shownotes_20200708

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  Opening Music
    Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
News
  WWDC Announcements
    iOS 14
      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)
    iPadOS
      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
    watchOS
      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.
    tvOS
      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
    HomePod OS
      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)
    macOS Big Sur
      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
    ARM Based Macs
      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
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
  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.
Closing
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