Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong era; coming along in 1986 meant that I missed a lot of the early days of personal computing. Sure, my dad had a Windows 3.1.1 notebook built by NEC, and yeah, we ended up with a Windows 95 tower from Packard Bell a few years later, but the closest I got to an Apple II as a kid was seeing a few stacked up in the corner of my elementary school library.
Category: Apple
Connected #488: hot guy, incredible actor, hot dude⇢
Apple Vision Pro is here, and on this week’s Connected, Myke and I share our initial impressions while Federico keeps refreshing the tracking information on his order.
The Reason for Apple Retail⇢
Without Apple Retail, I’m not convinced Apple Vision Pro could work. Don’t get me wrong: the device could physically exist, but it would have no product story, no voice. It couldn’t capture the hearts and minds of the public. Think about it: people understood portable music players before the iPod, cell phones and touchscreens before the iPhone, iOS devices before the iPad, and watches before the Apple Watch. How many people do you know that own VR headsets?
Apple Vision Pro: A Teleportation Device⇢
Cleo Abram’s new video gets at the heart of something I’ve been thinking a lot about:
How can the Vision Pro connect us rather than isolate us?
She gets into this in a big way, and it’s a great watch:
Kbase Dump the Quarter: Apple Vision Pro Support Documents⇢
Apple on Friday shared a wealth of information about its new Vision Pro headset, including a detailed user guide and dozens of support documents.
Joe’s article is full of links to support documents about the new platform. The use of “beta” in the headline for this one jumped out at me:
Get tips for setting up your Persona — a dynamic, natural representation of your face and hand movements that allows others to see you while you’re using Apple Vision Pro for FaceTime and other videoconferencing apps. This process also sets up EyeSight, which reveals your eyes on the front of your Apple Vision Pro.
iFixit Tears Down a Vision Pro⇢
I have been waiting for this since June of last year:
We knew it would be tough to get inside (it was). We hoped we wouldn’t break anything (we did). But we knew it would be worth it to see all the new technology Apple squeezed into this thing, from the EyeSight display to the sensor array, the external battery back to the R1 chip. We brought in the heavy hitters for this teardown, including x-ray views of the frame and high-resolution microscope shots of the displays.
Inside Apple Vision Pro⇢
With no set deadline or pressure to be brought to the market, Apple Vision Pro has been in the works for decades. On a recent visit to Apple Park, Alan Dye, Apple’s Vice President of Human Interface Design, and Richard Howarth, Vice President of Industrial Design, sat down together to explain how hardware and software came together in an unprecedented way to make an idea a reality.
Apple Reports Q1 2024 Results⇢
Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2024 first quarter ended December 30, 2023. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $119.6 billion, up 2 percent year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.18, up 16 percent year over year.
“Today Apple is reporting revenue growth for the December quarter fueled by iPhone sales, and an all-time revenue record in Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are pleased to announce that our installed base of active devices has now surpassed 2.2 billion, reaching an all-time high across all products and geographic segments. And as customers begin to experience the incredible Apple Vision Pro tomorrow, we are committed as ever to the pursuit of groundbreaking innovation — in line with our values and on behalf of our customers.”
Understanding Apple’s Proposed Changes to Meet the DMA’s Demands
John Voorhees has a great walk-through of the changes Apple is making in response to the DMA:
What makes understanding last week’s announcement difficult is that, superficially, Apple’s press release bears a vague resemblance to a typical Apple product announcement, at least until you catch its tone. EU users will now have a choice of browser engines, new payment options, and access to alternative app marketplaces. If you were watching a WWDC keynote and heard these things, you’d probably expect they’d apply across Apple’s OSes.
Alternative Browsers Coming to EU iPhones⇢
As part of the sweeping changes coming to the iOS ecosystem in the wake of the Digital Markets Act, iOS will be opened up to run third-party browser engines, and regardless of their underpinnings, third-party browsers will be presented as options to users. John Voorhees has the details:
One element of the changes coming to iOS in the European Union is that beginning with iOS 17.4, EU users will see a choice of browsers when they first launch Safari that can be set as the systemwide default browser. For each country, that list will contain the 12 most popular browsers from its App Store storefront displayed to the user in a random order.
Apple Details Its Plans for EU Digital Markets Act Compliance⇢
Today, Apple announced its plans for changes to the App Store and iOS itself to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). On MacStories, John Voorhees has a breakdown of these changes. There is a lot to process here.
Apple Music Classical Updated for CarPlay (Update: J/K)⇢
I can’t think of another first-party Apple app that has had a weirder rollout than this thing.
Especially given the fact that it seems to crash at launch.
The app has been updated again and the CarPlay version has been removed.