Sponsor: Coda

This episode of the Maccast is brought to you by Coda. More on them later in the show.

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Apple announces “Peek Performance” event

They sent out the announcements that make March 8th at 10 AM PT the official time and date of their next special event

A clever play on words that would seem to indicate that at least one announcement could be a “sneak peek”?

Third-generation iPhone SE, a refreshed iPad Air, and new Apple Silicon-powered Macs.

iPhone SE: A15 Bionic and 5G support

Some new tidbits from Kuo

a new 256GB storage option

5G support will include both mmWave and Sub-6GHz 5G connectivity

No new colors. Black, White, or Red only

iPad Air 5: A15 Bionic chip, 5G connectivity, and an upgraded 12MP ultra-wide front-facing camera with Center Stage support.

New Macs? What they do here is a little less certain. A like announcement is an updated entry level 13-inch MacBook Pro, possibly with an M2 processor and maybe the Mac mini “Pro” with M1 Pro and M1 Max options.

Gurman does claim the M2 is ready to go, so MacBook Pro or Mac mini are seeming likely candidates

So what’s the “peek”?

Well first, who knows if it’s even a thing?

Still you got Apple’s AR / VR headset, the upcoming “Proer” versions of the M1 Pro and M1 Max that are expected for the Mac Pro. Could be lots of neat stuff.

What’s next for Apple Watch

Mark Gurman in his latest newsletter said that he’s expecting to deliver three new models of Apple Watch this year

An updated Series 8, an updated SE, and a new edition geared to extreme sports (the Apple Watch “G-Shock” edition)

As for new designs or new features beyond updated processors don’t expect too much.

He does note significant software updates around activity tracking but thinks the only possible new sensor might be the body temperature monitor, but even that is only a maybe

It’s been said that Apple continues to look into new sensors for body temperature, blood pressure, and blood sugar but to date none have surfaced in an Apple Watch and this year it still may not happen. Bummer.

Despite that Gurman still seems excited about this years updates saying he expects "the biggest in the history of the Apple Watch since the original model”.

Outside of Gurman’s comments display analyst Ross Young has mentioned Apple could add a new larger display size to the 41 and 45mm size options they have now.

I wonder if the larger display would go with the “extreme” model as those tend to be larger watches anyway.

Apple TV+ takes on Ben Franklin

Apple has announced a currently untitled Apple TV+ series based on the life of Benjamin Franklin

It is a limited series and based on the book "A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America" by Stacy Schiff

Not only that, but it will star Michael Douglas in the title role as Ben Franklin

It covers him at the age of 70 when he served to convince France in 1778 to create the Franco-American alliance and support American democracy and help it gain independence

The show will be written and executive produced by Kirk Ellis which I think is amazing because he also is know for the series John Adam’s which partly covers the same historical events with Franklin.

I love historical based dramas, so I look forward to seeing this whenever it arrives on Apple TV+

Apple may need to share MLB streaming rights with NBC

This from a report in the New York Post

You may remember last month that Apple was said to be very close to getting a streaming deal for weekday national games as ESPN relinquishes their contract

Apple is hoping to gain exclusive rights, but this new report says NBC Sports has had "serious talks" with the MLB for broadcasting the games on their network and streaming service Peacock.

Reportedly MLB is looking to get $100 to 150 million out of the deal and Apple could end up paying the majority of it according to the report.

Apple has also made a deal for an Apple TV+ series based on the 1927 silent film Metropolis originally directed by Fritz Lang

The new adaptation, will I assume NOT be silent, and written, directed, and run by Sam Esmail who is well known for the series Mr. Robot.

I loved Mr. Robot and if the new series is up to the writing and quality of that show it will no doubt be amazing.

Can Apple get lossless Bluetooth

We’ve heard rumors that Apple want’s to be able to deliver their lossless audio over wireless but as they’re working on it seems like Qualcomm has done it.

They introduced two new chips this past week. The “S3” and “S5” that use Bluetooth 5.3 technology and combine that with a new aptX Adaptive-based audio codec which enables bitrates that can support lossless audio.

They claim it can do both regular lossless quality (or CD quality) and partial Hi-Res audio.

Now Apple doesn’t use Qualcomm chips, so they’re not going to benefit from this, but I have to imagine Apple will have lossless wireless audio soon as well. I would think something they’d want to have in place for the next update to the AirPods Pro.

What do you think. Is wireless lossless audio something that is important to you?

I have to be honest and say for me it’s “meh”. Nice to have, but I can’t really tell. I have it turned on on my Apple Music account, but I don’t think if you place a lossless vs a AAC compressed track I could probably tell the difference.

Display confusion

There seemed to be, at least to me, some confounding reports surrounding the future of Apple Displays

First we have an “exclusive” from 9to5 Mac who’s sources tell them that Apple is working on a new even higher resolution 7K “Apple Studio Display” (so higher resolution than the Pro Display XDR)

They also say that it’s built with an A13 chip

What’s not clear is if this is the new “lower cost” display we’ve been hearing about. The part about having an A-series processor we’ve heard before.

The fact that they called it a “Studio Display” and not an XDR display seems to indicate possibly a more “consumer” model, but then you have that resolution.

Gurman says this the item Apple may give us a “peek” at at it’s event. He claims Apple “completed work on it months ago”

And then we have Ming-Chi Kuo tweeting that Apple is going to have a more “affordable” 27-inch display

To keep costs lower it will likely not have mini-LED backlight or some of the other XDR tech.

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Did you see the “mini” Mac mini?

YouTuber Quinn Nelson from Snazzy Labs did an amazing [M1 Mac mini hack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQWGFKhBQwU) on his channel

As you may know Apple the Apple “standard” M1 machines (not the Pro or Max) use the same processor

What’s super odd is that despite having a much more energy efficient processor that gives off way less heat Apple used the same old mini case and massive 150W power supply from the Intel era

Maybe to save money on a re-deign or not to upset education and enterprise customer who depend on the form factor, for say rack mounting in a server farm

Still as Nelson points out… and proves the Mac mini could be smaller.

In the video he proceeds to take the internals, match them with a new power supply and put them in a custom 3D printed and Mac Pro inspired case that is 78 percent smaller than the M1 Mac mini.

The case while neat I personally did not think it was that great looking, but it was 3D printed.

Impressive. What would be even more impressive is if Apple redesigned the mini because it could get even smaller than what Nelson achieved.

I do think the mini is likely WAY overdue for a redesign and especially in the era of Apple Silicon it feels like Apple should minify the mini, but what do you think?

Apple File Provider Platform

Tom wrote me to ask for help with a recent issue he’s run into with Microsoft One Drive

In the past Tom had a OneDrive folder on an external drive and had an option to keep ‘all files on this device’.

But then with a sudden recent update that all changed

Now OneDrive is using the “Apple File Provider” program and they have switched the option to “files on demand”

So that means two things…

1. Files can no longer be stored on an external drive

2. Files in the One Drive folder are not all stored locally

The reason for the switch seems to be largely due to the fact that Apple in macOS 12.3 deprecated support for kernel extensions

The big advantage of switching to use Apple File Providers is that it better integrates with the OS, especially iOS.

You can get access to all cloud file locations, like OneDrive, from the files and and from the file picker

But it did mean that the location of the OneDrive files moved to ~/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-Personal and could not be changed.

What was odd was the defaulting to “files on demand” meaning if the system needs space it would remove older files.

Well good news is according to [a blog post](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-onedrive-blog/updates-to-files-on-demand-on-macos/ba-p/3207503) on the Microsoft site they added back the option to “Always Keep on This Device” and to use an external volume

Still Tom had asked: Where can I find a solution where:

1. My files are all stored locally and in the cloud

2. My files are stored on an external drive - not on the internal drive

3. My files are backed up reliably

I believe that Dropbox allows you to place your Dropbox on an external drive.

The main issue with using an external drive for cloud syncing though is reliability. What happens when that volume is unmounted? Your files can get out of sync. So use caution.

You can use a backup service like [Backblaze](https://backblaze.com)

They have an iOS app that lets you access your cloud files, but it’s not a sync.

it also doesn’t integrate with the Files app (not an Apple File Provider)

Suspicious iCloud app data

Bob wrote me to say he had been reviewing his iCloud app data and found data from an app that was unfamiliar to him and was not on any of his devices

Not only that, it had a suspicious name, COPD with some Chinese characters

He asked me what may have happened.

My best guess is that this is an app that may have been installed years ago and you’ve simply forgotten about

It’s also a possibility it was called something different in the past?

Apps that sync or store data in iCloud will not have their iCloud data deleted if you simply delete the app from your device.

I think it’s because having an iCloud sync or backup of the data is intended as just that. A backup.

In theory if you re-install the app you’d get your data back.

But Bob’s question does bring up a good topic for a bit of house keeping.

You may want to periodically review your iCloud data and cleanup any old data for apps you no longer use or need.

Settings > Tap on your name at the top

Tap iCloud

Tap Mange Storage

Scroll through the list and you can tap on any app and then tap “Delete Data…” to remove it’s data from iCloud.

Thing of the Moment: Stop Motion Studio

Ryan’s daughter asked him if there was a way to take a bunch of pictures and put them together so it was like a video

He used that as an opportunity to explain that that was a form of animation and video editing called stop motion and gave some movie examples

He then searched the App Store for software to help his kids create their own stop motion and found the app Stop Motion Studio

The app has the tool you need to create stop motion animation using your iPhone or iPad camera

There’s a timeline for editing, onion skinning, effects, sound effects, etc.

The Free version has some features disabled, but there is in-app purchase $4.99 USD to unlock all the features (one-time price)

They also sell a “Pro” version on the app store which is just the app with all the features unlocked.

[Stop Motion Studio](https://www.cateater.com)

[iStopMotion](https://boinx.com/istopmotion-create-stop-motion-animation/)

Unfortunately I think iStopMotion for Mac is dead.

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