Maccast 2014.05.17 - Show #488

Links

Opening

Opening Music

Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles

Mandaandthemarbles.com

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News

More on Beats Acquisition Rumors

Some sources are claiming Apple might announce Dr. Dre (Andre Young) and Jimmy Iovine (eye-O-veen) as new Apple executives at WWDC

A leaked royalty report from a musician’s website seemed to show that last month Beats Music service only had 110,992 paid subscribers.

ReCode reported that the deal was still pending and might not happen until this week.

It's not clear what the source of the delay has been.

Even when done it’s expected that it will take a few months to finalize the acquisition

The reason Apple is after and would pay the reported 3.2 billion for the company is still puzzling.

Split-screen in iOS 8

Mark Gurman from 9to5 Mac says his sources are telling him that iOS 8 will bring a new split-screen multitasking feature to iPads

Allowing you to run two Apps side by side simultaneously.

Designed with the 9.7-inch iPad display in mind, and it is unclear if the feature will work on the smaller-screened iPad mini.

Work exclusively in landscape mode

Might be partly a pre-cursor of a feature that makes a lot of sense for larger screened iPad that have been rumored.

Latest has been that a 12-inch iPad has been delayed until at least early 2015

Mac Otakara is claiming iOS 8 will have high-definition audio playback features

Some think that might play into the Beats acquisition. Hardware, music, and software support?

iOS software currently is not capable of playing 24-bit tracks with a sample rate greater than 48 kHz.

iOS 8 will not be the massive update and redesign like iOS 7 was

Expect some nice refinements and new apps

Healthbook along with Apple’s wearable will be a big feature, but unlikely seen at WWDC

Better iCloud. please make it work and be easier for developers to use.

TextEdit and Preview apps (meh).

Transit directions back in Maps.

Speed and performance enhancements and UI refinements.

Folks who think Apple will have a staggered two gigantiphone launch I think are going to be disappointed (keep in mind I’ve been wrong a lot).

Many have been saying Apple has both a 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 in the works.

Earlier we heard the 4.7-inch would be here in the fall and the 5.5-inch model later in the year.

Then a crazy rumor that the 4.7-inch would get here in August with the 5.5-inch coming in September

Now there is a leak saying that Apple retail employees (in Germany) have restricted time off for the month of September.

usually a sign of a big product launch.

I still think Apple has plans for only one size iPhone this year and that will be the 4.7-inch model.

The screen size is rumored to be 1704x960 resolution

Maintains the 16:9 aspect ratio

1704x960 would be a 416ppi pixel density, well above the 300 ppi Apple requires for the "retina" designation.

Spec-wise that PPI would be low compared to Apple competitors, also falls short of a "true" 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution. (Stupid spec for a screen that small anyway).

3x resolution of the pixel width of the iPhone

Means that there is only a 50% upscaling for non-optimized apps to maintain compatibility.

We also got a new word on who might be the third supplier for the 4.7-inch display

Surprisingly it might be Taiwanese LCD manufacturer Innolux and not Sharp or Samsung

The rumor came out of the Taiwanese supply chain and, as Tim Cook warned, we need to be careful with supply chain rumors

But if true the theory is that Apple is leery about continuing to hand Samsung more of it’s business in the wake of all the lawsuits

Weak considering they (Samsung) still has the majority of Apple’s chip business

And that Sharp had quality issues during preliminary test runs of the new panels

Rumors of that 5.5-inch iPhone 6 seem to get stronger and stronger

I just hope that Apple pre-announces it so they don’t have angry and remorseful iPhone 4.7-inch buyers on their hands.

Apple can’t fix vanishing iMessages

Ex-Lifehacker editor Adam Pash recently switched from iOS to Android, but fond that TXT messages from his still iPhone owning friends were not showing up.

The iPhone owners would see the messages as successfully sent, but Adam never got them.

The issue? iOS was still seeing Adam’s number as registered with iMessage, so it was sending them as iMessages.

Adam claims that after an extensive support call with AppleCare that they said "a lot" of people are having this issue and they are unsure how to solve it.

This issue has actually been a problem for over two years.

remember stolen deactivated iPhones still getting iMessages after their owners replaced them?

Apple needs to fix this.

One thing I can think of that may work is to be sure to unlink the phone number on your iPhone in Messages before you move to another device.

On iOS Settings > Messages . Send & Receive and make sure to uncheck the phone number in the "You can be reached by iMessage at" section.

On Mac Messages > Preferences. Click on the 'Accounts' tab and select your iMessage account. Then uncheck the phone number.

Can also turn iMessage off on your devices

Settings > Messages

Toggle the iMessages setting to off.

On the Mac, uncheck the 'Enable this account' option in the account settings.

If you already got rid of your device and have a new non-iOS one try this:

Go to: https://supportprofile.apple.com/MySupportProfile.do

Click on "edit products"

Click on the "x" to the right of the product.

Click "unregister"

Apple Updates OS X, iTunes, and Podcasts

Mavericks OS X 10.9.3

Improves support for 4K displays on Apple's new Mac Pro

Allows users to sync contacts and calendars to iOS devices over USB.

Need iTunes 11.2.1 for this

Improves the reliability of VPN connections using IPsec

Resolves an issue that prevented Font Book from installing PostScript Type 1 fonts

Improves reliability of copying, editing and inspecting permissions of files on an SMB file server

Improves reliability of network home directories

Improves stability when installing configuration profiles

Improves login speed for users in Active Directory groups

Includes Safari 7.0.3

Also came with a nasty bug that effected some people

After the upgrade their /Users and /Users/Shared folders went missing

MacObserver realized that the bug seemed to be actually in iTunes 11.2 if you have Find My Mac turned on and not caused by OS X 10.9.3

There were several quick workarounds, but the bug would come back on reboot.

Luckily Apple quickly released and iTunes 11.2.1 update that resolves the problem

iTunes 11.2.1

Improvements to overall performance and stability

Improvements to Podcast browsing

Adds 'unplayed', 'feed', and 'saved' tabs

Feed lets you see all episodes in the feed and stream or download episodes individually.

Fixes an issue where iTunes may become unresponsive when updating Genius.

If you didn’t get the iTunes 11.2.1 update make sure you do to avoid the trouble mentioned earlier.

Podcasts 2.1

Resolves playback issues after syncing with iTunes and improves stability while downloading podcasts.

Adds Siri support, so now you can simply ask Siri to "Play Maccast (enhanced)"

Automatically delete episodes after they are played.

Save Episodes. Tap the "i" icon and tap 'Save Episode'

Added support for CarPlay

Pioneer has demoed Apple CarPlay integration with its NEX dash systems (4000-8000 models)

They will issue a CarPlay update for the systems sometime this summer

Share Podcast links via AirDrop

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Feedback, commentary, opinions

Chip and Pin, tap to pay, and NFC

TONs of feedback on this and the rest of the world is laughing at US for they antiquated use of swipe and sign

Lower fees, better convenience, higher security with the "swipeless" systems.

For lower amount transactions, like under US$25.00 you often don’t need the PIN (like no signature here)

PayPass is a common system (which we have in the US BTW).

One listener, in Australia, sent an image of a "sticker" that had the chip that could be attached to the back of your cell phone for payment.

So my point is why do we need it built into the phone itself?

Again, like another listener mentioned, it only makes sense if it just so happens that the wireless chips have support for the standard used by the NFC system already.

My fear is that different cards use different, and proprietary systems. If so why not just use a system that uses a wi-fi or bluetooth standard already built into our device.

Apple’s system could use iBeacons at the point of sale and let you pay using your credit card attached to iTunes already. You don’t need a card, chip, or NFC at all. Leave all the cards at home.

Mac OS X "Cubed"

Larry had the perfect solution to how to refer to the next edition of Mac OS X 10.10.

Mac OS X "cubed".

Drivers for Unsupported Printers

Listener Beans, pointed me to Apple Support article HT3669 which pretty much confirms what i thought last show. That vendors need to submit updated drivers to Apple for inclusion in Software Update, but Apple doesn’t have to write (and actually won’t) drivers for the manufacturers.

Apple Support - HT3669

The article has an updated and extensive list of supported printers.

They also recommend that if you have a printer not listed that you check the manufactures website (they have links for each manufacturer in the article)

They also say as a list resort that you might try the Generic PostScript or PCL Drivers provided by Apple.

Available from the "Print Using" pop-up menu when adding a printer.

It will only provide limited functionality, but some functionality is better than none.

Tweaking Safari’s Top Hits

Mike emailed me to ask about resetting Safari’s "Top Hits" list.

At first I guess I was confused and thought he was talking about the "Top Sites" (History > Show Top Sites)

This you can reset from Safari > Reset Safari…

Check the 'Reset Top Sites' option and click 'Reset'

What he was referring to was the 'Top Hits' section of the "Smart Search" field (URL bar) in Safari

It pops down suggestions as you type, like 'Top Hits', search results (based on your preferred search engine), Bookmarks and History, etc.

I believe this is populated simply from your browsing history, so to remove that data

History > Rest History…

Click 'OK'

You can also check the 'Reset Top Sites' option to clear those too from this dialog.

The thing is that even after clearing history you’ll still probably get some results in the 'top hits'.

I think the data comes in real time from your default search engine, if you have no browser history.

The Top Hit is also pre-loaded by Safari

You can disable that in the Preferences

Safari > Preferences

Click on the 'Privacy' tab

In the 'Smart Search Field' section check on 'Do not preload Top Hit in the background'

You also have an option to disable the search engine from providing suggestions.

Fixing iTunes Album Art

I received an email from Huw and he is having issues with the album and song artwork in iTunes going missing.

Using File > Get Info… and then clicking Cancel seems to fix it, but then the issues return.

Artwork has ALWAYS seemed to be finicky in iTunes.

I have come to the conclusion that most of the problems come between conflicts of your own added data vs. Apple generated data

If you do the File > Get Info… thing and add your own artwork it’s added to the file (I think).

If you choose the track, right+click, and choose 'Get Album Artwork…' the artwork is downloaded to ~/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork and then a reference is set up in the iTunes Metadata (again I believe)

Conflicts can arrive, so I believe it’s a one or the other proposition.

If you’re finicky about your Album Art I would avoid the Apple Downloaded artwork (don’t use 'Get Album Artwork…' ).

You can clear out the Apple data, but selecting a group of tracks or an album in iTunes, right+clicking, and choosing 'Clear Downloaded Artwork'

This will remove only downloaded artwork and leave any embedded in place.

After clearing the downloaded artwork you’ll want to embed your own.

Google image search, Albumart.org, and Album Art Exchange are good sources for images

For iTunes Retina devices Apple uses 1400 x 1400 pixel artwork which can be hard to come by.

If you use iTunes Match also note that downloaded tracks will have Apple’s downloaded artwork, so you’ll need to swap that out.

If you’re resetting things you’ll probably want to temporarily disable iTunes Match, clean up the artwork, then re-enable iTunes Match. Match is supposed to prefer your own metadata over Apple’s.

To add you’re own album art

1. Find the artwork you want. Select the artwork and copy it to the clipboard

2. Select the song or album in iTunes and choose File > Get Info… (Command+I)

3. Paste the artwork to the artwork field and click OK

4. You will see a "Processing" pop up window.

5. Close the Get Info window.

There are also a few apps that can help you find and apply album artwork

TuneUp, this will do both artist, song, title, etc. metadata and artwork

TuneUp

CoverScout, they also have SongGenie for other metadata

CoverScout

Closing