shownotes_20211226

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News
  New speculation on M2
    Some possible details about the next gen of Apple’s M-series processors emerged this week on the Chinese language site Commercial Times
    They seem to think Apple’s M2 chips will be coming in the second half of 2022 followed along by M2 versions of the Pro and Max chips in the first half of 2023
    They say the chips will use TSMCs newer 4nm manufacturing process which should yield performance gains over the current 5nm designs.
    What’s not clear about the report is how these new chips fit into Apple’s line up in terms of timing and if you want to think that the M2 Pro and M2 Max would be part of the Mac Pro transition to Apple Silicon then it would fall outside of Apple’s own two-year deadline.
    Apple is has sort of been all over the place in recent years with when and how they launch Macs, especially the M1s
      We’ve essentially had Fall announcements for Apple Silicon with the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini in 2020 and the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros in 2021.
      The one exception was the 24-inch M1 iMac in the Spring of 2021.
      What would make the most sense to me would be for Apple to fall into the following cycle (and I think it mostly could line up with how they roll out processors)
        Spring - Consumer updates.
          iMac, MacBook Air, MacBook?
        WWDC (June) - Pro Desktops
          Mac Pro, iMac Pro
        Fall - Pro Laptops
          MacBook Pro
        This would also lineup nicely with updates to the M-series chips.
          So we get M2 (next gen consumer chip) in early Spring, the dual / quad variants of the M1 Pro and M1 Max in June, and then the M2 Pro and M2 Max in new notebooks in the Fall.
      Still there are recent reports that claim Apple is still planning at least one more roll out of the Mac Pro with Intel processors
        Designs include both a completely redesigned Mac Pro with Apple Silicon and one that is an update of the existing design with Intel Xeon Scalable processors.
        The reason why both may be to give some Pros an option while still waiting for Pro apps to catch up with the processor transition.
      My theory also possibly lines up with new reports from DigiTimes that TSMC plans to have commercial production of 3nm chips ready by the 4th quarter of 2022 with shipments of processors going out in early 2023
        Macs with M3 chips and iPhone 15 models with A17 chips.
  More on 48MP iPhone Camera
    According to MacRumors Ming-Chi Kuo weighed in on the next iPhone cameras in a recent research note
    He basically reiterated what we heard last week that this years iPhones (at least the Pro models) will have 48-MP wide angle lens and support for up to 8K video recording
    He claims the 8K will be suitable for viewing on Apple’s rumored AR/VR headset which is believed to have a pair of 8K Sony displays
    Reportedly the cameras could use a technique called pixel “binning” to support both 48-megapixel and 12-megapixel options. 48 for ideal conditions, but 12-pixel for low light situations
    Looking forward Kuo also re-iterated a rumor we’ve heard before, that Apple would introduce a “periscope” lens.
      This technique allows for a better optical zoom without compromising the compact design.
      Kuo expects Apple to add this in 2023 models.
    Reports that Apple plans to drop support for iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, and the original iPhone SE with the release of iOS 16
      Pretty amazing actually considering the iPhone SE and iPhone 6s will be 6 and 7 year old models respectively in 2022
    On the display front… reports from the Elec are claiming that the Pro versions of the iPhone 14 will feature LTPO OLED panels with a hole punch design supplied by Samsung and LG
      That would mean Apple is ditching the distinctive notch and that the other sensors needed for FaceIDs TrueDepth camera system would need to function using under display technology
  HomePod reaches double digit marketshare
    Things seemed pretty grim for Apple’s smart speaker aspirations when they discontinued the full sized HomePod
    Apple’s “high-end” and pricey $300+ speaker had failed to make many end-roads into a crowded smart speaker market dominated by the sub $50 USD Amazon echo.
    And while Apple is still not dominating the space turns out that producing a sub $100 HomePod mini has helped Apple’s prospects quite a bit.
    New data from Strategy Analytics says that Apple’s HomePod mini has managed to almost double the company’s marketshare
    They think Apple shipped as many as 4 million HomePods in the 3rd quarter of 2021 which would give them a 10.2% share of the combined smart speaker and smart screen market.
    That’s up form the 5.9% they were estimated to be at at this same time last year.
    That and Apple is not even in the “Smart screen” game. At least not yet.
  Philly gets updated Apple Maps
    Apple this week expanded 3D landmarks in Apple Maps to Philadelphia
    That makes Philly the 7th city to get the feature following:
      London, United Kingdom
      Los Angeles, CA
      New York, NY
      San Diego, CA
      San Francisco Bay Area, CA
      Washington, DC
  Debate on 27-inch iMac display
    Will it be mini-LED or not?
    DigiTimes says component suppliers have started sending out shipments of component parts for the rumored upcoming 27-inch iMac
    The initial report from DigiTimes mentioned the updated iMac as having a min-LED Display, but they later “corrected” their report to claim it would have just an LED display
    As we covered last week display analyst Ross Young thinks the new iMac will use min-LED backlighting and he reconfirmed that belief after this DigitTimes report surfaced.
    The DigitTimes report also said that Apple plane to offer the 27-inch ‌iMac‌ in various colors
      Seeming to elude to it maybe having colors matching the 24-inch iMac?
      Maybe they would do brighter colors?
      Honestly if it’s “Pro” I would think Silver and Space Gray options.
      There have been previous rumors it would have black bezels, something I think that Pro users would demand.
    I say, why not both?
      What if there were both “consumer” and “pro” versions of a 27-inch iMac?
      One with a larger display and colors, like the 24-inch, with a “traditional” LCD display and M1 processors
      Then a “Pro” version with Silver and Space Gray designs and a mini-LED ProMotion Liquid XDR display and M1 Pro / M1 Max chips
  Dutch say Apple must offer alternate in-app payments
    At least for dating apps, which feels oddly specific, but OK.
    The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) ruled that Apple must allow dating apps to offer alternatives to Apple’s own in-app payment system or face heavy fines.
    The ruling says Apple has two months to comply and if they don’t they will face fines of five million euros per week, up to a maximum of 50 million euros
    In the ruling the Dutch organization says, “Some app providers are dependent on Apple's App Store, and Apple takes advantage of that dependency, Apple has special responsibilities because of its dominant position. That is why Apple needs to take seriously the interests of app providers too, and set reasonable conditions.”
    The ACM has been looking into Apple’s App Store practices since 2019, but had ultimately scaled back it’s investigation to focus on dating apps
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
  Home Sharing bug fixed
    Play comment from Sonal
    Generally good reminder to stay on top of updates
    Also a tip for reporting bugs to Apple. https://apple.com/feedback
  A lower cost Apple Display
    Daniel pointed out that my pricing estimates on a rumored Apple 24-inch display based on the 24-inch iMac might have been a bit off?
    I think I speculated something in the range of $1500 USD.
    Thing is a 24-inch iMac starts at $1299.00 and you can get the mid-range model for $1499.00
    I guess my thinking was $1500 was “reasonable” considering it’s an Apple display and the Pro Display XDR starts at $5K
    But presumably the Apple display would match the iMacs 4.5K spec, so not even 5K and the LG UltraFine 27-inch 5K display is $1299.00
    Apple displays when they had Thunderbolt and LED Cinema Display were $999.00, so that (as Daniel points out) a more likely price point
    It’s possible that on a 24-inch with a sub-5K resolution the price may even be lower? Daniel says he’d hope around $500, but that might be too low for Apple.
      Would certainly make Apple more competitive with some of the higher end 4K displays on the market
    Could go higher, up to $1500 if Apple does a 27-inch version with a mini-LED Liquid Retina display and Pro Motion 120Hz variable refresh rates.
    Makes you almost wish Apple still supported using an iMac as a display.
  Colored text in iPad Notes
    Sometimes even the latest iOS updates don’t bring the features you’re looking for.
    Richard updated to iPadOS 15.2 and noticed that the Notes app still doesn’t have options to color the text in a note.
    There are options for font face and basic styling, but not color on iOS.
    Interestingly you can change colors on the Mac version of the App
      This is thanks to the Mac OS having a basic font functionality that includes the OS’s built in color palette
      Select the text, go to ‘Format’ > ‘Font’ > ‘Show Colors’ to load up the color picker and choose your color.
    What’s even more interesting (and frustrating) is that if you sync your notes via iCloud the color will sync to the iOS versions of the notes. So it’s not a limit of the app not being able to show color it’s just that Apple doesn’t give you a way to apply colors to the text in a note on iOS or iPad OS
    The fact that you CAN use colors on Mac does provided a workaround to get colors in Notes on iOS
      You could create a note on the Mac with the colors you want. So maybe type the color names into a note on the Mac and color that text with those colors (i.e. red, blue, green, purple, etc.)
      Then it will sync to iOS or iPad OS.
      From there you can jump to that “Colors” note, copy the text with the color you want, and then paste that in the note you want to use it in and then just edit the text.
      An inefficient and “hacky” workaround, but a workaround none the less
    Or you could just use one of the many notes apps that offers more features including colored text.
  Thing of the Moment: SIP
    [SIP](https://sipapp.io) - Is a color picker for the Mac
    It allows you to select and save colors into palettes and sets that you can use in your Mac apps, like Photoshop, Illustrator, XCode, SublimeText, etc.
    It supports all the various formats, HEX, RGB, HSB, etc.
    The palettes dock into a tiny palette on the side of your display and you can control the side.
    I create palettes for all my clients and keyboard shortcuts make it easy to quickly access and add colors.
    It also has a built in contrast checker so you can make sure you’re color meet accessibility standards.
    It is super handy and is just $10 USD with a year of updates.
    I actually have it through my [Setapp](https://setapp.com) subscription which is great too.
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