512 Pixels

Chance Miller has more over at 9to5Mac:

Earlier this week, Apple released iOS 17.5.1 to address a rare problem where deleted photos would reappear on a user’s device after installing iOS 17.5. In the release notes, Apple said this was caused by “database corruption.” The company has now confirmed a few additional details to 9to5Mac to further clarify the situation.

One question many people had is how images from dates as far back as 2010 resurfaced because of this problem. After all, most people aren’t still using the same devices now as they were in 2010. Apple confirmed to me that iCloud Photos is not to be blamed for this. Instead, it all boils to the corrupt database entry that existed on the device’s file system itself.

According to Apple, the photos that did not fully delete from a user’s device were not synced to iCloud Photos. Those files were only on the device itself. However, the files could have persisted from one device to another when restoring from a backup, performing a device-to-device transfer, or when restoring from an iCloud Backup but not using iCloud Photos.

Miller goes on:

In a now-deleted post, a Reddit user last week alleged that their photos reappeared on an iPad they sold to a friend, despite them having erased the content of that iPad prior to selling it. Apple tells me that this claim was false.

That report smelled fishy to me from the start, and I’m glad it turned out to be untrue. Now the company should address the recent issue with folks having their Apple IDs locked.

This week on the podcast:

Stephen has a new username, Myke has a new iPad, Sonos has new headphones, Federico has a new MacPad screen, OpenAI has new drama, and Microsoft has a new vision for the PC.

Filipe Espósito, writing at 9to5 Mac:

Back in 2020, Apple offered selected developers a custom DTK Mac mini with the A12Z Bionic chip inside, so that they could develop apps for the Apple Silicon platform. After the official launch of the M1 Macs, developers had to return their DTK Mac mini to Apple, which scrapped the machines. But one of these scrapped DTKs was successfully restored.

The video is almost an hour long, but goes into great details about this curious little machine:

Now I want two developer transition kits in my collection.

On Mastodon, @bullware sent me something amazing.

This is a concept put together by Terauma on the LEGO Ideas website, which collects projects designed by the community for voting. Some of these projects become reality, with the designer earning royalties. You know I voted before I even published this post.

Mario Guzman is back, with yet another nostalgia-powered music player for macOS:

Control Apple Music with this simplified controller that has the look and feel of QuickTime 7 and Mac OS X “Tiger”.

JUST LOOK AT THIS THING:

This update fixes a horrific bug that was reported late last week:

This update provides important bug fixes and addresses a rare issue where photos that experienced database corruption could reappear in the Photos library even if they were deleted.

Tim Hardwick wrote about the bug over at MacRumors, which first popped up on Reddit:

After updating their iPhone, one user said they were shocked to find old NSFW photos that they deleted in 2021 suddenly showing up in photos marked as recently uploaded to iCloud. Other users have also chimed in with similar stories. “Same here,” said one Redditor. “I have four pics from 2010 that keep reappearing as the latest pics uploaded to iCloud. I have deleted them repeatedly.”

“Same thing happened to me,” replied another user. “Six photos from different times, all I have deleted. Some I had deleted in 2023.” More reports have been trickling in overnight. One said: “I had a random photo from a concert taken on my Canon camera reappear in my phone library, and it showed up as if it was added today.”

I hope that this was a ten-alarm fire at Apple over the weekend. I suspect it was.

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John Buck published a book covering the “Apple Technology Group,” a division within Apple that operated back in the 1980s and 1990s and experimented with many forward-looking bits of technology that we take for granted today.

On this week’s MPU, David and I spoke to John about the book and some of the amazing history that took place within this group.

This story by Cabel Sasser is just wild.

This week on Connected:

With Myke on vacation, Stephen and Federico discuss what’s going on with iPadOS, then cover the news from Google I/O and OpenAI’s recent event.

This is from a lovely blog post by David Smith:

This last year has been a complicated one as an indie app developer. I’ve been in this community for long enough to know that there are always ebbs and flows in sentiment, and this year has lots of reasons to be feeling the ebb side of things. From new policies which introduced tremendous uncertainty and undermine our importance to the ecosystem, to challenging platform launches…there’s a lot to feel conflicted about this year.

But as I wandered through the woods somewhat surprisingly my feelings kept coming back to how excited and eager I was to once again head to Cupertino. I’ve learned that whenever I’m surprised by a feeling, it is a good idea to interrogate it because it’s an opportunity to learn something about myself.

What I came to realize was that the reason I was excited about WWDC had very little to do with the actual announcements themselves, but instead it was all about the people I’ll get to spend the week connecting with.

Separating the Apple community from the company is something that feels more important than ever, and something I hadn’t thought about super clearly before reading this.

MacRumors, on Threads, just four days ago:

Apple’s thinnest device ever.
#ipadpro #bendgate

Tim Hardwick, writing on MacRumors today:

Despite videos indicating that the 2018 iPad Pro models bent more easily than other models, Apple said the bend did not worsen over time or negatively affect the iPad’s performance, and that concerns over the device’s durability were unfounded.

Nevertheless, some iPad owners were understandably upset to find defects in devices that cost hundreds of dollars. Apple naturally wants to avoid a similar scenario with its latest 2024 models.

To allay concerns, in an interview with Arun Maini, Apple’s senior VP of hardware engineering John Ternus reveals that Apple has added a new protective “cowling” over the main logic board. This metal cover not only helps with heat dissipation, but also “effectively creates a central rib that runs through the whole thing and tremendously improves the stiffness of the products,” according to Ternus.

And:

If early reviews are anything to go by, a handful of outlets have noted that the devices do feel particularly durable despite their impressive thinness. Do you have lingering doubts? Let us know in the comments. Pricing on the M4 iPad Pro begins at $999, and it can be purchased from Apple’s website.