Enjoy Your Memorial Day

In honor of Memorial Day, a U.S. holiday, the staff of The Mac Observer will be taking the day off. We will resume our regular coverage of the Apple Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch world on Tuesday, May 30th, 2017.

New Apple Cartoon Looks at the Liam Recycling Robot

Apple launched a new video called “Earth Day 2017 — Does my iPhone believe in reincarnation?” It’s part of the cartoon series the company started on Earth Day earlier in May, but this one takes a look at Liam. That’s Apple’s purpose-built recycling robot that pulls iPhones apart so the components can be reused. I like this series of environmentally-themed cartoons. They’re fun, interesting, and informative. Lisa Jackson, Apple Vice President Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, tweeted the video Thursday.

Supreme Court Just Killed Marshall Texas Patent Troll Business

A patent battle over flavored water may turn into a win for iPhone and Mac maker Apple, and a big loss for patent trolls. Thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Monday, patent infringement cases must be filed in the jurisdiction where the offending company is incorporated, which will greatly limit the court choices open to patent trolls.

Apple Plans to Change Scrolling in Safari

Over the weekend, an article from The Register laid out complaints of Google AMP and how it negatively impacts the web. Then, John Gruber of Daring Fireball linked to the article and added his own comments, such as how AMP pages scroll differently than the rest of Safari. Andrew Orr finds out the differences between scrolling on iOS.

RSA Sues Apple Claiming Apple Pay Patent Infringement

RSA filed a lawsuit against Apple and Visa over the weekend claiming the iPhone maker’s Apple Pay feature infringes on patents it owns. The company says it holds 13 patents covering Apple Pay technology, and hasn’t been able to get Apple or Visa to pay for licensing.

Fixing Album Art, Cracked iPads, and UPnP Dangers – Mac Geek Gab 658

Your geeks start with some tips: dealing with a bad key on your keyboard, restoring the proper album art after iCloud Music Library has done its part, and dealing with a damaged SD card. Then it’s on to some questions, like whether or not UPnP is dangerous for you or what to do when you hear your Mac’s fans running more frequently than you think is necessary. All this and more, just after you press play!

Data Forensics Company Recovers Notes Data Apple Claims is Deleted

Files deleted from Apple’s Notes app shouldn’t be recoverable after 30 days, but the security and data forensics company Elcomsoft found they could access records that were deleted months—or even more than a year—ago. That sounds pretty bad, but recovering those files requires some pretty specific elements, including knowing your iCloud login and password.

Gmail Smart Reply Comes to iOS

One of the features announced today at Google I/O 2017 is Gmail Smart Reply. It was first released in the web in 2015, as a way to let people send short, canned messages in email, similar to iMessage on the Apple Watch. Andrew Orr tells us it’s finally coming to the Gmail app on iOS.

New Report Says iPad mini to be Discontinued Soon

A new report backs up what we’ve been saying since March: the iPad mini is a dead man walking. The iPhone 7 Plus has apparently usurped the iPad mini’s place in Apple’s tablet lineup, but there isn’t any word yet on when it’ll be retired.

Apple Courts Michael Lombardo to Head Original TV Programming

Apple is apparently courting former HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo to head up its original TV programming for Apple Music. He’s the guy who was responsible for shows such as The Newsroom, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, and Game of Thrones, and Apple no doubt wants to replicate that success with its own streaming shows.

iCloud and iWork: Using On-Demand Downloads

Using iCloud Drive? Then you need to know how to download all of your Pages, Numbers, or Keynote files to your iOS devices automatically. This’ll definitely save you some headaches if you need access to your spreadsheets when you head out into an area with sketchy cell coverage!

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