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We’d discussed how Apple has been making the rounds trying to find a manufacturing partner with some of the “traditional” auto-makers
Apparently most of those talks have broken down mainly because auto makers don’t want to just be contract producers for Apple vehicles. That’s not really what they do.
So now it looks like Apple may turn to partners like Foxconn or Magna
Magna is a massive Canadian manufacturer of automobile components and does manufacturing and assembly for companies like GM, Ford, BMW, and Tesla
They have facilities throughout North America
You may also remember that Foxconn actually has shown off their own electric vehicle platform.
Apple just doesn’t seem to want to spin up their own plants like Tesla and that makes sense.
The piece says that Apple wants to challenge the assumptions of how a car works -- how the seats are made, how the body looks.
We’ll see if they can use the same model they use for Apple Silicon and iPhones and apply it to cars.
One feature an Apple car might have is the ability to “see” further
Apple was granted a patent for a night vision system that combines visible light, near-infrared (NIR), and long-wave infrared (LWIR) sensors
Apple claims the system would allow the vehicle to “see” three times farther at night than a human driver.
Apple gets ‘first look’ with Imagine
According to Deadline Apple has signed a first-look deal for feature films with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s “Imagine” production company
Apple already had a first look deal with the company for documentaries. The film “Dads”, which came out on father’s day last year, was one of the films from that deal.
Apple also inked a first look deal for at television shows coming from MountainA, a production company founded by Natalie Portman and Sophie Mas.
The deals announcement coincides the the news that Portman will start in a new Apple TV+ limited series called “Lady in the Lake”
Deadline is also reporting that Apple has signed a deal for a new documentary called the “Jet”
It is a project from the same team that did the "McMillion$" documentary for HBO, James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte
“The Jet” is about a 1990s Pepsi campaign for Pepsi points
In a TV add they advertised you could possibly get a Harrier Jet for 7 million Pepsi points.
They figured it would never happen, but of course someone did and a lawsuit followed.
Pepsi claimed that the jet offer was meant to be a joke.
Two Apple TV+ films hav earned the new service their first Oscar nominations
The animated film Wolfwalkers has been nominated for Best Animated Feature
And the Tom Hanks film Greyhound has been nominated for Best Sound.
Both films also received British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations in the same categories
Apple event “March”es away
There had been heavy rumors that Apple was planning a March 23rd event to potentially announce new products including iPad Pros, AirTags, and new AirPods
That is likely NOT happening now according to recent reports from Ming Chi Kuo and others
Kuo says specifically that AirPods 3 will not enter mass production until the third quarter of 2021
Kuo is expecting that Apple will see declines in it’s headphone products in 2021 as they face more competition.
The AirPods 3 are rumored to bring a AirPods Pro like design without the silicone ear tips or high end features like noise cancellation.
We were also expecting to possibly see updated iPad Pro models soon maybe with updated A14 processors and mini LED displays, at least in the 12.9 inch model
There’s also some speculation that Apple could add Thunderbolt support to the iPad Pro opening connectivity options for external monitors, hard drives, and other high-speed peripherals
DigiTimes is reporting that the new iPads won’t even enter production until the second quarter of 2021
So that would be April at the earliest
We also continue to wait on AirTags
I really want a new Apple TV, as my Apple TV 4 is getting long in the tooth.
Will TouchID come back?
At least a couple of Analysts at Barclays think so
They’re saying that this years iPhone 13 models will “likely” have under display fingerprint scanners
They also re-iterate what we've heard from other rumors that there will be a smaller notch and Apple’s LiDAR scanners in the updated cameras
They also claim that in 2022 the notch will go through an even “bigger” design change.
At least one report of the aluminum band on a product Red iPhone 12 having it’s color “fade” in one corner
9to5 Mac notes that Apple discussion forums have similar reports of faded aluminum on iPhone 11 and iPhone SE 2 models
It’s unclear why or if it’s limited to only some phones. Maybe bad batches? Reaction to a cheaper case material?
Honestly I think it looks kind of cool. Like an aged patina.
What’s not coming back this year is an updated HomePod as Apple has officially discontinued the product according to TechCrunch
Apple will continue to sell the HomePod mini
Apple said that the HomePod will continue to be available while supplies last
Apple Silicon iMac in Crash report
A developer has noticed that an iMac with a ARM-64 processors has shown up in a crash report leading to speculation that new iMacs are on the way
We’ve also been seeing supplies of the current iMacs dwindling. A number of 21.5-inch iMac configurations are not available to purchase on Apple’s site and Apple has also discontinued the iMac Pro
New iMacs are rumored to be picking up a new design inspired by Apple Pro Display XDR and could lose their iconic “chin” in favor of an all display front.
A 24-inch model may also replace the current 21.5-inch version
We’ve also heard colors may return to the iMac line with options in space gray, silver, rose gold, green, and sky blue.
No word if Apple would also offer matching accessories?
If Apple does give us new iMacs soon Adobe Photoshop will already be ready for them
Adobe updated Photoshop to natively support Apple Silicon
Adobe says Photoshop running on an M1 MacBook runs 50% faster compared to Photoshop on a 2019 Intel-based MacBook with similar configurations.
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
Discontinued Apple Kit
Play comment from Andy
Andy also mentioned the Home Pod in his email and says he’s more disappointed about that.
I agree. I LOVE my HomePod and I have a HomePod mini, which is great too, but it’s not the same.
I still feel Apple’s failure with the HomePod was simply the price point. Seems to me if they would have sold it for $199.00 USD they could have sold a lot more.
One woofer, seven tweeters vs 1 full rang driver
6 mics vs 4
No audio beam forming
802.11ac vs. 802.11n Wi-Fi
802.11ac vs. 802.11n Wi-Fi
They will also need to add better AppleTV support for the HomePod minis
HomePod mini does not support home theater surround sound, and probably can’t.
Full browser screenshots
Rick is looking for a way to take a screenshot on the Mac of a full browser page, but with the URL bar in the screenshot.
There are a couple of built-in ways to get a screen shot of the full page in Safari
The easiest is the File > Export As PDF… option
This will generate a PDF, but the image doesn’t contain the URL bar
If you select the PDF in the Finder though, it does have a “Where from” in the “More Info” section that contains the URL
You can open the PDF and export it to another image format like JPEG or PNG, but then it loses the “Where from:” metadata.
The full metadata attributes can be viewed in the Terminal using the `mdls` command and passing the path to the file
The keys all have a "kMDItem" prefix
There is also an `xattr` command that can be used to display, modify or remove the extended attributes. The `-w` option does a write.
If you pass some special XML in the form of a PLIST string you can set the value of “Where From” on any file.
xattr -w 'com.apple.metadata:kMDItemWhereFroms' '<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"><plist version="1.0"><array><string>[URL here]</string></array></plist>' [full path to file here]
I just set up a TextExpander snippet with a fill-in for the URL.
If you select the file in the Finder and “Get Info…” you’ll see the value in the “More Info” section.
It also becomes searchable in Spotlight or the Finder
In the Finder do a search, Command+F
At the top of the window you can select and add “Search Criteria”
In the dropdown choose “Other”
Then in the search type “Where From” and select it and click OK to add the criteria
You can also check the box for “In Menu” if you want to add it for next time
Now you can select “contains” and enter the URL of the site you’re looking for and it will find the PDFs or files with that URL in it’s “Where from” metadata
You can actually use this same trick to search any of the other attribute metadata. For example “pixel width” or “Musical genre”
You can also add multiple search criteria
And if you hold “option” the “+” (for adding criteria) will change to a “…” and you can searches that must match “All” or “Any” of the criteria (and or searches)
You can also use these criteria as search tokens in Spotlight or the Finder
“kind: mail” then your search parameter
“pixelwidth: 1400” and the parameter
Turning iCloud Off and back on again
I had a few people email me this week with iCloud syncing issues
They had tried everything they could think of to fix it.
Everything other than turning it off and back on again. Yes, the dreaded Sign out of iCloud and sign back in.
Yes, it sucks because:
1. It’s scary. Apple pops up all kinds of warnings about your data. And the dialogs can be confusing
2. You have re-enter cards into your Apple Wallet and resign into App Store, iMessage, and FaceTime.
When you sign out your information will remain in iCloud and you will be asked if you want to keep a local copy.
Sometimes this is the only way to get things “unstuck”
I have no idea why or how things go south.
Syncing content to devices directly
Since iTunes went away I think there is still a lot of confusion about how to sync content directly to devices.
At least I still get a lot of questions about it. It’s for sure confusing.
You can still do it, except for now it’s accessed in the Finder
Connect your device via a cable and it should show up in the sidebar in the Finder
Select your device and you should see setting that look a lot like they did in iTunes
You may want to check the box for your device to be show when on WiFi.
Don’t forget to click “apply”
Should still have all the tabs for movies, tv shows, podcasts, etc.
You’ll need to make sure the individual apps have their settings pointed at your media library
In the TV App and in the Music App under the Files tab
