If the Beta switch is OFF, why do I get offered the latest beta of iOS 16.5? 🤔 Bug? Nope, because I had the beta profile from iOS 16.4 still in place.

Make Something Wonderful | a book from the Steve Jobs Archive

Coming to digital platforms on April 11.
A curated collection of Steve’s speeches, interviews and correspondence, Make Something Wonderful offers an unparalleled window into how one of the world’s most creative entrepreneurs approached his life and work. In the pages of this book, Steve shares his perspective on his childhood, on launching and being pushed out of Apple, on his time with Pixar and NeXT, and on his ultimate return to the company that started it all.

Can’t wait for this. I guess this is a way to get as close to him as possible?

Apple, please do a real but simple password manager. I join my voice to many, like John Gruber and Cabel Sasser. I even suggested Ricky Mondello who’s working on the Safari team and very much involved in the password management side, to consider doing such a password manager outside of Safari on the Mac or Settings on the iPhone.

Is Apple refraining from doing so because they see the future as passwordless, thanks to passkeys? Probably but it is a long road to get there, so what do we do in the meantime? As Gruber said, password management is probably as important as tips about using your iPhone, which has its own app on the home screen.

Why a dedicated music app for Apple Music Classical? When we first learned that Apple would launch a different app for Apple Music Classical, I was surprised and wondered why not add a big tile in its current Apple Music app. Apple explains this in more detail here about the reason:

Classical music is different. It has longer and more detailed titles, multiple artists for each work, and hundreds of recordings of well-known pieces. The Apple Music Classical app is designed to support the complex data structure of classical music.

I get it. It makes sense. Now, here is another question: could there be a need to create more “genre-dedicated” apps offering different browsing and listening experiences? How much could an app be different for electronic music? How about creating an app dedicated to music videos? All of these apps could tap the Apple Music back end. This needs more time to think about.

Oh, no iPad app, at launch, really?

Time to update all my devices. There are many.🙃 I’m always impressed by how effective Apple can be to keep the beat going on and on for releasing so much new software all at once. If you’ve been in software development, you probably already know this is a major undertaking, each, and single time. Kudos to Apple.

Senior Apple executives have apparently gotten a peek at the headset every year since 2018, but these demonstrations were discreet looks at the project’s progress rather than showcases of the complete device. Situated at the Steve Jobs Theater, the latest preview was reportedly a far more significant event, being “polished, glitzy, and exciting.” Source: Apple Reportedly Demoed Mixed-Reality Headset to Executives in the Steve Jobs Theater Last Week - MacRumors

If Gurman’s report is anywhere near the reality of what actually happened at the Steve Jobs Theater, why do I think they seem to look to galvanize the troop and get convinced they need to move forward anyway? In other words: throw spaghetti to the wall and see if it sticks. Doesn’t look good to me.

Found this in my archives. This was my old iPhone 7 in its old case. I love when things wear out like this.

5G+ Is this new?

Rant on. I love Apple’s Safari browser, but the lack of Safari Extensions support by many developers is starting to make me reconsider my love either of Safari or of Apple’s strict App Store policies. That is why, starting now, I’m switching to Firefox exclusively when I’m using Inoreader. Rant off.

After so many iPadOS releases, these two gestures I suggested in 2019 were eventually added. This article was a timid entry in the user interface mockups world. It didn’t last long. Thanks to Apple for having listened. 🤣

In May 2019 I published this:

Personally, I think this year is too early for ARM-based Mac. Why? Because, my thinking is that Apple wants iOS on these ARM-Based Macs, not Mac. And they want a lot of ready-to-use, yet well-known apps to be available. For this, they are working on Marzipan (which later became Catalyst) to entice developers to write more powerful apps for iOS, especially the iPad. These are the prime candidates to run on this future ARM-based Mac. We are four weeks away from knowing a bit more about Apple’s strategy. Source: Apple Is Done With Intel - Numeric Citizen Blog

The Apple Silicon was announced more than a year later.

Riccardo Mori wrote an interesting take about the possible future of the Mac with a touch screen Why do you want to touch your Mac screen so badly? | Riccardo Mori:

the people who’d love to have a touchscreen Mac are people who prefer having the iPad and iPhone as primary devices for work and leisure. It’s the iPad-first guys who on the one hand are frustrated by the still mediocre multitasking and still limited functionality Apple is providing on the iPad, and on the other hand realize the sheer versatility and multitasking dexterity the Mac still has in spades despite the general worsening of Mac OS over the past few years. In short, they say they’d love a touchscreen Mac, but what they mean is that they’d love a hybrid iPad/Mac device that could offer the best of both worlds.

Today at work, during a Zoom call, my colleague found out by error that she could touch the screen of her Windows portable to interact with it. She was totally mesmerized. Then she continued with the conversation. I don’t think it will make a big difference in her world. What people want is an iPad when it makes sense, a traditional computer, when it makes sense. Microsoft seems to have found an enduring combo with its Surface.

Mind blown. 🤯

Gurman said it is “plausible” that at least the next 13-inch MacBook Air will be equipped with the as-yet-unannounced M3 chip, which will reportedly be manufactured based on TSMC’s latest 3nm process for improved performance. The current 13-inch model was released in July 2022 and is powered by the M2 chip, which is based on a 5nm process. Source: Gurman: New 13-Inch and 15-Inch MacBook Airs Likely to Launch by Summer - MacRumors

I would be really surprised to see the updated MacBook Air product line introduce the new M3 so soon. Why? The MacBook Pro is based on the M2. Even if people buy computers, not chips, it would send a weird signal to have an M3 product at the entry level while the Pro machines are using M2. The 3 nanometer process will probably help reduce heat dissipation, but the last time I checked, the M2 in the 13-inch MacBook Air doesn’t exhibit any problems, even when the machine is running at full processing power.

One possibility, though, is if the M3 chip really helps make a difference from an end-user perspective enough to entice users to upgrade. We’ll see soon enough. And I can’t wait to get my hands on the 15-inch version of the MacBook Air.

As noted by MacRumors:

The second beta of iOS 16.4 that was introduced to developers today appears to have a limited number of new features, but it does have a major update for those who use Apple Books - it reintroduces an option for the page-turning animation. Source: iOS 16.4 Beta 2 Re-Adds Page Turning Animation to Apple Books - MacRumors

One quick question: who decided it was a good idea to remove such page-turning animation in the first place? What problem did it solve? Books are still a big part of our life, and this animation is a great reference to the experience of reading a book.

I couldn’t agree more with 9to5Mac here: There’s something special about the 2018 iPad Pro - 9to5Mac The 2018 iPad Pro deserves a prominent spot in the Apple hardware hall-of-fame. No other product from Apple has remained so functional for so long without appearing long in the tooth. The … read more

Got this for the Apple Studio Display and iPhone 13 Pro. With macOS Ventura Camera Continuity, it works much better than I thought. It works great with Microsoft Teams. Best way to add Center Stage to Microsoft Teams (using the Control Center settings while the camera is on). No latency. Surprising how low the battery power consumption is. It would have been nice if the iPhone mount could also recharge the iPhone, though.

Apple pays $12.1 mln fine for alleged app market abuse in Russia - Antimonopoly Service

U.S. tech giant Apple has paid a 906 million rouble ($12.12 million) fine in a Russian antitrust case alleging abuse of its dominance in the mobile apps market, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said on Monday.

First, where is the money going once paid by Apple? The current situation in Ukraine mandates more scrutiny. Personally, I would have shut down the App Store altogether in this market. Plain and simple as well as give a middle finger instead of paying the fine. But that’s me.

And here we go again with the new Mac Pro “problem”. Jason Snell writing about the challenges Apple is facing with the unfinished Apple Silicon transition of its Mac line:

And all that custom work, all those distortions to what makes Apple silicon so successful, would be done for a product that’s a niche of a niche–and it’s work that Apple’s chip design team could have spent on a next-generation chip for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Remember the Trashcan Mac? The black cylinder Mac Pro was a closed system with very limited internal expandability beyond memory and SSD drive. Criticism from pro users lasted so long that Apple reverted his take on the Mac Pro with the return of the expandable machine in 2019. Pro users rejoiced as they could again add the PCI cards of their choices as well as adding as much memory they could afford. Problems fixed? Think again.

Now, enter the Apple Silicon chip: a highly regarded and efficient system-on-a-chip design with fixed amount of RAM and GPU (except for Pro, Max, Ultra flavours). A Mac Pro built around this chip would go against having 1 TB of RAM or external GPU without sacrificing latency and performance with support for RAM or eGPU. Apple Silicon makes the Mac a more closed system, just like the 2013 Trashcan Mac was. How ironic this is.

Attorney General Ashley Moody:

“We must ensure that consumers have the information needed to make informed decisions about their data privacy and security. The existing lack of transparency in app stores can create a significant risk for American citizens, and could cause their personal information to be exploited by foreign entities of concern. That is why I am calling on Apple and Google to bring more transparency to their app stores—so consumers know what products are owned or developed by nations that may pose a national security risk.”

I think this is a great idea. In challenging times, I want to know if an app is created or owned by someone who brings money into bad actor pockets. I do have internal debate about this issue from time to time, having such labeling in the App Store would certainly help in my buying or subscription decisions.