Maccast 2015.05.16 - Show #525
Links
V Opening
V Opening Music
* Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
V Sponsor: Warby Parker
V Warby Parker
* Warby Parker was founded with a rebellious spirit and a lofty objective: to create boutique-quality, classically crafted eyewear at a revolutionary price point.
V They make buying glasses online easy and risk-free.
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V They have a large, but not overwhelming, selection of vintage-inspired designs with a contemporary twist.
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V Go to warbyparker.com/maccast to choose your 5, free Home Try On frames now!
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V News
V Apple expands forest protection to China
* Apple announced a multi-year project with World Wildlife Fund to significantly increase responsibly managed forests across China.
* Apple wants to protect as many as 1 million acres of working forests that provide fiber for pulp, paper and wood products.
* The project will include the planting of new trees and implementing new environmental standards to produce less pollution in paper-manufacturing.
V The program has the same kinds of goals, but is different than their recently announced forest programs in Maine and North Carolina.
* Their Apple will purchase, manage, and protect 36,000 acres of private forest land
* In China the WWF will work with local farm owners to develop sustainable methods for managing their land and Apple will be covering the costs of the program
V Apple also provided more details on its plans for a 40 megawatt solar-power project in China.
* They will build two 20-megawatt solar installations.
* Apple said the solar farm was designed to minimize their ecological impact and to protect the grasslands necessary for the yak population
* They will generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 61,000 Chinese homes.
* The energy output will be used to offset energy used by Apple’s corporate offices and Apple Retails Stores.
* Currently, 87 percent of Apple's operations around the world run on renewable energy. The company's goal is to boost that up to 100 percent
V Tim Cook used the timing of the announcement to also fire up his official Weibo account, the China equivalent of Twitter, where he posted about the initiative.
* He picked up 216,000+ followers the first day on his new account.
V Apple may be expanding manufacturing in Ireland, again.
V Apple currently has a factory in Cork, Ireland that is centered around Macs productions.
* In fact Apple uses it’s presence in Ireland to funnel it’s international revenues and take advantage favorable tax laws there.
* Apple isn’t the only company that does this and, while it’s all legal, The European Commission has been looking to make changes so soon companies will likely have to pay higher taxes in the region.
* Even still, that has not stopped Apple from expanding operation there and considering to expand more.
* Apple spent €300 million ($334.3 million) on an expansion just a year and a half ago, and also has leases in two downtown Cork office blocks
* Now, according to Independent.ie, Apple may want to build into a Cork County Council land bank which would almost double its factory space there. The report does also note though that Apple is also considering a smaller expansion.
* At this point it’s unclear what the additional factory space would be used for, but odds are it would be additional Mac production.
V iPad Pro rumors carry on
* Korea IT News reported that Apple has requested silver nanowire material samples from LG Display, Samsung Display, Japan Display and others.
V According to reports, Silver nanowire touch panels are more flexible than current touch technologies
* Created from a mesh of silver wires approximately one nanometer in diameter the material is incredibly thin and clear.
* Its conductivity also supposedly means that the displays may not need additional sensors to determine touch locations.
* It’s believed these properties might make it a better technology for ForceTouch especially in larger displays like the 12.9-inch display rumored to be coming in a iPad Pro.
V The silver nano wire is also apparently cheaper to manufacture because it doesn’t use rare materials like indium during manufacturing.
* Cut of Mac points out though that Apple plans to use a higher end and sturdier sapphire glass panel in the iPad Pro, so that cost savings would probably be wiped out.
* It’s also believed the Pro display might offer level of pressure sensitivity to appeal to digital artists, thought that may also be achieved via a Bluetooth stylus which has also been rumored around the iPad Pro.
* Other iPad Pro features include NFC (so it could be used as an Apple Pay terminal), USB-C port to replace the Lightning connector, and a four speaker design.
V Apple Watch deliveries still slow
* We’re well over month past the pre-orders of the Apple Watch and there are still folks with orders placed minutes after the Watch went on sale who don’t have their pre-orders.
* Just this week, finally some of the Stainless Steel Case with Link Bracelet models started arriving in customers hands.
V According to Apple’s Watch manufacturing partner Quanta at lest some of the delays occurred due to a worker shortage
* The company was responding to reports of poor yield rates of a smartwatch, "unlike the smartwatches it produced before" (never mentioning Apple or the Watch specifically).
* The company’s vice chairman stated that there weren't enough workers available during the Lunar New Year holidays, but that's no longer an issue.
* They said they had to "borrow" staff from other manufacturers to keep production running and as a result could only deliver limited quantities to customers.
* Hopefully if things get better quickly Apple may be able to start having inventory in-store.
* Some July estimated deliveries seem to be moving up into June.
V Apple Watch might be more waterproof than Apple lets on
* Blogger Ray Maker took the Apple Watch for a swim and it did fine.
* The fitness app couldn’t track it, but Maker did an intense 20-minute, 1000 meter swim in the pool and the Watch survived
* They also dove with the Watch. Twice off a 5 meter platform and once of a 10. Again it came through fine.
* Now with the Apple Watches IPX7 rating it’s actually not a surprise it survived these tests.
* What is surprising is Make then put the Watch in an eight minute waterproofing test in a chamber set to simulate a depths up to 40 meters and it survived again.
* Apple says the Watch is NOT waterproof, so if you do swim or dive with it you’re on your own.
V Apple Watch lock does not include activation lock, duh.
* iDownload Blog noted that while a passcode on your watch prevents a thief from getting your data or using your Apple Pay, it doesn’t prevent resetting or re-paring the watch.
V If you Force Touch on the Power Down screen you get the option to 'Erase All Content and Settings"
* After that it can be paired with a new device and set up.
* Of course the media took this and blew it WAY out of proportion. AGAIN.
* Could or should Apple do more? Maybe.
V Some Macbooks arriving dented
V Looks like an issue with the new redesigned European power supply popping up during shipping and then pressing into the bottom case.
* Getting a replacement might be tricky.
* Reports that retail employees are being told that “limited” quantities of the MacBook should now be available in “select” Apple Stores in the U.S., U.K, Canada, Australia, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy, China, Hong Kong, Spain, and Sweden around the week on May 25th.
V Mac Rumors noted that slowly high-end 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro shipping times have been slipping
* This can sometimes be a sign that a refresh is coming
* New Broadwell chips are supposed to arrive this summer, but not until July or August, so the shipping delays seem too soon.
* They are shipping some new desktop broad well chips and Apple can sometimes get first dibs on chips because they order so many, but it seems unlikely we’d get updated Macbook Pros during WWDC.
V Music app redesigned in iOS 8.4
* Apple release iOS 8.4 beta 3 to developers and it contains a redesigned Music app
* Shows pictures of artists in the Artists view and has a new MiniPlayer with a redesigned look for "Now Playing."
* Personalized playlists
* Global search
* New streamlined design for iTunes Radio
* The update has further fueled rumors that Apple plans to announce a new Music service at WWDC in June
* The streaming service will supposedly be integrated into the new Music App alongside iTunes Match and the redesigned iTunes Radio service.
V Will Apple’s new music service bring back Ping?
* Well maybe something like it, but only for Artists.
* The streaming services is expected to be called Apple Music
* Will reportedly have deep social networking integration for artists
* Artists will get their own pages within the service where they can post track samples, photos, videos, and concert updates and connect with fans.
* They will also apparently be able to share the content from other artists as a form of cross-promotion.
* Users of the service will be able to "like" and comment on posts using their iTunes accounts, but will not have their own profiles within the service.
* The "Artist Activity" will be an integrated part of the service. A reference in the 'Restrictions' setting in iOS 8.4 beta was a tip off to the new feature.
* Apple plans to make the feature and service work across iOS, Android, and Mac versions of "Apple Music".
* A lot of the playlist, curation, and organization features of Beats Music will be retained and users will be able to port over existing Beats Music cloud libraries to the new Apple Music service.
V Rumors of iPhone 6s begin
V KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had 11 next gen iPhone rumors to share with investors
* New 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones are expected to enter mass production in mid-to-late August
* No 4-inch model this year.
* Additional of ForceTouch technology to both the "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s Plus"
* An Apple A9 processor with 2GB of RAM
* 12-megapixel iSight Camera
* An added mic to improve voice quality
* A new rose gold color option, not real gold. Matched to rose gold Apple Watch though.
* Case design changes to avoid continuation of "bendgate"
* Possibly a sapphire glass option on the iPhone 6s Plus, if drop issues can be resolved
* Gesture control support.
* improved TouchID sensors
* Kuo also predicts that Apple will ship between 80-90 million iPhone 6s and 6s Plus units in 2015.
V HomeKit products arrive soon?
V Fortune reported that Apple had pushed back the launch date of HomeKit from a May-June target to late August or September.
* They claimed that making it easy to sign in and get your devices (door locks, light bulbs, et cetera) online has been much harder to do than Apple anticipated and that has caused the delay.
* The code apparently became too bloated requiring way too much memory for smaller, battery-powered devices.
* Apple quickly came out to shoot down the Fortune report saying that, "HomeKit [hardware certification] has been available for just a few months and we already have dozens of partners who have committed to bringing HomeKit accessories to market and we're looking forward to the first ones coming next month,".
V fIt’s now been almost a year since Apple announced HomeKit and we have yet to see a single HomeKit device in the market.
* I think they may have announce pre-maturely.
* Broadcom announced it’s new Internet of Things (IoT) SDK.
* The first to officially support HomeKit specs for WiFi and Bluetooth Smart accessories.
* It will allow developers to use Broadcom’s Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices (WICED) platform to build apps that support HomeKit devices.
* In addition devices that integrate the WICED module can be bridged to non-HomeKit device to allow then to be controlled by apps using the WICED SDK.
* They also announced a new version of their Bluetooth Smart chip that enabling twice the data rates over a Bluetooth Smart link and is future proofed for Bluetooth 5.0 specs.
V Apple Pay at Trader Joe's
* Trader Joe’s, a popular niche grocery store chain in the US, may soon be accepting Apple Pay
* Customers have noted the company recently up grading the payment terminals in many of their stores and some are even displaying the Apple Pay logo.
* Not clear if any are actually taking Apple Pay yet.
* AppleInsider tried to get an official statement but struck out.
* They did talk to two managers at California stores who said the company was s experimenting with touch-less payment solutions, including Apple's, but had not yet made a decision on formal support.
V Feedback, commentary, opinions
V Correction on Time Machine and externals
* OK, so I messed this one up.
* Last show I said that I thought that Time Machine would only backup your internal boot drive and not externals.
* Several of you wrote to point out that that was wrong.
* I tried searching for the answer before the show and nowhere, not even in Apple’s own support docs or Time Machine manual, could I find a mention that Time Machine would back up externals.
V Now, by default it will apparently exclude externals.
* This makes sense because if you try to backup everything to most external drives you’l likely run out of space
* Exception being if you have a RAID system like a Synology or a Drobo or something.
V System Preferences > Time Machine
* Click 'Options…' and remove the external volume from the 'exclusions' list.
* If you do that you may want to add back some specific folders from your external volumes just so it’s not backing up everything.
* Also, exclude other backups of the same thing. i.e. your cloned backups.
V Troubleshooting my Mac issues
* Discuss my week with networking, software, and OS issues and how I resolved some of them.
V Console and Activity Monitor
* In the Utilities folder
* Look through logs, specifically system logs, for clues
* Use the search filters to narrow things down.
* Cut and paste into Google.
* Using the 'Network' tab in Activity monitor
V The Window > Technical Call Info in Skype
* Look at send and receive packet loss, jitter, and relays
* Set up port forwarding to minimize release inside your network
* Also used Airport Utility
V Hardwired to Mad to rule out wi-fi issues
* Also try connect directly to the cable modem
* Speedtest.net (Chrome)
speedtest.net
V OS X 10.10.3 Google 2-Factor bug
* I had an issue where I suddenly couldn’t send outbound email from my Maccast GMail
* SMTP wasn’t authenticating?
* I had used the new Google 2-factor support when setting up email in OS X Yosemite, no problem.
* Once I removed the account in System Preferences > Internet Accounts and tried to re-add all I got was "An unknown error has occurred" and my account was added, but inactive.
* I even tried turning off and deleting my iCloud Keychain, etc.
* Found a 4-page Apple Discussion thread
discussions.apple.com
* Seems to be some issue with 2-factor added accounts that once removed can’t seem to be re-added.
* Google turned off some Deprecated APIs on April 20th, 2015, so it’s possible Apple has some older code that stopped working.
* The reports say that Apple is aware of the issues and might have a fix in the upcoming 10.10.4 release
* The only "fix" was to go back to the old app-specific passwords and then set the account up as an "Other…" type (not using the Google preset).
V Review: Apple Watch Stand S330
* Play review from Oliver
spigen.com
* They actually have a few cases and covers too that might be worth a look
* I like the look of their 'ThinFit', but they have a chunkier Rugged Armor that gives a G-Shock look. $14.99 and $24.99 respectively.
* The Rugged Armor might double as a stealth Anti-theft protection
V Leander Kahney has a tale of woe if you crack your Apple Watch display
* Basically they are so backordered that getting a replacement is tricky at this point.
* AppleCare+ fee is $69.00 and out of warranty replacements start at $229 for the Sport model, $329.00 for Stainless, and $2,800 for edition.
* AppleCare+ for the Watch costs $49. + $69.00 for your incident = $118.00
V A different take on the Apple Watch
* Read email from Geoff.
* I’m not sure whether you would want to risk putting a downer on an Apple product in your show. Having been only a listener for the last five years, when all new Apples on the tree were worthy of glowing reviews, I’ve not been able to hear if you would name a stinker as being such when it emerged. Maybe I’m being unfair in wondering if you would take a warty view of the Apple Watch (AW.)

Should you ever do so, here are my views as an ordinary bloke who is fortunate enough to be able to afford Apple products without denying himself other things:
1. As a recently retired, 64 year-old, I feel that the Watch would have been handy in my former job, but I now have no need for covert communications coming to me around the meeting table. I can happily refer to my phone.
2. I have never Twittered, or Facebooked - a demographic which will be lapping up the AW.
3. I don’t wear a watch unless at posh occasions with a suit.
4. Although I still have pretty good vision, I prefer to put on reading classes if doing anything extensive on my iPhone. I wonder whether I will be able to read stuff on the Watch without pulling my readers out? I haven’t heard anything on this yet, but it would negate any convenience of the Glance. (I know I could go to see one in the flesh to find out, but I don’t trust myself to not buy one as a toy, in spite of all my misgivings!)
5. Some of the bugs, or inconveniences that are being aired tell me that they would be too much of drain on me. Yup, as they say, retirement can be the busiest part of your life!
6. As an aging person, I WILL be interested in the direction the AW could go in the Health area, but it’s not been developed enough yet.
7. I’m slightly nervous of the Google Glass syndrome, in that an AW may denote me as a nerd on the streets. Sorry!

Don’t get me wrong, our house is armed with iPads, iPhones, Apple TVs, iPods, an Airport Extreme, a MacBook Pro 15” Retina and a big iMac recently converted to a 1Tb SSD (because of you - thanks!) but the AW is a step too far in that it offers me nothing essential yet. I just hope that I’m not a one man Groundhog that casts too long a shadow. I won’t blame you for not joining in, airing such thoughts (if you have them) but such an article would make a pleasant change from the multiple podcast-based fawning over the thing.

Clearly, all you guys in your business have bought them as part of their jobs and are having, “fun,” with them - but no podcast has sought views from outside of that nerd sanctum.
* First, I see nothing wrong with saying, "I think the Apple Watch is not for me". It certainly isn’t for everyone.
* I’m going to be bold though and say I think you’ve got pangs of Apple Watch desire undermining your email and may be looking to talk yourself out of embracing your inner geek.
V Does every piece of technology have to revolutionize our lives to have "value"?
* What about just having the intrinsic value of making us happy?
* We’re nerds we like this stuff. For some it’s cars, or expensive wine, or fancy foods.
* The Apple Watch (and other smartwatches for that matter) will change things for people in just a few small, but significant ways, and I think that’s good enough.
* Yes you don’t Facebook or Twitter, but what about getting a Digital Touch from a loved one letting then know they are thinking about you? Or maybe being able to take a phone call or get a text message when you stepped away from your phone for a minute? these are small moments that happen often and daily that the Apple Watch can help with.
* Could you do it with another device, maybe. But the Sci-fi nerdiness of doing it on my wrist now makes me smile and that’s worth it to me.
V Turning on iCloud Photo Library
* OK, so I finally took the leap and turned on iCloud Photo Library
* I had full multiple backups of my Photo Library before I began and I double checked that I could access those backup libraries.
* I did have to purchase the 200GB of iCloud Storage at $3.99/mo since my Photo’s library is 100GB
* I have set up my Macbook Pro as the "source" library and choose the 'Download Originals to this Mac' option for it.
* On my iPhone and iPad i’ve set up the 'Optimize on Device' option.
V I follow some of the advice of Maccast listener Rob
* Backup
* He cleared sync'd photos / events from his iOS devices first (I didn’t)
V Rob also moved his Photos 'Events' albums up a level and just made them standard albums.
* These are automatically created from the iPhoto Events when things get migrated
* Select them All
* Command+Click and you get an option to move them out of Events. You could also enable the sidebar and drag them out.
V Turn on iCloud Photo Library for Mac and wait
* Mine is taking forever. About 14,000 photos.
V There is a background process, a few actually, that will run in the background.
* Some say unfettered eating up bandwidth
* If you need to pause you can 'Pause for one day' in the Photo > Preferences > iCloud tab.
V Metadata issues?
* Rob said he has seen issues with images being copied back down to my iOS and Mac with the wrong image and location data.
* Looks like the trouble may be with photos that have the same underlying filename. /2010/IMG_0129.JPG and /2015/IMG_0129.JPG
* It appears that the upload to iCloud might be doing an export like function and possibly ignoring the folder structure which is causing the pointers
V Photos Moments are Events
* Probably the biggest concern I’m hearing from people as they transition from iPhoto to Photos is over the thing Laurin asked me about in this message.
* Play message from Laurin
* Events were just auto-groups of images that were taken in the same place on the same day.
V Moments does exactly that the only difference is that you can’t assign a moment a custom name like you could an event.
* Well and you also can’t merge moments.
V So if you want your Moment to be an Event you just need to create an album from it.
* After your import go into the 'Photos' tab and locate the moment.
* On the right ride above the set of photos are the Slideshow | Add | Share buttons. Click the "+" (add) button and choose 'Album'
* If you want to take the default name (location+Date like the old events) you can do that or set your own
* Under the 'Album' dropdown you could put it under the 'iPhoto Events' if you’d like.
* Click OK.
V Record video and export at 1080p on iPhone 6 Plus
* Richard said whenever he uploaded or exported his video from the Phone it came out as 720p
* If you import into Photos and then drag a video out it will be 720p ()
* If you choose the 'File' > 'Export' > 'Export Unmodified Original' option you get full quality original.
V If you want with any edits you made the choose 'File' > 'Export' > 'Export Video'
* Then in the Movie Quality you can choose 1080p. There is also a 4K option, but seemed to still generate a 1080p video (you need a special app to shoot 4K on the iPhone 6).
V Thing of the moment: iTunes Artwork Finder
* Need high quality Album Art for music, podcasts, books, TV Shows, Movies, basically anything in the Apple Store?
bendodson.com
* Get Apple’s artwork, including some high res on this site created by Ben Dodson
* Also can get screenshots and videos for Apps.
* Under the hood it simply uses Apple’s public iTunes Search API, but Ben’s done all the hard work for us making it totally easy to use.
iTunes Search API
V Closing
V Podcast Marketplace
V Thanks to my sponsors
* Smile
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V Gazelle
gazelle.com
* Gazelle. The fast and simple way to sell your used gadgets! Find out what your used iPhone, iPad and other Apple products are worth at Gazelle.com.
V Lynda.com
lynda.com/maccast
* lynda.com helps you learn and keep-up-to-date with your software, pick up brand-new skills, or explore new hobbies with their easy to follow video tutorials.
* Get a free trial by going to lynda.com/maccast
V Supporters
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V RadTech Giveaway
V They sent me a bunch of stuff to give away.
maccast.com/radtech
* Urban Armor Gear cases for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus
* ACpower and AutoPower adapters
* ScreenSaverz
* WaveJamr Bluetooth Wireless Audio Receiver
* Enter at maccast.com/radtech
* I’ll announce the winners in early June.
* RadTech has offered ALL Maccast listeners a discount of 20% on almost all their products. Use code 'MACCAST20' at checkout.
http://radtech.us
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