One user said they were told by Apple it should have never been possible and must have been a bug.
Now streaming multiple streams to multiple devices will require upgrading to a "Family" plan which allows fro up to six simultaneous streams.
I have a family plan, so I wasn't able to confirm these "changes".
Apparently if you now have a stream playing on your iPhone and then activate a stream on the HomePod the iPhone stream will be stopped.
Some also report getting a popup telling you that you could continue the multiple streams by upgrading to a family plan.
I did check Apple's Apple Music terms of service and it clearly states:
"An Individual Apple Music membership allows you to stream on a single device at a time; a Family membership allows you or your Family members to stream on up to six devices at a time."
Apple pushes owner for iPhone upgrades
Apple has definitely kicked the marketing in to overdrive in attempt to convince you owners of older devices to upgrade
We're seeing and hearing about personalized emails with trade in offers with values for your specific old device along with direct spec comparisons to iPhone XR upgrades.
Part of the "problem" for Apple with customer upgrades this year was their $29 battery replacement program
John Gruber reported on an Apple all-hands on meeting January 3, where Tim Cook said Apple replaced 11 million batteries under the $29 replacement program.
That's five to ten times the normal volume of battery replacements.
We continue to hear reports about Apple supplier forecast cuts in light of declining iPhone sales especially in China.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), who supplies the bulk of A-Series chips for Apple, is expecting a 22 percent drop in revenue for the January to March quarter
Nidec who supplies Apple's Taptic Engine vibration motor is expecting a 25 percent drop in profits for the year.
Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn is let go 50,000 seasonal workers much earlier then they typically would in years past.
It's a bit bold to assume all of this is just Apple, though they likely are a big factor.
Surprisingly this weekend the "discontinued" iPhone SE resurfaced on Apple's website in the US
The move seems to be an attempt to liquidate remaining inventory.
The units were in the "Clearance" section and priced at $249 USD for a 32GB model.
And it went fast because as of this recording they appear to be gone.
Apple does still sell the SE in India.
New iPod Touch with USB-C?
Taking this all with a grain of salt because the source is "supply chain", but Macotakara says an updated iPod Touch is in the works.
They also claim this years iPhone's will have USB-C instead of Lightning like this years iPad Pros (don't think this is a stretch).
They don't offer any details as to the specs of an updated iPod nor offer anything about the design
Last updated in 2015
I would hope we would see updated to at least A10 (uses A8)
Add TrueDepth camera system and FaceID? Probably not likely in a low cost device but maybe?
Change storage to 64GB and 256GB while keeping $199 USD and $299 USD prices respectively.
As the piece points out the iPod Touch is still a good entry point product for customers and could be more important then ever as Apple transitions to place more revenue focus on their services. Especially their upcoming video streaming service.
Second iPhone 11 prototype surfaces
From a blog called CompareRaja based on info from OnLeaks
Shows an interesting centered rear camera bump, still with three lenses. Looks MUCH better then the "Ritz Camera" bump.
Center lens has a flash "ring"
The report claims, a 10MP and 14MP sensor on two of the cameras, Third resolution is unknown.
They also say the devices has a reduced "notch" and a 10MP TrueDepth camera.
This prototype reportedly still has a lightning connector.
iPhone XR will get better cellular connectivity with a updated LTE 4×4 MIMO antenna.
More on iPad updates
We continue to hear rumors from sources fro planned iPad updates in the first half of 2019
Looks like Apple will update both the iPad mini and the "entry level" iPad 9.7-inch models.
Not a lot of details are being thrown around at this point beyond updated processors.
Ming Chi-Kuo has said the iPad mini would have a cheaper display panel
One Chinese report mentioned the 9.7-inch model replaced by a 10-inch model that would presumably take design queues from the iPad Pro.
Might be odd though because not sure at the entry price point Apple would update to TrueDepth camera and FaceID
The Apple "Power Glove"
I don't discuss Apple patents too much because there are a ton of them and most don't become products
This week one surfaced for "Fabric-based devices with force sensing". It's interesting to me because I think we are moving to a computing future where a lot more computing will happen without traditional inputs (like mice and keyboards, or even touchscreens)
This patent describes a glove or other wearable that would have force sensing circuitry. This would allow the clothing to detect forces and trigger commands when touching a surface for grabbing an object for example.
Sensors in gloves could be used for typing on surface or initiating gestures. Combined with say an AR display this could get really interesting.
The ability to trigger action when interacting with both physical or virtual objects.
Intel wants Srouji back
Apple has a killer chip design team creating amazing processors like the A-Series and integrated processors like the W1, T2, etc.
Those chip teams have been guided by Senior Vice President of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji
Apple chip partner on the Mac, Intel lost their CEO about seven moths ago when he resigned. They are looking for a replacement and this week Axios claims Apple's Suroji is on their list.
We don't know if Intel has even reached out to Srouji and even if they have if he'd even be interested.
Srouji worked at Intel from 1990 and 2005.
Considering that Intel chip efforts have been pretty stale as of late and we've heard rumors Apple might be looking to bring their own chip designs to the Mac I can't imagine why, beyond the esteem (and pay) of being CEO, Johny would want to exit Apple where they are chip design rock stars.
Apple Worldwide video news
Their first film with studio A24 will be a film called "On the Rocks" according to Variety
It will be direct by Sofia Coppola, who also wrote the script, and star Bill Murray and Rashida Jones
The film follows a woman who reconnects with her playboy father on a New York trip.
This is the first film to apparently come out of a a multi-year, non-exclusive partnership deal Apple reportedly made with A24 back in November.
Variety is also reporting that Jason Katims, producer on shows like Parenthood and Friday Night Lights, will be leaving Universal TV after this summer to take a new multi-year deal with Apple
Katims will create content for Apple under his True Jack Productions banner.
He'll also be re-joining his former head of development at True Jack, Michelle Lee, who left to join Apple's creative development team back at the beginning of December.
Deadline reports Apple has ordered a 10-episode season of a sci-fi series from Simon Kinberg and David Weil
Kinberg is know for the X-Men franchise
The Deadline report calls the series , "a large large budget, ambitious, character driven genre show that will go into production this summer.“
Apple is attempting to go against the likes of Disney, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros. in an attempt to pick up pick up Bad Robot, J.J. Abrams' production studio
Right now Bad Robot is under Paramount and they are reportedly paying an "eight-figure" overhead to have them.
Apple has done a "first look" deal for documentaries from Imagine Documentaries according to Variety
Director Ron Howard and production partner Brian Grazer are behind Imagine.
Fitting for Apple the primary focus of Imagine Documentaries films seems to be music.
Their most recent release was "The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years" which won the 2017 Grammy for Best Music Film.
Apple iPhone XS series, XR battery case
As expected Apple has added a new version of their battery case for the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR
They are available now in back or white and priced at $129.00
They have a similar design, with the "bump"
The cases can charge wirelessly or through their lightning connector.
Some early reports stated these new cases have smaller mAh capacities which lead some to conclude less battery life, but they actually have higher voltage, so the total watt hours are higher, so actually more battery life.
Apple says you can expect between 47-75 percent more usage time depending on your phone model and usage.
Reports claim you can use the new XS battery case with an iPhone X, but you need the iOS 12.1.3 update (might still get an incompatibility popup?)
It also doesn't fit quite right.
Sponsor: ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN
With all the recent news about online security breaches, it’s hard not to worry about where our data goes.
Making an online purchase or simply accessing your email could put your private information at risk.
Even beyond using public or unsecured wifi online by social media sites, marketing companies, and your mobile or internet provider are finding ways to track you.
Not only can they record your browsing history, but they often sell it to other corporations who want to profit from your information.
A great way to take your privacy back is with ExpressVPN. I've been using it and it makes it easy to protect your data and your privacy.
Their app runs seamlessly in the background and it just takes a click to turn it on.
ExpressVPN secures and anonymizes your Internet browsing by encrypting your data and hiding your public IP address.
When you use public Wi-Fi and want to keep hackers and spies from seeing your data, ExpressVPN is the solution.
ExpressVPN is rated the #1 VPN service by TechRadar and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee and you can start protecting yourself with ExpressVPN for less than $7 a month
Protect your online activity TODAY and find out how you can get 3 months free at [expressvpn.com/maccast](https://expressvpn.com/maccast) That’s E-X-P-R-E-S-S-V-P-N dot com slash MACCAST for 3 months free with a 1-year package.
So one thing I had been wanting for a long time is a record player to listen to some old records I had from when i was a kid.
This Christmas I finally got a cheap little "suitcase" style player with built in speakers. It doesn't sound too bad, but it's not great either, but gets the job done.
One thing it does have though is RCA line out. And that got me thinking… can I somehow AirPlay this to my HomePod?
Turns out yes. What you need:
A record player with line out, or better yet USB audio out.
If you only have line out you'll need a USB audio interface (or thunderbolt one)
Connect the record player to your Mac using USB, either directly or via your interface.
Install and run Airfoil.
Select the USB audio for the record player as your source and target your HomePod
You can also send the audio to your Apple TV or any Mac, PC, or device running the Airfoil Satellite app.
The AirFoil app also offers an EQ so you can sweeten up the record player audio a bit if need.
For mine a bass boost seemed to help most.
Duplicate contacts in Spotlight
This one is from the Patreon Slack
You do a spotlight search for a contact or calendar item and Spotlight returns what appears to be duplicate entries.
What you may have is "On My Mac" entries in addition to iCloud entries.
Open Contacts and look in the sidebar.
Click the "All Contacts" and see if you see duplicates
Then click "All iCloud" and see if they go away. Also, click "All on my Mac"
You may see the same thing in Calendar.
To clean things up you'll want to make a backup of all your data
Select the "On My Mac" versions and use the 'File Export' option to export and backup the existing data.
Choose the "Contacts" or "Calendar" archive options.
Now you should be able to safely delete or remove the "on my mac" data.
You may also want to, after doing a full backup, turn off Calendar and Contact syncing in iCloud and then turn it back on again.
System Preferences > iCloud
Also review which Contacts and Calendars you have syncing if you're using
System Preferences > Internet Accounts
See which accounts you have contacts and calendars enabled for
For example, are you seeing both iCloud and Google contacts and maybe there is some overlap? If so maybe consider merging into one source and turning off syncing for the other account.
What's in your NVRAM (PRAM)?
So we talked recently about what to do to prep and old Mac for sale or to give away
James mention that he had experience where after wiping a Mac and rebooting it it still connected to his home network without asking for a password.
He said he had heard this info was stored in the Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM) and you need to also clear that to remove this info
I was pretty sure that wasn't the case and so we went back and forth on email and confirmed it must have been something else in his case because your wi-fi logins are not stored in NVRAM
Your iOS devices and Macs running the latest OS can share that info across devices now, but that wouldn't be the case on a freshly wiped Mac.
Regardless it got me wondering. What exactly IS in NVRAM?
There is a Terminal command you can run to view a list, though not everything will be shown:
nvram -p or nvram -xp
Here's what's in there:
aht-results – details of the last run of Apple Hardware Test or Diagnostics as an array of dictionaries, containing the datestamp and the result code.
ALS_Data.
AutoBoot – an integer determining boot behavior when opening the case.
backlight-level – the backlight level, e.g. %a9%00.
bluetoothActiveControllerInfo – Bluetooth active controller information.
bluetoothInternalControllerInfo – Bluetooth internal controller information.
boot-args – arguments used when booting the kernel, e.g. -no32exec to prevent the use of 32-bit software.
BootAudio – a boolean indicating whether the startup chime is to be played.
csr-active-config/csr-datathird-party kernel extension policy (High Sierra and later). (System Integrity protection)
display-config – display resolution and settings.
EFIBluetoothDelay – time allowed for a wireless keyboard to connect during startup.
efi-apple-payload0 – an array of dictionaries, containing the volume, UUID and the EFI path to the ThorUtil.efi file, a Thunderbolt utility for EFI.
efi-apple-payload0-data – the EFI path to the ThorUtil.efi file, a Thunderbolt utility for EFI.
efi-apple-payload1 – an array of dictionaries, containing a volume, UUID and an EFI path to a multiupdate binary.
efi-apple-payload1-data – an EFI path to a multiupdate binary.
efi-apple-payload2 – an array of dictionaries, containing a volume, UUID and an EFI path to a multiupdate binary.
efi-apple-recovery – EFI recovery information as an array of dictionaries, containing the volume, UUID and EFI firmware details.
efi-backup-boot-device – an array of dictionaries, containing the volume, UUID and the path to the boot.efi file, complete with its UUID directory. This may be identical to efi-boot-device.
efi-backup-boot-device-data – an array of dictionaries, containing the volume, UUID and the path to the boot.efi file, complete with its UUID directory. This may be identical to efi-backup-boot-device and efi-boot-device.
efi-backup-boot-device-data-data – the path to the boot.efi file, complete with its UUID directory.
efi-boot-device – an array of dictionaries, containing the volume, UUID and the path to the boot.efi file, complete with its UUID directory.
efi-boot-device-data – the path to the boot.efi file, complete with its UUID directory.
eos-fdr-cache-uuid – a UUID.
fmm-computer-name – the computer name.
gpu-policy – whether the GPU is active.
HW_BOOT_DATA.
LocationServicesEnabled – whether Location Services are enabled, e.g. %01 for enabled.
multiupdater-0 – information about ThorUtil.efi file
previous-system-uuid – UUID of the last system used to boot.
prev-lang:kbd – the initial keyboard language, typically en:0 (US), en:2 (British external), or en-GB:2 (British internal).
SystemAudioVolume – audio output volume; set this to %01 in non-mute Macs to silence their startup chime.
SystemAudioVolumeDB – audio output volume (alternative), e.g. %f8.
ThorUpdateResult.variable name not identified any recent kernel panic, to enable a kernel panic log to be constructed. Once that has been generated and saved, this variable is removed.
On Mac without a T2 you can let go after the second startup chime.
With a T2 release the keys after the Apple logo appears and disappears for the second time.
When your Mac finishes starting up, you might want to open System Preferences and adjust any settings that were reset, such as sound volume, display resolution, startup disk selection, or time zone.
