Category: Apple

OS X El Capitan is here, and to be honest, even as a hardcore Mac user, it’s kind of a sleepy release. That’s not to say there isn’t good stuff in the new version of OS X; there are a lot of nice features here, but its a quiet year.

Between you and me, I’m a little glad about that.

A year ago, OS X Yosemite brought a wide-reaching redesign to the operating system, building on top of the foundations laid by OS X Mavericks just 12 months before that. This year, El Capitan brings a new level of polish to the OS, tweaking some things here and there that needed attention.

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Apple PR:

Apple today announced it has sold more than 13 million new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models, a new record, just three days after launch. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available in more than 40 additional countries beginning October 9 including Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain and Taiwan. The new iPhones will be available in over 130 countries by the end of the year.

I guess we shouldn’t underestimate the attraction of the S models, or the power that the two-year contract still holds. Just check out the jumps in launch weekend sales in S years:

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I’ve enjoyed my iPhone 6 Plus since first realizing #MykeWasRight and trading in my small, junky iPhone 6 for a nicely-sized, amazing iPhone 6 Plus back in the spring.

Like many of you, I pre-ordered a phone a couple of weeks ago, and today it came: a 64GB Space Gray iPhone 6S Plus. There’s a lot I haven’t done with this new phone yet, but I’ll be taking notes for a review. Here are some initial impressions until then:

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According to this growing Reddit thread, Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Plan is struggling to keep up with demand. Customers are being denied, and it seems that Apple Retail employees’ hands are tied, waiting on Citizen’s system to recover. (Citizen is the company Apple is using to finance the iPhone purchases.)

Reading this reminded me of the giant cluster that was the iPhone 3G launch. Clearly, this issue with Citizen is nowhere as bad, but I’m sure its still frustrating for everyone involved.

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Apple:

We always recommend developers use the free, secure tools we provide them — including Xcode — to ensure they’re creating the most secure apps for App Store customers. Some developers downloaded counterfeit versions of Xcode that have been infected with malware and created apps that were just as infected.

Becuase of speed issues through China’s Great Firewall, some developers were downloading Xcode from a third-party site. Apple says they are working on ways to make these downloads faster. As to how bad the breach was, Apple says:

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John Gruber, at the end of his iPhone 6S review:

New-number iPhones (4, 5, 6) are about showing off Apple’s design prowess. The S models are about showing off Apple’s engineering prowess. Storage capacities and battery life are unchanged from last year’s iPhones. Everything else — the materials it’s made from, the performance of its custom CPU/GPU, the quality of the cameras, the smoothness of the user interface — is noticeably, tangibly improved.

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After a delay last week, watchOS 2 is rolling out now. The update requires iOS 9 be on the connceted iPhone. It can be downloadedthrough the Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General >Software Update.

Note that the update requires the Watch be connected to the MagSafe charger and be on Wi-Fi.

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Federico Viticci:

In many cultures, the number “10” evokes a sense of growth and accomplishment, a complete circle that starts anew, both similar and different from what came before. In Apple’s case, the company has a sweet spot for the 10 numerology: Mac OS was reborn under the X banner, and it gained a second life once another 10 was in sight.

What happens before a dramatic change is particularly interesting to observe. With the major milestone of iOS 10 on track for next year, what does iOS 9 say about Apple’s relationship with its mobile OS today?

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I find this whole thing rather charming.

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With the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus pre-orders set to open later tonight, Apple’s site went down some time ago. While usually the company pulls down its store, the whole site is currently down. The whois info for Apple.com isn’t returning the regular values, as shown below. Update: As several people have pointed out, whois data can return messy results, it’s at least a fun coincidence. Generally, though, I’ve only seen clean whois replies from Apple.

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Swapnil Bhartiya:

I reached out to Plex via email and Scott Olechowski, the co-founder of Plex replied, saying, “We are very excited to have a crack at bringing our users Apple TV. It’s been a long requested platform and we’re excited to work on it. We want it, our users want it…and we’re anxiously awaiting the tvOS developer beta info, so we can finally dig in.”

I further inquired if Olechowski believed that tvOS will allow Plex developers to offer the app to the platform or if there could still be any hurdles. He replied, “There is no question we will be able to offer Plex on the platform. There are multiple ways to go about it, based on the tvOS SDK we now have access to. We are now evaluating the best path for Plex and will begin work in earnest once we have evaluated the options. The ability to access great and proven iOS frameworks on the device is great for developers like us – we know the stuff is solid and will perform really well. Our goal is to enable people to enjoy Plex on the hardware platforms of their choice, and there is no doubt this will be a top platform for us.”

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Yesterday was a big day in the Apple world. Changes to Apple Watch, a new Apple TV, the iPad Pro and a set of new iPhones were all announced in a two hour keynote in San Francisco.

While long, I agree with John Gruber that it felt like a much tighter presentation than WWDC. That aside, there’s no getting around it: Apple has a lot going on, and it shows in these events.

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