512 Pixels

Really excited to share video of our recent Family Feud live show in San Francisco:

This was a lot of fun.

Goodbye, iTunes for Windows?

Big week on the show:

Myke, Federico and Stephen complete their annual tradition of making predictions before Apple’s iPhone event, this time with a new name: The Rickies.

It’s a wild one.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code CONNECTED at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
• Away: Thoughtful luggage for modern travel. Get $20 off a suitcase with promo code connected.
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Our friends and family have run the annual St. Jude Marathon for a full decade as “Team GoJGo” in support of our son. This year, we’re marking ten years of hope and healing for not only our son, but so many other kids at St. Jude. Join us in support of this amazing hospital. With thanks from our friend Shannon and the folks at Cotton Bureau, we have brand new artwork for the team, with t-shirts, hoodies and a tank-top for sale to the public, not just our runners:

All profits are being donated directly to St. Jude, which never bills the families of patients for the care they receive.

Apple Support:

Here is a list of the themes included with the various versions of iDVD.

Note that themes from older versions of iDVD may still be installed if you update to a newer version.

The first time I burned a movie with iDVD, it felt like magic.

This week on Mac Power Users, David and I chatted with Jake Wilson, an elementary school principal — and a student himself — about using technology in and beyond the classroom, ranging from smart boards and shortcuts to Google Docs and waffles.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• 1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? You don’t have to worry about that anymore.
• The Omni Group: We’re passionate about productivity for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
• Linode: High performance SSD Linux servers for all of your infrastructure needs. Get a $20 credit.
• Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and once again this year, I am raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which treats patients without charging their families a dime.

Treatments invented by St. Jude have helped push the overall cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80%. My 10-year-old son is a survivor of brain cancer, thanks to the hard work of the men and women at St. Jude. Josiah is in 4th grade this year, and leads a joyous life. He loves music, playing with babies and spending time on our big tree swing. He is a true blessing to everyone who gets to meet him, and cancer cannot keep him down.

This year, I am excited to announce that Relay FM is an official fundraising partner of St. Jude. As such, we have a super swanky fundraising page that I would love for you to go check out.

Last year, thanks to your generosity, we raised a little over $69,000 for the kids of St. Jude. This year, we’re hoping to blast through our $75,000 goal. To help make that possible, Myke Hurley and I will be co-hosting a live 6-hour video podcast on Friday, September 20, from 4-10 PM Eastern. Be on the look out for more information on that in the coming weeks.

Throughout the month of September, you will hear more about the work of St. Jude across a bunch of Relay FM podcasts¹ and other nerdy publications. Each September, I am blown away by the compassion found in our community, so please know that my family — and countless others at St. Jude — cannot express our thanks enough.

No child should die in the dawn of life, at St. Jude is inching towards that reality each and every day, thanks to people like me and you.

Speaking of Rene Ritchie, I kind of hate how clever this idea for a video is:

This morning, Apple announced the Independent Repair Provider Program:

Apple today announced a new repair program, offering customers additional options for the most common out-of-warranty iPhone repairs. Apple will provide more independent repair businesses — large or small — with the same genuine parts, tools, training, repair manuals and diagnostics as its Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs). The program is launching in the US with plans to expand to other countries.

“To better meet our customers’ needs, we’re making it easier for independent providers across the US to tap into the same resources as our Apple Authorized Service Provider network,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “When a repair is needed, a customer should have confidence the repair is done right. We believe the safest and most reliable repair is one handled by a trained technician using genuine parts that have been properly engineered and rigorously tested.”

This new support page has more info:

The Independent Repair Provider program is designed for companies interested in offering out-of-warranty repair service for iPhones. Qualifying companies can gain access to Apple genuine parts, tools, training, service guides, diagnostics and resources to perform a variety out-of-warranty iPhone repairs, such as iPhone display and battery replacements.

As you may imagine, Rene Ritchie has posted a good explainer of the pros and cons of the new program:

I for one think this is a good move. Many, many people live in parts of the country without Apple Stores or AASPs, and having access to genuine Apple parts — and trained installers — is important as iPhones become more and more complex. The “Right to Repair” folks make good points, but Apple isn’t going to play ball with the idea that everyday people should be able to replace components inside their iPhones. In that reality, this may be as good as it gets for a while.

This is why you always download everything.

Aleen Simms has created a guide for developers about to launch an app:

When I started working with independent Mac and iOS developers in 2014 we navigated the maze of preparing for app launches the hard way: digging into the depths of the Internet for guidance, asking other app developers for their lessons learned, and even rushing to fix things after a rejection by Apple. The Field Guide is the product of all of that knowledge, broken up into small, easy-to-understand lessons.

The best part? You can take all the time you would have spent searching the web and fretting over what you might have missed and spend it working on your app instead.

I’m not a developer, but I’ve read through this and it’s great. Go check it out.

This week, on a much calmer episode of Connected:

Federico’s back just in time for Apple to release the first beta of iOS 13.1 He, Stephen and Myke get into what this could mean for Apple’s upcoming busy season before discussing the changes Apple has made to its Siri grading program.

Remember when August used to be slow for tech news?

My thanks to our sponsors this week:

• eero: Get your WiFi fixed as soon as tomorrow! Free overnight shipping.
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• DoorDash: Dinner from your favorite restaurant delivered to your door. Get $5 off your first order.