From iCloud to Apple TV+, Apple’s range of services is broader then ever, but how do they all stack up? Is this shift to services changed how users should view the company?
It’s amazing just how many services Apple offers these days. It was fun to go through them with David.
My thanks to our sponsors:
Yesterday, Myke and I published an open letter of sorts, outlining some changes we are making in the business:
As the global pandemic unfolds, no business is unaffected. Understandably, many companies are freezing their marketing budgets. This means that advertising-supported businesses, including Relay FM, need to adapt. That’s why, over the next months, you’ll see us focus much more on creating new content for our loyal listeners.
We introduced the Relay FM membership program a few years ago, as a way of letting listeners support their favorite shows directly.
So far, we’ve focused on the membership program once a year, when we publish bonus episodes in conjunction with Relay FM’s birthday. As a primarily advertising-supported company, we have been comfortable with this approach, but the landscape is changing, and we need to change with it.
That’s why we’re going to be expanding our membership program this year. We’ll be adding new exclusive content just for members, and offering it in some new ways.
We’ve created two additional perks in the last month or so:
If you aren’t a Relay FM member, we’d love to have your support as we navigate the changes that many content creators are facing. You can join here, picking your favorite show to support. If you choose Backstage, your membership will go to helping run the day-to-day of the network directly.
If you are already a member, and haven’t checked out the Discord, I invite you to come hang out with us. It’s been almost five years since I quit my 9 to 5 so I could work on Relay FM and 512 Pixels full time, and I can honestly tell you this is my dream job, and it’s a true honor to help make things that people enjoy so much.
My thanks to The Omni Group for sponsoring 512 Pixels this week.
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.
For people my age, AIM was the way to stay in touch with friends back in high school and college. It’s not around today for a bunch of reasons, but its feature set defined what we expect from services like iMessage and WhatsApp today.
On this week’s episode of Flashback, Quinn Nelson and I jump online and dig in to this once-huge service.
My thanks to our sponsor:
On this week’s episode of AppStories, Federico spoke with Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi about iPadOS and its new cursor support. I’m only a few minutes into the episode, but it’s already super interesting.
On a personal note, I couldn’t be prouder of Ticci today. He has worked extremely hard to build MacStories into what it is today, and interviews like these really show it.
This week, Stephen identifies some adaptors, while Federico is in search of answers and Myke butts in about something else. Then, a discussion of WWDC 2020, and what they guys would like to see in terms of home screen widgets on the iPhone and iPad.
Over the next several weeks, we’ll be breaking down some things we’d like to see at WWDC. I’m looking forward to the event, even if we’ll all be at home for it.
My thanks to our sponsors:
This time on a very slippery Ungeniused:
The 2011 holiday season was almost ruined by a butter shortage in Norway. It was so serious people smuggled the spreadable staple in across the border to avoid tariffs.
Shout out to our sponsor:
NASA has unveiled its plans to source a lunar lander for the Artemis program, while Hubble celebrates its 30th anniversary.
My thanks to our sponsor this week:
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 Support, in a PDF:
The following instructions explain how to replace one or more feet on a PowerBook G4 (15-inch) computer.
No word on any wheels.
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.
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:
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.
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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.