Maccast 2015.05.07 - Show #524
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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
* And by 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 Opening Music
* Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
V Sponsor: Lynda.com
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* lynda.com is for problem solvers, for the curious, for people who want to make things happen. Maybe you want to master Excel, learn negotiation tactics, build a website, or boost your Photoshop skills... go to lynda.com and feed your curious mind.
V Some of the courses I recommend are:
* Shooting with the iPhone 5s with Ben Long
* Design the Web: Responsive SVG Images
* iPads in Education: Deploying 1:1 iPads
* Up and Running with Apple Watch
V I’ve been taking lynda.com’s course on WordPress: Developing with Sass and Grunt.js.
* I do quite a bit of Wordpress work and do custom theme development using starter themes
* I also have been using SASS with the Mac App Code Kit to do compiling
* Wanted to know more about Grunt (command line tool) and also the Underscores starter theme
* This course was a perfect way to get into that and to expand some of my existing skills into a new area for me.
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* That’s L-Y-N-D-A dot com slash M-A-C C-A-S-T
V News
V Apple Watch S1 Teardown
* There has been a lot of recent analysis of the Apple Watches parts and construction
* First iFixIt, then Chipworks x-rays, and finally ABI Researches "decapitation".
V Here’s some things we learned
* New Apple APL0778 application processor made by Samsung using a 28nm process.
* Tiny 3.8V 205 mAh battery in the 38mm version
* Display and digitizer seems to be a somewhat easy to replace unit once you get past the glue.
* Super tiny tri-wing screws. iFixit had to mod their tools
* Taptic engine is a tiny linear actuator.
* A 6-axis accelerometer/gyroscope all in a single component (unique to this Apple product)
* 512 MB of RAM, same amount as the iPhone 4, but not the same type. Apple Watch uses static random access memory (SRAM) vs. the more common DRAM.
V Steve Troughton-Smith noted that the Watch uses a firmware with a PowerVR SGX543 driver
* Same GPU that was found in the Apple A5 processor (iPad 2 and iPhone 4S)
V IHS iSuppli Teardown and why it’s wrong
* Estimated the component cost of a 38mm Apple Watch Sport at $81.20
* Display at $20.50
* S1 at $10.20
* They claim this give the Apple Watch a high profit margin considering the hardware components represent just 24 percent of the $349 selling price.
* Their data directly contradicts Apple CEO Tim Cook’s statement from the Q2 2015 earnings call that Apple Watch margins are lower than the company average
V Tim Cook called these kinds of breakdowns completely inaccurate during Apple’s quarterly conference call.
* I did not see a cost for the aluminum casing for example in the iSupply numbers.
* Apple works closely with manufacturing partners and often they develop custom or completely new components. The R&D alone would significantly drive up component costs.
* Also things like advertising, software, distribution, custom machines, manufacturing costs are not accounted for.
V Taptic Engine blamed for slow Watch shipments
* One little component may be the thing that had stood between you and your Apple Watch
* Slice Intelligence last week predicted that as many as 1.7 million Apple Watches might have been ordered, but only about 22% had shipped as of last week.
V Some of the 42mm watch shipments slipped into July.
* Speculation that the 42mm is more popular and that the 38mm is too small (I disagree).
* Things do seem to be picking up though. Some folks who were set to get units later this month are receiving them already
* Also there are signs on Apple’s web site that In-Store pickups might be an option soon.
V We can only speculate on why there was such a shortage, but the Taptic Engine has taken much of the blame.
* The Wall Street Journal ran a piece saying they discovered that AAC Technologies Holdings Inc, one of Apple’s two Taptic Engine Suppliers, supplied units which began failing during reliability testing.
* They never shipped units with faulty engines, but that meant they had fewer units ready at launch.
V More Apple Watch Stuff
V Heart rate sensor won’t work through dark tattoos
* Sensor has been tested and is almost as accurate as the top rated wristband heart rate sensor currently on the market.
V 3rd Party Bands
* Can remove the Classic and Modern buckle bands with a pentalobe screwdriver.
V New "Creating Bands for Apple Watch" on developer site
* Guidelines include requirements for the bands to achieve Apple certification in the new Made for Apple Watch program.
* Required to use Apple Watch "lugs" and follow specific guidelines on design placement
* Should not integrate magnetic chargers
* Bands also cannot prevent a user's skin from maintaining direct contact with the Watch's heart rate sensors
* Also can’t interfere with watch functions, sensors, display, buttons, etc.
V Developer UI Guidelines
* 3rd party apps that just present the time are not allowed.
* Apps don’t have direct access to Digital Crown or Side button.
* Use black for your app’s background color.
V Avoid displaying your logo in your app and Don’t include a launch screen.
* icon will be important then
V Sticky digital crown? Rinse it off.
* Run the Apple Watch under fresh water from a faucet for 10 to 15 seconds.
* Obviously turn it off first and remove the band if you have one you don’t want to get wet.
* Apple Watch has an IPX7 water resistance rating. Up to 30 mins in 1 meter of water.
V Apple Pay expands, contracts, expands
V Best Buy will take Apple Pay
* Big deal because Best Buy is a member of MCX
* First in the Best Buy app, but they say in stores later this year.
* Added support for 24 new banks and credit unions
V Reports that some Home Depot locations were no longer accepting Apple Pay
* That was quickly silenced when it turned out they were bringing Apple Pay to 2,000 stores
* Will make Home Depot the largest retail supporter of Apple Pay.
V Will iPad Pro juice sales?
V Apple still sells the most tablets of any maker world wide
* Latest numbers from IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker had Apple with a 26.8% share of the global tablet market in the first quarter of 2015 shipping 12.6 million units
* But that is still a 22.9% decline in shipments year over year.
* I think that tablets are at a stasis and will likely be on a similar cycle to desktop and laptops in terms of purchases for most people.
V Still could an iPad Pro give Apple another jump in iPad sales?
* Seems to niche a market for me.
* Latest leaks from the French blog nowhereelse.fr show specs that the screen might be 12.9-inches, not the 12.2 we’ve had from other rumors
* That’s BIG.
* Still four speakers
* Other rumors are a triple-core A8X processor, 2 GB of RAM, and Touch ID.
* Also some speculation of a pressure sensitive Apple stylus are still out there.
V Force touch and NFC have also been thrown around, along with USB-C replacing the lightning connector
* NFC for easy pairing and possible use as an Apple Pay terminal.
V Apple Media Service Updates
V Apple TV
* Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes said Apple was "very forward-thinking about television." and he is "pretty confident" Apple will be launching a subscription streaming TV service in the near future
* In the quarterly results call Tim Cook commented that he sees "major, major changes in media" and hinted that Apple could the company bringing those changes.
* Current thinking is Apple wants to put together a $30-$40/mo service with a handful of partner channels and content
V Apple TV remote with touchpad.
* Will it have ForceTouch? A screen?
* Still have the Play/pause and Menu buttons
* Be slightly thicker
V Refreshed Apple TV hardware expected to be revealed around WWDC in June
* A8 processor, App Store and Siri voice controls.
* I hope it also integrates HomeKit, but that seems dead in the water.
V New Apple TV Channels
* CBS Sports and USA NOW
* Apple also added new channels for users in Canada, France, and Germany. Canadians receive access to CraveTV and Shomi, while French and German users receive Arte
V Beats/Apple Streaming Music Service
* Rumors that Apple has been hinting that music labels should should pressure services like Spotify to not offer a free tier of service
* The European Commission is also investigating similar allegations
* Only about one-quarter of Spotify's 60 million customers have paid subscriptions.
V Supposedly is bringing the attention of the DOJ and FTC
* Spotify and others are also complaining that Apple’s Store policies give them a price advantage
* The issue is the 30 percent cut of in-app purchases and subscriptions.
* Spotify, has to charge $13 a month for a Premium subscription bought through its iOS app, vs. the $10 "regular" price.
V Apple is supposedly trying to rapidly close music deals so it can announce the new service in June
* One sticking point was pricing. Apple reportedly wanted $7.99/mo but got push back.
* Apple is using it’s customer base as leverage to try and get better and exclusive deals
* Apple’s service won;t have a "free" tier, but their may be some try-before-you-buy options
* Free for the first three months, labels and artists could make some portion of their catalogs available for non-subscribers.
V Also rumors that will announce iTunes Radio in many other countries
* Along side iOS 8.4 and iTunes 12.2
* Human curated radio stations with the help of recently hired staff and DJ’s from BBC Radio 1
V Sponsor: Gazelle
V Gazelle
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V They make the process of selling your used iPhone simple and hassle free
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V Feedback, commentary, opinions
V How autonomous is the Apple Watch?
* It can tell the time without being tethered.
* Track your move, exercise, and stand progress. Also can check heart rate.
V Workout app tracking
* Spend at least 20-minutes doing an "Outdoor" walk or run with your phone so it can learn your strides
* This will improve the step and distance accuracy when you are away from your phone later
V Listen to Music
* Set a "Sync’d" playlist in the Apple Watch app and set the amount of space you want to use up. Up to 2GB.
* You’ll need to pair a set of Bluetooth headphone or earbuds to listen.
V Photos
* Under 'Photos' in Apple Watch app
* Set the Synced Album, the default is 'Favorites'
* Set Photo storage limit 5MB to 75MB (25-500 photos)
V Cached data
* Any data you might have recently viewed in apps like Mail, Calendar, and Messages is cached and may be visible.
* Also cached data in 3rd party apps.
V Apple Pay
* As long as your card is already loaded.
V Understanding Apple Watch movement
* And I don’t mean watch movement
* I have been confused bytes because it seems as though I have received exercise credit when I didn’t exercise or not been credited for standing when I was.
* Luckily the gang at iMore came to the rescue to clear up the confusion.
V Stand really means, "move around".
* If you are stationary, even in a standing position, for too long you’ll get a "stand" notification.
* Typically comes about 10 minutes before the hour so you have time to get the credit.
* Walk around for at least 60 seconds.
V Exercise is anything equivalent to a "brisk walk".
* Activity to bring your heart rate within that range should count.
* Not sure how Apple calculates the heart rate needed to qualify.
* Apple Watch learns your "habits" and adjusts the credit accordingly. If you exercise a lot you will have to achieve a higher level to get the credit.
* Meant to encourage you to do more.
V Move
* Based on how much you move and your heart rate which determines calorie count
* Separates "active" calories from just calories you’d burn just being alive.
* Move goal is a target for "active" calories.
* Most fitness trackers use "total" calories.
V Use the Activity app on the iPhone to get a lot more detail on all your stats
* See history of your data.
V Apple Watch tips
V Force touch heart or face animated emoji to change their color
* Heart can be Red, Blue, or Purple
* Face can be Yellow or Red
* Force Touch Stopwatch to get different Modes
* Force Touch notifications to get "Clear all" option
* Force Touch Calendar detail view to see option for 'Day' vs. 'List' or to jump to ’Today'
V Force Touch Weather to get options for outer ring data, Condition, % chance of Rain, or Temp
* Can just tap the center to toggle it too.
* Force Touch in Maps to get Search or use a contact
* Long press on a swatch in Digital Touch to get a custom color picker.
V Blue dot by a Friend in the Digital Touch screen means you missed a message from them.
* Select them and tap the Digital Touch icon to view the missed touch.
V Cover with hand to quickly turn the screen off.
* Flat palm seems to work best for me.
V Force Quit stuck app
* hold down the side button until you see the power off screen, then hold the side button again to return to your Watch's home screen.
V Mark current location
* Open Maps
* Tap the location to get the blue dot.
* Tap the blue dot on your current location.
* Tap 'Mark my Location' and you’ll get the purple pin.
* Long press to place a pin on the map, tap to get directions to the pin from your current location.
V Customize the "stock" message replies
* On iPhone open the Apple Watch App
* Go to Messages
* Tap on 'Default Replies'
* You can then change them to be more tailored to your personality or set up ones more appropriate to the way you communicate.
V Backing up an external iTunes Library
* If you have a large iTunes Media library it quickly becomes almost impossible to keep it stored on your internal drive.
* Mine is now over 1TB, so I move sit to a 2TB 2.5-inch external drive long ago.
V David is in a similar situation and plans to move his library to an external, but has a big concern. What about back-up?
* Will or can Time Machine continue to back up the iTunes Media Folder if it’s moved to an external?
V The short answer is NO.
* There may be some ticks, but usually they are more trouble than they are worth.
V My strategy
V ChronoSync. I have it sync the iTunes Media folder from the external to a Drobo
* Also set it so that it doesn’t synchronize deletions.
* Crash Plan
* You could also get a second external HDD and use ChronoSync or a cloning app, like Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner and schedule that.
V 'discoveryd' issues? Yeah, me too.
V So I didn’t know exactly what was going on but had noticed that a couple of devices on my network were losing their network names and getting the classic (n) appended to their names.
* Specifically my Apple TV (3) and Macbook Air (2)
* I also had some slow network and computer issues affecting Skype and when looking at Activity monitor saw a service called 'discoveryd' pegged at over 100% CPU.
* I did some resets and reboots and thought not much of it until I got an email from Mike pointing to an iMore article about The Chock (Craig Hockenberry) going off on this exact same issue (NSFW)
* The issues: network process using 100% of the CPU, WiFi disconnecting at random times, and names, names (1), names (2), names (4).
* The source of our woes seems to be a new process called 'discoveryd'. It replaced something in OS X Mavericks called 'mDNSResponder'.
V These service managed many of the networking functions in OS X and while mDNSResponder served OS X well for many years it seems Apple decided to replace it.
* The main reasoning is likely to add support for the new Handoff and continuity features.
* Trouble is that the new software, like many rewritten software, has some serious bugs.
V Issues you may be having
* Suddenly Safari (or your browser) stops working. You can’t seem to load websites.
* Duplicate machine names. The (n) issue.
* Very inconsistent wake on demand. My wife’s Mac Mini seems to be constantly waking itself up for no reason. Mostly when I walk into the room with my iPhone, probably a handoff thing, but my iPhone isn’t associated with her mac mini in any way.
* Can’t connect to remote access from outside. Back to My Mac, screen sharing, etc.
* Bonjour issues.
* If you are having issue you might look at the Utilities > Activity monitor and see if the 'discovered' service has run amok. You can kill it or restart if it has.
V Fixes typically involve rebooting Macs or devices, shutting down completely, rebooting your router.
* You can also go in a manually reset the Machine name on Macs via the 'Sharing' Preferences. That is assuming the network doesn’t still have the name in the cache.
V I went through my Airport and assigned DHCP reservations to EVERY device on my network and that seems to have helped so far.
* That includes Internet of Things devices, printers, etc. If it gets an IP, it now has a reserved one.
V Airport Utility > Network tab.
* DHCP Reservations.
* Use the MAC Address or a DHCP Client ID and assign the desired IP reservation.
* Assign a DHCP Client ID from the System Preferences > Network. Click 'Advanced…' and in the TCP/IP tab you’ll see 'DHCP Client ID'. On iOS it’s in the Networks drill down.
V FaceTime audio input
* Play question from Kenny
V The only tip I would have would be to show the Volume controls in the menubar
* System Preferences > Sound
* Show volume in menu bar
* Then you can Option+Click the volume icon to quickly change your input and outputs.
* When you finish your call switch them back.
V Thing of the Moment: ScreenSavrz & RadSleevz
* I briefly mentioned these in a recent Maccast and made them my pick on Macbreak Weekly.
* I really like to keep my Mac stuff looking like new and I’m not a big fan of wraps or shells.
* RadTech makes these awesome microfiber sleeves and screen protectors.
* They last forever, so if the form factor doesn’t change too much you can keep using them.
* In a pinch I use my 15-inch ones with the 13-inch Macbook Air, but they’re better form fitted.
* Come in a range of colors. Red, blue, green, black, purple, grey.
* Double as device cleaning cloth.
* RadTech has offered ALL Maccast listeners a discount of 20% on almost all their products. Use code 'MACCAST20' at checkout.
V They also sent me a bunch of stuff to give away.
* Urban Armor Gear cases for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus
* ACpower and AutoPower adapters
* ScreenSaverz
* WaveJamr Bluetooth Wireless Audio Receiver
* Enter at maccast.com/radtech
V Closing
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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.
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* Get a free trial by going to lynda.com/maccast
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