This episode of the Maccast is brought to you by Zocdoc, more on them later in the show.
Opening
News
Apple slowing their M2 roll
Coming from a 9to5Mac story, they say the site “The Elec” has sources in the supply chain noting that Apple halted production of M2 chips in January and February
This was right after Apple had announced the new M2 MacBook Pros and Mac mini
The piece says production started up again slowly in March with production at about half the level it was in past years.
It’s likely not too surprising and maybe not unexpected.
Apple noted a significant drop in year over year Mac sales in Q1 $7.74 billion (vs. $10.85 billion)
Going into lockdown and remote work sales had jumped dramatically and now that peak is over.
Rumors of the M3 around the corner likely are not helping
Plus, Apple’s stuff is just dang good. There is not much difference between M1 or M2 machines, so likely little incentive for most customers to upgrade.
In western Europe the latest Canalys numbers showed PC shipment down overall 21 percent in 2022
Apple did gain tablet marketshare in western Europe going from 43.3 percent to 51.8 percent, but overall unit sales were flat between the 3rd and 4th quarter.
IDC reported worldwide Mac shipments down 40 percent year over year in the first quarter
Apple will hold it’s next quarterly results call on Thursday, May 4.
Apple’s plans for a new 27-inch ProMotion MiniLED backlit display might be on hold.
We’d heard rumors in the past from display analyst Ross Young that Apple was planning the new display
There were also reports suppliers had shipped some panels, likely test ones, last year.
Now Young says those plans are on hold, though he doesn’t say why.
Though several times he had reported the display production was hit with delays
Young also said that production of the panels for the rumored 15-inch MacBook Air are underway
Estimating a late April / early May release
Design is expected to mirror the latest 13-inch M2 MacBook Air design just in a larger form factor.
Whether it’ll have an M2 or M3 is still up in the air.
Cook talks AR with GQ
Tim Cook has a featured interview in the Global Creativity Awards 2023 issue of “GQ"
In it he’s asked about some of his thoughts on AR / VR tech and while he makes some interesting statements several Mac outlets used the piece to elude that he somehow was teasing an AR/VR announcement from Apple.
He does talks about how the technology, overlaying a virtual work on the real world, could advance collaboration and creativity. Helping you accomplish more and to think and do things in a different way.
Discusses how Steve Jobs taught him to not, “get married to your convictions of yesterday.” and to, when shown differently, admit your past thinking might be wrong and go forward.
He also discussed Apple’s core belief of needing to own the primary technology in order to innovate. To not simply follow what others are doing.
Pointed out that Apple often has succeeded where there have been skeptics.
Gurman still believes Apple will showcase their AR / VR headset at WWDC along with the Reality OS and a software development kit for developers
If Apple really is to be successful it seems like they’ll for sure need to deliver a different story for AR / VR
A recent Piper Sandler survey of 5,600 US teens said that just about 29 percent said they owned a VR device
Of those just 14 percent said they used them weekly, 4 percent daily.
5 2 percent said they were uninterested or unsure about buying a VR device
With both Meta and Sony struggling to make a splash, Ming-Chi Kuo stated his belief this week that Apple’s offering might be the “Last hope” in convincing market investors that AR / VR devices are the next big thing.
Reports of older device support waning
A Twitter leaker, who’s been reliable in the past, claimed that in early May Apple services support for devices running older OSs might be going away
Specifically all Apple Services, except for iCloud, on iOS 11, macOS 10.13, watchOS 4, and tvOS 11 will no longer be supported.
Dropping support for the A11 Bionic, A9, and A9X processors
Users would get a push notification prompting them to update
There were also some leaks about which devices iOS 17 will be supporting that caused confusion
First was one stating that the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, first-generation 9.7-inch iPad Pro, first-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and fifth-generation iPad weren't going to be able to run iOS 17
Then a more reasonable report that claimed iOS 17 will run on any device that currently runs iOS 16
Reports that the Control Center may get a redesign in iOS 17, not any specifics but that it could allow users more options for customization
Leaked iPhone 15 components
We’re at the point where we’re starting to see what are reportedly leaked iPhone 15 components and these may hint at some of the planned design and feature changes
First we have images of what claims to be iPhone 15 Pro Max display glass with incredibly thin bezels
Just 1.55mm, smaller than any smartphone made to date
Then a bunch of renders based on leaked CAD files
New titanium frame and rounded edges
Larger camera bump
Haptic buttons
USB-C port
Report that the iPhone 15 models will use the same display materials from Samsung as the iPhone 15 Pro models
12th generation display materials, vs 11th gen
That was not the case with the iPhone 14 and 14 Pros
The 15 is still no expected to get features like Pro Motion or an always on display like the iPhone 14 Pro and 15 Pro models
Second Apple TV project with Jonah Hill
“The Hollywood Reporter” says a new dark comedy from producer Jonah Hill
It’s a story about a damaged Hollywood star who must face his demons and atone for the past after being after being blackmailed with a video clip
The film is called “Outcome” and will star Hill and, hopefully, Keanu Reeves who the piece says they are in negotiations with.
Hill is also a co-writer with Ezra Woods.
Hill is also currently involved in another Apple original film about the Grateful Dead being directed by Martin Scorsese
Apple TVs Ted Lasso is back and according to recent numbers from JustWatch has been holding tight to the number 4 spot in the top 10 most streamed shows.
For the past couple week Lasso was Apple’s only show in the top 10. That was until Tetris, this past week which rank just ahead of Lasson on the Reelgood mixed top 10.
Sponsor: Zocdoc
Zocdoc
OK, to be honest… I’m probably not always the best when it comes to my own medical care.
Are you like me and fall into the trap of turning to the Internet to diagnose your condition instead of just calling your doctor? Yeah, bad idea.
Part of the issue was I always had trouble finding a good doctor who could see me in a timely fashion.
That’s why I now use Zocdoc. They have thousands of medical professionals on Zocdoc are there to help you when you need them and they can provide the expert-care you need.
No more questionable diagnosis from some random internet site and no more doctor roulette or scouring the internet for questionable reviews.
Millions of people use Zocdoc’s free app to find and book a doctor in their neighborhood who is
patient reviewed and fits their needs and schedule just right.
Go to Zocdoc dot com slash MACCAST and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Then find and book top-rated doctor today. Many are available within 24 hours.
Who’s planning to do some spring-cleaning this year? Dust those hard to reach places. Clean out *that* closet. You know the one.
Here’s my advice: clean your house and then protect every inch of it with SimpliSafe Home Security. I recommend it to everyone.
What’s great about SimpliSafe for me is that you’re in control. In control of choosing the system and options that fit for your home and family.
You can pick a starter system or fully customize to meet your needs
In control of the set-up, which is super easy.
And in control of the whole system with their easy to use app.
With it you can lock and unlock your doors, access your cameras and arm and disarm your system from anywhere.
SimpliSafe is designed with cutting-edge technology and backed by 24/7 professional monitoring that costs under $1/day, less than half the price of traditional home security systems.
In an emergency, agents use Fast Protect Technology, only from SimpliSafe, to capture critical evidence and verify the threat is real, so you can get priority police dispatch.
CNET named SimpliSafe “Editors’ Choice” for 2023
Customize the perfect system for your home in just a few minutes at SIMPLISAFE dot com slash maccast.
Go today and claim a free indoor security camera plus 20% off your order with Interactive Monitoring.
That’s SIMPLISAFE dot com slash maccast.
There’s no safe like SimpliSafe.
Feedback, commentary, opinions
DisplayLink dock recommendation
We’ve been discussing ways to support multiple displays on M1 and M2 Macs that only support a single external display
One solution is to use a Display Link adapter or dock along with the DisplayLink software for Mac.
Michael had some experience to share along with a recommendation
Andy has what I think is a common question for a number of use who are transitioning from the days of Intel Macs over to Apple Silicon
“How much memory I need when I buy my next Mac”?
The reason this has maybe become complicated it because of the new Unified Memory Architecture, also by the fact that the original M1 series Mac were fairly limited in their memory configurations, just 8GB or 16GB, now we have options up to 96GB
That said… how much does one need
With Apple’s new SoC the memory all in the same package with the CPU / GPU. It’s also high bandwidth and very low latency. You also have very high performance SSDs
This combined with software that is highly optimized to take advantage of this architecture means that for many people… you’ll be able to do more with less, to a point.
macOS has been tuned to optimize application memory usage efficiently, especially when apps are in the background.
The fast SSDs also mean that memory swapping is far less of an issue
We all know that Apple’s cost for memory upgrades can be expensive, an extra USD $400 for each additional 16GB on a MacBook Pro
Many real world tests by place like MacRumors and the YouTuber MaxTech show that in all but the very heaviest workload, like 4k or 8K video editing, that having 32GB or RAM vs 16GB only make marginal differences for most workflows.
So most people… will likely be OK with whatever comes in the “stock” configuration for the Mac model and level you’re buying.
CPU and GPU are likely a better place to focus if you are looking for performance
Bump up to that Pro or Max config and you’ll likely get more memory anyway.
That said… there are some other things to consider:
Future-proofing / longevity
Re-sale value
Super intense workloads (i.e. you need large numbers of video streams)
Andy also asked about SSD…
there I think the old adage still applies, get as much as you can afford as you can’t get more and you’ll likely always use up what you have.
Why is there a Bitcoin doc on my Mac?
I’m not into crypto or bitcoin. You may or may not be, but I just fond out that regardless if you are running macOS Mojave or later chances are you have a Bitcoin white-paper from Satoshi Nakamoto on your Mac.
This was discovered by developer Andy Baio, from waxy.org, when we was working on fixing a printer issue according to iMore.
I think reports of it have been around other places as well
The file is inside the App VirtualScanner which is part of the Macs Image Capture app.
You can get to it with the “open” terminal command or from the Finder by going to, ‘/System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf’
If browsing from the Finder you’ll need to right+click and choose “Show Package Contents” on “VirtualScanner.app”
So why is it there?
No one knows for sure, but was likely left there as an “easter egg” by the developers who worked on Image Capture. Supposedly Apple Engineers knew it was there and never bothered to remove it. Likely until now since it’s received attention.
FYI, in that same folder there is an image of a faded number zero on a blue wall with an alarm warning sticker. “cover.jpg”
Looks like it’s from Alcatraz island in San Francisco
iCloud syncing issues
Not sure what’s going on, but I had at least two emails this week from listeners in the community with iCloud document syncing issues
Specifically noting that there were documents that were either slow to sync or that would never sync.
Also… in one case a listener who said that, despite having optimize Mac Storage off, that many of his local files in Documents & Desktop still had a “cloud” icon next to them
I did a review of my setup and I too have some folders that have cloud icons.
Key to set-up a Mac to ensure all files are sync’d locally
Go to iCloud Settings in the Setting and make sure “Optimize Mac Storage” is OFF.
Troubleshooting iCloud sync’ing
Log into iCloud.com and check if the files are there and accessible
Can you open them on your Mac? Click the cloud icon with the arrow to force a download
Check your Date / Time settings
In extreme cases…
Make sure you have a local backup of your files and data that is in iCloud
Turn off iCloud Documents & Desktop or turn off iCloud Drive or sign out of iCloud
If you sign out of iCloud make sure to tell it “keep” all your data on your Mac, when you reconnect you’ll also want to sync / merge that data.
Turning off iCloud Documents & Desktop or iCloud Drive (choose to keep the iCloud Drive files) will keep copies
If you turn off Desktop and Documents, Documents & Desktop will stay under iCloud Drive (locally) and new Desktop and Documents folders are created in your Macs home folder
If you turn off iCloud Drive or sign out of iCloud, a local copy of your files in iCloud Drive, are copied to a folder called iCloud Drive (Archive) in your home folder
When you re-enable iCloud, iCloud Drive, or iCloud Documents & Desktop, assuming you left everything in place, you should choose to start “merging” data again and hopefully everything will re-sync (might take a while).
