Category: Apple

macOS Sequoia supports these Intel-based Macs:

• 2017 iMac Pro
• 2018 Mac mini
• 2018–2020 MacBook Pro models
• 2019 Mac Pro
• 2019–2020 iMac models
• 2020 MacBook Air

What’s more important than the model year is when these Macs stopped being sold:

Model:Removed from Sale:2017 iMac ProMarch 20212018 Mac miniJanuary 20232019 Mac ProJune 20232020 MacBook ProOctober 20212020 iMacMarch 20222020 MacBook AirNovember 2020

As you can see, the Intel Mac mini and Intel Mac Pro lasted all the way until 2023, with the 2019 Mac Pro being removed from sale less than two years ago, when its Apple silicon-powered replacement was announced at WWDC.

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Apple:

Starting today, CarPlay Ultra, the next generation of CarPlay, is available with new Aston Martin vehicle orders in the U.S. and Canada, and will be available for existing models that feature the brand’s next-generation infotainment system through a software update in the coming weeks. CarPlay Ultra builds on the capabilities of CarPlay and provides the ultimate in-car experience by deeply integrating with the vehicle to deliver the best of iPhone and the best of the car. It provides information for all of the driver’s screens, including real-time content and gauges in the instrument cluster, while reflecting the automaker’s look and feel and offering drivers a customizable experience. Many other automakers around the world are working to bring CarPlay Ultra to drivers, including newly committed brands Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis.

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Rich Trouton spotted something in the release notes for macOS Sequoia 15.5, released earlier this week: that AFP is now deprecated and will be removed in a future version of the operating system. He writes:

This announcement is providing a end-of-the-road notification for AFP, which has been included in Apple’s operating systems for the Mac since System 6 in 1988. The ability to run an AFP server was removed from macOS as part of macOS Big Sur and it is not possible to host AFP shares from APFS formatted drives, so the AFP client has been the final functional part of AFP left as of macOS Sequoia.

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In a timeline where a lot of folks have …complicated… feelings about Apple, seeing the company to continue improve access to technology for everyone is still great.

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John Siracusa, writing at Hypercritical:

As far as I’m concerned, the only truly mortal sin for Apple’s leadership is losing sight of the proper relationship between product virtue and financial success—and not just momentarily, but constitutionally, intransigently, for years. Sadly, I believe this has happened.

The preponderance of the evidence is undeniable. Too many times, in too many ways, over too many years, Apple has made decisions that do not make its products better, all in service of control, leverage, protection, profits—all in service of money.

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Nick Heer, writing about rumors that the 2027 iPhone will feature a “truly edge-to-edge display:”

I know the Dynamic Island was a clever way of transforming a necessary hardware compromise into a signature feature, albeit an imperfect one. This is a fun visual design problem to have: a hardware improvement to the iPhone will, in time, render some well-considered software obsolete. I imagine this all-screen iPhone will be self-evidently cool and, so, the Dynamic Island just goes away. But I am curious.

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John Gruber:

This does not mean apps can now use alternative payment processing in-app. It doesn’t even mean apps are no longer required to offer Apple’s IAP in-app for purchases and subscriptions. All it means is that apps (in the US for now, but Apple really ought to make this worldwide, but I suspect Tim Cook wants to fight this on appeal in federal court) are free to inform users about offers available on the web, and to link to those offers on the web. Those links must open outside the app, in the user’s default web browser.

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After yesterday’s injunction, Apple has updated its U.S. App Review Guidelines concerning buttons and links to external payment providers. Here are the key changes:

• 3.1.1: Apps on the United States storefront are not prohibited from including buttons, external links, or other calls to action when allowing users to browse NFT collections owned by others.
• 3.1.1(a): On the United States storefront, there is no prohibition on an app including buttons, external links, or other calls to action, and no entitlement is required to do so.
• 3.1.3: The prohibition on encouraging users to use a purchasing method other than in-app purchase does not apply on the United States storefront.
• 3.1.3(a): The External Link Account entitlement is not required for apps on the United States storefront to include buttons, external links, or other calls to action.

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Earlier this evening, an 80-page document was released by the U.S. District Court in California, hitting Apple hard for its anti-competitive strategies concerning the App Store. The Verge’s Jay Peter’s has a great breakdown, but the gist of the ruling is that Apple can no longer charge commission on purchases made outside of the App Store or put block or limit developers who wish to link to purchases outside of Apple’s App Store system.

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Rumors continue to point toward Apple having a thin phone in this fall’s lineup. I am fascinated by this, and think it could be my next iPhone, even if it comes with compromises. Tim Hardwick reports on one such trade-off:

Achieving this level of thinness is unlikely to come without compromise. Dummy models shared by AppleTrack suggest that Apple has made some subtle adjustments to accommodate internal components in the tighter chassis. Most notably, the USB-C port on the bottom edge is no longer centered front-to-back. Instead, it appears shifted closer to the rear of the device, which is likely to accommodate display components within the enclosure.

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Chance Miller at 9to5Mac:

Apple CEO Tim Cook is being pressed for information on his collaboration with the Trump administration surrounding tariffs. In a letter sent today, Senator Elizabeth Warren said that Cook’s collaboration with Trump “creates the appearance of impropriety.” This comes after Warren and other senators questioned $1 million donations made by Cook and others to Trump’s inauguration fund in January.

“The circumstances surrounding Apple’s exemptions raise fresh concerns about influence-peddling by huge well-connected corporations, and their ability to gain special favors from President Trump,” Warren wrote.

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Ben McCarthy, writing about what they would like to see in the rumored iOS 19 redesign:

For a long while, I’ve felt that the design of iOS is too top heavy. While our phones seem to grow larger every year, our hands do not and so interface elements are pulled ever further out of reach. It’s a real micro-annoyance to have to shuffle your phone around in your hand to reach the top of the screen to activate a search bar, shuffle your phone back down so you can type comfortably and in doing so you accidentally touch part of the screen that deactivates the search field and you have to start again.

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