Appleviews – 30th September 2022
It’s that time already…
I’m in love with AirPods Pro 2 – it’s official.
Aside from that, another week, another dollar…or something like that. If they carry on passing this quickly, we’ll be serving the turkey before we know it!
It’s been, a busy, exciting and eventful week, and now, to round out September’s blogs, here is this week’s Appleviews.
That’s all folks
As the dust settled after the Far Out, September event, all of us had assumed that we’d be re-convening for at least one more event from Apple in October.
The breaking news, over the weekend, from Mark Gurman, was that he felt we had seen our last Apple keynote for the year.
In his Power On weekly newsletter, Gurman suggests that Apple doesn’t have enough products to release that would warrant a full-blown event. The product he feels are still on course for release in the remainder of 2022, include:
- M2 & M2 Pro Mac minis
- M2 Pro and M2 Max 14-inch & 16-inch MacBook Pros
- M2 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros
With none of these being a major re-work, but simply iterative developments, it would seem far more likely, that these devices could see launches via press releases, rather than a full-on event.
If that is the case, the biggest surprise would be no Apple Silicon Mac Pro this year, which had always been their plan. It now seems more realistic that will be seen for the first time next spring.
Fancy a job?
Tony Blevins, Apple’s VP of Procurement is leaving the company, after a pretty distasteful video, made its way to TikTok, and ended up going viral.
Blevins job had been to negotiate with suppliers, and was central to the deal with Globalstar, who will partner Apple in their new satellite feature. So tough was he known to be in his dealings, he had earned the nickname of the ‘Blevinator’.
Blevins, who has a fondness for the good-life, and fancy cars in particular, was spotted at a car event in Pebble Beech, California last month. Spotted in a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, a TikTok creator asked Blevins what he did for a living? Blevins reply was;
”I have rich cars, play golf and fondle big-breasted women, but I take weekends and major holidays off…I also have a hell of a dental plan.”
The company, clearly wanting to distance themselves from such remarks, removed Blevins from his team that directly reported to him, and since have confirmed he will be leaving the company as soon as practically possible.
When is a Plus not a Plus?
It appears that the iPhone 14 Plus, had a bit of an identity crisis!
The Dutch website iCreate has found some mentions of an ‘iPhone 14 Max’ on Apple’s website, just days before the phone’s launch. It looks very much as if Apple were intending on calling the lower-end 6.7-inch phone Max, before a last moment change of heart.
AirPod Pro update
I wrote a blog this week about just how fantastic the new AirPods Pro 2 are. There are loads of features I love about this latest pair of AirPods Pro, including the improved Automatic Noise Cancelling and the new ‘swipe’ volume controls now found on their stems.
One of the features that was highlighted at Apple’s keynote last month was ‘Adaptive Transparency’. The technology, which blocks out loud, explosive noises, will be making its way to the original AirPod Pro. Adaptive Transparency had been thought to only work with the latest H2 chip inside AirPods Pro 2.
But, in information found in an upcoming beta release of iOS 16.1, it looks very much as if you’ll now be able to use the new audio feature with your OG AirPods Pro.
Now…if they could only release a firmware update to give us a lossless audio CODEC too…these AirPods Pro 2 would be getting the perfect 10 from me!
A wider stage for Stage Manager
Much has been written about Apple’s latest attempt at bringing better multi-functionality to iPad.
Stage Manager, which was debuted at WWDC in June, has been beset with all kinds of user issues in the numerous beta seeds sent out, and it still remains unreleased to the public.
Stage Manager had originally only been intended for use with the latest iPads running the M1 chip. That meant anyone with an iPad Pro, bought just before the M1 chip was used, wouldn’t be able to take advantage of Stage Manager.
Well, in these caring days in which we live, where Apple listens to what the masses are shouting, they have now back-tracked, and this week announced that iPad Pros from 2018 will now be able to use this new feature. Apple explained more in this statement;
“We introduced Stage Manager as a whole new way to multitask with overlapping, resizable windows on both the iPad display and a separate external display, with the ability to run up to eight live apps on screen at once. Delivering this multi-display support is only possible with the full power of M1-based iPads. Customers with iPad Pro 3rd and 4th generation have expressed strong interest in being able to experience Stage Manager on their iPads. In response, our teams have worked hard to find a way to deliver a single-screen version for these systems, with support for up to four live apps on the iPad screen at once.”
Apple will also bring external display support for Stage Manager on M1 iPads later this year through a software update.
Hurricane Ian news
If you’ve been having trouble contacting family and friends after Hurricane Ian swept through Florida, there is a shaft of good news for you.
AT&T announced this week that users of other networks that are still down, can roam on their network until their own carriers are back up and running. The statement reads;
”We are working to help the people affected by Hurricane Ian in Florida. To assist in the recovery, we’re now welcoming other carriers’ customers to roam on our networks, so they can connect, even if their carrier’s service isn’t available after the storm. Once this roaming begins, customers will automatically be connected to our network.’
Tim’s been travelling
Tim Cook has been out and about this week. He found himself being awarded an Honorary Degree in Innovation and International Management from the Università Degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Naples.
After the award was given to Tim, there was a live-streamed chat session with some of the universities students. When questioned about Apple’s position on AR, Tim clearly became animated and said;
“I’m super excited about augmented reality. Because I think that we’ve had a great conversation here today, but if we could augment that with something from the virtual world, it would have arguably been even better.
So, I think that if you, and this will happen clearly not too long from now, if you look back at a point in time, you know, zoom out to the future and look back, you’ll wonder how you led your life without augmented reality.
Just like today, we wonder, how did people like me grow up without the internet. And so, I think it could be that profound, and it’s not going to be profound overnight…”
He clearly feels very passionate about an AR future, and may be in time, as we look back at Tim’s tenure as CEO of Apple, Augmented Reality may be his legacy, as the iPhone was for Jobs.
The travel bug is spreading
Not only has Tim been on his travels this week, but so have I!
Yup, on Wednesday I actually left the confines of my four walls and went on a 200-mile return trip to meet fellow writer & creator, Mark Ellis, of Mark Ellis Reviews.
During the summer, I reached out to Mark and asked if he’d have time to join me on my Minus Sixteen podcast. Originally, I had planned to record the session online…but then I got thinking…I floated the idea past Mark, about my driving to his studio to record the interview in person.
I had such a blast, and it proved to me, that the old ways are still the best. The sheer vibe and energy you pick up from sitting next to someone, really cannot be overstated. Undoubtedly, it was one of the best interviews I have run on the podcast. Full of insight, and a clue to what it is really like to run a successful, and growing content creation brand.
You’ll be able to catch that podcast on all the normal platforms, Saturday 15th October. This week, Casey Liss is my guest from the massively popular ATP podcast.
…now pass me those AirPods Pro 2…I just can’t get enough of them right now!
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Get in the vibe and listen along to today’s chosen soundtrack. I wrote this whilst listening to get in the vibe and listen along to today’s chosen soundtrack. I wrote this whilst listening tohttps://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-poet/1551256064
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