Bruce Springsteen’s entire 2009 London Calling: Live In Hyde Park set is available in entirety for the first time on Apple Music. The set was filmed at the Hard Rock Calling festival. It kicks-off, naturally, with The Clash’s London Calling, before plowing through a host-of Springsteen classics. For those without an Apple Music subscription, you can now also watch the whole thing on YouTube.
Comparing the PS5 and the Xbox Series X
Time at home making you fancy a new games console? Wired has put what we know about the forthcoming devices head-to-head.
Several of the Xbox Series X and PS5 specs sound similar. They have fast all-SSD storage, 16GB GDDR6 RAM and both a CPU and GPU made by AMD. But if you a little deeper, their differences become apparent. To simmer it down to a reductive analogy: the PS5 is nimble while the Xbox Series X is out to win with brute force power. The PS5 uses incredibly intelligent hardware optimisation and custom silicon to tease remarkable performance out of its core components. But the Xbox Series X has a more powerful GPU, which is the first metric by which any console is usually judged. Their hardware belongs to the same family, though. They have AMD Zen 2 generation CPUs and AMD Navi-based graphics chipsets. The latter will share some hardware with PC graphics cards not even released yet.
Apple Working Towards High-Quality AR Images
A new patent takes it clear that Apple wants its AR devices to be attractive, as well as producing high-quality images.
Tim Cook Announces More Coronavirus Donations
Tim Cook said Apple will make a “substantial donation” to the Protezione Civile in Italy to help them deal with the Coronavirus outbreak.
Is Apple the Company That Can Transform the AR Industry?
Lucas Matney wrote for TechCrunch and asked if Apple can keep the AR industry alive.
AR startups have already been struggling and hardware efforts have largely cratered. The software platforms have had some success building what Apple hasn’t or won’t for niche enterprise customers, but as the economic realities shift, all bets are off.
First, I don’t think there’s much of an AR industry right now to keep alive. We have a scattering of AR features on iPhones and Androids, but right now it still seems niche. Second, in my biased opinion as an Apple blogger, I think Apple is the one to truly make AR mainstream. As an example, Apple didn’t invent the cellphone, but the iPhone transformed our lives and the cellphone industry. For the company to do the same with AR, we need an AR headset.
iPad Pro 2020 Features the iPhone 11 U1 Chip
The U1 chip wasn’t mentioned at all in Apple’s press release of the iPad Pro 2020. But iPadOS 13.4 code suggests its existence.
KeepSolid VPN Unlimited 3-Year Subscription: $42.50
We have a deal on a 3-year subscription to KeepSolid VPN Unlimited. The subscription includes unlimited connection speeds and traffic bandwidth, access to more than 400 VPN servers in more than 70 locations globally, access to VPN protocols IKEv2, OpenVPN, and the company’s own technology KeepSolid Wise, and more. This subscription is $50 through our deal, but coupon code SPRINGSAVE15 brings the checkout price down to $42.50.
New MacBook Air, Mac mini Updates – TMO Daily Observations 2020-03-19
Apple’s updates to the processors (and more) in the MacBook Air and pricing and RAM for the Mac mini leave Charlotte Henry and guest host, Dave Hamilton, with a ton to talk through, and a ton for you to hear. Listen and enjoy!
Craig Federighi Demonstrates Trackpad Support in iPadOS
Apple’s Senior Vice President, Software Engineering, Craig Federighi stars in a new video, published on The Verge. In it, he demonstrates trackpad support in iPadOS. The way the cursor changes is particularly clever, I think.
The iPad’s UI is powerful, but in many ways it’s difficult to learn, in part because so many of us still have desktop UI paradigms in our heads. One interesting thing you can’t do is just have a bunch of traditional windows like you’re used to having on a desktop or even a Windows tablet. Apple is sticking to its guns on its attempt to rethink how we move and rearrange windows on the iPad screen, with stuff like split screen and Slide Over. For better or worse (and I think for the better), the new trackpad features don’t turn the iPad into a Mac. Whether any of that radically changes this year with iPadOS 14 is anybody’s guess. Federighi himself recently said, “If you like what you’ve seen us do with iPadOS, stay tuned, we’re going to keep working on it.”
Coronavirus Outbreak Might be Actually Reducing Music Streaming
In a somewhat counterintuitive development, the coronavirus outbreak may actually be reducing the amount of music people stream. Quartz had a look at the data.
In Italy, one of the countries hardest hit by coronavirus, the top 200 most streamed songs on Spotify within the country averaged 18.3 million total streams per day in February 2019. Since Italy’s prime minister announced a national quarantine on March 9th, the total streams for the 200 most popular songs have not topped 14.4 million. There was a 23% drop in top 200 streams on Tuesday March 17th compared to Tuesday, March 3rd… The trend is similar in the US. On March 17th, total Spotify streams of top 200 songs fell to 77 million streams. This was the lowest number of top-200 streams in the US for any Tuesday in 2020, and about 14 million streams fewer than just a week before. Total top-200 streams are also down in the UK, France, and Spain as well.
New iPad Pro, Mac mini, and MacBook Air, the Power of ARM, and Oak Island, with John Kheit - ACM 526
Bryan Chaffin is joined by John Kheit to talk about Apple’s new iPad Pros, MacBook Airs, and Mac mini, plus the new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. They also discuss the potential for the ARM processor in Macs, and all the cursed goodness of the latest episode of Oak Island.
Use SideCar to Make Your iPad a Secondary Display For Your Mac
SideCar means that you can turn your iPad into a secondary display for your Mac in just a few easy steps, with customizable options.
watchOS 6.2 Golden Master Arrives With Developers
Apple seeded the golden master of watchOS 6.2 to developers on Wednesday. MacRumors had a look at what it contained.
watchOS 6.2 introduces Apple Watch App Store support for in-app purchases, which will allow developers to create and sell Apple Watch apps that offer in-app purchase options and subscriptions. Apple’s release notes for the update are below: watchOS 6.2 includes new features, improvements, and bug fixes: Introduces in-app purchases for Apple Watch apps. Fixes an issue where music playback could pause when switching from Wi-Fi to Bluetooth connectivity. ECG app on Apple Watch Series 4 or later now available in Chile, New Zealand, and Turkey. Irregular heart rhythm notifications now available in Chile, New Zealand, and Turkey.
Book Publisher Macmillan Cancels Plan to Stifle Libraries
The Big Five book publishers had a plan to hurt consumers by imposing limitations on eBook licensing to libraries. One of them—Macmillan—is backing out.
There are times in life when differences should be put aside,” Macmillan CEO John Sargent wrote in a memo to librarians obtained by Publishers Weekly. “Effective on Friday (or whenever thereafter our wholesalers can effect the change), Macmillan will return to the library e-book pricing model that was in effect on Oct. 31, 2019. In addition, we will be lowering some ebook prices on a short term basis to help expand libraries collections in these difficult times. Stay safe.
You have literally no “differences” with libraries other than money. And implying that you’re doing this because of the coronavirus is, to put it politely, shady. Not to mention all the libraries boycotting Macmillan. No, this is entirely a gesture of good will because of “these difficult times.”
Standby for a Major Slack Redesign
Slack is rolling out its biggest ever redesign. It is all centered around major changes to the sidebar. Senior exec Ethan Eismann explained the company’s thinking in an interview with The Verge.
“This is the largest redesign in Slack’s history,” explains Ethan Eismann, vice president of design at Slack, in an interview with The Verge. “We’ve taken a lot of the historical features and reorganized them in a way that makes them much more apparent in the right way and simple to use. That was very much the goal of this process.” Slack’s new redesign all starts with the sidebar. The biggest change is that messages, channels, and apps will all now support grouping into collapsible sections within the Slack sidebar. That means if you’re working on a project that has certain channels and group DM conversations, then you can nest them all under one handy section and drag and drop it to exactly where you want it in the sidebar. Unfortunately, the new sidebar sections feature will only be available on paid Slack plans, not free versions.
The 2020 Mac Productivity Essentials Bundle: $25.49
We have a deal called the 2020 Mac Productivity Essentials Bundle, a collection of productivity apps for the Mac. It includes a VPN, an app organizer, a PDF editor, a password manager, a movie editor, and four more Mac apps. It’s $29.99 through our deal, but coupon code SPRINGSAVE15 brings the checkout price down to $25.49.
New iPad Pro Announced – TMO Daily Observations 2020-03-18
John Martellaro and Bryan Chaffin join host Kelly Guimont to discuss the new iPad Pro, announced this morning, and where it fits as a device.
New Seasonal Colors for iPad Pro, iPhone cases, and Apple Watch Bands Arrive
Apple released new Seasonal Colors for a host of accessories, including Apple Watch Bands and cases for the iPhone 11and iPad Pro 12.9′.
Your Next Computer Might be an iPad Pro
Apple unveiled the new iPad Pro and, along with it, two new videos demonstrating the device’s specs and how it can be a laptop replacement.
Mac Mini Updated With More Base Storage, CPU Still The Same
At the end of Apple’s MacBook Air announcement was information on a Mac mini 2020 update with more storage and faster speeds.
iOS, iPadOS 13.4 Arrives on March 24 With Trackpad Support
Announced with the new iPad Pro, Apple is releasing iOS / iPadOS 13.4 on March 24. Among other features, it brings trackpad support to iPads.
Apple Releases Mac Pro Afterburner Card as Separate Purchase
Previously only available as a Mac Pro upgrade option, Apple is releasing the Afterburner card as a separate US$2,000 purchase today.
Refreshed MacBook Air 2020 Drops in Price to $999
Along with the release of new iPad Pros, Apple also announced a refresh of the MacBook Air and Mac mini, with a new Magic Keyboard.
Apple Announces New iPad Pro With LiDAR and Magic Keyboard
Apple announced the release of a new iPad Pro this morning, featuring an A12Z Bionic chip, an Ultra Wide camera, and a LiDAR scanner.