shownotes_20221218

Opening
News
  Apple looking to ramp up India production
    According to a report from “Mint” noted by MacRumors
    The piece cites a “senior industry executive” who claims Apple is asking suppliers to increase production with suppliers in India maybe by up to three times current levels
    The report also claim another executive told them Apple has asked three of their suppliers, Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron, to increase production and staff in India
  Apple TV+ shows getting nods again
    As awards season approaches we are starting to see, once again, Apple TV+ series and movies getting noticed
    This week "Severance" and "Black Bird" we’re recognized with Golden Globe nominations in several categories
      Severance — Best Drama Series
      Black Bird — Best Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Television Motion Picture
      Adam Scott, Severance — Best Actor in Drama Series
      John Turturro, Severance — Best Supporting Actor in Television Series
      Taron Egerton, Black Bird — Best Actor in Limited Series, Anthology Series or Television Motion Picture
      Paul Walter Hauser, Black Bird — Best Supporting Actor in Television Limited Series/Motion Picture
    "Who Are You, Charlie Brown?" won Apple TV+ an Emmy at the first-annual Children's & Family Emmy Awards for Outstanding Non-Fiction Program
      Other Apple TV+ shows received nominations, like Fraggle Rock, Helpsters, Hello Jack! The Kindness Show, but the Charlie Brown doc was the only Children's & Family Emmy win for Apple
    Apple via “Deadline” said that the new holiday musical film “Spirited” starring Ryan Renolds and Will Ferrel is now their most popular Apple Original film to date breaking records for the streaming service
      The also said the new Will Smith film “Emancipation” had brought 27 percent viewers to Apple TV+
    Apple is planning a Mythic Quest spin off series called “Mere Mortals” and will be an eight-episode extension of "Mythic Quest."
      It will feature stories that are more like the popular "Dark Quiet Death" or "Backstory!" episodes of Mythic Quest which were offshoots or tangentially related to the main story and ‘explore the lives of employees, players, and fans who are impacted by the game at the center of the mothership series.'
    Apple still seems likely to win a deal with the NFL for their Sunday Ticket service, but a report from Sportico says negotiations are at a "very critical point"
      The main sticking point seems to be that Apple want the service to be available to current Apple TV+ subscribers at no extra cost, but the NFL is not keen on that
      They believe that would hurt their deals with the current broadcast providers CBS and Fox.
  Apple updates it’s OSes
    iOS 16.2, iPad OS 16.2, tvOS 16.2, HomePod 16.2, macOS Ventura 13.1, watchOS 9.2
    Freeform, collaborative white-boarding app
    Apple Music Sing
    Advanced Data Protection for iCloud
      Expands end-to-end encryption to 23 categories of iCloud data
    AirDrop, “Everyone for 10 mins” feature
    External display support for Stage Manager on iOS on iPads with M-series processors
    tvOS, multi-user voice recognition for Siri
    HomePod software version 16.2 adds performance and stability improvements
    The updates also include dozens of security patches and vulnerability updates
    Also updates for iOS 15.7.2, iPadOS 15.7.2, macOS Monterey 12.6.2, and macOS Big Sur 11.7.2.
  Apple may allow 3rd party app stores & side-loading
    What alternate universe have we fallen into
    This report started with Bloombergs Mark Gurman
    Citing, “people familiar with the efforts” claims Apple’s engineering teams are woking to open the platform in advance of the EU Digital Markets Act which goes into effect in 2024
    The claim is Apple will open iOS / iPad OS to allow you install apps from outside Apple’s App Store and also allow alternative app stores on the platform
    Don’t get all excited about some new world of openness just yet.
      Unclear if this will be everywhere, but I would assume likely
      Apple will likely still want their control and their cut
        Could still insist on developers having their Apps vetted through Apple before being allowed on the platform
        Could still insist on a revenue cut, think Dutch dating apps, where Apple still takes 27 percent
      Apple considering opening up additional APIs to developers not currently available and possibly dropping the “WebKit” requirement for 3rd party browsers
      Also… imagine a world where your existing or favorite apps become “exclusives” in an alternative App Store
        The Microsoft App store, Adobe App Store, Epic App Store.
        Maintain accounts, payments, and do updates in different app Stores
    In fact, because of the security and privacy advantages, a group of analysts Morgan Stanley are predicting that less than 30 percent of Apple users are very likely to use a 3rd party app store vs Apple’s own
      They also feel that even if 100 percent of Apple’s app store revenue from the eu went away Apple would suffer just a 4% loss in services revenue and a 1% loss in total revenue. And if it happened globally a 9% loss to services revenue and a 2% loss to total revenue
  Apple expands emergency SOS
    Emergency SOS via satellite rolled out to iPhone 14 customers in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Ireland
    Said support for more countries will be rolled out next year
    Apple also rolled out their updates Maps app to the Netherlands, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. Along with Saudi Arabia and Israel.
  New larger MacBook Air
    Display analyst Ross Young thinks Apple could introduce a new M2 MacBook Air this Spring with a 15.5-inch display
    Design would remain the same, but in a bigger package
    Display would not have some of the Pro touches like mini-LED display or ProMotion.
    Claims production would start in the first quarter of 2023
    Young is also predicting OLED display updates for the 13-inch MacBook Air, along with the 11 and 12..9-inch iPad Pros in 2024
    So what about the Mac Pro?
      Apple seems to have missed their two year all Macs transitioned to Apple Silicon by quite a few months
      A Mac Pro is still believed to be on the way, but now we’re hearing their might be one less processor choice
      Mark Gurman says Apple has apparently decided to eliminate plans for an M2 Extreme chip.
      That chip would have reportedly contained 48 CPU cores and 152 GPU cores, in essence double those of the M2 Ultra
      The decision to not proceed with the Extreme seems to be due to cost and complexity challenges
      The Ultra will still not be an slouch. The chip will support up to 24 CPU cores, 76 GPU cores, and up to 192 GB of unified RAM.
      Gurman also noted that a M2 Pro Mac mini is also still in the works and both it and the M2 Ultra Mac Pro are slated for a launch in 2023 along with M2 Pro and M2 Max 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models earlier in 2023 and an updated Pro Display XDR and second generation Studio Display
      And finally he noted an M3 iMac update late in 2023
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
  “Smart” Away mode HomeKit
    We’d had a question from a listener about randomizing the turning on and off of lights via HomeKit while they were away from home
    I suggested a few options, but nothing quite like what they were looking for.
    As I believed the community had the answer. Robert, who happens to be a Smart Home Technology Specialist, pointed out that Lutron lights have this exact feature
    It’s available in their [Caseta and RA2](https://support.lutron.com/us/en/product/casetawireless/article/did-you-know/How-to-setup-Smart-away-in-Caseta-or-RA2-Select) product lines and it’s called “Smart Away"
    “Smart Away can randomly turn lights on and off throughout a specified time range to make it look like someone is home.”
    Specifically, it does the following:
      Any lights that are selected during setup will be randomly turned on and off
      Smart Away will randomize the lights between the set Start Time and End Time.
      The lights that are selected will be turned on once and then turned off once between the Start and Stop times entered.
    [Caseta](https://www.casetawireless.com/us/en) is the more affordable of the two options and offers in wall light switches and dimmers as well as plug-in outlet adapters
  Knowing what background tasks are doing
    Recently I discussed how to check in macOS on what background apps are running on your Mac using the new System Settings app built into macOS Ventura
    Vince wrote to say thanks for the tip, but noted that while it’s great to know how to see what apps are running in the background… not all may be obvious as to why they are there or what they are doing
    So he asks… how do you know, when it’s not obvious like "Backblaze", "Microsoft Auto Updater", or "Adobe Creative Cloud”, what is legit and what might be spyware or malware?
    Look in System Settings > General > Login items at the “Allow in Background” list to see what is on
    Most items will pretty clearly list the App or Developer and hopefully it’s one you recognize
    You might notice some items that say “Item from an unidentified developer”
      Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad
      You can click the “i” icon to see where in your Mac that file is. The path or file might give you a clue
        I had some UNIX apps for example installed via Homebrew or the “MailServe” app.
    If that doesn’t help… then Google is likely your friend
    Vince for example had a background app called, “iscsid”
      A quick Google revealed that this seems to be something related t iSCSI and is probably something installed by an external hard disk or maybe NAS device.
    What’s nice about the system settings pane is you can easily toggle and disable something if you don’t know what it is and then try and figure it out.
    There is likely to be some items you simply forgot about an maybe don’t use anymore and you can then remove them completely
    If you toggle something off and something breaks or stops working it’s easy enough to toggle it back on again.
  How Apple Music Sing works
    The latest updates for iOS, macOS, and tvOS are out and contain an update to Apple Music and Lyrics that let you reduce the level of the vocal track on many of the songs on Apple Music so you can sing along Karaoke style
    It’s a really cool and fun new feature, but Darryl asks… do you know how it works?
    How does the vocal suppression work? AI? Digital filtering?
    I’m afraid I have no idea, but we can speculate that it’s probably a mix of both?
    There are a couple of interesting things…
      it’s available on iPhone 11 and later and iPhone SE (3rd generation) using iOS 16.2 or later
      Only available on Apple TV 4K 3rd gen (2022)
      When you enable it for a track with Dolby Atmos, it disable Atmos surround while Sing is active
    The iPhone 11 has an A13 Bionic, that Apple TV 4K 2nd gen has an A12 Bionic
    That seems to point to a need for some tech that is in the A13 or later chips and I’m guessing part of that is probably a more advanced Neural Engine
    So I’d assume they’re using some level of AI and Machine Learning to analyze the track and better filter out and suppress the vocals without sacrificing the backing music
    It is pretty incredible how good it is.
Closing
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