Apple removing titles from Apple Arcade

As noted by “Touch Arcade” Apple added a “Leaving Arcade Soon” tab to Apple Arcade that show 15 titles that will be removed from the service

Among the title are, Atone: Heart of t he Elder Tree, Cardpocalypse, Don’t Bug Me!, Spelldrifter, among others

Apple didn’t specify exactly when the titles would be removed nor what happens when they go away. Meaning what happens to saved game progress? Do you have an opportunity to purchase the game if you want to keep it?

Apple also hasn’t said “why” the games are leaving, but sources believe it’s because the original contracts with the developers and studio are reaching an end and have not been renewed or extended.

Apple originally did three year deals with developers where they offered a fixed fee and royalties while the games were hosted exclusively in Apple Arcade

From an iMore article, Apple followed up later this week with some details and clarifications

Titles downloaded from Apple Arcade prior to their removal from the service will continue to work for two week

If the developer chooses they can make the app available in the app store though it’s up to them if the version they offer is the same as the one from Apple Arcade, there could be differences

It’s also up to the developer to decide if saved game progress in the Apple Arcade version transfers to any new version or edition they make available on the App Store.

This is for sure one of the downside to “licensing” your apps or content from a subscription service. You only own the rights to access the content so long as it’s licensed by the service you subscribe to.

Apple plans for slowdowns

It’s probably not too surprising, but Bloomberg reports that Apple is planning to, “slow hiring and spending growth next year in some divisions” next year.

It will not impact all departments and will likely not impact an aggressive product launch schedule Apple has planned for 2023 that should include their first AR / VR headset.

For groups impacted they will likely see reduced R&D and hiring budgets and Apple may not back fill roles for departing employees in those groups.

The report doesn’t say specifically which groups Apple is considering limiting.

iPhone 14 suppliers experiencing shortages

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo

Apple has had a couple suppliers for components like memory and display panels experiencing delays or shortages in production

Specifically Samsung on the memory side, basically Apple’s sole supplier, and LG Display on the panels for the iPhone 14 Max and iPhone 14, mostly on the latter.

The good news according to Kuo is this all should have minimal impact on Apple’s supply as the diversity of Apple other vendors should be able to cover the gaps.

On the memory Samsung should be able to cover 3Q22 production and other suppliers, Micron & SK Hynix, should be set to start shipping in the 4th quarter.

For the displays Samsung and BOE should be able to step in and help out.

This shows one of the reasons we’ve commented that Apple doesn’t like to be tied to a single component supplier.

‘Scratchgate’? Stop, just stop.

I can’t even believe I have to mention this, but slow news week I guess.

One of the bigger stories covered in the community this week was the release of the new MacBook Air and it too no longer the a few hours once they were in reviewers and for the media to create a “controversy” around the new “Midnight” color

Guess what… the basically matte black laptop is a fingerprint magnet and is prone to scratching… specifically around the USB-C ports.

You have some easy choices if this bothers you:

Add a case, skin, or some other protection to your laptop. If a small amount of normal wear and tear bothers you I’d assume this would be something you were already doing

Don’t buy the Midnight color

Live with it and enjoy the “patina” that comes with a loved and well used device. These are things not heirlooms or gallery pieces.

The other thing we can all just stop on is the slower performance on the base models.

Yes, it’s confirmed the 256GB “base” model of the MacBook Air suffers from the slower SSD due to the single module just like the 256GB MacBook Air did.

If performance is your thing… get the M1 or buy a 14-inch MacBook Pro instead.

Guess what… the Air also doesn’t due well with heavy sustained workloads after about 5 mins. It will get warm, no active cooling, and throttle. It’s a “consumer” laptop.

iFixit in their teardown did confirm that there is no heat spreader (heat sink)

MaxTech showed that you can get more sustained performance by “hacking” the motherboard by adding cooling pads on top of the CPU.

99% of the “right” people for whom the base models are for are going to love their M2 systems an they will be plenty fast for their day to day usage.

A few other notable internal design changes from the iFixit teardown

The speakers have been moved from the side to above the motherboard with the holes tucked in the hinge below the display

Takes just 4 screws, vs 10, to open the case

A new Thunderbolt 3 driver made by Apple instead of Intel

There’s an accelerometer, but what it’s for is anyone’s guess

Apple TV+ picks up ‘Causeway’

Apple announced it has secured the right to the movie ‘Causeway’ which will star and is produced by Jennifer Lawrence

Apple says Causeway is, "an intimate portrait of a soldier struggling to adjust to her life after returning home to New Orleans."

The film will be directed by Lila Neugebauer and comes from studio A24.

Apple says the film will premiere on Apple TV+ and in theaters “later this year”

Apple is definitely not afraid to step up to get great shows and talent. Variety this week reported on some of the prices paid for top talent in recent projects and Apple paid out big from some of it’s stars

For Apple TV+ projects… Will Smith topped the list with a payday of $35 million for his role in the upcoming American Civil war drama Emancipation

Leonardo DiCaprio will reportedly earn $30 million for his role in the Martin Scorcese production Killers of the Flower Moon

And Brad Pitt will also get $30 million for the upcoming untitled Formula One racing film from Jerry Bruckheimer Films

Apple’s Ron More produced alternative history space drama “For All Mankind” will have a 4th season. It was announced at San Diego Comic Con

Production is reportedly set to start next month

A new look for Apple Watch?

Mark Gurman has commented via his newsletter on what he thinks some of the updates will be for this years Apple Watch

He claims the high-end model might be up to 7% larger which might not appeal to all customers

He also notes that the watch will get a “fresh look” with a evolution of the current rectangular design, though it specific says it will not be a circle.

Also specifically says it will NOT have flat sides

It will have a more durable formation of titanium, making it more rugged.

So seems like all these prediction might be specifically for the new “rugged” extreme sports version.

Finally he mentions a new low power mode that could allow for the Apple Watch to last multiple days on a single charge

SimpliSafe

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Maccast ‘Bat Signal'

I put out the call and you responded, well David did.

We now have a real Maccast “Bat Signal” of sorts… It’s a shortcuts that David built to automatically generate and send an email to the Maccast for help.

Best of all it can be triggered with Siri. Amazing!

Get the [Maccast Bat Signal](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/6a6d581cdb2f4f529d4b82ed53f83981)

Shared Photo Albums

We had some recent discussions about Apple new upcoming iCloud Family Photo Library feature.

This will allow members of an iCloud Family Account to have a second shared Photo Library that all members of the family can contribute to.

We discussed “what is a family” and possible concerns rwhen it come to editing and deleting items

Marty wrote to comment:

Seems like Apple and the public are moving backward on this one. Didn’t the old Mobile Me structure allow for shared album links? Create an album and share the link with a zillion people. No limits, no family restrictions and no worries about accidental deletions from others. Others could even upload to it, as I recall. Seems like this would be better than agonizing over complex family relationships. Doesn’t this shared folder, library still exist?

Yes, the concept of “shared” iCloud albums still exists, but the new shared family library is different.

The new iCloud Family Library is a single new library of photos that all members share. Any additions, deletions, edits, etc made by anyone are synced to everyone.

The iCloud shared album feature is just an “Album” and each person invited to the shared album can view, and with permissions, post to that album, but you can’t edit items in the album, unless you “download” a copy.

Members can also comment and like photos

To create a shared album:

Open Photos and select the images you want to share

Choose File > Share > Shared Albums. And choose “New Shared Album…”

Give it a name and invite people to the album

Once created it will appear in the “Shared Albums” in the sidebar

Top add more people or setup permissions:

Select the album in “Shared Albums”

Click the “person” icon at the top

You can allow people to post to the album, turn on notifications, and set the “Public Website” which will share it to iCloud and give a link.

Different ‘types’ of memory

Rick wrote in to ask about memory and specifically what is “wired” memory and what is “compressed” memory.

In case you’re not sure what he’s referring to… it has to do with memory usage on your system while it’s running and this information can be viewed using the Activity Monitor (which is found in Applications > Utilities)

This app can be really handy in getting a good sense of what is happening on your system and is helpful in troubleshooting, especially if you notice your system running slowly.

In the CPU tab you can see what apps are using the processor most heavily. In the “Energy” tab you can see what apps are using the most power / battery. Same for the “disk” tab, what apps are doing the most read or write operations, and in the network tab what apps are using the network the most.

As you can imagine… the “memory” tab will show which apps are using the most RAM.

There is also a really handy “overview” graph and data at the bottom.

This is were you’ll see the “wired” and “compressed” memory among other things.

Probably the two most useful stats when troubleshooting issue due to memory performance in this chart are “memory pressure” and “Swap Used”

Memory Pressure: Graphically represents how efficiently your memory is serving your processing needs.

Memory pressure is determined by the amount of free memory, swap rate, wired memory, and file cached memory.

Swap Used: The amount of space being used on your startup disk to swap unused files to and from RAM.

Wired Memory: Memory required by the system to operate. This memory can’t be cached and must stay in RAM, so it’s not available to other apps.

Compressed: The amount of memory that has been compressed to make more RAM available.

When your computer approaches its maximum memory capacity, inactive apps in memory are compressed, making more memory available to active apps. Select the Compressed Memory column, then look in the VM Compressed column for each app to see the amount of memory being compressed for that app.

So really this can tell you when you are approaching the limits of your physical RAM and you can make some decisions about how you want to manage it.

In most cases you simply don’t have to… the system handles it for you and if you have a SSD and a decent amount of free disk space you probably won’t have any memory issues

If you do find you’re hitting the limits the easiest thing to do is limit open apps and background processes.

If you often hit the limit an you are ready to upgrade to a new system consider purchasing a system with more RAM

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