Sponsor: ZocDoc

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

Apple “Peek Performance” event

We have so much to discuss here and I know I’m late to the party now, but I think we have a lot more details and questions answered.

Let’s get the mundane out of the way…

MLB Thursday Night baseball on Apple TV+. Fun not sure it’s a huge game changer. Looks like they might have games in early April now that the lockout ended

New iPhone 13 and 13 Pro colors. Green. Both look very nice and may produce some new sales

This is an interesting tactic Apple has used for the past couple releases and I guess it’s working?

iPhone SE Update

Pretty much what was expected

Same form factor and same colors (Midnight, Starlight, and PRODUCT(RED)) but with A15 Bionic. Matching the performance of the iPhone 13 and 13 Pro at a great entry price, though up a little starting at USD $429

5G, but only supports sub-6GHz and not mmWave, though that shouldn’t be a big factor for most buyers.

Does also get better battery life, a 12MP camera with Deep Fusion, Photographic styles support, Smart HDR 4, and IP67 water resistance

A survey from SellCell of 2500 iPhone users prior to the event said as many as 40% said they planned to buy the new iPhone SE when announced with most, about 11.5%, planning to upgrade from an iPhone 11

An IDC analyst was also predicting that the new SE could account for about 10 percent of iPhone sales.

Updated iPad Air with M1

Just like on the iPad Pro Apple has brought the M1 to the iPad Air. Up to 60% faster with an 8-core CPU

USB-C Port now twice as fast (10Gbps)

12MP ultra-wide camera with support for Center Stage

Size and form factor remains the same at 10.9-inch size with Liquid Retina display

New blue color along with Space Gray, Starlight, Pink, Purple

Also adds 5G support to the iPad Air, but like the SE sub-6 only and no mmWave support.

Same storage options for 64GB and 256GB of storage

Starts at USD $599

Stars of the show… M1 Ultra, Mac Studio (aka Mac mini Pro), and Apple Studio Display (it’s back, kind of?)

M1 Ultra is (surprise) two M1 Max chips fused together

Basically the Jade 2C rumored by Mark Gurman and mentioned by John Siracusa (Accidental Tech Podcast) and Quinn Nelson (Snazzy Labs) many times

BTW, there is also a Jade 4C (4x M1 Max / 2x M1 Ultra) that is in the works… likely the “hint” mentioned at the end of the keynote that Apple still has one more processor (and Mac Pro) coming

It is possible the Jade 4C could wind up being based on the rumored upcoming M2 chip though just based on timing

Because it’s 2 M1 Max’s it’s basically 2x everything

20 CPU cores, 16 high performance

60 GPU cores

32 Neural Engine cores

and up to 128 GB of unified memory with up to 800GB/s of memory bandwidth

2 video decode engines, 4 video encode engines, and 4 ProRes encode/decode engines.

Incredibly power efficient for it’s computational power

Apple touted it’s power and performance and it is indeed impressive

But their claim that the GPU bests a Nvidia's RTX 3090 fell a bit short, or at least their graph did.

They limited the comparison to the RTX 3090 running at a max wattage of about 320W, but it can go upwards of 400

Still Apple’s GPU uses significantly less power, as they claim, but the 3090 can do more than Apple’s chart showed and that’s a bit misleading

Apple did say in "relative performance,"

And the new Mac Studio is the desktop beast this new chip goes into

The Studio also has options using the M1 Max

Basically a 2.5x height Mac mini where the top, almost 2/3rds is dedicated to fans and cooling

Has an incredible amount of I/O

4 Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 ports

10GB Ethernet

Power (internal power supply). No MagSafe

2 USB-A ports

HDMI 2.0 (not 2.1)

Pro Audio Jack (3.5mm) that supports high impedance headphones (like the new MacBook Pros)

And… front IO

2 USB4 ports (M1 Max) or Two Thunderbolt 4 (M1 Ultra)

SD Card slot

And M1 Ultra Mac Studio is 2 pounds heavier because it’s heat sink is copper instead of aluminum

YouTuber Max Tech did a teardown and discovered that the SSDs are slotted in, not soldered

Connectors are slightly different than the ones for the Mac Pro

Shorter clearance, but shows hope that you may be able to upgrade your storage.

Pricing on the M1 Max version starts at USD $1999.00 and for an M1 Ultra model at USD $3999.00

Finally the Apple Studio Display

Basically… LG Ultra-fine 5K display in an Apple designed aluminum enclosure with 100 more nits of brightness for ~$250 USD more.

Still 60Hz refresh rate

Still LED backlighting (not miniLED)

Well and that’s not being 100% fair. Apple did also add:

120 degree 12MP wide angle 1080p FaceTime camera with CenterStage

Their “studio quality” 3 microphone array

The six speaker sound system (like the 24-inch iMac) that is Dolby Atmos certified and can play spatial audio.

A13 Bionic chip

If connected to a Mac enables “Hey Siri” functionality

Seems to be running a full version of iOS 15.4

Like the LG 5K Ultra-fine it has 3 USB 4 (USB-C) ports, but they are 10 Gbps (vs 5 Gbps in the LG), and 1 Thunderbolt 4 port for connecting

There have been some early reviews with complaints about the camera quality.

Apple claims there is an issue and that it will be addressed with a future software update

There are also 3 stand/mount options though they are not interchangeable (why?!!) and the height adjusting stand option adds USD $400 to the price

There is also a nano textured glass option for USD $300 more

Only comes with a 1-meter Thunderbolt cable (guess they assume you’ll put it in your desk under the display)

And for the love of Zeus why is the power cord not removable (or MagSafe?)

Price starts at USD $1599.00

My main complaint on the monitor is that it doesn’t offer a downstream Thunderbolt connection meaning you can’t daisy chain two displays.

There are cheaper 4K options on the market but they are not 5K and don’t have Apple’s build quality or technology.

All the other things…

Apple is no longer selling the 27-inch iMac

Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse in silver and black options now

A new AMD Radeon PRO W6600X GPU upgrade option for the Mac Pro

Let the debate on what’s next continue

Analysts are already weighing in and disagreeing on what’s next

Updated Apple Studio Display with 120Hz refresh and miniLED backlighting

Ross Young says we’ll have it this year, by June (doubtful)

Ming-Chi Kuo claims no new mini-LED products from Apple this year citing high costs.

Also sounding like after the Mac Studio we’re likely not going to see any more pro desktop models this year. (Mac Pro or return of iMac Pro

Rumors are also fluctuating about the M2, when we’ll see it and in which models

Ming-Chi Kuo says it won’t be in the updated and fully redesigned MacBook Air which he still expects later this year

He told 9to5 Mac that Apple will stick with an M1 in the Air, though it could be a variant with a more powerful GPU

But that it would have new colors and a squared edge design like the current iPads and MacBook Pros

Gurman also confirms a redesigned Macbook Air being delayed until later this year and also claims that updates for the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models won’t arrive until 2023

A tweaked M1 sounds a lot like the M2 9to5 Mac is also predicting will power the next update to the Mac mini

They claim Apple’s M2 is codenamed “Staten” will be based on the A15 and come still with 8 cores (4 performance and 4 energy efficient) but up the GPU to 10 cores (from 8 today). They also say there may be a 12-core CPU “Pro” version as well.

Belief is Apple planned an M1 Pro and M1 Max Mac mini but changed gears and did the Apple Studio

Now they’re looking to rev the consumer mini with the new M2s

Ming-Chi Kuo though thinks a new “high-end” Mac mini won’t arrive until 2023 (along with Mac Pro, iMac Pro)

he also claims the updated version would retain the same design.

Conflicts with past predictions from Jon Prosser who talked about a completely redesigned smaller mini with a plexiglass-like top

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple has M2 versions of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, 24-inch iMac, and Mac mini in development.

Apple Car too. Ming-Chi Kuo claimed in a tweet that the Apple Car project team has been “dissolved” for some time and that Apple would need to put together a major re-org of the team to meet the rumored date of 2025 to have a product in mass production

iPad computer convergence?

Apple has been running ads that imply the iPad is many people next “computer” desktop

Seems like the coming years are where the lines between iPads and consumer based Mac laptops get even blurrier

Ross Young thinks, based on rumors from the Elec about LG, that Apple is planning 12.9-inch and 11-inch iPad Pros with OLED displays

Then there is a rumor from a Twitter account that claims Apple is working on an iPad OS feature called “Mixer”

This is designed to make full screen apps on iPad shrink into windowed versions when the iPad detects a connected keyboard and trackpad.

The rumor claims the feature would be exclusive to iPads with M1 processors

Something like this would pair nicely with Universal control

What’s a bit funny to me about this personally is that when I work on my laptop yes I’ll have multiple apps and windows open but more often then not I mostly have the window for the main app I’m working in pretty much maximized.

Unless I have multiple screens I’m really most of the time working inside a single app, so with the smaller screen of the iPad I don’t see much of a need for having more then two app windows open at a time and I can do that today (and do) with split view.

Apple TV+ subscriber numbers growing

JustWatch is reporting that Apple TV+ ’s share of the streaming market passed 5 percent back in October

That was right around when shows like Foundation and Invasion were launching and second seasons like The Morning Show were kicking off.

As we got to February of this year the numbers are getting closer to 6 percent (5.6 percent to be exact)

That puts Apple close to HBO Max which Just Watch says has about 7 percent marketshare

Apple also announced a new 10 episode Spanish-language medical drama series called Midnight Family

It will feature an entirely Hispanic cast and crew

According to the press release, "Midnight Family" follows Marigaby Tamayo (played by Vaca), an ambitious and gifted medical student by day, who spends her nights saving lives throughout a sprawling, contrasted and fascinating Mexico City aboard her family's privately owned ambulance.

The series will star Joaquín Cosío, Renata Vaca, Diego Calva, and Academy Award nominee Yalitza Aparicio

Apple is also getting an 18-episode animated show called “Puffins Impossible” that they will share with Amazon Prime video

The series is a spinoff of the animated short form series "Puffins" which features a main character named “Jonny Puff” voiced by Jonny Depp

The show will be a series of five-minute shorts which follows lives of puffins who have their world disrupted when a meteor lands giving them superpowers.

iPhone 14 Pros might be proerer

Here’s a really odd and maybe slightly disturbing rumor about this years iPhones from Ming-Chi Kuo

This year the iPhone Pro models might be the only models to get a new A16 chip.

Kuo says the “standard” iPhone 14 models will retain the A15 chip from the iPhone 13 models

9to5 Mac says their sources also confirm the chip split this year

Says there will be 4 models, an iPhone 14 6.1-inch and iPhone 14 Max 6.7-inch and the iPhone 14 Pro 6.1-inch and iPhone 14 Pro Max 6.7-inch

All models will have 6GB of RAM, but the Pros will use LPDDR 5 and the non-Pros LPDDR 4X

These rumors also seem to predict the death of the “mini” option this year.

In addition several “schematics” surfaced this past week purportedly showing both the Pro and non-pro models

Seems to confirm the pill + punch hole display design for the Pro models (ditching the notch)

Still shows a camera bump on the back for the Pro models

Some previous rumors claimed possibly a slightly thicker design that would ditch the camera bump

Also oblong side buttons and same speaker holes (vs round buttons and redesigning grilles)

Then supposed iPhone 14 and 14 Max renders that show essentially no design changes at all

So if the 14 has the same processor and same design isn’t it just a 13 with a new name?

Hopefully there’s some camera improvements?

ZocDoc

Finding and booking a doctor who’s right for you doesn’t need to be a terrible experience. Will they take your insurance, understand your needs, or be available when you can see them? With Zocdoc, the answer can be a refreshingly pain-free YES.

It’s that last scenario that gets me the most frustrated. When I get sick and need to see a doctor, and it’s not often, I need to see a doctor now, not in 2 weeks or even a month from now. Going online to my providers site just to see it’ll be weeks to see a doctor is infuriating. That’s when I can turn to ZocDoc and find a doctor who will take my insurance and be able to see me tomorrow, not days from now.

Zocdoc is a FREE app that shows you doctors who are patient-reviewed, take your insurance and are available when you need them.

Read up on local doctors—get verified patient reviews and see what other real humans had to say about their visit. So when you walk into that doctor’s office, you’re set up to see someone in your network who gets you.

Go to Zocdoc.com, choose a time slot and whether you want to see the doctor in person, or do a video visit. And just like that, you’re booked.

Find the doctor that is right for you, and book an appointment that works for your schedule

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In the chaotic world of healthcare let Zocdoc be your trusted guide to find a quality doctor in a way that is surprisingly pain free.

Go to Zocdoc dot com slash maccast and download the ZocDoc app for FREE. Then start your search for a top-rated doctor today. Many available within 24 hours.

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New Relic

If you’re a software engineer you’ve been there. It’s nine p.m.... you’re finally unwinding from work...your phone buzzes with an alert: something’s broken...and your mind’s already racing at what could be wrong: Is it the cloud provider? Is it the server? Did I introduce a bug in my last deploy?

Now the whole team’s scrambling from tool to tool and messaging person after person to find and fix the issue.

That won’t happen if you get New Relic.

Believe me, as we web developer I’ve been there. I’ve also been lucky to have New Relic available on projects and it’s an amazing time saver when troubleshooting issues.

New Relic combines 16 different monitoring products that you’d normally buy separately, so engineering teams can see across their entire software stack in one place.

More importantly, you can pinpoint issues down to the line of code so you know exactly why the problem happened and can resolve it quickly.

That’s why the dev and ops teams at Doordash, Github, Epic Games, and more than FOURTEEN THOUSAND other companies use New Relic to debug and improve their software.

Whether you run a cloud-native startup or a Fortune 500 company, it takes just 5 minutes to set up New Relic in your environment.

That next nine p.m. call is just waiting to happen. Get New Relic before it does!

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Sign up at New Relic dot com slash maccast. That’s N-E-W R-E-L-I-C dot com slash maccast. New Relic dot com slash maccast.

SimpliSafe

What do U.S. News, PC Magazine, and Popular Science have in common? They all ranked SimpliSafe Home Security as the “Best Home Security of 2021.”

In fact, U.S. News just named SimpliSafe the “Best Home Security of 2022” as well!

One of the latest things that makes SimpliSafe the “best” in my opinion is the fact that it’s modular and “self installed”. That means my new home will have the same protection as my old home because I took my syste, with me.

Teardown was as quick and easy as set-up and since my new home has more areas to cover I will just order a new outdoor camera and door and window sensors and easily expand my system.

SimpliSafe protects your whole home around the clock. Every door, window and room.

It’s backed by the best 24/7 professional monitoring in the business. Ready to dispatch police, firefighters or EMTs to your home.

With a comprehensive set of sensors and cameras—including the all new wireless outdoor security camera, you always know what's going on inside and outside your home.

SimpliSafe is less than $1/day and you can set it up in around 30 minutes and it’s always simple to use.

There’s never a long-term contract. You can even try it for 60 days risk free to see if you like it. If you don’t, send it back free of charge.

SimpliSafe protects over a million homes in the United States alone.

You can customize the perfect system for your home in just a few minutes at SIMPLISAFE dot com slash maccast.

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Where’s the “prosumer” all-in-one?

With the 27-inch iMac gone, possibly for good, there feels like a hole in the lineup. Especially if you want all your desktop components to have an Apple logo.

The 2020 Retina 5K 27-inch iMac started at USD $1799.00. You could get one decked out for easily under $2,699.00

I guess the closest “replacement” would be a M1 Mac mini. Even the lowest config with an Apple Studio display is USD $2,492.00 that’s well above the $1800 iMac.

Or maybe Apple feels the 24-inch M1 iMac is a good enough compromise? But then you lose a couple inches and 0.5K resolution on your display.

I feel like the 27-inch iMac was for the consumer “power” users and they want a little more machine then even a base M1 Mac mini would offer.

Once you’re starting to config out a higher end Mac mini at what point do you jump to a base M1 Max Mac Studio with a lower priced USD $300-500 4K monitor

So will Apple bring back an iMac Pro in 2023 like some analysts think?

Is this an issue or does it feel like Apple has the right mix?

A couple of “Studio” questions

John asks… can my 55 inch 4K OLED LG TV be used as my monitor for the Mac Studio. Any pros and cons of doing this?

The technical answer is “Yes”. The Mac Studio has an HDMI port and you can use that.

Practically it might be a bit of a toss up.

For one TVs tend to have lower refresh rates so things are going to drag or scroll maybe as smoothly

You’ll also likely be limited to a 1080p 1920 x 1080 resolution

Also color accuracy will not likely be very good.

TVs generally don’t have any tilt or height adjustment

You’ll probably need to sit pretty close to read text and at 55-inches neck strain might be a thing.

Jimmy ordered a new Studio Display and asks… “Since the display has an A13 chip inside why is there no FaceID feature? Maybe that feature will come in a later software update?”

That’s a good question because again it would seem like a no briner for Apple to support FaceID in their own monitor.

I’m not sure why they don’t bring FaceID to the Macs, but I can speak to technically why the Studio Display (and all current Macs with FaceTime cameras) doesn’t support FaceID

The FaceTime cameras are just cameras. FaceID requires the “TrueDepth” camera system which is way more than just a camera

It’s an array of sensors including an infrared camera, a flood illuminator, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, front camera, and an IR dot projector.

So since the Studio Display only has the camera they wouldn’t be able to add FaceID with just a software update.

Still it does beg to question… why didn’t they put the TrueDepth camera system into the Studio Display

With the notebooks it’s always been believed the limit was the sensors were too thick for the think laptop lid.

For a desktop it might be that Apple feels it’s not needed since you have a keyboard and it’s easy enough to use TouchID or use an Apple Watch to unlock?

Maybe there is fear of accidental unlocks when you are just walking by your machine?

Make Photos download originals faster

We’ve all seen it. Well, at least those of us that use iCloud Photo Library

You launch Photos on your Mac that’s set up to “Download originals” vs “Optimize Storage” and we’re stuck waiting not knowing when those originals will come in.

Keith has a very unique situation and came up with a cool trick to make getting originals on his Mac faster

First he has accounts for each family member on a single Mac and then each account has it’s Photo library set to a larger external drive (since the Mac only has 256 GB of storage)

Each library is set to download originals, but sometimes depending on the length between running updates, that can be hundreds or thousands of photos (hundreds of GBs) to update and can take a long time to sync up.

Seemingly there is no way to force a sync. Happens in the background and other network operations or apps can take precedence.

Keith found a post on Mac Rumors from a user who goes by “Bertan” to make things sync when you want

The trick is to select the photos you want sync’d and then right+click and choose “Play Slideshow”.

The Photos app will then download the photos locally to play the slideshow

This can seriously speed up the downloads.

If you want to pull in photos in batches you can also create albums for the batch you want to grab and then create a slideshow from that album.

This is a brilliant hack around I think.

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