shownotes_20230312

Pre-Roll
  Zocdoc
    This episode of the Maccast is brought to you by Zocdoc, more on them later in the show.
Opening
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News
  The next MacBook Air and M3
    Lots of speculation still on when we’ll see the next MacBook Air, or Airs
    Ross Young thinks it could happen soon
      Tweeting, again, that he suspects a 15-inch MacBook Air to come in April
    9to5 Mac says they’ve been hearing from “multiple” sources that Apple is indeed working on 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Airs and Bloomberg has said a release is “imminent”
    Bloomberg also claims that at least one new MacBook Air would have an Apple M3 processor, though in the past Ming-Chi Kuo said new MacBook Airs would have M2s
    I still think, like many, that a WWDC announcement for new MacBook Airs seems like the best timing.
    There’s also rumors of updated 24-inch iMacs with M3 processors in the back half of the year, but no new colors or sizes.
  Apple still struggles with microLED
    I think we’ve been talking about Apple’s desire to migrate to microLED displays since about 2017
    Multiple rumors over the years have supported the fact that Apple wants to develop their own display designs using the tech
    microLED would allow for better durability, efficiency, brightness, dynamic range, and viewing angles compared to existing technologies like OLED.
    But it has been a struggle to get the tech to a place where it is feasible for Apple to use according to a new report from “The Information” and backed up by “The Elec”
    Getting the cost down and to good yields has just not worked out yet and that means Apple will continue to rely on Samsung and OLED for a while longer.
    Ideally Apple wants microLED in displays for the iPhone and iPads, probably their monitors too. They might have a display with the tech really for an Apple Watch, maybe this year or next.
    For this years iPad Pro updates Apple could move to OLED displays but it’s not going to be cheap according to a new report from “The Elec”
      They say current estimates have prices starting at USD $1,500 for the 11-inch iPad Pro and $1,800 for the 13-inch models. That’s 80 percent and 60 percent more expensive than the current LED models respectively
      That would put the OLED iPad Pro prices above some lower model MacBook Air and MacBook Pro prices. Crazy.
  iPhone crushes top phone list
    Apple had 8 out 10 phones in Counterpoint Research’s Global Monthly Handset Sales Tracker top selling phones for 2022
    The iPhone 13 was the tops among iPhones for 2022 accounting for 28 percent of iPhones sold
      It held the top spot in sales from January until September when the iPhone 14 Pro Max overtook it.
    The iPhone 13 Pro Max and iPhones 14 Pro Max captured the number two and three spots respectively
    Apple did refresh the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus models with a new yellow color for spring
      In the PR for the new yellow iPhone Apple also dropped that the emergency SOS satellite feature will roll out to Austria, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Portugal later this month
    Bloomberg has a report that Apple is planning to “revamp” it’s international sales strategy to focus more on India
      Samsung phones still dominate there, but Apple’s products are gaining popularity
      Apple will make India it’s own “sales region” to better focus efforts for sales growth in the region
    More features that will be iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max exclusives
      Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Tom O'Malley reaffirmed the rumor this week that the iPhone 15 Pro models would feature improved LiDAR sensors supplied by Sony
      A Korean blog website “Naver” claims that while all iPhone models this year will have the Dynamic Island only the Pro models will come with always on pro motion displays, just like the iPhone 14 Pro models.
      There were some chassis image leaks that showed a black “midnight” matte finish case with a single “rocker” style volume button cutout. It’s assumed this was the non-Pro models as it showed a physical button and it’s believed the Pro models with come with solid state buttons this year.
    What we might not see for a while loner is under display FaceID
      Ross Yong said Apple was hoping to have something ready by 2024, but has likely had to push back the timeline until 2025 due to “sensor issues”
      You might remember that last week the site “The Elec” had a report that Apple would feature under display FaceID on the iPhone 16 Pro model in 2024
  Apple Music Classical
    We finally have a release date for Apple’s dedicated classical music service
    They told us they’d have a dedicated service way back in 2021 when they acquired Primephonic
    The new “Apple Music Classical” app is now on the App Store as a “pre-order” and will be available for download on March 28th
    Good news for Apple Music and Apple One subscribers is that it is free and included in your existing music subscription
    The service offers over five million classical music tracks, including new high-quality releases, hundreds of curated playlists, thousands of exclusive albums, and other features like composer bios and deep dives on key works.
    It will also have a better search for classical including the ability to search by composer, work, conductor, catalog number, and more.
    What’s not clear from the announcement to me is if Apple will keep Classical in the core music app or simply link to the new dedicated App. I would think the latter would be the better strategy.
      They are heavily prompting the new app in Music’s Classical genre section right now.
  HomePod with a screen
    We’ve heard rumors of a mythical HomePod with a display for years.
    Idea would be possibly to “mash-up” an iPad / Apple TV / HomePod into a single Home device.
    Now Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple will announce a new HomePod with a built-in 7-inch display in early 2024.
    Kuo’s version of the rumor sounds a but less ambitious, but would let Apple have a product that has “tighter integration with Apple’s other hardware products, marking a significant shift in the company’s smart home strategy.” according to the analyst
  Apple’s headset strategy may be forced
    According to the “Financial Times” Apple’s design team did not want a “dual” strategy for Apple releasing AR / VR tech
    They really wanted Apple to wait until the idea of a truly lightweight set of AR glasses was achievable
    Since that dream is realistically several years off the report says that Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams decided to go with launching the more expensive and bulky AR / VR mixed reality headset that many think we’ll get this year.
    In the report they cite some former Apple engineers who claim internally there has been “huge pressure” to ship a product.
    Could be a bold and risky move.
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
  Restore from online backup
    Play question from Bryce
    I tend to view online backup, like Backblaze, as “catastrophic” backup
      This is used in the worst case scenarios where everything else fails
    As Bryce says… Backblaze is great
    You can get individual files, they have versions going back years, you can download a ZIP of a folder or multiple files. They even can send you a USB drive for larger amounts of data.
    But, as Bryce notes, it’s just a bunch of files. They do maintain the structure, but you’re basically going to manually have to put everything back in place.
    It’s not like a “cloned” backup or a Time Machine that you can use with Apple’s recovery assistant.
    I would imagine the best process to use will be to restore your OS to the new replaced hard drive and set-up your user account with the same username. This should recreate a clean “home” folder with the same name
    Then you can copy back your data
      Desktop and Documents
      Pictures
      Music
      Downloads, etc
      When it comes to your Library… you could try just replacing the entire folder, but you might want to be more selective
        Application Support
        Calendars
        Contacts
        Containers
        Fonts
        Mail
        Messages
        Preferences
        Safari
        Shortcuts
        Any other Apps?
    I still strongly recommend a multi-tier backup and recovery strategy
      Time Machine… 1st line of defense
      Cloned backup, like [Carbon Copy Cloner](https://bombich.com/)
      Offsite backup, like [Backblaze](https://www.backblaze.com/mac-online-backup.html)
      Archives, additional backup of files to local or NAS storage (these need backup too, off site)
  Keeping my cookies
    Terry wrote in about clearing cookies in Safari
    He has some websites, like banking, that he prefers to keep cookies for.
    So he selectively clears or deletes cookies
      This is good for both security (not tracking) and housekeeping
    Selectively deleting can be tedious however
      Open Safari on the Mac
      Open Safari settings
      Go to the privacy tab
      Click “Manage Website Data…” button
      Select all entries and then scroll the list and command click the cookies you want to keep.
      Then click “Remove” to remove the ones left selected.
      (or go one by one a and delete)
    Terry is asking for tips / tricks for ways to “preserve” specific website cookies and just remove everything else.
    I went on a Google hunt and found an app called, appropriately, [Cookie](https://cookieapp.com/)
    It is USD $24.99 and available on the App Store
    You can set it up with “favorite” site and it will preserve those cookies.
    Works with multiple browsers (and rules can be browser specific) and you can automate when and how cookies are deleted.
    I have not personally used this app, but there is a free trial and I tested it out and it seems to work as advertised.
    Another option in Safari if you want to get even more advanced is you can use Safari developer tools while on a site to inspect and delete individual cookies
      Open Safari Settings
      Click “Advanced…” tab and check the option for “Show Developer Menu in menubar”
      Then when on a site, click the Develop menu and choose “Show Web Inspector”
      Click on the “Storage” tab and open up the “Cookies” section in the sidebar
      You can then click on the website URL and in the main panel you can see and select individual cookies
      Select a cookie and hit “Delete” to delete just that cookie. There also is a “trashcan” icon above the main panel to clear all cookies.
Closing
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