512 Pixels

This week on the show:

Stephen did something out of the ordinary, Myke tries to explain Apple Watch faces and Federico learns about Margherita pizza.

I can’t believe WWDC is just a few weeks away.

Plain text app wizard Jesse Grosjean is out with a new outlining app for the Mac, named Bike:

Outlines are powerful, but can be confusing. In Bike outline editing is fluid, your ideas flow across the screen instead of jumping from position to position. This makes it easier to track what’s going on, and it’s fun!

I really like how Bike works; too many apps in this category are just too heavy. If you do a lot of outlining, it’s an easy $29.99.

Don’t miss John’s review.

Apple Support:

After updating to Mac OS X 10.4.7, the MacBook may show a solid grey, white, or black screen or a screen with vertical multi-colored lines.

To resolve the issue temporarily, you may need to reset NVRAM. Once you can use the display again, download and install Mac OS X 10.4.8. You can use the Software Update feature of System Preferences, or download the Update from Apple Software Downloads.

If you have updated to Mac OS X 10.4.8 and the issue still seems to occur, you may need to reset NVRAM on your MacBook again.

Unite 4 for macOS allows you to turn any website into an app on your Mac. Using a lightweight, WebKit powered browser as a backend, you can easily create isolated, customizable apps from any site.

Unite 4 includes dozens of new features, including support for native notifications, new customization options, and much more. Unite apps also serve as a great alternative for resource hogging Electron apps or half-baked Catalyst apps.

Some examples of apps you could create in mere minutes with Unite:

• A Gmail web client that behaves like a native mail client
• A status bar app for Apple Music or Overcast
• An isolated workspace for apps that may track you like Facebook
• A Google Meet app that works efficiently without using Chrome
• A fully featured Instagram app that has a resizable window, unlike the M1 version
• A Robinhood, Figma, or Roam Research app for your desktop

512 Pixels readers get 20% off this week when you purchase Unite 4 at bzgapps.com/unite512 or when you use the promo code ‘512Pixels’ at checkout.

You can also try Unite for 14 days absolutely free or use it as part of your subscription if you’re a Setapp subscriber!

Michael Steeber, writing in his Tabletops newsletter:

Near the iPod’s zenith, Apple split the Genius Bar into three distinct experiences. The iPod Bar became a hub for iPod support and The Studio became a home for creative projects.

Apple Ginza and Apple SoHo were the first stores to add iPod Bars in 2005. Apple Fifth Avenue opened in 2006 with a combined 45-foot iPod Bar, Genius Bar, and The Studio. Then the iPhone arrived.

I had totally forgotten about this. My store never had one, but we ran two queues for a long time: one for Mac Genius appointments and one for iPods.

The App Store didn’t launch until a year after the first iPhone, but it has defined the smartphone era. This week on MPU, David and I talk about some of our favorite iPhone apps.

My thanks to Magic Lasso Adblock for sponsoring the site this week. It’s easy to set up, blocks all YouTube ads and doubles the speed at which Safari loads.

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Over the span of two decades, Apple made a bunch of iPods. The original may have been just a single 5 GB player delivering 1,000 songs in your pocket, but the line spread from there to meet the needs of many more users. The iPod mini, iPod shuffle, iPod nano, iPod photo, iPod classic and iPod touch all enjoyed time on store shelves.

A couple of special-edition iPods were created, such as the Harry Potter Collector’s iPod released in 2005.

Perhaps even more famous was the U2 iPod.

In reality, there were three U2 iPods, spacing from 2004 until the fall of 2007.

The first-generation U2 iPod is probably the most well-known. To create it, Apple took a 4th-generation iPod, but tweaked the colors and had the signatures of the band members engraved on the stainless steel back of the iPod:

The iPod was a 20 GB model that sold for $349, a $50 premium over the standard 20 GB 4th-generation iPod.

Over the years, I’ve heard people say that this iPod came loaded with all of the band’s music, but that isn’t entirely true. Here’s a bit from Apple’s press release at the time:

Apple has created the online music industry’s first-of-its-kind “Digital Box Set.” The first digital box set, “The Complete U2,” will contain over 400 tracks, including all of the band’s albums and over 25 rare and unreleased tracks. U2 fans will be able to purchase and download The Complete U2 with just one click on the iTunes Music Store in the US and Europe beginning in late November for just $149.

In the box for the U2 iPod was a coupon to knock $50 off the cost of this box set, justifying the cost increase and enticing U2 fans to plunk down $100 on the iTunes Music Store.

Somehow, a page about all of this has survived on Apple’s website as of this writing:

In the summer of 2005, Apple merged the iPod and iPod photo lines:

Apple today announced that the iPod and iPod photo lines are merging, creating a single line of white iPods that all feature color displays with the ability to view album artwork, photos and play slideshows in stunning color. The simplified iPod lineup features a 20GB model, holding up to 5,000 songs priced at just $299 and a 60GB model, holding up to 15,000 songs priced at $399. Also starting today, iPods will offer an easy to use Podcast menu, including bookmarking within a Podcast and the ability to display Podcast artwork in color.

This change included the U2 iPod:

The 20GB and 60GB iPods for Mac or Windows are available immediately worldwide for a suggested retail price of $299 (US) and $399 (US) respectively. The new iPod U2 Special Edition also includes a color screen and is now more affordable at just $329, and the 1GB iPod shuffle is now just $129.

In June 2006, the U2 iPod was updated for the third and final time to bring it in line with the 5th-generation iPod that was introduced in September 2005. Here’s Apple PR:

Apple today introduced the new iPod U2 Special Edition as part of a continued partnership between Apple, U2 and Universal Music Group (UMG). The new U2 iPod is based on the fifth generation 30GB iPod and holds up to 7,500 songs, 25,000 photos or over 75 hours of video and features a distinctive, all-black stainless steel enclosure, red Click Wheel and custom engraving of U2 band member signatures. U2 iPod customers will also receive 30 minutes of exclusive U2 video downloadable from the iTunes® Music Store. The new U2 iPod is available immediately for $329.

“We’re thrilled to continue working with one of the greatest bands in the world to bring U2 fans a special edition of the world’s best digital music player,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “With its distinctive new design, including an all-black stainless steel enclosure, the new U2 iPod is sure to be a hit.”

I have to admit it does look pretty cool:

This version of the U2 iPod was 30 GB in capacity and ran $329. Instead of “The Complete U2,” customers of this iPod got a coupon for 30 minutes of exclusive U2 video content downloadable from the iTunes Music Store. It was updated when the 5th generation iPod was revised in September 2006, but quietly went away when the iPod classic was introduced in 2007.

In 2014, U2’s Songs of Innocence was automatically added to the iTunes libraries of some 500 million users, but that’s a story for a different time.

This week on the show:

To mark the death of the iPod touch, the guys gather around a shared browser window and rank iPods. Also on the docket: iPadOS 15, iPhone repairs and Jony Ive’s pen.

If you haven’t ordered one of these beauties, time is running out! Celebrate the Lisa in style:

Apple Support:

Fonts that are in your Mac OS 9 System Folder may not be available to Mac OS X Panther and Tiger applications until you select the System Folder in Classic preferences or start Classic.

Symptom: - Fonts are unexpectedly substituted in a Mac OS X application. - Fonts you expect to be available to a Mac OS X application are not.

This can happen when your Mac OS 9 System Folder is on a different volume than Mac OS X, if there are multiple Mac OS 9 System Folders present, or if the font is a bitmap font or font suitcase that contains only bitmap fonts (please note that bitmap fonts are not available in Mac OS X).

I had totally forgotten fonts from a classic system folder could be used by OS X applications, but reading this brought back memories from my run-QuarkXPress-in-Classic-but-everything-else-in-Mac-OS-X-itself days.

Apple PR has announced that the iPod touch will be for sale as long as supplies last:

Since its introduction over 20 years ago, iPod has captivated users all over the world who love the ability to take their music with them on the go. Today, the experience of taking one’s music library out into the world has been integrated across Apple’s product line — from iPhone and Apple Watch to iPad and Mac — along with access to more than 90 million songs and over 30,000 playlists available via Apple Music.

Music has always been part of our core at Apple, and bringing it to hundreds of millions of users in the way iPod did impacted more than just the music industry — it also redefined how music is discovered, listened to, and shared," said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Today, the spirit of iPod lives on. We’ve integrated an incredible music experience across all of our products, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch to HomePod mini, and across Mac, iPad, and Apple TV. And Apple Music delivers industry-leading sound quality with support for spatial audio — there’s no better way to enjoy, discover, and experience music.”

The iPod touch started life as “an iPhone without the phone,” then was reinvented as “the funnest iPod ever,” with Apple pitching it as the most popular portable gaming device on the planet. Over the years, however, Apple let it slip farther and farther behind the iPhone. Today’s news shouldn’t be a surprise, but it’s still sad to the iPod brand slip away.