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Staying home... (#iphone12 #apple #applestore)
For as far that I can remember, I wonāt go to an Apple Store to see the new iPhone this year. Thank’s to… well.. you know, it’s 2020. Twitter threads like this one I’m sure is not doing justice to the look and feel of these new devices.
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On 2021 iPad Pro (#ipadpro #apple)
Is it a question of a few more months before the iPad Pro line distance itself from the 2020 iPad Air. This will put the 2021 iPad Pro in a league of its own. Features like mini-led display, faster A-series processor… but what else? More system memory at 8 GB? Bigger screen? Wifi 6? 5G option? daringfireball.net
The 2020 iPad Air
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Jony Ive working with Airbnb. Who knew. (#jonyive #apple #lovefrom #airbnb #design #UI)
In a surprising move, Airbnb has a new partnership with Apple’s former designer chief, Jony Ive. As much as I like this guyās work, something quite surprising struck me: Airbnb doesn’t sell any form of hardware. The last time I check, Jony Iveās reputation is not about crafting the best user interface designs in the world, far from it. Who remember the switch to iOS 7? I do. Jony Ive was quite instrumental in the design of iOS 7 and it was a disaster. We are still paying the price today. It will be interesting to watch what comes from this partnership. Press release here.
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RIP. Remote.app (#apple #appletv #appstore)
Great story about the start of the Apple TV remote app that was removed today from the App Store. Reason? Duplicate functionality with iOS Control Center. Time to move on I guess. I love those stories from the inside. Can’t get enough of them.
Photo credit: @badashproducts on Unsplash.
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Waiting for iPhone 13. (iphone12 #iphone12pro #apple)
Thanks to iPhone 12, I can’t wait for the iPhone 13. The MagSafe is cool but is not perfect. 5G is nice but comes with a spotty coverage and puts a lot of pressure on battery life. The iPhone 12 Pro is a powerful monster but with fingerprint magnets and fragile glossy edges. Bezels are thinner and thinner but this big notch is still there. Iām skipping this yearās iPhone 12 and anxiously waiting for iPhone 13. Or whatever name they call it. Maybe just: iPhone Pro?
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This is a drill (#iphone12 #apple #magsafe)
With the iPhone 12 and MagSafe, is Apple training us for a port-less iPhone 13? I think so. The removable of the Lightning port and skipping USB-C would be so Apple, an act of courage I guess. If they do remove all the ports from the iPhone, how do we deal with CarPlay? What about developers who use testing and development devices which requires the fastest transfer speed possible? Is there something in the works at Apple that would mitigates these challenges for the users? Another type of adaptor? Or maybe Apple is just waiting for a more drastic iPhone redesign (no notch?) to bend themselves to USB-C?
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Stairway to āheavenā? (#apple #iphone12 #iphone12pro)
Tim Cook once said that all products Apple sell can fit on a table. Well, depending of the table size, maybe. But, you will have to remove products variants from the equation, though. Look at the iPhone product line. Now, think about how it will look next year.
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These edges... (#iphonex #iphone12 #iphone12pro)
As much as I like what the iPhone 12 brings to the table in general… edges got my attention. Up until now, I didnāt really like rounded edges since the iPhone 6. I much prefer the square edge on the iPhone 12… but not on the Pro models… they are way too much polished and are probably finger prints magnets.
I want a Pro iPhone with the matte version of the non-Pro iPhone edges.
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Stucked on the phone (#magsafe #iphone12 #apple #design #UX)
When I first saw the MagSafe snapping into the iPhone, I asked myself: how about taking the iPhone away? Is it hard? Is it gentle? Do we need two hands to separate them? Now listen to the video segment from a guy asking a few troubling questions… should we worry or just wait for the iPhone 12 to ship and see how the whole thing actually works?
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A14: from the iPhone to the Mac (#apple #A14 #applesilicon)
I love those feature highlights. Apple started to use them recently (September of last year?). If you look closely at the A14 feature highlights, I wonder what features arenāt required in a Mac? There is so many things that make sense on an iPhone, like everything related to ML. But, on a Mac? Iām not so sure. And, what features should be added to the A14 that doesnāt make sense on an iPhone? Increase high-performance CPU cores? And then what? What features are Mac specific that arenāt already handled by the T2 chip?
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The 5G Enabler (#iPhone12 #apple #5G)
Last year, the iPhone 11 lacked 5G networks support. Apple was doomed. This year, the iPhone 12 does support 5G networks. Now the operators are doomed because of spotty coverage. There is something bad to look for if you want to get clicks.
I think 5G is more marketing than anything else at this point. The iPhone 12 will be the enabler of 5G network. People will demand it (even if their use cases don’t require it). This will in turn force operators to accelerate their deployment.
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A wild dream (#apple #macpro #vmware #virtualization #lab)
Iāve been thinking of something really wild recently, for me at least: replacing my 2017 21.5 inches iMac with a Mac Pro. Here is why.
I work in IT (information technologies) as a data center related technology architect. Server virtualization, storage area networks, networking technologies are at the center of my professional universe. In the coming months, Iāll have to invest in self-training and experimentations a lot around VMware-related products and services. How can I do that efficiently while working from home? Here comes the Mac Pro idea.
In order to be able to run many virtual machines, a powerful physical computer is required: lots of memory, powerful CPU (more than 6 cores) and fast storage. My current iMac doesnāt meet these basic requirements (it is maxed out at 32 GB of RAM and it has a relatively modest CPU). A Mac Pro with the following specs would easily meet the challenge: at least 128 GB of fast memory, 8 cores CPU, builtin SSD and expandability.
Virtualization will required VMware Fusion Pro running on top of macOS. Then, the sky is the limit as I can then install ESXi hypervisor which will allow me to branch into more complex setup. This type of environment do require a lot of memory (a typical VM is about 4-16 GB each) and multi-cores CPU. Installing ESXi directly on the Mac Pro is not an option as I will need to have macOS running for all other tasks (Iām not even sure if it is att all possible).
How do I get there? Well, Iām still thinking about how Iāll buy that machine and get the additional RAM (I wonāt go with Appleās because $$$). Stay tuned.
Technical datasheet can be found on Appleās website, right here in PDF format. I donāt want to switch to a Windows machine BTW, Iām too much invested in Appleās ecosystem for that to happen.
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Is this called āEvolutionā or āModernism"? (#apple #ios7 #UI #design)
An image is worth a thousand words. We are still paying the price of this shift in design, every single day, for every single interaction we have with our iPhone… who asked for that? Why? Will we return to normalcy? Iāll never forget the ābeforeā it was so shitty. Never.
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Is there a pattern? (#apple #airpower #magsafeduo)
With the (re)introduction of the MagSafe for iPhone, Apple is trying to redo their AirPower introduction of 2017. On paper and on video, MagSafe looks cool, MagSafe Duo seems even better (more useful, transportability), but no word on availability and pricing, just like with the initial AirPower announcement. Is there something Apple didn’t learn here? Whatever happens, it is on my wishlist even if I’m not going to upgrade to the iPhone 12 this year.
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It Just Worksā¢
Yesterday, just like mostly everyday since March 13th of 2020, I went for a long walk with my wife. Both of us had their AirProds Pro with us. I had the idea to try the audio sharing feature of iOS 14 (introduced in iOS 13 if I’m not mistaken). We both put our AirPods in and I selected a playlist. Then, using the media playback UI, I selected the audio sharing option, waited for my wife’s AirPods to show up, after tapping this pair, she then had to accept my invitation and voilĆ ! We both had music in our ears! Itās a great case of āIt Just Worksā, something that we see less and less often these days, I guess.
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Third-party Apple Watch Faces - Yes but no
Here is a super interesting article from David Shayer on Tidbits about why there may never be third-party Apple Watch Faces. According to this software engineer who worked on the first two releases of watchOS, there may be four reasons why Apple probably wonāt make a watch face store: battery life, buggy code, Appleās image, copyright worries. Besides many interesting insights on watchOS development and testing, the reason that caught my attention is about Apple desire to control their image.
What is the killer app of the Apple Watch? The watch face, duh! Apple is an image control freak and I donāt think they want a watch face store full of crappy and bad taste designs to show up on usersā Apple Watch. They lost control of the App Store, they donāt want the same story to happen with the watch. And I agree with this position. But there could be some sort of compromise, though. As pointed out by Matt Birchler in his commentary post to Tidbits article:
āCarPlay is a great example of how Apple could do this right with watch faces: only allow a certain number of companies to make custom watch faces. have them sign additional agreements and have them go through tougher reviews. Maybe there are literally 10 companies who are able to make watch faces. Maybe Apple can reject a watch face simply because they donāt like how it looks.ā
My guess is that Apple will look to add more watch faces through collaborative work, just like they did in watchOS 7 with the Artist watch face.
Photo by Daniel Korpai ā Unsplasg
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Thanks Apple, youāll make me like November
Bloomberg, via Mark Gurman, is reporting that Apple will hold another event in November for Apple Silicon Macs. Besides my comments yesterday on the opportunity for Apple to present redesigned Macs, having a separate event is a no brainer to me. This is a major transition for Apple and they certainly wants to get the message loud and clear.
If rumors are sound, Apple still have some time ahead to polish the upcoming macOS Big Sur release. As it is today, it is not ready for prime time. It may be the equivalent of the iOS 13 buggy release of this year. Even if Apple announces Macs in November, they could be ready to ship only in December, who knows, giving Apple even more time. Anyhow, Iām not is a rush to upgrade to Big Sur. Apps will have to follow the new look and feel and Iāll wait for them to be updated first. The list is long.
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On the upcoming Apple Silicon Macs
While many pundits still wonder which Mac Apple will start transitioning the platform to their shiny and speedy silicon, my attention is on something else. Iām wondering if Apple will take this opportunity to introduce redesigned machines. Letās say they start with the MacBook Pro, could they use this occasion to reimagine the laptop? What about the iMac which is way overdue for a redesign?
There are two avenues for Apple. One in which they opt for continuity. The other is to make a bold statement and turn the page on the Intel-based era. If prefer the latter as Iād like to see what it looks like after the era of Jony Ive. Itās a golden opportinity IMHO. Besides my preference, Tim Cookās Apple is conservative and they will probably opt for the former approach.
What do you think?
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Ready for a 99$ convenience
At 99$ each, the HomePod mini would find a space on my desk for sure. I care more about size than Siri lacking intelligence with the HomePod. Being able to play music while I work without having to use headphones would be an improvement for me.
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Thanks again, leakers!
Will there be anything left for Apple to announce next week at the Hi, Speed event? Thanks to leakers on the internet, probably not much. I can’t thank them enough for spoiling things, again.
There was a time where leaks helped people to adjust their buying decisions, but I feel they no longer fit that purposes. It is more like a search for some kind of fame.
