512 Pixels

It’s September, and the annual iPhone event is just around the corner.

There’s a lot known about the new phone’s hardware, but there are still a lot of questions concerning iOS 11 and how it will be adapted to the new device, not to mention Apple’s positioning of this and its siblings.

Rumors are also hot and heavy about an updated Apple Watch with LTE and a 4K Apple TV. Then there’s the HomePod and iMac Pro, products Apple has already said will ship “at the end of the year.”

For several years, Apple held two fall events. The iPhone took the stage in September, often with a smaller, related product, while everything else got pushed to a smaller event in October:¹

• September 2012: iPhone 5, iPod updates, iTunes 11, EarPods
• October 2012: 4th-gen iPad, iPad mini, 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, updated iMac
• September 2013: iPhone 5C and 5S
• October 2013: Mac Pro, iPad Air
• September 2014: iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple Watch, Apple Pay, this weird thing
• October 2014: iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, iMac with 5K Display, a sorta-updated Mac mini²

In September 2015, Apple held one massive event, unveiling the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and the 4th-generation Apple TV with Siri Remote.

Last September, we saw the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, AirPods, Apple Watch Series 2 and Super Mario Run. A month later, we saw the new MacBook Pros with the Touch Bar.

So, for the last five years, we’ve only seen one year with a single fall event. I think many people felt the September 2015 was far too long.

The question on the table is this: Will Apple hold two fall events this year?

It’s possible we see three new iPhones, an updated Apple TV and related content deals as well as a new Apple Watch next week. That’s a lot to cover, but I think it’s doable.

I think considering what would be in the October event is key here. I don’t think there’s enough to string together two events this year. Would the iPhone enjoy the September spotlight alone? Are updated Apple TV and revised Apple Watch enough to hold a second event? The Mac and iPad lines were all just updated, so I don’t expect any new hardware on those fronts.

This is all assuming neither the HomePod nor iMac Pro are going to be sprung on us early. I think both the HomePod and iMac Pro can be released via coordinated press coverage at the end of the year. It seems like the HomePod is going to miss the bulk of the holiday season, so there’s no reason to stir up demand any more than Apple already has.

My gut says we’ll see the inside of Steve Jobs Theatre just once this fall. I think that’s totally fine.

This week on Query, Ren and I talk about a bunch of stuff with silly names:

What’s up with PRAM, NVRAM and SMC? What about the APFS migration? It’s alphabet soup!

Tim Cook, in a letter obtained by MacRumors:

Earlier today, the Justice Department announced that President Trump will cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in six months if Congress does not act to make the program permanent.

I am deeply dismayed that 800,000 Americans – including more than 250 of our Apple coworkers – may soon find themselves cast out of the only country they’ve ever called home.

DACA recognizes that people who arrived in the United States as children should not be punished for being here illegally. It lets these Americans, who have successfully completed rigorous background investigations, go to school, earn a living, support their families, pay taxes and work toward achieving their dreams like the rest of us. They are called Dreamers, and regardless of where they were born, they deserve our respect as equals.

I’ve received several notes over the weekend from Dreamers within Apple. Some told me they came to the U.S. as young as two years old, while others recounted they don’t even remember a time they were not in this country.

Dreamers who work at Apple may have been born in Canada or Mexico, Kenya or Mongolia, but America is the only home they’ve ever known. They grew up in our cities and towns, and hold degrees from colleges across the country. They now work for Apple in 28 states.

They help customers in our retail stores. They engineer the products people love and they’re building Apple’s future as part of our R&D teams. They contribute to our company, our economy and our communities just as much as you and I do. Their dreams are our dreams.

I want to assure you that Apple will work with members of Congress from both parties to advocate for a legislative solution that provides permanent protections for all the Dreamers in our country.

Trump’s move on DACA is harmful and un-American. I’d like to hope that Congress will turn this around, but I have little faith in Paul Ryan and his minions.

Maybe this is how the new iPhone will work.

This week on Connected, everyone is back, and it’s a good thing, because there’s lots of news: Siri has moved in with Craig, Alexa and Cortana are hanging out and the Apple September event looms large on the horizon.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• Casper: Because everyone deserves a great night sleep. Get $50 off with the code ‘CONNECTED’
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As noted by Joe Rossignol, Apple’s sixth-generation iPod nano has been marked obsolete by the company.

The first five generations of iPod nanos were all remixes of the original iPod. They all had the same basic building blocks: a screen and a clickwheel.

Introduced in September 2010, sixth-generation Nano got rid of the latter, the very thing that made the iPod great. In its place, a 1.54-inch square touchscreen that showed off software that was reminiscent of iOS.

Around back, this new iPod nano had adopted the clip from the smaller iPod shuffle. The device dropped video playback support and the camera found on the previous model, as well as the built-in speaker.

Many — myself included — found the software difficult to use. It relied on swipes and taps, but in many places, those gestures were confusing.

There was one thing in the software, that when coupled with the square shape, proved too tempting for some users to ignore: watch faces.

Here’s your truly, back in April 2012:

The promise of the iPod nano as a watch is endless. Lots of people would love to see Apple integrate it with the iPhone, giving the nano a true “smart watch” level of usefulness.

As it stands today, though, the iPod nano makes you look like a secret agent, but one who can’t actually do anything all that cool. I’ll be going back to the Casio as my daily watch. At least it has a calculator, which the iPod nano lacks.

Wowzers.

Every September, I forgo running sponsorship on 512 Pixels and donate the month’s membership and YouTube revenue to highlight and raise money for a cause that is very close to my heart: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

It’s a month that is of vital importance to my family. As some of you may know, our oldest son was diagnosed in May 2009 with a malignant brain tumor. In the blink of an eye, we went from a young family with a seemingly-healthy six month old baby to a young family facing the reality that our son was gravely sick.

Today, that baby is in second grade. As I write this, he’s eating dinner with his two younger siblings. They just spent an afternoon running around the yard together.

That may just sound like another September afternoon to you, but to me, it’s nothing short of a miracle.

His particular type of brain cancer is rare in children, and almost unheard of in infants. To beat it — to save his life — would take the very best science and medicine had to offer. Thank God for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I mean, just read this mission statement:

The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay.

At St. Jude, Josiah battled through 18 rounds of chemotherapy, several operations, rehabilitative services and more. His cancer hasn’t grown since treatment ended, and the hope is that it simply never grows again. So far, that’s been the case. All of this care was provided for free thanks to supporters of St. Jude.

We’re thankful that we get many more days with our child than some of our friends have had with theirs. Childhood cancer is a fucking black eye on all of our humanity.

Josiah turns nine this fall. To honor his birthday, and the amazing care he has been given at St. Jude, my goal is to raise $9,000 this month for the hospital — a symbolic $1,000 for every year.

As normal, I’m using the St. Jude Marathon as a springboard for this, but with a new twist for 2017.

Last year, Josiah and his sister Allison took part of St. Jude Race Weekend, each completing the Kids Marathon.

In doing so, they took an active part in caring for their “St. Jude friends,” and spent time talking about and remembering those friends who didn’t win their fight against this terrible foe.

They are doing the Kids Marathon again this year, and I’d like to support them — and this amazing hospital — at the same time.

Donate today.

I filled in for Myke on this week’s Analog(ue) and spoke to Casey about Relay FM’s goals for 2018 and a new addition coming to the Liss family.

The Omni Group is legendary in the Apple ecosystem, and praise for this anniversary is well-deserved.

Zach Sutton, writing at the Lensrentals blog:

But with such excitement, came a treasure trove of warnings. Warnings that this event can easily damage your camera, your lens, and your eyes if you do not have the proper protection. With all of our rentals leading up to this event, we warned everyone to view the event with appropriate eyewear and to attach a solar filter to the end of their lenses to protect the lens elements and camera sensor.

You can probably see where this is going.

But despite our warnings, we still expected gear to come back damaged and destroyed. And as evidence to our past posts of broken gear being disassembled and repaired, we figured you’d all want to see some of the gear that we got back and hear what went wrong. But please keep in mind, this post is for your entertainment, and not to be critical of our fantastic customer base. Things happen, and that’s why we have a repair department. And furthermore, we found this to be far more exciting than we were disappointed.

This photo of the murdered aperture system in a 600mm lens is my favorite.

Ben Court got an inside look at Apple’s lab focused on measuring human performance during workouts:

Located on a side street in Cupertino—a few miles from Apple’s shiny new headquarters—the single-story building these Apple workers are entering looks like any anonymous suburban office block. Inside, once I clear security and get buzzed past a solid white door, I enter an invite-only secret exercise lab. On a recent morning, about 40 employees are sweating away on different contraptions—rowers, treadmills, cable machines—as 13 exercise physiologists and 29 nurses and medics monitor data. Many of the exercisers are hooked up to a metabolic cart and ECG and are wearing a $40,000 mask apparatus that analyzes their calorie burn, oxygen consumption, and VO2 max.

Down one hall there’s a studio for group fitness; behind another white door an endless pool; and over there, three chambers where temperatures can be set to mimic Arctic conditions (subfreezing) to Saharan heat (100°F-plus). At Apple every room has a name, and these climate-controlled chambers are called Higher, Faster, and Stronger.

Weather Atlas is a new iOS weather app from Contrast. On the surface, it may seem like the group’s previous offering, Perfect Weather, but that would do this new app an injustice.

Designed for a world of big phones, all the controls are at the bottom, not unlike Apple’s Maps app. The card interface floats above the radar, but can be flicked down, out of the way with a swipe. Beyond the radar, it includes hourly and 10-day forecasts, a set of Notification Center widgets and a customizable design that includes alternative app icons and in-app icons.

(It’s important to note that Weather Atlas is US-only, at least for now.)

The app is free to download, with a subscription of 50¢/mo or $4.99/yr. This “Pro” tier brings some of the customization mentioned above and disables the banner ad in the app. It’s crazy cheap for such a well-polished iOS app. I’m a big fan of this pricing, and the app overall. Go check it out.