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News
First ARM based Mac in 2021?
That's the prediction according to a new note from Ming-Chi Kuo where he claims we'll see the machine in the first half of 2021
He claims that since the coronavirus outbreak Apple's R&D into the production of 5nm process chips has become "more aggressive".
We expect this year A14 processors to use 5nm technology.
There are also hints that a new miniLED based iPad could arrive in late 2020 or early 2021 using 5nm processor tech.
There are few reasons being cited for the move to ARM
Reduce the reliance in Intel and their often slipping CPU release schedule
Also to increase cross-device compatibility of apps between iOS and Mac.
Apple's T1 and T2 chips are already ARM processors in a Mac, just not the core CPU
The T2 especially offloads some critical tasks from the CPU including audio processing and some video encoding.
If Apple will begin a transition to ARM in 2021 when will they let developers in on the secret?
Seems like they would need to do it at this years WWDC to give developers a decent head start
A rumor, via The Information, that Apple has been experimenting with an iPad Smart Keyboard with a built-in trackpad.
They believe the new design is in production and could be released along with an updated iPad Pro this March
Some of the prototypes have featured capacitive keys
Mouse and trackpad control is available through accessibility features in the current versions of iOS
DigiTimes had also reported previously on Apple making an updated Smart Keyboard with backlit keys and scissor switches.
Japanese site Mac Otakara claims that AirTags will be waterproof and use magnetic wireless charging similar to Apple Watch
Not sure that the best call for longevity of use.
There were reports in the last couple weeks that made it seem like AirTags could be announced soon
Now it seems like the product could be part of the iPhone announcement this Fall
Apple can't win with Pro wheels
Apple is again taking some flack for it's $400 add on wheels for it's new Mac Pro
This time the it's about not having a locking feature on the wheels.
It was noted in a tweet by tech YouTube Marques Brownlee who said, "#protip don't get the wheels if you keep this thing on your desk. There's no locks."
What was pointed out and I would agree with is that the wheels would be an odd choice if you plan to have your Mac Pro on your desk and not the floor.
The whole idea of the wheels would be that you could roll it around the floor of a studio or workspace.
Another one of the complaints in the wheel / feet debate was remedied this week when it was notice that in the Mac Pro Technology Overview that Apple would make the wheels available as an aftermarket add on and that customers could perform a foot wheel swap themselves
Originally customers who wanted wheels after choosing feet were told that they would need to have an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider install the part.
It's not clear exactly how the kit will work (The standard issue wheel set integrates directly into the stainless steel space frame), when it will be available, or how much new kit will cost.
iPhone XR most popular 2019 iPhone
New numbers from Omdia’s Smartphone Model Market Tracker report claim that Apple shipped 46.3 million iPhone XR's in 2019.
That's more than double the 23.1 million units they shipped in 2018 and 9 million more than the iPhone 11
That means the iPhone XR was Apple's best selling iPhone worldwide last year.
Those two models at first and second place were Apple's only two iPhones in the top five for best selling iPhones last year.
Samsung took the third, fourth, and fifth spots with the Galaxy A10, Galaxy A50, and Galaxy A20.
The iPhone 11 Pro Max was in sixth position with 17.6 million shipments, followed by the iPhone 8 at 17.4 million shipments.
The iPhone 11 Pro was ninth at 15.5 million units shipped.
The report did note that overall 2019 iPhone shipments were down 4.6 percent
The Omdia data mirrors data from Counterpoint research that also showed the iPhone XR and iPhone 11 as the top selling phones globally
Even more incredible considering the iPhone 11 was only on sale for 4 months in 2019
In North America Apple actually captured the top fix spots with the iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 8, iPhone 11 Pro Max, and iPhone XS Max
If anything I think this shows that there's large demand for lower cost iPhone options.
Good sign for the rumored iPhone 9 (iPhone 8 SE 2)
iOS over-the-air recovery
9to5mac noticed something called "OS Recovery" in the latest iOS 13.4 beta
It's hard to be 100% sure what the feature is, but the assumption is it's a way to recover your OS without needing to connect it to a Mac or PC
The interface shows a pop-up panel, like the one you see during setup or when you connect AirPods, that shows an icon that looks like the AirPlay icon.
The assumption is that it would work like the macOS Internet Recovery or Apple’s Migration Tool possibly by connecting it to another iPhone or iPad over the air or using a USB cable.
International Apple news
At Apple's shareholder meeting Tim Cook announced that Apple would open it's first retail store in India in 2021
The country has been loosening its local-sourcing requirements for opening a local retail locations
Exports of Apple devices made by Foxconn in India can now count to meeting that requirement
Apple has leased a large space in Mumbai's Maker Maxity mall, so that would likely be the location
EU has a propose law to for smartphone makers to enable consumers to quickly and easily replace batteries
The law would apply to all manufacturers selling smartphones within any of the European Union’s 27 countries.
Apple is already facing another EU proposal to establish a common charging standard for mobile devices.
This recently passed parliament, but it will be some time before the standard is established and then enforced.
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
iPad screen shots and Apple Pencil tricks
Here's a cool quick tip for taking screenshots on an iPad with an Apple Pencil
Take your Apple Pencil and swipe up from the bottom left corner of the screen.
That will take a screenshot and put you right into Markup mode
Now you can annotate the screenshot, add information, and then save or share it.
You can also tap with the Apple Pencil from the lock screen to open up a new note
Use the ruler tool to draw straight lines
use two fingers to change the angle (will show degrees)
shows units as you draw which I assume are pixels?
Cleaning up the Pictures folder
Jim is like a lot of us. He has a lot of digital photos
They've built up over the years and are in a lot of places and formats.
Some are just JPEG files, others are in Photoshop files, some are in old iPhoto files, some have been converted to the new Photos app, and some are in Aperture.
He want to clean it all up, but is unsure how to go about it.
He asks, " If I dump all of my photos on to a new 3.0 external spindle drive, can I form one large library under the new photos app"?
How do I delete all the duplicates?
Will 250 GB be too much to manage for one photo library?
Will it be slow and boggy?
Should I use an external SSD instead?
My first recommendation would be make sure you have a backup of everything.
Second, you'll probably want to do things in a few steps and a lot of it is going to be painful. The good news is that in the end you should be able to have a mice clean library.
I would start by getting that external drive. An SSD will for sure give you the best performance, but you could get by with just an HDD
Then you'll want to find all those images from various places and get them onto that drive
There are really two possible ways to go about this
You could try exporting all the originals from all the libraries, Aperture, iPhoto, and Photos
De-duplicate the exported images
The re-import them back into a new Photo library
The downside here is you are starting from scratch, so you possibly lose any edits, metadata, etc.
The other option would be to import the Aperture and iPhoto libraries into the existing Photos library
Apple has instruction on how to do this on their support site
Then use a de-duplication tool to remove duplicates
There are a couple de-duplication tools you can use:
No matter what the process is going to be labor intensive and bit stressful
Honestly for me, I've chosen to just live with a certain amount of duplicates.
My secure documents diskimage
I've covered this a few times, but there always seems to be questions
Chelsea has asked Do you keep these in an encrypted folder? Disk image? (What are the main differences?)
It's an encrypted sparse image bundle.
Disk Utility also lets you create an encrypted image from a folder, but the result is still a disk image.
The benefits of a sparsebundle are you pick an image size, say 100GB, but the image will only be as large as the data it contains. But it can expand in size up to the size of the image you originally created.
You use Disk Utility, create a new blank image (APFS or Mac OS Extended). Enter the size. Choose the sparse bundle disk image as the format. Choose the encryption level, enter a password (that you can save to your keychain). And then save.
I do save mine to my Documents folder
That means it gets sync'd to iCloud and also is part of all my backups (Time Machine, CCC, Backblaze, etc.)
To use it, I just mount the image
It becomes a disk in the Finder.
When I'm done using it I "eject" it.
Chelsea also asks, "Is there a way to set a folder in iCloud that anything I put into it could get downloaded automatically to an iOS device?"
Files in iCloud Drive will always sync up to iCloud and be available to your download / access on your iOS device sin the Files app.
You would need to manually download to your iOS device.
As far as I know there is no way have it download automatically.
