One of the most relaxing times of day for me is when I’m in the shower. It’s a perfect time to contemplate and relax and having a great showerhead like the Quattro makes it even better.
Backed by some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley, including TimCook. The Quattro is the world’s best high-pressure water-saving shower
It’s designed by former Tesla, NASA, and Apple engineers who spent years researching and developing a superior shower experience.
Nebia offers four spray modes.
My favorite mode is called “Angel Hair” and it offers 150 streams of water. It gives me a great “high pressure” feeling while still saving water. In California that’s key for saving on my water bill.
The ”Soft Spray” is also great as it offers that spa like experience.
And the Quattro looks great too. We went with the Rainshower version in a softnickel finish
But it comes in 5 beautiful finishes, so you can get the one that fits your style and design. And while I went with the Rainshower versions it’s also available in a Handshower design.
The design and quality is amazing and I love how well engineered it is. The control slider is large and easy to adjust with each mode locking into place with a satisfying “click”
It’s also incredibly easy to install.
I had it done in just a couple of minutes from taking it out of the box.
Quattro allows you to save water without compromising on experience. Each mode saves 40-
50% of water compared to a traditional shower.
Nebia also offers awesome sustainable bathroom accessories such as their new Quick-Dry Earth Mat, shower shelves, shower curtains, hooks, bath mats, and more so you can easily upgrade your bathroom.
We have the Quick-Dry Earth Mat and it feels great and dries almost instantly.
Nebia by Moen Quattro starts at just $119 exclusively on nebia.com and Nebia gave us a special discount just for our community. Go to Nebia.com/MacCast and use code MacCast at checkout to get 10% off all Nebia products.
Even better? Nebia is offering Free Shipping on Quattro orders in the U.S. for just a few more days. So this is a great deal to jump on!
Again, go to Nebia.com/MacCast, that’s N E B I A dot COM slash MacCast to check out what they have to offer and save 10% with the code MacCast!
News
Apple allows ‘self service’ repairs
Apple has announced a “self service” repair program
Apple will give customers access to Apple genuine parts, tools, and manuals
It’s going to start with the iPhone 12 and 13
Customers will be able to get parts via a new Apple Self Service Repair Online Store that will offer more than 200 individual parts and tools at launch
Apple says the first phase of the program will focus on the most commonly services parts like the display, battery, and camera.
Customers who return their used or broken part to Apple for recycling will receive credit toward their purchase
The program will eventually be extended to include Apple silicon Macs later next year
This is a big step forward for Apple, but likely one that not many will take advantage of
There is also still a lot that is unknown
Apple last year rolled out the Independent Repair Provider Program which already covers independent repair shops
And even with that program there have been complaints
Can’t get every part needed to perform repairs
Participants have to sign restrictive NDAs so you not much info about how it works outside the program
Some feel like this is Apple just trying to get ahead of right to repair legislation.
Still I choose to look at it more positively.
It will be rolled out in the US early next year and expand to additional countries in 2022.
Apple may still see big holiday sales
Despite there still being chip shortages and supply chain issues
AppleInsider says Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives issued a research note and told investors that he thinks Apple could sell 80 million iPhones in the holiday quarter.
He thinks Apple could sell 40 million alone in the period between Black Friday and Christmas
He cites massive popularity of the iPhone 13 models both in the US and China as a driving force.
Good news too is that buys seem to be going for the higher average selling price “Pro” models which bodes well for revenue.
Still, due to the chip shortages and supply chain that demand is up to 15 percent higher than supply. So while that means less possible sales in the current quarter I would think that bodes well for strong demand continuing in to the first quarter of next year.
And it seems like AirPods are also going to be a holiday hit. Ives believes Apple could ship as many as 100 million AirPods in the quarter
First, lets start with the obvious… “so”? Running ads to increase revenue how scandalous!
And yes, I understand the allegation that doing so without telling the developers is bad
I’m not sure what’s in the full developer agreement but I have to imagine there’s language that allows Apple to promote any app they want at anytime without prior approval
Regardless, guess what…
In a statement to MacRumors Apple has said it’s been placing ads to promote the Apps in the app store for five years now and those ads are clearly labeled as being from the AppStore
They also called the allegations that they buy these as “secretly” is an “overt mischaracterization”
They say they regularly engage in conversations with developers about the ads they places and many developers express their appreciation for the support.
They also stated that these ads are permitted under the standard Apple Developer Program agreement
Apple says their apps for developers via email, online ads, and social media, achieved over 70 billion impressions in 2020
Qualcomm wants in on the chip war
They had their 2021 investors day event and announced new CPU designed by Nuvia with “next generation” technology.
Nuvia is chip startup company Qualcomm acquired earlier this year that was founded by three former Apple A-series engineers
There’s actually an ongoing lawsuit between the Nuvia CEO Gerard Williams, who is now Qualcomm’s senior vice president of engineering, where Apple alleges that Williams exploited Apple technology and poached Apple employees.
The chips are currently expected to ship to customers in 2022 for products launching in 2023
The designs are, maybe not surprisingly, ARM-based System on Chips (SoC) and are “Designed to set the benchmark for Windows PCs”
Qualcomm also called them the “M-series competitive solution for the PC.”
At the event Qualcomm also noted that they expect to provide just 20 percent of Apple’s 5G modem chips by 2023 as Apple transitions to their own designs
According to a DigiTimes piece they say that by 2022 will be the last year Apple will use Qualcomm modems
They claim in 2023 Apple will use their own Apple designed 5G modems supplied by TSMC
The design will be a separate chip and not an integrated part of the A-Series SoC
It’s possible that the 20 percent of modems that Qualcomm thinks they will still be supplying to Apple could be for older entry level devices or for areas the Apple designed chip may not support.
Some Apple TV+ news
Remember the Apple TV+ limited series, “The Last Thing He Told Me”? No, well I don’t blame you… it’s been about a year since we brought it up
This series, “follows a woman who forms an unexpected relationship with her sixteen-year-old stepdaughter while searching for the truth about why her husband has mysteriously disappeared.”
It is one of the series from Reese Witherspoon’s production studio Hello Sunshine and was originally set to star Julia Roberts, but she left the project due to scheduling issues
Well now according to Deadline Jennifer Garner is set to take over the role.
No word on a release date for the series.
Looks like we know what Martin Scorsese’s next project for Apple TV+ will be. Again, thanks to Deadline.
Scorsese is already working on the film “Killers of the Flower Moon” which should be out soon.
Now he’s going to direct a film about the Grateful Dead that will star Jonah Hill as Jerry Garcia
The film will be a biopic about the band and it currently doesn’t have a title.
Both Scorsese and Hill will also be serving as producers on the project.
The report also says that the band and their management is involved in the project so the film will have the rights to use the groups entire catalogue.
More on Apple’s upcoming headset
This time coming from Morgan Stanley analysts
They say the project is entering a phase that is similar to the period of time that occurred not long before the introduction of the Apple Watch in 2014 referring to the plethora of patents filed related to AR and VR
And while they claim the project is “approaching liftoff” they also noted the technical challenges that Apple still faces
Getting daylong battery, 5G, CPUs, cameras, lidar, projectors and wave guide lenses into a lightweight and attractive pair of glasses
Ming-Chi Kuo also weighed in this week with more rumors of what Apple’s headset project may bring
Saying both the headset and Apple’s iPhone 14 will feature Wi-Fi 6E connectivity
The analyst said Wi-Fi 6E is required to deliver the high-speed wireless transmissions necessary for AR and VR experiences
Apple “SportKit” references
Discovered by 9to5 Mac as references in the latest iOS betas
Seems to be a framework targeted at delivering realtime date related to sporting events
Likely in the early stages of development speculation is it could be used to deliver more data to things like Siri, Widgets, and Apple TV+ or other 3rd party apps.
Siri is already able to get real time sports scores, but this could expand that and bring features to other apps as well.
Maybe play-by-play, sport specific realtime stats and game data, scheduling data, and more.
Right now the framework appears to be private, so not clear if 3rd part pass would have access at first.
OS updates address bugs
Apple rolled out iOS 15.1.1 to iPhone to help customers impacted by a dropped call bug
The issue impacted some iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 users
So if you have an iPhone 12 or 13 series model and have ben experiencing dropped call issue you’ll want to run this update.
Apple also released an update for Apple Watch Series 7 owners
watchOS 8.1.1 patches a bug that caused an issue with charging
Apple says it “fixes an issue where Apple Watch Series 7 may not charge as expected for some users.”
So if you own and Apple Watch Series 7 and have had trouble with charging this is the update for you.
Apple “refocuses” on fully autonomous car
Bloomberg claims that Apple has once again “refocused” their car project and is now working on delivering a full self-driving vehicle
The project has been rumored many times to have changed direction.
According to the report Apple had two paths going. One with a limited self-driving focus and the other fully self-driving and they have, under the new leadership of Kevin Lynch, chose to focus on fully self driving
Apparently one key to the direction is that Apple has solidified the work need for the chip that will make it all possible.
The piece notes the design is mainly consists or neural processors to make the AI wok and that the thing will need a “sophisticated cooling system” as it runs hot.
It also claims that the vehicle will have no pedals or steering wheel, though it does note that a wheel may be needed for emergency human intervention.
Overall though Apple seems to be targeting for a riding experience rather than a driving one.
Large displays in the center of the vehicle for passengers to interact with and of course tight integration with Apple’s existing services and devices
It will be electric with compatible for the combined charging system making it compatible much of the existing charging infrastructure
After the Bloomberg report Morgan Stanley analysts released a note saying because of the lack of a steering wheel or pedals the car “must be a shared service and not an owned car.”
I know I seem crazy, but this is what I felt Apple’s play has been all along
It allows the focus to be on Apple’s product and services
It also generates ongoing recurring revenue and access to more customers
It would not be, nor replace, a “primary” vehicle for most people
Makes sense in the era of ride sharing.
Most people seem worried about how Apple would maintain and make sure the vehicles are clean and up to standards people would expect
This to me is more a logistical challenge and that can be handled
The roll out would likely be slow and specific
Right now it’s expected Apple is looking to introduce a vehicle around 2025
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Feedback, commentary, opinions
Traveling with AppleTV
Pete says he travels a lot with his Apple TV and one trick he uses to get it connected is to just contact the ISP of the hotel
He says often the number and information is somewhere in the room or you can just ask the front desk
When you speak with tech support, have the MAC address handy and if you’re connected to the WiFi, have the IP address (I assume of your Mac or iOS device that’s connected) Also, your room number and checkout date.
They can then do some configuration on their end to make your Apple TV work and connect to the WiFi for the remainder of your stay. I assume this could also work for a HomePod mini.
macOS memory leak
This seems to continue to be a thing that has impacted both Intel and M1 users and is happening on both macOS Monterey and on earlier OSes, thought it seems like macOS Monterey has had it impact more users
There continue to be a number of theories
One from Mozilla saying using a non-standard cursor size or colors causes a large memory leak in Firefox.
The leak appears to occur when the pointer type changes, for example from a standard arrow to an I-beam for the insertion of text
Apps that change frequently (Mail, Browsers, etc.) leak more memory more quickly
This is an accessibility feature System Preferences > Accessibility > Display. In the “Cursor” tab (or “Pointer” tab in Monterey), you can make the cursor bigger than standard (helps on higher res displays).
This is also where you enable / disable the “Shake mouse to locate cursor” feature.
Not a silver bullet as changing this didn’t work for Ben Lovejoy at 9to5 Mac
Maccast listener Joe says he thinks it might be Adobe. Specifically the CoreSync and CCXProcess apps
He has a 6-core Mac Pro with 64GB of RAM and gets this message
He’s seen them rise to almost 150GB each for RAM usage and quitting them (in Activity monitor) they will spin back up and start “leaking” again.
Gifting Apple Media
With the holidays on the horizon Ryan asked abut gifting a movie from Apple on the Mac
You have the ability to gift “most” Apple media, but there seems to be a limitation on the Mac now that we no longer have iTunes
You can gift Music
Make sure the iTunes Store is in your sidebar
Music > Preferences > General. Check “Show iTunes Store”
Browse the Store and find the track or album you want to gift
Click the “dropdown” arrow next to the price and choose “Gift this Song” or “Gift this Album”
You can gift Books.
Open Books
Find the book or audiobook you want to gift
Click the “dropdown” arrow next to the price and choose “Gift this Book”
But the TV app has no such options.
But the iTunes Store still exists as a separate app on iOS, so you can still share form there.
On iOS you navigate to the item you want to share
Tap the “Sharing” icon
In the Share Sheet scroll down and choose the “Gift” option.
You also can’t gift a movie from the TV app on iOS
My guess is that the intent is for the TV app to be just that. An App for aggregating and viewing your streaming and purchased content and not really for browsing and “purchasing” media, though you can do that currently
Seems like Apple need to add a similar “iTunes Store” option to the TV app, or “Movie & TV Store”
Time Machine stuck in time
Play comment from Rick
Sounds like you have done most of the immediate troubleshooting I would have thought of
Says he spent 75 minutes on the phone with a Senior Apple Support Advisor
Fixed by changing the name of the computer in Sharing preference pane, deleting the prior Time Machine backup and starting a new one.
He claims the cause was an issue with the stored password for the prior backup and that even removing that saved password from the Keychain didn’t help.
Apple also mentions looking for any apps that might be doing work or scanning your drive in the background, like anti-virus. These can prevent Time Machine from running while they are working.
Ryan has been noticing that occasionally, when not connected to power and with the lid closed his MacBook Pro will drain power quickly during the day.
Sometimes down to 20 percent or lower. I’ve actually seen this on my system from time to time as well
Feels like maybe it never really went to sleep.
One thing to check would be the energy saver settings
System Preferences > Battery. Select “Battery” and check.
“PowerNap” - maybe disable. This will let apps run in the background and update. For example fetching Mail, calendar, or iCloud updates
While in the battery settings you might also want to click on the “Usage History” tab and look at the graph. See if there are periods when the energy usage is high yet the screen on usage is low.
Think about what apps might be running background processes. Anti-virus, backups, etc.
Use the Activity Monitor to see which apps are using the most power when your Mac is supposed to be sleeping.
Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor
Go to the “Energy” tab
Sort by “12hr Power” which is the average energy impact of the app in the last 12 hours, or since the Mac computer started (lower is better).
Mine had a 29.10 for Spotlight which is big (maybe iCloud Photos?)