Maccast 2015.04.09 - Show #521
Links
V Opening
V Opening Music
* Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
V Sponsor: Gazelle
V Gazelle
* Want to get a new iPhone or iPad? Or maybe secure some cash to get the Apple Watch? Gazelle wants to buy your current devices.
V It’s a great and easy way to get some cash to help you upgrade or purchase new stuff.
* They give you a fair and up front offer
* They will even buy your broken devices
V They make the process of selling your used iPhone simple and hassle free
* Go to gazelle.com – that’s g-a-z-e-l-l-e dot com – and find your item
* Tell Gazelle the condition
* Get a risk-free offer for your gadgets and free shipping! And some cases provide a box.
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V The offer process takes less than a minute and do it today because your gadgets may lose value the longer you wait.
* Plus, your offer is locked in giving you time to get your new iPhone before sending in your old one.
* Gazelle has handled over 2 million trade ins, paid out over $175 million to customers and over 90% of people using Gazelle report having an excellent experience
* So what are you waiting for? Take a minute and find out what’s your iPhone’s worth. Go to gazelle.com and find out.
V News
V Apple Watch Day is here
* It’s almost here.
V Gene Munster told his investors he expects Apple to sell at least 1 million Apple Watches over the opening weekend of sales
* Based on a less than one percent attach rate of total iPhone users
* Expects the totals sales to rise to about 2.3 million by June.
V Confusion surrounding try-on appointments and walk-in purchases
* Your best bet to get a try-on is going to be to create an appointment online.
* Apple will accommodate "walk-in" appointments using a system similar to their "customer journey" Genius Bar experience. (via Mac Observer)
* Appointment set at store and customers cell number is taken. Then get text when it’s time to come back for your appointment.
V Eventually for buying in store, two back to back appointments set, but for now ordering is limited to online only.
* "We (Apple) will be taking orders for Apple Watch exclusively online during the initial launch period"
V Edition Watches are only available at "select" locations
* New York City: Fifth Avenue, SoHo, Upper West Side
* Boston: Boylston Street
* Chicago: North Michigan Avenue, Lincoln Park
* Philadelphia: Walnut Street
* Washington DC: Georgetown
* Atlanta: Lenox Square
* Miami: Lincoln Road
* Virginia: Tyson's Corner Center
* Newark, Delaware: Christiana Mall
* Bay Area: San Francisco, Stanford
* Los Angeles: The Grove, Third St. (Santa Monica), South Coast (Costa Mesa)
* Houston: Highland Village
* Dallas: Northpark Center
* Seattle: Bellevue Square
* To see where the Edition will be sold use Apple’s store locator, enter your desired location, and select Watch Edition from the product list.
* Apple employees will get a 50% discount on Apple Watch and Apple Watch Sport, or $500 off the Edition.
* Over 1,000 Apple Watch Apps have been already submitted to the App Store. Some already available.
V If you want AppleCare+ it will run you more depending on the model you pick
* $59 for Apple Watch Sport, Apple Watch is $79, and $999 for the Apple Watch Edition.
* You will get an extra year of coverage with the Edition, so 3 years total. The typical 2 years total on the other Watches.
* No word on accidental damage replacement costs under the various plans.
V Apple plans to roll out in nine countries at first with more to come.
* US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, and the UK
V But it might be a while in Switzerland.
* William Longe, owner of the Leonard watch brand, has a 1985 patent ("trademark"?) on using an image of an Apple or the word Apple on a watch.
* According to the report he is currently negotiating with Apple to purchase the trademark
* Some countries might not have all versions available to ship 4/24. The German and UK sites showed estimated ship times other than 4/24. Some models on the German site and all model on UK Apple site.
V Best bets for pre-ordering
* Pre-sales start at 12:01 AM Pacific time
* Pre-"favorite" your choices in that Apple Store App. These will also be used to customize your try-on appointment.
* Use the web site and Apple Store App to try to make your purchase.
V Angela Ahrendts sent a memo telling Apple Store reps to push customers online if they encounter inventory unavailable in store
* The point being that customer and see available inventory and stock before the come down to the retail store to be disappointed.
* Eases in store connection especially around product launches.
* Looks like the wan to end Apple Store campouts.
* Rumor that In store pickup will supposedly not be offered in the UK?
* We’re hearing in-store watch reservation will be one per customer and the person on the receipt must pick it up with ID. Likely to control scalpers.
V We’ve now already supposedly seen the packaging
* White box, with a plastic tray/box inside.
* MagSafe charging cable wrapped on the bottom
* soft felt lined box and retaining ring stand "cuff" for the watch
* Case appears to possibly double as a charging stand.
V Early Apple Watch reviews are in
* Best "smart watch" to date, but not without flaws.
* Helps with small day to day interactions that you’d normally take your phone out for. These smaller tasks are more suited for the watch.
V Takes a few days to get used to using it instead of your Phone for certain tasks.
* Need to learn how you want to use it.
* Takes time to adjust the settings and interactions for you.
* Set-up can be tedious. Not for non-techies
V Not life changing, but a good experience.
* Can help with phone obsession, though you may trade it for wrist obsession.
V The interface seems to suffer from some speed issues
* Takes a moment for the screen to wake
* App screen is slow
* Getting data from phone, especially location data, slows the UI down.
* Apps take a long time to install
* Apple has said it will have a software update before launch that will address the speed issues.
* Battery life seems as good as advertised.
V Retailers key to Apple Pay success
V Apple Pay seems to have a ton of support from the payment processors and banks, but it’s ultimately at the register where Apple Pay will win or lose.
* Currently supported by 2,500 banks in the U.S. and accepted at about 700,000 locations.
* 1.1 Million BofA cards registered by 800,000 card holders
* If one recent study is any indicator then Apple has work to do on that front
V Bloomberg reported on a survey of about 3,000 iPhone 6 and 6 Plus owners users in a study conducted by Phoenix Marketing International.
* 66 percent of those had added a card to Apple Pay and 88 percent of those users had tried the service.
* Their finding showed that at least two-thirds of the respondents experienced some sort of issue with the service
V Study findings
* The average Apple Pay user made 2.6 in-store transactions using the system in its first four months.
* 50% used it to buy from something from an Apple Store
* 36 percent had used it at McDonald’s.
* Why use it? 58 percent said safer, 60 percent said because it was "new, stylish, or cool".
V Issues
* 48 percent said it took too long to record the transaction
* 42 percent said the cashier was unfamiliar with Apple Pay and unable to help
* Also issues with the transaction posting incorrectly or twice.
V Lack of merchant locations and terminals not working were also cited as top issues by repeat Apple Pay
V One of those problems is MCX (Merchant Customer Exchange), an alliance of big-name retailers like CVS, Bed Bath & Beyond, Wal-Mart, Old Navy, Kohl’s.
* They are trying to bring their own competing digital wallet to market called CurrentC
* The main gaol is to remove credit card fees as their system will only support Debit Cards
* They have blocked digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Wallet at their stores payment terminals.
* Credit cards are better protected from fraud by federal credit card regulation and not long after announcing their service plans CurrentC had their email list hacked and leaked online.
V Macbook arrives soon too
* A Vietnamese site somehow landed a unit and did an unboxing. The images and video were since taken down.
V Geekbench Scores
* 1.1GHz entry-level Retina MacBook, came in at around 2000 for single core and 4200 for multi-core
* About 1000 points under the 2015 Macbook Air with 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor. It scored 2881 and 5757 in single and multi-core respectively
* Another way of putting it is that the scores came in near those of the top of the line 2011 MacBook Air with a 1.8GHz Core i7 processor.
* Keep in mind Geekbench doesn’t score GPU. That should be better than the 2011 Macbook Air. Also doesn’t factor faster Flash.
V An Apple retailer leaked information that their might be a third 1.3GHz processor option in addition to the 1.1GHz and 1.2GHz versions Apple announced
* You can get the 1.3 with the 256 or 512GB of flash for $1,548 or $1,748 respectively.
V More iPhone 6c updates
* New pictures of an alleged ‘iPhone 6c’ case hit, but these were not plastic.
* Came from a French smartphone case maker.
* Show an oval TrueTone flash and a new row of speaker grills at the bottom
V Apple’s demands slowing TV service
* Apple is reporting trying to get content deals lined up for a Fall release of the service
V Asking content partners to provide their own streams fro the service
* Something the providers already do for existing iPhone and Apple TV apps
* Costs aren’t too bad, about five cents per hour per stream.
* Still some smaller providers might not be ready for the demand Apple’s TV service could create.
* Eddie Cue is negotiating the deals and feels Apple should stay focused on the hardware, software , and customer front-end.
* Some have also said Apple might be concerned about throttling from the broadband providers if they were doing the streaming, since it would be viewed as competition.
V The Street says Apple and Disney are at odds over it’s content
* Disney wants Apple to take (and pay for all of it), but Apple’s trying to keep the costs down.
V New Apple TV hardware is also expected but might come without 4K support according to BuzzFeed News.
* Apple's latest A8 system-on-chip have been found to be capable of outputting 4K video
* 4K, just is a niche thing at the moment and not many providers or TVs support it.
* Also bandwidth issues. I have a data cap of 250GB/mo. on my cable service
* Netflix’s 4K stream runs at 16Mbps vs 3Mbps for their HD stream
V And on the chasing the "Ks" front AppleInsider had a rumor of an 8K iMac based on an LG Display press release
* Mention Apple shipping an "8K" iMac later this year
* Has since been declared a typo, by LG.
V Mac OS X 10.10.3 and iOS 8.3 updates
V OS X 10.10.3
* The big deal is Photos app.
* 300 new emoji
* Bug fixes for Wi-fi issues, Bluetooth, Screen Sharing, Safari
V iOS 8.3
* Passbook Passes and Apple Pay cards are separated in the UI
* Siri can place speakerphone calls
* Siri in Brazil, Denmark, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, Thailand and Turkey.
* The space bar, which has been elongated to prevent users from hitting the period key (THANK ZEUS)
* Option to download Free apps without a password
* The usual bug fixes and improvements
V Some people reporting TouchID for purchases not working for them after updating.
* iMore claims to have figured out a fix
* Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad
* Tap on Touch ID & Passcode
* Enter your Passcode or Password
* Toggle iTunes & App Store to OFF
* Press the Home button to return to the Home screen.
* Reboot your iPhone or iPad.
* Enter your Passcode or Password at the Lock screen
* Launch Settings on your iPhone or iPad
* Tap on Touch ID & Passcode
* Enter your Passcode or Password
* Toggle iTunes & App Store to ON
V Apple also released iTunes 12.1.2
* Improves support for syncing photos to your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch from the new Photos app for OS X
* Adds several refinements to the Get Info window
* Improves overall stability
V Feedback, commentary, opinions
V Tips on buying used iPhones
* Had a Maccast listener who emailed be about a Craigslist purchase of an iPhone that tuned out to be stolen.
* Luckily they got their money back, but in the end they still had a stolen iPhone and wanted to get it back to the original owner if possible.
* They tried talking to the Police, Apple, T-Moble and Verizon and had no luck returning it.
V My hope is that the original owner will ultimately use "Find My iPhone" and send out a message
V Set up on an iOS device
* Tap Settings, then tap iCloud.
* If you’re asked to sign in, enter your Apple ID or, if you don’t have one, tap Get a Free Apple ID, then follow the instructions.
* If Find My iPhone (or Find My iPad or Find My iPod) is turned off, tap to turn it on.
V Set up on a Mac
* Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click iCloud.
* If you’re asked to sign in, enter your Apple ID or, if you don’t have one, click Create new Apple ID, then follow the instructions.
* If Find My Mac is turned off, select it to turn it on.
V Check if a device you intend to purchase is Activation locked by going to https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/
* You will need the devices IMEI or Serial Number
* If the seller i not willing to provide that then be a little wary.
V You can also check the device when you go to pick it up
* A device you are purchasing should be completely erased and restored and also not connected to Find My iPhone or an iCloud account.
* Turn the device on and slide to unlock.
* If the passcode lock screen or the Home screen appears, the device hasn't been erased. Ask the seller to completely erase the device by going to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. Don't take ownership of any used iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch until it's been erased.
* Begin the device setup process.
* After choosing a language, choosing a country, and connecting to a network, the device will begin activation. If you're asked for the previous owner’s Apple ID and password, the device is still linked to their account. Hand the device back to the seller and ask them to enter their password. If the previous owner isn't present, they can remove the device from their account by signing in to icloud.com/find. Don't take ownership of any used iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch until it has been removed from the previous owner’s account.
V My podcast workflow
* I know over the years I have covered this, but Joe recently asked if I would cover it again.
V I start with research and organizing
* For articles I rely on RSS and I use different apps and readers on my devices
* The key is using the Feedly service to keep everything in sync.
* I go through the feeds daily and "Star" the ones I want to cover for the next episode
V Show notes
* I go through the starred stories and read them taking notes into Omni Outliner
V I keep OmniOutliner in sync when needed using OmniSync Server
* Runs OmniPresence on the Mac which adds an icon in the menubar and sets up a folder, like Dropbox
* I use export options to create the HTML and OPML versions of the notes that go on the website.
* I will also sometimes take notes in ByWord using Markdown.
V Recording
V Equipment
* Audio Technica AT-2020. XLR Condenser Microphone
* dbx 286A Mic Pre-Amp Processor (now the 286s).
* Zoom H4n Handy Recorder
* Sennheiser MD 46 (field interviews)
* Audio Technica AT2005USB - mobile recording via Lightning to USB adapter.
V Software
* Garageband 11 (6.0.5), the old version with Podcast track and support
* "Live" editing.
V Add in chapters, links, etc.
* In iTunes on the Mac as the show is playing you’ll get the "Chapters" menu.
* In the Podcast app, there is a 'Chapters' link at the bottom of the phone.
* Tapping skip forward or back jumps to next chapter
V Post production
* Exported from GarageBand in MP3 and AAC formats at 64Kbps to keep file size down.
* Brought into iTunes and metadata tags are added.
* RSS feed is added using Feeder, includes adding all iTunes tags, description, etc.
* Feeder generates the blog post on Maccast.com, but some clean up is needed and the web player added.
* Audio files are hosted on Cachefly, but you knew that. 😉
V Photos for OS X tips
V When you first launch Photos, it'll either auto-convert your primary library or ask you to pick which library you'd like to import.
V It does seem to create a new Photos specific library, but references the original "masters", so you will not have double the storage eaten up on your drive.
* No need to delete or remove the original iPhoto Library. It might look like it’s using double the space, but it’s not.
* You can continue to use iPhoto or Aperture, they are not removed.
* The Photos library and the iPhoto/Aperture Universal Library are separate though.
* You can create, import, and open multiple Photo Library’s, but they will stay separate just like before. No merging functionality.
* Any "Events" you had from iPhoto are now found in Albums in a special album called "iPhoto Events"
V Navigation is more "iOS" or "browser" like.
* The forward and back buttons are your friend
* Drill down into years, collections, moments, images
* Tapping the title brings up the Map view.
* "Faces" are in an Album
* Also, special albums for Panos, Videos, Slo-mo, Time-lapse, Bursts
V How to find deleted photos
* File > Show Recently Deleted
* Deleted photos will hang out for 30 days past the time you deleted them.
* In this view you can select items and recover or permanently delete them.
* Select photos and press the 'Recover' or 'Delete' button. With no photos selected there is also a 'Delete All' option.
V Get the sidebar back.
* Go to View > Show Sidebar in the menu. (Or just hit Option + Command + S)
* Then you’ll see your albums and projects in the sidebar more like in iPhoto.
V The Info window is now a standard floating palette
* Click on Window > Info in the menu. (Or just hit Command + I)
* Here you’ll get title, date, favorite options
* Also, camera EXIF data
* Description, keywords, Faces, and Location
V iCloud Photo Library
* If you enable iCloud Photo Library Photos will put a copy of all the images in your Photos Library and that will be available to Photos in all other iOS devices and Mac connected to the same iCloud account.
V Enabled in Photos > Preferences > iCloud
* Notice that iCloud Photo Library, My Photo Stream, and iCloud Photo Sharing can all be enabled and managed separately
* You can have one without the other.
V You’ll need to choose to store all originals locally or use "Optimized" Mac Storage
* If optimized then full-res originals will only be sync’d when you have enough free storage. Good probably for a secondary Mac that isn’t the main library. and on iOS devices where storage is limited.
V iCloud Photo Library will count against your 5GB of free storage
* Most people will need Apple’s extra paid storage to use iCloud Photo Library
* Apple's extra storage costs ($1/month for 20 GB; $4 for 200 GB; $10 for 500 GB; $20 for a terabyte)
V ALL photos are stored in iCloud Photo Library, you can’t select which ones.
* Could break up your existing Library into separate ones.
V Thing of the Moment: HBO Now
* The HBONow app and service is now available on iOS and Apple TV
* The "on-boarding" (sign-up) process was awesome as it ties into your iTunes account.
* The service, US only (sorry), is $14.99 USD/mo. but they are offering a 30-day free trial.
* I recommend setting a Calendar event to remember to cancel.
* You can try the service and bing watch until then.
* I’m impressed so far, the app seems easy to navigate and video quality has been excellent for me.
* Browsing back catalog stuff can be a bit cumbersome.
V Closing
V Podcast Marketplace
V Thanks to my sponsors
* Smile
V Gazelle
* Gazelle. The fast and simple way to sell your used gadgets! Find out what your used iPhone, iPad and other Apple products are worth at Gazelle.com.
V Lynda.com
* lynda.com helps you learn and keep-up-to-date with your software, pick up brand-new skills, or explore new hobbies with their easy to follow video tutorials.
* Get a free trial by going to lynda.com/maccast
V Supporters
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