Category: Apple

John Gruber, writing about Apple’s pending price increases:

I won a steak dinner from my Dithering cohost Ben Thompson, betting that Apple would not raise the prices on RAM when they introduced the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros in March, largely on the basis that Apple considers the pricing part of the product’s brand. For the same reason, I also do not think they’re going to raise the prices of existing products mid-cycle. I think Cook’s warning is about the fall, starting with the iPhones 18 Pro and the folding “Ultra” in September, and he issued the warning months early just to make the bad news “old news” by the time September gets here.

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After yesterday’s post about the end of the Time Capsule, several people pointed me to James Chang’s project on GitHub to keep them running:

Apple AirPort Time Capsules only support AFP and SMB1. Apple removed AFP support in macOS 27 (and removed SMB1 support from macOS a long time ago). This is a modern Samba setup that runs directly on the Time Capsule itself; macOS 27 can connect to the Time Capsule as a network share, and use it for Time Machine backups.

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Hartley Charlton at MacRumors:

macOS 27 Golden Gate removes AFP support, ending Time Machine compatibility with Time Capsule after nearly two decades, but a community project from a Microsoft engineer offers a potential workaround for owners not yet ready to move on.

The original Time Capsule was announced way back in 2008, in the same Macworld keynote as the first MacBook Air. From Apple at the time:

Time Capsule combines an 802.11n base station with a server grade hard disk in one small package. Simply plug it in, then easily set up automatic wireless backup for every Mac® in your house to a single Time Capsule with just a few clicks. Time Capsule offers the benefits of a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station, and comes in two models: a 500 gigabyte model for just $299 and a 1 terabyte model for just $499.

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From time to time, WWDC gives us a glimpse of what’s coming in the next year, like when Apple wanted developers to make sure their iOS apps could run on iPhones of different sizes.

As Dan Moren writes, this is one of those times, with nods to both touch-enabled Macs and a foldable iPhone.

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Basic Apple Guy:

One of the first things I noticed after installing the macOS Golden Gate beta was the updated icon design. The colours are much bolder, several icons have been adjusted, and the refraction in the Liquid Glass effect has changed significantly, especially in icons like Journal.

There’s also a noticeable sharpness to the icons, along with a flattening of the Liquid Glass effect. I’m not sure yet whether this is simply an early-beta artifact or the intended final look. For example, while I really like the redesigned Finder icon, the sharp black edges around the nose currently feel a little unrefined.

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Every year, the new version of macOS ships with at least one new default wallpaper. macOS 27 Golden Gate continues that tradition.

I like this wallpaper; it has some Mac OS 9 vibes.

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As spotted by MacRumors, the system requirements for watchOS 27 are pretty steep:

Apple today confirmed that watchOS 27 will not support the Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra (first generation), or Apple Watch SE (second generation), effectively drawing a line at devices equipped with the S9 or S10 chip.

The only Apple Watch models compatible with watchOS 27 are the Apple Watch Series 10, Series 11, Ultra 2, Ultra 3, and SE 3. Despite the fact that the Apple Watch Ultra 2 contains the S9 chip, the Series 9 which contains the same chip will no longer be supported.

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Today’s keynote didn’t include a formal handoff between Tim Cook and John Ternus (who wasn’t even in the video), but Cook did offer some closing remarks. As is his style, it was more about Apple than himself:

On a personal note, some of the greatest highlights of my time as CEO have been events like this. Sharing powerful new tools with all of you and then seeing what you create with them has been a constant reminder has no limits. Over the years you have helped people connect, create, learn, and experience the world in extraordinary new ways, and with the incredible capabilities we introduced today, and so many more still to come, I truly believe the best is still ahead.

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The WWDC keynote just wrapped up, and it was startlingly different. For years, Apple has gone through each of its operating systems, highlighting features it was bringing to each one.

That had broken down over time as more and more features were cross-platform. For example, Apple would announce something in its iPadOS section just for it to popup in macOS. Something in Reminders on the iPhone would also be present on the iPad.

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Apple had previously announced that macOS 26 Tahoe would be the last release to support Intel-based Macs:

macOS Tahoe will be the last release for Intel-based Mac computers. Those systems will continue to receive security updates for 3 years.

Rosetta was designed to make the transition to Apple silicon easier, and we plan to make it available for the next two major macOS releases – through macOS 27 – as a general-purpose tool for Intel apps to help developers complete the migration of their apps. Beyond this timeframe, we will keep a subset of Rosetta functionality aimed at supporting older unmaintained gaming titles, that rely on Intel-based frameworks.

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I’ve worn an Apple Watch for sleep tracking for ages, using our very own Sleep++. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve also been wearing a Fitbit Air, slowly taking notes for a full review.

So far, the data it tracks is roughly similar to that of the Apple Watch, except for sleep. If you wake up at any point, Google Health stops tracking sleep for the night and gives you a horrific sleep score:

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Tim Hardwick at MacRumors:

Microsoft will prevent Office 2019 for Mac owners from editing their documents from July 13, a restriction the company is attributing to the productivity suite’s expiring digital certificate.

The Office 2019 apps affected include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. Once the certificate used to confirm the suite’s license expires, these apps will drop into what Microsoft is calling “reduced functionality mode.” In other words, users will still be able to open, view, and print existing documents, but creating, editing and saving documents will be disabled. The same restriction will apply to iPhone and iPad apps that can’t be updated, according to Microsoft.

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