The Adventures of ChipheadMike
Writer. Nerd. Gamer.
…and I say, so what?
I’m fairly certain that Apple will be around a lot longer than The New York Times. Legacy newspapers are dying. Having said that, I don’t think snubbing your nose at Apple is helping your brand stay afloat.
Subscriptions are down. They will continue to do so.
Article and links are over at Six Colors.
Wow! I have to admit that my expectations were slightly lower due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. I just didn’t think Apple was going to get as far as they may have planned because Corona happened.
I could not have been more wrong in my initial assessment. I am thrilled with what they presented. The presentation was absolutely wonderful and I’m sure a bunch of presenters were relived that they didn’t have to appear in front of a real crowd. I know I would be.
All of my devices are running the BETA software because I am insane and I like it that way. The look and feel, icons, and speed is just wonderful for the 1st version of the software. I usually have a lot more trouble.
The only casualty is something that always seems to break. My IBM iSeries software. It is java based and still manages to break with every upgrade.
There are so many other websites that are offering details this evening so I won’t add to the mix. I’d just like to say to Apple…well played!
The move to your own silicon…well, I won a bet from 5 years ago. I knew it was coming. They did not. I win. Hell, everybody wins!
I washed my Apple headphones. Ok. I also dried them as well.
They still work. Because. Apple.
I believe I have commented on this subject before somewhere on this blog but I recently had the opportunity to post a comment to the article’s author. I can’t remember which website this was because there are so many. I saved this to my desktop and forgot about it.
This is one of the new attractions coming in the next release of MacOS. Catalina reminds me of the Mountain Lion upgrade where mostly everything broke for me as a podcaster. Audio is the life blood of an audio podcast. I remember having to boot off an external drive with Lion on it just so I could continue to produce shows. The audio problem was corrected at almost the .3 release. Good times, indeed. Not. 🙁
Is entertaining to say the least…
The folks in the UK are no more knowledgable about what Apple is doing than silicon valley itself.
I do love their headlines however.
Ok…wait a tick…
Let’s take a tangent for a second. My sentence as it’s written above demonstrates the correct use of “their” as a possessive pronoun. The grammar/spell checker is highlighting it and saying that the use is incorrect. However, the grammar/spell checker is incorrect.
I do love they’re headlines however. <– NOT CORRECT
I do love there headlines however. <– also NOT CORRECT.
As for Macworld UK, you are still entertaining.
Epic #Apple #GroupFaceTime! Starring @UrAvgConsumer @MKBHD @ijustine and many more! https://t.co/aDwUCMllyH
— Philip Schiller (@pschiller) November 18, 2018
MacRumors has a good article here.
Apple bought Shazam and I am very happy about this acquisition. Apple just announced that the deal has been finalized. Shazam identifies a song by listening to what you are listening to and then shows you what the name of the song is and who sings it. It even has a component to it that will show you the lyrics in real time as the song plays.
I’ve been using Shazam since it was first introduced. I can’t tell you how many songs I’ve identified with it. I’ve used it in a car, at the movies, in bars, and in restaurants.
For example, yesterday while I was playing Forza Horizon 3 on my xBox and there was a song playing that I was semi interested in. I used Shazam to find out it was a song called Bury It.
Shazam is a piece of AI that is absolutely useful and shows the true potential of the iOS platform.
Apple will be announcing new things today. I’ve tried to avoid other folks expectations and guesses because I want Apple to tell me what they are doing and not some scrub on a fan boy website.
Phil Schiller (Apple) has said that when leaks occur it really hurts the design team and steals their thunder in a rather unjust manner.
If I worked on something for over a year then I’d want to be the one who announces it. Not some hack who is trying to get click bait.
Looking at you Apple Insider. No. I’m not posting a link so you can get even more click bait.
I’m happy that the author of this article is annoyed and my only regret is that I can make her MORE annoyed. Her annoyance is annoying to me.
Poor…poor…snowflake.
And for the record, I’m pretty sure that it isn’t driving EVERYONE crazy. I am not. Therefore, the EVERYONE argument is null and void.
Apple’s iOS 12 beta is driving everyone crazy
We would if we could, Apple.It’s not the end of the world, of course — a quick tap on “close” and the notification disappears — but it sure is annoying, and doesn’t really fill anyone with great hopes for a smooth roll out when the update becomes available generally.
via Engadget
This isn't annoying. Nope, not at all. Pops up after every unlock (and there's no actual update). pic.twitter.com/BgHzmU8Y3r
— Matt Brian (@m4tt) August 31, 2018
This morning I ordered a new iMac 27″ to replace my aging 2011 iMac. The reason I wanted to upgrade the old one was simply because of software upgrades. I cannot upgrade my iMac to Mojave and for me — being able to upgrade your OS is of paramount importance, especially for a developer.
In addition to that, I also added a HomePod. The reasoning is that since I am already spending a gazillion dollars (actually $3000) on a new computer, I might as well go ahead and make it worse by adding a HomePod for a Gajillion more dollars (actually $350). Neither of these two things are as important as what my old iMac will do.
Update: I’m adding a snapshot of what the configuration consists of.
I am selling it to someone with a computer that is five years older than my old iMac. For him, this will be an upgrade and since he is an older gentleman — the bigger screen will help his vision problems. That is what makes all of this worth it to me. I do like helping folks when it comes to computers.
If history is any indication, my review will probably be something like “Wow. This is cool.” I know. I am a deep person. Don’t judge me.
Update: 08.21.2018 – HomePod arrived today. Sounds incredible!
Apple reached a 1 trillion dollar market valuation yesterday which makes them the first company to do so. Ever. Below is Tim Cook’s letter to his employees via MacRumors.
Team,
Today Apple passed a significant milestone. At our closing share price of $207.39, the stock market now values Apple at more than $1 trillion. While we have much to be proud of in this achievement, it’s not the most important measure of our success. Financial returns are simply the result of Apple’s innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values.
It’s you, our team, that makes Apple great and our success is due to your hard work, dedication and passion. I am deeply humbled by what you do, and it’s the privilege of a lifetime to work alongside you. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the late hours and extra trips, all the times you refuse to settle for anything less than excellence in our work together.
Let’s take this moment to thank our customers, our suppliers and business partners, the Apple developer community, our coworkers and all those who came before us at this remarkable company.
Steve founded Apple on the belief that the power of human creativity can solve even the biggest challenges — and that the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. In today’s world, our mission is more important than ever. Our products not only create moments of surprise and delight, they empower people all around the globe to enrich their lives and the lives of others.
Just as Steve always did in moments like this, we should all look forward to Apple’s bright future and the great work we’ll do together.
Tim
Let’s see you get around that one GrayKey.
Yes. I have written about this before. It just keeps getting better. Apple initially reduced the time that the data port could be active without a passcode to about a week. In iOS 12, the port was locked down after an hour. In the latest Beta (version 4), well…it is off unless you unlock it with a passcode which is what GrayKey can produce if only it had access to the data port…which it now — does not.
<insert hysterical laughter here>
via Apple Insider…
According to WHO TV in Iowa the woman, Sarvinder Naberhaus, assumed the phone was gone, but upon landing she tried the Find My iPhone feature in an attempt to locate it. It didn’t work the first time, but before going to buy a new phone, she tried once more.
That second try, it turned out, was successful. After following the trail for a while, Naberhaus spotted the phone in tall grass in a residential neighborhood, without a scratch, while displaying a notification about an upcoming meeting.
“I literally went into shock,” said the second passenger Donna Johnson. “‘I asked this is this for real? Is that the same phone?'” and I said ‘this is a miracle phone, you can’t drop a phone 1000 feet and have it still work!'”
Naberhouse, the author of multiple books, told the TV station that incident is proof that “God has a sense of humor.”
I’m not sure about the last sentence. I would chalk this up to great engineering which actually, could have been influenced by the almighty.
The biggest (and if I’m honest) only complaint about the Apple News App has always been the inability to remove politics from the news. I hate politics and I do NOT want to see ANY politics in the news feed. I see various promises that claim that they only populate your news feed with the items you say you are interested in but sadly, that is just not true.
Well, this is the only part of the new software that has given me any issues. The iOS 12 installs on my iPhone X and iPad Pro went extremely well and the operating system seems pretty solid out of the gate.
I’ll admit that sometimes I get impatient on software installs and may not have waited until everything was finished before restarting the MacBook Pro. After booting into Mojave, I couldn’t do anything. My guess is that I just didn’t wait long enough on the install.
I rebooted in recovery mode and am currently re-installing Mojave.
I’ll keep you posted.
Update: iOS 12 Prediction has come true. Apple has “by default” limited the USB data port activity to one hour. If you do not use the data port in a one hour period, the port is turned OFF. Well played, Apple.
Update: I’ve had many problems trying to load Mojave onto my 2017 MacBook Pro. Several reboots/reloads/praying…etc. I am actually still waiting for the 3rd or 4th try.
Update: (06.06.2018) – I tried an update last evening after I finally restored my old system. This morning it was locked up so I tried a different approach. I wiped out the SSD and instead of trying a complete restore of my user data — I just restored the OS using the recovery tool. The good news is that I was successful. The bad news is that I have to manually restore some of my files. It will be well worth it. I like Mojave so far.
This is the biggest software conference that matters. Well, it matters to all of us Apple people anyway.
In light of the whole GrayBox thing, I am going to predict that either Apple will allow you to turn off your lightning data port for everything except charging or they will turn it off by default.
So far, that’s all I got.
I look forward to spending next week in Swift/XCode land.
I wrote about a device called GrayKey a while back that could unlock Apple phones. I was wondering how long it would take for Apple to come up with a way to defeat it. Looks like they have.
Go Apple!
Great article over at Apple Insider about replacing your Apple battery and why there are specific rules surrounding it.
We have a couple of these and they are fantastic. I’m sorry Apple is getting out of this game.
As an Apple iPhone user, I am grateful that Apple takes security and privacy seriously. So much so, that they’ve been to court many times over it.
A story from Engadget this morning sounds troubling. Apparantly, there is a hardware device on the market that can crack iPhone security. From the article…
Based on an earlier report by Malwarebytes, GrayKey is a small box that can unlock two iPhones at a time. (See the two connectors in the image of the device below?) It was developed by Atlanta company Grayshift, which is run by long-time US intelligence agency contractors and a former Apple security engineer, according to Forbes. To use GrayKey, all cops need to do is connect a phone to it for two minutes. They simply have to wait a bit after it’s unplugged to see a black screen pop up with the passcode — how long they’d have to wait depends on how complex the passcode/passphrase is.
Hopefully, Apple will release a patch that will negate this device.
Gruber at Daring Fireball has some good points about a poorly written/researched Wall Street Journal article about Apple Pay.
My take away is that Apple has been doing a poor job of marketing Apple Pay. I still have friends and co-workers who — when I mention Apple Pay — have a “deer in the headlights” look on their face.
There should have been enough commercials running everywhere by now that everyone knows what Apple Pay is and what it is used for. But, alas — there is not.
Update: 04.04.2018 – Apple released some new Apple Pay ads.
I am expecting a new laptop to arrive soon. The last time I bought a new Apple laptop was all the back in 2009.
I think the touch bar is what did it for me. The laptop I am using right now was given to me in exchange for a Mac mini. It is a good and solid laptop but I felt it was time for a new one.
I’ll post more about it when I actually have it.
Update: MacBook Pro arrived yesterday. I ran into a hiccup as a result of me using High Sierra to make my Time Machine backups. The new computer was using Sierra and thus, would not recognize the Time Machine backup for Migration Assistant. I upgraded the laptop to High Sierra and proceeded from there. The restore ran overnight and the only issue I have now is that I have two accounts under my name on this computer. Not bad overall. My old laptop is going to a good home. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The Apple Developer website was down for a couple of hours so I had to wait for a while before I could install High Sierra.
I’ve decided to remove my rumors page for a very good reason.
He was talking to John Gruber of Daring Fireball out why product leaks are so disappointing to Apple and I couldn’t agree more.
I do not want to participate in making a bad experience for those folks who spend years on a project just to have some schmuck ruin it by posting “leaks” online. It may not seem like a big deal to you. To me, that is huge.
If Apple comes out with a new product and new technology, I want Apple to tell me about it and not some jackass production line worker who just wants to get paid for his information and could care less about the people it hurts.
My two cents anyway.
