WWDC is on for June 22

Apple:

Apple today announced it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference virtually, beginning June 22, in the Apple Developer app and on the Apple Developer website for free for all developers. The company also announced the Swift Student Challenge, an opportunity for student developers to showcase their love of coding by creating their own Swift playground. Now in its 31st year, WWDC20 will be an opportunity for millions of creative and innovative developers around the world to get early access to the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, and to learn from Apple engineers as they work to build app experiences that enrich the lives of Apple customers around the globe.

It’s weird to not be rushing to book flights.

Apple Updates the 13-inch MacBook Pro

From Apple Newsroom:

Apple today updated the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the new Magic Keyboard for the best typing experience ever on a Mac notebook and doubled the storage across all standard configurations, delivering even more value to the most popular MacBook Pro. The new lineup also offers 10th-generation processors for up to 80 percent faster graphics performance1 and makes 16GB of faster 3733MHz memory standard on select configurations. With powerful quad-core processors, the brilliant 13-inch Retina display, Touch Bar and Touch ID, immersive stereo speakers, all-day battery life, and the power of macOS, all in an incredibly portable design, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro is available to order today, starting at $1,299, and $1,199 for education.

This is not the rumored 14-inch MacBook Pro that many of us still hope to see, but it does mark the end of the butterfly keyboard in everything but the cloth-covered iPad Smart Keyboards. This version of the new Magic Keyboard comes complete with a physical escape key and inverted-T arrow keys.

13-inch MacBook Pro (2020)

There is more to this update than the new keyboard, however.

Like before, the 13-inch MacBook Pro comes in both two port and four port configurations:

Two-port costs

Four-port costs

The two-port machines come with the Touch Bar and Touch ID, and slower, older processors. The $1,299 and $1,499 SKUs both come with 8th-gen, quad-core Intel Core i5s, running at 1.2 and 1.4 GHz respectively. Both options support Hyper Threading and their Turbo Boost speeds top out at 3.9 GHz.

The more expensive machines run $1,799 and $1,999, but come with the same 10th-gen 2.0 GHz Core i5s, with support for much faster RAM that maxes out at 32 GB for the first time on a 13-inch MacBook Pro.

We’ll have to see how these machines fare in the real world, but in theory, the four-port models should run faster without much tradeoff in heat and battery life compared to the two-port machines, thanks to the progress Intel has made. Those models also have a more powerful GPU, and can drive the Pro Display XDR.

In non-CPU news, the base storage has been doubled across all base configurations, and can be topped out at 4 TB on the four-port models.

This looks like a really great update if you’re in the market for a small MacBook Pro. I’m pleased that Apple can keep options below $1,799, but it’s a bit of a shame how much better the more expensive machines look to be. Honestly, I’d probably look at the new MacBook Air over the entry-level MacBook Pro, even if the Pro should be a little faster.

Sponsor: The Omni Group: Powerful Productivity Tools Built for Pros

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OmniFocus is a to-do app and task management tool that helps you keep track of everything so you can efficiently achieve your goals. Managing complicated projects is painless with OmniPlan — project management software built to help professionals view, edit, and organize projects from start to finish.

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Productivity isn’t about getting more done — it’s about getting more out of life. And with four powerful productivity apps, the Omni Productivity Suite offers a program for any job — whether you need to stay focused, manage projects, communicate visually, or structure your ideas.

Mac Power Users #534: The Business of Emoji, with Jeremy Burge

This week on Mac Power Users:

Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge joins David and Stephen to talk about emoji, how they’re made and why they’ve found such huge success. Then, he explains how tech needs change when one lives on a boat.

Jeremy is one of my favorite people on the Internet, and it was a lot of fun to hear how he runs his business.

My thanks to this week’s sponsors:

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The Role of FileMaker in Apple’s COVID-19 Strategy

Eric Rosenbaum, writing at CNBC:

Apple’s iPhone revenue declined in the first quarter 2020, but a big jump in services revenue and more than $10 billion from its wearables category highlight newer sources of growth. The Covid-19 pandemic hurt the quarterly earnings overall, but Apple CEO Tim Cook indicated that more recent sales numbers provide reason for optimism, and at least one Apple business expects the coronavirus to accelerate rather than hinder its near-term success.

It’s an Apple business most people don’t know much about, if they know it at all: Claris, which sells the low-code application development software called FileMaker.

“There is a massive opportunity for low code to help in the Covid-19 situation,” said Claris CEO Brad Freitag, who took the reins at the company last year and rebranded what had long been known as FileMaker under the Claris name.

No doubt that tools like FileMaker can be used to rapidly build solutions for hospitals, which this article points out, but I’m not sure COVID-19 is going to move the needle for the business in a major way.

Apple Posts Q2 2020 Results

Apple Newsroom:

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2020 second quarter ended March 28, 2020. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $58.3 billion, an increase of 1 percent from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.55, up 4 percent. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

“Despite COVID-19’s unprecedented global impact, we’re proud to report that Apple grew for the quarter, driven by an all-time record in Services and a quarterly record for Wearables,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “In this difficult environment, our users are depending on Apple products in renewed ways to stay connected, informed, creative, and productive. We feel motivated and inspired to not only keep meeting these needs in innovative ways, but to continue giving back to support the global response, from the tens of millions of face masks and custom-built face shields we’ve sent to medical professionals around the world, to the millions we’ve donated to organizations like Global Citizen and America’s Food Fund.”

Snell has charts of the results. Apple did not offer guidance for the next quarter.

Connected #292: M’Duck

This week on the show:

The trio gives a math lesson before follow-up on the Magic Keyboard and iPhone SE. Then, our plans for WWDC.

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CleanMyMac X Now in the Mac App Store

Oleksandr Kosovan, the CEO of MacPaw, sharing the news that CleanMyMac X is now on the Mac App Store:

In 2018, CleanMyMac X switched to a subscription model — a ubiquitous way of getting apps on the Mac App Store. The same year (2018), Apple significantly improved the store itself with a new design and curated content. The fact that the Mac App Store became much better and that it supported subscriptions, made us work on building CleanMyMac X for the Mac App Store.

As you would imagine, there are some differences between the App Store and non-App Store version, but if you prefer the App Store for purchasing Mac apps, this is good news.