WWDC Announcements

Widgets

Small, Medium, Large

Stacks

Machine learning using time, location, activity

App Library

Suggestions, Recently added

Hide apps, only in App library

App Clips

Tiny parts of apps, you quickly download, use and then discard

When you need an app feature, say to rent a scooter, but don’t want the full app.

Can use NFC tags or Apple’s App Clip Codes (or QR Codes) to get the AppClip

Also get fro a website or share a link to one

Phone calls don’t hijack the screen, neither does Siri

Siri

Expanded knowledge. Answers from Internet

On device dictation and send audio texts

I realized we’re moving to a homepage UI that deprioritizing icons and launching apps in favor of information

Apple is late to this party, but the timing feels right

I have tons of apps, but I don’t really care where they are. That’s wasted space on my home screen.

At a glance information on things that I care about get my one step closer to a knowledge navigator in my pocket.

Translate app

All the translations are processed locally with the Neural Engine, so this feature work even without an internet connection, and it wouldn’t send data to Apple.

Initially with 11 different languages

Picture-in-picture on iPhone

Security

New indicators in the status bar

Green = video camera on, orange = mic recording on

Messages

Pinned conversation

Threaded in-line replies

Emoji search (thank goodness)

FaceTime “Eye Contact” feature is returning.

Maps

Cycling directions

EV routing

Guides

Speed and red-light camera warnings

Photos

You can now add captions to Photos on iOS (Descriptions)

Seamless AirPods switching.

Spatial audio added to AirPods pro (head tracking)

3rd party support in FindMy app

Nearby integration framework for developers

Developers can make their in app subscriptions available for Family Sharing

Now if we could just get sharing of in-app purchases.

Digital Car keys

Coming to BMW first, but Apple working with other car vendors

Works with NFC-compatible cars

Managed via the Wallet app

Can share keys

You will be able to change your default browser and email client

Support for APFS external drives in Files app

Accessibility features

Backtap - double and triple tap actions

Sound Recognition. Can listen for certain sounds, like a doorbell or a baby crying, and alert the user if they're detected.

Supports:

Phone SE‌

iPhone‌ 6s and newer

iPod touch (7th-generation)

Also has widgets

Sidebars in Photos and Music apps

Scribble for Apple Pencil

Write to text in text fields

Manipulate written text, like plain text.

Copy and paste handwritten text as text.

Data detectors now also work with handwritten text to recognize phone numbers, dates, and addresses

Shape recognition

Same new call and Siri UI as iOS

Supports

All iPad Pros

5th gen and newer iPads

iPad Air 2 and newer

iPad mini 4 and newer

Activity app renamed Fitness

Built-in sleep tracking with iPhone integration

Setup a Wind Down screen. It turns on do not disturb, and can suggest things like meditation or quiet music listen to.

if the battery is too low within an hour of bedtime, Apple Watch will remind users to charge it

Setup a bedtime routine with HomeKit integration

Quite alarms, haptic wakeup, or friendly greeting.

Sleep data is encrypted on device or in iCloud with iCloud sync

New workout types including Dance, Core Training, Functional Strength Training, and Cool Down

Apple Maps now contains cycling routes in select cities

Watch face sharing between Apple Watches

Chronograph Pro with a tachymeter

Customized watch faces can be downloaded from websites, messages, and social media

Multiple complications per app for third-party apps

Hand wash detection and countdown timers

Warnings about loud music and sound exposure

Sound louder than 80Db for more than 40hrs per week.

Dropping “Force Touch” support.

watchOS 7 will support Apple Watch Series 3 or later.

HomeView Home app integration

Accessed from the control center

Get access and alerts form video cameras

Control Scenes

Support for multiple user accounts for Games

Expanded Xbox controller support

Audio sharing to Apple TV and picture-picture-support

You can now select screensaver types.

Landscape, Earth, Underwater, Cityscape

4K YouTube support

Support to select default services for Music, Podcasts and Audiobooks

These can include 3rd party apps, like Spotify

Can do it per user profile

Doorbell announcements (HomeKit)

Updated UI

More use of transparency and translucency

Subtle shading and shadowing

More in line with iOS and iPadOS

Neumorphism

Startup chime is back. No hacking required.

Can be controlled in System Preferences

Control Center on the Mac

Volume, brightness, etc.

You can drag elements from the Control Center directly into the menu bar

Updated Notification Center

Widgets and Notifications are combined

Support for iOS 14 widget systems

Different sized widgets

Apps

Messages

inline photo picker and Memoji support

Pinned messages

Maps

All iOS 14 Maps features

Favorites and collections

Safari

Privacy reports (Intelligent Tracking Prevention)

Extensions, support for Web Extensions APIs

Customizable start page with custom background

Translation

APFS Time Machine backups

Goes to 11. Listed as macOS 11.0

Compatible with:

2015 and later MacBook

2013 and later MacBook Air

2013 and later MacBook Pro

2014 and later Mac mini

2014 and later iMac

2017 and later iMac Pro

2013 and later Mac Pro

Speed and efficiency

Apple didn’t say which Mac, but that we’ll see an ARM based Mac by the end of the year.

Ming-Chi Kuo has said it’d be a 13-inch MacBook Pro and a 24-inch iMac

They expect the full transition to take about 2 years.

They will support Intel based Macs for “years”

iPhone and iPad apps will be able to run natively on the Mac

“Universal 2” for developers to build Intel and ARM binaries

"Rosetta 2" to allow Intel apps to run on ARM based Macs

Won’t be able to run Kernel extensions

Can’t run Virtual Machine apps that virtualize x86_64 computer platforms

macOS Big Sur’s built in apps have ARM binaries

Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop were demoed as native ARM apps and Apple said they have FinalCut running on ARM as well.

Developer Transition Kit a Mac Mini with an Apple A12Z (same processor that’s in the new iPad Pros) w 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD

Geekbench scores in the ballpark of 800 for single-core and 2700 for multi-core

Basically MacBook Air performance?

Geekbench running under Rosetta 2 emulation and on a system it was never designed for?

The question of the discreet GPU. Will future ARM Macs have them?

Apple isn’t commenting, but they are dropping hints

Gizmodo pointed out a comment in a developer support document and info from developer session on Metal, Apple’s Graphics Architecture

The session described Apple’s SoC GPUs with Metal use Tile Based Deferred rendering to capture an entire scene before it starts to render it, splitting it up into multiple small regions, or tiles, that get processed separately, so it processes information pretty fast and doesn’t require a lot of memory bandwidth. It then doesn’t render the scene until it rejects any and all occluded pixels.

Intel, Nvidia, and AMD use immediate mode renderer which does the opposite, rendering the entire scene and then deciding what pixels need to be thrown out

As you might imagine the Apple method offers great performance with much lower power consumption

In their developer support doc Apple wrote, “Don’t assume a discrete GPU means better performance,” 

Intel announced Thunderbolt 4 and Apple confirmed that their new ARM Macs will support it

It has the same 40Gb/s maximum speed as Thunderbolt 3.

Supports two 4K displays instead of one (or one 8K display)

Requires 32Gb/s of PCIe bandwidth (vs 16Gb/s)

same USB-C design port and will be compatible with USB-C and USB 4

Latest iPhone 12 stuff

Seems like the iPhone 12 Pros could be getting higher “ProMotion” refresh rate OLED displays (120Hz).

Info from a reliable Samsung leaker

Accessibility settings in the iOS 14 beta to limit refresh rates to 60hz

Cameras on the Pro versions may support shooting 4K video at 120fps and 240fps.

There will be a new 20W power adapter, but it won’t be in the box.

Neither will EarPods

Means a much thinner box. We’ve seen leaked inserts.

Other rumors

Kuo: Apple plans to launch a new 10.8-inch iPad in the second half of 2020, followed by a new 8.5-inch iPad in the first half of 2021

Still not clear if this a a replacement for the 10.2-inch or the iPad Air, maybe a hybrid?

Also rumors of a 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a Mini-LED display in the first quarter of 2021

Expected to have an A14X Bionic chip and models with 5G connectivity

Geekbench scores showed up for what looks like an unreleased iMac

Seems to have Intel's 3.6GHz Core i9-10910 chip with 10 CPU cores

Also showed an unannounced AMD Radeon Pro 5300

Could possibly be an updated 27-inch iMac Model

AirPods 3 could be similar to AirPods Pro

According to Ming-Chi Kuo

He says they will likely use a similar compact system-in-package (SiP) solution

Also take on a similar form factor, with a smaller case.

Likely without the noise cancellation or spatial audio features

Could arrive in the first half fo 2021

New 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with Mini-LED displays coming in the first quarter of 2021

Mini-LED would offer high brightness and high contrast ratio displays in a thinner form factor

Linode

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 just opened their newest datacenter in Mumbai, India.

Built using their most up to date hardware and our Next Generation Network backbone, Linode allows you to comply with in-country data protection requirements while taking advantage of all Linode’s technology and tools.

They are giving all new Maccast customers a $20 credit.

More than just hosting. With Linode you have all the options and choices to build a server with the services and features you need

Whatever your requirements you can build it on Linode - Dedicated CPU, distributed applications, hosted services, websites, and Continuous integration and continuous delivery environments.

Featuring native SSD storage, a 40 Gbit network, with industry leading processors

Pick from any of their 10 worldwide data centers

Pricing is simple with no surprise fees. Your pay just for what you use with hourly billing across all of their plans and add-on services

Their new cloud manager features an improved user interface which makes managing your Linodes and upgrading your plan even easier.

Visit: linode.com/maccast to set up your first Linode and get a $20 credit.

Feedback on IAP subscriptions

Jill wrote in with a great point of discussion regarding the Hey app and their not wanting to offer an IAP subscription because of Apple’s cut

They are potentially cutting out part of their market.

Two main advantages of going through IAP is convenience and privacy

Some people might want to have all of their purchase relationships to be through Apple because they better protect your privacy.

Also it simplifies your billing and subscription management to have it all in one place.

Jill says she, and I imagine many others, would pay more to keep that relationship with Apple.

Developers can do simple math to ensure they get the cut they want and still offer IAP.

So if Hey offered IAP subscriptions at $143.00/yr Apple would take a $42.90 cut at 30% and still leave Hey with $100.00

Or $118.00/yr @ Apple’s 15%

They could still offer the $100.00/yr price via the web site and customers would have choice.

The main downside might be that some consumers don’t know about the lower “direct” rate which could be a customer service issue?

I certainly see Jill’s point. That said some companies did try this and ultimately stopped.

In defense of Hanx

Tom Hanks has a new movie “Greyhound” coming to exclusively to Apple TV+ on July 10th

He’s doing remote press for it and he made some remarks about Apple that made the Apple world freak out.

Speaking to the Guardian he said when asked about it coming out on Apple TV+ that it’s, “an absolute heartbreak. I don’t mean to make angry my Apple overlords, but there is a difference in picture and sound quality.”

He later also mention that “the cruel whipmasters at Apple” made him do the remote interviews from his home with a plain wall as a backdrop. We complied, but also said, “here I am, bowing to the needs of Apple TV.”

So the internet lost it’s mind.

I saw this as two things. Typical Tom Hanks wry and sometimes snarky humor. And also an honest assessment of how it would feel to work on a passion project for almost 10 years and not be able to release it to theaters.

Hanks later did a Today show interview where he made more gracious comments about the relationship with Apple and the Apple TV+ release of the film saying that he is "thrilled" the movie will debut on the service. And also that, “"we feel as though we were rescued at sea by a convoy with a big Apple logo with a bite taken out of it."

I wonder how much of that was Hanks vs his Apple PR puppet-masters making him do damage control? *kidding*

Are iOS apps reading your text?

A new security notification, Clipboard Notifications, in iOS 14 now tells you when an App “pastes” the contents of your clipboard for reading and use in your app.

Turns out a LOT of apps are doing this.

There are legit reasons for it (automation / data detection) along with not so legit ones (ad networks)

Scary because do you remember the last thing you copied to your clipboard?

iOS apps have full access to that data

Apple has new APIs that allow apps to “ask” what “kind” of content is on the clipboard without actually reading (pasting) it. For example, a URL, or a photo.

So Apple added the notification to give us transparency, but we’re seeing a lot of apps reading the clipboard and it’s not always clear why.

I think a lot do just because they can.

Many developers ar saying it’s old bugs in their apps and they’re turning it off.

What do you think?

Lots of router questions

Seems like with the death of Apple’s Airport routers a few years ago that many of you are starting to think about router upgrades and wondering what your next move is

To be honest with you… I have had an older Eero system (they were a sponsor before the Amazon purchase) and I still own an use an Airport Extreme

I too have been thinking about routers and right now there are a lot of choices and options. It can be confusing. I’m confused. I’m also not an expert. But I’ll share how i’m thinking about it.

It really comes down to coverage, well and speed of course.

Also, how many devices you need to support (IoT and all that)

My first bit of advice, wired is ALWAYS better than wireless. If you can get a wire to it. Do it.

Really not realistic for most things

But consider your wired connections when choosing a router because some have more wired ports than others.

To mesh or not to mesh

Devices and coverage

If you have a lot of area to cover and tend to have “dead zones” then mesh might be a good choice

With modern routers though we’re talking about “thousands” of square feet. 2,500 - 5,000 or more typically

Newer routers are getting better are covering more area and devices

Mesh can also help of you have a LOT of devices in a lot of different areas

Newer routers may also work as “mesh” systems when you add satellites

I would say when you’re shopping look at the specs and when they recommend in terms of:

Area that it will cover. Square footage

Number of devices that it will support

Maximum network speeds

Some lower cost systems might not match up with your level of internet service.

If you have Gigabit internet, but you router maxes out at 300 Mbps, that might be a big deal.

Do you need new wi-fi right now?

802.11ax or Wi-Fi 6 technology are here, but Apple doesn’t have broad support yet and the gear is a lot more expensive right now.

Good for future-proofing, but waiting might get you a better deal when you can actually use it.

I’m sure a question you have is “What should I buy?”

I don’t know as your needs will not match someone else

There are great options from Netgear, Eero, Synology, Google, TP-Link, D-Link, and others

Radio in Apple Music

Ok, so many of you know about Beats1 in Apple Music

iTunes also used to have a section / collection of “broadcast” radio stations

After Apple “broke up” iTunes in macOS it was not clear where “Radio” stations went.

Bryan wrote in to ask about this.

They are still in Apple Music, but once again Apple has not provided the clearest way to find these.

Open the Music app and check the sidebar for “Radio” under the Apple Music section.

Scroll down and you should see a “Broadcast Radio” section

You can click “Show All” though you won’t find a lot

I had to search for the call letters and then I could find “most” local stations in my area

The service is working through other apps like iHeart Radio, TuneIn, etc. but you don’t need the separate apps.

What’s cool is you can now also ask for these stations to play on the HomePod and Apple TV as well.

Back to School Backup

Justin’s daughter’s Mac will be leaving the safety of his home network and his insistence on good backup, SuperDuper or Time Machine.

He’s worried even if he sends her with a USB and drives she won’t remember to connect them.

First, remember Justin, good habits start at home and it sounds like you raised her right and to know the value of good backup, so she might do better than you think.

Still Justin had questions:

What do you recommend for an automatic backup plan for her? Perhaps it is not as important in the past since she does not have a spindle drive, the weak link previously.

Backup is needed regardless of the drive type. Disasters happen.

Do non-Apple devices like Western Digital’s “My Cloud Home” work with Time Machine?

Yes. There are lots of NAS options that support Time Machine

Issue is they need to be on the same network as the Mac and not sure the college IT staff would want NAS devices on their networks?

What about remote backup? Is that good enough? How do you recover from that?

This is probably the best option if you don’t think she’ll keep up with the local option

Colleges have a LOT of bandwidth and something like Backblaze would automatically backup over the network

It also offers versioning

Recovery is not quite as simple. You’d need to restore the Mac and then re-install apps, etc. but then pull down all your data from the

Is just having an iCloud Drive backup adequate?

iCloud Drive can be an option as long as she doesn’t use the “optimize” storage option and keeps a copy of all the files sync’d on the Mac and in iCloud (still not technically “backup”). As you noted this will really only work for Documents, Desktop, and Photos if she’d using iCloud Photo Library.

I would say encourage her to attach her Mac to the USB hub and external drives when she’s in her dorm room (to do the local backups) and then add a service like “Backblaze” to backup to the cloud / off site.

Supporters

Bandwidth for the Maccast provided by CacheFly at cachefly.com

Advertising is handled by Backbeat Media at backbeatmedia.com

Keep emails coming. Audio comments.

281-622-4269 or 281-Mac-I-Am-9

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

MacCast Forum

Follow me on Twitter

Checkout the page on Facebook