Search Results for: iOS 15

Accessories, Apple, Tech

AirPods Pro will have Spatial Audio and Seamless Switching in iOS 14 update, coming this Fall

A greatly improved audio experience is about to get even better.. Apple announced during the first ever virtual WWDC 2020 event that there will be some significant updates to the AirPods and AirPods Pro that will further enhance the audio experience for the Apple headphone user. The iOS 14 update is expected to be available … Continue reading AirPods Pro will have Spatial Audio and Seamless Switching in iOS 14 update, coming this Fall →

Climate Solutions, Politics

150 year Epic Floods in Venice Foreshadow what’s in store for Coastal Cities as Sea Levels Rise

Floods are Seasonal in Venice, But they’re Not Normally Devastating Residents of the beautiful, canal-lined city of Venice, Italy usually take pride in their immediate access to the water. Even if every autumn the high tide comes in for flooding season, the wash-over is typically manageable enough for Venetians to cope with it and carry … Continue reading 150 year Epic Floods in Venice Foreshadow what’s in store for Coastal Cities as Sea Levels Rise →

Cutting Edge, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Tech

8-core MacBook Pro and iPod Touch with A10 chip Released to Coincide With iOS and macOS Upgrade Announcements at WWDC

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AHEAD OF WWDC, APPLE QUIETLY RELEASES TWO UPGRADED MACHINES

https://lynxotic.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Apple-WWDC.mov

Hiding behind the search for earth-shattering hardware improvements, the whole apple ecosystem, using a combination of incremental speed and power increases, coupled with major system software improvements, is the real emerging story to watch from this year’s WWDC

Before Mojave, the macOS version that began, in earnest, the process of integration with iOS apps and features, a simultaneous upgrade to iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 Catalina would have perhaps yielded a yawn.

With a new MacBook Pro featuring an 8-core, 9th generation chip, and a new iPod Touch with the Apple A10 processor and With a new Mac Pro likely to be announced this week, there appears to be a pattern emerging.

Read More: 2019 Was a Huge Year for Apple: Here are some Milestones that will Lead to the “Apple Decade” in the 2020s

With iMacs upgraded in March and the Mac mini already last October, it seems the entire Apple inventory will be refreshed by the end of 2019.

The one missing piece to the puzzle could be software. And, as if on cue, WWDC this week is expected to drop news on a variety of projects, but perhaps the best will be the two system software upgrades for iOS and macOS.

‘ONE MORE THING’ SYNDROME?

Doesn’t it seem, at times, as if the magic of hardware advances and even inventions of previously non-existent technology were expected to be a “given”? Suddenly, the absence of astoundingly new devices, created from thin air, is treated almost as a failure. 

Anyone who attended CES 2019 would have noticed that we are in an era of gradual, incremental change. Many decry the lack of “innovation” yet seem to miss where the real action is and, even more, where it likely will be. 

“The Future Might Be Sexier Than You Think”

– D.L.

Read More: Big Tech headed for a Storm of Changes once the Novel Coronavirus Fades from Center Stage

Based on the various updates alluded to above, Apple has set the stage for a year of incremental hardware improvements. 

The Mac Pro is expected to be a complete re-design, iPhones are always a mixed bag or upgraded with some new features. But what all of these share, is the dependence on, and ability to benefit from, improvements in system software and apps, both free from apple and at various cost from third parties. 

THERE’S A REASON SYSTEM IS IN ECOSYSTEM

Quietly, almost imperceptibly, macOS has been improving in leaps and bounds. Mojave was the first version of macOS where many long evolving technologies began to ripen. One need only look at the iCloud saga to see an example. Born as “Mobile Me” almost 20 years ago (!!) only with the Mojave / iOS 12 partnership did it really begin to show its potential.

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photos by Apple

Naturally, the more machines and devices connected to the same iCloud account the more useful it is. But, in a small business setting, with a few computers, iPhones, and iPads, it really begins to shine and becomes more useful with each (free) upgrade.

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photos by Apple

A few items from the list of functioning features already present in the Mojave / iOS 12 iCloud system:

  • Synchronized Desktop and iCloud folders, accessible also on iOS
  • Synchronized and shared notes with virtually any content
  • Synchronized photos and videos across all devices
  • Synchronized passwords and usernames when using Safari on any device
  • AirDrop also between devices and machines in or out of the account
  • Hand-off between nearby machines and devices
  • Various app Sync and hand off features: Apple News, Books, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Find Friends, and more

IS THAT ALL?

It’s not so much the length of the list but the way the depth of the functionality of each part of the software expands over time. Every function or app listed above was, admittedly, barely ready for prime-time when first released.

But, with each update, including the “minor” ones, the functionality increases and often new features are added. Sometimes one has to dig for them and other times they ‘just work’, only better.

The one caveat is that relatively ‘fast’ internet access on all devices at all times is mandatory. With overall improvements in connectivity coming with 5g, not to mention all the satellite systems being built, the triumvirate of hardware muscle, software sophistication and hi-speed networking will be the “one more thing” of the era to come.

Will it be sexy like the first photo-pinch on the first iPhone ? Perhaps not. But with layering software systems, S.a.a.S. for businesses and AI infusing more and more ‘everyday tasks’ (tasks that once required expansive hardware, software and a computer science degree) with a ‘wow’ factor as yet to be measured, the future might be sexier than you think.

HOW’S THAT FUTURE LOOKING AGAIN?

Apple is leading the way with serious simultaneous improvements in 2 of the 3 pillars of the golden triangle: more muscular hardware such as the new MacBook Pro and iPod Touch, shown here, and a new galaxy of capabilities that will grow out of iOS13 and macOS 10.15 Catalina, both announced and showcased this week at WWDC.

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Health and Diet, Lifestyle

Learning to Fly: Hurry up and Learn Meditation or be left Ungrounded: Books

Meditation is a proven way to improve mental and physical wellbeing: digital interruptions notwithstanding… Very few activities, free no less, have the power to improve our lives as much a a regular meditation schedule, adhered to with fidelity and regularity. And yet, with digital interruptions and background static rising and increasing in intensity, it seems … Continue reading Learning to Fly: Hurry up and Learn Meditation or be left Ungrounded: Books →

Apple, iOS 15, iPhone, iPhone 13 Pro, Mac, MacBook Pro, Tech, Videos

Oh. So. Pro.: Apple’s new slogan for iPhone 13 Pro is both Obvious and an Infinite Enigma

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Above: Photo Collage / Apple / Lynxotic

Simple, to the point, yes. But what is the point?

Why go pro? Well, anyone who uses an iPhone in a work or business context can clearly benefit from the power under the hood (A15), and the new, better ways to communicate (messages, FaceTime, email improvements, etc) and manage information exchanges (notes upgrade, photo searching, live text, etc.).

And, let’s be honest, who that uses an iPhone for business doesn’t always want the newest and best? And who actually does have the funds to pay the lofty prices? On the face of it the slogan and the superficial idea it proposes is a simple extension of the demographics of Apple’s customer base.

The motto iPhone 13 has received is just the newest in a venerable pantheon of slogans created for some of the most successful and forward thinking ad campaigns. There are even those that feel that steve jobs had even more talent for choosing a marketing strategy than for anything else. Starting with the now historic super bowl ad for the original mac, which to this day is heralded as one of the best one-minute commercials ever Apple has ever since been known as a cult-like company that took an unfamiliar product, at a time when desk-top computers were virtually non-existent and sold them as something that could magically bestow a better life, and even contribute to the building of a better world.

The ad told the story of the apple home computer as the next big thing, and cast the macintosh product line as a true hero that would stand up to a projected story of corporate tyranny, embodied in IMB, Apple’s rival at the time. This was potentially the first tv commercial to sell a corporate identity, the Apple story as a cultural story, rather than as the first low cost microcomputer system.

Based on George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984 the ground breaking ad had one of the most unusual business mottos as the closing credit; “On January 24th Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984.’ “

Though the commercial has been considered a huge success ever since, the rest of the story is that the general population was not quite ready for apple’s iconic game-changer at the time, and the high price of the first product version was, responsible for poor sales ultimately a commercial disaster.

Nevertheless, the technical revolution of the product, including the first graphic command interface, would eventually create millions of Apple fans, imbue the public with a sense of identification with the company as underdog, and the commercial would gain its rightful place as the best marketing tool of that era.

Decades later the legacy would be part of the road that Apple took to becoming a profitable company and eventually one of the world’s most powerful global enterprises.

The second, and possibly even more influential and best marketing campaigns would be ‘think different’ slogan, launched on August 8th, 1997.

This motto and the ad campaign that famously followed represented a whole new vision for not only how to promote the brand and increase sales without featuring a single Apple product, but also served to introduce apple fans to the idea of a different kind of change.

It signaled a new direction, both internally with the return of ad agency TBWA Chiat/Day after a ten year hiatus, but also making clear reference to the break from the downward trajectory that company had faced in the absence of Steve Jobs between 1985 and 1997, both leaving and returning on the same day, September 16.

This eternally iconic campaign with it’s clever yet engaging slogan, emphasized the concept of iconic misfits, and how they, as the “crazy ones” would embrace new ideas and change the world.

‘Think different’ ultimately became the most successful and famous tagline in the history of Apple. The text from one of the first commercials in the campaign had a brilliant script, read by Richard Dreyfuss;

“Here’s to the crazy ones,” Dreyfuss intoned. “The misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers — the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.”

Among the 17 great historical icons whose images were used in the first one minute ad, meant to link Apple innovation to the worlds all time great 20th century thinkers and doers, were; Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Martin Luther King, Bob Dylan, Amelia Earhart, Mahatma Gandhi, Maria Callas, Richard Branson, Muhammad Ali, Jim Henson (and Kermit the Frog), Ted Turner, Thomas Edison, Martha Graham, Frank Lloyd Wright and John Lennon (with Yoko Ono).

Subsequent to the launch other tv ads as well as print, posters and billboards featured a variety of these plus additional icons.

Here’s what Apple says about the A15 Bionic chip in the iPhone 13 Pro:

With 5-nanometer technology, A15 Bionic — the fastest chip in a smartphone — features a new 5-core GPU in the Pro lineup that brings the fastest graphics performance in any smartphone, up to 50 percent faster than the leading competition, ideal for video apps, high-performance gaming, and the slate of new camera features.

On the surface then, it’s all good, the three terse words evoke the natural and logical, it’s a simple, clever slogan that targets the upper “Pro” demographic with an expensive but really cool device.

Lurking beneath is a mountain of meaning that connects to decades of research and innovation at Apple

But, wait, all the new iPhone 13s, along with any that use iOS 15, share many of the same “Pro” features, and thus we must all adapt to the embarrassment of riches, on some level.

Many questions arise; with “Pro” cameras (3x +) and software that leverages advanced chips, the neural engine, machine learning to extend our senses further in multiple directions at once, is there more going on here than meets the (camera’s) eye?

neural

Here’s more from Apple about the A15 Bionic chip in the iPhone 13 Pro:

A faster Neural Engine in A15 Bionic, new ISP, and advancements in computational photography power the all-new camera features on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. Photographic Styles allows users to bring their personal photo preferences to every image while still benefitting from Apple’s multiframe image processing.

If we are all aspiring toward a Pro iPhone for our Pro digital lives are there trade-offs and lurking benefits that are not as obvious as better photos, videos and more digital eye candy? If we are all destined to be Pro then is Pro destined to be just “normal”?

The evolution from analog to digital to a pre-metaverse life

Work from Home has now been dubbed “Fully Distributed Workforce”, meaning work from anywhere. This is conceivable due to the accelerated transition to an economy where everything is digital, computerized and removed from atoms (other than robot assisted tasks like building Teslas, etc).

Less than total, but more and more pervasive, the lives we lead are not enhanced by our cyborg extensions (previously known as “smart phones”) but rather the life itself takes place in this soon to be enhanced alternate reality.

The new 6-core CPU with two new high-performance cores and four new high-efficiency cores, is up to 50 percent faster than the competition and handles demanding tasks smoothly and efficiently. A new 16-core Neural Engine capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second enables even faster machine learning computations for third-party app experiences, as well as features like Live Text in Camera with iOS 15. And major advancements to the next-generation ISP provide improved noise reduction and tone mapping.

Long before a video-game-like AR and VR metaverse emerges, we are already experiencing a large part of our waking hours, both for work and “leisure” through the portal of our devices and the internet.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/videos/iphone-13-pro-cinematic-mode/large_2x.mp4

In many ways, this is so obvious as to need no mention, and yet, what is a Pro life in this digital universe worth compared to a “non-Pro” version of the same life?

The new Apple silicon hardware / software and all eco-system transition – already long underway and projected to converge into an early stage Kurzweilian Singularity of Apple in around 2024, is what will determine the nature of existence for the rest of the decade.

With software, hardware, and now AI and machine learning, all having a continuous and presumably infinite upgrade cycle, isn’t that like a kind of eternal life, at least for our digital selves, if not for our biological baggage?

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/videos/iphone-13-pro-promotion/large_2x.mp4

Enter the iPhone 13 Pro; suddenly the experiences we wear as we take part in the fully distributed workforce sparkle and dazzle and become more effective and pleasurable to navigate.

The human link in the chain, absorbing, adapting, learning, digesting all these upgrades and improvements and how they change our work and play is a game of catch-up that will never end.

At this moment, the new “memories” feature in photos, combined with the new cameras in the iPhone 13 Pro Max are going to change how I view my immediate past (as reflected in the “memories” created by AI and machine learning forays into my ever growing photo library).

And that will make my ancient iPhone 5 photos seem as antiquated as a polaroid from 1984. And how will the current, insanely crisp, macos lensed food snaps look next to my “only great” iPhone 12 Pro portrait mode plates?

Not that these are weighty problems or even musings, but when your world is in the pre-metaverse of the Apple ecosystem in 2021, these thoughts do arise.

Are we all heading to a life where everything is Pro?

While, on the one hand, the goal of eternally enhanced digital communication is a very useful and important one, a possibly essential upgrade to our species just in time to prevent a climate apocalypse, on the other hand, how will the fully distributed workforce look once we are all Pro.

The transition from brink & mortar, skin, sinew and gray matter to a digitally enhanced cyborg communication center in our pocket is at a very early stage, to be sure.

At the same time things, including the relentless Apple upgrade cycle are going very, very fast, indeed.

If we are all destined to measure our contributions to work and society based on enlarged, enhanced communication capabilities, that enhancement will include what was once called “multi-media”. Hi resolution photos and videos, video calls with portrait mode, hell, feature films we shoot on the weekend, all the bells and whistles that once seems like a “hobby” for pleasure and in a rare case profit, all will now be central to our very existence.

Starting now, we are all Pro. The brightest and best will be more, they will be Oh. So. Pro.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/videos/photographic-styles-iphone-13-pro/large_2x.mp4

Apple @ Lynxotic:

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Apple, Apple Car, Apple Watch, iOS 15, M1 Max, macOS 12 Monterey, OS Software

Apple 2022 is looming larger than ever after a hyperactive 2021

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Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Apple

Lots of talk about the future is right on cue, but the next phase may lurch in an unexpected direction

Though always surrounded by haters and skeptics filed with F.U.D. – Apple escapes, along with Tesla, the level of derision reserved for Facebook (Meta!?@#), Google (Alphabet@?@!) and Amazon (Bezos?), for a simple obvious reason – Apple creates products; hardware, software and services that are not the reason for the criminal level of failure that is the Web2 business model, soon (ok, eventually) to be replaced by Web3.

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Buying an Apple product or service in the future, using Bitcoin, Ether, Shiba or what have you, will not be a problematic transition. And I suspect that Web3 and the metaverse, if and when they gain momentum will get more of that juice from Apple products and features than from the three companies featuring a clown-car user-as-a-victim business model mentioned above.

The next phase of integration between the innovations already evolving in the vast ecosystem, tracing back to Steve Jobs visions, will remove any doubt that the future needs more power to get where its going, and at this time, only Apple can provide that kind of propulsion.

It’s less about hit products and pleasing purchasers, though that is always in play, and more about a roadmap to a higher functionality.

Lynxotic on YouTube

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Hiding in Plain Site: the long game of endless iteration until ‘suddenly’ the future is here

With so many things that are dominating a public conversation of short-sighted voices and consensus herds, the biggest ‘breaking news’ stories in tech and innovation are, in reality, years, even decades in the making. Apple has literally dozens of these stories and the entire company is like one big moon-shot with Steve Jobs guiding us all toward the impossible, from above. Yet still seen as “boring”.

Mundane yet real and really amazing. How long was Apple silicon in development before it hit like a tsunami this year? Even “failure” is just a temporary setback if core principals are observed: iCloud, which started life as “mobile-me” is still imperfect and was nearly un-usable until 2019-2020, but is now beginning to bear fruit, hell, an orchard of fruit, as interconnected apps and app actions are updated and enhanced via cloud communication, machine learning and AI (a term Apple never uses since it carries with it Elon Musk’s famous warning label).

Look at the simplest and longest living apps, like “photos” – as with all other apps not anymore for iPhone or for mac, it is just photos everywhere. And the internal capabilities are growing while we sleep – incrementally in an almost scary way, more faces are being recognized and analyzed for search, objects and animals are not far behind.

Text is instantly read and cached for access not only in static photos but live. And these functions, and soon many more, can be accessed from other ecosystem apps, like, mail, messages, notes, contacts and so on.

Even with all the glitches there’s a clear path toward something…more.

Sometimes what sounds like nothing is a really big something, like the elephant looking for the blind men

Eventually the interactive multiplication of possible functions could be as mind bending as the percentage gains of the Shiba Inu coin (not the dog, sorry) in this year of insane crypto-awareness-expansion. And that is just and example, or a wild stab of an attempt to get to the heart of the insane growth curve.

While everyone is focused on circa. 2006 based concepts like a “killer app” or feature, the existing functions that we were all bored with in 2011 are coming-to like like a frankensteins monster of self animation, one that is ‘here to help’.

And it’s all just barely starting. The examples are so numerous that this would have to be a 500 page book to even begin to list them, however, and by the time page 423 would be written, it would be necessary to start at the beginning again, since everything would have already completely changed by then.

Tiny, minuscule case in point, but huge if you are a mac/ iPhone dual user (who isn’t?) – on the iPhone 13 Pro with iOS 15.2 (and soon on likely almost any iPhone with iOS15 updated to the current version) many of the web sites I have been trying to use for years (with Safari) but could not and had to switch to a laptop / desktop, such as for banking, business, media (WordPress and many others) are now unable to tell that I am on an iPhone (the request desktop site finally works on a critical mass of important sites) and landscape mode is becoming universal in more apps and functions.

watch now

Nothing works until everything does

Sounds like nothing? Try sitting in an airline seat and getting a text telling you that you need to do a bank transaction, or schedule a freight pickup, or publish a post on a professional app, and then imagine the stress of digging out your laptop or having to postpone that urgent task hours until landing? Or just grab the phone (in your pocket) and let it emulate your laptop until you are back on land, or until you feel like switching.

This may also all just seem like fan-boying, I know, and on a level it is. Perhaps getting let down by everything that Web2 promised, and facing a world of corrupt a-holes in-charge and little else across the vast tech landscape, makes even a touch of fairness and honest ingenuity turn nearly anyone into an over-night acolyte.

And reducing technical breakthroughs that we may all be depending on to solve doomsday-level extinction-threatening problems (and the 2022 edition of those is about to be revealed, stay tuned) to a commercial contest of bells & whistles is maddening to the nth degree.

We need optimism, a crazy dude like Elon Musk taking on Big Oil with S3XY electric cars, and Apple, hopefully, can join in that conversation. And all those upgrades are desperately needed. So if fan-boy energy is required, then so be it.

This year is the first year, ever, that upgrades feel like real, serious, upgrades. And the majority of them are “free”, with the only caveat being that they work waaaayyy better on the newest machine versions. Ok, yes, that’s a criticism and a “gotcha” from Apple, but the level of improvement or outright magical new functionality is so high it’s hard to beef on it.

It will take all of 2022 to absorb a fraction of the changes and upgrades that have already happened

And while that is going on an even bigger boatload of changes are in the pipeline. Not just the progress on nutzoid stuff like a self-driving Apple car with no steering wheel, or the rumored AR glasses with a mac level engine somehow hidden in the arms, but the repercussions of better faster machines with ever-evolving integration and interactive uses that push the whole digital content marketplace forward at an ever faster pace.

YouTube shorts (and of course TikTok) are already seeing million hit posts using cinematic mode aesthetics – oddly, since a pro-DSLR was capable for many years to enable this. It’s not the tech, it’s the ubiquity, the awareness that “cinematic” is a thing at all.

Who, outside of pro photographers, ever heard of a macro photograph or lens until every iPhone 13 pro owner had one in their pocket. And what of the fact that it might be used for do-it-yourself surgical evaluation (don’t try this at home!) and probably many other not yet known creative hacks?

https://lynxotic.com/iphone-13-pro-max-how-to-shoot-in-macro-mode-hint-steve-jobs-would-be-proud/

Since this article in it’s breathless adjective filled ranting, with only scant details, is clearly inadequate, please keep up with Lynxotic, Madison Santel, Wiley Simms and the whole gang as we try to get the facts, tips, tricks, hacks and inside dope out as fast as it changes (or as fast as we can, at least).

Check out Lynxotic on YouTube

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Apple, Apps, iOS 15, iPhone, iPhone 13 Pro, News, OS Software, Tech, Videos

Watch Video: How to add Covid-Vaccination Card to your Apple Wallet

Video

Finally: the whole package – and a convenient way to prove vaccination status

Now that the iOS 15.1 update is available for the general public featuring the ability to add your proof of vaccination status to the Health app and then create a vaccination ID card in Apple Wallet, it’s time to jump right in and make it happen

Many businesses, venues, restaurants, and more are requiring proof of vaccination for entry. For example California is the first state where proof of COVID vaccination or negative test is mandatory for indoor events over 1,000 people.

The new feature in iOS 15.1 is made possible by the support Smart Health Cards which are valid for California, Louisiana, New York, Virginia, Hawaii, and some Maryland counties, as do Walmart, Sam’s Club, and CVS Health.

Above: ID in iPhone Wallet

Therefore, using this system you would be able to to look up the information in state databases, if you are in any of the states listed above, but if you were vaccinated through at Walmart or CVS it will also be feasible retrieve your data from them to add your information to the Health and Wallet.

Once you have gone to the web site for your state, for example in California it would be found at https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov where you can type in personal information such as name and date of birth to get access to your records and status.

Though iOS 15 already had the ability to download the information to your Health app, and you could do that since the official launch of iOS 15, the last step, adding an ID to your wallet from the health app has not been possible until the new upgrade to iOS 15.1.

The record is locked to your name and can only be used by you. There will be a QR code that you will first download to your health app on the iPhone, then, once it is in the health app there will be a prompt to allow you to “add to wallet”. By clicking that link, a vaccination ID card, with the QR code will be generated and added to your wallet. See video above for more detailed, step-by-step explanation.

iOS 15.1 is available under > General > software update in your phone’s Settings app starting today.

  1. Tap the download link on your iPhone or iPod touch.
  2. Tap Add to Health to add the record to the Health app.
  3. Tap Done.

Once the ID is in the health app a button / prompt appears “add to wallet”.

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Apple, iOS 15, iPad, iPhone, iPhone 13 Pro, OS Software

Add Covid-Proof of Vaccination to your Apple Wallet App: a convenient way to prove status

Finally: the whole package – and a convenient way to prove vaccination status Now that the iOS 15.1 update is available for the general public featuring the ability to add your proof of vaccination status to the Health app and then create a vaccination ID card in Apple Wallet. Many businesses, venues, restaurants, and more … Continue reading Add Covid-Proof of Vaccination to your Apple Wallet App: a convenient way to prove status →

Apple, Apple Services, iOS 15, iPad, iPhone, Tech

This is iPhone 13Pro Max best new feature by far

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Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / J. Flavia / Unsplash

Ear related! 2nd best and more are also interesting

With so many new features on the iPhone 13 Pro models, and with so many of them made possible by iOS 15, the A15 bionic chip, the 16-core Neural Engine, which performs up to 15.8 trillion operations per second, and power features like Cinematic Mode and Smart HDR 4, machine learning and other hard to explain facets of the overall experiential upgrade, sound playback (and recording) are often barely mentioned, it seems.

Ever since there was the biggest Apple success story near the turn of the century there has been a special relationship between the fruit company and music / sound. I’m talking, of course, about the iPod.

Long before the iPhone was even a rumor, the iPod was a huge success, taking over the mp3 player market and, with the iTunes store for music downloads, launching the software and services division, for all practical purposes.

It’s hard to imagine now, but there was doubt that Apple could make it in the competitive cell phone market, with behemoths like Nokia and Blackberry so well established. It was the iPod’s success that made it seem plausible.

There was one thing that the iPod never had, however; speakers. And even the recent iPhones, with speakers for voice and music, if you didn’t use your AirPods for that, had speaker and sound quality that was not on the quality level of the larger iPads.

With a much larger area to hide speakers, the iPad was always an obvious choice for watching movies and listening “out loud” via the built in speaker system. With an iPad pro that could be pretty spectacular with a relatively full frequency spectrum and, more recently via software upgrades, spatial audio.

https://www.apple.com/105/media/us/iphone-13-pro/2021/404b23a8-f9c5-466c-b0e6-3d36705b959d/anim/chip/large.mp4

With iPhone 13 Pro models the audio barrier has finally been shattered

In a tiny, nearly forgotten passage at the very end of a list of new specs and enhancements in the iPhone 13 line, Apple adds one more thing; a stereo speaker at the top where the notch is located and a second stereo speaker at the bottom next to the Lightning port.

What it doesn’t mention is the improvement in the sound quality. Like so many features in the newer generation of devices and software, this unassuming, seemingly simple statement is just the tip of the iceberg and does not divulge what’s really going on.

Once more a combination of all the recent software and hardware upgrades combine to produce an experience that goes beyond what you could expect with these tiny, nearly invisible, speakers.

First, the two stereo speaker sets are, sound wise, equal in quality. So when you are watching a movie in landscape mode there is a distinct stereo effect. This is enhanced by spatial audio and dolby atmos depending on your set up.

The actual experience is noticeably “iPad like” and in some ways even goes beyond. Having the phone relatively near you, due to its size, and listening to a high quality movie score, there’s a feeling that your phone has morphed into a personal theater – as long as you can let the sound out into your local environment.

Try “SharePlay”, once it’s live in iOS 15.1, or just manually sync with your partner, assuming you each have a new iPhone 13 (!) and you will get a glorious room filling surround experience from the 4x stereo output (8 speakers?!) into the room.

And the mysterious mics also hidden in multiple places, are also a big upgrade – the seem to switch roles for video, calls etc and maximize the audio quality in live recording situations.

Apple’s software and service bundles and ambitions are driving hardware and iOS upgrades

As jubilant as this may sound, there is also an ulterior motive lurking. Some of the audio features work best (or at all) with an Apple Music subscription. And having more subscriptions, Apple TV, Apple News, Apple Music, iCloud Extra Storage, along connected devices, with so many available, it becomes an ecosystem of plenty for Apple, already the largest company by market cap.

On the optimistic side there’s always Apple One Premiere, the top of the line for bundled services (see below) and looking more and more like a steal at $29.95 per month.

Perhaps, one day not to far away, there will be a Apple One Premiere plan that also includes all Apple devices and you just trade them in every two years (every year?) or maybe you never own them at all?

The way the upgrades in hardware, software and the rest are becoming more interdependent and how crazy it already is to upgrade various devices (assuming you have more than one or two) yearly or bi-annually it’s an interesting idea to try and imagine.

And with an Apple Car perhaps on the way (self driving and outfitted with all the rest of the tech and service bundles) this could be a whole-house, whole-office (will there still be offices?) all transport bundle too. Apple haters will be in trouble, and have to move to Google Island, but otherwise, hey, why not?

Apple One Premiere example package:

Speakers after tear down by iFixit:

credit: iFixit

Audio Playback

Audio formats supported: AAC‑LC, HE‑AAC, HE‑AAC v2, Protected AAC, MP3, Linear PCM, Apple Lossless, FLAC, Dolby Digital (AC‑3), Dolby Digital Plus (E‑AC‑3), Dolby Atmos, and Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+)

Spatial audio playback

User‑configurable maximum volume limit

Video Playback

Video formats supported: HEVC, H.264, MPEG‑4 Part 2, and Motion JPEG

HDR with Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG

Up to 4K HDR AirPlay for mirroring, photos, and video out to Apple TV (2nd generation or later) or AirPlay 2–enabled smart TV

Video mirroring and video out support: Up to 1080p through Lightning Digital AV Adapter and Lightning to VGA Adapter (adapters sold separately)9

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Apple, Entertainment, iPhone, Tech

California Streaming: presumed iPhone 13 + event date revealed by Apple

Apple teased the announcement with a cool AR demo “Easter egg” Apple announced that on September 14 at 10am Pacific Time., it would hold the long speculated, much anticipated, highly awaited annual September product reveal event. Invites were sent out for its annual launch, which many believe is going to be the day the company … Continue reading California Streaming: presumed iPhone 13 + event date revealed by Apple →

Apple, Tech

Your Apple Wallet will now be able to include Driver’s License and State IDs

iOS 15 and WatchOS 8 to expand Features in your Digital Wallet for select states to start soon Back in June at the WWDC21, Apple announced it was working, along with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), on a new feature that will allow Apple users to replace things in our physical wallet like Driver’s Licenses/State Identification.  The … Continue reading Your Apple Wallet will now be able to include Driver’s License and State IDs →

Apple, Entertainment, iOS 15, iPhone, Tech

Apple Video showcases creative simplicity to capture incredible portraits using an iPhone 12

Video

Above:Photo / Apple / Mark Clennon

How to take an iPhone camera and make the most of it using taste and talent

Apple offers “Today at Apple” to inspire and educate iPhone users to help them learn and be creative with their devices. The online videos range from music to photography and are centered around Apple’s latest technologies.

This most recent video teaches users how to get the most out of the iPhone in portrait mode, but really using all to the various power features that are already in the iPhone 12 and even 11.

For example, 3 lenses allow ultra-wide, X1 and X2 (tele) shots at any time just by flipping between each preset. And once a group of photos exists, simple creative cropping and framing has a huge potential to bring out the most attractive and interesting features of each shot, and can be immediately saves as a separate image.

Of course, with such a high resolution image capture in the first place, cropping retains enough image-data that even an ultra-close crop can retain beautiful depth and detail.

Learning how to use all the tools, and most of all a photographer’s eye

The five minute video features self-taught New York City photographer Mark Clennon. In the clip he shows and explains how he sets up, shoots and edits his images, mainly in-camera (that is to say “in-iphone-camera”) to capture his most powerful portraits.

With iOS 15 (released in public beta) and soon with the iPhone 13 (or what the actual name turns out to be) both expected to be revealed in early September, the potential for portrait mode will be added also, potentially, to video in addition to photos and many other upgrades and improvements are on deck.

Free and extensive software upgrades, along with the not free and not inexpensive new hardware are a yearly ritual with Apple since the very first iPhone was released in 2007. Recently, with Apple Silicon and the gradual merging of the functionality to MacOS, iOS and iPad OS the upgrades seem to be in overdrive.

We have cataloged some of the more interesting changes in stand alone articles but still have more to come as this years upgrades and changes are particularly extensive.

This video is an example of how it’s possible to take even one feature, designed to assist in one form of photographic expression, and dig deeper into it with talent and intelligent use of experience and take the resulting images to a whole other level:

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Lifestyle, Music, Travel

Songs for your Road Trip Independence Day 2021

Video

Maybe we should call this the people’s playlist…

“America The Beautiful” broadcast from Washington DC on 4th of July. Nothing wrong with that. Perhaps this year in particular – with many reasons to remind ourselves of our rights under the constitution and while we consider the future of the nation, perhaps some historical classic and meaningful titles are in order. Some great songs from our hallowed past, many with a more thought provoking auditory emanation of the American Dream, and perhaps that reflect the real lives and loves of Americans.

This Land Is Your Land

The ultimate people’s anthem. Endlessly influential, from Bob Dylan to Springsteen all the way to the present day. Not to be forgotten. Ever.

The Star-Spangled Banner (Jimi Hendrix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKAwPA14Ni4

Misunderstood, yet insightful to the nth degree. Performed at Woodstock (50 year anniversary happening now) at the height of unrest during the Vietnam War. For many, perhaps the peak and final moments of the 60s. Has taken on mythic status and while the controversy has faded, the insight and bittersweet love for the country shines through, to this day. Hendrix was a veteran and knew exactly what “rockets red glare” really sounded and felt like.

Born In The USA

In the parade of the misunderstood “Born In The USA” may stand as the most misinterpreted song ever. Pride at being born in the USA? Absolutely. Look at the rest of the lyrics to get the more nuanced take on what it means.

America, West Side Story

What can you say? Classic all the way.

Living In America

Anything by James Brown is an American Treasure.

America The Beautiful (Ray Charles)

Ditto

A bit more from The Boss and some lesser known gems to round out the tour:

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Apple, Apple Services, iOS 15, iPad, iPhone, Mac, macOS 12 Monterey, OS Software, WWDC2021

New iPhone Separation Alerts will warn you if you’re about to lose your AirPods Pro

This is a feel-good story if it works and then it’s Hallelujah! Ok, other than to be a benign stalker or to monitor your girlfriends actual ETA, do you even use the Apple “Find My” network? Were you aware that it applies to people, devices and now “items” using air tags? And that you can … Continue reading New iPhone Separation Alerts will warn you if you’re about to lose your AirPods Pro →

Apple, iPad, iPhone, OS Software, Tech

Apple Announces WWDC21: iPhone, iPad and OS Updates Coming

As big a splash as last year? Predictions are affirmative Apple revealed its schedule for this year’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). To take place in an all online format on June 7th through 11th there will be a large audience due to the unlimited size of the venue (virtual) and, as was the case … Continue reading Apple Announces WWDC21: iPhone, iPad and OS Updates Coming →

AI

Hey ChatGPT, Be my Oracle, my Mirror, my Research Intern (!?)

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Books

Self-Improvement for the New Year: 9 Books to Spark the Inspiration to Improve

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Apple, iPad, iPhone, Mac, OS Software, Tech

The Vision of Steve Jobs for the Future of Apple has Barely Begun to Emerge

Apple’s innovation is not waning, it’s just getting started Often the simplest ideas are the most powerful, and sometimes, the most popular idea is just plain wrong. But it can take decades to realize which is the better path. Take the outdated and barely-still-remembered rivalry between Windows / PCs and Apple. Microsoft and Bill Gates … Continue reading The Vision of Steve Jobs for the Future of Apple has Barely Begun to Emerge →

Twitter

Elon Musk’s Real Reason for Buying Twitter is…

Revealed by Kyrstin Munson (ex-Tesla) According to her LinkedIn page Kyrstin Munson worked at Tesla for over 10 years. In her twitter feed she lays out her (obviously unauthorized) idea of the “real” reason Elon Musk bought Twitter. With all the political and random madness surrounding the short time since Musk took over the bird, … Continue reading Elon Musk’s Real Reason for Buying Twitter is… →

Books

Cruelty, pettiness and real estate: in Confidence Man, Maggie Haberman wields eye popping anecdotes to plumb the Trump phenomenon

By Matthew Ricketson, Deakin University Donald Trump has been colonising the world’s attention for years, via television, on social media and in books. Ironically, given Trump likes books about as much as he does germs, more than 100 books about him are listed on Wikipedia, ranging from biographies and exposés to paeans of praise (think … Continue reading Cruelty, pettiness and real estate: in Confidence Man, Maggie Haberman wields eye popping anecdotes to plumb the Trump phenomenon →

Apple, M1 Max, Mac, macOS 12 Monterey

Best thing about the new Mac Studio Display? It’s Optional with the Mac Studio Desktop…

Video

Apple is now in the business of giving it’s customers what they actually want, as has often been pointed out by my colleagues since the Apple March event earlier this week. The show, unveiled under the moniker “peek performance”, was highlighted by the unveiling of the new Apple Studio Display along with the Mac Studio (Desktop), in both M1 Max and M1 Ultra configurations.

Other new products announced were the new iPhone SE 3, iPad Air 5. The demise of the iMac 27” (2020) was also quietly acknowledged.

The very big news was the apple silicon powered desktop duo. Most remarkable is the pattern that seems to be emerging at Apple. Instead of forging ahead with features and formats that are either out of reach of the masses, or just not what we have most devoutly wished for, they appear to be in full-on genie-mode and are granting wishes at an industrial clip.

Suddenly, the much maligned slogan for the iPhone 13 Pro, Oh So Pro, does not seem ludicrous anymore. Armed with an Iphone 13 Pro Max, a MacBook Pro 16 and the new Mac Studio ensemble, anyone would identify with that somewhat haughty designation; your motto could truthfully be Oh. So. Pro.

The Mac Studio Desktop M1 Max and Studio Desktop M1 Ultra versions are a case in point.

The biggest wish fulfillment dream come true is that this machine can be configured at the low end as an amazingly affordable stand-alone workstation, which with the addition of a non-apple monitor (that you may already have, for example) puts you into a pro-performance class at under $2000.

This is nothing less than the holy grail of what many pro and semi-pro mac aficionados have been pining for for nearly decades. The entry level Mac Studio vs Mac Mini (with any monitor if on a budget), The Mac Studio vs iMac 27” (now discontinued as per above), Hell, even the The Mac Studio vs the MacBook Pro 16” with M1Max, these are all a huge win for the Studio Desktop if you factor in price and performance.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you have the cash, the full Mac Studio, including the Apple Studio Display is a Mac Pro killer in price and performance. Naturally there have already been rumors that the Mac Pro update is near at hand and even that a new monitor with similar features to the 32-inch Retina 6K Pro Display XDR ($6k) but at a price point well below that lofty sum.

By making the monitor optional this blows apart the tacit strategy that has been followed for decades – want the newest top performing machine ? Then you either buy an iMac Pro, the top of the line MacBook Pro (with integral screen costs) or win the lottery first to attain the cash for the Mac Pro / Pro Display XDR combo.

No more. At under Two Thousand smackers you can improvise a display which you compute your way to the cash needed to purchase the Apple Studio Display. Once you get there you will be able to luxuriate in the unbelievable sound system built in, featuring a three-microphone array as well as a six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio support. You’ll also get your screen debut using the 12mp integrated “web-cam” with Center Stage enhancement, all provided courtesy of the built-in A13 Bionic chip.

This not-so-subtle shift is also made evident by the plethora of ports and configuration options that make the system, how ever you choose to build it, very user friendly in terms of matching the budget to the tasks you plan to undertake with your prize.

The even bigger picture is the way that the entire product line from Apple is benefitting from the unique “whole-widget-strategy” first laid out by Steve Jobs. Since the introduction of Apple Silicon, first in iOS devices and now across the entire Apple ecosystem, there has been a massive acceleration of improved performance (peek performance indeed). Expect this trend to intensify as the migration continues alongside the eventual total integration of iOS and MacOS software.

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Apple, iPhone, iPhone 13 Pro

iPhone Subscription Service Could Launch This Year according to Gurman

Video
photo / Apple

Are Hardware Subscriptions a Bad idea? Perhaps, but it might be perfect for power users

There has been, over the last few years, a gradual push within Apple (and, god knows the world at large) for more subscriptions and more bundling of products across the entire ecosystem.

This is also, in my view, part of a larger planned convergence of all products and services into a giant Apple universe of products that ‘just work. The rumors are based on the new report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman where he claims to have knowledge of the matter and says he expects this concept to launch in late 2022 or early 2023.

There is already an iPhone upgrade program which allows you to pay as you go and get a new iPhone yearly, however this is no a true subscription model. A closer analog would be the Apple One bundle, an all-in-one subscription program for up to six apple services.

They include Apple Music, Apple TV +, Apple Arcade, iCloud+, Apple News +and Apple Fitness +. The monthly charge for Apple One ‘Premier’ which as it sound is the full package is only a little more than half of what the cost would be for the individual items.

And since an iCloud storage upgrade to 2 TB is included, the actual cost benefit is even higher for users that wold be upgrading to that level of iCloud storage anyway.

The fact is that many so called ‘power users’ upgrade often at full price and get a new Apple device yearly, or even buy multiple new devices at least every other year.

Good for Apple, of course, how about the rest of us?

While many industries and companies are working hard to make a transition to monthly subscription services that include hardware, for everything from web sites trying to re-imagine the auto-leasing program parameters in a way that is permanent with the ability to upgrade periodically, to a hardware subscription service like the software plus hardware bundle from Peloton Interactive inc.

Although this relentless drive to create a new subscription service for hardware products in addition to the already nearly ubiquitous presence of subscriptions in digital services, which is, generally, a set fee per month is standard for a plethora of software and web based products.

With Apple products becoming more integrated into the ecosystem of software, hardware and services that interact and even synergistically support each other, it only makes sense that this has the potential, again, to make the most sense for the most avid users of Apple hardware.

From the perspective of tech giants like Apple Inc., having a large percentage of recurring sales guaranteed through monthly payments, would enable the financing of the inevitable new yearly iterations of new versions of its major devices, and could be seen as a new way, perhaps a better way, to capitalize for the research and development those many new hardware deices require.

Having long since committed to a schedule that guarantees new models for nearly all it’s hardware every year, which often include a reduction in the price of the device, free upgrades (mostly for software), a hardware subscription program such as the one we could imagine (based on the Apple One example above but for hardware) would be a hot topic, if not Apple’s biggest push internally.

A hardware subscription bundle, by any other name…

Naturally there are many ways this could play out. How the cost of an iPhone (based on a one to two year upgrade cycle) would jive with the cost of the phone divided by twelve or even twenty four is one possible configuration.

There’s also the question of current installment plans and how they would be handled for presumed upgraders, if various perks such as fresh hardware, free Apple Care, the freedom to move to the iPhone of their choice, all, however, with lack of true device ownership. Or perhaps even the merger of Apple One services such as the Apple Music Subscription into a huge ‘bundle of bundles’.

Bottom line? Make it juicy and they will come…

Of course, those like myself (and maybe you?) who might be potential users of the program are waiting to hear… drumroll please…. a specific price, a date, either this year or next year, and the hardware lineup included.

Would this be just iPhone or also iPad or Apple Watch, even Mac? Or a truly massive new program that would be the biggest of all monthly installment programs in the world today, and would include everything from fitness content, to a menu of hardware and software, to a magical calculation of your Apple Worth Rank that would allow you to get more devices, software and services the higher that the cost of devices would be.

And all of the above, or whatever actually comes to pass, divided by a second magic number between 12-18 and then calculated to be a little more than half (oh Apple is so clever at this) of the full original prices and then charged to Apple Card users at a slight discount and the rest of us on a normal monthly basis.

If your head is spinning but you are still reading this, you might actually be one of the few that would embrace the upcoming service and would be happier with a determined monthly fee for the plethora of Apple products that you know you will consume anyway for the rest of your life.

By the same token, if you are insanely upset at even the notion, let us know in comments below.

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