Maccast 2015.04.22 - Show #522
Links
V Opening
V Pre-roll
* This episode is brought to you by lynda.com, the online learning platform with over 3,000 on-demand video courses to help you strengthen your business, technology, and creative skills. For a free 10-day trial, visit lynda.com/maccast. That’s L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash MAC - CAST
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V Opening Music
* Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
V Sponsor: Lynda.com
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V Some of the courses I recommend are:
* 5-Day Drawing Challenge: Drawing Your Own Reality
* WordPress DIY: Setting Up WordPress
* iOS 8: iPhone and iPad Essential Training
* Photoshop CC Adjustment Layer and Blend Mode Workshop
V I’ve been taking lynda.com’s course on Preparing GoPro Footage for Video Editing.
* It’s taught by Richard Harrington who has been on the Maccast and is well know in the Mac video community
* I have a new GoPro for my DJI Phantom 2 and specifically I needed to know how to remove fish eye distortion.
* I loved that I could jump right to the piece of content I needed and now can go back an watch the rest of the video because the GoPro software is not all that intuitive.
* I’ll probably follow it up with their "GoPro Photography and Video Techniques" course. to learn better shooting techniques. They have a section on quadcopter video.
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V News
V Apple Watch sales, how’d they do
* Overall the ordering experience went well for most people, though they sold out quickly
* The system seemed to keep up and most were able to order.
* As usual the Apple Store app seemed to be up first.
V The "after" seems to be a complete mess.
* People are confused on when and if they will get their orders
* Ship times have been vague
* Some have been moved to "Shipment Pending" and have their cards authorized or charged.
* Some have shipping alerts from UPS' "My Choice" opt-in emails, not official emails from Apple
V Feels to some that Apple is doing build to order and that might be slowing things down
* Not clear how they are choosing which models to build and ship and when.
* Apple removed “Available 4.24.15,” on the Watch site and replaced with “The Watch is coming.”
V Angela Ahrendts sent out an internal memo stating orders will remain online only at least through May
* Also that "some" customers will get their Watches on the 24th.
V Italian Apple website iSpazio claims Apple will open up a new wave of ordering to more countries on May 8th
* Two countries mentioned are Italy and Spain
* I doubt it.
V Several celebrity "special editions" have surfaced
* Sport Watch bands in Milan that were dark blue, light pink, red, yellow, and several neutral and skin tone shades
V KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo thinks Apple preorders will exceed 2.3 million.
* 85 percent Sport, 15 percent Watch, and 1 percent Edition (yes, 101 percent).
* Shipments might be slow due to production issue with the taptic engine unit and the display. Gruber’s first review watch had a fault taptic engine
* May generate as much as $2B in revenue for the first two weeks.
V Sales estimates among analysts for 2015 range from 8 million to 40 million, with that "average" being about 20 million
* A Reuters poll, of just 1,829 Americans, showed 4 percent of American women and 9 percent of American men plan to buy an Apple Watch
* Based on 2014 U.S. Census projections that would mean 15 million watched sold just in the US.
V Ion-X glass torture tested and is mostly unharmed
* Unbox Therapy abused it and found that it stood up without a scratch to a key and knife.
* It does scratch when rubbed with steel wool and sandpaper
* Recently a sapphire pane was subjected to similar mistreatments, including being drilled, and was unscratched by any of it.
V Look at the 12-inch Macbook Guts
* It’s sort of here and at least iFixit has been able to get their hands on one so we know some things
* A motherboard that is 67 percent smaller than that of the MacBook Air.
* Core-M processors can "turbo" to 2.4GHz, 2.6GHz, or 2.9GHz respectively. Only for short bursts.
V Custom design Apple Flash controller chips.
* Not your same old SSD. Uses a Non-Volatile Memory Express, NVMe, a new software interface/protocol designed specifically for PCIe SSDs
* Is capped at PCIe 2.0 speed due to limits of the Intel Core M
* Fastest Notebook Flash Apple has. 665 MB/s sequential read and 520 MB/s sequential write.
V 39.7Wh battery, above the 11-inch Airs 38Wh battery in a much smaller overall footprint.
* 73 percent of the volume and 85 percent of the weight of an 11-inch Macbook Air
V Keyboard
* The keys are now 17% larger, with Apple having slightly reduced the amount of space between each key to compensate.
* Fiber optic backlight is cool
* Key travel stinks in my opinion and the "even" press everywhere just heightened the experience for me. To me felt pretty close to typing on a screen. hard and even.
V If you have been lucky enough to get a new Macbook there are reports of some having migration/setup issues
* iMore noticed a tech article with a possible work around
* Users are seeing a SBOD (Spinning Beachball of Death) after setting up a new user account in the Setup Assistant
* Apple advises waiting about 30 minutes for setup to resume, or complete Setup Assistant without connecting to the internet.
* AppleInsider says the issue might trace back to user account provisioning on Apple's end, or perhaps iCloud issues.
* After the Mac is set up there appears to be no issues in connecting iCloud after the setup has completed
V Also, Glenn Fleishman discovered that target disk mode is possible with the new Macbook, but not easy
V You need the right cable, which Apple doesn’t currently sell
* a USB 3.0 or 3.1 USB Type A to USB-C cable
* a USB-C to USB-C cable (with 3.0 or 3.1 support)
* Also know as SuperSpeed or SuperSpeed+ cables.
* Even with a correct Type A to Type C cable you still cannot use Setup Assistant or Migration Assistant with a Mac connected in TDM
* And the The USB-C to USB-C option only allows MacBook-to-MacBook migration. Great if you happened to score two new MacBooks.
V Apple ramps up eco-marketing
* Apple and The Conservation Fund are partnering to purchase more than 36,000 acres of vulnerable forestland in Maine and North Carolina
* Apple will use it to create a sustainable source for paper and packaging
* Lisa Jackson, Apple's head of environmental initiatives, said Apple is, "striving to supply 100 percent of the virgin fibers used in its paper and packaging from sustainably managed forests or controlled wood sources."
V New video on their official YouTube channel, called "Better Starts Here"
* Focuses on their new 40-megawatt solar plant in Hongyuan, China, the hydroelectric plant in Oregon , and the new sustainable foresting initiative
* Also highlights that they are using 100% renewable energy in their data centers, 100% of U.S. operations run on renewable energy.
V Apple also released their most recent Environmental Responsibility Report covering 2014
* Re-highlighted the 100% renewable energy data centers
* Reduced Apple’s greenhouse gas emissions during product use by 61 percent over the past seven years
* But overall the companies total greenhouse gas emissions actually went up by a half-million metric tons.
* Two-thirds of that increase came from 3rd party suppliers and manufactures. Mostly likely due to higher demand or Apple’s products over the past year.
V Apple Pay in Canada
* Apple is planning to launch Apple Pay in Canada later this year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
V Apple is in negotiations with six Canadian banks about a potential November launch of the mobile payments service
* The Royal Bank of Canada, TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal, CIBC and National Bank of Canada.
* Together they account for more than 90% of Canadian bank accounts
V The stumbling block seem to be banks concerns about higher fees and potential security risks
* Apple is reportedly looking for 15-25 basis points per transactions from Canadian banks. That's 0.15 percent to 0.25 percent per transaction.
* It’s believed US banks are paying the lower 0.15 basis point rate.
* Stupid because the issue came from poor bank roll out of card checks for adding cards to Apple Pay, not from security issues of the Apple Pay platform itself.
V The six Canadian banks have reportedly formed a consortium and hired consultancy firm to develop a security protocol for Apple Pay.
* Basically using a 2-factor style check before customers can use a card added to Apple Pay
* Entering a PIN, logging on to a mobile banking app or using a one-time passcode sent via text message
V Apple’s plan to roll out Apple Pay in the UK in 2015 is reportedly delayed due to banks concerns over privacy issues.
V At least one major British bank was reportedly 'uncomfortable' with how much personal and financial data Apple wants to collect about it’s customers.
* I assume that data would we anonymized.
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V Feedback, commentary, opinions
V Apple Watch Try-on
V Buying experience
* Why I changed my order and why I had a small remorse.
* Definitely think I prefer the 42mm size over the 38mm
* Will try possibly seeing if I can get one at launch and return the 38mm
* Or maybe "bulk" it up with a bumper.
V Apple Watch try-on
* Keep watch off the table.
* Can take on and off, but keep over the blue mat.
* The stainless steel with link bracelet was great. Nice weight.
* Taps, didn't feel like I thought they would. "Clunk" feeling for at least one.
V Really had to fumble my way through the working demo units
* Not really clear on when to use one gesture or button over another
* That was true of other Apple products as well, but we adopt
* Media is putting a bit too much emphasis on this learning curve.
* Many of you wrote to express similar buying and try-on experiences.
* Shipping status changed to "Preparing shipment" and card charges pending.
V Apple Watch Faces "Skeuomorphic" design
* Kitty mentioned that it’s interesting, not a complaint, that for all Jony’s hatred of Skeuomorphic design the "Watch" part of the Apple Watch has gone to great lengths to match it’s analog equivalent.
* I think it’s the only logical conclusion though, because I’m not sure how you would create the "Watch" functionality and not have it look like a "watch".
* That’s what people want I think. Not sure there is another solution.
* Ive was also going for a several nods to the history and provenance of Horology. I think in many ways for him it might be an homage to great watch designers of the past.
* Beyond the watch faces and complications I’m not sure there are any other "skeuomorphic" elements in the Apple Watch.
V Apple Watch UI Guide
* 9to5 Mac posted about a cool guide created by Redditor 'macamacamac'
* It details the basic navigation of the Apple Watch which as I noted can be confusing and serves as a nice "getting started"
V Notifiations
* Pop up on screen
* Sort look read and ignore
* Long look reveals more info
* Can offer a response, be dismissed, or tapped to open associated app
V Notification Center
* Swipe down to view
* scroll with digital crown or touch screen
V Glances
* Swipe up from bottom to access
* Left and right to move between
V Watch App
V Force Touch to customize and return to main acreen
* Swipe left and right, tap, and use digital crown to adjust watch face options
V Apps screen
* Press digital crown to access
* zoom in with digital crown
* swipe to move around
* tap to open an app
V App
* Scroll by swipe or digital crown
* tap and swipe to use app
* press digital crown to return to screen
V force touch to access app options
* Press digital crown to return to app
* Double tap the digital crown to move between the two most recently opened apps
V 3 Universal Apps
* Accessed from any screen
V Friends/ Digital Touch
* Add friends from Apple Watch
* Click the side button
* Phone, Message, Digital Touch
* Draw, tap, or rest two fingers on screen to send heartbeat
V Apple Pay
* Double click the side button
V Siri
* Press and hold digital crown
* Need more help? Apple will offer a new Workshop called Apple Watch Basics in the retail stores.
V I also want to remind you of the great Accessibility features in Apple Watch.
* This is something Apple is light years ahead of the competition on
* VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Zoom, Greyscale, Extra Large Watch Face, Reduce Transparency, On/Off labels, Reduce Motion
* Mono Audio, Taptic Engine
V All enabled from the Watch App on the phone. So easier to configure on another Accessible device.
* Sadly Accessibility features are not enabled in the Apple Store demo units. Apple is reportedly planning to change that.
V iTunes messing up metadata
* Bryan wrote to express frustration over an iTunes issue.
* "Do you know of an iTunes metadata editor that works on purchases, specifically movies and TV shows"?
* He likes to set up a genre of "Super Heroes" which is a non-standard one. Trouble is that iTunes keeps setting it back.
* There is a thread on Apple’s support forum that mentions this issue, but more related to music files.
* Still it seems to point to iTunes in the Cloud data overwriting the metadata somehow.
* The only possible "fix" seems to be to turn off features like iTunes Music Match, Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases, etc.
* That said I did some brief testing and didn’t seem able to replicate the issue in iTunes 12.1.2
V Set a genre to "Space" and it seemed to stick
* I tried updating genius, iTunes Match, and logging in and out of the Store. Also toggled the 'Show iCloud' purchases option.
* It even seemed to keep the metadata I set though a delete and re-download.
V A couple of apps I recommend for setting Movie metadata
* IDentify 2
* iFlicks, I used for just metadata but will do mixing and H.264 encoding/conversion
* iVI Pro - More for ripping DVDs and adding in metadata during conversion.
V Some more things in Photos
* After covering some Photos tips and tricks in the last episode I have received a few comments and questions.
V Tony wanted to know why when he 'Hides' photos they are still showing up in the 'All photos' Album
* That is correct and that is expected behavior.
* The 'All photos' album would display photos from ALL albums which would include the 'Hidden' album.
* I think you might be confusing the 'All photos' album with the 'Photos' tab. The Photos tab contains "all" your photos sorted into the Collections and Moments views (like on iOS) and hidden photos are hidden there.
V Can’t run iPhoto after 10.10.3 update
V I mentioned that you can still run iPhoto after upgrading to 10.10.3.
* Your Originals are copied and symlinked.
* Adding images to one will NOT show up in the other though under the hood the originals are consolidated in the Photos Library.
* While mostly true Kim pointed out something.
* If you did not upgrade to iPhoto 9.6.1 prior to upgrading to 10.10.3 then you cannot upgrade iPhoto from your Mac.
V You will need to use the App Store and the Purchases List. If iPhoto is there it will be v9.6.1

* If it is there, then drag your existing iPhoto app (not the library, just the app, and backup first) to the trash (don’t empty yet).

* Install the App from the App Store.
* Sometimes iPhoto is not visible on the Purchases List. it may be hidden. See this article for details on how to unhide it.
* Will I lose my Photos if I reinstall? You shouldn’t. iPhoto the application and the iPhoto Library are two different parts of the iPhoto. So, reinstalling the app should not affect the Library. BUT you should always have a back up before doing this kind of work. Always.
V Month by Month Photostreams
* As Joe noted iPhoto used to organized imported PhotoStream images into special events for each month. Like "February 2015 PhotoStream"
* In Photos you can see this is the special "Events" album
* Photos no longer appears to do this.
* I thought maybe you could use a 'Smart Album' to create these, but I see no way to identify 'PhotoStream' images. There is no 'My PhotoStream' album option either.
V Sort order can’t be changed
* Many have mentioned not being able to reverse the Photo sort order to "Newest to Oldest".
* This feature seems to have been removed.
* Really would only make sense in the Album views.
* When opening albums it does always seem to jump to the bottom.
V Manual Geotagging
* There isn’t a way to add or edit geotag information
V If a photo already has it you can view it’s data in a few ways
* From the Info window of a selected image
* Clicking on the title of a Collection or Moment will open the Map view.
V I asked on Twitter and several people recommended HoudahGeo
* Trouble is that it doesn’t fully support OS X Photos yet.
* Apple hasn’t provided the hooks needed.
V They recommend importing via Image Capture first, tagging in the app, then importing into Photos.
* Import photos using Apple Image Capture
* Geocode the photos using HoudahGeo
* Write EXIF/XMP geotags to the image files
* Import the tagged files into your Photos library
V Victor Cajiao says he uses ExifWizPro
* This is an iOS app, so you’d have to use it to tag photos already on your IOS device
* Import using the Camera Connection kit, tag your images, then import into Photos
V Geotag Photos Pro
* An app you run on iOS that is time sync’d to your Mac and gathers GPS data as you shoot.
* Import into their companion Desktop app to sync in the GPS data to the photos.
* Those images are then imported into the OS X Photos app.
V iCloud Photo Library
* I personally have not enable it yet because of the cost of storage.
V Luckily you can enable Photostream and iCloud Photo Shares separately in the iCloud preferences.
* And your 1000 Photostream images don’t count against your iCloud Storage.
V Andy does want to use iCloud Photo Library and had a question.
* Andy, again I have not tried, but I read a piece from SERENITY CALDWELL over at iMore that says you can do this.
V Basically she recommends setting up the Mac with the largest Photo Library first.
* Also have this one be set up for 'Download Originals to this Mac" in Photos > Preferences > iCloud
* This would also be the Mac you’d want to make sure Photo Library backups are happening from.
V The you can activate iCloud Photo Library on other Macs.
* If they have existing libraries then the Libraries should be merged
* Serenity even claims iCloud should resolve duplicate conflicts
* On secondary Macs you may want to select the 'Optimize Mac Storage' option. On these Machines it will only store images and videos locally if there is available storage. After that you will still see thumbnails and just download items on demand. (Internet required of course).
V What Syncs
* All folders and albums (Mac and iOS)
* Smart Albums (Mac only)
* Keywords (Mac only)
* Searchable keywords based on Faces tiles (Mac only)
* Key photo selections (Mac only)
V What does not sync
* Books, cards, calendars, and slideshows
* Keyword shortcuts
* Unused keywords
* Last imported album on the Mac in question
* Your Faces smart album and any tagging you've done
V Interestingly you cannot have two separate Photo Libraries sync’d to iCloud Photo Library
* The main, the “System Photo Library” is the only one that will sync.
* If you hold Option while launching photos you can create and select other libraries
V Enable Macbook Power "Chime"
* Cult of Mac has a nice little hack that can give your Macbook Pro or Air at least one of the new MacBooks features.
* Like iPads and iPhones the new Macbook has a "chime" that sounds when you connect it to power.
V OS X Daily found a Terminal commend that you can use to enable that on older Mac running OS X 10.10.3
* defaults write com.apple.PowerChime ChimeOnAllHardware -bool true; open /System/Library/CoreServices/PowerChime.app &
* Once you enter the command in Terminal and hit enter you just need to disconnect and reconnect your MagSafe to hear the chime.
V Thing of the moment: Flashlight
* A couple of you turned me onto this cool new app
* Extends the functionality of Universal Spotlight search by allowing plug-ins
V Plug-ins for weather, ejecting disks, IMDB, Wolfram Alpha, Stack Overflow
* "wa speed of light"
* Get hints for your installed plug-ins in the menubar item.
* Lots of the data is not optimized for the live results window since they are simple web views.
* It is open source and anyone can develop plug-ins.
V Closing
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