shownotes_20220410

Opening
  Pre-roll: ZocDoc
    This episode of the Maccast is brought to you by ZocDoc. More on them later in the show.
News
  Is Apple cutting iPhone orders?
    We already spoke last time about Ming Chi-Kuo saying Apple cut iPhone SE orders by up to 10 million units citing lower than expected demand
    This week there are more signs that iPhone sales might be slowing due to supply chain issues and general concerns among consumers about the state of the world
    According to Seeking Alpha analyst John Donovan from Loop Capital said in a research note that Apple had lowered projected iPhone build numbers for 2022 down another 9 million to 254 million units
    The average US consumers iPhone is about 2.3 years old and it’s possible with inflation looming that many more consumers could go longer between upgrades.
    Still a report from Digitimes this week contradicts these recent rumors.
      The site claims their checks of the supply chain show no signs that companies have been told by Apple to cut back on orders on the iPhone SE or AirPods
    Still… Apple’s services could help (and have been helping) filling in some of the gaps
      Apple Music, Apple TV+, and iCloud help keep consumers on the platform
      Also there are signs that Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Arcade and Apple Fitness+ all are growing though Apple News and Apple TV+ seem to be flat
  Apple announced WWDC 2022 dates
    Apple will hold another semi-virtual WWDC event from Monday, June 6 to Friday, June 10
    The event will be free online and available to all Apple developers
    I say almost virtual because Apple did announce that on June 6 they will host developers and students at Apple Park to watch the keynote and the State of the Union videos together.
      Space will be limited and details about how to apply to attend will be provided on the Apple Developer website
    What could we hear about at WWDC… Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has a lot of speculation
      He says iOS 16 won’t be any kind of major redesign, but that Apple will showcase "significant" improvements to notifications and new health-tracking features
      He also says there might be a new iPadOS multitasking interface. Remember, we just discussed rumors of Apple bringing some sort of “windowing” to iPad OS
      Apple is unlikely to talk about their AR VR headset at the event but Gurman claims iOS 16 will be “chock-full of references to the headset and its interactions with the iPhone.” Which leads him to speculate that means Apple plans to release the headset sometime between the release of iOS 16 in June and the fall of 2023 when Apple would release iOS 17
      Finally Gurman also teases that Apple has several new Macs in the works including updated versions of the Macbook Air, the Mac mini, the 24-inch iMac, and the 13-inch MacBook Pro (all likely with an M2). He mentions the also teased update of the Mac Pro and iMac Pro in development
        Seeming hinting that Apple could announce some of these at WWDC, but he stops short of saying it
        And for good reason… Apple almost NEVER announces new hardware at WWDC and they are even less likely to announce consumer level hardware.
  New iPods Pro in 2022
    Ming Chi Kuo says yes and that they’ll be here in the second half of 2022
    Kuo mentioned that even though Apple recently updated the Air Pods demand for the third-generation AirPods is "significantly weaker" than expected
      Possibly because Apple continues to sell the older AirPods at a reduced price
    He re-iterated that the low demand forced Apple to cut AirPod orders by up to 30 percent for the second and third quarter of 2022
    He does not expect Apple to keep around the original AirPods Pro at a reduced price to avoid the same situation they have had with the AirPods
    This time around Kuo didn’t comment on new features for the upcoming AirPods Pro
      Previously he said a “significantly” updated wireless chip along with support for lossless Apple Music audio
      Improvements to the chip could also bring better noise cancellation and improved batter life
      He had also said Apple would add a speaker to the charging case so it could be used with Find My
    Other possibilities are smaller or no stems and new sensors that integrate with Apple Fitness
    Meanwhile if you’re in India any Apple AirPods from the standard to the Max will now cost you 10 percent more
      Apple raised prices after the government increased import duties on headphones, loudspeakers, smart meters
    YouTuber Jon Prosser says Apple will also release new colors of the Beats Studio Buds. "Moon Gray," "Ocean Blue," and "Sunset Pink"
  Harrison Ford comes to Apple TV+
    One of the things I feel is common among a lot of the announcements around shows and films coming to Apple TV+ are the big names and this week we have one of the biggest
    We already mentions the new comedy series coming to Apple TV+ called, “Shrinking”. It stars Jason Segal and is being written by Bill Lawrence and Segal. Bill Lawrence is also responsible for the writing on Ted Lasso BTW.
    Now it looks like Harrison Ford is on board to join the cast according to Variety and it will be the first time Ford has ever had a recurring role on a TV series
    Ford will play a character called ‘Dr. Phil Rhodes’, a specialist in cognitive behavioral therapy.
    There were also another couple actors added to the cast this week along side Ford
      Jessica Williams who was in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and Christa Miller known for “Head of the Class” on HBO Max
    Variety is also reporting that Jason Mamoa will start his second project for Apple TV+ after “SEE”
      He will write, executive produce, and star in a new series called, "Chief of War."
      The series "follows the story of the unification and colonization of Hawaii from an indigenous point of view."
      It will be the first time Mamoa will have written for television
    Apple has also given the order for a new conspiracy-based psychological thriller drama series called "Constellation."
      It will star Noomi Rapace, known for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," and Jonathan Banks, who you might know from “Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul."
      The series is created and written by Peter Harness, who has previously worked on "Doctor Who."
    Another star from Marvel’s MCU will also be getting a new series on Apple TV+
      Tom Hiddleston know for his role as Thor’s mischievous brother Loki is signed up to star in a new series called "The White Darkness."
      It’s based on the a non-fiction book of the same name by David Grann and follows the career and adventures of British explorer Henry Worsley.
      Worsley lead an expedition to trek across Antarctica in 2008 through the Transantarctic Mountains which had never been done before. He also did additional expeditions in Antartica in 2011 and 2015
      Hiddleston is also due to start in the series "The Essex Serpent," which will debut on Apple TV+ in May.
      "The White Darkness" is being developed by Soo Hugh, who also worked on ‌Apple TV+‌ series "Pachinko."
    Apple also announced a new six-episode series that follows the life of Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton as he was being hunted by the FBI and fled to Cuba.
      The show is called “The Big Cigar” and will be written by Jim Hecht
  iPhone 14 Pro better by 20 percent
    Really this a play on words based on a couple of iPhone 14 Pro rumors that surfaced this week.
    First one is related to the wide-angle camera which has been expected for a while to be increased to 48 megapixel
      Supposed specs showed up on the Chinese social media site Weibo
      According to the rumored specs the pixels in the new sensor will be smaller but with so many the sensor will actually be larger.
      The area of the sensor would be increased by 57 percent and it would be 21 percent larger
      More pixels means sharper and more detailed images, but has an effect on low light performance
      To get around that Apple is expected to use a technique called pixel binning to gather four adjacent pixels to create a single image pixel in low light effectively producing a 12 MP image that could be brighter and clearer than the twelve-megapixel image from the iPhone 13 camera
    And then some reported new CAD renders of the iPhone 14 Pro designs from the Twitter account ShrimpApplePro show a design with 20 percent smaller bezels
      They also show the “pill” plus hole punch through display design we’ve been hearing about to replace the notch for the TrueDepth camera system
    Apple may have an unannounced 35W Dual USB-C port power adapter
      9to5 Mac caught a glimpse of a support document for the non-existent device that has since been pulled from Apple’s website
      It gave instructions that you could connect a USB-C cable to either port on the power adapter.
      So this would allow you to charge up to two devices from a single adapter
      An iPhone 13 Pro fast charges at 27W, so that would leave 5W free to say charge an Apple Watch as well.
      Ming-Chi Kuo said that charger is nearing production and should be out in 2022
  OLED iPads in two years
    Honestly I considered not even talking about this rumor… I mean seriously to speculate on what Apple will release two years from now seems a bit pre-mature
    So lets discuss this from the perspective of why it makes no sense to discuss it.
    The rumor is that BOE Technology in China is preparing to make future iPad and MacBook OLED panels for Apple according to the Elec
    The good part of this rumor is that it seems like Apple is lining up a new OLED supplier outside of Samsung and LG at a new facility that will be ready by the “end” of 2024
    The new line is, I guess, an Gen 8.5 production line (vs the 6 Gen lines Apple uses now) and will yield more OLED panels per substrate. Samsung and LG are also transitioning to 8.5 gen lines BTW.
    Here’s why I think it’s crazy to speculate on this two years before it happens…
    Apple changes their minds and direction ALL the time. Even if they are looking at OLED panels for iPads and MacBooK Pros in 2024 we also know they are looking at other technologies as well. Say microLED?
    A year from now, heck 3 months from now this rumor could be dead in the water.
    So really the only “news” here is that Apple is looking to expand OLED suppliers and lining up their future supply chain so that IF they decide to use OLED panels in iPads or MacBook Pros in 2024 they will be prepared.
    Good.
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
  Pro Display XDR brightness tweak
    So Apple’s Pro Display XDR has a peak brightness according to Apple of 500 nits.
    Apple’s new miniLED backlight 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pros also have a max of 500 nits
    But… in reality these displays are capable of achieving higher brightness in specific situations thanks to the minLED zoned backlighting
    They can display HDR content at 1000 nits or higher and have a peak brightness of 1600 nits
    That brightness is typically saved for when you’re watching HDR videos or in using some Metal applications
    Developers Jordi Bruin and Ben Harraway found a way to build a Mac utility app, call [Vivid](https://goodsnooze.gumroad.com/l/vivid) that they say uses “Metal, Carbon, Cocoa, Swift, SwiftUI, and even some C code” to allow you to get the full brightness out of the display
    Infinite Loop notes that it’s not perfect
      In jumping between spaces it can swap back and take a moment to kick back in
      Also colors in certain video content can appear “off”
    So why would you want a display that bright?
      Main reason would be to combat sunlight and glare
    The developers claim the app “isn't likely to pose any risk to your hardware”, has a small impact on performance, but do note that running your display that bright will seriously impact your battery life.
    So if you want a WAY brighter display and you have an M1 Pro or M1 Max MacBook Pro or an Apple Pro Display XDR you can pick up Vivid. It’s USD $16 bucks and there is a try before you buy option
  I don’t want Photos “originals"
    Dan just got back from cycling a trip where he took photos and video using an iPhone and GoPro and is adding these images to his iPhoto Library
    The thing is, due to how things were mounted to his bike all the images required an 8 degree adjustment.
    His question has to due with Photos, “revert to originals” feature which allows you to make edits an adjustments, like a tilt adjustment but always be able to go back to your original photo.
    It’s a great “backup”, but Dan mentions… I never want to go back to the original “crooked” version. So aren’t all those originals that I no longer want taking up a bunch of space? Can I get that back and just keep the edited versions?
    Actually Dan, the originals are taking up the space, but what is not taking up that much space are the edited versions.
    Photos is smart. When you edit a photo what it does ins store just the information about your edits along with a small JPEG preview with the edits applied to use in Photos.
    If you go to export or share the image then, and only then, will Photo generates the edited to be used for that export or to be sent off. It just at that time applies the list of edits you made from data stored in the Photos database.
    Similar with Albums. They are just references to the originals in a collection but the photos are not duplicated.
    So the more edits you do it will use up a bit more of the Photos database and a bot more for the JPEG preview images, but it’s really not that much space
    As an example… my Photo library is 150.86GB
      The “originals” folder is 117.25GB
      The “resources” (preview JPGs) is 28.11 GB
      That leaves about 5.5GB of other random data, etc.
    So the edits, etc are roughly 20 percent of my total Photos library Not too bad.
  New Mac, older display
    Vince emailed about our on-going conversation about Apple’s new Apple Studio machine and the Apple Studio Display
    He currently has a 2013 Mac Pro with Apple 27' LED Cinema Display and was ready for an upgrade
    He wanted to replace the Mac Pro with a new Apple Studio, but loves the Apple 27’ LED Cinema Display and was hoping that he could keep that and use it with the new Studio Display
    But… in doing his research and speaking with Apple support they told him there is no way to connect the older Cinema Display with the Mac Studio.
    He asks… is that true.
    And the answer is an emphatic , NO that is not true.
    So here’s the deal… the Apple 27' LED Cinema Display has a single cable with 3 connectors. Mini DisplayPort with audio support, universal MagSafe (up to 85W), USB 2.0.
    The Mac Studio has 4 thunderbolt 4 Ports and Two USB-A Ports on the back and an additional two USB-C or Thunderbolt 4 ports on the front depending on your model.
    You also have HDMI
    All you would need to connect your Mini DisplayPort Apple 27' LED Cinema Display to your new Mac Studio would be a simple USB-C to Mini DisplayPort adapter which can be had for about $20-30 bucks at Amazon or on Monoprice.
    Just make sure it’s a Mini DisplayPort adapter and NOT a Thunderbolt adapter (unless you actually have Apple’s 27-inch Thunderbolt Display). It can be confusing because Mini DisplayPort and Thunderbolt 3 shared the same connector.
    For the USB 2.0 hub on the Apple 27' LED Cinema Display you could connect the USB 2.0 connector on the display to one of the USB-A ports on the Mac Studio.
    And that’s it. You should be good to go with your new Mac and your old display.
Closing
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