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News
M1X machines in the Fall?
Tweets from an Apple leaker @Dylandkt say Apple will launch new M1 versions on the MacBook Pros and Mac mini in the 4th quarter of this year.
Specifically “late October or early November.”
Really this is just further confirmation of Apple’s plans
Redesigned case with flatter edges.
Possibly miniLED backlighting
14-inch and 16-inch versions w/ reduced bezels
Return of ports including HDMI, SD Card Slot, and MagSafe
No TouchBar
A report from DigitTimes that TSMC is prioritizing silicon orders for Apple and automobile manufacturers
There is a global chip shortage and Apple’s iPhone 13 and new M1 Macs are on the horizon
Apple legal appears to be going after a reliable Apple leaker who posts in the Chinese service Weibo
Known as “Kang” the leaker got a letter from Apple’s legal team warning them not to post leaks or information that might give competitors valuable information or “mislead” customers with inaccurate information
Kang has had a 97.1% accuracy rating
Kang pointed out that he has never “published undisclosed product pictures” or sold information
One technique leakers have used is to refer to the information as "riddles and dreams”, but even that now seems to not be a way around what Apple perceives and potentially damaging information
Concept artists, like Jermaine Smit, also have reported recently getting similar warnings from Apple in the past week.
Latest iPhone 13 rumors
TrendForce is saying that this years iPhone will still top out at 512GB of storage
New renderings from ConceptCreator
slightly thicker
Showing off the bigger cameras and camera bump
Also detailing the smaller notch with the earpiece moved to the top of the phone
Ming-Chi Kuo says the Pro models will have an upgraded ultra-wide camera with autofocus
Looking to the future Ming-Chi Kuo says under display TouchID could be coming in 2022
Also that the wide angle camera could get a bump to 48MP
Also says the line-up will be tweaked a bit with new low-end 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch phones
With the larger of the “low-end” phones having a lower sub USD $900 starting price point
Potentially bad news for fans of the “iPhone Mini”
If you are a small phone fan he does predict an update to the iPhone SE in the first half 2022 with an updated processor and support for 5G
Apple TV+ awards speed record
Apple has highlighted the fact that Apple TV+ films and TV shows have received 389 awards nominations and have won 112 awards
This has all happened since the service debuted less than two years ago in November of 2019
Apple says Apple TV+ has "received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut."
It’s worth remembering that Apple TV+ only does “originals”.
Some still feel the strategy may be flawed, but no doubt quality over quantity is producing results
Just not clear if it’s enough to make it a “must have”, but with successful series like Ted Lasso and the upcoming “Foundation” series on the horizon we’ll have to wait and see.
July 1st is the end of the original “free” trials, so a lot will be known in the coming months.
Apple placed a straight-to-series order for a 10-episode animated comedy series based on the Strange Planet graphic novels and webcomic by Nathan Pyle
Dan Harmon co-creator is Rick and Morty and creatorCommunity is also on board as an executive producer
The series will be produced in-house at Apple Studios along with the animation production house ShadowMachine, the company behind BoJack Horseman and Final Space.
No word yet on when the show will land on Apple TV+
Smaller S7 for Apple Watch
From DigiTimes and reported on by MacRumors
They say the next “Series 7” Apple watch may have a new “double sided” System in Package (SiP)
This would allow it to be smaller allowing room for more battery or possibly additional heath sensor components (or both)
Last time we spoke about rumors from Bloomberg that it could also have reduced bezels and use a lamination technique that would bring the display closer to the surface
Also the rumors of a new “flat edge” design from Jon Prosser
A collector of Apple prototype products, Giulio Zompetti, posted images of a prototype Apple Watch Series 3 that shows what looks like “Smart Connector” type connections under where the band would connect
in an interview with 9to5Mac he said Apple was working on a blood pressure monitoring feature that would work through a “smart band”
The prototype is non-functional
Ready for iPad “Max”
Yeah, I fear the bad jokes as well
Despite that Mark Gurman over at Bloomberg claims Apple is exploring iPad designs with even larger displays than the current 12.9-inches
Right now it seems like Apple is just playing with the idea, but now that the devices are on par with Apple’s desktops and notebooks with the addition of the M1 it sort of makes sense
Gurman says the larger displayed iPads are likely still a few years off.
Says Apple’s current focus is on a 2022 redesign
As we discussed last time that could be a glass back design with support for wireless charging and reverse wireless charging
Apple also updated an entitlement from private to public to allow app developers to request access to more RAM on iOS and iPadOS
The standard RAM-per-app limit is currently 5 GB
Access to additional memory is not guaranteed.
It’s also not clear how much additional RAM access would/ could be granted
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Apple opened on of their newer stores in Los Angeles
I wanted to comment on how amazing it looks.
Did a preservation and restoration of a 1927 theater designed by architect S. Charles Lee
It has a basement gallery where Apple highlights the history of the building
It’s amazing to me how Apple has worked to make sure many of their building blend into their surrounding neighborhoods
Four of their Manhattan stores are in landmark buildings or districts
The Apple Carnegie Library store in Washington DC
Historic renovations in France, the UK, and Germany
I know Ken Ray was there for the opening and had a photo with Tim Cook
How iCloud Private Relay works
Feature being added to iCloud+ with MacOS 12 and iOS 15
Designed to better protect your browsing privacy online to stop advertisers and data brokers to be able to create profiles based on your IP address and browsing behavior.
It has been called by many as being “like” and Apple VPN, but it’s not technically a VPN
It does encrypt traffic going through it
It does “proxy” your connection through two data points
It offers some level of location obfuscation, but you can’t proxy through a specific country or location
So you can use it to bypass geo restrictions
How it does work:
It uses two “proxy” servers. One owned by Apple, ingress server, and one owned by a network partner, egress server.
The partners are believed to be CloudFlare, Akamai, and Fastly
Locally when browsing Apple uses cryptographic binding encryption on your device to contact Apple’s inbound “ingress” server
This encrypts your IP address and the website address you’re requesting.
Meaning no one on the network or at your ISP can know the site you’re requesting
Then Apple uses an RSA-bound access token that can’t be traced back to you along with a public/private key system to verify access the their inbound ingress server
To keep things fast Apple is using QUIC (HTTP/3) connections, which happen over UDP port 443, which are designed to be fast.
Apple’s ingress server is then able to decrypt and see your IP address, but they don’t know the site you’re trying to visit.
Apple then removes your iP address from the request and replaces it with a temporary IP address from a pool of address
Best of all the pool of addresses is reused so it will further obfuscate any profiling data since multiple people and devices would be using addresses recycled from the same pool
You can still get local IP address advantages, like local search though, because in the iCloud Internet Privacy settings, you can switch between Maintain General Location or Use Country and Time Zone for the temporary IP that gets assigned.
Then they pass off to the egress server which can decrypt and see the web site address, but NOT your IP address (because they don’t have it)
So now no one in the chain has the full level of information needed end-to-end to be able to profile you. Pretty neat.
Things to know:
Only works in Safari, for ALL DNS queries, and for most app traffic to insecure websites (aka TCP Port 80, or “http:” traffic)
It will not work for local traffic or private IPs. It will also not effect VPNs, Proxies, and other Network Extensions
It will not work for Secure, “https:” traffic in apps.
Also important to note that if you’re logged into a site that that site will still be able to know who you are and track you using other methods like cookies, etc.
Missing Maps feature: multipoint destinations
Time sent in an email noting that with all the great Maps updates at WWDC Apple seems to have still missed a great and often requested feature. Multi-point (multi stop) trips
They do have a limited “Add stop” feature you can use when navigating
While navigating , slide up the panel at the bottom and tap “Add Stop”
This gives you limited destination choices of places along your route:
Fast Food, Gas, Coffee, Parking, Convenience, and Banks
You can select a nearby business and generate a side stop.
Once there you can tap “resume route” to get back to your original directions
But what where talking about here is the ability to “pre-plan” multiple stops and get directions from one stop to the next
Would be great for planning road trips and vacations
You can use “Guides” to “bookmark” several places you might want to visit, but you can’t get directions all at once from one to the next
Another option currently is to use Shortcuts with a series of “Show Directions” actions
In between you can place a “Wait to Return” action.
After you get to your first destination swipe back to Shortcuts and it would proceed to load the action for the next destination.
The “side-loading” conversation
In the face of mounting pressure from some in the developer community and with threats of anti-trust legislation in several countries Apple is going on a marketing offensive to try and protect their App Store policies
A big topic is “side-loading” or allowing the ability to instal 3rd party apps on iOS devices from outside the App Store
Apple’s position is that allowing it would open up the platform to a plague of issues
Malware and spyware
Privacy and security risks
Inappropriate, violent, and harmful content
“Allowing side-loading would degrade the security of the iOS platform and expose users to serious security risks not only on third-party app stores, but also on the App Store.”
Apple worries that even with controls and settings users would still be “tricked” into side loading apps
Apple has offered some weak arguments as to why it can’t function like it does on the Mac
