Sad news this week as we get the official word of Jony Ive’s imminent departure from Apple
I can’t say this news was all that surprising though
We’d heard for a long time that Ive might be considering leaving and it was often rumored he was taking less and less of a day to day role at Apple.
We also heard many rumors that it was the opportunity to work on Apple Park that made him stay this long.
While the news is sad it’s not too sad because Ive will continue to design for Apple just not AT Apple.
He and long time design partner and friend Mark Newson are forming an independent design firm, uncalled LoveFrom, and Apple will be among their chief clients.
The design at Apple will fall to Apple’s VP of Industrial Design Evans Hankey and VP of Human Interface Alan Dye who will report directly to COO Jeff Williams
It’s going to odd for Apple not to have any single person in the role of Chief Design Officer (this CDO).
Might not be the best idea, as Ive, like Jobs was ultimately the one calling the shots on final design choices
That said some allege the MacBook Pro keyboard fiasco can be directly attributes to Ive’s design and focus on thinness of form over function.
Another rumored reason for Ive wanted to move on was to open the doors for some of the other creative talent and designers at Apple.
As for when Ive will ride off into the pale white room on the horizon? Apple has only stated he’ll be leaving “later this year”.
First look at Apple Card
Well, maybe not quite the first, but more details on what the card looks like when it's delivered
iMore got the details from an Apple employee as employees are testing the cards and process ahead of the summer release
Cards are being approved with a range of credit scores, as low as 600, but with low credit $1,000
APRs are also ranging from 13.24 percent to 24.24 percent
The titanium card comes in a plane white sleeve with an Apple logo, but inside the sleeve is colored to match the pushes category colors you'll see in the app a you start making purchases
You activate the card with an NFC chip that is in the packaging itself
Card front has embossed Apple logo, a chip, and a name. The back just a mag stripe and with embossed Goldman Sachs and Mastercard logos.
The card weighs 0.52oz or about 14.75 grams
Return of the “lunch tray”?
An IHS Markit analyst claims that Apple is going to release a 16-inch MacBook Pro in September
Says the display will come from LG with a resolution of 3,072 x 1920
This seems to backup a rumor from a previous source that said Apple was talking with Samsung about 16-inch OLED displays for a MacBook Pro, though in this case the display would still be LCD.
Ming Chi Kuo also commented a while back that he expected Apple to release a MacBook Pro with a “All new design” sometime in 2019 but he never mentioned any details about the display.
New Mac Pro will not be assembled in the USA
The current version is assembled in Texas, but the Wall Street Journal says Apple's new "cheese grater" Mac Pro will be made by Quanta Computer in China
An Apple spokesman tried to buffer the report by saying, Mac Pro is designed and engineered in the United States and includes some U.S.-made components.
It was also noticed this week that Apple received FCC approval for a new MacBook Pro model, A2159.
This same number was recently with the Eurasian Economic Commission, but it's not a model in Apple's current line up.
The MacBook Pros were refreshed in May, so seems unlikely Apple would do an update again so soon.
Still; the 13-inch non-touchbar version did not get a May update and the FCC listing had an image that indicates this is a 61W models, so it's likely Apple could spec bump the non-Touchbar model.
Interestingly after it was reported the FCC pulled all of the documentation on the new A2159 machine.
Apple continues “ARM” race
It’s still believed by many that Apple is looking to ship a Mac with and Apple designed ARM based processor by 2020
A recent hire spotted by a LinkedIn profile change only adds fuel to that fire
Apple has apparently hired ARM’s former lead CPU and system architect Mike Filippo
He led the development for many ARM processors including their upcoming 7nm+ and 5nm chips.
He also brings a ton of experience having also worked in chip design and architecture for both Intel and AMD
One of the future advantages of an ARM based Mac CPU might be that developers would be able to build a single binary of an app that could run across both iOS and macOS.
Filippo could also take on some of the responsibilities in A-series development left behind when Gerard Williams III, Apple’s lead A-series designer, left the company back at the end of March
The shape of iPhone 11
As the summer rolls on we will be getting more and more solidification of the designs for the upcoming iPhone 11
We’ve continue to the the triple lens camera system and it’s distinctive square camera bump.
adding a super-wide lens to existing wide and telephoto lenses
It’s also expected that the iPhone XR will get dual lenses this upgrade.
There is supposedly a new back glass design that incorporates the camera bump into a single piece of glass.
There also might be a redesigned mute switch that moves up and down, more reminiscent of the original iPad
The iPhone 11 is expected to retain the Lightning connector, but Apple could include a Lightning to USB-C cable with the 18W USB-C wall adapter
The overall design is expected to look largely the same with the notch for the True Depth camera system
Apple is probably investing $100M in Japan Display, Inc.
We mentioned that company was struggling and looking for some help.
As part of the deal Apple might also be considering waiving part of the monies they owe Apple for guaranteeing LCD orders
JDI was slow to move to OLED and now are struggling for it.
They may be able to start providing some OLED displays for the next Apple Watch
macOS Catalina get one iTunes Library
At least in the current beta.
Support for multiple iTunes libraries is not in the there currently, though it could still show up before the release in the Fall.
You can still hold down option on launch and pick a different library and all the libraries you currently have for iTunes will remain when you upgrade
So, I’m not too clear on how things are different
Eddie Cue says Apple Music now has 60 million paid subscribers
That’s 10 million more since the last time they announced a number which was back in January
He also said that Apple entered most of the lyrics for the new “live” lyrics “karaoke” feature in iOS 13
He also spoke about the break-up of iTunes
Saying overall its better and less confusing to users to have Music, Podcasts
Apple Pay rolls out to more of the world
Apple Pay is now available to Apple users in Slovakia, Portugal, Greece, and Romania
Apple tried rolling out to Slovakia many times but it was always delayed
The new rollouts come with support from a number of European banks including Monese and N26
Additional countries are also getting support through the online bank Revolut
Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
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
Allows users to comply with in-country data protection requirements while taking advantage of all Linode's technology and tools.
Additional datacenter opening in Mumbai India by end of 2019
Pricing is simple with no surprise fees. Pay for what you use with hourly billing across all plans and add-on services
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.
Visit: linode.com/maccast to set up your first Linode and get a $20 credit when you use promo code: maccast2019
Of course you’re not going to be able to get enterprise level components like ECC RAM and Xeon CPUs
You can achieve some of the future upgradability, like with the GPU and storage via Thunderbolt
Yes, it’s not the same as having these things internal, but at least it’s an option
The specs
Start with the upper base model Mac mini which starts at $1,099.00
Upgrade the CPU to the 6 core 12 thread i7 at 3.2GHz, with Turbo Boost to 4.5GHz
Get close to the 8core 16 thread 3.5GHz of the base Mac Pro
Then upgrade the 16GB RAM to 32GB, again matching the bas model Mac Pro
Not ECC, but in this case mini may be a tad quicker due to not having error correction
Both run the RAM at 2666 MHz
Storage is equal at the sucky 256GB SSD.
Upgrade to one, not two, 10gigbit Ethernet port
For the GPU you’ll need to go eGPU on the mini
An enclosure will run you just under $300 bucks.
You can get an off the shelf AMD RX 580 which is close to the Apple 580x in the Mac Pro
Because you have a standard port, you can later upgrade with off the shelf GPUs. Won’t need Apple’s fancy MPX Modules
Can drive two-4K displays plus an HDMI display.
So what’s the price for the “mini Pro”? Just USD $3,480.00 or about $2500 less for a similarly spec’d and upgradeable Mac Platform
Right in that Pro-Sumer $3000-$5000 sweet spot.
Why you no back up?
I heard from Phil this week and he has a massive iTunes video collection.
4TB amassed over time spread across 2 x 2TB HDDs.
His question:
"These drives aren’t in a system like Drobo or synology so I know there is no redundancy & chances are that if they go south I will be out of luck. Is there an app that can test the health of a drive to see what is what?"
Yes, of course. There are TONs of apps that will analyze and tell you the health of your drives
