Napoleon*)
+ **Related:** Killers of the Flower Moon earns spot as most popular film on streaming — www.cultofmac.com/… (from ReelGood's top-ten)

Main Stories1. Apple's Q1 2024 Earnings Call — www.apple.com/…

* This is Tim: Full transcript of Apple’s Q1 2024 analyst call — sixcolors.com/…
* Apple reports nearly $120B quarter: Full charts — sixcolors.com/…
* Apple Reports Quarterly Revenue of $119.6 Billion for Q1 2024 — www.macstories.net/…
* Strong iPhone sales power Apple back to revenue growth — www.cultofmac.com/…


    + **Related:** Apple overtakes Samsung in global smartphone shipments across 2023 — appleinsider.com/…
* iPhone up, China down: 7 nuggets from Apple’s earnings call — www.cultofmac.com/…
* Apple R&D spending flat for the first time in over a decade — sort of — appleinsider.com/…
* Apple has one active device per four people on the planet — appleinsider.com/… (2.2Bn)
* Cook 'incredibly excited' about generative AI coming to Apple gear later in 2024 — appleinsider.com/…

Cantankerous Compliance ("bad-tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative")
- SCOTUS declines to hear the Apple -v- Epic case, so the lower court's rulings stand — www.cultofmac.com/… & appleinsider.com/…
  - Post-SCOTUS Ruling, Apple Releases Guidelines for 'External Purchase Links' in iOS Apps (Spoiler: They Still Demand the Same Commissions) — daringfireball.net/… & Apple lets devs use alternate in-app payment options, still takes commissions — arstechnica.com
    - End of so-called anti-steering rule in the US App Store
    - US Developers can apply for a StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement
    - Apps must also offer IAP and still have to follow all Apple's rules
    - Developers still have to pay Apple a commission of 27% or 12% (3% less than normal) + Apple bills Epic Games $73 million in legal costs — appleinsider.com/… + It seems unlikely this is the end of the matter as Epic is definitely not happy: What's Next for Apple and Epic's Legal Disputes? — www.macstories.net/… + Epic says that Apple isn't doing enough to comply with US App Store court orders — appleinsider.com/… + Spotify Attacks Apple's 'Outrageous' 27 Percent Commission From External Links — daringfireball.net/… + Analysis: Coming to Grips With Apple’s Seemingly Unshakable Sense of Entitlement to Its Commissions From Third-Party iOS Apps — daringfireball.net/…
      - Apple has made some world-wide changes to coincide with it's EU-only changes to comply with the DMA (more on that later!)
  - Apps can now get an entitlement to stream games or other mini-apps within a master app, and can even charge for the child apps via IAP — sixcolors.com/…
  - Developers will get more detailed reports from the App Store
    - Ahead of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) coming into force in March, Apple have detailed how it will comply with big changes coming with iOS 17.4
  - Lead up:
    - EU anti-trust commissioner Margrethe Vestager met with Tim Cook in Apple HQ on 11 Jan — appleinsider.com/…
    - Apple insists to EU antitrust regulators that it runs five App Stores, not one — appleinsider.com/… + Apple is enhancing reports about what it knows about EU users in iOS 17.4 — appleinsider.com/… (EU users get more info about their App Store activity and can export it for sharing with 3rd-party app stores) + Apple Pay NFC hardware getting opened up to EU financial and banking app developers — appleinsider.com/… (and have provided a mechanism for EU devs to request access to other restricted hardware features) + Browsers like Chrome and Firefox can abandon WebKit in EU with iOS 17.4 — appleinsider.com/…
    - There will be a browser ballot on first-launch of Safari, similar to what Microsoft were required to do with Internet Explorer many years ago — www.macstories.net/…
    - Which browsers can be set to default for EU users in iOS 17.4 — appleinsider.com/… + 3rd-party app stores are coming within the EU — www.apple.com/…
    - Key points
      - Developers can choose to stay on the existing terms
      - Developers can opt into new EU-terms, within the App Store, within 3rd-party app stores, or both
        
        Devs who stay within the App Store will pay lower traditional fees (17% & 10%)
        
        All devs will pay a Core Technology Fee regardless of where they sell their app, the feel is currently €0.50 per install per user per year — registered non-profits and government agencies get the fee waived, and regular developers get it waived on the first 1M installs per user per year, with the exception of apps that are app stores
        
        3rd party app stores will be apps distributed via the App Store, and there are rules for acceptance into the App Store
        
        All app will get notarised, and apps will be required to continue to abide by the OS's APIs (including ATT), use of private APIs is prohibited, as are attempts to break out of the app sandbox
        
        Content moderation of apps in 3rd-party stores is 100% the responsibility of the App Store operator, and Apple's notarisation process will not cover that
        
        Compliance is absolutely minimal, with 3rd-party app stores being for iOS only (not iPadOS, watchOS, or tvOS), and confined to the EU (Apple's new App Store rules apply to these 27 countries — appleinsider.com/…) - Apple is offering confused Developers 30 minute consultations — appleinsider.com/… (Apple have also provided a fee calculator) - Apple's TestFlight system will remain open to all EU developers — appleinsider.com/… - The EU's Internal Markets Commissioner Thierry Breton has warned that 'strong action' is coming if the EU find Apple's plans for compliance are insufficient — appleinsider.com/… (the EU will start evaluating the various compliance efforts by all the designated 'Gate Keepers' when the law goes into effect in March) - Good Summaries/Explainers:
      - Best short summary: The EU Forces Open Apple’s Walled Garden — tidbits.com/…
      - Apple Details How It Plans to Comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act — www.macstories.net/…
      - Apple has new App Store rules, business terms, and sideloading conditions for EU developers — appleinsider.com/… - Analysis & Opinion:
      - Who should stay on and who should leave the EU App Store — appleinsider.com/…
      - Apple changes App Store rules in the EU, and the world watches — sixcolors.com/…
      - John Gruber's takes: Apple’s Plans for the DMA in the European Union — daringfireball.net/… & Two Additional Observations Regarding Apple's Core Technology Fee — daringfireball.net/…
      - Understanding Apple's Response to the DMA — www.macstories.net/… ("A DMA-Shaped Response")
      - Wall St. doesn't seem spooked by the changes: Apple to see little impact from EU regulations, says investing firm — appleinsider.com/… (J.P. Morgan)
      - Cult of Mac interviewed AltStore developer Riley Testut, and he was very happy with the changes — appleinsider.com/…
      - There has been strong criticism from those you would expect — www.cultofmac.com/…
        
        Spotify had pre-announced that they would be making alternative payment methods available once the DMA forced Apple to allow it, then, when Apple revealed the details their CEO reacted very angrily and seemed to row back from the earlier promise — appleinsider.com/… & appleinsider.com/…
        
        Epic's Tim Sweeney is mad about Apple's EU App Store concessions — appleinsider.com/…
        
        Meta joins list of companies that disapprove of Apple's DMA response — appleinsider.com/…
        
        Microsoft latest to weigh in on Apple's EU App Store rules with disapproval — appleinsider.com/…
        
        The Mac turns 40!
- The Computer History Museum hosted a three-panel event moderated by David Pogue — Insanely Great: The Apple Mac at 40 — www.youtube.com/…
- Apple execs praise 'unbelievable' 40 years of Macs — appleinsider.com/…
- New website showcases high-quality photos of every Mac released — www.cultofmac.com/… (mac40th.com](https://mac40th.com/))
- Forty years of the Mac, the computer for the rest of us — appleinsider.com/…
- Look back in time at Apple's original Mac development team — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Shares the Secret of Why the 40-Year-Old Mac Still Rules — www.wired.com/…
- Apple Macintosh Turns 40: A look back at 10 important milestones in the Mac's history — www.intego.com/…
- A wild and wooly take on the history of Macintosh computers — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Vision Pro Launches in the US for $3,499 — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Releases a Guided Tour of Vision Pro and Shares a Making Of Video — www.macstories.net/… & Get to know Apple Vision Pro with Apple's new video guides — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Vision Pro is Available for Walk-In Demos Starting Today — www.macobserver.com/… & Skip the Apple Vision Pro demo queues, soon you'll be able to book a slot — appleinsider.com/…
- The practical details are revealed:
  - What you need to order Apple Vision Pro from the Apple Store online — appleinsider.com/…
  - Apple Vision Pro storage and AppleCare prices revealed — appleinsider.com/… ($3,499 → $3,899 for 256G → 1TB)
  - What comes in the $3499 Apple Vision Pro box — appleinsider.com/…
  - Prescription lenses for Apple Vision Pro are cheaper than expected — appleinsider.com/… ($99 or $149)
    - Related: How Apple Vision Pro deals with Monovision — and what vision problems it can't deal with — appleinsider.com/… + Apple Vision Pro has 16GB of memory, potentially 1TB of storage — appleinsider.com/… + Apple Vision Pro screen refresh rate is up to 100Hz, it has Bluetooth 5.3, and more technical details — appleinsider.com/… + Damaged Apple Vision Pro repairs cost up to $2,399 — appleinsider.com/…
    - Related: Apple Vision Pro is surprisingly durable in first YouTube drop test — appleinsider.com/… — "This is actually stupidly durable" (repeated drops from ceiling height eventually broke the outer glass screen, but the device continued to function normally!) + If your Apple Vision Pro gets stolen, Find My won't help you get it back — appleinsider.com/…
      - There are a lot of native apps & dedicated media on launch day, some notable absences, including companies that have explicitly prevented their iPad app from working on Vision OS — appleinsider.com/… & appleinsider.com/…
  - Apple Details Vision Pro's Launch Day Entertainment Options — www.macstories.net/… & Apple Vision Pro immersive titles have begun showing up in Apple TV app ahead of launch — appleinsider.com/…
  - All the Disney+ 3D movies you can watch on Vision Pro — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Explore the Starship Enterprise with Apple Vision Pro — appleinsider.com/…
  - Cool Vision Pro apps, concepts and experiences available on day one — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - More than 600 new spatial apps and games await Vision Pro — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Microsoft 365 apps will be available on Apple Vision Pro at launch — appleinsider.com/…
  - The best Apple Vision Pro productivity apps at launch — appleinsider.com/…
  - A Survey of Popular Apps Currently Compatible With Apple Vision Pro — www.macstories.net/…
  - Not just Adobe Lightroom, but also Adobe Firefly AI are coming to VisionOS — appleinsider.com/…
  - Netflix CEO says Apple Vision Pro market is too insignificant to bother with — appleinsider.com/… & Netflix says use Safari on Apple Vision Pro, because you aren't getting an app — appleinsider.com/…
  - YouTube and Spotify also won't offer any apps on Apple Vision Pro — appleinsider.com/…
  - There is an Apple Vision Pro YouTube viewer app, but it isn't from Google — appleinsider.com/…
  - Related: Unity adds Apple Vision Pro support for all game developers — appleinsider.com/…
    - There are also hardware accessories already, both from Apple & third parties — appleinsider.com/…
  - Belkin will sell Apple Vision Pro battery clip in time for launch — appleinsider.com/…
  - Apple have released a special USB-C enabled strap for developers, allowing a permanent connection to a Mac while developing — www.macstories.net/… (it's not cheap at $299!)
    - Reviews, reactions, and opinions:
  - Apple Vision Pro: What you need to know beyond the spec sheet and before you buy — appleinsider.com/…
  - Vision Pro review roundup: ‘Magic’ and ‘a revolution,’ but definitely unfinished — www.cultofmac.com/…
  - Apple Vision Pro review roundup: an experience that weighs on you — appleinsider.com/…
  - What Reviewers Have Learned about Apple Vision Pro — www.macstories.net/…
  - John Gruber's review — daringfireball.net/…
  - Joanna Stern's WSJ video review — www.youtube.com/…

Quick Stories iOS 17.3 includes a new Stolen Device Protection* feature intended to protect from the spike in iPhone thefts were the attackers first steal or social engineer the passcode before steeling the phone and then using the passcode to change the Apple ID password, disable FindMy & lock users out of their data for ever — appleinsider.com/… (I think it's wise to enable it, and so does Adam Angst at Tidbits) * Apple unveils 2024 Black Unity Collection supporting grantees that inspire resilience and creativity — www.apple.com/… & Vibrant new Apple Watch band and face celebrate Black unity — www.cultofmac.com/… * Now Shazam can name songs even when you wear headphones — www.cultofmac.com/… * Windows 11 ARM officially supported by M3 Macs running Parallels Desktop — appleinsider.com/…

| Emoji | Meaning | | --- | --- | | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. | | flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. | | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. | | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. | | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that's likely to develop into something significant in the future. |

View Details

Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart describes his experiences traveling without his ‘big boy camera’ for the first time. Did he end up regretting bringing nothing more than his iPhone? Nope, and he shares some tips that helped him come home with some cherished keepers.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp124.mp3Show Notes (by Bart)For the first time since the pandemic, and the first time since I stopped shooting with my DSLR, I went on a little holiday to a foreign place — my native Belgium. Leaving aside the one business meeting I had, it was 4 days where my priorities were family, first and foremost, reconnecting with Flanders, the place, and getting some nice photos, and very much in that order. I could have blown the dust off my Nikon D5100 and dug up my 18-300mm ultra-zoom (the ideal ‘one lens to do everything’ for travel IMO), but I chose not to — this was going to be travel photos by iPhone! Photography on this trip was going to be opportunistic, it wasn’t gonna be a driver.

My big question was whether the iPhone would prove enough, and whether I’d regret a bunch of missed opportunities. TL;DR — great decision, no regrets!

I flew into Brussels, rented a car, then drove to my parents place in the beautiful and somewhat under-appreciated town of Lier (a little east of Antwerp), and that was by base for the trip. I spent some time driving to different family things, went on three cycles, re-discovering many of my childhood haunts, and I did a lot of walking in and around Lier.

The weather was ok — it was cold, but above freezing, and mostly overcast, but also almost completely dry (apart from some snow showers on the last day which played havoc with Brussels Airport ). It was not ideal photo weather — no orange red and yellow brick medieval buildings bathed in soft winter light this time. But plenty of opportunities presented themselves, and I came home with plenty of keepers.

The biggest thing was that my camera was always with me, but never a hassle, and it was good enough to capture what there was to capture. It had been much too long since I was on home soil, and I needed to soak in the ambiance of the place, and I did, and it felt great. A big camera would just have gotten in the way!

That’s all very philosophical, so I want to end with some tips I picked up from the experience.

Firstly, when you are flying in the morning or evening (when the sun is not too high in the sky) try book a seat on the side of the plane opposite the sun and a few rows back from the wing. Any cool atmospheric effects will be on that side of the plane, the shadows on the clouds will highlight their textures best, and you’ll be able to include the wing tip in your compositions to give a sense of place. If the atmosphere has the right size of water vapour molecules, you’ll see something cool projected onto the clouds below directly opposite the sun — the Brocken Spectre — a rainbow coloured halo around the anti-solar point. If the clouds are close enough to you, you’ll notice something even cooler, at the very center of the halo is your plane’s shadow!

The second thing the medieval streets of Lier reminded me of is that even the iPhone’s amazing ultra-wide lens is not always wide enough! Don’t forget you can use pano mode to capture even wider scenes, that you can take vertical panos, and that you can change the lens on a pano, so if you meet a beautiful, tall, church on a narrow cobbled street, you can still capture it all with a wide angle vertical pano. just be sure to capture plenty of spare space on all sides because while you won’t get all the distortions out in post, you can get a lot of them out with the skew sliders in the photos app, but only if you have the space at the edges!

Another timely reminder is that night mode on the iPhone rocks! If the weather isn’t particularly photogenic during the day, maybe the same street or building will look great at night!?

Finally, places are complex subjects, and no one view captures all their important character. Different scales and different points of view can capture the place’s different aspects, but to capture the feel of a place in a single shot, why not build a diptych or a collage? I don’t think my Glass timeline has ever seen as many multi-photo images as it has in recent days as I’ve been processing and sharing my shots form this trip. As a bonus tip, the collage app that I’ve found to work best for me on iOS is FrameMagic, it’s free to try, but you’ll need a few in app purchases to really unlock its power.

All in all I had a great time, got some lovely photos, and never once regretted leaving the DSLR at home!

View Details

Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This solo show starts with a few followups, some regulatory and legal news, a little HR news, and the highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The four main stories are Push Notification spying, the Beeper Mini saga, the US import ban on Apple Watches, and the Operation Triangulation iPhone hacks. Finally, the show finishes with some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in December.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta124.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Apple wasn't quite done with end-of-year lists/awards:
- 'Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus' is Apple's podcast of the year — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple highlights the 2023 top App Store apps and games — appleinsider.com/… (Apple's Press Release)
- Features promised at WWDC continue to arrive:
- Apple Releases iOS and iPadOS 17.2 with Journal App, Messages and Music Improvements, and More — www.macstories.net/… (Apple's Press Release for the Journal App)
  - How to start journaling with the new iPhone Journal app — www.cultofmac.com/…
    - VPN apps come to the Apple TV:
  - ExpressVPN brings its VPN app to the Apple TV — appleinsider.com/…
  - NordVPN releases app for Apple TVs running tvOS 17 — appleinsider.com/…
    - A promised fix is delivered: iPhone Users Will No Longer Face Wireless Charging Issues on Cars After iOS 17.2 Update — www.macobserver.com/…
    - Related: other un-pre-announced improvements arrive too:
  - Apple releases tvOS 17.2 with 3D movies and better system navigation — appleinsider.com/… (Apple's Press Release for the tvOS re-design
  - iPhones 15 Pro can now record spatial video for the up-coming Apple Vision Pro headset — www.apple.com/…
  - Apple beefs up Self Service Repair with new diagnostic, extended to iPhone 15 & M2 Mac — appleinsider.com/… (Apple's Press Release)
- You can now access Apple’s official diagnostics tool online for DIY repairs — arstechnica.com
- Apple's gaming push continues:
- Sonic Dream Team races onto Apple Arcade — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Unity 6 announced with AI tools, plus Apple & Meta partnerships — appleinsider.com/… (Vision Pro support)
- 'Resident Evil 4' now available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPad, & Mac — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Apple is pushing hard to make the Mac relevant in gaming — appleinsider.com/… (Mac execs made the case for how transformative Apple Silicon is for Mac gaming in a recent in-depth interview)
- Apple continues to quietly work away on AI:
- Apple demonstrates its commitment to AI with new open source code release — appleinsider.com/… (MLX, an ML framework for Apple Silicon)
- Apple wants AI to run directly on its hardware instead of in the cloud — arstechnica.com (Published Research Paper)
- Apple's 'Ferret' is a new open-source machine learning model — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple offers publishers millions to train AI on archives — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple continues to diversify its supply chain, and it remains complicated:
- Apple isn't happy about India's demand to upgrade older iPhones with USB-C — appleinsider.com/… (Unlike EU, India wants Apple to back-port USB-C into older models)
- Apple gets backlash from India after uncovering hacks on journalists — appleinsider.com/…
- Rising star Luxshare secures major stake in Pegatron's iPhone factory — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple's iPad development moves from China to Vietnam — appleinsider.com/…
- Foxconn pours another $1 billion into India expansion — appleinsider.com/…

Regulatory Rundown* European Commission grills Apple and Google on app store risks and ad practices — appleinsider.com/… (DSA implementation) * UK regulator prepares to restart Apple cloud gaming probe in January — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest Apple and Corellium settle legal dispute over virtualized iPhone software — appleinsider.com/… (Terms not known) * Apple settles Family Sharing lawsuit with $25 million fund — appleinsider.com/… (claim was: "Apple misrepresented to users their ability to use Family Sharing to share subscriptions to certain apps with other members of their Family Sharing groups."*)

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Apple's war on unions continues:

+ Apple refuses to recognize Southampton store union, staff pushes forward anyway — appleinsider.com/…
+ Barcelona Apple Store union will strike on December 23 — appleinsider.com/…

Apple executive behind Touch ID, display multitouch is retiring — appleinsider.com/… (Steve Hotelling)
Tang Tan, Apple's VP of Product Design is leaving Apple to join Jony Ives' design firm LoveFrom to work with OpenAI on some kind of AI device — arstechnica.com/… & www.bloomberg.com/…
- Related Insight: "More designers from Ive’s team at Apple now work at LoveFrom than remain at Apple" (John Gruber) — daringfireball.net/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple TV+: Apple TV+ pulls five wins at the Children's and Family Emmy Awards — appleinsider.com/… * Apple News+:* Apple adds The Athletic to News+, Wirecutter coming soon — sixcolors.com/… * Porsche and Aston Martin preview gorgeous next-gen Apple CarPlay — www.cultofmac.com/…

Main Stories1. US Senator Ron Wyden reveals that both Apple & Google have been forced to silently participate in an entire type of spying we were not aware of — Push Notification Metadata

* US senator: Govts spy on Apple, Google users via mobile notifications — www.bleepingcomputer.com/…
* Apple admits to secretly giving governments push notification data — arstechnica.com/…
* Apple Requires Only a Subpoena to Turn Over Push Notification Tokens to Law Enforcement; Google Requires a Court Order — daringfireball.net/…
* Apple Updates Law Enforcement Guidelines to Require a Judge's Approval Before Handing Over Push Notification Records — daringfireball.net/…

Beeper Mini briefly allowed Android users to access the iMessage infrastructure, a brief cat-and-mouse game ensued, and Apple won
- Beeper Mini for Android sends and receives iMessages, no Mac server required — arstechnica.com/…
- Android iMessage app Beeper mini isn't working, and Apple probably killed it — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple confirms it blocked Beeper Mini citing security risks — appleinsider.com/…
- Beeper Mini developers say fix is 'coming soon' for iMessage Android app — appleinsider.com/…
- Beeper Mini for Android lives again, but for how long is anybody's guess — appleinsider.com/…
- Beeper Mini is down for 5% of users, but there's a fix — appleinsider.com/…
- The slow death of Beeper continues, and more senators want to get involved — appleinsider.com/…
- Not dead yet: Beeper Mini's new fix requires Mac access — appleinsider.com/…
- Beeper has more ridiculous work-arounds for its iMessage bridge hack — forums.appleinsider.com/… (Requires jail-broke old iPhone, and Beeper say this is their last roll of the dice)
- DOJ antitrust lawyers question Beeper over Apple's iMessage hack — appleinsider.com/…
- Opinion: Beep Beep — daringfireball.net/…
- Apple's long-running patent dispute with Masimo over the blood oxygen monitor in recent Apple Watches came to a head in December — the sales ban warned about in November actually happened, for a while, and is now stayed rather than resolved:
- Apple working on a software fix to prevent Apple Watch import ban — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple 'pausing' Apple Watch sales in US over patent dispute — www.cultofmac.com/… & Apple Watches being pulled from stores this week due to potential import ban — arstechnica.com
- Masimo open to an Apple Watch settlement, if Apple would only call — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple's legal bid to pause Apple Watch sales & import ban fails — appleinsider.com/… (Appeal to ITC)
- Apple won't offer Apple Watch service replacements on out of warranty devices — appleinsider.com/… (during import ban)
- Apple halts sales of the Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2 in its online store ahead of Dec 25 ban — appleinsider.com/…
- Biden administration confirms it won’t overturn Apple Watch ban — www.cultofmac.com/…
- United States Apple Watch import ban has begun with no resolution in sight — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple appeals Apple Watch ban, citing 'irreparable harm' to its business — appleinsider.com/… (Appeal to US Circuit Court of Appeals)
- Appeals court pauses ban on patent-infringing Apple Watch imports — arstechnica.com & Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 returning to select Apple Stores today, online tomorrow — 9to5mac.com/…
- Apple still pursuing software fix to avoid Apple Watch import ban altogether — appleinsider.com/…
- Masimo has spent $100M in Apple Watch patent infringement fight — appleinsider.com/…
- The highly sophisticated and carefully targeted 4-year Operation Triangulation hacking campaign:
- 4-year campaign backdoored iPhones using possibly the most advanced exploit ever — arstechnica.com/…
"Researchers on Wednesday presented intriguing new findings surrounding an attack that over four years backdoored dozens if not thousands of iPhones, many of which belonged to employees of Moscow-based security firm Kaspersky. Chief among the discoveries: the unknown attackers were able to achieve an unprecedented level of access by exploiting a vulnerability in an undocumented hardware feature that few if anyone outside of Apple and chip suppliers such as ARM Holdings knew of"

…

"the infections were delivered in iMessage texts that installed malware through a complex exploit chain without requiring the receiver to take any action"

…

"The exploit’s sophistication and the feature’s obscurity suggest the attackers had advanced technical capabilities"
- The detailed report from Kaspersky Labs — securelist.com/…
"Our guess is that this unknown hardware feature was most likely intended to be used for debugging or testing purposes by Apple engineers or the factory, or that it was included by mistake"

Quick Stories* Apple selling a standalone second-generation AirPod Pro USB-C case for $99 — appleinsider.com/… * Apple pilots new way to allow developers to offer discounted subscriptions — appleinsider.com/… (Developers can offer discounts on one subscription to users who have another subscription) * PETA names Apple as the 2023 Company of the Year — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Podcasts comes to Teslas — appleinsider.com/…

| Emoji | Meaning | | --- | --- | | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. | | flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. | | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. | | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. | | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that's likely to develop into something significant in the future. |

View Details

Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart describes the paid-for private social network for photographers, Glass, and explains why he’s fallen in love with it. There is no one perfect social media for everyone, so the very reasons Bart enjoys it so much may well be deal breakers for you, but maybe you’ll discover a community you fall in love with too.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp123.mp3Show Notes (by Bart)I think I’ve finally found the photography social media site that’s right for me in Glass. I want to share why it works for me, but I’m very aware that the very reasons I love it may be reasons others dislike it. Don’t think of this as a recommendation or even a review, just a description of an unusual social media offering, and an explanation of why I’m literally happy to pay for it!

What is Glass?Glass is an app-first paid social media site designed to encourage photographers to share their best work. Originally there was no web interface for the social part of the service at all, and there is no free plan. You use get the best experience using the service phone and/or tablet, and you need to subscribe to it.

Details at glass.photo ($4.99 monthly or $29.99 yearly).

There are apps for Android, iOS, and Windows, and there is now a web app that looks like the phone/tablet app but in your browser.

The service includes a very elegant optional public portfolio page that shows your avatar, your bio, and your photos, but it’s intentionally a one-way communication. Visitors to your portfolio page can enjoy your photos, and they can follow the link you choose to add to your profile, but they can’t post comments or anything like that. (Here’s mine: glass.photo/bbusschots). You can also share links to individual photos, like this one: glass.photo/bbusschots/NbQIMvXYtvCbQzfQbRwIK

The social interactions are entirely contained within the app (including the web version for members), so they are not on the public internet, and everyone who engages with you is a paying customer.

Even here within the app the social aspects are limited to the basics:

You can follow photographers, and a reverse-chronological grid of their photos and yours form your landing page
You can comment on photos
You can ‘appreciate’ photos
You can ‘appreciate’ comments

Other than blocking or reporting users, that’s it!

Speaking of blocking users — there is a very clear and concise code of conduct (just a few paragraphs), and no tolerance of trolling or other toxic behaviours.

Beyond the social aspect there’s also a curation aspect to the service. There are regular posts by the app’s editorial team highlighting collections of images that have been posted by users, and there is a monthly theme photographers are encouraged to contribute shots to.

Finally, there’s an exploration aspect to the service.

The primary mechanism for exploration is the ‘categories’ photographers can choose to associate their images with. These are basically tags, but tags they are not free-form, there is a predefined set, and each photo can be associated with a maximum of three categories, so photographers need to put some thought into how they categorise each image. The monthly themes are actually categories, it’s just that each month one category is chosen and it gets pinned to the front of the list and highlighted in gold.

Other mechanisms for exploration are automatic categories by camera and lens. These are fantastic for exploring the possibilities your gear offers. I find it fascinating to see what other photographers do with their iPhones in general, or with the new 5x telephoto in particular.

All of these views are reverse chronological and the service makes a point of saying there are no algorithms trying to manipulate you.

The initial explore page is a global view that somehow picks out the best photos, so that strikes me as somehow algorithmic, but it does also seem to be reverse chronological. There’s also a tab with user accounts to scroll through that I’m not sure is algorithmic or reverse-chronological, but I’m finding it great for finding photographers to follow. Each photographer gets a row with their avatar and some recent photos.

Everything about the site seems to be designed to encourage low-volume high-quality and thoughtful sharing. Everything happens at a slow pace. There are a few articles each month, not many a day, and because photographers are encouraged to contribute only their best work, the volume of new images in your feed each day is low.

Why I Love ItSuperficially I love the focus on quality over quantity, and the overall calm and relaxed feel to the whole experience. Photos absolutely dominate the interface, and you have the time to really enjoy them.

Reading their marketing material it’s clear the service’s owners are philosophically on the same page I am — some choice quotes:

“Built for adoration instead of addiction”

“Community, not comparison — All the social network features you’d expect with none of the dark patterns driving engagement”

“Exploration, not algorithms — You’re in control over what you see on Glass”

“Appreciation, not competition — … no public counts or data mining to power invasive advertising”

“Safety as a priority, not an afterthought — Our community has no space for hate”
“Glass is subscription-based, which means we won’t sell your data or pollute your feed with ads. We don’t answer to outside investors or advertisers, just members of our community”

It’s all About the Business ModelThat last point really is the key IMO — it’s the fundamental reason this service works so well for me is.

The most obvious effect of a 100% paid model is that there are no ads, period. The obviously makes the interface nicer, but it does something much more important too — it aligns the service operators interests with the users’ interests because we are the customers!

The biggest source of toxicity on traditional social media is the business model — the users are not the customers, their attention is the product, and it’s being sold to the customers, advertisers. This sets up perverse incentives for the operators to maximise the data they collect on users, and to do everything possible to increase the amount of time each user spends on the service. Doom scrolling, outrage, tribalism, bullying, and abuse are not some kind of accident caused by misfortune or mismanagement, they are the inevitable result of any algorithm that maximises engagement. Better or worse moderation can amplify or reduce the toxicity, but it will always be there, the customers (advertisers) need eyeballs after all, and nothing keeps us humans reading and posting like fear and outrage.

When the user is the customer it’s not engagement that matters, but enjoyment. The interface designers have one goal — make it as easy as possible for the users to enjoy the photographs being shared!

A useful side-effect of the paid-for business model is that all users have skin in the game because they are paying to take part, and while trolling is some people’s idea of fun, they don’t seem prepared to pay for the pleasure! Also, if you get banned you can’t just create a new account in seconds!

Final Thoughts
I love Glass because it’s low volume, calm, and so far, every human interaction has been positive. I’ve seen no toxicity, and I can truly enjoy great photography at my own pace as and when I want without being pressured into sharing more or logging in more.

When I have some time, I just love opening glass on my iPad and truly exploring amazing photos. When I don’t have time the app leaves me alone. Perfect!

View Details

Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This is another solo show with just Bart. The show starts with a few followups, some regulatory and legal news, a little HR news, and the highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The three main stories are RCS coming to iMessage, an apparent parting of the ways between Apple and Goldman Sachs, and Apple’s end-of-year awards and charts. Finally, the show finishes with some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in October.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta123.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Followup from Halloween Media Event:
- Apple released a Behind the Scenes press release and video showing how the entire media event was shot on iPhones and edited on Macs — www.apple.com/…
- Apple confirms that there is no Apple Silicon 27-inch iMac in the works — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Apple gave CNBC access to one of their chip testing labs in CA, and access to Apple engineers — www.cnbc.com/…
- Followup on Apple's Q4 2023 Earnings:
- A witness in the DOJ's anti-trust case against Google accidentally revealed that Apple get 36% of search revenue generated through Safari, this must make up a significant part of Apple's soaring Services revenue, and might not be sustainable — arstechnica.com/…
- That 36% cut Apple gets of Google's revenue is apparently 3x what typical Android OEMs get — arstechnica.com/…
- The AppleTV Zoom app promised at WWDC has arrived — appleinsider.com/…
- The final Qi2 wireless charging spec has been approved, devices are expected to launch very quickly — appleinsider.com/…

Regulatory Rundown* The drive to regulate Apple Pay as if it was a credit card itself continues in multiple countries:

+ Having flagged its intention to do so last month, the government has published a bill to regulate Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more — macdailynews.com/…
+ The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has announced its intentions to regulate 17 firms including Apple for their digital wallets and pay-later services (no details yet) — appleinsider.com/…

In it's latest 10-k filing to the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) Apple seem to accept the inevitability of 3rd-party app stores in Europe — appleinsider.com/…

"The Company expects to make further business changes in the future, including as a result of legislative initiatives impacting the App Store, such as the [EU] Digital Markets Act, which the Company is required to comply with by March 2024"

+ Apple has not quite given up though: Apple files legal challenge over Europe's demand for third-party app stores — appleinsider.com/…

Japan to require companies like Apple to pay taxes in place of developers — appleinsider.com/…
Apple may face $600 million tax demand from India — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest* The EU Commission's epic case against the arrangements between Apple and Irish Tax Authorities appears to be far from over — the Advocate General reviewing the Commission's appeal has found "significant legal errors", an is recommending that the EU's General Court review the case, his advice is not binding, but usually followed, so expect to hear more about this nearly decade-old case in 2024 — appleinsider.com/… * London's Court of Appeals has overturned a ruling blocking the UK Competition & Markets Authority's (CMA) investigation into the effect of Apple & Goole's mobile market dominance on cloud gaming on a technicality. The investigation remains on hold for now because Apple has a right to appeal — appleinsider.com/… * Apple joins other major tech companies in filing an appeal against Maryland's Digital Advertising Tax, and are asking for all the tax paid back — appleinsider.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Apple illegally denied benefits to union workers, says US labor board — appleinsider.com/… (Unionised workers in Towson store in Maryland denied new benefits announced for other staff)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple Arcade: Apple Arcade's 'Hello Kitty Island Adventure' nominated for best mobile game at The Game Awards — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Music:*

+ Apple Music users can now save TikTok songs directly to playlists — appleinsider.com/…
+ Your PS5 can get you free Apple Music subscription — www.cultofmac.com/… (Free 6 month trial for new and existing customers)

Apple TV:
- Just in time for the holidays, Apple have released their first Peanuts movie: Snoopy and Charlie Brown embark on a big city adventure in new Peanuts film for Apple TV+ — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple's Michael J. Fox film tops Critics Choice Documentary Awards — appleinsider.com/… (won all 5 categories it was nominated in: Best Biographical Documentary, Best Documentary Feature, Best Narration for Michael J. Fox, Best Director for Davis Guggenheim & Best Editing for Michael Harte)
- Apple TV app adds 3D movies ahead of Vision Pro release — appleinsider.com/…
  - Related: Spatial Video shot on iPhone for Apple Vision Pro previewed for a select few — appleinsider.com/… (John Gruber's experience)
  - Apple Pay: Tap to Pay on iPhone starts taking payments in France — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories1. Apple Will Add RCS Support on iOS in 2024 — appleinsider.com/…

* RCS will be augmenting SMS & MMS, so it will bring better 'green bubbles', not end them — appleinsider.com/…
* Apple's flavor of RCS won't support Google's end-to-end encryption extension — appleinsider.com/…
* **Opinion:** John Gruber's Analysis of the News
* **Related earlier news:** The FT reports that Google joined forces with some large EU carriers to send a letter to the European Commissioner for Internal Markets asking that Apple be forced to open up iMessage — appleinsider.com/… (Not and open letter)

Confusion reigns over the future of Apple's unhappy relationship with Goldman Sachs with reports that Apple have offered to end the contract early, in about a year, and their statement when asked for comment said basically nothing nothing — appleinsider.com/…

"Apple and Goldman Sachs are focused on providing an incredible experience for our customers to help them lead healthier financial lives. The award-winning Apple Card has seen a great reception from consumers, and we will continue to innovate and deliver the best tools and services for them"

* **Related Rumour:** Legendary Apple leaker Mark Gurman suggests Chase are in the running to replace Goldman Sachs — appleinsider.com/…

Apple doles out many end-of-year awards & charts:
- Music:
  - Apple Music Artist of the Year for 2023: Taylor Swift — www.cultofmac.com/… & Apple Music to host event honoring Taylor Swift as its 2023 Artist of the Year — appleinsider.com/… (Apple's Press Release)
  - Apple also reminded us that we can listen back to our own top music of 2023 in Apple Music Replay: How to find your music stats with Apple Music Replay 2023 — www.cultofmac.com/…
    - Apps:
  - Apple Announces Close to 40 App Store Awards Finalists — www.macstories.net/… (Apple's Press Release)
  - Apple reveals 2023 App Store Award winners, highlights AI as the year's biggest trend — appleinsider.com/… (Apple's Press Release)
  AllTrails nurtures community through comprehensive trail guides and outdoor exploration for everyone. Prêt-à-Makeup offers a true-to-life makeup sketchpad on iPad for professional artists and casual users, while fostering inclusivity and self-expression. Photomator’s machine learning-powered tools make advanced editing tasks streamlined and seamless. MUBI curates exceptional indie films and international documentaries with a human touch, and SmartGym shines on Apple Watch with its comprehensive library of exercises, routines, and robust fitness reporting.
  
  …
  
  In the gaming category, Honkai: Star Rail takes players through a narrative full of complex characters and tactically rich combat on iPhone, while Lost in Play invites players to tap into a charming, childlike imagination during an epic point-and-click adventure. Lies of P presents players with an exquisitely crafted dark fantasy world, and Apple Arcade’s Hello Kitty Island Adventure delivers an immersive gaming world with its main goal being as sweet as can be: making friends.
```
* **Podcasts & Books:** Apple releases 2023 top **charts** for Podcasts, Apple Books — appleinsider.com/… (Apple's Press Release)
```

Quick Stories Apple have launched the 2024 Swift Student Challenge, and 50 kids will earn trips to WWDC — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple Music Classical finally comes to the iPad — appleinsider.com/… (But it's still not available on the Mac, not even as an iPad app on M-series Macs ) * Final Cut Pro November update incoming with improved navigation, ML Object Tracker — appleinsider.com/… (Apple's Press Release) * Apple have extended the free initial trial of SOS via Satellite by 1 year for iPhone 15 owners — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple and other tech companies launch Aliro, a new standard for smart locks that aims to bring and interoperability and security baseline to this developing market — appleinsider.com/… (or as Apple Inside put it "Aliro aims to be the Matter of smart locks"*) * Apple & Amkor have announced that Amkor will build a chip packaging foundry close to TSMC's Arizona factory, simplifying the manufacturing of Apple Silicon chips in the US (and creating 2,000 jobs) — appleinsider.com/… & arstechnica.com/… (a big problem for the TSMC plant was not having chip packaging available nearby)

+ **Related:** iPhone maker Foxconn plans extra $1.54 billion plant in India — appleinsider.com/…

Apple gives guidance online for shipping ‘holidays gifts, just in time’ — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Related: Apple donating $1 to (RED) for all Apple Store purchases made with Apple Pay through December 8 — appleinsider.com/… (Too late now, but Apple also donated proceeds from some games to Product RED — appleinsider.com/…)

| Emoji | Meaning | | --- | --- | | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. | | flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. | | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. | | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. | | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that's likely to develop into something significant in the future. |

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

Bart’s throat is still not up to a full-length show, so it’s another solo episode. The show starts with a few followups, one notable number, some regulatory and legal news, a little HR news, and the highlights from Apple’s services an original content. The three main stories are Apple’s support of a Right to Repair bill, the EU officially name Apple a ‘Gate Keeper’, and a mysterious Chinese iPhone ban that may not be real. Finally, the show finishes with some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in August.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta120.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

The NSO Group has not gone away: Exploit that delivered Pegasus spyware patched in iOS 16.6.1 update — appleinsider.com/… & Apple patches “clickless” 0-day image processing vulnerability in iOS, macOS — arstechnica.com
A new advocacy group has emerged to put pressure on Apple to revive the controversial hybrid CSAM scanning proposal they were forced to drop late last year
- Child safety advocacy group launches campaign against Apple — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Explains Pullback from CSAM Photo-Scanning — tidbits.com/…
- Lionel Messi seems to be working out well for Apple:
- Apple MLS Season Pass subscriptions have doubled since Lionel Messi joined Inter Miami — appleinsider.com/… (Based on reports, not released figues)
- Apple TV+ plans to milk all it can out of Lionel Messi — appleinsider.com/… (6-part documentary announced)
- Related: MLS Season Pass gets significantly cheaper in time for the playoffs — www.cultofmac.com/… & Apple TV+ MLS Season Pass subscription discounted to $29 — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple's push to get developers ready for next year's Vision Pro launch continues: Developers can RSVP to attend a free, in-person workshop at the Apple Developer Center — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Demeo is one of the first “immersive” games announced for Apple Vision Pro — arstechnica.com

Notable Numbers* iPhone 14 Pro Max tops worldwide smartphone sales in first half of 2023 — www.cultofmac.com/… (and iPhone 14 Pro was in second place and the regular iPhone 14 in third! Numbers from Omdia)

Regulatory Rundown* Saudi Arabia passes law requiring USB-C charges for smartphones — appleinsider.com/… * It looks like the UK is backing down from it's terrible idea to basically outlaw true encryption, though not on a clear-cut way — appleinsider.com/…

+ UK tries to claim it hasn't backed down on encryption at all — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest Epic -v- Apple — the Supreme Court has denied a request by Epic to enforce a lower court's anti-steering injunction while the various appears in the case are still pending — www.cultofmac.com/… * The Throtle-Gate* nonsense is finally coming to an end in the US, with a judge rejecting complaints from two iPhone owners that were blocking the settlement Apple agreed to in 2020 — appleinsider.com/… (I stand by my opinion that calling a feature added to extend the life of an old phone anti competitive or planned obsolescence is nuts!) * Apple has won a case taken against it by hardware maker One-E-Way claiming Apple's cool bluetooth pairing features infringe its patents — appleinsider.com/… * A U.S. District Judge has dismissed an attempted class-action suit against Apple claiming the Apple Watch was racist with prejudice, ending it — appleinsider.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Unionisation continues in UK Apple Stores:

+ 'Overworked and unhappy' Apple Southampton store staff want to unionize — appleinsider.com/…
+ Apple Glasgow union reaches agreement with Apple for pay raises — appleinsider.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights* Apple Arcade:

+ Sega Releases Samba de Amigo: Party-To-Go on Apple Arcade — www.macstories.net/…
+ Apple Arcade adds four games with 40 set for September updates — appleinsider.com/… (including James Bond game *Cypher 007*) (Apple's press release)
+ **Related:** 'Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis' releases on iOS on September 7 — appleinsider.com/…

Music:
- Apple Music debuts new algorithmic Discovery Station radio — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Music acquires famed classical label BIS — appleinsider.com/… & Apple buys 50-year-old record label to grow Apple Music Classical app — arstechnica.com
- Apple TV+:
- Apple will give 'Killers of the Flower Moon' a global release on October 20 — appleinsider.com/…
- Severance fans get ‘8 Hour Work Day Innie Mix’ of theme song — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Apple TV+ unveils its first German-language show — appleinsider.com/… (Dark comedy Where's Wanda)
- Apple Pay:
- Apple Pay launches in Vietnam — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Pay officially launches in Chile — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple brings Tap to Pay to Netherlands businesses — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories1. Apple voices official support for California SB 244 right to repair bill — appleinsider.com/… & Hell freezes over as Apple supports right-to-repair bill — arstechnica.com/…

* **Related:** Apple officially endorses California's Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act — appleinsider.com/… (Companies > $1Bn revenue must report full carbon footprint)

Apple is a DMA gatekeeper, but less-so than expected; iOS, the App Store, and Safari have been officially labeled as such by the European Commission, but not iMessage — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Related: Setapp plans to launch EU-only alternative iOS App Store — appleinsider.com/…
- Chinese Government iPhone Ban?
- Initial reports were of a complete ban in government: China completely bans use of iPhone for government business — appleinsider.com/… (based only on 'reports', not on any kind of official policy or announcement)
- Rumours spiralled: China widens ban on officials using iPhones but isn't enforcing it — appleinsider.com/… & China's largest wireless carrier denies rumor that it will skip iPhone 15 sales — appleinsider.com/…
- When the government finally speaks, they say nothing clear – "products and services of any country are welcome as long as they comply with China's laws and regulations", iPhones comply, so no ban? — appleinsider.com/…
- China government iPhone ban will have almost no effect on sales, says analyst — appleinsider.com/… (Wedbush's Dan Ives)
- Related:
  - China tightens its grip on foreign and independent app developers — appleinsider.com/… (All App Store developers must be based in China or partner with a local publisher, and provide business details including an address)
  - Germany approves $11 billion TSMC chip factory — appleinsider.com/…
  - iPhone 15 production reportedly begins in India — www.cultofmac.com/… (If correct, would be first time production starts in China & India simultaneously)
  - Apple joins protest against India's import restrictions — appleinsider.com/… (These are the restrictions announced last month then paused until Halloween)
  - Apple asks Indian government for more manufacturing support — appleinsider.com/… (No details, but senior Apple execs were reported to have met with officials from India's finance ministry)

Quick Stories* New deal puts Arm tech in iPhone and Mac processors beyond 2040 — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple opens up Back to School offers to university students — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Support app update adds info about Apple Store locations — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Podcasts rolls out new data analytics dashboard for content creators — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Card earns J.D. Power's top spot for co-branded credit card with no annual fee — appleinsider.com/… * Lots of activity around other OSes on Apple Silicon:

+ Linux for Apple Silicon adds first conformant M1 GPU driver — appleinsider.com/…
+ CrossOver update brings EA and DirectX 12 game support to Mac — appleinsider.com/…
+ New Parallels Desktop 19 arrives with Touch ID, macOS Sonoma support — appleinsider.com/…

Qi2, based on Apple's MagSafe is really taking off:
- Anker unveils new Qi2 charging accessories ahead of iPhone 15 launch — appleinsider.com/…
- Mophie announces Qi2 chargers for office, home, and car — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: MagSafe vs. Qi2 — Everything you need to know before the iPhone 15 launch — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple sets ‘Wonderlust’ iPhone 15 event for September 12 — www.cultofmac.com/…
- How to watch Apple's iPhone 15 announcement event — appleinsider.com/…

| Emoji | Meaning | | --- | --- | | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. | | flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. | | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. | | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. | | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that's likely to develop into something significant in the future. |

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr In this solo show Bart shares his new thinking on the ethical and legal questions around AI training — since chatting with Antonio about AI a few months ago Bart has realised he was at least half-wrong in his original take! While this podcast is free for […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots For various reasons, this is another solo show with just Bart. The show starts with some followups, a little regulatory and legal news, some HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s services an original content. The three main stories are Apple’s Q3 2023 earnings call, some App Store changes […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr In this solo show Bart shares his experiences re-thinking his engagement with other photographs online. It’s not about numbers anymore, but about meaningful engagement, and its as much about exploring the work of others than presenting your own work. While this podcast is free for you to […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots This month there was so much Apple news Bart decided the only possible way to get through it all was as a solo show. The show’s main top is WWDC, with the focus being on the new Macs, the OS updates, and of course, the entirely new computing paradigm […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr In this solo show Bart ponders the many many tradeoffs we’re always making when shooting. You might thing money could buy your way out of having to make tradeoffs, but it can’t. While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to […]

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

In this solo show Bart starts by explaining some changes to the show, and then gets stuck into the usual apple news. First, some followups, a few notable numbers, a little regulatory and legal news, some HR news, some highlights from Apple’s services an original content, and then the four main stories. First, it’s still complicated for Apple in India, second, Google & Apple join forces to fight stalking, third, some up-coming accessibility features, and fourth, Apple’s pro apps come to the iPad! Finally, the show finishes with some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in May.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta117.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Apple Music Classical gets two enhancements:
- Apple has updated Shazam to add integration with Apple Music Classical — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Music Classical lands on Android before iPadOS and Mac — appleinsider.com/…
Some Apple Savings customers are experiencing delays (2 weeks in some cases) when withdrawing large sums of money from their accounts. Goldman Sachs says it’s not happening to many customers, and that it has to do with processes to protect accounts, and others have implicated anti-money-laundering procedures — Apple Savings customers hit with long delays when withdrawing money — appleinsider.com/…
Emergency SOS via Satellite lands in Australia and New Zealand — appleinsider.com/…
Georgia residents can now add a driver’s license to their iPhone — appleinsider.com/…

Notable Numbers Apple brags about the App Store, a lot: + Small developers on the App Store grew revenue by 64 percent over the past two years — www.apple.com/… (Report commissioned and publicised by Apple) + App Store developers generated $1.1 trillion in total billings and sales in the App Store ecosystem in 2022 — www.apple.com/… (world-wide) & Economist Group Concludes Apple’s App Store Ecosystem Is Responsible for Facilitating $1.1 Trillion in Commerce — www.macstories.net/… + App Store stopped more than $2 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2022 — www.apple.com/… + Apple shares App Store Transparency report, detailing removals & data requests — appleinsider.com/… (for 2022) - approved 253,466 apps - 1,679,694 app submissions rejected - contains detail on government takedowns, including 1,276 games taken down in China because they didn’t have the needed license * Numbers from Canalys show Apple’s share of the US tablet market growing by more than 20% YoY to reach 50%, while every other vendor declined (market as a whole dropped by 7%, less than PC+Laptop which dropped by 28%) — appleinsider.com/… + Related:* iPad shipments more than doubled in China for Q1 versus 2022 — appleinsider.com/…

Regulatory Rundown* Italy’s antitrust agency opens probe into Apple App Store dominance — appleinsider.com/… * France doesn’t understand why different iPhone models have varying parts — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest US District Judge Edward Davila has approved the $50M butterfly keyboard class action settlement, deeming it ‘fair & reasonable’*, so payments can now start flowing to the registered members of the class — appleinsider.com/… * Apple’s $13 billion Ireland tax saga lurches back to life after yet another EU appeal — appleinsider.com/… (This appeal is to the highest court, so this really should be the last of it )

Apple HR & Acquisition News Quite a few high-level departures this month: + Apple iCloud lead Mike Abbott, who has been at since 2018 is off to GM to head their new unified software division — appleinsider.com/… + Apple’s senior director of Video, Sports & Apple TV+* Pete Distad has left, but it’s not know why or where to — appleinsider.com/… + Apple’s head of Apple Pay business, Eric Hoffman, is leaving Apple after 8 years, and it’s not clear where he’s off to. The roll out of Tap-to-Pay on iOS was one of his big projects — appleinsider.com/… * Apple is accelerating hiring efforts for generative AI engineers — appleinsider.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights ️‍ Apple Fitness+ debuts new Madonna Artist Spotlight series to celebrate Pride — appleinsider.com/… * Find live music with new features on Apple Maps and Apple Music — www.cultofmac.com/… & Apple launches new concert discovery features on Apple Maps and Apple Music — www.apple.com/… * Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone expands to Australia — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple TV+: + Severance severed: Writers strike starts to affect Apple TV+ production — www.cultofmac.com/… + Apple TV+ takes top Irish honors for Bad Sisters — www.cultofmac.com/… - RELATED: Apple TV+ gains UK subscribers as Netflix, Disney+ dip — appleinsider.com/… (Investment in European shows paying off) + Two notable MLS Season Pass Offers: - Apple TV+ offers one-month free trial of MLS Season Pass — appleinsider.com/… - Apple cut the price of an MLS season pass in half as half the season is now over — www.imore.com/… - Related:* Apple TV+ launches multiview for ‘Friday Night Baseball’ and MLS Season Pass — appleinsider.com/… & Apple TV 4K now lets you watch 4 sports streams at once — www.cultofmac.com/…

Main Stories1. Apple & India — It’s Still Complicated * The openings of Apple’s first stores in the country we discussed last month seem to have gone well: Apple India’s record-breaking sales revealed thanks to unprecedented leak — appleinsider.com/… * Unable to make a profit, Wistron is giving up iPhone assembly in India — appleinsider.com/… * Foxconn starts work on building $500 million AirPods plant in India — appleinsider.com/… * Apple supplier list shows gradual production shift from China to India — appleinsider.com/… * Apple resists India regulator’s order to ban betting apps — appleinsider.com/… * Apple petitioned India for slacker labor laws, and unions are fighting back — appleinsider.com/… 2. Google & Apple join forces to develop a standard for detecting and alerting on the abuse of bluetooth LE trackers like AirTags & Tiles — Tracked by hidden tags? Apple and Google unite to propose safety and security standards… — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/… 3. Apple previews up-coming accessibility improvements to mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day — www.apple.com/…, www.macstories.net/… & arstechnica.com/… * Live Speech (real-time text to speech on voice calls) * Personal Voice (personalised privacy-respecting AI voice) + Apple created its new voice feature for–and with–people with ALS — www.fastcompany.com/… * Point & Speak in Magnifier app * Assistive Access (customisable simplified UI) 4. FinalCut Pro & Logic arrive on M1 iPads — www.apple.com/… & appleinsider.com/… * Subscription pricing only ($4.99pm or $49pa) * Final Cut Pro on iPad can’t open projects from the Mac, but the Mac can open projects from the iPad (unless you get into some serious hackery — appleinsider.com/… * Logic Pro projects can move back and forth between the iPad & Mac * How Final Cut Pro for iPad differs from Mac version — www.cultofmac.com/… * Reviews: + Hands-On: Podcast Editing with Logic Pro for iPad — www.macstories.net/… + Hands on with Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad – Six Colors — sixcolors.com/… + First Impressions: Final Cut Pro for iPad — www.macstories.net/…

Quick Stories ️‍ Apple role out a new band, watch face, and iPhone wallpaper to celebrate Pride month — www.apple.com/… & appleinsider.com/… * Beats Studio Buds+ now available to order with better ANC, transparent option — appleinsider.com/… + Review roundup: New Beats Studio Buds+ win with cool clear case and audio upgrades — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple’s support app goes to 5.0 with UI tweaks and a new interface for finding local service providers — appleinsider.com/… * Online Apple Store opens in Vietnam — appleinsider.com/… * Reminder* — 5 ways to watch Apple’s WWDC23 Keynote on Monday — www.cultofmac.com/… + Apple outlines schedule of main events of WWDC’s first day — appleinsider.com/… (public keynote & state of the platform at the expected times on the first day) + Apple recognizes talented student developers in 2023 Swift Student Challenge — appleinsider.com/… + Apple showcases finalists for 2023 Design Awards — appleinsider.com/…

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

Spring has very much sprung in the northern hemisphere, and as nature starts to put on its annual show, Bart is finding himself shooting a lot more flowers again. In this solo show Bart shares some techniques he uses to capture compelling shots of flowers with his iPhone.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp116.mp3NotesAs summer approaches here in the northern hemisphere my eye is being caught more and more by pretty flowers, and I want to capture their beauty effectively with my smartphone camera. Getting a shot that contains a flower is easy, but capturing the flower’s true essence and beauty is much more difficult! Even with a ‘big girl camera‘ (as friend of the show Allison Sheridan would say), it’s hard, but on a phone you’re even more constrained.

I don’t have all the answers, and others are almost certainly getting similar and better results in other ways, but for what it’s worth, here’s what I’ve learned.

For context, I shoot with an iPhone 14Pro, so I have the luxury of three good physical lenses, including a 3x zoom, and of an excellent digital image processing system. I’m sure a lot of my experiences will translate to other phones, but your milage may vary

What’s so Difficult to Capture?1. Distractions — mentally, you can focus in on the fine detail at the heart of a forget-me-not flower, but in a photo, the detail in the flower is lost if it’s surrounded by a background full of distracting detail, of that’s all the same colour as the flower itself. 2. Multiple Scales — sometimes the essence of a flower exists on multiple scales — a Iris has intricate detail in the heart of its big flower, the flowers have a very unusual shape, the flowers actually come on flower heads that have a mix of pointy buds and open flowers, and the tall pointy leaves are as much part of the flower’s whole essence as anything else! 3. Context — sometimes what makes flowers beautiful is their effect on the landscape around them. A sea of bluebells is a very different thing to a bluebell!

Reducing Distractions Find a ‘hero flower’ that’s separated from the rest and from the background as much as possible, allowing any shallow DOF you can achieve the best chance of blurring away all distractions. * Depending on the scale of the flower, macro mode may hinder more than it helps! When you get really close, your biggest enemies are the close focusing distance and a shallow DOF, and those are what macro mode maximises. Once you’re far enough away that you can focus without macro mode, *disable macro mode, that will give a much shallower DOF, removing distractions. * Again, assuming the subject is big enough that you can get focus, you’ll get a much shallow DOF, and hence a much smoother background if you pull back and zoom in. I take a lot of my flower shots with the 3x optical zoom on my iPhone. * A square crop with a perfectly centred subject and a vignette can help reduce distractions and pull the eye away from any that remain. * If you’re OK with an abstract shot, get so close there’s nothing, or very little, but the flower in the shot.

As an example, this recent shot of a Meadow Buttercup shows the value of a carefully chosen hero flower. It took me 10 minutes to find one tall enough to get the background to blur where there were no other buttercups or other bright things in the background. To really make the hero flower pop I went with a square crop, centred composition, and vignette:

As an example of a more abstract shot, I got so close to just a part of this Iris flower that it looks like a little insect runway, and it pulls the eye right into the heart of the flower:

Finally, the two very abstract shots in this Twitter thread show details of a veined Tulip blossom:

Capturing Multiple Scales It’s not always possible, and it often takes a lot of searching, but if you can find a hero flower with other behind it at an appropriate distance, you may be able to capture the detail and the bigger structures in one shot by getting very close with a wide angle lens. * If you can’t get multiple scales into one photo, why not turn many photos into one image with a collage*?

For example, this recent four-image collage shows the candle-sick-like flower head of a Horse Chestnut tree in the main image, and then close-ups of the three colours of small bloom that make up those big flowers as a stack of smaller images next to the big one:

Capturing Context The same close & wide and collage suggestions for capturing multiple scales often work to capture context too. * A soft-focus background can give context while avoiding distractions. * A carefully chosen patterned background blur can sometimes give a sense of context just as well as a sharp background, especially when the context is “these flower are impressive because there’s an absolute ocean of them”*!

As an example of the power of getting close and shooting wide, this shot of tiny little Speedwell flowers was shot with the iPhone’s wide angle lens as close in as possible, and it gives a sense of the scale of the tiny little flowers, and, where they fit into the beautiful landscape of Carton House:

Bluebells grow in big carpets in forests, and their settings is a big part of their charm. If you try capture it with a sharp background the detail of the flower is lost, but a soft-focus background lets you keep the sense of place, without distracting from the flower itself. The second shot in this Twitter thread shows this nicely, as well as reinforcing the power of choosing a good hero flower, because every now and then, you get bluebells that are not blue:

Similarly, you don’t need to see sharp detail in the path behind the tiny little Fairy-Foxglove growing on a wall next to the towpath of the Royal Canal:

Finally, even a very out of focus background can still retain a sense of context, as shown by the first image in this tweet — you can’t see any detail at all in the other flower heads behind the hero flower head, but you know there are loads more just like the one you see stretching off into the distance:

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots * Lynda Gousha from the Silicon Valley MUG – @llg4cdg

The show starts with a few followups from previous shows, a few quick regulation stories, a few short legal stories, just one Apple HR story, and some highlights from Apple’s services and original content divisions. The four main stories are Apple’s new savings account, the noticeable rise in malware targeting the Mac, Apple & Google’s new anti-stalking standard for trackers, and Apple’s Q2 2023 earnings call. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some other Apple-related stories that made the news in April.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta116.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Apple opened its first 2 stores in India in April:
- Apple’s new India BKC store opening was met by massive crowds — appleinsider.com/…
- Tim Cook opens first Apple Store in India — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Store in New Delhi: India’s Second Apple Store Opens in Saket — www.macobserver.com/…
- Enormous crowds turn out for Apple’s second India store — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Tim Cook meets with India’s Prime Minister, as tour continues — appleinsider.com/… & India minister says Apple will at least double local investment in the next three years — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Apple expands in India with new 10-year office lease in Bengaluru, India — appleinsider.com/…
Support for accepting Tap-to-Pay payments on iPhones continues to roll out: GoDaddy rolls out support for Tap to Pay on iPhone for U.S. businesses — appleinsider.com/…

Regulatory Rundown German regulators have ruled that Apple qualify for extra scrutiny under the country’s strengthened anti-competition laws — appleinsider.com/… * Apple officially named as one of the 19 major tech companies that will be regulated under the DSA (Digital Service Act) — arstechnica.com/… + Related:* After years of silence, Apple finally reveals how many App Store users it has in Europe — appleinsider.com/… * EU warns Apple not to limit iPhone features to MFi-certified USB-C cables — www.cultofmac.com/…

Legal Latest Apple -v- Epic Games: the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Apple’s victory over Epic Games, but more appeals are expected — appleinsider.com/… * Apple -v- Masimo:* Latest chapter of $2 billion Apple Watch patent battle ends in mistrial — appleinsider.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News Apple have dropped their suit against Gerrard Williams III, a former Apple engineer who left to co-founder chip design startup Nuvia* — appleinsider.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple TV+: + UK’s Bafta honors ‘Bad Sisters’ and ‘The Essex Serpent’ — appleinsider.com/… + ‘Ted Lasso’ star Hannah Waddingham lands Christmas special — appleinsider.com/… * Apple continues to role out it’s improved Maps experience with six central European countries getting the upgrade this time: Austria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia — appleinsider.com/… * Apple adds 20 new games to its Apple Arcade catalog — appleinsider.com/… * ‘Baby Shark’ studio Pinkfong now has exclusive shows on Apple Podcasts — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Music* Live returns for a brand-new season of exclusive live concerts with a special performance by Ed Sheeran — www.apple.com/…

Main Stories1. Apple launched their previously announced high-yield savings account in the US (4.15% Annual Percentage Yield, no minimum balance, no fees, provided by Goldman Sachs) — arstechnica.com/… * Apple Savings saw nearly $1 billion of deposits in first four days — appleinsider.com/… * How To Open and Manage an Apple Card Savings Account — www.macobserver.com/… * How Apple Savings compares vs other high-yield savings accounts — appleinsider.com/… 2. Cyber Criminals are increasing their focus on the Mac: * Apple’s Macs have long escaped ransomware, but that may be changing — arstechnica.com * Security researchers found malware-as-a-service data stealer for Mac for sale on a cybercrime telegram group (Atomic macOS Stealer or AMOS) — nakedsecurity.sophos.com/… & www.intego.com/… * Security researchers have found a new data stealer trojan targeting the Mac which they’ve dubbed RustBucket that appears to be the work of the Advanced Persistent Thread (APT) group dubbed BlueNoroff which is believed to be tied to the infamous Lazarus Group who are believed to be the North Korean government — www.intego.com/… * Related: Apple issues first Rapid Security Response for macOS, iOS – The Mac Security Blog — www.intego.com/… * Related: the threat from iOS state-level spyware has not gone away either: + The NSO group is continuing to enhance & sell Pegasus, with three new zero-click exploits found to have been used in 2022 — appleinsider.com/… + The NSO group are also not alone: Another Pegasus-like spyware tool called ‘Reign’ was used to spy on iPhones — appleinsider.com/… * Related: Joanna Stern & Nicole Nguyen have expanded on their recent research to find that using just an iPhone and the passcode it’s possible for attackers to permanently lock users out of their iCloud account by setting up a recovery key — appleinsider.com/… 3. Apple and Google introduce standard to combat AirTag and Tile tracker misuse — arstechnica.com * Related: New York City handing out AirTags in car theft crackdown — appleinsider.com/… 4. Apple’s Q2 2023 Earnings Call — www.apple.com/… * This is Tim: Apple’s Q2 2023 analyst call, transcribed — sixcolors.com/… * Apple Q2 2023 results: $94.8B revenue, better than expected (with charts!) – Six Colors — sixcolors.com/… * Apple extends share buybacks by another $90 billion — appleinsider.com/… * Apple brings in robust iPhone revenue but Mac and iPad are down — www.cultofmac.com/… * Supply chain issue fixes, plus India expansion led to Apple’s excellent quarter, says Tim Cook — appleinsider.com/… * Tim Cook: Mass layoffs a ‘last resort’ and off the table for the moment — appleinsider.com/… * Apple still didn’t give specific financial guidance, but hinted at what to expect for Q3 — appleinsider.com/… * Related Numbers: + Counterpoint Research has found that AppleWatches have the highest customer satisfaction (>70% ‘very satisfied’), and of those who own both an iPhone and a smart watch, 80% have an Apple Watch (stat for Android is 71%) — appleinsider.com/… + Despite global smartphone market contraction, Apple is thriving with 21% market share — appleinsider.com/… (Canalys) + Counterpoint Research numbers show Apple growing Chinese smartphone sales by 6% in Q2 (YoY), while the market as a whole contracted by 5%, that was enough to give them the highest market share in the country — appleinsider.com/… * Related Opinion Pieces: + Apple Q2 2023 results, charts — sixcolors.com/… + Opinion: 5 reasons to ignore Apple’s rare revenue dip — www.cultofmac.com/…

Quick Stories As usual, Apple marked Earth Day with a series of announcements around the day, culminating in a long press release and the publication of their latest annual environmental report — www.apple.com/… + Apple expands it’s Restore Fund for nature-based carbon removal — www.apple.com/… + Apple commits to 100% recycled cobalt in batteries by 2025 — appleinsider.com/… + Apple highlights strides toward limiting environmental impact in annual Environmental Progress Report — appleinsider.com/… * The Steve Jobs Archive have released a free ebook titled ‘Make Something Wonderful’* featuring various writings by Steve — www.macobserver.com/… * Jony Ive’s lifetime of design work honored with Edison Achievement Award — appleinsider.com/… * Apple turns on HomePod’s smoke alarm recognition — appleinsider.com/… + How to detect smoke alarms on HomePod & HomePod mini — appleinsider.com/… * Ford will stick with CarPlay as GM exits for Google tech — appleinsider.com/… * iMessage comes to Windows via Microsoft Phone Link for iOS — www.cultofmac.com/… + Hands on: iMessage on Windows 11 with Phone Link — appleinsider.com/…

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart opines on two very fundament questions — what is art? and what is Photography? The show was inspired by German artist Boris Eldagsen’s recent rejection of a prise in the Sony World Photography Awards after he entered an images created with the use of generative AI to see what would happen. Eldagsen has also thrown his support behind a new term for these photo-like creations, ‘promptography’.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp115.mp3NotesThe Trigger — an Intriguing New StoryThe seed of inspiration for this show was a news story that a German artist named Boris Eldagsen won a prise in the Creative category of the Sony World Photography Awards with an image titled ‘PSEUDOMNESIA: The Electricia’, and then wrote an open letter rejecting the prize because it was not actually a photograph, but an image he created using generative AI. In their press release announcing the prise Sony described the image as:

[A] haunting black-and-white portrait of two women from different generations, reminiscent of the visual language of 1940s family portraits

The original open letter:

Thank you for selecting my image and making this a historic moment, as it is the first AI generated image to win in a prestigous international PHOTOGRAPHY competition.

How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it?

AI images and photography should not compete with eachother in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award.

I applied as a cheeky monkey, to find out, if the comeptitions are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not.

We, the photo world, need an open discussion. A discussion about what we want to consider photography and what not. Is the umbrella of photography large enough to invite AI images to enter – or would this be a mistake?

With my refusal of the award I hope to speed up this debate.

Having been a photographer for 30 years before I turned to AI, I understand the pros and cons of this debate and will be happy to join the conversation.

If you dont know what to do with the prize, please donate it to the fotofestival in Odesa, Ukraine. I will happily provide you the contacts.

Many thanks Boris

Additional investing quotes from Boris’s responses to the controversy:

I have been photographing since 1989, been a photomedia artist since 2000. After two decades of photography, my artistic focus has shifted to exploring the creative possibilities of AI generators

The work SWPA has chosen is the result of a complex interplay of prompt engineering, inpainting and outpainting that draws on my wealth of photographic knowledge. For me, working with AI image generators is a co-creation, in which I am the director. It is not about pressing a button – and done it is. It is about exploring the complexity of this process, starting with refining text prompts, then developing a complex workflow, and mixing various platforms and techniques. The more you create such a workflow and define parameters, the higher your creative part becomes.

I call my images ‘images’. They are synthetically produced, using ‘the photographic’ as a visual language. They are not ‘photographs’.

Boris has also thrown his weight behind a suggested new term for this kind of generated imagery — Promptography. I really like it!

What is Art? And What is Photography?These sound like easy questions, but they pretty much never have been! Since the very earliest days of photography, artists have been manipulating images, and people have been kvetching about it!

Physical manipulation of negatives in the 1800s
**Composite images, from as early as the mid-1800s
- Swedish artist Oscar Gustav Rejlander’s allegory Two Ways of Life from 1857 (metmuseum.org/…)
- The amazing work of Jerry Ulesmann with photographic negatives in recent decades (uelsmann.net/…)
- Stunning work with Photoshop by modern artists like Erik Johansson (erikjo.com/…)**
**HDR/Tonemapping etc — one well exposed image from many exposures of the same scene
- Early composite images like ‘The Great Wave’ by Gustave le Gray in 1857 (metmuseum.org/…)
- Eadweard Muybridge’s Sky Shade, an in-camera device for altering the exposure on different parts of the same negative that he patented in 1869 (wikipedia.org/…)
- Modern HDR artists like Trey Ratcliff (treyratcliff.com/…)**
Digital image Filters (remember when they were cool!)
**Modern computational photography image pipelines like we have on our iPhones and high-end Android phones
- Automatic HDR
- Post-exposure re-focus & DOF adjustment
- Auto-composites for groups shots**
**AI-powered editing tools
- Auto adjustments
- Content aware fill**
Generative AI

The Easy Question — Is It art?My hand-waiving definition of artistic imagery is simply:

If the end result is an image that required the creative input of at least one human, it’s art

Sounds simple, but of course it’s not really, the devil is in the detail — what counts as creative input? IMO that’s not a binary question, but it’s a scale, and images are more or less artistic depending on how much of a role the human played.

Taking a very ordinary shot and applying a filter without making adjustments would fall on one end of the spectrum, and work like that of Ratcliff, Ulesmann & Johansson on the other.

But is it Photography?Here’s my hand-waiving definition of photography:

If the main focus of an image originated from the capture of light on a sensor of some kind, it’s photography

By that simple definition everything our our list is photography, including composite images, HDR, and even photos that make use of generative techniques like content aware fill.

At a stretch, AI-generated images that use a photo as part of the prompt could be argued to be photography too, but the kind of generative AI Eldagsen used is not — he started with a blank canvas, not with captured light, and his first input to get the ball rolling was words, not photons.

I can’t help but fall in love with the term Promptography for this new and emerging art form.

Links The news story that caught my attention: https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy3vxy/sony-world-photography-awards-ai-generated * Sony’s Press Release: https://www.sony-asia.com/pressrelease?prName=open-competition-2023 * Eldagsen’s Open Letter (updated with lots of additional context): https://www.eldagsen.com/sony-world-photography-awards-2023/*

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots * Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet@chaos.social

The show starts with a few followups from previous shows, one quick regulation story, two short legal stories, three Apple HR stories, and a partridge … err … and some highlights from Apple’s services and original content divisions. The three main stories are Apple’s complicated relationships with China & India, Apple Pay Later, and Apple Music Classical. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some other Apple-related stories that made the news in March.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta115.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Compared to previous months March was quiet in terms of labor relations at Apple, but there was some news:
- The CWA (Communication Workers of America) accused Apple of illegally firing staff for union organising — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple is reportedly starting to use door access badge logs to enforce their return to work policy, with employees who are not complying facing possible termination — appleinsider.com/…
Apple got everything it wanted at the annual shareholder meeting — appleinsider.com/…
The changes to Apple’s App Store pricing model Apple announced a few months ago have gone live, allowing developers much more control over their app pricing around the world — appleinsider.com/…
Wix & Stripe partner to take in-coming tap-to-pay payments on iOS out of beta and into the real world for US merchants — appleinsider.com/…
Apple expands Emergency SOS via satellite to six more countries — appleinsider.com/… (Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands & Portugal)
ApplePay finally launches in South Korea — appleinsider.com/…
Apple’s car project still seems to be bubbling away under the surface: Apple self-driving test program grows to over 200 drivers — appleinsider.com/… (Data from CA DMV)

Regulatory Rundown* UK antitrust case versus Apple’s browser dominance dies on a technicality — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest Billion dollar Apple Watch patent fight goes to jury trial — appleinsider.com/… (Masimo, blood oxygen sensor) * Apple -v- VirnetX:* Apple has won an appeal to invalidate the two patents at the heart of VirnetX’s 2010 case against Apple over FaceTime & iMessage — appleinsider.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Michael Abbott, Apple’s vice president of cloud engineering is leaving Apple in April — appleinsider.com/… * Apple executive shuffle to emphasize India as a sales region — appleinsider.com/… * According to reports from Bloomberg, Apple are extending their hiring freeze and changing how they do promotions and bonuses in order to cut costs — appleinsider.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple TV+ + The Nominations & Awards keep rolling in both sides of the Atlantic: - Apple and BBC win Oscar for ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse’ — appleinsider.com/… - Severance wins both the Best Drama and Best New Series awards at the Writers Guild Awards — www.cultofmac.com/… - Bad Sisters is the most-nominated show in the 20th Irish Film & TV Awards — appleinsider.com/… - Slow Horses & Bad Sisters get nominations from the Royal Television Society Awards — appleinsider.com/… - Apple TV+ gains 15 nominations at UK’s Bafta Television Awards — appleinsider.com/… (Slow Horses & Bad Sisters) - Selena Gomez Apple TV+ film nominated for MTV’s Best Music Documentary — appleinsider.com/… + Friday Night Baseball returns to Apple TV+ for the 2023 season, no longer free, but with some tweaks: Apple TV+ baseball fans will get live looks into bad call appeals — appleinsider.com/… + Related:* tvOS 16.4 & iOS 16.4 have a new safety feature to protect epileptics — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Fitness+ spotlights Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Shania Twain — appleinsider.com/… * PayPal adds Apple Pay support for small business payments — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories1. China, India & Apple — it’s complicated! * Apple, Foxconn convince Indian state to loosen labor laws — arstechnica.com & Apple & Foxconn amping up efforts for more labor reform in India — appleinsider.com/… * Foxconn wins first AirPods order & will make them in India — appleinsider.com/… * Even Foxconn says it’s looking to move away from China — appleinsider.com/… * Tim Cook among few US CEOs attending China business summit — appleinsider.com/… & Cook praises ‘symbiotic’ 30-year relationship with China — appleinsider.com/… * China tells Apple to beef up its data security practices — appleinsider.com/… 2. Apple Pay Later soft-launches in the US * Apple Pay Later gives you 6 weeks to pay off interest-free loans — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple launches Apple Pay Later, but only for selected users — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Pay Later turns Apple into a full-on money lender — arstechnica.com 3. Apple Music Classical finally launches — www.apple.com/… * Apple Music Classical waltzes onto iPhone — appleinsider.com/… * Here’s your introduction to Apple Music Classical — www.cultofmac.com/… * Reviews/Opinion: + The overlap between Apple Music and Classical app is clunky — appleinsider.com/… + First Look: Apple Classical is tuned for the genre, but hits a few false notes – Six Colors — sixcolors.com/…

Quick Stories* Some minor new hardware announcements from Apple: + iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus now available in yellow — appleinsider.com/… + iPhone 14 Silicone Cases & Apple Watch bands gain new spring colors — appleinsider.com/… + Beats by Dre is launching a ‘Girls Don’t Cry’ edition of Beats Flex — appleinsider.com/… * Some software tweaks to Apple’s OSes: + iOS 16.4 brings a second attempt at launching the new Matter-based HomeKit architecture — 9to5mac.com/… + iOS 16.4 brings voice isolation to regular cellular calls — www.macobserver.com/… + iPadOS 16.4 bring new tilt & azimuth support to the Apple Pencil’s hover mode — appleinsider.com/… + Apple have updated the iWork suite with just a few nice little tweaks — tidbits.com/… * Apple debuts iPhone purchasing via video call — www.cultofmac.com/… (US only, at least for now) * Microsoft makes Outlook for Mac free for everyone — www.cultofmac.com/… * Six 8BitDo Controllers Add Support for Apple Hardware — www.macstories.net/… * Apple will publish it’s Q2 earnings on May the 4th — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Announces WWDC 2023: June 5–9 with Special Event at Apple Park — www.macstories.net/… + Apple announces Swift Student Challenge for WWDC 2023 — appleinsider.com/… & Some Swift Student Challenge winners will go to WWDC23 — www.cultofmac.com/… + Join the NosillaCastaways text chat during the WWDC Keynote by going to podfeet.com/chat

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr * Wing Kearns – @CuAnnan@mstdn.social

This month Bart is joined by a very special guest indeed — his beloved husband Wing. Wing just passed an important drone-flying test this week (his ‘Specific Category Practical Skills Assessment’). This opens up his third drone-flying certification, allowing him to fly after sunset. Wing’s drone-flying passion is tightly linked with a long-term photographic project — capturing images of ancient Irish monuments like ring forts and stone circles. Many of these impressive historical treasures are so large as to be effectively invisible from the ground, so compelling images require a different point of view! Bart invited Wing on to talk about the craft of arial photography with modern prosumer drones, and the hope is to have Wing back on in the future, when his project is more advanced, to talk about the art of arial photography.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp114.mp3NotesMinimum Equipment1. a drone with a camera (less than 25kg unless you want to do more work to get certified ) 2. a controller (may or may not come with the drone)

Wing’s Irish Drone Certification/Licensing JourneyIreland comes under EU rules for drone flying, so Wing’s journey will be similar to that for other Europeans, though not identical, countries do get to add their own flavour!

Open A1/3 license → Open A2 → Specific Category

The Open A1/3 is easy to get, you just need to watch some videos, take a 30 minutes test, and pay a €30 registration fee. This lets you fly a small drone up to 120m high within visual range, during the day, in unrestricted airspace, and not anywhere near uninvolved people.

The Open A2 took more work — a more detailed course (still on a website, but paid for, Wing paid ~€100), and a longer test, but it allows flying within 5 meters of people. There is also another registration fee of €45.

This is all most hobbyists will need or want, but Wing went a step further (and maybe even one more beyond that soon!)

To get the Specific Category Wing needed to take a day-long course (~€600) with a certified trainer, and complete a Specific Category Practical Skills Assessment (basically a drone driving test ). Then you have to pay another registration fee to register as a drone operator which costs ~€300 every 2 years! This lets him fly after sunset and in restricted air space (with appropriate clearances!).

Wing’s also completed the needed paperwork to be certified to fly for leisure in the US (TRUST).

Links:* Wing’s gallery — cuannan.github.io/… * Microsoft Image Composite Editor — download.cnet.com/… * Affinity Photo — affinity.serif.com/…

Related Episodes* LTP 27 (December 2015) — a conversation with Stefaan Lesage from the early days of drone flying before there were rules! * LTP 25 (October 2015) — ideas for photographic projects & LTP 59 (August 2018) — Bart’s thoughts on photographic projects * LTP 85 (October 2020) — suggestions for finding inspiration, including changing your point of view

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots * Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet@chaos.social * Barry Fulk – @fulkb@friendsofdesoto.social

This month Bart is joined by Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast and first-time guest Barry Fulk. The show starts with just one followup from the previous show, one piece of legal news, and a few stories from Apple’s various services before moving on to the three main stories — Apple’s HR re-organisation, the EU’s updated anti-trust complaint against Apple, and Linux support for M1 processors. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some other Apple-related stories that made the news in February.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta114.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Narrators from a smaller audio book firm are angry Apple seemingly snuck in a clause in their contracts saying their voices could be used to train AI have tasked their union with fighting for fair compensation for their work, and they have succeeded in having the problematic clause in their contracts suspended — appleinsider.com/…

Legal Latest Apple -v- AliveCor*: President Biden has declined to step in a block the possible Apple Watch import ban on foot of AliveCor’s patent dispute with Apple. Appeals are on-going, and the ban is stayed until all appeals are exhausted — appleinsider.com/… & arstechnica.com/… (AliveCor won the ban, Apple have won a case to invalidate the patents, and AliveCor are actively appealing the invalidation)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple Maps: Apple Maps brings Look Around to Finland, Norway, and Sweden — appleinsider.com/… * Apple TV+:* + Apple have rolled out some improvements to their Major League Soccer season pass — appleinsider.com/… (more and better camera angles, higher resolution, Dolby 5.1 audio, etc..) + Apple TV+ needs more content and they will train directors to get it — appleinsider.com/… + Awards: - Apple scores Bafta win for best British short animation — appleinsider.com/… - Apple TV+ ‘The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse’ wins two Annie awards — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories1. Apple re-organises HR, with Deirdre O’Brien returning to being just the head of Retail again, and Carol Surface has been hired as Apple’s first Chief People Officer — appleinsider.com/… & www.cultofmac.com/… * > “Previously she was Chief Human Resources Officer at Medtronic, where she worked since 2013. Before then, she was head of HR at Best Buy and worked in the HR department at PepsiCo.” > > * Related: Apple signs union agreement for Glasgow Apple Store staff — appleinsider.com/… & Here’s what the Apple Glasgow retail store union negotiated for itself — appleinsider.com/… * Other Apple HR News: + Apple taps Swedish politician to advise on ‘global trends’ — appleinsider.com/…(former minister for foreign affairs Ann Linde) 2. The EU has updated its anti-trust complaint against Apple — appleinsider.com/… * Summary: The European Commission has updated it’s Statement of Objections to shift the focus from in app purchases, to “the contractual restrictions that Apple imposed on app developers … which prevent them from informing iPhone and iPad users of alternative music subscription options at lower prices outside of the app and to effectively choose those”. Apple now have a right to reply before the Commission issue an actual ruling. The worst-case outcome would be a fine of 10% annual world-wide revenue! * Apple & Spotify have responded to the new Statement of Objections — appleinsider.com/… + > Apple: Apple will continue to work with the European Commission to understand and respond to their concerns, all the while promoting competition and choice for European consumers. We’re pleased that the Commission has narrowed its case and is no longer challenging Apple’s right to collect a commission for digital goods and require the use of the In-App Payment systems users trust. The App Store has helped Spotify become the top music streaming service across Europe and we hope the European Commission will end its pursuit of a complaint that has no merit > > + > Spotify: Today, the European Commission sent a clear message that Apple’s anti-competitive behavior and unfair practices have harmed consumers and disadvantaged developers for far too long … We urge the Commission to reach a swift decision in this case to protect consumers and restore fair competition on the iOS platform. > > * Related: + Apple and Google abuse market dominance, says Japan antitrust regulator — appleinsider.com/… + Biden demands antitrust action against Big Tech during State of the Union — appleinsider.com/… + DOJ escalates antitrust probe into Apple’s alleged anticompetitive practices — appleinsider.com/… + After attending a closed-door hearing with the European Commission, a coalition of Norwegian banks released a statement calling for the Commission to take urgent action against Apple to force them to open NFC on iOS to banking apps — appleinsider.com/… 3. Basic support for M1 processors has been merged into the main line Linux kernel in version 6.2 — appleinsider.com/…, www.cultofmac.com/… & arstechnica.com/… * An important step towards Mac support from major Linux distros, but only a step — this is support for the M1 processors, not for Mac hardware! * This is up-streamed code from the Asahi Linux project — asahilinux.org/… * Still missing many important drivers, as can be seen on Asahi Linux’s feature status page — github.com/…

Quick Stories Apple released new resources for Europe’s Safer Internet Day, including a new Today at Apple session named ‘Your Kids and Their Devices’ — appleinsider.com/… & www.apple.com/… + Related: Apple are rolling out iMessage child protection features to six more countries (Belgium, Brazil, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea & Sweden) — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple appears to be trying to push their Car Key feature with the release of a testing app for use by auto makers looking to get certified for the feature — www.cultofmac.com/… * New App Store benchmarks let devs compare app performance to peers — appleinsider.com/… * Microsoft gives official blessing to Windows 11 for ARM on Parallels — appleinsider.com/… * Microsoft is bringing iMessage to Windows with the Phone Link app — appleinsider.com/… * Both Mozilla & Google, anticipating the enforced opening up of iOS to 3rd-parry browser engines thanks to the EU DMA, have started work on porting their browser engines to iOS — www.cultofmac.com/… & 9to5mac.com/… * Reminder: Apple’s annual shareholder meeting will be held on March 10th + Related:* NLPC seeks to kick Tim Cook, Al Gore from Apple board of directors — appleinsider.com/…

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr * Antonio Rosario from the Street Shots Podcast & The Unusual Collective – @amrosario – Flickr

In part 1 Bart described AI’s evolution from a photpgraher’s point of view — first came classifiers (this is a photo of a dog and a tree), then came smart processing like computational photography on smart phones, auto edit buttons that actually work, and advanced editing tools like content-aware fill, and now, here comes Generative AI, the ability to generate images from scratch using some kind of prompt. Let me tell you what’s in the shot, then let me tweak it for you, and now let me create it for you! In this second part, Bart is joined by Antonio Rosario to talk through the pros and cons of each of these kinds of AI for photographers. This then sets up a follow-on conversation on Antonio’s Street Shots Podcast where Bart joins Antonio to talk through some of the artists, moral, and ethical implications of all this.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp113.mp3Classifiers* Pros + Easier searching of images without metadata + Accessibility for the visually impaired * Cons + Atypical views of things are most likely not to get matched, and hence, get lost — biases in favour of samey shots and against more creative shots + Over confidence in the algorithms could discourage manual tagging, descriptions, etc, reducing the quality of metadata overall

ML Editors* Pros + Spectacular improvements in image quality from small sensors, i.e. why phone cameras don’t suck anymore! + Democratisation of image editing — regular folks get better images! + All editors of all levels get freed from drudgery with powerful automations like content aware fill * Cons + The algorithms can end up defining the look of millions of people’s photos — the average rises, but the peaks fall too + It can be very hard to correct images when computational photography gets it wrong, much ML is now so engrained in the processes that it can’t be turned off!

Generative AI* Pros + Lets imaginative people who are not skilled image creators create amazing visual art + Can stimulate creativity + Democratises basic illustrations for articles, presentations, etc. + Allows the creation of otherwise impossible things * Cons + Could put photographers out of a job + Could crowd out human creativity + The legal footing is simple in limbo — using generated images opens you up to real legal jeopardy because absolutely no one has any idea how the courts are going to treat this!

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This month it’s a rare solo show with just Bart. The show starts with some followups from previous shows, some regulatory and legal news, some Apple HR news, and some news from Apple’s various services before moving on to the five main stories — Apple’s introduction of AI-based audio book narration, SpotHero & Apple Business Connect improving Apple Maps, the new M2 Pro & M2 Max chops and the updated MacMini and MacBookPros containing them, the new full-sized HomePod, and Apple’s Q1 2023 earnings. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some other Apple-related stories that made the news in January.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta113.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Apple ID security key support added in iOS 16.3, macOS 13.2 – Six Colors — sixcolors.com/…
- How to protect your Apple ID account with Security Keys on iPhone, iPad, or Mac – The Mac Security Blog — www.intego.com/…
- Five best security keys for iOS 16.3 — appleinsider.com/…
Apple’s new Crash Detection feature continues to cause problems for emergency services:
- Apple Crash Detection now causing problems in Minnesota — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple seeks 911 dispatcher feedback over Emergency SOS skier misfires — appleinsider.com/…
- iPhone 14 Crash Detection false positives are now a problem in Japan — appleinsider.com/…
Apple is following through on commitments from last years’s annual shareholders meeting:
- Apple will start releasing more details about app store removals — appleinsider.com/…
- Following a consultation process with shareholders, Tim Cook cuts his own salary by 40%, down to ‘just’ about $49M — www.cultofmac.com/…
- Related: Apple shareholder meeting to be held on March 10 — appleinsider.com/…
- Related: Apple agrees to audit labor practices ahead of shareholders meeting — appleinsider.com/…
Complaints against Apple’s anti-union tactics continue to escalate, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) have “found merit to charge alleging statements and conduct by Apple — including high-level executives — […] violated the National Labor Relations Act.”, the NLRB try to mediate disputes, so the next step is for the board to try agree remediations with Apple — appleinsider.com/…
We’ve discussed Apple’s successes with European shows in recent episodes: Apple TV+ is expanding its European production teams — appleinsider.com/…
Apple continues to diversify its supply chain: Apple starts making AirPods components in India — appleinsider.com/…
Apple’s first retail store in India takes one step closer to opening — www.cultofmac.com/… (Apple have started hiring)

Regulatory Rundown Brazil watchdog investigates Apple over App Store payment rules — appleinsider.com/… * Spotify have written an open letter to the EU demanding swift action against Apple — appleinsider.com/… * A report from The US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) finds that Google & Apple’s app store policies are “harmful to consumers and developers.” — appleinsider.com/… * The US Federal Reserve are investigating whether Goldman Sachs provide their consumer credit card customers (including Apple Card customers) sufficient consumer protections — appleinsider.com/… * Related:* Apple hit new record high for lobbying in 2022, but still behind peers — appleinsider.com/… (2022 44% higher than 2021, $9.4M, compared to $9.8M for MS & $10.9M for Google)

Legal Latest Masimo -v- Apple: a US administrative law judge in Washington DC has ruled that the Apple Watch infringes on Masimo’s pulse oximeter patent, Apple disagrees, and the case now goes to the US International Trade Commission who will decide what, if anything, to do about the infringement — www.cultofmac.com/… * Caltech -v- Broadcom & Apple:* The US Supreme Court has asked the Solicitor General (executive branch) for their input as they consider Apple & Broadcom’s appeal to be allowed to challenge a lower court’s decision not to allow them question the validity of Caltech’s patent, this is all happening as a re-trial for damages is pending in July in a lower court — appleinsider.com/… * Korea rejects $1.64 million battery throttling lawsuit — appleinsider.com/… ( Nice to see at least one country be sensible about this whole thing!)

Apple HR & Acquisition News* Services VP Peter Stern leaves Apple after six years — appleinsider.com/… (Was apparently seen by some as a possible successor to Eddie Cue, played a big role in bringing sports to AppleTV+) * Apple Music chief Oliver Schusser will help lead Apple TV+ — appleinsider.com/… (Already VP of Apple Music & Beats, replacing Peter Stern’s input to Apple TV+) * Jeff Williams has taken control of Apple’s industrial design team — appleinsider.com/… (Jony Ives’ old role is not being replaced when Evans Hankey leaves)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights Apple Fitness+ adds kickboxing workout, Beyonce artist spotlight, more — appleinsider.com/… * Apple make it easier for podcasters to publish paid content to ApplePodcasts as well as other platforms with Delegated Delivery – producers can now do the work once and reach paying subscribers on all of the major platforms — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Music and Apple TV apps launch for Windows 11 — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple TV+ short gets Oscar nominations, ‘Emancipation’ shut out — appleinsider.com/… (The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse*) * LG software update brings Apple services to hundreds of smart TV brands — www.cultofmac.com/… (webOS update bringing Apple TV+, Apple Music, AirPlay & the Home app)

Main Stories1. Apple launches AI narrators for some audiobooks — sixcolors.com/… * Only specific genres * Marketed to book authors as a cheaper way to get their books into audio * Using the feature does not require signing audio book rights to Apple, and the authors are still free to produce traditional audio books later if they wish * You can now listen to some of these books, they are labeled in the store as Narrated by Apple Books — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple says it is committed to book narrators, expands AI reading anyway — appleinsider.com/… 2. Apple enhances Apple Maps * Apple Maps gets parking information with SpotHero integration — appleinsider.com/… (8K+ locations in US & Canada) + How to make parking in the city easier with Apple Maps and SpotHero — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple launches Apple Business Connect, its own service for businesses to add information about their locations to Apple Maps — www.apple.com/… + Businesses can now customize their Apple Maps info & more — appleinsider.com/… + With Business Connect, Apple escalates its competition with Google Maps — arstechnica.com 3. New M2 Pro & M2 Max powered Macs * Apple produced an event video for M2 Mac mini & MacBook Pro — appleinsider.com/… * Apple unveils M2 Pro and M2 Max: next-generation chips for next-level workflows — www.apple.com/… + First M2 Pro benchmarks prove big improvement over M1 Max — appleinsider.com/… & M2 Pro & Max GPUs are fast — but not faster than M1 Ultra — appleinsider.com/… * Apple introduces new Mac mini with M2 and M2 Pro — more powerful, capable, and versatile than ever — www.apple.com/… + Apple launches powerful new Mac mini at a lower cost — www.cultofmac.com/… (base model now $599, $100 cheaper) + The M2 Mac mini vs the M1 and Intel Versions — www.macobserver.com/… & M2 Pro Mac mini vs Mac Studio – compared — appleinsider.com/… + Opinion: M2 Mac mini Review: Whatever you want it to be – Six Colors — sixcolors.com/… * Apple unveils MacBook Pro featuring M2 Pro and M2 Max, with more game-changing performance and the longest battery life ever in a Mac — www.apple.com/… (14“ & 16” models) + How the new M2 Pro and Max MacBook Pros compare to M1 models — www.cultofmac.com/… + Opinion: 2023 MacBook Pro Review: More of the same, in a good way — sixcolors.com/… * New M2-powered MacBook Pros and minis have 8K video, Wi-Fi 6E, dozens of cores — arstechnica.com * Entry level M2 Mac mini, 2023 MacBook Pro have slower SSD than predecessors — appleinsider.com/… * Related: Mac Pro is Apple’s last Intel computer standing — appleinsider.com/… 4. Apple introduces the new HomePod with breakthrough sound and intelligence — www.apple.com/… * Apple resurrects full-size HomePod with hot new features, same old price — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple says popular demand brought back the HomePod — appleinsider.com/… * Second-Generation HomePod Supports Spatial Audio, Temperature/Humidity Monitoring, and Sound Recognition — tidbits.com/… * HomePod 2 can’t join in stereo pair with earlier models — www.cultofmac.com/… * New HomePod vs 2018 HomePod – compared — appleinsider.com/… & HomePod head-to-head: How Apple’s new smart speaker compares to original — www.cultofmac.com/… * Early previewers praise new HomePod’s ‘just wow’ audio — appleinsider.com/… * Related: Apple are activating previously un-known temperature and humidity sensors in the HomePod Mini, and all HomePods are getting improved Siri functionality including access to FindMy — appleinsider.com/… & www.cultofmac.com/… + What new HomePod temperature and humidity sensors can do for you — www.cultofmac.com/… * Opinion: HomePod Lives — daringfireball.net/… 5. Apple’s Q1 2023 Earnings Call — www.apple.com/… * Apple results and charts: $117.2B quarter is still a step back – Six Colors — sixcolors.com/… * This is Tim: Apple Q1 2023 analyst call transcript — sixcolors.com/… * Apple Reports First Year-Over-Year Earnings Drop Since 2019 — www.macstories.net/… * Tim Cook: iPhone manufacturing shortfall main reason for earnings miss — appleinsider.com/… + Related: iPhone 14 Pro finally reaches supply-demand parity — appleinsider.com/… * Apple says 2 billion of its devices are in active use — appleinsider.com/… * Apple services have more than 935 million paid subscriptions — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Services revenue hit an all-time high of $20.8 billion — appleinsider.com/… * Opinion: 5 upbeat takeaways from Apple’s optimistic earnings call — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple barely missed earnings targets, so analysts are still bullish — appleinsider.com/… * Related Analyst Estimates: + IDC: Mac shipments grew in 2022 while PC tanked — www.cultofmac.com/… (market down 16%, Mac up 2.5%) + Canalys: Global smartphone shipments fell 17% in the 2022 holiday quarter versus 2021, but the iPhone reclaimed the top spot — appleinsider.com/… + IDC: iPhone Christmas sales hit by 15% over production problems & weak demand — appleinsider.com/… + Counterpoint Research: Apple collects nearly all of the profit in the worldwide smartphone market — appleinsider.com/… (85%) + IDC: Apple made almost half the tablets sold in Q4 2022 (49.2%, up 28.8% YoY to 22.5M units) — www.cultofmac.com/…

Quick Stories World Surf League declares Apple Watch as official sports equipment — appleinsider.com/… (Official app, and can be used during competitions) * Apple celebrate Black History Month — www.apple.com/… + Apple celebrating Black History Month with new Apple Watch band, content, donations — appleinsider.com/… (I got the band and I really like it ) + Apple honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with free book, homepage tribute — appleinsider.com/… (Stride Toward Freedom by King) + Apple TV celebrates Black History Month with curation by Dr. Jelani Cobb — appleinsider.com/… + Related:* Apple racks up 21 nominations for the 2023 NAACP Image Awards — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Support app gains 3 languages, expands into 118 new regions — appleinsider.com/… * Apple raising its non-AppleCare battery replacement costs across devices — arstechnica.com (starting March, $20 in general) * Apple’s MagSafe To Be Incorporated Into Qi2 Wireless Charging Standard — www.macobserver.com/… * Apple releases Lisa source code — sixcolors.com/… * 20 years of Safari: A visual history — www.cultofmac.com/…

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart starts what will be at least a two-part discussion on artificial intelligence, and what it means for photography and photographers. This first part starts with the easy bit — describing what AI is, and what it does with our images today. If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between AI and machine learning, or what neural networks are, this is the show for you!

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp112.mp3NotesThis will be the first of a two-part series on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in photography. In this first part I’ll focus on describing what AI is, and how it’s being applied in photography, and next month we’ll dig into the deep ethical and philosophical questions AI raises for photography.

What is AI?AI is a very broad umbrella term that covers computers doing pretty much anything that looks like thinking. The holy grail of the field is so-called general AI — a single system that can ‘think’ in all the ways humans can across all fields of knowledge. A general AI could understand and comprehend language, sounds, and still and moving images. It could build up a complex understanding of concepts and the relationships between them by extracting information from the world, and it could use reasoning to extrapolate from this understanding. And finally, it could leverage its knowledge in creative ways to build genuinely original art. If you think that sounds like it might be tricky to pull off, you’d be dead right! General AI is to computer science as cold fusion is to physics — 30 years away, always has been, and likely always will be!

What we’ve been making spectacular strides in over the past few years are special-purpose AIs — machines that demonstrate specific kinds of intelligence within well defined fields.

Very broadly speaking we now have AIs that can recognise things, tweak things, and most recently, even create things. Or, to be more formal about it, we have classifiers, processors, and generative AIs.

What About ML?An AI-related term you see a lot these days, even in app UIs and marketing fluff is ML or Machine Learning. This is another very generic term, but it’s been hijacked and abused to the point that it’s becoming synonymous with Artificial Neural Networks, which it really shouldn’t.

To understand what ML is, we need to start right back in the early days of AI when we were trying to directly program intelligent systems. On the whole this didn’t prove very successful, with so-called expert systems being the best we could muster. An expert system is basically a collection of deeply nested if statements. Before we started to use smartphone apps to identify plants, paper analogues of a expert systems were popular — these were little pocket sized books for identifying trees, flowers, butterflies, birds, or similar. The book would start with a question with a handful of possible answers, and each answer would redirect you to another page of the book where you’d find either another question, or your answer.

Anyway, it soon became clear that expert systems could give a speed boost over what came before, but they weren’t going to give computers fundamentally new abilities, let alone lead to general AI. So, computer scientists switched to a completely different approach — don’t teach the computer the stuff you want it to know, teach it how to learn, and then let it teach itself. Eh voi la — Machine Learning was born!

Where do Neural Networks Come in?One of the most effective techniques for implementing ML was, and remains, imitating the human brain with artificial neurons connected to each other with artificial synapses. We call these systems Artificial Neural Networks, or simply neural nets for short.

If you’re looking for a mental image, think of a very interconnected grid of nodes with an input signal applied to one end, and an output signal read out at the other. Each node represents a neuron, and each connection a synapse. Each synapse either amplifies or de-amplifies the signal passing along it. We refer to this alteration of the signal along a connection as the connection’s weight. You train the neural net by tweaking all the weights until you get useful outputs for your inputs. Assuming you have a big set of inputs with matching expected outputs (or a rule for grading the quality of outputs), you can use various algorithms to have the computer optimise the weights automatically. The result of all this work is a collection of weights. If you put those same weights into any neural net with the layout you’ll get the same behaviour. A collection of learned weights like this is often referred to as a model. It can take thousands of hours on super computers to build a good model, but once you have that model you can use it on just about any computing device.

I want to draw your attention to a very important fact — the collection of weights are in effect the program for the neural net, but unlike traditional computer code, it’s utterly meaningless to us humans. We can measure the effect a neural net has on various inputs, but we can’t extract any sort of intelligible reasoning from it. We simply can’t say why Lightroom has decided your cat looks like your grandmother! This absolute opacity has some very serious consequences, so stick a pin in it for part two!

While we’re sticking pins in things for next time, let’s also mention that the effectiveness of a model is entirely dependent on the quality of the training set and the learning algorithm used. If the training data covers a genuinely representative sample of the real world your neural net will probably do well on real-world data, but if not, it won’t. The old computer science truism of garbage in → garbage out really applies here. Also, because we have zero understanding of exactly what the neural net has ‘learned’ there’s a real danger of if learning the wrong thing. If your training data isn’t broad enough, you run the very real risk of your AI doing something spectacularly stupid when it meets something not covered by its training set. Finally, you can over-train your model so it goes beyond learning abstract concepts, and instead effectively memorises the training set, making it utterly useless in the real world!

In other words, Machine Learning is hard!

At first we implemented neural nets entirely in software, like a kind of brain simulator. This works surprisingly well, but dedicated hardware always trumps software, hence the existence of graphics cards! These days we’ve started to implement neural nets in hardware on silicon chips. When Apple tell you they’ve added so many neural engine cores to their latest processor, they’re talking about artificial neural nets right on their chips.

Rather annoyingly, Apple and others use the term ML to refer to artificial neural nets. Yes, all ANNs are ML, but not all ML is implemented as neural nets

AI in PhotographyWe’ll finish this first instalment by looking at how AI is being used in Photography.

It Started with Classifiers

The first AI that made it way into main-stream photography were so-called classifiers — algorithms for recognising things in images. The first widely deployed classifiers were the facial recognition Apple and then Adobe added into their photography apps. The apps would find faces in your photographs, prompt you to assign names to them, and then find those same people in other photos and build up little smart albums for each person. This simplistic feature was actually surprisingly difficult to implement, and involved a lot of serious computer science. It’s worth pausing for a moment to dig into the details because it’s illustrative of the kind of complex engineering work that underpins all AI features.

These face classifiers are built in layers, with each layer being responsible for a different aspect of the problem. First, there’s a simple classifier that’s been trained to find just one thing — faces. The chances are this was implemented as a neural net. The output of this layer was a collection of rectangles that included faces. This was then passed to the second layer which analysed the structure of each face to build an approximate fingerprint of the face based on various ratios. Finally, a third layer looked at all the fingerprints and tried to identify clusters of similar fingerprints, and group them together on the assumption they were the same person.

When you ask the Apple’s S-lady or Amazon’s A-lady to do something there’s a similar layered approach at work — first sound is translated to words, those words are then passed to a language model to try extract their meaning, that’s then passed to another layer to find an answer, and that answer is passed to a final text-to-speech layer to produce the output you hear. What’s truly impressive is that all that happens in just seconds! So, next time your smart assistant does something dumb, just remember how impressive it is that it can do anything at all!

Getting back to photography, we now have classifiers that can’t just answer simple questions like “face or not”, but can scan photos for all the various subjects they contain and classify each as people, animals, cars, mountains, and so on. Again, this is all implemented in layers — the first layer finds the subjects in a photo, the second layer identifies each subject as belonging to a broad class, and the for some classes another layer can give a deeper classification still. For example, a photo of a daffodil and a crocus would first be broken into two subjects, these would both then be classified as flowers, and finally as a specific species of flower. At this stage our classifiers are getting good enough that we can do meaningful text searches of the photos in our smartphone photo libraries!

Then Came Image Processing Models

After classifiers came image processing models — neural nets trained to enhance images. Apple relies very heavily on its neural engines for processing images on its smartphones. Initially the models were simply trained to enhance images as a kind of black box — you’d click the magic wand, and the photo would change, but the change would be atomic. Now, Apple have made their neural nets a little smarter by training them to move the sliders to make the image better rather than just making the image better directly. This means we can fine-fine the AI’s work, making the whole experience much more powerful.

And in 2022 The AIs Became Creative!

2022 will go down in AI history as the year generative AI went main-stream. Classifiers could simply tell us things about our images, processors could make our images better, but generative AI can build original images to-order — you simply give it some text describing what you want, and it will create an image for you. Many of these systems will allow you to have an actual conversation with the model and keep refining the image with more so-called prompts until you’re happy.

I can’t even begin to describe how many layers there must be in system like this — they’re so advanced as to pretty much indistinguishable from magic by all but the most expert specialists!

It’s hard figure out exactly what all this means for the future of photography, but the one thing I’m sure about is that the effects will be profound!

To be Continued!Now that we have a basic understanding of what AI is, we’re ready to get stuck into the deeper questions — what good can AI bring to photographers, what threats does it bring, and how will our wider society deal with this rapidly evolving new reality? All that’s on the agenda for part 2 next month, so tune in then!

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Panel:* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots * Adam Christianson from The Mac Cast – @maccast * Nick Riley from the Essential Apple Podcast – @spligosh * Simon Parnell from the Essential Apple Podcast – @serenak

The show starts with some followups from previous shows, some regulatory and legal news, and some news from Apple’s various services before moving on to the four main stories — Apple’s continuing efforts to diversify its supply chain, three iCloud security enhancements, some new OS features (Sing, Freeform & Stage Manager on external displays on iPadOS), and Apple’s overhaul of App Store pricing. The show finishes with a quick rundown of some other Apple-related stories that made the news in December.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta112.mp3Updates & FollowupQuick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Apple Pay South Korea launch delayed by regulators — appleinsider.com/…
China’s on-going COVID outbreak
- Foxconn could resume full iPhone production by early January — appleinsider.com/…
- China Abandons Key Parts of Zero-COVID Strategy After Protests — daringfireball.net/…
- iPhone Maker Foxconn Urges China Government To Ease Zero-COVID Policy — www.macobserver.com/…
- Foxconn lifts Covid restrictions at the main iPhone factory — appleinsider.com/…
- Foxconn forcing sick workers to stay on iPhone production lines — appleinsider.com/…
- Foxconn hopes to retain workers by offering cash bonuses — appleinsider.com/…
- iPhone 14 Pro lead times have returned to after-launch levels — appleinsider.com/…
- Related Opinion: Apple’s business under growing threat from China’s Covid wave — arstechnica.com
Apple’s Employee Relations Strugles Continue
- US Labor Prosecutors Find Apple Violated Federal Law By Coercing and Interrogating Atlanta Workers — www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple employees in the St. Louis Galleria store have released a press statement contradicting the Union’s statement that the vote was pulled due to intimidation, the Union is standing by their statement — www.macobserver.com/…
- The newly unionised Apple Store workers in Towson (Maryland) will start formal negotiations (collective bargaining) with Apple in early 2023 — appleinsider.com/…
- London Apple Store at White City unionizing with UTAW — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple accused of creating illegal pseudo-union at Ohio store — appleinsider.com/… (Workers organisation run by managers!)
- Australia Apple Store workers go on strike over conditions and pay — appleinsider.com/…
- Former patent attorney sues Apple over harassment & discrimination — appleinsider.com/… (Can’t verify the details, but if accurate, it makes Apple look bad IMO)
- Apple’s internal report says that it doesn’t stifle employee speech — appleinsider.com/…
- Apple Will Remove NDA Clauses Related to Discrimination and Abuse — www.macobserver.com/…
New Apple Car rumor suggests 2026 debut at less than $100,000 — appleinsider.com/… & Apple Car Plans Scaled Back Considerably to Ensure Launch by 2026 — www.macobserver.com/…
Apple have rolled out Emergency SOS via Satellite to France, Germany, Ireland & the UK — www.apple.com/…
- Related: a couple were able to call for help via satellite when their car fell into a 300ft canyon in CA — www.nytimes.com/… & www.macobserver.com/…
Crash Detection is continuing to have some teething problems, but it is also working as intended:
- Crash Detection causing problems for Canada’s helicopter rescue teams — appleinsider.com/…
- iPhone 14 crash detection still sending deluge of false alarms from skiers — appleinsider.com/…
- iPhone 14 Crash Detection gets man to wife’s accident before ambulance — appleinsider.com/…

Regulatory Rundown* Paris Commercial Court fines Apple over ‘abusive’ App Store policy — appleinsider.com/… (The ruling doesn’t require Apple to make any changes immediately because the up-coming Digital Markets Act will take care of the problem!) * Apple should be fined $6.4 million over iOS 14 privacy, says French advisor — appleinsider.com/… (Issue with iOS 14 version of App Tracking Transparency, was resolved in iOS 15) * New York State has passed a Right to Repair bill that gives users more rights, but isn’t enough to satisfy critics — appleinsider.com/… (It sounds like a good compromise to be, pairing is vital for security!)

Legal Latest* Apple and Ericsson settle global patent disputes, sign new deal — appleinsider.com/… * Apple -v- AliveCor (ECG patent dispute) + Three heart rate measuring patents used in suit against Apple invalidated — appleinsider.com/… + ITC finds Apple guilty of heart rate monitoring patent infringement — appleinsider.com/… (yes, this ruling rests on the three patents invalidated earlier in the month, so if AliveCor’s appeal of that ruling fails, this ruling probably falls too. ATM it us suspended, and its not clear it will ever come into force)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights* Apple Give out more Awards + Apple reveals the top podcasts of 2022 — appleinsider.com/… + NBA 2K22 and Sneaky Sasquatch make Apple Arcade’s list of year’s best games — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple Music rolls out to Tesla cars in holiday software update — appleinsider.com/… * Apple TV+: + More international recognition: ‘Slow Horses’ Earns Television Nomination at UK Writers’ Guild Awards, a First for Apple TV+ — www.macobserver.com/… + Next Major League Soccer season starts Feb. 1 on Apple TV+ — appleinsider.com/… - Customers without Apple TV+ can pay $14.99 per month, or $99 for the whole season - Customers with AppleTV+ can pay $12.99 per month, or £79 for the season + Mythic Quest spinoff Mere Mortals coming to Apple TV+ — www.cultofmac.com/… * The Apple Maps redesign has been rolled out to Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands & Switzerland — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories1. Big trend of 2022 — Apple continue to diversify their supply chain * Apple speeds up plans to move iPhone assembly out of China — www.cultofmac.com/… (Apple have reportedly asked Indian & Vietnamese suppliers to increase their capacity) + India may account for 5% of iPhone production volume by spring 2023 — appleinsider.com/… + Apple plans to make MacBooks in Vietnam from mid–2023 — appleinsider.com/… * TSMC triples Arizona chip factory investment to $40 billion — appleinsider.com/… & Tim Cook confirms Apple will use TMSC chips made in Arizona — appleinsider.com/… * Apple looks to Luxshare for iPhone 15 Pro Max assembly — appleinsider.com/… (still in China, but diversifying number of suppliers) 2. Apple announce 3 iCloud Security Enhancements: Apple advances user security with powerful new data protections — www.apple.com/… 3. The features:
1. iMessage Contact Key Verification (ability for users to check there is no key-shenanigans going on, will probably be similar to what Signal does already) — coming “in 2023”
2. Support for Hardware keys for iCloud 2FA — coming “in early 2023”
* Physical Security Key Support Arrives in iOS 16.3, macOS Ventura 13.2 Beta — www.macobserver.com/…
3. Optional End-to-End encryption of all most all iCloud data (basically all but groupware data like mail, contacts & calendars) — already in beta in the US, roll out to the rest of the world “starting in early 2023” * How to use Advanced Data Protection & Apple’s other new security features — appleinsider.com/… * Apple’s Advanced Data Protection feature is here – what you need to know — appleinsider.com/… * Apple’s plan to scan iPhone photos for child abuse material is dead — appleinsider.com/… * FBI ‘deeply concerned’ about Apple’s new security protections — appleinsider.com/… 4. New OS Features — www.macobserver.com/… 1. Karaoke with your favorite songs with new Apple Music Sing — www.cultofmac.com/… * Apple’s press release with all the details: Apple introduces Apple Music Sing — www.apple.com/… * Hands on with Apple Music Sing on iPhone, iPad, & Apple TV — appleinsider.com/… 2. Apple launches Freeform: a powerful new app designed for creative brainstorming and collaboration — www.apple.com/… * Freeform Leverages the Freedom and Flexibility of a Blank Canvas — www.macstories.net/… * Blank Canvas: Hands on with Apple’s new Freeform app — sixcolors.com/… 3. Get way more done with full external display support in iPadOS 16.2 — www.cultofmac.com/… * Related Review: iPadOS 16.2 and Stage Manager for External Displays: Work in Progress, But Worth the Wait — www.macstories.net/… 5. Apple announces sweeping changes to App Store pricing — arstechnica.com 1. Many more price points become possible (effectively all useful prices) 2. The minimum reduces to $0.29, and the maximum to $10,000 3. Developers can set different prices in different regions, choosing for themselves how to respond to exchange rate changes

Quick Stories* Apple’s rollout of Matter support has hit a snag: + Some Apple HomeKit setups are breaking after iOS 16.2 update — appleinsider.com/… + Apple halts update to HomeKit’s new Home architecture — appleinsider.com/… + Apple Adds New Home Architecture to Major Issue List — www.macobserver.com/… (Unofficial report about and internal data structure) * Some minor new hardware releases from Apple: + HomePod mini arrives in Finland, Norway, South Africa, Sweden — appleinsider.com/… + Apple offers limited-edition AirTags for Japan Year of the Rabbit — appleinsider.com/… + Year of the Rabbit AirPods Pro on sale in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau — appleinsider.com/… * Apple Expands its repair program: + ( ) Apple expands its self service repair program for iPhones 12 & 13 and Apple Silicon MacBooks to 8 European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden & UK) — www.apple.com/… + Apple has added Apple Silicon desktop Macs to its Self Service Repair program in the US — sixcolors.com/… * Apple prepares to roll out 5G support in India before 2023 — appleinsider.com/… * Apple have released their annual report on their charitable work — appleinsider.com/… + Since it was started in 2011 Apple’s Employee Giving program has raised over $880M to help over 44K organisations around the world + Over 76,000 employees have logged over 2.1 million volunteer hours + Apple matches the donations and makes payments to match the hours + The company also directly supports organisations working towards equality and responding to crises around the world + Apple’s press release: Across the globe, Apple and its teams find new ways to give — www.apple.com/…

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Panel* Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart answers friend of the show Allison Sheridan’s deceptively simple listener question – ‘why 35mm?’. This takes us on a journey from Thomas Edison and the Eastman Kodak company to Leica, Henri Cartier-Bression, Nikon, and eventually DSLRs, Micro Four-Thirds, and full frame sensors. Along the way we demystify some photographic jargon like ‘crop factor’ and EFL.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp111.mp3NotesFriend of the show and frequent guest Allison Sheridan the simple question “why 35mm”?

The TL;DR version is simple — it’s a pure accident of history, there’s absolutely nothing special about 35mm.

There is of course much more to it than that, and a fuller telling of the story lets you connect the dots from Thomas Edison right up to modern digital cameras and three very relevant pieces of photography jargon — full frame, Crop Factor, and Effective Focal Length, or EFL.

Start with Edison, Kodak, and the Invention of the MoviesThe still camera came long before the movie camera, but the invention of the movie camera is the trigger that led to the photographic revolution that was the 35mm film format.

The details get confusing and complicated, but our origin story for the 35mm film format comes from the meeting of two giants — Thomas Edison and the Eastman Kodak company. Kodak were world leaders in creating flexible celluloid photographic film, and Edison was busy inventing the movies. One of Kodak’s major products was their 70mm strips of film, mean while, the Edison company was on the hunt for mass-produced flexible film that could be rolled up onto a movie camera. 70mm was too big for their needs, but it’s ubiquity had a strong appeal. It was Edison engineer William Kennedy Dickson who had the light-bulb moment that really kicks off our story — simply cut Kodak’s 70mm film in half length-ways! Half of 70mm is of course 35mm.

To make these half-width strips of film pass smoothly and reliably through their movie cameras, the Edison company added square perforations along both sides that meshed with cogs inside the movie cameras. This means that 35mm film doesn’t contain 35mm negatives — each frame is actually 24mm by 18mm! Note this gives the popular 4:3 aspect ratio iPhones still use today!

Add the Iconic Leica Still Camera35mm movie film was soon produced at a massive scale, so it was both cheap and ubiquitous. Meanwhile, some still photographers wanted small portable cameras that were much easier to carry around than the big bulky cameras available at the time. Leica weren’t the first to join the dots here, but they made they were the most successful of the early pioneers who built small thin (for the time) still cameras that exposed onto 35mm motion picture film.

Leica didn’t use the 35mm film in the orientation it was used in movie cameras, they rotated it by 90 degrees. This meant that the 24mm of usable width for movie frames became 24mm of usable height, and the width could be extended to 36mm. This changed the aspect ratio from the movie film’s 3:4 to the 2:3 SLR photographers know and love to this day.

These early 35mm still cameras really were revolutionary — they enabled entirely new photographic styles. One of the earliest pioneers of this new portable format was the early French street photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Kodak Re-Enters the FrameThese early 35mm still cameras were quite a bit more tricky to prepare for a shoot than the iconic reflex cameras that soon followed. Loading the film was a fiddly job that had to be done in a dark room — the film had to be spooled into a re-usable canister and inserted into the camera before it became light-safe.

Having played an important part in the invention of 35mm movie film, Kodak re-enter our story in 1934 with the release of the standardised pre-loaded film cassettes still used in 35mm film cameras today. Rather than having to spool your own film and load it into the camera in the dark room, you just pop open a door on the camera, and slot in an off-the-shelf roll of film, and you can even do it in broad daylight!

To avoid confusion with their popular 35mm movie film Kodak officially designated these cassettes as the 135mm standard, but no one ever called them that, they were, and still are, referred to as 35mm rolls of film.

AGFA and others soon followed Kodak’s lead, resulting in a vibrant ecosystem of 135mm film cassettes with all kinds of film for all kinds of situations. Colour, monochrome, slow with small grains, fast with big grains etc..

This vibrant 35mm film ecosystem fed the development of an equally vibrant ecosystem of 35mm cameras, including the extremely portable range finders from Leica that Cartier-Bresson love, and the slightly bigger but still very portable SLRs that became the work-horse of for photography hobbyists and pros for decades. It was Nikon’s legendary F range that led the way for SLRs.

Kodak’s 135mm cassettes have never really been replaced, from the 1930s right up to the digital revolution, they were the still film format. That’s 6 decades!

Enter DigitalWhen digital cameras started to reach the main stream in the 1990s it was much too expensive to create digital sensors as large as the usable area on 35mm film, so they used smaller formats. Once the initial chaos settled down one format emerged as the new normal for entry level and prosumer DSLRs, the so-called Advanced Photo System type-C, or APS-C format. Nikon branded this format DX, and Canon EF-S.

DX sensors are 23.5×15.6mm, while EF-S sensors are just a little smaller at 22.3×14.9mm. This means that compared to 35mm film SLRs, APS-C sensors are effectively cropped. So, if you put a 50mm lens in front of an APS-C sensor you’ll get the same perspective as you would have on 35mm film, but the field of view will be substantially smaller.

Crop FactorsMost early DSLR users were former SLR users, so they needed an easy way to understand the difference in field of view the same focal length lens would give on their new DSLRs as compared to their old film SLRs. The simplest way to represent this difference is as a ratio, in other words, by what factor do I need to multiply the focal length on 35mm film to achieve the same field of view on an APS-C sensor?

For Canon’s slightly smaller version of APS-C the so-called crop factor is 1.5, so a 50mm lens on a Canon EF-S body will have the same field of view as a 75mm lens on an old Canon 35mm film body. This makes the math very easy, which is why it’s surprising just about every other manufacturer chose to follow Nikon’s lead and ended up with a much less convenient crop factor of 1.6! This means that a 50mm lens on a DX body will have the same field of view as an 80mm lens on an old Nikon 35mm SLR.

Effective Focal LengthsBefore the 35mm film format came to dominate the photographic world, it would have made no sense what so ever to start associating specific focal lengths with specific fields of view, but thanks to the ubiquity of the 35mm format, that’s exactly what happened. Photographers started to refer to different fields of view by the focal lengths of the lenses that would produce them on 35mm camera bodies. 28mm became synonymous with wide angle views, 50mm became a kind of default lens, and 70mm the perfect portrait lens.

APS-C ruined all that, so rather than learning to think in terms of a more direct measure of the field of view, like say, the actual angle of the field of view, photographers chose to keep using the old numbers to describe APS-C lenses. So, a lens with an actual focal length of a little over 30mm would be said to have an effective focal length of 50mm because it had the same field of view a 50mm lens would give on a 35mm film body.

These days APS-C is being surpassed by the even smaller micro four-thirds format with its crop factor of 2. This makes the maths much easier, so on a micro four thirds body a lens with an actual focal length of 25mm will have the same field of view as a 50mm lens on a 35mm film body.

The MathI’ve described all these relationships in English, but lets finish up with the actual mathematical equation:

f = EFL * c Where f is the actual focal length in mm, EFL the effective focal length (also in mm), and c the crop factor (a dimensionless number).

Full-Frame Digital SensorsAs digital sensors became more affordable it also became practical to make digital sensors the same size as 35mm film exposures. Or, to put it another way, to make digital sensors with a crop factor of 1! Because the old 35mm format became a de-facto standard, these equally sized digital sensors became known as full frame sensors since the sensor would fill the full frame of a single 35mm exposure without any cropping.

The Irony of 35mm Becoming Seen as “Full Frame”Before finishing up I just want to highlight something I find quite funny — today, we consider a full frame sensor to be really big, but when the 35mm format was introduced it was mocked for being absolutely tiny! It was seen as a toy compared to the much bigger large and medium format negatives real photographers using. These were multiple inches across, not just a few tens of mm!

To understand why 35mm was seen as tiny, it’s important to remember that in the early days of photography negatives were turned into positive prints using the contact printing technique. When you make a contact print you put photographic paper behind the negative and shine light through it, this produces a print the same size as the negative, so if you wanted a 4ft by 6ft print you need a 4ft by 6ft negative!

This remained true until someone had the bright idea of inserting a lens between the negative and the photographic paper, adding some magnification. Or, to use the correct jargon, until the photographic enlarger was invented. Enlargers don’t just magnify the image, they also magnify the film grain and all imprefections, and, they spread the same amount of light over a wider area, so the image they cast is dimmed. These two factors set limits on the amount of enlarging you can get away with, and until films became fine-grained and photographic paper sufficiently sensitive, you simply couldn’t get a good image from a small negative.

As is often the case, the common wisdom that enlarging resulted in poor images out-lasted the technical reality, hence all the scoffing at those tiny 35mm film cassettes! What the engineers in Leica, and the 35mm pioneers like Cartier-Bresson knew was that enlargers, films, and papers were more than advanced enough to make great prints from small negatives!

So, today’s large full-frame sensors are yesterday’s teeny tiny toy negatives

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots Scott Willsey from the Friends with Brews Podcast – @scottaw The show starts with some followups from previous shows, some regulatory and legal news, some HR news, and some news from Apple’s various services before moving on to the three main stores — China’s very bad COVID month, Elon […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr In this solo show Bart digs into two smaller topics that wouldn’t quite be enough for a show by themselves. He starts with his thoughts on a shooting RAW on his iPhone 14 Pro for the paste few months, and moves on to reflect on his experiences […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet Scott Willsey from the Friends with Brews Podcast – @scottaw This month Bart is joined by Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast, and Scott Willsey from the Friends with Brews Podcast. The show starts with some followups from previous shows, some […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr In this solo show Bart gives his answer to a simple sounding but deceptively complex question from friend of the show Allison Sheridan — how many cameras does the iPhone 14 Pro have? Just two, one on each side? Or maybe four, three on the back and […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots Gazmaz from the My Mac Podcast – @gazmaz The show starts with some followups from previous shows, one notable number, some legal and regulatory stories, some HR news, and some news from Apple’s various services before moving on to the two main stores — Apple’s new hardware (AirPods Pro 2, […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr In this solo show Bart shares his cybersecurity advice for photographers. While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon. Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots For the first time in the show’s long history, there is no panel — it’s just Bart sharing his take on the news while all the regulars are off enjoying the last few days of summer. The new Gods also seem to have gone to the beach because there […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet – Flickr In last month’s solo show Bart shared his thoughts on the end of the SLR era, and why he thought the mirrorless future was nothing to worry abut. This month Bart chats with long-time friend of the show […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots Jeff Gamet – @jgamet Chuck Joiner from MacVoices – @chuckjoiner The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by a few Apple-related legal stories, a few Apple HR stories, and some highlights from Apple’s services. The four main stories are Apple’s Q3 2022 […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr In this solo show Bart shares his thoughts on the slow-motion end of the SLR era. Triggered by recent reporting that Nikon has stopped DSLR development, and that Canon is doing the same, Bart explains why he’s not concerned about the future of ‘big boy cameras’ (to […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet Adam Christianson from The Mac Cast – @maccast The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by a notable number, a collection of Apple-related legal stories, one Apple HR story, and some highlights from Apple’s […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr In this solo show Bart shares his recent re-discovery of the iPhone camera app’s settings screen. It’s easy to forget those settings exist, and they can enable some very powerful more advanced features in the built-in camera app. Bart also recommends two remarkable episodes of the Street […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by two short Apple-related legal stories, two Apple departures, and some highlights from Apple’s services. The four main stories are continued COVID chaos, continued crankiness in Apple’s […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr In this solo show Bart makes the argument that it’s not just OK to process your photos, you probably should! While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon. […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr A quick update from Bart posted only to the old feed advising listeners that the show has moved to a new feed. In theory, podcasting clients should have moved to the new feed automatically because the appropriate metadata was added to the old feed. But theory and […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots Elaine Giles from MacBites – @elainegiles Scott Willsey from the Friends with Beer Podcast – @scottaw The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by two short Apple-related legal stories, one Apple hire, and some highlights from Apple’s services. The four main stories […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr Jeff Gamet – @jgamet This month Bart is joined by Jeff Gamet for a chat about shooting macro shots with iPhones. The conversation is built around critiquing the 10 winning photos from Apple’s recent macro photography contest, but it’s much broader than that, and filled with tips, […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots Charlotte Henry from The Addition – @charlotteahenry The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by one notable number, some some Apple-related legal news, a little Apple HR & acquisitions news, and some highlights from Apple’s services. The three main stories are the […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr Ward Rosin from the Street Shots Podcast & The Unusual Collective – @wrosinphoto – Flickr This month Ward Rosin joins Bart to evangelise the work of German-born photographer Evelyn Hofer. Hofer’s work is varied and arresting, and includes some amazing colour street shots from the cities all around […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots Rod Simmons from

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr In this solo show Bart tries to inspire you to think in terms of small collections of related images that work together to become more than the sum of their parts. In other words, Bart tries to inspire you think beyond single photos, and shoot little series […]

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Panel: Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots Rosemary Orchard from various podcasts – @RosemaryOrchard The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by some some Apple-related legal news, a little Apple HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s original content and subscription services. The four main stories are Intel’s new […]

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Panel Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr Antonio Rosario from the Street Shots Podcast & The Unusual Collective – @amrosario – Flickr Ward Rosin from the Street Shots Podcast & The Unusual Collective – @wrosinphoto – Flickr Bart chats with Antonio Rosario and Ward Rosin about the photography collective they’re deeply involved in — ‘Unusual Collective’. […]

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Panel: * Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots * Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet

The show starts with some reflections on making it to 100 shows. With the navel-gazing out of the way the show moves on to the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by some some Apple-related legal news, quite a bit of Apple HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s original content and subscription services. The three main stories are Apple’s secret deal with China in 2016, the problems in Apple’s Indian factory, and the new features in Apple’s latest OS updates. The show ends with a quick rundown of some smaller Apple-related stories that made the news in December.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta100.mp3 Updates & Followup Quick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

COVID is causing fresh problems for Apple:
- COVID–19 outbreak closes Apple Store in Texas — www.imore.com/…
- Apple covers up again as mask requirements return in US stores — www.imore.com/…
- Apple closes three retail stores in U.S. and Canada due to COVID–19 — www.imore.com/…
- Seven more Apple Stores close due to COVID–19 outbreaks — www.imore.com/…
- Apple closes more stores in NYC, offering curbside pickup for online orders — www.imore.com/…
- Apple delays employee return to office again, new date ‘yet to be determined’ — 9to5mac.com/…
Regulatory pressure continues to mount on Apple:
- The UK’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) published a report strongly critical of Apple & Google’s ‘duopoly’, but recommend no action be taken, at least for now — www.imore.com/…
- Poland opens investigation into Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature — www.imore.com/…
- Apple Must Let Dating Apps Offer Alternative Payment Options in the App Store, Dutch Regulator Says — gizmodo.com/… (Apple have 2 months to comply)
- The India Competition Commission launching probe into Apple’s App Store payment system — www.imore.com/…
Fallout continues from the #AppleToo movement:
- SEC rejects Apple’s bid to block three shareholder proposals — arstechnica.com & SEC blocks Apple’s bid to stop shareholders’ radical NDA proposal — www.imore.com/…
- Apple shareholders seek civil-rights audit following employee controversies — www.imore.com/… (not one of the proposals covered by the SEC ruling)
- AppleToo organizer Cher Scarlett is no longer withdrawing her National Labor Relations Board complaint against the company — www.imore.com/…
- The US Department of Labour has opened an investigation into Apple, officially they have not said what they’re investigating, but reports say it’s related to potential retaliation against former employee Ashley Gjovik who was fired by Apple in September — www.imore.com/…
- Apple employee group plans walkout on Christmas Eve — www.imore.com/…
  - As best as I can tell this was a bit of a damp squib with just 50 workers actually walking out: www.huffpost.com/…
Some more developments related to repairing Apple products:
- iOS 15.2 Adds ‘Parts and Service History’ Feature to iPhone — www.macrumors.com/…
- Apple Giving Customers a Second Chance to Buy AppleCare+ After Their iPhone or Mac is Repaired — www.macrumors.com/…
NSO Group/Pegasus:
- Pegasus spyware maker NSO is burning cash and considering closure — www.imore.com/…
- The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse — arstechnica.com/…

Legal Latest * Apple -v- Epic: Apple won a last-minute stay on the injunction ordering them to allow 3rd-party in-app payments by 9 December, the injunction lasts until Apple’s appeal is resolved — arstechnica.com/… * Apple are suing Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service to overturn a ruling issued against it in August regarding anti-steering rules in the App Store — www.imore.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News * The Apple Car project has lost three more engineers — www.imore.com/… + Eric Rogers (chief engineer for radar systems) has moved to flying-taxi startup Joby Aviation Inc. + Alex Clarabut (battery team manager) & Stephen Spiteri (a hardware engineering team manager) have moved to Archer Aviation Inc, another flying-taxi startup. * Apple University dean Joel Podolny leaves company for startup — www.imore.com/… * Nick Law, Apple advertising VP, is leaving for pastures new — www.imore.com/… * Apple is building a new team to bring its wireless chip design in-house — www.imore.com/… * Related: Meta have reportedly been succeeding in hiring away about 100 Apple engineers in recent months, and Bloomberg now report Apple are responding by offering rare bonuses of up to $180k to senior engineers to keep them at Apple — www.bloomberg.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights * Apple TV+ + Yet more nominations & awards: - Apple TV+ Earns Nine Critics Choice Awards Television Nominations — www.macobserver.com/… * Best Drama Series – For All Mankind * Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series – Billy Crudup (The Morning Show) * Best Comedy Series – Ted Lasso * Best Actor in a Comedy Series – Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso) * Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series – Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent in Ted Lasso) * Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series – Kristin Chenoweth (Schmigadoon!) * Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series – Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso) * Best Movie Made for Television – Come From Away * Best Foreign Language Series – Acapulco - Apple TV+ earns Six Critics Choice Film Awards nominations — www.imore.com/… * CODA nominated for: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay & Best Young Actor/Actress * The Tragedy of Macbeth nominated for: Best Actor & Best Cinematography - Apple TV+ won 4 American Film Institute Awards — www.afi.com/… * CODA & The Tragedy of Macbeth were listed in the top 10 films of 2021 * Ted Lasso & Schmigadoon! were listed in the top 10 TV shows of 2021 - Related: A ‘Ted Lasso’ Animated Short Holiday Special Just Dropped — www.macobserver.com/… + Apple TV+, Netflix, Disney+, more agree to pump $330m into French content — www.imore.com/… * Apple Maps: + Apple rolls out its new 3D map in Philadelphia — www.imore.com/…

Main Stories 1. Apple in China * The Information have revealed details of a deal Apple struck with China in 2016: Inside Tim Cook’s Secret $275 Billion Deal with Chinese Authorities — www.theinformation.com/… + Good summary and analysis from John Gruber — daringfireball.net/… & daringfireball.net/… * Related: Apple became the dominant phone brand in China in October of 2021 — www.imore.com/… 2. Trouble in India: Worker protests, mass illness lead Apple to put iPhone plant on probation — arstechnica.com (the plant in question is run by Foxconn) * Living and Working Conditions at India iPhone Plant Truly Reprehensible — www.macobserver.com/… * Women force change at Indian iPhone plant, sick from bad food, crowded dorms — www.reuters.com/… 3. Significant OS Feature updates — arstechnica.com/…, www.macobserver.com/… & arstechnica.com/… * SharePlay arrives on the Mac: How to Use FaceTime Screen Sharing and SharePlay — tidbits.com/… + Related: Disney+ adds support for SharePlay on iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV — www.imore.com/… * Apple’s voice-only Apple Music subscription goes live: How to use the Apple Music Voice Plan — www.imore.com/… + Related: 21+ things you can ask Siri to do in Apple Music Voice Plan — www.applemust.com/… * iOS/iPadOS get the promised App Privacy Report feature: Understanding iOS and iPadOS App Privacy Report – The Mac Security Blog — www.intego.com/… * iOS get support for Digital Legacy (Legacy Contacts can restore your iCloud backup to an iOS device of theirs when they provide Apple a death certificate): How to set up a Legacy Contact on iPhone and iPad — www.imore.com/… & Apple Digital Legacy: Everything you need to know! — www.imore.com/… * The non-controversial Child Protection features go live (Siri answers & parental control for nudity warnings in Messages) + Related: Apple Updates ‘Child Safety’ Webpage to Remove Mention of CSAM Fingerprint Matching, But Feature May Still Be Forthcoming — daringfireball.net/… & Apple scrubs controversial CSAM detection feature from webpage but says plans haven’t changed — www.theverge.com/… * You can enable a toggle for macro mode on iOS on supported iPhones 13. * Related: Apple officially delays macOS Monterey’s Universal Control until spring ’22 — www.imore.com/…

Quick Stories * Apple celebrates 10th anniversary of Employee Giving, $725 million raised — www.imore.com/… * Apple joins Boys & Girls Clubs of America to ‘bring new coding opportunities’ to kids — www.imore.com/… * Apple launches new open source website for developers — www.imore.com/…

Legend Note: When the textual description of a link is part of the link it is the title of the page being linked to, when the text describing a link is not part of the link it is a description written by Bart.

| Emoji | Meaning | | --- | --- | | | A link to audio content, probably a podcast. | | flag | The story is particularly relevant to people living in a specific country, or, the organisation the story is about is affiliated with the government of a specific country. | | | A link to graphical content, probably a chart, graph, or diagram. | | | A link to an article behind a pay-wall. | | | A pinned story, i.e. one to keep an eye on that’s likely to develop into something significant in the future. |

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Panel * Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr

In this solo show Bart evangelises the importance of taking time to take stock, looks back at his own Photographic 2021, and sets some goals for 2022.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp99.mp3

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Panel: * Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots * Charles Edge from the Mac Admins Podcast – @cedge318

The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by some some Apple-related legal news, quite a bit of Apple HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s original content and subscription services. The four main stories are Apple’s new self service repair program, Apple’s renewed focus on business and enterprise customers, Apple’s suit against the NSO Group (makers of the Pegasus spyware), and the faux-scandal around Apple buying ads for apps they sell in their App Store. The show ends with a quick rundown of some smaller Apple-related stories that made the news in November.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta99.mp3 Updates & Followup Quick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

ATT/Privacy: Apple Adds Private Click Measurement to In-App Advertising in iOS 15.2 — www.macobserver.com/…
Digital IDs: Apple delays iOS 15’s driver’s license support until ‘early 2022’ — www.imore.com/…
- Related: Report details the control Apple has over states & their digital ID card rollout — www.imore.com/…
The colourful new HomePods are now available in Australia, New Zealand, India, Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain & the UK — www.macobserver.com/…
Continuing Scrutiny from Regulators:
- South Korea lawmakers ‘not satisfied’ with Apple’s IAP compliance — www.imore.com/…
- The DMA comes closer to being a reality: EU countries agree on common stance on new rules for U.S. tech giants — www.reuters.com/…
- Apple fined $150M over Italy sales agreement with Amazon — www.imore.com/…
- Italy’s antitrust regulator fines Google, Apple over data use — www.reuters.com/…
- Apple questioned over app age ratings in the UK — www.imore.com/… (Google questioned too)
Continuing Friction with Authoritarian Regimes:
- Russia demands Apple must set itself up in the country by the end of 2021 — www.imore.com/…
- Popular flight tracker Flightradar24 removed from app stores in China — www.imore.com/…
- Related: Apple seeks exemptions from tariffs on Apple Watch, Mac Pro parts — www.imore.com/…
- Related: Apple’s worldwide national security report shows drop in data requests during 2020 US election — www.cnet.com/… (The reporting period ends just before the January 6th insurrection in the US, so the numbers are not all that interesting)

Legal Latest * Apple -v- Epic: + The US Case: - U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers rejected Apple’s request for a delay on the December 9th deadline for the App Store changes she ordered in her recent ruling —arstechnica.com & www.macobserver.com/… - Apple have appealed that rejection to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — www.imore.com/… + Apple vs Epic to proceed in Australia after bid to delay rejected — www.imore.com/… + Related: Netflix have rolled out their subscription gaming service on iOS. Each game is listed on the App Store separately — www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/… * Apple to pay retail workers $30 million over security bag checks — www.imore.com/… * Apple one step closer to settling $100M App Store lawsuit with developers — www.imore.com/… * After 10 people were killed in a crowd surge at the Travis Scott Astroworld Festival on November 5th, 125 survivors are suing Apple Music, Epic Records, Travis Scott, Drake & Live Nation for $750M for ‘the loss of mental and physical health, and human life’ (Apple Music streamed the ill-fated concert live) — www.imore.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News * Apple have updated their Return to Work plan – the current target is to return to the Office on the first of February, though the company have made some concessions to workers, testing a hybrid working model, and allowing workers to work from home for more full weeks each year — www.imore.com/… * Cher Scarlett, one of the driving forces behind the #AppleToo movement has resigned from Apple after agreeing a settlement with the company — www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/… + Related: Apple affirms employee rights to discuss working conditions externally — www.imore.com/… + Related: Research reveals Apple salaries for engineers, developers, and more — www.imore.com/… * Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky has joined Apple’s board as a director — www.imore.com/… * Sam Jadallah, Apple’s head of Home Services is leaving Apple after just 2 years, and we don’t know where he’s going, if anywhere — www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/… * AppleCare Senior Director Randy Teele Joins GameStop — www.macobserver.com/… * Former Tesla engineer Michael Schwekutsch has left Apple to become senior Vice President of Engineering at Archer, a VTOL electric air taxi startup — www.imore.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights * Apple Music + Tencent Music Entertainment and Apple Music Strike Worldwide Deal For Chinese Catalog — www.macobserver.com/… + Apple celebrates 40 years in France with new Apple Music studio in Paris — www.imore.com/… + LG smart TVs now have an Apple Music app — www.imore.com/… * Apple Arcade continues to roll out new games: + Grab Kingdom Rush Frontiers TD & Galaga Wars+ in Apple Arcade now — www.imore.com/… + LEGO Star Wars: Castaways is building something big on Apple Arcade today — www.imore.com/… * Apple TV+ + Tom Hanks’ ‘Finch’ posts the biggest opening weekend ever for Apple TV+ — www.imore.com/… + Apple TV+ increased its market share by 1% in the third quarter of 2021 — www.imore.com/… + Yet more nominations and awards: - ‘CODA’ Receives Nine Hollywood Critics Association Film Award nominations — www.macobserver.com/… - Apple TV+ show ‘Tehran’ picks up Best Drama at 2021 International Emmy Awards — www.imore.com/… - Apple TV+ movie ‘CODA’ scoops two Gotham awards — www.imore.com/… + Related: Amazon brings Prime Video to the Mac App Store, including purchases — www.imore.com/… * Apple Continues to roll out Maps improvements around the world: + Apple Maps launches new 3D map in Washington D.C. — www.imore.com/… + Apple Maps in Germany And Spain Lets Users Report Accidents and Hazards — www.macobserver.com/…

Main Stories 1. Apple’s new Self Service Repair program – US-only at first, and starting with most common iPhone repairs, but expanding to more countries and more products over the next year — www.apple.com/… * Apple announces new Self Service repairs for iPhone 12, iPhone 13 — www.imore.com/… * iFixit hails ‘huge’ Apple repair changes, but wants more — www.imore.com/… * Analysts Find Not Many iPhone Owners Will Use Apple Self Service Repair — www.macobserver.com/… * Related: Third-party iPhone 13 screen repairs won’t break Face ID after upcoming software update — www.imore.com/… * Opinion: Apple’s New Self Service Repair Program — daringfireball.net/… 2. Apple’s renewed focus on Business & Enterprise customers: * New Apple Business Essentials Brings Device Management for Small Businesses — www.macobserver.com/… + New Video Explains Apple Business Essentials — www.macobserver.com/… * Apple Rolling Out New MacBook Upgrade Program For Businesses — www.macobserver.com/… 3. Apple sues the NSO group, the makers of the Pegasus spyware in the US — www.apple.com/… * Apple believe they have standing to take the case in the US because NSO Group signed up for hundreds of Apple IDs to spread their spyware, hence entering into a contract with Apple under California law. * Apple are asking that the NSO Group be forbidden to use any Apple products or services, seeking compensation for the work they had to put in to fighting Pegasus, and punitive damages. * Apple also announced that they are contributing $10M to organisations like Media Lab that seek out and expose spyware like Pegasus * Apple Lawsuit Goes After Spyware Firm NSO Group — tidbits.com/… * Related: Here’s how Apple will warn you if you’re under state-sponsored spyware attack — www.imore.com/… * Related: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware – sources — www.reuters.com/… 4. The Kerfuffle over the ads Apple buys for apps they sell in their app store * The original article: Apple Quietly Buying Ads Via Google For High-Value Subscription Apps To Capture App Publisher Revenue — www.forbes.com/… * Editorial by Bart: + There is nothing secret about these ads – they were clearly labeled as ads for the App Store, and they take users to the app store + Apple have been doing this for years, and far from being a nefarious plot, it’s a great value-add for developers — one of the value propositions Apple offers developers is publicity for their apps! + It’s completely normal for a shop to advertise what they sell! - I see ads for Merrell, Under Armour, Sketchers & New Balance hiking shoes & trainers from Sports Direct all over the place — web ads, email blasts, billboards, store-front posters, and more! Sports Direct know I’m hard on footwear because I do over 20K steps a day, and that I love those brands, so they advertise heavily at me to keep getting me to buy from their store, and it works! Is that a plot to somehow defraud Merrell or Sketchers? Hardly!

Quick Stories * Apple announced some awards of their own: + Apple announces third annual Apple Music Award winners including The Weeknd — www.imore.com/… + Apple hails best podcasts of 2021 — www.imore.com/… + Apple announces winners of 2021 App Store Awards — www.imore.com/… * New headphones in time for the holidays: + Beats partners with fragment design on limited-edition Beats Flex — www.imore.com/… + Beats announces limited-edition Beats Studio Buds in collab with Union — www.imore.com/… * Update to Apple Store App Lets You Save Products to Lists — www.macobserver.com/… * Apple says customers have raised $270 million for AIDS fight with RED — www.imore.com/… + Apple have also released new Product Red Apple Watch faces — www.imore.com/… * Apple Releases iCloud for Windows 13 With Support for ProRes, ProRAW, and Strong Password Generation — www.macrumors.com/… * Targus’ unveils new EcoSmart Backpack with built-in Apple Find My support — www.imore.com/… * Canonical’s new Multipass 1.8 runs Ubuntu Linux in a VM on M1 Macs — www.imore.com/…

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Panel * Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr * Jeff Curto – @jeffcurto

This month Bart chats with returning guest Jeff Curto about shooting engaging images of buildings.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp98.mp3 Links * Jeff’s Photography — jeffcurto.com/… * Jeff’s Photography Resources (including his free Basic Photography eBook) — jeffcurto.com/… * Jeff’s Podcasts — jeffcurto.com/… * Jeff’s Previous appearances on the show: + Episode 35 — photo history + Episode 64 — The Art and Technology Dance + Episode 86 — Jeff Curto on Olivia Parker

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Panel: * Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots * Chuck Joiner from MacVoices – @chuckjoiner * Lynda Gousha from the Silicon Valley MUG – @llg4cdg

The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by some some Apple-related legal news, and some highlights from Apple’s original content and subscription services. The three main stories are Apple’s ‘Unleashed’ event, the release of macOS Monterey, and Apple’s Q4 2021 earnings call. The show ends with a quick rundown of some smaller Apple-related stories that made the news in October.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta98.mp3 Updates & Followup Quick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Ecobee make use of the new features announced at WWDC to add Siri to their SmartThermostats — www.imore.com/…
Apple backpedals on almost all changes made to Safari — www.imore.com/…
As promised in last month’s keynote: Apple Fitness+ expands to fifteen new countries — www.imore.com/…
- Related: The Apple One Premier subscription bundle rolls out to 17 new countries — www.imore.com/…
- Related: The new countries are not getting Apple News+, but three more American cities are getting local news via News (Washington DC, Charlotte NC & Miami FL) — www.imore.com/…
AppleToo developments:
- Apple have fired Janneke Parrish, one of the leaders of the #AppleToo movement for interfering in an investigation into product leaks. Their supporters are portraying the ground as a technicality, but that’s just one side of the story, and Apple are not commenting — www.imore.com/… & daringfireball.net/… (The accusation is interfering in a company investigation into product leaks)
- Parrish went on to file labor charge against Apple — www.theverge.com/…
Pegasus Spyware/NSO Group developments:
- Pegasus Project: European Parliament awards journalism prize to investigation of use of spyware — www.brusselstimes.com/…
- Pegasus spyware maker NSO added to Entity List as a national security threat — www.imore.com/…
The fallout from iOS 14’s App Tracking Transparency continues:
- Snap shares plummet 25% as it reveals Apple privacy changes crushed ads — www.imore.com/…
- Facebook, Google earnings show mixed impact of iOS 14 changes — www.imore.com/…
- Peloton says Apple privacy changes partly to blame for revised outlook — www.imore.com/…
- Customer feedback on iPhone tracking changes ‘overwhelmingly positive’ — www.imore.com/…
Apple continue their fight against side-loading:
- Apple have released a 47-page white paper detailing the dangers as they see them — www.tomsguide.com/…
  - The PDF — www.apple.com/…
- Craig Federighi spoke strongly and passionately against side-loading at the Web Summit in Lisbon — www.imore.com/… & arstechnica.com/…
China’s authoritarian regime continues to cause headaches for Apple & other tech companies:
- Did China just force Apple to remove a Quran app from the App Store? — www.imore.com/…
- Audible App Unavailable in China App Store [Updated] — www.macobserver.com/…
- Yahoo Finance and Bible App Amongst Latest to be Removed From China App Store — www.macobserver.com/…
- Yahoo Exits China Due to ‘Challenging’ Environment — www.macobserver.com/…

Legal Latest * Apple -v- Epic: + Epic Games files opposition to Apple appeal in App Store case — www.imore.com/… + Apple updated it’s developer guidelines in line with the Epic ruling, allowing developers to ask for contact information to contact users outside the app, and announcing a new in-app events API — www.imore.com/… - The actual changes — developer.apple.com/… - In-app events will come to the App Store on October 27 — www.imore.com/… + Apple filed paperwork with the court describing the changes above as complying with part of the court order, and asking for a stay on implementing the provision to allow steering — www.imore.com/… + Related: Mark Zuckerberg unveils plan to bypass Apple’s 30% fees — www.imore.com/… * South Korean -v- Google & Apple: + Google unveils South Korea alternative billing system, fees still attached — www.imore.com/… - Opinion: John Gruber points out that Google’s move to charge commission even via alternative payment providers will prove an interesting test case — daringfireball.net/… + Related: Apple South Korea head resigns amidst App Store payments scrutiny — www.imore.com/… (It’s not at all clear there is any connection) + Related: Google has reduced it’s PlayStore cut from 30% to 15%, and as low as 10% for some kinds of in-app content — www.macobserver.com/… * Russia opens antitrust case against Apple’s App Store — www.imore.com/… * Apple says $1.3 billion France fine should be overturned — www.imore.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights * Apple TV+ continues to go strong as it reaches its second birthday + Apple TV+ breaks into weekly streaming charts with ‘Ted Lasso’ — www.imore.com/… & Apple TV+’s ‘Ted Lasso’ finale sees strong viewership but can’t compete with Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ — www.imore.com/… + ‘Finch’, ‘Dickinson’ Season Three, and ’Hello, Jack! The Kindness Show Out Now on Apple TV+ — www.macobserver.com/… + Mariah Carey returns for Apple TV+ Christmas special — www.imore.com/… + Access to Apple TV+ continues to get easier: - LG offers its smart TV customers a free three-month Apple TV+ trial — www.imore.com/… - Latest Amazon TVs Will Support AirPlay 2, HomeKit — www.macobserver.com/… - Apple TV Plus Is Coming to Comcast’s Xfinity and Other Video Platforms — variety.com/… - Apple TV+ coming to Sky Glass and Sky Q — www.imore.com/… + Related: New report says Apple is battling TV+ piracy online — www.imore.com/… + Related: Apple TV+ bags 20th Television’s Erin May as a new senior creative executive — www.imore.com/… * New games continue to flow into Apple Arcade regularly + Tiny Wings+ has flapped its way into Apple Arcade — download now! — www.imore.com/… + ‘NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition’ Now Available to Play on Apple Arcade — www.macobserver.com/… + Official Crayola Game ‘Crayola Create and Play+’ Now on Apple Arcade — www.macobserver.com/… + Transformers: Tactical Arena has rolled out to Apple Arcade — www.imore.com/… + Related: Netflix launches video games for members on Android — www.brusselstimes.com/… * Maps improvements continue to roll out around the world: + Improved Apple Maps rolling out in Australia — www.imore.com/… * ApplePay’s world-wide rollout continues: + Express Travel with Apple Pay comes to Skånetrafiken in Sweden — www.imore.com/… + Apple Pay comes to Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, and Colombia — www.imore.com/…

Main Stories 1. “Unleashed” Event * Here’s how to re-watch Apple’s ‘Unleashed’ MacBook Pro event — www.imore.com/… * Apple announces new third-generation AirPods featuring Spatial Audio — www.imore.com/… + What Does the AirPods IPX4 Rating Mean? — www.macobserver.com/… + AirPods Pro are now available with the new MagSafe Charging Case — www.imore.com/… * Apple announces new HomePod mini colors and new Apple Music plan — www.imore.com/… + Related: Apple have re-hired Afrooz Familyto head the HomePod team – he left Apple in 2016 to co-found the audio startup Syng — www.imore.com/… * Apple announce a new Apple Music Voice Plan for Siri-only access to Apple’s entire catalogue with no ads and infinite skips for $4.99p.m. — www.apple.com/… + Apple Music Voice Plan: Everything you need to know — www.imore.com/… + Related: - Apple rolls out new Apple Music playlists — www.imore.com/… & A Comprehensive Guide to 250+ of Apple Music’s New Mood and Activity Playlists – MacStories — www.macstories.net/… - Apple Music is now officially available on PS5 — www.imore.com/… - Travis Scott ‘Astroworld’ Performance To Stream Exclusively on Apple Music — www.macobserver.com/… + Context: Spotify has nothing similar, but Amazon has an Amazon Music Echo plan for $4p.m. — daringfireball.net/… + Related Opinion: Trying to Understand Why The Apple Music Voice Plan Exists — www.macobserver.com/… * Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max chips: Everything you need to know — www.imore.com/… + Related: Rene Richie interviewed Apple executives Tom Boger & Tim Millet about the new chips. You can watch the video on YouTube or listen to it on his podcast — youtu.be/… & podcasts.apple.com/… * Apple intros 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros with display notches, M1 Pro, and M1 Max — arstechnica.com + Apple’s new MagSafe cable now comes separate from power adapter — www.imore.com/… + MacBook Pro’s 140W adapter is Apple’s first GaN charger — www.imore.com/… + It Costs Another US$20 to Get Fast Charging For The New 14-Inch MacBook Pro — www.macobserver.com/… + Apple updates Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for new MacBook with M1 Pro and M1 Max — www.imore.com/… & iMovie gets update for iPhone 13’s cinematic mode, new MacBook Pro chips — www.imore.com/… + The notch causes controversy: - MacBook Pro Notch Menu Bar Issues Surface — www.macobserver.com/… - Apple’s new MacBook Pro can use the full screen around notch — www.imore.com/… - How to adjust an app’s settings to appear below the camera area on your 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro — support.apple.com/… - Update for Menu Bar Organizer ‘Bartender’ Supports MacBook Pro Notch — www.macobserver.com/… + New MacBook Pro teardown reveals big internal upgrades — www.imore.com/… + Review: 2021 MacBook Pro review: Yep, it’s what you’ve been waiting for — arstechnica.com * Related: Apple cuts another Intel tie by discontinuing 21.5-inch iMac — arstechnica.com * Just for Fun: A Song Made From Apple Sounds — www.macobserver.com/… (featured in the keynote) 2. macOS Monterey is Now Available — www.macobserver.com/… * Universal Control was not ready to launch with the OS, it will come out later this fall — www.imore.com/… * How to Use Focus to Limit Notifications in iOS 15 and macOS Monterey – The Mac Security Blog — www.intego.com/… * Apple Support: How to use Shortcuts on Mac — www.loopinsight.com/… * Apple rolls out fix for macOS Monterey bug that bricked some Macs with the T2 chip — 9to5mac.com/… * Trivial Fun: Apple didn’t release a photo background for Monterey, so a group of photographers did! — www.vyncher.com/… (I’m using it, and love it) * Related: iOS 15.1 Adds SharePlay, ProRes Video Capture, and Vaccination Cards in Wallet — www.macobserver.com/… * Reviews: + macOS Monterey review: A worthy update with some holes still to fill — www.imore.com/… + macOS 12 Monterey: The Ars Technica review — arstechnica.com/… 3. Apple’s Q4 2021 Earnings Call — Apple announces record fourth quarter — sixcolors.com/… * Apple Reports EPS of $1.24 on $83B in Revenues for September Quarter — www.macobserver.com/… * Despite huge iPhone sales, Apple misses the mark in Q4 earnings report — arstechnica.com * Apple experienced $6 billion in supply constraints in Q4 2021 — www.imore.com/… * Apple shares slide as Tim Cook warns of holiday supply constraints — www.imore.com/… * Apple earned $1 billion every day this financial year — www.imore.com/… + Related: Microsoft passes Apple as world’s most valuable company — www.imore.com/… (still higher on 6 Nov)

Quick Stories * As expected, Apple is doing it’s bit on climate change in time for COP26 + Apple announces big environmental leaps ahead of COP26 — www.imore.com/… + Apple joins Imec’s new Sustainable Semiconductor research program — www.imore.com/… + Apple joins First Movers Coalition as part of company’s environmental goals — www.imore.com/… + Related: Jane Goodall interviews Lisa Jackson on her excellent Hopecast — overcast.fm/… * Apple joins the Blender Development Fund, will help out with ‘engineering expertise’ — www.imore.com/… * Beats ditches the Powerbeats, Beats Solo Pro, and Beats EP as Fit Pro earbuds arrive — www.imore.com/… * Apple reportedly has hired CJ Moore, a former head of Tesla’s Autopilot team to join its car project under fellow Tesla alum Stuart Bowers who joined Apple last year — www.imore.com/… * Tile takes on Apple’s AirTag with its new item tracker lineup — www.imore.com/…

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Panel * Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots – Flickr * Doug Ingram – @nightscapades – Flickr

This month Bart chats with Australian photographer Doug Ingram, better known as Nightscapades, about the art and craft of shooting so-called ‘nightscapes’. Depending on the shot and your point of view a nightscape can be described as a landscape that includes the night sky, or a nigh-sky shot that includes at least some of the landscape below.

While this podcast is free for you to enjoy, it’s not free for Bart to create. Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron on Patreon.

Reminder – you can submit questions for future Q & A shows at http://lets-talk.ie/photoq

https://media.lets-talk.ie/ltp/ltp97.mp3 Links * Doug’s Website – nightscapades.com/… * Doug’s Instagram — @nightscapades

Doug’s first ever night time photograph:

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Panel: * Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots * Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Podcast – @podfeet * Adam Christianson from The Mac Cast – @maccast

The show starts with the usual followups and updates on long-running stories. That’s followed by some some Apple-related legal news, some Apple HR news, and some highlights from Apple’s original content and subscription services. The four main stories are Apple’s on-going Antitrust woes, The EU’s proposed USB-C mandate, Apple’s ‘California Streaming’ event, and reflections on the decade since Steve Jobs’s death. The show ends with a quick rundown of some smaller Apple-related stories that made the news in September.

https://media.lets-talk.ie/lta/lta97.mp3 Updates & Followup Quick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

Apple Delays CSAM Detection Launch — tidbits.com/…
- Privacy Advocates Deliver 59,000 Petition Signatures to Apple Over CSAM Detection — www.macobserver.com/…
- Priti Patel (UK Home Secretary) says Apple should see through CSAM photo scanning measures — www.imore.com/…
Apple have announced more details of their up-coming digital IDs — www.apple.com/…
- Arizona & Georgia will be the first states to support the IDs, followed by Connecticut, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma & Utah, and the TSA (Transport Safety Authority) will deploy readers are some airports.
- Apple released a lot of technical detail, and seem to have thought of all the most likely attacks/risks, and countered them
- The technology is based on a new ISO standard Apple helped develop that has now been published — www.macobserver.com/…
The employee discontent story rumbles on:
- AppleToo Workers File First Two Labor Law Complaints — www.macobserver.com/…
- AppleToo calls for change in open letter to Tim Cook — www.imore.com/…
- People chief Deirdre O’Brien tells Apple employees to talk to their managers about pay and other concerns — www.imore.com/…
- Apple shareholders seek huge upheaval over employee NDA agreements — www.imore.com/…
- Apple fires employee who complained about harassment over leak — www.imore.com/…
- Tim Cook addresses pay, diversity, privacy, and more at internal Apple meeting — www.imore.com/…
- Tim Cook says employees who leak memos do not belong at Apple, according to leaked memo — www.theverge.com/…
  - Related: Former Apple employee faces criminal charges over trade secrets leak — www.imore.com/…
- According to Business Insider, things are not good in Apple’s health division: Apple dreamed of making healthcare easy. Then it silenced its medical experts. — www.businessinsider.com/… & Apple refutes report that claims its health team is in turmoil — www.imore.com/…
Some more Pegasus/NSO Group Developments:
- Apple patches “FORCEDENTRY” zero-day exploited by Pegasus spyware — arstechnica.com
- Germany Secretly Purchased NSO Group Spyware ‘Pegasus’ — www.macobserver.com/…
- Pegasus spyware found on 5 French cabinet members’ phones – The Mac Security Blog — www.intego.com/…
Ireland commits to global minimum corporation tax of 15% — www.imore.com/…
More Authoritarian Troubles:
- Russia accuses Apple of election interference over Navalny app — www.imore.com/… & Apple removes Navalny app from App Store hours before Russia election — www.imore.com/…
- Apple appears to have disabled iCloud Private Relay in Russia for reasons unknown — www.imore.com/…
Work to get Linux onto M1 Macs is progressing faster than many expected: Linux is now ‘usable’ on Apple’s M1 Macs — www.imore.com/…
Most of Apple’s new OSes for the year are out (but not macOS): iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15 Now Available — tidbits.com/…
- Apple Releases iOS 15 With Live Text, Shared With You, Focus, and More — www.macobserver.com/…
- Apple Releases iPadOS 15 With Widgets, Quick Note, App Library, and More — www.macobserver.com/…
- watchOS 8 review: Letting you accomplish more from your wrist — www.imore.com/…
- Apple releases Safari 15 with its controversial tab redesign — www.imore.com/…
- Siri will speak Italian on Apple TV and HomePod once tvOS 15 is released — www.imore.com/…

Legal Latest * A federal judge has allowed a lawsuit against Apple over privacy violations caused by human review of unintentional activations to proceed, though he did dismiss the other claim in the suit related to CA’s unfair competition law — www.macobserver.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News * The apparently struggling Apple Car project gets another change of leadership: + Head of Apple Car project Doug Field leaves the company for Ford — www.imore.com/… + Apple Watch Software Chief Kevin Lynch Takes Over Apple Car Group — www.macobserver.com/… + Related: Apple taps Mercedes engineers for ‘special project’, likely Apple Car — www.imore.com/… * Long-Time Indie Developer Wil Shipley Joins Apple — www.macobserver.com/… * One retirement and some promotions — www.imore.com/… + Apple’s Corporate Treasurer Gary Wipfler is retiring, and is being replaced from within by Michael Shapiro + Alan Gilchrist becomes vice president of engineering for custom silicon and battery technology + Eden Sears has been promoted from senior director of brand marketing for the iPhone and iPad to * vice president of brand* + Two members of Craig Federighi’s team have been promoted to VP, Stacey Lysik & Ron Huang * TIME names Tim Cook one of the world’s most influential people — www.imore.com/… & Deirdre O’Brien and Lisa Jackson among Fortune’s ‘Most Powerful Women’ — www.imore.com/…

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights * The nominations and awards keeping coming for Apple TV+: + Apple TV+ Shows ‘Trying’ And ‘Ted Lasso’ Earn Edinburgh TV Awards Nominations — www.macobserver.com/… + Apple TV+ earns seven Creative Emmy Awards for ‘Ted Lasso,’ ‘Calls,’ more — www.imore.com/… + ‘Ted Lasso’ wins big at the Television Critics Association Awards — www.imore.com/… (‘Outstanding New Program’, ‘Outstanding Achievement in Comedy’ & ‘Program of the Year’) + ‘Ted Lasso’ Scores Historic Win at 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards — www.macobserver.com/… (‘Outstanding Comedy Series’, Jason Sudeiki for ‘Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series’, Brett Goldstein for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series’ & Hannah Waddingham for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series’) * More Apple TV+ Device Support: 2016/17 LG TV owners can now use a new Apple TV+ app for their ‘Ted Lasso’ fix — www.imore.com/… * Apple Arcade keeps expanding: Hit game Crossy Road+ is now available for download in Apple Arcade — www.imore.com/… * Apple Music now supports dynamic head tracking with Spatial Audio — www.imore.com/… * Apple Maps keeps improving: + Apple details iOS 15 Maps improvements, plans for 3D view expansion — www.imore.com/… - London, LA, NYC & the San Francisco Bay Area get 3D maps now - Philadelphia, San Diego & Washington, D.C will get 3D maps later this year - More cities including Montreal, Toronto & Vancouver will get 3D maps next year + Apple rolls out huge Maps upgrade in Italy and Andorra — www.imore.com/…

Main Stories 1. A Lot of Anti-trust Developments * Apple and Google Told to Submit Compliance Plans For New South Korea App Store Law Within Days — www.macobserver.com/… * Apple reached as settlement with Japanese regulators, agreeing to end it’s anti-steering provision for reader apps — daringfireball.net/…, www.imore.com/… & arstechnica.com + Related: Spotify says further App Store concessions still not enough — www.imore.com/… * Judge Gonzalez Rogers issued her ruling in the Epic -v- Apple case: daringfireball.net/… & tidbits.com/… + Apple won on 9 out of 10 counts, and are ruled not to be monopolists + Apple lose on their anti-steering provision, and there’s an injunction opening up referrals to outside payments to all apps (not just reader apps like in the Japanese case) + Many initial media reports cast it as a win for Epic, but that soon shifted as it became clear Epic are very unhappy and are appealing (making Fornight fans cranky) — www.imore.com/… & www.imore.com/… + Apple immediately declared victory, stressing the fact that they were not found to be monopolists — www.imore.com/… + Epic asked for their app store account back, Apple said no, in keeping with the judge’s ruling that Epic broke their contract with Apple when they snuck their own payment system into the store to trigger the case. Epic were also ordered to pay Apple $6M for commission it lost as a result — www.imore.com/…, www.imore.com/… & www.macobserver.com/… + Apple have appealed the part of the ruling leading to the injunction, and, asked for a stay on the injunction while the work out proposed changes the say will make the injunction unnecessary. The filing also officially explains their decision not to let Epic back into the store ATM — www.imore.com/… & www.imore.com/… + Popular software sales platform Paddle have announced an API to facilitate 3rd-party ‘in app’ purchases. Details are sparse, but it seems it would work by adding a link or button in the app that takes the user to Paddle’s website in the user’s default browser — daringfireball.net/… - In-app purchase alternative from Paddle will see apps rejected, says expert — www.imore.com/… + Related: Microsoft Store For Windows Available to Third Parties – Including Epic Games — www.macobserver.com/… + Related Opinion: Marco.org — marco.org/… * Dutch watchdog finds Apple app store payment rules anti-competitive – sources — www.reuters.com/… * The non-profit group Together We Fight Society has filed an anti-trust suit against Apple in India over Apple’s cut of App Store revenues — www.macobserver.com/… (another App Store case) * Italy Calls iCloud Terms and Conditions Illegal — www.macobserver.com/… 2. The European Commission have published a directive to mandate USB-C as a universal charging port for mobile devices (and the un-bundling of chargers from devices) — www.brusselstimes.com/… & www.imore.com/… * The commission’s press release — ec.europa.eu/… * The directive needs to be approved by both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers before it goes into effect. * When it goes into effect a 2-year transition period will start, giving tech companies time to transition * Related: Brazil Fines Apple For Not Including a Charger in iPhone 13 Boxes — www.macobserver.com/… 3. Apple’s ‘California Streaming’ Event — www.imore.com/… * Here’s all the ways you can re-watch Apple’s ‘California Streaming’ event — www.imore.com/… * Apple Fitness+ expands to 15 more countries, new workouts added — www.imore.com/… * Apple announces Apple Watch Series 7 with larger display and more — www.imore.com/… + Apple Watch Series 7 comes in 41mm and 45mm sizes and your old bands will fit fine — www.imore.com/… + Apple Watch Series 7 shares the same chip as the current model — don’t expect a performance bump this time around — www.imore.com/… * Apple refreshes entry-level $329 iPad with faster chip, 64GB of storage — arstechnica.com * Apple announces a refreshed iPad mini with huge new upgrades — www.imore.com/… + Apple says the ‘jelly scroll’ issue on the iPad mini is ‘normal behavior’ — www.imore.com/… + iFixit dives into the iPad mini’s ‘jelly scroll’ issue in its new teardown — www.imore.com/… + The new iPad mini powers through Pixelmator ML upscaling tasks quicker than an iMac Pro — www.imore.com/… * Apple announces iPhone 13 in 4 flavors: mini, regular, Pro, and Pro Max — arstechnica.com + iPhone 13 Pro Camera Features Include All-New Macro Photography — www.macobserver.com/… - Apple promises new iPhone 13 setting to fix macro mode switching — www.imore.com/… - New iOS 15.1 beta lets you manually control Macro mode for iPhone 13 Pro — www.imore.com/… + ProRes for iPhone 13 Pro coming in “future iOS 15 update” — www.imore.com/… - iPhone 13 Pro does not support ProRes 4K video in 128GB storage option — www.imore.com/… - One measly minute of 4K ProRes video eats 6GB of an iPhone 13 Pro’s storage — www.imore.com/… - Related: iMovie and Clips updated with support for Cinematic mode and ProRes video — www.imore.com/… + The iPhone 13 is thicker and heavier than the iPhone 12 — arstechnica.com + iPhone 13 is the first iPhone to feature support for Dual eSIM — www.imore.com/… + Early iPhone 13 benchmarks confirm all are fast, but the Pro models are monsters — www.imore.com/… + Filing reveals iPhone 13 battery increases — www.imore.com/… & iPhone 13 battery life tests show huge improvements over iPhone 12 — www.imore.com/… + iPhone 13 ProMotion has 12 different refresh rates, 7 more than iPad Pro — www.imore.com/… * Apple finally upgrades the base storage of the iPhone and iPad — www.imore.com/… 4. A decade without Steve Jobs * Apple marks 10th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death with touching tribute — www.imore.com/… * Apple releases ‘Celebrating Steve’ short film on its YouTube channel — www.imore.com/… * Tim Cook remembers Steve Jobs in memo to Apple employees — www.imore.com/… * Jony Ive on Steve Jobs — daringfireball.net/…

Quick Stories * iWork Update Adds Pivot Tables, Mobile Improvements, and Collaborative Presenting — www.macobserver.com/… * AppleCare+ Now Covers Cracked Back Glass on iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 Models for Reduced $29 Fee — www.macrumors.com/… * AppleCare+ Theft and Loss comes to UK, Australia — www.imore.com/… * AppleCare+ renewals come to France, Italy, and Spain — www.imore.com/… * Apple launches Advanced Fraud Protection for Apple Card — www.imore.com/… * Apple releases redesigned iCloud Mail for the web — www.imore.com/… * Apple confirms iCloud+ upgrades with iOS 15 rollout — www.imore.com/… * Apple’s updated MagSafe Leather Wallet has Find My smarts built in — www.imore.com/… * Some Headphones Developments: + Beats launches A-Cold-Wall* limited-edition Studio3 headphones — www.imore.com/… + Find My support rolls out to AirPods Pro and AirPods Max — www.imore.com/… + Firmware update brings new Conversation Boost feature to AirPods Pro — arstechnica.com * Two small App Store Improvements: + Apple confirms return of ‘Report a Problem’ button in some international App Stores — www.imore.com/… + Apple: Apps that create accounts must let people delete them by February 2022 — www.imore.com/… * Apple schedules its Q4 2021 earnings call for Thursday, October 28 — www.imore.com/…

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