“Apple’s making a car.”
*Oh look, Finder’s crashed.*
— Stephen Hackett (@ismh) February 13, 2015
I rest my case.
Category: Apple
Some Thunderbolt Displays flooding local networks⇢
Yikes.
Tim Cook’s Goldman Sachs conference transcript⇢
I read this with Cook’s accent in my head.
Be your own Genius
This is a guest post by Joe Caiati. Joe works as an IT professional in New York City. He maintains a weblog called dot info, co-hosts the Diagnostics & Usage podcast and can be found on Twitter.
No one likes visiting the Genius Bar.
If you are going there it’s because something is wrong with your Apple product and depending on the time of day, you could be waiting for a while to see a Genius. Some wait all of that time just to ask a simple question, but others may need a repair and can be without their Mac for a couple of days or more. As a former Mac Genius (like Stephen is), I’d like to try to save you a trip to the Bar — but first you must become your own Genius.
iOS rumored to receive ‘Snow Leopard’ moment⇢
Mark Gurman:
Following the success of OS X Snow Leopard for Macs in 2009, one of iOS 9’s standout ‘features’ will be a directed focus on stabilizing and optimizing the operating system. While stability is normally an expected component in Apple software rather than a marquee feature, the rapid pace of iOS releases and feature introductions has taken a toll on the operating system’s overall performance, recently leading to numerous complaints from long-time Apple users and regular customers alike.
A look at Photos.app⇢
The Verge got a hands-on look with the upcoming Photos app for OS X, which replaces iPhoto and Aperture and uses iCloud for (optional) online storage.
This clearly isn’t a replacement for Aperture, but it looks a lot simpler and easier to use than iPhoto.
The new app will ship with 10.10.3
On the Burton Amp Jacket
During the Super Bowl, I was re-watching and tweeting about Macworld 2003, the event where the 12-inch and the 17-inch PowerBook G4 were introduced after Safari and iLife were shown off.
There was one announcement, however, that I had forgotten all about.
Here’s part of Apple’s press release on the Burton Amp Jacket:
Burton Snowboards and Apple today unveiled the limited-edition Burton Amp, the world’s first and only wearable electronic jacket with an integrated iPod control system. The Burton Amp is a durable waterproof GORE-TEX snowboarding jacket made exclusively for use with iPod, Apple’s wildly popular portable digital music player. The Burton Amp and Apple’s iPod together make it effortless for snowboarders and other active users to control their music from right on the sleeve of their jacket without fumbling with zippers, gloves or pockets. The Burton Amp jacket is designed for use with Apple’s 5GB, 10GB or 20GB iPod (purchased separately).
iTunes Connect is drunk⇢
Joe Rossignol at MacRumors:
A number of iTunes Connect developers have turned to Twitter and tipped us off about an ongoing issue where users are being shown someone else’s session after attempting to login into their own account. MacRumors has been able to duplicate this issue, which appears to be widespread and has been going on since at least 8 AM Pacific.
Thankfully, developers are getting “unable to process request” errors and are then redirected to their own account if any action is requested while logged into to the incorrect account.
The evolution of iOS⇢
Man, old iOS looks crazy now, doesn’t it?
Apple posts Q1 2015 results⇢
The highlights:
- $74.6 billion in revenue
- 74.5 million iPhones sold
- 21.4 million iPads sold
Insane. Don’t miss Jason Snell’s charts. That revenue one is mind-blowing.
Changes are coming to how Apple reports is earnings, as Josh Lowensohn at The Verge explains:
One big change this quarter is that Apple is no longer reporting its iPod unit sales. As of this quarter, Apple now lumps them into a new “other products” category that also includes the Apple TV, Beats headphones, and soon the Apple Watch.
Apple ships ‘OS X Yosemite v10.10.2 Update’⇢
Weird naming aside, this update packs a punch:
- Resolves an issue that might cause Wi-Fi to disconnect
- Resolves an issue that might cause web pages to load slowly
- Fixes an issue that could cause Spotlight to load remote email content when this preference is disabled in Mail
- Improves audio and video sync when using Bluetooth headphones
- Adds the ability to browse iCloud Drive in Time Machine
- Improves VoiceOver speech performance
- Resolves an issue that could cause VoiceOver to echo characters when entering text on a web page
- Addresses an issue that could cause the input method to switch languages unexpectedly
- Improves stability and security in Safari
10.10.2 can be downloaded from the Mac App Store now.
Five years of iPad
This week five years ago, the original iPad was introduced. While the core experience of the iPad is more or less the same today, the hardware had come a long way in half a decade:
| Specification | 2010 iPad | iPad Air 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Height | 9.56 in | 9.4 in |
| Width | 7.47 in | 6.6 in |
| Depth | 0.5 in | 0.24 in |
| Weight | 1.5 lbs | 0.96 lbs |
| FaceTime Camera | N/A | 1.2 MP |
| iSight Camera | N/A | 8 MP |
| Battery | 10 hours | 10 hours |
| Resolution | 1024x768 | 2048x1536 |
| PPI | 132 ppi | 264 ppi |
| Clock Speed | 1 GHz | 1.5 GHz |
| Cores | 1 | 3 |
| RAM | 256 MB | 2 GB |
Having an original iPad next to an iPad Air 2 shows just how far Apple’s come. While the numbers above show the weight and thickness changes, the difference in the bezels alone make the original iPad feel older than it is.