You know what to do: fire this up now and call in sick to work, or send it to your read-it-later service.
Category: Apple
Who’s actually buying iPods these days?⇢
Matt Birchler:
With this week’s update to the entire iPod lineup, many have been asking “who are iPod’s even for these days?” Well, I worked the last 3 years managing an electronics department for Target, and have sold a lot of Apple devices over that time. Since Apple doesn’t break down demographics for who is buying each device, I thought I would share my experience.
It should of course be noted that I am just one person and my experience may not be 100% accurate with its representation of the market. After doing some quick mental math, it’s fair to say 5,000-10,000 Apple devices moved through my department in my tenure. That’s quite enough to pick up some trends, so here we go.
Apple updates iPod line
For the first time since 2012, Apple’s updated its line of music players.
Kinda. The iPod nano and iPod shuffle remain the same as their predecessors, but in new colors: space gray, blue, gold, pink, silver and Product Red.
The big news is that The iPod touch takes a big step into the future with a much better camera and the A8 processor from the iPhone. The huge increase in power should make it a much better gaming device than the A5-powered it replaces. The iPod touch ships with a 4-inch Retina display, no doubt to cater to children who are often given iPods instead of iPhones or iPads.
Apple IIGS System 6.0.2⇢
Got an Apple IIGS that’s got some bugs? Well, the Apple PugetSound Program library Exchange has some good news for you. Here’s Bill Martens:
After 22 years, 2 months, 2 days and 2 hours since System 6.0.1 was released, this is a summary of the visible changes. There have been many bugs fixed and many features added that are not immediately visible–they will enable developers to create better future products. Be sure to also read the Shortcuts file on the SystemTools3 disk for more information.
iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan public betas released⇢
Not a developer but want to get your hands on this fall’s OS releases from Apple? Now’s your chance.
As always, be sure to have good backups in place, expect some things to be broken and take it easy on third-party developers.
Apple updates vintage and obsolete products list⇢
Earlier today, Apple updated its “vintage and obsolete products” article:
Owners of iPad, iPhone, iPod or Mac products may obtain service and parts from Apple or Apple service providers for 5 years after the product is no longer manufactured (or longer where required by law). Apple has discontinued support for certain technologically obsolete and vintage products.
The company does this from time to time, but today’s update caught my idea because of the inclusion of several Early 2009 and Mid 2009 models.
Images of updated iPods found in iTunes 12.2⇢
Juli Clover at MacRumors:
A bit more digging around in iTunes 12.2 has unearthed additional iPod images, giving us a look at each of the new color options we might see should Apple be planning to release new models.
The images depict six different color options for the iPod nano, shuffle, and touch, showing each model in silver, space gray, red, bright pink, deep blue, and light gold. The latter three colors, pink, blue, and gold, are new shades that are not currently available. The space gray model may be slightly darker than the existing color, but it’s difficult to determine from images alone.
On Hulu’s Seinfeld apartment and Jerry’s Macs⇢
Christina Warren:
Hulu recreated nearly every aspect of the Season 8-era Seinfeld apartment with great attention to detail.
Except for one thing. They gave Jerry an old PC.
After Carrie Bradshaw, Jerry Seinfeld might be the most visible Mac user in 1990s television. Over the course of Seinfeld’s 9 seasons, Jerry’s apartment frequently showed off various models of the Macintosh. Everything from the Mac SE/30 to a PowerBook Duo with Duo Dock, to the 20th Anniversary Macintosh were featured on the show.
System 7.5.5 spotted running on Apple Watch⇢
Well, someone has way too much time on their hands, but this is cool:
How to set Logic Pro X’s project time and banish that pesky leading hour
If you record or edit in Logic, you may have noticed the fun quirk of the application in which the project time has an hour added to it by default:
This has always annoyed me while working on podcasts, as I don’t need the options and power that time synchronization offers. Thankfully, it’s easy to tell Logic to remove the leading hour by navigating in the menubar to File → Project Settings → Synchronization. 
Apple discontinues original iPad mini
This morning, Apple quietly removed the original iPad mini from its online store, as noted by 9to5Mac:
Apple’s discontinuation of the iPad mini leaves the remaining iPads as a completely 64-bit family, all using either A7 and A8X processors rather than the iPad mini’s aging A5. It also means that all remaining iPads have Retina displays and unified Wi-Fi + Cellular models.
While the A5 is still around in a couple of very sad devices, I know a lot of developers are glad to see Apple finally moving forward. iOS 9 will run on a lot of older devices, but I do think it may be the last iOS release to hold that line.
iMore’s OS X El Capitan first look⇢
Rene Ritchie:
As Snow Leopard refined and advanced Leopard, as Mountain Lion refined and advanced Lion, so too is OS X El Capitan intended to refine and advance last year’s OS X Yosemite. That means the focus isn’t on major redesigns or profound system-level changes, though there is a little of both to be found. Instead, Apple is making OS X smarter, and giving it considerably more polish.
For El Cap, that means new window management options, including an improved Mission Control and new Split View. The company has made Spotlight smarter and improved stock OS X apps like Notes, Safari, Mail, Maps, and Photos. They’ve enhanced performance, stability, and security—including bringing iOS graphics framework Metal to the Mac. They’ve even added new system fonts: San Francisco for alphabetic languages; Ping Fang for Chinese; tweaks to the Japanese system font, Hiragino Sans; and improved input methods for both Chinese and Japanese.