shownotes_20190619

Opening
  Opening Music
    Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
Sponsor: Smile
  PDFpen 11
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      The ability to add multiple items to the PDFpen Library simultaneously
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News
  More Mac Pro tidbits
    A slip up on the Mac Pro site might have revealed the desired release month for the Mac Pro and new Pro XDR display
      For a moment clicking the “Notify me” were bringing up the box to enter your email address with the text “Coming September”. It has since been changed to “Coming this Fall”
    The connector for the SSD modules looks like it may be proprietary
      AppleInsider analyzed the images on Apple’s site and compared it to many different connectors on the market and none of them seemed to match up with Apple’s design
        The closest was probably mSATA, but the number of pins in Apple’s seemed different
          standard mSATA also couldn’t match the performance Apple is quoting
        Other connectors like M.2 (or the upcoming U.2) and Optane didn’t match up
  FindMy Tags
    We have heard rumors of Apple developing a Tile like device tracking system
    Developers exploring iOS 13 Beta 1 have found revenues and possible asset images of the device
    The product is codenamed B389, but the asset package for the product is labeled “Tag 1,1”
    It’s also similar to assets used for pairing devices in close proximity like AirPods and HomePods
    The device appears to look like small white round tag that could be attached to everyday objects like you keys or a glasses case.
    The system would use Apple’ s proximity technology along with the recently rebranded Find My app.
      Can get notified if you move too far away from a tagged object
      System will let you set common locations, like a home or office, where the local proximity notifications would be ignored
      Play an alert to locate an item
      Part of the Find My apps tech that was mentioned by Craig Federighi at WWDC was the ability to track device even when they are offline
        They system uses local Bluetooth beacons that can be picked up by other iOS devices or Macs in proximity to the object
        The systems send the device identifier and it’s location info back to Apple all in an encrypted, secure, and private manner according to Apple.
        The system requires ate least two registered Apple products which, together, generate a cryptographically strong private key that is shared between registered devices through end-to-end encrypted communication.
          The private key is stored on the device locally in the Secure Enclave or T2 chip
          Devices, like the Tag, would then have the public key which is used to encrypt and protect the data sent out by the device.
          The public keys also rotate frequently to avoid the ability to link back previously used keys
          Along each device hop location data is combined and encrypted with the public key and ultimately delivered from Apple to the devices Find My app where it can be decrypted with the local private key
    It’s believed Apple could announce the Tag at their iPhone event in the Fall
  Sidecar Mac limits in beta
    Many of you are excited about the new Sidecar feature coming to iOS 13 and macOS Catalina
    This will allow you to connect an iPad with iPad OS to a Mac via a cable or wireless and use it as a mirrored display and use it like a graphics tablet.
    Developer Steve Trougton-Smith has been playing with the new feature in the iOS 13 beta and, at least currently, it seems locked down to just newer Macs
      The 27-inch iMac from Late 2015, the 2016 MacBook Pro, 2018 Mac mini, the new Mac Pro, the 2018 MacBook Air, the Early 20 16 MacBook and newer models
    There does appear to be a Terminal command that works with mixed results to enable the feature to be used with older Mac Models.
    My guess is Apple will expand support as they get further in development and can figure out which models will deliver the best user experience and performance before the set the hard limit.
  Apple picks-up Drive.ai
    News coming from The Information says that Apple might be acquiring the self-driving vehicle startup Drive.ai
    Apple is said to be mostly in the engineering talent vs the technology
    When The Information reached out for a comment Apple replied with simply, “We don’t comment on speculation”
      Interesting because literally they don’t, but in this case the commented that they don’t comment.
      Speculation is that it’s early and since a deal has not been reached.
    Drive.ai was founded in 2015 by students from Stanford and has launched a self driving vehicle shuttle service in some cities in Texas.
    9to5 Mac had a breakdown of all the rumored potential outcome for Apple’s self driving car efforts
      A. Apple selling a car
      B. Apple run ride-sharing service using minivans
      C. Apple shuttle for employees
      A “HomeKit” for cars
      Apple licensing a system and technology to car companies.
      I would go with B,C, and D, sort of
        Apple car as a service, likely with different vehicle options, depending on your need at the moment
        The shuttle service I think will be used for R&D and prototyping
        Integration of Apple information, location, and entertainment services in the vehicle possibly combined with AR display technology in the vehicle windows.
  Look Around looks impressive
    Apple’s new “street view” feature for Maps in iOS 13 is called Look Around and early reviews seem positive
    The transitions as your tapping to move down streets seems to be smoother with “in-between” images being used for the transitions rather than motion blur effect
    The street photos are also said to be highly detailed with good quality
      for privacy faces and license plate numbers, etc are blurred out
    There are also points of interest, shops, landmarks and more that are labeled and you can tap to get more information.
    Apple states that they plan on having all of the US photographed and mapped by the end of 2019, with plans to do other countries in the year after.
      Currently it seems to work in Cupertino, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Honolulu
  Second Apple TV+ show gets a trailer
    at WWDC we got a look at the Ron Moore show “For All Mankind”
    Now at, of all places E3, during the Ubisoft event they have showed a trailer for “Mythic Quest”
    It’s a comedy series from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney
    The story is focused around a highly successful game studio as they get set to launch their next major expansion
    The Post is also reporting that Apple is looking to back small budget films with the potential to win Oscar’s
      The piece says they have been contacting approaching “elevated” directors and other film talent and offering to bankroll them for between $5 and $30 million per project
      They say Apple is looking to back about six projects per year
      They also say these deal are separate form the multiyear agreement, signed in November, to make movies with A24
    One production company that Apple was seriously rumored to be considering a partnership with was J.J. Abrams Bad Robot
      Unfortunately it looks like Apple lost out on that one to WarnerMedia which stepped Up with a $500 million dollar deal
      Abrams was one of the celebrities in the announcement parade for the Apple TV+ announcements at Apple’s Apple Services event, so he has at least one show that will run on the service.
      It’s not clear yet if the Time Warner deal is exclusive.
  Apple may still buy Intel modem business
    Again from The Information.
    They say Apple is in talks to buy a piece of Intel’s now shuttered modem business
    The piece Apple supposedly wants it the German piece, which is considered to be one of the strongest.
    That’s because a big chunk of it came from an Intel acquisition of Infineon in 2011
    It’s just talks at this point, but if Apple can get the deal done it would result in Apple gaining hundreds of talented cellular modem engineers.
    Apple has also hired a number of ex-Intel executives from this modem division
    The days of Apple’s own modem chips are reportedly years off, but they are expected to ship a 5G iPhone by 2020
      Ming Chi Kuo says he expects the 5G iPhone in 2020 along with growing and shrinking OLED displays
      He believes the 2020 iPhone will come in 6.7-inch, 5.4-inch, and 6.1-inch screen sizes
      It will also be the first year the iPhone XR version moves to OLED
        As a side note the 2019 iPhone XR is also expected to have a 6% larger battery
      The move of the iPhone XS’s 5.7 inch display downward to 5.4-inch will supposedly please fans who are looking for smaller devices
      Combine that with an even bigger 6.7-inch “Plus” device and you have irritated mid-sized phone fans like myself.
      The 5G would supposedly have support for both the leading standards sub-6GHz and mmWave technology, but will use Qualcomm tech.
        5G is only expected in the 5.4 and 6.7-inch devices with the XR successor expected to remain an LTE device.
        Apple’s own chips still are not expected until at least 2022, but Kuo thinks apple will use their own power amplifier and RF antenna designs.
    The move to full OLED by 2020 has not been good news for Apple’s current LCD supplier Japan Display
      They have been in financial trouble and were hoping for a $700 million dollar bailout from a consortium, but they bailed out reportedly over concerns about the future of orders from Apple
        Part of their troubles are due to Apple’s lower phone sales after they agreed to guaranteeing orders.
        Apple is said to be considering waiving the money owed for those order and possibly investing $185 million in the company to keep it going.
        Japan Display may begin supplying OLED displays for Apple Watch, but they are not currently set up to produce iPhone displays.
  New iCloud for Windows
    Apple introduced an updated iCloud for Windows app for Windows 10
    Let’s Windows users access iCloud Drive, iCloud Photos, Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, and Safari Bookmarks from their PC
    You can also see and manage your iCloud Storage
    Microsoft says the iCloud Drive feature uses the same Windows technology behind the OneDrive Files On-Demand Feature.
    iCloud for Windows can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store
  IDs moving to iPhones
    At least in some countries and largely enabled by Apple opening up the devices NFC capabilities
    In Japan users will be able to read the NFC chip in their national identity cards using a government developed app allowing the person information to be stored on the device.
    Germany has also announced plans to make their IDs compatible with the iPhone’s NFC
      It will allow German citizens to put national ID cards, residence permits, and biometric passports onto their iPhones
    Apple has also approved a UK app that let’s citizens their scan the NFC chip in their passports.
      It will allow EU citizen’s more easily verify or apply their citizenship in the UK should Brexit move forward.
    Apps that are allowed to scan and read NCF chips will also need to be approved by Apple on a case by case basis. And third party apps are only allowed to read tags when the app is active in the foreground.
    In addition to IDs and password the tech can be used to read NFC stickers for things like fixed payment transactions.
  Bye bye Dashboard
    One thing you won’t find in macOS Catalina is the Dashboard. It was no where to be found in the beta and could not be enabled in Expose
    Then Mac Otakara noticed that the technology had also been removes from Apple’s WebKit.
    So it’s a pretty safe bet it’s gone and not coming back. Sad for something that has been with use ins Mac OS Tiger
    Luckily macOS Catalina offers a viable alternative in the form of widgets in the Notifi cation Center’s Today view. And with Widgets as part of the desktop in iPadOS, you have to wonder if that feature might find it’s way to a future version of macOS.
  Apple Watch Independence
    We already knew from WWDC that Apple Watch is getting it’s own App Store
    In the current watchOS 6 beta you can start OS updates directly from the Apple Watch
    You will need to accept the Terms & Conditions on the phone
    They are also adding the ability to delete some of the first party apps
      Alarm, Breathe, Camera Remote, Radio, Remote, Stopwatch and Timer
      ECG, Walkie-Talkie, and the upcoming Cycle Tracking app also.
      Other apps, including Heart Rate and Messages, will remain unremovable
      Apps that have partner apps on the iPhone, like Activity, Contacts and Calendar will require you to remove the app from the iPhone to remove it from the Apple Watch
  Apple authorized repairs at BestBuy
    Apple announced that 1000 BestBuy stores are now Apple Authorized service centers.
    Adding Best Buy locations now means that 8 out of 10 Apple customers in the US are now with 20 minutes of an authorized service provider
    I do wonder about the overall experience though.
    Apple Card testing has expanded to Apple Employees after being available Goldman Sachs employees
      Employees can get the digital wallet version of the card immediately after approval, but will need to be running iOS 12.4, which is in beta.
      They say they will get the physical, titanium card within two to three weeks.
      The public release is said to be “this Summer”, but this expansion of testing is a good sign they may be getting closer to public release.
      The card will launch first in the US, but Apple is reportedly in talks with financial regulators in Europe so hopefully expansion will happen quickly.
  Moar Catalyst
    We know that Apple is planning more Catalyst apps, like Podcasts, for macOS Mojave
    Catalyst is the technology that allows iOS apps to be more easily ported by developers to the Mac.
    Apple used the tech to develop the Stocks, News, Home, and Voice memos to the Mac for macOS Mojave
      The apps are fine, but they have never really felt 100% like “Mac” apps.
    Now Craig Federighi has revealed in a CNET interview that those apps will get a refresh with the updated Catalyst tech coming with Catalina
      He’s says that refresh will make their designs more Mac-like.
      He also claimed the 90 percent of the design decisions that make they feel not “Mac-like” where intentional design choices and not the technology.
    There are also new hints in the macOS Catalina beta that Apple could be working on Catalyst versions of Messages and Shortcuts
      The could mean we finally get support for stickers and iMessage effects on the Mac
      It’d be also great to have Shortcuts as an option for automation on the Mac. Including Siri Shortcuts.
Sponsor: Linode
  Linode
    Linode allows you to instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. Get a server running in seconds with your choice of Linux distro, resources, and choice of 10 node locations.
    They are giving all new Maccast customers a $20 credit.
    I've been wanting to set up a Minecraft server and Linode offers One-click installs including gaming installs
      They have Minecraft, Ark, Terraria, and more.
      Also one-click installs for things like Wordpress, Drupal, GitLab, OpenVPN and more.
      Plus a whole bunch of distros. If it runs on Linux, it runs on Linode.
        Most Linux distributions available out of the box, but you can upload custom images or create your own
      Basically you can build whatever server you want.
    Featuring native SSD storage, a 40 Gbit network, with industry leading processors
    Pick from any of our 10 worldwide data centers
      They just opened their newest one in Toronto, Canada
        Built using their most up to date hardware and their Next Generation Network backbone
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      Additional datacenter opening in Mumbai India by end of 2019
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    Can get what you need from a $5/month Nanodes plan to high power Dedicated CPU plans
    Their dashboard makes it easy to manage your Linodes and upgrading your plan is easy.
      Can add-on backups, large storage volumes, and load balancing
    And if you need support they have 24x7 live customer support and a large documentation library which provides a great resource when you get stuck.
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
  Apple and your data
    [Axios](https://www.axios.com/what-apple-knows-about-you-fa7fa529-05af-48fa-bc51-54c15a6f5fbc.html) has a great piece, actually a series, detailing what companies know about you.
    A lot of this info about Apple and their data and privacy is not new. In fact Apple details most of it on their [privacy page](https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/) on their site
    One of the most interesting things I noticed on the site was the transparency information about requests from governments for information
    Apple breaks it down my country and request type.
      Device
        Device requests generally seek information regarding customers associated with devices and device connections to Apple services - for example, law enforcement investigations on behalf of customers regarding lost or stolen devices.
      Financial
        Financial Identifier requests generally seek information regarding suspected fraudulent transactions - for example, law enforcement investigations on behalf of customers in which a credit card was fraudulently used to purchase Apple products or services.
      Account
        Account requests generally seek information regarding customers’ Apple ID accounts, such as account holder name and address and account connections to Apple services - for example, law enforcement investigations where an account may have been used unlawfully. Account requests may also seek customers’ content data, such as photos, email, iOS device backups, contacts or calendars.
      Emergency
        Emergency requests relate to circumstances involving imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to any person, and generally seek information regarding customers’ connections to Apple services - for example, instances where law enforcement believe a person is missing and in danger.
    To me the country breakdowns seemed the most interesting. For example:
      China and South Korea seemed to have the most device requests, not too odd considering these would be used in fraudulent device investigations, but Germany and Poland were also high on that list
      The US but far lead financial fraud requests
      China and the US had the most account requests - these also can potentially reveal the most data as they contain iCloud backups, etc.
      Across the board emergency requests seem to be low
  Holes in the Mac Lineup?
    I think at this point most people would agree that from a pure technology stand point Apple has one of the strongest Mac line-ups they’ve had in a while.
    They seem to have most of the bases covered from their consumer lineup with the Mac mini, the MacBooks and MacBook Air and the iMac
    For Pros you have the MacBook Pros, the iMac Pro, and now Mac Pro (for elite Pro). You can also Mac the Mac mini into somewhat of a “prosumer” machine.
    But even still, there seems to arguably be some spaces in the lineup, especially with the desktops.
    Most notably on the entry level, sub $1,000 and at the Prosumer desktop level.
    Darren was a listener who wrote in to express the frustrations of the budget Mac owner
      The Mac mini does have an “entry” level $799 price tag, but when you really look at the specs most would agree it’s a little crippled
        A measly 128GB of built in storage. Most iPhone’s and iPads offer more than that now.
        Also, just 8GB of RAM
        To jump up to a more respectable 512GB of storage will set you back another $400 bucks.
      So you might argue a base model iMac or Macbook
        The iMac has a $1,099.00 price tag, but old tech in a 7th gen Intel processor, and while 1TB an old spinning hard drive. These day spinning HDD basically equals spinning beachball.
        MacBooks start at $1,299 so are really already above that “budget” price.
      Not that Apple HAS to offer a budget offering, but they once did with the $499 mini. I still have one in use today and it’s freaking awesome.
        Meanwhile my 2014 model needed an SSD upgrade to function well and my 2009 iMac is definitely showing signs of aging
        Truth be told though it might help that the 2006 mini is stuck on Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard
    The other underserved user is the guy or gal who wants an expandable desktop Mac at the Prosumer level
      Something in between the $3000 to $5000 range
      Yes you can configure something quite nice in this range in a Mini, MacBook Pro, or iMac
      But you’re left to all external expansion.
      It’s be nice to see Apple do a miniTower version of the new Mac Pro.
        How about six memory slots and 4 expansion ports (half the tower)
    Look, I’m realistic, Apple has never been about cheap and they have never been about choice and i don't seem them changing, but it’s still nice to think about where they could go and what’s missing from the lineup.
    I’m still super amazed by what they are offering and I think, if you can afford it, it’s never been a better time to be a Mac owner.
  Cellular modem issues
    Andy is having an odd and annoying issue with the cellular modem on his trusty iPhone 6S
    The issue is we will be connected to 4G with a strong signal yet not be able to connect to the Internet or receive data on his device
    The mobile data is switched on and rebooting the device fixes the issue for a bit, but eventually it loses connectivity again
    Wi-fi is fine.
    He has tried resetting the Network setting, but that doesn’t seem to permanently resolve the issue.
    It seems to possibly have begun with his upgrade to iOS 12.
      Anyone else?
    I would try a couple of possible things:
      What happens if you toggle the Mobile Data switch? Leave it off for 30 seconds.
      If that doesn’t work I have found that toggling my device in and out of Airplane mode can do it.
    If none of that works then you may need to try backing up and restoring the iPhone completely
      Andy was worried about data loss and the restore process bringing back the same bug.
      Unlikely because the OS would install from scratch, just data is restored.
    Finally it could be a hardware issue with the cellular modem.
      You might also check with your carrier to see if you possibly missed a carrier update?
    Any other thoughts?n
Closing
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