This episode of the Maccast is brought to you by ZocDoc. More on them later in the show.
News
Apple’s next headset will be more affordable
This according to Ming-Chi Kuo who says that in the first half of 2015 Apple may have both high-end and more-affordable models of their AR/VR headset available to consumers
He also believes that by 2025 or 2026 shipments of Apple’s currently non-existent headsets could reach 10 million units
Of course Apple hasn’t even announced or shipped a headset yet, but many think we could see their first offering as soon as by this fall or in early 2023 (which seems more likely)
The first version is expected to use a combination of AR and VR and will possibly come with a high price tag. Possibly USD $3000 or more by some reports.
For the first model the site The Elec says that Apple may be looking to diversify their display providers
Their report claims Apple has asked Samsung Display to develop micro OLED panels for the upcoming headset
Early reports claimed that the headset would feature two high resolution 4K (or maybe 8K) micro OLED displays with a resolution of 3,000 pixel per inch and that those would be provided by Sony.
Now we possibly have Samsung in the mix, though it sound like they might be providing a 3rd OLED panel that would not be the main display. This could be used on the edges for peripheral vision and would likely be lower resolution
Though the report does say that Samsung could be on board to supply micro LED panels for the second-generation device.
ETNews also backed reports that Apple could likely release the first version in early 2023 but also thinks Apple is already working on a version for 2024 with “substantial” improvements
Mac shipments down (or up) depending
So depending who’s numbers you want to believe, global Mac sales went well, or poorly, depending on who’s numbers you want to accept.
Let’s start with the bad news from IDC.
Their latest numbers for Worldwide PC Shipments shipments in the second quarter show an over all decline for the industry of 15.3 percent
But they say Apple fared a bit worse. They estimate Apple shipped just 4.8 million Macs in Q2 and if so that would represent a 22 percent decline over the previous year.
They seem to cite production constraints as contributing to the decline and not that Apple also slipped to 5th position from 4th in overall PC shipments
But if you don’t like that news don't worry because we have new numbers from Gartner for the same period that claim Apple shipped 6.3 million Macs in Q2, up 10 percent from the 5.8 million they estimated Apple shipped in the same quarter last year.
And they say Apple maintained their position as the fourth best selling PC manufacturer
Whomever’s numbers you want to believe Apple shows no signs of slowing down when it comes to delivering new Macs for consumers to buy
The new M2 13-ing MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are out and selling well according to reports
And for the future we still have an M-series Mac Pro looming along with updates to the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros.
For the latter Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says they are already “in the works” and we could see them as early as this Fall, though he does note they could be pushed back into early 2023 as well.
He expects that overall Apple will keep the current designs and update the internals with new M2 Pro and M2 Max processors with more focus given to the graphics side of the chips.
New details on Apple’s Car
Wayne Ma from The Information this past week published a detail report outlining Apple ongoing car project
In addition to citing the many known technical and staffing issues Apple’s team ha been facing the report adds some new information on what Apple’s engineers might be trying to achieve with the project and I have to say it’s ambitious to say the least
They say Apple hopes to gain exemptions from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to deliver a vehicle without a steering wheel or break pedals and that Apple even hopes that passengers would be allowed to lay flat and sleep in the the car.
The report says that Apple’s design has a curved roof, like a VW Beetle, and a seating arrangement with four seats facing inward so passengers face each other
Apple has also explored the idea of a trunk that raises up for access and then tucks away when not in use and that there could be back seat screens that also raise and lower
Another concern Apple reportedly has is how they are going to conceal the car from the public during testing (I’m guessing there’s not much they can do).
Interestingly this report talks about Jonny Ive’s ongoing involvement in the project as a consultant with his company Love Form
Interesting because we also got reports this week from the New York Times that Ive and Apple hav agreed to stop working together
Still don’t expect any kind of car from Apple any time soon as the report says the launch is likely years away.
Next iPads. Lighter. Better displays.
Apple’s focus for their next iPad updates are better OLED displays and lighter weight devices according to a report form the ET News
The cite prototype displays being made for iPads from Samsung and LG Display
They are supposedly using a new dry etching process that would allow the displays to be lighter and that Apple is looking for "unrivaled image quality”
The story also says the display could have a new coating to increase the display's durability which is needed because of how thin they will be.
Display Analyst Ross Young went on The Mac Rumors Show and said that Apple would OLED displays to the 11-inch and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro likely in 2024
He also believes that Apple could bring an under-display TrueDepth camera system to the iPads before the iPhone because it’d be easier to do in a display with lower PPI
Apple TV+ racks up the Emmy noms
Apple TV+ shows got 52 nominations for the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards.
That’s up from the 34 nominations they got last year
This year, Ted Lasso (20 nominations) and Severance (14 nominations) were the shows with the most nominations for Apple. And they received the nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Drama Series respectively
Several other Apple series that received nominations include
Schimgadoon!
Foundation
Story
Pachinko
The Morning Show
Central Park
SEE
A new series coming to Apple TV+ will focus on Ferrari and it’s founder Enzo Ferrari according to the Hollywood Reporter
The series will come from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, who also created the Apple TV+ series SEE, and be directed by Stefano Sollima
The series was inspired by the best-selling biography Ferrari Rex by Luca Del Monte and will focus on a specific 5 year period of Ferrari’s life from 1956 to 1961
Along with the TV series the same piece says Apple TV+ will also deliver a feature film about Enzo Ferrari simply titled “Ferrari”. It will be directed by Michael Mann and star Adam Driver, Penélope Cruz, and Shailene Woodley.
Apple also announced the hosts of it’s new eight part documentary series “Gutsy” which will premiere on the service starting September 9th
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton will host the series which based on their New York Times bestselling book, "The Book of Gutsy Women”.
The series will follow the Clintons as they speak with some of their personal heroes, extraordinary, courageous and resilient women who have made an impact in their community and on the world.
The list of “gutsy” women featured in the series will include Kim Kardashian, Megan Thee Stallion, Dr. Jane Goodall, Gloria Steinem, Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer, Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson and more
On the live sports side… there’s more indication that Apple may win the battle for the rights to air the NFL’s Sunday Ticket games
A site called the “Puck News” says Apple may be will ing to pay as high as USD $3 billion to secure the deal. Direct TV has the rights currently and reportedly pays about $2 billion/ year
It’s not clear how much additional Apple would charge for access to the games should they land on Apple TV+
The same report claims that Apple continues to look for other opportunities to add sports offerings to Apple TV+ and that they are possibly pursuing a deal to get the UEFA Champions League European Football games on the services as well.
That deal could be worth as much as $2-2.5 billion
For pricing it’d be great if they took the strategy they’ve done with MLB and rolled the sports stuff into the service for “free"
Technically the MLB Friday Night Baseball games are not meant to be free forever, but since Apple brought the games to the service they have been free
Apple and the MLB announced the schedule of games for August and once again they say the games will still be available for free, exclusively on Apple TV+
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
Drobo alternatives and backup
We had lots of amazing feedback on our conversation about Drobo and their recent filing for bankruptcy and corporate restructuring
I received a lot of great advice and recommendations from the community
Play feedback from Mitch
Kirit says that he does own an OWC Thunderbay RAID and loves it, but that the Drobo story is a good reminder that “diversification” is a good strategy even when it comes to storage solutions.
Relying on any one company or technology could always be troublesome should they hit technological or financial struggles.
He also says he recently bought a G-raid device and loves that too. G-raid is owned by Sandisk which is part of Western Digital which is a large player in the HDD space, so they have good odds of being around for a while. Though of course nothing is certain.
One final thing Kirit points out when considering RAID storage is that there are hardware and software RAID solutions
The G-raids for example are hardware raids, while the OWC Thunderbay is a software raid
Each has their own advantages / disadvantages
Hardware RAIDs have separate controllers that do the processing and manage the raid independent of the OS. They can offer better performance, are OS independent, and replacing disks can be easier with features like “hot swapping”. The disadvantage is they tend to cost more and if the controller fails you’ll need a new one that is compatible to get back up and running.
A software RAID leverages software running on your machine along with the support of your OS. Software RAIDs tend to be lower cost and allow the flexibility to reconfigure arrays because you’re not locked into a hardware controller. Software raids can be a bit slower and performance can be impacted if your system and OS are under heavy load. Software raids also are generally tied to your OS, so can be harder to use cross platform and you’ll have to shut down your raid if you need to swap out or replace a drive.
Alex, a 10 year Drobo veteran, is ready to move on from Drobo as well having purchased a Synology DS920+ but also emailed to remind us that while suffering Drobo isn’t fully out yet
Alex has a Drobo 5N that died after a firmware update.
He contacted Drobo support and they did get back to him and even tried to help troubleshoot his issues
Ultimately they couldn’t revive his system which is out of warranty, but even still… they offered to replace his unit. So there’s still hope.
Corrie also is moving from Drobo to Synology replacing a 5D with a Synology DS918+ NAS drive
Corrie says that if you’re looking for help getting up and running with a new Synology that our friend Don McAllister at [ScreenCasts Online](https://www.screencastsonline.com/search/?s=Synology) has several helpful tutorials and that Allison Sheridan at the [Nosillacast Podcast](https://www.podfeet.com/blog/tag/synology/) has also been helpful when it come to Synology. I’ll throw in a shoutout for Dave and John at [Mac Geek Gab](https://macgeekgab.com) as well.
But Corrie asks… what can one do with their aging Drobos?
Is there any non-proprietary software that can be run on them to re-purpose them?
Is the only option to just pull, reformat, and salvage the drives?
Launchpad missing apps?
Rick uses Launchpad and also Apple’s built in Image Capture app, but noticed recently that the icon for Image Capture was not appearing in Launchpad and asks, why?
For those who are not familiar… Launchpad was an iOS “springboard” style app launcher introduced to macOS wile macOS
There are a few ways to access Launchpad
It’s technically an “app” so you can launch it from Applications
If you have an Apple keyboard you might have a dedicated “Launchpad” function key (f4)
It can be enabled via a Trackpad gesture
System Preferences > Trackpad
Click on the “More Gestures” tab
Make sure “Launchpad” is checked
Once enabled you can access Launchpad via the trackpad by performing a “pinch” gesture with your thumb and three fingers
Once in Launchpad you’ll see a “grid” of your application, just like on iOS.
You can swipe between pages of apps and click on any icon to launch that app.
There is also a search box to filter apps in the grid
Just like with iOS you can tap and hold on an app icon to go into “wiggle” mode. This lets you rearrange apps in the Launchpad. You can also group apps into folders by placing one icon on top of another and clicking on the name to rename it. If an app has the “x” icon on it you can click that to delete the app, it will warn you and this does delete the app from your system, not just remove it from Launchpad.
Getting back to Rick. It is the Launchpad’s “folder” feature that solves the mystery of the missing Image Capture icon.
Apple by default has a series of apps in the Launchpad under a folder called “Other”.
These seem to be many of the apps that are in the “Utilities” folder inside Applications.
You can pull an app out of the folder by clicking a dragging it outside of the folder to put it back in the main Launchpad app grid.
Amazing spatial audio
Play comment from Brett
You don’t have to drop the money on AirPods Pro to get the spatial audio experience
The [Beats Studio Buds](https://www.beatsbydre.com/earbuds/studio-buds) have active noise cancellation and spatial audio and are just USD $149.00 and you can even get them cheaper if you shop around.
Merging Music Libraries
Robert has a couple of Macs. An old Mac mini from 2012 that he’s replacing with a new M1 Mac mini and a MacBook Pro
Each one has a Music Library and he says the two are out of sync and he’d love to consolidate that into a single Library that we can bring over to the new Mac mini.
But what is the easiest way to do that. There is for sure some Music in each library that is not in the other.
You could just try combining the two Music folders, but there are good odds that some tracks or albums might get overwritten or not merged properly. Also any metadata in the non-“source” library would not likely be moved over.
I know back in the iTunes days there used to be apps like TuneRanger that could help merge and cleanup your libraries, but I don’t think those exist anymore?
