Maccast 2015.10.02 - Show #543
Links
V Opening
V Opening Music
* Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
V Sponsor: Smile
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V News
V Apple car in 2019?
* The Wall Street Journal claims people familiar with Apple’s rumored "Project Titan" car project are saying the company is trying to have a vehicle ready by 2019
V For a while now we’ve been hearing that Apple is staffing up and hiring heavy hitters from and around the automotive industry
* A big recent focus has been experts in connected and autonomous vehicle systems.
* The current headcount is rumored to be around 600, but could be tippled soon.
* AppleInsider thinks the project is run under a shell company called "SixtyEight Research" from a facility in Sunnyvale, CA called "SG5".
V Rumors on sites
* A few sites Apple owns have been cited as possible R&D or manufacturing locations
* Apple reportedly paid $138 million for a 43-acre site in San Jose
V Speculation on Apple’s car project has run the gamut
* From in-vehicle systems to a full autonomous vehicle
* The 2019 Apple car, if reality, is speculated to be an electric car possibly with advanced assisted driver features, but not fully autonomous.
V iFixit teardown and takedown
V Lucky for us iFixit took a part a new Apple TV and Siri Remote
* A dual-core, 64-bit Apple A8 chip with 2GB RAM
* A larger heat sink and redesigned power supply
* Remote has a ARM Cortex-M3 MCU and the same Broadcom touch screen controller used in the iPhone 5s/5c and iPad Air
* Repairability score of 8 out of 10
V Unlucky for them Apple wasn’t as impressed
* They pulled their developer license
* The app still seems to work for now, but iFixit said it needed an iOS 9 update anyway.
* They are working on a mobile site and open sourced the code for their App in case someone else wants to build one.
V They also tore down the iPhone 6s
* only a few internal changes and parts additions
* 2GB of RAM
* Smaller 1,715 mAh battery
* Room needed for new Taptic Engine.
* X-ray video of Taptic Engine in action
V Apple is dual sourcing chips. 14nm Samsung (96mm) and 16nm TSMC (104.5mm)
* Does it matter which you have? It’s unclear at this point
* In theory the Samsung one could be slightly more energy efficient, but how much?
* 7 out of 10 on the iFixit repair scale
V iPhone water resistance
* Seems to be improved
* Survived an hour in a "bowl of water" test.
* Looks like a new 'gasket' like seal around the screen and new silicone seals to cable connectors are helping
V A9 has Geekbench scores 50 percent faster in multicore operations and almost 60 percent faster in single core tasks.
* Anandtech did some early benchmarks and found the faster NAND and GPU help a lot too
* In web, graphics, and many storage tests the iPhone is fastest. In some almost matching the performance of the Surface Pro 3 (4th Gen Intel i3 @ 1.5 GHz).
* That means, apps launch faster and load and render data faster.
V Component cost estimated at USD$211.50 and USD$236 for the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus respectively (IHS TEchnology)
* 3D Touch display most expensive component at $52.50. Then A9 at around $22
V iPhone sales broke records
* Apple said they sold more than 13 million over the opening weekend.
* That beat the previous opening weekend record of 10 million from last year.
* Apple did add China this year as a launch day country which likely helped.
* Also, this year there were two weeks between the start of preorders and in-store availability compared to just one for last year.
* Still an impressive number.
* They also announced they will be rolling out sales to 40 additional countries and territories on October 9th and 10th and they are targeting 130 countries by the end of the year.
V Availability seems to be good at most locations.
* Rose Gold and iPhone 6S Plus’ seem to be the harder models to get.
V This week China also got Apple Music, iTunes Movies, and iBooks
* Apple Music with "millions" of songs and featuring Chinese artists
* Apple Music 90 day free trail, but just 10 CNY (yuan) or USD$1.57/mo.
* Movies: 5 CNY, or just $0.79 (rental) and 18 CNY (USD$2.83) purchase
* iBooks: Start at 0.5 CNY or USD $0.08
V iOS 9.0.1 and 9.0.2 updates
* Addressing an issue where some users could not complete setup assistant after updating
* Resolves an issue that prevented iMessage activation for some users
* Fixes an issue where the screen could incorrectly rotate when receiving notifications
* Improves the stability of Podcasts
* Bug fixes and performance improvements
V Apple acquisitions and expansions
V Apple has purchased nearly 200 acres of land in Prineville, Oregon adjacent to
* They haven’t confirmed plans, but it’s likely to expand their data center there
* The new plot is even larger than the original which was 159 acres
V Apple has reportedly signed a lease for a 770,000-square-foot campus to be built in Sunnyvale, Calif
* Six story with lots of glass all around. Designed to support up to 3,000 employees.
* Being called an second "spaceship" by the media
* Images look more like a 3-leaf clover design, but still an open central quad and rooftop gardens.
V The Financial Times says Apple has purchased VocalIQ, a United Kingdom startup with a natural language API that allows people speak to computers with a more natural dialog.
* VocalIQ says it’s technology also has the ability to "learn" using machine learning technology.
* VocalIQ has criticized Siri in a past blog post, calling the virtual assistant a "toy" unable to understand context.
* The company seemed to have a particular interest in voice control within automobiles, so this acquisition could be a two for one benefit with Siri and the "Titan" car project.
V tvOS Search API
* It was wondered about and speculated, but Tim Cook confirmed to Buzzfeed that Yes Virginia there is an tvOS Search API
* Universal search will work with iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Showtime only at launch.
* Cook said. “But we’re also opening an API, so that others can join in.”
* He also said search will know which services your subscribed to and highlight stuff that is available for free or via your existing subscriptions.
* This is good news.
V Feedback, commentary, opinions
V Upgrading to El Capitan
V It’s out and I know we talked about how to do a clean install, but most people won’t need to do that.
* I plan to do a clean install, but only because my hard drive has become riddled with old junk.
* My home Library folder is over 125GBs
* So what about just cleaning and getting ready to upgrade?
V Should you upgrade?
* Generally so far it seems like things are going smoothly, but there’s bound to be missed bugs and issues
V If you don’t mind or don’t use your Mac for mission critical daily tasks. OK.
* I’m holding off for a bit with my main Mac, but I have a secondary Macbook Air that I’ll test things out on first
* Use Roaring Apps to check compatibility
V Clean up a bit first
* Check you main hard drive with Disk Utility and run a quick repair permissions for good measure
* Clean out old documents, emails, photos, etc.
V Use a tool like Clean My Mac (sponsor) to help identify old stuff. You can also use Daisy Disk large files.
* Also Cocktail or Onyx
* Backup, Backup, backup.
* Turn off 3rd party whole disk encryption or File Vault (if you’re upgrading from Snow Leopard). File Vault 2 is fine.
V My thoughts on the new iPhone
* Size
* Battery life
* TouchID
* 3D Touch
V Live Photos
* Tap the icon to turn on or off.
* low frame rate (~12 FPS)
* JPG + MOV file (960x720)
* Wait a two count after taking the picture and before moving you phone
V Can be viewed on other iOS 9 devices with a long touch.
* Potential privacy issue if you send out Live Photos
* Imported in Image Capture in OS X Yosemite as a separate JPG and MOV file, only image in Photos. In El Capitan it’s a single file, but you double click to play the video part.
V iPhone 6s and 6s Plus tricks
V 3D Touch
* Adjust the sensitivity. Settings > General > Accessibility > 3D Touch
* 3D Touch keyboard to use as a trackpad
* If you don’t see an updated apps Quick Actions. Open the app first.
V Wi-Fi calling
* Settings > Phone. Tap Wi-Fi Calling
* Not supported by all carriers. AT&T is waiting for an exemption.
V Need to turn on 4K video
* Settings > Photos & Camera. Tap Record Video (near bottom). Tap 4K HD at 30 fps.
* Just be aware, 300-400 MB of storage per minute of video. 10 mins ~4GB
V Toggle "live" versions of photos
* Select the image from your camera roll or in the Photo app
* Tap Edit
* You’ll see the Live Photo icon in the editing controls. Toggle it off and tap Done.
* You can turn it back on later using the same steps.
V Some have noticed a display issue after upgrading from an iPhone 5/5s/5c
* They get a permanently zoomed-in view in Wallet and some other apps
* Reportedly fixed in iOS 9.1 beta 3
* Turning Display Zoom in Settings > Display & Brightness > Zoomed and then relaunching the effected app seems to resolve the issue (at least temporarily). An you can then turn off Display Zoom.
V Watch OS 2
* Watchfaces. Photos, Photo Albums, Live Photos, and Timelapses. Big bummer, no complications.
V 3rd party complications
* App needs to be installed and managed in the Watch App
* Alphabetical order, names can get confusing.
* Time Travel, interesting and useful.
V Nightstand
* Must be connected to charger
* Press the button so see.
* Alarm, Digital Crown (snooze), Side Button (off)
* Reply to Mail using dictation.
* More than 12 Friends, set up in App. Can have Groups.
* Multicolor sketches and new animated emoji
* Support for Transit
V Music App
* Shortcuts for starting Beats 1 radio, My Music, Playlists, and viewing the Now Playing screen
* Quick Play button. Shuffled music from your library (w/o Apple Music) or a randomly selected playlist or artist collection (Apple Music)
* Cloud icon on WiFi
V A lot more Siri
* Suppport for Apple Music and HomeKit
* Auto sends texts
* Keeps processing even if you drop your wrist
* Can start workouts
* Open apps
* Get definitions, do calculations.
V Excitement for iPad Pro
* Play comments from Cesar
V Not sure if you’ll be able to use it paired with a Mac like an Intous
* Since the apps are on the device you’ll just interact directly
* That said, not sure there would be any reason Adobe or another App developer couldn’t use the technology to do a "second screen" type of application.
V The folks at Pixar got some hands on time with the iPad Pro and sent out some tweets
* In short they were impressed and I think they’d be hard to impress.
* Palm rejection is near perfect.
* Shading with the side of the Pencil worked great.
V Did USB tethering break for you?
V Nick wrote to let me know that since the release of iTunes 12.3 he and others are having trouble using iPhone tethering via USB
* Both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi tethering continue to work fine.
* Only impacts using the iPhone when directly connected to the Mac via the Lightning cable
V There is a Apple Discussion Thread that details the problem and offers a "fix"
* Apparently those in the thread believe the issue is the AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext file which is found at '/System/Library/Extensions/'
* It appears that Apple might have forgot to code sign it, which violates security, so it won’t load.
V The "fix" is to use Time Machine, or another old backup, to go back and get a version of the KTEXT from before the iTunes 12.3 update
* About a month ago, the one with timestamp Jan 09 2015
* The one that is from Sept 18 2015 is the unsigned one.
V There is another "fix" that involves changing the boot args to put ktext in DEV mode.
* DO NOT do this.
* It will disable security for all KTEXT and lets ANY unsigned ktext run. BAD.
* If you don’t use the feature I wouldn’t bother. I also don’t know if OS X El Capitan fixes the issue or not.
V Backup up network volumes
* Play question from Mike about backing up the Transporter Library.
* One method is to get another Transporter
V I tested using my favorite archiving and selective backup tool, ChronoSync
* I was able to select the alias of the Transporter Library folder and backup it’s contents to my direct connected Drobo or USB drive
* Did warn that I should turn off 'Preserve extended attributes'. Controls extended attributes on filesystems that support them.
* But seemed to work for the JPG and iTunes movie files I tested. The .M4V seemed to lose their custom icons, but still were able to be recovered and played.
* Certainly worth shot and better than no backup.
V Speaking of "other" backup.
* Beyond Time Machine, clones, and off-site.
* ChronoSync is great because you can set up and schedule "selective" backups.
* You can also backup network "connected" volumes and if the volume is another Mac (my Mac Mini) they have companion app called ChronoAgent.
V I use it for
* Backing up critical local files to my Drobo
* Photos, Movies, iTunes Media, Maccast, Client Folders, Sites
* One of my favorite features is to not synchronize deletions
V Backing up email
* I also have a secondary backup and archive for email.
* Many of you just keep it all in GMail or on the IMAP server. But that storage can fill up fast. I’ve seen people with 20GB, 50GB or more of email going back decades.
* Hard to search, not local, slows down your email clients.
* That’s where Mail Steward come in for me.
* Set it up to scan my Mailboxes and create an indexed archive into a MySQL database that’s stored locally.
* You choose what mbox’s to store. I don’t archive trash or spam folders for example.
* Can choose to also store attachments or not.
* UI for accessing and searching.
* Export to MBOX files that can be re-imported into Mail.
* I use the "Standard" edition which is a MySQL Lite DB (file) that gets backed up by TM, Super Duper, and CrashPlan
V Closing
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